Yes, more sweet potatoes. They are such versatile vegetables and work well in both sweet and savory dishes. I am personally a fan of quick breads, especially ones that get most of their sweetness from the main ingredient(s) rather than added sugar. Breads like this make a great afternoon snack when accompanied by a mug of coffee or tea; they are equally as good for a quick breakfast, toasted and spread with butter, peanut butter, or cream cheese.

crunchy crust, moist insides

Obviously banana bread is a classic, and you can find my recipe here. But last week I wanted to experiment with a sweet potato-based bread. If I can make sweet potato pancakes, I can surely make sweet potato bread, I thought. With a little help from this recipe, I mixed everything up and got the bread in the oven before I even sat down to breakfast. Forty-five minutes later, out came a beautiful loaf: it had a crunchy crust from the whole wheat flour but was deliciously moist and flavorful on the inside. It’s quite healthy, too, with just a bit of brown sugar and a mixture of butter and oil for the fat.

golden-brown

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Quick Bread (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup (4 tbsp) melted butter
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1 cup mashed sweet potato
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Procedure

• If you haven’t already, make the mashed sweet potato: peel and chop 1 sweet potato into chunks. Simmer in water for 15-20 minutes or until the potato is soft enough to mash. Drain, let cool, and mash.
• Preheat the oven to 350F (175C) and grease a loaf pan.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the ingredients from flour through salt.
• In a second bowl, combine the wet ingredients (butter through buttermilk) and stir to combine. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until just combined (the batter will be quite thick).
• Spread the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Light, fresh, mild yet salty. The perfect thing for a spring evening. This salad comes from the German cookbook, Genussvoll vegetarisch, given to us recently by F’s mom. It is easy and quick to prepare and can be done either on the stovetop or the barbecue (once the weather gets warmer). The original recipe calls for shaved parmesan, but we saw haloumi at the supermarket and F thought it would be a great compliment to the salad — it was. We also added more greens than the original, which calls only for basil. It was delicious warm and just as good cold the next day; I’d definitely make this again.

golden haloumi

Zucchini & Hazelnut Salad with Grilled Haloumi

aw, nuts!

Ingredients

• 75g hazelnuts
• 5 small zucchinis, sliced diagonally in 1-cm pieces
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• to taste: salt & pepper
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1 bag of mixed greens
• 1-2 blocks of haloumi cheese, sliced into 1-cm pieces

ready for some greens

Procedure

• Roast the hazelnuts: heat the oven to 300F (150C). Put the nuts on a baking sheet and roast them, stirring once, for 12-15 minutes or until they are browned. Let them cool, then slip the skins off and roughly chop them.
• Meanwhile, heat two pans on the stove to medium-high heat. Slice the zucchini and toss the pieces in a bowl with half of the olive oil and some salt and pepper. Wash the greens and let them drain.
• Put a bit of olive oil into one pan, and grill the cheese slices in that pan for 3-5 minutes per side, until they have nice golden-brown crusts. In the other pan, grill the zucchini pieces for 2 minutes per side, until soft and browned. 
  
• Put the cooked zucchini in a bowl with the balsamic vinegar, add the greens and hazelnuts, and toss. Serve the cheese on the side.

Enjoy!

This is a delectably savory pancake recipe from Genussvoll vegetarisch, a beautiful vegetarian cookbook that F’s mom gave us when she visited a couple of weeks ago. I marked all the recipes that I want to try, which comes out to about half of them… These pancakes were my first attempt at practicing my German cooking vocabulary. They have a hint of soy sauce and a kick from green onions and red pepper flakes. Plus, there are sweet potatoes, and you know in my book that is never a bad thing (some might even say it’s a necessity).

beautiful food photos & a great selection of vegetarian recipes

If you love sweet potatoes but are tired of making sweet things with them, these savory pancakes are just the thing for you. A few words of advice: be patient when frying these; because the mashed sweet potato is so moist, they take 4-6 minutes on each side to cook through and crisp up. The wait will be worth it.

Spicy Soy Sweet Potato Pancakes

orange with a hint of green

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups of mashed sweet potato (about 2 potatoes)
• 3-4 tsp soy sauce
• 3/4 – 1 cup white flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3-4 tbsp minced green onion
• 1/2 – 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• olive oil + butter, for frying

Procedure

• Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into medium-sized chunks. Put them in a pot with water and bring it to a boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft enough to mash.
• When the potatoes are done, drain them and let them cool for 10 minutes.
• Mash the potatoes and mix in the rest of the ingredients (except for the oil and butter).
• Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan to medium heat. Drop rounded tablespoon-sized clumps of batter into the pan, and flatten slightly. Fry for 4-6 minutes on each side.
• Drain the pancakes on paper towels and serve hot or cold, with some yogurt or sour cream.

Enjoy!

one vs. many

I tried four of these after baking them to try to decide whether or not I liked them. The verdict: nice, but not my favorite. They certainly don’t taste bad, they just didn’t excite me quite as much as I’d hoped, though F liked them a lot. I’ll stick to chocolate and peanut butter, I think, and save the carrots for cake. That said, these are not too unhealthy as far as cookies go: raisins, walnuts, carrots, and oats pit their health benefits against butter, brown sugar, and white flour. And they do make a good snack to stave off pre-dinner hunger.

hello little guys

Carrot-Oat Cookies (adapted from this recipe)

put these together

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2.5 tsp your choice of spice combo: ground cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup oats
• 2 carrots, grated (I grated one finely and one coarsely)
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup walnuts

Procedure

• Combine the egg, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla in a bowl and whisk vigorously until light-colored, 1-2 minutes.
• Whisk in the spices and baking soda, then carefully stir in the flour and oats.
• Fold in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.
• When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Flatten balls of dough on a mat-lined baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes, then cool for 5-10 minutes before eating.

Enjoy!

As you may know, I was initiated into the glories of parkruns two weeks ago. After missing last weekend’s run to stroll around London with F’s mom, I looked forward to this weekend’s event at Finsbury Park. I wanted to race it in the hopes of bettering my time from the first run. Unfortunately, I went out too fast and tanked it in the second lap, finishing as the fourth woman in 22:51. Still not bad, and the parkruns are really a chance to get in a “high tempo run,” as one of my club teammates pointed out after the race.

But this is not a race recap. Rather, I wanted to write about the amazing parkrun community that I have discovered. I met a woman, A, before my first parkrun two weeks ago; we had a pleasant chat before that run but I didn’t see her afterwards since I went straight home. This week, I saw A at the start and she suggested I join her and other runners in the park’s cafe after the race. When I said I’d forgotten to bring any money, she said she’d treat me to a smoothie. Offer accepted! After the race we reconnected and I met A’s partner R as well as N, who had cycled laps in Regent’s Park before the run (!), and we headed to the cafe.

What a great atmosphere! Runners had pushed the round tables together to make one long communal table. We got our drinks and joined the table, where tupperwear containers of brownies and cookies were being passed around. It was hard to tell if all these runners knew each other or were just part of the general communal atmosphere; either way, it was wonderful. I chatted with R a bit about road cycling in/around London, and met another A, who was really nice.

It was amazing to join the post-parkrun cafe crowd to refuel, chat, and share running/cycling/exercise tips, news, and stories.

Also, before the run started I was standing around mentally preparing (i.e., waking up) when a woman nearby asked, “Did you go to Oberlin?” (I was wearing my Oberlin Track & Field long-sleeved shirt, with great pride of course.) “You know Oberlin?” I replied. Turns out, B is an ex-pat who has lived here in London for 26 years. She and the two women she was with also live in Crouch End; they encouraged my to run the Crouch End 10K race that happens next weekend. Unfortunately, I’m tied up that weekend and can’t run, but they told me I should show up at Priory Park just to see all the crowds that turn out.

I’m already looking forward to next weekend!

Friday evening. What to make for dinner without having to go shopping? A quick glimpse at our stores showed some lovely New potatoes, a lot of eggs, and a few veggies on their last legs. We decided on using these things in some way or another. During the day, F suggested we make the potatoes and eggs into Spanish tortilla, an omelette-like concoction featuring potatoes, eggs, and onions. (Later, F confessed that a Spanish colleague had brought some in to share with the work group that day, and F wanted more!)

broiled to perfection

After perusing a few recipes — many of which call for an obscene 1 cup or more of olive oil — and discussing them, F suggested we boil the potatoes first, then just give them a light sauté before adding the eggs. That technique saved us a lot of time — most of the recipes called for frying each of the potato slices individually before combining everything — as well as the calories from the extra oil that frying would have required.

help yourself

As we ate, I remarked that tortilla is essentially a poor-man’s dish in that all it requires are potatoes, eggs, onion, salt and pepper, and a bit of oil. That doesn’t make it any less delicious, just awesomely frugal! We enjoyed it along with a simple salad that used up those veggies in the fridge, though it can stand alone as a one-dish meal.

Spanish Tortilla

cooking tortilla

Ingredients

• 1-2 lbs New potatoes (or other potatoes of your choice)
• 3 onions, minced
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 6 eggs
• a dollop of milk
• to taste: salt, pepper, nutmeg

Procedure

• Boil the potatoes whole until they are tender-firm (cooked but sliceable). While they are cooking, mince the onions and, separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
• When the potatoes are cooked, drain them. Put a large frying pan (or cast-iron skillet) on the still-hot burner (set it to medium-high) and add the olive oil.
• Put the onions in the pan with oil and cook, stirring, until they are soft and translucent. While the onions are cooking, slice the potatoes into 1/4-1/2 inch rounds. (This step goes faster with two people: one to slice, one to cook the onions.)
• When the potatoes are sliced, add them to the pan with the onions and cook on medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Pour the egg mixture into the pan, making sure it covers and permeates the potato mixture. Put a lid on the pan and lower the heat to low-medium. Let the tortilla cook for 10-15 minutes. Every few minutes, take the lid off and run a spatula around the edges of the tortilla; hold back part of the edge and tilt the pan so the uncooked egg can flow into the hotter part of the pan.
• While the tortilla is cooking on the stove, turn your oven’s broiler on.
• When most of the egg seems cooked and you can run a spatula easily around the edges and underneath the tortilla, put the lidless pan in the oven to broil for 5 minutes, until the top is set and browned.
• Let the tortilla sit for a few minutes before slicing and eating plain or with your favorite sauce.

Enjoy!

If you’ve been reading food blogs recently, you may have noticed quite a few recipes for dukkah floating around. This is an Egyptian spice/nut/seed mix that is traditionally consumed by dipping a hunk of bread in olive oil and then into the dukkah. I found that it is delicious stirred into this couscous salad, atop other salads, and mixed into yogurt for a savory snack. It’s also good as-is, out-of-hand.

monochrome but delicious

Whichever way you choose to consume your dukkah, know that it is super easy and quick to make and can be made in any number of ways. I compared three recipes before embarking on my own dukkah-making adventure. The basic ingredients are nuts, seeds (usually sesame), coriander, and cumin. I ended up using a mixture of ground almonds, peanuts, and walnuts (yes, I was lazy and bought a bag of pre-chopped nuts). The Kitchn says you can add other spices, herbs, or seeds at your will.

toasty spices

Dukkah

Ingredients

• 1 cup nuts (I used a mixture of almonds, peanuts, & walnuts. Hazelnuts are the classic nut for this dish.)
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup coriander seeds
• 1/4 cup cumin seeds
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• to taste: ground black pepper

Procedure

• Preheat the oven to 325F (160C). Spread the nuts and sesame seeds on a baking pan and roast for 5-10 minutes or until they are golden-brown. Chop or grind the nuts after they are toasted and cool.
• While the nuts are roasting, toast the coriander and cumin seeds in a pan on the stove over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant. Grind the spices with a mortar and pestle.
• Combine all the ingredients with the salt and pepper in a bowl. Stir and serve.

Enjoy!

You know I love fennel. And I can hardly get enough of chickpeas. So why not combine these ingredients into one glorious, citrusy dish? Kalamata olives contribute a satisfying saltiness, and couscous makes it a meal.

one-bowl meal

I’d had this recipe from The Kitchn bookmarked for a while and finally decided to give it a go on a cloudy Wednesday. Totally worth it. In fact, it was hard not to keep nibbling…I had to put the leftovers away quickly before they disappeared! This makes a wonderful, healthy lunch and is a full meal in itself. Caramelizing the fennel takes a bit of patience, but the rest is quick and the end result is worth the wait.

gently caramelizing fennel

Citrus Couscous with Caramelized Fennel & Chickpeas (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 fennel bulbs, cut into thin slices
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 can chickpeas
• 10-15 Kalamata olives, pitted & halved
• zest + juice of 1 lemon
• zest + juice of 1 orange
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup couscous

Procedure

• Slice the fennel bulbs, then cook them in 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. It will take 10-20 minutes for the fennel to soften and caramelize, so do all the other prep while it is cooking.
  
• Put the orange juice plus enough water to make 1.5 cups of liquid in a small pot. Add 1 tbsp olive oil, orange zest, and salt. Bring to a boil, then take it off the heat. Stir in the couscous, cover the pot, and let sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, fluff the couscous with a fork and transfer to your serving bowl.
• In a small bowl, combine the coriander, chickpeas, olives, and lemon juice & zest. Stir to combine. When the fennel is caramelized to your liking, pour the chickpea mixture into the pan and cook for another 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chickpeas are warm.
• Stir the chickpea-fennel mixture into the couscous and eat plain, sprinkled with some nuts, or with a dollop of Greek yogurt.

Enjoy!

I wanted to make the olive oil ricotta cake from the smitten kitchen cookbook, but the supermarket had no ricotta. However, I remembered reading in Deb’s introduction to the cake that it was a variation on a yogurt cake. So I thought, why not just use yogurt? I kept all the other ingredients the same and made a simple rhubarb compote to dollop on top of the cake just before eating. This isn’t too unhealthy as far as cakes go: yogurt and olive oil’s health benefits balance out the sugar and white flour, in my opinion.

It’s a really nice cake. Light, subtle, lemony flavor. Stays moist from the yogurt. Good plain or doused with rhubarb compote. Just really really nice.

beautiful English rhubarb & a great cookbook

Yogurt Olive Oil Cake with Rhubarb Compote

Ingredients

• Cake:
  • 1 cup low fat Greek-style yogurt
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 eggs
  • 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
• Compote:
  • 1/2-3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 lbs fresh rhubarb, roughly chopped
  • 3 cardamom pods
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2-3 spheres of whole allspice
  • dash of ground ginger

ready for the oven

Procedure

• Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Oil or butter a cake or loaf pan.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, sugar, and lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Add to the wet mixture and stir until just combined.
• Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden and a knife inserted comes out clean.
• Meanwhile, make the compote: combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer, stirring occasionally, over low-medium heat until thickened.
• When the cake is finished, let it cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan and/or serving.

Enjoy!

Good timing for smitten kitchen to post this recipe, as I had a gluten-free-eating friend coming over for dinner Sunday evening. I’d never made panna cotta, thinking that it was a long, labor-intensive project. Turns out, it could hardly be easier — kudos to Deb for making complicated recipes less intimidating.

This panna cotta seems to beg for variations: I made it straight, just flavored with lemon juice and a little bit of sugar, but my mind kept wandering to cinnamon, nutmeg, and other flavoring possibilities. The panna cotta turned out like a fluffed-up yogurt; really nice and not too heavy, with a creamy mouth-feel. F, S, and I enjoyed it with maple syrup, walnuts, and a dash of cinnamon, though it would also be good with honey or jam and another kind of nut. If you are a sweet breakfast fan, you can totally get away with granola sprinkled over a cup of this panna cotta — it’s made with yogurt, after all!

Lemony Yogurt Panna Cotta (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp water
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 2.5 tsp (7g) gelatin
• 2 cups Greek yogurt (I used about 1/2 cup 0% fat + 1.5 cups full-fat)
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Optional, for serving: honey, maple syrup or jam + chopped almonds and/or walnuts + dash of cinnamon OR a sprinkling of granola

white/off-white

Procedure

• In a small bowl, stir together the first three ingredients and let them sit for 10-15 minutes, or until they begin to gel.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt and 1 cup of milk.
• In a small saucepan, combine the remaining milk with the 1/2 cup of cream and the sugar, and heat it to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
• Once the heating mixture simmers, whisk in the gelatin and stir until it is dissolved.
• Whisk the warm mixture into the yogurt-milk mixture until smooth.
• Spoon equal portions into small cups or ramekins and refrigerate for 2+ hours.
• Serve it plain or drizzled with honey, maple syrup, or jam and topped with some chopped nuts.

Enjoy!

I last posted a travel-related musing more than two and a half years ago (though, arguably, all my posts during Peace Corps service were travel-related), less than a month before I headed off to Ukraine. That post centered on an Albert Camus quote about fear and travel and how travel takes us back to ourselves. I still agree with that, though after more than two years living in Ukraine and four months living in London (with more to come) I have more perspective on travel and living abroad. On that note, here are some things that recently resonated with me:

My friend Liv posted the following quote on her blog last week:

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you- it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you… Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
-Anthony Bourdain

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about Ukraine and particularly Sniatyn, the town in which I lived and taught English for two years. Maybe because spring is arriving and I loved spring in Sniatyn, when the sun begins to have warmth again, the days get longer, trees gain leaves and flowers come out, and people start digging in their gardens and fields. Maybe also because I’ve been away long enough — almost 5 months — to appreciate how nice a life I had there. That feeling is sometimes magnified by living in a place — London — that is almost the polar opposite of Sniatyn in terms of size, culture, and way of life.

Not that I don’t like living in London; on the contrary, there’s no place I’d rather be, especially since living here means living with F. But the contrast can be stark at times. This is where Bourdain’s above quote comes in. Travel, which I expand to include living abroad, is not always comfortable and sometimes it does hurt. But, like Bourdain says, “that’s okay.” Because most importantly, living abroad really does get under your skin to change you; Sniatyn has certainly left “marks on [my] memory” and “on [my] heart”; the people, the places, my school, daily life… I took so much with me from my experiences in Ukraine and I hope that I left “something good behind.” The same goes for now living in London. Sometimes it’s tough to live in such a big city; it’s interesting how isolating it can feel. But we are changing and adapting with the journey — adventure — of living here and I’m sure London will leave its marks, like Ukraine has.

———

Another quote that struck a chord with me recently is this:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
-Mark Twain

Gosh that is so true. When living abroad seems hard, all I have to do is think about how much I am gaining in terms of worldview, tolerance, open-mindedness, and more. So whether you travel the world or only have the time and resources to travel to the nearest big city, do it. You’ll be surprised at — if you are open to it — how much your perspective and worldview can grow and expand with just one trip.

Sometime before moving to London, F told me he’d discovered these 5K races called “parkruns” that happen around London and the UK. Here’s the deal: “parkrun organise free, weekly, 5km timed runs around the world. They are open to everyone, free, and are safe and easy to take part in.”

Pretty awesome, huh? (For a great piece on the essence of parkruns (treat them however you want to), read this.)

I knew that there was a parkrun in Finsbury Park, which is just over a mile down Parkland Walk from where we live. But something — shyness, perhaps — kept me from signing up until multiple people in the past week raved to me about the parkruns; I learned that there’s also one in Alexandra Park. (The buzz came in part because I just found a running club, London Heathside, and attended a couple of their workouts for the first time this week. I’ve already sent in my registration to join the club. Though the owner of our excellent neighborhood bike shop, Hadron Cycles, also told me how great the parkruns are as he fitted me to my new road bike.) All that plus the (finally) springy weather  encouraged me to sign up to do my first parkrun this weekend.

———

So I got my barcodes printed off, dragged myself out of bed at 7:30am on Saturday morning, fueled and caffeinated, and jogged easily to Finsbury Park. The cool thing about the parkruns is that you can totally race them if you want, but you can also just treat them as a nice weekend run. There’s no pressure, because they’re free! Given that I had a pretty intense workout week — my first proper track/speed workout since October, a Friday evening ride with F on our new road bikes — with sore quads and glutes to show for it, I was aiming to run under 25:00 for the 5K.

Okay, maybe a bit faster than that… But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I arrived around 8:45am at Finsbury Park and saw some people starting to gather near the cafe. I asked a nice-looking guy if he’d run these before and what the deal was. He has run a bunch but was volunteering today, and explained the course (a tad less than two times around the park) and system (you get a number as you finish, then get that plus your barcode scanned to obtain your result). I stood around the cafe watching people arrive. I even chatted with a couple nice women: A, who has done a bunch of parkruns and is training for her second triathlon, and E, who was also a parkrun first-timer.

Soon it was time to make our way to the start. After a quick explanation of the course and system by the head organizer (all of the parkruns are organized/executed by volunteers; runners are encouraged to volunteer three times a year or so to keep everything working smoothly), we were off!

A downhill start makes it easy to get carried away and go out way too fast, so I settled into a quick-but-not-too-uncomfortable pace, knowing that we’d soon have a long, gradual uphill (on which I passed people, as I enjoy doing, by maintaining a steady pace). Down again and around a corner to a short-but-steep uphill, curving on the paths near the track, then we were halfway finished. Just over 11:00 on my watch: this won’t be a PR, I thought, but I could be somewhere in the 22:00-range — just maintain.

I picked up the pace a bit down that long descent, passing the only two women I could see in front of me, then kept telling myself to take short, quick steps on the uphill. The older woman with whom I’d flip-flopped places a couple times passed me again and I let her go, resolving to try and stay ahead of the other woman. My legs were certainly feeling it by this point, as we entered the last descent before tackling the steep hill for the second time.

After reeling in a couple guys on the uphill, I tried to stay steady and not kick too soon since I wasn’t completely sure where the finish was. It came up sooner than I thought, so my kick didn’t end up being huge, but I finished in 22:16 (that’s 7:11/mile or 4:27/km pace) and was the 2nd woman out of 52. Not bad for a sore, tired body!

———

My first parkrun was a blast; I can see why so many people love them, as it’s a totally low-key atmosphere that attracts both serious(ly fast) runners and general fitness enthusiasts looking for motivation to run. I will definitely try to fit them in bi-monthly, if not weekly.

This is light, fresh, and filling. The mint and lemon add brightness, while the cumin and sun-dried tomatoes keep everything earthy and grounded. We ate it for dinner with baked sweet potatoes and sautéed kale, though it would be equally as good on its own for lunch. No further introduction needed.

colorful. healthful. delicious.

Chickpea, Mint, Cucumber & Cumin Salad (adapted from this recipe)

toasty

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 2 tbsp whole cumin seeds
• to taste: red pepper flakes
• 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cans of chickpeas, rinsed & drained
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
• large handful of fresh parsley, minced
• medium handful of fresh mint, minced
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1.5 lemons
• 1/2 English cucumber, diced
• to taste: sea salt

Procedure

• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the cumin seeds and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until the cumin is toasted. 
• Add the minced garlic and cook on medium-low for another minute or two, until the garlic is golden.
• Add the chickpeas and tomatoes to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, on medium-high until the chickpeas are warm.
• Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine the parsley, mint, lemon juice, and cucumber. When the chickpea mixture is cooked, add it to this bowl. Salt to your taste and toss, the refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

cool + warm

Enjoy!