on the table

COLUMN: Make your own European-style bread

Bread lovers, you made yourselves known.

After last week’s column on European-style bread, you confirmed your interest in gritty, coarse, crusty bread with character. One reader confided that he makes his own in a bread machine, but the supermarket mixes he uses are made with refined, white flour.

How, he wondered, can he make bread using more whole grains instead?

From a nutritional standpoint, the most interesting breads, of course, are the whole-grain, fiber-filled kind. And while some delicious, traditional European varieties are made with white, refined flour, whole grain varieties arguably have more flavor and texture.

They’re more complex, like great wine. Their rustic looks and imperfect shapes give them character. 

COLUMN: Trade wimpy bread for a robust loaf

PARIS – Europeans have strong opinions about bread. That bread is similarly distinctive and robust.

I hear it from my colleagues in France and elsewhere in Europe. And I see it for myself on store shelves.

Bread here is not your wimpy white fluff, the kind so easily mashed into a spongy ball in a toddler’s fist. Good European bread is gritty and coarse-grained with a crust to match.

It lives up to the whole grain ideal that our U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans advocate. 

COLUMN: Five tasty ways to cook with basil

Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that a column on tomatoes would trigger reader remarks about basil. The two are summertime essentials for many of us.

And they’re equally easy to grow.

So to last week’s call to plant your tomatoes, add basil, too. Like tomatoes, basil is a summertime pleasure that is versatile and nutritious.

Fragrant basil leaves are used as an herb for seasoning other foods. One of the most common ways they’re used is in pesto – a blended paste made from pine nuts, olive oil, basil and Parmesan cheese – mixed into pasta dishes and as a flavorful sandwich spread.

Basil is a rich source of vitamin K and manganese, and it’s high in beta-carotene, vitamin C, folate, iron, calcium and several other nutrients.

Like tomatoes, you’ll find seedlings at garden stores. And like tomatoes, there are dozens of varieties. 

COLUMN: Tomatoes a practical, easy crop

It’s time to plant tomatoes. If that wasn’t on your “to do” list, consider adding it.

It’s a practical, sensible springtime ritual and summertime pleasure.

It’s practical because anyone can successfully grow tomatoes in just about any sunny space. In fact, planting and caring for tomato plants is a great first gardening experience for children.

It’s easy. Get a head start by picking out seedlings at a home and garden center. They’re inexpensive, even for plants several inches to a foot in height.

Space is typically not an issue. You just need a sunny spot to grow tomatoes.

If you have plenty of garden area in your background, that’s great. But if you don’t, you can still grow tomatoes in patio pots.

It makes sense to grow your own. For starters, you’ll save money. Tomatoes can be expensive to buy – especially when they’re organic.

COLUMN: Asparagus season is sprouting

Spring has arrived and so has the asparagus.

If you are a fan, this is the time of year when the vegetable is most plentiful. About half of the asparagus grown in the U.S. comes from California, where the season extends into mid-May.

In the Midwest and Eastern U.S., asparagus remains in season into July.

Asparagus shoots are picked when the spears reach about 6 to 8 inches in length. Green, white and purple varieties are available, and all of them are rich sources of nutrients.

Asparagus is especially high in folate, and it’s also a good source of dietary fiber, vitamins A, C, K and several minerals.

It’s low in calories and sodium. Another big bonus: Asparagus is a vegetable that is typically low enough in pesticide residues that you can feel confident buying conventional varieties rather than spending more for organic.

It’s also versatile. Just resist the temptation to smother it in fatty Hollandaise sauce or butter.

COLUMN: To manage weight, avoid between-meal snacks

Americans love their snacks.

Not surprisingly, the French do not. And that’s another reason the French have the edge on us when it comes to weight control.

I was alerted to this after tweeting a promo for last week’s column about the French prune habit. A public health colleague in Paris responded with a tweet of his own.

“Another key fact: French almost only eat during meals!” he said.

If only it was that easy for the rest of us. Snacking is one of America’s favorite past-times.

COLUMN: Eat like the French; enjoy prunes

PARIS – Europeans eat prunes. Americans do not.

It may be a generalization, but recent experience underscores my observation. Prunes have been a feature on the hotel breakfast buffet every day this week in Paris, where I’ve been teaching global public health.

In fact, I used prune jam on my bread as well.

I mentioned in a recent column a comment by a reader who lived in France for several years and witnessed mothers routinely feeding prunes to their children for breakfast. Europeans don’t stop there.

COLUMN: Four basic guidelines for going vegan

Vegan or Vulcan?

Not long ago one seemed as foreign as the other. These days, though, a diet free of animal products doesn’t seem so strange.

In fact, vegetarian – even vegan – diets are now widely viewed as wise choices. That’s because plant-based diets including few, if any, animal products are associated with health advantages such as lower risks of coronary artery disease, obesity, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

They’re also environmentally friendly. Growing plants is less resource intensive than raising animals, and plants produce less waste.

A vegan diet excludes all animal products: meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk, cheese and other dairy products and foods made with those ingredients. Many vegans also avoid honey and refined cane sugar. 

COLUMN: Cook lentils to make versatile dal

NEW DELHI – If India had a national vegetable, it would have to be the lentil. And its national dish could be dal.

Of course, it has neither a national vegetable nor a national dish. The country is so massive and diverse that it would be nearly impossible to single out a food that could adequately capture the range and complexity of Indian cuisine.

Still, dal – a thick, soup-like food made from cooked lentils – would be near the top of the list, a winner for flavor, versatility, convenience and nutrition. Lentils, the primary ingredient in dal, are small, disk-shaped seeds grown on a bushy plant.

They are among the oldest legumes in the world. They’ve been on the menu in India, the Middle East, Eastern Africa and the Mediterranean for thousands of years, used in recipes that haven’t changed much, if any, during that time. 

COLUMN: Easy ways to eat more Indian dishes

NEW DELHI – A food revolution is under way in India, and it’s transforming the way that people prepare meals.

As families grow smaller and more people live alone, they are buying fully prepared meals instead of fixing them from scratch. I reported on this trend a few months ago and the rise of the fast food industry here.

Basic Indian foods such as dal and chana masala – a chickpea entrée made with onions, tomatoes and spices – are staples now at the supermarket. They’re sold in the freezer section or in aseptic packages that need no refrigeration.

The evolution of convenience foods in India started with changes in the ways that raw ingredients were sold. For example, it used to be common to get whole spices ground freshly on the street or lentils and beans processed into flour.