 Welcome to our cooking series, Recipes for the Cure. I'm Pam, and this is my sous chef Allie. We're both oncology dieticians at the John Thurr Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, and we are joining you from our beautiful cooking studio. Since we can't do our regular cooking studio programs in person, we're so excited to join you virtually and continue the tradition of sharing delicious and nourishing recipes. That's a mouthful, delicious and nourishing. We want to thank ASI for sponsoring this new program. All of the information that you'll need today, the recipes, the shopping lists, and the nutrition information to cook along with us or later in your own kitchens, is available on your confirmation email. Now I say, let's get cooking. Let me introduce what I'm doing today, and that is an entire Middle Eastern dinner, vegetarian dinner. I have a number of family members, particularly my wonderful daughter-in-law who is a vegetarian. So I always need to have some really good veggie recipes right in my back pocket. It's helpful, it's delicious. I love Middle Eastern flavors. It's kind of been a little bit of an awakening for me in the last couple of years. I tend to cook more Euro-centric because my husband grew up in the Netherlands and lived in France for many years. So I was more Euro-centered, and now we've just broadened our aspect, and we're cooking more Middle Eastern. And today, our featured recipe is mushroom bulgur pilaf. And then, just because I like to say the word, fattush, a fattush salad. And Ally's gonna help me with that. And we're just gonna talk about some of the different herbs and spices and seasonings that Middle Eastern brings to your pantry. So, just a little background about me and about this recipe. Back when I was much younger, I worked for the American Heart Association. And I, in the 1980s, did supermarket demos and this wasn't the first recipe that I ever demoed was this bulgur pilaf. It's a great one. It travels well, you can't kill it. It's healthy and it just brings a point home. So I did it for the Heart Association. I'm now an oncology dietician. A healthy recipe is a healthy recipe, whether it be for cardiac health or for cancer. So I'd like to share it with you today. I'm gonna stop talking incessantly in a minute as I'm gonna just start because I need to get this going because it needs to cook for about 15 minutes. So I'm just gonna start the pan, nonstick preferably. I'm not gonna measure the oil. I'm gonna trust my judgment that it's three tablespoons of olive oil. And I'm gonna saute up the vegetables and let them do that and they'll be fine. So I'm gonna start with the onion, celery and the carrot. Such a colorful dish in the pan already. This recipe has morphed over the years. It never used to have carrots in it, but I'll tell you, I won't lie, it's a little brown looking. So I need it to perk it up a bit. We do it with our eyes, you know, and I think that that's important. So I put the carrots in and I just loved it because you know what, you can't have enough veg. That's all I'm gonna say. It will solve many, many, many problems. And this is like the flavor trio, right? Absolutely. This is absolutely. And you can pretty much add this as a base to so many dishes. This is a miropoie, so in French, it's the carrot, celery and onion. In New Orleans cooking, it's called the Trinity and it's a green pepper onion and red pepper. So it's all a rip, but everybody, sofrito, this Spanish cuisine and Caribbean cuisine has sofrito, so that's a slightly different base that they start with, but it all is the same thing. So this is just gonna really just cook down for a little bit. I want a tiny bit of browning just to develop flavors. We do bill, bill, bill, bill, okay. So let me just talk a little bit about bulgur. Bulgur is a whole grain and it's really versatile. You can do a lot with it. It's the basis for tabbouleh and falafel. We all know those dishes from Middle Eastern restaurants. Bulgur would be a perfect for a base of a grain bowl. You can also, I just saw in the New York Times, a recipe for a hot bulgur breakfast that sounded absolutely delicious. And you can put it in soups, chilies, stews, meatballs to really further your cooking. I happen to have a lovely middle, actually it's a Persian store, not far from where I live, so I went and got this bulgur there, but you can find it in any supermarket. It's very mainstream now. Bob's Red Mill is probably a really good source of the bulgur. And actually, I don't use bulgur very much. So this is that, I'm learning something new and learning how to cook with a new grain today too, because I usually use brown rice or quinoa. And that's a healthy alternative, brown rice. You always, you wanna try as best you can to use whole grain. Carbs have gotten such a bad rap these last couple of years. We get questions all the time, should I go low carb, should I go low carb? No, everybody still needs energy and that's what carbohydrates provide. However, it would be, you know, it's just much healthier and the whole grain brings so many more B vitamins, fiber to the picture. Also this tabooly, sorry, yes, it is true, but the bulgur itself adds fiber and protein and iron. So it is really important for vegetarians. It's a great source. Most of the fiber is an insoluble fiber. So per cup, it has 150 calories, eight grams of fiber. That's a lot, you're just gonna have to trust me. And six grams of protein. That's a really nice amount of protein for a- Single food. Exactly. So it can kind of be a protein addition or replacer. Now today, we've just decided to, I've just decided. Can I have a stir a little bit? Yes, thank you, that'd be great. I need to finish chopping these mushrooms. A lot of times I slice them, but I want these smaller today because I want them just to go into the dish. This is, we got these white buttons, no problem. You can use cremini, no problem. They're a little bit browner, they're all great. I love mushrooms, what are mushrooms known for? Adding a meaty flavor to just about anything. So that's very helpful today. Just about, and again, this is a forgiving dish. Let's set a cup of mushrooms. I'm just being super generous here. You're not gonna screw it up, right? Like you said, like it's kind of like- You can't. You can't. Everything in one hand. No, you can't, exactly. I want this, if you could stir that again. A little bit longer. And one-hand dishes are really the way to go. Absolutely. This also, you can cook it ahead of time. It lasts in the refrigerator for a couple of days. It's perfect. This whole dish freezes beautifully and reheats fantastically in the microwave. It's quick as can be, it's great. But getting back to the fiber content, the insoluble fiber content, I think people struggle with feeding their fruit and vegetable goals and struggle to get their fiber limits in. There's a statistic that I've read recently in about only 5% of adults meet their fiber goals, which is between 25 and 35 grams a day. So this will definitely help with that. And it's really hard to do that if you're not including enough carbs in your diet, too. Exactly. So, sorry, I probably didn't finish my point, but we need carbs, we need healthy carbs. And that's what this is. Unhealthy carbs, baked cookies, cakes, sweet and carbonated beverages, even 100% juice. Tons and tons of sugar. So we need carbohydrates, but we need the right kind of carbohydrates. And this is an example of one. So high fiber grains, they help with digestion. They help to aid constipation. Number of our patients struggle with bowel issues of any sort. And they help with weight control because they make you feel full, just like these vegetables that we're adding extra doses to. So a high fiber, low fat diet helps reduce the risk of not only cancer, but cardiac issues. And helps to actually lower cholesterol for people who do have high cholesterol. Which is the number one kind of precursor to heart disease. I'm just putting the mushrooms in now. And I want them to saute up a bit. So the mushrooms are gonna add a different texture to it, too, right? That's true, yep, absolutely, absolutely. So more of like a velvety kind of, it looks like a meaty, meatball texture. Like a toothsome texture to it, exactly. Always adds that umami flavor that we're looking for, especially in vegetarian dishes. Just going to check my recipe. And this needs to cook for a little bit longer. So where did your kind of new love affair with Middle Eastern cooking come from? Well, that's kind of a funny question that you would ask me that. I think it's being more, it's more popular. It's more popular. And mainstream here in Midwest. Exactly. Anyways, we've been seeing it all over. Exactly. So there's articles, magazines. Exactly. So Middle Eastern, there's Middle Eastern and then there's like Mediterranean. And they kind of overlap. And if you would ask anybody right now or nutrition experts, if you would ask them, what's the healthiest diet? That's a very loaded question and there are kind of different answers for different people. But in general, it's absolutely the Mediterranean diet. And the Mediterranean diet is absolutely, it focuses on extra virgin olive oils with omega-3 fatty acids. It emphasizes fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, chicken, nuts, legumes, with minimal red meat. So that's what's so important. So a little bit of a shift to some of the typical American diet. Exactly. You know, like it used to be, you would ask, what's for dinner? And the answer would be, oh, beef stew. Oh, chicken. Oh, you know, it would always be the big protein would be the answer. And actually the answer should be, oh, you know, brown rice with steamed broccoli or bulgur pilaf. So, you know, for a healthier answer. More plant-based. This is looking great. I am now gonna pilaf the bulgur. So I'm just shaking it in. And it's gonna, I'm gonna toast it, which is gonna bring out more flavor. But I also want each grain to be surrounded by some fat. And that will help it stay distinct and not clump together. It's a technique. Pilaf refers to not only a dish, but it refers to a cooking method. So, some are trying to escape my skillet here. But nope. So I just wanted to toast up before I add the liquid. And now I'm gonna add the herbs. And that is, I need thyme and oregano. But honest to gosh, you could use whatever, you know, was your, was, you know, you liked. Thyme is, is very popular for a common in Middle Eastern cooking. I happen to like it a lot. I use dried thyme just for the ease of it. So now I'm gonna do that. And then I- You have dried thyme. Then you use less of it, right? Correct, because it's more concentrated than fresh. Yes. There's some dishes where you really wanna have the fresh, the fresh, Taste of the herb. Yes, of the herb. But there's nothing wrong with using dried. Just try to use them a lot so that they don't just, they don't say herbs don't die, they fade away slowly. So you wanna use them in your pantry, you really do. Okay, now I'm adding two cups of broth. I'm using vegetable broth to keep this vegetarian. But you don't have to, you could use chicken broth if you wanted to, or honest to Pete, there's enough flavor in here, you could use just water. So now I'm gonna bring it up to a simmer and then I'm gonna cover it so that it can absorb the water. Bulgur is a cracked wheat, so it's par-cooked. So that's why it cooks so quickly. It cooks faster than rice or some of the other grains. So it is a handy thing. So now we're just gonna bring this up. It's kinda nice, because usually I have a hard time timing my grain with the rest of my meal because it takes so much longer to cook. And I'm gonna put in some pepper. Again, I think the recipe calls for half a teaspoon, but I'm not gonna measure it. Okay, you can taste as you go along, right? That's the most fun part about cooking. And a bit of a dollop of salt, because there's very little salt in here, but then I'm gonna let the people, salt to their own taste at the table. All right, this is bubbling, so I have to cover it up. Awesome. And this needs to cook for about 15 minutes. Good. We're just about almost have this dish finished. I'm gonna chop some parsley to dress it when it's finished, but Ali, tell us about the salad you're making today. Like Pam said, I have to say the word because it's so much fun to say. This is a fattoush salad with lemon pomegranate dressing. So if you haven't made your own dressings before, I highly, highly suggest it. There's nothing wrong with purchasing your dressings in the store, but when you make your own, it's just so much fresher. You have that fresh citrus or acid and you can add more herbs and make a much more flavorful salad, I think. So in this salad, it really is very, very simple, but it's using traditional ingredients to middle Eastern cooking. And this is a Lebanese style salad. So what we did already is we have our bowl of romaine and we just washed it really well, chopped it pretty coarsely, and then put it in a bowl. So that's gonna make the meat of our salad. And one thing to note too, when we're talking to a lot of our patients here at the cancer center specifically who some of them are more immunocompromised than others, we actually do still recommend fresh fruits and vegetables because again, you can't go wrong with them. You can't have too many in your diet. You still need those really good antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic properties of fruits and vegetables, but you really wanna make sure you're washing them very well, washing your hands, using good food safety. And I highly, highly recommend using a produce brush to really scrape off any skins of outsides of vegetables, get around some of those more grainy parts so that it is fully clean, you get all that bacteria and debris off. Right, so well-washed fruits and vegetables are definitely allowed and recommended for our patients, just well-washed. So for this salad, I'm just gonna start slicing a cucumber and we're gonna make these pretty big slices so that when you mix it all together, you can see all that beautiful color, put that in our bowl. And then again, we're gonna pretty largely dice these, or quarter these tomatoes to throw on top too. So you can see all of that color. And tomatoes are really a staple in Lebanese style cooking, right? Cause tabouleh has almost all of these similar ingredients. Absolutely. The cucumber, tomato, and that's something that most people have tried before. And parsley. And parsley, yes. This fattoush salad is known as a bread salad. So Italians have a bread salad and they use leftover breads, leftover bread. French make croutons from their leftover bread. And Middle Easter, you could make pita chips from their leftover bread. So I made these yesterday, so they're kind of ready to go. They're delicious because they're flavored with this super gem of a product, zatar. And zatar, I was kindly gifted this zatar from a staff member who went to Istanbul. And I kind of, and she told me she was gonna go to the spice market, which is probably my favorite thing to do when I travel. So she kindly brought home some, actually two different kinds of zatar. And zatar is a Middle Eastern spice and its base is definitely sumac, thyme, tiny bits of sesame seeds. Let me see, what else is in there? So much flavor in one spice. Just a lot of flavor. It smells earthy. So it's a riff on a thyme mix. I wish you could smell it. It's hard for me to describe, but it's earthy and it's distinctive. So all I did yesterday was I toasted up some pitas, oiled them a little bit, and then I roasted them in the oven for just a short period of time. And then sprinkled when they came out with a touch of salt and lots of zatar. So that's gonna adorn and go along with our fattoush savoury. Okay, so I have all of the vegetables in the bowl and I really just sprinkled some parsley right on top over all of that just for everybody to have a little bit of flavor. So now I'm gonna get started on the dressing. So the dressing, we actually squeezed a lemon into a jar already. So we have that ready to go. And anytime you're making a dressing, I guess this is the French way to make a dressing too. You use one third acid to two thirds oil. So whatever acid you're using, whether it's lemon or any kind of vinaigrette, like a vinegar, balsamic or apple cider, you wanna be using one third of that to two thirds oil. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna add all of these ingredients into the mason jar and just shake it up. So I'm gonna add the spices first. And we're gonna add one teaspoon of sumac. Okay, I'm just gonna shake a little bit in here since I don't have a teaspoon. And the sumac again is a staple in zatar. That is the primary herb in zatar. It's the red sort of color that you see in this herb mix. That's the soup. And it gives the dressing a little citrusy floral? Yes, a little citrusy floral. So here at the cooking studio, and just we try to avoid completely esoteric ingredients that we don't want you to lose your mind when you have to go try to find these things. Yeah, so one of the special things. Yeah, if you don't have sumac, you can just substitute lemon zest. So it's not exactly the same, but it will bring the same flavor profile. It would help if the honey's open. Oh, I think. It's fresh. Yes. I'm just gonna squeeze two tablespoons of honey just to sweeten this up a little bit. And then this is the special ingredient, right? Pomegranate molasses. So this is one ingredient you might not find at any every store. Right, I did get this at a Middle Eastern store in our area. We are, you know, it's a very diverse area and we have actually very little problem, you know, purchasing some of these things. But I have been seeing it more. Yep, exactly. I'll tell you how I know that Middle Eastern flavors are becoming mainstream. Because I, you know, it used to be pretty hard to find satire. Now you can find it, McCormick's has a satire. So when I found that, like about a year ago, I was like, wow, they're not fooling around anymore. This is, these flavors are becoming mainstream. So, you know, that was a fun little fact. All right, so I added another quarter cup of oil and then the rest of the pomegranate molasses and honey and I'm just gonna give it a shake, all right? So all of those sticky ingredients, the molasses, the honey will incorporate into a nice smooth dressing. Do you wanna taste it, Allie? Yeah, let's taste it. See if it needs like a little salt or something like that. There's really nothing wrong with tasting as you go along. Thank you. Pretty lemony. It's good. I like it. I like it. Nice and fresh and a little fruity. It is fruity. It's different, but it's like sweet sour. Yeah. Right? Absolutely. Am I pouring this over? Not yet. Okay. Let's just wait until that's done so that I guess the vegetables don't get soggy, right? Exactly. So, I have a favorite mantra. Anybody who knows me well knows this mantra so they're tired of hearing it, I'm sure. But my mantra, and I've stolen it from Michael Pollan who's a food journalist. He doesn't pretend to be a nutritionist, but he's written a number of excellent books. And he says, and it sums up this whole cooking studio program today. Eat foods, mostly plants, not too much. I did it in the wrong order, so I'm gonna have to redo it. It's eat foods, not too much, mostly plants. So, I think that that just summarizes everything. And you're gonna say, well, of course I eat food. And there's a caveat to that. So, some foods are not really, are not real foods. Like, Cheetos, made in a plant, no plants in them. There's some other foods that are just, they're not food, they're processed, they're over-processed, you know, that sort of thing. So, we're talking about real foods, fruits, and vegetables, and grains, and lean proteins, and fish, that's food. And not too much. So, portion size, as the obesity rates in this country still continue to be an issue, you know, I think that some people know the right thing to eat, but then they're still eating too much. So, that's a problem. And then the fourth thing is mostly plants. So, I think that that sort of just summarizes, in an easy way, you know, my mantra for today. And making the star of your plate is more of those plant-based foods, rather than, you know, the meat or the protein. Right. I think we do get too much protein, and not enough for the bedside, or the car. So, I'm just gonna let this, it's almost there. So, it has a little bit more water to absorb. And I think I told you that the smells good, right? The ratio is two cups of liquid, whatever, to one cup of vulgar. So, should I start maybe plating the salad and getting that together? Yeah, we could have that little shake before I throw it on. Then we're gonna toss this. Again, super simple. Everyone should be able to do this at home. All right. No, I have some right here, actually, to toss the salad. I'm not gonna use all of it. It looks like that might be enough. I'll toss this. Make sure all that romaine gets some dressing on it. Looks so good, and I can really smell that parsley. And actually, the lemon, too, coming out. The last bit to finish my dish is just to add some more chopped parsley. I love parsley. I love to eat it in my salad. I love it. And as a garnish, unbelievable. And then the last thing that we're gonna put on the salad is feta. I love feta. And I think a lot of people do as well. So it just adds a little bit of saltiness. We're not gonna do too much, but just a little bit to add saltiness, that umami flavor, a little bit of savory to the salad. I'm gonna stir in the parsley now. You can see that it does make a difference with the color. I like to cook it for just a minute or so, just to let it wilt. It adds a really, really nice color. It does. I won't deny it. This bulgur pilaf being, you know, quite brown, you know, could use something. This is a jumping off point. You could have put, we could have put tomato paste in here, fresh chopped tomatoes. We could have put peas. We could have put a number of things. We could have put... And you could even use frozen vegetables, too. So this could be a really, absolutely, almost a pantry meal. It is, absolutely. Now you could, you know, you could pair this, most often it is paired with chicken. It's a nice take on that. Chicken, mushrooms, the parsley, the carrots, it's perfect. But you know, as I said, it really has enough protein and enough nutrient density to offer to stand on its own. Okay, I think we're good. Okay, we are gonna plate this up. As your sous chef, I'll hold your plate. Thank you. Thank you. How about I add the salad? Yeah, why don't you put the salad on there first? A little bit of everything in there. Good, absolutely. Can't have enough pita on the side because this is the favorite of everybody's, right? And really, it is a lot healthier if you make your own homemade pita. You know, homemade pita chips. Simple, simple. You don't need to buy those. And then we're gonna have the... It just looks so light and airy, actually. It doesn't look heavy at all. Right, when you peel off like that, first coating it with the oil and before you add the liquid, it really does come out and makes a difference. So I think that anybody would be happy to eat that for dinner, I would. I'm so hungry now that I think I can hear my stomach rumbling. Looks beautiful. There we go. And I would get full off of that. So you don't need meat. The vegetarian meal can be very, very satisfying. Yes, it took the two of us. We're here together. Bon appetit. Thank you for coming today and I hope you enjoyed our Middle Eastern dish. And please check out the link below for the recipes and we wanna thank our sponsors from AZAI once again. We couldn't do this without you.