Newsletter #22: Making meals WAY more fun with colorful veggie purées + 10 ways to create joy in the kitchen 🥦🍓🍆🌶🍠🥕

Articles

Aug 6

Welcome back for a Good Food edition of Good Energy Living!🥑

In this newsletter, I’m sharing:

My smokey carrot harissa dip (one of my favorite recipes from my book, Good Energy!)
How colorful blended veggie purées (like this dip) are such an easy way to sneak a ton more micronutrients and antioxidants into your meals 🥦
10 ways to create more joy during the ~50,000 meals we’re going to make in our lifetimes, and maybe even make cooking a part of our spiritual journey!

Good Food: FABULOUS smoky carrot-harissa dip recipe from Good Energy 🥕🤤

This dip bursts with flavor using toasted caraway and cumin seeds, which are among the foods with the highest antioxidant levels, along with bright orange carrots. Pair this dip with my herbed flax cracker recipe, Flackers, or sliced cucumbers for an easy summer snack.

🧑‍🍳 Smoky Carrot-Harissa Dip 🥕🥣

Makes 4 cups of dip

Ingredients

2 pounds carrots, chopped
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 cup harissa paste (I’ve used this one and it’s good)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup cashews
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Fill a wide pot with 2 inches of water. Set a steamer basket in the pot, then bring the water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the carrots to the basket and cover. Steam for about 10 minutes, or until tender (meaning the fork goes into them easily).
While the carrots steam, add the caraway and cumin seeds to a small dry pan over medium heat. Toast, moving the spices frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until fragrant. Using a clean coffee grinder (like this one that I use) or mortal and pestle to coarsely grind the caraway and cumin seeds. If you don’t have either, you can just add the whole seeds to the blender in the next step.
In the bowl of a food processor or (preferably) a high-speed blender like a Vitamix, add the carrots, cumin and caraway seeds, harissa paste, paprika, garlic, cashews, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper and purée until thoroughly combined and silky. Drizzle with olive oil and serve with your choice of herbed flax crackers (I share my own homemade recipe in my book Good Energy!) and organic chopped veggies.

If you make it, I’d love to see! Tag me on Instagram @drcaseyskitchen.

🔗 Download the recipe PDF here.

🥑 Fun, colorful veggie purées 🩷💛💜🧡💚

One of my go-tos in the kitchen are vegetable purées like this smokey carrot harissa dip. They are so versatile and can be used as a colorful base on a plate for a protein, a colorful “mashed potato” alternative, and the leftovers are a perfect dip when chilled! They’re also a great way to add more color and extra nutrients to any meal. Bonus is that they’re also so quick and easy to make!

I think it is very valuable to invest in a high-powdered blender to make these (over a food processor or a lower quality blender) as the vegetables become ultra-creamy and silky and any fats added (like soaked cashews or almonds, or olive oil) emulsify to make the dips more creamy. I use this basic Vitamix which I’ve had for almost 10 years and love it.

Here are some pics of recent colorful puréed veggie concoctions:

A colorful veggie purée makes your plate instantly more fun, and serves as a great base for a protein!

💗🥕 Why I love veggie purée

💪 Added nutrition to any meal: They allow you to consume a wider variety of vegetables, boosting your intake of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants! It’s also a way to try different vegetables you might not know how to cook precisely. Pretty much any vegetable you can steam or roast until fork tender can be blended into a colorful purée, i.e., cauliflower, broccoli, celery root, romanesco, parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, squash, zucchini… the list goes on and on. I love to add caramelized (meaning just very slowly cooked on the stove for 20-30 minutes on low heat) garlic, shallots, and/or onions, to the blender with steamed veggies to add depth to the flavor.
🧑‍🍳 Versatility in cooking: They can be a side dish for an entrée one night, and then a dip the next day once chilled! You can also thin them out with water or broth to make a soup.
🕑️ Time-saving: Preparing in advance can save time during busy weekdays, as they can be quickly added to meals.
♻️ Reduced food waste: You can use vegetables that might otherwise go to waste due to overripeness or imperfect appearance, and also can dump a bunch of your leftover veggies (and some fruits) from the week into the blender to make these. These also freeze and defrost well!
🧑‍🎨 Encourages creativity: Using colorful purées in the plate is fun! A chicken breast on top of a bright magenta purée is more fun than straight on the plate, right?! 😄
😍 Introduces new flavors: Mixing different vegetables can introduce new flavor combinations in a subtle way and is an easy way to incorporate new spices and herbs.
✨ Enhances presentation: Colorful purées can make dishes more visually appealing - great for kids.
✍️ Note: We don’t want all our food to be puréed, ESPECIALLY in children, because active chewing of tough, fibrous, chewy foods is a very important part of the process that stimulates jaw development and digestion. Our minimization of chewing in modern childhood due to pre-pulverized processed foods and too many baby purées has contributed to the under-development of the American jaw, which can lead to sleep apnea, sinus issues, and breathing problems throughout life. (Read the book Breath by James Nestor for more on this!). However, as a part of the meal, I think purées can be a great addition!

Here are some examples of what you can add to steamed organic cauliflower in a blender to make it more nutritious, colorful, and FUN 👇️

These are various fruits and vegetables and herbs you can add to a steamed cauliflower base to make them colorful!

🩷 Benefits of a PINK purée:

Beets are high in fiber, folate, manganese, and vitamin C. They also contain nitrates that may help lower blood pressure, and are rich in antioxidants, particularly betalains.
Dragonfruit is a good source of vitamin C, iron, and magnesium. It contains antioxidants like betalains and hydroxycinnamates, and provides prebiotic fiber for gut health.

💛 Benefits of a YELLOW purée:

Turmeric contains curcumin, a powerful anti-inflammatory compound. Studies show that it may improve brain function and lower risk of brain diseases, as well as significant reduce osteoarthritis pain. Turmeric has potent antioxidant properties.

💜 Benefits of a PURPLE purée:

Blue spirulina powder is high in protein and essential amino acids, and is rich in B vitamins, copper, and iron. It also contains phycocyanin, a potent antioxidant.

💚 Benefits of a GREEN purée:

Spinach is high in iron, calcium, and vitamins A, C, and K. It also contains antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin, and is a good source of folic acid and magnesium.
Basil contains essential oils with anti-inflammatory properties, and is a good source of vitamin K and manganese.
Parsley is rich in vitamins A, C, and K, and contains antioxidants like flavonoids and carotenoids. It may also help with bone health and blood clotting.

🧡 Benefits of an ORANGE purée:

Carrots are an excellent source of beta-carotene (vitamin A precursor), which is an antioxidant and key for eye health, amongst many other functions! They are high in fiber and antioxidants, and contain vitamin K1, potassium, and vitamin B6.
Sweet potatoes are rich in beta-carotene, vitamin C, and potassium. They are also a good source of fiber and various antioxidants and contain manganese, supporting bone health and metabolism.

🖤 Benefits of an BLACK purée:

Activated charcoal may help with detoxification and may help reduce cholesterol levels. It can also help alleviate gas and bloating.
📌 Note: While activated charcoal has some uses, it's not typically consumed for nutritional benefits and should be used cautiously as it can interfere with medication absorption.

🧑‍🎨🍽️ A reminder on having fun with your food

If you are the primary food preparer in your home (aka, the Chief Food Officer, or the “food czar” of the house 😄 ), you are likely going to be spending tens of thousands of hours of your life purchasing, preparing, and serving food - so why not make that time an artistic and joyful time of self-expression and maybe even spiritual development?

📝 (My “back of the napkin” math: ~2 hours buying, preparing, and serving 3 meals per day to yourself and/or others x ~300 days per year of active food prep days x ~50 years of active food prep years (age ~25-75, but probably longer) = ~30,000 hours of food prep = a pretty conservative estimate). A lot of this could be artistic expression or meditative time, if we let it!

Remember, in this one life there is no playbook, no rule book, and no one is watching, especially when it comes to the things you create in the kitchen. Be FREE to experiment, play, and experience pleasure in the kitchen! If you’re going to be cooking, you have the choice to spend that time having fun and being artistic, or seeing it as a chore. As much as possible, choose the former, as it doesn’t take any more time, I promise!

Given this, I think it’s important to find ways - starting today - to spark more joy in the food preparation time. Here are 10 ways that I aim to do that:

👩‍🌾 Shop at the farmer’s market as much as possible as this makes food shopping a more connected, soul-enriching experience of sunshine, sensory pleasure, conversations, and movement. (It also means less plastic and packaging waste, and less pesticides on your food - all wins!). Perhaps leave your shopping list (and phone) at home and instead just be present at the farmer’s market and grab the freshest food that is catching your eye that day and makes you feel happy. (Something I’ve learned is that when you’re buying the freshest, colorful produce, along with high quality proteins, the flavors almost all taste good together, so you can “freestyle” a bit more in the kitchen).
Additionally, don’t buy ultra-processed foods, like those from any of these companies below, as they are lifeless disease-causing Franken-foods that are exploiting and sickening humans and the planet for profit, and leeching our life force and our long-term joy:

While you might think their products taste good, it is a hollow illusion and a trap that isn’t supporting our short term or long term thriving.

🤩 Appreciate and have gratitude for the food in your home. Display your produce in beautiful bowls and dishes on the counter or fridge (thrift stores are a great place to get these cheaply!) and admire the colors, textures, and smells throughout the week.

One of my favorite moments of the week is laying out the food from the farmer’s market and expressing gratitude for it and letting myself be in awe of it. This is going to be the atoms of my body and my partner’s body - our cells, neurotransmitters, and hormones - of the coming days and weeks!

👅 Let intuition, pleasure, and LOVE guide you in the kitchen. Rather than sticking to a recipe strictly, think about what would really taste good to you today. Once you get a few cooking techniques down, like roasting, sautéing, and making a few sauces, and then master a few flavor/spice combinations, you are free to make something out of almost anything in your kitchen. My book, Good Energy, explains the basic cooking techniques you can easily master to let meal creation be very simple for life.

🚫 Try not to adhere too much to “labels” in the kitchen, like “breakfast foods” or “pesto” or “hummus.” The reason is because we may have preconceived notions of what meals should be, which can limit us. When we just let ourselves be artistic with it, amazing dishes (that may be hard to “label” or describe”) come to be! “Breakfast” can be a salad and sliced steak if that’s what feels good to you! “Pesto” can be blended mint, arugula, cashews, and goji berries instead of basil and pine nuts. “Hummus” can be puréed black beans, parsnips, and tahini… who cares?

A few food photos from the last few months from my phone. There’s not a good “label” most of the food I make, but it all makes me happy and tastes good!

🍽️ Plate the meal however you want that brings YOU amusement and joy! Garnish with freshly chopped herbs, edible flowers (these are easy to grow at home!), layer sauces and artfully place them on the meal, sprinkle a tiny bit of chopped nuts or cheese to “finish” your meal so that it’s lovely and visually appealing to you.

🤲 When you sit down to eat, hold hands with anyone at the table with you and briefly express gratitude (to the the farmers, the rain, the soil, the worms, the animals, the gift of being alive and able to eat!) and ask whatever higher power you believe in to help this life-giving food to work with your body to allow you to be vibrant and spread as much light as possible in the world. Take a few deep breaths to ground into the moment, smell the food deeply, perhaps light a (non-toxic) candle, and then enjoy!
🎵 Play music, podcasts, or audiobooks in the kitchen while you are cooking, or use it as a time to catch up with your kids or partner. While cooking can be meditative, it can also be time for learning and/or a dance party! So many of the books that have changed my life and opened my mind have been listened to while I’m cooking. What we should avoid letting meal-prep time be is a time to unproductively ruminate or stew on issues and problems.
🆘 Ask for help with tasks that make cooking overwhelming (maybe chopping, setting the table, or pouring water) to others and get others involves as much as you want and need to. Ask for help. If you feel lonely in the kitchen, call a friend to catch up or ask others to hang out with you in the kitchen while you cook. In our house, the kitchen is a closed-off/separate room from the living room, so we added two comfy arm chairs in our kitchen plus 4 stools, instead of a kitchen table, so that people can work or hang out and chat while I cook. This makes it really nice for me!
💐 Make the ambiance in the kitchen (and the table where you eat) appealing with pretty dishes, candles, plants, flowers, cloth napkins, fun glasses, and appealing lighting. I love using heart shaped plates and bowls (which I got on Amazon), as well as mismatched vintage china from a thrift store, throughout the year! Even if I just grab a sprig of rosemary from the garden and put it in a tiny budvase, a little flower or plant on the table brings it alive. Light a candle. None of this needs to be pricey or take much time!
Aim to make cooking part of your meditative, spiritual journey! How can we leverage our cooking time to get more in tune with the present, with our bodies, and with spirit? One of my new favorite artists Hilma af Klint spoke of being inspired to do ecstatic spiritual “automatic painting” sessions where she turned control over to spirit and just painted with absolutely no thought. This practice “required the receiver to set aside conscious thought and trust in the message being conveyed. The receiver would then let the hand move freely to express whatever…came to mind.”
How can we tune into this in the kitchen more as we create art with our food? Perhaps paste an intention or prayer to a post-it on your fridge, something like: “May this time preparing food be an opportunity to be present and connect with gratitude, nature, spirit, and love for myself, the earth, the cosmos, and those I get to share food with.”

On vacation in Kauai last year, I let myself play and explore in the kitchen with all the inspiring tropical fruits without any time pressure. What I created (a parfait?) looked almost identical to a painting I saw nearly 6 months later by Hilma af Klint during her “automatic painting” sessions. Spirit moves in mysterious ways! Let yourself be OPEN to the magic and the mystery!

If this all feels too hard to do in the kitchen or impractical, I urge you to believe that it actually doesn’t take more time to have fun in the kitchen. Certainly, getting a few key culinary techniques mastered is helpful to build confidence in experimentation. I think the best place to start is a few cooking classes or YouTube videos to learn the basics of simple cooking strategies (like sautéing or roasting). I think it is also really valuable to take in person cooking classes which are SO FUN! I would try for at least one Thai cooking class, because this cuisine is incredible with flavor and texture mixing, so you can learn fabulous principles that you can apply to every meal. I also think it’s valuable to take a whole foods plant based cooking class simply to learn how to effective use nuts, seeds, fruits and veggies for incredible variety.

Check out my cooking show for Levels Kitchen, here, where a lot of this is covered, and look for local cooking classes in your area or online!

Eating is an alchemical transfer of energy from the cosmos to our body. Cooking is the awe-inspiring process of preparing this natural matter to fuel and build the form of ourselves and those we love. Honor this through letting intuition, joy, and gratitude be your guide as much as you can!

With good energy 💗 ,

Dr. Casey

👀 In Case You Missed It

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