Imagine the Real Food Project

Crackerman is a German baker with an expansive soul and a soft spot for sausage. I am a nervous American vegan. This is not the stuff of bad sitcom but a true, strange and beautiful friendship. We get together and talk about literature, family, travel, ghosts, but mostly about food and the way we wish everyone could eat -- real food, food without processing, preservatives or genetic modification, food that sustains and is sustainable, food that’s seasonal, local and cause for joy.

These talks sustain me, but Crackerman decided to take things further. He came up with what we’re calling the Real Food Project, a nonprofit call to arms, a grass roots demand for greater care and awareness in what we eat. We hammered out the language and with the mighty Khim, launched a website and forum. Crackerman thinks if we band together and speak out in favor of real food, we can make it happen. We can change the world. I hope he’s right and I hope you’ll be part of it. It’s free and all you gotta do to join is sign up.

What happens from here on out is up to you.

You might say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.

Sweet Potato Salad With Tahini and Ginger

Sweet potatoes, in season now are real, rich in vitamin A and roasted like this, reveal their own sweetness without (guuh) pineapple or marshmallow. This is a significant salad, but to make it more of main course, add 1-1/2 cups cooked whole grain, like quinoa or millet.

2 sweet potatoes, chopped into bite-sized cubes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pinch sea salt

1 pinch red pepper flakes

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 cups fresh spinach, watercress, arugula or a combination of all three

juice and zest of 1 orange (about 1/3 cup juice)

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped

2 tablespoons tahini

Preheat oven to 400.

Spread sweet potato bites on a rimmed baking sheet. Add olive oil, sea salt and pepper flakes. Toss to coat sweet potatoes and roast for 25 minutes, stirring once to make sure sweet potatoes roast evenly and don’t stick to the pan.

Meanwhile, make the dressing. Using a blender or food processor, blitz together ginger, orange juice and tahini for 1 minute or until smooth. Makes about 1/2 cup dressing, enough for the salad plus leftovers. Dressing keeps covered and refrigerated for up to a week.

Keeping the oven at 400, toast chopped nuts in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown and fragrant.

To assemble salad: Place greens in a large bowl or arrange on a platter. Scatter with chopped celery, chopped sweet potatoes and chopped nuts. Drizzle dressing on top or serve separately.

Serves 4.

The Real Food Project

What : An appeal for real food -- food without additives, preservatives,

antibiotics, mystery chemicals or genetic modification.

Who: You and everyone else who wants real food.

Where: Everywhere around the globe.

When: Now.

How: Become a fan. Choose food made without additives. Read labels.

Join us and speak out in favor of real food.

Why: Because everyone deserves access to real food.

Our food is contaminated. It’s processed with chemical preservatives and additives, genetically modified products and laced with salt, fat and sugar.

Our seas are overfished and polluted, killiing off 90% of our oceans’ fisheries.

Our national productivity, creativity, economy and health are crippled by obesity-related illness.

At Real Food Project, we’re into:

Families who cook together.

Families who eat together.

Teaching basic cooking, sourcing and nutrition in all schools.

Serving real food in our school lunchrooms.

Meat produced ethically.

Fish caught sustainably.

Eating less meat.

Farm and garden initiatives that reintroduce heirloom varietals.

Bringing local foods directly to consumers.

School gardens that bring real food to communities, starting with our children.

Home and community gardens.

Preventative health

Companies that feed employees real food.

Fresh sustainable and organic foods.

We’re anti:

Multinational food conglomerates

Industrialized food distribution systems

Factory farming

Genetically modified food

Artificial preservative

Chemicals and additives

Misleading food labels

Obese, unhappy children

Obese, unhappy adults

We deserve a change and so does our planet.

We ask our readers to pay attention to what’s in our food and to who makes it.

We encourage vendors to provide fresh, local, unprocessed food.

We ask the USDA to step up oversight on corporate food production.

We want companies to reward employees who make real food a priority.

We demand food made without additives.

We want a choice in what we eat. We choose real food.

Join our Project.

Working together, we can make companies, institutions and government listen. We can make the move, make the change to real food. Become a fan now.

Post links, comments, photos and videos. Introduce your project, coop, company, community and even post jobs here.

Network with others and profit from an ever-growing web of real food supporters.

Live better, eat better. Welcome to the Real Food Project.

Edgy Veggie Meets Crackerman

Serendipity can happen in the kitchen, with a surprising but happy-making combination of flavors, or it can happen elsewhere, with a surprising but happy-making combination of people. With Crackerman, I got both.

Crackerman, aka Stefan Uch, has Michelin star chef creds and a gorgeous wife, Theresa. Together, they make Crackerman crackers (www.crackermancrackers.com).

Stefan and I met to discuss their crackers, which they're just launching, and wound up talk about everything -- global cuisine, literature, whackdoodle ideas about nutrition, food writers we like, how who you are plays out in what you cook (he's German, I'm mongrel, he purees, I'm into crunchy) and what we believe in.  For Stefan, that's science, his sense of smell and pheromones.  How could I not like the guy?  It was one of those wonderful coming togethers, meeting for the first time yet feeling we'd been friends for ages, realizing we were of the same tribe. 

It was after we spoke I finally tried the crackers -- big sheets of golden seed-flecked goodness, organic, of little yeast, big crunch and big flavor, great to crack apart, hence the name (I'd figured they'd named themselves after the Stone Temple Pilot song  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOfmNSHTWaI&feature=related) and excellent as dip conduits.  Crackerman also makes a kickass organic whole bread, chewy and seed-studded, earthy and honest.  

Right now, Crackerman crackers and bread are sold online and at Miami farmers markets. Stefan and Theresa are working to get their products into local markets and beyond.  I hope they make it.  Of all the products I get pitched, this was the softest pitch with the biggest payoff.  Crackerman crackers and bread are as real deal and delicous as the couple who makes them.  I love when this happens.

To mark the occasion, I wanted something that showed off the coming together of bread and vegetables. It could be a sandwich, no brainer-y enough, but I wanted more, a melding of the two, an effortless affinity. So here it is, a Tunisian bread and pepper and tomato salad, freewheelingly adapted from Paula Wolfert's outstanding The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen.  The Italians do something similar called panzanella. It's popular in the Middle East made with pita and feta, tomatoes and cukes, in which case it is called fattoush (eating too much gives you one, says a punnish friend).  

I really like the combination of flavors in this salad, especially with Crackerman bread.  Puffy grocery store bread won't do for this.  It sops up the vegetable juices and turns immediately to mush.  You want bread with oomph and chew, produce deliciously full-flavored and ripe.  

This substantial salad must be started a day ahead, but time does the work, not you.  It employs the lazy roasting technique used in my June 4 blogspot and the final tossing together happens in minutes.  It's best served not straight from the fridge but edging towards room temperature.  This serves 4, but you can double or triple it for a party.  It's luscious, durable and looks impressive as hell.

Tunisian Bread Salad

3 or 4 handfuls of spinach or arugula

2 large ripe tomatoes

1 red pepper

1 green bell pepper

1 serrano pepper

4 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon dried mint (I love fresh herbs, but this goes into the dressing and using dried really works -- a serendipitous discovery)

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cumin

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon capers

1 teaspoon harissa (Moroccan hot sauce) 

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

4 generous slices whole grain or country bread, cubed

kalamata olives for garnish

fresh chopped cilantro and mint for garnish

nonvegans can garnish with 2 hard-boiled eggs, halved

sea salt and freshly ground pepper to fininish 

The day before you enjoy your salad, preheat oven to 400. Tomatoes, peppers and garlic go into a large baking pan, the pan goes into the oven and you let the whole thing roast for 30 minutes, until vegetables are nice and soft.

Remove from oven and let cool.  Chop tomatoes and peppers.  This will let loose a torrent of juice. Save every drop to a large bowl. Mince garlic and place into the bowl.  Place colander atop bowl, fill with the chopped tomatoes and peppers.  Refrigerate overnight, allowing vegetable juices to drain.  Vegetables do not need to be covered.

The next day, take your roasted vegetables and veggie juice from the fridge.  Remove the colander of vegetables and set aside for a few minutes.  To the bowl of accumulated vegetable juices, add dried mint, caraway, coriander, olive oil harissa and vinegar.  Whisk together briefly.

Place greens on a serving platter or in a shallow bowl.  

Lightly and swiftly, dip bread cubes into dresssing, letting the flavor permeate, not the wetness.  Scatter bread cubes on top of greens, arrange peppers and tomatoes on top.   Garnish with olives, capers, chopped cilantro and mint (and for nonvegans, egg halves).  Drizzle any remaining dressing on top.  Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and a generous grinding of pepper and knock yourself out.

Next time: And yes I said yes I will yes.