We can go simple with a few ingredients, and get a flavorful and nutritious salad. Plant based meals make me happy and in a good mood, as much as running does. So let’s say today I am in an exceptionally wonderful mood. All I ask is to keep eating plants, cooking and running for as long as I can.

I keep forgetting to eat yams, probably because they were not a part of my diet growing up, and I discovered them in the US, so I always buy them, but never use them. I look at them every day, but leave them just where they sit, at the bottom of the refrigerator. Today, I decided to use them one way or another…but definitely the inspiration did not show up instantly. I had to “me creuser les meninges” as we say in French (translated into to rack’s ones brain).

Warm salads are quite a change from the cold ones, and give you a different feeling, you actually feel like you are eating something substantial and nutritious. This salad is absolutely delicious, you need to emphasis on the vinaigrette using Meyer lemon, and the best unrefined olive oil you can find.

For the greens, a friend of mine from Napa who came to visit this weekend, brought a bunch of beautiful black basil she is growing, so I mixed it with the greens I had, and it added such a nice character to this salad. It’s optional, but if you have some fragrant basil, don’t hesitate to use it.

Ingredients for 4

For the salad

• 1 medium size cauliflower, cut in small florets
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cut in small strips, then halved
• 1 small yam, peeled, sliced (1 cm) then each slice cut in quarters
• 1/2 red onion, sliced crosswise
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp curry
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• sald and pepper
• mixed greens + basil

For the vinaigrette

• Olive oil
• zest of one Meyer lemon
• juice of one Meyer lemon
• 1 scallion, chopped
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the salad

Mix all ingredients together. Roast in the oven for 20 min at about 400F. When roasted, remove from the oven and add 2 tbs of vinaigrette, more if necessary. Toss well.

Serve on a bed of greens, adding more vinaigrette if desired.

For the vinaigrette

Mix all ingredients together.

It looks like artichoke season is starting and you see them come out on the shelves, one of the largest producer being close to the Bay Area in Castroville (they claim to be the artichoke capital of the world, which is quite a big statement, but they certainly do produce a lot of them), we have in San Francisco, lots of beautiful artichokes, the babies, the medium, the large, you pick which one you want. I even planted some in the garden, but seems like it takes over 300 days for them to grow, so I cannot count on my own crops this year!

I had some fresh chick peas left from last week and I just wanted to use them in a tagine. They remain green and taste so good but cook very quickly so when using them in a dish, they only need to cook for 15 minutes or so, therefore add them at the end. I love tagines, I could eat them every day. The flavors of all the spices infusing with all those wonderful vegetables is a pure pleasure to cook (and to eat of course too). After 10 minutes of placing the tagine in the oven, the house starts to be filled with incredibly aromas. It’s like a pure perfume. Ca embaume.

As in the majority of my tagines, I used Ras el hanout which is a traditional mix of Moroccan spices and literally means “the roof of the grocery store” in arabic. A few common spices included in Ras el hanout are cardamom, mace, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, lavender, ginger, nigella, turmeric, etc..but so many more. It’s used in Middle Eastern cuisine to enhance many dishes such as couscous, meat dishes, etc…

The composition of Ras el hanout can vary from 24 to 21 spices but can go as far as 40 spices, so there are so many variations of Ras el hanout as there are cooks, manufacturers and tastes. I bought a big bag of spices in a Moroccan grocery store in France that will last me my lifetime, and that is a very nice blend, not one spice overpowering the mix, and a very well balanced combination. Unfortunately the manufacturer did not include the list of the spices he used, so I am afraid I won’t be able to know what has been used and to what quantity. In France we have a huge Arabic population, probably the biggest among all other European countries, which means a lot of stores with great products and very inexpensive.

Anyone who loves artichokes and spices, will really enjoy this dish, besides the beauty of tagines is that it might take you a while to clean the artichokes, and peel the potatoes, but then you just put it in the oven and cooks by itself, comme une grande fille!

Ingredients for 4

• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut in big squares
• 8 medium size artichokes, trimmed
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut in big square
• 1 cup fresh chick peas
• 1.5 tbs Ras el hanout
• 1 preserved lemon, cut in 4 quarters
• 1/2 cup green olives, cut in halves
• chili powder
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together except for the chick peas and using your hands mix well.

Place the vegetables in your tagine pot, cover and cook in a pre-heated oven at 390F for about one 1h30 min. Add chick peas 20 minutes before removing tagine from the oven. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve as a side dish or as a main dish, with a quinoa or couscous accompaniment.