Garlic Soup / J Dilla

Garlic Soup

Shallots

Celery

Organic butter and/or EVOO

Sauté. 

Thinly slice 20-30 cloves of garlic and add to sauté 5 mins. Add some ginger and thyme and a hearty splash of ww vin. Saffron threads if you've got 'em, bay leaves, homemade stock* and sea salt. Simmer for how long it takes you to make Harissa and a simple salad. I made my salad with baby spinach, butter lettuce, red bells, avo, sprouts**, and a sprinkling of cooked lentils/quinoa. S,P, Balsamic, OO. 

Harissa

Roasted red bell, coriander-cumin-caraway (dry roasted), OO, onion, garlic cloves, red chiles, lemon juice, sea salt -- all blitzed.

Back to the soup: take out bay and immersion-blend a few pulses - maybe 1/3 of it. Bowl, plop in a spoonful of Harissa. The garlic mellows and this ends up being a pretty satisfying soup. Adapted from that by Yotam Ottolenghi.

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J Dilla - Donuts

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This meal was from Day 4; I'm now on day 7.

I'm enjoying this so much, the cooking part. There's so much hoopla about cleansing and things tasting like dirt. I haven't found that needs to be the case at all. But I do think back on cleanses I've read (and tried) that were obviously written by doctors/medical professionals rather than someone who cooks—checked all the boxes except palate. And in striving for 'variety', ended up using lots of ingredients only once, and lots of prep and cooking. A real drawback is that it's time consuming. (For me it's also A LOT of food). I go from super full to starving on a dime. Having stuff prepped or having go-to, brainless reach-for's has been vital. 

My next fantasy project: make cleanse food for folks (think Blue Apron style) and/or a book that has actually good tasting recipes and ones that take reality into account. Ex. - you don't have to spend thousands of $ buying tons of produce (3 x a week), but instead the recipes and meals are thoughtfully set up so they last a few meals and snacks with less constant work.

*Stock - I save the trimmings of my vegetables in a bag in the freezer. Need stock? Trimmings go into stockpot with water, simmer, voila. 

**Hooray home sprout grower, right? I was too lazy to do the jar method so bought one. Either way, so worth it!