Lunch with The Kind Diet

Girls’ lunch today with my dear friend Lorraine, who I first met almost ten years ago at a yoga class here in Tucson when I was visiting from New York. We immediately hit it off, and it’s always wonderful catching up with her and hearing about whatever projects she’s got going on. Most recently, Lorraine has been working on behalf of Dr. Neal Barnard who, as part of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, heads the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart Program. So I thought it would be fitting to use some recipes from Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet, for which Dr. Barnard wrote the Foreward. By now, I’ve tried most of the recipes in the book and love them! For our lunch today, I went with a couple of dishes that were new to me, light salads served chilled — perfect for a summer get-together:

Summertime Succotash w/ heirloom tomatoes

Under the succotash recipe, one of the suggested “dishes to go along with” is the tabbouleh recipe Alicia offers in the book. This bulgur-wheat dish is easy and quick to make, and it’s a wonderful way to incorporate a grain into your meal without the heaviness of some other rice or spelt dishes. The parsley makes it refreshing and, in this recipe, the paper-thin slices of radishes give the tabbouleh a little extra zip.

Kim's Red Radish Tabbouleh

To complement the two salads, I baked a spaghetti squash and also served chilled, just adding a dash of garlic, sea salt, and pepper.

spaghetti squash

And to sip while we chatted, iced Passion tea (by Tazo), a fruity blend of hibiscus, orange peel, rose hips, lemongrass, and red poppy.

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