Dairy Free

I’ve been making these irresistible cookies since opening my first Sprouts Café in Trumbull, Connecticut, years ago. I now make them with agave nectar and sprouted spelt flour, and they’re better than ever.

My husband, Joe, asked me to come up with a healthy version of a delicious cookie we once tasted at a gourmet foods shop. I decided to go one better and make them vegan so everyone can love ’em as much as we do.

These irresistible cookies are so versatile. For something special, fill them with peanut butter and juice-sweetened jam to make a cookie sandwich. Dip half the sandwich in chocolate ganache and place on waxed paper–lined baking sheets to firm up the chocolate. There’s only one word for this—outrageous.

This is a great cookie for children with gluten sensitivity. Using my daughter, her friends, and her baby-sitters as my most critical testers proved these cookies will definitely be a holiday tradition at my house. The best thing is, you can freeze part of the dough, unbaked, for later use. Just defrost in the refrigerator, roll out, and bake according to the directions for a wonderful spicy-sweet treat any time of year. If the kids, and maybe the adults, are clamoring for gingerbread people, you can add eyes, nose, and buttons by pressing raisins or currants gently into the dough before baking.

This is the best vegan banana bread ever—super moist and deliciously sweet from the dates.

Carob chips are a nice change from chocolate in these yummy cookies.

This tea bread gets its nutty flavor and texture from wild rice. The nuts and cranberries inside make an appealing visual presentation. Spread a little nonfat Greek-style yogurt on top, instead of cream cheese, for a delicious low-fat breakfast.

The filling for these crêpes is made with mirin, a Japanese cooking wine made from sweet brown rice. You can find it at health food stores, Asian food stores, and possibly your local supermarket. This is a fabulous vegan dish, ideal for brunch.

These muffins are loaded with good-for-you veggies, fruits, and seeds—and they’re vegan, too. The silken tofu replaces the dairy and eggs, and adds moistness and protein for a tasty breakfast or afternoon snack.

Chock full of whole grains, flaxseeds, and dried fruit, these delicious muffins are a tasty way to add fiber to your diet. Soaking the raisins and bran in the liquid ingredients helps keep the muffins moist.

I first made this delicious, super-crunchy granola while consulting for Edge of the Woods, a great natural foods market, bakery, and vegetarian café in New Haven, Connecticut. At the time, I was developing lots of agave nectar desserts and goodies for diabetics and clients concerned with sugar when it occurred to me that there were no good-tasting, sugar-free granolas available. Hence the birth of Orange Pecan Granola, a staple in our household! Great on its own as a snack, or sprinkle it over yogurt, fresh fruit, or even frozen yogurt for dessert.

These muffins are another way to add fiber and nutrient-rich veggies to your day. Pack a little more nutritional punch into this recipe by using organic canned pumpkin.

For people—and especially kids—who like crisply textured sweets, there’s nothing like a ginger snap to scratch that itch. Many of my clients worry that they’ll have to give up sweet treats like cookies during treatment. Nonsense. You just have to be smart about it, and this recipe shows you how: It uses quality ingredients (and no refined flour) and many cancer-fighting spices. There’s just one caveat: Make the dough at least three hours before you want to bake the cookies, and preferably an entire day ahead. Once you make the dough, it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days. Chilling the dough makes it easier to cut the cookies and also gives the flavors a chance to come together so the cookies taste their very best.

This recipe is a little like karaoke: not exactly the original, but still a a lot of fun, and without all the production. One of my fondest kitchen memories is making the dessert or sweet topping that the French call sabayon and the Italians call zabaglione. A combination of whisked egg yolks, marsala wine, and sugar, it’s a high-wire act that has to go right from the heat to the plate. Get it right, and it’s a froth of pure delight. Put it under the flame for a few seconds too long, and you’re toast. This immensely more healthful version, which features mango and coconut, provides a similarly flavorful lightness, minus the need for perfectly timed kitchen pyrotechnics. It’s great alone, or serve it drizzled over berries or rice pudding.

One day my coauthor, Mat, was reminiscing to his mom, Clair, about an ice cream store he worked at while in college. “I told her that I got so sick of ice cream that for two years after I quit I couldn’t go near it.” At which point Clair mentioned that as a girl she worked for years at the chocolate counter at Gimbel’s, one of New York’s famous retailers. Gimbel’s let you eat as much chocolate as you liked on the job, so long as you didn’t take any home. “I asked Mom if she ever got sick of chocolate. She just looked at me like I was nuts and said, ‘Why would I?’” Which brings us to these little morsels. For chocolate aficionados, nothing provides a better fix than a truffle. My friend Wendy, an incredible chocolatier, designed these confections from a scrumptious mélange of chocolate, dates, orange zest, and ground nuts, all rolled in coconut. I could tell you that the reason to eat these is because they’re high in protein and phytochemicals, but how ‘bout we just call that a nice side benefit of yum! Since you’re going to indulge in a chocolate dessert, be sure to make it the best by using high-quality chocolate.

When I told my friend about this baked apple dish, he said it reminded him of an old folk recipe. When he was little and had an upset tummy, his Russian grandmother would cut up an apple and leave it out on the counter for a few minutes, until it began to brown. His grandmother would then say, “Come eat, tatellah” (an affectionate way of saying, “little man” in Yiddish). Lo and behold, a few minutes later his stomach felt better. He always figured it was love at work (and, of course, it was), but years later he found out there was also some science involved: As they brown—or cook, in this case—apples release pectin, which naturally soothes the belly. Baking makes the pectin and the rest of the apple easier to digest. In this recipe, the apples are complemented by a whole host of tasty morsels and spices—toasted pecans, dates, orange zest, and cinnamon—and as they bake, they smell heavenly.

A little saying around my kitchen is “If it’s white, it’s just not right.” Many white products, espcially white sugar and white flour, have been processed to the point where they’ve been stripped of both color and nutrients. Nutritionists say these foods contain empty calories, meaning calories without meaningful amounts of vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients. Empty calories aren’t a good idea for anyone, and they’re a definite no-no for people already dealing with diminished appetites. These muffins aren’t the monsters so often seen in bakeries—they’re smaller and healthier, but no less flavorful. The basic recipe, which is delicious on its own, is built on a foundation of spelt flour, agave nectar, and almonds, which are packed with nutrients. I’ve also provided a couple of variations below, for chocolate orange muffins and ginger lemon muffins; all three versions have one thing in common: They’re little bites of powerful joy!

In baseball, the utility man is the one who can do everything. He keeps four different gloves on hand in case he’s called on to play catcher, first base, the infield, or the outfield. I suppose he also does the team’s laundry between games of a doubleheader. I think of capers as my utility guys, capable of blending into many dishes from eggs to polenta. Capers, which are actually flower buds, are usually pickled. They may be tiny, but they pack a flavorful punch. Here, they’re blended with chopped olives and lemon zest to create a mouth-popping relish.

Drizzles and dollops are very helpful for people who are dealing with impaired taste buds as a result of treatment. Drizzles are a bit like Roman candles; they light up the palette. They’re lighter than dollops, but don’t be fooled; the parsley in this drizzle is like a whiff of pure oxygen. It’s that energizing.

This dazzling emerald green sauce is incredibly versatile.