In her new book, The Healthy Jewish Kitchen: Fresh Contemporary Recipes for Every Occasion, she uses good fats — avocado oil, canola oil, coconut oil, olive oil, sunflower oiand safflower oi— and whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, kasha and whole-wheat pasta.

She opts for a minimaamount of salt and as little sugar as she can, and avoids sugar substitutes, margarine and processed foods.

Shoyer includes plenty of vegetable recipes and few that use red meat.

When making stuffed cabbage, for example, she uses dark-meat turkey and brown rice instead of beef and white rice.

To avoid frying, she bakes her chicken schnitzel, and uses a nut coating to give the schnitzerichness.

“Variety is the key to a delicious, nutritious meal,” writes Shoyer.

“First, I make sure every dinner plate has a variety of colours and textures.

“Next, I make sure that we eat both raw and cooked vegetables at every meal.”

Shoyer loves to use almond flour for making healthier desserts.

“I use this flour a lot in my gluten-free baking and often combine it with potato starch to hold doughs and batters together,” she writes

“I use a coffee grinder to grind whole nuts, as it is cheaper than buying almond flour and tastes fresher.

“Almond flour is my go-to flour substitute for Passover baking.”

For her chocolate cake, Shoyer uses quinoa instead of flour and enriches the cake with coconut oil.

“The cake is surprisingly moist and delicious,” she writes.

Chocolate Quinoa Cake

Ingredients

Method

Cake: Place quinoa and water in a smalsaucepan and bring to the boiover medium heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook quinoa for 15 minutes or untialthe liquid has been absorbed.

Preheat oven to 180°. Use cooking spray to grease a 2.8-litre Bundt pan. Sprinkle the potato starch over the greased pan and then shake pan to remove any excess starch.

Place quinoa in food processor. Add orange juice, eggs, vanilla, oil, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Process untimixture is very smooth.

Melt chocolate over a double boiler or place in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and put in a microwave for 45 seconds, stirring and then heating chocolate for another 30 seconds, untiit is melted. Add chocolate to quinoa batter and process untiwelmixed. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for 50 minutes or untia skewer inserted into cake comes out clean.

Let cake coofor 10 minutes and then remove cake gently from pan. Let it cooon a wire cooling rack.

Glaze: Melt chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowin microwave (see above) or over a double boiler. Add oiand vanilla and whisk well. Let glaze sit for 5 minutes and whisk it again. Use a silicone spatula to spread glaze alover cake.

Baked Schnitze with Nut Crust

Ingredients

Method

Preheat oven to 245-250°. Place 1½ tablespoons oion each of 2 jelly-rolpans and spread to coat. Place pistachios, almonds and ground hazelnuts in bowof food processor. Add turmeric, cumin, paprika, ginger, garlic powder, cayenne, salt and black pepper. Process untinuts are reduced to smalpieces, but not ground into powder. Place them in a shallow bowl.

Beat 2 eggs in a shallow bowl. Place chickpea flour in a 4-litre freezer bag or a shallow bowl. Cut chicken into as many pieces as you like and, using your fingers, dip each piece into chickpea flour to coat it completely, shaking off excess.

Then dip pieces into the beaten eggs and press them into nut mixture to completely coat chicken. Place chicken on a large plate.

Place the oil-coated pans into preheated oven and heat for 5 minutes. When pans are hot, carefully remove one pan at a time and add chicken, leaving a little room between the pieces so that they don’t touch one another. Bake chicken for 10 minutes.

Using tongs, turn pieces over and bake them for another 5 minutes. Rotate pans halfway through cooking time so that each pan has a turn on bottom rack to ensure maximum crunchiness. Serve immediately.

Tzimmes Puree

Ingredients

Method

Heat oiin a medium pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook them for 3 to 5 minutes, or untitranslucent and just starting to colour. Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Add sweet potatoes, carrots, apricots, orange zest, cinnamon stick and water and bring to a boil. Stir mixture, cover and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, or unticarrots and sweet potatoes are soft. Let mixture coofor 10 minutes, covered.

Remove cinnamon stick. Use either an immersion blender to puree the mixture untiit is smooth, or transfer it to a food processor. Add salt and pepper, if desired.