Tip Nine: Try Something New

We have been on Spring Break, which is laughable. Spring my eye. It's Almost Spring, a condition akin to unbearable. Bones are still cold, though days are not so much. It is supposed to snow tomorrow. One more dreary day, you think, and I'll lose it.

Don't.

This week, do something different. Try a new cuisine, a new ingredient, go a different way home from work. Stop at that exotic shop you've been wanting to check out, but always find an excuse not to. If your brain says "I've got to get home, to feed the kids, to go to the grocery" -- well, take them with you.

Let them eat sushi.

For the next few weeks, I'll be offering up a few out-of-the-ordinary tidbits, like this raw veggie Pad Thai that really gives a taste of spring. I had this in London, at Daylesford Organic in Notting Hill, a temple for real foodies if ever there was (more on the British Farm-to-Fork movement in future). They would not share the recipe so I've devised this one, and I think it's pretty good. I did, however, make it a night when my husband was away, lest it bombed, but now I am glad, for I ate most of the bowl.

Please let me know what you discover.

Vegetable Pad Thai

Inspired by Daylesford Organic

Noodles
2 zucchini
3 carrots, peeled

Sauce
1 knob ginger
1 tablespoon tamari
1 tablespoon chili garlic
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon tahini
juice of half lime

To assemble
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1/4 cup fresh chopped mint
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
optional: red pepper, roasted cashews

Using a carrot peeler or a grater or a mandoline, make the zucchini into "noodles."

In a small chopper, mince ginger, add rest of ingredients and whiz. Pour over "noodles," add minced herbs and sesame seeds. Refrigerate until ready to serve; a few hours will meld the flavors and wilt the "noodles" so they are more noodly, but you can only do what you can do.

Garnish with cashews and slivered red pepper, plus additional cilantro and sesame seeds, if you wish, to serve.

Enjoy!