Above: A table topped with plates of food covered in fruit by Luwadlin Bosman

Recipes for Subud Cultural Events

Assembled by Fayra Teeters

As part of our ongoing “Musings from the SICA Board”, I’d like to offer up a tasty sidebar: “Musings for the Subud Gastronomy” – or a gathering of recipes created by Subud cooks to align with specific cultural events.
Below each recipe title, we’ll endeavor to explain the event for which the amazing dish was prepared.

Gluten-Free Tabouli

This recipe was created by Joyce O’Halloran and offered as part of the feast honoring the Spring Celebration of Life for Leonard Dixon, just this past Sunday on June 1st. Joyce is an original-thinking, highly creative cook who took the time to set down the ingredients for this uplifting Spring salad that’s a meal in of itself.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa, red or tricolor
8 ounces haas avocado, diced
juice of 1 lime
1 ripe beefsteak or heirloom tomato, diced
1 cup diced cucumber
1/3 cup of mixed finely chopped fresh herbs, including any or all of cilantro, mint, parsley, basil
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

Dressing

1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt + pepper, to taste
Mix the dressing, add it to the other ingredients and mix everything together thoroughly

Ground Lamb and Broccoli

Yet another creative offering from Joyce O’Halloran, appropriate for any season or event.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice
1 1/2 cups broccoli flowerets, lightly steamed
1 medium diced onion
Optional: 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
6 diced garlic cloves
1 lb ground lamb

Dressing

Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp stevia
Mix the dressing and set it aside.

Lightly oil a 12″ fry pan and fry the diced onion on a low heat. When the onion is translucent, add the mushrooms and fry mushrooms and onions together on a low heat until the mushrooms are lightly browned. Add garlic and fry until garlic is lightly browned. Put the browned onions, mushrooms, and garlic into a bowl and set aside.
Cook the ground lamb, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until browned and cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes.  Drain the oil out of the pan.
Add the broccoli, onions, mushrooms, and garlic to the browned lamb chunks and mix over a medium heat. Turn up the heat to high and mix in the dressing, stirring for about 30 seconds. Serve over rice.

Jewish Passover Traditional Dishes for Vegetarians

The following dishes were offered at the yearly Spring Equinox-Passover-Easter Celebration at the Portland Subud gathering this past April. Since Jewish cooking generally includes a cup of schmaltz (carefully accumulated chicken fat renderings), what’s a poor vegetarian Jewish cook to do? Invent new wine for old bottles!

Charoset

The word refers to the “mortar” that went into the building of temples and pyramids in Egypt during the Jewish days of slavery in that land, but the dish has come to represent the sweetness and blessings of freedom that arise after emancipation. Fayra Teeters evolved this recipe to escape from the pasty mush consumed at all Passover ceremonies during her childhood.

Ingredients

4 oz of red wine, recommend non-alcoholic Fre, a California winery
OR 4 oz cranberry juice (for those with wine allergies)
1 red apple, cored and diced
1 cup raisins
1 cup dates
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tbs raw local honey

Throw it all into a blender and blend on the “chop” mode. To avoid having the mixture turn into pasty mush, only use half of all the ingredients while blending. Apply the wine a little at a time to keep the ingredients moving through the blender; then add the remaining ingredients in all their chunky glory into the blended base. This process definitely brings out the textures of the dried fruit mixed with the walnuts – a true feast for the mouth. Refrigerate overnight so the flavors can “season”. Serve during the ceremony with gluten-free matzoh.
Note: if guests have allergies to raw apples, simply boil the diced apples for 3 minutes before adding to the rest of the blended mix.

Mediterranean-styled Rice, Beans, and Veggie Tzimmes

This dish gets trotted out at all Subud gatherings that require a vegetarian entrée. “Tzimmes” is Yiddish for a haphazard mix of ingredients, also by extension, for a convoluted mess of a procedure – in other words, a camel-of-a-horse invented by a Subud Committee; Oi vey!

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice
1 cup red lentils
1/3 cup multi-colored quinoa
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
Broccoli florets
½ cup riced cauliflower
1/3 cup sliced black olives
1 green zucchini, sliced
½ cup petit peas
1 tbs Italian seasoning
1 tbs cummin
¼ cup lemon juice

Cook the brown rice, lentils and quinoa together in the same manner that you’d use to steam rice: over low heat in a covered pot, for 20 minutes. Add garbanzo beans (drained or undrained – your choice), lemon juice, and seasonings, stirring mightily over the same low heat. Then add the veggies and olives at the last minute so they stay al dente and don’t overcook, lose their color, and become mush. Remember, this dish has to travel to the Subud House to be reheated God-knows-how-many-times, before we finally get to eat! Although I leave out the oil in this recipe, if you want to add a splash of olive or avocado oil, be by guest; zay-gazunt!

Don’s Oil-Free Black Bean Tzimmes

After my husband Don survived a major heart attack and three surgeries, he became an advocate of the Esselstyn Diet: vegan, oil-and-fat-free, salt-free, lactose-free – you get the picture. I actually serve him this dish every single night we eat at home and bring it to Subud events that have a South-of-the-Border joie de vivre.

Ingredients

1 can drained, low-salt black beans
4 oz oil-free salsa
1 cup water
¼ cup red lentils
1 tbs garlic granules or powder
1 tbs turmeric
1 green onion, finely chopped
1 sliced or chopped mushroom
¼ green zucchini
½ cup broccoli florets
½ cup riced cauliflower

To remove every last vestige of salt, rinse the can of black beans with cold running water several times. If salt’s not an issue, fogettaboutit! Place black beans, salsa, red lentils, and seasonings in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, adding splashes of water as needed to keep ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Then add each of the veggies in the order they’re listed, stirring constantly with additional splashes of water as needed. Serve over rice of alongside mashed potatoes

Now it’s your turn, gentle reader – please send me any recipes you choose to share for dishes you bring to Subud events. Please email me via the SICA website email address, or look me up in the latest Subud Directory. I’d like to turn this into a once-a-month sharing entre nous . . .

Yours in SICA, Fayra Teeters