I love this time of year! The days are long and filled with sunshine. After a rough winter, this month has been entirely rejuvenating. Today, I’m bringing you a refreshing dinner recipe from Phoebe Lapine’s new book, The Wellness Project. It’s an ideal option for warm summer evenings. This dish starts with soba noodles, which are tossed with zucchini noodles (“zoodles,” if you will) and a delicious, savory almond butter sauce. I wouldn’t have thought to top this concoction with quick-pickled cucumber and radish, but they’re perfect—crisp, colorful and tart.
You may know Phoebe from her blog, Feed Me Phoebe. In her new book, she walks us through her year-long experiment to regain her health, from drinking more water and less alcohol, to gut health and physical therapy. Each chapter concludes with actionable tips based on her experiences. Phoebe has Hashimoto’s, a thyroid disorder, but the book is entirely relatable to anyone who has struggled with chronic health issues or is craving a voice of reason in the wellness sphere. The book is an easy and informative read, and I love Phoebe’s frank, conversational writing style. She shares her encounters with crazy naturopaths and her switch to natural skincare products, but my favorite part was when she writes about the benefits of dog ownership. Dogs are, no surprise, excellent “rewilding” agents. Meaning that all the dirt and “environmental detritus” they bring inside actually “increase the immunity of their families by maximizing their exposure to all matters of microbial diversity. In fact, children who grow up with furry friends have far fewer instances of allergies and asthma than their dog-less peers.” That, my friends, is reason no. 45 for why everyone needs a dog.
Make it vegan: Substitute maple syrup for the honey. Make it gluten free: Use gluten-free 100% buckwheat soba noodles (Phoebe recommends King Soba) and gluten-free tamari instead of regular soy sauce. Make it paleo: Phoebe suggests omitting the soba noodles and doubling the amount of zucchini noodles. If you don’t have a spiralizer: You can also turn zucchini into “noodles” with a julienne peeler (they just won’t be as curly and voluminous) or with a regular peeler, to make zucchini “ribbons.” Or, double the amount of soba noodles and skip the zucchini altogether. Here’s my favorite spiralizer, designed by Ali of Inspiralized.
