In my Inbox:

Michael just sent us this.

-JAY

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August 3rd – Veggie Burger Bonanza. Do you relish the thought of learning how to make your own veggie burgers? Join Chef Michael Kiss in this fun and informative class on how to put the flavor back in the bun. No moo, No cluck, and definitely no duck, just wholesome plant oriented burgers that are way better than anything from a frozen box. Vegetarian class.

August 10th -  29 ½ Minute Meals. It’s a busy life folks, and sometimes we feel hopeless to maintain a healthy lifestyle for us and our families. If you can find 29 ½ minutes Chef Michael Kiss will show you how you can eat healthy and delicious food that most importantly is fast to prepare. This week’s dinner in a flash; Peanut Tamari Tofu wraps with Thai hummus. Stop for a moment and chew! Vegetarian class.

August 17th **NEW SERIES** Hungry for Knowledge. In this new series, each month, Chef Michael Kiss will review and discuss one of the many dietary lifestyle books we have here at Whole Foods Market. In this non-bias exploration of all things food we will cook some of the recipes from the book as well as offer a 5% discount off the purchase price of the book of the evening. Our first book we will explore is “The Engine 2 Diet” by Rip Esselstyn. Rip is an Austin TX, firefighter that has developed a plant strong approach to healthy lifestyle. Vegetarian class.

August 24th – Melons 101. Summer isn’t summer without a big ol’ wedge of watermelon, the juice dribbling down your chin and the fun spitting the seed further than your friends. In this informative class Chef Michael Kiss will show you the right way to pick the best of the season but we will also prepare a few dishes that might surprise you when you taste them. Sweet and savory dishes that all include melon in the ingredient list; this will definitely be a class with a rind. Ur,um… I mean appeal.

August 31st – How to cook like a chef-Gazpacho Mania. This summer one of the hottest trends in cooling down is gazpacho. There are so many variation and new ones being invented by talented chefs every day. Join Chef Michael Kiss as we investigate what makes a classic gazpacho as well as learning how to get funky with nuvou gazpacho variations. Get excited for the flavor flamenco dance on your tongue. O’le! Vegetarian class.

Classes begin at 7:00 PM. All Whole Foods Market Cooking Classes are free of charge. seating is limited to first come, no registration required. veggie burgers ready to go in the oven! I feeling healthy today!

This is one of those dishes that just crept up on me – building from a variety of ideas drifting through my head all day, looking for purchase.  I’d had the sprouts for a while, and they needed eating.  I’ve been roasting the sprouts with garlic, to lovely effect, but knew even when I bought these that this time, I wanted something different.

Watching Bourdain scarf down a gorgeous-looking soy green soup with chili sauce in Shanghai, I wanted chili sauce.

Here’s what I did:

Clean and halve the sprouts.  Toss them in a pan with about 1.5 tablespoons mirin, over medium heat, and cover.  Leave them to caramelize, stirring every 5 minutes, until they’re almost done.  Now toss in your garlic.

While cooking, add about 3 teaspoons of chili sauce and equal volume cream to a glass or small mixing bowl and stir like hell to emulsify.  Add fish sauce if you’re so inclined (I did).

Turn up the heat on your pan to medium-high (maybe a bit more) and stir in the sauce – it’ll scald fast, and that’s good.  Let it cook till it’s just a sticky coating on the sprouts, and they are just barely done.  Transfer to a serving vessel, and cover.  Now, deglaze your pan with rice wine, letting it reduce about 3/4 to a nice rich sauce.  Pour that over your sprouts.

I ate mine over scrambled egg whites, because I felt like it.  The eggs sopped up the extra sauce, which was lovely, and also made me feel better about all that cream, by not having yolks.

– MAW

(Photo by Johnsu)