Christina Cooks: Back to the Cutting Board

at least about breakfast.

It truly sets the tone of your day.

Breakfast can slow your roll or get you in the groove to handle life's little adventures.

What's a true breakfast of champions?

I can assure you, it doesn't come in a box.

Let's start our day right as we go back to the cutting board today on Christina Cooks.

(upbeat music) (announcer) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties.

Sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Additional funding is also provided by Old Yankee Cutting Boards, designed for durability and custom crafted by hand with Yankee pride and craftsmanship.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also provided by: Hi, I'm Christina Pirello, and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh, seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Is it all plant-based?

Yep.

Is it all delicious?

Yep.

So, how many of you think you can skip breakfast?

Did you know that you can't?

You could be eating at 4: 00 in the afternoon, your first meal of the day could be a dirty martini.

You can't skip breakfast.

The first food you take or drink you take is breakfast.

So your mother was right, at least about this one.

People who start their day with a good breakfast, it really makes a difference in how they function, how they manage their weight, how they manage their blood sugars.

When you wake up in the morning, your blood sugar's a little low because you're "breaking the fast."

Hopefully, you've slept all night and not gotten up and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the middle of the night.

So you wake up feeling fresh and ready to take on the day.

So we're gonna make a traditionally untraditional breakfast starting with scrambled tofu instead of scrambled eggs.

Just as satisfying, really yummy, and strongly flavored.

This is some vegan butter that we're gonna melt, and we add to it some olive oil.

Now, you're probably wondering why both.

Because I want the pan to be hot so that my mushrooms brown, and I don't wanna burn the olive oil, so I use a little bit of vegan butter to give them a buttery flavor and to also help me to not burn the oil.

So the first thing that goes in are leeks.

I know there's a joke in there, but I'm gonna be good.

A pinch of salt.

And we kind of saut the leeks a little bit, and then we're gonna add a little bit of turmeric.

Now, turmeric is not only anti-inflammatory and great for your joints, but it's gonna help to turn white tofu yellow so that people who eat eggs are seeing something familiar.

You're probably never gonna convince an egg eater that they're eating eggs, but this is as close as we can get.

So, we're adding some turmeric, and the next thing to go in is mushrooms.

These are cremini mushrooms, but you can use whatever you want.

Do you wanna use, uh, shiitakes?

Do you wanna use button?

Doesn't matter.

Another pinch of salt.

Raise the heat, and now we'll saut these until the mushrooms take on a little bit of color.

You don't wanna saut mushrooms for too short a time or they just taste rubbery and watery.

So you wanna saut them until they start to take on a little bit of the turmeric and become shiny with oil.

Just for, like, I dunno, 20, 30 seconds.

Because they're gonna stay in here, but you don't want them to become too soft.

The next thing to go in is roasted pepper, roasted red pepper.

No matter how you use peppers in your cooking, whether you're gonna put them in a salad, whether you're gonna put them in a stir fry, you must roast and peel them first.

Peppers are inflammatory in that they are from the nightshade family and contain an alkaloid called solanine, which can aggravate your joints.

But if you roast them and peel them, you neutralize that alkaloid and they don't bother you, and they have a lovely smoky flavor.

So you win on all counts.

Next, we're gonna add some carrot that has been julienned.

Another pinch of salt.

This is what's called building depth of flavor.

Let's face it: Tofu doesn't taste like anything, and I mean anything.

So the more you can flavor your veg and add turmeric, maybe some hot spice, if you like it, the more likely you are that it's gonna be a delicious dish, you wanna build flavor in your pan.

Okay.

Now we're gonna take our tofu.

And you literally take your tofu and crumble it so that it takes on the texture of scrambled eggs.

You know... it's a really lovely dish.

Whether you are an egg eater or not an egg eater, this is a really nice breakfast dish, because while it's high in protein, it's plant protein, so it's easy to digest.

Okay.

So once that's all in... we go in and make sure there's enough turmeric.

And if there's not, we'll just add a touch more, because we want this to be a nice yellow.

And you want to have enough turmeric to actually get the benefit of the anti-inflammatory properties.

We're gonna add a touch more, I think.

You know, when I show you these recipes, you have to understand that I teach you how to do this the way I cook.

Little of this, little of that, sometimes I follow the recipe, sometimes I don't.

You know, it is what it is.

So now, while this kind of simmers-- tofu's a finished, cooked product.

We're basically just heating it through.

And you want the vegetables to have some texture, so don't go too crazy on cooking it for too long.

So now what we're gonna do is take baby bok choy, and I chose baby bok choy 'cause they're tender and small and sweet, and they cook really fast.

So we're just gonna tip the bottom stems off, because we want them to cook quickly, and cut them into thin ribbons.

(chopping) And we're gonna pop those right in.

A last season of salt, and stir just until the baby bok choy wilts.

Once it wilts, this is ready to serve.

This is so quick.

You could actually make a dish like this on a weekday morning when you have to get out to go to work.

You don't have to save this for the weekend when you're serving brunch.

This can be fast and easy, and because it's high protein and high fiber, this will keep you satisfied for a long time, so you won't be hitting the break room at 10:30 at your office.

So, we're gonna plate this up.

Really nice, colors are beautiful.

And when your food is appetizing and beautiful, people wanna eat it.

A little sprinkle of parsley... and you've got the beginnings of a breakfast of champions.

-Can a vegetable be a fruit?

-A fruit can be a vegetable.

What?

It can be both?

What happens if you swallow the seeds?

(unintelligible) -I don't get it.

-I am so confused.

So we get so many letters and emails to our office about things that people are confused about, so I thought, why don't we do a segment in this series all about helping people to get un-confused?

So today, I'm with Oliver Franklin, who sits on the board of trustees at the restaurant school at Walnut Hill College, and, um, you have some questions for me, -my friend.

-I do, I do!

-How are you?

-I'm fine, thank you so much.

-Nice to have you here.

-I've admired your show -for a long time.

-Thank you.

Glad to be on it.

But, I have now reached senior status.

(Christina) Wow.

Congratulations, man.

-Beats the alternative.

-It got there fast.

-It does, doesn't it?

-And, uh, I'm noticing that I'm getting up earlier, and sometimes, I get up, I have an early meeting, a couple of cups of coffee, which I need, and I'm out the door.

What can I do about that?

Well, the one thing you can't do is skip breakfast, ever.

So if you get up in the morning, leave with a couple cups of coffee, and don't eat anything till 1:00, you just had breakfast.

-Wow.

-So, the first food you eat of the day is breakfast, but here's the thing: If you get up in the morning and take nothing in, when you get up, first thing is, your blood sugar's a little bit low, which is why you feel like you need the coffee.

-You don't really need it.

-You're right; I do.

(Christina) I mean, you do, because it's caffeine and it's stimulating, but if you could instead get a slow cooker or do an overnight porridge like oats or even oatmeal and take it with you, and have it, like, later in the morning, you would find that you didn't need the coffee so much, and you'd be able to get through your day.

You have to have a little something when you get up, even if it's an apple with almond butter.

Something that kind of gets your blood sugar normalized.

But if you go with sweets, like pastries or crumb cake or whatever, that sets you up for a roller coaster -of blood sugar all day.

-Well, let me ask you about yogurt and berries, a little honey and stuff.

Well, the berries are fine, because they're very low in sugar.

Yogurt is dairy, so that's kind of not my thing, I don't think we need it.

But there are non-dairy yogurts which you could use.

You've just gotta read the labels and make sure there's not a billion grams of sugar in it.

-Right.

-Stir your berries in, have that with your coffee.

That's actually a good way to start your day, and then have some kind of a carbohydrate, whole-grain lunch as the lunch goes on, right.

I like the idea of doing oatmeal, because you could make a batch of it and just put it -in the refrigerator.

-You can, you can do overnight oats, it works perfectly for somebody who's in a hurry.

Yeah, 'cause I'm always in a hurry.

(Christina) There you go, I know you are.

-Thank you so much.

-You're welcome.

(Oliver) This has been very informative, and I can actually follow it.

All right, guys, try not to be so confused, and make better choices so that you end up on the up side of health and on the better side of history.

So, there are women who are blessed, and then there are women who are blessed.

I'm in the second category, because I not only have a husband who bakes bread, I have a husband who makes me breakfast every morning.

So I can make breakfast, but why?

So now we're gonna together show you how to make English muffins, because while I can do it, he's the bread master, so I'm gonna bring my husband Robert in to actually make the dough.

-Hi, honey!

-Hello, dear!

-How are you?

-I'm good.

-Okay.

-So.

Go ahead, you're up.

No, no, no, please-- make English muffins.

(Robert) So, at home, one thing we do every week is we make... -Bread.

-...bread.

We always have-- (Christina) Well, we don't.

-He does.

-So, at home, I keep a sourdough starter.

And sourdough starter's probably 20-some years old now, so that's what I generally do at home.

But what we're gonna show you today is a yeasted, one-rise English muffin recipe.

So--and it's yeasted, as I said.

So we're gonna start with a small bowl.

(Christina) I can't believe I'm assisting you.

Go ahead.

What do you need?

-I need a quarter-cup measure.

-Quarter-cup measure.

-Quarter cup, sir.

-I'm gonna take a quarter cup of warm water.

You don't want the water to be too hot, because if it's too hot, it's going to mess up your yeast.

So a quarter cup, quarter to a half, and to that, we're going to add a teaspoon-- thank you, dear-- a teaspoon of coconut sugar.

You can use honey.

Generally, I use coconut sugar.

And we're gonna dissolve that -in the water.

-Because it's vegan.

-Because, yes.

-Come on.

(Robert) We're going to dissolve that in the water, and then we're gonna take our yeast, one packet of yeast, and we're gonna just sprinkle that over top our water.

(Christina) What happens if the water's too hot?

(Robert) Water too hot, it's going to destroy the yeast.

(Christina) And if it's too cold, nothing will happen.

So it's gotta be just right, like Goldilocks.

-Exactly.

-Got it.

(Robert) And this is gonna sit for about five minutes.

In five minutes, you'll notice the yeast will begin to bubble and become active.

In the meantime... large mixing bowl, and we're gonna take three cups of flour.

(Christina) Wait--that's not a cup measure, hon, -that's a half cup.

-I'll use that, I can.

-Do like you do.

-Wow, okay.

-So there's one.

-That's one cup.

-Two cups.

-No, one and a half.

-Okay, two cups.

-That's two cups!

-And...two and a half.

-He's better at math than I am too, so, you know, I'm just saying.

-Three cups of flour.

-Three cups of flour, okay, cool.

(Robert) Three cups of flour.

To that, we're going to add-- -Teaspoon, please.

-Teaspoon, doctor.

(Robert) Two teaspoons of salt.

-Two teaspoons of salt.

-I thought you said one teaspoon.

(Robert) Two teaspoons, and whisk, please.

And whisk the salt into the flour, and you wanna whisk this a little bit to create some air.

(Christina) So you're trying to lighten the flour up a little, because we're using 100 percent whole wheat.

Okay.

Can people -mix their flours?

-Yes.

Sometimes, when making pizza, -which we make... -Don't get distracted.

-English muffins.

-We might use some semolina flour to make it crusty.

(Christina) But can they make-- like, if they use buckwheat flour, an English muffin's too heavy, right?

-Too heavy.

-Okay.

So you wanna use whole wheat, or a mix of whole wheat and white.

(Robert) Once your flour is mixed, we're gonna take one cup of the flour out, -okay?

-Why are we taking it out?

(Robert) Because we're gonna slowly add it once we have all our liquid in in order to create our-- -So just create a well.

-Sounds a little screwy to me.

(Robert) Create a well in the middle of your flour.

(Christina) Okay.

You could do it -with your fingers, the well?

-You can do--yeah, sure, you can do it with your fingers.

Create a well.

(Christina) How's our yeast doing?

I get very impatient.

How's our yeast doing?

(Robert) It's actually pretty good.

The water was a little bit warmer, so it actually is ready to go.

-Let's do it!

-Next, we're gonna take our yeast and we're going to add to it some olive oil.

So we're gonna do three tablespoons of olive oil.

-You can use avocado oil.

-I was gonna pour it for you, but, you know.

One...

It's always so exciting in our house when Robert makes bread, because he's so good at it, and I'm always so happy when I see him leave the kitchen with his forearms dusted with flour because he's making bread, it's like "yes."

(Robert) And then we are going to add one cup of... -...water.

-Water.

Water's down the end, babe.

(Robert) Cup measure, cup measure.

Or the half-cup measure will work.

(Christina) The half-cup measure-- you're using the cup!

Dude.

Killin' me.

How many you think I got?

All right, so do two of those.

(Robert) So we're gonna add a cup of water to our... (Christina) Oh, you add it to this, not this?

-Add it to this.

-Oh, 'cause this is all your liquid going in at one time.

Clever boy!

Here, I'll take-- you could put it down there.

He's a clever boy.

(Robert) Okay, then you're gonna give this a little mix.

(Christina) But you don't wanna, like, beat it up.

It's a simple little, just try to combine it, but it's oil and water, it's not gonna really mix, -right?

-Then you add this to the center of your well that you made.

(Christina) Now, do you use a spoon to pull it together?

(Robert) I prefer a fork, -but I don't see a fork.

-No, no, no, we do.

-Oh yes we do.

-Okay.

Then, using a fork... -What do you think, I'm new?

-You start--you begin to just, putting your fork in the center of your well, you start combining your flour.

(Christina) Oh, you're gradually pulling the flour in.

So, like, when our grandmothers used to do it on the board with pasta, they'd put the oil and the water in the middle and slowly pull flour in to make dough, got it.

-And then you-- -Got it--ohh!

-You can rotate... -He gets a little excited.

(laughing) Put it over there.

(Robert) Rotate the bowl while you bring the flour into your liquid.

(Christina) But it's all goopy now and wet.

(Robert) It's all goopy and wet, exactly.

(Christina) Okay.

And we like that.

-We like that.

-Okay.

(Robert) When all your flour is combined... (Christina) You wanna make sure all of the flour comes from the side of the bowl into the like ball of dough.

(Robert) Then we're gonna start to add a little bit of flour at a time.

(Christina) So what are you adding, like, a couple tablespoons at a time?

-Couple tablespoons.

-Okay.

But you don't have to measure it, you just kinda give it a sprinkle, okay.

Can I do it next, sprinkle it?

(Robert) Uh, um... -Wow!

-Then we're gonna take some of our flour and on the board.

(Christina) You're a big fat cheater now.

(Robert) And we love this ceramic Silpat, because... -It's silicone.

-It's silicone?

(Christina) Yeah.

Not ceramic.

Ceramic would be really hard.

(Robert) We like this silicone because it prevents things from sticking to it.

Then we're gonna -take our dough... -It also keeps your work area really neat, and when you're OCD neat like I am, -that's a big factor, so.

-Then we begin to knead.

(Christina) Now, how long do you have to knead it?

(Robert) You knead for about nine minutes.

If you were doing this in a stand mixer, then you would knead it for about five or six minutes.

What happens a lot of times when people make bread or pizza, what they tend to do is, they add too much flour because they feel it's sticking to their hands.

So what happens is, they'll start to add flour not realizing that... they're making their dough dryer.

All you've gotta do is, over the sink, never wet your hands, you just rub them together and you take all that off.

(Christina) But don't people also tend to knead too hard and break the threads of the gluten?

So if you push too hard, like, try to get an upper-body workout doing this, what happens is you actually break the threads of the gluten and your dough won't rise.

So you're gonna do this -for nine whole minutes.

-I'm gonna do this for nine minutes.

Our dough is kneaded for about nine minutes, and you wanna sort of-- I always use my hands, -it's like a scissor-- -Hon, can I do that part?

(Robert) Uh...no.

(chortles) We keep you away from the dough.

I know we do.

-You have an oiled bowl.

-A generously oiled bowl.

(Robert) A generously oiled bowl, and you're gonna take your ball of dough, put it in the oiled bowl, and what I like to do is just rotate it around a bit -so it's covered with oil.

-'Cause you want all the surfaces coated with oil, right?

(Robert) Surfaces covered with oil, exactly.

Then we're gonna cover it tightly with plastic wrap.

(Christina) Why does it have to be tight like that?

(Robert) Well, tight because what you wanna do, the tighter you can put the plastic wrap, what happens is, gases will form inside the bowl.

-And that forces the rise.

-And that forces the rise.

-How long will this rise now?

-This will rise for an hour and a half.

-Again, single rise.

-Single rise, this is a quickie.

(Robert) Hour and a half, you're ready to make pizza or you're ready to make English muffins.

(Christina) All right, so here we have, my darling, dough that's been... risen?

Is it risen?

Risen, rose, rised?

(Robert) Yeah.

All of the above.

So this is ready to make English muffins.

(Christina) So now it's kinda like deflated and wet.

(Robert) It's a little wet, so we're gonna pop it onto a lightly floured board.

(Christina) Does that happen often -that it... -Eh.

After an hour and a half, -it'll double in... -Kinda deflate itself?

And that doubled in size easily.

(Robert) Yeah, and now we're gonna just give that a little bit of a knead.

(Christina) Can I do that part?

No?

Wow!

Okay.

Should I get the pan ready for the English muffins?

No, no, no, stay put, I got it, I got it, I got it.

-I know this part.

-So this is ready.

-So now what we're gonna do-- -You want it on medium, right?

And you want a little olive oil, correct?

(Robert) We're gonna take a cast iron skillet, preferably a cast iron skillet, we're gonna put a generous little bit of olive oil, then we're gonna take our dough-- and when you cut dough, it's best to twist it.

And then you're gonna form it into-- -A disk.

-A disk... the shape of an English muffin.

We have to let that get a little hotter.

(Christina) But you don't want it on super, super -high high high.

-Medium.

(Christina) Medium, got it, got it.

I'm a really good cooking assistant, don't you guys think?

Come on.

Do you want me to brush this, or do you move it around with the dough -to get the oil?

-You can brush it a little.

(Christina) All right, cool.

Hand me the brush from over there so I don't go behind you and... -There you go, my dear.

-Yeah, okay.

-And we'll do... -This is hot, hon.

-It's, like, sizzling.

-And a lot times what I'll do is if I make extra dough, I'll put it back in the refrigerator, and then you can make dinner rolls with it, you can make, um... pizza with it.

(Christina) And so, when you put them in the hot pan, you kinda put 'em in-- and I usually take a measuring cup and kinda press them, 'cause English muffins have a flat surface on both sides, and you wanna keep 'em-- these are gonna be ginormous English muffins.

-These are big.

-These are gonna be for, like, I don't know.

And so, they cook-- -Best to be golf ball-sized.

-They take about three to four minutes a side.

And when we turn these, what you're gonna see is the brown center that you see on an English muffin, like a for-real English muffin.

So, stay tuned for that.

So I know we're having lots of fun today with English muffins and scrambled tofu, but really, right here, this is the breakfast of champions.

You wanna start your day in a way that's gentle on your system, because your blood sugar's a little bit low when you first wake up, so we usually start our day with a soft morning porridge.

Some whole grain, whether it's oats or brown rice or millet or quinoa, cooked really soft, the texture of oatmeal.

It's easy to digest, complex carbohydrates, gives you lots of fuel for the morning.

Then we'll usually have steamed or boiled greens, because they give you everything, including a feeling of just feeling fresh.

It's hard to describe.

You have to eat greens in the morning and you'll go, "Yep, they make me feel fresh."

And then, you may choose to have miso soup.

Miso soup kicks your metabolism into gear and gets you going for the day.

Some people like it in the morning, some people like it later in the day, but these three things together is really the breakfast of champions.

For breakfast, we usually have a porridge and a lovely vegetable stew like this, which is winter squash and daikon and onions, and it's nice and sweet.

And I know you're thinking, "ew, weird, having vegetables for breakfast," but if you've had hash browns, you've had vegetables for breakfast.

And this helps you to stay sustained for a really long time.

Oh my goodness, look at those English muffins, baby!

-Beautiful.

-They look like they came out of a package!

So there's our vegetable stew, and there's our English muffins.

Hon, thank you for showing us how you do this!

(Robert) You're welcome, my dear.

(Christina) And what are you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board, and I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks.

(announcer) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Additional funding is also provided by Old Yankee Cutting Boards, designed for durability and custom crafted by hand with Yankee pride and craftsmanship.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also provided by: You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at: And by following Christina on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

The companion cookbook, "Back to the Cutting Board," takes you on a journey to re-engage with the soul of cooking.

With more than 100 plant-based recipes, finding the joy in cooking has never been simpler.

To order your copy for $20 plus handling, call: Add Christina's iconic book, "Cooking the Whole Foods Way," with 500 delicious plant-based recipes.

To order both books for $39.95 plus handling, call: