Each month we will be featuring recipes from our students kitchens into yours! This month we invite you to join Lucas Dauer, a marketing major at CSUN as he shares his favorite meals that are easy and fun to make at home. Bonus: they taste delicious!
As a child, Lucas enjoyed an eclectic mix of cuisines, including chicken dishes, saffron rice, curry turkey, Israeli salad, kabob, and lentil soup. He also had popular Jewish foods in his diet, including matzo ball soup, hamentashen, and latkes. His favorite meal growing up is chicken tenders from a restaurant with a side of hummus and steamed broccoli with garlic.
Lucas first learned to cook from his dad, who was classically trained in culinary school in New York! He taught him the basics and Lucas also teaches himself cooking skills. Lucas was around 17 years old when he prepared his first meal, BBQ wings for friends at a party! It was a simple meal made with bottled BBQ sauce, a small, but delicious, step to start off his cooking journey! He cannot choose the best chef in his family because his mother and father cook equally as well. The chinese fried rice from his dad and the schnitzel from his mom are some of the best dishes they provide. Lucas also likes to have soug, a spicy green sauce that feels hot on your tongue!
Lucas believes that there is time for meal preparation because there is always at least one or two free hours in the day or night. Meal preparation is worth it because it helps with scheduling and ensuring your meals are prepared for the coming days, so you never have to worry about what to eat!
Simple Israeli Salad Recipe
Prep Time: 30-40 minutes
This simple Israeli salad recipe reminds Lucas of Tel Aviv and relaxing days on the beach! In his words, the Israeli salad ”tastes like how a garden looks, a nice manicured one!” Lucas has grown up with this salad recipe. The salad is universal because everyone eats it, not only Israelis!
Ingredients
2 Persian Cucumbers
Half red onion
2 Roma tomatoes or cherries
One bunch Italian Parsley finely chopped
Drizzle Olive Oil (to taste)
Lemon Juice
Black pepper to taste, a dash of salt
All finely chopped
Enjoy!
(Photo credit: eatingbirdfood.com)
Fried Egg Breakfast Toast
Ingredients
For sauce:
2 tablespoons of Labneh, mix until its smooth
1 to 1.5 teaspoons of each spice: Sumac, Salt (to taste), Smoked paprika, pepper (to taste), and chili flakes (or cumin, red pepper flakes),
Ezekial or Whole wheat bread
Spinach
Instructions
Fry two eggs in Olive or Avocado Oil (soft or medium)
Lightly salt the eggs
Spread labneh mix on toast
Add in a layer of spinach to each toast
Add on eggs
Nutritional Yeast seasoned Kale (or Spinach)
These nutritional yeast seasoned kale reminds Lucas of Tik Tok and his friend, Kat! The kale is a delicious and healthy alternative to potato chips or can accompany a salad on the side! This is a modern recipe that has been in Lucas’s kitchen for the past two years, same as the egg toast.
(Photo credit: theaprilblake.com)
Instructions
Get a saucepan and add a little olive oil, place on medium heat
Add two tablespoons of minced garlic
Get one bag of Kale and place in saucepan
Pour in two tablespoons of water to saucepan to allow kale to steam
Steam for 7-10 minutes on low heat
Sprinkle on Nutritional yeast until it lightly covers the kale and mix