Recipes

Your Burning Food Lover's Cleanse Questions, Answered

Sara Dickerman answered your Food Lover's Cleanse questions on things like quinoa, portion control, weight loss, and ingredient substitutions.
Image may contain Plant Food Produce Furniture Dining Table and Table

When you're deep in the Food Lover's Cleanse, it's important to know you have support. Especially when that support is coming from Sara Dickerman, the creator of the Cleanse herself. Yesterday, Sara ____posted up on our Facebook page for an hour to field all your Cleanse questions—because sometimes you can't just Google "how to adapt roasted vegetables so my kids will eat them." From portion control to quinoa to the recipe-testing process, you delved into topics that we wanted to share with readers who might have the same question. Check those out in the slideshow above.

But more than questions, Sara got praise for her work on the Food Lover's Cleanse. It was nice to see that many of you have greatly benefited from the program, and that's more rewarding than losing a pant size at the end of these two weeks of clean eating. So thank you, and happy cleansing!

See the full Food-Lover's Cleanse 2014 Plan
  • Image may contain Plant Food Produce Bowl Vegetable Lentil and Bean
    Kimberley Hasselbrink
    1/8

    On Condiments

    LAURIE WONG ROBERTS: "ALL the homemade condiments are wonderful. I'm a huge fan of the mustard dressing. That one is a keeper!"

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    2/8

    On Testing the Cleanse Recipes

    LISA HARBIN: "I was wondering if you could talk about your recipe testing process a bit?" Sara Dickerman: Every year I write the recipes and try them out at my house a couple of times before submitting them to the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen, where they are tested again and tweaked. And then, of course, I do the program along with you all, and try to report any observations or corrections that come up.

  • Image may contain Raisins Plant Animal Invertebrate and Insect
    3/8

    On Chopping Dates

    JIM BULLINGTON: "I had difficulty chopping the dates (sticky) I think in the future chilling them ahead of time may be the answer. Thoughts?" SD: "I like your freezing idea...it might work well. I like to have a pair of kitchen scissors around to cut up dried fruit—it seems to work better than knives. You could also see if a little oil on the blade of the knife might make things a bit easier."

  • Image may contain Plant Food Vegetable Produce Bean and Grain
    4/8

    On Weight Loss

    VANESSA TODEVSKI: "I am loving the cleanse. My question is regarding modifying slightly for more weight loss. I know that's not the goal but I would like to shave some calories to accomplish this. What or how do you suggest modifying?" SD: "So glad to hear you are adapting the program to your goals! As long as your energy is good, I'd try trimming some of the quantities on grains and condiments. I don't know the specifics of your situation, but you can also shoot for the lower end of our guidelines on meat portions. And if it helps you to use a food diary website or application to figure out your nutritional info, by all means, do!"

  • Image may contain Plant Food Produce Vegetable Lentil and Bean
    5/8

    On Rinsing Quinoa

    LEE ANN TILLEY: "Sara, I don't get the soaking and draining of quinoa, is that really necessary?" SD: "Great question, Lee Ann. Before it became super popular, quinoa wasn't rinsed in processing, leaving phytochemicals on the surface that could have a soapy taste. now, many quinoas (but not all) are rinsed beforehand, but we still recommend rinsing just to be sure. If you have a brand that tastes great to you without rinsing, feel free to skip that step. It's nice, because then you can effectively toast the quinoa before cooking if you'd like (doesn't work so well with wet grains!)"

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    6/8

    On Sunchokes

    ERIN TRUSKIER VALENZUELA: "Thanks for creating such a fun, delicious cleanse. I have a quick question re: sunchokes. I love them, but they cause my husband great GI distress, seemingly no matter how prepared. A quick google search revealed that this is a commonly known issue (hello, "fartchoke"!). My question: any way to prep and/or cook them to lessen this issue? " SD: "Oh dear. In general, since we're eating so much more fiber than many of us do regularly, we want to make sure to be consuming a good bit more water to help process it all...As to the gassiness with sunchokes in particular, I don't know if it's better if they're peeled first—quite possibly that might help. And you could try beano!"

  • Image may contain Plant Food Vegetable and Produce
    Kimberly Hasselbrink
    7/8

    On Reusing Recipes

    REBECCA ORTEGA: "Can you use the same recipe twice? For example, if we didn't care for one of the breakfasts, can we sub in another one from the cleanse?" SD: Absolutely, you should sub a breakfast that works better for you. We wanted to provide a range of flavors in the morning, but you should stick with what works. Just try to avoid repeating too much with the other meals in the day (especially with eggs)"

  • Image may contain Plant Food Produce Vegetable Bean and Lentil
    8/8

    On Portion Size

    KIMBERLY LAPINE: "Really enjoying everything so far. Wondering about portion sizes. This morning's breakfast seemed huge. Was there an error? What about the lentils/rice last night? Looking forward to the next week." SD: "You're right, this am was a little generous for me too—on the high side of1/4 to 1/2 cup grains for a portion (1/2 c to 1 1/2 c. cooked) per Marissa's guidelines.)"

Danielle Walsh is the assistant web editor at Bon Appétit, and has also written for New York Magazine's Grub Street. She loves Korean food, tacos, and whiskey, and is trying really, really hard to like sardines. ... Read More
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