Ruth Goldstein
I write opinion pieces for the Baltimore Sun, personal essays, and plant-based food stories that connect me to my roots.
Recent Posts
Wacky Cake
Serves 8-10, or 10-12 as a layer cake Wacky Cake, with its host of pseudonyms—Cockeyed Cake, Crazy Cake, Three-Hole Cake, War Cake—is an invention of the 1940s, when war rationing limited the use of butter, eggs and milk. That’s a good thing for today’s...
Meatloaf Logic
Serves 4 After more than a quarter century of experimentation, I’ve finally cracked the code to making the juiciest, tastiest, most cohesive meatloaf I have ever experienced since becoming vegetarian more than fifty years ago. Two modifications took my plant-based...
Veggie Pot Roast
Serves 8 I hacked this from an existing (wildly popular) vegan ribs recipe because my brother is a newly diagnosed diabetic and I wanted to cut down on the carbs from barbecue sauce or breadcrumbs in a traditional meatloaf. I also wanted to create an experience...
Cashew Yogurt
Makes 1 quart, 4 1-cup servings I started making my own yogurt more than fifty years ago when I joined my first whole foods co-op as a college student in Pittsburgh, met my first vegetarian and macrobiotic foodies, and tasted yogurt for the first time. From that point...
The sleeper spy they forgot to wake up
By RUTH GOLDSTEIN FOR THE BALTIMORE SUN |NOV 18, 2019 I think I might be a sleeper spy someone forgot to wake up. By Fox News standards, I’m basically a Dreamer: My parents came from Canada and my grandparents (all four) emigrated from Ukraine when it was still part...
Finding a silver lining in a pandemic | COMMENTARY
By RUTH GOLDSTEIN FOR THE BALTIMORE SUN |OCT 23, 2020 In a conventional war, if you know where the enemy is you know where to take a stand. Famous front lines have even gone down in history — Gettysburg, Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge. This war against the...
Terminally ill people should have the right to choose when they die | COMMENTARY
By RUTH GOLDSTEIN FOR THE BALTIMORE SUN |JAN 22, 2020 While there is universal agreement among members of a free society that everyone deserves a dignified life, the right to a dignified death is not yet guaranteed for every Maryland citizen. That might be...
TLT: Tempeh, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich
The BLT has always had a natural affinity for summer. For twelve short weeks, when the local tomato harvest is flooding farmers markets and home gardens are overflowing, this savory, juicy, crunchy trifecta rules. Unless of course, you don’t eat bacon. Although you...
Moroccan Tagine Stew
Serves 4-6 Since tagine is both a dish that you eat and the vessel it is cooked in, the term itself can be confusing right from the start. The traditional vessel is a Moroccan clay pot that looks like a conical pointy hat, allowing accumulated steam to help cook the...
Soy Curls Chikn Salad
2 generous cups As a soy curls novice, I am still learning their ways and wiles, but even after just a few forays I can see the wisdom of sorting for size for different applications. Seeing as how one 8-oz. package yields about 4 oz. of strips and 4. oz. of small...
Variation on a Tollhouse Cookie
Makes 18-20 2-inch cookies If you’re from Baltimore (Bawlmer, hon), you know about the lore (and lure) of Otterbein Cookies, those thin crispy discs of baking perfection that are right up there with Old Bay seasoning in the Charm City foodie pantheon. These Otterbein...
Ultimate Ice Cream
Servings: 6 (makes 3 cups) A year ago I got infected with the homemade ice cream bug (a figure of speech that has taken on a whole new meaning) and bought an inexpensive ice cream maker. That’s when I discovered just how challenging it is to make a creamy...
Shortcut Vegetable Curry
Serves 3-4 This summer curry was inspired by kitchen strays wilting on my counter and a cup of coconut milk leftover from a batch of ice cream—none of which should go to waste at any time, but...
No-Knead Bread Redux
Makes one 1 ½ pound loaf I decided to become a bread baker during the pandemic. I craved a crusty artisan loaf with a bit of “tooth," but since the bakery shelves were bare and even sliced white bread was in short supply, I quickly realized if I wanted toast with my...
Rice Noodles with Tempeh Crumbles and Peanut sauce
3 Servings The easiest way to organize this dish is to think of it in three parts—sauce, topping, noodles— that can be prepared separately and assembled at will. Even though there are a lot of moving parts, since each component can be made in advance it is still very...
Tempeh Crumbles with Indonesian Pan Sauce
Serves 3 The beauty of these crumbles is their irregular shape, which char and crisp in the hot oil for a more rustic appearance and texture than their more refined sliced or cubed cousins. Use them to top a salad, stirfry, or sweet potato, or in their namesake dish,...
Crispy Sweet & Spicy Tofu (or tempeh)
Serves 2-3 Cooking in the age of Corona can be challenging, even maddening, but also strangely satisfying and creative by turns. Especially at a time when many people have not left their houses in over a month and are outsourcing their grocery list to a heroic...
Finding my way at the Waverly farmers market
The Waverly farmers market pops up like a mushroom once a week in a parking lot across the street from the library, evaporates at the stroke of noon and appears again seven days later, 52 weeks a year. It is part of my usual Saturday morning ritual. On this...
Sweet-and-Sauer Kraut with Tomatoes
I’m not sure why I reserve this delectable side dish for just one day a year—it’s easy enough to make any time and good enough to grace any menu, especially during the cold months when canned and preserved foods play an outsized role. Flecked with cooked-down, diced...
Maple Tarragon Sweet Potatoes
I feel personally obligated to make sweet potatoes every time our family gathers for a major holiday in the fall and winter. When Ed’s Aunt Blanche, with her Phyllis Diller hair-do and signature purple sweat suit, used to dominate our table-talk with her raucous jokes...