STORY BY CHRISTINE RICHMOND ✷ PHOTOGRAPHS BY JONAS JUNGBLUT ✷ STYLING BY BIANCA ROE
“I never planned on being in a kitchen,” says Anna Getty, but that’s usually where you’ll find her. The healthy-living advocate and mother of four loves tinkering with ingredients like monk fruit sweetener and cassava flour to create gluten-free, plant-based versions of classic dishes such as banana bread and gnocchi. Once she perfects a recipe, she shares it on her new website Amalgam Kitchen (amalgamkitchen.com), which she hopes will be a destination for “low-sugar, high-nutrition, immune-boosting, inflammation-reducing, high-vibration, simple, delicious, animal- and earth-loving foods for everyone.”
Anna got her start in the food world decades ago. In her 20s, she was an aspiring actress in Los Angeles doing catering gigs on the side. Then she worked for Akasha Richmond for several years, back when the restaurateur was a private chef for celebs like Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand. It was Akasha who first introduced Anna to the concept of organic and locally sourced food. “Ingredients were so important to Akasha,” Anna recalls. “She cared about every spice.”
Anna also connected with a local Kundalini yoga group and trained to be a teacher. “I grew up with my mom meditating at the foot of my bed, so finding that community was, in a way, coming home,” she says. In 2003 she got married and, not long after, she was pregnant with her first child. She put her acting career aside and threw herself into motherhood, creating pre- and post-natal yoga DVDs, cooking meals for new moms, and founding Pregnancy Awareness Month with the goal of helping people have healthier, more informed pregnancies. In 2010, she wrote Anna Getty’s Easy Green Organic, a cookbook with more than 100 simple yet sustainable recipes.
At this point you may be thinking: Getty? As in the wealthy oil family? Yes: Anna’s father was John Paul Getty III, whose stranger-than-fiction story has been the subject of books, movies, and TV shows. But despite being part of such a prominent family, Anna says her childhood was pretty normal. “I have cousins who grew up flying on private planes, but I didn’t,” she says.
Her parents separated when she was young, and her mother raised her and her brother (actor Balthazar Getty) in a Buddhist community in San Francisco. “She drove a Honda. We got hand-me-downs from friends,” Anna says. “I’ve worked my whole life. I was babysitting, washing cars.”
Still, if you grow up with the last name Getty, you’re going to have some stories. “There were definitely fun crazy things. I went to Helena’s nightclub when I was 11 or 12 with my aunt, and Madonna was dancing with me,” she says, referring to the private L.A. supper club where A-listers partied hard in the ‘80s. “Timothy Leary babysat us at his house.” So did a teenage Sean Penn.
These days, Anna says, “my life is pretty simple, and I like it that way.” She lives full-time in the peaceful, picturesque small city of Ojai, California. When she was still in Los Angeles and divorcing her first husband, she cleared her head by escaping to Ojai on the weekends. Later, it became a sanctuary for Anna and her second husband, Scott Oster, who she married in 2015. The couple has two sons, ages 6 and 3, and Anna also has two children from her first marriage: A 16-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son.
Anna has a two-acre organic farm on her property, and she often cooks based on what’s ripe that day. But the biggest influences on her cooking are the health problems that have cropped up in recent years. “I have a thyroid issue and a gluten sensitivity. And I’ve tested really close to pre-diabetes several times in the past few years,” she explains.
Anna believes in the power of food as medicine and says she’s “definitely tried everything under the sun,” including the raw food diet, going vegan, the ketogenic diet, and the blood-type diet. “That’s how Amalgam came to be: You really have to get to know your body and its needs and limitations and create what’s right for you. There’s no one way to eat.”
In her case, Anna learned that cutting out lectins (a protein found in foods like beans, whole grains, tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants) eased the joint pain she had been enduring for months. She’s prone to anemia, so she feels her best when she incorporates some grass-fed meats and eggs. And she generally avoids sugar and gluten, but she’s not strict about any of it. “When I go to Europe,” she says, “I’m eating the croissants and drinking the wine, I’m eating everything. I’ll have a slice of eggplant parm if it’s in front of me, a great pasta with a beautiful tomato sauce. I get back and my doctor says, What did you do?”
Her eating philosophy stems from the fact that she’s always had an appreciation for good food. “I grew up going to Italy, having delicious pasta, bread with big slabs of mozzarella cheese and basil and olive oil. I loved all that,” she says. She also has fond memories of a family friend who would invite her to extravagant meals back when she was a struggling actress. “So, when I cook at home, I try to make things taste as delicious as possible,” she says.
Anna also likes food to look appetizingly beautiful, which is evident in the lush, colorful photos she posts on her website and Instagram page. “My living room has kind of turned into a lighting studio,” she laughs, and she frequently garnishes her plates with fresh flowers, herbs, and seeds.
Here, she shares three recipes that perfectly capture the Amalgam Kitchen approach: They’re gorgeous to look at, packed with vibrant flavor, and nourishing to eat.
“I grew up with my mom meditating at the foot of my bed, so finding that community was, in a way, coming home.”
Breakfast Millet with Cardamom Rose Water Roasted Plums
Serves 3-4
This dish is based on one of my favorite breakfasts as a kid, Cream of Wheat, which I would top with lots of butter and strawberry jam. My version is made with millet, an ancient grain that’s high in fiber, calcium, protein, amino acids, minerals, and antioxidants. Add any toppings you like, such as yogurt, chopped nuts, shredded coconut, seeds, or maple syrup.
Gather
6-8 small purple plums
3 cardamom pods, cracked open
1 cinnamon stick
3 whole star of anise
2 tablespoons coconut sugar
1 tablespoon monk
fruit sweetener
Salt
3 teaspoons avocado or olive oil
½ cup millet
1 cup water
1 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon rose water
To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Cut plums in half and remove the stone. Then, cut each half into four vertical slices. Place the plum slices into a medium baking dish and top with the cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, star of anise, coconut sugar, monk fruit, and a pinch of salt. Give the ingredients a quick stir, then drizzle with the oil. Roast on the middle rack for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, mill the millet to a semi-fine powder in a clean coffee grinder, high-speed blender, or grain mill.
4. Toast the millet in a small saucepan over medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until it starts to brown.
5. Reduce the heat to low, stir in the water and coconut milk, and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally so the bottom doesn’t burn.
6. When it reaches desired consistency, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Ladle into bowls.
7. Allow the plums to cool for 3-4 minutes, then sprinkle with rose water. Remove the spices (they look pretty, so you can leave them in, but they’ll be too crunchy to eat) and mound a copious spoonful onto each bowl of millet.
Roasted Radishes with Turmeric Tahini
Serves 4
The great thing about radishes is you can get them year-round in most places in the country. The yellow color of turmeric tahini adds a pop of color and a bright savory flavor.
TURMERIC TAHINI
Gather
¼ cup tahini
1 garlic clove, minced
1 lemon, juiced
¼ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
½ teaspoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil
To Make
Place first 8 ingredients in the bowl of a small food processor or into a blender and blend for 1 to 2 minutes. Keep the motor running and slowly add olive oil until blended. Adjust salt to taste. Transfer to a bowl and place in fridge while radishes are in the oven.
ROASTED RADISHES
Gather
2 large bunches radishes of your choice, leaves and tiny tail removed and washed
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 teaspoons fresh thyme, minced plus 4-5 twigs of thyme
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Juice of ½ lemon
To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Cut the radishes in half and place them into a medium bowl. Add the olive oil, minced thyme, salt and pepper and mix well. Transfer to a medium baking dish. Place the fresh thyme twigs around the dish.
3. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes, stirring once at the halfway point.
4. Remove the radishes from the oven and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the radishes and adjust the salt and pepper. Drizzle the turmeric tahini over the radishes, keeping the remaining tahini on the side in case you want more.
Sweet Potato and Garlicky Kale Tacos with Chipotle Crema
Makes 8-10 tacos
These tacos aren’t spicy, but they’re full of cumin and garlic goodness. The dairy-free chipotle crema adds a little heat but also some citrus zing from the lime and lime zest. I like to top these tacos with sliced avocados, pickled red onions (the recipe can be found at amalgamkitchen.com), and freshly chopped cilantro.
FOR THE CHIPOTLE CREMA
Gather
½ cup Vegenaise or plant-based mayonnaise
½ cup plain almond yogurt
1 lime, juiced
2 teaspoons lime zest
½ teaspoon chipotle powder
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Salt to taste
To Make
Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
FOR THE SWEET POTATOES
Gather
3 medium sweet potatoes (garnet yams), peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground paprika
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste
5 tablespoons avocado oil
To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, toss the sweet potato with the cumin, cinnamon, paprika, granulated garlic, salt, pepper and oil. Mix well. Transfer to a large baking sheet.
3. Bake on the middle rack for 35 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are brown and fork tender. While the sweet potatoes are in the oven, cook the kale.
FOR THE KALE
Gather
2 tablespoons avocado oil
5-6 large Lacinato kale leaves, removed from the stem and finely chopped
Salt to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ lime
4 tablespoons cilantro, roughly chopped
Tortillas of your choice (I use cassava tortillas made by Siete, but corn or flour tortillas are of course fine)
To Make
1. In a medium pan over medium heat, add the oil and then the kale and salt and cook for 7 to 9 minutes until wilted, stirring frequently. Stir in the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Squeeze the lime over the kale and stir. When the potatoes are done, place the sheet pan over a burner on your cooktop on low heat. Add the kale to the sweet potatoes and stir until everything is well combined. Stir in the cilantro and turn off the heat.
3. Assemble the tacos and place a dollop of chipotle crema on top of each.
