Spaghetti Squash Puttanesca

This was seriously so delicious, and so easy!  When I served myself I put a handful of fresh arugula in the bottom of the bowl first.  It was noted at the table that I was eating vegetables upon vegetables, topped with vegetables.  True!

Don't be daunted by this large gourd.  I just poke a few holes in it with a fork, then bake it whole at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or more if it's a big'un.  The skin will be stiff, but you'll be able to feel that the inside is soft.  That's when you pull it out of the oven.  You can do this ahead of time and leave it out on the counter because it'll hold the heat for a long time.  Cooking it first makes it so much easier to slice.  I've never been a fan of trying to put a large blade into a raw, rock hard roly poly object.  Cooking it first is the way to go.  Then it stays put on your chopping block and slicing it is a breeze and you just scoop out the seeds and create noodles with a fork -- couldn't be easier.  The "noodles" are so flavorful, there's no need for butter unless you want it.

While the roasting happened, I made a quick puttanesca with an onion, several garlic cloves, a few sliced mushrooms and some sliced mixed olives sauteed in coconut oil.  I finished the sauce with a few tablespoons of prepared arrabiata sauce (spicy marinara in a jar).  Once off the heat, I added a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.  I no longer cook with olive oil since the heat converts the delicate tocopherols to a more damaging fat, which matters to those of us with autoimmune issues.  Drizzling it on top at the end works better for me and maintains the fruity, virgin flavor. 

This easy, restaurant-quality meal will be on regular rotation here.

Odds-n-Ends, Food I've Been Eating

In my typically random "odds-n-ends" fashion, here's a bit of what I've been enjoying. Above is carrot, daikon and winter squash (I know, it's out of season!) from Christina Pirello's This Crazy Vegan Life. This stew is actually very bright in flavor, like sunshine. It is finished with fresh lemon juice and Italian parsley. It's light, yet sustaining, good hot or cold.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts, before . . .

 . . . and after. Olive oil, salt, pepper and a tangle of fresh thyme and oregano from my herb patch (Buster hasn't yet figured how to climb into that pot, which is up off the ground, so the herbs are living the good life, unmolested!) I loved the crunchy brown parts on these sprouts. The bowl is one of the few surviving pieces I have left from my grandma Eula's everyday collection. The blue-and-white inspired me to fill in with more of the same color scheme for my own everyday. I also have her full set of fine china, but we rarely use it since we are such a rough and tumble bunch.

Collard greens sauteed with a bit of red onion, chick peas and GOBS of garlic (at least 10 cloves!) I encourage all you vegans out there to try going overboard with garlic. You'll love it! This was a full meal on its own, and I munched it for days.

Here's a shot of the above two featured dishes, along with a baked sweet potato. We've recently added a roof to our patio, which allowed me to move some furniture around and unclutter the screened porch. I've set up a small dining table out there. This was our first alfresco meal. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. I had to save a lot of this plateful, but none of it got wasted.

Homemade miso soup with daikon, onion, cabbage and tofu. This was a big batch, and I enjoyed the leftovers for several breakfasts. Having miso soup in the morning sets the tone for the day. The soup imparts a grounded, centered energy. If you ever find yourself with leftover miso soup, remember not to bring it to a boil when reheating it. Boiling kills the beneficial enzymes.

Here's a plateful of polenta with broccoli rabe, roasted peppers, onion and garlic. I LOVE broccoli rabe, also known as broccoli rape (!) and rapini. The checkout clerk tried to charge me for broccolini, another veggie which is actually a genetically modified hybrid. Broccoli rabe is more bitter than broccolini. Personally, I prefer the bitter note of this delicious vegetable. It tastes as if I've gleaned it from a meadow in Tuscany. Not only is broccolini of a less pure origin than broccoli rabe, it is also more expensive! I enjoyed the polenta for the corn that it is, but the omnivores found it to be bland to their sugar-addled taste buds.

This says summer to me -- just a homegrown tomato, veganaise, salt and pepper on good, crusty bread. This will likely be the last tomato sandwich from my garden this year. Buster easily climbs the thick stems of the heirloom vines now, and he takes the tomatoes before they have a chance to ripen. At least I still get all the grape tomatoes I want. those stems are too flimsy to hold buster's weight. I'll be buying the occasional heirloom tomato at $4.99/lb. so that I can continue to savor this late summer treat.

Stay tuned for a feature on Buster's least favorite vegetable -- the aubergine (eggplant). Aubergine is a lot more fun to say than eggplant, porridge is better than oatmeal, and polenta is better than cornmeal mush. Do you have a favorite gastronomical delight that can be elevated with loftier nomenclature? If you do, play along and share. I love expanding my vocabulary!

Comfort Food

 Golly, looking at this photo again, I'm drooling. I am so sorry the leftovers are all gone! Branching out and getting into my "vegan freaky" foods I am drawn to lately, I picked up some brown rice pasta. I hadn't tried it previously because, pre-vegan, I used to love Eziekiel bread but did not care for the Eziekiel pasta. I assumed any non-wheat pasta would be a disappointment. How wrong I was! I don't know if it's because my tastes have changed so much or that I just happen to love brown rice pasta, but I like this so much that I am actually inspired to give the Eziekiel pasta another go to find out.

I love the texture of the rice fusilli. If you try it, don't skip the cold-water rinse. It makes this pasta springy and tender. Interestingly, the cold leftovers from the fridge were inedible to me as the springiness had turned into hard waxiness, but as soon as I warmed it up again I was relieved to find it resumed the desired tenderness.

Assembling cheezy rice fusilli before baking

After preparing this pasta I stirred in about 4 tablespoons of my cashew cheez sauce, a sprig of tarragon and a handful of grape tomatoes, sliced thinly. I then baked it all for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Mmmmm.

To me comfort food is necessarily warm, especially in winter, and needs a little something starchy or at least substantial. Here are a couple more comfort food meals I put together:

This is a potato gratin that started out being a way to use up my cashew sauce. Not that I will be eager to see it go, but I just don't want it to go to waste. Baked, the sauce turned out strange on top, but soft and cheezy between the layers. I actually liked the strange crispy-cheez topping, but would not likely serve it to omnivores. I am always careful not to give them fodder for any ridicule of vegans.

To make this gratin, I sliced a large russet potato very thinly along with a large shallot. I layered the dish thus: one-slice thickness of potato, shallot, a grind of pepper and a couple of spoonfuls of sauce. I repeated until all ingredients were used. The sauce was salty enough that I did not feel the need to add more salt. I baked the dish at 375 for half an hour.

The next dish I want to feature as a comfort food is nothing new, you have seen it on this blog in various guises many times before, but it does comfort me so here it is:

Greens-n-Beans:  A can of canellini beans, rinsed very well and added to a panful of collard leaves and shallot slices that were cooked in olive oil on medium-high heat. The key is to use the highest heat you can without burning and stir, stir stir. It only takes about 3-4 minutes. My favorite part is the little bits that form from the few beans that fall apart and get crispy in the oil. I scrape it all up with wooden spoons. Not a speck gets wasted as I (privately after dinner as I'm loading the dishwasher) sit down and scrape it all out with spoons, fingers, whatever necessary in a bit of a feeding frenzy. Ahhh!

It seems the body is in diversification mode lately, craving a wide variety of plant foods. It seems to me, as in any investment, diversification is good! Invest in your own good health -- keep feeding your body and soul what is luscious and pure -- you're worth it!

Chick Peas Romesco!

I made this wonderful dish a couple of evenings ago. I served it as a main entree the first night and as a side dish after that. I ate it again last night as my entree, on a bed of barley cooked in organic veggie broth, with a salad of red and green butter lettuces, my homegrown heirloom tomatoes and homegrown basil. I am not getting tired of eating Chick Peas Romesco, and will miss it after I finish it off for lunch today.  This delicious recipe is from the vegan bible Veganomicon, by  Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Everything I have made from this book has been wonderful and I highly recommend it.

As is my custom, I followed this recipe loosely, avoiding a trip to the store for only a few ingredients. In this case I only had one red bell pepper, and one can of chickpeas, so I added a can of cannelini beans. I did not have a serrano chili, so I used a generous shake of red pepper flakes. I didn't have red wine vinegar so I used Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar. I used fresh rosemary and thyme, and more of these than is called for, since the dried herbs can be a stronger flavor. And finally, adding sugar if I don't have to makes me start to twitch, so I poured in a couple of tablespoons of sherry instead for sweetness. I love how sherry rounds out salty and acidic flavors, especially in sauces or soups where it doesn't matter how much liquid you add. I was actually surprised that I had on hand all the other ingredients:  Almonds, canned tomatoes, olive oil, cloves of garlic, shallots, chickpeas.

The flavor of this dish was quite unique, and actually blasted me right back (should I say how far? Oh heck you already know how old I am) 27 years ago when I was in Spain at the tender age of 18.  It was my high school graduation trip and I was in the Spanish Club! In spanish cooking, almonds figure prominently, ground, as in this dish, and otherwise. It really changes the flavor and texture of the food. I had to use care cooking this dish, making sure my 16 year old son was on the other side of the house. He is deathly allergic to tree nuts and could go into anaphlaxis  if he breathes or eats almonds. Therefore, this type of recipe won't come around here too often. So let me go now, and enjoy these chick peas' last hurrah!

My Plate Was the Prettiest!

-- And the most delicious, I bet. Last night I put together a simple meal from leftovers and fresh veggies, realizing that, as usual, I was spending more time and love on my own meal than on the meals of the others in my home. I don't feel guilty about this, since all are welcome to partake of my delectable creations if they wish. I always offer it to everyone else first.  I do provide alternatives as well, though my heart is not always into the preparation or ordering of these items. Reminder: for those of you who don't know my family, I have one adult(ish) husband and two near-adult kids, all of whom are still getting used to my major lifestyle change which happened abruptly on February 11, 2010.

My son had a friend over for a sleepover, so I also had to consider a guest.  I ordered pizza, extra large, extra cheese, and a box of cheese breadsticks, exactly the same as the pizza, but with no tomato sauce.  Pretty unhealthy, huh? I offered collards, no takers, except for my husband.  Still, some had spinach salads (no bacon or egg). My husband usually requires an animal to eat, and sometimes he is on his own with this, as I am finding it tougher and tougher to touch dead flesh. Last night I just took a frozen (still rock-hard, so not as offensive to me as thawed would have been) tilapia filet and put it in a pan of vegan butter and deglazed it with a splash of chardonnay. He loved it with some of my famous salsa on top. This batch of salsa included one of my homegrown cucumbers I couldn't fit into the jar of my latest batch of umeboshi plum vinegar pickles (from Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet, but I was using cukes instead of radishes since I had 'em). I also had some cilantro from the store that I chopped and added to the salsa. Each batch is a little different. I really love going out to the garden every single day and picking enough tomatoes and other veggies to whip up the next batch of salsa. It is a summer staple, best consumed fresh, and we can eat it in so many ways.

Now, to the rest of my plate: The evening prior, I had prepared the Broccoli Polenta from Isa Chandra Moskowitz' and Terry Hope Romero's Veganomicon. I love this cookbook. To me it is like The Joy of Cooking for vegans. The polenta, like everything else I have yet prepared from this book, was sustaining, inventive and yummy. The first night I made it I served it with a jarred marinara sauce, and last night I topped it with my salsa -- just as good, maybe better. The little muffin-tin timbales of polenta reheat well in a warm oven for about 15 minutes. I like the outside to be slightly crunchy, the inside firm, moist and springy.

The batch of sauteed collard greens was perhaps my best ever! It was so exciting -- my family laughs at me as I get so jazzed up about greens. See the giant bouquet of greens at the top of this blog? While I am washing and chopping these, I often find myself bursting into song, with gratitude, "Greens glorious greens!" (to the tune of "Food, glorious food" from the musical, Oliver). Really, collard greens prepared well are my most favorite food. I believe I finally have the preparation down to a science.  I heat a dry pan to medium high heat (7 on a scale of 0-10). When all ingredients are ready to go, I pour some very good extra virgin olive oil into the pan and immediately plunge the chopped collards into it, still moist from being washed. A smashed, chopped garlic clove then goes on top of the greens. Snap, crackle goes the hot pan as the water droplets explode -- make sure the pan is covered for this part. Then I let the covered pan sit on the hot burner, unstirred, for about 3 minutes. The oil will burn at this heat if the greens are not added right away, and the garlic will burn if you put it on the bottom, it has to go on top. At about 3 minutes of undisturbed cooking, I begin to smell, not something burning, but almost. I quickly take the top off and stir, stir, stir the greens and garlic with two spoons, like one would toss a salad. This only takes about a minute. Then I take the whole pan off the hot burner and set it aside, covered. At this point it looks like some greens are overcooked and some are barely cooked at all, only starting to wilt. By the time I set the table, everything in the pan is PERFECT! I really love the crispy, brown pieces of greens with the very lightly cooked pieces. This cooking technique has resulted from a lot of trial and error, so it may take a while for you to get it just right too. I rely on a certain smell to tell me when to start stirring, this is the trickiest part. But once you take the pan off the burner it can sit indefinitely. It won't overcook and will remain warm for quite some time.

I rounded out my meal with some storebought fresh bread -- this time sourdough with roasted garlic. I topped mine with storebought hummus with olives. Everyone else had the bread too, guess they didn't have enough bread in their pizza and cheese bread sticks.

So you see we are still a funky little household, where I am just going to keep doing what I do for myself, and hoping it is rubbing off, if only a little bit, on those I love. On this night, I was happy to not be the cause of the death of a land creature (just her suffering while she produced the milk for the cheese --see Chapter 3 of The Kind Diet) and I did care for my husband's cholesterol needs as I prepared the food he ate. Baby steps . . . but in the meantime, I sure do love the food I eat! Thanks again, Alicia, Lindsay, Morgan, Isa, Terry and the rest of you who continue to inspire me!

Family

My family is wonderful. Yes, of course the folks I mention from time to time, my husband, son, daughter and two dogs, that goes without saying, but today I also speak of my extended family, and particularly my family of origin. We have had the good fortune for several days to have my parents, my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece visit. My brother and sister in law are teachers in China, and their family has called that country home for a couple of years now. They are able to return to the States once a year during the summer. My parents live in Virginia, and when they visit us they take a couple of days to get here. I am so grateful everyone rallied to make the trip for this little family reunion.

This was my family's first visit since I have been vegan, so I was a little nervous. All amazing people, these family members are open-minded, reasonable and non-judgemental, so I wasn't worried about their treatment of me or my choice, but like anything else, I wondered how something familiar and crucial to the core of who I am would mesh with my new vegan context. I needn't have worried at all. Pleasantly curious, several of my family members asked enough questions about the vegan diet that I could comfortably discuss it in a celebratory vein, while not demeaning their own food choices. Each of us is on a journey through life, side by side, if only figuratively, and each journey is valid.

We had a lot of delicious food together. My family has always loved pitching in together in the kitchen, and my father and brother are especially good chefs. My brother, animatedly described a certain pepper in China which apparently has no English name, and is so hot it acts like novocaine for a few minutes. He had left it in the luggage at his wife's parents' house, so he made do with what he could find in my kitchen and prepared spicy chili-lime peanuts for us all to snack on. Yum! My Dad helped with several dishes, my favorite one being grilled veggies. He chopped eggplant, zucchini, red pepper, onion and shallots, and I added from my garden these lovely Chinese long beans, a couple of yellow squash, a handful of cherry tomatoes and some twigs of thyme. To all this we added olive oil, salt and pepper and my husband stir fried it in a grill pan as he prepared shishkebabs for the carnivores and a field roast sausage for me.

There were several big vegan hits over the days with my family.  They really enjoyed the Raw Kale Salad and Pasta alla Formiana from Little House of Veggies (http://littlehouseofveggies.blogspot.com) and the Cassoulet from Veganomicon. Otherwise, there was always good bread and a salad of some sort, and plenty of snacking, with vegan choices figuring prominently.

I am sorry these wonderful people have moved out of my house and back to their own lives now, but I am left feeling so grateful for our time together. Mom, Dad, Brit, Cathy, Braedon and McKenzie, you guys are amazing -- thanks for everything!  Until next time . . . .

Luscious Leftovers

Too many days have gone by as I am establishing a new normal routine now that school is over here in Georgia. Much of my time is taken up by meal preparation, as it always is, being the lone vegan who also prepares non-vegan food for other family members. Now there are three meals a day, though, instead of our hurriedly fending for ourselves in the a.m., and lunches at school and work. So during this establishment of new practices, I can really appreciate leftover vegan food. I purposely make large portions, knowing they will come in handy when time is short later.

I typically serve food I think others might enjoy as my own main dish and a side dish for the meat- or cheese-eaters. Then I have enough to supplement each new foray into vegan experimentation for future meals for myself. At some point I may not need to make something new at all, I have so many leftover selections to combine in different ways.

This lovely plateful is actually a breakfast I prepared for myself (yes, this is what I was craving that morning!) and is comprised of selections from three consecutive days. There is wild rice from 3 days prior which had also been featured in salads and Alicia Silverstone's Soft Rice Porridge with umeboshi plum from the Kind Diet. There is Alicia's Kombucha Squash with Azuki Beans (again, from The Kind Diet) which I had prepared for dinner 2 days prior. Then there is broccoli rabe I had sauteed in olive oil and garlic the night before as a side dish to pasta with marinara. I simply plated everything that was left in the 'fridge and ate it cold, with a tiny sprinkle of kosher sea salt. It was very fortifying and energizing.

Tonight my husband said something about grilling a steak, so, pushing that image to the side, I realize that thinking of the grill has me hankering for a Field Roast apple sage "sausage" (so amazingly good!) -- He can grill that for me (separate tongs) and I will prepare pearl barley with onion, garlic and veggie broth for all of us. Finally, I need to check the garden. I think maybe the crookneck squash is getting big enough to serve as "baby squash" sauteed with mushrooms. Also, the arugula seems to have rebounded from my last cutting of it, and it looks like some radishes are ready too. So I can prepare a salad from these, topped off with the rest of an avocado I cut yesterday and some fresh lemon and olive oil.

All this lunchtime-planning for dinner is an example of what happens when my leftovers are all used up. Instead of adding one more option, I must start from scratch and multitask.  So, respect the noble leftover!

Inspired By My Dad

Both of my parents are wonderful cooks, but all will agree that my father probably could have been a chef at some point if he had wanted to.  As it turns out, preparing and sharing wonderful food is something he enjoys doing -- his "art" so to speak, and he has said he doesn't think he would enjoy it as much if he had to do it.  So our family and friends have been the happy beneficiaries of Daddy's hobby.

One of our Dad's favorite dishes is his "Ten Boy Curry".  The number in the title of this dish has changed periodically as he has included different numbers of ingredients.  This is an Indian dish and, in the British Colonial tradition, young boy servants would present each ingredient as an option to add according to the diner's pleasure.  The best way to enjoy this is by including everything offered, as each adds a crucial element, and all together the result is sublime.  My father usually prepared rice for the base of the meal, and the optional toppings included chopped raw celery, chopped raw scallions, chopped tomato, toasted coconut, crumbled bacon, chopped boiled egg, peanuts, raisins and Major Grey's Mango Chutney.  Normally we would create a pile of the cold ingredients over the warm rice, and top it all off with chicken in a curry-cream gravy and, finally, a dollop of the chutney.  The result is very surprising.  It is a melange of flavors, spicy, warm, sweet and savory.  It induces cravings for more about an hour after consumption.  It's that good.

Last night I decided to attempt re-creation of this masterpiece in a vegan context.  There was a lot of guesswork, and I was pleased with the results.  As well as I can remember, here's how I created the curry "chicken" sauce:

1/2 a block of firm tofu, squeezed
1/2 c. organic vegetable broth
3/4 c. unsweetened soy milk
1 Tbsp. curry powder
1 teasp. turmeric powder
salt and pepper
4 "gardein" fillets, rinsed and sliced in strips
6 large button mushrooms, sliced

I blended all ingredients except the gardein and the mushrooms, and then warmed the sauce slowly in a saucepan over low heat, along with the gardein and the mushrooms, which cooked ever so slightly in the sauce.

While this was cooking I prepared the bowls of other ingredients:  Organic diced tomato  chopped celery, chopped scallions, peanuts, raisins, chick peas, smart bacon, crumbled and cooked in a dry pan, and the chutney.  I had organic coconut somewhere, but, doggone it, couldn't find it, so had to go without that one.  Nevertheless, the result, served over wild rice and alongside sauteed swiss chard, was incredible and really did remind me of my Dad's wonderful creation.

I thought twice about serving this to my husband, but remembered that he had half a filet mignon left over from the other night that could fill in if he didn't approve of my vegan experiment, so serve it I did.  He looked at my beautiful plate and, raising an eyebrow, said, "What's that?"

"Chicken curry," I answered.

"But what is it?" he persisted.

"This chicken is made out of vegetables," I answered, simply and honestly.

He sighed, loaded up a small portion of everything, tried it and said, "I wish you hadn't told me what it was," --(I can't win here, I guess).

He said it tasted alright but he didn't care for the texture (I thought the texture was exactly like chicken, but it has been a while for me so maybe I am remembering it differently).  He flipped the remaining gardein pieces onto my plate, plopped his steak in the middle of all the other ingredients and pronounced it fabulous!  He then loaded up on another helping.

I kept my lips zipped about the bacon having been made of vegetables too!