Catching Up. Cauliflower-Tofu Bake, Spinach- & Tofu-Stuffed Shells

I have been a very naughty blogger, and now it's the end of the month and I haven't posted anything here in over three weeks! Shame on me!!!! I have no excuse except for having such a good time that cooking something new took second place to life with a capital L. The middle of the month we were in New York to see friends, attend opera and ballet, visit museums, wander around, and visit restaurants. Restaurants? Yes, we especially liked Candle 79 (not to be confused with Candle Cafe) and Franchia (sister restaurant to HanGawi, which we visited last time, but less formal). And I mustn't forget Dawat (not vegan like the others, but vegan-friendly), which belongs to actress, chef, and cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey (our kitchen saint).

Since then and even just before then, I have been either raiding the freezer for previously cooked yummies or re-running old menus and recipes. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it does mean rather lean pickings for blogging here.

But here are a couple of things you might like.

CAULIFLOWER-TOFU BAKE



Here's a simple thing we did with cauliflower the other day. It was easy to partly cook the cauliflower, cut into flowerets, then make a sauce from some silken tofu, flavouring it with sodium-reduced soy, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, white miso, and various kinds of pepper - probably including cayenne ;) I used, for the two of us, about a package and a half of the tofu and thinned it to the right creamy consistency, and half a head of cauliflower. Some chopped onion gives a nice zip. Mix the sauce and the cauliflower together and bake until the top browns. Around half an hour should do it, depending on how much you use and how hot your oven is. I topped mine with some flavoured crumbs - ya know, the old ground-up nuts, crumbs, nutritional yeast, paprika, blah blah blah mix I keep in an airtight jar in the refrigerator all the time. You probably have your own favourite.


SPINACH- & TOFU-STUFFED SHELLS



I have posted a Stuffed Shells recipe here before, but this one, also in the nature of an experiment, was even more successful. That may have been because I made a few changes to my previous recipe. I did however use the same very nice brand of brown rice shell pasta I used before.



Following the basic idea of my previous attempt, I substituted a couple of big handfuls of fresh baby spinach for the basil. This I chopped and then zapped with the wand blender along with some garlic, the tofu, mushrooms, etc., to which I also added a good squeeze of lemon juice, some herbs (what? Probably thyme or oregano), a little vegan worcestershire sauce, pepper (Cayenne too? Probably - just a dash) and two or three Tbsp nutritional yeast. These additions made for a similar looking but stronger tasting stuffing. If there was something else in there, I forget, but I tasted as I went along and kept going until it tasted right :) Proceding as before, this is what it looked like as plated.




You might want to keep some sauce to pass at the table.

And yes, thanks, we had a lovely time in New York! Here we are in Fort Tryon Park on our way to see The Cloisters for the first time in something like 35 years or so. Lovely day!!!

Beet & Apple Salad With Avocado, Red Quinoa & Lentil Medley, Tofu Red & Green Pepper Stirfry

BEET & APPLE SALAD WITH AVOCADO

[Edited to correct seasonings, etc.]

This salad was the star of the meal, I think, and appropriately we almost always have our salad first these days. (Okay, we used to always follow our main course with a salad course, and that's how I still stubbornly have pictured them in this blog, but lately, well, we have switched back to the North American custom. But don't hold me to it!!!! LOL

I took the time to slice three or four small cooked beets (we were making soup with the rest) and marinate them in garlic, a mix of vinegars (I think I used rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, but cider vinegar might have been there instead of the red wine - I winged it!), 1 tsp or a little more of Dijon mustard, and some pepper (I generally use a mix of red, black, green which I grind fresh). Then the rest was simple, as you see. Some lovely greens on each plate, a few sliced onion shreds on top of them, and sliced red apple (sprinkled with a little lemon juice to keep them fresh looking) and then the beets arranged with avocado over it all. The marinade from the beets - a lovely thick red mixture - I spooned over the top. Simple and delicious.

RED QUINOA AND LENTIL MEDLEY

To follow, we had a 'medley' of some leftover plain cooked red quinoa (so pretty) plus some leftover lentils (previously cooked with herbs, onion, celery and carrot in the Tuscan style) and a few extra vegetables that were hanging around the crisper - celery, no doubt, onion, crushed dried chilies, etc. (I forget exactly - it was nearly a week ago). The vegetables cooked first in a little water in a skillet, the lentils and quinoa to follow with, I think, a Tbsp low sodium soysauce and/or a Tbsp Annie's Organic Vegan Worcestershire Sauce. Very pretty, very tasty - and very nutritious too I suppose ;)

And to accompany it -

TOFU AND RED & GREEN PEPPER STIRFRY



But of course we don't 'fry' but steam or water-'sautee' the vegetables. The tofu was marinated in a Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce, minced garlic, minced ginger, minced red chilies, then added to the 'stirfry' at the end, just to heat through. (Tofu doesn't need to be 'cooked'.) Celery, onion, ginger root, garlic, red and green pepper, etc., were the vegetables that day. Maybe mushrooms too - I usually do something with mushrooms whenever I find the excuse - just love them and always have a bag of them in the fridge.

Sweet Potato & Carrot Stew Pie

SWEET POTATO AND CARROT STEW 'PIE'

You may remember the Sweet Potato and Carrot Stew With Chard I posted earlier - well, it was good, but what was on that big square platter was only half the stew, although it was all of the chard that I had cooked. The leftover stew was weighing heavily on me - it improves in flavour, of course, but it lacks something in presentation and novelty. Still, 'Waste not, want not' as my long departed grannie used to say!



I had stored it in a couple of these small oval dishes. While it was in the oven reheating, I thought it looked boring so mixed a kind of 'muffin' or biscuit (in the American sense of the word) topping. I put half a cup of spelt with half a cup of barley flour, added in a pinch of salt, baking powder, paprika, oregano - whatever - mixed in a little soy milk until it looked right. When the mini-casseroles were getting pretty hot, I hauled them out and spread the topping on them and whooshed them back into the oven. Around 20 minutes or so later it was ready. The photo above shows one such dish - the other photo was blurred but, well, was the same.



The photo shows a small serving I set aside for the camera LOL It is sharing a plate with Wild Rice With Tomatoes And Chard - which I'll post next :)

Sweet Potato & Carrot Stew With Chard, Red Quinoa, Salad

[EDITED - to allow insertion of missing ingredient]



About three days ago (?) I had this urge to cook up some lovely root vegetables - I get this way in the autumn, just as I go crazy over Anything Green in the spring. I found a recipe in my slowcooker cookbook, but soon found I didn't have all the ingredients - short on carrot, no parnips, not even half enough mushrooms - oh dear! So the above dish is what I finally made, bearing about as much relationship to the original as a cat has to a dog. The idea for using caraway seeds, however, belongs to the original. Adding green leaves to the pot (in my case chard) was mine. It looked and smelled fabulous, and it tasted lovely, just lovely, with no fancy spices (unless you count the caraway seed), letting the flavour of the vegetables shine through. NOTE: Although I made this in my slowcooker, it could just as easily be cooked on the top of the stove. Your choice.

We had it with red quinoa and preceded it, as usual, with a lovely crisp salad.

What went in the pot:

1 small onion, chopped very fine
3 large stalks of celery, also very finely chopped
3-1/2 ounces mushrooms
2 carrots
1 sweet potato
3 dried mushrooms, soaked for 20 minutes and finely chopped (stems discarded)
1/2 cup TVP chunks
1 Tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp thyme
1-1/2 tsp caraway seed
2 Tbsp wholewheat flour
2 cups homemade vegetable stock
salt and black pepper to taste
1 green bell pepper (red would be nice for a change too, I think), chopped
half a bunch - about 7 ounces - fresh chard leaves, cut or torn into manageable pieces

I put all but the last two ingredients (the green papper and the chard) into the slowcooker and left it on high for three hours. At that time I gave it a quick stir (my it smelled good!) added the chopped green pepper, gave it another stir, then laid the chard leaves over the top, snapped this photo . . .



. . . and put the top back on quickly, timing it for 15 or so minutes, since I guessed the pepper would still have texture at the end of that time and that the chard wouldn't have disintegrated but would certainly have wilted. (Guess who had never done this in a slowcooker before! LOL)

Well, it worked just fine. To serve, I pulled the leaves out with a large fork and laid them a large (in this case square) platter, saving the ones that had been in contact with the stew for the centre of the platter. Then I piled the root vegetables etc. in the centre (yes, the green pepper was just right!) and cut a few wedges of lemon juice for the chard.

We had it with red quinoa and preceded it, as usual, with a lovely crisp salad.

The quinoa is the kind I was writing about in an earlier blog this week. It was the first time I had used it - or even tasted it - and I have been given some hints on how to cook it very nicely by the person behind the counter. I decided, however, that for the first try I would like to see what it tasted like on its own, not 'messed around' with other flavours! It's lovely and nutty and imho a welcome change from plain ol' white quinoa! I LOVE the colour as well as the taste! And I keep thinking what a hit it would be on a buffet table.

The salad is of course another one of my crazy concoctions that helped me to get over my general dislike for 'boring old greens'. Snowpeas, craisins (dried cranberries, to those who live on the other side of the world, maybe) and apple made it a little different - but that doesn't stop me adding onion. I feel greens never taste quite right without at least a little onion, red onion being a favourite of mine (and boo-hoo I was out of them too!) The dressing - can't quite remember that now, but a good guess would be rice vinegar and balsamic vinegar with, maybe, a little pureed fruit? Or did I use a little sherry or mirin? Hmmmmm!

Orange Soup, Barley Banana Cornbread, Boston Brown Bread

The best Orange Soup I have tasted was in Austria last month at a little veggie (around 95 per cent of the menu items vegan) restaurant - Die Bio Bar Von Antun - in Vienna. I suspect that they put lots of orange juice in it, but it also had a certain something that made it absolutely delectable. I recognized most of the ingredients (since they had very finely grated or chopped but hadn't actually pureed their soup), but . . . Barley, yes. Carrot, yes. Pumpkin? Orange zest? yes, maybe. Or was that . . . ? And before I could work it all out my spoon had unaccountably moved rhythmically until it was all gone. We went back, but it wasn't on the menu the next time, although other delicious and satisfying things were. Siggggghhhhhh.

Still, orange soup is a wonderful idea, and I am grateful to many recipes I have glanced at on the internet and one by Lisa Walford (in Roy Walford's The Anti-Agin Plan which I have modified considerably to suit our particular taste prejudices. With all respect to the original recipe, when we first tried it we found we were unable to enjoy it because the flavours were too strong even for us - and that's saying a lot, since we tend to use very powerful spices in our cooking for ourselves. (In modifying the original, I hasten to add, I will no doubt of destroyed the delicate balance of nutrients in the Walford version. So be it. Those who want the Real Thing can turn to his book.) My modifications are along the lines of suggestions I have read elsewhere :)

And I'm still hanging out for the orange soup I tasted at the Bio Bar Von Antun!!!!!

ORANGE SOUP



1/4 cup barley
1 cup water
1 large sweet potato, freshly cooked and chopped
2 medium- large carrots, freshly cooked and chopped
2 cups canned pumpkin (the UNsweetened, unspiced kind - not the pie filling! LOL) - or use fresh cooked squash
kombu - a strip approx 3 by 2 inches, or a little more if you like it, soaked in boiling water then finely chopped
2 cups of low-sodium vegetable stock - homemade if possible - or a little more if you have it and need it
3 Tbsp nutritonal yeast
pinch of dried rosemary
1-1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground dried ginger
1-1/2 tsp ground cumin
pinch dried chilies
2 Tbsp wheatgerm
2 or 3 Tbsp wholewheat flour
2 Tbsp wheatgerm
freshly ground pepper to taste
Zest of two oranges
2 oranges, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped

Cook the barley for about fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, cook the sweet potatoes and carrots in some of the broth if you haven't already done so (the smaller you cut them, the quicker they'll cook, eh?). Combine these with the rest of the ingredients, including the barley and softened soaked kombu, in a large pot or bowl and start pureeing (in batches), adding the rest of the stock as you go along. You may need to add more stock or water. Reheat, test for seasoning and serve. Garnish if you like with a curl of raw carrot or orange zest or a bit of greenery such as coriander/cilantro leaves - wonderful taste with the cumin, ginger and orange.

BARLEY BANANA CORNBREAD



This is on our table in the evenings more often than not - it must be one of three quickbreads that my husband counts among his favourites (one of the other two is pictured further down in this entry)! It has the virtue of cooking as quickly as a tray of muffins and of being both tasty and nutritious. (I put 'tasty' first because no matter how healthful something is there's no point in recommending it to anyone unless it also tastes good. Tastes vary, of course, but it's a good rule of thumb for me to follow.) This is a variation on a variation on a variation on a traditional cornbread, which I understand is cooked in an iron pan on top of the stove, not in a ceramic oven dish! (But what would I know??)

The suggestion to replace the traditional oil in cornbread with banana comes from a post to (and I hope I remember this correctly!) Susan V.'s Fat Free Vegan group last winter, and I have noted that the poster also referred to hers being a variant on Dr Neal Barnard's. My use of barley flour instead of all-purpose or wholewheat flour, which other 'diet' gurus suggest, came from Dr Barnard's website. Dr Barnard used applesauce instead of oil in one recipe I saw (and tried - very good, but different!) - and apple is also lower on the glycaemic index for those who have a problem with sugar. The additions and slapdash method are more or less mine, but as I say there are soooooo many variants around!


Preheat over to 425 and lightly spray a 9-inch by 9-inch baking pan or equivalent.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups light soymilk (keep aside a Tbsp or two to help puree the banana)
1-1/2 Tbsp vinegar
1 medium to large banana, pureed with Tbsp or two of the soy milk)
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup barley flour
2 Tbsp turbinado sugar (optional if you have a problem with it, but it's traditional, they tell me, for some sweetener to be included)
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of crushed chilies (optional)
3/4 cup corn kernels (either canned and drained or defrosted frozen - I use the latter) - this is optional, obviously, but it goes so nicely with the flavour of the corn and, yes, the banana.

Put all but a couple of Tbsp soymilk in a small bowl with the vinegar and let it sit while you blend the banana (I use a small container and one of those near-indispensible wand blenders).

Carefully combine the dry ingredients (including the chilies, if you're using them, since you don't one them to be clumped in one part of the finished dish) in a large bowl (I use one of the french whisk things that non-vegans use to torture eggs), whisk the banana into the soymilk mixture, and turn the whole lot into the dry ingredients and stir. You will not want to over-mix this, but stir until just mixed together without any dry clumps :)

Pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish and pop it into the oven for 25 minutes or 30 minutes, depending on your oven, and serve it HOT! :) Lovely with anything that is even remotely South Of The Border, and with most robust soups and stews.

As you see below, it isn't your traditional yellow-coloured cornbread at all, which comes as a surprise (but I hope not disappointment) to some people. It's a lovely mellow caramel colour, smells glorious and tastes like heaven. (The one in the photo was made without the corn - we were out of it yesterday - and chilies.)



Heh heh, I mentioned the colour (although the colour of baking - indeed the difference in appearance and texture - shouldn't come as a surprise to most vegans!) because we had out-of-town visitors here earlier this year who were being re-introduced to veganism (they are omnis) at our table. We usually dine out so that we are spared the kitchen hassle and can talk more, but I had everything hot and waiting in the oven or on the stove.

I had made a lunch which included brown rice, a bean casserole, etc. etc., and cornbread - which I brought out last because I suddenly remembered 'Whoops - the cornbread!' as I was sitting down. They exclaimed that they loved cornbread and blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. When it appeared a couple of moments later there was puzzlement because it 'isn't yellow!'. I explained that I used a different flour from the usual white flour with the cornmeal. They said it was lovely - and seemed to enjoy it (well, it disappeared!) - but I guess I'm going to have to dream up another name for it when serving it to omnis in future! LOL Best not to risk dashing anyone's expectations!

BOSTON BROWN BREAD

We make this so often, that I thought it was time I mentioned it on this blog. (Thought I had, but a quick search of the archived posts shows nothing, nada, zilch for Boston Brown Bread. How could that be? It's a staple here! It's not made in the conventional way for this traditionally-named loaf, but it is excellent and
My recipe for this is lifted straight from Baranard and Kramer's The Garden of Vegan, with minor exceptions. I make mine with spelt flour rather than any variation on regular wheat flour and add a quarter tsp more baking powder than called for; I sub sultana raisins for the currants and/or sometimes even craisins (dried cranberries for those who don't live on this continent); and I use organic rolled oats - sometimes some of the flakes are actually highlighted in the photos by the camera flash ;)

This bread freezes well, carries well, goes with most soups, stews, is great with chilies and would only be a stranger to asian food :) - and I'm not so sure it might not work there too! It's somewhat sweetish in flavour (the fruit and molasses). It's grrrrrreat for breakfast! and, if you like vegan sliced cheez, I remember it was lovely sitting with a little cucumber on top of a slice of this bread for any time of day.

Hmmmmm! Next time I make it (I still have some in the freezer) I'll do one of my way-out versions so that I CAN post the recipe, okay? It's worth knowing!!!

Pasta Bolognaise, Field Greens Salad With Orange & Apple

PASTA BOLOGNAISE

I kinda threw this together yesterday lunchtime, a quick pasta sauce (since my freezer was bare of any at all - catastrophe!) with quinoa pasta, preceded by a Field Greens Salad With Orange & Apple.

About the quinoa pasta: this is really really good! For those who know quinoa, you know how nutritious and tasty it is, and those who don't, well you need to discover it soon! It's usually seen as a tiny grain, and comes usually in white. I discovered the red quinoa recently, and that is a real treat! The pasta I bought is macaroni, made from both red and white quinoa - not together, but half of them are the red quinoa noodles and half made from white. It's delicately pretty to look at and delicious in taste!



The package says to cook for 13 to 15 minutes, but that's far too long imho. I give it around 8 or 9 and find it's good.

Now the sauce:

1/2 cup tvp granules and equal boiling water to rehydrate them
1 small rib of celery, chopped very finely
1/2 carrot, chopped very finely
1 small onion, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced
4 or 5 medium mushrooms, chopped
12 or 14 ounces canned plum tomatoes (and a little of their juice)
Oregano to taste (or an Italian mix of herbs, if you prefer)
black (or mixed, your choice) pepper, freshly ground
pinch of crushed chilies, again to taste
1 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

I boiled the kettle, poured the required water on the tvp granules and chopped the vegetables.

I put the celery, carrot, onion and garlic into a skillet with enough water to soften them.

While the veggies were cooking, I crushed the plum tomatoes and then used the wand blender to puree around 2/3 or so of them - your choice as to how chunky you want it to be.

When the veggies were softened I added the mushrooms, tomatoes, oregano, pepper, chilies, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. After stirring these simmered until they had blended nicely - it depends how much time you have. We were hungry, but not desperately so, so I guess they got around half an hour in the pan. Part way through cooking I realized it was going to be a bit watery, so I thickened with tomato paste. That worked just fine.

We had the salad (see below) as a first course, so I put those to cook while we had that.

When the pasta was cooked, I drained and tossed it with the sauce and garnished it with cilantro (not trad but we like it!). I used a sprinkle of my own cheezy crumby mixture on top, but vegan parmezan-type cheez would be fine.

And here it is:



About the salad:

FIELD GREENS, ORANGE & APPLE SALAD

This doesn't really have - or need - a recipe, but I figure that I pick up ideas from other people's books and websites and maybe someone who sees this who isn't keen on salads might be attracted to trying some of our combinations. Besides, we all oughta eat more salads, and here I am being a good girl and eating mine and I'm taking their photos and posting them, by golly!

One salad looks pretty much like another once you get it reduced to a tiny photo, and if you eat salad as often as we do, then the trick isn't so much in the mix of things (although variety and a few surprise elements help a lot!) but in the dressing. Not using oil in dressings, I find that the lighter the better, but sometimes I break out. This one took a little sweetener - mirin - and orange juice along with some seasoned rice vinegar. Otherwise, you can see that we love to mix fruit into our salads (and match the dressing to it - or even just use a squeeze of lemon juice or a sprinkle of one of the vinegars we keep in.

Breads

RYE BREAD



I have been rather slack about taking photos of my/our baking these last weeks. We bake our own, er, 'baked goods' - never buy them. Even in an emergency - what would that be? - it takes less time to throw a quickbread together and into the oven than it does to go to a shop (and there is a 'Convenience Store' right next door to our building). Well, maybe our elevators aren't that slow, but by the time I would have given the dogs a treat, donned my outdoor shoes, tidied my hair and found my purse . . . .

Not much to say about this lovely loaf of rye bread - except that I grow more in love with breads using more than one flour each time I bake!

I put my recipe for rye bread on this blog back in March, I see, right HERE, but this one was made a little differently and I think it is nicer - the method and recipe has been evolving over the months. (Translation: 'I don't use a recipe for yeast breads.') Next time I make it I will write down the ingredients as I go along. I use mostly rye flour now, for example, since we like a dense loaf, and I like to add some carob powder for flavour and colour. (I know it's supposed to be cocoa powder, but . . . ) The 'seeds' added - whether fennel, aniseed, poppy or caraway are always a last-minute decision. Some call that creativity, others call it indecision, still others call it forgetfulness! Me? Oh I'm easy - I call it versatility ;)

I prefer to make sourdough rye if possible, but my starter died when I wasn't paying it attention so I have to, literally, start over on that.

So no new recipe for Rye Bread now - but it's in the works. It will have to be - I'm down to the nub end of this one - and that means about two or three slices, and since the doggies beg for the last piece . . . .

OAT BREAD



I like Barnard and Kramer's recipe books! Here is a photo of their oat bread, to be found in their The Garden of Vegan - except that I leave out the oil and add maybe a spoonful more water, depending on how the flour is behaving. I used wholewheat flour for this one. I long ago stopped using all-purpose or any white flour, and for some reason I don't much like wholewheat pastry flour. I love the colour of brown flours, don't you? And they smell and taste so rich! For my next baking of this recipe, however, I plan to use spelt. (I also like tossing barley flour into a lot of things that don't expect it - wonderful flavour!)

These loaves look a little rustic, but they tasted wonderful. We baked two, as you see, and cut each in half and froze the halves separately, since there are just the two of us here. We like this bread for breakfast - or with soups, stews, etc. Great bread - but the last crumb disappeared yesterday! More needed soooooon - an emergency!!!

BANANA BREAD



This is another variation on a recipe from Barnard and Kramer, found in their How It All Vegan - with the slight changes (which probably make it a different recipe, of course) of doubling the amounts (so we could halve the loaves and freeze three half-loaves), subbing an extra banana for the half cup of oil, cutting down on the salt, using a little more baking powder and using a mix of barley flour and spelt flour in addition to the wheat germ. The added carob chips was suggested by a note in the recipe that a half cup of chocolate chips could be thrown in 'for added sweetness.' You can't go wrong with their recipes, I've found! I personally found it a bit toooooo sweet with the carob chips, but hey, whatever floats your boat - and my dh loooooooves it this way! Well, actually, I helped to eat it too. More than once (two loaves, remember??)!

I took a photo of the bread cut, to show the prettiness of the dates and carob chips within the slice, but we were so impatient (the aroma of this bread is absolutely intoxicating!) that the carob was still melty and we got chocolatey-coloured streaks all through that slice and the pic was blurry from hands trembling to grab the first taste - as you see here. Ain't greed a wunnerful thang??!! We finished off the very last of it out of the freezer yesterday *sigh*

Rainy weather yesterday, not so today, but more predicted later in the week. Good time to be baking, I'd say ;)

Beans 'n' Greens, Avocado and Apple Salad

Over the weekend I tried a recipe for Red Beans and Greens from Judith Finlayson's 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes (2004). It took 2 cups of dried red kidney beans, plus the usual suspects :), and simmered forever. I followed her recipe, except for sauteeing in oil. Then she asked that 2 pounds of steamed greens (such as collard or kale) be added, tossed with 'butter' and balsamic vinegar (See NOTE below). Again I skipped the oily ingredient and since I can't buy collard greens and was out of kale I used chard.

It was very good and quite the nicest way I've had my greens in a long time. I dished it (except for the garnish of tomatoes and cilantro I chose) and kept it warm until we'd had our salad. Garnished, as you see above, I served the beans and greens simply an oven-baked sweet potato in its jacket, which we like to eat plain.

NOTE: I should mention that I took out the portion needed for the two of us and used a proportionately smaller amount of chard to mix with it. The rest of the beans, without the greens, was saved for another time!

Here's the salad that preceded the main course - avocado, apple, celery, chunks of heritage tomato, tossed with a homemade 'vinaigrette' and served on a bed of baby spinach, garnished with a handful of beansprouts. Lovely!

Spiced Split-Pea And Spinach Soup

A couple of days ago I made a lovely Yellow Split-Pea Soup inspired by one I had found among recipes by Roy Walford. Actually, it's very similar indeed to a cross between my own recipe HERE (except for the herbs and spices) and his (although I tweaked his spices to my taste). To my own recipe I added some dried kombu (softened in boiling water, then chopped), 1 tsp ground coriander seeds, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1-1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger root, a couple of dashes of cloves (not in Walford), 1 tsp ground cumin, a little fenugreek (can't remember how much, but perhaps half a teaspoon, but that wasn't in Walford either), a tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp cayenne (not in Walford), and skipped his oil as usual. Ya get the idea, eh? LOL In other words, I kinda curried it, but didn't make it very hot with chilies.

The method was pretty much as in my own - just throw the whole thing into the soup pot and cook - although in this case I added the spices towards the last twenty minutes of cooking.

The major difference, which is something I haven't tried before ('Well, DUH!' I hear you say. 'Ya need to get out more!') was to throw in a package of frozen spinach, defrosted, chopped, at the end. These days I'm doing everything I can to incorporate greens into meals more and more. I mixed the whole thing well, then scooped out a couple of ladles or so of the mixture and set aside. I put the rest of the soup in my trusty blender, returned it to the pot, then stirred the unpureed mix back into the soup - for texture - and reheated to serve. The result was thick and a little chunky with a lovely blend of flavours.



Always soup here, isn't there? Well, we love soups and stews and one-pot meals! More and more they - plus salads and fresh fruit - are the mainstay of our daily menu.

Mostly Leftovers plus Salad with a Sherried Vinaigrette

Yesterday we ate mostly leftovers - so many recipes make enough for four or six and sometimes we make the whole thing to save ourselves time. So yesterday we had the more of my version of the lovely millet dish that has been bandied around the net for some years now (with great gratitude to the ladies who provided the original version!). I had simply taken what remained in the slowcooker and pressed it into small baking dishes, as you see, and then, when I wanted it again, popped it into the oven to reheat while I put away my other groceries and made the salad. It was if anything even nicer for having sat for a couple of days. (It freezes pretty well too, although rarely lasts long enough for that, since it makes a great quick meal, even breakfast.)

To go with that we had some Italian-style brown lentils (well, they're french lentils, those tiny ones, but the recipe is Italian.), a recipe which my husband has adapted from one in Vegan Italiano by Donna Klein.



He had made these lentils some time ago and frozen half of them, so you see they're pretty good for a lazy meal too! Again, in an ovenproof dish they could be defrosted overnight and then popped in the oven along with the millet dish. I must hassle him for the exact recipe soon so that you can have it here!



I steamed a little broccoli with that - lovely, just fresh from the farmers' market that morning. And while we were waiting for the broccoli to steam and the other dishes to re-heat, we enjoyed a quick salad, made of the rest of a bag of arugula, some beansprouts I'd bought for something else, some snowpeas (we love them raw - so crisp!), the rest of the yellow cherry tomatoes (not many left as I thought, but a few to add 'colour') and a few slivers of onion.



SHERRIED VINAIGRETTE FOR TWO (FAT-FREE)

This was a combination of a couple from other people's cookbooks plus an idea of my own :) bearing in mind what was in the salad.

1 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp balsamic, 1 Tbsp sherry (I had some Amontillado in the sideboard, so that added a nice not-too-dry but not-too-sweet touch, finely minced garlic and ginger (I dunno - a little scoop of each, maybe a little less than a tsp of each - I tasted as I went), a tsp of smooth-style Dijon mustard (which is all I keep in) and that was probably it - all whisked together quickly.

Okay, not much of a recipe I know, but you can't say this entry was devoid of ideas after that ;)

For dessert? Honeydew melon - no photo, sorry!

Beanthread Noodles With Tofu and Green Vegetables

Yesterday's lunch?

BEANTHREAD NOODLES WITH TOFU AND GREEN VEGETABLES

This is not the most glamorous dish in the world, but it has the virtue of being a quick one-pot meal that it tasty and nutritious. I find that stir-fried (so-called - I used stock, not oil) vegetables are so quickly done they barely take longer than a salad. If you then throw them together with already-cooked brown rice or with quickly cooked noodles, then you have a filling meal in no time.

In this case I boiled the kettle and poured boiling water on around 90 to 100 grams (enough for two people) of beanthread noodles - the ones that are sometimes called glass noodles - which are, as their name says, made from the soybean. There's no need to cook these more than that, and it's best not to do it too far in advance of wanting to eat them because they can get a bit on the soggy side! Mine did yesterday - which was really too bad. But, hey, we ate 'em anyway! Best to give them around ten minutes at most.

I had put around 1/4 pkg. of firm tofu to marinate with a Tbsp reduced sodium soysauce and a little minced garlic and minced ginger (when I'm in a rush I grab all this from jars) and some sambal oelek, which is an Indonesian crushed chili
in vinegar and other things. Then I chopped a stalk of celery, some bok choy stems (saving the leaves for a little later in the preparation), a few 'coins' of fresh ginger cut in slivers, finely chopped clove of garlic, a few sliced mushrooms and some onion and set them into a skillet with a little water to soften a tiny bit.

Then I added around half a green pepper and, at the last minute, snowpeas cut on the diagonal along with some previously opened canned sliced water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, a couple of handfuls of beansprouts - and those shredded bokchoy leaves. Oh yes - AND the tofu! (There may have been something else in there, but I think that's it.) I stirred these around, popped the lid on for a minute or two to wilt the leaves, then rescued the noodles, quickly snipping them into shorter lengths with the kitchen scissors and tossing them in the pan with the veggies.

I found I hadn't made it as spicy as I wanted, so I added crushed red chilies at the table.

Gotta work on how to use beanthread noodles a bit - it's been years since I have cooked with them and one does indeed lose the knack!

Fruited Spinach & Arugula Salad, Strawberries With Oranges

Just so you know that we really do eat some fresh, uncooked things (usually a salad that starts the meal), here's today's first-course luncheon salad.

FRUITED SPINACH AND ARUGULA SALAD

I mixed some argula in with some spinach, added small slices of one of those lovely Ontario-grown little red McIntosh apple, a small handful of raisins, three dried apricots (chopped), some slices of green bell pepper, a few slivers of sweet onion,a few sliced water chestnuts (for the texture and the flavour), and a couple of handfulls of yellow cherry tomatoes (so sweet!), halved. I think that was all ;) Everything was organic except the apricots and the water chestnuts.

For the dressing (remember, I'm stubborn and try not to use oil), I mixed balsamic with seasoned rice vinegar, added maybe half a teaspoon of mirin, about 1 tsp of the juice from a jar of ginger, and a tsp of a nice unsugared organic apricot jam. I whisked it all together, poured it on, tossed the salad, and there we were - surprised and delighted as well as hungry.

We usually have fruit after lunch (lunch is our main meal of the day, so we make a bigger deal of it than otherwise), sometimes just from our never-empty fruit basket, sometimes sliced into a fruit salad of some kind (although more rarely). Today my husband made -

STRAWBERRIES WITH ORANGES



This was so good. He sliced fresh organic strawberries into a bowl, added the zest of 1 organic valencia orange, the orange itself (peeled, seeded and chopped), a little sweetener, and a Tbsp Grand Marnier. It was a lovely fresh ending to a nice light meal.

I should add that I also like strawberries with chopped mango, strawberries with chopped mint, strawberries with more strawberries, etc. etc. etc.

SPICY MILLET

This recipe has many variants and is usually, I believe, cooked in a casserole in the oven. I have tried that, but much prefer my crockpot for this kind of recipe. Rather than chopping onions, garlic, celery and fresh herbs, it uses those things usually on the spice shelf and, in my opinion, is preferable to the 'real' veggies version - I have indeed tried both. Here's my version:

SPICY MILLET

5 cups water, to which is added a couple of tsp vegetable stock powder
1-1/4 cups millet
1-1/2 tsp dried dillweed
1/4 tsp celery seed
1 tsp powdered garlic
1/2 tsp crushed dried red chilies
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp toasted onion flakes
2-1/2 Tbsp soy lecithin granules
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

Combine all ingredients in a crockpot/slowcooker, set to High, cover and let cook for about three hours (some cookers are set at a higher temperature than others, so you will need to check). It comes out as very very stiff 'porridge' and is unbelievably good!



It looks a little lonely on that plate, I'd say, but we accompanied it with, of all things, some Green Beans With Mushrooms (Indian-style) from one of Madhur Jaffrey's books and lightly spiced and lightly steamed chard.

We preceded it with a salad and followed it with fresh strawberries and oranges (see next entry).

Sardinian Cauliflower Soup With Tomatoes And Pasta

I've never been to Sardinia, but if the cuisine is anywhere as good as this soup suggests, then I would probably eat myself into bliss. I know I loved the food in another not-so-far-away island, Sicily - but that was in my pre-veggie days (I still ate f*sh back then).

Anyway, this soup, I am told, is typical of Sardinia. I found the original recipe, which I have modified, in Donna Klein's wonderful Vegan Italiano - or I should say my husband did. He loves this soup!

We first made it from a head of cauliflower, lots of garlic, crushed red pepper flakes (or live chilies), Since we don't use oil in cooking (get enough of that from the fruits, grains, beans and veggies we live on), it all goes into the pot along with around four or five cups of water or vegetable broth and cooks until the cauliflower is done - in pre-cut florets, that's around 10 minutes. At that point the soup is pureed, tasted for seasonings (some lovely fresh-ground pepper comes into its own here), and returned to the pot along with that pasta to be heated through. But wait, there's more!

The next time we made it we added 14 ounces stewed canned tomatoes (half of one of those big cans that I'd opened for something else!) and some fresh chopped basil to the puree. At the end we added cooked pasta (some brown rice elbow macaroni) to make it into an even heartier soup. Deeeeeee-lish!!! (The little bits on top are vegan bakon bits.)