Zucchini-Lemon Soup. Thai Curries

ZUCCHINI-LEMON SOUP

This is a very forgiving recipe, and you can adjust the amount of zucchini used according to your appetite and to the desired thickness of the finished product. Although I have included tofu in this recipe, I often make it without tofu altogether and it is delicious that way too.

3/4 lb zucchini squash, sliced but not peeled
1 or two slices onion, chopped, or to taste (less rather than more, in this case)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
zest of half a lemon
4 cups water or low-sodium vegetable stock
crushed chilies to taste
juice of half a lemon
half a pack of soft tofu, roughly cubed


Put all except the lemon juice and the tofu into a soup pot and cook until the zucchini is just done.

Blend the soup with a wand blender but preferably in a blender jug along with the lemon juice and the tofu. The soup should be creamy and a lovely fresh pale green colour. You may need to add a little water to get it to the consistency you wish.

Return soup to the soup pot and reheat gently. Serve garnished as you will - I used cilantro for the soup in the photo because we like the taste and it also goes very well with the lemon.

Variation: you may wish to use fresh or dried herbs along with the zucchini etc. in the soup pot. Italian herbs go well, but be careful not to overwhelm the fresh taste of the zucchini and lemon.

And now for a change of pace :)

THAI CURRIES



Wanting some Thai curry (yes yes, the whole thing with - gasp - coconut milk and all!) I decided to make my own for the first time in ages. The impetus was seeing some lovely fresh Thai basil and some fresh kaffir lime leaves along with lemon grass at our local asian shop. I also picked up some of their tofu - a real treat when we can get it. Stopping at another shop, I got a small jar (yes, I know it's cheating) of Thai
yellow curry paste - the kind without fish paste of creatures of any kind in it. It's good to make your own paste, but this was to be a relatively quick meal and I didn't think I'd have the time. I found organic light coconut milk at my health food store, so all was set.

No real recipe here, except to shred a few kaffir lime leaves, grate some ginger, peel and finely chop the lemon grass, chop a little onion and garlic, and defrost and chop some Thai red chlies which I always have in the freezer. This all went into a large pan with some cubed eggplant, a diced potato, and (a little later so that it didn't get overcooked) a red bell pepper - and of course the Thai basil and enough of the Thai curry paste to make it just right (which in our lexicon means HOT).



By the time the rice was ready, so was the curry!

We've had variations on this over the last week - including one with sweet potato and green snap peas - and it's been lovely every time. I do so love Thai food.

Chinese Hawker-Style Noodles and More Catching Up

The thing about street food, in places like Singapore and elsewhere, is that it has to be cooked quickly over charcoal (at least originally - goodness knows what they use now, as it's been a over ten years since we have been there) and, therefore, in a modern kitchen is sinfully quick to prepare. Get your veggies chopped early, then heat your stock (I am usually in a hurry and use a powdered stock or cubes) with the spicy ingredients in there to add more flavour, then pop most of the stuff in the bowls as directed. Now this can all wait until you're ready to eat. Then cook the noodles, add them to the bowls, and pour on the scalding stock. Top with whatever you've chosen for garnish and you're done. A simple and easy lunch or supper, any time of the year!

HAWKER-STYLE NOODLES - BO MEIN

This is my basic recipe - one doesn't really need to write it down, but it's nice to have a base from which to work. Variations, two of which I have used recently, work just fine.

For two persons (and halve or double or treble etc. as needed).

3 - 4 cups Vegetarian stock
3 - 4 slices of ginger root or to taste, cut into matchsticks
3 chilies finely chopped (more or less to taste)
2 - 3 green onions, sliced crosswise very finely
1 tsp asian sesame oil
6 mushrooms, sliced (if you have time, soak a couple of dried ones too)
50 gr. (or so) medium tofu, sliced into bite-sized thin strips
NOTE: for the photos pictured above and below I used some vegan hamm.
100 gr. fine noodles (angelhair kind - often in 'nests' in asian groceries)
NOTE: for the photos you see I used japanese-style buckwheat noodes. Ya use what ya got!
2 - 3 handfulls bean sprouts
coriander, chopped, for garnish (optional)
peanuts, for garnish (optional) - I used raw cashews this time
soy sauce as needed

And here are most of the ingredients (I think!) just as I was ready to make the whole thing.



Heat your vegetarian stock together with the ginger root, the mushrooms and the chilies. (If you do use some dried mushrooms, add the soaking liquid to the stock.) Slice onions and divide between two large soup bowls together with the sesame oil and the tofu slices.

When stock comes to the boil, break the noodle nests in half and throw into the stock, separating the strands as soon as you can with a couple of forks or a spaghetti server. Noodles should soften very very quickly. Don't let them overcook. Remove from stock with spaghetti server, dividing between the two bowls. Toss the beansprouts into the stock, swirl around for a few seconds then divide between the two soup bowls.

Finally, divide the stock and any mushrooms, etc., that remain in the noodle pot between the two bowls.

Give each bowl a stir to bring up the flavours and ingredients from the bottom and disperse them through the noodles. Garnish and serve.

NOTE: The ingredients are barely cooked - the tofu heats from the hot soup, the beansprouts likewise. The mushrooms are still crisp. You can do variations on this, as I've noted above, but this is how we've eaten it for years. I have also made it using vegan chikken pieces instead of the tofu. Works fine too :)



AND for the rest of this 'catch-up' round?

Well, have a quick look at some photos I have on file.

Here are a few things we've been eating lately:



Above is STIR-FRIED TEMPEH WITH VEGETABLES (well, again, steamed). This is always a good and quick dish, with or without the rice. I like to make sure I always add some ginger root, garlic, onion, chilies and a little celery to give a good flavour to whatever else I'm using. And I generally marinate the tempeh in soy sauce and a little minced garlic and giner before adding to the rest.



And oh yes, above is my SPLIT PEA SOUP that I keep making again and again, enhanced this time with extra spices (mostly mexican style) plus some chopped vegan hamm and coriander and some dear little baby corns cut into coins AND cilantro. Very nice. You can do almost anything with split pea soup as a base. Actually, you can also do it more quickly with red lentils, but that's not what I used here :)



GINGERED CARROT-SQUASH SOUP (above) is exactly that - some onion (not too much) with carrot and squash and flavoured with fresh ginger root and varied herbs etc. Excellent. You can play with the ingredients and flavourings to your heart's content here and not go wrong!



An just above is of course a simple side SALAD. Gotta get your fresh raw veggies as often as possible, especially if you're having a touch week or month or year!

And here comes a favourite standby:



Variations on my STUFFED AVOCADO recipe abound. It doesn't really matter what you use in the way of stuffing as long as it tastes good to you and doesn't fight with the avocado. I usually base mine on carrot, celery and onion, then add all sorts of things like lime or lemon zest, lime or lemon juice, dark or light miso, a little Braggs, plus some seeds (generally pumpkin or sunflower) to give it texture after I've pureed the rest. Any stuffing left over makes a great spread for anything you've got a mind to put it on.

Take care now!

Red River Raw Borscht, Cauliflower Salad, Tomato Plate, Kale and Apple Salad

If you've been reading this blog at all, you know that my dh and I love beets - hot, cold, pickled, in soup, in salads, however they come and the redder the better. Recently I made a raw beet salad - and was absolutely amazed at how good it was. And I have tried a few raw soups with similar success. But raw borscht??? I didn't think so. I did, however find a recipe for a raw borscht with garlic and dill and a cup of soaked-overnight almonds (which would have 'creamed' it), and, of course, cabbage and beets in Brigitte Mars's Rawsome! and thought, well, it can be done. So I turned to my previous variations on conventional cooked borscht, thought of some amendements, and within minutes had a raw version chilling in the refrigerator. My dh pronounced it excellent, and I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly too.

RED RIVER RAW BORSCHT

3/4 pound red beets, peeled and chopped
1 large clove garlic
two large handfuls of fresh spinach (I'd have preferred beet greens, but it's early in the year for that)
1-1/4 cups cranberries (I used some I'd frozen earlier)
zest, juice and chopped flesh of 1 orange (blood orange, if you have it)
4 sundried tomatoes, soaked and chopped (soaking liquid reserved)
large handful dulse, lightly rinsed, chopped (other sea vegetable would be good, but I was keeping with red.)
1-1/2 tsp miso
2 or 3 dashes cayenne (optional, but it gives it a nice extra zip)
enough water to blend the ingredients and to reach the desired consistency

Set a few cranberries aside for garnish, if you wish, and put the rest of the ingredients with the soaking liquid from the dried tomatoes and a cup or more of water into a blender. Puree well, adding more water as needed. Add any extra water to bring to your preferred thickness. Taste for seasoning and adjust. Regrigerate until needed, for a cold soup, or serve at room temperature.

Garnish with cranberries and, if you like, fresh herbs, etc. Serve chilled with freshly ground black pepper.

And - oh yes, the name of the soup? My very first taste of borscht was in the late '40s and came from the kitchen of a lady who had migrated to Manitoba from the Ukraine. The soup was strong (not, I imagine, vegetarian!), chunky, full of many wonderful things, and was like no soup I'd ever eaten before. I loved it! This soup is named in honour of that long-ago hospitality. Thank you, Mrs B.


And now for some raw vegetable dishes we've been enjoying - nothing tricky, nothing fiddly, but all fresh and delicious!




CAULIFLOWER SALAD

This was pretty simple and almost embarrassingly easy, but it was good enough to pass on for a quick and easy dish to add to any array of salads or to have alone with some chunky French bread if you prefer. The addition of the sea vegetable adds a dimension I wouldn't have believed. Lovely :)

1 small head of cauliflower, cut into florets
2 or 3 green/spring onions, cut across into chunky rounds
handful of dulse, lightly rinsed and chopped into small pieces
a couple of handfuls of 'baby' carrots
1 or 2 tsp Bragg's Aminos / All-Purpose Soy Seasoning, or low-sodium soy (not strictly raw)
Zest and juice of one lime

Whisk the last two ingredients together and pour over the vegetables. Toss to lightly flavour all the vegetables with citrus and the soy. Serve with more lime wedges if you wish.


And sometimes the simplest methods sometimes escape me when I'm hassled for time. This is one of those. Tomatoes are great, just sliced and passed at the table, of course. When I'm thinking ahead even half an hour (an hour if I can), however, I like to increase the flavour a little this way (not a great photo or a very classy presentation, but you get the idea):



TOMATO PLATE

1 large tomato or as many as you wish to serve, thinly sliced
2 thin slices of onion, separated into rings or half-rings
sea salt
large handful cilantro, roughly chopped
1 lime
freshly ground black pepper
ground cummin to sprinkle to taste

At least half an hour before serving, sprinkle the tomatoes in a bowl with a little salt, layering with the onion and, if you wish, a little of the chopped cilantro. Squeeze a little lime juice over the lot.

Give the tomato mixture a couple of gentle turns in the bowl during the next half hour or so (being careful not to break up the tomato slices).

Arrange the slices of tomato and onion on a plate, add freshly ground black pepper and a sprinkle or two of ground cummin and the rest of the cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.

Everyone knows how much I love eating kale. It's full of good things, including loads of calcium, but it's also so good in flavour. There are different kinds of kale, but this lovely green curly kale is what is available to me now. I'm always making salads from it these days, and I just vary the ingredients and the seasonings to make it a little different each time.



KALE AND APPLE SALAD

1 head of kale
1 or 2 slices of onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 sweet red apple
small handful of raisins
raw cider vinegar, to taste
tsp raw agave syrup
Squeeze of lemon or lime juice to taste
sprinkle of Braggs Aminos, to taste (optional) - or you could use low-sodium soy sauce or tamari
dash or two of cayenne (optional)
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Strip the leaves only from the kale stems, wash, and tear into small pieces and place in a large bowl. 'Massage' these with your hands, deliberately bruising and wilting the leaves for a few minutes, until they take up less volume in the bowl and have turned darker green (as if lightly cooked). Don't worry about overdoing this - this pseudo-cooked texture is nice - taste a little as you go along!

Chop the onion, garlic and add to the kale when it is ready. If you're not going to serve immediately, chop/slice the apple just before adding the dressing - to avoid having the cut apple go brown - or sprinkle it with a little lemon juice meanwhile while it waits. Add the raisins.

Mix together the cider vinegar, agave syrup, lemon or lime juice, Braggs or soy sauce with the cayenne, if using.

Pour this dressing over the rest of the ingredients and toss. Serve in your favourite salad bowl (if you're not already using it!) with other salads or as a first course.

You'd be amazed at how lively we feel with eating so much raw food (although we're not 100 per cent raw - and our condiments are not yet completely raw) - and it certainly saves a lot of time in the kitchen! Next acquisition will be a dehydrator - than watch out!!!!!

SUNSET SOUP (Raw)

This soup I invented because I didn't want to serve even the very delicious Raw Tomato Soup twice in a row. I had seen in Brigitte Mars' book Rawsome! a recipe for Carrot-Ginger Soup which needed carrots, some left chopped, not pureed, white miso, grated ginger, garlic and water. I figured I could branch off from that and brought out a few more ingredients (and skipped the garlic for this one), fiddled with proportions, kept tasting and came up with:

SUNSET SOUP (Raw)

1 orange
1 cup chopped raw carrots
1 cup chopped raw butternut squash
3/4 cup raw cranberries (ok, I'd frozen mine from a while ago, but they were still raw)
1 Tbsp grated ginger root
1-1/2 to 2 cups water (This is approximate. Fiddle around until it's the right consistency for you.)
1 Tbsp white miso
1 Tbsp Braggs amino/all-purpose seasoning
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
salt (if needed) to taste

Zest the orange, remove the white pith with a sharp knife and discard, slice and chop the orange flesh, removing seeds as you go.
Put all ingredients (including the orange zest, unless you want to reserve a few strands for garnish) into your blender and puree, adding more water if needed to get to the right consistency for you.

Garnish if you like with some of the orange zest - and a few dried cranberries would be pretty, I think.

Enjoy!

RAW TOMATO SOUP

Okay, here we go, guys! It's letting me upload one photo (only one, it seems, although I tried for another for a 'soup show' item, as it were). So this keeps me happy for now - Yesssssssss!!!!!

RAW TOMATO SOUP

NOTE: not all my condiments are strictly raw - eg. the soy sauce and nutritional yeast, but I see them used in raw cookbooks.
I adapted this from recipe from a Tomato Soup in Kate Wood's _Eat Smart Eat Raw_ book.

6 tomatoes
1-1/2 sticks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp dried basil
2-1/2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp low sodium soy
a handful of parsley
juice and zest of half a lemon (or more to taste)
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
4 rehydrated sundried tomatoes
and as much water as I needed to make it work
fresh black pepper to taste
more salt, if you like, to taste

GARNISH: Well, maybe a little parsley and a twist of lemon? I also rehydrated a little wakame for garnish (that's the funny dark green circle of love around the lemon and lemon zest) - love any excuse for using sea vegetables! - but you can skip these if you like.

Chop what needs to be chopped and dump everything except the garnish in the blender, puree and chill. Garnish and serve. Delish!

Stuffed Avocado

This recipe has been adapted from one in Kate Wood's Eat Smart Eat Raw and it's definitely a keeper for our house, although I'll probably continue to tweak it a bit :)

STUFFED AVOCADO

For each avocado:
1/2 oz sunflower seeds
1/2 oz pumpkin seeds
1/2 medium carrot, chopped
4 sundried tomatoes, rehydrated
1 tsp white miso
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 slice onion
1/4 thai chili (you might want to adjust this down a bit - we like it hot!)
a shake or two of dried basil (or use fresh - I didn't have any)
juice of half a lime
Garnish: handful of alfalfa sprouts, slice or quarter of lime, few strands of lime zest

Puree all ingredients except for the avocado and the alfalfa sprouts. halve the avocado, remove seed. Fill the hollow in each half with the mixture and then spread it across the avocado. Garnish with the alfalfa sprouts, top with the lime zest and add the lime to the plate for squeezing.

NOTE: You may have some of the stuffing left over - just refrigerate and use it for dip or sandwich spread or whatever in the next day. Delish.

Moussaka

I always hesitate to call veggie versions of traditional dishes by their traditional names - and I generally don't like to suggest to anyone, by making such dishes, that I think they can be 'just as good' (to omnivores) without the 'essential' ingredient of me*t. Calling this dish Tofu Eggplant Bake, however, wouldn't quite convey the nature of the dish, so 'Moussaka' it is! I had a nice eggplant and some mushrooms but couldn't find my Veg Moussaka recipe in a hurry. I hunted on the net and somehow printed out a version of Vegan Moussaka for 25 people - a bit of overkill for our household of two humans, wouldn't you say?! The recipe did, however, remind me of the kinds of seasonings/spices I used to use in my veggie moussaka, and that's what I was really after. You can find the recipe I found for 25 (a Greek wedding!) here:

http://www.vegcooking.com/InviteElegant_TradD2.asp

I did make some changes - of course, and not only in quantities! For one thing, I do not keep in pasta sauce unless I have some homemade in the freezer. I don't use 'vegan beef crumbles' at all (too salty, for one thing, and I don't like the taste for another. It tastes too much like, well, beef!!!), although I know many people just love fake me*t and I do think it's great that they make it especially for people like us if we want it. (Whew! I wriggled out of that one, I hope!)

Anyway, here's what I did:

1 eggplant at around 1 lb, sliced in 1/4 inch slices and steamed (you could fry in olive oil) until just cooked and set aside.

The Filling:
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, mostly chopped but some left in slices for texture and interest
Tbsp or two red wine vinegar
375 g. package firm low-fat tofu, crumbled up to resemble, er, ground tofu (that's what!)
sprinkle of dried rosemary (I'm not fond of the stuff, so . . . .)
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon (or maybe a tad more)
1 tsp of dried oregano
lots of black pepper, freshly ground
1/3 cup pureed tomatoes (I pureed some sodium-reduced tomatoes from a can)
salt if you use it (we don't)

Put first four ingredients in a large-ish saucepan and cook on medium until the onions are soft and the mushrooms have given up most of their liquid. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for another five minutes or so. You don't want this to be too wet. Set aside.

The Topping:
1 pkg soft silken tofu
1 tsp chopped garlic (I used some from a jar)
1 Tbsp white miso (this was the only salty item we used) - it adds a great flavour
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes (for a cheezy flavour)
3/4 Tbsp egg replacement powder (from the original recipe - so I used it too)
LOTS of grated nutmeg to taste (we can't get enough of it, but you'll want to exercise your own judgement)
salt to taste, if you use it

Blend until smooth.

Assembly:
1/2 cup pureed tomatoes (I used tomatoes from a can - pasta sauce was called for and would work even better)
Seasoned bread crumbs (I used a crumby topping I make myself)

Now, Put it Together:

Preheat oven to 375.
In a square or oblong pan, put in enough tomato puree to keep the eggplant from sticking to the bottom. Add half the eggplant, half of the filling, and a spoonfull or two of the tomato puree. Repeat. I like to top with some of the eggplant too, but it's up to you.
Spread the creamy topping over the whole thing and shove in the oven for about 25 minutes to half an hour. Sprinkle with crumbs and bake for another 10 or 15 minutes.

We preceded ours with a nice green salad with apple and raisins, accompanied it with some steamed chard (gotta get yer greens, right?), and followed with some fresh plums, pears, etc., from our never-empty fruit basket.

Yummy!

NOTE: Some may prefer to use veggie crumbles for the greater depth of flavour. Others may like to marinate the tofu in a little brags or whatever to make it look darker. We liked it as is.

Steamed Eggplant with Tomato and Ginger

A few days ago I had all these lovely 'dwarf' eggplants from the farmers' market (aren't they adorable?!) - and of course I had to do something wonderful with them, but couldn't think what! I wanted to keep it fresh and light - but also cooked. I had tomatoes in my refrigerator that needed to be used before they went too soft -


Heritage Tomatoes: Brandywine, Striped German and Cherokee Purple.



and half a bunch or so of lovely basil.

One of my favourite cookbooks came to the rescue here - Miyoko Nishimoto's THE NOW AND ZEN EPICURE: Gourmet Cuisine for the Englightened Palate (1991), pictured here in case you can find it in your library or in a second-hand bookshop somewhere (her tofu bourguignon is positively addictive!).



And there she had it: the perfect recipe for my situtation -

STEAMED EGGPLANT WITH TOMATOES AND GINGER

I must say I did change it a bit, using the dwarf eggplants, cheating and using jarred garlic and jarred ginger (I needed a shopping trip) and indeed more of it than she suggested, chose a red onion and lots and lots of fresh basil rather than the 1/4 tsp of dried in the recipe, but there you are. I also halved the recipe, since there were just the two of us for lunch and I had designs for the rest of the eggplant.

To serve 2 for lunch:

1 large tomato, chopped (I used a little more than half of one of my huge heritage tomtoes)
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
eggplant equal to 1/2 a medium eggplant (I used the dwarf ones), chopped in chunks but not peeled
1 Tbsp minced ginger root
handful or so of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
more basil to serve, if you like it as much as we do

I stewed the onion, garlic and ginger in a very litttle water in a pan until the onion was translucent then added the eggplant and tomato and covered (stirring a couple of times to keep an eye on things) until the eggplant was JUST tender but not mushy. It was important not to overcook the eggplant, because it goes mushy very easily. Just as the eggplant was 3 or 4 minutes off being done I added the basil so that the flavours would go throughout. Garnished with more basil, chopped or whole, and served over brown rice it was lovely. I should add that there was neither salt, pepper or oil in the recipe anyway, so I didn't have to do a thing about that :) I did simplify the cooking a little. I'll do this again soon, I think. So simple a dish that lets the flavours of the veggies shine through!

Carrot Top And Rice Soup, Lentil and Barley Stew

CARROT TOP AND RICE SOUP?

Somewhere or other I remember reading that carrot tops were good to eat and good for you. They are? Never heard that in my lifetime, I swear. But I do remember reading that in the last couple of months, and at the farmers' market these days there are lovely lovely little carrots with beautiful lacy tops, as crisp and green as you please. Weeeeeeelllll, game for anything, I tried nibbling. Hmmmm. Not bad. Carrotty, but green-carrotty, sort of a cross between carrot and parsley with a little je ne sais quoi thrown in (which phrase I threw in, I hasten to explain, to convince those of you who have been eating carrot tops all their lives that I'm not completely clueless. So there.).

So, your intrepid kitchen maven surfed the net and came up with a Tuscan Carrot Top and Rice Soup HERE, which of course, being me, I changed around a bit to make it fit in with my own eating style and what I had in my kitchen.

Instad of sauteeing in olive oil, as per the recipe, I cooked the veggies in a little stock until the onions were translucent and then added the vegetable broth (the last of my homemade broth, as it turned out - see below!). We use long grain brown rice here, not short grain anything, and I just happened to have some left over in the fridge which I put in a little later than the recipe called for, since it didn't need to cook. I used a bundle of tiny carrots more or less equivalent to the 2 small carrots the recipe called for, 4 cloves of garlic rather than three, 2 cups of the carrot tops, finely chopped, and of course skipped the grated cheese.

The result? Delicious. Mild tasting, wonderfully delicate, lovely carrot and rice soup with (what could it be, those green bits in it?), er, greens. Recommended.

'NO THANKS MOM, I THINK I'LL PASS' LENTIL AND BARLEY STEW - FROM JACKIE V.

I was reading Jackie's new blog, FROM JACKIE VETTER'S KITCHEN and saw this stew recipe with the provocative name! I thought it sounded good so I made it for lunch today! Sadly, I was out of homemade stock (and I no longer use the commercial variety unless I can get reduced salt or salt-free, which I can't right now), so I had to let the stew make it's own stock - which is to say I used water.

The second problem I ran into was thinking I had brown lentils, which is what Jackie used. I didn't, so (since we really wanted to eat today) I substituted (ready for this?) yellow split peas. I also used white potatoes instead of red, pot barley instead of pearl barley. Carrots, celery, garlic, onion, green pepper, canned tomatoes and the various lovely spices I had, so no problem. For 'greens' I used chopped kale. I skipped the sauteeing in olive oil, as per usual, and to make up for the lack of stock I added around 4 ounces of chopped mushrooms and some oregano. That worked fine - along with a quarter-cup of sherry - in the stew pot, not the cook.

Here it is after all ingredients have been added.



Somehow, the dished photo didn't get taken - we were too busy getting it into the bowls, onto the table and into our tums. I made half a recipe and there's enough for 3 or 4 more people our size :) We started with a spinach salad (with sliced pear, craisins, a little red onion, a little sweet red pepper in balsamic and rice vinegar dressing), accompanied the stew with fresh corn bread.

This stew recipe is a keeper. Thanks, Jackie!! And I promise to have brown lentils for next time!!!

And through all this? Well, the furkids slept, two of the three together. They missed all but some crumbs from the cornbread LOL

Banana 'Bread', curried salad, and freshest produce . . .

Some time ago I made this wonderfully innovative Banana 'Bread' from my cyberfriend Erin's _Vegan Done Light_ e-cookbook (see his blog HERE). It's not made from flour of any kind and is not baked. Strange? Yeah - and goooooood!!! The secret lies in the main ingredient which IS cooked - yellow split peas! Now wait a minute - yellow split peas? For Banana Bread? Yup. Works miraculously, if you just follow the instructions and then chill, as
described, in the refrigerator. Here it is again below:



It's absolutely great for a quick lift at any time of day - really serious protein and fruit (the 'banana' part, right?) - and can, if you want to lightly toast the top of a slice under the grill or in a toaster oven, be spread with your favourite indulgence. Me, I love it just the way it comes and wolf it down with the aid of a fork - well, when I'm being polite, that is.

And now what I've been messing with in my kitchen when not indulging my sweet tooth -



Ever have one of those days when there's nothing much of anything but lots of little things that you want to eat but you don't know how to make it tasty? Lunch of that nature occurred recently. I wanted salad, but was out of fresh greens (shopping trip in the afternoon was called for). So I chopped a variety of vegetables, combined them with some leftover brown rice and some leftover couscous and flavoured the lot with some Indian spices, tossed in a chopped apple and a handful of raisins and had a nice lunch after all.


These days at the Farmers' Market (downtown Thursday and Saturday mornings only - and one has to get there early) there have been some wonderful heritage brandywine tomatoes. They look really like nothing you'd want to buy, ugly little suckers they are, but they are wonderful!



They don't ever turn completely red, but the green part is really red on the inside, as you can see. Sweet and juicy, they are fabulous for anything that calls for fresh tomatoes. We can't get enough of them. We especially like them in a raw tomato salsa that we use to dress our newly found brown rice spiral pasta. The recipe, using other tomatoes and a wholewheat penne, can be found HERE. I put lots and lots of these tomatoes in along with absolutely bushels of the basil which is so plentiful right now!



These are probably the last of the season's edamame. We love them just lightly steamed and then sprinkled with a few grains of salt at most, nibbled straight from the pod, as a first course for our main luncheon meal. Wonderful. Where have I been and what have I been doing most of my life not to have discovered these years and years ago! Sighhhhhhhh.

Slow Week, But Lots Of 'Tries'

This is a slow week for this blog, mainly because we are caught up in something else right now. But we have been trying new recipes - just not actually created anything new to pass on.

What you might like to try, though, is a lovely soup from Barnard's La Dolce Vegan - Curried Ginger Butternut Squah Soup - which takes all the usual suspects plus potato and butternut squash, with some fresh grated ginger - a humungous two inches of it, which I loved when I saw it - to give it that certain zip and flavour. It was perfect the way it was - with maybe a little more (okay, quite a little) garam masala than called for (but I'd used my own mix not her recipe for that, so that could be the reason). Very highly recommended.


Still working at cooking fat free (not had to cheat yet), my dh tried out a Red Lentil Curry by Jennifer Raymond (again!) from Neal Barnard's Turn Off The Fat Genes. It was lovely, so much so indeed that I think we ate rather more of it than our fair share. Fortunately it is low in calories.


We also collaborated in an adaptation of a Barnard & Kramer banana bread - it's wonderful, with three bananas for ultimate banana flavour and lots of chopped dates. You can find that one in How It All Vegan. It's terribly decadent in taste, but we cheated the original recipe a bit by switching the oil for another half a banana (why not!). We couldn't see any difference from the way it had turned out when we had made it before using oil, so why add such stuff in there! It's a 'good any time of day' bread/cake or what you will! Once we even followed one of their options and added carob chips to the recipe, but it was much more of a dessert then than we had in mind. Delicious though. A bread worth cultivating, I'd say.

Meanwhile, I have today made a very nice cornbread, but that story will have to wait for another time!