Mushroom, Lentil, and Chestnut Ragù

A ragu is meant to be a little bit sauce-like, but mine was more solid. This is my version of the Myra Kornfeld recipe in my favorite cookbook, the Voluptuous Vegan. I bought my copy about 10 years ago and have slowly worked my way through ever since, triumph by delectable triumph. Allow yourself a generous 3 to 4 hours. It tastes like Thanksgiving! All the picky eaters in my family loved it. Serves 8 hearty eaters alongside the broccoli rabe polenta--which you could make a few days before because it keeps well--of the previous post.


1 Cup whole roasted chestnuts from a jar
1 1/2 Cups French lentils (they keep their shape, unlike some lentils I could mention!)
cheesecloth
7-8 sprigs fresh rosemary
7-8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
12 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms
2 large portabello mushrooms
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons shoyu or gluten-free soy sauce
2 onions, diced (2 Cups)
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 celery stalks, cut into large pieces on the diagonal
salt and freshly ground black pepper
juice of 1 large lemon

1. Cover lentils with 8 Cups water in a pot. Add a bouquet garni (tied in cheesecloth) of 6 sprigs rosemary, 6 sprigs thyme, and 2 bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then simmer, partially covered, about 30 minutes or until lentils are soft. Drain liquid, remove bouquet garni, and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to  375 degrees. Clean mushrooms. Remove stems. Cut the mushrooms into large chunks. Toss in a bowl with 4 Tablespoons olive oil and all of the soy sauce. Spread in a shallow baking pan and roast 30 minutes. Set aside.
3. In a very large saucepan, heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Add onions, garlic, and celery and saute about 10 minutes until softened. Salt it to taste.
4. Add the lentils to the onion mixture. Salt to taste. Add the mushrooms. Add the chestnuts, breaking them up by hand. Add about 1 Cup water. Simmer to marry the flavors and add any salt or pepper to taste. Turn off the heat.
5. Mince a teaspoon of rosemary, one teaspoon of thyme, and add it to the mixture along with the lemon juice. Serve immediately while wearing well-polished boots. 

Spring Sabzi, Persian Greens with Black-eyed Peas

In Farsi, the word "sabzi" means green and can refer to herbs or vegetables.  This version of Sabzi is hardly the last word on the matter and—although easy and quite delicious—is a far cry from the top-of-the-line meals I enjoyed at the home of my Persian friend Roshanak. Roshanak loves to cook together several kinds of greens and herbs into a dense stew, or ash (AWSH). Then her family spoons it over rice and mixes this delicious concoction with homemade yogurt. Although I haven't visited Roshanak in years, this Sabzi's combination of cooked greens, good creamy yogurt, and rice reminds me strongly of all the amazing meals she so graciously served me. The black-eyed peas are the real surprise here: their light freshness adds to the feeling of Spring provided by the mixture of leeks, parsley, spinach, and lemon juice.  And the unexpected sprinkling of cinnamon works magic, although I have no idea why it belongs in this dish!

I think I got a version of this recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I'm not sure.

Serve this dish with a side of refreshing tropical fruit like pineapple or mango, spritzed with lime juice.

Spring Sabzi

about 1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped and washed in several changes of water
12 to 16 ounces fresh spinach
1/4 Cup fresh parsley, chopped
4 scallions (white and light green parts), sliced
2 16-ounce cans black-eyed peas, rinsed
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juices
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
several gratings of fresh nutmeg

1. In an extra-large skillet or soup pot, heat oil. Add leeks and cook until soft, roughly eight minutes.
2. Add spinach, parsley, scallions, and 1/4 Cup water. Cook until spinach wilts.
3. Stir in the black-eyed peas, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Heat 5 minutes until through. 

Serve over rice and offer people good quality yogurt or wedges of lemon.

Mexican Vegetarian: Breakfast of Tortillas, Beans, Rice, and Eggs or Avocado

My neighbor Alicia from Mexico kindly invited me over for breakfast twice this week. It turns out that whenever she has time to make breakfast, it's naturally vegetarian (but not vegan). Alicia assured me that if I went to a Mexican restaurant for breakfast, they would always serve the same thing that she makes herself: eggs, beans, and rice with salsa spooned generously over everything and a pile of crispy tortillas for scooping. This sort of breakfast can keep you going all day, she told me, unlike cereal or pancakes. In my experience, that's true. If you don't like to eat eggs, slices of fresh avocado make a perfect—and, Alicia would agree—authentically Mexican substitute.

Alicia's Tortillas:
Alicia uses either corn (gluten-free) or flour tortillas and leaves them on the fry pan until they get crispy and bumpily shaped. Then she uses them to scoop the beans, eggs, or rice into her mouth. No forks necessary! she told me happily.

Alicia's Beans:
Alicia cooks dry pinto beans in water with salt. First she covers them with water in the morning. Then when she returns in the afternoon she boils them until soft. She drains all but a little water, cooks them in a little oil in a fry pan and smashes them with a hand-held potato masher. Sometimes she adds a little bit of dried Mexican oregano. At serving time she sometimes tops the reheated beans with grated queso fresco, a soft white Mexican cheese.

Alicia's Rice:
First toast the dry rice toasted with a little oil,  then boil it until soft in water and a bit of bouillon or stock. Add corn kernels at the end.

Alicia's Salsa:
Cook 10 or more peeled and rinsed tomatillos in boiling water until they change color and soften. Drain. Puree them with a small handful of dried chilies de arbol (tiny red chilies) and a touch of salt. You can soak the chilies in water for an hour to soften them, first, if it makes them easier to puree. Alicia's mother taught her to make salsa this way. It can be extraordinarily spicy and flavorful.

Alicia's Eggs:
She sautées together diced mushrooms, tomatoes, and white onion, and possibly a little jalapeño pepper. Then she adds some beaten eggs and makes either scrambled eggs or an omelette.


It seems like a lot of work for breakfast, but the truth is that the beans, rice, and salsa are usually left over from dinner the night before, and the tortillas are store-bought. Alicia can serve a steaming hot breakfast in about 15 minutes.

Moong Bean Tomato Soup

Doug and I eat a lot of bean soups. After all, why not? Bean soups answer every need: cheap, healthy, filling, and comforting in the winter. Also, practically no one is allergic to them. The only problem is that bean soups bore the palate after a while, especially if you eat them for dinner every single night. Doug varies his bean soups by adding canned pumpkin or Italian sausage.  I like to revolve through a variety of beans. I make a tamarind-sour red lentil soup, a lemony split pea soup, a curried brown lentil soup, an eye-watering kimchi tofu and rice soup, and most recently a cozy moong bean soup.

The Indian people display a special genius for the legume family. I've never eaten a dal I didn't like. So when you grown bored with American-style beans, head over to an Indian grocer. Check out the rainbow of dals, both split and whole, that line the shelves. You may feel inspired to start making Indian bean soups. (Indian beans are still quite cheap.) If you don't live near an Indian grocer, order some Indian beans online. Dried beans travel well.
Some places online to buy Indian beans:
Indian Foods Co.
I Shop Indian
Indian Blend
Desi 911
Patel Brothers
Desi Mart

This particular soup was inspired by three fancier recipes created by Mark Bittman, who is not Indian and therefore tends to use more accessible ingredients in his recipes. I was able to make the entire soup in an hour. It won't take as long if you use split moong beans. I used whole. Whole moong beans are olive green in color with a tiny white stripe (see above).

Serves 4 to 8, depending on who's counting

Moong Bean Tomato Soup

1 Cup whole moong beans (dried)
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes, washed
6 Cups or 48 fluid ounces of vegetable broth (I use Imagine No-Chicken)
salt and pepper

Equipment: 1 medium pot, 1 small pot

1. Wash the moong beans, being careful to pick through and make sure there aren't any small stones. 
2. Put moong beans and the vegetable broth in the medium pot. Heat on medium-high heat until boiling. Lower to a bare simmer, cover tightly, and cook 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, fill the small pot with water. Bring to a boil. 
4. Cut a small X in the bottom of the tomato. Blanch it in the boiling water by immersing it for 30 to 60 seconds. Take it out, let it cool a few minutes, and then peel off the skin with your fingers. Chop the tomato into small pieces.
5. Add the tomato to the moong bean soup—it doesn't matter where in the cooking process it is.
6. When the beans finish cooking, have a sip. Don't double-dip the spoon! Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy hot.

Optional additions: fresh-squeezed lemon juice, cayenne

Alternatives to Soda and Juice

Apparently, drinking sweet beverages ruins your teeth, makes you obese, and gifts you with diabetes. With any scientific discovery that a certain foodstuff or drinkstuff hastens death, you have to decide, "Am I content to live 10 years less, as long as I fill those 60 to 70 years with delicious glasses of iced guava and pineapple juices?" The jury is still out on that one, for me.

People are wracking their brains trying to find healthy alternatives to sweet beverages, especially to serve at school lunches. Well, I have compiled a list of delicious un-sweet drinks for you, a list that does NOT include milk, since a lot of people suffer from milk allergies or lactose intolerance. Also, I have heard rumblings that milk may not be as good for you as the dairy industry promises it is. Who woulda thunk it? I used to drink that stuff by the gallon.

The recipe for almost every beverage on this list requires you to steep some of the ingredient in a pitcher of filtered—i.e., tasty—water, possibly overnight in the refrigerator or over-day by a sunny window.

Lime Water
Every beer ad I see these days is for "XYZ with lime." Lime is in. But those tiny limey wedges may not do the trick. I've discovered that one of those jumbo limes will produced enough juice for four tall refreshing glasses of cold lime water. Squeeze some of half a lime into the bottom of a glass. Fill the glass with cold filtered water. Serve immediately, or chill and serve in a hipster glass so as to feel with it. Pucker-licious.

Cucumber Water
You can pay more than $100 to go to a fancy pants spa that will serve you this drink in the waiting room…or you can make it at home by picking a cuke from your dinky backyard garden. Peel the cucumber, slice it lengthwise, use the tip of a spoon to scoop out and discard the seeds, and then slice thickly. Add cold water, refrigerate for 1 hour and you have cucumber water.

Barley Tea
Translate from the Japanese, "mugi cha." Every casual restaurant in Japan (and Korea too, I hear) serves iced barley tea as a complimentary service in the summer. Because barley is a type of grain, barley tea has a soothing effect on the stomach, and the mild flavor doesn't interfere with any kind of food you might eat. You can buy bags of Barley Tea at an East Asian grocer, or you can buy a bunch of whole barley. With tea bags, you steep a few in cold water in the refrigerator overnight and voìla, barley tea. With the whole barley, it's better to boil and simmer the barley in water, then strain. I love both hot and cold barley tea. Plus, barley tea is probably the cheapest kind of tea in the world.

Sun Tea
Somehow iced sun tea always tastes a little better than the boiled version. Buy some loose leaf tea (green, brown rice green tea, black tea, hojicha, kukicha, rooibos, pu-erh, white tea, or oolong). Pack it into a tea ball or fold it into 2 ocha packs, sold as pretty much any tea shop I've ever patronized. Put the packed tea into a tall glass pitcher with a lid. Fill with purified water and close the lid. Leave the glass pitcher outside or in a sunny window for several hours until the tea has taken on a deep hue. Then refrigerate the tea and serve it cold over ice with optional lemon or orange slices.

Seltzer or Club Soda
Let's say you just can't resist that delicious 100% juice despite health concerns. You can simultaneously dilute it and fancy it up by filling a glass 1/3 with juice and 2/3 with seltzer or club soda. You can squeeze fresh lemon or lime juice in. Or you can just enjoy seltzer plain, or over ice. It feels nice in the mouth and might settle your stomach or aid in a belching contest.

Ginger Tea or Green Ginger Tea
This tea will invigorate you. I learned how to make this from a Korean friend. You wash a fresh piece of ginger, slice it into a few thin segments, then pour boiling water over it and steep a few minutes. Ginger goes really well with banana bread or muffins. If plain ginger tea tastes a bit harsh for you, you can steep only one or two pieces of ginger with two bags of green tea. Just make sure not to steep the green tea until it's bitter.

Got any favorite unsweet beverages of your own? I'd love to hear about it.

Hot Beans

While on our three-week tour of the good ol' U.S. of A., I managed to sneak in a breakfast at Rick Bayless's Tortas Frontera. In the airport! I ate an egg and rajas torta with sides of smoky salsa verde and guacamole and a glass of lime juice. Crikey, it all tasted amazing!

So when I returned home, I felt very "F@*k yeah, Mexican food!" Ahem. So to speak. Then I invented this super super spicy dish, which I am sure Rick Bayless wouldn't even look at, he's so much cooler than I

May I take the liberty of suggesting three different approaches to my beans? First, you can use it as an extremely spicy, less fatty alternative to refried beans. Spread it on tortilla chips, top with sour cream. Or you can enjoy a simple bowl o' beans by heating it up with a cube or two cheese in the microwave. Finally, you may enjoy it as a spoonable snack. I find that two plain spoonfuls will kick my brain into gear, water all my ducts, and keep me going for at least an hour if not two.

Hot Beans by a Hot Mama (literally, I have all the fans and two air conditioners on)

2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 3 ounce can chilies in adobo sauce (find at your local Mexican grocer)
1 bell pepper, sliced up and sautéed in oil until tender.


Set aside 1 cup of the pinto beans. Put the rest of the beans, the can of chilies, and the cooked pepper together in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. You may have to add a little water. Mix the reserved beans in by hand.

Makes a lot of servings, depending on your heat tolerance

Sweet Potato Fries—Oven-Baked

When someone gives you a box of 16 waxed sweet potatoes, and you've only got 1 1/2 weeks to cook and eat it all, what strategy would you use? First, I pricked one and microwaved it about 5 minutes, then slit it open, mashed the flesh with a fork, and drizzled on a little bit of butter, salt, and pepper. That was good lunch for the two of us, but I didn't want to do that 15 more times in a row. So next, I peeled and cubed two sweet potatoes and steamed them until tender. Then I tossed them in a warm salad with spinach, rice noodles, hard-boiled eggs, and peanut sauce. Very satisfying. But after the salad, many steamed sweet potato cubes remained, but they tasted kind of bland and watery, not so great on their own. We couldn't bring ourselves to finish them. I hate wasting fresh produce, but I hate eating nasty produce even more.

I next attempted to make sweet potato gnocchi, served fresh with shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. Following Mark Bittman's recipe, I mixed baked sweet potato with flour and grated Parmesan. Then I tried to get the gnocchi to be small and elongated, but the sweet potato was so gooey that it ended up in irregular lumps. This also turned out quite bland and watery, even with the cheese.

When I baked four sweet potatoes into wedge-shaped "fries," however, the fries vanished practically as soon as they hit the table. I used a recipe from Perfect Vegetables by the editors of Cooks Illustrated (I highly recommend this book for vegetable lovers). I oiled two baking sheets and heated them up in the oven until toasty. Meanwhile, I sliced each sweet potato into 8 length-wise wedges. I tossed them with a little bit of canola oil, some sea salt and fresh pepper. Then I spaced the wedges onto the preheated baking sheets and baked 15 minutes on each of the two flat sides of the wedges. Each wedge came out hot, tender, and with a little firmness on the flat sides. I served this with a dip of mayo mixed with curry powder. I would bake these fries again any day because they were quick, easy, way healthier than restaurant fries, and quite inexpensive. I wouldn't know from my own experience, but I bet these fries do the trick when you want your kids to eat their daily serving of beta-carotene.

Applesauce Cake

Some of you have been waiting for this recipe a LONG time. This is my Famous Applesauce Cake: my whole wheat, vegan, moist, delicious, disappears-in-minutes-at-any-party pretty round cake. Why is this cake so famous? Because it is the only cake I ever bake. It's laughably easy! And sorta healthy! This cake has served me well for over a decade, and if you check out the list below, you will see why that's so amazing.

Here is a list of cakes that I have come to realize I don't enjoy:

pound cake
coffee cake
carrot cake
lemon meringue cake
angel food cake
cheesecake
cake with raspberry filling
normal fluffy chocolate cake
any lemon cake
cupcakes
cakes with frosting (except for whip cream frosting)
devil's food cake
fruitcake
red velvet cake
whoopie pies


Despite the alarming length of that list, I still find plenty of cake to my liking. But obviously I'm very picky about my cake, something you wouldn't know if you had met me in Japan, where I made surreptitious weekly trips to the local Cake-Ya-San (so beautiful!) I don't like cake that's very sweet, fluffy, or airy, but that is the current style for so many American cakes.

So. I discovered this Applesauce Cake when I was 20, just learning to cook on my own and living in the shimmering cool beauty of the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts, land of apple cider doughnuts—which in my opinion outshine all other U.S. doughnuts to an embarrassing degree. Knowing my 20-year old self, I probably copied down the recipe from some random cookbook in the Jones Library. When to my surprise and delight the recipe actually worked, I copied it into my journal, returned the book to the library, and didn't think much about it until the next time I was required to make a cake. Over the next decade I came to discover how rare and special this cake really is, and oft have I wondered which cookbook birthed it. If you ever find out, please tell me so I can give credit where credit is so obviously due.

Sarah's Extremely Famous Applesauce Cake

1/2 Cup canola oil
1 Cup sugar
1 1/2 Cup unsweetened applesauce
2 Cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350º.
Mix oil and sugar together. Add applesauce. Mix the dry ingredients together, and add them to the wet stuff. Beat until smooth. Grease (and flour if you want) a bundt pan. Or, if it's non-stick, don't bother. Pour batter in evenly and bake 45-50 minutes.

I know what you're bringing to your next pot-luck!

Baby Bok Choy

I'm probably the worst bok choy cook on the planet. While I love bok choy at good Chinese restaurants, my own efforts invariably result in watery or over-cooked bok choy…usually both. After a while I figgered that me and the Big Bok Choy have irreconcilable differences, so I gave up trying.

Then George returned from Costco with a bale of baby bok choy.  I told him flat out, "I cannot cook bok choy." But he was all, No Sweat, and he cooked it himself. Apparently baby bok choy are way way easier to make tasty than adult bok choy. George's batch tasted so delicious that among the two of us and Doug and Julia we polished off every last choylet. And Bonus: bok choy has twice as much calcium as any other vegetable with a lot of calcium (I think maybe kale takes 2nd place).

Baby Bok Choy
several baby bok choy, washed, and halved lengthwise
juice of 1/2 lemon
vegetable oil

1. Heat up some oil to medium high. Cook the baby bok choy cut side down until browned, around 5 minutes.
2. Flip 'em over. Turn down the heat. Add the lemon juice to the pan, and cook until they become all soft and translucent.

If you serve these beauties to the right sort of guests, they will be super impressed and not realize at all that you put almost as much effort into these bok choy as you put into microwaving a bowl of peas. Good for you, you slickster!

Chanukah 2011

For Chanukah we're going to make the exact same thing as last year.
TRADITION, TRADITION. …… TRADITION! /fiddler-on-the-roof
The same latkes.
The same applesauce.
The same grated beet and carrot salad.
We're not awesome enough to make our own sour cream.

The same silverware.
The same chanukiyot.
The same candles. Okay, we conceded the basic nature of candles and bought new candles.


And we will use a new sparkly blue tablecloth from Julia; it's okay that it's new because it displays the Jewish colors.

Broccoli Fried Rice

"Broccoli" is such a weird word. Where the hell did it come from? Oh, Italian. Thanks, Wikipedia! Anyway, broccoli's a weird plant too. It looks like a bunch of trees stuck together; that's why the Italian word is plural. No wonder most children don't want to eat it--it belongs in the uncanny valley of foods.

I remember the first time I really enjoyed broccoli. In sixth grade everyone had to take Home Economics for about six weeks. At that time my cooking could best be described as hilarious. Home Ec straightened me out. I developed a lot of my food preferences during those six brief weeks, including which apples or cheeses I liked the most, that I hate cooking with raw animals, that cheese cake has way too much cream cheese in it, that I hate meringue and marzipan and rocky road pizza, and that I LOVE LOVE LOVE stir-fries (and soy sauce).

My stir-fry had crispy stalks of broccoli, water chestnuts, and baby corn and it was Totally Freaking Awesome. I was so proud of myself as I munched the miraculous goodness all the way home. If you have children who are vegetable averse, teach them to make a nice Chinese stir-fry and watch them poke around at all the curious little treasures they find in their tasty food.

This dish is in memory of you, Home Ec.

Broccoli Fried Rice
Serves 4 or 5.

1 head of broccoli, washed
12 fresh shiitake mushrooms or 8 oz. of any old mushroom, washed, destemmed, and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 egg, beaten (optional)
1 Cup or so cold-leftover rice
soy sauce (GF optional)
salt
pepper
juice of 1 lime

Directions:

1.  Slice the head of broccoli in half so that the florets have a much shorter stem. Separate the florets with your knife. Slice them lengthwise into quarters. Meanwhile, slice off the tough outer skin of the stem half. Cut the stem into 2-inch matchsticks quartered lengthwise.
2. Heat up a medium-large or large frypan with some vegetable oil. Pour in all the broccoli. Sauté about 8 minutes on medium heat or until cooked through and delightfully crisp. Remove from frypan and set aside in a bowl.
3. Add the sliced mushrooms. Cook on medium heat until they release their juices. Season with soy sauce. Push to the side of the pan.
4. Add the beaten egg and keep bothering it in the for about 40 seconds until it becomes not-quite-set scrambled eggs. Push to another side of the pan.
5. Add rice.  If it remains clumped together and too dry, add up to 1/2 Cup of water. Break it up with your spatula-turner. When it seems like a good texture and not too wet, season with soy sauce. 
6. Add the garlic. Return the broccoli to the pan. Heat through and mix everything together for about 2 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Remove from heat. Squeeze lime juice over everything. Serve piping hot and watch those little imps scarf it down.

Creamy Oatmeal

I find that nothing sustains me as much these days as a hot bowl of delicious oatmeal in the morning. The way that the oatmeal sticks to the sides of the pot comforts me that it is sticking in a like manner to my stomach lining. 1 serving takes about 15 minutes to cook up, so it's done about 8 minutes after my pot of hot tea. I think that's pretty reasonable, and I also save time because I don't get hungry again for about 4 hours, which is some sort of record for me.  Plus everyone says oats fight cancer.

Most oats are contaminated with wheat, so if you have celiac disease, you're going to have to tread very carefully here.  I quote Art of Baking:

If you are gluten-intolerant, oats may be bad for you, too.  If you sometimes eat gluten-free oats and you feel bad, and you wonder, “hm, what did I eat that made me feel bad?” it could be oats.  It turns out that even though oats (the gluten-free ones) don’t have gluten, they do have proteins that might behave the same way as gluten on the body of sensitive individuals.  I spent so much time (years) trying to eat oats, but they always made me sick–and I never understood what was going on.  Then I read this article and ones like it, and it all made sense.  Read it for yourself and see if it might be you.
It turns out that folks who are sensitive like I am to the prolamine gliadin, which is found in wheat gluten, are also often senstitive to the prolamine in oats called avenin.  As it turns out, just as there is gluten-sensitive enteropathy (celiac disease), there is also avenin-sensitive enteropathy, which is a sensitivity to the gluten-like substance in oats.  Sigh.  What this means is that many of us gluten-intolerant folks are actually intolerant to oats themselves, not to them being cross-contaminated with wheat.  This is an area that hasn’t really been studied all that much.  But, the toxicity of oats for gluten intolerant individuals is recognized by certain countries, including Australia.

 Sugar Beets Bakery adds:

The use of oats in gluten free diets is controversial. Cross-contamination with gluten is common in traditional oat products. The Gluten Intolerance Group®, the Celiac Disease Foundation and the Canadian Celiac Association approve the use of moderate amounts of “Certified Gluten Free Oats” but the Celiac Sprue Association recommends that oats be avoided. If you plan to use certified gluten free oats, start by using small quantities to make sure that you can tolerant them. We use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oats in their certified gluten free controlled facility.

If you prefer chewy oatmeal to creamy oatmeal, choose steel-cut oats. I think they take longer to cook.

Creamy Hot Oatmeal

1/2 Cup rolled oats
1 Cup plain soy milk or liquid of your choice

1. Combine in a pot. Bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer for 5 minutes or until most liquid is absorbed.
2. Turn off heat and cover for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in your favorite stuff: almond butter, sliced banana, dried figs or currants, whatever zany thing your little hungry self desires. For ideas, check out Kath's Tribute to Oatmeal.

Gluten Free Vegan Allergen-Free Meal

Sometimes it's hard to think of a meal that absolutely EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE WORLD can eat. That's why I was surprised to realize that my dinner the other night was just that, even though I was just rooting around in the fridge for some leftover goodies.  I really enjoyed the comforting hominess of the meal, so I thought I would share that this meal contains:

no gluten
no dairy, egg, animal products, mammal, seafood, or fowl
no nuts
no soy (bunches of people have soy allergies, did you know?)

I don't think the meal works if you're on the Atkins diet, though. Oh well!

Vegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Quick Collard Greens without Pork
Parsleyed Crowder Peas (recipe follows)

Obviously, you could easily fill this out with a fruit salad or another vegetable side like sautéed mushrooms or a NUT-ENCRUSTED PORK SANDWICH WITH MAYONNAISE. I kid! I get my jollies where I can.

Parsleyed Crowder Peas or Herbed Beans

I make this with fresh or frozen crowder peas, but the recipe works equally well with any fresh or frozen bean.

If you are using dried beans, do the whole process: soak 4 hours, drain and rinse, cover with water in a pot, bring to a boil, turn heat down, add the fresh herb stems, and simmer until bite-able. Salt the water and simmer until it reaches a tender consistency (you have to taste it every 15 minutes or so to be careful). Drain and proceed as in recipe below.

Ingredients:
a full package of fresh or frozen crowder peas, black-eyed peas, purple peas, or beans
extra-virgin olive oil
salt
1 large fresh bunch of your herb of choice: parsley, mint, cilantro, thyme, you name it

Directions:

1. Wash your peas or beans. Remove any stones or weird-looking alien intruders.
2. Put peas in a pot. Cover with about a 1/2 inch of water.
3. Heat up the water. Meanwhile, wash your parsley or other herb. Separate the stems from the leaves. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS.
4. Bundle the stems together and stick them on top of the peas in the water. If you have cooking string or cheesecloth or whatever, tie them together for easier removal later.
5. Bring water to a boil. Turn down to a simmer. Cook until tender.
6. Meanwhile, chop up the herb leaves.
7. Turn off heat. Remove as much of the herb stems as you can with tongs or chopsticks (NOT your poor widdle fingers). Drain the beans. Remove rest of herb stems. Immediately pour beans into a serving bowl with ample space for stirring. 
8. While beans are still warm, add just enough of your best extra-virgin olive oil to coat. Salt the beans until they don't taste like bean-cardboard anymore. 
9. Let the beans cool until they're not so steamy. Add the chopped herb leaves on top. Serve with a spoon and an apple-cheeked smile.

Vegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes for a Week

I adapted my mashed potatoes recipe to feed something like 30 people. As a result, mashed potatoes are the only Thanksgiving leftover I have not come close to losing to overenthusiastic noshers, and I feel rather smug about that. The pumpkin pie is gone; the gravy is a mere puddle of its former self, and at this point the cranberry sauce functions only in a cosmetic way. But I can continue to reap the benefits of Thursday's feast with my mashed potatoes.

Mashed potatoes can be turned into so many things, like mashed potato cakes…and potato bread rolls…and I don't know, some sort of shepherd's pot pie lid or something. Whatever. I just like these mashed potatoes with everything.  I was thinking of cooking up a big pot of parselyed crowder peas, and they would go quite well with my potatoes.

So for all you future feasters, here is my Vegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes For a Crowd:

Cooking time: about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

1 entire bag Yukon Gold potatoes, probably 8-11 medium
3 heads garlic plus 1 extra clove garlic
3 full sprigs fresh rosemary
about 1/4 Cup extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

1.  Cut off the tops of the 3 heads garlic. Peel the garlic until it's only got one layer left. Drizzle the open tops with olive oil. Wrap the 3 heads of garlic in aluminum foil and roast them in the oven at 350ºF for about an hour until oozy and soft. (You can do this step a day or two in advance.)
2. Scrub all the potatoes but don't peel. Plop them in a tall pot. Cover generously with water and bring to a boil. Simmer until a fork can easily pierce the middle of the fattest spud. Drain and return to the hot pot.
3. Meanwhile, wash the rosemary, de-stem it, and chop up the leaves. Add them to the olive oil. Peel and mince a raw clove of garlic. Add that too. Add a generous helping of sea salt and pepper. Let the mix marinate at room temperature for at least a half hour. 
4. With a hand-held potato masher, bluntly smash all the cooked potatoes into bits. Squeeze the tasty innards from the roasted heads of garlic directly into the potatoes. Add the oil-rosemary-garlic mixture. Mix them all up thoroughly.
5. Serve hot to the multitudes.

Cranberry Sauce

I enjoyed a ridiculously relaxing Thanksgiving this year. Everybody cooked de-lovely delicious dishes and we actually managed to sit down at the table only 1 hour behind schedule, even though everyone had thoroughly boozed up. One welcome discovery was a homemade cranberry sauce that George and I both enthusiastically scarfed down. Jamie showed us how to prepare it. He said that he found the recipe somewhere on allrecipes.com, but rather than go searching for it, I'm just going tell you what he did, thereby humanizing that disconnection from the laborer that we all suffer in this Satanic Age of Digital Information.

Cranberry Sauce

1 Cup orange juice
1 Cup sugar
1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries, washed with mushy lurkers removed

In a pot on the stove, dissolve sugar in orange juice over medium heat. Add cranberries. Cook, stirring frequently, until most or all of the cranberries have popped. Cover and refrigerate until serving (a few hours to a few days later).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! George and I are hosting this year and we are making:

blue cheese autumn salad
cucumber spears with lime and cilantro
green beans tossed in vinaigrette with carmelized shallots
2 kinds of mashed potatoes--whipped with butter and milk and vegan garlic rosemary
Julia's Buttery Vegetarian stuffing
shiitake mushroom gravy
2 kinds of cranberry sauce, 1 straight from the can
Julia's clover leaf rolls
(our guests are making a turkey and maybe turkey gravy)
Julia's pumpkin pie
Julia's pecan pie
mulled cider

We'll see which foods people enjoy the most. Feel free to share your vegetarian Thanksgiving plans in the comments! Ha ha, just kidding, I know you are all cooking.

Vegetarian Snausage in Sauce

This side/ desperate person's entree really speaks for itself. It's one of those Clean-Out-The-Fridge-Before-Thanksgiving Dishes, but that doesn't mean it wasn't warming, comforting, and super super quick.


1 four-snausage package of Tofurkey Kielbasa sausage, sliced into thick rounds
oil
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
dried basil
dried oregano
1/4 sliced bell pepper
handful of frozen pearl onions
1/2 Cup cooked broccoli florets

1. In a pot, sauté snausages in oil. When they've browned a bit, add sauce.
2. Add several shakes of the dried herbs. Toss in pepper and onions.
3. When everything's hot, add the broccoli and heat through. Serve by itself with a spoon and a roll or over pasta or rice or mashed potatoes or whatever.

Serves 3 to 5, depending on hunger and aforementioned additions.

Fresh Mint Tea

George invented this recipe to substitute for the famous mint tea at our local Lebanese restaurant, International Delights. For 2-3 people, fill a medium teapot with 2 bags of black tea, a spoonful or two of sugar or honey, and roughly 6 fresh mint leaves. Pour boiling water over it, stir, and cover. Let steep 5 minutes. Serve steaming hot in tiny tiny i mean miniscule tea cups and sip while arguing robustly over the Meaning of Life.

Chickpea and Artichoke Side Salad

In my book, chickpeas and artichokes are natural BFFs.  I cooked up this side in about 5 minutes and had leftovers the next day. Tasty warm and tasty cold, this side goes well with rice and other sides like steamed broccoli, sliced pears, or tomato soup.

An insect managed to procreate within my ground coriander bottle, so I didn't add any coriander to this recipe. The garbanzo beans did fine on their own, but feel free to experiment.

Artichokes and Chickpeas with Warm Spices

1 4oz. jar artichokes, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
a few shakes of ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
a few shakes ground ginger
a pinch of ground cinnamon

In a fry pan, heat some vegetable oil. Add spices. Cook 30 seconds.
Add chickpeas, combine with spices, and heat up while stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, chopped up the artichokes into small pieces.
Add the artichokes to the chickpeas. Heat through and serve.

No Cooking Lately, plus Hot Mulled Cider

Sorry I haven't been updating lately! My mom visited and cooked a freezer-full of homemade food for me, so I don't need to cook much lately. Hopefully I can get a good plum torte recipe up soon.

In case I haven't posted my Hot Mulled Cider recipe before:

One enormous jug of old-fashioned apple cider (NOT apple juice)
1 stick cinnamon
2-4 whole cloves


The key ingredient here is time.  Pour everything into a big pot, cover, and set over your lowest heat setting for 1.5 to 2 hours. Taste it. It should taste rich and delicious. At this point, you can start serving for a day-long autumn festival, or you can take it off the heat and stick it in the refrigerator. It will taste delicious cold or reheated.