New Vegetarian Recipes!

After much avoidance over the holidays, I am back to blogging! This is gonna be just a few recipes I've been enjoying during doing the Daniel Fast with my church. The idea is to eat only fruits and vegetables, specifically avoiding alcohol, sugar, meat, dairy, and wheat, though you can choose to eat other grains. Thus I've been challenged to eat vegan/vegetarian with a few more limitations.

Fasting is an incredible way to maximize the body's ability to clean and heal itself, as well as removing mental and spiritual clutter and making room for literal "soul" food. In addition to better sleep, digestion, and a revitalized spiritual life, I've found both of these recipes incredibly satisfying.

Sweet Potato, Red Kale, and Quinoa

The sweet and savory flavors of this dish make it quite complex and very satisfying.

• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 bunch red kale pieces
  
• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 Tbsp Herbes de Provence
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
  

Dice sweet potatoes into triangles and roast for 15-20 minutes with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, until soft. Heat olive oil on medium in a large skillet and add kale. Stir for about 2 minutes, add quinoa, sweet potatoes, and remaining seasonings and stir until everything is hot and mixed, about 4 minutes.

Easy Coconut Curry
I don't have a picture of this, but the fat in the coconut milk combined with some starchy vegetables provides nutrition that satisfies. Once again, the sweet-salty combination fulfills the desire we have for a variety of tastes so many modern meals are lacking. I've kept this curry simple, and the combination of umeboshi vinegar and soy sauce makes the curry milder yet brings out a variety of flavor.

1 Tbsp coconut oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 cloves or tsps diced garlic
1 can coconut milk
1 cup vegetable broth
1 Tbsp curry powder
2 turnips or rutabagas, peels and chopped
1 cup cabbage (or napa cabbage), chopped
1 cup daikon radish, peeled and sliced
1 cup carrot, peeled and sliced
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 can green beans, drained
2 Tbsp umeboshi vinegar (ume plum vinegar)
2 Tbsp soy sauce (nama shoyu if you can get it)

Saute the onion in coconut oil on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes; add garlic and saute 1 minute. Add coconut milk and veggie broth, bring to a boil, add turnips or rutabagas and reduce heat to medium. Chop cabbage, daikon, and carrot and add along with the curry powder, stirring to mix it in. You may need to add a little more broth if the curry is too thick.

After vegetables have cooked about 5 minutes more, toss in chickpeas, green beans, and umeboshi vinegar. If you're using regular soy sauce, add this now; if you're using nama shoyu wait until you are ready to eat to include it to get the maximum benefit of it as a raw, fermented food. You shouldn't need to add any salt because the vinegar and the soy sauce will provide it.

Simmer curry for at least twenty minutes, longer for more flavor, and serve plain or over quinoa or rice.

Recent Cookery: Art, Failure, and Practice

I have been doing a good bit of cooking lately, so I'm trying to catch up. I've also been attempting to improve my photo-taking, so below you'll find a "gallery" of pictures in which I've attempted to capture the art of cooking.

This leads me to something I've been thinking about: cooking really is an art. By that I mean that it has to be practiced. Sometimes you just don't get it right, for example:

This looks like a pretty nice (if bland colorwise) meal of halibut poached in white wine, butter, and chives, with kolhrabi (which had a beautiful purple skin before I peeled it), and okra fritters. I followed actual recipes for the halibut and the fritters, yet found both to be disappointing.

So, it's back to the drawing board. My friend Katie, who is a restaurant manager and a mean cook, and I got together and just combined ingredients. From scratch and our imaginations, we came up with a fantastic dinner, which I've taken pictures of below.

It's always fun to start out with an appetizer, in this case Normandy Farms bread,
EVOO with salt and pepper, cheese, and a glass of red.

a lovely salad Katie prepared with arugula, mushrooms, cucumbers, yellow pepper, shredded carrots, snow peas,
and a mixture of red wine vinegar with beet and carrot salad dressings from Whole Foods salad bar

Farmer's Market basil pasta with seared scallops and a colorful zucchini, squash, and red pepper stirfry

That's a lot more like it!


Not long after, my sister and I made dinner. She has embraced kale as wholeheartedly as I have (must run in the family) and made a fantastic Chopped Kale Salad (recipe below) over red quinoa. We grilled okra and chicken and enjoyed it all with a glass of white wine.


Chopped Kale Salad, Coco Style

• 1 avocado
• 1/2 red onion, diced
  
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
  
• 1/2 lemon
• grated ginger (optional)
• 1 cucumber
• 1 bunch red kale
• sea salt to taste
  

1. In a large bowl, mash avocado with lemon juice, diced red onion, diced peppers, and sea salt to taste. Add grated ginger if desired.
2. Wash and finely chop kale and cukes. Toss in avocado dressing until coated evenly. If kale seems too crisp, add more lemon and salt to soften.

Serve chilled.

Taco Night!

Taco Night is my favorite night in the kitchen, for so many reasons. First of all, it's fun and easy to make. You can whip up the basic ingredients in a few minutes and let everybody fix his or her own. Second, it's a great clean-out-the-fridge meal; I like to saute whatever veggies I have lying around. (This is how I created my fantastic Sesame Cabbage recipe.) Third, it's a great option for vegetarians, vegans, and meat-eaters alike--all at the same time.

Here's my Taco Night basic grocery list.

• hard or soft tacos (I prefer Ezekiel tortillas)
• organic ground beef, chicken, or your fave meat/meat alternative (preferably tofu or tempeh rather than a processed soy meat substitute)--or you can simply leave out the meat option
  
• Monterrey Jack cheese (raw is great, but get your fave kind)
• cheddar cheese (again, I like to use raw)
• chili powder
  
• pickled jalapenos (no preservatives/colorings, etc.)
• jarred salsa (again, no preservatives, etc.)--or make your own
  
• canned corn and/or black beans (no salt added)
• Romaine lettuce or arugula
  
• red and/or white onions
• cilantro
  
• whatever veggies you have on hand. The recipes below include bell peppers, squash, zucchini, cabbage, celery, mushrooms, tomatoes, kale (of course), arugula, you name it.
  

Just adapt the recipes below to ingredients you have on hand, or use them to build your own specific grocery list.


Basic Taco Beef (serves 4)

• 1 lb ground pasture-fed beef
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• salt to taste

Add beef, chili powder, and salt to large saute pan (I like a cast iron skillet). I don't usually cook my beef with any oil because if you start off cooking on medium heat and cover the pan after a few minutes, beef will create its own "oil." However, if you need a little liquid to get started, the juice from a jar of pickled jalapenos adds some great seasoning!


Honey Lime Chicken (serves 4)

• 1 lb chicken
  
• 3 Tbsp honey
• juice of one lime
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp chili powder
  

Marinate chicken in honey, lime juice, salt, and chili powder for one hour, then grill or bake 15-20 minutes till cooked through, turning once. Slice chicken and serve.


Sunset Pepper Stir-fry

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 purple onion, halved and sliced in thin strips
• 2 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, halved and sliced in thin strips
• 1 yellow bell pepper, halved and sliced in thin strips
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
  

Saute onion and celery in olive oil on medium heat for 5 minutes; add peppers and saute 3 minutes. Sprinkle with lime juice; you don't need other any seasoning on these veggies; they add a sweet flavor and colorful enhancement to your tacos.


Taco Rice

• 1/2 white onion, chopped
• 1 8-oz can tomatoes
• 1 8-oz can black beans
• 1 8-oz can corn (or corn sliced from 2-3 fresh ears)
• 1 cup cooked rice (leftover rice from my "Not-so-boring Brown Rice is great for this!)
• chili powder and salt to taste
• 1 tsp cumin (optional)

Add onion and tomatoes to fry pan and simmer on medium heat for five minutes. Add black beans, corn, and rice; stir and simmer on medium-low heat for another five minutes. Add chili powder and salt to taste. If you're using plain brown rice, a teaspoon of cumin spices up this dish. Sometimes I like Taco Rice on the side and sometimes I like it in my taco. It all depends on your mood.


Sesame Cabbage
This might not sound like a Taco Night recipe, but it's absolutely delicious in a taco, and satisfying like meat, especially when you include taco mushrooms.

• 2 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 head organic green cabbage, chopped
• 2 Tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp cumin

Saute onion in coconut oil for one minute on medium-high heat; add cabbage, sesame seeds, and cumin, and saute till cabbage is tender, about 8 minutes.


Taco Mushrooms
I LOVE mushrooms on my tacos! They're meaty and juicy and add great texture and flavor to tacos.

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup white onion, diced
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
  
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
  
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme

Saute onion in olive oil on medium heat for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, chicken broth, lime juice, and thyme; simmer on medium low for 5 minutes. Remove thyme sprigs and serve.


Spicy Greens
This is an adaptation of one of my favorite greens recipes, courtesy of my good friend Lori.

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced (try grating it with a lemon rind or ginger grater)
  
• 1/2 bunch kale (I'm loving lacinto these days), collards, or mustard greens
• 2 cups baby arugula (this is great just raw on your tacos, too, like lettuce)
• 1 tsp chili powder
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt to taste

Saute garlic in olive oil on medium heat for 1 minute. Add greens and saute 2 minutes; then add lemon juice, chili powder, and salt. Saute 5 minutes or until greens are slightly translucent.


Salsa Relish
I made this recipe up when I had a bunch of old tomatoes I didn't want to throw away. They were far from bad, but wrinkly, squishy tomatoes gross me out--so I cooked them.

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 leek, sliced
• 1-2 fresh jalapenos, sliced and de-seeded
• 2 lbs tomatoes, preferably blanched and peeled
• 1 tsp salt
• fresh cilantro

Saute leek and jalapeno in olive oil on medium heat for 3 minutes. Chop tomatoes coarsely and add to pan along with salt; simmer on medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Serve with fresh cilantro on top.

Now you're ready to build your tacos! Add jalapenos, cheese, salsa, lettuce, sour cream, lime juice...whatever sounds good to you, as long as it's as fresh and whole as possible!

And for dessert...cherries and peaches, and maybe a little vanilla ice cream, too.

What's your favorite taco topping?

More Great Recipes Sites from Readers!

So...got some reader responses from last week's blog recommending some more good recipe sites!

Emily C., fashionista and grad student extraordinaire of Sartoriography, one of my fav non-food-related blogs, recommended an all-vegan site, which was conspicuously missing from my list! Fashion and food have a lot more in common than you might think--you gotta eat right to feel comfortable in your favorite clothes, and Emily clearly does.

If you're a vegan or vegetarian, Hell Yeah It's Vegan is written by Claryn, who "doesn't believe in buying food" and also is "just about as far as you can get from being a health food junkie." Therefore, her recipes involve buying and doing things that normal people do (rather than people like me who love to visit the tiny Middle Eastern food market in North Charleston, where I got a free--and very painful--reflexology treatment).

Seriously, Claryn might be far from a health-foodie, but she's got gluten-free and raw recipes, among others--but let me tell you, this gal doesn't skimp on desserts! She says she has "never eaten so well" since going vegan, and I believe her. Everything on her site looks amazing and truly homemade. She does include soy milk and soy cheese in some of her recipes, but everything is in moderation and most of it is whole-food oriented.

Rochelle D., web series producer, designer, online marketer and brand developer, blogs about anything related to marketing, social media, and web production; however, I know from personal experience that she's also a whiz in the kitchen. She loves Simply Recipes, which is a great site for entertaining, specifically unique brunch recipes, which as a Charlestonian I'm partial to.

This site makes great use of herbs and spices, and offers vegetarian, low-carb, and gluten-free recipes in addition. It advocates: "Do not use cheap vegetable oil (corn, canola, etc) as a substitute because you will definitely taste the olive oil in the final dish." I agree from a taste as well as a health standpoint. Elise Bauer, who writes the blog, believes in "a varied, healthy diet, using real butter, real cream, eggs, lots of green vegetables, and protein from meat, fish, beans, and cheese." Hear hear!

Yes, these two ladies are good friends of mine, but you don't have to know me to have your fave recipe site featured on my blog. I'll check it out, critique it for pros and cons, and share it with my readers!

Planet Green

A friend recently turned me on to Emeril Green hosted by Planet Green. I don't have cable, but the Web site offers Emeril articles, episode guides, and a recipe archive. There's also a lot of information about other green initiatives, including greening your kitchen.

I see green living and preventive eating as going hand in hand. We take in an appalling number of pollutants from our environments regardless of how we eat. Toxins enter our skin through shower water as well as what we drink; I've read recent articles about antidepressant and birth control pill residue passed through human waste that are not removed by current filtration systems and infiltrate the general water supply (Google "antidepressants in drinking water). We breathe in exhaust fumes, secondhand cigarette smoke, and of course pesticides every day.

Eating with awareness and prevention in mind, as well as doing a small part towards environmental repair. Try eating less meat, the farming of which not only uses vast amounts of water but contributes 18 percent towards greenhouse gas emissions--more than transportation! This doesn't mean you have to be a vegetarian, but a diet of less red meat not only can contribute towards lower cholesterol, weight loss, and a reduced chance of heart disease, but it increases your chances of trying a variety of veggie alternatives with a host of benefits, such as intestine-cleansing fiber and free-radical-busting antioxidants.

Here are some of my favorite vegetarian recipes that guarantee you won't be missing meat for long. And try using organic vegetables for these recipes specifically, even if your budget doesn't support an all-organic diet.

Grilled Portobello Steaks--Try these on a George Foreman grill or broiled in unsalted veggie broth with a drizzle of olive oil to cut the fat in this recipe.

Roasted Veggie Lasagna--Don't be afraid of eggplant! Choose a small one or opt for the baby variety, and slice thin for flavor without bitterness or toughness. Or try this Noodle-Free Lasagna recipe from Self.com's database.

Beet Salad--Again from Self.com, a great low-calorie recipe site that stays away from artificial sweeteners, packaged soup fillers, and , this fabulous salad is surprisingly filling and great for those dog days of summer. Beets are easy to prepare--simply rinse, roast in-skin, and then easily peel the cooled veggies. They're also bursting with sweet flavor and antioxidants.

Vegetable Soup--As fall approaches, soup becomes one of the best ways to enjoy vegetables and fill up. This is my mother's tried and true base:
Saute onion, garlic, and a chopped celery stalk in 1 tsp olive oil. When veggies begin to brown, add no-salt-added vegetable broth and a can of no-salt-added diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil and add chopped carrots and potatoes or butternut squash. Once these have simmered about 5 minutes, then you can add these quicker-cooking vegetables that are fresh, frozen, or canned: green beans, broccoli, cabbage, corn, kale or chard, zucchini, yellow squash, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and other canned beans or pasta. Add water, salt and pepper as needed, and top with any fresh herb: parsely, thyme, sage, oregano, chives, or dill. You can also do a rice base instead of potatoes for this soup; I like brown basmati rice, which cooks more quickly than regular brown rice and adds a nuttier, sweeter flavor.