One armed #WFPB with Neerob Restaurant

This is a case of necessity being the mother of invention. Some of us struggle to find the time for food prep, and if you really want to embrace the Whole Foods Plant-Based lifestyle, you have to create a routine that will get you through the week reliably. One solution is a new dinner special from Neerob. This particular challenge gained some fresh perspective for me recently, when I fractured my right wrist, and food prep became very hard. Now it was not just time, but a physical restriction.

I had an interesting experience with my friend Khokon, the owner of Neerob Restaurant, which has, since February of 2019 been the first restaurant in the Bronx certified by Plant Pure Communities. And, while Covid rudely interrupted us, we are now slowly working on a finding some sort of a new equilibrium, a new normal. The process was advanced a bit by my having a fractured wrist, which limited my food prep capabilities:

Dinner for three days, anyone?

Of course it was my right hand and I am right handed, and it is amazing how clumsy you can be with your non-dominant hand. I am getting better, but undoubtedly I will still be far from proficient when the cast comes off on December 3rd.

But a solution emerged quickly. It will soon be on the menu and we are going to develop a new page on the Neerob Website for #WFPB food.

There will be a "Market #WFPB" dinner, consisting of Salad, Rice, a Dal (lentil sauce) with a green vegetable in it, and one or two veggie dishes.

For a small extra charge, you can get the "Market #WFPB ++" for which they could make enough extra of the dal, and the veggie dishes to take home for at least two more days.

Day 2 & 3 

It could look like the dish on the right, or like the dish at the bottom (separate pics of salad and dinner)

On the second and 3rd day you would make your own salad, and cook your own rice, and get some low fat whole wheat and flax tortilla wraps from OLÉ, available at Chang-Li Market.

You can then make yourself some kind of a burrito with rice, dal, some veggies, and, if you want, some pickled jalapeños (I put1 4-5 nacho slices in each one).

You can vary the salad endlessly. This would cut your prep-time significantly, I ate two or three of those burritos for dinner. Easy, even if you only have one arm!

One day Shamim made me a dish with Brussels sprouts, and the next day I ate it as a salad next to my burrito, with rice and dal and jalapeños, and the third day I added a bag of roast chestnuts and that made a whole meal. Side salad optional.

Typically, I bring my own brown rice, for it is too much to ask them for making special brown rice for one. Not enough demand as yet.

Mexican #WFPB Fusion Cauliflower Burrito

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower split in florets

1 large or 2 smaller onions cut up fine
3-6 garlic cut up fine
1 cup water with Yondu, or Braggs Liquid aminos
1 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp curry powder
1 serrano pepper cut up fine
2 jalapeño peppers cut up fine
1 bell pepper cut up in small chunks

======besan sauce

1/4 cup chickpea flour (besan)
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tbsp black salt (kala namak)

======faux parmesan

1 cup cashews
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tbp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black salt

========

rice
optional spinach leaves
whole wheat, low fat burrito wrappers.

Note: I am using Olé Extreme Wellness Whole Wheat Tortilla Wraps with Flax, with just 2 or 3% fat.

Preparation

Steam the culiflower florets for 7 mins - al dente

Roast the onions dry for 5 mins
Stir-fry the onions for aonther while adding water, and adding in the cut-up peppers and garlic
mix-in the turmeric and the curry powder.

Mix the besan, nutritional yeast and black salt, and let it simmer on low flame for a while
gradually add 2 -3 more cups of water to get a sauce if desired consistency.

meanwhile run the ingredients for the faux parmesan through the blender, until it's a find powder.
add the parmesan to taste.

lay out a burrito wrapper, cut up a few spinach leaves, to lay down a center stripe
lay a bed of rice on top of the spinach, cut up some cauliflower and lay it in the rice.
poor some of the curry sauce over it to taste.
If desired you could add a few pickled jalapeños.

Roll-up and serve.

Eggplant Pizzaiola inspired by Neerob

 We just had our monthly dinner with Fr. David. at Neerob Restaurant. Always on the 4th Tuesday at 9PM, after his Bible Class.

Here are some of the pics:

Eggplant pizzaiola. Even some people who thought they did not like eggplant, loved it!

A wonderful mixed fruit salad including star fruit, dragon fruit, strawberries, blueberries, and arugula with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Out of this world.

A disch of couscous, chickpeas, with veggies, balsamic and lemon juice.

To to top it off there was a wonderful sauce with vegetables including zucchini, etc. (not in piture)

A wonderful time was had by all. 

The next day, I felt inspired to try my hand at the eggplant pizzaiola at home. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients:

• 1  medium sized eggplant
• 1-2 onions cut-up fine
• several garlic cloves
• some peppers (any color), cut up in small chunks
• some fresh tomatoes, or, in my case used a 13.8 Oz package of Pomi Crushed Tomatoes.
• Italian spices
• a carrot shredded
• some black olives sliced.
• 1 cup of water with Yondu or Braggs Liquid Aminos

Preparation:

• roast the onions dry for 5 mins,
• begin adding in the water with yondu, the peppers, shredded carrot and garlic and stir fry for another 5 mins until the onions are caramelized.
• add in the tomatoes and the italian herbs, Let simmer for 15 mins.
• Cut up the eggplant in 1/2" slices
• Put them on a silicone sheet on a backing tray, cover with the tomato sauce
• Oven 350F, 25 mins.

That's all folks. 
if you want to make it "cheesy" you can make some vegan "parmesan" 

1 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder

in the blender for a minute or two. 

Cactus Salad - Ensalada de Nopales

 I wrote this up before.

https://starlingaveplantbased.blogspot.com/2020/10/mex-wfpb-002-nopales-cactus-salad.html

Today, I made it with 4 leaves nopales, and 1 jalapeño and 2 Serrano peppers, otherwise as before.

In other words, spicy. And nowadays I like to eat this type of stuff with tostadas

Ingredients:

4 good size Cactus leaves, cleaned.
1 Red Onions
15 Oz can of diced Tomato
Optional: avocado
1/2 bunch Cilantro
2 tbsp (Mexican) Oregano
some daikon, cut up fine
2 Serrano peppers and/or 1 jalapeño, 
3/2/1 dressing with lemon and lime
cubes of firm tofu

2-3 tbsp of nutritional yeast.

Note: hot and spicy!

Also, the tofu gives the substance of cheese, and the nutritional yeast give an extra cheesy flavor.

You can tone it down by using 2 jalapeños and 1 serrano pepper.

Also, adding avocado, will make it milder.

Preparation:

• Cut the cactus leaves in 1" strips and cut in 1/2" chunks.
• Cook in boiling water with some onion and garlic.
• Let cool
• meanwhile:
• Cut up the red onion
• Combine with the diced tomatoes
• add the cilantro, Mexican Oregano
• add in the radishes, cut fine, and/or the avocado, cut in slivers.
• cut up the peppers (jalapeño, serrano, as the case may be)
• add the salad dressing
• mix and add in the nopales when cool.
• Let it marinate in the fridge.

==== En Español =========================================

Ingredientes:

4 hojas de cactus de buen tamaño, limpias.

1 cebolla roja

Lata de 15 onzas de tomate cortado en cubitos

Opcional: aguacate

1/2 manojo de cilantro

2 cucharadas de orégano (mexicano)

un poco de daikon, cortado bien

2 chiles serranos y / o 1 jalapeño,

3/2/1 aderezo con limón y lima

cubos de tofu firme

Nota: ¡caliente y picante!

Puedes atenuarlo usando 2 jalapeños y 1 chile serrano.

Además, agregar aguacate lo hará más suave.

Preparación:

Corte las hojas de cactus en tiras de 1 "y córtelas en trozos de 1/2".

Cocine en agua hirviendo con un poco de cebolla y ajo.

Deje enfriar

mientras tanto:

Corta la cebolla morada

Combinar con los tomates cortados en cubitos.

agrega el cilantro, orégano mexicano

agregue los rábanos cortados finos y / o el aguacate cortado en rodajas.

cortar los chiles (jalapeño, serrano, según sea el caso)

agregue el aderezo para ensaladas

mezclar y agregar los nopales cuando estén fríos.

Déjalo marinar en la nevera.

================================================================

Cooking inspiration with Yondu Culinary Studio

 We have used Yondu in our cooking classes, and it is an amazing tastemaker in the kitchen.

The company is doing some online cooking classes, and they are worth attending, you will get ideas. You can register for the classes through Eventbrite here.

Having said that, like most food businesses, they are trying to leverage the "plant-based' trend only in the general sense, and they stick to a traditional nutritional model, which can be confusing, particularly when it comes to the usual misunderstanding that it is hard to get sufficient protein on a plant-based diet. With high school nutrition, people worry always about "but where do you get your protein?" which is not warranted, and seems to be a problem only because they do not know the actual protein content of foods (like even rice or potatoes at 10-11% of calories from protein are a perfectly balanced food). The corollary to that problem is also the overconsumption of protein in the standard diet, which turns out to be unhealthy in the first place. So, as long as you get your staples of rice, or potatoes, etc., you can build a meal around that. In short, if the general conversion from a "normal" recipe to a #WFPB recipe involves seeing to your staples, which need to be complex carbs (brown rice, potatoes, or whole grain pasta, etc.) and not refined foods. Aside from that, you typically make more veggies than "ordinary food." That can include both cooked and raw.  

Accordingly, if I use a Yondu recipe here, I may post some comments or variations from time to time to illustrate how you can easily make proper Whole Foods, Plant-Based meals with Yondu. Used properly, Yondu allows you to create a lot of flavor without adding a lot of salt and that is really the crux of the whole thing. Their classes have given me some great ideas.

In my own cooking the easiest taste makers ("umami" is the word of the day for aromatic and flavorful taste) are:

1. Yondu
2. Braggs Liquid Aminos
3. Panch Puran

Caramelizing onions

These days, caramelizing onions for me often involves Yondu, though sometimes, depending on what I am cooking, I may start with roasting some Panch Puran in my pan (the seeds, not the powder).

Here is my routine:

1. [optional] Roast Panch Puran for 5 mins at 350F
2. Dry roast the chopped onions at 350F for 5 mins (optionally chopped chili or peppers can also be added at this stage.
3. Continue another 5 mins at 350F, and gradually stir in a cup of water with 1 Tsp Yondu.
4. Add in chopped garlic

That's a great start for many wonderful vegetable dishes. You can make spinach, Malabar spinach (in my Bangla neighborhood "Poi leaf"), Amaranth leaves (" shaag"), chard, any green leafies can be started this way.  On the other hand, we also know that our taste buds do change on a plant-based diet, and I am often amazed how good something simple like steamed spinach can be.  

Peppers Galore, it's Mexico time!

 One thing is to know your peppers, and another thing is to know your eaters. Different people appreciate heat from peppers differently, and you want to be appropriate. I give the heat in SHU, Scoville Heat Units, and of course you have some control for you can always make any pepper milder by seeding them.

My repertoire of Peppers is based on what is prominently available in my neighborhood. And I will bring in some information from a site called Pepperscale.

1. Bell Peppers - Capsicum Annuum. I just include them for good order. They do not pack any heat necessarily, but they come loaded with vitamins and flavor. Get all the colors, they all represent a different nutrient profile and variation is the name of the game.
2. Jamaican Peppers - Capsicum Annuum (also). 
3. Poblano Peppers - slightly hot and aromatic, ca. 1,250 SHU.
4. Chilaca Peppers - 1000 - 2,500 SHU - slightly hotter than Poblano. VEry flavorful.
5. Jalapeño Peppers - 2,500 - 8,000 SHU median 5,250 SHU. Clearly hot, but aromatic. One of my favorites.
6. Serrano Peppers - Median 16,500 SHU, ranging from 10,000 - 23,000 SHU. Like Jalapeño, but clearly hotter (3x). 

I will keep on editing this list.

Today, I am making Black Bean Salsa, but with a poblano, a chilaca, a jalapeño and a serrano pepper, as well as thee stalks of celery,  so I am clearly trying to create some depth of flavor but with some zing to it. I make sure to slice the serrano and the jalapeño extremely thin.

The recipe then becomes something like this:

Black Bean Salsa

• 1 lb of black beans, soaked and cooked, or 2 15 Oz cans (or 1 25 Oz can) of black beans.
• 1 can of corn
• 1 bunch of fresh cilantro, cut up fine.
• 3 stalks of celery, sliced thin
• 1 16 Oz jar of Green Salsa
• Juice of 3 limes
• The simple version is with 3 jalapeños, or 2 jalapeños and a serrano pepper, sliced thin,
  but today, I made it with four peppers:
• 1 serrano pepper, sliced thin
• 1 jalapeño pepper, sliced thin
• 1 poblano pepper, sliced thin
• 1 chilaca pepper, sliced thin.
• 2-3 tbsp of nutritional yeast
• 1/2 lb of firm tofu, cut in small cubes

It is always best the next day, after it marinates in the fridge.

the tofu give the suggestion of cheese, and the nutritional yeast enhances the cheesy flavor.

En Español:

Salsa de Frijoles Negros

1 libra de frijoles negros, remojados y cocidos, o 2 latas de 15 Oz (o 1 lata de 25 Oz) de frijoles negros.

1 lata de maíz

1 manojo de cilantro fresco, cortado fino.

3 tallos de apio, en rodajas finas

1 bote de 16 Oz de Salsa Verde

Jugo de 3 limas

La versión sencilla es con 3 jalapeños, o 2 jalapeños y un chile serrano, en rodajas finas,

pero hoy lo hice con cuatro pimientos:

1 chile serrano, en rodajas finas

1 chile jalapeño, en rodajas finas

1 chile poblano, en rodajas finas

1 chile chilaca, en rodajas finas.

2-3 cucharadas de levadura nutricional

1/2 libra de tofu firme, cortado en cubos pequeños

Siempre es mejor al día siguiente, después de marinar en la nevera.

el tofu da la sugerencia de queso, y la levadura nutricional realza el sabor a queso.

Salsa de Frijoles Negros

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And, I am serving it on oil-free tostadas, this brand: Tostadas Buena Vista, has three varieties, Corn, Sesame, and Multigrain. They are all delicious.

I get them at Frutas Y Vegetales La Reyna at 1300-1302 Beach Avenue (corner Westchester Avenue), Bronx, NY 10472. (Across the street from South of France).

Recently, I also made cactus salad and served them on these same tostadas. Winner!

 

Pasta Bolognese #WFPB style

Pasta Bolognese has some nostalgic value for me. When I was in highschool, if I wanted to take my girlfriend out to dinner, it was spaghetti bolognese at a Rotterdam institution, a student café/restaurant, De Pijp (the Pipe). A small restaurant on a side street, that was for students, and you always needed to be introduced by one of the members, the general public was not welcome. It still exists today, and it claims to be the oldest restaurant in Rotterdam.

So when Dr. Anna Borek (@ScepticalDoctor on Twitter), posted this recipe, I had to make it... and of course you can vary this endlessly, but the core concepts are simple and powerful.

The recipe has been tested by a neighbor and myself, as well as by Fr. David at St. Helena's and Rosemarie Ortiz, the church secretary. Everybody liked it!

Tofu Bolognese Sauce

from Anna Borek, The Sceptical Doctor

Tofu Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients

2 blocks of firm tofu
1 cup of cut-up celery stalks
1 cup of cut-up red onions
1/2 cup of water
3 cloves of garlic (or more, depending on your religion)
1 cup of cut-up carrots
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
a pinch of salt (or, alternatively use water with 1 tsp yondu)
2x 15 Oz or 1 25 Oz can of tomatoes
2 heaped tbsp of tomato paste.
1 cup of wine
2.5 cups of cooked red lentils (1 cup dry)
1 bunch chopped spinach
3 tbsp of Italian seasoning
1 cup of water
vegan parmesan to taste

Preparation

• cut up the tofu into small cubes, and bake until evenly browned.
• Precook the lentils - 3 mins of high pressure in the Instant Pot will do.
• stir fry the celery and red onions in water in the sauce pan
• add the garlic, diced carrots and cut-up mushrooms and lest it simmer for 10 minutes
• add tomatoes, tomato paste and wine, as well as lentils, spinach and italian seasoning, as well as the baked tofu
• simmer for 1-2 hours

for good measure, I am adding a recipe for vegan parmesan. 

Vegan Parmesan

View on minimalistbaker.com

Ingredients

1 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Preparation

In the blender until it is a fine powder.

Note: 

I happily made the sauce with 1 bloc  of Tofu and 4 cups of mushrooms  (I used Baby Bella), because that is what I had around. I also threw in towards the end a box of grape tomatoes, careful not to cook them to the point of bursting. They enhance the fresh tomato taste. Or, you can use an extra package of diced or crushed tomatoes to enhance the tomato flavor and make the sauce a little thinner. Lastly you should always add a few scoops of the cooking water from your pasta to the sauce.

Note that in many pasta sauces, sugar is used to dampen the acidity, but in this sauce it is really the sweetness from the carrots which blends away the acidity, with an assist from the neutralizing flavor of the lentils.

Winter #WFPB Bean Soup Extravaganza 006h Rogier's Fusion Bean Soup

Again, small steps, big consequences. This week I tried Dominican Red Beans, and just a few small tweaks to the recipe.

For one thing, I had recently begun using some fennel in the recipe, as well as some Panch Puran, aka Panch Phoron which is itself a mixtutre of five spices, which conveys a rich aroma. It contains the following seeds: 

• fenugreek
• nigella
• cumin
• black mustard
• fennel

Now, you can get it ground up, as a powder, or in the form of seeds. If you get it whole, the proper way of using it is to roast it in the pan before you do anything else. This step releases the flavor, you just have to watch that you don't actually burn the seeds. 

This time I used a tablespoon of Panchpuran with an extra tablespoon of fennel seeds. Personally, I found the fennel too strong in the resulting soup, but some others loved the fennel aroma, which shows you again how difficult it can be to satisfy all tastes. For the next time, I will still use the tablespoon of Panchpuran, but will reduce the fennel to 1 teaspoon instead of a tablespoon.

The new routine is now simply to pre-cook the beans with just the kombu in the Instant Pot, and then to create the base in my HestancCue Chef's pot, where the steps now are:

1. Pre-roast the Panchpuran (whole seeds, not powder), and fennel. Sofar I am trying 7 mins at 300F. The trick is to release the flavor, but not burn the seeds. We don't need charcoal in the soup.
2. Caramelize the onions, along with peppers, by dry roasting about 6 minutes at 350F
3. Add in the other herbs and spices and stir-fry by adding a cup of water and Yondu, another 6 minutes at 350F, and next
4. Add the other herbes and spices and the pre-cooked beans with liquid, and let it simmer at 230F for about 15 mins.

While it is simmering, I start to build the broth, and I let that simmer to the point that the veggies are getting soft, and then I add in the bean base and more water as needed (usually about a pint).

Then I let ic simmer together for 30 mins until it is time to take out the bay leaves and the cloves, and at that point I take out about 1/3rd or the soup, and the other 2/3rds are pureed with a stick blender.

The list of beans. This week it was the turn of Dominican Red Beans, so here is where we are on the list.

1. Dutch Brown beans (bruine bonen - the reference bean)
2. Roman beans (aka Cranberry beans, aka Borlotti beans, aka Cargamanto beans). A very close second indeed.
3. Small Red Beans. On the heels of Roman beans.
4. Pinto beans. Fine as well, but not as creamy, slightly flatter tasting.
5. Red Kidney Beans. Totally delicious just as well. 
6. Dominican Red beans, delicious. <Bean of the week, this week).
7. Central American Red beans, next week.
8. Pink beans - future.
9. Red Cargamanto - future.
10. White Cargamanto - future.

Winter #WFPB Bean Soup Extravaganza 006g Rogier's Fusion Bean Soup

The transformation of my soup project is complete.

• It started out trying to re-create my mother's Bruine Bonensoep (Dutch Brown Bean Soup), which was a favorite dish of my youth, that I have not tasted since I lived in the USA for now 42 years.
• Then the project evolved to finding out the types of beans that were most similar in taste to the Dutch bruine bonen, which are not available in NYC, where I live. I got up to 4-5 varieties to try, including some of the Dutch beans, which I ordered from the Netherlands. After perfecting the recipe, I froze a bunch of cup-size portions of the soup that was made with the bruine bonen. And every Sunday, I cooked a new batch of soup, and on Monday, I would have the taste test. Of the first five varieties we tried, in the end I probably had a slight preference for the Dutch bruine bonen version, but only slight. Simply all of them were delicious in my book, and while slightly different from one another, at the end of the trip I could not decide if any one of them was simply BEST. The truth was, they were all good. So the next question was, with how many bean varieties can I really make this soup?
• Eventually, I also realized that I was no longer thinking in terms of recreating bruine bonen soup, and that while I started from the traditional Dutch recipe, the question had now become not which is the best bean to make this soup, but how many varieties of beans that are readily available to me can be used to make this soup. The list is starting to grow, but I am at 10 for now. In the process, I am now calling this recipe Rogier's #WFPB Fusion Bean Soup. Somebody already asked me to open a restaurant based on this recipe. You never know what the future may hold...

1. Dutch Brown beans (bruine bonen)
2. Roman beans (aka Cranberry beans, aka Borlotti beans, aka Cargamanto beans). A very close second indeed.
3. Small Red Beans. On the heels of Roman beans.
4. Pinto beans. Fine as well, but not as creamy, slightly flatter tasting.
5. Red Kidney Beans. Totally deliciouis just as well. This was this week's variety
6. Dominican Red beans, future.
7. Central American Red beans, future.
8. Pink beans.
9. Red Cargamanto
10. White Cargamanto.

In short, I now am half way through my new list of 10 bean varieties that all lend themselves to making this style of soup. The recipe is about half beans, half veggies, and it produces a thick soup - the type of soup that I call a meal soup, where a coup and a salad really makes a meal worth living for. A soup you can stick a fork in, so to speak.

The Updated Recipe

Inevitably, the recipe has evolved throughout this exercise, and I am printing the newest version here. The new ingredients are Fennel, and Panch Puran:

Ingredients

===the substance===

1 lb cups of Roman beans (Borlotti beans, Cranberry beans), or Pinto beans, or Red Kidney beans, or, but of course, Dutch Bruine Bonen), dry
1 strip of kombu for soaking overnight
1 tsp -1tbsp fennel for cooking the beans
12 Oz block of baked seitan (kao fu) or alternatively a cup of TVP (Soy chunks) - added with the veggies.
1/2 lb of barley - added with the veggies.

===The Base===

1 tbsp of Tianjin vegetables
1 tbsp summer Savory (note this also helps with digesting beans)
1 tsp-1tbsp Panch Puran
3 medium size yellow onions, cut-up fine
3 shallots or other small onion
6-10 cloves of medium sized cloves of garlic, minced
1-3 toes of turmeric, minced or 1 tbsp of turmeric powder

1 cup water with 1 tsp of Yondu for sautéing the onions and peppers
2-3 Thai chili, green
1-2 jalapeños, cut-up fine
1 green bell pepper
1 tbsp of ground Annato seeds
1 tsp smoked paprika (?)

===The Veggies===

1 leek, washed and sliced fine
1 cup of eddo.
3 stalks of celery, including leaves
2-3 red skin potatoes, washed and diced,
2-3 carrots peeled & diced
other root vegetables as might be around, turnips, parsnips, celeriac root etc.
2 tomatoes, or a 15- Oz can of diced tomatoes
2 quarts of veggie broth, or water with Vegetable Better Than Bouillon or similar. More water as needed.
3 bay leaves
3 cloves
3 sprigs of thyme, fresh if you can, or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1-2 tbsp of either miso or gochujang (or 1 tbsp of each) at the end to finish the taste mild with miso or hot with gochujang (or half and half)

Preparation

• Soak the beans overnight (minimum 6 hours ideally), with the kombu
• Drain the beans and cook with water, including the kombu, and fennel in the Instant Pot on Pressure Cook High for 10 mins.
• Meanwhile, cut up the onions fine, add in the panch puran, and dry roast for 5-7 mins at 350F (Medium High) - until the edges start to brown, but before they stick to the pot.
• Add in the minced garlic, minced shallots and sliced chilis, jalapeños, pepper and turmeric and stir fry it for another 5-7 mins, adding about 1 cup of water with Yondu.
• Add in the cooked beans and the savory and let it simmer together for 15 mins.
• In a separate pot, add the veggie broth and slowly bring it to a boil and turn it down to a slow simmer.
• Add in the barley, the cut-up veggies, potato, thyme and other spices and seitan and allow to cook slowly until veggies being to get soft.
• Add in the beans + the base of onions and allow to simmer another 30 mins or longer
• Add the tomatoes and more water to gain right consistency
• You can make the soup thicker by pureeing half or 2/3rds with an immersion blender, while leaving the other half/one third alone, so you can still see some beans and some chunks of vegetable floating in the soup.
• Finish the taste with miso (mild) or gochujang (hot & spicy).
• Note, if you have people who want it milder, go to the low end with the hot peppers, i.e. 2 chilis, 1 jalapeño. That is just enough for a hint. I then finish it in two batches, one with miso, and from that I put aside an amount for the "mild" customers and one with gochujang for the customers who like it spicy. Then, after I set aside enough "mild" soup, I combine the two. The Gochujang elevates the spicy nature and the miso adds the deep aroma.

Winter #WFPB Bean Soup Extravaganza 006f Small Red Bean Soup

 Ok, here is yet one more variation. Small Red Beans are often used in similar ways as Pinto Beans and Red Kidney Beans, though they taste quite different, so this attempt will introduce a 5th variety of bean in our lineup. By now, I am convinced that this basic recipe is quite flexible and brings out the natural aroma of the beans, so much so that the differences in flavor are merely interesting, and not at all "right" or "wrong." For me personally, the process of this recipe development has led me well past my mother's cooking. No longer am I trying that ever elusive idea of re-creating the flavor of my youth, it is now merely an interesting exercise to try and improve on the last version, but they're simply all good. 

One other new element that I am introducing in this version is Fennel seed (aka. Anise seed), which supposedly also helps with the digestibility of beans, but evidently also tastes good, and this will set me on a new course to make this soup even more aromatic. Along with it, I also added Basil, Cloves, and Oregano, creating a deeper and more complex aroma.

Updated Bean Ratings

Based on today's results, here are my up to date ratings for the different beans in this style soup. Meanwhile I note that the differences are so slight, that I honestly can say I like all of them, and I feel inspired to keep trying more different bean varieties, and appreciate the differences. Meanwhile, it is clear to me that different people have different tastes, and getting the ratings has been very confusing. Just today someone told me that they liked Pinto beans best, whereas I put them near the bottom of the list. So trying to make sense of people's tastes is nearly hopeless, though I try to figure out what it was they liked or did not like.

1. Dutch Brown beans (bruine bonen)
2. Roman beans (aka Cranberry beans, aka Borlotti beans, aka Cargamanto beans). A very close second indeed.
3. Small Red Beans. On the heels of Roman beans.
4. Pinto beans. Fine as well, but not as creamy, slightly flatter tasting.
5. Red Kidney Beans. For the future: rating to be confirmed based on taste testing.
6. Dominican Red beans, future.
7. Central American Red beans, future.
8. Pink beans.
9. Red Cargamanto
10. White Cargamanto.

The ever evolving recipe

Bruine Bonen Soep - Reference

The purpose of this recipe was to make a comparison of the taste of different beans, based purely on keeping everything else the same.
I am trying red kidney beans, pinto beans, roman/borlotti/Cranberry beans, Small Red Beans and even bruine bonen from Holland.
Also take note of the site https://bruinebonensoep.com

Source: somehow, this is the recipe I started from: 
https://www.thedutchtable.com/search/label/Bruine%20Bonensoep%20%28Dutch%20Brown%20Bean%20Soup%29

Ingredients

===the substance===

1 lb cups of Roman beans (Borlotti beans, Cranberry beans), or Pinto beans, or Red Kidney beans, Small Red Beans or, but of course, Dutch Bruine Bonen), dry
1 strip of kombu for soaking overnight
1 tsp fennel for cooking the beans
1 tbsp summer savory for cooking the beans
12 Oz block of baked seitan (kao fu) or alternatively a cup of TVP (Soy chunks).
1/2 lb of barley

===The Base===

1 tbsp of Tianjin vegetables
3 medium size yellow onions, cut-up fine
3 shallots or other small onion
6-10 cloves of medium sized cloves of garlic, minced
1-3 toes of turmeric, minced or 1 tbsp of turmeric powder3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 cup water with 1 tsp of Yondu for sautéing the onions and peppers
2-3 Thai chili, green
1-2 jalapeños, cut-up fine
1 green bell pepper
1 tbsp Summer Savory
1 tbsp of ground Annato seeds
1 tsp smoked paprika (?)

===The Veggies===

1 leek, washed and sliced fine
1 cup of eddo.
3 stalks of celery, including leaves
2-3 red skin potatoes, washed and diced,
2-3 carrots peeled & diced
other root vegetables as might be around, turnips, parsnips, celeriac root etc.
2 tomatoes, or a 15- Oz can of diced tomatoes
2 quarts of veggie broth, or water with Vegetable Better Than Bouillon or similar. More water as needed.
3 bay leaves
3 cloves
3 sprigs of thyme, fresh if you can, or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp of either miso or gochujang at the end to finish the taste mild with miso or hot with gochujang

Preparation

• Soak the beans overnight (minimum 6 hours ideally), with the kombu
• Drain the beans and cook with water, including the kombu, and fennel and savory in the Instant Pot on Pressure Cook High for 10 mins.
• Meanwhile, cut up the onions fine and dry roast for 5-7 mins at 350F (Medium High) - until the edges start to brown, but before they stick to the pot.
• Add in the minced garlic, minced shallots and sliced chilis, jalapeños, pepper and turmeric and stir fry it for another 5-7 mins, adding about 1 cup of water with Yondu.
• Add in the cooked beans and let it simmer together for 15 mins.
• In a separate pot, add the veggie broth and slowly bring it to a boil and turn it down to a slow simmer.
• Add in the barley, the cut-up veggies, potato, thyme and other spices and seitan and allow to cook slowly until veggies being to get soft.
• Add in the beans + the base of onions and allow to simmer another 30 mins or longer
• Add the tomatoes and more water to gain right consistency
• You can make the soup thicker by pureeing half or 2/3rds with an immersion blender, while leaving the other half/one third alone, so you can still see some beans and some chunks of vegetable floating in the soup.
• Finish the taste with miso (mild) or gochujang (hot & spicy).
• Note, if you have people who want it milder, go to the low end with the hot peppers, i.e. 2 chilis, 1 jalapeño. That is just enough for a hint. I then finish it in two batches, one with miso, and from that I put aside an amount for the "mild" customers and one with gochujang for the customers who like it spicy. Then, after I set aside enough "mild" soup, I combine the two. The Gochujang elevates the spicy nature and the miso adds the deep aroma.

Winter #WFPB Bean Soup Extravaganza 006e Borlotti Bean Soup

One mo' time with the Borlotti Bean soup, where Borlotti beans, and Roman Beans, and Cranberry Beans, and Cargamanto Beans are all the same thing...

The model is still a variant of the Dutch Bruine Bonensoep (Brown Bean Soup), and Borlotti Beans are a very good substitute if the original Dutch beans are not available.

The recipe is increasingly stabilizing. All the ingredients are in the pictures. The first two pics are the kombu and beans, soaking and in the Instant Pot. The 3rd picture has all the other ingredients.

===the substance===
1 lb cups of Roman beans (Borlottib beans, Cranberry beans), or Pinto beans, or Red Kidney beans, or, but of course, Dutch Bruine Bonen), dry
1 strip of kombu for soaking overnight
1 tbsp summer savory for cooking the beans
12 Oz block of baked seitan (kao fu) or alternatively a cup of TVP (Soy chunks).
1/2 lb of barley

===The Base===                                                    

1 tbsp of Tianjin vegetables
3 medium size yellow onions, cut-up fine
3 shallots or other small onion
6-10 cloves of medium sized cloves of garlic, minced
1-3 toes of turmeric, minced or 1 tbsp of turmeric powder3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 cup water with 1 tsp of Yondu for sautéing the onions and peppers
2-3 Thai chili, green
1-2 jalapeños, cut-up fine
1 green bell pepper
1 tbsp of ground Annato seeds
1 tsp smoked paprika (?)

===The Veggies===
1 leek, washed and sliced fine
3 bay leaves
1 cup of eddo.
3 stalks of celery, including leaves
2-3 red skin potatoes, washed and diced,
2-3 carrots peeled & diced
other root vegetables as might be around, turnips, parsnips, etc.
2 tomatoes, or a 15- Oz can of diced tomatoes
3 sprigs of thyme, fresh if you can
2 quarts of veggie broth, or water with Vegetable Better Than Bouillon or similar. More water as needed.
1 tbsp of either miso or gochujang at the end to finish the taste mild with miso or hot with gochujang

You can check the earlier posts for the precise methodology, just a few notes here: 

This is an elaborate soup, but by multi-tasking you can compress the cooking time. The beans with kombu and savory, if you soaked them overnight, go in the Instant Pot for just 10 minutes on pressure cook. If your did not soak them it's just 25 mins.

I cook the base and veggies separate up to a point, again, this creates a multi-tasking opportunity, the beans and the base can be cooking while you're prepping and pre-cooking the veggies. Once the onions etc. are done, I add in the beans from the Instant pot and let them simmer for 15 mins, while the veggies come to the boil. When the veggies get soft, I add the beans & base mixture, and then I let the whole thing simmer slowly for 30 mins. That's when I take out 1/3rd before I smoothe the soup with the stick blender.

I shred the veggies fine with the mandolin. In the end, I smooth 2/3rds of it with a stick blender, and then I add in the other 1/3rd and the Seitan, cubed. This way, the Seitan stays intact. I let it simmer with the Seitan for 5 minutes, while stirring and after I turn off the heat I add 1-2 tbsp of miso dissolved in 1-2 cups ov water. That finishes the taste. If you like really spicy, you can use 1 tbsp of Gochujang instead of one of the tablespoons of miso. It does not need anything else. Rich, aromatic meal soup. 

This soup and a salad makes a meal any day of the week.

Reviving my Dutch Culinary Tradition

 Today 2/2/21, I posted on FB about my own Dutch culinary heritage.

My top ten for Dutch dishes... bearing in mind that my focus is on healthy food, in the tradition of whole foods, plant-based nutrition, but I keep exploring dishes that I want to rediscover. Recently, I made a great effort about bruinebonensoep. Snert, split pea soup I have long since had under control, but after that, it gets fuzzier... I want to write down my tentative list here, with a request for suggestions, and an emphasis on the idea that there are no really healthy oliebollen and appelflappen, for there are no healthy fried foods, although some of us can work miracles with an airfryer. I note also that I was raised vegetarian, but of course today dairy is out completely too.

1. Bruine bonensoep - Dutch brown bean soup. Current favorite. https://starlingaveplantbased.blogspot.com/.../winter...
2. Snert, erwtensoep - split pea soup. https://starlingaveplantbased.blogspot.com/search...
3. Brussels lof - Belgian Endives, As a child, we ate this with boiled potatoes and hardboiled eggs, with a cheese sauce with a whiff of nutmeg. Right now I make it with a sauce of besan (chickpea flour), nutritional yeast, and black salt, with some turmeric (use fresh if possible). Better than the original.
4. Spruitjes - Brussels sprouts. Stemed or roasted with chestnuts and some nutmeg. With either potatotes or rice, and the rice you can spruce up with an caramelized/chopped onion and some mixed veggies if you like.
5. Bloemkool - caulifflower. Easy enough with some kind of a curry sauce. Serve with vegetable rice, or potatoes, and combines very well with roasted/stirfried mushrooms. Or, I like to make lasagna with cauliflower and tofu, but that's not very Dutch. (My pasta sauce was already famous when I was a teenager, and came in handy when I was married to an Italian, though my mother in law never forgave me, because my wife thought my sauce was better than her mother's).
6. Koolraap - Kohrabi. Interestingly, this was a use for caraway seeds. I regarded that as a very typical Dutch dish always. My mother steamed it and made it with a sauce based on whole wheat flour with caraway seeds and pepper and salt, which if fine. Recently, I have been making it more hungarian style, as gulash, which is excellent.
7. ?
8. ??
9. ???
10. ????

Ok, that is my list so far. There may be another dish or two I am not remembering at the moment, but I am asking for suggestions for #7-10 positions. I am curious what people on this list might come up with. Evidently, I am limited by what is available around here (Bronx, NY), which is a lot, but not everything. I have never seen capucijners here for example.

I will post some of the responses here, and they will become the raw material for new recipes in the future...

1) Lenny Dadak Kastelein

7. boerenkool/kale. 8. rode kool. 9. peen en uien.

ad 3. brusselslof als salade met wat zoete ingredienten zoals fruit en rode ui.

ad 4. spruitjes met champignons, uitje en knoflook.

ad 5. gebakken bloemkool roosjes, of als salade met wat olijfolie en azijn.

Lenny Dadak Kastelein

Rogier F. van Vlissingen

leuk en wat me nog te binnen schoot : de nederlandse groentesoep vindt ik ook iets speciaals ...
Tr: Dutch veggie soup is also something special.

Jitske Marijke

--Red beets in any form, but grilled on bbq best. My favorite birthday food as a kid

--Bloemkool, nutmeg, grated cheese

--Tomato soup met balletjes. Any day. Any time.

--Bahmi, or, what my children call Chinese Spaghetti with veggies (onion, celery, bean sprouts, spinach, bok choy, etc) instead of that horrible marinara-type tomato sauce.

Note; I would treat Bahmi more under Indonesian cooking, for that is where it comes from.

Rianne van Rijnbach

Hutspot (carrots, oinions, patattos, a little bit of applesirop, a little bit of milk (or subsitute) and unsalted butter (or subsitute) all musshed together ) and a good veggie rookworst ^^

I think my spelling is a little bit off today sorry!

Winter #WFPB Bean Soup Extravaganza 006d Dutch Brown Bean Soup

 Bruine Bonensoep, folks. That's the Dutch name. Here they are.

These were organic beans from Albert Heyn in the Netherlands. Not available in the USA. The only thing I could find here was HAK bruine bonen in a jar,  but I prefer to cook with the dried beans.

Inevitably the recipe has been evolving during this test run, and I am going to make it a few more times to really stabilize it.

The Final Recipe (for now)

Bruine Bonen Soep - Reference

The purpose of this recipe was to make a comparison of the taste of different beans, based purely on keeping everything else the same.
I tried red kidney beans, pinto beans, roman/borlotti/Cranberry beans, and this time bruine bonen from Holland.
Also take note of the site https://bruinebonensoep.com and http://www.bruinebonenbende.nl

Source for the precursor to this recipe (as you will see, I have much expanded and altered it, though arguably in the same style): View on thedutchtable.com

The bottom line is the Dutch beans are creamier than the others, and make a better soup, but on the whole, I think the differences are very small, and that became evident from the ratings from various taste testers.

Ingredients

===the substance===
1 lb cups of Roman beans (Borlottib beans, Cranberry beans), or Pinto beans, or Red Kidney beans, or, but of course, Dutch Bruine Bonen), dry
1 strip of kombu for soaking overnight
1 tbsp summer savory for cooking the beans
12 Oz block of baked seitan (kao fu) or alternatively a cup of TVP (Soy chunks).
1/2 lb of barley
===The Base===
1 tbsp of Tianjin vegetables
3 medium size yellow onions, cut-up fine
3 shallots or other small onion
6-10 cloves of medium sized cloves of garlic, minced
1-3 toes of turmeric, minced or 1 tbsp of turmeric powder3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 cup water with 1 tsp of Yondu for sautéing the onions and peppers
2-3 Thai chili, green
1-2 jalapeños, cut-up fine
1 green bell pepper
1 tbsp of ground annato seeds
1 tsp smoked paprika (?)
===The Veggies===
1 leek, washed and sliced fine
3 bay leaves
1 cup of eddo.
3 stalks of celery, including leaves
2-3 red skin potatoes, washed and diced,
2-3 carrots peeled & diced
other root vegetables as might be around, turnips, parsnips, etc.
2 tomatoes, or a 15- Oz can of diced tomatoes
3 sprigs of thyme, fresh if you can
2 quarts of veggie broth, or water with Vegetable Better Than Bouillon or similar. More water as needed.
1 tbsp of either miso or gochujang at the end to finish the taste mild with miso or hot with gochujang

Preparation

• Soak the beans overnight (minimum 6 hours ideally).
• Drain the beans and cook with water, including the kombu, and savory in the Instant Pot on high for 10 mins.
• Meanwhile, cut up the onions fine and dry roast for 5 mins at 350F (Medium High) - until the edges start to brown, but before they stick to the pot.
• Add in the minced garlic, minced shallots and chilis, pepper and turmeric and stir fry it for another five mins, adding about 1 cup of water with Yondu.
• Add in the cooked beans and let it simmer together for 15 mins.
• In a separate pot, add the veggie broth and slowly bring it to a boil and turn it down to a slow simmer.
• Add in the barley, the cut-up veggies, potato, tomato, thyme and seitan and allow to simmer until veggies being to get soft.
• Add in the beans + the base of onions and allow to simmer another 30 mins or longer
• Add more water to gain right consistency and finish the taste with miso (mild) or gochujang (hot & spicy).
• You can make the soup thicker by pureeing half with an immersion blender, while leaving the other half alone, so you can still see some beans and some chunks of vegetable floating in the soup.
• Note, if you have people who want it milder, go to the low end with the hot peppers, i.e. 2 chilis, 1 jalapeño. That is just enough for a hint. I then finish it in two batches, one with miso, and from that I put aside an amount for the "mild" customers and one with gochujang for the customers who like it spicy. Then, after I set aside enough "mild" soup, I combine the two. The Gochujang elevates the spicy nature and the miso adds the deep aroma.

=========================================================================

That is it. End of the soup challenge for the winter of 2021.

I will make the recipe a few more times, but the above is my conclusion sofar. I was particularly happy that I found a ways to easily accomodate a few people who like it a bit milder than what I prever.

Conclusion

As to my preference for the bean varieties which I tried, it is as follows.

1. Dutch Bruine bonen - they seem to be the creamiest.
2. Roman beans, aka Borlotti beans, aka Cranberry beans, aka Roman beans, aka Cargamanto beans - these run a close second
3. Pinto beans. Well known from radio and TV. These make a very credible soup also.
4. Rec Kidney Beans. For a long time, I use to thing these were a direct equivalent to the Dutch original, but no. These make a decent soup, but #2 and #3 above are closer to the original, so in a way, Red Kidney Beans would be my last choice.