Sunday, November 14, 2021

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.







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