Getting Started with #WFPB in April

Here's the beginning:

Cook soup ahead. I usually have 2-3 different soups in the freezer, so that I am never caught short.
Also some form of dal, or curry, or beans can be cooked ahead. Rice can be cooked ahead.

Since my freezer was empty, I made some Split Pea soup this weekend, to get my month started right. I will cook more soups during the month eventually building up to having 2-3 soups to choose from, until I build it down again and start the cycle anew. I do not believe in fossilized soup in the fridge.
For the rest, I have some frozen mixed vegetables, and some frozen spinach in the fridge, for an emergency, and some whole wheat flour and gram flour that just keeps better in the freezer.

I also always have icecube trays with frozen veggie stock for when I caramelize onions.

Split Pea Soup

Great basic recipe for vegan split pea soup, adapted for #WFPB, by leaving out the oil.

View on allrecipes.com

It might be of interest to compare to the basic recipe I started with online... I removed the oil, but used more onions and garlic, among other things.

Ingredients

2-4 onions, cut fine
4-6 chilis, cut fine
1 seeded, jalapeno, cut fine
3 bay leaves
3-6 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups (2 lbs) dried split peas
1/2 cup barley
1-1/2 tbsp liquid aminos
8-10 cups of vegetable or mushroom bouillon (2 pints)
(Alternatively, half vegetable bouillon and half water with a whole king mushroom, cut up)
3 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 potatoes, diced
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
optionally other vegetables, such as parsnips, or turnips etc.

Preparation

In a large pot over medium high heat, saute the onion, dry for for a total of 10 mins, 5 mins no stir, and 5 mins stirred while adding some 2-3 veggie stock ice cubes, then bay leaf and garlic, cook for 5 minutes on medium.
Add the peas, barley, liquid aminos and water.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.
Simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, cut up the veggies.
Add more water as needed for the right thickness.
Add the carrots, celery, potatoes, parsley, basil, thyme and ground black pepper.
Simmer for another hour, or until the peas and vegetables are tender.

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Breakfast: Steelcut Oats Plus

Breakfast today... as is typical for this time of year...

What is that?  I always make the oats for 2 days, and today was the 2nd day, so I'll have the oats with apple, blueberry, cinnamon, raisins and goji berries in the fridge, so I just have to heat it up.

• steelcut oats
• grated apple
• cinnamon
• 1 tsp of goji berries
• 1 tsp of raisins
• fresh banana
• fresh strawberry, or whatever other berries or other fruit I might have
• a drizzle of balsamic vinegar
• more cinnamon
• milled flax seed and hemp hearts

Snack: Steamed kale with Sweet Potato

• One bunch steamed kale
• One boiled potato (Japanese is my preference)
• Mustard seeds
• 1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar.

The balsamic is probiotic and a preservative, this mixture stays good in the fridge, so I can snack from if for a day or more. One bunch makes 4-6 portions. The Mustard seeds are courtesy to Dr. Michael Greger, and his research that cooking kale actually destroys certain beneficial enzymes, but some mustard seeds added in after cooking restores that again.

Lunch

Some of that kale with sweet potato salad,
A Cucumber salad with a 1/2/3 with dill and garlic dressing, with chia seeds.
and some of that soon-to-be-famous Split Pea Soup

Step One for Dinner

Rice Cooker #101

For dinner tonight (and a few more days this week) I am having GABA Brown Rice, this time half and half:

• Lundberg Short Grain Brown Rice,
• Black Rice.

I put it on after breakfast, on the timer for 6:30 at night. The GABA brown rice process is the healthiest way to eat rice, but it takes 3.5 hours - but a good rice cooker handles all that automatically. The cycle is a 2.5 hour soak, allowing the rice to germinate, and then an approx 1 hour cooking cycle, in my trusted rice cooker.

For details on my preferences about kitchen gear, see my main site, in particular this article about My Tools for the Plant-Based Kitchen.

Dinner

Salad with Red Leaf Lettuce

Red leaf lettuce
chopped red onion
peppers in 2-3 colors chopped up
tomato cut up in small pieces
quinoa, milles flax seed, and some chia seeds
1/2/3 dressing with lemon, lime, garlic and parsley
some capers, and some salad olives.

Main course: Curry of Broad Valor Beans and Japanese Eggplant

That main dish was a leftover from the weekend, but I'll make this recipe again as I am trying to perfect it.

GABA Brown Rice update

The healthiest rice you can eat is GABA brown rice, aka sprouted brown rice, or also GBR (GABA Brown Rice, or Germinated Brown Rice).

KOSHIHIKARI Sprouted Brown Rice

GABA Brown Rice was traditionally developed in Japan for its easier digestion, but modern research has shown it to have superior nutritional value. One of the specific parameters that improves with germination is the presence of an amino acid, gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, which increases tenfold during germination. It is regular brown rice which is soaked long enough to start the germination process.  Other nutrients that are high in GABA brown rice are ferulic acid, Lysine, magnesium, potassium, zinc, Vitamin E, and many B (especially niacin, and thiamin) vitamins. The sprouting process also provides increased dietary fiber. (Sources: https://www.kitchenstewardship.com/germinated-brown-rice-has-the-u-n-finally-heard-nourishing-traditions-wisdom/, and https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/cereal/brown-rice.html)

Until now, GBR has not been available in our neighborhood, and I recently bought some of this Koshihikari GBR to familiarize myself with store bought GABA brown rice. I previously reported on making GABA brown rice at home, with a sophisticated rice cooker. Obviously, that is a good method, for it is completely automated, but there are some advantages to store-bought GABA Brown Rice.

Packaged GABA brown rice has increased shelf life compared to regular brown rice. Regular brown rice has about a three month shelf life, and longer if you keep it in the freezer. I cannot find good information on exactly what the shelf life of sprouted rice might be, as compared to basic brown rice, other than  "longer," but no doubt that information will show up one of these days.

Neerob Tradition at Packsun Restaurant, some recipes

Neerob is Mohammed "Khokon" Rahman's favorite symbol, both for his store on Starling Avenue, and for his restaurant, called Packsun on Westchester avenue, where the Neerob label is also prominently displayed.

Last week Packsun was extensively written up in the New York Times. Clearly, Khokon and his team produce quality food for a moderate price in our neighborhood.

I am deeply honored to be working with Khokon on the no-oil vegan project. For now, the plan is to launch with a taste testers dinner on Tuesday 4/4 at 9PM. After that on 4/25, there will be a dinner following the showing of Forks over Knives at NY Public Library at Parkchester, from 5 - 7 PM.


Here are some of the recipes we prepared last week for the first time, which I now made at home over the weekend, and with great success. Here is the list, followed by comments on the preparation.

1. Sautéed spinach with onions, garlic and green chili peppers.
2. Yellow lentils, tomato, onion, garlic, green chili peppers, and some turmeric, liquid aminos and pepper
3. Water squash (this is a light green squash that is popular with the Bangladeshi community), eddo (a delicious tuber, Jamaicans call this white coco), tomato, onion, serrano peppers, garlic, turmeric, a bay leaf and liquid aminos.

Because of timing, the rice should come first. I used Lundbergh Organic Brown Basmati Rice, cooked in my Zojirushi rice cooker on the GABA (germinated) Brown Rice cycle. That takes two and a half hours, but obviously, you can make it ahead of time. I put it on at lunch with a timer for dinner time.

The next dish should be the lentils:

• Start with softening the onions without oil or water, but just before they start to brown too fast, add in the crushed and chopped garlic, a half dozen of small green chilis. Finally add a tomato, diced.
• Now, add a half a cup of vegetable bouillon (or can be water from steaming vegetables), then add the lentils and more boullion till the lentils are adequately covered, and add turmeric, liquid aminos and pepper to taste.
• This needs about 35-45 mins until the lentils are done.

 Then comes the squash dish

•  Peel the water squash and eddo, peel and slice or chop the onion.
•  Start with the onion, again, dry without oil or water, and when the onions start getting soft, add the crushed/chopped garlic, and the sliced peppers, and now add first the eddo in 1/2" slices, and next chunks of water squash (I quartered it lengthwise and then cut it in 1/4" slices). Add the diced tomato, and again, add some vegetable bouillon before anything starts getting burned, in small amounts.
• Add enough bouillon to allow this to simmer and cook nearly dry while you prepare the spinach.

The spinach comes last, because it cooks the quickest:

• Stir-fry the onions first, adding the garlic and serrano peppers (halved length-wise), allow to simmer long enough so it starts getting soft.
• When the stir-fry gets soft, add the spinach, after a thorough washing and chopped to manageable size. 

In this dish there should be no need for any water, as the spinach contains a lot of water and creates a delicious flavor.

The above should take you no more than 45 mins to one hour to prepare. It is a festive dinner, with delicious aroma. Obviously, you can vary the level of "heat," depending on the number of pepper, and salt & pepper can be used to taste.

The plan is to continue replicating these recipes at home every time, before writing them up here. All ingredients are available at Neerob Bazaar, 2085 Starling Avenue.

Happy and healthy cooking to all.