A Fermented Feast for Breakfast (FFB)

 This is natto on steroids:

This is the finished product, showing the label of the natto, which is from whole aduki beans - with a very lovely full flavor.

Above is the finished breakfast, but the next few pictures show the building blocks:

• Natto, but I avoid the packaged fish-based sauce, and I use Yondu instead...
• Mustard, I use the mustard from the package
• Wasabi, besides the mustard, I add some wasabi.
• I use some dried chives
• and a fresh scallion
• and then a 50/50 mixture of brown basmati and black rice.
• And the clincher is adding one or two forkfuls of vegan Kimchi vegetables.

Irresistible. This wakes you up!

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.  

Winter #WFPB Bean Soup Extravaganza 006a Kidney Bean Soup

After checking with some Dutch contacts online, there was disagreement if Dutch Bruine Bonen are most closely approximated with red kidney beans, or pinto beans, or some other kind of bean (somebody came up with a wild suggestion, about a bean variety I never heard of, borlotti beans, which I may also try), ideally, of course you would make it with Dutch Bruine Bonen. It should be noted that in Holland Bruine Bonen Soep is enough of a phenomenon so it has it's own website.

Anyway, my purpose no longer is to approximate my mother's recipes. My cooking has evolved over time, and it is now just a matter of improving the recipes. This time around, it will be a battle of the beans, between red kidney beans and pinto beans.

I will standardize the recipe, from the original post Dutch #WFPB Improv 001 Bruine Bonen Soep - Kidney Bean Soup. 

This first go-around will be with red kidney beans.

To make the comparison meaningful, I will standardize the recipe exactly. This is the beginning of #WFPB soup science.

 

 

 

Ingredients

1 lb cups of red kidney beans, dry
1 strip of kombu for soaking overnight
1 tsp summer savory for cooking the beans
3 bay leaves
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 powder
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 cup water with 1 tsp of Yondu for sautéing the onions and peppers
3 Thai chili, green
2 jalapeños, cut-up fine
1 green bell pepper

1 leek, washed and sliced fine.
1 cup of eddo, shredded.
3 stalks of celery, including leaves, sliced fine
2-3 red skin potatoes, washed and diced,
1-2 carrots peeled & diced
2 tomatoes, or a 15- Oz can of diced tomatoes
12 Oz block of baked seitan (kao fu) 
1 quart of vegetable broth
1 quart of water with Vegetable Better Than Bouillon

add more water as needed...

To finish: some miso (mild), or gochujan (hot), dissolved in a cup of water.

The Process

• 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)
• 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 2 pints of veggie broth.
  
• Add in the cooked beans 
• puree with a stick blender
• Add in the cut-up veggies, potato, tomato, thyme and seitan and simmer on low for 30 mins.
• Add more water to gain right consistency and finish the taste with miso (mild) or gochujang (hot & spicy).

Notes:

• by adding some miso or gochujang at the end, you can actually make two batches, one for folks who cannot take too much heat, and the other for the ones who love heat. Do NOT Cook the miso, just blend it in at the end, dissolved in a cup of water.
• If you cook the beans normally, it takes far longer, like 1.5 hours or so to pre-cook the beans.
• It is your option if you want it chunky or smooth. I like to purée the beans right when I add the stock (to cool them off also). Then, if you cut your veggies fine, as well as cut your seitan into small cubes, you can continue cooking and have a chunky soup or, if you want it smooth, use your trusty immersion blender once more.
• My annotations will change in terms of temperatures, but 5 minutes roasting at 350F is how it works on my equipment, but what it means is: roast it dry until the edges just start to brown. And then, you stir-fyr it by gradually adding your water with Yondu for another five minutes. If your equipment has a temperature readout, it may well be different from mine. The result is what matters.

Meanwhile, I did some research on beans... All in the interest of science, shall we say. Meanwhile, to satisfy the bean counter in me (after all, I am Dutch), I had to figure out the prices:

1) Red Kidney Beans - $2-3/lb (Organic nearly 50 - 100% more).

2) Pinto Beans - same thing, $2-3/lb, and organic 50-100% higher.

3) Borlotti Beans (aka. Cranberry beans) - regular 4 lbs/$16, which works out to $4/lb and Organic 50-100% more.

4) Dutch Bruine Bonen, at 10 Kg/EUR30 plus freight EUR 40, or at today's rate of $1.21 = $84.70. Equals $8.47/kg and = $3.84/lb and organic was about EUR 50/kg, so that works out again in the 50-100% premium range. You would have to buy at least 10kg to keep the shipping economical. So I would end up making Bruine Bonen Soep for a year.

Next week, we'll do it again, in exactly the same way, except with Pinto beans.

Mexican #WFPB Bean Soup Improv 004 - Three Sisters Posole

I wrote about Three Sisters Posole (Pozole de Tres Hermanas) before, here. 

This time, I improvised a little further: 

View on nutritionstudies.org or Pozole de las tres hermanas in Spanish.

Ingredients

2 cups dried blue corn posole, or hominy
1 cup tepary beans, or any kind of small beans ( I used navy beans this time)
1 cup barley (optional)
1-2 onions
1 tsp Yondu
2 medium zucchini
4-8 garlic cloves
1 tsp Savory
2+ tsp Mexican Oregano
1- Tbsp ground red chili, and/or, use some chilis and/or jalapeños chopped up with the onions - adjust quantities accordingly.
8 cups vegetable stock
2 tbsp arrowroot, corn starch or potato starch
1 lime
Sea Salt to taste

Notes: 

You can obviously enrich this soup many different ways. I added one king mushroom, with the onions, garlic, at the outset. I use savory mostly in any dish that involves beans. I also cooked both the hominy and the beans with a piece of kombu.

Adding some Yondu in the stir-fry at the outset is one of the steps that increases the depth of the flavor. In my soup stock, this time I used one quart of store-bought veggie broth and one quart of water with about 1.5 tbsp Better Than Bouillon.  

 

Preparation

• Cook posole for 2 hours until tender - or shorter if using a pressure cooker. (Hominy in Instant Pot for 15-20 mins on High pressure)
• Cook the beans separately 1.5-2 hours until tender (Instant Pot for 7-8 mins or so).
• In a large pot, add the minced garlic, chopped onion, any peppers or chilis and stir-fry for 5-10 minutes, starting with a dry roast, and gradually adding 1 cup of water with the 1 tsp of Yondu.
  
• Add the cut-up zucchini, savory, oregano, ground chili, and vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
• Add the cooked posole and beans and barley if using. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes to allow the flavors to come together.
• Dissolve the 2 tbsp of arrowroot into the soup last and mix in well to thicken.
• if necessary, add sea salt to taste
   
• Serve with warm tortillas, wild onions, or scallions. and a squeeze of lemon or lime.

More Yondu Magic: Spaghetti with Mushrooms, Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes

This recipe was developed based on an online cooking demo by Yondu. It really proves the versatility of Yondu, which evokes a naturally aromatic flavor from veggie dishes like nobody's business.

The version that was presented in their online cooking class for meatless Mondays used EVOO, which is generally assumed to be healthy, but we know better, so in this version, I eliminated it, but in the process I think I proved the versatility of Yondu even more.

Quantities in this example are for 2 people.

Ingredients

8 Oz Whole Wheat Pasta, or whatever other type of whole grain pasta you desire.

Mushrooms

• 2 cups/ 7 Oz assorted mushrooms, sliced
  
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, sliced paper-thin
• some chopped fresh parsley for garnish
• 1 cup of water with
• 1 TBSP of Yondu
• 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper

Zucchini Tomato Stir-fry

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4-8 cloves of garlic, sliced paper-thin
• 2 cups of zucchini, sliced in 1" section and cut in eights.
• 1 cup (or more) of cherry tomatoes.
• some fresh basil garnish
• to taste perhaps 1 TSP Yondu (see under preparation)
  

Preparation

Note: Order is important here, cook the mushrooms first, using a 11" frying pan.

Mushrooms

• Clean the mushrooms and wipe with moist paper towel, do not soak in water, so they don't get soggy. Just wipe off any dirt. Slice them to about 1/8" thickness.
• Now roast the mushrooms over medium flame, so they begin to release moisture, stir lightly occasionally.
• When some browning occurs, but before they start sticking to the pan, add splashes of the water with Yondu, and eventually let the water evaporate completely, so there is no appreciable liquid (they will still look moist).
• Add in the crushed red pepper during the process. 

Here you can clearly see the mushrooms cooked dry, and a rim around the pan which is really Yondu with essence of mushrooms, so you can scoop out the mushrooms and garnish them, meanwhile reusing the same pan for the veggies, and de-glazing it first.

 

 

 

 Zucchini Tomato Stir-fry

• De-glaze the pan from the mushrooms and Yondu with a splash of water.
  
• Cut up the onion fine and begin roasting it briefly, ideally some edges starting to get brown, but it should not stick to the pan.
• Cut up the garlic fine while you do this, and then add the garlic.
• Stir in some of the water, no additional Yondu may be needed as you are de-glazing the pan and the residue may be enough. Optionally, you can add more, if you want a stronger taste.
• Add in the cut-up zucchini and the cherry tomatoes, and slowly drizzle in the rest of the water, stirring occasionally, until  the zucchini starts to get soft throughout.
• After the cup of water is boiled off, now you should add a few cups of the cooking water from the pasta, to sort of create a gravy with the garlic and onions.
  
• Serve and garnish with some fresh basil. 

 

Meanwhile, while you are cooking the veggies, boil 8 Oz of spaghetti, or linguini and make sure you keep the cooking water at the end.

Pea Walnut Mint Dip - with Yondu

 Super simple!!!

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/3rd cup walnuts
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• a sprig of mint leaves
• 1 TSP of Yondu
  
• 1/4 cup of water

Preparation 

Put the ingredients together in the bowl of a small food processor and blend together, voilà it's done. Finger licking good. Serve with some favorite raw veggies.

Note: the Yondu really does work wonders here!!! 

 

Recipe came from a Yondu cooking presentation, I just got rid of the olive oil... rest is the same as they did. You need to make sure you add the water in the food processor bowl, this is too heavy to process dry.

 

Dutch #WFPB Improv 001 Bruine Bonen Soep - Kidney Bean Soup

As a kid, growing up in Holland, I used to love bruine bonen soep. We were vegetarian, so besides leaving out the oil, I guess I could have used the recipe from those days, but I have no idea what my mother really did, although I liked to hang out in the kitchen and often helped with cooking.

Meanwhile, later, after I started living on my own, I became a bit familiar with the general Dutch way of making this type of soup, with sausage and bacon. Stick to your ribs as they say. In my #WFPB version, I allow for either TVP or baked Seitan to provide some of that chewyness that sausage might provide and that works quite well. I have even had some omnivore friends asking me what kind of meat this was. I get a kick out of that.

So, since I have quite an inventory of kidney beans and pinto beans and other pulses, I figured it's soup season and I made this improvisation based on a recipe from a Dutch website. The first few times I made it with pinto beans, because I have a lot of them in the house, but I am also going to make it with red kidney beans, which at least visually seem closer to the Dutch bruine bonen (brown beans). I know that in the past I did make a version with red kidney beans also. Next time I do, I am going to try to appreciate the difference in flavor.

I ended up straying very far from the original, but the result was amazing. My neighbor who ate some of it said it was the best soup he ever had in his life. In some versions of it, I've also added barley, which is very nice and makes it even more of a complete meal. Have a salad on the side and you have a highly nutritious complete meal. These days you can even find some whole wheat bread sticks if you're looking for crunch.

Bruine Bonen Soep

Kidney Bean Soup

View on thedutchtable.com

Ingredients

2 cups of kidney beans or pinto beans, dry
1 ounce of kombu for soaking
 

1tsp summer savory for cooking the beans
1-3 bay leaves
2-3 medium sized onions, cut-up fine
2-3 shallots or other small onion
4-5 chilis and/or jalapenos, or both - cut-up fine
2 quarts of veggie broth or alt. use something like Veggie Better Than Bouillon and water. More water to taste.
1 leek, washed and sliced fine.
5-10 cloves of garlic, minced
1-3 toes of turmeric, minced or 1 tsp of turmeric powder
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1/2 cup of celeriac root, parsnip, or turnip, or eddo.
2-3 stalks of celery, including leaves
2-3 potatoes, washed and diced,
1-2 carrots peeled & diced
2 tomatoes, or a 15- Oz can of diced tomatoes 

Optional: add in some barley for the last 30 mins.
Some Tianjin veggies
Some miso, or gochujan, or Yondu to taste.
If you want some chewyness, you could add in some baked seitan (kao fu), or ΅soy chunks/TVP. etc. Could also be mushrooms.

Garnish with parsley.

Preparation

• Soak the beans overnight (minimum 6 hours ideally).
  
• Cut up the onions fine and dry roast for 5 mins at 425F (Medium High)
• Add in the minced garlic, minced shallots and chilis, turmeric and stir fry it for another five mins, adding about 1 cup of water or veggie broth.
• Add in the drained beans and 2 pints of veggie broth. If you pre-cooked the beans in the Instant Pot, you can use the cooking water from the beans also.
  
• Let cook for 1- 1.5 hrs, until the beans are soft. Alternatively, you can cook the beans in water with the kombu in the Instant Pot. That will save time and energy (takes only 10 mins.
  
• Puree it with a stick blender or in a food processor.
  
• Add in the cut-up veggies, potato, tomato, thyme simmer low for 30 mins.
• Add more water to gain right consistency and finish the taste with miso or gochujang or similar.

Serve, enjoy.

 

 

 

 

The Low Down on Veggie Broth in the Hood

OK, it's time to take stock of (veggie) stock in the hood. I am not sure what the difference is between veggie stock and veggie broth. Wikipedia quotes James Beard as saying:

...that stock, broth, and bouillon "are all the same thing"

and it goes on to say that the distinction, if any, tends to be fluid. Swanson does seem to know the difference, but they don't explain it either: Organic Vegetable Broth, v.s. 100% natural vegetable cooking stock, and Vegetable Broth. I use them interchangeably.

One of the insidious features of any packaged foods is that you really need to read the label, for too often too much salt, sugar, or oil sneaks in, not to mention some other nefarious chemicals you may not like. However, if you do get into the habit, you will be rewarded and soon you will find your way to better solutions.

Remember always to check for what they say about serving size, for those can often be wildly unrealistic. A bag of potato chips may contain many "servings" but I don't know anybody who would not eat the whole bag. With veggie broth it seems to be easier - a serving is an 8 Oz cup. That much is straigtforward. The % of RDA means nothing for the RDA is completely different in plant-based nutrition. You want 10% of calories from fat (no added fat), 10% from protein, and 80% from Complex Carbohydrates. For sodium, the recommended level in the plant-based community tends to be 1,500 mg daily, whereas generally, anything below 2,000 mg daily is regarded as low sodium.

This time I want to research Vegetable Broth/Stock in our area. I am listing ingredients and prices and a recommendation. I will keep adding to the list. Besides Chiang-Li and Key Food, I will also visit ShopRite on the Bruckner.
I make note of the color because for some situations the dark color might be too much, e.g. if you want to create a light-colored sauce.

As to the salt content, clearly, there are several reasonable ones and a couple of very good ones. If the goal is not to exceed 1,500 mg a day, you can see how it adds up. Again, in general, anything below 2,000 mg/day is looked at as low salt.

Broth Alternatives

In our cooking classes, we have discussed both Bragg's Liquid Aminos and Yondu as easy alternatives to veggie broth.

For example, when caramelizing onions, you really only need a little bit of water to keep them good and liquid and prevent them from sticking to the pan or getting burned.
I typically use about 1/2 cup of water with a teaspoon of Yondu or Braggs if I do not have veggie broth handy.

Both are alternatives that are reasonably low in sodium.

At the other extreme, I periodically am brave enough to make my own veggie broth from roast veggies. Sometimes, when I do this, I also freeze a couple of trays of ice-cubes of veggie broth. 2-3 icecubes of broth may be all you need to liquify stir-fried onions.

Chiang-Li Supermarket

•  College Inn, 32 Oz 100% Natural Garden Vegetable Broth - $3.39
• 20 Calories
• 0 g of Fat (0% of RDA)
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 700 mg Sodium (30% of RDA)
• 4 g Total Carbohydrates (1% RDA)
• 3g added sugars
• 0g protein
• NB.: High in Sodium! This is a light colored broth.
• College Inn, 32 Oz, 100% Natural Garden Vegetable Broth (40% less sodium) - $3.39
• 0g Fat
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 420 mg Sodium (sic!)
• 4 g Carbohydrates
• 3g added sugar
• 0g protein
• NB: This is a light colored broth.
• Recommended!
•  Swanson, 32 Oz, Organic Vegetable Broth - $3.79
• 10 Calories
• 0g Fat
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 530 mg Sodium
• 2 g Total Carbohydrates
• 1 g added sugars
• 0 g Protein
• Recommended!
•  Kitchen Basics, 32 Oz, Unsalted Vegetable Stock.
• 0 g Fat
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 210 mg Sodium
• 100 mg Potassium
• 6g Total Carbohydrates
• sugars 4g
• 0 g Protein
• Recommended! 
• N.B. Color dark. 

 Key Foods, Metropolitan

•  Swanson, 32 Oz. Vegetable Broth,  on sale 2 for $6.
• 10 Calories
• 0 g Fat
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 800 mg Sodium
• 2 g Carbohydrates
• 2 g sugars
• 0 g Protein
• NB: High Sodium - avoid, color light.
• Swanson, 32 Oz. Vegetable Cooking Stock, on sale 2 for $6
• 15 Caloreies
• 0.5 g fat
• 0 g Cholesterol
• 550 mg Sodium
• 2 g Total Carbohydrates
•  2 g Sugars
• 0 g Protein
• N.B. Light color
• Recommended!
• Pacific Foods, 32 Oz. Organic Vegetable Broth - $3.99 (on sale)
• 15 Calories
• 0 g Fat
• 0 g Cholesterol
• 500 mg Sodium
• 3 g Carbohydrates
• 1 g Sugars
• 1 g Dietary Fiber
• 1 g Protein
• N. B. Light color
• Recommended! 

Options galore. I will keep adding to this as I take inventory at Shoprite.

ShopRite Bruckner Commons

Ok, I finally made my veggie broth run to ShopRite. Here's the harvest (I am reporting list prices, though some were on sale):

•  Wholesome Pantry, 32 Oz Vegetable Cooking Stock, $2.21
• 10 Calories
• 0 g Fat
• 0 g Cholesterol
• 570 mg Sodium
• 3g carbohydrates
• includes 2g added sugars
• 0 g Protein
• N.B. Light color
•  Swanson, 32 Oz Vegetable Broth, $2.79
•  Otherwise as above
• Swanson, 32 Oz Organic Vegetable Broth, $3.49
• Otherwise as above
•  College Inn, 32 Oz, 100% Natural Garden Vegetable Broth, $2.99
• Otherwise as above
• Progresso, 32 Oz, Vegetable Broth, $2.19
• 5 Cal
• 0 g Fat
• 0 g Cholesterol
• 400 mg Sodium
• 0g carbohydrates
• 0 g Protein
• N.B. relatively low sodium
• Emeril's 32 Oz Organic Vegetable Stock, $2.19
• 10 Calories
• 0 g fat
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 570 mg Sodium
• 2 g Carbohydrates
• 2g sugars
• 0 g Protein
• N.B. dark color. Sodium in mid range.
• Rachael Rae, 32 Oz All Natural Veggie Stock $2.60
• 10 Calories
• 0 g Fat
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 480 mg Sodium
• 2 g Carbohydrates
• less than 1g sugar
•  0 g Protein
• N.B. Sodium about average. Darker color.
• Recommended

In all almost all the broths were on-sale, so I did considerably better than the list prices indicate.

Another Bengali Meal Prep in September

Bengal cuisine offers such rich possibilities for cooking with spices more than salt.

Today's cooking class was another lesson in a @WFPB version of traditional recipes.

We start with Brown Basmati Rice, which was cooked in advance with a Zojirushi NP-NVX18 Rice cooker on the GABA Brown Rice setting, meaning it is germinated brown rice, that germinated for 2 hours at 105F and then cooked under pressure with an Induction Heat system.

Our new friend from Queens, Katerina from Queens was there once again. Somehow we lost count, because two people could not make it in the last minute, and we ended up inviting other people in the church to share our meal with us, and a good time was had by all. Not to mention many of us ended up taking more home with us.

Ingredients:

• Onion
• Garlic
• Peppers
• Tomato
• Cilantro
• green chilis
• turmeric
• Panch Puran
• Bay Leaves
• Yondu or Bragg's liquid aminos
• Water

• Water squash
• Cauliflower
• Egg plant
• Eddo
• Green Papaya

Instructions:

The first steps are actually the same for both dishes, so we made a large batch of onions, and then split them in two and put on the vegetable medley first, since it needs a longer cooking time.

• Caramelize the onions 
• add in the chilis, turmeric, panch puran, minced garlic, cut up peppers and add some water with Yondu or Braggs to continue - we used 1 tsp Yondu for a cup of water.
• add in the lentils and more water
• add in the harder veggies first, for they need longer to soften
• add in the softer veggies later (e.g, tomato), also cilantro.
• add water as needed.
• add some bay leaves

Three Greens Medley Dal

No, dal is not an airline. It is the typical sauce made from lentils, and you can consider it a soup or a sauce, depending on the occasion. Any three green leafy veggies will do... according to the season today we picked this:

Ingredients:

• onions,
• garlic
• pepper
• cilantro
• turmeric
• panch puran
• green chilis
• Yondu or Bragg's Liquid Aminos to taste.

• lentils
• poi leaf (aka Malabar spinach)
• spinach
• callaloo

Preparation:

For the first step, see above about caramelizing the onions, again we did the onions once for the two dishes and then split them up.

We added water to the caramelized onions

We had young baby spinach, so we did not need to cut it. The callaloo and Poi Leaf we cut in about 1" lengths.

There were grapes for desert. Unfortunately, our friend Khokon unexpectedly could not make it so we will have to do it again and learn to do it even better, but it was a good lesson in a basic dish that you can vary almost endlessly according to the season.

If the group had been bigger, we would have made a salad. The plan was for spaghetti salad from green papaya, carrots, daikon, and zucchini, with a 1/2/3 ddressing (1 measure maple syrup, 2 measures dijon mustard, 3 measures maple syrup) with lemon and lime, dill, parsley, pepper. That 's an invention of Shamim, who is Khokon's cousin and sometime chef.

Practicing plant-based on a budget:

We always donate the overage to St. Helenas, and this week it was almost half of the money we collected. We spent about $8 per person, so our donation to St. Helena's is $7 per person this week. If we had made the vegetable spaghetti salad, our spend per person would have been $10 or so.
On top of that several of us took leftovers home and we actually fed 10 people not the five people who signed up in the class, for some of the other staff and one of the priests joined in. Or rather they were not given the chance to leave without eating for we had more than we could handle.

These numbers can swing from one month to the next, depending on when we buy certain staples, nevertheless, this is always a good lesson in how economical plant-based food can be. Meat is expensive, even while it is heavily subsidized. 

Our #WFPB Meal Prep for August

This time, I decided to focus on some small snack or appetizer type dishes, specifically a salad (there's always a salad to make sure we get our leafy greens), and Brown Rice Spring Rolls, as well as Black Bean Salsa. We had fun with a small group, and still made more food than we could eat. We had 4
people.

 We started out with a bit of nutritional theory and some knife skills. Cutting an onion the right way... and with a sharp knife, so you almost never cry.
With a dull knife you will crush the onion. With a sharp knife, you'll slide through it like butter.

Credit for the pics goes to Kateřina Justová, who came and visited us from Astoria

 

 

 

 

August salad                             

Salad and Salsa

1 head of green lettuce
1 bunch of watercress
3 peppers green, yellow and red
3 tomatoes
1 red onion
2 cups of cooked quinoa
4-5 mushrooms
4 tbsp hemp seeds
4 tbsp milled flax seeds

1/2/3 dressing: 2 tbps maple syrup, 4 tbsp Dijon Mustard, 6 tbsp balsamic vinegar.

We discussed that the point of Omega 3 is (via the flax seeds and the hemp seeds), the proportion relative to the Omega-6. When in doubt the doctor can figure it out at your next physical. In my case I went up from 1-2 tsp of these things (or chia seeds) a day to 2-3 tbsp a day on advice of my doctor. Typically, I take hempseeds on my breakfast and the milled flax seeds and/or chia seeds in my salads.

Black Bean Salsa

Quick Salsa with Black Beans Caldwell Esselstyn - see site for other variations, version here is spicier

View on forksoverknives.com

Ingredients

2 cans of black beans, drained
Optional one 15 Oz can of Corn
A bunch of fresh Cilantro
Juice of 2-3 limes (depending on how juicy the lime)
16 Oz jar of medium green salsa
Whatever peppers you choose - cut up fine - jalapenos, chilis, serrano, poblano - it all depends on your taste for more hot or aromatic. You can put in a stalk of celery, sliced really thin.

Preparation

Drain and rinse the beans and corn
Wash and chop up the cilantro
Add lime juice, mix in the black beans and the salsa
Mix well.

This is one of these dishes that gets better if it marinates in the fridge.

Serve on rice cakes.

 

 

 

Vegan Spring Rolls

 View on youtube.com                                 

Ingredients

1/2 Cabbage
1 carrot
1 Red Bell Pepper
1/2 onion
4 mushrooms
100 gm rice vermicelli
1 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp Braggs Liquid Aminos or Yondu

1 cup of water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crumbles you can make from ground up
rice cakes with sesame seeds, or you could use
plain corn flakes, or some puffed grain. You just grind it fine in a blender, and you roll the spring rolls in that, so they won't stick to the baking tray, and get nice and crunchy on the outside.  

Preparation

Cut up the veggies fine  
cook till soft,  with the water and yondu 
add more water if neccessary, but not too much, add the vermicelli and cook for 3 mins. 

Note: vermicelli will absorb most of the cooking water, so your stuffing should be suitablly 

dry - too wet would ruin your rice paper rolls.  
fill the moist rice papers (dipping them in lukewarm water) and roll them up... 

dip in the crumbles and put on your cookie sheet  (we used silicone sheets to prevent sticking.) 
30 mins at 350F will do you just fine.   

Serve with your favorite hot sauce.

Nutritional notes

I adjusted the above somewhat, but not enough for some of the ingredients. As a general rule Bragg's Liquid Aminos or Yondu are a good alternative to soy sauce or Tamari.
The BLA and Yondu come in at ca 300 mg sodium per teaspoon (Tsp), while the typical soy sauce or tamari clock in at 900-1000 mg of sodium per Tsp. However this recipe makes about 30 spring rolls. And it uses 3 Tbsp of BLA or Yondu, or 3 x 3 x 300 mg = 2,700 mg sodium.
To simplify the math, that amounts to almost 100 mg sodium per roll. So if you were to eat three as an appetizer, that might be alright if the rest of the meal does not overuse sodium, but if you make a meal out of this, you are getting a ton of sodium.
One obvious alternative might be to use a low sodium veggie stock in lieu of the glass of water, and then to cut the use of even BLA or Yondu down to ca. 1 Tbsp instead of three, and you can use some other spices, or things like scallions or shallots to create more aroma.