Rogier's Green Pasta Recipe

Luigi Nanni died in April 1998, which probably means nothing to you, but Nanni was the proprietor of Restaurant Nanni, on East 46th, corner Lexington Avenue, and given I worked in Greenwich in the 80's it was one place that was convenient for lunch in the city, coming into Grand Central. Nanni was a center of serious Italian cuisine in the city. The death of Mr. Nanni was certainly an event, written up here by my friend Bryan Miller, who was then the restaurant critic for the New York Times.

One of my favorites was angel hair with pesto sauce. 

After the death of Mr Nanni, it lived on for a while, run by Vittorio, the old maitre d' and the cook, but they did not seem to have a happy partnership and a few years ago it all fell apart.

In any case, ever since I committed to a Whole Foods, Plant-Based diet, one of the biggest challenges was what to do for a pesto sauce. For the longest time, I was resigned to the idea that I would never again have angel hair with pesto sauce. Until one day recently, my #WFPB-friend and associate Enrica Sacca in Queens gave me the idea of making a pesto sauce based on sweet peas. Creativity took over and the result blew me away. It was better than the original. Since then, I've now made it three times and I think I've got the recipe down pat, and I think it will be a house favorite for a long time to come. 

There does seem to be an unwritten law that pesto sauce is served over angel hair, so angel hair is now sold out in my neighborhood. Normally, I buy Luigi Vitelli's Whole Wheat Pasta Capellini, but nobody had that, except one package, so I had to settle for Ronzoni, who apparently are Italian in name only, and don't have an Italian bone in their body and they just call it "thin spaghetti." Another marketing opportunity missed. 

So, here goes. This is simple as can be - about 30 minutes for a delicious home made sauce.

Ingredients

1/4 cup of walnut pieces with some pine nuts

1 15 Oz can of green peas

1 bunch of basil

1 bunch of spinach

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced, or at least sliced thin.

1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 cup water

1 tsp Yondu

Optional: sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and, if you blend in one jalapeño pepper, nobody will notice it, but it will pick the whole thing up a notch, some vegan parmesan

Preparation

In your blender:

- add the 1/4 cup of nuts

- add the basil leaves, washed (sandy!)

- drain the peas and add them on top of the basil

- in a frying pan cook the spinach with the garlic, adding the cup of water with Yondu

- as soon as the spinach is wilted, put the spinach in the blender

- add the cooking water from the spinach.

- puree

Done. 

This quantity is enough for 4 people.

Cook the angel hair - 3 mins.

- The sauce will probably still be too thick, so you can add some cooking water from the pasta to make it more liquid - I use about 1-2 cups of it.

If you want to get fancy, you can cut up some sun-dried tomatoes in small pieces, and add those in the sauce, and I like making it with cherry tomatoes.

At your option, you can add some vegan parmesan.

Finger-licking good. I can't stop eating it.

Obviously, this is a very healthy sauce and you can make a meal out of this, I like it with mushrooms and some vegetable, be it broccoli or zucchini, or steamed carrots go really well because of the color combination: the green pasta, the orange carrots (with some parsley) and the red cherry tomatoes.

P.S. In the interest of science I tried regular angel hair with Pesto Sauce recently, and realized that now I cannot imagine why I ever liked that oily sauce. You just lose your taste for it.

St. Helena's Communal Meal Prep 10/26/19

This time the theme was leafy greens.

Eating leafy greens, either raw or cooked 4-6 times a day is the standard recommendation of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn for it will keep your arteries flexible. Chewing the leafy greens will convert nitrate and with the enzymes from your saliva ultimately it will produce the nitric oxide that helps your bloodvessel stay limber.

Some of the best foods for this are:

1. Beets
2. Garlic
3. Leafy greens
4. Pomegranate
5. Nuts and seeds (but.. we want to go light on those because of the high oil content).

Two Salads

Green Salad

• 1 Green lettuce
• 3 Vine tomatoes
• a can of black-eyed peas (or whatever beans or peas you can find)
• some quinoa
• yellow, red, green peppers
• a can of sliced beets
• a carrot sliced thin (we skipped this because we already had the veggie spaghetti salad with carrot)
• capers
• olives
• a red onion, cut up.
• a pomegranate
• 1/2/3 dressing: 1 measure maple syrup, 2 measures Dijon Mustard, 3 measures Balsamic Vinegar, and lemon and lime juice to taste
• add milled flax seed and/or chia seeds for Omega-3's

Endless variations on the above are possible, and depending on the addition of quinoa and beans, you can make this a meal salad.

 

 Veggie Spaghetti Salad

We made this with a mandolin, but you could use a spiralizer of some sort. Taste is the same, but the long spaghetti strands present better - maybe.

For a dressing we used some 1/2/3 dressing with thyme and some Veggie Mayo (see below).

• Shredded Zucchini
• Shredded Daikon
• Shredded Green Papaya
• Shredded Carrot

Veggie Mayo

• 1 package of Silken Tofu
• 1 tbsp maple syrup (or date sugar)
• 1 tpsp red wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp of Dijon Mustard

 Drain the tofu on a paper towel, and mix the ingredients with an immersion blender.

Leafy Greens Galore

It was Khokon, the owner of Neerob Restaurant, who taught me to make a medley of green leafy vegetables.

The message is that you can make either pure spinach, or Malabar spinach (poi leaf for the Bangladeshis), or Swiss chard, or any other green leafy vegetables by itself, or you can make a medley.

You can create a simple and delicious flavor with caramelized onions and garlic, some turmeric (preferably fresh) and perhaps Panch Puran or other spices.

 The way to build it up is to caramelize the onions first:

• cut up the onions finely
• optionally: cut up some chilis
• roast dry for 5 minutes - just until the onions start turning brown and sticking to the bottom of the pan.
• mince some garlic
• mince turmeric
• 1/2 cup of veggie broth 
• now stir-fry for five minutes, keeping it liquid with the broth.

• meanwhile cut up the stems of your leafy greens if they have heavy stems.
• now stir-fry another 5-7 minutes with the stems.
• cut up the leaves into 1-1/2" strips and add
• cook on medium until the leaves are al dente

The above is just perfect for making green leafies as a side dish. Alternatively, you can make dal, as follows:

• after stir-frying with the stems, you add more water and red lentils (hulled red lentils) in about 2:1 proportions water to lentils, let it cook about 10 mins then add the green leaves and let it cook for five minutes.

In other words, you start the same way for making green leafies as a side dish or the dal with green vegetables.

Butternut Squash

The last thing we made was butternut squash. We cut one in half lengthwise and put two garlic cloves in the hollow, and filled it up about half-way with veggie stock.
30-40 minutes in the oven at 400F, until soft.

Desert was grapes, which were also delicious.

It seemed everyone enjoyed the meal.

From the money dept

We had eight people, or $120 in funds, and we spent $87.31. In short, we are donating $32.69 to St. Helena's. There was plenty of food, even considering that two people did not show up. 

Our February #WFPB/Suppers Communal Meal Prep at St Helena's

Today started for me with the #WFPB Cooking Demo at ShopRite on Bruckner...


Angela Vita demonstrated how to caramelize onions, and made a delicious salad with kale and butternut squash

Attendance was large and it is clear that the interest is growing.

I did most of my shopping for my class at St Helena's in the store

We made two salads, one a beet salad and one a green salad.
We cooked spinach and had Channa Masala over brown rice.


Today was a very simple menu - we had just six people, but it all worked out well and amazingly we were very much on time.

Green Salad

1 lb Spring Mix from Shoprite
1 red bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
1 onion
2 tbsp chia seeds
3 tomatoes

1/2/3 dressing with the juice of one lemon and one lime: 1 tbsp maple syrup, 2 tbsp Dijon mustard, and 3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar, again plus the juice.

The salad was a hit.

Spinach (large leaf)

1 onion, cut-up fine
4-5 cloves of garlic, cut up fine
1 lb large leaf spinach.

Note that spinach has a lot of moisture, but the stems cook slower than the leaves, so we cut up the stems first.

Browned the onions dry first, until they start to stick and then add in a few tablespoons of water (or broth). After about 5 minutes add in the garlic and the spinach stems and let it go for another five minutes till the stems start to soften. Then add in the leaves, cut in 1" strips. Cook till the leaves are wilted.

As usual, all the people who had never had spinach without oil or butter before were amazed that it tastes so much better this way.

Beet Salad

For good measure we made a beet salad from
3 medium beets
1 medium onion
1 lemon (juice)
1 lime (juice)

Ideally this salad can marinade in the fridge... it is always better the next day. And you can eat it stand-alone or you can mix it in with your green salad.

Chana Masala

Note: For some reason Nutrition Studies spells it channa, with double "n," but I see it mostly spelled with single "n," so I will stick to that.

https://nutritionstudies.org/recipes/main-dish/channa-masala/
https://nutritionstudies.org/es/recipes/plato-principal/chana-masala/

Ingredients

1 15 oz can of chick peas, rinsed and drained

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp whole cumin seeds

1½ tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

½ Tbsp turmeric powder

1-2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp salt ,alt. liquid aminos

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp cilantro, chopped for garnish

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

Preparation

1) Heat water in a non-stick pan (medium heat) and add: whole cumin seeds, onions and garlic. Sauté until golden brown.

2) Add tomatoes to mixture and sauté until it starts to form a gravy.

3) Add chick peas along with all remaining ingredients: cumin powder, coriander, turmeric, chili powder, salt, and tomato paste.

4) Mix well, over low-medium heat, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.

5)  Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro

6) We served it with Brown Rice

We had grapes and cherries for desert, and even some food left over.

In all, our budget was $90 and we spent about $52.19, so we donated $37.81 to St. Helena's.

A Lovely Green and Yellow Recipe

Since leafy green vegetables are a staple of the WFPB diet, it is good to be handy with different possibilities of preparing them.

The following is a sauce based on the Southeast asian cooking tradition which has become a source of inspiration for me through the Bangladeshi community in my neighborhood.

Ingredients:

• a few onions, chopped
• a few garlic cloves, chopped
• optionally some chilis, chopped
• some turmeric, peeled and sliced fine, or turmeric powder
• a quart of vegetable broth.
• a cup of split chick peas (chana dal)
• your favorite green leafy vegetable: spinach, malabar spinach (poi leaves), callaloo, chard, you name it.

Preparation:

•  Start to stir fry the onions, with the cut-up chilis dry, until they start to caramelize (about 4 mins), and then add some tablespoons of veggie broth.
• add in the garlic and the turmeric, let it simmer for about 5 mins
• add the remaining vegetable broth, bring to a slow boil
• add the dal and let it simmer for 45 minutes
• blend this mixture with an immersion blender
• add in your green leafies and let it simmer until the vegetables are soft. Note: alternatively, you can cook the green leafies on the side and add them cooked. This may be necessary with things like callaloo where you have to cook the stems longer than the leaves.

The result is a yellowish sauce with green accents, and it is absolutely finger licking good. Serve over GABA brown basmati rice. You can serve along with almost any other vegetable dishes.

Overall, the whole secret of cooking without added Sugar, Oil or Salt is to use the natural flavors, including various herbs and spices, and soon you will find that everything tastes better and more natural.

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.