Best Broccoli Photo Essay Part 3

Best Broccoli Photo Essay Part 4

Walnut Sauce (with Pasta)

I know I've been quiet for a while; things are happening. The class I teach. The other job. It's festival season in Louisiana! And in that quiet time, I have come back from the land of vegan with some homemade pizza, a new old fondue set and some incredible cornmeal cookies. That's all on its way, but I have a few more vegan recipes of the moment. Not to say there won't be vegan options sprinkled throughout in the future, but before I move back to mixed terrain, I just have a couple more things to say about being animal free.


I founds this recipe in my "Vegetarian for Everyone" book. It was last summer and I was trying to come up with something to do with green beans, aside from douse them in butter. I don't actually like green beans all that much, but I tend to buy things when they're in season, just to keep it interesting. I still don't <3 style="font-style: italic;">

for the walnut sauce
3/4 c. walnuts

2-3 cloves garlic

1/4 tsp salt

fresh ground white pepper

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1. With a mortar and pestle or a food processor, grind walnuts, garlic, salt and pepper until relatively smooth.
2. Add olive oil one tbsp at a time until desired consistency.
3. Done and done.

for the green beans

1. Boil water with a healthy pinch of salt.
2. As water boils, trims green beans. When boiling, dump them in and cook for just about a minute or until the beans are a bright green color. No longer, or they get soggy. I would always err on the side of under cooking here, because green beans are still good raw, but they taste like icky mush if they're over cooked.
   
3. Drain.
   

You can do the broccoli similarly, although I usually pan steam my broccoli, because I don't want it to pick up too much water. This means heating a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat, throwing the broccoli in, adding about an 1/8 c. of water and putting a lid over it. Again, cook until broccoli is bright green and tender - easy to test it with the prongs of a fork.

If you have a lot of pots and space, you can prepare the pasta as you prepare the green beans. Since I don't, and I don't have a dishwasher and am always trying to consolidate dirty dishes, I did the green beans first and then boiled more water and cooked the pasta in the same pot. I used whole wheat linguine here, but whatever pasta's your pleasure would work fine. I also see this with bowties.

When the pasta has been drained, just toss together. You'll have to eyeball how much pasta etc you need for how many people you're feeding. I'd say this is generally pretty subjective. This makes plenty of walnut sauce - when I made it it was for 2 and I've eaten it twice since then and there's still a ton, so I would say you could easily feed six with this. You may need to add a little extra olive oil to the pasta. Don't be shy. It's the good kind of fat.

Punjabi Turnips?

This is a recipe that I took from “World Vegetarian” againagain and messed with. Twice. I'm going to put the vegan version because my non-vegan version needs another run, but I'll explain so you can do your own run if it suits.

3 tbsp peanut or canola oil

¾ c. finely chopped onions

1 tbsp finely grated ginger

3 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed to a pulp

½ c. finely chopped very ripe tomatoes

1 fresh hot green chile, finely chopped

¼ tsp ground turmeric

¼ tsp cayenne

1 tsp salt

½ lb waxy red potatoes and ½ lb. turnips, peeled, cut into 1inch dice and put in a bowl of cold water

(3/4 - 1 1/2 c. plain yogurt)

1 tsp garam masala

1. Put the oil in a large frying pan or wide pan and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the onions. Stir and fry until they are medium brown. Put in the ginger and garlic. Stir for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, green chile, turmeric, cayenne and salt. Turn the heat to medium and stir for 2 minutes.

2. Drain the potatoes and add to pan. Add 1 ½ c. water. Stir to mix and bring to a boil.

3. Cover, turn the heat down to low, and simmer gently until the potatoes are tender, cooking about 20 min. Stir occasionally.

4. Uncover, turn the heat to medium, and cook another 10 min or until the sauce has slightly reduced and is thick. Sprinkle the garam masala over the top and stir gently to mix. Serve hot.

First caveat: this is originally a purely potatoes recipe. I added the turnips as part of my ongoing edible turnips project. I don't really like them. There, I said it. I don't really like turnips.

But they're cheap, and there's something romantic about root vegetables. Something about the idea of root cellars and the careful planning that used to have to go into winter eating. Something about the bounty of each season, the turn from strawberries and tomatoes to acorn squash and rutabaga. Something about my penchant for the difficult. I will eat this difficult veggie. I will eat it and I will like it and I will make it so good that you will like it too.

This isn't a bad option. The turnip's texture and flavor suits this style of Indian cooking, and mixing it in with the potatoes dilutes the turnipness of things. It's like a spoonful of sugar; a spoonful of potatoes.

Maybe I'm cheating. But I ate every last bit.

Second caveat: yogurt. I originally came across this recipe when I was trying to get rid of some red potatoes I'd purchased to make potato salad. Forgetting I don't really like potato salad that much – only my mom and one friend can make it worthwhile, and while I have faith that I can also succeed where so many diners have failed, I wasn't in the mood. So instead, this Punjabi dish.

The thing missing for me was the cream. I was hoping for an Indian dish with cream – that texture, that sauciness. So instead of water, I used yogurt. I happen to have had some fresh goat's milk yogurt from the farmer's market, which seemed appropriate. And it was. And it was good, taste-wise.

The problem being, the potatoes don't cook as well in the yogurt. I cooked them as long as I had patience for – which at the moment wasn't as long as I might usually – and they were still to hard. So I would try some water/yogurt combo. Perhaps half and half. This is the next run and I'll report back. Or you should try it, and report back for me.

My Grandma's Beet Relish

I don't know where this recipe originally came from, but I have a copy my mother hand wrote on an index card. It's a recipe index card, which says:

RECIPE: Beet Relish

From the Kitchen of: Grandma Swingle

2 c. coarsely grated beets (cooked)

2 tbsp chopped red onion

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp dijon mustard

3 tbsp veggie oil

salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and blend well. Chill thoroughly.

This is a great side dish - it seems to go with everything and adds that beautiful magenta color to your plate. It's tangy, with the underlying sweetness of the beets and that dab of sugar.

As far as the beets go, I prefer to roast them before grating. I usually cut them in half and place them cut side down on a baking sheet lined with tin foil and stick it in the oven for as long as it takes. I'd say 400 degrees or so. Let them cool and the skins should peel right off. Consider gloves or you'll end up with pink fingers. I always do.

End up with pink fingers.

Tofu Overdose

That's what I googled to try to come up with some information on soy protein. Not that I actually think such a thing is possible. Not in the way one od's on, say, heroin or whatever else the kids are doing these days, but I have a suspicion of mono-anything. Like monocropping or monocracy or monogamy. All potentially fraught. Everything needs a little variety. One way or another.

Don't you think?

Especially one's diet. I know that in certain cultures in certain climates, people live on nothing but fish for the majority of the year, but I believe that in general, in the world most of us reading blogs on the interweb inhabit, our most healthful option is to maintain a diet that is varied. This means getting vitamins, minerals, fats (yes, fats), protein and whatall from several sources. Several sources each. One of the things that most concerned me, going into this vegan thing, was the soy problem.

Soy has become damn hip. At the coffee shop I work at, we've gone from ordering two cases of soymilk a week to three. And we still run out. I've noticed in a sort of non-scientific way that I'm reaching for the soy way more often then I was even six months ago. I've noticed that some of my regulars have switched from skim to soy. Why?

I mean, they're not vegan. I doubt it has anything to do with food politics. Why is this happening? What do they think they're doing? What's the draw?

Is it all about health?

I've been drinking soymilk for years. At the beginning, it was because of the candy goodness of vanilla soy, but now that I've gotten over the adult joys of eating brownies for breakfast, it's just because I think milk is a little icky. Personal ish. So I already keep it around the house for my coffee or randomly in baked goods, to drink with cookies, on cereal. Etc. I knew that going vegan would up my tofu intake – since every time I drop cheese partially from my diet, that's what happens – and on top of that, there are about a thousand other soy protein items that are pushed on vegetarians and vegans for the sake of meat-y-ness. Boca burgers, TVP, soy yogurt, Fakin-bacon. All soy based. Even if you don't abide by fakery, you still can't avoid it. It's in all kinds of “normal” processed foods, too. One's that are marketed to you and yourself and everyone you know.

It's like this: normally, I would put buttermilk on my oatmeal, but now it's soy milk. Normally, I take yogurt with me for breakfast when I work early, but now it's soy yogurt. Normally, I eat grilled cheese and put butter in my cookies and feta in my stuffed peppers, but now it's baked tofu, silken tofu, soft tofu. Normally, I buy about two blocks of tofu a month. Now it's what? Five? Six?

So what I'm getting at is simply that I am eating significantly more soy. And. And I noticed I was feeling funny. My stomach was bothering me. Not like nauseous but more like . . . just strange. Off. Sort of like the idea of cramps, but not cramps-actual. A hollow sort of full feeling. And I wondered if it had anything to do with all the soy.

Now I don't have anything particularly smart to say about this. I've done a little research via the internet, and a friend who is studying to be a nutritionist, and perhaps unsurprisingly, results are mixed and often contradictory. Tofu is both super heart healthy and maybe not. It could both reduce the likelihood of breast cancer in women, and "one hundred grams of soy baby formula has approximately the same amount of oestrogen as a contraceptive pill," which seems maybe like a bad thing. Soy is the most complete protein of the legume family, and in its unfermented state it hinders absorption of minerals and inhibits the digestion of . . . protein!?

Well.

I bring all this up not to say something conclusive, but rather because I noticed it and if one has been vegan for a while, or is intent on veganism for more philosophical reasons, one might not notice it. I'm clearly not a nutritionist or a food scientist. Just your everyday snobetarian. But I'm also not the soy industry and I don't have any particular agenda here. I think it's interesting to consider this aspect of veganism. It's hard enough to eat a variety of things if you're not vegan, especially if you don't cook, and putting this kind of obstruction on your diet only further complicates the diet variety matter. Like my nutritionist friends says, “In my personal philosophy I believe in a balanced diet. I wouldn't recommend a vegan diet to a client but if they wanted to be on a vegan diet I would tell them how to do it safely. I wouldn't discourage something they wanted to do. Anyways, because the B12 and vitamin D is low in a vegan diet and because the fiber content makes absorption more difficult and protein requirements are harder to fill it can be less safe especially if people aren't eating enough nutrient dense foods.”

In other words, this is a tricky business. There are all kinds of things that could be causing my tummy to feel funny. My carb intake is also up – maybe more on this – and who knows if I'm actually eating as much as I usually do. But while soy has had a lot of great press, it could be a part of my problem, too. It's not a health "panacea", nor is it a vegan panacea. It's just part of ye olde balanced diet. And I wonder if anyone else has anything to say about this.

(Not to mention the monocropping again. If we're all eating so much soy, where's it coming from do you think? If we're worried about the environment and de-rainforestization and the farming industrial complex...why are we purchasing the hell out of soy products? Especially you vegans. I mean, isn't that part of your reasoning? Isn't it partly about some environmental political philosophy? Isn't it? Or is that just me.)

Scrambled Tofu

This is a "How it All Vegan" recipe that I have mildly modified and kinda can't get enough of. I don't eat eggs all that much normally, but once and a while I want a really solid salty breakfast - like not oatmeal - like say the I'm-really-hung-over breakfast, but something more than toast. That's where eggs would generally come in.

These fake scrambled eggs satisfy all of my snobetarian vegan clauses - good taste, good looking, no fakery. And they're super easy. And if you're like me and you have no real sense of how much of spice you're wont to go through in any period of time and you have a gianormous bag of tumeric that you've had since 2005, doubly perfect.

Scrambled Eggless Eggs

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp olive oil

1 pkg firm tofu, crumbled

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/8 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp cayenne

2 tbsp Braggs

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. When hot add the onions and garlic and saute on medium-high until onions are translucent.
2. Add tofu, tumeric, cumin and Braggs and mix together. Saute on medium-high, stirring occasionally, until moisture has evaporated and tofu is lightly seared on one side.
3. Serve.

Whenever I'm frying or sauteing tofu, I like to wrap it in a towel and press some of the moisture out of it beforehand. This is really helpful when you're frying-frying, because, as you know, water and oil don't mix, and if the tofu is super wet still it will spit hot oil all over you. In this case it just expedites the second part of step 2.

I also up the spices in this a little. Probably not by 2x, but maybe by an extra half of the original measurement. Except for the cayenne, which isn't in the original recipe, so that's my true to snobetarian self measurement. If you don't like spicy, feel free to pass it up.

I brought this to a very non-vegan brunch today and it was a pretty big hit all around. Went especially well with our pan-fried hash browns.