Spaghetti with Broccoli and Lemon

One of the most common misgivings I hear from people about eating a vegan diet is how time consuming it is. People have this idea that being vegan means spending hours finely slicing vegetables, processing complicated juices, and hand-picking grains to mill into flour. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. But, people genuinely fear the effort perceived in veganism.

Yes, there is work involved in the food that I eat, but that comes more from being healthy than being vegan. The key to a healthy diet is to make most of your food yourself. This allows you to control the amount of additives, preservatives, salt, and fat that you eat, and reduces the amount of processed ingredients you consume. I could technically be vegan, and eat nothing but takeout, french fries, and donuts from Whole Foods. Is there a lot of work in that? No. Would I be the picture of health? No, again.

Like most people, I don’t always have time to prepare intricate, complex, and elaborate meals in the name of health. So, when I find something that hits the trifecta of healthy, delicious, and quick, it ends up becoming a staple. This dish was tossed together for Sunday lunch with a spinach, dried cherry, and marcona almond salad, and toasted ciabatta. The longest step: boiling the water for the pasta.

Spaghetti with Broccoli and Lemon

1 pound spaghetti (whole wheat for a little nutritional boost)
1 head broccoli, chopped into small florets (in the interest of saving time, you can buy pre-cut florets)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti until it is a minute or two away from being done. Save 1 cup of the pasta water.

While the water is boiling, cook the broccoli. You can boil the broccoli in a small pot of water for a few minutes, rinse under cold water, and set aside; or, you can place the florets in a bowl with a couple tablespoons of water, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 3-4 minutes. Broccoli should be fork tender, but not soft.

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat, and then add the garlic. Pay careful attention that the garlic doesn’t burn. Add the broccoli, and toss with the olive oil and garlic. Add the lemon zest and chili flakes, and stir to combine. Add the pasta, lemon juice, and 1/2 cup of reserved pasta water. Cook for 1-2 minutes until the pasta is done and coated with sauce. Add more pasta water if the spaghetti looks dry. Finish with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

Maple Glazed Carrots

Eat your vegetables! It’s something we’ve been hearing our whole lives, but most of us are reluctant to obey. On the American plate, vegetables have been relegated to a sideshow; the opening act that no one really wants to see. Vegetables are The Hollies to meat’s Rolling Stones. The amount of care and effort we put into our meats completely overshadows the attention we show our vegetables. Perhaps this is why we feel so lukewarm toward them. We steam them, sauté them, or just eat them raw, maybe some salt, some ranch dressing, maybe not. This is no way to treat vegetables! Plants deserve to be center stage; they deserve to be diced, julienned, and chifonnaded, marinaded, grilled, and roasted; they deserve to be the heart and center of every meal. In my vegan transition, I began by substituting vegan meat for animal meat, tofu meatballs for example. Then I started using beans and tofu and tempeh for the center of my plate. Now, I simply eat vegetables: vegetables and grains, vegetables and noodles, vegetables and legumes, vegetables and vegetables. Becoming vegan means reconciling your relationship with vegetables, and this recipe is a great first step toward achieving vegetable love!

Maple Glazed Carrots

2 cups carrots, sliced (or, you can use baby carrots)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Heat oven to 375ºF. Prepare carrots, and place in an oven-proof dish. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss until well coated. Roast until fork-tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Drizzle with maple syrup and return to the oven for 3 to 5 minutes, until the syrup is thick and sticky, and the carrots are coated with glaze. Enjoy immediately!

All Star Tamales with Beans and Greens

One of the things I like to do on this blog is put in my two cents about various vegan products. In that way, you can zero in on the delicious products, without having to try the terrible things (like all vegan bacon). And sometimes I find a vegan food so wonderful, that I can’t wait to share it with my readers.

Everyday, I feel grateful that I live in such a progressive and health-conscious area where I don’t have to explain what the word vegan means, where it might even be on the menu. I also love that California weather is so nurturing, and the Farmer’s Market is always bursting with fresh fruits and vegetables. Farmer’s Markets have lately become known as much for their gourmet prepared food as for the produce. Every Sunday, I get as excited for fresh Walnut Scallion Sourdough as I do for fresh garbanzo beans. My latest Farmer’s Market obsession is All Star Tamales. They sell warm, tender vegetable tamales smothered in tomatillo salsa, as well as packaged tamales to take home. They are so delicious, I like to stockpile them in my freezer, then thaw them in the microwave for a spectacular lunch.

To supplement this lunch, I like to prepare a simple Latin flavored beans and greens.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch kale, deribbed and chopped
1 tablespoon cumin
1/2 cup water
Salt and pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add the black beans, kale, and cumin, and sauté for 1 minute. Add the water, cover, and cook until the kale is tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and squeeze lemon juice over the dish. Sauté for 1 minute, then serve immediately.

Vegan Products I Love: Trader Joe's Vegetable Gyoza

I have mentioned Trader Joe’s Thai Vegetable Gyoza many times before on this blog, but I realized that I had never written specifically about them. Trader Joe’s is a miracle for vegans, as they have a wide selection of vegan prepared foods, helpfully labeled with a big V, such as Vegetable Panang Curry, Lentil Curl Chips, and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. I worship Trader Joe’s. Truly, they should pay me for how much I talk them up to my friends, family, and various strangers on the street (and now my blog). But, honestly, these pot stickers are delicious, quick, and healthy. Served with a side of steamed spinach and arugula and a spicy dipping sauce, I eat them for lunch almost every week. Pick up a bag, and stick them in your freezer. Some Sunday afternoon, when you don’t feel like cooking or going out, these dumplings will be just what you were looking for.

It's important to keep the dumplings close together so they cook quickly and evenly.

For 6 dumplings, heat 1 tablespoon canola oil over medium high heat in a large not nonstick sauté pan. Place dumplings in a tight circular pattern starting at the center of the pan. Cook uncovered for 4 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons water, cover, and cook for another 6 minutes. Remove the cover, and scoop the dumplings out with a spatula. If the dumplings are stuck to the pan, they are not done cooking. Leave them be and check them in a couple minutes.

For the dipping sauce, combine 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, and 1 splash of sesame chili oil in a small bowl. Stir to combine.

For the greens, place 2 cups spinach, and 2 cups arugula in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute, or until wilted, but not soggy. Spoon a little of your dipping sauce over the greens and mix.

Curried Lentil Soup

Thanksgiving is over, Black Friday is over, Cyber Monday is gone, so we are officially in the throes of the Winter Holiday season! Summer is my favorite food season, but winter is a very close second. Winter in Northern California is crisp, cool, and rainy enough that you get to spend gray Sundays by the fire reading a good book.

The best winter food is cozy, warm, and filling, but not heavy; a gastronomical hug if you will. It’s a time for slow cooking, rich sauces, and deep, smooth, round flavors. I particularly love soups and stews with a big hunk of crusty whole grain bread, and a pile of greens on the side. As such, I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting flavor combinations for winter. Every month, I quickly peruse my Bon Appétit magazine and dog ear the reasonably vegan friendly recipes. The Christmas issue is understandably meat-centric, what with all the different animals you can roast on Christmas Day. Amidst all the birds and beasts was a humble lentil soup recipe with a brilliant twist.

Author Molly Wizenberg waxes poetic about the under appreciated lentil for two pages, recounting her numerous travails in developing the perfect creamy lentil soup. She ends with this fabulous recipe that uses puréed chickpeas as a thickener, cutting down on the heaviness of a traditional butter rich lentil soup. The flavor is great, the texture is sublime, and it is just the thing you want to come home to at the end of a cold and rainy day.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion diced
1 carrot diced finely
2 garlic cloves minced
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 cup French green lentils
4 1/4 cups water
1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 green onions sliced thinly

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion and carrot and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add 1 clove garlic and sauté for 5 more minutes. Add the curry powder and cook for 1 minute. Add the lentils and 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.

In a food processor, purée the chickpeas, lemon juice, 1/4 cup water, 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 clove garlic until very smooth.

Add the chickpea purée to the lentils. Season with salt and pepper. If the soup is too thick, thin with water until it has reached the desired consistency. Spoon into bowls, and top with sliced green onions. I served mine with garlic pita toasts on the side. Enjoy immediately!

*The next day, I had not quite enough soup for lunch, so I made some brown basmati rice and spooned the lentils over it for a quick leftover lunch!

Lunch, Part Deux

My next lunch option is the salad pizza. This also makes a great, quick dinner, or even dinner party appetizer. Pizza crust is obviously a time consuming commitment, but there are shortcuts around this. When I made homemade pizza for my mom’s birthday, I cooked off the remaining dough into two medium pizza crusts and then froze them. Ten minutes in the oven, and these whole wheat crusts are ready to enjoy. Alternatively, I like to use Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough. They do all the work for you! All you have to do is stretch it, and toss it if you’re feeling bold, and throw it in the oven. Again, ten minutes and you’re ready for lunch. While the dough is baking, I defrost another one of my frozen pestos, and prepare the salad. In a medium bowl, mix as much arugula as you can fit, chopped tomatoes, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a good squeeze of lemon juice. The salad should be bright beside the roundness of the pesto, and the warmth of the pizza crust. Once the pizza crust comes out of the oven, I like to cut it in pieces, smear it with pesto and top it with as much arugula as it can handle, the more, the better. This is also a lunch that lends itself to adaptation. If I have cooked vegetables in the fridge, I’ll add them to the pizza crust. Roasted red peppers are a delightful addition as well. Once again, you can have a phenomenal meal that will leave you feeling light and energetic and ready to take on your afternoon, in the time it would take you to heat up a Lean Cuisine!

Lunch, Part Une

One of the concerns people most often bring up, when I tell them about how I eat, is time. This seems to connect more specifically with lunch. So today, I am offering two delicious, beautiful, sustaining meals that make an amazing lunch, and don’t take very much time. I’m not going to lie; eating this well takes forethought and a little planning, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. 

For my first offering, I present the leftover lunch. When you start eating a diet based primarily on vegetables and whole grains, chances are you will always have leftovers of these two ingredients in your fridge. Sometimes I have as many as three or four different grains in my refrigerator and as many types of greens. Start by making a big pile of greens on your plate. Spinach, arugula, kale, whatever you have. This is the foundation of your lunch and your diet. I try to eat greens twice a day. My heroes, Alicia Silverstone and Christina Pirello, even eat greens with breakfast! Seriously, these leaves will change your life. Scoop a pile of grains onto your greens. If you don’t have any leftover grains, whole wheat couscous cooks in five minutes, and quinoa cooks in fifteen, so there are no excuses. On top of the grains goes my secret weapon, Trader Joe’s Black Beluga Lentils. They’re fully cooked! All you have to do is microwave them for two minutes. If you don’t have access to a Trader Joe’s (my condolences), or you already ate your delicious lentils, you can open a can of beans, garbanzo, kidney, black beans, etc. Just rinse them and toss them on top; you can even heat them if you like. The beauty of this meal is that it works with whatever you already have. Then, I like a dollop of pesto. I make pesto practically weekly, so there is always something in the freezer. Pesto is another great source of greens, and you can make it with almost anything. I have experimented with spinach, arugula, parsley, basil, and cilantro. I hear sorrel makes a beautiful sauce as well. Finally finish it off with whatever you see: roasted vegetables, chopped tomatoes, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, anything within reach. In this example, I used fresh tomatoes (from the garden, thank you very much), sunflower seeds, and maitake mushrooms. And voilà! You have a lunch rich in fiber, omega-3s, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats, everything you need to help you power through the rest of your day.