Bok Choy Bohemia | A Vegetarian Blog

So this is a post that I promised a friend a while back, and have had trouble getting around to, even though I think it’s a great idea  It just seemed to me like it would take so much darn EFFORT.  But it’s important, so I’m going to give it my best shot.

Whenever someone is trying to go Veggie for the first time their biggest fear is that they won’t get the things they need anymore (namely protein and calcium) or that to get them they’ll need to eat lots of “weird” foods like tofu…(I don’t consider tofu remotely weird since I was raised on the stuff, but I get that isn’t necessarily the national consensus.)  So let’s get started with protein.

Suprise!!!  You don’t need to eat meat or fish to get protein!!  In fact there are tons of things you’re already eating outside of the animal kingdom that are chock full of protein.  Want a list?  Good, I was hoping you’d say that.  Here we go:

The Beans

Garbanzo beans, Kidney beans, Lentils, Lima beans, Navy beans, Soybeans (Edamame),   Split peas

The Grains

Barley, Brown rice, Buckwheat, Millet, Oatmeal, Quinoa, Rye, Wheat germ, Wheat, Wild rice

The Veggies

Artichokes, Beets, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Green peas, Green pepper, Kale, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Mustard greens, Onions, Potatoes, Spinach, Tomatoes, Turnip greens, Watercress, Yams, Zucchini

The Fruits

Apple, Banana, Cantaloupe, Grape, Grapefruit, Honeydew melon, Orange, Papaya, Peach, Pear, Pineapple, Strawberry, Tangerine, Watermelon

Nuts and Seeds

Almonds, Cashews, Filberts, Hemp Seeds, Peanuts, Pumpkin seeds, Sesame seeds, Sunflower seeds, Walnuts

Now you may notice that some of these are links, that’s because where possible, I attached them to a recipe I made with said ingredient.  9 out of 10 are original recipes, every so often I had to go with a reference to a cookbook because I just haven’t made something up on my own with that ingredient yet.  I’ll get cracking on it though.  That said however, if you’re just starting out with the jump to being a Vegetarian/Vegan the best way to get ideas, is to get some awesome cookbooks.  Even if you’re just going Veggie and not making the Vegan jump, I prefer Vegan cookbooks, I find they’re much more creative in getting in proteins and calcium then the Vegetarian books which often rely heavily on dairy, egg and pasta dishes.

One that you MUST pick up?  Veganomicon.  This is my bible in the kitchen, and to date I’ve tried nearly every recipe in it.  It has a lot of creative dishes using tons of easy to get ingredients, and if nothing else, it will PROVE to you that you can feel totally fulfilled on a Veg. diet.  Some other personal favorites of mine if you’re looking to expand the collection, are Vegan with a Vengeance, World Vegetarian, and Vegan Brunch.  Any of the Moosewood cookbooks are great as well.

As far as calcium goes, the best sources of well-absorbed calcium are the soy route.  You should try calcium-fortified soy milk (it’s full of sugar, but chocolate soy milk is one of the richest most delicious things on earth, I think) and juice (think OJ), tofu, soybeans (edamame) and soynuts, bok choy, broccoli, collards, Chinese cabbage, kale, mustard greens, and okra.  With a large serving of collards, you can actually get just as much calcium as in a glass of milk.  Betcha didn’t know that!

In addition to protein and calcium, you just need to keep up your basic fruits, veggies, and carbs.  Go complex with the carbs whenever you can…whole wheat bread, pasta, etc, and keep lots of variety, because that’s what will get you excited about eating veggie day in and day out!  There’s no lack of options here, in fact I think you’ll find that once you don’t have meat at the center of your plate, you’ll have a hard time picking what to put there with all the options!

So one of my favorite Vegan Blog reads is over at Diet, Dessert n Dogs where pretty much EVERYTHING pictured looks absolutely mouth-watering, and makes me want to eat it NOW.  This week I decided to give a few of the recipes I’d been lusting after a try, and wasn’t disappointed, although one was a bit WEIRD.

The first was the Indian Inspired- tomato okra from awhile ago.  You can find the recipe on the blog here and make it for yourself.  I think I let my okra get a bit more cooked then necessary, I would’ve liked to have had them more on the al dente side because of that slime factor.  Okra is one of those foods I don’t have any real issue with, but I don’t normally seek out either, I eat it when it’s offered to me and forget about it the rest of the time.  So why did I NEED to have it when I saw this recipe?  I don’t know…but I did.  It took three separate grocery stores to find, since apparently it isn’t okra “season” but I finally got it, and got cooking.

I really did love the flavor on this, I just wish the okra had been “stewed” so to speak a bit less.  I will try it again once the weather warms up and okra appears at the farmer’s market (at least I hope it will) and try to leave my veggies a little more on the al dente side.  The mixture of green beans and okra was nice too, since theyre similiar but it does mix up the textures a bit.  Thumbs up.

Next I tried out the Creamy Creole Eggplant Pasta Bake, which originally came from Susan V over at Fat Free Vegan but I have to admit my rendition much more closely resembled Ricki’s.  I did switch out the crumbled nuts for plain ole’ breadcrumbs on top, because sometimes I like to stick with easy like that…and yes, mine did come out of a container.  Even so, this recipe is AWESOME, possibly one of the best things I’ve ever done with pasta.

Here’s the whole casserole:

And another one of my serving in the bowl after I’ve dug in:

I couldn’t even taste the eggplant here, frankly if I didn’t make it, I would never believe that there’s an entire (moderately sized) eggplant in the dish  I was a huge fan of the zucchini in there, although I did feel the chickpeas are a bit out of place.  Perhaps if they were softer they’d blend in more, I always feel like goya chickpeas have a bit of a bite to them.

Last but not least, was the Crimson Mousse, which I was just plain intrigued by.  I’d never even heard of Chia seeds before I tried this recipe, but once I saw it, I had to have them (kinda like the okra) and set out on a search.  The search brought me to a Co-op that I didn’t even know existed about an hour away, but I FOUND the chia seeds, and it was time to try out the recipe.  I replaced the Stevia with Agave which may or may not have made a huge difference, but Stevia is not something I stock in my kitchen.  I don’t have any particular issue with it, I’ve just got enough sweetening products between Raw Sugar, Brown Sugar, Honey and Agave and don’t need to add another.  So anyway…back to the recipe.  Mine wasn’t going to look nearly as pretty as the original, but I did what I could.

I just don’t know what to make of this.  Maybe I used too large a beet, but I could taste it in there, and that to me seems wrong in a dessert.  I also think I went a bit heavy with the almond extract, so this tasted kinda like a marzipan beet, and while I used to really like the fruit shaped ones, I think veggies are a bit wrong.  I’m eating this….but I’m just not so sure about it…and I don’t think I’d do it again.  They can’t all be to my taste…

Selah.

Vegetarian Planet is a great looking cookbook with a lot of great looking recipes…that’s why I bought it way back when.  However, the more recipes I’ve made from it, the more I’ve discovered that on the whole they are bland and unimaginative, and a lot just plain don’t work the way they’re supposed to….case in point, the calzone sized perrogies that I didn’t photograph earlier this week.  The book said to use pizza dough, and it should’ve occurred to me that they’d explode when they hit the boiling water.  But that aside….  There was stuff I did photograph from the book this week.

First off was the Dirty Rice.

I used brown rice, but otherwise kept to the original recipe and wasn’t impressed.  It was fairly bland and unexciting, and I wasn’t real happy with myself for buying the frozen corn, when as a general rule I try to (more or less) stick with produce that SHOULD be available where I am this time of year….it isn’t corn season.  That said I mostly ended up picking the sweet kernels out of the rice and leaving everything else behind…not a great sign.  I wouldn’t bother doing this again….unless it was seriously jazzed up, but in general, I think I prefer a paella or something along those lines.

Also from Vegetarian Planet this week was the “buttered broccoli” which was just that.  Or Earth Balanced Broccoli really, but it’s all the same.

A single head of broccoli cooked in brown butter wasn’t dinner in my eyes, so I tossed it in with some pasta…not fascinating, but it tasted good, so we’ll call that one a success.  I’m not sure why I needed a recipe to cook broccoli in butter and lemon juice, but considering I haven’t done it before, I guess I can see the prudence in including one in a book.  I probably won’t be doing it again though, it certainly wasn’t good enough to warrant eating a 1/4 cup of fat with my carbs.  Oh Vegetarian Planet, I had such high hopes for thee, and again and again they are dashed…

Selah.

The one thing that really sucks about these…before I even get started, is that I made them awhile ago, and don’t remember exactly what I put in them.  I remember them being really darn good…and wishing I made twice as many as I did….but I’m just not sure I’ll remember everything I put in them, and if I don’t, and you make these and find them less then amazing….you’ll know I forgot something, because they were really DAMN GOOD.  So that’s your warning….no matter what happens, you can’t blame me just cause I talked them up so much and it’s really all my fault that I procrastinated about posting and forgot my own recipe, it happens.  However if you make them and think they’re great….that’s all me, I must have remembered the recipe perfectly.  See?  Modest too…

Like about 90% of the things I eat, I had these over a bed of baby spinach…what can I say, it may just be my favorite vegetable.  I may or may not be known to eat leaves straight out of the bag in the style that normal people eat chips from time to time.  The “sauce” on top is my version of an aoli….I combined a couple spoonfuls of Nayo with some lemon juice until I found it appropriately lemony and not too thin.  And now for the not-so-crab cakes…let’s see how I do.

Now you can eat these however you want…having never had an actual crabcake, I’m not sure what you’re supposed to eat them with….an aoli and baby spinach seemed right to me…so that was what I did.  I sense these may have been good with tomato soup too…I’m guessing that’s also not a classic with crabcakes…

Selah.

Who says a salad can’t be warm and satisfying?  Me.  All the time…except right now, because this one totally was, and I’d make it on any cold blustery winter night.  Or a cold lunchtime…

I started out by roasting half an acorn squash in the oven.  Stick a pat of Earth Balance in the middle along with a generous grind of salt and pepper and sprinkling of herbs de Provence.  Flip the squash over onto a greased baking dish (be sure the spices stay inside) and bake for 30 minutes at 400F.  It helps to poke some holes in the squash with a knife too, although I forgot this time around and nothing exploded in my oven.  So that was good.  In the meantime, you can prepare your salad, and don’t feel like you have to use the same ingredients I did, this is just what I had on hands.

‘Warm’ salad is a really weird concept to me, but it really did work, and it is something I’ll be doing again.  I’ve also heard that you actually have to cook spinach to get the most nutrients out of it, which is sad, because I really like raw spinach salads and go through about a bag a week, and I don’t like to think that they aren’t doing much for me.  I’m not going to start cooking ALL my salads.  This was a start though…and a good one.

Selah.

I’ve made a lot of couscous in my time, and eaten a lot too, but ironically the only kind I don’t like is “Israeli” Couscous, and by that I mean the kind with the huge chewy pearls that remind me of a cross between tapioca and millet…not really a plan.  Then again, as I see it, I’ve been eating Israeli couscous recipes my entire life, so any couscous dish I make is “Israeli”, regardless of the grain size.  This one came from Joan Nathan’s ‘Foods of Israel Today’ which has some great recipes….I just don’t pull it out nearly enough.  The basic idea with this one is chop up and include every veggie you can think of (chickpeas, zucchini, acorn squash, eggplant, carrots, cabbage, celery, onion, potatoes) and cook up in some Veg stock with turmeric, salt and pepper.  Add the couscous towards the end so it can soak up all the extra liquid and combine with the other flavors.  Done.

Now this recipe was supposed to make 12 servings, and I halved it.  Frankly I’m pretty sure I still came up with about 12 servings.  Tomorrow’s tupperware-full for lunch will be the eighth eaten (4th for me, fortunately I’ve had some help) and there’s still more in the fridge.  While simple (once you get past the three billion ingredients) I’m really into the flavor on this dish.  It is sweet and fairly mild, and when enjoyed just after cooking gives you that fuzzy ‘warm belly’ feeling that all good foods should this time of year.

Then there was ragu.  Now I made a ragu recipe that was not mine a few weeks ago and posted about it here.  I also remember it tasting good but not looking so great…it had a very “brown” thing going on that I wasn’t a huge fan of.  Colorful food tends to make me happier.  Well problem solved, and this recipe is colorful, fresh, delicious, and my very own creation.  Not only that, but I bet it will be ten times as good when I make it using my own grown-at-home produce come summer.  The basil in here came from my plant,  but unfortunately everything else is from the store.  DARN YOU New England winters.

Now wasn’t that simple?  Yummy too, I could go for another helping right about now.

Selah.

So the other night I decided to try out a VWAV recipe that I’d been eying…the garlicky kale and tahini sauce.  I am absolutely IN LOVE with this tahini sauce, and totally intend to make use of it with my next batch of falafel, but I just wasn’t as excited about the kale.  My kale got a bit burnt because there was no liquid in the recipe, and frankly, crispy kale just isn’t my thing, I like it wilted down and a bit juicy.

Final analysis?  The sauce is a win, but the kale is probably not something I’d try again.  50/50 are pretty good results on a first time recipe as far as I’m concerned.

The second thing I made I could’ve sworn I’d seen in VWAV, but upon looking, I couldn’t find it in the book, so I guess this did come out of my head.  (more or less)  This was a tempeh potato hash, combining diced potatoes and onions, crumbled tempeh, braggs, rosemary, garlic powder, S+P until nice and crispy.  Like every other hash this is way better with ketchup or salsa, and it’s not nearly as sketchy as that corned beef hash disaster that comes in a can.  Much better for you too….

Selah.

So I keep meaning to get back to posting daily…and it just isn’t happening.  I still love cooking and taking pictures of the food I make, it’s just the actual posting that I’m getting bad at.  I will fix it though…I PROMISE.  Don’t lose hope.  A lot of the food I’ve been making lately is old favorites like plain steamed edamame and the Punkrock Chickpea gravy from VWAV.  You’ve all seen that, and there’s no point in posting about it again.  I have done some new stuff of late though, so this will be a round-up of all the good stuff I’ve made over the past week and a half or so.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but lentils are one of the foods I just can’t stand.  I find the texture to be chalky, and bland, and just plan icky.  Unfortunately because I used them in the soup mix I gave out as gifts this year, I had a bunch leftover, and figured I should give them another shot.  The flavor on this was dead-on, but I still can’t get over the texture.  I’ll just never be a fan.

It saddens me that I really did like the flavor on these…but I can’t get over that chalky lentil texture.  Anyone got any tricks for disguising that texture?  Lentils are so healthy, I’d really love to get them into my diet on a regular basis…

And then there was the oven-roasted tofu and eggplant with pesto, which was pretty delicious if I say so myself.  I’m almost out of the frozen pesto cubes I made back in the early fall, so it may be time to harvest my basil plant again, now that I know it’s pretty adept at growing back from almost nothing.

The only real issue here was that the sun dried tomatoes got pretty burnt.  I knew it was going to happen…I just didn’t have time to soak them in boiling water first, which probably would have helped.  Don’t make my mistake.

In a lineup of all things healthy (or fairly healthy) there always has to be a dissenter.  And in this case, it’s BEER BATTERED ONION RINGS!  These were a spur of the moment thing, and they were AWESOME.  Now I can make a beer batter in my sleep, although I’ve never actually measured anything, I just toss things in the bowl and add beer until the texture is a tiny bit thicker than pancake batter.

The one complaint I have about these (if I need to have a complaint) was that they retained a little too much of the grease.  I think that’s because I tossed them directly onto a plate with one paper towel instead of using the basket.  I’m learning more about frying slowly…hopefully REAL slowly, I’ve been doing a bit too much of it since I got the deep fryer on black Friday.

I do Asian flavored soups a lot when I need a quick meal and have a door full of vegetables.  The basic ingredients of the stock in this are water, shoyu, schezuan oil, sesame oil, a veggie stock cube, and some red chili paste.  It’s always a case of season to taste, and I often under-salt and then add Braggs to my bowl when I eat.  That way no one feels ‘over-salted’.  In the mix on this one was a head of bok choy, bean thread noodles, shredded carrot, peas, frozen veggie wontons, dried chanterreles (how on earth do you spell that?) and oyster mushrooms.

Last but not least was a real simple pasta salad.  I’ve never even done the “Italian Dressing” pasta salad before, but I decided I wanted to give it a try last night…since Mid-January is obviously pasta salad season.  All I had for pasta was whole wheat spaghetti, but cut in half it worked out nicely.

Don’t you just love recipes with one direction?  I know I do.

Selah.

I’m not generally one for superstitions, but I do like making black-eyed peas on New Years, whether they actually give me good luck or not.  This one was a little different, because I tried to compile a recipe of all the things that I’m taking in as cold remedies, along with a couple more that certainly can’t hurt.  I was REAL concerned about this, because it’s a pretty strange combination of flavors, but I thought it came out great, and it’s something I’ll do again, even when I’m not sick and it isn’t New Years Day.

This is one of those dishes that doesn’t look like a whole lot, but it had some serious flavor going on thanks to some of my “weird” ingredients.

The ginger is what really gives this it’s kick, and it matches up well with the honey on top.  I might try making this a loaf at some point, although I’m not sure what agent I’d use.  Silken tofu and corn starch perhaps…we’ll see.

Selah.

So I’ve got the flu…or its nasty older brother.  I’ve barely been mobile for the last week, although I feel better in the evenings then I do during the day, so I’ve been attempting to go out and get things done then…which is probably part of why I feel so dead when I get up every morning.  Because of the illness I really haven’t been eating ANYTHING exciting, but I took pictures of what’s been on my plate, so I figured I’d least post those and prove that I’m still alive…sort of.

There was a really bland and unfortunate pasta dish with mushrooms and spinach in it:

And then there was the chickpea-soba soup from V’con, although I replaced the soba with whole wheat spaghetti this time around (its got more of a bite to it than the soba) and added a handful of celery greens from the bagfull I’ve been keeping in the freezer since the summers harvest.  I’ve heard miso is really good for you…better even then the ‘ole chicken soup miracle, so I figured this was a great recipe to pull out.  It tasted great….but I’m definitely still sick.

I have been trying to use up things that have been sitting in the pantry for awhile, and while I’ve tried a number of things with lychee, there’s just nothing I like as much as my lychee seitan standby.  Unfortunately I didn’t have any seitan and wasn’t feeling totally up to making it, so I had to use tofu as a stand in.  I used my standard lychee seitan recipe and threw in some bell pepper and carrot for color/crunch.  While the flavor was there, tofu just isn’t as good in this, it really needs that chewy seitan texture to balance out the lychee.

Last but not least…are veggies.  These were simply sauteed in a couple tablespoons of earth balance along with a splash of lemon juice, S+P.  I did them in the cast iron skillet…mostly because I was hoping there’d be some iron rubbing off in the food and it’ll help me gain my strength back…anyone think there’s a chance?

Selah.