Dinner

I had soaked three kinds of beans to make a main course, but I hadn't decided what the dish would be. At the coop today, they had organic cauliflower on clearance. I like how cauliflower cooks down quickly under pressure and can form a thick gravy-like matrix for other ingredients. Though only a few minutes would be needed, I thought I'd cook the cauliflower along with the beans for 25 minutes. Here is what I did. Ingredients 1/3 cup each: Anasazi, and Flageolet beans, rinsed and soaked overnight (or rinsed and then soaked in boiling water for 3-5 hours), then rinsed again Enough water to just cover beans Florets from small or medium head of cauliflower (large florets quartered) 1/4 t ground cumin 1/2 t garam masala 1/4 t turmeric 2 white mushrooms cut into 1/4" thick slices, each slice then halved Approx. 1/2 cup onion diced to approx. 3/8" cubes 5-6 leaves kale, roughly hand torn into approx. 1/2" squares, stems excepted 1t finely (1/8") diced ginger 2t l...

I was busy pruning roses  and it became late, so I wanted to put a quick dinner together. I had some interesting black bean pasta elbows from Ancient Harvest brand (the pasta's ingredients are black bean flour, brown rice flour, and organic quinoa flour). I thought I'd put together a Three Sisters meal with corn, climbing beans, and squash. I used frozen vegetables -  a full bag (10 ounces) of butternut squash cubes (maybe 3/4" cubes), 8 ounces cut green beans (maybe 3/4" lengths), and 2 ounces of corn. I put in maybe 1/4 cup onion cut into 1/2" or so cubes first, and then the squash, then the bean, and finally the corn into a large  Saladmaster  stock pan. I cooked waterlessly - i.e., I covered the pan and heated it on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped. I let it cook for about 20 minutes. I served the vegetables atop the pasta, and put a little marinara sauce with basil, as well as an...

Brussels Sprouts were on sale at the cooperative grocery store today, so I decided to try roasting them similarly to what I did for the Valentine's Day dinner . I also included a golden beet, cut into 3/8" cubes. At 450°F, I oven roasted the beet with onion for about 30 minutes and the Brussels Sprouts with onion for about 15 minutes. I did not broil, but removed from the oven; the beet looked and tasted good, so I just sautéed on cast iron the Brussels Sprouts and onion, along with (for my wife and me) tempeh, bell pepper, more onion, and chopped spinach. I added a bit of salt and garlic powder when I served. For my daughter, who doesn't like spinach or tempeh, I left out the spinach and used tofu instead of tempeh. I also made a tasty tomato salad. I gave my daughter some tasty organic grape tomatoes that we also bought today. For my wife and me, I halved tomatoes, and mixed in chopped green chili pepper, ume plum vinegar, Indian black salt ( kala namak ), and fre...

We have a Lebanese restaurant in the area, Neomonde , whose seeded pita pockets I like. I picked some up yesterday and decided to make a simple sauteed tofu and vegetable dish served in the pita. I sauteed with no added oil on a cast iron pan and, since tofu bothers my wife, made an equivalent dish for her with tempeh instead of tofu. I also made some peas with basil. All I did was put 2 cups or so of frozen peas in a small Saladmaster stock pan along with 2t frozen chopped basil, and waterlessly cooked for about 10-15m. Results Dinner was simple but good. My daughter had a girl her age visiting for the evening - she had never had tofu in her life, but enjoyed the meal. Peas and basil makes a good combination! Ideas for the future I don't generally serve or eat sandwiches for dinner, but a pocket sandwich somehow sounds appealing. I should serve these periodically and experiment with a variety of interesting fillings.

I was thinking of making use of the rest of the cashew "cheese" sauce that I had made two days ago  to top on some baked potatoes and vegetables. I found small (maybe 3" x 2" oblong) baking potatoes in the store, so thought that I would pressure steam them for 10m and serve with broccoli and bell pepper. (My daughter much prefers sweet potatoes, so I served her sweet potatoes instead of baking potatoes.) I cooked waterlessly onion, bell pepper, and broccoli. I served the potatoes topped with the other vegetables and a bit of the "cheese" sauce (this time I used even less sauce and so feel justified in describing this meal as being cooked with almost no added fat; it was about a tablespoon and a tablespoon of cashews is about 6g of fat, but the sauce had water and other ingredients, so perhaps I added 3-4g of fat or so?). I also wanted to use up the drying bread that I had. I've made Italian bread salad (panzanella) with oil on bread cubes roasted in an...

My daughter had a young friend over to join us for dinner tonight. I had soaked some chickpeas last night, wanting to make a chickpea main course. I decided that it's been too long since I've made and used a "cheese" sauce, such as I described in July 2011 with an Alfredo sauce or the Food for Life sauce that I made, for example, in January 2015  and April 2014 . I decided to make a simple cheesy chickpea dish. Here is what I did. Ingredients 2 cups chickpeas, rinsed and soaked overnight, then rinsed again Enough water to just cover chickpeas 1 cup raw cashews soaked for 30m (or more) in water 1 clove garlic, peeled Juice of small lime (I actually used a half lime, and it was fine) 1/2 cup water 1/2 - 1 T nutritional yeast Dash of salt (optional garnish) Scallion Process I cooked the chickpeas, covering with water, in my  Instant Pot  pressure cooker for 25m. I could have waited a short while, then gently released remaining pressure and opened the Instant Pot, but I...

We just returned from a lovely trip to British Columbia. We loved visiting places like Victoria and Vancouver. We spent the first and last nights of our vacation in Seattle and, last night, had a particularly memorable dinner at what I was told may be the best vegan restaurant in town, Harvest Beat . I'll include, as a postscript, some notes on vegan dining that we found on our trip. I got to making dinner almost immediately after returning from the airport. I found a few vegetables (fennel, carrot, bok choy, as well as longer-lasting onion and garlic) in the refrigerator, as well as, alas, some kale that was no longer good enough to use. I had frozen black-eyed peas but, unfortunately, no frozen greens. But I had enough to put together a tasty and healthful meal. Ingredients 1 cup onion cut into thin (maybe 3/8" x 1 1/4") sticks (about 1/3 of a medium onion) 1 clove garlic finely (1/8") diced 3T fennel bulb cut into approx. 1/4" x 3/4" sticks 1 1/2 cups ca...

I made a simple waterless dish by cooking in a large Saladmaster stock pan onion, garlic, quartered Brussels Sprouts, and most of a bunch of Swiss chard for about 20m. I served with sweet potato and black beans cooked in my Instant Pot . After cooking, I mixed into the beans onion, marinara sauce, fresh Meyer lemon juice, ground cumin, and salt. Results Pending Ideas for the future Pending

I wanted to use a remaining green tomato from the farmers' market from this past weekend. I thought I'd make a thick split pea dhal featuring the tomato. Here is what I did. Ingredients 1 cup split peas (I used green but yellow would be fine) 2 1/2 cups water 1 1/2 - 2 cups (what a typical medium tomato may yield) green tomato cut into 1/4" cubes (my medium tomato yielded 1 3/4 cups) 1/4 t turmeric 1/2 t ground cumin 1/2 t (or to taste) salt 1T lemon or lime juice Process Split peas typically take 8-10m of pressure cooking in a ratio of 1 part split peas to 3 parts water. I wanted a thicker dhal, so went with a 1:2.5 ratio for 10 minutes. I put the split peas, water, green tomato, turmeric, and cumin into my  Instant Pot  pressure cooker and cooked for 10m. After the cooking was done, I waited a few minutes and gently released pressure, then mixed in the salt and lime juice. When I was ready to serve, I opened the pot slowly, and added salt. Results Pending Ideas for...