Tag Archives: vegan

Pasta with Garlicky Spinach and Buttered Nuts

2 May

We invited our son for dinner recently when his financee was out of town. Planning a menu was a challenge. They are both vegan – no dairy, no egg – which I can handle fairly easily. But my son also follows a diet that helps him avoid GERD – gastro-esophageal reflux disease. And that means no onions (though leeks, shallots, and scallions are OK), no peppers of any kind, no tonatoes and nothing acidic, such as vinegar or any kind of citrus. Many spices, inclluding curry and anything deriving from pepper, are taboo. Luckily, garlic is OK (it’s technically on the to-be-avoided-for-GERD list, but he has found he can eat it without ill effect).

I found this recipe in the New York Times not long ago. It’s easy enough to substitute plant-based “butter” or margarine for the real thing (and in fact, our son brought us some he made himself). While our son can’t eat the capers in the recipe, he can eat green olives, so I chopped up a few tablespoons of those (no pimento!) as a substitute. And we decided to use cashews as the nut of choice because we had some roasted and salted on hand. We left out the pepper, and the vegan at the table avoided the Parmesan cheese.

We also served a split-pea soup we made using leeks instead of onions, and plain roasted carrots and broccoli, so it was a colorful, tasty and well-rounded meal.

The recipe says “serves 4” but it can easily stretch for six unless your diners have huge appetites. The three of us ate heartily and we had enough left over for two more servings.

Ingredients:

  • kosher salt and black pepper
  • 12 oz. mezze rigatoni or other short pasta
  • ½ cup roasted salted pistachios, almonds or hazelnuts (or cashews), chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 Tbs. capers, drained
  • 12 oz. fresh spinach, stems trimmed to 1-inch length, or Swiss chard, trimmed and chopped
  • Grated Parmesan for serving

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted weater to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package instructions until al dente.

After pasta has been cooking for about 2 minutes, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pistachios, garlic and capers and cook, stirring to keep the garlic from scorching, until fragrant, about one minute.

Add spinach to skillet one handful at a time, season with salt, and cook, tossing, until wilted, about 1 or 2 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfter the pasta to the skillet along with a half-cup of the pasta water. Season with salt and pepper and cook over medium-high, tossing until the liquid reduces and coats the pasta, 2 to 3 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper, and serve topped with Parmesan.

Serves 4

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Crispy Tofu with Cashews and Blistered Snap Peas

9 Mar

Here’s another winning recipe from the New York Times. The intro to the recipe says it will work well with small pieces of chicken instead of tofu, if that’s what you prefer. And if you don’t like or don’t have snap peas, use grean beans, broccoli or asparagus — anythng that’s fresh and green. The colors in this dish are almost as nice as the flavors. I confess I did not have the mint leaves it suggests sprinking on top; after waiting several weeks while hoping to find some, I just gave up.

Ingredients:

1 (14-oz.) block firm or extra-firm tofu, drained and pressed
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
kosher salt and black pepper
¾ lb. snap peas, trimmed
1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled and grated (about 2 Tbs.)
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 (13-oz.) can unsweetened coconut milk (light or full-fat)
1 Tbs. soy sauce
2 tsp. molasses, dark brown sugar or honey
½ cup toasted cashews
1 Tbs, rice vinegar
4 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
¼ cup mint leaves, torn if large
½ to 1 tsp. red pepper flakes, optional

Directions:

In a medium skillet or cast-iron pan, heat 1 Tbs. oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Season both sides of the tofu with salt and black pepper, place it in the pan and sear without moving until tofu is browned and golden on both sides, turning once halfway through (about 8 minutes total). Move the tofu to a plate.

Add 1 Tbs. oil to the pan and add the snap peas. Cook, stirring occasionally, until blistered and just tender, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and move to a bowl.

Heat the remaining 1 Tbs. oil, add the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the coconut milk, soy sauce and molasses. Simmer, stirring frequently, until the sauce reduces and its color deepens to a dark brown, about 6 to 8 minutes. It should coat a spoon without running right off.

Stir in the cashews, break the tofu into 1-inch pieces and toss in the pan to coat with the sauce. Remove from heat, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Toss the snap peas with the rice vinegar, scallions, mint and red-pepper flakes if you use them. Divide among plates with the tofu and cashews. Serve with rice or any steamed grain.

Serves 4

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Greek Lentil & Spinach Soup with Lemon

23 Apr

Lentil soup Greek

Hi friends! I hope you haven’t given up on me although I’ve been MIA for several months. First we were getting ready to move, and then we moved, and then we got locked down. So now that we’re unpacked and as settled as we can be without going out to do any of the things we need to do, we have time to do some cooking. We just made this rather complex lentil soup (complex because of so many ingredients, which took us awhile to assemble), and it was deelish! It’s vegan, gluten-free and low fat too! Hope you enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 lb. brown lentils, rinsed and picked over
10 cups vegetable broth or water
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
2 tsp. whole coriander seeds
1½ tsp. cumin seeds
2½ tsp. dried oregano
2 bay leaves
2 medium potatoes ( 1¼ lb.), scrubbed and cut into ½-inch dice
10 oz. baby spinach, chopped
1 small butternut squash (1 lb.) peeled and cut into ½-inch dice (about 3 cups)
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, with leaves, sliced
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp. kosher salt (or more to taste)
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper (or more to taste)
⅓ cup lemon juice
1 lemon, sliced

Directions:

In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, combine the lentils, stock or water, jalapeno, coriander, cumin, oregano and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to low. Simmer, partly covered, about 30 minutes, until lentils are tender.

Add the potatoes, spinach and butternut squash, re-cover and cook another 20 minutes, until the potatoes and squash are tender.

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil and cook the onion, stirring, until it starts to soften, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add the celery and garlic and cook, stirring often, until they soften, about 3 minutes. Add the mixture to the soup; deglaze the pan if necessary with a little of the soup liquid. Add the salt and pepper. Discard the bay leaves.

Just before serving, stir the lemon juice into the soup. Serve the soup hot, with a lemon slice floating atop each bowl.

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Red Curried Tofu

16 Jun

Red curried tofuI hosted a lunch meeting last week and one of the guests was a gluten-free almost-vegan (well, maybe she’d eat one egg, she told me). I figured my best bet would be an Asian vegan dish.

I got this recipe from a magazine – which one I do not know, possibly the late, lamented Cooking Light – and I really like it. It’s fast and easy to make, tasty and healthy. According to the recipe, it has only 292 calories per serving, 7 grams of fat and 3.5 grams of fiber so it’s a good Weight Watchers choice. We don’t like cilantro, so we substitute parsley.

This dish is very flavorful and nicely spicy. The heat comes from the Chinese chili paste, so if you don’t like it hot, use less (or even none) and if you like a lot of heat, use a little more.

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked long-grain white or brown rice
2 tsp. dark sesame oil
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
2½ cups onion, sliced vertically
1 cup yellow or red bell pepper strips
1½ tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. ground turmeric
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbs. low-sodium soy sauce
1 Tbs. honey
½ tsp. Chinese chili paste with garlic
1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 12-15 oz. package firm or extra-firm reduced fat tofu
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro (or parsley)
¼ cup chopped dry-roasted cashews

Directions:

Drain the tofu and wrap it in a clean dish towel. Place a dish or bowl on top to weight it down slightly and leave it while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Cook the rice as you normally would or according to the package directions.

While the rice is cooking, in a small bowl, combine the curry powder, coriander, turmeric and salt. In another small bowl, combine the soy sauce, honey and chili paste.

Heat sesame and vegetable oils in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper strips and sauté about 4 minutes until tender. Stir in curry, coriander, turmeric and salt, and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, then the soy sauce mixture.

Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes and add to the skillet. Stir well so that the every piece of tofu is coated with sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for two minutes or until thoroughly heated.

(If you want to prepare this ahead of time, do the tofu mixture first. Reheat it just before you’re ready to serve.)

Serve over rice, and sprinkle the chopped cilantro (or parsley) and chopped cashews on top.

Serves 4

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Banana Flaxseed Muffins

10 Jan

banana flaxseed muffins

I got the recipe for these easy and delicious muffins from my friend Jan Wanetick. The notable thing about the recipe — besides the ease of making it and the great taste of the muffins — is that it’s vegan! The flaxseed takes the place of egg in binding the other ingredients and adds a little extra nuttiness. If you don’t care about being vegan, you can use dairy butter and milk, as I did. White flour works fine too, if you don’t have whole wheat. And I bet you can sub pumpkin or sunflower seeds for the nuts, if you need to take them into a “nut-free” environment.

You can buy flaxseed meal in many supermarkets. I got mine at Trader Joe.

By the way, I discovered a great new trick for chopping nuts! I had always used a nut chopper. In fact I have two, one with a rotary blade that you operate with a crank handle, and another with a blade on a plunger that you pump up and down. They’re both a pain to clean up. At Chautauqua over the summer, we didn’t have a nut chopper, so I put the measured amount of nuts in a sandwich bag and rolled over them with a glass jar; doesn’t matter if the jar is empty or full. After just a few passes, the nuts were nicely chopped and there was nothing to clean up!

Ingredients:

1½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup flaxseed meal
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup soy butter
1 cup sugar
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
¾ cup soy or almond milk
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well.

Grease muffin tins or use cupcake papers. Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full.

Bake for 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 1 dozen muffins

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Tofu in Mali Sauce

16 Nov

tofu-in-mali-sauceLast month I went to a potluck dinner for Dining for Women, an organization that pools contributions from small local events to make a big donation that helps women in Third World countries.

The theme of the evening was Mali (the funds raised would go to a program that supports literacy and numeracy education for women) and so I looked for a vegetarian Mali dish and found this. It was very easy to make and very tasty. I’ll definitely make it again.

The original recipe called for a full cup of water. I used a half-cup and the sauce was still pretty thin. I used home-made tomato sauce made from the last tomatoes in our garden and cooked it down significantly to thicken it a bit. Use your judgment — you don’t want the sauce to be too watery.

Ingredients:

1 package firm or extra-firm tofu, drained and cubed
½ cup onion, finely chopped
Cooking oil
2 Tbs. peanut butter
1/2 cup water
1 Tbs. palm sugar or raw sugar (I used agave nectar – can probably use cane sugar or honey)
1 Tbs, soy sauce or tamari sauce
1 cup tomato sauce or chopped and mashed tomatoes
2 cups cooked white or brown rice to serve

Directions:

Bring water to a low boil, then add the peanut butter. Cook for one minute while stirring. Remove from heat.

Add the sugar, soy sauce and tomato sauce or mashed tomatoes and cook for two minutes. Set aside.

In a separate pan, saute the tofu cubes with the chopped onions in the oil over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes until onions are soft and tofu is starting to brown.

Put the tofu cubes into a serving dish and pour the sauce over.

Serve over boiled rice – or over stir-fried vegetables or baked potatoes.

Serves 4

 

 

 

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