What a difference a week makes! We are both feelin’ pretty spiffy and back on track with some energy. We have a lot to talk about and some new dishes to share, so we’ll jump right in. Y’all know we have made some recipes from the book Vegan Bowls,
well, we decided to try out a new recipe. We’d settled on one (Seitan Ossobucco) but decided at the last minute to pick a different one. In addition to including one recipe each week from the Dean Ornish Reversal Program (more about that later), we also wanted to include more vegetables and grains in our meals. So, we pulled out the Forks Over Knives cookbook to add to the mix. Big Solid would not be a happy camper if we didn’t have our baked potato meal at least one night, but he’s a very willing participant in some new recipes (as long as they don’t include eggplant). So, Monday night, we had the Lentil Picadillo from the Vegan Bowls cookbook pictured above. Another plus for deciding to try this recipe was the fact that we had all the ingredients on hand (or so we thought...yet again). Now, this is a bit of a labor intensive recipe but once you settle down and put things in an organized time frame, it wasn’t really too demanding. In an elf-fort to get ahead of the game, and not be frantically trying to throw everything together in a rush, we prepared the Spice mix early in the day, following obtaining Annato seeds from Whole Paycheck. The Spice Mix is a combination of 6 spices (mostly whole seeds) that are ground into a coarse powder. The only spice that was not in seed form was paprika...and as usual, we used the Bittersweet Smoked Paprika that we love. The Oregano and Basil were dried herbs. The mix was made much easier by the use of our little mini-processor. We put the powder in a small glass jar—step one was done and done! As we were gathering the rest of the ingredients to set up our ‘mise en place’, we then realized that we had no red wine! Big Solid to the rescue and within 20 minutes, we had some! So, here you go. From left to right, we have a bunch of Lacinato Kale, fresh Cilantro, Pepitas (in the measuring cup), EVOO, Merlot, Black and Green Lentils, Tomato Paste, Farro, coarse chopped onion and red pepper, sliced Green Olives, Golden Raisins, and the Spice Mix ingredients (Oregano, Cumin Seed, Coriander Seed, Annato Seed, Black Peppercorn, Paprika) and the ‘fresh Spice Mix’ in a jar.
We processed the coarsely chopped onion, red pepper, cilantro, and garlic to a fine mix
and sautéed in some heated EVOO (if you want to eliminate added fat or oil, sauté in water).
Oh, while we were preparing the vegetables, we were also cooking the lentils and farro. The recipe called for two kinds of lentils...green and brown. However, since both of those cook differently (green taking longer to cook than the brown) we decided to use black lentils instead. That way both types of lentils would be the same level of doneness rather than one al dente and the other mush. We also toasted the Pepitas (Pumpkin seeds). Before toasting
and after.
OK, after the onions, pepper, cilantro and garlic mixture was sautéed, we stirred in the tomato paste for about 30 seconds;
then the Merlot was added.
This cooked for about 3 minutes to let the wine flavor absorb.
Next was everything else, starting with the remaining spice mix and kale.
We had washed, dried, and torn the Lacinato kale into pieces. We actually used this type of kale because sometimes, Curly kale can be tough and/or bitter. This Lacinato worked beautifully. We followed with the sliced olives, raisins, and some of our Gentle Chef Chicken Broth.
This cooked down a bit and we were ready for our final addition, the lentils. We stirred them in and let simmer for about 10 minutes to once again, let all those marvelous flavors bloom.
We plated (well, bowled) it up as close to the picture in the cookbook as we could get, topped with some of those toasted Pepitas
and dove in!! Holy Taste Bud Explosion!! This dish is OUTSTANDING!! Even Big Solid was raving about it.
So, we will add this to the rotation on a regular basis. We also think the substitutions we made (the black lentils and the Lacinato kale) made the dish’s textures absolutely work! Dare we say--WE WERE BOWLED OVER!!
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Tuesday night, we prepared the Mushroom Stroganoff from the Forks Over Knives cookbook. We also sliced some seitan to sauté to give Big Solid the option of a meat analogue and added some steamed broccoli to the cooked seitan.
Frankly, your Elf LOVED this dish. We even made the FOK recipe for vegan sour cream, which was not only easy (extra firm silken tofu, lemon juice and red wine vinegar) but worked superbly in this recipe. Fortunately, we keep dried Porcini mushrooms on hand, so we soaked them a goodly while in boiled water to add to the thickly sliced portabellos we had sautéed with water and garlic. Remember the FOK cookbook eschews fat, so be forewarned. Most of your sautéing is done in water to avoid the inclusion of any added fat. We drained the porcinis and kept a cup of the porcini liquid to add later. Here’s the full meal deal of the mushrooms as they cooked.
The sour cream and white wine is added at the last minute and allowed to coat the fettuccine (cooked and kept warm until added to the mushroom/sour cream mixture). The plating looked good and the dish, from your Elf’s perspective, was delicious.
It’s amazing the flavor impact the porcini ‘water’ had on the overall taste. Big Solid was not as impressed and I don’t think he would put it on the rotation. He prefers a more substantive texture. That actually worked great because Your Elf was able to enjoy it all week for lunch!
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A couple of other Elf-ventures for the week were preparing Boiled Peanut Hummus…a family favorite. There are dozens of recipes for Boiled Peanut Hummus out there, so Google it and find one that works best for you. While most hummus recipes call for the addition of oil (olive oil), we have found that you can cut the oil in half and thin the hummus with water OR cut it out all together, again thinning the hummus with water. Just be careful to not OVER-THIN with the water and wind up with hummus soup.
Now, boiled peanuts are a Southern staple and most people can’t imagine sucha thing. Yet, even the most hardened of BP-haters regard this hummus in the highest esteem. And finally, here’s a quick pic of our Turmeric Tonic, made fresh this morning.
This will last about 4 days.
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Now, we know that last week, we promised our Ornish followers we would prepare and post a dish from the Ornish cookbook. Well, we went by Barnes & Noble to purchase it but…they were not in stock (y’all have NO idea how much this pisses us off). So, we ordered the Reversal Diet cookbook from Amazon after typing in a search for Ornish cookbook. We received the Reversal Diet cookbook on Thursday. Well, LO AND BEHOLD, it was NOT an Ornish cookbook at all but one prepared by the Esselstyn’s (Engine 2 Diet); good but not what we were looking for. We looked through the recipes and found that there were NO nutritional values included with the recipes…SERIOUSLY?? How can Ornish folks KNOW the fat grams per serving IF these values are not present? So, we packed the Reversal Diet cookbook up and sent it back. We went back to Amazon and downloaded the Kindle edition of the REAL DEAL. It looks like we’ll be working on an Ornish meal this coming week!!
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We leave you with our weekly Elfism: Placing your glasses on the other side of the sink or the room when you wash your face makes no difference at all; there WILL be a drop of water on the lens.
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With this in mind, we wish you a healthy week ahead, stay plant-based and always remember to LOOK for the GOOD, be an EXAMPLE of the GOOD, and ACT for the GOOD as HARD as you can, in as MANY WAYS as you can, EVERY DAY that you can.
Your Elf
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