Eat your veggies.

Apparently, mothers will never stop telling you the importance of eating your veggies. Recently my mother has complained that my blog is too meat-centric. There is some truth to that. So, I invited my vegetarian friend Kailee over for dinner and it was the perfect opportunity to experiment with some new all veg meals.

Before I delve into the recipes I want to share my thoughts on vegetarianism, veganism and the raw food diet craze. First off, if you're a vegetarian and you eat fish sometimes or buffalo chicken wings, but only when it's wing night at the dining hall, you're not a vegetarian. I'm sorry but an animal is an animal even if it's ugly. I can't root for the Red Sox 3 games a month and in good conscience call myself a Yankees fan so you can't call yourself a vegetarian if you eat fish. I'm glad I got that all out.

Newton's third law states that forces occurs in pairs, one called the action and the other the reaction. However, I don't believe Newton's laws are limited to physics. To me, the explosion of vegetarian, vegan and raw diet culture is a direct result of the sad state of meat production and the prevalence of the fast food industry in the United States. It is easy to see how McDonald's and KFC can turn people off to meat. Not only because they serve either fried reconsituted chicken bits or greasy and grey pre cooked beef patties but because there is no soul or effort put forth to respect the animal that has been killed. If you're going to eat chicken you should cook the best chicken you possibly can. If a chicken has to die it shouldn't be for a nasty soulless nugget. I imagine that if the widespread use of animal protein was more respectful to the dead animal, if we used all the parts, if we cooked it well with some love and soul, and treated it as if it were once alive there wouldn't be such aversion to meat.

Now enjoy these veggie recipes you dirty hippies.

Sweet Potato and Turnip Curry with Spiced Kale

For the curry:

4 white turnips (slice into 1/4'' semi circles)
2 large sweet potatoes (cut similarly)
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp ginger minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 cup yogurt
1 tsp cruish red pepper
1 tsp cumin 3
tbsp of your favorite red curry paste
2 tsps olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat, add the olive oil. Saute the onions, garlic and ginger until they are softened and lightly brown. Add the cumin and crushed red pepper and lightly brown the spices for a minute. Add the vegetable stock, tomatoes, yogurt and curry paste. Stir until combined. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Add the sweet potatoes and turnips to the mixture cover and continue to simmer on low for 20 minutes.

For the Kale:

1 1lb package frozen kale (spinach works too)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tsps fresh ginger minced
3/4 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place a saute pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and when it is warm add the fresh ginger, garlic, garlic powder crushed red pepper and cumin. Brown for 1 minute. Add the vegetable broth and stir. Season with salt and pepper. When the liquid comes to a simmer add the Kale. Cover and let cook for 8 minutes.

Serve these along side steamed jasmine or basmati rice.

Curry:



Jack says:

Dirty hippie recipe deserves dirty hippie music -

"When I Woke" by Rusted Root

Marxism, mmmm spicy.

When I was volunteering in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina hit, I met this guy Jeff, perhaps the biggest anarchist I ever met. Jeff had this theory that any unnatural societal order was unnecessary. He felt that people would fall into the roles they were best suited for naturally, without having to rely on a government or leader to place them there. While Jeff's theories were often outlandish this one was particularly salient. After two days of gutting houses I was starting to get fed up with the sub par meals, provided for the volunteers, coming out of the makeshift kitchen. On the third day, I went into the kitchen and let the staff know that I had some culinary experience and I would like to lend a hand. As it turned out, most of the people working in the kitchen had little if any cooking experience so they bolted the kitchen to get back to gutting houses. Jeff, it seems, was right.

Left in the kitchen was myself, one assistant and a surprisingly well stocked kitchen, with most of the equipment provided by locals who survived the storm and volunteers. We had 4 industrial sized burners, a refrigerator and a giant steel drum barbecue, but no ovens. Most of the raw ingredients were provided by other relief organizations and local vendors who just wanted to lend a hand. For instance, after gutting one crawfish fisherman's house, he brought about 200 lbs. of crawfish to our site as a thank you. But more often then not we were dealing with produce that was about to turn and that needed to be used immediately. For some reason we always had way too much cauliflower. We would cook it up as hash-browns for breakfast, blend it into beans for stew and so on. But as it it turns out, cauliflower doesn't taste like much. What it does have going for it is that when blended it takes on an incredibly creamy consistency. Which is great in soup and one of these days I'm putting it in ice cream. So here is a recipe we came up with for the volunteers. I've scaled it down from army-of-hungry-volunteers proportions.

Curried Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Soup

1 cauliflower, cut into small pieces
1 sweet potato, cut into 1/2'' cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic chopped
2 tsp of curry powder
1 tsp chili powder or cayenne pepper
1 15 oz. can of chicken broth
1 cup of milk
2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper

For this recipe do not worry too much about the cut of the vegetables because they are going to get buzzed in the blender. Place a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. When the oil is hot add the onions and garlic and saute until tender, 3-4 mins. When soft add the cauliflower, sweet potato and stir in the curry powder and chili powder. When the vegetables are coated add the broth and milk. Simmer over medium heat for 12 mins. Add the soup to a blender and buzz until smooth. That's it. The sweet potato is a nice addition because it adds a pleasant orange color and the natural sweetness offset the spice.

It's not just a movie. Ratatouille.

Ratatouille, while thrust into popular culture with the 2007 Disney movie, is still a mysterious food to most people, but nothing could be simpler, more versatile or delicious. The dish is a simple vegetable stew containing eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers, but the options are endless. The following recipe is simple is incredibly easy.

1 medium Italian eggplant cut into 1'' cubes
4 zucchini sliced into 1/2'' quarter circles
2 bell peppers (red or yellow) roughly chopped
1 carrot peeled and diced
1 large onion peeled and diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock or water
3 springs of thyme
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Here's a quick visual guide to how everything should be cut:




Coat the bottom of a heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven with olive oil, place over medium-high heat. Saute the carrots, onions, and garlic and until translucent, 3-4 mins. Add the sprigs of thyme and eggplant, saute for 3-4 more minutes. Add the zucchini, bell pepper, tomatoes and stock. Stir and add salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to low and simmer covered for 25 minutes. That's it. You can serve it with pasta or rice as a main course or as a side dish. It also makes a great substitute for meat sauce in a lasagna. Feel free to add mushrooms, squash or any other vegetable you like.

Alfredo? You can call it whatever you want.

In today's heart healthy society people are staying clear of cream sauces. But, I think there's a way to make a dish like fettuccine alfredo and keep the calories reasonable. First off you can load your pasta dish with vegetables. Mine has artichokes, zucchini, yellow bell peppers and onions but you can put in whatever you have on hand. Adding some lean meats like chicken breast or shrimp doesn't hurt either. Instead of using heavy cream I am going to make a light white sauce using skim milk. I use Skim Plus because it has more flavor then regular skim milk. Which isn't saying much since regular skim milk is pretty much water with white food coloring. Here is my recipe for a a full pound of pasta (that's one box).

Ingredients:

1 lbs. of fettuccine
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 medium onion (sliced)
1 1/2 cups bell pepper (sliced)
1 large zucchini (sliced)
1 6 oz. jar of marinated artichokes (drained)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Bring 6 qts. of water to a boil and cook the fettuccine to aldente, 10 mins. Meanwhile prepare the cream sauce. In a medium saucepan bring together 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the flour over low heat. Whisk in the milk until thickened. Add salt to taste and whisk in the Parmesan cheese. Set aside. In a saute pan, over medium high heat, add the other tablespoon of olive oil. When the oil is hot add in the onions, zucchini and peppers. Saute 4-5 minutes until tender. Add in the artichokes and the pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. To finish the dish add the pasta to the pan with the vegetables and stir in the cream sauce. If the sauce is too thick add some of the pasta water. Sprinke with parsley if you so desire. Enjoy.