Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Vegan Tofu Fry with Roasted Root Vegetables

I needed to use up my 2 blocks of tofu today or tomorrow, got home to realize I didn’t have the typical stir-fry vegetables. It actually turned out quite good! Serves 8 2 cups brown rice 2 beets chopped into cubes 2 medium sized yams chopped into cubes 2 carrots chopped 3 mushrooms 1 zucchini chopped into cubes 1 onion chopped 2 cloves of garlic 2 TBSP chopped fresh ginger 1 block of tofu ¼ cup sesame oil ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce 2 TBSP cider vinegar 1 TBSP coconut oil Zest from 1 lemon Juice from the same Lemon Chopped Fresh cilantro Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook rice accordingly. Toss beets, carrots, yams with sesame oil and a pinch of salt, roast 40 minutes, add zucchini to the last 10 minutes.
Meanwhile combine soy sauce, remaining sesame oil, vinegar and zest in a bowl and toss tofu around about. Heat coconut oil in pan on high heat, cook tofu turning until brown, about 10-15 minutes (longer if you turn off the wrong burner).
In a separate pan sauté garlic, onion, ginger and mushrooms. Part way through I’m realizing I will not have a pan big enough to fry it all together.
Combine roasted vegetables, tofu, and onion mixture all together in one pan and sauté for a few minutes. Add lemon and cilantro to rice. Serve tofu mixture on top of rice. Bon Appetite!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Asparagus Pasta

Serves 4 Ingredients 1lb Asparagustough stalks snapped and discarded 2 cloves of garlic 1 small hot dried chili 2 tbsp butter 1 lemon 2 tbsp aged pecorino cheese, shaved a handful of herbs: basil, parsley or marjoram are all fine 350g fresh angel-hair pasta 4 large slices of prosciutto Boil a large pan of salted water. Snap the stems from the asparagus. In a blender or with a knife, chop the asparagus until very fine. Finely chop the garlic, crush the chilli. Heat a large frying pan and melt the butter and add the garlic, followed by the dried chilli. Cook until the smell of the garlic starts to fill the room and then add the asparagus. Season well with salt and fry for a minute or so. Add 100ml of water and cook until the mixture is completely soft but still bright green. Boil the pasta until al dente (usually about half a minute less than it says on the packet, but it’s up to your taste). Add the pasta to the cooked asparagus, add in the cheese, and add the herbs and juice from the lemon. Add a little of the pasta water to make sure the pasta is loose and glossy, add a little olive oil or butter if you think it needs it. Serve topped with a slice of prosciutto.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

THE FRAGRANT VEGETABLE By Valerie Hould-Marchand

I have been eating outrageous amounts of cheese lately. And I must confess that the vegetable ash-covered, soft goat cheese ‹‹Le Cendrillon››, has me completely obsessed! And the warm nutty and floral notes of the Louis d’Or (that I brought back from Québec city) goes perfectly with a glass of Burgundy. Lately, cheese for dinner has become way too convenient! Sounds heavenly I know… But it’s not exactly balanced, and sadly, my cheesy habit had to change. So , I set out on a mission to find recipes that included some seasonal vegetables in hopes of weaning myself off of my pillowy, buttery, velvety friend. I tried plenty of them, but only a few successfully ended my one ingredient dinners. I was particularly intrigued by fennel, a vegetable i had little experience cooking with. This fresh, fragrant, anise-like flavor veggie is both a healthy food and a medicine. It is a great source of vitamin C, A, calcium, fiber, magnesium and potassium. Fennel improves digestion, helps fight fungi and bacteria, and is even suitable for breastfeeding women as well as babies. No wonder this Mediterranean vegetable has been loved since the days of ancient Greece and Rome! Cooking with the crisp and slightly sweet bulb was a lot of fun. I sautéed, grilled, braised, used it raw in salads : I tried it all and got inspired to create my own versions of the recipes I found on the net. Here are two easy recipes you can whip up in no time. Fennel Rings 1 head of fennel 1 cup of rice flour 2 eggs Kinniknnick Panko ½ cup of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese 1. Preheat your oven at 450, and pour a few tablespoons of oil onto a baking sheet. 2. Slice your fennel into ¾ inch-thick rings. In a bowl, mix the panko bread crumbs and the cheese. Dip them in flour, beaten eggs, then finally coat them in the panko mixture. 3. Bake until golden brown, then flip and put the rings back in the oven until both sides are nice brown. 4. Season with sea salt and paprika. Peach Fennel salad 1/2 cup cooked red quinoa
 1 Peach 1 Avocado
 1/2 cup shelled, pistachio nuts
 1 cup thinly sliced fennel 2 cups arugula Vinaigrette 

1 clove garlic
 1/4 cup roughly chopped chives
 1 tbsp. honey 2 tsp. wholegrain mustard
 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
 Pinch salt & pepper 1. Put all vinaigrette ingredients in a food processor pulse until everything is combined. Season to taste. 2. In a mixing bowl, add the cooked and cooled red quinoa, and about 3 tbsp. of the vinaigrette to keep it moist. Stir. 
 3. Halve the peach, remove the pit, and slice into thin pieces. Halve the avocado and cut into small chunks. Add the fennel slices, pistachios. Save a few pieces of your peach and avocado for garnish.
 4. the original recipe suggests using clean hands to toss everything, so you can be gentle and retain the shapes of the avocado and nectarine ; I would also recommend using your hands. Add as much or as little dressing as you want and give one more toss to coat. Garnish with a couple slices of peach and avocado. Until next time, Heal yourself Heal the planet References: www.sproutedkitchen.com www.whfoods.org

Monday, May 14, 2012

Maple Baked Mother’s Day

Sooo…. Midnight Monday night Maple baked beans are ready! Has anyone actually made these before?!!! MY GOSH! I decided to make these last night from scratch for the first time, let the beans soak overnight, woke up, went to work, came home late only to find that the beans actually needed 6 hours to slow cook! (Failed to read ahead in the instructions on cooking time…). So I ended up making Limón chard pasta, quick, easy homemade fail-proof dinner that is ready in 30 minutes. Truth is my darling mom gave me this recipe on mother’s day yesterday, which is very ironic because when I was eleven and decided to become a vegetarian, my mom tried relentlessly to feed me brown beans and tofu which I hated both. She made me eat them though, since I decided I wasn’t eating meat, at the time I thought it was torcher. She even made a special effort to make sure the utensils did not cross contaminate when she was cooking steak for the rest of our family. But thank you mom, now that I am almost 30, learning to love tofu and brown beans, I know you were only looking out for my best interest. And thanks to her, my home smells sooo good on this midnight on a Monday after mother’s day. Next time I might save this for a weekend event. Furthermore I did not read that this recipe will serve 12 people for a week (do you see how many beans are in this photo!). With one adult and two children under 5, I hope the staff at GEO will enjoy this too. Thank you mom for the recipe and for making me eat my beans! Happy Mother's day Mom! I hope all the mothers had the most wonderful mother’s day!(And I hope Jules and Jacquelyne will eat these beans! I’ll keep my fingers crossed) Next week I’ll tell you how my step mother used to sneak tofu into my morning smoothie