Natural Herbal Drink

Am I the only person who didn't realize that you can grate radishes? I wish I'd thought of this earlier this summer: grated radishes + avocado + salt and pepper + rice or white wine vinegar. Yum.

I love homemade pizza (see exhibits A, B, C, and D), but it can be hard to find time to let the dough rise between assembly and baking. So, a recent New York Times article about allowing pizza dough to rest for 24 to 48 hours before baking appealed to me in terms of efficiency, rather than improved taste or texture.

I mixed up my dough on a Thursday evening (using my standard recipe from Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian), and then placed it in a covered bowl in the refrigerator. On Saturday afternoon, I came home, peeked into the fridge, and saw that the dough had risen nicely. The pizza was in the oven about 20 minutes later. Ten minutes after that, I was marveling at how much better a pizza crust that's rested for a couple of days really is. And not just because I was pleased to be eating a freshly-baked homemade pizza about a half-hour after I walked in the door (although that was nice, too).

The flavor and texture of the crust were lighter, even though it was the same recipe that I normally use. (The NYT used the word "nuanced" to describe the change in flavor, which sounds silly when applied to pizza crust but is, I think, accurate). The only downside is that I ate much more pizza than I normally would, because I kept wanting to "confirm" the difference.

I am completely addicted to the spicy lentil stew I made a few weeks back. Turns out, it's even good for breakfast. And, it was one of the only things that made my head feel better during a recent cold/sinus infection.

The original recipe calls for four tablespoons of butter; two tablespoons of canola (or other vegetable) oil make a good substitute.

(Yes, the stew looks completely different in this photo than it did in the original post -- what can I say? -- the first photo was shabby.)

I haven't been eating many legumes lately. Perhaps I needed a break after a long winter of stews and soups? But, a recent meal at an Ethiopian restaurant made me realize that I'd actually missed lentils and split peas -- and left me craving more Ethiopian food. So, I sorted through different recipes on the internet, tracked down some spicy berbere seasoning, and made my very first attempt at mesir wat (spicy lentil stew, seasoned with berbere) and kik alicha (a mild but tasty yellow split pea stew, which provides a nice counterbalance to the wat). As you can see from the photo, I cheated a bit and made naan to eat with my stew, rather than injera.

The result? I can't vouch for authenticity, but they are both delicious. I think I would even be happy to eat them during a mid-winter slump.

Spicy lentil stew recipe here, yellow split pea stew recipe here. I found bebere seasoning ($7.99 for a 1-pound bag) at the World Food Bazaar, 242 N. Havana in Aurora.

I've had this flourless, no bake carrot cake before, in Nepalese restaurants, but never knew how to make it. Luckily, Donna (of Dine with Donna) asked a restaurant owner for the recipe. It turns out the cake is really easy to make. Basically, shredded carrots are cooked in a dry pan over medium heat until all the moisture evaporates -- then, milk, butter, and sugar are added in turn, and cooked until the liquid reduces -- and finally, cinnamon, coconut powder, and ground cardamom are stirred into the carrot mixture.

While the resulting cake is delicious, the recipe is worth making for the smell of freshly ground cardamom, alone.

Dine with Donna featured the cake more than a month ago, but it took me a while to make it because I didn't have the coconut powder called for in the recipe. I finally just decided to use coconut flour, which worked just fine (and maybe is the same thing?). You can find coconut flour at health food stores.

Recipe here.

The warm temperatures and sunny skies last week started me thinking about lighter spring fare. After months of winter vegetables, an orzo and vegetable salad (from Jeanne Lemlin's Quick Vegetarian Pleasures cookbook) seemed like a great way to welcome spring.

Of course, by the time I got around to making the salad, the temperature had plummeted more than 20 degrees, the sunny sky had been replaced with clouds, and it was snowing. Also, I somehow lost an hour?

While the weather (and time) may have let me down, I don't believe this salad ever will: orzo and tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, celery, parsley, feta, and (of course) kalamata olives, in a light, creamy dressing. I threw in a little chopped spinach, this time, too... Here's to the longer days, sunnier skies, and warm-weather food to come.

I suppose we all have our contradictions. I generally don't miss meat at all -- but sometimes I crave my Grandma's stuffed cabbage. And, so, while I usually am not interested in re-creating traditional dishes without the meat, I have tried different meatless versions of stuffed cabbage over the years -- ranging from wonderful version at a Ukrainian restaurant in New York City to a best-forgotten attempt using mock meat "crumbles."

I recently noticed a recipe for "Cabbage Parcels" in the Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen cookbook. The parcels -- stuffed with a pureed blend of barley, pecans, cashews, mushrooms, onions, and cheddar cheese -- sounded interesting, even if a bit different from the stuffed cabbage that I grew up with. And so, I decided to give them a try.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, up until it came to stuffing the cabbage leaves. The recipe said to bind the cabbage parcels with kitchen string to hold them together. I skipped this part, and instead just stuffed the cabbage the way I remember seeing it done as a girl -- dab of stuffing in the center of a steamed cabbage leaf, fold the top and then the bottom of the leaf up over the middle, and then carefully tuck the two sides underneath. The stuffed leaves then went into a large skillet of tomato sauce to simmer for about 30 minutes.

I was really pleased with the outcome -- the cabbage rolls weren't exactly like Grandma made them, but were closer than I expected, and also just plain tasty. Folks who are looking for a good homemade veg burger should check out the filling recipe ("Brown Rice-Mushroom 'Burgers,'" from the same cookbook) -- the nut/grain/mushroom blend has a good flavor and even looks surprisingly meat-like (if that's what you're into).

This pasta bake is quick and easy, and features two of my favorite ingredients -- cauliflower and kalamata olives. The basic recipe is from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook; after preparing the tomato sauce and cooking the pasta and cauliflower, I combined them in a lightly oiled 13 x 9 baking dish, baked them for 25 minutes at 375F, and then added panko bread crumbs and a little grated parmesan cheese and put the baking dish under the broiler for a couple minutes.

I've been on a muffin kick lately. My current favorites are blueberry walnut corn muffins, made with a blend of corn meal, almond flour, and all-purpose flour. The muffins are adapted from a recipe for almond cranberry cornbread that I posted about in December. (I've discovered that it's easier not to eat 1/4 batch in a single sitting if I divide the recipe between 12 muffin cups.)

The adaptation is really simple: I substituted 1 cup frozen blueberries (tossed with 1 tablespoon flour) and 1/2 cup walnuts for the almonds, canola oil, and cranberries called for in the original recipe. Blueberries are a nice addition to corn muffins, and blueberries and walnuts taste great together. Mix the blueberries and walnuts in after combining the wet and dry ingredients.

When I first became vegetarian, I tried to make meatless versions of the dishes I was familiar with, like spaghetti and "meatballs." Over time, I became less interested in replicating traditional meat dishes, and more interested in creating tasty vegetable-based dishes. So, when I saw photo of sweet potato kale balls with pasta at Cupcake Punk recently, I was interested in the sweet potato kale rounds, but a little skeptical about serving the rounds on top of spaghetti.

The rounds are made from a mixture of mashed roasted sweet potatoes, caramelized onions, and sautéed garlic and kale (I used chard). While it takes about an hour to caramelize the onions (good instructions here), the caramelized onions really compliment the sweet potatoes. The sweet potato mixture is rolled into rounds, coated in cornmeal, and then baked at 400F for 30 minutes, turning once after 15 minutes.

My one stray from the original recipe was pour a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar into the pan that I used to caramelize the onions (after removing then onions and chard), and then add the vinegar and any scrapings from the pan to the sweet potato mixture. I really liked the tanginess of the balsamic vinegar with the sweet potatoes and caramelized onions.

I did decide to go ahead and serve the rounds on top of spaghetti. And, I have to admit, it worked. The rounds are really good with a marinara-type sauce. Also, since the rounds are not that big, the pasta helped make a filling (but not too filling) meal.

The recipe at Cupcake Punk was adapted from a recipe by Jess at Happy Vegan Face. Jess suggested mixing cooked quinoa into the rounds, to make more of a patty. While the rounds are really good with pasta, I also might try experimenting along these lines in the future.

Like any good vegetarian, I'm always on the lookout for a new beans and rice dish. So, naturally, I was interested in a recipe for red beans and sticky rice, seasoned with black sesame seeds and salt, from Tea and Cookies. While the recipe was simple -- requiring only adzuki beans, sticky rice (aka mochi rice or sweet rice), black sesame seeds and salt -- it incorporated different flavors and textures than my usual beans and rice dish. And so, I decided to give it a try.

The beans and rice were easy to prepare. I soaked 1 cup of adzuki beans (twice what the original recipe called for) and 1 and 1/2 cups of sticky rice overnight, in separate bowls. The next day, I drained and rinsed the beans, then cooked them for about 20 minutes while I rinsed and washed the rice. When the beans had finished cooking, I drained them but reserved the cooking water. The rice and partially cooked beans then went into a larger pot, with about 2 cups of the reserved bean cooking water, and a dash of salt. Less than 20 minutes later, the rice and beans were done.

The gomashio (black sesame seeds with salt) is also easy to make, although I had to work through a couple kinks. I used a recipe for stovetop gomashio at Just Bento, which was written for people who have a kitchen scale. Since I don't have a kitchen scale, I spent a little time with on-line measurement equivalent tables and a calculator, and ultimately figured that the recipe called for about 7 tablespoons of black sesame seeds, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1/2 cup of water. I decided to make a half batch, using 3.5 tablespoons of black sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 cup of water.

The recipe said to toast the black sesame seeds in a pan over medium-low heat until they popped, and then add in salt water and stir until the water evaporated. I was worried about burning the sesame seeds (since I couldn't tell by color whether they were toasting), and so I may have started out with too low a heat setting. However, after about 25 minutes and several increases in temperature -- to almost medium heat -- my sesame seeds still weren't popping. Out of frustration, I tasted a seed and found that it was nice and toasty. So, perhaps the seeds don't really have to pop? I added the salt water to the pan and was rewarded with a wonderful salty sesame smell. The water evaporated in just a couple of minutes, leaving me with tasty gomashio to sprinkle over my beans and rice.

Since the gomashio can take some time to prepare, I would definitely recommend making it in advance.

I'm still on a Deborah Madison kick -- this time, her Cream of Barley Soup, from Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen. It's a smooth, creamy soup (thanks to puréed barley and vegetables, and reduced-fat sour cream) which delivers a nice dose of whole grains.

The recipe suggested garnishing the soup with cooked barley and thin slices of sautéed leek and shitake mushroom. I did stir some additional cooked barley into the puréed soup. However, instead of using a leek/shitake mushroom garnish, I sautéed about a pound of chopped baby portobello mushrooms in one tablespoon of melted butter. I really liked the texture of the barley and mushroom chunks in the otherwise smooth soup.

Since my mom's family is Hungarian, I couldn't let a dish featuring both sour cream and mushrooms go without a little paprika.

I've been looking for a good lentil/pasta dish for a while now. This dish from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen really does the trick, thanks to an unlikely combination of ingredients: lime, cilantro, thyme, celery, onion, and spinach (plus pasta and lentils).

If you like Deborah Madison and live in Denver, you might want to know that she will be giving a talk at the Denver Botanical Gardens this coming October. Info here.

A summer dish made with winter vegetables -- thin slices of sweet potato, parsnip, and fennel, layered over sautéed leek and garlic, sprinkled with thyme and ground fennel seed, and topped with gruyere cheese. Adapted from this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.

I used one sweet potato, one parsnip, and one fennel bulb. In the future, I might try to wedge in another (sliced) fennel bulb -- who knew that fennel was so good with gruyere?

These baked beans are made with smoked paprika, not pork or bacon. It takes several hours of cooking from start to finish, but for most of that time, the beans are simmering away in a slow-cooker (aka Crockpot).

The recipe starts out by cooking the (pre-soaked) beans in a slow-cooker for three hours. The beans are then drained and added back to the slow-cooker -- along with smoked paprika, dried mustard, grated onion, molasses, brown sugar, ketchup, and water -- to cook for another 10 to 14 hours. I let mine simmer overnight on low heat. While I was sleeping, the beans transformed from pale to tangy brown.

Recipe here. I used cannellini instead of navy beans, and added salt to the cooked beans.

There were two things about this cornbread recipe that interested me. First, it adds almond flour to the standard blend of cornmeal and all-purpose flour. Second, it's dotted with dried cranberries and sliced almonds -- two of my favorite things.

The resulting cornbread is supposed to yield 12 servings, but I have to admit that I ate one fourth of the pan in a single sitting. Whoops.

If you don't have almond flour, you can finely grind blanched almonds in a food processor. The recipe contemplates that the bread will be baked in a cast-iron skillet; I don't have one, so I used a 9x9 baking dish.

Recipe here.

Each summer, when blueberries are in season, I wash and freeze a large baggie-full for use later in the year. Then, when I need a change from the usual winter produce, I head to the freezer for some berries. Last month, I used some of my stash to make blueberry chia muffins. This weekend, I went back to the freezer, and used some more berries to make blueberry ginger jam.

I'd never made jam before, but the recipe was simple: combine blueberries, grated ginger, port, sugar, and lemon zest in a saucepan; bring to a boil; and then simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes. That's it.

The original recipe called for four cups of blueberries. That would have finished off my stash, and so I made 1/4 batch. I omitted the port (although I think it would have been good) because I didn't have any on hand. Also, I used pineapple juice in place of the sugar. Towards the end of the cooking process, I deglazed the saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of hot water, so as not to miss out on any blueberry-ginger goodness.

Recipe here.

I was so pleased with the olive bread that I made a couple of weeks ago that I decided to try the same recipe again -- but this time, with 1 and 1/2 cups of walnuts (and 2 teaspoons salt) in place of the kalamata olives called for in the original recipe.

Although I used the same flour, the inside of the walnut bread was a different color than the interior of the olive bread -- I think the substitution of walnuts for olives must somehow be responsible for this.

Delicious with a smear of butter and a drizzle of honey.

I love olives. And bread. So, when I ran across a recipe for olive bread, it went right to the top of my "to bake" list.

The recipe takes more than 12 hours from start to finish, but the hands on time is minimal. The night before baking the bread, I combined bread flour, yeast, olives, and water. After covering the mixture and letting the yeast work its magic overnight, I worked the dough into two loaves, and placed them on a lightly oiled baking sheet to rise for a couple more hours.

Then it was time to bake the bread. While the recipe said to put the dough in a preheated pot to bake, I didn't want to bake any of my pots in the oven. So, instead, I preheated the oven to 400F, placed the loaves (still on the oiled baking sheet) inside, then reduced the heat to 375F and baked them until their crusts were golden and an inserted thermometer read 210F (a method I borrowed from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian).

The recipe yielded two good-sized loaves of olive bread. I used the first to make some toasted sandwiches with provolone and chopped peppers. (A similar sandwich, made with regular bread, can be found here.) Since I was about to leave town for Thanksgiving, I put the second loaf in the freezer -- I'm pleased to report that it emerged from the icebox with the same "fresh baked" texture it had when it went in, and that I'll be enjoying more olive bread sandwiches this week.