Category: vegan

I’m single-handedly battling my own metabolic syndrome by getting off of corrective pills and embracing a healthier, vegetable rich, flour & sugar low diet. I’ve found an easy way to incorporate more vegetables is to start adapting raw recipes and ideas into my diet. It really is like power food, though sometimes hard to digest depending on what you make.

Surprisingly, it’s very filling and I was only able to eat half of the below portion in one sitting:

For One:
1/2 C quinoa
1/2 avocado
raw cashews
bell pepper (orange or red)
broccoli
sprouted beans
arugula, chopped
1 snack box raisins
cayenne pepper
hazelnut oil
salt & pepper

Cook the quinoa (1 – 2, bring to boil while combined, cover and reduce to low for 10-15 minutes until water is absorbed; quinoa is the quickest cooking whole grain & is also high in protein.), meanwhile chop vegetables into diced size after washing and toss in hazelnut oil, salt, pepper. When quinoa is finished cooking, add raisins, salt and cayenne pepper. Lightly mix all the ingredients and serve with sea-salted avocado in top.

There is an amazing market down the street from where I’m living in San Francisco these days. Their produce can be viewed as “on its way out” or “perfectly prime.” I choose to focus on the latter and take advantage of rock bottom prices–a few days ago I found organic raspberries for $1.59, and they were gorgeous, tasty, and not freakishly large. They regularly have zucchini at such a low price that for one, I end up paying about 13 cents. They have whole packs of baby spinach twice the size of the ones at the regular grocery for $1.25. I am obsessed with the possibilities.

Lately, they have had beautiful, beautiful heirloom tomatoes. I picked the best of them and made a simple salad, even slices of the different colors with Himalayan pink salt (flaked variety), fresh cracked pepper, good olive oil, a dash of good balsamic vinegar, and fresh basil julienned on top.

Then, I realized I had a tupperware full of  home made chicken stock left from the last time I made chicken & dumplings. I threw it in a big pot to melt, added some rinsed white beans from a can (it was last minute, or I’d have soaked dry ones), and started chopping into equal, small pieces a carrot, small zucchini, round yellow squash, half a Vidalia onion straight from Vidalia, Georgia (my grandma sends us these every year), some gorgeous green beans, and finally, removed the kernals from a fresh stock of white corn. If I recall, I also chopped up the remaining bits of tomatoes from the heirloom salad into small pieces and added them as well. I threw it all in some toasty olive oil and sauteed it with salt and pepper until it was soft but not squishy.  I reserved it to add to the soup when it was fully heated with the beans.

What really made the soup delicious and different, though, aside from having such cheap, tasty, gorgeous produce from my neighborhood corner store, was that I took a hint from San Luis Obispo’s Buona Tavola Ristorante that I’ve known of for years: add a lump of pesto to the center of the bowl.

I make a batch of pesto just about every week these days (the BF likes to eat it for lunch when I’m at work), and this time I had some that contained basil, olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh garlic, and almonds. It was perfect and brought the whole soup together into tasty, tasty deliciousness.

This is a very simple and flavorful dish I like to fix on weeknights or as a mini-portion at a dinner party. It’s very dependent on the freshness and quality of the ingredients, like many Italian dishes. You will need a food processor or other pulverizing mechanism for this recipe.

I like to use Eduardo’s pasta which is readily available in the bay area–it is the only one I really like if I am not going to make the pasta fresh myself, and because Fusilli is extruded and I don’t have the equipment, I generally buy it. (Eduardo’s comes in a clear package with blue and white writing–you can buy some of their pasta on amazon.com, but not the fusilli).

For two dinner portions, you will need 1/2 a package (about 5 oz or 150 grams for moderate eaters) of Eduardo’s Fusilli (or other, inferior fusilli, unless you’re getting it from a local pasta maker, fresh) and the following:

1 medium crown of broccoli, fresh
olive oil
parmesean reggiano (a block, not the pre-grated stuff)
a few pine nuts
nutmeg (just a shake or two’s worth)
1/4 white or yellow onion
1/4-1/2 bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange)
salt & pepper

Boil a large pot of water (your pasta pot).

While the water is attempting to boil, dice your onion & your bell pepper and add them to a sautee pan with a bit of olive oil (a few tablespoons) that is already hot. Let them get soft. Add them to the food processor (or a bowl for pulverizing with a wand, whatever you have).

When the water comes to a boil (while your onion & bell pepper are sauteeing), add a generous amount of salt. Add the broccoli crown, and blanch it until just barely cooked (DO NOT OVERCOOK). Remove it and throw it on a cutting board. Add your pasta to the water. Set a timer for 1-2 min less than the package says–you’re going to eat this al dente (“to the teeth”).

Coursely chop the broccoli and add it to the food processor. Throw in a few pine nuts, a healthy amount of freshly grated parmesean, a couple of shakes of nutmeg, sea salt, fresh grated pepper. Your bell peppers & onions should already be in there, if they aren’t, add them now.

Pulvarize your sauce. Add olive oil or water as necessary to achieve something that sticks together like a wet or loose pesto.

Your pasta should be about done by now, so strain it and throw it in a hot sautee pan, and add however much sauce you think you need to the pan, and toss it until it’s well coated. Serve, enjoy.