Tag Archives | peas

Veggie Paella

Published on in Grains, Main course By |
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Veggie Paella

I listened to a podcast recently, a recording of a Lucky Peach event called ‘Eating Out Loud’. Just like the magazine, it was creative, hysterically funny, artistic, irreverent and at times, totally bizarre. Different people spoke/sang/told stories, including Chef David Chang, one of the founders of the magazine (and of Momofuku Restaurant Group and other awesome foodie things).

Veggie Paella

I love him. I loved watching him on Mind of a Chef, I love his passionate but self-deprecating articles in Lucky Peach, I’m totally a fan. Which is why in this podcast, when he referred to paella as ‘the most overrated food in the history of the world’ I had to do the 15 second rewind to make sure I had heard him correctly. It’s not like I share his food philosophy in general, but this still surprised me. Paella?!

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Quinoa Salad with Green Veggies & Macadamia Nut ‘Feta’

Published on in Grains, Main course, Nightshade-free, Nuts, Salad, Snack By |
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Quinoa Salad with Green Veggies & Macadamia Nut Feta

This salad is full of all the stuff that you think about eating as you slice off another piece of buckwheat toast for your second meal of avo toast in one day. Even better, it’s the kind of thing that you can make once at the beginning of the week to guarantee yourself at least one solid meal every day that week. You can even make it the following week without getting tired of it by mixing up some of the ingredients.

Quinoa Salad with Green Veggies & Macadamia Nut Feta

Quinoa, the protein-rich non-grain is one of my faves. If soaked and cooked properly, it tastes neutral and has a really nice texture. Soaking it also makes it far easier to digest. If you think you’re not a quinoa fan, try cooking it this way, or take the time to make this recipe (it’s pretty straight forward), and you’ll change your mind. Switch it out for buckwheat or millet, if you need a change.

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Sesame Kohlrabi Slaw with Miso Apricot Dressing

Published on in Nightshade-free, Salad, Salad dressing, Seeds By |
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It’s been a while since I turned my oven on. Not to seem ungrateful for all of this sunshine (and vitamin D), but it has been really hot with humidity that Vancouver doesn’t generally see. So maybe I am complaining a little bit, but chin sweat you guys! All of the time.

So I have been making recipes that require very little heating up, both for me, and the recipients of the meals. It makes it hard to complain about chin sweat when I think about how un-amazing it must feel to add a rough post chemo week into the mix with all of this heat. No ovens no cry.

This recipe requires the very bare minimum of cooking. It is mostly a raw dish in all of its enzyme-rich glory, but not just for the sake of being raw, more because the dish itself feels so right for this time of year. It is made with seasonal produce, but not necessarily the sweet and juicy stuff that you dream about during the winter months. Is anyone familiar with kohlrabi?

I think it would be sad to be a vegetable that only reminds people of the parts of vegetables that they normally discard (or save for juicing), but it is true, kohlrabi’s taste and texture are very similar to broccoli stems and cabbage cores. But don’t worry, kohlrabi doesn’t wallow in self-pity, it knows that it is unique and beautiful, with lush, edible greens growing out of each of its many strange little arms. And like all self-respecting vegetables, it also comes in purple.

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Soup-Greening (Pea & Spinach Soup)

Published on in Freeze-able, Greens, Nightshade-free, Soup By |
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More of a concept than a recipe, this post is paying homage to the green smoothie and all of its chlorophyll-ific powers, by lending the same concept to a different dish. Meet the green smoothie’s lower glycemic, gently cooked cousin: green soup. Greens soup. Green smoothie soup…I’m still working on it.

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You can start with any soup, much like a green smoothie can have any fruity base. If you want the vibrant green, use lighter coloured, low acid vegetables as the base (onion, leek, sun chokes, artichoke). Know that if you use a tomato soup base (much like using a berry base in a smoothie) you will wind up with something delicious, that could possibly resemble swamp water. Although I do think that the ‘you eat with your eyes’ concept applies less to the person cooking the food (if you know what went into it, and that it is going to taste delicious, it will, even if it’s not pretty, right?) if you are cooking for someone else who may be feeling under the weather and doesn’t feel much like eating, it will be harder to coax them in with swamp water-looking delicious food, than with delicious-looking delicious food. Trust me.

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Any greens will work, although spinach will get the smoothest, especially if you don’t have a high-powered blender. It is also quite bland, which can work in your favor. The up-side of making a green soup rather than a green smoothie, is if there are green bits that won’t blend in smoothly in your sad-ish blender, they will still steam and mellow into the soup. Anyone ever try to blend kale into their smoothie while on vacation using a blender from the 80’s? It feels like you are eating lawn trimmings. Like a cow. Again, you won’t have that problem here, give kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, and collards a try. Just keep in mind, they will impart their flavour into the soup.

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