Grillin'

I have been grilling up a storm since May. Below are some photographic evidence of my skills, or lack there of.

Cous cous, broccoli, tofu, and garlic:
Tofu and Cauliflower:
Tofu and Greens:

Green Beans and Avocados:

I was inspired by a show on the food channel. They had a bunch of not-ripe-enough avocados and decided to grill them with lemon, olive oil, and garlic. I gave it a try and stuffed them with a carrot, bell pepper salad. It was okay, but not as good as I was expecting. It was a good way to use up unripe avocados.
Tofu and Brocolli:
Onions, Zucchini, eggplant, tofu:
Tofu and Greens:

I have some pineapple, corn, and zucchini waiting to be grilled this week.

Soups

Since my bike accident, I've barely been cooking. I've been able to eat out more. My injuries were worse than I first thought - a sprain and possible hairline fracture in my arm bone - no wonder it hurts all the time! I am so glad that Bone Up now makes a vegan formula, too bad they haven't changed their name.

To comfort myself from the pain, the lack of riding my bike, the pain of paying for the bus and
the recent Portland Fall weather - I've been making soups. Soups are dishes that rarely require recipes. They are usually just lots of ingredients thrown together to make a delicious food I can spoon out of a bowl with one hand.

Black eyed Peas and Greens:
This was nice and smoky soup with the inclusion of liquid smoke. The caramelized onions helped make a great broth along with some blended roasted eggplant. I added a few ripped up pieces of field roast slices. Very filling.

Vegetable Soup:
Lots of zucchini, onions, garlic, carrots, cubes of eggplant and chickpeas.

Hearty Breakfast Mush:
Blended steel cut oats, cream of wheat, cashew milk and flax seed. All topped with a spoonful of peanut butter, brown sugar and dried blueberries.


Fall Cake:
My friend Joe just got back from hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and he needs fattening up so I made a cake. One layer is chocolate chai and the other is a vanilla nut spice layer. In between in a sweet cashew fluff layer and topped with two layers of chocolate ganache.

Fried tofu and greens

Every time I am in Austin my aunt takes me to NuAge Cafe. Last time I was there, last year, I got a dish called sizzeling setain, or something like that. It was fried pieces of setain with a glazed sauce on top of a big pile of greens. It was so fantastic. Not just the taste, but the combination of healthy and fried food. I decided this was the best was to feel okay about eating fried food - on top of a big pile of greens.

I attempted to make something similar but with BBQ tofu.

BBQ Tofu and Greens:
1 block of firm tofu
1/4 cup corn starch
1 bunch of greens
1/4 bottle BBQ sauce
oil for frying

Drain and press the tofu. Cube and coat with corn starch so it looks like a marshmellow. Fry tofu in oil until it becomes a light yellow color. Place on a drain board to absorb some of the oil
Steam the bunch of greens as normal.
Place the tofu carefully into a bowl and coat with your favorite BBQ sauce. Be careful not to smooth the tofu too much.
Layer a place with greens and top with BBQ tofu.


Enjoy your fried food!

More Simple Meals

Meals without recipes. That's how I normally cook - just throw stuff together that tastes good on it's own and hope it tastes good together with spices.

Buckwheat Noodle Soup:
With veggie broth base, leeks, onions, garlic, miso, chickpeas, buckwheat noodles and diced tomatoes.
Diced tomatoes are one of my new favorite things to add to soups. Drain the juice from a can and throw it in. I use to put the juice in there before but it always made it too tomato-y so just putting the fruit in there helps the other flavors sand out on their own.


Saturday Market Dinner:
Roasted fiddleheads, steamed asparagus, garden salad with purple cabbage.
Fiddleheads - I knew bringing these home was going to raise some eyebrows. I was cruious as well. They look a little too much like bugs to me. I saw them once on one of my blogs I read, so I picked them up. They are very expensive. One small handful for $1.50. I really wasn't excited about the taste. They weren't bad, what roasted with garlic can be bad?! but they just weren't $1.50/handful good. Interesting look though.



Cheesy Cauliflower and Greens with Almond Pate:
We eat a lot of vegetables, can you tell? Steamed cauliflower with that special cheesy sauce I have been trying to perfect. When I perfect it I'll share the recipe.
Steamed greens with a fun almond pate. I soaked almonds for awhile, added sun dried tomatoes, paprika, chili powder, lemon juice, miso, salt and garlic powder. Mixing this into the greens reminded me of a savory cottage cheese. It was very good.

Maple Chard Salad

Salad:
2 cups chopped chard
2 Tbl. shredded carrots
2 Tbl. toasted slivered almonds
1/2 Cup fresh blueberries

Dressing:
3 Tbl. Maple Syrup
1 tsp. Balsamic Vinegar
1/8 tsp. guar gum (thickener)
pinch cayanne
1/8 tsp. paprika


This is pretty simple, but it's so fantastic with the sweet of the berries and maple syrup and the bitter of the chard. The toastiness of the almonds brings this really nice round flavor to it all.