SOS Vegetarian Life

1.  Reduces global warming.
2. Avoids excessive production of carbon dioxide.
3. Reduces production of methane gas.
4. Saves water.
5. Avoids pollution of our streams/rivers/oceans.
6. Reduces destruction of topsoil and rainforests.
7. Reduces destruction of wildlife habitats and endangered species.
8. Reduces use of chemicals/antibiotics/growth hormones.
9. Reduces our ecological footprint.
10. Promotes environmental sustainability.

To read the article click on this link: http://www.downtoearth.org/environment/top-10-reasons

Fora tasty vegetarian recipe, check out this recipe for Black Bean Quinoa: http://www.sosvegetarianlife.com/meatless-monday-black-bean-quino/

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We often have meditation retreats at the Meditation Center in Naperville and they usually include a meal.  Today, I was asked to cook for the retreat.  I didn’t have a lot of lead time to think about it or to prepare for the meal.  When this happens, I always think of soup and salad.  Simple, filling, and delcious.

One soup that I have made often for meetings or last minute company is a dal soup made with red lentils and coconut milk.  It is creamy and exotic and never fails to please.  Today I teamed the dal with a fruity cole slaw that I dressed with a bottled salad dressing for ease.  When I got home, though, and had leftover salad for dinner I dressed it with a simle dressing with no salt and lots of flavor.  You have the option to dress it either way and it will still be delicious!

Dal Ingredients

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon organic extra virgin coconut oil
• 2 15 ounce cans of diced tomatoes (I used no sodium), drained
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• Dash of cayenne pepper
• 1 cup red lentils, well washed and drained
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Salt to taste (I didn’t use any)

Directions

Heat the coconut oil in a medium soup pot.  Add the onions and cook on medium-low heat until onions begin to turn brown and start to caramelize.

Add the spices and toast for a minute before adding all of the other ingredients except the salt.  Bring the soup to a boil and then turn the heat down and simmer until done.  Red lentils vary in terms of how long they take to cook.  This soup has taken me as long as an hour and a half, if the lentils are larger and older, or like today when the dal was ready in about 30 minutes.  Watch it and stir often to prevent sticking.  Taste and add salt to taste.

Tropical Slaw Ingredients

• 1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced and cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup thinly diced sweet onion
• 1/2 red pepper, diced
• 1 cup fresh pineapple tidbits
• 1 orange, peeled
• Bottled sweet salad dressing such as poppy seed or Vidalia onion (optional)
• Lime Vinaigrette (optional)
• Garnish: strips of nori sheets

Lime Vinaigrette Ingredients

• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 inch piece of ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon organic extra virgin coconut oil, warmed to liquid
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional, I didn’t use)

Directions

Slice the cabbage very thinly and cut the strips 3-4 times cross-wise to make 1-2 inch pieces and place in a large salad bowl.  Dice the onion and red pepper and add to bowl.  Cut the fresh pineapple into tidbit sized pieces and add to the slaw.  Peel an orange and cut it in half cross-wise.  Then cut each half into thin slices and add to the bowl.  Toss the salad with the bottled salad dressing or mix all of the vinaigrette ingredients and pour over the slaw and toss.

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My husband and I have been vegetarians for 43 years.  For most of those years we were lacto vegetarians and enjoyed many a meal that featured foods smothered in cheese.  One of those favorites was pizza.  For the last year, my husband has been gluten and dairy free due to a health condition that is exacerbated by those foods.  Because his health is somewhat fragile, he is very careful with his diet.  This often makes it difficult for the cook – me!  It has meant learning a whole new way of preparing meals, especially those involving flours and grains.

Have you tried finding dairy and gluten free products in the markets?  Breads often have eggs or their texture and taste leave a lot to be desired.  That means making bread products oursleves.  Have you ever tried to find a gluten free pizza crust in a restaurant?  Same story.  One of our local pizza parlours advertises a gluten free crust – made from sausage!  Unbelieveable!  So, if Al wants pizza, we make it ourselves.  We usually use a mix that we have purchased.  That is until we found this recipe adapted from one I found at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/09/potato-pizzas.html.

Potatoes form the base for the toppings on these mini pizzas.  I am not particularly fond of potatoes and so this dish, to me, was okay but my husband who would eat potatoes every day of the week if I would fix them, raved about it.  He said he liked it better than using pizza crust as a base.  I think overall, it is healthier than using a crust, so I told him to let me know when he had a pizza craving and I would have the potatoes ready!

Use any toppings that you ordinarily put on top of pizza.  We used spinach and mushrooms.  The sauce has lots of onions so, no need to add those.  If you still eat dairy, top your creations with mozarella.  If you want to try vegan cheese, use that instead of the cheeze sauce.  Or leave off all cheese and cheeze types and eat them plain.  They are still delicious.  Also, I am on a very low sodium diet so I made the sauce almost from scratch using no sodium tomatoes and low sodium crushed tomatoes to cut our favorite marinara sauce that I am still trying to use up.  To speed the whole meal up, you could use a bottled marinara sauce, but I thought the almost homemade one was very delicious.

Ingredients

• 4 large baking potatoes (or one for every person)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 15 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup marinara sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• Pizza toppings of your choice: mushrooms, spinach, peppers, artichokes, zucchini, etc.
• Cheeze sauce or mozzarella (dairy or vegan) cheese

Directions

Set your oven temperature at 350 degrees.

Slice your potatoes in three long slices.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or brush oil on the pan to prevent the potatoes from sticking  (I used the paper) and place the potatoes on the baking sheet.  Bake for about 40 minutes or until the potato is cooked.  Test by piercing with a knife.  Take the potatoes out of the oven and set aside until ready to make the pizzas.  This could be done earlier in the day and assembled when the family is ready to eat.

While the potatoes are baking, prepare the sauce.  Saute the onions with a bit of oil.  You can skip the oil by turning the heat down slightly and putting a lid on the fry pan as the onions cook  in a 1/4 cup of water or vegetable broth.  They steam and start to caramelize after about 8-10 minutes.  When it gets close to the time, you have to watch the onions closely so they don’t burn.  Whether steaming or using oil, keep stirring the onions often until they turn a little brown.  When they reach this stage, add the tomato products, the garlic and basil.  Lower the temperature and simmer while the potatoes cook.  As with the potatoes, the sauce can be done earlier in the day and be refrigerated until ready to assemble the pizzas.

Prepare the toppings and the cheeze sauce.  This can be done at the same time as you prepare the pizza sauce or if you have cooked the potatoes and sauce earlier in the day, you can make the cheeze sauce while the pizzas are baked during the second cooking stage.

To Assemble the Pizzas:

Take the baked potato slices and cover them with the pizza sauce.  Add the pizza toppings of your choice.  If you are using cheese or vegan cheese, sprinkle the potatoes with that, too.  If you are using the cheeze sauce, wait until pizzas come out of the oven and cover the pizzas with the sauce.  Bake the pizzas for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and serve.

Cheeze sauce

• 2 tablespoon tahini
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
• 1 cup rice milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• salt to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 tablespoons flour, cornstarch or non-gluten flour
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Put the ingredients into a Vitamix and blend until smooth and creamy.  Place in a skillet and cook until bubbling and thickened.

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I have been back into the groove of healthy eating.  For me, that means very little salt or fat in my diet.  I don’t miss the fat but I’ve always had a hard time getting used to no salt, especially in my salads.  I discovered a trick that is working for me.  Every day at lunch time I have a huge salad topped with about a cup of mashed beans that I have seasoned with chili powder, garlic, cumin and whatever herbs I feel like throwing in.  I top the salad with the warm beans and put this salsa over the top.  It actually saves time because once the salsa is done, I can keep it in the fridge for a couple of days and then I don’t have to chop onions and tomatoes for the salad.

I am putting the ingredients down with a range of quantities.  You know what you like.  For instance, I used a lot of cilantro.  Not everyone likes cilantro.  You could cut down on the amount or even leave it out.  It’s also fairly spicy because that’s the way I like it.  It warms my inside!  So, play with the quantities and make it the way you like.  Throw some salt in if you must.  I think once you find out how delicious fresh salsa is, you may have a hard time going back to the bottled kind from the store, even if it is made in Texas!

Ingredients

•  4-6 chopped ripe tomatoes (or more)
• 1 small sweet onion (or more)
• 1/2 – 1 1/2 finely minced jalapeño peppers (or to taste)
• 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic (or more)
• 1 bunch chopped cilantro (or to taste)
• Juice of lemons or limes to equal about 1/4 cup
• Salt to taste (optional)

Preparation

Put all of the chopped vegetables in a small container that you can keep in the refrigerator.  Add the lemon or lime juice and mix gently.  Taste and adjust ingredients.

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