Are you tired of sautéing or steaming your green beans? Well, the temperature finally dropped below 80 degrees, so now is a great time to make some soup.
This is a protein-packed vegan soup with a mild flavor and very few ingredients.
Thank you to Chocolate & Zucchini for this wonderful recipe, which I adapted only a little bit based on what I had in my fridge this morning!
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onions, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
12 baby carrots, sliced
About a pound of green beans, rinsed and trimmed
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup vegetable broth
3 cups water
1.5 cups sliced almonds
Directions:
- Heat the oil in a medium heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onions and carrots, and cook over medium heat, stirring every now and then, until softened and very lightly golden. Add the garlic and stir for minute. Add the green beans to the pot, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.
- Pour in the broth and water, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 20 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft. In the meantime, pour the sliced almonds in a dry skillet. Set over medium-high heat and toast for about two minutes, stirring constantly and watching closely, until golden and fragrant. Set aside in a bowl to prevent overtoasting.
- When the vegetables are soft, add the almonds to the pot and stir well. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Use a high powered or immersion blender to mix all ingredients until velvety smooth. Taste, adjust the seasoning, reheat over gentle heat if necessary, and serve.
To celebrate the historic SCOTUS ruling, let’s enjoy these rainbow fruit and vegetable pops. I love berry season, but fresh berries have such a short shelf life. This technique preserves the fleeting berrylicious flavors of early summer. As an added bonus, these are made with raw kale and carrots too. You can use any combination of fruits and vegetables that you happen to have around. Let me know if you have any favorite combinations! Here’s what you do: Put the following in a high-powered blender: -handful of blueberries -handful of strawberries -handful of frozen chopped kale -handful of carrots -1 cup of water Blend on high until smooth, adding water as needed until it liquifies. The consistency should be quite thin. Pour into ice-pop molds and freeze overnight (the ones pictured are made by munchkin and make the perfect size for little ones. However, we still cut the pop into little pieces for our little munchkin–its just less messy that way). Enjoy!
I made this coleslaw for Father’s Day and have looked forward to having it a snack every day since. It’s a perfect food to bring to a 4th of July BBQ or picnic because it can be prepared ahead of time. The magical thing about this coleslaw is that even though we keep eating it, the bowl is still practically full. I’m not really sure what causes this phenomenon. It’s like the everlasting gobstopper of salads. Anyway, it took about 15 minutes to whip it up in the food processor, and I am grateful for that as well. If you don’t have a food processor handy, you can do all the slicing by hand…but it will be much more time-consuming. This recipe also came from Williams-Sonoma’s Salad of the Day book.
Ingredients:
- 1 head green cabbage (about 2 lb)
- 2 celery ribs
- 1 granny smith apple
- 1 small red onion
- 2 small carrots
- 2 T cider vinegar, or as needed
- 2 T minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 1/4 c mayonnaise
- salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions:
- Cut the cabbage through the stem end into wedges, and cut out the core. Using a food processor fitted with the thin slicing attachment, slice the cabbage into thin slivers. Transfer to a (very!) large bowl. Slice the celery crosswise in the same way and add it to the cabbage.
- Replace the slicing attachment with the shredding attachment. Halve and core the apple but do not peel. Cut the apple and onion into wedges. Shred the apple, onion, and carrots, and add to the cabbage and celery.
- Sprinkle the vegetables with the vinegar and toss to coat evenly. Add the parsley and mayo and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least two hours. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more vinegar, salt, and pepper before serving. Serve chilled.
Here’s another vegan winner from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. It was refreshing and well-balanced, with a little bit of heat (especially since we kept all the seeds in the serrano pepper). This salad can be a meal by itself, but we had some edamame with it for a little more protein.
Ingredients:
- One 8-ounce package of buckwheat soba noodles
- 1/2 cup thinly shredded Napa cabbage
- 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly julienned
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper, thinly julienned
- 1/4 cup thinly julienned snow peas
- 2 carrots, thinly julienned, or shredded
- 1/2 cup buckwheat sprouts, sunflower sprouts, or pea shoots (my choice), plus more for garnish
- 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, lightly toasted (just realized I didn’t toast mine…oops!), plus more for garnish
For the dressing: Whisk the following ingredients in a small bowl and set aside:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1.5 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons tamari
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons agave (I used honey, so this recipe is only mostly vegan)
- 1/2 teaspoon finely minced ginger
- a tiny bit of minced chile pepper
Directions:
- Cook the buckwheat according to the package instructions. Do not overcook; buckwheat is very temperamental and falls apart if cooked too long. Strain and rinse with cold water to stop the noodles from cooking further.
- Toss the cooked noodles with cabbage, red and yellow bell pepper, snow peas, carrots, sprouts, and sesame seeds in a mixing bowl. Set aside some sprouts and sesame seeds for a garnish.
- Pour the dressing evenly over the salad, toss gently, and serve.
- Before serving, garnish with leftover sprouts and sesame seeds.
I’ve started this post multiple times, but keep deleting the first sentence. I wanted to lead with how the runny yolk makes the rice velvety. However, “runny yolk” just doesn’t sound as good as it tastes. Trust me on this one. You can prepare the egg however you like, runny or sedentary. We tried over easy and poached.
Ingredients:
I don’t know how much of each rice bowl topping you want. You decide. The amount listed for each dressing ingredient was enough for 2 rice bowls.
- brown rice
- raw peanuts
- 1 T sesame oil
- 1 clove garlic
- juice of 1 lime
- 1 T chopped mint
- 1 T chopped cilantro
- 1 t soy sauce
- shredded carrots
- chopped scallions
- seeded and diced cucumbers
- bean sprouts
- steamed and chopped baby bok choy (or other greens)
Instructions
1. Prepare brown rice as directed.
2. Roast peanuts in a heavy, dry skillet, stirring constantly. Let cool. Chop peanuts (I put them in a bag and used the side of a large wooden spoon to crush)
3. Combine the next 6 ingredients (through soy sauce) in a medium bowl, and stir.
3. Divide the rice into the number of servings you’re making. Top with the carrots, scallions, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and bok choy. I think it looks pretty to make sections for each vegetable. Pour 1-2 teaspoons of the dressing over each bowl of rice/vegetables.
4. Prepare the egg as desired. Place it in the center, on top of the vegetables.
5. Sprinkle with peanuts and serve immediately. If you like it spicy, serve with a side of chili garlic sauce.
These are like little salads you can eat with your hands. You can really improvise and use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Also, you can add shrimp, chicken, or tofu to these for some more protein. However, I liked them nice and light for these hot summer days. You may have to go to a larger store or an Asian market to get the rice paper wrap. The 3rd store was a charm for me–I picked some at at Pacific Green on Court Street in Cobble Hill. As a bonus, I also picked up some of their wonderfully fresh-cut watermelon for dessert.
These fresh summer rolls (as opposed to deep-fried spring rolls) are great to bring to a picnic or anywhere else. Just put a layer of damp paper towels on the bottom, seal them tightly with saran wrap, and they should be good to go a day in advance. If you want to store them in layers, put a layer of paper towels between the layers of rolls to keep them from sticking to each other.
The quantity of the ingredients list is flexible. It depends on your preference: you can make each roll with as much of each ingredient as you choose. One cucumber and one carrot will be good for about 8 rolls, which are each cut in half.
Ingredients:
For the rolls:
- 1 package very thin rice noodles, cooked according to package directions
- 1 cucumber, cut in half cross wise and then into thin strips
- 1 carrot, shaved with a vegetable peeler
- 4 radishes, cut into matchsticks (First cut the radish into thin slices. Then, cut each round slice into strips.)
- 20 or so whole basil leaves (fewer if your leaves are bigger)
- 20 or so whole cilantro leaves
- 20 or so whole mint leaves (fewer if your leaves are bigger)
- 1 package rice paper wrappers: they look like this
For the dipping sauce:
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- water as needed to thin out the sauce
- optional: one clove or garlic, minced
Directions:
- If you did not cook the noodles ahead of time already, get those going according to package directions.
- Prepare the dipping sauce: mix all ingredients together. Thin out with a few tablespoons or water at at time until you get your desired consistency. I added a bit more vinegar as well,so just taste and keep adjusting the amounts until you like the flavor.
- Fill a large sauté pan with warm water. Hopefully it is large enough for you to quickly dip the wrappers in without crushing them. The wrappers I got this time were HUGE (larger diameter than any of my pans) so I just dipped one half at a time. Here’s how it works: The wrapper needs to sit in warm water for a just a few seconds to become pliable so you can actually wrap with it. Then, you need to work fairly quickly but carefully so that you don’t tear the wrapper. Just do one at a time.
- After softening the wrapper, place it carefully on a work surface. Fill the middle with the goods: a small handful of noodles, a few cucumber sticks, a few radishes, a few carrots, a few of each: cilantro, basil, mint, whatever else you feel like.
- Then, get rolling. Fold the top and bottom up to close off the edges of your roll. Then, start wrapping from one side until you get the shape you want. You’ll need to be a little forceful with your vegetables to get them into roll-shape. Its ok, they can handle it.
- Cut each roll in half, and serve with dipping sauce on the side.
Are you familiar with Whole Foods’ Step System for animal welfare ratings? If you haven’t already heard me or someone else going on and on about it, here’s the link. What’s tricky is that they don’t have all of their cuts available in all levels at all times, so one has to be flexible. I’m still too new at buying meat to know about good substitutions, but I’m slowly learning. I went to get flank steak, as this Cooking Light recipe called for, but they did not have any steps 4-5 of that kind. The butcher suggested skirt steak, which they had in a Level 4. Great! Thanks, helpful butcher! I ended up bringing home entirely too much steak because I got flustered ordering it, and froze half for fajitas another night.
Also, this recipe calls for fish sauce. So do most Thai recipes that I find. Since I don’t eat fish, I just omitted it. However, when I took a Thai cooking class, I was told you can substitute “this mushroom sauce” for the fish sauce. However, I was in Thailand at the time and could not read the label on “this mushroom sauce.” Oh well. I should look for it in an Asian market one of these days. In the meantime, I usually just taste my food and add more soy sauce if I think it needs more salty flavor.
This gave me a chance to use some of my fresh herbs: mint, basil, and cilantro.
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 1 pound skirt steak
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha (hot chile sauce, such as Huy Fong)
- 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
- 3/4 cup julienne-cut carrots
- 1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
- 1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
Directions:
- Heat a large grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle steak evenly with pepper and salt. Add steak to pan; cook 6 minutes each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove steak from pan; let stand 5 minutes. Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices.
- Combine juice and next 4 ingredients (through Sriracha) in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.
- Combine cabbage and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Add 6 tablespoons juice mixture to cabbage mixture; toss well. Toss steak in remaining 2 tablespoons juice mixture. Add steak to cabbage mixture; toss to combine.
This recipe comes from Food and Wine’s March 2012 issue. The kale, carrots, and garlic came from the Carroll Garden’s farmer’s market.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup long-grain brown rice
- 1 cup red quinoa
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1 carrot, sliced crosswise 1/4 inch thick
- 1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps thinly sliced
- 1 small zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise 1/4 inch thick
- Salt
- 1 head of broccoli—stems peeled and sliced into coins, heads cut into small florets
- One 12-ounce bunch kale, large stems discarded
- 1/4 cup tahini, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 ripe avocado, cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 1 cup mung bean sprouts (I omitted these)
Directions:
- In a medium saucepan, cover the brown rice with 2 inches of water and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat until the rice is just tender, about 40 minutes. Drain and return the rice to the saucepan; keep covered.
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the quinoa with 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover the saucepan and simmer over low heat until the quinoa is tender and all of the water has been absorbed, 20 minutes.
- In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the onion and cook over moderate heat until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the carrot and cook until starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the shiitake, cover and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add the zucchini, season with salt and cook, stirring a few times, until tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
- Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet. Add the broccoli, cover and cook over moderate heat, stirring a few times, until deep green, 5 minutes. Add the kale, cover and cook, stirring a few times, until the broccoli and kale are just tender, 4 minutes. Season with salt. Stir in the other vegetables.
- In a small bowl, whisk the tahini with the lemon juice, garlic, warm water and crushed red pepper. Season with salt.
- Transfer the brown rice and quinoa to bowls. Top with the cooked vegetables, diced avocado and bean sprouts (if using). Serve, passing the tahini sauce at the table.
This simple salad was inspired by dinners at Frankie’s 457, including two of their salads: One has arugula and pecorino, and the other has a cipollini onion vinaigrette. My version uses balsamic vinegar and vegetables that can be found at the winter farmer’s markets including arugula, shallots, radishes, and carrots. Although I don’t crave fresh, crisp greens quite as much during the chilly winter months, this pretty salad balances out a heavy meal. You can definitely substitute your favorite greens in place of arugula.
Ingredients:
4 cups arugula
1/4 cup thinly sliced Pecorino Romano
2 carrots, shaved (just continue to peel the carrot in long strips)
3 radishes, cut into matchsticks
1 shallot
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
1. To make the dressing, peel and roughly chop the shallot. Pulse the shallot in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper, and pulse again. Add the olive oil and blend until smooth.
2. Layer the arugula, carrots, radishes, and romano on 4 plates. Drizzle with the dressing and serve.
Sang Lee Farms never ceases to surprise me. Even Irene, the tropical storm which left towns flooded and people without electricity, was not enough to stop them from delivering these gorgeous carrots to the DUMBO CSA. I love how the carrots I now eat are orange, yellow, and purple. Bugs Bunny would be so totally jealous.
Do you have leftover cilantro and ginger from that chilled soup? You’re in luck: this salad can help you use up the rest of it. Are you genetically predisposed to think cilantro tastes like soap? You’re in luck: you can use parsley instead. Thanks to Alice Waters and The Art of Simple Food for this recipe!
Baton Disclaimer: Waters suggests cutting the carrots into little batons. How lovely. Perhaps when I one day get my dream cutting board named Fred will I make beautiful batons as she suggests. For now, my carrots will have to settle with being simply “batonesque.”
Ingredients:
- 4 large carrots (I used 7 smaller ones)
- salt
- 1/2 teaspoon each cumin and coriander, toasted and ground
- One 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
- a pinch of cayenne
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley
Directions:
- Peel carrots and cut into little batons (see baton disclaimer above) about 2 inches long and 1/4 inch square. Cook in salted boiling water until carrots are almost tender; they should be pliable, but still crisp in the center. (This only took a few minutes) Drain and season with salt.
- In a small bowl, mix together cumin, ginger and cayenne. Pour over the warm carrots and toss gently. Marinate for a few hours or in the refrigerator overnight.
- Just before serving, whisk together lime juice, olive oil and parsley or cilantro. Pour over carrots and toss gently. Taste for seasoning and add salt or lime juice as needed.
fresh from brooklyn 