Quickie Balsamic Miso Chickpeas and Baby Bok Choy

Guys, I am loving ALL your ideas for quickie meals – both your suggestions for your easiest cooked and raw meals.

Are some recipes too simple to share?

How about stir fries? Rob’s go-to stirfry is tofu and broccoli (precut frozen veggies work well for those who don’t want to chop veggies), smothered in sweet chili sauce. Easy peasy.

But sometimes, simple wins. I don’t need lots of colourful veggies. One will do. I don’t need lots of spices. Simple can work too and it does not need to be bland.

I originally spotted this recipe in High Protein Vegan (see my review earlier) but it had me scurrying to a new-to-me blog The Stone Soup. Jules focuses on meals with minimal ingredients and minimal prep. While the blog is not vegan, Jules nearly always includes ways to make each meal vegan-friendly with lots of possible substitutions.

This recipe stems from Jules’ quickie method of cooking vegetables: shallow steam cooking in a frypan along with balsamic vinegar and miso. Do I know how to steam veggies in a frypan? Yes! But I never would have thought to combine it with a simple dressing of balsamic vinegar and miso. I really liked the idea of pairing the dressing with baby bok choy and chickpeas, so I went with it.

I didn’t sear my veggies as Jules’ recommended in her video, but I do not feel like it detracted from my version as the dressing pulled it all in together nicely. Sweet and tangy balsamic vinegar juxtaposed against the salty miso and earthy beans and greens. I preferred this fresh but only because my leftovers were quite watery. I have been more likely to eat more beans instead of making an additional side of grains, but grains are nice to sop up delicious juices.

Do you think some recipes are just too simple to share?

PS. I am sharing this with Bookmarked Recipes.

Rob’s Tamarind-Sweet Chile Vegetables with Soy Curls

After nearly 10 months in Houston, you’d think we have settled in.

I (only slightly) notice when people say “y’all”. The humidity is slowly building up past my Toronto summer thresholds. All in a regular Texan day.

And then, a few months ago, we spotted a new-to-us animal. Half-turkey, half-duck, we had no way to ask locals about it other than “Have you seen the turkey duck?”.

I have a feeling I am getting the same look from you right now. Turkey duck??

Rob snapped this photo. Tell me you do not agree:

The crazy Canadian Canucks following the ducks.

My googling suggests these are Muscovy Ducks and are rather invasive, almost pest-like. Probably similar to Canadian geese. I don’t get excited about them, either, but I am sure tourists love feeding them.

Rob and I are also starting our purging of the pantry/fridge/freezer.

Rob is better at experimenting but he ran with my crazy idea. He wanted a veggie-centric stir-fry and I helped him with the sauce.

He wanted tamarind, obviously.

And for some reason, it hit me. What better pair for sour than a sweet chili sauce for a spicy-sweet kick? YES! Rob added lemon pepper seasoning, too.

Even though this was a crazy-fun kitchen experiment, I obviously wouldn’t be telling you unless it was a crazy-good experiment. The sauce ingredients are a guesstimate of what Rob added so feel free to adjust it along with your own tastes. We always go heavy on the tamarind compared to most people. :)

Have you seen a Muscovy duck before? Do you have any exotic pests where you live?

 

Greek Lemon-Dill Chickpeas with Spinach (& a Mediterranean Vegan Diet)

Did you catch the news about the Mediterranean diet preventing heart disease? I won’t rehash the study, but it compared a Mediterranean diet (either with supplemental olive oil or nuts) with a supposedly “low-fat” diet (which was not low-fat due to poor adherence) in over 7000 people at high risk for heart disease. In short, the study intervention (in addition to medication) was to eat high levels of vegetables, fruits, nuts (almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts), legumes, fish, and olive oil.

The full dietary recommendations are listed in their appendix here: a) lots of olive oil (at least 4 tbsp if in the olive oil arm of the study), b) at least 2 daily servings of vegetables, c) at least 2 daily servings of fruits, d) at least 3 weekly servings of legumes, e) at least 3 weekly servings of fish, f) at least 1 weekly servings of nuts or seeds (at least an oz of nuts a day if in the nuts arm of the study), g) white meat only, h) olive oil-simmered tomato-onion-garlic sauce at least 2 times a week. Raw and unsalted nuts, eggs, fish, seafood, low-fat cheese, dark chocolate (with at least 50% cocoa) and whole grain cereals were encouraged. A switch to red wine as a primary source of alcohol was encouraged in people who normally consumed alcohol. Other sweets, pastries, red meat, fatty cheese, cream, butter, potato chips, and French fries were discouraged. Their suggested recipes are posted online, however in Spanish.

Turns out there was a benefit in reduced myocardial infarctions, strokes and deaths in both arms of the study group compared to the controls. So much so (a whopping 30% reduction) that they stopped the study earlier than anticipated due to a reduction in heart disease. It would be unethical to allow people to continue with the control diet when the intervention was so much better. Not that all heart disease was eliminated entirely, it was reduced. Most remarkably, the dietary changes improved outcomes in addition to their medications.

Sounds like a radical diet? Cut out the crap and eat the good food?

Sometimes I feel like most of the benefits from so-called diets, whether it be plant-based vegan, Paleo or the Mediterranean diet, are mostly from removing the processed foods and replacing them with wholesome whole foods. Start cooking your food at home. As both the oil and nut arms of the study improved outcomes, it is difficult to pinpoint the important parts of the diet.  That’s the hard part of nutrition research. Do you need fish (unlikely) or the omega 3 fatty acids? Do you need to drink red wine? Which fats are important? Interestingly enough, despite improved heart health, no one lost weight on this diet.

Following a plant-based whole foods approach is what makes most sense to me. As mentioned in the New York Times article, others support a no-oil vegan diet for reducing heart disease. Instead of oil, fat comes from nuts and avocados. I don’t plan on changing my focus (BEANS and GREENS!) but for some reason I seem to have a hankering for more Mediterranean-inspired meals recently. I may go find myself some olives, too.

Ever since I really enjoyed my Spanish Chickpeas and Spinach with Roasted Garlic, and munching on my very freezer-friendly Greek Stewed Swiss Chard with Tomatoes, Mint and Lima Beans, I have been on the look-out for more ways to cook down my greens in a skillet.

Enter this super easy Greek chickpea and spinach skillet with lemon and dill. It looks deceivingly simple. It does not deceive you: it is simple. It deceives you because it tastes a lot better than you might think. You can taste each component of the meal and the lemony-dill aspect complements the nutty chickpeas and silky spinach. The chickpeas ended up creamy, too, with the brief cooking in the pan…. and the spinach, well, its wilts away, allowing you to eat a lot more greens than you may have thought possible.

Any thoughts on the diet du jour? Any recommended Mediterranean recipes?

Need more Mediterranean inspiration?

Fasoulia (Carrots and Green Beans Simmered in a Tomato Sauce)

Mediterranean Crustless Vegetable Chickpea Flour Quiche

Chickpeas Romesco

Lemon Mediterranean Lentil Salad

Warm Mediterranean Chickpea and Spinach Salad

Warm Chickpea and Artichoke Salad

Mediterranean Collard Wrap with Hummus, Artichoke Hearts and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Spanish Lentil and Squash Stew with Roasted Garlic

Greek Baked Beans (Gigantes Plaki)

Moroccan Tagine of Lima Beans, Cherry Tomatoes and Black Olives

Greek Lemon and Quinoa Soup (Vegan Avgolemono)

Spanish Green Bean and Lima Bean Stew

Spanish Lentil and Mushroom Stew

Spanish Chickpea and Squash Stew with Pears (Olla Gitana)

Spanish Chickpea Salad with Capers and Roasted Red Peppers

Spanish Baked Eggs on a Red Pepper Ragout

This is my submission to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Elena, and to this month‘s Herbs on Saturday.

Bok Choy, Broccoli and Edamame Skillet with Millet

There is one problem with my list of top cookbooks for my move.

What if I buy new cookbooks?

Sometimes the Book Depository makes it a bit too easy to buy new books. Americans are already blessed with cheap prices and even cheaper shipping options, but in Canada, things are a bit more expensive. Prices on books are reasonable on amazon.ca but I usually wait until I have an order over $40 for free shipping. And by that time, I may have decided not to buy the cookbook afterall. At The Book Depository, even though they ship from the UK, it is free shipping. Because it is from the UK, there is also no tax. I have not been hit with customs fees either, yet.

After I borrowed Bean by Bean from the library, I knew this cookbook was totally up my alley. Beans, beans, beans. Lots of information, this is almost a book of short stories describing each dish! Mostly vegetarian and vegan-friendly recipes. International themed. I also love the multiple variations for the recipes – swapping in different ingredients for a different meal. The only drawbacks were the heavy handedness with the oil (not too hard to fix) and serving sizes that are far too generous (again, not too hard to fix). So far, it I think it was a well spent $10.49.

So after I sorted my new cookbooks in alphabetical order, it turned out that Bean by Bean was lucky cookbook #17 for the Random Recipe challenge this month. I was excited to try any (non meatist) recipe, so I flipped it and it fell open to this very green Bok Choy, Broccoli and Edamame Skillet… which I decided to serve with millet (and no, not just because it rhymes).

I have bookmarked quite a few very simple beans + greens + lemon stir-fries but had yet to try one, so I was quite pleased to be bluntly encouraged to make this for Random Recipes. This recipe is great because it is so simple. No garlic, nor onion (gasp) just veggies and edamame with lemon. First, get your millet cooking, chop your veggies and then after a quick stirfry with a squeeze of lemon (and Aleppo, my addition), you have a tasty meal. A super green one at that. Pick your own favourite greens (baby spinach would be great), vegetables (I am still partial to broccoli but carrots would be nice, too), bean (any takers for chickpeas) and grain (quinoa, yes please). While Dragonwagon says this would serve 2-4 with pasta as a main dish, this was more like 6 servings when I added in the millet.

This is my submission to Random Recipes this month, to Ricki’s Weekend Wellness and to this month’s Gimme Green event.