Whenever new vegetarians or vegans ask about cookbooks, I’m pretty quick to recommend Vegan Italiano by Donna Klein. The recipes are pretty simple, the ingredients easy to find and it doesn’t rely on meat substitutions.
One of the recipes I like to take to cookouts is the Potato and Green Bean Salad. It’s great at room temperature, is pretty and actually has vegetables in it. If you want to take it up a notch, use purple potatoes. See?
This time I totally cheated and used frozen, pre-cut green beans. It made a nice side to my burger along with some roasted cauliflower.
How is it that I never posted about the Asian Noodle Bowl with Kelp Noodles in Thrive? Next time I make it I’ll have to fix that because it is awesome. Anyway, that came to mind because I was going to refer to it since I’m bringing up kelp noodles again.
So kelp noodles, also called sea tangle, aren’t the easiest to find, but it is getting easier. In Atlanta, I know three places that carry them: Sevananda (on shelf, not refrigerated), Return to Eden (in refrigerated case at back of store) and Buford Highway Farmer’s Market (last aisle in the back, far left.) They’re at least half the price at BHFM, so if it’s convenient, that’s the place to get them. They seem to keep about forever in the fridge. Oh, and pick up some of their house made tofu while you’re there.
Kelp noodles have a nice crunch and don’t taste like much of anything. So it’s all about whatever sauce or dressing you use. I had some about and wanted to add some interesting texture to my salad, so added them on in. So this is spinach, carrots, cucumber, bell peppers and kelp noodles in peanut dressing with peanuts and gomashio sprinkled on top. Worked out nicely! Hmm, I tucked some cilantro pesto into the freezer. I bet kelp noodles would be great tossed with that and some veggies.
gloATL had a weekend of performances set up at the Old Fourth Ward Skate Park and even though it wasn’t clear exactly what would be happening, we decided to check it out. But first, we grilled out over at Star & Simon’s. Or, we watched Simon grill and then enjoyed eating it.
We brought leftover chili and Daiya to top the dogs. Star made a kale and kelp noodle salad. And we brought chips & ranch dip.
After dinner, we walked the still-in-progress Beltline to the skate park.
The dancers were in the skating bowls and also moving through the crowd. Skating continued during the performance and sometimes the skaters intricately worked their way through and around the dancers.
Last Friday we had tickets to see Mayer Hawthorne at the Variety. Beforehand we met friends at The Porter for dinner. We started with the Belgian fries and they were ridiculous. Slathered in garlic oil. So good.
The vegan option at The Porter is the black bean burger. Oh, look, more fries. Now, given the reputation The Porter has for their food, I was expecting a little more from this black bean burger. It was .. okay. Not bad at all, just nothing memorable about it. Although that red pepper mustard was delicious.
Beer was consumed as well. I started with a Hopscotch, then dialed back the % to a Terrapin Easy Rider. It was like going from Winter to Summer. Easy Rider could become a regular summer beer.
We didn’t arrive at the venue until towards the end of the opener’s set. And our favorite seats were already taken. So we headed to the balcony. We found a pair with a perfect view except for the people shuffling to and from the stairs.
We first saw Mayer Hawthorne as an opener for Chromeo. Even if you aren’t 100% into the Motown, blue-eyed soul kind of music he puts out, the show is fantastic. It really is a good time.
And here’s a better view from the floor. These days there’s no need to be that person holding up their phone or camera the whole show because someone else definitely will.
After making a pot of chili, I flipped back a few pages of The Happy Herbivore to the Baked Shells and Cheese recipe. One of the variation was to add a can of chili and make it a chili mac. So I just added a cup and a half or so of the chili to it. I’ve always been a fan of nutritional yeast cheezy sauces, but I don’t think I’ve ever made one that uses silken tofu in it. It made the sauce really creamy. Very nice. Apparently it’s like glue on plates though. My dishwasher wouldn’t get it off. I had to hand wash some of those dishes. The top is sprinkled with bread crumbs and a little Daiya.
Meanwhile, there was still chili leftover. It went on to become lunches and top grilled hot dogs. I really stretched that one out!
