Tag: vegetarian

Creole Hoppin’ Jean

Holy crap, I cooked again! Some one give me a prize, quick!

Lately I’ve been trying to clean out my freezer a bit, probably just so I can fill it up again. Possibly with larger bottles of vodka. There’s a bag of frozen black-eyed peas in there that’s been languishing for a while. So when thinking about what I could do with them, I picked up my copy of Vegan Soul Kitchen knowing it had some options.

Creole Hoppin’ Jean it is! Or was. It had a long list of spices that sounded tasty and I already had brown rice hanging about. Instead of the usual onions in hoppin’ john recipes, this one called for shallots. Changes, of course I made some. Since I used frozen black-eyed peas instead of dried, I skipped the soaking step. I didn’t soak the rice either. It seemed unnecessary since it was going to simmer for 50 minutes. And it all worked out just fine. More than fine, tasty! The rice broke up in cooking. Seems like it would do that even more if it had been soaked. Not that that was a problem at all. For greenery, I just tossed some green beans on the side. There are a few extra steps than regular hoppin’ john, but the results are worth it if you are a fan of the spicy.

Those nice people from POM Wonderful have sent me two new flavors of their juice to try, Pomegranate Nectarine and Pomegranate Kiwi. I need to crack those open soon and let you know what I think.

Tofu and Vegetables in Ginger Cilantro Broth

Early into VeganMoFo, I saw this recipe on Mo’s blog and it totally appealed to me. Especially since I think we were in the middle of the great flood of 2009. What’s more appealing on a gloomy day than an lovely bowl of soup. Especially one with such bright flavors.

I did make a couple of small changes. There were only a few sad looking jalapenos at the farmer’s market so I grabbed a serrano instead. And I chucked in a sliced clove of garlic with the ginger because I just couldn’t help myself. Oh, and I almost forgot, I also chopped up a couple of romaine lettuce leaves and chucked them in the bowl. This was really easy and totally satisfied the pho craving I’ve had lately. Well, for now. But it’s easy enough to bust this out another time pretty quickly.

obviously, im not a food stylist...
obviously, i'm not a food stylist...

Mmmm…healthy crap

I think somewhere in a previous post I threatened to eat some raw kale. And I did too. A big ol’ pile of it with leftover tofu from this meal cubed on top. Some sliced carrots and slivered almonds thrown on just for fun. And a side of brussels sprouts because I love them.

Yes, this is an exceptionally lazy post. But hey, I haven’t missed a day yet!

Tofu, asparagus and roasted sweet potatoes

No fancy cookbook recipes for this meal. Nope. This was a wing it sort of night. And it worked. So I’ll tell you what I remember about what I did.

I cut the tofu into thick slices. In a large pan that would hold them all without overlapping, I mixed a little soy sauce, black chinese vinegar, chili oil and a minced clove of garlic. The tofu hung out in there while I prepped sweet potatoes and asparagus. It got flipped at some point. Then I fried it up on a cast iron grill pan heavily coated with spray oil.

The sweet potatoes were diced small, so they’d cook faster, tossed with olive oil,  rosemary and salt and baked at about 400 F for around 10 minutes. Then I added a little minced garlic, stirred them up and baked another 10 minutes give or take.

The asparagus were sauteed in olive oil with, yes, minced garlic. Part way through cooking, I squeezed a half a lemon over them. Oh, and salt happened. Salt always happens.

Tada! Quickie meal!

Madras Sri Ganesh Ram Palace

Hey, guess what? I ate out again. That’s fucking shocking, isn’t it? I’m just going to come out and say that I don’t think I could live anywhere that didn’t have a South Indian restaurant. But I want it to be a little bit inconvenient. Otherwise I’d be waddling around with an additional hundred pounds on my frame. No joke.

While we have a number of good Indian restaurants in Atlanta, Madras Sri Ganesh Ram Palace is by far my favorite. Thankfully, it’s not all that convenient for me being out by Stone Mountain and all. It is a vegetarian restaurant but there are plenty of things vegans can eat. The server will be glad to help you with any questions.

Need some convincing? That’s okay, I came prepared with food porn. I bet there are a dozen pics of Medhu Vadai floating around in my archives. What’s not to like about savory lentil flour doughnuts?

Kevin’s favorite is Gobi Manchurian: battered, deep fried cauliflower in a very spicy sweet sauce:

Dosas are a favorite of mine. So is the Chole Batura. But I like to work my way around the menu because everything is so good. This is the first time I got the Uppatham with vegetable curry. The Uppatham come with another dish on the menu that isn’t vegan, but they happily changed it out for me. And it was lovely with carrots, potatoes and other veg in a spicy sauce that was warm but didn’t blow my head off. The Uppathams did a great job of soaking up the sauce.

Uppatham extreme close up:

You’re hungry now, aren’t you?