Cruciferous vegetable cups with peanut sauce (recipe)

Tags

broccoli, carrots, cooking, cruciferous, egg roll cup, receipe, vegan receipe, vegetable cup, vegetable dish, vegetarian receipe

I dreamed up this recipe on that fateful night when Hurricane Sandy hit towns all over NJ. Hubby and I needed a warm meal to get ourselves through the aftermath, and since we were lucky enough to have electricity, I spent my day in the kitchen roasting and sauteeing hearty cruciferous veggies.

Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, collards and bok-choy get their name from the fact that they have four branches coming off the stem, making a cross-like shape. They have gotten some impressive press for having cancer preventive properties. Check out my upcoming post on cruciferous veggies!

This recipe has 4 components, which can either be combined for an awesome presentation or enjoyed individually as components of other meals.

Carrot and Broccoli Slaw Stir-fry

Ingredients

For the stir-fry in egg-roll cup:

1 Package broccoli slaw

1 package shredded carrot

4 cloves garlic and 1/3 in piece ginger mashed or blended together into a paste

1 package mushrooms

2 tbsp Olive oil

Egg-roll wrappers

1/4 head of Broccoli, cut into florets

Braggs liquid aminos or soy sauce

Herbamare or other salt

Black pepper

Toasted sesame seeds, Garlic powder optional

Turmeric 1/4 tsp

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil. Add ginger, garlic and mushrooms (in that order).
2. Saute mushrooms till they shrink and the moisture has mostly dissipated.
3. Add carrot and then broccoli slaw, followed by the black pepper, turmeric braggs and salt. Saute for 4-5 minutes or until the desired crispness is achieved.
4. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Spoon the stir fry into a bowl and leave the remaining liquid in the pan. Add the broccoli, with some garlic powder and black pepper and a small amount of the stir fry. Put a lid on the pan, turn off the stove and let the broccoli steam while the brussels sprouts and egg-roll cups are roasting.

Roasted brussel sprouts

(Note: broccoli and asparagus can also be roasted this way, though asparagus would require a shorter roasting time.)

Ingredients

Package of brussels sprouts

2 tbsp Olive oil

Salt (to taste)

Black pepper (to taste)

Garlic powder (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 420 degrees. While the oven is heating, set up the egg-roll cups as described in recipe below, as well as the brussels sprouts. You can also use this time to make peanut sauce.
2. Put brussels sprouts in a gallon size ziploc bag.
3. Add all the seasonings from the above ingredient list.
4. Close ziploc bag. Rub the ingredients in the bag together to distribute evenly.
5. Line a baking sheet with foil.
6. Once done preheating oven, put oil and spice coated sprouts on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
7. Turn the sprouts over and roast for another ten minutes.

Egg-roll cups

You can get pretty creative with these. I’ve seen them done in muffin tins, but I used ramekins.

1. Grease the ramekin with a good amount of olive oil, put the egg-roll wrapper over it, fold the edges over and stick them together by sealing with water. Brush the molded egg-roll wrapper with olive oil.
2. 
   Bake for twenty minutes in the oven or until the desired brownness is achieved. Take the pan out and leave to cool.
3. Pry off the hardened shell from the ramekin, but do so carefully so the shell doesn’t break.

Final Vegetable Assembly

1. Put the brussel sprouts at the bottom of the cups.
2. Then spoon in the stir-fry until filled to the top.
3. Drizzle with peanut sauce, which you can buy or make using this recipe. Serve with broccoli on the side, also drizzled with peanut sauce.

-DS

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Best Vegetarian Chilli You’ve Ever Had

Tags

Beans, chilli, health, mexican, nutrition, receipe, tex-mex, vegan, vegetarian, vegetarian chilli, vegetarian receipe, veggie

I don’t like to stereotype my people, but I think most of my fellow South-Asians would agree that we love our Tex-Mex. Last year, my husband and I spent a month in the predominantly Hispanic Mission district of San Francisco where there’s a taqueria on every corner, and we would eat burritos 3-4 days a week. We almost got burritos again at the airport before flying back to New
Jersey but decided on principle to get Japanese instead. We regretted the decision later.

In my younger days I associated beans with Taco Bell and (by extension) with junk food, but I had no idea that beans are actually wonderful for you. They are full of resistant starch and fiber
– the kind of carbohydrates that are associated with health-benefits and help you feel full for longer with less calories. One of my favorite recipes is vegetarian chili. A guaranteed a crowd-
pleaser, it appeals even to the most meat-and-potatoes palate. The best part of vegetarian chili? It’s a wonderful way to get people to eat vegetables! It’s also a pretty versatile recipe.

My one request – please don’t ruin it by using hot sauce! Most hot sauce is mostly vinegar, and it really overwhelms the taste. Using it as a condiment later is fine, but I really would not
recommend adding it to the recipe.

I also added optional Indian spices to be used. Although not essential, I can never resist adding these spices into all kinds of dishes. I find that they make it easier to digest the beans. In this particular chili, I used fresh heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market. I just love all the gorgeous colors, shapes and sizes! I also used red Russian kale, pictured below.

Ingredients:
The biggest pot you have and a separate sautee pan
5-6 cloves fresh garlic minced
1-2 large onions
1-4 jalapenos depending on how hot you like it. I don’t de-seed them, but you can.
4-6 vine ripened or 2-3 beef-steak tomatoes
4 cans black beans, 2 cans chickpeas or other type of beans, 2 cans white beans or any other type of beans or rough equivalent amount of beans that have been soaked overnight.
2 cans sweet corn or kernels from 2 ears of shucked corn
Suggested veggies-
Desired amount of squash and/or zucchini (usually i use 2 of each) – halved and sliced into thin rounds
Leafy green veggies 2 bunches (usually I use Kale and Chard).
EVOO

Optional –
2-3 carrots diced into 0.5-1in cubes
2-3 sticks celery diced into 0.5 to 1in cubes
2 cans of refried black or pinto beans

Spices:
Cumin powder (i usually grind mine fresh quickly in a mortar and pestle. I find the aroma intoxicating!) 1 heaped tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Chilli powder to taste
Optional-
1-2 bay leaves
Coriander powder
Fresh coriander to use as garnish
Tempering indian spices such as a tsp black mustard seeds, tsp cumin and pinch asoefetida to help with digestion of the beans
Salt to taste

Directions:
-Heat desired olive oil in the large pot
-Add optional tempering spices at this point. Wait till black mustard seeds start to pop before next step.
-Add chopped garlic and jalapenos. Stir to coat with oil
-Add onions
-When onions are half done(not totally translucent but half way there) add cumin, 1 tsp chilli powder, turmeric and stir to coat the onions with the spices
-Add tomato, stir everything together and then cook covered until the peel is comes off the tomato, stirring occasionally
-Once tomato is thoroughly cooked, add all the canned beans, another tsp chilli powder and the cumin powder and cook for a bit, stirring occasionally. You can cook the beans however long you want. I usually clean most of the kitchen at this point.
-In a separate pan, heat oil and sautee squash with 1 tsp whole cumin. Once it is done, add it into the cooking beans.
-add chopped celery and carrots and stir them in
-add greens and push them to the bottom of the chilli so they wilt.
-garnish with scallions and chopped cilantro

Fun-fact:

While you’re enjoying your vegetable-packed chili, you might be interested to know that beans are a wonderful source of iron (which helps protect against anemia), zinc (which aids enzymes,
including those involved in DNA synthesis and repair), folate (which prevents birth defects during pregnancy, and is much more effective in food form than in folic acid-pill form) and potassium.

Beans count as a serving of both protein and vegetable, so they are a wonderful addition to your diet. They have a lot of resistant starch which makes them a wonderfully low-glycemic
food, meaning they don’t give you a sugar high. That makes you less hungry and less apt to gain weight!

I hope this recipe makes you want to eat your beans!