Category Archives: Vegetarian

I’m still working my way through the Eating Well 25 Quick Vegetarian recipes. Last weekend, I made the Egyptian Edamame Stew.

I didn’t make any changes to the recipe besides adding a little bit of feta cheese to the top. When I first read this recipe, I wondered how stew like it would be since there was no broth. However, the juices from the canned tomatoes did make it stew-like. This was decent, but not wonderful. I probably won’t make it again. It was sort of bland.

I got home a little earlier tonight (7:30 as opposed to 8; I ran four miles instead of running and weight lifting) so I didn’t feel as rushed/famished as I did last night and I was able to make another recipe: the Southwestern Tofu Scramble.

I changed the recipe a little bit according to what I had on hand. Instead of corn, I used frozen peppers and instead of scallions, I used a quarter of an onion. I wasn’t sure if Jason would like this or not since he’s just sort of meh on tofu dishes, but we were both big fans. I would definitely make this again.

I have been struggling to find a good place to take pictures. For some reason, the white balance gets all wonky when I shoot at my dining room table so I’m constantly trying to find a better place. I decided that the dining room floor might work. Murphy did not understand that food on the floor does not equal food for Murphy.

(He didn’t get any. But maybe I should reconsider my photography setup anyway.)

I have a lot of cookbooks. I read a lot of food blogs. I look at a lot of recipe websites. (I make myself sound like I have no life.) With so many recipes to choose from, I always get really overwhelmed and end up not making any of the recipes and eating refried beans for dinner instead. Recently, I was looking at one of my favorite recipe websites, eatingwell.com and found a slideshow of 25 quick vegetarian recipes.

And so the idea was born to make them all. They’re all vegetarian (or mostly vegetarian, some do contain meat products like chicken broth but can be easily modified), they’re all from Eating Well, so they’re healthy and they’re all quick. Not only will I have a small number of recipes to choose from, but I will learn to make different things and get out of my Mexican food/Stir-Fry/Grain salad rut, although those types of meals are in there too.

Since I don’t cook every day, I think it’s safe to say that my project will take about two months. I started yesterday with the Toasted Pita and Bean salad which I made for lunch.

For the most part, I followed the recipe and only made a few slight changes. I used canned pinto beans, 1 tbsp of ground cumin instead of 2 tbsp of cumin seeds, 2 tbsp of mint instead of 3 and 2 tbsp of oil instead of 3. I really liked this. It’s sort of typical of something that I’d usually make (although I’d probably add couscous or quinoa) which is probably why I liked it. However, if you have leftovers, as I did, the bread gets soggy and not in a good way.

Tonight was recipe number two - Vietnamese Tofu Lettuce Wraps. I used soba noodles instead of rice noodles but other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. This recipe actually isn’t vegetarian because it uses fish sauce. They do suggest soy as an alternative though.

This wasn’t so great. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it wasn’t really good either. Like several of the reviews on the website said, the sauce was way too watery. I wouldn’t make it again. Even so, it was fun to have something different for dinner, although I was hungry afterward and ate a muffin.

So that’s my cooking project. I’m looking forward to making the additional 23 recipes.

I thought I had a half bottle of wine left. Apparently I drank more than I thought I did. Whoops.

Some of you suggested risotto and while that’s a good idea, I have to confess: I’ve never made risotto and am somewhat intimidated by it. That and homemade bread are the two things that I’m scared to try to make. Instead, I did an ingredient search for white wine on Allrecipes and came up with French Onion Soup. This recipe was great for a few reasons:

1. It used exactly the amount of wine that I had left when I halved the recipe.
2. It was vegetarian. Typically French Onion Soup is made with beef broth. I know you could always substitute vegetable broth but I’ve tried it before and found that it doesn’t taste quite right.
3. It called for mozzarella cheese instead of swiss. I hate swiss.

Obviously, this is what I made for dinner. First step in all onion-related meals: don your onion goggles. No, I’m not kidding and I don’t care that I look ridiculous. These things work!

Then slice your onions.

Stick them in the pot to caramelize. The recipe said this would take 20 minutes but after that time was up, my onions were not deep brown and I only used half the amount.

An additional twenty minutes and they were ready.

Soup’s on!

I do most of the cooking in our house. Mostly because I am a control freak in the kitchen. Truth be told, Jason is probably a much better chef than I am. He’s good at throwing ingredients together and using spices and all that jazz. But he’s liberal with oils and sauces and what starts out as a healthy intention ends up being a calorie-laden meal. (Sorry, Jason, but you know it’s true sometimes!)

On the other hand, sometimes I get a little too health-minded and end up making things that just aren’t that good. While we’ll both usually eat whatever I’ve prepared, it doesn’t leave us satisfied. So recently I decided that I was going to cook more “normal” (but still healthy) stuff. At least when I’m cooking for both of us.

And then I made seitan. Totally what one would consider a normal food.

Sometimes when I’m bored, I’ll add recipes to my allrecipes.com recipe box. I know, I know, I lead an interesting life, right? Anyway, I was looking through the vegetarian recipes that got good reviews and Seitan Makhani (Vegan-Style Indian Butter Chicken) caught my eye. The first time that I ever really had Seitan (a meat substitute made mostly of wheat gluten and available near the tofu at the grocery store) was in Asheville at Plant, when I got a vegan Reuben sandwich. I liked it. Jason liked it. We like Indian food, so I thought I would try this. The ingredient list looks long, but it’s mostly spices, ones that I already had for that matter. My dish isn’t vegan because I used regular yogurt.

I definitely went out on a limb by making this.

And guess what? We both liked it. Probably because there was a thick sauce on the seitan, but it really tasted like chicken to me. Sometimes weird food can taste good. But I’m not going to press my luck and I’ll make something normal tomorrow.