Roasted Lotus Root

Have you ever seen one of these before??  This is actually the root of the Lotus flower which is a perennial water plant native to tropical Asia and some parts of Australia.

I found mine at the Chinese Superstore (T&T) in Ottawa.  I think it was about $2.50 for two decent sized pieces. 

I found a recipe for it in Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet.  Her recipe called for leeks and sunchokes, but I couldn't find any sunchokes, so I just used the lotus root. 

I sliced my lotus root into fairly thin slices.  Then I pressed 3 garlic cloves with some olive oil and tossed the lotus root with the oil.  I spread the oiled sliced on a cookie sheet and put it into a preheated oven at 375 degrees F.  After 12 minutes I sprinkled the root slices with a mixture of 1 tsp. soy sauce and 1 Tbsp. maple syrup and flipped them over.  I then put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes. 

The roasted lotus root was really delicious.  They don't have a strong flavour, but the maple syrup makes them sweet and caramelizes nicely giving them a great texture.

I decided to serve them with a simple stir fry with cabbage, broccoli, carrot, asparagus, celery, oyster mushrooms, onions, peppers and cashews.  I used a vegetarian fish sauce and soy sauce with garlic, ginger and lime juice to season the stir fry and served it up on a bed of brown rice. 

Super delicious!!  Give it a try!!

Spring Cleanse

Spring is the perfect time to do a cleanse.  The days are getting longer, it's the season of regeneration and renewed growth... and it is the prelude to swimsuit season.

This is the second year that I have chosen to undertake a 21-day spring cleanse based on Kathy Freston's 'The Quantum Wellness Cleanse'.  In this program she advises eliminating 5 things from the diet for 3 weeks:  caffeine, alcohol, sugar, gluten and animal products.  I suppose some of these items are open to interpretation...  like sugar.  Does that include all other sweeteners, or just refined sugar?  Is a smidge ok, or is it a zero tolerance program?  I suppose that's up to you.  I must say that my interpretation last year was different than this year's. 

Last year at this time, I had not yet adopted a vegan diet and as such I found cutting dairy, eggs and cheese out of my diet a bit of a challenge.  To compensate for the hole that these foods left in my diet, I allowed myself the occasional 'treat' of potato chips or french fries, which are technically allowed, but come on....  is that really a cleanse?? 

This year, after being vegan for over half of the past year, animal products obviously were not an issue.  So the challenges for me have been sugar and gluten.  This could be because I have tweaked my definition of sugar to include refined sugars, cane syrup, corn syrup AND honey.  And I have decided to avoid even the occasional potato chip or french fry.

It's been a week now, and I personally think the first week is the hardest.  Cutting out caffeine and sugar and wheat and all of those go to comfort foods like bread and pasta put me into a sugar withdrawal and I got a touch cranky (my family may have a different interpretation of this mood).  But after the first week, the cravings have mostly gone.  I feel energized and crystal clear...  like a fog has lifted from my mind.  This could be because I'm sleeping better, very soundly, with fewer interruptions.  My mood is more stable with fewer highs and lows.  I've lost 2 pounds and my belly is flatter.  It really is remarkable, the effect that diet has on our mood, and our outlook on life.  When we are properly nourishing our bodies it shows in our hair, our skin, our eyes, even the way we carry ourselves.

This is what the first week of my cleanse has shown me.  I wish I had documented how I felt on last year's cleanse!   It has also reminded me that a vegan diet is not necessarily a healthy diet.  All those processed vegan foods, refined sugars and caffeine take their toll on our bodies as well.

On to week two!

Vegetable Stew with Quinoa

What do you do when you have two large eggplants waiting not so patiently in the refrigerator?  Make this super delicious Vegetable Stew!!  Sweet potato, roasted eggplant and carrots, make this dish naturally sweet.  The spices make it very Mediterranean.  And the quinoa gives it a punch of protein to keep you full all afternoon!

Vegetable Stew with Quinoa

2 large eggplants cut into 1-2 inch pieces
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Toss the eggplant with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Roast at 450 degrees for 25 minutes in a preheated oven.

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1-2 onions sliced into thin half moons
4 ribs of celery sliced
2 large carrots sliced into coins
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground tarragon
2 Bay leaves
1 small can of tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine
1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 sweet potato cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup quinoa
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion, celery and carrots in the olive oil for 5 minutes over medium high heat in a large soup pot.  Add the garlic and spices and cook 2 minutes more.  Add the tomato paste and a bit of water.  Cook 2 minutes.  Add the wine and cook 3-4 minutes until most of the wine has evaporated.  And the tomatoes, sweet potato, bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer 15 minutes.  Add the quinoa and simmer 15 minutes more.  Add the roasted eggplant and salt and pepper to taste and cook 5 more minutes.

This is great right away, but letting it sit in the fridge for a while allows the flavours to mingle.

Enjoy!

Breakfast Mac Muffin

While in Toronto I came upon some tempeh...  it's not easy to find around here.  I was so excited to make tempeh bacon!  I found a recipe in The Vegan Table for tempeh bacon.... and watched a how to make tempeh bacon video by Colleen herself. I was totally prepared.  So I cut my tempeh into bacon sized slices, and steamed it for 10 minutes to remove the bitterness.  Then I marinated my tempeh in a mixture of soy sauce, maple syrup, liquid smoke and water for about an hour or so and fried it up with the marinade.

While the tempeh was marinating, I prepared some crustless mini quiches.  I modified a recipe that I found on fatfreevegan.com (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/12/mini-crustless-tofu-quiches.html) and replaced the chives with shallots.  Delicious...  mushrooms, red pepper, thyme....  Cooking them in muffin tins makes them just the right size...  and they cook faster than a large quiche.

To assemble the sandwich, we toasted our English muffins, added a bit of vegan mayonaise, layered on some tempeh bacon, a mini quiche and a tad of spinach and viola!!  Our delicious vegan version of the breakfast MacMuffin.

Bon Apetit!!