Two Sides to Every (Dinner) Story

Devra Gartenstein's Local Bounty:  Seasonal Vegan Recipes has knocked about my cookbook shelves for some time.  Published in 2008, I was quick to judge the book as, perhaps, too "simple," and it languished, neglected, for these two years.  I should have known better.  Food is not delicious only in proportion to the amount of time, effort, expense and advanced kitchen gadgetry involved in preparing it.  Start with healthy, fresh ingredients and you don't need to suffer over dinner at all.  Witness:

Asparagus with Ginger Sauce
1 tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbs. peeled and grated fresh ginger (I peel and chop the daylights out of it:  good therapy.)
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch asparagus (about 1 pound), trimmed and chopped (The best you can find.)
2 tbs. soy sauce
1 tbs. rice vinegar
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp. unrefined cane sugar (I use vulgar white sugar.)

1.  Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan.  Add the onion, ginger, and garlic.  Cook on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent.
2.  Add the asparagus and soy sauce and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 10 minutes or until the asparagus are tender.
3.  Add the vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar and cook for 2 minutes longer.

I'm usually a purist about asparagus - to the point of being boring.  I roast it with a little olive oil, lemon zest and salt and pepper.  With that always-serviceable preparation in the forefront of my mind, I wondered if the traditional Chinese flavors in this recipe would overpower the asparagus.  Au contraire!  I loved the sauciness of this dish, which is such a change from the naked asparagus I'm used to serving.  In fact, most vegetables would love this sauce, too:  toasty, a wee bit salty, spicy and sweet, it could be the plant's everyman.  One caution:  try as I might, I tend often to miss that perfectly-done, tight-wire moment between tender/crisp and mushy/flabby.  I confess I slightly overcooked the asparagus this time; next time, I'll pay close attention to walk the wire flawlessly.

Afghani Spinach
(I wasn't able to find any bunched spinach yet in stores - used organic rainbow swiss chard instead.)
1 tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bunches spinach (about 1 pound), cleaned and chopped
1 tbs. chopped fresh cilantro (In retrospect, would have used more.)
1 ts. dried dill weed
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. salt (Don't do it! Too much salt! Try 1/8 tsp. first and add more if need  be.)
juice of 1/2 lemon

1.  Heat the oil in a medium saucepan.  Add the onion and garlic.  Cook on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent.
2.  Add the spinach, cilantro, dill weed, cumin, cardamom, and salt.  Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often.
3.  Stir in the lemon juice and serve.

Breathe new life into greens the Afghani way. The "uns" drew me in here:  unexpected and unusual, especially the combination of herbs and spices.  Any recipe that invites intrigue earns an A+ in my grade book.  One reiterated note of warning:  1/2 tsp. of salt really is too much.  Perhaps I'm a non-salt freak, but this amount bordered on overpowering.  Go the lesser route.  You can always add more if you like.

The Root of Spring

Soup for spring?  You bet!

Just when you think warm weather might be sticking around, and you're about to retire your soup pot for a few months, along comes the comedienne of Nature, the Phyllis Diller of atmospherics, a classic cold and rainy spell.  Before you get too comfortable with balmy temperatures, before you let Nature pull a fast one on you, arm yourself with a lovely soup recipe that will buffer you against the chill one last time while fickle spring makes up her mind.

Spicy Gingered Carrot Soup

From The Best of Bloodroot*, Volume Two,Vegan Recipes
by Selma Miriam & Noel Furie with Lagusta Yearwood

*Bloodroot is a feminist restaurant which opened its doors in 1977.  It's located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where it serves a diverse community and addresses a host of feminist issues. 

8 Servings

1.  Coarsely dice 1 Spanish onion and 2 small seeded jalapeno peppers. Peel and slice 1/3 c. fresh ginger.  Peel and slice 6 cloves garlic.

2.  Heat 3 tbs. grapeseed oil in a soup pot.  Add 1 tsp. turmeric and saute all vegetables, stirring until they begin to brown. (I used olive oil.)

3.  Peel 2 large potatoes and cut into large dice.  Peel 2 sweet potatoes and do the same.  Coarsely cut up 2 celery stalks, and 6 peeled carrots.  Add all vegetables to soup pot together with 8 cups water and 1/2 c. red lentils (picked over first to remove any small stones).  Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn fire lower and cover pot.  Cook over low heat until vegetables are tender.  Let cool 20 minutes.

4.  Puree soup in batches in a blender.  Return to soup pot.  Finish with the juice of 3 to 4 limes, 1 1/2 tbs. Bragg's Liquid Aminos, salt, pepper, and tamari to taste. (I used an immersion blender to puree, which typically leaves a bit more texture than using a blender or food processor.  I also cut back on the limes to 2 healthy specimens.)

I've reproduced Bloodroot's recipe format, which does not provide a list of ingredients at the beginning of the recipe but rather incorporates them into the body of the directions.  At first, I was somewhat put off by having to canvass the recipe to see if I had the ingredients I needed.  (In the interest of full disclosure, the ingredients are in blue in the cookbook, so they do stand out.)  I realized, though, that this format forces the lazy would-be chef (that's ME) to read the whole recipe before starting to cook.  That's rule number one in the course titled, COOKING FROM RECIPES, 101.  I admit to being slap-dash in following this basic, even though I've suffered ill consequences from doing so.  Smart move, women of Bloodroot!  You most likely saved some kitchen frustration for your readers!

Spicy Gingered Carrot Soup was easy to make as long as you've reconciled yourself to chopping.  It happens, and you just have to deal with it.  I love the addition of red lentils, which reinforces the appealing carroty-orange of this puree, and also adds a shot of protein.  

At first taste, I thought the soup was on the "thin" side in the flavor department, and may have benefited from homemade vegetable stock in place of the water.  I try not to rely on salt to augment taste, but I found I needed to use both tamari and salt to bring this soup around.  As often happens with soup, it was perfect the next day. My advice:  don't oversalt, give it a day to commingle, and you'll have a winner in your soup repertoire.

I also added some chopped, toasted walnuts as a garnish, and a swirl of maple syrup.  Just because I wanted to.