Good Food!

Vegetarian Sushi - easy to make!

I always wanted to make sushi – for years – but I never tried because I just assumed it would be hard.  Then I saw a Sushi making video  by foodie heros – Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero – from Post Punk Kitchen and I realized it was a trick – it was easy and it looked like fun too.  Long story short – I made the sushi from Isa and Terry’s book Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook and now sushi is a regular household meal here at our house.  I get cravings for it and make it on a regular basis without thinking too hard about it.

Nori Sheet on a Sushi Roller

You do need a sushi roller to make these – so before you get all gung-ho make sure you have a roller – it’s going to be worth it – I promise!

Sushi rollers are cheap and they are sold at most Food Coops, at Whole Foods, at International Markets and if worse comes to worse you could get one online.

The first simple step is to make some rice.  I mix 1 cup of sushi rice ( I use Lundberg Akitakomachi ) with 1 1/4 cup water, bring to a boil, lower heat to low, cover and cook for 2o minutes…then using Isa and Terry’s directions I add 2 tablespoons rice vinegar and 1 t. sugar and mix.  Then you need to let the rice cool to keep from overheating your fingers when you spread the rice on the seaweed sheet.

From this point on – I find I like just adding some simple whole foods I enjoy – rather than following a recipe for the spicy tempeh mix or other variations found in the Veganomicon.  You might really like those though so check it – if you want something more exotic.

Sushi fillings

I always use avocado and cucumber in my rolls and usually some strips of Seitan.  Sometimes I add strips of carrot or other raw vegees.  If you cut all the inside ingredients in thin strips – the rest of the sushi making experience should be surprisingly easy and also very fun and satisfying.

Spreading the rice on

Lay your bamboo mat down – if there’s rounded side – place that side down.  Lay your Nori sheet on the bamboo mat.  Usually the seaweed sheets have little perforations for cutting the sushi so place the sheet with the perforation running in the logical direction – vertically.  (See top image)  I make 2 or 3 rolls from 1 cup of rice.  It depends on if you want fewer (2) fat rolls or more  (3) small rolls.  Divide the rice roughly by the number of rolls you want and then plop the rice on the lower regions of the Nori.  Press it on evenly over the bottom 2/3rds of the sheet.

Next – lay out your offerings on the bed of rice, then grab the end of the mat and start rolling it up and over the seaweed the way you see me doing it in the video below:  When you have the sushi almost all the way rolled up – wet your fingers and seal that baby with some water.  Do it a couple of times to make sure it sticks.  Finish rolling and you’re very close to done!

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The last step is to cut the roll.  Follow the perforations on your wrap or whateever.  Just cut them and get down to the ultimate task of eating them!

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Dipping sauce - soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and hot chile oil - and Wasabi

Oh- there is one other thing – the sauces.  My partner does this part – he mixes a little sesame oil and a little chile oil with some soy sauce for dipping and he mixes the Wasabi powder with some warm water to make a paste.  Before dipping the Sushi in your dipping sauce add some Wasabi paste.  I’m a lightweight. My partner is crazy for the stuff.  It will clear your sinuses and then some so watch out.  Start slow…. and add more until you reach maximum dosage.  Some organic Sushi Ginger strips on the side make it all the better.   Enjoy!

Anna Thomas can take partial credit for my becoming a vegetarian.  As a teen growing up in San Jose, I didn’t know a single vegetarian and the option to not eat meat hadn’t really occurred to me but the truth is …  meat really grossed me out.  I slathered huge amounts of ketchup on what I was required to eat and avoided eating it when I could.  I’m pretty sure I’m one of those people that just IS vegetarian.  There was never a big decision to become a vegetarian or a struggle to withdraw from eating meat.  Dropping meat was like finally coming home.  It seems to be a trend for vegan, vegetarians and raw foodists to judge other people’s diets, but for me personally what’s important is that people make their food decisions as consciously as possible.  There are no right answers that apply to everyone when it comes to diet.  Study ancient nutrition systems like Ayurveda or Chinese Nutrition and it’s noted – every constitution has different needs and appropriate desires.  Find out what yours are!

When I came across Anna Thomas’s “Vegetarian Epicure” at a big drug store’s closeout sale as a teenager, I bought it along with earrings, shampoos and other things that caught my eye.  I still have that book although the binding’s now broken and, truth to be told, many of the recipes have so much butter, cream and other artery clogging ingredients I wouldn’t dream of making them anymore.

Vegetarianism has come along way since the hippy days – and lots of the original cookbook authors like Anna Thomas and Mollie Katzen have continued to put out wonderful, albeit healthier cookbooks.

Love Soup has 160 soup recipes.  I’ve tried two and they’ve both been exceptional.  Tonight we had “kale and sweet potato soup with cumin  and lemon” and “roasted golden beet soup”.  The book’s essentially vegan with almost nary a dairy item to be found.

Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes from the Author of The Vegetarian Epicure

This is a super low calorie dessert – and while it might not be Tiramisu – it is a lovely sweet treat you can eat while remaining faithfully on your diet!

Summary: Low Calorie but delicious dessert

I recently had Dal Tarka for the first time at my favorite restaurant and I was blown away by how delicious and satisfying this simple dish can be. I came home determined to make my own.

Dal, made from any of a variety of pulses (dried beans or lentils), is a mainstay in South Asian vegetarian cooking. Dal Tarka is made by pouring Tarka over the Dal after it’s been cooked. I made my Dal from yellow split peas.

Tarka is more a method than a list of ingredients. Also called chaunk, bagar, popu and a several other names – Tarka is essentially whole spices fried briefly in oil or ghee to release the essential oils from the spices. The Tarka is then poured into the dal and voila! – Dal Tarka!

I used the Tarka spices from a recipe in my “Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking” by Adiraja dasa. I also used unprocessed, organic peanut oil instead of ghee – so that the end result would be vegan. The peanut oil worked perfectly as a replacement providing the rich flavor that ghee gives – without the butter. The whole spices included:

• a couple of bay leaves
• a cinnamon stick broken in 1/2
• 1 1/2 t. turmeric
• 1 1/2 t. cumin seed
• 1 dried chile, crushed
• 1/4 t. asafetidda
• 2 t. crushed ginger

I squeezed half a lemon into the Tarka before pouring on the dal. Served with Basmati rice, coconut yogurt, cilantro and chutney, it was a meal in itself.

We used Cilantro Pesto on half the pizza and homemade Basil Pesto on the other half. They were both amazing but I found the cilantro slightly more interesting. For the Basil Pesto we just whirled 2 cups of basil leaves with 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 or 3 garlic cloves and some salt. It was earthier than the cilantro and also delicious!

I used half spelt flour in the crust which was a thick crust pizza dough from Deborah Madison’s “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone“. (If I had a list long enough to include a bunch of ingredients, this is hands down the book I would bring to the desert island to cook them with….Joy of Cooking for Vegetarians….more about this later.) The author, Deborah Madison, is one of the founding cornerstones of contemporary vegetarian cooking. She worked with Annie Sommerville at Greens Restaurant, the landmark San Francisco Vegetarian restaurant in the Fort Mason Center in the Marina District overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA with Alice Waters.

Back to my pizza! The spelt addition is not in the recipe but not only is spelt much better for you than wheat, it’s lighter texture and nutty flavor are perfect for a thick crust pizza.

We slathered the two pestos on each side of the rolled out pizza dough and topped it with generous helpings of those amazing fire roasted tomatoes they sell at Whole Foods, Kalamata olives and whole milk mozzarella.

The pizza bakes at 500 degrees and as usual the fire alarms in the house went off. It’s the price you have to pay since a lower temp will not do justice to the crust.

Pizza’s always good but I loved the twist with the green sauces….we just kept smiling and eating until it was gone!

We just had an amazing gourmet meal that was tantalizingly delicious, deeply satisfying, vegan, lo-cal and a blast to prepare! I do know the tradition is to eat a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pumpkin pie etc. but I’m a vegetarian, ertswhile vegan, for goodness sake…and I still wanted some exceptional food on this special day.

It doesn’t get much better than this for a vegan feast. We marinated baby Dutch Potatoes, Butternut Squash, Red Peppers, Red Onions, Zucchini, Garlic, Fennel, Turnips, Brussel Sprouts and Parsnips in Virgin olive oil, lime, sea salt and fresh ground pepper and then slow-roasted them. This was served up with a side of Orzo, Wild Rice, Roasted Leek, Raisin & Walnuts. A fantastic Cilantro dipping sauce tied everything together to make it one of the best meals we’ve had!