I appreciate the expertise of vegan cooks and their ability to bring so much flavour, diversity and fun to vegetables and to use so many ingredients that are so outside of my comfort zone like tofu, tempeh, TVP and their ability to turn chick peas into burgers. I also love how being a vegan or vegetarian seems to come with a talent for clever turn of phrase. Just check out the Sprout menu and you will see what I mean (see Give Peas a Chance Burger.)
Lately I have been watching a lot of TED Talks about food on Netflix. It's a great way to spend 20 minutes instead of channel surfing. The two that made the biggest impression lately are from two of my favourite food writers: Mark Bittman and Michael Pollan. Both were extolling the virtues of getting more plants into our diets, both for health and for the sake of the planet. Apparently raising livestock is one of the largest contributors to climate change!
Anyway, all this got me thinking and I bought a vegan cookbook this week. The recipes reminded me of The Sprout's and the pictures were gorgeous. It is called Refresh and is from the award-winning Fresh restaurants. Last week I tried the house salad dressing on a variation of their Mega Life Salad and it was truly the most awesome salad I have ever eaten. This week I am going to share a couple of the recipes with you... and a few other vegetarian dishes too. I hope you'll give this vegetarian week a try with me.
A final note, my approach to getting my kid to try new things is to make sure that I offer him what we are having, but put at least one thing on his plate that I know he will eat. If he is in a good mood he will try pretty much anything, but if he is tired he won't try anything new. I try not to sweat it and keep putting new things in front of him. A friend of mine lets her kid pick out a vegetable at the grocery store each week to add to stir fry, which she loves. They cut the vegetables large and the deal is she has to try it, but if she doesn't like it she can pick it all out. The big thing is no pressure.
The Shopping List is now posted below.
Monday ~ Mega Life Salad (sort of)
My variation on the Fresh Mega Life Salad and my son's favourite, Avocado Sandwiches (optional)
The original salad has marinated tofu and steamed spinach and a bunch of sprouts that St. John's grocery stores rarely carry and when they do they are often icky so I adapted this recipe to make it simpler and it uses easier to get ingredients. This is a main course salad so assume 4 cups of greens per adult person. Judge for yourself how much your kids will eat.
I have added the avocado sandwich as an option for kids who turn up their nose at the salad. You will have to determine how much of each of the other ingredients to add based on the size of your family, but I would be generous as this is a truly delicious salad.
Dressing:
This was the killer dressing that really made this salad special and I will be using it A LOT.
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp sea salt
3/4 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp tamari
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1 clove garlic
1 cup sunflower oil
(The original recipe calls for part flax oil, which I forgot to buy, but it was still fantastic with just sunflower oil.)
Mix all the ingredients in a blender except the oil and then add oil in a thin stream until emulsified. This will make a lot of dressing which is good because you will want more and can use it for side salads or lunches.
Salad:
Toss mixed lettuce greens with salad dressing.
Thinly slice English cucumber and lay on salad
Slice the avocado in thin wedges and place on salad
Put matchstick or grated carrots on top
Add grated raw beet
Garnish with a handful (or more) of sunflower seeds.
For the Avocado sandwich:
Your kid's favourite bread - toasted or not.
Avocado mashed with mayo and spread on the bread.
That is pretty much it.
Now, if you want to be sneaky you can use a food processor and put some peas or edamame or spinach into the avocado before spreading. Or, if your kid will eat other vegetables like lettuce and tomatoes you can really make this sandwich sing.
Tuesday - Simple Rice Bowl/ Green Goddess Combo
In the ReFresh cookbook they say kids love the Simple Rice Bowl, so what I have done is a combo version where you can serve your kids the simple version if you don't think they will give the green Goddess a try. You could try calling it Green Monster...:)
Basically these recipes start with the same base: Make the brown basmati rice and put it in bowls. Add a variety of toppings and sauces. Serve.
The Simple Rice Bowl is topped with 2 tbsp Tahini Sauce per bowl (Instructions below), and 2 tsp tamari per bowl , and grated or matchstick carrots, chopped parsley and a lemon wedge. You can determine the veg amounts yourself, but a quarter cup of carrots and 1/4 cup of parsley sounds about right to me. I'd consider adding corn or peas too if you think your kids might like it better that way.
The Green Goddess is topped with steamed broccoli florets, torn bok choy, torn green kale and torn swiss chard. You can also add toasted sunflower seeds, torn nori, and white pickled ginger like they serve with sushi. Nori is the seaweed that you see sushi wrapped in. Both are available at grocery stores these days. The Green Goddess uses the Tahini Sauce and also a Simple Sauce.
In some ways these recipes are a variation on stir fry, so you can treat it that way if you want or if you think you will have better success with your children that way.
Directions for Green Goddess:
Steam the broccoli and greens until tender. (1 head broccoli, 1 head bok choy, 1 head each of greens)
Put rice in rice bowl and drizzle 2 Tbsp Tahini Sauce on top and place nori on rice. (2 sheets of nori torn)
Arrange greens and broccoli around bowl
Sprinkle toasted sunflower seeds on top. (1/3 cup)
Drizzle 2 Tbsp Simple Sauce on top of vegetables.
Garnish with pickled ginger. Repeat for each serving.
For the two sauces:
Simple Sauce:
- 1/2 cup tamari
- 3 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 1/2 inch ginger root
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
Put in saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool.
Tahini Sauce
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2/3 cup water
- 1/2 cup tahini (sesame butter - available in health food section of Sobey's and Dominion - used in making hummous too!)
Put first 4 ingredients in food processor and then add water and tahini until smooth.
Wednesday - Gad zukes! Zucchini Latkes
Zucchini are a pretty innocuous and versatile vegetable. They have no strong flavour to turn kids off and they can be turned into boats and shredded and fried into a wicked little vegetarian alternative to a fish cake. Well, not really, fish cakes are awesome, but these little zucchini latkes are a savoury treat. Top with Greek Style Yogurt or sour cream or Serve with a side salad or if you want meat these can be served with sausage and or bacon and crusty bread. . Something about them makes me think brunch food. If you decide to try the boats recipe above or add bacon or sausage - you will have to add the ingredients to your shopping list.
The recipe is here
NOTE: Sub the Matzo meal with soda cracker crumbs if you can't find Matzo meal.
Thursday - Thai one on.
You will want to modify this recipe if your kids are heat sensitive - this recipe has a jalepeno that I know my kid won't eat, but the noodles will make it more appealing to him. I haven't made this exact recipe before, but have made similar ones and I trust Food and Wine as a source, many of my go-to recipes come from this magazine.
Friday - Enchiladas!
Who doesn't love Mexican?
Vegetable Enchiladas from a reliable family recipe source, Martha Stewart.
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