Then I throw in olive oil, Himalayan sea salt (because it’s pink, pretty, and supposedly cures everything), some tomato (never more than half of one, and sometimes just tomato sauce if that’s all I have),  some garlic, and some lemon juice. Weird, right? Okay, sure, but blend that stuff up into oblivion, and spread it on some toasted fresh rosemary bread (La Brea is the bomb diggety), maybe put a little parsley on top if you’re so inclined, and PREPARE TO EAT YOUR WEIGHT IN BEANS.

It’s all savory goodness. Of course, you might want to consider adding just a weeee bit of salt. I added too much to my batch last night, and today I weigh five full pounds (I am not even making that up) more than I did yesterday.

It hasn’t been easy, but then it hasn’t been nearly as hard as I thought it would be, either. I had two big situations come up for me this past week, in which I would normally decide to just chuck the vegetarian thing in favor of convenience. This time, I didn’t do that. Here’s what I did:

1. On a long car trip: No more burgers! Heck, I don’t even want to support fast food anymore. I had to figure out what to eat on two recent drives. I brought sunflower seeds, apple slices, smoothies, peanuts, and pomegranate pips. It went fine. I felt full, and like I was getting tasty food (i.e. I didn’t feel I was suffering).

2. What to eat at a party where meat is served, and I traditionally eat a lot of the yummy delicious meat made by a great cook: This was trickier! Thankfully the hostess (NAY, the GODDESS! Hi Lisa!) had put out a vegetable platter. I grabbed a plate and threw on two big handfuls of carrots and pea pods, and a bit of ranch dressing. Then I ate it. THIS, this right here, is how I know this is a shift made deep inside. Because if this had been a year ago and I was faced with a choice between hot, roasted meat, or raw carrots, I would have just hung up my vegetarian hat for the night and said, “Holiday parties don’t count!” Instead, that never even crossed my mind.

Greg and Jason and I left the party for a couple hours to meet up with my Dad for some dinner, and I had two black bean soft tacos, which was grand! Our waitress was vegetarian too, and she steered me toward the right stuff. I loved that! Also, my body is really starting to crave beans, which surprises me after such a short time being veg.

I did eat way too many of the holiday cookies though, and I got a massive headache and felt pretty bloated and sick afterward. I’m noticing that I definitely can’t eat sugar the way I want to as a vegetarian. I’m being forced to reckon with my sugar habit in a way I hadn’t before.

I had a minor crisis at Taco Del Mar. This will make a few people laugh, because hello, where else would it be easier to eat vegetarian? Still, I stood there for a few minutes, trying to figure out what I was going to put in my burrito if not that delicious seasoned chicken. I got black beans, and it was fine. I didn’t even miss the chicken. It’s so strange to me how much meat is a habit rather than any kind of necessity at all.

So far, so good! I’m getting used to soaking beans at night, which is great, because the soak method really does get rid of the Fart Factor. I’ve heard that for years, but had never tried it for myself. Beans are now my friend, rather than my gassy foe.

]]> http://www.grassdirtcorn.com/2009/12/vegetarian-for-12-days-still-alive-and-happy/feed/ 6 http://www.grassdirtcorn.com/2009/06/beans-bah/ http://www.grassdirtcorn.com/2009/06/beans-bah/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:31:44 +0000 hollie http://www.grassdirtcorn.com/?p=1031 After I wrote my last post, I began considering the idea that I might want to add back in one major group, just so that I’d have something else to eat. Right now it’s pretty lean times over here, made much worse by the fact that I just don’t like a lot of vegetables. 

So I went ahead and made some split pea soup (which, no kidding, I just found out today was a lentil – I thought peas were vegetables and thus, split peas were just dried veggies), and afterward had what’s been my usual reaction to beans; bad heartburn, only this time I also wrote down that I noticed headaches, gas, and pressure in my chest (bloating?), as well as feeling anxious and just generally grouchy. It took hours to go away, but finally it all did. 

A little while ago I had some hummus on my rice crackers, and geez, here it all is again. What the heck? 

I went to Google and looked up “food intolerance”, and found this page at WebMd on food allergies vs. intolerances, and they have this list for “symptoms of a food intolerance”:

• Nausea
• Stomach pain
• Gas, cramps, or bloating
• Vomiting
• Heartburn
• Diarrhea
• Headaches
• Irritability or nervousness

Okay, well that’s interesting. So here I was thinking I should let beans back in, and now I’m having second thoughts. I’ll think more on this and get back to it tomorrow. For now I’m going to go to bed and hope these symptoms don’t keep me up half the night. Gah, the headache is astounding.

You’ll find the Chickpea Cutlets on page 133. I obviously can’t reprint the recipe, but that’s okay, because you want to get your own copy, right? Right. Basically these are delicious patties made up of, NO KIDDING, chick peas. When I opened up the book to the picture portion, these were the first thing that popped out at me, and I knew I had to make them tootsweet.

One of the ingredients is bread crumbs, and I’m sure you all know this, but just in case; making breadcrumbs is super easy with your Cuisinart or other food processor. Just throw in a couple pieces of bread and whir:

Making up the patties was simple. You mash up the chick peas first, which I did with a potato masher. It took a few minutes, but wasn’t hard. The cookbook says to mash until you’ve broken all the chick peas up, and I don’t think I did that – mine had a few whole ones. Next time I’ll be more careful.

Then you toss in the rest of the ingredients, and you might want to think about measuring carefully, because I tripled the amount of lemon zest (who doesn’t love LEMON ZEST? Its awesomeness is right there in the name: ZEST) and then wished I’d been a little tamer. Then you split the mixture into quarters and make patties. I just rolled a ball and pressed it flat into the plate:

Voila! Now pop those babies In a hot skillet, flip them over when browned, and a few minutes later, you’ve got these:

They look blacker in the photo than they were in real life. They were actually very nicely browned. They smelled fantastic, and I was so excited to get them to the table, I even brought out a nice serving dish, all official like. In the photo in the cookbook there’s a spoon pouring a gravy over the cutlets. The recipe didn’t list a gravy, but it was probably somewhere else in the book, I just didn’t search for it. I’ll do that next time.

I whipped up some fruit salad with soy yogurt dressing, and steamed some corn. It was a totally vegan meal for everyone. The recipe makes four, and Greg and I each had two (the kids wouldn’t try them, big shock). If I were going to serve these to guests I’d definitely double the recipe.

In summary: I made a vegan dinner, with vegetables, and it didn’t hurt, and it all tasted sublime, and it was good for us. BEST TUESDAY EVER.

Let’s just get the crappy picture out of the way:

It’s not fancy, but that’s the most delicious black bean soup we’ve ever made. I can’t remember where I got the original recipe, but I’ve tweaked it a bit, and here it is:

Vegan Black Bean Soup in a Vita-Mix (or other blender)

3 15oz cans of black beans. This equals 6 cups of regular black beans, in case you aren’t using canned. I like to pressure-cook mine, but using canned is just as delicious (and takes a lot less time).

1 3/4 vegetable broth (chicken broth is delicious too, if you eat meat)

1 C salsa (we’ve used fresh, jarred, it’s all yummy)

1/4 t oregano (you can leave this out and not notice the difference. Or you can add more and get a kick)

1/4 t ground chili powder (seriously, ONE QUARTER. unless you’re one of those people who says “five” when the waitress at the thai restaurant asks you how many stars you want)

1-2 T chipotle seasoning (or “chipotle powder” – this stuff is delicious, I’d throw half the bottle in if Greg would let me)

Put 1 cup of your beans into a bowl, and mash them gently, until the beans are all broken but not pureed. You can use a potato masher for this job, or just a fork. Or your hands, or a rock; you get the idea. Just get your mashing on. Set them aside.

Put everything except your bowl of mashed beans into the Vita-Mix. Blend on medium (6-9) until smooth. You want it soupy, not watery – so you can still see some bean bits, but it’s very well blended, and pours out of your container. Pour that mixture into a pot, which you’ll then put on the stove.

Add your mashed beans, and mix it up, to thicken it a bit and give it texture.

You can either heat it right up and eat it, or simmer it for awhile to let the flavors blend. It’s delicious eaten the next day. It’s an incredibly easy soup to make, and one we have once a week during the winter.

Serve with a bowl of tortilla chips. We like the blue corn variety. Also delicious with cornbread, or just some homemade bread. Don’t forget your Beano!