Broccoli-Carrot-Onion cooked in Broth with Sauteed Tempeh Pieces, Corn-off-the-Cob, and Whole Wheat Pasta with Garlic Marinara

For dinner today, I thought I'd try the low- or no- fat way of sauteeing vegetables without oil. I've occasionally done this with water, but today tried it with broth. I put about a quarter cup of water into a stock pot, and added a vegan bouillon cube. I gently heated the water and mixed the cube in, forming the broth. I briefly brought the broth to a boil, then reduced heat to medium-high, which kept the broth under a simmer.

I chopped about half of a sweet onion into quarter inch cubes and started "sauteeing" them over the medium high heat. The onion, after about 3 or 4 minutes, started indeed carmelizing like they would if cooked in oil. But before that point, after about 2 minutes or so, I added a carrot, cut similarly. I let the carrots and onions cook for another 5 minutes or so; I added another 1/8 cup or so of water, and about a half cup of broccoli florets, halved or quartered, depending on their size (cut to a target for an appropriate mouth feel). I cooked another few minutes till the broccoli's green color darkened.

I mixed in a little fresh lemon sage and some dried oregano, plus a pinch or two of salt. Were I not cooking for my toddler, too, I might have added some fresh jalapeno pepper or hot sauce (I did add some hot sauce to the served portions for my wife and me).  I had separately sauteed, in a little bit of oil, about half of a package of tempeh, cut into 3/8" or so cubes. I mixed the tempeh in to the vegetable dish, as well.


I served the vegetable dish, along with corn-off-the-cob (with a little Earth Balance margarine and touch of lime juice), and whole wheat pasta topped with a garlic marinara sauce, which I had simmered with fresh basil and nutritional yeast. Dinner was good! The vegetables were better than might be expected, sauteeing with broth instead of oil. Yay!

Yesterday, I was busy preparing three trays of my chocolate baklava (not low fat!) for a bake sale, so my wife picked up some South Indian food for our dinner. The baklava came out well!