Romanesco Cauliflower with Mixed Vegetables

Kiddo's Vegetable and Chickpea Soup, Cauliflower with Spinach (No Added Fat)

Kiddo is going to be making vegetable soup with chickpeas for this weekend's So Many Kids in the Kitchen program (12:30p on Saturday the 13th, east coast US time - facebook.com/somanycooks) and practiced a batch tonight. It was good! I made a simple side dish of waterlessly cooked cauliflower with spinach, as well as a salad of artichoke, tomato, and olive. It was a filling and tasty meal!

Rainbow Chard and Beet Greens with Sweet Potato, Beet, and Potato, served with Brown Rice with Baby Lima Beans (almost no added fat)

My daughter and I were invited again today to be on a PCRM nutrition class streaming for free to hundreds of people. She is one of the Kids in the Kitchen who do bimonthly cooking and nutrition shows live on facebook. It was fun and, we hope, helpful.

For dinner, I prepared some greens with sweet potato, beet, and potato. I made a simple side dish with brown rice and baby lima beans. 

Late this spring it will be 22 years that I will have known my wife and I am proud that I have never repeated a dinner for her. It doesn't so much reflect on me as it does on how easy it is to be plant-based. There seem to be just so many ways to create tasty, healthy, and nice looking meals from plants!

Today I wanted to cook some root vegetables with greens. I normally like to add some legume or perhaps soy product in my main course but decided instead to simply use frozen baby lima beans and mix them in with brown rice. Incidentally, regarding rice, for years I have been simmering brown rice in a 1 part rice to 2 parts water ratio for about 50m but lately I've been soaking rice, cooking in ample water uncovered, then pouring off excess water and letting it steam, off heat but covered, for a few minutes as I've seen suggested due to possible arsenic in rice.

Here is how I made the main course:

Ingredients

• 2 medium beet roots, scrubbed, skins intact, with very bottoms removed and composted and leaves rinsed and reserved
• 1 medium Russet potato, scrubbed
• 1 sweet potato (I used Japanese sweet potato, my favorite, but any kind is fine), scrubbed
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/8 cup onion cut into approximately 1/4" cubes
• 1 clove garlic, finely (1/8" or smaller) minced
• Bunch of collard greens, rinsed and bottom 1/4" removed and composted, then sliced crosswise with the stem in the middle into 1" strips
• Bunch of beet greens (I used golden beet greens but any beet or even other greens would be fine), rinsed and then carefully atop parchment paper that covered the cutting board (to avoid stains) chopped into approximately 1" squares
• 1/2 t garlic powder
• 1/2 t lemon pepper (or freshly ground black pepper)
• 1/4 t salt (more or less according to preference)
• 1/2 t finely chopped herbs like basil and/or oregano and/or sage (I use a grinder with a mix of dried herbs)
• (optional) 1/8 t smoked paprika
• 1t lemon or lime juice (I used fresh squeezed meyer lemon juice)
• 1 1/4 cups carrot cut into 3/8" slices (3 small-medium carrots)
• (Optional cheese sauce)  1/4 cup water, 3-4 T unprocessed cashews, 4 T nutritional yeast, 1/2 t garlic powder, pinch of salt

Process

1. I put the beet roots, sweet potato, and potato atop a trivet in my Instant Pot pressure cooker and added water (about 1/2 cup or maybe a bit more, but to stay below the level of the trivet), then pressure cooked (the Instant Pot calls this "steam" mode when the food doesn't touch the sides) for 10 minutes.
2. While the pressure cooking was happening, I took the onion and garlic and put into a large Saladmaster stock pan; any good heavy pan would do, but I favor stainless steel. I cooked over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes.
3. I added the greens and cooked waterlessly - i.e., I covered the pan and heated it on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped. I let it cook for about 10 minutes. (Without such a pan, I could simply have cooked on low heat, covered, and stirred occasionally.)
4. When the pressure cooking was done, I carefully opened the Instant Pot, waiting a few minutes before gently releasing pressure and then opening the pot away from me.
5. After a few minutes when the root vegetables were easier to handle, I roughly chopped the potato and sweet potato into approximately 3/4" cubes and added to the greens.
6. I put the beet under cold running water and easily rubbed the skin off, then chopped (over parchment paper and with a wet paper towel handy) into 1/2" cubes after discarding the very top. I added the beet to the greens.
7. I made the optional "cheese" sauce simply by blending the sauce ingredients and mixed the sauce into the dish.
8. I mixed in the seasonings and lemon juice and served.

 

Results

Dinner was very good. I love what a bit of lemon does to cooked beets. The greens were a good visual and texture backdrop to the root vegetables. The rice and lima beans went well together. The sauce was just a nice subtle flavor to contrast and uplift the other flavors.

Ideas for the future

I should cook with beets more often! I've enjoyed the past week or so with many beet recipes. By the way, I have several beet recipes, like bit.ly/Beets1, bit.ly/Beets2, and bit.ly/Beets3, referenced in our recipes document from the So Many Cooks in the Kitchen show from last weekend on heart-healthy recipes - there are many other recipes from other Cooks, as well as details on handling beets and a nutrition guide from my friend Brenda Davis, RD.

The dish was almost no fat but did have the cashew; each tablespoon of cashew has about 5g of fat, and this main course was more than enough to serve my family of three with some leftovers. The dish would have been fine without the "cheese" sauce but it was a nice addition.

I could have included carrots when cooking the greens as they would add nice color, nutrition, and taste. A bit more onion would also be fine.

Roasted Cauliflower and Beet (No Added Fat)

It's been a while since I made tasty roasted cauliflower and I had a head of cauliflower peeking out at me from my refrigerator. I am presenting beets at the somanycooks show this weekend and thought it would be fun to make a roasted beet and cauliflower dish. I was amazed at the the deep color - perfect for white cauliflower!


Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower separated into florets
• 2 medium beets, tops and bottoms removed and then the remainder peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed so skins loose but with skins otherwise left on
• 2T (more or less as desired for moisture level) Coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
• 1t (or more as desired) dried herbs; I used a spice grinder with a variety of Italian herbs
• 1/4 t salt
• 1t lemon juice

Process

1. I put the cauliflower, beet, and garlic on a baking tray, tossed with coconut aminos and herbs, and put in my toaster oven on its convection setting at 400°F for 15minutes; for regular ovens, I'd go with 20-25 minutes.
2. I transferred the ingredients to a metal bowl, looked for the garlic and pressed down, and mixed in the salt and lemon juice.

That's it! I served with brown rice cooked with baby lima beans and cucumber slices.

 

Results

We all enjoyed the meal, even my daughter who doesn't love beets. I was very happy with the bright color and of course taste of the main course. Other than being careful about not staining the deep beet roots (I immediately washed the cutting board in cold water and luckily had no juice coming onto my counters but I would have wiped any immediately), this was quite easy and required little effort!

Ideas for the future

This was a nice main course! Here are a few thoughts about additional ideas.

• I bet mixing red and golden beets would be attractive.
• I was originally going to air fry some seitan and mix into the dish, but my air fryer is also my toaster oven and I didn't have enough time to run it twice, though it would really only be for maybe 5-6 minutes of air frying. I should try adding seitan or maybe tempeh.
• I really like citrus and bet mixing in fresh tangerine pieces when serving would be nice - maybe along with a bit of olive and rosemary needles.
• I also like lemony beets and perhaps should try adding a lemon marinade before roasting.

Thick Golden Beet Dhal

I wanted to explore another beet recipe today and thought of embedding beets in a thick dhal. I made the dhal and beets separately in my pressure cooker.


Ingredients

• 1 cup red lentils
• 3 cups water
• 4 large leaves kale, hand stripped from the stems and then roughly hand torn into approximately 2" squares
• 1/2 cup whole or chopped spinach, fresh (washed) or frozen
• 1/4 t turmeric
• 1/2 t ground cumin
• 1/8 t smoked paprika
• 1/2 t salt (or to taste)
• 2 medium beet roots (I had very small ones so used 5 or 6), rinsed but not peeled
• Another 3/4 - 1 cup of water
• 1/4 cup onion cut into 3/8" cubes
• 2 t lemon juice

Process

1. I put the lentils, kale and spinach, water, turmeric, cumin, and paprika into my Instant Pot pressure cooker and cooked for 20m.
2. After the cooking was done, I waited a few minutes and gently released pressure, then removed from the pressure cooker and mixed in the lem
3. I used a new pot for the pressure cooker and put in a trivet to keep food off the bottom and sides, then added about 3/4 - 1 cup of water, below the trivet level, and the beets atop the trivet.
4. I pressure steamed. These were very small, only about 1 1/2" in diameter, so 10 minutes of pressure steaming nicely did it. For regular sized beet roots, I'd go with 15-17 minutes and for large ones above 3 1/2" in diameter, I'd go for 25-30 minutes.
5. When the beets were done, I did a "quick release" of pressure.
6. I waited a few minutes to handle the beets, cut the very top and bottom off of each beet, then held each under cold running water and rubbed the skin off.
7. I cut the beets into approximately 3/4" cubes and mixed into the dhal, along with the onion and lemon juice.

 

Results

This came out well though I preferred the beets with beans that I had made a few days ago. The beets were so delicious - I should cook beets more often! I'm glad that they were well done and soft.

Ideas for the future

Carrot would have gone great in this dish. If I had beet greens (I actually do have some but want to have them last till this Saturday's show), they would also be good. Using red beets would add a nice contrasting color, but I definitely prefer the sweeter flavor and much less staining of golden beets. I should make beets more often; they're easy, with these tips:

• Pressure steam, like I did today, for 10-30 minutes, depending on size
• Dice into 3/4" pieces and pressure cook, submerged, for 8-10 minutes
• Boil 25-60 minutes, periodically checking for fork tenderness
• Roast whole by covering in parchment paper and then roasting for 40-60m (check tenderness as above) at 400°F
• As I described in March 2017, you can also roast beets after cutting them and mixing in some herbs (and perhaps a liquid like orange juice or soy sauce); the cook time drops depending on the size of the cubes but I really like the ease of whole beet roasting, cutting the beet once cooked
• After removing the skin with a potato peeler, you can grate raw beet onto salads
• Greens are healthy and tasty but, unlike beets which can easily keep in the refrigerator for months, the greens limp quickly so they should be removed from the roots and stored, unwashed, in a separate bag for about 3-5 days

You don't have to remove the skins until you're done cooking. The skins slip off easily once cooked, like I described here.

Pasta Alfredo Primavera (from PlantPure meal starter kit)

I received a shipment of Plant Pure Meal starter kits and am looking forward to trying these out. This one required cooking a seasoning packet in plant milk (my wife can't digest soy milk so I just blended 1/8 - 1/4 cup almonds with 2 1/4 cups of water) and cooking with vegetables (I used a variety of frozen vegetables).

It came out well and was easy to make. I mixed some nutritional yeast in and could have used a bit more, plus maybe some fresh garlic.