Kung Pao Veggies and Tofu

I made this recipe from Andrew Weil a few months ago. I really liked it, but I forgot about it somehow. I was looking through my food photos on Facebook a few days ago and saw the picture I took of it. I was reminded of how delicious it was, so I ran into the kitchen to make it again. I changed the recipe to suit the contents of my fridge. If you don't have all of the ingredients, you can adjust accordingly. 

Kung Pao Vegetables and Tofu

Ingredients:

1 container of tofu, drained and cut into small pieces

1 bunch of broccoli, cut into small pieces

1 cup red onion, chopped

1 cup crimini mushrooms, chopped

1 cup unsalted peanuts

4 tablespoons peanut oil

1 teaspoon garlic chili paste

Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:

Stir the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Cook the tofu pieces in two tablespoons of peanut oil on high heat. Flip occasionally and cook until they are golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, heat the remaining oil and add the onions. Cook for about 5 minutes, until they are translucent. Add the broccoli, mushrooms and peanuts and cook for a few more minutes. Then add the garlic chili paste, tofu and sauce. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Serve with brown rice or rice noodles. 

This dish is so delicious that you will completely forget how good for you it is. Broccoli, mushrooms and onions all contain powerful anti-cancer properties. Tofu is known to fight high cholesterol and heart disease, and peanuts are known to prevent hypertension. 

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Quick Curry

Curry is perfect winter weather food. It's warming and hearty and easy to make. This is from the 101 Cookbooks recipe that I make everyone once in a while. The recipe calls for cauliflower, but strangely Whole Foods didn't have any when I went shopping, so I substituted broccoli. the really great thing about recipes like this is that you can swap out ingredients and not have to worry about "breaking" the dish. I also swapped out the curry powder for curry paste. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
1 cup whole coconut milk
2 teaspoons red curry paste (use more or less to taste)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup vegetable broth
1/2 block of tofu, drained and diced
1 cup green beans, cut into 1 or 2-inch segments
1 bunch broccoli, cut into tiny florets
1/2 cup cashews
1 tablespoon peanut oil


Directions:
Heat the oil in a large sauce pan, and cook the onion until it's soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add the tofu, green beans, broccoli and cashews and cook for a few minutes, until broccoli turns bright green. Add the coconut milk, curry paste and vegetable broth and stir until the curry paste is thoroughly mixed in. Let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with brown rice.





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Kung Pao Broccoli and Tofu

Whenever I hear the words "Kung Pau", I think of Seinfeld and George Costanza. "George likes his chicken spicy!"

Well, Dennis likes his tofu spicy, so when I saw this recipe on Dr. Weil's blog, I knew it would be a good dinner choice. I had some broccoli and tofu in the fridge, but I didn't have scallions and I didn't feel like running out to get some. Water chestnuts are one the few plant-foods I really, really dislike, so I definitely didn't have of them in the house either. I did a little improvising and added onions and mushrooms, and adjusted the sauce recipe according to what I had in the cabinet. I served it over leftover black rice from the cauliflower cashew curry I made yesterday. It was really, really good and I'll definitely make it again.

Broccoli is a highly nutritious vegetable, and it contains high amounts of vitamins C and A as well as folic acid, iron and calcium. In fact cooked broccoli contains as much calcium as a 4 ounce glass of milk and calcium from broccoli is much easier for the body to absorb than calcium from milk is. The nutrients in broccoli are known to prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure as well as lower cholesterol. So make sure broccoli is a regular part of your diet!

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Quinoa Salad

I had quite a lot of quinoa leftover from the Double Broccoli Quinoa I made, and it was coated in delicious broccoli pesto. I knew it would be a good base quinoa salad, so I made some for lunch. Quinoa salad is super simple to make. I chopped up a cucumber, a little red onion and some cherry tomatoes and added them to the quinoa along with half a can of chickpeas, then I mixed in a little olive oil and some lemon juice. This dish didn't need any spices because of the broccoli pesto, but you can add some if you like. This dish was a really tasty lunchtime treat!




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Double Broccoli Quinoa

I saw this recipe on 101 Cookbooks a few months ago and have been waiting for the perfect moment to try it. That moment finally came! This was super quick and easy to make, and I was able to veganize it with ease. I used nutritional yeast instead of parmesan and swapped the almonds with cashews for my allergies. I omitted the heavy cream, which I could have easily switched with cashew cream, but I didn't feel the recipe needed it.

The first part of the double broccoli is broccoli pesto with is mixed with the quinoa. The second part is steamed broccoli that's added to the quinoa mix. I added some red onions and bell peppers to the broccoli for some color and extra nutrition. This meal was amazingly delicious!

So what is nutritional yeast? It's an inactive yeast that has a nutty, cheesy flavor. Vegans and people with lactose intolerances use it often because of its unique flavor and similarity to cheese when added to foods. It's delicious sprinkled on popcorn or pasta, and it can even be made in to "cheesy" sauces for nachos and mac & cheese. Nutritional yeast is full of B12, protein, folate, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and a huge list of other nutrients.



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Pasta and Veggies

This dish contains some of my favorite foods: broccoli, chickpeas, and mushrooms! I cooked them together with some olive oil and a shallot, and I served them over rice pasta and tomato sauce.

Broccoli has always been one of my favorite foods because when I was little my mom used to make it with a cheesy sauce that I really liked. I definitely liked the sauce more than the veggies, but that's okay, because eating it trained me to like broccoli. (By the way it was frozen broccoli with a powdered sauce mix.) Broccoli is full of vitamins C, K, A, E and B6, folate, iron, potassium, manganese, selenium and dietary fiber. Because it is a cruciferous vegetable, it contains anti-cancer properties, as well as anti-viral and anti-bacterial compounds.

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Comfort Food

With this crazy elimination diet, you might think that everything I'm eating is green and super healthy. Yes, I am eating lots of green, healthy food, but sometimes a girl needs something warm and comforting. Enter the Mac Daddy.

This recipe is from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. The basic Mac Daddy is macaroni and tofu covered in a cheesy sauce made with nutritional yeast and I've made it a few times in the past. There are several variations on the Mac Daddy though, and one uses mashed chickpeas instead of tofu. Others involve adding various veggies. So I decided to try out the variations. I made rice pasta macaroni which tastes almost identical to wheat pasta. I mashed up some chickpeas and then added broccoli to mix. The result was a warm and comforting meal that pleased both my taste buds and my tummy!