On Healthy Eating Vegan-Style

No, I am not normally vegan, but for personal reasons I am engaging in a very strict vegan diet for a period of time. It’s been, mmm, interesting.

I love veggies. I love fruit. So I thought – well, gee, this will be EASY for me. It’s not like I crave chicken. The food hasn’t been the issue; the restriction has – anyone up for a discussion on control issues? Okay, we’ll save that for another blog.

In the meantime, I’d love to share with you a few of my favorite food discoveries along the way. You’ll quickly discover these are not strict recipes as much as they are preparation suggestions. Hey, that’s the way I cook! I’ll try to give the big picture 1^st, then follow with my eternal commentary, which I know you (yes, all two of you who follow my blog) are dying to hear. And if you’re sticking with me, you’ll actually get a bonus recipe!

Pistachio-Rice Salad

The rice:

½ c. chopped onion

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Cook above in oil in a saucepan until onion is translucent.

Add ½ c. pistachios and stir and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Add 1 c. of your favorite rice (not instant) and follow the directions for the amount of liquid and cooking time.

The Rice Commentary: In a medium saucepan, cook ½ chopped onion and 1-2 cloves minced garlic in a small amount of olive oil over medium-high until the onion is translucent (be sure not to get the pan too hot or you’ll have brown, bitter garlic. Ick.). Add the shelled pistachios and stir and cook until the nuts release fragrance, 3-4 minutes. At this point, add 1 cup of your favorite kind of rice and follow the directions for liquid amount and cooking (personally, I think this is MADE for brown rice. Perfect marriage with the nutty flavors. And I used vegetable broth). I suppose you could use instant but you'll miss out on the pleasant texture and flavor of the pistachios when this is done. So unexpected…and SO GOOD. Savory. Sweet. Nutty. Chewy. Awesomeness. I dare you not to eat a giant serving-spoon-full as soon as it’s cooked. By the way, you can serve this nice and hot for a side dish (or, if you’re vegan, the main course), then save the leftovers for the salad. That’s what I did.

The Salad:

Your favorite lettuce, roughly torn

Carrots and cucumber, sliced

½ avocado, sliced

Mound a scoop of chilled pistachio rice on the above, drizzle with balsamic vinegar dressing, and enjoy.

The salad commentary: I used butter lettuce because it’s what I had, but I wish I’d had romaine. Bonus recipe: AMAZING BALSAMIC VINEGAR DRESSING (I must credit my friend Sherry for giving me this one): 1 part vinegar (this is where you use the good stuff) to 2 parts olive oil. Minced garlic, a dollop of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper, and here’s the kicker, the over-the-top-makes-it-amazing kicker: CUMIN. Yep, as much as you like. Go ahead! You’ll LOVE IT. I promise.

Be on the lookout for Ziti with Sun-dried Tomato Cream Sauce (truly, a cream sauce without dairy. I promise.), Steamed Asparagus with Citrus Oil, and the doggone BEST Black Bean Relish ever (also from my friend Sherry). As we go along, let me know if you try any of these! I’d love your feedback.

Do you have any vegan recipes you love?