Chickpea, Tomato, & Eggplant Stew

I’m now just about convinced I’m an authentic eggplant fan. Having recently tryed a handful of recipes from this book that include eggplant, a vegetable that in the past, I was only mildly fond of, I find I’ve changed my mind. Either these recipes are perfectly made for eggplant, or I’m getting better at working with it, or my tastes are just changing. In any case, I’m glad I am finally able to happily include this beautiful vegetable in my regular recipe rotation. The “Chickpea, Tomato, & Eggplant Stew”, page 258, is an elemental, earthy combination of onion, eggplant, carrots, potatoes, red bell pepper, chickpeas, and tomatoes, brought to full flavor with garlic, parsley, oregano, and basil. There are only two steps in the recipe preparation, sautéing a portion of the veggies, and adding the rest of the ingredients to simmer for a bit. Easy, satisfying, and tastes even better the next day, if you have any leftovers.

The recipe as written only calls for 1 tablespoon of oil. It’s easy to omit this altogether, using any other liquid you prefer for sautéing the veggies.

Keeping it “McDougall Friendly” check list:

• Replace the oil with water, broth, soy sauce, or sherry for sautéing the veggies and/or use a nonstick pot.

Creamy Artichoke Dressing

“Creamy Artichoke Dressing”, page 101, is versatile, zesty, and tangy, and makes a great topping for crispy lettuce salads, pasta salad, or even steamed vegetables. Although the recipe calls for a jar of undrained marinated artichoke hearts, meaning packed in oil, this worked out perfectly well using a can of water packed artichoke hearts instead. My first choice was frozen artichokes, which are superior in flavor to the canned, and are also oil-free, but I couldn’t find them the day I shopped for this recipe. The remaining ingredients are garlic, fresh lemon juice, salt, and cayenne, plus additional oil, which I omitted, using water instead. Everything goes in the blender and is processed until smooth and creamy, adding the water 2 tablespoons at a time until the dressing reaches the desired consistency. Because the artichokes add a lot of bulk, there really is no need to add any thickening agent, such as guar gum, if you leave out the oil. In fact, you may find you actually need to thin it down.

This is an easy dressing to make, whips up in a flash, and one I will likely make again. I can imagine it as a dipping sauce for oven fries, and as a topping for grilled tofu, tempeh, or seitan.

Keeping it “McDougall Friendly” check list:

• Replace the ¼ cup of olive oil with water, 2 tablespoons at a time, until desired consistency is reached.

Sicilian Penne with Tomatoes & Eggplant

Once again I was happily surprised to find another way to enjoy eggplant. For most of my life, I really thought I didn’t like it, but lately it seems I am acquiring a taste for it, and I have especially enjoyed it just recently in a couple of dishes from this book. 

This latest recipe, “Sicilian Penne with Tomatoes and Eggplant”, page 197, was rich and pleasing, which belied the simplicity of the ingredients list – onion, garlic, eggplant, tomato paste, and crushed tomatoes, with enhancements from a splash of red wine and fresh basil. Somehow this combination tasted like much more than it would suggest, and I continue to be amazed and pleased at my new found appreciation for eggplant.

It’s easy to leave the oil out of this dish by using a little water or broth to sauté the veggies, and with all the other rich flavors, I didn’t miss it all, and you probably won’t either. Once simmered and thickened, serve this delightful sauce over penne pasta, or really, any pasta of your choice. The recipe suggest mixing the cooked pasta and sauce together, but I prefer to top individual servings, in order to monitor the ratio of pasta to sauce. I tend to like more sauce than most recipes suggest, and this was no exception, as the recipe called for a pound of penne, and I cooked about half that much.

  

Keeping it “McDougall Friendly” check list:

• Replace the 2 Tablespoons of olive oil with a little water or broth when sautéing the vegetables.

Tuscan White Beans & Broccoli Rabe

“Tuscan White Beans & Broccoli Rabe”, (page 256), is a main dish that can be on the table in 30-minutes or so, providing you have cooked beans on hand. Five simple ingredients – broccoli rabe, garlic, beans, broth, and fresh rosemary – make up this stove-top meal, with broth standing in for the oil called for in the recipe. If you look closely, you might notice I did not use broccoli rabe, substituting broccoli instead. I have tried broccoli rabe a handful of times, and so far I’m not a fan, so I opted to take the safer route, and use broccoli crowns in their place. The dish seemed a little dry, so I included a cup of broth to make it more soupy. The recipe notes also suggest the optional addition of cooked pasta for an even heartier meal.

As simple as this dish looked, I was pleasantly surprised to find the combination of flavors exquisitely pleasing. Was it the broth? The fresh rosemary? The overall combination of everything? I can’t say for sure, but my husband and I ended up eating the entire potful in one sitting, that’s how much we both enjoyed it.

Keeping it “McDougall Friendly” check list:

• Replace the 2 Tablespoons of olive oil with ½ - 1 cup of vegetable broth.

Beets with Greens & Slivered Apricots

Not only is the humble beet a nutritious powerhouse, it is beautiful to look at, delicious as well, and the recipe for “Beets with Greens & Slivered Apricots”, (page 357), also takes advantage of the tender greens. Once you have cooked the beets, the dish comes together quickly and easily, and although this was written to be a warm vegetable side dish, I kept envisioning it as a salad, so I changed things up a bit. The best news is, the recipe, as written, is oil-free, so no adjustments in that respect were necessary.

I agree with the recipe, that baking or roasting beets, as opposed to stovetop cooking, intensifies the flavor, and is the preferred method. Pressure cooking yields similar results as oven cooking, and I will use that method if I don’t want to turn the oven on and heat up the house. Since our house is so small (a 325 foot 5^th wheel trailer), turning on the oven on a warm day is something I try to avoid.

The recipe calls for softening the apricots in hot water, which is probably necessary if the apricots are very tough and chewy, as some varieties are. The apricots I had were already very soft, and soaking them in hot water might have made them dissolve, so I skipped this step. Then, there are further instructions to simmer the pre-soaked apricots with the dressing; I skipped this step also. In fact, I did not simmer the dressing at all. I simply whisked the lemon juice and brown sugar together in a small bowl.

After cooking the greens until they were just slightly wilted (which only takes a couple of minutes), I placed them in a ring around a plate, placed the sliced beets in the center of the ring, arranged the slivered apricots on top of the greens, and sprinkled the dressing over all. I chilled the “salad” for about an hour before serving. This made for a very attractive, not to mention scrumptious, addition to our meal.

Keeping it “McDougall Friendly” check list:

• No changes necessary!       

Mustard-Chive Mayonaise

As you can see from the photograph, I thought the “Mustard-Chive Mayonnaise” (page 574) was a perfect topping for fresh steamed asparagus, especially this time of year when asparagus can be found in abundance. 

Such a humble combination of vegan mayonnaise (homemade, or store-bought), Dijon mustard, and fresh chives. Simplicity and utter satisfaction, good as a vegetable topping, a sandwich spread, or on grilled tofu or tempeh. 

If you use the Vegan Mayonnaise recipe from this book (page 573), you will automatically be keeping this an oil free topping.

Keeping it “McDougall Friendly” check list:

• Use oil free vegan mayonnaise as the base.      

Creamy Tahini Dressing

A good salad dressing can elevate ordinary greens and vegetables to star status and make any meal special. Since eliminating store-bought oil-laden salad dressings from my diet, I’ve discovered a whole new world of possibilities. I admit to being a bit of a salad dressing addict, and there are times I enjoy the dressing more than what it actually dresses. I have a couple favorite go-to recipes, my version of house dressings, but I love trying new recipes and expanding my repertoire. 

The “Creamy Tahini Dressing” (page 102) could easily become part of my regular rotation. The combination of tahini and lemon juice is so satisfying, and the basis of this dressing. Additional ingredients include soy sauce and parsley, salt and cayenne, and if following the recipe, sesame oil. With the tahini already providing the sesame flavor, as well as a bit of natural oil, I didn’t see any reason to add additional sesame oil. For a more intense sesame flavor, a few drops of sesame oil would do the trick, but I don’t think an entire tablespoon would be necessary. The tahini also provides enough body to keep this dressing thick, so no additional oil is necessary.

Keeping it “McDougall Friendly” check list:

• Omit the sesame oil.