Crunchy Sesame Slaw

I much prefer a creamy style slaw to the more vinegary variety, so "Crunchy Sesame Slaw" (page 74) was calling to me when I found myself looking for a side dish for Vietnamese Po'Boys (to be reviewed next). The vegetables in the salad portion include cabbage and carrot, same as you find in many slaw recipes, but an unexpected (and wonderful) addition is snow peas, cut into very thin matchsticks, with green onions rounding out the list of veggies. The dressing is a mixture of tahini, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil. My golden rule is to cook completely oil free, but I will make the occasional exception for sesame oil. What I've discovered, though, is it only takes the tiniest amount of this very flavorful oil to stand out in a dish. Here, the recipe called for one tablespoon, and I used just one teaspoon. It was enough for the unique flavor of sesame oil to shine through, especially since sesame seeds are also sprinkled on top of the salad after it is tossed with the dressing. It could be that different brands of tahini are thicker than others, but I found I had to add about ¼ cup of water to the dressing to make it pourable, because made as written, my dressing came out more as a spread. An additional optional topping of crispy chow mein noodles is offered up, but I passed since I'm pretty sure that "crispy" means "fried". With the sesame oil and seeds, rice vinegar, snow peas, and chow mein noodles (if used), this slaw has a definite Asian persuasion, and it made an excellent side for the Vietnamese Po'Boys.

Spicy Tomato & White Bean Soup

"Spicy White Bean and Tomato Soup" (page 173) is tomato soup for grown-ups. If, like me, you grew up loving the stuff that came in the red and white can, this soup will please you even more. What makes this soup rise above the mundane is subtle heat from diced green chiles, creaminess from white beans, and an unexpected ingredient, peanut butter, which adds a layer of complexity and richness. You might think this soup would call for fresh tomatoes, but instead, flavorful canned crushed tomatoes are used. Sautéed onion is puréed with the tomatoes, chiles, beans, peanut butter, and broth, and a splash of fresh lime juice finishes things off. Minced fresh parsley added to each serving adds a bit of color and texture contrast. This soup makes a great starter dish at dinner, and is perfect alongside a sandwich for lunch (especially a vegan grilled cheese sandwich!).

Golden Veggie Burger

Now on the 7th burger recipe in this book (out of 11), the "Golden Veggie Burgers" (page 121) follow a similar approach as the other 6 I've tried so far, that is, a mixture of different vegetables and/or beans, gluten flour, and spices. This particular mix combines yellow onion, yellow bell pepper, and garbanzo beans (providing another shade of "golden"). The ingredients are combined in a food processor, formed into patties, and fried in a skillet on the stove. Optionally, there are also instructions for baking them in the oven if you prefer. The burgers are served on buns with condiments of your choice, with the tempting suggestion to include a yellow tomato and mustard if you want to go for the monochrome look. These burgers are easy to assemble, and easy to make oil free. Simply omit the oil when sautéing the onion and bell pepper, and when frying them (use a nonstick skillet instead - or bake them!). One notable difference in these burgers that stood out from all the others I've made so far is the moisture content. These were quite moist, almost to the point of making it difficult to form the patties. All the other burger recipes I've tried so far were just the opposite, where I've had to add a little extra water or broth. But in the end, they were still delicious, and as usual, I got 6 burgers instead of 4, as I don't like my patties very thick.

Baked Jambalaya Casserole

There's nothing better on a cold evening than a dinner from the oven, and "Baked Jambalaya Casserole" (page 303) really hit the spot on one of those nights not too long ago. Start with skillet browned tempeh, add rice, onion, bell pepper, garlic, tomatoes, broth, and kidney beans, spike with Cajun style spices, pop into the oven, and what you end up with is a complete one-dish meal. I almost exclusively use brown rice when I cook, but the exception to this rule for me is a dish that calls for rice to be cooked as part of an oven dish with multiple ingredients. As many times as I've tried using brown rice under these circumstances, adjusting the amount of rice and/or liquid, the rice never seems to cook to completion. So, in this dish I gave myself permission to break my brown rice rule and used white instead. I suppose if you had cooked brown rice on hand, it would have worked to use that instead of uncooked white, and I might try that next time. I did omit the olive oil when browning the tempeh and veggies, so I was able to keep this dish oil free. This is a very satisfying dish, and don't forget to put the Tabasco on the table for extra heat when serving up!

Puttanesca Seitan & Spinach Salad

"Puttanesca Seitan & Spinach Salad" (page 82) is a hearty salad that can become the centerpiece of a meal, especially if you toss in some cooked pasta, an option suggested in the recipe. The salad consists of garlic sautéed seitan, mixed with kalamata and green olives, capers, spinach and tomatoes. The dressing is a balsamic-based vinaigrette which calls for three tablespoons of olive oil, too much to completely omit without using something in its place. I opted to replace the oil with water, which I mixed with the balsamic vinegar and other dressing ingredients, plus I used ¼ teaspoon of guar gum to thicken the dressing before pouring over the salad. Fresh basil and parsley are added as a finishing touch.  The flavors in this salad are fresh and intense, and although it makes four servings, my husband and I finished it off in one sitting. I was able to keep this dish completely oil free by using a non-stick skillet when sautéing the seitan and omitting the oil called for in this step as well.

Hearty Minestrone Soup

There seems to be as many recipes for minestrone soup as there are cookbooks. Each one is a little different, but the basic equation remains the same, resulting in a versatile Italian vegetable soup that includes the common ingredients of beans, veggies, some sort of grain, and tomatoes. The "Hearty Minestrone Soup" (page 145) is very much a vegetable soup with onions, celery, carrot, tomatoes, and cabbage. I also had a handful of fresh green peas, so I threw those in as well. Italian seasonings include garlic, oregano, basil, and parsley. I always add the garlic at the very end, right after I turn the soup off, and let the residual heat just barely cook it, in order to retain a stronger flavor. Instead of calling for traditional pasta, this recipe called for barley (although using pasta instead was mentioned as a viable option). Another unusual addition was ¼ cup split peas. Kidneys were the bean of choice, but as the recipe states, any bean works well. Not as tomato-y as some minestrones, but all-in-all a very satisfying and hearty vegetable soup. It was easy to keep this recipe oil free by omitting the 1 tablespoon called for when sautéing the veggies.

Teriyaki Tofu Wraps

"Teriyaki Tofu Wraps" (page 115) make a wonderfully quick and tasty treat. Tofu strips are marinated in a teriyaki sauce, browned with red bell pepper, and rolled into a flat bread of your choice (I used flour tortillas). The recipe as written calls for a total of 4 tablespoons of oil, but I was able to reduce this to ½ teaspoon. Normally I would leave all oil out, but the marinade calls for sesame oil, which provides a distinct flavor. But instead of adding 2 tablespoons, I cut it down to ½ teaspoon, enough to capture the flavor, and used water to make up the difference. The next 2 tablespoons of oil are used to sauté the tofu and bell peppers, but with my nonstick skillet, no oil at all was required in this step. These wraps were so good, and so easy to make, I see them becoming a regular addition to my diet.

Chocolate-Banana Pudding

"Chocolate-Banana Pudding" (page 474) is pure chocolate decadence. Made with melted semisweet chocolate chips, the end result is not quite as soft as a traditional pudding (the final mixture firms up quite a bit); to me this had an almost fudge-like quality. The ingredients list is simple. Melted chocolate chips blended into puréed banana, maple syrup, and vanilla extract, and topped off with roasted chopped peanuts. The recipe serves six, and even though that might seem like small servings when you are dividing it up, this dessert is so rich the six servings recommendation makes perfect sense. Be sure to use vegan chocolate chips to keep this McDougall friendly. Not a lowfat dessert whatsoever, but occasionally I find comparable recipes in the McDougall books and newsletters. Definitely to be reserved for very special occasions!

Tempeh-Walnut "Chicken" Salad Wraps

I never get tired of sandwiches, and find myself enjoying them for lunch, dinner, and sometimes even breakfast. The recipe for "Tempeh-Walnut 'Chicken' Salad Wraps" (page 113) suggests using sliced bread or bagels as an option instead of a flatbread (wrap), and I chose to put this sumptuous filling on slices of sourdough bread. This almost reminded me of a Waldorf salad, with the inclusion of walnuts and celery, along with green onions, red bell pepper, and parsley, tossed together with steamed tempeh. The dressing was a blend of seasoned mayonnaise and Dijon mustard. Curly leaf lettuce adds a bit of green, and finishes the sandwich off quite nicely. Be sure to use an oil free vegan mayonnaise to keep this as healthy (and McDougall friendly) as possible.

Mushroom Goulash

The hearty "Mushroom Goulash" (page 326) is so delicious and the flavors are so addictive, I could probably eat this every day. A savory vegetable medley of onion, garlic, portobello mushrooms, and potato (surprised me too, but it worked!) are simmered in wine, broth, and tomato paste. Caraway seed provides the traditional seasoning you are looking for in a goulash, and instead of cabbage, this recipe calls for sauerkraut, a wonderful replacement as far as I'm concerned. Vegan sour cream is mixed into the cooked veggies, and the finished product is served over wide noodles. To keep this oil free, sauté the veggies in a non-stick skillet, and make or purchase an oil-free sour cream. With all the varieties of pastas on the market, it is getting easier and easier to find your favorite variety in a whole grain.

Quick Apple Crisp

My husband's favorite desserts are fruit based, and his favorite fruit in a dessert is apple. So, when I asked him what dessert he would like me to make for his birthday, he requested "Quick Apple Crisp" (page 472). The recipe consists of sliced apples sweetened with maple syrup, topped with a crumbly mixture of flour, oats, walnuts, brown sugar, and margarine, then baked in the oven until the apples are done and the topping is crisp. The biggest challenge was how to omit the ½ cup of margarine. In my experience, if you want that "crisp" in a dessert, it requires a fat of some kind. However, I was willing to sacrifice the crisp in order to keep the dish lower in fat, so I used a concoction of 2 tablespoons cashew butter mixed with ¼ cup applesauce to replace the margarine. This mixture provided the necessary moisture to the topping, as well as flavor, and reduced the fat from 70 grams from the margarine to just 16 from the cashew butter. My husband loved his birthday dessert!

Tempeh with Maple, Mustard, & Balsamic Glaze

In every cookbook there seems to be a handful of recipes that make me say "this recipe alone is worth the price of the book!", and the "Tempeh with Maple, Mustard, and Balsamic Glaze" (page 299) definitely falls into this category. I don't eat a lot of tempeh, and I'm sort of picky on how it's prepared, but this is hands-down the best preparation I've ever had. The tempeh is first cooked in a simmering water bath for 30 minutes, then browned in a skillet (where the recipe calls for oil, but wasn't necessary in my non-stick skillet), cooked further in a broth, then coated with the glaze. The flavors are bold and the texture is perfect. I served this alongside mashed potatoes and sautéed greens for a complete and wonderful meal.

Rosemary-Scented Mashed Potatoes with Limas

Really, is there any vegetable that doesn't taste good stirred into mashed potatoes? The "Rosemary-Scented Mashed Potatoes with Limas" (page 374) is an excellent example of how mashed potatoes are the perfect launching point for almost any vegetable or bean you can think of. A very simple list of ingredients - Lima beans, Yukon gold potatoes, fresh rosemary, and salt and pepper. Technically, the recipe also calls for margarine, but I stopped using margarine on potatoes (and everything else for that matter) many years ago. Instead, I use veggie broth, soymilk, or potato cooking water to moisten and mash the spuds, and sometimes throw in a little nutritional yeast for a richer flavor. (This time I just used veggie broth.) These delicious potatoes would make a great accompaniment to any meal!

Curried Chickpea Patties

Veggie burgers of all kinds rank high on my list of favorite foods. This book has 11 burger recipes, and the "Curried Chickpea Patties" is the 6th one I've tried so far. Who knew that eating burgers could be so fun and healthy, and with seemingly endless varieties? These burgers are a blend of sautéed onion, chickpeas, bread crumbs, vital wheat gluten (giving it both chewiness and acting as a binder), and spices. The curry is incorporated into the patties, and also into vegan mayonnaise that is spread on the buns. The amount of curry isn't overwhelming, and even my husband who isn't overly fond of curry found the amount to his liking. To keep these oil free, simply omit the oil when sautéing the onions, and use a non-stick skillet to brown the patties (again, omitting the oil called for in this step). Find (or make) an oil-free mayonnaise, use whole grain burger buns, and you will not find a healthier burger meal anywhere! (Note: I had to add a little veggie broth when combining the burger ingredients in the food processor as the mixture was a tad dry. Also, I got six burgers from this instead of four, but this is probably personal preference - I prefer a thinner burger.)