Green Options

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Editor’s note: Veganism certainly isn’t the only choice available for people looking to green their plates; however, if you decide that you’d like to forgo animal products, you need a place to start. This week, our friends at Eco-Libris take a look at one such resource: Jae Steele’s forthcoming book Get It Ripe. This post was originally published on Monday, May 5, 2008.

Today on our Monday’s green books series, we’re getting into the kitchen and learning how vegan food can not only be notorious but also very yummy!

Our book for today is:

Get It Ripe: A Fresh Take on Vegan Cooking and Living

Author: Jae Steele

Jae Steele is a registered holistic nutritionist and runs the vegan blog Domestic Affair. She has authored various self-published cookzines including Vegan Freegan and Ripe. She lives in Montreal.

Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press

Published on: May 29, 2008

What it is about (from the publisher’s website): Get It Ripe is a vegan cookbook for the 21st century, with an emphasis on holistic living and whole food (i.e. unprocessed and unrefined) ingredients. Jae Steele is a registered holistic nutritionist; she has also been a professional vegan baker, and worked on organic farms on both the east and west coasts of Canada. Her life experiences, and her love of vegan whole foods, are at the heart of Get It Ripe, which not only features uncomplicated yet delicious animal-free recipes, but advice and information on various aspects of holistic vegan living, including special diets (all recipes are wheat-free), simple steps for cleansing and detoxing, building your own kitchen compost, information on ethical consumerism, and the connections among mind, body, and spirit.

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.

Quiche is something I covet, particularly for brunch.  I personally enjoy it more when chilled, but any and all quiche is welcome to apply within (my mouth).   When my partner and I met, he was trying to go from vegetarian to vegan (a mission since abandoned due to our mutual “interest” in ice cream).  Being especially eager to prove my culinary prowess in those first few months of dating, I gave my first tofu quiche a whirl.   While I didn’t miss the eggs in the least, I did lament the absence of cheese.  So we compromised and now I have a “standard” tofu quiche recipe that I typically make with spinach.

Now, if you’re scrunching up your nose at the idea of an eggless quiche, don’t despair.  I’m sure if you have a standard quiche recipe of your own (or care to do a quick search for one), you can easily use the flavor components of this recipe with an egg base instead.

My day never begins with a leisurely breakfast in bed. Likely because my spouse is not a morning person, and the only other morning person around is under four, and she wakes me up daily before seven. However, the Kiddo makes some tasty scrambled eggs as long as I do the stove part and raw egg part. And, I have my hopes up for the years to come.

In the meantime, I will share a few favorite breakfast dishes that you moms could, say, print out, circle in great big red ink, and leave out on the counter just before hanging the “Do Not Disturb Until 9:30, or My Breakfast is Ready” sign on the bedroom door. I will live vicariously through you.

Best French Toast Ever, Shirred Eggs, and Breakfast Panini recipes after the jump.

Flipping through recipes looking for a Mother’s Day dinner dessert, I lingered on “Cherry Berry on a Cloud,” one of my mom’s classic recipes. Mom’s the matriarch of meringues, amassing a collection of dessert recipes that blend crisp yet fluffy meringues with flavorful fillings and toppings.

But today I wasn’t drawn to this recipe for my menu plan. With all things maternal on all our radars this week, I realized if my mom and I had a theme dish showcasing the heart of our relationship, it would have to be the meringue.

Let me first confess that my mom is still a dash dazed and confused over the fact that my livelihood today roots in food. I farm and grow organic food, write about food and sustainable agriculture, cook our B&B breakfasts, lust over cookbooks like romance novels. She’s perplexed not because of my love for food, but over the fact that I never showed one iota of interest in cooking growing up.

While browsing the St. Lawrence Market last weekend, I was elated to spot the paisley-shaped heads of fiddlehead ferns. I won’t get into my love for the regional delicacy too much, as Jennie already posted a great recipe, but I felt that - despite their season of only a few weeks - the wild, gamey greens deserved more than one ode to their deliciousness.

Before I’d left the market, I’d snapped up two bunches of ramps and a bag full of stinging nettles among my regular staples. In fact, the stinging nettles purveyor was kind enough to write out a recipe for tea (pictured below). It was my first ever stinging nettle experience.

More on that and other recipes inspired by my wild green windfall after the jump.

An early spring produce cult-fave with the foodies, ramps have been popping up all over the food blogosphere. The wild leek, a member of the allium family, tastes like a cross between garlic and onion and is snatched up at farmers markets by cooks craving fresh veggies after a long winter.

I combed food blogs for the best ramp recipes so you didn’t have to. Check them out after the jump…

When it comes to the commercialization of holidays, people tend to point most of their angst towards Christmas. And who can blame them, when it’s not just a day, but a whole season of consumption? I have a similar knee-jerk reaction when it comes to Cinco de Mayo.

A day that’s supposed to celebrate Mexican patriotism, instead conjures up images of frat boys in factory-made sombreros, red, white, and green beads, drinking out of plastic margarita cups. All of this festive decor will find itself in the dumpster tomorrow. (And we had just finished getting rid of all the plastic Easter eggs and St. Patrick’s Day streamers.)

This year instead of wallowing in holiday cynicism, I decided to let it inspire me to create a great meal. Luckily, my neighborhood has dozens of small Mexican shops and produce stands, where the veggies are a steal. (I bought my supplies for this entire meal for under $10!)

I decided, rather than serving up some seitan, or veggie crumbles, which are taco staples in my vegan household, to go with something a bit more authentic and light: black bean tacos with mango salsa. Here’s my recipe:

Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes
designed to showcase produce gathered
from local farms or grown in my own garden

What’s your favorite mythological creature? Unicorns? The Loch Ness Monster?  The Yetti?  Lake Champlain’s Champ?  El Chupacabra?  Up until yesterday, I might have said the Fiddlehead, had I been asked.   Like all the previously named questionable characters, there are many pictures to prove their existence (heck, there’s even a picture on one of my sets of business cards), and yet, somehow, I’d never seen one for myself.  The curly heads rising up on slender necks from the forest floor resemble an other-worldly creature for sure.  And in the culinary world, fiddlehead ferns are almost unmatched in their elusive promises of gourmet delight, much like morels or truffles. 

When we had company unexpectedly this week, I had to think quickly of a dish to serve. Earlier that day, I made some of the raw beet salad that I wrote about last month. I had about two cups of leftover shredded beets + carrots. So I decided to pickle them in a combination of rice vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and honey for the rest of the day.

As a quick snack for my pop-over friends, I made a modified Bahn Mi sandwich (you know, those incredibly complex Vietnamese sandwiches of liver pate, chicken and pork pieces, and pickled veggies between crusty slices of baguette).

To take the place of the liver pate, I used homemade hummus. The beat salad stood in for the usual daikon-and-carrot mixture. Instead of meat, I used some extra-firm, marinated tofu (a.k.a. the best tofu ever). The crusty baguette, veggies and tofu are all locally grown/made and picked up at the farmer’s market. Recipe after the jump:

We periodically roast a chicken on a Sunday (will post that recipe another time). Depending on what time of year it is and how everyone’s health is, I use the leftover chicken to either make my famous chicken soup (famous to my kids) or my favorite curried chicken salad. It also depends on the quantity and type of leftovers!

If we can’t find an organic, cruelty-free, free-wheelin’ chicken, I don’t do the roasting bit and use some type of chicken meat substitute (soy or wheat gluten) to make this yummy salad. Works well either way.

Ingredients
Quantities are totally subjective - it is all dependent on how much chicken you are using. Use your best culinary judgment and do what suits you best!

Parents are often looking for a healthy alternative to the standard, sugary, preservative-filled birthday cake for their baby’s introduction to the wonderful traditions of birthdays. We’ve heard from parents looking for ways to buy an egg-free cake, to those seeking recipes for “healthy” cakes, or even whether to make/buy two cakes (one for Baby, one for adults). To answer the last question first – there is no reason to create extra work for yourself, make or buy one cake, relax and congratulate yourself for making it through the first year! Most people will be gracious guests and enjoy whatever is served. And let’s not lose sight of the real reason for the birthday cake - THE PHOTO. We do it all for the precious scrapbook shot of your cake-faced little one delighting in being the life of the party!

Here are some ideas that keep the tradition of the birthday cake treat, but add some healthy twists (you can use these ideas for any age!):

Egg-free: If your baby has not been introduced to whole eggs by their first birthday, this is probably not the occasion to give them a try. Many egg substitutes contain eggs, so to be safe, look for cake and frosting mixes labeled “vegan” which are free of all animal products. You’ll need to go to a health food store to find these products. Or jump on the Internet, Vegan Baker is one company that offers cake and frosting mixes. If baking is not for you, many urban cities also have vegan bakeries too – check the Yellow Pages or ask someone at a vegetarian restaurant.