I’m basically fake-vegan.
I’m just lactose and gluten intolerant. But we could all stand to eat a little less meat – which for me, by default, means vegan. No sweat off my back, since I can still make creamy cauliflower korma from a Meera Sodha recipe in The Guardian’s food section (my weekend treat, since the recipes come out Saturday morning online in Britain and I’m an early riser).
Plus, there’s crazy good broiled sweet-and-sour eggplant dish that makes me wish it was still eggplant season and I was still buying them by the box at Jean-Talon Market. The recipe is a variation on one from the HelloFresh meal kit I tested for Global Television, which got me addicted to broiling cubes of eggplant, in lieu of shallow frying them to gooeyness in oil, like many a ratatouille or Indian bhartha recipe (the one-two punch is the broiling followed by a slosh of balsamic vinaigrette for a sweet-and-sour punch).
And the third dish? Rice. Simple. But Ottolenghi-style (since I was already on the Guardian website), which means a high herbs-to-rice ratio:
All together now:
What a feast. A vegan feast.
Healthy Ratatouille
I followed the HelloFresh recipe for Sicilian Eggplant Caponata, but I skipped the cheese, honey, onion and farro (the rice below was a perfect replacement) and used a little less oil in the dressing. I was getting enough fat in the korma dish, so I needed to lighten this one up. I love fat, but there’s only so much my stomach should be forced to take in one sitting, I figure.
I am not a duck, and even then…
Vegan Cauliflower Korma
This dish is super rich from soaked and blended cashews. I used pecans. Worked beautifully. The fat content is just as high and the nuts blend well. You could also do almond, but make sure you use skinless almonds or it might be bitter.
Herbs with Rice
Make rice. 2-1 ratio of water to rice if it’s white, 2.25-1 ratio if it’s brown, generally. Stir in parsley, sorrel or other herbs or greens you like raw (finely chopped basil, kale, arugula) and then add some toasted almonds or pecans, since you already toasted them for the eggplant dish and why not?
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