The Rich Vegetarian

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Category: Food (page 17 of 30)

November 7, 2011 / 0 Comments

Carrot and Kohlrabi Slaw

The nice man at the Sandy Springs Farmers Market sold me kohlrabi this weekend. He recommended making a slaw of it with shredded carrots, then dressing it up with honey-mustard. Well, that’s his wife’s recipe, he said.

I followed his instructions.

Cut off the leaves, skinned the bulb (ended up skinning my hand too), shredded it. Shredded some carrots, added salt, tossed it all together.

Warmed sesame oil, added slivers of ginger, cumin, mustard seeds. Couldn’t resist throwing in some garam masala. Added it all to the shredded veggies, mixed them all nice and proper. Garnished with chopped cilantro and a dash of lime juice (just before serving).

Kohlrabi Carrot Slaw

Delicious! I am sure there are endless variations to this simple template of a recipe. You could probably add chopped apples, sliced onions, roasted peanuts… the list goes on. This is an Indianized recipe; you could use olive oil, fresh/dried herbs and make it Italian, maybe?

On a sunny afternoon, I served myself a couple of generous servings of this colorful slaw with some brown rice and moong dal khichdi.

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November 3, 2011 / 2 Comments

Yeah! Burger

McDonald’s in India serves up a decent veggie burger. So does McDonalds’s in UK, as P will affirm. On our recent trip to Berlin, we tucked into a pretty good veggie burger at the local McDonald’s. But the chain in the United States has no such option. I won’t hazard a guess as to why. Possibly they think that the typical audience for McDonald’s does not care for vegetable burgers?

Yeah! Burger has no such restriction. A vegetarian will leave happy after a meal at this place. We visited the Midtown location earlier this week.

The menu has countless options for bun, patty, sides, sauce, etc. It also has a nice sounding section for ice-creams and shakes. If only it was that kind of weather… In any case, my meal of burger + fries left me too stuffed to even contemplate ice-cream. Or anything else.

P got himself a veggie burger with a gluten-free bun, sliced cucumber and Vidalia onions, avocado and sunflower pesto, and a side of sweet potato fries. He loved it! I wonder what the gluten-free bun was made of.

I ordered a veggie burger with a whole wheat bun, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, grilled Vidalia onions, avocado, pepper jack cheese and sunflower pesto, and a side of gluten-free fifty-fifty (french fries, onion rings).

Not bad at all! The patty could have done with some added heft, I think. The rest of the fillings are soft anyway, so the patty itself could have been crunchier, more crisp. I think I made the mistake of adding a topping too many! Plus I wanted to pick the roasted garlic aioli sauce but went for the sunflower pesto instead. Must have been thinking of something else… hmmm. In spite of all the flavors jostling in there, the pesto was able to make its presence felt although I wonder if it was too delicate an ingredient for the burger. You want big flavors in a burger, I’d think. Pesto is subtle, fragrant and very different from the others. Or so I think.

I got terrible pictures of the burgers, sorry!

Another realization: Between two people, one side is more than sufficient. I couldn’t make a dent in the french fries and onion rings. It didn’t make sense to get it home but we did end up bringing some of the sweet potato fries home. Yum indeed.

But I managed to get nice pictures of the space. The decor is simple and elegant. They use actual silverware! A nice little cool place – Yeah! Burger.

Yeah Burger
1168 Howell Mill Rd, Suite E
Atlanta GA 30318
404-496-4393

www.yeahburger.com

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November 1, 2011 / 0 Comments

Halloween Healthy Goodie

When J announced that she’d bring her little daughter over for Halloween trick-n-treat, I knew that I couldn’t give her the horrible candy that goes around this time of the year. I wanted to make a little dried fruit and nut treat. J hadn’t gotten the little one started on nuts yet, so I’d have to skip on the nuts. I asked if she’d eat coconut but they hadn’t begun feeding her that either. So coconut was out too.

Let’s keep it simple, right?

I picked Nupur’s recipe for Date-Nut Slices, tweaked it and tweaked it and then some more… and then came up my own nut-free version.

Chop roughly 1 cup of dates. I used Medjool. They’re very soft and fleshy. If you use a drier variety, then you may need to soak them for a while so as to soften them. I had 4 dried figs, so I added them as well. Remember to get the pits out for the dates! Ghee is so good for you and little M is okay with it. So I warmed a couple of teaspoons of ghee, added the chopped fruit and began to stir it. I also threw in a smidgen of salt and half a teaspoon of dry ginger powder to add some heat and cut the sweetness. The fruit breaks apart and then becomes a delicious mess. Keep stirring until you achieve a homogeneous consistency. Take it off the fire. Let it cool. Now make a log of it, cover it in plastic wrap and keep in the freezer for an hour or more. Take it out, cut into slices, serve.

There you go – a delicious and healthy snack that is so good for you!

As we approach winter, it is important to consume foods that are warming and provide lubrication to our internal organs and joints. Both fall and winter are dry seasons; so it is vital that we include dried fruit and nuts (please soak before eating), ghee, olive oil, flaxseed, sesame, ginger and other “warming” foods in our regular diet.

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October 21, 2011 / 2 Comments

Larabar’s new addition

A cute little box from Larabar arrived while I was gone.

It contained a cotton pouch with the latest flavor offering from Larabar – Chocolate Chip Cherry Torte.

Verdict?

P liked the combination of flavors (dates, unsweetened chocolate chips, vanilla, unsweetened cherries, almonds, cashews and sea salt). At first bite, I found the taste a little too tart but as I ate on, it began to feel less intense. Cherries and chocolate go really well together (like orange and chocolate, or raspberry and dark chocolate), the tangy cherry flavor setting off the dark bitterness of the chocolate perfectly. I missed the sea salt and vanilla but I am sure they were nestled in there with the dates and everything else.

Unlike the other flavor combinations, I doubt if I could eat a bar of Chocolate Chip Cherry Torte for breakfast. I am not a fan of eating chocolate for breakfast; it feels a little too caffeinated or pitta-aggravating but that’s just my take.

Not to be nitpicking but I do wonder if ‘Torte’ is a good description. As per Wikipedia, torte refers to a ‘rich, usually multilayered, cake that is filled with buttercreams, mousses, jams or fruits.’

Torte? Maybe not. Delicious? Most certainly.

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