Beet and Quinoa Salad

Blogging Marathon# 65: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: 1 Vegetable -- 3 Dishes

Dish: Beet and Quinoa Salad with Spinach

I have another salad with beets today. This one's with quinoa, carrot, edamame and other delicious and nutritious super foods.

Recipe is from Cookie & Kate. Original recipe suggests using spiralized beets and carrots. Spiralized vegetables are quite a craze these days. I have one, but I haven't figured out how to use it yet. But grating the vegetables give the same salad almost same texture.

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Japanese Miso Noodle Soup for #Food of the World

For this month's #Food of the World event, we are visiting the beautiful country of Japan. My knowledge of Japanese food is very limited and I've only eaten it a couple of times. We have a Mitsuwa close to our house with a huge food court, but I didn't find many vegetarian options there, so never really tasted Japanese food outside except for the couple of dishes I made at home.

As I was looking for Japanese recipes to make, I found this simple Miso noodle soup recipe in Vegetarian Times magazine. I had all the ingredients on hand, so made it right away. It is a light and tasty soup. I slurped the entire bowl you see in the picture :-) I added a few dashes of hot sauce to spice it up but otherwise it is a great tasting soup.

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Rasta Pasta

VeganMofo Day: This recipe has been on my "to-make" list for quite some time now. Recipe is from my latest Vegan cookbook "Big Vegan" by Robin Asbell. I've never been to Jamaica, but according to the author this Rasta Pasta is on all the menus at tourist-oriented restaurants. It's Island-speak for a vegetarian pasta dish made with native produce and spice. Rastafarians practice vegetarian cuisine as part of their religion, and make some amazingly delicious vegan food as a result.

 

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Chinese (My) Style Green Rice

Vegan MoFo DAY 2:

This is an extremely easy and versatile dish that is quick to prepare and makes for a great weeknight meal and the leftovers are awesome for lunch. I add all available green vegetables and the variations are endless. I used green pepper, cabbage, green onions, edamame & avocado, but broccoli and any green leafy veggies will work just as well. I love to add buttery avocado just before serving so it doesn’t change color on me (in more scientific terms oxidize).

Ingredients (Serves 2):

Green pepper – 1 small or ½ of large, diced
Cabbage – ¼ of a head, finely chopped
Green onions – 1 bunch (5-6 stems)
Edamame – ¼ cup (thawed if frozen)
Avocado – 1 Brown
Rice – 2cups, cooked
Garlic – 2 cloves
Red Pepper flakes – a pinch (or more to taste)
Soy sauce – 1-2 tsp
Sriracha (or any other hot sauce) – to taste
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tsp oil (preferably peanut oil) in a medium sauté pan; add crushed garlic cloves and red pepper flakes; once garlic starts to turn light brown, add all the veggies.
• Sauté on medium flame until the veggies are tender (I like them lightly browned around the edges so I cook them on medium-high flame), season with soy sauce, hot sauce, salt and pepper.
• Next stir in the cooked rice, mix well; check the seasoning.
• Just before serving peel, slice and dice the avocado and mix into the rice and Enjoy!!

I packed this up for lunch and added avocado before eating, so picture has none of the buttery goodness.

Brown Rice Salad with Asian dressing

I’m a big fan of grocery shopping. I get so excited and giddy going to a well stocked grocery, be it a road-side farmers market or a high-end grocery chain. So when I heard about the new Whole Foods that opened in Bergen Mall in NJ, I absolutely had to go there. My colleague was singing praises about their freshly made bread and muffins and also about their food bars with salads, pastas and also Indian dishes.

I dragged my husband this past weekend and he was quite impressed with the size of the store and also the variety of food that we found there. I especially like their bulk bin section, I can take a bag of everything they have in bulk bins, if it is not for the limited storage that I have at home (I shouldn’t say that, I have pretty big pantry, but it’s so packed that I don’t have place for anything new. I need to work on re-organizing and cleaning up before summer ends).

Well anyway we ended up buying new stuff like raspberry sugar, baked tofu (in oriental & Italian flavors), tofutti (I can never find this in my regular grocery store) and some Israeli couscous from the bulk bin. We also bought dinner from the food bar: 3 types of salad-Brown rice salad with edamame, Quinoa salad with cranberries & Kamut salad; some Indian dishes-naan, samosa, palak paneer, aloo-chole etc. It is a little pricey ($7.99 per pound), but everything is freshly made and tasted better than OK (I said OK, ‘cos some of the dishes were cold and dried out; they tasted pretty good but not up to the mark of Whole Foods).

I wanted to try the brown rice salad at home and it turned out better than its inspiration dish (I think). Quick & easy to make with practically no cooking required; healthy, filled with double dose of soy protein, whats not to like about this dish?

Ingredients:
Brown Rice – 1 cup
Carrot – 2 medium, grated
Edamame, shelled – ¾ cup (thawed if frozen)
Red Pepper – 1 small, finely diced
Green onions – 4, both greens and whites chopped

Baked Tofu – 1 pkg, diced into ½“ cubes (I used store-bought baked Oriental style tofu; if you have time marinate and bake your own tofu)

For Dressing:
Ginger - 1tbsp, finely grated (I use my handy-dandy zester)
Garlic - 1 clove, finely minced
Rice Vinegar – 2tbsp
Soy sauce – 1tbsp
Honey – 1tbsp
Sriracha (or any other hot sauce) – 1 tsp (or more to taste)
Toasted Sesame oil – 1tsp
Canola oil – 1 tbsp (optional)
Salt & pepper – to taste

Method:

• Cook brown rice with 2 cups of water. Let cool completely.
  
• In the mean time make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together.
  
• When rice is cool enough, add all the veggies, tofu and dressing. Season with salt and pepper.

Let it sit for at least 30 minutes for all the flavors to mingle, but it tasted pretty good right away. Leftovers tasted much better the next day for lunch. This is my entry to No Croutons required: Grains event being hosted by Lisa @ Food & Spice.

Broccoli-Edamame Saute

I dont have anytime to cook our lunch in the morning. I usually make more the night before and pack it up for lunch the next day. But some days after a long day at work, when it is almost impossible to get the dinner on the table, there is no way I can even think about lunch for the next day. On top of that, both of us work in industrial areas where there are nothing around in walking distance and will have to drive at least 10 minutes to get to the nearest Wendy's (where there are practically no vegetarian items on the menu except for yogurt w/granola and french fries).

So anyway this week, on one of my dog-tired days, I made this quick and easy edamame saute. I had chopped onions (left over from the day before) in the fridge and I used frozen broccoli, corn and edamame (fresh soybeans). All I had to chop was one tomato and that was easy.

Ingredients:
Broccoli florets - 1 cup
Corn kernels - 1/4 cup
Shelled edamame - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1/4 cup chopped
Tomato - 1 medium chopped
Lemon juice - 1tbsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Chaat Masala - 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, saute onions till transparent and slightly pink.
  
• Add broccoli, corn, edamame (thawed if using frozen), saute for 5 minutes.
• Add tomatoes, cumin, chaat masala, chili powder and salt. Saute for another 5 minutes, dont let the tomato get mushy.
• Remove from heat, add the lemon juice and mix well.

Pack it up in your lunch box, warm it at work and enjoy.

Note: After reading Mythili's post track your wealth, I realized that we should be eating more fruits and vegetables. So this is a great way to enjoy your energy packed veggies especially edamame and broccoli.