Butternut Squash/Black Eyed Pea Soup

RECIPE:
Serves 6-8 cups

1 lb bag (16 oz/454g) dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
1 ½ – 2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cut into small dice (about 5 cups)
4 cups veg broth
4 cups water
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
fresh black pepper to taste
cilantro/parsley (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Begin by placing the soaked black-eyed peas in a saucepan covered with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil then turn the heat down to a simmer. Partially cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.

Preheat a soup pot for a couple mins, add in olive oil and heat for about 1-2 mins. Add in onion, garlic, ginger. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the squash and both broths. Bring to a boil, then down to a simmer, covered for about 10 minutes. Add in the rest of ingredients cinnamon, lemon juice, vinegar, black-eyed peas, the remaining garlic, ginger, and salt. Cover again and cook over low heat until squash is tender.

Rustic Potato Leek Barley Soup

4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 cup barley
olive oil
2 large leeks - sliced up to the greens
5/6 small/medium potatoes - 1/2 inch cubes
salt
pepper

put the broth and water in a soup pot with the barley, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. in a saucepan, heat oil and add leeks, allowing the leeks to soften and become translucent. add leeks, potatoes, salt and pepper to the broth/barley pot. simmer for another 20-30 mins.

Eggplant Chickpea Curry

What's great about this curry is that its roasted so you don't have to stand over the stove while its cooking.

vegetable oil

1/4 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp tumeric

{or, simply use a couple of teaspoons of curry powder.}

1 medium eggplant, cubed

1 medium onion, cut into lengthwise wedges

1 15-oz can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans

a couple of large handfuls of baby spinach

preheat oven to 425

mix together the spices and oil. add eggplant, chickpeas, and onions. add salt. toss all together. spread the veggies in a roasting pan, roast in the oven for 30 minutes. stir once or twice. cook until eggplant is tender. stir in the spinach and roast until wilted, about 2 minutes. optional, serve over rice.

RAW sushi!

A suprisingly economical adventure. And fast! With the main investments being nori and soysauce, after a few tries I was able to whittle down the prep time to less than 15 minutes!

Equipment:

it helps to have a sushi roller (looks like a tiny placemat made out of bamboo sticks) you can get one for $3 at whole foods.

Ingredients:

3 parsnips (grated) for the "rice"

nori sheets

i used:

cucumber

avocado

spouts

scallions(green onions)

feel free to use your own favorites!

1. grate the parsnips on a cheese grater. the parsnips are a little starchy and a little sweet just like rice.

2. lay out a sheet of nori on your sushi roller. sprinkle a layer of grated parsnips on about half of the nori sheet, leaving a little extra space around the sides.

3. lay strips of cucumbers, avocados, green onions, across the sheet on the parsnip side.

4. starting on the side with the fillings, start to roll up your sushi..... "TUCK, SMUSH, and ROLL" these three words will become clear when you do it. As you get to the end of the roll, slightly wet the nori with some warm water (like rolling a cigarette, or licking an envelope) this will make it stick.

5. cut your roll up with a sharp knife into approximately 6 pieces.

6. enjoy with ginger, soy sauce, and tear duct purging levels of wasabi!

Less Meat = More Food

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/327/5967/810

Could Less Meat Mean More Food?

Erik Stokstad

Here's a simple idea you may have heard for improving food security: Eat less meat. The logic goes like this. People in the developed world eat a huge amount of animal protein. And consumption of meat, eggs, and milk is already growing globally as people in poorer nations get richer and shift their diets. That's a problem because animals are eating a growing share of the world's grain harvests—and already directly or indirectly utilize up to 80% of the world's agricultural land. Yet they supply just 15% of all calories. So, the argument goes, if we just ate less meat, we could free up a lot of plants to feed billions of hungry people and gain a lot of good farmland. Some food-security researchers, however, are skeptical. Although cutting back on meat has many potential benefits, they say the complexities of global markets and human food traditions could also produce some counterintuitive—and possibly counterproductive—results.

Nutrition Concerns for Vegetarians-To-Be

Excerpts taken from Peter Singer's updated edition of Animal Liberation.

ON PROTEIN:

"The protein intake of the average American exceeds the generous level recommended by the National Academy of Sciences by 45 percent. Other estimates say that most Americans consume between two and four times as much meat as the body can use. Excess protein cannot be stored." p 181

Some is converted into carbohydrates for storage, the main by-product of this process is ammonia which is filtered out of the body through the kidneys (urine) and sweat.

"...most of the plant foods we eat--not just nuts, peas, and beans, but even wheat, rice, and potatoes--contain enough protein in themselves to provide our bodies with the protein we need." p 182

ON B12 for VEGANS:

"Only vegans, who take no animal products at all, need to be especially careful about their diet. There appears to be one, and only one, necessary nutrient that is not normally available from plant sources, and this is vitamin B12, which is present in eggs and milk, but not in a readily assimilable form in plant foods. It can, however, be obtained from seaweeds such as kelp, from a soy sauce made by the traditional Japanese fermentation method, or from tempeh, a fermented soybean product eaten in parts of Asia, and often now available in health food stores in the West. It is also possible that it is produced by microorganisms in our own intestines. Studies of vegans who have not taken any apparent source of B12 for many years have shown their blood levels of this vitamin still to be within the normal range. Nevertheless to make sure of avoiding a deficiency, it is simple and inexpensive to take vitamin tablets containing B12." p 182

Watermelon Granita - Perfect Summer Dessert!

3/4 cup water

1 1/4 cup sugar

medium watermelon

1 tbs lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp crushed cardamom pods (can also use ground cardomom)

combine water and 3/4 cup sugar in a saucepan and stir over low heat until dissolved. in a blender (or with my favorite: immersion blender... less clean up and time) puree the watermelon with the sugar syrup, cardamom, and lemon juice until smooth. pour the mixture into a 9x13 pan and freeze for 30 min. fluff the granita with a fork every 30 min until fluffy and frozen.