Red Papaya Salad with Black Eyed Peas

My husband couldn't resist a large "green" papaya for $1.25 at the grocery store. This was directly influenced by our recent viewing of the movie The Scent of the Green Papaya (see Roger Ebert's review of this 1994 Vietnamese/French film). As it turned out it was not a green papaya but a Red Caribbean! Right away I felt liberated to make a papaya salad that did not have to try to emulate the amazing green papaya salads of Vietnam... Since I had been craving black eyed peas, and had a few limes on hand, a framework quickly turned into a new summer favorite. Here's what happened.

RED PAPAYA SALAD WITH BLACK EYED PEAS

Half a red papaya - peeled, de-seeded, sliced and "cubed"
1-1.5 cup dry black eyed peas
3 cups water for peas
1/2 pint grape tomatoes
3 cloves fresh garlic - crushed and chopped finely
3 slices Vidalia onion, chopped finely
good handful of fresh green beans (15-20 beans)
2-3 cups fresh baby arugula (if you like it), baby spinach or fresh watercress
1 lime
1/2-1 tsp sea salt
(a few red pepper flakes if spice is desired)

1. Prepare the papaya by cutting in half, peeling, slicing lengthwise, scooping out seeds, slice and then chop. Don't worry about everything being the same size, just think abouta  nice bite size.
2. Steam the green beans, rinse in cold water and chop into 1/2 inch pieces. Set aside.
3. Cook the black eyed peas in a good amount of water, about 25 minutes, with just a little salt. While these are cooking, you can crush and chop the garlic and chop the onion. Drain and add the chopped onion and garlic to this, and cutting the grape tomatoes in half and stirring them into the warm beans.  Let this cool to room temp or put it in the fridge.

4. Construct: Add papaya chunks and green beans to the black eyed peas mixture. Add salt, a dash of red pepper flakes if you want heat, and the juice of at least half the lime or possibly the WHOLE lime! Set in the fridge for a bit if you want it cool or eat at room temperature. SERVE on a bed of baby arugula. Great for picnics. Can be eaten as leftovers the next day.

Galangal Black Eyed Peas with Spinach & Rice Noodles

Black eyed peas are beautiful little beans. I admit it, I never had them as a child and now that I'm vegan, I'm never likely to have them the way Southern natives in the USA make them. Seems to me, though, that they have an affinity for flavors going way beyond that.  When I came home from the food co-op with a piece of galangal -- fresh from Hawaii -- I thought of those darling little "peas." Wanting a nurturing meal, I cooked this up and thoroughly enjoyed it. Please feel free to make it without the galangal if you can't get a hold of it. A little more lemon and garlic would be just lovely too. Cooking the peas takes a while, unless you use a pressure cooker. So while you're up to something else, you can let them simmer for 1.5 -2 hours. You can re-ignite them before serving -- probably even make them a day before!

Black Eyed Peas with Spinach & Rice Noodles (serves 3)

1 cup black eyed peas
3 cups water to cook "peas"
1.5 inches of galangal - shaved
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/8-1/4 tsp salt
1/4 organic lemon, squeezed & with peel
bunch of fresh spinach
1.5 cups water to cook spinach)
dry thin rice noodle (2 oz "serving")
2-3 cups boiling water to soak noodles

1. Boil a kettle full of water. Measure a cup of peas into a cooking pot. Pour a cup or two of boiled water onto the peas while you peel and shave the galangal, chop the garlic throwing them in with the peas, and then squeeze the lemon into the pot and toss in the rind. Add salt and another cup or two of boiled water, and turn on the fire, allowing the peas to come to a boil, and then turn it down to simmer. Have more water on hand in case you need to add a little towards the end.
2. After stirring and cooking the peas, wash and cook the spinach in a pot with just about 1- 1.5 cups water in it. When the spinach is done, fish it out with a fork and plop it on top of the peas. Let it sit there while you put more boiling water in the spinach water and then soak the rice noodles for about 5-10 minutes, covered. You can cover the peas and spinach (don't stir it), and put a little fire under it to heat it.
3. When the noodles are soft, you can pile them on plates, serve out the peas with spinach on top. The purity of the plain noodle underneath, the black eyed pea mixture in the middle and the sweet spinach on top is so satisfying. This makes a good serving for 2 with a leftover lunch for tomorrow, a moderate serving for three with green beans on the side and/or a salad. Or two big servings!

black eyed spinach peas on rice noodles Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 third (580g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 168 8% Total Fat 1g 1% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 332mg 14% Total Carbohydrate 35g 12% Dietary Fiber 8g 33% Sugars 3g 0% Protein 8g 16% Vitamin A 64% • Vitamin C 54% Calcium 34% • Iron 41% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Fast Cannellini Farro Soup

Changeable weather has brought a deep hankering for comforting soups, whether as an addition to dinner or a centerpiece at lunch.  A friend introduced me to a delicious cannellini bean soup with sage that she made from soaking the dried beans and making a stock with leek stems.  Frankly, I just haven't  had the combination of ingredients and time to try it for myself.  So today I took a shortcut using what I had in the house.  It's another argument for having a range of ingredients sitting around.


Cannellini Farro Bean Soup - Fast Version

large can (at least 2 cups worth) of unsalted cannellini beans
large onion (at least 2 cups chopped)
1/3 cup farro or barley
6-10 cloves garlic
3-8 sprigs fresh parsley
1.5 Tblsp dried sage
2-3 tsp dried basil
1 tsp salt
4 cups water (you'll need 1 cup of this for cooking farro)

1. Cook the chopped onion and garlic with the herbs in about 2 cups water in a stock pot.
2. Cook the farro in a separate small pot, at least 1 cup water.
3. Pour the beans and another cup of water into the soup stock when the onions soften, simmering for another 15 minutes. Puree this.

4. Add the cooked farro and any leftover cooking liquid from that. If you want it thinner, add a little water, if not, leave it viscous. The farro will be little chewy morsels in a luscious creamy broth -- good source of protein and fiber among other things!  Serves 6 filling bowls!

Cannellini Farro Soup Serves 4 Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (425g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 204 10% Total Fat 1g 2% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 651mg 27% Total Carbohydrate 39g 13% Dietary Fiber 9g 34% Sugars 4g 0% Protein 10g 20% Vitamin A 3% • Vitamin C 39% Calcium 14% • Iron 23% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Eggplant Pizzas

Eggplant Pizzas

1 Eggplant (1.25 lb)
2 Tomatoes
1 sweet red pepper
1/2 cup mushroom slices
1 medium sweet onion
2 tsps oregano +/- basil
2 tsps fresh parsley
2 Tblsp tamari with a bit of added water (or use miso soup)

Medium thick slices of eggplant, thin slices of everything else (anything else). Put on parchment paper in a flat pan or cookie sheet. Drizzle the watered tamari onto each one and sprinkle the herbes (your choice). You could put garlic bits too, olives or anything else you like. Oven at 400F for not even 15 minutes... but do check on it. Peel off the paper carefully with a spatula and serve!

The next time I made these, I used some miso soup instead of the tamari -- you could use watered down miso paste -- so it was moist and not as salty. Thin slices of fresh garlic made a huge impact too.  I also used tin foil so I could put it under the broiler and crisp it. Really good with 3/4 inch eggplant slices. Two slices made a lunch with soup and salad. And this one made a great leftover lunch melange.

Eggplant Pizzas Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (443g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 117 6% Total Fat 1g 1% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 683mg 28% Total Carbohydrate 25g 8% Dietary Fiber 8g 32% Sugars 16g 0% Protein 5g 11% Vitamin A 8% • Vitamin C 126% Calcium 6% • Iron 9% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com with my data

Cabbage Rolls - Stuff em' & Sauce 'em up

It was lunch time of our second day of whole grain/veggie/fruit eating. Sandwiches were no longer in the equation (especially since we had eliminated all the bread from the house and had not yet found the Ezekial sprouted grain breads or the dark rye whole grain flat breads). So I thought, how do I make a lunch that's not a soup or a salad? I thought of those delicious Vietnamese spring rolls, and saw the cabbage in my fridge. This is what happened! With sauces and fillings, these have infinite possibilities. Make this sweet, salty, spicy, nutty, etc. That part is up to you, as is basically ANYTHING you want to put inside a steamed rolled cabbage leaf. There are a few sauces below -- and ideas to get you started.

 Meanwhile, I ransacked the fridge and made variation 1.

CABBAGE ROLLS, variation 1
6 large cabbage leaves
1 cup watercress
bunch of cilantro
1 package enoki mushrooms
some thinly sliced red onion
some thinly sliced red pepper
one dill pickle, thinly sliced, in strips
GARI (pickled ginger - can be bought or follow the recipe to come)

1. Peel 6 large leaves carefully off a head of cabbage, placed them curl side down around a steamer basket in a pot, and steamed them (lid on of course) until the were just soft enough.
2. Lay out one leaf at a time on a plate, curl side up, placing some of each ingredient  along one side of the stem.
3. Roll the leaf edge up and around the ingredients tucking under close to the stem and then roll to the opposite edge. Place on a plate rolled side down! Decorate with a couple thin slices of onion or red pepper or sprig of cilantro -- whatever pleases your eye!

And then for a more substantive meal, Variation 2.
CABBAGE ROLLS, Variation 2


Same exact process, except I cooked the stuffing:
1 sweet potato, peeled & steamed in slices
approx. 1 cup of snow pea pods
approx. 8 shiitake mushroom caps, sliced
clump of fresh parsley
1 TBLSP tamari

1. Steam the sweet potato slices. Steam the cabbage leaves.
2. In a small saute pan, put 1/2 cup water and after de-stemming the snow peas and muhsrooms, place t them in the pan with 1 Tblsp tamari, cover and cook, stirring a bit, until ready to eat.
3. Construct same as above, plopping sweet potato and some of each of the snow peas, mushrooms and parsley inside, and rolling.

SAUCES: Make What You Like! Use these sauces on the Cabbage rolls, but also pour them over plain vegetables, use Peanut Sauce them to make Brussels sprouts into satay ... or the Lemon Savory Sauce to turn Green Beans into a heavenly side dish. All can be used for dipping, or to make leftovers into a party. In fact, making Cabbage Rolls out of small leaves, you can stuff them with anything you like for a party -- olives with mushrooms, curried sweet potato, crunchy edamame and sunflower seeds... what ever you like.  For kids, you can put together small bowls of ingredients and have them roll their own!  Turn cabbage leaves into the new tortilla to lose weight, filling them with your favorite beans, rice and hot sauce!

Mushroom broth:  Use the cooking water from the snow peas and mushrooms and add Black Vinegar.
Peanut Sauce: This is a great addition to nearly any plan vegetable.  1/4 cup peanut butter (we use crunchy with a little salt), 2 Tablespoons Tamari, 1 tsp Black Vinegar, 1/4 cup water -- stirred until well mixed. You can dip in this, or pour it over brussels sprouts ...
Lemon Savory Sauce: Another great one for vegetables (we love it on green beans). Juice of 1/2-1 whole lemon plus about 2 tsp Ume Plum Vinegar -- add garlic if you like -- top veggies with slivered roasted almonds, or just dip your cabbage roll!
Dumpling Style Sauce:  2 Tbsp Tamari, 1 tsp Black Vinegar or white wine vinegar, 1 clove garlic finely chopped, 1/4-1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger root, 1/4 cup water
Miso-ChickPea Creamy Sauce: 1 Tbsp white miso, 3 tsp chick peas (cooked soft or canned), 2 scallions finely chopped, fistful of cilantro finely chopped, 1/2 cup water (hot if you want it on hot veggies)

Vegetable Layered Casserole (clean the fridge!)

There was half an eggplant left in the fridge after I made eggplant pizzas (recipe follows). I had one zucchini and one turnip.  Each was not quite enough and then I thought about a noodle-less lasagna where each layer was a different vegetable. Here's what happened when I cleaned the fridge.

Vegetable Layered Casserole (Lasagne)
1/2 raw eggplant, peeled
1 zucchini medium sized
1 smallish turnip
1 good sized onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms (or more)
6 small chard leaves, 3 big ones
about 14 oz firm tofu
1-2 tomatillos
1 cup or so tomato sauce (any leftover sauce would work)
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tblsp tamari
1 big tomato or 2 smaller ones

1. Slice thinly eggplant, tomato, zucchini, mushrooms, tofu, tomatillos, and onion.
2. Place eggplant on bottom of casserole pan, layer tomato, oregano and salt and pepper, thin layer of chard leaves (take out any tough spines), layer tofu slices, tamari, mushrooms, zucchini, grated turnip, thin sliced onion and tomatillo on top!
3. Bake covered at 350 F 50 minutes, uncover and add seeds or nuts if you like, brown for 15 more minutes and serve!

Eggplant Layered Casserole Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (335g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 177 9% Total Fat 8g 12% Saturated Fat 1g 7% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 630mg 26% Total Carbohydrate 15g 5% Dietary Fiber 4g 18% Sugars 7g 0% Protein 14g 28% Vitamin A 12% • Vitamin C 75% Calcium 14% • Iron 22% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com with data supplied by me

This is what happened with the leftovers of the casserole -- I steamed one large leaf of savoy cabbage and served a square in it. Boy was that good -- would be good as a first presentation too.


Eggplant Pizzas (This is how I ended up with half an eggplant...)
1 Eggplant (1.25 lb)
2 Tomatoes
1 sweet red pepper
1/2 cup mushroom slices
1 medium sweet onion
2 tsps oregano +/- basil
2 tsps fresh parsley
2 Tblsp tamari with a bit of added water

Medium thick slices of eggplant, thin slices of everything else (anything else). Put on parchment paper in a flat pan or cookie sheet. Drizzle the watered tamari onto each one and sprinkle the herbes (your choice). You could put garlic bits too, olives or anything else you like. Oven at 400F for not even 15 minutes... but do check on it. Peel off the paper carefully with a spatula and serve!

The next time I made these, I used some miso soup instead of the tamari -- you could use watered down miso paste -- so it was moist and not as salty. Plus I added thinly sliced garlic, and used tin foil so I could put it under the broiler and crisp it. Really good with 3/4 inch eggplant slices. Two slices made a lunch with soup and salad.

Eggplant Pizzas Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (443g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 117 6% Total Fat 1g 1% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 683mg 28% Total Carbohydrate 25g 8% Dietary Fiber 8g 32% Sugars 16g 0% Protein 5g 11% Vitamin A 8% • Vitamin C 126% Calcium 6% • Iron 9% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com with my data