Eating with friends: the salad I MEANT to bring...

Em had retreated from Stillwater for the weekend, and I was invited to eat dinner with friends. I was responsible for bringing a salad, an easy vegan contribution to any meal. However, I intend to be a good ambassador for vegan dishes, trying to represent them as more than glorified sides. A salad poses an interesting dilemma since you have to strike a balance between paradoxical culinary objectives (it's quite possible I'm over thinking this). The entrée is the star of the show, so anything overly grand or surprising will receive too much attention. But salads are often so predictable that people hardly notice they're even eating them, providing no real opportunity for an appreciable enhancement to a meal.

I had given it some thought, and I came up with what I thought would be a tasty and tasteful addition to the evening, sure to make all of the skeptical guests say, "This is pretty great," while still allowing everyone to lavish the vast majority of the dinner's praise on the worthy hosts.

But I ran into a problem which on any other Friday afternoon would have been welcome. I took an accidental nap. The kind that creeps up on you while you're doing important-but-not-urgent things on your to-do list, so you're not unduly motivated to fight off the falling eyelids. I realized about 2:00 in the afternoon that I was beginning to nod off, but I underestimated how tired I was. I didn't set my alarm, believing that I'd be awake in plenty of time to run to the grocery store, return home to prepare the salad, and arrive at our hosts' home on time to enjoy a leisured glass of wine before the meal.

In actual fact, I slept for over three hours, waking up in a haze, initially refusing to believe the clock (which I regularly suspect of lying to me as a practical joke). I had enough time to grab a jacket, rush out the door, run into the grocery store to buy passable ingredients that could be thrown together in the hosts' kitchen. I didn't bring my own bowl! We ended up having a perfectly reasonable salad (how boring) of spinach, strawberries, sliced almonds, and a ready-made pomegranate vinaigrette. Not exactly the shining example of vegan creativity I had hoped for.

Here's the idea for the salad I MEANT to bring:
Arugula, pears, candied pecans, spicy sweet potato croutons, and a fresh cilantro-lime vinaigrette. I thought the peppery arugula would go well with the chili-spiced crispy sweet potatos, and the candied pecans (with agave nectar) and sliced pears would provide some great balance. The citrus and herb from the vinaigrette would bring it all together nicely. Never got a chance to try it, though. I'll make it soon, post pictures, and include recipes for the pecans and the sweet potato croutons.

Eating at Home: Poached Pears

Made this dessert for a dinner party a few nights ago. Simple, simple, simple. This is a great recipe to prep and start after lunch. The pears can poach most of the afternoon and be ready in time for dinner.

Ingredients:
Pears - whichever variety is your favorite
Maple syrup
Apple juice
Cinnamon
Raspberries - frozen or fresh
Orange liqueur (optional)

Instructions for poaching the pears:
Preheat the oven to 350. Peal the pears, cut off a small slice of the bottom so that they will stand upright, and roll them in cinnamon. In a dutch oven, or any heavy pot with a lid, place the pears, and pour in enough apple juice to cover the bottom half of the pears. Cover and place in the oven for 2-3 hours, or until tender all the way through.

Instructions for the sauce:
Place berries in a saucepan and bring their juice to a boil. Add orange liqueur while juices are boiling to ensure most of the alcohol is burned off. If you're not using liqueur, consider using orange zest or a slight amount of orange juice. The citrus really "wakes up" the sauce. Let everything cool slightly and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth.
For a silkier sauce, I transfered the blended berries back into the saucepan through a strainer to remove any grit. I added just a tablespoon of Earth Balance butter to give it some shine.

Substitutions:
This recipe would work just as well with apples. Either would be appropriate for the fall. You can also use any berry for the sauce. Pears and raspberries were speaking to me in the grocery store, but apples and blueberries would be a wonderful combination, especially with a little nutmeg added to the cinnamon and a few bits of fresh made pie crust on the side. Don't forget the vanilla soy ice cream!

For a different take, you could use a bold red wine as your poaching liquid, which is absolutely incredible, but you would not want to couple this with a berry sauce. Instead, you would want to serve the red wine pears with caramel or butterscotch (vegan preparation, of course).

Eating Out in Stillwater

One of the frustrations of trying to be vegan in semi-rural Oklahoma is the lack of variety when we want to eat out. Cooking our own meals allows for some diversity, but it's difficult for two grad students with wildly different schedules to cook every meal. We far too easily revert to PB&J sandwiches and bags of potato chips. Thankfully, though, we have Chipotle and their vegan, locally sourced burrito. It's great for two or three meals a week. Any more than that and it becomes a bit tiresome.

Our other favorite standby is the Thai Cafe (sorry, no website). Em can't stay away from the pad see ew, and I'm a fan of their tofu and basil fried rice. Generous portions, funny waitstaff, and the food is always spot on.

Rumor has it that a new restaurant is soon to open that will cater to vegetarians and vegans. Hope it's true. We could use a few more options!

Eating at Home: Pot Pie

Here's a recipe we've used twice this summer when we've been hungry for some less-than-healthy, homestyle comfort food. (Side note: One of the surprising benefits of a vegan diet is that "unhealthy" is a relative term, since even unhealthy vegan meals still contain loads of fresh vegetables and less fat and calories than most meals designed around animal proteins.) We'll start taking pictures of these dishes soon. For now, you'll just have to let your culinary imagination run wild!

Ingredients:
Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry Sheets (yes, they're vegan)
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 diced yellow squash or zucchini 
2 diced celery stalks
3 diced carrots
1 diced bell pepper
1 sliced leek
1 sliced large onion (I used a yellow onion, but red would be nice)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup dijon mustard (optional)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup spelt flour (any flour will work, but I prefer spelt or whole wheat)
1/2 cup almond milk or soy milk
seasonings

Begin thawing a sheet of puff pastry. I usually just lay it on a towel on the kitchen counter, and by the time I've cooked the rest of the ingredients it's thawed and ready to use.

In a dutch oven with enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom, combine the celery, bell pepper, onion, leek, garlic, and mushrooms. Sauté them on high heat for a few minutes, or just long enough for the onions to become translucent. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cover the dutch oven, leaving a little bit of room for steam to escape. Stirring only occasionally, let this mixture sit over the heat for 30 minutes or long enough for the onions and leaks to caramelize and the mushrooms to reduce by about half. If the mixture begins to burn you could add a bit more oil, but I would recommend adding some vegetable stock or mushroom broth. It will deglaze the pan, and as it reduces it will add more flavor. Of course, don't forget to season with salt and pepper.

In another pan, on high heat, add the diced carrots and squash to a small amount of vegetable oil. Cooking these separately allows for the water to be evaporated out of the squash before it gets added to the other vegetables. If it were added to the dutch oven with the other veggies, the excess moisture from the squash would keep the onions from caramelizing. Cooking the carrots separately also allows for them to soften and develop some color since they are in direct contact with the pan. Had they been added to the other mixture they still would have softened, but the dutch oven would have been too crowded to allow the carrots much direct contact with the bottom of the pan. Cook the carrots and squash just long enough for the squash to release most of its water. This mixture should also be generously seasoned with salt and pepper.

Add carrots and squash to the dutch oven. Uncover completely and remove from heat. Stir to incorporate vegetables evenly. It is at this point that you should add any additional seasonings. I like to add dried herbs and crushed red pepper. Last time I made this, I also added allspice and ground nutmeg. These would be great flavors for the fall.

In a small sauce pan over medium-low heat, begin warming 1/2 cup of oil. Slowly add 1/2 cup of spelt flour. Stir constantly, otherwise the flour will clump and burn. Once a blond roux has developed (all of the flour has been incorporated and the mixture has become smooth with a light brown color), add 1/2 cup of almond milk. Continue to stir until entire mixture is silky smooth. Add roux to dutch oven. Add 1/4 cup dijon.

Move all ingredients from dutch oven to a pre-heated cast iron skillet. Roll out puff pastry and cover pot pie mixture. You can remove the corners of the puff pastry, but I prefer to fold them back toward the middle of the skillet to create an extra layer of pastry. Place skillet in an oven pre-heated to 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until pastry has risen and turned golden brown. Remove from oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before eating.

It's About Time

Well, Em and I have been threatening to blog about our vegan experiment since the beginning of summer. I think it's about time we got started, whether or not anyone will ever read this thing.

Almost two years ago, Em was diagnosed with SLE, or Lupus. She has had the symptoms for most of her adult life, but as with other autoimmune diseases it took several doctors and a few years to connect the dots. Following the diagnosis, she was prescribed nine different prescription medications, each of them with side effects that were at times as serious as her SLE symptoms. While her blood pressure and inflammation were largely under control, fatigue, restlessness, pain, and nausea had become a normal part of life. The disease and the treatment made consistency in school, church, and home a constant battle.

Earlier this spring Em decided to investigate non-medical strategies for controlling her symptoms. It was at this point that she stumbled onto a body of literature that seemed to indicate that a vegan diet - consisting of grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit, and omitting all animal products - was beneficial for some people suffering from autoimmune diseases like Lupus. The literature was inconclusive, and several sources admitted that a vegan diet was far from a silver bullet. Many people saw no improvement whatsoever, and even those who did see improvement still had to battle what are commonly referred to as flare ups - periods of increased activity of the more severe symptoms of the disease. But even with these caveats, she was convinced that the diet change was worth a try. So, in early May we got rid of all of the food stuffs in our house containing animal products, bought a few new cookbooks, and set off on what has been an enjoyable and rewarding adventure.

After three months, Em has reduced her medications from nine medications each day to just two. Her rheumatologist has indicated that the diet change seems to be having a marked affect on her symptoms. We have both lost weight. With the occasional exception, she has slept better, moved better, and felt better than she has in several years.

The posts on this blog will be dedicated not only to the ways in which a vegan diet has changed Em's health, but also the ways it has affected our marriage, our interactions with family, our shopping, and our travel. We'll post recipes for eating at home as well as tips for eating out. It is our hope that the friends and family members who read this will better understand our lifestyle change, be able to celebrate its benefits along with us, and perhaps even be encouraged to experiment with their own habits.

Cheers!