Being a Vegan doesn’t mean you have to suffer bad food. I don’t and I’m very happy about it for a myriad of reasons. But I don’t just eat Vegan food and that’s the end of it. You can be a horrible eater on any diet! Yes, I’ve known starving and completely unhealthy Vegans living on fries. I’ve also known completely unhealthy non-vegans people living on McDonalds and Wendy’s. They’re both wrong! There are many factors that go into a healthy diet that cannot be ignored. I try to eat organic and local with an emphasis on nutritionally balanced meals that contain grains, protein, vegetables, minerals and vitamins.
Whenever I so much as tell my mom I have the sniffles, the first thing I hear is always “Do you think it’s because of your diet?” No Mom, it’s not my diet. In fact I’ve generally been the healthiest I’ve ever been since changing my diet.
I just finished a delicious dinner which consisted of 2 Vegan dishes topped over Quinoa, a great source of protein.
Two toppings (White Tepary beans and Vegetables with Indian Jalfrezi sauce) over a Red Quinoa, chickpeas and onions bed.
The beans took a few hours to slow cook. Luckily, automatically, for some reason, and not even knowing what I would come up with for dinner, I started them out in the morning when I woke up. I love using Veggie stock and for the beans used a Vegan cube( Rapunzel’s no salt added Vegan cube). I used a different savory vegan stock for the Quinoa which I love using with various grains and which I believe is the superior vegan vegetable base stock, “Better than Bouillon.”
So I’ve got my beans which of course have been tenderly catered to for a few hours with lots (and I mean lots – 7 cloves) of Garlic and various spices (tyme, sea salt {is salt a spice?}, mustard seeds and fresh black pepper). I fianlly have it at the texture somewhere above mushy and below firm.
Next it’s time for some finely chopped Veggies – Broccoli, 2 type of peas (string beans and a flat sort of string bean whose name I can’t recall), kale and onions. I start off with a little bit of organic extra virgin olive oil from Napa and throw in the peas. Next go in the broccoli, kale and finally the onions and spices. I don’t want either the kale or the onions too mushy. As a matter of fact, I don’t want anything mushy ;}. I like using tumeric and dried coriander just because they’re so good for you, especially the tumeric. Tumeric is kind of shy and unless seasoned with large amounts can pretty much go undetected or minimally detected. Tumeric has many health benefits taht make it really great for you and that’s why I use it a lot as should you because it’s an easy and great spice to add to your dishes.
Add some more garlic. I got to say, I do have a garlic fetish 
. I’m always on the lookout for different types of garlic and love to taste test them raw (in my kitchen away from people…). I can’t really remember all the types I have in my bowl, but it’s pretty and pretty impressive. When I make pickles, it’s always interesting to note the slight differences different garlic bring to them.
The final additive is some Vegan Indian Jalfrezi sauce (ouch – it’s store bought!!!! {but really, really a time-saver and tasty – ok, I’ll learn how to make it for next time…) over the cut Veggies. It’s really delicious and my body is saying thank you for this tasty well balance Vegan meal.
See you next time I fee like cooking. Stay tuned for my pickle experiments.
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