November 2009

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The Spicy Squash Soup Recipe Challenge

November 27, 2009 | 1 comment

Until recently I had no idea what a squash was. Isn’t it something you play on a court? Then a local store started carrying them and even though I had no idea what to do with it I bought one thinking something will come up.

So I asked around and a friend gave me this great vegetarian soup recipe. All good so far. Then I realised I didn’t know how to prepare the squash. How can I have got to my age, been a keen cook and a vegetarian, and still not exhausted the vegetable kingdom’s vast range of goodies?

I felt quite silly. Do you have to peel it? Does it have seeds in the middle? Maybe it’s like that most bizarre of vegetables, the artichoke, where the heart is actually the best bit. I had no idea.

I had a friend who had never had broccoli before, until her new husband said he was keen on broccoli and suggested they add it to their diet. My friend was happy to try it and, as she did most of the cooking, she prepared the brocolli for the evening meal. Later, her husband was horrified to find that she had dispensed with the floral tops and cooked only the stems.

I could have been in a similar predicament with the squash. Until it dawned on me. It’s a pumpkin.

So if you’re squash-challenged like me, I should let you know that you slice it longways down the middle, scoop out the seeds, then take off the skin with a potato pealer. Then dice it.

For the recipe you’ll need:
4 cups vegetable stock
1 Squash
2 large onions – or an onion and a leek
a touch of chilli powder – or curry powder
a touch of cumin powder

Sweat the onions in olive oil in a covered pan at a low heat for twenty minutes. At the same time bake your diced squash on an oiled tray in the oven for twenty minutes.

Then add the squash to the onions and add the chilli and the cumin. You can experiment here if you want it a bit hotter.

Stir all this together for another five minutes then add the stock. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and allow it to simmer gently for around 40 minutes. You can use the blender after that if you want smooth consistency. And there you go – vegetarian soup at its best. Even if the main ingredient is a bit mysterious.

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No Such Thing As A Healthy Vegan Diet

November 26, 2009 | No comments

healthy vegan dietSo what could be better for you than raw food – fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, soya and pulses? Just about everything apparently. At least according to a recent news article which told the story of a mother and her young daughters who had adopted what they assumed was a healthy vegan diet for three years until they realised the children showed symptoms of rickets, their teeth began to rot and their bodies were not developing as they should.

The subtext here was a piece of sensationalist nonsense – there is no such thing as a healthy vegan diet. Have another burger and let the environment and your body go to hell in a handcart. But hang on a minute. These guys were on a raw vegan diet, not the same as vegan at all. That means they wouldn’t eat fortified cereals or baked products and would only go near a limited range of grains and pulses. That would seriously narrow the range available to you at the bakery counter. A chocolate doughnut would definitely be out of the question.

Leaving your food as raw as possible is a very worthy notion but there are also many good reasons to cook your food. Not only is it easier to digest but it also increases the levels of nutrients that will be absorbed into the body. Unless you’re my mother of course, who always used to stew everything to within an inch of it’s life. Anything that moved in that kitchen ended up in the stew and days would go by before it ever reached our lips.

There is another good reason to enjoy a cooked diet – where I live the winters are brutal and the idea of leaving the warmth without being fortified by at least some hot soup gives me the fear.

Which brings me back to the news article. The family were suffering from a deficiency of vitamin D, something normally found in oily fish, eggs and butter but which we also get from the sun. In the winter of course the sun is a bit more scarce and there is an assumption that without it you’re going to get scurvy. But wait a minute. How much vitamin D do you think you need? No-one’s suggesting you lie on a beach all day and have your skin wither up like a prune. Twenty minutes daylight every day is all that’s required – and that’s just common sense.

What is clear from this case is that the family in question had absolutely no idea what they were doing. You might hear about the health benefits of eating raw food, but clearly you’re going to need a little knowledge of vitamins and nutrients before you take on a raw vegan diet. The health problems pale into insignificance alongside those associated with the far more widespread meat-eating diet and from this you can only draw the conclusion that any diet done badly will mess you up.

So if you’re thinking about the raw vegan diet, best look into it before you take the plunge. The rest of us can go and enjoy a nice vegan curry, because the idea that there’s no such thing as a healthy vegan diet is total hogwash.

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A Vegetarian Lunch On The Run

November 24, 2009 | No comments

ShortbreadAugustus Crimmond, our roving food correspondent in the British Isles continues his quest for quality vegetarian food.

Upon visiting the high street of a town that should remain nameless I was struck by how much easier it should be to procure something hot, edible and importantly meat-free.  For many reasons in this part of the world finding vegetarian food can be challenging so here are a couple of thoughts about the current situation and what might be done about it.

Institutionalised meat eating is a recent phenomenon.  Aeons ago some bright spark realised that your average animal is unlikely to hang around long enough to be eaten and, fun though it may be, chasing through the undergrowth after some unfortunate creature is neither big nor clever and best left to carnivores.

If you eliminated the running-round-after-stuff you had two options. You could either migrate to where plants are in season; or for the stay-at-home type there was the chance to develop agriculture, preserving techniques and making best use of what’s available.  Over the years this group have developed skills with grains and grapes, a discussion for another time.

Things were going relatively well before the small matter of industrialisation.  Whole populations were chucked off their land in favour of livestock and encouraged to huddle together in miserable conditions subsisting on spam and bovril.

More recently some balance has been regained but those years are still indelibly stamped on the modern high street.  In the interests of research your correspondent visited a popular baking establishment in search of elevenses.  The encounter proceeded along the normal lines:

“Good Morning, Mr Crimmond. What can we get you today?”

“Good Day.  What do you have that is both hot, edible and does not include meat?” (A long, meaningful pause ensues while the baker’s assistant contemplates this culturally difficult request before scanning past the rows of grey meat pies to a sorry, forgotten corner of the cabinet.)

“Well – we’ve got quiche.”

It will not be the first time that I have reminded them that this could only on a very loose definition be thought to be vegetarian and in any case is full of ham.  At least they tried.

“Never mind, shortbread it is.”   The importance of biscuits in such moments of duress is not to be underestimated.  In particular, shortbread will get you through situations where Kendal Mint Cake will barely suffice.

Astute readers will point out that it is unwise to rely on such emporia and that Crimmond should have been better prepared with a packed lunch, preferably cooked from scratch.  You would be quite right.  Cooking from scratch is more fun, tastes better and will DO YOU GOOD.  All very true but at short notice this is not a climate well suited to alfresco cuisine and on-street emulations of the late Mr Keith Floyd are frowned upon by the authorities.

The point is – restaurants, cafes and bakeries can all lack imagination when catering for the non-carnivorous. Some manage brilliantly but alas they are in the minority. So it is up to us, the discerning public to let them know whether they are doing a good job or not; to question why they have only a single meatless dish on their menu and why it has such a strong resemblance to an item available pre-prepared for boiling in a bag.  It’s up to us for it will improve the casual culinary experience for everyone.

- Augustus Crimmond

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Vegetarian Home Delivery – A Diet Too Good To Be True?

November 23, 2009 | No comments

Vegetarian Home DeliveryI could hardly believe this service when I first heard about it. Picture the scenario: you’re vegetarian. You work too hard. By the time you get home from work, you’re too tired to cook anything from scratch so you reach for whatever quick fix you can throw from the icebox to the oven and put your feet up in front of the TV while it’s cooking. It becomes a pattern and then you realise you’re putting on weight.

For those of you who aren’t crazy about cooking or struggle to find the time this will be familiar. Calorie counting becomes more of a nuisance when you’re run off your feet and most people in that situation will let it slip.

So what if I were to say to you that you could have somebody else prepare a healthy, strictly calorie controlled vegetarian diet for you and deliver it straight to your door regularly? Because that’s what Diet-to-Go offer. I’m not endorsing them here, I’m just amazed that this service exists. If you’re resident in the US you can have what is really your own personal chef and vegetarian food guru look after your dietary requirements with healthy low fat gourmet food.

Their vegetarian diet meal plans are aimed at lacto-ovo vegetarians so if you’re ok with eggs and dairy produce this could be right up your street. They have a 5-week meal plan that comes in two calorie sizes, 1200 and 1600, so you know exactly what you’re taking in each meal. And we’re not talking about starving yourself here – dishes like ravioli and portabello lasagna are delicious and satisfying.

So is vegetarian home delivery the weight loss diet that’s just too good to be true? Well it’s not the cheapest option as you would expect, but actually Diet-to-Go compares pretty well with their competitors, and really if you were to tally up what you’re paying for all that freezer food you probably won’t notice much difference. As for delivery, well you’d probably burn more calories if you ran to the store to collect, but it comes back down to time. And these guys actually guarantee weight loss with the service.

As I said, I’m not trying to sell anything here. I haven’t tried this service myself. But I’d love to hear from anyone who has.

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How To Make A Vegetarian Pizza From Scratch

November 22, 2009 | No comments

Vegetarian PizzaThere’s only one way to make sure you’re getting a first rate vegetarian pizza with quality ingredients – do it yourself. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing most weekends for the last few years. I never tire of pizza and as far as I’m concerned Friday night is pizza night.

There’s a very good reason for this: home-made vegetarian pizza done properly is one of the most healthy and satisfying fast foods there is. There are even non-dairy cheeses for the fully vegan version, making this dish an absolute delight.

I must admit, even before I was vegetarian I never understood the idea of putting meat on a pizza. I mean pepperoni is tasty but all sausage products are major fat-fests and deeply unhealthy when you get down to it. Now they advertise these meat feasts which have minced beef and god knows what else on them. That just seems all wrong.

If you have a breadmaker this is really easy, but it’s not essential. It’s just that the breadmaker will do all the hard work in 45 minutes. So you don’t have to.

I always say this isn’t a recipe site but breaking with tradition here is my vegetarian pizza recipe. This will make two large pizzas. For the dough you’ll need:

240ml water
460grammes strong white flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 level tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 large tablespoon wholemeal flour
1 sachet of dried yeast

Mix all these ingredients together and do some serious kneading. I’m talking about a good ten minutes worth until it has a nice elastic quality. Then leave it somewhere warm to rise, covered with an oiled piece of clingfilm, for at least half an hour until it’s roughly double the size. Then back to kneading, just a couple of minutes this time, then it’s ready for the rolling pin.

Brush a little oil mixed with dried or fresh herbs (oregano, basil, sage, rosemary, whatever Italian style herbs you have around) onto two large baking trays and crank up your oven to its hottest setting. The hotter the oven, the faster it will cook.

Well, you know what to do next. I use fresh sliced tomatoes, roasted peppers, green olives and fresh basil  but I vary this every week. That’s the beauty of pizza. Sliced artichoke hearts are very nice, spinach, red onion, mushrooms. You can use dairy-free cheese or if you are fine with dairy products then mozzarella or goat’s cheese are the best.

Sling them in the oven for around twenty minutes and there you go – probably the best vegetarian pizza you’ll ever have, and most certainly the healthiest.

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Why You Need A Vegetarian Diet Plan

November 20, 2009 | 3 comments

Am I the only one who thought the Atkins diet was totally perverse? What the hell? You’re going to lose weight by eating nothing but the most calorific protein-rich foods, ie meat, that you can get? Jeez. Does it work? I don’t know. Lots of people testified to its power. But I still think it’s perverse. And it sure as hell can’t be healthy in any sense other than the perceived weight-loss factor. Not to mention the expense of buying truckloads of meat.

Here’s an idea. Instead of following some bizarre meat-only diet that you can only do for a limited time period due to health hazards associated with it, and the fact that it burns a hole in your pocket, why not take on an easy, manageable, low fat, nutritionally-sound, healthy vegetarian diet that will save you money and help you lose weight at the same time.

But don’t just think cutting out meat will immediately lead to weight loss. You need to have an idea of what kinds of vegetarian foods to eat. In other words, you need a diet plan.

Long before I gave up meat I had a friend who was vegetarian. He was around average height and average build. At least that’s what I thought until we were taking in some sun. Without a t-shirt I could see that actually he was pretty hefty, especially around the middle. I couldn’t understand this at the time – I mean, he was a vegetarian. But then I got a look at his take on a vegetarian diet. He seemed to eat nothing but pre-packed freezer food. This stuff’s nice from time to time but it’s basically laden with fat, sugar and salt so if you eat it regularly, you’re going to put on weight. You might as well stick to sausages.

But you don’t need to take on the whole joyless detox diet with it’s dubious benefits, you can eat really well and your body will detoxify the natural way. The fact is that our bodies are not really built to cope with the quantities of meat that we consume. When we lived in caves, meat would have been the exception rather than the rule, compared with modern day consumption which is frankly off the radar – and hence all the health issues that are cropping up increasingly in the news. It’s no wonder you feel sluggish on your way to work.

The first step towards a vegetarian diet plan is, obviously, to cut out red meat. Red meat is so incredibly bad for you that this should be a no-brainer. And the agricultural over-production of beef is totally unsustainable and contributing heavily to climate change.

Next there’s reconstituted meat. Do you really want to know what’s in that? No I didn’t think so. Get rid of it and you won’t miss it.

Beyond that, make your own choices. A lot of vegetarians would say that eating fish isn’t really vegetarian at all and of course vegans won’t eat any animal or dairy produce. It doesn’t matter. Cutting out meat and following an organised vegetarian diet plan will be the single most healthy thing you could do for your body.

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Vegetarian Chinese Cooking

November 19, 2009 | No comments

Think about it. Can there be anything greater than vegetarian Chinese food? If there is I don’t think I’ve tasted it. It’s quick, easy, delicious and, surprise surprise, it’s healthy. If you only wanted to improve your health, never mind being able to cook delicious fast food, then eating a low fat vegetarian Chinese diet wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

You’re probably thinking, Chinese food, the last time I had it everything was deep fried, saturated in fat, lots of fatty meat and overly salty. The fact is, the Chinese food you eat in restaurants and takeaways is not really what the Chinese eat. It’s a twisted version that’s been developed specifically for Western tastes, that is, full of fat, salt and sugar. If you want a real eye-opener, go to a good Chinese restaurant with a Chinese friend and get them to ask the staff for the real Chinese menu. Most will be happy to oblige with more authentic cooking.

One of my favorite pastimes is wandering round our local Chinese supermarket. Most big towns have one now and if you haven’t investigated your nearest one, you’re really missing out. As well as Chinese ingredients, you can expect to see a good selection of Thai, Malaysian and Indian sauces, pastes and oils.

I could spend forever in there. As a non-Chinese I’m quite fascinated with the diversity of the ingredients on offer. Many of the labels are not in English and this just adds to the intrigue for me. I usually try some new ingredients every time I go there and have a lot of fun experimenting in the kitchen. But two ingredients that I always make sure I have plenty of are Shaohsing (rice wine, reminiscent of a dry sherry) and sesame oil which has an absolutely unmistakable aroma and is essential.

The great thing about vegetarian Chinese cooking is that after the preparation of the ingredients, that is, the chopping, the food is cooked very quickly at a high temperature and retains most of it’s goodness. But it’s not all about stirfry. There’s salads and dipping sauces, hot and sour soups, steamed dim sum, snacks such as sweet rice rolls, and braising & stewing. Yes, braising & stewing vegetarian food.

If you’re just considering going veggie and can’t bear the idea of giving up Chinese food, no problem. Try it veggie style and you won’t look back.

I could go on but I’m getting hungry.

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Vegetarians And Protein

November 18, 2009 | 1 comment

You might have seen the little single box comic strip with an overweight family next to a normal sized family. The overweight family are saying ‘Where do you get your protein?’

After a little searching I was surprised to find that this has become a bit of a joke amongst vegetarians – not the comic but the question itself. It’s become a cliche; the single most-often asked question of veggies by meat-eaters. A bit like asking a newsreader ‘Where do you get your ideas?’

The fact that it is so commonly asked made me wonder. Ok, most people are aware that meat is a big source of protein. But if you asked people to name a good source of iron they’re likely to be much more vague. Is it because of popular diets like the Atkins where you boost your protein intake and cut out carbs? The general public certainly recognize potatoes and rice as carbohydrates and therefore a no-no for a high protein diet.

But maybe there’s more to it than that. At the risk of sounding like Oliver Stone, maybe there has been a bit of conspiracy going on here by agricultural big business. Eat meat, the healthy option.  It’s good for you. Because the facts are not really stacking up behind this. Cholesterol, osteoporosis, cancer. The list goes on. We’re not talking about eating moderate amounts of protein here, we’re talking about eating excessive amounts. Yes, meat is a good source of protein. But what are you, a power-lifter? How much protein do you think you need?

And while I’m on the subject, you see those guys on the cover of Men’s Health with the impossible abs? ‘How to get abs like this’ says the cover. I’ll tell you how – overeat to an obscene degree.

It’s true. Ok, you have to be fit too but you won’t get those rippling muscles on your torso unless you eat steak, steak and steak. You need steak with your steak – that’s breakfast, lunch, dinner and all the little snack times in between.  Not hungry? That won’t cut it. You want those abs, you better throw another fillet in the frying pan. Or better still, eat it raw. And how about a whey protein shake with that?

This is not a natural look. Nobody just trains really hard and ends up that way. Excessive consumption of protein is the not so big secret. I guess I’m not comfortable with the idea of eating excess amounts of anything. And hey, there’s my excuse for not having chiselled abs.

But it’s people who are less active who are likely to get health problems caused by excess protein in meat and dairy produce and this brings me back to the little comic strip. The fact is – even vegetarians consume more protein than they need. What we need as a society is to get a better understanding of our nutritional requirements so we can all live a more healthy and fulfilling lifestyle. ‘Where do you get your protein?’ is a red herring. Or a red beetroot if you’re vegan.

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