Tag: #vegan

Even if you don’t usually like olives…this is one to try! I use Middle Eastern olives. They are very different from domestic olives, and I like them so much better! So far I’ve only found Israeli brands that make pitted (Osem, Beit Hashita), which is what you’ll need for this salad.

This sauce is amazing, and if you love olives, you will love this salad heated and eaten over brown rice or whole grain pasta. I serve the olives as part of a mezze (Middle Eastern appetizer table) either cold or hot.

SPICY OLIVE SALAD

Ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup
• Garlic, 5-6 cloves
• Tomato paste, one 6 oz. can
• Plum tomatoes, 6-8 petite diced
• Lemon, 1/2 unpeeled
• Hot chili powder, 2 tsp.
• Szeged hot paprika, 1 TB
• Swad chili pepper (I use Swad, very hot), 1/2 tsp.
• Cilantro, 1/2 bunch/cup, chopped
• Mediterranean green pitted olives, two-and-a-half 19.5 oz. cans (drained)

Instructions

1. Wash lemon, slice the half you’re using into about 6 slices, quarter the slices.
2. Heat olive oil in a saucepan.
3. Sauté minced garlic lightly in oil.
4. Stir in tomato paste & diced tomatoes and stir ’til mixed.
5. Add lemon slices and stir.
6. Add remaining ingredients except cilantro and olives.
7. Bring back to simmer, and cook until lemon quarters are tender.
8. Stir in chopped cilantro.
9. Remove from heat.
10. Add sauce to drained olives. Stir gently but thoroughly.

Enjoy these olives warm or cold.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter,@vegwithleslie.

Ful is Arabic for fava beans (as hummus is Arabic for chickpeas). This is another popular Middle Eastern salad to serve as part of a mezze (Middle Eastern appetizer table), alongside of hummus, or all by itself. It is a street food in the Middle East and is part of breakfast in Egypt. There are many versions of this dish. This is mine:

 

FUL
Ingredients

• Fava beans, 1 lb. dried (small) beans
• Chickpeas, 1/2 lb. dried
• Plum Tomatoes, 6 petite diced
• Garlic, 1 TB minced
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup
• Lemons, juice of 2 (1/4-1/2 cup – I use closer to 1/2 cup)
• Cilantro, 1/2 bunch, chopped
• Salt, 1 TB (scant)
• Cumin, 1-1/2 TB
• Red pepper, crushed, 4 tsp. (scant)

Instructions

1. Rinse small fava beans and chickpeas, place together in a pot to cook, and add water 1-2″ over the top of the beans.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until done, 1-2 hours.
3. While the fava beans and chickpeas are cooking, prepare the sauce.
4. Petite dice the tomatoes. Cut the green beans as shown in the picture. Mince the garlic. Squeeze the lemons. Chop the cilantro.
5. Add the extra virgin olive oil to a pan with the minced garlic and allow garlic to simmer for a moment.
6. Add petite diced tomatoes and remaining seasonings except cilantro.
7. Stir and simmer tomatoes and seasonings for a few moments until mixture is saucy. Turn off the heat.
8. When sauce mixture is cooled, add cilantro.
9. When beans are cooked and well-drained, place in a bowl or back in pot, and add sauce.

Ful can be served warm or cold. I prefer it warm.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter,@vegwithleslie.

Cecil the Lion. He’s everywhere on the Internet. I can’t bring myself to look at most of it. It’s something like what I felt in the years I was reading about the Holocaust. At some point, my reading threatened to overwhelm me, and I had to stop. I had to put a distance between myself and that story. I know it’s there. I know what happened. I just can’t come that close to it anymore and continue to live a productive life.

I first became vegetarian over 50 years ago. The reality of being the only vegetarian in my world through much of my life made it exceptionally difficult, and I went back and forth a number of times over the years. No more back and forth during the last twenty years.

There were many reasons for my vegetarianism, and I’ve written about some of them in my blog. The primary reason was that I felt it was moral cowardice and irresponsibility to purchase meat in plastic and styrofoam at the local grocery store. If I were going to eat meat, I should slaughter the animal myself, directly accepting responsibility for the life I was taking. That would never happen – because I don’t want to kill other creatures. Period. So why would I buy and eat the flesh of another creature just because the whole process happened out of sight?

My vegetarianism was based on a statement of Adelle Davis, that she eats only the products that animals give us without suffering. Turns out that in today’s world, there are not products animals give us without suffering. I started moving toward veganism a couple of years ago, and that is the basis of my comments about Cecil the Lion.

I’m finding this transition to veganism difficult, partly for health reasons, partly for social reasons and partly because I love cheese and eggs and am not a fan of substitute foods. I read a lot, and I experiment with cooking. I take every opportunity I can to make and share vegan foods with others so I can build a social network that still enjoys my food. I try to immerse myself in vegan culture online, because I know how acculturation works. For reasons I mentioned above, though, I keep some of the horrific pictures of animal suffering that some vegans post out of my view. I know it’s there. I don’t want to be overwhelmed.

One day when I was reading, I came to an ad about vegan boots. Vegan boots?! I read more as I thought about my new leather clogs, the first new shoes I’ve purchased in 10 years. I thought about the (two) leather belts in my closet.

But what I thought about most was that as thoughtful as I am about veganism, the whys, the wherefores, the hows of it, the fact that I wear leather shoes simply escaped my attention. I didn’t think about that.

Since then, I have thought a lot about that disconnect. It occurs to me that we all have a tendency to disconnect. The places where each of us disconnects are different, but it’s there. Sometimes it’s a conscious disconnect, as I did from the stories of Cecil. Most of the time it’s unconscious, like me believing whole-heartedly in the importance and necessity of veganism in today’s world yet wearing leather shoes.

I’ve debated what to do with those new shoes, the first in ten years. I considered giving them away and buying some vegan boots. There is a principle in my religion of not wasting the fruits of the earth. I decided that since I already have them, I will wear them for another ten years until they wear out. They will be a testament to my human imperfections and contradictions  and will keep me humble.

I continue to think about why I had that disconnect. I mentioned acculturation. I was born into and grew up in a world where the norm was to use animals for our purposes. It was sanctioned by religions, although if you read between the lines of the Bible, which is the religious literature I know best, you will see that even animal sacrifice is in part expiation for fellow creature-killing. Rabbinic commentaries suggest meat-eating was permitted after the flood as a channel for human violence. But the fact is, it is permitted, and it was a normal (and pretty much unexamined) part of every day life.

I was also born into a suburban world, a world where most of us, at least in this country, were no longer farmers and were no longer directly connected to the cycle of life and death that results from being closer to nature or living in rural, farming environments. We got our food from the local grocery store, already neatly packaged and separated from its source. Culturally we had no awareness of sources, not for food, not for clothing and not for much of anything else we used. Remember, I’m talking more than half a century ago.

And things changed so dramatically over the last half century. Grocery stores are huge compared to what they were. Fast food and cheap clothing is what we expect. And the source of those products has changed so dramatically. Factory farms have entered the landscape. Our numbers have increased, but so have our appetites. Everything became mechanized while we weren’t watching. And our separation from the issues of survival and the process of life and death is total, with devastating effects to our spiritual state and our emotional state.

It’s hard work to reconnect. It’s step-by-step work, work I feel I need to do — but I also don’t want to get overwhelmed by the suffering in the world, the suffering and pain we endure and the suffering and pain we inflict.

Maybe some moral isolation is a necessity to live productive lives. Incidents like killing Cecil the Lion remind us, though, that it’s a luxury we can’t afford. It’s not enough to condemn the action of a man who killed a beautiful creature for “sport.”

Concerned people have heard the stories and seen the pictures of what allegedly goes on at factory farms. I wrote a post titled “5 Reasons Vegans Shouldn’t Publish Disturbing Animal Pictures.” These pictures are just too disturbing, and I wonder what they accomplish.

Can we live in a world like this and not become morally immune? I did. I didn’t notice my shoes.

A friend of mine, Pauline Yearwood from Chicago Jewish News, shared this comment on FaceBook, and it seems appropriate:

From Gary L. Francione, The Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights

If you are upset about the killing of Cecil the Lion and you are not a vegan, then you are suffering from moral schizophrenia. There is no difference between Cecil and all of the animals you eat who value their lives as much as the lion valued his.

I have been a moral schizophrenic in my life, and to an extent, I probably will always be one. But for my own spiritual health and for the health of the planet, I will work every day to be less of one.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

These are the kinds of “fast-foods” I like. Ooooh, good! Black Bean Pasta from Costo topped with a fresh tomato sauce I made and these delightful small summer squashes (zucchini and patty pan), also from Costco.

Here’s what I did:

• I put some garlic into a pan with extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of it and sautéed briefly. I added cut up tomatoes, salt, fresh basil and some crushed red pepper, put a lid on it and cooked gently ’til it became a nice “stew” of tomatoes.
• While the tomatoes cooked, I boiled the pasta ’til just al dente (I put a little extra virgin olive oil and salt in the water).
• I put some garlic, salt and basil into a saute pan with extra virgin olive oil, added the mini-squashes and cooked ’til just softened.
• Finally, I put it all together, pasta on the bottom, then the tomato sauce, topped with the squashes. Delish!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Woohoo! Just agreed to teach another class at McHenry County College in Spring 2016. This one will be through the Personal Development Program and includes demonstrations in their state-of-the-art kitchen.

The demo part should be interesting. As I mentioned to the program director, I’m hardly one to demonstrate knife skills, and that’s what’s involved in a lot of the cooking I do. Well, as I always say, if I can make these foods, anyone can!

VEGETATING WITH LESLIE: SPRING INTO HEALTH
*Asterisked items are what I will demonstrate.

Session I: Spring into Health. Prepare your kitchen to support your best health. We’ll take a close look at the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) of processed foods, sugars, low fiber, low nutrient density and how it undermines health. We’ll talk about what to remove from your kitchen, what to put in your kitchen and how to organize your kitchen.

Demo and share: Nutrient Dense Sandwich on *Homemade Spelt Bread

Session II: Eating the Rainbow: Nutrient Density. What is nutrient density, what can it do for you, and how can you construct a diet that is nutrient dense?

Demo and share: *Fatoush (Middle Eastern Salad), *Green Smoothies

Session III: Rethinking Breakfast: Out of the Box. We’ll take a look at breakfast alternatives from other parts of the world, in particular the Middle East and rethink breakfast possibilities for the most important meal of the day.

Demo and share: Middle Eastern Breakfast (with *Israeli Salad and *Ful) and my current *Breakfast Bowl

Session IV: Make Mine Middle Eastern! Why is it important to choose a cuisine, at least to start? How can you use the basics of Middle Eastern cuisine to build a nutrient dense diet you can enjoy without feeling deprived? We’ll use the Mezze (appetizer) table as the basis of a great, nutrient dense diet and compare it to the S.A.D. which began these sessions.

Demo and share: *Hummus, *Muhammara, *Tabouleh, Israeli Salad, *Red Pepper Salad, *Olives, Pickles. How to use items like this for Midday Meals, Snacks, Dinner, Appetizers.

I hope you can join us!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

This Brown Lentil Soup is the first lentil soup I ever made, and the first time I made it was over forty years ago. Lentils were made for Middle Eastern seasonings, lemon, garlic and cumin. I always like a little heat in my food, too, and I almost always use hot paprika for that. I keep this brown lentil soup somewhat milder, though, and just use enough paprika to make the soup interesting, though still comforting. Spinach is a traditional Middle Eastern addition to the basic soup, and it makes the soup a nice meal in a bowl.

BROWN LENTIL SOUP WITH SPINACH

Ingredients

• Brown lentils, dried, 1 lb. (about 3 scant cups)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup
• Spanish onion, 1
• Carrots, 3 or 4
• Celery, 3 or 4 stalks
• Garlic, 1-2 TB, minced (6-8 large cloves)
• Cumin, 1 TB
• Salt, 1 TB (then to taste)
• Hot paprika, 1 tsp.
• Water, 6-9 cups (note: always start with less water – it’s easy to add during cooking to get the consistency you want)
• Lemon, juice of 1.5-2 lemons
• Cilantro, 1/2 bunch, minced
• Spinach, 1/2 lb. – 1 lb., rough chopped
• Other veggies, opt. (see note below)

Directions 

1. Mince the garlic, and petite dice the carrots and celery.
2. Add extra virgin olive oil to cover the bottom of your soup pot. Add prepared veggies and garlic and saute until softened.
3. Add the lentils and four cups of water or veggie broth per cup of lentils (about 12 cups of water).
4. Add optional veggies, petite diced. I don’t usually do this, but if I happen to have something appropriate that I want to use up, this soup is a good place. For this batch, I had the cores of a lot of zucchini and summer squash that I had used for zucchini “pasta,” so I petite diced it and tossed it in.
5. Add the remaining seasonings: salt, cumin, hot paprika and lemon juice.
6. Cook covered, stirring occasionally, until the lentils soften and begin to blend. I prefer to see actual lentils in my soup, so I don’t want to over-cook.
7. With a potato ricer, mash the lentils a little to thicken the soup — again, not completely. It’s good to see those lentils!
8. Add the finely chopped cilantro and rough-chopped spinach. Sometimes I cut the spinach in ribbons.
9. Remove from heat. Serve with a little extra lemon and olive oil.

Lentils are a great food for vegetarians and vegans, and they can be used in so many ways. This Lentil Soup is just a good, basic recipe, and it’s quick and easy to make.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Last week, we shared a monthly Shabbat dinner in my shul. We call these evenings “Third Fridays” because that’s when we come together to enjoy one of the high points of the Sabbath, an extended communal dinner with learning and songs.

I like to prepare these meals. It’s a meaningful way for me to structure my week. I used to make elaborate meals every week and have guests in my West Rogers Park home. My week was oriented toward finishing the house cleaning, shopping and cooking by sundown on Friday, the beginning of Shabbat.

Then for 26 hours, I “rested,” that is, I visited with friends and family at dinners and midday meals during this weekly holiday, went to synagogue, read, walked and occasionally napped. At the end of the day, well after sunset, I lit the havdalah candle and recited the prayers that end the Sabbath. Then there was that sudden frenzy of activity with the Sabbath over when it was time to run out to a movie or some other Saturday evening activity.

Since cooking isn’t permitted on the Sabbath in a traditional community (cooking is defined as boiling liquid), all the cooking needs to happen before candle-lighting, or sunset, Friday evening. This means there’s something of a frenzy before the Sabbath begins as well.

One of the ways I like to think about that rush before Shabbat is that I am creating the experience for myself (and others) of being nurtured. With everything made before Shabbat begins, I am able to sit at the table with everyone else to enjoy the food and friendship and songs. I feel nurtured. I have bread without work in that moment.

It’s hard to describe this weekly experience to someone who has never enjoyed it, the special feelings associated with each hour of the day as the angle of the sun changes and the prayers and songs move successively through the themes of creation, revelation and redemption. There is a feeling of nostalgia and longing associated with those last rays of light slanting into a room at the close of the day toward havdalah and the end of this special time. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel calls the Sabbath, “a palace in time.”

Sometimes I miss living in a neighborhood that supports this way of living, a community where everything is walking distance, including people with whom I can share the occasion. I’ve really been happy to be able to prepare a Friday evening meal for my synagogue and share it with friends there.

A few months back, I decided to make these Shabbat dinners vegan. My Sabbath experience is deeper and richer and more full of joy when my meals are plant-based, and I have enjoyed the opportunity to try out new dishes with my friends.

Here is the menu we enjoyed:

Vegan Spelt Challah & Wine for Kiddush
Salads: Muhammara, Tomatoes & Cucumbers, Navy Beans with Dill, Hummus, Red Cabbage Slaw, Babaganoush, Sweet Red Pepper Salad, Kalamata Olives
Soups: Choice of Red Lentil Soup or Ricey Spinach Soup
Entree: Black Bean and Zucchini Pasta with Ratatouille Topping (I also made sauces, Harif, Z’hug and a mild Salsa Verde)
Dessert: Vegan Chocolate Mousse, Strawberries, Toasted Almonds

Two of these salads were new to my Shabbat repertoire: Navy Beans with Dill and the Babaganoush. Well, the Babaganoush isn’t really new — it’s just that I used to use Labne, a thick Middle Eastern yogurt, to make mine. This version was vegan.

I shopped on Wednesday, made all the salads and the mousse on Thursday and made the soups and entrée on Friday. I make challah twice a week and freeze at least one loaf a week for these dinners, which at the present time require four challot. At 3 PM, we left for the synagogue so we could set the tables and plate the salads before Shabbat.

I always prepare a two-minute thought to share with our group, and this time, I asked everyone to think about the difference between habit and ritual. This is a question I worked with recently in preparation for a class I plan to teach next spring. So far I have five ideas about how they are different, but I shared just one: that ritual requires thought and intention while habits are, and are meant to be, thoughtless.

I was very happy to have Rabbi Maralee Gordon with us this week. That meant I could turn the evening over to her to lead Kiddush at the beginning of the evening and Birkat ha-Mazon and singing at the other end of the evening. Everybody helped with serving and cleanup, and I enjoyed a beautiful Shabbat evening with my friends!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Love ’em or hate ’em, that’s beets! It’s one of those veggies that inspires extreme reactions. Even people who came into the cafe and said they hated beets loved this Moroccan Beet Salad, though. With its deep color, it’s a beautiful and appetizing addition to any meal, and the natural sweetness of the beets combined with classical Middle Eastern seasonings makes this root vegetable into something very special.

MOROCCAN BEET SALAD
Ingredients

• Beets, 6 large
• Red onion, 1/4 large (3 oz.)
• Lemon, 2 lemons, juiced (about 4 TB)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 6 TB (if you must refrigerate before eating, use canola oil so it doesn’t solidify)
• Salt, 2 tsp. (to taste)
• Cumin, 2 tsp.
• Szeged Hot Paprika, 1-2 tsp. (to taste)
• Cilantro, 1/4-1/2 cup chopped

Directions

1. Place whole, unpeeled beets in water to cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, and cook until done. Don’t over-cook, but you should be able to pierce the beets easily with a fork.
2. Cool the beets in the cooking juices and rub off the skins.
3. Julienne the beets.
4. Add olive oil, lemon juice, spices.
5. Slice onions thinly into the bowl with the beets, 1″-2″ long slices.
6. Add chopped cilantro to the bowl.
7. Stir all together gently, adding lemon, salt and hot paprika to taste.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Muhammara (Arabic for “reddened”) wasn’t one of my original group of salads. I have a customer to thank for this delicious suggestion. Although it’s a classic Middle Eastern combination of ingredients, I hadn’t heard of it until someone asked for it when we catered their wedding. I tried a few different versions and finally settled on this one. Muhammara became a great favorite in my Cafe!

Muhammara is originally from Syria but is enjoyed throughout the Middle East and Turkey.

MUHAMMARA (makes about 2 cups)
Ingredients

• Walnuts, 2 cups
• Pomegranate molasses, 4 TB
• Red Bell Peppers, 4 large, roasted
• Garlic, 2 cloves
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup
• Pita crumbs, dried/toasted, 1/2 cup
• Cumin, 2 tsp.
• Crushed red pepper, 2 tsp.
• Tomato paste, 2 TB
• Salt, 1 tsp.

Procedure

1. Roast the peppers under a broiler until the skin is dark brown/blackish all the way around. Set aside to cool.
2. Bread crumbs will work for this. I prefer to use my whole wheat Lebanese pita croutons (that I make for Fatoush). Sometimes I just put a whole piece of Lebanese pita into a low oven until it is thoroughly dry, then break off what I need for the Muhammara and save the rest for when I make Fatoush.
3. Add all ingredients except the peppers to a food processor.
4. When the peppers are sufficiently cooled, peel and remove the stems. The skins should slip off easily if they are well-roasted.
5. Grind until smooth, or at least just slightly grainy from the walnuts.
6. Garnish with additional pomegranate molasses/syrup and walnuts.

Enjoy as a dip with Pita or veggies. This unusual (although classic in the Middle East) blend of flavors will delight you, your family and your friends.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Sometimes simple is best, and this tomato soup is a great example of that wisdom. It’s so quick and easy to make, it’s probably one of my favorite soups, and it always gets rave reviews whenever I share it.

Yesterday I went to a music event. I found out at the last-minute I was supposed to bring food. No problem! I always have some of my homemade spelt challah on hand, so I quickly made a batch of this delightful tomato soup and took it in a crock pot along with a loaf of challah. It was a hit, especially because there was a surprise vegan in the crowd and a lot of people with weight or heart issues.

Don’t think of it as a heart-healthy soup even though it is. Just think of it as a delicious, comforting soup, 100% real food.

Ingredients (Makes 1-1.5 gallons)

• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup
• Spanish onion, 1 large
• Plum tomatoes, 30
• Ginger root, 1-2″ piece
• Salt, 1 TB
• Hot paprika, 1/2 tsp
• Basil, fresh, 10-20 leaves
• Water, 1/2 cup, opt.

Procedure

1. Put the extra virgin olive oil in a large soup pot.
2. Chunk the onion and add to the pot.
3. Peel the ginger root, cut into chunks and add to the pot.
4. Halve the tomatoes and add to the pot.
5. Add seasonings (salt, hot paprika), but hold the basil.
6. The tomatoes will produce enough liquid to cook themselves, but you can speed the process a little by adding 1/2 cup of water. This makes the soup a little less thick, and since I can always add water at the end to reach my desired consistency, I prefer to hold off on the water and just cook the tomatoes in their own juice.
7. Cover the pot and turn on low heat. Stir occasionally.
8. When done, remove from heat and puree (I use my VitaMix, which makes a beautiful, creamy-seeming soup, but people tell me their regular blenders work just as well).
9. Return puree to pot.
10. Take about a cup of the soup and return it to the VitaMix or blender bowl. Add the basil leaves, roughly chopped and pulse a few times. You’ll want to be able to see chopped basil pieces in the soup.
11. Add the basil-soup mix back to the pot. I love basil and use lots, and I think it adds a brightness to the soup that it needs, but add the mix back to your taste.
12. Check seasoning and enjoy.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.