Living Whole Food, Plant Based!
I have always believed that the Whole Food, Plant-Based (WFPB) lifestyle is a journey full of obstacles. Choices abound, right or wrong, compliant or non-compliant, and what do you do when the world is turned upside-down? In full transparency, I fell off the wagon. I’m …
Are you like me? As I live this Whole Food, Plant-Based lifestyle, I look at other aspects of my life and how they impact my health. For example, alcohol. Empty calories, poor food and dietary decisions, etc. are just some of the negative aspects of …
Isn’t it that time of year when there is nothing better than some good old-fashion comfort food? There is something about curling up in your favorite chair with a blanket and a bowl of something warm, filling, and nourishing when it is cold and wet outside.
I grew up in Vermont. Trust me, red beans and rice was never served at home or even at any restaurant near me for that matter. Chili was an exotic dish back then. But the first time I visited New Orleans, I was on an extreme budget (freshly out of college and yet to receive my first paycheck). Every meal, I searched for the cheapest thing on the menu. This was my introduction to red beans and rice!
Traditional red beans and rice has any combination of sausage, pickled pork, or ham hocks. But as we all know, that isn’t going to work for a Whole Food, Plant-Based meal.
There are plant-based sausages and Jack Fruit that mimic pork products, but honestly, I choose to skip those as they aren’t necessary in this dish to enjoy that warmth and comfort. Add them if you must, but give this a try before doing so.
This recipe has “Quick” in the title, and it is…because I use canned organic Red Kidney Beans. You can start from dry. In less than an hour using an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker, the beans will be ready. Your choice, but this recipe assumes you’ll take the shortcut as I have.
Another tip. There are a lot of ingredients, but all of them are commonly found in your refrigerator or pantry. Extra bonus, they are all cheap! Try not to skip any ingredient as the spices and flavor build while cooking, but if you are missing something, don’t fret. Try to find a simple substitute. Better Homes & Gardens has a list of substitutes for herbs here https://www.bhg.com/recipes/how-to/cooking-basics/herb-substitute/ and a list of substitutes for spices here https://www.bhg.com/recipes/how-to/cooking-basics/spice-substitute/.
Ingredients
Directions
Dice the green and red bell peppers, onion, and celery. Mince the garlic and jalapeno.
On high heat, using a large pot (I used a dutch oven-type pot that I favor for making chili, but any large pot will do), place 1/4 cup of vegetable broth in the pot. This will be used to sweat and cook the vegetables rather than oil. Once the broth starts to boil, add the diced and minced vegetables. With a wooden spoon, stir the vegetables frequently for 5 minutes.
Add the salt, pepper, thyme, cayenne, bay leaves, crushed red pepper, and paprika. Stir the dry spices in and try to make sure that the spices are distributed evenly and coating the vegetables. Cover the pot and continue to cook on medium high heat for another 15 minutes, stirring about once every minute.
While the vegetables are cooking and getting soft, open the cans of dark red kidney beans. Drain and rinse three cans of beans, leaving the liquid in the can of the fourth.
Add the beans to the pot, including the liquid from the one can. Add the Worcestershire sauce and the hot sauce. Stir all the ingredients together and add 1 cup of vegetable broth. Continue to cook with the lid on for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the remaining 1 cup of vegetable broth. Using an immersion blender or potato masher, blend/mash about 1/3 of the contents in the pot. This will provide a thickness to the broth, yet keep plenty of beans intact.
Add the apple cider vinegar. Stir and cook for another 10 minutes without the lid. The apple cider vinegar really does a great job replacing the acidity and taste that the pickled pork would have provided.
While the vegetables and beans are cooking, I made organic long-grain brown rice in the Instant Pot. I will be honest, I prefer brown rice, for healthy reasons obviously, but I also prefer the nutty chew (I make a lot of rice at the beginning of the week and keep it in the refrigerator, heating it up as needed during the week).
Serve the Red Beans with a scoop or two of rice, garnished with the parsley and green onions. Salt and pepper to taste…maybe add a couple dashes of hot sauce if that pleases your palate!
Curl up on your favorite chair, wrap yourself in a blanket, and enjoy!
p.s. I find this is one of those dishes where the leftovers keep well and call me crazy, but I think it actually tastes better the next day.
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So many people confuse a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle with eating bland and boring foods. Essentially, a diet lacking in flavor or substance. Nothing could be further from the truth! Food does not have to be bland, especially when you learn to incorporate spices into your meals.
In my opinion, spices and herbs are the key to successfully transitioning into this lifestyle. Spices and herbs are your friends. Don’t be scared or intimidated by them. Experiment. Discover the uniqueness of the taste and aroma of each. Play around with how much (or little) you use to match your tastes. As these herbs and spices become more of a part of your every day cooking, you’ll become much more comfortable using them.
For me, I was never afraid of trying new things. But I will be honest, Indian food intimidated me.
I was intimidated ordering Indian food at restaurants, often playing it safe. But then I met my wife. Born in India, she introduced me to a whole new world. She safely guided me through the confusion and helped me discover Indian dishes that I liked and those I steer clear of.
While I was courting my wife, she would make Indian dishes for me. Watching her, I noticed that there was not an exact science to each dish. She would pull down her spices, most of which were contained in a shiny steel container, separated by small steel bowls, with an odd-looking spoon. But it seemed this shiny steel container was where the magic really happened. I would watch her, trying to learn from every spoonful of spice she would add to a dish. With time, I was no longer intimidated by the Indian spices. It was now my turn to do the Indian cooking in our house.
Many Indian dishes contain dairy or oils. Ghee, which is clarified butter, is often used, as is cream or paneer (Indian cheese). To make these WFPB-compliant, I substitute vegetable broth for ghee or oil, raw cashews or nut milk for cream, and tofu for paneer. Once you understand these simple substitutions, almost any Indian dish can be modified to fit our whole food, plant-based lifestyle.
The Indian style Potatoes with Green Beans and Mushrooms is really a combination of two Indian dishes, potatoes with green beans and green beans with mushrooms. My wife initially thought it was odd to combine all three of these components together, but after tasting the final product, she agreed…it tastes great! I can’t be the first to combine these two dishes, but if I am…well, you be the judge!
The ingredients are as follows:
About 20 to 24 baby potatoes, steamed and cut in half
About 3 cups of mushrooms (white or baby portobello), cleaned and quartered
About 2 to 3 cups of green beans (frozen or fresh)
14 oz canned diced tomatoes
1 ½ tablespoons of ginger and garlic paste
2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
2 teaspoons of cumin powder
2 teaspoons of coriander powder
2 teaspoons of turmeric powder
2 teaspoons of chili powder
1 teaspoon of Garam Masala
Sea salt (to taste)
Cilantro, red onion, and jalapeno chopped (for garnish)
Directions:
In a sauce pan or wok (I prefer using a wok, but it really doesn’t matter), heat the pan on high heat. Add the cumin seeds, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, and chili powder. Toast the spices for roughly 90 seconds.
Add the ginger and garlic paste and mix the ingredients together for about 30 seconds.
Add the can of diced tomatoes and mix with the spices and ginger and garlic paste. Be careful as the hot pan may splatter when the tomato juices hit the hot spices. Mix the ingredients together and let them incorporate for roughly 4 minutes. If the diced tomatoes are too chucky, mash the tomatoes with a potato masher.
Add the mushrooms and stir. Mushrooms contain a lot of moisture, so let them cook down for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.
After the mushrooms have cooked down a bit (reduced in size until they are about ¾ of the raw mushrooms), add the green beans and stir. Let the green beans cook in the mixture for about 2 minutes.
The pre-cooked potatoes are added next with the Garam Masala. Stir the potatoes into the mixture and continue to cook on high. At this point, I like to taste a mushroom or green bean to judge how much salt needs to be added. Remember, you can add salt later, but you can never take it out. Start slow and add to your taste.
The key now is to cook the moisture out, constantly stirring. You will find that the tomato will break down and evenly coat the potatoes, green beans, and mushrooms.
Once the moisture is cooked out, the dish is ready to be moved to a serving bowl. Top with the chopped cilantro, diced red onion, and jalapeno slices.
This makes a great side dish or as an entrée. If there is any left over, reheat in the morning for breakfast. It is a nice break from oatmeal.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Wishing you the best of health!
Stephen
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The whole food plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle has really challenged my creativity in the kitchen. This is particularly true at breakfast when my head is still foggy while I wait for the coffee to kick in. As much as I love oatmeal, man (or woman…or child) can’t live on oatmeal alone.
I’ll admit, I am one of those people who does not feel compelled to find vegan replacements for the standard American diet (SAD). I know there are vegan sausages, hot dogs, burgers, etc. that are developed to look, feel, and taste like the “real” thing.
I innocently asked on the Forks over Knives Facebook page why people try to replace those “bad” foods with a vegan attempt to replace the foods that caused many of the issues we face today with obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc.? What an extreme and vicious response from the vegan community! I’m serious. This animal and environment loving community attacked me! How dare I ask that question? It may be the gateway towards adopting the WFPB lifestyle and who am I to question how they do it? I am not kidding when I say it was vicious. I issued an apology, though I don’t know why.
The point I was trying to make was if we are changing our dietary and lifestyle habits, is pretending to eat a “hotdog” really changing our internal wiring and responses? I still feel that way, but not as strongly as I did before.
On this wet, cold, and dreary morning, I really wanted some warming comfort food. I reached for the steel cut oats that I was going to make with a drizzle of maple syrup, a Medjool date chopped, and a handful of walnuts. No can do…I had used all the oatmeal. My other options were some form of smoothie, but that was not going to warm my soul.
I opened the fridge and saw my old friend…eggs. Those little bombs of fat and cholesterol were calling out for me! That was until the tofu came in view. Can I transform tofu into something that resembles scrambled eggs? Not only did I, but it was so good, I needed to share it with my community.
I started pulling stuff out of the fridge and pantry. The ingredients came naturally to me.
One 14-ounce package of firm tofu (patted dry)
¾ cup of sliced mushrooms
¾ cup of diced onions
1 handful of baby spinach (it wilts down, so don’t worry if it seems like a lot)
½ can of diced tomatoes with green chilies
½ cup of Nutritional Yeast
1 tablespoon of granulated garlic powder
1 ½ teaspoons of turmeric powder
Salt to taste
In a bowl, combine the tofu, nutritional yeast, turmeric, and garlic powder. Use a fork to break up the tofu and incorporate the nutritional yeast, turmeric, and garlic powder. Do not pulverize the ingredients. Rather, break it up into different sizes, leaving some chunks (but not too many). I used the salt grinder to add a couple turns of salt, or about ½ teaspoon. Let this mixture sit while preparing the other ingredients. This helps the tofu soak in the flavors of the nutritional yeast, turmeric, and garlic powder.
I used a wok, but you can use a skillet or frying pan.
As an alternative to oil, I use vegetable broth to sauté the onions and mushrooms on high to medium high heat. During the sautéing process, if the pan gets too dry, feel free to add more broth, but limit it to a tablespoon or two each time as you do not want the vegetables to be too watery. Stir frequently as you cook this for about five minutes. Add the diced tomatoes with green chilies. The tomatoes will have some juice. Allow the juice from the tomatoes to evaporate. Add the handful of spinach and continue to stir. A couple turns of the salt grinder should be enough at this time. The spinach will wilt within 30 seconds.
Now it is time to add the tofu mixture to the pan. Stir the ingredients all together. Continue to cook all the ingredients on high to medium high heat for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
I laid the scrambled tofu on a bed of fresh spinach and then drizzled Sriracha on top. Served with sprouted grains toasted bread and a fresh cup of coffee. There I had it, my warm breakfast to take the morning chill from my body.
You can really doctor this recipe up to suit your tastes. Diced bell peppers, asparagus, or edamame may add different colors, flavors, and textures. Alternatively, fresh salsa and jalapenos may be preferred over the sriracha. There are so many options!
The nutritional yeast and turmeric give the tofu the color of eggs and the mouth feels really mimics scrambled eggs.
If I had hot pepper jelly, I would have added it to the toast, but I didn’t think what we had paired well with the sriracha.
I was extremely pleased with the results. I hope you try this recipe for Tofu Breakfast Scramble and leave me your comments. I would love to read about the different ingredients you tried with the recipe!
To your health…
Stephen
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