Kim's Red Radish Tabbouleh from The Kind Life

I have a yoga retreat tomorrow, so I wanted to make sure I prepared a healthy lunch I could eat at some point in the afternoon.  I decided on this tabbouleh dish, which was featured in Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet.

The Kind Diet is a great resource if you're curious about a healthy vegan diet, as well as if you're interested in exploring some more macrobiotic type dishes (aka, what Silverstone describes as "superhero" foods).   The book includes tons of recipes, as well as information about the health benefits of a vegan diet and some information about ethical veganism.

The recipe I chose to make is from the "superhero" section of the book.   It calls for bulgur, radishes, green onions, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt.  My minor changes were cooking the bulgur to the package directions, using cilantro in lieu of parsley (had a lot in the fridge to use up!) and adding black pepper.  I also made sure to mix in the lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning while the barley was hot so that the salad would absorb its flavors better.  We'll see how it tastes tomorrow!

I also made a big batch of kale chips to share with some of my fellow retreaters.  This time, I went easier on the olive oil and let the kale chips cook on paper towels.  It seemed to help make them less greasy this time.  I also used my salad spinner to get the kale nice and dry before coating and seasoning it.

Vegan Black Bean Quesadillas and Kale Chips

Yesterday, I cooked up a large batch of black beans to use for this week's meals.  Tonight, I used some in my vegan quesadillas.

To make the filling, I cut 1/2 a red onion and one yellow pepper into strips.  I sauteed them on high heat until they were soft and slightly browned, a little over five minutes.  I then stirred in the black beans and some minced garlic, and generously seasoned the mix with cumin, salt, pepper and fresh cilantro.  Once the mix was heated through, I removed it from the heat and stirred in a few handfuls of baby spinach.

To cook the quesadillas, I used my griddler.  The griddler is essentially a combination of an electric grill pan and an electric griddle.  Using the panini setting on high gave me grill marks on both sides.  Before I put the top layer of tortilla on, I added cheddar and mozzarella daiya.  I then let the quesadilla cook until brown grill marks appeared on top and the quesadilla was flat.

While the quesadillas were cooking, I made a quick salsa with heirloom grape tomatoes, minced red onion, fresh cilantro and lime juice.

I  also made my own kale chips, using this recipe as a guide for prep and cooking time (300 degrees, 20 minutes).  I decided to amp up the seasoning by adding minced onion instead of salt and pepper.  I think I added a little too much olive oil, but the seasoning mix was spot on.

The quesadillas were very filling.  Granted I overstuffed the second batch, which is what I had for dinner tonight.  I ended up eating three of the four slices.  The first one was a little flatter, and that's likely what I'll eat for lunch tomorrow.

Vegan Comfort Food: Grilled "Cheese"

I loved grilled cheese as a kid, and that love affair continued well into my teenage years and adulthood.  Grilled cheese was a great high school kids on a suburban rampage, 3:00 a.m. Jersey diner meal, and also a nice, quick thing to make when I was tired, cranky or otherwise wanted to feel like less of an adult.

And sometimes, I just crave it.  Tonight was one of those nights.  While attempting peacock pose in tonight's yoga class (and by attempting, I mean getting one foot off the floor, whacking my forehead on my mat and falling over), I kept having the same thought - "You know, I really want grilled cheese for dinner."

I decided this might be a great opportunity to give yet another one of my childhood favorites a vegan, whole grain make-over.  I started with seven grain bread from a local bread company, Spring Mill Bakery.   The bread has a great texture, and a touch of sweetness from honey. All of their breads are made with whole grains, and have no preservatives or high fructose corn syrup.  Locals, you can pick up this bread from seven area locations, and perhaps even at a local store.  Ours came from Grosvenor Market.

To get the nice, crispy browning effect that is the hallmark of truly excellent grilled cheese, I spread both slices of bread with soy-free Earth Balance, a vegan butter substitute.  The Earth Balance website notes a number of nutritional advantages in comparison to butter or margarine, namely a good amount of Omega-3 fatty acids and no trans fats.  If you want to try Earth Balance and don't care about whether it has soy or not, you can get it at pretty much any supermarket.  However, if, like me, you are soy allergic or severely soy intolerant, your best bet is Whole Foods, which carries multiple types of the spreads.

For the cheese, I used cheddar style daiya.  You've heard me wax rhapsodic about daiya before, but, to recap, it's a vegan cheese alternative with no soy ingredients, and it's also free of lactose and casein, which more and more folks are realizing they have sensitivities to.  It has a "meltyness" that most vegan cheeses lack, and meltyness is another crucial element of a yummy grilled cheese.  Since it comes in shredded form and melts more slowly than traditional cheese, you need a little more dexterity during the flipping process than you might with a traditional grilled cheese.  Daiya is available at Whole Foods and MOM's in the DC area, and also at Wegmans, Kroger, Giant Eagle and a host of other natural and traditional supermarkets.

A traditional side to a grilled cheese is either french fries or potato chips, but, since this is a healthy make-over as well as a vegan one, I paired mine with fresh cherry tomatoes and Brad's Raw Kale Chips in the Vampire Killer flavor.  A serving of kale chips provides 140% of your Vitamin A, as well as five grams of fiber, and only 0.5 grams of saturated fat.  Beats potato chips any day!

The result?  Same great grilled cheese flavor and crunchy/cheesy texture, but without any animal products, and filling in a satisfying, rather than heavy way.