Freshly Vegetarian: Ashley See on Transitioning to A Vegetarian Diet, Including Tips, Health Benefits & Recipes

The holidays can be bittersweet for those of us who don't eat traditional Thanksgiving fare (turkey). Questions like, "So what are we going to feed you?", start to come up, as does the blood pressure of hosts who aren't use to accommodating an herbivore.

But believe it or not, there is plenty that someone who doesn't eat meat -- let alone dairy, soy or gluten -- can gobble up at the Thanksgiving table.

This year is unique for me, as I'm looking at holiday dishes with a new perspective: food allergies. Fortunately, I don't have any host(ess) to stress out with my no gluten and no soy veganism, but I can only feel for those who do. So whether you have a food allergy, are accommodating someone who has one, or maybe you're looking to try something new, then I hope my collection of recipes below proves helpful.

Note: please bear in mind that I haven't made all of these recipes, some are on my to-make list, so any notes I make on adapting recipes must be taken with a grain of salt, as I haven't tested every adaptation.

Key:

V = Vegan
SF = Soy-free
GF = Gluten-free

 Salad

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It's tough to beat Northwest farmers markets in the summertime. Booths are overflowing with peaches, berries, tomatoes and corn. Which reminds me to re-make Smitten Kitchen's tomato and corn pie -- a pie that presented many firsts for me: my first savory pie, my first homemade vegetarian meal, even my first meal with in-season tomatoes from the market!

Mmm...sweet thoughts of how superior summer tomatoes are.

That's enough about tomatoes though, as this isn't a tomato cobbler (but if that interests you then Lottie + Doof and Ellen Fork both have lovely recipes). Back to peaches.

You see, I spent my morning with The Grand Central Baking Book -- and by spent, I mean scanned every recipe I had previously marked as a must-make, nearly every recipe in the book, so it can be returned to the library on time -- which was when I stumbled upon the peach cobbler recipe. Given that my fruit bowl overfloweth with the juicy fruit, it was perfect timing.

So a little vegan-izing and gluten-free'ing later, I had myself a tasty peach cobbler that's worthy of filing in my favorite summer desserts. And yes, I am eating dairy, gluten, wheat and soy-free these days in attempt to try and identify a food allergy. While this won't be forever, I'm definitely learning how to adapt and prepare food in a new way. If you prefer, you can certainly use all-purpose flour and butter to replace my adaptations.

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True to form, I'm still hooked on simple summer salads.

Anytime I'm making something as simple as the following recipe is, I feel the least I can do is cook my own chickpeas. So all you need to do is have some in the fridge, or soak them the night before. Because I use chickpeas so regularly, I've gotten in the habit of soaking and cooking some once a week. At the least, they make for a fast snack. Plus, my temptation to eat hummus by the bucket loads, a la You Don't Mess with The Zohan, is perpetuated by having them so accessible.

For the record, this sauce is dangerously delicious. I'm convinced it would be tasty on more than just this salad, starting with an easy addition to plain grains. And for you brown baggers, this salad not only keeps well in the fridge, but still tastes lovely a few days later.

 

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In the summertime, my patience weens. I like rawer foods, quicker meals and fewer dishes. And with the farmers markets full of raw, colorful treats, why not dive headfirst into salads?

 

Lately I've been stockpiling salad recipes to make over the summer, and since I had some avocado to use up, I had just the recipe from Eating for England to make.

The good news is how easy and flexible this grain salad is. I'm confident you could use a variety of vegetables in place of the ones Angharad and I did, and it would still turn out nicely. Red quinoa? Chickpeas? I'm sure both would be welcomed substitutes. Aside from ingredients, this dish could easily be served as a filling side dish, or perhaps stuffed into a tortilla.

Bonus points: this is a one-pot recipe (OK, plus a citrus juicer).

Extra bonus points: this is a great dish to make for brown bag lunches, as it keeps well in the fridge.

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Remember when I said I would be blogging some recipes from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day soon? Soon is now. You see, yesterday was Thursday and my biweekly healthy baking adventure continues as I make morning treats for my dad's colleagues.

Oatcakes are seemingly everywhere. If you haven't heard of them, no pasa nada, I hadn't either until recently. However, once they hopped on my radar they were there to stay. I can't seem to shake 'em! Every bakery I peer in has them showcased; every farmers market has them featured...heck, even my local co-op is selling them as an afternoon pick-me-up! Despite this influx, it wasn't until I heard a gal pal proclaim her love for oatcakes that I figured it was time to find out what the big deal was.

Now I know.

I cannot decide if these make for a better breakfast, snack or dessert. They're light enough to be eaten after breakfast without messing up lunch, yet strong enough in sweetness to pass a dessert They're also portable enough to survive as a purse riding snack, hello healthy airplane food! Whenever you choose to eat them is up to you (if you're me then that's within 45 seconds of pulling them out of the oven), just make sure you have a hot cuppa something to wash them down with.

Smitten with the comforting taste these oatcakes pack, there was something about these that tasted familiar. It's warm...it's maple syrup-y...it's French toast! So I think it's fair to say: if you love French toast, you'll love these oatcakes. Pretty impressive for a recipe that doesn't call for a flake of cinnamon, eh?

Also impressive? These oatcakes have 5g of fiber and 5g protein in each cake.

 

For those with special dietary concerns, I think these oatcakes are pretty flexible. I already substituted the eggs , so if you want to completely veganize them then you could easily leave the butter out and use all coconut oil. I don't know a lot about gluten-free diets, so if you're gf and use this recipe then let me know what tweaks you made. Lastly, if concerned about sweetness, see my notes after the jump.

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This week, I had the pleasure of making one of Marion Cunningham's recipes from The Breakfast Book, and whoa mama!

If you want to make a snack for tea time, or gift a somewhat unusual, larger than life loaf of bread, then I think this is one to consider. It's a tad sweet, but that's to be expected with anything including raisins.

Biweekly, my pops has a meeting with all of his colleagues, and when I discovered he was supplying them with Safeway doughnuts, I happily volunteered myself to bake alternative goods instead. Who doesn't love an opportunity to hone their baking skills, especially without the promise of having to eat the resulting bounty? My pops naturally agreed. All meeting attendees are men, most are somewhat health conscious and avoid heavily sweet things. My kinda crowd to bake for.

Aside from being fairly healthy, the only other stipulation to what I make is that it must go well with coffee. Cannon Beach city hall, the workplace of topic, neighbors a lovely little organic coffee roaster, Sleepy Monk (their site seems to be down currently, here's their Facebook), that makes some of the best coffee -- also the strongest -- that I've ever had. (And bear in mind I don't say that in politeness; I've lived in Seattle, and with coffee connoisseurs, so I'm familiar with what good coffee tastes like.) So needless to say, the staff is hooked on good coffee and any accompanying treats must go with their cuppa Joe.

After a few months of practice, I think I'm beginning to really get the hang of what they like. This recipe makes either two regular-sized loafs, or one freakishly large round loaf. Since I only have one bread pan, I opted for the one round loaf, and it rose to be jumbo. Now when I say jumbo, I mean JUMBO! Shocked by the enormity of the resulting loaf, I couldn't help but measure it: 11" in diameter!

Pardon the terrible photo, but here's the loaf to scale with a medium-sized apple:

I halved that big boy, and sent a half to work with each of my parents (naturally after sampling a piece myself), and both workplaces gobbled up every last bit before 9 a.m. My mom didn't even get a slice!

Without further adieu, the recipe:

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They say you shouldn't buy a car without test-driving it. I feel similarly toward cookbooks -- which is why I'm often seen camped out in the culinary section of my library, many cookbooks strewn about  -- because you can test-drive the recipes before taking the plunge of purchase.

That said, one of my recent check-outs was Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook. I found a few recipes that piqued my interest, but my due date was up, so after not giving it much of a chance, I took it back feeling underwhelmed. As the librarian checked it back in, she asked whether or not I made Mollie's mushroom soup. When I replied that I hadn't, she bit her lip and looked at me with sorrow. After confessing she's not much of a cook, she said she's head-over-heels for Mollie's mushroom soup.

 

Since hearing this glowing review, and having heard several non-vegetarians/vegans say this cookbook was one of their favorites, I felt I didn't give the cookbook enough of a chance, and re-checked it out. First stop: this beloved mushroom soup.

(What the librarian neglected to tell me was which one of the three mushroom soup recipes in the book she was cuckoo for).

Out of the three, I picked the richest sounding one: Hungarian mushroom soup. And while I'm still unsure whether or not this recipe was the librarian's favorite, this is easily one of my favorite soups. I plan on making this again...and again. In future makings, I would love to veganize it (the milk and butter are easy, but I am unsure how to substitute yogurt in a creamy soup -- silken tofu? Soy yogurt? Recommendations are welcome!).

Looks like that librarian does more than just renew books, as my faith in Mollie's cookbook has been revitalized; I'm pumped to try out more of her recipes, particularly the soups!

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Sometimes you need a reminder that tropical places do exist, and are likely warmer than where you are. Often times, crawling out of bed when I can see frost on the windshields from my bedside is a challenge; however, having a tropical warm breakfast is incentive to get up and welcome the day. So ladies and gentlemen, I give you a pineapple-y treat.

If I would have never made pineapple and basil sundaes, I would have never known that basil and pineapple go together so well. So it might sound a bit weird to add basil to this, but I promise it's a good idea.

In the original recipe, from The 10 Cent Diet, which I recently discovered, Lori says this can be a breakfast, dessert or snack. With the level of sweetness, and how filling it is, I would say this isn't an ideal snack food -- unless you really dig substantial, meal-like snacks. 

And as for dessert, I prefer having sweet things earlier in the day so I'm more likely to burn it off throughout the day (Ross, an Austin-based personal trainer agrees, as does eat, drink and be vegan & apparently Fit for Life) instead of having it sit on top of dinner and digest while I'm sleeping.

 

 

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I -- you know, the same girl that was capable of eating an entire pan of cupcakes by herself within a day or two; the one that couldn't go to sleep without a taste of ice cream -- learned that I have a sugar addiction (a related and recent must-read New York Times article, Is Sugar Toxic?). You think I would have been able to admit this after devouring a plate full of frosted goodness, but denial is a mighty thing...

They say, and we all know that most things are fine in moderation. Well, this simple principle wasn't something I was raised with, so to this day it's been a challenge to get it through my thick head and into daily practice. I, unfortunately, love sweets, but far too much.

With this realized, in the last 6-8 months I have cut back on my sugar intake drastically. That family I was living with in Australia had an awesome sense of good nutrition and was kind enough to help me ween my sugar addiction. No longer living there, I'm faced with putting the self in self-control and force myself to stay on track and avoid send my blood sugar levels soaring.

Needless to say, my eyes are constantly on the roam for healthy sweet treats. The good news is that there are a ton of great blogs and cookbooks that document healthier dessert/snack options, one of my favorites being Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks. When my pops requested I bake something for a meeting with his colleagues, I turned to Heidi's blog and found a magical little cookie recipe that was a total crowd pleaser.

 

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When it comes to comfort food, most people conjure up thoughts of ooey, gooey casserole dishes their mothers used to make. Maybe macaroni and cheese? Lasagna? Or perhaps your sweet tooth does the thinking and it's something a little less savory and a little more chocolate chippy?

Whatever your comfort food of choice is, we all know the lovely ambiance created by merely thinking of it; it's pillowcases right out of the dryer. It's the smell of freshly baked bread.

Prior to two years ago, my comfort foods came in candy wrappers, rhymed with schmeet bloaf, or flavor offerings of chicken and beef. Sexy, I know. Thankfully, times have changed and since becoming a vegetarian (and significantly healthier), these former "comforts" have been given the boot.

Everything I've eaten in the last year and a half has been relatively new. In fact, I've hardly had the same dish twice! With that said, it's been hard to develop favorite comfort foods when I'm constantly eating new things. Comfort food genres maybe--after all, every Pacific Northwesterner has a place in their heart for soup, especially on those blistery, wet winter days that happen...well, often. Even in summer. 

So, you can imagine my surprise when after making some dal for the first time, I immediately fell head over heels into the comfort food cloud. It all started with some zucchini that needed using; I flipped open Amadea Morningstar's The Ayurvedic Cookbook and landed on the simple, yet tasty, zucchini and mung dal recipe. And boy oh boy, will this page forever be dog-eared.

Far from spicy (although it can easily be made spicy by upping the chili, if that's your cup of tea), this dish is incredible simple and nourishing. No one flavor will stand out and impress you, it's more of a collective mmm that I, and everyone else at the table, partook in.

I foresee this being a staple in my recipe index. SInce this dal a calming dish for all dashas, it will please all constitutions (vatas, pittas or kaphas (*ahem*) and can easily be made for anyone.

This dish goes really well with basmati rice and a vegetable side dish. As you can see I opted for white basmati and broccoli. Morningstar notes that this dish goes really well with rice and rotali (chipattis). While I wasn't able to chipattis this time around, I most certainly will next time. And let me tell you, there will be a next time.

I will absolutely be making this again. And again. And again!

Recipe is after the jump.

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Rice?...For breakfast? Count me in.

I'm not sure why I found eating rice for breakfast so taboo, but I did. And let me tell ya, I've been missing out.

Lately I've been experimenting with new recipes quite a bit (will be blogging many of them over the next few weeks), but mainly lunch and dinner recipes. When it comes to breakfast I'm quite predictable: it's bran muffins, peanut butter on homemade bread or porridge/oatmeal.

Yet, in conjunction with seeing rice-based breakfast recipes everywhere (Easy Peasy Organic's Lemony Breakfast Rice; An Open Cookbook's Black Sticky Rice Breakfast Surprise; Healthy. Happy. Life.'s Almond Arborio Breakfast Porridge with Poached Figs & Salted Peanut Orange-Vanilla RIce Pudding, and Whole Living's Hot Rice Breakfast Drink) and having some leftover Basmati rice, I decided to change things up. So, I flipped open The Ayurvedic Cookbook by Amadea Morningstar and found her breakfast rice recipe. On ayurvedic cooking, this is a whole new world (don't tell me those little words don't connote Aladdin's carpet ride for you too) for me and I'm just starting to learn and explore, so I cannot really comment much on that front; however, after making a few ayurvedic recipes and reading a bit, I have found the food, thus far, to be really complimentary to my digestion, as well as simple, straightforward and satisfying.

Anyway, back to rice for breakfast. If you're looking for an alternative that is lighter than oatmeal (especially if you use soy milk) then this is a good recipe to try out.

Recipe is after the jump.

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It's no secret that I love breakfast. Yet, over the last month I've ate light in the morning after reading two books: Skinny Bitch and An Autobiography: My Experiments with Truth (Gandhi).

Both books highlight the importance of eating in moderation, especially breakfast. Gandhi went through various phases of a fruitarian diet--only eating raw fruit and sometimes nuts to exercise self-restraint. Meanwhile, Skinny Bitch points out that breakfast shouldn't be eaten like clockwork because you're used to it, but eating enough because you're hungry. They advise sipping on caffeine-free herbal tea when you first wake, and when the stomach starts growling -- and you're truly hungry -- to only eat organic fruit. You wait for the hunger pangs so you don't interrupt your body's cleaning session, aka still breaking down the dinner/dessert from the night before; otherwise, your body will store the excess food as fat.

I will admit that it does make my walk to work a bit lighter in step, but sometimes you need a hearty breakfast under your belt. Which is why I made Hungry Yogini's sweet quinoa breakfast a few days back and mmm! While I still prefer my fruity sesame porridge, this was a nice gluten-free substitute.

Recipe after the jump.

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Whether you're a college kid nearing the end of term and dollars, or perhaps you need a quick snack and can't be bothered to whip up something magical, the quesadilla has been a best friend to many.

Good plain or filled with all sorts of fantasticness, quesadillas are misconceived by most Americans. I applaud Sean Lawler for pointing this out. In Cook's Illustrated: American Classics 2010, he wrote the most accurate anecdote about quesadillas I've ever read:

A truly "authentic" quesadilla is just a humble kitchen snack: a fresh handmade tortilla folded around a mild melting cheese, quickly friend or crisped on a griddle, then devoured just as quickly. As the quesadilla migrated north of the border, however, it evolved into a greasy happy-hour spectacle for beer and burger joints, becoming nothing more than bad Mexican pizza: stale and soggy supermarket tortillas filled with "buffalo chicken" or "Cajun shrimp" and sliced into big, floppy triangles.

On the hunt for the perfect quesadilla, Lawler did a nice job of offering up something far tastier than nuking some shredded cheese atop a tortilla in the microwave, yet it's still simple and easy on the wallet.

Recipe after the jump.

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I recently learned that a natural remedy to alleviate allergies is to consume locally produced honey. While I'm still not sure exactly how much local honey helps, I know my itchy eyes are driving me bonkers, so anything is worth a shot.

A few months ago, I ventured down to Pike Place Market and stopped off at the Moon Valley Honey stand. A few lingering stares with their adorable honey bears left me walking out with a few different flavors and a girl crush on the helpful associate. It was moments soon after that I developed a Pooh Bear-like addiction to a jar of fireweed honey.

While gobbling down pawfuls of the honey isn't a stretch of the imagination, I figured it was best to look for a recipe to justify my addiction. By golly did I find a winner that also taught me how to cook flavorful tofu! Yes, I realize there are probably hundreds of thousands of flavorful tofu recipes out there, but I hadn't come across one I dare took on. I was so freaked out by cooking tofu that I readily developed a taste for raw tofu, dipped in shoyu (soy sauce) and dusted with furikake (aka my favorite lazy meal). 

Finally in that same publication I got the avocado chimichurri bruschetta recipe, Vegetarian Times presents "Healing Foods Cookbook" they had a honey tofu recipe I knew I had to make.

For my fellow tofu cooking phobes, fret not as this recipe is fast, easy and totally tasty.

 

 

 

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I recently picked up Vegetarian Times special edition, "Healing Foods Cookbook," which is rad on several fronts, but its main allure is the spread of 25 foods we all need, accounted for in 75 tasty-looking recipes.

An odd irony that a buttery-tasting food, like the avocado, can be jam packed with good monounsaturated fats that lower cholesterol and fight away heart disease. Avocados are major win for indulgent eaters like m'self, who don't want to sacrifice rich-tasting foods for good health.

This is a perfect dish to serve up for friends as a side or appetizer on a sunny summer day. I chose to make it for a main and it ended up lasting me six dinners -- the good news is that the dish was just as delicious on the first night as it was the sixth. While someone with a heartier appetite can likely eat more than one slice per meal, I had mine with a thick slice of Grand Central Bakery's poco como loaf, the first night my eyes were bigger than my stomach and after eating two I readily realized one would have sufficed nicely.

Fortunately the avocado mixture kept nicely in the fridge, as there's enough lemon juice to prevent anything from going brown.

Recipe after the jump.

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Before I was a vegetarian, I stumbled upon a delicious and easy vegan pudding recipe that blew my socks off. I love to bake and love dig anything using whole milk, but this recipe is made with silken tofu and drop your pants amazing.

I know what you're thinking...tofu, in dessert? Gross.

I see your skepticism and raise you that I made this for my meat loving parents. They loved it! Prior to this recipe, I never understood the purpose or had the desire to use silken tofu. And while I still haven't used it in any other recipe, this one alone always leaves me with a package of soft tofu on hand.

Since a week wouldn't be complete without me blogging about Mark Bittman in some fashion, I'll quote him on this Mexican chocolate tofu pudding recipe, as I originally found it in his Bitten column. He says there's only three reasons to eat chocolate that uses tofu instead of cream:

1. You're lactose intolerant.
2. You're vegan.
3. It really tastes good.
   

 And it does.
 

 

See the written recipe after the jump.

 

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Goldilocks had it right, a bowl of porridge is hard to come by - not too hot, not too cold and not too much.

Within the last week, I've been working my weekend pleasure (porridge with dried fruit) into my weekly routine and it's proving worthwhile. Lately I can't handle the acidity in coffee to start my day, so a solid breakfast and a cup of tea are necessary to an energetic morning.

After tweaking a Nicola Graimes's already easy-peasy recipe in Vegetarian: Over 300 Healthy and Wholesome Recipes Chosen From Around the World, I finally found porridge that is worthy even of Goldilocks.

 

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Little to nothing says comfort food like a lasagna. Mobbing the throne of versatility, lasagna is lovely when prepared for 20, or just for one; lasagna almost always tastes better the second day over the first.

Partial to meatless lasagnas far before becoming a vegetarian, I always wanted to learn how to whip one up, but was readily intimidated that it was too hard. Instead of splurging on a few ingredients and giving lasagna from scratch a whirl, I adamantly kept a close eye on the frozen aisle for sales on Michael Angelo's vegetable lasagna. When prices dipped beneath $5 a box, I was frequently found playing my own version of Tetris with those green boxes in my grocery basket!

Leave it to good ol' Mark Bittman to break me of my preservative-loving ways and introduce a straightforward recipe for vegetable lasagna. Although I grabbed the recipe (that's after the jump) from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Bittman also blogged a very similar recipe (only difference is use of mozzerella) over on Bitten in late February.

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Anyone who loves breakfast knows what a shame it is to rush through their favorite meal. Remove eggs, flaky sweets and some freshly squeezed o.j. from any breakfast fiend's diet and they're destined to wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

This is why I have resorted to pre-cooking and baking my needs for the week on Sundays. Despite my preference, an apathetic gym schedule doesn't justify cinnamon rolls each morning; however, I have found that a daily bran muffin accompanies my morning coffee nicely. It's also handy for a bite en route.

Summed up into minis or jumbos, these muffins are a weekday must.

Some prefer their bran muffins to be filled with raisins, carrots or other morning glory goods, but I like my morning usual stripped down and delicious, hence why I recommend Erin Cooks, Basic Bran Muffin recipe:

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