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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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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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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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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