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

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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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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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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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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