Halloween The first time I make lentil soup in the fall is usually for Halloween, when the kids are just itching to be off trick-or-treating and I want them to have something solid in their stomachs before they start eating all that candy. Lentil soup can simmer on the stove, so if anything upsets the …
Tag Archives: vegan
Leek and potato soup
A base for many soups Leeks are, like celery and chives, one of the first plants available in the spring, because they’re stalks and not leaves. So leeks are a great seasonal food for early spring. Leek and potato soup is great by itself, but it’s also a good base for many other soups. Add …
Lamb stew
Housewarming party in January: What to make for fifty people coming to a housewarming party in January? We made a great deal of finger food, but we also wanted to have a hot stew that would do for dinner if people didn’t eat before they arrived. I came up with this stew, which has very …
Falafel
Now that I’ve made it, I can see why falafel was so popular in the Islamic world, where cooking fuel was expensive! This is a way to cook beans that requires almost no fuel, as opposed to boiling them where you have to keep a hot fire going for a couple of hours. How to …
Couscous
Embarrassing Cooking Moments, Take 1: I’m spending the summer in Tunisia, and I’m cooking couscous for my family, because that’s mainly what people eat in Tunisia. So I’m boiling water and couscous in a saucepan, and our landlady, Zachia, walks in, and she thinks it’s so funny that I’m boiling couscous instead of steaming it. …
Chili and cornbread
American Food My teenagers complain that I make hippie food and not American food, so this is an effort to make something their friends will recognize when they decide to stay for dinner. But without any processed foods, sugar, or meat in it. The friends liked it anyway. How to make chili and cornbread: In …
Celery-mushroom soup
Celery Season Celery’s one of the first spring vegetables to come into season, because it’s basically a stem, like rhubarb or chives. It’s so exciting to have a new food after all those root vegetables and apples in the winter! But you can’t just be eating celery sticks all the time, so you need some …
Cauliflower curry
How to make cauliflower curry: First put on a pot of rice. In a small saucepan, put 1 1/2 cups of rice and 3 cups of water. Cover and heat over high heat until the water boils; then turn the rice down to medium-low heat and keep cooking, covered, until the rice has absorbed all …
Black-eyed peas and rice
Don’t you need bacon for black-eyed peas and rice? You can put 1/4 pound of chopped bacon in to saute with the onions if you want. We’ve found that spices can make a good black-eyed peas and rice even without the bacon, and we’ve been trying to stay away from bacon and other processed meats …
Bean burgers
Sometimes in the summer it just seems like burger time, maybe with corn on the cob, but what if you don’t want to eat beef? These bean burgers are great with ketchup, mustard, pickles, slices of tomato, lettuce, or whatever you like to put on your burgers. How to make bean burgers: After breakfast or …