vegan – Page 3 – Well Dined

19
Aug
2013

Summer Succotash

categories: Recipes

This stunning dish comes to you from my weekly vegetarian lunches with Melissa from Smells Like Brownies. Consisting of just vegetables with a little feta, this is about as healthy as you can get! It’s also super filling and surprisingly delicious. I say surprisingly because let’s be honest, most people don’t go around graving a pile of veggies. But this is so good that even my veggie hating husband liked it! Served warm with a variety of textures and flavors, vibrant basil, and salty cheese – it really leaves you feeling satisfied.

Great on it’s own as a lunch, served as a side to chicken or steak (which is what I did with leftovers), or even stuffed into a pita pocket – this is a super healthy AND yummy Summer dish. It can also become vegan quite easily. So how about it? Let’s get some veggies into our lives! (more…)

17
Jul
2013

Mexican Style Quinoa Salad

categories: Recipes

This vegetarian/vegan meal that I made with Melissa of Smells Like Brownies is perfect for summer. It is light and fresh (but still filling), takes advantage of summer produce, and is packed with protein.

All you have to do is combine the ingredients – corn, tomato, avocado, bell pepper, scallions, jalapeno, black beans, cooked quinoa.

Then toss with a dressing of lime, olive oil, honey, and cumin.

Top with some fresh cilantro (or parsley if you, like me, are not a fan) and your perfect summer lunch awaits! You can serve it warm, cold, or room temp – doesn’t matter. The ingredient list is also totally flexible, go with whatever ratio of quinoa to veg you like, take out the stuff you don’t like, add in something you do, make it yours. (more…)

17
May
2013

Juicing

categories: Recipes

About a month ago I got really excited about juicing after watching a documentary called “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.” The man in the film goes on a 2 month long juice fast, which I was definitely not prepared to do. I wasn’t even prepared to do the more standard 7-10 day juice fast. But I did like the idea of using juices to consume large quantities of raw vegetables in a more palatable manner. So I bought a ton of veggies and went to work.

I started with a recipe from the doc’s website and added a little to it, using carrots, bell pepper, apple, ginger, golden beet, fennel, and mango.

Gorgeous color! I used too much ginger, though, it had quite a kick. (more…)

13
Feb
2013

Spiced Carrot Soup with Crispy Chickpeas and Tahini

categories: Recipes

I don’t know about you, but I am not a huge fan of raw carrots. Warm spiced carrot soup with tahini on a cold day, though? Yeah, I’m a big fan of that.

This is another dish brought to you by my vegetarian lunches with Melissa at Smells Like Brownies. She pulled together a couple of recipes to come up with this one.

Carrots, onion, garlic, coriander, and cumin all go into the pot with vegetable stock. (more…)

04
Feb
2013

Mini Pie Party

categories: Recipes

My friend Keerin was coming over to watch Game of Thrones (I’m pretty much obsessed) and I wanted to make some food for us. She is vegan and I do not cook vegan food that much so I was trying to think of what I could make. I knew that I had a bunch of fresh and frozen vegetables, but I didn’t want to make something boring. That’s when it hit me – we could play with my mini pie machine!

What the heck is a mini pie machine, you ask? It’s a fun little electrical device, kind like a panini press – except that it makes adorable personal sized pies! The machine comes with a cutter to cut the perfect size circles for the base and top. You use puff pastry for the tops and you can either use puff pastry or pie dough for the bottom. I am not a big fan of store bought-refrigerated pie dough is general, but it works great for this because it is a bit tougher. All you do is press a circle of dough into the bottom of one of the four wells using a tool that is included, spoon in the filling, lay a circle of dough on top, and close the lid. The pies cook in about 8 minutes – so fast! Because the cooking time is so short, the filling needs to be precooked.

Fear not if you do not have this machine, though (and I assume most people don’t because it is silly and extravagant) – You can just fold circles of dough over filling into half moon hand pies and bake them in the oven.

So, because the pies are personal sized and because they cook so quickly – I knew that each of us could play around with filling combinations. I had frozen peas, corn, green beans, spinach, and butternut squash – so I microwaved those to pre-cook them (I cut the green beans into bite-sized pieces). I cut up some carrots and parsnips and microwaved those, and then I drained a can of chick peas (gotta have protein!). I also had some fake beef crumbles and Keerin brought some fake cheese. (more…)

31
Jan
2013

Ratatouille

categories: Recipes

Ratatouille – a delicious french vegetable dish that is usually kind of like a stew. I found a recipe from WendyinKK that was inspired by the more upscale version presented in the Disney film. Beautifully sliced veggies layered in a casserole – this is so gorgeous and hearty. It is time consuming though, so be prepared.

Eggplant, bell pepper, roma tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini. You will probably want to bust out the mandolin slicer for this one, unless your knife skills are really good.

Such beautiful slices! You will need to saute the eggplant and squash slices to release their moisture and enhance their flavor. (more…)

21
Jan
2013

Quinoa with Butternut Squash and Broccolini

categories: Recipes

It’s time for another vegetarian lunch dish with Melissa from Smells Like Brownies! Similar to our last lunch (post here) we went with quinoa and roasted butternut squash, but changed up the rest of the flavors. This time we added in broccolini, cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, and a delicious avocado cream.

We started out by cooking the quinoa and roasting the squash, which should take about the same time. We followed the directions and added the broccolini into the partially cooked quinoa to blanch, but it wasn’t really cooking, so we put the lid on to steam it which turned it brown. Next time, I think I would blanch the broccolini in a separate pot from the quinoa. (more…)

06
Nov
2012

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato, Kale, Apple, and Red Onion

categories: Recipes

I recently had a lunch date with my friend Melissa of Smells Like Brownies. As a long time vegetarian, I wanted her help to learn ways of using quinoa other than just as a substitute for rice. She suggested that we make this Quinoa salad, chock-full of roasted veggies with a balsamic dressing. I couldn’t wait to try it! Roasted sweet potatoes and red onion, hearty kale, sweet and tangy apples – all the beautiful flavors of Fall. (more…)

20
Sep
2012

Hard “Boiled” (Baked) Eggs

categories: Recipes

I discovered this method of hard cooking eggs (attributed to Alton Brown) via Pinterest and Greetings from the Asylum. The concept is that baking them instead of boiling them is more consistent and results in less gray, less smelly, more creamy eggs.

As you can see, the eggs will sit perfectly on most oven racks and it doesn’t matter how clean the rack is, because you will be peeling the eggs. Bake them at 325 for 30 minutes.

As soon as you take them out (with tongs), plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking (and prevent that grey ring around the yolk that happens when they cool too slowly). (more…)

04
Sep
2012

Shaved Market Vegetable Salad

categories: Recipes

I was so inspired by this shaved vegetable salad at Simon in Las Vegas that the first thing I wanted to do when I got home was to make my own version.

So I went and bought the vegetables I wanted to use – carrots, celery, beets, fennel, and asparagus.

Then I sliced them up using the slicing blade on my food processor (a mandoline would also work) and tossed them with high quality olive oil, lime juice, and sea salt.

I actually stored the vegetables like that in the fridge and throughout the week or so that they lasted I would take out what I needed and add it to raw kale massaged with olive oil (which takes some of the bitterness out) along with watercress, grapes, pepitas, and fresh mozzarella for a delicious summer salad.

It is so healthy and fresh and keeping the vegetables raw means that you are getting the full nutritional value from them, plus they keep you super full. But this seriously tastes so good that you will not even be thinking about how healthy it is.

Tag: vegan