Veggie Soup

I really like soups. I can spend 30 minutes cooking one night and have leftovers for 3-4 days, or freeze it for days I don't feel like cooking. Also, soups are extremely college-budget friendly - most of the ingredients are dirt-cheap at the grocery store! Soup is also a great fate for all those random veggies in the back of the produce bin in your refrigerator. You can pack a whole day's worth of veggie servings into one meal!

In the stir-fry post, I mentioned that fresh veggies are best. Carrots, tomatoes, and a handful of other veggies are exceptions to this rule. Cooking helps to break down the cell walls of the vegetable so more nutrients can be absorbed. One of these nutrients is lycopene. Lycopene is a red pigment found in tomatoes and other rosy fruits such as watermelon, pink guava, red bell pepper and papaya. Several studies conducted in recent years (at Harvard Medical School, among others) have linked high intake of lycopene with a lower risk of cancer and heart attacks. Cooked carrots, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, peppers and many other vegetables also supply more antioxidants, such as carotenoids and ferulic acid, to the body than they do when raw. Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=raw-veggies-are-healthier

You'll need:

• 2 TBS olive oil
• 2-3 chopped garlic cloves
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2-3 carrots, cut into rounds (~2c)
• 3-4 celery stalks, cut into 1/2 pieces (~2c)
• 2 medium red potatoes, cut into 1/2 -1 inch cubes
• 3 large kale leaves, de-stemmed and cut into1-2 inch pieces.
• 4c low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2-4 c water
• <1TBS pepper
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 cans (~3c) butter beans... kidney beans... chickpeas... whatever you have on hand

1. Heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, carrots, and celery. Saute until onion is translucent and carrots begin to soften.
2. Add potatoes and kale. Cover with a lid and cook until kale reduces in volume by half (about 2-3 minutes).
3. Add paprika, pepper, and chili powder. Mix spices in thoroughly.
   
4. Add vegetable stock and water. You could add 7-8 cups of stock and omit the water... but water is cheaper and with all the vegetables and spices the extra stock isn't needed.
   
5. Cook until potatoes and carrots are soft, stirring occasionally.
   
6. Add butterbeans and cook until they are heated through. Adding them sooner will cause the beans to fall apart.

Nom, nom nom!

Tofu Veggie Stir-fry, and Fresh or Frozen??

Yesterday was a looonnngggg day. The last thing I felt like doing was cooking when I got home. This quick and easy stir fry could be dressed up if you used different vegetables or special sauces. You could add cashews or egg in place of the tofu if tofu isn't your cup of tea.

I've talked before about buying and eating seasonal produce. But what's a veggie to do when winter rolls around?? Our grocery stores *magically* make fresh produce that normally grows only in spring appear all year-round. What gives?? Usually this produce is imported from other countries thousands of miles away (check the little sticker or rubber-band!). Usually the produce is picked well before it is ripe, and then bounces along on a truck until it reaches your grocery store. Remember the phytochemicals? While your asparagus or tomatoes are en route, they loose a large percentage of these disease-fighting agents along the way!

The solution? Frozen produce. Fresh always best when it's in season and you can find it locally. Out of season, however, frozen produce is the next best option. It is usually not picked until it is ripe, and then flash-frozen immediately. That means (most of) those phytochemicals and other nutrients stay intact! Canned foods are another story. Preservatives, salt and other things are added and things turn funny colors.

Aaaaand... bags of pre-washed and cut vegetables are a wonderful thing to pull out of your freezer when you've had a long day. Which brings me to the recipe for Tofu Veggie Stir-fry. This recipe is enough for 2-4 people.

You will need:

1 block extra-firm tofu
1 (non-fuzzy) dish towel or multiple paper towels
Soy sauce
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1TBS chili powder
3-4 TBS chopped green onion
1c brown rice
2c water (more or less according to your rice's cooking directions)
One 1lb bag frozen stir fry veggies
3 TBS rice wine vinegar
1 TBS olive oil
Salt & pepper

1. Remove tofu from packaging and drain excess water. Wrap tofu in the towel and place it under something flat and heavy in your refrigerator... like your roommate's 6-pack of, ahem, beverages.
2. Take a nap (...at least I did. The tofu should stay wrapped in a towel and under compression for at least a half hour so all the excess water is pressed from the tofu so it's ready for the next step).
3. Begin boiling water for rice.
4. Cut tofu into 1" cubes, place in tupperware container with 3-4 TBS soy sauce, chili powder, and minced garlic. Shake and roll the tupperware gently until the tofu is coated in the mixture. Let the sit during the next step.
5. When water boils, add rice to water and cook according to the directions on the bag of rice (simmer over med-low heat for 30-40 minutes with a lid).
6. When the rice has ~10 minutes left to cook, heat olive oil over medium heat in a large, non-stick pan (or a wok, if you have one).
7. Add tofu to the hot oil (I know, I know... I said earlier to never overheat oil... but this is an exception I make since I don't cook tofu often. Otherwise it will stay soft and soggy). Use a fork to rotate the cubes until all sides are light brown. Remove the tofu from the pan and place it on a plate lined with a paper-towel to soak up any extra oil.
8. Into the still-hot pan, add your veggies. Mine were still quite frozen, and took a while to heat up. Once your veggies are warm, add pepper and rice wine vinegar.
9. Add the tofu back into the veggies and gently stir for another minute or two to reheat the tofu.
10. Serve the tofu and veggies over the rice. Add some of the green onion on top.

Nom!

Butternut Squash Soup

More squash!
Butternut squash has more vitamin A than pumpkin, is high in many of the B-vitamins, and is a good source of the minerals iron, zinc, copper, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus. It's high in dietary fiber as well.

You will need:

One 2-3# butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (use a large spoon to scrape out the seeds -- it's like carving a pumpkin!)
1/2 large onion, roughly chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 small potato, cubed
Whatever other veggies you have... I had a handful of baby carrots that needed to be used.
2 Tbs olive oil
4c vegetable stock (I used low-sodium)
1-2 Tsp each of black pepper and nutmeg
1/2 Tsp cinnamon
1/2 TBS salt

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Saute onion, celery, potato and celery until onion is translucent. Add cubed squash, vegetable stock, and spices. Cover with a lid and simmer for 30-40 minutes, or until squash is soft all the way through. Transfer contents of the pot to a blender or food processor (I had to do it in two batches), and blend until smooth.

Sweet Rice and Acorn Squash Bowls

It's that time of year... my two comforters are no longer sufficient and I need to break out the heater blanket. Which also means it's acorn squash season!! My mom made squash when my brother and I were little and I HATED it (sorry, mom). Even drowned in melted butter and brown sugar, squash was not something I would eat willingly.

Needless to say, that eventually changed. I recently watched documentary titled "Forks Over Knives." In the last part of the film, the pro-plant food (Whoop!) researchers meet for dinner and eat something that looks like wild rice baked in cute little acorn squash bowls. I had to try it. I felt guilty adding butter and brown sugar to something that's so naturally sweet, so the rice gets its sweetness from dried cranberries and walnuts.

This recipe isn't as pumped full of vegetables as my usual dinners are... on good days, anyway... but it's better than the ice cream I was craving on my way home from the rec center! Acorn squash has about 115 calories per 1cup serving, less than an equivalent serving of potato. That same 1c serving also packs 9g of dietary fiber and 2g of protein. To boost the protein in this meal, I added kidney beans and rice (legume + grain = complete protein!). Squash also contains vitamins E and B6, minerals potassium and magnesium, and over 30% of the daily recommended amount for vitamin C. Walnuts are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, too! I'll Nom to that!

The Ingredients:

1 acorn squash, cut in half and seeds scooped out (like a cantaloupe)
1 1/2 c wild rice, rinsed
1/2 c sweetened, dried cranberries
1/2 c walnut halves & pieces
1/2 c rinsed kidney beans
3c water
2 tsp pumpkin spice seasoning (cinnamon, allspice, cloves...)
2tsp salt + sprinkle for squash
2 tsp pepper + sprinkle for squash

Preheat oven to 400F

1. Bring water to a boil and add wild rice. Cook until most of the water is absorbed (~30 mins) and add pumpkin spice seasoning, salt, and pepper.
2. Microwave acorn squash half cut-side down on plastic wrap for 5 minutes
3. Cook rice until all water is absorbed, and add cranberries, walnuts, and kidney beans.
4. Remove squash from microwave and place cut-side up in a glass baking dish. Poke holes in the sides and bottom with a fork.
5. Sprinkle squash with salt and pepper, then scoop rice into the hole in the center (you will have enough rice for both halves and then some).
6. Bake squash for 10-15 more minutes.

And because I couldn't resist... I sprinkled ~1TBS brown sugar over the squash when it came out of the oven. Om Nom Nom!