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In my previous post, I mentioned that things were looking good for me with this vegan diet. I want to give you a quick update. I had my cholesterol checked last Thursday and it dropped from 260 to 171 mg/dL from when I started my vegan diet 7 weeks ago. My weight also dropped 20 lbs. and I am now 2 waist sizes down. Today, I had to find my drill so I can drill a hole on my belt because it was too big.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining :) This is a great problem to have. The annoying thing is that I've been trying to introduce fish back into my diet a couple of days this past week. It has not been successful! I would get stomach cramps almost immediately after eating the fish either cooked or raw in sushi. I might be stuck being a vegan for awhile. I guess this may not be a bad thing :)
Here is a simple recipe that I made a few times for dinner that I really enjoy. It's a combination Chinese and Vietnamese style spicy vegan veggie noodle soup.
- 2 cups of vegetables chopped (bok choy, gai choy, napa cabbage, or even spinach)
- 2-3 oz. wheat noodles
- 2-3 ginger slices
- A sprig of basil (I really like Thai basil if you can find it)
- A handful of bean sprouts
- 1/2 cup fresh mushrooms (shitake or cremini)
- 1 pint of vegetable stock
- 1 tsp. green curry paste (optional)
As you can tell measurement is not an exact science for this soup. Normally most of the noodles you'll see in Chinese restaurants are egg noodle. I'm still avoiding anything that has eggs in it so there are a couple of great choices like rice noodles or wheat noodles from Shanghai. I choose wheat noodles because it was sitting in my fridge and I didn't have anything else :)
Since going vegan I noticed that I prefer spicy flavoring in many of my dishes. I like adding a teaspoon of green curry paste to give it a kick! I also found many alternatives to stock and even oyster sauce! I really love oyster sauce during my pre-vegan days and I found a great alternative using mushroom oyster sauce. It's not the same but not bad at all.
Here is the hardest part. Place everything in a pot except the bean sprouts, basil, and noodles. Heat up the broth under the veggies are tender for about 2-3 minutes. Add the bean sprouts, basil, and noodles and cook for another 1-2 minutes and then serve. If you like more kick to it add your favorite chili sauce! Enjoy :)
Lamb it one of my favorite meats that I enjoy cooking and eating (pre-vegan days). My favorite cuts of lamb are the rack of lamb and the leg of lamb. Lamb chops are nice but I just don't cook it that often enough to appreciate it. Last weekend our friend Linda from New Zealand was visiting us and I wanted to see if I could create a perfect leg of lamb dish since she is a resident lamb expert living in NZ! Also my kids are not fond of lamb since they have only eaten lamb cooked traditionally as a roast. This was my second challenge to create something they would enjoy eating.
Instead of cooking a single perfect dish I thought it would be fun to create four different dishes with different techniques and serve it as a tasting menu. The four lamb dishes were:
- Pressure cooked lamb with a puff pastry crust
- Steamed ground lamb Siu Mai style
- Sous vide lamb with a wild mushroom sauce over roasted Yukon potatoes
- Grilled curry lamb with a veggie curry dipping sauce
The cooking techniques for each of the different items are very different and I was curious about the rankings for each of the dishes. Believe it or not there was not a clear winner! The ranking for each of the dishes by individual differ due to preferential taste. For example my wife ranked the puff pastry first and the curry last because she was never fond of curry. Our friend, Linda from New Zealand preferred the curry dish over the puff pastry because she loves curry!
I started off with making a trip to Costco for the largest leg of lamb that I could find. Costco leg of lamb is quite good, inexpensive, and it is from Australia. I have used Costco lambs in the past and have never been disappointed. Let's start with the sous vide lamb.
Sous Vide Lamb with Wild Mushroom Sauce
- 1 lb. leg of lamb with the fat and tendon removed
- 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of pepper
- 1 tbsp. crushed garlic
- 1 tsp. olive oil
- 2 lbs. Yukon potatoes
- 8 oz wild mushrooms (fresh or dried)
- Mushroom Roux - butter, flour, and mushroom broth
Preparation is quite simple for the lamb. Season the lamb with the rosemary, salt, pepper, olive oil, and garlic. Place this in a bag and vacuum under the "moist" setting. I like to use a Foodsaver for my vacuum packing. Place the lamb in a water bath (Sous Vide Supreme) at 127 degrees for 20 hours. I have experimented with lamb at 30 hours and at 10 hours. 30 hours makes the meat too tender and mushy while at 10 hours it is a bit tough. 20 hours is just perfect at 127 degrees.
While the lamb is cooking, make a mushroom based roux about an hour before serving. In a pan melt about 3 tbsp. of butter. Cook the wild mushroom in the roux until all the liquid from the mushroom has evaporated. Add about 3 tbsp. of flour to the mushroom and stir until the flour just begin to turn brown -- approximately a minute or two. Immediately add a pint of mushroom broth and continue stirring. If you don't stir quick enough the sauce will be lumpy and you'll have to start over again. The sauce will thicken almost immediately. Add salt and pepper to taste and set it aside. Take the Yukon potatoes and slice about 1/4" thick and soak in salt water for about 5 minutes. Dry the potatoes and drizzle olive oil over it. Grill it on the BBQ for about 2 minutes on each side until golden brown.
Remove the lamb from the water bath and cut the bag and pour the liquid from the bag into the mushroom roux. This will give the mushroom roux a nice lamb flavoring. Immediately sear the outside of the lamb on a very hot pan with vegetable oil for about 3-4 minutes. Don't use olive oil because the smoking point is too low. Place the grilled potatoes on the plate first, add slices of the lamb, and then top with the mushroom roux. You will have the most tender piece of medium-rare lamb that you'll ever eat!!!
Puff Pastry Pressure Cooked Lamb
I love my pressure cooker. Pressure cooking is a lost art and under appreciated because people link pressure cookers to the old days where things would explode unexpectedly. A lot has changed with pressure cooking where it is very safe and easy to use. This is also a very simple recipe and easy to make.
- 1 lb of leg of lamb chopped into 1" cubes
- 2 medium size carrots - chopped
- 1/2 yellow or sweet onions - chopped
- 1/2 lb fresh cremini or shitake mushrooms - cut in half
- 3 garlic cloves - crushed
- 1 pint of beef broth (unsalted)
- Flour
- Pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 tsp of Cajun seasoning
- Puff pastry sheet
Take the lamb cubes and season with salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning. Coat the cubes evenly with flour and set aside. Heat up the pressure cooker and add olive oil. Brown the lamb cubes evenly for about 5 minutes and add the rest of the ingredients. Cover the pressure cooker and set it to high pressure (15 psi) for about 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes is up let the pressure release naturally. After the pressure is released, open the lid and thicken the sauce with a cornstarch water mixture. Take some small ramekins and spoon the lamb mixture into them. Top each of the lamb mixture with puff pastry enough to cover the top. Bake in the oven at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes until the puff pastry is puffed and brown.
Steamed Lamb Dumplings - Sui Mai Style
Traditional sui mai is normally made with ground pork and shrimp. I modified this recipe to use ground lamb instead. One of the nicest find on ebay was a old 1960 metal meat grinder for our kitchen aid mixer. It was expensive but worth every penny!
- 1 lb ground lamb meat (grinding your own lamb meat is preferred)
- 4 dried shitake mushroom (rehydrate with hot water and chopped)
- 1/2 lb of fresh shrimp chopped coarsely
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 tsp of corn starch
- 2 tsp of soy sauce
- 1/4 cup green onion chopped
- Thin wonton skins (round preferred but square will do)
Combine the lamb, mushroom, shrimp, egg, corn starch, soy sauce, and green onion in a bowl and stir until everything is well mixed. Take a wonton skin and moisten the outside edge with either egg or water. Spoon about a tablespoon of the lamb mixture in the middle and fold the edges of the wonton up to form the dumpling. Steam the dumpling from 12 to 15 minutes in a steamer. Garnish with soy sauce and your favorite chili oil. Super simple and simply delicious!
Grilled Curry Lamb with Vegetable Curry Dipping Sauce
Here is another simple dish to make! It has a bit of Indian/Singaporean flavor to it.
- 1 lb lamb cut into 2" cubes
- Curry powder
- Cajun seasoning
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- Japanese curry cubes (medium hot)
- 2 carrots chopped
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 1 potato chopped (optional)
Take the lamb cube and marinate with the curry powder, Cajun seasoning, and olive oil. Place the lamb in the refrigerator over night. In a sauce pan, add olive oil and brown the onions for about 3-4 minutes. Add the carrots and potatoes. Add about a cup of water and approximately 2 cubes of the Japanese curry. Stir the mixture and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Place the marinated lamb cube on skewers (flavored preferred) and grill on a BBQ for about 8-10 minutes until it has cooked through. Serve the grilled lamb with the dipping sauce.
Results: No clear winner and everyone including my kids enjoyed the lamb. Success!!
I don't have any new recipes today as I am planning a big cookout on Sunday -- paella, crostinis, and other goodies for an early dinner. I have a chilled cauliflower recipe that I will be posting soon -- maybe on Saturday. It's been too busy with everything right now so I'm a bit behind.
Eating out as a vegetarian can be challenging but being a non-fat vegan makes it even more difficult. I never really thought about it since I have been a meat eater all my life. In fact, I don't even remember a day in my entire life before July 1st that I ate vegetarian for an entire day! How sad is that?
It is possible to eat a low-fat vegan meal at restaurant provided that you know what you're ordering and in many cases make a special request to the chef. Let's talk about fast food restaurants. I don't eat at fast food restaurants that often but at times it comes in handy.
Here are a couple of examples:
Taco Bell - Some people refer this to Taco "Hell". Well, it's not bad if you choose the right meals. For $2 and some change you can order a Fresco Bean Burrito with a side of Mexican rice. It is plenty for lunch. The nutritional facts for the two are: 470 calories, 11.5 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, and 12 grams of dietary fiber. It's not bad and it is vegan! They don't use a chicken stock for the Mexican rice. I don't advise eating it every day but in a pinch it is a cheap eats. We definitely don't eat enough fiber and 12 grams is about 32% of your daily recommended fiber intake for men.
I had a friend come over for dinner tonight so I made two dinners tonight. Actually for most nights I make two dinners since my wife, Therese and the kids are not vegans...yet ;) I have not converted them yet but maybe over time they will come over from the "dark" side. The non-vegan dinner was a 9-hour sous vide pork roast with a mushroom gravy, roasted beets and Yukon gold potatoes, grilled squash, and the hummus that I made the night before with the whole wheat flat bread. I'm going to save a future blog about sous vide cooking. It deserves a posting to itself.
The main event was the vegan braised shitake mushrooms with baby bok choy. This dish is a spin off from a dish served in Cantonese restaurants. The difference with my dish is that there is no oil at all and it is almost as good. I say almost since a 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil would give it a nice kick. Since I'm still on a oil free diet I left the oil out. Here is the recipe that serves two:
• 8-10 medium size "best" quality dried shitake mushrooms
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• 2 cups of vegetable or mushroom stock
• 2-3 tsp. of Braggs Amino Acid
• 2 tsp. grated ginger
• 4oz of baby bok choy
There are different qualities of dried mushrooms ranging from $10 to $20/lb. For this dish, don't be cheap and pay the extra for the better quality mushrooms. You won't regret it! Here is a photo of good quality versus cheaper quality:
Note the ones on the left are shaped more like flower, thicker, and more uniformed in shape. The ones on the right are thin and less uniformed. There is a big difference in taste. The better quality will rehydrate in water quicker and the intensity of the flavor is stronger than the cheaper variety.
First thing to do is rehydrate the dried shitake mushroom in hot water for at least 20min. After the rehydration period slice the mushroom and place in a medium size pot. Also add the soaking water to the pot as well. Add the remaining ingredients including the stock. Bring mushroom to a boil uncovered. Once it boils, turn the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot. Let this simmer for a minimum of an hour to braise properly. Taste the mushroom after an hour and add salt or additional Braggs Amino Acid if needed. To thicken the sauce add a corn starch mixture. Clean the baby bok choy and boil in water for no longer than 2 minutes. Overcooking the bok choy will ruin the taste, texture, and all the great vitamins.
To serve add some Jasmine brown rice to a dish, place the boiled bok choy around the rice and spoon some mushroom mixtures over the bok choy.
This is a quick and easy recipe to make! You'll be surprised how filling and tasty this turns out. I'll be bringing the leftovers to the Mariner's game tomorrow evening :)
Vegan for Thought
Eating right as a vegan has its own challenges! You can be vegan and overweight with the wrong food choices. Excessive oils including olive oil can elevate your cholesterol and add weight to your body. Eating refined carbs like white sugar, white rice, and white flour is a big no no if you're looking to lose weight. Before the month of July I was guilty of all counts with eating refined carbs. They way I was eating I would probably be given life imprisonment! I finally realized after so many years that switching to a plant based diet, avoiding refined carbs, and with moderate exercise, losing weight is really not that difficult. Btw, I stepped on the scale this morning after a 3 mile run - down another 2 lbs. to 144lbs. This is a 16 lb. loss since I first started this new lifestyle on July 1st.
Hummus
Many of you enjoy eating hummus. I'm not a big fan of chickpeas but hummus I enjoy eating. It's vegan and refreshing with all the yummy flavors of garlic, lemon, and sesame! Many of may not realize (including myself until recently) that hummus is not exactly diet food. A cup of hummus that you buy at the store is approximately 430 calories where 200 calories is from Fat. Some of you may argue that is it good fat but it is still fat! I decided to make my version of low fat hummus. Here is the recipe for 4-6 as a side dish:
• 1 can of organic garbanzo beans
• 1 tbs. tahini
• 3 cloves of garlic crushed
• 1/2 half of lemon squeezed
• 1 Paprika for seasoning (optional)
• Liquid from can of garbanzo beans
Take a blender and placed the garlic in first. Add 1 tablespoon of tahini and then the drained garbanzo beans. Take the liquid from the drained garbanzo beans and pour it into the blender until the liquid reaches 1 inch from the top. Squeeze the lemon in the mixture. Note: I'm not using any olive oil and reduce the amount of tahini by more than 50% from the traditional recipe. Some recipes call for 1/3 cup of tahini! Tahini is about 100 calories per tablespoon and 83 calories from fat. Turn on the blender and blend it until it is smooth. You can always add hot sauce and paprika for taste. It is actually quite tasty and a lot more healthier! You can also use it as a spread to replace mayo. The extra garlic clove gives it a nice kick! The perfect bread for this hummus is a whole wheat flat bread that is sold at Trader Joe's. Even my kids enjoyed eating them and they hate everything that resembles wheat :)
The Ultimate Vegan Rice Bowl
I can't take any credit for this next recipe. The original recipe came the engine2diet.com. Before the beginning of July, there were two things on the grain list that I avoided: brown rice and black beans. Being Asian I was raised on white rice all my life and any type of beans had no appeal to me at all. I remember my wife telling me last year to give brown rice a try and I told her no way -- it's chewy and took forever to cook. My wonderful sister suggested a couple of months ago to visit Trader Joe's and try their Jasmine brown rice. I love Jasmine white rice so I bought 3lbs. of the brown version to give it a try. It wasn't that bad! I also found a TJ Cuban style black beans to compliment this dish. Here is the recipe for 2 hearty servings:
• 1 cup of uncooked Jasmine brown rice
• 1 can of Cuban style black beans (TJ)
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 heirloom tomato chopped
• 1/3 cup of cilantro chopped
• 1/4 chopped yellow onions
• 1 heirloom tomato
• 1/2 avocado sliced
• 1 tsp of good quality salt
Cook brown rice in a rice cooker. It's up to you whether to rinse the rice beforehand. Unlike white rice there is no starchy coating on the outside. Keep in mind that brown rice requires more liquid to cook. I generally add anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup more water than white rice. While the rice is cooking make a salsa. Combine the tomato, cilantro, yellow onions, and salt together and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Heat up the black beans in a small pot on warm. When the rice is done scoop a serving on a plate, top it with half of the black beans, add the salsa on top and add about 2-3 slices of avocado. I've made variations of this dish with corn, roasted bell peppers, and other fresh vegetables to garnish.
