Today is Vegetaruary Day 28, the last day of a Vegetarian February Challenge issued by our daughter. And we celebrated with a light lunch of muffin tin eggplant parmesan stacks. It has been a fun adventure trying out new recipes and revisiting old favorites. Early on, we relied more heavily on cheese, but as our cooking vista expanded, we found ourselves eating vegan dishes more and more frequently. Among the new discoveries are a super easy, super fast browned butter radish couscous, tofu sofritas tacos, and a hearty two-bean loaf with homemade tomato jam. We also enjoyed standbys such as silken tofu spinach soup with Sichuan chili crisp (instead of prosciutto bits), vegetarian spring rolls, vegetarian chili and a spiced lentil curry topped with yogurt. Although the challenge is over, I suspect we will be eating similarly on most days going forward. There are so many more recipes we want to try!

Eggplant Parmesan Stacks

Eggplant Parmesan Stacks

This is my second time making individual Eggplant Parmesan entrees from the Muffin Tin Chef cookbook by Matt Kadey. His technique of oven baking the breaded parmesan slices results in a completely non-greasy dish where the sauce, cheese and eggplant melds into rich, satisfying stacks. I also like the addition of broccoli rabe (although I used regular broccoli). Best of all, as with many of my Asian eggplant recipes, there is no time-consuming and messy salting of the eggplant slices required. 

Spiced Braised Lentils, a Food52 Genius Recipe (vegan-friendly)

This Melissa Clark recipe infuses lentils with all the flavor of a good Madras curry powder, with tantalizing toppings of crunchy mustard seeds on creamy white yogurt. The satisfying bites of rich lentils play well against the contrast of textures in the toppings. Not having unsweetened coconut flakes, I substituted toasted bread crumbs the first time I made this, and then tried smoky wok-crisped mushrooms the second time. 

Try using lentils of different colors.  Here I have a combination of brown and red lentils with some split peas. It's also a great recipe to use up zucchini squash and other vegetables. 

For vegans, simply omit or substitute soy yogurt for the topping. It is truly deserving of a place in the Genius Recipes category.

Hot and Sour Soup (vegan-friendly)

We love this warm and cozy soup, which uses pantry staples to create a rich and hearty sensory experience. In another post, I covered my odyssey of trying multiple recipes for hot and sour soup to arrive at the perfect texture and flavor. In the process, we decided that we liked the soup better vegetarian as the pork slivers could end up tough and did not add much in the way of flavor. The best part of this recipe is that it relies heavily on dried mushrooms and long-storing pantry staples such as eggs and tofu.  

For vegans, omit the egg -- which adds pretty yellow streaks but is not necessary. The luscious flavor comes primarily from the vinegar and white pepper, and the tofu and mushrooms offer plenty of protein. 

Bean Loaves with Tomato Jam (vegan)

This was another recipe from The Muffin Tin Chef cookbook. The homemade tomato jam made from red Roma tomatoes was fabulous (next time double or even triple the jam)!  The mixture of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), pinto beans, pecans (I did not have sunflower seeds) and the seasonings yielded a very meaty aroma and appearance. My husband thought I was making beef stew when he walked in the door!

I did not have a whole onion, so the mixture ended up on the dry side. I tried to compensate by adding half a red bell pepper, but in retrospect I should have mixed in some oil, broth or even egg to help bind it together. Nevertheless, this is definitely a keeper and may even form the basis of a new veggie burger!

Vegetable Spring Rolls and Celebration Rice Cake (vegan)

When my daughter picked February for the challenge month, it seemed reasonable given that it is the shortest month. What I did not realize, however, was that the lunar New Year and Lantern Festivals both fell in February. Grace Young and Yotam Ottolenghi to the rescue!

Grace has a wonderful vegetable spring roll recipe in The Breath of a Wok, as well as a delicious char siu (Chinese bbq pork version) in Wisdom of a Chinese Kitchen. Back in 2020, I had made both of these, even making my own spring roll wrappers out of flour and water as I was trying to minimize trips to the store. Click here to read about how easy it is to make spring rolls, whether you prefer yours to be deep-fried, air-fried or even non-fried!

And I had previously modified Yotam Ottolenghi's savory vegan celebration rice cake to include dried Chinese mushrooms and other "treasures" available to me in a nod to the Eight-treasure sweet sticky rice cakes traditionally served for the Spring Festival. So I pulled out my Instant Pot Bundt Cake pan and made another wreath-like sticky rice cake with a rich, enticing mushroom gravy moat. 

Savory Sticky Rice Celebration Bundt Cake

🐾 My tip for this dish is to soak the glutinous rice for at least 8 h as I did the first time I made this, as some of the rice on top did not get as soft and sticky as I would have liked in this version.

Silken Tofu and Spinach Soup (vegan)

This is one of my all time favorite tofu dishes. Indeed, the luscious soup base with tiny white cubes of tofu set off against emerald green spinach and garnished with a sprinkle of prosciutto is one of my suggested entry dishes for people that believe they could never like tofu.  The original soup recipe from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Fish and Rice had pork in it, but I had modified it to our tastes.  Click here for the recipe. 

Silken tofu with spinach soup - vegan version garnished with Sichuan Chili Crisp

Hot and sour soup with cubes of clean-out-the-fridge zucchini.

To make this into a vegan dish, I substituted vegetable broth for chicken broth and omitted the crispy bits of proscuitto that I used as a garnish. While tasty, it was lacking a bit of umami oomph. The solution was this amazing vegan condiment called Sichuan Chili Crisp by FlybyJing, featuring lots of fantastic ingredients including fermented black beans, red chilis, garlic, sesame oil and Sichuan peppers. A drizzle of Sichuan Chili Crisp raised this fantastic soup to the sublime level. 

Brown Butter Couscous with Spring Vegetables

This recipe by "EmilyC" on the Food52 site is a true winner!  As I put in my review, "Fantastic, quick and easy! This is a great weekday meal with wonderful flavors, colors and textures. Will definitely be used a lot. I kept the radish greens and added them with the spinach. It all disappeared with no leftovers."  

New Year 2021 started off rainy, but with high hopes for a better year, and perhaps by summer, a chance to reconnect with family and friends. I wanted our New Year dinner to link future hopes back to childhood memories. This delicious, stunning centerpiece entrée based on a recipe by Chef Yotam Ottolenghi fit the bill perfectly. It combines elements of several traditional Chinese sticky rice treats, both savory and sweet, into a new vegan interpretation redolent with the flavors of mushrooms, maple syrup-sweetened soy sauce and warming spices. I took it a few steps farther by substituting several of the ingredients in a nod to the Eight Treasure Rice dessert traditionally served at New Year, and cooked it quickly in an Instant Pot Bundt cake pan for a stunning and delicious meal. 

The ultimate comfort food is the dish your mother makes when you return home from semesters away. For me, this was a version of the famous soy sauce chicken or 紅燒雞, translated literally as "red-cooked chicken." My mother perfected this recipe in my later college years, dispensing with fussy, unnecessary steps to arrive at such an easy and carefree procedure that she called it 懶人雞, which translates to "lazy person's chicken". I further adapted it by adding vegetables to create a one-dish meal that had my own children fighting over the flavor-drenched cabbage.

Lazy chicken with cabbage

Although generally playing a supportive "side-dish" role, potatoes and other underground treasures are so comforting and delicious that they are frequently the first to disappear in any holiday spread. Here are some of our family favorites. 

Country-style mashed potatoes (recipe below)

Who doesn't love a steaming plate of mashed potatoes, ready to absorb and deliver all those fabulous oils and juices emanating from well-seasoned vegetables and roasted meats? At our large Thanksgiving gatherings, we find ourselves tripling, then quadrupling recipes -- and still running out. 

Cottage Pie - using Elise Bauer's recipe

And potatoes are so inexpensive, you don't have to confine your enjoyment to the holidays. Mashed potatoes form an admirable base for all sorts of savory comfort foods such as Shepherd's pie (which happens to be gluten-free) and Mennonite chicken and noodles (served with buttered corn over mashed potatoes).

A brief primer on foods hidden underground

Not all underground plant-based foods are root vegetables. Some, such as potatoes and ginger, derive from specialized stems or runners. Others are bulbs and still others represent true root vegetables.

Modified Stems

Although they grow underground, some starchy vegetables originate from modified stems. These all have "eyes," which are tiny buds, each with a scale leaf, which can develop into a new plant.

Rhizomes are fleshy underground stems with eyes from which either stems or roots can grow. Rhizomes are connected to the main stems of these upright plants. Examples: ginger, tumeric, galangal, lotus, bamboo

Tubers are specialized bulbous stems emanating from branches of stolons (runners) that extend horizontally just above or under the ground level, although the tuber is always underground. Examples: potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, jicama, taro, yams

Then there is the celeriac or celery root, which has a bulbous hypocotyl or lower stem from which roots arise at the base.

Cider Mashed Yams

Bulbs

A true bulb contains a miniature sprout surrounded by layers of modified leaves. Examples: garlic, onion, daylily bulbs.

Then there is the delicious bulb-like fennel. A member of the carrot family, the "bulb" is formed by swollen layers of the stem base with its slightly sweet, anise flavor. The feathery leaves are reminiscent of dill and the entire plant is edible. Other bulb-like vegetables such as artichokes are actually flowers.

True Roots

Tap root vegetables exhibit swelling of the main root. These include carrots, radishes, beets, horseradish, Daikon, parsnip, turnips. Like parsley, another tap root plant, the leaves of many of these plants are also delicious. Beet greens are particularly tasty in my opinion, carrot tops less so.

Tuberous roots are modified secondary roots with enlargements involving the entire storage root or along the ends or middle of the branch. These include sweet potatoes (morning glory family) and cassavas.