Quick Vegetarian Paella

I watched Gwyneth Paltrow show Ellen Degeneres how to make vegan paella on “The Ellen Show” just the other day. The recipe is in Gwyneth’s new cookbook , “My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness”. Since the segment was definitely under time pressure, the demo went fast. I’m always on the lookout for easy vegetable recipes and the finished vegan paella looked delicious so I went in search of a similar recipe. Here’s what I found

Quick Vegetarian Paella 

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil

2 cups chopped onion

2 cups (1-inch) chopped green bell pepper

1 cup sliced cremini mushrooms

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups uncooked quick-cooking brown rice

2 cups fat-free, less-sodium vegetable broth (such as Swanson Certified Organic)

1 cup water

1 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed, or ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 cups chopped tomato

1 cup frozen green peas

1/2 cup pimiento-stuffed olives, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped

Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional)

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a stockpot over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes. Stir in rice and next 4 ingredients (through thyme); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

Stir in tomato, green peas, olives, 2 tablespoons parsley, black pepper, and artichoke hearts. Cook 3 minutes or until rice is tender and mixture is thoroughly heated. Garnish with additional chopped fresh parsley, if desired.

YIELD: 5 servings (serving size: about 2 cups)

Gwyneth’s recipe had eggplants in it; I guess you can add some in this recipe too. She also made her own vegetable stock.

Talinum Dip

In one of my previous posts, I talked about talinum (Talinum fruticosum). This herbaceous, succulent plant grows abundantly in the area where I take my early morning walks and just the other day I picked a big bunch. The plant has nice tiny pink-purple flowers and looks lovely in a flower vase. Then my daughter found this recipe for a dip that calls for spinach and I thought, why not use the talinum instead of spinach? After all talinum is also known as Philippine spinach.

Since the recipe uses frozen chopped spinach, I blanched the talinum leaves first, then shocked the leaves in iced water. After thoroughly draining and squeezing out the excess water, I had my spinach substitute.

Here’s the modified recipe. Blend together 2 cups yogurt (I used my home-made low-fat yogurt), 1 packet of soup mix (your choice of flavor; you can also use “ginisa” mix), ½ cup chopped spring onions, a few cloves of garlic and about 1 ½ - 2 cups of chopped talinum leaves (previously blanched, and thoroughly drained). Season with salt and pepper to taste. You may add grated cheese for added flavor. Refrigerate for a while to allow the flavors to come together.

The dip goes well with corn chips, slightly toasted tortillas or pita bread, or vegetable sticks.

Tomatoes and onions omelette

Recently I had the urge to make some cream puffs (see Foodshoot.blogspot.com). The recipe for the custard filling called for three egg yolks. So what to do with the egg whites? I did not want to make another dessert (like meringue). What did I have in my kitchen? There were the onions that my husband had brought home (lots of onions); I also had some tomatoes on hand. It was close to lunch time so I figured why not make an omelette? I just added one whole egg to the three egg whites and here’s what I came up with. Fast, quite delicious and healthy too!


Here's how to make a low-fat omellete.

Low-Fat Omelet

Chickpeas (Cicer arietinum)

Chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) are high in protein and is a good substitute for red meat. They are also high in fiber and can help lower cholesterol and improve blood sugar levels. Garbanzos are also high in minerals (like iron, copper, zinc, and magnesioum). They also provide a good source of molybdenum, a trace mineral needed for the body’s sulfite detoxification mechanism. (Note: Sulfites are preservatives commonly used in wines and processed meats.)

Source

Hummus is a popular Middle Eastern dip that is usually served with pita bread; it also makes a great healthy snack when seved with vegetable sticks (like carrots, celery). Tahini is an important ingredient of hummus; tho it cannot be substituted, it can be omitted. So you can prepare hummus with or without tahini (Source). 

Here’s another chickpea dip you may want to try; it incorporates yogurt.

Garbanzo Dip

Pako (Athyrium esculentum)

Pako (aka Fiddlehead fern) grows widely along the banks of streams, especially in less disturbed areas. Many of us are familiar with the use of ferns in flower arrangements; the roots are also used for growing orchids. Folkloric medicine has used decoctions of the rhizomes (see note) and young leaves as a cough remedy. The young fronds are eaten (raw or cooked) as a leafy vegetable; pako is a good source of calcium, phosphorus, iron, and vitamin B.

Source

Note: Rhizomes are horizontal underground stems that strike new roots out of their nodes, down into the soil, and that shoot new stems out of their nodes, up to the surface. This rhizome activity represents a form of plant reproduction (Source).

When I chance upon pako in the market, I always buy a bunch. The young fronds and soft stalks make a great basic salad. I simply slice up some tomatoes (you may add your choice of salad ingredients) and drissle it with vinaigrette dressing. For an easy vinaigrette recipe, check this out

Easy Vinaigrette