Vegan Recipes and Plant Based Cooking

A lot of great ideas and discoveries occur accidentally. This just seems to be the nature of things. One such event happened to me today. I was cooking some rice, which is normally a pretty straightforward process. 1 part white rice to 2 parts water. Bring to a boil. Then simmer for about 20 minutes or until the rice is tender. But my rice cooking was interrupted by something I simply couldn't put on hold. Little did I know then it would result in extra fluffy rice with a perfectly tender (not at all chewy) bite still intact. The first thing you must do is toast your raw rice. It's an extra step that is well worth it. Some folks like to toast their rice in butter or oil. And that's really tasty and nice, but I just toast mine in a dry non-stick pot. It can take several minutes. Be patient. Eventually it will begin to toast and turn beige. You don't need every grain to be toasted, but stir often and try to get most of it light tan without burning any. Be careful..

On a whim I decided to try growing some vegetables indoors. I can be that way sometimes. A notion will strike me and I'll run with it, for better or worse. I'm not a plant person. At least not by inclinations. I've owned and cared for one single plant in the last 20 years. An adorable cactus that has slowly gone from little nubbin in a tiny pot to a dual armed beauty of at least 5 times its original size. But I love garlic. A lot. More than that even. So I thought it might be fun to try to grow some. In a small planter pot I nestled one large clove into ordinary potting soil. Watered and waited. I watered the new seedling twice in a week and after only 7 days I'd been rewarded with a nice new growth. It feels good to cultivate new life. It inspires me to try growing other small food plants indoors. I'd like to try some onions or hot peppers. Maybe even some cabbage or romaine. The web is overflowing with ideas and techniques for success in indoor gar

So I recently decided to try 'Old Fashioned Oats'. I had never had them before. Originally my plan was to try 'Steel Cut Oats', but they were of limited availability and very pricey. So I settled on a classic Quaker canister. As a child my mother fed me instant oats for breakfast on many, many mornings. The soupy, sugary mess never sit right with me, even as a child. It kinda soured me on the whole concept of eating oats for a long, long time. But it was the Internet and Alton Brown that finally convinced me all these years later to give oats another chance. I saw an article for refrigerator oatmeal and was intrigued. I've always loved the show 'Good Eats' and he certainly made them sound delicious and nutritious. The fact that so much protein might be obtained from a grain struck a particular chord. When I read the nutrition labels I was pretty amazed. A serving of instant oats has only 2 grams of protein. While a single serving of old fashioned boast

As I was eating my salad with hummus dressing this afternoon I accidentally discovered yet another awesome way to use hummus. My hummus and salad and some macaroni got all mixed up together with some nutri yeast and vinegar. It was an amazing accident. Hummus is a culinary chameleon! It is a vegan dream. It does so much. Fills so many voids. Mayonnaise, butter, salad dressing, and now mac and cheese. I know it sounds crazy, but it works. I wasn't trying to make this happen. It was just serendipity. There are numerous ideas already out there about making 'vegan mac and cheese', many of which are quite good. But I've yet to find any that incorporate hummus into the mix. And let me tell you, it's the perfect addition. It adds that rich, creamy texture that is expected of the classic comfort food. I'd even venture to say, that while it wouldn't fool people into thinking it is actual mac and cheese, it would please anyone enough that they'd be quite conte