Meatless March

When I was a long-ago  exchange student in Austria , I was still staunchly anti-vegetable, and I was not tempted to participate in Salzburg's "Spargelfest." The people of Salzburg had (and presumably still have) a formal celebration of asparagus in the spring. I found this charming, but odd. I have since come to see the glorification of asparagus as justified, and in any case, "never say no to a party" has become one of my mottos. If you're with me, you could give " Super Asparagus-y Risotto " (Alexandra's Kitchen) a try. I used vegetable stock, and arborio rice.  It was delicious, but I was reminded of how darned long it takes to make risotto. If you want a shortcut recipe that is no less delicious, try " Baked Risotto with Greens and Peas " instead, and you could certainly put asparagus in that. Do you have one of these handy strainers? It sits in the pot while you cook, then you just pull it out to let the food drain. And then it f...

It's Friday as I write this, but regardless of what day of the week you read this post, Vegan Vednesday is right around the corner, never more than six days away. In addition to my mostly-vegetarianism, I observe veganism once a week in an effort to shrink my environmental footprint. The greenhouse gases generated by animal agriculture are culprits in climate change, as documented by  indicators tracked by the EPA : bigger, earlier wildfires; more frequent heat waves; warmer seas; more common flooding; hotter air; and even an earlier ragweed pollen season (gesundheit). If I don't plan ahead for Vegan Vednesday, I'll sometimes find myself absent-mindedly chewing a piece of cheese, say, and then I'll be disgusted with myself: HOW HARD can it possibly be to just NOT EAT ANIMAL PRODUCTS once a week, Jaylbyrd? So I try to plan ahead to avoid the self-loathing . Cheese is an obvious violation of #VeganVednesday, but sometimes foods have unexpected dairy in them. I wanted to b...

A couple months ago, I volunteered to give blood at a blood drive. During the screening before the donation, the health care worker found that my blood pressure was too low for me to donate, and she turned me gently away. I am lucky to be a generally healthy person, even if blood barely moves through my body, so this incident wasn't alarming. But something else about the experience bothered me: I was simply disappointed that I couldn't help people by giving my blood.  I like to soften the hard truths in this blog with sweet pics An urge to do something for humanity is also the reason I have reduced my meat and dairy consumption over the last couple of years. It's not heroic, by any stretch of the imagination. It takes scarcely more effort than letting someone put my extra blood in a bag every now and then. While my new plant-based diet required me to reorient some lifelong habits, in the end it is just a matter of making particular choices when I pick recipes, buy groceries...

I had to smile when I saw that Epicurious called for one "small leek" in its recipe for " Israeli Couscous, Peas, Preserved Lemons, Mint & Goat's Cheese ," because the leeks I had on hand were not small. They were humongous. All the better for fighting climate change, which we're doing when we prioritize plant-based foods. P lant-based agriculture contributes a lot less to air pollution than animal agriculture , too, did you know that? So even the most diminutive leeks are doing us all a favor. This was my first experience using preserved lemons, from a jar, and while they sounded good, I found them disappointing - salty, and bitter. Simple lemon zest and a squeeze of juice would probably have tasted better to me. The dish was fine. I substituted vegetable stock for half the water, and used only about one third of the salt called for in the recipe. I put another of my super-sized leeks to use in a Vegan Vednesday dish: " Vegan Creamy Leek Pasta ...

The first time I made " Shalom Japan’s Lox Bowl " (NYT Cooking; subscription required), I made it with smoked salmon, and roe, per the recipe. It was wicked good, with a seductive blend of contrasts: salty and sweet and smoky; chewy and crunchy and creamy and flaky. As you may know, I adore smoked salmon. However, I have recently come out of denial (sob) about the environmental impact of eating fish, so I wondered whether I could make the dish vegetarian. This week I made a vegetarian version, and I swear it loses almost nothing when you leave out the fish. Because guess what? Someone has invented " Vegan Carrot Lox " (Love and Lemons), and it is pretty impressive!  My carrots took almost an hour to roast, and then it took me a while to create the strips with my peeler, so ignore the prep/cook times listed on the recipe, and budget your time accordingly (you can make it ahead; it keeps up to four days). And I had two issues with the salt. One is the salt wouldn...

Easy? Tasty? Built-in vegetable? " Linguine with Mushrooms and Kale " (A Garden For The House) may not knock anyone's socks off, but it handily checks all those boxes. And, of course, it is vegetarian, which is helpful for battling climate change. Make it without butter, and with a vegan cheese (admittedly I did not), and it'll be even more helpful in that respect . I sometimes feel like I'm whispering these suggestions into the wind. Though I thank those of you who listen, I get excited when someone with genuine influence starts publicly making the same points - and in the case of one famous restauranteur, putting his career on the line for it . I also love that Epicurious stopped publishing new beef recipes a year ago, and no one noticed . Look for me to review Epicurious recipes in future posts, in gratitude!