Summer in Paris

Whoops, typo I meant Pairs.

It’s Hot time, summer in the city which means lots of salads, vegetables and fruits are fresh and yummy. Perhaps you also want to eat more vegetables to lose that bikini weight. Then, these pairs are for you.

Learn to think like a vegetarian. People often ask me, “If you don’t eat meat, what do you eat?” Then they look at me and realize I don’t miss too many meals.  You may have decided to leave meat out of a meal or two, or all. Since you cannot replace something with nothing here are seven pairings that you can incorporate into your summer menus for variety, flavor and nutrition.

Think outside of the butcher box.

Lime and Salad

Limes are high in vitamin C and a mild anti-inflammatory. They help freshen flavors and can replace salt. Squeeze a lime wedge over a fresh lettuce salad and it will pop.  You won’t need as much dressing, saving calories

Cantaloupe and Avocado

This is a powerful pair. High in vitamins A and C and mildly anti-inflammatory. Avocado has lots of good fat.

Slice the melon into cubes and serve with slices of avocado.  Ration 3 parts melon to 1 part avocado. The creamy avocado complements the cool moist melon. This makes a great breakfast, snack or dessert

Tomato  and watermelon

You likely know both these fruits are good for you. They’re full of vitamins, moisture and fiber. Both are ripe at the same time of year.  Buy them fresh, from a Farm stand if possible.  Luscious juicy tomatoes are a delight with luscious juicy watermelon.  Cube both and serve in equal amounts. So cool and refreshing, a great salad or appetizer.

Tomato and mozzarella

AKA Caprese.  Fresh slices of red ripe tomatoes, alternated with thin slices of fresh mozzarella. Salt lightly, sprinkle with olive oil and strips of fresh basil. Not exactly low in calories, but the olive oil is a good fat (MUFA) and fresh mozzarella is a healthy cheese.

You must use fresh mozzarella, the kind wrapped in a ball or floating in water. Lower in salts and fats. Not the pizza topping stuff grated or sliced in baggies. Fresh mozzarella is creamy and has mild flavor.

Eat this as a salad or put onto a pizza crust and bake. Then it becomes margherita pizza. Or toast bread in olive oil, lay a  couple slices of fresh mozzarella on top, cover with tomato slices and shred fresh basil over the top.   This is my go-to lunch this week.

Eggs and Olives

These two round beauties will kick up main dish salads. I use them for flavor and texture, not nutrition.  Although eggs do provide some protein.

Use the eggs hard-boiled. I finally have found a fool-proof way to cook them. More than once on a summer day I put eggs on the stove to boil then went outside for a while. Time passed and I got engrossed in gardening or talking to neighbors or splashing in the pool.  Later as I came inside there was a terrible sulphur smell, the pan had boiled dry and the kitchen was full of exploded eggs.  (Can you relate?)

Here’s how I boil them now.  I place 2-4 eggs in a sauce pan, cover with water and put on to boil. I stay in the kitchen until they are boiling well. Turn off the heat, Put a lid onto the pan and set the timer to 10 minutes. If you actually hear the timer when it dings, drain the eggs under cold running water until eggs are cool then put into refrigerator to cool them fully.  The worse that can happen if you forget about the eggs and run to the store or take a walk, will be the eggs are overcooked, but not exploded.

Olives.  For salad additions I prefer the green ones to the black. They provide more of a bite and salt to the salad.

Chopped up, both eggs and olives can be added to any main dish salad. They add flavor to potato salads, tuna macaroni salad, pasta salads.

Peas and mushrooms

I once read that together these create a complete protein.  Not sure if that is accurate, but they do pair well. Together they enhance warm and cold dishes.

I am talking about the actual peas, You can use snap pea or snow peas but a bag of frozen peas is a must have for anyone who wants to eat more vegetables. Inexpensive, they wait for you until you want them.

Thaw the peas and drain; add to lettuce or other cold salads.

Same with raw mushrooms.  Do not rinse mushrooms, this will make them rubbery. To clean, wipe them with a slightly damp paper towel.  Use the inexpensive, easy to find white button mushrooms from super markets.

Sautee mushrooms to add them to hot dishes, especially rice. Peas don’t really need to cook, just toss them into the hot dish at the end of cooking time. Try them in pasta dishes or together as a side dish

Beans and cheese

Here is a good way to add protein, fiber and dairy to your vegetarian diet. You probably already love the taste of a yummy a bean burrito with cheese.

Garbanzo beans, kidney beans, cannellini beans, red beans, white beans, black beans, whichever you prefer.  Per cup canned beans have 215 to 300 calories, about 50% of daily fiber and 12 to 19 grams of protein. And they are inexpensive, flavorful and filling.

Serve beans out of the can and drained. Toss beans into any vegetable salad. They will add texture, flavor and nutrition.  Sprinkle some grated cheese over the salad and serve. Break up tortilla chips over the top for added texture. Or, let the kids use the chips as a tool instead of a fork.

You can serve this as a main dish for lunch or a side dish with supper.

How to cook Vegetables.

You might think this is a useless topic. Oh I disagree. As someone who can’t eat meat, let me assure you, people do not know how to cook vegetables. Or, they only know one or two tasteless ways. Not eating meat has many plights.

First, no one invites you for dinner., Here’s what happens: We’re visiting with friends when the husband says, “We’ll have to have you  over for dinner, soon.” 

Wife smiles but kicks her husband under the table. She grits her teeth, “Yes, we’ll check our calendar” and her eyes say “What in the world would I feed this woman?”

And if they do invite us, I get a plate of soggy veggies that look and taste like they went through the dishwasher; while everyone else has a sumptuous dinner.”  Then rather than be rude I slide the mushy peas and carrots down my throat.

I have found before attending social or business dinners, it’s just easier if I eat before going to dinner. Whether I pre-order a vegetarian meal or try my luck with whatever’s for dinner, no one at the table is able to ignore someone who doesn’t dig into the meat.

Man A says scornfully, “Don’t you eat meat?”  meaning what kinda nut job are you?

Man B says hopefully. “Aren’t you going to eat that?”  Meaning I hope she gives it to me.

Turns out men are perfectly willing to eat off a stranger’s plate if the meat looks tasty enough.

Woman A says, feeling guiltily “I should eat less meat”, counting  the calories of her filet in her head.
Woman B  starts a discussion of why don’t I eat meat. Stopping otherwise interesting table talk into guilt, or cruelty to animals or “What do you eat?” and other tension creating subjects.

So, whether you  want to eat more vegetables or want to  know what to cook when one of those odd-ball vegetarians darkens your  dinner table, here’s a resource of how to cook vegetables

Think TENT

Taste –

 They are veggies but it helps if they have a good taste

Ease – Chopping and peeling  raw, fresh vegetables can be time consuming. Frozen veggies are a good choice, but please, not those canned things.

Nutrition

 - After all, isn’t this why we eat those green and orange things?

Time

 – In general, cooking time is less than for meat but prep time can take a while.

Notice there is no C –Calories.  Yes, veggies have calories but they offer redeeming value of fiber and health benefits.  Unless you’re on a really strict diet (perish the word). I don’t count these calories. You can if you want.  And some cooking techniques will add calories. (Which is why I am not including fried methods)

In order of my preference the cooking choices are:

Boil

Microwave

Steam

Blanch

Saute

Roast

Grill.

Boil.

Put the Corn, Carrots, broccoli, beans, peas, whatever into boiling water. This will cook them, and if you cook them very long they’ll get soggy.  Usually the only seasoning is salt. Plus   most of the nutrition will leach out into the water which gets poured down the drain. Yuck.

Microwave and Steaming give similar results.

To microwave, put veggies into a microwave safe bowl with  just a bit of water. Add Salt, butter, whatever you like and cover.
To Steam you need a steamer which sits inside the pot, just over the water, And cover with lid. Season as desired.

Or they have those fancy “steamed vegetables in a bag” in the frozen food department. But for a fraction of the cost you can get the same results with your own fresh or frozen vegetables.

              Whether steaming or microwaving, you control the time to avoid soggy veggies, unless you like soggy veggies, although I can’t imagine why you would.  This is easy and you keep the nutrition intact

Blanch.  This is just a fancy way to say boil for a quick minute or two. Generally you’ll use this if you want to soften the vegetable a bit before adding to a salad, pasta, or roasting.  And if you want to peel a tomato, blanch it first and the skin peels right off.  This doesn’t really cook the vegetable.

Saute. Heat a wide pan, add olive oil, butter, canola oil, whatever you like. Sounds like they’ll taste better already, don’t they? You can cook one type of vegetable this way. Like summer squash cut into coins, sliced carrots, garlic, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, peppers,  broccoli, spinach, etc..  You control how well you want the food cooked.   I like to combine several vegetables when I sauté. For example, garlic, onions, zucchini, peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes. Put  the ones that take the longest to cook in first, then add the others as you go along. Season with salt, pepper and other spices like thyme, basil, oregano, tarragon, dill.  At this point you can sprinkle with cheese, or grate some parmesan over the dish. Add some cooked pasta or rice, stir around and you have a wonderful side dish.

Roast. Usually you will roast hard vegetables like winter squash, sweet potatoes, white potatoes , pumpkin,, carrots, turnips, These are often called root vegetables, even though all vegetables had roots at one time. You can also roast broccoli, onion, kale, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, asparagus. These come out crisp and carmelized.. Some people say this brings out the sweetness, but don’t get you hopes up. They’ll taste good but won’t taste like a chocolate chip cookie.

               To Roast, slice in uniform sizes, place into casserole dish. Pour olive oil, add salt, pepper, maybe some garlic or other spices if you like. Stir all around and put into an oven. Heat can run from 350 – 425.  The hotter the oven, the quicker they’ll cook and the quicker they’ll burn too. I can’t tell you how long they’ll take, depends on the oven and the veggies and your preference. Can take from 10 minutes to 40 minutes. Sorry, One of these days I’ll come up with specific recipes for specific vegetables.

Grilling.  Here you can join the world of normal people in the summer time.  Approach as you would roasting . Slather with olive oil and seasonings and put on the grill.  I use a metal grill basket. This prevents the vegetables from touching the grates where the meat was cooked, and keeps the vegetables from falling into the coals too.  You can eat the veggies simply grilled, or cool and add to salad, or toss h into freshly cooked pasta with olive oil and then grate parmesan cheese over.

Now, That is what I’d like to eat if you invite me over for dinner. I’m free next Tuesday.