Vegan Doro Wat

My vegan version of the classic Ethiopian favorite Doro Wat is a labor of love unlike the more minimalist recipes I've shared recently. It took me upwards of two hours to put together which, to a speed-seeking cook like me, is an eternity and an indulgence.

But this is an indulgence I had long craved. There's something about the very look of this ravishing, flaming-red dish that stokes my appetite. Doro Wat is often called Ethiopia's national dish and just inhaling its spice-rich aroma reveals just why it's so popular. Traditionally it's made with chicken, but it's not a hard dish to veganize because all those spices and flavors in there are perfect with "meaty" vegetables like mushrooms or eggplants.

French Fries, Guilt-Free

Oh, that Potato. He's not much to look at, he's covered in dirt each time you meet him, and he's even a little chubby around the middle. Besides he has that annoying habit of clinging to your waist and never letting go.

All your friends think he's not good enough for you, and they don't mind saying it to your face.

So why is it then that each time you determine to be good and eat "healthy," you are left with a Potato-shaped hole in your tummy that no other food will fill?

Thayir Vadai (Dahi Vada)

I'll begin my post on Thayir Vadai or Dahi Vada, a crisp, airy, golden lentil dumpling dunked into a creamy, tangy-sweet, yogurt-based sauce, by wading smack-dab into the squabble over tofu or, more generally, soy products.

I don't cook very often with tofu (perhaps once a month, if that), and the only soy I consume most days is a couple of tablespoons of soymilk in my tea or coffee. But for as long as I've been a vegan, I've listened to and tried to understand some of the criticisms fired at soy. Some of these include valid research and concerns from real people like you and me who want to make sure they are eating the right stuff when they move to a plant-based diet. But truth be told, a lot of the criticism comes from the meat and dairy industries and their minions looking to preserve their own business interests.

Then recently, I came across an unusually heated discussion over soy products on an Indian vegan forum. A large number of the people commenting seemed to be really nervous about soy and were vigorously exchanging links to articles pummeling it. Some swore how they had not touched soy in years, or would not hereafter. All of it really, truly mystified me.

Almond Butter: Vegan Basics

Nut butters are great nutritional alternatives to dairy butter because they contain heart-healthy fats instead of artery-smothering cholesterol. Besides, the possibilities are endless because you can have as many nut butters as there are nuts. There's of course the universal favorite, peanut butter, and these days almost any grocery store stocks almond butter, cashew butter and even macadamia nut butter.

Most of these butters are really nothing but nuts ground into a smooth, spreadable paste, sometimes with a smidgen of oil helping them along. But supermarket brands can contain preservatives and added sugars. So if you're lucky enough to have a powerful blender, do what I do and just make your own nut butters. For one, it'll be easier on your wallet. For another, you'll be in control of exactly what goes in.

Sweet and Sour Potatoes, Gujarati-Style

I was at the dying Border's in downtown Silver Spring the other day, browsing through mostly-bare shelves of fiction, travel guides and cookbooks and trying to spot bargains along with just about everyone else in the world, or so it seemed.

For those of you who don't know, Border's is one of those mammoth bookstore chains here in the United States that has become a victim of e-progress, a turbulent economy, and, by some accounts, its own stupidity -- or rather its inability to adapt to the e-reader revolution that lets people download books to nifty gadgets faster than they can say "instant gratification."

Earlier this year Border's filed for bankruptcy followed inevitably by the closing of several stores. As the outlets near where I work and near where I live have gone belly-up one after the other, each heaving out a giant gasp of a sale before dying, I've felt lucky, sad and old-fashioned by turns. I do read books online and on my smartphone, and I won't deny the convenience. And I'm one of the most environmentally friendly people I know. But I also enjoy bookstores and browsing through them for hours. I love the heft and volume of a paper-and-ink hardcover in my hands. I love the promise in that new-book smell. And I love feeling the crisp, never-turned-before pages crackle under my fingers as I flip them to see if this one is worth reading, after all.

Savory Avocado Quesadillas With Rainbow Chard And Tomato Chutney

Desi loves nothing more than a nap on Saturday afternoons. So while he's communing with the z's, I curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and whatever's cooking on public television. One of my favorite shows  is Rick Bayless's Mexico: One Plate at a Time.

Mexican food is very vegan-friendly, notwithstanding appearances, and as I watch this show-- and any other-- my mind is constantly thinking of ways to swap out the meat for something delicious and plant-based. Recently, as I watched Bayless rave about quesadillas made with wheat tortillas and how pork fat added to the dough makes the most "savory quesadillas imaginable," I couldn't stop thinking, there has to be something to rival that-- no, better that-- in the plant world.

The answer was already in my kitchen, and even better, it was perhaps more Mexican than pork fat-- avocado.

Kerala Rice Noodles In A Coconut Stew

When I was a child growing up in India, noodles were either something you ate at Chinese restaurants for a Sunday treat, or a food that you could buy in bright red and yellow packages at the grocery store and boil up in water for an instant meal. Those ramen noodles -- which every Indian simply referred to as "Maggi" because that was the brand name they were marketed under-- became all the rage when they appeared on grocery store shelves in the 1980s because they offered the superwoman housewife something she had never had before: convenience.

But noodles, although not an obvious ingredient in traditional Indian cuisine, are not foreign to it either. They crop up around India in various forms and at various meals. Vermicilli noodles, angel-hair-like wheat noodles, are the base of a classic Indian sweet dish said to have originated with the Muslims in India but now popular all over the country-- the very special and very delicious semiya payasam, or shevyachi kheer. Vermicilli also features in another well-loved Indian sweet, the falooda, a Persian-origin medley of rose syrup, ice cream, tapioca pearls (saboodana) and -- of all ingredients-- pysllium fiber.

Banana Cake With Peanut Butter Frosting: Love Me Tender

You don't have to be Elvis Presley to eat like the King.

The rock 'n' roll legend's love for food was well-known, and the infamous peanut butter and banana sandwich he adored, dubbed the "Elvis," is the stuff of  food excess lore. Here's how it was rumored to be made:  two slices of white bread were slathered with peanut butter, layered with bananas (mashed or sliced, per different accounts), sometimes drizzled with honey, and then the whole sandwich would be pan-fried in  butter. More horrifying versions (if that's possible) say the sandwich contained bacon, one of the most unhealthy foods you can possibly eat because it literally drips with cholesterol and sodium.

Whew! Leaves you all shook up just to read that, doesn't it? No wonder a medical examiner is famously quoted as saying that the King died of a "terminal event on the commode."

Whole-Wheat Burger Buns

When President Clinton replied, "I guess I am," to Sanjay Gupta's query, "Do you call yourself a vegan?" it was, I think, a turning point for the way the rest of the world looks at a vegan lifestyle. You could argue that there are thousands of vegans who have long shouted themselves hoarse about the benefits of a plant-based diet, and who deserve more credit than Clinton does, and I won't fight with you. But here's why the once-burger-chomping Clinton's embrace of veganism is very important: because it tells everyone out there who swears they cannot live without meat and/or dairy products that they can change. More, that change could save their lives.

I often find in the media stories about ex-vegans who go back to eating meat, claiming their doctors found they were deficient in something or the other. Here's what I don't get: the deficiencies usually are for iron, Vitamin B, and Vitamin D, and if you work hard enough on balancing your diet and investigating the right foods to eat-- surely you owe your health and your family that much-- you really won't even have those. If you do have them, you could pop a vitamin pill and you'd be fine. On the other hand, eating a meat- and dairy-loaded diet can cause diseases that can really, truly, honestly kill you, like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and many cancers. All of these are all preventable if you follow a plant-based diet. So here's the choice: you could eat all the meat and dairy you want and pop pills to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, and take insulin daily; or you could just eat healthy, delicious, life-giving fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes. It goes without saying, but you'd be a fool to choose the cholesterol pills and the insulin.

Vegan BLT

My very vegan BLT is a toothsome, wholesome treat that is just as tasty and nowhere near as fat- and animal-loaded as the original thing. Even better, it has an Indian spice twist.

I did not want to try to replicate here the exact tastes of bacon,  tomato, and mayonnaise, which are of course the building blocks of a typical BLT. (If I want that, I can always slap on some tofu bacon, vegan mayo, lettuce and tomato on a bun.) Instead, I wanted to infuse the wonderful flavors of the fading summer into my version  (which is a BLTT, really).

So into my sandwich went some maddeningly fragrant Basil chutney, ginger-garlic marinated and baked Tofu, green Tomatoes, and good old Lettuce. I went one step further to make it healthier by cradling it all in a whole-wheat, homemade, pillowy hamburger bun (recipe to come).