Almost every Sunday I make a giant crock pot full of beans and throughout the week James and I eat some for lunch, add them to dinner, and otherwise transform and include them in our food. They are cheap, nutritious, and delicious. Most of the time our beans don’t make it to the end of the week because at some point I get a hankering for refried beans. Refriend beans are a Tex-Mex staple and also a flavorful way to get a whole heaping of plant-based protein and plenty of fiber.

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked black beans, drained
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large soup pot and saute onions until translucent over high heat. Lower heat to medium and add garlic and cumin. Continue to saute for 2 minutes stirring frequently to prevent burning.
2. Add beans and mash thoroughly with a potato masher, pastry cutter, or a sturdy fork.
3. Once the beans are a more or less uniform texture, add the broth, stirring to incorporate.
4. Season with salt to taste and serve or use as directed.

Fresh mangoes are becoming more and more common in grocery stores around North America. Unlike many fruits, mangoes are good in almost all states of ripeness the taste moving from sour to sweet the riper it gets. This means that you can shop for mangoes according to your personal preference.

If you love mangoes but are a novice at slicing them be sure to avoid the skin and the fiber around the large oblong seed in the center of the fruit as these are not delicious. Below is a technique that should help you avoid these hazards:

1. Mangoes are ovoid reflecting the shape of the seed. Identify the narrow sides of the fruit and slice right and left thirds off the side. Reserve these portions of the fruit.
2. Laying the center third flat on a cutting board remove two semi-ovoid sections of fruit around the seed. If you feel any resistance on your knife from the fibers surrounding the seed start again slicing closer to the periphery of the fruit. Slice the skin off with the knife.
3. Using a spoon scoop the fruit from the left and right cheeks.
4. Slice and use the fruit as directed.

Slicing into thirds; Removing fruit around the seed, Scooping out the fruit with a spoon

Coseppi Kitchen is about inclusive vegetarian cooking which means we want to make sure that our recipes are accessible to people with a variety of dietary needs. We think this is important because we want to share our ideas for eclectic, healthy, wholefood cooking with as many people as possible and we know that vegetarians are not a homogenous group. In the family of vegetarians there are ovo-lacto vegetarians, ovo-vegetarians, lacto-vegetarians, vegans, raw vegans,  and vegetarians with food allergies. There are also flexitarians — people who enjoy vegetarian food but eat meat in some limited quantities — and pescetarians — ovo-lacto vegetarians who also eat fish. My family is an example of this diversity: My parents are flexitarians, I am a splash of milk in my coffee away from being a vegan on most days, and James is a pescetarian. That is right, James eats fish on occasion.

Some people might see all this dietary diversity as a serious difficulty and instead of meals being a time to bring people together it becomes a source of stress trying to divine the one perfect dish that everyone can eat. I like to think of inclusive vegetarian cooking as a solution to this problem as well. After years of creating meals for a diverse group of friends and family, it is now very easy for us to pick up a recipe and with a few minor tweaks have a fantastic inclusive meal.

From Coop

For example, last week in Wheatsville Coop we picked up a copy of the National Cooperative Grocers Association’s flyer and spotted a recipe for Pacific Halibut with Fennel and Grapefruit Salad. Ignoring the mention of halibut, I was immediately drawn to the Fennel and Grapefruit, two ingredients that I love and that are locally available in Texas this time of year. For dinner that night James and I shared the aforementioned Fennel and Grapefruit Salad (with added walnuts for some crunch and omegas), James had a portion of poached pacific halibut (a Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch “Best Choice”), and I ate a slice of grilled tofu. The meal was loved by all and suitable for almost any type of “tarian.”

There are several strategies for vege-tizing recipes. Above is an example of what I like to call divide and conquer — by splitting up different elements of a dish into individual portions, fellow diners can select the elements that are appropriate for them while all sharing the same meal.

Tonight, we feast!

Sunday evening James and I attended the Spring Potluck and Open House at Johnson’s Backyard Garden. The weather was fair, the bands were lively, and food was excellent.  We have been attending these potlucks for more than four years and every year the potluck increases and we get to sample more and more delicious dishes prepared by fellow Austinites.

James and I prepared a Peruvian causa filled with carrots, watermelon radishes, and seasonal herbs. We also prepared an ají verde with mint, parsley, cilantro, garlic, and a variety of green peppers. Causa and aji verde recipes both are featured in The Authentic Peruvian Vegetarian Cookbook.

We brought  a growler of the Fire Eagle IPA from Austin Beerworks to pair with the feast and musical accompaniment was provided by Christy Hays & Her Sunday Best, Little Mikey and the Soda Jerks, and  Whiskey Shivers. It was a perfect evening of Texan atmosphere, good food, and great company.

Little Mikey and the Soda Jerks playing in the Pecan grove at the JBG Potluck and Open House.

Olives are a popular garnish and ingredient in Peruvian food. The most widely available olives in Peru are the common green olives and aceitunas negras, or black olives. However, it would be a mistake to think of these black olives as the same chalky black canned abominations that have been popularized in the United States. Peruvian black olives are large deep purple fruits, with a sharp clean flavor.  They are very similar to Greek style kalamata olives which can be purchased in most grocery stores in the county in glass jars or on antipasto bars. It is also possible to purchase the real thing online:

The Latin Products

Amigo Foods

Masa harina for tamales

Masa harina is a type of corn flour that is used to make a wide range of Latin American foods including Mexican corn tortillas and tamales. Unlike ordinary corn meal, the kernels used to create masa harina are treated with slacked lime prior to grinding. The resulting corn flour has a fine texture and reconstitutes to make a very smooth dough. It also has more nutritional value than corn meal or flour that has not been treated with the calcium rich lime.

Masa harina is widely available in many parts of the United States in grocery stores but it is also inexpensive and quite accessible online.

Amazon.com

MexGrocer.com

SOAP.com

Quinoa (quinua in Spanish) is a nutrient-rich vegan, gluten-free protein source with origins in the high Andes.  It was readily available in Peruvian markets and featured on many menus in soups, entrees, even refrescos. Quinoa is becoming more and more common in the United States where it can be found on health-food aisles of many grocery stores or in the bulk-foods section. However, if you are having trouble locating this healthy, versatile, and delicious seed where you live, it is also available online: Amigo Foods, Amazon.com, Nutricity.com

Preparation

Use a 1-to-2 ratio of uncooked, pre-rinsed quinoa to water.  Boil quinoa in water in an uncovered pot.  Once water comes to a boil, cover with a securely fitting lid, reduce heat to low, and let simmer for 12-15 minutes.

1 cup of uncooked quinoa will yield about 3 cups of cooked quinoa.

There are two great veggie-centric events going on in Austin this weekend:

Saturday March 30, 2012 we will be volunteering at Texas VegFest at Fiesta Gardens from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The event promotes and celebrates plant-based diets for a healthier future and features  more than 100 vendors, activities, and great local bands and speakers including one of my favorites, Michael Greger, MD of www.NutritionFacts.org. There is a recommended donation of $5.

Sunday March 31, 2012 we strongly encourage you to checkout the JBG Spring Potluck and Open House. The potluck runs from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM and is a great chance to take your friends and family out to the farm and enjoy and share some great food. Free of charge, BYOB, and bring a dish to share. We will be preparing one of our favorite recipes from The Authentic Peruvian Vegetarian Cookbook for everyone and the farm will be providing free heirloom tomato transplants for all in attendance!

Adventure Car on the ferry in Cameron Parish

This Sunday James and I set out on our first trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. The trip was prompted by an invitation from a close friend which coincided with a week of fantastic weather. Is there a better way to embrace the spirit of spring than with a road trip under a blue sky with the windows down? No, there is not. So, we strapped the bikes onto the car, packed our cleanest clothes, and hit the open road.

This drive took us east from Austin to Houston. Then, rather than take the interstate in to Louisiana we decided to venture along the Creole Nature Trail, also known as Highway 82. This route parallels the Gulf of Mexico allowing us to take in some interesting views of beaches, wetlands, and numerous massive oil and petrochemical refineries. True to its name, this scarcely-traveled two-lane highway is indeed a nature trail and in this coastal landscape we spotted thousands of birds, several snakes, a few alligators, a beaver, and a wild boar!

We are old hands at road trips having traversed the North American continent by car this past summer. At that time we learned a thing or two about eating well on the road and our favorite car snack, whenever we had a chance to make it, was hummus with sliced vegetables. For this trip we were armed with a healthy selection of carrots and radishes from the Saturday farmer’s market and a fresh batch of Megamaga Hummus. Car trips can be exhausting, but eating well and staying hydrated helped us reach our destination ready to take on (almost) any adventure the Big Easy has to offer.

Megamega Hummus with carrots and Dr. Krackers

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet is likely to gain popularity in the near future. The diet, which emphasizes consuming whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats to reduce chronic inflammation and promote health, is, for the most part, easily adapted to a vegetarian diet. However, the diet recommends a high-level of Omega-3 fatty acid consumption including 2-6 servings of fish and seafood a week. For most vegetarians this is untenable as is the recommendation to take a 2-3 gram fish oil supplement. The reason that fish and fish oil are preferred to plant-based Omega-3 sources is that the fish contains two important Omega-3s, EPA and DHA, while plant-based Omega-3 sources only contain ALA fatty acids. The human body can, rather inefficiently, convert ALA to the necessary EPA and DHA. So, in order to consume all of the necessary ALA for this conversion a vegetarian requires about 5 times the Omega-3 consumption that someone else will obtain from fish or fish oil – at least 6 grams of ALA a day.

Even with all of this information I still can not bring myself to eat a fish oil capsule knowing as I do that the undesirable fishy taste will be in my mouth for at least three hours. The only remaining solution is to eat all the plant-based sources of ALA Omega-3 fatty acids I can get my hands on. This includes most nuts, seeds, and the remarkable herb purslane (more on that later this spring).

While we have not had this recipe tested for nutritional content, based on the ingredients we estimate that one 1/2 cup serving of this hummus has 246 calories, 4.30 grams of protein, 6.18 g Omega-6 fatty acids, and 3.35 g Omega-3 fatty acids. With that nutritional profile you may want to put this one in your regular snack rotation like we do.

Ingredients

Procedure