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Simple Healthy Winter
Foods for All
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by Rebekah Rice
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In our household we always
need to consider vegan and gluten-free eaters, so I often make several
related versions of a meal. I don't usually follow recipes, but years
ago we made up a delicious Teriyaki Sauce that allows us to serve plain
steamed rice, steamed or sautéed vegetables (broccoli or bok
choy are great with this) with a choice of tofu or tempeh or fish. If
we make enough, the leftovers are outstanding all mixed together,
served at any temperature.
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Teriyaki
Sauce for Tofu, Tempeh, or Alaskan Salmon
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Sufficient
sauce for 3 to 5 lbs of tofu, tempeh or salmon--the extra sauce will
keep for a week, so there's no need to use it all at once.
¼ cup finely chopped fresh ginger
¼ cup finely chopped fresh garlic
¾ cup tamari
½ cup toasted sesame oil
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup mirin (optional)
Blend until liquid.
Slice tofu or tempeh into ¼" to ½" thick slices
(triangles or rectangles). Completely fill the bottom of a glass pan.
Pour the sauce over as thinly as you can manage. Bake at 350- 400 for
20-40 minutes until yummy. (Note that the temp and time are truly
flexible. You want the sauce to be all absorbed but the soy to still be
tender.)
If putting the sauce onto fresh or frozen salmon, marinate as long as
convenient (0–24 hours) in the refrigerator, then broil for 5 minutes,
spooning sauce back up on top a couple of times, and finish in the oven
for up to 10 more minutes depending on thickness. (You can pull the
vegan pan out of the oven while the broiler is on, then put them both
back in the oven to come out warm at the same time.)
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Stuffed
Vegetables
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Stuffed
vegetables are more flexible than making a casserole because you can
make as many variations as needed for the special needs of the eaters.
The presentation is great with a salad on the side. In summer, we stuff
our own Nine Mile Farm sweet peppers or summer squashes. In winter we
use our Acorn, Delicata, Sugar Dumpling, or the round bowl end of
Butternut squashes. I allow one half squash for each serving (unless
using the round end of butternuts, in which case you'll be using half
of the round end, and setting aside the narrow end to use in a soup or
for roasted veggies).
Begin by scrubbing the squash and cutting lengthwise-- through the stem
and blossom ends. Scrape out the seeds with a spoon and save them for a
rich and flavorful stock. Bake the squash halves cut side down on a
lightly greased cookie sheet at any convenient temperature from
350° to 425° until they are fork tender.
Flip them over and fill (heap it up) with any yummy mixture of grain
and protein and herbs that you feel like putting in them. It's good for
the stuffing to be extra flavorful because the proportion of filling to
squash is low. Leftover grain based dishes make a great basis for
stuffing: risotto, quinoa, or buckwheat.
The stuffing can be different for each person eating, as long as you
can figure out a way to show they are different--I might use visible
cheese on top for dairy eaters, visible nuts for vegans, visible meat
or mushrooms for omnivores. If the squash is hot and the filling is
hot, they'll just need 10 minutes to meld together before serving.
As a strategy, I bake twice as much squash as needed for a side dish
for a meal, and then after dinner make stuffed squash to serve the
following night. In this case, you'll want to allow plenty of time for
reheating, especially if there is cheese that needs to melt.
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Shepherd's
Pie
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This
is another really nice presentation of leftovers. I make vegan and meat
versions, using the same leftover roasted root vegetables (our own
parsnips, celeriac, leeks, and carrots) for both.
Beginning with the vegan version, I mix 1 cup of stock with 2 TBS of
arrowroot or non-GMO cornstarch or non-GMO potato flour in a heavy pan,
bring them to a boil stirring until thick, then add 3–4 cups of roasted
root veggies, and 2 cups of cooked large beans (scarlet runner beans
are especially nice). At this point, I taste it, add seasonings as
needed, and move it into a pie dish.
I repeat this in the same pan for the meat version, using 2 cups of
cubed leftover venison or other meat instead of the beans, and using
meat stock instead of vegetable stock. Meanwhile, I have boiled the
potatoes for the two separate mashed toppings at the same time, before
separating the halves after draining and mashing but prior to adding
butter and milk (versus vegan fats). Then I heap on the mashed
potatoes, finishing up with different swirl patterns on top if the pie
plates don't look different enough, and bake at 375° until hot and
lightly browning.
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