SmarterFitter Blog Less diet, more brain

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This afternoon I thought I’d whip together a quick lunch of the Guardian’s “fairly easy” tabbouleh salad with a few chickpeas. The plan seemed quick and painless: while I cooked my soaked chickpeas and soaked the bulgar wheat, I could let the food processor chop the parsley, and hand chop a tomato and some green onion. It should only take a few minutes (cooking time aside). But while I had chickpeas and the food processor going, I thought “why not make hummus“? This would require slicing veggies, which involved washing carrots, celery and cucumber. Tim added that we needed pita bread if we’re having hummus, so off he went to the store. Finally, after dirtying all the dishes in the house, I went to assemble the toubbuleh only to find that I had been soaking couscous, not bulgar wheat, all along. Disaster!

Yesterday I said to Tim, “now that working from home, I don’t imagine lunch will be more involved than what I did for work” (typically a salad I made the night before or leftover dal re-heated in the microwave). It didn’t take me long for me to get trapped in the kitchen.

Here’s the bottom line: I love cooking. Chopping vegetables relaxes me. I think it’s fun to think about different combinations of ingredients and spices. It’s almost an obsession (to which Tim would likely respond, “almost?”). The thing is, there isn’t always enough time in the day to cook elaborate gourmet meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and don’t forget about second breakfast). But I don’t have the money or the appetite for fast food or frozen pizza (though I do have a soft spot for the thin crust variety, but again, I can’t hold back from adding fresh-sliced onion and green pepper before putting the pizza into the oven).

John at Pick the Brain probably didn’t have me in mind when he wrote his post How to Prepare Healthy Meals Faster Than You Can Order Takeout. But just like the anti-chef can learn how to cook, food-obsessed folks like me can also learn that it’s okay to NOT cook fancy meals all the time.

For John, meat is a big part of his “slow carb” cooking regime; however, vegetarians can also just as easily learn from these three basic tenets:

• Stock up on food, such as frozen and canned foods that aren’t nasty, like frozen peas and tinned beans
• Prepare foods efficiently by learning a routine, cooking simple meals, and learning to multitask
• Embrace the microwave for defrosting frozen food, heating up beans, and cooking vegetables

Our freezer is a treasure trove of easy meals: I make big batches of dal and veggie chili and cornbread then freeze them in meal-sized portions.

Another great formula for a quick and healthy meal is beans + grains + vegetables. We often do puy lentils, which take about 30 minutes and are delicious enough just cooked with veggie stock. While those boil away, whip up some rice, quinoa or boiled potatoes (~10 mins) and steam some greens (~10 minutes to chop, wash and steam).

What are your quick and health cooking tips?

How to Prepare Healthy Meals Faster Than You Can Order Takeout

Some lentils play hard to get. Take the yellow lentil, for instance: even after an hour of cooking she’s still tough on the teeth. But the green lentil, well, she’s a bit of a slut.

Green lentils are fast and easy: they require no soaking, take just 20 minutes to cook, and will go with about any vegetable you throw at it. Better still, they’re high protein, low fat, and full of fiber. Not to mention cheap: according to Cheap Healthy Good, a serving of a similar soup costs just $0.69.

Because they’re so easy to cook, green lentils are ideal for quick soups on cold days. This soup doesn’t really need a recipe: just throw in whatever veggies you have on hand. Carrots and tomato are especially good, as is parsley.

Fast and Easy Lentil Soup

Ingredients

• 250g green lentils
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 2 ribs of celery, sliced
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• A handful of parsley
• Enough vegetable stock to cover (or more if you desire a soupy soup)
• Ground black pepper

Directions

Put everything together in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 20 minutes. Optional: At the end, freshen the soup with a splash of vinegar or squeeze of lemon.
Serve with crusty bread.

Serves 4.
Per serving: 282 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; 18g Protein; 51g Carbohydrate

Nutrition information derived from the USDA food database.

Link to other high protein vegan foods

When I made the list of High Protein Vegan Foods, tempeh stood out as most mysterious. I mean, what is it? The dense speckled brick looks more like a diseased internal organ than food. But in fact, tempeh IS food, and a highly nutritious, protein-rich food at that.

Like tofu, tempeh is made from soybeans. However, unlike tofu, which is made from soy milk, tempeh is made from whole soybeans, fermented through a natural culturing process that binds the beans into a cake. Because tempeh retains the whole bean, it is higher in protein and fiber than tofu.

My easy tempeh recipe is an evolution of my Auntie Jo’s sloppy joes, a quintessential American food for sure, traditionally made with ground beef, onions, tomato sauce, and bbq seasoning, then slopped on a bun and eaten with lots of napkins. You don’t need to make this with tempeh - my mom makes hers with MorningStar Farms soy crumbles. I tend to prefer cooking with unadulterated whole ingredients and the tempeh does a nice job of crumbling into the sauce and soaking in the flavors.

The hardest part about this recipe is finding vegan bbq sauce; many sauces contain Worchestershire sauce (i.e. anchovies), honey, and dubious processed ingredients. The only bottled vegan bbq sauce I’m aware of is Annie’s Naturals BBQ Sauce. Of course, you can always make your own, which would make this recipe less easy, but probably much tastier!

Tempeh Sloppy Joes

serves 4

200g tempeh, roughly crumbled
100g bbq sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 can of stewed tomatoes
A dash or two of liquid smoke
salt to taste

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan
2. Add the onion, celery and green pepper and sauté until tender
3. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes or more (the longer the better, the tempeh will crumble more as it cooks)
4. Serve on hamburger buns with lettuce, tomato and sliced onion (if desired). Or, for a tidier sandwich, stuff it in a pita, or wrap it in a tortilla!

Per serving: 200 Calories (kcal); 9g Total Fat; 11g Protein; 22g Carbohydrate
Per serving (with whole grain bun): 310 Calories; 12g Total Fat; 15g Protein; 41g Carbohydrates

Approximate total cost of preparation, including buns: £6.30 (£1.60 per serving)

Nutrition information derived from the USDA food database.

• Link to all High protein vegan foods
• The Flickr photos tagged with “tempeh” are lookin’ mighty tasty
• Lots of information at Tempeh.info