Meatless Monday

We brought in the New Year with a conscious effort to reduce our carbon footprint and over the holidays we also watched a documentary on Netflix called “The Game Changers,” where scientists and top athletes embark on a quest the find the optimal diet for human performance and health, and it all pointed towards vegetarianism . With this in mind, why not try some of the treasures from the vegetarian realm? We recently attended an event where the star guest was Madhur Jaffrey, the Julia Child of Indian cooking, who said “in Indian cooking we don’t try to make vegetables look like something else, we let them speak for themselves,” and with this in mind that is what we did. We made a buffet of several vegetables dishes and let them shine in their original shape and not transformed to look like meat. Today, we will be highlighting what was not our first meatless Monday, but I think one of our more impressive efforts, with some of the dishes out of Madhur’s own cook book.

Our trio gathered together, reminiscent of old times and dug into a vegetarian extravaganza, all Indian inspired…. As an added note, with a few small substitutions, the entire meal was also Vegan.

The first dish was quite interesting, Chickpeas cooked in tea.

Supposedly street vendors would use this method to cook the chickpeas, because it gave them a darker colour and wonderful aroma. This was really an eye opener and let the chickpeas shine through.

Next was a luxurious mushroom curry, made with a mixture of shitake, oyster and cremini mushrooms. This is the type of dish that converts non-mushroom lovers that they have been wrong all along.

We also had a few old favorites, including Zucchini stuffed with bulgur and lentils.

Add to this Eggplant cooked in the pickling style (baingan achari), basmati rice, mixed vegetables in a mustard and cumin sauce and Naan, and we had a feast that could have served many more people. Then again we do love leftovers….

I have mentioned before that we seem to gravitate toward Indian cuisine, when it get cold out, and it turns out this was the perfect meal for a snowy Monday night.

For dessert, we just raided the freezer, for some leftover Christmas treats, like butter tarts, jam-jams and squares, with some chai. We may have snuck a listen to Steph’s latest composition, soon to be performed. It turns out vegetarian doesn’t have to be just boring vegetables, it can be flavourful and fun. Try it now and again, you will not be disappointed.