Dislikes and Broccoli Salad

As a kid, I was always bewildered that broccoli was touted as a common scourge of children.  I despised most vegetables but loved broccoli.  I ate chicken with broccoli and rice for dinner for months. Not baked or broiled or fried chicken with a side of limp, overboiled broccoli, but the Chinese version with brown sauce: parboiled, oiled, glistening, crunchy broccoli with velvety, cornstarch-tenderized chicken. Ok, I don’t think of food in those terms then or now but I liked it. I thought it was the only way to eat broccoli. I was confused when I first encountered boiled broccoli and cheese sauce at a buffet: “Yay, broccoli! Cheese? But the nachos are at the other bar. Why is the cheese so far apart?” Worse was my first encounter with raw broccoli:

“Yeuch! It tastes like green!”

I love vegetables now but I still think broccoli is gross when raw. It tastes like green and overwhelms your taste receptors. Ironically, I was intrigued when I saw Oh She Glow’s Detox Salad involving raw broccoli: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/09/27/detox-salad/ (I do cook from many sources but she’s my current favorite).   I love chopping vegetables and this recipe involves a lot of chopping. I also figured the intense greenness, which I suppose some would call bitterness, of the raw broccoli would be ameliorated by its reduced size.

I chopped the vegetables into bite-sized pieces and then used the food processor. It’s a labor –intensive recipe but less so if you use a food processor.  I had no currants and only a scant cup of raisins.  Make sure to purchase enough raisins as the sugar in the raisins balances the cruciferous vegetables. This salad turned out fairly dry so I wished for extra lemons. However, the dryness likely prevents sogginess over the days it will take to eat this. The recipe claims to and does make about 10 cups.

I skipped the optional kelp, the salt (never use), the pepper (maybe later), and the maple syrup (I am trying to reduce my current astronomically high sugar intake). I may add in herbs de Provence, the spice blend I’m currently putting on everything, or paprika as the salad is missing something. 

This is not of my favorite things I've made, but it is probably the healthiest salad (no oils, no added sugars) and the healthiest vegan dish I’ve ever made. My forays into vegan cooking usually involve desserts (lots of oils and sugar/syrups) or creamy mains (lots of fatty nuts and oils). I like how this recipe makes raw broccoli palatable. I also like how this recipe reinforces my philosophy that everyone can eat anything; you just need to find the (healthy) way to prepare it for your taste buds.

What recipe changed your mind about something you used to dislike eating?

Keep on experimenting,

BooksEatPaper

Date Bars and Compliments

I fall asleep at live performances: musical, play, symphony, even Cirque du Soleil. Snore, snore, snore. I am embarrassed that I am not cultured enough to stay awake.  However, the one exception is the opera. Although I have yet to attend a real opera performance, I absolutely love the opera: the grandeur, the costumes, the overly dramatic emotions. I love the way the notes reverberate through your body. Last Sunday I watched the SF Opera for free at the Stern Grove Festival, a summer concert series. It is the first concert I have been able to attend this summer. (This weekend is the last. So go if you are free.)

Concert officially starts at 2pm but early birds such as me get there at 9am for good seats (worth it). Thus, a picnic is required. I decided to make vegan date bars from Oh She Glows. I love her blog: vegan and easy to make. The recipe: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/03/28/5-ingredient-no-bake-vegan-date-squares/

 

Random notes: One sheet of parchment paper is enough. I used more coconut oil, maybe ½ cup. It’s ironic since I usually ruthless leave out every bit of salt and oil from a recipe. As the oil is the only binder, I figured more was better. This is where being good at math is bad: ½ cup = 8 tablespoons, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil = 59% of your RDV saturated fat, the recipe has 16 pieces = each piece has 30% of your daily saturated fat. Thus, I cut the bars into 32. That and I like the smaller size better, especially when feeding vegan food to nonvegans.  Make sure to serve this chilled. At room temperature, it falls apart/is like eating jam on blended oatmeal. No worries, just stick them back in the fridge until firm again.

People actually liked it. I told people it was raw and vegan after they ate it. Also, the strangers next to us were very friendly and offered us curry wraps. So I shared my date bars. This is my first time swapping food with strangers and it turned out well. They liked the date bars enough that they asked for the recipe! One guy also gave me a tip: soak the dates in water overnight so it’ll blend easily and quickly. I will next time since I could smell my motor burning even though I divided the recipe into 2 batches. My food processor claims to be 4-cup capacity.

My favorite part of the day was having a complete stranger like my food enough to ask for the recipe. I love it when people like what I make, especially when it’s what I consider “weird” foods like vegan or sodium-free. When I didn’t cook and only ate other people’s cooking, I always felt bad about not cooking. The cooks always said, “It’s ok. I’m just happy to share.” As a cook now, I realize that sentiment is true. Your excitement about my cooking is just as good as you cooking for me. Please, please eat my food. You don’t have to love it, but it’s nice to know my food is edible. When you like it, it’s a bonus.

What is the best compliment you've received on your cooking? 

 

Keep on eating,

BookEatsPaper

Sexy and I know it