Food Friday: The Vegetarian Edition

Yum!  Lunch!  So good I ate 2 bowls.

I have been very busy with work projects this week, so what did I do today?  Embark on some interesting food projects!  A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook, "One upside to grad school is that my house has never been cleaner."  I think I could post, "I'm in the midst of several large consulting projects and my family has never eaten better."  Everyone loves a distraction.

Carmelizing onions.
Don't add salt or it will inhibit the carmelization.

So, today I made one new dish and one old favorite.  The new dish was Chinese tofu and vegetable soup.  I have been craving this for a few days so I had all the ingredients on hand from my weekly shopping trip.  This was so simple to make and absolutely delicious.  Flying by the seat of my pants (i.e. no recipe) I put about 3 tablespoons of chicken bouillon in a stock pot and added 2 sliced bok choi ribs, on sliced celery rib, one sliced carrot, 3 or 4 broccoli florets, one quarter of a red pepper and one quarter of a green pepper and a handful of pea pods.  I covered the ingredients with water and brought it to a boil.  In a bowl I put several large chunks of firm tofu and a few bean sprouts then served up some of the soup on top, adding about a teaspoon of low sodium soy sauce.

Lentils on the boil with a couple
of bay leaves and a pinch of salt.

This was absolutely delicious and totally satisfied my craving.  Die hard veggies could probably use veg stock or maybe just rely on the flavor of the vegetables.  Also, next time I'll add the pea pods at the end since they got a little done.

Since my little boy is very fascinated by "super foods" these days, I plan to serve him the leftovers tonight with his sardines on toast, and call it "Super Soup."  I feel like I got a full day's serving of vegetables, plus lots of magnesium in the tofu which is great for my migraines.  I suspect that's why I craved the soup.

Saran Wrap lined container

While this soup was cooking I also made what I like to call Vegetarian Pate, which is also known as Mandy Patinkin's Chopped Liver.   About 15 years ago I saw Mandy on a channel 13 cooking show called "Cucina Amore."  He made what I assume is a family recipe that calls for a cup of cooked lentils,    3/4 of a cup of walnuts, 3 hard boiled egg whites, one carmelized onion and some salt and pepper all whooshed together in a food processor.   Over the years I have perfected this recipe mainly in presentation, although I now use 2 whole hard boiled eggs as opposed to just the whites.  I originally served it in a bowl at a cocktail party and no one touched it because it looked very disappetizing.  I now blend the ingredients while warm them form it in a saran wrap lined mini loaf tin (or, since I left all those back in New York the plastic container from Albert Heijn ice cream).  This also makes it easier to slice for sandwiches once it has cooled, which are delicious with some lettuce, butter and grainy mustard.