Hello and welcome to our weekend catch up. I have a bit of a lingering cough, but I’m finally feeling better. I went back to the gym a couple times and otherwise had a normal week. It feels good! I’m admittedly scrambling to get this done on Friday morning since we have a pretty full weekend ahead.

I hope you don’t mind me discussing holiday matters a tiny bit. November to mid-December is arguably the busiest time for food content creators, largely driven by the US celebration of Thanksgiving. I have a robust selection of vegan holiday recipe options available already. I guess I’m just wondering: do you feel like you need more? I find most folks have a trusted rotation of recipes that they repeat year over year during the winter holidays. A willingness to experiment seems less common, but maybe I’m wrong.

I’ve been playing around with a mostly traditional lentil and nut loaf “roast,” a couple new side dishes, and some sweets. But I can’t help thinking that practical everyday dinner food is just as important (maybe more so!) over these next few weeks. Extra consideration for one-pot/tray or true 30-minute meals seems valuable for the busy season ahead. If you have any thoughts, let me know in the comments or via email.

Have a nice weekend and be safe out there! :)

5 Things I’m Reading:

1. Do you really want a “slow life?” via RAYON on Substack
2. The Chocolate Conspiracy via Grub Street (click here for non-paywalled option)
3. Recipe Scammers Are Using an AI-Generated Emily Blunt as a Slop Puppet to Promote Their Garbage via Futurism
4. Remember Owning Movies? via The New York Times (gift link)
5. the difference between rest and numbing via La Vie en Bleu on Substack

5 Things I’m Enjoying:

1. New fave background show: Solid Air on YouTube. Musicians go to Derrick Gee’s home, play records that they like, and have a chat for about an hour. I like having it on while I’m cooking because I catch fragments of the conversation, get to hear new music, and just enjoy the overall calm vibe. I particularly liked this episode with Ólafur Arnalds.
2. As a certified AI hater, I feel it’s my duty to be up to date on the latest claims and financial structures pushing it along. I learned a lot in this conversation between Jon Stewart and Ed Zitron! Fizzling the hype.
3. How to make herb oil
4. In light of the above article describing chocolate that doesn’t quite taste like chocolate anymore… I’ve been treating myself to a Tony’s Chocolonely dark bar pretty much every week, just slowly chipping away at it. Out of all the stores we shop at, one of them has Tony’s on sale any given week, which has been super convenient haha. Love their principles and the chocolate is so good!
5. Not really on Instagram much these days and certainly have my issues with Meta in general, but found this conversation with Adam Mosseri really interesting.

5 Questions:

1. One question I have is….. “Moong Dal” (split mung beans). I have a large jar of these and was wondering if I can successfully use these instead of red lentils in recipes. I bought them originally to attempt a vegan egg recipe and, the texture doesn’t work for me in that type of recipe. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
   I’ve tried them in some egg-y things and wasn’t crazy about the results either. I primarily use moong dal for dal tadka! There’s a great recipe in Plant-Based India and also one from Nisha’s site. This is a go-to cold weather meal for us! I usually serve it with flatbread or rice and some roasted veggies (with similar spice treatment) on the side. In my experience, you can use them interchangeably with red split lentils! Moong dal seems to hold its shape a little bit better.
2. How do you keep eating plenty of vegetables when it’s cold and dark? Salads are so unappealing this time of year.
   Most of our veggies are roasted this time of year. It’s fun to do a mixed roast vegetable “salad” with vinaigrette and crunchy toppings. Or I’ll combine warm cooked veggies with shredded cabbage/kale for an overall warm salad–kinda like this Thanksgiving Panzanella! Also soup! Soup is a great vessel for packing in veggies!
3. What do you do with squash seeds? Are they worth saving?
   I’ve saved a handful of honey nut squash seeds to plant next year, but that’s about it. The times I’ve cleaned, dried and roasted pumpkin/squash seeds, I haven’t particularly enjoyed them to be honest! Like they’re fine, but I don’t know if they’re worth the effort.
4. How do you eat more fibre without it feeling like a chore?
   I like adding chickpeas/white beans to a tray of roast veggies. The flavor and texture is usually complimentary and they add more heft. Plus it’s pretty low effort! I also pretty much always add lentils or beans to a brothy soup. Of course meal prepping a bean or lentil salad for the week is another way to get that in. I add ground flax, chia seeds and wheat bran to all of my smoothies (which usually also have frozen raspberries, another fibre winner). I choose whole grains at every opportunity–with bread, pasta, using farro or barley for a grain bowl, or steel cut oatmeal at breakfast. Dry roasted edamame is one of my go-to snacks–some of the brands have 5 grams of fibre per serving! I try to load up on fibre at breakfast because it’s one of the easiest meals to do that, and it also helps me avoid scrambling later in the day.
5. What do you do with the leftover liquid from cooking beans?
   Bean stock is an incredible ingredient! If I’ve cooked beans with just water, I’ll drain the beans, save the bean stock, and then use that bean stock in place of plain water to make traditional vegetable stock. The depth and body that you get with this is unreal! If I’ve cooked beans with onions, garlic, herbs etc, I store the beans in that stock and try to use them in recipes where I can add the liquid as well–like a soup, braise, saucy skillet situation or curry.

Pinned Recipes This Week:

1. Lemony Lentil Vegetable Soup with Rosemary & Fennel
2. Brussels Sprout Caesar Slaw with Kale, Chickpeas & Pine Nut Parm
3. Creamy Coconut Couscous with Golden Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpeas
4. Crispy Sheet Pan Shredded Tofu Topping
5. Golden Serene Latte