A Full Meal

Herbed Carrots, Fusion Sauce, Spiced Rice, Steamed Broccolini

How are you all doing with your VEGANUARY? Are you keeping it together? Are you experimenting? Are you feeling great yet? Are you frustrated? Do you want to strangle me? Hit me up in comments, and I’ll help all I can, I promise.

I threw this meal together completely from whole cloth last night. Even the sauce, which came out great. I was just inspired. There are four recipes in this post, although one is simply steamed broccolini, but still, everything you need for this complete meal is below.

HOWEVER, the fusion sauce is for paid subscribers only to THANK YOU for supporting the blog.

Spiced Rice

I just love throwing rice into the cooker with different groups of herbs and spices. Every week I try a different flavor blend. One tip: if you’re adding nutritional yeast for a cheesy rice, add it AFTER the rice is cooked, not before, or it’ll soak up the liquid and rice won’t cook fully.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups brown rice, rinsed thoroughly

• 3 cups mushroom broth, low or no sodium

• 1 tablespoon reduced sodium tamari

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 3/4 teaspoon curry powder

Method

Rinse the rice thoroughly and put into rice cooker or pan. Add broth and seasonings, stir well, start cooker. Or cook on stovetop at slow simmer until all liquid is gone and rice is tender.

Steamed Broccolini

Ingredients

• Broccolini

• Salt & pepper

• Water

• White vinegar

Method

Rinse the broccolini thoroughly.

Put water into the pot part of a double boiler and heat to boiling.

Place broccolini into the basket, place atop the broiler and sprinkle with white vinegar. This will keep the vivid green from fading to sad yellow. Cover and steam until stems are fork tender. Scatter with a small amount of salt or salt substitute and grind on fresh pepper.

Herbed Carrots with Soybeans

I’ll never call them endamame
And only partly because I can’t say it.

Ingredients

• About 2 cups carrots, sliced

• About 2 cups soybeans

• About 2 tablespoons slivered almonds

• 1 teaspoon thyme

• 1 teaspoon parsley

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

If starting from raw, precook the beans and carrots separately. The beans until tender, the carrots until almost tender. You want to leave a bit of crisp bite to them. I used frozen carrots, and honestly, they seemed overcooked.

Spread the pre-cooked carrots onto a baking sheet lined in parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Sprinkle the herbs (except pepper) over the carrots.

Cook under the broiler on low for just a few minutes, watching closely. You just want to brown the them a bit.

Take the carrots out and add the soybeans. Stir around to blend with the herbs.

Return to broiler for one or two more minutes. The beans will burn fast, so don’t leave them too long.

Remove from oven.

Sprinkle fresh pepper and scatter slivered almonds over the top.

Maggie’s Fusion Sauce (below paywall)

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HARRISON HYDE and the RUNAWAY BRIDE

“A heart-stealing, small-town rom-com that’ll lift you right up!”