Archive | 2008

Pumpkin Risotto

21 Nov

Thanksgiving is my favorite time of the year.  It’s special to me because it marks the official start of the Holiday and Xmas season and because I was actually born on a Thanksgiving Day a few years ago. 

To me the rituals of Thanksgiving are most precious – the sharing with family, the cooking and wanting to please your loved ones and the action of giving thanks for all that we have today.  To give thanks without asking anything in return is one of the principles of YOGA and maybe, my connection to Thanksgiving and how much I enjoy this holiday are signs of me possibly practicing yoga before this life.

I always give thanks to the Supreme Being for everything I do have – my life, my family, my health, my ability to see, hear, speak, walk, communicate, my roof, my family, those who love me and those who I love.  But I also give thanks for all those things I do not have…  those things we might think we need in our lives, and the very fact we do not have them might very well be a blessing.  I always thank God for keeping those wishes away from me… because I must learn to appreciate that life is perfect just as it is and that we do not need anything else but the moment we are living.  The present is the only thing we need to continue evolving and growing as spiritual beings in this physical existence.

Ever since I became vegetarian, Thanksgiving has been a challenge in the sense that I was truly attached to the flavors and smells of the traditional omnivore menu.  But in recent years I’ve taken it upon myself to search and create recipes that are in tune with the season, but completely vegetarian and satisfying at the same time.  And when I say in tune with the season, I mean the seasons in the US, because in Puerto Rico, it’s hot and humid on Thanksgiving, just like any other summer day.

This year I decided to try a Pumpkin Risotto.  Something easy, yet delicious that I could make at my grandma’s house.  This year Thanksgiving will be only her, my mom and I, and I don’t want to carry stuff from my home to hers.   I did a test run of  this recipe first and here are the results…  Something you can make any time of the year, but resonates really well in Fall and Winter.  Here’s how I did it…

 pumpkin-risotto

 

PUMPKIN RISOTTO

1 box of Archer Farms’ 4 cheese risotto mix
1 cup pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
½ tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 ounces Fontina cheese, cubed small
1 ounce Blue cheese, I use Danish blue, grated or in crumbles
¼ cup Pecorino Romano, grated
¼ cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

 

  1. First, we need to roast the pumpkin.  Place the cleaned pumpkin on a baking sheet, drizzle the olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper and roast in a 350 F oven for about 20-30 minutes.  I do this in my toaster oven.
  2. When the pumpkin is about to be done, start preparing the risotto mixture according to the directions on the package.   I place 2 ½ cups of water to boil.  When the water starts to boil, mix contents of rice and season packets.  Mix together well and leave uncovered. 
  3. After the pumpkin is done, place in the pumpkin seeds another baking sheet and roast dry for about 10-12 minutes.  Watch them closely so they do not burn.  They’ll change color from green to brownish.
  4. When the rice is halfway done, add the pumpkin pieces, the Fontina cheese and the Blue cheese.  Mix well so the cheese pieces melt well.  If the pumpkin stays in big pieces, kind of crush them against the side of the saucepan.  The idea is for the pumpkin pieces to mix well with the rice sauce and make it kind of orangey.
  5. When the rice is done, about 17-20 minutes, turn off the stove, add the Pecorino Romano cheese and cover.  The sauce will thicken upon standing.  Leave it covered for about 15-20 minutes so the sauce thickens and the temperature lowers so you won’t burn the roof of your mouth and can taste the cheeses and pumpkin.  Do not skip the waiting step, no matter how hungry you might be… I speak from experience, and burning the roof of your mouth is not fun.
  6. When serving, sprinkle some roasted pumpkin seeds on top for a nice look and great crunchy bite.

 

I enjoyed this risotto with my sweet plantains and a side salad.

It’s super easy to make.  It’s great if you’re only cooking for a small group, but if you want to feed more than 2-3 with this, just double the recipe – no problem.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  I hope my mom and grandma like it too.

 

Thanks to you for always touching base with me here at KarmaFree Cooking.  I definitely count you as part of my blessings.

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Roasted Garlic and Tomato Pasta

20 Nov

When November comes around, it’s birthday time!!!!  My aunt’s, my dad’s and mine… so I decided to host a lunch to celebrate all our birthdays.  And to top it all, my sister came in from Miami to visit too, so the family was complete.

Everyone invited was not vegetarian, but because the lunch was hosted at my house, vegetarian fare was a MUST.  I had planned to make pasta – it’s the safe and easy choice; Non-threatening to the skeptical.  I was originally planning on making a pasta with gorgonzola – a dish inspired by a dinner I had in Old San Juan a couple of weeks ago.  Then, I saw 30-Minute Meals and was totally inspired by a dish Rachael Ray made…   I do not recall how she called it, but my version is called Roasted Garlic and Tomato Pasta…

 roasted-garlic-and-tomato-pasta

ROASTED GARLIC AND TOMATO PASTA

1 pound of short whole-wheat tubular pasta, penne rigate or rigatoni works well
3 handfuls of grape tomatoes, about 2 pints
1 whole head of garlic, roasted
2 handfuls of a shredded 4 cheese blend – Fontina, Parmesan, Asiago and Pecorino
1/2 cup basil leaves
3 generous handfuls of fresh baby spinach leaves
¼ cup of grated Pecorino Romano
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
  1. I roasted the head of garlic the night before…  Just take the head of garlic, cut the top off and place inside a sheet of aluminum foil.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle a bit of water.  Close the aluminum foil to form a packet and roast in a toaster oven at 350F for 30-40 minutes.
  2. If you do not have time or just did not plan ahead… just open up the head of garlic into cloves, smash them all individually with the side of a knife.  Place them together with the grape tomatoes on a baking sheet to roast side-by-side.  Drizzle the tomatoes and smashed garlic cloves with olive oil, salt and pepper liberally.  Roast in a 350F oven for about 20-25 minutes.  The garlic smell will tell you when it’s done.
  3. When the tomatoes/garlic are about to be done, set a large pot filled with water to boil.  Salt the water as soon as it comes to a boil and drop the pasta.  Stir well to avoid the pasta sticks.  Because we’re using whole-wheat pasta, it’ll take a little longer to cook… about 12-15 minutes.
  4. In a large bowl, place all the roasted garlic cloves with the skins removed.  Smash them into a paste with a large fork. 
  5. As soon as pasta is about to be done, turn the stove off.  Take about 1 ½ cups of water and pour on top of the roasted garlic.  Mix the garlic and water and create like a “tea” of roasted garlic.  Add the roasted tomatoes and smash them together with the garlic tea. 
  6. Drain the pasta.  I always drain the pasta over a Pyrex glass bowl to reserve some of the pasta water, just in case I need some more.  Return the pasta to the pot and pour the tomato/garlic tea over it.  Mix together well so the pasta absorbs the roasted garlic liquid.  While the pot is still hot/warm, add the basil leaves and baby spinach leaves.  Mix together well so the heat of the pasta will wilt them nicely.  Add the shredded 4 cheese blend and mix well.  Cover pot for about 5 minutes to help the spinach wilt.
  7. After the 5 minutes have elapsed, serve in a beautiful pasta bowl and sprinkle with the grated Pecorino Romano.

We had a great time… everyone loved the food, specially my dad, who served himself 3 helpings.  And he’s one of the biggest skeptics of vegetarian food.  Hope you like it too… This is a very easy and delicious pasta that will feed a crowd.  It took almost no-time to make – Very care-free and perfect for entertaining.

Hope you try it and like it too…

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Veggie Sancocho

19 Nov

Today we celebrate the Discovery of Puerto Rico…  or the day Christopher Columbus landed on the Island of Puerto Rico for the first time in 1493.  Because if you ask the Taínos who already lived on the Island, they already knew Boriquén existed and they needed no discovery of any kind.

I wanted to commemorate this day with a very Puerto Rican dish – SANCOCHO.  The name is not that pretty, but it tastes awesome.  It’s a stew/soup of many root vegetables, or as we call them locally, viandas.  It’s great for those rainy days in November…  as we thankfully say goodbye to the hurricane season, which fortunately has left Puerto Rico unscathed this year.

I’ll be honest, when I make this dish, I’ve made it for 40 people at a time… so bear with me when I try to scale the measurements for something more in tune with a regular family of 4. 

 sancocho

SANCOCHO

3 medium potatoes, can be russet, red skin, Yukon gold, cleaned and cubed
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut in ¼ inch rounds
1 medium yautía blanca, peeled and cubed
1 medium yautía lila, peeled and cubed
1 small malanga (taro root), peeled and cubed
2 celery stalks, cleaned and sliced thin
1 small onion, diced
1 small bell pepper, diced
1 corn on the cob
¼ head of white cabbage
2 tomatoes, peeled and cut in small dice
2 tbs sofrito
1 tbs olive oil
1 vegetable bouillon cube
2 bay leaves
½ bunch cilantro (optional), chopped
1 tsp Herbamare seasoning (optional)
1 tbs Salt, divided
10-15 turns of the mill of Freshly Cracked Ground Pepper, divided
Water
Avocado slices, for garnish at the end

 

  1. In the largest stock pot you have, start by adding the olive oil, sofrito, onion, bell pepper, celery and bouillon cube.  Smash the cube so that it melts in with the rest of the ingredients.  Allow for the celery, onions and peppers to soften.  Add the tomatoes and let those juices mix together. Season with a little salt and pepper.
  2. Add the viandas – potatoes, carrots, yautías, , malanga – and the cabbage.  Mix well with the ingredients already on the pot.  Add water until covering 1 inch over the contents of the pot.  Add the bay leaves, the chopped cilantro leaves, the Herbamare seasoning, some additional salt and pepper.  Taste to check the water is well seasoned. Cover.  Let it come to a boil and simmer at medium heat for about 30-40 minutes.
  3. Check the pot every so often and move the sancocho around, to avoid the bottom from scorching.  When you reach the 20 minute mark, add the pieces of corn on the cob.  Cover again and let it boil for the last 10 – 20 minutes.  Make sure the root vegetables are fork tender.
  4. Turn off the stove and let the sancocho finish cooking with the residual heat from the pot and stove.  Allow it to rest and mellow for about 20 minutes.  The soup will maintain hot for about 1 hour, no problem.
  5. When you’re ready to eat, garnish on top with slices of avocado… and if you want, you can drizzle a squirt of lime juice too.

 

This is a stew perfect for cold and rain days.  This is what we almost always eat after a few days of fasting at a Yoga Retreat.  It’s full of vitamins and nutrition and will even “revive the dead”.  There is a lot of ingredients, but it’s all chop and dump…  not that difficult.   

You can eat it with plain whole-grain rice…

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KarmaFree Cooking turns 1 year old!!!!

8 Nov

Believe it or not, KarmaFree Cooking’s 1st Anniversary is here!!!!

I truly can’t believe it.  Something that started as something to just collect my vegetarian recipes has grown into something really cool.  Nowadays we receive an average of 450-500 visits each day, people from around the world visit our little page each month, you share with me your recipes and ideas and some of you are self-proclaimed fans of KarmaFree Cooking…

I am sooooo glad to be of service.  I feel it is a responsibility and a privilege to share with you all that I have learned to make my life and health a little better by just adjusting what I eat and how I eat it.

So to celebrate our 1st Anniversary, I want to share with you how KarmaFree Cooking has been getting exposure on the regular media outlets here in Puerto Rico…

radio-isla-2

Josy LaTorre is a well-known vegetarian in Puerto Rico – she was (or still is, I am not sure) part of a very successful musical group Haciendo Punto, she authored a biography on the local mega-star comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot, she has a weekly vegetarian column in El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper and hosts a weekly vegetarian radio show in Radio Isla 1320AM every Sunday morning at 8:30AM.  So she’s very well known in PR for her support of the vegetarian diet.

We came into contact a few months ago and finally, recently, I accepted her invitation to visit her radio show and serve as a resource to answer listeners’ questions.   She had visited this blog and liked my approach, my philosophy on being vegetarian and how I expressed myself in my posts…  even though Jossy is mostly vegan, she was also interested in tasting some of the recipes I had posted on the blog.

I had a blast.  I was with her on air for 1 hour.  We talked about my journey on how I decided to become a vegetarian, how long it took for me and how I believe you should not force your decision.  We also talked about the role Yoga had in my decision to become vegetarian and the benefits I had seen in my life and health.  Then it came the tasting part…  I brought with me samples of my hummus, my guacamole and my veggie party dip.  I made them dairy-free for her and she loved them all and she mentioned it all on the air.

radio-isla

My conversations with Josy were instrumental to start creating a Spanish-version of KarmaFree Cooking.  I started it a few months ago, and now I develop each post in both languages from the get go… but I came to understand how this information is valuable to people around the world.  And even though having a site in English reaches a lot of people, the Hispanic community around the world is starved for information in their same language…  I have Josy to thank for that.  It’s more work for me, but I know my objective of sharing the KarmaFree Cooking philosophy is reaching farther and farther.

During November, the emblematic month for giving thanks and being appreciative, I want to thank Josy for supporting the KarmaFree Cooking philosophy and wanting to share it with her public and to YOU, KarmaFree Cooking reader who visit our site regularly looking for information, recipes and inspiration to continue sure-footed on your vegetarian lifestyle despite the constant messages from the omnivore world.  Thanks…  and may we be able to continue to celebrate many more anniversaries together.

Feel free to leave me your comments or thoughts… and if you do not want to miss anything posted in KarmaFree Cooking, please subscribe to receive a RSS feed or e-mail alerts.  They are sent out every time I post something new and you will not miss anything new on the blog.

NYC Markets – Chelsea Market

8 Nov

Located on 9th Ave, between 15th and 16th streets is Chelsea Market.  This building has a lot of food history, as it saw the birth of the Oreo when it was a manufacturing plant for the National Biscuit Company, better known as Nabisco.  It is also now home to the Food Network.  Ever since I learned about Chelsea Market I make it a point to visit.

The first time I visited Chelsea Market I was with friends and I just had the chance to walk through the main corridor and look things from afar.  This time, on my own, I wanted to see all the stores and places featured in the Food Network shows.  See where Rachael Ray says she buys things to cook later that night for her husband, among others…

history           chelsea-market

Photo courtesy of Frances Roberts for the NYTimes

I decided to go to Chelsea Market early in the morning… when on “vacation” early means @ 10AM.  I wanted to do something interesting and still be close by to the Martha Stewart’s studios on 8th Ave. and 26th street.  I love the looks of Chelsea Market… it looks like a cave filled with treasures.  It’s kind of dark, and has that industrial look that’s vintage, yet is so modern at the same time.  This is a photo during my first visit.

I got hungry and had to have my second breakfast of the day.  I sound so much like a hobbit, don’t you think?  I had a whole- wheat-everything-bagel with tofutti non-dairy creamy spread.  I completely forgot they call it “everything” for a reason…  it has onion, garlic, and every kind of seed imaginable.  It was good, but afterwards I felt I needed to brush my teeth again or chew some minty gum just in case I had to talk to someone.  Next time, we’ll keep the onion and garlic to a minimum before noon.

       everything-bagel        cream-cheeses

The stores look small from the main corridor, but they’re BIG!!!  They twist and turn and continue going on.  My favorite one was buon Italia with all sorts of imported Italian foods.  I bought Meyer lemon olive oil, capers in salt (I have only found them in brine), tomato paste in a tube, whole wheat orzo and a white truffle porcini spread.  But I was impressed with the selection of cheeses from Italy and France, and something that surprised me positively is the cheeses are very well labeled if they contain rennet as part of their ingredients.  They write it in CAPS in LARGE LETTERS so people are aware of what they’re buying – to me, a nice surprise.  If I lived in NYC, I would come to this store often… the types of pasta, nuts, oils, tomatoes were incredible. 

buon-italia1

I also got a chance sneak in a visit the Food Network offices…  I got to see the main lobby at least.  They were getting ready for the Food & Wine festival later that week.  Maybe someday, I won’t need to pretend I am going to a meeting, but doing it for real… now that’s a nice idea!!

       food-network-2       food-network-offices

If you get a chance, visit Chelsea Market in NYC.  Besides the deli and the Italian shop, they also have bakeries, restaurants – sit down and nice fast foods, kitchen gadgets shops, gift shops, produce store, and other stores not relevant to vegetarians ;).  It’s a great place to visit if you love food and food shopping.

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