Vegetarian Delight

We invited a friend over for dinner.  His wife is visiting her folks for a couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, her folks live in Mexico City and she got on the airplane the evening before the swine flu episode hit the news.  So, he's been worried about her.  We thought he could use some company over a nice home cooked meal.

We are not vegetarians although both Metta and I have dabbled in vegetarianism.  Metta was a vegetarian until... the day BEFORE I met him!  So he can't blame me for his fall from vegetarianism.  I tried being a vegetarian for a couple of years about a decade ago.  I ended up being anemic.  Tried being a vegetarian for about 6 months a few years later - ended up anemic with vitamin B deficiency.  These days, I am allergic to most vegetarian protein sources - I can't eat beans at all - not just cuz they are the musical fruit either :(

So what to make for a nice dinner?  I had been craving baba ghanouj for a couple of months so that went on the menu immediately.  I had some black beans that I can't eat so why not foist em on the visiting vegetarian?  Our friend loves chips so the appy became chips and dip.  I decided to make up a recipe for the beans by making it into a South east Asian inspired black bean dip.  I blenderized a drained can of organic black beans, a couple of tablespoons of coconut milk, juice from half a lime, a bit of ewa sweet onion, salt and pepper, a squeeze of raw honey and a couple of handfuls of chopped cilantro.  Deeeelicious.  I tried a couple of bites and my allergies reared their ugly head a couple of hours later.

It was also the first time I made baba ghanouj.  I was able to find some local asian eggplants but not the bulbous oval variety.   I roasted the eggplants for about 15 minutes under the broiler, turning occasionally.  They could have used a little more time.  I had to do this in the middle of the night so that I didn't heat up the house.  There's been a heat wave here lately.  I curled them into a bowl and covered it to let em steam cook a little more.  

The next day, I put the eggplants in the food processor with some tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, ewa sweet onion, salt and pepper.  They were a little disappointing until I salted them liberally.   Yumyum. 

Dinner was gen-ji-mai rice, which is half brown rice, and seitan broccoli.  Gen-ji-mai rice is not as brown as brown rice but healthier and tastier than white rice.  I simply wok fried the seitan til golden with some onion, garlic and ginger and the broccoli.  A little soy sauce for flavouring and there it was.  A great veggie meal.  

I forgot about dessert though - Haagen Daz chocolate ice cream which tastes like sublime high end fudgsicles to me.  Oh well.