Meat Free Monday #002

A collection of recipes giving you options to eat at least one meatless meal every Monday

A quick introduction: I’m Gideon: a former chapter President and now marketing officer for the H.E.A.T. Establishment — a social service organization. Meat Free Monday is a not-for-profit campaign launched by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney in 2009. The aim is to raise awareness of the detrimental environmental impact of eating meat, and to encourage people to help slow climate change, preserve precious natural resources and improve their health by having at least one meat free day each week. With this series of posts, I’m sharing animal free recipes that will help you go completely meatless every Monday, but this month, we’re starting with just one meal.

Today’s recipe is inspired by my many visits to Austin, TX and a place called Halal Bros. It is a spiced rice with twice fried sweet potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and a side salad.

Ingredients

For the salad:

4 leaves romaine lettuce

10 cherry tomatoes

1 cucumber peeled and cubed

For the mushrooms:

2 cups quartered mushrooms

1 red onion, chopped

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon steak seasoning (which ever brand you like)

For the sweet potatoes:

1 quart of grape seed oil

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 yellow onion, sliced

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cumin

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the rice:

2 tablespoons grape seed oil (you can use the oil from deep frying the potatoes)

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 1/2 cups long-grain or Basmati rice

2 1/2 cups vegetable broth

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

For the rice: Add the oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add the turmeric and cumin and cook until fragrant but not browned, about 1 minute. Add the rice and stir to coat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the rice is lightly toasted, about 4 minutes. Add the chicken broth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 15 minutes without disturbing. Remove from the heat and allow to rest until the water is completely absorbed and the rice is tender but not mushy. It’ll be about 15 minutes.

For the sweet potatoes: Add the oil to a pot or use a deep fryer. Heat the oil to 375 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer, drop a slice of onion in the oil and whenever it begins to fry, you’re ready to add the potatoes. Fry the potatoes until the color pales and they’re soft. About 5–7 minutes. Remove them from the oil and continue to cooking the mushrooms and preparing the salad. Once you’ve finished those two parts of the dish, sauté the yellow onions in a pan until they become soft. Reheat the oil and fry the potatoes till they are a dark orange. About 5–6 minutes. Remove them and add them straight away to the sauté pan. Season the potatoes and onions with the turmeric and cumin, plus a small amount of steak seasoning.

For the mushrooms: Add a small amount of grape seed oil to a sauté pan over high heat. Drop in the mushrooms and onions and cook until the mushrooms begin to turn golden brown. Season with chili powder, steak seasoning, and continue cooking. The mushrooms will reduce to about half their original size then take them off the heat and straight into a bowl to cool.

For the salad: slice the lettuce into long strips and cut the tomatoes into quarters. Toss the lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers in a small amount of salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of grape seed oil.

To plate, fill one side of a bowl with rice, then 1/4 with sweet potatoes, 1/4 with the mushrooms and top with the salad. Enjoy ya Meat free Monday!

If you want to share your take on this Meat Free Monday, use #MeatFreeMonday + tag/follow the H.E.A.T. Establishment on Instagram @heat_hq.

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