Photos from the Book
Miscellaneous
Low Carb Vegan Cooking
More recipes and articles at Low Carb Vegan Lab.
Photos for the Book:
Super Spice Blend
Online research into the spices with the most amount of scientific research into positive health effects will yield a long list such as:
Flavor Enhancers
It’s a good idea to get to know all of the speciality ‘ethnic’ delis and groceries in your area, such as those with a focus on Italian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Asian (East and South), Latin American and general European foods and imports. These businesses will provide you with a richer variety of ingredients to add amazing flavors to your cooking.
Varieties of Konjac
A number of recipes make use of konjac products, which are easy to find in locales that have large Asian supermarkets. If you don’t live in such an area, you can also buy these on Amazon or through other online retail sources. Konjac is very low in calories and makes a great substitute for rice, pasta and even cubed potatoes. In the recipes I make use of three kinds of konjac: the noodle form — called shirataki — for pastas, a riced form (so amazing for the paella :) and a solid gelatinous slab (for cubes and slices). Either brown or white konjac varieties will work for the recipes. When store-bought, it is usually chilled and so should be stored in your fridge. If buying online, you can keep it in your pantry until opened (follow the instructions on the package).
A few sources recommend blanching the slab form of konjac prior to using it for cooking, since some people object to its odor right out of the package. What you can do is simply cut a brick in half, and blanch one half of the slab by placing it in boiling water for a few minutes. Remove the blanched konjac slab, and then just do a side-by-side nose comparison against the unblanched slab. Do you think the improvement is worth the blanching step? That will be very subjective. The blanched konjac certainly has less of a konjac smell, but konjac smell doesn’t bother me, so ‘to blanch or not to blanch’ can be treated as a personal preference (like so much cooking, come to think of it!). Blanching makes konjac a little less ‘quick and simple’ (the ethos of this book), but you are welcome to add more labor to your cooking if you wish!
For konjac rice, you can give it more of a rice-like texture by dry roasting it for 15 minutes or so, drying it out a bit, which again, is more work to do and so that’s considered to be an optional step.
Shirataki noodles just need a great sauce to go with.
Flavored Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegars
Speaking of (extra virgin, typically) olive oil and vinegar, a collection of both in a range of in/fused varieties is one of the best shortcuts to instant world class flavors in your cooking, as already mentioned. Oil and vinegar mixes work great as salad dressings, marinades (e.g. for tofu and konjac slices) or as a nice glaze topping your veggie burgers.
If you’re new to the oil and vinegar mix and match game, consider starting with these kinds of combinations:
Chipotle olive oil and chocolate dark balsamic vinegar
Green chili olive oil and mango white balsamic vinegar
Tuscan, Milanese Gremolata or Provençal herbed olive oil with orange white balsamic vinegar
Garlic olive oil and grapefruit white balsamic vinegar
Unflavored olive oil and ‘plain ol’’ dark balsamic vinegar (a classic dipping sauce for bread)
Fresh Herbs
Most well-stocked grocers sell pre-packaged fresh herbs in the produce section. Keeping a small collection in your fridge of not-dried-out oregano, thyme, dill, mint, basil and other fresh herbs will always come in handy for making your dishes just explode with flavor, and I really mean that: Explode! Boom! With flavor!
Fancy (and Expensive) Sliced Mushrooms
I also freeze some very choice fancy items like expensive mushrooms I sometimes come across in the weekly farmer’s market and similar items. For veggies that you won’t be eating regularly but also can’t come across conveniently, consider washing, slicing and freezing them for easy use in recipes.
