Eating Plants is the Answer: What are the Questions?
Last December my brother announced he was becoming a vegan. He’s like that. He learns about something and then jumps in with both feet. He’s extremely disciplined, so (1) he’ll probably stick with it and (2) he’s a cardiovascular surgeon, so heart health is a top priority in his life. Needless to say, his announcement led to many conversations around our dinner table. I came away with a renewed interest in shifting my diet toward plant-based foods.
In that spirit, I reached out to an expert, Jill Nussinow aka “The Veggie Queen” to help me get started. Using my new-found love, the Instant Pot (aka the multi-cooker!), I’m learning new ways to prepare vegan and vegetarian meals.
Enjoy her post which includes a new recipe using our Mediterranean Spice Blend below.
Jill’s Journey
Vegan or not, the most important thing you can do regarding your eating and health is to eat more plants. Plants have always been around, been there for us, for our picking. I believe that the true Paleo diet came from plants because they were a lot easier to procure than any animals, large or small.
My personal journey started when I was young. My fondest memories are eating cherries from a big bowl and shelling peas and happily eating them, giving only a few back to my mother. She knew that I was a vegetable lover. She bought pepper plants for the garden, knowing how much I loved red peppers. Sadly, though, those peppers were hot and caused my poor little 4-year-old tummy to revolt in a most unpleasant way, just from one bite. To this day, I still love eating red peppers. Now I can easily tell the sweet from the hot ones.
My grandfather had heart disease in his 40s and had a massive heart attack. He was one of Walter Kempner ‘s (the rice diet) first patients. My grandmother cooked special food for him. Whenever I had the chance to partake, I did. I loved all the vegetables especially the potatoes and tomato sauce. These were early tell-tale signs about which types of food I preferred. My mother didn’t make us drink milk so that was easy but that meat which was served almost nightly…that was another story.
Eating plants has been what I feel I was born to do, as it is for most people. Left to our own devices, and no all-night grocery stores or 7-11s, we would choose more of what grows naturally in the world because it’s “what’s there”. I gave up eating meat as a teenager because I didn’t like it or anything about it. If you ask me now why I don’t eat animal products my list of reasons is different and has grown to include a love of animals and all creatures (even the ones that I truly don’t like), health, both personal and planetary, the environment and more. I don’t proselytize because it doesn’t make sense. But these days many informed people understand that for health reasons eating more plants is a game changer. People are getting sicker and need cures – and what we eat matters. You might even find doctors who agree because they are finally “getting it”. It truly matters.
Regarding pressure cooking which is my favorite way to cook, it also makes sense. I can cook whole grains in half the time of stove top cooking and beans in one-third the time. Pressure cooked vegetables taste better than steamed, are faster and easier, and just as an aside, the vegetables are even more digestible. What I most like about pressure cooking is that it is a practice, a Zen-like moment where I get to have some time to just breathe and relax while my food cooks. The new electric pressure cookers make that even easier than the stove top models on which I “cut my teeth” so to speak. You can press a button and walk away to meditate, make salad, go for a walk, take a shower, smell the flowers or ______ (you fill in the blank).
Eating a plant-based diet provides all the nutrition you need if you choose wisely. You will get plenty of protein and fiber and adequate amounts of vitamins, except for Vitamin B 12 which is easily supplemented, and minerals, all with zero cholesterol. Eating veggies and fruit in season increases the nutrition and flavor in your meals.
I eat simply, basing many meals on legumes, grains and vegetables. I like to mix and match. What makes my meals sing, are spices and spice blends. This soup is an example of how easy it is to eat well when eating only plants, or as the basis for a large part of the meal.
Mediterranean White Bean Soup
Pressure cooking is like alchemy, making soup much more than the sum of its parts. This soup shows how to turn white beans into a flavorful hearty star of the meal. Add thick crusty bread and a big salad and dinner is done. If you have fresh basil, squash and tomato, add it, if not feel free to use Italian parsley for the basil and canned diced tomatoes instead of fresh. Tip: freeze any leftover canned tomatoes to use in another soup recipe or when you make this again.
Cook Time: 4 minutes high pressure; quick release, 2 minutes high pressure, natural release
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil, optional
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced carrot
1 cup diced onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 packet Zen of Slow Cooking Mediterranean blend
2 bay leaves
3 to 4 cups vegetable broth (you can start with 3 and add the other one later, if desired
1 ½ cups white beans such as cannellini, soaked overnight and drained
1 cup diced potatoes or celery root, optional
2 to 3 teaspoons tomato paste
½ cup diced summer squash, of any type
½ cup diced fresh or canned tomato
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh chopped basil, if available
Salt and pepper to taste, if desired
Garnish with vegan Parmesan, if desired
Preparation:
Add the oil, if using to your pressure cooker or Instant Pot on the sauté feature. Add the celery, carrot and onion and sauté for 1 minute. Add the garlic and sauté one more minute. Add the contents of the Mediterranean blend and the bay leaves and stir well. Add 3 cups of the broth, stirring to be sure that nothing is stuck on the bottom of the cooker. Add the beans. Lock on the lid and set your cooker on manual high (or pressure cook) for 4 minutes. When time is up do a quick release. Carefully remove the lid, tilting it away from you.
Find many more pressure cooking recipes in my cookbooks The New Fast Food and Vegan Under Pressure.
Jill a Registered Dietitian, Culinary Educator and the author of 4 cookbooks. She loves using spices every day to jazz up her meals. She likes the ease of the zen of slow cooking blends.
Zen Special Offer
We loved Jill’s recipe so much we wanted all of our followers to find a new way to use your summer tomatoes! For every 2 spice blends you buy we’ll tuck in one of our Mediterranean blends for you to try as our gift.
Zen Moment
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
