So due to last weeks eye troubles I didn't make it to Whole Foods, and my receipt this week reflected it! Ouch. Double Ouch. Triple, even. But, since today is a worry about nothing day, I just packed my reusable bags, paid the bill and headed for Jamba Juice for a little refreshing treat for the ride home. Orange-carrot Karma, yummy, even if it is loaded with sugar. I'll have to spend some time on my bicycle this week working it off. I really think WF should give me some kind of regular shopper discount, or stop charging me altogether since I'm such a nice guy! Until they come to their senses I'll just have to tough it out.
With Spring in the air, I thought light refreshing fare would be a good choice for dinner. I settled upon a cold cucumber soup, and roasted portobello salad with a delicious mustard vinaigrette. Easy factor: 10/10. Everything was done from start to finish within an hour, dishes and all.
The soup recipe came from my Vitamix Cookbook, here's the biz:
1 cucumber, chunked
1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1/4 cup fresh dill
1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
1 cup filtered water
Blend. Chill. Garnish if it seems appropriate. Garnish if it seems inappropriate. If you are able, garnish inappropriately(if you do this please send me pictures!)
The salad(Veganomicon) was just as easy, requiring just about 40 minutes to roast the mushroom caps.
For the mushrooms:
1/2 cup cooking wine (or real wine, whatever you have available, I went red. Somewhere along the way I got it in my head that you really shouldn't cook with wine you wouldn't drink, so I tend not to keep cooking wine in the pantry.)
2 tbsp soy sauce (there are so many kinds, I used up some Tamari.)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced (by the by, you can get an enormous jar of the stuff at Ocean State Job Lot for pennies, if you have the real estate available in the fridge.)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-4 portobello caps, stems embarrassed
Mix it all together in a casserole dish, layout the mushrooms in the dish caps down, and marinate for 20. Cover with tinfoil and sauna at 400 for 30 minutes. Uncover, flip, back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Slice on a diagonal, if the mushrooms persist, threaten them with the knife then follow-through.
For the dressing:
1/4 cup prepared mustard (Dijon or whatever's handy-dandy. I hope, sincerely, that it isn't some kind of processed neon-yellow mustard-esque substance in a farting squeeze bottle.)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tbs grape seed oil
2 tbsp maple syrup (real maple syrup. See admonition against yellow-mustard, please consider it a cousin to maple "flavored" syrup. It's not that I am anti-sweetener, I just like to stay close to the source. It will cost more, but unless you own stock in Eggo, it will last you a good long time.)
Combine it all into your old 4-seasons glass dressing bottle, and shake the bejeezus out of it. Done.
For the salad:
Mixed greens, I like a nice spring mix or some baby arugula
1 can of drained chick peas (aka garbanzo beans, I checked.)
1 avocado, pillaged, plundered and cut into lovely thin slices
*the recipe includes red onion. I say balls to red onion, skip it. Why ruin a perfectly good salad?
Assemblage (from the ground up):
Greens
Chick peas
Avocado
Dressing
Roast portobello slices
And you're done. You may eat. As I sit here and type it all out it sounds like rather a lot of work, but it isn't really. Lots of words, few actions. Sort of the opposite of what many of us look for in a man. Best not to date this dish. However, it may be served to a date at your discretion.
I did try to fancy up the presentation a bit tonight, must be the extra sunshine. Also, I topped the salad with some dried portobello sticks that I made in what passes for a dehydrator a while back.
Taste wise, the salad was spectacular, and the mushrooms were just meaty and incredible tasting. I am resisting the urge for a parenthetical comment. I just want you to know that. However, I'm sure it is not lost on most of you that were I to make one, chances are very good that it would involve double-entèndre. The soup was ok. I think it might have done well with the addition of mint, or perhaps lime, or maybe both. The cool, and refreshing bit was there, the flavor was on the bland side, something was missing. I am open to suggestion.
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Location:Madison, CT
Yummy!!!
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