Eating a Meatless Meal

Even if you are not a vegetarian it can be very beneficial to your body, your wallet and the environment to eat a vegetarian meal at least once a week. Eating a meal with a wide range of vegetables ensures that you are getting a variety of important nutrients. The more colorful your meal, the more vitamins there are. Also, eating vegetarian for a meal or two a week saves money since vegetables are quite a bit cheaper than good cuts of meat. You can get a decent amount of a variety of vegetables for the price of one ribeye steak, certainly enough to use for more than one meal. Eating vegetarian for a meal or two a week is also better on the environment than basing every meal around meat. A massive amount of power and resources is spent in the production and processing of meats, from raising the animals to their slaughter, to their packaging and shipment to you at home where you spend additional power and resources preparing and cooking them. It can be much more beneficial to our ecosystem to purchase fresh produce locally to create a delicious meal at home.

When many people think of a vegetarian meal, bland salads and steamed vegetables come to mind. Trust me, vegetarian cooking is not only limited to boring, tasteless foods! As someone who enjoys cooking vegetarian for at least 3 meals a week, I have never eaten a boring vegetarian meal. Here is just one example of a great vegetarian meal that is simple enough for you to make for yourself at home. It includes a main dish of stuffed portabellos, with a summery side of spicy jicama salad.

Stuffed Portobellos and jicama salad, shown here with mixed mushrooms in mushroom-miso broth

Marinated Portabello Mushrooms with Couscous Chevre and Veg Stuffing

For the Marinade:

2 C red wine

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 C olive oil

1/4 C cider vinegar

salt and pepper

Brush off, de-stem and de-gill 4 large portabello mushroom caps. In a large shallow dish, combine marinade ingredients. Add mushroom caps to the marinade up to 1 hour before baking, cap side down. Periodically flip to marinate all sides.

Stuffing:

1 C cooked coucous

2 sundried tomatoes, chopped

6-8 black olives, chopped

1/2 C sauteed spinach

1/2 small zucchini, diced

1/2 log goat cheese (chevre)

4 TB pinenuts

salt and fresh pepper to taste

1. While mushroom caps marinate, combine all ingredients except for the pinenuts in a large bowl. Combine well, lightly mashing the goat cheese into the rest of the ingredients with the back of a spoon.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. When the mushroom caps are ready to be stuffed, place on a ridged baking pan and lightly salt on the inside. Fill each mushroom with 1/4 of the mixture pressing lightly into the caps to ensure that none falls out. Press 1 TB of pinenuts very lightly into the top of each mushroom.

3. Bake for about 20 minutes or until mushrooms look slightly wrinkled and the pinenuts are golden. Serve with your choice of a side.

Spicy Jicama Salad

1 small-medium jicama, peeled and cubed

Juice of 1 small lime

3 TB olive oil

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

salt, to taste

1/8 C any fresh herb- some ideas include mint, parsley or cilantro

4 TB feta cheese, crumbled

Place jicama chunks into a medium bowl. Toss with the lime juice and olive oil. Add the seasonings and toss well. Top with the crumbled feta and torn herb leaves. Chill and serve, or serve at room temperature.