Meatless Monday and Tuesday: 21 Days of Vegan Eating

Big News: Kitty Broihier and I delivered the Gluten-Free Slow Cooking book last Tuesday. It is being published by Sterling and will be on the shelves in November (just in time for the holidays). YAY!

Hmmm? What shall I do next? How about go vegan? For 21 days…

Well, I have been toying with doing some sort of detox or clease since last spring when we posted Five Questions with Michelle Pfennighaus. The concept of giving your body and all its systems a reboot held real appeal for me but trying to do it while writing a cookbook seemed much too daunting. With the deadline met, I was out of excuses.

I did a little research and came across this post on Former Chef and so it was official; I would embrace 21 days of whole-foods based, gluten-free, vegan eating. Pulling some more cleanse info from Kathy Freston’s appearance on Oprah, I decided sugar, caffeine and alcohol were also out.

The next plan of action: Enlist friends to join in my vegan journey. Six of us have signed on to varying degrees. Flavorista Julie D. has named our detox the “Vegan Festival” because festival sounds much more fun than cleanse or detox. I was able to get two of Kathy Freston’s books from the library. Michelle’s website has been inspirational and useful, many of the recipes on her blog can be used for our Vegan Festival.

Of course, I’ll be posting recipes as I go, I’ve got some big plans for coconut milk-based ice cream and of course there will be some serious beans going on (like Fagioli all’Uccelletto – White Beans with Sage & Tomatoes). I started my detox with some, super flavorful miso soup.

Easy Miso Soup

If I was more versed in miso, I might have gone with lighter miso paste, but this one worked just fine, Flavorista Monica told me so.

6 cups water
2 carrots, finely chopped or cut with a julienne slicer
1 (6-inch) pieces wakame, rehydrated & finely chopped
or 2 tablespoons pre-shredded wakame, rehydrated
1 tablespoon wheat-free tamari (such as San-J)
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt, more to taste
1 teaspoon siracha chili sauce, more to taste
1/4 cup miso (mine was made with brown rice miso thus the dark color)
1/2 lb. firm tofu, cut into small cubes
6 scallions, thinly sliced

Bring the water to a simmer in a small soup pot and add the carrots. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in the tamari, vinegar, salt and siracha. In a small bowl, use 1 cup of broth to dissolve the miso and return it to the pot. Add the tofu and scallions, simmer for a minute or so and enjoy.

For a great miso primer written on Just Hungry, click here.
For more info on Michelle’s program, Reinvent Yourself 21 Day detox, click here.