Tag: vegetables

Sushi and Morriña

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Raise your hand if you’re over winter.

Everyone’s hand up? Okay, good, me too.

This time two years ago I was all warm and cozy in Galicia, the weirdest, most wonderful corner of Spain you’ve never heard of.

Sushi and Morriña

Pontevedra, Galicia, specifically

Ever wanted to visit Ireland but wish you could speak Spanish while you’re there? Come to Galicia. Prefer bagpipes to flamenco? Galicia’s the place for you. Can’t decide between mountains and beaches? Wish you accidentally stumble upon visit 6,000-year-old ruins while you’re out for a walk? Want to go to a pirate parade in the middle of February? Galicia, Galicia, and Galicia. Ai, que morriña.

Galicia has the best tree-climbing, rainbows, and state beer

Galicia has the best tree-climbing, rainbows, and state beer

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about it because last night, we had a bunch of fly chickadees over for Bad Lesbian Movie Night and made sushi. And sushi makes me think of Galicia. Not because it’s popular there or anything (as far as I can tell, the only thing Galicians eat is ham, ham, ham, octopus, and ham) but because I learned to make it there.

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Tofu, Mango and Eggplant Satay

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Do you know what Spring means? It means you can grill outside without getting frostbitten! To celebrate, I had people over and we made tofu and chicken satay so that all our vegan and omnivorous friends could eat happily. In retrospect, this is the kind of meal that would be ideal to put together the night before and then cook the day of so that your brochettes can marinate and so that you can talk with your friends instead of running around like a chicken with its head cut off (that’s so not vegan).

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Rice and Black Bean Succotash

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Rice and beans have the kind of relationship most of us can only hope for. They’re so stable and complimentary to each other. They provide comfort to countless people and inspire love poems. If you wanna get sciency about it, rice and beans are the perfect couple because together, they have the right proportions of the 9 essential amino acids that make up a complete protein. They might not be terribly sexy, but there’s no denying that their relationship is rock solid. In honor of the happy couple, here’s a recipe for hot days when you just can not think about cooking.

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Sweet Potato Falafel

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Lunchtime: unequivocally the best part of the day. But could it be better? Yes sir, it can. You don’t have to spend gobs of money going out, but you also shouldn’t be packing the same peanut butter sandwich year in and year out; there is a middle way. The path to becoming a lunch box buddha isn’t so hard. All you need is a good balance of inspiration and improvisation.

Spanish food and I don’t really get along. To illustrate my point, I took a picture of the fruits and vegetables section of my grocery last time I went shopping.

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One of these things is not like the other

Spanish people are obsessed with pigs. There’s just no getting around it. Galicians in particular also seem to have a borderline-abnormal fixation on plastic bags. Because I am Captain Planet (and also just because I hate when I have a lot of groceries and my bag breaks on the walk home), I always bring my own bags. Unfortunately, the ladies who weigh your produce at the frutería don’t like it if you try to put your onions in your own bag because it’s “unhygienic” (this coming from a people who think it’s totally 100% no big deal to put a severed pig’s head in a pile of lettuce).

So anyway, lunch! This week I invited my German friend Julia over to make lunch with me because it’s Carnaval so all our friends were glamming it up in the Canary Islands and also because I like her a whole lot. Cooking lunch for the week is a whole lot easier when you have someone cooking with you. Not only does it mean half as much chopping, for this particular menu it means you get done faster because one person can roll the pita/falafel while the other cooks them.

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