Raam Dev’s Weblog

Yes, even vegetarians eat on Thanksgiving.

I had about a cup and a half of leftover brown rice that had been sitting in my refrigerator for the past few days and I needed something to eat it with for lunch today. So this morning I spontaneously whipped together something on the stove:

1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon of peanut oil
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 a package of soy tempeh
2-3 leafs of steamed Chinese broccoli

After sautéing the first three ingredients for a few minutes I added the tempeh and turmeric, splashing in a few tablespoons of water to keep things from drying out. In a separate pan I steamed the Chinese broccoli, stems and all, until they were soft (but not soggy). I then drained and added the vegetable to the tempeh and let it cook for a few more minutes. Towards the end I sprayed on a few squirts of Bragg Liquid Aminos (very similar to soy sauce) which really added flavor to the whole thing.

It turned out great and only took me about 15-20 minutes. When you add in the brown rice it’s a very tasty and nutritious meal!

As I was cutting these red bell peppers this morning, I was surprised when an open cut on my hand started stinging really bad — as if I had been cutting onions or hot peppers! I knew it wasn’t the water on the peppers because I just took a shower and I had washed my hands without feeling any pain at all. I’m guessing the pain was caused by the trace amounts of capsaicin found inside the bell peppers.

Red bell peppers, like their close relatives the hot peppers, contain capsaicin. Capsaicin is what makes peppers hot, however the bell peppers have a recessive gene that eliminates the capsaicin and allows us to eat an entire pepper without our mouth catching on fire.

Red bell peppers are an amazing food and contain a huge array of vitamins and minerals. They are very high in vitamin C (higher than oranges!), contain high levels of antioxidants, and have more beta-carotene than green or yellow peppers.

I made some red lentil dhal yesterday, following this recipe from the Vegan Recipe Database. I only had about half the ingredients, so I had to run to the store before cooking it. The spices are expensive (!) but I justified buying them since they’re something you buy once and use for many months.

Amazingly, the 1 cup (dry) of red lentil dhal I used contained a whooping 48g of protein! The dhal was so good I ended up finishing half of it last night and the other half for dinner this evening. For those wondering what exactly “dhal” means, the best way I can describe it is by saying it’s an Indian soup. You can read more about dhal here.

It took me over an hour to cook, but it was well worth the wait! Theres something enjoyable about sitting down to eat what you put time and effort into preparing. Perhaps I’ll start cooking more often.