Beautiful Beet Borscht

Another one from guest blogger, Sam

For most of my adolescent years, there were very few plant-foods I didn’t like – though beets were front and center.  I think my childhood was marred with gelatinized purple slime from a can.  My first CSA in Massachusetts forced tons of beets into my fridge. With so many beets in my CSA, I was looking for ways to readily put them to culinary use.  Fortunately, I stumbled upon an Eastern European staple, borscht – thus propelling my love for beets.  Nowadays, I rarely make the soup the same way twice, though I’ve migrated from my original brothy-style to a hearty stewier version.

Stef has already promoted the stunning athletic benefits of beets. While throwing back a shot of beet juice might be your best bet as an ergogenic aid, loading with beet borscht leading up to a race is a sure-fire way to cost-effectively maximize the performance benefits.  Again, the benefits of cabbage can be found on yesterday’s recipe, and this soup is bolstered with some beans, making this dish a wannabe Laudible Legume.

The mixture is vibrantly colored! Beware, your hands might be stained accordingly.

I like to cook the beets in with the rest of the veggies in order to maximize the nutritional benefits.  They can also be baked first, and then added to the soup as it stews.  Separately cooked and mashed potatoes make for a great thickener, though they can also be stewed along with everything else and allowed to fall apart as the soup cooks. I personally love the anise-y perk of fennel seeds, though they can be omitted for less adventurous eaters.  While this recipe is vegan, vegetarian versions include a garnish of yogurt, sour cream or crème fraiche, and meat-eater versions can include beef, pork, or bacon.

Borscht

1.5 tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp fennel seed, chopped fine
1 white onion, chopped
pinch salt
3 small beets, chopped
2 medium russet potatoes, chopped
1-1.5 c water
1 qt vegetable stock (or other broth or water)
1 lb red cabbage, chopped (about half a medium head)
3 medium carrots, chopped
15 oz can chopped tomatoes
15 oz can Northern beans (or other bean)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbs red wine vinegar
1 t salt, to taste depending on added salt to the canned goods
Cracked black pepper to taste

1) Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium heat.  Added the garlic and fennel seeds to the heated oil, and sauté quickly to flavor the oil.  Add the onion, salt and beets, and sweat on low-medium or medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent charring.

2) In a separate pot, add the potatoes and water.  Simmer the potatoes for 10-20 minutes, long enough that they can be mashed in the cooking water.

3) Add to the stock pot the vegetable stock, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, beans.  Simmer the mixture for 30-40 minutes

4) Add the mashed potatoes, salt, pepper, lemon juice and vinegar.  Stir to combine, and simmer for another 10-15 minutes, until the beets are the desired tenderness. Salt and pepper as desired.

5) Serve hot or cold, and garnish with your favorite version of cultured milk if you wish. Before long, you will be primed for maximal oxygen utilization.

The beets and onions will sweat in their own juices to bring out incredible sweetness. Keep stirring to prevent the beets from charring if they are too tough.

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Thanks, Sam! Come back soon! 

Spiced Apples and Cabbage

Guys, I'm super excited to announce that today... we have our first guest blogger!! Sam is another plant-based nutrition enthusiast who is my MIT cycling teammate and also a PhD student at MIT. Well, I am now a postdoc but he is lucky enough to still be a student. I actually met Sam while we were both in physical therapy when I was rehabbing my shoulder after surgery. At that time, he was focusing on triathlon, but I somehow convinced him that it would be a good idea to come out to the MIT bike race that I was on the planning committee for. Since cycling is awesome, the rest is history! This post is the first of a two part series where Sam will be sharing two awesome cabbage recipes. I've been super excited for his recipes since cabbage is a really worthwhile food that I've been looking to incorporate into my life, but I haven't found a good way yet. Now I know! I'll be buying some red cabbage tonight to give these gems a try!

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This recipe is one of my favorites because it brings me back to my childhood.  My dad used to buy bushels and bushels of apples every fall. We would stop by the “Apple Lady’s” truck on the way home from church to pick up the season’s freshest, crispest, orchard-fresh apples.  Most of the garnet orbs would be steamed, cooked, and pressed down into a winter’s worth of apple sauce.  The remainder would go towards other exciting apple condiments, desserts, and …dinner mainstays!  The smell of sweet cabbage and sour apples melding on the stove-top makes me long for winter’s snow! Time to ring in the festive season with some Mass-local produce.

As an athlete, this dish is a nutritive complement to the health benefits of training. Antioxidants?  You want antioxidants?  This recipe packs a ton of the top biggest-antioxidant-bang-for-your-buck foods!  Keep those skins on the apples and enjoy the cloves. Even better, concentrates from cruciferous veggies like red cabbage have been shown to reduce the production of cancer cells and improve immune function.  And if you’ve got diabetes, cassia cinnamon is your friend!

Braising is a wonderful way to bring out the sweetness of dense veggies, as well as meld flavors.  Pick out the brightest, freshest cabbage you can find and braise it long enough that it melts to unveil its internal saccharine nature.  The apples can be thrown in later so that they don’t completely disintegrate (the crisper the apple, the less “apple-saucy” the dish). Feel free to spice it up how you feel, though cinnamon and cloves make this dish almost dessert-like.

Too bad I didn’t have a hot mug of spiked, spiced cider to go along with it.

Spiced Apples and Cabbage

1 tbs neutral oil
1 large sweet onion, chopped large
1 lb red cabbage, chopped into strips
1/4 c water
3 orchard-fresh apples, cored and chopped
1/4 c apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1 Tbs maple syrup, honey, molasses or agave (optional for added sweetness)

1.     Heat a large skillet on medium heat, and add to it the oil.  Sauté the onions in the heated oil for 5 minutes until they turn translucent, reducing heat as necessary.

2.     Add in the cabbage and stir to combine.

3.     Pour in the water, and cover the skillet for braising on low-medium heat.  Stir as necessary for 15 minutes.  Add water if it all evaporates.

4.     After the cabbage starts to wilt, stir in the apples, and continue to braise covered for 10-15 minutes, stirring as necessary.

5.     When the apples are almost soft enough to stab with a fork, mix in the spices (and sweetener).  Cook for 5-10 more minutes to reduce and finish cooking the apples.

6.     Serve warm from the pan, or cold any time of the day.

The brilliant purple of the cabbage starts to come out as it is braised. Keep cooking to incorporate the color and flavor with the rest of the ingredients.

Seitan Stew

Today's recipe calls for two unusual ingredients: Vegemite and seitan. I ordered some Vegemite last spring because it is highly recommended by one of my MIT cycling teammates who is Australian and very fast. Wanting to be very fast, I ordered some hoping that it was her secret to speed. Then I was at a loss as to how I should use it. Vegemite is a dark brown yeast extract spread that is rich in many of the B vitamins, magnesium, and potassium, and is definitely an acquired taste. Finally, I read somewhere that Vegemite could make a killer vegan broth that was almost beef-like and I knew what I was going to do with it! I got a little bit faster without it this season, we'll see if I get super fast now that I am incorporating Vegemite into my diet.

The next strange ingredient is seitan. Seitan is quite literally wheat meat: it is concentrated vital wheat gluten, the protein that tends to cause a wheat sensitivity. Naturally, this stuff is off limits to people allergic to gluten, but for the rest of us it offers an interesting high protein vegan meat substitute. Wheat protein is low in the essential amino acid lysine, but all of the essential amino acids are there, making this a good choice occasionally when you're looking for something with a meaty texture. 1/4c dry makes a generously sized "cutlet" and contains 120 calories, 0.5g fat, 23g protein, and 10% of your daily value of iron. It also absorbs flavors very well, making it an excellent choice for incorporation into a vegetarian stew. If you are allergic to gluten, I would highly recommend trying this recipe with dried giant white lima beans. They are a complete source of protein, taste more like white beans than lima beans, and will absorb the flavor of the stew well!

Seitan Stew

For the Sietan
2/3c vital wheat gluten (you can find it on Amazon or at Whole Foods)
2/3c water
1T ground sage
1T parsley
1t garlic
1t black pepper
(OR 1c dried Giant White Lima Beans)

For the Stew
2 scallions
2 celery stalks
3 carrots
2 potatoes
1 can diced, no salt added tomatoes
1T Vegemite (you can find it on Amazon)
sage, parsley, garlic, and black pepper to taste
~4c water

1. In a medium sized bowl, combine ingredients for the seitan. Once the dough starts to cling together, kneed it a few times.
2. Meanwhile, combine tomato paste, Vegemite, sage, parsley, garlic, and black pepper with two cups water in the bottom of your crock pot. Whisk to combine.
3. Add can of tomatoes.
4. Slice and add celery and scallions and add to crock pot.
5. Peel the potatoes and carrots. Cube/ slice and add to crock pot.
6. Add additional water to fill your crock pot 3/4 full. Pull small lumps off of your seitan dough and add them directly to the stew. Stir to combine every few lumps so that they don't end up sticking together.
OR! To make this gluten free, wash your died beans well and add them directly. Add extra spices to the broth.
7. Fill your crock pot the rest of the way with water.
8. Cover and cook on high for ~8 hours (overnight or while you are at work/ school for the day)
9. Come home to a delicious smelling, warm supper!