Vegetarian

A friend from Mozambique made this dish for us one night - he never follows a recipe, or makes the same thing twice, but we figured it out together and I wrote it down for Savvy Veg visitors to enjoy. Our Mozambiquan friend is vegan and doesn't believe in overcooking food. So it's quick to make - the secret is to chop the veggies small. If you like your veggies uncrunchy, just cook until it seems right to you - this recipe is highly improvisational! The result is rich, spicy, and excellent over rice or quinoa, or with any bread.

We wanted a vegetarian-vegan tofu recipe with butternut squash, coconut, and almonds, because these are ideal foods for pregnancy and breastfeeding. It had to be blissfully delicious, as well as nourishing and filling (i.e high calorie!) We came up with a recipe which is loosely based on Thai vegetarian cooking. It's fancy enough for company, but easy to make. The coconut milk, tofu, and toasted almonds can be prepared ahead of time.

Spelt is a high-protein ancient grain. This flavorful pasta is perfect for a cold night’s supper.

For a quick and satisfying last-minute supper, it’s hard to beat a sweet potato zapped in the microwave. The fragrant filling of beans and tomato adds protein, making it a nutritionally complete entree. Be sure to eat the potato skin; it’s full of fiber.

This baked green rice casserole is adapted from a 1967 edition of "The Joy of Cooking." Instead of the original white rice called for, use brown. In place of parsley, add plenty of fresh spinach. Frozen, thawed spinach works just as well; in either case, thoroughly dry the spinach before using it (a salad spinner for fresh spinach and a sieve for thawed). With brown rice, there are few shortcuts. It takes 40 minutes to cook it until tender, and after you add spinach, eggs, milk, and cheese, the casserole bakes for up to an hour, so plan accordingly.

Good flour tortillas are made locally by Maria and Ricardo's tortilla company; they're at Harvest Co-op Markets and Whole Foods Markets. Or use the flour tortillas from Trader Joe's. For the hot sauce, Cholula is commonly available and a nice addition here. 

Amherst cooking teacher and author Betty Rosbottom tosses pasta with a spicy tomato sauce, plain havarti and Parmesan cheeses, and tops the dish with slivered black olives. The dish appeared in one of her books, "American Favorites," and was on the cover of Bon Appetit magazine.  

The twisted pasta called strozzapreti ("priest stranglers") particularly suits this simple ricotta, fontina, and egg mixture, which catches in the curves of each loop. The dish is layered with mozzarella and topped with crumbs, which brown during baking. The end result is lighter than most mac and cheeses.