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A Veggie Venture

Vegetable inspiration from Asparagus to Zucchini


Homemade Minestrone Soup ♥January 6
Today's soup recipe: A light-tasting but hearty soup made with low-calorie, low-carb vegetables. Weight Watchers 1 or 2 points. A low-carb soup when pasta is omitted.

Hearty-tasting but low in caloriesToday's recipe comes with a lesson in Italian, compliments of the food dictionary at Epicurious, a quick source of information about culinary and ingredient terms.

That makes my version of minestrone someplace in between. It's hearty but tastes light and has just a few calories. My notes on a recipe card dated 1999 read, 'Excellent! Light! Filling!' And so it is.

HOMEMADE MINESTRONE SOUP

Hands-on time: 35 minutes
Time to table: 1 hour
Makes 14 cups

1/2 cup dry white wine (I used a rice wine but broth would work too)
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped onion
2 leeks, cleaned, cut in half moons (see this photo tutorial about










Low-Carb Fried 'Potatoes' (Turnips) ♥January 1
Today's vegetable recipe: A low-carb substitute for fried potatoes, turnips fried with onions and seasoned with cumin. Weight Watchers 1 point.

A low-carb alternative to fried potatoesOkay, so of course turnips aren't potatoes.

But for those who either choose or must follow low-carb diets, call me surprised that to my taste anyway, fried turnips are a good substitute -- it just takes cooking them at high heat until they develop that golden-brown color and oniony flavor we so associate with fried potatoes, whether for breakfast (my downfall favorite) or for supper. These were great!

Full disclosure: better good luck than good management! I learned about fried turnips only because the phone rang while cooking supper and soon enough -- oops -- the turnips were looking more than a little done. I feared they were lost but took one bite and whoah -- just kept on cooking.

LOW-CARB FRIED TURNIPS

Hands-on time: 15 mi







Cabbage & White Bean Stew ♥December 28 2008
Today's recipe: Cabbage, carrots and celery with white beans. Low carb. No added fat. Weight Watchers 1 point.

Oops. All December, the 'five-a-day' admonition has applied to Christmas cookies, not vegetables. For awhile, I even wondered if my vegetable moxie were lost, if chocolate and pecans would forever supplant cabbage and pumpkin. I was happy to eat vegetables, if someone put them in front of me. But cook them? No way.

Thankfully: NOT.

So man-oh-man, am I ever ready to get back to healthy recipes again. (Who can relate?) With this stew (or soup?) recipe, I'm dipping a baby toe back into vegetables, just in case. It's a great basic recipe, with easy pantry ingredients, a favorite from my vegetarian days.


A WARM WELCOME to new readers! During December, you continued to subscribe in droves. Clearly, many of us are looking for inspiration about how to increase our vegetable intake. Well, you've found the right place, since every single recipe at A Veggie Venture starts with a







Buckwheat with Mushrooms & Carrots ♥December 1 2008
Today's recipe: A whole-grain side dish or vegan main dish made with buckwheat groats, fresh mushrooms and chopped carrots. High-protein. Low carb. Weight Watchers 2 points.

A warm nutty flavor from whole-grain buckwheat groats cooked with carrots and mushroomsCuriosity guides many of my recipe choices but so do health, budget and taste. It's karma when all four collide! This fall I set off to explore whole grains, knowing that I, along with too many of us, know far too little about such an important group of foods. To narrow the field, I decided to stick with the healthiest whole grains -- barley, brown rice, buckwheat, corn, millet, oats, quinoa, rye, spelt and whole wheat. I recognized all of these whole grains -- but since my vegetarian days two states and two decades ago, haven't cooked five of them, barley, buckwheat, millet, rye and spelt. Would karma prevail?

First up: buckwheat, which is actually a grass not a a grain like other cereal plants such as wheat a


Quick Green Chile Stew ♥November 23 2008
Today's vegetable recipe: A quick-quick and flavorful stew made with canned beans and canned green chile sauce but surprisingly good. Weight Watchers 3 points. Vegan.

What to make when the kitchen is busy with cooking but there's nothing to eatSo here it is, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. For the next few days, kitchens all across the U.S. will be busy-abustle. The fridge will be packed. The counter space will be at a premium. The cook will be up to her elbows in flour. Family and friends will be arriving. And oh my, there's so much to do. Trouble is, despite all that food, there's nothing to eat, not til Thanksgiving dinner anyway!

So consider this a public service announcement: the one recipe to throw onto the stove to fill people's bellies, quickly, healthfully, flavorfully, inexpensively. Make time for this -- you'll be glad.

GREEN CHILI SAUCE is addictive stuff. For this quick 'n' easy stew, it's fine 'n' dandy to use stuff from a jar. But for something like the oh-so-gorgeous