assorted goodies

This broccoli cheese pie is oh-so-unvegan but oh-so-good. The potato crust is deelicious. I'm not posting up the recipe because the website is actually pretty good in terms of directions, flavouring etc. The only downside: it's not a quick recipe by any means...but also not as hard as it might seem (potatoes and onions grate very easily -though you'd better be careful if you're sensitive to onions like me); there are just a lot of steps involved.

I found the Post Punk Kitchen while looking for recipes over the web: I like the punk theme and I like the fact that they sell T-shirts (including one that says 'Vegetarians Fart Better'). And it's based on a TV show. AND it's based out of NYC (Brooklyn, actually). Anything associated with NYC has a slightly higher cool factor than something that isn't.

A month or so ago, in a meeting with various community organizations at work, we were served 'lentil soup'. It used masoor ki dal (red lentils) as a base. I liked it and had a second helping. A middle-aged South Asian woman and community worker came up behind me and remarked 'oh, you like that soup? You know, we have something like that too. It's called dal'. Before I could wittily reply back, she walked off. There was an obvious note of sarcasm in her voice. Was it directed at me, for eating the soup? Or at the hotel for serving the soup at all? I don't know. But I made a lentil soup last week, which closely resembles the soup we had that day. It's listed as 'Egyptian Red Lentil Soup' (the [insert nationality] [insert food name] format of naming dishes always makes me a bit nervous, but don't worry, it's very easy to make - you don't even have to chop the garlic! - and tastes very nice too).

Eggplant lovers will appreciate this Eggplant Casserole recipe, which can be easily veganized with vegan parmesan cheese. I cut the eggplant vertically so there were huge slices, making it almost like a lasagna. It tastes especially nice if you get fresh parmesan (as opposed to a Kraft-type brand). I added fresh pepper on the top too. YUM. It took me forever to fry all the eggplant slices first, though. Am I especially slow or is eggplant just a pain to cook?