Thai Vegetables in coconut milk and lemongrass; Rocket salad soup; Vegan Vegetarian menu

Rocket Salad soup

Chilled Cucumber Soup

 Thai Vegetables in coconut milk & lemongrass

 

            Sauteed fennel, red onion and mushrooms
                                 for pasta

                      Blanched Brussel's Sprouts

Old Fashioned Lentil Soup

Wednesday March 7th, Full Moon tonight...high winds and pretty cool here today..mid 70's feels like 40's with wind chill factor, with that in mind I am busy preparing deliveries for tomorrow, I deliver fresh vegan/vegetarian food to clients in west LA twice a week, right now I have a batch of double chocolate oatmeal cookies in oven, will photograph later ( I prefer to use regular chocolate in my recipes as I have not found a good vegan one)..today I am using 60% cocoa and milk chocolate with California walnuts and maple syrup.

I usually make and sell 4 doz cookies a week...and the recipe turned out to be a mistake, but everyone loves them so I have continued...light and crispy crunchy oatmeal cookies.

Now to the back story

in 1979 I was the personal chef to Lord & Lady McAlpine at their country house ( think of Downtown Abbey with a stud farm and a helicopter pad and private steam railway) Near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
Lord Edwin and his wife Lady Molly  were the former owners of the Dorchester Hotel,in London and during the week stayed there and came home at weekends via their own helicopter.

I began making sauces and soups without flour using just blended vegetables as we had our own farm  and Lady Molly liked the lighter flavor, later I began sharing recipes with the Head Chef of the Dorchester, Anton Moisman, who later wrote a book called Cuisine Mincieur extolling the use of fresh blended vegetables in French Classic cuisine..since then I have always steered away from heavy flour based sauces.

GLUTEN
Now most of my clients have allergies to one food or another, and Gluten Free is the best way to go, so for all my soups, in place of flour I add potato, carrots and or peas &etc. which I blend then either add to the soup/sauce or blend the entire dish

Today I made a "Creamed' Rocket Salad soup..using potato, leeks and coconut milk

& a great mint a cucumber soup that can be served chilled..with potato, peas, and sweet potato..add live plain yogurt when serving

Another of my clients cannot do soy or dairy so I create fabulous dishes using rice milk and coconut milk ( sometimes I buy this fresh frozen from Thailand for any RAW recipes)

Another way to avoid Gluten is to stay away from a very popular meat alternative called seitan..this is actually pure wheat gluten, and can cause major allergies in people.

SOY
Recent information has come in about tofu being bad for health along with soy milk ( over zealous farming and over farming of land have increased soy 's cancer causing properties) and the body can only tolerate soy in a fermented form as in tempeh and tamari ( wheat free soy sauce).
That is why I never use any soy products in my dishes, not even edemame..only use fermented tempeh and tamari, and for this client not even this.
 Earth Balance have now come out with  a new "buttery" spread that is soy free and it works for my cookies to!

I make cashew cheese with garlic and nutritional yeast,and replace any meat substitutes with fresh mushrooms, or fresh tempeh

SALT
Try to cut down on adding salt to dishes and make own vegetable stocks, with addition of fresh home grown herbs, the results are generally more tasty and far healthier, also all my clients know my  dishes have a fridge life of 4 days or less,as they are low salt, sugar and no preservatives.