The recipe was from the Conscious Cook, by Tal Ronnen. Although I eagerly requested it from the library, adding myself to the very long waiting list. So, I was pretty psyched when I got it. But then I skimmed the book, and found a few recipes that sounded pretty decent, but also found a lot of aspirational-seeming recipes for people who aspire to different things than I do.

Vegan Tomato Bisque (adapted from the Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen)

Overall, this recipe was actually pretty decent, even if the cookbook brought on a rant. I’m not going to lie, one night I had it with a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.

• Olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 tb all purpose flour
• 5 c vegetable stock
• 1 28-oz can fire roaster tomatoes
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2 cups cashew cream (rinse cashews under cold water. Soak overnight. Drain and rinse. Add water to cover and blend – I used my immersion blender)

Put a 2-3 tb of olive oil in dutch oven. Add onions and add a pinch of salt. Saute onions until soft. Add carrots, celery, garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook about ten minutes, stirring regularly.

Add the flour to the vegetables and stir aggressively for another few minutes. Add the stock, tomatoes and herbs. Bring to a boil and simmer for about half an hour.

Add cashew cream and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer another few minutes.

Remove bay leaf. Puree soup until smooth. I used my beloved immersion blender.

My Rant

I actually should actually have been forewarned that this book would not be my speed. Vegan chefs who cater celebrity weddings. Danger! Oprah Winfrey’s 21-day Vegan cleanse. Danger! Look at all of my vegan chef friends! Hey, I’m besties with Yves Potvin, who created fake meat called Gardein. Hey, here are 20 recipes with Gardein! I think I should use my preferred brand of fake vegan butter, Earth Balance, in 50% of my recipes, and include identical steps to put salt and then the weird vegan butter in the pan to create a non-stick effect.

I am like, dude, you know what’s vegan? Olive oil. And several other kinds of VEGETABLE oils. Which don’t require some weird process to create a non-stick effect, and which Earth Balance is made of. You know what else is vegan? Beans. Which don’t require some weird process to become meat-like. Because foods that are NOT meat don’t need to be LIKE meat.

This book gave me insights into why people get all weird and aggressive about vegans. It made me want to taunt Chef Tal with bacon. And I’m cool with vegans. But I guess I am not cool with cookbooks where so many recipes call for specific, branded products so explicitly. I’m all for cookbook authors recommending particular products that they truly feel are the best, but it skeeves me out when such a high proportion of recipes include a specific product.

Now, I still may struggle, but I’ve got a couple of go to delicious recipes, and the firm confidence that I really like fennel a lot. It’s so crunchy! And liquorice-y! But not TOO liquorice-y! So full of fiber, Vitamin C, Folate, Potassium and Manganese.

We got a bunch of fennel when we went to work at our CSA farm a few weeks ago. At our CSA, members need to work one day during the season. The day you work, you can take home the veggies left over after all of the farm share bags are filled. It is one of the great pleasures of my farm workday. This year, I scored some fennel.

This salad is easy (if you can chop and stir, you are golden), cool (minimal cooking), and highly nutritious. Hurray!

For another super delicious fennel recipe, try this Tomato, Avocado and Fennel Panzanella from Two Blue Lemons. I wish I had this in front of me right now!

Fennel, Quinoa and Carrot Salad

For salad, use approximately equal amounts. Or not. It’s your salad:

• Fennel – including stalks, sliced finely (use a mandolin or just practice your knife skills).
• Cooked Quinoa – I just get salted water boiling (double the volume of the quinoa), throw in my rinsed quinoa, and cook over low heat until the water is absorbed.
• Carrot – peel (or just scrub, if you are using yummy fresh carrots) and grate.

Just mix it together.

For dressing (this is how I make my cumin dressing, but if you have a recipe you like more, it will still be delicious):

• Juice of one orange (plus some zest if you feel the zest love), or equivalent
• Juice of one lemon (zest if desired), or equivalent
• Juice of one lime (zest if desired), or equivalent
• 2-3 tablespoons of cumin
• ~3 tablespoons olive oil, more if desired
• salt to taste

Just whisk it together. And pour it on the salad. And mix it in.

I like to garnish this salad with cashews. They add nice texture, nice flavor, and some protein. I have eaten this salad warm (from the residual heat of the quinoa) or cool, and it’s been yummy either way.