When I shared the lessons from my vegetarian cooking class last week, I started to get excited about my next class. It's a 4-week series and it doesn't seem to be getting any less fun, so I'm going to keep going.
This time, in my "Essential Techniques of Vegetarian Cooking" class at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York, I learned quite a few more things. A lot of the class involved being patient, since a few of our dishes weren't ready until the end of the class. It was all worth it in the end, though, and I'd like to share how we made three different kind of spreads, a really amazing marinara sauce, an incredible beet salad and (finally!) a GREAT dessert dish.
Readmore ¿Qué más? Meatless Mondays: Lessons from my vegetarian cooking class
The three spreads we made were an edamame spread, a soy bean spread and a walnut-lentil pate. The walnut-lentil pate took the longest, since we had to cook the lentils first, but it was WELL worth it. One technique I learned was to keep the water from the lentils and cook it down (reduce it) until it was thicker, then adding that to the spread as well. It really livened up the flavor even more and was more delicious than I could have imagined. That was by far the entire class's favorite. We also learned how to use a good food processor to make the spreads.
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Afterward, we started on a very simple marinara sauce. I learned that a good base for flavor can start as simply as sweating onions on low heat and adding a little garlic and salt. Then we simply poured in some jarred tomato sauce and spices to make a much-more-delicious marinara. We ate all of this with gluten-free pasta and topped it with Parmigiano Romano cheese. It was delicious.
Then there was the beet salad, where we cooked down some beets with onions, garlic and the beet greens. I got to practice my chopping skills as well as learn how to make beets (which I know a lot of people don't love) into a delicious salad that was gone in roughly 20 minutes. I also learned that topping a warm salad with some chopped, roasted pecan nuts added a great crunch to the side dish. Plus, want to know the secret to removing pecan skins? Simply rub the nuts in a dish towel and they come right off!
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Last but definitely NOT least, we made poached pears. They were cooked in a mixture of pomegranate and grape juice at a very low, low heat, covered. We cooked them until they were very soft and then topped them with slices of orange, pomegranate seeds, pistachios and blue cheese. The dessert was absolutely DIVINE. I learned just how easy and delicious it can be to make a dessert with just some fruit. This is DEFINITELY one that I'll be trying in the future! Even with the cheese and nuts, it still felt like a fresh, amazing end to the meal. Actually, the cheese and nuts made it even more filling and complimented the sweetness in the poached pear and oranges. If a healthy dessert is this delicious, then how can I not try it again?!
Do you ever cook vegetarian at home? Have you ever made a simple but amazing dessert out of fruit? Share with us in the comments below!
Image via Irina Gonzalez
