Aidee Douglas

When it comes down to cooking, I pretend I have mad skills and sometimes I pretend so well that the food actually tastes good. A lot of the times when I make dinner I don’t follow a recipe. Who does? Well let me tell you little sassy thing, there are a lot of people that I know who don’t even cook rice before actually following a recipe.

Well since I became Vegan, I basically had to learn how to cook ALL OVER AGAIN. I am exaggerating, of course. Truly, the transition was not as harsh because I was all ready a vegetarian.

There were little new implementations in my cooking routines. You know, like learning different ways to cook tofu, or  how to cook Vegan sausage, or what to do with the food I used to batter in egg, or replacing some ingredients to make creamy soups with out dairy. Nothing dramatic.

Trying new foods and recipes is fun, and it makes me happy.

I found the best way to try new things is buying them. Even though you don’t know what to do with them. I go to the grocery store and buy one or two fruits or vegetables I haven’t tried, or I don’t know how to cook. Then at home I just Google recipes and make them as best as I can.

I had some successes and yeah there are a couple of soups I really don’t want to remember. Not too bad, just not worth talking about.

I always try to work with what I have in my kitch. And I recommend the same to you. If the recipes call for something I don’t have,  I simply adjust the recipe. Just make sure you have something similar to add to it. My dazzling mother-in-law buys us all kinds of cool condiments. It’s a great present. We always have really cool, different stuff. What makes a meal super yummy is the quality of the condiments and I always have some.

Anyway, I had lunch with my girlfriend about a month ago and we had Thai food. They brought us the best coconut soup, so after that I was determine to make some. Here is my version.  Make it this week!

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 potato chopped in little pieces.
• 4 cloves garlic, make a paste
• 1 medium bag of frozen mix veggies (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower or whatever you like)
• 1/2 tsp cumin and whatever else I find in my pantry like chili flakes and Thai seasoning mix
• salt and pepper
• 1 can coconut cream (they have a light version, but I use the regular, more fat but more flavor too)
• Water
• 1/2 kale chopped in little tiny pieces (you can use spinach)
• 1/2 cup of red lentils all ready cooked (it was a left over from another dinner, you don’t really need them, you can also use rice)
• One table spoon Tofutti cream cheese or Tofutti sour cream for presentation. You really don’t need it.  And I actually think it tastes better with out it.

Saute the onion and the potatoes until cooked.  Add the garlic paste and let it cook for another minute or two.

Add basil, cilantro, peanuts, raisins or whatever you have in your pantry on top of it for a sexier look and enjoy your coconut soup! It’s amazing! I bet it has tons of fiber and protein, you get some fat from the coconut cream but its NOT trans fat, so the fat is saturated and saturated fats from coconut cream is made up of short-chain and medium-chain fatty acids which the body quickly turns into energy instead of storing as fat.

YAYYY more energy! Plus coconut is known to have some benefits to help boost the immune system and it’s really good after workouts because it has some electrolyte benefits.  So the soup is like drinking Gatorade, with out all the fake stuff. Genius!

*Sometimes I make “baby food” like from veggies about to go  bad in the fridge and then I freeze them in an ice cube tray, so when I make soups or meat-less for tacos or other stuff I add a couple of cubes. I happen to have some “baby food” of carrots and celery, so I added it to the soup when I added all the other frozen veggies. I don’t think it makes a difference in flavor, but it adds fiber and vitamins.  Plus the macho man in the house doesn’t eat much veggies, so its a great way for me to hide him some more veggies.