Veggie Might: Top 5 Reasons I Love New York + A Recipe

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.

Today, my Fair Readers, is the 15th anniversary of the day my pal JBF dropped me, my two milk crates of books, and my dreams in front 201 W. 91st, New York, NY. Our journey originated in Orlando, took side trips to our respective familial homes in North Carolina and Virgina, and ended with JBF settling in Princeton, NJ and me in the Big City. Fifteen years, three apartments, and 17 roommates later, I’m still here and loving New York.

Top 5 Reasons I Love New York

1. Each neighborhood is like its own little city. Residents get to know their neighbors, the best places to buy groceries, which laudromat gives the most time per quarter, and the coffee shop with the most lenient WiFi/purchase policy. New Yorkers are as proud of and loyal to their neighborhoods as Europeans or South Americans are to their countries during the World Cup. HELL’S KITCHEN RULZ!!!1!!1!

2. Public transportation! Not only does the MTA get you from point A to point B (most of the time), it’s a world-class entertainment venue. Nowhere else can you learn cutting-edge modern dance moves, stay abreast of the hottest indie music, and have your picture made for $2.15 a pop.

3. Governors Island, the car-free, bike-loving island oasis in New York Harbor. Governors Island is dotted with art installations, criss-crossed by bike paths, and inviting for a picnic or just chilling.

4. The food, of course. In one afternoon, you can grab brunch at one of a million amazing restaurants, pick up your fresh produce at the farmers’ market, snag a homemade popsicle from a street vendor, and hit the Mexican/Korean/Indian/West African/Chinese grocery for the spices and miscellany needed to make a delicious home-cooked supper.

5. Dinner parties/potlucks/game nights in cramped apartments with brilliant friends and home-cooked food. No one who lives in New York on a work-a-day budget can afford to eat out all the time, so the best way to socialize and economize is to cook for each other. Juggling plates while 4-to-a-couch with a few folks on the floor is part of the charm. Karaoke is a bonus.

Happy anniversary, New York. I made you this mushroom quinotto.

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If this post tips your canoe, swim on over to
Pumpkin Orzo with Sage
Butternut Squash Risotto
Swiss Chard with Mushrooms

~~~

Quinoa-Millet Mushroom Risotto (Quinotto)

adapted from Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero
serves 4

Note: The recipe calls for white wine, but I used a substitution of apple juice and apple cider vinegar. I used a blend of quinoa and millet because I was low on the big Q; go all the way with one or the other and my blessing. I also tossed in a few beet greens, which go nicely with this dish, but I would advise against going overboard with the greens. The mushrooms should be the star.

1/2 lb crimini mushrooms
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
3 shallots, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup quinoa, rinsed in a mesh strainer
1/3 cup millet
1/2 cup apple juice + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (or 1/2 white wine)
1/2 tsp dried thyme, crushed
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped
3 cups hot vegetable broth or stock
1 cup beet greens, shredded (or any leafy green)
1 tbsp lime juice
salt and pepper to taste
fresh cilantro or parsley to garnish

Instructions
1. Brush or wipe dirt from mushrooms and slice into matchsticks. In a large saucepan, sautee mushrooms in half the olive oil over medium heat for about 5-7 minutes. Put mushrooms in a bowl and set aside.

2. In the same saucepan, heat the remaining oil and sautee shallots and garlic for 5-7 minutes or until onion is translucent. Add quinoa and millet to onion/garlic mixture. Cook for 2 minutes or until grains become golden.

3. Add apple juice + vinegar to deglaze the pan, and stir. Add dried spices and jalapeño and cook for another minute. Stir in mushrooms.

4. Here comes the real stirring: pour in about 1/4 of broth to grain/vegetables. Bring broth to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and, stirring frequently, allow grain to absorb the broth. Then add another fourth of the broth, stirring until the liquid is absorbed. Repeat this process until all the broth is absorbed and the grains are light and fluffy, about 30-35 minutes.

5. Salt and pepper to taste along the way. Cover and allow quinoa/millet to rest for 10 minutes. Drizzle with lime juice, toss in beet greens, and fluff with a fork. Serve with fresh cilantro. Your guests will be impressed that you made such a brilliant, flavorful, earthy dish in such a tiny kitchen.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Price per Serving
282 calories, 7.7g fat, 5.15g fiber, 7.6g protein, $1.31

Calculations
1/2 lb crimini mushrooms:: 64 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $2.00
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil: 180 calories, 21g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.12
3 shallots: 90 calories, 0g fat, 9g fiber, 6g protein, $0.60
2/3 cup quinoa: 417 calories, 6.7g fat, 8g fiber, 16g protein, $0.97
1/3 cup millet: 251.7 calories, 2.7g fat, 5.6g fiber, 7.3g protein, $0.28
1/2 cup apple juice + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar: 57 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.41
1/2 tsp dried thyme: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $.02
1/2 tsp dried oregano: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $.02
1 jalapeño pepper: 4 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.16
3 cups hot vegetable broth: 60 calories, 0.3g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.57
1 cup beet greens: 8 calories, 0g fat, 1g fiber, 1g protein, $0.16
1 tbsp lime juice: 4.75 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.05
salt and pepper to taste: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $.02
fresh cilantro or parsley to garnish: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $.02
TOTALS: 1128.5 calories, 30.7g fat, 20.6g fiber, 30.3g protein, $5.24
PER SERVING (totals/4): 282 calories, 7.7g fat, 5.15g fiber, 7.6g protein, $1.31

Veggie Might: As for Me and My House, We Will Serve the Veggies

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.

My Fair Readers, this just in: America hates veggies! The Center for Disease Control released the data and the New York Times reported it. Also, the sky is falling.

Credit: NatalieMaynor.

Why are only 26.3% of our fellow Americans eating the recommended three or more vegetable servings a day? A slightly more encouraging 32.5% of us are eating two or more fruit servings, but still. That’s less than a third.

This does not compute. Farmers markets and local, seasonal cooking are all the rage; Michelle Obama is hot on the case with her victory garden and Let’s Move! initiative, and U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s has implemented programs such as Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food. What’s not clicking, America?

Access is a likely culprit; convenience is another. Intimidation and taste are ties for third.

We’ve talked about access before. Food deserts and the high cost of produce send people right for the Hot Pockets. But right next to the Hot Pockets (in your grocer’s freezer) is frozen veg, and that’s the better choice every time.

Luckily, access to fresh produce is getting better. Farmers markets are cropping up (pardon the pun) in underserved areas and, more and more frequently, they accept food stamps and WIC vouchers, but it’s hard to get the word out.

Surprisingly, the CDC data doesn’t show much difference in our vegetable eating habits across income levels, particularly when it comes to fruit. The spread is about 8% for vegetables, while the lowest and highest income brackets are only separated by .7% for fruit, with the middle group coming in .8% below the low bracket.

According to the New York Times article, a market research company, NDP Group, has recently released it’s annual report “Eating Patterns in America.” It’s findings were similar to those of the CDC, but went further into the whys.

“‘The moment you have something fresh you have to schedule your life around using it,’ [Harry] Balzer [analyst for NDP] said.

In the wrong hands, vegetables can taste terrible. And compared with a lot of food at the supermarket, they’re a relatively expensive way to fill a belly.

‘Before we want health, we want taste, we want convenience and we want low cost,’ Mr. Balzer said.”

I know it’s not easy, but the time and financial savings of convenience food is all in the perception. Before we started dating, my Charming Boyfriend ate pizza four out of seven nights at week. Not because he can’t cook, but because he lived upstairs from a pizza joint. In the nine months, we’ve been together--and cooking with lots of seasonal vegetables--he’s lost 10 pounds and seen a real difference in his bank account. Those veggies are easy to sneak in to his favorites--even pizza.

Veggies seem inconvenient because there is a perception that they take ages to prepare. But it’s not true! Just ask Jennifer Rubell, the vegetable butcher. She, along with her friend and mentor Mario Batali, is on a mission to eliminate intimidation and exorcise childhood trauma of bad-tasting veg.

At Eataly, Batali’s Italian-style marketplace in New York City, Rubell shows chops, peels, and advised customers on the best ways to use veggies at home, much like regular butcher would for meat.

“‘The idea is to remove any obstacle from people cooking at home. We’ll trim your beans...we’ll clean your mushrooms,’ says Batali. The whole stand is more or less to give you the information to disarm the vegetable to make it easier to cook. Like anything can be sautéed or even for that matter eaten raw. You can take almost any of the vegetables in this whole area and shave them thin enough and dress them with a little extra virgin olive oil and they’re so good.’”

Rubell hopes the job catches on too. “‘I have a fantasy that people will go into their supermarkets all over America and say let me be a vegetable butcher for a week and see if you sell more vegetables. See if your customers are happier and then it could be a new profession in America.’” Sign me up.

So readers, how do you fit in your fruits and veggies? Do you beat the national average? Take the CDC questionnaire and find out.

The CDC Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Questionnaire
Get out your No. 2 pencils and get ready to do some math. Sample responses are as follows: twice a week, three times a month, ten times a year. Go!

1. How often do you drink fruit juices such as orange, grapefruit, or tomato?
2. Not counting juice, how often do you eat fruit?
3. How often do you eat green salad?
4. How often do you eat potatoes, not including French fries, fried potatoes, or potato chips?
5. How often do you eat carrots?
6. Not counting carrots, potatoes, or salad, how many servings of vegetables do you usually eat?

How to calculate your daily fruit and veg intake: divide by 7 for weekly frequencies, 30 for monthly frequencies, and 365 for yearly frequencies. Add the answers to questions 1-2 for daily consumption of fruit and the answers to questions 3-6 for vegetables.

Okay, so it’s not as fun as the Cosmo Quiz, but it’s much more useful. Let us know your results in the comments. Sing it, choir.

~~~

If you dug this article, you may also dig:

• A Confession and A Prayer to Remain Tailless
• Food Money Matters: Why Eating Healthy Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive
• I Want to Be a Tofu Butcher

Veggie Might: Mmmm Is for Maple-Ginger Applesauce

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian. 

Some friends and I went camping in the Adirondacks over Indigenous People’s Day weekend. We had a fab time, though it was a tad chilly and three of us tipped our canoe into Lake George.

On the way back to the city, I made the offhand remark to J and T that I’d never been to Vermont. From the map, I could see it was only about 10 miles east of us. J, our daring driver, made a quick left.

Within 30 minutes we were in Pittsford, VT at the New England Maple Museum.

The NEMM is a kitschy, animatronic wonder: hand-painted signs, scratchy speaker boxes, and homemade mannequins, made from what looked like panty hose, tell the history of maple sugaring. There are toy stuffed animals interspersed with their taxidermied counterparts in many of the dioramas.

Here’s what I learned about making maple syrup:

• Making syrup is hard work.
• The old timey way involved lots of water and funnel/trough-like contraptions.
• The modern, new-fangled way involves lots of water, a funnel/trough-like contraption, and a giant Tin-man hat.

But the best part of the NEMM? There is a syrup tasting room. That’s right. We drank maple syrup out of little cups. It was one of my best days ever.

Here’s what I learned about the grades of syrup:

• The grades have to do with color, not quality.
• Grade A Fancy or Light Amber: light golden color, subtle maple flavor
• Grade A Medium Amber: golden color, more distinct maple flavor, used for the table
• Grade A Dark Amber: light russet color, rich maple flavor, used for the table and cooking/baking
• Grade B: deep russet color, strongest maple flavor, used for the table, best grade for cooking/baking

Do not be fooled by pancake syrup, the NMEE warns, which is primarily corn syrup. Only 100% maple syrup will do. And I concur.

At the massive gift shop, I purchased a half-gallon of maple syrup (Grade B) and two pamphlet-sized cookbooks: The Official Vermont Maple Cookbook ed. by the Vermont Maple Foundation and Apple Sampler by Jan Siegrist. On the drive home, with a touch of buyer’s remorse, I worried I’d soon double my body weight.

Instead, I’ve shown uncharacteristic restraint, savoring the maple syrup and adhering to the CHG philosophy by experimenting with things like applesauce for my morning oatmeal. And dang if this maple-ginger concoction isn’t the best applesauce I’ve ever had.

Plus, I got to use a trick I learned from my good pal, C. Stick your fresh ginger in the freezer. Then, when you’re ready to use it, take it out and grate away. Ginger is a zillion times easier to grate when frozen, and it’ll keep forever. Wee!

If you’ve never made applesauce before, give this a try. If you’re a pro, then you already know: it’s easy, cheap, and so, so New England in the Fall.

~~~

If you like this, you might also dig:

• Ma's Chunky Applesauce 
• Autumn Apple Salad 
• Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

~~~

Maple-Ginger Applesauce
Adapted from Apple Sampler by Jan Siegrist
yields about 2 cups; serves 6–8

1 1/2 lb apples (about 4 medium), peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
water
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1) Peel, core, and chop the apples. I diced mine, but you don’t need to go to the trouble. They break down nicely as they cook. Just cover with water in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

2) Stir and mash with a fork or potato masher. Add the maple syrup, ginger, and cinnamon. Simmer for another 15 minutes or so. Science this isn’t.

3) Serve over oatmeal or just eat it straight. It keeps well too. In the fridge, it’ll stick around for at least a couple of weeks (so far, so good) or in the freezer for up to one year. Yeah, like I could resist it for a whole year.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price per Serving
69 calories, .02g fat, 1.3g fiber, $0.34

Calculations
1 1/2 lb apples: 308 calories, 0g fat, 8g fiber, $1.50
2 tbsp maple syrup: 105 calories, .13g fat, 0g fiber, $.50
1 tsp fresh ginger: 2 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, $.02
1/2 tsp cinnamon: negligible calories, fat, and fiber, $.02
TOTAL: 415 calories, .13g fat, 8g fiber, $2.04
PER SERVING (TOTAL/6): 69 calories, .02g fat, 1.3g fiber, $0.34

Veggie Might: Vegetarian Thanksgiving Tips, Part I—The Main Dish

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.

(Find Vegetarian Thanksgiving Tips, Part II: Sides here.)

The how-to-survive-holidays trope has become as traditional as pumpkin pie. But for so many vegetarians and vegans, it’s still a struggle to negotiate a group meal with family, and even friends, during holiday celebrations that revolve around the slaughter, roasting, and consumption of a once-cute bird or mammal.

Though attitudes are changing, as a recent episode of Top Chef revealed, even seasoned chefs still don’t know what to do with us.

Thanksgiving is especially challenging, since its entire focus is turkey, but it doesn’t have to be. Thanksgiving can be a fun, joyous—dare I say, gratitude-inspiring—experience for everyone. Here are a few tips to help the veggies, and the omnis who love them, enjoy that most meat-centric of American holidays.

If you’re the vegetarian/vegan guest:

• Find out what’s on the menu: Make a call; send an email. Know what’s being served, so you will be able to plan ahead. 
• Make your needs/restrictions clear: The degrees of vegetarianism are still confusing to people. If you are a gluten-free vegan, tell your host exactly what you cannot eat. Better yet, once you’ve heard the menu, say what you can eat. 
• Offer suggestions: If your host is not comfortable or used to cooking for vegetarians/vegans, recommend easy replacements, like vegetable broth for chicken broth, olive oil for butter, or leaving meat out of vegetable dishes. 
• Offer to bring a dish: Bringing your own dish, especially to a holiday meal, takes some of the pressure off the host, ensures there is something you can eat, and illustrates with gustatory aids that being a veg is a culinary adventure.

If you’re the omnivorous host:

•  Ask about your guests’ dietary restrictions: Don’t be afraid to ask what your guest does or doesn’t eat. They’ll be touched and thrilled. Plus, it avoids dreaded mealtime surprises: Oh, you’re vegan. Yeah, there is milk in the mashed potatoes. Why yes, you do taste bacon in the green beans! 
• Ask them for help if necessary: Don’t be shy about asking your veg guest for suggestions, tips, or even to bring a favorite dish. Like I said before, they’ll be thrilled you asked. 
• Only serve fake meat if you want to: Not all vegetarian/vegans require a commercially processed meat replacement product at every meal. They can be expensive, often high in sodium, and boring/dry if not prepared properly. Day-to-day, I’d rather get my protein from whole-food sources. But faux turkey can be fun come holiday-time. My peeps like it. If you’re unsure how to approach faux turkey, check my Rx below. If you’d still rather avoid it, ask your veggie guest to go BYO on the FT. 
• Special Fake Meat Novelty Alert: Omnis are fascinated with fake meat, often surprised to find it’s not half bad in the hands of a cook who knows how to doctor it up. If you choose to serve fake meat, make sure you have enough for EVERYONE, not just your vegetarian guests. I have been to dinners where everyone “tried” the fake meat, taking full-sized portions, went back for seconds, and left little for the vegetarians.

If you’re the vegetarian/vegan host with omni guests:

• Ask about your guests’ dietary restrictions: Even people who eat meat have issues. Food allergies abound. Ask and be as accommodating as possible. The golden rule applies. 
• Don’t make a big deal about the veg thing: Except for meat entrées, most people eat vegetarian food all the time without thinking about it. If you don’t make a big deal about the food you serve being “vegetarian,” neither will your guests. 
• Ask your guests for help if necessary/Don’t worry about serving meat: If your omni guest(s) must have turkey for it to be Thanksgiving (or Arbor Day), ask them to bring it or any other meat-laden dish that will ensure their comfort at your table. Otherwise, let them know there will be plenty of delicious food for all.

Now that hosting is covered, let’s talk tofurkey and its main course alternatives.

Art by Flickr member Fuffer.

Leigh’s Store-bought Faux Turkey Rx
Commercially prepared faux turkey can be bland and boring if cooked as directed. But by following these not-at-all earth shattering steps, you, too, can have a tasty, noncardboard fake meat experience at your holiday gathering.

1) Defrost: Thaw your fake bird in the fridge overnight.

2) Marinate: Soak that sucker in some oil and spices, like the Scarborough Fair blend (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme).

3) Roast: Put your faux turkey in the oven, with some carrots and potatoes if you want, and cover with foil.

4) Baste: Baste it regularly, approximately every 10–15 minutes or so.

5) Watch: Follow the cooking instructions on the package. Translation: don’t overcook it. You want your faux turkey to be moist (eww).

That’s it. Simple and delicious. Omnis and veggies at my Thanksgivings past have said so. But maybe you’d rather make a fake turkey from scratch. Seitan is easy to make, if a little time consuming. I use Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen. Here are more links to get your mind whirling.

Meatesque Recipes from the InterWebs
The Kitchn’s Thanksgiving Tofu Loaf
Epicurious’ Thanksgiving Meatless Mains by Crescent Dragonwagon

Fat Free Vegan’s Quinoa and Red Lentil Cutlets

Or you could skip the fake meat altogether. A delicious squash and grain dish with seasonal vegetables would be a welcome alternative. Check out some of these links for inspiration.

Alternative Thanksgiving Main Dishes from the InterWebs
Serious Eats’ Meatless Main Dishes
NY Times’ Thanksgiving Vegetarian Entrees
Fat Free Vegan’s Mushroom, Lentil, and Wild Rice Timbales

Do you have a favorite vegetarian/vegan Thanksgiving entrée? Fool-proof hosting tips you’d like to impart? Please share in the comments.

Next week…Part II—A vegetarian’s best friend: The Side Dish.

~~~

If you like this post, you’ll love:

• Mailbag: Mom Seeks Help with Teen Veg
• Pumpkin Orzo with Sage
  
• Make Your Own Meat

(Original photo and art by Flickr members Ameyfm [pie] and Fuffer [drawing].)

Veggie Might: Wild Rice Salad with Edamame (or Fresh Fava Beans and Three Hours)

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.

I’ve been so bored by my lunches of late: repeat appearances of grain-bean-green bowls, salad after endless green salad, and I’ve been looking for something new and exciting, but simple enough to make quickly or ahead in bulk. I was seduced by the photograph accompanying this recipe Wild Rice and Edamame Salad at Chow.com.

Mmm...wild rice and edamame. So pretty! So healthy! So springy! But when I clicked through, the secondary and tertiary ingredients were woefully disappointing. Dried fruit and nuts? Five tablespoons of oil? Honey? So sweet! So oily! So blechy! (I probably hold the minority opinion here, but bear with me.)

But I was inspired. I tossed out the original recipe and recreated the dish based on what I wanted it to be: a savory and tangy, high-protein, high-fiber salad I can take to work for lunch or serve at a picnic. I replaced almost everything except the primary wild rice and edamame.

My first attempt was still a little oily (at 2 tablespoons), so I cut back even further and found success. I’d happened on fresh fava beans at my local market and thought they’d make a delicious alternative to the edamame for my second go. I was right, but here’s the thing. You really have to want fava beans.

It took me six episodes of the Big Bang Theory to shell two pounds of beans. Do you want to know the yield of my three-hour effort? One cup of fava beans and 10 pruney fingers. While the resulting salad was delicious, it was not better than the edamame version, and certainly not worth the toil if time is precious.

Third (and fourth) time was perfection. Back to edamame, I achieved the right balance of oil to lemon juice, dressing to salad, and bean to rice. And though I found my flavor grail, I think this recipe would be equally good with leeks or shallots, parsley or mint, and lemon juice or lime—whatever your taste buds desire. Maybe even dried cranberries and honey.

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If this recipe tips your canoe, swim on over to:

• Black Bean Salad with Fresh Corn
• Chopped Salad Rules
• Making Friends—Fava Beans Redeemed

~~~

Wild Rice Salad with Edamame (or Fresh Fava Beans and Three Hours)
inspired by Wild Rice and Edamame Salad at Chow.com
Serves 6

1 1/4 cup edamame, shelled (or fresh fava beans, shelled and hulls removed*)
1 cup uncooked wild rice
3 cups water
1/2 cup carrot, grated
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon leek, minced
1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon black pepper

*Check out this informative slide show for easy, if labor-intensive, fava bean management.

1) Cook 1 cup of wild rice in 3 cups of boiling water for 40 minutes or until fluffy and tender.

2) Make dressing by whisking together 1 tablespoon olive oil, lemon juice, leeks, salt, pepper, and mint in a large mixing bowl. Allow to meld while thawing your edamame or shelling fava beans, if you’re going the martyr route.

2a) Remove fava beans from pods, and then hulls from beans. This can take a couple of hours if you're alone. Netflix helps.

3) Quick-sautee edamame or fava beans in garlic and 1 teaspoon olive oil for 1 to 2 minutes. In a mixing bowl, toss dressing, rice, and beans with carrots and celery.

4) Serve at room temperature or chilled as a side or over salad greens.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Price per Serving
Edamame-style: 176.5 calories, 5.4g fat, 2.5g fiber, 3.8g protein, $49
Fava Beany: 168 calories, 4g fat, 2.3g fiber, 2.4g protein, $.61

Calculations
1 1/4 cup edamame: 236.3 calories, 10g fat, 10g fiber, 21.3g protein, $0.74
[1 cup fava beans: 187 calories, 1g fat, 9g fiber, 13g protein, $1.50]
1 cup uncooked wild rice: 571 calories, 2g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $1.33
1/2 cup carrot: 26 calories, 0g fat, 2g fiber, 0.5g protein, $0.16
1/2 cup celery: 6 calories, 0g fat, 1g fiber, 0g protein, $0.08
1 tablespoon olive oil: 159.6 calories, 18.6g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.11
1 tablespoon lemon juice: 6 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.12
1 tablespoon leek: 54 calories, 0g fat, 2g fiber, 1g protein, $0.25
1 tablespoon fresh mint: 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.04
2 teaspoons sea salt: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $.02
1 tablespoon black pepper: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $.02
TOTALS (with edamame): 1059 calories, 32.6g fat, 15g fiber, 22.8g protein, $2.87
PER SERVING (TOTALS/6): 176.5 calories, 5.4g fat, 2.5g fiber, 3.8g protein, $49

TOTALS (with fava beans): 1010 calories, 23.6g fat, 14g fiber, 14.5g protein, $3.63
PER SERVING (TOTALS/6): 168 calories, 4g fat, 2.3g fiber, 2.4g protein, $.61