The Plantiful Table: Easy, From-the-Earth Recipes for the Whole Family

introduction

The Story of an Ex French-frytarian

Welcome to my cookbook! I’m Andrea, but most people know me as Drea. I’m a lover of fresh air, hot sun, cool breezes, lush greenery, and plants. Lots of plants. Mostly eating them.

I didn’t always feel this way. In fact, when I was growing up I hated vegetables—unless you count potatoes or corn, in which case, I loved vegetables. Okay, yes, I know that potatoes and corn are, technically, vegetables, but I tend to think of them more in terms of a starch and a grain, respectively, especially the way most people eat them these days. Either way, I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat my full daily portion of healthy veggies as a kid. In fact, I don’t think I tried salad until college, and even then, it was coated in ranch dressing. Other than the broccoli my mother sometimes forced upon me, I don’t think I ate anything green. Thankfully, change is a constant part of life, and I eventually learned, at my own slow pace, that there was a delicious world beyond French fries at every meal, pasta smothered with cheese, and pizza nine times a week.

Gradually, I opened my taste buds to more options. I tried and retried mushrooms, broccoli, and tomatoes. I know, I know—an adult who’s scared of tomatoes! Let me be honest: Even to this day I only like tomatoes when they’re cooked. If I’m going to have a raw tomato, it needs to be (or I would prefer it to be) a fresh heirloom variety. At the very least a perfectly ripe organic tomato. Does this mean I’m still picky? Maybe—but I consider it craving only the highest quality in taste. I’ve been told that picky eaters make the best cooks, and I like to believe it.

These days, there isn’t a fruit or vegetable I won’t eat or at least try—well, except bananas (here’s more on that little quirk and how I get around it). Is this transformation a miracle or an earth-shattering story? No, but it is a good life lesson that, whether you’re a child or an adult, even taking little steps, one day at a time, can open up a world of possibilities.

Here I am now—happy, healthy, and thriving, with a small but oh-so-wonderful family that loves eating plants and plant-based foods as much as I do. To be honest, there’s a chance that, if offered the opportunity, I’d still eat pizza nine times a week and French fries with every single meal, but these days, my (that is, our) meals consist mostly of vegetables and other whole foods, with little bits of indulgent pleasures here and there. You’ll see for yourself, in the recipe section, that it’s a delightful balance of good-for-you and tastes-so-good. Just because I’ve embraced a diet of mostly plants, that doesn’t mean I’m a stranger to life’s more indulgent, fried, gluttonous pleasures.

Besides being a tomato critic, pizza lover, and ex French-frytarian, who am I? Well, I’m a blogger. (If you just cringed a bit, I confess that I do the same every time I say the word blogger—but, well, that’s what I am and what I love to do.) It’s actually pretty awesome. I’ve been at it for about five years, and as I’ve grown and changed, so has my blog, ohdeardrea. It’s amazing to spend my time connecting with people across the world who hold so many of the same loves, values, and yearnings to grow. I would blog for that reason alone.

As I’ve shared my ever-growing appreciation for natural foods and, more important, my interest in helping families eat healthfully, my readers have helped me discover that, although I may not have a culinary school degree, you don’t need to be a professional chef to create delicious, wholesome recipes that everyone will love. Through my blog, I hope to inspire people to cook more real, whole-food meals for their kids—adventurous eaters and picky feeders alike. If I make just a small difference in how a family eats, I know that it can blossom into much bigger, even happier changes.

I want to show potential cooks that preparing healthy food is not about knowing every last technique or about being classically trained; it’s about wanting to do it and then taking the necessary steps. Even one step forward is progress!

What’s day-to-day life like in the ohdeardrea home and kitchen? For starters, I’m lucky enough to live in a bright, cheery house in South Florida with my beautiful family. My family consists of my husband, Alex, a talented chef and gifted bread-maker (you’ll see some of his contributions throughout the recipe section), and my toddler-kiddo-daughter, Marlowe, who makes delicious kale pesto, guacamole, and, thanks to my mother, now knows the proper measurements to make rice (but as Marlowe will tell you, I’m not allowed to use the stove).

Marlowe is a vegan like myself—or vegan-ish, depending on how strictly you view the rules. We do eat honey, but nothing else from the animal world. You can, however, find dairy milk and cheese in our home, because, well . . . Alex. He’s not vegan or vegetarian or anywhere near those things. Are meals difficult for us as a mixed-food family? Not at all. With the exception of the late-night eggs that Alex sometimes fries up or his fresh mozzarella on pizza days, we don’t make separate meals. I think we’re a pretty good example that meals don’t have to be labeled as vegan or not vegan—it’s all just food.

Our house is sweet, and we enjoy living in Florida. We’re always working on ways to improve our home and garden, and we try to spend our spare time outdoors, venturing to farms or botanical gardens as much as possible. I love the changing and learning that takes place as I grow with my family. I love the care we put into our food and our rarely rushed meals. In the summer we sometimes feel trapped inside from the heat, but in the warm winters we thrive. No matter the season, though, our life revolves around our vibrant space and the food we raise, buy, make, and eat in it.

My life hasn’t always revolved around food, but food has always been a large part of my life, just as it is for so many of us. With each passing year, the importance and love of eating well grows in me. Beginning with my personal experiences, and then having a child of my own, I’ve come to see how very important it is to pass down the knowledge and the reality that eating good food is vital, that it’s one of the most important relationships in our lives—especially for our health and well-being. For this reason, we center our days around our food, our kitchen, and our table. We do it for ourselves and for one another.

Food doesn’t have to be extravagant or complex to please people, and you don’t need to put in a ton of time and work to create nourishing food. I firmly believe that with just a few fresh vegetables and richly flavored spices, you can create a truly amazing meal. What I do isn’t about a desire to be a world-recognized cook or celebrity chef—I don’t want or need any of that, nor do I think I would qualify for such titles. What I do want, wholeheartedly, is to keep living this simple, healthy life with my family, where we take the time to grow our own food and spend a little part of each day preparing a meal full of love.

I hope that I can share a bit of what I know and love with anyone who cares to read my words. Good food makes you feel good, inside and out. What you eat affects your mind, your body, and your heart. I want to show that eating good food—with ingredients straight from the earth—doesn’t have to be difficult. Real food is attainable and affordable. Whether your family is one person or eight people, healthy, comforting meals packed with vegetables and nutrients can very easily be a part of a happy home, every day.

The Idea: Unprocessed, Vegan, Plant-Based Foods

This cookbook is here to help you create really, really delicious and healthy plant-based dishes, whether you grew up eating salads at every meal or devouring French fries as a meal. Although I’m certain everyone could live off vegetables alone (and enjoy it!), my goal isn’t to convince people of that—if you decide to scramble an egg with your meal, don’t worry: You won’t find any angry vegans here. My only aim is to inspire people to spend more time in the kitchen or in a garden, learning about food, caring about food, and cultivating a love for vegetables and other unprocessed foods along the way. Bonus points if you pass along the knowledge you gain to your friends or children!

In my perfect, ideal universe we would all subsist on plants alone and make everything completely by hand. However, the world doesn’t work this way, and, honestly, neither does my home. We make a lot of our food from scratch (most things, in fact), but you’ll notice that we do buy some pre-made goods, too, such as pasta, yogurt, or milk. Can you make these items yourself at home? Absolutely, and it’s great to do as much of that as you can. But in a world where grocery stores consist of aisle upon aisle of processed, ready-to-eat products, choosing only a small handful of simple pre-made items, rather than a whole cart of them, can still make a positive impact on your health and outlook.

I’ve tried my best to include as many quick, easy, handmade meals as possible within this book. Maybe you already make most of your meals from scratch—in which case, wonderful! If you don’t, that’s just fine, too—within these pages you’ll find countless tasty, accessible, plant-based meals to bring new sparkle to your daily or weekly menu. I very much hope you find all the inspiration you need within these pages!

The Inspiration: Approachable, Family-Friendly, Everyday Recipes

With this book, I wanted to create something approachable, helpful, and fun, all while sharing my favorite foods. I tried to include a little bit of everything in here, from comfort food to family-focused dishes to easy snacks and meals. My goal was to provide recipes that truly satisfy adults and that are easy to adapt for young, developing taste buds. Some of the recipes take extra prep time or are intended to impress, but most were created to be filling and quick to make, while still soothing your heart and nourishing your body.

There aren’t any magic vegan spells in here, and I’m not going to tell you to use portobello mushrooms as hamburger buns. While I do frequently use beans in many traditionally meaty dishes, in no way do I expect you to pretend that beans are meat—they’re not, though they are wonderful in and of themselves.

You may have seen variations of some of these recipes before, and maybe you even grew up with them. I’ve altered them to fit our household needs, whether that means minimizing cooking time, removing dairy, adding in vegetables, erasing the need for meat, or just doing a general overhaul to create something that’s more family-friendly and more us. We’re a family that cares about healthy food, but, more important, we’re a family that loves food that tastes good.

You’ll see some traditional American meals in this book, although not too many—I wanted to include a nice mix of flavors from all over the world, since our family meals are inspired by many cultures and cooking styles. With my mother’s side of the family coming from Colombia and Alex’s coming from Cuba, we’re especially no strangers to Latin American cooking and flavors. From our liberal use of cumin and smoked paprika to plantains and beans, there’s no denying the influence our parents have had on us. Some of the recipe sections have even been broken up by flavor and style of food—such as Latin American Favorites or Asian Curries, Noodles, & Rices—in celebration of the many different ingredients and cultures that inspire our daily meals.

Growing up, my mother made two separate meals every single night: One for the adults and one for the kids (my younger brother and myself). She believed, correctly, that there was no way we would eat the food she made for herself. At nine and ten years old, not even bribery could have convinced us to eat a meal that was so eloquently translated from Spanish into English as sweaty chicken. Was it impossible to make us eat? No, but it was a true challenge.

Our mother, loving us dearly, busted her butt every evening to get us fed. We weren’t malnourished, and we never starved, but my brother and I weren’t exactly the most well-rounded or healthy kids in terms of eating. It was a struggle for all parties involved. While we all survived, I’m pretty certain (okay, completely certain) that it doesn’t have to be that difficult. Nutritious food became incredibly important to me as soon as I found out I was pregnant, and I wanted to instill that importance in my daughter from the moment she was born. I knew if I wanted a healthy, thriving child, good nutrition would have to be a top priority.

Even though each child is different, I’m a good example of a picky, impossible-to-please kid who was able to grow up and help her daughter become the complete opposite. I didn’t want to repeat the challenges my mother had faced, and I didn’t want my daughter to deal with the food struggles I had suffered. If I can, I want to help others overcome these issues, too, even if just a little bit—and so I documented, photographed, wrote, and created this book in the hope that I can inspire others. Sure, I want to share recipes with hungry people, but I do it with a dream of helping families and kids everywhere become better eaters and love real food even more. Bye-bye, French-frytarians!

tips & tricks

You’ve probably noticed that this is a plant-based cookbook. (I mean, I hope you’ve noticed by now—I’ve mentioned it a few times!) Maybe you already live a plant-based lifestyle—hooray! If you’re not a vegan but have this book in your hands, anyway—awesome! This is a fantastic, everyday cookbook for each and every one of you, especially since these recipes were created to be adaptable to you and your family’s special needs and wants.

In this section, I’ll guide you through some ideas for different ways to make the dishes work for you and anyone you feed. You don’t have to be vegan to love this book—you just have to love food. Huzzah! It’s a win-win all around.

For Eating Healthfully

These dishes were created to be easy and straightforward—I want you to open this book to a new recipe and proclaim, Oooooh, I can do this! (or, if playing it cool, a simple I got this works). So, you got this, right? This book will not (or at least should not) make you want to throw serving-ware across the room. It will help you create really tasty, filling, and (mostly) healthy meals to feed yourself and/or your family. Here are some of my favorite tips and tricks for creating flavorful dishes and having fun in the kitchen while doing so:

Relax, Drink Some Wine

Most people tend to unwind after a few sips of wine. Of course, you can relax in many different ways, perhaps by taking off your pants or blasting some good dance tunes, telling or listening to jokes, or cooking with a friend (doing all those things at once could be interesting, too). Whatever it is that helps take the stress off while you’re cooking, do it—that’s my advice.

While I fully understand the world of the serious, focused chef, I do believe that the best meals are made in happiness, and whether you’re wearing pants or not, well . . . that’s completely optional. So relax, make your cooking surroundings as enjoyable as you can, and go for it with your whole heart.

Know Any Good Salt Jokes? Na!

All right, so, without this becoming a lesson or a lecture (although I hope you enjoyed my bad chemistry joke above), I think we can agree that too much salt isn’t great for you. But we can also agree that salt often makes things delicious! Seasoning your food is important. Spices, herbs, and salt can make or break a meal. Keep in mind that everyone’s sodium tolerances, wants, and needs are different. For example, my husband is a salt fiend, and my mother avoids the stuff, while I can never agree with either of them on the proper salt level. I’ve decided that I fall somewhere in the middle, and the salt measurements are obviously my own personal recommendations—going through the book, it seems that the standard is around 1 teaspoon per recipe, where applicable—so please remember to taste your food as you go and determine whether your taste buds require more or less.

You’ll find that many of the recipes call for you to add different ingredients at various times while cooking; my recommendation is to add a pinch of salt with each new addition. Example: Your onions and celery have cooked until translucent? Great, now add a sprinkle of salt before adding the next set of ingredients. The zucchini you added is cooked through? Sprinkle in another pinch before tossing in the tomato, and so on. If you’re worried about over-salting, just make sure to taste-test frequently, and you should be fine. Pre-measure the amount of salt you’ll ultimately use and place it in a small bowl next to your pot or pan, and—voilà—you can salt without worry as you go!

One final note about salting recipes: When you’re making sauces intended to coat noodles or starchy vegetables, keep in mind that your sauce may need to be on the saltier (and more acidic) side. Once you sauce your noodles or veggies, the salt and acid will mix together to counter the starch, making your dish taste just right.

Quality Control

To have the best-tasting meals, you need to start with the best-tasting (freshest) ingredients. Juice from a freshly squeezed lemon