Christina Cooks: Back to the Cutting Board

Mamma mia, can we eat!

In the car.

In front of the TV.

At our desk.

At the bank.

At the opera.

We need to start paying attention to how we eat and why we eat so we're not just surviving on a primal level.

It's time to become enchanted with the aromas, the flavors, the textures, everything that there is about food.

Let's discover conscious eating today together in Tuscany on Christina Cooks: The Macroterranean Way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties.

Sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

and by Jonathans Spoons.

Individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by: Hi, I'm Christina Pirello and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will they all be plant based?

Absolutely.

Will they be delicious?

You bet.

We all talk about being more conscious and conscious.

Eating and conscious eating begins with buying the food, preparing the food, sitting down to eat together and sharing at the table where we learn everything from sharing to communication, to social justice, to how to gather together and become a community.

So conscious eating is less about standing over the sink, eating out of a tupperware container, and more about putting your food on a beautiful dish, deciding what's in it, how the flavors combine and creating a consciousness around food.

And while we talk about, you know, more plant based eating and we talk about the cruelty of factory farming, the reality is even beyond the level of cruelty lies the loss of forest to create pasture land, to create more animals for us to slaughter for our indulgence.

So being conscious means that we just are more aware of the impact of our actions.

So we're going to make a really simple, absolutely satisfying dish that will make you forget about eating meat ever again.

Okay, so what I have here is a pot of boiling water.

We're going to add to this some shiitake mushrooms.

This is a dry shiitake mushroom.

And these have been soaked.

Now we're making something called a dashi, which is a flavored broth.

You may take the ingredients for the dashi and put them in whole and then remove them.

But since I want them to become part of the broth, I'm going to take these soaked shiitake mushrooms and just cut them in half.

Now shiitake, they have been used for thousands of years because they help the body to reduce cholesterol and lower blood pressure.

With the soaking water, the shiitake go right in.

The next thing to go in is a piece of kombu.

Kombu is a sea plant that's high in minerals and keratin, which is the protein that makes your hair healthy.

That goes in.

That's for minerals and digestion.

The next thing to go in is ginger.

Now, the ginger, if you're going to take it out of your dashi, just goes in sliced.

But since I'm leaving it in, we're going to take those slices and turn them into little matchstick pieces.

You can also grate the ginger and just put it in the juice and the flesh.

But I really like these little pieces of ginger because you bite into them and get a nice little spice.

You don't have to peel ginger.

Remember the skin on ginger forms as the ginger is drying to protect it and keep it moist.

You can peel it if you want to with the back of a spoon.

But why?

Why do more work?

These are cremini mushrooms.

So we're going to add a few of those in.

Mushrooms help to relax the body.

Right.

Tension in the neck, the shoulders down the back of the legs.

So this is a dish that's not only satisfying, but helps to relax the body.

Now, this is a broth, so you don't have to fill it with tons of things.

The next thing to go in our red onions, and we've cut them into rings so that they're pretty.

You can use half moons, rings, whatever you like.

I use red onions because I like the flavor.

If you want to use white or you want to use shallots, go ahead.

The next thing to go in are carrot matchsticks.

If you're noticing, and I hope you are everything that's going into the broth is finely cut so that it cooks relatively quickly.

So this is a light dish.

The next thing are sweet potatoes.

We've added to sweet veggies and the sweet veggies help to relax the middle body and help you to feel satisfied.

So just going to give those a little stir.

And now we season the broth with soy sauce and you want to season it depending on the amount of broth you're making.

You need it to look like the color of amber beer.

So it's about 20% of your broth.

We're going to give this one last stir.

Decide if you want more stuff in it or not.

I like mine brothy, since there's more things that are going to happen.

We're going to cover this and let it cook in this pan.

We're going to start to heat a skillet.

We're going to get the protein part of the dish ready.

Take some extra virgin olive oil, enough to coat the bottom of the pan.

And we're using something called tempeh.

Tempeh is an Indonesian fermented soy product that's easy to digest, but has a really hearty texture.

And we're going to add to this oil some soy sauce.

We're seasoning it right here in the pan.

Not messing around, no marinating, no extra steps, some brown rice syrup, which is a glucose based fermented sweetener.

You can also use honey if you prefer to use honey and a little balsamic vinegar.

This flavor is remarkable.

On tempeh, it just you want to just sit and eat the tempeh like little chips.

If you like spice, you can add a little hot spice.

Just like a little spice.

Then we always like a little spice.

This is tempeh.

Tempeh.

It comes in these sort of bricks, cakes, if you will.

And we're going to slice it like this.

You can see the whole soybean in the tempeh, right?

What they do is take soybeans and they grind them and partially cook them, and then they inoculate them with the same starter that they use to make bread.

And then they let it ferment.

This sort of mycelium forms around it.

And you have tempeh.

In Indonesia, they say you can eat this as it is.

You don't even have to cook it.

I don't highly recommend that because the flavor is not that great in my opinion.

But if you like it, give it a go.

The worst that can happen is you bite down on an ingredient you're not familiar with as you won't like it, you'll live.

So were gonna let this sort of simmer.

And then we're going to talk about the base of this dish, which is noodles.

These are soba noodles.

And soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour.

So they are if they're pure soba, they're gluten free.

They're very warming to the middle part of the body.

Soba noodles are a gift in the winter time if you struggle with being cold.

So really pay attention to using things like soba.

They cook quickly in 4 minutes, but because they're made from buckwheat, which is a grain or a grass actually that grows in sort of cold temperatures and adverse conditions, it helps to keep the body warm energetically.

They keep the body warm.

So once your tempeh colors like this and you get this nice brown color, you flip it.

This is a really simple dish.

And since your vegetables have been finely cut and your broth is seasoned, this dish is done in under 10 minutes.

So we'll let the tempeh cook while we start to plate up the rest of our dish.

So what I have here, some cooked soba.

Now that my broth is ready in goes some fresh broccoli.

You don't want to cook the broccoli for too long.

Broccoli is part of the cruciferous vegetable family, meaning that it's rich in anti-cancer properties, high in fiber, loaded with vitamin C, And if you're noticing the broccoli is just cooked, it's not cooked until it's really dark.

You want to cook it just lightly.

And to put this dish together, we're going to take some broth.

Now you can use a big ladle and take your veggies and everything in here all at once.

I tend to cover my noodles with broth and then come back in with tongs and grab the rest of the veg so that it's prettier.

For me, part of conscious eating is that your food is beautiful when you serve it, so that when you sit down, you absolutely cannot wait to dig in to this dish and and as I dig into this dish, we are off to Rome to try vegan pasta carbonara at one of my favorite restaurants in the entire city of Rome.

Andiamo!

(Italian music plays.)

whenever I'm in Rome, the very first place I come is Origano, because everyone can enjoy a meal here.

And we have a special treat for you today, Chef Mirko has agreed to cook and show us some of his secrets.

Lets get cooking!

Ciao!

Christina!

Ciao, ciao.

Ciao bella.

Chef, I'm here.

Oh, hello, ciao, Christina.

Im so happy to be here!

Shall we cook?

Okay.

Prego.

One of the most popular dishes that people enjoy in Rome is carbonara, spaghetti carbonara or bucatini carbonara.

But vegans, not so much.

But here at Origano, I'm with Chef Mirko, ciao.

He's going to show me how he makes vegan - si!

Vegan carbonara.

Chef...

Okay.

(speaking Italian) Spaghetti or bucatini?

No, spaghetti.

Solo spaghetti.

Olive oil.

Generous, of course.

(speaking Italian) Heres the secret.

(speaking Italian) This is vegan guanciale (speaking Italian) Sort of like pancetta, or... guanciale is actually pork cheek but this is made from seitan, so made from wheat gluten.

So they're going to cook this until it's crispy like bacon, right?

So it happens very quickly.

You can see the seitan is becoming crispy.

It's sizzling, it's beautiful.

You see how it's all browned and getting sort of crispy on the edges?

It's really very nice.

(Speaking Italian) He just makes sure that its.... well coated with oil and that all the sides are browning.

So you keep moving it amazing.

You can see how nice and brown it got just as though it were pancetta.

So he kept some on the side to be crunchy.

So carbonara is made with eggs, so it's quite yellow.

So what he does instead is season the oil and the water with zafferano - saffron to give it that flavor and to give it that color and that sort of perfume that you get.

And it just simmers?

Yes.

So you just let the seitan, the guanciale, simmer in this sort of flavored broth so that you get a nice soft sort of pancetta.

And then this will be crunchy to put on top (speaking Italian) So what he's using to make - if youve had carbonara, you know, it's creamy, it's like very sort of rich and instead of cream, he's using a rice cream.

Not rice milk, a rice cream.

You don't want this to get to go away, the liquid.

And then when you put the pasta in, the pasta water makes it creamy.

The starch of the pasta water (speaking Italian) You put a little bit more cooking water, because that's what's going to make your pasta creamy.

And now the starch from the pasta water is going to help to thicken and make the pasta have that richness that when you see carbonara, it's creamy and yellow and gorgeous.

When the pasta is about 90% done because you want your pasta to be al dente, so it's not an insulin trigger, so you digest it more easily.

He's cooking it the finish, cooking it this way in the pan so that he can see when it's al dente, when it's perfect, and then he'll add the cream and finish the dish.

But as he moves the pasta, you see it's getting softer, a little bit more liquid.

You can tell, if you cook pasta, you can tell when it's finally ready.

You don't have to throw it against the wall or break it.

You can see that it becomes soft and fat, but not too soft.

And when you make this, when (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) So all of this is made al minute - They say order - each order.

He doesn't make a big batch like this is... you order it, he makes it and serves.

(speaking Italian) Depending on how many orders there could be two pans, three pans.

(speaking Italian) See how this is becoming creamy?

But there's nothing in here except pasta, water, oil and saffron.

(speaking Italian) And the pasta.

So... the starch, from the water is making the cream that will associate with carbonara.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) The best dishes are the simple ones.

So this has oil, seitan, pasta, water, saffron so far, and it's creamy and rich looking.

(speaking Italian) Just like crema and all it is is pasta, water and olive oil.

So this is vegan parmagiano.

Si!

Vegano.

Tiny bit of rice cream to finish the dish.

(speaking Italian) And that little bit of soy cheese and rice cream gave the dish the richness that.

Wow, wow.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) And the crunchy bits on top.

(speaking Italian) So the crunchy ones are on top.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) Bravissimo, Chef.

Grazi!

Brava, brava!

Wow.

Wow.

(Italian music ends) (gentle music playing) I don't know about you guys, but that was seriously elegant, conscious eating.

So how about we bring it a little bit down a couple notches and make a really homey kind of dish that's also really conscious, but feed you in a little bit of a different way.

We take some extra virgin olive oil.

You want to use enough to cover the bottom of a skillet.

We're going to use a big skillet because we're using a big pan and you kind of want to run the oil around.

So it coats the bottom and I'm going to build my marinade right in the pan.

I'm going to take some soy sauce.

About 10% of your oil amount, some balsamic vinegar.

Don't panic.

It's really good.

This is going to give it a lovely, light, acidic flavor, same amount as your soy sauce.

And then usually in this glaze, people use honey, but we're going to use a combination of brown rice syrup, maple sirup and agave to give us that sweetness that would normally come from honey.

Since this is a plant based dish, then we take tofu that's been cut into slabs.

Now you notice there's no flame yet, and we're going to lay the tofu in this mixture of oil and soy sauce and balsamic and brown rice sirup just like this.

This is kind of a no fuss kind of dish.

So now we'll turn on the heat.

Maybe like a medium.

Don't go too crazy so it doesn't cook all over, and we're going to cover it.

It's going to spit and mess up your stove a little bit.

So it just is.

But it's so yummy.

You won't care.

We're going to do that.

Let this start to cook while we prep the rest of our veggies.

And what we're going to use first is fennel.

And fennel, or finocchio in Italian, is a lovely licorice tasting vegetable.

And you're thinking, I don't know if I like licorice, I hear you, but this is so good for digestion.

And when it cooks, it becomes sweet.

You're going to love this.

We're going to split this bulb in half and thinly slice it while the tofu simmers.

You can start to hear the tofu making its little simmer noise.

And you don't need a ton of fennel, maybe not even half the bulb.

You just want these nice thin slices so you do have to practice your knife skills.

Or you can use a mandolin.

It's totally your call.

Now, as the tofu begins to sizzle, you want to turn it.

Don't wait until it's, like, deeply colored and sticky, because that's going to happen in this part of the dish.

If it sticks a little bit to your pan, that's okay.

That's what frying tofu does.

It sticks to the pan and you just move on with your life and then it's okay.

They're really starting to sizzle, which is beautiful and because it's got this brown rice syrup mixture and balsamic vinegar, it's going to kind of candy on the edges, which is really nice.

And the fennel goes right on top.

There's no stirring in this dish until the end.

The next thing to go on are just little carrot coins.

And again, you can use a mandolin, you can use your knife if you're really good.

And they're going to go right on top to create some really beautiful color.

The next thing is some shredded cabbage.

Now, this is just simple head cabbage, and you're thinking, well, this is a pretty humble dish.

And it is.

But you should also know that cabbage, green cabbage, simple green cabbage is the greatest anti-inflammatory of all time.

We use it topically.

We use it internally to get rid of inflammation in the body.

The next thing we'll add the humble, beautiful cauliflower.

When I was a kid, they couldn't get me to eat anything.

Nothing.

I was one of those kids who could go four days without food if it meant eating something I didn't like, I just wouldn't do it.

So my mother decided one day to try cauliflower and it was love at first bite.

And cauliflower has been on the menu for me for the rest of my life.

So take some cauliflower on top and now we're going to cover this again.

You don't need any more seasoning.

All was done in the beginning in your marinade sort of frying thing.

In about 7 minutes.

You'll see.

You'll love this.

(gentle music plays) So after 7 to 10 minutes, you have a beautiful, tender cauliflower.

You can see your cabbages wilted.

Everything's beautiful.

Now we're going to take and cut really thin ribbons of kale.

And the reason it has to be really thin is because you basically just want to stir this in and not have any more time to your cooking time.

You want to stir it in, let it will serve the dish.

This is called lacinato, or dinosaur kale.

If you don't like kale, you can use chard, you can use spinach, just use something green, dark, leafy green, because they give us everything from vitamins, minerals, calcium, you name it, it's in there.

We want them now we're going to take some tongs and carefully mix these in without disturbing the tofu too much and you'll see why you disturb the tofu.

You disturb the tofu.

But let's try not to, because that's part of the serving prettiness.

And as soon as your kale wilts like this, you don't want it overdone, but you want it to not taste raw.

See how you have this lovely bright color?

It's shiny with moisture.

That's what you want.

Now you're going to take your veg onto a plate.

You're kind of sort of scraping them off the tofu because the tofu cooked at the bottom and you're making a bed.

And then once you have all your veggies, you got lots of nice color.

Really pretty.

Look here.

Now you start pulling out the tofu and you lay it on top, but you see how it has gotten dark and sort of candied on the edges.

The color is rich and appealing and you can serve the rest of the veg on the side or you can use it in another dish in a soup.

And then you have this beautiful main course that's a little more humble, but still really conscious eating.

So what are you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board and I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks: The Macroterranean Way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties: Sweetness, the way Mother Nature intended.

And by Jonathans Spoons individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by: You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at ChristinaCooks.com, and by following @ChristinaCooks on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Learn how to add delicious plant-based dishes to your daily diet with the companion cookbook VegEdibles, featuring more than 80 easy-to-make recipes.

To order your copy for $29.95+ handling, call 800-266-5815 Or visit ChristinaCooks.com.

Add Back To The Cutting Board and get both books for $49.95 plus handling.