I had an awesome menu plan for last week, but life ultimately brought in some unexpected tweaks, as it so often does. Do you know the kind of week I mean? I ended up being extremely busy, which meant I didn’t get to the store for the extra ingredients I needed to make several of the dishes in my plan. I also had a couple of raw dishes planned from a cookbook I’m checking out but didn’t end up making either one. There’s always so much grating and mandolining for raw meals! One night I found myself making dinner at 11pm, so I skipped the labor-intensive raw spring rolls I had planned and made Sunrise Noodles instead, which I can make in my sleep (good thing, too, at 11pm!). The other meal I had planned (Raw “Pasta” Puttanesca with zucchini “noodles”) was thrown by the wayside in favor of a nice filling hot dish – Tamale Bake – that kept me fed for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for days.
Nicoise Salad (on this week's menu)
Despite my total deviation from the plan, I still ended up eating quite well last week. I ate out on two nights when I had planned to cook, so I’ve ended up with two yummy meals that never got made but that I can recycle into this week. I think I’m just going to let go of those raw recipes that never got made. One of them provided inspiration for Wendy of Celiacs in the House to make gorgeous raw spring rolls (you should check out her blog this month, she’s doing an awesome project!), so for that alone I’m glad I included it in my meal plan.
Borscht (this week's menu)
I continue to love the feature of my CSA that lets me preview what will be coming in my box. Before I started menu planning I loved to be surprised, but now I find it invaluable to be able to get inspiration and information about what will be coming. This week is a lot of fruit, plus cucumbers, basil, tomato, lettuce, beets, and corn. Yum, I feel a delicious summer salad coming on! But that’s also why I have trouble in the summer. I need a steady diet of green veggies to feel healthy, and while I enjoy them, a little bit of cucumber, lettuce, and tomato just doesn’t do it.
Salad rolls with kitchari and tomato relish (this week's menu)
I also have quite a challenge coming up – to make dinner for myself and a friend who is also gluten-free. What’s the catch? Well, I’m vegan, and my friend (an omnivore) can’t eat soy, beans, or quinoa. So everything I eat for protein is off limits, and vice versa. We basically overlap at rice, fruits, and vegetables. What on earth can I make for us that will be both filling and delicious? Any suggestions? I’m thinking potatoes in some form?
One-pot Bibimbap (this week's menu)
This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is hosted by Heather of Celiac Family with the theme of salads. What a perfect theme for what’s coming in my box! I’ll be making Salade Nicoise (a summer favorite I have yet to grow tired of), salad rolls stuffed with a yummy lentil quinoa mixture, and fruit salad with all the fruit coming in my CSA box. I’m trying out a new basil-citrus salad dressing (dressings are my Achilles’ heel), and making my favorite Russian salad which is made with beets and other wonderful things. It’s quite a week for salads! Hopefully the weather will oblige me… I was driving home the other night in freezing, foggy, drizzling weather, thinking to myself, Yep! It must be July!
As always there are oodles of menu plans at the giant MPM compendium over at OrgJunkie, with a fair number of vegan folks tuning in every week now, so go check it out!
Edamame and smoked tofu succotash (this week's menu)
Monday
One-pot bibimbap with arame, shitake mushrooms, spinach, tofu, and napa cabbage
Tuesday (defrost 5 C. stock)
Nicoise salad
Borscht
Wednesday (ferment cabbage for the weekend)
Hand-held salad rolls stuffed with kitchari (lentil and quinoa mixture with flax seed oil, lime juice, tamari, toasted sesame oil), tomato relish, julienned carrots, fresh basil
Corn on the cob with umeboshi plum paste or chili and lime
Fruit salad
Thursday
Edamame and Smoked Tofu Succotash (with fresh corn and tomatoes)
Salad with basil-citrus vinaigrette
Friday
Leftovers
Saturday
Vinegret (Russian beet salad)
Kasha with fermented cabbage
Cucumbers
Sunday
Leftovers
Shopping list: chili-garlic sauce, 1 lb new potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, 2 onions, 2 cabbages, scallions, small red onion, (check for frozen edamame), 1 orange, 3 medium boiling potatoes, canned peas, 3 dill pickles, scallions, fresh dill, kasha
In My Box 
[…] are lots of salads on the menu at In My Box this week! They include Green Beans Nicoise, salad rolls with a lentil quinoa mixture, and Vinegret […]
What about adding nuts to the meal for your friend to make sure it’s filling?
That’s a great idea! Now I need to find a meal that goes with nuts… I don’t cook with them that often. Sometimes I throw a few cashews into a stir-fry… Any suggestions?
Another recipe to tempt me. The Hand-held Salad Rolls sound like my next lunch treat. Thanks for the shout out about my new project and your lovely comments.
Wendy
As usual, your food looks amazing. Wow!
In regards to VOTC, I think it is worth buying. I am like you, I prefer borrowing a cookbook before purchasing it. This one is definitely worth the money.
Hope you have a lovely week.
how about soba (buckwheat noodles?) or something amaranth based? a polenta dish? veggies in a hemp seed or pumpkin seed sauce (both high in protein)? love to hear how it turns out.
Thank you so much for the great suggestions! Yum, they all sound great!
I made this dish for a group once. Maybe it would fit the requirements. (And remember I’m in Salad Mode!)
Andalusian Salad
1 c finely sliced celery
2T chopped parsley
1/3 c chopped scallions
2 C steamed BROWN rice
1/2 raisins
1/2 c pine nuts or sunflower kernels or cashews
1/4 lb. slices mushrooms
dressing: 1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1/2 t sugar
1 1/2 T red wine vinegar
6T olive oil
Some Beets or Broccoli on the side (for color). Tapioca pudding with almond milk and good summer fruit for dessert?
By the way, smoked tofu succotash sounds seriously yummy!!!
Thanks so much for the recipe – it sounds fantastic and filling! You must make the succotash. It’s so good, and so easy. I make it all the time and I really love it. It works with fresh tomatoes/canned tomatoes, fresh corn/frozen corn – you can make it in any season!
Oh man, I didn’t even think about dessert… Luckily neither of us are that into sweets so I think I’ll skip that part. Phew! 🙂
That bibimbop looks great. One of these days I WILL attempt…
For the dinner with your friend–what about sweet potatoes and other veggies under a Thai Coconut/Peanut Sauce?
It’s SO easy! I have it in the oven right now. It came together in minutes, and now I don’t have to do anything til it’s time to take it out and eat.
That is a great suggestion for our meal. I think I’m going to end up making some Indian dishes with sweet potatoes, beets, greens (different dishes) and rice. I love me some coconut-peanut sauce, though… so now I’m tempted to change course. 🙂
What a great menu!
My partner makes terrific rice paper wraps with peanut sauce in summer – basically it’s a platter of julienned veggies, some cooked, drained rice vermicelli, sliced avocado & sprouts. We wrap our own & add the sauce at the table. The rice paper wraps come pre-made in packages at asian supermarkets are very easy. Just soak in hot water to soften.
I dont know why I never make those. I love them so much, I pay absurd amounts for them when I get Thai take-out. I’ve made them before plenty of times, but for some reason they are marked in my head as really time consuming. I think the Molly Katzen recipe I used to make was a super-fancy version. I’d love to have them become an everyday dish rather than a special-occasion one.
I want to know more about the Borscht. I always have beets on hand.
Tammy, in the menu plan for this week I link to the Borscht recipe. It’s a very simple vegetarian recipe that comes together fairly fast because you cut the beets and carrots into matchstick sized pieces. It’s hearty enough for dinner with some accompaniment but light enough to be enjoyable during the summertime. The lemon juice gives it a very traditional, slightly sour finish. Sometimes I add potatoes, caraway seeds, and garlic. Yum! Let me know if you try it and how it comes out.