A beautiful dinner

Don't ask me why I felt like cooking when it got up to 90-something degrees today and more humid than yesterday, too. Probably because I was out of leftovers. I found a lovely recipe called Pineapple Tempeh on VegWeb, but since I was very low on frozen pineapple, I tossed in some frozen mango. It has onions, scallions, carrots, orange juice, and soy sauce. To go with it, I made some fragrant rice from Garden of Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard. The rice is incredibly easy to make--just brown rice, five spice powder, turmeric (which I call poor girl's saffron), and soy sauce. I rounded it off with some sesame asparagus from Vegan with a Vengeance. Asparagus is one of the few items I've discovered that don't taste as good as leftovers. In fact, I've discovered a lot of vegan foods are better the next day, especially baked goods.

Remember the quinoa-millet pilaf I made with the fennel seed? I brought some for lunch with leftover molasses-marinated seitan, and it was better than when it was fresh. I'll probably use different seasonings next time, but that's also the fun of making pilafs. Most pilafs and rice dishes you can start and then have the grains cook while you prepare your entree. Sadly with my tiny kitchen, getting everything done at once is just NOT happening, but I pick the quickest thing last to toss on my plate after the rest of the food is finished cooking. And if you want to give sauteed veggies a bit of an Asian flavor, try cooking in toasted sesame oil. It's expensive, but it's worth it.