I woke up this morning to the scent of dill perfuming my apartment; evidently, the bunch of leftover dill in my fridge from a lovely white bean and grape tomato salad I made over the weekend proved to be quite the air freshener.

Dill doesn’t last that long in the fridge though, so in the spirit of Love Food Hate Waste, I decided to toss it into a batch of lentil soup I had planned for today’s Meatless Monday recipe. The result was truly scrumptious, and with a squeeze of fresh lemon at the end, added a fragrant summertime twist to an otherwise hearty, stick-to-your-ribs recipe.

By the way, dill is a must-eat for those concerned about environmental toxins; it contains special “chemoprotective” compounds that can help neutralize the carcinogenic benzopyrenes found in car exhaust fumes, coal tar, and cigarette smoke.

Add in the phytoestrogen-packed lentils (protects against breast cancer) and the lycopene-rich tomatoes (may fight prostate cancer), and you’ve got a bowl of benefits for men and women alike.

Dilled Tomato Lentil Soup

Serves 6

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups of water
1 1/2 cups dried French green lentils (du Puy, if available)
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt and black pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic; season with salt and black pepper and cook until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Add water, lentils, dill, red pepper, and tomato paste. Cover and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 40 minutes until lentils are tender, adding additional water if necessary. Stir in fresh lemon juice and additional salt and black pepper to taste.

Voila! A week of cancer-fighting Meatless Monday lunches.

–Jennifer Grayson

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What do you get when you cross a virtually empty refrigerator/pantry with a hungry pregnant lady so besotted by the 95-degree heat (and no air conditioning) that there’s not even a chance in hell that she’ll venture off the couch to head to the supermarket? Answer: Some seriously creative kitchen wizardry.

You most likely know by now that I’m a big anti–food waste fanatic; so I must say I was rather proud of myself for whipping up this pasta salad from half a leftover bag of gluten-free pasta spirals, a yellow pepper, a tomato, some capers, and a BPA-free can of Eden Organic kidney beans. It may not look that glamorous, but it proved the perfect light-but-filling lunch for a scorching summer day. (Actually, four days, since this recipe yielded enough for that many meals.)

Oh, and did I mention it was Meatless Monday? Make that doubly proud of myself…

Simple Summer Pasta Salad

Serves 4

1/2 bag of pasta spirals (wheat or gluten-free; I like the Trader Joe’s organic brown rice spirals)
1 15-oz. can kidney beans
1 small yellow pepper, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons capers

For the dressing:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Italian seasoning (I love the one from Morton & Bassett)

Boil water for pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cool water. Drain and rinse kidney beans, then combine with with cooked pasta in a large bowl along with chopped pepper, tomato, and capers.

In a small bowl, whisk together ingredients for dressing; pour over pasta salad in large bowl and toss thoroughly to coat. Serve room temperature or refrigerate until cold.

–Jennifer Grayson

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This recipe is featured today on the Meatless Monday website.

I’m starting to wonder if one of the buyers for my local Ralphs supermarket isn’t a secret locavore health food nut, because I’ve been discovering some amazing buys hidden between the aisles of MSG-laden snack food and neon-colored cereals. I’m talking stuff I’ve never even seen at Whole Foods — tubs of hormone-free whole-milk yogurt from a local creamery, a 13-bean dried soup mix that costs just over a dollar, and my newest obsession: Hodgson Mill buckwheat flour.

I had completely forgotten that buckwheat is naturally gluten-free. It’s related to rhubarb and sorrel and is technically a fruit seed, not a grain. Buckwheat in the form of kasha makes a delicious side dish, but the flour is something magical: It stands up in baked goods in a way that other gluten-free grains can’t. Pancakes, muffins, dumplings, you name it; the taste is characteristically dense and nutty (I love it), but the texture is light and fluffy.

Why am I telling you all this on Meatless Monday? Well, cooking vegetarian has been a bit of challenge since we discovered my husband is sensitive to gluten and eggs. (Suddenly even breakfast, arguably the easiest meal to go meatless, has become a test.) But these banana buckwheat pancakes are so unstoppably delicious (and nutritious — rich in fiber, magnesium, and flavonoids) that you don’t even know what you’re missing. I’ve already made them for dinner on several occasions.

Banana Buckwheat Pancakes

Serves 2

1 cup buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten (or equivalent of Ener-G egg replacer)
1 cup milk (or rice, almond, or soy milk)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 banana, sliced thin
butter, as needed

Heat large skillet or griddle over medium heat. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together with a whisk. One at a time, add egg, milk, and oil to dry ingredients, beating well after each addition. Cut banana into thin slices and put aside.

Grease heated skillet with small amount of butter, then pour one small ladleful of pancake batter for each pancake onto hot skillet. Place three slices of banana onto each pancake. Cook 1 to 2 minutes, flipping when edges look brown and bubbles break on surface of pancake. Cook on other side for approximately 1 minute.

Serve immediately, or place on a cookie sheet in warm oven until all pancakes are ready to be served.

Best breakfast ever!

–Jennifer Grayson

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Since becoming a flexitarian, I’ve really come to rely on eggs as a main source of protein: They’re cheap, easy to prepare, and packed with heart disease–fighting nutrients. (Yolk-chuckers beware; your egg-white aversion may actually be hurting your health.)

Still, I can only eat so many eggs a week before I’m just all egged out; that, plus the discovery that my husband is allergic to eggs has put the kibosh on our standard frittata breakfasts.

Solution: Scrambled tofu. At $1.29 for a carton of tofu at Trader Joe’s, it’s about the budgetary equivalent of an omelet. Add a pinch of curry powder — which packs a powerful anti-inflammatory punch — and you’ve got a beautiful meal (great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner) that almost looks like the real thing

Turmeric Scrambled Tofu

Serves 2

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 14 oz. package firm or extra-firm organic tofu
1 generous teaspoon curry powder
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onions and cook 1-2 minutes until soft and translucent.

Remove tofu from package and drain off any excess water (no need to press tofu; just blot lightly with a towel). Crumble the block of tofu into the skillet with your hands, leaving some larger pieces for texture.

Add curry powder to skillet. With a wooden spoon, gently “scramble” tofu as you would eggs, until mixture is evenly yellow in color. Turn heat down to medium low and cook for an additional 5-7 minutes, scrambling occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy with multi-grain toast or eat healthy on the go: Wrap in a flour tortilla to make a delicious breakfast burrito.

–Jennifer Grayson

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Photo via Flickr: Masahiro Ihara

Time flies when you’re having fun in the kitchen. It just occurred to me that it’s now been well over a year since I first took the Meatless Monday pledge; vegetarian eating has become such a part of my daily life that I barely even notice I’m doing it. Though I can’t vouch for any positive changes in my physique as a result of eating less meat (being seven months pregnant kind of disguises any cumulative weight loss that may have occurred), I will say that my health has been stellar. I had been concerned that eating vegetarian more often would make it difficult to control my blood sugar (I tend toward hypoglycemia), but a few weeks back I passed my glucose tolerance test (ick) with flying colors.

And of course, it feels pretty great that my decision to eat less meat — not just on Mondays, but throughout the week — has been the single most important change I’ve made this year on behalf of the environment.

So in honor of this anniversary, I thought I’d share a few vegetarian nuggets of wisdom I learned over this past year’s foray into meat-free meals. Hopefully it’ll inspire you to take the Meatless Monday pledge, too.

Easiest Meatless Monday dinner: Fried tofu. When I first started MM, I thought I’d have to make all sorts of elaborate dinners to convince my husband to get on board, but it turns out that his favorite meal is this simple pairing of fried tofu and rice with a little furikake sprinkled on top. Fine with me — it takes about 20 minutes to make, and it sets us back about 3 bucks.

Best dish for a vegetarian dinner party: Homemade gourmet pizza. Everyone loves pizza, and if you make the dough from scratch and cook up a few vegetarian varieties with a really top-notch mozzarella, believe me — no one will ever complain. Round out the meal with a big chopped salad and an appetizer of white bean crostini.

Favorite Meatless Monday resource: Love Food Hate Waste. Think you’ve got to have loads of farmers market goodies to whip up a healthy and delicious vegetarian meal? Then you’ve never visited the Love Food Hate Waste website, which offers up fabulous recipe ideas for even the most scantily stocked refrigerators. A recent winner: Lentil, Aubergine, and Tomato Moussaka, made from nothing more than the couple shriveled eggplants I had left in my fridge and a few meager pantry staples.

Here’s to another year of MM!

–Jennifer Grayson

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Just got back from four days in Chicago. Walked into my apartment, starving, only to be faced with a completely empty fridge and a meagerly stocked pantry. Oh man! It shouldn’t have come as a surprise; I always try to use up everything in the kitchen before I travel so nothing spoils.

But after all the schlepping, I can’t bear the thought of leaving the apartment to grab some lunch or hit up the grocery store — especially not with the pile of work and unanswered emails I’m facing.

Luckily, I spy a bag of red lentils in the corner of the pantry. Do I have an onion? Check. Do I have a few pathetic stalks of wilted celery? You betcha. Are there any vegetable bouillon cubes to whip up some stock? Hooray! Add a liberal dose of the curry powder in my spice rack, and I’ve got the makings of a hearty, flavorful Meatless Monday soup.

It’s a spartan meal, but after all the fries and char dogs I ate this weekend (OK, only two hot dogs, but that’s a lot for someone who hasn’t eaten one in almost a year), it’s a welcome cleanse.

Quick Curried Lentil Soup

Serves 6

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3-4 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups red lentils, rinsed
8 cups vegetable broth
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large stockpot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and celery and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, curry powder, cinnamon, and bay leaves and cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes. Add lentils and broth, cover pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially uncovered, until lentils are tender and soup has thickened, about 45 minutes. Remove pot from heat, discard bay leaves, season with salt and pepper, and puree with a hand blender until soup is smooth. Serve garnished with a dollop of plain yogurt.

–Jennifer Grayson

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Dietary concerns? Don't worry, there are plenty of options for Meatless Monday besides this one. Photo via Flickr: Malias

This post was originally published on July 27, 2009.

I don’t know if it’s because I live in Los Angeles, land of the wheatgrass shot and diet-obsessed (at my favorite breakfast spot, the waiters actually assume you want egg whites; I always have to specify whole eggs), or the rising incidence of food allergies, but a few friends have recently confessed that their dietary restrictions have made it difficult for them to embrace Meatless Monday.

“I can’t eat carbs — I only have three weeks to slim down for a wedding,” said one friend. “Aren’t grains the staple of a vegetarian diet?” Another friend with celiac disease was worried she’d go hungry: “There’s so little I can eat as it is,” she opined. But if you know where to look, and are willing to experiment beyond your eating comfort zone, you can find wonderful recipes for even the most spartan of diets. A few ideas:

Celiac disease/gluten-free. While it is possible to find gluten-free substitutes for foods that normally contain wheat (pizza crust, pasta, bread), I think it’s much easier — and more satisfying — to embrace the foods of cultures that are naturally vegetarian and gluten-free. Think of the legume-based stews and rice of Indian cuisine (chana masala, dal); Italy’s polenta and risottos; and the hundreds of ways to cook tofu, which the Chinese call “meat without bones.” My favorite recipe resource: Karina’s Kitchen, a blog about gluten-free cooking, with an entire section devoted to vegan and vegetarian recipes.

Low carb. Admittedly, a low-carb diet is a challenge as a vegetarian, but remember that we’re only talking about one day a week here. Egg-based dishes are always a good source of vegetarian protein (try my Fresh Summer Frittata), as are tofu stir-frys (just skip the rice, and add lots of crunchy vegetables). And remember: A low-carb diet may help you lose weight in the short term, but overall, vegetarians tend to be slimmer than meat eaters.

Allergic to soy. Again, the vegetarian recipes of Indian and Italian cuisine are a great place to start, because they rely on one of the most nutritious vegetarian sources of protein: beans. (Anti-aging expert and frequent Oprah guest Dr. Perricone names beans in his top 10 superfoods, thanks to their low-glycemic rating and beneficial phytochemicals.) And yes, soy is a bean, but there are hundreds of other varieties for you to try; for a unique treat, check out these resources for heirloom beans.

Got another dietary concern preventing you from enjoying Meatless Monday? Post a comment and I’ll make some recommendations.

–Jennifer Grayson

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Photo via Flickr: 100five

Since Mr. Beef Cheeks himself announced that he will be bringing Meatless Monday to all 14 of his US restaurants, I’ve had Batali on the brain. Or rather, his recipes. Seriously, in my book the man can do no wrong: His emphasis on locally sourced ingredients; his love for simple food, beautifully prepared; and his new cookbook Molto Gusto (Ecco, 2010), which showcases meals where vegetables, not meat, are the star.

The famed chef recently said that animal-based protein “has been intensely over-represented on the plate,” and I couldn’t agree more. I’m not for giving up meat entirely — in fact, I think it’s crucial that we support our local and sustainable animal agriculturalists, however small in number they may be — but do we have to eat so darn much of the stuff? If we all become accustomed to eating less meat, then it might actually be feasible to support the United States on a system of local agriculture.

Of course, that’s what Meatless Monday is all about. So in honor of Batali, I’m cooking up one of his fabulous vegetarian recipes: Risotto with Asparagus and Fennel. As meatless and eco-ethical meals go, this one is near perfection. Here’s why:

• The meal is darn cheap. Yet elegant. You could serve this for a dinner party, and it wouldn’t set you back more than $10 for four people.

• It’s gluten-free. But naturally so, unlike those corn- and rice-based pastas that turn to mush no matter how carefully you cook them. And believe me, avoiding gluten can be quite the challenge when you’re trying to cook vegetarian — especially vegetarian Italian.

• Asparagus is in season right now nearly everywhere in the country. And if you can’t find organic, no sweat: Conventional asparagus makes Environmental Working Group’s “clean 15” — meaning it’s grown with minimal pesticides.

• Here in California, you can forage for the fennel. Just be careful, since the fennel plant looks a lot like poison hemlock. (I’ll be sticking with a head I found at my local farmers market.)

Excited to whip up your own batch? Click here for the recipe. I’ll be posting photos of how mine turned out later today.

–Jennifer Grayson

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This is not my fridge. Photo via Flickr: Susansimon

I didn’t have time to go grocery shopping this weekend, and the contents of my pantry and fridge are looking pretty meager: a bag of lentils, a jar of tomato paste, a can of chopped tomatoes, a couple eggs, a container of yogurt, scraps of cheese, a few eggplants, and some old onions and garlic. I might be able to run out later today to pick up a few items at the store, but first, I like to play a little game called Shop Your Fridge.

I talked about this a bit in a HuffPost column (”Is Wasting Food a Sin?“), but here’s the gist: I pretend I’m on Top Chef and that my challenge is to make a gourmet dinner out of what I have left in the house. Some recent winners: spring pea risotto (Arborio rice, chicken stock, and frozen peas); pasta con le sarde (linguine, sardines, and bread crumbs); and cranberry wild rice pilaf (wild rice, frozen cranberries, and toasted pecans).

Am I being overly thrifty? I don’t think so: Forty percent of all food produced in the United States winds up in landfill, where it decays and emits the powerful greenhouse gas methane).

Today’s added challenge: It’s Meatless Monday.

Luckily, there’s an amazing online resource for pantry leftovers, courtesy of the UK-based campaign called Love Food Hate Waste. You just take a look at this list, click on whatever food you have in the house, and voilà! — a bunch of recipes pop up that’ll turn your odds and ends into gourmet magic. You can also search specifically for vegetarian recipes.

So what’s on my Meatless Monday menu for tonight, based on the seemingly scanty offerings I listed above? Lentil, Aubergine, and Tomato Moussaka — yum! — and all I have to pick up at the store are a couple of peppers and a container of cottage cheese.

–Jennifer Grayson

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[Watch The Kids Cook Monday video on YouTube]

We know that eating less meat is better for the environment — a recent study estimates that curbing beef and pork consumption alone could cut $20 trillion off the cost of fighting climate change — but health is a huge driving force, too: Going meatless even once a week can reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.

Not surprising, then, that the Meatless Monday campaign is starting to gain ground in our nation’s schools, given that one-third of American children are now overweight or obese.

Baltimore City Public Schools, Covington County Schools in Kentucky, and the Ross School in East Hampton, NY, have all gone meat-free on Mondays in the effort to improve student health. New York City public schools may be the next to follow.

So why not get the students themselves involved? That’s the brilliant thinking behind the new Kids Cook Monday campaign from the folks over at Meatless Monday: They’re encouraging parents to take the time once a week to cook with their children, setting them up for a lifetime of healthy eating habits.

By cooking together, families will also be eating together, which sounds obvious but amazingly, is something that only 59 percent of American families do. (And a lot of those families aren’t eating healthy, home-cooked meals together; they’re eating fast food and convenience meals.)

Kids who eat dinner with their families:

• Are less likely to be obese
• Eat more fruits and vegetables
• Get better grades in school
• Have lower rates of depression
• Are less likely to do drugs

So take a cue from the adorable Kids Cook video, above, and whip up a batch of black bean tostadas with your little one tonight — or give any of these family-friendly veg recipes a try.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Want to submit your own video to The Kids Cook Monday? Email Joey Lee: jlee [at] mondaycampaigns [dot] org.

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