I hope you guys had a safe and fun Fourth of July! Our house gathered together to make an amazing Macro BBQ that was vegan, gluten-free, and full of 4th classics!
Speaking of America, I'd like to look at Macro Accessibility for just a minute. A dear friend of mine is beginning her journey for health, but like 90% of this country, she doesn't live by a natural food store, and can't just duck into Whole Foods for a tub of miso and some umeboshi plum vinegar. In a country where Good Housekeeping, Better Homes & Gardens, and the Joy of Cooking are our standard sources of recipes, it can be incredibly frustrating to find recipes that won't freak out our family and friends and can be purchased at Kroger's.
The unexpected resource that made all of today's macro cooking possible was MarthaStewart.com. It's amazing how many recipes on there are packed with fresh veggies, gluten-free, and vegan. Martha Stewart Living is available at most grocery stores and book stores. Each issue features a healthy cooking and lifestyles section that contains recipes that have been consistent with the place I'm at in my diet.
May was the firepower that made this meal happen. I had to work on the 4th, so she stayed behind and cooked and did prep for 6-8 hours. I was on standby with my phone at work, so when the Great Potato Crisis of Noon happened, I was on it.
Note: The vegetables and ingredients here are a little "wide" for the traditional macrobiotic diet. It is a holiday, and I wanted to make some food that was accessible to a larger audience (potatoes, tofutti, white wine vinegar, etc.). I hope you enjoy the recipes in that context :)
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May in front of the Cucumber Dill and Potato Salads (respectively). Every time in this document that I write "We made" replace that with "She made." She seriously did all the work.
This is a recipe from
Martha Stewart that we modified to make vegan. It's gluten-free, and I love it because it doesn't require any heat to cook. This is Martha's picture because in our picture, the food got whited out by the sun unfortunately :(
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup tofutti vegan sour cream
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, plus more for garnish (optional)
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 4 to 6 Kirby cucumbers (about 1 pound), halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
Directions
In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, lemon juice, and dill. Season with salt and pepper, and whisk well to combine.
Add cucumbers, and toss to coat. Garnish with more dill, if desired. Serve, or refrigerate, covered, up to 4 hours.
This was our FAVORITE dish. Amazing, no substitutions, alkaline (except for the potatoes, which are not strictly macro, but I have a feeling you could do this with some steamed root veggies for a more strict adherence to the code).
Ingredients
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 4 pounds Yukon gold or other waxy potatoes, scrubbed, halved, and sliced 1/2 inch thick
- 1/2 cup white-wine vinegar
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup olive oil
Directions
Set a steamer basket in a large pot. Fill with enough salted water to come just below basket. Bring to a boil; place potatoes in basket, and reduce heat to medium. Cover, and steam, gently tossing occasionally, until crisp-tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine vinegar and scallions in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper. When potatoes are cooked, transfer to bowl with vinegar mixture. Toss to combine; let cool, tossing occasionally.
When potato mixture is cool, mix in oil; season potato salad with salt and pepper. (To store, refrigerate, up to 1 day.)
Balsamic Marinated Mushrooms
So I feel like a huge tool using this picture from my cell phone when Martha's version looks like this:
Here's the recipe. This thing takes no time, is great the day of, and is even better the next day.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 12 ounces white mushrooms, halved (quartered if large)
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
- Freshly ground pepper
Directions
Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in vinegar, salt, and red-pepper flakes, and season with pepper. Cook 1 minute more. Transfer to a bowl, and serve.
Here's a picture of the work-in-progress:
And here's the final corn:
Ingredients
- 4 ears corn
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) Earth Butter vegan margarine, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro
- 1/2 teaspoon grated zest of lime
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
Directions
MODIFIED BY BECKY: Remove husks and silk from corn. Rub with the below butter combination and wrap in tin foil. Bake in foil for 25 minutes at 425 degrees.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together butter, cilantro, lime zest and juice, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of pepper until blended.
We replaced the butter with Earth Balance vegan margarine and it was awesome. We also couldn't grill the corn and thought that microwaving was crass, so we buttered the ears of corn, wrapped them in tin foil, and baked them at 425 for 25 minutes. The corn was phenomenal.
We've done this cornbread before for this blog and it's worked out really well. Just follow this
link over to that recipe... Before you put the cornbread in, caramelize your onions for 1/2 an hour to 45 minutes, break some rosemary sprigs on top, sprinkle some fresh-cracked salt, and you're good to go!
This is the one I'm pretty devastated I don't have a picture of. I think my roommate has a pro-level picture of this, but somehow the picture I took of the tower of books got erased and I'm totally sad about it! Here's a glimpse of the process:
There was a stack of about 15 textbooks to press this tofu, including:
Biological Psychology, Neuroscience, Anatomy, Constitutional Law, Harry Potter 4-7, and A Game of Thrones
INGREDIENTS
2 Blocks Extra-firm Tofu
Olive Oil
BBQ Spice Rub
BBQ Sauce
DIRECTIONS
Get started early, because this is time-consuming. Squeeze all the liquid out of the tofu. We did this by putting it on a baking sheet under a cutting board with 15 textbooks on top. After tofu is pressed, slice into 1/4 inch strips, place another cookie sheet on top, and replace cookbooks. I tilted the sheets at an angle so the juice would run off.
We then rubbed the tofu strips with this
Memphis-Style Williams-Sonoma BBQ Rub. We baked in the oven for probably 20 minutes, and were thrilled when the strips began to puff and rise and get crunchy and crispy. We used a minimal amount of oil, but it tasted fried. We then covered it in BBQ sauce, and it was delicious!!
May in front of the Cucumber Dill and Potato Salads (respectively). Every time in this document that I write "We made" replace that with "She made." She seriously did all the work.
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