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For 21 days, @audiefaith and I are going on what's called a "Daniel" fast...
This has led to some 'cooking creativity' (which I'll explain here in a sec) but I thought I'd share tonight's dinner with you.
If you like vegan, you'll probably enjoy this.
What's A 'Daniel' Fast?
It's a fast that's based on the Biblical story of Daniel when he fasted the king's delicacies and meats in Daniel chapter 1. It's basically a strict diet which eliminates eating certain foods which many of us eat often.
People do this fast in different ways - and we've elected to follow certain rules.
Here are some of the core parameters we decided to follow for our fast:
- No meat
- No 'leavened' bread
- No added sugars
- No caffeine (which I generally drink a lot of)
- No processed foods
- No dairy products (milk, cheese, etc.)
Why Are We Fasting?
Before I jump into the recipe, I thought I'd slide in a couple paragraphs about why we're even doing this. It's really quite simple.
We want to start off 2024 in a state of cleansing and spiritual growth -- as well as with increased levels of self-control.
Just a week into this, and we're already enjoying it. There's something special about making a conscious decision to put rules upon your body and actually enforce them.
It's holistically rewarding.
Okay...
Now Unto Thee Be "Daniel Fast" Veggie Spaghetti
The "recipe" you're about to experience isn't really a recipe at all. Basically, I just threw some things together I thought would taste good.
This is how I usually cook if I'm cooking from scratch. I get an idea floating around in my brain, and I start thinking about things like:
- "What can I use to sweeten this without sugar?"
- "What should I use for acidity? And how acidic should it be?"
- "What herbs and spices should I incorporate to give this dish a 'style'?"
For me, that's the fun of cooking. It's like an adventure -- or a fun science experiment you get to eat when you're done. π
Rockin' Some Wholesome Veggies
First up, we've got some chopped veggies (of course).
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The veggies in this recipe included:
- 1 large zucchini
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 chopped carrot
- Some mushrooms (not sure how many)
- 1/2 green bell pepper
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper
- 1 small can black olives
I started by frying up the zucchini and carrots (since they take the longest) in some olive oil...
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Zucc's and carrots have a very sweet flavor profile, each containing about 3 to 5 grams of sugar. Since we're not using any processed sugar, I thought these could 'sweeten up' the sauce quite nicely.
After about 2 minutes...
I sent the onion, peppers and mushrooms cascading into the pot to join their friends. They sizzled up nicely, and we both enjoyed the aroma for about the next 7 or 8 minutes.
Eggplant Sausage w/ Garlic & Fennel
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While the veggies were sweating comfortably in the pan, I cut up this plant-based sausage we got from the natural foods section.
This would be the only protein in the dish, and as you can see below, it features eggplant, onions and sweet peppers.
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To be completely honest, this sausage smelled a little funky coming out of the package. I wasn't sure how it would taste.
@audiefaith said it smelled like a "Flinstone's vitamin" π
I fried it up separately so we could try it without ruining the dish, and after some searing it ended up being quite tasty and complimentary indeed!
Just needed some heat for the flavor to mature, I guess.
Isn't that like life...
The (awesome?) Sauce
Once the vegetables were finished, I re-added the sausage to the pan and plopped / poured in the base ingredients for the sauce...
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Since we're using only non-processed, no-sugar-added ingredients -- we're NOT using "out of the box" spaghetti sauce (no Prego!).
So this sauce was made with:
- 1 can basic tomato paste
- About 3 cups vegetable stock
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 can plain diced tomatoes
I added the tomato paste, then poured in the vegetable stock until it was at the consistency I wanted (for me, that meant about 3 cups so it had enough liquid to simmer).
I also drained and dropped in the can of plain diced tomatoes.
Then, it was time to put in the seasonings....
Super Supper Seasonings π¦Έ
I went with some classics here. I wanted to give the sauce a nice, Italian flavor so Oregano was a must. The seasonings I used are below...
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Seasonings included:
*Please excuse the imprecise measurements. All measurements are guesses. I season with my eyeballs and my nose.
- A palmful of granulated garlic
- A handful of onion powder
- A handful of dried chives
- 1 tbsp Oregano
- 1 tsp Basil
- 3 tsp Parsley
- Salt & pepper to taste
After everything was in the pot, I gave it a few good stirs, placed the lid on and let it simmer while we started the whole wheat noodles.
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The noodles took a little over 10 minutes (from boiling the water to cooking them).
Meanwhile, the sauce slowly bubbled as aromatic steam pumped out into our little motorhome -- its flavors, deepening and becoming more complex.
The carrots and zucchini were rendering their sweetness to the rest of the dish and blending with the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
And we were getting hungry. π
With the noodles done, we strained them...
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And dropped them back into the pot...
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We also heated up some green beans to give the dish some color...
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Time To EAT!!!
Ahhhh...
The smells that came out of this pot when we popped the lid!!!
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We plated up, adding our chunky homemade sauce liberally to the noodles and assembling a little pile of steaming green beans beside it...
Really not too bad. Not to bad at all.
Who am I kidding!?! This was actually great!
I'm not typically a vegan eater -- but this dish was really delicious. Sure, I loved that it was an adventure to make. I really enjoyed getting to 'flex my creativity muscle'...
...but it was more than that.
This was really good! Even the weird eggplant sausages. Somehow, the flavor (which I can't really describe) perfectly married the rest of the elements in the dish.
Overall, the all the elements graduated well while simmering to provide a deep set of complex flavors that tickled just about every one of our tastebuds. @Audiefaith really liked it too.
*Note: The only thing I'd change is actually adding more of the sausages (I only added 2, but I should have added 3 or 4).
I hope you've enjoyed coming along on this food journey!
If you enjoyed the pictures, story, commentary, or anything else about this post, consider commenting, following and tossing me a vote for more. I'd love to have more awesome Hivers in my universe! ;)
See ya in the next one.
Looks super filling and food to warm the cockles of your soul.
I've just discovered how bloody awesome dehydrated garlic and onion are on the road. At home I'd use fresh but to be honest, it's much easier on the road to know you've got that on hand and it does make a meal taste good! This is exactly the kind of veggie stew I'd make to eat with mashed potatoes in winter, with some vegetarian sausage or - here's one for ya - a can of lentils!
Oh yes! I love lentils! We used to make this red lentil spinach soup with coconut milk that was mighty good!
Dehydrated garlic, yes. Definitely useful. We live in a motorhome right now (although, we may be moving into a two bedroom soon π€), so counter space is something we don't have much of. It's hard to cook fully legit in cramped spaces.
But yes! It was good! Thanks for the comment!!! :)