Plant-based diets?

[Owlie]

Funny, grilling doesn't make me crave meat at all ... all the high summer vegetables that are in season when it's warm enough to grill out are SO flavorful! Summer squashes (spears or chunks of zucchini or crookneck, or little pattypans whole), onions, sweet corn soaked in brine and grilled in the husk, tomatoes and green beans on a screen insert, potatoes, carrot slices, all just brushed with olive oil, salt and herbs ... I swear, my mouth is watering, I only just put my tomato plants in the ground three days ago, fewer than 1/4 of my beans have germinated, and the soil isn't even warm enough to plant sweet corn yet! How can I wait!!

Drool. Drizzle cut-up onions (I slice them into crescents) and sliced potatoes with olive oil, add salt + pepper. Wrap in aluminum foil. Grill. Enjoy.

I'm not vegetarian or vegan (I seem to have oddly high protein needs, and I don't like most legumes or quinoa, so it's far simpler just to eat meat), but I'm always on the lookout for veggie recipes!

[OakLeaf]

Drool. Drizzle cut-up onions (I slice them into crescents) and sliced potatoes with olive oil, add salt + pepper. Wrap in aluminum foil. Grill. Enjoy.

For extra deliciousness, alternate the slices of onion and potato so each takes on the flavor of the other.

[Owlie]

For extra deliciousness, alternate the slices of onion and potato so each takes on the flavor of the other.

That's pretty much what happens. Haven't made it in ages, though, since my dad's grilling experiments have taken over...

[shootingstar]

In the vegetable world, it would be useful to really expand one's repetoire of veggies. There's a whole world of veggies from Asian cuisines where if one likes exploring new corners of their world, to try:

fresh water chestnuts
fresh lotus root
daikon (white radish root)
gai lan
shanghai choy
bok choy
bitter melon
winter melon/fuzzy melon
and 3 other Asian veggies which I don't know the English translation. But they are available in major supermarkets.
_____________________ All of these above can be lightly stir fried, chopped up in various combinations. It's not that hard nor mysterious.

Try:
fresh fennel bulb
beet greens
brussel sprouts,etc.

I rarely eat potatoes. It's not my thing. That's all.

[OakLeaf]

Major supermarkets where there's a large east Asian population I suppose. We can get bok choy and daikon and sometimes yukina savoy locally in season, bok choy reliably at the grocery store and daikon occasionally, and that's it. Any of the other vegetables it's 70 miles to the nearest Asian grocery, and there, if the vegetables are even labelled as to where they were grown, it's in a language I can't begin to read.

I do love bitter melon though...

Joining a CSA is as great way to expand your repertoire of vegetables - you have to eat them whether you think you like them, or know how to cook them, or not.

Then there's just planting something to find out what the heck it is. I've got a short row of salsify just sprouting. My soil is pretty clayey and root vegetables don't typically do all that well, but I was tired of looking at the stuff in seed catalogs and having no idea what it tastes like. (Especially when some people describe the flavor as "oyster" and others as "artichoke hearts." )

[Catrin]

I've been trying to get a new veggie every week that I've not eaten before. This week it was Green Kohlrabi - surprisingly tasty both raw and roasted, there seemed a hint of horseradish. This is how I've discovered and come quickly to prefer Bok Choy and Watercress. I did save the greens from the Kohlrabi as I assume they are edible but I need to look that up.

I wasn't quite brave enough for the Daikon radish, I don't care for regular radishes for some odd reason. I do enjoy spice and horseradish so I really should like them...

[shootingstar]

I did save the greens from the Kohlrabi as I assume they are edible but I need to look that up.

I remember looking it up. I don't recall it being ok to eat the kohlrabi greens.

Ah I forgot about that veggie of my childhood. My parents grew a whole garden of it! Rediscovered with my partner. A sample of how I prepare kohl rabi..

Daikon, cooked will not taste "spicy" which I never thought the daikon I bought tasting spicy raw compared to the red radishes.