Vegan lunch. Simple, tasty, healthy, colorful.
Today was one of those days that I felt I needed some healthy meal as lunch, mostly because it was a busy working week and I have eaten a lot of easy meals or bought take away food, and sometimes amongst the options I have, too few of those are especially fat-free or vegan.
I always buy a lot of vegetables and fruits and have them stored in the fridge, and on a day like today, I just like to ask myself: what do I have? What is starting to get a little bit too old to be good? and then when I put the vegetables I want to use on the table, I wonder what to make out of them.
Today I went for delicious rice cooked with carrot, some sauteed paprika, and onion, plus some steamed green soybeans, and fresh spinach. I could make a whole post about the many benefits of all the ingredients I decided to use, from the soybeans to the spinach, everything is full of nutrients so I wanted to cook everything with delicacy so I keep all the good properties of this meal.
To accompany the dish I decided to make a nice cold glass of green tea with lemon, and I am going to tell you next how I prepared everything, so maybe if you like it you can try it too, 100% recommended.
The total ingredients I used for this meal were:
-A cup of white rice, but you can use your favorite type of rice.
-Something like 100-120 g of green soybeans
-½ big carrot, and you can use just 1 regular carrot or 1 small carrot.
-A bowl of fresh spinach
-Half paprika
-One big onion
For the iced green tea:
-2 teabags of green tea
-1 lemon
First I placed a pot with 2 cups of water to boil on the stove, and aside, another big pot full of water at the high flame to boil, to put the green beans on top to cook with the steam.
I processed all the vegetables, chopping the extreme sides of the green soybeans, peeling the carrot and grating it, also chopping the paprika and the onion into small pieces.
Once the water of both of the pots is boiling, I put ½ teaspoon full of pink Himalayan salt on it, and I add the rice and the grated carrot and leaving it to cook at medium flame for about 10-12 minutes, and then turning it to low flame, placing a cover on the pot and leaving there for 5-10 more minutes. Then it was ready.
I use a metal rack to steam the vegetables, and I put the green soybeans on top of the rack that was placed on top of the big pot with the boiling water. Putting a cover on it, I waited for about 20 minutes for it to be ready.
On a pan, I added some drops of olive oil and started to saute the paprika and the onion with a high flame, always using a spoon so it wouldn’t stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. After 10-12 minutes, I added some drops of vinegar, and some drops of honey to the veggies, and after 10 more minutes, it was ready and it looked incredible.
Using an electric teapot, I got one whole cup of water to boil and once it was very hot I introduced the teabags of green tea and waited for 10 minutes. Then I took the cup of green tea to the freezer to cool it down. In the meantime, I peeled one whole lemon, saving the skin to flavor some dessert or infusion. I blended the lemon with one glass of water and next I strained it.
I filled a glass with ice, then half of it with green tea, and half of it with lemon juice, and I used stevia as the sweetener. It was refreshing and nice.
I enjoyed my lunch very much and I think that you don’t need a whole steak or animal product to make it even more delicious or to complete it. Plants have healing and detox properties, also boosting our immune systems.
I thank everyone who might have taken the time to check on my post. I salute you and wish you are wonderful and keep being like that.
Sending regards, I say until the next occasion.
César.