7-day vegan challenge day 3 and 4: Bulgur and Lentil lemon-garlic salad
I did not post yesterday. For two simple reasons: I didn’t eat anything interesting, and I inadvertently cheated.
This is probably old news to people who have been vegan for a while, but it was unknown to me: Grocery store bread has a small amount of milk in it! Surprise, my peanut butter and jelly sandwich wasn’t actually vegan. Harrumph.
Then I cheated a bit more for crepes from the local crepery. They had some cheese in them, and may have been made with butter. I did resist trying hot buttered rum at my local bar, though.
SO GOOD. I rationalized it to myself because they’re an environmentally-friendly, local-ethical-organic-ingredient-using place. But it was still cheating.
I may have to rethink yesterday’s assessment that being vegan for a week isn’t that hard — everything has animal products in it! I knew that already, of course, but experiencing firsthand how much has really opened my eyes.
Yesterday I ate the aforementioned peanut butter and jelly sandwich and half a savory crepe (I tried to eat around the cheese, but that’s still cheating) as well as some rum and ginger beer. And a few whiskey sodas (it was my friend’s birthday).
The Male Compatriot doesn’t yet understand that “can you take a picture of my outfit?” also means shoes.
Breakfast today was oatmeal again, with some stevia powder mixed in this time. That stuff is so sweet it’ll curl your tongue, but in small doses it’s great.
I realized that I ran out of coconut milk when I made a double batch of tom ka on Tuesday that six people ate. Leftovers don’t really happen with hungry college kids around all the time. So my original plan, green lentil curry, didn’t pan out. I wanted to run to the grocery store, but it was rainy and hail-y, my mountain bike has a flat, and honestly I just didn’t feel like dealing with it. Contrary to the can-do spirit we bloggers are supposed to always have, I know.
Instead, I had bulgur wheat and lentil salad! It’s like tabouli, but instead of parsley I used cilantro, since we had a bunch that someone left in the fridge and it was getting kind of old.
Time: ~1:30 (most of that is sitting time)
Cost: <$5
Ingredients:
1 cup bulgur wheat
4 cups water
1 cup lentils
1 bunch cilantro
1 tomato, or several cherry tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper to taste
Whatever other veggies you might want
Lettuce mix
Directions:
1. In a small pot, cook 1 cup lentils with 3 cups water for 45 minutes (bring water to a boil, boil for 5 minutes, reduce heat and simmer until tender). In another pot, bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Take off heat, pour over bulgur and let sit for 30 minutes, or until the water is absorbed and the wheat is soft.
2. Cut up whatever veggies you want, along with the cilantro and tomatoes.
3. Combine lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic in a bowl. Use a garlic press if you have one, or else finely mince the garlic. Add salt, pepper and cayenne pepper as desired.
3. Mix the lentils and the bulgur wheat in a large bowl. Add the cilantro, tomatoes and everything else. Pour dressing over and serve on a bed of greens.
Simple, right? But so incredibly good. The raw garlic is surprisingly awesome.
Fresh veggies!
Olive oil and lemon juice
Press that garlic!
Commence noms.
At this point, being a vegan is getting difficult. Mostly because it’s so hard to be straight vegan. Oof. I’m doing my best to stick to it though, with as few mess ups as possible.
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