Vegetarian Star

Jamie Oliver has been trying to change America’s attitudes on food in his new ABC television series Jamie Oliver’s Food Resolution.

Jamie shared on Oprah.com some of what he considered kitchen essentials, and many, if not most items are vegetarian and vegan friendly.

Plant based proteins like garbanzo, kidney and cannellini beans are shelf stable and great in a salad, with crackers or vegetables or straight from the can.

Seeds, dried pasta, and couscous offer alternatives when you are tired of legumes.

And spices like cumin and curry offer a twist to foods when traditional salt and pepper doesn’t do the trick.

Visit the site for Jamie’s entire list of kitchen essentials, which you can download and print in PDF format to take on your next shopping trip.

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Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution isn’t converting the Americans to healthier foods like Jamie Oliver did in the UK.

Good old things like American French Fries are getting in the way.

During a recent episode, Jamie is appalled to learn his pasta stir fry with vegetables doesn’t count as a serving of vegetables according to the USDA (the golden standard by which we should all be eating from, of course) guidelines of 1 1/4 cup (even though veggies shrivel after losing their water when cooked) served at lunchtime and is therefore not reimbursable.

However, french fries do.

Jamie says he’s going to “get medieval” on the french fry line (hell, yeah), shuts it down and begins snatching fries off students plate.

Sadly, most of those 1 1/4 cups of fruit and vegetable probably get tossed in the garbage, while the pasta stir fry and other similar dishes eaten on a regular basis would probably be more beneficial to the kids as most studies indicate more nutrients are obtained when the vegetables are actually eaten.

It’s a tough world Jamie has to live in every Sunday evening, but he needs to make the most of what he has.

Cut the frying and serve “french bakes” (sounds less sexier, but still does the trick). Drizzle olive oil over the potato slices and season them with non salt spices like garlic and pepper.

To get really wild, bake sweet potato fries instead.

French bake stir fry, french bake medley, mixed Asian French bakes with dressing and french bake salad are all possibilities when the customers get bored.

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Rachael Ray has been known to feature vegetarian love on her website, like the Sweet & Sara Vegan Marshmallows based out of a factory in New York.

Rachael recently featured Surf Sweets jelly bean candy as the “Snack of the Day.”

Surf Sweets are organically sweetened with no artificial coloring or flavoring, are gluten, casein and peanut free and are produced in a factory free of wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, tree nuts, nuts, fish, and shellfish.

Four of Surf Sweets products are vegetarian (Fruity Bears, Gummy Swirls, Jelly Beans and Sour Worms) and three are vegan (Fruity Bears, Gummy Swirls, and Sour Worms).

Only the Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms are not suitable for vegetarian as they contain gelatin.

Gummy, fruity, bears and worms.

Be careful not to get your animals and flavors mixed up!

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In Gwyneth Paltrow‘s latest edition of her online newsletter Goop, she features celebrity chef Jamie Oliver as he shares his thoughts on eating, health related issues from bad food and the return of cooking and eating with the family.

Thought provoking points are brought in the conversation, such as sourcing better quality ingredients, knowing what’s in your food and how Oliver remains so cute despite all that hard work he does in the kitchen.

GOOP: What is it like being so brilliant and so cute all at the same time?

Jamie Oliver: Ahhh! Bless you Gwyneth. Well I at least try to be brilliant, and I was cute as a baby but I think those qualities are probably very debatable subjects these days!

For a recipe that won’t make you vomit like Paltrow’s sickening sweet comment, try Oliver’s Classic Spaghetti recipe at Goop.

There’s absolutely no jars of sauce involved as you create it fresh from scratch. Using diced tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil and other spices, you can use this recipe to create a meal that’s vegetarian/vegan without processed ingredients.

Plus, it makes an excellent, simple recipe to start with if you’re beginning to teach your kids how to cook something besides Pop Tarts.

To get the recipe, visit Goop. To watch Oliver be cute, tune into ABC on Fridays at 9PM for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

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Giada At Home

Giada De Laurentiis has a new book out, Giada At Home, named after her newest Food Network Show.

The Boca Raton Vegetarian Examiner says Giada’s latest cookbook has a few vegetarian friendly recipes, like pecorino and bean salad, pea pesto crostini and Italian fried olives.

Sasha Muzzarelli says that Giada has “wonderful vegetarian dishes” from her previous cookbooks and Food Network Show and indicates that many of the recipes in Giada at Home contain meat.

Has Giada taken a more animal protein centered approach to her cooking this time around?

An attendee at the launch of Alicia Silverstone‘s party for her vegan cookbook, The Kind Diet, Giada doesn’t loathe dishes without meat.

Would love to see this Food Network star take the flexitarian approach to Italian cooking in future recipes, adding more Tuscan cuisine of legumes, vegetables and fruits and pasta with meatless sauce creations to the collection.

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Rachael Ray threw a food party at the annual South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

There are no official vegetarian chefs on the Food Network yet, but thankfully there are several chefs who are highlighting healthier, flexitarian options and incorporating vegetarian recipes into their repertoire.

Ray featured a vegetarian option at the SXSW fest, something she says is normal for any party she caters for.

“I always do a meat, a vegetarian and a poultry item,” Ray told Wall Street Journal.

This year Ray offered vegetarian taquitos that she said were, “really tasty to snack on.”

If you couldn’t make it to SXSW to sample the taquitos, have a festival at home with this Potato Soyrizo Taquito recipe.

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Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy

Amanda Cohen has been busy at NYC’s Dirt Candy making changes to the menu to refresh the not so old vegetarian restaurant she opened less than two years ago.

Change is allowing Cohen to introduce a vegetable version of a Chinese dim sum favorite–barbecue Pork Buns.

“We use carrots instead,” Cohen told Village Voice. “The buns will be different colors based on the different colors of carrots — there’ll be pink, orange, and yellow. They’ll have a slightly barbecued carrot filling and come with a little carrot cucumber salad, and I’m trying to figure out how to make sesame halvah to sprinkle on top.”

If you’re a fan of the kimchi doughnuts, sorry to say the carrot buns have replaced them.

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Mario Batali was given a vegetable challenge and he took it!

Food and Wine asked Batali to create three recipes featuring vegetables and to pair those meals with appropriate wines.

Batali hinted that he not only enjoyed the task, but personally feels vegetables should be the center of the meal.

“Protein has been intensely over-represented on the plate,” Batali said and added that the main course should be primarily from the “garden.”

Of course any seasoned vegetarian knows protein can be both represented on the plate and from the garden, given the numerous sources of plant proteins like chickpeas and beans.

One of Batali’s star vegetables was grilled asparagus with red pepper zabaglione, paired with a fruity Tuscan red wine.

Now you know asparagus can be paired with red wine, but can peas be paired as well?

Visit Food and Wine to find out.

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