"When we practice daily tasks like cooking or washing dishes while doing mantra, chanting, or focusing on the breath, then the whole task changes. It becomes yoga. It is taking yoga into our daily lives, having a sense of serving something larger than our small selves." ~ Narayani Levine
After a few days of parties with excessive amounts of sugary and expansive foods, a little grounding was in order. Better than these roasted veggies (for me) would have been a big plate of brown rice and kale, my go to "restoring balance" meal. But my kitchen was without kale yesterday, but we had many, many potatoes on hand and I was inspired again to play around with another recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance. What I came up with is far enough from the one in the book that I'll go ahead and write it here. I swear I'm not getting paid to promote this book, it really is excellent! Plus, I tend to follow just one or two cookbooks closely for a while, then they'll rest on the shelf for some time while I pull down a few more. Lately, this book has been spending time in the kitchen with me.
Maple-Mustard Glazed Potatoes and Carrots
2 (or so) pounds potatoes (I had russet on hand), peel and cut into one inch pieces
4 carrots, peeled and cut into slices about 1/2 inch
3 shallots (use some onion if you don't have shallots), sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 Tablespoons stone ground or dijon mustard (I used stone ground)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Preheat oven to 400. Place the vegetables in a 9 x 13-inch casserole dish. In a separate bowl combine the other ingredients until everything is blended nicely. Pour the glaze over veggies and gently stir until everything is coated. Cover the dish with foil and place in the oven, bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and toss everything recoating the veggies with glaze. Turn oven down to 350, cook another 25 minutes, uncovered. Remove from oven, toss again, cook for 25 minutes more, uncovered. Pour everything (don't forget any glaze left in the pan!) onto a patter/bowl and serve.
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Certain foods support mental clarity and spiritual practice, they provide balance and awareness. Other foods can drain energy, create mental fog and physical sluggishness. They can also drain your sense of peace. I'm feeling the need for extra grains, miso and root veggies this week... dark, leafy greens as well. I'm pretty sure the strong black coffee does not have a place in my life for the next few days. Anyone care to join me for some yerba mate?
I'd love to write more about the yoga of preparing and serving food, the kitchen as sacred space. The kitchen is a challenge for me to blog about as I have very little natural light in there... and you all know what that means for photos. I think I'm just going to have to let that go and dive in.
In the meantime, try these roasted veggies, I think you'll like them.
