Teczcape-An Escape to Food

Red Leaf Amaranth Soup

Amaranth. Is it a grain, seed or vegetable? While amaranth has been cultivated as a grain that is a good source of trace minerals and vitamins, the amaranth leaf vegetable is equally nutritious, particularly high in iron content. I hardly buy them till I saw the young tender Red Strip Leaf Amaranth (large green leaves with red stripes in the center) at the farmers market.

At the same time, after watching a cooking segment about how amaranth and gojiberries support healthy vision (or for myopic like myself - to slow down vision deterioration), I was inspired to go searching for amaranth leaf vegetable so that I can try cooking it at home. In the cooking segment, the chef made a clear soup of amaranth vegetable in homemade chicken stock. However, I am adapting it to a clear soup of amaranth vegetable and fresh tiny (Japanese) anchovy.

Healthy Rainbow Veggies/ Vegetables Wrap

A vegetables or veggies wrap is a great way to consume vegetables on the go. The "bread" becomes an edible "container" that houses the brightly-colored vegetable salad.

It is not easy to load up on veggies in a sandwich (see Perilla Leaf, Egg Cucumber Sandwich), due to the usable "real estate" on two slices of bread (technically, it is just the area of one slice). I mean, how much (and how high) can you go, to make it easy to eat?

However, a wrap is somewhat different. First, the surface area is bigger. Second, the "bread" used (be it tortilla, or lavash bread) is pliable enough to roll. This way, more veggies get loaded in, yet still less of a mess to eat.

That is my personal experience of a sandwich vs a wrap. Do you have your experiences to share, when it comes to making a vegetable sandwich vs a wrap?

Some easy and healthy veggie wrap ideas I wish to share with you today:

The above, a Rainbow Veggie Wrap using lavash bread with layers of colorful veggies - collard greens, beets, bell peppers, Casper kale, peppercress.

Bean Pasta with Vegetarian Tofu Curry

Explore Cuisine bean-powered pasta is not only great in taste and texture; it also provides a good amount of protein and fiber per serving. Their Organic Edamame Spaghetti and Organic Black Bean Spaghetti contain 24 g of protein per 2 oz serving - almost three times more than regular pasta and twice that of chickpea or lentil.

To enjoy the best of both worlds, I used two different spaghetti - Edamame Spaghetti and Black Bean Spaghetti, to create this dish - Edamame and Black Bean Spaghetti with Steamed Vegetables in Vegetarian Tofu Green Curry