Meatless in Vancouver

You walk down into Nuba from a staircase at the corner of Hastings and Cambie. The concept is simple and clear, contemporary casual Lebanese.

As a vegetarian, I was pleased to see that much of the menu is not only vegetarian, but vegan. This makes sense, since so much traditional Lebanese food is vegan-friendly. For example, falafel, hummus, and baba ghanouj are all traditionally vegan dishes. Nuba, of course, offers them all. For me, the test of a place like this is the falafel and the hummus. In general, both were straight-forward. The hummus was maybe a bit one-dimensional, lacking many layers of flavour, while the falafel was flavourful, but a bit too beany in texture.

Vegan tapioca pudding is hard to come by, as most contains eggs and dairy products. Some people who are not big into puddings may not like this, as it has a bit of an odd texture (but I love it). Once I found out about my gluten allergy I started making this recipe a lot since it's always gluten-free. This recipe is a big hit whenever I bring it to gatherings.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup organic coconut sugar
• ½ cup organic cornstarch
• 2 dashes of sea salt
• 6 tablespoons of instant tapioca
• 5 cups vanilla almond milk
• 1-2 cups frozen organic blueberries
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

• In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt and tapioca. Gradually stir in the milk until smooth. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat.
• Let boil for one minute and then remove from stove. Stir in vanilla. Pour in 1-2 cups of blueberries, or as many as you like. Chill in fridge to set pudding. Enjoy!

I don’t know about you, but I remember a little something once called “California Dip” (or French Onion Dip). Basically, what you did was take a container of sour cream, add a packet of French onion soup mix, and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. Voila: onion dip. All things considered, it was pretty good. I mean, it was just dehydrated soup in sour cream, but hey, this was a time when words like “teriyaki” and “balsamic” were things only fancy people knew.

You'll have to excuse me for yet another brief absence. Hopefully, these two recipes will make up for it. They're a nice two recipes for getting into the Spring menu, with more fresh foods available.

The dressing is very low fat and unreasonably simple to make. It goes well in the quinoa salad below, but is also a nice all-purpose dressing. Since it's lower in oil than your average vinaigrette, it helps take the fat and salt out of salads, making them both healthy and delicious. Not many salad dressings can boast this, since most of them are about two-thirds oil, while this one is around one-third.

As for the warm salad recipe that follows, it’s meant as an easy and delicious introduction to quinoa. Aside from soy, you will not find many (if any) non-animal-sourced foods which offer a complete set of essential amino acids. Quinoa is unique among grains as a source of complete protein. It’s a good substitute for couscous, since it is similar in both size and texture, with a mild, almost nutty flavor. The salad is meant as a take on a Mediterranean cous cous salad, with quinoa replacing the cous cous.