Vegetable "sides" ideas

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Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby JCourter » Mon Oct 27, 2014 11:38 am

I have switched from doing the regular McDougall diet to the Maximum Weight Loss version. As such, many of Dr. McDougall's recipes includes salads to fill in the 1/3 or 1/2 the plate requirement of vegetables. My only problem is that I generally do not like salads. Ever since I was a child I rarely would enjoy them and those I did, I enjoyed with "oily" dressings.

So for starters, I would like to ask two questions:

1) Does anyone have any fantastic dressing recipes or store bought dressings that they find truly incredible? (I do not typically enjoy just plain balsamic vinegar with lemon recipes so this is why I am hoping to find something different or something conveniently store bought)

2) What other recommendations BESIDES salads have you found helpful to accommodate the starches in the MWL diet? I mean, there is only so much "steamed broccoli" or "steamed asparagus" a person can eat before they get tired of it. :)

Thanks!
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Re: Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby Nean » Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:08 pm

My thoughts lately are more on the cooked vegetable end than the fresh...

Zucchini with tomatoes is good. (whatever low salt canned tomatoes + salt free Italian seasoning) I like it so the squash is still a bit crunchy rather than see through and squishy ;-)
Beets with cider vinegar.
Chard or collards cooked with onions and rice vinegar (cuts the odd taste)
Roasted mixed vegies (onions, red/green/yellow peppers, zucchini or other squash, beets if you like them, whatever...)
Broccoli or cauliflower is better if you make one of the faux cheese sauces.
Spaghetti squash (although mine is usually under a sauce rather than naked on the side)
Shredded red cabbage water sautéed with apple chunks and then finished with rice vinegar.
Shredded green cabbage with carrot bits and pineapple chunks. (good cold or sautéed)
Lightly steamed spinach
Mix frozen swiss chard with rice, heat and stir = pink rice with green flecks (more pretty than tasty, but not bad)

Also, IMO a big bowl of veggie soup counts as half plate or plate of veggies.
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Re: Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby katmatry » Thu Oct 30, 2014 6:56 pm

Try homemade hummus as a dressing.
Saute onions and mushrooms, use water. Add brussel sprouts or green beans with some dijon mustard.
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Re: Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby seacat » Thu Oct 30, 2014 7:45 pm

I'm part German and am currently on a sauerkraut kick! So I buy a large jar of it and rinse it off in a colander. Then I cook it along with some chopped onions, bay leaves, caraway seeds, juniper berries and douse it with apple juice. I cook it for at least one hour (longer is better, just add water as needed). Then I serve it with either boiled or mashed potatoes. Yum!
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Re: Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby frozenveg » Fri Oct 31, 2014 4:56 pm

I don't want to belabor the obvious, but have you tried any of Jeff Novick's Fast Food recipes, or the SNAP recipes he lists on his site?
viewtopic.php?t=10519

I eat mostly cooked vegetables a la SNAP, and for raw vegs I snack on carrots, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, etc. II like raw veggies that don't seem to "need" dressing! You could also snack on raw broccoli, cauliflower, etc., and my favorite raw veg snack is green cabbage. I could munch on that all day.
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Re: Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby shell1226 » Sun Nov 30, 2014 4:50 am

My favorite way to get hot veggies into my meals is to make my take on Jeff's SNAP Meal. I take a can of rinsed beans (or ones I've cooked from dry), a bunch of torn up greens, and either a can of diced tomatoes, or my favorite, salsa. Cook that and eat alone or over brown rice.

For salad, getting a low acid balsamic was the key for me. Now I love my salad dressing of 3 T balsamic, 1 T maple syrup and 1 T Dijon mustard.
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Re: Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby molly25 » Sun Nov 30, 2014 1:40 pm

You don't need to eat steamed veggies without any added flavor. Can you learn to spice your food up with flavors you like? I eat curried veggies pretty much every day - cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peas, onions, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini. But then I love curry and never get sick of it. You could try using Indian spices, Italian spices, Middle Eastern, African, Asian. The list is endless. Even just sprinkling some of the more bland salt-free seasonings can improve the flavor of veggies.

For salads, go over to the Straight Up Food website and check out her salad dressings. I've made almost every one of them and not only are they delicious, you can serve them to SAD people. I used her Caesar dressing for my Thanksgiving salad and it got rave reviews. Note that many of them are not MWL friendly because she uses nuts as a base for creamy dressings. So if you're strict MWL these probably won't work for you. Or you could substitute a can of blended beans for the nuts, although I've tried that and thought it was rank - YMMV.

You can also try flavored vinegars. Somebody brought me a bottle of blackberry balsamic as a hostess gift at Thanksgiving, wow is that stuff amazing. I'm fasting at the moment but can't wait to start using it on my salads.

Dr. Fuhrman also has some good salad dressings, and the basic one a lot of people use is just balsamic with a little dijon mustard and sugar.

Here's a website I found a while ago but haven't really checked out yet.

Good luck!

Big list of no oil salad dressings
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Re: Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby sjsilver » Sun Feb 01, 2015 7:13 pm

seacat wrote:I'm part German and am currently on a sauerkraut kick! So I buy a large jar of it and rinse it off in a colander. Then I cook it along with some chopped onions, bay leaves, caraway seeds, juniper berries and douse it with apple juice. I cook it for at least one hour (longer is better, just add water as needed). Then I serve it with either boiled or mashed potatoes. Yum!


I love your sauerkraut idea. About once a year I get a craving for it. My husband hates it though and when we go shopping, if I want to buy a jar, he will make me get my own cart. LOL. I will have to try this. Thanks.
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Re: Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby elbow » Sun Feb 01, 2015 9:25 pm

For salad "dressing", I add ground flax seed to my lettuce and mix it up so the lettuce is coated. Then I add some fruit juice and vinegar. The flaxseed absorbs a lot of the juice so the lettuce is coated in juice too. I think it tastes good and is super easy. You can use pomegranate juice if you don't want it too sweet. in fact, I don't even need vinegar when I use pom juice. so then that's just 2 ingredients. :) also you can use grapefruit and orange slices and you don't necessarily need juice then either.

-barb
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Re: Vegetable "sides" ideas

Postby Trish » Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:19 am

What a lot of GREAT ideas for veggies!! Thanks to everyone.

You might find this website uplifting and useful for plant based and salad eating, good stuff. She also has a blog post on no oil dressings on the site:

http://happyherbivore.com/

Roasting and water "frying" add a lot to veggie tastiness. Make sure you have enough water to cook the veggies/potatoes to your liking and then let it go almost dry to brown. McDougall potato hash browns are a great breakfast meal.
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