Life (and Food) According to Lindsay Nixon

Image: Lindsay Nixon/BenBella Books

I’ve been wrestling a lot with career path decisions lately, so when I finally caught up with cookbook author and deliberate life-liver, Lindsay Nixon (aka the Happy Herbivore), I found her recipes, and unapologetic nonconformity, intriguing.

She speaks as matter-of-factly on her blog about the importance of nurturing the most minuscule, seedling-sized dream on the path to acheiving self-fulfillment as she does about her job as a vegan chef.

But sometimes overcoming the barriers to a plant-based, meatless meal are as elusive as the search for eternal happiness itself. For example, just for kicks, let’s see a show of hands. How many carnivores out there find themselves uninspired and reticent to set foot in the kitchen even after they’ve committed to dipping their toes in the vegan pool to tackle a recipe? Funny how little things pop up on the “to-do” list like eight loads of laundry when “make banana flower skillet” is tops. Do we even know what banana flowers are supposed to taste like?
Somehow cooking becomes more of an obligation instead of an escape when the familiarity is gone.  Given the ambiguity would-be vegan chefs face in the kitchen, it’s not shocking that the ability to cook hearty, and throaty “mmm”-inducing dishes that ignite your pleasure centers like a vintage Lite-Brite board seems out of reach for the uninitiated, vegan or not.

According to Nixon, however, cooking vegan meals can be a simple, and, yes, pleasurable, affair.

Said Nixon via email,”I find most vegan cookbooks call for weird, obscure ingredients and involve complex methods that take hours to prepare. I think meat-eaters, and even vegheads, can be easily put off by that.”

Lindsay Nixon, aka The Happy Herbivore. Image: Lindsay Nixon/BenBella Books

Plant-based eating does not have to be a vision quest for esoteric ingredients or a frustrating exercise in preparing enigmatic proteins that attempt to stand in for meat in stilted ways. (I recall some tofu tacos I whipped up in high school that looked like they could have been the main course from a low-end Mexican take-out restaurant. If that restaurant were on Mars.  And that restaurant served space colonists. Space colonists who thought an anemic plate of pasty, white mush covered in a mysterious sauce the color of the burnt orange Martian landscape looked satisfying after that interminable light-speed journey from Earth.)

Nixon’s first cookbook, The Happy Herbivore, is in fact less like a “vegan” cookbook, and more like a tome for everyday cooking that just happens to be populated with plant-based recipes. And whether you’re a militant herbivore, or a just trying on vegetarianism for size at snack time, this book is a handy reference guide for go-to entrees, side dishes, and desserts.

“The Happy Herbivore Cookbook, tells the story of my life through recipes and food. The food of my family’s roots, my husband’s, the places I’ve been, it all comes alive in my recipes,” said Nixon. (No doubt Nixon’s cornbread recipe (below) is a product of serious time spent below the Mason-Dixon Line).

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and certainly a spigot of traditional holiday recipes will gush forth in print and on the Web to reach riot control force in the next week (I actually just received the Thanksgiving issue of Bon Appetit). Even just a few vegan side dishes are a no-fuss and de riguer way to make up for the cutesy blob of can-shaped cranberry sauce that might be present at your table (we know, it’s purely for nostalgia’s sake, right?). Also, take a gander at Lindsay’s pumpkin and sage pasta dish that was recently featured in the New York Times, or spare the bird and ponder an entire vegan Thanksgiving with the HH’s recommendations.

Even better, whip up a batch of cornbread and red lentil dal right now while you ponder living a life fulfilled (recipes below).

Go on now, time’s a wasting. Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think. (Seriously, self-actualization aside, it is almost lunchtime).

Cornbread (serves 6) - This is my favorite cornbread recipe. It’s quick and simple — the kind of recipe you can whip up at any time because you always have the ingredients on hand.-L. Nixon

1 c cornmeal
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine salt
1 cup non-dairy milk (such as fat-free soymilk)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 tbsp raw sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F. Whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Add non-dairy milk, applesauce, maple syrup and sugar, if using, on top. Using a spatula, stir until just combined. Pour batter into a nonstick shallow 9″ pie dish, or other oven-safe dish. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Red Lentil Dal (serves 4) - Dals are essentially thick stews made with lentils and traditional Indian spices. This dal is easy, delicious and cheap. Make it once and it will never leave your regular rotation, I promise.-L. Nixon

1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 c dried red lentils
2 c vegetable broth
1 tomato, chopped (save juices)
3 ounces tomato paste (5 tbsp)
1 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp garam masala
salt, pepper, cayenne to taste

Line a medium pot with 1/4 cup of water and cook onions and garlic until translucent. Add turmeric, cumin, paprika, and ginger, and cook for another for another 2 minutes, adding water if necessary to prevent sticking and burning. Add lentils, broth, tomato, tomato paste, and coriander, stirring to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until lentils are cooked and orange-ish. Add garam masala, stirring to combine, and let rest for 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.

Note: if tomatoes are out of season, use 1/4 cup tomato sauce or two peeled canned tomatoes.