On 2007-03-12, Dick Adams > wrote:
>
> I am eating more fruits and vegetables. My usual condiments are
> black pepper from a grinder, ground garlic, ground hot peppers,
> and hot pepper sauce. I recently switched from regular Tabasco
> to their Chipotle variety because it has more of a flavor that
> I like. What is happenning is that I am finding vegetable dishes
> to be bland in spite of these seasonings - even through pepper
> sauce!
>
> What I would appreciate are some suggestions as to condiments
> that bring out the flavor of cooked vegetables and URL's for
> recipes that have distinctive flavoring.

Some suggestions here; don't know if any of these will work for you....
so I just threw out a bunch of stuff. If you give more details on any
other health restrictions you have, that might help people come up with
some better ideas. For instance, do you need to avoid salt / sodium
completely, are you also avoiding fat, sugar, or stuff like that?

I think the bottom line is that you may need a sauce of some kind (with
some sort of oil or starch) that will cling to the vegetables.

* nut-based stuff, like a tahini sauce type thing... this will usually
have something salty and something sweet in it too - you could try low
sodium soy sauce if you're watching your sodium intake.
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/recip...-veg-sauce.php
http://www.recipehound.com/Recipes/0647.html
* Olive oil and lemon juice (or butter and lemon juice if you eat
butter)
* Sounds like you like spicy stuff - maybe you could try stir frying
vegetables with garlic, hot chili pepper flakes and / or thai style
chili sauce (the kind with seeds)... and / or use chili oil. Again,
though, you'd probably want to use some soy sauce too, which might
have too much sodium for you.

Something like this might work:
http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/a...1/rec0169.html
(this is not that healthy, but should be pretty tasty. You could skip
the deep frying step, though they won't be as good. If you can get
Chinese long beans instead of regular string beans, it will be better).
* I like to make a tofu and vegetable scramble - the tofu will absorb
the hot stuff better than most vegetables. I use a base of onions and
bell peppers, chili flakes, sometimes hot sauce.
* Indian, Japanese or Thai style curries.
* I don't know if you're vegetarian - either way, you could try
(commercial prepared) Furikake...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furikake - there are some vegetarian
versions, though most of them have some bonito flakes too. This can be
obtained at most Japanese markets. In general, you could try some
shredded toasted seaweed of some sort.
* Grilled or roasted vegetables have a great flavor of their own; you
could marinate them ahead of time in some combination of vinegar,
chili flakes, olive oil, soy sauce, etc.
* Some sort of cream sauce - when I was a kid (and before I was vegan) I
used to do a simple one with this stuff:
http://shop.chefpaul.com/index.asp?P...PROD&ProdID=67
(the spice is for pork and veal, but it's vegetarian).

Saute a bit of flour (maybe 2 Tbsp or so) and the seasoning in some
hot butter or oil (in a frying pan or saute pan), add maybe a cup of
milk or soy milk, and whisk smooth, cook until thick and creamy. This
is good as like a cream sauce on pasta, and would probably work well
on some cooked vegetables too.
* Toasted sesame oil has a very strong flavor. Adding a little bit
*after* cooking can give dishes a nice taste. It's recommended that
you don't cook with it (add after cooking), as the heat can apparantly
release some toxins.
* Since fruits were mentioned, and since you like spicy food, try
cayenne pepper on mango. I've never tried it, but a lot of people like
it.
* Of course, pasta sauce is a great vehicle for vegetables, and you can
throw in some chili flakes when you're sauteeing the onions to give it
a kick.

If you're interested in branching out from Tabasco, there are a lot of
other sauces that might work better. The http://www.painisgood.com/ are
pretty good (and I'd be surprised if you put it on something and didn't
find it to be hot). You could also try:
* Packaged "cajun" seasoning (if not too salty)
* Thai style chili sauce (either the smooth "rooster" sauce or the kind
with bits of seed in it.
* Chili oil

If I'm eating something like steamed vegetables, I don't find that hot
sauce works that well for seasoning - I'd rather have something with a
milder flavor. And remember... don't overcook your vegetables!

You don't have to make stuff with *only* vegetables... here's a recipe
that I found very tasty and flavorful recently:
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/02...ellas-and.html

You could of course modify to use real dairy - I thought it was
delicious as-is.

Since you sound like you like bold, flavorful food, let me also suggest
checking out a couple of cookbooks.

* http://www.amazon.com/Bold-Vegetaria.../dp/0471212784
Haven't tried this myself, but I think I got a copy for a friend. Some
of the recipes look pretty good if it's the one I think it is.
* http://www.starz.bz/nativefoods/prod...m?product=1546
Cookbook from a Los Angeles restaurant (Native Foods)

Both of these might have a bunch of tofu, seitan, tempeh recipes, which
don't really go in the direction of your doctor's orders, but I think
you'll also find a bunch of pretty good flavorful vegetable recipes.

w