Veggie How-To
My little concession trailer turns out to be the best tool I have found for living easily as a vegetarian. How so? Because as I often say, "It has everything I need and nothing I don't need." 
In short, it is organized. It has to be -- it's small, and two people need to work in the small space. I can fit only the equipment and foods I need to serve at an event, and it has to be well-organized so anyone in the kitchen can find exactly what's needed instantly without tripping over the other person.
All my foods are prepared fresh daily. This is a lot of work in a very short time. And if I run out, I have to be able to prepare more while customers continue to arrive. The way my concession trailer works leads me to these principles for easy vegetarian cooking:
Five principles
- Purchase the right equipment
- Purchase -- or grow -- the right foods
- Organize your kitchen and your process
- Let the food inspire you
- Keep it simple -- and fun if you can
Let's explore those principles one at a time:
Purchase the right equipment. Getting the right equipment isn't as simple and straightforward as it sounds. It may take you years -- as it did me -- to discover exactly what you need to cook most efficiently the vegetarian food you like.
First, you need to determine what kinds of foods you enjoy eating and are likely to eat most often. I like experimenting with different ethnic cuisines, and each has its own special tools. If you love pasta and like to cook and eat the freshest possible foods, for example, you may want to invest in a pasta maker. At one time I did that, but my taste has gone in other directions, so now the pasta maker sits unused.
Second, for maximum efficiency, store those items which are not used frequently. In my home kitchen, which is large, there is room for my pasta maker on my antique Hoosier cabinet. It can sit there looking beautiful and waiting for the day I again want to experiment with various homemade pastas. Even in my large kitchen, though, it sometimes gets in the way. I have the luxury of space and time in my home kitchen, but if I wanted to move around with maximum efficiency, I would put that pasta maker away. The same with the unused pots in those sets most of us get at some time. Better to choose specific pots for specific purposes -- and to store pots that are not used.
Finally, once you do settle on a type of food that you are most likely to eat, you may need to do some research to find just the right tool. I have found the internet to be a great resource for this kind of research.
For years now I have been making a variety of soups and salads that require a small dice. I have learned how to dice quickly by hand -- but when it comes time to prepare for crowds of thousands, as I often do in my concession, it simply takes too long and is too exhausting to do all this manual work. I set out to look for just the right tool to do this dicing. There are a number of things on the market, some manual, others automated. It was confusing to sort out which might work best. My concern was primarily with tomatoes -- what could dice a tomato without crushing it? I finally settled on a Robot Coupe with the vegetable preparation attachment, and now it is one of my most indispensible pieces of equipment, especially since it also does double-duty with the Robot Coupe mixing bowl. Grinding the large batches of soaked fava beans that I need for my concession pretty much wore out my Cuisinart. It puts no stress at all on the Robot Coupe.
Purchase -- or grow -- the right foods. What are the "right" foods? I once read the statement, "We eat to live, not live to eat." The function of eating is to nourish us, to provide fuel and body- and brain-building material. Familiarity with the can guide you in this process. I also like to give some consideration to foods that are lower in the , that is, "anti-inflammatory" foods. And last but not least, I like to keep an eye to . The easiest way to do this is to try to get 5-9 servings of fruit or vegetable per day and to concentrate on color, which of course you can see at a glance. Choose the deepest colors, and be certain you have a mixture of colors every day. If you love a particular cuisine -- as I love Middle Eastern foods, for example -- you will want to be certian to have the standards for that cuisine easily in reach. I always keep garlic, cumin, hot peppers, lemons, tomatoes, chickpeas, fava beans, tahina and vinegar in the house so I can bring Middle Eastern elements into the meals I am making.
Organize your kitchen and your process. Once you know what kinds of foods you cook most often and have the tools you need to make them, even if they are the most simple and basic, it's time to concentrate on organization. Working in "stations" is one way to go. If baking is your thing, you will want to have your baking supplies -- dry goods, equipment and working surfaces -- in one convenient location. Remember those old Hoosier cabinets? That was the idea behind them. My cabinet has a built-in flour sifter, shelf space for packages of dry goods, wire shelving for cooling pies and a tin drawer with perforations as a bread box. Pay attention to how you work, and set things up in such a way that you can move easily and quickly through related tasks.
You will also want to give some thought to your process. As a concessionaire, I have had to. With little room and little time -- and sometimes minimal water -- I've had to consider things like, how do I avoid washing and re-washing the same tool? Especially when one tool is used in so many ways. I discovered that the Robot Coupe vegetable preparation attachment creates the biggest mess since vegetables and vegetable juices inevitably splash out onto the counter. We don't have extra counter space to waste in my concession, and what is there needs to be available for use at all times. In addition, the dice blades take time to clean.
Two of my favorite dishes require lots of 1/4" diced veggies -- my Mediterranean salad and gazpacho. I need the vegetable preparation attachment for both. I need to use the Robot Coupe bowl for several other foods I prepare, including my bean and spice mix for falafel, hummus, babaganousz and tahina. This last group of foods has ingredients and seasonings in common. Some finished products are more difficult to get out of the bowl than others and might therefore be the last I prepare -- but on the other hand, those same finished products might become part of other things I am preparing, so it doesn't make sense to clean the bowl completely between preparations.
I've found that I can work fairly quickly if I start with the vegetable preparation attachment, zip the vegetables for chopped mediterranean salad and gazpacho through it, and then drop the attachment into a plastic bag until I have time to clean it. Then I wipe off the countertops, clean off the Robot Coupe itself and get out the mixing bowl. I start with the tahina dressing because any that remains in the bowl after finishing the dressing and scraping the bowl into a storage container can become part of the hummus. I don't need to wash the bowl between processes. Sometimes if I want a little zing in the hummus, I make up my z'hug (a jalapeno pepper mix) as well before I make the hummus.
And so it goes -- when my bowl items are finished, I drop the bowl into the wash sink for processing as soon as I have time, wipe down the cabinets and Robot Coupe and get ready for my day. By paying attention to my process, I have halved the time it takes me to go through it.
Let the food inspire you. Fruits, vegetables and herbs are beautiful and offer such a wide variety of tastes. Who doesn't hold a bunch of fragrant dill and think of dill pickles -- or perhaps a dill potato salad? Dill is amazing in a homemade soup. Summer vegetables like zucchini or beautifully colored peppers . . . grill. Potatoes and pumpkin . . . hearty fall and winter dishes. If you like a particular cuisine and cook frequently along those lines, you are likely to have a number of items on your shelves that you can use with seasonal fruits and veggies to put together a dish that will reflect that cuisine. Interacting with the fruits and vegetables and the items on your shelves -- letting them inspire you -- is what makes cooking fun, joyful and personal. Use cookbooks -- I find them invaluable -- but look to them after you have a heart-feeling about what you want. It's more fun to prepare the food if you're excited about the possible outcome knowing it's going to satisfy in just the right way at that time.
Keep it simple -- and fun if you can. When I was younger, I used to read cookbooks like novels. I would select items I wanted to make, combine them into meals, and make grocery lists. It took me hours and hours -- but I enjoyed doing that then and had the time. I learned a lot about a lot of things. One of the things I learned, though, is if time is short, and it is for most of us, it's better to keep things simple.
You probably have a range of favorite spices. If you stick with them most of the time, you will always have them around and should be set up in such a way as to find them easily. You will be able to experiment more effectively when you're used to working with a familiar group of items.
In those days when I read cookbooks, I would follow their directions and get involved in long, elaborate tasks. My food tastes just as good now if not better, and I hardly have time to read a recipe much less a cookbook anymore. Over the years through trying lots of different cuisines, I have developed a style -- certain foods, certain seasonings, certain cooking methods. If I get interrupted while cooking, I can stop. If I make a cooking mistake, I can usually recover it. I can see at a glance what is needed on my shelves for a "stocked" kitchen and can depend on having what I need to complete a good -- simple -- meal.
When I was concentrating on elaborate techniques and on recipes, I preferred to cook alone. Now, with a familiar range of simple foods, it's fun to have people work with me. Lots of times they bring their own ideas. Customers suggest things as well. One customer asked to have my Moroccan eggplant salad dropped into a pita pocket so he could have it as a sandwich. Now that's a staple -- and very popular -- item in my Woodstock cafe. Another customer asked for the Moroccan eggplant sandwich but asked to have it heated. I did that for her, and she said it was delicious -- that it really brought out the flavors. I tried it. It is good, and we offer that as an option now as well.
The main thing is: keep your mind on the end-product, that is, eating fresh, simple and delicious foods with people you love. There is nothing more joyful in life.