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Roasted Red Pepper & Kalamata Hummus

1 roasted red pepper, peeled and seeded (¼ cup if from ajar)

¼ cup pitted kalamata olives

Puree the red pepper along with everything else. Pulse in the olives until chopped finely.

PER SERVING (⅛ OF RECIPE) Adds 10 calories, 10 calories from fat, .5 g total fat, 2g carbs, 1 g fiber, 2 g sugar, 80 mg niacin, 10 % vitamin A, and 31 % vitamin C to the Hummus nutritional info in the main recipe.

Pizza Hummus

¼ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed)

1 cup fresh basil

Reconstitute the tomatoes in a bowl by submerging them in warm water for about 215 minutes. Puree along with everything else. Pulse in the basil until chopped finely.

PER SERVING (⅛ OF RECIPE) The nutritional info is the same as for the main recipe.

Jalapeño-Cilantro Hummus

1 seeded, chopped average sized jalapeno

½ cup fresh cilantro

After pureeing, pulse the jalapeño and cilantro into the hummus until chopped finely.

PER SERVING (⅛ OF RECIPE) Adds .5 g fiber, less than 1 g sugar, 2% vitamin A, 2% vitamin C, and 2% calcium to the Hummus nutritional info in the main recipe.

CHAPTER 5

Sink-Your-Teeth-Into Tofu & Tempeh

TOFU IS LIKE THAT FRIEND WHO ALWAYS KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT to say. So versatile and accomodating, tofu is there when you need her. Breakfast? Sure, try a scramble. Lunch? How about baked and sliced in sandwiches? And for dinner, whether it be a fancy night out on the town or a quiet evening at home with a Law & Order marathon, tofu knows what’s up.

If tofu is the fun-loving soy next door, tempeh is its more grown-up cousin. Tempeh is a soy patty, but that description doesn’t exactly get the tongues wagging. It’s from Indonesia, and has a rich and interesting history, but really, all of that info can be Googled.

The reason I love tempeh is because the first time I tasted it, in burger form at a vegan restaurant in the ’80s, it was so delicious it made my eyes roll back in my head. I had only been vegetarian for a short while, but sinking my teeth into that tempeh, I knew I was gonna be all right. It was downright succulent and the flavor complex—nutty, earthy, meaty. Everything you could want out of food.

Together, tofu and tempeh are true Wonder Twins. Topping salads or mashed potatoes and fighting crime, soy can do it all deliciously.

The Great Soy Scare

There’s a lot of scare mongering (soy mongering?) all over the place lately. I asked Matt to clear up some misconceptions about soy and here is what he had to say. He even cited a few sources to make it easier for you to do your own research and fact checking!

Soybeans have been a part of people’s diets for thousands of years. It’s a bean, so it’s full of plant protein, healthy fats, and phytochemicals. In the last thirty years we’ve seen a lot of research on its ability to reduce cholesterol, lower cancer risk, and possibly even help prevent obesity.2

After the FDA approved the statement that soy is healthy for your heart,3 even more research came out. We are talking dozens of studies in research journals every month. Food companies jumped on the soy bandwagon and started putting it in everything from potato chips to pasta. Soon enough the backlash came, challenging it as a “superfood.” I hate to say smear campaign, but suddenly antisoy propaganda appeared everywhere. “It’s unsafe for kids!” “There’s estrogen in it, so it gives men boobs!” None of this is true.4 There is no estrogen in soy like the estrogen our body produces, thankfully. Some of the phytochemicals have the unfortunate name of phytoestrogens, but they act against estrogen mostly and are the compounds that have the benefits!

The research says that soy is safe for everyone. People have been eating it for a long time and the people who eat the most it have lower rates of cancer, and heart disease, even when we take other factors into consideration. Try to eat it in its most whole form—think more edamame and less textured vegetable protein. And don’t worry about your sperm count decreasing or your breasts growing because of a