By Ellen Siefke
Copy Editor
Today will be devoted to discussing the benefits of technology in cooking. These days, thousand of cooking apps are in all categories, whether it’s “Hello Cupcake,” featuring fun ways to construct and decorate cupcakes, or “Giada: A Digital Weekly,” featuring some of the renowned chef’s favorite recipes. Not that these apps don’t have delicious recipes, but many of them include a bunch of meat options. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a cooking app dedicated exclusively to vegetarian and vegan diets?
Never fear, for such apps do indeed exist! There are plenty of choose from, and most of them are free. If you want to pay anywhere from $0.99 to $4.99, be my guest, but personally, I think the free ones work just as well.
The best option is to simply download several of them and start exploring. Sometimes, you will find that a certain app doesn’t do you a whole lot of good. For example, I bought the Veggie Weekend app because it looked cool. However, I soon found that despite being free, it only includes a few free recipes. The others must be bought. Rawr.
On the other hand, one of my favorite apps is Eden Recipes, an app with hundreds of different ideas. One of the nice features is that you can browse based on course, cuisine, diet or ingredient. This is especially helpful when trying to decide what to make for dinner or if you’re looking to find a gluten-free dish to try (Gluten-free is a category under the “diet” section).
Whatever you decide, just try something! Sometimes, apps will include videos along with their recipes to help you, and the instructions are usually pretty clear. Having a mobile device is also especially helpful on-the-go when you need to make a quick stop at the grocery store so that trying to remember a list isn’t necessary. Just pick an app and see what it’s like.
Here are two simple side dishes courtesy of the aforementioned app, Eden Recipes. Give them a try!
1. Boston Baked Beans
Ingredients:
-1 can navy beans
-½ cup water
-½ cup diced onion
-1 tablespoon brown mustard to taste
-½ tablespoon maple syrup
-⅛ teaspoon sea salt
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix all the ingredients together and place in a casserole dish.
3. Cover the dish with either a lid or tin foil and bake for 30 minutes.
4. Now, remove the covering and bake for a few more minutes until the top is slightly browned. It may be hard to determine this, so just let the top beans become a little darker.
5. Serve your delicious dish with others!
2. Homemade cranberry sauce (with fresh cranberries)
Ingredients:
-2 cups cranberries washed and sorted. Sorting cranberries means just picking out the cranberries that are mushy, dark or look gross, as you only want ripe cranberries.
-½ raisins
-1 cup apple juice
-1 pinch salt (This means a very, very tiny bit)
1. Place all ingredients in a sauce pan. Cover the pan and bring the mixture to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Place in a serving bowl and let sit for about 10 minutes.
4. Now, place the bowl in the fridge or freezer to cool off, depending on how long you have until your next meal.
5. Enjoy the sauce! (Hopefully served with some delicious tofurky!)
