Vegan Quinoa Recipes — The Warmth That Holds the Thursday

Sven and I made our morning circuit — kitchen, back hallway, front porch, lakefront walk, kitchen again, breakfast for both of us. The same circuit every day for years. The repetition is its own grace. There are people who would find such a routine unbearable, and there are people who would find it salvific. I am the second kind. The routine is the rope I hold in the dark, and the rope is what gets me from one end of a day to the other. Mamma's hands shake more than they did last month. I do not point it out. I notice. I notice everything. The shake is small — barely visible when she is at rest, more visible when she lifts her coffee cup, most visible when she is trying to thread a needle. She still threads needles. She still bakes. She still calls me on Tuesdays at 10. The hands shake. The shaking does not stop the doing. The doing is what Mamma is. Karin and I talked Sunday. Stockholm in winter is dark. Duluth in winter is dark. We compared darknesses. We laughed. Karin said: "Linda, do you remember the time Pappa drove us to Two Harbors in a blizzard because Mamma wanted lutefisk?" I said yes. The story unspooled across the phone for twenty minutes. I had forgotten half of it. Karin remembered all of it. The memory was, briefly, complete between us. I cooked Pumpkin soup this week. Sugar pumpkin roasted, blended with onion-garlic-ginger, coconut milk, vegetable stock, nutmeg. Topped with cream and pumpkin seeds. The Damiano Center: the regular Thursday. The soup is the soup. The conversations are the conversations. The week is held by the Thursday. I do not know what I would do without the Thursday. The Thursday is the structural element of the week. The structural element does not collapse if the rest of the week goes sideways. The Thursday holds. The lake was iron gray. The kind of gray Paul loved. He used to say: "That is the gray that means weather is coming." He was always right. I miss being told. I miss being told what the lake means by a man who knew what the lake meant. I have learned to read the lake on my own. I am, at this point, an adequate reader. I am not as good as Paul was. I am better than I would have been if I had not had to learn. It is enough. Paul is not here. Mamma is not here. Pappa is not here. Erik is not here. They are all here in the kitchen, in the smell, in the taste, in the wooden spoon and the bread pans and the marble slab. The dead are not where the body went. The dead are in the kitchen. The phone rings less than it used to. Not because fewer people are calling, but because the people who call are mostly the family, and the family has settled into a rhythm — Peter daily, Anna twice a week, Sophie weekly, Elsa biweekly, Karin Sundays, Astrid Sundays. The phone rings predictably. I pick up predictably. The predictability is the love at this stage of life. It is enough.

The pumpkin soup was already made and already given away by Thursday — that is the nature of the Thursday at the Damiano Center, and I would not change it. But the impulse that goes into that soup does not disappear when the pot is empty; it just looks for another vessel. This vegan quinoa bowl has become that vessel on the other nights, the nights that are not Thursday, the nights that still need something warm and complete at the center of them. It is not Mamma’s kitchen exactly, and it is not Paul’s gray lake, but it is mine, and it holds.

Vegan Quinoa Bowl

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups dry white or tri-color quinoa, rinsed
• 2 3/4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup baby spinach or kale, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons tahini
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 2–3 tablespoons warm water (to thin dressing)

Instructions

1. Roast the sweet potato. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Toss cubed sweet potato with 1 tablespoon olive oil, smoked paprika, cumin, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roast 20–25 minutes, flipping once, until tender and lightly caramelized at the edges.
2. Cook the quinoa. Combine rinsed quinoa and vegetable broth in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and let steam, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
3. Warm the chickpeas. While the quinoa rests, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add chickpeas with a pinch of salt and paprika and cook 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly golden and slightly crisp.
4. Make the tahini dressing. Whisk together tahini, lemon juice, and maple syrup in a small bowl. Add warm water one tablespoon at a time until the dressing is pourable but still creamy. Season with salt to taste.
5. Assemble the bowls. Divide warm quinoa among four bowls. Top each with roasted sweet potato, warm chickpeas, spinach or kale, red cabbage, and cherry tomatoes. Drizzle generously with tahini dressing and finish with a scatter of roasted pumpkin seeds.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 480 | Protein: 18g | Fat: 17g | Carbs: 64g | Fiber: 11g | Sodium: 420mg