With Farmers’ markets in full swing in all 50 states, it’s a great time to get picky – I mean thoughtful — about meat eating. You might be interested for your health, for your wallet, because it’s good for the environment, or just because. We’ve got lots of practically green ideas about meat, including Joining Meat-Free Mondays to eat vegetarian once a week. Regular readers know we’re obsessed with finding the best resources for thoughtful carnovory, such as the Applegate Farms website and Alexandra Zissu’s new book about Well-Raised Meat. Meatfree Mondays is a popular movement to reduce meat consumption by one day a week — and we’ll focus on that next Monday.

As a preview, we want to introduce you to Robyn O’Brien and to chef/food writer Kim O’Donnel, who inspires her.

“My life began in a high chair gnawing on a T-bone,” Kim says. Fast-forward four decades, and Kim has written a book called The Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes Carnivores will Devour.  

Kim O'Donnel (Photo: Myra Cohn)

Kim describes her muse, Mr. Sausage: “the person who cannot imagine not eating some kind of meat every single day”:

“I knew I had a great idea, but my challenge was how to get the Mr. Sausages of America to try it. We know that 96% of Americans are eating meat, most of them every day. But there’s a very interesting food dynamic going on at the table. That small percentage of vegetarians and flexitarians are no longer the lone freaks at Thanksgiving. .. so I started smoking and roasting plant ingredients and incorporating them into recipes.”

Cut to Robyn O’Brien, “a Texas native raised on Twinkies,” the author of An Unhealthy Truth, legendary food activist and allergy mom extraordinaire, who describes her own family’s transition to reducing meat in their diet on her blog this week (excerpted with Robyn’s permission).

“I’m not good with recipes…. [but] when our youngest was diagnosed with food allergies, I suddenly realized that the processed food diet that I was feeding my family was loaded with all kinds of foreign proteins, artificial dyes and things that our grandmothers would never have recognized. And I had to take a crash course in cooking.

…. in a constant effort to save money in order to buy more fruits and veggies (which are annoyingly priced so much higher than processed foods because of the way that we’ve structured agriculture in this country), I also had to learn how to reallocate the family budget…. So instead of buying meat for dinner one night a week, we decided to go meatless. It felt kind of radical in the beginning, after all, I’d been born and raised on meat at every meal.  … But one night a week, who could argue with that? It was perfectly in line with my 80/20 Rule: four out of five nights, we’d keep it business as usual, and on that fifth night, we were going to go meat-free.

Robyn discovered Kim: “And as I flipped through her cookbook that includes recipes for things like “Egg in the Hole” and “Reliable Stovetop Rice That Even My Husband Can Make,” I realized that I’d finally found a cookbook that I’d keep.

Robyn O'Brien

Here’s Kim’s recipe for ChickPea Crab Cakes. (“When I came up with this I thought, I KNOW Mr. Sausage will like this,” Kim says.)

CHICKPEA “CRAB CAKES”

True story: Less than two weeks before this manuscript was due, with most recipes edited and determined fit for public consumption, I pan-fried a batch of my falafel patties for me and my husband, Russ. He took one bite into his falafel-on-a-bun and looked at me with all seriousness. “This falafel looks and eats likes a crab cake.” He was right. With thirty combined years of living in Washington, D.C.—crab cake central—we could both see that this chickpea patty had Chesapeake potential. With the wild eyes of a mad scientist, I immediately went to work, replacing Middle Eastern falafel spices with Old Bay, the iconic Maryland seafood seasoning that’s had a cult following for three generations. Out with the tahini, in with a yogurt rémoulade and horseradishy cocktail sauce that transport you from the Mid-East to the Mid-Atlantic. The result: Downright crab-shacky.

Kitchen note:  Dried chickpeas are a must for this recipe; the canned version are simply too soft and patties will fall apart.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup dried chickpeas

1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion (not quite 1 large onion)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 cup fresh cilantro or parsley, or 1/4 cup each, chopped

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 cup vegetable oil

8 soft hamburger buns or English muffins

HERE’S WHAT YOU DO:

Cover the chickpeas with water and soak for at least 8 hours at room temperature. (If your kitchen is very warm, you may want to place in the refrigerator to minimize chances of fermentation.) Drain and set aside. You will end up with 2 cups soaked chickpeas.

Using a food processor or heavy-duty blender, pulverize the chickpeas, using the “pulse” function. Pulverize until the beans just form a paste that sticks together when you squeeze it in your hand. Be careful not to overprocess the chickpeas; too smooth, the batter will fall apart when cooking.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except the oil) and combine using the “pulse” function. After being pulsed approximately twelve times, the batter will be somewhat grainy and speckled with herbs.

Refrigerate the batter for about 1 hour, until firm.

Meanwhile, make the yogurt rémoulade or cocktail sauce (details follow).

Remove the batter from the fridge and shape into patties, using a scant 1/3-cup measure. Be careful not to overhandle the batter.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Place the patties on a plate or baking tray and cover with plastic wrap. Return to the fridge and chill for an additional 10 to 15 min- utter.

In a shallow 12-inch skillet, heat 1/4 cup of the oil over medium-high heat. Gently place the patties into the hot oil in small batches (don’t crowd the pan) and fry the first side until golden brown, about 3 minutes. (If you’re the impatient sort, set a timer and relax. These things don’t like to be fussed with.)

Gently turn onto the second side and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Transfer to a baking tray to finish cooking in the oven for 8 minutes. (Before frying the next batch, heat the remaining oil.) The patties will have a somewhat drier appearance on the outside, which is a good thing.

Serve on a bun with the rémoulade, cocktail sauce or a schmear of mustard-mayo.

Yogurt Remoulade

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup plain yogurt (if you like thick sauce, look for Greek- style yogurt)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Squeeze of 1/2 lemon

2 to 3 cornichons or bread-and-butter pickles, diced

1 teaspoon of your favorite hot sauce

1/8 cup onion or shallot, diced

1/4 teaspoon salt

HERE’S WHAT YOU DO:

In a small mixing bowl, stir the yogurt with a fork, to loosen. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Taste for salt, acid, and heat, and season accordingly. This is an ad hoc sauce open to all kinds of kitchen improv. Have your way with this one!

Recipe credit: From the book The Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook by Kim O’Donnel.  Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group.  Copyright © 2010. www.dacapopresscookbooks.com