- There's a big move to promote meatless Monday's these days.

Now, eating vegetarian is not only good for your health, it's also good for your wallet, and it's fantastic for the planet.

There's no one better to explore vegetarian options than Amanda Cohen.

She's the chef and owner of Dirt Candy, a vegetarian restaurant in New York City.

She's so creative.

With me, she's making zucchini and pasta noodles in garlicky yogurt sauce.

And this sounds like so much fun, Kentucky Lemonade spiked with you guessed it, bourbon.

I'll also make moo shu vegetables, a hearty combination of crunchy vegetables and thin pancakes with cashews and eggs.

Welcome to Sara's Weeknight Meals.

Today, we're going meatless.

(upbeat instrumental music) Funding provided by... - [Voiceover] Family-owned and Indiana grown, Maple Leaf Farms is a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals, providing a variety of duck products for home kitchens.

Maple Leaf Farms duck helps inspire culinary adventures everywhere.

Maple Leaf Farms.

- [Voiceover] Suburu builds vehicles like the versatile Suburu Forester, with symmetrical all-wheel drive, and plenty of cargo room.

(upbeat instrumental music) A recipe made for whatever the day brings.

Suburu, a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- [Voiceover] And thanks to the generous support of.

- After I ate at Dirt Candy, Amanda Cohen's restaurant, I decided she was one of the most inventive chefs I've ever come across.

So, we're gonna spend a little time with her and find out how she does what she does.

(upbeat techno music) - My name is Amanda Cohen, and I am the chef/owner of Dirt Candy which is an all-vegetable restaurant in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

I named my restaurant Dirt Candy because that's really what vegetables are to me.

They are candy from the dirt.

They are earth candy.

And I did it because I knew it would really offend people.

And they'd be like, "Why do you have dirt "in the name of your restaurant?"

But they would never forget it.

Once you've heard Dirt Candy, you can't unhear it.

We really focus on vegetables.

Whereas, vegetarian restaurants focus a little bit more on a lifestyle of being a vegetarian.

It's not about being healthy for me.

I'm actually not a vegetarian, but I was a vegetarian.

I became one when I was 15 years old.

All my friends were becoming vegetarians.

So I decided, yeah, I'll be one too, and it's gonna piss my parents off, so it's a win-win situation.

And then one day about 10 years ago, I realized to become a better chef, I had to really start tasting what other chefs cared about.

And what other chefs cared about was proteins on the plate.

And so, I realized there is really a market here.

There is something I can do.

Nobody cares about the vegetables.

Let me care about the vegetables.

The way I look at it is sort of like the Wild West of the food world.

There are no rules.

We get to come into this restaurant every day and treat it like our lab.

It's like we're little kids playing, and it's fun.

Nobody else is doing this.

So for us, it's like a whole open field of ideas.

- [Voiceover] At Dirt Candy, the flavors are bold.

The food is smoked, cured, condensed, spiced.

And the textures are deliberately surprising.

- So what we do on a plate is we roast carrots.

We dehydrate them.

We curate them.

We, maybe we deep fry them.

And all of a sudden, you have all these different textures that have elevated that carrot from a uni-textured vegetable into something amazing.

- Dirt Candy amazed the food world, awards followed, then a cookbook.

And like the restaurant, it is totally unique.

(upbeat instrumental music) The comic book, with artist Ryan Dunlavey.

- You know, since you're training the people like when they read the book, we could do something really silly like make it like a kung fu training.

- Like a king fu ?

- Yeah.

We'll have people that don't look normal.

- (laughs) - Like who does?

- Yeah, we don't look normal really.

It's one of the few times in life where you have a vision in your head and it actually is able to come true.

The only thing that didn't quite come true was the sections of meat.

And I was like, "These are really cute, "but I kind of look more like Wonder Woman."

And he was like, "No, I'm not drawing you like that."

And I was like, "Fine."

Like I want boots and you know, corset, like, "Ah."

- [Voiceover] Of course, there are recipes.

But also, the dark side of restaurant ownership few see.

- I definitely think chefs are way overglamorized.

And once you become the owner of a restaurant, you are everything to everybody 24 hours a day.

Kyle, I have a pickles going to table 11.

It's too much sauce.

This is going to 405.

We don't say no.

These are called gold moss.

Accidents do happen.

Just put it in the back room and I'll deal with it.

I'd like to start telling feel free to eat it like you would a regular hot dog with your hands, not with a fork and knife unless you are the Queen of England.

(lighthearted instrumental music) It's hours and hours of hard work.

It's 70 hour weeks, 80 hour a week of hard work.

You're cutting yourself.

You're burning yourself.

It's hot in the kitchen.

But at the end of the day, why wouldn't you wanna do it?

The satisfaction in this job lies for me at the end of the night when we've had guests come up to us all night and saying they've had an amazing time.

And not just that they had a great meal, and the food was delicious, but that the service was great, and the drinks were great.

And just that the whole picture was exactly what they wanted it to be at that moment.

And I think, "Wow, we did a good job today."

(gentle instrumental music) (lighthearted instrumental music) - Ya know Doug, can I have some arugula?

Yes.

- There ya are.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- This next recipe is my version of the Chinese restaurant favorite moo shu pork only I've removed the pork 'cause there's so many vegetables in that dish.

It's that vegetable mixture with pork that's served in pancakes.

And that's what I'm really excited about But these aren't just any pancakes.

I'm making the French crepes, those really thin, thin pancakes that I think makes everybody nervous.

There's no need to be nervous.

I'm gonna show you how easy they are to make.

We're gonna start by making the batter.

Let me get my butter out of the microwave here.

(lighthearted instrumental music) So I have five tablespoons of butter here.

Three of them are gonna go into the batter, and two of them I'm gonna save to brush the pan.

OK, one cup of whole milk.

And then we're gonna use some regular all-purpose flour.

And bleached all-purpose flour I have.

And measure it the appropriate way which is to not pack it.

Just loosely put it into the measuring cup.

A little bit of salt.

We're using table salt 'cause it's finer.

If you had fine sea salt, that would be great too.

Two eggs.

And basically that's it.

It's just a very, very simple recipe.

When you make a batter like this that has flour and liquids in it, you have to be careful not to overbeat it.

Because if you do, what you're gonna do is develop the gluten in the flour.

That's the protein that's in the flour.

And gluten's very useful when you're making bread 'cause you want all that structure.

But not when you're making something tender like crepes.

So I'm just gonna beat this briefly.

(blender mixing) And we're gonna put it through a strainer to remove any lumps that didn't get mixed in just then.

And now, we're gonna let this batter sit for about half an hour.

And what happens in that half an hour is the little bit of gluten that we did just develop by hitting that button will relax 'cause we want tender crepes.

So, now we're gonna get into the production.

Now, this is the part that seems to scare people.

Although I don't think it should.

I've got a wonderful pan here.

You can use a non-stick, or this is a stick resistant which I prefer.

Oh, I can see that it's very hot, maybe a little too hot.

So, usually the first pancake doesn't work and you don't worry about it.

My favorite spatula, because it's deep in order to get in there, is this fish spatula that's flexible.

OK, let me see how this is doing.

Ya just take a little sneak peak, there we go.

And boom.

Now, isn't that easy?

I think one of the other reasons people don't make crepes or they're scared to is they think that you can't stack them without putting a piece of parchment between each crepe.

But ya don't have to worry about it.

You can stack them, and I'm going to show you.

I've even gonna put this one, that's hot, on top.

There ya go.

And I guarantee you, it's not gonna stick.

So, I'm gonna make a little omelet, a very thin omelet.

It's part of the filling for our moo shu crepes.

(lighthearted instrumental music) We basically do it the same way we just did the crepes.

And we used flavorless vegetable oil because this is an Asian dish.

When I'm doing Asian recipes, I generally use grape seed oil.

When I'm doing Mediterranean dishes, I generally use olive oil.

There we go.

Now, I'm gonna prep all my veggies.

I've already grated a three inch piece of ginger in here.

And to that, I'm gonna add three garlic cloves.

I'm just gonna grate through a microplane right into the ginger.

So, I'm just gonna chop four scallions.

I've got about eight ounces of shiitake mushrooms here.

OK, so we've got our shiitakes.

We've got one large bell pepper that we julienned.

And now, I'm gonna slice my bok choy.

I got about a half a pound.

OK, I have everything ready.

This is one of those Asian recipes where everything has to be ready.

Grape seed oil 'cause we don't really care about the flavor.

We just want it to do its oil thing.

In's gonna go our ginger, our garlic, and our scallions for a quick saute.

I'm gonna add a tiny pinch of salt.

Next, the mushrooms and the red bell pepper.

I love shiitake mushrooms 'cause they have such body.

They're not as, somehow they don't give off all the liquid that other mushrooms do.

(steady upbeat instrumental music) Told you there were a lot of vegetables in here.

While that's cooking for a minute, I'm gonna mix up my sauce which is very, very simple.

I need two tablespoons of sake.

One tablespoon of soy sauce.

You can use low sodium.

And one tablespoon of hoisin.

If you've ever been to one of those Chinese restaurants and had Peking duck, they give this to you to spread on the pancake.

All right, now we're gonna add, 'cause see this is wilted down, we want everything to have a little bit of a crunch.

I'm gonna add my bok choy.

All right, this is gonna take a minute to wilt down.

I'm just gonna keep an eye on it and stir.

All right, after it's started to wilt, I'm gonna add our sprouts.

This is a final nice crunch.

If ya can't find 'em, don't worry about it.

Isn't it amazing how much all of that wilts down?

OK, we're gonna finish up here with our egg.

Just cut it into whatever pieces, whatever size you want.

And I've got some toasted cashews.

It's nice to add nuts, and cashews go perfectly in here.

And then, last but not least, our sauce.

Remember the sake soy sauce and hoisin?

And this will sort of deglaze the bottom of the pan because these vegetables give off a little bit of their own sugar and create those brown bits.

And that is it.

And oh boy!

I wish you could smell it.

So, you can either warm the crepes in the oven first.

Or because the filling's so hot, I'm not gonna worry about it.

We're gonna serve this family-style, which is a really fun way to do it.

(gentle instrumental music) So we put all the filling into a bowl.

And then, we put all of our pancakes onto a plate.

Let's see, put your crepe down.

I'm gonna put a little of the hoisin first.

You spread it down.

And then we mound some of the filling right in the middle.

It's like a burrito, only it's far more elegant.

So, you start rolling it up.

And then you can fold in the sides and that way you don't wear it when you first pick it up.

And then, it is ready to just take a bite out of.

Isn't that fun?

What an exotic and unusual meal on a weeknight.

And ya know what?

Don't tell anybody there's not meat in it, they won't be sorry.

(upbeat instrumental music) (train horn) - Hello!

Welcome.

How was the train ride?

- It was easy.

- Yeah, it is easy.

I love trains, don't you?

Yeah, it's just so calm and so wonderful.

So, when it's your night off, do you cook?

- I don't cook that much.

I try to go out to eat and see what other chefs are cooking.

- Well, that's a good idea.

I can see that, but if you had to cook at home?

- If I have to cook, I like to do really simple things so they're not too ambitious to do at the end of the day.

- Oh, geez.

- So maybe just like a simple salad, or some pasta.

(upbeat instrumental music) - Amanda Cohen, I'm so happy to have you here.

And I love your book!

- Thank you.

- Fun book, it's more like a comic book than a cookbook.

- It is.

- So, I'm so excited.

We're making a wonderful vegetarian meal.

But we're making a drink first.

What are we makin'?

- We are making my Kentucky Lemonade.

So we're gonna roast lemons, add some beets into it, and have this delicious Kentucky Bourbon Lemonade.

- So, we need vanilla bean?

- One vanilla bean.

- Did you know about this trick?

I just learned this trick.

You know how you buy vanilla bean, and it's all dry and crackly?

- Yep.

- Well, if ya put a little bourbon-- - Oh, we like that.

- I like the bourbon.

In the bottom of the glass, and then you just turn it around every so often in the cupboard, it stays nice and pliable.

- I love it.

- And then you get to, as you said, you get to drink the bourbon.

- I wanna drink the bourbon.

- (laughs) Yeah, vanilla bourbon.

Why not?

You need me to get you?

- I need some sugar and water.

- OK, so let me get you the water is here.

How did you come up with this idea?

To roast lemons?

- We wanted to bring out a little bit more of a citrus flavor and the sweetness in the lemons.

So, we figured that roasting would start to caramelize it a little.

- Oh, that's so great.

You know what I'm confused about though?

So, I just dump this on top?

- Just dump it in.

- OK. Is how do the lemons get caramelized when there's water in there?

- We're just gonna caramelize the top.

And it's just like roasting a vegetable, it just, it works.

- And just one lone vanilla bean, huh?

- One lone vanilla bean.

You don't want it to be too vanilla-y, it's not a sweet drink.

- Yeah.

So, I'm gonna open this up, and you're gonna, we're gonna do this together.

OK. All right.

- Great.

Takes about 45 minutes at 375 degrees.

- So, tell me about this pasta?

Let me come on down.

I'm gonna give you some of these.

You're gonna show me how you want them.

These are the cutest little zucchini I ever saw - I know.

They're almost too cute to eat.

- I know.

But we're gonna do it.

I'm gonna watch how you slice it, and I'm gonna do the same.

- OK, so this is our zucchini pasta with our angel hair noodles in a garlic labna sauce.

- You know what's interesting?

I have to say, I've eaten at Amanda's restaurant and my meathead husband was wild about it., - I love that!

- I thought we were gonna have to go out for steak afterwards.

You know, but he was just, he just thought it was so great.

- We try to use, add the vegetable in as many different ways as possible and bring out as many different textures.

- I think you do some of the most creative cooking I've ever seen with vegetables.

- Thank you.

- But, let's get these guys on.

(gentle instrumental music) You want about two tablespoons?

And some salt?

You do the salting.

And then we're gonna, we've been heating up the grill.

So can I just dump them in?

- Just dump 'em in.

Don't worry about laying them?

- No.

- I'll try to flatten them.

- So, this is called a spiralizer.

And you can pretty much spiralize any hard vegetable.

So, I'm just gonna cut the ends off.

And you're just gonna pop this straight in the middle here.

And then, this is gonna click on.

- Oh, even I could do this.

Whoa!

- And then they just start to come out.

- So it comes out the other end?

- Yeah, they are incredibly long so it's like one giant piece.

- Wow!

Now, we're gonna use these as our pasta right?

- Yeah, along with the spaghetti.

We're gonna actually add some capellini, angel hair pasta?

- Yep.

- Are we gonna cook that?

- Nope, it's gonna cook down a little when we add it to the pasta.

- We wanna get a little bit of grill marks on these right?

- A little.

But they're almost there.

They're gonna go pretty fast.

- OK. (steady beating instrumental music) Let's get the sauce going.

So I'm gonna get the, we need to mince some garlic, right?

- Yep.

- Should I start heating this burner up for our sauce?

- Yeah.

- OK. And we want some, we're gonna get some oil in there in a minute.

I do wanna get the rest of these zucchini out.

- So, the oil's pretty hot, you can see it.

I'm just gonna add in.

- And then you can grab the, oh you're gonna add the saffron first.

- Just a tiny pinch of it.

- Now, we are not using regular yogurt.

We are using something that you call labna?

- Exactly.

It's sort of a Middle Eastern style strained yogurt.

- OK, so labna is different then Greek yogurt?

You said Greek yogurt has additives.

- It tends to have some additives in it.

This is just pure milk that's been strained.

- I think this is a better tool.

And it's about a cup and a half we're adding I think?

- Yeah.

- You said this tends to split less.

- Exactly.

It'll stay together.

Whereas Greek yogurt, if you use it, you can, you just have to be much more gentle with it.

It will split into two.

Go 'head.

- Do you want all of this water?

- Ah, I think we're good for the moment.

- That's so, do you need salt?

- Yes.

- OK.

It's just garlic, saffron, labna.

And where do you buy it?

- You can find it now at supermarkets, or to the fancier supermarkets.

- More water or good?

- A little bit more water.

- OK. And then what do we do?

Do we turn it off and then just quick heat it?

Or do we just let it heat of the pasta, warm it?

- We can turn it off as soon as this is stirred in.

You can see it's like creamy, but it's not a cheese sauce.

It's nice, and it's gonna have a little bit of a sour tang to it.

- Yes.

So you know what?

I think let's tidy up and check the lemonade.

- OK, perfect.

(lighthearted instrumental music) Well, that is so interesting how it does get all sort of caramelized on top.

- You can see it.

It's starting to get dark.

- Wow.

OK, so we're gonna drop the pasta?

- Exactly.

- And we're using angel hair?

- Yeah.

- And I'm salting the water.

How much do you think?

- Just a small handful.

- More than that?

- Nope, I think that's perfect.

- Really?

So this is just sort of zucchini helper?

- Exactly, just bulking it up a little.

- You could do all zucchini noodles though?

Let me give it a stir.

- You could.

This makes it a little bit more like a meal if you have some real pasta in there.

- You have something more substantial.

OK, so I'm giving it a stir, this only takes about three minutes.

- Exactly.

- And let's check the lemonade.

OK, so now we strained it.

- Exactly.

- Do you need help there?

- No, I think I've got it.

- I just don't know how you come up with these ideas, I really don't.

To caramelize lemons with water in there, it's just so interesting.

- Well, it's a lot easier than squeezing out all the juice.

Right?

- Right.

OK, there we go.

So, now yeah you just wanna pop that in here.

And we'll make ourselves a cocktail.

- It's cocktail time.

- This is your Kentucky Bourbon Lemonade cocktail.

- Exactly.

So, we're gonna start with two ounces of bourbon in each one.

Two ounces, three ounces.

It depends on what kind of day you've had.

Right?

- Yeah, I was gonna sat what kind of mood you're in.

- And after that, you can sort of eyeball the rest.

- Eyeball.

Now as you add the beet juice, let's talk about it.

So, this is actually pink lemonade?

- It is pink lemonade.

- Because you've either roasted the beets and pureed it in one of those super-mixers.

Or you just bought beet juice somewhere?

- Exactly.

That's what's really nice about the world today, there are juice shops everywhere.

- Everywhere.

Then the lemon.

That's beautiful already.

Except that it's alcoholic, I'd say this would be a great drink for kids.

It's so pretty.

- (laughs) We do make a virgin one without the alcohol.

- Yeah, and you don't tell them there's beets in there?

- Exactly.

Soda water, or seltzer.

And then some lemon-lime soda.

- Oh, I can't wait to try that.

But we need to get the rest of our ingredients ready for the pasta.

- Yep.

- So, we need some zest Do some mint, and I'm gonna do some lemons.

I should have zested this first, but I was too enthusiastic and cut it right in half.

And this is the garnish?

- This is the garnish.

- Wow, that mint smells so good as soon as you just ripped it.

- And you don't have to be finicky about how you mince it.

It's gonna add a nice lively note to it.

- OK, so we need to juice this.

We need a couple of tablespoons.

Do you wanna juice this and I'm gonna drain our pasta 'cause I know it's gonna be done.

And then, I add that right to the zucchini noodles?

- Yep exactly.

And it's gonna help them cook down a little.

- OK. Should I try to get it really dry?

- Nope, a little bit of wet is good.

- OK, 'cause it's also got this starch on it which is gonna help.

And now our sauce goes in?

- Yep.

- I can't believe how that yogurt stayed together.

'Cause the general rule with the yogurt that most of us use is that it separates when it heats.

Is that good enough?

or do you need it more sour?

It's more sour, so it's nice.

And this goes in?

- That goes in.

- Oh, this is so exciting.

Oh, and we just toss it up.

Wow!

That already gets an A+ in visuals.

- I know, right.

- OK, so let's bring down all our garnishes.

And I just very gently, get some of these big guys on top so they're accessible.

All right.

So how do we garnish?

- So then we're just gonna do-- - This is so exciting.

I have to say, I love your food.

- The mint, some lemon juice for acidity.

- I mean, who knew there were so many layers to vegetables?

- We have some micro-greens, they add a little bit of color and crunch.

- All right, I think we must go outside and dine outside.

- I love it.

- We need our cocktails.

I can't wait to taste this.

(lighthearted instrumental music) I feel like ladies who lunch.

Don't you?

- Yes.

- Do we ever lunch as ladies?

No.

This guy's gonna stay in there, there we go.

- Thank you.

- No, we're too busy.

This is so much fun just relaxing.

It's hard to tell what's the zucchini and what's the noodle.

All right.

Let's chow down.

Mmm, wow!

That yogurt sauce.

- It's good, right?

- And the lemon, fantastic.

Thank you so much for coming today.

- Thank you so much for having me.

This has been amazing.

- It's been so much fun, we get to lunch in the garden.

I'm Sara Moulton here with Amanda Cohen.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I'll see you next time for more of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

OK so, wow!

- Cheers.

- We haven't tried this yet.

We need to.

Oh my god!

That is so addictive.

- Isn't it?

It's very drinkable.

- Oh, a little too drinkable.

- [Voiceover] Sara's Weeknight Meals continues online.

For recipes, helpful tips, messages and lots more visit us on the web at saramoulton.com/weeknightMeals.

And go to our YouTube channel Sara's Weeknight Meals TV.

Funding provided by... - [Voiceover] Family owned and Indiana grown, Maple Leaf Farms is a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals providing a variety of duck products for home kitchens.

Maple Leaf Farms duck helps inspire culinary adventures everywhere.

Maple Leaf Farms.

- [VoiceoverÑ Suburu builds vehicles like the versatile Suburu Forester with symmetrical all-wheel drive and plenty of cargo room.

(upbeat instrumental music) A recipe made for whatever the day brings.

Suburu, a proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- [Voiceover] And thanks to the generous support of.