Saturday, December 18, 2010

Lentil-Potato-Kale Soup

I love lentils. So easy to use, so delicious & nutritious. This soup is chunky, robust, and flavorful, not to mention wicked easy and quick.

Ingredients
1 t olive or canola oil
1 small red onion, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
5-6 small to medium potatoes, scrubbed & diced
1.5 to 2 c dry masoor dal (red lentils with skins on) or french green/brown lentils
big bunch of kale, washed, destemmed, torn into small bits
15 oz can diced tomatoes
1-2 carrots, diced
4-5 large button mushrooms, chopped
8 c liquid (veg broth, water, or mixture of both)
Splash of sherry
1 T Bragg's liquid aminos
1 t cumin
1/2 t sage
1/2 t smoked paprika
1/2 t celery seed

Method
Warm the oil in the bottom of a large pot. Add onions & mushrooms and cook over medium heat until softened. Add liquid, then add rest of ingredients. Stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for half an hour or until lentils and potatoes are done. Enjoy topped with croutons.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Vegetables

Adapted from a Whole Foods recipe. I recommend using golden beets unless you really like pink foods. I wish I had had golden beets on hand, but I’ve been getting all my fresh veg from Boston Organics lately, so I don’t get much choice! This was good and seemed to go over well at the department lunch today. I had to add the maple syrup because mine was a little bitter without it - not sure if that was from the quinoa (which can be bitter sometimes) or perhaps the rutabaga.

Ingredients
3 beets
4 teaspoons vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
3 carrots, chopped
3 turnips/rutabagas/radishes, chopped
1 cup uncooked quinoa
Juice of 1 lemon (I used 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar instead)
2 cups gluten-free vegetable stock or water
A splash of sherry (optional)
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley (I omitted this)
1-3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
2 tablespoons maple syrup (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 350F. Rub beets all over with 1 teaspoon of the oil, then season with salt and pepper. Wrap in foil, place on a small baking sheet and roast for about 1 hour, until beets are tender. Allow beets to cool and then peel and chop them. Meanwhile, toss remaining veggies in remaining 3 teaspoons oil, season with salt and pepper and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Rinse quinoa well in a strainer. Put quinoa, lemon juice/cider, stock or water and thyme (and sherry, if using) into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until quinoa is tender. Remove from heat and set aside to let cool to room temperature. Put quinoa, roasted carrots and parsnips into a large bowl and toss to combine. Add beets, onions, parsley, walnuts, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper, mix well and serve.

Serves 6-8

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Six-ingredient easy Sunday supper

 Homemade seitan, curry sauce, cooked brown rice, snap beans from the garden, Chinese broccoli (gai lan) from the farmer's market.


Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Tempeh Aji Amarillo

Tempeh Aji Amarillo from Viva Vegan! With grilled zucchini, portabellas, and corn on the cob. Both the corn and zucchini are local.

Thanks to Vegan.com for the cookbook! We will get a lot of use out of it and will enjoy it greatly.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Easy wrap

Today’s lunch: baked tofu, sundried tomato & basil hummus, lettuce and tomatoes and basil from my garden, on a whole wheat tortilla. The tomato at the bottom of the pic is a “black cherry” variety that is super sweet!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Pesto pasta w/ zucchini & peas

This turned out so nicely. Used the pesto recipe from Veganomicon, whole wheat noodles, and zucchini from my garden.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Chickpea, Rice & Tabouli Salad

Chickpea, Rice & Tabouli Salad
3/4 c cooked black or brown rice (black rice = more antioxidants!)
3/4 c cooked garbanzo beans
3/4 c tabouli
2 large carrots, peeled, diced
1 c sugar snap peas
1 c green beans, snapped
1/2 c marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
1 small cucumber, chopped

I steamed the carrots, snap peas, and green beans for about a minute and then ran them under cold water before adding (I like how it releases the sugars, but it’s not really necessary). You may want to chill for a while before serving.
Serves 4-6.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Black bean & kale quesadilla

Truly simple — kinda like making a grilled cheese, just with a few extra ingredients.

Ingredients:
2 whole wheat tortillas
6 large kale leaves, de-stemmed and shredded/chopped
1/2 red onion, diced
cumin to taste (I used about 2 tsp)
chili pepper to taste (I used about 1 tsp)
diced garlic to taste (I used about 1 tsp)
fat-free refried black beans (you’ll need about 1/4 of a can or so, per quesadilla - about 4 oz or 1/2 cup)
Daiya shredded dairy-free cheddar cheese (optional)
Salsa, cilantro, guacamole — optional but delicious (for topping your quesadilla)

Method:
Warm up a flat-bottomed pan over medium heat, then spritz with a little olive or canola oil. Add your onions and saute until transluscent. Add the garlic and stir, then add kale and saute until tender. If you like a lot of cilantro flavor and you have some to spare, you can toss some chopped cilantro in there at the end. Spread a layer of refried black beans on one side of a tortilla. Once your kale & onions are done, scoop them out of the pan into a bowl and set aside. Wipe your pan & spritz with oil again. Place the tortilla without the beans on it into the pan and sprinkle with the Daiya if you’re using it, then top with the kale mixture. Gently place the black-bean tortilla on top. Cook until the bottom tortilla is browned to your liking. Place a plate over the top and hold in place with one hand while flipping the pan upside-down with the other hand. You’ll have the quesadilla on your plate. Spritz the pan with a tiny bit more oil and gently slide the quesadilla back into the pan, uncooked side down. Cook until nicely browned, then serve topped with salsa, guac, cilantro, mole sauce, enchilada sauce, or nothing at all.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Cilantro

Cilantro! I love it. It makes all my stirfries much nicer. I would love to have a constant supply but haven’t had that much luck growing it so far.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Catch-up Blogging

May was a bit of a tough month in terms of travel and general busy-ness, hence the lack of posts.  I don't cook as much when I'm traveling or tired from travel.  I did do some cooking though, so here are some recent-ish highlights:

Deviled Beans

This was a successful attempt to make a good spread for crackers. In fact, Mark liked this recipe so much, he tried to make his own version, without quite so much luck. The basic recipe involves cooking white (soy) or beige (pinto) beans, then blending them with some Bragg liquid aminos, garlic, sundried tomatoes, a dash of liquid smoke, lemon juice +/- apple cider vinegar, and various herbs. I called it "deviled beans" because it reminded me of deviled ham from a can, which my mom used to eat all the time.


Waffles & Sausage

We hosted a waffle party on World Vegan Waffle Day (May 29 this year) and had a total blast. We had Chocolate-pecan waffles (from Veganomicon); Lemon-corn waffles (from waffleparty.com); buckwheat-barley waffles (from waffleparty.com); a gluten-free waffle from Pam; lots of amazing fruit toppings; tofu scramble; potatoes with herbs; tempeh "bacon" and regular tempeh... it was amazing!

At right are the chocolate-pecan waffle and the buckwheat-barley waffle with strawberries from my garden plus homemade vegan breakfast sausage from this recipe. The sausage was AMAZING. I must admit, it's probably not cost-effective to make your own vegan sausage... but it's fun, and I like knowing there are just healthy real ingredients in there.

And finally, we come to tonight's dinner: Basil Tempeh Noodles. I put this in the category of "better than restaurant" food -- this is the kind of thing that ruins me for going out to eat, because I can so easily make something that's less salty, more healthful, mostly organic, cheaper, and lower in calories in about 20-30 minutes.

Ingredients:
Extra-wide Thai-style rice noodles, about 2/3 of a box (300 grams) (more or less is fine, depending on how you like your noodles-to-veggies ratio)
Organic soy tempeh, 8 oz, diced
Canola oil, 1 tbsp
Soy sauce, low sodium, 2 tbsp
Rice Vinegar, 2 tbsp
Minced garlic, about 2 tbsp
Minced ginger, about 1 tbsp
Rooster Sauce, to taste
Trader Joe's Thai Red Curry Sauce, about half a jar, with water to fill the other half
365-brand frozen organic Chinese style stir-fry vegetables, 1 bag
Big bunch of basil, cut in thin ribbons


Method:
Note: I use a an unconventional way of cooking rice noodles -- you may want to follow the directions on the package instead. First, I put the noodles in a microwave-safe bowl and add hot water to cover, swirling the noodles around to make sure they don't stick. Then I stick the bowl in the microwave for 2 minutes, check & stir, then another 2 minutes. After that, I drain and add to my wok/skillet.

While the noodles are cooking, start the tempeh. Pre-heat the skillet over med-high, add the soy sauce, vinegar, and oil, and stir to mix. Add the diced tempeh and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned. Add the garlic, ginger, and Rooster Sauce and stir. Add the veggies and stir. Add the rice noodles and stir. Add the curry sauce and stir. Add the basil and stir. Lower heat to medium, cover, and cook for a couple of minutes until everything is done! Stir, stir, and stir some more... add water if needed... then serve!


Makes about 4 servings. Each serving is about 312 calories, 12 g fat (3.6 g sat fat), 37 g carb (4 g fiber), and 14 g protein.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Vegan Osso Bucco

Annie at Meet the Shannons is veganizing her way through the Betty Crocker cookbook. Kind of a cool project. Since I had some Gardein Beefless Tips in the freezer, I tried out the Osso Bucco recipe the other day. It came out a little salty, but seriously delicious and easy to make. Next time I'll cut back on the boullion. I served the mashed potatoes and beefless tips with side of golden beet and asparagus from my garden (steamed), which was perfect.

Just goes to show that almost any recipe can be veganized with good results.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Walnut-fruit-brownie bites (vegan and gluten-free)

This is a modification of the raw choco-walnut-fruit balls I love so much. I started out trying to make another batch of those, but I was out of dates and apricots, and the mixture didn't do what I expected. So I baked it and ended up with a flourless brownie-type thing. Super delicious, healthy, and rich-tasting. Very dense, so I cut into tiny bite-sized things and try not to eat more than 2 at a sitting! All measurements are approximate.

3 c walnuts
2 c prunes
1 c dried blueberries
1.5 c dried cranberries
2 T flaxseed meal
2 T agave syrup
2 T cocoa powder
1/4 c water or as needed

Pre-heat oven to around 275F to 300F. Pulse the walnuts in a food processor until finely chopped. Add fruit, flax, agave, and cocoa and process for 30 seconds. Add water and continue processing until you have a thick, sticky, "dough". Line a rectangular baking dish with parchment paper. Press "dough" into pan - ideally, your dough will end up being about an inch thick. Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until you feel like they're done.* Cut into 24 bite-sized pieces! Will keep for a while in the fridge.

Nutrition data for 1/24th of above recipe: 197 cal, 10.3 g fat, (1.0 g sat, 7.1 g polyunsat, 1.4 g monounsat), 0 cholesterol, 2.3 mg sodium, 176.7 mg potassium, 24.9 g carb, 3.4 g fiber, 18.3 g sugars, 3.0 g protein

*I must say that one of the things I love about cooking vegan is not having to worry as much about food safety issues. With something like this, there are no eggs or butter or other things that might not be good if you don't cook them well. You can eat the "dough" raw if you like!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Square lunch

Today's lunch was soooo good. On the right is leftover curried red lentil soup with red potatoes, kale, tomatoes, carrots, curry, cumin, and garam masala (modified version of Liz's recipe here).

On the left is a grilled avocado and white-bean spread sandwich. The whole-wheat flatbread (available at Costco) is only 110 calories per piece, each of which makes a fantastic sandwich - a nice way to cut the calories (vs. 2 pieces of regular bread). The white-bean spread is something I made with my new food processor that I got for my birthday this year (which I LOVE). It contains soybeans, Italian herbs, garlic, olive oil, Bragg's liquid aminos, and a little apple cider vinegar. Blended together, the result is sort of like a soft herbed cheese (minus the cruelty, fat and cholesterol, and manure lagoons).

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Raw choco-walnut-fruit balls


These are super easy to make (even in a crappy food processor), really delicious, and not bad for you! Quantities are approximate and can be modified to your taste. You might also want to play around with other fruits or nuts.

4 handfuls (about 2 c) of walnuts
4 dates, pitted
6-8 dried apricots
1-2 handfuls (about 1 c) Craisins
2 T flaxseed meal
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 T agave syrup

In a food processor, process walnuts for about a minute or two, until they are finely chopped. Add dates, apricots, Craisins, and flaxseed meal and process until nicely blended and finely chopped (another minute or two). Add cocoa powder and agave, and process until well blended (maybe 30 seconds). Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Using your hands or a pair of spoons, take hunks of the mixture, form into golf-ball-sized balls, and place on the cookie sheet. Place in the freezer for an hour or two, then put into a storage container.

Makes about two dozen balls.

According to SparkPeople's recipe calculator, each ball is about 100 cal, 7g fat, 11.7g carb, 1.8g fiber, 8.7g sugars, 2g protein.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Kale, Beans, & Quinoa

Ingredients:

2 c veg broth
1 t olive oil
1 bunch kale, washed, destemmed, and torn into small pieces
1 onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
2 c cooked beans (I used soybeans, but any kind would work)
1-2 links veggie sausage, diced (I used homemade)
1.5 c cooked quinoa
2 T fresh cilantro (optional)

Method:

In a large sauté pan with lid, saute the onion and sausage in a little olive oil over medium heat. Once onions are softened and sausage is browned, add garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add broth, carrots, beans, and kale. Reduce heat, cover, and cook until kale is done. Stir in quinoa and garnish with cilantro.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Ripoff: lunch at Naked Fish

Today, I had the misfortune to have lunch at Naked Fish (it was a business meeting, not my choice). I knew in advance that there was really only one option for an entree on the menu: the Grilled Vegetable Napoleon. I called ahead to confirm that it was vegan. The dish included asparagus, beefsteak tomato, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, balsamic and tomato salsa, and some olive oil -- and that was it. It was beautifully presented, with the eggplant, tomato, and a portobello mushroom in a nice stack in the center and the other vegetables arranged around it. However, it was probably the least satisfying meal I've ever had. Totally insufficient.

Hey, Naked Fish -- how about including some cannellini beans or a nice slab of smoked grilled tofu and serving the whole thing on a bed of quinoa? Now, THAT would be worth $10.75. But grilled vegetables and some salsa? No matter how pretty on the plate, that's a ripoff.

PS I had to ask the waitress to bring some rolls. They were cold.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Easiest stir-fry ever

This is my lazy cheater stir-fry recipe. Dinner's ready in 15 minutes as long as you have some leftover rice. If not, you can make this with rice noodles (the really fine ones that cook in 3 minutes in some boiling water) and it'll be just as quick.

Ingredients

1 package baked tofu, diced
Lots of veggies (Kirkland's Stir Fry Veggies frozen mix used here)
Leftover rice
2 T tamari or Bragg's liquid aminos
2 T rice vinegar
2 T rice cooking wine
1 T sweet chili sauce (or to taste)
1-2 t garlic (jarred minced)
1-2 t ginger (jarred minced)

Method

Put everything in a large saute pan or wok and stir-fry over med-high heat until the veggies are done. Serve garnished with liberal amounts of cilantro, lime juice, sriracha sauce, and/or chopped peanuts. That's it!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Black bean soup in the slow cooker

Today's recipe is inspired by a bunch of different black bean soup recipes I've seen over the years. The oranges come from Mollie Katzen's version. I'm making this to take into work tomorrow, so it is intended to be about 8-10 servings.

Ingredients

1 onion, diced
1 T diced garlic (about 8-10 cloves)
2 large carrots, diced
1-2 large bell peppers, diced
8 cups broth/water
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
2 cans black beans (rinsed & drained if you want to cut down on the salt)
1/2 c dried lentils, rinsed & picked over
1 c frozen corn
1 T cumin
2 t coriander
1 jalapeno, diced or 1 t red chili flakes or a small amount of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
2 oranges or 4 clementines, peeled, seeded, & chopped

Method

Combine everything except the oranges into the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4 hours. Stir in oranges about an hour before serving. You can add some cooked brown rice toward the end if you want to make it heartier. You can also blend half (an immersion blender works well for this) to make it smoother. Top with cilantro tofu cream and/or vegan cheddar cheese and/or chopped green onions and/or cilantro. Serve with cornbread!