Kimberly Steele's Blog, page 24

Daily Vegan Lunch for 8 June, 2013: Fat Free Cucumber Pasta Salad

INGREDIENTS:

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 cup frozen corn, thawed in microwave and drained

3/4 cup green onion, chopped

1 cup carrots, chopped

4 cups cooked pasta

DRESSING INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup cilantro or parsley, minced

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon fennel

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside.  Chop all salad ingredients except corn.  Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl, toss to combine.  Mix dressing ingredients in a small bowl and pour over salad, stir well.  Chill for two hours before serving.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 7 June, 2013: Roasted Potato, Sunchoke, and Asparagus

INGREDIENTS:

4 – 6 small organic Yukon Gold potatoes or 2 large organic Russet potatoes, chopped with skin intact

1.5 cups sunchokes, unpeeled, chopped

10 stalks asparagus, chopped

2 tablespoons oil

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Combine all ingredients in a baking pan (I use my old Pyrex) and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Stir up the mixture and bake for 30 minutes more.

I prefer to eat this heated but it was also decent eaten cold for a picnic.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 6 June, 2013: Potato and Sunchoke Gnocchi

GNOCCHI INGREDIENTS:

2 cups chopped peeled potatoes

1 cup chopped UNPEELED sunchokes

Water for boiling, about 7 cups

2 cups all-purpose flour

MARINARA INGREDIENTS:

1 cup onion

2 teaspoons oil

2 cups tomato puree

3 cloves garlic

2-3 teaspoons Italian herbs (I used 1/4 teaspoon fennel, 1 teaspoon oregano, and 1 teaspoon basil)

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

DIRECTIONS:

For gnocchi, boil potatoes and unpeeled sunchokes together in a pot on high heat until the sunchokes are very tender, about 20 – 30 minutes.  Drain potatoes and sunchokes, set them aside in a large bowl and let them cool.  Mash the potatoes and sunchokes either by putting them in a food processor (in batches if necessary) or by mashing them with a fork.  Yes, there will be sunchoke skins floating in the mix but I never said I was Martha Stewart so unless you want to spend hours dealing with skinning sunchokes, a highly tedious task, just go with it.  Add the flour to the mashed mixture.  Mix it until just blended, it will become a stiff dough.

Roll the dough out into several long cylinder shapes, using more flour if it is sticky, on a cutting board.  Slice the dough into bits and pinch the ends of those bits.  You have now just made gnocchi.  Boil some more water on the stove.  Boil batches of gnocchi for 2 minutes until they float.  Once they float, take them out with a slotted spoon to drain them and they are ready to eat with sauce, oh wait, here’s how to make sauce:

Fry onion in a pan in oil on medium heat until onion is translucent.  Add Italian herbs and garlic, fry 30 seconds or less.  Add tomato puree, sugar, and salt, and heat through.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 5 June, 2013: Tofurky Sausage Quesadillas

INGREDIENTS FOR ONE QUESADILLA:

2 wheat tortillas

1/4 cup hummus plus 2 tablespoons hummus (I used red pepper hummus)

1/2 a Tofurky or other vegan sausage, chopped into small pieces

Oil for frying

Marinara sauce, for dipping

DIRECTIONS:

Spread one tortilla with 1/4 cup hummus.  Sprinkle chopped vegan sausage on the tortilla.  Spread other tortilla with 2 tablespoons hummus so quesadilla will stick together when you fry it.  Make it into a sandwich.

Fry the quesadilla on medium heat until slightly brown in oil — you can also avoid the oil entirely if you use a well-seasoned cast-iron pan or a nonstick pan.

Turn the quesadilla over after about one minute and fry it for 30 seconds.

Serve sliced with marinara sauce.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 4 June, 2013: Potato, Kale, and Basil Soup

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 cup onions, chopped

2 teaspoons oil

1.5 cups potatoes, not skinned, chopped (I used Yukon Gold)

1 cup celery, chopped

2 cups curly kale, torn into small pieces

1 cup carrots, chopped

5 cups water

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3/4 cup basil, finely shredded

1 vegan broth cube or 2 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Fry onion and potatoes in the bottom of a large pot in oil on medium heat until potatoes begin to brown slightly.  Turn heat to medium-high.  Add water, broth cube, celery, and carrots.  Cook at a slight boil until potatoes are tender.  Add kale.  Add garlic, basil, and salt to taste after letting it boil 2 more minutes.

This soup held up extremely well in the freezer.  Once thawed, the kale stayed green and the flavors were very subtle and nicely blended.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 3 June, 2013: Creamy Kale and Mint Salad with Avocado

 

INGREDIENTS:

About 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves or parsley if you don’t like mint

6 cups curly kale

1/2 avocado

1/2 cup sweet red bell pepper (I used roasted organic red bell pepper from a jar) chopped

3/4 cup green onion, chopped

DRESSING INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons sesame tahini (I made my own tahini in the blender with 2 cups sesame seeds, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and as much water as needed to turn it into a paste)

2 – 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 cloves fresh garlic, minced

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Spray kale with vegetable cleaning spray or a solution of 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water.  Rinse well.  Salt the wet kale with 1 teaspoon coarse or regular salt and work the kale with your hands, wringing it and twisting it.  This is called “massaging” kale and makes it much softer and more pleasant to eat.  Tear or chop kale into tiny pieces.  Chop mint.  1/2 cup of mint deflates into about 1/4 cup of mint once chopped.   Add mint, chopped red bell pepper, and green onion to kale in a large bowl and toss to combine.

Make dressing by mixing tahini, lemon juice, and fresh chopped garlic in a small bowl.  Dressing will be thick and creamy.  Pour over salad, add avocados, and toss again.  This keeps well in the fridge if you don’t add avocados — I just add avocado to the portion I am eating only.  Add salt if needed.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 2 June, 2013: Chewy Black Lentil Sausages

Hubby made a sandwich.

WET INGREDIENTS:

1 cup onion, chopped

2 teaspoons oil

1 cup cooked black or regular lentils

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 cup fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil (I used fresh)

1 teaspoon paprika or smoked paprika (I used smoked)

2 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon or 1 veggie broth cube

Salt to taste

2 cups cold water

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil, optional

DRY INGREDIENT:

3 cups vital wheat gluten flour

DIRECTIONS:

Chill a large mixing bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes.  Pre-fry onions in oil on medium heat until translucent.  Combine onion and all other wet ingredients in a blender, blend until it turns into a pureed thin soup.  Taste soup and add salt until it is a bit too salty.  Pour mixture into a covered bowl or into the cold mixing bowl already in the freezer.  Chill the resulting soup in the freezer for 25 minutes.  We are chilling all of this stuff because vital wheat gluten tends to solidify too fast & becomes harder to mix when it is warm, though it is fine to mix everything warm too.

Now for the big moment: Mix the gluten flour with the cold soup until well blended.  Shape into sausages and bake on greased cookie sheets or pans at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  I thought about casing these in cheesecloth and steaming them (I won’t use aluminum foil because I believe it causes brain problems) but today I did not have that sort of energy, I took a nice walk outside instead.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 1 June, 2013: Spicy Orange Vegan Unchicken

Orange Chicken is about as Chinese as Heidi Klum, however, if you miss that sticky-sweet Panda Express deep-fried mini sugar bombs on rice, this is for you.  I actually didn’t like this very much.  Fried food makes me a bit sad nowadays.  Though it imitates the real thing very well, I’m just not into greasy /sweet faux Chinese food like I was when I was a teenager.

UNCHICKEN INGREDIENTS:

1/2 package of Beyond Meat Strips (Grilled Flavor) cut into chunks OR 1.5 cups seitan or other chicken-y veggie meat

BATTER:

2 Egg Replacer eggs

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup water

SAUCE:

1 cup orange juice

1/3 cup brown sugar

Juice of 1/2 lemon or 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Slices of fresh ginger, about 1 tablespoon worth

3 dried chili pods or 1 tablespoon Sriacha or a few dashes Tabasco for heat, I used chili pods

1 green onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons arrowroot or cornstarch

DIRECTIONS:

Chop Beyond Meat or seitan, dredge in batter.  Heat 2 cups of oil and deep fry the pieces until crunchy, set them aside on a plate with a paper towel to drain.

Cook the orange juice in a small pot on medium heat with the chili pods and ginger chunks in it, you will later discard the pods and ginger.  Add sugar, lemon juice, and garlic, mix well.  Add arrowroot or cornstarch — the only advantage to using arrowroot is it provides a clearer, shinier sauce.  Add green onions, spoon sauce over fried unchicken with the ubiquitous white rice.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 31 May, 2013: Black Lentil Curry

 

INGREDIENTS:

2 teaspoons oil

1 cup onions, chopped

2 to 2.5 cups cooked black lentils

SPICES

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 cup cashews

1 broth cube or 2 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 to 1 cup water

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Black lentils need no presoaking.  1 cup dry lentils equals about 3.5 cups cooked.  Combine black lentils and 4 cups water in a pot on the stove and bring to a boil.  Turn heat to medium and simmer until black lentils are soft and absorb all the water, about 35 minutes.

In another pan, fry onions in oil until transparent on medium heat.  Add spices, stir until fragrant.  Add lentils, garlic, cashews, water, and broth cube or Better Than Bouillon paste.  Add 1/2 cup of the water.

Transfer mixture to a blender and puree until smooth.  Add more water if necessary or if you like a thinner curry.  Salt to taste, serve over rice.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 30 May, 2013: Beyond Meat Mango Curry

This would also be great with seitan or firm tofu standing in for Beyond Meat veggie chicken.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups mango

1 cup onion

3/4 cup coconut milk from a can

1/2 cup plant milk, I used soy milk

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon Sriacha (optional)

SPICES:

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon coriander

2 teaspoons amchur powder or juice of one lime

DIRECTIONS:

Pre chop mango and stir coconut milk, it usually separates. Fry onion in a large pan in oil until translucent, add spices and garlic. Add mango, coconut milk, and plant milk and Sriacha or hot sauce if you like things spicy. Heat through and stir. Add amchur powder or lime juice, stir well. Transfer mango mixture to blender, blend until very smooth, about 3 minutes. Cut Beyond Meat, seitan, or tofu into small bite sized pieces. Fry in a pan until heated through. Add the mango mixture to the faux chicken, heat through. Serve over rice.