Kimberly Steele's Blog, page 38

Daily Vegan Lunch for 29 January, 2013: Hashy Mashy

INGREDIENTS:

1 large sweet potato, stabbed with fork at least 4 times and cooked in microwave for 4-6 minutes

3-4 small Yukon gold potatoes, stabbed with fork and cooked together in microwave for 4-6 minutes

1 large carrot, chopped (about 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 onion, minced

I teaspoon Old Bay seasoning (a mixture of celery salt and paprika with a dash of cayenne)

Additional salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Cook potatoes in the microwave while you steam the carrot in the bottom of a very large frying pan in 1/2 cup of water over medium-high heat. Once all the water has evaporated, add onions and oil, allow them to fry until nearly caramelized, stirring as you go. Allow the potatoes to cool before chopping them on a cutting board and adding them to the carrot/onion mixture. Add Old Bay seasoning last, then taste-test and add salt if necessary.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 28 January 2013: No-Quesadillas

Nacho cheez

This time I’ve come up with a good one, seriously, I think this nacho cheez stuff would make balsa wood taste okay. I made up this vegan cheez recipe on my own but it would not have been an idea in my head without this fabulous cookbook:

The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stephaniak

I love having all the loveliness of cheese without those nasty side effects like instant-permanent weight gain, heart disease, and CANCER (casein, found in heavy concentrations in cheese, is a known carcinogen) and even better, no sweet little baby cow was ripped away from his mother to become a veal calf for my cheese.

If you want to know more about how to lose cow-breast cheese, listen to this free podcast by Colleen Patrick Goudreau: Vegetarian Food for Thought Podcast

INGREDIENTS:

Nacho Cheez

1 cup cashews

1 cup cooked, rinsed chickpeas

3/4 cup chopped sweet red bell pepper

3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 carrot, 3/4 cups chopped and cooked in 1/3 cup water in the microwave for 1.5 minutes

1 Teaspoon of taco seasoning (mixture of cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, and a dash of spunky cayenne)

1/4 cup sesame seeds, can substitute tahini

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Corn or wheat tortillas

Oil for frying

DIRECTIONS:

Combine all nacho cheez ingredients, including carrots and their cooking water, in a food processor and blend until velvety smooth. The amount of time this takes will depend on your blender. Scrape down the sides if necessary and add water by the 1/8 cup if the mixture is too thick.

Mixture will be thick and happy orange. Spread the mixture on a tortilla and make a sandwich with another tortilla. Fry in a little heated oil on a griddle over medium-high heat for a mere 30-45 seconds, they brown fast. Flip and fry the other side. Yum.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 27 January, 2013: Garlic Mustard Greens and Avocado

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups mustard greens, washed and thinly sliced

4 cups water with 1 tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 small avocado, peeled, pitted, and chopped

1 tablespoon oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

DIRECTIONS:

Boil the water in a large stockpot, salt will dissolve. Add the greens for about 1-2 minutes as the water boils, they will wilt and become dark green. Drain the greens in a colander and let them cool.

Saute the garlic in a large fry-pan until fragrant, add greens and toss. They will already be salted from the salty water. Toss in the avocado.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 26 January, 2013: Fat-Free Cauliflower-Potato Curry

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup water

1.5 cups raw cauliflower, chopped

1.5 cups Yukon gold potatoes, pre-cooked in the microwave

1/2 an onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

1 15 ounce can tomato sauce or puree

Spices:

OPTIONAL: 1/4 – 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon coriander

3 cloves fresh garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan over medium-high heat, saute onion and cauliflower. You are actually braising them, which means steaming them in a fry pan. Meanwhile, stab 2-3 small potatoes with a fork and put them in the microwave for 3 minutes. Keep cooking the potatoes a minute at a time until they seem soft. Chop the potatoes on a cutting board and add them to the cauliflower mixture. Make a well in the center of the vegetables, turning the heat down if necessary to medium. Add the spices in the well you’ve made, but don’t let them burn. Add the tomato sauce and garlic and heat through. Add salt and pepper to finish.

I ate this on a bed of wilted organic spinach and millet (it is all about millet right now) though it would be even better over jasmine or basmati rice.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 25 January, 2013: Apple Cinnamon Millet

Millet is a very easily digestible grain that has a lot of nutrients, including serotonin and magnesium, both of which reduce depression!  Even though it is often thought of as birdseed in the US, millet is a staple in many African countries.  It’s even gluten-free!  I like millet plain, however, I really like it sweetened, to me it screams “breakfast cereal”.  I know this is supposed to be vegan lunch.  I tend to eat dinner for breakfast though so this isn’t departing from my weirdo patterns.

3 cups water

1 cup millet

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1 apple, chopped

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 Tablespoons maple syrup

Combine millet and water in a pot (or in rice cooker) and bring to a soft boil, turn heat to medium and cover.  Millet will absorb all water and be cooked in about 25 minutes.  Toss millet with apple, raisins, cranberries, cinnamon, and syrup. Tastes great warm or chilled.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 24 January, 2013: Split-Pea Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 cups split peas

1/2 large onion, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 large or 2 small carrots, chopped

2 veggie broth cubes

7 cups water

DIRECTIONS

Place all ingredients in a crockpot and cook for 8-10 hours on low or 5 hours on high. If you don’t have a crockpot, go get one, because they are cheap. Just kidding. Saute the onion in oil or water over medium-high heat in a large stock pot. Add all other ingredients and cook uncovered for 3 hours, periodically checking and stirring so it doesn’t boil over. Soup is done when lentils turn to porridge, a.k.a. “peas porridge hot” like the nursery rhyme.

Then put ketchup and soy baco bits (the ones in the picture are Carne de Soya) in it…yum!

Daily Vegan Lunch for 23 January, 2013: Fat-free, Salt Free Carrot and Bean Chili

This is a good one! The natural sweetness of carrots and juicy mushrooms add so much flavor, you won’t miss the fat or salt. This was a wonderful chili to make this winter when it is so easy to put on weight because I’m trapped indoors.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup water

1 cup of chopped onion

1 large carrot, chopped (about 1.5 cups)

2 cups cooked, rinsed, drained red beans — I used kidney beans, you could use chili beans, adzuki, pinto, or a mix.

1.5 cups chopped button mushrooms

1 15 ounce can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon smoked or regular paprika

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

DIRECTIONS

In a large pot over medium heat, braise onions and carrot in 1/4 cup of water. Add mushrooms and stir as water evaporates. Make a well in the center of the mushroom/carrot/onion mixture and add spices, they will saute a little and release their fragrance. For people who live in the US, you can also use any generic brand of taco seasoning instead of the spices. Add drained beans and tomato sauce, stir well until heated through.

What’s that grain? you might ask. It’s millet. To be featured in a future Daily Vegan Lunch.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 22 January 2013: Spinach, Chard, and Tofu and Rice

INGREDIENTS

1 cup rice, cooked

3 cups organic spinach leaves or 1 cup frozen spinach, thawed

2 cups chard, julienned

1.5 cups firm tofu, drained and sliced

1/2 cup onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 Tablespoon of sesame seeds (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Heat oil in a pan. Add onion and tofu in oil over medium-high heat, add tofu. Tofu will brown. If you have trouble with tofu sticking to the bottom of the pan, you might not have waited long enough for oil to become hot or you might need to buy a firmer brand of tofu or pat the slices dry with a paper towel before cooking. Alternately, bread tofu in a mixture of equal parts onion powder and nutritional yeast and/or breadcrumbs for easily frying.

Turn heat down to medium and add spinach and chard. Stir, adding soy sauce, vinegar, and garlic. Add sesame seeds if using. Serve with rice or any whole grain.

Kiki Lulz January 2013

She was being bratty in this one!

This pose is very Kiki.

Daily Vegan Lunch for 21 January, 2013: Jasmine Rice and Tofu Chard Rolls

INGREDIENTS

For 8 chard rolls (I only ate 3)

8 leaves Swiss Chard

2 cups jasmine or basmati rice, pre-cooked

1.5 cups firm tofu

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

I tablespoon soy sauce

I tablespoon nutritional yeast

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Fry onions and garlic over medium heat in a frying pan until onion is transparent. Crumble tofu into the pan and stir, add soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and spices.

Heat a large pot of water to boiling and immerse chard leaves, one at a time, for 30 seconds. Put wilted chard leaves on a plate to cool and drain.

Assemble chard rolls by taking about two tablespoons of the tofu mixture and two tablespoons rice and rolling them up in a chard leaf like a loose burrito.