Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Best Blackeyed Peas for Dinner

Happy New Year, Everyone! We actually had this dinner on Sunday, but we saved a couple of spoonfuls of lucky peas to eat today. I LOVE my copy of Alternative Vegan. It is full of Indian recipes which are easy to prepare, and no recipe contains tofu or faux meat so I can enjoy them all! When I saw the recipe for Blackeyed Peas Daal, I knew this would be the star of our New Year’s Dinner.




I can’t tell you how fabulous the flavor of this daal is. And I can’t wait to try many more recipes from this book.


To go with the daal, I made Palak Soyabina Panira from ED&BV.




This tofu, spinach, and tomato dish had a slightly different flavor from the daal because it had cinnamon and jalapeno in it. Dreena said she preferred this recipe with less tofu. I can tell you it is fantastic with NO tofu. We both loved this dish too.


Some basmati rice made for a perfect Indian plate.





To make the dinner completely special, I made VWAV Samosas with Coconut Mint Chutney. I wish you could have seen Chase’s face light up when he walked in and saw this on the table.



I wavered on whether or not to make these because I’ve never been able to keep filling inside any sort of pastry. Maybe since I only made a half batch I was able to focus long enough to fill 10 samosas. I didn’t lose one drop this time! These take awhile to prepare, but it’s totally worth it, especially when you’re told that your samosas are far better than any restaurant’s. (Thank you, Isa!)



I made a second loaf of bread from my new bread maker – Oatmeal bread. Isn’t it the cutest little loaf ball?!



And the texture was perfect.




I can’t give up treats cold turkey, so I made a batch of barely sweet gluten free muffins with chocolate chips and dried tart cherries.




Now it’s a new year. The holidays are over. It’s time to go back to work (sigh), back to the trainer, and back to good eating habits.

Again, Happy New Year, everyone, with wishes for a wonderful 2008. Don’t forget to eat your blackeyed peas!

29 comments:

Kate said...

Happy New Year! Your food looks amazing!

Amy said...

Ooo I have to get my hands on that book! I LOVE dishes without faux meat and tofu (well I love tofu but alas it doesn't love me).

Your post is making me super hungry (even though it's only just gone breakfast time :P)

LK Sisters said...

Happy New Year 2008!

We had our black-eyed pea fix today too! A great southern tradition!

Ruthie said...

DiAnn ~

I am overly envious of your 50 degree weather. :)

Ruthie

Dori said...

I want some of your lucky dahl. I made some Dreena mexi style casseroles yesterday and today, so no lucky beans here yet.... soon though very soon.

urban vegan said...

Those ARE the cutest loaves....And I love your new masthead. Happy New Year
!

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

I had black-eyed-peas for dinner too :o)

Hopefully they'll bring us lots of luck in the new year. Happy 2008!

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

Happy New Year! yr Indian meal looks fantastic! i want some of those samosas right NOW!

Ruby Red said...

your samosas and oatmeal bread look perfect! and what a tempting muffin. yum.

Elizabeth Joy said...

You can tell I'm not from the South, as I have never had black eyed peas on New Years. In fact, this is the first year I knew people ate them this time of year. Your Indian plate looks perfect. I love this kind of food because it is so nutritious and most of the recipes are ones that I can eat. No gluten. Tofu is ok with me, but I'm fine without it too. I think I'm going to have to look up that book. Where'd you get the muffin recipe from? It looks like one I need too.

Anonymous said...

yum, that bread look perfect as the rest of the food!! happy new year :)

Vegan_Noodle said...

I knew I could count on you to have black-eyed peas!! Such a wonderful southern tradition (that I've never participated in, no matter how much my mom tried, until this year). Indian food sounds great right now. I am really craving some dahl.
Those samosas look so tasty!! I agree, they are time consuming but wonderful. I made some quite awhile back and froze a bunch, now it's easy to enjoy them!

Happy New Year to you and Chase!

Sheree' said...

Your black eyed peas looks fabulous! Mine were so boring compared to yours. I love the samos too! I need to check the VWAV out of the library again. I am hoping that they have Alternative Vegan. I wish you a very Happy New Year.

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

absolute yummo to everything! I just learned recently that black-eyed peas were a new years thing and I wish I had used some in a recipe, but anyway, in dhal-form they look awesome. and your samosas look perfect!

Judy said...

That is a pretty cute loaf of bread. I wish I had a bread maker, I'm sure I could have some fun with it.

I made those samosas once, and I wasn't that impressed. Maybe I will make them again soon, but with more spices.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

mmm, the muffins, oatmeal bread (yes it IS quite cute, haha), Blackeyed Peas Daal, Samosas, and the Panira (glad to hear that it's great without the tofu, since I'm trying not to eat a lot of soy these days) look FABULOUS!! glad to see that you're still a culinary genius, in the new year :0D

MeloMeals said...

those peas look amazing! . wow.. and so does that bread.

It must be so hard to be a soy and gluten free vegan!

I love the Samosas.. it's so cool that Chase loves your cooking so much.

I'll have to check out that sagg recipe. I have my own... and it's great.. but I love looking at other recipes. I have the book.

Happy New Year!

Monika K said...

Oooh - I was just thinking about Samosas. Molly Katzen has a recipe I might try...thanks for the inspiration!

Happy, Merry New Year!

P.S. I've been having bread machine issues; do you make up your own recipes or are you using a bread machine cookbook? My last loaves didn't look as good as yours.

Anonymous said...

The samosas look delicious. I have a vegan recipe blog, add me to your blog roll if you like. Thanks!
http://raspberry.lemonsnowcone.com/

Ashasarala said...

I'll have to look into Alternative Vegan. I've been thinking about making Indian dishes. I haven't had one in a very, very long time and I miss it!

I've been seeing quite a few bread maker successes on these blogs and it makes me want to buy one. Ah, well. My heavy duty mixer will suffice for now!

aTxVegn said...

Eliz Joy - I have a book called *125 Best Quickbreads* which has a tiny gluten free section. I use that as a guideline sometimes to make my muffins. Sometimes I just use GF baking mix!

Monika - I have 3 bread machine books I like. When I had issues with my last bread maker, I just used the dough cycle, then shaped the loaf and let it rise again, then baked it in the oven at 375 for about 30 minutes.

Thanks, Anon - your blog looks nice!

Emilie said...

happy new year! here's to a delicious 2008.

Jackie said...

Happy New Year.

What wonderful food you have made. I really must also get a bread maker seeing my hand made versions are such a disaster LOL

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

I asked Santa for Alternative Vegan too! Somehow he misread my wish list because he gave me "50 Ways With Salmon"...what the HECK?

Glad to see the Daal turned out so yummy! I LOVE all of his recipes that I've tried so far!

vko said...

Happy Happy Happy New Year!

Your good luck black eyed peas look delicious- sounds like a great cook book. My eyes would light up to with those samosas & that yummy chutney.

Hope you & Chase had a nice holiday!

Anonymous said...

Hi - we had black-eyed peas for dinner too (it IS a southern thing!) but my family will only eat them in the form of Texas caviar. I've been eyeing that cookbook too because I don't care for the faux meats or tofu. It's on my wish list.

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

Happy New Year!

That looks like a yummy meal! I would love to try one of the samosa's!

I hope you will use your breadmaker a lot. It must be one of the only gadgets I have, that I don't relly use! A shame really!

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

Thanks for the reminder on blackeyed peas - I love them! I'm with Chase on the Samosas with Coconut Mint Chutney!! YuM! :)

Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan! said...

that black eyed pea daal looks and sounds amazing!

I am totally smitten with those samosas and made them for my sister's wedding. i still get rave reviews.

everything looks wonderful!