Curried Collards and Chickpeas

I am trying to keep this blog alive while I prepare for Chase’s wedding. Please bear with me for a couple more weeks!

I have only one food pic and recipe for you today, and it was so delicious I’ve made it twice. It’s super easy to prepare and you can use any greens you have on hand. I know it’s just beans ‘n greens, but it’s really yummy.



Curried Collards and Chickpeas

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
¼ cup veggie broth
1 t. your favorite curry blend
½ t. turmeric
1 bunch greens, trimmed and chopped
1-15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1-15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
S&P to taste

Directions:
Cook the onion and garlic, then add in the broth and spices. Mix well. Add in the greens, tomatoes, and chickpeas and heat through. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

My sister from Alabama will be here for spring break week, and she will help me pick out my dress for the wedding. The invitations are out, and aside from some occasional drama, all the plans are in place and we should have a beautiful wedding.

I apologize again for neglecting blogland. I promise to catch up as soon as I can!

Tandoori Vegetable Bake, Collards, and Fried Squash

An eclectic meal, but a very very delicious one. Of course I prepared all this in the hopes my son would join me for dinner, but I guess Sunday dinners aren’t just going to happen for us anymore.

The Tandoori Vegetable Bake was easy to put together. Combine chopped broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, red peppers, carrots, fire roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, and a can of chickpeas in a big bowl and season with salt and pepper. Mix in cashew cream sauce (1/2 cup ground cashews and 1 cup nondairy milk) and a heaping tablespoon of tandoori spice mix. Put in a big casserole and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly (and your entire house smells divine).




This was a huge casserole! Thankfully Chase was able to come to dinner on Tuesday and eat leftovers with me. I served it with rice and then he took all the rest home with him. Yum.

For my Sunday dinner though, I found two recipes in Local Bounty I wanted to try. I had mentioned earlier that I wanted to make squash chips from my Flying Saucer squash, but I decided to fry them instead. I know! I never fry anything but this recipe was too intriguing. It’s used with several different veggies in the book and I will certainly find more veggies to fry this way again. The batter is so unique (it’s cooked!), and instead of flour the squash was coated in masa harina. Now I really sag at frying because I never do it, but this was the best fried anything I’ve ever eaten. Chase really missed out on these!

Also from Local Bounty was a simple recipe for collard greens. The *secret* was to cut the collards into thin ribbons.

Then they are just sautéed in oil and garlic. I don’t know that they tasted any better, but they did taste good and they do look very nice. And I ate them all. So here’s my lovely little Sunday dinner plate.

This Sunday is another Austin Food Bloggers potluck. The theme is beer and it should be lots of fun.

Daring Cooks Challenge - Indian Dosas

This was my favorite challenge so far. Thank you Debyi from Healthy Vegan Kitchen for this vegan, gluten free, and low fat recipe from the refresh cookbook by Ruth Tal. It may not sound as though this was much of a challenge for me since it is exactly the way I normally cook, but it was my first attempt at dosas. I’ve made Indian food numerous times, so I decided to use the recipes Debyi provided for the entire dish, with the addition of potatoes to my filling since that is Chase’s favorite.

First I made the chickpea filling. It was easy to make and quite good. I found it a little salty on its own, but perfect when eaten with the dosas. I made a half recipe because, well it’s just me here!

Curried Garbanzo Filling

This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don't be afraid to make a full batch.

5 cloves garlic

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

1 carrot, peeled and finely diced

1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)

2 medium hot banana chilies, minced

2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground

1 TBSP (8gm) oregano

1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)

1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric

4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)

½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.

2. Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

I also made the coconut curry sauce. It too was quite easy to make and was a soothing complement to the spicy filling.

Coconut Curry Sauce

This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same, but the texture is a little runnier, not quite as thick as it was before freezing.

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic

½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground

¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)

3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder

3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)

3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth

2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk

3 large tomatoes, diced

1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.

2. Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.

3. Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.

4. Let it simmer for half an hour.


I did not photo the sauce or the dosas alone. I guess they were too brown and boring to make me think to get a picture. So you’ll have to trust me that they both turned out fine. I had at least a dozen little six-inch dosa pancakes to fill and plate.

Dosa Pancakes

1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)

½ tsp (2½ gm) salt

½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder

½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder

½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)

¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water

cooking spray, if needed

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.

2. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.

3. Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter.

Makes 8 pancakes.

To plate, a little sauce on the dosa, followed by filling, then roll into crepe or cone, or fold in half like omelette. More sauce on top. Serve with rice and side veggies.

For a side dish I made Rice with Cabbage, but I overcooked the rice and it was mush. I swear I will never be able to make a proper rice. The only way I can get it right is to bake it in the oven. You’ll probably tell me to get a rice cooker. I had one, but I lost it. I don’t know how you lose something like that. I just know I can’t find it anywhere in my house. Anyway, the rice and cabbage was pretty, but you can see it is more akin to mashed potatoes. You can’t discern one grain in this picture!

I also sliced some cucumbers and carrots for a side salad, and topped the dosas with plenty of cilantro.

Indian food is always a favorite here because it’s so flavorful and delicious - without meat, fat, or gluten!

Vegan Brunch

I have just a quick post of a couple more recipes I’ve tried from Vegan Brunch. My ‘Horns are playing and if they win they go to the College World Series!

I made the Curry Cauliflower Frittata for Chase, using some beautiful orange cauliflower from the farmers market that I roasted.

It smelled wonderful as it baked. Here it is out of the oven.

I don’t have a picture of a slice, because it didn’t hold together. Chase didn’t care. He said he would just call it a scramble and enjoy it that way. I’ve noticed several other posts where these frittatas haven’t held together. When I made it, I thought it seemed dry and there was no liquid or binder at all in any of the frittata recipes. Maybe my tofu was squeezed too dry. Have you run into this problem? Or are you adding some liquid to your mixture? I would love to make another one for Chase, but I want it to turn out right.

The other brunch item I made was the Potato Spinach Squares. I added some onion and sundried tomatoes to my batch. This baked up beautifully.

These squares got RAVE reviews and I thought they were super delicious.

Isn’t it pretty?

I’ll be around to visit after the game! Hook’em ‘Horns!

Casseroles and Guess the Treat

Earlier this week the kitchen in my office smelled like Indian food. I had a huge craving and then an idea for dinner that night. I already had roasted eggplant slices I made the night before.




So my idea was to make an Indian lasagna using the eggplant for noodles. I made my filling, but then got too hungry and impatient. I sliced up the eggplant and added it to my filling and thus ended up with Eggplant Curry and satisfied my craving.

Still in the mood for a veggie lasagna, a few nights later I roasted some zucchini slices. I layered them in a bread pan.

Added a filling…

Topped with nooch and baked for 30 minutes.

Patience pays off and I had myself a delicious gluten free, veggie-full lasagna.

And now a game! Can you guess what I’ve dipped in chocolate for Chase’s yummy Easter treat?

Happy Easter, everyone!!!!

Our Vegan Thanksgiving 2008

Heads up, I’m still in a bad mood. This post is rather long, so feel free to scroll down for the recipes. Otherwise, thanks for listening.

Last year’s Vegan Thanksgiving was quite a feast. This year, as you’ve heard me complain, I have no lights in my kitchen except the stove. I have electricity, just no lights. I also have lights but no electricity in BOTH of my bathrooms and there are other rooms with issues too. I have been waiting on an electrician friend for a reduced rate for services, but I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from the Whole Foods Culinary Center saying they thought I might be interested an upcoming class - a veggie Indian Thanksgiving cooking class. After looking at the menu, I signed up, thinking I wouldn’t have to give my dinner another thought. I went to the class last Thursday and the food was amazing. It wasn’t all vegan, but easily veganizable AND I wouldn’t need to shop but for a few budget friendly ingredients. The recipe I was most interested in, the entree, was Whole Cauliflower Baked in Puff Pastry with Curry Sauce Gravy. Yep, I paid the price of admission just to get that recipe! But I got my money’s worth. Also on the menu was an amazing Quinoa Lentil Risotto, not too spicy; some green beans with a sauce that didn’t appeal to me; a fantastic cranberry chutney; and the most delicious cornbread muffins I had ever tasted. Yay – this year’s Thanksgiving will have an Indian twist, which we love, and I’ve got my recipes all in one handout.

Saturday and Sunday were cloudy and extra dark in my kitchen – not good for cooking or picture taking. I began prepping some sauces and made the cranberry chutney on Saturday, then began Sunday afternoon making the rest of the feast. Well, I started running into some problems. The recipes were VERY poorly written. The ingredients were out of order and the instructions made no sense. While I had reviewed the ingredients lists to make sure I had what I needed, I had not budgeted time for figuring out the directions. I made out okay with everything except the cornbread muffins! This upset me for many reasons, but mainly because I chose to make these muffins instead of Christina’s most amazing ever recipe for dressing, which I asked her to give me before it was printed in our local paper (more on that later) and she was kind enough to take the time to oblige me. I don’t even like dressing, but hers is fabulous!

All right, on to the main event – Whole Cauliflower Baked in Puff Pastry with Curry Sauce Gravy. This was fun fun fun to make and it is completely delicious and so beautiful. I tried to capture it the best I could. I am not going to post the recipe because it’s a mess (email me if you really really want it). But I’ll give you the method and also tell you that you can adapt it to suit your own tastes – it doesn’t have to be Indian spiced. My cauliflower is stuffed with about one cup of saucy cashews.




(Sorry for the fuzzy picture – it’s the worst of the bunch.) You could stuff your cauliflower with mushrooms and serve it with cranberry sauce or a tomato based sauce, or any other stuffing and sauce combination you can think of.

So to begin, trim the cauliflower, removing as much of the stem as possible, but remembering to leave it intact and whole. Blanch it for a couple of minutes. I used my biggest soup pot and had to blanch it on the bottom first and then flip it over and blanch the top. Let it dry completely. This can be done far in advance. Get one sheet of puff pastry and thaw it. Roll it out just a bit and remove one-third to be placed on top of the cauliflower. Stuff the cauliflower as best you can. Anything that won’t go in can go on top. Put some parchment paper on a baking sheet, and place the big piece of pastry on the paper. Place the cauliflower bottom side down onto the pastry. Put any extra stuffing on top, then pull the corners of the pastry up on top of the cauliflower. Put the extra strip on the top to fill in any gaps. I saved a small piece to make a cutout leaf for the top of mine. It will look like this.

Bake it at 400 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Take it out and place it on a carving board.

Isn’t it cool!!!! I’m sure you will do a better job wrapping your pastry than I did. To plate, spoon some sauce on a platter and add a slice of the cauliflower. I topped ours with some more cashews. It’s plated with some steamed green beans and a mustard ginger white sauce I made from leftover Veggie Meat Pie sauce.

The other fantastic recipe, which turned out to be reasonably well written (I’ve cleaned it up for you) is the Quinoa, Lentil, and Squash Risotto. It too can be adapted with different herbs to suit the theme of your meal. It's sooo tasty and very easy to make.

Quinoa, Lentil, and Squash Risotto

Ingredients:
½ small butternut squash, diced
3 T. canola oil, divided
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup quinoa
1 cup red lentils
1 t. salt
½ t. pepper
¼ cup chopped herbs (I used cilantro and chives)

Directions:
Toss the diced squash with 1 T. oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Roast at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until fork tender. Set aside.

In a medium sauce pan, sauté the onions in the remaining 2 T. oil for 2 minutes or until soft. Add the quinoa and lentils and sauté one minute more. Add 4 cups of water and the salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 25 minutes on medium high heat. Remove from heat and stir in squash and herbs.


Now about that cornbread… I took a picture of it before I had a bite. You know, another reason it was so disappointing is that it’s a gluten free recipe. What I also loved about it was that it had cabbage in it! I love cabbage and I thought it was such a clever idea. It also had that crunchy, peanut topping. Maybe you can adapt one of your favorite cornbread recipes to include cabbage. I know I’m going to try. Oh, and the recipe has club soda in it to help it rise.

I realized after this picture that my plate wasn’t very colorful. I forgot the cranberry chutney! So I took one more shot of the chutney in a jar and the remaining cauliflower.

The chutney is very good too. Again, email me if you want the recipe.

We had Iron Cupcakes for dessert. Mmmmmm.

Finally, here’s a link to today’s Austin American-Statesman food section, with my recipe for Pumpkin Vinaigrette, and Christina’s recipe for Walnut, Fig, and Cranberry Cornbread Dressing.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Indian Food via Vcon

After a busy week and weekend, we all decided an uncomplicated (no fancy plating?) and comforting meal would suit us just fine for Sunday dinner. I hadn’t made Indian food in a while, so I turned to Veganomicon to try two new recipes.

Although I love the unique and complex flavors of Indian cuisine, I do have a few issues with it. One, it’s just not real pretty. Two, it never includes broccoli. Three, recipes that call for curry powder don’t taste authentic. The first recipe from Vcon I selected and have wanted to try for quite a while was Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes. I liked this recipe okay, but my main complaint is the suggestion to serve it with Red Lentil Cauliflower Curry, which I did. The two recipes were very similar in taste and color. Also, the potatoes took much longer to prepare than the 20 minutes (after baking the potatoes) indicated. I added broccoli to our potatoes, and served it and the curry with some pita bread and sliced mangoes.

Blah, not a very pretty plate. Chase told me during dinner he really prefers tomato based curries. I should have made ED&BV’s Palak Panera again. It’s such an excellent recipe with vibrant color. I can’t remember the last time Sunday dinner was a flop. Anyway, we decided we will go back to fancy fun and pretty dinners. We did however enjoy my chili cupcakes for dessert!

Some personal notes - the Invisalign braces are working out okay. They require a lot of care and attention, and my mouth and hands are always impeccably clean.

Watching Chase and his band perform was such a thrill! I don’t know when they’ll get another gig, but I do hope it’s soon. I was so proud.

I’m really looking forward to a long holiday weekend. We will most likely celebrate with a traditional menu – grilled something and all the sides. I hope you get to enjoy an extra day off as well.

Berbere, and This & That

My dad is still in the hospital :( I haven’t done a lot of cooking, so I just have a couple of recent meals to post and a couple of things I never got around to posting.

I’ve mentioned the fantastic Ethiopian restaurant near the hospital. On a recent visit, I purchased a container of their wonderfully aromatic berbere spice mix. I’m glad I decided to buy it, because I don’t think I could easily find these ingredients and make a batch myself.




The red pepper has just a slight amount of heat, mostly in an aftertaste. It was mild enough for me to make Berbere Broccoli, with a few greens thrown in.

I love that my spice cabinet smells of berbere every time I open it!

Under the category of “Still Trying to Love Eggplant,” here is an Indian spiced cauliflower and eggplant, with tomatoes and chickpeas.

I know there’s lots more cauliflower than eggplant, but at least I’m trying.

Veggie Girl recently posted a recipe for Banana Apricot Date Cookie Clusters that looked so good I made them the next day.

Do you know what this is?

It’s hominy. Hominy is not something I eat very often, probably because it comes in a can and I don’t shop the canned veggies aisle. But my cousin told me that one of her all-time favorite salads is Hominy Salad, so I made it for Chase and me awhile back. Here’s her recipe:

Hominy Salad

1 can yellow hominy

1 can white hominy

2-4 jalapenos, seeded and chopped

2/3 c. mayonnaise

Pinch of cumin

Pinch of garlic salt

Drain the hominy well. Mix all ingredients and chill. Best made ahead to let the flavors blend.

I obviously used corn instead of yellow hominy and I only used 1/4 cup of mayo. This simple salad was really good and something different to enjoy. Thanks, cuz!

Finally, if you are celebrating Chinese New Year, here’s an idea for longevity noodles. I made this Baked Noodle Nest several months ago.

I cooked spaghetti noodles al dente, then spread them in the bottom and sides of six ounce prep cups.

I think I baked it at 425 for about 15 or 20 minutes. I filled mine with a veggie pasta sauce.

I can’t say the noodles were very tasty, and I wouldn’t serve it as a pasta dish again. I would say these are more for decoration, like for holding some steamed greens or a little bowl of dipping sauce.

I don’t think I’ll make a Chinese New Year dinner this year, but I’m definitely planning on cooking up something for our Sunday dinner.

Healthy Portable Foods

My dad was released from the hospital Saturday and is home recovering from surgery. As of today, all of the family and visitors have returned home. I was able to do a little cooking over the weekend to take to my parents house. There are no pictures of anything plated, but I did snap a few pictures just to let you know I made some good food.

Vegetable Soup



This is sort of a brothy Minestrone with potatoes, carrots, green beans, corn, tomatoes, and cannelini beans. I was hoping my dad would eat some broth, but his tastebuds are geared toward oatmeal and ice cream right now. I also made a loaf of whole wheat bread (no pic).


Spaghetti Squash Casserole

I know you can’t see the spaghetti squash, but it’s mixed with tomatoes and Italian seasoning underneath some roasted turnips and steamed green beans. This turned out quite tasty and we all ate lots of it.

Indian Spiced Cabbage

An Ethiopian restaurant is right next to the hospital, and my sister and I had an opportunity to eat dinner there one night. We both especially loved the cabbage dish we ordered. I knew I couldn’t replicate it, knowing nothing about preparing Ethiopian food, but my Indian style cabbage was delicious. We ate lots of this too.

I also made Super Charge Me Cookies, which I have made before and absolutely love.

Chase gave up his usual share of the leftovers so my sister could take them on the plane and share some with my nephews when she gets back home.

It was wonderful to be back in my kitchen making healthful food to share with my family. I’m grateful that my mom and sister share my love of veggies and enjoy eating meatless meals of my vegan creations. I am anxious for my dad to get his appetite back so I can cook for him as well.

Thank you all again for your thoughts and well wishes.

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!