Category Archives: Vegan or Would-Be-Just-As-Good-Vegan

Baked Potato with Chili

9 Replies

You know how I feel about my freezer.  I love all that good stuff in there that I made in double batches a while back so I could grab it on a busy night.  Here’s a way to give new life to that Winter Vegetarian Chili you stashed away (and stretch the frozen quart to feed a whole family).

Of course, a baked potato makes a mighty fine meal even if you don’t have chili handy (although that chili really is worth making).  And if you’re in a part of the world where the weather now makes eating chili & baked potatoes seem SO last season…well, feel free to gloat in the comments.

Continue reading Baked Potato with Chili (click for recipe)

Tempeh Tacos

4 Replies

“Meatless Mondays” come and go around here without much notice, since we eat meatless meals most of the time.  But I occasionally get comments about dedicated carnivores trying to add (or grudgingly accepting) more vegetarian meals into their diets.

I acknowledge that I am supremely unqualified to comment on this topic, having eaten very little meat in the past two decades, but I imagine that it is hardy, “meaty,” vegetarian (vegan, even!) meals like this one that will appease even the most apprehensive carnivore.  Try it.  Let me know.  And then once you have eased into occasional meatless eating, you can move on to advanced vegetarian fare, like those herbed Quinoa Cakes.

Continue reading Tempeh Tacos (click for recipe)

Kale Chips

18 Replies

Are kale chips so 2009?  I used to be in the kale chip vanguard, an evangelist for their crispy crunch and umami allure.  I sang their praises, shared the recipe (such as it is) with anyone who’d listen, made batch after batch.  But suddenly I keep hearing that kale chips have become as passé as the combination of sun-dried tomatoes and asparagus.  It is with great regret that I will have to give them up to keep abreast of current food trends….

Not really.  I don’t even really know what the current food trends are.  So, friends, two questions.  One, what are the current food trends?   And two, what do you put on your kale chips?

I have heard of all kinds of fabulous-sounding additions that could take your kale chip experience in many possible directions: sesame seeds, Parmesan, smoked paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, you get the idea.  But I usually just go with olive oil and salt.  I hesitate to call this a recipe because you can really do anything you want here as long as you dry out some kale in the oven until it’s crisp without burning it.  Any kind of kale.  I’ve made these chips with lacinato kale (pictured), green and purple curly kale, Red Russian–all great.  Wash and dry a bunch of kale and tear it into small or large pieces.  Rub with a little olive oil and salt and additional seasonings if desired.  Spread leaves in a single layer on two cookie sheets.  A relatively foolproof method is to bake the chips at 250 for 30-35 minutes, switching the top and bottom pans halfway through and watching closely near the end of the cooking time.  (Thanks, Bon Appetit in 2009!) Remove chips as they crisp and return the rest to the oven to finish cooking.

But IF you can’t wait half an hour for this magic, and IF you’re feeling daring and eagle-eyed, you can roast these chips at a much higher temperature (say, 450).  It goes without saying that they will cook, and burn, more quickly at a higher temperature.  On the other hand, they’ll be ready more quickly for you to gobble up like they’re going out of style.

Sweet Potato Chips

26 Replies

I occasionally see sensational headlines about how you can make potato chips in your microwave.  That is bunkum, I say.  I tried it out, just to be sure, and the results were as ridiculous as I expected.  I got cardboardy, chewy potato slices with some occasional hard spots.  My kids did eat them (I mean, I called them “chips,” so what’s not to like?), but they weren’t good.  And they took a while to make, what with having to check and remove “crisp” specimens then re-microwave the rest.  Luckily you can only make a plate at a time, so the damage was limited to half a potato.

You want chips without a deep fryer?  THIS is the recipe for you.  We do this with regular potato slices as well (I keep promising that potato chip pizza recipe), but for eating on their own these sweet potato chips are the best.  They crisp up right through, you can make two big trays at a time in the oven, and they are a sweet and salty side or snack.  Crunch, crunch, crunch. Continue reading Sweet Potato Chips (click for recipe)

Chickpea and Avocado Smash

9 Replies

Do you find that sandwiches always taste better when someone else makes them for you?  I do.  If you make your own sandwiches and enjoy them, can you tell me your secrets?

Sure, I like a luscious grilled cheese sandwich made with leftover curried onion jam.  And I can always snuggle a cold slice of any of these frittatas between two pieces of whole wheat toast swiped with mayonnaise and harissa.  But a real, well-composed, flavorful vegetarian sandwich takes some work.  I usually leave it to the professionals.  Or, you know, anyone else who’s offering to make me a sandwich.

But a spread?  A spread I can do.  In fact, I learned, I can make this one with one hand while holding a clingy baby in the other arm.  (When I was preparing to welcome my first baby, why didn’t anyone tell me to practice feeding myself with one hand?  I’ve got some experience by now, but even if you’re a novice, you too can make this spread with one hand.)  It was inspired by this good-looking sandwich from the makes-me-want-to-eat-cookies blog Two Peas and Their Pod.  But you know how I feel about making my own sandwiches.

You also know how I feel about making my own beans, but on this occasion I used canned chickpeas.  No biggie.  They get a bit lost in the smash anyway, adding more texture and protein than flavor to the creamy, salty, mustardy spread.  And although this would be a perfectly acceptable dip for veggie spears (or chips, for that matter), I heaped it onto rounds of a seedy baguette.  Almost like a sandwich.

Continue reading Chickpea and Avocado Smash (click for recipe)

Dal with Curried Red Onion Jam

21 Replies

Like many enthusiastic cooks, I have a bit of a cookbook collection. Some books I use mostly for reference, some I keep only out of nostalgia (or, more embarrassingly, because hey-I-might-need-THAT-Sri-Lankan-recipe-someday!), and others are in heavy rotation.  Also, I just love books in general.  I always have a cookbook or two on my bedside table, which I occasionally read as bedtime stories.  But the cookbooks I like most are the ones that inspire me to branch out in my preparations of the humble vegetable.

I think I have mentioned before that Seattle is graced with five months of springtime, which means greens galore in the garden.  Arugula, chard, kale.  Radishes, turnips, peas.  Repeat.  Springtime all the way through until August, when we may (or may not) see a little flourish of zucchini and cherry tomatoes to end the growing season.  We belong to a couple of CSAs to fill in the gaps.  So I’m always looking for ideas to churn through the produce while keeping both the cooking and the eating enjoyable around here.

This year I am going to be brandishing a new cookbook in the kitchen.  I just got my copy of Ripe today and I’m smitten.  It’s an homage to fruits and vegetables as much as a cookbook, really.  It’s written by Cheryl Sternman Rule, the witty and eloquent voice behind the 5 second rule blog (she’s the one who brought that Quick Whole Wheat Spice Bread with Brown Sugar, Orange Zest, and Walnuts into our lives, bless her heart).  It’s gorgeously photographed (click here to see some of the pretty pictures).  Each fruit and vegetable gets a few pages: a glam shot, a few irresistible descriptive paragraphs, a featured recipe and a few “un-recipes”–my favorite part, of course–such as this one for carrot salad: “wide carrot ribbons + harissa + yogurt + green olives + parsley.”  Yes!

And if the first recipe I tried is any indication, the flavors pop as brightly as the colors in this book.  A simple gingery dal, a plain pot of brown rice, diced red onion jewels glinting at first in the wide pan, then melting into a sweet and tangy and black-pepper-spiced chutney that transported us to some mad place where we wished winter weren’t so close to over.  Oh, well, I’m looking forward to trying the radish recipes. Continue reading Dal with Curried Red Onion Jam (click for recipe)

Vegetarian Taco Salad

8 Replies

I hear that some people get tired of leftovers.  I am not really one of those people.  To me, leftovers equal free time because the cooking is already done!  Nevertheless, your pots of Black Beans with Cilantro and Lime and Quinoa with Corn, Green Onions, and Feta are probably starting to dwindle, now that you made those Black Bean Tacos and snuck a scoop of the beans for your Huevos Rancheros.  This week’s leftovers have their last hurrah in this taco salad, which could be dinner on a busy night or could just as easily travel to work for lunch.

Of course, you can make make this salad with any cooked or canned beans and grains you have on hand.  Or substitute a good handful of broken tortilla chips for the quinoa–I won’t tell. Continue reading Vegetarian Taco Salad (click for recipe)

Vegetarian Black Bean Tacos

16 Replies

This might have been my favorite meal growing up. We inventively called it “Tortillas, Cheese, and Beans.”  If the tortilla was a big flour tortilla, we rolled it up and you might have recognized the dish as a “burrito.”  If the tortillas were smaller corn tortillas, we folded them into what are commonly known as “tacos.”  But we called any variation “Tortillas, Cheese, and Beans.”  And in this era of Korean-Hawaiian-Fusion-Tacos, perhaps that clarity is helpful.  Call it what you will, if you have some seasoned black beans around, this meal can be on the table in a few minutes.  And if you don’t, a can of refried beans will take you back to my childhood.

Continue reading Vegetarian Black Bean Tacos (click for recipe)

Black Beans with Cilantro and Lime

18 Replies

Did you make your big pot of black beans?  Do you have a few quarts stashed in the freezer?  Good.  This week we’re going to use them.  Or if not, this recipe is also a great way to doctor up canned beans.  In fact, that’s how I first got started using this recipe–nudging my canned beans toward deliciousness before I started cooking my own from scratch.

Busy home cooks know not to be afraid of leftovers.  This week’s recipes will include these beans, a pot of quinoa, and ideas for combining the two into black bean tacos and a taco salad.  Cooking this way (using flavors you love and don’t mind eating a few times in a week!), you will reap the benefits of big-batch cooking.  In a week, you’ll go through a this pot of beans, another pot of grain, some good salsas, your entire bunch of cilantro, and maybe even a little tub of sour cream that won’t be left molding in the fridge after a single use.

These beans can be served as a side dish with any Mexican food (like these fish tacos, for example), as a component of a recipe (try them layered into huevos rancheros), or as a main course, preferable nestled alongside some flavorful rice (or quinoa) and topped with a good salsa.

Continue reading Black Beans with Cilantro and Lime (click for recipe)

Whole Wheat Soda Bread Rolls

9 Replies

Once you have a pot of soup simmering on the stove, the only thing you need to make it a meal is a nice chunk of warm bread.  (Ok, a salad is nice too, but it’s not essential.)  I often make soda breads when I’m planning dinner on the fly because they require no rising time.  You can just mix one up and tuck it into the oven while you go about your cooking, and it will be waiting on the table when the rest of your meal is done.

These mini soda breads bake even more quickly, although they take a few moments longer to shape than a single loaf.  But the reward is a high proportion of crusty surface, begging to be broken up and slathered with butter or dunked into a steaming bowl of soup.

Mini Whole Wheat Soda Breads: In a large bowl, combine 2 c. whole wheat flour, 2 c. all purpose flour, 1 heaping tsp. salt, and 1 heaping tsp. baking soda.  Mix well.  Make a well in the center and add 2 c. buttermilk, stir to combine.  Turn out onto a floured countertop.  The dough will be shaggy, but you should be able to form it into a rough ball by kneading it just a few times (don’t knead for more than a minute).  Cut the dough into 10 wedges and shape each into a rough ball, using additional flour if necessary.  Place rounds on a floured cookie sheet, cut a deep cross in each, and brush with buttermilk if desired.  (Brushing with buttermilk will smooth the surface out and make the rolls more refined-looking, but I personally like the craggy surface that I get without additional buttermilk.)  Bake about 35 mins. at 400, or until the tops and bottoms of the rolls are crisp when tapped with a fingernail.

Looking for a soup to dunk these in?  A few recent favorites:
The Best Soup of 2011
Silky 5-Ingredient Cauliflower Soup
Split Pea Soup
Roasted Maple Squash Soup
White Bean and Spinach Soup
The Best Red Lentil Soup of 2012
Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup