My New Friend

I invited my first California friend over for dinner and took the opportunity to make a new recipe! (I have found its easier to make two servings than one when following a recipe)

One of the benefits of being a minister is that certain congregations have amazingly generous spirits and help furnish your apartment to make you feel more at home. One wonderful woman in my congregation gave me her copy of the Moosewood cookbook, which has turned out to be a great resource. Many of the recipes are vegan and others are easily alterable.

So, from that cookbook I pulled a recipe for Brazilian Black Bean Soup. I completed the menu with a personal favorite (and staple of my diet), Root Vegetable Chips.

Brazilian Black Bean Soup
(This is the recipe as printed in Moosewood. I halved the recipe and made some slight alterations. My alterations other than halving are in parentheses.)



2 cups dry black beans, soaked (I used one can for the half recipe, rinsed)
6 cups water (with the can, this was unnecessary. I added a bit of water but not much)
1 Tbs olive oil
10 medium cloves garlic, crushed
3 cups chopped onion
2 tsp cumin
2 to 2.5 tsp salt (because of the canned beans, I did not add any salt)
1 medium carrot, diced
1 medium bell pepper, diced
1.5 cups orange juice (living in citrus country, I just juiced 2 oranges for the half recipe)
black pepper, to taste
cayenne, to taste (I added spicy salsa as a topping, so I left the cayenne out)
2 medium tomatoes, diced (the recipe indicates this is optional but I thought it really added something. I would recommend the tomato)

Optional toppings: sour cream, cilantro, and salsa (I only used salsa)

1) Place the soaked beans in a kettle or Dutch oven with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer until tender. About 1.25 hours. (skip this step if using canned beans, obv)

2) Heat olive oil in a medium-sized skillet (I just put this in a large pot and then added all ingredients on top). Add onion, half the garlic, cumin, salt, and carrot. Saute over medium heat until the carrot is just tender. Add remaining garlic and the bell pepper. Saute until everything is very tender, about an additional 10-15 minutes. Add the sauteed mixture to the beans, scraping every last morsel. (or add the beans to everything else, as the case may be)

3) Stir in orange juice, black pepper, cayenne, and optional (not really optional) tomatoes. Puree all or some of the soup in a blender or food processor (I did half and it was a good choice), and return to kettle (pot). Simmer over very low heat 10 to 15 minutes more. Serve topped with an artful arrangement of sour cream, cilantro, and salsa.

Serves 6-8 (or 2-3 if halved. I don't know how that works but that's what happened)

Root Vegetable Chips
Any root vegetable will work here, but basically a sweet potato or yam is a must. As you will see below, this recipe is extremely precise (sarcasm).



Root vegetables (including but not limited to sweet potatoes, beets, potatoes, yams, taro, etc.)
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste AND/OR cayenne pepper and cumin for an extra zing

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut vegetables into thin chips as pictured above or into strips (like fries) pictured here:



Toss vegetables in a bowl with olive oil until all chips are thinly covered. Put chips onto a pan and shake spices on top. Bake for 10-15 minutes on each side (20-30 minutes total).


This final image is the foil that I put on the pan for roasting the root vegetables. It turned out beautiful thanks to the beets!

Green Eggs and Ham

Sometimes experiments don't work out the way you've planned.  I found a recipe for "White Beans and Greens with Eggs" in a magazine from a local health food store.  I've recently introduced kale into my diet and have been inspired to try more greens.  I deleted the eggs from this recipe and ended up with a somewhat bland but assuredly healthy meal.  I'm including the recipe in case anyone else can think of a way to make it better. I just added left over tomato sauce and it became satisfactory.

White Beans and Greens
1 can cannellini  beans
1 bunch chard (washed, stemmed, and chopped)
1/2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T water
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 T olive oil

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the garlic and saute for about 1 minute.  Add the remaining ingredients and cover until greens are wilted (about 7 minutes).

New Beginnings and Pitzza

So, Sarah has gone off to Nicaragua for a couple of months, and I have decided to take this blog into my own hands. Incidentally, I have also moved across the country for a new job. Thus, with no friends, I have a lot of time to try new recipes. 

My first adventure is a simple one: Pita Pizza (or Pitzza for the clever ones out there).

This dish is great for veggie lovers.  I will list the veggies I used (mostly just what was in my fridge), but feel free to load it up with whatever catches your attention.  This recipe is super flexible.  You can even add soy cheese if that suits your fancy! (or real cheese for you non-vegans).

Pitzza (serves 2)
2 whole wheat pitas
Your favorite tomato sauce
1 small zucchini
1 medium sweet potato
1/2 onion
1 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven (I used a toaster oven) to 400. Cut onion in half and then into into 4ths or 8ths depending on size.  Cut the remaining vegetables into slices or chunks no larger than 1/2 inch.  Toss all cut items in a large bowl with olive oil.  Bake for 10-20 minutes.  The zucchini will take much less time than the sweet potato and onion.  They do not really burn easily, but they do dry out. 

Once the sweet potato is soft and the onions have a slightly sweet smell (you should be able to eat one easily without cringing from terrible taste) put your pitas on a pan and cover with tomato sauce.  Put the vegetables on top and bake for an additional 10 minutes at 375. 

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes and Fried Bananas

Yet another back dated blog post. I really need to get more up to date on my and Hannah's food creations! This creation is accredited to Hannah. For quite some time this last fall i was feeling the need to eat something with pumpkin. Because as we all know, eating pumpkin is the only way we realize it is really fall. But being a regular lazy person, instead of getting a real pumpkin i opted out for the canned version. I was planning on being really creative and making Hannah something delicious for when she was to come over during the weekend, but weekend after weekend i would continue to be uninspired and so not make anything. One weekend I mentioned to Hannah that I had some pumpkin that needed to be used. I had to work an overnight shift that night and so I suggested to Hannah that she should make me something with it for when i got home in the morning. She took me up on the challenge and when i got home in the morning I had pumpkin pancakes waiting for me.

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 1/2 Cups Flour
2 1/2 Cups Water
1/2 Cups Almond Milk
1 - 1 1/2 tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Pumpkin (canned)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

In a bowl combine almond milk and apple cider vinegar, let sit for 5 minutes. this makes a buttermilk like substance. combine the rest of the ingredients together until no longer lumpy. Let rise for 5 minutes then stir again and let rise for 5 minutes one more time. Makes 20, 4 in pancakes.

Drawn and slightly altered from http://vegenista.com/post/1277880293/vegan-pumpkin-spice-pancakes

Hannah went the extra mile by adding this delicious topping.  She found a banana and fried it up with some maple syrup.  Perfect addition!

Fried Bananas
(Serves Two)
1 banana sliced
1 Tsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread
Maple Syrup

Melt butter in frying pan on stove top. Fry bananas on both sides, make sure not to fry to long otherwise they will become mushy. Add a healthy amount of maple syrup and heat until warm.

We love our Apples

At some point this last fall I was cleaning out my pantry and trying to use some ingredients I had had in my cupboard for some time. The ingredients I had left over were oats and almonds. I was having Hannah, her brother, and brother's girlfriend over and was told that i should make something yummy and Hannah friendly. What i came up with, after searching the internet for some time looking for inspiration was a apple, almond, and oatmeal cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup vegan butter (you can also use 1/4 c butter with 1/4 c applesauce to make it a little more health conscious)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 egg equivalent (Ener-g is ideal, but flax works well too.  It just tastes more... earthy)
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup diced apple
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar. Beat in the "eggs" until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture until well blended. Fold in the walnuts, oats and apples. Drop dough by spoonfuls about 2 inches onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Let cool on wire racks.