Yam Sauce

This stuff is brilliant. I spoon this recipe from the “Vegetarian Lunchbasket” over veggies. I make a double-batch and steamed veggies topped with this stuff becomes my go-to lunch for the next week. As you can see in the picture at the bottom of the page, I did some very specific meal prepping this weekend, combining brown rice with frozen mixed vegetables (put them on the bottom of the container so they steam easily in the microwave) and topping it with the yam sauce. I’ve never been so happy. Next time I think I’ll try rice noodles.

Combining all the ingredients.

Yam Sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
1-3 cups water
2 cups yams or sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
3/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons tamari
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1. In a saucepan, stir the peanut butter and 1 cup of water together.
2. Add the remaining ingredients plus water to desired thickness. Simmer for 10 minutes. Store in the fridge a week.

Baked Cauliflower

One of my favorite discoveries while living in Alaska was the “Cooking Alaskan by Alaskans” cookbook, which I consider a staple of Alaskan life. Even though I now can’t access a lot of the ingredients I could while living there, it’s still a valuable reminder of my time in the state. This recipe has no Alaska-specific ingredients, and is a simple and tasty dinner when you’re really busy.

First of all, make sure that you don’t over-boil your cauliflower. I didn’t poke it well enough and let it get too tender, which made it harder to get out of the cooking pan. That said, it didn’t ruin it, just made the transfer less elegant. This may be my new favorite gluten-free recipe (make sure you grate your own cheese or get shredded cheese specifically labeled “gluten free” as there’s sometimes gluten hiding in store-bought shredded cheese). All my favorite pasta-y flavors, none of the gluten worries. Not that this was why I tried it, but I definitely make note of these kinds of recipes. I like that it was simple to put together. I boiled my cauliflower and then used the same pot to make the sauce (next time I’ll use real onions and also garlic because why not?).

Baked Cauliflower, just out of the oven in its whole state.

Baked Cauliflower
1 cauliflower
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
minced onion flakes
3/4 cup grated cheese
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Remove the leaves of the cauliflower and cut the core so that the cauliflower can stand upright.
2. Place the cauliflower in a large pot, cover with water and sprinkle in some salt. Boil 20 minutes or till tender. Lift cauliflower from the water and drain well. Place the cauliflower upright in a shallow casserole dish.
3. Heat the tomato sauce, Worcestershire and onion flakes till the flakes start to swell.
4. Salt and pepper the cauliflower.
5. Pour the tomato sauce mixture over the cauliflower to cover and sprinkle cheese over it.
6. Bake 10-15 minutes or till cheese is browned and bubbly.

Baked Cauliflower, dismantled prior to eating

Slow Cooker Baked Pasta Corn

This particular recipe really caught my attention. I love all of the things in this, and it also looks even more easy than most recipes. I’m always on the lookout for some super easy things (healthy or not) for those days when I’m so busy that I can barely breathe, much less consider eating. My tenure portfolio is due next week, so it doesn’t get much busier than this. This recipe from the “Fix it and Forget it Vegetarian Cookbook” hit the easy mark right on the head, and I’ve been saving it for a day when I knew I’d be too busy but also would see it coming (let’s face it…a lot of times when you’re that busy you don’t see it coming).

Slow Cooker Baked Pasta Corn
2 16-oz. can whole kernel corn, undrained
2 16-oz. can cream corn
2 cups soy milk
1 stick butter, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons onion, chopped
1 cup diced cheese (your choice)
1 box uncooked orzo

1. Mix the corn, butter, onion, cheese, and spaghetti together in a slow cooker.
2. Let the mixture stand at room temp for 1 hour or more.
3. Cover and cook on low 2-3 hours.
4. Remove the cover, turn to high, and cook another 30-35 minutes.

 

Slow Cooker Baked Pasta Corn

Lima Beans with Sour Cream

I really love lima beans so much. Apparently a lot of people don’t? I think you’re all missing out but whatever, more for me. Of course, they’ll always be my favorite thing just steamed or boiled in a pan and topped with a ton of butter, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. In other words, how my parents used to make them. However this recipe from the “Fix-it-and-Forget-It Vegetarian Cookbook” piqued my interest, and I like to try new things. This recipe looks absolutely ghastly, but it is the stuff that Midwestern potluck dreams are made of and I liked it. I wouldn’t say I loved it, but as far as a fast and good meal goes, this definitely wins for me.

Lima Beans with Sour Cream
2 cups cooked lima beans
2 teaspoons onions, diced
2 tablespoons chopped pimento
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Combine the ingredients in a saucepan. Heat to simmering over medium heat and let it cook 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Lima Beans with Sour Cream

 

Black-Eyed Peas with Turnip Greens

Sorry for a long absence. Obviously, this blog has fallen off of my priorities list. What can I say? Life happens. But don’t be surprised if you see a post from me here and there in the future, though not as religiously as I had previously tried to post. And I think an update is due in the next few weeks, to the pages that are on this blog (I’ve already started, you may notice), and to its overall theme. My life is very different now and a change is appropriate.

In any case, I’m eternally curious about black-eyed peas. I tried them once before and they were fine, but not something I’d write home to my mother about. So several years ago, determined to give them another shot, I found this recipe in the “Fix-it-and-Forget-It Vegetarian Cookbook” and bookmarked it (with a real bookmark! Like…NOT on the internet!) and promptly forgot it. Until tonight. Now, how I got so many turnip greens in my freezer I am not entirely clear on, but there they were, and a package of black-eyed peas as well. I actually added in about 2 cups of fresh spinach that really needed to be used up. Now, I did have to plan ahead enough to pull these frozen things out of the freezer and thaw them, but I have to say…when I know that I’m shoving some greens into a pan to wilt them, I really like using frozen greens. They’re already cooked. I just have to let them soak up the juices. It is one of my favorite shortcuts. Plus, wilting greens is so demoralizing. You start out with so many and it boils down (literally and figuratively!) to so few.

So…black-eyed peas the second time around? Pretty dang good! This recipe was so simple. Maybe a little too simple. I feel like it could have benefited from some herbs and spices. But instead of vegetable broth I substituted some vegan no-chicken broth and that made it salty and nice, so not bad at all! I’ll be putting this back on my menu and trying some herbs and spices in it next time to see what can happen.

Black-Eyed Peas with Turnip Greens
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
1/4 cup onion, diced
16-oz. vegetable broth
16-oz. bag frozen black-eyed peas, thawed
6 cups fresh torn turnip greens or 1 package frozen turnip greens, thawed
salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a large saucepan, simmer turnip or potato with the onion in the vegetable broth until it can be pierced with a fork.
2. Add the beans, cover, and cook 5 minutes more.
3. Add greens and cook till wilted.
4. Season with salt and pepper.

 

Black-Eyed Peas with Turnip Greens

Vegetarian Crock-pot Irish Colcannon

This may be a good idea, I thought a while ago. And it was. This actually turned out pretty great and I’ll be making it again the next time I have a head of cabbage laying around without a plan for its life. It’s a good time for crock-pot recipes here in Fresno California. The weather is hot and I swear the air conditioning can barely keep up. It’s really nice to have a crock-pot option rather than adding more heat to the house by running the oven. This recipe would go really well with some sausages…vegetarian or otherwise.

Crock-pot Irish Colcannon
6 medium potatoes, chopped
1 small cabbage, chopped
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon Earth Balance butter or margarine
salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup soy milk
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup white cheddar cheese

1. Combine everything except the milk, eggs, and cheese into a crock-pot. Set on medium for 6 hours.
2. Turn off the heat on the crock-pot, add in the soy milk, and mash the contents using a potato masher.
3. Pour the eggs on top of mixture in the crock-pot and turn to high for 2 hours till the eggs are set.
4. Very quickly, so as not to lose too much of the captured heat, sprinkle the white cheddar on top and replace the lid.
5. Continue to let it cook on high 2 hours, or till cheese is melted and eggs are cooked through. To make sure the eggs are cooked, merely tilt the crock-pot slightly and see if the mixture on top wiggles.

Slow Cooker Sauerkraut Casserole

I’m preparing to move again. As such, I’ve been working on using up the food in my kitchen. The original recipe comes from the “Fix it and Forget it Vegetarian Cookbook”  and allowed me to use up a weird stockpile of pasta that I seem to have accumulated (I almost never stockpile pasta). This was seriously the easiest recipe ever. My mother would be proud. It can’t get much easier than opening some cans and stirring. And you know what? We all need recipes like this in our lives. We need them for the hard days. And we need them for the days when we’re exhausted from work or play. And we need need them for the days when you decide you want to live a little outside of the sphere of chores and house tasks.

Now, I found the original recipe lacking a little bit the first time I made it. So I made some modifications. For one, this stuff needs a topping. The recipe is very plain so finding a topping you like is key. I tried a variety of things which you’ll see listed below. The picture here has Italian bread crumbs scattered on top. I think my favorite toppings were sauteed mushrooms and french fried onions.

Second, I have also found that this is SO easy that I get easily annoyed having to dice and saute a single onion. So I’ve altered the recipe below to add that into the ingredients, meaning that you need to pre-saute the onion. This may seem annoying but bear with me. One of the nights you’re making dinner, cut and saute two onions instead of one and then shove the rest into a Tupperware so you can just dump it in on that day. I suppose you could also use those dried onions too if you wanted. This step also cuts down on your cooking time on the day-of. This being only a 2 hour recipe you can’t very well leave it on while you’re at work all day. Prepping the onion ahead of time means you don’t have to wait even longer the day you want to make it. It also means that technically, if you have a youngster that is of the age to cook and gets home from school before you, you could leave these very easy directions next to the crock-pot on the counter and kiddo could start this after arriving home. And that means that dinner is done even sooner and you don’t have to worry about them burning down the house on a Tuesday.

Slow Cooker Sauerkraut Casserole
16-oz. package noodles, cooked and drained
28-oz. can sauerkraut, drained
3 10 3/4-oz. can cream of mushroom soup
1 small onion, diced and sauteed in butter
1 1/2 cups milk or soy milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Toppings (any, optional):
sauteed mushrooms
green onion
french fried onion
breadcrumbs
croutons

1. Mix all the ingredients in a buttered slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on high 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding more milk if necessary.

 

Slow Cooker Sauerkraut Casserole with Italian bread crumb topping

Coriander Bread

Coriander Bread

I really love all of Sarah Kramer’s cookbooks. I own all of them. Every single one. This recipe is from her book “The Garden of Vegan”, which I write about often here. This recipe is from that cookbook, and the ingredient list is below, but instead of providing the recipe I’m going to provide you with a link to purchase the book. With used copies, there are definitely plenty of purchasing options, and you can have this book in your hands in no time flat. I highly recommend purchasing “The Garden of Vegan” asap.

Coriander Bread
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon raw sugar
3/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
3 1/4 cups flour

Lentil Soup with Ribbons of Kale

I was researching fun new ways to use kale one day and came across this recipe from cookbook author Robin Robertson. I got really excited. The recipe sounds simple and delicious, plus I’ve always wondered whether or not I’d like a Robin Robertson cookbook. Your shopping list for this recipe is below, but the link to the recipe on her website is above. I wasn’t disappointed in this. It was a great hearty soup to come home to at the end of a long day.

Lentil Soup with Ribbons of Kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 cups dried brown lentils, sorted and rinsed
6 cups vegetable stock or water
1 tablespoon tamari soy sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 or 5 large kale leaves, tough stems removed

 

Lentil Soup with Ribbons of Kale. Robin Robertson.

Fennel and Tomato Soup

Confession: this is the first time I have ever tried fennel. I’m not a fan of licorice flavor so I didn’t anticipate liking it much. The truth? I was right. I hate it. I couldn’t even finish my bowl of this soup, and that’s a shame because sans fennel it would have been perfect. This recipe from “Vegetarian Times” January/February 2012 issue will definitely be made again here, though probably not with the fennel. If you’re a fennel lover (as my boyfriend is) you’ll probably really adore this soup. It’s tasty and it’s so easy. Two qualities that I love in a weeknight dinner.

Fennel and Tomato Soup
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large fennel bulb, diced
3 vegan Italian sausages, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 tablespoons dry white wine (vinegar)
4 cups vegetable broth
1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

1. Heat oil in soup pot over medium heat.
2. Add fennel and saute 3-5 minutes.
3. Stir in sausages and fennel seeds.
4. Cook 5-7 minutes or till fennel seeds are slightly softened and bits of sausage are stuck to bottom of pan.
5. Add white wine and cook 5-10 seconds to deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits.
6. Add broth, tomatoes, and parsley.
7. Cover and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10 minutes.
9. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Fennel and Tomato Soup