Tag Archives: vegan

Portabello Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Julie • 2 Comments

I’m leaving tomorrow for a weeklong business trip. I still haven’t finished unpacking from my Florida trip last week (to be fair, I’ve been home nearly a week, so that’s really on me). Whenever possible, I usually spend the day before I leave on any trip in the kitchen trying to make a few dinners for Nor to have while I’m gone, as well as getting my fill of healthy, homemade food before the inevitable streak of takeout begins. This portabello salad was just what the doctor ordered today – light but hearty, filling but healthy.  It was the perfect quick, simple Saturday lunch, but it could just as easily be an entrée or a side dish for a fancy meal.

The meaty mushrooms, rich avocado, and protein-packed chickpeas elevate the humble salad to nutritional powerhouse status, and the creamy dressing has a slight kick balanced by a bit of sweetness from maple syrup. I see this becoming a regular fixture in the rotation around here, whether I’m trying to load up on healthy food pre-travel or just craving a dinner salad (this happens a lot). Add slivered almonds for some crunch and even more protein, or crumbled feta cheese – the possibilities are endless, one of the many reasons salad rules.

Portabello Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing
5.0 from 1 reviews
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Category: Main Dish, Side Dish, Salads
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Total time: 50 mins
Yield: 4 main dishes or 8 sides
A hearty green salad with portabellos, chickpeas, and avocado. Hearty enough for an entrée.
Ingredients
  • 1 cup cooking wine (I used Marsala)
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 large portabello mushroom caps
  • 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
  • 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 8 cups mixed baby greens
  • 1 ripe avocado, sliced
  • 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 F. In a baking dish, combine cooking wine, olive oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and garlic. Place mushrooms in the baking dish (stem side up) and spoon some marinade into each mushroom. Set aside for about 20 minutes.
  2. While the mushrooms are marinating, make the dressing. Combine mustard, vegetable oil, red wine vinegar, and maple syrup and whisk until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
  3. Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, flip the mushrooms, and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool for ten minutes, then slice thinly.
  4. Mix greens, avocado, onion and chickpeas in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss. To serve, place a generous helping of salad on each plate. Top greens with sliced portabello.

Source: One of my favorite cookbooks ever, Veganomicon.

Filed Under: Main Dish, Side Dishes, Vegan

Kale and White Bean Stew

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Julie • 0 Comments

I can’t believe I’m posting a recipe for kale stew on a 78 degree day in early March. Isn’t March supposed to be “in like a lion?” Well, maybe it is. If the lion came from Africa and brought the weather with it. What is this, people? Back in my day we were still having blizzards in March, and weathering them with old-timey patience and probably a lot of gumption. We also walked to school in them, uphill both ways. We earned our winter stews back then, I tell you.

I might be earning myself a reputation for being cranky about unseasonably warm weather, but trust me, there are worse reputations to have, and I’m standing by my insistence that winter goes until the spring equinox, regardless of whether it’s 8 degrees or 80 degrees. Give me stew or give me death!

Kale and white bean recipes are a dime a dozen – I’m not sure what makes them go so well together, but there’s something about the creaminess of the beans with the hearty, slightly bitter kale that just makes you want to hunker down and eat your way through the depths of winter. This particular recipe started out as a way to do just that – one snowy evening last winter, I went on a pantry raid to try to cobble together a nice dinner without having to put my boots on and trudge out in the cold. This quickly became a favorite and a weeknight staple both for its hearty taste and hardy makeup – this fast dinner transforms beautifully into even better leftovers. I strongly suggest eating it out of an oversized mug under a blanket, even if you have to turn the air conditioner on.

Kale and White Bean Stew
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Category: Main Dish, Soups & Stews
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 3 stalks celery, diced
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 8 oz cremini mushrooms, quartered
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp dried parsley
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes with liquid
  • 2 15 oz cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
  • Several large handfuls of chopped kale
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and bell pepper and saute for about two minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until onions are translucent and the celery and bell pepper are softened, about ten minutes.
  2. Add the garlic, parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, and red pepper flakes and cook for about two minutes, stirring frequently. Add balsamic vinegar, tomatoes and beans and bring to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the kale and cook over medium-low heat until wilted and tender, about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
  3. Serve over rice or pasta, or with crusty bread on the side.
Filed Under: Main Dish, Soups, Vegan

Wine Jelly

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Julie • 3 Comments

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve looked at a glass of red wine and thought to myself, “you know how this would be even better? If I could spread it on crackers!”

Okay, I’m lying. I’ve never thought that. Red wine is pretty excellent in a plain old wine glass, and there’s no reason to argue otherwise. But in the interest of not leaving well enough alone (I love poking well enough with a stick!), this is a way to take the excellent and make it transcendent. We’ve all had red wine, and we’ve given it as the standard hostess gift at every dinner party we’ve been to for the last kazillion years, and that’s fine. But wine jelly? Not only is it a handmade gift from your own kitchen, but hello! It’s also wine. And it’s easy to make. And the recipe conveniently leaves a healthy glassful to relax with while you wait for your jars to seal. You don’t want it to go to waste, do you?

The first few times I gave this out, I’ll admit that I got mixed reactions: “Wine jelly…um…interesting! What do you do with it?”  Now, I get a preemptive “Are you making the wine jelly this year?” I’ve heard varying reports on what people are actually doing with it – the most common is served with cheese and crackers as an appetizer (this method has been me-tested and wholeheartedly approved), but I’ve also heard that it’s been mixed with Dijon mustard for a marinade, and I’ve even gotten a report or two that it’s been used in a grown-up version of a classic PB&J. Again, just another way to make the already-excellent transcendent.

What I love about this jelly is that you can actually taste the wine. It’s never boiled, so the alcohol doesn’t cook out. The downside of this is that you should probably not put it on your morning English muffin (unless it’s the weekend). The upside is that, like I said, you can actually taste the wine. The sugar mellows it quite a bit, and it’s not overpowering in the least. I’m not an expert on palates and finishes and all of that, but I’d describe each bite as a burst of fruity sweetness followed by a hint of the wine flavor at the very end. While it’s definitely not your standard Smuckers, it’s really, really good.

If you’re not interested in canning this for long-term storage but still want to give it as a gift, that’s absolutely fine – it will keep refrigerated for several months in sterilized jars. If you’re new to home canning but interested, I urge you to go here to read up on the basics. This was the first recipe I ever canned, and the simplicity of it got me totally hooked. Regardless of how you prepare, preserve, give or store this, I hope you enjoy it – it’s one of my all-time favorites.

Wine Jelly
Yield: about 7 half-pint jars, or 7 cups)

Ingredients:
4 cups red wine (use any red you like. I use a $9 Cabernet blend from Trader Joe’s. Also, your standard bottle is only three cups, so you’ll have to buy two bottles or a 1.5 liter for this, and then dispose of the leftovers somehow. The sacrifices you must make!)
6 cups granulated sugar
2 3-oz packets liquid pectin

Instructions:
Combine wine and sugar in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. Do not boil. Mix in the pectin and stir until combined. Skim off foam, if any, and discard.

If not preserving, ladle into sterilized jars and refrigerate. If preserving, follow instructions here. Ladle into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space, and process for 10 minutes in a water bath. Turn off heat and let stand for ten minutes, then remove and allow to stand undisturbed for 12-24 hours. You should hear the “pop” of the sealed jars within minutes of removing them, which will warm your heart while you enjoy the last bit of that wine you bought for this.

Unpreserved jelly will keep in the fridge for several months. Preserved jelly will keep at room temperature for at least one year.

Source: Food.com

Filed Under: Kitchen Gifts, Sauces & Condiments

Vegetarian Five Bean Chili

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Julie • 2 Comments

Look, I like spring. Who doesn’t? New life in the air, the bitter chill of winter replaced by the still-crisp promise of coming warmth, the hardiest of crocuses fighting their way up through the solid remnants of the last frost…that’s all well and good, but here’s my problem:

IT’S NOT SPRING.

Today is the first of February, and I’ve just been informed by my usually dour but suddenly cheery local meteorologist that it’ll be 67 degrees today. Tell me that on the first of April? I’ll be ecstatic. But right now, I feel cheated of my winter. Where are my evenings huddled under blankets with mugs of spiced (and spiked, obviously) cider? Where are my hushed mornings laced with the whisper of falling snow? Most importantly, where is my chance to ceaselessly mock the panicked hordes buying the grocery stores out of toilet paper and bread? No, I’m not ready for spring yet, and I will kick, scream, stubbornly wear my winter coat, and make hearty comfort food until 11:59 on March 19th. So there, spring.

I’m sharing my favorite chili recipe on this particular day, a 67-degree February day, as an act of peaceful protest against this winter’s apparent desire to go out like a lamb without ever really roaring in. I will call it Occupy: Winter. When we get two feet of snow in three weeks, you’ll likely point me back to this post and laugh, but I’ll just be patting myself on the back for a successful campaign.

All bitterness about floundering winters aside, I can eat this chili in any weather (although you might want to ask me again halfway through a DC July). It has a ton of flavor, and is extraordinarily hearty for a vegetarian chili thanks to its two special ingredients – peanut butter and cocoa powder. No, before you ask, I did not have a glass of wine and accidentally shuffle my chili recipe with my peanut butter cup recipe – I know it sounds strange, but these two additions make this chili everything wonderful that it is. Although you can’t taste it, the peanut butter adds a rich flavor that tempers the heat, and the cocoa a subtle depth and beautiful color. Together with five different beans, you can taste winter in every bite, even when it’s 67 degrees. Something you can also taste? An incredibly easy one-pot meal that’s perfect for Super Bowl Sunday.

Vegetarian Five Bean Chili
Yield: approximately one metric ton. Seriously – this very nearly overflows my 6-quart stockpot. Feel free to halve it if you’re not a sucker for leftovers and pawning food off on everyone you know like I am, or if you’re not making this for a large group of hungry football fans.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried kidney beans
1 cup dried cannellini beans
1 cup dried black beans
1 cup dried pinto beans
1 cup dried navy beans
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 ribs celery, diced
8 oz cremini or white mushrooms, quartered
3 carrots, diced
2 red or green bell peppers, diced
3 serrano chili peppers, minced (remove ribs and seeds for less heat)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp dried oregano
3 cups vegetable stock or water
2 28-oz cans diced tomatoes, with juice
1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Any toppings your heart desires (such as grated cheddar cheese, scallions, raw onion, cilantro, sour cream)

Instructions:
Place the beans together in a large pot and cover with three inches of water. Bring to a hard boil for one minute over high heat. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand at least one hour. Drain and set aside.*

Heat olive oil in the same large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms and bell peppers and saute, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the serrano chilies and garlic and cook for two minutes. Add chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, and oregano and cook for one minute, stirring constantly.

Add beans and vegetable stock or water. Simmer, partially covered, for 20-30 minutes, until beans are softened. Add tomatoes and return to a simmer. Whisk in peanut butter, cocoa powder, salt and pepper and let simmer over low heat for at least 30 minutes (I generally make this on a weekend and let it simmer for hours, which allows the flavors to deepen as the chili reduces and thickens).

Serve with toppings and enjoy huddled under piles of blankets. If your spouse/significant other/roommate insists that s/he’s too hot and doesn’t want to be under a blanket because it’s almost 70 degrees, shush them and feed them more chili.

*NOTE: You can of course replace dried beans with canned if you’re having an impulsive chili craving (it happens – trust me, I know). 1 cup of dried beans = about 3 cups once cooked. Your standard can will be a little more than two cups – when I’ve made this with canned beans, I simply omit the 3 cups of stock/water and add the (rinsed and drained) beans and tomatoes at the same time.

Filed Under: Main Dish, Vegan

Pistachio Crusted Tofu

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Julie • 1 Comment

I’d be lying if I said it’s easy to keep tofu perpetually interesting. If you don’t eat meat, chances are you’ve had tofu six ways from Sunday – fried, baked, sautéed, roasted, breaded, blended, smashed, scrambled, shredded…and now I sound like Bubba. The point is, tofu can get old – if you let it. It’s all too easy to get stuck in a rut with any food. The same way a lot of people have the old go-to chicken recipe that they can whip up in a snap, but has kind of lost its zing, so goes tofu.

I don’t like to allow myself to fall into ruts, in life or in food, so I’m always looking for ways to keep foods like tofu that are staples for us interesting and fresh. It’s incredibly easy to make the same stir-fry four nights a week and have the leftovers for lunch the next day, but it’s also incredibly boring. For me, too much repetition takes the fun out of cooking, and I find myself more inclined to heat up some processed frozen garbage or order take-out rather than have the same old thing yet again. So I look for inspiration in my towering stack of cookbooks, and on the internet, which is where I stumbled upon this fantastically simple yet undeniably rut-breaking recipe. A pistachio-laden breadcrumb topping clings to getting-more-interesting-by-the-minute tofu that’s first been coated in a silky maple-mustard sauce (which is good enough to eat plain). Served with a quick homemade sweet chili dipping sauce on the side, it’s good to go in under an hour and will send that tired four-night-a-week stir-fry straight to a dark corner in the back of your mind, where it can sit and think about what it’s done.

Pistachio Crusted Tofu
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

For the tofu:
1 14 oz package extra-firm tofu (not silken)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup shelled pistachio nuts
Salt & pepper to taste
2 Tbsp brown mustard
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Vegenaise (or mayonnaise)

For the sweet chili sauce:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1-3 tsp dried red chili flakes (1 for mild, 3 for hot)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

Instructions:
Drain tofu and press lightly to remove extra water. Cut into 1/2 inch slices and brush with the tablespoon of soy sauce. Set aside while you prepare the coating.

Combine mustard, maple syrup, 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce, and Vegenaise in a bowl.

In a food processor, pulse pistachios until finely ground. Combine ground pistachios, breadcrumbs, and salt and pepper in another bowl.

Dip each slice of tofu into the maple-mustard sauce, coating evenly, then dredge in the bowl with the breadcrumb mixture. Coat each side well with the breadcrumbs. Try not to lick your fingers, even though you will have tempting alien-like bulbs of pistachio crumbs extending from them.

Place tofu on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Flip each piece over and bake for another 15 minutes, or until golden-brown. Serve warm with sweet chili dipping sauce on the side:

While the tofu is baking, prepare the sweet chili sauce. Combine cornstarch and 2 Tbsp water in a small bowl and stir to dissolve. Set aside.

Combine the rest of the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for ten minutes over medium heat, until reduced by 1/2. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the cornstarch/water mixture. Cook over low heat for another two minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat.

Source: Pistachio crusted tofu adapted from Fat Free Vegan.

Filed Under: Main Dish, Quick & Easy, Vegan