Spicy Kasha-Veggie Salad

I’ve had a bag of kasha in my cupboard for quite some time now. I was never really sure what to do with it. Sure, I realize you can just cook it and serve it like rice, but I wanted to something more exciting with it. And so the bag sat there. Now faced with an international move, I was determined to finally put my kasha to good use. And so I decided to make Susan Voisin’s Spicy Kasha Vegetable Salad.

I made a few changes to Susan’s recipe. First off, I added more veggies. I believe there was radish, carrot, green onion, tomato, yellow bell pepper, and celery. Second, my grocery store was out of fresh parsley and mint, so I omitted those. Essentially my dressing was a combo of lemon juice and sriracha…yum!

operation use up pantry items

Between finishing up my dissertation and applying on a bajillion jobs, I haven’t had much time to cook anything overly exciting (nor the time to post about it if I did). With a move looming somewhere in the future (not sure where yet…depends on the outcome of the bajillion job applications) it is my mission to use up the abundance of items I have in my pantry. My cupboards are full of miscellaneous beans, grains, pastas, and other assorted goodies. Sometimes I use recipes, sometimes I throw a bunch of random things together and hope it turns out.
Like this stew. I had a tiny bit of red lentils and a tiny bit of split yellow peas so I combined them. I added some diced tomato, vegetable broth, onion, garlic, spices, and kale, and voila, a nice lentil-split pea soup (not the prettiest thing in the world I realize).

A few weeks ago my husband was in the Bay Area for a work trip. On the way home he picked me up a loaf of sourdough they were selling in the San Francisco airport. Imagine my surprise when I go to pick him up at the airport and he gets off of the plane with a bag of sourdough.

I had a sweet potato in my fridge that needed to be used, plus some butternut squash in my freezer, so I made a sweet potato-butternut soup to go with the bread.

Finally, I also had a handful of couscous left in a jar. Not enough couscous to really do anything with, so I combined it with some chickpeas and topped it with roasted butternut squash, zucchini, eggplant, and onion. This was inspired by a dish from The Kind Diet which I finally got from the library…I’ve been on the waiting list since it first came out months ago.

vegan mofo: trying out my new cookbooks

Last week I mentioned that I had received The Vegan Table, Urban Vegan, and Quick & Easy Vegan Comfort Food. Well, of course I had to try all three out ASAP.

First up, Quick & Easy Vegan Comfort Food. I had some spinach that had to be used up so I elected to make the spinach and cheeze scramble. I added about double the spinach called for, but it cooks down so small that it hardly seemed like I was eating such a huge amount of spinach. I really liked the seasoning in this recipe. I made it a wee bit more spicy, but other than followed the recipe.

I had just bought some TVP, so the sloppy joes in Urban Vegan called my named. I omitted the oil as well as the sugar. I feel like I really can’t judge the recipe because the TVP I bought, while cheaper than my regular brand, is so gross. It smells bad, it has a weird taste, it’s just ick. I learned my lesson, back to my old brand I go. From what I could tell, the sauce recipe was really good…even though I omitted the sugar it was still plenty sweet for me. But then again I don’t like overly sweet sloppy joe recipes. I didn’t have any buns, so I served it on a sprouted tortilla.

Finally, The Vegan Table. I made the eggplant and carmelized onion “lasagna.” I had my doubts about this recipe….olives and raisins together? Are you mad? But I went with it and was pleasantly surprised…it was actually really good! The taste is so complex, there are so many different taste sensations going on…but they harmonize. This would probably be fabulous in the summer with fresh tomatoes, eggplant, and basil, but ah well. We do what we can here in the north.

vegan mofo: simple and quick tostada

So here is another thing I like to make for dinner when I have zero time: refried bean tostadas! It’s pretty simple…I spray a corn tortilla (there is usually a package in my freezer) with cooking spray and heat it up each side over medium heat in a skillet. When that’s done I spread it with some refried beans (usually out of a can) and then top with whatever veggies I have on hand. This week it was red bell pepper, onion, and romaine. Oh, and usually I like to douse it with salsa and hot sauce too. And there you have it, a delicious dinner ready in about 15 min.

vegan mofo: baked chimichangas

This semester I seem to constantly be rushing off somewhere, so I don’t have a lot of time to make supper most days. Twice a week I am teaching an undergraduate class and I come home completely drained (don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying teaching, but it takes a lot out of you!). When I don’t have a lot of time to cook and I am feeling exhausted, I like to turn to baked chimichangas.

It’s simple…just heat your oven to 400 F. Take a tortilla, put in whatever fillings you desire, roll it up, spray with cooking spray, and cook until it is crispy…about 12 min. or so. Here’s the chimichanga I had on Tuesday.

Okay so that one is kind of blah and boring-looking, but here is a better looking one with more colour from back in the summer:

vegan mofo: Vegan Plant – part deux

I still need to finish up my reviews from Vegan Planet from last week’s cookbook challenge.

I bought a bag of adzuki beans almost 6 months ago, but I never used them simply because I wasn’t sure what to do with them. So I thought it was perfect that Vegan Planet had a recipe for a saute with winter squash and adzuki beans. Against my better judgment, I used a hubbard squash from the farmer’s market instead of butternut. I adore anything and everything with butternut squash. I wasn’t sure what hubbard tasted like…while it’s okay, it lacks that sweet flavour that I adore in butternut. So while this dish was just ‘okay,’ I think it would have been better if I listened to the author and used butternut.

I also made the polenta chili casserole (without the ‘cheese’). We thought this was just alright…we both felt that we would have preferred chili with some cornbread, but that’s just how we roll I guess. I based the chili on her 3 bean chili (with a lot of added spice) and it was pretty good.

a lot of vegan brunch

I have quite a few things to share with you, most of which are from Vegan Brunch.

First up, I tried to make English muffins with whole wheat pastry flour. Now I’m not sure if it was my yeast, or if this recipe doesn’t work well with whole wheat, or what’s going on, but mine didn’t really rise at all and didn’t get those delightful nooks and crannies that make English muffins so lovable. Here is one with some jam:

I also made the pumpkin bran muffins. Once again, I used whole wheat pastry flour and I subbed applesauce for all of the oil. These were still really moist and super delicious. In fact, they were too good. I ate way too many of them.

I also tried my hand at the infamous vegan omelets. Even though the recipe clearly states not to use vacuum-packed tofu, I used the vacuum-packed Mori-Nu lite firm tofu. I did have to add some extra water to the batter but they appeared to work out alright. Not that I have anything to compare it to…next time perhaps I will use soft tofu and see if there is a difference. I made the roasted asparagus version with the suggested miso tahini sauce….that sauce on its own didn’t excite me very much, but paired with this omelet it was heavenly!

I also tried the scrambled tofu with greens and yams. I used WAY less sesame oil then called for…I basically drizzled about 1/2 tsp on at the end and that’s it. The flavour was still easy to detect. I loved the mix of sweet with sesame…I ended up really loving this dish when I thought it would just be ‘okay’

I just took these bagels out of the oven so I haven’t tried one yet. They’re made with multigrain bread flour…we’ll see how good they taste later.

Finally I have something that isn’t from Vegan Brunch. Now usually the bf does all of the grilling around here. It’s his ‘thing.’ So I’ve never cooked with a bbq before in my life. Ever. Well, he’s gone on a 5.5 day canoe trip and so I made him give me a lesson in how to turn on the grill. Yes, that’s right, I didn’t even know how to turn it on. Well, last night not only did I turn it on, but I grilled myself up some portobello burgers as well as some eggplant…and grilled pineapple for dessert (why didn’t anyone tell me how wonderful this stuff is??). I doubt I’ll retain my grilling privledges once the bf returns (once again, it’s his ‘thing’) but it was fun to try it out and hey, who am I to turn down getting my dinner cooked for me every now and again?

au revoir!

Alright so I’m headed to Montreal tomorrow and I will be gone for a week. The main purpose of my trip is to attend a conference, but I’m staying an extra few days to do some sight seeing. Which will of course include a stop (or two) at Aux Vivres for some delicious vegan food.

In the meantime, here is a picture of some zucchini pasta I made. This isn’t raw. I used some marinara from the freezer (based on the Veganomicon recipe). For the “noodles,” I cut the zucchini into pieces resembling pasta, boiled for 1 minute, then drained. Even the bf liked it. He’s not the biggest veggie lover in the world so I was pretty surprised.

Trying out Vegan Brunch

My copy of Vegan Brunch arrived last Friday and I was so excited to spend the night curled up with my newest cookbook. I’ve been playing around with a few dishes all weekend. First I made the basic scrambled tempeh. I stuck fairly close to the recipe with the exceptions of uing kale as the green and omitting the oil:

I also made a batch of the chorizo sausages. I didn’t have any pinto beans on hand so I used some kidney beans I had in the freezer. I also used water instead of veggie broth (I was out) and omitted the oil. They turned out SO good! Here is one that the bf cooked on the bbq for me, along with grilled asparagus and a potato piled with pickled peppers (mmm!):

The next day I wanted to use more of the delicious sausages so I made the sausage and collards and sausage dish, but I used kale instead as that is what I had. Once again I omitted the oil, but other than that I stuck pretty close to the recipe. I love kale and I love these sausages so naturally I loved the two together.

Last night for dinner I made the shiitake-dill fritatta…except I didn’t use shiitakes as I don’t care for the texture. So instead I used standard button mushrooms. If you like dill, you will LOVE this dish. It reminded me of dill pickle chips which were the one flavour I really liked. Can you get vegan dill pickle chips? I’ve never seen them, but then again I haven’t been looking too hard. Anyway, I digress. This fritatta was a wee bit crumbly, but it tasted so good I really didn’t care.

The book also has a section of sweeter dishes (pancakes, waffles, french toast, etc) as well as baked goods….there’s nothing I love more than warm carbs smothered in sweet maple syrup but I think I shall leave exploring that part of the book until after the wedding lest my dress not fit, seeing as how moderation of pancakes is not my strongest virtue.

even more misc. foodstuffs

It seems as though my posts these days are always just a hodge podge of misc. foodstuffs. Well, keeping with that theme, here are some things I’ve eaten the past few days. First up, eggplant paprikash from Susan V. This was really good! Susan served her’s over pasta and next time that’s probably what I will do as well. Instead of using her sour cream recipe I used the last little bit of Tofutti Sour Supreme I had in my fridge. Even the omni bf liked this stuff. Well, as much as he ever likes a vegetable dish.

Next up, I revived the baked chimichangas. I took some refried beans, red pepper, tomato, corn, and green onion and rolled it up in a sprouted tortilla. Here it is before being rolled up:

I rolled it up, sprayed it with cooking spray, and baked it at 400 F for about 15-20 minutes. Delicious! I topped it off with some salsa and hot sauce and ate the leftover filling on the side:

I had some zucchini in my fridge that had to be used up. I remembered Susan V posting a microwave potato chip recipe and I was curious to see if it would work with zucchini. Like she says, there is a fine line between crispy and burnt. My second batch was inedible. The first batch was pretty tasty though. Not sure if I would make it again as I’m not much of a chip person, but I’m glad I gave it a try.