Fresh and Simple

A few days ago I was perusing the archives of one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen.  I’ll just admit right now that I was at work, and yes, I was procrastinating, and yes, Deb has about a million recipes on her site so I may or may not have been clicking around for oh, I don’t know, the better part of an hour.  Shhhh!!  Now I think at least a few of you will know what I mean when I say that all that clicking around and staring at vibrant photos and thinking about recipes and thinking about how to tweak recipes and trying to remember what’s already in the fridge so that you won’t buy doubles next time you go to the store AND narrowing down the choices for what you might want to make next…(whew!)… well, it can make a girl’s head spin.  (Yes I know that was a run-on sentence, but work with me here, it’s a device, ok?)

So.  I took a step back from the computer, blinked a few times, and clicked one last time, promising myself that I’d make whatever recipe came up so that I could just get on with it and go back to work.  What showed up on my screen was this: Deb’s mother-in-law’s Russian Brown Bread.  As much as I wanted to make that, I needed more of a lunchy type of meal.  Luckily, Deb had included a link to her NPR feature on zakuski, or Russian hors d’oeuvres.  I made the Georgian Kidney Bean salad at the bottom of the page and loved it so much that I made a variation of it for lunch today.

Summer Pasta Salad with Kidney Beans and Cilantro
Makes about 4 cups

1 garlic clove, minced
1 to 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1/2 to 1 whole jalapeno pepper, minced*
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 tomato, diced*
3 tablespoons white or cider vinegar
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

4 oz whole wheat pasta, cooked al dente
1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and pepper to taste

Put a pot of salted water on to boil (a very large pinch of salt should do the trick). While the water is boiling, mince the garlic, cilantro, and jalapeno, and place in a large bowl. Dice the onion and add it to the bowl, too. Add the olive oil and vinegar and whisk all ingredients together.

Once the water has come to a rapid boil, cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente. (If you bite off half a piece of the pasta, there should be no trace of white on the interior, but the pasta should not be mushy either). Drain the pasta and add to the bowl with the other ingredients.

Toss the salad together and, if you’d like, let the salad sit for a little while at room temperature or in the fridge. This will give the flavors time to meld and will also cause the onions to soften and mellow a bit. When ready, serve at room temperature.

 *I didn’t have a jalapeno OR a tomato on hand the time I made the recipe for these pictures, but you should definitely include them when you make it!

Cashew Cardammmmmm…

If that was a bit too corny for you, I’m sorry! It’s just what popped into my head. So here’s a quick little post about these cuties. I am testing recipes, and one that I was really drawn to was the Cashew Butter Cardamom cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I’m really loving anything involving warm spices right now so I couldn’t help but try these out.

The verdict: They were good! OK, I’ll admit, not my favorite, but good. Here’s the thing… I pretty much need some sort of fruit, (preferably a strong citrus flavor-lemon please!) or chocolate to make me love a dessert. So as good as these were, I, personally, wasn’t thrilled. I do know some other people, however, who gobbled them up!

I’m not going to post the recipe, since I pretty much lifted it directly out of VCTOW, which you can (and should) buy here if you don’t already have it. The only thing I changed was that I made a cashew-butter cream cheese frosting instead of the one suggested in VCTOW (they called for soy milk powder, which sadly, I did not have).

Stay tuned, I will be testing more recipes soon! If anyone has any suggestions/requests, let me know!!

vegan cupcakes take over my life

So… I have charged boldly forth into the world of vegan cupcakes. Yes, vegan cupcakes are quite the trend these days, and because of that I kind of resisted heading in that direction, but you know what? I think I like vegan cupcakes better (shhhhh!) than traditional cupcakes. If made correctly, they are much, much less work, tastier (I don’t particularly love the flavor of butter and I think without it, one can taste the actual flavors in the cupcakes more clearly), and moister. I swear. Don’t get me wrong, I have had a number of bad vegan cupcakes, but I have also had many, if not more, terrible cupcakes made with butter, eggs, and all sorts of other supposedly delicious things.

Here’s where I’m going with this. I’m not going to make a big deal about it because I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I may have the opportunity to be a dessert provider for a cute little restaurant. They specifically expressed an interest in vegan desserts, so that’s what set me off on this path. Now, whether that actually happens or not, I now have the perfect excuse to test recipes!

The first recipe I tried was a kind of combination of a few recipes from VCTOW, or, for the lay-reader, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I was wooed by the idea of mexican hot chocolate cupcakes, but I also had a request to make the cupcakes sugar free. I also didn’t have corn flour, which is called for in the mex/choc cupcakes, so I smushed a few recipes together, a bit from here, a bit from there and got:

Vegan Agave Sweetened Spiced Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, Philadelphia Style
Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
(makes 12 cupcakes)

For the cupcakes:
2/3 C soy milk
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2/3 C light agave nectar
1/3 C canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon cayenne
(I also added about ¼ cup of almond meal to the second half of the batter.  You can too, it was good!)

Directions:
1.    Preheat oven to 325°F.  Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2.    Mix the soy milk and the apple cider vinegar in a large bowl.  Allow this mixture to sit for a minute until it curdles.  Beat in the agave nectar, oil, and vanilla extract.
3.    Measure the dry ingredients into a small bowl and sift them into the wet ingredients.  (If you’re going to add in the almond meal, do it now).
4.    Mix only until smooth.
5.    Pour into the cupcake liners (this should make 12 cupcakes).  Only fill 2/3 of the way.
6.    Bake 20-22 minutes, or until a knife or a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Be careful not to over (or under) bake.
7.    Let the cupcakes cool before you frost them.  Seriously.  Just wait.  I promise, even if you’ve got to eat one right off the cooling rack, it’ll taste a LOT better at room temperature.

For the frosting:
(I just used a simple pourable vegan ganache to frost these babies.)

1.    Melt about half a bar or dark chocolate, two or three tablespoons of soy milk, and a few tablespoons of agave nectar (to taste) over very low heat.
2.    Let the ganache cool a bit, then pour over cooled cupcakes.
3.    I decorated them with slivered almonds because it was cute.

*These are less sweet than your average cupcake.  If you’re open to that, I think they’re pretty good!

When eating healthy is so, so, good.

Today was one of those days: too many vegetables in the fridge, not too much motivation to cook. What I almost always do in those situations is fire up the oven, get out the cutting board, and get ready to roast. Here’s some of my best advice. If you don’t already oven-roast vegetables on a regular basis, you really should start. It’s so, so easy, as healthy as you want it to be, and always leaves you with the most delicious, crispy edged, salt-kissed, olive oil caressed vegetables that took almost no effort at all. So turn on your oven already and roast something!

Really though, I’m not kidding. Almost every vegetable is good this way. Maybe I’m a bit obsessed but I swear, toss a vegetable with some olive oil, salt and pepper (and maybe some rosemary, or cumin-coriander-turmeric, depending on what you’re going for), put it in a hot oven (I usually do 450), and it will be good, promise.

Some suggestions are:

• Broccoli with rosemary (the edges of the broccoli get all crispy and awesome)
• Cauliflower with CCT (yes ok it’s a little bit Rachael Ray of me but it’s a lot to type out!)
• Carrots with just olive oil, salt and pepper (or with CCT, that’s good too)
• Zucchini (I like it best simple, with just olive oil, salt and pepper)
• Rutabagas or Potatoes (both are good with almost anything, although I especially love potatoes with rosemary)

Seriously, the possibilities are endless.

This time I had rutabagas, red bliss potatoes, spinach, and edamame. I roasted the cubed the rutabagas and potatoes and roasted them with some cumin until their edges were browned and crisp. I sauteed the spinach with a bit of garlic, and just used the edamame as they were. Wanting something a bit more substantial than a side dish, I made some quinoa (one of my favorite grains) and scrambled an egg to add in as well. The only other thing I did was make a quick lemon-tahini dressing and this lunch (with enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow) was ready to go. I highly, highly recommend it.

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Root Vegetables and Tahini-Lemon Dressing
(serves 4 as a small main dish)

1 C uncooked quinoa

2 rutabagas, cubed
2 small red bliss potatoes
1 C edamame, thawed if frozen
4 C spinach, uncooked
1/4 C calamata olives, roughly chopped, or more to taste

One egg (just leave it out if you’d like the recipe to be vegan- maybe add some sesame/soy marinated tofu instead…)

1 teaspoon cumin

1 clove garlic, minced, or more to taste
1T tahini
1T lemon juice and a pinch of lemon zest

1/4 C Marcona almonds, sliced or chopped (for sprinkling on top)

Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for sautéing

For the Quinoa
Rinse and drain the quinoa. Boil 2C of water in a small pot and then add the quinoa. Let cook, covered, over medium low heat for about 15 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa grains look like little curly cues. Take off the heat and set aside.

For the Root Vegetables
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees farenheit.
Peel the rutabagas and wash the potatoes (I like to leave the skin on). Cut both into half-inch cubes and then throw them on a heavy pan or cookie sheet with a glug of good olive oil. Sprinkle the cumin on top and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper (don’t go crazy, you can always add more later!)
Let cook until browned and crispy on edges (check after 15 minutes). Toss to get browning on other sides.

To finish and assemble the salad
Sautee the spinach in a small pan with a bit of olive oil and the garlic. Remove from the pan, and just use the same pan to scramble the egg, adding a bit of salt and pepper if you’d like.

Add the spinach, scrambled egg, edamame, olives, and roasted root vegetables to a bowl with the quinoa and toss quickly. Whisk together the tahini, lemon zest, and lemon juice and pour over, tossing again to coat. If necessary, add a bit more olive oil to the salad. Sprinkle the almonds over the top, and serve at room temperature.

studying with soba

Well, all of today was devoted to studying. I think I’m in an altered mindset. All I can think about are molecules and reaction rates! My social skills are on hold, my sarcasm detector is temporarily out of order, and, well, I’m just in a bit of a haze. I guess my stomach is still working though, because as I was wading through problem sets and section quizzes I suddenly became very hungry. So… what could I make in 15 minutes or less that would be warm and cozy on this very cold and very un-cozy night?? Soba!

This is hardly a recipe. I mean, I really don’t think I could call it that. I just cooked some soba noodles in broth and then added a bit of soy sauce and just a touch of sesame oil. I also threw in some spinach just to get those veggies in. And because I love spinach. In everything. I’ve never made this before, but I have to say… it’s so easy and satisfying, I’ll definitely be making it again.

oatmeal for breakfast.. or lunch, or dinner?

Well, I’ll just go ahead and say it. I love oatmeal. Looooove. I’m eating it right now. Really. There is something about oatmeal that is so satisfying. It’s hearty, warm, savory (or a little bit sweet, if you like that), and there are so so many ways to enjoy it. Right now I’m having mine with apples, cinnamon, and a little bit of tofutti better than cream cheese. It’s kind of like an oatmealy apple pie an a bowl.

So is it dorky to have oatmeal cravings? Maybe so, but I just can’t deny that, yes, my little heart starts to flutter at just the thought of it. I think this may have something to do with my grandpa. He is actually the original oatmeal aficionado. When I was younger, my grandparents would babysit my brother and me, and they would always give us oatmeal for breakfast. My grandpa always made it the same way: kind of on the gluey side, raisins and milk. To this day that is still my favorite way to have it. As a matter of fact, I was over at my grandparents’ house just the other day and I was kind of hungry… My grandpa made me, well, you guessed it, oatmeal. Amazing.

Beans and Greens

Beans and Greens Soup:

This was basically my attempt to avoid the inevitable rotting of all my beautiful and potentially delicious vegetables. I love soups and stews like this. When you start cooking, you’re never quite sure what you might end up with, but you tweak, and you tweak, and with any luck, you’re left with a delicious soup that you’ve never had before. If you ask me, that is really the ideal way to cook.

As for next time, I would leave out the speckled beans and use chickpeas or cannelini beans instead, I think I like them better, but it’s completely up to you.

So, here’s what went in:

1T extra virgin olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

3 or 4 carrots, chunked

3 stalks of celery, chopped

5 cloves of garlic

2 garnet yams, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 1/2 bunches of green kale, chopped

2 or 3 cubes of vegan bullion

1 bunch of chard, chopped

about 1 1/2 cups of these speckled beans (I can’t remember what they’re called!), boiled to soften

Generous salt and pepper

Warm the olive oil for a minute or so over medium-low heat and then drop in the onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Let them saute and soften for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper (be conservative, you can always add more later)!

Add the yams and beans, followed by the vegan bullion cubes. Add water to cover, then put a lid on your pot, turn the heat down low and leave it all to chill for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes and beans are tender (I personally like my potatoes a little disintegrate-y).

Come back and add the greens, maybe a little bit more salt and pepper (to taste) and then cover once more and let the greens steam. This should only take a couple of minutes.

That’s it! It really is that simple. Make sure the seasoning is to your liking, and then go to town on this delicious, healthy soup.