Mediterranean Casserole

This was thrown together from things in my pantry.  I actually have yet to sample the finished product.  It was pretty easy to make, though.

6 oz. marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 can white kidney beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 can whole black olives, drained and smooshed
1/4 cup eggplant/garlic dip from Trader Joe's (I might leave this out next time)
1/3 cup hummus
3 Tbsp chopped basil
1/4 cup dry red wine

Mix together.  Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Mediterranean Artichoke Casserole

This casserole was borne out of pantry desperation, but it turned out lovely. I might ditch the fake chicken next time, though... it just didn't impress me.

2 cans white beans, drained (I used white kidney and butter beans)

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1-1/2 cups artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1 package Trader Joes chicken-less strips, diced (or other equivalent, optional)

1 tsp dried sage

3-4 Tbsp vegan cream cheese

1 sheet puff pastry, defrosted

Mix the beans, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, 'chicken' bits and sage together in a casserole dish. Distribute little bits of the vegan cream cheese across the whole thing and stir. Top with puff pastry and bake at 400 for 45 minutes, or until the puff pastry is all puffed up and golden.

***

If you have a little strip of puff pastry left over, I like to slather it with raspberry jam, sprinkle on some chocolate chips, roll it up and dust it with hot cocoa mix, then bake for 20-30 minutes. It tastes amazingly decadent, and it's so damn easy.

Butternut Squash Patties w/ Tomato Relish

I made my pumpkin patties again, only this time with butternut squash and a mild tomato relish (my mom was visiting, and she doesn't like spicy things). There were no leftovers.

Butternut Squash Patties

3-4 cups roasted butternut squash, roughly mashed
3-4 shallots, minced
1 handful basil, minced
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1 Tbsp raw sugar (optional)
canola oil for frying

Combine all ingredients and stir until mixture forms patties. Heat the canola oil and fry on each side for 4-5 minutes. Drain on paper.

Tomato Relish

2 cups diced tomatoes (I used Green Zebras, my favorite)
1 handful basil, cut into thin strips
1 tsp garlic jelly (optional, but delicious)

Combine and let sit until the patties are done. Spoon on top of the patties and serve.

Zucchini Patties w/ Tomato-Corn Relish (Redux)

Last night, I used up two zucchini, a handful of baby onions and a crapload of tomatoes with the Zucchini Patties w/ Tomato-Corn Relish. I ended up adding an egg white (from the lovely free-range chickens at Blue Gate Farm) to the patties to help them stay together. Delish.

Kale-Mushroom-Sundried Tomato-Sausage Quiche

1 can biscuit dough (Hy-Vee's Texas biscuits are vegan)
4 eggs (or 1 batch Vegan Brunch omelette mix)
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup kale, destemmed and chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
4 oz. oyster mushrooms
2 handfuls sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
2 Morningstar Farms sausage patties, chopped
1 handful fresh basil & oregano (or other fresh herbs)
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil a pie plate. Press the biscuit dough into the pie plate until the bottom and sides are covered in a thin layer of dough.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the garlic, kale and mushrooms for 5-10 minutes, or until the kale is dark green and tender. Mix in the tomatoes, fresh herbs and sausage chunks and spread evenly over the biscuit dough.

Whisk the eggs together until yolks and whites are incorporated. Season with a dash each of salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the veggies. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the egg mixture is set.

Spicy Chickpea Tomato Pasta

A quick and very tasty pasta dish.

1/2 box thin spaghetti
1 Tbsp olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1 can chickpeas
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
2 Tbsp sundried tomato pesto

Boil salted water for the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and toss with a little olive oil.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic cloves and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chickpeas, tomatoes, chipotle and pesto and cook for another 3-5 minutes, or until heated through. Toss with the pasta and serve.

Crock-Pot Tomato Bean Minestrone

1 vegetable bouillon cube
2 cans beans, drained (I used kidney and Great Northern)
2 cans diced tomatoes, with juice
1 cup frozen corn (optional)
2 cups diced potatoes (I used leftover roasted potatoes and onions)
1 cup cooked pasta
2 cups water

Combine in a crockpot and cook on low for 4-8 hours. (You could also combine in a pot and cook on low until heated through.)

Open-Faced BLTs w/ Chipotle Remoulade + Zucchini Patties with Corn Relish

The chipotle remoulade in this was divine. It also made a good dipping sauce for sweet potato fries, which we had alongside this dish.



several slices sourdough bread, toasted
leftover zucchini patties (optional, recipe below)
several slices tempeh bacon, cooked to a crisp
1 heirloom tomato, thickly sliced
chipotle remoulade (recipe below)

Assemble in listed order and serve while the bacon is still hot.

Chipotle Remoulade
2/3 cup vegan mayo
2 tablespoons capers, with brine
1/2 chipotle chili in adobo
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 tsp sweet chili sauce

Blend with a stick blender until smooth.

Zucchini Patties
1 medium zucchini, grated
1/2 cup refried beans (or hummus)
1/4 tsp cumin & chili powder
1/2 cup corn kernels
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup masa harina (corn flour), as needed
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil for frying

Mix the grated zucchini, beans, spices, corn & garlic together. Add the masa harina until the mixture can be formed into patties. Fry in the olive oil over medium heat, 3-4 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Top with corn relish:

Corn Relish
2 cups frozen corn kernels
2 Tbsp lime juice
4 Tbsp chipotle salsa
1 Tbsp garlic jelly (optional, but very tasty)

Heat all ingredients until hot and steamy.

Mexican Zucchini Soup

1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, diced
1 potato, diced
1 ear of corn, kernels cut off
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 bottle of beer
1 veg bouillon cube
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder

Saute the garlic in the olive oil for 2 minutes, then add everything else and simmer for 20 minutes.

Stewed Seitan, Carrots & Tomatoes

This is a pantry/freezer cleaner outer recipe. I have no idea how it's going to turn out. Film at 11.

1 can vegetarian mock duck, drained and rinsed
1 can vegetarian mock pork, drained and rinsed
1 largish tub frozen whole tomatoes (canned would also work, of course)
2 handfuls baby carrots
1 veg bouillon cube
1 tsp Better Than Beef bouillon
a hefty glug of soy sauce
a few glugs of steak sauce
a few sprigs fresh thyme
1/3 bottle of white wine
1 packet vegan golden gravy mix

Throw all ingredients into your slow cooker/crock pot and cook for 8 hours, stirring occasionally.

Curried Tomato-White Bean Soup

This almost doesn't qualify as a recipe, it's so easy. You can sub any kind of white bean here... I even think red lentils would be good. Go go gadget five minute meals!

1 container Imagine foods creamy tomato soup
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can butter beans, drained
1/2 to 1 cup sun dried tomatoes
1/2 dried chipotle pepper (optional)
1 head roasted garlic, mashed (optional)
1 tsp curry powder
hummus (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a large soup pot or crockpot. Simmer until hot. Serve with hummus as garnish and crusty bread.

'Feta' Bean Pie

This is a veganized version of a favorite from our meat-eating days. The original has diced chicken, sour cream, feta cheese and lard-filled pie crusts. This version is still tasty, but much healthier.

12 oz. extra-firm silken tofu
2 Tbsp whole grain mustard
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp each garlic & onion powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp umeboshi vinegar

1 cup soy sour cream / plain soy yogurt
1/3 cup soy cream cheese

2 cans butter beans, drained
2 cans diced tomatoes, drained
2 Tbsp each fresh (or 1 tsp each dried) basil, dill and oregano

1 package crescent rolls

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mash the tofu. Add the mustard, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and umeboshi vinegar and stir well. Stir in the sour cream and cream cheese.

Mix the beans, tomatoes, and herbs together. Put in the bottom of a deep baking dish. Spread the tofu mixture on top. Unroll the crescent roll dough and lay it on top of the tofu mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the crescent rolls are golden brown.

Italian Chickpea Pasta

6 cups water
pinch of salt
3 cups pasta of your choice

Bring the water to a boil. Drop in the salt and pasta. Stir once or twice to make sure the pasta doesn't stick to itself. Boil under tender.

1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large handful sundried tomatoes (the slightly soft kind that come in zip-top bags)
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup artichoke hearts, mooshed
1 cup frozen choped kale
2 Tbsp capers
2 healthy splashes white/red wine
1 splash Tobasco sauce

Heat the oil in a largish skillet. Add the garlic and saute for a minute or so, or until fragrant. Add everything else and simmer until most of the wine has evaporated.

Drain the pasta. Return to the pot with a drizzle each of olive oil and lemon juice. Add the topping mixture and stir. Serve immediately!

Cajun Black-Eyed Pea Tempeh Stir-Fry

Here's my thought process regarding dinner last night:

* Black eyed pea patties with chipotle remoulade sound tasty.
* Hm. Out of tofu. I could have them with salsa instead!
* Black eyed pea and tempeh patties sound even tastier.
* Damn. I'm really hungry. Patties are too much work. Let's throw it all in a pot instead.
* And add... tomatoes? And diced green chiles.
* Hm. No diced green chiles. Jalepenos!
* You know what would be tasty? Kale!

My boy declared this scrumptious. Funny how the tastiest recipes are borne out of desperation.

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 block tempeh, thawed and diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp bouillon powder
1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
2 cans black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
5-6 tamed jalepeno rings, diced (optional)
3-4 shakes Tobasco
3 kale leaves, washed and torn into bits (stems discarded, optional)

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion, tempeh and salt and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until the tempeh is starting to brown. Add the bouillon powder, Cajun seasoning and garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add the tomatoes and juice and lower the heat to a simmer. Add the black eyed peas, jalepenos and Tobasco and stir well. Add the torn kale leaves on top, cover and cook for 7-10 more minutes, or until the greens are dark and wilted. Stir in the greens and serve!

Preserving 101: For Those of Us Too Scared to Can

One of these days, I'll get around to canning. But the Polk County Master Gardeners have managed to put the fear of God into me, and I don't have a pot large enough to submerge jars in anyway. So for now, if I'm going to preserve any of all this farmers' market bounty, it's going to have to be frozen.

Note: One side benefit is that this forces us not to clutter our freezer with processed crap that we basically never eat.

We did a little of this last year, freezing corn kernels and a few strawberries. This year, we've already frozen twenty quarts of strawberries and a few plastic tubs worth of corn and green beans.

Fortunately, the process is pretty simple. You briefly cook whatever you're going to freeze, then you either pack it into tubs or spread in a layer on a cookie sheet to freeze. (We usually don't bother to cook corn or strawberries.)

Last night, I froze five pounds worth of roma tomatoes by dipping them in boiling water for a minute or two, then plunging them in cold water. Once chilled, the skins slipped right off. I packed the skinless tomatoes into a plastic tub as tightly as possible (oxygen is not your friend in the freezer), then sealed it.

Tonight, we're roasting a whole crisper drawer's worth of beets. After they're cooked, we'll peel, slice and pack those into tubs as well.

Next up: kale!

Chickpea-Spinach-Tomato Pasta/Soup

The leftovers of this pasta topping makes for a tasty, hearty soup the next day.

For the pasta:
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp olive oil
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cans tomatoes, drained
1 tsp dried dill
pepper to taste
a few shakes Tobasco
6-8 oz. baby spinach, rinsed
4 oz (half a box) of linguine
splash lemon juice

Put on water to boil. When boiling, add the linguine and cook until no longer crunchy. Drain, then toss with a little olive oil and lemon juice and cover until ready to eat.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the garlic and dill and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the chickpeas, tomatoes and pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add the spinach and stir until wilted. Serve over pasta.

Makes two servings of pasta, plus a lot of topping leftovers.

For the soup:
1 can kidney beans, drained and rised
1/3 cup dry quinoa
2 cups veggie broth (or 2 cups water + one bouillon cube)

Add beans, quinoa and veggie broth to the pasta topping leftovers. Turn the heat up and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the quinoa has become translucent.

Basic Mediterranean Pasta

Tonight our planned broccoli-chickpea dish was derailed by the unwelcome presence of a worm in our broccoli. Thus, we needed something to throw together in no time at all. This took roughly 5 minutes and definitely hit the spot.

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 14-oz can whole black olives
2 large spoonfuls artichoke hearts
1 tsp capers
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
a few fresh basil leaves
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)

Saute the garlic in some of the oil from the artichokes. When browned, add the tomatoes, artichokes, olives and capers. Add the nutritional yeast and heat until bubbly and hot. Serve over pasta!

Grilled Plantains w/ Black Bean-Corn Relish & Gingered Mangoes & Strawberries

Grilled Plantains
1 semi-ripe plantain, cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch thick slices
2 tsp sucanat or sugar or maple syrup
1/4 tsp lime juice
dash salt

Rub the slices with lime juice and sprinkle with sucanat and salt. Generously oil the grill pan and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side.

Black Bean-Corn Relish
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
kernels from 2 ears of corn
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
a few shakes chipotle hot sauce

Combine the corn kernels and a little water in a small saucepan. Cook the corn for 3 minutes, or until no longer raw. Drain the corn and add to the black beans. Add lime juice, cumin, garlic powder and hot sauce and mix well.

Gingered Mangoes & Strawberries
2 ripe mangoes, peeled and diced
5-6 strawberries, quartered
2 pieces crystallized ginger, chopped or 1/4 tsp grated fresh ginger

Combine the mangoes, strawberries and ginger in a bowl and mix well. Let set for a few minutes, then serve!

Creamy Penne w/ Seitan & Tomatoes

This is total comfort food -- completely irresistible and makes for great left-overs.

1/4 cup flour
1/8 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup water
1/2 veg. bouillon cube
1/2 Tbsp. miso
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp paprika
salt to taste
1 Tbsp margarine
1/2 tsp mustard
2-3 Tobasco

Mix the flour, yeast, water and bouillon in a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until thickened. Mix in miso, garlic powder, paprika and salt. Cook for 5 minutes or so. Stir in the margarine and mustard and Tobasco.

1 can braised wheat gluten, well rinsed and shredded
8 oz. small pasta, cooked
1 can finely diced tomatoes, undrained

Put the water for the pasta on to boil. When boiling, drop in the pasta and cook until done. Meanwhile, add the wheat gluten and tomatoes (with their juice) to the sauce and simmer until bubbling, hot and thickened. Drain the pasta over them. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss well to coat. Serve immediately.

Baked Polenta w/ Puttanesca Sauce

Adapted from The Big Book of Vegetarian. I didn't have capers or green olives for the sauce, so I adapted to what I had on hand. This was delightful, and it only took 20 minutes or so to whip up. (My boy made himself a chicken/mustard sandwich and took twice as long.)

2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup sweet red wine
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 jar finely diced tomatoes w/ juice
2 basil leaves, finely chopped
1 handful kalamata olives, pitted and smooshed
1 artichoke heart, smooshed
a few drops Tobasco

Heat the oil in a saucepan, and saute the garlic until golden. Add the wine, tomato paste, tomatoes and basil and simmer merrily for 10-15 minutes. Add the olives, artichoke and Tobasco and heat through, then remove from the heat.

6-8 slices sun-dried tomato polenta
olive oil
ground pepper

Meanwhile, smear the slices with olive oil and pop in the oven for 10 minutes at 425 degrees, or until browned. Transfer to a plate, season with pepper, and top with the sauce. Serve with a glass of red wine.