Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Vegan MoFo

Just signed up to be part of Vegan MoFo next month.  Hopefully this will encourage me to start posting more.
I plan to start by busting out some pastry recipes...I've been hankering for some danish.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Red Potato Burritos

I've been trying to cook in my cast iron pans lately to increase the iron in my diet.  These burritos came out with a rich, smoky flavor that was also good cold for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:
splash olive oil
1/2 pound small red potatoes, diced
1/2 a medium-large yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic or 1/4-1/2 t garlic powder
1-2 t dried oregano
1 can black beans, drained (and rinsed if salty)
1-2 small tomatoes, minced
1 roasted red pepper, minced
a few leaves of beet greens or chard, sliced (optional)
1/2-1 cup frozen corn
2 pinches tarragon
pinch salt
1/2-1 cups almond milk
1/8 t liquid smoke
1 T margarine
1-2 T flour
4 super-large or 8 regular-sized burrito shells

The Process:
  1. Heat oil over medium-high heat in cast iron skillet.  Add onions, potatoes, garlic, and oregano, and fry for about 7 minutes, stirring constantly and scraping any burned bits off the bottom of the pan.
  2. Add beans, tomato, pepper, corn, greens, and a splash of the almond milk. Cover, lower to a simmer, and continue cooking until potatoes are soft, about 10 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, make roux: in small pan, melt margarine. Whisk in flour. Cook for about 2 minutes.  (Alternatively, melt the margarine in the microwave, mix in the flour with a fork, then return to the microwave for about 30 seconds on medium-high heat.)
  4. Add tarragon, liquid smoke, and salt to potato/bean mixture.  Adjust seasoning to taste.  Stir in roux, and add additional almond milk to desired thickness.  It should be very thick to keep it from leaking out of the burrito shells.
  5. Toast or grill your burrito shells before filling them, it's worth it!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Lazy Pesto

I love pesto. I want to marry it and have its basillicious babies.  But last weekend, I had a monster basil crop that needed harvesting, and I didn't feel like toasting nuts or pressing garlic.  Lazy pesto to the rescue!  I didn't measure anything, just popped it all in the food processor and gave it a few pulses.  Instant deliciousness.

Ingredients:
3 big handfuls of basil leaves
several handfuls raw walnuts
a few hearty shakes of nutritional yeast
a splash of lemon juice
a few glugs of olive oil
a few shakes of garlic powder
a couple pinches of salt

This made about a pint jar full.  I had it tossed with bowtie pasta and cannellini beans last night, and have enough left to toss with gnocchi tonight.