Creamy, Garlicky Goodness…

So far in this journey, I’ve been trying to avoid pasta. It’s easy and usually vegetarian but it can lead you down the path to being an all-carb, lazy vegetarian. That can lead you to being an overweight vegetarian. Point being, I’ve been avoiding it.

Tonight, however, I was craving a heaping plate of steaming, al dente pasta. I decided to add a whole bunch of vegetables to make it on the healthier side, though. The thing about adding so many vegetables to any dish is that it takes SO much chopping and prep work. Sometimes you just don’t want to chop so much.

Luckily, my grandma is a genius, and knows a lot about a lot of things, and gave me the idea of pre-chopping vegetables and freezing them. Let me tell you, this has made my meat-free existence much more hassle free! It’s easier to measure, the vegetables last a lot longer, and it’s already chopped!

Anyways, the recipe I came up with was a white wine garlic cream sauce with lots and lots of vegetables.

You will need:

8 tbsp butter

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 tbsp crushed garlic

1 shallot, finely chopped

1/2 cup asparagus tips

2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1 Roma tomato, chopped

1 cup fresh spinach, chopped

1 cup red peppers, chopped

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp flour

1 lb. bowtie pasta, cooked al dente

Saute the shallots and garlic in 4 tbsp butter, setting the rest aside. Saute for about a minute, then add the rest of the vegetables and basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Saute for about 3 more minutes, then add the wine. Sprinkle the flour over everything and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. Stir in the cream and remaining butter. Serve over the pasta and garnish with freshly shredded Parmesan and fresh ground pepper. Enjoy!

Risotto is harder than you might think…

I got a new cookbook which deceptively has the word “Simple” in the title. Totally misleading!!! None of these recipes are simple. They are, however, delicious. I am always up for a challenge and so I set to digging through the book.

The first recipe that caught my attention was for risotto. There are about six different kinds listed, all of which look scrumptious! I thought risotto was a simple rice dish. After getting all of the ingredients, I came home to look over the directions and realized I was wrong.

Risotto IS rice, but not simple at all. It is cooked in a way so that the starch from the rice makes it’s own creamy sauce, and is ultra flavorful because it is cooked in broth instead of water.

I decided to with a goat cheese and pear risotto because it is two of my favorite flavors in one dish! This is a little more complicated than my usual recipes, but believe me, it is worth the extra steps!

You will need:

3 large ripe pears

1/2 cup dry white wine

3 tbsp butter

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 3/4 cups risotto rice (any short grain is fine)

3 cups vegetable stock

salt and pepper

8 oz creamy goat cheese

2 tbsp candied ginger (optional)

 

Cut one of the pears into quarters and remove the core. Slice thinly and lay on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until the slices have dried out. Set aside. Core and chop the remaining pears.

Place the wine in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat. Simmer for ten minutes.

Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the shallot and saute for about 3-4 minutes.

Add the rice and saute for 2 minutes. Pour in the hot wine and cook until it evaporates, 2-3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the stock and cook until it is absorbed. add the chopped pears and mix well. Keep adding the stock, 1/2 cup at a time, cooking and stirring until each addition has been absorbed and the rice is tender, 15-18 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir in ginger and goat cheese. Cover and let rest for two minutes.

Top with baked pears and garnish with fresh marjoram if desired. Enjoy the fruits of your labor!! You deserve it:)

 

Crispy, yummy corncakes…

I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Epic fail! You’ll be happy to know I am still true to the vegetarian path, however. I have been cheating and eating a lot of pre-packaged vegetarian substitute foods due to the current hecticness of my life. You would be surprised what they make fake versions of now!!

Some of the things that almost always ruin my dedication to a meat-free diet are bacon and buffalo wings. I crave these two things and there is just no denying it or getting around it. There’s just no substitution! Or is there???

Morningstar Farms, my new favorite when I am short on time and/or just plain lazy, makes a veggie bacon. Yes, you heard right… VEGGIE BACON! Now, as disgusting and unappealing as that may sound to you bacon fanatics, it is actually tasty. No, seriously. For me, my favorite part of the bacon is the crispy part, and this substitute comes out all crisp. It is fantastic!  It makes amazing BLT’s. Just try it, you won’t be disappointed. Coincidentally, they also make veggie buffalo wings. So thank you, Morningstar Farms, for keeping me on the path!

In the midst of all this hecticness and packaged foods, I did manage to make one pretty amazing dish from scratch… corncakes. If you are not from the South, you might not know what a corncake is. If a pancake and a corn muffin had a baby and it was a sassy rebel and turned savory instead of sweet, it would be a corncake.

To make this, you will need:

1 cup cornmeal

1 tbsp flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup whole corn kernels

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

vegetable oil

sour cream and jalapenos for garnish

 

Mix together flour, cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Then gently mix in buttermilk, butter, corn and cheese. Don’t mix it too much!! Coat large skillet with vegetable oil and preheat to medium-high heat. Ladle batter onto pan and let sit until bubbles break the surface of the batter (like you would with pancakes). Use spatula to flip and cook until the other side is golden brown. Garnish with sour cream and jalapenos and enjoy!

You can actually put whatever you want on these, and they will still be good.

 

 

When tomato met basil…

Valentine’s Day is a wonderful day for food… at least, when you have a romance with food the way I do. Food reminds me of those wonderful relationships with people who bring out the best in you, complement who you are and blend with you in a way that brings out perfect harmony.

Tomato and fresh basil are two of my favorite ingredients to make a partnership of. I love them both separately, but when combined they make a wonderful, magical duo. One of my favorite ways these two can marry is in bruschetta, which I have talked about before. The other, is in a warm, creamy tomato-basil bisque.

If you are anything like me, you probably never in your life thought you would be making anything that ended in “bisque”. What makes a bisque? Traditionally, bisque is French, and made from seafood, but since this is a vegetarian blog, that wouldn’t make much sense, now would it? You’ll know a bisque when you have it. It is creamy and velvety, and perfectly seasoned to the point where you’ll want to take breaks between spoonfuls, because you won’t want to let the flavor escape.

I made this tomato-basil bisque last night, and trust me, it will warm your heart… even if it’s not Valentine’s Day.

You will need:

4 tbsp butter or butter substitute

1 medium size onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 tsp crushed garlic

3 tbsp flour

4 cups vegetable broth (make sure it’s broth, not stock)

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (or 2 14.5 cans if you can’t find the big one)

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 tsp sugar

3 bay leaves

3 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

salt and pepper

Saute onions, celery and garlic in butter in a large saucepan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Reduce heat to low. Add flour and stir continuously. Add broth, tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, bay leaves and basil and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Blend about a quarter of the soup at a time until all the soup is smooth. (I use two saucepans for this.) It’s tricky, but worth it. Add the cream to the blended soup and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!!

You can garnish it with basil and fresh tomatoes, or you can garnish it like I did, with croutons and Parmesan cheese. However you garnish it, savor it, and let the bisque romance you tonight:)

Bruschetta Heaven…

The longer I go into this little adventure, the more I realize how much I love cooking! There is something so zen about all the chopping and preparation that goes into it, and watching your creation come together in your hands. I also love that it’s now guilt-free for me!

I watched Julie & Julia the other night, and one of the dishes she makes inspired me. It looked like bruschetta, except instead of toasting the bread, she grilled it, like you would a cheese sandwich. It looked divine! So I thought, well, I must try to make this! So I did…

You will need…

1 loaf of French bread (the softer, the better)

5 Roma tomatoes(diced finely)

7 or 8 leaves of basil, stems removed, finely chopped

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp crushed garlic

3 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

6 tbsp butter or vegan butter or margarine, whichever you prefer

Mix the tomatoes, basil, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Let marinate for about ten minutes. While the mixture is marinating, slice the French bread into 1 inch slices. Melt the butter in a skillet and grill the bread slices until they are toasted golden brown. Remove the bread slices and place into a baking pan and spoon tomato mixture onto each slice. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 7-9 minutes. Remove and enjoy!!!

This really is one of my favorite recipes I’ve EVER made, so I really hope that you try this out. Grilling the bread mad all the difference. It had a crunchy outside and a warm, chewy inside, and it didn’t get soggy. Amazing. This is what led to me having five pieces.

This weekend, I plan to go to our local farmer’s market and find at least three fruits and/or vegetables that I’ve never used or tasted before, and try to figure out what to do with them. Should make for some interesting blogging!!

Finding new textures in tempeh…

As everyone who reads my blog knows, I have been struggling with the texture of tofu. It is so strange to me! No matter how much I like the taste, and I do, I can’t get past that strange not hard, not soft jello-like consistency of tofu. If you are wondering, no, I don’t like jello either. But that’s another story for another time.

You might be wondering how someone could possibly be a vegetarian and not like tofu… I was also wondering the same thing! If you take away tofu, what are you left to eat? I was convinced that there must be other meatless products out there that I could use to replace meat. So I set out on a little journey to our local vegetarian grocery store, Down To Earth, to see what I could find.

Right next to the tofu at Down To Earth was a product that I wasn’t familiar with, tempeh. Perhaps I am not educated enough on vegetarian food, but that’s what this journey is about, right? I bought two packs, and it is PERFECT!!! It is a soy product, but it has an awesome, super firm texture, and whole soybeans in it so it has a little crunch. It tastes delicious too! It has a sort of nutty flavor. I am so excited to have found this!

I made curry with my first batch. This was my first attempt at making curry and at using tempeh, so I was surprised at how well it turned out!

You will need:

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tbsp butter or margarine

6 or 7 really small potatoes (cut in half)

about a cup of fresh green beans (cut in half)

1 cup baby carrots (chopped)

1 whole onion (chopped)

1 can coconut milk, unsweetened

2 tbsp curry powder

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

dash of salt

1 tsp tumeric

Saute the onion in the butter until soft and translucent in a large pot. Add the vegetable broth and then the rest of the vegetables. Let cook for about ten minutes or until vegetables start to become tender. Add the coconut milk and the rest of the spices. Cover and let simmer for twenty minutes to let the spices soak in. Serve with rice and enjoy!!

Side note: I do like a very strong coconut flavor so if it is too much for you, add more vegetable broth until you get the flavor balance you want.

This recipe is so good for a chilly night! It’s so hearty and flavorful, and it keeps really well, so it’s even better the next day!!

For the love of a sandwich….

I am a sandwich lover. I love all types of bread, and everything you can put on or in bread. Sourdough, rye, croissants, and flatbread… you name it, I love it. Making different varieties of sandwiches has become increasingly difficult since becoming a vegetarian, though. If you can’t put meat on a sandwich, what CAN you put on it?

I have found a few satisfying substitutes. Avocado has become a great replacement for the meat portion of a sandwich. Cheese also works. One of my favorite sandwiches, though is a chicken or tuna salad sandwich.  So now how do I replace that?

Tonight I made a pretty awesome discovery with extra firm tofu. I read online that if you freeze it, then thaw it in the refrigerator and then steam it for a few minutes, it takes on more of a chewy texture. I decided to try it since I am still struggling with ways to really ENJOY tofu. Let me tell you, it’s been rough so far. I haven’t yet found a way to make tofu that makes me love it.

However, this concoction which from this point forward we will call “tofu salad” came out pretty satisfying, and made a great filler for the wraps I made. The best part about it is that it made a lot, so I have something to make sandwiches with to take to work with me!

You will need:

1 lb. extra firm tofu (frozen, then thawed, then steamed)

1/2 cup chopped baby carrots

1/2 cup chopped raw red onions

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 tsp tumeric

1 cup mayo (or vegannaise, or nayonnaise or miracle whip- whichever you prefer)

1tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

After the tofu is cooled, squeeze as much water as you possibly can out of it. Put into a bowl and break up into little pieces. Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir. Chill and serve however you’d like it! I put mine in a wrap with spinach, tomatoes, mustard and avocados. It was delicious!! This version of the recipe is very crunchy, but if you prefer less crunch, leave out the celery and onion, and it becomes very similar to egg salad. You could also use diced apples, grapes and walnuts to make a mock Waldorf chicken salad.

The great thing about this is it’s so simple! You can also add or subtract so many things to make it personalized, so it’s all up to you! Experiment freely, and enjoy!!