Instapot Mung Bean and Brown Rice Stew

Back again! Been a while but never mind.

I want to try to make meatless meals using our Instapot as much as I can and try to make them as low fat as possible.

If you are on WW purple, this whole pot has 1SP from the oil only. If you are on WW blue, you need to add the brown rice to your SP count.

This recipe is an adaptation from kneadtocook.com.

Mung Bean and Brown Rice Stew

3/4 cup dry mung beans
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp garam masala or curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne powder (or to taste)
2 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp salt
1 bottle tomato passata (675ml or so)
4 cups water

Before starting anything else, put the rice and mung beans into a bowl and cover them with water. You can leave them to soak overnight or all day or 15 minutes. Just as long as they soak a bit first.

Turn the Instapot onto sauté (medium heat) and add the oil. Let it heat and fry the onions until beginning to brown. Add the garlic and fry until aromatic, making sure to stir so that it doesn't burn.

Add all the dry spices and fry them with the onions and garlic. Add the ginger.

When the spices have coated the onions and garlic and are starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, add the full jar of passata. Add some water to the jar (about 5cm) and swirl it around to get all the tomato sauce out of the jar and add it to the pot. Stir and scrape the bottom to get all the spices mixed into the tomato. Stir in the salt. Stir occasionally so that it doesn't stick and let it bubble for about 5 minutes. Press cancel on the Instapot.

Drain the mung beans and rice. Add them to the pot. Add the 4 cups of water and stir it all together, making sure all the rice and beans are stirred into the water and none are stuck on the side of the pot.

Lock the lid on the pot making sure it's set to "sealing". Press manual and increase the time to 15 minutes. Make sure it is on high heat. Leave it to cook.

Once the 15 minutes is done, leave the pot to vent on its own for about 10-15 minutes.

Serve with the side of your choice.

Dried Black Bean Slow Cooker Chili

I read in a cookbook about cooking beans from dried in a slow cooker, directly without any soaking, and I wanted to try it. It worked! I am very impressed by the ease of this as it takes one more step away when using beans. The result was super yummy too.

Black Bean Chili

1 lb dried black beans
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup chili powder
28 oz can diced tomatoes with liquid or 12 frozen roma tomatoes, peeled
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (this apparently prevents the beans from bursting but some say it's not necessary)
2 3/4 cups water

Sort the black beans. Spread them out on a cookie sheet and check for small stones. Trust me, you want to do this. Corey and I have seen how beans are dried on the side of the road. It's not surprising that a few stones will get into the mix.

Put everything into the slow cooker and mix well. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. At the half-way point, check that there is still liquid in the slow cooker. Add more if needed. You could also add frozen corn or other veggies at this point if you wanted to.

I served this on chopped lettuce with an avocado and tomato salsa. I chopped two avocados and 1 tomato into chunks, added 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili flakes, and salt then mixed that together.











Did you know that 2016 is the international year of pulses as named by the UN? Check it out at fao.org.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cinco de Mayo Taco Salad

Corn, black beans and rice. What a perfect combination. You could make this mixture and use it in tacos, wraps or on a salad as the recipe intends. Use whatever you like in the salad: taco chips, lettuce, avocado, tomato, cucumber, salsa, cilantro... This is adapted from the Eating Well website.

Taco Salad

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cup corn kernels
1 large tomato, chopped
1 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 1/2 cup cooked beans (black, pinto, kidney)
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp oragano
1/4 tsp salt

lime wedges for the salad dressing

Heat the oil. Add onion and corn and cook until the onion starts to brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until the tomato breaks down. Let cool before adding to your salad or serve hot in the taco shells. Squeeze the lime over the mixture when you mix it with the salad.

Baked Beans

So Corey and I have started griping about our limited and boring repertoire of food. Maybe it's the grey days but we are both uninspired when it comes to cooking and both of us are starting to crave pizza on a daily basis. However, we are trying our best to fight against this cooking lethargy and we are attempting new recipes from our plethora of cookbooks.

Tonight I tried a recipe for baked beans and we ate them on top of pasta (one thing to note - rice pasta does not freeze well as I found out when I reheated the pasta we had in the freezer... ugh! I just cooked a new bag.)

Baked Any Type of Beans

5 cups cooked beans (I used my frozen black-eyed peas but you could use kidney or pinto or other beans)
1 cup water
5 cloves garlic, gently crushed with the side of the knife
3 tbsp minced ginger
4 tbsp soya sauce
3 tsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup smoked tofu in small cubes
4 drops liquid smoke (or more or less depending on your smoked tofu or preference for the smoky flavour)

Preheat over to 375. Mix all the ingredients together and put into a bean pot or deep casserole dish with a lid. Bake for 45 minutes. Easy!

Tortilla Soup

Not sure where I ever got the taste for tortilla soup but every so often I get a craving for a bowl of this yummy soup. There are many recipes for tortilla soup that just are soup with tortillas in it but I wanted a recipe with tortillas actually as an ingredient. This soup came together quickly and was delicious. Adjust the amount of cilantro depending on how much you like cilantro but don't omit it entirely or else you lose a vital flavour.

Tortilla Soup

4 cups veggie stock
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 green onions, sliced with the green parts
8 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped (or one can of diced tomatoes)
a handful of cilantro, chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1.5 tsp cumin
3-4 handfuls of tortilla chips (and more for on top)
salt, to taste
1/2 cup corn kernels
1.5 cups cooked black beans

In a medium stock pot, bring to a boil the stock, onions, garlic and green onions. When it's boiling, add the tomatoes and bring to a boil again. Toss in the cilantro, the chili powder, the cumin and the tortilla chips. Remove from the heat. Once the chips have gone soggy, use an immersion blender to blend it all smooth.

Taste and add salt to taste depending on how salty your chips are.

Add the corn and beans and heat back up to a boil.

Serve with a few crushed tortilla chips on top. You could also add chunks of avocado if you wanted!

Drunken Beans

I like my slow cooker. I like finding recipes that are vegan for my slow cooker. No matter how lousy I feel, it takes little effort to throw things into the pot and turn it on for a cooked meal later in the day. That way if I feel better then the food is cooked and if I still feel lousy the food is cooked. Win-win situation.

This makes a small portion so next time I would double the recipe. That would require a lot of rum but never mind! We ate this on noodles but you could serve it on any starch or even have it on a salad to make like a taco salad or in lettuce wraps or in tacos. It's not very soupy so it won't drip everywhere if you do eat it with your hands.

Drunken Beans (adapted from The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester)

1 small onion, chopped
3 cups cooked beans pinto-black-garbanzo etc (or 2 cans of  beans if you don't have your own in the freezer)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rum
1/2 tsp cumin
1 cube "chicken" stock
1 tbsp tomato paste
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Throw it all in the crockpot! Mix, cook on low 6-8 hours and enjoy.

Meat-free Monday Burgers

We just returned from Calgary where we had a great vegan/vegetarian lunch at a little place called The Coup on 17th Ave SW. There is also a bar next door but it wasn't open. The food was delicious but expensive. Everything is made fresh and the menu items are quite original. I had a tempeh dish which was very tasty. It was busy so plan on arriving before or after the meal rush. You can't make reservations.

Another place we visited was the new Spark Science Centre which had a display about climate change and what we can all do to help slow down climate change. Everyone is invited to write a little card and post it on the metal people. This was mine:

Tonight we are heading to Mum's for dinner. She is making her yummy tacos and for us she makes these awesome re-fried beans. This is not the recipe for the beans but one day I will get it from her and post it here. The burger recipe that I am sharing came from the back of the Urban Harvest Herald that we get each week with our delivery of organic fruits and veggies. If you live in the Kelowna area, I strongly suggest that you get Urban Harvest. If you do, mention my name so that I get a credit on my order! If you live somewhere else, look into this type of service. It's well worth it. I love getting a box of fresh organic fruits and veggies each week delivered to my door.

Dixie Burgers (adapted from the Moosewood Restaurant recipe)

1 tbsp canola oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 pinch salt
2 cups grated raw sweet potato
1/3 cup minced celery
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 red pepper, minced
1 cup chard, stemmed and finely chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups canned or cooked black beans
4 oz firm tofu
panko or other fine breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a cookie sheet.

Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Add onions, garlic and salt and cook until translucent. Add sweet potato, celery and thyme and cook for a few minutes, stirring often. Add red pepper and chard, stir, cover and cook on medium-low heat for another 5 minutes until the greens are getting tender. Remove from heat and stir in soy sauce and black pepper.

While the veggies cool a bit, pulse the beans and tofu in a food processor until mashed but not smooth. Mix the veggies into the bean mixture. Add panko or breadcrumbs to make the mixture a bit more solid for shaping into patties. The recipe says to make 4 patties, we made 6 and even they were quite big.

Bake on the cookie sheet for 20 minutes until firm.

Hottie Black-Eyed Peas and Greens

Winter finally set in yesterday so I wanted something hot and stewy, plus we were going to see The Iron Lady and so I needed something that could be made fairly quickly. And a quick look in the fridge revealed a sad bunch of chard just begging to be eaten. How could I refuse an opportunity to make a favourite?

Isa Chandra Moskowitz is a vegan goddess. We have three of her cookbooks and we have not hit a bad recipe yet. This one comes from Appetite for Reduction and is one of my go-to staples, especially if I have some wilted greens like beet greens, kale or chard. Of course you can use nice fresh greens but they are good for using up those bunches that are looking slightly tired.

You can serve this on any starch or just eat it as a side dish or as a dish itself. I cooked bulgur last night which is made from cracked wheat. It is not fast from start to finish (40 minutes) but all you need is to put 1 cup bulgur in a pot with a lid, add 1cup + 1/3 cup boiling water, stir, cover and let sit. After 40 minutes, fluff with a fork and voilà! Make this first and let it "cook" while you prepare the rest. More substantial than coucous and different from rice.

Hottie Black-Eyed Peas and Greens

oil for frying (I use canola which is the best oil apart from olive in terms of health benefits)
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 bunch greens washed, cut into strips/shredded (about 1/2 lb although I never weigh my greens)
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
2 cans (15oz each) black-eyed peas (although I have used black beans and I'm sure any other bean you like would work.)
1 cup passata (tomato sauce NOT ketchup)
1/2 cup veggie broth (see note below about instant veggie broths)
1 tbsp hot sauce
1/4 tsp liquid smoke or smoked paprika (last night I added 1/4 block of smoked tofu cut into 1cm cubes which added a smoky flavour but not as intense as the liquid smoke or paprika. Corey preferred it with the tofu, I like the smoke or paprika more)


Heat the oil in a large saucepan (with a tight fitting lid) on medium heat. Sauté onions until translucent. Add garlic and sauté another minute. Add the greens, water and salt. Cover and let simmer until the greens are cooked down - about 10minutes. Check the pot and stir a couple times to make sure nothing is sticking and that your greens haven't become a mush. Add the peas, passata, broth and mix thoroughly. Cover and let simmer 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the tofu at this point if you are using it. Add the hot sauce and liquid smoke/paprika and cook 5 minutes more, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Serve on a starch of your choice. Yummy!

About soup broth powders...
It's hard to find any stock powder that isn't more salt than anything else. We have a "chicken flavoured" veggie stock that gives me 21% of my sodium intake in just 1tsp. Ridiculous. The broth powder I use the most often is Gayelord Hauser's All Natural Instant Vegetable Broth. It only has 7% of my daily salt per tsp and as far as I can tell, the salt comes from the ground kelp. It's more expensive but it comes in a good size box and if worth the price. I get it at Nature's Fair by the mall.