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

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!

Avocado and Spinach Pasta

When I tell people that I use avocado as a warm ingredient in pasta, their reaction is not always so positive. If you are someone who believes that avocado should only be eaten cold, in sandwiches or in guacamole, you are missing out on the creaminess that it offers in a pasta dish. Try it!

Avocado and Spinach Pasta

454g bag of linguine or other pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
4 large cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp salt
fresh ground black pepper
4 cups chopped fresh spinach
2 tomatoes, cut into chunks
3 avocados, peeled and chopped into chunks (the riper the avocado, the creamier the sauce)

Cook the pasta according to package instructions.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Toss in the garlic and red pepper flakes. Stir around for a couple minutes making sure the garlic doesn't burn. Add the wine and let it bubble another couple minutes. Add the broth, lime juice, salt, and pepper and bring up to a boil then reduce the heat to simmer. Toss in the tomato and once it is heated through, add the spinach and mix until it is wilted.

Toss the pasta and sauce together and leave on the heat for a few minutes until it is all hot again. Stir in the avocado and let it heat through. Enjoy!

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!

Vegan BBQ

Now that the weather is warm, people often comment to us about how much we must miss having a bbq. Umm, actually no, we don't miss it at all because we bbq at least  once a week. But what? Tofu dogs? NO WAY! We bbq vegetables and tons of them. It's my favourite way to eat the summer bounty from the local gardens.

This is not a recipe but more of a methods page for bbq-ing a variety of yummy veggies. If you have another favourite, let me know and I will add it to this page.

Forget the meat! Searing meat on a bbq is toxic anyway. Try these yummy vegetables instead. We have a tiny Weber Q100 BBQ that we use on high but if you have a a big bbq, medium will probably be high enough.

Beets
So easy! Cut off the tops (you can eat those greens like spinach or chard), trim the root, give the skin a quick wash and place on a the grill. No need to peel. The size of the beet will determine the amount of time it will take to cook. As the outside blackens and blisters, turn the beet to cook all the way around. It's cooked when a skewer goes through. You can peel them while they are hot or let them cool, leave in the fridge overnight, and then peel them even more easily. They are sugary sweet!

 Asparagus
Corey's favourite way to do asparagus is to give them a quick rinse and dry, snap off the bottom (the thicker the asparagus, the better it will be - thinner asparagus is not better), place in a shallow pan and drizzle olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper on the spears. Place the thicker stems on the bbq first and leave them to cook until they are almost charred - they turn an olive green and get soft. Flip and leave on the other side for a couple minutes. You really want the first side to be well cooked before flipping.

If you ever have leftover grilled asparagus, check out my corn soup which will be posted soon!

Yams
We ate giant yams in China that were cooked inside oil drums filled with coals. These you can do like potatoes on the grill - just leave on the grill and turn as the skin goes black and blistered. Just like the beets!

Eggplant Version 1
If you are making something like Baba Ganouj (an eggplant dip) or an Indian roasted eggplant dish, you just buy a big eggplant and put it on the bbq to blacken and blister (like the beets again!). The eggplant will swell and burst as it cooks and will need to be gently lifted onto a plate or else it'll just ooze a mushy mess onto your grill.


Eggplant Version 2, Zucchini, Pattypan Squash
Cut the veggies in half and toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on the grill cut side down and leave to grill until soft for the eggplant and al-dente for the summer squashes. You can flip them if you want but I don't always do the flip.

Onions
Peel but don't cut the ends off. Cut the whole onion into 4 pieces. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and grill on all three sides. If you do cut the ends off, just put on a skewer to grill or else the pieces will fall apart.

Tomatoes, Green Onions, Mushrooms
Yuck. Hot tomatoes. Why waste them? Eat them raw. Green Onions are just as yucky bbq-ed as they are raw but Corey really likes them. Toss in olive oil and salt and grill whole. Same goes for mushrooms. These will shrivel and become even worse tasting as they cook.

Portobello Mushrooms
These are my yummy exceptions to the yucky brown mushroom rule (they are, after all, just overgrown brown mushrooms.) Remove the stem and scrape out the gills under the cap. You can grill these whole and eat them like a burger or you can slice them. They marinate beautifully and take well to bbq sauce while you are grilling them. If you can press them will a panini cast iron press that you've heated up, that makes them even fleshier.

Garlic
Take a whole head of garlic. Cut off the top to expose the cloves. Place on a piece of foil. Drizzle olive oil over the top into the cloves, sprinkle in coarse salt and pepper. Bring up the sides of the foil and twist it together like a Hershey Kiss. Place on the grill for 30-45 minutes on low to medium. If the grill is too hot the bottom will burn. 

So there you go! You can add sauces, marinades, fresh herbs or flavoured salts to your veggies before or during the grilling time to play with the flavour. You don't need a bbq wok or veggie cage like you see at the local stores, nor do you need to wrap anything in foil except the garlic.

Cheese-Free Mexican

While we were in San Diego we enjoyed many Mexican meals but each meal is laden with cheese. One soup I did not find that I have eaten in Mexico is tortilla soup. It is one of my favourites! So tonight I made a cheese-free tortilla soup. I'm not sure if it usually has cheese as some recipes had cheese and others didn't but this one has the flavour that I was looking for. Corey says it's a bit cilantro-y for him so reduce the amount if you don't like a strong cilantro flavour. I love it! There is another recipe that used nutritional yeast to make a cheesy tortilla soup. I'll let you know what that one is like.

Tortilla Soup

4 cups veggie broth
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 green onions,sliced
1 can (15oz) diced tomatoes (don't use canned tomatoes - use frozen or fresh ones)
1/4 - 1/2 bunch cilantro
1 tbsp chili powder
1.5 tbsp cumin (fresh ground from Abby's - remember?)
3-4 handfuls of tortilla chips
1 tsp salt or more to taste
1/2 cup frozen corn
1.5 cups cooked black beans (one can or the ones you have cooked and in the freezer)
juice of 1 lime (or about 1tbsp of lime juice)
1 avocado, sliced

Bring the stock, garlic and onion to a boil. Turn down heat and add tomatoes. Allow to simmer for a few minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro, chili powder, cumin and tortilla chips. The chips will soften (duh) and when they do, blend the soup with an immersion blender. Add salt and adjust seasoning to taste. Return to heat, add corn and beans and bring up to almost a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer until you are ready to eat the soup. Crumble tortillas into the soup and add slices of avocado on top.

I love lasagna!

I used to make lasagna quite often but gave this wonderful one-pot meal up when we became vegan. I really don't like many of the soy cheese products and I try to avoid as much wheat as possible but when I came across this recipe in the Accidental Vegan cookbook I just bought, I could not resist (with a few modifications of course!) I was having good friends over for dinner so I decided they could be my guinea pigs. That's what good friends are for!

There are several steps for this recipe because you make all three sauces but each one is made quickly so the overall time is not a big deal. You could melt soy cheese on top but as we have recently discovered, some brands have casein from milk in them. Check your labels carefully.

I use the instant lasagna noodles because I hate fighting with lasagna noodles that stick in my pot when I am boiling them and then fall apart as I transfer them into the lasagna pan. It limits my options for "flavours" of lasagna noodles but for these rare occasions, I don't mind just eating plain white semolina flour noodles.

Spinach Pesto Lasagna

1. Spinach Tomato Sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried oregano (been to Abby's yet?)

2 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
6-8 large tomatoes skinned and chopped or just chopped fine
1 pkg frozen spinach, thawed

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add onions, garlic, herbs, spices and salt. Fry on medium heat until the onions start to become translucent. Add the tomatoes, lower heat, cover and let simmer 30 minutes. (This is when you make the other sauces.) Squeeze the water out of the spinach and mix it into the sauce. Let it heat through.

2. Pesto
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted in boiling water
2 cloves garlic
3 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1 cup shelled walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Put the garlic cloves in the food processor and chop finely. Drain the tomatoes and add all the ingredients to the food processor. Process until finely chopped and well mixed.

3. "Cheese" Sauce - nothing like cheese at all really except the creaminess of a cheese sauce
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (great source of B12 - one of the only sources for vegans)
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp prepared mustard

Gently heat oil over medium-low heat. Add flour and yeast and whisk until it is all mixed together. It will be a combined crumbly mixture. Add the water, raise the heat to medium and whisk continuously until the sauce boils and thickens to the consistency of pea soup. It will burn fast so it is important to whisk it all the time. Remove from heat and whisk in the salt and mustard. 

LASAGNA

1 pkg express lasagna
1 pkg soft tofu, drained and crumbled into a bowl
the 3 sauces above

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix the pesto into the bowl with the crumbled tofu. In a 9x13 pan, spread 1/3 of the tomato-spinach sauce. Layer noodles onto the sauce. Spread 1/2 the tofu-pesto sauce on top. Add another layer of noodles. Spread 1/3 of the tomato-spinach sauce on top then cover with the rest of the tofu-pesto sauce. Another layer of noodles. Cover with the rest of the tomato-spinach sauce. Pour the "cheese" sauce on top, cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Each of the sauces are good on their own for pasta. I boil macaroni then fry onions and tomatoes together, toss in the macaroni, add the "cheese" sauce, put it in a baking dish, cover it with breadcrumbs and bake it for 20 minutes. Makes a great lunch!

Pasta Puttanesca and the Culling of a Cookbook

Some cookbooks are born bad. They look great, the recipes have potential, but each time a recipe is tried and the results are eagerly anticipated, the food creation is disappointing or even inedible. Such is the case of Big Vegan by Robin Asbell. She's a well known chef, food writer, and the author of two other cookbooks but this one just isn't working for us.

For lunch today I made a one pot rice curry which is now in the garbage.

This book is heading out the door. But before it does, there is ONE recipe that must be copied as it is terrific. So no, not all the recipes are bad but if there is only one in every ten, it becomes a big risk to keep trying them out. You may find the book awesome (it's on sale at Save-On-Foods at the moment if you want to give it a try) but it's not for us. If you want our copy, let me know before Tuesday night and I'll save it for you to try. If no-one cries out to save it, it will jump in the box for Big Brothers and Sisters that is being collected on Wednesday.

Pasta Puttanesca (Street Walker Pasta)

1 pkg whatever pasta you like

2 tsbp olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
6 roasted red pepper halves from a jar, rinsed and chopped
1/4 cup black olives, sliced
1/4 cup green olives, sliced
2 tbsp tomato paste (buy this at Med Market in tubes)
2 tbsp capers
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp salt

Cook your pasta.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onions and fry until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook about 3 minutes. Don't let the garlic brown. Add all the other ingredients. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the sauce simmer until thick. That's it!

Garlic Pasta with Tomato, Avocado, Artichoke and Spinach Sauce

Corey calls this a good "shoulder" season dish because when avocados are in season, tomato and basil are not. However, the tomatoes don't have to be fresh out of the garden flavourful because there are other flavours that are strong and the tomatoes just complement the dish. The garlic pasta cold be made for any other dish or could just be eaten as is without any sauce at all.

Nutritional yeast is a vegan fridge staple because it is used in many dishes. It is also a slight source of B12 which is important for vegans although a B12 supplement (chewable or sublingual taken three times a week) is also a must for full vegans. B12 is not found in many vegan foods apart from this inactive yeast and fortified breakfast cereal (have you checked the sugar content and salt content in those? EEK!)

Nutritional yeast has a nutty cheesy flavour and can be sprinkled on pasta to give a cheesy flavour if you don't think too hard about it. We have tried to make "Mac-n-Cheese" with nutritional yeast and although the two recipes we've tried swear that it's amazing, we've not been fooled. Still a must-have ingredient because a small amount is worth adding to the recipes that call for it. It's not a star actor but it's excellent in supporting roles.

Garlic Pasta with Tomato, Avocado, Artichoke and Spinach Sauce

1 pkg pasta of your choice
salt and a dollop of olive oil for the pasta water
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp tamari or low sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 clam-shell grape/cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 avocados (softer make a creamier sauce, firmer leaves more chunks in your sauce), sliced
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and cut into quarters
2 cups spinach, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
fresh ground black pepper
salt

Get the pasta cooking in salted and oiled water. Mix the 2 tbsp olive oil, garlic, yeast and tamari together in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat the other 2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Toss in the onion and cook until the onion starts to brown around the edges. Toss in all the vegetables (yes tomato and avocado are fruits, I know. Don't be difficult.) and the basil. Give the mix a good crack of pepper and a good pinch of salt. Mix gently to not break up the avocado too much. Put a lid on the frying pan and turn off the heat. The spinach will wilt and the veggies (fruits) will heat up. Just leave the frying pan alone now. You can give the sauce a stir when you are dishing it onto the pasta.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it well and rinse it. Put the pot back on the burner on low, toss the pasta back in and pour the garlic mix into the pasta. Mix all around and let it start to sizzle a bit. Once it's heated up (don't let it burn, stir it frequently but this will only take a couple minutes), dish into bowls and top with the sauce. You can sprinkle more yeast on it to add more of a cheesy flavour but we just cracked a bit more pepper onto ours.

It seems odd to heat up avocado but this was really tasty. I have another recipe for stuffed avocados that I want to try but I have to go get more avocados. And for those of you who don't eat avocados because they are fattening, don't be silly. The oil in avocados is great for you. And if you only eat avocados at this time of year when local veggies and fruits aren't available then it doesn't matter how many you eat. I probably eat 3 a week on average for the month of January and February. I don't bemoan my avocado weight. And what about that "choose whatever fast food sandwich you eat to put in here"? You think the avocado is going to affect your weight?

You need to be honest with yourself if you truly want to make a difference for yourself!

Roasted Cauliflower and Running Sauce

I have decided that it is impossible to get more than 2 or, if you're lucky, 3 slices of cauliflower out of one head of cauliflower. My recipe said "slice cauliflower into 1/2" thick slices." I got 3 and then lots of florets. Never mind. This was still yummy.

Roasted Cauliflower
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Slice your cauliflower into 1/2" slices and lots of leftover florets.
Toss the cauliflower in 2 tbsp olive oil.
Place on a baking sheet with parchment paper, a silpat mat, or lightly grease the mat for a crispier result.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and any other herb/spice that you like.
Bake 7 minutes, take out, flip the cauliflower, and bake another 10 minutes.
At this point I turned off the oven and left the cauliflower in there while we went for a run. It was nice and golden when we returned. Corey says that this is his favourite way to eat cauliflower now.

Running Sauce
I'm sure this could have a more technical name but if I am going to have yoga curry then I might as well have running sauce.
1/3 cup white wine
1 small onion diced fairly fine
1/2 tsp Italian herb mix
2/3 cup vegan mayo (many people swear by Vegannaise but I prefer Spectrum Egg-less Canola Mayonnaise Type Spread - sounds yummy eh? At Save-On-Foods and less expensive than the other)
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 chopped tomato

In a small saucepan, heat the wine, onion and Italian herb over medium-high heat until half the liquid has evaporated. Blend the mayo, onion/wine/herb mix, cayenne and turmeric together. You can put it into the food processor to make it smooth or just mix it in a bowl. Stir in the chopped tomato. Let it cool in the fridge. To have a tighter sauce, take out the seeds of the tomato and let almost all the wine evaporate. I liked it runnier to pour over the cauliflower. It made a good dip too for other veggies.