Spring Food

More than anything, this is just a bad ass picture. I am starting to figure out how to take good pictures of food. Problem is, it requires natural light, rather than a flash and I usually cook at night when it's dark.

So these portabella burgers turned out pretty great. I made a marinade with balsamic vinegar, a touch of olive oil, a squirt of agave, a few drops of liquid smoke, a dash of thyme and minced garlic. I marinated the shrooms for about an hour and kept spooning the liquid into the gill side. I roasted them at 350, gill side up for about 20 minutes. Checking often.

The green beans are just steamed grean beans with some sauted shallots and toasted almonds with a squeeze of lemon.

Nice spring dinner.

Vegan Omelette Time!

So I have been curious about vegan omelettes for awhile now and finally decided to give it a try. I havent found too many recipes for this so I used Susan's recipe from her Fat Free Vegan blog. I have made this 2 days in a row now and I really like it. Its pretty close to what I remember an omelette tasting like. I put mushrooms, spinach and follow your heart monterey jack in it. You should try it. Here is the recipe.

Artichoke Pesto Pasta

So I am really getting anxious for winter to be a thing of the past and I was craving something kind of springy and decided to try a pesto of some sort. I looked online at some recipes and got the idea to use artichokes as a pesto and I thought I'd try it. This turned out pretty stinkin awesome!


1lb pasta. Penne or ziti or anything
1 or 2 15oz cans of artichoke hearts in water
1 can of black olives
1 can of diced tomatoes or 2 or 3 diced fresh romas
1/3 cup of pecans or walnuts
1/2 lemon juice
1/4 olive oil
1/4 nutritional yeast (optional)
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
handful of fresh basil (or 1 package you get at the store)
salt and pepper



Boil the pasta as you normally would.

Drain 1 can of artichokes and put in blender or food processor. I used a blender and it worked fine. Put lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, nutritional yeast, basil and pecans in the blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add salt and pepper as needed

Drain the noodles and put back into the pot you boiled them it. Stir in DRAINED diced tomatoes, sliced olives and chopped artichokes from can number 2. Stir and reheat until heated throughout. Thats all you do!

Now you dont have to add the 2nd can of artichokes. I thought it worked well. Also, make sure you drain the diced tomatoes. You just want the chunks, not all the juice. You could also add capers or sauted mushrooms and zuchinni.

Andréa's Moroccan Inspired Organic Chili

This recipe is courtesy of Miss Andréa Woods. Andréa does a lot of ethnic cooking with lots of fresh organic vegetables. I haven't tried this chili yet but it looks fantastic! Love the garbanzo beans and all the spices. I'll have to make it and take a picture, though I am sure it looks as good as it sounds.

You will need the following organic ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons no-salt-added tomato paste
2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
variations: dash in cardamom, fenugreek, mitmita, or curry to taste. sub sweet potatoes for carrots. add a handful of golden raisins or chopped medjool dates.

Preparation

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, carrot, and garlic to pan; sauté 5 minutes. Stir in cumin and next 7 ingredients (through red pepper); cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add 1 1/2 cups water, tomato paste, chickpeas, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in cilantro and juice.

enjoy!
andréa

Easy, Cheap and Quick Garbanzo Bean Sandwich

This sandwhich is kind of like a tuna salad sandwich in a way because you make the garbanzo beans into a spread that slightly resembles it. The bread I used in the picture are these little flat multi-grain "Sandwich Thins" that I found at the regular grocery store. They aren't too bad. I prefer fresh local bread but these were cool.

1 can garbanzo beans

1/4 cup veganaise

squirt of mustard (I used brown spicy)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon of onion powder

2 tablespoons relish or chopped dill pickle

salt and pepper to taste

You could also add celery, chopped red onion, black olives, dill, etc

Use a potato masher or a fork and smash the drained beans until smooth, leaving some beans unsmashed for texture. Stir in remaining ingredients. Taste and add more seasoning as desired.

Put a little more veganaise on both sides of bread. Put sliced tomato, lettuce, sprouts, avocado as desired.

Vegan Pizza at The Foundry in Westport

So B and I have been putting off going to The Foundry for quite awhile because we just figured it was some scenester joint that probably didn't have good food and service like McCoy's does. We finally went last Saturday and were extremely happy. They have a TON of vegetarian/vegan things on the menu, including 5 vegetarian pizzas and vegan tacos. They even have veg sloppy joes! The highlight though was the vegan pizza. I saw it on the online menu but it wasn't on the menu when we got there. I asked the guy if they had it and he said it all depends on the availability of the vegan cheese they use. He said its hard to get and that's why it's not on the menu. They are waiting to see if people actually order the vegan pizza before they commit to it. So he checked with the kitchen and came back and said they could do it. I was super excited.

So here it what it looked like. It was so delicious! It had fake Italian sausage, fresh basil and delicious Daiya vegan cheese.


Much better than the only other vegan pizza you can get in town that includes cheese. So if you are vegan or even just vegetarian, go order this pizza so they will keep it on the menu! You will love it. Its super good.

Ridiculously Easy Greek Pizza

This pizza kicks ass. Its so easy and wonderful and very flexible. You can use whatever toppings you like. I use the pillsbury classic pizza crust because I really dont know how to make pizza crust from scratch and usually I dont have time or patience to be making dough. I will master this one day, I'm sure. But for now, I like the pre-made thing. Its absolutely vegan and pretty dang good. I know its probably loaded with hydrogenated oils and other weird stuff but I try to balance all that out by eating a lot of fresh veggies and things. I cant be perfect. I also didnt use pizza sauce for this. I made a garlic, basil spread instead.

So here is what you'll need for this pizza

1 pkg pillsbury classic crust (check ingredients to make sure you are getting the vegan one)

2 small roma tomatoes

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

kalamata olives (just use black if you dont like these)

1/2 can of artichoke hearts, roughly chopped

Vegan Mozzarella (optional)

For the spread:

1/4 cup vegan margarine (Its pizza, its not supposed to be healthy)

2 cloves garlic, minced

handful of fresh basil (I used jarred basil but fresh would be better. You could used dried too)

Melt in microwave for 30 seconds or until melted.

Spread the crust on a cookie sheet. It will be in the shape of the square. The pillsbury thin crust is also vegan and its a circle. Spread the garlic/basil on the crust. Add toppings, including vegan cheese if you are using it.

Throw in oven at 400 for 10 minutes.

This is good! I promise! You wont even notice that its vegan.