Recipe: Carol’s Chili (Veganized)

My mother makes a mean chili, however, unfortunately it typically has one or more animal products in it. Chili is a really easy thing to veganize, so my mom did so for me when I was visiting. I then just tweaked her recipe a little to add more beans to make the consistency a bit thicker and voilà - an amazing dish!!!

Carol’s Chili (Veganized)

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 large green pepper
• 1 large red pepper
• 1 large yellow pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 28 oz crushed tomatoes
• 1 6 oz tomato paste
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
• 2 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• Dash cayenne pepper
• 1 19 oz kidney beans (or a 2/3 cup dried, or 2 cups cooked)
• 1 15 oz can dark red kidney beans (or a 1/2 cup dried, or 1 1/2 cups cooked)
• 1 15 oz can cannellini beans (or a 1/2 cup dried, or 1 1/2 cups cooked)

Directions:

1. Use olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan in order to sauté onion and peppers. Add the garlic toward the end of the onion and peppers cooking so as not to burn it.

2. Add tomato ingredients, then add spices and mix thoroughly. Then add all beans. Simmer until heated through.

Note: If you are going to cook the beans from scratch, good for you!! It’s easy to put all the beans in a big bowl to soak together and they cook at approximately the same time so they can be cooked together as well.

Serves 6-8

That’s it! Other than sautéing the vegetables, there is really no other labor intensive direction to this easy meal. We tend to make this dish on a Sunday night and keep it in the fridge for easy go-to meals during the week. It’s good for a quite a while, although I have never pressed the limits as it doesn’t last very long in my house!!

Recipe: Beans, beans, the magical fruit …

Beans are truly magical. You can put a bean in any dish and make it wonderful. I never realized how many different kinds of beans there were until I became vegan. Nor did I realize how many different ways there were of making them.

When I first started eating them, as I never really did until about six months ago, I didn’t dare try to cook dry beans. Around Christmas I needed to bring a dish to a party and needed to find Navy beans. For the life of me I couldn’t find them canned, but I did find them dry. Looking at the dried beans scared me. There was no way that I could play around with such serious stuff. I just chose a different canned white bean instead.

Since then, I joined the hard hitters and started making my beans from scratch. Thankfully, it is not as scary as I once thought. It’s really just a waiting game – waiting for them to soak and then waiting for them to cook!

Another great thing about dried beans is the price. You can easily get organic dried beans in the equivalent amount of non-organic canned beans for a fraction of the price. I typically go to the bulk dried goods at my local Whole Foods. Now, I think Whole Foods, while wonderful, as rather expensive, so I don’t shop there often. However, the organic dried beans I buy there are much cheaper than the non-organic canned beans I buy elsewhere.

A good bit of knowledge when purchasing your dried beans:

1/3 cup of dried beans = 1 cup cooked beans

1/2 cup of dried beans = 15oz can of beans = 1 1/2 cups cooked beans

Some recipes call for beans in terms of “cans” and some in terms of “cups.” This makes an easy transfer from one to the other depending on what your recipe calls for.

I’ve been making a big batch of beans and then putting them into containers and into the freezer. It is easy to take one out in the morning and putting it in the fridge and then finishing thawing it later when you want to use it. I just run water over them and it does the trick! And if you have a dish with more than one kind of bean, you can soak and cook them together for ease.

How to cook beans:

1. Put your beans into a bowl. Make sure it is one with enough space to place about three cups of water for every cup of beans (the beans will expand). Before placing water into the bowl sort through the beans to make sure that there are no rocks or sticks. I haven’t found any yet, but I still check just in case, that way no lost teeth!

2. Fill the bowl with water so the beans can soak, again, abut three cups water for every cup of beans. Then wait. Most should soak for about 8 hours. It’s easy to put the bowl-o-beans in the fridge overnight. Beans such as Split Peas, Lentils and Butterbeans do not need to be soaked and can be cooked right away. And some of the hardest beans need up to 12 hours to rehydrate before cooking. They say, the larger the bean the longer it should soak and the longer you soak the beans, the quicker they will cook.

3. Rinse the beans that you have soaked overnight and do not cook using that water. My understanding is that the sugars that are indigestible leave the outer coating of the bean and go into the water. As they are indigestible, you should avoid them to avoid the famous bean effect. That and the beans are most likely dirty, so you want to get rid of that water.

4. In a large pot place the rinsed beans and add fresh water. I usually use a soup pot because I know that it is big enough to hold the beans and extra water.

5. Set the beans on the stove and then bring them to a boil. Once they are boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer. Then, simmer for about an hour or hour and a half. Check the beans as they are cooking. They will be done when they can easily be mashed. Don’t forget to put the beans to a simmer because you may get ruined beans and a burnt pan otherwise. This is a picture of when I got too wrapped up in a movie and forgot about my beans. They were boiling for the hour instead of simmering, thus the water spilled out of the pan, evaporated and the beans got burnt.

6. If you are cooking a large enough batch they can be separated into separate containers and then stored. I store them in the same liquid they cooked in, they beans will be rinsed again before eating. Beans will last about four days in the fridge and longer in the freezer. I typically use some glass two-cup sized pyrex dishes to put mine in. It tends to make the perfect serving size for two people and most of the dishes that I make.

Cooking beans can seem scary but it can be quite easy and yummy if you give it a bit of thought. If in the end you burn them, the only bad thing that can happen is you don’t have beans that night!!

Beautiful Vegetables - CSA Week Four

I really just wanted to share the beautiful vegetables that we got for week four in our CSA. We are starting to get more color in our bags. This week Bay End Farm gave us:

• Potatoes
• Red top turnip
• Lettuce
• Escarole
• Peas
• Cilantro
• Chard
• Arugula
• Carrots
• Kohlrabi
• Garlic scapes

I started eating the peas almost immediately. I got back to my office, washed a bunch and then placed them on a corner of my desk to munch on throughout the day. Lets face it, they made it about ten minutes. We got so many that I ate a handful and still had most of them left. It's a great thing to just pop the whole pod in your mouth for some crunchy, fresh goodness.

I never realized how sweet and amazing the actual peas inside the pods are when they are so fresh. As I sat editing at my desk, I pulled a pod apart and popped the little peas inside into my mouth. They have a very distinct and wonderful taste. I then promptly dismantled each pod and put the peas aside to eat after I had gobbled up the outside pod. It was wonderful.

The CSA is really opening my eyes to some foods I haven't really given a thought to before. Sure, they may have been in and/or garnished a dish I had in a restaurant, but I surely didn't actually purchase and cook many of these myself prior to this CSA. I have always stuck to the familiar - peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic etc.

For instance, we recently received San Po Sai. I had never even heard of it. My google search came up nearly blank (just a myspace blog that I couldn't even see)! Not one site mentioned what it was or how to cook it. What was I to do with such huge leaves!? So, I did what I always do when I see a green - sautéed it! To me, there is no green that cannot taste amazing sautéed with some garlic! Word the to wise, while I am sure that there are other things that can be done with san po sai, I say - sauté it!

Vegan Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Our second CSA consisted of two gigantic pieces of rhubarb. Now, when I see such things I think it is a great reason to make a delicious dessert. I have made crumbles in the past (a long long time ago), but they would not withstand the new eating style.

So, I turned to the trusty internet. Specifically, I ended up finding/turning to a woman who stated she could make a crumble in her sleep, Prairie Vegan. I assumed that that meant she made a mean crumble … and I was not disappointed!! It smelled amazing and tasted even better. I would definitely give it a go!! Here is her Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble recipe, after the jump.

We didn't have enough brown sugar, just enough for about half of the 2/3 cup, so we supplemented with white sugar. I haven't made it with just the brown sugar yet, maybe next time I will have enough, but it was perfect with half brown and half white as well.

I love a baking recipe like this one where nothing needs to rise using the perfect ingredient balance, so you are freer to throw in different ingredients and mix it up when you do not have what is specifically called for.

Happy Eating!!

Recipe: Food For An Independence Day Hike

Happy Independence Day!!

The deer above is what we saw when we got to the peak of our hike today at the Blue Hills in Milton, MA. It was fantastic! S/he just bolted past, enough time to grab a few quick shots with the camera!

We hiked to the top of one of the hills with friends after walking around for a few hours. We planned in advance to eat lunch on top. So, we needed a travel easy lunch to bring with us. A house favorite is the Chickpea “Tuna,” so that is what we brought. It’s essentially just how I used to make tuna salad when I still ate it. It’s delicious and easy to pack.

Chickpea Salad

Ingredients:
- Can garbanzo beans
- 1.5 Tablespoons of vegan mayo (I use Vegenaise)
- 1.5 Tablespoons of Dijon mustard
- Pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
- Garlic powder to taste

Directions: Mix it all in together!

The measurements are approximately what we used for one can of chickpeas. Unless I am baking I tend not to be specific, I just throw things in. To add a bit more flavor, we brought slices of pickles, tomatoes and avocado, with some lettuce. As a snack to go along with lunch we chose the snap peas and radishes from our CSA. It was thoroughly enjoyed as we sat in the sun with a view of Boston.

Community Supported Agriculture

A few months ago, in my new found quest for amazing food, I really started to think about where it all comes from. How many miles has the food traveled, and more importantly, how was it made? Naturally, as I started learning about veganism, I also started learning about the way that food is grown. Reading John Robbins’ The Food Revolution really got me thinking.

I wanted to greatly limit the amount of pesticides and other potentially harmful things I put into my body, the only one I have. Additionally, as a huge proponent of limiting my carbon footprint, I thought it might be best to eat food grown locally. So I figured I would try a CSA.

Now, what is a CSA you may ask? I know I had to ask. It’s an acronym for Community Supported Agriculture. The public can buy one of a number of allotted shares from a local farm. Each week you get your share, which is typically a box of mixed vegetables. It is good for the farmers because they get a group of people to invest in their farm before the season starts. It is good for those that buy the shares because they get fresh food (think likely picked that morning) and new different foods they may not have picked up otherwise.

A dear friend and her husband have been participating in a local CSA for a few years now and she loves it. I’ve benefited a few times when they have gone on holiday and really enjoyed it! It’s fun to get random veggies and create dishes around them. She’s encouraged me for a while now to participate. Unfortunately, since I work far away from where I live and the CSA pickup that she uses, I had to find a different CSA.

Enter Bay End Farm. It’s an organic farm in Buzzards Bay, MA. We are three weeks in and have had an amazing load of veggies! The amount of food we get is staggering. Luckily, a like-minded co-worker and I split a share. Even then, we have everything we can do to make sure that everything is eaten! Right now it is mainly greens with a few other things thrown in, garlic, radishes, scapes etc. It’s great!!

It feels good to be supporting a local area organic farm. It also is nice knowing that the farming practices that they use are natural. When I wash my veggies I am simply washing off the dirt from the ground that they have grown in, not hazardous chemicals. The people I have met at the farm are nice and helpful. And each week they provide a sheet containing a list of the foods that they are giving us and some helpful hints as to what they taste like, how to keep them and dishes to use them in!

And it is extremely economical! Since I split a share, it only costs me approximately $12.75 a week for a LOT of vegetables. If I went to my local grocery store it would cost a significant amount more and they would most likely not be organic or picked that very morning. That right there is reason enough to participate. Not to mention the whole supporting a local organic business that uses practices anyone can stand behind.

A quick google reveals that there are many local CSA to the Boston area. They are also all over MA as exhibited by the fact that, while I live in Boston, I get my share down south in Buzzards Bay. Additionally, there are many out west toward Springfield and up north toward Newburyport.

So, next season, give it a go – you will not be sorry!

Quick and Easy Meal

During the most recent grocery shopping Boca Spicy Chik’N Patties made it into the basket. They have a Non-GMO version. I always try and grab things I know are altered the least when I am going for packaged food. This was my first time with soy chicken pieces in general so I was worried, but they were actually pretty good.

Chicken was one of the things I always said I could never give up when talking with vegetarians in the past, and here I was, eating the soy vegan version! And loving it!! You just never know what life has in store for you.

We made Chik’N Parm. The patties were easy, just stuck them in the toaster oven for 15 or so minutes (I am a proponent of very crispy). When they were done, we sprinkled some Daiya cheese on top and cooked it a bit longer to let it melt. Meanwhile, some whole wheat pasta was cooking on the stove. Toped it all off with some spaghetti sauce and voilà vegan Chik’N Parm. Not so bad if I do say so myself. And, it probably only took 20 minutes or so!