Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Gnocchi Love


When I became vegan I naturally started thinking of things that I would not longer choose to eat. Gnocchi was one of those beloved things that I was leaving behind. Traditionally, it is made with eggs, or sometimes cheese, and those were two things I didn’t care to eat. And, I thought it would be impossibly hard to make myself.

Luckily, I was completely wrong!! I found what looked like a great recipe in The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein. It was pretty easy and delicious. I like this cookbook because she went through the Mediterranean finding those dishes that are naturally vegan. She notes that the Orthodox Lenten fast is particularly strict, essentially vegan, also that due to the economic conditions, most people do not eat as much meat as we do. As a result of her search is an amazing cookbook.

Back to the gnocchi … the cookbook contains a recipe for squash gnocchi with walnut sauce. How delicious. Potatoes, squash, spices, walnuts, parsley, garlic etc. all together create a wonderful dish.


We were striving for a lighter gnocchi so we were using less flour, but be warned, the dough becomes entirely sticky!

You may have to work extremely fast once the dough is ready to be cut in order to reduce it getting stuck on everything!


We skipped (by accident really) the olive oil in the gnocchi recipe, but it still came out fantastic, so if you are looking to cut out oil, just skip it completely. I also only used a tablespoon of the olive oil in the walnut sauce and it was completely fine and still delicious.


If you are a person that goes to the library and checks out cookbooks prior to their purchase, this is definitely one that should go for a spin!!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Recipe: Easy And Delicious Bean And Veggie Wraps!


I've been rather MIA this past month or so because I’ve been working on a big project for a conference. Unfortunately, it was rather time consuming.

Today I am posting an easy go to meal. I make this at least once a week, typically a weekend day. It’s so quick and easy and delicious that I sometimes wish I could make it every day.


Ingredients:


4 whole wheat wrap

1/4 cup vegan cheese (I use Daiya)

1 cup spinach

1 1/2 cup black beans (1 can)

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 chili powder

1/4 red pepper flakes

1 tomato sliced

1/2 avocado sliced

1/2 cucumber sliced

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

2 teaspoons ground flax seed



Directions:


1. Drain the black beans and put them into a small skillet. Put a small amount of water in as well. Then add ground cumin, chili powder and red pepper flakes. Sauté on high until beans are well coated with the spices and the water has evaporated.


2. In a larger skillet, place a wrap. Sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese on the wrap with the spinach on top. Cover and heat on a medium heat until the cheese is melted. Complete for each wrap.


3. In the prepared wrap, place 1/4 of the bean mixture. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the nutritional yeast and 1/4 of the ground flax seed. Then add the tomato, cucumber and avocado and wrap it up!!


Variations: Skip the cheese, don’t heat the spinach, add other greens, chop up some fresh mushrooms, use chopped sweet peppers, or any other vegetable you fancy!