Posts filed under 'recipe'
Quinoa Pasta with Broccoli and Sun-dried Tomatoes
It is known in some circles how much I dislike alternative pasta’s. By alternative I specifically mean whole wheat pasta. Good god that stuff is horrible. Horrible! Some things just need to be made with plain ol’ white/semolina flours. By some things includes baguettes, italian breads, ciabatta’s etc. I like to leave the whole wheat for sandwich bread or on occasion veggie burger rolls. With all that said now…I lost my mind while shopping a few weeks ago and bought a box of Quinoa Pasta made by the company Andean Dream. I let it sit in my food cabinet for quite some time because I was sorta afraid to use it and didn’t quite understand why I purchased it. I then decided at the end of last year to use up almost everything I had in those cabinets before I went shopping again and the day came that I needed to use this pasta.
After a search of the fridge and freezer I found 1/2 a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil and 1/2 a bag of frozen broccoli. I set a pot of water on the stove to boil. Just as it started to boil I remembered seeing an episode of Top Chef Masters where Zooey Deschanel was a guest and the chefs had to cook her a vegan, wheat and soy free meal. Michael Chiarello ended up buying some quinoa pasta for his dish and I seem to remember it sticking together and he had to pull all the strands of pasta apart. I wasn’t about to do that so once the water started to boil I added a tablespoon or two of oil to the water hoping that would help it from sticking together and it worked! The rest of the ingredients were sauteed in oil and the pasta was added at the end. I brought it downstairs for a shared meal with my parents and everyone liked it including me!
1 box Andean Dream Quinoa Pasta (fusilli)
cook to package directions adding 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the boiling water
1 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 pound frozen broccoli florets
1/4 cup oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced, reserve some of the oil from the jar
salt and pepper to taste
Heat a medium size saute pan over medium-low heat. Add olive oil. Once heated saute the garlic for 2 minutes making sure not to burn it. Add the red pepper flakes and cook for 20 seconds longer. Add the frozen broccoli and cook until no longer frozen, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and up to 2 tablespoons of the reserved sun-dried tomato oil and cook until heated through. Add the cooked Quinoa Pasta. Stir to combine and season with salt and pepper to taste.
January 4th, 2012
Chickpea-Broccoli Coconut Curry
Curry! It has been AGES since I made any sort of curry/Indian food. I use to make it all the time. My pantry was stocked with all types of Indian ingredients and spices. Then Reno started eating “real food” and I stopped cooking a lot of foods that I liked to cook because I refuse to cook two dinners, one for us and one for her. Well I wanted a curry the other night. Knowing she wouldn’t eat the curry part of the meal I took out some of the broccoli before I added the curry spice. Unfortunately I forgot to take out some chickpeas for her as well. At least she ate the broccoli. Not pictured above was some seared seitan that I served on the side. Made mostly for Reno to have more protein with her meal but also for us seitan loving parents. This is a quick dinner to make on busy weeknights when you want something warm and comforting. I’m definitely adding it to our somewhat rotation of regular meals.
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 small-medium onion, small diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
4 cups of broccoli florets
1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 Tablespoons curry powder
1 chicken-less bouillon cube
1 15 oz can coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste
Heat olive oil, over medium-low heat, in a medium-large size saute pan. Add the onions, garlic and ginger and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the broccoli florets and continue cooking 8-10 minutes until the broccoli is cooked through but still has a crunch to it. Now add in the chickpeas, the curry powder and the chicken-less bouillon cube and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the can of coconut milk. Cook the curry, stirring occasionally, for about 10 more minutes. The coconut milk is thick and will thicken some more as it cooks. If you want you can thin it out with 1/2 cup of water or more if necessary. I personally didn’t thicken mine but I like the thickness. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately over white rice.
I served ours with a side of seared seitan which isn’t pictured above.
January 1st, 2012
Red Lentil-Jasmine Rice Soup
Today is a perfect day for soup…it’s rainy, Reno is sick and now I’m sick because of Reno’s sickness. My friend Cheryl put a call out on Facebook for a Lentil Soup and named me specifically in her post. I though I would share the recipe here as well since I’ve been meaning to do so for ages now. So thank you Cheryl for reminding me about this recipe!
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium onion, small diced
1 large carrot, small diced
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup dried red lentils
1 cup jasmine rice
4 cups vegetable broth or chicken-less broth
4 cups filtered water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish (not pictured)
In a large pot heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, onions and carrots. Saute until carrots are soft and onions are translucent 5-8 minutes. Add celery seed and dried thyme and saute for 2 minutes. Add red lentils, jasmine rice, broth and water to the pot and raise the heat to high to bring to a boil. Cover and lower heat so that the soup is simmering. Cook for 20 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked. Should take no longer then 25 minutes. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley.
December 6th, 2011
Seitan Wrap w. Cashew Dill Sauce
Yeah this is the same picture from my last post. Sauces are hard to photograph on their own so I’m reusing this pic just to show you a use for the sauce. Makes sense?
I originally set out to make a Cashew Ranch sauce but came up short due to lack of herbs and spices that I didn’t have/couldn’t find…whatever. I still plan on making that Cashew Ranch one of these days but I was really happy with what I made and I basically put it on everything I made last week. From the seitan wrap above, burrito’s for lunch and some sauteed potatoes another day this stuff was delicious. I made it the same night I made the seitan wraps and the raw onion in it wasn’t subtle at all but I was fine with that. As the days went by that it sat in the fridge waiting for it’s next appearance in one of my meals the raw onion taste melded perfectly with the rest of the ingredients and it wasn’t so in your face. The sauce just kept getting better and better as the week went on. So I highly recommend making this and letting it sit in the fridge for a day or at least overnight before using.
Cashew-Dill Sauce
makes 1 1/4 cups
1 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least one hour or overnight
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
pinch of red pepper flake
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, lightly packed
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper to taste
Drain the cashews and pour them into your blender (I use a Vita Mix to get a true creamy texture, if not using a Vita Mix or other high powered blender you might need to add more water) along with with the garlic, onion, lemon juice, dill, red pepper flakes, parsley and water. Blend until smooth adding more water in necessary until you achieve a nice, slightly thick sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
October 21st, 2011
Seitan Sauteed with Garlic
I get weird sometimes about sharing recipes. Sometimes I’m greedy and just want to keep them to myself, like my brownie recipe, which on occasion I share with people close to me and I’m getting closer to being comfortable sharing on here. Most of the time I just get anxious that no one will like it, it won’t come out the same way for you as it does for me, I can always improve on it so I’ll just wait until then, blah blah blah. The one recipe I’ve been saying over and over again that I’m “going to post on my blog real soon” is my seitan recipe. Its falls under the category of “I can always improve on it so I’ll just wait until then”. I finally realized the other day that I’ve been making it the same way for months now and I’ve served it to a lot of people over that time. Most of those people are meat eaters and they have all loved it. So I’m finally going to share it today although I think I’ll need a few drops of Rescue Remedy to calm my nerves before I do.
Before simmering (these pictures aren’t pretty to look at) :)
I love making my own seitan for a few reasons: it’s cheap, it’s easy, I don’t like any of the brands that I can buy in the stores by me and I can flavor it however I want. What I don’t/didn’t like about making it is the 5 or so minutes that is needed to knead the seitan. You see I broke my hand about 6 years ago and kneading anything still KILLS it. On really cold winter days my right hand is basically useless. I knead away though each and every time until I can’t take it anymore. The last time I made the seitan it was a chilly day, my hand wasn’t cooperating and I FINALLY thought to just let my KitchenAid stand mixer do all the work for me. Sweet jesus that machine just made my life a whole lot easier and less painful! Why I didn’t think of it before is beyond me. So you can make this recipe either way…with your own two hands or with the help of your KitchenAid.
Basic Seitan
makes 8-9 thick cutlets
Broth
16 cups water
2 tablespoons concentrated broth (I use Better Than Bouillon’s non chicken base) or 3 bouillon cubes
1/4 cup tamari
3 bay leaves
Seitan
3 cups vital wheat gluten
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup tamari
1/2 cup unsweetened non dairy milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
For the broth: add all the ingredients to a large pot with a lid. (any pot that you can cook pasta/soup in is perfect). Leave it be until the seitan is ready to be added.
For the seitan: In a large mixing bowl add the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, cumin and garlic powder and stir to combine. In a medium size bowl whisk together the cold water, tamari, unsweetened non dairy milk and olive oil until well mixed. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix. Here is where you either get your hands dirty or throw in in your KitchenAid stand mixer if you have one. Knead for about 5 minutes until you have a giant, stretchy ball of gluten in your hands (mixer). With your hands or kitchen knife divide the dough into 8-9 pieces and stretch those pieces out a bit to form a cutlet shape. Once all the seitan cutlets are formed slip them into the pot and turn the heat onto high. Once the broth starts to boil immediately lower to a simmer and cover the pot leaving the lid slightly off so some steam can escape. Simmer the seitan for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes turn off the heat, fully cover the pot and let sit for at least 20-30 minutes.
Remove the seitan to a lidded container and add enough of the cooking broth to cover it and store it in the fridge until ready to use.
Seitan Wrap w. Cashew Dill Mayo
My favorite ways to use this seitan is to thinly slice it and saute it in olive oil with a lot of garlic for Seitan Wraps or i’ll cut it into thicker strips to make seitan finger type meals like my Pecan Crusted Seitan or Beer Battered Seitan. I’ll also marinate thick slices in BBQ sauce and grill it either outside on the grill or inside on a grill pan for a Seitan Rib dinner.
Now like I said this recipe falls under the “I can always improve this recipe…” If I ever do improve upon it I promise to share it. 
October 18th, 2011
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