Posts filed under 'sauce'
V’con Spaghetti and Bean Balls
With another winter storm headed our way tomorrow all I’m thinking about are warm and comforting meals. One of my favorite’s is the Spaghetti and Bean Ball recipe from Veganomicon. I’m a sucker for kidney beans and have been adding them to everything lately but my favorite way to eat them is in this bean ball recipe. Something magical happens to them when they are fried up in oil and then covered in your favorite sauce. Before I’ve even smothered them in a tomato sauce I’ve eaten at least 3 of them. I just can’t get enough.
My real favorite way to eat them is as leftovers. I smother a ciabatta roll with softened butter and garlic which I then toast in the oven a la Garlic Bread and heat up the leftover bean balls and sauce on the stove. Once bread and balls are done cooking I make one of the most delicious sandwiches I’ve ever eaten.
January 10th, 2011
21 week belly
I’ve been cooking up a new baby for the past few months and not much else, hence the poor participation during VeganMoFo this year and other sporadic posts. By the time dinner time comes around I’m DONE for the day. We have been eating a lot of pasta dishes and rice and beans. I’ve been feeling better lately so hopefully i’ll be up to some more creative cooking soon.
One of my favorite types of meals lately is the bean, vegetable, rice or pasta and peanut sauce combo. It comes together in mere minutes and helps with my protein needs for the pregnancy.
one of said current favorite dinners
Peanut sauce is so easy to put together. My favorite ingredient to add to the sauce, if I have some on hand, is orange juice. It gives it such a bright and wonderful taste. I also make sure to add a lot of ginger powder as well. Just writing about peanut sauce is making me want to cook up a pot of rice and eat it plain with some peanut sauce on top.
Anyway…back to the cooking baby in my belly. He is due May 14th. We found out just before Christmas that we are having a BOY! Reno really wanted a sister but I was able to trick her into thinking a brother was the best thing ever. She seems to be on board now. We went shopping for some boy clothes the other day which she was excited about. She did pretty good helping pick out some onesies and such until she started picking out pink outfits and then she wanted to name him Olivia. She also wants to name him Fun Guy Fun Guy, which is the name of her horse toy that she can ride on. Just like with Reno we won’t be sharing the name with ANYBODY until the kid is on the outside. So don’t ask! 
January 5th, 2011
Island Teriyaki Tofu
A few weeks ago there was this amazing smell coming into our apartment from my parents apartment below us. I couldn’t get enough of it and finally had to go downstairs to see what the hell she was making. It was of course some sorta meat, maybe pork?, I don’t remember but that’s not what was causing this glorious smell. It was the marinade she was baking it in and I NEEDED to know what it was. She said it was an Island Teriyaki marinade that she bought at Trader Joes. As soon as she showed me the bottle I knew exactly what company made it even though Trader Joes just slaps their own label on it: Soy Vay. I immediately scooped up a bottle at Whole Foods a day later. While checking out the ingredients I noticed that it contained pineapple. I have sadly developed a sensitivity to pineapple that gets worse every time I try to eat it. I basically said “Screw you sensitivity! I NEED TO EAT THIS!” I figured I could deal with itchy ears and mouth and throat for a hour or two or three.
When I got home from the store I pressed a block of tofu in my TofuXpress, which if you don’t have one I highly recommend getting one. I then cut the tofu up into triangles and marinated it for an hour or so. I heated up a pan until really hot and then added a tablespoon or two of olive oil and then seared the pieces of tofu until they were nice a brown on each side. While that was happening I boiled some bean thread noodles and sauteed some broccoli and string beans with a touch of the teriyaki sauce. Once everything was done cooking I added the noodles to the pan with the veg and touch more of the teriyaki sauce to give it some more color and heated it through. Then I scooped it into a bowl and placed the seared tofu on top and dug in. It was so delicious. My apartment smelled like it did the day my Maa was using the marinade in her house below us. It was just wonderful. Reno even liked the tofu and might have even eaten a piece of broccoli.
My pineapple sensitivity did rear it’s ugly self and I had some itchy ears for a bit but it wasn’t so bad which means that I will definitely be using this marinade again!
November 3rd, 2010
Pesto, Cherry Tomato and Raw Cashew Cheese Pizza
I was never a fan of “real” pizza aka tomato and cheese. The cheese was always so gross and stringy. Even with the advances in vegan cheeses like Daiya and the new and improved Teese I’m still not much of a fan. I like those brands of vegan cheese but not on my pizza! My favorite all time pizza is a new one for me. It consists of homemade Basil-Miso-Walnut Pesto, some homegrown still warm from the sun cherry tomatoes and a raw cashew cheese.
The process is very simple:
Roll out dough (I like the whole grain one from Whole Foods)
Spread pesto over pizza
Thrown on some halved cherry tomatoes
Pop into the oven…400 450 degrees…whatever you fancy.
When the crust is nice and brown and the tomatoes are nice and bubbly take the pizza out and drop on the raw cashew cheese in random places.
Cut.
Serve!
Its basically the best pizza ever. Peter and my Maa are hooked. Reno will just eat pieces with the tomatoes and cashew cheese taken off…she’s only 3 so what does she know..right? I insist that you all make this pizza. Your taste buds will thank you.
p.s. the cashew cheese is from Ani Phyo’s new book: Raw Food Essentials. I’ll be posting a full review of her new book in a few days!
August 30th, 2010
BBQ Pinto Bean Burgers
A few weeks ago I had one of those crazy “I must cook something new right this second!” moments. Within 30 minutes of that “moment” I was chowing down on the burger you see above. It was one of those wonderful and crazy cooking experiments that worked out really well. So not only did I eat the burger for lunch but I also ate it again for dinner and then if I remember correctly I ate it again for lunch the next day.
My favorite parts of this recipe are the raw onions and the BBQ sauce that are mixed into the burger. I always like raw onions on top of my veggie burgers but they always either fall off or you eat a huge chunk of the onion with one bite and it just doesn’t get evenly distributed between bites. I figured if I chopped them up and stuck them in the burger that would take care of those 2 problems and it did! Some of the onions got cooked while the burgers were frying in the pan but the majority of them were still raw-ish. You definitely got that raw onion flavor with every bite. For the BBQ sauce, I alway’s knew I was going to put some on top of the burger, when I had the idea to make them, but I then decided to also put some into the burger to get that extra BBQ flavor. It was nice and subtle.
A few weeks after creating this burger I also used this recipe during a vegan cooking class I was teaching with 2 of my friends for our local vegan meet up group. Everyone really liked it and I hope you all like it too!
BBQ Pinto Bean Burgers
makes 4-5 burgers depending on the size you want
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 of a red bell pepper, finely diced
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1 15oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 small onion, finely diced
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
3 tablespoons of your favorite BBQ Sauce, I use Annies Smokey Maple
1 tablespoon tamari
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water (only if needed)
1 avocado, sliced
mesclun salad
burger rolls
In a medium or large saute pan, heat your olive oil over medium heat, add your chopped garlic and peppers and saute until soft. About 5 minutes.
In a medium size bowl mash the pinto beans with a potato masher or fork. Mix in the garlic-pepper mixture, onions, vital wheat gluten, BBQ sauce, tamari and salt. Ditch your mixing utensil and with clean hands kneed the burger mixture to help activate the vital wheat gluten (this is what makes the burgers hold their shape.) If the mixture seems too dry add the water 1 tablespoon at a time until your mixture is moist enough to hold it’s shape.
Form into whatever size burgers you want.
In the same pan you cooked the garlic and peppers add 1 tablespoon of oil and reheat the pan over medium heat. Cook the burgers until golden brown, approx. 3-5 minutes each side.
Place on bottom of a burger bun, spoon extra BBQ sauce, add some avocados and some mesclun salad, top the burger with the other bun and EAT!
July 13th, 2010
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