Lentil walnut veggie burgers

Hello, blog world! It's been awhile.

Michael and I spent 2 weeks abroad in New Zealand for a belated honeymoon and we had an amazing trip! Here are a few of my favorite photos...

Kayaking in Abel Tasman.

I was super excited about seeing the Tasman Sea!

Rainbow over Franz Josef Glacier. 

Michael and me on a pull off point on the Queen's Crowne Road between Wanaka and Queenstown.

A ripple distorts the mirror image in Doubtful Sound. 

Sunrise in Queenstown.

The Remarkables. We also saw these with a rainbow from our plane on the last day.

Everything was beautiful and I highly recommend a trip to NZ if you ever have the chance to go. We are already planning our next adventure there:)

But onto some food. When we returned all I wanted to do was eat some non-processed food. My parents were in town and we made a delicious dinner of recipes from Let Them Eat Vegan! and we sat outside and it was a wonderful spring evening. The recipe I'm sharing is Dreena's "Lentil Walnut Burgers". These burgers come together quickly once the lentils are cooked and are really savory and delicious. My beef with veggie burgers is that a lot of them try to imitate meat which just makes them taste rubbery and awkward. My favorite veggies burgers showcase the ingredients themselves and are not meat substitutes. This cookbook has a lot of wonderful options for burgers and after making almost all of them I still can't pick a favorite - they all have come out really well.

So here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 Tbs olive oil (optional, omit by cooking onions and garlic with lentils)

1 1/2 c chopped onion

3 medium to large cloves garlic

1/8+1/4 tsp sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 c cooked green lentils

1/2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 Tbs mild miso

1 1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/2 to 3/4 tsp dried sage

1/2 tsp dried basil

1 c rolled or quick oats

3/4 c raw walnuts (toast to enhance the flavor)

1 c peeled and diced apple tossed with a squeeze of lemon juice

1. Pour the olive oil into a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, 1/8 tsp salt and pepper to taste, and cook for 7-8 minutes, until the onion has softened.

2. Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the cooked lentils, Worcestershire sauce, miso, thyme, sage, basil, and 1/4 tsp salt and blend. When the onion mixture is ready, add this to the food processor and puree again, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the oats and walnuts, and pulse a few times to break up the walnuts. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add the apple and mix well.

3. At this point, you can refrigerate the mixture until ready to fry (this will make it firmer and easier to shape). To cook, take scoops of the mixture and form into patties with your hands. In a skillet over medium-high heat, heat some olive oil. Add the patties, flatten gently on the pan, and fry for 6 to 9 minutes on each side, until golden and a crust has developed, flipping them over only one or twice, working in batches as needed.

Roasted butternut squash, Kale Slaw and Lentil Walnut Burger. Homemade ice cream for dessert. Yum!

Jerk chickpeas

I'm procrastinating. I should be studying for my German test but I loved this recipe and wanted to share it with all of you today:) I've been meaning to make it for awhile- I love the mix of spices in jerk seasoning and also have been craving chickpeas lately. Michael was busy at work this week (and he doesn't love chickpeas) so I decided to finally make this for my lunches during the week. The original recipe is in Let Them Eat Vegan!  and Dreena shares the recipe on her blog "Plant Powered Kitchen". Here is a link to the recipe.

Don't be intimidated by the long ingredient list - this dish comes together really quickly and once it's in the oven you can get the rest of your meal together. Jerk chickpeas would be really tasty over rice, quinoa, mashed potatoes, sautéed greens or stuffed into a pita or tortilla.

You can use canned chickpeas but try it at least once with home-cooked chickpeas. They have so much flavor! Cooking your own beans is really easy, it just takes some planning with the soak and cook times but it is still doable even with a busy schedule.

Ingredients:

3-4 Tbs freshly squeezed lime juice (see directions)
2 Tbs tamari (I used Bragg's liquid aminos)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs tomato paste
1 1/2 Tbs pure maple syrup
1 1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves (I completely forgot to add this and it was still tasty without it)
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbs grated fresh ginger root
2 large garlic cloves, grated
Few pinches red chili flakes (the more the spicier)
2 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
3/4-1 cup chopped or sliced red bell pepper
3/4 cup green onions, sliced (white and green portions - reserve 1-2 Tbs for serving)
2 Tbs fresh cilantro or parsley (for serving)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a baking dish (I use an 8 by 12-inch), combine all the ingredients (starting with 3 Tbs of the lime juice) except the chickpeas, red bell peppers, green onions, and cilantro. Stir until well mixed. Then add the chickpeas, red peppers and green onions and stir again.

Before stirring the sauce.

Before stirring the chickpeas, red pepper and green onion in the sauce. Pretty colors!

3. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil, stir, and bake uncovered for another 5 to 8 minutes, stirring again about halfway through, until the marinade has partially absorbed into the chickpeas.

Our house smells so good right now!

4. Taste - if you'd like more tang, add another 1/2 to 1 Tbs lime juice, and stir well, along with any reserved green onions and fresh cilantro. Serve with sliced avocados and with extra squeezes of lime juice, if desired.

I hope everyone is staying safe and warm with the snow!

Tamales!

Well, it's the weekend before classes start again. This means: filling the freezer with food to eat on busy days and nights when I have no time to even sit down for a cup of tea, let alone eat dinner. I know you are all busy too, so here's a great recipe for delicious food on the go. Tamales may take a long time to make, but future you will reap the benefits of your labor. You can freeze them and then reheat in a steamer or in the microwave. I bought the ingredients to make tamales (at least the cornhusks and masa harina) last summer with the intention of making them just for fun. That didn't happen. Don't wait to make these like I did! They're not as hard as you think, just time consuming.

I got the recipe for these is from Veganomicon and it's posted online here. I'm not sure how "authentic" it is, but I think there are probably many ways to make the traditional tamales. These are the vegan version and they're not filled with lard and cheese but trust me, they are so tasty!

Here are my changes to the original and the commenter's recipe: 

1. I doubled the entire thing. You really need a big pot and giant bowls if you want to double it but other than that it was easy.

2. I used regular beans instead of refried - I think the original calls for regular too, but you can definitely do it with refried. Keep in mind the spice and sauce mixture with the beans and veggies is pretty tangy and flavorful even with just regular beans.

3. Since I doubled the recipe, I used one can of pinto beans and 1 can of black beans, just for variety.

4. The original recipe calls for a clove of garlic, minced and can you believe I ran out of fresh garlic (I know!!!) so I used 1/2 tsp garlic powder x2 instead.

5. The original calls for 1 cup of frozen corn added to the mix. I don't love corn so I just did whatever was left in a bag I already had in the fridge - about 3/4 cup for the double batch. You can definitely omit the corn or add more if you really like it.

6. I have this weird problem where I don't want to eat something if it doesn't have any green in it. I added a handful of chopped baby spinach to the other veggies in the sauté and felt much better about the whole thing.
7. I also added a diced carrot which is in the original recipe.

8. The original calls for 3 Tbs of tomato paste which I also added (6 Tbs for the double recipe).

9. I used kitchen string for most of the tamales and tried my last one with the corn husk ties. I have a blister on my finger from tying all those strings - the corn husks were more gentle on the fingers and look pretty neat. There are many ways to tie/fold these up but since it was my first time making them I just followed what the recipe said to do, tightly securing the ends with string or strips of cornhusk.

Some tips on tamale making:

1. Be patient. Put on your favorite Pandora mix and enjoy the process. Or better yet, make them with a friend or friends! This would also be a great kid activity because you can get your hands messy.

2. Feel free to experiment with the veggie/bean mix.

3. You can probably find cornhusks, masa harina corn flour and chiles in adobo sauce at your local grocery store in Colorado, or in an ethnic or specialty store.

4. A good way to test if the tamales are done steaming is to pull one out and carefully open it (caution - very hot!) and if the masa harina mixture doesn't stick to the cornhusk then it's done. If it sticks, wrap it back up and steam a bit longer, checking again when you think they might be done.

Pictures of the process and finished products:

The masa harina mixture, ready to be put into tamales. 

The cornhusks, soaking and ready to be made into tamales.

Some of the ingredients that went into the veg/bean mixture, waiting to be made into a mixture to go in tamales.

Cooking it all up. 

Looks like it's almost ready!

All the stuff is in, ready to get rolled up and tied.

The cornhusk ties. Pretty!

These guys are almost ready to go into the steamer.

A batch of  finished tamales! Success!

I did taste test one before I put the rest in the freezer but didn't snap a picture. Sorry. It was pretty tasty though! A friend recommended this site for some good sauce ideas for serving with the tamales. Also, another friend spoke of sweet tamales - with pumpkin and spices in the mix. I think this is something I'll have to experiment with in the future. Please feel free to comment with any questions. 

Stromboli!

Well hello, blog world! It's been a long time! As you can probably guess I've been extremely busy with my PhD program and I haven't made the time to do any blogging (or even really a lot of cooking!) these past few months. I assure you, I'm not giving up on the blog. Just needed a break to get used to being back in school. Also, for an awkward amount of time I was only making recipes from Oh She Glows and I didn't want you guys to get sick of recipes from the same place (even though they are delicious and you should all try them anyways).

I have a  new cookbook and I'm kind of obsessed with it. It is a little on the hippier side of the hippy spectrum but by that I mean it has a lot of wonderful, whole grain and whole food "healthier" recipes. Do not let this deter you from purchasing a copy. It is a fabulous cookbook and everything I've made out of it so far has been delicious. The cookbook is Dreena Burton's "Let them eat vegan!". Really, just go out and buy it. It's one of the few cookbooks I would recommend with no hesitation. For those of you who are gluten free, nut free, and/or soy free she has a lot of recipes in the book that are friendly for you! Also, she gives a proper substitutes that would make the non-gluten/nut/soy free recipes that way. Before getting on with today's recipe, here is a list of what I've made in her cookbook: "Steel-Cut Oats in an Instant!", "Whole-Grain Chia Pancakes", "Cocoa Almond Jumbles", "Spinach Cashew Pizza Cheese Spread", "Beans 'n' Greens Soup", "Peanut Thai Vegetable Stew", "Corn Chowder Quinoa Casserole", "Festive Chickpea Tart", "Sugar-Free Chocolate Cake", "Chai Peanut Butter Ice Cream", "Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream" and maybe a few others I can't remember. I respect this cookbook because it has a substantial dessert section. Anyways, if you have any questions about it just shoot me a comment!


So the stromboli recipe doesn't come from this cookbook, but part of it does, which is why I mentioned the cookbook. I actually made this one up and I'm pretty proud of it. Sometimes, on a Friday evening, after a long week of classes, right before vacation, magic can happen in the kitchen.

I was planning on making a pizza and using up the leftover red pepper we had from something else and I thought that maybe I should do something a little more exciting. I remembered the "Spinach Cashew Pizza Cheese Spread" from Dreena Burton's cookbook and thought that it would be a good base for the pizza. Then I thought, why stop at pizza when you could make STROMBOLI?? So I did a little research and found an easy pizza dough recipe* (I wanted a dough that had to rise just to test out a new recipe, sorry mom) and a how-to stromboli recipe.

OK, here we go:

Spinach Cashew Pizza Cheese Spread recipe (from "Let them eat vegan!")
I halved the original recipe and added a few things so this is not the original recipe, just my version of it.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup soaked raw cashews plus 1/4 cup soaked raw almonds, drained (soak for about an hour, that's fine)
- 1 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup (packed) spinach leaves
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 1/2 - 1 tsp oregano
- 1/8 tsp onion powder
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1-2 Tbs nutritional yeast (optional)
- a few spoons of tomato sauce of your choice. (I used my mom's homemade tomato sauce that was in our freezer from her last visit an we used the rest of the frozen batch for stromboli dipping)

In a food processor, blend all the ingredients until smooth. This will take a minute or two of processing, stopping to scrape down the sides of the processor a few times throughout. Once smooth, use immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container for 3 to 5 days. With the almonds, it has almost a ricotta texture.

Stromboli recipe:

1. Get your dough ready. I made the recipe posted above and added some garlic powder, dried basil and oregano, just for extra flavor.

Dough, right before punching it down.

Estes got flour on her face awwww

2. Since the dough has to rise for an hour, get your other ingredients ready, make the spinach cashew spread and hang out until the dough is ready.

I chose caramelized onions and diced red peppers (and olives - not pictured)

The spinach cashew spread - it's not the prettiest green color but it tastes wonderful, so trust it!

3. When the dough is ready, put your pizza stone** in the oven and preheat oven to 450ºF.

4. On a floured surface, roll out/stretch the dough into a rectangle.

5. Spread the spinach cashew spread on the base, leaving a little room around the top edge. Then add your other toppings (again, we used caramelized onions, red peppers and diced olives).

6. Carefully roll up, pinching the seams and folding the sides under.

7. Place on a cornmeal-dusted pizza board (or pan if using) and brush with olive oil.

8. Pop in the oven and turn down the temperature to 400˚F.

9. Keep a close eye on the stromboli. It's done when lightly browned on top. This took us about 25 minutes. Let it cool for a few minutes then cut with a serrated knife and serve with tomato sauce for dipping.

I was worried it would be too dry in the middle but it was so perfect. I promise you won't miss the cheese in this. Michael said that next to his favorite stromboli from Gettysburg High School (don't ask), this is a strong second. I'll take it.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

*I used 2.5 cups white all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour.
**I used a pizza stone, but you can use a regular baking pan- adjust the baking temperature and time as needed. If you have a pizza stone, definitely use that because it makes the crust nice and crispy on the outside but soft in the middle. Plus, your entire house will smell like a pizzeria and who doesn't want that!?

Quesadilla sans queso

We don't have much food in our house. It was a busy week. But, sometimes when the fridge and cupboards are almost bare, something magical happens in the kitchen...

Today I give you: quesadillas sans queso! Starring- leftover veggie refried black beans, a small avocado that fell through the cracks and a few other magical ingredients.

Here's what I used but feel free to play with the ingredients and get creative. Salsa would be great, as would some sliced olives or chopped cilantro (none of which we had). You can clean out your fridge too!

Ingredients (for 1 quesadilla)

2 whole wheat flour tortillas
a few spoons of vegetarian refried black beans
1 small avocado (or half a medium-large avocado), thinly sliced
hot sauce
lime juice
garlic powder

1. Spoon on and spread the refried beans, covering one of the tortillas. Place the sliced avocados on top and then sprinkle these with hot sauce, lime juice and garlic powder.

Before adding the avocado, lime juice and garlic powder (apparently I can't follow the order of my own instructions).

2. Microwave for about 20-30 seconds, until heated through.

3. Enjoy!

I hope everyone out there has a fantastic weekend. We are busy preparing for a stream of August visitors and I'm starting a PhD program in 2 weeks so things are getting a bit hectic here! Keep your eye out for some new posts here though- I have a few in the works:)

"Mexican" style pizza

I think about food a lot. Yesterday I was thinking about how to use up the food we already have in our fridge before going on vacation. I had made Spanish rice with some salsa twice in the past week or so and had about 3/4 cup of salsa leftover so I thought hmmm I want pizza... but how can I use up the salsa.... !!! I decided to put the salsa on the pizza instead of tomato sauce. Really? I have no idea how I'd never thought of this before. I used my mom's pizza dough recipe but you can use whatever recipe you have. I'll do a dough recipe if I haven't already but here's what I did for the toppings at least:)

Ingredients:

1 recipe pizza dough
salsa, enough to cover the pizza like a tomato sauce
a few cloves of garlic, minced
vegetarian refried beans
1 onion and 1 green pepper diced and sautéed
about half a can of black olives, cut in half
1 recipe cheeze sauce (or if you're not vegan, just use whatever cheese you like)

1. Preheat the oven and get the dough ready. I bake my pizza at 425ºF.

2. Prepare the toppings.

3. To assemble the pizza: Sauce, garlic, dollops of refried beans (to taste), onion and pepper, black olives, cheeze sauce.

4. Bake for about 15 minutes. This depends on the kind of dough you have and the method you choose for baking- just make sure the dough is lightly browned on the bottom and no longer doughy.

Really, you can put whatever you'd like on the pizza- I bet some fresh cilantro or some salsa verde or other kinds of peppers would be fantastic. I was just trying to use what we already had:) I'd post more pictures but I have to pack!

I enjoyed my slice with a nice bottle of Somersault:)

Grilled pizzas with spinach, artichoke hearts and olives

Ever since we made the grilled kale/sweet potato/pesto pizzas from Chloe's Kitchen I've been wanting to try grilling other kinds of pizzas. Last night I got my chance! We just recently purchased a chest freezer for our basement (hooray for stocking up on foods!) and I was cleaning out our freezer and found some leftover naan dough- basically, pizza dough. I decided use it to make.... grilled pizzas! Michael and I are going away soon and I didn't want to get a lot of stuff at the store so I also checked out our cabinets and fridge and found some perfect toppings for this pizza. I pulled out another container of mom's tomato sauce and we were good to go! I also found a great recipe for a cheesy sauce on Oh She Glows which we drizzled on top of the pizzas. Don't be afraid to try this sauce- it's so easy to make and it does add a nice cheesy topping for the pizza. We'll be using it again on pizzas and definitely over pasta for a quick and easy mac and cheese.

Ingredients:

pizza dough, rolled into individual-sized pizzas, about the thickness of a tortilla

toppings of choice- we used:

tomato sauce

minced garlic

sautéed spinach and onions

olives

artichoke hearts

cheeze sauce

1. Get toppings ready. 

2. Pre-heat the grill. Roll out the pizza dough into thin, tortilla-like crusts and brush both sides with olive oil.

3. Be sure all your toppings are ready. Bring them outside with the prepared pizza dough. You might want to line the toppings up as on an assembly line. The grilling process is really fast!

4. Place each dough tortilla shape on the grill and grill for a few minutes on one side, until there are grill marks on the bottom. Flip over and quickly add the desired toppings while the uncooked side of the dough gets cooked. This happens really fast so do be sure to be quick but careful. I couldn't get a picture of this process but it's not difficult- just make sure all your toppings are ready to go on the pizza. We did our toppings in the following order: tomato sauce, garlic, spinach/onion mixture, olives, artichoke hearts, cheese sauce.

5. The pizza is done when the bottoms have grill marks on them. Really, they're probably done about a minute after you put all the toppings on. The dough was crispy and the toppings were gooey and zingy- a very nice way to enjoy a pizza!

The results were amazing! Michael even liked eating his as a pizza taco:)

And for the Estes fans out there- here's what she was doing while I was cooking: patiently waiting for her dinner.

Clean-out-your-fridge fried rice

It's the end of my work week and it's been a week since our last grocery trip. This means that I'm tired and there's not a lot of food in the house. So, when looking through the cabinets this morning I decided to make some fried rice and clean out some of the older veggies and things from our fridge and freezer. I made the rice this morning (it's best if it's cold when you add it to the stir fry- this little gem of cooking knowledge is thanks to my friend Emily) and then popped it in the fridge for the day. All I had to do when I got home was press and fry the tofu and cut the veggies for the stir fry. So easy. Feel free to play around with the ingredients, especially the sauces. I used leftover homemade sweet and sour sauce from some skewers we did on the grill this weekend. I bet a simple soy sauce would be great too. I'll just put down the ingredients for what we had but again, feel free to play around with the recipe.

Ingredients: (4 servings)

cold brown rice (from 1 cup dry)
1 onion, cut in moon shapes
a few cloves of garlic, minced
a few handfuls of kale, chopped
part of a bag of frozen mixed veggies (carrots, peas and corn)
1 block extra-firm tofu, drained, pressed and cut into desired pieces
sesame oil
soy sauce
toasted sesame seeds

1. Make your rice ahead of time and stick it in the freezer for a few hours or overnight.

2. When ready to make the fried rice, drain then press the tofu for about 10 minutes. Cut into desired shapes and fry in a bit of sesame oil until browned. Set aside.

3. Chop up the other veggies and heat up a splash of sesame oil in a wok (or a big pan, but really, a wok is fantastic).

3. When the oil is heated, sauté the onions until translucent or even starting to brown. Add the kale and garlic and heat until the kale is wilty. Add the frozen mixed veggies and a splash of soy sauce and sauté mixture until it's heated through and starting to cook. The kale should be all wilted by now.

4. Add the rice and fry for a few minutes, stirring and flipping it over as it cooks. Now add the sauce and stir until it's mixed in- add the tofu last and gently stir and cook for about another minute so it can absorb some sauce.

5. Serve with some toasted sesame seeds or soy sauce if desired.

This rice would also be great with some pineapple and cashews, maybe some beans instead of tofu, or with different spices and even non-asian influenced sauces. Go nuts!

Here's what Estes was doing while I was cooking:

Happy weekend!

Creamy pasta

Today was a long day and it's been a long week. I got home from work today and the only thing I wanted was to have take-out or a big gooey cheesy pizza or box mac n cheese. On days like today I try to take a step back and think about how I'll feel after I eat any of these things. I'm not saying I never have that food but when I'm already stressed the last thing I want to do is stress about how I feel after I eat. So instead of the tofu scramble we planned on having I decided to whip up a creamy pasta dish. Comforting, creamy, easy, and I already had all the ingredients on hand. I can't take any credit for the recipe- it comes from Oh She Glows. Angela served hers with some sautéed greens and I served ours with sautéed garlic, onions, red pepper and spinach. Basically we used up the veggies left in our fridge. Don't expect alfredo sauce but it really is a nice, creamy sauce. I think I'll play around with the non-dairy milk and try something other than almond next time. Sometimes the almond taste comes through too much for me, even though we use just plain, unsweetened.

Ingredients:

16 oz or less of pasta
1/3 heaping cup raw cashews
3 garlic cloves
3 Tbs nutritional yeast
3/4 cup + 2 Tbs almond milk (as needed to make it as thin or thick as you'd like)
1 Tbs lemon juie
2 Tbs Earth Balance
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp miso paste (optional)
1 Tbs tahini
pinch of nutmeg
salt, to taste (about 1/4-1/2 tsp?)
1/2 tsp paprika, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
veggies or herbs of your choke to add into the mix

1. Cook the pasta according to directions. Cook veggies.

2. Add all ingredients except for pasta and veggies to a blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.

3. When pasta is done, drain it and pour in the sauce and veggies and cook on medium heat until heated through.

4. Serve with a nice glass of red wine, especially if you've had a long week!

With just a little teeny bit of work you can skip the processed crap and still have an easy and comforting dinner after a long week. This dish took all of 15-20 minutes. You could even skip the fresh sautéed veggies and add some frozen spinach or broccoli and garlic powder into the mix. Even easier!