Slow Cooker Black Bean and Plantain Chili

Who else is a fan of plantains? They might seem like an exotic ingredient, but even here in Toronto, they are usually very reasonably priced and less expensive than sweet potatoes. However, unlike sweet potatoes, their shelf life is not as stable, as they can only last a few weeks until they turn all brown. I never buy them with a plan, other than panfry in coconut oil, but this recipe was excellent, and I’ll probably buy more plantains just to make it again, it was that good.

Chickpea Chile Verde

Our tomato consumption is still going strong but I would hate to bore you with so many consecutive tomato recipes. Another garden winner this year were the boisterous tomatillo plants. I have given away more tomatillos than I have eaten myself. Most of my friends have made and canned salsa verde. I don’t have the time or equipment to can this year, so I looked for less traditional ways to use tomatillos. When I spotted Alissa’s chickpea chile verde, I knew we had a winner!

Tempeh Enchilada Casserole

Sometimes I forget about tempeh, but it is an awesome vegan protein source with 22g of protein in 4 oz (half a package). Not everyone loves tempeh. One way to love it is to slather it with a marinade. No marinade, here. In this case, your smother it and hide it within a delicious casserole.

Soldadera Beans + Decolonize Your Diet cookbook GIVEAWAY

While I may end up apologizing for too many cabbage recipes, I shall not apologize for too many bean recipes! With the United Nations declaring 2016 The Year of the Pulse, it is exciting to see people discovering (or re-discovering) their love of such a humble nutritious super star.

Mexican Cabbage Soup

I am not sure if other Canadians will agree with me, but while the exporters should be rejoicing that our loonie is quite low, all I notice are the expensive veggies at the store. Now that the local farmer market has shuttered for winter, we’re back at the regular grocers. We took a special trip to a Polish grocer and came home, with…. wait for it… CABBAGE!  Two monster heads came to a handful of pennies per pound. 

Mighty Migas + Taco Cleanse GIVEAWAY!

 

If you are trying to pick a January cleanse, I finally found one I fully endorse: The Taco Cleanse. Created and then executed by Wes Allison, Stephanie Bogdanich, Molly R. Frisinger, and Jessica Morris, The Taco Cleanse celebrates delicious vegan tacos and is anything but a deprivation diet.

Instead, you are instructed how to eat a taco for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You are acquainted with the newest superfoods (corn tortillas AND flour tortillas!) and learn how to integrate them into delicious meals.

Churros with Cinnamon Sugar (Vegan, Gluten-Free) + Vegan Everyday GIVEAWAY

I am going to spice things up today. Literally and figuratively. While I have been to many restaurants, I don’t share my resto reviews here. (I save them for Happy Cow – follow my profile). But, what if I told you I could give you the recipes for all the dishes we tried?  I figured that was worthy of a share on a recipe blog.

This was a marvellous meal Rob and I shared at Doug McNish’s Public Kitchen. He typically caters to take-away meals and Sunday eat-in brunch but occasionally there are pop-up specialty dinners. This was one such dinner titled “Vegan Everyday“, named after his latest cookbook.  Known for his love of raw vegan foods and writing two raw cookbooks, Eat Raw, Eat Well and Raw, Quick and Delicious, this cookbook features his love of cooked vegan food. His recipes are all whole foods based (all homemade, no faux meat substitutes and gluten-free, too). Doug’s latest cookbook is based on his extensive experience in the kitchen and wanted to prove the awesomeness of the recipes. So much so that he made them from his own restaurant to share.

So, without further adieu, here was our meal:

AVOCADO TEMPURA – crisp quinoa battered avocado, spicy kimchi, sweet lemon tamari ginger reduction, nori dust, Chinese five spice. This was excellent. Crispy creamy avocado. I never would have thought to make this at home but it was so good, I may give it a go.

CHERMOULA TOFU – grilled spice rubbed chermoula tofu, braised jalapeños and collard greens, sweet potato quinoa hush puppies, crisp yucca strips, tangy almond cream sauce. Four recipes are from his cookbooks and I don’t think I would have ever thought to combine them together. Other than the sauce being a but heavy, I really liked this.

and from the other side:

TEMPEH CROQUETTES – crisp cornmeal and brown rice flour crust, roasted red pepper aioli, sweet potato puree, seasoned brown rice, sautéed herbed white wine garlic local veg. The croquettes were fragile but still delicious.

BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE – soft creamy cheesecake, blueberry compote, ginger crust, candied lemon zest. I was really excited to try this because I knew the recipe from the cookbook used white beans as a secret ingredient. However, this was more cake than cheesecake as bean-based baked goods are ought to do. I will likely not remake this one at home but it was a decent cake.

CHURROS – churros with spiced coconut sugar coating, warm cinnamon chocolate dipping sauce, candied orange. This was the recipe that I lured in Rob. He probably considers himself an expert at churros, eating them that is, especially after our stint in Houston.

Let’s just say that these were unlike any churro we have ever tried. Churros are naturally vegan but these are also gluten-free which may have been our problem (not sure). In any case, they tasted great and if anything, could have passed for a gourmet interpretation of churros with a hefty coating in cinnamon and coconut sugar with a delicious warm cinnamon chocolate dipping sauce.

As I said, all the recipes are from Doug’s latest cookbook. With 500 recipes, there is something here for everyone, from breakfast to dessert and everything in between. If you’ve been to his restaurants or ones where he’s helped shape their menu, you may recognize recipes like his Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa Soup or his Sweet Potato Chili. Recipes are quick and easy (Black Bean Santa Fe Wraps) or more elaborate (Miso-Glazed Tofu with Crispy Sushi Cakes and Braised Bok Choy). Then there are recipes I really want to try like Indian-Spiced Date Squares. Or how about Maca Crunch Ice Cream? Honestly 500 recipes feels like a tomb of recipes when most cookbooks share only 100 or so at a time.

I have made a few recipes already and they are very good. He definitely knows how to ramp up the umami (bring on the nutritional yeast, tamari and mushrooms). So much so, that I tended to reign them in, worrying about exploding my palate. I will share a homemade recipe in the next few weeks but until then, here is the recipe and cookbook photo for the gluten-free, vegan churros. This is more what I think of when I think of churros, so I look forward to trying the recipe out myself one day.

Thankfully, the publisher allowed me to giveaway the cookbook to a reader living in the US or Canada. To be entered in the random draw for the book, please leave a comment below telling me what you generally try to eat every day. The winner will be selected at random on August 20, 2015. Good luck!

PS. I am sharing this with We Should Cocoa, The Pastry Challenge, and Shop Local.

Mexican Soy Curl Saute with Lime and Cilantro

I recently finished reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Rob put it on hold at the library in December and we finally made it to the front of the list. Just in the knick of time, too, as we start to pack our house again for our (hopefully) last move ever. Have any of you read it and started tidying? I have seen a few reviews around the blogosphere (example), so I knew the premise to declutter was to only keep things that brought you joy. I am waiting for Rob to finish reading it (at least the first part on purging) prior to beginning to tidy. It will be easier if we are on the same page (said the one that has been slow to adopt the minimalism).

Rob has already packed my cookbooks, and I wouldn’t want to undo his efforts, so we’ll keep them all for now (HA!). Honestly though, one of my favourite cookbooks (definitely one I would keep) is Isa Does It (see my review here). Quick and simple, creative recipes that deliver loads on flavour. This is one such example. This was definitely more than the sum of its parts. Mushrooms and corn are pan-fried with soy curls and then spiced with chilies, lime and cilantro. Isa uses seitan but I think chickpeas could work well, too. She also recommends black beans which would fit with the Mexican theme.

So, please tell me, which cookbook brings you the most joy?

I am sharing this with My Legume Love Affair, Meat Free Mondays, Cooking with Herbs and ExtraVeg.

Simple Lentil Chilaquiles

When I said our meals have become more simple, this is probably not what you had in mind.  I had not planned on sharing this either, but the meal was delicious and I scooped together the little bits left unclaimed and snapped photos to share. I loved the meal, I loved these photos, and had to share.

In an honesty, Rob is a great cook. I merely helped to assemble the ingredients. Rob was making an off-the-cuff version of our tofu migas but as we ate it, we thought it reminded us of the chilaquiles we would devour from Radical Eats in Houston. Minus the deep-fried tortillas. Eerily enough, Erica shared her baked version of chilaquiles (recipe here with black beans and kale), which I read afterwards. Great minds think alike! We opted not to make it sopping in a tomato-broth, as we used sun-dried tomatoes to help keep the chips crispy.

In any case, while these were simple to make, it brought together a few components we already had. Namely, we made JL’s Lentil TVP Taco Filling earlier in the week (I changed the spices slightly) as our ground meat substitute. My cousin also gifted us some homemade tomatillo salsa. It was quite spicy but worked well when mixed directly with the other ingredients.

In short, we started by using almost stale corn tortilla chips by baking them in the oven. Rob sauteed some sweet onions (reserving some for the topping) and sprinkled them with garlic granules (too lazy to pull the real garlic from the fridge). Next, he added the Lentil-TVP taco filling, heating it up. Because we were out of plain tofu, he added 4 eggs along with some soy milk and the tomatillo salsa, scrambling all the ingredients together. Once fully cooked, he stirred in the baked tortilla chips, heating all the way through. A sprinkle of fresh lime juice and a side of tomato salsa solidified this as a perfect New Year’s Day brunch.

I am not sure if quasi-recipes like this help you. What do you think?

PS. I am sharing this with Credit Crunch Munch.

Mexican Spinach Salad with Salsa Baked Tofu Recipe

I just might need a very pretty picture to knock me out of a bloggers block. A simple recipe, I really only gave directions for the salsa baked tofu and told you what else I included in my salad. No measuring, just plating and eating.

I tried a bit harder to make this salad pretty.

It is kind of a cross between my quick and easy salsa chickpea tacos and my older Mexican salad with a creamy tomato saucy dressing with a little old school baked tofu. Yum!

I am sharing this with Bookmarked Recipes and Souper Sundays.

Fiesta Masa Cornbread Muffins

This is probably my favourite concoction from the remains of my pantry.

I had a vision. I wanted to make corn muffins with masarepa. Cornmeal, polenta, masa harina and masarepa— what are the differences?

Masarepa is unique because it is precooked. We use it all the time for arepas and I love how soft and melt-in-your mouth arepas taste fresh from the oven. Sounds like the perfect recipe for cornbread, no?

My googling did not help.  Possibly because arepas ARE Colombia’s (and Venezuela’s) answer to cornbread.

In any case, I cobbled together a few recipes and in the end, just ran with it. Into my batter with masarepa (and masa harina since I finished our stash), I added roasted corn, roasted hatch chiles and roasted red peppers. A bit of sweetener to accentuate the dough, although that may be sacrilegious depending on who you ask (and I am no corn bread expert).

Although I appreciate good food, and this was delicious. Basically a fiesta arepa in muffin form. They didn’t really raise too much. Although this will encourage me to add veggies to our next batch of arepas.

I find experimental baking quite daunting, but these turned out great. Do you ever make non-arepas from masarepa?

 

Tofu Migas with Arepas

I always thought it would be funny to have enough forethought to pre-plan my holiday meals months in advance. You know, Christmas food served at Thanksgiving; Valentine’s Day treats for Christmas; Cinco de Mayo eats on Easter.

OK, I made the last one up, but it totally happened anyways.

It turns out out Rob was a bit more lonely on Easter Sunday than me, and at the last minute, we decided to host Sunday for the ex-pats. Three Canadians and a Dutchman, all displaced in Houston temporarily.

Although, instead of stressing out about our meals, we shared our love for vegan Mexican food (with a South American twist). Our friends brought some Mexican bread pudding and other Mexican treats for dessert. Easter Houston-style.

Migas is a dish typically made with eggs, but we swapped it for crumbled tofu and added some spices and topped it with salsa and cilantro. The tortillas are usually scrambled into the mixture but I like to add them at the end to keep them crispy. Rob shared his Colombian delicacy of arepas.

There is something about the weekend that brings out the tofu scramble in us.

Are you celebrating Cinco de Mayo? Fellow bloggers, have you ever pre-planned your meals that far in advance? 😉

Cheater Tlacoyos with Nopales (Cactus)

There is long-distance cycling and then there’s long-distance cycling over hills.

We’ve heard the cycling routes around Austin are hilly but not entirely sure how it compares to Ontario. Houston, is fairly flat, so I haven’t been doing many hills, unless it is an overpass over a highway. I stumbled upon Lori’s recap of last year’s Shiner GASP.  She wrote:

This course was going to be challenging because of the sheer number of inclines and hills (Esmeralda said she stopped counting at 23 last year), and the wind that it was famous for.  I had hoped that with the front it would be a tail wind, but at mile 30 the wind shifted and was either a head wind or cross wind. Oh well, it was nice to dream.

With a month away from our own hilly 100-mile adventure, it instilled a fear of hills. So, this weekend, we sought out something to climb.

Earlier this year, we were planning to do the “Bike Through the Forest and Hills” 80-km ride in Coldspring, Texas. We had already registered and picked up our packages (the first ones, at that, bib numbers 1 and 2). It was scheduled right after I sprained both knees, so understandably, we didn’t go. However, with such a descriptive name, we figured it would be a hilly ride. Rob saved the course maps, though. He ended up modifying the route so that we had a 50 km loop. The original ride had you return in the opposite direction, but we just repeated the same loop once we were familiar with the course.

The 100-km ride wasn’t the hard part. It was the hills! After 8 minutes, I wasn’t sure I was up for this many hills. Rob clocked an incline that lasted 3 km. The worst part, though, was the wind. Wind + hills = a definite challenge. A strong wind with a loopy course meant the wind was, sadly, only helping us 25% of the time. In any case, we were positively pooped after our “short” 100-km ride.

We ended up stopping off at our favourite Mexican grocer on the way home: Mi Tienda. It reminds us of our trip to Mexico City, with lots of fun food, loud music and random decor. We treated ourselves to fresh guanabana juice and a mix of celery-pineapple-cactus juices. If you have never tried guanabana, I highly recommend it. We fell in love with it in Colombia. We also had some fresh (and warm- this is KEY) churros. After our bellies were content, I scurried back in for our weekly grocery expedition.

I try am trying to balance emptying my pantry along with trying everything that I can while in Texas/America. This time, I bought some cactus (aka nopales). You can find it fresh as a giant paddle or pre-chopped with the spikes removed. I gather you can also find it brined in jars or cans. In any case, I first tried it while in Mexico City. Cooked simply, it was a vegetable side or topping. One of the dishes I had it with was as tlacoyo from a street vendor: a blue corn masa dough that she stuffed with refried beans and topped with a nopales salsa. was I really liked it: the texture of a bell pepper with the taste of a green bean.

In truth, Rob and I were too zonked to do any cooking when we returned post-ride and post-Mi Tienda. We went out for tacos. The following day, we did another cycling jaunt. Not too long, and all flat, we were still battling the wind and the possibility of rain. However, the shorter ride meant I had enough energy to tend to errands and do some cooking.

I simply ran with the idea of tlacoyo. It is more like a cheese-less quesadilla. We had fresh corn tortillas so I used that instead of the masa dough. I already have a favourite (unfried) refried bean recipe. The problem was the cactus. I wasn’t entirely sure how to cook it, but I eventually decided to boil it first, then saute it with some leftover roasted onions. It may not have been authentic at all, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Have you ever tried nopales/cactus? What are your favourite recipes?

I am sharing this with the Spice Trail, My Legume Love Affair (managed by Lisa and previously Susan), Four Seasons Food, and Simple and In Season. 

Black Bean Soup with Roasted Red Peppers, Lime and Cilantro

First of all, you guys are awesome. You guys are word wizards! I love it!
(And yes, I realize there is a selection bias based on who chooses to write a comment, but still…)

Second of all, did you catch the recent posts all about beans? Like “5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Avoid Eating Beans” on Breaking Muscle?  Or Ginny’s recent post on The Vegan RD called “Plant Protein: Why Vegans Need Beans“?  Both are very well done posts about beans.  Bucking the paleo trend, Jeff points out common (or quite uncommon) misconceptions about beans and why you should be eating them. Ginny makes a great case why beans are the best source of protein that is relevant for vegans and non-vegans alike.

You know it. Beans are my fuel, too. Oftentimes, I get stuck in the land of chickpeas and lentils when there are actually a lot more beans out there. With the Mexican slant in Houston, I have been gobbling up black beans with much gusto as of late. Mexican black bean dip, black bean tostadas, Mexican zucchini lasagna, black bean and sweet potato tamales and even black bean tortilla soup. And here we go with another Mexican-inspired black bean soup.

This is an absolutely delicious soup. However, there is an asterisk. It tastes good because you coax all the goodness out of each ingredient individually. Translation: it is a bit labour-intensive but so worth it.

Caramelize your onions and carrots. Roast your red bell pepper. Make your own Ancho chile puree. Freshly toast your cumin seeds. If you have the time, prepare your beans from scratch. Squirt on some lime juice and scatter cilantro throughout. Yeah.

Take the time to tend to this soup and you will not be disappointed. In fact, I recommend you double the recipe so that you can freeze your bounty.

Want to take the short cuts? I am sure this will still be a delicious soup: soften your onion and carrot with the red pepper, throw in your pre-cooked/canned beans, swap Ancho chile powder for the puree, forego the cumin toasting. It can all be done and will still be delicious.

Here’s to more more beans! 🙂

This is my submission to this week’s Souper Sundays.

South of the Border Tortilla Soup (& No Meat Athlete Review+Giveaway)

With Olympic fever set anew, I felt a tad guilty sitting on my latest find. Perhaps you have already heard about it? Matt’s book, No Meat Athlete: part nutrition advice for athletes, part vegan transition guide, and part cookbook. Matt freely admits he is your typical average guy. No Olympian-in-training, but through his quest to qualify and run the Boston Marathon, he picked up the vegan bug and pushed himself to the next level.

I am certainly no runner. Cycling is my sport of choice. However, his story echoes my own. While learning to best prepare my (formerly?) non-athletic self to cycle a double imperial century ride (361 km/224 mi), I discovered the benefits of vegan foods. I fell hard for the advantages of regular exercise (no pun intended on my knees). At the time, I cobbled together bits and pieces of my culinary and cycling journey through books mainly by Brendan Brazier with a shout-out for women’s cycling guides.

At the time, veganism was not mainstream (and is still not popular – only 2% call themselves vegan in the US) which makes this book perfect. This guide is perfect for the beginner: the beginner to vegan eats, the beginner to fuelling yourself as an athlete and the beginner to running (or any endurance sport).  Pick any of the three and you will glean something from Matt’s quest to inform himself to conquer his athletic goals. This is not to say that if you have any experience in any of these areas you will not gain more information, you might, or it may remind you to try new things, inspire you to run a marathon, or simply eat good food.

His advice for athletes are pertinent for most cardio-intensive sports (like cycling), although he has specific advice for a beginner who wants to learn how to run. The best part is that Matt shares his favourite recipes to fuel you, too.

All of Matt’s recipes are catered to optimal nutrition. Fast, healthy and tasty. Approachable dinner meals like Variations on Beans and Rice (I really liked his Mexican version) and desserts like black bean brownies. He also offers blueprints for creating your own culinary masterpieces: The Perfect Smoothie Formula, Your Own Energy Bar Recipe, or The Incredible Veggie Burger Formula. For the athletes, there are sport-specific recipes like chia fresca, homemade energy gels and homemade sports drink.

Nutrition aside, it must taste good, too, and these do not disappoint.

I was not joking about eating tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner. After the tacos were no longer fresh, no longer as soft as a baby’s bum, I resorted to Matt’s recipe: South of the Border Tortilla Soup. Not your typical tortilla soup topped with tortillas, rather the tortillas are blended INSIDE your soup. Before I found corn tortillas in Houston, I considered substituting masa harina/masa arepa, but now I had no excuse. Make thee some Mexican-inspired soup.

Black beans, corn, green chiles, tomatoes, cumin and corn tortillas. All in one soup. Topped with avocado and cilantro. It reminded me of a grown-up version of one of my favourite soups from university: stupid easy black bean and salsa soup. I tried to stay as true to Matt’s recipe for reviewing purposes but his suggestion to pan-fry the tortillas did not work so easily for me. Baking them might actually be easier which is what I shared in the following recipe. In any case, a big pot of delicious soup. For athletes and non-athletes alike.

Thankfully, the publisher is letting me give a cookbook to one reader living in the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom (YES!). To be entered, please leave a comment here, telling me what kind of exercise you enjoy or your favourite recipe you have tried (or want to try) from Matt’s website No Meat Athlete. I will randomly select a winner on February 22, 2014. Good luck!

Other recipes from No Meat Athlete shared online:

Buffalo Hummus

Chickpea Protein Burgers

Momo Granola Bars

Chocolate Protein Quinoa Bars

The Perfect Smoothie Formula

PS. This is my submission to this week’s Souper Sundays, and to this month’s  My Legume Love Affair, Anyone Can Cook Vegetarian Food and No Waste Food Challenge.