Chorizo and Black Bean Stuffed Peppers

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chorizo and black bean stuffed peppers

chorizo and black bean stuffed peppers

1 1/2 cups cooked black beans

2 cups chorizo sausage (about 2 large links)

1 cup corn

1 can diced tomatoes

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder

1 tsp dried cilantro

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 yellow bell pepper

1/2 yellow onion

4 large, green bell peppers

1 1/2 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded*

Put the onion, red and yellow bell peppers in a food processor and pulse until minced. Add this and the garlic to a large pot over medium heat and saute until the vegentables are soft. Add the diced tomatoes and herbs and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Break the sausages into chunks, put them in a food processor and pulse until crumbled. Add chorizo, beans and corn to the pot and bring to a simmer. Cook over medium-low heat for about 5-10 minutes or until everything is heated through. Remove from heat and let cool. At this point, you can either put this in the fridge to let the flavors meld for a few hours to overnight, or you can go straight to stuffing the peppers.

When you are ready to stuff the peppers, preheat the oven to 350. Cut the tops off the green peppers and remove the seeds and ribs. Stir the cheese into the chorizo and black bean mixture. Fill each pepper with the stuffing mixture and place in a deep casserole dish. Add about 1/4 inch of water to the dish and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour.

* If you love making your own vegan foods, you MUST buy the Artisan Vegan Cheese cookbook. This book has tons of recipes for making your own cheese that blow away anything you have ever bought at the store. I’ve made my own brie, gouda, gruyere, chedder, mozzerella and, yes, monterey jack. They are all absolutely amazing in both taste and texture!


It’s Sausage Time!

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vegan chorizo and mild sausages

vegan sausages: chorizo (left) and mild sage (right)

I love making vegan sausages. They’re fast, easy, and fun to create. Mine are also  cholesterol-free! I have a common base that I use and simply change the spices depending upon the flavor I want: mild sage, spicy italian or chorizo. I use them in hash, stuffed peppers, grilled and served in a roll, with pasta, and so much more. As with most of the recipes I post, the quantities in herbs and spices can be adjusted to suit your own tastes. I’m working on an andouille sausage recipe as well, but I don’t have it ready yet.

The sausages in the picture are shown cold. I wanted to do that to highlight the orange fatty blobs on the chorizo. Something most people love about chorizo is the fat as it melts during cooking. To mimic this, I used expreller pressed coconut oil. It solidifies below 76 degrees, but melts when it’s heated.

Base Ingredients (common for each type of sausage)

1/2 cup golden/yellow potato, peeled, boiled and mashed (~ 1 small potato)

1/2 cup cooked beans (I use cannellini or pinto, but you can use whatever you have)

1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten

1 cup light stock

1 tbsp dark soya sauce (I prefer this mild flavor to standard soy sauce, but you can use either)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 cloves garlic, minced

Mild Sausage

1 1/2 tsp sage

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, whole

1 tsp salt

Spicy Italian Sausage

1 tsp sage

1 tsp oregano

1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp marjoram

1 tbsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, whole

1 tsp salt

Chorizo Sausage

1/4 cup expeller compressed coconut oil (use in place of the olive oil in the base ingredients)

1 tbsp cumin seed, whole

1 tsp coriander

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp thyme

2 tbsp ancho chile powder*

1 tsp salt

Put all of the base ingredients into a food processor and add the spices for whichever flavor sausage you’re making. Process until it forms a ball of dough. Take a small section of dough, about the size of a baseball, and roll it into a sausage-link shape. Roll the link in a piece of aluminum foil and twist the ends closed, like a tootsie-roll. Put the sausages into a steamer and steam gently for 40 minutes. You don’t want the water boiling when you do this or the sausages will come out tough. I usually bring the water to a boil and reduce the heat to a light simmer and keep it there. Before the sausages are done, pre-heat the oven to 350. Once the sausages are done steaming, put them directly in to the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

I’ve only kept these in the fridge for about 3-4 days, so I’m not sure how much longer they will last. However, they freeze really well and will keep for at least 2 months in the freezer.

*I couldn’t find ancho chile powder locally, so I ordered mine on-line from Mountain Rose Herbs. If you don’t have it and/or don’t want to order it, you can substitute 2 tbsp paprika and 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper powder (or red chili powder). I’ve tried both versions and the difference is subtle, so don’t worry about substituting.


Porcini Red Wine Reduction

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Portobello mushroom caps with porcnin-red wine reduction

Portobello mushroom caps with porcini-red wine reduction

The ratatouille in this picture looks a bit sad because this is a picture of left-overs the day after I made this. It was all too good to stop and take pics the night I made it! The sauce over the the mushroom is thicker than it looks here. It thinned out from the portobello juices. This was my first time making a reduction. I’ve always wanted to try, but every recipe I read seemed like a waste of time and food just to get a little bit of sauce. Boy, was I ever wrong! This reduction was so rich and so deep in flavor, it was unbelievable. It literally made the meal.

Ingredients:

4 cups of dark stock

.5 oz of dried porcini (half of one container)

2 cups red wine (preferably a cabernet savingon or similar)

Pour stock and mushrooms in a deep sauce pan over medium high heat and bring to boil. Boil for 15 minutes and remove from heat. Let the mushrooms steep for 30 minutes.

Remove mushrooms and strain stock through a fine mesh sieve to remove any small mushroom particles and rinse out the sauce pan (the fewer pots to clean, the better). Pour the stock back in to the sauce pan. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a fast simmer. Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes, or until only 1/2 a cup of sauce remains. Remove from heat and keep warm until you are ready to use. You don’t need to stir, but I did several times just because I loved to inhale the smells.

Because of the intensity of flavor, a little goes a long way so drizzle, don’t pour. I drizzled some over my mushroom caps, but you can do the same with tempeh, seitan, beans or any dish that you want to add depth. This can also be added to soups or stews or gravies to deepen the flavor. Any left-overs can be frozen for several months.


Vegan Stocks

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I’m back! It’s amazing how quickly time goes by during the school year, especially when you have two active teens. One of my new year’s resolutions is to make at least one blog post each week. I don’t have a picture for this yet, but I wanted to get it up since I think my mom is going to give it a try. I decided to start the year with some cooking basics that really make a huge difference in flavor, particularly if you cook without meat fats. I’m starting with the three most common stocks I use: dark, light and seafood. Traditionally, you would use beef, poultry and fish, respectively, but when you don’t use those ingredients, is it still possible to get a stock with lots of flavor and depth? Absolutely!

You’ll notice that many of the stocks have common ingredients with just a few variations in herbs or content, depending upon the desired flavor. Feel free to add other left over veggies you may need to use: like parsnips or tomatoes. Avoid starchy veggies, like potatoes, or bitter ones, like cabbage, as they tend to have adverse affects on the stock. Also, feel free to add or adjust the herbs listed below. These are my preferences, but you can toss in whatever herbs you prefer. It’s really difficult to mess up a stock, so be brave and daring. Toss something in and see what happens in the end! The only spices I don’t add to stocks are salt and pepper. This is because you want them as ‘clean’ as possible so that you can adjust the seasonings when you actually use them in a dish.

Dark Stock:

5 cloves of garlic, peeled

3 red onions, peeled and cut into quarters

3-4 carrots, scrubbed and cut in to chunks (~ 1-2 inches each)

3-4 celery stalks, washed and cut in to chunks (~1-2 inches each)

1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms

2 bay leaves

6 allspice berries

3 large sprigs of fresh rosemary or 4 Tbsp dried rosemary

1 small bunch of thyme or 4 Tbsp dried thyme

1/2 cup fresh sage leaves or 1 Tbsp dried sage

1/2 cup fresh parsley or 1 Tbsp dried parsley

2 cups full-bodied red wine (I prefer a good cabernet sauvignon, but you want something with strong earthy tones and moderate fruit)

5 quarts waters

Light Stock:

5 cloves of garlic, peeled

3 yellow onions, peeled and cut into quarters

3-4 carrots, scrubbed and cut in to chunks (~ 1-2 inches each)

3-4 celery stalks, washed and cut in to chunks (~1-2 inches each)

8 oz. white button mushrooms

2 bay leaves

6 allspice berries

1 large sprigs of fresh rosemary or 2 Tbsp dried rosemary

1 small bunch of thyme or 3 Tbsp dried thyme

1 cup fresh sage leaves or 4 Tbsp dried sage

1/2 cup fresh marjoram or 1 Tbsp dried marjoram

1/2 cup fresh parsley or 1 Tbsp dried parsley

2 cups full-bodied white wine (I prefer a good chardonnay, but you want something with an assertive flavor and moderate to light fruitiness).

5 quarts waters

Seafood Stock:

5 cloves of garlic, peeled

3 yellow onions, peeled and cut into quarters

1 stalk fennil, washed and cut in to chunks (~ 1-2 inches each)

3-4 celery stalks, washed and cut in to chunks (~1-2 inches each)

5 large pieces of kombu

1 cup of dulse flakes

2 cups full-bodied white wine (I prefer a good chardonnay, but you want something with an assertive flavor and moderate to light fruitiness).

5 quarts waters

Heat a large stock pot over medium heat. Add a few splashes of wine (not part of the 2 cups listed above) and toss in the first four ingredients from which type of stock you are making. You can use oil instead, but I personally don’t like the feel of the oil in my final product. I tend to saute in small amounts of wine that I allow to cook completely down before splashing in a bit more as needed. You don’t want to dump in a half cup of wine as the veggies will steam instead of saute. By splashing just enough wine to wet the bottom of the pan gives me a nice crisp to the veggies and some of the desired ‘stuff’ that sticks to the bottom of the pan, all without the fat and oily feel.

Once the onions are lightly browned, add the 2 cups of wine and bring to a boil. Once this boils, add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Let the stock simmer, uncovered, for about 1-1.5 hours.

Once it’s done, turn off the heat and let it cool. The liquid will be either light or dark, depending on which kind you made, and it will have a wonderful fragrance. The veggies will look dingy and soggy because they’ve given everything to the liquid. Remove the solids to a separate bowl and toss them in the trash or compost bin once they’ve cooled. Pour the stock through a fine mess sieve into a large bowl or pot. Depending upon the size of your sieve and how much of solids you’ve already removed, you may need to stop part way through and empty your sieve as it may clog up. As tempting as it may be, don’t try and squash out more liquid from the solids. This will only put solid particles into the stocks, which you don’t want.

Once the stock has cooled, you can either use it in a dish (as a base for soups, stews, reductions or gravies) or you can store in the fridge or freezer. I usually divide the stock into 3-4 containers. I’ll put one in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. If you plan to use the stock within a few days, but forget or something happens, don’t panic. The stock won’t go bad. All you have to do is pour it into a sauce pan every 3-4 days and bring to a boil for 15 minutes. Let it cool and put it back in the fridge. Stock will keep indefinitely doing this.

Next week: reductions and demi-glaces


White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

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This was AMAZING! And I’m not just saying that because I made it. My mom and step-father raved about it for days afterwards. Okay, she’s my mom and probably biased, but she really did love it! I love the combination of raspberry and either dark or white chocolate. I make white chocolate raspberry muffins over christmas time that everyone swoons for. I’ve been in a cheesecake mood lately and decided to try that combination in a cheesecake instead of a muffin. My raspberry sauce came out too thin, but I think the changes below should thicken it up a bit.

Filling:

4 1/2 tsp Egg Replacer powder

6 Tbsp warm water

28 oz vegan cream cheese (3 1/2 containers), softened to room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup white chocolate chips

6 oz fresh raspberries

Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

5 Tbsp nondairy butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

Sauce:

6 oz fresh raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine graham crackers and sugar until well blended. Mix in the melted butter until crumbly. Press this in the bottom of a springform pan, I usually use my hands because it’s easier. Pop it in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit while the filling is prepared.

In a small cup, I usually use a coffee cup, mix the egg replacer powder and warm water until the powder is dissolved and the mixture  thickens. Add that to a bowl with the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Use a whisk to whip everything together until smooth and creamy.

Add the white chocolate chips to a small chopper or food processor and pulse until the chips are roughly chopped into small bits and pieces. Add the chocolate bits to the cream cheese mixture and stir until blended. Carefully fold in the whole raspberries so that you don’t break them up. A few may bleed a bit, but I like that effect. Just don’t mix too hard or all of them will break and bleed and that won’t look too pretty. Pour the filling in to the springform pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for at least an hour. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen before unlatching and removing the sides. Let it cool completely before wrapping it in plastic wrap and putting it in the fridge. It should chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours before you slice it.

In a small saucepan, add the raspberries and mash using the back of a spoon. Add sugar and water and bring to a bowl. Lower the heat to simmer, stirring occasionally, and allow to reduce to about half. Remove from heat and pour through a fine mesh sieve into a small container.

I don’t pour the sauce over the whole cheesecake unless I’m going to serve the whole thing at once. I usually keep the sauce in a separate container and only pour it on individual slices to be served. It’s not as messy when storing it in the fridge that way.


Potato Angels

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I got the idea for this vegan version of a deviled egg from this post on vegweb. I changed it up a bit to meet my tastes. I LOVE this recipe. It’s so fun to make and whenever I take it anywhere, everyone is always surprised and impressed with it. They really are super delicious, perfect bite sized appetizers, with zero cholesterol! I prefer mine served at room temperature, just like I do potato salad, because I think the flavors are stronger when they aren’t cold.

With something like this, I usually just ‘eye-ball’ it until I get the right taste/texture, which is subjective. Plus, who uses a recipe to make deviled eggs? With that said, here are the ingredients and some guidelines for what I like. Change whatever you want in terms of quantities or ingredients to suit your tastes.

6 small, white potatoes, about the size of an egg

1/2 cup vegannaise

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp nutritional yeast

1/8 tsp paprika, plus additional for sprinkling on top

3/4 tsp Indian black salt*

Peel the potatoes and boil them whole in a pot of water just until done. Do not over cook or they’ll be too mushy to use . Once cooked, drain them and allow to cool to the touch. Once cooled, cut each one in half. Scoop out a small amount of potato from each half. I use a melon baller to do this as it makes the perfect shape and pulls out just the right amount of potato. Plus it’s much easier to get clean edges using it. Put all of the ‘scoopings’ in a small bowl. Add the remaining ingredients to the scoopings and mix well. You will need to mash the potatoes a bit to get them to blend smoothly. Taste as you go and add more of anything you want. Once the filling is done, scoop some back in to each potato half just as you would a deviled egg. Once done, sprinkle the tops with paprika.

*The key to this dish is the black salt, also called kala namak. I bought mine at a local indian grocery. This salt tastes just like hard-boiled eggs. When I take this to parties, everyone wants to know how I got these to taste like eggs. The black salt!


New Page!

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I just added a quick page here with links to on-line studies reporting the benefits of a whole food, plant-based diet. That page will be a work-in-progress as I find more links/articles/studies. If you know of other studies or scientific research regarding diet and health, let me know. I’m always looking for other data to review and compare. (I’m a data junkie).

I have some new photos to process in the next few days and then I’ll have more recipes to share. YUM!

 


One Lovely Blog Award

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Guess what?! Okay, the pic above probably gave it away. The wonderful and sweet Lauren at One Happy Table just nominated me for the One Lovely Blog Award! Isn’t that the coolest?

Of course, being a newbie blogger, I had no idea what it was and what I was supposed to do. It turns out I need to give seven facts about myself and nominate fifteen blogs. I’m going to have to do the nominations later as I don’t know fifteen blogs yet! I’ve only been blogging for about two weeks. I’ll list my seven facts now and nominate others once I get to meet more people.

1) I love hot tea. And I’m a bit of a snob about it too. I buy loose-leaf flavors in bulk from a few on-line suppliers. I love green and white teas, but oolongs are nice as well. I can’t do anything in the morning without a cup of hot tea. Even if it’s only just a sip or two, I just need to taste it. Yeah, I know, weird.

2) I have a weakness for bread, specifically really good artisan bread. Give me good bread and a nice glass of wine and I’m a happy camper. I enjoy making sourdough and whole wheat breads at home and you’ll see quite a few over the next few months.

3) I have three kids, ranging from 14-19 in age. Many of the kid-friendly recipes will have been tested on them, as my youngest two tend to be pickier than most toddlers.

4) I love being green, but I kill most plants I buy. It’s a fairly sad state when a vegan has trouble keeping herbs and flowers alive. I’m not sure I’ll ever be accepted in to vegan society due to my kill rate.

5) I live in the sunshine state, but my skin looks like someone took a bottle of elmer’s glue and poured it over Casper the ghost. My kids lovingly refer to my complexion as ‘paste’. Ah, the applies of my eyes…

6) I do not go anywhere, not even the grocery store down the street, without Burt’s Bees lip balm. I keep at least 4 tubes stationed at specific locations throughout my house: in my purse, in the kitchen, in my office and in my bathroom. And I always have at least 2 unopened as back-up supplies for when one of the stations runs out.

7)  I’m speed-texting challenged. I prefer to pick up the phone and call, but my kids prefer texting. They usually ask and re-ask a question 2-3 times as I type out the answer (spelled correctly and with proper punctuation). Swype was supposed to help, but man some of the word selections that thing makes are embarrassing, which requires more time for me to review the text for typos before sending. They’ve since learned to wait at least 5 minutes for me to respond to the first text.


Meatballs with Gravy

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Remember my sushi post yesterday? Well, I had 1 ½ cups of sushi rice left-over. This was a result of a 19 year old daughter who made her eyes much bigger than her belly. And once you refrigerate sushi rice, you can’t use it for sushi anymore. So…what to do with it? I lay in bed two nights ago mulling over ideas and meatballs popped in to my head. The problem was I didn’t want spaghetti sauce or pasta. Hmm…what about meatballs with mashed potatoes and gravy? Oh, yeah. That sounded pretty good. I didn’t include the mashed potatoes in the picture because we ate before I took the photos and they tasted so good, I didn’t have enough mashed potatoes to use in the photos. The taste and texture of this is very similar to meatloaf, which was completely unintentional on my part. The outside looked dry, but the inside was moist. The dish was warm and comforting and extremely filling. Hope you enjoy!

 

1 medium onion, peeled, small dice

1 clove of garlic minced

1 ½ tsp ground sage

2 cups cooked black lentils

1½ cups cooked brown sushi rice

½ cup quinoa flour

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups of stock

1 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup of all-purpose flour

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a sauté pan over medium heat, spray lightly with cooking oil and cook onions and garlic until onions are translucent and soft. Remove from heat.

In a food processer, add onions, garlic, lentils, rice, and sage. Blend everything just until it forms a paste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove mixture to a large bowl and add the quinoa flour. Stir until the flour is completely blended. Shape in to golf ball size balls and place on a cookie sheet. If the mixture sticks to your hands a lot or doesn’t hold its’ shape, add more flour. I try to minimize the amount of oil I cook with, so I laid a silpat on the cookie sheet, although you could use parchment paper as well. Bake for 20 minutes.

In a small saucepan, make a roux by melting the butter and adding the flour. Heat over medium heat until it forms a paste and darkens slightly. Add stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until it thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste.


Sushi

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Clockwise from top left: vegan california roll (futomaki-sushi); spicy tofu roll (hosomaki-sushi); veggie hand-wrapped roll (temaki-sushi); vegan caviart topped battleship roll (gunkan maki-sushi); shiitake topped (nigiri-sushi)

I got hungry for sushi after seeing this post on One Happy Table. I hadn’t made sushi in years (and years), but I still had my mat! I also had two sushi books with lots of pretty photos and wanted to try some different styles. It was play-time with sushi! You may notice in the pics that the rice doesn’t look as compact/sticky as you may be used to and that’s because I used brown rice instead of white. While still sticky, it doesn’t have the same level of glutinous texture as white sushi rice, but it’s healthier for you and tastes just as good.

Ingredients:

1 avocado

1/2 carrot, peeled and sliced into matchstick size strips

1 Tbps rice wine vinegar

1/4 block of extra firm tofu, drained of excess water and crumbled

3/4 block of extra firm tofu, drained of excess water and sliced, width-wise into thin strips about 1/4 inch wide

1/3 cup veganaise

1 1/2 tsp sweet chili sauce

1/2 tsp Thai chili garlic paste

2 tsp kelp granules

2 tsp old bay seasoning

8 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms

1 Tbps tamari sauce

1 Tbsp mirin

2 tsp Caviart**

1 1/2 cups brown sushi rice, cooked

Sheets of Nori

California Roll: Sliced avocado, pickled carrots, and mock crab strips

Put carrot slices in a plastic container. Drizzle with rice wine vinegar and cover. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, but can be made 2 days in advanced.

Mock crab strips: Mix the kelp and old bay together and rub on both sides of the tofu slices. Let sit in a bow for about 30 minutes. Heat a small saute pan over medium. Spray with a light coat of oil and add the tofu slices. Saute on both sides till light brown. Remove to a small plate to cool. These can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Spicy Tofu Roll

In a cup, mix the veganaise, chili garlic paste and sweet chili sauce. In a small bowl, combine crumbled tofu and the veganaise mixture.

Hand-Wrapped Veggie Roll

Mix the mirin and tamari sauce together. Place shiitakes in a bowl and add the mirin/tamari mixture. Coat everything and let marinate at least 30 minutes, or can be covered and refrigerated overnight. In a saute pan over medium heat, spray some oil and add mushrooms. Saute until golden brown and the mushrooms release their juices. Remove from heat and cool

You can add any veggies you want to these. I included avocado, pickled carrots, rubbed tofu strips and sauted shiitakes. I also added a drizzle of spicy mayo (the same mayo used in the spicy tofu rolls).

Battleship Sushi

Cut a strip of nori 1 1/2 inches wide. Take a mound of rice about the size of a golf ball. Form it into an oblong shape about 1/2-3/4 inches tall. Wrap the nori strip around it so that the rice is flush with the bottom of the nori strip and there’s a space/hole where the rice doesn’t come to the top of the nori strip. Spoon enough caviart to fill the hole and come almost level with the top of the nori.

Shiitake Nigiri

Remove the cap from a sauteed shiitake mushroom. Form a mound of rice the size of a golf ball. Place the mushroom cap over the rice ball and wrap so that it covers the rice as much as possible (it reminds me of a turtle at this point). Take a thin strip of nori and wrap it around the mushroom and rice ball.

**I stumbled on Caviart a few years ago and I love it! They’ve added a lot of flavors since then, but I’ve only tried the black, salmon and orange. I didn’t like the orange because it didn’t taste ‘seafood-y’. It had a citric tone to it that didn’t fit with what I wanted. However, the black and salmon are very good. The one in the photo above is the salmon caviart. It is expensive, but compared to real caviar, I think it’s about the same or cheaper. And since I only use it occasionally and in small amounts I feel I get my money’s worth. It adds a nice level of sophistication to dishes that tend to surprise non-vegans.