African Peanut Stew

It was the kind of day that merited a warm hearty stew: crisp and cool with the scent of autumn in the air. We spent the better part of the morning apple-picking as a family. I think my three-year old ate more than he picked, but that's to be expected! :-) We loaded bushels of apples into our car, turned on the heater, and headed home for some lentil soup. Later that afternoon, though, my daughter wanted to help me make something for dinner. She's actually been begging to make a really spicy salsa for her daddy, but we've put a delay on that project due to some jalapeño juice in the eye. But, I digress. She did a fantastic job carefully slicing and deseeding two jalapeño peppers for this fantastic stew.

The flavors are quasi African, and oh so delicious together. Especially when served over brown rice. There are many variations to this stew but this is the one I really enjoy. 

Ingredients

1 Tb. olive oil

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium white or yellow onion, diced

1/2 green or red bell pepper, diced

2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped (see below for substitution ideas)

32 oz. vegetable or vegetarian chicken style broth

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can diced tomatoes, with juice

1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1/3 cup coconut milk

Handful fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped (opt.)

Instructions

Saute sweet potato, garlic, onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno peppers in olive oil over medium high heat until vegetables begin to soften. Add broth, beans, tomatoes, cumin and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes or until sweet potatoes and quinoa are completely cooked. Add peanut butter and carefully stir to incorporate. It should melt into the stew and begin to thicken slightly. Add coconut milk and cilantro and continue to cook for just a few minutes more. 

Serve and enjoy! This yields about 4 healthy servings. 

Substitution / Add-in Ideas:

My aunt Carol gave me a similar recipe that included diced zucchini. You would just add it at the beginning with the rest of the vegetables. 

She also uses prepared salsa instead of jalapenos and canned tomatoes. I've used a can of Rotel Tomatoes and Green Chilies and eliminated the jalapenos, but it was really very spicy. 

Tortilla Soup

This is our family's favorite new soup. A few months ago, I was asked to present some vegan recipes for a Supper Club in our neighborhood. (I posted the "chicken" enchilada recipe from that presentation previously on the blog.) We absolutely love the tortilla soup at California Pizza Kitchen, and since the supper club theme was American Southwestern, I decided to try to recreate that delicious soup. There are lots of copy-cat recipes online, but this is one of the closest I've been able to find. I've modified a recipe from www.copycat-recipes.net.

As the soup bubbled on the stove, my daughter moaned and groaned, "You're killing me, Mom!" I was alarmed. "Why?" I asked. "That soup smells soooo good! And I'm hungry." Whew...if that was all... :-)

Ingredients:

3 Tb. light olive oil

6 corn tortillas, cut into squares

3 Tb. minced garlic

1/4 cup diced yellow onion

2 cups frozen yellow and white corn, divided

4 roma tomatoes, chopped

2/3 cup tomato paste

2 Tb. ground cumin

3 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vegan chicken seasoning (McKays)

1 tsp. chili powder

6 cups water

2 cans diced mild green chiles

blue tortilla chips (opt. garnish)

fresh cilantro (opt. garnish)

fresh avocado, diced (opt. garnish)

Instructions:

In a large pot, sauté corn tortillas in olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and continue to sauté, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Cook for perhaps a minute. Add 1 cup of corn and all other ingredients (except garnishes, of course) and stir to combine. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes. With a stick blender, blend soup until it's the consistency of a thick puree. If you do not have an immersion blender, you can process in a regular blender, but be careful to just pulse it a few times to break up the corn tortillas.

Return soup to heat and add the rest of the corn, plus the two cans of green chiles. Bring to a brief boil, then serve immediately with garnishes of choice.

This is a large amount of soup, but I promise you, it won't be around for long! :-)

Layered Chicken Enchiladas {Southwestern Style}

I was invited to share and demonstrate some of our favorite recipes at a Living Healthy Supper Club recently. When I consulted with my husband {we have too many favorite recipes and I had to narrow it down}, he suggested a New Mexican theme. We lived in Los Lunas, New Mexico for a summer...just long enough to fall in love with the food of the American Southwest. I found that a traditional and easy enchilada recipe --New Mexican style--didn't include laboriously rolling tortillas, but simply stacking them! That instantly became my go-to process. I rarely make rolled enchiladas anymore. It's just too easy to layer them and pile the filling high!

The first dish I'm presenting to you from my New Mexican-themed Supper Club demonstration is Layered Chicken Enchiladas. I wanted to showcase some easy ways that meatless, dairy free substitutions could be made for typical recipes. 

Layered Chicken Enchiladas

Prepared Enchilada sauce (recipe to follow)

1 bag Daiya Cheddar Cheese or a batch of my Nacho Cheese Sauce

18 Corn Tortillas

Prepared Soy Curls (recipe to follow)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour a ladle of enchilada sauce in base of 9 x 13 casserole dish. Lay 6 corn tortillas evenly over surface of sauce. Spoon prepared chicken substitute over first layer of tortillas. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of Daiya Cheddar cheese over the chicken. Pour a small amount of enchilada sauce over the filling. Repeat layers of tortillas, filling, cheese and sauce until you reach about an inch from the top of casserole dish. Smother the final layer of corn tortillas with enchilada sauce, sprinkling Daiya over the top. Cover casserole with foil and bake for 35 minutes or until sauce and cheese is bubbly. Serve and enjoy with salad, spanish rice, and crockpot beans. 

Enchilada Sauce:

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup flour

1 T. chile molido powder (New Mexican style) 

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. dried onion

1/2 tsp. garlic

1 1/2 - 2 tsp. lemon juice

1 cup tomato juice

2 cups water

Pinch of oregano

1 1/2 tsp. salt

Whisk together canola oil and flour in a medium sauce pan over medium high heat. When it begins to brown slightly, add chile and spices. Continue stirring and add rest of ingredients, water first, then juices, oregano, and salt. Stir until it begins to thicken slightly. If it is too thick, add a little more water. 

Prepared Chicken Style Soy Curls

(from Give Them Something Better by Sarah Frain and Stephanie Howard)

4 cups boiling water

3 cups Soy Curls

1 Tb. oil

1 small onion, diced

1/4 cup vegetarian chicken seasoning

Salt, to taste

Soak soy curls in water for about 10 minutes. Drain. Sauté soy curls, onion, and chicken seasoning in a small amount of oil until golden brown. 

This recipe makes a large 9 x 13 casserole. We cut it into 12 equal servings. 

Mexi-Monday

Beans. We could eat beans everyday. In fact, our family's personal blog was entitled: Beans for Breakfast. A perfect source of protein, beans are flavorful, adaptable, and nutritious. Our bean of choice is the amazing Anasazi bean. They are smooth, creamy, and delicious. They also cook faster than other beans, such as pinto or navy. We just ordered a large quantity from Adobe Milling Company in Dove Creek, Colorado. They included a brief history of this little bean in their shipping materials.

"The Anasazi bean is named after the Anasazi or Pueblo Indians, whose descendants still live in the Four Corners region. This new, yet ancient, bean has the most amazing history behind it. One story has it that in the 1950s archeologists on one of the Anasazi digs found a sealed pot with a few of these beans in it. Some of them sprouted, and it is said that modern Anasazi beans come from those few beans. The Anasazi Indians left their homes in late 1200 AD, making those beans a minimum of 750 years old....A California accountant, Waller, learned of the bean with his agronomist partner, Riddell. With their efforts this bean was brought to the public's attention. It was first commercially sold in 1983, and is now gaining a foothold in the market."

I throw my beans in a crockpot in the morning, and within three hours of slow cooking, they are ready for lunch. 

Beans in the Crockpot

3 cups of dry beans, (your choice) rinsed and picked over for dirt or stones
9 cups of water

Combine beans and water in a crockpot and cook on high setting for approximately two hours. When beans begin to soften, add the follow ingredients:

1 Tb. dried minced onions
1 tsp. granulated garlic
1 1/2 Tb. cumin
1 Tb. red chile powder (not chili seasoning)
2 tsp. salt

Allow beans to continue to cook until completely soft and seasonings have soaked in - about one more hour.

Some favorite menu ideas include: softened corn tortillas with beans and fried potatoes, tostadas with a variety of toppings, or beans and green chile corn muffins. The possibilities are endless! Enjoy :0)

 

 

Ethnic Food of the Day: Lebanese Lubia (لوبيا)

We love ethnic food. Period. Korean. Middle Eastern. Thai. African. Mexican. Indian. You name it, we like it. We are blessed with a wide cultural circle of friends and they each have something new and delicious to bring to the table (pardon the pun) as far as cuisine is concerned. I'm excited when one of them is willing to teach me how to make a traditional dish. 

Our Lebanese friend, Rabih, showed me the basics for Lubia, a saucy Middle Eastern dish served with white rice. Lubia/Lubya simply means "beans" in Arabic. You could use white or red beans and make Fasolia, but traditionally green beans are used in this recipe. Now, I should put a disclaimer on this. This is my interpretation - probably not super authentic, but so good! This is my go-to dish when I'm short on time because it's simple, healthy, delicious, and my family loves it. 

The recipe calls for baharat, or Middle Eastern mixed spices. For sake of time I purchased some from a Middle Eastern market but if you're feeling adventurous, you could make your own! I made some a few  years ago. Find a recipe here.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

4 cups canned green beans 

1 large can diced tomatoes, in juice (or 2 - 15 oz. cans)

1 medium onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 bag Morningstar Griller Crumbles (eliminate if making gluten free)

Salt

Red pepper flakes

Lebanese Baharat or Middle East Mixed Spices 

Sugar

Instructions:

In a large stockpot, saute onion in a small amount of olive oil over medium heat. When semi-clarified, add minced garlic and sauté a moment more. Add green beans and tomatoes. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, then add a pinch or two of red pepper flakes, a pinch or two of sugar (to neutralize the acid), about 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. Seven Spices, and salt to taste. Stir and add 1/2 of the bag of Morningstar Griller Crumbles if using. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes more, or until all ingredients are fully incorporated and stew is bubbling nicely. Taste and adjust seasonings. Enjoy hot over white or brown rice. 

Curried Red Lentils

I happened upon these delightful split red lentils a few years ago, and developed one of our favorite recipes. One thing I appreciate about the red lentil is that it cooks so quickly. The stew was done before my brown rice could finish cooking!

Ingredients:

1 celery rib, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 small onion, diced

1 C. red lentils

2 C. vegetable broth (I made mine with 4 Tbs. vegetarian chicken broth and 2 cups water)

1 C. water

1/2 can lite coconut milk

1 Tb. curry powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. granulated garlic

pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a medium saucepan, saute celery, carrots and onion. When they are softened, add red lentils. Cook for a few minutes before adding broth and water. Bring to a boil and add seasonings and coconut milk. Cook on medium-high heat until the soup begins to thicken slightly, then turn down and simmer until the lentils look slightly smooth and creamy. Stir occasionally to keep from sticking.

This stew is great served over brown rice. We even eat it over whole wheat toast sometimes!

Fruit Empanadas

So, tomorrow I am making a mexican themed breakfast, complete with beans, huevos rancheros, and fruit empanadas. I like to practice the principle of eating like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and (sometimes) a pauper for supper. It doesn't always happen that way, but I try to have great filling breakfasts as often as possible.

One of my first purchases as an adult was the cookbook 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes by Sue Spitler. It has inspired many of my own attempts at creating delicious meals. Today I'm going to share the fruit empanada recipe ~ simple and delicious.

Ingredients:

Filling ~

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup dried sweet cherries

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar (you could cut down on this)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

dash of lemon extract, or some lemon zest

Pastry ~

1 1/4 cups white flour

1 T. sugar

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

3 Tbs. shortening

1 tsp. lemon juice

3-4 Tbs. soymilk or water

Instructions:

Heat apricots, cherries and water to boiling in a small sauce pan. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until fruit is very soft, about 5 minutes. Mash fruit with fork until almost smooth; stir in sugar and spice.

Meanwhile, make your pastry. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in lemon juice and milk, a tablespoon at a time to form a soft dough.

Roll half of the pastry on a lightly floured surface until 1/8 in. thick; cut into circles with a 3-in. round cookie cutter (I used a glass cup). Place slightly rounded teaspoon of fruit mixture in center of each pastry circle; fold the pastries in half and crimp edges with tines of fork. Make a slit in top of each pastry with a knife.

Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees until golden, 12-15 minutes.

Yield: 24 empanadas [They are about 3-bites size! :)]

Enjoy ~