Sautéed Red Cabbage

I cooked the rest of the red cabbage that I used in the Banana Curry tonight and it turned out pretty well. This was really a freestyled recipe, so nothing is exact.

ingredients:

1 medium to small sized red onion

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 inch piece of ginger, chopped

3/4 head read cabbage

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1 sliced yellow squash

1/2 cup apple sauce

2 tablespoons garam masala

1/4 cup salted and shelled pistachios

1/4 cup raw sunflower seed kernels

1/4 cup raisins

barbecue sauce

olive oil

Heat a large pan to medium-high heat, simmer garlic, ginger, and onions in oil for 3 minutes. Add cabbage, carrots, yellow squash, raisins, pistachios, and sunflower seeds along with garam masala. Sauté five minutes until cabbage begins to wilt. Add apple sauce, stir, and cover. Allow to cook for 10 minutes. Serve with barbecue sauce, added to taste, and enjoy.

So Sweet and Spicy Banana Curry

I used a curry paste for this recipe. It's a yellow curry paste; this yellow curry paste, in fact:

ingredients:

2 tablespoons yellow curry paste

2 tablespoons coriander

1 tablespoon cumin

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 inches minced ginger (about the size of your thumb)

5 green onions

3 cloves garlic

2 jalapeno peppers, chopped

1/3 head red cabbage

1/2 block tofu, pressed and cubed

1 red pepper

3 carrots, chopped

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup other nuts (preferably walnuts, I used a mix of walnuts, almonds, and peanuts)

1 can coconut milk

2 bananas

Simmer garlic, ginger, and onions for 3 minutes. Add curry paste, soy sauce, jalapenos, and other seasonings along with carrots, cabbage, red pepper, and nuts and seeds. Cook for 7-10 minutes, until veggies start to get tender. Add tofu and coconut milk, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve with brown rice and enjoy :)

Eggplant P--olenta!

This is a gluten free, vegan take on the boring old Eggplant Parmesan we've all had a billion times.

Okay, so a billion's an exaggeration; I've actually only had Eggplant Parmesan once. But I think Polenta, also known as corn grits, is a huge improvement over Parmesan cheese.



So I REALLLLY freestyled these ingredient quantities. I was trying to get the right consistency, adding small amounts of this and that, etc. With that being said, these ingredient quantities are approximations, and might need some tweaking, but they'll give you a general idea.

ingredients:

1 cup almond milk (soy milk would work, too, or hemp milk, etc.)
1/2 cup polenta
1/3 cup Gluten Free Flour (I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free all purpose flour. Bob, by the way, recently gave his company away to his employees. This is a great company to support.)
2 tablespoons non-dairy butter substitute (Earth Balance is my favorite)
2 tablespoons milled flax seed (Bob's Red Mill, see above)
1 eggplant, sliced width-wise to make lots of 1/2 inch thick disks
olive oil
fresh basil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine "milk," polenta, flour, and flax seed in a fairly shallow, yet wide, with a flat bottom, bowl. Melt "butter" and mix this in as well. The consistency should be runny, but not too runny, so you may need to add a little more milk.

Dip each piece of eggplant in the mixture, ensuring that some polenta is stuck to each side. Heat a pan, and lightly fry each side of the eggplant pieces in olive oil for about 30 seconds, until polenta turns a golden brown. Repeat until every piece has been treated in this manner.

Place eggplant pieces on a large tray. Leave in oven for about 15 minutes.

Top with chopped basil. Serve with pasta (I used a gluten free, Quinoa and corn based pasta) and marinara sauce.

Pumpkin Sweet Curry

This dish is a sort of hybrid between Thai and Indian Curries, mostly Indian, though.



Ingredients:

1 chopped red onion
3 chopped carrots
1 chopped red pepper
1 block tofu, pressed and cut into cubes
1 head of cabbage, chopped
2 chopped apples
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 can of pumpkin
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (I would've added more, and less tofu, if I had more than pumpkin seeds, but I didn't have any more than a quarter cup. Oh well, next time.)
2 tablespoons Garam Masala
1 1/2 tablespoons yellow curry powder (I used Simply Organic brand curry powder, but any of the sweeter yellow curry powders will do fine)
2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon nutmeg
4 cloves chopped garlic
1-2 inches chopped ginger root, depending on how much you like ginger
3- 5 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used olive oil--not very eastern, I know)

Combine oil, onion, garlic, ginger, coriander, and applesauce in a pan and simmer on medium-low heat for about 7 minutes, until onion is slightly translucent. Add carrots, cabbage, pumpkin seeds, and the remainder of the spices. Cover and cook for another 7 minutes until carrots are slightly tender and cabbage is no longer crispy. Add red pepper, tofu, apples, and pumpkin. Cook about 10 minutes, making sure pumpkin becomes evenly dispersed throughout.

Serve with rice, or go crazy and enjoy this dish with raisin bread :). This would go great with your favorite chutney as well.

Not-Really-Cheesy Potato Casserole

Growing up in a huge German family, my childhood consisted of a lot of cheesy potato dishes. Like, seriously. It was kind of gross. Anyway, it's been quite a while since I've had real cheese... Missed my old comfort food in a way, so I decided to try to convert potato casserole into a vegan recipe. If you've ever made vegan Mac 'n Cheese, this should be super easy for you to cook. My idea was to layer slices of potatoes and onions with the Mac 'n Cheese mixture, then bake to a crisp. Didn't exactly crisp, but it did turn out pretty tasty. (Warning: the top layer did wind up dry... If anyone has suggestions for fixing it, please let me know.)

What You'll Need:
6 medium potatoes
1 large onion
3 tbs Nutritional Yeast
3 scoops minced garlic
~1/3 cup raw, unsalted cashews
~2/3 cup soy milk
1 heaping tbs Earth Balance
several tbs vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a food processor, mix the Nutritional Yeast, garlic, cashews, ~1/3 cup soy milk, salt, pepper, and Earth Balance. It should end up looking like nacho cheese.

Pour vegetable oil into the bottom of a casserole dish.

Peel and slice the potatoes into thin chips. Put a layer of them over the oil.

Brush on a bit of the cheese sauce.

Slice the onion finely. Sprinkle a layer of onion slices onto the sauce.

Drizzle a decent layer of cheese sauce on top of the onions.

Layer with potatoes; repeat the process until the dish is packed.

Pour ~1/3 cup of soy milk evenly over the top.

Bake for about 1hr. 15 min. *I would check after an hour to decide how much longer you want to cook. You may want to broil the top for a crispier texture.

Enjoy.

'Red Herring' Creamy Cashew Salad

I've hesitated to put this recipe online for a while... It's a little something I picked up from volunteering at The Red Herring- this kick ass vegan restaurant where I first learned how to cook. The Herring was always struggling to get money, so I didn't want to post any of their secrets online. However, under new management, I don't believe they have this salad anymore. So, here it goes. Eat up! (And don't forget to stop by for a meal if you're ever driving through University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. 1 hour of volunteer work=1 free meal.)

Salad content: a bunch of kale, sliced; 1 red bell pepper, sliced; a few carrots, sliced; Creamy Cashew Dressing

Creamy Cashew Dressing:

What You'll Need:
~1/3 cup raw, unsalted cashews
balsamic vinegar
apple cider vinegar
lemon juice
diced garlic
water

Toss cashews into a food processor.

Eyeball the height of the cashews... Pour balsamic vinegar to about 1/3 of the height.

Splash in some apple cider vinegar and lemon juice.

Throw in some diced garlic to taste.

Add water to desired consistency.

Salt and pepper optional.

Blend until completely smooth.

*Following Herring tradition, I cannot give more precise amounts of the ingredients. We think measuring cups are for wimps.

Put the salad in a huge bowl and toss the dressing. This one usually goes over really well with non-vegan friends. Enjoy!

Hot and not quite hummus

This is a fairly easy creation I came up with a while ago, shortly after making homemade hummus for the first time. enjoy



1 can garbanzo beans
1 red onion, sliced
1 cup carrots, sliced
1 cauliflower, chopped
1 yellow squash, sliced
1 bell pepper, chopped--I used the equivalent of approximately one bell pepper, but actually used some from yellow, red, and green peppers to add color and a wider variety in flavor subtleties.
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 cup Tahini
juice of a lemon
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped Basil
olive oil
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper (optional)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Whole wheat pitas, rice, couscous, quinoa or any other grain you see fit

In a large pan set to medium heat, combine olive oil, garlic, and onions. Simmer until onions start to become soft, about 2 minutes. In a separate pan add the cauliflower.

Cauliflower takes longer to cook fully than most other vegetables, so it must be precooked prior to adding the other ingredients. This can be done in a variety of way. One is to cover it, and add a little bit of water and lemon juice (so that it covers the bottom of pan but is 1/8-1/4 inch deep) to essentially steam it for a few minutes. Leave covered, adding oil to pan when water evaporates because steaming it fully could eventually lead to an entirely too soggy dish. You can also cook cauliflower in the oven for about 20 minutes. This method is easier, but takes a little long, so you must plan when you will start the onions and garlic.

Once the cauliflower is close to tender, combine it with olive oil, onions, and garlic. Add the carrots, squash, and bell pepper along with paprika, cayenne pepper, half of the lemon's juice, and pepper. Cover and cook on medium-low heat until everything is tender, about 5 to 10 minutes. Turn heat down to low. Now add other half of the lemon's juice, garbanzo beans, tomato, basil and tahini sauce. Before adding these ingredients, especially the tahini, make sure everything in the pan doesn’t appear to be dry, because attempting to spread the tahini throughout a bunch of dry vegetables will be very difficult. Cook long enough for beans to become warm, stirring to ensure tahini evenly coats the mixture.

This can be served on a bed of couscous, quinoa, rice, or any other grain you’d like. I’ve stuffed pita pockets with it, too. I’ve held off on adding the tomatoes until after cooking this, and just used them as a cold topping, this worked well, also.

This recipe will serve 2-4 people, depending on how much grain you eat it with.

And, like the name suggests, this recipe is a derivative of hummus. And, like hummus, you can add/change this however you’d like to get a variety of flavors. Just off the top of my head, I can think of roasted red pepper hummus, chipotle hummus, sun-dried tomato hummus, spicy cilantro with jalapeno hummus, horseradish hummus, and edamame hummus. Use your imagination.

enjoy!

peace, and love