Category Archives: Recipes

Jun 30 2012
2 Comments
Cooking, Recipes, Uncategorized

Rice Cooker Cuisine: Persian-Inspired Rice & Lentils

This dish was my attempt to recreate the dish I had at Noon-O-Kabab a few weeks ago. As you’ll see, my creation doesn’t look anything like adas polo, but it was easy to make, made my kitchen wonderfully fragrant, and was a pretty good replication in terms of flavor.

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice
1 cup lentils (I used red)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 dates, pitted and chopped
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

I put the brown rice and lentils in my rice cooker pot, rinsed them, and then added water to fill up to the 2 cup line. I did measure out the water this time around for those of you who don’t have a rice cooker: it was just under two cups of water. I also want to note that the rice was slightly undercooked, so I will go with 2 and a half to 3 cups of water next time. I put the pot in the cooker and then turned it on.

Immediately after pushing the “on” button, I prepared the garlic, onion, and dates. I then heated some olive oil in a pan and browned the garlic, onion, and dates along with the spices. When the onions were nearly translucent, I removed it from heat and then added it to the rice cooker pot, stirring it in to the rice and lentils. Tip: use a wooden spoon or spatula when mixing stuff around in a rice cooker! Anything metal can scratch the pot and that is no bueno.

I stirred the mixture every 5-10 minutes to keep it from sticking. It stuck a bit anyway. Sigh. The above photo how it looked when the rice cooker first thought it was finished. I gave it a quick stir and pushed the “on” button again, and it cooked for at least another 5 minutes.

Finished! I had a moment of panic at first (uhhh… where did my lentils go! I need my protein and iron!) but the lentils had gotten mushed in with the rice pretty quickly.

I sprinkled some salt and pepper on tomato, onion, and bell pepper and broiled it in the toaster oven for about 10 minutes. They were a great accompaniment to the rice and lentils.

Mmmmm… cinnamon…. –Melissa

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Jun 30 2012
2 Comments
Cooking, Recipes

Rice Cooker Cuisine: Persian-Inspired Rice & Lentils

This dish was my attempt to recreate the dish I had at Noon-O-Kabab a few weeks ago. As you’ll see, my creation doesn’t look anything like adas polo, but it was easy to make, made my kitchen wonderfully fragrant, and was a pretty good replication in terms of flavor.

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice
1 cup lentils (I used red)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 dates, pitted and chopped
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

I put the brown rice and lentils in my rice cooker pot, rinsed them, and then added water to fill up to the 2 cup line. I did measure out the water this time around for those of you who don’t have a rice cooker: it was just under two cups of water. I also want to note that the rice was slightly undercooked, so I will go with 2 and a half to 3 cups of water next time. I put the pot in the cooker and then turned it on.

Immediately after pushing the “on” button, I prepared the garlic, onion, and dates. I then heated some olive oil in a pan and browned the garlic, onion, and dates along with the spices. When the onions were nearly translucent, I removed it from heat and then added it to the rice cooker pot, stirring it in to the rice and lentils. Tip: use a wooden spoon or spatula when mixing stuff around in a rice cooker! Anything metal can scratch the pot and that is no bueno.

I stirred the mixture every 5-10 minutes to keep it from sticking. It stuck a bit anyway. Sigh. The above photo how it looked when the rice cooker first thought it was finished. I gave it a quick stir and pushed the “on” button again, and it cooked for at least another 5 minutes.

Finished! I had a moment of panic at first (uhhh… where did my lentils go! I need my protein and iron!) but the lentils had gotten mushed in with the rice pretty quickly.

I sprinkled some salt and pepper on tomato, onion, and bell pepper and broiled it in the toaster oven for about 10 minutes. They were a great accompaniment to the rice and lentils.

Mmmmm… cinnamon…. –Melissa

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Jun 28 2012
1 Comment
Cooking, Recipes

Ginger Squash Soup FTW!

Sometimes when it’s raining sideways and the sky is grey (which happens often in South Florida during the summer) you just want comfort food. We decided that squash soup with ginger and grilled cheese would fit the bill for a pair of hungry martial artists so this is what we gathered:

1 piece of ginger, (this will make it spicy and fragrant, add as little or as much as you like. Our piece was a little smaller than my palm)

1 carton of silken tofu

20 ounces of squash puree

1 tbsp Thai chili paste

1 tbsp syrup or sugar

1 cube of bouillon

1 pinch of cinnamon

1 pinch of nutmeg

salt to taste

I blended up the tofu (I used a box of Mori-Nu soft silken tofu) and ginger until it was creamy and combined it with the squash in a large pan. I used 2 boxes of Cascadian farms frozen winter squash puree.

I added all of the seasonings, adjusted them as needed and stirred until it was thoroughly mixed and heated through. I also happened to pick up some vegan gluten-free olive bread at a local market and melted some Follow Your Heart mozzarella in the oven. It took about 7 minutes at 350F/180C to get bubbly and melty.

The earthy buttery savory flavors in the grilled cheese perfectly complimented the spicy floral sweet squash soup. Brent isn’t a big fan of squash but when I mentioned making a similar soup with carrots, he got excited. This particular dish is remarkably low in calories for how rich and creamy it is. The whole pot has about 320 calories and easily feeds 2 hungry people. It’s loaded with fiber, vitamin A and protein in addition to antioxidants and trace nutrients from squash, soy, chili, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger that are of particular interest to scientists.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Jun 25 2012
5 Comments
Recipes

Thank Goodness for Mangoes and Blueberries… and RUM

I needed a cocktail today. Badly.

Disclaimer: I didn’t intend for this post to glorify the consumption of liquor. Please drink responsibly and remember that alcohol is not the answer to life’s problems!

I shall call this cocktail “My Heart May Hurt but At Least I’m Getting My Antioxidants”

1/2 a mango
1/4 cup blueberries
fresh mint (optional)
shot of rum

First, try the rum. Make sure it tastes good. Then, prep the fruit.

Stick the mango and blueberries in a blender or, if you’re lazy like me, in a mini food processor.

Take another sip of rum. It’s vegan. Stick the fruit mixture in a glass.

Add ice.

Add the rum, top with some mint leaves, stir and enjoy responsibly!

Goodness, I need a girl’s night out!! –Melissa

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Jun 23 2012
3 Comments
Cooking, Recipes

Polenta Balls

I really wanted just a simple salad for dinner tonight, but I wanted something to accompany it. So I came up with this simple and yummy and versatile recipe using instant polenta.

Polenta Balls

4 tbsp instant polenta
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp cumin (optional)
1 cup boiling water

First, I combined my dry ingredients in a bowl while the water heated up.

I added the boiling water and mixed it all together until it thickened and was the consistency of polenta.

I shaped the polenta into little balls, placed them on a baking sheet, sprinkled some salt on them, and baked them in the toaster oven for 15 minutes at 325 degrees. While they were toasting, I made my salad.

My salad should have been prettier, but my avocados were gross, I forgot ‘cheese,’ and I forgot to get some olives. It was still good, though: a nice mix of butter lettuce, tomatoes and green onion tossed together with some olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper.

The polenta balls turned out exactly how I had hoped: crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I’m excited to try making more with different spices.

Yay! Polenta Balls! –Melissa

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Jun 09 2012
1 Comment
Cooking, Recipes

Sweet & Spicy Tofu

This recipe is so easy that I considered putting it in the Lazy Vegan bucket, but the end result is so delicious and potentially impressive that it’s more of a Secret Weapon Vegan Recipe. It involves few ingredients, few steps, minimal labor, and doesn’t take a lot of time. The “sauce” can be applied to any veggie or protein, so it’s also versatile.

This dish is inspired by how my Mom used to bake chicken when we were growing up. She would buy a bunch of drumsticks, coat them with plum sauce, and just bake. Again… so easy, yet really tasty!

Sweet & Spicy Tofu

1 block extra firm tofu
1 tbsp plum sauce
1 stem green onion
1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce or crushed red pepper (optional; add more or less for desired blandness/spicyness)

I got the plum sauce and chili garlic sauce from your everyday grocery store. I would recommend Lee Kum Kee brand for the plum sauce. My market didn’t have it and Dynasty brand worked just fine. I used a block of tofu from a package of fried tofu, bought at the Asian market. I cut the block into strips, but you can cut it into any shape you would like.

I coated the tofu strips with the plum sauce and chili garlic sauce. Add as much as you’d like! I heated up some oil in a pan and quickly chopped the green onion. Then I threw the coated tofu into the pan. I would have preferred to bake instead of fry, but I was really hungry and too lazy to wait for the oven to heat up. Beware: this is a messy fry. If you bake, make sure you get as much liquid as you can out of the tofu.

About two minutes after I put the tofu in the pan, I got a handful of the meaty green onion pieces and added it to the pan. I let it all fry for another minute, flipped the tofu, and then let it fry for another minute after that. Yeah. This only took about five minutes. Keep in mind that I started out with tofu that was pre-fried and already dried out. (Sidenote: my niece came into the kitchen to find out what smelled so good while this was frying.)

I topped the tofu with the rest of the green onion bits. The sugar in the plum sauce gives this a nice coating. I ate this with some rice and steamed broccoli and was very, very happy! –Melissa

Jun 06 2012
3 Comments
Recipes, Thoughts

Candied Kumquats

I’ve had two experiences with kumquats. The first was in a French restaurant. The kumquats were on a stick and coated in syrup. They were a sweet delight and totally different from anything I had tasted before. Until I was told they were kumquats, I thought they were some sort of mini orange-cherry hybrid. My second experience was with a raw kumquat. Ew. I was disturbed. Let’s leave it at that.

I saw some kumquats at the store so I thought I would try them again. I didn’t try eating them raw. I decided to candy some of them.

Candied Kumquats
15 or so kumquats, quartered and pitted — I saw some recipes where the pits were left in, but the seeds are bitter so I would take them out
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar (I used turbinado)
vanilla bean or a splash of vanilla extract (optional)

 

In a small pot, bring the water and sugar to a boil, stirring so that the sugar melts. Add the kumquats and vanilla. Bring back to a boil and then let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Let it cool. Here’s the finished product:

I’m still not entirely sure what to do with this. I put some in chia seed pudding. It’s an acquired taste, but it was good. There are savory uses for candied kumquats as well. All I know is that I can’t eat them raw.

I don’t know why I’m so desperate to love kumquats, but I am. I need ideas! Share, share!! –Melissa

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Jun 04 2012
9 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Rice Cooker Cuisine: Arroz con Gandules

Arroz gon gandules has always been an exotic dish to me. I imagined that in order to cook it well, you needed someone’s abuela to teach you. Therefore, I never tried making it. Ever. Until yesterday. I found myself craving it and also wanting to cook something that was easy to bring for lunch and reheat at work.

Ingredients:
4oz dried gandules
1 cup rice, uncooked
1 packet Sazon Con Culantro Achiote
3 clove garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 tomato, diced and crushed
olive oil
salt and pepper

I went to the store looking for frozen green gandules but settled for dry non-green ones. I took the beans beans and left them to soak for about 6.5 hours. I literally left them: I left the house and wore myself out doing stuff, so believe me when I say that the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was slave over a stove. So, I decided to use a rice cooker.

In a perfect world, I would have boiled the beans a little bit at this point. But, I didn’t. And things still turned out OK. Here’s what I did do: I rinsed and drained the beans and added them along with the rice and the seasoning packet to the rice cooker pot. Then, I heated up the onions, garlic, and tomato in a pan with some olive oil. I first let the garlic and onion heat up. Then I added the tomato, crushing them with my hand before while adding them to the pan. When the tomato was soft, the onion was translucent, and there was some nice liquid in the pan, I added all the pan contents to the pot with the rice and beans.

Now, here is where I get really scientific. I added enough water to the pot to hit the 3 cup line. This doesn’t mean three cups of water. I don’t know what it means. You’ll have to ask my rice cooker. My rice cooker doesn’t talk. I’m sorry! I mixed the ingredients and then turned on the rice cooker.

Here’s what it looked like about 10-15 minutes in. Now, even though my intent was to let this dish cook itself without me having to supervise, I should have stirred things every 7-10 minutes to prevent sticking. Of course, I kind of enjoy sticky rice, so it ended up OK. After the rice cooker declared things finished, I stirred up the rice again and pressed the cook button again. It went for at least another 5 minutes. Here’s how it looked:

I was worried my rice would be too mushy. It ended up perfect. I was worried my beans wouldn’t cook all the way through. They weren’t as soft as I would have hoped, but they turned out okay. Boiling the beans beforehand would have helped. I’m actually surprised that this didn’t turn into a soupy mess.

I’m really happy with how this turned out and I know my next attempt at making it will be even better! Things I will do next time is throw in some minced fresh cilantro, more garlic, more salt, maybe some spice, and some chopped olives. Yummm….

Not bad for a “lazy” dish! –Melissa

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Jun 02 2012
2 Comments
Recipes

Smoked Soy Curls

This morning, I found myself missing smoked sausage. On weekend mornings, we would often have smoked sausage or hot dogs with fried eggs, fried rice, and tomatoes (we’re Filipino so this is completely normal for me). While Gimme Lean has a great vegan soy sausage product that would be great for this type of meal, I was really craving something smoked. So, I grabbed half a cup of dry soy curls and improvised.

While the soy curls were rehydrating, I mixed together about 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 2 tbsp of agave nectar, and added a few drops of liquid smoke. I have never used liquid smoke before, but I read in some places to be careful about the amount used. So, I tried to be conservative without even really knowing what that meant. Let’s just say that I wish I had put a few more dashes of liquid smoke in the mix. Once the curls were rehydrated, I drained them and let them marinade in the mixture for a few minutes.

I baked the soy curls in the toaster oven at 300 degrees for 15 minutes. While it was baking, I fried some brown rice in garlic, and cut up some tomatoes and green onion which I seasoned with salt and pepper.

Breakfast was served! My smoky marinade can use some tweaking, or maybe I need to let it marinade for a bit longer. I was worried that I used too much soy sauce and was surprised when the sweetness of the agave nectar seemed to be the prominent taste. I’ll probably use maple syrup next time, too. I don’t have any right now which is totally tragic. This still tasted great, though, and is one recipe I won’t mind experimenting with repeatedly. I’ll take whatever suggestions y’all may have! –Melissa

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May 26 2012
6 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Vegan Kalbi with Mustard Salad

I miss Korean BBQ. A lot. So I veganized it using soy curls.

Traditional Kalbi uses short ribs. The meat is thinly sliced, quite fatty, and can take a lot of work to get “right” because the meat will need to be tenderized quite a bit lest it end up tough. Soy curls are a lot easier to prepare. Soak them in some water for ten minutes, drain, and… well, that’s it. As a bonus, you don’t have to worry about icky stuff like e. coli. For this batch, I used about 3/4 cup of dried soy curls.

Kalbi marinade

1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2-3 cloves garlic, coarsely minced
sesame seeds
1 tsp turbinado sugar (optional)

I mixed everything but the sesame seeds in a plastic container and then added the soy curls. I mixed it around so the soy curls were covered. After I mixed it around, I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top.

Here are before and after shots of the soy curls. The photo on the right was taken about an hour after I added the curls to the marinade. My advice: don’t let them marinade for much longer than that. I baked the soy curls for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Okay, I totally burned them, but they still turned out yummy!

I had planned to go to the store to pick up veggies and seaweed salad to accompany the kalbi, but the store was CRAZY. If you’re in the Chicago area, I’m talking about Jerry’s. Oh, Jerry’s. Prices and product are so good, but I feel like I die a little every time I go there because it’s so crowded. Anyway, I asked my Dad to pick some fresh mustasa (mustard greens) from the garden for me and made it into a little side salad with lemon, olive oil, salt, and freshly ground pepper. The mustasa was in prime form and gave a serious mustard kick to the kalbi. It was delicious.

Here’s my niece, granting peace to all of you and posing with the food. She didn’t try the kalbi and opted to have cereal for dinner. I was glad I didn’t have to share.

It’s Memorial Day weekend and I’m spending it hanging out with family. I’ll be away from home most of the weekend, so I cooked the rest of my soy curls this morning so I would have something vegan to eat. I opted to cook them in a pan this time, mostly because I didn’t want to burn them again. It ended up looking more like bulgogi than kalbi, but regardless — this wins out over meat versions because look at the lack of fat and oil on the plate! Soy curls have the perfect texture for this. This is also where I learned that marinading soy curls overnight in soy sauce is probably not the best idea. It’s still good, though, and I am still amazed by the soy curl.

I am so happy that I can still have Korean BBQ! All that’s missing is one of those little grills that I can put in the middle of my kitchen table… Have a lovely Saturday! –Melissa

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