Veganmofo: I spy... Chickpeas!

I've been thinking alot about the simple art of easy eating. Which although they can be the most rewarding meals, they are often the least blogged and least shared.. but why not? They are fantastic and honestly when writting your thesis or facing deadlines they can be a live saver.

Writing them down or holding onto the links help my frazzled brain remember the things you always plan to make that seem too easy to even exist. They've been popping up on all my Mofo feed readers so I'm gonna pass some of them along you to.
Click the photos to jump through to the original blog posts!

Tuxedo Cat's Chickpea Cumber Salad

Why Yes I do Eat Potatoes: Simple Salad
Or their Falafel
 
Cake Makers to the Stars- Kittee's Pudla

Plant Powered -Pumpkin Chickpea Curry

 Joyful Girl: chickpea Avacado sandwich


 Snarky Chickpea- Pot Pie!


Other

VeganMofo V: Recycling your leftovers take 2

 

So the other day I posted about the whole recycling your leftovers, as brought forward by one of my most loved zines The Cheap Vegan ( a sadly out of print zine.

 Issue 14 seems to be on etsy tho!

Where in the last post I turned some smashed beans and other leftovers into a rice bowl/burrito filling.

 

Now that leftover burrito filling becomes soup/gumbo! With the aid of some additional red onion, turnip, canned tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, another spoon full of kidney beans from the batch I made last week, and fresh garlic to pump up the garlic taste.

Start with chopping your new fresh onions and garlic. You want the onion to cook for a bit in some oil with salt/pepper before adding your garlic. While those cook, peel and chop your selection of turnip (or other fridge veggies). Once the onions are getting good, saute the turnip pieces to brown then toss in your spoon full of beans and some tomato liquid. Add seasonings. You want the flavours to blend a bit before you dump the whole can in, but we do want lots of liquid to help boil the turnip so they become nice and soft.

Once you have a nice soupy base thanks to the tomatoes mix in your bowl/leftover burrito filling (if you'd made it all into burritos then slice the tortilla into strips and save it to bake/top your soup bowls with). Now, if your burrito mix had diaya like mine did you'll want to stir the crap out of it as it cooks. The mixture wants to stick to itself but we want it to break apart into soup and get everything all mixed together. So keep string it occasionally and make sure nothing is burning at the bottom. I brought it to a boil and covered for 10 minutes before taking the cover off and simmering until the turnip were finished. Add additional seasons if it doesn't taste the way you want.

I like mine chunky, but smaller piece would cook faster

And voila! So now we have 3 different ways to eat the same thing. Alternatively, if you hadn't mixed your smashed beans with stuff on the first leftover day you could find a few dozen things to do with them. But this worked out well enough.

 

Veganmofo: Selection of Quick meal tips: Frozen Burgers

Being a student sometimes bringing cooking to a back burner, I won't get into a post about the various levels of terrible junk I consume in the guise of 'diner' most evenings (maybe another post). But I found a selection of easy, under 30 minutes to whip up meals which I've enjoyed over the past few weeks.

The key to quick and easy meals is timing, multitasking and sometimes convenience food. Ok, so you going to grab that frost bitten veggie burger and pull a sesame seed bun out of the freezer, again. No big deal, take a few extra steps and it can really make the difference.

Tips for burgers from the freezer:

• Marinade or sauce it. Glaze your frozen patty in a thick, maybe sweet BBQ sauce, or Plum Sauce. Raid your condiment shelf for inspiration.
• Take the time to pre-heat the cast iron or use a grill. Sure, it's a frozen burger but it'll taste better grilled or seared properly.
• Toppings. Avoid the urge to squirt ketchup and call it a day. Mix it up with salsa, veggies, fruit (grilled pineapple!), chutney or some fancier pickles/sauces from the local market. Even adding lettuces/tomato gives you something fresh and a nice contrast to the chewy burger texture.
• Onions/Mushrooms. They fry up in minutes and can take the bruger experience to the next level.
• TOAST YOUR BUNS. If you spend time on nothing else, crisp the inside of that bun.

The little Darling featured  below may appear simple with its no-name ketchup and mustard, but the secret lies in that big meaty chunk of purple heaven. A wide slice of onion, which I baked in the oven (directly on the rack) and then broiled just before the burger finished. Amazing.

Happy Mofo'ing!

Veganmofo: Easy school lunch

Now, the important thing to remember here is that I have never before made a grain salad. I wasn't entirely sure how to, so perhaps this dish is really just cold rice and veggies. Having only ever sampled grain salads from grocery delis where every bean/rice salad seems to be flavoured with leftover sweet pickle juice (ew!!!). I was not a fan. I prefer my grains savoury, maybe with a hint of sour.



Wild Rice and Bean Salad

1 cup wild and brown rice mix
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth (or water)
dash of salt
1/2 cup frozen white beans (is using caned you will need to rinse, and re-rinse. You may actually want to add more beans, I felt it could have had more)
1/2 medium onion diced
3 tsp minced garlic
1 red pepper diced (or vegetables of your choice. Red was all I had)

Herbs:
1 pinch sage
2 sprigs fresh Rosemary
2 dashes of paprika
1 pinch poultry spice
1 pinch basil
1 pinch thyme
salt and pepper

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 sherry
1/4 (just under a quarter) balsamic vinegar
Repeat of herb mix with the addition of fresh dill

Optional toppings:
Shredded nori
Sesame seeds
nut of choice

First coat a heavy bottomed pot with oil and cook your onions with pepper and mustard see until fragrant. Add garlic and continue cooking, deglaze pan with sherry is desired. Now add you rice and toast, before adding liquid and your selection of herbs. Bring to boil, boil hard for a minute, before reducing to a low simmer for 55 minutes (or until done).



Meanwhile dice your pepper and make your dressing, it can be made in the measuring cup and combined by whisking with a fork. Set aside.

Once rice is done allow to cool, if you have extra liquid drain your rice. Once rice is cooled (better yet, use this recipe to use up leftover rice!) add your pepper and dressing. Toss to coat and refrigerate overnight (at least an hour!).

Veganomicon: Ultimate cook book/I make and eat a salad

:GASP!:

But it's true. Thanks to Veganomicon I now have two salad recipes that don't make my stomach and mind quake with fear. No rabbit food here. This particular salad involves lovely marinated and roasted portabellos and diced chunks of fatty and yummy avocado. That will have known salad haters and nose-sticker-uppers (read: yours truly) digging in with both forks, because real vegans double fist it. Again this is mostly a food porn post, but real posting to return any day now!

For those of you with the cookbook the only changes I made was the addition of mixed greens, spinach, extra dressing and sauted onions.

Quick and Easy meals

My kitchen is currently non-existent so apologies for the lack of posting. Here is an easy Bechamel sauce from the ppk website served on WW macaroni and steamed broccoli.

When water is boiling place basket with broccoli over water, once boiling move broccoli add pasta and return broccoli to steam.

Meanwhile make this quick and easy sauce. I adjusted the seasoning with extra salt, garlic power, onion powder and paprika with nutmeg like the french do.

Very rewarding and filling.