Peanut Pumpkin Soup with Mushrooms and Kale

This soup comes together very quickly and is a hearty, substantial meal. I was happy to have it on a rainy evening.

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
8-10 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp black pepper
pinch of salt
chili powder as desired (I used ½ tsp Vulcan Fire Salt)
2 cups sliced mushrooms
⅓ cup peanut butter
1 15oz can pumpkin (about 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix)
2 cups vegetable broth
1-2 tomatoes, diced, juice included
½ pound kale, chopped into bite-sized pieces
¼ cup lime juice
1 tsp agave nectar (a pinch of sugar will do if you don’t have agave)
⅓ cup nutritional yeast (optional)
a few handfuls of peanuts (you can crush them if you want to, or just throw whole nuts in)

Heat oil in your soup pot. Saute the onions over medium heat until translucent, then add the garlic, ginger, pepper, salt, and chili powder. Stir in the mushrooms and let them cook for a few minutes. Add the peanut butter, pumpkin, veg broth, and tomato. Stir this all together until it’s all combined in a soup-like manner, then add the kale. Let it simmer until the kale is cooked to the texture you like, then add the lime juice, agave, and nutritional yeast. Stir in the peanuts and serve!

Cardamom Greens’n'Beans

Usually when I make greens’n'beans, I amp it up with savory flavors and lots of heat. Today I was in the mood for something a little lighter, so I left out the hot sauce and played around with some sweeter flavors. You’ll notice that this is a salt-free recipe! I didn’t do that on purpose, but it just happened to work out that way and it really doesn’t seem to me to need any salt (though of course you’re free to add whatever you want if you make it yourself)! Although it’s not the most abundant ingredient in the recipe, the cardamom is the flavor that really pops out in the mix, so it has thus become the working moniker for this recipe. I’m eating it with millet right now since that’s what I happen to have already cooked, but I’m going to make a pot of brown basmati rice later to go with the leftovers!

6-8 cloves garlic, minced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1-2 tomatoes, diced
1 Tbsp cumin
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp curry powder
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup coconut milk
¼ cup nutritional yeast
several handfuls of greens (I used baby kale)

Saute the garlic in oil until it browns. Stir in the beans. Add the tomatoes and let them start to cook down a little, then add the cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, and curry powder. Add the vinegar, coconut milk, and greens. Stir and let it cook so the greens wilt. Add the nutritional yeast, then let it simmer till the sauce reaches your desired thickness.

Lemony-Cumin Lentil Kale Stew

I make this recipe all the time. It’s really simple and delicious. This is another recipe that I’ll usually make really spicy for myself, but mild-with-hot-sauce-on-the-side when I’m making it for other people. You can really add any vegetables you like to this. I love the textural combination of kale with the lentils and the rice, but anything you like will work!

1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
10 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (leave it out if you can’t find it or it’s too hot)
1 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of salt
1/4 cup cilantro (leave it out if you hate it)
2 cups dried red lentils
1 cup uncooked brown basmati rice
7 cups water and/or vegetable broth (I use 6 cups broth + 1 cup water, adjust to your flavor preference)
1/2 pound kale, chopped into bite-sized pieces (stems included!)
1/2 cup lemon juice
soy sauce or Bragg’s liquid aminos to taste
1/3-1/2 cup nutritional yeast

In a large stock pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the onion till translucent. Add the garlic and saute about a minute longer, taking care not to burn it. Add spices (cumin, curry, paprika, pepper) salt, and cilantro. Give it a good stir. Add the lentils and rice, stirring them together with the seasonings so they get nicely coated. Add the water and/or vegetable broth. Turn the heat up to high. As soon as it starts to boil, add the kale, reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and let it simmer for 35-40 minutes. Add the lemon juice and nutritional yeast. If the flavors aren’t quite popping the way you want them to, add a little soy sauce or Bragg’s.

Saag Paneer (Part 2!)

About a year and a half ago, I posted half of my recipe for Saag Paneer…the tofu paneer part. I promised I would post the saag recipe, and lo! here it is! It’s taken me a long time to get this recipe just the way I want it for the blog, and frankly, it’s still a work in progress (like all recipes, I think!) But here is a pretty good start if you want to make this yourself. This recipe makes a pretty mild saag; I’ll usually add hot sauce and/or chili powder somewhere in there.

Don’t worry about chopping anything too finely for this one. It’s all going in the blender!

2 tablespoons soy butter (I use Earth Balance) or vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
10-12 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons powdered ginger or 1 1/2 tablespoons raw ginger
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup cilantro (unless you hate cilantro)
2-3 tomatoes, chopped (including the juice!)
1 pound spinach (you can add other greens too, but I recommend using at least half spinach, and honestly I like this better with just spinach!)
1/4 cup coconut milk (full fat! from a can, not a carton!)
1/2 cup soy yogurt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Tofu Paneer

Melt the butter in a pot (or heat oil). Saute onions till they’re translucent. Add the garlic (and if you’re using raw ginger, add that now too). Saute for another minute, then add your spices (curry, cinnamon, cumin, salt, black pepper, cilantro). Stir in the tomatoes and let it cook for a couple minutes. Add the spinach, stirring in a handful at a time so it cooks down. Once the leaves are all cooked down, remove the pot from the heat. Using a blender, combine the spinach mixture and coconut milk into a creamy puree. (If your tomatoes weren’t very juicy, you may need to add more coconut milk.) Set this aside.

Now you’re going to cook your tofu paneer. You can either use a separate pan or just use the pot your spinach was in a minute ago. Add a little soy butter or vegetable oil to the bottom of your pan or pot, heat it up (medium heat), and then put the entire contents of the container with your marinated tofu (including the marinade) in there. The liquid will start to bubble a bit. Stir it occasionally — you want the tofu to cook, but you (probably) don’t want it to actually get crispy (though at this point it’s so full of marinade that it probably won’t!)

Finally, pour the spinach back into the pot you cooked it in. If you cooked the tofu in a separate pan, add that to the pot now, too. Stir in the soy yogurt and nutritional yeast. Let it cook for another 5 minutes over low heat. Taste for salt. Sometimes I’ll add a little lemon juice too before serving, but usually it doesn’t need it because the vinegar from the marinade gives it enough bite.

Broccoli Rabe and Black Bean Masala

2 tablespoons soy butter (I used Earth Balance), vegetable oil, or peanut oil
1 large onion, diced
8-12 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
1 teaspoon coriander and/or 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (leave it out if you hate it, use more if you love it!)
2 large diced tomatoes (include the juice!)
1 head broccoli rabe, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 15oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed (or about 4 cups pre-soaked cooked beans)
2/3 cup coconut milk
soy sauce, Bragg’s liquid aminos, or salt to taste
2 teaspoons lime or lemon juice
½ cup nutritional yeast

Melt the soy butter (or heat the oil) in a pot or large skillet. With the heat on medium, add the onions. When the onions begin to brown, add the garlic. Saute for another minute or so, then add your spices (cumin, curry, ginger, coriander and/or cilantro). Turn the heat to medium-low and cook for another minute or two, while stirring. Add the tomatoes and stir some more. Add the coconut milk and broccoli rabe. Let simmer for about 5-10 minutes, until the leaves have wilted and the stems are tender. Add the beans and let it all cook together for another 5-10 minutes. Then add the soy sauce or Bragg’s and lime juice. Add the nutritional yeast, stirring it in well.

Tempeh & Broccoli Stir-Fry with Peanut Butter Lime BBQ Sauce

This was a use-up-stuff-in-my-fridge recipe that turned out really well. I’m not usually a huge fan of the “barbecue sauce” flavor for some reason, but the peanut butter and lime balance it out really nicely. The idea for this came from this recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen blog, which calls for seitan. I realized just as I was about to add the seitan that I actually didn’t have any, so I brought in my pal Tempeh to pinch-hit and as usual it hit a home-run.

Okay, let’s get to the recipe before I start really doing some damage with the baseball metaphors.

 

Sauce Ingredients
½ cup peanut butter
4-5 Tbsp soy sauce or Bragg’s liquid aminos (or low-salt veg broth if you’re watching salt)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup lime juice
2 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp tomato sauce
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp liquid smoke or smoked paprika
hot sauce (I used Sriracha)
cayenne pepper, chili powder, or whatever you like to add for extra heat (I use Vulcan Fire Salt)

Stir-Fry Ingredients
about 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
pinch of black pepper
8oz tempeh
broccoli (I used 2 heads, so maybe about 4 cups), chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 tbsp rice wine
liquid for deglazing (I used more rice wine)
⅓ cup nutritional yeast

Combine the sauce ingredients in a mixing bowl. You can marinate your tempeh for a few hours or overnight, if you like. (I didn’t, because I like the tempeh flavor to come through more.)

Heat the veg oil over medium heat. Saute the onions until they’re translucent, then add the tempeh and stir-fry it till it’s golden. Add the garlic and black pepper and give it another stir. If things are sticking to your pan, deglaze by adding some liquid and stirring more. Add the broccoli and rice wine. Cover the pot and let it cook till the broccoli is tender — you want it biteable, but not mushy.

Now add the sauce. Stir everything together. Add the nutritional yeast. If you feel like your sauce isn’t saucy enough, add more lime juice or vinegar or whatever it seems to want!

This goes really well with brown basmati rice (of course, I think EVERYTHING goes really well with brown basmati rice).

Peppermint Fudge Cookies

I’m not usually that into super chocolatey cookies, but chocolate plus mint?? Now we’re talking! The key to this recipe is the melted chocolate and coconut oil — they go in with the wet ingredients, so when they start trying to return to their original room-temperature texture, you end up with a fudge-textured cookie that just wants to melt its deep chocolatey goodness all up in your mouth. And if peppermint isn’t your thing, try maple syrup or some other sort of flavoring…or just double up on the vanilla.

This is one of my first completely original cookie recipes, so I’m pretty excited to share it. My fabulous a cappella group members were such good sports about taste-testing them for me, as usual

slightly-larger-than-tablespoonful-size dough balls (before baking) = about 30 cookies

1 cup + 1 Tbsp flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
12oz semi-sweet chocolate (you can use vegan chocolate chips or chop up a chocolate bar)
5 Tbsp coconut oil
½ cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peppermint extract

Sift the dry ingredients together (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar).
Melt about ⅔ of the chocolate together with the coconut oil (on the stovetop or in the microwave). Combine the chocolate mixture with the rest of the wet ingredients (the applesauce and the vanilla and peppermint extracts).
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together to make your dough. Don’t let those wet ingredients sit too long before mixing with the dry ones, or they’ll start to solidify too soon! When everything is well-combined, add the rest of the chocolate chips or chopped-up chocolate bar. Let this all sit in the fridge for about a half-hour.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
When the dough is ready, scoop it into rounded tablespoonfuls. Roll each spoonful into a ball, then gently press it down just a liiiiiiiiiiiittle bit with your palm (don’t flatten it too much!)
Bake for 10 minutes.