Flavorful Soybeans

This was pretty damn delicious and I can see it being a side or an entree with some couscous.



Ingredients:
100g soybeans, soaked overnight
2 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
.5 teaspoon garam masala
2 tablespoons cilantro
salt

Directions:
1. Bring a pot of water (2 cups) to a boil, lower flame, add salt to taste (around 1/4 tsp), and cook the pre-soaked soy beans for about 30 minutes, or until cooked.
2. Drain.
3. While the beans are cooking, heat oil in a saucepan on a medium-high flame and add the mustard powder.
4 When the mix starts to brown, add the chopped onions and sauté until they turn brown.
5 Now add the tomato paste, red chili powder, garam masala powder, and sauté for about 5 minutes.
6 Add the cooked soy beans to the saucepan, mix well and sauté for another 5 minutes.
7 Remove from flame, garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot!

Number of Servings: 3 LARGE servings

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 159
Fat: 11.3 g
Carbohydrates: 11 g
- Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 5.5 g

Baby Cabbages!

So I might be in the minority here but I love Brussels sprouts. Even when I was a kid, they were a veggie I thoroughly enjoyed.

After dinner, I was still kinda unsatisfied so I made some traditional Brussels sprouts, and am eating them up right now. :)



Ingredients:
Non-stick cooking spray
10-20 Brussels Sprouts (cut in half)
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1 cup vegetable broth
a dash of your favorite all-purpose seasoning (my fave is George Washington brand)

Directions:
Cut the Brussels Sprouts up and coat a non-stick pan with cooking spray.
Throw the sprouts in the pan flat-side down.
Once the spouts start to get a bit darker, throw in the garlic.
Let it all cook up, and the sprouts get all nice and blackened. Toss them around and let them mix in. Add seasoning.
Pour the broth over the sprouts and let it reduce so that there is no liquid left in the pan.

Serve piping hot as a side or as a yummy snack!

Chana Saag (Chickpea Spinach Curry)

This was my first time cooking with mixing so many spices and I was a bit nervous about the outcome but it was great! Next time, I'll probably add more chili powder, as there wasn't much spice, even though I added a dash of paprika. As you may have already figured out, I add paprika to everything! :D Overall, though, the result was great and something I would most likely make again.

This time, instead of quinoa, I served it with couscous, which I just picked up from the Turkish market downstairs.



Ingredients:
1lb fresh spinach
2 15oz. cans of chickpeas (next time, I think I'll use 1 1/2 cans, since the chickpeas were overwhelming)
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. cardamom
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup onions, chopped
1 can of stewed tomatoes in juice, diced
.5 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp chili powder
.5 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. salt

Directions:
1) Rise chickpeas and roughly chop spinach (make sure to clean well)
2) Heat oil over medium heat. Add cardamom and cinnamon and let it cook a minute
3) Increase the heat to medium-high. Add garlic and cook til it starts to change color. Then add onions and sautee until golden.
4) Reduce heat to medium. Add turmeric, coriander, chili powder, garam masala and salt. Mix well, for 1 minute.
5) Add ginger. Stir, then add tomatoes and saute for 3 minutes, until well blended.
6) Add chickpeas. Stir and let cook for 4-5 minutes. Then cover and cook for another 10 minutes, until chickpeas soften.
7) Add half of the spinach, stir and put the lid on the pot for 1 minute. Remove lid and add the other half and cover for a minute.
8) remove the lid and let simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Indian-Spiced Kale with Chickpeas

I stole this recipe from my co-worker's deliciousness blog, and it was sure yummy!

Ingredients:
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch of kale, ribs removed, coarsely chopped
1 cup reduced-sodium vegetable (or other) broth
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed

Directions:
Heat oil in a Dutch oven (or any large pot) over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add kale and cook, tossing with two large spoons, until bright green, about 1 minute.
Add broth, coriander, cumin, garam masala and salt. (I also added a touch of paprika for spice)
Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is tender, 8 to 10 minutes.
Stir in chickpeas; cover and cook until the chickpeas are heated through, 1 to 2 minutes.



I served this with some quinoa and it was utterly delicious. Great as a main dish OR a side!

Portabellas Stuffed With Pesto-Mashed Potatoes

It's been a while since I've updated my blog with any uber yumminess but that's all about to change! I got a new camera that I am in in love with and thus can take even better food pictures for everyone to drool over!

I kinda stole this recipe from Fat-Free Vegan.com and I didn't make much modifications but since it was so delicious and such a perfect side dish, I couldn't help but copy it here to spread the yumminess. This is perfect as a side dish to protein or even by itself! Two of those were my dinner last night.




Ingredients
10 ounces potatoes (I used two white potatoes)
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts (or walnuts)
1 cup basil, packed
1 tbsp. parmesan (or nutritional yeast for vegans)
2-3 tbsp. plain soymilk
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
6 medium-sized portabella mushrooms
sprinkling of parmesan (optional)

Directions:
Boil the potatoes until they are completely tender.
While they are cooking, make the pesto:
In a food processor, puree the garlic, 1/4 cup nuts, and basil, using a tablespoon or two of water to make the blades run smoothly.
Mixture should be coarsely chopped, not completely smooth.
When the potatoes are done, remove them to a mixing bowl and mash them thoroughly (I left the skin on them but if that sorta thing isn't your bag, feel free to peel them beforehand).
Add 2-3 tablespoons of soymilk, until they achieve a creamy yet still stiff consistency.
Add the pesto mixture, 1 tablespoon of parmesan or nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper to taste; blend thoroughly.

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Clean the portabellas and remove the stem and any fluffy flesh that surrounds it.
Brush a baking dish with a few drops of olive oil, and use the same brush to brush the bottoms of the mushrooms.
Fill the mushrooms with the potato mixture, heaping it in the middle, and set them in the baking dish.
Sprinkle the tops with the parmesan, if desired.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until mushrooms are tender and potatoes are beginning to brown. Serve hot.

Fat-Free Vegan Strawberry Banana Muffins

I've been updating this blog like a mad woman!

Today I decided to make fat-free vegan muffins that sounded super delicious. The recipe was actually posted by another chikkie in the vegan cooking community on Livejournal. I decided to give it a go since the recipe was super simple and well...yum! I'm SO glad I did!



Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. soymilk
1 tsp. vanilla
15 or so strawberries, chopped.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. "Cream" together bananas and sugar. Mix together dry ingredients and add, then blend in soy milk and vanilla. Make sure it's well mixed, then quickly stir in the strawberries (the more you stir once they're in, the more squished-up they get). Grease muffin tins, and spoon in. This made 12 large muffins for me. Bake 25-20 minutes.

These muffins are about 170 calories a pop and super delicious! Even my vegan-food hating boyfriend liked them!

Low-Calorie Tofu Alfredo Sauce

Today, I decided to make something healthy yet satisfying for dinner. Since I haven't been shopping in a while, I had to try to make something using the bare ingredients I had on hand, so I experimented and made tofu alfredo sauce...which came out rather...odd. I'm going to post the recipe I made with suggestions for improvement in parentheses. This is what happens when you try to make alfredo without cheese. :/

Ingredients:
- 1 package of Soft Silken Tofu (no problems there)
- 1 cup of vegetable broth. (I used garden vegetable broth which gave the sauce a orangey hue and I would recommend using plain old veggie broth here. Also, I would probably only use 3/4 cup since the sauce was a little thin)
- 3 tablespoons "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter - Light" (again, no problems)
- 1/5 cup garlic powder (No! No! No! - I only used it because I had no Parmesan cheese. Next time, I'd definitely fry up some cloves and wait until I had Parmesan to make this).
- 2 wedges of Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese

- 1 box of Rigatoni pasta (or whatever kind you enjoy)
- 1 box of frozen broccoli florets



Directions:
1) Cook the pasta and defrost the broccoli.
2) While both are cooking, combine all the other ingredients in a blender and mix well, until a creamy sauce is formed.



3) Transfer the sauce into a medium sized pot and heat to pour over pasta and broccoli.



It was edible at first but I did not want to finish it. This is a recipe I definitely have to play around with a bit more. Once I have my Parmesan, I will try again. After all, it would be amazing to find an alternative to the fatty original Alfredo sauce. To be continued!