Vegan Cabbage Stew for St. Paddy's

My mom would make Corned Beef and Cabbage Stew every St. Patrick's. Per-usual I switched it vegan style, my Irish ancestors are rolling over in their graves.

Serves 8
45 minutes

Sunflower oil or vegetable oil
1 Yellow onion, diced
4 cups Vegetable broth
Pickling Spices
6 Carrots, diced
3-4 Russet potatoes, cubed
Salt & Black pepper to taste
1 medium head of Cabbage, cubed
2 Navy beans, rinsed and drained

Pickling spices
1/4 tsp of the following
Mustard seed
All spice
Coriander seeds
Cloves
Ground ginger
Red pepper flakes
Cinnamon
Cardamom
1 Bay leaf

1. In large pot add oil and brown diced onion, set aside. Add carrots, spices and broth to pot, heat through, add potatoes heat through.
2. Add plenty of salt, the Irish love their salt, oh yeah and pepper too. Add onions and cabbage and enough hot water to cover all ingredients, once heated add beans, heat through.
3.Served with Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Cornbread made vegan style (Ener-G egg replacer) and a nice black lager (not gluten-fee, sorry)

Happy St. Paddy's!

Parsnip and Apple Soup

This one is sweet, savory, simple and perfect for lunch on a chilly day.

Serves 4-6
30 minutes

1/2 cup Apple cider
1/2 cup Almond milk
3 cups Vegetable broth
5 Large parsnips, chopped
2 Shallots, chopped
2 Leeks, white parts only, chopped
3 Fuji (or Gala) peeled, cored, chopped
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
Pinch Cardamom
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
Chives for garnish

1. In a large pot add cider, milk and broth. Bring to boil, add veggies and cook for 15 minutes.
2. Puree soup with spices with hand blender or with a regular blender in batches. Serve with chives on top.

Original recipe from Sunset

Two Tone Soup

We've been having hurricane like weather here in San Francisco. Perfect weather to stay in my pj's, fix a nice bowl of comfort soup and watch a marathon of my favorite shows. Unfortunately, I have a job and responsibilities. Here's to dreamin'

Serves 2
45 minutes

Broccoli Lentil
2 cups Broccoli, chopped
1/2 Onion, diced
1/2 cup Green lentils
1 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Chili powder
1 Tbsp Better Than Bouillon (or a GF Bouillon cube)

Roasted Pepper
1 Red bell pepper, roasted
1/2 cup Tomato sauce
1 Tbsp Tahini
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1/4 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
Black Pepper to taste

1. Turn oven to 350 degrees. Wrap your red bell pepper in aluminum foil, add about a tablespoon of water, roast in oven for 20 minutes.
2. In a big pot add about a tablespoon of olive oil, once heated add your diced onion, you're making your broccoli lentil, if that wasn't obvious. When they get all soft and start to brown, add your lentils, cumin and chili powder. After a few minutes add 2 cups of water, broccoli and bouillon. Cook till lentils are soft, about 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, gut and chop up your roasted pepper (after it has cooled of course), add it to food processor along with all your other roasted pepper ingredients. Process then pour into a clean pot and heat through.
4. Once your broccoli lentil soup is cooked through, put it in your food processor and process.
5. Have some fun with how you put them in your bowl! I got the above look by filling the bowl 3/4 way with broccoli lentil then, I pressed the bottom of a big ladle full of roasted pepper into the middle (so that the top of both soups are level with each other) and slowly rotated the ladle upside down. I hope that makes sense. I used blue corn tortilla chips to garnish.

Original recipe from VeganYumYum

Hot Pot

I got knocked off my feet by a killer cold this week and spent the last four days in bed, getting up only to do the most minimal of human functions, one of which is eating. My boyfriend, bless his heart, made me as many bowls of soup as I wanted. Unfortunately, they all came from cans. Nothing will motivate you more to get better and back in the kitchen than four days of canned soup. First thing I made, soup. Duh.

Serves 4
45 minutes

4 cups Vegetable broth
1 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Tbsp Sesame oil
1 Red onion, diced
1 Red bell pepper, diced
3 Garlic cloves
2 Tbsp Lemongrass, minced
1 Tbsp Ginger, minced
1/2 tsp Red chili pepper flakes (more, depending on how congested you are)
2 Star anise
1/4 tsp Ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp Tamari sauce (soy sauce if you're okay with Gluten)
1 Tomato, chopped
1/2 oz Fresh shiitake mushrooms, chopped
Salt and Pepper
15 oz can Coconut milk
1/2 Lime, juiced

Optional: cooked rice, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, cashews, basil, cilantro, snow peas, water chestnuts, really just about anything you have left over in your frigidaire. Remember to add them in at the appropriate time. I hope I didn't jinx you by saying that.

1. Put a big soup pot on medium-high heat with your sesame oil in the bottom. Saute your onion and pepper with a pinch of salt for a few minutes. Add garlic, lemon grass, ginger and chili flakes.
2. Take a cup of your veggie broth and mix in cornstarch to dissolve than add to saute, along with the remaining veggie broth. Add star anise, cinnamon, tamari, black pepper and simmer for about 10 minutes.
3. Add in shittake and tomatoes, countiue to simmer for another 20 minutes. Add coconut milk, lime, heat and serve.

Sometimes I'd be making a shopping list for a new recipes and come across something I had never seen/used/heard of before. I would methodically search produce shelves for labels and look for what I had imagined the said vegetable would look like (i.e. Leek: I bet it looks like a beet, yeah, totally a beet-esque vegetable) When I wised up a bit I'd print pictures to take with me.

Shiitake mushrooms, lemongrass (the riding crop lookin thing) and bok choy. 

I hope I saved you some research.

Original recipe from The PPK

Stupid Hearty Corn Chowda' (+Broccoli)

As I stated in a previous post, I've got my eyes on the prize for another awesome Thanksgiving meal. One dish I have yet to recreate is my mothers amazing Corn Souffle but seeing as how it calls for every animal product plus corn, the idea of recreating it has been intimidating. I figured I would take a step back before approaching this one. My step back being Corn Chowda'. I threw in some broccoli because there's no such thing as too many vegetables.

Serves 8
30 minutes

1 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 White onion, finely chopped
1 Bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
8 Red potatoes, some diced, some chopped
2 Stocks celery, diced
3 Carrots, diced
1 Head broccoli, finely chopped
2 Bay leaves, broken
8 cups Vegetable broth
3 Tbsp Better Than Bouillon, No Chicken Base
1 cup Cashews, soaked 8 hours in water (I wont lie, I spaced this and soaked them for an hour and lived to tell the tale)
1/3 cup Cornstarch
3 cups Fresh or frozen white & yellow corn
Pepper to taste

1. Heat a big ol' pot with EVOO in the bottom. Saute onions for a minute or so, than add the rest of your chopped veggies plus bay leaf pieces, saute for about 5 minutes.
2. Add 6 cups of your broth and than your bouillon.
3. In the meantime do two things: First, add cashews (minus water) and 1 cup of veggie broth into processor and process till smooth. Second, add cornstarch into your last remaining cup of veggie broth and mix.
4. Once taters are tender, add cashew blend, corn starch blend, corn and pepper, bring to a nice hot temperature again.
5. Eat. Watch out for bay leaves.

Original recipe from Cheeky Kitchen
My Asshole Diet