Vegan | Eat Your Heart Out

Black Bean Soup

November 12, 2012 by Stephie 13 Comments

When I had my first year anniversary, I asked everyone what you would like to see more of in the next year. While a lot of you said that you wanted more desserts and baked goods (I think I have already made good on that promise, no?), there were a lot of you who also wanted to see more healthy meals – especially soups – that could be frozen and reheated for quick and easy weeknight dinners. This black bean soup is a response to that request.

This is a healthy soup I can get behind. Yes, it’s vegan. It’s also dairy-free, gluten-free and low in fat. But that doesn’t mean we have sacrificed any flavor (you know I would never ask that of you!). It’s really just a bonus that this soup freezes well, making it perfect for reheating during the week. Serve it on its own, or alongside some cornbread for a truly comforting cold-weather meal.

{And since the soup is so good for you, that means you can have extra cornbread…right?)

Recipe adapted from Whole Foods.

Black Bean Soup

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

1 pound dried black beans
2 medium onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 quarts vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste
Optional garnishes: Diced avocado; sour cream or yogurt; salsa

Instructions

Place the beans in a bowl and cover with water. Allow to soak 6-8 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse prior to cooking.
In a large dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic and red pepper, sauteing until onions are translucent and just beginning to turn brown. Add cumin and chili powder, stirring to combine.
Add the beans, vegetable stock and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, the lower to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 1½ to 2 hours, until beans are tender.
Remove bay leaves. Place 4 cups of the soup in a blender, pureeing until until mostly smooth. Return to the pot with the remaining soup, and add nutritional yeast and lime juice. Salt to taste. (Add a bit more chili powder if you would like more spice.) Serve warm with optional garnishes.
Will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for 4 days or in the freezer for 3 months.

Notes

Nutritional yeast – a popular substitute for cheese among vegans that is full of protein and B-complex vitamins – can be found in health food stores or specialty/natural food stores (such as Whole Foods).

Filed Under: Main dish, Side dishes, Soups Tagged With: beans, dairy-free, Fall, Gluten-free, Healthy, Main dish, Side dish, Soup, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, winter

Texas Cranberry Chutney

November 5, 2012 by Stephie 10 Comments

Guys. It’s that time of year again.

It’s time to start thinking about your Thanksgiving menu.

Dun dun dunnnnnnnn…

Ok, I know that, logically, Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away. But trust me, that time is going to fly by and the holiday will be here before we know it! And if you start planning your menus bit by bit now, you will be amazed at how much less stressed and overwhelmed you will feel the week of Thanksgiving.

I used to give a similar speech to my college roommates regarding why I always started research papers early. They all gave me the blank stares I feel like you’re giving your computer screens now.

So we’ll start off small. No turkey recipes, not even a major side dish. We’ll start with a cranberry recipe…just to ease you into the swing of things.

This is my aunt’s famous cranberry chutney recipe, which I have altered ever-so-slightly (her’s uses canned cranberry sauce as the base, but I found that it really only takes about 5 extra minutes and minimal effort to start with a base of fresh cranberries – and think of the preservatives that we are cutting out! Holla!). My dad and uncle literally INHALE this stuff every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Forget just putting it on turkey…they eat it with ham, with pork, on leftover turkey sandwiches, by the spoonful…truly, my aunt can never make enough of it to keep them happy. And the best part? Not only is it a snap to prepare, but it gets better the longer it sets, which means that you are better off making it the day before and crossing one more thing off of your Thanksgiving Day to-do list.

And since it is a little tart, a little sweet and a little spicy, it is sure to please everyone’s varying taste buds.

And I think that’s something for which we can all be thankful.

Texas Cranberry Chutney

Ingredients

12 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup water
1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
1-2 jalapeños, seeded and minced
3 chopped green onions

Instructions

Using a fine mesh strainer, thoroughly drain the pineapple and pat dry with paper towels. Set aside.
In a saucepan, combine cranberries, water and granulated sugar over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium and allow to cook for about 5 minutes, until the cranberries are starting to break down.
Stir in the pineapple, brown sugar, ginger and salt. Return to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. (At this point, you may want to taste the sauce for tartness – if it is too tart, add 1 to 2 more tablespoons of granulated sugar.)
Remove from heat, add jalapeño (or jalapeños, depending on how hot you want your chutney to be) and green onions. Cover and allow to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, though overnight is best.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: Cranberries, Gluten-free, Holidays, Quick and easy, Vegan, Vegetarian

Southwestern Style Veggie Burgers

September 24, 2012 by Stephie 7 Comments

Umm…is it Friday yet?

No? Well, shoot.

I have to make a confession to you: Lately, my weekday meals have been a little on the sad side.

Now, weekends are a different story. Weekends have become my time to work on recipes for the blog, which means that I eat pretty well on Saturday and Sunday.

But during the week? Not so much.

I think a lot of it has to do with my new job. Don’t get me wrong – I love this job more than I even thought possible. But I have been working my @$$ off, and with a variety of other things happening in the evenings, I’m exhausted by the time I get home. I’m lucky to bother doing anything aside from collasping in bed, much less making a balanced meal for just myself.

So I’ve been trying to come up with things that I can make over the weekends and then either freeze for later or eat throughout the week. Chicken and noodles were an option recently. And last week I decided to give these Southwestern Style Veggie Burgers a try.

This recipe makes 8 decent-sized burgers, which means that there is enough to eat and put into the freezer for later meals. Just cook ‘em, let ‘em cool, and wrap ‘em up. Then just let ‘em thaw before reheating in a skillet. Easy. And quick…just what I’m looking for these days!

And hey…remember that taco seasoning from last week?

Yep, that’s totally going in these bad boys.

Adapted from Edible Perspective

Southwestern Style Veggie Burgers

Yield: 8 burgers

Ingredients

1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 cups cubed sweet potatoes (skin on), cooked
½ cup fresh or frozen corn
½ cup finely chopped onion
1 4-ounce can green chilis
½ cup cooked quinoa
6 tablespoons rolled oats
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
½ teaspoon salt
1 heaping tablespoon taco seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line a large sheet pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mash half of the black beans completely. Add in the remainder of the beans, lightly mashing just to combined (less than half of the beans should be left whole).
In a large bowl, mash the cooked sweet potato until each piece is mashed, but the mixture is not creamy.
In a food processor, pulse the rolled oats several times until the oats are mostly ground – you are looking for some of the mixture to be a flour consistency, while the rest is small pieces of oats.
Add the onion, green chilis, corn, black beans, quinoa, flaxseed, ground oats, salt, taco seasoning and olive oil to the sweet potatoes, mixing until just combined. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and/or taco seasoning as needed.
Using a ½-cup measuring cup, portion the mixture into 8 balls. Flatten the balls into ½-inch thick patties, placing them on the prepared sheet pan.
Bake for 30 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes.
Serve warm with your favorite fixings!

Notes

To refrigerate or freeze burgers: Place on a cooling rack to cool completely. Store burgers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days; alternatively, wrap individual burgers first in plastic wrap, then in foil, and place in a zip-top bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat, allow frozen burgers to thaw completely. Head in a lightly greased pan over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes per side, or until heated through.

Filed Under: Main dish, Sandwiches Tagged With: Allergy friendly, beans, Gluten-free, Healthy, Main dish, Oats, Quinoa, Sandwich, sweet potatoes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Fig Butter

August 20, 2012 by Stephie 11 Comments

A couple of weeks ago two of my best friends moved to Miami, Florida.

In between what Erin likes to refer to as the “daily monsoons”, it is apparently balls hot there. Meanwhile, as soon as they left Chicago, it dropped from 90+ degrees every day to mid-70s.

In other words: As soon as my friends moved to where it is summer year-round, it became fall here. I’m not complaining.

With the advent of being able to sleep with my windows open and straighten my hair again came the desire for fall flavors. While I am perhaps not to the pumpkin stage yet – although we all know how I prefer sweet potatoes to pumpkin anyway – and am still a couple of weeks away from being able to bust out the apple recipes, I was definitely craving something akin to apple butter the other day.

Enter: Fig butter.

This stuff is easy to make (is anyone else noticing that I’m on an easy recipe kick lately?). It requires essentially no effort or active time from you. Soak, simmer, puree, chill. Done.

So what are we going to do with our fig butter? First, put it on a piece of toast. Next…well, you’ll find that out later this week. But I will tell you this: it’s ridiculously easy, too.

Someday I’ll stop being lazy. Maybe.

Just kidding.

Fig Butter

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

1 cup dried figs (about 6 ounces), stems removed

1 1/2 cups pressed apple juice

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon triple sec (optional, though highly recommended – you could also substitute the same amount of orange juice)

Place figs in a medium sauce pot. Cover with apple juice; allow to soak for 15 minutes.

Add sugar and triple sec; stir to combine. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Puree mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth. The butter may seem a little runny at first, but once it chills it will thicken up considerably.

Fig butter will last, in an airtight container in the refrigerator, for at least a week, probably closer to 10 days.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: Breakfast, Figs, Fruit, Gluten-free, Jams and spreads, Quick and easy, Vegan

Potato Salad with Dijon and Green Beans

July 30, 2012 by Stephie 6 Comments

Can we just talk for a minute about how much I love the Olympics?

Now, I am in no way, shape, or form an athlete. I’m not even particularly coordinated. In fact, outside of the Olympics, I never watch sports. Of any kind. They’re just not my thing.

But during the Olympics? I will watch just about anything. Even the less exciting events, such as the marathon or the bike races, are great to have on in the background while you are doing something else.

And while I enjoy watching the big medal events and seeing athletes from my country succeed, what I really love about the Olympics are the underdogs. During the opening ceremony’s parade of nations, I absolutely love seeing nations who have just a handful of athletes, have never won a medal and honestly, probably have a snowball’s chance in hell at winning this time. And yet…just look at the faces of their athletes. They aren’t preoccupied with how many medals they are going to get, or whether they will be named the “best Olympian of all time” – they are just so happy to be there, and so proud to be representing their country. That is what I love. That is what I really think the Olympics should be about. Sure, winning is great, and it is a wonderful honor to bring home that medal for your country, but let’s not forget that it is an honor just to be there and to take part in an event that brings the world together in a way that no other event is yet to do.

Hmm. I’ll step off my soapbox now and talk about potato salad now.

This is a mayo-free potato salad. I made this for a couple of reasons: There are a lot of people in this world who are vehemently anti-mayo, and when it is hot as hell outside, you certainly don’t want to be taking a mayo-based potato salad to a picnic or outdoor get-together. That is just asking for something gross to happen. This is a potato salad that everyone can like that won’t try to kill you if you leave it out in the heat.

And the fact that the fresh green beans and sweet corn give it a nutritional boost lacking in a lot of potato salads? That’s just a bonus.

Potato Salad with Dijon and Green Beans

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds red or Yukon gold potatoes
1 pound fresh green beans
2 ears sweet corn, cooked
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper

Instructions

Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 15-25 minutes, or until a paring knife can be easily inserted into the center of the potatoes. Drain and allow to cool. Cut cooked potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Set aside.
Trim the ends from the green beans and cut into 1-inch pieces. Bring a pot of water to a boil; add the green beans and blanch for 2-3 minutes. Remove from boiling water and immediately place in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.
Cut the cooked corn from the cob. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, Dijon, olive oil, salt and several grinds of black pepper. In a large bowl, toss together the potatoes, green beans and corn with the dressing. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as needed. Chill for several hours or overnight. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Salad will keep, covered in the refrigerator, for 3 days.