vegan

You are currently browsing articles tagged vegan.

Vegan Joe’s

March 2, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 11 comments

One of the things I have been focusing on while recovering from my flu, especially now that I can eat, is replenishing my body with whole foods. Having seen a few vegan Sloppy Joe recipes around the blog world. including Veganomicon’s Snobby Joe recipe, and with an abundance of dried lentils and beans in the house, I decided to bust out the slow cooker for my own version of  a Sloppy Joe.

Working from home is amazing. I was able to start my recipe out by soaking two cups each of yellow lentils and black beans two times before actually starting them in the slow cooker.

black beans and lentils

While they soaked the second time, I mixed up a flavorful sauce that included 1/4 cup organic maple syrup, a tablespoon mustard, and a can of tomato paste.

maple syrup, tomato paste, mustard

I also pureed 1/2 a Vidalia onion, two habanero peppers, and four cloves of garlic into a nice paste.

onions, habaneros, garlic

When it was time to get cookin’ I threw all of the ingredients in my slow cooker. The beans and lentils were added to a few cups of water, plus the sauce and veggies. I mixed it thoroughly, then put the lid on and cooked on high for four hours, checking to make sure there was enough liquid to soften the lentils and the beans.

vegan sloppy joe

Before I left for a night of fun blogger events, I put the slow cooker on warm and left whole wheat rolls next to it for my hubby. I also left instructions that there was potato salad and cabbage slaw in the fridge; the slaw recipe is amazing, and I will be able to share it in a few weeks when it is launched in a new recipe app.

I decided to forego the roll when I got home, eating two bowls of the Sloppy Joe with the spicy slaw. The contrast between cold and warm, crunchy and soft, spicy and somewhat sweet was perfection. Though not at all fancy or complicated, this meal really “got” me. I could eat it again and again.

vegan sloppy Joe's

So I had another bowl Smile

As foodies I am sure we all feel the pressure to eat really interesting things at times. What is your favorite super simple dish?

Tags: beans, cabbage slaw, easy recipe, lentils, recipe, sloppy joe, slow cooker, snobby joes, vegan, veganomicon, vegetables, Vegetarian

Warm Tabouli Salad

January 20, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 12 comments

As is the case with many healthy eaters, salads make up a large part of my diet. I have been known to have salads, with various veggie, bean, meat, and cheese toppings twice a day. But as I know many of you have found, eating salads in the winter is more difficult due to lack of local produce and salad’s general lack of warmth and comfort. Since we had yet another snow day this week, I decided to make a hearty lunch salad for my husband, who had spent over three hours in the car trying to get to his office, only to end up turning back home because of the icy roads.

I started by thawing out some frozen yellow and orange carrots from Trader Joe’s. On the particular day I bought these, TJ’s had icky looking produce. I am not sure what was up that day, but nevertheless, I went straight for the freezer.

yellow and orange carrots

The base of the salad was a Near East tabouli bulgur wheat salad mix. I prepared the bulgur wheat and spice packet according to the box directions, then set it aside.

tabbouleh ingredients

image

While the tabouli waited, I diced a small yellow onion and grated several teaspoons of ginger.

cumin

I added a palm full of cumin to the onion and ginger mixture, then sautéed it in olive oil. I added the carrots to the onions in the pan, then tossed in some pre-soaked and partially cooked chickpeas.

chickpeas

When the carrots were warm and the pan sizzling, I added the tabouli mixture along with about 1/4 cup of water, stirred well, and let it all simmer.

warm tabbouleh salad

When everything was well-blended and cooked through, I served up the salad topped with crumbled goat cheese and golden raisins. I am loving these raisins and the sweet punch they bring to dishes with lots of spices.

goat cheese and raisins

As you can imagine, this dish was bursting with different flavors and textures. The hearty bulgur wheat was nice and chewy and provided a great canvas for the other ingredients. While I didn’t make the tabouli mix in a traditional manner, I loved this dish and felt like it really gave me energy which I seem to be lacking these days.

I am starting to feel a serious winter slump. As much as I love the possibilities my new career path could provide, being stuck inside all day with dreadful weather and icy sidewalks is bringing me down.

Any advice for kicking the winter blues?

Tags: carrots, chickpeas, cooking, ginger, health, healthy, healthy eating, recipe, recipe. tabouli, recipes, vegan, Vegetarian, winter cooking, winter recipes, winter salad

Butternut Apple Soup

November 11, 2010 in recipe by traveleatlove | 14 comments

Brrrr! Winter seems to have arrived early here in Boston, and the transition from California has been a jarring one. To fend off further illness, warm up, and to add some much-needed nutrition to our diets, I spent yesterday cooking.

The morning was spent on bread, made from the King Arthur Flour Brown Sugar Cinnamon Yeast Bread Mix while listening to Christmas songs. As I have mentioned, I am supposed to be spending November on a hiatus from work or job-hunting, but relaxing is not easy for me and while I have had some great days off, I was starting to get a little antsy about the future yesterday. However, while kneading the bread dough in a quiet house next to a warm oven with music on in the background, I kind of “got” what this rare time is about. It was a nice moment of letting go, and I felt energized for the first time in a long time.

Inspired by Tyler Florence’s Butternut Squash and Apple Soup from the Foodbuzz Festival Tasting Pavilion and the withering apples we bought before we left, I headed to the store for ingredients to make my own version of the soup.

1 large butternut squash, 1 large fennel bulb, 2 yellow onions, 4 apples

butternut squash, apples, fennel

I sliced the butternut squash, onions, and apples, and placed them in the oven at 450.

butternut squash, apples

Then I washed the outside of the fennel bulb, chopped off the tops, and sliced it into thin strips. I soaked the strips in a pot of cold water to get any of the sandy soil off. I also ate about 1/4 of the fennel raw. I can not get enough of it’s refreshing crunch!

fennel

I sautéed the fennel in a bit of olive oil and tossed in a chopped habanero, seeds and all. Trust me, once everything goes in it won’t be very spicy at all. It just adds balance to the sweetness of the rest of the ingredients.

fennel, habanero

I roasted the onions until browned around the edges and very soft.

roasted onion

And the apples a little too long! They were fine, but the lovely juice I had hoped to use in the soup turned into caramel.

roasted apples

Once everything was roasted, I added it to the pot with the fennel and habanero and poured in a container of Trader Joe’s Organic Veggie Broth.

soup ingredients

As it bubbled away, I used my immersion blender (LOVE) to make it nice and smooth.

The soup simmered for a couple of hours, and when it came to serve it, I added a creamy touch, Crème Fraiche with curry.

Vermont Creme Fraiche

Other than the Crème Fraiche, this recipe is vegan, and it packs a flavorful punch that vegans and meat-eaters alike would love.

butternut squash soup

And it provided a dose of healthy, seasonal produce that we so desperately needed!

I am going to try to attend a yoga class and to go for a walk today. I need to start marathon training, but after being sick for so long, I think it’s smart to walk before I run!

Any tips for letting go and tuning out for this high-strung blogger? Confused smile

Tags: apple, butternut squash, fennel, Food, recipe, soup, vegan, Vegetarian

« Older entries § Newer entries »

new restaurant
WordPress SEO fine-tune by Meta SEO Pack from Poradnik Webmastera