VeganMoFo Day 5: Saucy Chickpeas and Broccoli

Have you ever made Isa's Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan With a Vengeance? It's amazing. My only advice: double the recipe. A single recipe is never enough because I end up eating most of it before I even serve dinner because I keep tasting and tasting. No, it doesn't need anything. I just keep tasting because it's delicious.

This dish is pretty similar. I wanted to keep the same sort of flavor as the gravy, but I wanted to make it heartier. Gravy doesn't feel like a meal. I still always feel like I need a seitan roast or something in addition. But I didn't want that. I wanted a good stew-type meal with whole beans and some veggies, so I tweaked the recipe a little and came up with this.

Saucy Chickpeas and Broccoli

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoon olive oil

4 cloves raw or roasted garlic

1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

1 cup chopped broccoli
1 can (1 1/2 cups) chickpeas

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon dried rosemary 

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

4 fresh sage leaves

1 cup water

2 teaspoons flour
2 Tablespoons soy sauce 

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

Heat the onion and olive oil in a cast iron skillet until the onion is soft and translucent. Add garlic and mustard seeds and cook until the mustard seeds are lightly toasted. Add broccoli, chickpeas, spices, and herbs. Cook until chickpeas and broccoli are browned a bit. Meanwhile, mix water, flour, soy sauce, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Add to the skillet when ready and let it cook for a little while until the sauce thickens. Mix in the nutritional yeast and serve over potatoes. Nomz.

Refined kitties must always use forks.

VeganMoFo Day 4: Totchos

Sometimes you just need something quick and tasty. Sometimes you need to eat hot fresh food but don't have much time. Sometimes you need to satisfy your nacho craving but don't have tortilla chips. Sometimes you need tater tots. And it will be okay. Because you have totchos.

What are totchos, you ask? Tater Tots + Nachos = Totchos. Yes, totchos combine the potatoey goodness of tots with the melty cheesy goodness of nachos. Sure you can do your basic totchos with some salsa and daiya melted over the top. Or you can put lots of stuff on top! pretty much anything you'd put on a taco would be delicious here, but here's what I did:

I promise there are beans in there, they're just hiding under the ooey gooey daiya.

Totchos
1 Package Tater Tots
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, diced
a couple of handfuls of frozen spinach
1 (15-oz) can black beans
taco seasoning to taste
salsa
daiya cheese, pepper jack flavor (or whatever vegan you like best)

1 scallion, chopped

1 avocado, cut into small cubes

Start cooking tater tots according to package directions.
When the tots have about 10 minutes left, heat the olive oil in a medium-sized skillet. Add the onion, pepper, spinach, beans, and taco seasoning to taste. Cook 5-10 minutes or until everything is hot and the flavors have come together.
Take the tater tots out of the oven and transfer however many you want to a bowl or plate. Top with bean mixture, salsa and cheese (you might need to pop it in the microwave for a few minutes if the heat of the beans isn't enough to get the cheese melted). Sprinkle scallion and avocado on top just before eating.

VeganMoFo Day 3: Red Rice and Beans

Hey everyone! VeganMoFo has taken off to a great start. I'm loving all the posts I've been seeing. You all are awesome! Today I have a really quick and easy recipe for you all. This is one of those recipes you can switch up in all sorts of ways and it'll still be delicious--use black beans instead of red, add broccoli, replace lime juice with lemon etc. It's delish, I promise.

Red Rice and Beans


2 teaspoons olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 red pepper, diced

1 (15-oz) can or 1½ cups small red beans or black beans

2 cups cooked rice

1 Tablespoon chili powder (reduce if you don’t like it spicy)

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon cumin

1 Tablespoon lime juice

¼ cup cilantro, chopped

1cup tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste

In a cast-iron skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the garlic is lightly browned. Add the pepper and beans and turn the heat down a little. Cook for about 5 minutes and then stir in the rice. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until the pepper is tender and the beans are a little browned and crispy on the outside. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for another 5 minutes to let the flavors come together. Done!

I didn't get a picture of Butch with the rice and beans, but here's a picture of him excited about one of our CSA shares!

VeganMofo Day 2: Cooking and Freezing Dried Beans

I like to keep beans on hand in every form. Canned beans are cheap enough and great for convenience. I try to always keep a couple of cans of beans on hand for quick last-minute meals. But when I'm trying to save money, it's dried beans all the way. I used to hardly ever make dried beans because the cooking and preparation time was so long and I rarely plan my meals that far ahead. But then I learned that it's possible to have the best of both worlds! I started cooking dried beans ahead of time and freezing can-sized portions in plastic bags. Now, whenever I want to make something that calls for a can of beans, I just pull a bag out of the freezer. Easy!

How to Cook and Freeze Dried Beans

There are a ton of different methods for cooking dried beans: from baking to using a pressure cooker, soaking or not soaking, adding things to the water, etc. I'm a fan of the basic method of soaking and simmering beans on their own. I think they taste best this way and I heard it's one of the best methods for reducing the gassiness of beans.

Step 1: Put your dried beans in a large container. The pot you plan on cooking them in is great, since it's only one thing to wash, but you can use any sort of container that can hold beans and water and has enough space to let the beans double at least. Fill your container of beans with enough of water to come several inches above bean level and set aside. Let them soak overnight for 8 hours or so (mine always end up soaking longer because I usually start them soaking in the evening and don't get to them until the next evening.

Have your cat help for this step.

The large mason jar was big enough for the chickpeas, but there were the white beans took up more than half of the jar to begin with, so I transferred them to a large bowl.

Step 2: After soaking, dump the beans into a strainer and give them a good rinse.

Step 3: Put the beans in a large pot and cover them with fresh water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until tender. Cooking time varies depending on the type of bean. Here's a chart of estimated times I found online:

If you're anything like me, you'll just set the beans to cook and forget to set a timer and just keep poking the beans every once in a while until they're almost done and you say "okay, they should be done in 5 more minutes" and then 45 minutes later you return to find them overdone and a bit mushy.

Step 4: When they are perfectly tender (or slightly mushy in my case), drain the beans and let them cool.

Step 5: Measure out 1 1/2 cups of beans per sandwich bag and stick 'em in the freezer. Done!

1 bag = 1 can of beans

Welcome to VeganMoFo VI!!

It's time for the 6th annual VeganMofo! I've been reading some ideas people are throwing about on the PPK and getting super excited. There will be some fantastic themes this year. I can't wait to see the wonderful things that everyone comes up with.

 My theme for the month will be beans (or legumes in general). I've been trying to keep food spending to a minimum lately and beans are one of the easiest ways to do that. Just a dollar worth of dried beans can yeild about 5 servings! And they're super healthy--packed with protein, fiber, complex carbohydrates, iron, etc. So cheap and so good for you--what more can you ask for?
I may be straying from legumes and doing a little bit of whatever from time to time because there are some things I plan on making this month that don't include beans. but I promise they'll be fantastic.
Tomorrow, we'll go over some of the basic methods of cooking dried beans and then we'll get started with all the recipes!

And remember the kitty who appeared in nearly every post last year?

Here he is now, all growed up:

 

Don't worry, he'll be making regular appearances on my blog again this year!