Category: Meatless/Veg*n

Meatless/Veg*n – Savory recipes which do not contain any meat or which may fall into either the vegetarian (no meat or fish) or vegan (no animal products of any kind) categories. Dishes generally feature beans or vegetables as the central ingredients. We will not be putting baked goods and desserts in this category, although most of our baking will be vegan (and will be tagged as such). These recipes will not contain dairy, eggs, gluten, wheat or hazelnuts. If we use a top 8 allergen, we will use a tag warning of its use.

Crispy Cereal Bars (gluten-free, vegan, contains tree nuts)
Crispy Cereal Bars

THIS IS NOT HEALTH FOOD.

I know that most of you know that granola bars have an unearned reputation as magically healthy. Like most things, they have some benefits, some downsides, and it all depends on a) what goes in them and b) how you define “healthy.” I’m not focused on healthy here, though, so if that’s why you want a granola bar, move on. It also has tree nuts and almonds, so apologies to the nut allergic people out there.

What I wanted was something like the granola bars of my later childhood — something that’s basically a candy bar, but with a certain crunch and an airy mouthfeel — plus, dipped in chocolate. Just because. I’m not going to try to explain random cravings; I just cook them. We occasionally had these instead of cookies in our packed lunches, and for some reason, they remind me of this time of year — summer isn’t here, but you know it’s coming.

I started this recipe off to use up a box of Environkidz Chocolate Koala Crisp. (Link informational, not affiliate). I am not a big cereal eater, but I go through phases where I like to eat it as a snack — this wasn’t the right texture or size for that, so it had been sitting on my shelf for a bit. But it was perfect for the main filler in this snack bar — it’s crunchy, airy, and just a bit chocolatey. Any crunchy cereal in small bits will work, so whatever is safe for you, buy that. I would consider using the Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal, (again, not an affiliate link) as that’s what I generally buy when I want actual cold cereal. But I’ve only made this with Koala Crisp, as I wanted to use that up, and I’d consider buying it again to make these bars.

To the cereal, I added a bunch of trail mix staples — coconut, almonds, and dried cherries. (Note: dried cranberries or raisins work better, as they are smaller and don’t mess up the overall texture. But I just like dried cherries better.) As an adult, I wanted a little more variety of taste and texture than the kiddy granola bar I remember (but still with chocolate on). Make a sticky sauce (this is messy, I know. Sorry. It works.) and then add chocolate. Ka-blam. Childhood snack. Maybe healthier, maybe not, but it’s safe for me.

Crispy Cereal Bars — first without chocolate, then with, then sliced

Cereal Snack Bars

NOTE: dried shredded coconut appears on the ingredients list TWICE. This is not a mistake. I just find it less confusing to list it twice than tell you you need x amount, divided. This is not the sweetened coconut flakes — you could try that, but I think it would be too sweet. This is just pure dried/dessicated shredded coconut, which is wonderful.
- 1 cup crispy cereal
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup smallish dried fruit (I used cherries)
- 1/4 cup thinly-sliced almonds (could also use chopped, but not whole — they won’t blend in)
- 3 dates, pitted (about 50g)
- 2 Tablespoons shredded coconut
- 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
- 4 Tablespoons brown rice syrup
- 1 cup chocolate chips (brand that’s safe for you)
Prepare an 8×8 inch baking pan by cutting a sheet of parchment that will fit in it. Don’t worry about being exact — just make sure you have enough to cover the bottom and sides when it’s filled.

Mix the dry ingredients (cereal, coconut, dried fruit, almonds) in a bowl.

In a food processor, add the dates, 2T shredded coconut, coconut oil (this can be solid, it’s fine), and brown rice syrup. They are in that order because you can use the same tablespoon if you do them in this order (the coconut oil will help the brown rice syrup not stick). Pulse it until the dates are chopped up well, then just blend. You will likely need to scrape the sides a few times, as this is really sticky. I’d suggest a silicone spatula, if you have one, and be careful not to cut it on the blades (I’ve lost a few this way).

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. It will take a little work to get this out of the food processor. Again, the silicone spatula is the least sticky thing I’ve tried. Using the spatula, mix the wet and dry ingredients. Mostly, this is like kneading bread — bring up a scoop of the dry ingredients and sort of press them into the mass stuck into your sticky goo from the food processor. I am assuming that if you keep working at it, this will eventually incorporate everything. I’ve never managed to do that — I just grease up my hands with a bit of coconut oil and mix with my hands after a bit. It works fine.

When you have a mostly solid mass of sticky bar ingredients, dump it into your prepared pan and press it down. I don’t worry too much about making it exactly fill the corners — the rustic edges make it look handmade! But always feel free to be more precise than I am.

Put this in the fridge to set, maybe 15 minutes or so.

Melt the chocolate. The microwave is easiest (20 second intervals, stirring), but I don’t own one, so I use my double boiler. Originally I had planned to dip each bar in the chocolate, but I realized that the easiest way would be to pour a layer of chocolate onto the whole pan, let it set, and then cut the bars. So do this — it is WAY less messy than dipping and it wastes less chocolate.

Let the chocolate set, then cut into bars. These keep best in an airtight container in the fridge.

Enjoy!
May 25, 2015
Roasted Garlic and Pesto DIY Tater Tots
Roasted Garlic and Pesto DIY Tater Tots

I just planted a whole bunch of potatoes in the garden, so I’m going to need some recipes to deal with them. I decided to try to make some adult flavored tater tots. You’ll need a food processor or a blender, and if you don’t have food processor, a grater. I baked these, but you could also try pan frying them in safe oil.

Roasted Garlic and Pesto DIY Tater Tots

Pesto:
- 1 cup of tightly packed fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 cup and 1 Tablespoon of olive oil
Put all ingredients in the blender or food processor and blend/process until pureed.

Pesto after blending or processing

Tater Tots:
- 4 large potatoes (I used russet)
- 2 Tablespoons of Pesto (see above)
- 1/4 cup of roasted garlic (here’s how to do it)
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Peel and wash your potatoes. Place the potatoes on a small baking sheet. Bake the potatoes for about an hour.

(NOTE: If I don’t already have roasted garlic, I prep the garlic as described in the link above and bake it at the same time as the potatoes.)

Garlic roasted in olive oil

When the potatoes (and possibly the garlic) are ready to come out of the oven, remove the potatoes and garlic and turn the temperature on the oven to 425°F. If you’re using a large hand grater, you need to wait until the potatoes are cool so you don’t burn your fingers. Since I was using the grating blade on my food processor to grate the potatoes, I cheated and did them hot. I sliced them lengthwise just enough to get them in the food processor, and grated them up.

Potatoes after grating

Some of the grated pieces may be too long, and you may want to chop them up a bit either with a knife or a potato masher. Mix the pesto sauce and the roasted garlic into the potatoes until they are well combined.

Potato, roasted garlic and pesto mixture

Spray your baking sheet with your safe oil in a mister. I used a small cookie scoop to portion out the tater tots, but you could use two teaspoons to drop the mixture on your baking sheet.

Roasted Garlic and Pesto DIY Tater Tots before baking

Use your oil mister to mist the top of the tater tots, and place the baking sheet in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Use some tongs or a spatula to turn them over, and then bake them for another 25-30 minutes. You want to watch them closely, as you’ll notice mine were a tad overcooked.

Take them out of the oven, salt to taste, and enjoy!
May 18, 2015
Carrot Chickpea Curry
Carrot Chickpea Curry

So I went away for a week and came back to New Hampshire summer. To be honest, as much as we complained about the cold, I wasn’t ready for full-on summer temperatures. If it stays this way, I’ll need to dig out the AC sooner, not later, just to get some sleep. It’s hot! It doesn’t help that my apartment holds the heat like an oven.

Why, if it’s hot, would I give you hot food — hot in temperature as well as full of spices? Well, first off, it’s not hot everywhere — I hear that if you live in either of the Dakotas or Wyoming, you got snow this weekend. Secondly, hot food is a great way to make it feel cooler. It’s all about contrasts. Actually, this curry tastes great hot or cold, so make it for dinner and eat the leftovers for lunches. Oh! And whether this is “spicy” or “full of spices” is entirely up to you — if you like spicy foods, buy a spicy curry powder. Otherwise, buy a regular or “sweet” curry powder and you get all the flavor without the heat. I always buy sweet curry powder because I can add some cayenne if I want things spicy. There IS coconut in here — Denise and I have both made curry with cashew milk, but never successfully without a nut milk. Let us know if you have a nut-free way to make an Indian-style curry.

This curry passes all my tests for a weeknight dinner — it takes less than 10 minutes to prep, and while cooking takes about 45 minutes total, only a few of those are active. You will need a skillet with a lid or a cover of foil. I have one skillet with a lid (finally), but I’ve found that because my cast iron skillet holds the heat better and is a slightly different shape, it works better than my lidded skillet. A sheet of heavy duty foil stands in for a lid here and lets the carrots steam to perfection.

Carrot Chickpea Curry

Carrot Chickpea Curry
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 sweet onion (about 1/2 cup), chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon chopped garlic (about 2 cloves)
- 5 carrots, peeled and sliced in rounds
- 1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 Tablespoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 teaspoons cilantro
- 3 Tablespoons coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- rice to serve curry over, if desired
Heat your pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the onions. Stir well to coat with oil, then sprinkle with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions start to lightly brown.

Add the garlic and stir until fragrant. Then add the carrots and beans, and the curry and cinnamon. Stir everything well until the spices are fully spread over everything.

Now cover and cook for 15 minutes. There are two ways to do this — if you like browned bits, just let it go for the full 15 minutes. And I do mean browned, not burned. If you prefer no browned carrots or onions, stir it once or twice during the cooking time.

Then add the cilantro, coconut milk, and ginger. Stir well, and cook another 5-10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

Serve over rice, or if you’re feeling less like rice, over greens for a salad.
May 11, 2015
Summer Mango Salsa
Summer Mango Salsa

Apparently it’s mango season. In browsing the grocery store flyers looking for inspiration, I noticed that two of our three chains had mangoes on sale. I’ve never eaten a mango before, but I’ve had mango juice and liked it. So I thought I’d give it a try. Why not, right?

According to the Mango Board, mangoes are ripe when they give a little under a gentle squeeze — like avocados. As I said on Friday, it’s really worth your time to watch the video before deciding you know how to cut a mango. You can make it a lot harder than it needs to be (I sure did), but mangoes are sweet and tropical and taste like summer. If your “spring” as been like ours in New England, you need a reminder that warmer weather is coming. Tropical mango flavor helps.

“Salsa” generally conjures up tomatoes, but fruit salsas are pretty amazing and seem to have a better, brighter balance of flavors for certain main dish meals. (And yes, I know that biologically tomatoes are a fruit, but US law says they are vegetables). Salsa isn’t the quickest thing ever, but the work that goes in pays amazing dividends in flavor.

This salsa is fine with chips, but if you want to really highlight it, serve it over a meal. Things I think would work well with the summer mango salsa:
- Shrimp and rice, if you can do shellfish (this was my choice)
- Chicken, pork, or fish, if any of those work for you
- Black beans and rice
Let us know what you try so that, if it’s good, we can copy you. I have a feeling I’ll be making this a few more times, and I’d love some new ideas for what to serve it over.

Summer Mango Salsa

Summer Mango Salsa
- 1/2 of a sweet onion, finely diced (this should be between 1/3 and 1/2 cup — adjust according to your love for onion)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 Tablespoons lime juice (I wanted to give you a measurement, but I’ve had to use everything from 2 whole limes to 1/2 a lime to get 2T. It varies widely. I always buy limes in pairs, for whatever reason.)
- 1 serrano pepper (buy a size commensurate with your love of spice), stem, seeds, and inner membranes removed, diced very finely
- 1 mango, cut into small cubes
- 1 avocado, cut into small cubes
- 3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
The order of the ingredients above is deliberate. I love onion in my salsa, but I don’t like it too strong. If you chop it first and then let it marinate in the lime juice while you fight with the mango, it mellows out a bit. I’m assuming that the acid “cooks” the onions a bit, as it does for fish in ceviche. If you’re a better food scientist than I am, I’d love to know if this is true; it could just be the power of suggestion.

For the best flavor profile, you want the onions and the chile diced very finely, as finely as you can manage, and the mango and avocado a good bit chunkier (but still, not too big). The onion and chile go into the lime juice first. The mango next, and last the avocado — the avocado will break down the more you stir it, and I like it pretty well intact.

Basically, chop everything up and mix it together in a bowl. This is a very fresh salsa, and it doesn’t need much time to meld — half an hour at room temperature seems to be enough, although it is great the next day. I doubt it would last all that much longer, but I’ve made it a few times now and I’ve yet to test that.

Enjoy your plate of summer.
April 27, 2015
Kitchen Sink Soup, vegan, gluten-free, allergy-friendly
Kitchen Sink Soup

One of the ways that food allergies have taken over my brain is that I’m always planning ahead — you have to. A lack of planning can mean not eating, which in my case leads to extreme crankiness or just a complete lack of functioning. I’m also completely incapable of deciding what to eat if I’m too hungry. So I usually know what’s for dinner — tonight and tomorrow night, maybe for the whole week, but certainly for any important dates or busy nights coming up.

On the other hand, life with food allergies also makes you pretty flexible — again, by necessity. So when I had plans to make Winter is Coming Chicken and Kale, I had chicken, polenta, and kale on hand. Or, rather, I thought I did. Turns out, hey, winter is ending and the chicken I’d defrosted (properly — in the fridge, though for two days instead of one) was not good.I don’t really know if it was bad when I bought and froze it or what, but that left me with kale and polenta, which is a really sad meal.

So I ended up making this soup. I’m just going to call it “kitchen sink soup” because that’s pretty much what went into it — everything but the kitchen sink. It turned out so well, though, that I thought I’d go ahead and share it. I wish that it were too late to post soup recipes, but it really isn’t. We’ve moved into cool and rainy, so soup is still all over my menu. If you live somewhere where it’s not soup weather? Yeah, don’t tell me about it, please. I love soup because it’s a one-pot, one-bowl meal that can be entirely balanced.

The key to this soup, I think, is the *right* amount of really good hot sauce for you. Even if you “don’t like spicy things,” you need the hot sauce — you will just add less. GOOD hot sauce will give you tons of flavor and it doesn’t need to have a kick. I’ve written the version for the light end — taste and add more as you see fit.

Soup pre- and post- kale awesomeness

Kitchen Sink Soup
- 2 teaspoons oil of your choice
- 1/2 an onion, chopped
- pinch of salt
- 8 oz mushrooms, de-stemmed and broken (I prefer crimini)
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 3 celery stalks, sliced thin
- 15 oz of canned or cooked garbanzo beans
- 1 teaspoon good hot sauce (or as much as you want)
- 4 cups of vegetable broth
- 1 potato, peeled and chopped small
- about 4 cups of kale, de-stemmed and shredded
Heat soup pot over medium heat. When the pot is hot, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and the pinch of salt. Cook, stirring regularly, until onion starts to brown.

Add the broken mushrooms. Breaking mushrooms rather than chopping them gives you bigger mushroom chunks and reduces the shrinkage. Cook until the mushrooms have sweated and darkened.

Add the carrots, celery, garbanzo, hot sauce, and vegetable broth. Stir well, and stir in the potato. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 – 30 minutes — when the carrots and potatoes are cooked, you’re good.

Add the kale, stir, and let cook another 2-3 minutes until the kale is brighter green. Do NOT overcook the kale! Taste and adjust the hot sauce and salt if you need to.

Enjoy the warm veggies and dream of summer.
March 30, 2015
Chinese-Irish Baked Latkes
Chinese-Irish Baked Latkes

Hey, here’s an ethnic mash-up for you. My Irish family always celebrated St. Patrick’s Day rather traditionally, in part because my grandfather’s birthday was the 16th and he loved the traditional corned beef and cabbage. Personally, though, I would survive just fine without ever seeing that again (there was an incident involving snow, Georgia, a cancelled party, and corned beef and cabbage for about 30 consumed by the six of us for, oh, about eternity. BLECH.)

However.

Potatoes in all their forms are one of my favorite things on earth. And I’m not actually all that Irish by blood. So I’ve been thinking of ways to mash my Chinese heritage and my Irish heritage into a dish, via midwest America, and I found it via Hanukkah’s latkes. Latkes are the best holiday food anyone has ever invented in the history of all things. Now the symbolism of latkes is focused on the oil not the potatoes, but for St. Patrick’s Day, it seems right to minimize the oil and focus on the potato, no? To hold everything together, instead of egg and flour, I’ve made a homemade sweet and sour sauce, with an added (optional) bonus of hot, and added broccoli for flavor and color (it’s green, right?).

So I bring you the Chinese-Irish St. Patrick’s Day Latke. It’s possible that the story here makes sense to exactly one person in the world (me), but the flavors will make sense to a lot more of you. These are vegan, gluten-free, ethnically diverse, and baked, because frying is just messy. I hope you enjoy them.

Raw latke materials

Chinese-Irish Baked Latkes
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup vinegar (cider or white, your choice)
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 Tablespoons tapioca starch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional or adjust to your taste)
- about 1 inch of a chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and smashed (I just use the pot lid to smash)
- 2 large baking potatoes, washed and peeled (1.5 to 2 lbs.)
- 1 large head of broccoli, trimmed (1/2 lb.)
- oil to grease pans
First, make the sauce. Whisk all ingredients, water through ginger, together in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until boiling, and cook, whisking regularly, to reduce to about 1/2 cup, total (a little less than half its original volume, and pretty thick). This takes 10-15 minutes. Strain out ginger and red pepper flakes (the taste of both stays in the sauce, I promise). Set aside while you prep the vegetables.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Prepare two pans by spraying or brushing with oil.

Wash the broccoli and potatoes. Peel the potatoes. Chop both into sizes that will fit in your food processor.

Put the broccoli through the shredder blade and then empty into a large mixing bowl. Peel the potatoes and then shred them. Wrap the shreds in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze as much liquid out as you possibly can. Twist and wring — you will be surprised how much liquid is in them, and this makes your patties soggy. Squeeze a little longer than you think you should. Empty them into the bowl as well (and rinse the towel).

Mix the broccoli and potatoes, then add the sauce. Mix. It seems as though it will not come together — but it will. I found a rubber spatula worked best for this, and I had already dirtied one scraping the sauce into the mix; so perfect.

latkes ready for oven

Scoop scant 1/4 cups of the mix onto the greased trays. Flatten these out and neaten up the edges. Don’t skip the neatening! Those bits will burn (as you can see in the photos). Bake on a center rack (not the bottom rack! Ask me how I know.) for 10 minutes, then flip all patties and bake for another 5-10 minutes (this seems to depend on the weight of the pan you are using).

Enjoy hot.
March 16, 2015
Blood Orange Broccolini
Blood Orange Broccolini

Okay, as Denise and I raved on Friday, it is officially citrus season up here in New England, which means someone has trucked citrus fruit all the way up to the frozen north. After two years of just eating or juicing the citrus, I’m finally starting to try cooking with them beyond. I’ve been marinating and dressing and mixing and playing and it’s brilliant. Let me share my favorite side dish so far.

Broccolini was kind of a cheat for me. I could happily eat broccoli every single day and not get too bored, but it seems like we should eat more than just one vegetable, right? So the other night when I was tempted to pick up more broccoli at the store, I decided on a bunch of broccolini instead. Turns out that broccolini is not just a different stage of broccoli’s growth. Broccolini is a hybrid of broccoli and another vegetable I’m not particularly familiar with (kai-lan, an Asian vegetable I’ve never cooked). A quick internet search tells me it was developed in the early 1990s and made it to the US in the late ’90s. It has tender stems and less dense tops, and it’s a nice variation on broccoli. The flavor is pretty similar, but greener and more mild.

This recipe cooks both the long tender stems and the tops, but adding the stems first so they will be done when the tops are, with neither part overdone. It also takes two pans, but I think it’s worth it. I’ve cooked the sauce first and set it aside while cooking the broccolini. When chopping up the broccolini, I’ve pulled off all the “tops” that are on lower stems, too.

From top left: whole raw broccolini, blood orange and squeezed juice, finished sauce, and toasted garlic in Earth Balance margarine

Blood Orange Broccolini
- 2 Tablespoons Earth Balance or other safe-for-you fat or oil (if you are not using a margarine or butter, add a pinch of salt to your oil)
- 1 Tablespoon chopped garlic
- 3 Tablespoons fresh-squeezed blood orange juice (about 1/2 an orange)
- 2-3 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
- 1 bunch broccolini, stems and tops chopped separately
Melt your Earth Balance in a small skillet or sauce pan over medium low heat. When foamy, turn the heat a notch or two on your stove — you want basically the point between low and medium, wherever that is for you. Add the garlic, stir well, and cook over this low heat for about 10 minutes or so. Garlic should be caramel brown when you’re done. Remove from heat and set aside. When it’s no longer hot, stir in the blood orange juice.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the broccolini stems and about 1/4 teaspoon salt. I’ll be honest — I almost never remember to measure salt in cooking (baking is different). I just added a large pinch. When the stems start to get a little browned, stir in the tops and another pinch of salt. Keep stirring every few minutes until the stems and tops are just barely fork-tender.

Add the sauce, stir well, and heat it all together for 2 or 3 minutes. Scrape the pan well to get all the garlicky goodness out and stir to coat all the broccolini well.

Enjoy.

blood orange broccolini
February 2, 2015
Green Tomatillo Rice
Green Tomatillo Rice

I needed a really simple dinner the other night because I wasn’t all that hungry, but I had to eat something and it was already 10:00 p.m. (I really need to stop doing that kind of thing.) So since I’m trying to work through all this rice that I keep buying at Asian markets because I cannot walk away from how inexpensive it is compared to regular grocery stores, I decided to throw a rice thing together. I liked it enough that I’ll make it again, and I can see this as being a great side dish to go with tacos (or in my case, taco salads, as I haven’t found a safe tortilla recipe I can stand) or with fajitas.

Green Tomatillo Rice
- 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, or other oil that’s safe for you
- 1 cup of rice (I used sushi rice because that’s what I’m trying to use up, but any rice would work, arborio would be lovely)
- 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 – 16 ounce jar of green tomatillo salsa that’s safe for you (I used my home-made, home-canned version)
- 2 to 2 1/2 cups of water, depending on how tender you like your rice
- 1 to 2 Tablespoons of minced fresh cilantro (optional)
In a large skillet with a lid, add the oil, rice, onion and garlic, and stir with a spatula over medium heat. When the onion is translucent, add the water, salsa and cilantro, and stir to mix thoroughly. Turn the heat to medium high, put the lid on and bring the rice mixture to a boil. When the rice mixture reaches a boil, stir it, put the lid back on, and bring the heat down until the mixture just simmers. Simmer for 10 to 20 minutes, until the rice is tender, and the sauce is thick.

Enjoy!

Green Tomatillo Rice
January 26, 2015

Category: Meatless/Veg*n

Cereal Snack Bars

Roasted Garlic and Pesto DIY Tater Tots

Carrot Chickpea Curry

Summer Mango Salsa

Kitchen Sink Soup

Blood Orange Broccolini

Green Tomatillo Rice