Corn Tortillas

Corn Tortillas

 These Tortillas are so delicious and easy to make, you'll never have to buy them from the store again.

Only 3 ingredients are needed for the simple recipe!

 

 Makes 6 Tortillas

Ingredients

 2/3 cup corn flour

2/3 cup warm water

1/2 teaspoon salt

 Directions

Combine the flour and salt in a bowl.  Add the water a little bit at a time, until the water is fully incorporated.  Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces.  Each piece should about the size of a golf ball.

You will need a tortilla press to form the dough balls into tortillas.  You can find a tortilla press at Bed Bath and Beyond or any kitchen supply store.  I cover my press with plastic wrap to make it easier to remove the flattened tortilla.  Preheat a pan to medium heat.  Place your tortilla in the pan and cook for 1 minute on each side.  Enjoy!

Garden Vegetable Soup

Garden Vegetable Soup

This soup is full of the delicious flavors of the garden.

Substitute any of your favorite beans or veggies to make this soup unique to you!

 

 

Ingredients

 6 cups canned tomatoes

3 cups water

3 yukon gold potatoes

4 carrots

4 celery stalks

1 large garlic clove

1/2 medium onion

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

2 - 15oz cans kidney beans (1 drained, 1 undrained)

2 - 15oz cans garbanzo beans (1 drained, 1 undrained)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

 Place all of your ingrediants, except the beans, into a large stock pot.  Bring this to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Add the kidney and garbanzo beans and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Enjoy!

Find more yummy and healthy recipes at http://veggiefans.blogspot.com/

Palak Tofu "Paneer"

Palak Tofu "Paneer"

Palak Paneer is a classic Indian dish using spinach and paneer, a soft cow's milk cheese native to India.  In my version, I substitute tofu for the paneer to add protein and subtract some fat.  This dish is vegan and gluten free, making it a great meal for everyone to enjoy.

Tofu is not only healthier than Paneer, it is also less expensive and easier to find!

 

 

 Ingredients

2 small garlic cloves chopped

1/2 inch piece of ginger chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil (1/2 for the spinach and 1/2 for the tofu)

6oz baby spinach

1 large tomato

1/2 cup almond or soy milk

1 tablespoon curry powder (1/2 for the spinach and 1/2 for the tofu)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

1 16oz package of firm tofu

Salt, to taste

Directions

First step is cooking the spinach.  Chop up your garlic and ginger (make sure to remove the skin of the ginger) and place it into a cold pan.  Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and turn the heat onto medium.  When the garlic and ginger begin to sizzle, add all of your spinach.  This will look like a ton, but it will cook down quite a bit.  Mix up the spinach with the garlic and ginger.  You don't want to leave the garlic and ginger on the bottom of the pan or it will get burned.  Salt to taste.  Cover the pan and cook down for about 10 minutes, stirring often.

Now the the spinach is cooked we will place it in the blender to combine with our 1/2 cup of almond/soy milk and spices.  Place the spinach in the blender first, followed by the 1/2 tablespoon of curry powder and the 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (more or less based on how much heat you like), and finally add the 1/2 cup of almond/soy milk.  Blend that up until it is a smooth, soupy consistency.  Don't worry about the mixure being too liquidy, we are going to cook it down with the tofu.

Speaking of tofu, it's time to cook it up!  Preheat a large pan to medium high heat.  Add 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and coat the pan.  Remove the block of tofu from the package and wrap it in a paper towel to remove some of it's moisture.  Chop up the tofu into 1/2 inch squares, with a thickness of about 1/4 inch.  Add the tofu to the pan.  Add 1/2 tablespoon of curry powder and salt to taste.  Toss the tofu around, making sure that each piece is covered in curry.  Cook this for about 15 minutes, tossing frequenty.  You want the tofu to get lightly browned on all sides.  Now add the spinach mixture to the pan.  Cook for an additional 10 minutes, until the spinach thickens up.  Serve with Naan Bread, Homemade Flat Bread or brown rice (gluten free).   Enjoy!

Flatbread

Flatbread

 

This Flatbread is really delicious and super easy to make.  You don't even have to turn on the oven!  I use it to make wraps, as a quick pizza dough, or even as a substitute for Naan Bread.  Anyway you serve it, it's sure to be a hit.

Save extra dough in the freezer, so you can have fresh bread at a moments notice!

 

 Ingredients

1 3/4 cup white bread flour

1 package yeast

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup room temperature water

 1 teaspoon olive oil

Directions

Combine the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large bowl.  Add the water and mix until it is incorporated with the dry ingredients.  Knead the dough, on your counter or cutting board,  for about 5 minutes.  Coat a large bowl with the olive oil.  I just use the same bowl that I used originally to combine the ingredients.  One less dish to wash :)  Place the dough into the now coated bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 1 hour.

*If you have a bread machine, just set the machine to "dough", and program it to knead for 5 minutes and rise for 1 hour.  Place the water into the bread machine first, followed by all of the other ingredients in the order they are listed above.*

Now that your dough has risen, it should have at least doubled in size.  It will be very light and it will actually deflate a bit as you remove it from the bowl.  Divide the dough into four equal pieces.  (At this point, you can wrap any of the quartered dough balls in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer to be used at another time.)  Roll out one of the pieces to a square that is about 8x8".  Preheat a pan on your stove top to medium heat.  A flat top skillet pan works best, but if you don't have that, any large pan will do.  Place your rolled out flatbread directly onto the heated pan, no oil is necessary at this point.  Heat for about 2 minutes, or when you start to see bubbles on the top side of the flat bread.  Flip over the bread and cook the other side for an additional minute.  Voila, you have flat bread!  You can now proceed to make a wrap, pizza, or just enjoy some warm homemade bread.  Enjoy!

Black Bean Soup

Black Bean Soup

 

Black Bean Soup is one of my absolute favorite things to order when eating out, especially at Panera.  It took me a really long time to come up with this recipe, but I can finally satisfy my Black Bean Soup cravings in the comfort of my own home.  The secret is in the cumin, lots and lots of cumin.

This dish is both vegan and gluten free, so it's a great meal that everyone can enjoy!

 

Ingredients

1/2 yellow onion finely chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

1 celery rib finely chopped

1/2 red pepper finely chopped

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

2 cans of black beans undrained

1/2 tablespoon cumin (or adjust to taste)

juice of 1 lime

salt to taste

Directions

Put the vegetable broth in a pot and bring it to a boil.  Once that get's going, add in the onion, garlic, celery and red pepper.  Simmer this for 10 minutes.  Add one can of beans, cumin and salt.  I use unsalted beans and vegetable broth, so I add about 1/2 tablespoon of salt, but if your beans and broth are already salted, you would use less.  Cook this mixture for five minutes.  Now puree the soup with a stick blender, or a traditional blender.  Remember to remove the fill cap if you are using a traditional blender :)  Add the remaining can of beans and cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Remove the soup from heat, add the lime juice and serve.  Enjoy!

Squash Soup

Acorn Squash Soup

 

This soup is a wonderful meal for the fall.  It is both savory and sweet and since it is vegan and gluten free, it's a dish everyone can enjoy!

Acorn squash are everywhere this season!  Take advantage of all the vitamin C and antioxidents that they provide, while warming yourself up with a bowl of soup on a cold fall night. 

 

 Ingredients

2 Acorn Squash

Olive Oil for drizzling

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 cups veggie stock

1 tablespoon agave nectar (or any sweetener you have on hand)

1 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)

1/4 cup almond milk

pinch of nutmeg

Topping

1 ear corn

1 sprig of parsley

Directions

The first step to making this soup is roasting the squash.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cut your squash in half.  Use a spoon to scoop out all of the seeds and stringy bits.  Drizzle the squash with a little olive oil and top with the salt and pepper.  Place the squash on a sheet pan, flesh side up and cook for about 45 minutes or until the flesh is soft.  Here is the cooked squash, which is quite delicious on it's own.

 Now that the squash is cooked, scoop out the flesh from the skin and put it into a pot.  Add the stock, agave, and ginger* (if you like it).  Bring this to a simmer and puree using a stick blender.  If you don't have a stick blender, you can use a regular blender.  Just be sure to do small batches and remove the fill cap, leaving the lid with a hole in it.  If you leave the fill cap on, the steam from the hot soup will build up and you will end up with a big mess in the kitchen.  Believe me, that's a lesson that you only need to learn once :)

(Pour your blended soup back to the pot, if using standard blender.)  Stir in the almond milk and bring it back to a simmer.  Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

You can certainly eat the soup as is, but I like to top it with some fresh corn and a sprig of parsley.  To cook the corn, just remove the husk and as much silk as possible.  Place the ear of corn in a pot of boiling water.  Cook for 3 minutes and remove the corn.  Let the corn cool and then cut off a half inch from the top and bottom.  This will give you a nice flat surface to use as you use your knife to shave the kernels away from the cob.   Salt and pepper the corn to taste and add about 3 tablespoons of corn to each bowl of soup.  Top with a sprig of parsley for color and you are ready to serve.  Enjoy!

Soy Tacos

SOY TACOS

These tacos are full of delicious veggies and they are perfect for a dinner at home with the family or a fiesta with friends.

I don't know if there is anything better than peppers and onions sauteing in a little bit of oil.  Add some garlic to the mix and I imagine that's what heaven smells like :)  These Soy Tacos incorporate all of my favorite flavors in one meal and leave me wondering, "why can't every night be taco night?"  Enjoy!

 

Ingredients 

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves

1/2 small red onion

1 melrose pepper

1 anaheim pepper

1 jalapeno pepper

1 12oz package ground soy (or tofu)

2 large tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

  

Instructions

Heat your pan to medium heat and add the olive oil.  Chop the garlic, onion and peppers and saute for 5 minutes.  (The great thing about making tacos is that they are super versatile.  If you don't like or can't find melrose and anaheim peppers you can substitute poblanos, hot banana peppers or even bell peppers.  It's all about what works for you.   You can also switch out the ground soy for tofu and fresh tomatoes for canned.  Just be sure to drain the tomatoes if you use canned or you will have very soupy tacos.  Okay back to the instructions!)

Now that you've sauteed your onions, peppers and garlic for 5 minutes, you can go ahead and add the ground soy and cook for and additional 5 minutes.   Chop up your tomatoes and add them to the pan.  Add all of the spices and seasonings and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes.  Serve on corn tortillas with your choice of toppings.  I like to top mine with green onions, guacamole, corn salsa and cheese (or soy cheese to keep it vegan).  Buen Apetito!