Glorious Vegan Breakfast muffins

Who says yummy muffins have to have eggs, milk, and butter in them? Certainly not, you can make these healthy, most yummy muffins with none of the above. I found this recipe in the Jan/Feb edition of Vegetarian Times.

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp freshly grated ginger

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

8 oz can crushed pineapple in its own juice, drained and juice reserved

1/2 cup carrot juice

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup finely grated carrots

1/2 cup raisins

12 c chopped nuts (optional)

I was not able to find carrot juice so I substituted the carrot juice for orange juice that I had on hand. Any fruit juice should work so use what you have.

Whisk the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a bowl until blended.

Gently fold in the oil, pineapple, 1/4 cup of the reserved pineapple juice, carrot juice, vanilla, carrots, raisins, and nuts.

In a 12 cup muffin tin lined with paper muffin liners, fill the muffin liners full of the mix. This recipe will make 12 muffins.

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes (mine were perfectly done at 20).

These muffins are so wonderful, they have just the right amount of sweetness. The pineapple and carrots give them so much moisture flavor. I think I will be making more next weekend they were so good.

Thick and Hearty Vegan Spaghetti

Who doesn’t love spaghetti, it is such a classic comfort food. Most people have their own  favorite variation or family recipe that usually include meat. My goal with this version was to make a sauce that would be so flavorful and thick that you wouldn’t miss the meat one bit. I think I succeeded, the spaghetti was a huge success and my vegetable leery 6 year old even loved it – he doesn’t know spaghetti sauce is a vegetable but this sauce actually has 6 vegetables! This sauce is so flavorful it doesn’t even need any salt and pepper.

Thick and hearty vegan spaghetti

1 onion, finely diced

1 head of garlic – about 12 cloves

1 leek, finely diced

2 carrots, finely grated

1 shallot, finely diced

1 Tbl olive oil

1 6.5 oz jar sundried tomatoes in oil, drained and finely chopped

12 large mushrooms finely diced

1 bunch fresh sage, chopped

1 Tbl fresh rosemary, chopped

2, 28 oz cans tomato puree

2 Tbl tomato paste

 

Start by prepping all of the vegetables, a food processor comes in handy with this recipe and will save you a lot of time. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch Oven over medium heat, sauté the leek and shallot for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the carrots and garlic, cook 3 more minutes.

Stir in the sun dried tomatoes and mushrooms, cook for 5 minutes more, stirring every minute or so. Add the tomato puree and tomato paste, stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Mix in the sage and rosemary and simmer for one more hour.

You can see how thick this sauce is because of the addition of so many finely diced vegetables. Serve over hot spaghetti noodles.

I roasted some garlic to spread on french bread too…….mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Vegan cowboy “pie”

Mmmmmmmm, this vegan cowboy “pie” isn’t really a pie but tastes like a delicious, fresh, pot-pie without the crust. It was so easy to make and could be done very quickly even on a weeknight.

Cowboy pie

1/4 cup vegan margarine

1 yellow onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 sliced carrots

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup frozen peas

1 can butter beans

2 pre-cooked baked potatoes, sliced.

2 cups plain almond milk

1 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 Tbsp. flour

vegetable bouillon cube

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sauté the onions for 2 minutes. Add the red peppers, and carrots, and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the corn and peas and cook for 5 minutes. Add the almond milk, tomato paste, and bouillon cube and bring to a boil. At this point you may not need to add the flour, just take a look and see how thick the mixture looks. Almond milk is pretty thick on it’s own. If you want to thicken it, add the flour slowly while stirring to avoid lumps and stir until thick.

 

Pour the mixture into a baking dish and top with the sliced potatoes.

I baked some potatoes previously and saved some for this dish, if you do not have any baked potatoes on hand you could microwave some or top the mixture with raw potatoes and just bake it a little longer.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, if using raw potato slices, reduce the heat to 375 and cook for 45 minutes. If you are really in a hurry, you could eat this as a “stew” and omit the potato and baking altogether.

The final result was probably my favorite vegan dish so far. Not only was it easy but the flavor was so comforting and reminded me of the little frozen pot-pies that I ate when I was a kid – only fresher and healthier tasting.

Eggplant Curry

I often hear people say that they do not like curry but I think they are making a mistake of referring to the spice called curry. A curry dish can be any type of stewed vegetable or meat dish that contains spices, and it does not have to contain the spice named “curry.”

This eggplant “curry” has no curry spice in it but it is full of flavor from other spices. I hope you will give it a try even if you do not like other “curry” dishes you’ve tried.

Eggplant Curry

2 eggplants

2 cloves of garlic, diced

1 jalapeno, diced

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 bunch green onions (about 7-8), diced

1 cup diced mushrooms

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 Tbsp Cumin

1 Tbsp chili powder

cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

Poke the eggplants all over with a fork, wrap in foil and bake them in a 400 degree oven for one hour.

As long as you plan to heat the oven up, throw some potatoes in to bake too. That’s what I did and now I can have baked potatoes for lunch the next couple of days.

The eggplants look like really ugly, giant shriveled up raisins when they come out of the oven. Wait for them to cool and then peel the skin right off, it should slide off easily, discard the skin. Mash the eggplant with a potato masher or fork.

In a large saucepan, toast the caraway seeds for a few minutes in the olive oil, you may hear them start to pop. Add the diced green onion, jalapeno and garlic to the pan and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes to the pan along with the spices and bring to a boil.

Add the mushrooms, and eggplant bring back up to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked.

That’s it! Another really easy dish loaded with flavor that can be cooked in minutes (not counting the eggplant cooking time of course). You can always cook the eggplant ahead and store them in the fridge for a couple days until you are ready to make the curry. I served my curry over a little rice and garnished with fresh cilantro.

Lentil loaf and veggie pilaf

I’ve been making lentil loaf for years. I make it for all of my meat eating friends who always and for the recipe and even my six year old who doesn’t like anything loves it!

I’ve modified my old recipe which calls for cheese and eggs and you can’t even taste the difference. I thought I would miss the cheese but it must not have been needed in the first place because the lentil loaf tasted exactly the same as ever.

Lentil Loaf

one onion

3 cloves garlic

2 ribs celery

2 carrots

1 14 oz can of lentils

1 14 oz can or red kidney beans

1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 Tbsp ketchup

salt and pepper to taste

Egg substitute of your choice, equivalent of one egg (like Ener-G)

I wanted to make this as super simple as possible since I am a working mom. Who has time to spend an hour making dinner on a weeknight? I cut this prep time down to 15 minutes with the help of my food processor and the grater blade.

Just toss in your onion, garlic, carrot, and celery and let the processor grate it up. Once you have all of those vegetables blended, add the rest of the ingredients and blend away. Pour into a large bread/loaf pan that has been coated with olive oil. Bake this loaf for one hour at 350 degrees. And there you have it, super simple to prepare lentil loaf. It comes out with a delicious crunchy coating mmmmmmmmm.

As for the pilaf, this almost took longer to prep than the loaf did but is equally as yummy.

1 cup basmati rice, rinsed until water is clear

2 cups water

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup frozen peas

1 vegetable bouillon cube

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander or fresh cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the rice until water runs clear. Add water and remaining ingredients to a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat without lifting the lid and let sit for 10 minutes.

Here is my pilaf sitting in the pan of water. I forgot to take after pictures of the meal. I also added some zucchini that I had leftover form yesterday's baba ganoush. You could add any veggies that you want to this recipe. It would make a great main course too.

Baba Ganoush

I love baba ganoush and the eggplants were on sale for only $.88 each! Needless to say, I will be featuring a few eggplant dishes this week but none tastier than the beloved baba ganoush. Making this stuff is a bit of a process but well worth it.

Baba Ganoush

one eggplant

1/8 cup raw almonds

2 Tbl tahini

1 clove garlic

juice from 1/2 of a lemon

2 Tbl olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Place the whole eggplant on a cookie sheet and roast under the broiler for about 15 minutes or until the skin starts to darken and bubble. Remove the eggplant and cool slightly. Peel the skin, (it should slip off easily) and roughly chop. Strain the eggplant in a colander for about 30 minutes to get rid of excess water.

While the eggplant is draining, process the almonds in a blender or food processor.

After sitting, squeeze the eggplant to get rid of any water that remains and it to the food processor with the almonds. Add the tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Process for about 30 seconds or until a smooth paste forms.

Serve the baba ganoush with pita bread or grilled veggies.

The eggplant does not look too appetizing as it drains.

I served it with lightly cooked zucchini and whole wheat pita bread. Yummmmmmm.

To make zucchini for dipping, slice the ends from 2 zucchini, cut them in half, and then slice lengthwise into 1/8” strips. Cook the slices in a non-stick pan over medium heat with a little olive oil. 2 minutes per side is enough to cook them slightly but keep a little of the crunch and make them perfect for dipping.

I also “doctored” up some store bought whole wheat pita bread. Slice the bread down the middle and cute each round in half. Sprinkle with a little olive oil, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. Cook under the broiler for a few minutes until brown and crisp.

This baba ganoush was delicious, we ate all of it for lunch. I would recommend doubling the recipe to make sure you have enough and some for leftovers. You can also use store bought pita chips for sipping if you don’t have the time to toast the pitas and cook the zucchini, or raw veggies would taste great too.

Fettuccini Alfredo with spinach, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes

I’ve been wanting to make this vegan Alfredo recipe for the past couple of weeks ever since I saw it on the Cooking Channel. This was featured on a special called The Veg Edge which was all about vegan cooking. I made some modifications to the original Alfredo recipe to suit my taste and am going to recommend further modification now that I’ve tried it.

Fettuccini Alfredo

1 pound fettuccine noodles

2 Tbl olive oil

salt and pepper

6 ounces mushrooms

1 bunch spinach, chopped

1 jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil, diced

Alfredo sauce (recipe follows)

Alfredo Sauce

1 cup raw almonds

4 cups water, plus 2 cups water

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

3 cloves garlic, minced

Cook the fettuccini according to the package.

Sauté the mushrooms in olive oil and set aside. Season with salt and pepper.

Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil and set aside.

Toss the fettuccini with the mushrooms, spinach (the warm pasta will wilt the spinach so there is no need to cook it ahead of time), and sun-dried tomatoes, and Alfredo sauce, serve hot.

For the Alfredo Sauce

Boil 4 cups of water, add the almonds and boil 5 minutes. Drain the almonds. Using your fingers, peel the almonds and discard the skins.

Blend the skinless almonds in a blender or food processor with 2 cups of water until smooth. Strain through a colander lined with cheesecloth or paper towels. Reserve the liquid and discard the solids. Return the almond milk to the blender and process with the onion garlic mixture . Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I mentioned earlier that I modified the original recipe a bit. One of the modifications I made was to use spinach instead of kale. I like them both but the kale at the store didn’t look quite as perky as I would have liked and the spinach was on sale for $.88. The next time I make this I will also be using Almond milk from a carton rather than going through the trouble to make this sauce from scratch. It was a fun process but I don’t think the flavor would be affected and it is also going to save you a lot of time.

I had never skinned an almond before and it was rather gratifying when their little skins just popped right off.

Here is my almond milk straining. I did not have cheesecloth and strained it through two paper towels which worked just fine.

Chopped spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. These tomatoes are like candy, I could have eaten the entire jar and skipped the pasta completely.

The final verdict on this vegan Alfredo was that though it did not taste like a traditional cheese Alfredo it was quite delicious. The sauce stuck to the noodles and gave them a ton of flavor. Next time I am using almond milk from the carton to save time and also plan to double the amount of spinach and mushrooms I used just because I love them so much.