New to us... Nofu loaf

I've been looking for new recipes as we are all a little burned out of the typical dinners around here.  I found this months ago, and lots of my online vegan friends have made and raved about it, so I thought we'd give it a try. Of course, I did a teeny change. I left the topping off (see other links for pictures and more info). 

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2012/04/dreenas-no-fu-love-loaf.html
http://familygoesvegan.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/no-fu-loaf/

No-Fu Loaf

1/2 cup brown (green) lentils
1 cup vegetable stock
1/3 cup water
1 dried bay leaf
3/4 cup steel cut oats
4 cups water
1 cup water, boiled
1/4 cup  ketchup
1 cup rolled oats
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons chia seeds or flax meal
2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tahini
2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon ground fennel (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
Combine the lentils, vegetable stock, 1⁄3 cup of water, and bay leaf in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 25 to 30 minutes, until just about tender. Once done, remove from the pan and remove the bay leaf.  You can use the same pan to cook the steal cut oats for 20-25 minutes.  (You can do the oats and lentils concurrently if you are in a hurry.)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. 

Once the steel cut oats are cooked, add the lentils and all the remaining ingredients. Stir very well. Transfer the mixture to a pan.  I used a 8x8 glass pan with a silicone liner in it.  (Next time, I'll use my 9x9 pan.)

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 25 to 28 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 to 15 minutes or so, before cutting to slice and serve. Serves 5-6.

I did not do the topping as suggested by the other recipe. I figured we'd mostly use this as "meat" for sandwiches and we each like different spreads. Some of us like vegan mayo, some like BBQ, some like mustard. 

When the loaf came out of the oven, it was really wet still. It's firmed up a bit in the refrigerator. Next time, I'll probably try just 2/3s of a cup of boiling water to the mixture. It seemed a bit wet to me. It tastes pretty good; I feel it needs  a little more spice or kick, or something. I'll make it again and let you know what I do next time. Natalie likes it, and the other two haven't tried it yet. Though I made it this afternoon, we had to go out to dinner to celebrate their report cards. We went to one of our favorite vegan restaurants.

I really can't follow recipes...

I was going to make the soup linked in the blog post below.  I ended up making a different soup.  I started off with lentils and most of the spices Oh she glows recommended, but then I changed it up a bit.

The ingredients:

1 teaspoon of olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/8th tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
2 14-oz cans of diced tomatoes
12 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1.5 cups red lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup of cashew cream (1 cup raw cashews blended with a 1/2 cup water)
salt to taste (1 teaspoon)
10 oz. of raw baby spinach

What I did:

 Sauteed the garlic and onion in the olive oil for a few minutes.  I actually added a little broth while sauteing.

Added spices, tomatoes, broth, water and lentils and let it cook for 25 minutes and then tasted the soup.  I loved it, but Nick thought it needed to be thickened up a little.  We didn't want to do PB 'cause we ALWAYS do PB.  I decided to try cashew cream.

You're supposed to soak the cashews in water for at least 4 hours for cashew cream but I just threw caution to the wind and threw the raw cashews into the Vitamix with some water and made a thick cream. 

I added the cream to the soup and that didn't work out so well...  It got all clumpy.  I couldn't stir it out so I added some of the soup and the lumpy cream back to the blender.  Can I just say I love my Vitamix?  The soup came out beautifully.

I added a little salt to the soup 'cause the cashews made it taste less salty; then, I added the spinach.  Then, I ate too much.

I'll try to make this recipe again.  Oh yum!

Soup! Wintery! Vegetable!

From one of my favorite veggie cooking blogs...

The modifications I'll make include olive oil instead of coconut oil, no celery, more cumin--probably more of all the spices...   I just bought some red lentils so I'm excited to try them out!  Hopefully, I will make this tomorrow!