Potato Soup

It's Sunday. Since I just declared I'd make a soup a week for simplifying my life, I needed to make a soup. Nothing on my blog jumped out at me so I decided to try my hand at a simple potato soup. Here's what I did:

3 yukon gold potatoes somewhat peeled, but not all the way
1 yellow onion
1 carrot
10 ounces of frozen cauliflower
32 ounces of veggie broth
~2 cups of water
1 cup cashews (to make into cashew cream)
Soy milk (for cashew cream or any type of non-dairy milk)

Cut up the veggies and cook until soft. Don't worry about cutting them small as you'll be pureeing them after they are cooked--just cut them in even sized chunks.  I cooked my large chunks (~1 inch or so) for about 30-40 minutes.

After the veggies are soft put all the veggies in the blender and puree. I had to do two batches of blending. Turn the blender on slow so it the hot vegetable mix doesn't burst out of the blender. Tonight, I didn't have any blender accidents, but I have in the past. The vitamix can be left on high (BAD DESIGN) and then when it's turned on it's going super fast. It's not pretty when that happens! After everything is blended, keep some of the warm, blended soup in the blender and make cashew cream.  Add 1 cup of cashews and ~1 cup of soy milk (could be whatever kind of non-dairy milk you like). I blended and then poured it all back in the pan. If you don't add enough warm soup, your cashew cream will be "lumpy" when you mix it into the pan. You can remedy this by re-blending the soup.

I added ~1 teaspoon of salt and quite a bit of black pepper (didn't measure).

Yum! Simple and delicious. We ate it with baguette and 4 out 5 of us loved it. The vegan who doesn't like vegetables tasted it and said she didn't like it.

I'll be playing with the recipe and potentially adding pepper and corn to the recipe as I think this would make a great base for corn chowder! Or nutritional yeast and broccoli for "cheezey"broccoli soup. I'll keep you posted on what evolves with this one. (Tomorrow, I'll try to get a picture. I forgot tonight.)

Modifying another recipe: Mexican Soup

I'm going to try to make soup on Sundays so that we have something quick and easy through the week and then have some (hopefully) extra to freeze. This is one of my tips here. It's a tip other people give; with tips like these, it's good to say them over and over because they are so easy to forget, but they really do make a difference and make life easier. It's the little things.

This past Sunday, I went back through my recipes and decided I wanted to make an old recipe that I have on here, but I wanted to change a few things. It's rare when I don't change something in a recipe when I make it. I cook by taste and by mood. My recipes often evolve. For me, Mexican Soup started here and now it's here:

Makes at least 8 servings.  (We've had 5 servings and we still have a lot, so I'm guessing more like 10-12)
Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups cubed sweet potatoes (I used a bag of these)

1 large sweet onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped fine

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

1 large red pepper, chopped

2 zucchini diced

1 16 oz. jar of salsa (I used a "medium" chipolte salsa from Whole Foods )

1 tablespoon cumin

2--14.5 oz. can of black beans, drained & rinsed

2 cans of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes (make sure they are diced, otherwise the chunks are too big and you'll have to dice them yourself)

6 cups of low-sodium vegetable broth + 2 cups of water

1 cup cashews blended into cashew cream

1 bag of kale/spinach (I used about 6 ounces of kale, but you can NEVER add too much kale, in my opinion).


Optional:  Add 1 1/2 cups of frozen roasted corn
Throw in some quinoa for the last 20 minutes of cooking (or make it on the side).

Preparation:
Roast the corn and the red pepper to bring out the flavors. I microwaved the frozen sweet potatoes and then threw everything in the pot, brought it to a boil, and then let it all simmer for about hour.  Add the quinoa at the 45 minute mark (or start cooking it in another pan).

After about an hour, add salsa, cumin, black beans, & broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes.

While it's cooking make your cashew cream.  (I used 1 cup cashews and 3/4 cup water and blended. Tip: Use warm water to make the cream blend into the soup more easily.)

Add in cashew cream. Whisk well and make sure the soup is hot. If you have the quinoa in the soup, it's a meal in a bowl. If you don't have the quinoa in the soup serve with rice, bread, or whatever else you'd like!

Let me know what you think and I'll let you know if I make any more changes to the soup.

Hubris...

This post isn't about vegan / plant-based, but I felt I should write it. In 2010, I had my vitamin D level tested and it was lovely... 62. I was proud. I kept taking my 2,000 IU a day. I just had them re-checked. I expected all would be grand and I'd be celebrating my 50+ result again.

cue ominous music...

Nope... 30. What??!

Yes, 30 is "in the normal range" for my lab. But it is THE LOWEST normal value. I got a call from the nurse happily telling me it was normal. I do not consider 30 good at all. I have some inflammation issues and 30 isn't enough for me.

From this site, the Vitamin D Council, it sounds like I need to take 5,000 IU a day of D3 to achieve a level of 50.  Guess I'll be popping Vitamin D capsules for a while.

Black bean burgers with Kale

I always forget about my my black bean burger recipe.  They are actually are "green black bean burgers" because they have so much Kale. I love them.  The vegan who doesn't like vegetables loves them, too.*  I need to remember to make them more often. They take a while to cook, but the prep isn't too bad. I notice that I'm much more comfortable using the food processor in the kitchen than I was even a year ago. If you're new to cooking as a vegan, it will get easier!

*Surprisingly, the vegan who loves veggies doesn't like them--she's a purist when it comes to her black beans.) 4 out of 5 in our family love them and so do others outside the family who have tried them.

back to school: lunches

This summer, we discovered "green noodles." We bought them at one of our favorite vegan restaurants, then found them at Whole Foods. They make quick lunches (only 2-3 minutes in boiling water), and 2 out of 3 girls and 2 out of 2 adults like them. The website makes you want to go buy them and eat them... (They talk about how green their company is and how good the product is.) They have no fat, 6 grams of fiber, and ingredients that are pronounceable, so at the very least, they aren't bad.


My oldest wanted to take them to school for lunch; I got each girl a stainless steel thermos (they were less expensive at Whole Foods than Amazon) and now they can take green noodles or pasta for lunch. They were all getting a little sick of PB sandwiches, it seems. 

If you eat GreeNoodles, what do you think of them? How'd you find them?

A hearty cookie

I found the inspiration for this recipe over at Oh She Glows. It looked fabulous, but I knew I had to make some changes. (I don't like coconut, I don't use coconut oil in my cooking, and they seemed like they might be a little sweet.)

DRY INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats, blended into oat flour
• 1/2 cup almond meal or almond flour
• 1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 cup of flax
• (If you like coconut, add some--up to 1/4 cup shredded. I don't like it and I didn't add it.)

WET INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup "drippy" raw almond butter (or other all-natural nut butter)*
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup pure maple syrup (I used 1/3 cup in the first batch I made and 1/4 cup in the second batch. I liked it both ways and will stick with just 1/4 cup.)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• about 1/2 cup of water to achieve the right thick cookie texture in the batter (I have no idea how much I added, but I don't think I added more than 1/2 of a cup, but in case you need more, feel free. The batter should be VERY thick and hard to mix by hand, but it shouldn't be "dry.")

The most important INGREDIENT**

• 1/3 cup mini dark chocolate chips (or finely chopped chocolate) (or more!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with silicone baking sheet.
2. Grind the cup of oats into flour
3. Very coarsely grind the pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds--I did this because I don't like big seeds in cookies. I really like the effect!
4. In a large mixing bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients.
5. Add the wet ingredients all at once EXCEPT the water. Add small amounts of water at a time (maybe a tablespoon or two) 
6. Add the "most important ingredient" (you could add dried blueberries--if you're using dried blueberries, add a little cinnamon to the dry ingredients in step two (I'd use a teaspoon or two--this is my next experiment).
7. Portion small balls of dough (just smaller than golf balls) onto the baking sheet, and pat them down. We made 17 cookies, but only 15 would fit on the baking sheet so we ate two in batter form.  (Vegan cookies are AWESOME 'cause you can eat them raw!)
8. Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes. I have no idea how long I actually had mine in the oven, but I'm guessing around 12 minutes. I just kind of patted them on top until they felt cookie-like.

Cookie RePort

3 out of 5 of us loved this cookie (my husband, my oldest daughter, and me)! My vegan who doesn't like vegetables didn't like the cookie; she was suspicious when I offered her cookies for breakfast. (I originally called these "breakfast cookies" but later decided they should be "hearty" cookies since you can eat them anytime!) My vegetarian (youngest daughter) deemed it "okay" and she ate one. We'll see if she comes back for more. Note, I don't think this cookie will travel very well as it's a pretty fragile cookie.

Notes

*I didn't have any almond butter so I tried to make my own in the vitamix. Every site I read on the web said it took a lot of patience to make almond butter in your vitamix. I should have listened as I wasn't feeling particularly patient. After about 5 minutes, the almonds were a very fine flour, and just starting to get "oily," but I was having to stop the blender and stir them every few seconds--this wasn't working for me. I added a little water to the flour and blended for a few more minutes and called it "good enough for cookies." Indeed, it was good enough for these cookies as the cookies were very tasty. I now have to decide if I'll use (store-bought) drippy almond butter (and be tempted to eat it on other things) or just make more of my clumpy homemade mess.

**If you hadn't guessed, we love chocolate around here! I am excited to try these with dried blueberries and will report back when I get around to it.

I was so excited to modify this recipe that I got up early on Saturday morning to do so. My husband was surprised when he heard the blender going before 8 am, but delighted by the cookies!

Quick soup

I've never made soup in my Vita Mix, but recently, when we were at Whole Foods, there was a demonstration of Vita Mix soup making.

They made a vegan variant of the minestrone in their cookbook that they called tomato bisque. Here's my interpretation of what they told me they did. (They didn't have the recipe written down.)

2 cups vegetable broth
1 can of diced tomatoes (or 4-5 fresh ones)
1 garlic clove
1 small carrot
1 small onion (I might go with 1/2 a small onion)
1 stalk of celery
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt (if no salt in your tomatoes)
2 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)

Blend it up and when it's blended, turn it all the way up to (very) high for 6-7 minutes. They say the blender will heat the soup up and you'll see steam after that amount of time on high. Add a little Kale and blend it until the pieces are small, but not all the way blended.  I'm going to try it and see if it works. The soup was yummy. I figure, if it doesn't work, I'll just blend it and stick it in a pan on the stove for a little while.

This would be yummy and more filling for girls with some pasta added. My vegan who loves vegetables tasted it at the store and enjoyed it. I think my vegan who doesn't love vegetables might like it without the kale. I think my vegetarian (girl) will like it, too.