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asparagus, tomato and garlic pasta

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

My husband and I both love pasta, but I try to not make it too often. While delicious, it’s high in carbs and always seems better with cheese.  David loves a traditional marinara sauce, but I find that gets boring quickly.

Now, with this recipe, I have found that a vegan pasta dish can be just as delicious without the cheese or a thick marinara sauce.  And, it’s super easy to make, and only takes about as long as the time to boil the water and cook the pasta!

asparagus, tomato and garlic pasta

asparagus, tomato and garlic pasta

Ingredients

  • Linguine or noodle of your choice, enough for 2
  • 5-6 oz cherry or grape tomatoes
  • 1 bunch asparagus
  • 3-6 cloves of garlic, minced
  • olive oil
  • 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 tbsp sugar
  • nutritional yeast

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees and set water to boil for the pasta
  2. Trim asparagus, add to a small glass casserole dish, along with tomatoes
  3. Toss with balsamic vinegar, sugar, and olive oil (enough to coat), place in oven
  4. Add the garlic to the dish in the oven when the water boils (assuming 8-9 minutes to cook pasta)
  5. When pasta is done, remove veggies from oven, add to drained pasta, toss, and sprinkle with nutritional yeast to taste.

If you like balsamic vinegar, you can probably increase the amount and/or decrease the sugar/oil. David is not a fan of vinegar, and he finds this recipe tolerable. If it were just for me, I would probably double or triple the vinegar and use little/no oil.

African Peanut Soup

/ Brienna / 3 Comments

I found a recipe for african peanut soup by accident many years ago, and apart from the fact that it’s veggies, tomato, and peanuts, I don’t know how much of the original recipe is still here. Of course, I think it’s delicious the way I make it, but feel free to experiment.

This is one of all my all time favorite soups, and it’s extremely adaptable. My husband told me tonight that it’s almost as good as Kraft Mac ‘n cheese. That’s huge, because he loves his Kraft Dinner (which I don’t buy because I buy almost exclusively vegan).

african peanut soup

African Peanut Soup
serves 6 – 8

Ingredients

  • carrots (1-3)
  • celery (3-4 stalks)
  • yellow onion (red or white will work too)
  • bell pepper
  • garlic (to taste, I like about 6-8 cloves)
  • petite diced tomatoes (28 oz can)
  • kale or other greens (2-3 loose cups)
  • peanut butter (1/2 c natural, chunky)
  • peanuts (handful)
  • salt
  • pepper
  • cayenne pepper or Parma! Chipotle (fresh minced serrano or jalapeño peppers would work too)
  • cilantro or parsley to garnish

Directions

  • Chop all the veggies and the garlic. I do a rough chop, but you can go smaller for a less chunky soup
  • Sauté the celery, carrots, onion, bell pepper and garlic in olive oil. Just until the onion is soft is enough, because it will all cook more as we make the soup
  • Add the canned tomatoes, including all the liquid
  • I add my salt and pepper now, and the cayenne/Parma!  Roughly 1/2 tsp of salt and about 1 tsp pepper, and spice as you like
  • Simmer for about 5 minutes
  • Add peanut butter and 1-2 cups water, stir thoroughly
  • Cover and simmer another 5-10 minutes
  • Add in the kale and simmer (covered) until kale is tender, about 5 minutes (you may need to add more water here, it can get really thick if you started with 1 cup of water.  You can always add more later too)
  • Add peanuts and add spice/salt to taste

You can use really any veggies that you like in this soup. I almost always use carrots and onions, but generally whatever I have on hand. Tonight was the first time I added leafy greens, and it really worked well. You can make less by using a smaller can of tomatoes of tomatoes and less of everything else. I don’t really measure, I just eye ball it. You want about 1:1 ratio of tomatoes to other veggies not including the leafy greens, as those will cook down dramatically.

Here’s what my cutting board looked like before I put everything in the pot (garlic not shown, sorry)! I only had one carrot, otherwise I would have used more carrot and probably less celery.

photo 1

And here’s what it looks like with everything added.  It looked OK in the pot, but once I served it, I realized it was too thick, and I added hot water to thin it out.african peanut soup

Other ideas:

  • chili powder in place of cayenne
  • coconut milk or soy creamer in place of water
  • vegetable stock in place of water
  • potatoes, sweet potatoes
  • blended
  • add soy sauce or tamari in place of some of the salt

almond butter swirl brownies

/ Brienna / 4 Comments

Today I hosted my book club’s quarterly non-fiction discussion. Since we usually do a potluck style gathering, I thought I would try this cool recipe for black bean brownies that I came across through findingvegan.com.

Everyone raved about how good they were, and then I confessed that not only were they vegan, gluten and soy free, they are also primarily made out of black beans!

almond butter swirl brownies (vegan)

(adapted from minimalist baker)

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Ingredients
  • 1 15 oz. can black beans, well rinsed and drained
  • 2 chia eggs (2 Tbsp chia seeds + 6 Tbsp water)
  • 3 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder 
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup or agave (I used agave)
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup Justin’s Maple Almond butter 
  • 1/3 cup dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips + more for topping
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Lightly grease a 12-slot standard size muffin pan (I use Spectrum Coconut Oil spray)
  3. Prepare the “chia eggs” by mixing the chia seeds and water in a bowl and let sit for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Add “chia eggs” and all other ingredients up to and including the baking soda to a food processor or blender (I used a Vitamix) and pulse until smooth and well mixed.  The mixture should be roughly the consistency of chocolate frosting when done.  Add a Tbsp or two of water and pulse if it seems too thick.  It should not be runny, so don’t add too much!
  5. Add the chocolate chips and stir.
  6. Transfer mixture to muffin tin, smoothing the tops with a spoon or your finger.
  7. Add even amounts of the almond butter to each muffin tin, and swirl with a toothpick or knife. You can substitute peanut butter or normal almond butter, if it’s not sweetened already, blend in 2 Tbsp of powdered sugar before adding to muffin tin.
  8. Bake for 20-26 minutes. The top of each brownie should be dry and the edges should start to pull away. No jiggle, but don’t over cook.
  9. Remove and let cool for 20-30 minutes before removing from muffin tins.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving leftovers recipe ideas

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

Got lots of Thanksgiving leftovers that you don’t know how to use?

Here are some ideas and some of the treats I have been making myself.

Cranberry Ice Cream – use leftover cranberry sauce to make ice cream!  I made mine vegan – one can chilled not-lite coconut milk plus one cup sugar plus 1 to 1.5 cups cranberry sauce and a dash of vanilla.  Blend and add chilled mix to an ice cream maker and voila, yummylishious ice cream!

Cranberry Smoothie – still have leftover cranberry sauce?  Mix with ice, non-dairy milk of your choosing and ice (and maybe a banana).  Blend and serve!

Pumpkin Smoothie – leftover pumpkin?  Yams?  Sweet potatoes?  Even if they are mixed into something sweet (like a pie), you can toss it in the blender with some ice and non-dairy milk and have a fun smoothie.

Hot Pumpkin (like hot chocolate but with pumpkin instead) – this works best if you have pumpkin puree and not, say, a pumpkin pie you want to use. Add about 2 tablespoons per cup of non-dairy milk, some pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger) and blend. Then heat in a saucepan to a boil, reduce to simmer until it’s a nice creamy drink. The original, more detailed, recipe can be found over at Healthy. Happy. Life.