Beefless Barley Stew -By Sanjay

So we have been out of commission for a minute. We were suffering from technical difficulties involving the camera and sever bouts of lazy. So even though I don't have a picture for this fooding and I am still incurably lazy, here is a vegan version of beef and barley stew for the cold weather.

Recipe

2 carrots
2 potatoes
2 tomatoes
1/2 a bottle of beer
2 onions
4 tbs barley
2 stalks celery
2 cups TVP
2 cups water
2 tbs oil
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper

Dice all of your veggies.
In a large pot caramelize your onions.
Brown your TVP in with the onions but not for too long.
Dump in potatoes and water and bring to a boil.
Drop everything else in.
Simmer until the tomatoes still have some semblance of shape and form.
You'll probably need to put a bit of water in as the barley starts to soak everything up.

Description

It's brown thick, rich and hearty. Doesn't matter if your 1/2 bottle of beer is flat and was lying around the morning after a gathering as long as there are no cigarette butts in it I'd chuck it in.

Recipe

This is a quintessentially versatile dish. I like to follow a 2 by 2 rule to curb any one element from becoming over powering and getting more flavours into the pot. Also, I like to stay away from adding lentils and turning this into goulash.

Green Linguine -By Sanjay

This is another take on simple pasta. It is quick easy and uses that other half of the can of mushroom soup.

Recipe

1 small onion
3 cloves of garlic
30-40 small spears of asparagus
1/2 cup or water
1/2 can mushroom soup
about a fist full of linguine

Put the pasta on to boil.
Chop and saute onion in a separate pan.
Smash your garlic and chop the asparagus into little pinky joints.
Cook with the onion and add water until the asparagus starts to soften.
Throw in the soup.
It tastes best if you bring it to a boil now and then reduce to very low heat while you drain your pasta.
Description
It reminds me of creamy alfredo or something, except it's green.

Suggestions
You can leave a few spears of asparagus aside and uncut to steam by themselves and serve on top of the pasta to make it look a little more fancy.

Simple pasta -by Susan

I was inspired by a recipe of a healthy pasta dish. Its been ages since we had some good pasta.

Recipe:
1/2 box pasta
1/2 c mushrooms
1 yellow bell pepper
1 small onion
1/2 can cream of mushroom soup
Italian seasoning
1 tsp oil

Chop vegetables and saute the onions adding the other vegetables when the onion is done.
Boil pasta. Drain and add vegetables, soup and seasonings. Stir thoroughly and leave on heat enough to warm up the soup. Then serve.

Description:
This simple dish turned out really good. I intentionally used just enough mushroom soup to keep the dish from being dry to try to limit the fat.

Suggestions:
I used the vegetables in the fridge, but I think most vegetables would work well here. If you want more juice, just add more soup.

Falafel Wraps -by Susan

We found an "international market" which we decided to check out. In there we found falafel mix and I was inspired to see what I could do with it. This is loosely based off a wrap that we love in a neighborhood restaurant.

Recipe:
Falafel Mix
1 small tomato
feta cheese
lettuce
wrap

Follow directions on box to make falafel. This was really simple: mix, wait and fry.

To make the wraps, tear lettuce and slice a tomato onto a wrap. Sprinkle feta cheese on top and add the sliced falafels. Finally wrap them up and eat!

Description: These were absolutely awesome wraps. They came really close to matching our favorite ever! We will definitely be making them again!


Suggestions: The restaurant we like makes a similar wrap, but includes thousand island dressing (I think) which makes them more juicy. I think this might be the final touch required to make them perfect.

Egg Battered Eggplant by Sanjay

It is a rare occasion that brings together eggs and eggplants. I made this because 3 eggs in my fridge got cracked and was feeling too creative to make a dinner omelet.

Recipe

oil for quick frying
2 medium eggplants
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tbs wheat germ
1 tbs paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Cut the eggplant into thick steaks and set aside.
Whisk the eggs.
Drop the wheat germ into the eggs and add mix in the flour little by little until you get a consistency you like. I used a rather light very runny batter because Susan does not like to feel like she is eating a piece of food wrapped in a loaf of bread.
Add in your spices.
Put a couple of the eggplant steaks into the batter and heat up your oil.
You can test the oil by dribbling a tiny bit of batter into it. The batter should cook on contact.
Fry the eggplant (it shouldn't take too long).

Description

The hotter the oil the quicker it cooks. Once the batter is crispy it doesn't absorb too much oil. Keeping the oil hot and doing a quick in-and-out job stops the eggplant from getting really greasy. The batter should be crispy and the inside should be juicy without making the whole thing soggy. This is a bit of a balancing act which may sett off a few smoke alarms while putting you and your stove top in mortal danger. I think that the terror sweats make best condiment after taziki.

Suggestions

I am thinking of subbing out the eggs with gluten and water and varying the sizes of the eggplant cuts for experimentation.

Taziki? Djadjik? Raitha? Yogurt Sauce? -By Sanjay

I made a yogurt based sauce and I am not sure what to call it. The bargain basement cilantro Susan found at the farmers market was still there and looking a little wilted. I was therefore inspired to do something with it along the lines of chuck it in the food processor with olive oil and making some kind of pesto concoction. This was not allowed to happen because I saw our fancy new 'red wine vinegar' aka ghetto vinegar that I poured into an empty red wine bottle. Because oil and vinegar are good friends and we also had too much yogurt that won't keep forever we now have my take on djakdjik (although I am sure somebody's Iraqi grandmother will disapprove).

Recipe

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup natural yogurt
1/4 onion
1 clove garlic
2 tbs chopped cilantro
2 tsp lime juice

Dump in food processor. Process. Enjoy.

Description

Tastes like taziki without being taziki. The omission of cucumber and addition of cilantro helps to switch it up a bit. There is an interesting interplay of sour flavours from the lime, vinegar and yogurt that I enjoyed. It works really well as a salad dressing (as seen above) and as a dip.

Suggestions

I am sure that this would work with a little less oil and vinegar.

Lime cookies -by Susan

I was craving a cookie with less fat than a brownie (what I typically end up baking), but just as much flavor. I ended up making this recipe for Lime cookies.

Adaptations:
I didn't have any nutmeg so I just used about the same amount of allspice which worked out fine. I didn't have any zest (just used a container of lime juice) so I just left it out.

Description:
I think these cookies were awesome, but Sanjay disagrees. They have enough lime juice to be sour so don't expect sweet sugary creations. They also take on the flavor of the spices so that caused them to be wonderfully flavorful.


Suggestions:
The cookies were really difficult to roll into balls. I just took pinches and didn't even try rolling them until they were in the dusting bowl. The spices added so much flavor so don't be afraid to use plenty of them. The cookies taste best if they are cooked all the way through so leave them until you see the brown.

Pizza -by Sanjay

We threw together a pair of pizzas today. The dough is a bread machine recipe from Donna Rathmell Greman's Bread Machine Cookbook V. The sauce and toppings are our inventions or an exercise in getting rid of left overs.

Recipe:

Crust
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/4tsp quick yeast

For the sauce
1 can tomato puree
2 tbs dry oregano and basil
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs salt
2 tsp black pepper

Toppings
1 cup spinach
1 cup broccoli florets
1 tomato
1 onion
1 bell pepper
1/2 cup mushroom
1 lb mozzarella

Place liquid ingredients for the crust in the bread machine first.
Drop in the salt and sugar and then the flours.
Make a small hollow in the flour to put the yeast in. Don't let the yeast touch the liquids sugar or salt.
Put the machine on the 'dough' setting and let it do it's magic.

Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a big bowl. Dunk you finger in and check if it tastes right. Add spices as needed (I didn't actually measure to begin with).

All of the veggies were diced up quite small. I loaded one of the pizzas with half of the spinach all of the broccoli and half of the bell pepper and half of the cheese. The other pizza got the rest.

Spread your dough out on two lightly oiled cooking sheets. Ladle the sauce on and sprinkle your toppings.

The pizza s cook at 350 F for about 20 minutes.

Description:

These big delicious rectangular pizzas are rammed with veggies.

Suggestions:

I'm thinking of trying soy cheese instead of mozzarella in the future.

Palak Paneer -by Susan

Combining all the knowledge we found in a few books and websites, we came up with the following recipe for Palak Paneer.

Recipe:

----Part A----
1/4 lb paneer cubed
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
dash salt
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbps oil

----Part B-----
1.5 lbs frozen spinach
sm piece ginger
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp chilies
1/2 onion
1 tomato

1. Defrost spinach.
2. Chop up onion and tomato.
3. Put all of the Part B items in a pot with a little bit of water and bring to a boil for 8- 10 minutes.
4. Let it cool then grind it all into a paste with the food processor.
5. Finely chop the onion and garlic for part A.
6. Heat oil and fry onion until translucent.
7. Add garlic then fry briefly.
8. Add the rest of the spice powder and stir.
9. Stir in the Part B and let it cook for a few minutes.
10. Add paneer and cook for 2 more minutes.

Description: This version was not as creamy as we had hoped, but otherwise was a hit!


Suggestions: A friend recommended adding cream. In addition, we found that this made the most amazing omelet the next day so be sure to make some extra.

Veggie Burgers -by Susan

Today we were inspired to make veggie burgers. We found an interesting recipe at about.com which we adjusted slightly. Go to Mushroom Veggie Burger for the original recipe.


Adaptations: We didn't have green onions or parsley in the house so we left that out. We also added an egg to try to set it better.


Description: This burger was not at all meaty and didn't hold it's shape very well before frying. The pinto bean flavors dominated the vegetables. On the other hand, the burger satisfied my craving and had an interesting blend of flavors.


Suggestions: We think that freezing the patties overnight prior to use might make them hold up better. Also, a combination of different types of beans and possibly some whole wheat flour might add some more interesting flavors and make them more solid.