Tag Archives: easy

Chickpea mini muffins with lemon tahini sauce

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ChickpeaMuffins

These little cuties are savoury and satisfying. I love them served on a bed of millet with lemon tahini sauce and a big side salad.

The original recipe is from Esther’s Kitchen (Esther being the Wonder Pig). I have made a few alterations and embellishments to the original recipe to amp up the flavour because that’s how I like it. Feel free to leave out any of the seasonings –the herbs, garlic, shallot/green onion or salt as you prefer…. But why? Why?

You can eat these muffins hot or cold, they’re portable so they make a great snack or breakfast on the go, and they’re easy and affordable. What’s not to love?

Ingredients for the muffins

Makes 12 mini muffins

2 cups of chickpea flour – also called besan or gram flour

2 cloves garlic minced

2 shallots diced OR 3 green onions chopped

1 Tbsp fresh parsley chopped

1 Tbsp fresh dill chopped

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1 cup water

Directions

Heat the oven to 400F. Grease a mini muffin tin.

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until everything is incorporated and moist. Spoon into the muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes. The muffins should be golden on top when they’re done.

Ingredients for the lemon tahini sauce

1/3 cup hot water

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 Tbsp maple syrup

Juice of ½ lemon

¼ cup tahini

Directions

Mix everything together in a small glass or bowl. Whisk until well blended and spoon over the muffins.

 

Indian chili – no fail, tasty and a bit different

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IndianChili

This is one of the easiest and fastest recipes ever and pretty much no-fail. The taste is familiar but with an eastern twist that’s flavourful and fun. As with most chilis and tomato-based dishes, this dish is even better the next day and freezes well. Serve it over rice or naan bread.

Ingredients

3 cups of beans (that’s two 15-ounce cans). DO NOT DRAIN. If you’re using freshly cooked beans, then you’ll want to add about ½ cup water to the chili pot.

I used red kidney beans and great northern beans, because that’s what was in the pantry. You could go all white kidney bean, navy bean, black bean, all red kidney bean or even a mixed bean. Whatever suits you.

398 ml (10 ounces) can tomato sauce

1 tomato diced. I used one red and one yellow “cocktail” tomato – they are sized somewhere between a regular tomato and a cherry tomato. You want about ½ cup of diced tomato.

1 onion diced

1 jalapeno pepper minced

2-3 cloves garlic

1 thumb size piece of ginger root, peeled and grated. You’ll have a heaping tablespoon of grated ginger

1 Tbsp olive or coconut oil

1 cup of chopped spinach or kale – optional but nice for greenery

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground turmeric

¼ tsp cayenne

Directions

Put the oil, onion, garlic, jalapeno and ginger in a pot and sauté the ingredients over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add the chopped tomato, tomato sauce, salt and spices and cook for about another 3 minutes or so. Add the beans (and water if using). Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer and let simmer for about 10 minutes uncovered. Stir in the kale or spinach, if using.

Serve with rice or naan. Enjoy!

Lemon-garlic soup with lentils and rice

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LemonGarlicSoup

Are you feeling a little less than spectacular after a holiday season of indulgences? Here’s the perfect bowl to perk you up. The garlic, lemon, turmeric and parsley are all ready to give you a detox and boost your immune system. This is also a bright, refreshing soup full of great flavour and textures, and you can whip it up in just 30 minutes. Mmmmm.

Ingredients

4-6 cups vegetable broth

The juice from 2-3 lemons (about ½ cup juice)

1 tsp grated lemon rind

1 tsp turmeric

4-5 cloves garlic. Mince half the cloves and slice the other half.

1 bay leaf

1 piece star anise (optional, but I love the tang it gives)

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley (see TIP below)

1 cup cooked lentils. II used ½ cup dried beluga lentils (also called black lentils) because they taste great and cook in 15 minutes.

1 cup cooked brown rice (about ½ cup before it’s cooked)

2 carrots sliced

salt to taste (You probably will need none, but depends on your broth.)

Directions

Put all the ingredients except the rice, lentils and parsley in a pot and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 10 minutes so the carrots cook. Remove the bay leaf and the star anise. Add the lentils, rice and parsley. Heat through and serve. Enjoy!

TIP: You can freeze your fresh parsley to use in cooking. Make sure it’s clean and dry and place the whole bunch in a zippered freezer bag. When you need fresh parsley for a recipe, simply break off however much you need and crumble it into your dish. No chopping required. Frozen parsley will lose some of its brightness and firmness so I don’t recommend using frozen parsley for garnishes or in dishes such as tabouli.

Mushroom barley soup

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soup close.jpgI get a cheap thrill fooling non-vegans into thinking they’re eating meat.

This soup is as savoury and dark as any beef broth. However, in this case the beef is still very much alive enjoying his or her life happy in a field somewhere.

My recipe is based on an ancient Moosewood cookbook, but with my own riff to make it more flavourful and less laborious.

Ingredients

300 g sliced mushrooms (about ¾ of a pound)

2/3 cup dried mushrooms – any kind. I buy them in a huge bag for very cheap at a Chinese grocery and use them for making stocks

3 cups water

3 cups vegetable broth

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 onions diced

3 cloves garlic minced

2 ribs celery diced

2 medium carrots diced

2/3 cup dried barley

1 Tbsp tomato paste (you can freeze leftover tomato paste in 1 Tbsp portions and keep it in a freezer bag so you always have tomato paste for recipes like this)

1 bay leaf

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp dried thyme

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup cheap red wine or sherry or port (I always keep cheap port – so cheap it comes in a plastic bottle! – for cooking and marinating)

soup 2.jpg

Directions

In a large pot bring the vegetable broth and the water to a boil. Break up your dried mushrooms into fingertip sized pieces and place in the boiling stock/water. Simmer for 15 minutes and remove the pot from the heat.

In the meantime in a stock pot, dice up and slice your other veggies. Saute the onion, garlic, celery and carrots until the onions are translucent – about 5 minutes.

Add the sliced mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms release their juices. I like to cook this right down so some of the mushrooms start to brown a bit. Add the dried mushrooms/stock/water mixture and an additional 1 cup of water and all the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 40 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and enjoy!

Beet, quinoa and kale salad

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BeetKaleQuinoaSalad

I love the Thug Kitchen cookbook but, like all cookbooks, I find they are often unnecessarily labour intensive. I guess I’m a lazy-ass thug.

Here’s my lazy version of their beet and quinoa salad.

Ingredients

4-5 medium beets

2 cups kale washed and torn into bite-sized pieces

½ cup uncooked quinoa

Juice of 1 lemon (about ¼ cup)

2 green onions washed and sliced

2 clementine oranges peeled and segmented (optional)

2 Tbsp fresh dill or fresh parsley

2 Tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste (I used about ¼ tsp each)

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Directions

TIP: I recommend cooking the beets and quinoa the day before so they are nice and cool. If you put hot quinoa or beets on the kale, it’ll wilt.

Cook the quinoa by rinsing it in a mesh strainer and then putting it in a pot with 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer covered with a lid for 15 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Set aside to cool.

How to peel and cook beets easily

Slice the tops and bottoms off the beets. Place them in a pot with just enough water to cover them. Bring them to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 20 minutes. A fork will go in easily when they are cooked. Remove the beets from the heat and drain the water. Cover with cold water and let the beets sit for a few minutes. You want the beets to be cool enough to handle.

If you’re making the beets the night before, just drain off the water, put the lid on the pot and put the pot in the fridge.

When the beets are cool enough to handle, remove from the water and slip off the skins with your fingers. Slice the beets and place in a large bowl.

Add the quinoa, kale, green onions, parsley and/or dill and clementines, if using, to the bowl. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and Dijon mustard and toss everything together. Serve up and enjoy!

Creamy, sundried tomato and almond pasta

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SundriedTomatoPasta

I was definitely built for long-term survival! While other people have a sweet tooth, I have a fat tooth. This pasta dish satisfies my love for creamy, rich sauces and yet is completely plant based and healthy. Oh, it’s delicious, fast and easy too. Does it get any better??

Ingredients

12 oz uncooked pasta (I used farfalle pasta)

½ cup sundried tomatoes (mine are not oil packed)

¼ cup raw almonds

¼ cup almond butter

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tsp sea salt

A few grinds black pepper

2 cloves garlic

1 Tbsp olive oil (omit if you’re using oil-packed sundried tomatoes)

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

¼ cup fresh basil torn in pieces

Directions

Bring the vegetable broth to a boil (or microwave it) and put the sundried tomatoes in the broth to soak for about 10 minutes.

Cook your pasta according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, put all the other ingredients in a blender and blend until you have a thick, creamy sauce. Yes. It’s that easy.

Drain the cooked pasta and put in a large bowl. Toss with the sauce.

Additions: If I have cherry tomatoes, I sometimes throw a few in the blender for an even tomato-i-er flavour.

I think this dish would be great with a couple handfuls of chopped fresh spinach or kale added to the pasta pot right before draining the noodles (just enough to blanch the greens).

I love this dish with broccoli and peas.

This recipe is my mildly modified version of the recipe from Laura Machell.

Tomato and basil pasta – easy, fast and fresh!

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Tomatopasta

Whatcha going to do with all those beautiful, rosy tomatoes in the garden?? This is one of my longstanding, favourite pasta dishes. Before I went vegan, I ate it with feta or parmesan cheese. Now, I sprinkle it with my vegan version of parmesan. The beauty of this dish is it’s ridiculously easy to make, super fast, and taste like summer time. Using fresh, good quality tomatoes and fresh basil is key.

Tomato basil pasta

2-3 ripe tomatoes chopped (use more or less depending on their size and how much you love tomatoes)

1 small jar or can of artichokes (about a cup). Cut roughly

2/3 cup fresh basil torn or cut

1/3 cup sliced olives (or more – I love olives)

1 Tbsp good olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic minced

9-10 ounces spaghetti or spaghettini

Cook the pasta according to directions. While it’s cooking, chop the tomatoes, artichokes and basil and put in a large bowl. Add the olives, olive oil, minced garlic and toss. When the pasta is done, drain and add to the bowl and toss well. Serve immediately.

My mother would actually eat this dish the next day cold as a salad and add cucumbers to it. You could give that a go too.

Serve with a good grind of fresh pepper and vegan parmesan.

Makes 3 huge or 4 generous servings.

Vegan parmesan

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

1/3 cup raw almonds (no skins)

1/3 cup toasted sesame seeds (I toast mine on a sheet of tin foil in the toaster oven at 400 degrees for 4 minutes)

Grind everything together in a blender or food processor and store in the fridge in a sealed container. It’ll keep for 2-3 weeks.