Curried Split Pea Soup

Curried Split Pea Soup

Ingredients:
1-2 T olive oil
1" ginger root, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped 
1 medium onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 celery ribs, diced

1 cup split peas (rinsed)
1 chipotle pepper
3 cups water (or vegetable stock)
1 cup spinach leaves

   Spices (heaping):
      1/2 tsp curry powder (I used the East Indian bottle spice mix from the book 660 Curries, below.)
      1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds (toasted and ground)
      1/2 tsp coriander seeds (toasted and ground)
      1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1-2 cups water (or vegetable stock)
Garnish with parsley or cilantro (optional)

For rice:
1 cup brown rice (rinsed)
1 3/4 cup water

In saucepan, saute onion, carrot, celery, garlic and ginger in olive oil 3-5 minutes. Add split peas, chipotle pepper and 3 cups water (or stock). Bring to boil, then lower heat to simmer covered for about 90 minutes.
If you want to serve this with rice, start it after the split peas have cooked for 45 minutes. Rinse 1 cup brown rice and put in saucepan with 1 3/4 cup water. Bring this to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 45 minutes. (If you use white rice, it takes about 20 minutes to cook.)

When the split peas are soft, add salt, spices, and 1-2 cups water, depending upon how thick you like your soup. Bring back to a simmer, then remove from heat. Remove chipotle pepper.

Using a submersion blender (see picture below - I like this one, because it's versatile with the attachments), blend the soup until it has a nice consistency. Stir in the spinach leaves, cover and let the heat wilt the spinach. Salt to taste.

Serve over rice. Garnish with parsley or cilantro.
Serves four.

Tempeh Reuben Sandwich

   Angelica Kitchen Restaurant is one of my favorite places to eat, when I'm visiting New York City! If you can't make it there, then the next best thing is making the delicious food from home... This is one of my favorites. I was a HUGE fan of Reuben Sandwiches when I was a kid. This isn't quite pastrami, but it's darn good!

For the Marinade:

 1-lb tempeh, sliced to preference

1 1/3 c. apple cider or apple juice

3 T. Shoyu or Tamari

3 T. grainy mustard

1 tsp. ground Cumin

1 tsp. ground Caraway

1 clove minced garlic

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/4 c. Olive Oil

- Preheat Oven to 350
- Prepare marinade by whisking all ingredients (except Tempeh) together
- Lay tempeh in a baking dish large enough to hold all the pieces in a single layer
- Cover the dish and bake for 35-minutes.
- Uncover and bake 5-10 minutes longer until tempeh is nearly dry.

For the Dressing:

makes 1/2 cup

1/4 c vegan mayo

2T. ketchup

2T. stone ground mustard

1/4 finely chopped onion

- Mix and chill before serving.

Alternatively:

Russian Dressing

1/2 lb silken or soft tofu

1 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 T. Rice Syrup

1 T. Olive Oil

1 tsp. prepared mustard

1 T. minced red onion

2/3 c. sun-dried tomatoes, soaked and finely chopped

1/3 c. minced dill pickles

1/2 tsp sea salt plus additional for seasoning

- Combine the first four ingredients into a food processor or blender, puree until creamy
- Add tomatoes, pickles, red onion, salt; pulse a few more times to combine

- Layer some Rye Bread with Russian Dressing, Sauerkraut, and prepared tempeh (perhaps some leaf lettuce as well).

Chana Masala

The only chana masala recipe you will ever need.

3 - 4T. Canola Oil
1 tsp. Whole Cumin Seeds
2 T. Ginger paste (ginger root blended with enough water to make a paste)
2 T. Garlic paste (garlic blended with enough water to make a paste)
{optional}1 T. Seranno Pepper paste (chili's blended with enough water to make a paste)

- Heat oil until hot, add Cumin seeds, cooking until they brown slightly and sizzle
- LOWER THE HEAT and add the Ginger, Garlic, Chili paste. Saute approx. 3-min

1c. Water
2 T. tomato paste
1 tsp. ground Cumin
1 T. Coriander powder (fresh)
1 T. amchur (mango powder) or fresh lime juice
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. Turmeric

- Stir in 1c. Water, tomato paste, Cumin, Coriander, Mango Powder, Chili powder, Turmeric. Simmer, stirring occaionally, until the water evaporates some into a thick sauce approx. 10-min.

1 1/2 c. water
4 c. cooked chick peas
half bunch cilantro chopped finely
1 tsp. salt, or to taste

- Pour in the water, add the chickpeas, cilantro, salt. Raise heat to a rapid simmer and cook down for about 15-min.

Garnish with remaining chopped cilantro and chopped onion.

Seitan vindaloo

It's a bit of a work in progress, but the flavors were pretty accurate.

2 tsp. Cumin Seed
1 tsp. black peppercorn
1 tsp. cardamon seed
1 3" piece Cinnamon stick
1 1/2 tsp. black mustard seed
1 tsp. fenugreek

- Grind the above spices together
- Mix the spices with:

5 T. White Wine Vinegar
1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. chili powder or cayenne
1 tsp brown sugar

- Fry 2 large onions, when finished let cool slightly. Afterwards, blend the onions with 3T. Water. Combine this puree with the White Wine Vinegar, salt, chili powder, & brown sugar.
- Blend 1" cube ginger with 10-cloves of garlic and about 3T. water.
- Heat about 3T. canola Oil until hot and add the ginger/garlic puree, stir until slightly browned.
- Add 1T. ground Coriander seed & 1/2 tsp. Turmeric, stir for 1-min.
- Add the seitan, vindaloo paste (onion), boiled potatoes & 8oz. can tomato sauce.

I'm uncertain of the amount of seitan as I just used what looked right :/
I used 2, maybe 3 potatoes. Boiled, cooled, cubed.

Best Easy Breakfast Apple Crisp!

We recently joined a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group and have been getting a lot of apples in our bi-weekly boxes. While I'm not a huge apple eater, I absolutely LOVE apple crisp!
So, I've been repeatedly making this great apple crisp recipe Sunday night after I get home from work, so that we have a delicious apple crisp for breakfast for the next few days. (Depending upon how much I eat when it's fresh out of the oven!)

Apple Crisp (sugar-free and wheat-free)!!

Combine:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup canola oil
4 T rice syrup
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped nuts

Combine in a separate bowl:
5 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
2/3 cup apple juice
splash of lemon juice
1/8 cup currants or raisins
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 T arrowroot

Spread the apple mixture in the bottom of a baking pan. Crumble the oat mixture over the top. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Enjoy!
When reheating, don't cover the pan, otherwise the crispy top gets soggy:(

Vegan Granola Bars

I'm reading the book in Defense of Food.

Because of this book I went into the cabinet to read some ingredients listed on things like my favorite morning granola bars. Though the product has a pretty respectable list of ingredients there were a few things that just don't sit right with me, like soy protein isolate, "natural flavor," mixed tocopherols.
I just made some granola bars that came out pretty good. Here's what I came up with.
Preheat the oven to 325-degrees
For the mix:
1/2 c. rolled oats1 1/2 c. 7-grain cereal (you can use Bob's Red Mill, if you do you can leave out the flax seeds listed below).
1/4 c. sesame seeds
- Put these ingredients into a food processor and pulse (can be as fine as you want, you can even bypass this step, but the 7-grain cereal I used had millet in it which was a little too rough on the teeth for me).

1 c. Whole Wheat Pastry flour
2 T. Bob's Red Mill wheat germ
2 tsp. finely ground flax seed (unless you use Bob's Red Mill, which includes flax seed)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. Bob's Red Mill corn starch
1 T. Dandy blend or Inka (or other grain coffee substitute. I use this ingredient for the chickory root in it.)
1/2 c. evaporated cane juice sugar

- Combine all these dry ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly.

1/4 c. Canola Oil
1/4 c. Brown Rice Syrup
1 T. Coconut oil (you can leave this ingredient out if you don't have it around, just add another 1T. of canola oil to the mix)
2T. Water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. sunflower seed butter (or almond butter, or even peanut butter)

- Whisk all these ingredients together.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Put this mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and spread evenly so that there is an even thickness all around. Score with a pizza cutter or knife into serving size pieces.
- Bake for about 30-minutes. Turn the cookie sheet 180-degrees every 10-minutes so it bakes evenly (the edges might burn, I just discarded the very edges that did so).
- Cool on a wire rack.

Glazed Brussels Sprouts

1 pound Brussels Sprouts
1 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. Maple Syrup
1 T. Red Wine Vinegar
freshly ground black pepper

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Cut the very bottom of the Brussels sprouts, cut in half lengthwise, and discard the outer leaf
- Place in a bowl and toss all ingredients together (except for the black pepper).
- Spread onto a baking sheet and roast until tender, about 20- minutes
- Season with black pepper and serve hot.