I love foods that carry a kick. In my book, though, a little spice goes a long way; a touch of chili paste or a dash of cayenne is sufficient. I’m one of those people that asks for mild or a heat level of 1 or 2 out of 5. Just enough and I’m in culinary heaven.

But even mildly spicy foods can build up heat over time, and you need some kind of gentle salve to bring the delicious pain back down. One of my favorite desserts to do just this is rice pudding. It’s creamy and sugary, and has a touch of cardamom to give it a different kind of spice. (If you’ve ever been to an Indian restaurant, rice pudding is a pretty standard find on the menu to wrap a spice-filled meal.)

Here is a vegan version of an Indian rice pudding recipe I found online. If you use the same milk replacements I used, you can omit the sugar. It’s sweet enough without it. It’s also a very forgiving recipe, so if you don’t want to use cardamom, try cinnamon instead. Don’t like or have raisins or pistachios? Leave them out or replace them with something else.

Vegan Rice Pudding
Based on the Indian Rice Pudding found on Food Network
Makes approximately 4 small servings

• 1 cup cooked long grain or basmati rice
• 1 cup vegan milk
• 1/2 cup vegan milk, vegan creamer or vegan heavy cream alternative
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/3 cup golden raisins (optional)
• 1/3 cup unsalted pistachios, chopped (optional)

Cook your rice according to the package directions.

I used long grain white rice

Once the rice is ready, in a large nonstick saute pan over medium heat, combine the cooked rice and first cup of vegan milk. Heat until the mixture begins to boil.

Mixing in the first cup of vegan milk

Decrease the heat to low and cook at a simmer until the mixture begins to thicken, stirring frequently, approximately 5 minutes.

Starting to thicken

Increase the heat to medium, add the vegan heavy cream alternative and the coconut milk, sugar (if needed) and cardamom and continue to cook until the mixture just begins to thicken again, approximately 5 to 10 minutes. Use a whisk to help prevent the cardamom from clumping.

Adding in the remaining milks: MimicCreme and coconut cream

I wound up using this sweetened MimicCreme as a substitute for the heavy cream. It’s very sweet, so it’s best to omit the sugar in this recipe if you use this stuff. I also used a sweetened coconut cream, however my first preference would have been for unsweetened coconut milk.

I used this MimicCreme in place of heavy cream

Once the mixture just begins to thicken, remove from the heat and stir in the raisins and pistachios (if using).

Adding golden raisins to the creamy rice mixture

Transfer the mixture to individual serving dishes or a glass bowl and place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding.

Getting ready to chill the rice pudding

Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Chilled and ready to eat!

This is really a pretty good recipe, but next time I would use a vegan creamer as a substitute for the heavy cream, and unsweetened coconut milk. I also didn’t use pistachios because I didn’t have them on hand, but I am sure they would have been delicious.

There is just one teensy thing, and I don’t know if it is because of the rice I used or what, but when I had let this chill overnight, the rice seemed to have dried out – which is odd to me, because the rice is sitting in a thick liquid.  When I had a bite right after it was finished cooking, the texture was perfect. So I think that what I’d do next time is plan to make this pudding the same day it would be eaten, then chill it for only a couple of hours at most.

Otherwise this is a delicious pudding and a perfect end to a spicy meal or a hot summer’s day!

Done and yum.

Do you have a favorite rice pudding?

Moroccan Lentil Salad

I don’t like salad, or perhaps it’s better said that I generally do not like salad. Sometimes the greens are too bitter or the tomatoes not how I like them (I prefer whole cherry or grape tomatoes, not diced tomatoes) or the dressing isn’t to my liking (no honey – or agave – mustard for me, thanks). But I do like it more when I can add more interesting flavors and textures like dill or kidney beans. Still, I would rather have potatoes or pasta over salad.

But I have decided that I am going to make an effort and try to make salads I can enjoy and maybe even love. I have added, for the first time, a category for Salad on Novel Eats, and I’m going to start filling it with recipes I try, and I’ll be honest if I like them or not.

This first salad is a result of a search I did the other day for lentil salad recipes. This one caught my eye because of the addition of spicy peppers and lime, and I actually like it pretty well. I do think it works better as a side rather than on its own, but its flavors are fresh and the colors beautiful. A good start to my self-imposed salad challenge.

Moroccan Lentil Salad
The original recipe can be found on Allrecipes.com

• 1/2 cup dry lentils
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup pre-cooked or 1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 2 hot green chile peppers, seeded and minced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Sort, rinse and then place lentils and water in a small to medium-sized pot. Bring water to boil, reduce to simmer. Cook for 30 minutes or until tender. Once it has finished cooking, drain and rinse with cold water.

Sorting dry lentils

In a medium to large-sized mixing bowl start combining your ingredients as you prepare them.

First, add your garbanzos. Normally I like to cook these at home, but I was lazy this time and just grabbed a can of organic. Make sure you drain and rinse them if you use a can (if you rinse, it will remove the excess salt it may have been packed with, reducing the sodium you’ll intake).

Organic garbanzo beans

Chop your tomatoes.

Chopping up a couple of tomatoes

Chop your green onions, making sure to discard any wilted or damaged parts.

Beautiful green onions get chopped

Chop your green, yellow and red peppers. You can use just one color if you prefer, but each has a subtle, yet unique flavor all its own.

Green pepper goes next

Just half of this one is needed, but you can do the whole thing, too, if you want

Then finally the red pepper

Juice a lime straight into the bowl with the other ingredients.

Quick tip – I don’t show this in the picture, but if you turn the lime the other way (upside down), you can squeeze more juice out of it more easily.

Juicing a lime

Chop up some fresh cilantro.

Chop fresh cilantro

Add the lentils to the bowl if you haven’t already, then about half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of salt and the olive oil.

Ready to mix

Stir well, then chill for about 20 minutes, as you want to serve it cold.

Ready to serve

This is great on the first day, but I found that if it sat overnight, it got really watery. Best to serve and eat on the day you make it, but it’s still good if you want to save it for later.

I would also say that I would probably want to add another chile or two just to increase the kick a bit, and if you’re wanting to save calories, you can skip out on the olive oil. I forgot to add it until the end, and it tasted just fine without it.

A bite full of flavor and color!

What is your favorite salad?

Winter Squash and Bean Stew

Every Sunday I usually like to make a big pot of beans or soup for us to have for lunches during at least the first half of the week. It makes meals infinitely easier, and allows me to not have to think about what I’m going to eat while I’m in the middle of work. Because I do this fairly consistently, I do like to try new recipes and mix things up a bit.

When I found this recipe for stew, I knew I had to try it. For one thing, I don’t make stews very often, but I do really enjoy them. Another reason was because I still had a lot of my hubbard squash leftover, and I needed to use it. The final thing that drew me in? Chipotle. I love chipotle, mostly for its smoky flavor, but for its extraordinary heat as well. I was excited to try this combo of flavors.

Note: One nice thing about this recipe is that it does not require the use of a slow-cooker if you do not have one, although I am sure this would also cook nicely in one.

Winter Squash and Bean Stew
This recipe is taken from the Hubbard Squash and Pinto Bean Stew found on MyRecipes.com

• 3 cups dried pinto beans
• 4 cups water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium-sized onions, chopped
• 4 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled hubbard squash or fresh pumpkin
• 1 cup peeled and sliced carrot, about two medium-sized carrots
• 1 tablespoon chipotle chile in adobo sauce, chopped (for a gluten-free recipe, you can substitute about 1 teaspoon chipotle pepper powder)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 2 teaspoons dried sage
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, undrained
• 3/4 teaspoon  salt
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin-seed kernels, toasted (optional)

Sort and wash pinto beans. Check out my post on how to cook dry beans to learn how to sort and wash beans, although you do not need to follow the remaining steps for this stew recipe.

I love the smell of beans cooking wafting through the house

Place the beans in a large pot, and cover with water to about two inches above the beans. Boil them for two minutes, turn off the heat and then allow them to sit for about two hours.

Cooking dry beans

Drain and rinse the pinto beans, then combine them and four cups of water in a large pan, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes. Cover and simmer an additional 30 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, prep your squash, carrots and onions. Take care while chopping your squash – refer to my post on hubbard squash risotto to see how I recommend cutting open the squash as well as chopping the actual squash meat.

Chopped squash, carrots and onions

Cut up about two chipotle peppers from your can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.

Important: If you are following a gluten-free diet, I discovered that this can of chipotle peppers is not gluten-free. It contains flour, likely to thicken the sauce. I do not know if there is a gluten-free version of this product out on the market, but I imagine that you can use chipotle pepper powder as a substitute.

Chipotle peppers = smoky and spicy!

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion, squash, carrot, and chipotle peppers. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Sautéing squash, onions, carrots and chipotle peppers

Add to bean mixture, then stir in sage, thyme, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until squash is tender. Stir in salt.

Finishing up the bean stew

Ladle the stew into individual bowls, then sprinkle with pumpkinseed kernels (if using) – and serve.

A hearty squash and bean stew

This was such a hearty stew, and perfect to eat throughout the week. The only thing that I might add next time is some textured vegetable protein (TVP) or some Tofurky Kielbasa or Tofurky Italian Sausage to bulk it up more. Otherwise, it’s a great stew and perfect to serve to your favorite omnivores.

What is your favorite kind of stew or soup?

Learn more about Vegan MoFo.

Hubbard Squash Risotto

I don’t know about you, but I like it when I see dirt on my vegetables. It makes it feel as though they have spent some honest time in the ground and haven’t been sterilized and made shiny by a machine. I think of calloused hands, tending them as they grow from seeds to tender shoots to fruiting plants, then finally picking the vegetables with care and passing along the love to me.

Golden Hubbard Squash

It’s that dirt that probably made me cave for this golden hubbard squash when I was out shopping for a pumpkin. That and the fact that I had never heard of a hubbard squash, and was so curious by its shape and size. $12 later I had no clue what I’d do with it, but I’ve discovered several recipes that have potential, and it’s a good thing, too. Destructing it this weekend I discovered that just the amount of meat alone allows for you to get creative and try several different dishes.

The first is a creamy and rich risotto. The hubbard squash may be in the name, but shallots and chanterelles grace this dish adding delicate flavors. Because of its richness it is best served as a side dish, or along with a refreshing salad with a citrus or vinegar dressing. You may also want to consider serving this as a unique dish at your Thanksgiving meal.

Hubbard Squash Risotto
Based upon the Winter Squash Risotto recipe found at Eating Well

Tip: You can use other types of winter squash if the hubbard squash is not available or preferred.

• 5 cups vegetable broth or plain water
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 medium shallots, thinly sliced
• 3 cups hubbard squash, peeled and chopped (1/2-inch pieces)
• 2 cups shiitake, chanterelle or white button mushroom caps, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads (optional)
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine, or dry vermouth (optional)
• 1/2 cup finely shredded or crumbled vegan cheese like Teese Vegan Cheese or Daiya

Wash your hubbard squash, then cut off both ends.

Cutting off the stem end of the squash

You’ll notice pretty quickly that the exposed flesh sweats. Before you cut the squash open, put the towel under the squash to reduce the squash’s ability to slip, then carefully cut the squash in half.

Exposed hubbard squash

I found that my squash was too large to cut straight through, so I would cut down one side, turn it, then cut down the other side. Cut one side of the squash into smaller pieces that will be more manageable to handle for when you will be peeling it. You may need only one-third or one-half of the squash for this recipe, so keep this in mind as you are cutting the pieces.

Then using a potato peeler, peel the squash. The skin is bumpy, so you may find the peeling process to take longer than it would with a smoother-skinned squash.

Cut hubbard squash getting peeled

Once it is peeled, cut three cups of small half-inch chunks.

Tip: To make the chopping easier, pop the peeled pieces into the microwave for about a minute (you may need to do a tad bit more). They may be hot to the touch, so take care, but when they are cool enough to handle the chopping should be far easier. Be aware, though, that this is not meant to be cooked in the microwave, so do not allow it to be in there for more than five minutes at most.

Chopped hubbard squash

Place broth or water in a medium saucepan, then bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat so the broth remains steaming, but is not simmering.

Vegetable broth warming up

Slice the shallots, which are mild onions. If you need to, you may substitute white or yellow onions.

Slicing a shallot clove

Prepare the mushrooms. I used chanterelles, but you can use shiitake or I am sure that white button mushrooms would also work just fine.

Chanterelles

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, the add the shallots. Cook and stir them about one minute. Stir in squash and mushrooms, and cook and stir for five minutes until the mushrooms give off their liquid.

Shallots, hubbard squash and chanterelles cooking

Add thyme, salt, pepper and saffron (if using), then cook for 30 seconds.

I had some saffron on hand, so I decided to use a little. It’s a very expensive spice that has a bitter and tart odor, but is usually used in dishes to add a bit of color.

Saffron

Add rice, and stir until translucent, about one minute.

Adding the arborio rice

Add wine (or vermouth) and cook and stir for about one minute, until almost absorbed by the rice, about one minute.

Stir in one-half cup of the hot broth, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring constantly, until the liquid has been absorbed.

Adding broth to the risotto

Continue adding the broth one-half cup at a time, stirring after each addition until all the liquid has been absorbed, and until the rice is tender and creamy. This will take at least 30 to 40 minutes total, and you may have some broth left.

The art of making risotto

Remove from the heat and stir in the vegan cheese. I used Teese that I mashed up with a fork.

Teese vegan cheese in risotto

Serve immediately.

Hubbard squash risotto

If, like me, you have never made risotto before, you may want to take a moment to watch this video that I found after I made this. Watch the video, then try the recipe. You may save yourself some time, and your risotto will probably be just as creamy and perfect.

Have you made risotto before? What are the star ingredients?

Learn more about Vegan MoFo.

Sauteed Green Beans

I just returned from a 10-day vacation to Summer. While there I saw beautiful tomatoes from green to yellow to red hanging on their vines, green and plump zucchinis preening themselves in the sun, and potatoes crawling their way out of the ground. I also saw hundreds of green beans, all waiting to be plucked and eaten right then and there.

Then yesterday, we came back to Fall where everyone is wearing jackets and our tomatoes are being trucked in from afar. It made us kind of sad because we never did have a proper summer this year, but at least while in Summer (a.k.a. California) we felt like we were getting the rest of what we were supposed to have had in Washington.

But yes, summer – when I think of it, I think of tomatoes, peppers and squash, but I also think of green beans. How I love green beans – they are delicious when raw, yielding a sweet flavor, and when cooked they give in to their more savory side. I typically like them pretty simply – lightly steamed or boiled with a dash of salt – but I decided that I would find and try a new recipe to see if I could expand my horizons.

Sautéed Green Beans
Based upon Dad’s Pan-Fried Green Beans recipe from Allrecipes.com

• 1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce or Bragg Liquid Aminos
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vegan white sugar
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil or olive oil
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic

First, gather together your ingredients.

The main ingredients: vinegar, garlic and green beans

I love balsamic vinegar for dipping bread, but I rarely use it in my cooking or baking because I generally do not like my food to be acidic. That said, I am going to experiment more with it, and of course, this recipe is part of that whole experimentation.

Bragg Liquid Aminos

If you don’t know what Bragg Liquid Aminos (we call it Bragg’s in our house) is, it is essentially a lower sodium alternative to soy sauce. If you are used to the flavor of soy sauce then it will probably take some time for you to become accustomed to the difference in flavor of Bragg’s. That said, it’s great to use in recipes where the flavor may not be quite as pronounced. I would also recommend that you look for the smaller bottles of Bragg’s if you are trying it for the first time – it costs a pretty penny if you find you do not like it.

Trim your green beans either by slicing off the ends with a knife or popping them off by hand, and rinse well.

Trimmed green beans

Place the green beans in a large saucepan or pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then cook for five minutes. They should still be firm and bright green. Alternatively, you can steam them.

Boiling green beans

As your beans are cooking, stir together in a small bowl the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and sugar, then set aside.

Soy sauce (Bragg Liquid Aminos), balsalmic vinegar and white sugar

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until starting to brown.

Sautéing garlic

Add the green beans and stir to coat with the oil. Stir in the soy sauce mixture and simmer for a couple of minutes uncovered to reduce the sauce.

Finally - the green beans

Transfer the beans to a serving dish and pour the sauce over them.

Sauteed Green Beans

I confess that I didn’t like this dish very much – and yep, you guessed it – because of the balsamic vinegar. I just don’t need a vinegar flavor in cooked dishes. Sure – potato salad, pasta salad, bread, but not something like this. That said, I know that my tastes are not exactly like yours, and you may find it is a great side dish for those summer beans that you may still be finding in your garden or grocery stores.

What do you miss most about summer? Or do you live in Summer? :)

Delicious Vegan Chili

It surprises me that I never learned how to make chili. When I was growing up, we would almost always purchase vegetarian chili in cans at the grocery store, but I truly do not remember having homemade chili that often. What I do remember is that I loved it and enjoyed the combination of savory flavors and textures.

A few months ago I made a vegetarian chili, and what resulted was not what I had hoped to enjoy. It was heavy on vegetables, and light on the (fake) meaty consistency that I was really after. I was disappointed, so I vowed that I’d figure out how to make a version that was more reminiscent of what I had grown up with. Several weeks ago I had success, and I am excited to say that it is both super easy to make and delicious. Since then I have made it again, and it was just as easy and good as the first time.

Easy Vegan Chili

• 1-pound bag of dry Kidney beans OR 2 15-ounce cans of Kidney beans
• 1 medium or large onion, chopped
• 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 package Smart Ground Original veggie protein crumbles or another vegan meat substitute
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 3 heaping tablespoons chili powder
• 1 cup textured vegetable protein (TVP), optional

If you are using dry beans, I have already written a post on how you can cook them. This recipe is based upon cooking your own beans, but I will give you an idea of what I would do if I had used canned beans.

If you are using canned beans, put them in a pot, and add a little bit of additional liquid (I would probably do up to 2 cups). Add in the onion, tomato sauce, veggie protein crumbles, salt, garlic powder and chili powder and allow to simmer for half an hour or 45 minutes over medium heat. It will be ready when the onion is cooked to a desired tenderness. To make this a faster process, you can also sauté the onions first, then add all the ingredients together and let simmer for about 15 or 20 minutes. Taste it and adjust seasonings based upon your preference.

Ingredients for vegan chili

Otherwise, if you are using dry beans, about an hour or hour and a half before the beans have finished cooking, add the onion, tomato sauce, veggie protein crumbles, salt, garlic powder and chili powder to the beans in your slow cooker and stir to incorporate. If it still seems too soupy to you, add in about half a cup to a cup of TVP. It will absorb water and also add more texture to your chili.

Adding the rest of the ingredients to the beans

Allow the chili to cook until the beans are done and the onions are cooked through. And you’ll know what I am going to say next – taste test and add more garlic, chili powder or salt if you feel that the flavors are not strong enough.

Then serve!

Freshly made vegan chili

I like my chili to have an additional kick, but I don’t like to make the chili with too much spiciness – that way each person who eats it can adjust the heat according to their own tolerance. My current favorite hot sauce to use is Cholula Chipotle. It lends both a kick and a smoky pepper flavor, which really enhances the chili for me.

I love my Cholula Chipotle

Do you make chili? What is your favorite way to make it? And finally, do you enhance your bowl of chili with some of your favorite hot sauce?

Kidney Beans

This is another post in the Frugal Eats series, as well as the How to series. Cooking beans is both cost-effective and so much more delicious!

At least once a month, the waft of cooking beans fills our home. There are a lot of cooking and baking smells that I love, but beans slowly simmering for a couple of hours is probably in my top ten, maybe even top five list of most favorite smells. It’s one of those smells that envelopes you, like a warm sweater on a cool day. It’s both comforting and nourishing, and I find myself smiling more as it drifts from the kitchen into every other room.

When we do break down and buy beans in a can a part of me feels like I am doing an injustice to not only my wallet (more on that in a bit), but to the beans and myself, too. When you cook your own beans you control the amount of salt and other ingredients, as well as the tenderness. Cooking gives you control, and allows you to experience a more flavorful meal.

Usually when I do one of these Frugal Eats posts, I do a financial breakdown of how much it costs. I will do it again this time, but I will use only one type of bean as an example because oftentimes different kinds of beans can cost varying amounts. I will use kidney beans as an example, and I am referring to online grocery store prices, so you may find that the cost varies from your own shopping experience. Also be aware that these are U.S. products and dollars.

I bet I know what you’re thinking – you’re looking at that last column and wondering where the savings are because there is only a $0.02 difference. Well, if you were to purchase that bag of beans at the same price as the canned beans, it would be exactly a dollar more. Of course, if a dollar doesn’t matter to you, I am hopeful that taste (and smell!) does because it’s still so much better to keep that dollar to spend on some yummy ingredients and spices to throw into that pot of beans.

Of course, if your concern is that you have never made beans and think that making your own beans is hard, be happy in knowing that it’s not. It’s so easy, you can probably do it in your sleep (although I wouldn’t advise it!). Part of what makes it so easy is using a slow cooker, but even if you were to cook beans on the stove it would still be easy. That said, these instructions are for a slow cooker, so if you do not have one I recommend these posts on how to cook beans using a pressure cooker or cooking in a regular pot on the stove.

How to Cook Dry Beans in a Slow Cooker

• 1 pound dry beans (i.e. kidney, pinto, lima, navy, etc.)
• Water (I never measure, so bear with me)

The first thing you always need to get into the habit of doing is sorting your beans.

Sorting dry beans

When you put all of your beans out on a flat surface, just pull a few beans at a time out and examine to make sure that nothing suspect is in your beans. Sometimes you’ll have a pristine batch, but sometimes you’ll find unrelated beans or wheat (not good if you’re gluten-free), rocks, dirt and even bugs.

After you have sorted your beans, put them in a colander and rinse well, using your hands.

Rinsing dry beans

You can then put your beans into a large pot or bowl, cover with water and let them soak overnight. Or, if you want to make your beans the same day, use this faster method which I use all the time.

Put your beans into a large pot and cover with about an inch or two of water (see, I don’t measure). Put it on the stove and boil for a couple of minutes.

Boiling red kidney beans

After it has boiled for a couple of minutes, turn off the heat and let the beans sit for two hours. After they have sat for a couple of hours the water will be cloudy (in the case of the kidney beans, it’s a pinkish, mauve color).

Soaked kidney beans

Put the beans back into your strainer and thoroughly rinse them a second time.

Rinsing soaked kidney beans

Place your beans into your slow cooker, cover with about half an inch to an inch of water and cook on high for approximately one and a half to two hours. This time varies depending on what kinds of beans you are using, so you will need to check to be sure your beans are done before you remove them from your slow cooker.

Cooking dry beans in a slow cooker

(Notice that this is actually primarily a rice cooker, but I don’t even remember the last time we made rice in this thing! It’s perfect for making beans and steaming veggies.)

About half an hour or an hour before your beans are done cooking add in your spices and other ingredients. There are so many different ways that you can spice up your beans, so experiment. We really love spicing things up with onions and garlic, a little bit of cayenne pepper or tomatoes. It’s really up to you how flavorful you get. Stay tuned for a post on how I used these kidney beans!

Do you make your own beans? If so, do you use a slow cooker, pressure cooker or regular pot?

A happy accident

Imagine the following scenario – you’re partway through cooking a standby recipe that calls for standby ingredients that you always have in your kitchen. Except, when you go to add that one ingredient you realize that you’re either going to have to turn off the stove or the oven, drive to the store and buy that vital missing link or you’re going to have to get creative. This is what happened to me a few weeks ago and I’m actually pretty glad, because it turned me on to a new version of an old recipe I’ve been making for at least ten years.

I make lentil soup pretty frequently, and I have never altered the recipe. I’ve pretty much been making the same recipe over and over and over, and couldn’t have been happier with the results. All you need is lentils, an onion, a few cloves of garlic, a can of tomatoes, a couple of bay leaves, some salt, a little oil and enough water you’ve got a hearty and delicious soup in about half an hour or forty-five minutes.

On that fateful day a few weeks ago I had all of those ingredients except for the can of tomatoes. This soup needs tomatoes. It begs for tomatoes. It just doesn’t make sense without tomatoes. I literally stood at the pantry with a quizzical look on my face for at least a minute or two wondering how on earth I was going to fix this dilemma when I spied a can of salsa.

You have to realize that I don’t like store-bought salsa all that much. I much prefer freshly made salsa with all fresh ingredients, but recently I’ve been on a chipotle kick and have been enjoying the chipotle salsa from Trader Joe’s. I grabbed the jar in my pantry, thought “Why not? I make this all the time, so what’s one bad batch of soup if this doesn’t work?” I added in a few tablespoons, then I threw caution to the wind and dumped the whole thing in there. That plus a can of corn, and I knew that this was truly a great solution to my kitchen dilemma.

Southwestern Lentil Soup
This makes enough to serve about four people.

• 1/2 pound dry lentils, sorted and rinsed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-4 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
• 2 or 3 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon oil
• Water
• 1 16-ounce jar of your favorite salsa (i.e. Trader Joe’s Garlic Chipotle Salsa) or 1 16-ounce can crushed or diced tomatoes
• 1 16-ounce can sweet corn or 1 10-ounce bag frozen sweet corn

Ingredients for a southwestern style lentil soup

Sort and rinse your lentils, then put in a large cooking pot. Add water to about an inch above your lentils. You may need to add more water later, which is fine. Add your salt, oil and bay leaves and turn on the heat to medium-high.

First steps in making lentil soup

Chop up your onions and garlic.

Chopped onions and garlic

Add the onions, garlic and frozen corn to your soup and stir everything together.

Adding ingredients to vegan lentil soup

Allow it to cook for a few minutes, then pour in the jar of salsa (or can of crushed or diced tomatoes).

Adding salsa to the lentil soup

Allow the soup to simmer, and stir occasionally. At this point you’ll want to turn down the heat to about medium so that the liquid will not evaporate more quickly than the lentils have time to cook.

After about twenty minutes check the lentils to see if they have cooked through. You want to be sure that they are soft but not mushy. The liquid may have still cooked off a little bit, so you may want to add an extra cup or two to make sure it is still soupy.

Vegan lentil soup

Once the soup is done, discard the bay leaves (don’t eat them), then serve with vegan buttered bread or toast or with tortilla chips. For a creamier soup, add about a tablespoon of Vegenaise to an individual serving of soup.

Southwestern lentil soup

Do you make lentil soup? If so, how do you enjoy making it?

P.S. Check out my new vegan community on www.Lunch.com, Vegan Living. I am going to be sharing more about this in a future post, but wanted to let you in on the secret a little bit early.

Just your basic hummus

This is another post in the Frugal Eats series, meant to help you save money in the kitchen.

First off, a confession – I am not a big fan of hummus. But more specifically, I am not a fan of bland hummus. It has to have flavor, preferably through the incorporation of lots of fresh garlic, and it has to be as smooth as possible, meaning it should spend some quality time in the food processor. Hummus overall, though, has grown on me over the last year or two. It used to be that I disliked it entirely, but my husband has made some good batches, and I’m learning how to improve it each time I make it, too.

Even though I still have to perfect hummus, I can tell you that if you’re looking for a good base recipe, this is it. It is also super cheap to make, which is a bonus for both hummus lovers and recession haters alike. The most expensive ingredient is tahini (if you use it – there are hummus recipes out there that do not use tahini), and olive oil which is optional.

Basic Hummus
This recipe makes about four cups of hummus. If thinned, it will yield a larger batch.

• 2 cups dried chickpeas or garbanzos (this is the same thing)
• Lemon juice from 1 or 2 lemons
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 2-4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons salt or to taste
• Paprika (optional)
• Olive oil (optional)

Sort and rinse the dried chickpeas, and place in a large pan and cover with water about an inch or inch and a half above the chickpeas.

Chickpeas, also known as garbanzos

Boil on the stove for approximately two minutes, then turn off the heat and let it sit for two hours. (Alternatively, you can soak the chickpeas overnight. Boiling just speeds up the process if you want to make a batch the same day that you use them in a recipe or meal.)

Boiling chickpeas for two minutes

After the two hours is up, drain and rinse the chickpeas, then put them back on the stove and cover with about an inch of water and let simmer for two or two and a half hours on low to medium heat. You will want to check it periodically to see if you need to add more water, but if you keep a lid on your pan your water should not boil away as fast. Alternatively, if you have a slow cooker, you can put the chickpeas in there and let them simmer for two and a half hours on high.

Cooking the chickpeas or garbanzos in a slow cooker

Once the chickpeas are finished cooking they should be tender. Drain and rinse them and put them into a food processor and start to blend.

Starting to blend the chickpeas

You’ll want to blend for a couple of minutes, but it will be difficult to get everything well blended at this point. Add in the juice of one or two lemons, and blend again.

Adding in lemon juice

Add the tahini and salt, and blend some more.

In case you have never used sesame tahini before, it resembles peanut butter, but I’ll warn you – it is very bitter, so I wouldn’t recommend using it on its own outside of recipes. Unless you like bitter. A lot.

Sesame tahini

Add in the fresh garlic and blend until smooth.

Adding some garlic to the food processor

You’ll find that the hummus is quite thick at this point, so I would advise taste testing and determining if you should add more lemon juice. You may also want to add just ordinary water to thin it out, but I wouldn’t do more than a few tablespoons at a time. You don’t want the hummus to be runny, but neither do you want it to be too thick.

I would also recommend dividing this into a couple of batches and playing around with adding spices and other flavors. Of course, if you like just plain hummus then you can serve with a little paprika and olive oil on top, and provide raw vegetables, chips or pita to dip. You can also use hummus as an alternative to vegan mayonnaise on sandwiches.

Fresh hummus served with paprika and olive oil

Like I said in the beginning of this post, this is very inexpensive to make. If you find that you rely on store-bought hummus you will discover that you will save yourself a lot of money if you make your own. Not convinced? Let’s price it out. (Note that I am using grocery store prices from stores which list their prices online. You won’t necessarily pay the same price for the hummus you purchase, so this should be used as a general guide for how much money you may be able to save if you were to make your own hummus. My apologies if my math is wrong. I was the kid who cried in math class because it just didn’t make sense to me.)

So let’s say that you typically purchase either an 8-ounce container of plain or classic hummus or a larger 16-ounce container. You could be spending anywhere from $3.99 for the small to $8.99 for the large, and if you buy some of the other flavors, the price could fluctuate. But instead, you decide to purchase a 16-ounce bag of dried chickpeas for $1.65, and a 16-ounce jar of tahini for $11.15. You also choose to purchase lemons which can run for about $0.33 a piece. We’ll assume that you already have olive oil, salt and paprika on hand, and I won’t include the price of garlic since it is typically inexpensive. How much could you save if you made it instead of purchasing it at the store?

In this particular price breakdown you are spending 495% more for 16 ounces and 418% more for 8 ounces if you purchase it at the store vs. making it at home. Add up how frequently you purchase hummus and you’ll see how beneficial making it at home could be for your budget. I admit that we still purchase hummus from time to time, so we still pay more than we ought to, but if we have the time and the ingredients we almost always prefer to make it ourselves.

Do you make your own hummus? Do you have a favorite way of making it?

Stuffed Grape Leaves

I am not big on making New Year’s resolutions, and this year I have made only minor ones that I’ve already broken. That said, here’s one that I am confident I can keep up throughout the year. My resolution is to try to make more foods outside of my comfort and cultural zones. While I love the food I grew up on – the mashed potatoes, fried okra and apple pie, I think that it’s too easy to always fall back on those. It’s time to break out a little and try my hand at new cuisines.

One thing I have wanted to learn how to make for quite some time is stuffed grape leaves, also known as dolmas or dolmades, a food that can be found in many areas of Europe including Greece and the Middle East.* Because this is made in a variety of places, it can be made in many different ways, so this is just one recipe of many that you can try. (Quick note: not all stuffed grape leaves are meat-free. If you buy it from a store or order it at a restaurant make sure that you’re getting vegetarian [vegan] stuffed grape leaves.)

Stuffed Grape Leaves
Makes about 50 or 60 dolmas
This recipe is based upon My Own Famous Stuffed Grape Leaves found at allrecipes.com

• 2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill (I did not have fresh dill, so I used about 2 or 3 tablespoons dried dill)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 quarts vegetable or vegan chicken broth
• 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice, divided
• 60 grape leaves, drained and rinsed
• hot water as needed
• 1 cup olive oil

Gather together and prepare your ingredients.

Preparing ingredients for making dolmas (stuffed grape leaves)

In a large saucepan saute your rice, onion, parsley and dill in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium to medium-high heat for about five minutes. Add half of your broth to the rice and turn down the heat, and let simmer for about 10 or 15 minutes.

Sauteing and cooking rice for stuffed grape leaves

Don’t allow the rice to cook completely, and once the 10 or 15 minutes is up, take it off the heat.

Undercooked rice

Stir in about half of the lemon juice and allow to cool for a few minutes. I used a strainer to make sure no small seeds were added into the rice.

Squeezing and using fresh lemon juice

Take one grape leaf, with the shiny side down and the protruding veins facing you, and add about one to two teaspoons of rice mixture close to the bottom of the leaf.

Grape leaf

Then proceed to wrap your grape leaf by following these steps:

1. First, fold the bottom left part of the leaf over the rice.
2. Then, fold the bottom right part of the leaf over the rice.
3. Fold over the top left portion of the leaf.
4. Fold over the top right portion of the leaf.
5. Roll up the rest of the leaf.
6. Done!

How to roll up a stuffed grape leaf

Place each stuffed grape leaf into a large saucepan, and make sure that they are placed tightly together.

Stuffed grape leaves pre-cooked

Once all of the stuffed grape leaves have been added to your saucepan, sprinkle the remaining lemon juice over them, then pour the cup of olive oil and remaining broth over them. Place a plate top side down on top of the stuffed grape leaves to weigh them down and keep them submerged.

Preparing the stuffed grape leaves to cook

Cover the saucepan with a lid and cook on medium low to medium heat for about 30 minutes (the original recipe calls for a full hour, but you may find that your rice is too mushy if you cook them for that long). Let these sit in the refrigerator for several hours overnight, then serve cold. You can serve these as an appetizer, a snack or with a salad.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

These are so easy to make, although I will say that I imagine that these would be easier to make with fresh grape leaves. The leaves I purchased were stuck together and if I wasn’t careful some leaves tore easily making them unusable. It also seems it would be better to select your own leaves because some were already torn or had holes in them. I would imagine that these would be a great thing to make when your herb garden and grapes are coming into their own in the summer, that way you can rely on your own backyard for ingredients.

Despite some frustrations with the grape leaves, I think that these turned out great and I’m impressed with how simple it is to make them. While they don’t taste exactly like what I’ve had from the store, they do taste similar and taste just as good. They are lemony and spicy, and I love how fresh these taste.

Have you made these before? If you haven’t made these, have you had stuffed grape leaves before, or are these completely new to you?

Yum.

*I had asked my Facebook fans what cuisine they wanted me to make next on Novel Eats. It was a tie between Greek and Middle Eastern, and as you can see, everybody won! Become a fan of Novel Eats on Facebook so you, too, can help me in times of culinary indecision. :)