Kitchen Cleanout: Veggies and Beans

We’re going out of town this weekend – Charleston, SC to be exact. I’m pretty excited. I went last year for the fourth of July and it was, to directly quote some of us as we lounged in the lake, beers in hand: “THE BEST FOURTH OF JULY OF OUR LIVES!” (truth.) So, naturally, I’m ready to relive it.

In honor of leaving for three days, I decided to skip grocery shopping this week (!) and make do with whatever I have in my fridge. There’s a bunch of stuff in there as well as in the pantry that’s been sitting around for too long, so this is the week it’s all going to be eaten.

Tonight was pretty simple: tofu, frozen bell peppers + onion mix, canned latin style black beans, microwaveable brown rice. Fancy? Hells no. Really good anyway? Mmmhm.

I won’t bore you with the details of exactly how we cooked the frozen vegetables (on the stove) or how we “prepared” the beans (in the microwave), but I will say it was a successful meal. We set out a bunch of different sides, mixed them all together, added in a bunch of chopped up cilantro, smothered everything in hot sauce, and voila –  a lazy Monday night dinner.

Pizza, Pizza

Pizza is one of those things that people can’t imagine could possibly be any good with out tons and tons of cheese on it. Lies! Cheese-less pizza, when made right is incredibly delicious and guilt free. Pizza without the “ugh, I can’t believe I ate all that pizza” gross feeling aftermath? Yep. Read on.

I make pizza every so often, and I usually do it the same way…crust, pizza sauce, massive amount of fresh vegetables, the end. It’s great to make when you’re trying to clear out your fridge of veggies that are about to go bad, or, quite the opposite, you just came home from the grocery store with heaps upon heaps of fresh vegetables that you don’t know what to do with. Enter: PIZZA.

I always stick with the Trader Joe’s pre made whole wheat pizza crust. It’s 99 cents a package (!), and always gives me a perfect thin crust. You can improvise with whatever pizza sauce you like, veggies, herbs and spices….pizza is pretty hard to mess up, so invent and go crazy!

What You Need:

one ball Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza crust

1 jar of pizza sauce

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 cup broccoli, in bite sized pieces

1-2  cups bell peppers, sliced

1 cup red onion, cut into 2 inch pieces

1/4 a package of frozen spinach

1/4 cup chopped fresh sage (or basil, or any other herb you like!)

salt

pepper

olive oil

garlic powder

What You Do:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Remove the dough from the fridge, and let it sit on the counter letting it warm up a bit.

Get all of your veggies together. For the spinach, place it in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl, and de frost it for about one minute. Once thawed, drain it well, making sure to squeeze out all the water. Place all of the veggies in a ziplock bag, add in one tbsp of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Zip up the bag and shake, making sure to cover all of the veggies.

Next, roll your dough out. Split the dough into two equal halves. (I always do this – two smaller pizzas are usually easier to handle/fit into my oven than one massive one.) Using whole wheat flour (or white if that’s all you have), flour a countertop, and start rolling your dough. At first, it might seem a little difficult — the dough will not seem to want to spread. Keep at it and soon you’ll have the dough rolled out, albeit in funny sized, quasi ovals.

Time to dress these babies up. Pour pizza sauce onto the dough and using the back of a spoon, spread it evenly. Pour the dressed veggies from the ziplock on top, spreading those evenly as well. Top with the sage (or other herb of your choice) and then drizzle an additional bit of tomato sauce over everything.

Pop in the oven and let bake for 30-ish minutes.

After removing from the oven, let the pizza cool slightly before slicing.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato, Tempeh and Quinoa Veggie Burgers

Whoa whoa, what?!  I know, it’s a LOT to cram into a veggie burger, but guys….these came out so good! What’s not to LOVE about quinoa, sweet potato and tempeh?! It’s the perfect combination on its own, and packed into a patty with other add ins like mustard, ketchup, soy sauce and peanut oil it’s a recipe for a totally unique and tasty meat free burger. I know some of you are thinking “But Steph, why would I bother making a Veggie Burger when I can buy one from the frozen section?” Uh, exactly, people. The FROZEN section. Sure, these are sliiightly more labor intensive than ripping open a plastic casing and microwaving on HIGH for 3-5 minutes, but it’s 100% worth it. The microwaveable ones don’t hold a candle to these. Once you’ve tasted one, it’ll be hard to go back to the packaged ones. I promise! (And if you’re feeling adventurous/foreseeing laziness in your future, double the recipe and freeze half of them for later!)

NOW, I wish I could take credit for this genius concoction but alas, I can not. I found it on the Golden Yolk, who got the original recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant Cookbook, “Cooking for Health”. Surprisingly, (and this never happens), I had all the ingredients in my kitchen, so I decided I had to make these.

Don’t be alarmed by the list of ingredients. Veggie burgers are the sorts of things that you can’t REALLY mess up as long as you follow the age old, never fail tip of: don’t add gross stuff into the mixture. Easy, right? The worst thing that can happen when making home made burgers is consistency. Sometimes they don’t stay together because you might be missing a binding agent (oats, breadcrumbs, etc), but flavor wise, just  taste as you go, trust your taste buds and don’t add anything too crazy into it! If you’re missing any of the following ingredients don’t fret and DON’T feel the need to go to the supermarket and pick up a new bottle of sesame seeds. Use what you have!

And now, without further ado….here we go:

What You Need:

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed

2 cups thinly sliced peeled sweet potatoes

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup diced onions

1 cup minced bell peppers (I used 1/2 cup green, 1/2 a cup red)

2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

8 oz tempeh, diced

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

4 tsp soy sauce

2 tbsp ketchup

1 tbsp dark sesame oil

2 tsp dijon mustard

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup sesame seeds

What You Do:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the quinoa in a small/medium sauce pan over medium heat, add a cup of water, the sweet potato and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil. Once boiled, reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes. NOTE: It took me a long time to learn that quinoa, unlike rice, CAN be checked on a few times during cooking. Don’t be afraid to peek inside and mix around to ensure that the bottom doesn’t burn and stick to the bottom.

While the mixture is cooking, preheat a medium skillet over medium heat, and when hot, add the oil. Follow with the onions and let cook for a few minutes until clear, stirring as to not let the onions stick to the bottom. Add in the bell pepper and garlic, cover, and let cook for another 3-5 minutes. Finally, add in the tempeh, oregano, black pepper, cover and let cook for another five minutes, stirring occasionally.

By now, the quinoa should be done. With a spoon, mash the sweet potato into the quinoa until you have a well combined mash. Add the veggie + tempeh combo into the mash and then add the soy sauce, tomato paste, sesame oil, mustard and cilantro. Place the saucepan in the fridge to let the mixture cool. After about 10 minutes, remove the pot from the fridge, and with your hands, form the mash into 6 even sized patties.

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

Serve on a whole wheat bun, in a pita, over a salad or any other way your heart desires. We ate them on a toasted WW bun, topped with red onion, dijon mustard, and sliced avocado. I’ve been eating them for the past few days as lunch too! On a piece of whole wheat bread with hot sauce on top. An easy, filling work place lunch.

Enjoy!

Red Curry Veggie and Tofu Sir Fry

This is another easy one that you can whip together in no time. Very simple to do: stir fry veggies, add red curry simmer sauce, serve over brown rice. The end!

I was a bit lazy for this one and turned to a bag of frozen veggies instead of fresh ones, but you know what? I was actually really impressed with how good these frozen ones came out! Really crunchy and flavorful. Shocker!

What You Need:

3 tbsps of olive oil (or more – I usually like going light on OO).

1 package of extra firm tofu, drained well

One bag of frozen vegetables (I used an Asian medley from Trader Joe’s. Where else?!)

1/4 cup of Red Curry Simmer Sauce from Trader Joe’s (NOTE: this is NOT Vegan! I know, stupid me, didn’t read the label carefully enough. Boo!)

1 package of pre cooked brown rice (again, from Trader Joe’s. Am I obsessed, or what?!)

1/2 cup of chopped basil

fresh pepper

What You Do:

First, the tofu: Cut the drained block of tofu into cubes. Preheat a medium skillet over medium/low heat. Add in a tbsp of olive oil, spread it around the pan, and then add in the tofu cubes. Let the cubes cook, rotating them every few minutes to let each side brown.

Now, the veggies: Preheat a second skillet over medium heat, add in 2 tbsps of oil, and when sizzling, pour in the entire package of frozen veggies. Let them cook mixing them around often (they cook rather quickly.) After a few minutes, transfer the tofu into the veggie pan, and continue to let everything cook. Pour in the simmer sauce, lower heat to low/medium and toss the vegetables and tofu in the sauce. Continue to let cook,  making sure all the vegetables are covered. Taste a veggie. Crunchy? Good. We’re jusssst about done. Reduce the heat to low and let the veggies sit.

Get your brown rice ready to go. Microwave the pre-cooked stuff according to the box (usually a few minutes). When done, remove the veggies and tofu from heat, serve over brown rice, top with chopped fresh basil and ground pepper and voila! A Thai feast!

Penne All Vodka – Ish

I came across this recipe in “Veganomicon” (of course) and honestly, I’d be lying if I told you this tasted exactly like Penna Alla Vodka because, well, it doesn’t. The recipe DOES contain vodka and tomatoes (two of the key ingredients in PAV), but is lacking the creaminess that a normal PAV would have. While it doesn’t taste identical to the real thing, it did come out QUITE deliciously. It’s a really easy, classic, chunky tomato sauce that only took about 15 minutes to make. I served it over whole wheat penne, and, as usual, this recipe made a ton of leftovers!

Next time, if I were going for something more like the real PAV, I would probably try to incorporate either some soy creamer or soy milk. I was still really happy with the way this came out, though. Try it!

What You Need:

2 tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 28oz can of chopped tomatoes

1/4 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp salt

dashes of pepper

1/4 cup vodka

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup sliced almonds

3/4 lb of whole wheat penne

What You Do:

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

On a separate burner, heat a medium skillet over medium low/heat. Add the oil and garlic and sautee until garlic is lightly brown. Don’t let it burn! Add the tomatoes, spices, and vodka. Reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If things in the pan look too dry, add in an extra 1/2 cup of water at any point.

By now your water should be boiling — add in the pasta and let cook.

In a food processor, blend the 1/2 cup of almond slices until minced. Remove the cover on the sauce and add in the almonds. Mix well. Finally, add the basil, mix again, remove from heat.

Drain the pasta and immediately add the sauce to the pasta.

Enjoy!

Easy Veggie Stir Fry

This is my classic stir fry that I throw together whenever I’m lazy/in the mood for tons and tons of veggies/trying to clean out my fridge. It’s really, really easy to make, and you can do a lot with it: eat it plain, serve it over rice/quinoa or, as I did in this case, have it over tofu noodles (which I had never cooked with until my co worker suggested it. Hi Lindsey!)

In case you were wondering what tofu noodles are/where they can be found, I usually find mine in the vegetarian soy products section of my grocery store. They come in little plastic bags, and, get this, each bag has only FORTY calories, which  means you can eat the whole bag yourself and feel completely guiltless about it! Huzzah.
What You Need: (Serves 1 hungry person or 2 small portions)

Note: This is one of those recipes that you DON’T have to follow exactly AT ALL! This should just serve as a very general outline of what you should do/what I did on this particular night.

2 cloves garlic, minced
½ red bell pepper, in 2 inch pieces
½ green bell pepper, in 2 inch pieces
1-2 cups of cremini mushrooms, sliced
½ avocado, cubed
1-2 cups cooked broccoli
1 bag tofu noodles, RINSED VERY WELL (more on this later)
1 tbsp olive oil/olive oil spray
2 tbsps soy/tamari sauce
2 tbsps soyaki/soy vey
pepper
red chili pepper flakes
¼ to 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

What You Do:

First off – rinse and dry your noodles. This was my first time cooking with these tofu  noodles, and I can’t emphasize how important it is to rinse these suckers well. They come in a liquid that stinks. For real. Don’t know what it is, don’t care to know, but it smells gross. SO, rinse rinse and rinse, and then dry dry dry. Make sure all the water is out of the noodles before you add them into the stir fry.

Once you have your noodles ready to go, it’s time to stir fry your veggies. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat, then add the olive oil. Add the garlic and sautee for one minute. Add in the bell peppers, mushrooms and broccoli and sautee until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add in soy sauce and sautee for another minute, mixing everything around. Lower the heat. Add in the noodles and coat them in the veggies mixture. Add in the soyaki/soy vey, pepper and red chili pepper flakes. (Feel free to add any other spices/more soyvey as you see fit…taste as you go!) Leave over low heat for a minute, letting the noodles get warm. Serve with chopped basil on top and enjoy!

Spinach Linguine, Cilantro Pesto and Artichoke Pasta

Are you drooling yet? Mmm, this was a good one. The key is the basil and cilantro pesto which is really easy to make AND cheaper than making normal pesto (pine nuts: WHY are you so expensive? WHY?!) The red onions are also essential, so don’t try replacing them with yellow or white…they must be red!

The inspiration from this recipe came from a little book I can’t put down: Veganomicon. Liiiike, for real. If you’re going to invest in ONE vegan cookbook, I urge you, MAKE IT THIS ONE!

What You Need: (Serves 4)

1/2 lb. spinach linguine (or any pasta)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium red onion, sliced into thin  semi circles
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. veggie broth
1/2 tsp. salt
pinches of black pepper
15 oz. can of artichokes, in water, cut in half or fourths

Pesto:
2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro
1/3 cup sliced almonds
2 cloves garlic crushed
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil

What You Do:

Blend the ingredients for the pesto together in a food processor. Set aside.

Make the linguine as directed on the box. While the pasta is cooking, preheat a medium skillet over medium heat, then add olive oil and onion. Cook for about 7 minutes, mixing every so often, then add garlic, cook for another minute, add veggie broth and pepper and lower heat.

By now the pasta should be done. Instead of draining it, scoop the pasta into the skillet (the water from the pasta will help thin the pesto – a good thing!) add the pesto, mix everything around, add artichokes, mix again, and let sit on low heat for a few minutes until everything is well dressed and warmed through. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Sloppy Joes

I, for one, have never been a big fan of Sloppy Joes. Aside from reminding me of smelly cafeterias, something about oily ground beef  just never did it for me — call me crazy. So even I surprised myself when I decided to try this recipe out from one of my recent cookbook purchases, Veganomicon (which by the way is AWESOME. Get it!). The key is using all the same spices and flavorings of normal Sloppy Joes but replacing the beef with lentils. Pretty smart, huh? These came out deeelicious. I served them open-faced on toasted whole wheat hamburger buns. Definitely not as, er, sloppy (?) as the original, these have a nice little kick and the recipe makes a lot…so plan on leftovers.

What You Need: (8 Open faced or 4 Sandwiches)

I cup uncooked lentils

4 cups of water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tbsp chile powder

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp salt

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

1/4 cup tomato paste

3 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp yellow mustard

whole wheat buns

What You Do:

First thing: cook the lentils. Pour the lentils and water into a small saucepan, cover, bring the water to a boil, lower heat and let cook covered for 20 minutes.

About 10 minutes into the lentils cooking, pre heat a medium saucepan over medium heat, and sautee oil, onion and pepper for about 7 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic and sautee for one more minute.

The lentils should be done by now. Once you’ve drained them, add them to the onion, pepper and garlic saucepan. Add chile powder, oregano, and salt. Add tomato sauce and paste. Mix and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring every so often to make sure things don’t stick to the bottom. If things are looking a little dry add a splash or two of water. Add the maple syrup and mustard, mix everything for another minute, turn off heat and let everything sit for about 10 minutes.

Serve however you’d like: open-faced on whole wheat buns, on toast, eat it plain – whatever! I topped mine off with some sirracha, as I like my food extra spicy.

Enjoy!

Quinoa and Veggie Stuffed Bell Peppers

While slightly more labor intensive than most of the things I post here (and by “slightly” I mean consisting of something other than rummaging through my fridge, throwing things into a bowl, calling it dinner and devouring), these were really yummy and really healthy: veggie, beans, quinoa and a tiny bit of “good for you in moderate amounts” olive oil. They’re quite adaptable so you don’t have to stick to this recipe exactly to come out with awesome looking and tasting peppers.

Quinoa and Veggie Stuffed Red Peppers: Serves 4

What You Need:

1/2 cup of onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup of celery, finely chopped

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 clove of garlic

1/2 a package of frozen spinach – thawed and squeezed dry

1 15-oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved

1/2 of a  15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/3-1/2 cup of uncooked quinoa

1 cup water

3/4 cups grated carrots

1/2 cup sliced cremini mushrooms (or any mushrooms)

salt and pepper

1 tsp red chili pepper flakes

2 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, white stuff inside scooped out

2-3 tbsps of chopped cilantro (or how ever much you like….you can’t ever go wrong with too much cilantro.)

What You Do:

Peheat oven to 350 degrees

In a medium saucepan, heat oil. Add onion and celery, and cook for about 5 minutes making sure to stir is often as you don’t want the onions burning.  Add cumin, garlic – cook for one minute. Add tomatoes, spinach, and cook for another 5 minutes, again, making sure to stir!

Add black beans, carrots, quinoa, water, mushrooms. Add spices to taste- salt, pepper, chili pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium/low, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Pour reserved liquid from tomato can into the bottom of a baking dish. Place the four red peppers in, side by side. Scoop out the cooked quinoa/veggie mixture into each red pepper. Pile it on high! They should be overflowing. Cover with aluminum foil and cook for 30 minutes (if you’re lazy like me) or an hour (if you’re stomach isn’t about to eat itself.)

Top with cilantro and optional nutritional yeast.

Enjoy!

Asparagus and Sun Dried Tomato Pasta

Mmmm. This was a good one. PACKED with “meaty” flavors, it was really, really easy to make (okay, seriously, I need to think of new phrases for easy recipes because it’s becoming a liiiitle much). This is especially good for meat eaters because it has a smokey flavor to it brought on by the Tofutti soy sausages so if you’re trying to impress a meat eater and show them that yes, we vegetarians actually do eat more than sprouts, give this a shot.

What You Need: (serves 3-4)

1/2 package of spinach spaghetti or linguine

1 bunch of asparagus

6 or 7 sun dried tomatoes, sliced

2 Tofutti “Sausages” (or other soy sausages) sun dried tomato flavor  sliced thinly

1 leek, leaves trimmed, cut down the middle and then sliced into thin half circles

3 cloves of garlic (the more garlic the better, right?), minced

olive oil spray/2 tbsps of olive oil

1 tsp red chili pepper flakes

salt and pepper

What You Do:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. After rinsing the asparagus, remove the ends. These snap off pretty easily, so there’s no need to use a knife for this part. Once the ends are off, cut each spear diagonally — about 4 pieces per spear. Lightly oil a baking sheet with OO spray, scatter asparagus on it, spray again with OO spray and top with salt and pepper. Place them in the oven for about 15 minutes. Keep your eye on them! I tend to leave things in the oven for way too long because when I roast veggies I like them really, really, roasted, but asparagus cook very quickly and extra time in the oven could end in disaster. (Trust me, I’ve been there. asparagus are NOT supposed to look and taste like green crispy french fries.) So err on the side of caution here.

While the asparagus are in the oven, bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add your pasta in and let it cook over low/medium heat as directed on the package.

While the pasta is cooking, place one tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and add garlic and leeks. (Note: I typically like to go light on olive oil but feel free at any points in these directions to add more olive oil if things look too dry.) Sauté them for 3-5 minutes, making sure to keep everything moving. Add the sun dried tomatoes and “sausage” and continue to sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Add the asparagus, chili pepper flakes,  and final tsbp of olive oil and continue to sauté for 1 minute.

Your pasta should be done by now. Drain it, place it in a bowl, and immediately add the asparagus/tomato/sausage concoction in. Season with salt and pepper, toss and enjoy!

Note: This was my first time eating the soy sausage. At first, I was petrified to try it. It looked….gross. Really gross. Once I started cooking it and it browned a bit, I wasn’t AS scared. I tasted it in the pasta and let me tell you, it was NOT too shabby. Even Brian, who called it “the most disgusting thing he’s ever seen” when I was slicing it earlier, happily ate it. Now – would I eat this stuff plain, straight out of the fridge, stuffed between two slices of whole wheat bread? Probably not. But it added a LOT to this dish — like I said, gave it a smokey, meaty flavor so don’t be scared by what it looks like in the package, it’s actually quite good! (oh, and bonus – it’s FILLED with protein!) If my attempt at convincing you has failed and you’re still skeeved out by the mock sausage, fear not.  Simply remove it from the recipe and you’re good to go!

*excuse the weird lighting in the photos. evening lighting just never cooperates!

** inspiration for this post, here.