Thursday, October 29, 2009

Quinoa and everything else

This post is for Julia because I finally made quinoa and have included instructions below. Quinoa is one of my favorite dishes because it's fast and easy. Before that though I made a delicious polenta and steamed veggies dish with a side of black eyed peas seasoned with miso. (Ok, technically Dandelion the Bitter Green made the polenta because he is better at polenta than I am. I have a quick cook method that does not pass muster with the Dandelion.)



The next night we ate leftovers. The day after that we made soup. Here is the pre-soup ingredients: mushrooms, carrots, burdock, and parsley. Plus some heirloom Anasazi beans.



And the excessive vegan cupcakes made by the Cheerful Baker from recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.



A simple dinner of brown rice with broccoli. Served with leftover soup.



And finally the quinoa dinner. Served with Anasazi beans and roasted kabocha slices. The quinoa also had carrots and bok choy tossed in while cooking.



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Quinoa:
The trick to quinoa is that you either have to wash it really, really well (and drain with a fine mesh strainer) or you can use my method which is easier. This is because quinoa has a natural coating which is kind of bitter and soapy tasting. Therefore you want to wash it well so that it tastes good instead. Or you can roast it in a pan before adding the water as described below.

Take one cup of quinoa, heat up some oil in a skillet pan (or a frying pan with deep sides). If you want you can cut up some garlic or onions and add them now. Let them get nice and brown.
Then add the quinoa. Let it roast in the pan (stirring frequently) until it starts to pop and smells toasted (1-2 min). Once it reaches that magic toasted point you can put in the water (or stock), usually 2 cups. Stir it up, cover the pan and let simmer, checking occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Towards the middle of that cooking time you can add veggies or beans to the quinoa to make an awesome one-pot meal. I like this method because then there are fewer pots to clean. This makes enough for about 3-4 people, depending on what else you are serving with it.
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Pasta night, made entirely by Dandelion the Bitter Green because I had a bike accident that evening and didn't feel up to cooking.



Tonight: Roasted broccoli and sweet potatoes with brown rice and lentils.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Home cookin'

There haven't been a lot of homemade meals this last week between the work dinners and the visiting relatives. Here's what has happened.

Saturday night we ate at Millennium, "San Francisco's Premier Vegetarian Restaurant". The food was more amazing than usual. I think it's something about this time of year. Our waitress even comped us a plate of sorbets! (I <3 Millennium.) I can't even describe what was in my entree because it was so complicated and good. I think it was a forbidden black rice cake with Asian veggies in a coconut, lemongrass and cauliflower sauce. Divine!



The huckleberry cheesecake was not all that. The vegan cheesecake at Weird Fish was actually better in a traditional cheesecake kind of way, though this was delicious in a huckleberries are awesome kind of way.



Monday we finally cooked again: stuffed butternut squash with broiled tofu. The squash was stuffed with (and by) a suggestion of Dandelion the Bitter Green. Brown rice and lentils (which we already had cooked), carrots, kale, and walnuts. It was an especially delicious combination with the butternut squash.



Tuesday was my choice of roasted veggies (carrots, leek, parsnip, and sweet potato) with the secret ingredient-- hijiki!( a small skinny seaweed) Served with another rice/lentil/kale combo.



Wednesday night is pasta night, this time with tempeh instead of tofu. I fried the tempeh first with onions then cleaned the pan and fried a whole mess of kale (redbor and dinosaur) with garlic and lemon juice.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

It Takes Two

Have I ever mentioned that it takes a village to make dinner? Because it really does. Because some nights you need to do laundry or go to a show. Some nights it's a team effort. So I'd like to give a shout out to Dandelion the Bitter Green who made several of this week's dishes. They were excellent and you've taught me everything I know.

The seitan I made last week needed to be used so many of the dinners included seitan, until now when we're out of it. Thursday's was one of the best: ground seitan with onions, served with rice and steamed carrots, cauliflower, and kale.



Friday night I made my super nachos: seitan with pinto beans and chips (and yes real cheese) served over salad greens and avocado.



Saturday I ate at Weird Fish with friends. It was delicious (seitan fish and sweet potato chips!) and we got there before the crowd.

Sunday was seitan cutlets, broiled in the oven with fresh oregano, served with polenta and grilled cauliflower, carrots, and kale. This was one of the many delicious meals made by Dandelion the Bitter Green.



Monday was quinoa, pinto beans, and steamed carrots and bok choy. I was doing laundry so again Dandelion the Bitter Green prepared an excellent meal.



Tuesday was roasted root veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, butternut squash) served with leftover grain and sauted greens.




Tonight is pasta night served with a stir-fry of carrots, broccoli, bok choy, and garbanzos spiced with garlic and ginger.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

All Hail Seitan

I made seitan again last weekend (along with chocolate chip cookies). Most people seemed more interested in the seitan recipe than the best vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe ever. So included in this post is the recipe for SEITAN!

But first, Thursday night we ate a squash soup made from the Red Kuri squash. I don't actually know what that squash is like other than they had it at the farmer's market and it was small enough for me to take home. It's slightly bigger than a pomegranate and about the same shape but more of an orange-ish red. So a lovely pureed soup with roasted squash seeds and kale as a garnish.



Friday night was a make-your-own-taco night. Avocado, carrots, parsley, and watercress topped pinto beans with a garnish of squash seeds.



Saturday night we ate pizza because I was still busy making seitan. Here's the seitan recipe from "Cooking with Seitan" by Barbara and Leonard Jacobs.

2 cups gluten flour
1 cup water or stock
1 cup plain soy milk (or more water)

Mix all the ingredients together with a fork until a dough forms. Mix until the dough becomes thick and stiff and then knead it for a few minutes. (Note: The first time I did this recipe I misread the directions and thought it said to knead for 10-15 minutes! This time I did 10-15 times as it specifies and it was not elastic enough. So somewhere between 10-15 times and 10-15 minutes.) It should start to look like playdough, super elastic-y. Let it rest 2-5 minutes and then knead it a few more times. Then let it rest 15 minutes. Then cook it in a broth for 1-2 hours.

The Broth:
4 cups water
1/4- 1/2 cup soy sauce
3-inch piece of kombu (a seaweed)
4-6 slices fresh ginger
1 Tblsp sesame oil

And then I made "steak" and onions with roasted sliced potatoes (with fresh herbs!) and an almond butter ginger kale side dish, served with wild rice. (Ok, it was really seitan and onions but I like to call it steak.)



Sunday I also made cookies. Yum!



Monday night we made a kale/ seaweed salad with avocado and carrots.



Tuesday night was a quick one-pot meal of quinoa and carrots and broccoli with a can of cannelini beans, spiced with cumin and coriander as well as fresh mint.



And tonight was a broccoli leek soup served with bread and garnished with sauted kale.