I'm leaving for Seattle tomorrow, and starting the Vegan Fusion Cooking Immersion and Teacher Training on Monday. I'm so excited! I signed up for this months ago, and thought April would never get here. I'm also thrilled and honored to have received the Healthy Recipe Award from VegOnline.org (see it to the right). This came in today, just as I'm heading off to cooking school, so I take it as a real sign of Cosmic Encouragement! Here's one more recipe before I hit the road. I'll be blogging from Seattle, so keep checking in, or subscribe by email. Enjoy!
The other day I heard about VeganFest, which is happening in Italy at the end of this month. Rick and I have been wanting to go to Italy for years (and maybe stay there for years), but this year won't work, since I'll be in cooking school, and because there's no money. Sigh... I think maybe next year we could pull it off, and probably make it a business trip by then too. Wishing really, really hard...
Meanwhile, dinnertime happened while I was in an Italian mood, but didn't have any of the usual ingredients for spaghetti or pizza or any other Italian standards. I started pulling things out of the fridge, and soon we were enjoying this wonderful mix of garbanzo beans and greens. If you already have cooked beans and some leftover quinoa (or other grain) this is really fast to throw together. Feel free to use other greens too. This recipe has room for lots of variations.
Mediterranean Beans and Greens
(This will feed 4-5 as a one-dish meal, or more if you add a salad on the side)
1 yellow onion, chopped
olive oil to saute in
2-4 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
6-8 roma tomatoes, chopped
dry oregano, red pepper flakes, salt, black pepper - to taste (be generous with the oregano)
1 cup cooked quinoa (or other grain)
1-2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
1 can black olives, coarsely chopped
1 can artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped if they're large
handful of fresh basil, chopped
3-4 handfuls fresh baby spinach - chopped
juice of 1 lemon
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Saute the onion for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and tomatoes, and dry seasonings, and cook for another couple of minutes. Stir in the beans quinoa. Add olives, artichoke hearts, and fresh basil. Stir in and heat for 1-2 minutes. Wilt in the spinach a little at a time, and squeeze the lemon juice on last of all, just before serving.
