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Mediterranean Beans and Greens

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.

Cashew Caesar Salad Dressing

The weather is warming, the birds are nesting, the daffodils are blooming, and it feels like a good time to start eating more salads. Actually, we eat salad almost every day for lunch. It keeps things simple, and gives us lots of raw fresh veggie goodness without much effort. The trick is to keep the Daily Salad interesting, and that means changing up the ingredients, as well as the dressing. I've come up with a terrific Cashew Caesar Salad Dressing that can easily be varied with some simple additions. The cashews give it a nice thick creamy richness, plus they're good for your heart, and also help to overcome depression. Not bad for a humble nut.

Cashew Caesar Salad Dressing
1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 20 minutes or more
2-3 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 (or more) cup water
1/2 tsp kelp granules (optional)
black pepper and extra salt to taste

Drain and rinse the soaked cashews, place all ingredients in blender or food processor, and blend till smooth. Add more water if necessary, for the right consistency.

For variation, make a Southwest Caesar, with greens, black beans, red bell pepper, corn, and tortilla chip "croutons." Add chipotle powder to taste to the dressing. We had this one at the Grand Canyon, and it's become a staple for summer dinners around here.

Another option is to add fresh basil or other herbs as you're blending. Can't wait to get the herb pots going again. Good, healthy salad dressings are a great way to entice yourself to eat your greens!

Vegan Running Update

As you may or may not know, my daughter and I are running a half marathon in September. Since I'm doing the whole thing vegan style, I want to talk about it here, as well as on my other blog, TakingTheLongWayHome. This week, as Lauren and I blogged together, I decided to add the following intro to all our posts, so those just finding us will know what's going on. We generally post each Wednesday, and from here on, I'll pop a link on this page too. As I go along, I'll also get more into my "training diet," in case it might be of use to anyone out there. This is quite an adventure for me! Post #7 is ready to read!


Kim and Lauren are a mother/daughter team, training to run the Disneyland Half Marathon in September of 2012. Kim, the the 50-something mom is vegan, and is training at the literally breathtaking altitude of 7,000 feet in Taos, NM. She has never been any kind of athlete before. Lauren, the 20-something daughter, is mostly vegetarian, and is doing her training in Seattle, WA. Running isn't new to her, but distance running is. This weekly blog, written by both of them, documents the journey, and hopefully, will inspire a few others to follow a dream, do something that's harder than they ever imagined they'd do on purpose, and enjoy the entire journey. Find all the entries by visiting TakingTheLongWayHome, and entering "Kim and Lauren" in the "search this blog" box to the left.

Featured on BlogHer!

Great news! My recipe for Tofu Chilaquiles is featured on the Food page of BlogHer today! I love getting a few minutes of fame!

Red Curry Lentil Soup

Happy Spring! Dang, it's cold outside! Here in the high desert/southern Rockies of Taos, NM, it looks and feels like winter all over again, with snow and wind and cold, cold air. But the prairie dogs have surfaced, and although they look a little perplexed by the snow, they're still a sure sign that warmer weather will be here soon. Meanwhile, we still need good warming, comforting meals to take the chill off. This Red Lentil Curry Soup is thick and rich and beautiful to look at. My recipe calls for red lentils and red curry paste, but you can also make it with those cute little greenish French lentils and green curry paste.

Red Curry Lentil Soup
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup frozen corn
2-3 T coconut oil
2 cups uncooked red lentils, sorted and rinsed well
1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed well
2 cans coconut milk (the "lite" kind is good, and the regular kind is decadent)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp red pepper flakes (or more)
1 T tamari
1 jar red curry paste

In a soup pot, heat the coconut oil and saute the onion, celery, and carrots for about 3 minutes. Add the red bell pepper and corn, and saute for another 2-3 minutes. There are two options at this point. One is to remove the vegetables from the pot, and set aside to add back into the soup later. This will give you nice crunchy veggies, which is my personal preference. The other option is to leave the veggies in the pot to cook along with the lentils. I did this last night because we had a baby dining with us, and he can't chew crunchy things yet. Either way is good!

Add the coconut milk, broth, lentils, and quinoa to the pot, along with the basil, red pepper flakes, and tamari. Bring it all to a gentle boil, and then reduce the heat to simmer until the lentils are soft. It should only take about 40 minutes or so. That's why I love these little red lentils. They're quick.

When the lentils are almost done, mix the whole jar of red curry paste with enough water to thin it down a bit, and stir it into the soup. If you set the veggies aside, add them back to the pot now to heat them up. Add salt to taste, and dinner's ready. I wonder if the prairie dogs would like some of this...

Tofu Chilaquiles

Most mornings around here, it's all about the smoothie, but Sunday is the perfect day for a special breakfast. I had some Easy Mexican Mole Sauce in the fridge from the other day, as well as a few corn tortillas, a block of tofu, and some bits of vegetables that needed to be used up. The obvious thing to make? Tofu Chilaquiles, of course.

This is easy to make, especially if you already have some mole, Cheesy Chile Sauce, or other favorite spicy sauce on hand. If not, a few extra minutes to blend up your own sauce will be well worth the effort. Have your sauce warming gently in a pan while you put the rest of it together. (If you just don't want to deal with the sauce, store bought salsa, Cholula, or Tabasco can fill in.)

Tofu Chilaquiles

(This makes enough for 2-3 people. You can stretch the amount without adding more tofu by adding beans, more tortillas, and other veggies.)

1 block extra firm tofu - pressed

The pressing is optional, but removing some of the water from the tofu makes it easier to brown, and much less splattery when you throw it in the hot oil. You can buy a fancy tofu press (which I intend to do very soon), or you can wrap your tofu in a clean dish towel and put something heavy on top of it for about 15 minutes or so.

While the tofu is pressing, chop up:

1/2 onion

1 jalapeño (optional)

2 cloves garlic

1/2 red bell pepper

2 large handfuls baby spinach

6 corn tortillas

You'll also need:

1/2-1 cup frozen or fresh corn

avocado slices

salt and pepper

In a large skillet, heat a fairly generous amount of oil over slightly hotter than medium heat. I use aroma-free coconut oil. Cube or crumble the pressed tofu into the hot oil, and cook, stirring gently, for a few minutes, until it starts to brown. Throw in the onion and jalapeño. When the onion is softened a little, add the garlic, red bell pepper, and chopped tortillas. Stir gently for a minute or two. Wilt the spinach into the mix, and then add the corn. (If using frozen corn, push everything to the edges of the skillet, and place the corn in the center to thaw before stirring it in. Add salt and pepper to taste, or let everyone season their own at the table.

Serve topped with your choice of sauce (the mole was awesome) and some avocado slices. I can't wait for next Sunday. I think we'll have this again.