Homemade Seitan That's Easy And Delicious

Family recipe for the best beef stew
ever. Recipe coming next week.

I actually like using seitan in my vegan recipes. And no, it doesn't taste like chicken or beef or pork  or any of the other "meat" products out there, but when it's part of a great recipe, those chunks of seitan have so much the mouth feel of meat that they can fool the brain.

Now you may be the sort of vegan who doesn't miss meat. But I grew up eating it and while I now gladly forgo it in order to follow doctor's orders to avoid a possible fifth intestinal surgery, adding seitan to my recipes gives me the satisfaction of biting into something that feels like a chunk of meat. Besides the psychological pleasure I derive, seitan is easy for me to digest--whereas the real thing was partly responsible for too many intestinal surgeries. But that's another story.

In the last year and a half I've doled out more than a few bucks buying seitan at my local health food store. It was a product I always kept in the refrigerator in case whatever recipe I was working on would benefit from the taste of "meat." But since my budget is tight, I began wondering if I could make the seitan myself. I questioned my few vegan friends and from their answers, I decided that I didn't want to tackle such a time-consuming project, especially when the general consensus was that the end result was just too nasty to eat.  

Then I bought Chloe Coscarelli's book, "Chloe's Kitchen" and right there in the back was a recipe for seitan. The reason it intrigued me was because every recipe of hers I'd tried had been a blue ribbon winner. Surely her recipe for seitan would follow suit. The ingredient list was small and the directions were simple. I changed only a few spices to suit my personal taste and doggone if it didn't come out perfect on the first try. To make things easy, I mixed all the ingredients in my food processor (one of my tweaks) and had that ball of slippery dough in the cooking pot in less than ten minutes. I dare you to give this a try. My guess is you'll never spend the money for commercial seitan again. The home made stuff costs much less per pound and tastes way better. Who can argue with those odds?

EASY HOME MADE SEITAN

Makes 1 1/2 pounds 

Into a food processor bowl put:

1 1/3 cups vital wheat gluten

1 cup water

Knead the dough until it is smooth and shiny, about 5 minutes in the processor. Do not under knead.

The dough will feel tough, unlike any other dough you've ever made. Relax. That is how it's supposed to be.

Allow the dough to rest 5-10 minutes. Cut it into as many pieces as you wish. I cut mine into three sections so I'd have a ball of seitan ready for use in any recipe I might choose to make.

While the dough rests, get out a BIG pot and fill it with:

4 cups of vegetable stock or no-chicken broth. I used the no-chicken for the added flavor to the seitan.

1/4 cup soy sauce

Pinch of red pepper flakes

1 tsp. dry parsley

Stir to combine. Add the dough balls to the cold broth. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to low. Cover the pot and simmer the dough balls for 30 minutes. Be sure you use a large pot. The balls expand during cooking and become rather like gigantic dumplings.

After 30 minutes, turn the dough balls over, and simmer another 30 minutes uncovered.

Allow the seitan balls to cool in the broth.

Once thoroughly cooled, I put my three dough balls into separate freezer containers, along with enough broth to cover the seitan. The product will last up to 4 months frozen; about 3-4 days refrigerated.

I found that freezing the seitan increased its meaty mouth feel, though I can't explain why. 

As is, the seitan has little taste, rather like a mushroom. But it's porous texture allows all manner of spices and sauces to sink into it and so far I've been delighted at how it can take on the flavors I love. I can make it taste like chicken or beef. I can slice it as I would a roast or grind it into taco meat. The herbs and spices you surround it with will determine the end flavor. 

The homemade seitan is only the beginning. I defrost a ball of prepared dough then either cook it atop the stove or in the oven, turning it into stew or chicken picatta or teriyaki steaks. I am limited only by my imagination.

My seitan chicken pot pie is a favorite. For this photo, I removed
most of the top crust to make the filling visible.

Beans, Greens, & Faux Chorizo--Yumm

When you live at the southwestern end of the  United States, just a hop, skip, and a jump from all the wonderful flavors of Mexico, your senses become addicted to things like hot sauce, jalapenos, adobo, masa, chorizo, and a whole bunch of other foods I'd never heard of during my Midwest childhood. But in San Diego, Mexican food is a given and it seems there is either a fast food place or good old Mexican restaurant around every corner. What's more, they are always filled with people waiting in line to get their "fix" of tongue-numbing food.

I have my own favorite hang-outs. They are places where the food is tantalizingly hot but not to the point where my mouth burns or my lips hurt. My son frequents the places that set the taste buds on fire. He and his dad used to have contests to see who could eat the hottest Mexican food. It was usually a draw, though in all, my son could eat the hottest of the hot and live to tell about it.

As for me, a transplanted Minnesotan who grew up on farm food, I've gotten to the point where I have to have my Mexican "fix" at least weekly--if not more often. What can I say? I love those flavors. And while my mom cooked with a lot of spices, they weren't the ones that make Mexican food smell and taste like I've been transported to some far away, exotic land.

Over my more than fifty years of marriage, I collected recipe after recipe for Mexican food, usually from friends who were Hispanic or knew someone who was. It was from them that I learned how to make things taste the way they should. In this past year, being vegan by doctor's orders, I've tried to think up ways to retain the flavors I love while doing away with meat and dairy. It's been a real challenge.

A few things made the transition easier: I never met a bean I didn't like; I adore all grains; every vegetable in the garden is my favorite;  fresh fruits are as good as dessert; and chilies used in moderation are lip-smacking good.

I'll admit that I had to learn how to fix tofu so that I liked eating it and soy milk took some getting used to. Other than that, things in the kitchen have moved along at a good pace and I've enjoyed the challenge of creating vegan dishes that suit my personal taste buds. Experimenting in the kitchen has turned out to be fun--especially for one who hates to cook. The thing is, I've always enjoyed a good challenge. I think today's recipe is a gold medal contender. Give it a try and tell me what you think. I bet it sets your feet a'dancin...

BEANS, GREENS, AND CHORIZO

THE BEANS:

1 can of vegetarian refried beans (I'm a lazy cook)

1 Tbs. canola oil

1 white onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup vegetable broth

In a small skillet, brown the onion until it is translucent. Add the garlic and vegetable broth. Stir one can of refried beans slowly into the mixture and mash with a fork till the ingredients are well-mixed and the beans are a bit on the juicy side, but not soupy.

THE GREENS:

1 bunch of Swiss chard or kale or any other preferred green

1/2 of a white onion, sliced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Clean the greens and chop into small pieces. Put them in a large skillet, along with the rest of the ingredients and stir fry everything until the greens are well wilted and the onions are soft. Add a dash of Tabasco sauce if desired.

THE CHORIZO:

Place the following ingredients into a quart bowl:

1 cup of vegetable broth

1 cup of water

1 Tbs. red wine vinegar

1 tsp. powdered garlic

1 1/4 tsp. powdered onion

1 Tbsp. yellow mustard

3 Tbsp. ketchup

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1/4 tsp. liquid smoke

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. marjoram

1 tsp. ground cumin

2 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

3 shakes of Tabasco or any favorite hot sauce

Mix everything together and add 1 cup of textured vegetable protein, TVP, to the bowl. TVP is available at your farmer's market. Stir until the TVP is well settled into the liquid. Ignore it for 30-40 minutes so all the spices have time to do their job. 

The faux chorizo mix will still be a bit saucy, but don't drain off the liquid. Put the mixture into a skillet lined with 1 Tbsp. of vegetable oil and cook on medium heat until the liquid reduces. Stir often to keep the TVP from burning. 

THE MEAL:

I served this dinner in components. A big spoonful of refried beans alongside another big spoonful of the chorizo, which was alongside a healthy spoonful of spicy greens. I served hot, fried corn tortillas on the side to be used as utensils for scooping up the food. The two others who ate with me want the recipes. I'd say the meal was a success.

Serves 2-3, depending on how hungry everyone is.

Just look at all the good food
vegans get to eat.

The chorizo recipe has been adapted from The Happy Herbivore cookbook and altered  to suit my personal taste.

Pepper Steak With Tempeh

I have my favorite vegan cookbooks and I use them all the time. I also have my favorite family recipes that I've been missing from my "now" medically necessitated vegan world. How to combine the two separate ways of eating into one lifestyle has long set my mind a thinkin'. After all, in my 53 years of marriage I gathered a lot of recipes that were worth making again and again. With the kids grown and parents in their own right and my hubby gone off to heaven before me, I yearned for the "comfort" foods of my old days.

I know it sounds silly, but I've been missing Pepper Steak. You can tell by the recipe card sitting in my big blue recipe file box that it has been used over and over because it is stained to the point of being nearly unreadable. In the days when two kids and hubby were around the table with me, I had to double the recipe because we all loved the dish to the point of  being pigs about the whole thing. But that's another story.

This particular recipe is a delicious blend of round steak, vegetables, and spices that cooks into a fragrant, saucy mixture that I always served over mashed potatoes. My taste buds been longing for that old favorite from the time in my life when I was surrounded by a happy and loving family. So I set out to veganize it. Nobody was more surprised than me when it turned out to be nearly as good as the real thing.

For the mashed potatoes, I just did them the old way. Peeled, cut into chunks, and boiled to tender. Then I warmed some rice milk, which I find far more palatable than soy milk, with some vegan margarine and whipped them into fluffy clouds. I added salt and pepper and sprinkled them with paprika just before serving. Doggone good if I do say so myself.

As for the Pepper Steak itself, I changed nothing except for substituting tempeh for the round steak. Who knew the whole concoction would be good enough to deserve its own blog? Happy chomping.

PEPPER STEAK/TEMPEH

1 package tempeh

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 Tbs. flour

Cut tempeh into bit size pieces, dredge in the flour, then brown in the hot oil in an oven-proof pot with a lid. The tempeh will look and taste more like the real thing if it has a good crust on it. Remove from the heat.

Add to the pot:

1/2 cup catsup

1 cup No Beef broth (use vegetable broth if you can't find the other)

1 large onion, chopped

2 green peppers, sliced into rings

1 cup mushrooms, sliced (I used baby bellas)

3 Tbs. soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything to distribute the seasonings. Cover and cook in the oven at 350 for an hour. Serve over the mashed potatoes. Enjoy.

Vegans never sleep; we are always thinking up
new ways to veganize old favorites

A Health Report Plus Soup You'll Love

This month I am a year vegan. If you haven't read how that all came about, I'll give a short re-cap.

After about fifteen years fighting intestinal disease that landed me in the hospital way too many times--four were for major surgery and one included a colostomy reversed after nine months--the hospital finally called in a new doctor to see me rather than those who had always attended me in the past. I was there, once again, because of a twisted colon. I hadn't requested a new doctor nor had I ever heard of this one. He just showed up one day as I was laying in bed with a tube up my nose and down the back of my throat and into my stomach. He introduced himself and told me the hospital had asked him to come see me.

After five days of laying in a hospital bed with tubes everywhere, I got to know him a bit, for he came twice a day to check on my condition. The day came when I was going to be released and when he popped into my room for the last time, nobody was more shocked than I was when he  told me I needed to eat vegan if I wished to stay out of the hospital.

I was taken aback. In fact I was just plain disbelieving. "But," I said, "that isn't what all the other doctors and surgeons have told me in the past. I'm always told to go home to a liquid diet for two days and semi-soft for two days and then go back to regular eating."

"Has it worked?" is what he said.

"No, I always end up throwing up and in excruciating abdominal pain after a bit. By the time about three months has passed, when I can no longer keep food down or stand the pain, I come to Emergency. By then I know I'm in trouble."

Then he began drawing diagrams of a stomach and intestinal tract, showing me what was happening and why it was happening and how a vegan diet would change everything. I agreed to give it a try, though I doubted it would work or even help the situation. The whole plan seemed far-fetched, but I gave my word I'd give it an honest shot.

Foods that are always
in my home

My first day home, my daughter stocked my cupboards with beans and grains and vegetables and fruits and soy curd and non-dairy milk and all the other things she saw listed. With great unbelief, I did what I'd been told and waited for the abdominal pain to lay me flat. It didn't happen. I figured by day two  it would begin. Didn't happen. The first week went by and while I fought a lot of flatulence, I felt fine. Still, I refused to take hope. I'd been disappointed too many times before.

Before and After

Four months later I was down forty-five pounds. The weight fell off so fast my grandma skin didn't have time to catch up and was now as wrinkled as a crumpled paper. I didn't care. I felt great. I hadn't expected to lose weight. Nor had I expected my skin to come back to life. People who hadn't seen me for a long time stopped me to ask what I'd done to myself. They weren't interested in being vegan, but the women sure were interested in why the skin on my face glowed with health.

The same question everyone
asks me

This month it is a year since I've eaten meat or dairy or any of the other things not on the doctor's list. I look good and I feel good. To my surprise, my primary care doctor gradually took me off blood pressure meds, ulcer meds, and pain pills, saying I no longer needed them. He also told me he thought the doctor who'd put me on a vegan diet was a genius. He admitted that he would never have thought to do that.

Since my clothes were now literally falling off my body, I dug around in the back of my closet for things that might fit me. I'd let my hair go straight and gray because I was tired of paying for tints and perms. I informed my hairdresser to do something new and I actually loved the cut she created. Then I called a good friend who sells Mary Kay and set a time for a make-over.

I think I still carry too much weight, but I believe my body is in a holding pattern, trying to figure out what's going on. My skin is in a holding pattern too--still wrinkled from the fast weight loss. How grateful I am for my mom's English genes, for while my arms and legs resemble elephant skin, my face is surprisingly free of any deep wrinkles, just as my mom was when she passed away at 82. She never did look her age. Maybe I won't either.

My most-used cookbook

All of the above to say, it's been a challenge to find recipes that please my palette. I generally begin with an idea or even a recipe from a vegan cookbook and then start throwing in the herbs and spices and other things I enjoy eating. I've had people question as to how I'm able to stay vegan, for I spent 70 years as an omnivore. I always tell them the same thing.

"FEAR." Fear is a great motivator. Fear of the pain, fear of more extensive surgeries, fear of long hospital stays, fear of being sick all the time, living on pain pills and tossing my cookies at least once a day. Who do you know that would like a life like that? I am truly grateful that growing up, our family ate tons of vegetables from our garden and fruit from our trees. I never met a bean I didn't like and grains have always been a favorite. Changing my diet wasn't a dreaded thing. Learning how to prepare vegan meals was a challenge, but I learned.

What I've learned, I've passed on to you. I think you'll like today's Sweet Potato And Chard Soup. I went back for seconds. I bet you will too. Blessings.

SWEET POTATO AND CHARD SOUP

Into a soup pot put:

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 small onion, cubed

1 large zucchini, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas

1 small jalapeno, minced, seeds and ribs removed

1 tsp. tikka masala (can use garam masala as a substitute)

1/4 tsp. turmeric

3 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup non-dairy milk

2 Tbs.nutritional yeast

3 cloves of garlic, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

Bring the mixture to a boil, turn heat to simmer and cook, covered, for an hour. 

Add 1 large bunch of Swiss chard, rinsed and rough chopped. Turn the heat to medium and cook another 10 minutes. Serve with any favorite bread or biscuit.

Serves 4

VEGANS ARE A COLORFUL BUNCH!

Meatloaf And Gravy That's Doggone Good

My husband loved meatloaf. Not me. No matter what I did to the fixings, the meatloaf was always too dry for my taste. Even smeared with catsup, it was barely tolerable. Fact is, I'd never had meatloaf in my life until I married my husband. He always raved about his mom's meatloaf, so I asked her to teach me how to make it. Jim always thought it was the best supper ever. He even liked leftover meatloaf in sandwiches. I tried. Honest, I did. But I just never liked it.

So last November, when I brought home a copy of the Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook from my local bookstore and saw the meatloaf recipe, I skipped over it. Again and again and again. There would be no meatloaf in this house, even though all the other recipes in Lindsay Nixon's book had turned out delicious. Still, I had no hopes for anything called meatloaf.

Then came a dark and dreary winter eve when I looked into the pantry and came up with nothing that sounded good. Same with the refrigerator. But wait. I did have an unopened package of tempeh. What could I create with that?

Out of curiosity, I hauled out the Happy Herbivore cookbook and looked up tempeh, trying to get some ideas for dinner. Actually, the meatloaf recipe sounded like it might be tasty so I decided to give it a try. I added a few more ingredients than the recipe called for and stuck the dish in the oven. Thirty minutes later out came something that actually resembled meatloaf. I served it with my own version of brown gravy, along with creamed cauliflower, and garden peas.

It was delicious. I even have enough left to make sandwiches. Who knew?

MEATLOAF AND GRAVY

Set your oven to 350.

Place in a mixing bowl:

1 c. instant oats

1 8 oz. package tempeh, shredded with a box grater

1 small onion, minced

1/2 celery stalk, minced fine

4 Tbsp. ketchup

2 Tbsp. yellow mustard

2 tsp. soy sauce

2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

2 cloves of garlic, minced fine

1 jalapeno pepper, minced fine, seeds and ribs removed

Salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together and let it set for a few minutes. In the meantime, grease a small casserole dish or small breadpan. I used a casserole dish so I wouldn't have to slice an already delicate product.

Pack the ingredients tightly for good cohesion. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Smother with my own version of brown gravy if so desired. Serves 4.

Faux brown gravy:

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. flour

Mix together in a saucepan set over medium heat, stir until the mixture looks somewhat like paste. Add 1 cup vegetable broth. Whisk to make sure there are no lumps. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add 1 Tbsp. Kitchen Bouquet if a deep gravy color is desired. Serve over the meatloaf.

I apologize there is no photo of this delicious dish. When I went to download my pictures, I accidentally clicked remove instead of upload and before my brain registered what I'd done, the photos were gone. Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed.

Crock-Pot Chowder For Busy Days

I have mixed feelings about my crock pot. Sometimes I absolutely love it; sometimes I hate it. The love part comes in when I know I have a busy day ahead and won't feel up to dealing with dinner. That's when it's good to toss a bunch of odds and ends into its great abyss, set the cover in place, and turn it on to do its thing while being ignored by me.

The hate part comes about because after a while everything begins to taste the same. That's when I relegate the vessel to the large cupboard that sits on my back porch. It's been residing there nearly two years now.

But then the rain rolled in and decided to stay. I wanted soup, but figured I wouldn't feel like going to all the trouble at the end of the day and began thinking of a way I could indulge my senses without having to spend much time in the kitchen. It was then that the light came on. Crock pot something. So I brought the unwieldy appliance into the house, cleaned it all up, and set about throwing things into it that I thought might go together. Nobody was more surprised than I was that the resultant chowder actually tasted great.

Next time you want dinner without much work, give this recipe a try. Let me know if it works for you. I want to warn you in advance that this soup isn't the prettiest one on the block. But it sure tastes great. Happy Slurping!

CORN, BEAN, & COLLARD CHOWDER

Place into the crock pot:

2 cups of frozen corn

1 can of any favorite bean, undrained

1/2 cup diced onion

1 diced Anaheim chili or chili of your choice

1 medium potato, peeled and diced

1 cup frozen collard greens

1 cup soy milk

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup of quinoa, millet, amaranth, or grain of choice

1 Tbs. poultry seasoning
2 garlic cloves, minced

Few drops of your favorite hot sauce

2 Tbs. agave nectar

Salt and pepper to taste

Turn the crock pot to low and ignore it until you get hungry. I served this tummy-filling chowder with biscuits, but any bread of choice will be good for sopping up the last bits of juice. Serves 4

Happy Slurping!

Tiz The Season To Be Busy; So Dinner Must Be Easy

I don't know about you, but at my house it always seems that Christmas falls on the woman in the family. Perhaps I'm wrong. But around here it was me who made the cookies and cakes, shopped for all the gifts, wrapped every package, planned Christmas dinner, shopped for all the food, then cooked all the food, decorated the tree (all but the lights, hubby put those on) and then got out a step stool to get all the good dishes down from the top cupboard where they resided most of the year.

I was the one who hollered for help to put all the leaves in the dining table, then by myself, I set the table with the good dishes I'd drug out and washed and the good silverware I'd dug out and polished and the crystal glasses I'd taken down from a top shelf and scrubbed till they sparkled. Hubby's job consisted of putting up outdoor lights and heading out on December 24th to find me a present. Oh, and putting the star on top the tree, simply because he could reach it and I couldn't.

Now I don't know how you do things, but Christmas at my house was exhausting. Even now that I'm alone, what with kids married and hubby graduated to heaven, this time of year is still busy. And while my daughter has taken over my duties and is having dinner at her house, there is still a lot for an old lady to accomplish. Gifts still need to be conjured up, purchased, and wrapped and, in some instances, mailed off to other places. Considering that I'm not a young chick any longer, the things I have to do are enough for me.

Busy as I was, I cheated on my cooking this week and will likely be cheating till after the first of the year. I can't seem to find time to create another vegan recipe and accomplish everything else I have to do. Having a few vegan cookbooks on my shelves comes in handy. Tonight I began with an offering from Everyday Happy Herbivore by Lindsay Nixon.  I love black-eyed peas, and once I saw the recipe, I looked no further. I made a couple of changes in the original recipe and next time, I'll make a few more. But just as it is, it has lots of flavor, fills the tummy, and is quick to make. I labeled it just right for those times of the year when dinner has to be fast or none at all.

CARIBBEAN PEAS AND RICE

2 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 bunch green onions

2 celery stalks, minced

1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger

4 fresh thyme twigs (1/4 tsp. dried)

1 1/2 tsp. green Tabasco sauce

2 tsp. jerk seasoning

1 cup brown rice (I used white rice as it's faster cooking.)

2 Tbs. ketchup

1/2 tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 bunch kale, chopped small

1 15 oz. can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed

In a large saucepan, pour a layer of vegetable broth and saute the onions, celery, garlic, ginger, thyme, hot sauce, and 1 tsp. of the jerk seasoning. Cook over high heat until the celery is soft. About 3 minutes. 

Add the remaining jerk seasoning and stir to coat. Stir in the black-eyed peas. Cover and move the pot to a back burner to simmer and let the spices meld. Do not let the pan go dry. Add more broth or water as needed to retain moisture but not to drown. In all, you'll likely use about 1/2 cup of the broth.

In a small saucepan put:

2 cups of vegetable broth, the ketchup, and turmeric. Stir to combine.

Add the rice. Bring to a boil and cover. Turn heat down to very low and ignore it for 20 minutes. (If you use brown rice, cook for 45 min.)

About 10 minutes before serving, add the kale to the black-eyed pea mixture. Cover and cook till the kale is wilted.

To serve, place big serving of rice on a plate and top with the black-eyed pea/kale mixture. Sprinkle with some green onion tops if desired.

I used Swiss chard instead of kale because the chard looked fresher. Any green would work. Your preference.

The fresh ginger was too strong for my palette. Next time I'll cut it by half.

Jerk seasoning is available in the grocery store's spice aisle. Buy it and make your life easy. Otherwise you'll be mixing this and that and twelve other spices together to get what someone has already bottled up.

Dinner was on the table in about 30 minutes. Can't beat that for a busy day.

This Christmas season, share your table with someone less fortunate than you. I don't remember a holiday as a child growing up when there were not strangers at our table. Sometimes it was a teacher who was alone or a couple from our church who had no one and once we moved to CA, there were always two or three marines who were far from home who ate with us and thanked my parents over and over for allowing them to be part of a family on Christmas Day.

Caldo Verde--I Did It My Way...

You've heard me say it a dozen times: I hate cooking. I read recently that those who hate to cook are always bad cooks. No one should make blanket statements like that because the blankets are never big enough to cover everyone. Just because I find cooking to be boring, time consuming, and about as much fun as falling down four flights of stairs doesn't mean I can't do it. Truth is, I'm a really good cook. I just don't think it's fun.

With Christmas on the horizon, I've been sitting in my chair knitting up a storm. That's what you  do when you're a senior citizen on social security. Keeping those needles flying leaves me little time to cook--as if I'd spend any time on it anyway. Because it's easy for me to knit and listen to television at the same time, I've got my channel set to the cooking shows. Truth is, I learn something new nearly every day without having to pay too much attention to what's actually going on. At least once a day, I hear one chef or another say that in order for food to taste good, it has to be made with love. I don't think I've ever put love into anything I've ever cooked. In fact I know I haven't. Well, maybe popcorn on the stove. The old time kind with melted butter. But that's another story.

I came across today's recipe in a vegan cookbook. It was called Caldo Verde. As I understand it, that translates into green broth. So I followed the recipe. Personally, I thought it looked boring. I also thought it tasted boring. Now my rule is if I'm gonna spend time cooking, the end result jolly well better taste marvelous. So I went to work on the Caldo Verde and when I finished fixing it, the aroma filled the house with such a tantalizing expectation of something good that the two guests I'd invited for dinner came snooping into the kitchen to see what was cooking.

"It's soup," I told them. "It used to be boring but I fixed it." They know me so they understood what I meant. I took the hot garlic bread from the oven, dished up steaming bowls of my version of Caldo Verde and we all declared it a winner. Now I have a reason for telling you this story. I want you to know that even if you find cooking a necessary drudgery, that doesn't mean you have to be a bad cook. And if anyone suggests that you should put more love into your food, look them in the eye and tell them the only love you feel toward food is the eating part. I can't tell you how many guests I've served in my many years of living who have eaten my food and said to me, "I thought you didn't like to cook. This was delicious."

I don't know who made up the rule that someone has to like doing something in order to do it well. Whoever it was, they lied.

No more nutritional yeast; used real Parm
to show what the finished dish looks like.

Caldo Verde 

Into your soup pot put:

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

4 medium potatoes, cut into small bites

1/2 cup celery, sliced small

1 tsp. marjoram

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp. turmeric

1/2 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper or to taste

Cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes

Add:

1 15.5 oz cooked cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (I used canned)

4 cups vegetable stock

4 cups water

1/2 cup dry white wine

Bring the soup to a boil then turn the heat to low, cover the pot and let the soup simmer about an hour, stirring every now and then.

Approximately 15 minutes before serving add:

1/2 cup tempeh that's been cut into small pieces

1 bunch of kale, washed and chopped

Turn the heat to medium and allow the soup to simmer 10-15 minutes. If desired, individual servings can be sprinkled with a bit of nutritional yeast to add a sort of Parmesan cheese taste to the soup.

This recipe serves 4-6, depending on whether it is used as a main course or a side. Any leftovers are even better the next day.

Off To Morocco--Vegan Style

While I've never set foot in Morocco, I've always enjoyed photos of the area, what with the colorful street vendors crammed against the dun-hued architecture. It seems a study in beauty set against the starkness of a desert landscape. And even though I have visited the country only in my imagination, the foods of Morocco have been reality on my taste-buds.

It isn't that the dishes are so unusual, for many of the ingredients are familiar to us. The secret to their tongue-tantalizing recipes are the spices used in every dish. The interesting thing is, these are spices we are familiar with. Yet the Moroccans blend them together in a way I would never have thought of and maybe you wouldn't have either. Give this recipe a try and see if you don't become a Moroccan vegan. Who ever would have thought such a thing existed?

I let my bean mixture get too dry. Don't make
the same mistake. Your bean mixture should look
brothy but not like a soup.

Moroccan Medley

Into a saucepan put:

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

10 oz. of couscous
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. turmeric

Bring vegetable stock and spices to a boil. Stir in the couscous. Cover and remove from heat. Set aside till later.

In a big skillet put:

1 Tbs. oil
1 big onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbs. minced jalapeno or more if you like lots of heat
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
Cook till the vegetables are soft.

Add:

1  14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained
1  15 oz. can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of chopped dates or figs
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. paprika, not the smoked kind.
pepper to taste

Cook over medium heat until the spices marry. Turn heat to low and simmer about 1/2 hour. If the mixture gets too dry, add some vegetable stock. The resulting product should be a bit on the saucy side rather than dry, but it should not look like soup.

Fluff the couscous with a fork till it is light and fluffy. Center big scoops of the couscous on a dinner place. Pour a good portion of the bean mixture on top.

Sprinkle the dish with chopped cilantro and pine nuts (optional)
Drizzle with a bit of good olive oil

Serves 2 hungry people or 3 not so hungry ones.

Serve this dish with naan bread or any other flatbread that you like.

There will be couscous leftover. I made extra so I could make another Moroccan dish. I'll post it next week.

Happy Eating....