Tamale Pie , Vegan Veggilicious

This pictures reminds me so much of the
small rural Minnesota town where I
grew up. No horse carriages or sleighs
in the 1940's, but the rest seems so
familiar I just had to show it.

With Christmas sneaking up on us, most moms I know have swung into overdrive. Even all the grandmas I know, though our overdrive should really be called mini drive because that's how we get around--a mini bit at a time. Even so, nightly dinners that are fast and easy are the name of the game from now until next year because stopping at the nearest fast food chain or ordering up a pizza doesn't work for most vegans. Toward that end, I've been going through my recipe box of family favorites to find those easy hot dishes I could make vegan without giving up taste.

My dresses are shorter and my
hair is gray. Otherwise, glasses and
all, this could be me.

By now you know that I only post recipes that receive my seal of approval and this one does. It's fast, bakes in the oven so there's no standing over a hot stove, and prep work is minimal. By now you also know how much I hate being in the kitchen and always have, so my recipes are generally fast and dirty, taking up almost none of my precious time. After all, there are quilts to finish, knitted scarves to get done, aprons and hot pads that need their bias bindings sewn on, and then there's all that wrapping and mailing looking me in the face.

Phew, just writing it all down makes me tired. I'm going to take a nap.

Back again with the rest of the story. Yesterday I grabbed my decrepit 40 year old recipe box and spent some figuring out which favorite casseroles could be easily veganized. My eyes stopped at Tamale Pie and since the day was chilly, I figured it would be belly warmer. Now I don't always come up with a re-worked recipe winner the first go-around, but this time it worked. I hope it works for you too. Let me know what you think.

TAMALE PIE

2 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 cups of corn, fresh or frozen
1 small onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 roasted red pepper, diced (I used jarred)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 jalapeno, minced, ribs and seeds removed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can refried beans
1 cup water or vegetable stock
1 cup salsa, (I'm addicted to La Victoria)
1 small can sliced black olives
1 Tbs. chili powder
1 Tbs. ground cumin
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup vegan cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Add more water or vegetable broth if the mixture is too thick to spread easily.

Put the vegetable oil in a large fry pan.
Add the onion, bell pepper, roasted red pepper and all the spices.

Cook on medium heat until the fresh vegetables are limp. Then add both cans of beans along with the corn, salsa, olives, garlic, stock, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook till all the ingredients are blended. I used my potato masher to make sure everything jammed together quickly. I'm not against helping things along so I can get out of the kitchen quickly. When everything looks homogeneous, turn off the heat, cover the pan and ignore it for now.

Now it's time to make the substitute tamale dough.

Into a bowl put:

1 cup corn meal, (I always use Albers as I think it has the best taste)
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Set aside for now.

Into another bowl put:


1 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened soy)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Mix together and set aside.

Use your coffee bean grinder to turn 1 Tbs. flaxseed into powder. Move the ground seeds to a bowl and add 1 Tbs. water. Stir together and then set the mixture aside for 5 minutes. This is one of the egg substitutes that works quite well. If you don't have flaxseed, you can substitute 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, but the cornmeal mixture will taste a little sweet.

Pour the flaxseed mixture into the bowl of liquids and mix them together. Now add the dry ingredients in 2 increments. Mix by hand. You will have some lumps. That is normal. Overmixing will make a tough cornbread that even the dog can't chew.

Grease a medium sized casserole dish and pour about half of the cornmeal mixture on the bottom. Spread out thinly. Top that with the bean/vegetable mixture and pat down smoothly.

Spread the vegan cheddar cheese over the top and then pour the remaining cornmeal mixture over that.

Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes at 350degrees or until the top is a light brown. Let stand a few minutes before cutting into serving pieces.

Serves 4-6 hearty appetites.

While this recipe sounds complicated, it's really quite easy. You will use a lot of bowls but the dishwasher can take care of washing and drying them. Believe me when I say this recipe is fast, for then it must be so. You know how much I hate being in the......well, you know.



Another idea:

If you'd prefer to make this recipe even easier, use a small bag of Frito's as a substitute tamale dough. Lay the bag on the counter and give it a good crush, breaking up the Frito's at least by half. Now pour half of the bag on the bottom of the pan and the rest of the bag atop the whole thing before baking it. I mention SMALL bag as compared to a personal size bag. Personal size simply does not have enough chips to do the job.

You're probably laughing because you think I'm joking!

Junk Food Junks Up Your Brain

     You can be a dumb Vegan. That's a fact. Hopefully this blog is a healthy start to becoming a smart vegan. For me, once a week vegan has slowly taught me what smart vegan means and how my body can benefit from this diet. The number one benefit, the benefit I never expected, is a clearer head. I am not a Vegan everyday, maybe 4 days out of 5. However, learning about the Vegan diet has informed my choices everyday. 


     Moonwalking with Einstein, by Joshua Foer is a book about memory. (copyright 2011) On page 11 he interviews 67 year old Tony Buzan founder of the World Memory Championship. Mr Buzan tells him that he makes a point of eating lots of brain-healthy vegetables and fish. Junk food in: junk brain. Healthy food in: healthy brain.


     For brain athletes, like all athletes, diet matters. The brain requires roughly 20% of the calories you consume. (For more specifics, you can read this information on the Livestrong website.) That's a lot of calories. The brain also takes them first. After all, the brain is body headquarters. 


     There are a lot of roads to a healthy diet. It's one of those topics that can result in a lively debate, especially if you say VEGAN. Is it healthy, I mean, do you get enough protein? What about restaurants? Can you eat out? You don't eat eggs either? 


     And so it goes. 


     Today, I'm cooking lentils, something I never ate as a child. Quick to cook, easy to digest. They have a slight nutty flavor. Good hot or cold.

LENTILS

     Lentils, are lens-shaped pulses. Pulse? New word for me too. A Pulse is a food harvested for it's dry seed. Pulses are high in protein and essential amino acids. They provide complex carbohydrates, several vitamins and iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, no cholesterol, and little fat. Lentils are not a complete protein so they are often paired with rice. 

Simple Lentil Salad

serves 4

1 cup cooked lentils

1 cup cooked brown rice

1/2 cup chopped red cabbage

1/2 cup chopped cucumber - skin and all

1/2 cup assorted bell pepper

1/2 cup broccoli florets

1 tsp chopped garlic

1/2 cup oil and vinegar dressing - your choice

Mix them all together and refrigerate at least an hour to blend the flavors. Serve with additional dressing over baby spinach or romaine lettuce. 


There's a smart vegan salad. Clearly. 

Salad Too Pretty To Eat

You all know how family potlucks are. Everyone brings something to share and chances of finding anything vegan on the table is slim to none. But that isn't what happened to me on my family Christmas Eve get together. In all, about thirty-five of us showed up and I was glad my sister has a three-story house because we seemed to fill it to the rafters.

The appetizer table alone was so full of goodies I wondered how it remained standing on it's skinny legs, but with all the people gathered around it, I think all the bodies helped hold it upright. I didn't graze that table because I was pretty sure there was nothing there that I could eat. How wrong I was. One niece had brought a big tray of jalapeno poppers wrapped in bacon and a small dish of poppers stuffed with vegan cheese and no bacon so I could partake too. I have to say they were delicious.

In order to keep the big tables for sitting, my sister laid all the food out on her two big kitchen counters, loading them down with all manner of goodies in every color. Thanks to another of my nieces, there was a small pot of vegan chili on the back of the stove and thanks to one of my sisters, another small pot of vegetable soup with dumplings sat on another burner. One cousin came with her family-famous and vegan friendly salad, which I love and knew I could eat with relish. I did, too.

How grateful I am for family that takes my vegan diet into their plans in order to make sure I have something to eat at our get togethers. I know not every family is like that and I thank God for giving me relatives who love me enough to take special care that I have food on the table. They know how many years I have spent in and out of the hospital with intestinal disease and how many bowel resections I've had.

They know that since the doctor changed my diet to vegan that I've been doing well, feeling well, and lost weight. They care about me to the point that they take extra time to cook a small dish of something I can have. So while everyone else filled up with big bowls of turkey chili and chicken and dumplings, I was content with the vegan renderings they'd cooked just for me. It doesn't get any better than that. Food is just food. But food cooked for one single person at a gathering of thirty-five relatives, says a lot about family ties and the love that binds.

I like this salad so much I purposely asked my cousin to bring it. She made enough so that I could take some home with me. 

FRESH SALAD TOO PRETTY TO EAT

4 bell peppers, all colors, chopped

2 limes, juiced

1-2 garlic cloves, pureed or grated

1 jalapeno, minced

1 small red onion, minced

salt and pepper to taste

1 bunch cilantro, minced

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of corn, drained and rinsed

Mix everything together about a day before you want to serve it. This dish is crunchy, spicy, fresh, and addictive. Trust me on this.

Salad photo and recipe courtesy of Lydia Buchanan

Sassy

The Italian taught me how to make fresh tomato sauce in her tiny condo kitchen in the late 80s. Even as I watched her, I didn't quite believe it. Fresh garlic in olive oil, fresh peeled and chopped tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper. It was so good. So fresh and simple and good. And no recipe.

For a young cook, no recipe was a little problem. It took a long while to throw my cares to the wind and experiment with quantities and trust my nose. The Italian had been cooking for a long time. You could see her connection to food when she chopped and stirred and served. She's the one who first told me that if you eat right you will save on medical bills.

I was thinking of her as I was learning this pepper sauce. I found it in a cook book that said things like one onion, one yellow bell pepper etc. This still bothers me. Put two onions side by side and tell me, how can my sauce be good each time if one time I chop that onion and it turns out to be one cup and the next time I chop that onion and it is one and a half cup? Small, Medium and Large are not helpful measurements. So I set about to make my own recipe.

Sassy Pepper Sauce

(Yields 4 cups sauce)

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cups chopped fresh Roma tomatoes (no need to peel them)

1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

2 cups chopped onion

2 Tablespoons chopped garlic

Heat the olive oil in a heavy sauce pan. Add the chopped vegetables and cook for about 10 minutes. 

That's it. 10 minutes. The vegetables should be soft, the onion translucent and your feet should lift about two inches off the floor when you inhale it's rich goodness.

Now this is the part I can't help you with. This is the individual taste part. Add salt, pepper and chili powder to your particular taste. Start with a 1/2 teaspoon of each. Stir it in, taste it. Wait a bit. Not right? Add. You can not subtract from a sauce, so take your time.

What to do with this sauce? Add it to a pot of beans. Spoon it over pasta. Just look at it. It is a feast for the eyes. And just before you serve your sassy dish, dash some fresh parsley over the lot for good measure. It's the color wheel trick. Colors across the wheel from each other compliment each other. Just like peppers and tomatoes compliment each other, red and green are friends.