Category: Vegetarian

Beef and Vegetable Red Curry

I make this curry quite frequently, but this time it was extra good.  I followed the directions on the back of the Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste jar with a lot of changes (does that count as following them?) and I used up all the leftover vegetables in my fridge. It was the best one I’ve made so far!  I think the main difference was the fish sauce.  Once upon a time I bought a big bottle of the cheap stuff but it just smelled weird so I never used it.  Then I bought a bottle of the Thai Kitchen fish sauce and used it a few times but I think I left it at my old house when I moved.  The next several times I made this recipe, I didn’t have the fish sauce and then I finally broke down and bought a bottle the next time I went to the store.  It made all the difference!  My recommendation is not to skip it!  Also, I recommend storing it in the fridge :-).

 

Ingredients:

1- 13 oz. can coconut milk

1/2 jar of Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste (or more if you want it hotter)

1 T. brown sugar

2-3 zucchini, sliced into half coins

1 onion, diced

1 large tomato, diced

1 small head of broccoli, chopped

1 pound ground beef, cooked- omit for vegetarian

1-2 T. Thai Kitchen Fish Sauce (I used 2 T. and I recommend this brand.  It’s gluten free and the taste is right.)- omit for vegetarian and replace with salt

extra coconut milk from a carton if you need more liquid or just another can of coconut milk (I usually end up adding a cup or two if I have lots of vegetables.)

optional: splash of lime juice

Cooked rice for serving.

 

Directions:

Heat coconut milk in a large pan.  Add curry paste and brown sugar and stir, allowing to heat for 1-2 minutes.  Add in vegetables and allow to cook for about 5 minutes.  At this point I usually add in some extra coconut milk to make sure there’s enough to make a sauce.  Add in cooked ground beef and allow to simmer for another 5-10 minutes until vegetables are cooked to desired softness.  Pour in fish sauce and lime juice to taste.  Add extra salt if desired, but the fish sauce is salty.  Serve over rice.

Note:  The beauty of curry is you can put most vegetables in it.  Good options are: potatoes, green beans, carrots, celery, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, tomatoes, mixed frozen Asian veggies, etc.

 

Original recipe can be found on the back of the Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste jar.

 

Bean Soup

We had people over the other night to help us pass out candy on Halloween.  I decided last minute that I wanted to serve food to our guests, but I didn’t really have time to cook or to go to the grocery store.  I started looking through our pantry wandering if there was anything I could whip up and I re-discovered a package of mixed beans that I hadn’t used yet.  This is a great soup for serving to a large crowd.  It’s also easy to keep the ingredients on hand in your pantry as a backup. Turns out I was having so much fun with our company that I forgot to take a picture….sorry.  You’ll just have to imagine it for now :-).

 

Ingredients:

3/4 bag of Hurst’s HamBeens brand 15 bean soup*

Juice of 1/2 a lime

1/2 tsp chili powder

1-2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1- 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 packet ham seasoning (included in Hurst’s Hambeen’s soup mix and it’s gluten free!)- leave out to make it vegetarian.  I’m not sure it actually has ham in it…

Cooked rice for serving

 

Directions:

Soak beans overnight (rinse and then cover with at least 1 extra inch of water- they will swell.  Leave in the fridge overnight.  Drain water in the morning.)

Put beans in a crockpot and cover the beans with at least 1 extra inch of water.  Cook on low all day (maybe 6-7 hours).  After beans are soft, you may scoop off some of the water from the top of the beans so your soup won’t be as watery.  I just take out water until I can see the beans poking through the water.  Add all the other ingredients and allow to cook for 30 min-1 hour or more.  Serve over cooked rice.

 

*Texas friends- this is available at HEB.  Really, any bean soup mix would work.  If you can’t find a bag of mixed beans, you could make your own and you could mix and match the beans it contains.  This bag includes the following beans: northern, pinto, large lima, yelloweye (what in the world is that?), garbanzo, baby lima, green split pea, kidney, cranberry bean, small white, pink bean, small red bean, yellow split pea, lentil, navy, white kidney, black bean.

Vegetable Beef Soup

We received a dutch oven for our wedding and I finally initiated it with this dish!  I have been wanting to make vegetable soup for awhile, but in my mind it was this super long and hard task, so I avoided it.  I finally broke down and made it, and much to my surprise, it wasn’t that hard at all. I hope you find a nice new dish for your repertoire in this soup.  It filled my dutch oven to the brim, so make sure you are using a large pot!

 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 T. olive oil

1 1/2 c. chopped onions

2 c. peeled and chopped carrots

1 1/4 c. chopped celery

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 cans chicken broth (I think I used Swansons)- use vegetable broth if vegetarian

2 cans diced tomatoes with juice

3 cups diced potatoes (1/2 in, skins on)

1/2 c. fresh parsley, chopped

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 1/2 c. frozen green beans

1 1/4 c. frozen corn

1 c. frozen peas

2 c. cooked ground beef (optional)- omit for vegetarian

Optional: add cooked noodles (I added Schar Bonta d’Italia gluten free anellini)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven.  Add onions, celery and carrots and cook for about 3-4 minutes, add garlic, and cook for another minute.  Add broth, tomatoes, potatoes, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, salt, and pepper.  Allow it to begin to boil and then add green beans.  Reduce heat and cook on medium-low for 30 minutes or  until potatoes are soft.  Add beef and frozen vegetables.  Cook 5-10 minutes or until beef and vegetables are heated through.  Add cooked noodles if desired.  For best yumminess, serve on a cold night :-).

 

Original recipe:

Vegetable Soup

Confetti Corn

We had something like this at our wedding.  Granted, I was focused on other more important things on the day of the ceremony, but this is the closest re-creation I could come up with.  It makes for a pretty side dish!

 

Ingredients:

1 T. olive oil

1/2  red onion, finely diced

1/2 red pepper, finely diced

1 lb frozen corn

1/2 tsp coarse salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

 

Directions:

Combine olive oil, red onion, and red pepper in a pan and heat for 5 minutes or until they begin to soften.  Add frozen corn, salt, and pepper.  Cook until warm (maybe another 5-10 minutes).

Serve as a side.

Chicken and Broccoli Salad

My brother and I went on a hike for my birthday and I brought this along for our picnic.  It’s simple, quick, and healthy.  You can toss other things into your salad if you want.  This is way more flexible than baking!

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. cooked chicken, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces (can be replaced with more broccoli to make it vegetarian or to turn it into a side dish)

3/4 c. chopped broccoli

1/4 c. raisins

1/8 c. sunflower seeds (You can add more- I just ran out :-).

2 dashes celery salt

2 dashes sea salt

2 dashes black pepper

1/2 c. mayonnaise or to desired moistness (I used Vegenaise so it wouldn’t have eggs.)*

 

Directions:

Cook and cool chicken completely.  I recommend refrigerating it for a few hours before adding the mayo.  Combine all ingredients and stir.  This tastes even better if it has sat in the fridge for several hours to let the flavors combine.  Happy picnicking!

 

*Tip: If you can’t eat gluten and you live in a place where people share the jar of mayonnaise, make sure no one’s dipped into it with a used knife so you don’t get cross-contaminated.  Most likely they have…  To avoid such problems, you could keep a separate jar for yourself and label it so that people know not to dip into it.  Also, regular mayonnaise has eggs, so if you’re avoiding eggs, get one of the vegan brands of mayo.

 

Quinoa with Green Beans and Tomatoes

I had oatmeal go bad in my pantry.  It was very sad.  So, I decided to sift through my pantry and use up things whose expiration dates were impending.  What I found was quinoa.  I bought it on sale but I just don’t get very excited about it.  Well, doomsday for this bag of quinoa was quickly approaching, so this is the result.  It was much better than doomsday even if you don’t like quinoa.  I know that’s setting a pretty low bar, but work with me :-).

Ingredients:

3-4 tomatoes, diced

1/2 to 1 lb. fresh green beans- washed, trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces

4-5 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp salt (I added more later)

1/4 tsp black pepper

2-3 T. olive oil

1 3/4 c. quinoa

4 c. chicken broth (or vegetable broth if vegetarian)

2 T. balsalmic vinegar

8-12 fresh basil leaves or more

 

Directions:

Place tomatoes and green beans in a skillet, drizzle with olive oil, and cook over medium heat until the green beans are tender crisp.  Add garlic cloves, salt, and pepper after about 5 minutes.  In a saucepan, combine chicken broth and quinoa to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until soft and liquid is absorbed.  Stir in cooked vegetables.  Add balsalmic vinegar and top with basil leaves.  May be served hot or cold, but I think it’s better hot.

 

Adapted from:

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Balsalmic-Quinoa-Salad-with-Roasted-Tomatoes-_-Green-Beans-1797341

Lentil Stew

My neighbors came over on a rainy day to play board games.  I tossed this in the crockpot and served it over rice.  Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture…

 

Ingredients:

7 c. chicken broth (or vegetable broth if vegetarian)

1 bag of lentils (about 2.5 cups)

2 cans tomato sauce (8 oz each)

1/2 onion, chopped

1 c. carrots, chopped

4-6 garlic cloves

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp pepper

 

Directions:

Put all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

 

 

 

Adapted from the recipe on the back of the HEB bag of lentils.

Homegrown Garden Salad

This is the first year I’ve ever had a real garden.  My parents had them while we were growing up and I helped some, but I wasn’t responsible for it.  We have just started harvesting things from our garden.  It is so exciting!  Some of the sugar snaps are ready and we were able to harvest a few leaves of rainbow swiss chard as well as some basil.  The rest of the ingredients were from the store.  You can mix and match with whatever you have in your garden or your store, but here’s some ideas for starters!

Ingredients:

1 handful of spinach

1 handful of chopped leaf lettuce

1 leaf of yellow stem swiss chard

1 leaf of red stem swiss chard

1 orange pepper, chopped

tops of green onions, chopped

2-3 sugar snap peas

Handful of broccoli, chopped

Small handful of basil (I used sweet basil, ajaka, and red leaf)

Optional: Mild white cheddar cheese (obviously not dairy free)

Dressing of your choice (we used Ken Martin’s Sweet Vidalia Onion)

Optional: Add in baked chicken

 

Directions:

Harvest whatever you can from your garden that would go in a salad.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Top with dressing of your choice and cheese if you can eat it.  Enjoy!

Mexican Lasagna

Sometimes corn tortillas misbehave.  They just don’t want to roll and they keep breaking, especially if they aren’t as fresh as they once were.  Out of the ashes of broken tortillas arose this recipe.  May your tortillas serve you well until the last day of their expiration! (Like many Tex-Mex dishes, this is the same list of ingredients, just in different proportions and repackaged.  This is really enchiladas.  Shhhh!!!)

 

Ingredients:

1 red pepper

1.5 pounds ground beef (omit if vegetarian and use more beans)

1 can enchilada sauce (Old El Paso)

1/2 to 1 can rotel (depending on your spice tolerance)

1/2 lime

3/4 bag spinach

1-2 cans refried beans or use my recipe

1 bag corn tortillas

Salsa, for topping

 

Directions:

Cook ground beef.  Add 1/2 can of enchilada sauce, rotel, and lime.  Grease a 9×13 pan.  Put in one layer of tortillas (6).  Layer in 1/3 of beef, 1/3 of spinach, and 1/3 of beans.  Repeat two more times- tortillas, beef, spinach, beans.  You can add in cheese if you can eat it.  After the last layer of tortillas, top with remaining enchilada sauce and brush on until all the visible tortillas are covered.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  Top with salsa and serve with cilantro lime rice.

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Basil and Greens Salad

I usually don’t make fancy salads.  I end up eating them at restaurants often and it takes a lot of ingredients to make it fancy.  However, one day I looked in my fridge and realized I had collected little bits and pieces that together could make a really good salad.  If you don’t have one or more of these ingredients, don’t worry.  The recipe won’t be ruined as salads are very forgiving.  I mean, after all, they let you toss them and then eat them.

Ingredients:

1 head green leaf lettuce, chopped

1/2 head iceberg lettuce, chopped

handful of spinach

2 stems of basil, leaves only- I used ajaka and red basil because that’s what I had,

1 handful of cilantro, chopped

1 stalk of celery, diced

1/2 bunch of green onions- green part only, sliced

Dressing: Ken Martin’s Sweet Vidalia Onion dressing.  Surprisingly, it looks creamy yet has no gluten, dairy, or eggs in it.

Directions:

Wash and chop all ingredients.  You may use more or less of any ingredient if that’s what you have around.  The basil is a really nice touch, so I would include some form of basil if you have it.  You could also toss in some carrots, tomatoes, etc. for some color.

Top with your favorite dressing and enjoy!