Basic Coleslaw Recipe

This colorful salad is much lighter that your traditional mayo-filled affair. It is also extremely easy to make!

Ingredients
1 small head of green cabbage
1/2 medium red onion, chopped finely
1 large carrot, grated
1/2 cup of fresh or roasted red pepper, chopped finely
1/2 lemon, juiced
3-4 Tbs balsamic vinaigrette (Any homemade or store bought that you like will do, I like to be lazy and use Newman's Own light balsamic vinaigrette.)

Mix vegetables thoroughly in a medium sized bowl. Add lemon juice and stir so that evenly coated. Add a little vinaigrette at a time, stirring so that salad is fully coated but not soggy. Cover and place in fridge for 30 mins to overnight to allow flavors to absorb and cabbage to wilt.

Serves 6-8 as a side dish.

Kale and Lentil Soup

I know it's summer, but this week I came down with a cold and so it's time for soup anyway!

Ingredients-
2 Tbs butter
1/2 red onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, halved and sliced
1 pound (more or less) of red or white potatoes, cut into small cubes
1 cup Puy (green) lentils
8 cups of rich vegetable stock (more or less)
Approx one pound of kale (any kind), chopped
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped
fresh cheese to melt on top
salt and pepper to taste (I used smoked salt because it is so tasty!)
Braggs amino acids, to taste

In a heavy soup pot, heat butter and add onions. Stir on high for 3-4 minutes until onions begin to turn translucent. Add garlic and carrot and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add potatoes and lentils and stir until fully coated in butter mixture. Add stock and turn down to simmer. Cover pot and cook for about 30 minutes, until lentils and potatoes are fully cooked but not mushy. Add more stock if needed to keep a goody soup (not stew) consistency.

Remove lid and add kale and roasted peppers. Cook, uncovered, for another 5-10 minutes on low heat until kale is fulled wilted.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and Braggs. Serve with a couple of slices of melty stinky cheese on tip and some hearty whole grain bread on the side.

This should serve 4-6.

Goat Cheese and Fig Summer Salad

This tasty summer salad gets four stars! We threw it together tonight with a few random ingredients that needed to be used up and turned out delicious! The spinach in this salad came from our garden.

Ingredients:
fresh young spinach (or other sweet leafy greens)
purple or Italian kale, cut into small pieces
fresh goat cheese, crumbled into chunks
fresh ripe figs, sliced
courgette, sliced thinly
good balsamic vinegar

Mix ingredients together gently in a bowl and drizzle with vinegar and enjoy!

Spicy Vegan Bean Burgers

Now that the summer weather has finally arrived here in Portland it is a perfect time to break out the BBQ. These vegan bean burgers are just the ticket!

Ingredients:
4 cups of kidney and black beans, cooked (2 cans, beans rinsed will do).
1/2 cup of red onion, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1-2 tbs of of Braggs aminos liquids
1 tbs of mesquite seasoning mix
1 tsp of chili flakes (or more or less to taste)
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
1/4 cup of textured vegetable protein (TVP)

Take 2/3 of beans and puree in food processor until smooth, adding the Braggs slowly. In a bowl, mix pureed beans with whole beans. Add onions, garlic and seasonings and mix together thoroughly. Add bread crumbs and TVP as needed, mixing together gently until you can form a ball. With a little whole wheat flour on your hands, gently form patties and place on a cookie sheet. If you cannot get the mix to form into patties that will hold together, you can add a little egg/egg replacer to help make it more sticky. To cook, throw on a barbeque or under a broiler until fully cooked through.

These burgers are really delicious in any sort of sandwich. I personally recommend serving with avocado, chipotle mayo and fresh basil.

Serves 4-6.

Basic [Vegan] Pesto

Now, this is sort of cheating, because I have adopted this recipe from this link here. However, it's really basic, versatile, and I use it a lot, so I'd like to share it. Plus, of all the vegan pesto recipes, I like it the best. Non-vegans will like it and won't even know the difference, which is why I hesitate to give it the 'vegan' label that tends to scare people away. It would be great in Alletta's recipe for the Pasta with Goat Cheese and Walnut Pesto.

Ingredients:

About 2 cups fresh basil leaves, rinsed and patted dry
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 heaping cup nuts (pine nuts are best, but they're pricey, so we usually use walnuts, pecans, almonds, or a mix of whatever we have)
5 cloves garlic (I usually use 7 or so, because I'm a garlic lover)
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper (to taste)

All you do is mix well in a food processor until it's a lovely, tasty green mush. Usually I have to stir it around a few times to get it just right. My quantities are a little different than the recipe linked to because I like to have a little extra. Why? Because it freezes excellently. I always have some in my freezer to quickly de-thaw and easily add to a meal. It usually lasts us several weeks, then I make more. Trader Joes has a great plastic tub of basil you can buy, if you aren't growing any.

Here are some ideas on what to do with pesto:

-mix with noodles (I like the gluten-free brown rice elbow noodles) and a little nutritional yeast, and maybe a splash of Braggs for some yummy pesto macaroni and "cheese" - or add mozzarella cheese if you prefer.

-spread on a whole wheat tortilla with mozzarella cheese (or vegan "cheese") and grill yourself a pesto quesadilla (or you can use slices of bread to make a grilled cheese sandwich ). Add fresh tomato to make it Caprese style! In fact, it's great as a spread for pretty much any sandwich.

-add globs of it as a pizza topping, or spread it on a pizza crust instead of tomato sauce.

-eat it as a dip with pita chips (this was discovered on accident at one of the 4th of July beach house gatherings). Mmm!

-mix it in with a salad instead of using dressing.

As you can see, it's very versatile, easy to make, easy to store for later, and yummy, which makes it an A+ in my book. Enjoy!

Greetings!

Hello! This is Linda. I was privileged to work with the lovely Alletta last year at a Portland area law firm, and we quickly realized our mutual love for cooking and vegetarianism, among other things. She's entrusted me with the title of co-administrator of this recipe blog, and while I don't think I am quite on par with Alletta's cooking and experience, I'd love to have a place to deposit my "recipes" (if for any reason, because I need to start writing things down more). Maybe I'll start my own blog one of these days, but right now I'll add things as I think of them.

What I eat is really important to me, and pretty much nothing will make me "too busy" to take the time to prepare (or sometimes, let's face it, purchase) a half-decent meal. As a law student though, it's hard to do this, so my focus on recipes is centered around 1) what is relatively quick to make (I say relatively, because I don't count microwaving as making something), 2) what keeps well as leftovers for us to take to work/school for lunch (remember the "student" part? I have no money). We don't eat meat, and generally avoid dairy as well. As a result, we usually end up making some variation of a brown rice stir-fry, but I'll try to be more creative with what I post here :) I also enjoy baking vegan treats, so I might add some of those in here, too. My next foray will hopefully be into the gluten-free baking world.

Anyways, that's me, and hopefully I'll post a couple recipes here soon!

Smoky Vegan Chili

We've been making variations of this delicious tomato-free chili for a couple of years. You can vary the ingredients a lot and it will still come out great. It is very quick and easy to make and everybody loves it (meat-eaters included). If you want to use a crock pot, cook the veggies in a frying pan first and then throw it all together.

Ingredients:
2-3 tbs of olive oil
4 sticks of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large carrot, chopped
8 cups of beans, cooked (I like a mix of kidney and black beans)
1 cup of roasted or fresh red peppers, chopped
1 tbs of mesquite seasoning mix
1 tsp of whole cumin, crushed
1/2-1 tsp of Chipotle (or regular hot) chili powder
pinch of smoked salt
2-4 cups of water
dash of Braggs amino liquids

In a big pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the celery, garlic and carrots and continue cooking, stirring frequently. After vegetables are softened, add beans, peppers and seasonings. Next, add just enough water to create a chili consistency (not enough to fully cover beans) and add a little Braggs to taste. Cover the pot and let the chili cook for 30+ minutes on medium heat, or as long as you want on a very low simmer (eg. crock pot).

Tips: If you want to make this recipe even more hearty, you can add some TVP (textured vegetable protein) or tempeh right before you add the water.

Once you are ready to serve it up, you can dress up this recipe with some sour cream and cilantro, or even fresh avocado slices. For a full meal, serve with some salad and fresh cornbread on the side.

This should serve about 4.