Entries Tagged 'Entrees' ↓

On Sunday my most excellent residency hosts, Krista and Zak (at the Philadelphia Art Hotel) hosted the other resident, Jessica, and I for brunch.  It was super thoughtful of them to make a batch of Swedish pancakes just for me (the only vegan).  I provided applesauce as an egg replacer (1 tbsp as = 1 egg).  Because they are cooked in a griddle, the applesauce didn’t bind quite the way their batch did with the egg, but it did work, and they tasted amazing, as you can see from the photo.  I promise there are pancakes under all of that goodness.

Here’s the recipe Krista followed for about five pancakes:

Vegan Swedish Pancakes

• 2 tbsp applesauce
• 2.5 cups soymilk
• 1 cup flour
• Earth Balance (TM) for cookin’ and slatherin’

Whisk applesauce, soymilk and flour together until a bit runnier than “normal” pancake batter.  Pour a bit into a hot pan freshly dolloped with Earth Balance (TM) and swirl the batter in the bottom of the pan to make a thin, even coat.  Allow to cook until a bit less shiny on top and flip with a spatula.  Once finished, use the spatula to fold the pancake into quarters and pop onto a plate in a warm oven.  Repeat until you have a stack of yummy pancakes.

We served ours with more EB, powdered sugar, blackberry sauce, and fresh strawberries, blueberries and chopped white peaches.

Let us know if you have a go-to Swedish Pancake recipe, or have other ideas on how to veganize this one.  Maybe next time we’ll try ground flax + water.

At long last! It’s finally tomato harvesting time! We got tons of lettuce, are still getting kale, and have been getting green beans and cucumbers for a few weeks now, but there’s something momentous about that first big batch of tomatoes. Something that says, “your garden has arrived.” Everything leads up to tomatoes; they’re the climax. The winter squash and fall kale are the denouement, with canning, perhaps, as an additional baby climax.

My friend Simon (fellow vegan, drummer for Ineffable Robot [new tracks up soon!]) was in over the weekend and we ate largely from the garden. The first night, we had Shells al Pomodoro and Cucumber Salad.

Shells al Pomodoro

• 4ish medium-sized tomatoes, gutted and diced
• 6 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 small green bell pepper
• 1 fresno chili, seeded and diced (optional)
• 1 large handful of fresh basil, chopped
• cooked shells (or noodle of choice)
• salt & pepper, to taste
• olive oil

In a medium-large pan, saute the garlic in olive oil for a few minutes, until it just starts to brown. Toss in the tomatoes and peppers, cooking until tender. Salt and pepper to taste. A minute or two before serving, stir in the basil. Serve over pasta. Easy! Delicious!

Cucumber Salad

• 2 – 3 cucumbers, cubed
• 1 tomato, gutted and cut into medium-sized pieces
• rooster (Sriracha) sauce (to taste)
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 – 2 tbsp olive oil
• toasted pita or tortilla, chopped (optional)
• salt & pepper, to taste

Toss everything together. That’s it.

Be forewarned: this was not one of my best efforts. We had something similar a few weeks ago at an Indian restaurant and I really liked it, so I thought I’d attempt my own version, what with all of those cucumbers to use up. It was a little spicy, because I went overboard with the rooster sauce. I think I also over-soy-sauced it, so add everything little by little. I’ll have to return to this at some point to perfect it. We have a LOT of cucumbers.

The next day, we biked 20 miles (and 20 miles back) to a neighboring town to try out the Red Pepper, a raw vegan restaurant. After the ride there, we were mighty hungry. We got the Italian Pizza and the Raw Tacos, both of which were quite good. The pizza’s crust was probably its standout feature. The tacos were made with a seasoned walnut “meat”. It was pretty amazing. The “shells” were just lettuce, though, so this was a bit more like a salad than tacos. We got some energy shakes for the ride home, which were also good, though I was a little over-full, and thus kinda sluggish for the ride. 40 miles of super hilly terrain is a lot harder than I thought it would be (we biked 25 flat miles two days later, and it was a cinch, comparatively). We were so pooped when we got home that we couldn’t be bothered to cook, so it was vegan pizza time.

We made homemade brats (the best batch ever!) the next night, but that post, friends, is forthcoming.

The next night we rocked this Tempeh & Kale Stew (we’ve also got tons of kale right now):

This stew is very much like the Spicy Potato & Kale Soup, but with carrots, and minus the spicy and parsley. It was pouring out, so this was something of a summer rarity, but very appropriate.

Slimetime’s since hit the road, but I still have lots of maters to use up, so last night I rocked a chili.

There’s no chili better than one made from your heirloom tomatoes, especially if you’re growing multiple varieties. The freshness and variation in flavor really take the flavor in interesting, often inimitable, directions. This particular batch was made with Black Krim (our favorite–dense, not too sweet, not too acidic, very flavorful), Supersonic Orange (a new one this year–very tangy), and Oaxacan Pink (gigantic, fairly sweet). It made for a somewhat sharp, but slightly sweet chili–a perfect chili for crackers. Outstanding!

Once again, Amy has left me for the (always) sunnier climes of Philadelphia for an artist residency at the Philadelphia Art Hotel. I’ve been feeling a little uninspired in the kitchen lately, but for some reason–probably missing her–I felt an overwhelming need to cook it down last night. Strange how sometimes cooking is a burst of creative energy, and others it’s a quiet therapy. Some people use TV to keep them company. I crank up the stereo and cook.

Because (a) any period of extended bachelorhood should start with a giant mess of rice and beans, and (b) the summer makes me crazy for Mexican food, it only made sense to pressure cook a vat of black beans. From there, I made variations on both our Mexican rice and refried beans, coming up with this:

Please forgive the terrible photo! Amy absconded with both the good camera and the great camera (oh, the dictates of art!). So hold on to your seats, the next 3 weeks will be a little bumpy. In the meantime, check in on her blog for great art and great photos.

Pardons aside, what you’re looking at is refried black beans on a toasted tortilla, with avocado and tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and Mexican rice with fresh purple pepper, jalapenos, and tomatoes from our garden.

The refried black beans are made the exact same way as standard refried beans, but subbing black beans for pintos. This version of Mexican rice was made the standard way, but with:

• 2 small purple peppers, seeded and chopped
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
• 1 medium-sized yellow onion, diced
• 2 medium-sized tomatoes, cut into large-ish pieces (not de-boogered)
• 4 cups of veggie stock
• 2 cups of brown rice

Stay tuned for possible variations on the above!

Last night our good friend Blue stopped in for dinner, and brought a giant picnic basket full of fresh zucchini, summer squash, kale, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes from the local community garden, who he’d been doing some work for (he’s a carpenter/artist). Amy and I had been wracking our brains for something interesting to make and she pointed out that we had a big jar of israeli couscous that we’d yet to try. Putting two and two together…

We used an onion and some garlic as well (of course), and added some black-eyed peas for some protein and to round out the sort of Southern feel the sauteed kale provided. The couscous was really interesting–much more like orzo than standard couscous, like small fluffy noodles. Apparently, it’s also awesome nutritionally.

Garden Israeli Couscous

• 3 small zucchinis, cut into discs or semi-circles
• 2 small summer squashes, cut into discs or semi-circles
• 1 large bunch of kale, de-boned (optional) and chopped coarsely
• 1 medium-sized white or yellow onion, chopped coarsely
• 4 cloves of garlic, diced
• 4 cups (2 cans) of black-eyed peas
• 2 cups israeli couscous
• 3 cups veggie stock (we used our leftover chik’n seitan broth)
• 1 large handful of fresh basil, chopped
• 2 stalks of thyme, de-stemmed
• 1 small handful of fresh oregano
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• olive oil
• salt & pepper, to taste

In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the veggie stock to a boil, then add the couscous. Cover and remove from heat.

In a large skillet, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. After a few minutes, add in the zucchini and squash. When everything is tender, add in the kale and fresh herbs (and probably more oil), stirring well. Add in the black-eyed peas, also stirring well. Stir in the nutritional yeast, then salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over the couscous. Consider Palestinian couscous tomorrow for a two-plate solution.

As many of you know, about once every two months we get a major fiendin’ for Mexican food. Our local options aren’t great, and among those, the vegan selection is pretty much bean flautas. So. We scratch the Mexican itch by making one of several different feasts, almost all involving guacamole, (homemade) refried beans, and then some variation on tacos, burritos, enchiladas, tostadas, quesadillas, or the infamous taco salad. On a good day, the feast involves Mexican rice. As you’ve learned by studying the Soymilk Flowchart, we’ve been on a crazy okara seitan chik’n kick lately. So we decided to switch things up and make spicy chik’n tacos–with refried beans, guacamole, and Mexican rice!

These things rocked a camel’s ass! Don’t get me wrong–I love a good tempeh taco any day–but these were a really nice change of pace. The beans and rice were probably the best we’ve made as well. This, I think, owes to the more traditional kitchen food chain we employed. Beans are usually made with some sort of fat and or stock and rice is almost always made with chicken stock. We used the leftover stock from our batch of seitan. We cook the seitan in Frontier ™ brand unchicken stock, which (a) gives the seitan a more chicken-y flavor and (b) produces a really nice stock–more robust than the unchicken stock on its own. What started way back with our soymilk is now working its way into the finer flavors of our Mexican feast.

You may already be familiar with our guacamole and refried beans. And you should definitely acquaint yourself with seitan chik’n: ours or Zoa’s okara seitan recipe.

Spicy Chik’n

To make the chik’n, follow one of the recipes above. In a bowl, mix up some taco seasoning. Add about 1/4 cup of water–just enough to make a medium thin paste–like a thin smoothy. Toss the chik’n patties in the mixture–one patty per person (the mixture will cover about 4 patties)–coating well. Store in a sealed container and refrigerate–the longer the better, for deeper marinade penetration (dirty!). When your beans and rice are just about done (or are just finished and on low heat) toss these guys on the grill, cooking until you get delicious grill marks on both sides. They should probably also be cooked thoroughly, but hey, you know what you like. Cut into cubes or strips, as per your preference.

Mexican Rice

We researched a ton of authentic Mexican rice recipes and cobbled this one together out of what seemed to be the common ingredients: rice, onion, garlic, tomato, stock.

• 2 cups long-grain rice (we used brown basmati)
• 4 cups chik’n stock (ideally from seitan)
• 1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1/2 large tomato, de-boogered and chopped coarsely
• salt, to taste
• green onions, cilantro, and/or lime to garnish (optional)

In a medium-sized saucepan, saute the rice in oil over medium heat, until it begins to brown (or turn browner, in the case of brown rice). Add in the onion, garlic, and tomato, then the stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover, cooking until the rice is soft and the stock has cooked in. If the rice finishes before the stock has cooked off completely, you can remove the cover and turn the heat up briefly to evaporate the remaining stock.

We served these in home-baked corn tortillas, with sides of refried beans and Mexican rice, and with a green onions, cilantro, lime, and a Corona ™, to garnish.

Mark and I have been a schosh wary of attempting certain ethnicities of foods- some Chinese and Thai, some Mexican, etc.  We can just get better food at a restaurant that has people of that particular ethnicity preparing the menu and food.  Or so we thought.  Score a huge point for IV tonight for whipping up a dern good stir fry in as copy-cat authentic a manner as possible.  The veggies were crispy!  The tofu firm and yummy!  Ironically, I did not learn how to make tonight’s meal from someone from China or Thailand.  No.  I learnt it by observing the cooking prowess of a Spanish-British-Canadian in Iceland.  That’s right.  Thank you Juliana España Keller for showing me how to make a decent Asian dish.  Here goes nothin’!

Authentish Summer Stir-Fry

• 1.5 cups uncooked brown rice
• 3 cups water for the rice
• 1 large white or yellow onion, cut into petals
• one head of garlic, each bulb peeled and cut into thin slices
• a smallish chunk of ginger, sliced finely
• a head of broccoli, chopped into florets
• a handful of snowpeas, whole
• about 1/2 cup Chinese cabbage, coarsely chopped
• 2 small to medium-sized carrots, cut into thin diagonal slices
• about 1/4 cup fresh coriander, leaves only (no stems)
• 3/4 of a 1 lb. block of tofu, frozen, then thawed
• 3 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tsp chili sauce/paste
• 1 tsp thai curry past (any flavor)- we used red
• tamari to taste
• sesame or peanut oil to taste (for sauteing)

Start brown rice cooking first.  It takes about 40 minutes to cook and that’s about how long preparing the meal took, so it was ready right on time.  Next thaw the tofu in the microwave and press.  Cut into slices as pictured and set aside.  In a saute pan, drizzle a hefty amount of oil and about half of the chili paste, curry paste and hoisin sauce.  Add a touch of tamari.  Throw in a little bit of the garlic, onion and ginger and bring up to medium/hot and add tofu.  Allow tofu to brown on both sides, checking it periodically.   I would cook at about low-to-medium heat.  You can start the veggie part of the stir fry while the tofu is browning on one side, but be sure to keep an eye on it and flip it in time.  Once tofu is finished, remove from heat and put pieces on a plate.  Pour remaining oil/sauce onto cooking veggies.

While the rice and tofu are cooking, have all of your veggies ready to go.  Add the rest of all sauces (and a little tamari) and some oil to a wok or large saute pan and bring up to high heat.  Add veggies in batches, starting with onions, ginger and garlic.  Toss them in oil/sauce mixture on high heat, adding a small amount of water to create some steam- about a minute.  While they’re still very crisp, add the broccoli, carrots and snow peas.  Stir them continually for about two minutes or so.   Add a little more water to create a little more steam to cook the broccoli to al dente.  Next add the coriander and cabbage.  Toss in with the rest of the veggies, adding a bit more oil or water or both if necessary.  Add a little tamari.  These last ingredients barely need time on the heat, as they will continue to cook once the wok is removed from the heat source.  Be mindful that the veggies should remain crisp and the stir fry is finished when the broccoli and snow peas are a very bright green.

Place stir-fry in a large bowl (to stop the cooking process) and add the tofu.  Pour any remaining sauce over the mixture and stir.  Serve with the brown rice.  Hooray!

Having slogged my way through those first two funky batches of soymilk, it was time to try again, this time using the proper measurements. It turns out that one SoyQuick cup = 1/2 actual cup. Of course! Does anyone else see this as a disaster waiting to happen? That being said, the first batch wasn’t a total disaster–many recipes actually call for “2 cups” of soybeans (i.e. 1 actual cup, which is what I used). For this most recent batch, I followed Julie Hasson’s recipe pretty closely, but used Zoa’s filtration method, to compare against the previous batch. Though still a tad beany, it was much smoother and tastier than the first round. I would actually dunk a cookie in this batch, did in fact enjoy it on a bowl of cereal. Observe:

To get a sense of the taste, and where I might want to go with it, I didn’t add anything to the soymilk initially. Though not as beany as the first batches, it was still just outside the drinkable-on-its-own range. As per Julie’s recipe, I added in 4 tbsp malt extract powder (make sure it’s extract powder, not just powder; and don’t use syrup; you can find it at shops that sell home-brewing supplies). This gives the soymilk a richer taste, and sweetens it just a hair–not enough for it to be “sweet”, but enough to cut any bitter edge and cut down on the beany flavor. If I were going to use this as my unsweetened batch, I would have stopped there. But I wanted a drinkable version that I could put on my cereal, so I added 1 tbsp of sugar. It’s still not sweet, per se, but was awesome on my cereal.

Aside from using too many beans and not filtering enough the first time, I think I also made a few mistakes with sweeteners. I used agave in one and brown rice syrup in the other–and then re-filtered the soymilk after adding the syrups. This caused the second jug of the first batch to separate horribly.  I should have been much more scientific in my approach, but I can’t recall which jug had which sweetener. Using the powers of inductive reasoning, I’ve concluded that it was the brown rice syrup batch that separated, as that was supposed to be the “unsweetened” batch, and it was the unsweetened batch that separated. So. Agave would appear to be safe. Additionally, I don’t know if it was the brown rice syrup, the second filtration, or the combination of the two that was truly at fault. I think as a general rule of thumb, stick with powders over syrups. Syrups separate. The best bet for sweetening is probably to follow Zoa’s lead and just add raw dates to the soymilk maker up front.

With a new batch of soymilk on the way, I also had a new batch of okara on the way–meaning I needed to use up my previous store. I didn’t do anything to dry my okara out, beyond mashing it with a spoon into the filters during the filtration process. So, my okara is “wet”. Before I explore the intricacies of wringing out the okara a little, I thought I’d explore the limits of laziness and establish some uses for a wetter okara.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I made Zoa’s Okara Seitan Chik’n. Aside from the salad and bowties, I made a veggie & chik’n couscous–using not only the okara seitan, but also cooking the couscous in the broth from the seitan. Everything in its place.

The next night, Joe treated me to his famous Spicy Ramen (recipe forthcoming!), a true delicacy. Made, not surprisingly, with seitan chik’n.

As you may have noticed, asparagus is no longer in season, and broccoli now is. Farewell asparagus! Welcome broccoli!

Even after making the okara seitan, I still had 2 full cups (actual cups, not SoyQuick cups!) of okara leftover. What to do with it? Then it hit me–broccoli & rice bake-em-up! I replaced the tofu with the 2 cups of wet okara and the 2 cups of faux milk with 1.5 cups of water. Also, since the farmer’s market was the next morning and I’d run out of broccoli, I used kale from our garden, subbing 2 cups of chopped kale for the broccoli. It turned out perfectly!

As is true of the standard version of this recipe, you will end up with too much sauce. Save out 1 – 1.5 cups, and you should be left with just the right amount. You can use the leftover sauce for Okara Chik’n Al-faux-do–for a double dose of okara action!

And what better time? Summer squash is popping up everywhere at the farmer’s market. But maybe this is too much? I’ve gone off the okara/soymilk deep end?

Perhaps, perhaps. Of course, this is just the sort of challenge I appreciate–and just the sort of challenge you’ve come to know and love during my occasional bachelorhoods: how can we use everything up without wasting anything? In general, we should train ourselves to see reducing waste and getting the most out of the resources that we use as a fun challenge, rather than an oppressive burden. In centuries past, this is how people had to cook–something that we’ve moved away from with advent of better preservation and, ultimately, processed, packaged, single-serving meals.

Consider it: making one batch of soymilk has shaped, in many ways, two weeks of cooking. Not quite the same as buying a carton of soymilk. And what happens to all of the waste produced during the commercial soymilk-making process?

[A]s a significant byproduct of soy milk and tofu manufacturing, okara is commonly used as animal feed since its production usually exceeds demands for human consumption. For this reason, it is not uncommon for tofu and soymilk factories to be located close to animal farms in many Asian countries. In Western countries, okara is used almost exclusively for the production of pig and cattle feed, although it does appear as an ingredient for vegetarian burger patties. – Wikipedia entry on Okara (food)

So, chances are that if you’re consuming commercial soymilk, you’re contributing (very) indirectly to factory farming. I say this uncritically, as we’re all enmeshed in the tangled system and can only extricate ourselves one bit at a time. The focus here is not on why you want to avoid commercial soymilks, but why you might want to make your own–as a way to be closer to your food and its production; to reduce physical waste; to eat more locally; and to understand your diet holistically, to see your food choices not in the context of a single meal, but rather as a week of meals, a month, a season.

Okay. I’m getting off my soapbox now and heating up some leftovers!

So you probably know by now that we here at Irreverent Vegan aren’t down with the container action. We’ve made great inroads over the last few years toward ditching a lot of the packaging and buying more stuff fresh and/or in bulk. At this point, our worst offenders are probably soy/rice/almond milk/creamer and orange juice (which, yes, comes from Florida…so it’s really kind of an eco-no-no anyway…what’s next our bananas?!). So, after getting a soymilk maker for Christmas (the SoyQuick 930p), I figured that–6 months later–it was high time to make our own soymilk.

Observe, a glass of delicious, frothy, homemade soymilk (with a cookie from like a month ago–why won’t it go bad?!):

I figured right now–in the throes of pseudo-bachelorhood–would be an ideal time to experiment; Amy’s in Reykjavik, so I alone am left to deal with the disastrous-or-delicious consequences of home soymilk production. My hope is that by the time Amy returns, I will have perfected homemade soymilk, deftly replacing our pre-packaged soymilk with my own, like a ninja in the night. Instead of just making one batch to start with, like a normal person, I decided that I must make two batches, one sweetened, one unsweetened, duplicated poor results be damned! While this is an idea that I will someday return to, once I’ve perfected my recipe, I don’t recommend it for the first batch. Here’s why, numbered for your convenience:

1. I somehow lost the instruction book and some of the parts [this is unusual; SoyQuick was prompt with their PDF instruction book email]
2. One of these parts was a cup. But it’s not actually a cup, as in “1 cup”.
3. The recipe called for 2 cups of soy beans. But not 2 cups as in “2 cups,” but rather 2 cups as in 2 of the included cups.
4. Whoops.
5. I decided to go with recipe on the SoyQuick site, for reference, when I really knew that Zoa over at the Airy Way was the true expert.
6. As Zoa points out, Julie’s recipe (on the SQ site) conveniently edits out the entire filtration part of making soymilk, which, truth be told, is 90% of the work. There’s no way you can filter everything with a gold coffee filter. Go with Zoa’s process–multi-step filtration.
7. It was a bit bean-y. I now understand that this is a result of using like 30% more beans than I should have.
8. Next time, Gadget.

All of that being said, for a first batch, this was pretty darn good soymilk. I’ve been using it every day in my breakfast shake, to savory and creamy result. I’m not sure if I would actually dunk a cookie in it, as I grossly lead you to believe in the above photo. But I can imagine a point when that will be the case. And that’s what matters. It’s not what you made, but what you will make.

While I knew about okara (repeat after me: okara is not okra, okara is not okra) from the Airy Way, I was a little overwhelmed by it at first. It’s like a soybean mashed potato. This stuff just had to be awesome…but what to do with it? Zoa uses it in her version of our version of Joanna Vaught’s Seitan Chik’n. Where else to go with this amazing stuff? On this, dear readers, I will have to get back to you.

In this grand knowledge’s stead, however, I give you The Soy Flowchart!

Despite my mixed success with batches 1 & 2 of soymilk, the enterprise in general has been great: soymilk for my breakfast shakes and okara to make seitan, which in turn has contributed to 3 outstanding meals thus far (part of the Cooking For One regimen).

Meal 1: Chik’n Caesar Salad

You might remember this one.

Meal 2: Rosemary Chik’n Bowties

This was an offshoot of the pasta from the other night, this time including okara seitan and mushrooms. Additionally, I used bowtie noodles and sliced the garlic into thin slivers instead of dicing it. Lastly, instead of a variety of herbs, I decided to focus on just fresh rosemary. Good choice.

Meal 3: Summer Solstice Salad

Okay, so I’m a couple days late; the summer solstice just passed. But. The pertinent fact remains that it’s this particular time of year that you can get lettuce, asparagus, and the first inklings of tomatoes from your garden and/or the local farmer’s market. There’s a very small window when you can get both a local tomato and local asparagus. When you can, you should. Toss in a little okara seitan, some toasted almonds, and douse lightly with olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper.

This is probably one my top salads. I almost felt guilty eating this by myself, it was so awesome.

Stay tuned for:

Soy Beans vs IV: Round 2

and/or

How many things can Mark make with okara seitan?!

Taking a brief break from my solitary bachelor existence, I had my mom over the other night and we cooked it down. Over the last year, we’ve opted to cook at home more and more, to the point where we rarely go out. My mom loves to cook too and over the years has come to enjoy a lot of the same foods as Amy and me.

We were in the mood for something Mexican-ish, largely because my mom wanted guacamole. We also wanted to do something low fat. While fate would have it that nary a ripe avocado was to be had, the taste for Mexican food lingered–and we had to improvise a little. Beans are low fat, so refried beans were a no-brainer. I would often do a Spanish or Mexican rice, but rice is high carb, and I’ve been on a quinoa kick lately, and my mom is addicted to quinoa…so that too, was a no-brainer: zesty far South quinoa, with onion, poblano pepper, and garlic. This was rocked with a scosh of carbs, in toasted pita form, and fresh heirloom tomato (it looked like a Cherokee Purple). We had it with grilled asparagus, which I eat almost every other day, for the brief time it’s in season.

But wait, here’s how you too can enjoy this delicacy:

Refried Bean & Zesty Quinoa Tostada

• 1.5 cups uncooked quinoa
• 3 cups veggie stock
• 6 – 8 cloves of garlic, cut into thin slices
• 1/2 medium-large white onion, diced
• 1/2 poblano pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 serrano/jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced (optional)
• 2 cups (or 1 can) refried beans (note, our recipe for refried beans is already spiced)
• 1 tbsp chili powder (we used a combination of smoked and standard)
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 pita per person
• 1/4 tomato, diced, per person
• shredded lettuce (optional)
• diced cilantro (optional)

If you’re doing the refried beans homestyle, start those first. When the homemade beans are done, or the canned beans are warm, add in the spices: chili powder, cumin,  oregano, and salt to taste.

In a medium-sized  to large saucepan, saute the onions, pepper(s), and garlic in high heat oil. Once they’re tender, stir in the quinoa coating well, and cook for a minute or two. Add in the veggie stock (or water and powder/cubes) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until all of the water has cooked off.

In an oven or toaster oven, toast the pita until just crispy. Spread on a generous layer of beans, then an even more generous layer of quinoa. Top with fresh tomatoes.

I had this the next night with lettuce and cilantro from our garden. Delicious!

On my last night in Reykjavik, we were treated to a real feast, courtesy of Julie (Juliana España Keller) and Nina (Rizzo).

I was talking to someone recently about a fancy restaurant in Chicago, and how he was so blown away by the meal that he felt like he actually learned something from it, that the meal was a true work of art–it didn’t merely look and/or taste good/interesting, but it actually changed the way we looked things in some way; he came away from the meal a lightly different eater. So it’s not surprising that a couple of artists would produce just such a meal.

From the pictures above, you can certainly get a sense of how attractive this meal was, but there were a lot of details that were difficult to capture: there was a unified theme (i.e. Iceland/volcanoes/magma)–I never think to do this type of thing; both the quinoa and tofu were delicious unto themselves–they weren’t merely ingredients (the apricots, sunflower seeds, and parsley were a really nice touch both visually and gustatorily); while you could eat it however you wanted (as pictured), there was an interplay between the roasted, slightly spicy flavor of the eggplant and how it was to be served–over the quinoa volcano–a clever blend of concept, presentation, and flavor.

Over the course of these last several meals, our new friends have spoiled us indeed.

So here you have it directly from Julie (who teaches cooking at the Institute NHC, by the way, and runs CooK GlobaL, EaT LocaL out of her kitchen [so this kind of cooking is old hat to her]).

Ingredients for eight Icelandic tourists

For the quinoa:

• 1 package of quinoa
• 200g of dried apricots [chopped into hot lava pieces]
• 1 cup of fresh sunflower seeds [dry toasted in a frying pan]
• chopped fresh parsley
• olive oil
• salt
• cracked pepper
• 2 teaspoons of powdered vegetable bouillon [no MSG variety]

Put a package of Quinoa seeds into a big pot and cover with water until the water reaches one inch above the grains. Add a teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons of dry vegetable bouillon [sans MSG] and a tablespoon of olive oil. Cut up the onion into quarter pieces and put them into the pot also [the onion chunks can be removed later]. Turn the heat up high and bring the water to a boil. When it has almost reached a boiling point, turn the heat down and simmer for about 10 mins. until the Quinoa looks translucent. When all the water has been absorbed by the Quinoa, add a little more water, if necessary if the Quinoa grains are half-cooked or a little hard and cover the top of the pot for about 10 mins.

Serve onto a big platter and form into a volcano shape on the plate.
Create a big crater with a big spoon and fill with the chopped apricot, toasted sunflower seeds and chopped parsley. Drizzle with olive oil and serve!

For the magma:

• 3 fresh eggplants, chopped into small bite-size lava rocks
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 chopped fresh garlic cloves
• 2 large zucchini [sliced and diced]
• 1 ‘Freyja’ beer
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon of sweet paprika
• ¼ tsp. of cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons of cumin powder
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 bay leaf

Peel and dice the eggplants, and zucchini. Put the chopped onion and garlic plus bay leaf and fresh thyme sprigs on the stove and sauté until soft, translucent and fragrant. Add the vegetables and mix together. Add the beer and tomato paste and 2 cups of water. Stir together and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for at least 45 mins. Take the top off and turn the heat down when the vegetables are soft. Taste for salt and pepper and add the dry spices. Turn off the heat and let sit for about 10 mins.

And from Nina (by way of observation), who is also a vegetarian (interesting that all of 3 of the Americans at the residency were Midwestern veg*ns, eh?):

Spicy Garlic Tofu

• I package of tofu, drained, pressed, and cut into thin squares/rectangles
• several 2 – 4 cloves or garlic, minced
• olive oil
• cayenne pepper
• salt

Heat olive oil in a pan, over medium heat, then add garlic, cooking for a couple minutes. Toss in to tofu and cook one side is lightly browned, then flip and lightly brown the other side. Sprinkle on salt and pepper, to taste.

We served this with a big ol’ salad and the remaining apricots as well.

’twas one hell of a farewell dinner.

I miss those folks already!

Up next: our brief excursions into eating out vegan-style in Reykjavik (with all these awesome home-cooked meals, there was barely time, but fear not! In the interest of gathering informations for you, dear readers, we took one for the team and gorged ourselves, the result being a rundown of vegan restaurants/cafes).