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!

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.

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!

I may have mentioned this before, but one of my all-time favorite soups is Beezy’s pinto poblano. So, we got a hankerin’ for pinto poblano tonight (which isn’t that weird…I probably hanker for this soup half of my waking hours), but it was 8 o’clock and Beezy’s was closed…so, it was up to us to replicate it, without consulting Bee for a recipe, of course. We always do it the hard way at Irreverent Vegan. I’m not sure how close this was to Bee’s, but (a) it was pretty damn awesome, and (b) we made do with what we had on hand.

Pinto Poblano

• 2 1/2 cups dried pinto beans (or ~3 cans of pinto beans)
• 1 poblano chili, roasted, peeled, and diced
• 1 medium-sized onion, diced
• 1/2 HEAD of garlic, pressed or minced
• 1 4 oz can of diced green chilis (or a second poblano)
• 4 cups veggie stock
• 2 – 4 cups of liquid from cooked/canned beans (or water)
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp smoked chili powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• salt & pepper, to taste

If you’re making the pinto beans from scratch, the first step is to start them; in a pressure cooker, cook 2.5 cups of pinto beans in 8 cups of water for 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, start roasting the poblano (using your favorite method or ours). Dice the onion and mince/press the garlic. Toss into a large pot with the diced green chilis (I know, I know, we like it fresh…this probably would have called for another poblano, but we only had one).

Once the poblano is done, peel and seed it, dice it, and add it to the onions, garlic, and chilis.

When the beans are done, add a splash of your oil of choice to the onions, garlic, and  chilis, and begin cooking over medium heat. Remove 2 cups of beans, then mash the remaining beans thoroughly. Add both the mashed and whole beans to the onions, garlic, and chilis, one they’re softened. Add in the veggie stock (we used the remaining stock from our seitan chik’n cutlets). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-high and simmer/boil for 30 minutes or more, until thickened to desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste.

Though not exactly like Bee’s, this was still pretty great. Serve with garlic bread!

Growing up, I ate a lot of leftovers. My parents both worked two jobs so it was much more efficient to make a few big meals and then eat leftovers on off nights–especially since I could heat them up myself. Since you can’t always eke out a full meal from a single leftover, you often have to combine things or eat separate dishes. My mom referred to this as “Grab ‘n’ Growl”, a term passed down through the generations in my family’s unique (read: very bizarre) lexicon, which posits a family as a bunch of Neanderthals scavenging the fridge for food, battling over the best bits. Closer to the truth, perhaps, than we’d like to admit.

With Amy in Budapest, it’s officially grab ‘n growl week. This is sort of weird, since it’s just me, but I feel less lonely if I growl. Since I tend to do most of the cooking, the swingin’ bachelor life doesn’t necessitate eating cold beans out of cans, scratching my crotch, and drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. I may prowl the house growling, but I can still drink whiskey from a glass. What the bachelor life does invoke, however, is my occasional need to purge the refrigerator of leftovers and about-to-go-bad food. On a small scale, this is best accomplished in a single meal. But with Amy gone–taking her need for delicious, inventive cuisine with her–I’m free to do a major purge, using up everything in strange and sometimes wonderful/sometimes not combinations.  In other words, this isn’t generally the kind of food I’d foist on other people.

But from the ashes doth arise the phoenix! Behold these Curried Potato Everything Cakes aka Poor Man’s Pakora:

These puppies used up mashed potatoes, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, kale, and a scosh of raw sushi filling, as well as some leftover Chik’n Almond Bake and crushed crackers for the breading. For combining so many different–and somewhat disparate–ingredients, these were actually pretty awesome. The cracker/Chik’n Almond Bake combo was the key.

I enjoyed this with leftover Avocado Wasabi Salad ala Vegan Yum Yum:

Remember that Roasted Poblano Chili? The leftover beans (I still haven’t mastered the exact yield of dry beans when you cook them) were a perfect base (along with rice, obviously) for beans and rice.

On Saturday, I made a green Thai curry out of a small smattering of frozen veggies (ack! I know), tofu, and the leftover raw Siamese Dream Soup.

And finally, last night I made a version of Zuppa Toscana, using up the rest of the mashed potatoes; some dilapidated turnips that didn’t make it into the Potato, Turnip, & Rosemary Soup; and the unused tempeh (we get it in bulk) from the Smoky Tempeh Hummus Wraps.

That’s a lot of food! As I’ve chiseled away at out leftovers (and this post), it’s become clear to me that we both cook and shop for our palettes, not from our resources. Forgive me if I’m stretching here, but this, in a general sense, is one the key problems with the American food industry. You can get as much of anything, from anywhere, at any time, as you want.  The variety comes from the store, not from your kitchen and brain.

Equally problematic is the amount of time between trips to the grocery store. Like most Americans, we tend to go once a week, if that. We task ourselves with predicting what our future selves will want to eat–based on what? How can we know what we’ll want to eat 3 days from now? This means that as the week wears on, we become less satisfied with our choices and less likely to cook with what we bought. Scanning our half-full fridge, nothing looks good. So we either (a) settle on something merely “acceptable” or (b) give up completely and go out for dinner. I’m not against going out to eat, but I think it should be a deliberate choice–because you want to, not because you need to. But (a) is a bit of a crapshoot; on nights when I’m feeling creative, it’s a fun challenge and usually turns out pretty tasty. On off nights, it’s a burden and “edible” suffices.

One solution to this is to shop more frequently and buy less. This also helps ensure the freshness of your food. The other solution, I’m afraid to say, may be getting comfortable with “pretty good” some of the time. Maybe it’s been a good week for culinary creativity, but I feel like I’ve eaten pretty well with nary a thought of hitting up the grocery store (okay…that’s not entirely true…when I ran out of soy sauce, I felt a ripple of panic). This may owe, in part, to the very fact that I’ve used up almost everything in the fridge; my choices have dwindled as the week wore on. While some choice is certainly good, a lot of choice, it turns out, is actually rather bad (think about your occasional trip to an all-vegan restaurant–it’s almost paralyzing; you’re not accustomed to so many choices). The problem with too many choices is our tendency to weigh any single choice against the combined best parts of all the other choices. While this doesn’t actually change how good any single choice is, it does change how satisfied we feel.

So my final thought, in this lazy cognitive meandering, is that our enjoyment of our food is often based on our frame of reference. Given my limited options, what I came up with seemed really good–as soon as I’d eliminated the other possibilities. This is the fulcrum on which “leftovers” become “leftover surprise”.

Rrrrrooaawww!

After making chili last weekend, we had some leftover black beans to use up–but my traditional black bean soup is much too close to a chili to seriously entertain as a post-chili-black-bean-use-em-up ™. So I says to myself, “Self, let’s shake things up! Let’s make this more soupy…and tangy! Like a cilantro lime black bean rice, but a soup?!”

While it was pretty tasty, it was still too close to the chili we’d just had, and Amy wouldn’t deign to eat it, so last night, I combined it with some refried beans, cooked the liquid down, and used it like rice & beans for !taco salad!

This taco salad was amazing.

This is probably because all taco salads are amazing, and this taco salad is a subset of all taco salads. Q.E.D.

But first, you have to make the soup:

Phase 1: Tangy Black Bean Barley Soup

• 1 large white onion, diced
• 2 small or 1 large stalk of celery, chopped
• 2 medium-sized carrots, peeled and cut into disks or half-disks
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 4 cups (2 cans) cooked black beans (with liquid, if possible–always keep this when pressure cooking!)
• 1 tomato, diced (I used leftover tomato juice from canning)
• 6 cups (or more, to desired consistency) veggie stock
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 tsp toasted, ground cumin (or just ground, if you don’t have seeds on hand)
• 2 tsp smoked chili powder
• salt & pepper, to taste

In a large pot, begin the Traditional Ceremonial Soup Dance (i.e sautee the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in oil over medium heat until soft). If using cumin seeds, toast them over medium high heat until fragrant, then grind into a powder using a mortar and pestle. Add the cumin, chili, and some salt and mix well. Add in the black beans, tomatoes (if using), and liquid(s). Continue Traditional Ceremonial Soup Dance by bringing to a boil and then lowering heat and simmering, covered, for 30 – 60 minutes. About 5 minutes before serving, add in the chopped cilantro, and complete the Traditional Ceremonial Soup Dance by salting and peppering to taste.

With Phase 1 complete, move in to Phase 2.

Phase2: Eat the soup.

Now let’s move to Phase 3.

Phase3: Taco Salad

We’ve already made you privy to the taco salad particulars, so the only crucial piece of information is this: In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the remaining soup with 2 cups of refried beans (i’m assuming that 2 people each ate one bowl of soup–adjust accordingly) and cook down the liquid until everything’s “all beany”.

Use in place of normal refried beans in a delicious and nutritious taco salad!

So you’ve probably noticed by now–recipes/menus often come in waves here at IV. This is largely because we rarely deign to countenance leftovers twice, except as lunch. Instead, we try to rethink stuff we’ve already made and pair it with something else we’ve already made and/or with something fresh.

We made taco salad a few nights ago and had leftover refried beans and taco tempeh. For leftovers numero uno, we made quesadillas with the taco tempeh, Follow Your Heart ™ cheddar, and diced jalapenos. We served it with the refried beans and sliced avocados.

Okay. So the taco leftovers were successfully eliminated. But wait. Now we had leftover cheese. This stuff goes bad within a month, so you have to use it up once you’ve opened it.

So leftovers numero dos was quesadillas again, this time made with just tortilla and cheese. We served it in typical conflated culture fashion with Spanish rice w/beans and guacamole.

Making a quesadilla is simple: lighlty oil a frying pan, and place it on a burner at medium heat. Toss in a flour tortilla. Sprinkle on a generous layer of your favorite faux-cheese; top with taco tempeh, soyrizo, mexican-style chik’n strips; sprinkle in some onions and/or bell/jalapeno peppers; sprinkle on another layer of faux cheese; top with another tortilla. When the cheese is mostly melted, flip quesadilla and cook until browned and crispy.

Alternatively, you can make this with just faux cheese and two tortillas.

Cut in half to serve. Delicious!

Last year for Amy’s birthday, we went out to a local bar that we’d been meaning to eat at–and they served the most amazing taco salad we’d ever eaten, made vegan just for us. They never seemed to have served it again, though, much to our dismay. So we’ve had this year-long hankerin’ for taco salad which, I’m happy to say, we laid to rest on Sunday.

The secret, friends, is making your own refried beans. We’d been using canned refried beans for years and no combination of spices, veggies, shortening, unicorn tears, etc. ever made them even half as delicious as the kind you get in a good Mexican restaurant. So, having just gotten a pressure cooker, what better time than now to try to make these suckers from scratch–and holy hell does it make a difference! I don’t know if we can ever go back to canned refried beans again. Maybe in a pinch, I’d use canned pinto beans to make refried beans.

We also experimented for the first time in making our own taco bowls. This was really easy; we just soaked two soft taco shells in a very shallow layer of oil, placed them in oven safe bowls (to shape them), and cooked them for 10 – 15 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. We did we never think of this before?

The rest of the taco salad is pretty easy–in the baked shell, layer the beans, taco tempeh (follow the recipe for the tempeh), chopped lettuce/onions/tomatoes, guacamole, and salsa.

Here’s how to make the beans:

Refried Beans

• 2 cups dried pinto beans pressure cooked in 10 cups of water for 30 – 35 minutes
• OR ~ 3 – 4 cups cooked pinto beans (using your preferred method)
• 3 cups veggie stock
• 1/2 white or yellow onion, diced
• 3 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup shortening (we used Earth Balance)
• 2 – 3 tbsps chili powder
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• salt, to taste
• 1 cup (2 small cans) mild green chilis (optional)

In a large (ideally big enough to hold the beans and stock) frying pan, sautee the onions and garlic in shortening over medium heat, until tender. Add in the beans and 2 cups of the stock and cook for about 20 minutes. Mash the beans to the consistency you like (some people like some whole beans left, some don’t). Add the final cup of veggie stock, stir well, and add in spices. Cook for about another 20 minutes, until the excess liquid has boiled off. Adjust spices to taste. This will put any canned refried beans to shame. I’m for serious.