A Vegan Table / win $25,000 / veganmofo 2009

I got a new cookbook for my birthday — "The Vegan Table" by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau — and we've started giving it a try. My husband found the can of artichoke hearts I bought to make a Turkish dish, and he made red lentil artichoke stew from Colleen's cookbook, instead. It wasn't the Middle Eastern dish I had intended, but it was delicious. I'm sure we'll want to make this again. I have a real weakness for artichoke hearts.



To go with the lentils he made cauliflower with spicy vinaigrette. This was an extremely easy dish of steamed cauliflower with a piquant dressing, proving once again that a dish doesn't have to be complicated or take hours, to be terrific. This dish might end up on our Thanksgiving table.

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Cooking contest
Are you feeling creative and in the mood to enter a cooking contest with a $25,000 grand prize? I received an email from French's Mustard representative Danielle Nuxxo who wrote:

"I came across your Easy Vegan Cooking blog...and wanted to send you some info on a new cooking contest from French’s Food, where you can win a trip to NYC for a cook-off and get a chance at the $25,000 grand prize. Since mustard is naturally low in sugar, fat and calories, I thought your vegan readers would enjoy the challenge of coming up with a naturally delicious recipe that fits well into the gluten-free and vegan lifestyle.

Here are the details on how to enter the contest. Time is running out, since all entries need to be entered by Saturday, Oct. 31. Each recipe must:

• Be original, unpublished, and created by you

• Include at least one French's product

• Include no more than 8 ingredients (with the exception of salt, pepper and water…those are freebies)

• Be prepared and ready to serve in under 60 minutes (Parents are busy, we all know that!)

• For recipe inspiration and giveaways, check out the French’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Frenchs/129122660682?ref=ts

Recipes will be evaluated on appearance, creativity and overall deliciousness and must be submitted by Saturday, October 31, 2009 online at: http://frenchs.com/Login.php?redirect=/Contest/SubmitRecipe.php. Five finalists, determined by online voting and a judging panel, will compete in a LIVE Cook-Off event to be held in New York City for a chance to win the Grand Prize of $25,000!"

I know it's a tight deadline but my fellow bloggers are so creative!

A dedication...

I came to the computer early yesterday morning to write a post about our first week in Seattle, but instead, I received heartbreakingly sad news that a dear, old friend had died in a bicycle accident in Colorado. Everything suddenly became trivial compared to this. I can barely process this information and understand it. He was so full of life and adventure that it's impossible to imagine he's not kayaking a wild river, running a marathon somewhere, playing his violin in the community orchestra or tending his extensive gardens.

I'm going to put up a short post that I wrote previously but never used, and dedicate it to Stanley, a wonderful and compassionate man who enjoyed life, and who will be terribly missed by everyone who knew him.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

We used to have a great Ethiopian restaurant within walking distance of our house. We were really disappointed when it closed, as it was so convenient and delicious and had lots of great vegetarian food. Plus the restaurant emphasized healthy cooking, which was a real bonus. Thinking about this restaurant recently, my husband started craving Ethiopian food and decided to make some. His first attempt was, shall we say, forgettable, but his second try was really good.


Berberé Stew (Ethiopian Lentil Stew) © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

He made a lentil dish and a green bean and potato dish and served them with brown rice. Both were excellent and not too difficult. If you'd like to try these recipes, they can be found here. The link will take you to the lentil recipe, and you will find the link to the green beans and potatoes on the same page.


Ethiopian Green Beans and Potatoes © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Random meals

From our garden!© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

I work on a mac, and until I cleverly spilled a mug of peppermint tea onto and thoroughly into my mac keyboard, I had an un-noteworthy typing experience. When the keyboard became toast, so to speak, my husband handed over a keyboard that had come with one of his PCs, and had been lying around the house unused because he preferred his old keyboard. The letters and numbers on this keyboard type out just as you would expect, but the symbols are all wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. When I type an ampersand or quotation marks, I never know what to expect. I've had to learn a whole new system of finding the right keys. I've learned to type the right parenthesis when I want the left, and the equal sign when I want the right. If I want a @ I have to type a ". This is all OK as long as I'm using symbols that I use a lot, and have memorized the correct keys, but when I have to type something that I don't type often, like a &, I have to type all the upper keys until I find it! The & looks like /. Now I find when I use a normal keyboard, I get confused and type the wrong symbols.

This is kind of how I feel in our house right now as everything gets packed up. I go to the spot where something I want should be, and of course it's not there anymore. And I can't remember where it is. Like my favorite shorts. Did they get packed or accidentally donated? Or did they go to the attic? They were supposed to be available to wear on the trip but I haven't seen them in quite a while. Tsk.

Anyway, even when I'm not posting recipes, we're still eating around here. It's just that we're not being especially creative, or we're being creatively repetitive or whatever. Plus, we're in the midst of preparing to move nearly 2,000 miles away, and have a lot on our minds. So, here's some stuff we've been eating with links back to where the food appears on this blog, if it does.


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking
Red lentil soup with cauliflower, green beans and cracked pepper


Pad Thai © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking


© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking
Fabulous wax beans from Claire's garden!

I think planting wax beans instead of green ones was an excellent idea that I wish had occurred to me. The green ones are almost impossible to see on the garden plants but the yellow ones stand right out, making them a lot easier to harvest. These wax beans were served with enchiladas.


Tofu and Swiss chard burritos © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

We usually make these with kale but the garden is overflowing with Swiss chard. In either case, they are really delicious. I first had the kale version in a café in Santa Fe, and immediately tried to recreate them when we returned home. I left it unrolled for the photo, but of course I rolled it up to eat.

Saturday is our scheduled date of departure when we head to Seattle. Through the miracle of modern technology (scheduled posting), blog posts will continue to appear while we're en route. I'll be taking photos along the way as we head west from Wisconsin and will post about our trip (if there's anything to say!) when we get set up in our new digs. Hopefully I won't be too grumpy! It's not too late to offer last minute tips on places to eat in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. We'll have a laptop with us.

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Lentils with linguine

I had a friend who could only make one vegan dish. Whenever we went to his house for dinner or he came to ours for a potluck, he prepared that recipe. It was a lentil and elbow macaroni casserole and it was delicious, so I truly looked forward to our dining together. We didn't get together that much, and I decided I wanted to have the casserole more often, so I asked for the recipe. Imagine my shock when I saw that the casserole contained a half cup of olive oil. No wonder it tasted so good! I felt like I'd been stuffed and marinated. I tried to make a slimmer version but it just wasn't the same, and eventually the recipe disappeared from my collection.

Recently my husband found a recipe for lentils and pasta in the New York Times, and he's made it a couple of times. It's easy to make, has lots of flavor and reminds me of that yummy but rather high-fat version we enjoyed years ago. We like to make it with Whole Foods whole wheat linguine, our favorite whole wheat pasta of the moment. It would also be especially great with some nice thick udon or with rice pasta.



Lentils with linguine (adapted from a recipe in the NY Times)

• 1 cup brown or green lentils, washed and picked over
• water (or half water and half low-sodium vegetable broth)
  
• 2 onions, one cut in half, the other finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, cut in small dice
• 1 zucchini, in small dice
  
• 4 large garlic cloves, 2 cut in half, 2 minced
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoons ground cumin
• Pinch of cayenne (or more to taste)
  
• Freshly ground pepper
• 12 ounces whole wheat pasta (especially linguine or udon)
  
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro or parsley

1. In a heavy saucepan, place the lentils, halved onion, halved garlic cloves and the bay leaf, and add enough water (or water and vegetable broth) to come 1 1/2 inches above the lentils. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 30 to 45 minutes, until the lentils are tender but still whole. Place a strainer over a bowl and drain the lentils, reserving the broth.
2. Begin heating a large pot of water for the pasta.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat and add the chopped onion. Cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about 3 minutes, and add the red pepper. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender and the onion is beginning to color, another 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook a few minutes more. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, the garlic, coriander, cumin, and cayenne. Continue to cook, stirring, for a minute, until the garlic is fragrant. Stir in the broth left over from cooking the lentils. Bring to a boil and reduce the liquid slightly, then stir in the lentils. Add pepper, taste and adjust salt, if needed. Keep warm while you cook the pasta.
4. Cook the pasta according to package directions to al dente. Check a few minutes before the end of the suggested cooking time. Drain and toss with the lentils. Add the cilantro, and serve.

Buffy, the reluctant model

Red lentil soup

What could be easier than a simple soup of red lentils. The leftover roasted sweet potatoes in the fridge will add a rich, sweet taste, and some cauliflower cut in small pieces will add nutrition. Just me tonight and I want enough for dinner and lunch tomorrow.

Red Lentil Soup
I rinsed a cup of red lentils and put them into a 1-1/2 quart enamaled cast iron pot with the leftover, roasted sweet potato (about a cup), a small, whole hot pepper, the cauliflower (about a cup) and a minced clove of garlic. I filled the pot halfway with water and brought it to a boil then turned it down to the lowest simmer, covered the pot and went to hang out with the dog. I came back about an hour later to a creamy pot of cooked soup. I added a little water as it was kind of thick. I added some salt, fresh ground pepper and a dash of umeboshi vinegar for tang to balance the sweetness. And I removed the pepper. It tasted great with a piece of homemade toasted bread.