african peanut stew

African Peanut Stew over brown rice

So.. winter has finally hit Upstate NY, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I am totally under the weather and feeling junky, and needed some soul food to warm me up and make me feel better.

This is some stew I made, full of veggies and some good spice to clear out my head and fill me with goodness. Very hearty and satisfying. I love the combination of the peanut butter, chipotle pepper and root veggies. I made a huge pot full to feed us for a couple meals, cause mostly I want to be hiding under a blanket, watching Felicity. Hopefully this healthy food will heal me.

This isn't really the type of dish/meal/recipe I'd worry about making sure I have the exact veggies, or amounts of each veggies suggested, I just use what I have in the fridge that needs to be used up and seems like it would work. Same with type of hot pepper, this time I used a chipotle in adobo. (Last time I opened up one of those lil cans, I froze the extra in a tray, so now I have lil chipotle icecubes. most of the time you only really want one, not all six or so that come in a can, right?)  If I didn't have any of those, I might have just used pepper flakes, but I was pleased with the smokiness the chipotle added to the stew. Maybe if I didn't have chipotle, I'd use some liquid smoke.


African Peanut Stew

ingredients:

1/4 onion- diced
1 tsp cumin seeds-crushed
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp turmeric
1 chipotle pepper in adobo- chopped 
1 can tomatoes (i used canned whole tomatoes, and roughly crushed them/squeezed)
1 potato- diced
2 sweet potatoes- diced
2 acorn squash- (i had some i already roasted, so i just scooped out the flesh. peeled, raw squash would be great too)
2 carrots- chopped
1 clove garlic- pressed
1-1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/4-1/3 cup natural peanut butter
dash vinegar (i used ume plum vinegar-cause it's way yummy)
pinch Indian chili powder
1 package frozen spinach

cooked brown rice

directions:

-start cooking onion, cumin, coriander and turmeric in a lil water, when starts to get fragrant (1-2 min), add in the chipotle pepper, cook for a min then add tomatoes, and their juice, all the root veggies, the chickpeas, and the garlic. 
-add water to the pot until it's a soupy consistency/almost covers the veggies. turn up heat and bring  to a simmer. turn down heat to a low simmer, cover pot and cook until it's thickened up a bit and the veggies are starting to get tender (20-25 min).
-add in the peanut butter, and stir it around until incorporated, this can be a lil tough if the peanut butter is thick, if you cover the pot for a min, it'll start to break up and you can incorporate into the stew. taste and season with a dash of vinegar and hot Indian chili powder, you might even want more peanut butter. 
-once it tastes yummy, add in frozen spinach, stir and cook until the spinach is thawed and all mixed throughout the stew.
-eat over rice (it would also be really good with some bread)




 

cook-out food :)

The hubby and I hosted a cookout the other night. Here's some goodies from the night: I made my spinach-artichoke dip. It's a hit every time :)

ingredients:
1 block silken tofu
1 1/2 c. vegenaise
2-4 cloves garlic
salt
pepper
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 package frozen spinach
1 can artichoke hearts

-using blender, combine tofu, vegenaise, garlic, salt and pepper to taste and nooch. make it super creamy!
-once mixture is texture of sour cream and totally smooth, fold in frozen spinach (you might want to thaw spinach, and squeeze dry) and chopped artichoke hearts (i like to chop them a bit smaller than they come in the jar/can).
-combine mixture, spread into baking pan (10"by 10")bake 20-25 min @375 it's done when slighty brown and bubbly
-serve with chips/crackers

For the main course, we had a couple pasta salads, hot-sauce tempeh from the Veganomicon and some corn on the cob. It's was a beautiful night with friends on our great deck! :)

dal, beets&spinach and easy vegan naan bread

I really enjoy Indian food, however I have no idea at all how to make it authentically. I enjoy playing around with lentils, spices, veggies and coconut milk to make 'curries.' Tonight I made a Dal with red lentils.

ingredients:
1 Tb peanut oil
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 tsp mustard seeds
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 inch grated fresh ginger
1 clove grated garlic
1 Tb garam masala
salt to taste
1 c. red lentils
2 c. water

1) heat up oil, add onion and mustard seeds, sauteed for a couple minutes, until the onion is slightly softened
2) add red pepper flakes, ginger, garlic, garam masala and salt, cook for a few minutes until nice and fragrant
3) add lentils and water, cover and stir, cook on a low simmer until lentils are completedly softened (20-25 min). dal with look like a thick paste.
4) served with a dollop of vegan butter on top

I am a sucker for flatbreads, I call this "Naan bread" however, I believe it is closer to what is called "Roti" traditionally... it's delicious whatever its called! I like to make a big batch of this dough, after the first rise, I break it up into little balls and put in the freezer. Whenever we're having Indian food for dinner, I'll take a couple of dough balls out of the freezer, and leave in the fridge while we're at work. When it's time for dinner, just roll out the thawed dough and cook.

ingredients:
1 1/3 c. very warm water
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. white whole wheat flour
2 Tb olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic -crushed

1) combine sugar, yeast and water in a small bowl, mix until yeast is dissolved. let mixture sit for 10 minutes until foamy
2) put flour in a big bowl. make a well in center, add oil, salt, garlic and the yeast mixture. mix thoroughly with hands to form a dough ball.
3) place dough a well floured surface, knead for five minutes. add a bit more flour as needed.
4) place kneaded dough in a slightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.
5) knead dough a little, let sit for 5 minutes. break dough up into 2 inch balls (16-18 dough balls). flatten and roll out with rolling pin into little circles.
6) cook in cast iron skillet for 4 minutes on each side (med heat), the bread is done when browned and slightly crispy

I had some beets in the refrigerator, so I decided to make a beet side for the dal and bread. I roasted the beets in the toaster oven until cooked (wrapped in aluminum foil, bake for 35-45 min at 375 degrees). I combined this with a box of frozen spinach, to get some greens into dinner.

ingredients:
5 roasted beets, cut into bite sized pieces
3/4 c. coconut milk
dash salt
curry powder to taste (2 Tb)
1 box frozen chopped spinach
3 Tb nutritional yeast

-combine ingredients in small sauce pan until well combined, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes over low-medium heat.