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)




 

Vegan MOFO day 24- Lentil Loaf and Acorn Squash

So it's officially the last day of November, and therefore last day of the MOFO. This is my first year of blogging, and I think I did a pretty good job during Vegan MOFO. I tried my best to blog everyday, and I made it 24 out of 30 days. I'm going to keep blogging, but definitely not at a MOFO pace :)

It was super fun to have so many more readers that I used to have, and I appreciate every one of you that reads this blog. I definitely loved finding so many other blogs, and reading about the amazing vegan food y'all are cooking. I love vegan cooking a lot, and it's so rewarding for me to share my ideas/food with other people.

Tonight I decided to make a lentil loaf, as I haven't had "meat"loaf in a long time. I discovered that smashing brown rice and cooked lentil creates a very meaty texture a few years ago, and I thought it was time to do it again. Alongside the loaf, I cooked an acorn squash. My parents bought a whole bushel of squash, so I got some to take home when I was over there the other day. For this squash, I cut it in half, put a lil EB on the top and baked at 400 for 1 hr.

The hubby and I were very happy with dinner, and looking forward to cold lentil loaf sandwiches for lunch tomorrow!

for the lentil loaf:
cooked green lentils (made from 1 cup uncooked)
2 cups cooked brown rice
3 shallots- chopped
garlic powder
onion powder
chili powder
1 serious squirt of ketchup
1 splash of soy milk
salt and pepper
more ketchup for the top

-yeah, i didn't really measure much when i was making this, i just kept adding ingredients and tasting to see what else i thought it needed (serious perk of vegan cooking, uncooked food=not poison)
-i smashed the lentils and brown rice together with a potato masher, then added all the seasoning.
-i put it in a greased loaf pan, topped it with ketchup
-bake at 400 for 45 min :)

Vegan MOFO day 20- Charbroiled Butternut Squash and Cheezey Spinach Spaghetti

I didn't do the greatest job packing myself lunch today, so by the time I got home, I was starved! I decided to make some Charbroiled Butternut Squash recipe by PPK. This came out super yummy! The squash became super sweet, and very tender. Really easy recipe too!

I also wanted to make some pasta, as I crave it when it's cold and I'm grumpy/hungry (grungry). I cooked up some whole-wheat spinach spaghetti, tasty and nutritious! I topped the pasta with some sauce from 'The Uncheese Cookbook,' this is the Ultimate Mac and Cheez sauce, definitely not my favorite uncheese sauce, but tasty regardless. I think I liked the Melty White Cheez that the hubby made last week better....

Vegan MOFO day 14- Roasted Veggies, Peanut Sauce and Brown Rice

Tonight's dinner wasn't the most photogenic, but it tasted fantastic. We went to the Greenmarket this morning, and I knew I wanted to use some of the veggies I had in the fridge. I decided to roast up a butternut squash and some beets. I cut them up into like cubes, tossed with a lil olive oil, sprinkle of salt, and generous fresh ground black pepper. These roasted at 400F, for about an hour.

While the veggies were in the oven, I tried to figure out the rest of the meal. I threw some brown rice in the rice cooker, and decided to make some sort of sauce to go over this all. I decided to make some spicy peanut sauce :) I really like peanut sauce, I wasn't convinced that this would all taste good together, but in the end I was quite impressed with how the sweetness of the squash and beets played off the spiciness of the peanut sauce.

We eat peanut sauce fairly often, as it comes together so quickly, and requires no cooking. I used my standard peanut sauce recipe, that I posted here ---> on vegweb.com, I smashed up, then stirred in, half a baked sweet potato that was hanging out in the fridge from the other night. In the sauce, I skipped the thai curry paste and didn't use much brown sugar, as the sweet potato was so sweet.

Not the prettiest dinner, but the flavors were great, and it was filling and nutritious!

Vegan MOFO day 3- Spaghetti Squash w/ Tomato Cream Sauce

Dinner tonight introduced me to a new favorite vegetable! We bought a spaghetti squash at the Greenmarket last week, and hadn't gotten around to cooking it. I've never actually cooked (or eaten) any spaghetti squash before, but I'd heard so many times that it tastes super yummy and very spaghetti-y. I don't think I really believed people, but DAMN! yum yum yum! This was a really good dinner!

Spaghetti Squash:
Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and other funky junk. Place on baking sheet, cut side down. Then roast in oven @ 375F for 45-50 minutes. When it's done the skin will be a lil golden and the flesh will be easily pierced with a knife. To make the spaghetti strings, just scrap the flesh with a fork, and long strings will form.

Tomato Cream Sauce: (I used lots of stuff I had left in the fridge, so I don't really have exact measurements)
1 medium onion- diced
2 cloves garlic- finely diced
1 Tb olive oil
1 Tb tomato paste
1 26 oz. carton diced tomatoes
onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes and dried basil to taste (maybe 1 Tb each)
1/4 block extra firm tofu
3/4 cup coconut milk.
3 T nutritional yeast
salt and pepper
hot sauce

I sauteed the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until tender, then I added in the tomato paste and a shake of red pepper flakes. I cooked this over medium heat until fragrant (*sniff* what's cookin, good lookin?). Then added in the diced tomatoes and seasoned it up with the onion powder, garlic powder and dried basil. I simmered this on the stove while the squash was cooking in the oven.

In a separate bowl, I combined the tofu, nutritional yeast and coconut milk. I blended this together to a frothy cream with my immersion blender. When creamy, I stirred this into the tomato sauce.

I seasoned the sauce with some hot sauce, salt and pepper.

I topped the spaghetti squash with the yummy cream sauce. Then we ate it and were very happy.

curried acorn squash soup with salad

This is tonight's veggie filled dinner. I realized that I have not been eating a ton of raw veggies lately, so I knew I wanted to have a big salad with dinner tonight. We got a bunch of salad veggies from the Greenmarket this morning. Here's the yummy salad I came up with: butter and red leaf lettuce, grated raw beets, sliced red onion, carrots, and pumpkin seeds, tossed with a lil balsalmic vinagrette. I really enjoyed the raw beets in the salad, their juiciness really made the dressing coat all the veggies.

I made a hearty soup for dinner. This was the kind of soup that warmed my soul, rich and flavorful, full of veggies too, so it was super healthy!

here's how I made the soup...

ingredients:
2 Tb olive oil
1/2 red onion- diced
1 large clove garlic- chopped
1/2 inch ginger- grated
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 small potatoes- cut into large chunks
1 acorn squash- peeled, seeded, then cut into large chunks
5 small carrots- peeled, then cut into large chunks
3 c. broth (i used 1/2 c. chickpea cooking broth, 1/2 c. kidney bean cooking broth, 2 c. water, 1 veggie buillion cube)
3 T curry powder
1 can coconut milk
salt, pepper and mango chutney to taste

-I heated the oil, in my big heavy soup pot, over med heat. I added the onion, garlic, ginger and mustard seeds, I cooked this together until fragrant (maybe 8 min).
-I then added in all the other veggies and the broth. I turned up the heat until I saw some small bubbles. I simmered this for about 25 min until the veggies started to get soft.
-I then added in the curry powder, and coconut milk. I used an immersion blender right in the pot, until the soup was completely smooth. I seasoned my soup with salt, pepper and 1 spoonful of mango chutney.
-I let the soup cook for about another 2o min.

We ate the soup with a lil dollop of EB on top and a slice of yummy bread. soup soup soup <3

its too hot! lets eat pesto pasta!

It's CRAZY hot today, so I didn't really feel like cooking. But I'm usually a hungry kid, so I knew I had to make something . My husband was feeling junky, and craving some protein. So the original plan for dinner contained some beans. I had some pinto beans in the fridge, that had been thawing out all day. I decided to just fry up some pinto beans and mash em up. I added a lil tomato paste and some chili powder. Creamy and yummy! What the heck else do I want for dinner? How about some pasta?!?! I'm always happy with pasta!
I cooked up these cute squiggly noodles, and tossed them with some homemade pesto (basil, parsley, garlic, olive oil, miso, and almonds). I added in some chopped zucchini from the in-laws garden! (I love free veggies!!!!)