Liberating Beatific Beans from their Flavor Packet Oppressor

Bean soup is a thing of beauty. The colors and textures of the beans combined with their nutritional properties make them something worth savoring. I love the bean aisle in my grocery story, but for some stupid reason the dried beans are relegated to the bottom shelf (much like poetry in a book store. Hmmm . . . that's an interesting coincidence). They are all so pretty to look at, and always so inexpensive. You really could live on 'em.

During my last couple of trips to my local grocery story I've paused in front of the bags of mixed beans, which always contain packets with "natural ham flavoring." The beans themselves are so healthy, why in the world would you tear open one of those oddly-colorless packets and injest that crap? To quote Snoopy, "Bleeeeech!"

Last week, I bought the darn bag anyway, and figured I could easily make a delicious bean soup without resorting to chemical suicide via powdered pig-essence.

NOTE: Yesterday's post included a marinade I made for my tempeh recipe. I used the reserved marinade for today's soup. If you didn't make that recipe (and why not? It is so darn good!) you can just use the ingredients for the marinade, simmer it to reduce it by half, then strain it before adding it to today's soup.

Beatific Bean Soup

20 ounce bag of mixed beans (sans the hellacious flavor packet)
Marinade from yesterday's post, simmered until reduced by half
1 container Imagine Low Sodium Vegetable Broth
1 container Imagine No-Chicken Broth
1 tablespoon of dark miso (if needed. You'll add it after a taste check if you do)
½ cup chopped onion
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tablespoon basil
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon liquid smoke (definitely optional. If you aren't into "smoky" flavors, don't add it in)
½ cup cashew cream (optional. It makes it creamy-dreamy. You could also add vegan sour cream or skip this part altogether)

1. Thoroughly pick through and rinse the beans. Put them in a glass bowl big enough to accomodate them doubling in size. Add enough water to cover and soak overnight. I do an initial drain and rinse after a few hours of soaking to clean the beans more. Then I add fresh, purified water because I use the soaking water in the soup. (Yep. You heard correctly. I know there are different camps on this, but if the beans are clean and the initial yucky stuff is rinsed off after a few hours of soaking, I say go for it. The flavor is better and the soup is creamier.)



2. The next morning, add the beans, the soaking water, and all of the remaining ingredients (except for the miso and cream) to a large Crock Pot and turn on high.






Note: If you DO add the miso, put it in a coffee cup with a ladle-full of hot broth. Mix it to dissolve it before adding it all back in the soup.

3. After 3 hours or so, taste the broth and determine if it could use some more saltiness; if so, add the miso.

4. Soup is ready to serve when the beans are tender. It took about 4 hours in my Crock Pot. Add a dollop of cashew cream or vegan sour cream if desired to each serving. Make sure to eat it with some good bread!

UPDATE! Like most of the country, we're big on leftovers. This recipe made A LOT, and so we were faced with 3 days of bean soup. Here's how I switched it up each day to make it more exciting:

Day 1 Leftovers:

Leftover soup
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup chopped portobello mushrooms
1 cup diced onions or shallots
6 large Brussles sprouts, cleaned and quartered
½ cup quick-cooking barley
½ cup forbidden rice (or wild rice)
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Put leftover soup (in batches, if necessary) into a blender and purée until creamy. Add soup to stock pot on stove and set to simmer.
2. Sauté barley and rice in a tablespoon of oil over medium heat until it begins to brown and get fragrant. Add grains to soup.
3. Add more oil to the skillet you used for the rice, and heat up the minced garlic. Add all the vegetables, tossing to coat with oil and garlic. Cook over medium heat until vegetables begin to camerlize. Add to soup.
4. Simmer soup until rice and barley are tender. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Day 2 Leftovers Day (or is it day 3? By now I've lost count!)

Soup from yesterday (which will now have thickened very much, due to the barley and rice)
½ cup firm tofu, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon freshly chopped cilantro (or half that if using dried)
1 teaspoon cumin
Minced hot peppers to taste (I use a hot pepper relish)
1 tablespoon Tofutti sour cream
Favorite wraps (whole wheat, etc)
Olive oil

1. Reheat the "soup," which will now have the consistency of refried beans.
2. Meanwhile, sauté the tofu over medium-high heat with olive oil, cilantro and cumin until it starts to brown up a bit.
3. Mix in a ½ teaspoon or more of minced hot peppers into a tablespoon of vegan sour cream. Spread cream mixture on a wrap.
4. Build a wrap with the "soup" and tofu. Toss in some Daiya cheese or avocado slices if you're feeling it!

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Easy-Peasy Butterbean-y Soup

There are rules in our kitchen, folks. Since I started this blog, the number one rule is we don't eat anything unless it's been photographed step-by-step. That way, if we make a winner, I have the blog post halfway done before we even eat.

My ex-husband didn't always follow this rule. When he cooked, he was cooking to eat, not document all the steps along the way for Vegerrific. In his defense, before we "vegged" out, he usually cooked more than I did. Since our change to a vegetarian lifestyle, however, he was often relegated to the taster role. He never complained, but I know he still loves to cook, and he's really good at it.

One of the things I always admired about his cooking skills is his ability to whip up a soup from any old thing in the pantry. On this particular day, he stuck his head in the pantry, pulled out 3 cans, and had this soup on the table 30 minutes later. Obviously, fresh carrots and potatoes would've been ideal, but this was simple, fast, and delicious. He honestly had a fragrant, bubbling soup pot going in the time it took me to do a load of laundry. If I had known what he was up to in the kitchen, I would have been taking pictures along the way. But he was very sneaky about it! 

Easy-Peasy Butterbean-y Soup

1 carton Imagine Low-Sodium Vegetable Broth1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced
3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon Earth's Balance3 tablespoons unbleached white flour1 can (15 ounces) butterbeans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 ounces) sliced carrots, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 ounces) potatoes, drained, rinsed and cubed
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes, optional
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a soup pot over medium-low heat. Add onions and garlic, cooking until transluscent. Add the parsley and cook until soft.
2. Add the Earth's Balance and stir until melted. Add the flour to the mixture and cook about 5 minutes, until the flour begin to brown up and become fragrant.
3. Add beans, carrots, and potatoes. Stir and cook a minute or so. Season mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add the broth, stirring gently. When it reaches a boil, reduce heat to simmer.
5. Add bay leaves. Add nutritional yeast (if using. He didn't use it when he made the soup, but I added it to the leftovers). Cover and let soup simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Taste soup as it's simmering and adjust seasoning if needed.
6. Remove soup from heat and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

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Wanton Wonton Soup

I had this recipe kicking around in my head for a week or so. I had most all of the ingredients I wanted to use, but when it came time to cook tonight I had to do more improvising than I thought. I didn't have bok choy, so I tossed spinach in instead. I ran out of soy sauce and made up the difference with miso paste. Turns out I didn't even have regular wonton wrappers- I only had the round. Oh well. The flavors were great and it turned out to be a delicious meal.

There are numerous definitions for "wanton." For this recipe, I'm using it as a synonym for "reckless" and "without regard to the rules." But this soup was so good, you might think of the word "wanton" in a whole 'nother way.


Wonton Soup

1 16 oz. package of Match ground “beef”
1 cup chopped scallions
½ cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup spinach
1 cup bagged broccoli coleslaw veggies
½ cup water chestnuts, sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon ground ginger
½ tablespoon soy sauce
1½ teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Five spice powder
1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
2 tablespoons dark miso paste, divided
1 package wontons wrappers
8 cups No-Chicken broth
½ cup bok choy, sliced (I didn’t have any, so I used spinach)
½ cup sliced mushrooms



1. Do a quick sauté of scallions, chopped mushrooms, spinach, coleslaw, and water chestnuts in a hot skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil until they just start to get tender. Once they’re cooked down a little, put vegetables in food processor (but don’t pulse yet).

2. In the same skillet, add more oil and cook the Match “meat” through with the garlic, ginger and soy sauce. Break it up like hamburger and let it brown a little bit.

3. Put the browned “meat” into the food processor with the vegetables. Add vinegar, oil, five spice powder, hot pepper flakes, and 1 tablespoon miso paste. Pulse until mixed and it begins to look like ravioli filling. Don’t pulse it down too much, though, because you want some different textures in there.

4. Assemble the broth. Add the No-Chicken broth, remaining miso paste, bok choy (or spinach in my case), and sliced mushrooms to a pot and cook to boiling.

5. While broth is heating, assemble the wontons, following the package instructions. I only had round wrappers, so my wontons ended up looking like empanadas. I made 24 using about a tablespoon of filling in each. That left half of the wrappers and mix for me to freeze and use another time.

6. Stir the broth to make sure that the miso is dissolved. When broth is boiling, carefully add the wontons. Do not overcook: wontons are done in about 3 minutes and if you overcook them they’ll start to fall apart. Serve soup immediately.

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Sweet Potato Stew for When You’re Feeling Blue

I’ve had a crappy week. I’ve been sick, I’ve had family issues, my career is sort of sucking right now, and to top it all off, it’s raining today. I have not felt like cooking at all, either. It's just been a funk, filled with Diet Coke and handfuls of trail mix. But a girl's gotta eat, right?

I've been known to medicate with food. In the past, I thought a lot of “medicine” was the way to cure what ails you. Now when I medicate with food, it’s mostly through cooking and savoring a small serving of something special.

Today’s stew was just the thing for a dreary afternoon pity-party. It was easy and thrown together with things I had in the pantry and refrigerator. The whole house smells like sweet potato pie. I had lunch with all my menfolk surrounding me. My husband asked for seconds, which always flatters and makes me happy. My tummy’s full, I feel better and I’m off to take a nap.


Sweet Potato Stew

1 carton Imagine Organic Creamy Sweet Potato Soup
½ tablespoon Berbere' Spice Mix*
½ tablespoon minced garlic (I used minced garlic packed in olive oil)
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes (or Parmesan cheese)
1½ cups cooked grains (I used a brown and wild rice blend)
1 head of pre-steamed broccoli, chopped
Sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes, for garnish

1. Heat all ingredients in a soup pot over medium heat. When soup begin to boil reduce heat to low and simmer for a few minutes more, until the grains absorb some of the liquid and the stew thickens.

2. Sprinkle a little bit of red pepper flakes over each bowl and serve with some good bread. We ate my latest experiment, made with leftover cashew cheese in the dough (posted here).

*I’ve been using this in everything! I made one batch and put it in a small canning jar in the cupboard.

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“But what about Thanksgiving?”

A year ago today, when I decided that I wanted to stop eating meat, a small, whiney voice in the back of my head said, “but what about Thanksgiving?” The fact that it was June and I was already worried about one meal five months in the future is a good indication of how important that day is to my family. My husband was a turkey ninja; each year he picked out just the right bird, brined that baby in some secret concoction in a hidden corner of the garage, stuffed it with sprigs of fresh sage, rosemary, thyme and citrus fruit, and slow roasted it to fall-off-the-bone perfection. I made everything else, and spent weeks planning out the side dishes and desserts, writing and rewriting menus. My favorite dish was my stuffing, made with sage sausage, Granny Smith apples, and pecans.

Ohhhh, man. We put out a mean spread. We were so in love with Thanksgiving and our special dishes that we made a vow early in our marriage that we would never go anywhere for Thanksgiving, just so we would always have the meal exactly as we wanted. Our home has always been open to anyone who wants to attend, but honestly most years it’s been just my husband, me, and our boys. And that is perfectly fine with us.

Because, well- as selfish as it sounds, Thanksgiving is about THE FOOD to us. Yeah, yeah, “family,” and “togetherness,” and “gratitude,” and blah blah blaaaaaaaaaah! There are 364 days of the year for that.

So, going veg, I was worried about my favorite family ritual. Five months ahead of time. Not having the turkey on Thanksgiving could have been the deal-breaker for me. I sat down and started a serious conversation with my husband (who graciously agreed to stop eating meat as well, knowing it would be easier for me).

“Jay. Um. I’m worried about Thanksgiving.”

“It’s June.”

“I know, but . . .”

“That’s five months from now.”

“Well- what about the turkey?”

“What about it?”

“If we aren’t going to eat meat anymore we won’t have turkey at Thanksgiving.”

“So what?”

And that was that. If he didn’t care, I could certainly pretend that I didn’t care either (but, between us, I DID care. A lot). Know what I discovered? Thousands of other vegetarians were also figuring out what the hell they were going to make for Thanksgiving, too. I relied heavily on various sites and blogs for the day, since I was worried about screwing it up. I took all the pictures with my phone (mainly because I was texting them to my friend Mickey all day, as a sort of tease).

So, friends, I decided to start my first recipe posts with my Thanksgiving menu from 2010. Turns out you can eat yourself stupid without a turkey on the table!

Breakfast:

Quiche with spinach, broccoli and Quorn "chicken"

MY QUICHE:

1 pastry shell
1 ½ cups grated Swiss cheese (Gruyère is best)
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon freshly ground or grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons sweet, unsalted, butter
8 ounces Upton’s Naturals Italian seitan or Quorn Chick'n Tenders, sautéed with olive oil (optional. I now know how to make my own Italian sausage and often use that. That recipe will be posted soon!)
1 cup cooked broccoli and/or spinach, well drained

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Bake prepared pie crust for about 5 minutes. Lower heat to 350°, and bake until crust is golden brown (about 10 minutes longer). Watch the crust carefully so it doesn’t get too well done. Remove crust from oven and cool.
2. Return oven to 400°. Layer shredded cheese and fillings in pastry shell.
3. Beat together whole eggs, egg yolks, cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Pour mixture into pie shell. Dot the top with little pieces of butter. Sprinkle a little more pepper and/or nutmeg on top.
4. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 300° and bake for 25 minutes longer or until cheese custard is set and golden on top (depending on fillings, you may need to add an extra 15 minutes to bake time). Serve hot.





Lunch:

Pumpkin-Ricotta ravioli with pine nuts and cream of mushroom soup

MY PUMPKIN-RICOTTA RAVIOLI WITH PINE NUTS:
(I had fully intended to make my own "cheeseless" ricotta before Thanksgiving, but chickened out at the last minute.)

½ can pure pumpkin puree
8 ounces Ricotta cheese, well drained
1 egg, beaten (or equivalent amount of Egg Replacer)
1 teaspoon nutmeg or allspice (more or less to taste)
½ teaspoon ground black pepper (more or less to taste)
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt (more or less to taste)
1 package Nasoya wonton wrappers (or your own homemade pasta)
4 tablespoons Earth’s Balance, divided
½ cup pine nuts, toasted
½ cup Parmesan shreds (optional)

1. Mix together the puree, Ricotta, egg, nutmeg, pepper and salt.
2. Put mixture in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes so it firms up a little.
3. After 20 minutes, prepare the raviolis. Use the wonton wrappers like ravioli dough; place a tablespoon of the cheese mixture in the center of one wrapper. Moisten all around the edges of the wrapper with water (just use your finger), then do the same for the wrapper you’re placing on top.
4. Carefully cover the bottom and cheese with the pre-moistened top layer, then crimp all around the edges with a fork.
5. Now the fun part! On another burner, get a skillet ready to go with melted Earth’s Balance spread on medium heat. You will be working in batches. Cook them on each side for about 2 minutes, then move to waiting platter. You can toss the pine nuts in with skillet, too, if you like. Sprinkle raviolis with pine nuts and Parmesan to serve.
7. Repeat process until all the raviolis are done, adding Earth's Balance as needed. These are best eaten hot. At my house, that means that family members stand next to me with plates ready to go, grabbing the raviolis from me straight from the skillet.

MUSHROOM SOUP:
(I started with a ready-made soup, and then "doctored" it up)

32 ounces Imagine Natural Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup
1 cup portobello mushrooms, coarsley chopped (or a mixture of your favorite mushrooms)
2 cloves minced garlic
½ cup chopped leeks or onions
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Pour prepared soup into a pot on the stove over medium heat.
2. In a skillet, sauté mushrooms, garlic, leeks and salt and pepper in olive oil. Cook until fragrant and glistening.
3. Add vegetables to soup and cook until heated though. Before serving, stir in Parmesan cheese (if using), saving some to sprinkle over the top of each serving.

Dinner:

Quorn roast with mushroom gravy, potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green beans with leeks

QUORN ROAST WITH MUSHROOM GRAVY:
(Adapted from Epicurious)

I used 2 Quorn Roasts, still using the rub, but then wrapping the roasts in oven bags and slow cooking them all day.

Instead of butter, I used Earth's Balance.

In place of chicken broth, I used Imagine's No Chicken Broth.

I also used portobello mushrooms instead of shitake.


MY POTATOES:
4 pounds golden creamer potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1 bay leaf
Kosher or sea salt and ground pepper to taste
2 cups heavy cream (vegan substitute here)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped chives

1. Put potatoes in large stock pot with bay leaf and 2 tablespoons salt. Cover potatoes with cold water.
2. Bring to boil over medium-high heat and cook until potatoes are fork-tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and remove bay leaf.
3. Meanwhile, heat the cream and butter in small saucepan. Put the potatoes through a ricer (if desired) before placing them in a large bowl.
4. Add the hot cream and season potatoes with salt and pepper. Add chives and stir to combine.

GREEN BEANS WITH LEEKS, ROSEMARY AND LEMON:

(From 101 Cookbooks)


MY STUFFING:

12 ounces Upton's Naturals Italian seitan (or other vegetarian sausage)
2 medium Granny Smith apples, diced (I don't peel them- I like the color with the skins on. It's up to you)
1 cup additional dried fruit (like cranberries) if desired
1 teaspon coarsley ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried sage (more or less to taste)
6 tablespoons butter
2 large celery stalks, diced
1 jumbo onion, diced
2 large carrots, shredded or diced (your preference)
15 ounces Imagine No Chicken Broth, plus more as needed
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
¼ cup water
1½ loaves of your favorite bread (I use cornbread muffins), stale or toasted lightly and broken up into bite-sized chunks
1 cup chopped and toasted pecans
2 egg whites (or equivalent amount of Egg Replacer), optional

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook "sausage" until browned. Add apples, dried fruit (if using), pepper, thyme and sage; cook 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally and scraping up browned bits. Spoon mixture and drippings into a large bowl and set aside.
2. Add another tablespoon of butter to the same skillet. Add celery, and onions and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the carrots and cook 5 minutes longer. Add broth, parsley and water; heat until simmering.
3. Spoon vegetable mixture, pecans and bread crumbs into the bowl with the sausage and mix well. Add more broth if necessary (stuffing will dry out a little as it bakes). Taste and adjust seasonings if desired.
4. Spoon stuffing into a buttered baking dish or (my favorite) a buttered 12-cup muffin tin. Brush with egg whites (if desired). Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes or until heated through.


SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE:
(From The Fat Free Vegan)


Dessert:

Apple-Cranberry Pie

APPLE-CRANBERRY PIE
(From About.com)


Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

DOUBLE LAYER PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE
(From Fat Free Vegan)

I added shavings of dark chocolate to the bottom, middle and top.

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