sel et sucre

Tag: vegan

  • Pomegranate Asparagus Quinoa Salad

    pomegranate asparagus quinoa salad

    Now that it’s spring, I’m weaning myself off of the soups and stews that kept me going all winter. This salad is a perfect match for the transition in seasons. In an homage to all the plants outdoors whose greenery is currently in full swing, this salad is full of green, with asparagus, spring greens, mint, and chives. Quinoa, toasted for maximum nutty flavor, keeps it filling while pomegranate molasses and fresh lime zest and juice add a little tartness and a little sweetness. I love food with a variety of textures, and this salad manages just that – chewy quinoa, crisp-tender asparagus, and crunchy walnuts. This can be served with the quinoa and asparagus still hot or with the whole salad at room temperature or even cold (great for those spring days when the temperature unexpectedly spikes to summer levels) which means it could just as easily be packed for a quick picnic as it could be served as a sophisticated appetizer at a dinner party. Versatile, tasty, and healthy, there’s not really much more I could want this time of year.

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  • Roasted Chickpea Fajitas

    roasted chickpea fajitas

    I’ve long loved roasting vegetables, but it’s only recently that I discovered how tasty roasted chickpeas can be. By coating them in spices and roasting, you can easily turn these healthy beans into your new favorite snack. Here, chickpeas are flavored with chili powder and cumin to form the perfect base for vegetarian fajitas. In case you can’t tell from my photo, my favorite part of fajitas is loading them down with toppings. I piled cilantro, lime wedges, salsa, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and diced avocado on mine, but these would even be good without extra toppings. I haven’t tried roasting beans other than chickpeas yet, but I can’t see any reason why this wouldn’t be equally delicious using black or pinto beans.

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  • Fasoulia (Middle-Eastern Spiced Kidney Beans)

    fasoulia

    Fasoulia is simply Arabic for beans. Many different dishes go by this name, sometimes there’s meat included, sometimes a splash of pomegranate molasses. But the base of beans and tomatoes with Middle-Eastern spices stays consistent. I used kidney beans here, but other beans (including green beans) would also work, and my dad says black-eyed peas are what’s usually used in Lebanon. Traditionally, this dish would be cooked with baharat, a Middle-Eastern spice mix, but I didn’t feel up to making a new spice mix when cooking this, so after looking at the ingredients typically included in baharat (paprika, black pepper, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom) settled on using a mixture of curry powder and paprika to come close to the same flavor. This combination worked very well, although if you have baharat, that would certainly be best.

    Fasoulia is usually served with breakfast, and I found it tasted amazing topped with a fried egg (or mixed with scrambled eggs) and sprinkled with a little zaatar. But this would also work by itself as a stew for a hearty lunch or dinner. I love how perfectly simple this recipe is while still managing to pack a lot of flavor; it’s really a great reminder how important spices are to a dish, so now is a good time to make sure you’re using fresh spices (ground spices typically don’t stay good for much longer than six months, and you can easily gauge how much flavor is left in your spices by taking a smell – you want a fairly strong aroma).

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  • Tuscan Three Bean Soup

    tuscan three bean soup

    One of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned about cooking is to be adaptable. Being able to read a recipe and then adjust it to the ingredients you have on hand and to your taste preferences will help you enjoy cooking more and yield some amazingly delicious results in the kitchen (even if there are a few disasters now and again). Take this soup, for instance. When I set out to cook it, it was intended as a chickpea soup. While I’m normally quite good about gathering all my ingredients before starting to cook (another valuable lesson), I somehow didn’t realize until halfway through cooking this that I didn’t have enough chickpeas. No matter, though, I quickly grabbed a few different cans and changed this to a three bean soup. That kale about to go bad in the fridge? Might as well toss that in too! The end result was hearty, tasty, and, dare I say, probably even better than what I’d have made if I’d had enough chickpeas in the first place!

    Although the ingredient list looks long, they’re mostly basic ingredients that you probably have around (or am I the only one who has a cupboard filled with cans and cans of different varieties of beans?). And if you happen to have a different set of beans in your cupboard, feel free to adapt and use whichever beans you like best (although if you’re looking at a whole lot of black beans, I think you’ll be better off with my chipotle black bean soup). The flavoring in this soup is fairly traditional: mirepoix (onion, carrots, and celery), garlic, thyme, rosemary, and balsamic vinegar to finish it off. You’re going to want a really large pot to hold all of this soup. Great if you’re trying to feed a hungry family (with all the beans in there plus the kale, it’s sure to fill everyone up) or just want to have enough leftovers for a week or two.

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  • Lentil Sloppy Joes

    lentil sloppy joes

    I’ve long been a messy eater. When out at a nice restaurant or eating with someone I’m trying to impress, I do my best to keep myself neat. But usually I manage to make a complete fool of myself by staining my white shirt (when will I learn to wear darker colors?) or somehow getting sauce on my nose. So it’s nice sometimes to eat something that’s supposed to be messy. With sloppy right in the name, these lentil sloppy joes give me the perfect excuse for getting food everywhere. I’m feeling strangely suspicious of ground beef these days (although I do still find it hard to resist hamburgers), so I opted to make a vegetarian (vegan even!) version using lentils instead. Economical, filling, and fun to eat, these sloppy joes taste surprisingly similar to the traditional ones and are a snap to throw together. Just don’t eat them while wearing a white shirt.

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  • West African Peanut Soup

    african peanut soup

    Despite my love of bacon, I’ve recently found myself cooking a surprising amount of unintentionally vegan food. Meat is sadly quite pricey (especially if you’re like me and have qualms about eating factory-farmed meat with hormones and antibiotics), so I’m turning more and more to filling meals using fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, beans, and lentils. And I’m surprised at the great flavors I can develop using these ingredients. Take, for example, this West African peanut soup. Mostly basic ingredients, but somehow combining peanut butter and tomato paste with aromatics and curry powder yields a nearly irresistible soup. Vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters alike rave about this soup. And this could be a great base for a number of variations – sweet potatoes or other root vegetables would be a natural fit in here, as would chicken (if you can’t resist the urge to add some meat).

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  • Maple Peanut Butter Energy Bites

    energy balls

    These energy bites are my new favorite snack. A little sweet and packed with protein and fiber, they’re perfect for staving off mid-afternoon hunger pangs (a constant problem for me) and rife with possibilities for customization. Nearly every ingredient here can be swapped out; the peanut butter can be replaced with your favorite nut butter, the ground flax seed can be replaced with more chia seeds and vice versa, any of the dry ingredients can be partly replaced with cocoa powder for a chocolate version, and the maple syrup can be replaced with honey. You can even add in some chocolate chips, chopped dried fruit, or chopped nuts. I think my next batch will use pomegranate molasses (in place of maple syrup), walnut butter (in place of peanut butter), and chopped dates. They’re so easy to make and so convenient to have around that I’m now determined to always have some on hand!

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  • Turkish Red Lentil Soup

    turkish red lentil soup

    I’ve been really enjoying red lentils lately. They fall apart when cooked which can help thicken soups and stews, and they’re great at absorbing flavors. They’re a fundamental piece of this Turkish red lentil soup which tastes amazingly complex for a dish with so few ingredients. I haven’t eaten a lot of Turkish food, and I was skeptical at first of the combination of paprika, cumin, mint, and sumac, but the flavors work perfectly together. Rich and hearty but with a freshness from the herbaceous mint and tart sumac, this soup would be a great start to a meal or a filling meal in and of itself.

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  • Ethiopian Berbere

    ethiopian berbere

    Growing up in DC (home to the largest Ethiopian population outside of Ethiopia), I’ve gotten used to a city with a plethora of cheap and delicious Ethiopian restaurants. My favorite place is a mere half mile from me and offers up a vegetarian platter big enough for two or three people for ten dollars. So it’s understandably difficult for me to motivate myself to try cooking Ethiopian food. But I might not be in this city forever, and the flavorful filling stews and spongy sour bread has become somewhat of a comfort food for me so I recently decided to try my hand at making them. The very first step in cooking delicious Ethiopian food is the spicy and fragrant spice mix known as berbere. This deep red mixture is vaguely reminiscent of Indian garam masala with warm sweeter spices like cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg playing a role on top of spicy chiles, cumin, fenugreek, cardamom, and coriander. Berbere adds a large amount of paprika to these spices for a unique and unmistakable flavor that serves as the base for many different Ethiopian stews.

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  • Vegetable Korma

    vegetable korma

    Although Indian food is one of my favorites, I’ve often faltered when it comes to recreating my favorite curries. So after a friend of mine cooked up a very tasty vegetable korma, I knew I had to grab the recipe and make it my own. The use of cashew butter as a thickener adds some extra decadence (and protein) here, and I used my homemade Madras curry powder to make sure the flavors were fresh and strong. Ever since I’ve discovered the magic of roasting cauliflowers and carrots, especially when adding them to stews, I can’t resist so that’s what I’ve chosen here, but this curry would go well with any vegetables you have around (or with chicken or lamb, if you so desire). I served my korma with a quick cucumber mint raita – yogurt mixed with shredded cucumber, mint, and chaat masala – which will help cool the fire if your curry powder is nice and spicy (or if you opt to toss a fresh hot pepper or two in your korma).

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