Vegetable Korma

Vegetable Korma is a wonderful winter dish. It's good in the summer, too, but I love its heartiness.

Ingredients:
oil

½ onion, diced
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, diced
4-oz green beans, trimmed
1 potato, diced
½ can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp turmeric
½ cup tomato sauce
½ cup peas
¼ tsp garam masala
dash cayenne pepper
rice

Directions:

1. Sauté onions and garlic in oil until translucent.
2. Add carrots, green beans, and potatoes, and cook 3-5 minutes more.
3. Stir in coriander, cumin, and turmeric to coat.
4. Add tomato sauce, cover, and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer until vegetables are fork tender, adding water as needed. (You want to
6. keep a thin layer of liquid along the bottom).
7. Stir in chickpeas and peas and heat over low until thoroughly warm.
8. Add garam masala and stir to combine.
9. Rest 5 minutes then taste, adding salt or more garam masala if desired. You can also add cayenne
10. pepper for a spicy dish. 
11. Serve with rice (or on warmed pita) 

Notes:

• Serves 2
• Per serving: 394 calories, 3.5g fat, 78.2g carbohydrates, 17.6g fiber, 13.8g sugars, 17.3g protein
• You can add ¼-cup coconut milk for a creamy curry version.

Firecracker Curry Noodles

This is a great meal in the summer or in the winter or any season. When do you light off your firecrackers?

Ingredients:
12-oz dry noodles (e.g. bow-tie firecrackers)
16-oz frozen stir-fry vegetables
1 cup lite coconut milk
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2-3 tbsp red curry paste
1-2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

Directions:

1. Cook noodles according to package instruction, adding stir-fry vegetables 2-4 minutes before the noodles are done to cook briefly. 
2. Drain and rinse under cool water then return to pot. 
3. While the noodles and veggies cook, in a small bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients starting with 2 tbsp curry paste and 1 tbsp soy sauce. 
4. Pour over cooked noodles and vegetables, stirring to combine. 
5. Heat over low until thoroughly warm. 
6. Taste, adding more curry paste, soy sauce, and/or Sriracha as desired.

Notes:

• Serves 4
• Per serving: 428 calories, 8.2g fat, 75.1g carbs, 10.8g fiber, 6.8g sugars, 13.5g protein 

Lattice-Top Chicken Bake

This has been in our digital codex for a very long time. We made it a lot when the kids were little, but did not make it as often in the past decade. We got out and brushed off the recipe. It was still well-liked, a good one to have in the list for my omnivore family.

Ingredients:
1 pkg (16 oz) frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of potato soup
1 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup French fried onions
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 tube (8 oz) crescent rolls

Directions:

1. Cook chicken as desired. Cube into small pieces. 
2. In a bowl, mix veggies, chicken, soup, milk, cheese, onions, and salt. 
3. Transfer to a greased large baking dish.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
   While it bakes, separate crescent dough into 2 rectangles. 
5. While it bakes, separate crescent dough into 2 rectangles. 
6. Seal perforations; cut each rectangle lengthwise into 4 strips. Weave strips
7. over warm filling, forming a lattice crust.
8. Bake 15 min longer or until crust is golden brown.

Notes:

• Serves 6-8, according to the recipe, and if you have small children. It's closer to 4-6 

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

These cupcakes are too good to be true. Get yourself some fresh strawberries to top these. I got the original recipe from Happy Herbivore Meal Mentor. They were enjoyed by everybody in the house.

Ingredients:
2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
½-tsp baking soda
½-tsp fine salt
¼-cup applesauce
1 cup raw sugar
1 cup almond milk
1 tsp lemon extract
sliced strawberries

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
red food coloring

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. 
3. In a large bowl, whisk applesauce, raw sugar, almond milk, and lemon extract until well combined. 
4. Pour dry mixture into wet mixture in 3 to 4 batches, stirring until just combined. 
5. Bake in lined muffin cups for 15-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

Icing

1. Whisk powdered sugar, almond milk, vanilla extract, and a drop of red food coloring in a small bowl, adding more sugar to thicken or more milk to thin it out. 
2. Once the cupcakes have fully cooled, slather icing over top and garnish with fresh strawberry slices. 

Notes:

• Makes 12

Entree: Sausage with Pasta and Vegetable

A yummy, fairly quick, one-dish meal. This is vegan. There is an alternative version available here.

Ingredients:
4 Field Roast sausage (your preferred flavor)
12 oz pasta of your choice (we used tri-color rotini)
1/2 pound or so of vegetable of your choice (asparagus and broccoli both work well)
dash of vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast (optional)

Directions:

1. Steam the vegetables. 
2. Cook pasta according to directions. 
3. Fry sausage in a pan until nice and brown. 
4. Combine cooked pasta, meat, vegetables and the nutritional yeast to the pan. Heat over medium until heated through.

Notes:

Memere's Stew

My mother's stew was one of my favorite growing up. When I moved out of the house, this was a recipe I took with me. This is also another recipe I'd put on the easy list, although until you are familiar with browning floured beef stew meat, that might be more difficult.

stew with beef

Ingredients:

2 lbs stew meat (beef or beefless)

garlic salt

pepper

bay leaves

2  4-oz cans tomato sauce

½  lb carrots

1-3 stalks celery

3 potatoes

1 zuchini

½  lb brussel sprouts

1 onion

1 cup water

stew with vegan meat

Directions:

1. Cut vegetables to desired size.
2. Flour and brown stew meat with 3 shakes of garlic salt, bay leaves, and a shake of pepper.
3. Add water and 1 can of tomato sauce.  Add vegetables. Add second can of tomato sauce.
4. Cover and cook at 150o in electric fry-pan or low on stove-top for an hour or so until fork tender.
5. Stir occasionally.  Remove bay leaves before serving.

Notes:

• Serves 4-8.
• I halved the recipe for the above images.
• I used Gardein beefless tips for my vegan stew. I normally don't like those much, but by browning them and throwing them in about 30 minutes, they absorbed the flavor of the stew really well.
• I was a little lazy and used baby carrots rather than cut large carrots up.

Onion Roasted Potatoes

This is something I've been making since I was a kid and cooking when I got home from school to make dinner for the family. This is so easy.If you are a new cook, this is about as easy as it gets.

Ingredients: 
1 envelope dry onion soup mix 
4 medium all-purpose potatoes, cut into large chunks (about 2 lb.) 
1/3 cup olive oil 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 425. 
2. Combine ingredients in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag. Shake. 
3. Pour into a 13 x 9” baking or roasting pan. 
4. Bake, stirring occasionally, 35 minutes or until potatoes are tender and golden brown. 

Notes:

• Vegan if you use a vegan onion soup mix.
• Since I was a little girl, we used Lipton onion soup mix. Probably someone is going to tell me that one isn't vegan but it looked like it upon review when I made it tonight.
• Serves 4.
• Prep Time: 10 Min. Cook Time: 40 Min.

Summer Pasta Salad

This is a super easy to make, great to bring to potlucks or for serving large groups of people pasta salad. The only catch is that you need to remember to make it a few hours before you want to serve it so it can chill in your fridge for a bit. I have no idea the origin of this recipe. I've been making it since the kids were babies to bring to summer potluck events and when we'd host gatherings at our house during the summer.

Ingredients:
1 lb. tri-colored rotini, cooked and rinsed
1-2 tomatoes, chopped (I almost always use Roma because they hold their shape better.)
1 cucumber, chopped
small amount of onion, chopped, if desired
8 oz. Italian dressing

Directions:
Mix well and chill for several hours before serving.

Notes:

Grilled Steak and Vegetable Salad (with Vegan Option)

This is a fairly easy recipe to make on a warm day. It really did only take 45 minutes total (including adding a couple sides), so not too long to make. This has both the original recipe (not sure the original location) and a veganized version. I am a vegan living in an omnivore household, so two versions of many of our recipes get made and reported.

Ingredients:

Marinade

1/2 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce

3 garlic cloves, pressed

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried thyme

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salad

1 lb flat iron steak

1 medium yellow squash, slicedd 1/2-inch thick

1 medium onion, sliced 1/2-inch thick

1 red pepper, sliced 1/2-inch thick

8 cups salad lettuce mix

Directions:

1. Combine red wine, soy sauce, garlic rosemary, thyme and olive oil to make marinade sauce, then divide.  Marinate steaks with half of the red wine sauce for 30 minutes. While meat is marinating, wash and trim squash, onion, and pepper. Cut all vegetables into 1/2-inch thick slices.
2. Prepare grill (medium-high heat.) Grill steaks to desired doneness. Cut steaks crosswise into strips and set aside. Brush remaining sauce on sliced vegetables and grill until just cooked through, turning occasionally, about 8 minutes.
3. Serve steak and vegetables over salad lettuce mix and serve warm (in one dish or plated singly.) Alternate option: serve meat, veggies, and lettuce in separate dishes for everyone to serve themselves. 

Veganized:

Everything is the same, except use Field Roast or your favorite vegan meat instead of a flat iron steak. You can skip marinading the vegan meat. You can also skip the vegan meat altogether and do more veggies. More peppers, onions, squashes, or add zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, or any other veggies you think would grill nicely. 

Notes:

• Prep: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Serves 4
• I served this with fresh French baguette and a pasta side, since veggies were in abundance. 
• Please note that anything that calls for options that could be vegan or not, the vegan option is preferred (such as red wine, butter, milk.)

Curried Red Lentil Soup

Having a large amount of lentils and wanting something hot for the wintery day, I went searching for a lentil soup. We've been making lentil soups a lot since having a great one at Bananas Grill in Seattle. We've generally been disappointed. But this one, this one hit the spot! I found it at Vegetarian Times. I added potatoes and changed a couple spices since I was missing what they called for. Here's my adaptation.

Ingredients
2 cups red lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 qt. low-sodium vegetable broth
1 large onion, finely chopped (2 cups)
4 celery stalks, finely chopped (1 ½ cups)
2 large carrots, finely chopped (1 ½ cups)
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed 
2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
couple pinches of dried parsley 
couple pinches of dried basil
1 Tbs. curry powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 Tbs. lemon juice

Directions:

1. Bring lentils, vegetable broth, and 4 cups water to a simmer in large pot. Skim away foam that rises to top. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add onion, celery, carrots, potatoes, and garlic; simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes. 
3. Add parsley, basil, curry powder, and cumin, and cook 20 minutes more, or until lentils are soft. Season with salt and pepper and stir in lemon juice.

Other Details:

• Serves 6
• Original Recipe

Vegan 5 Can Chili

This is the vegan version of the 5 Can Chili Enhanced posted last year. This is an easy, 10 minutes to make recipe. The key is to find components you like. I ended up with a slightly spicier than I prefer chili because I didn't realize the components were that spicy. The ingredients are straight forward. 

Ingredients:
1 can (15 oz) vegetarian chili 
1 can (15 oz) mixed veggies, drained
1 can (11 oz) whole kernal corn, drained
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed tomato soup, undiluted
1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes and green chilies

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients, heat through, about 5-10 minutes.

Other Details:

• Makes about 4 -1 cup servings.
• We like Rotel's diced tomatoes and green chilies, but I couldn't confirm they are vegan.
• Because this is vegan, obviously check that all the components are vegan. The chili and the tomato soup are the two items you need to be most careful.

Side or Entree: Arroz Congri (Cuban Rice and Black Beans)

Ryan made this just the other night as a side to some Cuban sandwiches. It was really good and not too difficult to throw together.

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper, chopped
small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
15 oz can black beans (don't drain)
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp cumin
1 bay leaf
pinch oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a heavy medium sized pot, heat oil on medium heat. Add onions, peppers and garlic and saute until soft, about 4-5 minutes.
2. Add rice, beans, water, cumin, bay leaf, oregano and salt and pepper.
3. Simmer on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the rice absorbs most of the water and just barely skims the top of the rice.
4. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minute (don't peek). Make sure you have a good seal on your cover, the steam cooks the rice. After 20 minutes, shut flame off and let it sit, covered another 5 minutes (don't open the lid).

Other Details:

• Original Recipe
• Servings: 5 • Serving Size: 1 cup • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 6 pts
• Calories: 258.2 • Fat: 2.3 g • Carb: 49.4 g • Fiber: 6.6 g • Protein: 9.8 g

Entree: Chicken Pot Pie

We've tried many chicken pot pie recipes over the years, and this one was one of the best. Ryan found this one at Ruf Love.

Ingredients:

Filling
3 Tbls unsalted butter
1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large russet potato, peeled and diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 purchased cooked rotisserie chicken
8 oz fresh green beans (optional)
1 (8 oz) package frozen peas (optional)

Cream Sauce
½ C (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 C all-purpose flour
2 ½ C chicken stock, preferably homemade
½ C heavy whipping cream (optional)
dash of hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco
salt and freshly ground white pepper

Crust
1 C (2 sticks) chilled, unsalted butter
3 C all-purpose flour
10 oz. chilled cream cheese
1 tsp salt
½ tsp white pepper
1 large egg 

Directions:

Filling

1. Melt the butter in a large saute pan set over medium heat. Add the onion and potato: sauté for 5 min. Add the garlic, bell pepper, and mushrooms and sauté about 15 min, until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the crushed red pepper and add salt and pepper to taste.
2. While the vegetables are sautéing, skin the chicken, pull the meat off the bones, and shred the meat or cut into bite-sized pieces. Place the green beans in a microwave-safe bowl and add enough water to cover. Cover the dish and microwave on high power about 10 min, until the beans are tender. Drain thoroughly. Stir the beans, peas, and chicken into the vegetable mixture.  Set the filling aside.

Cream Sauce 

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the chicken stock and cook the sauce over medium heat until it thickens to the consistency of a cream soup. Add the cream, hot pepper sauce, and slay and white pepper to taste. Pour the cream sauce over the individual 1 ¼ C capacity oven-safe bowls three-quarters of the way to the top with the creamed chicken filling.

Crust

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Cut the butter in 16 pieces. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse the butter and flour until crumbly. Add the cream cheese, salt, and white pepper. Continue pulsing just until the dough forms a ball.
2. Set the dough on a flat-surface dusted with flour. Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out to ¼” thickness. Measure the diameter of the pot pie bowls—mine are about 4” across—and cut out dough rounds that are 1 ½” larger in diameter. Whisk the egg in separate bowl. Lay the dough rounds on top of the pot pies, making sure the dough hangs evenly over each bowl. Brush the dough lightly with the beaten egg. Bake the pies for 20-25 min, until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Entree: Meat Pasta Vegetable

I don't recall where we got this idea, but about a year, we started making a really easy throw together all-in-one dish about a year ago. It's very versatile. Pictured is our favorite choices:

Ingredients:
1 pound meat of your choice
16 oz pasta of your choice
0.5 pound vegetable of your choice
8 oz feta or goat cheese

Directions:

1. Steam the vegetables.
2. Cook pasta according to directions.
3. Fry meat in a pan until cooked.
4. Combine cooked pasta, meat, vegetables and the cheese to the pan. Heat over medium until heated through and cheese is slightly melted.

Other Notes:

You can see we prefer penne pasta, sausage, and broccoli. 

Side dish: Ree's Green Bean Casserole

We did not have this at Christmas. I don't know why not. However, every recipe codex should have a green bean casserole. For years I had the one on the side of the green bean or French's fried onions can. We had the traditional American Thanksgiving feast on my birthday in early December. For that feast, we made The Pioneer Woman's Green Bean Casserole instead of the one in the codex. We have now replaced our green bean casserole with this one. While we didn't have this at the Christmas dinner, it is a part of a holiday celebration (and our sides were frozen veggies and King's Hawaiian rolls, which do not belong on the food blog.) Without further ado, here's a fantastic Green Bean Casserole. 

Ingredients:

2 pounds fresh green beans, ends cut off

4 slices bacon, cut into 1/4 inch pieces

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 whole large onion, chopped

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup half-and-half

1 1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste

freshly ground black paper, to taste

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 jar (4 ounces) sliced pimientos, drained

extra milk for thinning, if necessary

1 cup Panko bread crumbs (or French's fried onions)

Directions:

1. Cut green beans in half if you like pieces to be a little smaller.
2. Blanch the green beans: drop them into lightly salted boiling water and allow green beans to cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge them into a bowl of ice cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain beans once they're cool and set aside.
3. Add bacon pieces to a skillet over medium heat. Cook bacon for two minutes, then add diced onion and garlic and continue cooking for 3 to 5 minutes, or until bacon is done (but not crisp) and onions are golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. In a separate skillet or saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Sprinkle flour into the pan and whisk immediately to evenly mix it into the butter. Cook for a minute or two, then pour in milk and half and half. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, while sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne then add the grated cheddar. Stir while cheese melts. Turn off heat.
5. Add pimentos to pan, then add bacon/onion mixture. Stir to combine. Pour over green beans and stir gently to combine. Pour into a baking dish and top with panko crumbs.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and panko crumbs are golden.

Other Details:

Prep Time: 20 Minutes 

Cook Time: 30 Minutes  

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 8