Québécois tourtière, vegan style!

What a warm and filling treat on a February night! The flakey pastry and rich spice-infused filling really tasted like my first trip to Quebec city!

Ingredients:

Enough pastry for 2 pies (top and bottom crusts) or 1 deep-dish pie - - - I used the flakey pie crust recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking sans the sucre.

4 medium sized yellow-fleshed potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
2 stalks celery, finely diced
2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
One small red onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup cremini or white mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 can white kidney beans
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup beer or stout
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground savory
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 pkg Yves veggie ground round
Salt to taste

Directions:

Prepare the pastry according to selected recipe and chill for at least 1/2 hour.
Cover potatoes with cold water and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low-medium. Simmer for approximately 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Drain and set aside.
Heat a small stock-pot over medium heat. Add 1tbsp water and add onions and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes and add carrots and celery. Cook 5 minutes more and add mushrooms, beans, stock, beer and spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until most of the cooking liquid has reduced. Remove bay leaf and remove from heat.
After slightly mashing potatoes (leaving lots of chunks), stir the potatoes and ground round into vegetable mixture. Set aside to cool.
Roll out pastry into 4 discs, or two if making a deep-dish pie. Press bottom crust into pan, spoon in filling, cover with remaining pastry. Repeat for second pie. Puncture crust with a fork in a few places to vent the pie. Brush crust with a little soymilk and bake in a 375 F oven for 50 minutes of until the pastry is golden brown. Remove and cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Golden Cornbread

This cornbread is a great companion to soups and stews, but would be equally yummy with jam for breakfast!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C coarse golden corn meal

3/4 whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

4 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp organic cane sugar, fine

1 tbsp ground flax seed

1/4 C warm water

1 C soy milk

1/8 C grapeseed oil, or other light-tasting oil

Preheat oven to 425F. Prepare an 8x8 baking dish. Sift dry ingredients together into a large mixing bowl. In a cup measure, combine liquid ingredients. Add liquid mixture to dry mixture, combining slowly with a wooden spoon until just mixed. Pour and spread into prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Smokey Vegan Chili with Black Beans and Beer

Tonight's dinner!

Ingredients:

Water for cooking

1 large yellow onion, diced

4 organic carrots, peeled and chopped (I like chunks)
4 stalks celery, chopped

2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 lb white mushrooms, chopped

1 bottle beer, I used Canadian

1 1/2 tsp Herbamare or sea salt

2 tsp smoked paprika, sweet or hot

1 tsp cumin

1 bay leaf

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can diced tomatoes

1 small package Yves veggie ground round original

In a stock pot, cover the bottom with water and heat to medium-high. Add onions, carrots, celery and apples. Saute for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and garlic, saute for 5 minutes more. Add more water if necessary while the vegetables are cooking. Add salt, paprika and herbs and stir. Cook one minute then add beer and increase heat to high. Stirring often, allow beer to come to a boil and to slowly reduce. When you can no longer smell alcohol, stir in black beans, tomatoes and ground round and reduce heat to medium. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring often. Reduce heat to low, and cook until the flavor is to your liking. I left mine for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. I really like the blended taste and soft texture.

I served this chili with a green salad and homemade corn bread. Enjoy!

Mixed Vegetable and Bean Casserole

Casseroles are so easy and filling, and can be made with just about anything you have on hand.

Here's what I used today:

1 tbsp safflower oil

1 organic onion, chopped

1 large clove organic garlic, minced

3 stalks organic celery, sliced fine

3 organic carrots, peeled and sliced

1/2 C water

1 tsp miso

1 C mixed chopped and frozen veggies

1-4 C tomato sauce ( I used Italian)

1 can mixed beans, rinsed and drained

1 lb boiled and peeled potatoes

1 tbsp Earth Balance Margarine

1/8 C Nutritional Yeast

Drizzle of Silk coffee creamer for texture

Bread Crumbs, optional

Preheat oven to 350F.  Saute onions, garlic, celery and garlic in oil.  After 5 minutes, add water and miso (mix in advance).  Add frozen veggies, beans and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes.  Strain off most of the liquid and transfer to a casserole dish.  In a mixing bowl, combine potatoes and margarine and mash until smooth, adding nutritional yeast 1 tbsp at a time.  Add Silk as required to achieve a creamy texture.  Spread mashed potatoes over bean mixture and top with bread crumbs, if desired.  Bake for 1 hour, or until potatoes are golden in colour.

"What's in the pantry?" Last-Minute Curry

Cindy, this one's for you!  I had to make something delicious in a pinch last night, so with just a few ingredients, I whipped up a very, very simple coconut curry.  My mom had some leftover Jamaican rice which served as a perfect complement - we also had a beautiful arugula and red cabbage salad with a side of roasted scallion (try it, you'll love it!).

Ingredients:

2 tbsp coconut oil (or whatever you've got)

3 organic carrots, peeled and sliced

5 stalks organic celery, washed and diced

1 can chickpeas (or whatever prepared beans you have on hand) rinsed & drained

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp curry powder (store-bought - it's a sin!)

1oz Bragg's Liqui

d aminos or just plain old soya sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can coconut milk

In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Add carrots and saute for 5 minutes.  Add cel

ery, stir and saute another 5 minutes.  Add chickpeas and seasonings, stir and saute another 5 minutes.  Add Bragg's and cocout milk, stir and simmer for 15 minutes, or until liquid is fairly reduced.  The curry shouldn't be too runny.  Voila!  The easiest bean dish ever!

Dinner with a Fun Gi!

I didn't take any pretty pictures of this meal (I think my pics are getting a little better)  but I wish I had.  It was an attractive mouthful.  Pasta, veggies, pesto;  what's no to like?

STEP 1:

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, diced fine

200g cremini mushrooms, sliced

1/2 oz red wine

small bunch parsley, chopped fine

Heat oil in a saute pan.  Saute onions until they become transparent.  Add mushrooms and continue cooking until they are slightly browned.  Add red wine and cook down until the alcohol aroma has disappeared.  Remove from heat.  When slightly cooled, toss with parsley.

STEP 2:

pinch salt

I head broccoli, stems chopped small, separated from florets

1 box penne

Heat water as directed on the pasta package.  Salt the water add broccoli stems, cooking for three minutes.  Add florets and pasta, and cook as per package directions, or until desired pasta tenderness is reached.  Strain, but do not rinse.

STEP 3:

Pesto of your choice ( I used sundried-tomato, homemade), diluted with a little extra olive oil. I used about 1/3 cup total.

In a large serving bowl, place some of your pesto mixture - about a third of whatever you will be using.  Add strained pasta mixture to the bowl.  Top with mushroom mixture and remaining pesto.  Toss and serve.  Oops, I forgot to add, I topped mine with some sliced of pan-fried tofu and "almesan".

Leftovers:

Vegan Green Curry

This is sooo tasty and easy to make.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large spanish onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans coconut milk

3 tbsp green curry paste

2 large carrots, peeled and diced small

8 mini potatoes quartered

3 celery stalks, diced small

1 red pepper, diced small

1 package sliced cremini mushrooms

1/2 block extra firm tofu, diced small

Directions:

Saute onions & garlic in vegetable over medium heat until translucent.  Add coconut milk and curry paste.  Stir well and bring to simmer.  Add potatoes and carrots, simmer for 5 minutes.  Add celery and peppers, simmer for five minutes.  Add mushrooms and tofu and cook until add veggies have reached desired done-ness.  Serve hot over rice or noodles.  Enjoy!