Vegan Steel Cut Oats with Banana and Manuka Honey

 

So good!!!!

Manuka Honey can be found at Trader Joe's or other specialty grocers. It can also be ordered online from Amazon and eBay.

Adventures in Canning: Southwestern Black Bean Soup

 Southwestern Black Bean Soup

 

 

    I started canning about 5 years and I really enjoy it.  However lately we just haven't had the time with all our home projects and other hobbies. Well,  I just picked up a new pressure cooker after my last ones seal wore out and it was all the inspiration I needed to get back into it.  A year ago...we did have a pantry full of stocks, broths, soups, and canned beans but we have since used up all our storage.  This left me antsy as I love the look of a full pantry that is ready for anything!  My husband is in LOVE with the black bean soup (it's vegan) that they sell at Costco, he takes it to work almost everyday. I was determined to search out a recipe so I could can some for him.  So I began searching the internet, the recipes were all over the place with cook times and ingredients.  So I settled for a basic black bean soup recipe that I would tweak to make my own.  The basic black bean canning recipe can be found here:  http://www.food.com/recipe/home-canned-or-stove-top-black-bean-soup-365370 .  What is nice about it is that it includes both stove top directions and canning directions so there is no pressure to run out and get a pressure cooker if you don't already have one, since you can throw it right into a stockpot and go.

 

 

The first thing I did was sanitize the jars, then I let the beans soak in them for a day in 1 quart jars. 

Beans soaking in water over night

Next you rinse the beans and clean your jars again.    After your jars are prepared  you put the beans back into the jar.  Add all the ingredients as listed in the link I gave you.  Here are some modifications I did to put a southwestern spin on the soup:  Swapped red onion for white onion, swapped jalapenos for green chilis, added diced tomatoes and added corn.  You can really play with it and make it your own just be sure to add hot water to it after your ingredients and leave about 1 inch space at the top of the jar

 

Add your ingredients, fill with hot water, leave space at the top



I used 1 quart jars

 

 

 

 

After everything is in the jar, you've added the hot water, you've remembered to leave about 1 inch space you can seal them up and prepare your pressure cooker. 

Pressure cooker,  doesn't actually hold 4 like my old one :(
I realized that after the photo. I had to cook them 2 at a time in the center.

 

 

 

I cooked these on high on my stove top in the pressure cooker for 90 minutes.

That's it!! Your house will smell amazing!!!

 

Bon Appétit,

 

 

Recipe adapted from Food.com  Photos by Laura Spear





   

Maple-Pecan-Crusted Vegan Chicken

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons margarine
1/4 teaspoon crushed pink Himalayan salt
1/4 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon olive oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/3 cup crushed pecans
2 cups of your favorite vegan chicken

Directions:

In a cast-iron skillet, melt the margarine over medium heat then add the salt, brown sugar, ginger, and olive oil. Mix that together.  Stir in the maple syrup, pecans and turn the heat down to low. Wait for it to bubble then add your vegan chicken. Flip it a few times to get it coated and then let your chicken simmer in the maple syrup mixture.  Cook for 2 to 3 mins then flip and cook another 2 to 3 mins. The kitchen will smell AMAZING.  You know the chicken is done when you have a golden brown crust on the pecans.

Recipe by:  Annie & Dan Shannon authors of the Betty Goes Vegan cookbook.
Photo by:  Laura Spear

BBQ Seitan Ribs

Ingredients

• 1 cup vital wheat gluten
• 2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons tahini or other nut butter
• 1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• about 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce (see some suggestions below)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly spray an 8×8 baking dish with canola oil. Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix the water with the nut butter, Liquid Smoke, and soy sauce and add it to the dry ingredients. Stir to mix well and then knead lightly in the bowl for a couple of minutes.

Put the dough into the baking dish and flatten it so that it evenly fills the pan. Take a sharp knife and cut it into 8 strips; then turn the pan and cut those strips in half to form 16 pieces:

This photo is by Susan Voisin of fatfreevegan.com

Put it in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. While it’s cooking prepare your grill.

Remove it from the oven and carefully re-cut each strip, going over each cut to make sure that the ribs will pull apart easily later. Generously brush the top with barbecue sauce. Take it to the grill and invert the whole baking dish onto the grill (or use a large spatula to lift the seitan out, placing it sauce-side down on the grill). Brush the top of the seitan with more sauce:

 Make sure that it doesn't burn. When it’s sufficiently brown on one side, turn over and cook the other side, adding more sauce, if necessary. When done, remove to a platter and cut or pull apart the individual ribs to serve.

Note: To make this without a grill, bake it for 25 minutes without barbecue sauce. Then brush the top with a generous coating of sauce, turn the whole thing over carefully in the pan, and brush the other side with sauce. Bake for another 10-20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and caramelized slightly but not burned. Remove from oven, cut apart, and serve.

Recipe is by Susan Voisin of fatfreevegan.com. 1st two photos are by Laura Spear, 3rd photo is by Susan Voisin of fatfreevegan.com.

Vegan Valentine’s Day Cookies n’ Cream Cupcakes

Makes 10 cupcakes.

Cupcake Recipe:

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup sucanat (What is this? Read above!)

1 cup cake and pastry flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Dutch-processed, but regular would be fine)

10 Oreo cookies, chopped

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F and line a muffin pan with liners.

In a large bowl, whisk the soy milk and vinegar together and let it sit for 3-5 minutes to curdle. Stir in the remaining liquid ingredients.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (preferably… you could stir by hand or use a handheld electric mixer), sift the dry ingredients together, EXCEPT for the cookie bits. Add the wet ingredients in two batches and beat until mostly smooth (a few tiny lumps won’t hurt). Stir in the cookie bits until evenly distributed.

Fill liners 3/4 full and bake 18-20 minutes. Cool completely  before frosting.

Buttercream Recipe

For those of you looking for a precise buttercream recipe, you won’t find it here. What I will give you is the know-how to make enough buttercream to ice these cupcakes perfectly.

In the bowl of your electric mixer add:

3 tbsp vegan margarine

1/4 cup soy milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp professional red food dye (make sure it’s vegan… not all are) or up to 2 tsp of Club House or other grocery store variety dye. A good, natural alternative would be to use a little beet juice or raspberry juice INSTEAD of dye and soy milk.

Add 2 cups of icing sugar. Beat with mixer until smooth. Slowly add anywhere between 1-2 additional cups of icing sugar, 1/4 of a cup at a time, until the desired consistency is reached. The more intricate your icing pattern is, the stiffer your icing needs to be.

I used a 1M cake decorating tip and a piping bag to frost these cupcakes.

Decorations

I used an assortment of cake sprinkles to decorate the cupcakes. I piped melted vegan chocolate chips (PC The Decadent Semisweet Chocolate Chips available at Loblaws, Superstore, and Extra Foods) onto a sheet of parchment on a cookie sheet to make the chocolate decorations. A fancy tip is not required to do this; simply cut a small hole in the end of the bag. Start with a small hole and remember that you can always make it bigger. I froze the decorations to make them easy to handle when it was time to top the cupcakes.

When using chocolate to make decorations, be sure to make a few extra; they can be quite fragile and you may break some when handling them.

How did I melt the chocolate? In a plastic, disposable piping bag, on medium-low heat in the microwave. When you see the chips starting to melt, stop the microwave and squish the chips around in the bag to melt. Put them back in the microwave and repeat until the last chips melt as you squeeze the bag. Keep the chocolate in the microwave for as little time as possible.

Variation:

Could you use granulated and/or brown sugar instead of sucanat? I would think so, but haven’t tried it. If you give it a shot, please comment and let me know how it worked out!

Recipe from Morselsminus.wordpress.com Photo from Morselsminus.wordpress.com