Tasty Thursday: My Version of GF/Vegan Cholent

Reading about Cholent on one of the blogs I follow, Frugal and Kosher, got me curious about a vegan version.  I found a recipe to get started with, then modified it with what I had on hand in the kitchen.

I put the following into the crockpot:

4 cups water
2 cups TJ's hearty vegetable broth
9 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. caraway seed
1 tsp. applewood smoked salt
4 twists on the pepper mill
2 bay leaves
2 cups red lentils
1/2 lb. bag of matchstick carrots
3 large organic russet potatoes, cut into chunks
1 jar TJ's pizza sauce
1/2 can black beans

The black beans were leftover from last night's meal.  I had planned to add another can of red kidney beans but the crock pot is so full I'm thinking if it needs something more I will toss more beans in at the end.

While this is cooking we tossed a batch of these molasses cornbread muffins into the oven to serve with the soup.  The batter filled my Lodge cornbread pan, mini muffin pan and small loaf pans.   I use blackstrap molasses so we get a little extra iron from that plus the benefit of cooking them in the cast iron pans.  The sub for whole wheat flour was my favorite, most convenient GF blend, Bob's Red Mill.

Tasty Thursday: Oven Baked 'Fried' Rice

I found this recipe today and just couldn't wait to try it.  This is one of those recipes that you can throw in just about whatever your taste dictates and you'll enjoy it.

I used:
white rice
can of pineapple chunks, drained (it was in juice and nothing else, so I drank the juice for dessert)
bunch of scallions, sliced
Bragg's Liquid Aminos
oil
bag of frozen peas
bag of broccoli florets, thawed

Mix your items together in a large bowl, coat your cookie sheet or glass casserole with vegetable spray, place in 350F oven.  Stir every 20 minutes until done, mine was in about an hour and twenty minutes.

I served this with edamame pods on the side.  Next time I'm planning to shell the edamame and put them in the mix.  Have fun with it!

Tasty Thursday: Whispering Canyon Cornbread (GF/Vegan version)

Just back from the Happiest Place on Earth, what better time is there to try some Disney recipes, right? Although Whispering Canyon wasn't a stop we made this time, their cornbread sure looked good when I read the recipe at Cooking with Mickey.  Naturally, I subbed egg replacer for egg, almond milk for dairy milk and Bob's Red Mill GF blend for flour.  I used organic sugar and also added a little garlic and onion flake for a bit of a kick of flavor.  Baked it all in cast iron.  The batter filled my Lodge cornbread pan, and 6" and 8" cast iron frying pans.

I decided mine needed to be smothered in sweet potato greens, which were featured at my CSA this week.  I'd never had them before, but boy were they yummy!  I love how we have had the opportunity to try so many greens we would never have otherwise discovered through this wonderful, organic source.  Thank you, farmer Paul!

Tasty Thursday: Roasted Carrots

Set oven to 425F. Coat pan with Olive Oil spray. I used a 9x13 Corningware. Wash and quarter carrots vertically, then cut in roughly 2" chunks horizontally. Lay in single layer in pan. Sprinkle with organic dried onion flake and salt, or whatever seasonings delight you.

Place in oven, stir periodically and bake until browned and deliciously carmelized. For my batch, that took 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Tasty Thursday: Italian Casserole

Recently I ordered five pounds of spinach powder.  The price was right and I had been under the impression it could be subbed out directly for flour in recipes.  This is my first attempt at cooking with it and I have to admit the results were delicious.

3/4 cup Bob's Red mill GF blend
1/2 cup spinach powder
1/2 a purple CSA onion, chopped
a couple of generous handfuls of fresh spinach from the farmer's market
egg replacer to equal 3 eggs
1 1/2 cups almond milk
a sprinkle of minced garlic
2 gorgeous CSA tomatoes, sliced
2 cups Daiya shreds
3 Tbsp Earth Balance
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350, coat 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.  Mix together all ingredients except for fresh spinach and tomato.

Line bottom of pan with spinach, top with tomato slices. 

Pour mixture over veggies in pan, spreading it out to all the edges.  Bake 35-40 minutes.  Cut into squares and enjoy!

Have you ever cooked with spinach powder?  Do you have any ideas you can share with me? I promise to play around with whatever I can and post about the results.

Tasty Thursday: Zucchini Corn Fritters

A bonus item at the farm last week was a HUGE zucchini. It reminded me of the gigantic ones my grandpa used to grow. Miss you, Grandpa! Wish you could have tried our fritters with us.

So, it seems that after grating up one cup of zucchini for the zucchini bread recipe my daughter and I modded to make GF/vegan we still had three cups of zucchini left over. I searched our CSA's website and found a recipe for zucchini corn fritters. Here is our modified version:

Egg replacer to equal 3 eggs
3 cups zucchini
2 cups corn
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped purplette onions
1 cup all purpose GF flour mix
1 1/2 cups Daiya mozzarella (we had planned to use Daiya cheddar but when I got the bag out I saw mold. :( )
A little freshly grated pepper


We rarely fry anything so the thought of a fried treat was really appealing to my daughter. But I also wanted to try them baked in my cast iron corn bread pan.

Don't they look yummy all ready to go in the oven? Our zucchini bread was already baking at 350F so we just popped this in alongside it.

The finished product -

Baked version.

Fried version.

We had a little taste test and to my surprise, she preferred the baked ones! We plan to make another - double - batch of baked fritters today since they only lasted through dinner and the next day's lunch. She went to the farm yesterday and picked up another Grandpa sized zucchini. There was also fresh corn this week so we will have the added deliciousness of that instead of frozen corn. I can't wait to share these tasty treats with my coworkers!