Shepards Pie

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This is something I never actually had when I wasn't a vegan so I have NOOO basis for comparison but I served it to my husband and my friend from England, Craig. They are boys, they ate it, they asked for more so... win!
Filling (use any or all of the following):
Carrots
Celery
Onion
Zucchini
Peppers
Saute veggies until soft and then add 2-3 cloves garlic. Season with 1 tsp fennel seed and some crushed red pepper. Add small can of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes and one bay leaf. Cook together for 15minutes. Add your favorite TVP or saute gimme lean breakfast sausage in a seperate pan and then add to sauce. I stirred in 2 cups of baby spinach, and 1/2 cup each frozen corn and frozen peas. Cooked until spinach wilted. Transfer to a quiche or pie plate.
Topping:
3 cups small red potatoes
1/2 cup tofutti sour cream or for lighter potatoes add plain soy milk
2 TBS vegan margarine
2tsp garlic powder, salt and lots of black pepper

Spread potatoes on top of filling and bake at 375 until potatoes start to brown (didn't get a picture out of the oven only before it went in). This would be good served with some corn muffins. I had some pumpkin cranberry muffins that the guys like with their dinner! Enjoy this dish before the weather gets warmer (Yay!) Here's a picture of the filling:

Sweet potato chilli and scallion corn cakes

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Chili:
2 sweet potatoes
1 onion
2 red or orange peppers
2-3 cups kale leaves torn into bite size pieces
1 can black beans
2 small cans tomatoes and chillies or fire roasted tomatoes and separate can of mild green chillis. (just use whatever combination you want)
2-3 chipotles in adobo sauce
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chilli powder

Cut potatoes into small squares. saute in EVOO until soft. Add diced onion, peppers until soft. Add chipotles and spices and cook with veggies for a minute. Add canned tomatoes, chillis and beans and cook for 20-30 minutes until thickened. 15 minutes before serving add kale and make corn cakes. Optional Toppings: hot sauce, guacamole, soy sour cream, cilantro, scallions, black olives

I used the veganomicon corn bread recipe here and added a handful of frozen corn and 4 chopped scallions to the batter and then used the batter like pancake batter to make 8 pancakes to go on top of chilli.

Chickpea Cutlets

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These cutlets are from Veganomicon and are delicious with roasted potatoes and peppers and a light salad. Just wanted to share the recipe and picture:

Asian Entertaining

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Thai Fresh Rolls
Rice paper wrappers
cucumber seeded and in matchsticks
red pepper
shredded carrot
sliced jicama
mint leaves
optional or other additions
cilantro
alfalfa or bean sprouts
pea shoots
avocado
tofu

Fill a low dish or pan that a rice paper wrap will fit in with hot tap water. Place wrapper in hot water for 20 seconds until soft. Place on a clean dish towel to soak up water and fill with a little of each veggie. Wrap and place in fridge until ready to serve. I topped mine with wasabi flavored sesame seeds.
This is really more of a technique than a recipe. Thai rolls often have shrimp and lots of veggies in them and are dipped in peanut or sweet chile sauce. Use your imagination and creat lots of different kinds!
Sesame Noodles
1 red pepper sliced into matchsticks
1/2 cup sliced jicama
1 cup shredded cabbage or cole slaw mix
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1-2 scallions sliced
1 TBS fresh ginger
1/4 cup peanut sauce
2 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS rice vinegar
1 TBS toasted sesame oil
8 oz noodles (I used Thai rice noodles but whole wheat spaghetti or a vegan asian noodle would work. The rice noodles actually got a little hard the next day so I think I will use a different noodle next time)

Combine all liquids and oils in a bowl, add ginger and stir. Add vegetables and toss to coat while you cook noodles. Drain noodles and toss with veggies. Let marinate for an hour and eat cold. This recipe was adapted from cook yourself thin a tv show on lifetime. You can make the dressing with peanut butter but I had some peanut sauce already in the fridge. Here is the original recipe.
Mooshoo Vegetable Rolls
Traditional mooshoo vegetables have eggs and shredded cabbages in them but these have the addition of shitake mushrooms and no egg. Rather than making wraps with traditional pancakes I wrapped them in wonton wrappers so they are easier to eat at a party.
1-2 cups shredded cabbage white and red
1 cup shredded carrots
10-15 shitake mushrooms sliced
1 Teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 scallions sliced
1 TBS low sodium soy sauce
clove crushed garlic
1 Teaspoon fresh ginger
1 teaspoon hoisen sauce
6-8 wonton wrappers

Pre-heat oven to 350. Saute mushrooms in oil, add ginger and garlic and cook for a minute. Add soy sauce, and hoisen sauce as well as cabbage and carrots. Cook until slightly wilted about 5 minutes. Add scallion and let mixture cool for 10-15 minutes. Wrap 2-3 TBS of mixture in wrappers and place on a spraed cookie sheet. Line up rolls and spray the tops with cooking spray so they crisp up but aren't greasy. Serve with extra hoisin sauce for dipping
Pomegranate Mojito
Muddle 4-5 mint leaves at the bottom of a tall glass. Squueze and drop in half a lime. Add one shot clear rum. Fill glass rest of the way with Trader Joe's sparkling pomegranate juice or use a combination of sparkling water and juice.

Vegetable Enchiladas

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Enchiladas
1 small red onion
2 bell peppers (any color)
1 yellow squash or zucchini
1/2 small can diced tomatoes and chillis or jalepenos*
5 flour or corn tortillas
1 can Amy's re-fried black beans or other vegan re-fried beans
Optional: chopped cilantro, scallions, and black olives

Sauce
small can tomato sauce
1/2 small can diced tomatoes and chillis or jalepenos*
Cumin
Chili powder
Cinnamon
Hot sauce or chipotle sauce
Saute squash, onion, and peppers in a bit of olive oil until soft. when vegetables are tender about 15min add tomatoes and chiles and 3-4 TBS of chopped cilantro. Cook for 5 more min. While Veggies are cooking combine sauce ingredients to taste in sauce pan add only a small pinch of cinnamon. Bring to a light boil. To assemble the enchiladas spread a layer of beans on each tortilla and put 1/5th of the veggie mixture in each. Roll and place each seam side down in baking dish. Pour sauce on top and bake at 350 for 15-20min. When it comes out of the oven top with scallions cilantro and black olives if you like!

Simple Veggie Chili

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Ingredients:
1 sweet onion
2 cloves garlic
2 or 3 bell peppers (I like to use different colors for fun)
small can green chillies
2 or 3 chipotles in adobo sauce (international foods isle in a small can)
1 small can diced tomatoes
1 small can crushed tomatoes
1 can black beans or dark red kidney beans
2tsp each cumin, chili powder, cayenne and whatever else you like
your favorite textured vegetable protein I like quorn or yves meatless taco stuffers (optional)
Chopped fresh cilantro and red onion or scallions for garnish

saute diced onion in evoo and add diced peppers when onions begin to soften. This would also be the time to add any other veggies you want (carrots, zucchini, squash). Once ingredients gain some color, crush garlic in and stir for 1 minute. Add diced chipotles with as much of their sauce as you want (HOTT). Add all cans and spices. Cook on medium until sauce is thick (about 30min). Mix in vegetable protein if you want at the end and serve with garnish and multigrain chips!

This takes a little longer to cook but is great to make on weekends and bring for lunch.

Prep time: 15min
Cook time: 30-40min

Vegetable Panini

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Tom and I got married 2 years ago and when you get married you get a lot of stuff/crap. Granted it's crap that you want or at least you wanted it after two hours of walking around linen's and things with a laser gun (so fun), but soon you realize that maybe you don't need every appliance, bowl, and wine glass known to man. This is the case with our most highly debated appliance: The Panini Press! I wanted it more than life itself, Tom thought it was unnecessary. Needless to say it was only used once at our very popular "make your own panini party", but now that I'm vegan it is back and better than ever. We've used it a lot to make these delicious panini's.

The most important and delicious part of this sandwich is the black olive spread. I make it by combining kalmata olives, fresh garlic, basil, and olive oil in the food processor (another appliance we registered for). Spread this on half of your bread. For the picture above we used forcaccia.

For the filling we used roasted red peppers, sauteed portabello mushrooms, fresh spinach and fried eggplant. Once filed with your favorite topping press in panini press or place in skllet with a heavy pan on top to press and toast bread. Eat and enjoy.

Enchilladas

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I was intrigued by this soy chorizo which is a new product at Trader Joe's that came out about a month ago. I'm typically wary of "fake meat", but this was pretty popular with Tom and I admit it is good. I also think these would be great with just a veggies and black bean filling or with lentils. It is super cheap and easy to make and very satisfying as comfort food. If you don't like the refried beans used below just add your favorite beans to the filling.

Filling:
1 package soy chorizo
1 clove garlic
1/2 small can roasted green chilles spicy or mild
1/2 can diced tomatoes and jalepenos or chilles
2 or 3 diced scallions
handful chopped fresh cilantro
1 can vegan refried black beans (Amy's are sooooo good)
Flour or corn tortillas

Sauce:
1/2 small can roasted green chilles spicy or mild
1/2 can diced tomatoes and jalepenos or chilles
1 jar hot taco sauce
1 pinch cumin, peprika, and chille pepper or whatever spices you like
1 pinch cinnamon

Combine all sauce ingredients and let thicken on medium heat in a saucepan while making the filling.

Heat skillet and warm chorizo (unwrap chorizo from its plastic package). Add clove of crushed garlic. Add chilles and tomatoes and jalenpenos. Once warmed through add cilantro and scallions. Spread each tortilla with a thin layer of refried beans and add 3 or 4 tablespoons of chorizo fillng. Roll up and place seem-side down in a baking dish. Pour sauce on top and bake for 30 min at 350.

Prep: 15min
Cook: 30min

Vegetable Puttanesca Sauce

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This past weekend, Tom and I went to my parents, and in my mom's never ending quest to find out what I can eat and feed me, she made some delicious veggie pasta sauce. She sent me home with some veggies from her garden and I also had a lot of leftover odds and ends in my kitchen, so I decided to re-interpret my mother's sauce with a little more salt and spice. Puttanesca sauce has hot pepper, black olives (oil cured or kalamata), capers, garlic and anchovies. My vegan version has all of that, except the anchovies, and a lot more veggies which makes it a nice healthy meal. I started caramelizing one and a half sweet onions and when they were about halfway done I added thin strips of red and yellow peppers and diced carrots (it sounds weird but they get nice and sweet). Once those had softened, I added diced kalmata olives, capers, and 2 cloves of crushed garlic. This would be the time to add some crushed red pepper if you like it spicy (which we do). I then de-glazed the pan with some left over red wine (yay there was a glass left for me). I added a jar of Trader Joe's pomodoro sauce, but you could use any jar sauce or a large can of crushed tomatoes.


I served the sauce over some special pasta that our friends, Sarah and John, brought us from Italy. (Which reminds me: Big thanks to both of them for designing the look of our blog!)


Prep Time: 1omin (to chop everything)
Cook Time: 20min

Peppers Stuffed with Mexican Pilaf

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Tonight I used a new product: Trader Joe's Multigrain Pilaf. It has millet, soybeans, and cracked wheat as well as southwestern spices, and some tomato (paste, I'm guessing). I started by sauteing an red onion, adding crushed garlic, then the pilaf, which I microwed for 1/2 the time recommended since it will cook in the oven later. When it was all heated I added fresh cilantro and a half-cup of olive salad I picked up from our farm stand, and then stuffed the whole mix into the peppers. The filling completely stuffed 3 peppers, which was great because we had one left over for lunch. I sprayed the red pepers with cooking spray and baked them for 30 minutes at 350, flipping halfway through (tricky).


This is a great light meal with a salad and Tom felt that the "filling gave it a meaty texture." We both felt it could use more of a spicy kick, but then we go through hot sauce like water. You could stuff a tomato or any kind of pepper with this mixture, and if you can't find the pilaf you could use brown rice (just don't forget to spice it up). Make your own olive salad with olives, oil, vinigar, garlic, parseley, lemon juice, hot pepper (and this one had walnuts).

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cooking Time: 30 Minutes