Veggie Cooking

I'm eagerly awaiting some cooler weather so I can defrost my favorite soup and enjoy it w/o breaking into a sweat, maybe even make some fresh dinner rolls without having to crank up the a/c to combat the heat from the oven. My last offering from Bountiful Baskets had all the best ingredients for this soup, so I whipped it up and froze it for future enjoyment. My Gram was super diligent in finding veg things for me to eat when I was a kid and this was a favorite.

Veggie Soup
Basically you take your favorite ingredients plus one peeled potato, cut them up, put them on a cookie sheet, drizzle olive oil, pepper and sea salt (take it easy on the salt) and broil the veg. Some of them will get burnt edges, which is perfect, but you don't want to burn everything. Stir them once, to get them broiled on more then one side. You're just bringing out the flavors.
I like to use:
2 leeks
Roma tomatoes
3-4 carrots
1 sweet yellow onion
1/4 small head of broccoli
1-2 zucchini or other squash
You have to have that potato, it slightly thickens up the end result.
For the herbs, I like a bay leaf, rosemary and basil.

Remove herb bouquet, put the veg in a pot (I like the crock pot), add a small can of tomato paste and about 2 c. water, about 2 tbs. of Balsamic vinegar and herbs. Cook until the potato pieces are tender and let cool. Once it's cooled off, put a couple cups at a time into the blender and smooth it out. Freeze or reheat and serve.

Have you ever eaten at Chevy's? Well, they have this delish little blob of sweet corn yummyness they toss on the plate as a garnish of sorts. Here's how you make it:

Sweet Corn Tomalito
5 tablespoons margarine, softened
1/4 cup masa harina
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons milk

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the margarine, masa flour, and sugar until light and fluffy. In a food processor or blender, blend one cup of the corn kernels with the water and cornmeal just until smooth. Stir into the masa mixture. Mix in the remaining corn, baking powder, salt, and milk until the batter is smooth. Pour into an 8x8 inch glass baking dish.
2. Place the baking dish over a large saucepan of simmering water. Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil, and steam for 50 to 60 minutes, or until firm. Check water occasionally, and refill if necessary. Stir pudding before serving to give it a consistent texture. Serve in small scoops.

One more:
Quinoa Chard Pilaf
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups uncooked quinoa, rinsed
1 cup canned lentils, rinsed
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, chopped (not in this house)
1 quart vegetable broth
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems removed
1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute 5 minutes, until onion is tender. Mix in quinoa, lentils, and mushrooms. Pour in the broth. Cover, and cook 20 minutes.
2. Remove the pot from heat. Shred chard, and gently mix into the pot. Cover, and allow to sit 5 minutes, or until chard is wilted.

This is a cool site, probably mostly out of my actual culinary skill level, but fun to glance at just the same...
Your Vegan Mom

Enjoy!

I'm done...

...I've been thinking about veggie-ness lately. I was a vegetarian through jr. high, high school and a year or two after h.s. I wasn't a good vegetarian. I ate horribly with the exception of salads...I do love a good salad. But last night we went out to dinner and I ordered chicken, choked a bit of it down and snagged a bit of steak off Spanky's plate (he certainly wasn't going to touch it and was distraught that it was even on his plate.) Seriously, I almost puked right then and there. And so I started thinking a lot more seriously last night about veggie-ness. My sweet boy is practically a veg by nature and here I've been trying to get him to try meat and the two things he'll eat are pepperoni and an occasional chicken nugget~wow, Mom great health benefits there! No more...I'm done. I am not pushing that crap on my son or myself anymore. Digger is a bit of a different story and he's a big boy, he's already making some really good health choices, so I'll support him by making healthy dinners.

When I went veg before I went off the animal rights deep end. I got in trouble putting stickers on meat in the grocery store. I went to marches and protests. I see things a bit differently now. I still think mistreatment of animals is horrid and should be stopped. I still think factory farming is disgusting. So what can I do about it? I certainly wont be slapping warning labels on packages in the butchers section, but I don't have to buy that crap either. I can teach my son to try new fruits and veggies. I can inform myself and live appropriately....USE MY HEAD!

Edited after Marily's comment....thanks for the inquiry! I'm not a fan of 'fake' meat, so I wont be substituting with the exception of GardenBurgers....man those are yummy. Marily makes an important point....'meat' shouldn't be the focus of our meals. Who started that tradition? Let's break it. REBELS! Meatless Monday is a great idea....Thanks Marily!

We're having for dinner: salad, brown rice with green onion, carrot, corn and zuchinni. For dessert, fruit salad...yummy, yummy!

***Useful Veg Links***

goveg.com (I just ordered my veg starter kit. This is a PETA site with tons of useful links to recipes.)

Emilie at Freeze Happy (notice button on side bar) has started adding veg recipes to her awesome site. Look at this one...I do believe it's vegan! Yummy!

This blog has been in my fav's for months. Recipes, cook book reviews, kid projects....I'm never disappointed with her posts.

Also....AZ people: bountifulbaskets.org $15 for a laundry basket full of fresh fruits and veggies...it's well worth it! They've started the organic co-op now too!

That's a good start, ya? I'll post more as they come up!