White Bean & Black Rice Soup with Kale

My friend Linda gave me a recipe recently for Chickpea & Rice Soup With a Little Kale.  I made it this weekend for our lunches and dinners this week with some white beans I had on hand and black forbidden rice. That's why mine came out more like a brown sauce stew than soup.  I thickened it with the cashews creme and it came out very nice.  It's a nice hearty stew that will warm the bones in the cold weather this week.  This recipe can be made with just about any beans and your favorite brown rice.

Here's the recipe the way I made it.

White Bean & Black Rice Soup with Kale

I cooked 1 cup and a half of white great northern beans that I soaked for about six hours in a quart of low sodium vegetable broth.  I cooked them until tender and the liquid was most absorbed.  Canned beans may be used - 1 24 ounce can white beans drained and rinsed.

3/4 cup cashews, soaked in 2 hours or overnight
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper
3/4 cup forbidden rice
3 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1 cup carrots, diced chunky
5 cups vegetable broth (may need more depending on the desired consistency)

Thinly sliced green onion for garnish

Drain the cashews and place them in a blender with one cup of fresh filtered water.  Blend until completely smooth, scraping the sides of the food processor or blender.

In a large soup pot saute onion in a couple tablespoons water, adding 1 tablespoon at a time to keep from sticking to the pot until translucent.  Add garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and saute a couple minutes more.

Add rice, celery, and carrots and then pour in the broth.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, bring down to a simmer, add the beans, and let cook for about 20 - 25 minutes until rice is cooked and carrots are tender.

Add the cashew creme and kale, and simmer until kale is wilted, 3 to 5 minutes more.  You may need to add more vegetable broth or water to the soup if it seems to thick.  Serve topped with sliced green onions.

BBQ Tempeh and Forbidden Rice Salad

I'm finding more and more that cooking plant based has become habit rather than working on change.  Coming home and preparing dinner is as easy as it used to be before we went plant based.  I was thinking about this last Thursday night.  It only took me about an hour to come up with a great meal for dinner and enough for our lunches for the next day. When I got home from work, I sliced some whole grain tempeh I had in the fridge into strips and and tossed them in a marinade of Wheat Free Tamari, fresh lemon juice, a little Mirin, and a dash of sesame oil.

While the tempeh was marinating I peeled and sliced about eight very nice apple pears I picked up on the way home from work at the local produce store.  I sprinkled the slices with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little spice mixture from the cooking class last week.  I think it had some cumin, ground almonds, sesame seeds, and a little lavender.  I threw the slices in the dehydrator.  Just love dried apple pears, they're like candy to me. They'll be ready in the morning. I like to take them out when they are dry, but still a little moist and crunchy inside.

I put on a small pot of black forbidden rice and a pot kaniwa.  They both take about 20 minutes to cook and when they were done, I tossed them together and added some chopped green onion and diced red bell pepper, Tamari, Lemon Juice, Sea Salt, and a little Raw Apple Cider Vinegar.  Served on a bed of chard chiffonade and fresh sliced cucumber.  I picked the chard and cucumber from the garden Sunday.

Forbidden Rice & Kaniwa Salad

While the rice and kaniwa were cooking I browned the marinated tempeh in about a little less than a tablespoon of coconut oil and added some vegan barbeque sauce I had made up a couple days before.  I made the sauce on Sunday, planning to make this dish sometime this week. I cooked the tempeh and sauce just a few minutes until the sauce was warmed through.

Marinated Tempeh Browning

BBQ Tempeh

The BBQ Sauce is an easy recipe from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw. pg 139

½ cup sun-dried tomatoes
¼ cup raisins
1 cup filtered water
2 TB fresh dill, minced (I used 1 TB dried dill)
1½ tsp. raw apple cider vinegar
½ tsp. stone-ground mustard
Sea Salt to taste
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 TB olive oil
¼ cup tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 chipotle pepper, ribs and seeds removed, and soaked (optional)

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes and raisins in the filtered water in a small bowl for at least 30 minutes, reserving soak water.

Place the sun-dried tomatoes, raisins, dill, apple cider vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, olive oil, chopped tomatoes, chipotle pepper, and 1/4 cup soak water from tomatoes and raisins in a blender and blend on high for 30 to 40 seconds until a paste forms.

I spread half of this paste on my tempeh in the skillet and added the remaining soak water to the blender and blended for another 30 seconds to make a nice sauce. I drizzled some sauce on the warm plated tempeh.

Vegan Meal Plan ~ Start with Basics

A woman I've come to know through our local Vegan/Vegetarian potluck asked me to help her get started in her efforts to change her eating habits.  She wants to eat more plant based meals, but doesn't know how to get started and encourage her husband, who is not so willing to try new foods, to try the vegan meals she's cooking up.

My first thought when answering her question, "Where do I start?", was make a pot of beans.  That's how I start out each weekend.  I start with the basics, protein (beans), grains, and greens. This is what I did this morning.  I do this kind of preparation every weekend.

I put on a pot of black beans that I soaked overnight, 2 cups beans to 6 cups water. Very simple, sauteed an onion and some garlic, threw in a few spices: ground pepper, cinnamon, a little curry, and a dash of oregano. 45 minutes to 1 hour cooking.

I put on a pot of quinoa and black rice, 1 cup each. 20 - 30 minutes cooking time

With those things cooked I can make a variety of meals. I combined the rice and quinoa and added a simple citrus-pumpkin vinaigrette. I can eat it by itself or mix with veggies during the weekend.

I also put the ingredients to soak for trail mix cookies, raw almonds, Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds,  pumpkin seeds, and some dried plums. (Plums from my friends tree that I dried myself.)

I usually add a very large salad to the menu, with at least ten vegetables in it. For a dressing I cut up avocado very small, (that makes the oil), and the juice of one whole lemon or orange.  If I want to change it up, I'll add some balsamic vinegar or sometimes nuts and seeds or dried fruit.

Since we are doing mostly green smoothies this week, that's about all I'll cook for this weekend.   But with those things made, I have a good base for any simple meal.  Greens, grains, and protein, that's the basics for a vegan meal. The cookies make a great satisfying snack with no added sugar.  There is food already made so when that urge to eat hits, the healthy stuff is handy.

Black Rice and Red Quinoa with Citrus Pumpkin Dressing

Trail Mix Cookies - Ready Tomorrow

Spelt Berry and Black Rice Risotto

These are the first carrots of the season from Mike & Ruth's Organic Farm, Willow Grove Gardens.  I just couldn't resist these characters.  They probably grew in some hard soil.  I saw nothing but personality.  They became an important part of our Spelt Berry and Black Rice Risotto.

It's starting to look like summer on the farmer's tables. We're starting to get some vegetables more and more each weekend at the market.  I got some great beets this weekend, which I roasted and tossed with some honey, fresh orange juice, and a bit of ginger.  I tossed in some pine nuts I had soaked and dehydrated last week. I don't think we got a picture of that yet.  We'll probably get one when one of us has lunch this week.

I also picked up a couple more Marigolds, and Celosia flowers for the garden.

Spelt Berries, Black Rice, and Fresh Vegetable Risotto

The carrots were a wonderful addition to this original concoction.  I'm still not sure whether it's stew or risotto.  But, it's more like a risotto, so I'm, sticking with that for now. I didn't know what I was going to make, I just wanted some wheat berries.  I have some sprouted already, but I wanted some cooked berries this week too. I set two cups of spelt berries to soak early Saturday morning, they were ready to cook by the time I got home from the farmer's market.

I cut up a couple fresh Walla Walla onions, some fresh garlic tops, a shallot, a red bell pepper, and the fresh carrots I just picked up.  Sautéed all of them together in some avocado oil, until the onions were just tender  I got the cold pressed avocado oil on a trip through the liquidation store on Friday.  I have found an occasional trip through one of those local stores, saves some money on the cooking supplies. I have to go when I have some time to walk slowly through the isles. Nothing is ever the same or in the same place.  It's like a treasure hunt.

While the vegetables were sautéeing, I added a dash of sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, a couple sprigs of thyme and some fresh rosemary.  Then added the soaked and drained spelt berries.   I let them brown just a couple minutes before adding four cups of low sodium organic vegetable broth.  I added about a cup of Forbidden black rice and two yellow zucchini squash, peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks.  I brough this all to a gentle boil and then simmered for about 45 minutes.

Forbidden Rice Tacos with Citrus Tofu

This taco recipe is also from the Vegan Dad Cookbook.  It's really called Red Rice Tacos, I had black rice in the kitchen today. It doesn't look like the recipe is posted on his blog, but he seems to have a few other taco recipes posted.

This one is made with the black, forbidden rice cooked with chili powder, paprika, oregano, salt, and a pinch of cayenne in the water.  While the rice was cooking, I sauteed tofu cubes until they were browned and the moisture evaporated.  Then I added 1/4 cup tequila and simmered until the liquid was cooked out.  Then added the juice of 1 lemon, 1 lime, and 1 orange and did the same thing, cooked until the liquid was gone. The tofu cubes were very flavorful.

Served on a whole wheat tortilla with avocado, vegan cheese, red onions, and shredded collard greens. Lots of flavors in this taco. We really enjoyed out dinner tonight. I don't think I've ever had tofu cooked this way.  I made extra rice to go with our beans this weekend.  I think I'll cook up a little more tofu this way too.