Category Archives: vegan

Roasted Red Pepper and Quinoa Soup

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I went for a brisk two kilometre walk tonight after work. The sun was shining brightly and it was only minus two, degrees so I figured I might as well go enjoy the day.  I had already done a weights workout at six in the morning today, so this wasn’t a workout, just a way to get some fresh air after sitting at work all day.

One of the best things that I have noticed lately is that the sun is rising earlier and earlier.  I can open drapes before I go to work in the morning and our timer light has been moved back until 5:40pm  - crazy how that happens every year isn’t it :) .  Every extra minute of daylight in the day makes me feel so much better though.  We are getting closer to twelve hours of daylight again, which reminds me of when were in Central American and year round they have twelve hours of daylight.  Maybe I should move down there…food for thought.

Tonight I am making a batch of my famous sweet potato soup which everyone loves, to round out our lunches for the rest of the week and on Sunday I made roasted red pepper and quinoa soup, which is now a contender for our favourite soup.  I love roasting vegetables for soups – it creates such a nice nutty flavour.

Roasted Red Pepper and Quinoa Soup

This is the blog that provided me with the inspiration for this soup, but true to form I had to change a few things to make it to my liking and you can do the same. At first I didn’t really think I would need to add the almond milk, but in the end I’m glad I did, it made the soup very creamy.

2 red peppers, seeded and cut in half
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 or 3 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 or 2 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 cups vegetable broth
¾ cup cooked quinoa
½ cup almond milk (or milk of choice)

Turn on the broiler and flatten the seeded peppers, skin side up, on a cookie sheet. Roast for about 10 minutes, until the skins are blackened. Remove from the oven and immediately place the peppers in a ziplock bag or a bowl with a lid. After 15 minutes, remove the peppers and rub off the skin. Slice into 1” pieces and set aside.

roasted peppers

roasted peppers

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic, celery and carrots and sauté until the vegetables are translucent. Add the tomatoes, red peppers, vegetable broth and spices. Bring the soup to a boil and turn down to simmer. Cover and cook for 20 – 25 minutes.

veggies ready for the pot

veggies ready for the pot

Add the cooked quinoa and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat and blend with an immersion blender or a blender until smooth. Transfer back to the pot and stir in the almond milk. Serve immediately.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

This recipe made three 1 1/2 cup servings and three 1 cup servings and it was nice and spicy, just right for lunch on a cold day.

Enjoy !

 

 

 

 

Quinoa Shepards Pie

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Now that Christmas is over and we’re buckling down for winter, I thought I would make Shepards’s pie.  Who doesn’t like Shepard’s pie?  I decided to make a variation of Shepard’s pie with Butternut Squash and Quinoa.

Roasted butternut squash cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, diced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 handfuls of kale leaves, stems removed, washed and massaged with your favourite oil.  (Mine right now is garlic grapeseed)
Half a red pepper, diced
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Sea salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 350F

Cut the butternut squash in half and remove the seeds and goop with a spoon.

Cut into big chunks and place into a baking dish with a 1/2 inch water and cover with a lid.

Bake until fork tender about 45 minutes or so.

Once cooled, cut the skin away from the flesh and set aside.

Bring quinoa and water to a boil; reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes with the lid on.

Once cooked, set aside.

Heat 1 tbsp. oil in frying pan over medium heat until hot

Add onion and garlic and cook, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add kale and red pepper cook for 2 – 3 more minutes until kale is wilted and red pepper is softened.

Remove pan from heat

Add lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and pepper.

At this point assemble the Quinoa Shepards pie.

Layer a bowl first with quinoa, then onion and kale mixture, then top with pieces of roasted butternut squash.

What could be easier after work on a cold day! It should be noted that after the picture was taken and we dug in, we mashed up the butternut squash and mixed all the ingredients together like a true Shepard’s pie should be eaten. Overall, it was an okay vegan meal – it’s hard to replace the real thing! I have found a product by Yves that I might use to give this another try. Stay tuned!

Top view Quinoa Shepard's Pie

Top view Quinoa Shepard’s Pie

Quinoa Shepard's Pie

Quinoa Shepard’s Pie

Enjoy !

 

Kale Salad and Baked Tofu Parmesan

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Back in the summer I decided to try grilling tofu on the BBQ for the first time. Both Al and I really enjoyed it and it started to make a regular appearance in our meal rotation.  With the cold weather we won’t be BBQ’ing anytime soon so I was thinking of a new way to get our tofu fix in.  I started flipping through my cookbooks and the Happy Herbivore had a recipe for Baked Tofu Parmesan.  I like chicken parmesan…so I thought I would give this a try.

True to my style I changed the recipe a little to fit my needs.  The original recipe called for extra firm tofu, but I have never seen extra firm – if someone knows where I can get some please let me know. These little tofu-parm sticks turned out really well and tasted awesome, so it looks like we’ve found our winter replacement for the grilled tofu. Now if only I can get Al to stop saying “Ahhh….Tofutti” (from the movie Overboard) every time I make tofu.

I also decided to make a massaged kale salad with some kale I had on hand.  I have ordered massaged kale salads a few times at restaurants and always wondered why they call it that.  I recently found out that if you “massage” the kale in oil or your favorite salad dressing and let it sit for a minimum of 15 minutes then the kale will become quite a bit softer and much easier to eat raw.  I massaged my kale in 1 tbsp. garlic grapeseed oil and let it sit for almost two hours to soften.  While the kale was “marinating”, I got busy chopping up a storm! Whatever veggies I have in the crisper go into my salads. Today I used radishes, cucumber, carrots and yellow peppers. I then added some salt and pepper and voila – a fantastic salad that I will be making more often now that I know the secret.

Massaged kale salad

Massaged kale salad

Baked Tofu Parmesan

1 block firm tofu
1 cup breadcrumbs – I used Rosemary and Olive oil Crispy Baquettes
4 tbsp. vegan parmesan
2 tbsp. italiano seasoning
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used soy)
1 tbsp. cornstarch
Half a jar of marinara sauce

Preheat oven to 350.  Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and set aside.

Turn tofu on its side and cut 12 evenly sized cutlets

Combine breadcrumbs, parmesan, seasoning, salt and pepper, then finely grind in a food processor to a sand like consistency

Pour ¼ cup of the crumb mixture into a shallow bowl.

In another shallow bowl whisk together the non-dairy milk and cornstarch

Dip each tofu cutlet into the non-dairy milk mixture, briefly submerging, then immediately dipping into the breadcrumbs.

Flip the tofu over and press into the breadcrumbs again, repeating as necessary until cutlet is well coated.

Repeat with remaining cutlets, placing the finished cutlets on the cookie sheet.

Add more breadcrumbs as needed (it is good to separate the crumbs so that the entire mixture does not get too wet too fast or else it won’t stick to the tofu)

Bake for 20 minutes and then flip and bake for 12 more.

Arrange cutlets on a plate and top with marinara, garnish with more vegan parmesan if desired.

Enjoy !

Baked tofu parmesan

Baked tofu parmesan

 

 

Quinoa Pizza Bites

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Now that we are back from vacation it is time to jump back on the healthy eating bandwagon.  It’s so easy to fall back into old unhealthy eating habits while on vacation – especially when you stay at B&B’s and the hosts make eggs and pancakes for breakfast.  Not to mention the copious amounts of Panama cerveza’s we were forced to consume :) .  It’s hard to not drink a cold cerveza when it is so hot outside.  Unfortunately my skin is not thanking me for my bad habits as I am experiencing numerous breakouts – my skin is the exact reason why I cut out dairy, eggs and wheat, so whenever I bring them back into my diet my skin expresses its displeasure.  Lesson learned the hard way I guess.

Today’s recipe is a variation of one a friend passed on to me as I had to clean it up a bit for my consumption. The original version was from the blog So Very Blessed and there is also another variation at Fitsugar.com.

Quinoa Pizza Bites

2 cups cooked quinoa
2 eggs made from egg replacer
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup each shredded Daiya mozzarella and Daiya pepperjack
1 clove minced garlic
4 chopped vegan sausages
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp italiano seasoning
pizza sauce for dipping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together all ingredients, except pizza sauce, in a medium mixing bowl.
Distribute mixture into a greased muffin tin ( 2 heaping Tbs each), and press down gently to compact.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.

I started off with baking my bites for 20 minutes as the original recipe suggested, but I found my bites were still too moist, so I put them back in the oven for another 8 minutes. This might be because the original recipe used mini muffin tins, but I only have the regular size. Also the original recipes says it made 40 bites, but I was only able to make 18 – again most likely due to the larger size. Overall we both really enjoyed them and I would consider making again.

Enjoy !
Quinoa Pizza Bites

Quinoa Pizza Bites