Tag Archives | garlic

Homemade Veggie Bouillon

By on March 9, 2012 in Soups, Uncategorized, Vegan

As a rare cold winter day hits Austin, my craving for a warm bowl of comforting soup heats up.  But who has time to spend all day chopping and simmering?  Fortunately, I have a secret weapon in my freezer I can reach for in times like these.  My homemade veggie bouillon has no msg or unpronounceable preservatives.  Just farm fresh veggies and salt.

Before you ask, yes, you really do need all the salt to preserve the vegetables.  You only use about 1 teaspoon of the bouillon per cup of water, so the overall salt content in the final soup is rather low.

Use the bouillon as the base for a homemade soup, to punch up a sauce, or mix with sour cream for a veggie dip.

 

Vegetable Bouillon

3 carrots,  scrubbed and peeled, cut in 1 inch pieces

3 celery ribs, cut in 1 inch pieces

1 leek, white part only, sliced

1 medium onion, peeled and quartered

12 sun dried tomato halves

8 ounces mushrooms (crimini, white button, portabla, whatever you like)

2 cloves garlic

1 bunch parsley, leaves and stems

7 ounces of salt

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon pimenton or smoked paprika (optional)

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it forms a smooth paste.  Will store in fridge for about a week, store in freezer after that.  Use approximately 1 teaspoon per 1 cup of water.

Hints-  I have a smaller food processor, so I have to do this in 2 batches.  You can add as much as you can fit in the bowl and pulse it down to add more if you need to also.  This recipe is very versatile and you can use almost any vegetable you want.  Don’t like mushrooms?  Substitute parsnips.  Want a Mexican style soup? Use cilantro instead of parsley.  The sun dried tomatoes are pretty important to rounding out the flavor for me and fresh tomatoes would add too much liquid so I would not sub those out but experiment with your local box to find what works for you.

 

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Meatless Monday: Curried Sprouted Lentils w/ Ginger & Garlic Cilantro Sauce

By on August 29, 2011 in Gluten-free, Main Dishes, Vegan

From TheNourishingGourmet.com

Makes 4-6 servings

If you’re getting a Local Box this week, you’ve already got Sprouted Lentils coming your way! If not, you can add them to your basket individually too- they are nutrient packed and local from Groovy Greens in Blanco, TX.

Make the flavorful raw cilantro sauce while the lentils are cooking. Since it’s Hatch season, try throwing a Hatch Chile in place of the Anaheim for some extra heat.

 

Curried Sprouted Lentils with a Ginger and Garlic Cilantro Sauce

About 3 cups of sprouted lentils and 3 cups of sprouted wheat, or another 3 cups of sprouted lentils (this is measured loosely, i.e. I didn’t press the sprouts down at all)
2 tablespoons of coconut oil or olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups of water

In a large saucepan with a lid, heat oil over medium high heat until hot, but not smoking. Add onions and cook while stirring for about 4 minutes, until the onion is starting to soften. Then add the garlic, curry powder and cloves and cook for about 30 seconds longer and add the water.

Then add the lentils (and optional wheat, if using). Bring to a simmer with the lid on, then lower heat. Steam for 15-20 minutes until soft. If just using lentils, you can steam for even a little less.

Meanwhile, make your cilantro sauce.
1 bunch of cilantro, stemmed and washed
Either half of a large Aneheim pepper or one small one, seeded and cut into chunks
A heaping teaspoon of grated fresh ginger
3 small garlic cloves, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 lemon juiced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Place all ingredients in food processor and pulse until everything is well combined and it’s at the consistency you want.

Serve the curried with lentils with a big spoonful of your cilantro sauce on top and enjoy.

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Slow Cooker Field Pea Stew

By on August 18, 2011 in Uncategorized

 

Slow Cooker Field Pea Stew

 

 

The crazy part of August has officially begun. You know, when you fit a year’s worth of doctor’s appointments, a couple hundred bucks of back-to-school shopping, and a full weekend of summer fun into the last 120 hours before school starts. If you’ve somehow managed to miss the hectic rush into autumn, please tell me how you do it. Otherwise, I’m happy to commiserate with you over a comforting bowl of this ham and field pea stew.

This recipe is one of my go-to dishes during busy times since the slow cooker does all the hard work. Field peas, potatoes, onions and garlic simmer all day in a broth flavored with ham hocks. The result is a mild stew with tender hunks of meat, creamy peas and buttery potatoes in a smokey pot likker. Besides tasting great, the recipe is also inexpensive (more money for back to school shopping!) and I can prepare the raw ingredients up to four days before I stick them in the Crock-pot (just cut everything up and stick it in a resealable plastic bag until you’re ready to go.)

I love the way ham hocks taste after all day in the slow cooker. They impart a smokey sweet flavor into all the other ingredients, and there’s no need to season the finished stew. If you don’t have ham hocks on hand, or if your family doesn’t eat pork, substitute 3 vegan bullion cubes, 2 ribs of chopped celery, 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 teaspoon liquid smoke for the ham hocks and go ahead with the recipe as written. Taste the stew before serving and add extra salt, pepper or liquid smoke as needed.

Slow Cooker Field Pea Stew (serves 4)

1 lb. smoked ham hocks (2-3 total pieces)
4 red potatoes, chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 cups field peas
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Ingredients may be prepared up to four days ahead of time and stored together in an airtight container or gallon-sized resealable bag. When ready to cook stew, combine all ingredients with three cups of water in a three quart slow cooker. Allow stew to cook for 6-8 hours on low, undisturbed. Remove the ham bones before serving. I like to serve this dish with corn muffins.

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Meatless Monday: Chickpea “Crabcakes”

By on August 15, 2011 in Main Dishes

Chickpea crabcakes

From USA Today

This recipe comes highly recommended from a good friend we met at an Engine 2 Diet potluck. Down South we typically refer to chickpeas as garbanzo beans, and in this recipe they provide the “meaty,” filling texture you expect from crabcakes.

You can use canned garbanzos to skip the process of soaking dried beans for 8 hours and start cooking immediately!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked for about 8 hours and drained
  • 1 1/2 cups yellow onion, roughly chopped (not quite 1 large onion)
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 cup fresh cilantro and/or parsley, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 tsps. Old Bay seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp. cayenne
  • 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 8 soft hamburger buns or English muffins

Directions:

In a food processor, pulverize the soaked and drained chickpeas using the “pulse” function until beans form a paste that sticks together when you squeeze it in your hand. Be careful not to overprocess; too smooth, the batter will fall apart when cooking.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except the oil) and combine using the “pulse” function approximately 12 times; batter will be somewhat grainy and speckled with herbs. Shape into patties using a scant 1/2 cup measure (for large) or 1/4 cup measure (for sliders) and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a shallow 12-inch skillet, heat 1/4 cup of the oil over medium-high heat. Gently place the patties into the hot oil in small batches and fry the first side until golden brown, about 3 minutes.

Gently turn onto the second side and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Transfer patties to a baking tray to finish cooking in the oven for 8 minutes.

(Before frying the next batch, heat remaining oil.)

Serve on a bun with cocktail sauce or your favorite condiment.

Servings: Makes 8 entree-size patties or 12 mini-sliders.

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Local Box Meal Plan: June 27-July 1

By on June 29, 2011 in Uncategorized

Sorry about getting this to you a day late!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Aluow9kN8&w=448&h=252&hd=1]

White Peaches – Cooper Farms 
Blueberries – JB Organic 
Assorted Summer Squash – Gundermann Acres 
Purple Viking Potatoes – Tecolote Farm 
Carrots w/ tops – Gundermann Acres  
Red & Yellow Onion – Gundermann Acres 
Juliette Tomatoes – Hillside Farm 
Garlic Chives – Tecolote Farm 
Summer Peas – Just Peachy Farm 
Garlic – Rim Rock Farm

White peach sangria – What an awesome summer drink. This version uses peach vodka in addition to fresh peaches.

Blueberry buckle – Also called blueberry coffee cake. Alton Brown knows what he’s doing.

Mom’s summer squash – Not my mom, Elise’s mom from Simply Recipes.

Easy crockpot pot roast- Throw some garlic in for extra flavor. With the crockpot, you can cook delicious pot roast in the summer without heating up your kitchen.

Whole wheat couscous with lemon, peas, and chives – Cook your peas before adding them to this light, summery side dish from Bon Appetit.

- Stephanie

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