Black Bean and Pepper Jack Burgers

I might as well call this the Bean Blog because there's a bit of an overabundance of bean posts.  This may be a bit boring but it's my journal and the truth is I love them and look for opportunities to make them into dinner as often as I can.   I find them very satisfying to the belly and a great weeknight option.  They can be made from items easily attainable at any of the corner fruit markets that are common in our Chicago neighborhoods  So I don't have to go to a supermarket (always a good thing.)

This particular recipe, Black Bean and Pepper Jack Burgers was chosen because it got really good reviews on the Fine Cooking website (this is free content, so the link to the recipe should work.)  Looking at the ingedients, I figured it couldn't possibly be bad.  More amazing about it is that there's half a cup of old fashioned rolled oats included in the mixture.  That an eighth of a cup per burger and you will never notice.  Besides that, the general cast of mexican flavors is represented:  beans, pepper jack cheese, cilantro,  green onions, cumin for spice and an egg to bind.  Basically, it is all mixed into a bean paste and then formed into patties to chill.  Then they are cooked until nicely browned on both sides.  A cast iron skillet will give you the sear you really want.

Toasted buns elevate any burger. Seriously, it makes a huge difference.

Toasty and warm.

I served on toasted buns with some salsa and avocado for toppings.  We were really happy with these.  Even my 8yr old agreed that the bean patty was tasty, though he didn't want a bun.

Lentils, the Little Engine that Could.

I don't expect you to get excited about lentil tacos.  I don't expect anyone to get excited about them. What is to get excited about a humble brown bean?  They are just kind of blah and plain.   But if there's no meat in the house and you need to make some kind of dinner in a flash, lentils can be a life-saver.    They take to all sorts of flavors and cook up in 15 minutes without need for soaking ahead of time.  I have a few lentil go-to dishes for dinner: a warm lentil skillet with bacon, a lentil soup, a lentil salad with crunchy things added and a sharp vinaigrette.  And recently I came across this recipe for a lentil taco and I was intrigued.

This idea for lentils as a taco filling came from Pam Anderson's How to Cook without a Book, Meatless Meals.  It seemed like a reasonable preparation to me.  Lentils cooked like a spicy chili, but with more of a taco flavor than a chili flavor and reduced a bit more to thicken up.  The filling then gets scooped in a warm tortilla and when topped with all the yummy garnishes you like on a taco.

I won't say it exactly copies a spicy beef or chicken, but it approximates it enough to fool the mouth, especially when combined with all the toppings and the tortilla.   It is kind of like a spicy bean dip.

I'm linking you to the recipe here and encouraging you to give it a try.  I will say I doctored her spices a bit.   So... drop the oregano from the recipe and instead add 1 teaspoon of ground coriander and a good healthy pinch of cayenne.  And, after everything has simmered together, finish it with a light splash of cider vinegar (trust me!)    Check for salt and warm up those tortillas.

As far as toppings go, I did a cabbage slaw.  This is nothing but bagged shredded slaw mix, seasoned with salt and pepper and, yes again, tossed with some vinegar, but this time rice vinegar to taste.  This will give you a bright crunch to balance the spicy lentils  And now you have cabbage and lentils, this is shaping up nicely in terms of a nutritious taco.

I also like some chopped fresh cilantro and some hot sauce too.  Pico de gallo would also be nice.  Husband added some shredded cheese because that's how he rolls.  Whatever you like on tacos is what you should put on them.   Guacamole adds good fat and nutrition!

These are even better the next day after the spices and flavors have melded.  Also, you can roll up lentils and cheese in a flour tortilla and bake it until melty and warm to make a baked burrito.  First cover with foil and then remove toward the end so it gets toasty.  Serve with sour cream and garnishes of your pleasing.  This makes a damn good bean burrito.  You will like this recipe more than you think you will. 

And no animals were harmed in the making of this segment.

Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad with Cilantro Dressing

This simple salad is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Clean Food. There's not much to it besides the chickpeas and tomatoes. but they're held together by a delicious sassy cilantro dressing. A food processor is needed for the dressing.

You could use this as a side next to grilled meat or fish or as a dish to share at a dinner. It also makes a nice green salad by tossing it with some baby spinach and a little more of the dressing. Don't add all the dressing at once when you make the recipe. When I make it for just us, I halve it (using a pint of cherry tomatoes and a can of chick peas.) The real value of this salad is what's leftover that you can eat the next day as a quick lunch.

Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad with Cilantro Dressing
adapted from Clean Food by Terry Walters

2 lbs cherry tomatoes (mixed varities make it special)
3 cups cooked chick peas (I use 2 cans, rinsed and drained. for the whole recipe) 4-5 chopped scallions

Dressing

1 garlic clove, peeled
1 large bunch of cilantro (about a cup)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 T lemon juice
kosher salt and pepper

Cut the tomatoes in half, and add to a large bowl with chick peas and scallions

With food processor running, drop in whole garlic clove and mince. Turn of processor, scrape down sides, add cilantro, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pulse to combine. Drizzle dressing over salad, toss and serve.

Couscous Cakes

This recipe for Spinach and Artichoke Salad with Couscous Cakes and Feta is from Fine Cooking #99. I do love couscous; so what could be bad about shaping it into a patty and frying it in a little oil? Plus lately I think this blog could use a post of some substance, like a recipe from a magazine tried and reviewed. My reports on our daily meals tend not to be not so very interesting.

These little couscous cakes are a tasty and substantial accompaniment to a salad for dinner.. They are basically a cake of ground garbanzo beans and grain that's formed into a patty and pan-fried in just a little oil to give the cake a crunchy outer coating. The middle is chewy. Both the crunchy and the chewy textures go well against a fluffy tart salad. When I read the recipe's reviews, the flavor of the cakes was described as a little bland. So I took some liberties and doctored them a bit by adding finely chopped dried cherries and pine nuts to the mixture of couscous, garbanzo beans, garlic and herbs. All in effort to make a really flavorful couscous. Taste the mixture BEFORE you add the egg and make sure that it tastes good to you and is seasoned to your liking.

Also, I halved the recipe for the cakes (and the dressing.) It made exactly 4 (1/4 cup) cakes, 2 per serving. Next time, I would like leftovers so I'll make the whole thing . But just to try it, I would recommend starting with half. Sure, you're stuck with half a can of beans but you can use them on salad.

The salad in the recipe served alongside the cakes is just spinach, canned artichokes, tomatoes and a tart dressing of sour cream, lemon juice and olive oil. Reviewers didn't like the dressing but I thought it was ok on the completed dish. You need that acid next to the bean and couscous cakes, which actually ends up tasting a lot like falafel. And of course you could use any dressing you like. A yogurt based one is what I'm going to try next time I make it.

A good suggestion I saw in the reviewer's comments was to use quinoa instead of couscous and I will try that next time as well. Making these cakes would also be a good way to use up leftover couscous or quinoa. And don't forget you could also take the salad in different directions too, depending on the flavors in the couscous bean mixture. I was thinking with the cherries and nuts in my version of the cakes, I could have used some julienned apple on the salad and skipped the artichokes and tomato. But then I would have had to adjust the dressing too. Well as you can see, there is a lot of room for creativity here. Good choice for a Meatless Monday.

I also wanted to mention that this month's Body and Soul magazine has a great article on salads with some fresh ideas and recipes. Take a look.

Quinoa and Roasted Vegetables

This is how we've been eating lately. Just meager, but healthful, bowls of food at dinner to fill our stomachs for the night. I'm convinced more and more that unless you've been working in the fields all day, there is no need for a western -diet dinner centered around meat. For me, that is a feast or "holiday food" as a friend dubbed it and it is best eaten only once in a while. The most important thing for me is to find a way to pack more nutrients into my day and a nice bowl of whole grains with some roasted vegetables is an easy way to do it.

It may not look like much but this little bowl of food packs a power punch of good things for your booty body. Quinoa is an ancient grain that is a complete protein plus has many other nutrients. It is easy to work with and has a bland taste like rice or couscous and can work similarly to those in recipes. You can make it plain, like it says on the bag, or you can do a quinoa pilaf and flavor it in any way you like. Sometimes I like to mix the pilaf with beans to make it heartier but I also like it just seasoned and on its own as a side next to just about anything or as a vehicle to mix other things into, like veggies or other leftovers, even chicken.

Here I mixed it with roasted vegetables: asparagus, red and poblano peppers and some mushrooms. But you could roast just about anything you like. My go-to quinoa pilaf recipe comes from Veganomicon. I like it because many quinoa recipes start by cooking the quinoa and then flavoring it. This one starts with the flavorings first: sauteeing onions and garlic, then you add just a bit of tomato paste and some cumin and coriander for seasoning. This result is a quinoa that is flavorable enough to stand on its own. Black beans are a natural add-in here. Chickpeas will work too, in fact that's what's called for in the original recipe. I bet you could even do chili powder and kidney beans for a chili quinoa. Anyway, I'm gonna give you the pilaf recipe because it is really great and I think you should try it. Just take it as a formula and feel free to switch things up as you see fit. Fresh herbs can also be added just before serving so think about that too.

Chickpea-quinoa Pilaf
(serves 4-6 as a side)

2T olive oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped finely (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t ground cumin
1 T ground coriander (I don't add this much, I use about 1/2 t)
black pepper
1/2 t salt
1 T tomato paste
1 c quinoa
2 c cooked chickpeas (or other bean) or 1 15oz can beans, rinsed and drained (optional)
2 c veg broth*

In a small stockpot, over med. heat, saute the onion in oil for about 7 minutes, add garlic and saute for a couple minutes longer.

Add tomato paste, coriander, cumin, pepper and salt and saute for another minute

Add quinoa, and saute for 2 minutes, stirring to coat with oil

Add chickpeas (or not) and broth. Cover and bring to a boil, lower heat to very low and cook for about 18 minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed all the water (usually 20-21 minutes for me) Stir occasionally. This is not rice, so it is ok to peek and see how much water is left when you stir. When all the water is absorbed, fluff it into a wider shallow bowl to release the heat. It will dry out a little more as it cools

*I have used chicken broth before but it feels somewhat irreverent since the recipe comes from a vegan cookbook.

The Artichoke

When I happen to find myself cooking for only myself and it happens to be spring, I turn to the artichoke. A vegetable that my husband may not hold in high regard but I adore. I think he's making a mistake because the artichoke is a very nutrient dense food, high in fiber, folate and all kinds of essential minerals. They also contain a compound good for the liver. Which you know, he might benefit from, I'm just sayin'.

So tonight I pared and I peeled, de-choked and steamed. I toasted some fresh breadcrumbs, added some parmesan cheese and the cooked diced artichoke stems, moistened it all with garlicky butter and seasoned it well. And I would have added some chopped parsley had I had some. Then each of the chokes was given a healthy covering of crumbs and sprinkled with olive oil. Into a hot (425) oven they went until the crumbs began to brown. Then I ran them under the broiler to finish the browning up fast. Keep an eye on them or in a flash all your hard work will be burnt.

I like to eat them with lemon and Tabasco.

Spinach Mushroom Tart

I saw the recipe for this Spinach Mushroom Tart in the current issue of Body and Soul. It is a Mark Bittman recipe from his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It has the savory flavors I like all rolled up into one pretty package. Goat cheese custard mixed with roasted mushrooms and scallions, spinach and herbs baked in a phyllo crust. I didn't have an 11 by 7 removable-bottom tart pan, but the recipe says a 10 inch round can be used in its place. I ran into some problems with the crust. It wasn't as firm as I'd like and the finished pie was difficult to cut. I really think the wider shallower pan would have made all the difference. Nevertheless, the filling was fab and I would definitely make again with a few adjustments. And perhaps the purchase of a tart pan. Rectangle tarts are so elegant.

Sorry, it doesn't appear that the recipe is available online yet. I'll link to it when it does.

Belated blogging

So I'd say I'm officially sucking at the blogging lately. I just can't find the time to compose thoughtful sentences about recipes I've tried. So I'm going to try the quick and dirty approach.

This is Ina Garten's Lemon Poundcake which I tried one afternoon, basically because I was bored and I had all the ingredients on hand. Although it photographed well, I must say that this was by no means a "hit" in my house. I thought it was too sweet and too lemony. Husband thought it was a wee bit heavy and the kids thought it was a big waste to make a cake and have it be lemon flavored.

Next up is an improvisational fish en pappillote (in parchment.) I've made gazillions of recipes for fish this way. So many, that I knew I could pull one off based on what was in the fridge. I went the asian route since I've always got those ingredients on hand. This turned out really well. I used broccoli slaw tossed with ginger and garlic for the base. Grouper was my fish and I drizzled some soy sauce and sesame over the top. I put some sprigs of cilantro for a little aromatic touch before enclosing it and baking it in the oven. Easy, light, good.

Here's the Vegetarian Tortilla Soup from this month's Eating Well. It is based on a Rick Bayless recipe and uses dried ancho chiles. This turned out really good and I will definitely make it again.

I've got some more up my sleeve, but for purpose of just having some fresh material up, I'm going to go ahead and post this. Any questions, trouble with links, need a recipe? You can always email me.

Asian Noodle Salad

Like the author of the blog where I found it, I love this salad. love. it. I crave asian flavors and this just does it all for me in one big bowl. There some work to be done in putting it together: washing, slicing, chopping, cooking the noodles, making the dressing, but once done, you have lunch for days and dinner too, if you're so inclined. And you get a bountiful serving of crunchy vegetables every time you dig in. It's vegetarian, if you want it to be, or you can slice up some cooked chicken or pork and add it in too. Make note though, I only make half a recipe and it is still a huge amount. This is also a great dish to consider bringing for a potluck since it makes a bunch and is a pleaser to all.

I always top ours with peanuts. And be careful not to just add all the dressing to the salad at first. You might not need it all. Save it in case you want to dress it a little more tomorrow. Highly recommend.

Squash Ravioli with Sherried Onion Sauce, Walnuts and Cranberries

Butternut squash ravioli is a favorite of mine and I'd eat it once a week if it weren't for the butter or cream-based sauce that usually tops it. So when I purchased some ravioli the other day, I went in search of a lighter alternative. This sauce is from Fine Cooking issue 35. The recipe includes instructions for making the ravioli too. But I think you can find really good quality frozen ravioli in the market so I used those and picked up on the recipe with the sauce. The ravioli I used are the 365 brand from Whole Foods.

I stock sherry in my fridge because I use it quite a bit with asian cooking. If you need to buy sherry, pick a dry one. It isn't expensive and will last a long time in your fridge. You'll detect no boozy flavor in the sauce once you cook it down, but there is a warm sweetness from the sherry and the long-cooked onions. The sauce does use some cream or you can make it with stock alone. I used mostly stock and finished with a splash of cream. The toasted walnuts and tart cranberries add texture and zing.

This is a really good recipe and one perfectly suited to a weeknight if you buy the ravioli. Take your time with the onions, low and slow as they say.

If the link won't give you the recipe (some are free access, some aren't) you can always e-mail me.

Stuffed squash

This recipe is from the current issue of Eating Well but I changed it quite a bit. The original is Acorn Squash Stuffed with Swiss Chard and White Beans. When I did mine I used some spiced up black beans instead. I think black beans and squash have a natural affinity for each other. And I was able to get a little more excited about this dish thinking in terms of mexican flavors.

The squash is cooked a bit first. I baked mine but the recipe says to microwave it. The filling is added and the squash are topped with bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Then you run it under a broiler for barely a minute to toast the crumbs. Really yummy. Here's the original recipe. I'm pleased to say mine look just like those in the mag.



To season my beans, I added some cumin and chipotle powder to the sauteed onions and garlic. I let the spices cook a minute in the oil and then added the beans and continued with the recipe. Those with a trained eye.might recognize that I used a Carnivale instead of an Acorn squash.

You could go lots of places with this recipe. Even taking it out of the vegetarian realm and adding cooked sausage. A definite make again...

Grilled Peach Salad

Nothing ground breaking here. Just a reminder that summer fruit can add easy elegance to a salad, especially when paired with a tangy goat cheese or a rich blue. Here I grilled some peaches only enough to get marks but not enough to "cook" them. (I find it easy to do this using my cast iron grill pan where I can keep a close eye on them.) I tossed them with some toasted pecans, crumbled goat cheese, bacon and a champagne vinaigrette for a delicious little salad with a southern twist. You could skip the grilling and the salad would still be fantastic.

Other good combinations? Strawberries, Spinach and slivered almonds. Apples, walnuts, gruyere or other cheese. Raspberries with greens and a raspberry vinaigrette. Figs, Arugula, proscuitto, and shaves of parmaggiano. Figs or dates and blue cheese and perhaps hazelnuts. (?)

Don't forget the bacon or proscuitto when dreaming up combinations. The salty bits make the fruit all the more sweet and we all know about the bacon and cheese, Mmmmm.

Just think of a background of greens (perhaps on the bitter side: arugula, frisee or just baby greens or baby spinach) a little meat for salt, fruit for sweet, nuts for crunch, cheese for a creamy foil and a tart vinaigrette to brighten it all up. Then you'll have the perfect salad.

Toasted Corn, Cherry Tomato and Edamame Salad

This is a featured recipe on Fine Cooking's Recipe Page this month. The salad of Toasted Corn, Cherry Tomatoes and Edamame is part vegetable side dish/part relish, perfect for grilled fish or chicken and perfect for this time of year. It has a nice mix of textures and flavors. There's a little basil and mint chiffonade on top too.

Salad of Sugar Snap Peas, Radish and Ricotta Salata

There's a chef's booth at the Evanston farmer's market where each week a chef demonstrates a recipe made of a seasonal ingredients. This week it was this salad made of snap peas and radishes - both very abundant at this week's market. I tried a little sample and was pleased with the crunch and the bright dressing.

Most notable about this salad is that the snap peas are sliced on the bias. They break apart into little ovals and release some of the little peas inside making the snap pea nearly unrecognizable but very interesting looking. The radishes are sliced thin too, so the salad is somewhat labor intensive. If you want to make it for a large group of people, be prepared to be slicing for a while.

The chef at the market (whose name I don't remember (sorry!)) said you could use any salty crumbly cheese. She had used queso fresco (Jeanette! I'm thinking of you) instead of ricotta salata and it was delish. When I made it at home I used feta because I had some to use up. That was also good. You could also use a farmer's cheese and of course the ricotta salata. All are crumbly, salty and very fresh pressed cheeses.

The other thing about this recipe is that it calls for balsamic vinegar. The chef at the market had used champagne vinegar. When I made it at home I went for white balsamic (my fave) I could see using cider vinegar too. You want something with a hint of sweetness, I think.

The main thing is to make this salad now, while its major ingredients are at their peak.

Sugar Snap Pea Salad With Radishes, Mint and Ricotta Salata


3/4 cup sliced radishes
4 ounces sugar snap peas, sliced (about 1 1/4 cups)
4 ounces ricotta salata, crumbled (about 1 cup)
1/2 bunch mint leaves, torn (about 1/3 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
Pinch kosher salt, more to taste
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper to taste.

1. In a large bowl, toss together the radishes, peas, ricotta and mint.

2. Using a knife or a mortar and pestle, make a paste of the garlic and salt. Place in a small bowl and add the lemon juice and balsamic vinegar and stir well to combine. Drizzle in the olive oil, stirring constantly, and add pepper to taste.

3. Pour dressing over salad (I didn't use all the dressing) and toss well to combine. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.

Yield: 4 servings.

Stir-fried veggies

Lately this has been my go-to recipe when I can't get to the market or fail to take out anything from the freezer to defrost. Basically I'll just go through the veggie drawer, gather up what I've got and toss it up into a stir-fry. You can use any vegetables + thin-sliced green onion, and minced garlic and ginger to taste.

My basic sauce is:

1/4 cup cool chicken broth or water
1 tsp. corn starch disolved in the broth or water
2 tsp. rice vinegar
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. hoisin sauce
2 tsp. chile paste with garlic
1/2 tsp. sugar

In a small bowl, disolve corn starch in first, then add the rest of the sauce ingredients. Reserve until the end stir-frying.

I'm figuring everyone here can stir-fry so I'm not going to go through that part of it but I'd be glad to help if you need a run through on the method, just drop me a line.

Black Bean Burgers

These black bean cakes are from a Fine Cooking (94) article on alternative burgers. The recipe is from John Ash, a chef known for California cuisine. You might think that there's little to get excited about when talking bean cakes, but these are anything but blah. They have poblano chiles, green onion, cumin and chile powder mixed in with the beans so they're really flavorful and they will satisfy the craving for mexican flavors. There's a tomatillo-avocado salsa that goes alongside and I also made just a straight, bracingly hot tomatillo salsa (Rick Bayless' recipe) too. We loved these and I will definitely make them again. I might double the recipe though, because I think they would have been great leftover but we ate all four cakes (made from a 15 oz. can of beans.) I served them with a lime cilantro coleslaw.

Everyone should be able to get the recipe in the post above (rather than the link in this post.) PLEASE let me know if you can't, because I'm still trying to figure this Sharethis thing out.

Wheatberry Salad

Here's a nifty little salad I copied from Whole Foods deli. It is comprised of wheatberries, dried currants, toasted walnuts, Fuji apples and a vinaigrette made from apple cider vinegar. It is crunchy, tart and very satisfying. A wheatberry is the whole wheat kernel, just stripped of its outer hull. It's a whole grain, full of fiber, and when it's cooked it has a chewy, but not crunchy texture. It's all about the texture really.

So when I tasted this salad (at $7.99/lb) at Whole Foods, I knew that it would be great to make it and have it sitting in the fridge for a quick lunch. I looked online at Whole Foods and found a similar recipe to what I'd been tasting, but I didn't think it was the same. I'm pretty sure the salad I buy doesn't have cinnamon and nutmeg in it. So I just skipped those. The ingredients lists Fuji apples and currants (instead of raisins) so I used those instead. Dear husband has been taking this salad to work for a quick lunch at his desk. And honestly, I've been known to have a bowl for breakfast. With whole grains, apples and walnuts, how can you beat it?

Poblanos stuffed with Quinoa, Black Beans and Corn.

This recipe is a hybrid of the quinoa pilaf I talked about at the end of my last quinoa post and a recipe from this month's Body & Soul magazine. The magazine has a recipe for great looking poblano pepper stuffed with a mixture of quinoa, black beans, mushrooms and corn, and dotted with goat cheese. But when I read the recipe, the quinoa was just boiled and the salsa didn't appeal to me. I knew my quinoa pilaf (from Veganomicon) would be better because the quinoa pilaf is cooked with sauteed onions, garlic, some tomato paste, and spiced with cumin and ground coriander seed. It has a ton of mexican flavor just on its own. So I decided to use that pilaf and toss it with black beans and corn and stuff it in poblanos a la the magazine recipe.

The poblanos are roasted and skinned. Then you make a small incision to remove the seed pod and seeds and stuff it with the quinoa mixture. Some salsa goes on the bottom of the baking dish (I used a homemade tomatillo salsa instead of the one in the recipe.) and the stuffed poblanos sit on top. Some fresh goat cheese is dotted on and the dish gets covered loosely with foil and goes into the oven to heat through. (The magazine recipe says to stir some goat cheese into the quinoa mixture too, but I skipped that because I thought it would be too rich.)

To plate, you spoon some salsa on the plate and top it with a gorgeous stuffed pepper and garnish with chopped cilantro. These are fantastic! Definitely company-worthy. Should you not like goat cheese, you could sprinkle on some grated Monterey Jack. You could also dot the heated stuffed peppers with some queso fresco just before you serve. And these can easily go vegan just by skipping the cheese altogether. You wouldn't miss it. There's a lot of flavor (and some heat from the poblanos) going on here.

Quinoa Stir-Fry

If you haven't jumped on the quinoa boat, it's about time you did. This ancient Aztec grain is a complete protein and really, really good for you. I can't go into it all, but you can take a look here at its nutritional profile if you're interested. Quinoa is mild-flavored and very adaptable to all sorts of recipes especially as a substitute for rice. I've been playing around with it a lot lately. Take for example this Stir-fry of Quinoa, Cashews, Pineapple, Red Pepper and Peas. Sounds weird? Well, think about it as a fried rice dish where the quinoa is a substitute for the rice. And you may have had pineapple fried rice before. I got this recipe from Veganomicon, a great vegan cookbook. Since I don't eat much dairy, I find it easier to cook from vegan cookbooks than I do many vegetarian ones.

Both I and my husband enjoyed this dish very much. Sure dear husband made faces at first, but that's to be expected when he learns he's getting a vegan dinner. But really, he was fine with it once he tasted it because it was spicy and good. There's heat from the red chile, sweetness from the pineapple chunks and the toasted cashews make it seem very indulgent for a stir-fry.

Another great thing to do with quinoa is to make a pilaf. This Quinoa-Chickpea Pilaf is also from Veganomicon. I changed the recipe up a bit by using less ground coriander, a pinch of cayenne with the cumin and using black beans instead of chickpeas. It tasted like a mexican rice and beans. This one will become a household staple. You could toss in corn, top it with salsa or just chopped cilantro, use it as a taco or burrito filling, spread it on a tostada. Sorry I didn't take a picture, but we loved it. Muy delicioso!

Baked Egg Rolls

I know I've been a bit delinquent in my posting as of late (Whew! almost a month.) There's been a lot going on with family birthdays and big homework assignments and I just don't get a chance to write. I'm always cooking but sometimes I get in a groove where I don't have time to try new recipes so I don't feel there's much to write about.

But tonight I did try something new and blog-worthy! It's these Baked Egg Rolls from Cooking Light's website. I don't know how I came across these but I can assure you I wasn't looking for egg rolls. I wouldn't have considered making egg rolls at home. But I read over this recipe and the reviews and it seemed like such a nifty idea, that well, you know.

I didn't follow this recipe as written. What ended up coming together was the basic idea of making an easy filling, rolling and spraying the wraps with oil and then blasting them in a hot oven until crispy brown. Since the recipe makes 14 servings, I just improvised on the proportions of the filling to make a much smaller batch (5.) To simplify things, I left out the meat entirely. From reviewers suggestions, I used bagged cole slaw and zipped it in the food processor to make it a little finer. I sauteed onion, ginger and garlic, mixed it all together in the pan with the slaw, some soy sauce and a hit of oyster sauce (because reviewer said the filling was a little flat. I also increased the proportion of garlic and ginger for the same reason) The filling was cooled and the rolls wrapped and cooked as per instructions.

I made the dipping sauce too but with some added chile. These turned out great. They get satisfyingly crispy but aren't oily at all. And they're a little chewy on the bottom where they touch the hot pan, but that's not a bad thing, especially if the alternative is the deep-fryer.

I served these as a side to our dinner of Spicy Szechwan Shrimp, which, looking back, I can't believe I haven't yet shared the recipe. I have given you the Shrimp with Spicy Orange Sauce if you're looking to do a good stir-fry.