Red red lentil stew with cumin and coriander

Shout out to Jill McKeever of Austin TX for the recipe I modified here:

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, chopped fine
3 ribs of celery, chopped fine
3 oz tomato paste
1 cup dry red lentils, washed
4 to 5 medium carrots, chopped into largish pieces
1 1/2 lb of Yukon Gold potatoes, UNpeeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes.
10 oz bag of frozen green beans
1/2 T cumin
1/2 T coriander
1 tsp smoked paprika
6 cups of low-sodium vegetable broth

Water saute the celery and onions until golden brown. 
Add garlic and cook one minute  
Add tomato paste, cook for 3 minutes, stirring so the paste coats the veggies
Add lentils, potato, carrots, beans, all the spices and finally the broth. 
Bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer till the carrots are tender.
Taste for salt

If you have an Instant pot, put the soup into the inner pot, place the lid on, and push the "manual" button (that's what mine says;  whatever button is for pressure cooking on your machine) and set the time for 15 minutes.  After it is finished, let the pot naturally release pressure for another 15 minutes and then quick release the rest,

SOY CURLS!!!

OK, first of all, I must, again, apologize for waiting so long before posting again!  I really have no excuse other than just lazy.  

Now.  I have found the sine qua non chicken strip/chunk substitute:  soy curls.  Basically they're just soy beans, cooked in a way to turn them into elongated strips and then dehydrated.  It's NOT the same as TVP, the result of defatting soy flour.  It's the whole bean, no filler;  just bean.  
They're available here if you want to try them out (1 8-oz bag).  If you do try them and think they're the best thing since sliced bread, you can come here to get them in bulk (get the 12 lb box; seriously) 

The bag has the "full" curls (about an inch and a half or longer) in addition to chunks (under an inch long) and also "dust", very fine crumbles.  It's usually best to separate the three sizes but it's really not necessary. 
The first time I tried them It was in a ersatz chili like soup.  It was OK but for the best texture, you really need to squeeze the excess water out of the curls after you've rehydrated them.  The "chili" turned out OK, but they really shone in my barley vegetable soup:

Soy curl vegetable barley soup 

1  cup soy curl chunks, rehydrated (break the long curls in half)

1 sm onion, diced

2 tsp minced garlic

2 carrots, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

1 1/2 cups of cooked hulled barley

6 cups of veg broth

1 1/2 cups frozen green beans

1 cup frozen corn

14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes (incl juice)

4 ounces tomato paste

1 1/2 tsp italian seasoning

Put the soy curls in hot veggie broth to cover for 10 minutes and drain (reserve the drained broth).  Squeeze the water out of the curls (I usually put them in a sieve and then press a bowl that fits down into the sieve till they stop "leaking" :) )  Again, reserve the expressed broth. 

Dry saute (adding a tablespoon or so of water when things stick) the onion and carrot till the onions are translucent.  Add garlic and saute about a minute more.  Add the tomato paste and saute/carmelize for about 2 minutes.  Add all other vegetables and bring to a boil.  (I usually toss in a small handful of red lentils at this point to thicken the end result) Lower to simmer for as long as it takes for the carrots to get tender to your liking.  At this point, add the italian seasoning and up to a teaspoon of cumin if you wish.  Serve and let everyone add salt to taste.

This will serve at least 8 people with rather big servings.  With a green salad and a hunk of bread, this is a very filling dinner!

Breakfast herb wrap

OK.  All you cilantro haters out there, you can avert your eyes!  Well, I guess you can read on if you sub in parsley for the "devil's weed" but the taste won't be the same (something you all are quite glad of, I bet, lol)

 I know; I don't understand either!  How can people not like cilantro??  It's a fresh, zingy taste that will enliven the dullest dish, from beans to eggs! 

Cilantro.  It's even a beautiful word! 

I'd seen it listed in recipes but never thought about it because it wasn't on any of my spice bottles at home so I was kinda "meh."..............until one evening at the India Cafe, on Washington St. in Iowa City, IA.   I'd gotten the mulligatawny soup and it took me a few spoonfuls to figure out that that fantastic taste was coming from the bits of green floating around in the soup.  Hoping against hope that it wasn't some exotic Himalayan herb that was gonna cost an arm and a leg, I asked what it was, and the waiter uttered the magic word:  cilantro..  YES!!!  I'd seen that in the grocery store! 

Turns out that cilantro was also one of the main components of the spicy green chutney that they brought to dip pakoras in, although I didn't know it was in there; the spiciness pretty much overwhelmed (in a good way!) most of the lime, cilantro and mint that made up the rest of the chutney.  In fact, I liked the green chutney so much, I used to bring in one of those tiny Tupperware containers people use for single servings of  salad dressing and I'd dump in some of the chutney to take home!   But I don't have to do that anymore, since the local grocery chain sells it in 7.5 oz jars.  Yay!

Fun fact:  the spice coriander is actually the seed of the plant that cilantro comes from.  I like to think it's the economy of God (or Mother Nature, if you go that way) to give us plants that have multiple uses:  turnips and beets (you can eat the greens!), cilantro/coriander, shade and food from fruit and nut trees. 

So anyway, today is one of my "on the fly" recipes.  It's a very simple wrap/burrito style sandwich with only 4 main ingredients, 5 if you count the dried dill :)

1 burrito size (10") whole wheat tortilla ($0.45)
1 Tbs butter
1 jumbo egg ($0.30) (or two smallish ones)
1/4 tsp salt
a few grinds of pepper
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 Tbs minced cilantro leaves,
1-2 Tbs restaurante style salsa

Scramble the egg in a small bowl, adding the salt, pepper and dill to the egg.  Melt the butter in a skillet.  When the butter is melted, swirl it around the bottom of the pan and pour in the egg.  Swirl the egg around till the bottom of the pan is covered with a thin layer of egg and turn the heat to medium low and sprinkle the cilantro evenly over the egg.  When the egg looks fairly dry on top (but still a tiny bit "wet") turn off the heat and carefully lift the egg with a rubber/silicone spatula to loosen and slide it onto the tortilla.  Spoon the salsa horizontally across the middle.   Fold in the sides about an inch and a half or so, and then roll up from the bottom, and there you have it, a yummy herb-y breakfast burrito for about a dollar.

Enjoy!

WHOA. HOLD. THE PHONE!!

I have made a fantastic discovery!

Now, if you're more about gravy for its moistening powers than its flavor, have I found the solution for all you new vegans and cheap eaters out there!

With a bit of a tweak to the recipe from Canadian,Will Kriski's blog Potato Strong, I now present to you the food miracle of modern times:  White bean gravy!

Yes, white beans; those humble legumes that make probably the most palatable of poor man's soups, bean soup (some may put ham in theirs, but having eschewed animal products for food, I leave that out).  I use Great Northern Whites (for both the soup and this gravy) but I'm sure navy beans will work just as well.  GNW's are a little more expensive, but the texture of the final product makes them the winner for me.

Now, as with all "replacements" for animal product foodstuffs out there, this won't taste "just like" the meat counterpart, but I have to say it gets pretty darn close!  Way closer than fake cheese sauce!

So, without further ado here's the recipe: (I used my Instant Pot for this, it got the beans so very soft)

1 cup of dried white beans (navy, great northern)
4 cups of water
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp poultry seasoning
black pepper to taste
2 tsp "Better than Bouillon" no-chicken or vegetable broth


for brown gravy, also use
1/2 tsp soy sauce


Put the beans into a bowl to soak with the water for a minimum of 4 hours.  Transfer them to the Instant Pot with another cup of water and set manual/pressure cook to 55 minutes.  When the timer goes off, let them natural release for 15 minutes and then quick release the rest of the pressure, if any.  Drain the beans and reserve the broth!  Just put a strainer over a bowl to save the broth from going down the drain.

Take 1 3/4 cups of the beans with up to 3/4 cup of the broth (depending on how thick you like the gravy) and put in a high speed blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until creamy, and that's it!    Season with pepper and more salt if you need it, though with the bouillon and the soy sauce, I doubt any more salt will be necessary.

Use this on mashed potatoes, and anywhere else you use gravy!

As a kid, whenever we had mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner, I'd typically finish my meal by taking a slice of bread and breaking off pieces of it (and smooshing the pieces for good measure) onto my plate and pouring gravy over it.  I can't wait for dinner tonight so I can do that again!

Oh, my!  It's been over a month since I posted last!

Well, let me see................ah.  If you don't have an Instant Pot, drop whatever it is you're doing and go get one!  If you're going to be doing Cheap Eats, that means using a lot of beans, and that means an Instant Pot will cut out a LOT of time and work!  You won't even have to soak the beans; just put them in the pot with about 2 1/2 times the amount of liquid and hit "manual' (or "pressure cook"; whichever one your model says) and adjust the timer to 70 minutes (1 hour and 10 minutes). When the time runs out, let the pressure go down naturally for 10 minutes then quick release the rest (the instruction manual will tell you how to do all this), and voila!  You have nicely cooked beans ready to eat (though you may want to spice 'em up a bit!) or be made into soup or whatever other dish you're making.

If you're just starting out on the Cheap Eats path, you may wish to go ahead and soak the beans overnight for the first month or so......unless you WANT to blow up like Aunt Marge from Harry Potter the the Prisoner of Azkaban!  Until your gut bacteria adjusts itself to your new way of eating, you WILL get gas, a LOT of gas, but it does lessen in severity in time.  I'm just letting you know ahead of time.

And now, it's time for my beans and cornbread dinner!  I'll give regular stovetop/crockpot instructions first and then instant pot instructions.   I much prefer the stovetop/crockpot method but if you run out of time, the IP version works just as well, to be honest :)  The stovetop method will work best if you have an hour or so to do the beans in the morning (on whatever day you have off)

The beans

I like large limas (some call them butter beans) or pintos for this, although any bean (other than garbanzos and lupins) will be just fine, even navy or great northern white beans.

1 pound of beans, washed and picked over.
1 large onion, diced.
3 cloves garlic, pressed.
2-3 teaspoons of the herb blend of your choice.
2 bay leaves
hickory smoked salt to taste (about 2 teaspoons) or 2 tsp of regular salt with a dash of liquid smoke.

Presoak your beans over night in enough water to cover up to the second knuckle on your index finger.  The next morning, drain them and rinse the soaking water off and place them in a pot and cover with fresh water and bring to a rolling boil.  Let them boil for 10 minutes (This is especially important for red kidney beans!  Read why here.).  After the 10 minute boil, cover and let them rest for 1 hour.  To have the least gassy beans possible, drain and rinse again, though you'll lose some lovely bean broth that way.  Either way, put the beans, onion, garlic, and bay leaves in the crockpot with enough liquid to cover by an inch or so and cook at low for 6-8 hours or at high for 4-5 hours.  If you like your beans on the firmer side with thin broth go for the lesser time.  If, like me, you like them almost mushy with lots of yummy "bean gravy" go for the greater time.  Either way, add the herb blend an hour before they're to be served. When they're done to your liking add the salt (and liquid smoke if you use it), and take out the bay leaves, and serve!

To make beans in an Instant pot, you don't technically have to soak them; just put the beans and bay leaves in the pot and cook at pressure for an hour then quick release and add the onion, garlic and herb blend and cook for another 10 minutes (it will take a lot less time to come to pressure this time because it's already pretty hot in there).  Quick release again and add the salt (and liquid smoke if using)

Options:  If you're using the stove/crockpot method, about an hour before you expect them to be done, add a couple diced potatoes or even a can of hominy.  If you're using the Instant Pot method, cook 5 minutes after the onion goes in and add the potato and cook for another 5 minutes. It's not exactly traditional, but if you're following the McDougall Starch Solution way of eating, it's perfect.  You can also just cook the potatoes/heat the hominy and serve along side of the beans, along with any other vegetable you wish.  Serve with a raw, greens based-salad of your choice and a hunk of Dimo's cornbread:

Dimo's cornbread

dry ingredients
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (pastry if you can get it)
1/4 cup of oat flour (just whiz some quick cooking oats in a food processor till they turn to flour)
1/4 cup of barley flour (you can up the oat flour to 1/2 cup if you don't use the barley flour).
3/4 cup of corn meal (yellow or white, it doesn't matter for the taste)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder (2 if you like your cornbread fluffier)
1/2 tsp salt (optional)

wet ingredients
1 egg, lightly beaten, OR if you don't eat eggs, one flax egg (1 Tbs of flaxmeal plus 2 1/2 Tbs water; let it sit till thickened)
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of skim milk or unsweetened almond milk.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease an 8 x 8 pan
Mix all the dry ingredients with a whisk till well mixed
Stir together the wet ingredients and when well mixed, add to the dry ingredients and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened.  Pour batter into the prepped pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Serves 9 if you cut it in the tic-tac-toe way, 8 if you cut it in half, then quarter turn and cut each half into 4 pieces each.

As you can see with the whole wheat, oat, and barley flours this isn't exactly a traditional recipe (and the vegan version, with the flax egg and almond milk definitely isn't!), but they make a denser result (especially if you only use 1 tsp of baking powder) which is how I like my cornbread  Feel free to use just white wheat four if you wish.

Hello, all!

Here's yet another one of those "down-to-pantry-staple" recipes:

1 medium to large yellow or white onion
about 300 g of potato chunks (russet or waxy according to your taste)
one 15 oz can of no-salt black, red kidney, or pinto beans, UNdrained
2-3 tsp of Mexican seasoning of your choice (I use my own blend from this recipe).
1 cup frozen corn
1 Tbs tomato paste


Chop a yellow or white onion and dry saute in a non-stick pan.  When they're translucent, set thm aside while you put the rest of the dish together.
 Take about 3-4 smallish to medium potatoes (or just one if you get one of those ginormous russets), waxy or russet, and chunk up and put on the stove to boil.  When they're tender to your liking, drain them and mix them in with the onion plus a can of no-salt black or kidney or pinto beans (with the liquid) and  a couple teaspoons of your favorite Mexican seasoning, along with the tomato paste and corn.  Heat to serving temp and chow down!  You can add a little water (no more than half a cup) if it's too thick for you.

This makes about 5 servings as a main.  You can eat it with a green salad and a plate of sliced tomatoes in the summer with a nice fruit salad for dessert.

Changing recipes: how far do you have to go for it to become "your" recipe?

It doesn't usually come up, but once in a while we see in blogs a request not to share a recipe without giving credit, and I couldn't agree more especially if the blogger developed the recipe from scratch!

But then there are always the commenters that say, "oh, I didn't have that/don't like that, so I subbed in X" or "I do low-fat so I baked it instead of fried it", etc, etc, etc.  I can't help but wonder, at such comments, when a recipe ceases to be the same and is changed enough for the "adapter" to claim it as his/her own?

I have such a conundrum with this recipe.  It's based on a recipe from this blogger but I've made some changes and added a few things, and in one case, made a general ingredient suggestion a more specific ingredient (mainly because of my personal taste and nutritional plan).

That being said, let's cook!!

This recipe is (or at least can be) a little pricey due to the (relatively) high cost of the cauliflower.  You can either wait till it's on sale or else use frozen.

Veggie masala

1 1/2 Tbs garam masala (NOT regular curry powder)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper (about 20 turns if you're using a grinder)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (leave this out if you're not a  lover over overly spicy food)
1 cup diced onion (130 g, usually a small or half a medium one)
1 Tbs minced fresh ginger (or this stuff.  It's a bit pricey but worth the trouble)
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1 (15 oz/425 g) can crushed tomatoes (have the can open BEFORE you start sauteing the onion)
1/2 cup of RAW sunflower seeds (look in your bulk section)
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 cup green beans, sliced into 1" pieces
1 cup diced waxy potato (NOT russets, I usually go with yukon golds but any waxy variety will do)
1 cup cauliflower florets (smallish)
1 cup frozen peas

Measure out the sugar, salt, and all the spices into a small bowl and set aside.

Heat a medium-sized saute pan over medium heat for 2 minutes.   Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes, adding a splash of water and stirring when they start to stick.  (That's right; no oil!  don't worry, you'll never miss it).

Add the ginger and garlic and continue to cook for 2 minutes, again, adding a splash of water if there's any sticking.

Add the spice mixture you set aside earlier (plus anther splash of water if things are too dry) and stir for about 30 seconds, and then add the crushed tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and water.  Reduce heat to low, place a lid on at an angle to vent, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring once 10 minutes in and again 5 minutes later.

During the 20 minutes the tomato mixture is simmering, put the green beans pieces into a pot of boiling water.  Return to a boil, and then lower the heat and let them simmer till tender but just on the soft side of crisp (just don't let 'em get mushy like canned ones).  At this point, add the potatoes and the cauliflower.  Simmer everything till the potatoes are tender to your liking.  (If you're using frozen cauliflower, wait to add it until the potatoes are done to your liking, then add the cauliflower and  bring the pot to a boil and then immediately turn it off and drain.) Drain and place in a bowl where you'll be mixing with the tomato mixture.

Remove the tomato-filled pan from the heat and let it cool for about 5 minutes (cover off), then pour the mixture into your blender, along with the almond milk.  Process till smooth.  Pour this over the veggies, add the peas and fold everything together till the peas are thawed out.