As much as I complain about not enjoying cold weather and shorter days, I must admit the food that is most often consumed during those months, i.e., soups and stews, is my most favorite! I made this soup in the crock pot recently on a rainy Saturday. Perfect! I really like lentils so a soup that calls for two kinds – even better!
Nothin’ fancy about these veggie patties, but they are easy, tasty and satisfying. I ate mine plain, with catsup, but I would love to try one on a whole grain bun with caramelized onions and all the fixins. Yum. Make sure to use certified gluten-free oats and soy sauce (tamari) if you need these to be bona fide gluten-free.
So, I bought 2 acorn squash to decorate my Thanksgiving table and they’ve been sitting on my kitchen counter ever since. I finally decided to cut those bad boys open and do something with them. What a favorable result!!! If you are pressed for time, this isn’t the best dish to make, unless you omit the gravy….then it’s not bad. The gravy on it’s own isn’t time consuming or difficult, but if you stick it in with the other steps for the squash, it adds up.
*If you’ve ever cut a raw acorn squash before, you know how difficult it can be. To make this process easier, next time I will roast the squash whole first, for maybe 10 minutes, then cut it in half, and finish cooking. Not sure if 10 minutes is the magic number but the squash would have to be softer than when they went in! Give it a try. Without this step, the squash takes about 35 minutes to cook. I prefer scooping out the seeds and stringy stuff after its cooked – it comes out much easier that way.
The butternut squash I bought 2 weeks earlier was calling out to me, I could hear it (not really, but just work with me here). “How long are you going to let me sit here on the counter before I rot?” Okay! Okay! I’ll cook you! But then what should I do with you? Well, after I roasted it, I got the idea to cut into bite-sized pieces and make a stew. The squash and I were glad I did!
They do sell pre-cut squash which would save some time. Just sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast on parchment covered cookie sheet at 400 for 30 minutes . I think the roasted flavor adds to the stew, but you could just can add the squash to the pot and cook that way.
This recipe comes from Lindsay Nixon’s cookbook Happy Everyday Herbivore. This is the basic version; feel free to experiment by adding potatoes, spinach, peppers, anything you’d throw in with scrambled eggs. It calls for Himalayan black salt, or Kala Namak. You can find this product on Amazon. I couldn’t believe when I opened the jar! Smelled just like eggs! So strange…and cool! Try it!
These lentils are super easy and quick! Delicious served with brown rice and a salad. Easy Peasy!
This recipe for baked tofu is one of the first things I made when we switched to a plant-based diet. I found the recipe in Dreena Burton’s Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, which has great recipes. I made a few adjustments but Dreena gets all the credit for the dish.
Recipe ideas come to me at odd moments, usually when I’m not even thinking about food (which, if I’m being honest, isn’t all that often). The idea for this one came to me on an airplane in the middle of reading a novel. Pretty random considering the story took place in 1940 Nazi Germany. Anyway, it occurred to me I’d never seen or heard of a recipe for twice baked SWEET potatoes, only russet. I’ve since done some searching and found many recipes (can’t believe I’d never seen any before) but most of them have more fat than a cheeseburger, with ingredients that just didn’t sound appealing to me (I will never understand adding brown sugar to sweet potatoes, especially when consuming them as an entree not a dessert. Hello!?! They’re already sweet!).
This recipe has the right combination of sweet, savory, tangy, spicy and salty. Honestly, it turned out better than I could have hoped. I was so excited for leftovers today. It’s a more time consuming meal since baking of the potatoes is required before anything else, but it’s not difficult by any means; just takes some planning ahead. Note: I prefer the lighter colored sweet potatoes as opposed to orange yams. I will be making this again VERY soon!
Minestrone is easy to make, and there are a ton of recipes out there with different ingredients. I don’t know that there’s anything spectacularly different about this one but I love it, and wanted to put it out there. Feel free to play around with the types of veggies and amounts. The basil pesto topping is a MUST! You can find that recipe in Recipes on this site, or in the Forks Over Knives Cookbook.
If you’re thinking “BBQ, and lentils – in a taco!? Weird!”, think again. It’s delicious. Of course, if you aren’t a fan of BBQ, you won’t like it because it has a strong BBQ flavor. Personally, I’d like the lentil mixture without the sauce just as much, but the BBQ is yummy. These are easy to make and so flavorful. We enjoy them topped with my homemade non-dairy sour cream (see in Recipes on this site for Sour Un-Cream), raw cabbage and lime.
Note: this recipe is gluten-free only if you use a BBQ sauce that is gluten-free.