One of my favorite restaurants Native Foods has an African Peanut Soup that I adore. It tastes very fattening though so I wanted to try and make something similar, but with less fat. As well, theirs is a very smooth soup and I prefer chunkier soups – I like chewing! This version is thick and chunky, while still being creamy. And this can vary depending on how much of it you want blended, using your immersion or regular blender. Feel free to play around with spices and amounts. Those listed here result in a mild flavor.
I’m not proud of this, but when I was in junior high, I ate taquitos from the cafeteria nearly every day. I don’t even want to think about what they were filled with, but I just loved them; mostly for the crunchy corn tortilla and the green dipping sauce with which they were served. We won’t even talk about the Hostess mini crumb donuts I ate too. Geez. Gotta love the offerings in school cafeterias. Sad to say it’s no better 30 years later. Did I just say that? 30 YEARS? “sigh”.
Anyway, I digress…sorry. As we all know, traditional taquitos are deep fried. We also know deep fried foods = bad news. I set out to create a plant-based taquito that I could bake, but would still be crunchy. I don’t cook with oil as a rule, but for form and function, a small amount was required for this to work. I tried it without. Fail. However, I was amazed how such a small amount could make a difference. 1 tablespoon of olive oil or less for the entire batch of 12 taquitos. Not bad. Since these taquitos are filled with potatoes, I’m calling them paquitos. 🙂
These muffins are very similar to my Sunshine Muffins, with a few small changes, and the addition of blueberries and poppy seeds – yummy. I have only used fresh blueberries in this recipe but frozen (thawed) would work too. These go VERY quickly in my house.
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!
I’ve been craving lemon lately, which isn’t normal for me. I’m guessing it’s because I associate lemon with spring and the outdoors, which are two things I also crave. Living in SoCal the winters are really no big deal, but it’s still winter, and we have our days of no sun, with plenty of rain and even some cold temps (all relative, I understand). Whatever. I’m over it. However, since I have a ways to go until fairly consistent warmth and sunshine ensue, I will satisfy my cravings with muffins like these. To me, they taste like sunshine. The cardamom flavor paired with the fresh lemon is quite delicious. And the best part is they are healthy, using whole grain flours, no animal products and no added fat. The sun is shining in my kitchen!
Extras: 1) Top muffins with candied lemon zest just prior to cooking for extra lemony goodness. 2) Add 1-2 TBS poppy seeds to batter for Sunshine Poppy Seed Muffins. 🙂
UPDATE 2/12/13: Apparently the cardamom I used the first few times I made these had been around awhile. I purchased fresh (as fresh as you can get in the store) and used it in the recipe yesterday and the cardamom flavor was way too strong for my tastes. If you like it strong, stick with the 2 tsp, but I’m adjusting the amount to call for 1/2-1 tsp. Also, I felt the need to improve texture a bit. I wanted to lighten them a little; do something to help them rise a bit more (always tricky with fat/free, vegan baking). I added ground chia seeds/water and was very happy with the end result. You can grind them in a clean coffee grinder or blender.
If any of you are familiar with the restaurant True Food Kitchen, you may know they make a sauce for their Brussels sprouts called umami sauce. Umami is one of the 5 flavors identified by our tastebuds; salty, bitter, sweet, sour, and savory or umami. Their sauce is AMAZING! Unfortunately, as is the case with most restaurant food, it’s loaded with fattening oil. I found the recipe online but tweaked it to significantly reduce the fat and cut the oil. If you can find oil-free hummus, this would be considered an oil-free dish. The hummus I had on hand did contain a small amount of oil.
I roasted a mixture of Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, onions and white beans (pictured) to serve with the sauce, but you could use this sauce with any vegetable, bean, grain or even as a salad dressing. Enjoy!
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.
This savory, creamy gravy is delicious on anything from mashed potatoes, to stuffed squash, to tofu scramble. Since it’s so low in fat, it doesn’t have to be a once in a while treat.
Use brown rice flour to make this gluten-free.
Winter Spice Cookies
These cookies have the flavor of a gingersnap, and the texture similar to a molasses chew. Usually I make things a few times after I create them before posting the recipe but not this time. I’m just that eager to share.
I’ve been asked several times lately if whole wheat flour can be used in place of oat flour in my recipes similar to this one. My answer is yes, however I’d use whole wheat pastry flour since it’s finer than regular whole wheat, which may be too coarse. Using all whole wheat in this recipe, as opposed to half oat and half wheat, would probably result in a less dense cookie, which may or may not be your thing. Personally, I’m all about dense. As I’ve mentioned before, light and airy makes me feel like I ate just that – AIR! The reason I use oat flour in so many recipes is not because I have anything against wheat. I don’t. It’s just that wheat is everywhere, in so many forms. I just like to sub other types of flour, and stay away from wheat when easily doable so that I’m eating more variety, and not so much wheat. As well, many people eat gluten-free diets so I try to incorporate as many suitable recipes as I can into my repertoire.
One more thing. The batter for these babies is SO good. I may or may not have eaten an entire cookie’s worth of batter. 🙂
