For this week's Vegaloca Weekly Vegan Cooking Challenge, I decided to try the simple Baked Beans recipe from The Peaceful Palate. I have decided that I really must start making more photogenic dishes because these looked simply dreadful in the photos so I am not posting them! You have all seen baked beans before, I'm sure--not super attractive. But, boy, they do taste good!
Other than the aesthetics, I was so happy with the results of this dish. I rushed the cook time a little bit since I made these late at night and had to turn off the stove when I went to bed (I think they cooked about an hour with all the ingredients; note that the beans and onions cook by themselves for a long while first). But, the flavors blended together nicely in the fridge overnight. I love the sweetness and the creamy goodness! This recipe makes a lot and it only tastes good a few days as left-overs, so unless you have a big family I'd suggest halving the recipe. I'm also thinking this could be tasty with some cut-up veggie sausage for a nice vegan "franks n' beans" dish :-)
Friday, January 14, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Black Bean Chili
On this chilly, foggy evening I was eager for something hearty, comforting and warm and found just the recipe in my wonderful new Peaceful Palate cookbook: Black Bean Chili
I made this pretty much as the recipe specified, except I didn't have fresh cilantro (and refuse to use dried cilantro--it tastes awful to me!) and I skipped the green onions on this serving in favor of some sliced avocado (which was delicious but the photo made it look like some slimy green blobs were taking over the dish, hence the photo sans avocado). I thought the avocado added a wonderful flavor and nice creamy texture to the chili. I also added a bit of crushed red pepper flakes to give it a little more kick.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Happy New Year and Applesauce Cake
Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to entering into a whole calendar year with "the kind diet" on my mind and in my heart. I'm off to a great start thanks to some wonderful Christmas gifts courtesy of my awesome husband and mom. My very own copy of Veganomicon; now I can stop hogging the copy from my local library and actually make some notes in the margins :-) And The Peaceful Palate which is full of many delicious-looking, easy-to-make recipes with "normal" ingredients (aka, not requiring me to make trips to the specialty grocery store or spend loads of money on new herbs and spices or other unusual pantry items). I anticipate making lots of recipes from both books this year as I continue to participate in Lee's wonderful Weekly Vegan Cooking Challenge.
My first recipe from Jennifer Raymond's Peaceful Palate is the Applesauce Cake. This was so easy to make and quite tasty! I cut the sugar to 1/2 cup and also omitted the nuts and raisins since I was making it for company and wasn't sure if everyone liked them. Whether due to my changes or simply the nature of recipe itself, the result had a slightly chewy consistency that I wasn't sure I liked, but the flavor was wonderful--gently spicy, a little sweet (like a breakfast bread kind, not really dessert-like) and low on guilt ;-p I think it would be very nice with raisins or Craisins and would like to try the suggested white frosting next time (I didn't have powdered sugar at the time so couldn't make it).
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and delicious New Year!!!
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