Tag: quick dinner

Super Summer Soup Supper – CSA Week 8

Posted in CSA - Community Supported Agriculture, Soups, Salads & Side DishesTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Super Summer Soup with Italian Flat Beans, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

The adventures of the CSA share continue! This is our week 8 share and the eggplant, zucchini, and cucumbers are in full swing. If you need some zucchini inspiration, check out my stuffed zucchini boat recipe from last week. There are also some new items this week, and that’s my focus here: corn, green peppers, and flat (romano beans)! And this is what makes taking part in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program so great – finding surprise ingredients that your local supermarket may not carry, and figuring our what to do with them.

The credit for this soup goes entirely to my 7 year old who suggested we use flat beans for a soup, add corn to it, plus one tablespoon each of dried dill, dried basil and onion powder. Oh, and garlic and vegetable broth! Then I stepped in with some carrots, bay leaves, and green pepper (also courtesy of the CSA share this week). The rest is history and the recipe below!

What are flat beans?

Flat_beans_raw
Flat Beans, Raw – By Andrewa, from Wikimedia Commons

Before we dive into cooking, let me just share what flat beans are. I don’t think I ran into them before, and I am guessing many of you are in the same boat! These beans are also known as romano beans, and also Italian flat green beans. They are similar to green beans, but much broader – about one inch (2.5 cm) or so, and they are quite long too. They have a good bite to them, although my seven year old helper did not like their taste when raw. These beans are meaty and that’s another reason why putting them into a stew or a hearty soup makes a lot of sense as they need a bit of time to cook, and I don’t think steaming them would work. So, if you like to try a green bean variety with a bit more meat and bite to it, these are a great option.

Super Summer Soup with Italian Flat Beans

What you’ll need:

1 lbs (about 500 g) flat beans (romano beans), trimmed and cut into 1 in (2.5 cm) pieces

2 cups grilled corn, just kernels (frozen or canned whole kernel corn would work too!)

2 large carrots, chopped very finely using a food processor

1 green pepper, diced to small pieces

4 cups (about 1 L) vegetable broth

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced or crushed

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon dried dill

1 tablespoon dried basil

4 dried bay leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

Squeeze of lemon for serving (optional)

What you’ll do:

  1. Place a large pot over the medium-high heat. Add oil then garlic and let the garlic brown just slightly for 1-2 minutes.
  2. Next, add diced green peppers and sauté for 2-3 minutes, with occasional stirring.
  3. Add finely chopped carrots, mix well and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
  4. When the peppers have softened and the carrot pulp starts to brown, add the beans, corn and all the spices and sauté for another 5 minutes, then pour in the vegetable stock, bring to boil, lower the heat to simmer, put the lid on and leave it for 15 minutes.
  5. Serve this soup as a light supper, lunch, or pair with a salad and some bread for a meal!

Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2018

Zucchini Noodles with Cherry Tomatoes and Corn

Posted in Main Course, Pizza and Pasta, Tips & TechniquesTagged , , , , , 3 Comments
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Zucchini Noodles with Cherry Tomatoes and Corn, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Who ever invented a spiralizer deserves one of those Breakthrough Technology prizes – future generations of parents will not know the painful process of getting kids to eat zucchini or summer squash, or even beets because with this magical machine all kids will be diving into is spaghetti, and who doesn’t love that!!!

What I like about zucchini noodles is that they cook really fast, they have a lovely texture, and a bit of chew to them – very similar to a broader noodle pasta variety, like fettuccine. The recipe here combines only a handful of ingredients and, once you have your zucchini noodles ready, it only takes 15 minutes from start to finish. So, it is ideal for a quick lunch, or a healthy dinner after a very, very busy day. It looks very glamorous, it tastes crisp and delicious, and you will get all your recommended daily servings of vegetables in one plate – but, hey, who’s counting those, right?

The easiest way to get zucchini noodles, or many other kinds of noodles, is to buy them from a grocery stores. Almost all I go to carry those, so grab them and try them. If you like them, stop grabbing them from the store and buy yourself a spiralizer. The gadget is going to pay iteself off after 5-10 times of use, depending on how much you spend, because buying zucchini and doing the spiralizing yourself is much, much cheaper – I did the math and came up with the number 5. It will cost you five times more to buy pre-spiralized veggies than to do it yourself… Plus, once you have a spiralizer you can do all sorts of fun stuff with it, like these Spiralized Oven Fries.

Hope you give this recipe a try!

Zucchini Noodles with Cherry Tomatoes and Corn

What you’ll need:

4 pieces of zucchini, medium sized, spiralized

1 onion, finely diced

10 oz (275 g) cherry tomatoes, washed and halved

1 1/2 cup frozen corn

Cooking spray

Fresh parsley, nutritional yeast, fresh or dry oregano, fresh or dry basil – these are all possible toppings for you to consider.

 

What you’ll do:

  1. Spray the bottom of a large and deep frying pan, or even a wok, with cooking spray and put over the medium high heat.
  2. Add the diced onions and brown for 3-4 minutes, until soft, slightly browned and translucent.
  3. Add the tomatoes and let them sauté for 3-4 minutes.
  4. Once the tomatoes are soft, add the corn and let it thaw as it cooks. No need to thaw it ahead of time. It will take about 5 minutes for corn to be ready for the next step.
  5. Add the zucchini noodles, mix everything gently together, and sauté for another 5 minutes. Serve immediately with a dash of fresh basil or a sprinkle of nutritional yeast on top!

Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2017

 

 

 

Fancy Faux-Lobster Roll

Posted in Fish and Seafood AlternativesTagged , , , , , , 6 Comments

Fancy Vegan
Fancy Faux-Lobster Roll, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow
During long, winter months when days are short, snow piles up high and it does not get above freezing for weeks on end, New Englander likes to enjoy things like pots and pots of piping hot New England Clam Chowder, a creamy and rich seafood based soup. This winter I did something that just a year ago would have sound like a total science fiction and impossibility. I made completely plant-based, clam-free New England “Clam” Chowder.

Now that we are approaching the high summer, I felt ready to tackles another recipe that New England self-identifies with, the Lobster Roll! If you’ve never tasted or seen a Lobster Roll let me quickly describe how it’s made. You take a hot dog bun, steam it or toast it and fill it with chunk so of cooked lobster meat tossed with some mayonnaise and chopped celery. The main flavor you get is usually the combination of mayo and celery, and you may get some citrus overtones since the roll is often served with a lemon wedge.

So far, jackfruit was my go-to seafood replacement. Jackfruit works really well in crab-less Jackfruit “Crab” Cakes, in Clam-free “Clam” Sauce, and in vegan New England “Clam” Chowder, but for the lobster rolls I wanted a different texture and milder flavor as canned jackfruit that I have access to is usually a bit salty and sour. So I did a little bit of research and discovered that heart of palm seems to be everybody’s favorite lobster stand-in. I have not really used heart of palm before so I was not sure what exactly to expect.

Luckily for me, my local Trader Joe’s carries 14 oz. jars of heart of palm in brine, so I decided to go for it. This amount of hearts of palm is enough to make four generous rolls using a standard size hot dog bun. The rolls come together in less than ten minutes and definitely qualify as a quick lunch or dinner. I recommend rinsing the heart of palm well and chopping it into relatively small piece. I know that chunks of lobster in some of the most revered lobster rolls out there are pretty large but in this case I do think that making celery and heart of palm pieces about the same size works better to integrate the flavors. Plus it makes for more manageable bites. So, get a large mixing bowl out and lets make a much lighter, cheaper, safer and, lets face it, tastier and kinder lobster roll.

Fancy Faux-Lobster Rolls
Fancy Faux-Lobster Rolls, kinder and safer, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Fancy Faux-lobster Roll

What you’ll need (for 4 servings):

1 14 oz (400 g) jar heart of palm
6 stalks celery
1/2 cup vegan Mayo (store bought or homemade)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon old bay seasoning
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3-4 springs of fresh dill, chopped
4 hot dog buns

 

What you’ll do:

  1. Drain and rinse heart of palm. Pat dry and cut in half lengthwise and then across into 1/2 in (1 to 1.5 cm) pieces. Place into a large mixing bowl.
  2. Chop celery into thin slices, approximately matching the size of the heart of palm pieces. Add to the mixing bowl.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Let rest for 30 minutes.
  4. Toast four hot dog rolls then top them with generous amount of faux-lobster filling. Sprinkle more dill on, if you like, and enjoy! The flavor is so fresh and satisfying that you will not want to add anything to this, but just in case you are wondering what to pair Fancy Faux-Lobster Roll with, you can try boiled or baked potatoes with just a splash of olive oil. That ought to do it!

Copyright ©Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2017