Quinoa Corn Chowder

This recipe is from the "Ancient Harvest" brand quinoa (keen-wah). It is a nice recipe for cool weather, and it's also "comfort food."

Ingredients:
2 cups water (or broth)
1/4 cup quinoa
1/2 cup potato, cubed
2 TBS carrot, diced or grated
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1.5 cups corn (fresh, frozen, or canned)
2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
1/4 cup parsley, chopped (I don't really like parsley - so I left it out)
butter

Directions:

Simmer quinoa, potato, carrot, and onion in water until tender. Add corn, bring back to a boil and simmer an additional 5 minutes. Add milk. Bring just to a boil. Season to taste (other options may be: grated cheddar cheese, chives, cumin, coriander, etc.). Garnish with parsley and a dab of butter. Serves 4-6.

Another Favorite - Vegan Spanakopita

Ingredients:
2-3 sheets of puff pastry
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 TBS. oil for frying
1 bunch spinach, silverbeet, or even kale; washed and chopped
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
pepper and salt to taste
375g block of firm tofu, drained
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 TBS. vegetarian "chicken" stock powder
1 TBS. soy sauce or tamari
2 TBS. lemon juice
1 tsp. salt
1/2 TBS soymilk, for glazing
sesame seeds, optional

Directions:
1. Pre-thaw pastry sheets. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Fry onion and garlic in the 2 TBS. oil until softened. Add spinach, silverbeet, or kale, and sautee for 5 minutes. Add nutmeg and pepper. Mix well and remove from heat.
3. Put tofu, oil, stock powder, soy sauce, lemonjuice and salt in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Add this mixture to the spinach/silverbeet/or kale mixture and combine.
4. Grease a large baking dish and line with pastry, leaving some overlap over the edges. Place tofu mixture on top, and layer with another piece of puff pastry, repeat.
Cover with puff pastry and pinch and close the sides.
5. Glaze top with soymilk, sprinkly sesame seeds on top (last time I think I also sprinkled with nutritional yeast).
6. Bake 35-40 minutes until pastry is browned

courtesy of www.vegfamily.com

Grandma's Granola

This is my take on my maternal grandma's granola recipe.

Ingredients

4 cups uncooked rolled oats

1 cup raw wheat germ (I used oatbran instead)

1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

1/4 cup sesame seeds (I used half black sesame seeds "hei zhi ma")

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup oil (I use coconut or avocado)

3/4 cup honey

2 cups dried fruit and nuts, mixed as desired (for this batch, I used craisins, dried apples, walnuts and pumpkin seeds); you could also use raisins, pecans, hazelnuts, almonts, dried apricots, dried cherries, sunflower seeds, cashews, dates, flax seeds, etc.

Preparation

Combine all dry ingredients. Mix oil and honey together in a sauce pan and warm on stove top until honey is thin. Stir into dry ingredients. Spread mixture evenly onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. I stir the granola halfway through baking (at 10 minutes). I also continue to stir it a couple times while it's cooling. 

Pumpkin Time!

Super Moist Pumpkin Bread (...and egg free)
-Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:
3.5 cups all-purpose flour (or you can sub. whole wheat pastry flour!)
2 cups dark brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup oil (coconut or avocado)
2/3 cup coconut milk
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1.5 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients except for the flaked coconut and walnuts. Mix the ingredients until all the flour is mixed in . Then, fold in the walnuts and coconut.
Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake and 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaves comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cover the loaves with foil. Allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil and turn onto a cooling rack.

courtesy of Kevin Ryan @ allrecipes.com

Potato Gratin

Every fall, I like to make this dish:
1.5 lbs. red potatoes cut into 1/8'' thick slices
1 cup red onion sliced thin
3 TBS. chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup veggie broth
2 tsp. oil
1/2 grated asiago cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat 8x8'' baking dish with cooking spray (or a little oil). Arrange 1/3 of the potato slices in the bottom of the pan. Top with 1/3 of the onion slices, 1 TBS. of the basil, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper. Repeat the layers again twice, using everything but the oil and broth.
Drizzle oil and broth over the potatoes. Cover, and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover, and back for 25 minutes more.
Sprinkle the potatoes with the grated asiago cheese and back another 5 minutes or so until the cheese browns.