17. Saag “Paneer”

A creamy spinach sauce drenching cubes of marinated baked tofu. Hello Indian food night!

creamy spinach curry

This is one of the Big Vegan dishes that I have made before, so I was so excited to try it again. Whenever I make Indian food, there are always 4 dishes going on at once, and this one fits in perfectly. You can pretty much do everything in one pan while the tofu bakes in the oven.

Saag is a leaf-based dish eaten in southern Asia, typically with spinach, mustard leaves or even broccoli. Mix it with some traditional spices and a little coconut or almond milk and you have a creamy, delectable dish to serve over some jasmine rice with naan.

Saag paneer is a mixture of that spinach sauce with chunks of cheese, so tofu fits substitutes in nicely! I love the tofu in this dish because it marinates in red thai curry paste and lemon juice with paprika and turmeric. Then it gets baked, so it retains the spice marinade while being thrown into the creamy sauce. Baked tofu is a good way to lure in your omnivore friends because it looses that pudding-squish texture.

This recipe, like a lot of Indian food recipes, makes a curry base first out of mustard seeds, jalapeno, cumin, coriander and cayenne. Those all saute until fragrant, then you add some flour to thicken and whisk in some unsweetened almond or coconut milk. I prefer coconut milk; it seems more authentic. You simmer that a while until it thickens, then puree it with some wilted spinach and tomato puree to make the base sauce. It is just creamy and flavorful and has just the right amount of spice. Perfect for me since I’m a weenie.

Serve this over white jasmine rice and sop it up with some naan and your fingers. Perfection!

Buy the book for this recipe: Big Vegan

14. Peanut Butter and Jelly Banana Muffins

It’s been a while since I had a crush on a breakfast muffin.

a sandwich in a cupcake liner

I have quite a few quickly ripening bananas in my kitchen right now. I was staring at them earlier today wondering what should become of them. This is the delicious result. When searching “banana” in the Big Vegan cookbook, the peanut butter and jelly muffins stood out. Mostly because I didn’t have all the ingredients to make the banana cream pie, but that isn’t what’s important right now. What’s important is how amazingly good these taste. (And how I almost ate all 10 of them by myself. Hey, a runner gets hungry.)

The tops are sweetly crunchy and the insides spill out, quite literally, with fruity jam and creamy peanut butter. The bananas might seem like a strange addition, but they are what makes these muffins so rich and moist. They practically melt in your mouth, they’re so spongy! See how I could have eaten them all now??

Peanut Butter and Jelly Banana Muffins 

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 ripe bananas
1 cup organic raw sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened almond or rice milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tbsp ground flax seeds
1 tsp cider vinegar
10 tsp peanut butter
10 tsp jam

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Line 10 cups in a muffin tin with liners. In a large bowl, mix together both flours, the baking powder and salt. In a blender or other bowl, puree the bananas until smooth. Add the sugar, milk, oil, flax, and vinegar. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until combined.

2. Scoop a scant 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Drop 1 tsp of peanut butter in the center of each, then top that with 1 tsp of jam. Use the remaining batter to cover the filling in each cup.

3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out with only peanut butter and jelly on it. Let cool on racks. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

*The recipe makes 10, but I got 11. If you don’t want to use the peanut butter and jelly, but only bananas, this recipe will work fine for that. I used cashew butter instead of peanut butter and loved the results.

12. Romesco Sauce

A sweet red pepper romesco sauce is the perfect compliment to any Spanish dish. This one is thick and creamy, and when served cold over a hot dish it’s a fun weather experiment in your mouth. What happens when hot and cold air mix? A tornado? I have no idea, but this sauce is exactly what your Spanish dishes have been missing. Enough with those tomatoes, already!

red peppers + almonds = happy

A romesco sauce is a perfect change from tomato-based sauces and can perk up any old meal! Make some and keep it on hand to dollop into pastas, on potatoes, spread it onto pitas or wraps and it’s like instant awesome lunch. It has a sweet, but nutty taste from the toasted almonds. The sherry vinegar is pretty crucial, too. Sherry vinegar goes through some pretty tough standards when being made, and can taste differently depending on the grape it came from. It’s often sweet and complex tasting, rather than a biting tang that most vinegars have.

Romesco Sauce

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup slivered almonds
three 1-inch slices of white baguette
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 large roasted red peppers, peeled
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2  tsp paprika
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

1. In a large frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat, then add the almonds and baguette slices. Stir, cooking until the nuts are golden and the bread is toasted, about 5 minutes. In a blender or food processor, mince the almonds, bread and garlic. Add the bell peppers, parsley, and paprika and process to make a paste. Add the vinegar and salt and process, then drizzle in more oil, 1 tbsp at a time, to make it the desired consistency. If you are cutting back on oil today, stir in water to thin it. Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week.

11. Spanish Chickpea Fritters

Continuing with our Spanish tapas for tonight, also on the menu were some chickpea fritters. Is there something better than a fried chickpea? Is there??

hand-held heaven

Usually the only time I have fried food like this is at the fair. And no, I’m not testing the fried butter or soda. Ick. But I did make myself quite sick with too many fried pickles last year….

Moving on. In the spirit of trying new things, who knew you could deep-fry spinach? Get on that one, fair folks! These fritters perplexed me while reading the recipe until I had them in my mouth. The whole chickpeas aren’t blended in a processor and the spinach in large part remains whole. Thus I was a bit wary about how these might taste.

Also, it should be noted, I’m not good with very hot things. Especially oil. So much popping. I get all nervous with my hands, and dough splashes too much, and pieces fall out of the batter, and the range is a giant mess of splatters. I kept repeatedly jumping away from the stove and shaking my nipped-by-the-oil fingers. Good thing I don’t do this often.

But I must say it was all worth it. I loved these! The batter uses chickpea flour as a base, which is great because I don’t get to use it very much. They also contain a cup of chopped spinach making these kinda healthy? Kinda? Ok, yes. Let’s tell ourselves they are.

Either way, they’re fun to eat. They made a perfect addition to tonight’s tapas dinner. I even made the Romesco dipping sauce to go on them, which was lovely! The sauce was cool and the fritters were hot and it was heaven on a plate with a fork. Felt like I was in a cute little Spanish cafe rather than my makeshift dining room.

10. Patatas Bravas

Tonight was Spanish tapas night! I made a few dishes at once, which is always an adventure when you want all things to finish on time and perfectly hot. With my experience making several dishes of Indian food for the same dinner, this wasn’t too bad, but it’s a new game when all the recipes are new. Pro tip: always read through the recipe. This might be a recurring theme on this blog…

fierce little potatoes

These potatoes aren’t so hot that you need some ninja tastebuds, but they carry their own amount of heat. A mixture of Fresno chiles, a jalapeno and smoked paprika make these super flavorful. This tapas dish typically has Tabasco or some other spicy ingredient in the sauce, making them bravas or fierce. It’s pretty simple to put together. Just boil, dice, and fry!

Be sure to pick up some smoked paprika; you can’t get away with just the sweet paprika. It’s like you opened a smoke-house in your kitchen. It’s a must.

Patatas Bravas

1 1/2 lb new potatoes
1 red Fresno chiles (or any hot kind you like)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large green jalapeno, slivered

1. In a large pot, cover the potatoes with cold water. Put the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Simmer vigorously; pierce the potatoes with a paring knife after 10 minutes to see if they are tender. When the potatoes are just tender, drain, rinse with cold water and let them cool. Cut into halves or quarters, if large.

2. Mince the chiles and the garlic, and combine in a small bowl with the vinegar, both paprikas, and the cumin. Stir until well combined.

3. Heat a large cast-iron pan (or heavy-bottomed frying pan) over high heat until hot. Add the oil, then add the potatoes, but sides down. Fry them, undisturbed, until a nice crust is formed on the bottoms, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-high if they are burning or sticking. Flip the potatoes and cook until they are crusty. When they’re hot and browned, drizzle them with the chile mixture and toss to coat. Add the jalapeno and toss until just softened. Serve immediately.

9. Asparagus-Quinoa Risotto

Ah, risotto. The perfect labor of love. It’s so creamy. So rich in flavor. So melty in your mouth wonderful.

I had never made risotto before this post, but I had seen it made by a friend of mine. The key is to never stop stirring. If you don’t have time to stand at your range and watch a dish transform in front of you, then risotto isn’t the best idea. Just like any rice dish it takes about 30 minutes, but the constant stirring makes it feel longer. But the reward is so great! In the end you get a bowl full of hearty, creamy rice and veggies.

And since asparagus season is upon us, it’s a perfect compliment to risotto, giving it a nice crunch when everything else tends to be mushy. The use of a little white wine also adds to the depth of flavor, making the dish bright and a little sweet rather than feeling heavy in your mouth. I seriously cannot wait to eat the leftovers.

Asparagus-Quinoa Risotto

1 qt veggie stock
1 lb fresh asparagus
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine (I use Pinot Gris)
1/2 tsp salt
freshly cracked black pepper

1. Pour the stock into a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil. Cut off 3 inches of the tops of the asparagus. Drop them into the simmering stock to blanch for 3 to 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the asparagus to a plate and cover to keep warm. Keep the stock barely simmering.

2. While the tips blanch, thinly slice the remaining asparagus stems, discarding the tough bases. In a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium heat, warm the oil and saute the onion and sliced asparagus stems until soft. Add the quinoa and rice and saute, stirring to coat the grains with oil. Add the wine and cook until dry. Add the salt and season with pepper.

3. Add ladlefuls of stock to the pan, one at a time until the liquid is absorbed after each ladle before adding more. Start testing the rice for doneness about 20 minutes from when you added the wine. When the quinoa has thrown off its haloes of germ and the rice is just tender (about 30 minutes total), remove the pan from the heat. Serve the risotto topped with the blanched asparagus tips.

8. Espresso-Almond Cookies

Mmmmm…grown up cookies.

chocolate dipped half moons

You know, something about that sounds pretentious, but I don’t really care. I’ve found as I get older that I need a little more depth to my sweets. Just sugar isn’t enough anymore. A cookie like this would totally not appeal to a teenager, and I’m okay with that. More for me!

These almond cookies might at first make you think they’re kind of shortbread-y, but there’s no butter and they aren’t as thin. Think more along the lines of a coffee-flavored snickerdoodle. They’re so soft! Anytime whole wheat is involved in cookies I’m afraid they’re going to crack and be brittle, but these were just perfect.

I also decided to one up this bad boy and get a little dangerous. I melted a little dark chocolate and coated one end of each cookie. I mean, come on. Nothing goes better with coffee than chocolate!

Espresso-Almond Cookies

1 tbsp ground flax seeds
2 tbsp unsweetened almond milk
6 tbsp agave nectar
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp finely ground coffee
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

without the added chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 325. In a large bowl, stir together the flax and milk, then beat for a few strokes to thicken. Stir in the agave, oil, vanilla and almond extract.

2. In a blender or food processor, grind the almonds to a powder, then add both flours, the coffee, baking soda, and salt. Pulse to mix well, then transfer everything to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Stir them in and mix well. Form rounded tablespoon-size balls of dough and place them on an ungreased baking sheet. Flatten them with your palms to 1/2 inch thick.

3. Bake until the edges are golden and the tops are a little cracked, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer them to racks and let cool completely, then store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

If you’d like to also dip yours in chocolate, make sure the cookies are completely cooled. I used a dark chocolate bar of Endangered Species 72% Cocoa (mixed with a little sweet ground chocolate because I’m not too into the bitter stuff). Use the double-boiler method to melt the chocolate and dip the cookie in on one side. Lay to harden on some parchment paper. It was like heaven having the chocolate on one side and the plain on the other. Little half-moon almond pillows….Too bad the coffee might keep me up all night!

7. French Lentil Potato Soup

If you’ve never cooked with french green lentils before, what are you waiting for?? There are so many different kinds of lentils from pink to yellow to brown and even black. But green ones don’t turn to mush when you cook them for an extensive period of time, which is why they’re perfect for soups! They’re also a super food. With over 30% of their calories from protein, it makes them the third most protein-rich legume after soy and hemp. Though unless you sprout them, they are missing a couple of the eight essential amino acids. Mix them with rice or whole grain pasta and you’ve got a complete dish perfect for vegans.

Ok, enough of the health lesson; on to the recipe. This is a relatively uncomplicated soup with simple ingredients and spices, which is where I think it’s missing a beat. Instead of using a veggie stock as the soup base, it only uses water and only a half teaspoon of salt and pepper. Thyme and parsley make up the difference, but the water base sticks out like a sore thumb. If you make this, maybe do half water and half veggie stock to up the flavor profile. Just make sure it’s a low sodium stock so this stays pretty healthy.

French Lentil Potato Soup

1 1/2 cups french green lentils, soaked and rinsed
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 large carrot, sliced
1 large Yukon gold potato, chopped
1 large bay leaf
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

1. Put the lentils in a soup pot with 6 cups water. Add the celery, carrot, potato and bay leaf. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes before testing a lentil for doneness. When the lentils are tender but not falling apart, turn the heat to low.

2. While the lentils cook, heat a small frying pan over medium heat and add the oil. Add the onion and saute, lowering the heat as the onion softens. Cook until the onion is tender, golden and sweet, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and thyme and cook another minute.

3. Scrape the onion and oil into the lentils, then add the parsley, pepper, and salt. Simmer for another 10 minutes or so to blend the flavors and serve warm.

6. Cinnamon-Raisin Braid

There’s no better smell than baking cinnamon bread wafting through your house. It gets even better when you’ve put the bread in the oven and then go out for a run and come back to that smell suffocating you the moment you walk through the door. It was heaven in my nose.

This bread braid is half whole wheat and half all purpose flour which makes it very easy to work with. A lot of people tend not to use whole wheat because it makes the dough so thick. It didn’t really rise the first time around, but it did after I made the pieces and braided it. The recipe has you warm the milk, sugar and yeast on the stove before you add it to the flour mixture. When it comes to working with yeast, I tend to have the best luck when it gets time to eat the sugar and get all foamy.

Even though it takes almost 3 hours total to make the bread, it is extremely worth it. I sliced it up and immediately put some Earth Balance spread all over it. I know what I’m eating all weekend.

 

5. African Jollof Rice

So I hadn’t actually planned on making two recipes today, but I knew for dinner it was gonna be rice and beans. I thought, “Surely Robin has a solution to this!” I flipped through the book until I found a recipe that I had all the ingredients for and when I threw in some beans it wouldn’t ruin the party.

Fuel for a Kenyan runner

This recipe saved the day! I made it with red rice and added a can of tri-colored beans: black, red kidney and pinto. What’s fun about this recipe is the coconut milk. It’s an African staple that helps the rice get super puffy and have a deeper flavor. It also helps to break down the tomatoes into a more creamy sauce.

Without over-flavoring the dish with too many spices, the natural tastes of the carrots and onions shine through. The ginger is amazing; don’t skip it! This dish was really fun and easy to make since everything cooks in one pot.

African Jollof Rice

1 tbsp peanut oil
1 cup chopped onions
4 large Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
1 large bay leaf
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup long-grain rice, brown or red
4 oz sliced button mushrooms
1 large jalapeno, chopped
1/2 tsp salt

1. In a heavy-bottomed, 2 qt sauce pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, carrot, ginger and bay leaf, and stir until bubbling. Add the milk and bring to a boil, then add the rice, mushrooms, jalapeno and salt. Bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover tightly.

2. Simmer the rice for 40 minutes, then check to see if all the liquid is absorbed. Take the pan off the heat and let it stand for 5 minutes, covered, to finish steaming. Serve hot.
The recipe serves four and there were leftovers. I guess the runners weren’t too hungry tonight.