Beans, Beans, Beans

Given that we don't eat meat (well, most of the time), we get most of our protein from beans and soy. When Tamar's cousin and her friend, both from Israel, came by on Monday night, we decided to give them a taste of Southwestern American cuisine. We served them black bean soup, cornbread, and sweet corn on the cob, all of which led to a fun conversation about how much food differs between here and Israel, and their questioning of why we serve "cake" with soup...

Hearty Black Bean Soup (vegan)

1 stalk celery, chopped
2 carrots, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
1 small/medium onion, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, core and seeds removed, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 15 oz cans black beans with liquid
1 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes in juice
1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
2 tsp or so of cumin
1 tsp cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, sautee over medium heat celery, carrots, onion, jalapeno and garlic in olive oil (two-ish drizzles around the pot of oil shoudl be enough) and add in cumin and cayenne. Once onion becomes fairly translucent and garlic takes on a light brown color, add in the beans, tomatoes and broth. Cover and bring to a boil. Place bay leaf on top, re-cover, and let simmer for about 45 minutes.
Remove bay leaf, and use hand or standing blender to blend about half of the soup, depending on how chunky you like it. Once blended, let simmer for a while longer (about 15 minutes or so).
This tastes even better as leftovers, once all the flavors have really set in.

Makes about 6 large servings.

Tapenade Meets Burrito

So we've constantly talked and raved about Grandma Lydia's recipes, which we have been meticulously working through. Grandma was excited when I told her how great her banana cake came out, but not nearly excited as I was when I took that first bite.

Last night we were looking for a quick meal and decided to make Grandma's very simple burritos. For years, I had been trying to recreate the delicious flavor she came up with, and the recipe made it much simpler.

Grandma Lydia's Burritos (can be vegan)

2 cans refried pinto beans
15ish stuffed green olives (more or less, depending on how much you like olives!)
1 bunch green onions, white and green parts - hard to measure out, but again go by taste
1 jalapeno, core and seeds removed
10-12 flour tortillas, heated in microwave
optional cheese combo: Monterey Jack and Chedder

Stick the olives, onions and jalapeno in food processor. For each burrito, about 3-4 TBSP beans, between 1/2-1 TBSP topping [and a little bit of cheese]. We rolled the burritos up and stuck most of them in the freezer for quick-grab dinners. To heat them up, we pan fried with a little bit of cooking spray.

And then our mouths burned...

Yeah, it's not the most appetizing picture... but we never claimed to be great photographers. Nor do we have good lighting in our kitchen. But tonight's dinner was delicious, until all of our tastebuds were burned off. We got about a pound of tomatillos from our CSA on Monday, and neither Greg nor I have ever worked with them before. So we decided to use them in the simplest way that we know - salsa.

HOT Tomatillo Salsa (vegan)

When we say hot, we mean it. Even Greg, the king of spicy food, agreed with me on this one. Turns out jalapenos are spicier than we thought.

1 lb tomatillos, taken out of their husks and rinsed
1/2 - 3/4 of an onion, sliced
2 jalapenos, seeded and sliced
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup cilantro
1 or 2 tsp of canola oil
salt to taste

Turn on your broiler. Slice the tomatillos into halves and lay face down on a lightly greased baking sheet. Add onto the sheet the garlic cloves, onion, and jalapenos. If you are slightly obsessive compulsive, your baking sheet will look something like this:

Put in the broiler for 4 minutes, so that veggies are browned but not burnt. Let cool, and put all ingredients into a food processor. We love you, Cuisinart.

Dinner was a burrito stuffed with spicy refried beans, lettuce, tomato, a tiny bit of smoked gouda cheese (we craved calcium), topped with our smokin' hot salsa. We ate it with some braised kale, which didn't come out all that great, but at least we got a good amount of vitamin A, C and apparently K for the day!