Wow. Two months later, we remember - we have a blog. Not that we completely forgot, but boy has it been easy to just stick a frozen pizza in the oven or go out to eat with the family or with friends. But, we now have high motivation to get back on track with the cooking: our grocery bill has notably risen, and let's just say those splurges on honey roasted peanuts or half-priced Christmas candy haven't helped our figures.
So, in celebration of my (Tamar) immune system shutting down for the second time this winter season, we present to you our first recipe of 2010: a hearty vegetable stew, greatly inspired by a good cook and friend of ours. It's simple, cheap, and - with enough spice - helped clear my sinuses for a heavenly 15 minutes.
Hearty Winter Stew (vegan)
1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 onion, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 eggplant, peeled if not organic (waxy? Yeah, that's from the chemicals) and diced
1 pint mushrooms, cut into mid-sized chunks
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1.5 tsp dried basil
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf
Generous, but careful, amount of salt and pepper
Some white wine and some olive oil
Heat a large pot over medium heat, and pour two swigs of olive oil around the pan.
Toss in the onion, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, and garlic, ensuring that all are coated with the oil; mix in some salt and pepper.
Let the vegetables cook for about 5-7 minutes over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Add in the spices (cumin, red pepper flakes, basil, oregano) and the liquid smoke and stir.
Pour in a little bit of white wine (we only had a tablespoon or two left in our bottle, so alas, that's what went in), turn the heat to high, and let the alcohol cook off for a minute or so.
Add the can of crushed tomatoes, plus about a can's worth of water, depending on what consistency you're going for.
Season with extra salt and pepper, place the bay leaf on top, and cover and let simmer over medium heat for 1 hour.
We ate this with a side of garlic bread - a mixture of Earth Balance and oregano spread on chiabatta bread, baked in the oven for a few minutes, topped with parmesan cheese, and broiled for an additional minute.
Showing posts with label zucchini. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zucchini. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Late Summer Vegetable Delight
Last night we got a little fancy. We picked up yet another round of corn and zucchini from our CSA this past Monday and made zucchini and corn risotto with a side of vegan stuffed zucchini blossoms. Greg was in charge of the flower filling, so I'll leave that blog post for him.
As for the risotto, ugh. So good, but such a pain in the butt to make. Maybe it's the brand of rice we bought? We have no clue. But for some reason, every time we make it, although it's totally worth it at the end, it takes forever and our arms get sore. We decided to conquer the beast once more, thinking maybe this time it will actually take us less than an hour. It didn't.
Zucchini and Corn Risotto (vegan)
1/2 medium size onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1.5 cups arborio rice or risotto - for some reason rice labeled arborio rather than risotto tends to be cheaper, but it seems to basically be the same thing?
1/4 cup white wine
5 cups vegetable broth, heated
Corn kernels from one stalk corn (cooked)
1 medium size zucchini, chopped
1 TBSP Earth Balance
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat up two swigs around the pan of olive oil over medium heat and toss in chopped onion. Sautee for 4 minutes or so, until onion soaks up some of the oil (but not all). Add rice and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and stir on and off for about a minute or so, making sure the rice doesn't stick to the pan. Deglaze (Tamar's favorite cooking action word!) the pan with white wine and let alcohol cook off for about a minute while - yes, you got it - continuing to stir the contents of the pan.
Now for the fun part (it's fun for about 3 minutes, then we start to get impatient, grumpy and hungry).
The trick is to balance the stirring and the addition of the vegetable broth. Add one ladle of broth at a time, continue to stir rice and wait until most of the liquid has been absorbed before adding the next ladle of broth. Some people claim you have to continuously stir, others say you don't. It really depends how motivated you are - we stir, occasionally get tired, walk away to change the song on the playlist, come back to stir... you get the point. As your broth supply dwindles, add the zucchini and corn so that the zucchini starts cooking. Also begin to taste the rice to see if it's getting close to being cooked; we like our rice firm, but not crunchy.
You may use all the broth we say to use, you may use less, or you may run out and start using water - use your bite to figure it out, don't trust us. We had about 4 cups set aside of broth, and ended up having to add about a cup water to finish cooking the rice. It was annoyingly frustrating since it seemed to never end, but there was a turning point during which the rice magically cooked in a matter of a minute or so after we added the last batch of water.
When all is said and done - rice tastes nice and creamy, zucchini is cooked - stir in that tablespoon of Earth Balance and add sallt and pepper to taste.
As for the risotto, ugh. So good, but such a pain in the butt to make. Maybe it's the brand of rice we bought? We have no clue. But for some reason, every time we make it, although it's totally worth it at the end, it takes forever and our arms get sore. We decided to conquer the beast once more, thinking maybe this time it will actually take us less than an hour. It didn't.
Zucchini and Corn Risotto (vegan)
1/2 medium size onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1.5 cups arborio rice or risotto - for some reason rice labeled arborio rather than risotto tends to be cheaper, but it seems to basically be the same thing?
1/4 cup white wine
5 cups vegetable broth, heated
Corn kernels from one stalk corn (cooked)
1 medium size zucchini, chopped
1 TBSP Earth Balance
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat up two swigs around the pan of olive oil over medium heat and toss in chopped onion. Sautee for 4 minutes or so, until onion soaks up some of the oil (but not all). Add rice and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and stir on and off for about a minute or so, making sure the rice doesn't stick to the pan. Deglaze (Tamar's favorite cooking action word!) the pan with white wine and let alcohol cook off for about a minute while - yes, you got it - continuing to stir the contents of the pan.
Now for the fun part (it's fun for about 3 minutes, then we start to get impatient, grumpy and hungry).
The trick is to balance the stirring and the addition of the vegetable broth. Add one ladle of broth at a time, continue to stir rice and wait until most of the liquid has been absorbed before adding the next ladle of broth. Some people claim you have to continuously stir, others say you don't. It really depends how motivated you are - we stir, occasionally get tired, walk away to change the song on the playlist, come back to stir... you get the point. As your broth supply dwindles, add the zucchini and corn so that the zucchini starts cooking. Also begin to taste the rice to see if it's getting close to being cooked; we like our rice firm, but not crunchy.
You may use all the broth we say to use, you may use less, or you may run out and start using water - use your bite to figure it out, don't trust us. We had about 4 cups set aside of broth, and ended up having to add about a cup water to finish cooking the rice. It was annoyingly frustrating since it seemed to never end, but there was a turning point during which the rice magically cooked in a matter of a minute or so after we added the last batch of water.
When all is said and done - rice tastes nice and creamy, zucchini is cooked - stir in that tablespoon of Earth Balance and add sallt and pepper to taste.
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