Bitchin' Sauce + Bowl

This sauce is amazing. Like really. I have been putting it on everything lately. Sweet potatoes, Bitchin bowls, empanadas. Additional ideas for dipping include raw or steamed veggies or chips. This sauce tastes like an awesome queso. The ingredient list looks ridiculous but these are probably all things you have in your kitchen already.

This recipe originates from the Fauxmartha and the San Diego farmer's market. Hopefully the next time I'm in California, I can check it out!

The sauce:

3/4 c. + 2 tbsp water

1/2 c. + 2 tbsp grapeseed oil

1/2 c. raw almonds, soaked overnight 

1/4 c. + 2 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp tamari 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp raw honey

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 chipotles in adobo sauce

1 tsp adobo sauce 

1/4 cup diced red onion 

Rinse almonds after soaking. Place all ingredients in blender. Blend until super smooth. 

Keeps in fridge for a week or so. 

Back in college a couple of my good friends always had beans and rice for a quick dinner. With fried egg on top. The first time I ever had rice and beans was on a mission trip to Louisiana. Yum! This is like a step up.

Bitchin bowl:

Brown rice

Black beans or chickpeas

Sautéed onion plus cumin

Steamed greens (kale or spinach)
Sautéed mushrooms

Pickled red cabbage (I made my own but this one is similar)

Goat cheese Brie

Salsa 

I should have probably added a fried egg

And obviously cover the entire bowl with sauce.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Emapanadas

I know Laura already posted an empanada recipe but these are a little different. The dough is from Martha Stewart and doesn't use milk. I made these for a picnic that ended up happening in our apartment instead. We will also be eating them on our plane ride tomorrow along with some zucchini bread and lots of chocolate. That's how I travel. No airplane food! Empanadas are the best for meals on the go. Next time I'll try a version made with masa harina as per my friend Sylvia.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Empanadas

• For the dough (source):
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt 
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 18 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup ice water

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Alternatively do this all in the food processor. I like to add the liquid by hand though. So either way your dry ingredients will end up in a bowl. Pour a little water at a time into the flour mixture, tossing with a fork. You've added enough water when the dough can be kneaded together to form a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour minimum. 

Empanada filling:

1 red onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeño, seeded and minced

1 sweet potato, cubed

1 - 28 oz can diced tomatoes, excess liquid drained

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 small bunch cilantro, leaves only 

1/2 tsp dried oregano 

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cayenne powder

Sauté the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and spices and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook over medium heat for an additional 5 minutes. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make sure sweet potato is cubed into smaller pieces. Toss with some cooking oil and add to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes or so until fork pierces through the potato easily. Let cool. Add to the rest of the filling ingredients and mix thoroughly.

You can refrigerate this filling before assembling the empanadas. Also this makes so much extra filling. I used the leftover filling as enchilada and taco toppings.

Assembly:

Split the dough into 4 parts. Roll out one of the parts of dough to 1/4 inch thick. 

Use a bowl or cup to cut circles in the dough. I like making different sizes, so do what works for you. Add filling into the middle of each circle. Fold over dough and seal edges with hands. You can use a little water if your dough is dry. Use a fork to seal the dough even more and to make it look pretty. Repeat with all the dough. Line up the formed empanadas onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Beat an egg in a small bowl. Brush the empanadas with the egg. Then bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

You're done! Congrats!

Serve with Bitchin' sauce!! Will post that next, promise.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

While winter seems never ending at least we can all feel ok about never leaving our houses. That means Netflix, homemade cookies, and so much soup. Also puppy snuggles. Rex is the best foot warmer. I've made tortilla soup twice so far and everyone has loved it. I went on a wild search for hominy and found 2 types at Wegman's- white and golden. I went with golden for the recipe. I also bought some dried hominy which I cooked with dried black beans for the second time I made tortilla soup. I found this recipe on Cookie+Kate!

• 1 dried ancho pepper, chopped with seeds if you want more spice
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeño (if you want even more spice)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked chili powder
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 14-ounce can hominy, rinsed
• 14-ounce can black beans, rinsed

In some ghee or coconut oil, sauté the onion for about 5 minutes. Add pepper and cook for a couple more minutes. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Then throw in the spices including the ancho pepper for a couple seconds. Add the broth, tomatoes, and paste. Bring mixture up to a boil and simmer for 1/2 an hour. Add in the beans and hominy. Simmer for 15 more minutes on low heat. Then if you can wait, let sit overnight for the flavors to meld and serve hot the next day! 

Toppings:

Cheddar cheese

Cilantro

Avocado

Tortilla chips (obvii)

Double Bean Burgers

These bean burgers, a combo of white beans and black beans, are way better than I thought they were going to be. The recipe (surprise surprise) is from How Sweet It Is, and she recommends making an avocado basil sauce. I had some mint, so I made it with mint instead, which is like the avocado crema I sometimes have with empanadas.

So far I've had the burgers as a burger with crema and lettuce and alone with the crema, diced jalapenos and pomegranate seeds.

Double Bean Burgers

Slightly adapted from How Sweet It Is

1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz can white/cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

4 cloves garlic

1 shallot, diced

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

salt & pepper

1 egg

1/2 cup panko

3 tbsp olive oil

In a large bowl, mash the black beans and white beans. They don't have to be completely mashed like refried beans, just mushed up. Add the garlic, shallot, paprika, onion powder, cayenne, salt and pepper. The white beans will mash up more than the black ones. In a little bowl, whisk the egg with the panko and olive oil. Combine the beans with the egg mixture and separate it into six patties. Heat up some olive oil in a skillet and cook the patties until heated through and browned on both sides.

Vegetarian Enchiladas with Mole Sauce

Our first meal when we arrived in the States was Mexican. My cousin picked us up from the airport and whisked us to the best Mexican place I've ever been to (Cafe Con Chocolate). Nick got the pork torta and I got the mole enchiladas. Eating there was pure happiness. They also have (of course) spiced Mexican hot chocolate that is to die for. Did I convince anyone to visit us yet?
I've been making enchiladas a lot lately because my little sister goes crazy for them. The recipe for the mole sauce is from My New Roots and the enchilada recipe is one I've been making forever. The mole sauce recipe makes a lot. I recommend using it right on a roasted sweet potato or any roasted veggies really.

Mole Sauce:
coconut oil
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1- 15 oz can whole, organic tomatoes
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. dried thyme
¼ tsp. ground chipotle
pinch of cayenne, if desired
2 dates
2 Tbsp. raw cacao powder
1 Tbsp. tahini
4 Tbsp. water, divided
1½ Tbsp. lime juice

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add oil and onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook another couple minutes. Add all spices and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.
2. Add tomatoes into the pot and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Carefully transfer the tomato mixture to a blender. Then add the pitted dates, cacao powder, tahini, lime juice and a couple tablespoons of the water. Blend on high, adding water to thin as needed, until desired consistency is reached. Season to taste.

Enchiladas:
10-12 large whole wheat tortillas
1 small red onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 green bell peppers, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 handfuls fresh baby spinach
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese
1/2 cup mole sauce
lots more cheddar cheese, for the topping

Saute all the veggies over medium heat in a large saucepan until cooked through. Then add the yogurt and beans and stir into the veggies. Add the cheese and mix gently until melted. Add mole sauce and season with salt and pepper.
To assemble: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add a couple scoops mole sauce onto the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Add about 1/4 cup veggie mixture into each shell and roll into a burrito. Stack enchiladas to fill the pan. Pour plenty of mole sauce over the enchiladas and top with plenty of cheese. Bake in the oven 20-25 minutes until the cheese on top is nicely golden brown.
Serve with hot sauce, fresh cilantro, plain yogurt, and guacamole.

"Fiesta Bean Salad"

Like I mentioned in a previous post, Vince and I have been trying to budget, including packing lunches.  I made this salad for the first time within my first couple weeks living together.  I've found the key to packing lunches is packing food you actually want to eat.  Many a time at my old job, my packed lunch would get pushed further back in the fridge as my coworkers' ideas for takeout sounded more enticing. Vin mentioned different salads sounding good and I thought of a recipe of Jackie's from college.  I couldn't track that down, but as always I found my way on Pinterest.  I get the feeling Vince's coworkers were a little impressed to see Vince actually bringing lunch, rather than going out for lunch every day as he was before.  They were also impressed with my over-doing the garlic, with the smell of garlic filling the room whenever Vince opened his container at lunchtime.  Though he loves garlic, I've since cut back for the sake of our containers and Vin not getting sick of the salad.  The original recipe recommends to eat it right away, but it's fine through the week, though the avocado gets soft.  I think maybe next time I'll add some black pepper.

Vegan Black Bean Soup

We have shelter! Now everyone can come visit. We move in this Saturday but we won't fully be living in the apartment until later this month. The kitchen floor is being converted from carpet (ew) to hardwood floors or tile. My sister is in town from California so we're spending time with her aka she is free labor to help me move in.
I made this soup for dinner last night. It's so versatile. I just threw whatever veggies we had in the fridge and it came together nicely. The inspiration for this soup came from a vegan restaurant we ate at over the weekend plus a recipe from allrecipes.com. It was served with a green strawberry salsa. So, so delicious. Strawberry season is only days away so I'm looking forward to some strawberry picking!
This soup is not so photogenic.

Soup Ingredients:

1 large yellow onion
4 stalks celery
3 carrots
5 cloves garlic
2 red bell peppers
2 jalapeños
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1 lb dried black beans
1-28 oz can diced tomatoes
3-4 cups vegetable broth
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Garnishes:

Fresh cilantro
Spicy salsa
Sour cream
Tortilla chips
Avocado
Cheddar cheese

Directions:

Soak the black beans in double the amount of water overnight.
Dice all the veggies and mince the garlic. At this point, you can throw everything into the crock pot...which I couldn't do since mine is in Pittsburgh! I would imagine the soup would take all day to cook, maybe with some extra water added in.
Anyways, if you're doing this over the stove, rinse and drain the soaked beans. Add to a large pot with plenty of water. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for about an hour. This may take some more time depending on how old the beans are. Keep the cooking liquid when straining the beans after they are cooked!
In a separate soup pot, sauté the onions, celery, and carrot over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add the red pepper and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the spices and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the vegetable stock, half the black beans, and half the can of tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
Take the other half of the black beans and tomatoes and blend. Add about a cup of the cooking liquid from the beans to thin out. Add to the soup and simmer for about 20 minutes more until all the vegetables are tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Jamaican Rice & Peas

I'm pretty confident that I will never get tired of rice and beans. When I lived in Costa Rica for a month, that was a huge portion of my diet and it never got old - although the steady supply of avocados fresh from the tree in the backyard to serve alongside the rice probably helped. And hot sauce!

This is (my take on) the Jamaican take on rice and beans. Evidently it's called rice and peas because they use pigeon peas there, but I've only ever seen it with red kidney beans in the US. I also used a whole habanero pepper in place of a scotch bonnet pepper because they don't have scotch bonnet peppers in Giant Eagle (at least the one I went to). This is one of those dishes I remember making back in high school when I had no idea what I was doing, and everything still worked out fine!

Jamaican Rice & Peas

Adapted from Bobby's Flay's recipe on the Food Network

2 cups cooked red kidney beans (I slow cooked them a couple nights before)

1 can unsweetened coconut milk

4 sprigs fresh thyme

1/4 cup chopped green onions (and another tbsp or so for mixing in after cooking)

1 Scotch bonnet pepper (or habanero)

1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice

salt and pepper

Chickpea Salad with Minty Yogurt Dressing

I made this chickpea salad from the Kitchn along with chicken salad to make pita sandwiches. This would also make an easy healthy packed lunch as either a sandwich or salad, but I think it would be best to keep the yogurt dressing separate from the salad until ready to eat.

CHICKPEA SALAD WITH MINTED YOGURT DRESSING

Adapted from the Kitchn

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp lemon zest

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coarse salt

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup red onion, chopped

3 cups drained chickpeas 

1 cup plain yogurt, preferable Greek

2 tbsp mint, chopped

Spicy Sriracha White Bean Dip

I really love dips, and this is a good one. I made mine pretty spicy but that could easily be dialed down to just a nice kick of spicy flavor in this creamy, Asian-y white bean dip. Eat it with pita chips, raw veggies OR, if you happen to have fresh Honey Wheat Bread in the freezer, with toasted slices of that. Or on a sandwich!

Twilly is suffering a really bad beard-hair day.

Just FYI, the next blog post will be the 100th!!

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SPICY SRIRACHA WHITE BEAN DIP

Adapted from White on Rice Couple

1/4 lb dried white beans (save the cooking water) 
2 bay leaves
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 tsp soy sauce
1-2 tbsp sriracha 
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 cup bean cooking water if you want it smoother/thinner
1 tbsp lime or lemon juice
crackers, pita chips, veggies, toasted baguette slices,etc.

Black Bean Empanadas

These are my favorite snack food so I make them every few months and keep them in the freezer. There is so much you can do with these - change the filling or the dip and it's a whole different thing. I've made them once with a beef filling and a few times with chicken, and this time it's black beans.

I'm watching the special features from "Matilda," and I have some food-related trivia for you: the director (Danny DeVito!) had Bruce Bogtrotter eat those huge bites and then spit out the Trunchbull's cake between each take so he wouldn't throw up. 

sleeping in

So now go make these empanadas! They are VERY similar in assembly to the Strawberry Chocolate Hand Pies I posted about last week, so if you make them both it's like developing a skill... I'm making the Honey Wheat Bread again today, too, so I'm hitting two of my favorite hurry up and wait and then freeze it recipes for President's Day!

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BLACK BEAN ENCHILADAS

DOUGH
from Laylita's Recipes

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 egg yolk (save whites for later)
3/4 cup to 1 cup warm milk

Combine the flour and salt in a food processor. Then add the butter and mix. Then add a bit of the yolk and milk in turns, mixing between each addition, until crumbs form (like for pie crust). Turn it out and form two balls. Cool until ready to use.

Ribollita

The word ribollita literally means reboiled. Nick, Brittany, and I were pondering the meaning of the word last night while I made this hearty Italian soup. Then I finally gave in and looked it up at work today on Wikipedia. Also, according to Wikipedia the soup consists of inexpensive vegetables, white beans, and stale bread. All of which I had plenty lying around the apartment. The original recipe is from 101 Cookbooks.
I made this soup on Valentine's day because I was impatient while waiting for Nick to come over and make me a surprise dinner (French lentils). It worked out because I didn't have any celery and convienently Nick did. He even brought fresh thyme--better than flowers. We ended up having 2 main courses instead which was ok with me!

3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small carnival squash, seeded, peeled, and chopped (carrots could be used instead)
1 medium red onion, chopped
1/3 head small red cabbage, sliced thinly
1 entire head garlic, minced (I still have a ton of garlic from the Pittsburgh Project Farm)
1-26 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 can cannelini beans
1 can garbanzo beans
4-5 slices stale bread (I used super stale spelt bread that was way in the back of our refrigerator)
7 large leaves of lacinato kale (dinosaur kale), sliced thinly
grated lemon zest
fresh thyme

In a large soup pot, combine the celery, winter squash, red onion, and cabbage and drizzle with olive oil. Let cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes until softened and more translucent.

Crock Pot Rosemary White Beans

These white beans are great - creamy and flavorful. We had them with Rosemary Lemon Chicken and roasted brussel sprouts.

"WHITE BEANS WITH ROSEMARY"
Exactly the recipe on Our Best Bites

1 lb. Great Northern Beans, rinsed and picked through (for stones and yucky stuff)
6 ounces bacon, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Two Fall Soups: Black Bean Pumpkin & Butternut Squash

Roasted butternut squash pieces for soup #2

I found the first of these fall soup recipes while looking at other MUCH more established Pittsburgh food blogs as we started to set up this one. I saw that Burghilicious had posted a black bean pumpkin soup and decided to make it asap - I love pumpkin and I love black beans, especially black bean soup. 

Back in 2007 I spent a month in Costa Rica living with a host family, and my host mom made me something with black beans every single day, usually for more than one meal. Her black bean soup was the very thin brothy kind, with just a few beans, and often with a hard boiled egg, which was good because she normally served with something like three ham sandwiches, a pound of rice and an avocado. 

This soup by Burghilicious is totally different and features pumpkin puree, which you can use a can for or roast a pumpkin like in the last post. It's pretty thick and can hold up to a lot of good toppings, like tortilla chips, cilantro, sour cream or yogurt, chicken, cheese, etc.