There is a recipe for this in Vegan Planet, but I can assure you that this is not a ripoff.  I made up this recipe before I even owned the book.  Anyway, I ended up making these for dinner tonight and they were pretty good; although, I was a little disappointed with my sweet potato/yam/whatever it was.  It was kinda mushy-like and not very sweet.  Not very potato-y.  I don’t know what’s up with that.  Aside from that, these were pretty good.  Next time, I think I’ll try adding some spinach and/or mushrooms to it too.  Sorry for the lame photo, btw.

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Enchiladas

(makes 4)

1 small onion, diced

1 small sweet potato or yam, diced (you need about 1 – 1.5 cups diced)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp chili powder

2 TB salsa

1 cup enchilada sauce (I used the canned stuff)

4 tortillas, corn or flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and spray a baking pan with nonstick spray (or line with foil).  Saute the onions and potatoes together in a little bit of oil until the potatoes being to get tender.  Add the beans and spices and saute another minute.  Stir in the salsa and some S&P and remove from heat.  Divide the mixture into quarters and roll up in the tortillas.  Line the tortillas up in your prepared baking sheet and top with half of the enchilada sauce.  Bake for about 15 minutes and pour over the rest of the sauce.  Top with vegan sour cream or homemade guacamole and enjoy!

I came across the recipe for last night’s dinner on “Yeah…” and thought it would make a tasty (not to mention unusual) roll. The recipe is originally from Veganomicon, but since the recipe has been posted elsewhere, I think it’s probably safe to post it here too (and that way I’ll have it for future reference). These were really good. Try them out, especially if you don’t use collard greens often. I think you may find a new favorite vegetable. The best part about dark greens (especially kale and collard) is that they are very nutritious, but don’t have that “green” taste to them. In fact, they don’t taste like much of anything at all so you can cook them with practically anything.

Since there are only two of us eating these rolls (the sauce is too spicy for Emma), I cut the recipe way down to avoid eating leftovers for the next century. The recipe posted here is my scaled down version. I would say that with a side dish, one generously stuffed roll is a good portion for one person. We ate ours slightly warmer than room temperature and they were fine. I don’t think that they need to be served piping hot, FYI.

BBQ Black-Eyed Pea Collard Rolls

(from Veganomicon)

makes 4 rolls

1 small bunch collard greens

1 tsp oil

4 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced

1.5 – 2 cups black-eyed peas (OK to use canned, I used ones that I cooked myself)

1.5 cups Backyard BBQ Sauce

Cut the stems out of all of the collard greens by folding them in half and running the knife down the side of the stem. Save four leaves for the rolls, chop the rest for the filling. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil the rolling leaves for about 6 minutes. You may need to fold them to get them to fit in the pot, but be gentle with them to avoid tearing. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes letting them brown on both sides. Add the chopped collard greens and cook for another few minutes until the greens have started to wilt down. Add the BBQ sauce and simmer until it thickens, about 7 minutes. Add the peas and heat through. Divide the filling into fourths (use a spoon to score it into quarters). When the leaves are boiled, let them cool a bit so that you can handle them without burning your fingers off. When they are cool enough to handle, spoon a quarter of the filling into the center, tuck the ends in and roll up. Repeat this until all four leaves have been stuffed. Serve with more BBQ sauce drizzled on top.

The idea of tacos sounded really good to me the other night, but I wanted something different than our usual lentil taco filling.  This filling came together on the fly, but was so good that we will be having it again and again.

Bean & Zucchini Tacos

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 small zucchini, diced

1 onion, chopped

1 small jalapeño, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup jarred salsa, any kind will do

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

Juice of half a lime (about 1 TB)

S&P to taste

In a medium skillet, saute the onions in about 1 TB of olive oil until tender.  Add the zucchini, jalapeño and garlic and cook for another few minutes, until the zucchini begins to get tender.  Add the spices, salsa and beans and cook until the liquid from the salsa has reduced down to a thick paste.  Remove from heat and add the lime juice.  Taste, and season with S&P.

We had ours topped with some homemade guacamole.  This was an awesome dish!  We will definitely be having this again really soon.  For those concerned about the use of the jalapeño, the heat level of this was a mild.  I could have used more to suit my taste, actually, but I was scared to use too much and blow my taste buds out.

I’ve had the idea for taquitos swimming around in my head for a while and I decided that tonight was the night to try out a recipe. I made up a batch of my corn and black bean salsa and used that as my taquito filling. It’s pretty simple, really, just put a spoonful in the center of a corn tortilla, roll it up, seal the edge with a little canola oil and brush the entire outside with more canola oil. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes until the outside of the tortilla is crispy. Matt said they were “delicious,” so I will definitely be making these again soon (probably really soon since I have so much filling leftover). The best part is that I used 2 fresh ears of corn in place of the frozen corn, since it is so abundant right now.

My tortillas were a little on the dry side, so they ended up splitting open when I was rolling them up (as you can see here). It certainly didn’t effect the taste any, just made them a little less pretty.

We topped ours with some homemade guacamole. Doesn’t get much easier than this: mash up one ripe avocado with the juice of 1 lime. Mix in some diced red onion, tomato, jalapeño (I was very conservative with the jalapenos here after our “firey” quesadillas), and some chopped cilantro. Season with S&P according to taste.

After not posting for quite some time, I have a few posts to do in order to get caught up.  Truthfully, I haven’t been doing a ton of cooking lately and thus don’t have many interesting recipes to pass along.

After our quesadillas the night before, I had a little bit of filling left over.  I didn’t have enough to make a meal of quesadillas and I had to think of a way to stretch it a little.  I had some organic potatoes growing roots out my veggie basket, so I decided to make an enchilada filling out of those, my quesadilla leftovers and some other things hanging out in the fridge.  This really isn’t a recipe, more of a method, so feel free to substitute anything that may need to be used up.

Very Veggie Enchiladas

5 baby yukon gold potatoes, diced

1 cup corn, fresh or frozen

1 zucchini, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup chopped frozen spinach

1/2 cup chopped frozen kale

1 recipe refried beans

4 tortillas, either corn or flour

1 cup jarred salsa

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Preheat a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat.  When the skillet is hot, add a small drizzle of canola oil and the potatoes.  Spread the potatoes out in a single layer and allow them to brown on all sides.  When the potatoes are about halfway cooked and browned on all sides, add the bell peppers, onions and garlic.  Be careful not to burn the garlic; reduce the heat a bit if it starts to get too brown.  When the onions and bell peppers have begun to soften, add the zucchini and corn.  Cook for a few minutes longer, just until the zucchini are starting to become soft, then add the spinach and the kale.  Season to taste with S&P.

Fill the tortillas by spreading a generous amount of refried beans on the bottom and a spoonful of the filling.  Roll it up and place into a baking dish large enough to accommodate all four enchiladas.  Repeat this process until you’ve made four enchiladas.  Spread the salsa over the top of the enchiladas– be generous as a lot of it is absorbed by the tortillas while baking.  Bake for about 20 minutes, until the tops and sides are bubbly.

On the side, we have an ear of corn and some mango and avocado salad.  This salad was so easy to make and so refreshing.

I started by dicing up one mango and one avocado and about 2 leaves of romaine lettuce.  Mix with fresh lime juice, chopped cilantro and S&P.  Voila!

I’ve been thinking long and hard about a good reinvention for quesadillas and I think I’ve come up with something. I used to buy these frozen quesadillas that were so good– they were full of veggies and a spicy cheese sauce. So good, but obviously not vegan. I’ve come up with something that was pretty close, though.

Vegan Quesadillas

1 cup cashew cheese

2 jalapeños (or to taste), roasted

1 ear of corn, roasted

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

1 onion, sliced or chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano

S&P

Several tortillas

Preheat broiler and roast the corn for several minutes per side. Rotate as needed to avoid burning. When all sides of the corn have been roasted (i.e. are golden brown), set aside to cool. If you can, roast your jalapeños using this same method. The slats between my oven rack were too big and the jalapeños kept falling through (and I couldn’t find any foil to put underneath), so I ended up roasting mine on the stove. To roast on the stove, heat a large burner to medium high and put the jalapeño directly on it. Rotate as it starts to char. When the skin of the jalapeño is charred all the way around, put it into a bowl of ice water for several minutes. Peel the charred skin off, remove the seeds and membranes, and mince. Add the pepper to the cashew cheese and set aside. NOTE: Two jalapeños made this very, very spicy. It was almost too spicy for me and I will only use one next time.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat about 2 TB canola oil over medium high heat. You’ll want to avoid olive oil here and go for an oil that can take the high heat. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until the onion begins to get some color. Add both bell peppers and the zucchini and cook until the veggies have some color to them. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes, but stir often to avoid burning. Cut the corn off of the cob and add it to the skillet. Remove from heat.

Heat a second skillet to cook the quesadillas in. It’s up to you whether or not you want to oil it. When it is hot, put down one tortilla and spread with roasted jalapeño cashew cheese. When the down-side of the tortilla has become crispy, remove it from the skillet and set aside. Put another tortilla into the skillet and top with the veggie mixture. Put the first tortilla (the one with the cashew cheese) down on top of it. It’s done with the down-side of the bottom tortilla has crisped up. The reason for assembling them this way is because all of the veggies would fall out when you flipped it, if you were to make it the way a traditional quesadilla is made.

I served ours topped with some Tofutti BTSC (love that stuff!), some sliced avocado and a little jarred salsa. As I said, they were almost too spicy and I will cut back on the jalapeños next time.

On the side, I made some refried black beans. I cooked them up the same way I’ve made them before, except that I used black beans in place of pinto beans. These were also a tad on the spicy side, but would have been tolerable had the quesadillas not been so spicy. Must have been a very fresh batch of jalapeños that I got.

Emma’s quesadillas were pretty ingenious, I thought. Not to toot my own horn, but I do get excited whenever I find a way to reinvent a food that she likes (and she loves quesadillas). For hers, I smeared the whole tortilla with non-dairy butter (unlike me, she could benefit from the extra calories and fat). Then I smeared half of it with the cashew cheese (minus the jalapeños) and the other half with the refried black beans that I mixed some chopped frozen kale into. I put it into the skillet and folded it over et voila! She loved it!

Speaking of Emma, I have to say that she has been so good with the diet change. She never asks for milk anymore; instead, she’ll ask for “soy milk” or “chocolate milk.” Soy milk means any non-dairy milk (which is usually rice milk for her) and chocolate milk is chocolate almond milk. BTW, the sweetened chocolate almond milk is AWESOME! You should try it. Anyway, she has been so agreeable to all of the changes and doesn’t seem to miss anything. At playgroup last week, some of the kids were eating goldfish crackers and cheese sticks, but she was happy snacking on all of the food that I brought for her, as well as the vegan snacks provided by the playgroup hostess.

We had some romaine salad mix about to turn brown and yucky in the fridge, so it turned out to be a salad for dinner night. Matt typically doesn’t eat salad as the main component of a meal because he doesn’t find them to be super filling, and I thought I could fix that by topping it with some beans and other taco fixings.

My intent was for the tortilla shell to hold it all, but our tortillas were much smaller than I realized and it turned out to be more of a garnish. To make them, heat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly brush both sides of the tortilla with canola oil and drape over an oven proof bowl. Put the bowls onto a baking sheet and bake until the tortilla is golden brown.

The salad is just the bagged romaine and some chopped cucumber. I put a generous topping of refried beans on top of the salad base. The beans were made exactly the same way as I made them before, except that I added in some garlic when I sauteed the onion and jalapeño and I thinned it out with some veg stock after mashing. These were some delicious beans! On top of the beans, I put a bunch of jarred salsa, dollop of Tofutti BTSC, some chopped avocado and tomato, and a sprinkle of cilantro. The salad wasn’t dressed at all, as the idea is that the beans, salsa and toppings combine to make a dressing for the salad. It was really, really good and will definitely be on the list of regulars around here.

Not to toot my own horn, but I thought this idea was so clever.  I had some leftover pureed calzone filling (marinara sauce, cashew cheese, spinach, kale, and broccoli) that I needed to use up (or else stick in the freezer).  I didn’t have any pizza dough on hand, nor did I have the time to roll it out to make Emma’s “pizza,” so I decided to use the filling to make a quesadilla.  How clever!  Emma really likes quesadillas, but up until now, I haven’t thought of a veganized version.  For some extra calories and fat, I “buttered” the tortilla before pan frying.  These were a big hit!  She ate the entire thing.

This recipe for Nacho Cheese Dip sounded irresistible, so I gave it a go this weekend. First, I have to say that I am still getting used to nutritional yeast flakes. I can’t stand the smell and that’s almost enough to turn me off of them for good. I’m fine when there is a small amount of them in something, but when it is the shining star of the recipe, I have to admit that I get a little nervous.

I made the recipe exactly as is, except that I left out the pimentos/roasted red peppers. I didn’t have any, so after it was all cooked, I added in about 1/4 cup of jarred salsa. It turned out pretty good- it tastes very close to a canned nacho cheese sauce, like the kind you might get at a baseball game or at the local 7 Eleven.

Emma enjoyed her nachos and it was something different. A cheesy taste without the cheese, but I wasn’t totally wowed by the recipe. It could be good on tacos or burritos, though.

Matt’s cousin, Amy, came over for dinner last night. She had been dying to try the lentil tacos (and a recent convert to a vegan diet), so that’s what we had. I also made some tofu ranchero so that we could have lots of leftovers to have another night this week. I also made my own refried beans, which turned out a little on the dry side, but still really tasty.

For the beans, I used 1 medium onion and 1 large jalapeño satueed in about 2 TB of olive oil until they were super soft. I then added about 3 cups of cooked pinto beans and I smashed them up with a potato masher. A little S&P and I was done! I topped them with a bit of chopped cilantro just to give them an extra bit of flavor. As I said, they were slightly dry and I think next time I will add in a bit of veg stock to fix that. Other than that, they were incredibly yummy, and not spicy at all.

When Matt and I lived in San Francisco, there was a taqueria around the corner from our apartment that offered tofu rachero as a burrito or taco filler. I was scared to try it at first, but I’m glad I eventually came to my senses because it’s AWESOME! I did a search on the internet for a ranchero sauce recipe and came up with this one that has served me well for the last few years. Since I don’t follow it exactly, here is my version of it:

Tofu Rachero

1 T olive oil

1 jalapeno, diced

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes

1 15-oz can tomato sauce

2 cups vegetable stock

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp cumin

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1 T apple cider vinegar

1 package of extra firm tofu, chopped into cubes

S&P

Heat a medium sauce pan over medium heat and add olive oil, jalapeno, celery, onion, bell peppers and garlic. Saute about 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, except salt and pepper. Simmer for about 20 minutes and puree using a blender or hand blender. Save half of the sauce for another time. Add tofu to the remaining half and continue to simmer for as long as possible. (One batch of sauce makes too much sauce for one package of tofu, so I usually make a full batch and freeze half for another time). The longer you can let the tofu simmer in the sauce, the better. I will sometimes make the sauce on the stove and then transfer everything to my slow cooker to let it simmer all day. So delicious!

For dessert, I pulled out some cupcakes that I had in my freezer that were leftover from Emma’s birthday. As I was flipped through Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, I came across the photo of the cookies ‘n cream cupcake. It’s just a plain vanilla frosting with some Newman O’s crunched in… mmmmmm!!!