Meatless Monday

[cookieee]

This looks and sounds so good. Hope to make it real soon.

Garbanzo Bean Burgers (4 servings)

1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans or chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 TB water
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1 large egg
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
Dash crushed red pepper flakes
2 TB canola oil
4 whole wheat or whole grain hamburger buns, split and toasted
4 slices reduced-fat American cheese

Optional toppings: dill pickle slices, fat-free mayonnaise, ketchup, sliced red onion, lettuce and sliced tomato

1. Place the beans, water and lemon juice in a food processor; cover and process until blended. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, egg and seasonings and mix well. Shape into patties.

2. In a large skillet, cook the patties in oil in batches until lightly browned, 3-4 minutes on each side.

Source: Taste of Home mag. 2/19

 

[cookieee]

Anyone else have a meatless meal they would like to share?

 

[Janet H]

Anyone else have a meatless meal they would like to share?

Tonight we are having pinto beans, brown rice, cheese quesadillas and a cabbage, cilantro and lime juice slaw. Meatless.

 

[cookieee]

Tonight we are having pinto beans, brown rice, cheese quesadillas and a cabbage, cilantro and lime juice slaw. Meatless.

Thank you Janet, sounds good. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[pepperhead212]

Many of the Indian meals I make are meatless, and I go meatless many days at a time in the summer, when I harvest all those vegetables.

Last night I threw together that Indian soup like dish, that took very little work time, except peeling, seeding, and dicing the small butternut.
I had an Indian food craving, and wanted to use the butternut, and had a half cup of leftover coconut milk I needed to use, some cooked brown basmati rice I used a cup of, and this is what I came up with:

1/2 c each toor and channa dal, rinsed, and
picked over
5 c water
1/2 c coconut milk
1 tb amchur powder (I added more later)
2 tb rassam powder
3/4 tsp turmeric
4 cups butternut, in 1/2" cubes
1 c cooked brown basmati rice
Salt, about 2 tsp to start

Tadka:
2 tb coconut oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp asafoetida
12 curry leaves

Combine the two dal, water, amchur, rassam, turmeric, and salt in about a 3 qt saucepan; bring to a simmer, and cook 15 min. Add squash, coconut milk, and the rice, and simmer until the squash becomes soft. If the soup gets too thick, add a little more water.

Meanwhile, heat the coconut oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the mustard and cumin seeds, and cover pan until the mustard stops popping. Uncover, add asafoetida and curry leaves, stir briefly, then add this to the soup. Simmer another 5 min or so, adding a little more amchur (this is the sour component of
the flavor - usually tamarind in this, but I was
lazy last night!), if necessary, as well as salt, to taste.


Very good leftover - had again for lunch today! And several more to go.

 

[cookieee]

Many of the Indian meals I make are meatless, and I go meatless many days at a time in the summer, when I harvest all those vegetables.

Last night I threw together that Indian soup like dish, that took very little work time, except peeling, seeding, and dicing the small butternut.
I had an Indian food craving, and wanted to use the butternut, and had a half cup of leftover coconut milk I needed to use, some cooked brown basmati rice I used a cup of, and this is what I came up with:

1/2 c each toor and channa dal, rinsed, and
picked over
5 c water
1/2 c coconut milk
1 tb amchur powder (I added more later)
2 tb rassam powder
3/4 tsp turmeric
4 cups butternut, in 1/2" cubes
1 c cooked brown basmati rice
Salt, about 2 tsp to start

Tadka:
2 tb coconut oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp asafoetida
12 curry leaves

Combine the two dal, water, amchur, rassam, turmeric, and salt in about a 3 qt saucepan; bring to a simmer, and cook 15 min. Add squash, coconut milk, and the rice, and simmer until the squash becomes soft. If the soup gets too thick, add a little more water.

Meanwhile, heat the coconut oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the mustard and cumin seeds, and cover pan until the mustard stops popping. Uncover, add asafoetida and curry leaves, stir briefly, then add this to the soup. Simmer another 5 min or so, adding a little more amchur (this is the sour component of
the flavor - usually tamarind in this, but I was
lazy last night!), if necessary, as well as salt, to taste.


Very good leftover - had again for lunch today! And several more to go.

Hi Dave, look at all those wonderful spices you used. I have most of them. But never heard of rassam powder. Do you keep your asafoetida in a glass jar? I double glass jar it. lol DH is looking up rassam powder now. lol

 

[pepperhead212]

Cookieee, The rassam (or rasam) powder is a southern Indian spice mix, sort of like sambar masala, but with less ingredients. I'll have to look on my PC for my recipe - I think that I used a hybrid of 2 or 3 recipes, using the method from 660 Curries (coating everything in a tsp of oil, before toasting them), but using more ingredients from the others.

I keep all of those kinds of things in glass jars, with rubber seals. You might want to triple jar my asafoetida! lol
I say that because it is even more potent than the usual Hing powder that I have found in Indian groceries, which is only around 50%, as a rule. I got some on ebay, that came from India that is 82%, plus fresher than any of that hing powder I had found before. Then there is the solid asafoetida I got. Some CB author - don't recall the book (not one of my fav Indian CBs, just remember this from it!) said that she never uses the powder, only the solid, as the powder has lost most of its flavor. Hard to believe, until you have gotten a whiff of these fresher items! lol

Another thing that I got at the same time, from India, was some methi leaves. The dried methi leaves I had bought locally didn't have much aroma, but this stuff was incredible! At first, I hadn't even opened the package that all these things were mailed in, and was wondering "what's that smell?". Then I opened the package, and saw the methi, and thought "oh yeah! That stuff!" Then, after just putting a little in a jar, I put the rest - maybe 3 c loosely packed - in a foodsaver bag, and sucking all that air out when it was vacuum packed resulted in that maple syrup like smell throughout my house, dissipating only after about 3 days. Amazing how intense these things are, even compared to buying them in a local Indian grocery.

 

[cookieee]

Dave, I thought my stuff was bad and it wasn't that fresh. lol It is so much fun finding out about all this new "stuff". Thanks for sharing so much with me. DH says we have an Indian grocery a few blocks from us. I see a trip coming up real soon. Thanks!!!!!!

 

[pepperhead212]

Cookieee, As bad as asafoetida smells (giving it that name), once it cooks, it smells a lot like onion, and some religious sect in India uses a lot of it, as they don't eat onions or garlic. With that in mind, when cooking those lentils all the time for those salads in the summer, I add a tsp of asafoetida to the water, instead of putting a whole onion in the pot. A lot easier than peeling an onion! lol I also crush a black cardamom pod and add that, which gives a smoky flavor to the water. Those aren't Indian salads I make, but it starts out with Indian lentils and spices.

 

[cookieee]

Cookieee, As bad as asafoetida smells (giving it that name), once it cooks, it smells a lot like onion, and some religious sect in India uses a lot of it, as they don't eat onions or garlic. With that in mind, when cooking those lentils all the time for those salads in the summer, I add a tsp of asafoetida to the water, instead of putting a whole onion in the pot. A lot easier than peeling an onion! lol I also crush a black cardamom pod and add that, which gives a smoky flavor to the water. Those aren't Indian salads I make, but it starts out with Indian lentils and spices.

Dave, thank you (again) for the info. Yes, you are right, the black cardamom pods do smell smoky. What would you say the green ones smell like? And it's good to know that the asafoetida is a good sub for onion and also garlic I've read

 

[pepperhead212]

Cookieee, The green cardamom, and the seeds from inside them, seem to have a perfumey aroma, sort of like a mix of citrus peels, and some other aroma mixed in. I use the black cardamom more, and when a recipe calls for just the seeds inside the pods, I save those black shells, to use in those lentils, and things like that. I put things like that in one of those wire things for holding loose tea in, to brew it - I use them more for this than brewing tea!

 

[larry_stewart]

Many of the Indian meals I make are meatless, and I go meatless many days at a time in the summer, when I harvest all those vegetables.

Last night I threw together that Indian soup like dish, that took very little work time, except peeling, seeding, and dicing the small butternut.
I had an Indian food craving, and wanted to use the butternut, and had a half cup of leftover coconut milk I needed to use, some cooked brown basmati rice I used a cup of, and this is what I came up with:

1/2 c each toor and channa dal, rinsed, and
picked over
5 c water
1/2 c coconut milk
1 tb amchur powder (I added more later)
2 tb rassam powder
3/4 tsp turmeric
4 cups butternut, in 1/2" cubes
1 c cooked brown basmati rice
Salt, about 2 tsp to start

Tadka:
2 tb coconut oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp asafoetida
12 curry leaves

Combine the two dal, water, amchur, rassam, turmeric, and salt in about a 3 qt saucepan; bring to a simmer, and cook 15 min. Add squash, coconut milk, and the rice, and simmer until the squash becomes soft. If the soup gets too thick, add a little more water.

Meanwhile, heat the coconut oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the mustard and cumin seeds, and cover pan until the mustard stops popping. Uncover, add asafoetida and curry leaves, stir briefly, then add this to the soup. Simmer another 5 min or so, adding a little more amchur (this is the sour component of
the flavor - usually tamarind in this, but I was
lazy last night!), if necessary, as well as salt, to taste.


Very good leftover - had again for lunch today! And several more to go.

Looks good, and I also happen to have all the ingredients in the house. Probably whip it up for lunch tomorrow .

 

[cookieee]

Vegetarian Chili (serves 8)

3 TB extra-virgin olive oil
2 carrots, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 poblano chile pepper, seeded and chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
Kosher salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 TB chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup lager
1 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can pink beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add carrots, onion, peppers and 1/2 tsp salt and cook, stirring, until just starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic, chili power, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and a few grinds of pepper.

Add the lager and simmer until mostly reduced, about 1 minute. Add 2 1/2 cups water and the tomatoes. Stir in the black beans and pink beans. Bring to a simmer and cook, adjusting the heat as needed and stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir in the cilantro.

Garden White Bean: Make Vegetarian Chili, adding 2 chopped zucchini and 3 thyme sprigs with the spices; omit the cinnamon. Replace the lager with tomato juice and the black and pink beans with 2 cans cannellini beans.

There are 9 other variations listed. Recipes upon request

Source: Food Network mag. March 2019

 

[pepperhead212]

A favorite meatless chili of mine I got the recipe for from Todd English's The Olives Table. It has lentils, chick peas, three kinds of chilis, along with bulgur and barley - grains and legumes together in vegetarian dishes help to get all of the essential amino acids in the diet. It was also served with a raita - not traditional with Mexican type dishes, but really good with it.

 

[pepperhead212]

This fit in here, since it was meatless, though, as is often the case, I was not really thinking of doing that - it just happened!

Tonight was a soup night, and I made a batch of soup based on Caponata, since I was trying to think of something to make with some of that dehydrated eggplant, and that is a favorite eggplant dish of mine. The eggplant is sort of ugly, when rehydrated, but the flavor turned out good, and in something like this, you can't really see the eggplant very much.

First I made the tomato base in the IP. I cooked a couple of diced onions in some olive oil, then added the garlic, and cooked a minute, then added the can of crushed tomatoes, some thyme, and about a can of water, plus about 1/3 c of black and green olives, coarsely chopped, and 1/3 c salted capers, soaked, dried, and coarsely chopped, and 1/3 c soaked raisins (all classic caponata ingredients). I also added some cooked black chick peas, since I had some left in the fridge to use up, and added a half cup of black quinoa, to thicken the liquid some, and some fresh bay leaves. I let that simmer about 35 min., while cooking the remaining veggies.

The eggplant was rehydrated overnight, and I dried it out some, then sautéed it in some olive oil for about 10 min, and removed to a plate. Then I sautéed the cut up red bell peppers for about 6 or 7 min, and added these to the plate. Then I sautéed the celery chunks for about 5 min., and added this to the plate.

When the tomato base was ready, and the quinoa was thickening it, I added the veggies to the tomato base. I let that simmer for about 7 or 8 more minutes, then added some red wine vinegar - stirring and tasting, until I had just enough to give it that caponata flavor. Turned out great!
Caponata based soup by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished dish:
Caponata soup by pepperhead212, on Flickr