Snack Time: Supreme Nachos!

I love snacks, and I don't hold back when it comes to snacking. My usual suspect is popcorn. Today I was scavenging for a snack, but knew popcorn wouldn't fill me up enough. Nachos to the rescue!

Supreme Nachos
serves 2 fairly hungry people, or 1 ravenous person

• 3-4 handfuls blue corn chips
• 1/2 cup black beans
• 1 spring onion, sliced
• 1/4 cup of Daiya cheddar shreds
• 1/4 cup Daiya pepperjack shreds
• 1/4 cup salsa

Line a large plate with chips. Top with beans and onion, then sprinkle on Daiya shreds and salsa. Microwave for about 1 minute. Eat with a spoon. Or not, but I certainly did!

Soup & Salad

It is frigid here. The cold temperatures have stirred up a craving for tomato soup. Luckily I had some canned tomatoes just waiting to be used.

Tomato & Leek Soup

• olive oil
• 2 28oz cans whole, peeled tomatoes
• 1 large leek, roughly chopped (white and most of the green part)
• dried Italian herbs, to taste
• onion powder, to taste
• garlic powder, to taste

First, chop and wash your leek very well, please. Heat a little oil in a soup pot, add leeks, saute until soft. Add tomatoes with all liquid from can. Then add about 1 can of water. (I filled each can about half way and swished it around to get the rest of the tomato-y goodness that got left behind.) Bring to a boil and break up the tomatoes a bit with a spatula. Turn down to a simmer, add Italian herbs, fresh cracked pepper, and salt if desired. I also added a few shakes of garlic powder and onion powder. Remove from heat and blend (in batches, if needed) in blender or food processor.

I love the combination of tomato soup and grilled cheese, but I wanted to ex-nay on the grilled cheese this time and replace it with a large salad. The problem with this was I wanted hot food, not cold salad. Fellow bloggers to the rescue. Susan from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen just posted a Hot Skillet Salad. Using her recipe as a guideline, I made a hot salad for the side of my soup.

Hot Salad

• olive oil, optional
• 1/4-1/2 onion, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• crushed red pepper to taste
• 1 large sweet potato, cut into 1" cubes
• 1 bunch kale, torn
• 1bunch bok choy, chopped
• 1 bunch swiss chard, chopped
• 1 can beans (use what you have, I used Great Northern)

Over medium heat, I cooked the onion, garlic and crushed red pepper in a smidge of olive oil. After about 3 minutes, I added the sweet potato and cooked another 5 minutes or so. Then, added in all the greens and 1 cup water. Cover and cook about 5 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Add the beans, toss and serve. I seasoned with fresh cracked pepper, a dash of sea salt, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Italian Lentil Soup

It's a cold, winter night... what's better than soup? How about lentil soup? I used this recipe as a guide, but did my own thing with it. I served this with Italian Feast Sausages from Vegan Brunch and hearty multi grain bread.

Italian Lentil Soup (makes a great New Year's meal as well, lentils are good luck you know!)
Serves a small country

I swear the spinach and tomatoes are in there, somewhere...

• olive oil to coat pan
• half a package (~6 strips) Smokey Tempeh, chopped into 1/4" pieces
• 1 medium-large onion, diced small*
• 4 stalks celery, chopped*
• 4 carrots, chopped*
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced*
• 1-2 14 oz cans brown lentils (I used 1 'cause it's all I had, but recommend using 2)
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes w/ Italian herbs
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary, crushed with your fingers
• 8 cups vegetable stock (I used 4 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon w/ 8 cups water)
• 1/4-1/2 pound small pasta (I used small shells, but elbows would work too), optional
• 1 lb fresh spinach (just eyeball a few handfuls)
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil to serve

Heat oil over medium heat in a large soup pot or dutch over. Add tempeh, cook until nicely browned being careful not to burn the small pieces. Add onions, carrots and celery and cook until tender and translucent about 5 minutes. Add a drizzle of olive oil to cook veggies if necessary. Add lentils, cook about 2 minutes then add tomatoes, herbs and veg. stock. Bring to a boil then add pasta. Turn heat down to low and simmer until pasta is cooked through. Add spinach when pasta is still al dente. Remove bay leaves before serving. Dish up, season with freshly ground sea salt and pepper and a drizzle olive oil over the top (really, don't skip the oil, it's delicious). Be sure to have a loaf of hearty multi grain bread to dunk in your soup and soak up all that yummy goodness. You should have enough soup for a week. Or in my case, 2 days.

*Note: I am incredibly lucky to have my very own sous-chef. A few years ago as a birthday gift, I sent T to a "Basic Knife Skills" class. It was great because he enjoys chopping things and using big fancy chefs knives. He returned from the class eager to chop anything in sight to practice his new skills. Now when I need something to be cut up, he is often eager to sharpen the knife and get to work. I benefit from my gift idea, but also have to endure the response of "Yes chef" when I ask him to chop something for me.

New Year, New Food

Hello my lovelies and Happy New Year. Did you all eat your Hoppin' John??

Ok, I'll admit it, I had never heard of Hoppin' John until about a week ago. Nevertheless, I decided it would be a great year to begin the blackeyed pea tradition because, well, who doesn't need a little good luck?

I found this absolutely adorable recipe for a Hoppin' John tart here at My Recession Kitchen  and gave it a go. I made the brown rice crust and spinach just as the recipe dictates, but for the Hoppin' John part I had neither the dried beans, nor the time. So here is what I did differently.

First I roughly chopped 2 carrots and sliced about 1/2 of a red onion. I added the carrot, onion and about 3 cups (enough to cover) of vegetable broth to a sauce pan. I cooked this on medium low heat about 5-7 minutes, until the carrots were soft.

I then added 1 can of (rinsed) blackeyed peas. I brought this up to a gentle bubble and added a pinch of sea salt and a few generous shakes of smoked paprika. I let this cook down on a low simmer until most of the veg. broth is cooked down and thickened a bit. As it cooks, be sure to taste and add more salt or paprika as you feel necessary. I wanted mine pretty "smokey" so I added a bit more.

Once the crust was finished baking, I assembled as in the original recipe. Crust, greens, pea mixture on top. Mine was not as pretty as the original tart, but it was delicious.

Ok, so it looks a little weird, but I thought the flavor was pretty excellent. In fact, the bean mixture reminded me of my mom's split pea soup she used to make before I went veg. Mmmm, nostalgia.