July 16, 2012July 16, 2012 by betsy

Cajun Red Bean Quesadillas with Remoulade Sauce and Praline Pecans

[Photo Note: Yea! As promised I purchased a new camera yesterday, and I’m enjoying familiarizing myself with my brand new Nikon CoolPix S6200. At right is the first photo I took with it…what do you think? I love the white balance feature for starters. So crisp and clean…not blue or yellow.]

I may have mentioned that I was weened on the New Orleans French Quarter. My parents honeymooned in NOLA, as did my husband and me. In between, my folks took my sister and me as often as possible for long weekends when we were growing up. In more recent years, we have enjoyed spending several days there just before Christmas, one of the most temperate times of year in the Quarter. Food has always been one of the biggest draws.

Last week I was with my parents at Ochsner’s Hospital for some surgery my father needed. The hospital is in Metairie, a few minutes from the Quarter, so I didn’t make it there. But the hospital overlooks the Mississippi River where I walked on the bike/jogging path along the levy. Since most of my meals at the hospital consisted of hummus, salads, and/or Boca burgers, I came home craving a taste of one of my favorite places on earth. In response, I created this dish.

This recipe combines my love of Cajun/Creole cuisine with that of my native Texas in the form of a crunchy quesadilla.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Remoulade Sauce:

1/4 cup vegan mayo

2 teaspoons catchup

1 teaspoon Dijon or just plain yellow mustard

1-2 tablespoons roughly chopped drained capers (I love capers, but they can quickly overwhelm; so make sauce ahead with just 1 tablespoon, taste when you’re ready to serve, and add another tablespoon if desired)

In a small bowl or cup, completely combine all ingredients, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

Praline Pecans:

1 tablespoon vegan butter

1 cup pecan pieces

1/2 teaspoon ground paprika or to taste

Sea salt to taste

1 tablespoon natural sugar dissolved in 1 tablespoon warm water

optional: 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt vegan butter. Add paprika and salt, and stir constantly for a minute or two. Add dissolved sugar and toast, stirring for another couple of minutes or just one minute if including nutritional yeast. If incorporating the nutritional yeast, add and continue toasting and stirring for another minute or until pecans are lightly toasted. Reduce heat if necessary to prevent overcooking pecans.

Quesadilla Filling:

2-15.5 ounce cans red beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup red onion cut into 1/4-inch dice (if you’re not a fan of the “bite” from raw onion, just soak the diced onion in unsweetened soymilk for 15-20 minutes, rinse and drain)

1 cup yellow or orange bell pepper, stemmed, cored, and seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch dice

1 cup celery, cut into 1/4-inch dice

1/4 cup vegan mayo

2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning or to taste

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1 tablespoon minced fresh basil

1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano or marjoram

Optional: pinch of garlic powder (you may want to add if your brand of cajun seasoning doesn’t included granulated garlic or garlic powder)

In a medium bowl, thoroughly combine all ingredients.

To Make Quesadillas:

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 tablespoons vegan butter, divided

4-8 inch whole wheat tortillas

Garnish: 4 sprigs fresh basil, marjoram, or oregano

In a large cast iron skillet, heat/melt 1 tablespoon each olive oil and vegan butter over medium-high. Spoon 1/4 each of the filling over half of two of the tortillas. Fold remaining halves over, and place both into the skillet. Cook for a couple or until golden brown and toasted. Flip and cook another couple of minutes on reverse. Remove to serving plates and cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Garnish each with 1/4 of the Remoulade Sauce and 1/4 of the Praline Pecans. Note: I like to cut each quesadilla in half, overlap them slightly on the serving plates, garnish and serve.

May 2, 2012May 5, 2012 by betsy

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo: Spicy Homemade Vegan Chipotle Peanut Butter a la Casa Luna

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — View from our bedroom window, Casa Luna Bed & Breakfast, San Miguel Allende

When we were in San Miguel Allende, Mexico, recently for our friends’ art gallery opening over Spring Break (how lucky was that timing!) we stayed at the beautiful Casa Luna Bed & Breakfast.

Each morning, we were served the most delicious marmalades with our fruit, frijoles negro, bread, fresh squeezed oranged juice, coffee/tea, and Joe’s huevos. Pineapple and Nopales (cactus) was a favorite, as was Tamarind Chipotle. When I learned that the hotel sells them, in addition to a not-too-firey jalapeno marmalade, and a spicy homemade peanut butter–and were making them fresh while we were there–I thought that all four would make a delightful host gift, along with a copy of The Blooming Platter Cookbook. And they did, delivered still warm from the canning process! Mmm…

Wanting to replicate at least one of them, but not having a lot of time to slice mountains of jalapenos or engage in old-fashioned canning, I decided to try the peanut butter. When an internet search turned up no recipes, I just winged it. Casa Luna’s finished product had a rich flavor without a biting heat, which I rightly or wrongly attributed to reconstituted dried chilies. Though Casa Luna’s peanut butter didn’t have a smoky flavor, I love chipotles–smoked jalapenos–so I decided to use them, picking up a bag at a local tiende.

Carmen, at Casa Luna, had shared that the list of ingredients was really simple: peanuts, oil, chilies. So I simply guessed at the proportions, starting with just one chili and adding additional ones, one at a time, until I was satisfied with the flavor and heat, deciding at the last minute to drizzle in a couple of teaspoons of the water in which the chilies were reconstituted for a little more smoky intensity.

It may seem a little odd to add both natural sugar and salt, so feel free to omit the sugar, but I felt that the two together achieved a nice balance. The only other ingredient I toyed with adding is a hint of lime zest, but I haven’t yet decided, as the peanut butter is delicious as is. And its beautiful earthy color is irresistable.

Enjoy as you would any peanut butter–only maybe not on your child’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich–or consider swirling some into both Mexican/Southwestern and Thai sauces. I hope you’ll try it and share what you do with it!

4 dried chipotle chilies stems removed

Boiling water

12 ounces of roasted and lightly salted peanuts

1/4 cup canola oil (or peanut oil)

1 tablespoon natural sugar (optional)

2 teaspoons water that chilies were soaked in

Sea salt to taste

Slit chilies lengthwise and remove and discard seeds. Place chilies in a small non-reactive bowl and cover with boiling water. (I don’t measure; I just boil whatever is left in our kettle.) Allow chilies to soak for about 20 minutes or until softened somewhat. Place all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and process for several minutes or until smooth but still textured, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Adjust seasoning if necessary and process a few seconds. Scrape peanut butter into an airtight container–I like to put it in a small crock–and refrigerate.

October 26, 2011August 15, 2014 by betsy

VEgan Baked Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal (it’s like bread pudding for breakfast or brunch!)

This recipe is a crowd-pleaser regardless of the season! And I’m posting it now so you can make sure to have all ingredients on hand by the time the weekend arrives.

The first iteration of it, which I created for The Blooming Platter Cookbook, appears in the spring section of the Brunch chapter, for it was made to be topped with fresh berries. When I tested the recipe in the summer of 2010, I served it topped with blueberries to my good friend Maggie Test (yes, that’s really her last name). She proclaimed its texture to be perfect, like a bread pudding for breakfast (though there is no bread in the recipe, only healthy oatmeal).

So, for the weekend house party my husband hosted for my birthday last May, I made it as our Sunday “morning-after” brunch dish. It was a huge hit with everyone and lent itself perfectly to people rising at different times, as servings can be popped into the microwave for reheating.

At the end of last week, the weather finally turned cool here in coastal Virginia and the leaves are beginning to turn right along with it. So, I found myself craving a warm comfort-food type weekend breakfast, but nothing too heavy. Baked oatmeal came immediately to mind. But, with berries long out of season, I thought of pumpkin of which I can’t get enough this time of year. I crave it in everything.

I used the recipe I created for my cookbook, simply reducing the cup of soy milk to 1/2 cup, and adding 1/2 cup pumpkin puree plus 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. Then, instead of studding the top with berries, I used nuts. Oh, and I topped the serving you see in the photo with some Vegan Pepita Caramel Sauce, but that’s just guilding the lily and, I have to admit, turns the dish into more of a dessert.

The only difficult aspects of this dish are 1) waiting 8 hours to bake it, and 2) not eating the entire recipe in one sitting!

Yield: 8 servings

6 ounces firm silken tofu
1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup natural sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
2 tablespoons natural sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup coarse-chopped pecans or walnuts

1. Lightly grease a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie pan and set aside. Combine the tofu, soy milk, canola oil, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a food processor. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Transfer the mixture to a medium mixing bowl and stir in the oatmeal. Spoon this mixture into the prepared pan, gently smoothing the top. Sprinkle the surface with the remaining sugar and cinnamon, cover with foil, and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.
2. When ready to bake, remove the dish from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Sprinkle the top surface of the oatmeal with nuts, and bake for 25 minutes or until just firm. Serve hot. Cover the pan with foil if the nuts start browning too quickly.

Note: The oatmeal may be reheated by covering the baking dish with foil and placing it in a cold oven. Turn the oven temperature to 300ºF. and heat for about 20 minutes, or until warm. The oatmeal may alternatively be reheated in the microwave. Start with 30 seconds and add additional time as necessary.

January 10, 2010February 10, 2011 by betsy

Vegan Grilled Hearts of Romaine Salad with Vegan Chinese Mustard Dressing and Vegan Five Spice and Lime Roasted Cashews or Peanuts

Yield: 2 salads with leftover dressing (dressing recipe makes 8 servings)

This, my favorite new salad, was inspired by three restaurant dishes. One was a grilled salad from a local pub that was good but the Romaine wasn’t caramelized enough and it wasn’t served with anything very interesting in the way of dressing or garnish. The others, a Caesar salad with addicting spicy cashews on top (the only part I could eat) and a mound of haystack fried potatoes with a dreamy Chinese mustard sauce, were both served at the fantastic China Grill in South Beach. So, I decided to grill the Romaine lettuce typically used in a Caesar salad and replicate both the nuts on that salad and the mustard sauce from the potato dish, making it into a dressing. I didn’t want to use peanut butter as the creamy base, as I wanted the flavor to be more Chinese than Thai, so I decided on tahini which, though I usually associate it with Mediterranean food, is a sesame paste and sesame is a common ingredient in Chinese cooking. I think the result is fantastic–in fact, I ate both salads for lunch today–and hope you will too.

For this recipe and some 170+ more,
I invite you to purchase my first cookbook:

The Blooming Platter:
A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes

Vegan Heritage Press
Spring 2011

January 7, 2010July 21, 2010 by betsy

Vegan Vegetable-Coconut Milk Rice Pilaf with Vegan Five Spice and Lime Roasted Cashews or Peanuts

Yield: approximately 4 servings

After a beautiful family-style pan-Asian meal at China Grill–much of which I couldn’t eat– over New Year’s weekend in South Beach, I was craving foods inspired by their creations, especially something with their spiced cashews that I picked off of their version of a Caesar salad. Here’s what I came up with and I have found it so satisfying as leftovers all week. Measurements of vegetables are approximate. Use what you have and it will still be wonderful.

Vegetable-Coconut Milk Rice Pilaf:
1 generous tablespoon vegetable oil (you may mix in a little sesame oil)
1 cup sliced green onions
1/2 cup baby carrots, halved lengthwise
1/2 of a yellow or red bell pepper, stem and seeds removed, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms (shitakes are especially good)
2 cups vegetable stock
1 can (about 1 1/2 cups) coconut milk (I used the “lite” variety)
1 cup Jasmine rice (I recommend not substitute because the fragrance can’t be duplicated)
1 cup of trimmed broccoli florets
optional: coarse kosher or sea salt
Garnish: chopped fresh cilantro and spiced cashews or peanuts (see recipe below)

In a wok or large saute pan over medium-high, heat oil to shimmering. Add green onions and stir fry for a minute to flavor oil. Add baby carrots and stir fry for another minute, followed by bell pepper and mushrooms, stir frying for a minute after each addition. Stir in vegetable stock, coconut milk and rice. Cover (use foil if you don’t have a lid to fit your wok) and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to insure that rice isn’t sticking. Lower heat if necessary. Stir in broccoli, cover, and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until rice is tender, most of moisture is absorbed and broccoli is tender but still bright green. Check for salt and add if necessary. Garnish with cilantro and spiced nuts. Serve warm.

Vegan Five Spice and Lime Roasted Cashews or Peanuts:
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice and zest of 1/2 of a lime
1-2 tablespoons brown sugar (start with smaller amount and add more if desired)
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea or kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon (or to taste) five spice powder
1/8 teaspoon (or to taste) cayenne pepper
12 ounces lightly salted cashew halves and pieces or peanuts (reserve can)

Line a baking sheet with a brown paper bag, waxed paper or parchment paper. In a wok or large saucepan over medium high, heat olive oil to shimmering. Meanwhile, combine all remaining ingredients except peanuts. Stir into hot oil, being careful not to splatter, followed immediately by peanuts. Roast and stir for about 7 minutes, lowering heat if necessary, or until exterior is caramelized and peanuts taste slightly roasted. Avoid scorching or you will have to throw out the whole batch. Pour immediately onto prepared baking sheet to cool completely. Store in the reserved peanut can.

July 5, 2009July 21, 2010 by betsy

Vegan Spiced Nuts

Yield: 1 pound nuts

I first tasted these nuts at a party at our gym. Marla, one of the employees, brought them to our holiday potluck and they were a huge hit. The original recipe, made with rosemary, came from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa.

However, a happy accident led Marla to an adaptation of the recipe which, in turn, led to mine. Marla was transporting the nuts in a cooler to her family’s house, several states away, at the holidays. She arrived to find to her horror that water had sloshed into the container of nuts. Undeterred, she put them in the oven to dry them out and she liked the result so much that, now, when she makes a batch, she spritzes them with water during the roasting process.

Too lazy to spritz, I decided to add a little water at the beginning, as my only criticism of the original recipe was that the brown sugar never fully dissolved and didn’t adhere to the nuts quite as much as I would have liked. It works beautifully and, as Marla first discovered, results in an ever-so-lightly “candied” nut. (Don’t think cloying, overly sweet, too heavily coated, as they definitely are NOT.) When you remove the nuts from the oven, they may appear a little sticky or gummy. But, never fear. As they cool, they crisp right up and you can just gently break up the clusters–or leave them “right like they are” (as my friend Tammy would say)–as you transfer them into a container.

I bought a three pound can of cashews and a three pound sack of walnut halves at a wholesale club recently and experimented quite a bit. For the most part, Ina had it right: the cashews seem to make a better product than the walnuts, and fresh herbs like basil and tarragon mostly lose their flavor in the roasting process. However, I had also wondered about using dried ground spices in place of the fresh herbs and discovered, to my delight, that curry powder is the ticket. (The nuts in the photo are the curry variety.) Both flavors make terrific holiday or host(ess) gifts.

One final note: if you make several batches in succession, I would advise changing pans, as the little bits on the bottom become too dark with repeated roastings resulting in a burned-tasting product. I had to feed my last batch of walnuts the birds.

1 tablespoon vegan butter (I like Earth Balance)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
the leaves from approximately 5 stalks of rosemary, minced
OR 2-3 teaspoons ground curry powder (or the dried ground spice of your choice)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
pinch cayenne pepper
1 pound cashews or cashew halves and pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place all ingredients except the cashews in a 9 x 13″ metal pan, choosing either the rosemary or the curry powder. Place the pan in the oven just until the butter melts. When melted, carefully remove the pan from the oven and add nuts, stirring to coat evenly. Roast for 8-10 minutes, stirring twice during that time. Remove from oven and spoon onto a baking sheet into a thin layer to cool. When nuts are room temperature, gently break them apart as you place them into an airtight container.