The garnishes seem overwhelming, but this is also delicious without a single addition.
I am going to share a top secret recipe today that is fail-proof, delicious, cheap, and vegan (if you skip some of the garnishes). It’s because I LOVE YOU, and I want you to have good things in your life. That’s why.
Not even going to make you sit through a story — just soup, soup, and more soup. Enjoy.
Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 jalapeño, finely chopped (keep as many or as few seeds as you like)
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons puréed chipotles in adobo (see Recipe Notes)
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes (or two smaller cans)
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock (I used veg for the vegetarian)
1 can of corn kernels (or fresh, about 2 cups)
1 can black or dark red kidney beans
GARNISHES, ANY OR ALL
Avocado, chopped
Tortilla chips
Shredded Colby jack (or cheese of your choice)
Sour cream
Chopped fresh cilantro
Red onion, finely chopped
Method
Heat oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Add onion, garlic, green chilis/jalapeño, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until onion is soft (5-8 minutes).
Add chili powder and cumin and stir to coat. Cook a minute or two until spices open up, then add chipotle purée and tomatoes. Season again with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes start to caramelize a bit on the bottom of the pot (the time for this varies depending on your pot, the heat, etc. But there will be less liquid and the tomatoes will brown slightly. Mine took about ten minutes).
Add vegetable stock, corn, and beans. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered 15-20 minutes and taste for seasoning.
At this point, the soup is done. It can be set aside and reheated, and it’s even better the next day. It freezes perfectly.
Garnish the hell out of your soup, or eat it plain. Delicious either way.
This soup’s spice can be moderated by adding fewer seeds/veins from whatever pepper you choose.
Recipe Notes
When you open a can of chipotle chilis in adobo, dump in a blender and purée. Remove the amount you need for the soup, then place the rest in a Ziploc bag and flatten. Freeze. Break off chunks of deliciousness as needed.
Add grilled, shredded chicken (or rotisserie chicken from the store – EASY) for carnivores.
Don’t sleep on this delicious, versatile snack/breakfast/garnish.
Look, I’m not gonna say that this is the best thing you’ll put in your mouth all week. I don’t know how you live your life. But if you want a strong contender for that title, this crispy quinoa granola is it.
Packed with protein, filling, slightly sweet, salty, versatile AF. As at home on top of a curried squash soup as it is in a vat of that extra fatty Scandinavian yogurt. Excellent with plain old (non-dairy) milk or eaten dry out of a coffee mug with a spoon as you lie in bed watching cooking shows. #AskMeHowIKnow
Take 30 minutes (largely hands-off) and make yourself happy. You’ll be glad you did.
Crispy Quinoa Granola
(makes about four cups)
Nuts, seeds, and fruit can be subbed in any combination you like. Just keep amounts the same and you’re all good.
Ingredients
1 cup almonds, chopped
1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa
1 cup pumpkin seeds (I used salted)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup honey (see Recipe Notes)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup dried fruit (I used cranberries)
Method
Preheat oven to 300 and line a large rimmed baking tray with parchment paper.
Combine almonds, quinoa, pumpkin seeds, and salt in a large bowl and stir to combine.
Add honey and oil and mix completely. Pour onto baking tray and spread evenly. Use two baking sheets if the mix is more than 1/4″ thick.
Now the fun part, where you need be mildly diligent. Cook for a total of 25 minutes on 300, stirring every 8 minutes or so, then turn the oven temperature up to 350 and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes.
Be careful here. Your quinoa will go from a lovely brown to a charred cinder very quickly.
When the quinoa is a nice deep brown, remove from oven. I like to take it off the baking sheet (still on parchment) and set it on my cool marble counters to cool completely.
DO NOT SAMPLE WHEN HOT. The quinoa will cling to your fingertips and lips and burn the shit out of you. Be patient.
Store in an airtight container. This might last longer than a week, but I doubt I will try that out.
Recipe Notes
If you are eliminating added sugar, you can use apple cider syrup instead of honey. Reduce any quantity of apple cider (not juice) by half and use that instead of honey. You can also substitute maple syrup here. If you like a slightly clumpy, sticky granola, honey is your best bet.
The picture above is made with almonds and cranberries. I can imagine that cashew/apricot and walnut/cherry would be delicious.
This is unspiced, but I also imagine that cinnamon would do well here.
This unassuming little dish holds a tiny cloud of heaven: basil cashew cream sauce.
There is something incredibly comforting about a warm bowl of food. Since it seems we are living in season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale, we need comfort and care now more than ever. Enter basil cashew cream sauce.
This sauce takes advantage of the late summer flush of basil on my back porch; it’s also vegan and packed with protein (hello, cashews!). If you don’t have basil, you can skip it or try some parsley or other mixed herbs.
Feed yourself (and your people) with love. And for fuck’s sake, VOTE.
Riced Cauliflower With Basil Cashew Cream Sauce And Pretty Much Anything Else You Want
You can make every component of this meal on a Sunday and have dinner on the table in 15 minutes any night of the week.
Ingredients
1 cup cashews
Boiling water
7 tablespoons water (ish. Maybe more, maybe less)
3 tablespoons lemon juice (ish. Also, see Recipe Notes)
Fresh basil leaves (a nice bunch – maybe an ounce or so)
1 head of cauliflower
2 tablespoons olive oil or ghee
Other stuff (see Recipe Notes)
Method
Place cashews in a jar with a lid and cover with boiling water. Let stand for at least 30 minutes (an hour or more is ok), then drain and rinse and put in a food processor.
Add water, lemon juice, and basil and process until everything is light and creamy and pourable. You may use more or less water and lemon juice to get the consistency you want.
The amount of basil you add depends on your taste and what you have. I like a bright, fresh, herbaceous sauce, so I added lots more than most people, but this isn’t pesto. You want to allow the subtle cashew flavor to come through, too. So add and taste and be judicious.
Also add salt and pepper to taste, then blend once more before putting in the ‘fridge. This sauce will last a couple of days chilled, more if you don’t add basil and just process with water and lemon. If you are using the sauce right away, no need to refrigerate.
Rice your entire head of cauliflower. This is most easily done in a food processor with a shredding disk, but you can also grate on a box grater or chop the shit out of it until the cauliflower is approximately the size of – wait for it – rice. You can also buy pre-riced cauliflower.
You’ll need two heaping cups for this recipe (one per person, with some leftovers). Pack the rest into two-cup servings in Ziploc bags and toss in the freezer for easy meals later.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, then add the cauliflower. Season with salt and pepper. You may need to add a little bit of water if the cauliflower absorbs the oil, but that’s ok. Cook the cauliflower on medium heat for about five minutes.
And here is where things get interesting. You can roast veggies separately and then add to the cauliflower and top with sauce. You can steam kale or other fall bitter greens in the pan with the cauliflower, then add cashew sauce and mix together (not pretty but YUM). You can use anything that you love in a bowl of food and bring it all together with the basil cashew cream sauce.
So. Freaking. Delicious.
Recipe Notes
This might seem a little thing, but when I first used this, I tossed a section of preserved lemon in the processor instead of lemon juice, and I also used stock instead of water. I had both of these things lying around. If you do, too, I encourage you to use those substitutions for a richer, more complex experience.
When it comes to “other stuff,” the sky is the limit. This is great with leftover (or freshly roasted) veg, grilled meat, or all on its own. You can really add what you like or what’s left in your ‘fridge (hopefully they are the same thing).
Glossy, delicious, vegan, and sugar-free (with no artificial sugar, either). Truth.
Friends, if you are even a semi-regular reader of this blog, you know that the above headline for this recipe is an anomaly here.
I am a HUGE FAN of sugar. I like it in all of its forms.
I like it in the form of a big piece of cake, balanced on my chest as I lie in the bed and watch TV.
I like it in the form of empty wrappers of Dove dark chocolates, the ones that I used to hand out at the end of my yin classes at Yoga Tree.
I love drippy ice cream cones, cheesecake, caramel apples, scones, muffins, pies.
Watermelon and fresh peaches.
I. Love. Sugar. ALL OF IT.
So imagine my surprise as I find myself in week three of a seasonal Renewal with my good friend Martha at Full Moon Acupuncture with nary a fine grain of sugar anywhere.
THREE WEEKS. I have not had sugar for THREE WEEKS. I haven’t cheated (which I think is stupid language to begin with. “Cheat days” and “cheating” are, in general, ridiculous constructs when it comes to food, and I do not in any way, shape, or form condone the use of them. I use it here to indicate that I have, against all odds, stuck with the program and eliminated all processed foods, including sugars in all forms, for a period that will last four weeks-ish. But I digress.)
Thankfully, and speaking of Weeks, my particular friend KWeeks had a birthday October 1st, and it is traditional for the birthday people in my life to get the dinner and the dessert of their choice on their day. KWeeks has simple taste, so dinner was (for him) French lentils over cornbread and topped with a fried egg.
TRUST ME. This is rustic and delicious. But I couldn’t eat it. See referenced Renewal above. And it’s hard to not share a meal on the birthday of someone you love.
He doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I thought perhaps I could make something sweet that we could both eat.
Enter the vegan, sugar-free mixed berry tart.
Apple syrup made from 100% cold-pressed apple cider provides the sweet, and the gluten-free crust is six simple ingredients: walnuts, almonds, oats, salt, coconut oil, and apple syrup. Technically the oats are not allowed in the Renewal (no grains), but everything else is so damn good for you it doesn’t seem to matter.
It’s pretty, and it’s festive, and it gets real close to satisfying my (still) voracious appetite for sugar.
Vegan (Sugar-free) Mixed Berry Tart
KWeeks and I ate about half of this on his birthday and then shared the rest with his vegan co-workers at The Friends School of Baltimore. They have not been the beneficiaries of my baking, ever, and I am glad to finally be able to have something to share with them.
Ingredients
80 grams almonds (about 2/3 cup)
80 grams walnuts (about 2/3 cup)
70 grams oats (you guessed it: about 2/3 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons apple syrup (divided)
1/2 cup lemon juice/water combo
1/2 teaspoon agar
3 cups chopped fruit of your choice (see Recipe Notes)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method
Preheat oven to 350. Use cooking spray to grease a 9″ tart pan with removable bottom (you can use butter if you don’t want to keep it vegan) and set aside.
Place almonds, walnuts, oats, and salt in a food processor, and pulse to chop fine.
Add coconut oil and 3 tablespoons of your apple syrup and pulse until the mixture begins to come together. Dump into your tart pan and press into an even layer along the bottom and the sides.
Bake until brown and the bottom is firm (between 15 and 20 minutes). If the edges of the crust begin to burn, pull the tart out of the oven and place aluminum foil strips over the edges, then replace and finish. Remove to a wire rack and cool completely while you make the filling (the ‘fridge is great for a quick chill).
To make the filling, place 1/4 cup apple syrup and the 1/2 cup of lemon juice/water combo in a saucepan with the agar. Whisk to combine, and bring just to a boil.
Add the fruit and stir. Warm the fruit (especially if it’s frozen), then add to the chilled tart crust. Place back in the ‘fridge and allow to chill for at least three hours.
Serve with vegan whipped cream, or ice cream, or plain for breakfast. Just as you like.
Recipe Notes
Apple syrup is a delicious way to add sweetness to desserts (or yogurt or granola or whatever) without adding sugar. Well, ok, technically it’s fruit sugar, which the body does still recognize as sugar, but it’s not processed to within an inch of its life. Essentially, you are taking pure apple cider (NOT juice) and boiling it down until it reduces by half. I make this in two-cup batches, so I start with four cups of apple cider. Bring to a medium boil (not a simmer, but not too rolling either). Boil until the cider is reduced by half. If you want it to be even sweeter, keep going and reduce it even more.
Any fruit works here, fresh or frozen. I have used fresh and frozen blueberries, cherries, and nectarines in my tests, and they have all been delicious. You can also switch up the extracts if you like and use an almond extract, but use just 1/4 teaspoon if you do that.
A little boat of delicious: sweet potato, roasted broccoli, quinoa, chopped cashews, and avocado cream.
So this was supposed to post on Wednesday, except I posted Monday’s blog on Tuesday.
Monday was Yom Kippur and KWeeks was home from school. These days, the only way I have been able to keep track of time is through other people. Because I am a freelance writer, every day can be pretty much like the next in the sense that I set my own schedule and can work whenever so long as I meet my deadlines. I have taken to working on the weekends so that I can enjoy the out-of-doors without dodging non-mask-wearing joggers and people who don’t think leash laws apply to them.
But I digress.
This is ostensibly a food blog, but it is having a crisis of conscience. Yes, we all need to eat, and this here is some excellent vegan food that you won’t believe is actually good for you (but it so is), but there are things happening in the world that make it hard to post pithy blog posts about food.
I am not one of those people who is moving on with the news cycle. #Blacklivesstillmatter
And it is luxurious in my life to be able to put aside whatever is trouble and whip up some food. A luxury that so many don’t have.
And I am not here to justify any of that.
But I am here to say this: here is something delicious that I created with loved and shared with people so they can feel good in their bodies.
It doesn’t erase or negate my feelings about what is happening in the world, and it’s not the only action I am taking.
But it’s the small thing I can do – feed people – that I know makes a difference.
I am trying to figure out how to make this more of love in action instead of love online. If you have thoughts, let me know. I am open.
Stuffed Sweet Potato With Roasted Broccoli, Red Onion, Chopped Cashews, and Avocado Cream (serves 4)
Make this on Sunday night for delicious lunches all week. Quinoa is a densely nutritious seed – a so-called “false grain” – that pairs well with sweet potatoes. Together they provide a sweet-bitter balance of taste set off by the sharp tang of the lime juice.
Ingredients
4 sweet potatoes, scrubbed well 2 cups stock (vegetable or chicken) 1 small red onion, chopped 1 cup quinoa, rinsed in cold water (see Recipe Notes) 1 large head of broccoli, cut into small florets (about 4 cups) ¼ cup olive oil 1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon salt 2 very ripe avocadoes ½ cup coconut milk 1 tablespoon lime juice (more to taste) Salt and pepper to taste ½ cup chopped cashews optional: fresh chopped cilantro (see Recipe Notes)
Method
Preheat oven to 400. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Scrub sweet potatoes and remove any blemishes. Prick each sweet potato with a fork, then place directly on the oven rack to roast (put a piece of aluminum foil under them to catch any spills). Set your kitchen timer for 25 minutes.
Bring stock to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add ½ cup of onion, quinoa, and a pinch of salt. Return to a boil, lower heat, cover, and simmer until liquid is absorbed – about 15 to 20 minutes.
After your quinoa is covered, prepare the broccoli. Place broccoli, olive oil, cumin, salt, and pepper in large bowl and toss to coat. Pour onto baking sheet. When the timer for the sweet potatoes goes off, put broccoli in the oven with the sweet potatoes and roast for 20 minutes. The broccoli will be done in 20 minutes, and sweet potatoes should be, too, but check by poking with a fork. They should give easily all the way to the center. If not, roast until done.
While the broccoli is roasting, make the avocado cream. Place avocado, coconut milk, and lime juice in a blender or food processor. Add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper and process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed – consider more lime, salt, or pepper as needed.
When everything is ready, serve family-style with chopped cashews and cilantro (if using), or assemble and pack into portable containers for lunch on the run. Leave avocado cream on the side until ready to heat and eat.
Recipe Notes
• This makes extra quinoa to use in quick salads, in lunch bowls, or as a side. If you want just enough for this meal, cut amounts in half. • If you are a fan of cilantro, you can add it to the avocado cream. It is optional here as some are not fond of the taste, and a little goes a long way. • Carnivores can add the meat of their choice to this meal. Think leftover chicken or grilled steak.
