Spicy Vegetarian Chili

This is a new version of the Best Vegetarian Chili and it may be even better than the original. You could make it in the crock pot or on the stove – either way, it’s delish!

Start with these ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 pepper, any color, chopped
• 1 large sweet potato (or regular potato), chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 small jalapeno, chopped
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can (15.5 oz) spicy black beans
• 3 Tbsp quinoa, any color
• 1/4 cup lentils, any color
• 1 can crushed or diced tomatoes
• 1 can Muir Glen diced tomatoes – Fire roasted with medium green chilis
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 1 packet vegetarian chili seasoning mix
• water
• olive oil
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Then get down to business:

1. Put a bit (maybe a Tbsp) of olive oil in a large soup pan and heat. Add the chopped onion and minced garlic. Let cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the chopped pepper, carrots, jalapeno and sweet potato to the pot.
3. Add the two cans of tomatoes and stir well. Fill one of the cans with water and add that as well.
4. Rinse the spicy black beans just a bit and add them to the mixture. Add the quinoa and lentils.
5. Next add the can of tomato paste and stir well.  Tomato paste can be sticky so make sure to get it distributed throughout the mixture.
6. Toss in the chili seasoning mix.
7. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 45 minutes.
8. Add the cup of frozen corn, stir, and simmer for another 15 minutes.
9. Top with shredded cheese and enjoy.

You could easily make this in the crock pot – just omit the olive oil at the beginning and pile everything in the crock pot, stir, and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours, adding the corn in just about 15 minutes before you’re ready to eat.

What’s great about this chili is that it’s so flexible – I’ve added or omitted vegetables depending on what I have on hand and I’ve used sprouted legumes or chickpeas instead of lentils. Any version is great!

Cabbage and Rice

We got cabbage in a recent Boston Organics delivery and while trying to think of a good recipe, I remembered a meal my grandmother made once when I was little. I called my mom to ask about it and she said it was a polish dish called gołąbkis (gaw-WOHP-kee). Because they traditionally have meat in them and because they seemed kind of complicated to make I googled a bit to find something similar. I found this great recipe from VegWeb and made a few changes based on my preferences and some of the comments. It’s become a new favorite!

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups basmati rice
3 cups vegetable broth
1 small head cabbage, chopped
1 15oz can diced or crushed tomatoes (I like San Marzano)
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 heaping teaspoons Hungarian paprika, divided
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the chopped onion. Sauté onion for a few minutes until translusent. Add the rice and saute for about five minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients in the following order: pepper, 1 teaspoon of the Hungarian paprika, broth, cabbage, tomatoes, bay leaf, salt. Stir well and cook for about 5 minutes.

Pour the cabbage and rice mixture into a rectangular baking pan and sprinkle with remaining paprika. (Add a little extra if you’d like – it’s delicious!) Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is one of the first recipes I remember making when I was a teenager. My mother had a big binder-like cookbook called Great American Home Baking and what teenager wouldn’t like chocolate chip muffins? I’ve changed up the recipe just a bit, but the muffins are just as good as I remember.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 oz. (1/2 bag) Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate baking chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease cupcake pan. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In a smaller bowl, mix together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Add the liquid mixture into the larger bowl and use a fork to make sure all the dry ingredients are mixed well with the liquid.

Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the muffin pan, filling each cup about 3/4 full.

Bake muffins for about 18 minutes, until the tops begin to become golden. Enjoy!

Corn and Green Bean Salad

This summer we had a farm share and boy did we get a lot of corn! I searched for some different recipes that incorporated corn and I found this great one on one of my favorite blogs, Girls Gone Child. Her blog is awesome and she has the most adorable kids (with the coolest names). She sometimes features recipes from her mom who seems like an amazing cook. That’s where I found this recipe and it’s delicious.

Corn and Green Bean Salad 
from Girls Gone Child

Ingredients:

2 lbs fresh green beans
2 ears of corn, shucked
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
1 clove chopped garlic
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh basil

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the ears of corn.
2. Cook corn for 5 minutes, remove from the water and put in a colander. Rinse with cold water to cool the ears down.
3. Using the same water you cooked the corn in, cook the green beans for just about 2 minutes so that they are still crisp.
4. Drain the beans then put them into a bowl of ice water to stop them from cooking further.
5. Cut beans into smallish pieces and cut the corn kernels off the cob. In a large bowl, add the beans, corn, tomatoes and onions.
6. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, fresh basil, and salt and pepper.
7. Pour liquid mixture over the vegetable mixture and toss to coat.
8. Refrigerate and enjoy!

Summer Peach Cobbler

I’ve been meaning to post this recipe ever since I tried it this summer, but alas I am months and months behind. I first saw this peach cobbler recipe (or peach-a-berry cobbler as she calls it) on Iowa Girl Eats. She is super fun and shares great recipes and takes awesome photos, so you should check out her blog. And definitely make this cobbler. It’s delicious.

I changed this recipe up just a little bit because I wanted to incorporate whole wheat flour and I prefer to use brown sugar over white sugar. Here’s the slightly modified version:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk (I prefer whole, but you can use whatever)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
3 cups sliced fresh peaches, skin on
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and then begin by making the topping. Combine both types of flour, 1/4 cup of the brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar and the baking powder in a large bowl and stir. Add milk and butter then stir until smooth. Set aside.

In a large saucepan mix together the other 1/4 cup of brown sugar, the cornstarch, and water until smooth. With the heat on medium, add the peaches and blueberries.

Cook until the peach and blueberry mixture is thick and bubbly. Add the 1 tablespoon of butter and the lemon juice and stir until butter is melted.

Pour fruit mixture into an ungreased pie pan and add the topping. Try not to make the dollops of topping too thick because I did that the first time and it didn’t cook all the way through. The second time I made this cobbler I made a point to make the dollops thinner and spread them out a bit and it worked much better.

Stir 2 tablespoons of white sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl then sprinkle on top.

Because the cobbler might bubble up while baking, put the pie pan on a cookie sheet. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the topping comes out clean. Enjoy!

Beet Salad (for those who don’t love beets)

I’m not a huge beet fan but we’ve been getting TONS in our CSA this summer. And it’s been so hot that I dread turning the oven on to cook them. But then I found this amazing recipe from The New York Times and we have been loving beets ever since. Even though this salad includes raw beets, it doesn’t taste beet-y – it’s refreshing and citrusy and I love it.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch beets (maybe a half pound)
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup shredded carrot, or chopped zucchini, summer squash or whatever other vegetable you have handy
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley or rosemary

Directions:

• Wash the beets and cut off the ends. Use a food processor to chop the beets up small
• Chop or food process the onion, the carrot or other vegetable of your choice, and the parsley or rosemary. I’ve also used shredded carrots from Whole Foods (like in the photo below)
• Add all the chopped ingredients to a bowl
• In a separate smaller bowl, combine the orange juice, lemon juice and olive oil and stir well
• Poor the citrus liquid mixture over the vegetable mixture and stir well
• Chill for an hour or so (but you could also eat this right away)
• Serve over salad greens

Take on a picnic and enjoy.

Zucchini Bread

We got a CSA for the summer and have gotten some of the biggest zucchinis I’ve ever seen. I don’t love raw or just grilled zucchini so I’ve been looking for something else to do with the sea of zucchini we are living in. When it finally got below 90 degrees, I figured I could turn on the oven and make this super easy and incredibly tasty zucchini bread. I originally found it on All Recipes but changed the recipe up just a bit.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/4 cups grated zucchini
• 3/4 cup chopped mixed nuts (or any kind of nut you prefer)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 and grease a loaf pan.
2. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl.
3. In a larger bowl, mix the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the bigger mixing bowl and stir well until completely blended.
5. Add in the grated zucchini and chopped nuts until everything is mixed well.
6. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for about 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the bread cool for at least 15-20 minutes, then enjoy it while it’s still warm!

“Magical” Kale Salad

Mei Mei is a food truck in Boston and they have a kale salad that is rumored to be awesomely delicious. I’ve never had it, but Andrew can’t stop raving about it. So when we were planning a picnic on a recent lovely day, we decided to try to replicate the “magical” kale salad, with a few tweaks, and take it along for our picnic. This awesome blog wrote a great post on how to recreate the Mei Mei kale salad, so we used that as a guide.

It was delicious and lovely and we can’t stop massaging kale. Check it out:

Ingredients:

1 bunch of fresh kale, washed of course

1 tsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

3 tsp olive oil

2 eggs

Canola oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup panko

1/3 cup grated feta cheese

Sea salt

Directions:

Start by washing the kale then ripping it apart. You don’t have to rip it too small because it’ll shrink a ton on its own.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil with the lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Slowly add just a bit of that mixture to the kale while massaging the liquid into the kale with your hands. Your hands with get all gross and oily, but it’ll be fun. Add a bit more of the liquid mixture to the kale while massaging until you have enough to cover all the kale but not so much that it’s pooling at the bottom of the bowl. Add a bit of sea salt. Massage the bologna out of that kale because – fun fact – apparently massaging kale takes some of its bitter taste away.

Let your massaged kale hang out for a bit while you make the panko. Pour a bit of canola oil in the bottom of a skillet and add the minced garlic. Slowly add in the cup of panko, making sure that it’s mixing well with the canola and garlic. Add a bit more canola oil if you need to.

Make two eggs however you like – the original recipe says poached but since I don’t like poached eggs we did ours over hard. I think the poached thing would add a whole other element to the salad, with the runny yolk and all, but since I hate runny yolk, I was ok with our version.

Pile the kale into a bowl, add the panko and egg and some feta cheese on top. Take along on a picnic and enjoy!

Carrot-y Veggie Burgers

We got a juicer not too long ago and I LOVE it. We usually compost the pulp that remains after you make juice but a friend told me that there are tons of recipes that use the pulp. She said that carrot pulp can be used to make carrot muffins, so I originally set out to find a muffin recipe. I found these burgers instead and they were delicious.

Carrot-y Veggie Burgers

Ingredients
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup carrot pulp
2 cups crushed cornflakes
2-3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
salt and pepper to taste
Butter or olive oil (just to grease the skillet)
Burger Buns

Directions
I put the carrot, onion and celery in a food processor and the fine chopping was quick and easy. Combine the chopped carrots, onion and celery with the carrot pulp, crushed cornflakes, and eggs in a bowl. The recipe originally called for two eggs but we thought the burgers weren’t sticky enough so we added a third egg. Add a little salt and pepper and mix well.

Form the mixture into patties – once this recipe made four patties and once it made five. Who knows what you’ll end up with.

Melt a bit of butter in a skillet over medium heat and cook patties for a few minutes on each side or until browned.

I think we’ll also try cooking these on foil on the grill this summer.

Top with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles – whatever you like! Serve on your favorite buns.

Chickpea Salad

Whole Foods has a delicious “Mediterranean Crunch Salad” at the cold bar. We wanted to recreate it at home, but a google search for the recipe didn’t exactly match the ingredient list that had been included with the salad at the bar. So we kind of used the recipe online as a guide and added some other ingredients to make it more fabulous.

Ingredients:

2 (15 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cucumber, chopped small
1/2 head broccoli, chopped small
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 carrot, chopped small
3 leaves kale, tough stems removed, chopped small
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Directions:

Combine the chickpeas, cucumber, carrot, kale, broccoli, tomatoes, onion, parsley and thyme in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine the red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil. Whisk well. Poor the liquid mixture into the vegetable/bean mixture and stir well. Chill at least one hour before serving. Enjoy!