OPR: White Bean and Mango Burritos

What is "OPR" you wonder? Well, it stands for "other people's recipes." I'm not much of a chef, if you haven't noticed, but what I am a master at is scouring the world for Plant Strong, Nutritarian recipes and then making and eating them. After I take some photographs that is!

Here's a new favorite that I discovered: White Bean and Mango Burritos from The Real Meal Today blog. They could not have been any easier or any more delicious! If you are craving Mexican food, give these a try. Go here to check out the original recipe, which would have been so spicy I'm not sure that I could have eaten them. I made a few modifications to the heat, to the proportions and also by adding lettuce. Spinach or any other green would work well too!

Here's my version:

White Bean and Mango Burritos

serves 4

2 15 ounce cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained 

1 large ripe mango, peeled and diced (about 1 1/2 cups of diced mango)
1cup chopped cilantro
1/4 tsp Cayenne powder (less or more to personal preference!)
1 1/2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
6 medium whole wheat tortillas( as healthy as you can get them)
2 cups chopped lettuce

Combine all ingredients except the tortillas in a large bowl, mix by hand until incorporated. Using a handheld immersion blender, puree about 1/4 of the mixture right in the bowl with all of the ingredients. Remix everything. This will give the mixture a more solid feel and pieces of beans will not be falling out when you bite or cut it.

Soften the tortillas by putting over an open flame on you're stove, over a grill or in the microwave for a few seconds. This will make them easier to roll and move without cracking. Place 1/2 cup chopped lettuce and 1/2 cup of the bean mixture at the bottom of the tortilla, roll over forward 1 turn, fold sides in and then continue to roll to the end.

Optional: place on sheet tray and bake for 10-15 min at 325 degrees.

How do you get your Mexican Food fix?

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Easy Everyday Mujadara and Moroccan DIY Spice Blend

A few months ago I mixed up a batch of chai spice blend to liven up my green smoothie making. There really isn't a simpler or more economical way to wake up your food than to make your own spice blends. You probably already have tons of individual spices if you are preparing your own healthy meals. And those little dashes of spice used in each recipe mean that oftentimes jars of spices need to be replaced before they ever get used up. Why not mix up spice blends for yourself and even for gifts?

The second homemade spice blend to scream my name was a Moroccan Spice Blend. I made it at 5 am this morning. Sad, I know.

Moroccan Spice Blend

makes 8 Tbsp

5 tsp ground nutmeg
5 tsp ground cumin
5 tsp ground coriander
2.5 tsp allspice
2.5 tsp ground ginger
1.25 tsp cayanne pepper
1.25 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and store in an airtight container.

What to do with this you ask? How about a big batch of Mujadara? It's a Lebanese dish that, if you make this way, is extremely low in fat, is full of fiber, protein and iron, AND is exceptionally delicious! If I have frozen brown rice and packaged cooked lentils on hand, it's the easiest thing I can cook up for dinner when I'm tired and I just don't feel like cooking. In fact, this dish has become quite a staple in my house for just those reasons!

Ridiculously Easy Mujadara
Makes about 10 one cup servings

Printable Version

2 large sweet onions, diced
vegetable broth
2 1/2 cups brown or green lentils (Not red lentils or french lentils! I used one package of Trader Joe's cooked lentils.)
4 cups cooked brown rice (Trader Joes and Whole Foods sell frozen brown rice)
2 Tbsp Moroccan Spice Blend
salt to taste

Heat the largest skillet you have over medium heat and cover the bottom with vegetable broth. When broth starts to bubble, add chopped onions and saute, stirring every few minutes, for 35-45 minutes or until onions are very, very soft. Reduce heat and/or add broth to deglaze the pan as onions start to stick too much. Do not let the onions burn. Buy the end of the process, your heat will likely be on low and your onions will be very soft.

Meanwhile, cook the rice and lentils separately according to the package directions. If you have the TJ's packaged lentils, just open the package! If you are cooking your own lentils, they should be tender but not smushy or soupy, they should retain their shape.

When onions are ready, add brown rice, lentils and Moroccan spice blend and mix well.  Heat everything together until fragrant, warm and combined.

You can serve Mujadara with some toasted pine nuts or chopped parsley.

Have you made any of your own spice blends lately?

What do you make for dinner when you want some good food but are too tired to make a complicated dish?

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Vegan Chana Masala (Indian Chickpea Stew)

I've got a group of friends that have been getting together for a decade and having pot luck dinners. This weekend  I'll be hosting one at my house that has been in the making for months. The theme? Vegan, of course!

So I decided to go crazy and make 5 vegan Indian dishes (have I told you that I was Indian in a past life?). I was inspired by a cookbook I just got called The Candle Cafe Cookbook, More than 150 Enlightened Recipes from New York's Renowned Vegan Restaurant.  This restaurant is beloved and I hope to get the chance sometime soon to visit.

Here's my first adventure, Chana Masala.  I am very impressed with the results. Quite addictive actually. 

Here's a photo of all of the ingredients prepped and ready to go before I started to cook anything. The french term for this is "mise en place" meaning "everything in it's place" and believe me when I tell you, this recipe moves along very quickly, so getting everything ready beforehand is a must.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place

Vegan Chana Masala (Indian Chickpea Stew)

makes about 5 cups

1 tsp brown mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 Tbsp coconut butter or vegetable oil

1 large onion (about 2 cups), diced

2 Tbsp finely minced garlic

2 Tbsp grated (on a microplane) fresh ginger

1 cup vegetable broth (or water)

1 medium tomato (1 cup), diced

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, quartered

3 cans (15 oz. each) chick peas, drained and rinsed

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp sea salt

Heat a large skillet over high heat.  Add the mustard and cumin seeds and cook, stirring often, until they begin to pop.  Lower heat to medium.  Add the coconut butter or oil and stir for about 1 minute.

Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook for about 8 minutes, until softened.  Stir in the broth (or water), tomatoes, chickpeas, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom.

Reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes.  Serve immediately or reheat gently before serving.

Yum!

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When Life Hands You Lentils, Make Fat Free Vegan "Mujadara"

It's Pot Luck Season here in Northern Ohio and that fortunately  affords me an opportunity to share my love of healthy food with other people.  In a matter of one week, I have four pot luck dinners to plan for, prepare for and attend .  That's probably why I have been so quiet on the blog these days! So much good stuff going on!

For yesterday's event I decided that I was going to tweak a recipe out of The Engine 2 Diet called Candle Cafe Brown Rice and Lentil Burgers. The tweak was that I was planning on making balls instead of burgers to make a vegan "meatball."  When it came time to roll the balls and I tried doing so, nothing was going to hold the mix of ingredients into a ball shape (I guess I missed the part of the recipe where it said to add whole wheat flour if the mix wasn't sticking together--oh well, it was a happy accident). So I tasted the concoction and decided that it was delicious as is, added a bit more brown rice, and brought it to the party as a warm salad. No hassle with rolling into balls! Yipee!

I loved it, my husband loved it, and so did all of the party goers. I brought along a bowl of Kale Butter and it was a great pairing. We just spooned the kale butter on top of the brown rice and lentils. When a guest at the party, who happens to be a local vegan chef, tried the dish, she immediately exclaimed that, "It's Mujadara!"  Mujadara (also spelled Mujadarah, Megadarra or several other variations) is a delicious, inexpensive, and simple to make Lebanese comfort food.  My version's spices are not the traditional cumin, cinnamon and allspice, but the results were just as spectacular.

Wendy's Warm Brown Rice and Lentil Pilaf

7 cups water
1 cup dry lentils, rinsed and drained
2 cups uncooked brown rice or 4 cups cooked brown rice
4 garlic cloves
2 medium red onions, chopped
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp chili powder (or, for traditional Mujadara, use 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp cumin)

In a saucepan, bring 3 cups of the water to a boil.  Add the lentils, reduce the heat, and cook until the beans are softened, about 15 minutes (check for doneness, the lentils should be soft but not falling apart, this may take longer than 15 minutes).  Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in another saucepan, bring the remaining 8 cups of water to a boil, add the rice, reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the rice is tender, about 40 minutes. Drain and set aside.  (Or, microwave two Trader Joe's frozen brown rice pouches to yield 4 cups of brown rice.)

In a saute pan, water or broth saute the garlic, onion, and carrots over high heat until lightly browned.  This may take a while. If mixture starts to burn, lower the heat a bit.  In a large bowl, combine the lentils, cooked rice and vegetables.  Add the salt and chili powder and mix well.

Delicious served with a dollop of kale butter on the top. http://healthygirlskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-8-and-janes-kale-butter.html

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No Added Fat Vegan Eating: Chickpea Burgers and My First Engine 2 Salad Dressing

One of the fun new foods you will want to discover if you are experimenting with vegan eating is the bean/grain burger. They are fun on a bun, but also a great way to turn a salad into a meal. Just pop a few on top of a green salad or serve some up next to an alternative type of salad (like a tomato, corn and avocado salad).

There are probably hundreds of variations of this type of vegan burger if you do a search for them on the Internet. Here's my take on one that I found in Experience Life magazine. My big change to the original recipe is that I substituted 3 tablespoons of vegetable broth for 3 tablespoons of olive oil. And I have to say, the finished product didn't miss the olive oil or the added calories that would have come from it. Winning!

Middle Eastern Chickpea Burgers

makes about 10-12 burgers

2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground coriander

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp minced fresh ginger

3 tbsp vegetable broth

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

3 tbsp diced carrot or red bell pepper

1/4 cup loosely packed, minced, fresh flat leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Combine the chickpeas and all ingredients down to the lemon juice in a food processor and process until smooth and well combined, scraping the sides occasionally. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and fold in the rice, carrot or bell pepper and parsley.

Moisten your hands to keep the mixture from sticking, then shape the mixture into 1/2 inch thick patties about 4 inches in diameter.  Place them on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, until the patties start to get dry and crisp on the outside.  They will firm up as they cool.

The following salad dressing recipe is from The Engine 2 Diet book by Rip Esselstyn. One of the principles of this way of eating is to eliminate added fat from your diet. But most people are so used to only eating salad dressings made primarily with some form of fat, like olive or canola oil. So what to do when you are following a no-added-fat vegan diet? Try making dressings like this one. It has a lot of ingredients, but at this point, like me, you may have them all in your pantry. And after eating it on my salad with dinner, I'm not missing the oil at all!

E2 Basics Dressing

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp tamari

1 Tbsp mustard

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Juice of 1 lemon, lime or orange

1 Tbsp agave nectar, honey or maple syrup

1 tsp vegetarian Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp wheat germ

Water to desired consistency (I didn't use any)

Whisk the ingredients together in a bowl.

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