Tortilla Soup

This stuff is so good!!

TORTILLA SOUP

4 c. warm water

1 c. grape tomatoes

1 large carrot, peeled and cut up

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 large avacado

handful of fresh cilantro

1 t. Mrs. Dash non-salt herb seasoning

1/2 t. cumin

1/2 t. paprika

1/2 t. chili powder

1 t. garlic powder

1 1/2 t. salt

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn, drained

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

Garnish: extra cilantro, extra diced grape tomatoes, diced avacado, tortilla chips, Franks hot sauce, lime juice, dairy free sour cream

Using high speed blender, add water, tomatoes, carrot, bell pepper, onion, avocado, cilantro, and seasonings.   Blend until smooth. 

Add the base mixture to a large stock pan.  Stir in the drained beans and corn and bring to boil.  

Serve and enjoy!

Vegan Slow Cooker Chili

We had family dinner this week on Saturday because of some family that is in town visiting.  This week's recipes turned out SO GOOD!  Everyone loved it and was raving about it.  This will definitely be a repeated dinner!

VEGAN SLOW COOKER CHILI

1 (28 oz) diced tomatoes

1 (14 oz) diced tomatoes with green chilies

1 (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15 oz) pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15 oz) corn, drained and rinsed

2 c. vegetable broth

2 t. garlic powder

2 t. onion powder

2 t. cumin

1/2 t. red pepper flakes

2 t. chili powder

1 c. uncooked quinoa, rinsed well
1 (12 oz) Lightlife Smart Ground Veggie Protein Cumbles

Combine all ingredients in 6 qt. slow cooker.  Cook 6-8 hours on low, or 4-6 hours on high.  

Serve with: tortilla chips, avacado, cheese and sour cream (dairy or vegan depending on your preferences)

It was so good that I forgot to take any pictures until it was almost too late and everyone was almost done eating!

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

I saw this recipe posted on Facebook earlier this week.  I had to do some substitutions to make it vegan and I think it turned out pretty darn good!

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

2 spaghetti squash - halved lengthwise, seeds removed
2 T. olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic (or 2 t. chopped garlic from jar)
2 t. dried basil
4 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 15 oz pkg. extra firm tofu
4 t. corn starch
2 t. baking powder
1 c. dairy-free mozzarella cheese
3 T. dried parsley
1/2 t. salt
6 T. bread crumbs


Preheat oven to 400.

Coat a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Place squash, cut side down, in dish.  Bake 30-45 minutes, until fork-tender.  While squash is cooking, drain and press tofu between several sheets of paper towels.

With fork scrape squash strands into a large bowl.

Respray baking dish with cooking spray and set aside for later.  Warm oil in skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic, and basil.  Cook until onion is soft.

Add tomatoes and cook until mixtures is dry.

While tomato and onion mixture is cooking, crumble tofu into a separate bowl and mix with cornstarch and baking powder.

To squash add tofu, cheese, parsley, salt, and onion/tomato mixture.

Pour into greased baking dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and bake 30 minutes.

Black Bean Lasagna

Tonight's recipe is courtesy of Trisha Yearwood.  It's one that I've had on my list to try for a while and I finally decided to do it this week.  It was surprisingly delicious!

BLACK BEAN CHEESE-LESS LASAGNA

Serves: 8

1 (14 oz) extra-firm tofu, drained and patted dry

2 (15.5 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (28 oz) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 (12 oz) tomato paste

1 c. water

1 small-medium yellow onion, finely chopped

1 T. dried oregano

1/4 t. garlic powder

1/4 c. raw cashews

1/4 c. nutritional yeast

3 T. olive oil

2 T. finely chopped fresh basil

8 oz lasagna noodles

Place tofu between 4 paper towels (or between two folded up dish towels like I did because we're currently out of paper towels).  Place heavy skillet on top for 1 hour, pressing down on tofu.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375.  Into large sauce pot, stir black beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, water, onion, oregano, garlic powder, 2 t. salt, and 1/2 t. pepper.  Heat to boiling on med-high, stirring often.  Reduce heat to maintain simmer; simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While sauce cooks, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the lasagna noodles and cook to al dente, according to package directions.  Drain the noodles well.  (THIS IS IMPORTANT!  I decided to try to use no-cook lasagna noodles and they didn't get quite cooked enough.  They were a little chewy and still crunchy on the sides.  Oh well...live and learn...)

In food processor, pulse cashews until finely ground; transfer to large bowl, along with pressed tofu.  With hands, crumble tofu until texture resembles ricotta cheese.  Stir in yeast, olive oil, basil, 1/4 t. salt, and 1/8 t. pepper.

In 13x9 dish, spread 1 c. tomato sauce.  Layer with noodles, sauce, and tofu mixture; repeat layering twice.  Top with 1 c. sauce.  Spread sauce to completely cover noodles.  Bake, uncovered, 40 minutes or until noodles are tender.  Let stand a few minutes before serving.

End result:

It was REALLY good!  (Despite the still too chewy noodles that weren't quite done.)  Dad cleaned his plate!  (Still not sure if it was because he really liked it, or because he was just starving from being at church all day...it was probably the latter, but I'm choosing the believe the former!)

And Julia asked for seconds!  That's a successful dinner in my books.  My work here is done!

Roasted Fresh Tomato Soup

Found this recipe here: Vegangela and wanted to give it a try!  There's nothing better than a good bowl of tomato soup and since the canned varieties inevitably wind up having gluten in them (for some reason I still haven't figured out) I was excited to have one now that was gluten-free.

I doubled the recipe (as I often do) so I have plenty of leftovers to either put in the freezer, or take to work for lunch during the week.  This made a BIG pot of soup!  We ended up getting 14 servings out of it, but the were large servings.  If you were just having a cup, instead of a bowl, of soup you'd be able to get a lot more.  With the ingredients I bought on sale this week at the grocery store and what I had on hand, it winded up being less than $1 a serving.  Score!

Here's the recipe:

6 pounds fresh tomatoes, halved (I used Roma tomatoes because they were on sale this week)
12 cloves of garlic (I used the already minced kind in the bottle...it was 6 tsp)
4 small yellow onions, cut in half and then sliced in large slices long-wise
1/2 c. olive oil
Salt and Pepper, to taste
6 c. vegetable broth
4 bay leaves

Preheat oven to 450.

Spread tomatoes, onions, and garlic in a baking dish.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast 30-35 minutes, or until caramelized.

Add veggies, with juices, to a large stock pot.  Add vegetable broth and bay leaves.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

Using either an immersion blender, or regular blender, blend until smooth.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Reactions: two enthusiastic thumbs up!!