Indian Chickpea and Vegetable Stew From All You Magazine

Indian Chickpea and Vegetable Stew

My husband and I rarely agree on what to watch. We haven't been to a movie in the theater for 8 years. Partly because we are both too cheap and mostly due to the fact that we hate most movies and can't agree on the few that either of us would see. Last month my husband set up separate Netflix user accounts so that what I watch wasn't in his recently viewed section. I was fine with that since he watches nothing but horrible television shows and movies by people that I never thought where funny when they were on Saturday Night Live. He also watches non-funny 80's and 90's comedies that I avoided like the plague when they were originally in theaters. My husband complains that I watch nothing except Sci-Fi and 80's/90's cult classics. He would be mostly right, I to this day claim "Heathers" as my all time favorite movie. So for the most part we watch separate movies and television. However, every year we pick a few new shows that both of us can agree upon. Normally they aren't something that we love, but that we agree we love each other enough to sit through. This normally lasts for a season or two before both of us give up on the show and we have to move on to another show that we both deem semi-adequate. Regardless of our faults we seem made for each other since we continue to try to find common movie/TV ground. It's the constant commitment to finding common ground that reminds me that our marriage is important to both of us. In 10 years we have only found a few shows/movies that we both love, but we have enjoyed the journey of trying to find something together. Tonight's dinner recipe is another example of compromise. My husband loves the Indian restaurant in our city, I pretty much hate it. To compromise I make a lot of Indian dishes at home. Some recipes I pick are traditional (to appease my husband and I) and some are more Americanized (for my kids). Tonight I tried a new recipe for Indian Chickpea and Vegetable Stew from the September issue of All You magazine.

Harris Riverfront Park Huntington, WV

This recipe has 17 ingredients. It takes an hour and ten minutes of total time, 45 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I made a  few changes to the original recipe. My family loves the taste of ginger so I used 2 tablespoons of minced ginger instead of 1. I was out of turmeric so I left it out and added a small amount of crushed red pepper for flavor. I found that the dish needed a lot more salt than stated in the original recipe, I ended up adding an additional 1 1/2 teaspoons. Finally, I added a cup of coconut milk. I found that it helped with the flavor and made for a more 'stew' like consistency.

Downtown Huntington, WV from Harris Riverfront Park

My two boys were in love with this recipe. The spices were mild enough to be kid friendly while having enough flavor for adults. This is definitely a more 'Americanized' Indian recipe, which is nice for kids or adults that aren't fans of the strong flavors many traditional Indian dishes can have. If you want to increase the heat you can always add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper. This will add a little bit of heat without overpowering the flavors of the dish.

For the recipe go to Indian Chickpea and Vegetable Stew.

Indian Chickpea and Vegetable Stew

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A kid friendly recipe for Indian Chickpea and Vegetable Stew from the September issue of All You magazine. Only $1.63 per serving.

Preparation Time: 0h, 25m

Cooking Time: 0h, 45m

Total Time: 1h, 10m

Yield: Serves 6

Delicious Vegan Oatmeal Dried Cherry Cookies

I love cookies. There have been very few cookies that I have ever eaten that I haven't had more than one. Cookies just cry out to be eaten by me. However, as I have gotten older I have began to understand that my metabolism isn't what it used to be. I also have made efforts to eat as healthy as I can to prevent the health problems that my mother and grandmother had. In order to still be able to eat cookies, while thinking of my health I have learned ways to modify recipes. One great way to reduce the bad fats is to replace butter with olive or canola oil. I also replace granulated sugar with honey, molasses, sorghum or agave. It is a great way to increase the healthy qualities in baked goods. Today I tried a new recipe for Vegan Oatmeal Dried Cherry Cookies that I received in a pamphlet in the mail.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of total time, 5 minutes of which is active and makes 25 cookies. I made significant changes to this recipe. First instead of using granulated sugar I used sorghum. Additionally since I eat gluten free I replaced the whole wheat flour with brown rice flour. I didn't have chocolate chips in my pantry so I used dried cherries instead. Finally, I found my baking time to be much longer than the ten minutes suggested by the recipe. I would suggest adding an additional 5 minutes to fully brown. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I wasn't sure what my kids would think of gluten free vegan cookies. They loved them though and ate almost the entire batch by themselves. My husband was an even bigger surprise since he loved the cookies almost as much as my kids. These cookies were definitely popular in my house and I love that they are made without granulated sugar and use canola oil instead of butter. This is a recipe that I will make again and try new options, dried cranberries, white chocolate chips etc.

For the recipe go to Chewy Oatmeal Cookies.

Stewed Beans

As I have talked about before we eat a lot of beans in our house. I love that beans can be used in so many different ways and that they are a great source of protein. It doesn't hurt that they are also inexpensive and make for numerous leftovers. When I first met my husband he had really only eaten pinto and black beans. Pinto beans are very popular in West Virginia and almost any home cook has a recipe. Having grown-up in Seattle I had never really made anything other than chickpeas and kidney beans in vegetarian chili. Luckily after we got married I learned that there are a vast array of beans that can be used in so many different recipes. One of my favorite ways to prepare beans is stewed, it is easy and delicious. Last week I tried a new recipe for Stewed Beans from issue Number 152 of Saveur magazine, which looked like a great vegetarian meal option.

This recipe has 17 ingredients. It takes 2 hours of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 10-12 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I did adjust some of the cooking times on the recipe. I cooked the onion mixture for a full twenty minutes to ensure that the onions fully caramelized before adding the spices. Additionally, my total cooking time was 1/2 hour longer than suggested. I tasted the beans as the recipe was written and I felt that the chickpeas needed a longer cooking time so I put them back on the stove for an additional 30 minutes. Finally, this recipe will need a lot of salt added once it is completed. The flavor is delicious, but it definitely needs salt to bring out the flavors fully. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

While this recipe takes a bit of planning and cooking time the results were worth the time spent. The beans were very flavorful and my whole family, including my two boys enjoyed them. My husband added hot sauce to his serving and it really did make the beans taste even better. I would suggest this addition if you like spicier foods as it really did bring out the taste of the beans. Overall a great vegan recipe full of protein and makes enough for multiple meals. 

For the recipe go to Stewed Beans.

Butternut Squash and Tomato Posole

My blog readers are probably getting tired of me expressing my love of butternut squash, but I am going to do it again. I love butternut squash and fall cooking in general. As I have stated before the flavors of fall are comforting and delicious when the weather gets cold. Butternut squash to me is one of the staples of fall cooking. It is extremely versatile and can be used in pastas, soups, stews, chili and baked goods. It is also a great way to hide vegetables for kids in muffins and breads. Stew is a staple in my house during the fall and winter. I am always cold once the weather gets cooler so I make a lot of hot stews and soups in order to stay warm. When I first started cooking stews for my family we all fell in love with posole. It is a satisfying and delicious dinner and I make it frequently. Last week I tried a new recipe for Butternut Squash and Tomato Posole from Eating Well magazine, which looked like a great new vegetarian posole recipe.

This recipe has 11 ingredients. It takes a total of 45 minutes, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 5 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I normally buy whole butternut squash, but my store was out so I bought already cut butternut squash. The recipe suggests breaking up the tomatoes by hand, I find this messy. The method I always use is to place the tomatoes in a Ziploc bag, squeeze out the air and then crush the tomatoes by hand in the bag. Much less messy and an easy clean-up. I let my posole cook slightly longer than the recipe suggested. At 30 minutes the squash was more firm than I like. Make sure to fully rinse your canned beans. If the beans are under rinsed they will have a metallic taste, which is unappetizing. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

With 10 grams of fat and 9 grams of protein this is a satisfying meal without being high in fat. The fresh avocado and cilantro on top gives the posole a nice well-rounded flavor. I will say that this recipe isn't overly spicy so if you like spicier posole I would suggest adding a small amount of cayenne. This recipe in addition to being healthy is also inexpensive, costing less than two dollars a serving.

For the recipe go to Butternut Squash and Tomato Posole.

Autumn Root Vegetable Chili

I have made so many sweet potatoes dishes in the last month. This is my favorite time of the year and sweet potatoes are one of my favorite fall foods. I was fortunate enough to receive a substantial amount of yams and sweet potatoes from a friend's garden. I think in total I ended up with over 20 pounds of vegetables. Thanks to this bounty of fall harvest I was able to prepare a large amount of my Thanksgiving dishes without having to spend much of anything at the grocery store. Even before I was given all the free garden goodness I had already been making a ton of sweet potato recipes. One of my favorite ways to utilize sweet potatoes is to use them in chili. My whole family loves chili and sweet potatoes give it an additional flavor and is full of vitamins. Recently I tried a new recipe for Autumn Root Vegetable Chili from the November issue of Family Circle magazine which looked like the perfect fall vegetarian meal.

This recipe has 15 ingredients. It takes 33 minutes of cooking time, 25 minutes of prep and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. This recipe is a little bit prep intensive. Since the majority of ingredients are vegetables there is a lot of peeling and cutting. One way I save time on prep is to cut all the vegetables either in the morning or on the night before. That way I only have a half an hour of cooking at dinner time. The recipe suggests a cooking time of 25 minutes. However, I felt that the sweet potatoes weren't as soft as I wanted them after that amount of cooking time, so I cooked the chili an additional 10-15 minutes. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I love the color on this dish. It would be a great meal to serve to guests since on the plate it looks very fall like. The flavor was mild enough that my two kids liked it, while well rounded enough that my husband and I enjoyed it. If you prefer spicier chili I would recommend increasing the chili powder to up to a teaspoon. I always adjust the amounts of spices to suit my family's needs.

For the recipe go to Autumn Root Vegetable Chili. (registration required)

Chipotle-Orange Broccoli and Tofu

My father was a huge meat eater growing-up. If there wasn't meat at every meal, he would make it known by complaining endlessly. It was never obvious complaining. He would ask my mother if part of the meal was missing or if the tofu was a starter course and the main meat part of the meal was coming later. This was the same father that ate 5 bologna sandwiches for lunch when my parents first met and was skinny as a rail. My favorite thing was going to a buffet with a salad bar with my parents. I would always get a large salad with maybe a little amount of bacon bits and some nuts. My father on the other hand would put no greens and all the real bacon that he could find. To this day he never goes to the doctor and health wise is in better shape that anyone else that I know. I hope that I inherited those genes, because the man never ceases to amaze me. Due to my dad's obsession with meat, I of course went the opposite extreme and decided to become a vegetarian in the beginning of high-school. It drove my dad slightly nuts. He would always ask me if I could have a little bit of meat and still be a vegetarian. To him small amounts of meat wouldn't really count as being a meat eater. Tofu was a battle I tried very hard to win my dad over to the side of eating. It never really worked. He would eat it when we ordered Phad Thai, as long as there was another dish with meat. Luckily I married a man that is willing to at least eat one dinner a week that is vegetarian. Granted he starts to get a little grumpy when he goes more than two days without meat, but he at least puts forth some effort. Last week I tried a new recipe for Chipotle-Orange Broccoli and Tofu from the September/October issue of Eating Well magazine, which looked like a quick and healthy weeknight meal option.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and I made no ingredient modifications. However, I did change a few of the recipe steps. I let the tofu drain between layers of paper towels and a weighted plate for approximately 30 minutes. This step allows most of the water to drain out and ensures that the tofu will get a nice brown outside layer. Additionally, I ended up adding cornstarch to the orange juice mixture in order to thicken the sauce. Without the cornstarch, the orange juice sauce was too thin for my tastes. Make sure to allow the tofu to form a nice brown layer before turning it. This step will make the tofu evenly browned and have a better texture. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was unsure if this recipe would taste decent after I was halfway through the steps. The orange juice mixture was too thin and it didn't seem like there would be enough ingredients to have much flavor. However, after adding the cornstarch to thicken and the addition of the cilantro (and lots of salt, you really do need to add salt for this dish to taste adequate) this recipe was very delicious. My two boys thought it was a tad on the spicy side, so if you are making this for kids I would suggest seeding the chipotle pepper. Overall, a healthy vegan meal that is a great way to add more meatless meals into your diet.

For the recipe go to Chipotle Orange Broccoli and Tofu.