New Brunswick Stew

When I was a kid, my dad used to take me to this place called "Bones and Buddies II". (I have no idea if there was a B&B I or where it was....) It was a weird little hole in the wall that served lots of greasy southern food at tables with paper napkins in a red plastic basket and hot sauce at every table. The only reasons to go there in my childhood opinion were square dogs, root beer and Brunswick stew.

Square Dogs are easy enough to veganize and require no special instructions, they were hot dogs that were sliced up and served on toast with lettuce and mayo. Slice up a veggie dog, toast bread, spread a little vegan mayo and you are good to go. By the way, kids love square dogs and it saves you from the too few hot dogs vs. too many buns issue. Also it is way easier to locate vegan wheat bread than vegan wheat hot dog buns!

Brunswick stew however... that's a much different story. The original version was a vegetable stew that was heavy on young green Lima beans (I really have a thing for Lima beans...) and other good southern veggies with chicken and smokey ham. I have always loved vegetables and this dish was full of them. So many of my childhood food memories are wrapped up in this odd stew. It was not elegant, was not pretty and even contained okra (oh the horrors!!) and yet I loved it! So here is my new veganized version, renamed : New Brunswick Stew. My husband, who does not care for Lima beans, even conceded that it was good. It evokes the correct flavors without harming either Mr. Chicken or Miss Piggy. That gives me even more reason to love it.

New Brunswick Stew
(with low fat option)

Ingredients:

2 TBS earth balance, or other vegan margarine (leave out for low fat version)
1 medium onion
1/2 large red pepper
1 stalk celery
2 medium carrots
2 cloves garlic, minced
parsley
sage
rosemary
thyme
4 cups vegetable broth or bouillon
2 cups water
1 lb young green lima beans
1 large potato
1 vegan not chicken bouillon cube
1 cup okra
1 cup corn, cut from cob
1 cup tomato, chopped
2 TBS hot sauce (or to taste)
1 TBS liquid smoke

Method:

• Chop all vegetables and set aside
• In a large, heavy bottomed pot heat the earth balance or (for low fat version) a small amount of vegetable broth and saute the onion, red pepper celery, and carrot.
• As soon as the onion begins to soften, season heavily with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (yes, like the song....). Add garlic and stir carefully so it doesn't burn.
• Once garlic is lightly colored add vegetable broth and water. Bring to a rolling boil.
• Add Lima beans, potato and bouillon cube. Return to a boil.
• Boil rapidly for about 15 minutes. Check to be sure that the bouillon cube is dissolved and then turn down to a low simmer.
• Add okra, corn, tomatoes, hot sauce and liquid smoke. Simmer on low until the vegetables are done to your liking. (I did about another 30 minutes on the lowest possible flame)
  
• Check seasonings and add salt and pepper if necessary.

Note: To have the best stew, use the freshest vegetables possible!! I personally do not like to boil them to mush but others may feel differently.

So the next time you have some Lima beans: fix this stew, sit out the hot sauce, pour yourself some sweet tea or root beer and see if you don't fall in love too!! (Try to skip the paper napkins though... they aren't so good for the environment)

Fat-free southern vegetable saute.... and sinful peanut butter cookies

This week traffic has been HORRIBLE!! I have been getting home around 7 PM or later due to accidents and rubberneckers. So tonight I chose an easy, fat free, one pot dish: a southern vegetable saute. It was a combination of potatoes, beans, carrots and a local staple....kale! It was tasty, simple and fairly balanced nutritionally.

Southern Vegetable Saute

Ingredients:

3/4 cup wine (I used white)
1 cup double strength vegetable broth
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 small red-skinned potatoes, cut into slices
2 carrots, thickly sliced
1 lb kale, washed and chopped
1 can black-eyed peas, drained
salt& pepper
red pepper flakes
generous pinch each of: rosemary, sage, thyme

Method:

In order to keep this dish fat-free, pick a non-stick of a surface as possible (such as a green pan or well seasoned cast iron pan). Using a tiny amount of the wine to prevent sticking, saute the garlic. (Throughout this process add wine (up to 3/4 cup) and then broth (up to 1 cup) as necessary to continue to prevent sticking.) When the garlic begins to brown add potatoes, carrots, red pepper flakes and spices. Stir carefully and continue to add more liquid if necessary. Cook for a few minutes until the potatoes gain some color and begin to soften before adding the kale. Wilt the kale before adding salt and pepper to taste. Once kale is throughout wilted stir in black eyed peas and heat through. Adjust seasonings as necessary and serve with hot sauce on the side.



The other night we were dying for something sweet, so after perusing lots of cookbooks I came up with these peanut butter cookies. It was wonderful because I didn't have to make a special run to the store for anything...They are NOT low fat but they ARE delicious. We enjoyed them with big glasses of almond milk.

Sinfully Good Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup crunchy natural peanut butter
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 1/4 cup other sugars (granulated / brown)
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated vegan shortening
1/2 cup silken tofu
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt

Method:

• Using a hand mixer, cream together peanut butter, sugars and agave nectar.
• After they are well combined, mix in shortening.
• Add silken tofu and mix well. There should be no visible lumps of tofu.
• In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda.
• Stir flour mixture into peanut butter mixture. Mixture will be stiff.
• Using a tablespoon, drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with a fork, leaving criss-crossed lines.
• Bake in a preheated 375 oven for 9 minutes. Allow to rest on the tray for a few minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool.

Southern Vegetable Goodness!!

Tonight's dinner started as I was thinking about those hoecakes.... I was sitting in traffic pondering their crunchy goodness and realized how much they made me think of fritters. There are so many varieties of vegetable fritters out there, so I decided to try to create some based loosely on the hoecake recipe. The resulting fritters are crunchy fried vegan morsels which are not at all healthy! They are pretty tasty though. I decided to "do penance" for the little greaseballs by having a very healthy assortment of vegetables (still in a very southern style) to fill the plate. In the end tonight's menu was:

• Southern-Style vegetable Fritters
• cucumber salad
• roasted tomatoes
• pickled beets with onions
• simple garlicky greens

The Cucumber Salad was the first "recipe" that I remember successfully following as a child. I told my father I would make part of dinner. This is what I made: thinly sliced cucumbers (my favorite little ones are still in season!!) and onions in a weak vinegar brine with salt, pepper, sweetener and dill. Although simple, its still light and refreshing....Yum!

Since my husband doesn't care for dill we had Pickled Beets just for him. He likes them with some sliced onions, basil, oregano, salt, pepper and a mixture of two vinegars (balsamic and red wine) and olive oil.

The Roasted Tomatoes were out of this world. I combined sliced tomatoes with balsamic vingar. olive oil, basil, LOTS of garlic and salt and pepper. Then I roasted everything for about two hours at 300 degrees. Besides some very occasional stirring, the hardest part was chopping the tomatoes. Over the course of two hours the garlic mellowed, the vinegar reduced and sweetened and the basil intensified, leaving a side dish that is more tempting than candy!

The Garlicky Greens were a sauteed combination of baby napa cabbage and spinach sauteed with garlic, salt and pepper. It was really simple, healthy and tasty.

Finally the intended piece du resistance...

Southern Vegetable Fritters

Ingredients:

1/4 cup silken tofu

1 cup unsweetend soy milk

splash vinegar (white, rice or white wine)

1-2 TBS Texas Pete hot sauce

1 TBS nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup orange pepper, finally chopped

1/4 cup corn kernals

small handfull chives, finely chopped

1/8 cup sun dried tomatoes (roasted in oil), chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup cornmeal

peanut oil, for frying

Method:

• Add vinegar to soy milk and let sit aside for a few minutes.
• Using a handmixer, fork or potato masher mash tofu. Combine tofu and surdled soy milk, mixing well to remove all lumps.
• Stir in hot sauce, Nutritional yeast and garlic powder.
• Stir in all vegetables. Add salt and pepper.
• Sift baking powder (or mix with a fork) into cornmeal and then fold this mixture into soy/ vegetable mixture. The resulting combo will be fairly stiff.
• Drop by tablespoon into hot peanut oil to fry.

Notes: You could probably use any comination of vegetables that you prefer. I personally would have liked these spicier in the future and will go heavier on the hot sauce.

In the end the only thing that was missing was some form of okra and we would have had a true southern vegetable review....

The Great Vegan Cook-In

This morning, my husband's good friend (and our neighbor) showed up with assorted meats for the grill (remember folks... I'm married to an omni, it happens sometimes), so we had an impromptu party. While they did their thing I was left to fix a vegan cook-in for myself and another neighbor who decided to eat veggie that night ( yay!!). I'm calling it a cook-in because although much of the food was grilled or is traditional cook-out/picnic food, we live in Baltimore and have no real yard to speak of. In fact the grilling was done on our teeny-tiny balcony on a tailgate-style grill. We ate all of the food indoors in the air-conditioning around a table.

The menu du jour:

• Vegan Boca burgers on kaiser rolls
• Compassionate Collards
• Potatoes and Peas in a dijon vinaigrette
• Corn on the cob
• Mint Iced Tea
  

The potatoes and peas were a twist on potato salad made with a vinaigrette instead of a mayonaise based dressing. I wanted to try something different since I have been eating so much potato salad lately. It was ok, but a bit to mild for my palate. My husband said he definitely prefers my usual potato salad, but it was worth a try. Since it wasn't too noteworthy I am foregoing sharing a recipe for it.

The Collards were a total success though and so perfectly seasoned that no one requested any hot sauce, vinegar, or even salt & pepper! They were perfectly done, smoky, spicy and not a bit watery. Plus they were the ultimate no-fuss side dish. I threw them in the crockpot and walked away. Besides stirring them every hour or so, I didn't think about them again until dinner time. I named them compassionate collards because unlike the southern tradition of seasoning greens with meat, these were wonderfully meat free. Here is the recipe:

Compassionate Collards

Ingredients:

For each bunch of collards you will need:
1 sweet onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3 chipotle peppers ( from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce)
1 packet imitation ham flavoring (I used the goya variety...if you read the ingredients it is meat free) or some liquid smoke

Method:

Clean your collards really well but do not spin dry, you want a little water clinging to them.

Prep the collards by removing the center stem and chopping into bite-size pieces. (this is really easy to do if you stack several leaves and roll them tightly before chopping)

Place in a large crockpot, put all other ingredients on top of the collards. Do not add additional water!!! As the vegetables cook down they will give off some of their own water which will season the collards without causing them to be watery.

Turn Crockpot on high and let cook until done to your desired tenderness (for me that was about 4-5 hours...)

See... Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!!

Note: I left the chipotles whole so that people could see them and not bite down on one if they didn't want too. They could be chopped or even pureed if you wish.

By the way, when I went to pick up the Boca Burgers I noticed that Morningstar farms now offers a grill-style chick patty, that is TOTALLY VEGAN!! I usually don't even think twice about their stuff because it has eggs or milk... but this was exciting. So even though my friend requested the boca burgers, I bought a box of the Morningstar Grillers Chick'n for later.

I would say the cook-in was a success as everyone cleaned their plates of all their veggies, one of my friends asked of he could have some collards to go and people lingered late into the night. Now if I could just find a way to fit us all of that small balcony so we could have a proper cook out!