Vegan Indian Food

Planning out our meals

My favorite cuisine to cook lately has been Indian food. I like that it has a ton of flavor, many dishes are traditionally vegetarian, and the pressure cooker is used extensively. After stocking up on spices, rice, and lentils from the local Indian grocery store it is a relatively cheap way to eat.

The Indian cookbooks that I have now are:
Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen. This was my first Indian cookbook and it has a lot of information about ingredients that a non-Indian audience might not be familiar with. There are a good mix of recipes from across India and almost everything I have made from it has been great. I really enjoy that many of the lentil and bean recipes have instructions for both the stove top or pressure cooker. Recommended: Tikka Kathi Rolls, Baigan Patiala, Spice Cabbage Potatoes, Yellow lentils with spinach and coconut milk, kitchari, garlic fenugreek sauce

Indian Instant Pot. I picked up an Instant Pot a few years ago and it has been wonderful for Indian cooking. This cookbook does have a big section of meat recipes, but I usually use the sauces and substitute in tempeh or some frozen fake meat. The ingredient lists, especially spices, and much more simplified from the other cookbooks, but things end up pretty tasty. This is the book I go to when I want something that I can just through in the pot and go about my evening. Recommended: Butter chicken (use tempeh), dal makhani, Punjabi lobia, Chicken tikka masala (I used soy curls)

Prashad at Home. I like looking through this cookbook for inspiration and before we started buying frozen roti we used the roti recipe, but I haven't made many recipes in here. I plan to try the quick uttapam recipe that doesn't require fermentation soon.

Vibrant India. Now that I have a better sense of the cuisines around India, I find myself gravitating toward South Indian flavors - tamarind, curry leaves, coconut, fermented batters - and this book gives a lot of inspiration for that. This weekend I used the dosa batter to make uttapam and paired it with sambar, so good. Recommended: Curry leaf popcorn, any of the vegetable stir-fries.

Vegetarian Indian Cooking. I wasn't sure if I needed another Indian Instant Pot cookbook, but it looked different enough from the other one that I decided to pick it up and I'm glad that I did. I now regularly make dhokla (although I use the microwave instead of the Instant pot) and it has our favorite saag recipe. You will need a well stocked spice cabinet, but I believe it is worth it, but beware that the recipes are laid out in a weird manner and the index is really unhelpful. Recommended: Panchmel dal, saag, khaman dhokla


Dhokla with all the curry leaves! This version was made in the microwave. It keeps surprising well in the fridge for a few days and we had a piece in our lunches.


Aloo saag, panchmel dal, with frozen roti, rice, and Indian pickles

Indian Food Fest

Red Lentil Dahl (not exactly the same recipe, but pretty close)
Crunchy spicy potatoes (so so good!)
Naan
Rice

With lunch the next day:
cucumber
orange

Spiralizer!

For our birthdays, my sister and her husband bought us a spiralizer and a cookbook on Fermenting Vegetables. We had to go on an adventure to pick up the package because it was sent to our old apartment, but thankfully we were able to procure the package with no problem. Thank you so much for the gifts, sister sister!

We immediately spiralized an apple and a potato.

The strands get so so long!

We ate the apple and cooked up the potato in the oven. I drizzled on olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and cooked it for about 20 minutes in a 400F oven. The potato came out deliciously crispy and I served it with a mixture of sriracha and vegan mayo.

I'm off to get some canning jars today to begin the fermented experiments. What I love about this book is that all the recipes are for pint or quart sized jars so you don't end up with 3 gallons of something you hate. I have two beets in the fridge that are crying out to be fermented!

Dinner Club: Beet Burgers, Curry Fries, Blueberry Cobbler

Tonight we had another dinner club with our friend Trevor. He has mentioned several times that he really enjoys beets, but doesn't eat them enough. When I saw the recipe for beet burgers from the PPK website, I knew I had to make them for him.



The recipe for the beet burgers is from the PPK website. The only deviation I added was about 1 tablespoon of cumin powder. I decided to do the suggested pairing with the baked curry fries, although my curry powder was very sweet and I almost thought I had used cinnamon rather than curry powder on the fries. These were very good, the technique of boiling the potatoes first before baking is involved, but it resulted in a good texture for the fries. I put too many fries on my baking sheet so they did not crisp up enough.

For the cobbler, I looked at the recipe from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker for blueberry cobbler and adapted the following to use up our 1.5 pints of fresh blueberries from our food delivery.

Blueberry Cobbler for the Slow Cooker
Ingredients
1.5 pints fresh blueberries
1/4 cup or less sugar
1 T cornstarch

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup or less sugar
1/4 cup oil or softened butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
In a 3.5 qt slow cooker (you can also use the same amount in a 1.5 qt slow cooker), add the blueberries, sugar, and cornstarch. Mix to coat. In a bowl mix the oats, sugar, oil, and cinnamon. Spread over the top of the blueberries. Cook on high for about 1.5 hours or until the top is crispy. Serve with Coconut Bliss Ice Cream.




Notes
Everyone agreed, this was one of the best things we have eaten in a while. My husband and Trevor both eat meat and they were very pleased with the tastiness of the patty. I had my husband eat some of the patty dough before he cooked it up and he said that not only does it look like meat, it tasted a bit like ground beef as well. So very tasty. The cobbler was good as well, but the real star was the beet burger.

Vegetable Lentil Soup

Tonight for dinner, I wanted to make something quick with vegetables we have from our produces boxes. I decided on soup because I can throw anything in it and it usually comes out well



2 servings

Ingredients
1/2 onion, chopped
3 - 4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 yellow carrot, chopped
1 regular carrot, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
2 smallish potatoes, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, diced
1/4 cup red lentils, washed
1 t better than bouillon veggie broth paste
water
black pepper
1 t curry powder (it got a bit lost, I would probably increase this next time)

toasted bread, to serve

Method
In a 2qt sauce pan, add a bit of olive oil and allow to heat up. Add onions, garlic, and celery and cook until softened. Add carrots and potatoes and stir to cover in oil. Allow to cook a bit, then add broth paste. Mix until all the vegetables are covered. Add enough water to cover, and turn the heat up to high. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer, cook until vegetables are nearly at desired doneness. Add lentils and allow to cook until tender about 5 - 10 minutes. Mash up everything with a potato masher or immersion blender. Adjust seasoning and serve with toasted herb bread.


Look at our fantastic CSA potatoes, so good!

Notes
Both my husband and I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was a tad bit salty because I added too much broth paste, other than that an easy, tasty soup.

Dinner club: Chickpea Patties

Recently, we started having a weekly dinner club. Every Tuesday night, we rotate cooking responsibilities. It is a fun way to socialise in a low pressure environment, on a weekly basis. It is also a great way to use up the massive amount of salad greens we get with our CSA and food delivery! This is what we made the first week.




Chickpea cutlets - I have tried these both baked and cooked on the stove top and I like them best slightly burnt from cooking in cast iron skillet
mashed potatoes
gravy
salad with local greens, carrots, red onion and a vinegar, oil, basil salad dressing

Notes
Everyone enjoyed the meal. We tend to make the cutlets when we have guests over because they are delicious and seem to be liked by people who eat meat as well as those that do not.

We have now been doing dinner club for about 2 months now and I look forward to it every week!

Indian Food Fest

Earlier this week, my friend Sonic sent me a text message wanting to hang out. Being in the middle of my semester and completely swamped with classes and research and proposals, oh my! I asked if we could meet for dinner this evening because my husband was having a man date. Everyone needs to eat, right? She came over, drank some home brew, chatted, and ate delicious food. I almost killed our lungs, when I put chilies, spices, and other hot things on the hot cast iron pan. The vapors came up and into coughing fits we went. I opened up the window and and door and put on the fan to try and blow the vapors away. Other than that, a successful dinner!

I was planning on making samosas using phyllo dough as the pastry, but we were getting too hungry to wait for it to bake, so we just ate it as is.



Ingredients
Aloo mattar based the samosa recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance
cumin seeds
mustard seeds
coriander seeds
potato, diced into cubes
onion
carrot
garlic
ginger
peas or edamame
curry powder
turmeric
cayenne pepper


Red lentil dahl
onions
garlic
ginger
hot chilies
red lentils
water or broth
curry powder
turmeric
cumin powder
sriracha


Method
Aloo mattar
Bring the potatoes to boil in a sauce pan. Boil until the potatoes are tender, about 10 or so minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat a cast iron pan over medium heat and add a bit of olive oil. Add the seeds and stir constantly until they start popping and turning brown. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, and ginger to the pan. Stir to combine. Add any spices to the pan. Turn on a fan, so the vapors don't kill your lungs. Stir to combine. When the potatoes are done, add them to the pan, along with the peas or edamame. Use a potato masher, or the back of a spoon to mash everything together. Add a spash or two of water to help combine everything. Taste and adjust seasonings.


Red lentil dahl
Sauté the onions, garlic, ginger, and chilies in a bit of olive oil over medium heat in a sauce pan until the onions are browned. Add the red lentils and enough water or broth to cover the lentils. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until most of the broth is absorbed by the lentils and it is pretty mushy. Add seasonings and sriracha and adjust to taste.

Serve with rice and fresh fruit.


Notes
This was quite delicious. The dahl was super duper easy to put together. I forgot to start boiling the potatoes before I sautéed the vegetables, so they had to hang out for about 10 minutes until the potatoes finished.

As evidence that we did eat the deliciousness, I present: Sonic!


Nom nom nom

Freezer Meals: Pesto, potato, mushroom pizza

It will take one more day to finish of making all the rest of the freezer meals. I think we have three more to do. I'll post a picture of the inside of our freezer when it is done. We aren't making allll our meals for the freezer, just about half of them. Although, we did have a friend over tonight and ate both of the pizzas we had frozen, so we aren't going to make it quite all the way to the end of the month with our recipes.

For those that are lost, my husband and I are trying to cook a good majority of our meals in advance and then freeze them. We are using recipes from Once a Month Mom. All the recipes we have tried so far, have been fantastic.



Tonight, we decided to break out the frozen pizza. From frozen, it cooked in a preheated 350F oven for about 10 - 15 minutes. Before we froze the pizza, we had parcooked the crust for about 8 minutes before adding the toppings and freezing.

Ingredients
Kale Pesto
1/2 bunch kale
1/2 cup slivered almonds
a couple of garlic cloves
salt
black pepper
olive oil

Mushroom bits
12 oz mushrooms sliced
2 T olive oil
2 T maple syrup
1 T soy sauce
1/2 t liquid smoke

pre made pizza dough - just the usual dough for about 12 inch pizza
Any other toppings you desire - we added garlic, potato, and onion


Method
Kale Pesto
Process the kale, almonds, and garlic in a food processor until chopped up. Add seasonings. With the processor processing slowly drizzle in the olive oil until it is the desire consistency. Adjust for any seasonings.

Mushroom bits
In a bowl, mix the mushrooms with the liquid ingredients. Allow to soak while the oven is heating up to 400F. Spread on a cookie sheet lined with foil (for easy clean up). Cook in oven, stirring occasionally, until crispy. I didn't really get these to a crispy stage, just cooked well. Set aside to cool.

Pizza
Roll out the dough to desired size. We divided the dough into two pieces and rolled them into their own pizzas. We needed to make the dough fit inside of a gallon size freezer bag. Also, a pizza made from all the dough is usually too much for one meal for two people.

Place the dough in a preheated 400F oven for about 8 minutes until the dough is mostly cooked through. Spread the pesto on and top with any topping you desire. At this point, you can wrap in plastic wrap and put in a freezer bag and freeze until needed, or you can put it back in the oven and cook until the toppings are heated through the bottom of the pizza is brown.


Notes
I was a little bit wary of the pesto, when I tried it after processing it, we both thought it tasted like the way fresh cut grass smelled. The flavor mellowed out on the pizza and worked really well with the kind of sweet mushroom topping. The pizza over all was delicious. It was really fun to come home and have a frozen pizza that didn't have a bunch of weird ingredients in it. Both my husband and the friend we had over, loved the pizza.

Of course, we topped our pizza with a drizzle of sriracha.

If the freezer meals continue to be awesome, we are doing this next month and every month after that. It's like eating frozen meals from the grocery store, but they don't have a bunch of things in there that you don't want and it took three days to put all the food together! We are loving it.

Crockpot Party!

This past Friday, one of the new graduate students had a crock pot party at his apartment. Everyone was bringing over crock pot creations to share. Inspite of my crock potting skillz, my offerings did not turn out as I wanted.


Brownie Pudding Goo


Spinach Artichoke dip


Tatertot casserole

Recipes

Brownie Pudding

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Tatertot Casserole
frozen tater tots or hash browns
cream of mushroom soup (I tried to make my own with coconut creamer, but it did not turn out well)
TVP or frozen Boca crumbles (I prefer the boca crumbles
frozen spinach

Mix together in a crock pot crock. Heat on low for about 3 hours. Stir occasionally. Season to taste, salt, black pepper, chipotle powder, etc.

Notes
Brownie Pudding - I accidentally mixed together the pudding part of the recipe into the brownie part. You are supposed to just put it over top and cover the crock pot. So, it turned out to be brownie goo, instead of brownie pudding. It was still good, just not what I expected. Meh.

Spinach Artichoke Dip - this one is always good. Success!

Tatertot Casserole - I put this together in the crock pot on a whim. I was going to do lentil soup, or falafel, but I thought I would try this. I tried to make my own cream of mushroom soup since I couldn't find a non-dairy version at the store. I sauteed up some diced mushrooms, added coconut creamer, added corn starch, then brought to a boil until thickened. I mixed that with the hashbrowns and reconstituted TVP (the hippy store did not have frozen crumbles) and then cooked for a few hours. I added some frozen spinach at the end to give some color and maybe flavor. This came out being so bland and boring. I even added some maple syrup to bring out a bit of sweetness. My lovely husband took care of throwing away the entire 3 qt pot of this. I would like to try this again, but I think I need to work on the cream of mushroom soup part. FAIL

Grilled Pizza

Yes, another pizza post. This time, we grilled the pizza!




Ingredients
We used similar toppings as in the last post: tomato sauce, potatoes, olives, onions, rosemary, salt, pepper

Method
We tried both parcooking the crust and not parcooking and I liked it both ways, but my husband preferred to not parcook the crust.

Roll out crust in circle, place on a clean grill over hot coals. Add the tomato sauce and toppings. Put on the lid and cook until the bottom is browned and toppings are cooked through.

If you want to parcook, place the crust on the grill, cover with top. Cook until brown on the bottom, turn over and put sauce and toppings on. Cook until everything is browned and warmed through.


Notes
We both really liked this a lot. The grill marks and flavour from the grill is amazing. I would like to do this again!

Thai Green Curry

I had been wanting to make my own curry paste for a while and when I saw this on the Fat Free Vegan blog, I decided it was time to do it.



I followed the recipe pretty closely from the blog.

Notes
Making curry paste is incredibly easy with a food processor. Put everything in and pulse until combined.

I did not use tofu in my curry and for vegetables used potatoes, carrots, and onions. I also used a can of coconut milk and kale.

I served with jasmine rice.

We both really enjoyed this a lot. The curry paste has a fantastic taste and I used about twice as much as was called for in the recipe. I like things hot!

Red Tofu Curry

My husband and I had been buying the small can of curry paste, when I saw the large tub and decided to try it out. It was great to have curry paste on hand for a quick dinner. I have plans to make my own curry paste with the chilies and everything this summer. For right now, the prepackaged one works well for me.



Ingredients
4 T Curry Paste
1 can coconut milk
potato
carrot
onion
broccoli
tomato
firm tofu
cilantro
peanuts

Method
Press your tofu.



I was inspired to do it this way after seeing the TofuXpress. Genius! I take two tupperware containers and sandwich the tofu between the two, place a cutting board on top and something heavy like a cast iron wok. Let is sit for 30 - 60 minutes.





In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the curry paste and coconut milk until combined. Add the potato and carrot chunks and allow to simmer until nearly tender. Add the onion, broccoli, and tofu.

While the potato and carrot chunks are simmering, sauté the tofu in a cast iron pan over medium heat in olive oil until browned on both sides.



Right before severing, stir in the tomato, cilantro, and peanuts. Serve with rice.


Notes
We are both big fans of this curry paste and will probably eat a lot of it in the years to come. I know that we probably shouldn't eat an entire can of coconut milk in a sitting. Maybe I can do half a can of milk and half water or almond milk.

You can use whatever vegetables you have lying around your kitchen for this.

Tempeh Sausage Gravy over potatoes

Since I received a copy of Vegan with a Vengeance, my most made recipe has to be the tempeh sausage crumbles. I love to mix them in gravies or when I want some "meat" texture.



Ingredients
Tempeh Sausage Crumbles
1/2 8 oz package tempeh
soy sauce (not too much, I learned the hard way. Or eliminate it because some is going in the gravy)
olive oil
maple syrup
fennel seed
sage
oregano
marjoram
basil
water to cover

Gravy (Adapted from Vegan Vittles)
1 T cornstarch
1 T soy sauce
3/4 cup water
garlic granules
black pepper
1 T tahini


Method
Tempeh Sausage Crumbles
Crumble up the tempeh in a small saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the water. Add only enough water to cover the tempeh. Cook on medium heat and allow to simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed/evaporated, about 10 - 15 minutes. Move the tempeh to a bowl while gravy is made.

Gravy
I used the same saucepan as the tempeh so it had some of the spices left over. Add the cornstarch and soy sauce to the pan and whisk to combine. Add the water and any spices, whiskey constantly. Place over medium heat and whisk pretty much continuously until it starts to bubble a little and has thickened. Take off the heat and whisk in the tahini.

Add the tempeh to the gravy. Serve over hash brown potatoes with some avocado and whole wheat bread.

Notes
I put waaaayyy too much soy sauce in this. I added too much to the tempeh when it was simmer and the salty flavor became concentrated. I then added more to the gravy, ugh. Other than that, the flavor was very good and this is one of my favorite ways to enjoy tempeh.

My husband also concurred with the too much salt verdict. He had to separate out the tempeh from the rest of the gravy because it was too much for him. He liked it otherwise.

Aloo Palak

One of my favorite thing to order at Indian restaurants used to be Palak Paneer. Since I have given up dairy, I have found that Aloo Palak is an adequate replacement. It is my favorite variety of Tasty Bite. Speaking of Tasty Bites, they have some delicious easy food. The ingredients are always good and many of their meals are dairy free. You can see my previous blog post about the Tasty Bite Aloo Palak here.



This is adapted for my 1.5 qt slow cooker. It is another recipe from the Indian Slow Cooker.

Ingredients
5 oz fresh spinach, washed, but not dried
onion
1 tomato
ginger
7 garlic cloves (The original recipe called for 20 in a 5 qt slow cooker)
3 hot chilies
1 T ground cumin
1 T chili powder
1 t garam masala
1/2 t turmeric
salt
1/2 yukon gold potato


Method
Put everything except the salt and potato in a slow cooker. You might need to shove and push. Really you don't need any water. The spinach cooks by steaming in the liquid adhering to the leaves. Cook on high for 3 hours.





Using an immersion blender, blend the mixture until all the chunks have disappeared. Add the potato and salt. Cook on low for 2 hours, or until the potato is cooked.

Serve with rice.

Notes
Again, the fantastic immersion blender to the rescue. I was really surprised that everything was able to cook without any added water. I didn't have any problems at all with spinach sticking to the side or things not getting cooked through.

I really enjoyed this recipe a bit. I still had to up the spices before serving to make sure it would be enjoyable.

My husband thought this was good, but he missed the paneer.

EDIT: I had the leftovers for breakfast a few days ago, and the flavor was fantastic. I will be making this again for sure. It was really good!

Corn Soup

I might or might not be obsessed with sriracha sauce. It just makes everything taste so much better. It is not that I want that taste all the time, it is I want that level of hot all the time and it is the easiest way to do that.

The soup below shows the amount of sriracha I put into a bowl of corn soup.





I followed the same recipe as I posted about previously and added some kale at the end of cooking.

Pizza!

My husband and I regularly make pizza. Well, I usually sit on the couch, drink wine, and chat with my husband while he makes pizza. The recipe below is all based on my observations with some input from him.




Ingredients
pizza dough (bought from the grocery store. Now that we have a bread machine it will be easier to make our own)
homemade hummus
potatoes
sun dried tomatoes
olives
caramelized onions (we made these in the crock pot. Super easy.)
basil
oregano
rosemary
red pepper flakes

Method
According to the husband:

The pizza dough is really hard to roll out, so I usually roll it out a bit, then put it in the cast iron skillet to heat it up some. When it is warmer, I roll it more and go back and forth until the dough is of a sufficient size.

The thinly sliced potatoes are cooked in a bit of water in a sauce pan until they are par-cooked.

Now that your dough is sufficiently large, spread the hummus (or tomato sauce, it tasted better then the hummus when cooked) over the dough. Top with the tomatoes, tomatoes, onions, and olives. Top with the seasonings. Bake at 450F until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Notes
The first time I had potatoes on a pizza was when I was hanging out with my friends Mark and Laura and they had just found some potatoes from their garden and they made it to the pizza. I was surprised at how good they are on it. Try it, and you may like it!

We were experimenting with making a large scale hummus pizza. It tastes much better when the hummus is not heated. So I would suggest using tomato sauce. Not that it is bad, just not as tasty as it could be.

Breakfast for dinner

We needed to use up some homemade bread, so I thought French toast would be the perfect dish. We also had some horribly out of season blue berries that were nearing the end of their life as well, I added them to the mix. Then some potatoes and kale called out to me. As well as the nutritional yeast in my pantry. They all got to come to the party in my belly.





Ingredients
bread
almond milk

blueberries
soy yogurt

yukon gold potatoes
kale
onion
garlic

Cheezy Sauce

Method
Put the almond milk in a pie dish and soak the bread in it until it is nearly soggy, but not falling apart. In a cast iron pan over medium heat, cook the French toast until brown on both sides. Keep warm.

Blend the soy yogurt and blueberries together in a blender. Add an sweetener you desire. I thought it was perfect.

In a cast iron pan, saute the onions and garlic until brown. Add the diced potatoes and cook until tender. I added a bit of water and put a lid on the pan to help steam them a bit. Near the end of cooking time, add the kale and mix until it has wilted. Season with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, basil, more black pepper, and magic.

Warm the cheezy sauce and either pour it over the potatoes or put it in a condiment cup.

Plate it up and eat.

Notes
All of this was great. I liked the cheezy sauce, but there is something about it that makes me want to experiment more and make a better sauce.

The husband thought this was good.

Gnocchi with Sun-dried tomato pesto

My husband and I went to the Orchard Street Chop Shop for drinks a few weeks ago. The bar area upstairs is pleasant and I thought for sure I would be able to get a hot toddy. It turns out they don't have hot water at the bar (?), so I just had a shot of whiskey anyway. Anyway, as we were sitting there, we decided we should probably eat. I didn't think that I would find anything I could eat, but they had gnocchi as the token vegetarian dish that night with smoked carrots and beets. Oh man it was so good. I decided to try making my own at home.

Both of the recipes are from Vegan with a Vengeance.



It did not really photograph that well

Gnocchi
Ingredients
Potatoes (I cooked three in my slow cooker, but you can bake them in the oven. Do not boil because it will bring too much liquid into the mixture)
1 head roasted garlic
salt
olive oil
1 1/2 C white whole wheat flour

Method
Once the potatoes have cooled enough to handle, peel off the skin and place in a large bowl with the garlic. Add enough salt and olive oil until you get creamy mashed potatoes. Start adding the flour by handfuls until a dough starts to form. Knead on a floured surface until the dough is non sticky, but not dry.

Bring a salted pot of water to boil.

Divide the dough into three sections and roll each section into a log. Cut off about 1 inch pieces and roll the pieces into a ball. You can use a fork to add the traditional lines on the dumplings.

Add the gnocchi in the salted boiling water. They should rise to the surface after a couple of minutes. Let them continue to cook until they start to look "whiter". I then transferred them to a heated cast iron pan and browned them on both sides. Top with the pesto and eat with fresh bread.

Sun-dried tomato pesto
Ingredients
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 cup water
1/4 cup almonds
roasted garlic (I had some leftover from the gnocchi)
olive oil
salt
pepper
1/4 cup fresh basil

Method
Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in warm water for about 10 minutes then add the tomatoes, the soaking water, almonds, and garlic to a food processor. Blend until a chunky paste is obtained. Add olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste and for consistency. Chop the basil and add at the end.

I wish I had added the basil in the processor so it wasn't so chunky in the pesto afterwards. Also, next time I will be adding more liquid (water or oil) to make it less thick.

The gnocchi was not as good as the Chop Shop. It was good though. I have a bag of frozen gnocchi in the freezer, maybe next week, I can try cooking them again and see if they turn out different.

The husband thought this was good.

Dal, Rice, and Samosas

I love Indian food. I would eat it happily every day. I was browsing around on Amazon the other day and found an Indian Slow Cooker Cookbok. Oh my goodness, how awesome is that. The reviews said that most recipes were vegetarian, or could be made vegetarian easily.





So to honor my love if Indian food, I made "What a dal" from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker book.

Ingredients:
brown lentils
onion
garlic
ginger
coriander seeds
cumin
salt
black pepper
broth

Method:
Put everything in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours. Blend up part of it to give a creamy consistency.

---
Honestly, this smelled wonderful while it was cooking, but was so boring when we went to eat it. It had lost all of its flavor. I doused it in sriracha to make it palatable. Maybe I let it cook too long.

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Samosas, or Empanadas depending

This is the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I hadn't tried it before, but I am glad that I did.

You can find the recipe on Google Books if you search for it.

The dough was a bit bland and boring and maybe it was the baking that didn't make it puff and flake all nicely like a samosa should.

The filling, on the other hand, was amazing! We had mustard seeds and coriander seeds popping, potatoes boiling, garlic browning, edamame defrosting - mix it all together and you have deliciousness. We ate the remaining portion of the filling straight out of the pan while the samosas baked. So good.

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Overall this meal was okay, not the most amazing, but it was good to eat while we watched an episode of Deep Space Nine

French White Bean and cabbage Soup

I still love my slow cooker. A lot. I might be getting a bit burned out on it though. A soup I made last week, didn't get eaten and most mornings I haven't wanted to put anything together. Hopefully, that won't last too long, because it is really nice to be able to come home and have dinner done.





Ingredients:
White beans (I used navy beans cooked in my other slow cooker while the soup was simmering)
cabbage, shredded (I used a coleslaw mix I had hanging around from the Wontons)
potatoes
carrots
onions
garlic
veggie broth
thyme
rosemary
salt
black pepper
parsley

Method:
Put in a slow cooker and cook for 6 -8 hours. Garnish with fresh parsley. I served with delicious sourdough herb toast.

This was very good. All the rosemary had floated to the top when I arrived home, which made the soup look a little strange until I stirred it all together.