Vegan Brunswick Stew

Apparently, this is to be the time of the crappy pictures. What can I say? Generally I'm better at taking photos than I have been proving lately, even on my iPhone, which is what I used on these. To be fair, though, I was trying to balance on the Starbucks eating counter while I was getting jostled by people sadly in need of their caffeine injections, hereto referred to as "coffee zombies".

I'm from Georgia originally. If you know nothing else about the South, we love our food. Brunswick stew was one of the hardest things there was for me to walk away from when I went vegetarian.

Joy of joys, though, I finally found a recipe online for vegan Brunswick stew. (This is, amusingly, what led me to find The Chubby Vegan and, via that site, Meet the Shannons.) Naturally I had to try it out on D and myself. It turns out that it made enough to feed 2 people lunches for 5 full days, with no leftovers.

The verdict? Next time I won't use quite as much liquid smoke. I will also shop around a lot more and see if I can't find butter beans instead of lima beans. (They're the same things, but lima beans are much larger and starchier than butter beans, also called baby lima beans.) I left out the tomatoes and toned down the spice in deference to my GERD. Next time, I will slightly reduce the amount of liquid smoke used, also in deference to my GERD.

Vegan Brunswick Stew
A recipe by Beth Pitchford of SeedStar, found on The Chubby Vegan, adaptations by Kat

Ingredients
Sauce

• 1/4 cup of vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)
• 1 3/4 cup of ketchup
• 1/4 cup of yellow mustard
• 1/4 cup of white vinegar
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp of black pepper
• Dash of cayenne pepper or crushed red peppers, to taste
• 1/2 oz of liquid smoke
• 1 oz of vegan Worcestershire sauce
• 1 oz of hot sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp of lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar

Stew

• 1/4 cup of vegan margarine (still Earth Balance)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 4 cups of vegetable broth or 4 cups of water + 4 vegetable bouillon cubes
• 2 packages of frozen vegan meat (I used Morning Star Crumbles)
• 1 can of English peas (also called sweet peas or early peas)
• 1 can of creamed corn
• 1 can of sweet kernel corn
• 1/4 cup of liquid smoke
• 1 bag of frozen butter beans (baby lima beans) or lima beans

Directions
Sauce

1. Melt margarine in a large sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add ketchup, mustard, and vinegar. Stir until smooth. 
2. Add the garlic, peppers, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and lemon juice. Stir until smooth.
3. Add brown sugar. Stir until smooth.
4. Stirring constantly, keep at a low simmer for 10 minutes.

Jimi helped with the cans

Stew

1. In a very large stock pot (I used a 12 quart stockpot to be on the safe side), melt margarine over low heat. Add the potatoes, onions, vegetable broth (or water and bouillon), and the veggie meat. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally. 
2. Add the can of peas with its liquid, the butter beans, the two cans of corn, the liquid smoke, and the sauce. Cover.
3. Cook at a low simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve hot, and enjoy!

Coconut Curry Lentil Soup

Original version of the soup

 So I've made this soup a couple of times now, and this is the first time I could get around to writing down the recipe. Each time I made it, it turned out looking a little different. The first time was definitely more visually appealing (see below), so I'm going to offer some tweaks to the recipe I used for the second go around to try to duplicate the original recipe.

I had the soup this one is based on a few months ago at Bella Bella in Tallahassee, FL. Like most things at Bella Bella, I fell madly in love with it and had to try to make it myself. Each time I've made the soup, though, I think I've moved further and further away from Bella Bella's version and more into creating something that is a bit more mine.

I included white nuts -- also known as gingko nuts -- in the recipe because I used them the first time and felt they added something to the soup. I've only been able to find them at the oriental grocery store, though. If there isn't one of them near your home, I wouldn't worry about adding them.

This soup become something of a standard in our house, because it's very easy to make (yes, I'm shameless that way) and it reheats very well, both of which make it ideal for making in bulk for lunches at work (hence the picture of it in my handy lunch container). The recipe as it stands right now feeds two people a decent sized lunch for two days; depending on how it's put in containers, you might get one more meal for one person out of it.

Coconut Curry Lentil Soup
A recipe by Kat

Most recent version of Coconut Curry Lentil Soup, in my
handy lunch container

Ingredients

• 6 cups of water
• 4 cubes or teaspoons of vegetable bouillon
• 1 1/2 cups of lentils (I used green lentils)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 tsp of ground ginger (or to taste)
• Dash of cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 1 Tbsp of curry (or to taste)
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 can of Great Northern or cannellini beans (I used Great Northern), drained and rinsed
• 1 can of white nuts (gingo nuts), drained and rinsed (optional)
• 2 14-oz cans of lite coconut milk
• 1/2 cup of soy milk

Directions

1. In a large soup pot, add the water, bouillon, and lentils. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Add garlic, onion, carrot, ginger, cayenne, and curry to the pot. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are beginning to become tender.
3. Add the drained and rinsed cans of legumes while stirring. Add the two cans of coconut milk and the soy milk. Stir thoroughly to mix. 
4. Cover again and allow to cook another 20 minutes. Stir carefully before serving.

I usually add a bit of vegan margarine (generally Earth Balance) on top of each bowl when I serve it, just to enhance the flavor a little and brighten it up. You can also add some turmeric for additional color.

Spicy Rice Bake with Collard Greens, Black-Eyed Peas, and Sweet Potato

I have a couple of confessions to make. I suppose I should get the big one out of the way first. I'm a Southern girl, born and raised in Georgia... but I cannot stand the taste of black-eyed peas. Unfortunately, it's a Southern tradition (and maybe elsewhere too) to eat them on New Years Day. Before I moved out on my own, I would just suck it up and eat them however they were prepared and never touch them again the rest of the year, but now that I'm doing (most of) the cooking, I've taken to dressing them up however I can... and never touching them again the rest of the year. I found this recipe because I wanted my peas and the required greens for the day, also a tradition, to be an (almost) one-dish meal.

My second confession is, you know how sometimes you're following a recipe step-by-step, and it gets to one ingredient, and you look at the amount and go 'no way' but do it anyway? Yeah, I did that with this, with the cayenne pepper. Next time, I'm halving it. It's very delicious, but my stomach did not thank me and my eyes watered. Oh, it was good, though.

Spicy Rice Bake with Collard Greens, Black-Eyed Peas, and Sweet Potato
A recipe by Vegetarians of Washington

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 cubes (I like triangles better, but it makes no difference)
• 6 large collard leaves, rinsed and large ribs removed, torn into 1/2" sections (I guestimated this to be about 2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups of brown rice
• 1 can of black-eyed peas, rinsed well and drained
• 6 cups of boiling water
• 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper 
• 1/4 cup of tamari or soy sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

Roo helped by napping
while it baked

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.
2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and salt, and saute for about 2 to 3 minutes, until onions begin to soften. Add garlic and saute until onion is almost translucent, about another 2 to 3 minutes. 
3. Add the sweet potatoes and collards. Continue to saute until collards are bright green and wilted, about another 5 minutes. Do not let the greens become dark green.
4.  Place rice and black-eyed peas in a 9x13 baking pan. Add the sweet potato mixture and cayenne pepper and mix well. Pour 6 cups of boiling water, the tamari (or soy sauce), and the balsamic vinegar into the baking dish and mix carefully. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours (90 minutes), until rice and peas are tender. Stir gently and serve hot.