Veggie Black Bean Burgers

I've found a burger I really like - we ate them wrapped in lettuce after we covered them in dill pickle slices, ketchup, (relish on my husband's), onion slices and fresh summer tomato. Sorry I didn't photograph the process, but I was just not thinking that it would turn out as well as it did. So I'm posting the recipe, and next time I promise I'll add the way things looked as I go along. This started with a can of black beans (organic, low salt) drained and dumped in a bowl. It would need more salt if you cook your own black beans. I ended up with 7 burgers .. but you could fix that by making them all just a little smaller and get 8 out of it. We ate 3 between the two of us, and froze 4. (I'm so excited about that!)

Veggie Black Bean Burgers (makes 7-8)

Mash together in a medium sized bowl:
1 can black beans
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1/4 cup roasted corn
1/4 cup chick pea flour
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/3 tsp salt

CHOP & THEN STEAM IN A STEAMER BASKET
Small bits but not too finely chopped:
1 small golden zucchini
1 medium-small carrot
1 small stalk of broccoli (1/2 cup?)
2/3 of a small sweet potato
(you could add a little mushroom... or red pepper ... or hot pepper)

Once this is softened, add it to the beans, and combine well.
ADD: 1/4 - 1/3 cup masa harina (flour made from roasted corn - Bob's Red Mill makes a nice one)

Spread about 1/2 cup masa harina on a plate, form patties and gently place one side and then the other in the corn meal. Cook in a non-stick saute or fry pan for about 10 minutes, turning gently. Cook less if you are going to freeze and reheat ... OH YUM!  I promise I'll show you how beautiful these were all wrapped in fresh lettuce and dressed up the way a burger should be!!

Veggie Black Bean Burger Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (118g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 96 5% Total Fat 1g 1% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat 0g Cholesterol 0% Sodium 381mg 16% Total Carbohydrate 19g 6% Dietary Fiber 5g 21% Sugars 3g 0% Protein 5g 10% Vitamin A 11% • Vitamin C 20% Calcium 4% • Iron 10% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Red Lentil Sweet Potato Soup

Solid nutrition, definitely comfort food, and easily spiced up or sopped up, this soup evolved as the early spring temperature dropped and the rain became ice.  It is so simple, and the only attention required is stirring.

Red Lentil Sweet Potato Soup
serves 6

1 cup red lentils
1 medium large sweet potato
2 medium onions (I used homegrown Cippolini onions at the edge of sprouting greens)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground dried rosemary
1 dash cumin
1 tsp salt


Cook everything together, puree and eat!

Sweet Potato Lentil Soup Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (300g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 156 8% Total Fat 1g 1% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 417mg 17% Total Carbohydrate 29g 10% Dietary Fiber 5g 21% Sugars 3g 0% Protein 9g 18% Vitamin A 16% • Vitamin C 7% Calcium 4% • Iron 15% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Planning Meals: Beautiful & Bountiful Dinners with Grains & Veggies

I haven't been blogging our food lately, but there have been many delicious meals made with whatever looked good at the co-op and what I had time to fix between teaching and other commitments. The beauty of the plate is one thing that I continue to enjoy immensely about our meals.  The colors and textures definitely influence my meal planning. I think of the plate, the textures, the flavors. Any of these elements can run the show when it comes to planning a meal based on what I have in the house, or what I am buying in order to have in the house.  Weather can influence me too -- is it a "comfort food" day or a cool temperature meal we need to heal the day's energies and seal in the benefits of nurturing ourselves?

So I thought I'd put up a few photos of how things come together, even though I haven't blogged the recipes for these meals. Most of them are very simple sequences of cutting, cooking and putting together... and I'll try to give enough information so that you could give it a go... or let me know that you really want directions and I'll blog 'em out.

As an experimental, temperamental, spontaneous and intuitive cook, I find it amusing that I am now trying to routinize anything about my kitchen activities and write things down, document what works, and imagine that anyone is following along.  The idea of the eat2thrive blog is truly to inspire you to go ahead and explore this marvelous feast of possibilities. If these meal ideas spark something -- light it and go with it! I'd love to know if your results thrilled you and would be happy to put them up on the blog for others if they are replicable.

A blend of vegetables, joined with a flavorful sauce or spice, and served on a plain grain can be a marvelous anchor for a meal. These medleys of flavors can be combinations. Here I combined in a water saute with bits of ginger and garlic:  carrots, onions, olives, Cremini mushrooms, and fennel on plain millet. The  sides are fresh spinach cooked with small bites of tofu and garlic, and a salad of enoki, Asian watermelon radishes, arugula and grape tomatoes treated with a splash of Mirin.









This blend is slivered lacinato (dinosaur) kale sauteed with bits of onion, and then mixed together with the white quinoa that I cooked separately in the gingery water I used to steam the carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips that make up the side dish finalized with roasted sunflower seeds and a tablespoon of dried currants. The salad is a simple chopped endive, radicchio, cucumber and quartered red grapes with a splash of pomegranate balsamic vinegar.  The sriracha hot sauce turned the quinoa into a wonderful complement to the sweet of the root veggies and slightly bittersweet crunch of salad.

Here is a stir-fry model (in water of course, not oil), with sugar snap peas, shiitakes and pea shoots thrown in at the end. The binder is tamari with a splash of ume plum vinegar plus water. Plain long-grain brown basmati rice was the base under it, and then the fun started with the sliced steamed zucchini cooked with fresh cilantro, a little salt and lemon! This added a flavor bite to the salty familiarity of the stir fry.

 Here the rice is the border keeper to separate the veggie medley of sauteed snow peas, carrots, broccoli, and garlic with a light peanut sauce, and the pressed, soaked, and then broiled tofu slabs ... soaked in ginger/tamari/tomatillo/sesame seed. I'm still working on how to get that crispness without oil... and this was a pretty good outcome, broiled on tin foil, and reserving a little of the sauce to continue putting a little moisture on as the tofu began crisping.

Here the rice is transformed into Asian rice noodles, soaked in boiling hot water, and then rinsed. The black eyed peas were cooked with garlic, salt, pepper and lemon, and snuggled up to steamed fresh spinach with a dash of seaweed gomasio. I wanted a distinctly different texture/shape and went for the fresh green beans, steamed plain and served with a squeeze of lemon.  Using the noodles changes the nature of the meal and makes today's dinner vastly different from the rice-based meal of yesterday or tomorrow.

Another way to totally change the rice experience is to play with special heirloom rice grains now available in so many places. This black rice is packed with nutrition, stays a beautiful deep color and has a nutty marvelous flavor. So all I did was add bits of chopped mushroom and garlic to the rice as it cooked, served it with plain steamed broccoli, a leafy salad with scallions, pea shoots and sliced strawberries treated with tarragon vinegar, and then I experimented with the side dish.  This one was a delicious surprise of black grapes, jicama, fresh tomatillo chopped up like tomatoes, bits of scallion and a splash of mirin.





Pasta! I use brown rice pasta to avoid gluten, and because it can be served either soft or al dente.  This variation was served at room temperature on the first hot day... partly because I had no time to cook dinner at dinner time, and made this in its parts before heading out to teach an evening yoga class. Steamed Brussels sprouts were rinsed in cool water and quartered, then mixed together with quartered grape tomatoes, sliced parsnip, bits of green and black olives, and two beautiful fresh scallions chopped. The glue was a red miso sauce -- a heaping tablespoon of red miso mixed with about 1 cup of hot water, a splash of balsamic vinegar and stirred well. I poured this over the whole thing, cooked noodles and all, and let it sit out until I got home later. Simple salad - radicchio, chopped romaine, last of the endive and a little pomegranate balsamic, salt and garlic.



Another quick meal using brown rice pasta and a side salad! This one was garlic sauteed chard with bits of sun dried tomatoes, stirred into the brown rice spirals, and then a quick steam of fresh asparagus spears to cut and toss on top. Beautiful and tasty! Boston lettuce with cucumber, red pepper, bits of chopped celery and tarragon vinegar with garlic to dress it up.

None of these meals were planned ahead more than the day-of. The most important aspect of all these meals was having beautiful fresh ingredients on hand, and a stock of grains/pasta to put in place to round things out.

Desserts are usually sharing a cut up apple, perhaps a perfect pear, a naval orange ... or when the mood strikes, a little container of soy yogurt with granola and fresh strawberries!

Give it a try -- play around with these ideas ... and let me know if you find something marvelous to share or want a more detailed instruction about how to make any of these.  One thing is for sure you will be eating well!

Orange, Gold & Green Lentil Stew

After working all day, I was really hungry and wanted something substantial, but hadn't prepped anything for a fast finish.  There was a photocopy of a recipe a friend had sent to me for a lentil stew with cumin seeds. Well, I didn't have any cumin seeds, and in fact only half the recipe seemed to be in the photocopy! So I felt completely free to invent the following. I started a small pot of short grain brown rice. It took about 40 minutes to make the stew by which time the rice was ready, and I had a chance to throw together a delicious salad. Lucky for us, there's a quart of leftovers to get us through another late night this week. You can definitely add more heat and spice with more red pepper flakes and cumin. If you do happen to have cumin seeds, roast 'em up and toss them on the top!

Orange, Gold & Green Lentil Stew

3/4 cup green lentils
1 sweet potato
1 yukon gold (or other) potato
3 medium carrots
1 medium-large onion (2 cups chopped)
1 (or more) tomatillo
3 cloves garlic
8-15 stems cilantro - 3/4 cup chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin (ground)
1/2 tsp more or less red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups or more water

1. Chop onion, garlic, tomatillo and water saute about 10 minutes in about 1 cup water in a medium saucepan, with cumin, red pepper flakes, mustard seed (whole), and salt.  Stir occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, chop both potatoes, the carrots and cilantro, and add to pan with lentils and water. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. You can half cover this to speed the cooking but do not fully cover the pan. This will need about 30 minutes.
3. Stir occasionally, add more water if needed. Test the lentils for doneness. Salt to taste.

Orange, Gold & Green Lentil Stew Nutrition Facts for One Quart 2 Servings  (900g) (makes 2 quarts) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 500 25% Total Fat 2g 3% Saturated Fat 0g 2% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 292mg 12% Total Carbohydrate 98g 33% Dietary Fiber 32g 127% Sugars 15g 0% Protein 25g 50% Vitamin A 84% • Vitamin C 77% Calcium 17% • Iron 46% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Red, White, Green & Black  Salad
The salad was so beautiful and fun to eat that I couldn't resist putting an image here. What's in it?
enoki mushrooms cut into 3 segments; fresh pea shoots also cut into thirds, baby arugula, scallions chopped into small bits, big black organic grapes de-seeded and halved, and about 5 slices of "watermelon radish" cut into slivers. A light dressing of tarragon vinegar with garlic and salt was the perfect foil for the stew with rice.

3 Great Soups for Any Weather: Spicy African Peanut Soup, Cauliflower Leek Soup, Carrot-Ginger Soup

Here are three soups that have been delightful for dinner, and then for lunches.

First, a Spicy African Peanut Soup!  Adjust the cayenne for your taste.

African Spicy Peanut Soup w/Sweet Potato & Coconut  

Based on Deborah Madison’s recipe she got from James Peterson’s Splendid Soup book

NO OIL (or 1-2 tbsp roasted peanut oil to saute)

1 large onion chopped in 1/2 inch dice

2 large garlic cloves minced

1 cooked sweet potato, peeled, steamed in slices and chopped into small cubes

3 cups water ((save any steaming water and use it for this)

1 cup chopped cilantro with stems

1/8 (she said up to-1/2) tsp cayenne or hot red pepper flakes to taste

1.5 tblsp curry powder (she said 2 tblsp)

a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes – or your own quart jar with juice

2/3 c peanut butter – organic not sweetened

1 cup light coconut milk (or more if you want)

sea salt

Directions: 

    1.  Heat about 1/2 cup water in a soup pot and sauté onions, garlic & cilantro stems til just starting to soften (10 minutes). Add sweet potato cubes, cayenne and curry, stir and cook a couple minutes.

    2.  Add 3 cups water and the tomatoes. Stir well, bring to boil. Drop in the peanut butter and simmer until peanut butter has  dissolved and onions are soft – about 15 minutes. Stir in coconut milk. Season with salt – not much though. 

    3.  Before serving, add the toppings of your choice. Top with cilantro/lime/yogurt/ --

        whatever you like! Even crisped onion or nothing at all!

Spicy African Peanut Soup Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (200g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 198 10% Total Fat 12g 19% Saturated Fat 2g 8% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 264mg 11% Total Carbohydrate 19g 6% Dietary Fiber 5g 18% Sugars 9g 0% Protein 7g 15% Vitamin A 11% • Vitamin C 23% Calcium 6% • Iron 11% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com based on my estimates

SECOND: A simple Cauliflower Leek Soup based on a recipe of the month on the internet from cookshopny.com, so creamy without dairy!

CAULIFLOWER LEEK SOUP

8 cups of strong vegetable broth (I used a box of Field Day Savory Organic Vegetable Broth)

1 whole head of garlic roasted

The white part of 2-3 leeks chopped (save the greens for making a stock)

1 large head of cauliflower sliced and chopped

1/4 cup of toasted pumpkin seeds

4 Tbsp chives chopped finely to garnish

Directions:

     1.   Roast garlic at 400 F for 30 minutes.

     2.   In a large saucepan fry the leek in a little water until soft. Add in the cauliflower and stir for a couple of minutes until starting to soften. Squeeze in the roasted garlic pulp.

     3.  Cover with the vegetable broth. Bring to the boil, then simmer FOR 30 minutes until the cauliflower is soft.

     4. Let the mixture cool enough to put batches in the blender. Transfer to a clean pot and heat on low to serve. Garnish with pumpkin seeds, chives or scallions. 

Cauliflower Leek Garlic Soup Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (300g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 40 2% Total Fat 0g 0% Saturated Fat 0g 0% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 268mg 11% Total Carbohydrate 9g 3% Dietary Fiber 2g 9% Sugars 3g 0% Protein 2g 4% Vitamin A 1% • Vitamin C 73% Calcium 4% • Iron 5% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com based on my estimates

THIRD:  DELICIOUS CARROT GINGER SOUP  

(I made this one up to have it the way I like it, warms the cold edges!)

8 medium sized carrots, peeled and chopped

1 medium potato, chopped with skin

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1-2 chopped parsnips  

1 large chopped onion

2 medium chopped stalks of celery

1.5 tsp dried tarragon

1/4 tsp or 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup leftover winter squash (acorn, butternut, hubbard whatever!)

6 cups water

Directions:

     1.  Chop up onion, parsnip, carrots, and celery and cook about 35 minutes with grated fresh ginger and tarragon in 3-4 cups of water until starting to soften. 

     2.  Add salt and squash (I used this because it was left over ...). Cook another  5-10 minutes, and puree! You could use vegetable broth instead of water.  Serve plain, with scallions, with plain coconut yogurt, or a little oven sizzled garlic!

Carrot Ginger Soup Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (436g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 101 5% Total Fat 0g 1% Saturated Fat 0g 0% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 178mg 7% Total Carbohydrate 24g 8% Dietary Fiber 6g 23% Sugars 6g 0% Protein 2g 5% Vitamin A 46% • Vitamin C 33% Calcium 7% • Iron 6% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com based on my estimates