Brussels Sprouts with mustard sauce

Lately my husband has been enamored with mustard. There is a tang and a depth added to a dish with just the right amount of mustard in addition to the usual ingredients. Yes, there are patterns and habits in making vegan meals every day, and mustard quite simply adds a bit of spice to life! So when I was planning a fairly common combination of brussels sprouts, onion and mushrooms as a major side dish, I chose to add a stone ground mustard to the Bragg Liquid Amino, water and dash of black pepper. It was well worth it, and turned this one-pan dish into an instant favorite.






BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH MUSTARD SAUCE

2 torpedo (or other pungent red) onions
10-12 medium button mushrooms
2-3 cups or 1.5 pounds Brussels sprouts
2 tsp Bragg Liquid Amino
2 TBLSP stone ground mustard of your choice
1/2 c water
dash freshly ground black pepper

Slice the onions in thin slices, separating the rings in the bottom of a wide non-stick pan.
Clean the Brussels sprouts (cut off the tough stem ends and peel away any yucky leaves, washing off any dirt), and slice them in half vertically - cutting through from the stem end through the floret.
Brush the mushrooms and cut in quarters if large enough, or in half if smaller (use more of them if they are small).

Layer the Brussels Sprouts over the onion layer, putting the mushrooms on top. Pour 1/2 c water, Bragg's, and mustard over all of this and cover with lid. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes, stirring once or twice. Then turn off and leave covered, allowing the Brussels sprouts to steam and soften further, while not overcooking the mushrooms.

You can serve just like this, or cook a couple minutes without the lid to further reduce the mustard sauce onto the veggies.

Fresh Veggie Tortilla Lasagne

The heat of summer, the zucchinis are coming in, fresh onions and tomatoes sit on the kitchen counter and there's a package of old corn tortillas, drying and cracking in the fridge. It's hard for me to throw away good food, so I decided to use those tortillas and their cracked qualities to make a fresh lasagne without pasta. The fresh basil, garlic and tempeh layer added a wonderful pesto flavor, and the chickpea flour sauce not only bound things together but added an important element of creaminess. This is a good dinner for two plus salad or greens, with great lunch leftovers (hot or cold!).





Fresh Veggie Tortilla Lasagne

1 medium large zucchini
1-2 medium sweet onions
1 large potato
3-5 mushrooms (any will do)
1-2 large ripe tomatoes
1 package tempeh
1 medium sweet potato
1/2-1 loose cup fresh basil
3-4 big juicy garlic cloves or use a whole head!
2-4 drying old corn tortillas (ok, you can also use fresh ones)
1/4 cup roasted sesame seeds
salt and pepper

The sauce to hold it all together:

1/2-2/3 cup chick pea flour
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 tsp ground mustard
1/4 cup soy milk

1. Slice the zucchini, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, and tomatoes in thin rounds. Tear the corn torillas into strips.
2. Layer in a wide (lidded) cast iron enamel casserole pan as follows:
1st: zucchini & onion & sweet potato
2nd: layer of corn tortilla strips (use about half)
3rd:chopped basil and garlic with crumbled tempeh (think pesto...) dash of salt and pepper
4th: potato and mushroom
5th: tomato
6th layer of corn tortilla strips -- leave a little space to bring out a little of the underneath layer of tomato
top: sunflower seeds

3. Make sauce by adding all the dry ingredients to a bowl first, then stir in the soy milk. You can add more soy and/or more chick pea flour if you want more sauce.

4. Pour the sauce over the top of the whole thing -- drizzling it so that you get it over most of the surface.

5. Bake with the lid on at 350F for about 30 minutes.  You can stop at this point and save this to finish later or tomorrow ... but if you want it soon, turn up the heat to 450F take off the lid and crisp for 10 minutes.  Serve hot and marvelous. This is yummy hot or cold the next day.

Two Dish Curry Dinner

Garlic scapes have their own timing and when it is the moment to cut them in order to promote the growth of the garlic bulb, well, something has to be done with them. They are sweet and subtle, but definitely with a garlic tendency. So I thought I'd make something sweet and subtle. It ended up with tofu, scallions (that come at the same time as the scapes it turns out) and spinach as one curry, and potatoes with scapes and red and poblano peppers as the base of the other. Since we had no chutney, I cut up an amazingly ripe plum, which served exactly the same purpose! I'm going to let the pictures tell this story -- you can use whatever curry spices you like. I soaked the little cubes of tofu in  paprika, cumin, Bragg Liquid Amino and tumeric before adding it to the tender young spinach leaves with a little water. The scapes and potato chunks had to cook a little on their own, separately, and then came together in their respective dishes, scapes with tofu and spinach, and potatoes with the peppers, some dissolved miso and a little water with a dash of cumin and coriander.  It's best to use non stick pans, but the tofu dish can be in a regular pan so that if you only have one, use it for the potatoes. This is lovely with rice, or applesauce, or a crisp lettuce salad on the side.

  

cut scapes into 1" pieces

adding curried tofu to scapes

add spinach to tofu/scape pan

combine parboiled potato, both peppers, onion

ENJOY!

keep scraping and turning potatoes

Light Butternut Onion Soup

Guests coming for dinner and the weather had turned surprisingly cold. I felt the need for a soup first course but didn't have anything handy in the fridge. Wondering what I could pull together, I looked into the fridge and found a half a butternut squash waiting to become something. With a couple fresh sweet onions, that piece of squash brought a satisfying warmth before the rest of the meal.

1. Make a broth or use a good vegetable stock. I used mushroom stems, celery, onion, ginger.
2.  Steam the cubed squash.
3. With a cup of water in a pan, add the dry herbs and the marmite, all the onion in large slices chopped in half or quarters. Stir fry that until it begins to get sticky to the pan, then add the broth, straining out all the stuff.
4. Transfer to the bigger stock pot, add the squash (you can smash the squash ... leave it in chunks, or puree it before you put it in.)  Cook all together for about 10 minutes. I used a potato masher to smash the squash while leaving the onions mostly intact though quite soft and translucent. Add the frozen spinach -- it will thaw immediately!.  Cook more if you want, or serve just like that! Probably great with just a little parmesan cheese if you eat that...

Butternut Onion Soup Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (243g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 48 2% Total Fat 0g 0% Saturated Fat 0g 0% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 142mg 6% Total Carbohydrate 11g 4% Dietary Fiber 2g 7% Sugars 5g 0% Protein 2g 3% Vitamin A 14% • Vitamin C 20% Calcium 5% • 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 cronomieter.com using my data.