Lentil "Meat"balls w/ Roasted Veggie Sauce

This recipe is adapted and made better from one I found on Vegweb.com.

Lentil Balls:
Cook 2 cups of red split lentils in about 3 cups of water
Add in about 1 tsp. of dried oregeno and 1 tsp. of Thyme
Salt and pepper

Cook until the lentils are soft but not mush (still have their shape).

Then to the lentils add 3 cloves of Garlic, diced
1 Tbsp. of Nutritional Yeast flakes
A pinch of Nutmeg
(taste to check the amount of salt)
Then 1 cup of instant Polenta

cook a few minutes more stirring constantly (and adding a little more water if you need to)
Add in a few Tbsps. each of fresh chopped Parsley and Basil.
In a small sautee pan, sautee about 1/2 of a small onion in some olive oil and salt, add this to the mixture.
*Cut (or sprinkle in) some Dulse (a nice mild, non-fishy seaweed that is high in Iodine) to add to nutritional content *optional*
Then finish off with 1 cup of quick cooking oats, and mix really well so you have a nice stiff batter.

Oil your hands, start the oven pre-heating at 400 F (200 C), and start a cast iron skillet warming on high. Roll the dough into "meat"balls. Add coconut or olive oil to the skillet and lightly brown the meatballs on all sides. Remove them to a paper towel lined plate. Then, when they are all cooked up in the pan, place them on vegetable paper (wax paper, or silpat), and bake them in the oven for 15 minutes to get them dried out a little better. Serve warm with Roasted Veggie Sauce or a marinara of your choice.

Killer Roasted Veggie Marinara Sauce:
Start cooking down a bunch of tomatoes in a pot (I don't peel them, or even cut them, I just squeeze them and tear them apart over the pot with my hands, very therapeutic).
Add to the pot, 1 chopped onion, salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried thyme.

Meanwhile, in a roasting pan, roast up the following in olive oil:
1-2 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
6-7 mushrooms
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1/2 green pepper, sliced
5 cloves of garlic, left in their skin (do not add olive oil to this, just make room on the roasting pan for them
Salt them
Roast at 400 for about 20 minutes, until all veggies are soft, but not too brown

Add the veggies to the tomatoes that have been cooking down for a while, (peeling the garlic), and cook between 20-45 minutes more, (the longer you cook the richer the sauce) over med. low heat, with the lid on. When done cooking, add in a a bunch of chopped parsley and a bunch of chopped basil (or as much as you desire) and salt and pepper to taste. Blend this sauce all together with a handblender submerged in the pot. Enjoy.

I sauteed some mushroom and onions, and mixed in the sauce, then poured it over the "meat"balls with some fine shreds of fermented, hard goat cheese (like an asiago).

Quinoa and 3 Bean Chili

This is not exact science, but I will attempt to give a good idea of what is in my chili.

In a smaller pot:
Sautee 1/2 small onion, chopped and 2 cloves of minced garlic in coconut oil (or olive oil) with a sprinkle of sea salt
When that cooks a few minutes, add in about 3/4 cup quinoa and 1/2 cup split red lentils
Sautee this together 2 minutes. Add roughly 3 cups of water, and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until tender (about 20 minutes) adding in water if needed.

In a big soup pot while the quinoa and lentils are cooking:
Sautee together with salt and coconut oil:
1 large onion chopped
3-5 cloves of garlic minced (depending on how much you like)
2 carrots, chopped small
2 stalks of celery, chopped small
Put lid on and cook down, sweating off the veggies about 8 minutes.
Add in 1 vegan boullion cube, 1 jar of tomato sauce, and about 8 cups (this is a guess) of water. Bring to a boil with a mixture of these spices:
1 tbsp. mild chili powder
1 tsp. of cumin
dash of cayenne pepper
1 tsp. of dried oregeno
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika (smoked is best if you can find it)
tiny pinch of cinnamon
pinch of a curry mix you like

Once mixture comes to a boil, add in a mixture of:
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper chopped
2-3 tomatoes (half, and then with hands, squirt juice and seeds into pot and roughly tear with your hands into the pot into bite-sized chunks)

Cook until the peppers and tomatoes have cooked down and softened with lid on pot over mild heat.
When they have cooked down, add in 1 jar each of:
black beans
white beans
red kidney beans
and also add the lentils and quinoa to pot
add more water if necessary to make a stew like consistency, and taste to adjust seasonings. Cook together for 5-10 minutes over low heat (so as not to make the beans over-mushy). Serve with Vegan cornbread recipe.

Creamy and Divine Cauliflower Casserole

Coat pan with olive oil or coconut oil

1/2 head cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces

1 red pepper, chopped

1 large potato shredded and sauteed for a few minutes in coconut oil

10 mushrooms, sliced

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1/4 cup rice flour

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

1/2 Tbsp. dijon mustard

1 teaspoon granulated onion

1 teaspoon garlic powder

3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

1 tsp. dried Herbes de Provence spice blend

1/4-1/2 cup vegetable broth (or vegan bouillion cube with = water)

1/4 cup bread crumbs (homemade bread crumbs work, or walnuts to do gluten free)

Directions:

1. Sautee the cauliflower with a little salt, about 5 minutes or until it just starts to soften up a bit. Put aside in a bowl.
2. Meanwhile, melt coconut oil over medium heat in heavy saucepan. Add flour and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes. Whisk in milk, whisking constantly over medium low heat until thickened.

3. Add mustard, garlic, onion and nutritional yeast, rest of herbs, and salt to taste. Add vegetable broth, just until sauce is thinned enough that it is makes a nice creamy sauce. Coat a casserole dish with oil.

4. Sautee the shredded potatoes in a pan with coconut oil until they start to soften

5. Add vegetables to casserole pan. Pour sauce over vegetables and stir until coated. Add breadcrumbs on top and bake for about 30 minutes, until top is browned, and creamy bubbles are going up the side of the dish. (glass baking dish is great for this)

Source of recipe: I modified a recipe on vegweb.com, here is the original if you would like to see, (those are my pictures on the recipe page btw): http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=35259.0

Makes: 4 servings, Preparation time: 20 minutes, Cooking time: 25 minutes?
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Socas w/ fresh Herbs (gluten free crepes)

Socas are Garbanzo flour crepes. Typically they are made with half wheat flour and half Garbanzo (chickpea or grao) flour. However, I wanted some gluten-free kind. Like all my cooking I don’t really measure, so this is my best guess:

* 2 cups of Garbanzo flour
* 1 cup of rice flour
* 2 large well beaten eggs
* 1/2 tsp. of salt
* coconut milk (about 1/2 cup??) thinned out with warm water (3 cups maybe???)
* 1 Tbsp. Fresh chives, 1 Tbsp. fresh chopped Parsley, 1 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro
* 1 large clove of garlic, mashed and chopped as finely as possible

Mix together the dry ingredients into a bowl, and then add the eggs and start adding the coconut milk-warm water mix, and mix with a fork or whisk keep adding the liquid until you have a non-lumpy, very thin pancake-like batter (***It must be a very runny batter or it won’t work right). Then mix in your herbs and garlic.

On a very hot pan (preferably a cast iron skillet) add a very light coating of coconut oil (olive oil or butter) and ladle on with a small ladle, about 2 Tbsp. of batter and quickly pick up the pan (with a hot pad please) to swirl around the batter in the pan into the thinnest possible pancake you can make. Cook on one side until the bubbles start to show through and the edges start to go from glossy to opaque. Then flip over for a few seconds more and transfer to a platter with a cover or towel to keep warm while you finish the rest. There is a very fine art to crepe making, and I hope this is a decent explanation. (lucky me, I learned in person from a French girl who grew up with them).

For filling, there are numerous possibilities, today I made both a simple sauteed onion, garlic and tomato filling for dinner, but for lunch I did: roasted pumpkin cubes with sage, sauteed mushrooms, garlic and rosemary, and sauteed spinach and garlic. The sauce I made was a combo of my homemade mayonnaise and my homemade spaghetti sauce mixed together to divine-ness.

Kenpo X Green Smoothie!

Handful of fresh spinach
1/2 cucumber
1/2 green fleshed small melon (or quarter of a honeydew)
small handful fresh cilantro
1 apple, deseeded
azuki beans, either sprouted or flakes
2 large fresh strawberries
rice or almond milk 3/4 of the way up the other ingredients in blender

Blend to perfection!

Roasted Squash Medley

1 small butternut squash
1 med. Zucchini squash
1 med yellow squash (summer squash)
4 fresh sage leaves, or a few sprigs of rosemary
Olive or Coconut oil
salt and pepper

Pre-heat over to 425.
Cut all the squash so it is in matchstick form. Toss with olive or coconut oil, sage or rosemary leaves chopped and salt and pepper. Roast in oven for about 35-40 minutes, until all the squash is soft. Mix it around about 20 minutes into roasting.

Mushroom Stuffing

This is my Holiday time favorite dish. It takes some planning ahead a few days though.

2 loaves of Good bread (Not the square sit on a shelf shit- REAL whole bread- un-cut)
Tear it up into bite size pieces, nothing pretty, so please just tear with hands, and then put it on cookie sheets and let dry a day. It should be pretty dry, almost toast like. You can throw it in an oven after you turn it off from baking something else, just gotta get most of the moisture out.

When ready to make:
8-10 Mushrooms chopped very small
1 Med-lg onion, chopped small
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
3 stalks of celery chopped very small
Olive oil, salt and pepper
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, stalk removed, and chopped up (or about 1-2 Tbsp. dried)

Sautee these things together for a few minutes, then set aside.

You then need Mushroom broth (I used to use about 1 1/2 containers of Pacific brand mushroom broth) To make Mushroom broth if you cannot get it:
about 6 mushrooms, chopped really finely
1/2 onion, chopped really finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
One vegan boullion cube
A few splashes of Soy Sauce (or tamari will do)
A splash of red wine for flavor depth
Water to make the broth with, you need about 1 1/2 quarts (I believe- I eyeball it, sorry)

Pre-heat oven to 375.
Put the dry bread in a very large bowl. Add in the sauteed mushroom mix and rosemary.
Pour the broth over until it is mush when you mix it (like Stove top stuffing consistency). Keep adding broth, you don't want it overly wet, but not too dry either, you should be able to pick it up a handful and form it into a mushy ball.

Spread into an oiled 9x13 pan, and bake about 30-40 minutes, until it firms up, and starts to maybe brown a little and get a little bit crunchy on top. My convection oven only took 20 minutes at this temp, so watch it.
Set it aside until it is just warm. It is best to make this first or the day before a big holiday meal. It is better cooled down, and makes AWESOME leftovers if you can keep it that long!