Summer Lovin' Curried Corn and Veggie Chowder

I've been waiting for summer to roll around so I could make the Summer Lovin' Curried Corn and Veggie Chowder from Appetite for Reduction. Unfortunately, I just got the memo that summer is here - and in fact, is almost gone. Ah well, better late than never.

This recipe is just brimming with my favorite ingredients: zucchini, carrots, curry powder, shallots, red bell pepper, ginger, coconut milk, and lime. However, the undisputed star of this dish is the fresh, sweet, just-been-picked corn that only the summer months bring. I bought 3 ears at the local farmer's market, along with my customary tomatoes, peaches, and apples. I couldn't wait to get home and get this soup simmering!

After slicing off the juicy kernels, I broke the cobs in half and added them to the pot. This simple step adds lots of extra corn-y flavor. After cooking for about 30 minutes, the soup was ready. I removed the corn cobs and used my immersion blender to blend about half the soup in the pot, giving the finished product a thick body along with some chunks of veggies.

With some thickly sliced beefsteak tomatoes and a pinch of sea salt, this was a perfect late-summer meal that was enjoyed by all!

I also used some of my farmer's market bounty to make a yummy dinner of Syrian Bread Salad (from 1,000 Vegan Recipes), Masala Baked Tempeh (from AFR), and steamed zucchini and yellow squash. This meal had such a pleasing contrast of textures and flavors, from the chewy Indian-flavored tempeh, to the juicy Middle Eastern-flavored salad, to the straight up all-American steamed garden veggies.

Finally, for movie night, we wanted to have something delicious and fun, so I made a giant salad with baby lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, and celery. I topped the salad with a mustard vinaigrette, Dr. Praeger's veggie patty, Trader Joe's roasted corn, and some Alexia sweet potato tots. It really satisfied that burger-and-fries craving in a healthy way!

What are some favorite summer dishes that you have to make again before summer ends? I think, for me, it has to be more Smoky Tomato & Jalapeno raw soup, some grilled pizza, and panzanella-style salads. I want to enjoy these flavorful tomatoes while I can!

Indian, Mexican, Asian, and American!

No theme today, just a roundup of some yummy foods I've eaten recently!

Indian-Spiced Lentils with Spinach and Rhubarb from Vegetarian Times, served over some brown basmati rice. I had such high hopes for this dish, but I was a little underwhelmed. You would think that a dish with rhubarb, raisins, and ginger would be exploding with flavor, but I thought this was rather bland. I think it needed some lemon juice. I also would add the raisins later in the cooking process so they maintain some of their sweetness. My hubby really liked it, though.

Clockwise, from top: Hearts of Palm and Jicama Salad from Southern Living magazine; Mexican Millet from Veganomicon; and frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe's. This plate was a pleasing melange of textures, flavors, and temperature (cold salad; hot millet; warm corn). Yumbles.

Spring Vegetable Stew with Soft Polenta from Vegetarian Times. You can't see the polenta because it's buried underneath the veggies, but trust me, it's there. I've made this recipe before and loved it, but this time I had to make a bunch of substitutions - frozen leeks instead of fresh leeks; zucchini instead of yellow squash; yellow pepper instead of mushrooms; and canned whole tomatoes instead of chopped tomatoes. It definitely tastes better when you make it according to the recipe! I also think it needs way more salt, IMHO. Still, it's pretty tasty and nutritious.

Clockwise, from top: homemade coleslaw (I tried to replicate the awesome spicy coleslaw from Sweet Tomatoes, but I missed the mark); Marinated Asian Tofu from Veganomicon; frozen broccoli; and millet. Yup, I love me some millet!

Forty-Clove Chickpeas & Broccoli from Appetite for Reduction. Mushy, garlicky goodness!

Masala Baked Tempeh from Appetite for Reduction and Purple Kale Salad with Creamy Apricot Ginger Dressing from Choosing Raw. I loved the contrast of the spicy, crusty tempeh and the soft, sweet kale salad. Great combination!

Another favorite from Choosing Raw, the Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce. This dish is a hit in my family! The creamy bean-and-mashed-sweet-potato filling rocks my socks and I love the slightly spicy tomatillo sauce. A little melted Daiya Pepperjack cheese on top doesn't hurt, either :)

Have a wonderful day!

A Vegan Bowl, Step by Step

Hello there, chickadee. Let's get to the food, shall we? 

This is a vegan bowl featuring Caesar Chavez Dressing and Basic Baked Tempeh from Appetite for Reduction. The base of my bowl is baby spinach and steamed bulgur, which I then topped with some roasted cauliflower, grilled eggplant, grilled yellow squash, chopped celery, red onion, cucumber, and roasted red pepper. The tempeh added the "meaty" part of this dish, making this a satisfying and hearty meal.

The best part of this meal is the fact that I could work on it throughout the day. While my son was napping, I made the dressing and grilled the eggplant and yellow squash on my cast-iron griddle:

I also marinated the tempeh and threw the cauliflower in the oven to roast. Then I chopped the veggies and placed everything on a giant platter to put in the fridge until dinnertime.

After we went out for the afternoon, I came home and steamed the bulgur. It's as simple as adding dry bulgur to a bowl, adding boiling water, covering it with a plate, and letting it steam for 30 minutes. Easy peasy!

When it was finally dinnertime, all I had to do was assemble our dishes. It would have been more wearisome if I had done every step at dinnertime, but spacing it throughout the day made dinnertime prep a breeze.

If you're a stay-at-home mom like me, consider doing some of your dinner prep in stages throughout the day. I find it really helps me keep the dinnertime stress to a minimum, while also allowing plenty of time to get the meal done so we eat at the same time every day. 

Question: what are your favorite vegan bowls?

Salad, Salad, and More Salad

Sorry for the little hiatus. Things have been busy here at Bananas for Smoothies-ville. Well, I guess busy isn't the right word. More like, distracting. Olympics to watch? Distracting. Books to read? Distracting. The Bachelorette? Distracting. Especially Arie. I've been too distracted by life to blog much about it. But it's time to get back to business!

Mmmm, business. This is the Syrian Bread Salad from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. It's one of those chop-everything-up-and-toss-it-all-together-type salads that I just adore.

I toasted some Trader Joe's mini pitas for just a few minutes to dry them out a bit.

Then I chopped-chopped-chopped the salad stuff: cucumbers, grape tomatoes, oil-cured olives, red onion, red pepper, and parsley. I tossed in the mini pitas and added the oil and vinegar.

I served the salad atop some mixed baby greens and Basic Baked Tempeh from Appetite for Reduction. This meal was a party in my mouth: juicy, salty, chewy, carb-y, crunchy. Yeah!

This was a fun and tasty recent Saturday dinner. I made a base salad of baby greens, chopped tomatoes, avocado, red pepper, and cucumber, then topped it with a Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burger. I whisked together a simple dijon vinaigrette and drizzled it over the burger and salad. Some frozen Alexia fries (and lots of ketchup) completed the dish. I loved having a "decadent" meal that didn't leave me with a food hangover :) By the way, I never buy frozen veggie burgers EVER (not a big fan), but I grabbed a box of these burgers on my last Trader Joe's shopping trip. I love how they are vegetable-based and taste more like a croquette!

Finally, another salad - this one is the Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Toasted Cumin Seeds. This was one of the salads I hadn't yet prepared from Appetite for Reduction, mostly because...it didn't really appeal to me. And I was right. I didn't enjoy this :( I don't know what it is about cumin seeds, but apparently I am not a fan. I use ground cumin all the time and like it, but I don't enjoy the cumin seeds. I've made other dishes in the past with cumin seeds, and I never liked the flavor it added. So, now I know. No more cumin seeds! I piled it on top of some baby spinach and had some haricot verts and TJ's roasted corn on the side. That corn rocks! Seriously, yum. I could have eaten the entire bag!

I'll try to be better about posting more often!

Breakdown of a Main-Dish Salad

I love salad. Like, love, love, love salad. I eat salad every day. I make salad at home, and I order salad when I go out to eat. I bring salad to other people's houses when I visit. But sometimes I have a hard time thinking of new recipes for salad.

Some days I like my salads to be nice and light, but other days, I want something hearty and substantial. I was feeling particularly hungry this day, so I grabbed everything out of the produce drawer and started chopping. Zucchini, red pepper, curly kale, collard greens, celery...they all made the cut. I transferred everything to a giant platter (below) and just set it in the fridge for later assembly.

I threw some quinoa on the stove, and in 15 minutes, I had my pseudo-grain ready. Honestly, sometimes I wish quinoa was a grain, because it would be so much easier to just say "here's my grain." But, nooooooo.

I grabbed a big bowl and spooned some quinoa on the bottom, layering the chopped veggies on top. For extra satiety and protein, I added some baked tempeh, cut into cubes. The dressing is Caesar Chavez Dressing from Appetite for Reduction:

A salad like this is great because you are hitting so many nutritional bases at once: green leafies, protein (quinoa and tempeh), fat (from the cashew-based dressing), and carbs (quinoa, veggies). Not to mention, there is a TON of fiber in this dish. I think green leafies deserve their own category because they are so important to our diet!

I think the best part is that this is a salad you can put together piece-meal; often, I will make the dressing and cook and cool the grain in the morning. During my son's nap or quiet time, I'll marinate the tempeh and chop the veggies. When dinner time rolls around, all I have to do is assemble the salads and eat! I love meals like that :)

I haven't gotten any reader comments in, like, forever, so someone out there, please leave me a comment and let me know about your favorite salads! Thank you!!

Summer Salad Slam!

If I had my way, I'd exist on smoothies and salads for the entire summer. I love their taste, nutrition, ease of preparation, flexibility, and portability. I also love the fact that I don't have to turn on the oven and make the kitchen any hotter than it already is!

Here are some salads I've been enjoying lately:

Roasted Portobello Salad (except I sub eggplant for the 'shrooms!) from Veganomicon, with a side of millet:

Roasted Cauliflower and Rice Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette from 1,000 Vegan Recipes:

Lightened Up Protein Power Goddess Bowl from Oh She Glows, with a side of Chickpea Pancake with Rosemary from 1,000 Vegan Recipes:

Arugula and Apple Salad with Creamy Mustard Dressing (1,000 Vegan Recipes), frozen Alexia fries, Basic Baked Tempeh (Appetite for Reduction), carrot sticks, and roasted chickpeas:

Umm...I can't remember where this recipe came from. It appears to be massaged kale, apples, carrots, and something else?? I'm sure it was tasty!

Raw Mediterranean Kale Salad from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen:

Romaine and Grape Tomato Salad with Avocado and Baby Peas (1,000 Vegan Recipes) and Forty-Clove Chickpeas & Broccoli (Appetite for Reduction):

A completely random salad made with baby arugula, chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, celery, carrots, fava beans, roasted red peppers, nutritional yeast, chopped green olives, pine nuts, capers, olive oil, and white balsamic vinegar. Yummmm.

My new obsession - Purple Kale Salad with Creamy Apricot Ginger Dressing, Walnuts, and Apples from Choosing Raw:

I've been eating it by the boatload lately. Here it is with some brown lentils and more socca (my other new obsession):

This is the simple but tasty Chopped Salad (1,000 Vegan Recipes), served with Basic Baked Tempeh (Appetite for Reduction) and a baked potato. The romaine lettuce was fresh from a friend's garden and it was so tender and delicious!

Creamy Curry Pasta and Vegetable Salad (1,000 Vegan Recipes) with some steamed broccoli:

And, finally, another delicious smoothie creation. This one had spirulina, hemp protein powder, hemp seeds, spinach, pineapple, coconut water, and ginger. So tangy and refreshing!

What are your favorite summery salads?

Appetite for Reduction Blitz

Anyone who's ever read my blog knows that I am quite fond of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Appetite for Reduction. I have tried 79 recipes (and counting!!) from this cookbook, and it's the one that I reach for when I want something quick, healthy, and filling. Here are some things from AFR that I've made recently:

Tamarind Quinoa (left) and Curried Chickpeas & Greens:

Quinoa Puttanesca, arugula & tomato salad with white balsamic vinaigrette, and garlic bread:

Portobello Pepper Steak Stew, served over a baked sweet potato:

I substituted tempeh for the seitan, white onion for the red onion, and omitted the red pepper flakes. I wouldn't really call it a stew per se...it was more like what goes into a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. No matter, it was still tasty! Next time I'm going to add some banana peppers, Daiya mozzarella, and a torpedo roll and make a vegan Philly Cheez!

Finally, this was a dish I wanted to love, but it fell a little flat for me. This is Pasta de los Angeles (with brown rice penne instead of whole wheat angel hair pasta):

It's fresh jalapeno, garlic, tomatoes, spinach, black beans, shallots, lime zest, and lime juice tossed with pasta. It's supposed to have 1 cup of fresh cilantro in there, too, but I didn't have any on hand. Maybe that would have made the difference?? I don't know. I mean, I love Mexican flavors, and I love pasta, but I didn't love them together. Oh well. My hubby and son seemed to like it, though. And besides, there was bound to be a recipe or two that I wasn't crazy about!

If you have AFR, what are some of your favorite dishes?