Black Rice Salad

I bought black rice several months ago because Dr. Oz said it was good for you! LOL! I had no idea what to do with it and I needed a side dish for some veggie kabobs. I like cold rice salads, and WOW, this was born! It is delicious!

Makes about 6-8 servings.

1 Cup black Thai rice
1-3/4 Cups water
pinch salt
1/2 yellow pepper diced
1/2 red pepper diced
1/4 Cup red onion diced
1/4 Cup fresh chopped mint
1/4 Cup fresh chopped basil
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

Sauce
3 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. Tamari sauce (or 1 Tbsp. soy and 1 Tbsp. vegetarian fish sauce)
Juice of one lime

Bring the rice, pinch of salt and water to a boil in a sauce pan over high heat. Reuce heat to simmer and cover with lid. Let the mixture simmer for 45 minutes, or until water is absorbed.

Whisk together sesame oil, tamari and lime juice. Set aside.

Once rice is cooked transfer to bowl. Pour sauce over the rice while it is still warm. Stir well. Add chopped pepper and onion and chopped herbs. Chill and serve.

Carrot Cake

We received a pound and a half of carrots this week from our CSA. I found a delicious recipe for carrot cake. It is not low fat, that will be my next mission is working on how to make this a no fat cake. Let me tell you though, this carrot cake is delicious. Instead of using a cream cheese type fattening frosting, I did lighten it up a bit by just using a glaze made with 1.5 Cups of powdered sugar, 1.5 TBSP. almond milk and 2 tsp of vanilla extract. I applied the glaze while the cake was still a bit warm. Wow is this good!

Original recipe came from Christine Hennessey's blog

The Best Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe Ever
(adapted from GroupRecipes)

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose white flour
1 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
2 tsp of cinnamon
3 cups shredded carrots
3/4 cup of canola oil
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of golden raisins
1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x9 inch square pan with oil.

Mix together the flour, sugars, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon until thoroughly combined. Add the shredded carrots and the oil to the dry ingredients and mix well with a spoon (not a hand mixer!).

Add the orange juice and mix again, then fold in the nuts, raisins and coconut.

Put the batter into pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until knife/toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center.

Let cool before topping with vegan buttercream cinnamon frosting.

Fresh Salsa

Traditionally I had been making salsa by parboiling the tomatoes to remove the skins, and cubing them resulting in a chunky salsa. While I still think this kind of salsa is the bomb, sometimes you need fresh salsa in a more expedient and less messy manner!
I have come up with a way to make a delicious, albeit less chunky, salsa in my Ninja food processor. I am sure you could use any food processor or a Vitamix.

Rough chop the following:

5 tomatoes
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 jalapeno
Place them in your processor and give them a whiz
add the following:
juice of one lime
couple generous pinches of Kosher salt
2 tsp cumin
Give it another whiz

From here you can just place it in a jar to use within the next 10 days, or freeze it in freezer jars or bags.
You can also use a food strainer to strain off some of the juice. Remember the longer it sets the spicier the jalapenos will get.

Using Swiss Chard

Using the Swiss chard we get in our CSA share can be challenging. I am not crazy about bitter greens so eating them raw in a salad or just steaming or sauteing them doesn't work well for us either. Last year I made a delicious potato dish with rosemary and baby potatoes. I was looking for inspiration for something new this year and came across this recipe from FatFreeVegan.com Swiss chard with white beans and jobs tears I made a few changes. I sauteed the chard stems and onion in red wine and used barley instead of Job's tears and cooked the barley in vegetable broth. It was really quite good and used the entire share of rainbow chard we got this week!
I also made Hasselback potatoes, yum!

Vegan Potato Salad

Yummy vegan version of the classic!

Serves 8

8 Potatoes (your choice they should be medium to smallish)
6 Green onions
2 stalks celery
2 Tbsps. sweet relish
2 Tbsps. Balsamic vinegar
1/4 C veganaise or naysoya
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

Place potatoes in salted water on stove and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium and cook potatoes for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile chop green onion white parts and about three inches of the greens. Mince celery. Place both in bowl and set aside.
Once potatoes are soft when pricked with a fork, remove from heat and shock with cold water. Allow to cool slightly, then peel. Place warm potatoes ontop of veg mix and add balsamic vinegar. Stir. Add salt pepper and relish, stir. Add veganaise or naysoya. Stir. Allow to come together in the fridge for about 1 hour. Enjoy!

Easy Cucumber Salad

Serves about 6

2 Large Cucumbers
1 Large Tomato
1 Bell Pepper (orange, red or yellow)
1 Bunch Green Onions
1/4 Cup Fresh Flat Leaf Italian Parsley
2 Tbsp. Fresh Mint Leaves
About 8 Kalamata Olives
1/4 Cup Roasted Garlic Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar
Pepper to taste

Wash all vegetables and herbs. Peel and half cucumbers, use a spoon to scrape the seeds out of the halves. Cut the halves into four strips and dice. Dice the tomato and bell pepper. Cut green onions about half way up the green parts and discard leftover greens (great green material for composting). Finely chop parsley and mint. Dice up the Kalamata olives. They are quite salty and flavorful so use more or less to your taste. Pour the vinegar over the veggies and herbs and pepper if you wish. Allow to set in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.
Nakano makes a great line of seasoned rice wine vinegars.

Enchilada Casserole

Even though the winter has been quite mild there is still very little local fresh produce to be had. I am working hard to create winter comfort food recipes that are mostly vegan. My transition to becoming a 'herbivore' has been slow. Although I have cut out using dairy at home completely, I still eat out frequently and find myself consuming dairy at restaurants.
Last night I was inspired by another blog post to create my own version of a vegan enchilada casserole.

About 8 servings

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Spray a 9x13" baking pan with cooking spray

Ingredients

About 12 corn tortillas
2 cans refried beans
1 can black beans
1 can chipotle or chili ready tomatoes
1 jar (16 oz.) chipotle enchilada sauce (divided into four parts)
1 sm. can sliced olives
1/2 Cup chopped onion
1 sm. can green chili peppers

Saute the onion in a small skillet or place them in a glass dish covered with plastic wrap and microwave them for a minute or two.
Open the cans of refried beans place them in a mixing bowl, open the can of tomatoes and drain the juice into the beans, stir the juice in well in order to thin them a little.
Pour some of the enchilada sauce in the bottom or your baking pan just to coat the bottom, then place four corn tortillas in the bottom of your baking pan overlapping them.
Start layering your ingredients, refried beans, onion, green chilies, black beans, tomatoes, cover with a bit of the enchilada sauce, then layer on four more tortillas, repeat your layering, finally place on four more tortillas cover with the rest of the enchilada sauce and black olives.
Bake for 20 minutes in the prehated oven, let stand for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting into 8 pieces and serving.

Serve with fresh guacamole and some salsa and you will never miss cheese in this dish!

Guacamole
2 Avocados
2 Cloves fresh garlic
1 lime
1/4 tsp. Kosher salt

Pit the avocados and mash the fruit in a small bowl, mince the garlic and make it into a paste by sprinkling the kosher salt and a bit of lime juice on the minced garlic and rub with the flat side of a knife. Add the mixture and the juice of the entire lime. Stir.
Cover tightly until ready to serve.