Vegan Yum Yum's Brown Sugar Peach Muffins

We've been getting peaches from the CSA for weeks now and I wanted to do something different with them than just eat them. My husband Mike volunteered to make muffins this past weekend with the peaches. He used Vegan Yum Yum's recipe for Brown Sugar Peach muffins. They were very good. They were not overly sweet like many muffins are. He used AP flour in them because we didn't have anything else on hand (the recipe calls for whole wheat or spelt).

Vegan Smores

I've been thinking about smores for about 2 years. I ordered 2 boxes of Sweet & Sara Vegan Marshmallows off the internet and made rice krispy treats with them a couple of weeks ago. The leftover marshmallows in the fridge have been taunting me ever since. The 3rd grocery store I checked today had graham crackers without honey, milk, or eggs in them. Its amazingly tough to find vegan graham crackers. Keebler makes some though; they are just hard to find. We also picked up a ghiradelli dark chocolate bar at the regular grocery. And then within 5 minutes after we got home, we had smores:

If you want to make these at home, place the marshmallows on a pan that has lightly oiled parchment paper on it (nonstick foil would probably also work). Put the marshmallows under the broiler on high. They should be very close to the broiler. Watch them closely and when they brown, turn them 1/4 turn. Do this until you have cooked at least 4 sides. When the marshmallows are melty and brown, place one marshmallow on top of one graham cracker with a square of chocolate. Squash the marshmallow down with the other graham cracker.

Rustic Pumpkin Bread

Did you see this post by Vegan Dad? When I saw it, I knew I had to make this recipe for Rustic Pumpkin Bread. I could not find Kamut flour at my grocery so I subsituted Barley flour (after asking Vegan Dad's opinion). I also reduced the final yeast by 1/2 since I am at high altitude. Here are some pics:





This bread is great. It is so moist with a dense crunchy crust. If you have the time, you should definitely make this.

Creamy Broccoli Mushroom Potato Soup

Despite the fact that he is not vegan, I love Peter Berley's cookbook, The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen. Almost every recipe is vegan or is easily veganizable and I have never made anything bad out of this book. And up until now, I'd never had any problems with his recipes. This one had one major typo in the first paragraph causing us to wing it. If anyone wants the recipe for this let me know and I'll add it. I normally do not put recipes in here that are published in books, but since this one has a major mind-boggling typo in it, I'd be happy to provide a recipe that can be followed.

The weather here has turned towards wintryness, and soup sounded like the best thing ever. Since I had about 4 lbs of CSA potatoes to get through, soup sounded especially perfect.

I made my own stock from carrots, mushrooms, parsnips, onions, garlic, celery, thyme, and bay leaves (recipe is also in the book). The stock simmered for about an hour.



The stock was then strained off and set aside. Then I sweated onions, a whole head of peeled garlic cloves, and 2 shallots in 4 Tbsp olive oil:



After the onions we soft (about 10 minutes on medium), I added the stock back and simmered for 45 minutes:



Near the end of the simmer time, I cooked a pound of sliced cremini mushrooms in 2 Tbsp olive oil on high heat for about 8 minutes:



The mushrooms we deglazed with mirin and water and then added to the soup pot. At this point, a head of broccoli and peeled stalks went into the pot along with 1 tsp ground carraway seed, one pound diced potatoes, and thyme:



This cooked for about 30-40 minutes until the potatoes were soft. I removed the thyme and used an immersion blender to puree the soup:



We had the soup with a baby spinach salad.

A new look for Beans and Greens

Just in time for Vegan Mofo Month, I've redesigned my site. I am about 99% done with it now. So, if you read via RSS reader, take a look and let me know what you like and don't like.

And, if you are an expert at embedding fonts, please let me know. I tried to embed a handwriting font for the entries but didn't manage to get it to work. I created the .eot file but no luck.

Roasted Chile and Roasted Garlic Salsa

This recipe is my husband Mike's invention. He looked in the fridge and saw that we were overrun with hot peppers from the CSA and decided to make salsa. He cannot get enough salsa. So, we picked up some beautiful heirloom tomatoes at the local farmer's market in Park City:



And we roasted a head of garlic in the oven to go into the salsa:



And then we roasted peppers and peeled them. Normally we roast peppers outside on the grill but it is 40 degrees and raining here, so we used the stovetop gas range method to roast the peppers:



And then we mixed all of that with onions, cilantro, habanero, salt, vinegar, olive oil, and lime.

Mike's Roasted Chile and Garlic Salsa

2 Poblano peppers
2 jalepeno peppers
1 anaheim pepper
2.5 lbs fresh ripe tomatoes
3 tiny tomatillos
1 habanero peppers, minced**
1 head of garlic
1 lime, cut in half
cilantro, minced
rice wine vinegar
kosher salt
olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Using tongs, blacken the poblano, jalepeno, and anaheim peppers over a gas range. After each is done, place it in a glass or metal bowl covered in plastic wrap. Let the peppers steam for a few minutes in the bowl to loosen the skins. Then take the peppers out and peel the skin with your fingers. Rinse the peppers to remove any remaining skin bits. Seed and mince.

Take a small oven safe bowl and place a piece of foil in it loosely. Put a head of garlic on top of the foil. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Pull the foil together at the top. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until soft. Chop off the top of the garlic and squeeze out the roasted garlic. Mince if necessary (if it is still holding its shape).

Core the tomatoes and chop into a small dice. Add 1/4-1/2 cup minced cilantro, habanero, 1 Tbsp vinegar, 2 Tbsp olive oil, the juice of one lime, garlic. Take half of the mixture and puree in the food processor. Mix both halves back together.

Let stand in the fridge overnight for flavors to meld.

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Makes enough to feed an army.

**Spicyness will vary with the peppers themselves. You might want to add the habaneros later after you give it a taste to determine if you need them.

Serve with tortilla chips!

Quick VP Debate Pizza

Last night we got home at 7 and the debate started at 7 here in Mountain Time so there wasn't any time to cook dinner. We recorded the debate on TiVo to buy ourselves a few minutes to throw dinner together. This is obviously not the most nutritious meal on the planet but it came together very fast which is what we needed.



Tonight we tried using 365 pizza shells:



Sadly, we found them to be a lot like cardboard so I cannot recommend them. But, since I normally make my own dough from scratch it may be an unfair comparison.

Quick Vegan "Meatball" Pizza

1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 sm onion, diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 pkg 365 pizza crust shells
1 can Muir Glen Pizza sauce
1/2 pkg Teese vegan cheese, grated
1/2 pkg Nate's vegan meatballs, broken in half

Place a pizza stone in the oven if you have it. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Saute the peppers and onions in 1 Tbsp olive oil until very soft. Brush the pizza shell with about a tsp olive oil. Spread 1/2 a can of sauce on it. Sprinkle 1/2 of the pepper onion mix over the sauce. Place half of the "meatballs" on the pizza. Top with Teese. Bake for about 10 minutes. Repeat with the remaining 1/2 of the ingredients.

Makes 2 pizzas.