beans – Page 3 – The VeganAsana

Vegan Orzo Salad

By theveganasana | July 17, 2012 - 9:55 pm | July 17, 2012 Vegan Recipes, Veganism

On yet another super toasty day in July, I was left pondering this afternoon what to make for dinner. Remembering that there was orzo in the pantry, I surfed the web looking for recipes. I came across many recipes for orzo salads, but most were not vegan friendly, and many had ingredients that I didn’t have in the house. So, after I got home from work, I gathered things that seemed like they would go well and put together this dish. It was a hit with the people in the house who aren’t completely pasta picky (i.e. only like spaghetti and mac n cheese). I loved it and am looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!

Easy Vegan Orzo Salad

1 lb orzo
1 can cannellini (white kidney) beans
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
1 bunch basil chopped
4-5 scallions chopped
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 large tomato diced (or 1 cup grape tomatoes cut in half)
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to directions, al dente, and then rinse with cold water. I add some olive oil to the pasta water, but that’s optional. While the pasta is cooking, juice your lemons, chop the basil, scallions, and tomatoes, and prep your beans. Combine lemon juice and olive oil and wisk. Place pine nuts in a skillet and toast gently. Mix all ingredients and serve at room temp or chill.

Yum!

Vegan “Refried” Beans and Whole Wheat Tortilla Chips

By theveganasana | December 30, 2010 - 10:13 pm | January 2, 2011 Vegan Recipes, Veganism

5 Comments

We are big fans of nachos around The VeganAsana household. We have them pretty much once a week on average. Sometimes, I just open a can of beans and heat and then go from there, but sometimes we get a little more “fancy” about it (and also cost saving) and start from dried beans. It’s easy and you end up with a huge batch of beans for nachos or burritos or whatever.

The night before – Sort and rinse 1 lb of dried pinto beans. You can also use kidney beans, but I find them really unpredictable for cooking well, so I rarely do. In my house of 7-8 people, I do two bags of beans in each batch, but most households should find one to be plenty. Place beans in a pot and add water to 3x the level of the beans.

The next day, early afternoon, begin cooking. Drain the soak water and add fresh for the cooking. Heat on high until they reach a boil and then back the temp down to a strong simmer. I like to add some chopped onion (1 per bag) and jalapenos (1-2 per bag depending upon size and heat level) for this step, but you can also do that later after the blending.

Once the beans are cooked tender, cool, drain, and food process them in small batches to a paste. During the food processing, I typically add a bit of veggie broth or the cooking liquid back. Return to pan, add a small amount of olive oil (helps them not get dry as they cool), cumin, and salt and pepper to taste while heating. This is also a chance to adjust the heat level by adding some hot sauce, or make alterations like putting in some salsa or chopped tomato. And, that’s it!

My kids also really like home baked tortilla chips. This can be done with any flour tortilla, but I like whole wheat. Simply mist tortillas with h2o, olive oil, or cooking spray, then cut tortillas into large pie piece shapes, place in a single layer on a baking stone, and sprinkle liberally with sea salt. These are just amazing straight out of the oven served with the beans, maybe some cheese or faux cheese, salsa, guacamole, and whatever other nacho toppings you like.

As usual, this will be a featured dish for our New Year’s Eve Eat Yourself Sick family party. And then we’ll burn a lot of candles the next day! 😉

Happy New Year,

A Saturday Quickie – VeganMoFo 20

By theveganasana | November 20, 2010 - 8:02 pm | November 20, 2010 Vegan Mofo '10, Vegan Recipes