Tag Archives: onion

Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit

  By |
1 Comment
cilantro

Image by Island Vittles

I’ve posted before about how much my family loves refried beans and the method I use to make them.  My youngest (11) calls it “bean paste” and has become pretty good at whipping it up herself from canned beans.  This week has been pretty busy around The VeganAsana house (I say that a lot, don’t I?).  Sunday evening, I taught a yin class, so dinner was a quick affair.  Monday, I had planned to make burritos for dinner (and had soaked the pintos over night), but I got caught at work later than planned and Mr. VeganAsana was on dad duty at a school performance.  This meant another quick dinner.  The sum of all of this was that I started a pot of two pounds of dried pinto beans cooking at 5:45 last night.  With addition of big purple onion, lots of cumin, chili powder, jalapenos, some natural peanut butter, and a very large handful of fresh cilantro, it boiled and simmered until just after 9:00.  (In a side note, The VeganAsana-lings love cilantro. No less than four of them wandered into the kitchen to talk about it.  #2 Son believes that possibly a potpourri made with cilantro would be great around the house)  At that point, I turned it off and… well… forgot about it.

jalapenos

Image by Florian

Planning for an upcoming trip to Williamsburg, VA (1/2 the family for 4 days, 1/2 the family for 8 days), a January 2012 visit to Disney, and figuring out how to bank a timeshare week for use in 2012 or 13 for a grownup trip took until after 11:00 and then I remembered the beans.  But, a pot of beans is a very forgiving thing.  There they were, still nice and hot and ready to be blended to within an inch of their lives.  So, blend I did!  The 2 pounds of beans yielded about 10-12 cups of bean paste ready to be cooked up tonight.  That sounds like a crazy amount, I know, but even with me probably not eating and one DS out of the house, the crew will come very close to demolishing them.

The plan for the beans today is to reheat them in a skillet with a bit of olive oil (I don’t do lard, ew) and coconut milk, to create refried beans.  Then, they will go into warmed flour burrito shells with chopped lettuce, tomato, more cilantro, salsa, cheese and possibly chicken (for the carnis), and some sour cream.   It’s not rocket science, but it’s a good meal, easy to alter for vegans, vegetarians, carnivores, etc. and it’s certainly a crowd pleaser at my house.

Let’s not talk about the atmosphere around The VeganAsana-Casa afterwards, mmkay?

Creamy Roasted Vegetable Chowder

  By | ,
1 Comment

5 lb potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cups sliced carrots
1 lb asparagus cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large onion, quartered
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 bag frozen corn (optional)
4 cups vegetable broth
2-3 cups soy/rice/almond milk
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (optional)
3 T olive oil
salt and pepper

Place 1/2 of potatoes and the onion in a large soup pan with about 1 inch of broth.  Boil and then reduce to a simmer.  While that is cooking, toss remainder of vegetables – except  corn – in olive oil and spread on baking sheets.  Salt and pepper lightly.  Place in oven at 450* and turn over once in a while to prevent burning.  When potatoes in pan are very tender, remove from heat and blend with an immersion  blender or hand mixer.  This should create something close to mashed potatoes.  Add the remainder of the broth and stir. Begin adding soy milk (or other) until consistency of chowder base is reached. Add nutritional yeast (optional) and stir.  Return to very low heat to simmer.  If you end up with a base that is too thin, you can thicken to taste with corn starch or potato starch.  When vegetables are close to done, add corn and continue baking until cooked through.  After vegetables are done roasting, add to creamed potatoes/broth mixture.  Adjust seasoning and serve!