Stuffed Pepper Soup

From the recommendation of my sister, I decided to veganize a stuffed pepper soup recipe from skinnytaste.com.

I serve smaller serving sizes when it comes to soup it seems, and got about 9 servings (1 cup each) out of this in comparison to skinnytaste.com's six servings.

Ingredients

2 cups of cooked rice
1/2 cup of chopped of a coloured bell pepper
1/2 cup of green pepper
1 cup of chopped onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 can of lentils (about 2 cups)
28 oz can of petite diced tomatoes
1 3/4 tomato sauce (I used spaghetti sauce)
2 cups of veggie broth
Italian spices

Directions

1. In a large pot, sautee onions, peppers, and garlic for a few minutes.
2. Add the lentils, tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, and spices.
3. Cover and simmer for approximately thirty minutes.
4. Meanwhile, cook your rice.
5. Serve soup and top with your cooked rice.
6. Enjoy!

If you eat dairy and/or aren't vegan, it would be super yummy with cheese on top.

Recipe Review: Raspberry Chocolate Bars

As usual, when working with someone else's recipe, I wonder what tweaks I can make to make it my own or to suit our needs. I did the same with this recipe, but in the end, I'm not sure I would change anything. I thought about meshing this recipe with one I want to veganize, but sometimes you just shouldn't mess with a good thing.

It doesn't have tons of ingredients and it is easy. My kind of recipe.

But in the spirit of honesty, I have to say that I messed up and didn't get seedless jam and I only used 1 cup. It still worked though. Yummy chocolate-y goodness with some raspberry added in.

Anyway, I found it at the Vegan Chronicle: Raspberry Chocolate Bars

Recipe Review: Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

My first attempt at these cookies was not that successful. Personally, I blame my 2 year old assistant. Something about the texture of the dough was off. I added more flour and then the cookies were cake-y.

So, I did what all good aunts do....I fired my niece and tried again. Attempt # 2 yielded much better cookies. My final product didn't quite brown as much as shown in the pictures from the original, but in my opinion those look overcooked.

Unfortunately, I cannot take credit for the recipe and I didn't change enough to call it my own. The only change was that I used applesauce instead of the flax egg....only because I didn't have flax. I also flattened the cookies slightly based on other tester reviews.

These cookies are really good.  They will be my go-to going forward.

Anyway, another successful recipe from oh she glows:  Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Spaghetti Squash Au Gratin (Veganized)

It seems that lately I can only find spaghetti squash in massive quantities. Since my husband doesn't eat it, I've had to explore ways to use it up that isn't just spaghetti. In my hunt for recipes, I came across a recipe by Martha Stewart for Spaghetti Squash Au Gratin. Naturally, I had to make a few changes to make this vegan.

I also adjusted quantities to yield fewer servings.

Overall, I enjoyed the recipe and I would make it again if I needed to use up some squash.

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 tbsp. Earth Balance (or other dairy free butter alternative)
• 1/2 cup mushrooms
• 1/2 cup onion
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1/2 cup chickpeas
• 1/2 cup veggie broth
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 2.5 cups of spaghetti squash (I partially cooked mine in the microwave first)
• 1/2 cup vegan breadcrumbs (I used a mix of breadcrumbs and flavoured croutons)
• 1 tbsp. soy parmesan
• dash of spices of your choosing

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small frying pan, sauté your mushrooms, onion, and chickpeas in butter. Set aside.
3. In a medium pot, bring broth, almond milk, and garlic to a boil and let boil at medium-high for a minute.
4. Slowly whisk in the flour and reduce heat to a simmer to allow the mixture to thicken slightly.
5. Add your mushrooms, chickpeas, onion, and squash. Stir ingredients so squash is well covered with sauce.
6. Transfer to a bread pan.
7. In a small bowl, mix your breadcrumbs, soy parm, and spices. Sprinkle on top of the squash mixture.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Recipe Review: Lentil Walnut Apple Loaf

Just imagine this less blurry and with
general improved picture quality

Someone recommended that I try Lentil Walnut Apple Loaf from ohsheglows.com. I generally like recpies found on this site, so I figured I would give it a chance.

I went to the grocery store to gather my ingredients. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get walnuts so I figured I would sub in almonds. I didn't know if this would work but I didn't see an alternative.

When I got home and started the prep work, I began to think that it was a mistake....not because of the recipe itself, but because I never ever liked a true meat loaf....the texture, flavour, meat....blech. However, I felt kind of committed to follow through with my plan so I forged ahead.

The only thing I changed was the use of almonds instead of walnuts. The end product was pretty good. The apple sauce gives it a nice flavour. The only thing I would do differently next time is chop my almonds smaller. My chunks were too big and out of place.

Soft Pumpkin Cookies (Vegan)

I came across this recipe and decided to veganize it. I also experimented and changed the finished project for three different versions of the cookie. All testers agreed on the best cookie, which is the main recipe below.

I like this recipe because it is really easy and not that time consuming.

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan margarine
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/3 cup of applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• sugar for rolling

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix the remaining ingredients and slowly add the dry ingredients.
4. Form the dough into round balls and roll each ball around in a bowl of sugar. Place the balls on a cookie sheet and flatten them slightly. (I find it is helpful to chill the dough first, but that's up to you)
5. Bake cookies for 15 - 18 minutes.
6. Let them cool and then enjoy!

Other versions:  As I mentioned above, this is the version that all testers preferred. The other options were Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (same recipe, just add vegan chocolate chips), and the same cookies minus the sugar rolling but with a frosting/glaze on top.

Squash Soup

I know I recently blogged about a squash & veggie soup, but here is another recipe. This one is yummy and has less of a bite to it. I had to make a couple of minor changes because I didn't quite have enough squash (I subbed in a bit of pumpkin) but I am blogging the original recipe.

My only taste tester (that wasn't myself) prefers this recipe to the previously blogged recipe.

This recipe yields about 8 servings of 1 cup each. I've been told it freezes well, although I have not tested this. I avoid freezing things because then I won't open the freezer six months from now and wonder what the mystery frozen item is. If this isn't an issue for you, test it out.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. dairy-free margarine
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• 3/4 tsp each of cinnamon, ginger, & nutmeg (I upped the cinnamon and decreased the ginger)
• 6 cups of squash (peeled, seeded, & chopped)
• 1 medium potato
• 900 mL of veggie broth
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (I would omit this)
• 1 cup water (I just used more broth)

Directions

1. Melt margarine in a large pot over medium heat.
2. Add onion, garlic, carrot and celery.  Saute for 5 min until veggies are softened.  
3. Stir in spices.  
4. Add squash and potato, broth, water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer partially covered until squash is tender (30 min)  Let cool slightly.  
5. Puree in batches in blender and then pour back into pot.  
6. Stir in maple syrup.
7. Serve and enjoy!