Black Bean Cholent (vegan)

A lot of you have asked how I make my black bean cholent.

I hope not to disappoint you, in case this wasn't clear to you, this is a vegetarian/vegan cholent.

It's quite tasty, but if you were hoping for beef, you won't find it here. I think the last time I ate beef I was about 20 or 21 years old (nope, not saying what year that was, use your imagination)!

If you're looking for a Gluten Free Vegan Cholent, click here!


Here's what I do:

1-2 large onions, chopped coarsely
6 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2 medium sized potatoes, cut into chunks
500g whole grain barley (not pearl barley), soaked in cold water overnight
2 cups black beans, already soaked (overnight) and drained, can also use 2 cups cooked black beans
spices: salt (1 tablespoon or so), black pepper (1/2 tsp or more), cayenne pepper (a pinch or 2), smoked paprika (2 tablespoons) - be generous with the seasonings! If cayenne is too hot for you - you can safely leave it out.
water to fill the pot

Place everything in the crock pot and let the pot do its magic!

Just before Shabbat starts, I add frozen vegan kishke to the pot. This is the perfect Shabbat morning cholent accompaniment! 

Barley and Black Beans waiting on my pantry shelf

Vegetable Stew with Eggplant and Red Lentils

Today's Vegetable Stew was inspired by random foods I have in the house.
I love that stews are so versatile, and with a bit of creativity, you can nearly always throw a stew together!

Vegetable Stew with Eggplant and Red Lentils

1 onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 medium eggplant, diced
2 small potatoes, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup brown rice
500g - 1kg red lentils
Water or soup stock to cover
seasonings to taste

In a large pot, heat some olive oil, then add the vegetables and cook, stirring often. Add rice, and continue to cook a few more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add lentils and liquid. Bring to a rapid boil, then simmer for about 40 minutes. Season as you like. Serve with homemade croutons (below).

Croutons

Leftover Challah or bread (mine is whole wheat), cut into squares.
olive oil
seasonings (I used garlic, black pepper, and parsley. you could use basil, or oregano, or lots of herbs)

Toss the challah pieces with a little oil and seasonings. Spread out on a baking pan, and bake them at 425 F for a few minutes (watch them carefully so they don't burn!)

Garnish your stew with croutons and Enjoy!

Sick Day Stew

I woke up this morning with a head cold and I'm trying to get over it. I have had a ton of tea, made soup for lunch... and when it was supper time, I only wanted soup, but it needed to be filling enough for my kids too.

So here is what I did:

I threw the following into a pot:

8-10 cups of chopped milk thistle (I foraged these milk thistle plants from out in back of my house, but if you can't do that, or don't want to, you can use spinach or chard... The 10 cup measure is for raw. This equals about 1 normal size package of frozen spinach)
1 onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
2 kishuim, sliced (kishuim are a light green squash, very similar to zucchini. the main difference is their color.)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
soup stock
extra water
salt, pepper to taste
Later, when it was at a full rolling boil, I added a package of whole wheat lokshen noodles, and my leftover veggie meatballs from the other day...

Bring back to a boil and simmer for 5-7 more min. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Wednesday night - November 9, 2011

How about a one pot meal?

Lentil, Rice, and Butternut Squash Stew, served with Pitot on the side.

Here's my stew, but you can change it up and be as creative as you'd like:


Onions, Garlic, Red peppers, Carrots, Potatoes, and Butternut Squash - diced and sauteed in olive oil. Add lentils and rice (sorted and rinsed), vegetable stock and spices to taste (I used salt, pepper, and oregano. I happen to think that oregano complements lentils and rice really well.) The quantities are so arbitrary, depending on the size of your pot. I used a rather large pot for this stew and used 1-2 onions, 2 cloves of garlic, whatever sliced carrots and peppers were in my fridge from earlier in the day, 2 potatoes, 1 butternut squash, 1/3 of bag of rice, and 1/2 a bag of lentils.

Shabbat Menu

This week's Shabbat menu is built around the produce I got at Kim'at Chinam for 1 NIS/kilo, and the produce I got at Yesh for 1.99 NIS/kilo. Both really great deals! I just have to learn how to figure out how heavy 3 kg is, as the maximum you can usually get when they have these sales is 3 kg per type. Unfortunately, I lowballed all my purchases, and could have easily come home with twice as much produce for these awesome prices...

When we don't have guests, I try to keep my menus simple - that means fewer courses and fewer dishes, but still plenty of good food to fill everyone up! Since we have no guests this week, here's my plan:

Vegetable-Noodle Soup
Pomegranate Chicken
Pan-Fried Tofu Steaks for my favorite vegetarian (my 12 yr old - yes, a boy!)
Carrot Kugel
Oven Roasted Beets
Oven Roasted Cauliflower
Toasted Barley with Mushrooms
Salad - lettuce, purple cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and avocado
Lentil-Barley Stew (in the crock pot, for lunch)


Some notes about these dishes:

When making a vegetarian vegetable soup, I always sautee all the veggies in extra virgin olive oil, then cook, covered, to reduce, for 10-15 min. before adding any liquid. I don't know, I just think it tastes better this way in the end. I use onions, garlic, celery, tons of carrots, zucchini, and other veggies as the mood hits me. It's a really easy soup.
I also save all the trimmings from vegetables (don't use potato peelings or beet trimmings, though!) in gallon-size zipper-close bag in my freezer. when the bag is full, I simmer the trimmings in water for many hours in my huge stock pot, to make vegetable stock. Just make sure you strain it well when it's done. I then use some for the day's cooking, and freeze the rest in pint-size containers for later use.

Carrot Kugel - I usually make 6 of these at a time, and freeze for later. My 3 year old can't get enough of them, so I serve carrot kugel almost every week. I use a modified muffin recipe, bake in loaf pans, wrap well, and freeze.

Oven-Roasted Veggies - what could be easier!

The toasted barley recipe is new for my family, but I have promised them that we'll be trying out new dishes, in order to find some new favorites (this is what I need that vegetable stock for this week)