Lentil Soup [Vegan Mofo]

Vegan Month of Food marches on...

Lentil soup is one of my favorites to make because it is so simple and lentils cook so easily - no soaking necessary.

For this soup, I sauteed some onions and garlic in olive oil, and added about 2 cups of diced up potatoes and 1.5-2 cups of diced carrots. I added about .5cup of butternut squash that was diced, 2 cups of dry lentils, and probably 6-8 cups of water. I also added a ton of curry powder and some salt. I brought the whole thing to a boil, then put it to a simmer until everything was tender and cooked through. I also added more water as it cooked. This made a TON of soup and I've been eating leftovers for days.

Mock Duck with Coconut Curry [Vegan Mofo]

Okay, so I owe this blog at least two days of multiple posts for Vegan Mofo.

Oh! And, I won something! I was super-excited to see my name up at the Vegan Mofo Blog. They have been doing daily giveaways, and I WON the So Delicious giveaway! Yay me! Ok, on to the food...

Mock Duck is easily one of my favorite foods, ever. It's the key in my favorite Laab Salad, it is my favorite pizza topping and my favorite at-home stir fry with curry sauce ingredient, as pictured above.

The curry was simple: one can of coconut milk and a couple spoonfuls of green curry paste. The stir fry: I sauteed onions that were thinly sliced and roughly chopped, then added the mock duck. Make sure to THOROUGHLY rinse the weird oil that they are canned in, and then I chopped the pieces to be more even in shape and size. I added a bag of frozen veggies that had asparagus, carrots, mushrooms, and other veggies. The whole thing is served over brown rice, but easily could be noodles instead.

Chickpea Pot Pie With Whole Wheat Crust [Vegan Mofo]

I missed another day for Vegan Month of Food! Yikes! I'm actually doing much better than I anticipated I would, so that's great.

For today's entry, we have a delicious Chickpea Pot Pie. It was the first pot pie I've made from scratch, and it was AWESOME. Don't know why I haven't been doing this for years, because I love pot pie, and those Amy's pot pies can get expensive!

Ingredients:
onions, frozen mixed vegetables, butternut squash (diced), russet potatoes (diced/cubed), garlic (minced), wild rice, chickpeas.

For the crust, I kind of looked at other recipes I found on the internet, and I liked the recipe from Apartment Therapy @ The Kitchn's technique: freeze everything: the flour, the mixing bowl, the fork/cutting instrument, butter. I used only whole wheat flour and mixed in with a store brand of margarine that we recently found (it doesn't taste that great, I prefer Earth Balance for my stick butters). The crust was good, but I think I'd like some white flour in there next time, or even making a bottom crust as well.

For the sauce, I used Road's End Golden Gravy packet. It worked great. I used some flour to help thicken it after I added a lot of water for the rice to cook in. I seasoned with salt, thyme, and sage.

I finished in the oven until the crust was done. Excellent dish. I liked the wild rice as something different and the chickpeas went really well with everything.

Onion Tater Tots with 3 Sauces [vegan mofo]

So...a simple post for Monday. I made a few things on Sunday, but will post them throughout the week. Until then, a shot of Onion Tots from Ore-Ida. Three Sauces - Sriracha, Grey Poupon, and ketchup. They were pretty good.

Reusing Containers[Vegan Mofo]

Reusing is the second component of the Three R's of Recycling [reduce, reuse, recycle]. I love to reuse or re-purpose containers (or anything, really) and make them useful beyond their regularly expected lifespan.

I recently began reusing glass soy sauce bottles for canola and olive oil as well as for balsamic vinegar. Once I finish a bottle of soy sauce, I run it through the dishwasher to clean it out thoroughly and fill it with various liquids.

The top picture shows the bottle with canola oil. It's handy because the spout/pour top looks like this:


That top allows me to pour oil in a controlled way for cooking or oiling pans. I use the same bottle for balsamic vinegar:


And I used a glass Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce bottle for olive oil.

I am rather obsessed with reusing any and all glass containers: pickle jars, salsa jars, any condiment jar. They are great for storing soups, dry beans, flour, sugar, leftovers. Plus, if I get sick of them, they can still be recycled.