Vegetable & Bean Stew with Spicy Biscuits

I made this quick vegetable stew the other day. I also made biscuits, a variation of the recipe from the other day. I added some liquid from the stew as well as red pepper flakes to the mix to create a spicy version. Another make it up as I go, so not an "official" recipe, but here's roughly what I did.

The Stew

Ingredients:
1 28oz can of Fire Roasted tomatoes
1 15(I think)oz can of dark red kidney beans
1 15(I think)oz can of white kidney beans (cannellini)
1 8oz can spicy Ro-Tel [diced tomatoes with habaneros)
1/2 a large onion, med. dice
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
frozen corn
cumin
paprika
chili powder
water
veg stock or bouillon cube
1tsp oil (for sauteing onion & garlic)

Instructions:

1. in stock pot, saute onion in oil until soft, add garlic and spices to taste

2. add drained and rinsed beans and can of tomatoes

3. add Ro-Tel, stir everything

4. add water. I basically filled the big tomato can with water and dumped it in and added a little more

5. bring to boil, add some frozen corn and or vegetables of choice. Sweet corn really works with these flavors but I'm sure many others would work.

6. bring down to simmer. If you feel like it, add vegetable stock or bouillon cube for flavor.

Done! The flavors of both the stew and biscuits are even better the second day. This lasted for most of the week for both me and Mr. Coconut's lunch.

Biscuits!!

These delicious biscuits are courtesy of a recipe from Savvy Abby a blog that has tips for cheap vegan living from a VegNews Associate Editor. Great blog, I just started reading it today thanks to a heads up from a VN newsletter I get. As I was perusing the blog, I saw the recipe for the biscuits and was happy that I had all of those ingredients so I immediately got to baking.

I used olive oil and rice milk for my oil and non-dairy picks. Mainly because that's what I had available. I used regular all-purpose white flour because, again, that's what I had. Savvy Abby says that any combo of oil or flour or non-dairy liquids can be used. The basic recipe is really versatile: add sweetness for a sweet biscuit, use fresh herbs and garlic and other add-in ingredients. Go wild!

Here is a pic of a biscuit I had with Smart Balance and blackberry jam:


Delicious! I used the suggestion of a 1/4 measuring cup to measure out the biscuit dough for baking. I found that it created biscuits which were a little too large and had difficulty in getting some of the centers to be done all the way. They were still delicious and took 15 minutes, tops. They would be great in soups, gravies, with a sausage patty and tofu, sandwiches, etc.

Pizza Luce Brunch (again): Vegan Biscuits and Gravy with Tofu Scramble

Once again, a nice brunch at Pizza Lucé. This time I ordered the Vegan Biscuits and Gravy, which comes with a side of Tofu Scramble. I also added some vegan hollandaise on the side. The biscuits and gravy were very tasty, the tofu scramble was so-so. I don't think that they press the tofu very much because it was a bit watery. The hollandaise sauce was inedible -- thick to the point where you could hold it upside down and nothing would fall out. That was unfortunate as it's one of my favorite things to get while I splurge going out to brunch. Oh well, the biscuits and gravy were great.

Here's a close up: