vegan » Living Lou

Vegetarian Chili

We’re getting a lot of rain and wind from Hurricane Sandy here in Toronto – as in, it’s raining every single day this week. I looked at the weather app on my phone the other day, and while I do love rain, I’m not sure I love it enough to deal with it every day. When it’s raining, and cold, I love to indulge in chili. It’s so comforting and flavorful and keeps you warm. I think it’s safe to say that it’s my favourite Winter meal.

About a month ago, I was invited to an event at Whole Foods Market in Yorkville where I got to taste their amazing Thanksgiving prepared foods. It was on this day that I learned one important thing about myself. I’m not a vegan, but if I were to become a vegan, I would eat their Vegan Pumpkin Pie every single day.

Other than tasting the yummy foods, the bloggers were asked to participate in the Blogger Gobbler Challenge. And I love a good challenge. We were given two secret ingredients – a la Iron Chef style – sweet potatoes and balsamic vinegar. The possibilities were endless but I could only think of one thing – chili. So I made a Vegetarian Chili that is so good you won’t even miss the meat and it’s packed with so many delicious vegetables I guarantee you will feel fabulous after this one. This chili is also vegan, but I like to add a lot of sour cream when serving because I’m that kind of girl.

Vegetarian Chili
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 cups diced sweet potatoes
1 green pepper, chopped
7-10 button mushrooms, quartered
1 jalapeno, diced and seeded
2 large carrots, diced
1 19 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cups crushed tomatoes
1 cup water
1 tbsp chipotle hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream for serving

Directions

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat.

Saute onions and garlic for 3-5 minutes or until softened.

Add in spices and herbs, stir and cook for 1 minute.

Add all vegetables, cook stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Add balsamic vinegar, crushed tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes then simmer uncovered for 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in chipotle hot sauce and season with salt and pepper.

Serve piping hot with a dollop of sour cream.

I hope everyone stays safe during the hurricane and if you have power, I highly recommend making this Vegetarian Chili.

- Lou

Rosemary Skillet Potatoes

What do you picture when you think of a blogger? Because right now I feel like the most typical blogger ever. I’m sitting in my bed in my pajamas, at 1:07am writing a post that I should have written weeks ago. I should really be sleeping since I have to be on set early tomorrow morning to work a minimal 12 hour day. But woops, I’m sitting here picking my split ends and writing a post.

How bloggerish of me!

But as you see above, bloggers usually talk about themselves because, for the most part, we’re writing about ourselves. It’s kind of weird now that I think of it. Do we have to really love ourselves to blog? I guess it depends what you’re blogging about, because I just really love food.

So even though right now I am totally the most stereotypical blogger, I’m going to do something atypical and talk about another blog and another blogger because it’s time for another Secret Recipe Club! This month I was assigned the blog Biking and Baking. Sarah, shares a wide array of wonderful, vegan recipes and I love her outlook on cooking/baking – it’s ok to have some failures. One of my goals for this year was to make more vegan meals so Sarah’s blog was the perfect fit! I decided to make her Rosemary Skillet Potatoes because despite all the wonderful baking recipes, I’m still a little scarred from my many attempts at Vegan Pancakes.

Rosemary Skillet Potatoes (serves 4)
Recipe adapted from: Biking and Baking

Ingredients
1 lb new potatoes, diced
1 small red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 tsp grill seasoning
1 tbsp olive oil + more for frying

Directions

Toss potatoes, onion, garlic, rosemary and grill seasoning with 1 tbsp of oil.

Heat some oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add potato mixture to pan and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Roasted Eggplant Dip

When I received my July assignment for The Secret Recipe Club I was a little bit nervous. You see, I was assigned the lovely blog Smells Like Brownies which would normally be the perfect fit because I love brownies, but…

I’m in Greece! And baking on a small island in Greece is completely different from baking in Toronto. The flours are different and the sugar is different. What if I didn’t have the right tools? What kind of impact would the change in altitude have? Luckily, Melissa from Smells Like Brownies has such a variety of recipes on her blog that I found the perfect recipe, a popular Greek dip, Melitzanosalata, also known as Roasted Eggplant Dip. The best part – eggplants straight from the garden.

My grandparents grow a ton of vegetables. Talk about a food bloggers dream, literally having a farmer’s market in your own backyard. Typically a Melitzanosalata uses just parsley instead of rosemary, but I loved the addition of rosemary – plus we have about three massive bushes of rosemary growing in the garden. If you’re looking for another one of my favourite eggplant recipes, checkout my Eggplant Salad – it’s too good.

Roasted Eggplant Dip (Melitzanosalata) (serves 2-4)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

1 large eggplant
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/4 onion
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1/4 cup olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.

Poke the eggplant all over with a fork and roast for 40 minutes or until tender.

Once eggplant is done, slice in half and scoop out the inside.

In a food processor, combine the eggplant, garlic, onion, rosemary, parsley and olive oil. Pulse until desired consistency.

Serve with crackers or pita, I served mine with melba toast and it was delicious.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Lou

Summer Roasted Vegetables

I love vegetables; grilled, roasted, sauteed or raw. These Summer Roasted Vegetables are just another way to enjoy the produce of the season. The tomatoes and red pepper are what add that nice summer touch that differentiates these from your typical potato, carrot and onion roasted vegetables.

What adds the easy touch is the use of Cookin’ Greens™ by The Toby Brand™. Cookin’ Greens™ are a range of products of dark-leafy greens. The greens are farm picked and within six hours, double-washed, double blanched, chopped and quick-frozen for your convenience, locking in all of their flavour and nutritional benefits. I was able to throw in a bag of the Designer Mix – chopped spinach, collards, rapini, yellow beans and onion - right into my pan without any prep. To me the best part is the no crying while chopping onion!

Before my experience with Cookin’ Greens™, I’d never really used a lot of frozen vegetables in my kitchen, but after my great experience with their products, I can definitely see myself including more frozen veggies into my recipes. While you can purchase straight kale, spinach and rapini, it’s the Designer Mix and the Athlete’s Mix that stood out to me because they really reduce prep time and they add another layer of flavour.

Summer Roasted Vegetables (serves 4-6)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

1 500g bag Cookin’ Greens™ Designer Mix, frozen
6 mini potatoes, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
2 carrots, chopped into rounds
8 grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 red pepper, chopped into 1-2 inch pieces
5 cloves of garlic, quartered
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large pan combine vegetables and thyme.

Toss with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

I hope you enjoy these Summer Roasted Vegetables as much as my family did!

- Lou

Disclosure: I was provided with two coupons for two free packages of Cookin’ Greens. I was not compensated in any other way for writing this post. The decision to write about the product was my own and all opinions are 100% mine.

Tomato Garlic Swiss Chard

So here’s the thing, Tomato Garlic Swiss Chard is my new favourite. I make it at least weekly, but preferably daily. Kind of like that time when I would eat those little white sugared doughnuts daily. That was fun. But we’re trying to stay healthy here, so no more powdered sugared doughnuts, or Old Fashioned doughnuts, but if you are so inclined, these Muffin Doughnuts are pretty good. I think I’ll be making them today.

Last week I was deep into exam stress. Which for some people means stress eating chocolate, but for me it meant stress eating Swiss Chard. Like the way my puppy stress eats carrots during wind storms. We’re two peas in a pod me and my pup.

So, being done exams means that for me, it’s officially summer! I’ve got a lot of summery fresh and yummy Spring recipes that will be coming your way over the next few months, and this is the first. Swiss Chard is at its peak during the Spring, so give this recipe a go.

Tomato Garlic Swiss Chard (serves 2-4)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

5 cups chopped swiss chard leaves
1 tbsp oil + 1 1/2 tbsp water
5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/3 cup crushed tomatoes

Directions

Heat oil and water over medium heat, add garlic and saute for a minute.

Next, add the swiss chard leaves and cook for 2-3 minutes, the leaves will wilt but have a slight crunch.

Finally, add the crushed tomatoes, stirring to evenly coat swiss chard.

Serve as a side dish or on its own.

If your life is a little packed and busy right now, I think this Tomato Garlic Swiss Chard will be a healthy snack and time saver.

- Lou