Indian Supplies

My mom is awesome and also got me The Indian Slow Cooker for my birthday.  It's not a vegetarian cookbook per se, but most of the recipes are naturally vegan, which makes sense because the author has been vegan for most of her adulthood.  She has a second book called Vegan Indian Cooking, which I do not have.  (Yet.)

Last week I made the Punjabi kidney beans from this book because it was the only one for which I had all the ingredients.  My one complaint is that the recipes make a huge amount of food, and there are only two of us in the McClure household - but mainly I am making these things to eat for breakfast throughout the week, so if I get five breakfasts out of one recipe and have to throw some food out on Friday night, I still figure I am coming out ahead.  Also, the kidney beans are awesome and the recipe is online.  You should make them.  The cinnamon is key.

Today I drove the million (20?) miles to the Around the World Market, which is the best Indian market in the Raleigh area.  I got SO MUCH STUFF.  I made a list of all the sorts of beans I was supposed to buy, but then I got there and found I had not included enough detail on the list, so decided to play it safe and if they had versions of the same bean that were split, whole, etc., I went ahead and got them all.  I figure we will eat them eventually.  Plus they were only $3 each (or less!).  And now we are all set for at least a couple of months if there is an apocalypse.

I also replenished my stock of tamarind concentrate and got a huge bag of cinnamon sticks for $1.25, some paneer (not vegan!), and spices for Chana Masala.  And also some pad thai noodles, which for some reason they sell at very affordable prices at the Indian market.

I am SET.  Lots of crockpot Indian stuff coming our way this winter.

Atomic Tofu Pecan Loaf

I started making vegan dinners over two years ago and pretty often I still choose a recipe specifically because it sounds kind of hilarious.  I have no idea why this tofu pecan loaf (from Vegan Slow Cooker) is called atomic.  It seems like that should mean spicy, but it's not spicy at all!  It's another vegetarian meat-style loaf, this time made primarily from a picture of TVP, tofu, pecans, and oat bran.  I make another one from Vegan Diner sometimes but it's more complicated - this took no time to put together and cooked all day in the crockpot.  Look how realistic it is!

I've always topped meat loaf with ketchup, but this one is a half & half mixture of ketchup and A-1 steak sauce, which I totally recommend.  It adds some zest!  Maybe that's the atomic part.

Crockpot Chickpea Vegetable Stew

This started off as Spring Minestrone from Vegan Slow Cooker, but I ended up changing so many things I will call it something else and tell you what's in it so you can make it yourself!  And you should, because it's delicious.

1/2 a diced onion
3 cloves garlic
1-inch piece lemon peel
1 16 oz can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
3 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 cans rinsed & drained)
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 yellow squash, diced
1 bunch kale, cut into ribbons or bite sized pieces
5 cups water
1 Tbsp dried oregano
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until soft.  Add to the crockpot, along with the lemon peel, tomatoes, chickpeas, carrots, and squash.  Add the oregano, about a tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper and the water.  (I did all this stuff the night before and stuck the whole thing in the fridge overnight to avoid having to deal with it in the morning.) Cook on low all day.

About a half hour before serving, add the kale and more salt & pepper if you want.

The end!

Lentil & Split Pea Soup

We went on vacation!  We are just back from a week of eating (and walking, fortunately) our way through Quebec.  A trip report will be forthcoming soon, but in the meantime we are in bigtime detox mode with lots of healthy good vegetabley meals.

Tonight we had a crock pot lentil, split pea, and spinach soup.  The recipe is from The Vegan Slow Cooker, and it was great.

I am so ready for it to be appropriate weather for this type of meal!  Summer food is not my favorite.

Mojito Beans & Rice

One thing I'm in love with lately is making a batch of beans in the crockpot while I'm at work, and then having them over rice with tons of chopped avocado and tomato for dinner.  These are the mojito pinto beans in Vegan Slow Cooker, which necessitated me making a trip to the state-owned liquor store for 2 airplane bottles of rum.  If there is anything that makes me feel seedy, it's going to the state-owned liquor store.

I roasted some broccoli for extra vegetables.  Super healthy, delicious dinner!

Tofu & Spinach Curry

Oh look, it's another crock pot Indian curry!  This is called "Butter Chick'n" in The Vegan Slow Cooker but I am not calling it that because 1. no butter and 2. no chicken.  Or chick'n.  It just has tofu.

So, that said, it does have Earth Balance and soy milk stirred in at the end to give it some creaminess and we both agreed it's the best crock pot curry yet (and I think it's the fourth one I've made from the book).  I did add spinach so I wouldn't have to cook a green vegetable on the side, and I kind of can't imagine it without - I think it would be kind of wimpy with just the tofu and tomatoes.  But maybe most people make more than one dish for most meals instead of eating a big bowl full of one thing like we normally do.

Crockpot Eggplant Curry

I love my crock pot and The Vegan Slow Cooker!!

This is a simple eggplant curry to which I added chickpeas, and served it over rice. I also cooked some collards on the side for greenness.

It's a shame eggplant looks so nasty in pictures because it is gooood when it gets all smooth and velvety after being in a crock pot for nine hours.

Sweet & Sour Stir-fry with Smoked Tofu

This looks like your average stir-fry but it is awesome for two reasons:

1. I made the smoked tofu myself.

2. The stir-fry is not actually stir-fried, but was instead cooked in the crockpot, which means I didn't have to do any work (besides chopping).

I've been on the library request list for The Vegan Slow Cooker for ages and it finally came in last week. It looked awesome enough that I ordered it from Amazon on Friday. I don't think I've used my crockpot once since we quit meat two and a half years ago, and I really missed being able to come home from work and have dinner waiting for me all ready to go.

There are a lot of basics in the book, in addition to what look to be really good recipes. For example, apparently you can do baked potatoes in the crock pot by poking holes in them and tossing them in there on low for 8 hours. WHAT?? Acquiring that knowledge alone was worth getting the book.

The smoked tofu was also done in the crockpot - I smoked it all day yesterday by putting a mixture of tea leaves, brown sugar, and rice in the bottom and setting the tofu in a steamer basket. The flavor wasn't all that strong, but the texture was amazing - nice and chewy the way the pre-baked Trader Joe's stuff is. She has some other flavoring ideas for smoked tofu so I'm excited to try more of them.

So for this dinner, I just threw that tofu in there with some carrots & onions, and added pineapple, red pepper, and broccoli about 45 minutes before dinner time. The sauce is pineapple juice, ginger, and soy sauce. I only use reduced sodium soy sauce so I did need to add some salt at the end (and some pepper, too). I almost always find that I need extra seasoning for crock pot recipes - it will be interesting to see if that continues with other recipes in the book. Anyway, I'm all excited now for future crock pot adventures, especially now that summer is coming and I won't want to use the oven.