in_the_blue: (pretty spike)
1. Cook 1 cup of quinoa. (I used red quinoa because it was on hand.) (To cook: dump 1 c. quinoa and 2 c. water in a pot. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.)

2. Preheat the oven to 375.

3. In the meantime, chop up 1/2 onion and a bunch of mushrooms. I like criminis, mostly because the name is fun to say. Sautee the whole affair in a bit of olive oil, along with a bunch of parsley, minced garlic, a couple splashes of Bragg's amino acids, until the mushrooms are reduced.

4. Once it's all cooked, dump the quinoa and sauteed veggies into a big bowl. Add about 10oz of mushroom gravy and a bunch of washed spinach. Mix it all together.

5. Pop the whole mushy mess into a lasagna pan (I like to use a smallish ceramic pan, but if you use a metal one you might want to oil the sides first) and press it down.

6. Optional: top with the cheese of your choice.

7. Cook for 35 minutes until the top is a little crusty.

8. Serve with a topping of even more mushroom gravy, because it's a lot more fun that way. Everything's better with gravy.

-

This was pretty fun to make. I guess you could really skip the whole baking element and just throw some gravy and veggies at a pile of quinoa, but I like the crusty top and slicing it into squares, ladling gravy on the top. Also, since quinoa absorbs all available liquid, you'll end up with some mushroom-infused quinoa when you let it bake.

You could put just about anything into this. To make it heftier, I added some Tofurkey kielbasa I had lying around. If you're a meat eater, you could easily add a bunch of bacon, because what's better with spinach than bacon (or so I hear)? Or add more veggies, whatever you have in the house that sounds good. The extra gravy really made this dish for me.
in_the_blue: (ed - jamming with edward)
Tonight, I made baked potato soup (!) from Smitten Kitchen.

IT IS REALLY GOOD! I didn't have bay leaves, I know, what the fuck kind of cook am I, right? and I didn't puree the ingredients at the end because I like chunks of potatoes (although I did use my potato masher to mash about half of them), but I also am a little bit in heaven right this very moment.

P.S. SOY BACON WORKS FINE AS A TOPPING.
P.P.S. Cheese-free comfort food!
in_the_blue: (ed - jamming with edward)
Hey there, boys and girls.

I rarely set concrete goals for myself; I know only too well that if I do, I'll push them and push them until they break. But this weekend I really wanted to cook something, dammit (I secretly love cooking complex things), and so I picked the mushroom bourguignon recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Yeah, I know, I could have picked something that wouldn't have taken as much time (just a little over two hours, including food prep time) but man, was it good. I give it two thumbs way up.

I've made a vegetarian bourguignon before using soy-beef, but I have to say, the portobello mushrooms cooked down to such a nice consistency that I didn't need fake meat. I served mine on yolkless (!) egg noodles, put a dollop of sour cream on it, and sprinkled fresh chives on top.

Things I would do differently next time (because you know I'm a rebel and have to put my own stamp on everything I touch): bigger chunks of carrots, because I like to taste those. Frozen and thawed pearl onions instead of fresh, because peeling those suckers is a pain in the ass. A richer, more full-bodied red wine, because that's the burgundy in bourguignon. And I would add some little baby potatoes to the mix. Leave out the sour cream, because it never does as much for me as I think it ought to.

If you have a couple hours and don't know what to do with them, I recommend this recipe! By the way, two pounds of portobello mushrooms is a lot. Just in case you had any doubt in your mind over it. Now to find something to make tomorrow. ♥
in_the_blue: (sushi)
vegetarian egg rolls )
in_the_blue: (pretty spike)
So tonight, I decided to make something pretty much from scratch, because reheating frozen stuff gets old. All I had in my mind was the basics of the recipe -- chick peas (garbanzos) and tomatoes -- and let the idea mull all day. This is what I came up with.

I've been experimenting with using different spices from the ones I tend to always put in things, trying to make my originally-conceived dishes all be distinctly different from one another. Here's what I came up with.

onward to the recipe )

I liked it. If you make it and improve on it, let me know?

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in_the_blue: (Default)
g.j.

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