Vegan Recipes and Plant Based Cooking

I've only ever had harissa from Stonewall Kitchen. It was a gift. I'd never heard of it before. It was delicious. I don't know how authentic it was or wasn't. I have no context. That is the only harissa I've ever had. I've looked for it in the supermarket, but haven't found any. Since I enjoyed it so much, I decided to make my own. Mine doesn't replicate that of Stonewall Kitchen, but it has that similar sweet and spicy quality that made me like it so much. It's a simple set of ingredients that combine to create a complex sauce. 1 24 ounce jar roasted red peppers 3 cloves garlic 1 jalapeno 1 puya dried chile 2 tbls olive oil 1 tsp cumin seed 1 tsp coriander seed 3 pieces allspice 2 1/2 tsps salt Add it all to a blender, including the liquid from the roasted red peppers. Puree until smooth. Chill in the fridge for a few hours to thicken. It tastes as good as it looks!

I got this idea from an episode of Chopped. One of the competitors made a savory oatmeal. He did it in a risotto sort of style. Sauteing the oats with the veg. Using that as a jumping off point, I just decided to try using oats where I'd normally use rice or pasta. It works really well. Oats deserve a place as the main grain in vegetarian and vegan meals. The best part is you don't need to cook the oats. You can do overnight oats and then just pair then with your prepared legumes and vegetables. In this case, I did sauted lentils with peppers and onions. I really like the flavor that results from the sauteing process. So I par cooked the lentils before adding the veg and spices.Then saute it all together to finish. It results in great textures as well as great flavors. It's easy to do. Because I don't like cleaning a lot of pans, all the actions happens in one. First you simmer the lentils in some salted water until almost tender. Then you turn up the heat, add oil an

If you've had charred cauliflower and enjoyed it, this is something else you'll probably like a lot. Same principal, different cruciferous vegetable. Chop white cabbage fairly small. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Go heavy on the salt and don't skimp on the oil, but don't drown it either. Put it on a sheet pan in a single layer. Broil on high near the top of the oven for 12-15 minutes until nicely charred. It gets that same nutty flavour that people love in charred cauliflower. It gets crispy edges and creamy bits. It's a textural and flavor epiphany. It's great to top other dishes. Try it on top of pasta to replace the grated cheese..It works as a base for salad. On sandwiches. Or you can just munch on a bowl of it. It's that good.

I have a bit of a story to tell regarding food and chemical sensitivities. It's been a trying few months. Every time I ate I felt congested and like I was coming down with a cold. I was certain that wasn't the case though. Since hours later, I would feel fine again. I wasted a lot of time blaming a lot of innocent foods. Finally I hit upon some real correlation. I had a terrible few days after eating a bunch of potato chips and few cans of diet soda. So at last, I asked myself what canned soda and potato chips have in common. Nothing?  Except the packaging. Soda cans are lined with plastic as are potato chip bags. I also eat a lot of beans and soy. Which are already known to masquerade as human hormones. I had been using the bean can liquid to make sauces. So I was getting a big dose of plastic from the brine the canned beans were packaged with. Certain chemical that are leached by plastic have a similar effect on the body. Disrupting natural hormones. And I was ingesting a lot