Tag: Vegetarian

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Black Bean and Corn Salad

  • 2 T extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 red pepper, diced
  • 1/2 small red onion, diced
  • 1/2 tsp Mexican oregano
  • Jalapeño pepper chopped (optional)
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 15 oz canned Low Sodium Black Beans, rinsed and drained
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • 1-1.5 T light brown sugar
  • dash salt
  • dash of ground black pepper
  • dash dried cilantro
  1. Prepare the dressing by mixing the olive oil, lime juice, spices, sugar, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
  2. Place everything else in a bowl. Dump the dressing in. Mix well.
  3. Put the bowl on the kitchen countertop and allow the corn to fully defrost
  4. If you have time, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge overnight to allow the flavors to marry. If not a good hour or two at room temperature should allow the flavors to marry.
  5. Before serving, toss, taste and adjust seasonings.

I  seriously wonder if there are any original recipes out there.  You think to yourself “Let’s make a black bean and corn thing tonight”.  So you do what everyone else does and hop on the internet to find numerous recipes that are pretty much the same. Full Disclosure: This recipe is a copycat and my inspiration was here.  I don’t want to be accused of stealing a recipe that everyone makes in some form or another. (I found this post in my list of unpublished drafts from years ago and just published so the link may not work).

Tips and Things Most Cooks Don’t Tell You.

I used garlic powder, not fresh garlic. Use fresh if you like BIG garlic flavor. Powder is more subtle. Instead of red onion I used sweet onion and only about a quarter cup. No jalepeno. Too spicy. Watch the size of your lime. I used the juice from a half of a lime but it was a huge lime.

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Lessons Learned From a Lifetime of Cooking #10

I’ve always preferred baking sweet potatoes over boiling and mashing sweet potatoes because my boiled version always turned out watery.

I just learned you have to boil the peeled sweet potatoes whole. After about 45-50 minutes check to see if the potatoes are cooked through. Then drain and return to the cooking pot. Turn the heat on to low and start smashing, and mashing while constantly stirring to avoid burning (I use a wooden spoon). After about five minutes a good amount of moisture will have evaporated from the potatoes. This is why sweet potatoes made this way aren’t too loose and watery. Add a splash of milk or half and half, a bunch of butter, salt and pepper to taste.

Memo to Self – buy more sweet potatoes, eat more sweet potatoes.

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Lessons Learned From a Lifetime of Cooking #9

Celery leaves. I always tossed them out until The Boss informed me she doesn’t like big chunks of celery in dishes I make that use celery for an ingredient. I recently discovered you can use celery leaves like a fresh herb, finely chopped and added to your creation in lieu of big chunks of celery. So far I haven’t gotten any complaints about the tiny green stuff floating in the soup.

10 Ways To Use Celery Leaves In The Kitchen.

Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1572645/uses-celery-leaves/

Memo to Self – instead of buying celery with less leaves buy celery with more leaves, especially bunches with dark green leaves which have a more intense flavor than the stalks.

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Health Benefits of Winter Squash

Just another Electronic Sticky Note to remind myself to eat more winter squashes besides my favorite Butternut. The Health Benefits of Winter Squash (Plus, 7 Types to Try) – https://vegnews.com/health-benefits-winter-squash-types-to-try

And as a reminder about my previous Electronic Sticky Note 42 Vegetarian Butternut Squash Recipes- Vegetarian Times to try some different preparations besides a simple roast or Butternut Squash Enchilada Casserole.

Lasagne? I’ve totally forgotten about Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagne.

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

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The Best Replacements for Meat and Milk (no, it’s not plant milks, veggie burgers or tofu)

Beans and peas are the best meat and milk replacement from nutritional, health, environmental, and cost perspectives.

Our findings suggest that suitable alternatives to meat and milk exist and are available and affordable without necessarily requiring new technologies or product development. This contrasts with discussions in high-income countries on the needs to develop novel replacement foods, especially those that would completely mimic meat and dairy (18). Our nutritional, health, environmental, and cost analyses suggest that if one is prepared to consider foods for their properties instead of whether they are completely mimicking meat or dairy—and surveys suggest that consumers are (49)—then unprocessed legumes are, for the most part, superior to processed alternatives. This is also relevant for low and middle-income countries where legumes are readily available, but discussions on processed meat and milk alternatives are at an earlier stage, despite diets rapidly becoming similarly imbalanced as in high-income countries (1, 50). M. Springmann, A multicriteria analysis of meat and milk alternatives from nutritional, health, environmental, and cost perspectives, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 121 (50) e2319010121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2319010121 (2024).

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Photo by Digital Buggu on Pexels.com

Keep it simple.

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Still Not Vegan 2.0

What do you get when a blogger https://theveganword.com/about/ analyzes the number of vegan restaurants from a vegan restaurant listing website https://www.happycow.net/?

You get modern day journalism. You get this:

The Cities With The Most Vegan Options Worldwide – https://www.statista.com/chart/19612/share-of-restaurants-classified-as-vegan-friendly/

Once a fringe movement, it is now firmly mainstream, something that is being reflected by increasing vegan options in restaurants and supermarkets.

Nope. Still a trendy thing on the fringe. Don’t take this the wrong way. I haven’t eaten any meat in several days. But please try to do just a little bit of serious research before jumping to conclusions.

Oh sorry, I forgot this was a food blog. If you’ve read this far, thank you for reading my mini-rant. And to think I started this post thinking about making a new to me chickpea recipe.

Electronic Sticky Notes

25 Vegan Chickpea Recipes – The First Mess

30 Recipes with a Can of Chickpeas

Keep it simple. Eat more plants.

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