Carrot Curry Soup

Here is another super simple soup.

1 cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic minced (or 1 fresh clove garlic)
1 square curry or 1 Tbsp curry powder
4 cups vegetable broth
2 lbs carrots, pealed and sliced
1/2 cup half and half, or canned milk
In a skillet  heat oil and add onion, and garlic, and cook until onions are translucent and slightly brown.  Put onion mixture, curry, broth, and carrots into a crock pot.  Cook on low for 6+ hours or on high for 4 hrs.  With a slotted spoon, scoop the carrots and onions into a blender.  Add half and half, or milk. Blend, adding enough of the remaining broth that the mixture blends thoroughly and is the desired consistency.

Serve with your favorite bread

For a middle-eastern variation, use coconut milk instead of half and half.   Serve with naan or focaccia bread

For a low-fat vegan variation, omit the olive oil (instead spray skillet with your favorite cooking spray) and the half and half.  Serve with a vegan whole wheat bread.

I can imagine, if I were entertaining, making both the fresh pea soup, and this soup, offering a variety of artisan bread, and using the colors to make quite a pretty table.

Fresh Pea Soup

This recipe was so fast and I liked it a lot. It has a fresher flavor than split pea soup. It is from the Cook's Encyclopedia (with modifications). This recipe only makes enough for 2 people if you are eating it as a main dish.

Cook
1/2 cup chopped onions or shallots
in
2 Tbsp of butter
 in a saucepan until lightly browned.
Add
2 cups water or veggie broth (I used veggie broth)
3 cups fresh peas (frozen are fine)
Season with salt and pepper to taste
Simmer about 12 minutes
Blend in a food processor until smooth
While hot, ladle into bowls and top with either drizzled cream, a dollop of sour cream or a few dots of cream cheese.

Serve with your favorite side bread

For a low-fat vegan variation, omit butter (use a little cooking spray in the skillet instead) and drizzle with low-fat almond milk instead of cream, sourcream or cream cheese.

So easy, so yummy.

Cookbooks

Here is a note about cookbooks.  I got Betty Crocker Vegetarian Cooking when I first decided to do a vegetarian summer.  I chose it because I wanted mainstream recipes that weren't too spicy.  It has some recipes I like, but a lot of them are just their other recipes, but they have substituted TVP (textured vegetable protein, i.e.) in place of the meat.  I don't want to use fake meat... like...ever. 




Recently I picked up a vegetarian cook book at a thrift store.  It is called The Cook's Encyclopedia of Vegetarian Cooking by Lina Fraser.  I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but I plan to this week.  It looks promising, and none of the recipes call for imitation meat substitute.

The Last Meal

It is May 30th and I just cooked my last meal with meat for the next 3 months (Salmon and ham fried rice)  Actually, that isn't exactly true.  I am going to make a turkey dinner when I have company on Sunday, but that doesn't count.  I am not going to be militant about this, but mostly, for the next 3 months, I will be cooking and eating pretty much without meat.  I don't know how it will be and how much I will miss the meat, but here we go.

Black Bean and Green Chili Enchiladas

I cooked this for Sunday dinner, adapting a bean recipe from Betty Crocker and using it in my normal enchilada recipe instead of meat.

In the crock pot combine:
8 oz dried black beans

I forgot to take a picture until we had already eaten some.

1/2 cup chopped onions
3/4 cup chopped bell pepper (red or green)
2 tsp chopped garlic (about 2 cloves)
1 bay leaf
1 cup diced tomatoes
2 1/2 cups water
2 tsp cumin
1 small can green chilis
1/2 tsp salt

 Cook over low heat for 6 hours or more
add 1 1/2 cup cooked rice (optional) and stir into the beans.

45 minutes before serving time get out:
10 corn tortillas
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (about 4 oz)
1 cup sour cream
1 can green chili enchilada sauce (28 oz or so)

Heat a skillet on medium heat.Pour enough of the green chili sauce in the bottom of a 9X13 casserole dish to cover the bottom. Put one tortilla on the dry skillet to heat for about a minute. Remove it and, using a hot pad to hold it, fill it with some of the bean mixture, sour cream, and cheese.  Roll in up and place it in the dish on top of the chili sauce, folded side down.  Repeat with all of the tortillas.  Pour the rest of the green chili sauce over the enchilada rolls and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until heated through.  Serve with shredded lettuce.

This is a lot of work, but I really like enchiladas and it makes enough for us to have it for two meals.

Note: To make this low-fat and vegan, peal and grate 4 carrots. Stir fry until soft.  Substitute the carrots for the cheese and sour cream when assembling the enchiladas.  I was surprised how good the carrots taste in the enchiladas.  It also made this meal easier to digest since I wasn't mixing protein and dairy.

Shopping

I went grocery shopping this week and had a strange experience.  I was walking down the meat isle and suddenly all the meat looked like dead animals to me. I kind of seemed disgusting.  I guess it is because I have been thinking about vegetarianism and why people chose a vegetarian life style. The experience made me understand why some people might choose vegetarianism permanently.  It really does not seem right that I should kill something to eat, when I could find plenty of good things to eat without killing other animals. 

That said, I went home and the next day made chicken soup, and it tasted delicious.  I understand that humans are naturally omnivorous, and it is in our nature to eat meat.  Both sides of the argument make sense to me.

Graham Muffins

I usually make muffins for Sunday morning breakfast.  When I had kids at home it simplified the morning because they could grab one whenever they were ready to eat, and I didn't have to bother with a lot of plates and silverware to wash.  Now that I am an empty-nester, I have continued the tradition.  I had some graham flour lying around the house, so I looked up a recipe for graham muffins. As usual, I modified the recipe to suit my personal tastes.

Graham Muffins

mix together:
1 cup white flour
1 cup graham flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar (the original recipe called for white)
1/2 tsp salt

in a separate bowl mix together
1 egg
1 cup milk (I used soy milk)
4 tbsp melted butter
cinnamon sugar * (optional)

Add the dry and wet ingredients and stir until everything is moistened.  Put in cup cake tins and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if desired. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.

*Cinnamon sugar: 1 cup sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon.  Mix until blended and store in a shaker bottle.