Throw Together Rice & Bean Soup

Today is Earth Day. 

What could be better than a day dedicated to reminding us to care for the very planet that cares for us?

This makes us think about what can we do to make a difference? Obviously, we can walk or bike instead of driving, turn off lights in empty rooms, lower our thermostats in the winter, etc. 

What about food?

• We can buy food that is sustainably raised. I look for organic, bio-dynamic and sustainable labels on my food when I can. I shop at Farmer's Markets whenever possible to meet the farmers who are growing my food.
• I look to the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 to inform my purchases about pesticide loads in produce. 
• I eat a plant-based diet. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation."

Some people think that eating a plant-based or vegan diet can be really hard, especially for busy families. There are plenty of recipes here and all over the Internet that show how easy it can be to eat vegan, whether for a meal here or there, or all the time.

When I'm busy, I love to throw together a nourishing delicious soup that can feed us for dinner and get packed in thermal containers for lunches over the next day or two.

This one is a variation of a dish I make all fall, winter and spring. This week, I used pre-chopped veggies from Trader Joe's, other times I use what's plentiful at the Farmer's Market.

Top your thickened soup the next day with fresh tomatoes.

Throw Together Rice and Bean Soup (vegan, gluten-free, food allergen free)
Makes approximately 10 servings

Ingredients:

• 5 cups chopped vegetables (carrots, cabbage, broccoli, celery, green pepper, red pepper, etc.)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 3/4 cups cooked beans)
• 1 1/2 cups brown rice
• 2 vegan gluten-free bullion cubes
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 8-10 cups water (depending on desired thickness)

Preparation:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large stockpot .
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes, or until rice is cooked.
4. Soup will thicken as it sits. Eat it as a stew the next day or thin with more water.
5. Refrigerate uneaten portions for 3-4 days, or freeze for 3 months.

This recipe was shared with Allergy Free Wednesday!

Happy Cooking!

Kim 

My new book,  Super Seeds, is available now! You can also find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen & Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes.

Read More

Recipe for Chard and Chickpea Soup and a Review of Ricki Heller's Living Candida-Free

My own copy of Living Candida-Free by Ricki Heller.

How to feel satisfied and still live within a restricted diet? That is the challenge facing so many people, whether it's due to allergies, intolerance, or other health issues.

For years, my friend, Ricki Heller, has been providing folks who live with Candida Related Complex (CRC) with a feeling of abundance. She has written hundreds of recipes for her website, rickiheller.com,  that are not only gluten-free and vegan, but also reside within the confines of the the anti-candida diet.

Candida Related Complex is a condition where the candida yeast (a normally occurring yeast that makes up part of the human biome) grows excessively, resulting in a host of symptoms ranging from the inconvenient to the debilitating.

Ricki's newest book, Living Candida-Free, written with nutritionist Andrea Nakayama, is so incredibly informative about the basics of digestion, how CRC develops, and what is necessary to do to get your body back in whack. I love how thoroughly researched this topic is by two incredibly smart nutrition-educated women. Ricki writes with such a friendly and accessible voice, while holding your hand through complex information.

If you or someone you know is struggling with CRC (or wondering what might be contributing to health conditions ranging form digestion woes, skin issues, joint pain, thrush, etc.), I encourage you to read this book, Living Candida-Free. It will provide you with the information you need to talk to your own healthcare provider about whether candida is the culprit.

Once you get past the information, though, you get to the recipes -- recipes that bring hope for a full, rich diet while traveling along the road to improved health.

Ricki was generous to share a recipe with us. This soup is exactly the kind of soup I enjoy. Flavorful broth supporting tender greens and creamy chickpeas. 

Photo by Nicole Axworthy

Quick and Easy Chard and Chickpea Soup
Reprinted by permission from Living Candida-Free by Ricki Heller, PhD, RHN (DaCapo Press, 2015)

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil, preferably organic
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 bunch chard (6 to 8 leaves), stems removed and chopped, leaves shredded (2 to 3 cups leaves)
• 4 cups vegetable broth or stock (homemade or use organic with no sugar or additives)
• 3 cups canned diced tomatoes
• 2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons dried basil, or 1/4 cup fresh
• 1/2 teaspoon onion salt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taaste
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preparation:

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat and add the onion and garlic.  Saute until the onion is translucent, for about 8 minutes.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, except the lemon juice, and bring to a light boil.
3. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and simmer until all the vegetables are soft and the flavors are well combined, for about 30 minutes.
4. Add the lemon juice; stir and adjust the seasonings. 
5. Serve.
6. May be frozen.

Want to try some more recipes from Living Candida-Free?
Spabettie shared Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles (Yum!)
Recipe Renovator shared Single-Serve Pancakes (Great idea!)
The Blender Girl has a thorough review along with the recipe for Chard & Chickpea Soup.

Happy Cooking!
Kim

My new book, SUPER SEEDS, is available now! You can also find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes.

Read More

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili from Super Seeds

My new year started out with a bang! I was fortunate to get to share some healthy cooking with WGN TV on New Year's Day.  I made Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili from Super Seeds. This recipe is truly one of my favorites. It's quick to come together, it's nutritious, and it's really delicious. In case you didn't get to see it, I'm sharing the recipe here, too. Also, here's a link to my segment.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili (from Super Seeds: The Complete Guide to Cooking with Power-Packed Chia, Quinoa, Flax, Hemp & Amaranth)

Makes 6 Servings

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 medium onions, cut into medium dice (approximately 3 cups)

3 medium garlic cloves, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds removed, minced

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into medium dice

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon salt

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes (3 cups)

1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 ¾ cups cooked black beans)

1 cup prepared quinoa

Preparation:

1. In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add onions, garlic, jalapeno pepper, and sweet potato. Saute approximately 5 minutes, or until vegetables are soft.
3. Add remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, or until heated through. 
   
   Happy Cooking!
   Kim
   
   My new book,  Super Seeds, is available now! You can also find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen & Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes.

Read More

The Blender Girl Cookbook and a Recipe for Watermelon Gazpacho

Did you ever get a treat in the mail that was even better than you had hoped? That is exactly how I feel about my copy of The Blender Girl Cookbook by Tess Masters. Not only does it contain 100 easy, healthy gluten-free and vegan recipes, but it is chock full of tips, information, advice and Tess' warm personality.

This book delivers on its promise for "super-easy" and "super-healthy" recipes. I had friends over yesterday at the last minute to celebrate a friend's new baby (the beautiful Eden). I needed a company-worthy dish that came together quickly and that wouldn't burn the baby if we dropped some on her head! I whipped up the watermelon gazpacho from The Blender Girl Cookbook, and it was delightful. It was fresh and summery and made the lunch feel like a party.

Each of the recipes is gluten-free and vegan (so egg, dairy and animal-free), but nuts and soy are present in a fair number of the recipes. I think the book is still worthwhile, even with those allergies, though, because there is so much information that will be helpful to anyone interested in healthy eating, and there are many recipes that will work regardless of restriction.

Did I mention that this book is GORGEOUS? 
My soup turned out beautiful, but I could not come close to capturing is prettiness like the picture in the book does, so I'm going to show you that one (with permission, of course)!

Photo Credit: Anson Smart

This recipe for Watermelon Gazpacho is provided courtesy of Tess Masters and The Blender Girl Cookbook.

watermelon gazpacho is the bomb!

The name says it all. Gazpacho rocks, and this concoction delivers a surprising taste

explosion with every spoonful. A happy blend of sweet and spicy, the flavors in this

chilled first course or main mellow nicely with time. In fact, the change in flavor

is quite pronounced. This is particularly true of the onion. Like a fabulous sangria

(see page 174), this soup is better the next day. But, it’s delicious a few hours after

preparing, so don’t feel like you have to wait beyond the three-hour chill.

• serves 8 as a starter, 6 as a main
• 4 cups (640g) roughly chopped seedless watermelon, plus 6 cups (960g) diced
• 2 cups (300g) diced tomato
• 1 cup (145g) peeled, seeded, and diced cucumber
• 1/2 cup (70g) diced red bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons diced red onion, plus more to taste
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped basil
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped mint
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, plus more to taste
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon minced green serrano chile, plus more to taste
• 1/2 tablespoon natural salt, plus more to taste
• Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Put the 4 cups of chopped watermelon into your blender and puree on high for 30 to 60 seconds,until liquefied. Pour into a serving bowl. 

Add the 6 cups of diced watermelon and all the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine well. Tweak flavors to taste (you may want more onion, lime juice, chile, or salt).

Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours, but preferably 12 to 24 hours to allow the flavors to fuse and the vibrant red color to develop. Before serving, tweak flavors again (if it’s too spicy, add some lime juice). Pass additional lime juice and salt at the table.

Some of my other favorites from this book are: 

• Ginger Apple Pear Butter
• If You're Chilly Grab Some Chili 
•  Cheerful Chimichurri Bowl
• Pineapple Vanilla Sangria

Happy Cooking!
Kim

My new book,  Super Seeds, is available now! You can also find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen & Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes.

Read More

Save Money and Make Your Own Vegetable Stock

I reuse jars from jam, coconut oil, etc. to store my stock.

I told you about the slow cooker class I ran at our local food pantry.  

One of the things we talked about in the class was how to turn your kitchen scraps into a rich, flavorful vegetable stock.

Kitchen scraps? I mean the odd bits of carrots, onions, onion peel, garlic bits, broccoli stems, scallion greens, etc., that you don't need for a recipe and that often end up in the trash or compost.

Kitchen scraps straight from the freezer ready to become stock.

Instead of tossing all those odds and ends, gather them up in a freezer-safe bag or container and put them in the freezer.  Keep adding to your container any time you have some vegetable scraps. You can even include the papery exterior of onions and garlic. Just make sure everything is washed before you cut them up, and you will know that your scraps are clean.

Once you've collected a fair amount of scraps saved (for this batch, I used two quart-size freezer bags), you're ready to convert them into a lovely stock.

Dump the frozen vegetable scraps into your slow cooker. Top with water, leaving a couple of inches at the top. You could be done with it cooking on high for 4 hours, but the flavor will be deeper if you let it cook for 6 to 8.

Just add water!

When it's done cooking, strain it through a colander. Use the back of a spoon to press down on the vegetables and get as much liquid out as you can.

You can refrigerate it in jars or freeze it in 2-cup batches for later use.  

This is a basic, unseasoned stock. You can add salt, pepper and other flavors to your liking either when you're making the stock or after it's finished.

With 2 quart bags full of scraps, I got over 3 quarts of vegetable stock. 

You can use your stock as a base for soup, as a cooking medium for rice, quinoa or amaranth.

I shared this post with Wellness Weekend and Gluten-free Fridays.

Happy Cooking!
Kim

My new book,  Super Seeds, is available now! You can also find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen & Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes.

Read More

Soup, Slow Cookers and the Food Pantry

You can make a nourishing soup out of food pantry staples.

I have so many things that I have wanted  to tell you about. Now that I've turned in my new book, SUPER SEEDS, I have a little more time to get to all the things I've been saving up.  I still have reviews to get to, a giveaway on deck, and a veggie festival to tell you about.

Today, I want to tell you about a pilot project I ran at our local food pantry. 

After I saw the moving film, A Place at the Table, about hunger in America, I really wanted to do something more to help. 

This was our load from the week after Thanksgiving! My car was full!

One thing that I was already doing is that I am part of a volunteer team that picks up produce, deli items, etc., from our local Whole Foods and brings them to our local food pantry. We get loads of food that might not look quite beautiful enough to make it onto the shelves at Whole Foods, but are still perfect for eating. Other volunteer teams get excess from 7-Eleven and other local stores. 

If you want to help your local food pantry, this is a great way. The homeless women and children's program I work for gets donations from Trader Joe's and Panera. Lots of food companies are committed to donating their extra food, they just need volunteers to connect their excess with the food pantries, shelters and soup kitchens who can use it.

I wanted to do something more. 

It occurred to me that the Internet is packed with blogs and posts about how a slow cooker can really stretch a food budget. Not only do slow cookers allow home cooks the opportunity to cook less-expensive bulk items (like dried beans) in a convenient way, but they allow the time-crunched cook a chance to make something wholesome and homemade, even when there is no time after coming home from work and needing to get dinner on the table.

In addition to saving time and money, slow cookers can transform food pantry staples like canned vegetables, fruits and beans into more exciting and nutritious soups, stews and chilis easily.

I set out to connect slow cookers and a little information with food pantry consumers.

Our first class was for 5 people. Each participant came away with a sheet that explained cooking dried beans in a slow cooker, how to make a vegetable stock out of kitchen scraps, how to bake potatoes and sweet potatoes and the basics of making soup in a slow cooker. Each of the participants also received a programmable slow cooker (a really pretty seasonal Crock Pot) to take home with them. Through questions and answers, we discussed making overnight oats, stretching a can of chili into a meal, and how to boost the nutrition of lots of meals by incorporating the beans cooked in the slow cooker and using those canned veggies and fruits. It was a huge success.

We are looking forward to offering the class again in the future.

Slow cookers are also great for serving soup!

Here is the basic soup I provided in the handout.

BASIC SOUP

Empty one can tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, etc., into the crock pot.

Add any other pureed canned vegetables (canned pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potatoes).

Add any chopped fresh vegetables (except for leafy vegetables, like spinach).

Add any dry rice or grains.

Add cooked beans that have been rinsed and drained.

Add any spices, salt and pepper.

Add water to cover by at least two inches.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

In the last half hour before serving, add any quick-cooking vegetables and rinsed canned vegetables (like corn, carrots, green beans, etc.), and any cooked pasta or rice.

Add more water to thin to desired consistency.

This was shared with Mix It Up Monday and Thrifty Thursday!

Happy Cooking! 

Kim

My new book Super Seeds, is available now! You can also find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen & Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes.

Read More

Soup & Bread at the Hideout (with a recipe for Vegan Cream of Tomato Soup)

Did you ever put yourself out there?  Try something out of your comfort zone?

I did that twice last week.  (And though it was a little nerve-wracking, it felt really good.)

First up was Soup & Bread at the Hideout in Chicago.   This is a pretty inspirational event.  Several soup makers from different backgrounds (artists, home cooks, chefs, bloggers, etc.) donate soup that they've made, and a couple of bakeries donate bread, and folks make a donation to try lots of yummy soups with the proceeds going to different charities.  The charity for our night was our local food pantry (coincidentally, for whom I also do a little volunteering), Common Pantry.

This year, each of the soup nights has a theme.  Our theme for the day before Valentine's Day was Love, Lust and Hate.  I made my soup with the super-talented Helen Tsatsos, jewelry designer behind Rock Candy by Helen.  (If you're looking for creative, unique jewelry check out her creations!)

We made a tomato soup (love in a bowl, right?!) with the secret ingredients of coconut milk (kinda lusty) and Marmite -- the British yeast spread (hated by most Americans -- except for those who love it, like Helen!).  We also had spiced cashews that people could sprinkle on as a topping, but it was allergen-free without the nuts.

Of course the soup was vegan.  Of course it is delicious!  Who knew that combining Marmite with coconut milk would create a rich, flavorful soup base?

The next night, a group of my friends and I participated in a mini-flash mob as part of One Billion Rising during a figurative art show that benefited the Center for Advancing Domestic Peace, Inc.   The show was entitled em|body|peace, and it was also very inspirational to see how talented my neighbors are.  

If you're looking for a delicious and loving vegan cream of tomato soup to warm up a February night, give this recipe a try!

Love Conquers All Vegan Cream of Tomato Soup
Makes 4 servings (cup-of-soup size serving)

Ingredients:
1 cup light coconut milk
2 teaspoons Marmite yeast spread (if Marmite isn't available, you can substitute miso paste.)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

Preparation:
In a bowl or measuring cup, mix together coconut milk and Marmite.  Set aside.
In a large saucepan or small stockpot, heat olive oil over medium heat.
Add onions, cook until soft.
Add tomatoes and coconut milk mixture.  Stir to combine.  Cook for approximately 10 minutes, or until heated through.
Transfer soup to blender and blend until smooth.
Reheat blended soup in pot.
Serve topped with crushed spiced nuts or seeds (optional)



Happy Cooking!
Kim

My new book Super Seeds, is available now! You can also find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen & Gluten-Free Vegan Recipes.

Read More