Joe and Broth

See, I sat. Now can I have food?



Tired eyes.



Blurry, but he's still cute, and he still thinks I'm going to feed him.



Squirrel!

For Christmas, I received three cookbooks: Veganomicon, Quick-Fixed Vegetarian (actually a vegan cookbook), and Vegetarian. The last is acutally a lacto-ovo cookbook and I'm not very excited about it. It has many lovely pictures and tons of information, but it seems like most of the recipes call for some kind of animal products. Sure, I can substitute, but sometimes it's nice just to leave a recipe the way it is and not have to fiddle with it, you know?

Anyway, Veganomicon looks great! Quick-Fixed seems like a good one for those nights when I have a lot of homework and studying to do. Last night, I was going to make a mango quinoa salad from Veganomicon, but the mangoes weren't ripe enough to eat, so I decided to make Snobby Joes. Surprisingly, they were quite good. Here's the recipe (I've changed it a bit and scaled down the recipe so I don't have so many servings):



Snobby Joes

1/2 cup uncooked lentils
2 cups of water
oil (optional, I sauté with water)
1 yellow onion, finely diced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons chile powder
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 cup tomato sauce (if you have some left over from a can, freeze it in a zip lock bag for later use)
1/8 cup tomato paste (or 2 TB)
2 teaspoons agave nectar or maple syrup
1-2 teaspoons yellow mustard (like French's)
bread

In a small sauce pan, combine the lentils and water. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

After the lentils have cooked for 10 minutes, preheat a medium-sized sauce pan and sauté the onion (this recipe calls for a green bell pepper, but I despise bell peppers. If you decide to use it, sauté with the onions) until softened. When the lentils are done, stir them into the onions and add the chile powder, oregano, tomato paste, and tomato sauce. Stir well and simmer over very low heat for about 10 minutes. About a minute before it's done, add the garlic. Turn off the heat and stir in the mustard and sweetneer and let it sit for 10 more minutes or so to let the flavors meld. Spread this mixture on sesame buns, kaiser rolls, or just plain whole wheat bread. Enjoy!

If you have some left over, freeze it.

I also made some vegetable broth. It can be used to help add some flavor to soups and other dishes and is much more economical than buying pre-made (not to mention healthier).

Basic Veggie Broth

1 large or two small onions, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 potatoes, quartered then halved
3-4 celery ribs, including leaves, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
12 cups of water
2 tablespoons tamari
big palmful of dried parsley
1 large teaspoon black peppercorns

This makes about 5-8 cups.

In a large stockpot, Sauté the onions carrots, potatoes, celery and garlic until soft (cover the pot to do this), about five minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer (medium high heat, probably), and simmer uncovered for about an hour.

Strain out the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into another pot, pressing out the good vegetable juices with a spoon.

Now your broth is done. I freeze mine in zip-lock bags in 1 cup portions. This will keep in the refrigerator for four days or in the freezer for about three months.