Nearly Raw Tahini Noodles from Vegan Yum Yum

As the title states, this is a picture of the Nearly Raw Tahini Noodles from Vegan Yum Yum. If you haven’t picked up this cook book yet, I highly recommend that you do with haste! These recipes can stand up to the most biased of omnivorous palettes. For instance, this cool, creamy dish was really a delight on one of the hottest days of the year. The only heat applied was to boil the noodles and I didn’t have to stand there and roast the whole time, thank goodness. Also, I used udon noodles instead of fettuccini or whatever the recipe calls for so they only took 3 minutes to cook instead of the usual 8-10. I made one other change as well, instead of the regular green cabbage this recipe calls for, I used a small nappa cabbage which I like much better for its delicate texture and frizzy appearance. This would be a great dish to take to a picnic or potluck as it doesn’t have anything that is overly temperature sensitive and it’s meant to be served cool or at room temp. I can hardly wait to have it for lunch tomorrow!

The Last Of The Swiss Chard Soup

Sorry about not posting this sooner but I was out of town Saturday and the internet was down Sunday. however, I’m sure you’ll be glad you were patient because this post has some Wonderful things in it.

I’ll start with the soup and work backward, okay?

So Saturday I was visiting my mom and she showed me her Volumetrics cook book. Inside, there was a picture of a swiss chard soup that looked SUPER-yummy. So I used a little imagination and recreated it this evening for dinner. You even get the recipe since I (kind of) made it up as I went along. This soup turned out hearty and totally satisfying. I thought the amount of spice was perfect but if you’re a spice-wimp feel free to leave it out.

Swiss Chard and Garbanzo Soup

1/2lb. pasta shapes (I used brown rice tubatini)
2-3T olive oil
1 small onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/4 - 1/2 red pepper flake
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups of vegetable broth
1T tomato paste
1T Braggs Liquid Aminos
1 bunch of swiss chard, stemmed and chopped
Nutritional yeast for sprinkling

1. Put a pot of water on to boil and cook the pasta according to the package directions.

2.  Meanwhile, heat the oil in your favorite soup pot. Add the onion and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Add the garbanzos and red pepper flake and sauté for another 2 minutes.

3. Pour in the broth. Stir in the tomato paste and Braggs and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Add the swiss chard and simmer for  more minutes.

5. Turn off the heat, add the pasta, and serve with a generous sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

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Yesterday, Mr. Crow picked up our CSA! Look what we got!

Nothing too exotic but I’ll see what I can do about that!

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Last Saturday I showed you a picture of my zephyrs. Today I show you a picture of what I did with them:

So, this is the Hurry-Up Alfredo from Vegan Yum Yum but I added about 1/2 a cup of sundried tomatoes to it. What a discovery! I tossed that with some whole wheat linguini and we topped it with some breaded and baked zephyr. This was super-excellent and a definite “keeper”.

Things: Bought & Made

I knew what I wanted for dinner, oh yes. I wanted Lauren Ulm’s Hurry-Up Alfredo sauce (check out her cool cook book!). Thus, Mr. Crow and I went to the Ol’e B&N to pick up a copy her much beloved cookbook. While there, I saw a copy of American Vegan Kitchen which was mentioned on the Vegan Dad blog (that rocks my socks) and a book called The Urban Vegan (which I happen to be) so, for whatever reason, like a girl possessed by the spirit of capitalism, I bought all 3 cookbooks. *sigh* Money may not be able to buy you happiness but a cookbook is a very close second, I dare say. So get ready for some recipe reviews and photos, kids!

The herb garden on my window sill got a little revamp, too. There was some scrap wood outside of our apartment so we snagged it and Mr. Crow made a brand new planter for the basil and sage. Sadly, the parsley did not get transplanted as it had strangled itself before the project was done. Ah well, it was the curly-leaf kind anyway.

It doesn’t look like much but it won’t blow over in the tremendous wind we’ve got up here on the 3rd floor and it has this rustic vibe that I really enjoy. Say what you will, but it was a labor of love.

In other news, Clean-Out-Your-Fridge-Freezer-And-Pantry Week is going rather well. All expired food is gone, leftovers are being defrosted and nommed, and the pantry is finally organized. All of this is in preparation for the day when we get to pick up our first installment of our Wayward Seed CSA! Yeay! It’s a real “advengetable”! This particular farm specializes in heirloom veggies so we’ll be getting things as yet uneaten by either of us! I can hardly wait, but I must. . .until the 12th. Pictures will follow along with recipes galore!