Taco Tuesday - lentil tacos

It's Taco Tuesday!  I had some lentils left over from a few days ago that I wanted to use up, so I decided to make lentil tacos.  But the recipe I have calls for chili powder, which I didn't have, so I first had to make chili powder.  I used this recipe but doubled the quantities, used chipotle powder instead of cayenne pepper, and added a bit of allspice and coriander because the old bottle had those in the ingredients.

These are topped with Tesco smoky cheese, Uncle Ben's Mexican rice, Joya plain soy yogurt, Tesco mild salsa, and iceberg lettuce (in no particular order).  They were super delicious.

Sick day comfort food

I stayed home sick today, so I pretty much took it easy.  I had enough energy to make cornbread because I knew in the long run it would make me feel better.

This is the Jalapeno-Buttermilk Cornbread from Cookin' Crunk, but without the jalapenos.  I mostly left them out because I didn't have any.

For dinner, I cooked some black-eyed peas with a bit of veg broth, soy sauce, liquid smoke, garlic and onions.  I used some cavolo nero kale in the Mess O' Greens recipe.  And of course, I had it all with more cornbread.  It was delicious, though I think actual greens would work better in the greens recipe.  I also left out the turnips because I didn't have any.

The meal was really delicious, and I'd definitely make the cornbread and the greens again.

Bean and Broccoli Pie

 After making the Latke Breakfast Pie and the baked beans, I still had about 2 cups of beans left to use up before they got funky.  I also had that light puff pastry crust to use, and a head of broccoli that was getting a little sad.  So pie was a pretty obvious choice.

I used the bean, leek and mushroom pie (I'm too lazy to look at the actual name of it) from Vegan Brunch as a guide.  Instead of walnuts (I'm allergic), I used almonds (not allergic and had them to hand), and I used broccoli in the filling instead of leeks and mushrooms.

Bean and Broccoli Pie
with thanks to Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Ingredients:
1 pie crust, ready made or homemade*
1 medium-large head of broccoli**
1 c roughly chopped almonds
2 c cooked haricot beans (navy beans in the US) with liquid***
1/4 c nutritional yeast
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic granules (or powder)
1/2 tsp onion granules (or powder)
extra water as needed for blending

Preheat the oven to 375F/190C/gas mark 5.  Press your crust into a 9" or larger pie plate (I have a 10 or 11" plate, so you might have some leftover filling if yours is 9").

Chop your broccoli into smallish pieces and steam for 5-10 minutes.  Make the filling while the broccoli steams.

Blend the almonds until they're finely ground and sorta sandy.  Add the beans and bean liquid and blend until relatively smooth.  Add a bit of water if they don't blend easily.  Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until incorporated.  Pour the filling into a medium bowl and fold in the broccoli, then pour the mixture into the prepared pie plate.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the crust is browning and the filling is relatively firm.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.  This will allow the filling to set a bit more.

I served this with green beans cooked relatively similarly to the garlic green beans in Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations.  Mike liked it so much that he actually suggested I make it again, though with a different vegetable.  He thought it tasted like chicken pie, so I bet it would be even more like chicken pie with some soy curls or light TVP chunks soaked in chicken-flavour stock.

I had some leftover dough, so I mixed about a tablespoon of Vitalite, 3 tsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 2-3 tbsp of chocolate chips, put it in the middle of 2 scraps of dough, rolled them up (sorta), and baked in the oven after the pie came out.  And it was amazingly delicious.  I'm actually a little impressed at how great today's evening meal turned out.

In that spirit, what was the best meal that you made up on the fly?

*If you care about crustiness, you might want to blind bake the crust for 10 minutes or so before adding the filling.
**I just used the florets, so if you use the stem, you could get away with a smaller head of broccoli.
***Because you include the liquid, it's probably best to use homemade or tinned organic beans.