Lotus Tea and Veggie Soup

Just a quick blog entry tonight. I cooked for over 8 hours today, so am a bit tired. I made some beef seitan, again. (used the same recipe as last time) It turned out great and I moved on to some breakfast wraps. These are awesome and I think they are probably my fav thing to eat at the moment. I usually put potatoes, onions, green pepper, mushrooms, some Nooch and tofu in a whole wheat wrap. Yummy.

While I was doing all this cooking, it seemed like a good time to try the lotus blossom tea bought in Chinatown when Vegan Sister was visiting. It was so neat to watch the flower expand; sort of like a science experiment you can drink. The end result was quite pretty but tasted metallic.



The next photo almost didn't make it onto the blog. I wanted to redo the pepperoni recipe from Vegan Dad's blog. The hope was to make it not as crumbly, so I pureed the beans, which seemed to do the trick. Since I was feeling experimental today, why not add some red food coloring to give it that 'pepperoni' look? Opps! I now had PINK pepperoni. (looked like Spam) Anyway, I figured I'd eat it regardless, but it actually turned out quite nice (and darker). I sliced and fried/simmered it in some olive oil--to put some fat back in it. The whole process was time consuming, but worth it.



Next was a basic pureed soup with carrots, potatoes, tomato sauce, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, onions and vegetable bouillon in it. (salt & pepper to taste) I boiled all the veggies until tender and pureed the mixture in the blender in batches. Also added 1 cup of soy milk (unsweetened) and some chopped green onions before serving. The whole family loved this and I loved that it was almost fat-free! Also they couldn't taste the broccoli or cauliflower (no-no veggies for the family), and when I told them--it didn't matter! :)



Oh, and one final thing that didn't get pictured. I made some chocolate chip cupcakes from VCTOTW. These were a HUGE success. Hopefully if there are some left over, I'll snap a picture tomorrow. :)

**Nope, the cupcakes were gone. They were delish.

Creamy Comfort Soup and Mini Beanballs

So today I wanted something warm and comforting, and to help Vegan Sister, something cheap and fairly quick.  Maybe it's the cooler weather or maybe it was yesterday's uncomfortable-Thanksgiving that inspired this craving, who knows?  Now I remembered seeing a gorgeous picture of a creamy soup featuring green beans primarily.  Upon searching every single cookbook I have and most of the blogs I frequently read, this proved to be an elusive recipe.  So if you are the proud owner of something that sounded like the above, yeah I know it's kind of vague, please let me know.

Needless to say, I improvised.  But prior to the creamy green bean soup craving, I've been wanting meatballs.  I made some Beanballs from Veganomicon for the first time.  Now these are pretty cheap and not too time-consuming, but I don't think Vegan Sister has vital wheat gluten available in her area.  I'm not an expert on cooking with vital wheat, but I think you could substitute some flour.  At least that's what I've heard other bloggers say.   I decided to make some tiny beanballs for the soup and some big ones for a meatball sandwich to have at lunch tomorrow.

This is the first time I've made these and well, honestly, I wasn't super impressed.  However, the Teen Daugher was, which makes this recipe a keeper.  To me, they really tasted like smooshed beans in a ball shape, which was probably the point.  I guess I was expecting something more exciting?  I don't know.  I did like the smaller ones better than the bigger ones.  I made the small ones about the size of a dime, and the larger ones about the size of a quarter.  The small ones 'poofed' in my mouth, which seemed slightly humorous to me.   :)

I snacked on the bigger ones while making the soup, unashamedly dipping them in big globs of BBQ sauce.  The Teen Daughter loved these!  Currently as I write this she is stealing the leftover ones, cold, from the fridge.  She loves my Black Bean Burgers (keeps telling me I should put the recipe in the blog) and said the beanballs are like mini Black Bean Burgers.  This is high praise coming from her, believe me.

(sorry for the crappy photo, I was busy snacking on the beanballs to cease the groaning from my tummy) On to the soup! You can really use whatever veggies you have on hand. 

Creamy Veggie Soup with Mini Beanballs:

Serves about 2-4 people depending on how hungry they are.

Ingredients:

4 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced

1 large clove Garlic, diced finely

1/2 Yellow onion, separated into rings (use whatever onion you have on hand)

1 cup chopped Carrots

1 cup cut Green Beans

2 cubes Veggie Bouillon, or 3-4 Tablespoons loose Veggie Bouillon

   or 5-7 cups homemade Veggie Stock

1/4 cup Vegan Margarine

1/8 to 1/4 cup flour

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Place potatoes, carrots, garlic and onion in large stockpot with bouillon and enough water to cover the veggies by about an inch (if using veggie stock, just use this instead of the water/bouillon mixture).  Boil until potatoes and carrots are soft enough that they can easily be pierced with a fork, about 15 minutes.  Note: I kept the onion in rings so that I could remove them prior to serving -- Teen Daughter won't eat onions.  Feel free to dice yours and leave in the soup.

Melt Margarine into a pan and slowly add flour until mixture is thick and bubbly.  Add to soup and simmer soup for about 10 minutes.  At this point, add salt and pepper to taste. Note: If you want a lower fat version, use mashed potatoes to thicken the soup (or instant mashed potatoes).  You can even mash/blend some of the mixture to make it creamy.  Add beanballs to soup immediately before serving.

The Spouse and I like a few splashes of Hot Sauce added our bowls to make this extra tasty.   :)