Vegetarian adventure: Bean soup
To get you caught up:
Day 2 of our vegetarian adventure I had chicken taquitos for dinner. It was one of those rare fend-for-yourselves nights. And technically I wasn’t ready for whole hog vegetarian, right? Right.
Day 3 of our vegetarian adventure we had Chick-Fil-A. Yes, I know. Lest you think I’m failing miserably at this so far, let me direct you to…
Day 4 of our vegetarian adventure… I had steak. See?! I can fail worse! It was good, too.
Day 5 of our vegetarian adventure we had a chicken/veggie stir fry with funny little pastas. I didn’t eat the chicken. It was okay. Simple, fast, bland, boring… but healthy. Everyone was satisfied except me. My palate doesn’t like boring. I need to get my menu plan and shopping list together so I can make more interesting fare.
Day 6 of our vegetarian adventure was pizza night. So much for planning and shopping. I’m on a tight work deadline and my kids all had dental appointments right after school. Even getting dinner made was too much of a challenge. I had a big salad (with bacon bits, I confess – the shame, the shame) and one large slice of cheese pizza.
<sigh>
Back on the wagon… Day 7: I made 16 bean soup. This was super easy. I had a one-pound bag of 16 beans on hand, so I rinsed them and dumped them in a pot with 8 cups of water to soak overnight. The next day I drained and rinsed them and put them in the crockpot with 8 cups of fresh water. Chopped some onion and baby carrots and threw those in there. Cooked on low for hours and hours.
With lots of salt and pepper and cornbread, they were pretty… mediocre. Man, I really missed the ham flavor. The next time I have a bag of 16 beans, I would do something completely different. Maybe something like this:
>> 16 Bean Adai
I flavored the [bean] batter with a good dose of fresh ginger, some red and green chillies, a handful of fresh cilantro and was estatic when this batter turned out crisp, crunchy, absolutely delicious Adai!
Now that’s what I’m talking about. My mouth is watering. I like rich flavors and interesting textures. Bland is boring.
Have you ever tried taco soup? Not bland, very tasty, full of protein, and with corn a complete meal.
Also when time permits (not a lot mind you, but some)
A really great way to make a veggie meat to be used for anything is:
8 oz. cream cheese softened
3 eggs
1 ream of Ritz type crackers smashed up fine
3/4 cup finely ground pecans (known as pecan meal)
1/2 cup shredded cheese (mozzarella or chedder)
seasonings of choice (my favorite is fajita seas.)
finely chopped onion (optional, we can’t add these in our home;-)
mix all together and form in to meatballs and/or patties them, bake at 350 degrees for about 35-45 minutes try to turn them half way in between.
After which this ‘meat’ can be used for swedish,sweet&sour or spaghetti meatballs, or the patties for ‘hamburgers’ or broken up and put on pizza, or whatever
Try this! you will NOT be sorry.
Can be made in advance and frozen raw to be baked later.
You may want to double the recipe.
Comment by Sheila M. — March 11, 2009 @ 10:49 am