Beet, Barley & Black Bean Soup

I've missed a couple of months for the No Croutons Required event, but I'm back with a delicious soup! The theme this month is soups or salads featuring legumes. When I make soup, I like having a good variety of vegetables, a grain (like barley), and protein (beans usually). I was very anti-bean before but since I started to try and eat healthier and take better care of myself, I've been slowly accepting them and trying to incorporate them into my diet frequently. Soups are a great way to do that! And what bean is more accessible than the black bean (in my mind anyway).

Well since I love beets, and this soup is a meal in itself, you can guess that I loved it. I've never used tarragon in my cooking at home, and have only had it a few times when out. I like it but it's something different to get used to. I think this soup could benefit from a variety of herbs, and it actually calls for 1/2 cup of fresh dill. Which is a lot of dill, even though I love dill - so I put that as optional in the recipe.

I thought I'd have more time to update my blog now that school is finished but it turns out I've found many other things (including work) to fill up all my time! Currently I'm looking for an apartment and obsessing over places. I hope the place we find has a relatively decent size kitchen with some counter space! I can't wait to try out my grandma's convection oven for baking (which is currently in storage but will be taken out when I move).

Other soups I've made:
Choklay's Tibetan Lentil Soup
Baked Bean Soup
Corn Chowder
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

Beet, Barley & Black Bean Soup
Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

1 tsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
5 cloves garlic
2 tsp dried tarragon
Black pepper
8 cups water
4 medium-size beets, cut in half & half again, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3/4 cup pot barley
2 tbsp soy sauce
15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained (about 2 cups)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Dill (optional)

In a stockpot over medium heat, saute the onion in the olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, tarragon, and pepper; saute until fragrant (about a minute). Add 8 cups of water, the beets, barley, and soy sauce, cover, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the beans and simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the barley from sticking together, or unitl the barley is tender. Add the balsamic vinegar. Add dill if desired.

Baked Bean Soup

Healthy, filling, a unique taste, easy to make - what more can you ask for in a weeknight meal? I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, maybe because of the molasses or the vinegar (which made it slightly tangy). But when I added lots of pepper (which I don't usually do) it made it quite tasty. The pepper really complemented the flavours in the soup. And some grated Gruyere on top, yum even better.

I'm submitting this to the Cooking to Combat Cancer 2 event. This soup has a few cancer fighting ingredients: onions, tomatoes, carrots, and beans. I think we could all use some cancer fighting power so I try to eat lots of good, healthy, cancer fighting foods! Other cancer fighting foods include berries, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage), flax, garlic, whole grains, dark green leafy vegetables, green tea, soy (in moderation), red grapes, avocados (my favourite!), chili peppers, grapefruit, mushrooms, nuts, oranges, and lemons (source, source - found through Mele Cotte). With so many choices, I'm sure everyone can easily add some more of these foods into their diet.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
Corn Chowder

Baked Bean Soup
Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

Serves 4 to 6

2 cups chopped onions
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup diced celery
1 cup peeled and diced carrots
1 tbsp chili powder
3 tsp Dijon mustard*
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups (14 oz can) undrained canned stewed tomatoes
1 2/3 cups (15 1/2 oz can) cooked kidney beans**
2 tsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp soy sauce
salt & pepper to taste

In a soup pot on medium-high heat, saute the onions in oil for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are translucent. Add the celery, carrots, and chili powder and continue to cook until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the mustard, water, tomatoes, beans, vinegar, molasses, and soy sauce. Cover and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat and gently simmer for about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

*Reduce this amount if you're not a big mustard fan. I love mustard so I might add more next time.
**The recipe suggests white beans, but I think any bean would be fine.

Note: Feel free to play around with the amount of mustard, molasses, vinegar and soy sauce to suit your taste. I think sweet potato would be tasty in this soup too.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

This is my entry for Holler and Lisa's new food blog event, No Croutons Required. The theme this month is vegetarian soups - though I'm not sure if chili would be considered a soup? This is more stew-ish anyway so let's call it a very chunky and delicious soup!

I'm not usually a fan of chili, probably due to all the ground meat (or in my case it would be fake ground round/meat). But as I said, this isn't your regular chili. I'm kind of obsessed with sweet potatoes - or maybe not obsessed but if anything has sweet potatoes in it, I want to eat it. So the fact that this "chili" is full of sweet potatoes definitely helps, and combined with the onions makes it slightly sweet. I cut back on how spicy it was so feel free to add cayenne, extra chili powder or some jalapeno peppers to this.

This chili is simple, very easy to make, filling, healthy and yummy! What more can you ask for? It was a great discovery for me for something quick and healthy to make on a weeknight.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Sweet Potato Black Bean Salsa
Sweet Potato Badi
Balkan Roasted Vegetable Salad

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
Adapted from The Clueless Vegetarian

Serves 3-4 as a meal.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup vegetable broth
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 28-oz (796mL) cans diced tomatoes
2 19-oz (540mL) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp crumbled dried oregano

Heat the oil in a large saucepan* or Dutch oven. Add the onions and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the onions are soft - about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder and the cumin and cook for another minute or so. Add the vgetable broth and the cubed sweet potatoes, reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, until the potatoes are almost tender - about 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes with all the juice from the can, the beans, salt, and oregano. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then let simmer until the potatoes are completely tender - about 20 minutes.

*Go for the Dutch oven if you can, unless your saucepan is really very large.

Hummus

I want to like hummus because it's a really healthy dip and I know I need to eat more beans. I've never really liked it though. I was flipping through How It All Vegan for bean recipes and saw that they had Holy Moly Hummus. This series of vegan cookbooks has never let me down and I'm always pleasantly surprised with how things turn out so I figured I had to try it.

It turned out really well and will now be my go to hummus recipe. I'd like to try adding roasted garlic next time. This post is pretty unexciting but trust me, the delicious hummus recipe makes up for it! You must try it, whether you are a hummus lover or disliker (as I was).

Holy Moly Hummus
adapted from How It All Vegan

Makes approximately 2 cups.

1 small onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
splash of olive oil
2 1/2 cups cooked OR canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
3/4 cup tahini (about 200 grams)
1 1/2 tbsp Braggs OR soy sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice OR 1/4 cup water + 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt

In a small saucepan, saute onions and garlic in a splash of oil on medium heat until onions are translucent. In a blender or food processor, blend the sauteed onions, chickpeas, tahini, Braggs/soy sauce, lemon juice, cumin, cayenne and salt until you reach desired consistency.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Salsa

A couple of weeks ago I decided that I really needed to make the effort to incorporate beans into my diet. Not only are they good for you but as a vegetarian, I think they should be included in at least a meal or two every week. Unfortunately up until this point, I have been a very bad bean fearing vegetarian. Because you see, I don't really love beans. The first bean dish that I liked was seven layer dip, but then the beans are covered by other delicious things like guacamole, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes and green onions. Then I discovered that I liked refried beans. But I haven't really explored the world of beans too much aside from that.

I've made a few dishes with chickpeas, though I don't really like chickpeas (aside from in hummus, delicious! - I still remember the time when I was on an airplane and my vegetarian meal was a bun with a few chickpeas in it...) I thought that if I made the beans from scratch (buy dried beans instead of canned), that might make the whole thing more exciting for me so I'd be looking forward to eating beans. I haven't done that yet, but I am becoming more accepting of beans. I think I need to find one or two kinds that I like and then find dishes that use them.

My issue with beans reminds me of Jeffrey Steingarten's book The Man Who Ate Everything. Great book by the way, highly recommend it. Anyway, he talks about how there were foods that he didn't like (I can't remember them now but I think one of them was Greek salad and possibly organ meats?). So what he did was he decided to expose himself to those foods enough, which resulted in him shedding his picky eater ways. Now in my head when I think of something I don't like but I know I should eat (ie. beans), I think of him and it makes it easier to know that one day I will like something I previously didn't.

Once I decided I needed to eat more beans, I started looking through my cookbooks' indexes to find something tasty. One of the first things I saw caught my eye: sweet potato and black bean salsa. Sweet potatoes are one of my favourite veggies (or technically tubers?) and one of my favourite things in general to eat, so how could I go wrong? And then I read the description above the recipe, which said "great for Halloween!" (since black beans = black, sweet potato = orange) and I was totally sold. (Halloween and the month leading up to it, the time of year, all the decorations, the spooky stories, and all of that wonderful stuff are all my favourite things.)

I had read through the entire recipe before going out to buy ingredients, but when I started making it, I completely forgot that I was going to half it (since it makes I think it was 7 cups of salsa!) That is an absolute ton of salsa for one person to eat. Luckily other people liked it so I constantly told them to eat it. I'm actually amazed that we got through the whole thing. Mostly I used the salsa to make quesadillas (just with the salsa and some cheese). So delicious. Other people wished it was spicier, and I would've been okay with that but I didn't have a problem with it the way it was. I was scared that the sweet potato would be too mushy once it was cooked and chopped but it held up just fine. The addition of pumpkin seeds was also festive, and nutritious! I've only made salsa a couple of times before and I haven't yet made a more traditional salsa. I think I'm scared of messing it up since I love salsa so much. I would definitely make this salsa again though, and surprisingly I wished that there were more beans in the salsa!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Salsa
(adapted from Entertaining for A Veggie Planet)

Makes 7 cups

2 pounds sweet potatoes (about 2), peeled & quartered
2 1/4 cups finely chopped tomatoes
1 13-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup fresh lime juice*
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

1. Place the sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan and add cold water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until just tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well and allow to cool.

2. While waiting for the sweet potatoes to cool, put together the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Once the sweet potatoes are cool, finely chop them and add them to everything else. Mix well.

*For some reason the recipe says this is 6 limes but for me it was 2.

French Barley Salad

I was flipping through Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special and came across this recipe for French barley salad. It had lemon and dill (I really should use dill more often) in the dressing so I thought alright that sounds like it could be good. And oh man was it good. This has fast become one of my favourite recipes that I've come across in any cookbook. Actually this cookbook could possibly be one of my new favourites, but I haven't made enough from it yet to be sure. The tofu and beet salad was a good start as my first recipe tried from Daily Special though so I think this cookbook has great potential!

I love this salad because it has so much good stuff in it and is so very tasty. The next time I make it, I'd like to try and cut back a bit on the oil though. I love that it uses barley, which I haven't had in so long but now that I'm reminded of its delicious existence, will be eating more often. There's a good vairety of veggies in here too with green beans, red peppers, carrots and mushrooms. The mushrooms are marinated in the dressing and turn out so yummy. And there are walnuts (rich in omega-3s! And they have other wonderful health benefits that I can't remember right now because I'm tired and would have to go find the magazine I read it in - alright fine I'm going to find the magazine now. Omega-3s help protect against depression, heart disease and Alzheimer's. They also have something in them that helps "inhibit the absorption of cholesterol".) The only downside to this salad is that it's best eaten the day it's made, unless you keep the green beans and walnuts separate. But then the marinated mushrooms start to become incredibly mushy as the days go on.

In conclusion, this is a wonderful salad that I highly suggest you all try. I know I'll be making it many times in the future. It's substantial enough to eat for a meal by itself, but it also makes a great side dish salad.

French Barley Salad
(from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special)

1/2 cup raw barley*
2 cups water

Dressing
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1.5 lemons)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard**
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill (1 1/2 tsp dried or 2 tsp freeze dried)
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 cup halved or quartered mushrooms***
1 cup peeled and diced carrots
1 cup cut green beans, trimmed and halved
1 cup thinly sliced red or yellow bell peppers
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons butter
2/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Using a strainer, rinse the barley and drain. In a small heavy skillet on low heat, roast the barley until fragrant and beginning to brown. Place the barley and water in a small saucepan, cover, and bring to a simmer. Cook on low heat until most of the water has been absorbed and the barley is soft, about 40 minutes.

While the barley cooks, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients. In a separated bowl, pour half of the dressing over th emushrooms and set aside. Blanch the carrots in boiling water for baout 1 minute. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a large serving bowl. Blanch the green beans for 3 to 4 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool. Stir the bell peppers and parsley and marinated mushrooms into the bowl of carrots.

In a skillet, heat the butter. When it sizzles, saute the walnuts until they are coated and the butter begins to brown. Remove from the heat.

When the barley is tender, drain it in a colander. Add the drained barley and the remaining dressing to the serving bowl and mix well. Allow the sald to sit for at least 30 minutes before serving. Just before serving, gently toss the green beans and walnuts into the salad.

*The recipe calls for pearl barley but I used pot and it was fine. I would also try using a different grain/seed, such as amaranth, quinoa, millet, etc.
**I plan to add more mustard next time since I love Dijon mustard, and the taste isn't even noticeable in the dressing in this amount.
***The mushrooms I used were big, about 1 oz each, so I cut them into 8.

Notes: To make the recipe healthier, try using less oil. Also, toast the walnuts in a dry skillet or oven instead of in a skillet with butter. This recipe doubles very well.

Pasta with Pesto, New Potatoes and Green Beans

I was with my mom at Costco a few weeks ago and convinced her to pick up Everyday Food: Great Food Fast, which is a collection of recipes from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazines. Well she didn't actually need a lot of convincing once she saw all the beautiful photos (one photo for each recipe) and yummy recipes that aren't incredibly time conusming. I'm biased against cookbooks with tons of photos because it seems like the cookbooks with only a few photos are the ones that have the best recipes. (While the ones full of photos sucker you in so easily without necessarily having quality recipes.) That is likely a very incorrect statement but for some reason that's what's stuck in my head. Anyway, I subscribe to the Everyday Food magazine so I'm sure I have lots of the recipes but it's also nice to have all the 'best' ones in one book with an index. The Everyday Food magazine is not super vegetarian friendly, but there are lots of baked goods, some vegetarian meals, ways to cook vegetables, salads, side dishes, and some meat dishes where you could replace the meat with tofu. Mostly I love the magazine because of the photos though.

My boyfriend and I decided to make pasta with pesto, new potatoes and green beans. I love pesto, pasta and new potatoes, and have recently come to like green beans, which I previously hated. Ever since I tried this insanely delicious green bean dish at a Chinese restaurant, I've been wanting to eat green beans more often. I'd recommend making sure you have lots of pesto, because I didn't find there was enough when we had it. Mind you I didn't actually measure the pesto when I added it, and just used up the amount that I had made (which I also don't think I added enough basil to). I think adding pine nuts or maybe walnuts would be a good addition to the pasta, and would add protein. It was so incredibly easy to make, and if you already have the pesto made (or are using store bought pesto) then it's a one pot meal. Boil water, add potatoes, add pasta, add green beans, drain and add pesto. And it's a healthy dish too - did you know potatoes are a source of vitamin C?

Edit: As my friend pointed out, potatoes do lose some of their nutrients when boiled, so if you bake or boil them in their skins they will retain more vitamin C. In this recipe, I cut up the potatoes and boiled them in water. This method of cooking them is definitely not the way to get all the vitamin C that you can out of them. You could always bake the potatoes separately, cut them up and then add them to your pasta. A serving of baked or boiled potato with the skin has more vitamin C than an apple (20mg vs 9mg). I found another website that claimed potatoes have 25mg vitamin C, and that one baked potato can give you 45% of your recommended daily vitamin C. To find out more about the amounts of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fiber in fruits and vegetables, check out this website.

Pasta with Pesto, New Potatoes and Green Beans
(adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast)

Serves 3

10 new potatoes*
coarse salt & fresh ground pepper
8 ounces whole wheat rotini (or cavatappi or fusilli)
8 ounces green beans, trimmed and halved
1/2 cup pesto

1. Scrub potatoes then cut them into 1-inch cubes; place in a large pot of water and bring to a boil.

2. Add 1 tablespoon salt and the rotini; return to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.**

3. Add the green beans. Return to a boil; cook until the vegetables are tender (1.5-2 minutes) and the pasta is al dente.

4. Drain; toss with the pesto and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*Original recipe calls for 2 waxy potatoes.
**I cooked the pasta for an extra minute because whole wheat pasta seems to take a bit longer to cook than regular pasta.