What Veggie Delights is all about: I’m convinced that I can share with you some really amazing meatless dishes that you will love, even if you’re not a Vegetarian!

This is the most unique and YUMMIEST egg salad I have ever had.  I must admit I was a bit skeptical in the beginning – very strange combination of flavors.  But it turned out to be fabulous!  I don’t think I’ll ever make a regular egg salad again.  And it was so delicious without the bread.  I could have eaten it out of a bowl with a spoon.    This recipe comes from one of my favorite Vegetarian cooking blogs: 101 Cookbooks.

Curried Egg Salad:

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder (to your taste)
• 3 tablespoons plain yogurt (plus a little more)
• salt
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 apple
• 1/4 cup pecans, toasted
• small bunch of green onions

Directions:

1. Toast pecans in oven until slightly browned.
2. Boil your eggs (you probably have your own method, but this quick method works beautifully)
3. Mix together yogurt, curry powder, and salt.
4. Chop onion, apple, pecans, and green onions.
5. Peel all of the eggs.  Mash them in with the yogurt mixture, onions, apple, and pecans.
6. Add salt and curry powder to taste.  Add a bit of yogurt if it’s too dry.
7. Enjoy!

What About You: Were you as pleasantly surprised as me?!

What Veggie Delights is all about: I’m convinced that I can share with you some really amazing meatless dishes that you will love, even if you’re not a Vegetarian!

If you can’t tell by now, I’m a HUGE quinoa fan.  Here’s yet another delicious quinoa recipe!  I got this out of the great Moosewood Cookbook that I’ve really been enjoying the past few weeks.  I have to return it to the library pretty soon, and I’m quite certain I’ll be using my Swag Bucks to buy it on Amazon. 

I have to say…I honestly liked the quinoa mixture by itself, with some cheese sprinkled on it, without being stuffed in the pepper.  I felt like the pepper kind of took away from the flavor.  My hubby thought the opposite – he LOVED it with the pepper.  So I will just give you the recipe, and you can decide for yourself.  But if you’re not in the mood to deal with the peppers, the quinoa mixture with some cheese is delish just by itself.

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 4 bell peppers
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 cup peeled and diced carrots
• 3/4 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced zucchini
• 1 & 1/2 cups corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
• 1 & 1/2 to 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 & 1/2 tsp cumin (+ a little more for additional taste)
• 1 & 1/2 tsp coriander (+ a little more for additional taste)
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes or ground red pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt (+ a little more to taste)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop/dice all of the veggies:  onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and zucchini.  Be sure to keep onions and garlic separate from rest of veggies.
3. Cut bell peppers in half lengthwise.  Seed  them.  Lightly Brush each bell pepper with olive oil (inside and out).
4. Rinse the quinoa thoroughly (in a mesh colander or sieve).
5. Lightly oil a pan.  Place bell peppers on the pan, with the cut-side down.
6. Roast bell peppers for about 15 or 20 minutes, until softened and slightly browned.  But don’t let them collapse.  When finished cooking, remove from oven, and turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees.
7. Meanwhile, place quinoa and 2 cups of water in a pot.  Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat and let simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.  LOOK FOR THE SPIRALS!  Biggest hint on cooking quinoa!  Once the spirals have opened up, the quinoa is finished cooking.  Sometimes it doesn’t take very long, and you never want to overcook quinoa, or it will lose it’s yummy crunchy/nutty taste and get all mushy.  As soon as it is done cooking, you’ll want to immediately drain the water and set the quinoa aside.
8. While peppers and quinoa are cooking:
   *Warm some olive oil in a skillet on stove.
   *Saute chopped onions and minced garlic on medium heat until onions have softened (about 5 minutes).
   *Stir in all of the spices: cumin, coriander, red pepper, salt.
   *Stir in the veggies: carrots, celery, zucchini, and corn.
   *Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, until veggies are tender.
9. Combine quinoa and vegetable mixture.  Taste test.  Add additional spices and/or salt as needed.
10. Spoon some filling into each half bell pepper.
11. Sprinkle with cheese.
12. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, until cheese is melted.
13. Enjoy!!!  And like I said – the mixture by itself with some cheese sprinkled over it is delightful!

What About You: Does this sound yummy to you?  Do you enjoy quinoa recipes?

Well, my friends.  Rachael Ray wins again.  I am honestly in awe of how amazingly delicious every. single. one. of her recipes is!  And I love how many Vegetarian meals she has in her cookbooks!  I’m almost to the point where it doesn’t matter what the recipe looks like ahead of time – I will make it if it’s Rachael Ray.  Somehow, no matter how weird it sounds, her concoctions always taste out-of-this-world!!!

I got this recipe from page 280 of her 365: No Repeats cookbook (another one that I checked out from the library a couple weeks ago).  The weird thing about this recipe is that all of the separate parts of the recipe sounded great by themselves, but I would have never in a million years thought to put them together!  I’ve had mushroom sandwiches, Vegetarian sloppy joe sandwiches, and avocado sandwiches…but never all of these together in one sandwich.  But oh my – it was a BURST of flavor in my mouth!  It was wonderful.  My husband took one bite and said, “This is a keeper for sure.”

I will admit this isn’t the quickest, but it’s not too bad.  A lot of it is just prep and wait time.  I did make a few changes.  The recipe is written for 4 servings, and it calls for 4 portobello mushrooms.  It also calls for English muffins.  Since I had tons of Arnold sandwich thins on hand, that’s what I wanted to use.  So to avoid the large mushroom making the thin bread too soggy, I just used 2 portobello mushrooms and cut each into 2 thin pieces, which stretched to make 4 sandwiches.  It also called for Vegetarian Spicy Refried Beans.  I left those out, since it was only for thickening purposes, and I thought there were plenty of beans and spicy flavor already.  So the recipe below is how I made it, yielding 4 sandwiches.

Mushroom-Veggie Sloppy Sandwiches:

Ingredients:

• 2 portobello mushrooms, stems removed
• 1 lime
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 5 garlic cloves
• 3 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 medium onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 14 oz can of dark red kidney beans, drained & rinsed
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 4 sandwich buns of some sort (English muffins, buns, or sandwich thins)
• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 cups Monterey Jack or Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Chop onion, red bell pepper, jalapeno, and zucchini.  Everything can be chopped pretty small, except the zucchini.  Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, then slice it into little “half-moon” pieces.  Zucchini just tends to get soggy quicker, so it’s best to make these a little bigger than the rest.
3. Take the stems off of the portobello mushrooms.  Season them with salt, pepper, juice of half the lime, 1 Tbsp of oil, half of the minced garlic, and 1 Tbsp of the chili powder.  Toss the mushrooms around in it to make sure they’re coated in the seasoning.
4. Place mushrooms gill side up on a cookie sheet, and roast in the oven for 12 minutes.  When they are done, remove them from the oven and cover with tin foil to keep them warm.
5. While the mushrooms are cooking in the oven:  Cook all of your chopped vegetables in a big pot on the stove, with a sufficient amount of olive oil (about 2 to 3 Tbsp) and the other half of your minced garlic.  Add cumin, the remainder of the chili powder (2 Tbsp), and some salt to taste.  Saute the vegetables for about 5 minutes, until softened.
6. Add the tomatoes and red kidney beans.  Stir to combine.  Cook for about 10 minutes on low heat.
7. While the mixture is finishing up cooking, peel your avocado and slice it into long thin pieces.  Squeeze the other half of the lime over the sliced avocado to add flavor and prevent browning.  I also sprinkled a bit of salt over it.
8. Toast your sandwich buns.
9. When the mixture is finished cooking, remove from heat, and add chopped cilantro.
10. Slice the mushrooms in half, so that you have 4 pieces.
11. To make your sandwich:  Put a mushroom half on a bun.  Add desired amount of chili mixture on top of that.  Sprinkle with some cheese.  Then add a few avocado slices on top of that.  Ta Da!

Enjoy!  And I’m warning you ahead of time – It is VERY sloppy!

What About You: Let me know what you think. 

What Veggie Delights is all about: I’m convinced that I can share with you some really amazing meatless dishes that you will love, even if you’re not a Vegetarian!

This is one of my fallback recipes.  When I can’t come up with a new recipe for my Menu Plan each week, I like to toss this one in.  It’s so delicious, easy and quick to make, frugal, healthy, and Vegan!  I love cold grain salads (pasta salad, couscous salad, quinoa salad, etc.), especially during the summer time!  As usual, I tweaked an original recipe to my liking.  You can see the original recipe HERE, but I will tell you how I made it below.

Black Bean & Couscous Salad:

Ingredients:

• One box of couscous (I use Near East, since it goes BOGO at Publix frequently.)
• 2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed (or 4 cups, if you use cooked dry beans like me.)
• 1 -2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 1 bell pepper (Red makes it look more colorful and prettier.  Green is all I had on hand this time.)
• 8 green onions, chopped
• Handful of chopped cilantro (Recipe calls for more, but I think it takes away from the rest of the flavor.)
• 4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 2-3 limes, depending on how “limey” you want it to taste
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons cumin, plus a lot more to taste (I LOVE Cumin!)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook the couscous according to package directions.
2. While couscous is cooking:
   -Combine oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, and cumin.  Mix together thoroughly.
   -Chop green onions, bell pepper, and cilantro.
   -Add black beans, corn, green onions, and bell pepper to dressing mixture.
   -Toss to coat the mixture.
3. When the couscous is done cooking, fluff it with a fork to break up chunks.  Then add it to the mixture and toss to coat.
4. Finish off the flavoring to taste.  I usually have to add a bit more lime juice and cumin, as well as some salt and pepper.  Everybody’s taste buds are different.  I like mine pretty strong, so I add a lot of flavoring.  You can flavor it to your liking, though!
5. Sprinkle cilantro on top of mixture.
6. Refrigerate.  You can eat it at room temperature, but it’s much better cold.  Especially if you let it marinate overnight!

Enjoy!

What About You: Are you a couscous fan?

What Veggie Delights is all about: I’m convinced that I can share with you some really amazing meatless dishes that you will love, even if you’re not a Vegetarian!

This is a new recipe for me that I tried a couple of months ago for the first time.  I was pleasantly surprised!  It was very tasty, but also very light.  Many times, pasta casseroles are so heavy and creamy.  I like this one because it is refreshing, light, and healthy.  I love textural dishes, and this is definitely one of them.  There is just something delicious about a crunchy pasta.

I got this recipe from my favorite Vegetarian Cooking Blog – 101 Cookbooks.  I pretty much made it the same as the recipe, with a few slight changes.

Baked Pasta Casserole:

Ingredients:

• 12 oz whole wheat pasta (it calls for shells; I used penne)
• 1 large yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or chopped (I used more than 2 cloves)
• 4 cups fresh spinach, chopped very well
• 1 – 1/2 cups sliced almonds, lightly toasted
• zest of 2 lemons
• 8 oz mozzarella shredded cheese
• extra-virgin olive oil
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Oil a large casserole dish, roughly 13 x 9.
2. Boil pasta with a little salt.  When finished, toss with a bit of oil and set aside.
3. While pasta is boiling:
   Toast almonds in oven until slightly browned. (Don’t forget about them!)
   Heat some olive oil in a pan on medium-high heat.
   Saute chopped onions with a bit of salt, until turning soft.
   Stir in minced garlic.
   Stir in chopped spinach.
   Cook for a few seconds, until spinach collapses.
4. Remove mixture from heat.  Stir in 1 cup of the almonds and half of the lemon zest.
5. Add to pasta.  Mix well for at least a minute, until everything is thoroughly combined.  Feel free to add a bit more olive oil, if you think it’s too dry.
6. Sprinkle the rest of the lemon zest on the bottom of the casserole dish.
7. Add half of the pasta mixture.
8. Sprinkle with a layer of cheese.
9. Add the remaining pasta mixture.
10. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
11. Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
12. Just before serving, sprinkle the remainder of the almonds on top.
13. Serve and enjoy!

What About You: Let me know what you think!  Does this sound like your kind of dish?