Archive | main courses RSS feed for this section

Soy Picadillo

18 Jul

When I decided to become a vegetarian, I personally made a conscious decision that I did not want to start to eat things that resembled the meat products I was used to eating before.  For some reason, I thought that would not help me modify the way I thought about a plate of food.

People always think of a plate of foods in the terms of – animal protein, starchy and vegetable side dishes, as opposed to looking at a rice dish or a veggie gratin as their main course accompanied by a salad.  That’s why many meat-eaters always ask us the tired question… “You’re a vegetarian??? Then, what do you eat???”

Because of this I consciously decided to keep soy products at a minimum when I first made the decision to become vegetarian.  But soy products are good and have a very useful role within vegetarian cooking.  One of them is textured soy crumbles.  One of my pet peeves is when people call it “soy meat” or “carne de soya”, arrrrgh!!!!  The correct name is textured soy protein or, in Spanish, “protein de soya”.  It’s not meat, so why even mention it in the name??

Textured soy protein is sold in bulk at most health food stores and it resembles cereal – a bit like Grapenuts, I think.  It comes in a variety from light to dark and from medium to even little cubes.  I particularly like the medium ground, the lighter the better.  Here’s a picture of the one I refer to, but a bit darker in color than what I usually prefer, but it still works for our purposes.

When cooked, textured soy protein takes on the characteristics of ground meat.  And just like any meat product, the key is in the seasonings.  If not seasoned well, that’s when vegetarian cooking starts getting a bad rep.  But seasoned well, it can even fool the biggest meat-eater out there…. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen.

Picadillo is the Cuban/Latin terminology for ground meat in a tomato sauce.  It’s super versatile – to eat on top of rice, to use in a lasagna, to use as the filling for alcapurrias or pasteles, to use inside a pastelón… you name it!!!  So here I’ll show you my version of Soy Picadillo… a great basic to have in your vegetarian arsenal…

SOY PICADILLO – Revised on 01/31/2013

2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs sofrito
½ of a vegetable bouillon cube with sea salt
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup textured soy protein
1 15oz jar of stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup water
2 tbs tomato paste
¼ cup ketchup
2 bay leaves
1 tsp vegan Worcestershire powder sauce
1 tsp Herbamare seasoning
¼ cup green olives (optional)
2 roasted sweet bell peppers (optional)
2 tbs of capers (optional)
Kosher salt to taste
 
  1. First, we start by hydrating the soy protein.  Soak the crumbles in a medium-sized bowl and cover with filtered water.  Soak for about 20 minutes, until the crumbles are soft to the touch.
  3. After the 20 minutes are up, drain the soy crumbles using a colander, rinse with new running water and squeeze dry as much as possible, just like you do to frozen spinach when you defrost it.  Set aside.  The soy will smell a lot like cereal at this point… do not get discouraged.  This will all change once we cook it with all our seasonings.
  5. In a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat, add olive oil, sofrito, the bouillon cube and the chopped onion.  Sautee for a few minutes until the onion softens a bit.  Add salt to season the onions and a bit of pepper if you fancy.
  6. Add the drained soy crumbles to the pot.  You could possibly add a little stream of olive oil to this to prevent the soy to stick to the bottom and sides of the pan.  Remember, soy does not contain fat.  To this, add the stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, water, ketchup, bay leaves, Worcestershire powder and Herbamare seasoning.  If you’re adding the olives, capers or sweet peppers… this is the time to add them.  Check the sauce level…  you should have a fair amount of liquid that will become a sauce, if you feel the mix is a bit dry, add a bit more water.
  7. Cover and let the mixture come to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 40-45 minutes.   You can just turn the heat off, and let it continue to cook with the residual heat for about 15 minutes more… besides, it’ll be too hot to handle immediately.

It’s ready… now you can use this Soy Picadillo in your favorite application.  I used it first as the filling for lasagna.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ok…. I know some of you might be thinking… IS SHE NUTS?!?!?!  Worcestershire sauce traditionally has anchovies!!! How can she tell us to use it on a vegetarian dish!!!  Well, this Worcestershire powder from McCormick’s is a new discovery for me.  All the ingredients and seasonings of the traditional L&P sauce I used to buy before SANS the anchovies.  Now, be careful with the pepper, because this has pepper and you can over-pepper your dish.     Ever since I published this recipe originally it was brought to my attention that the “natural flavor” on the ingredient list might possibly be anchovies.  So I do not recommend using this product anymore.  I do use vegan Worcestershire Sauce available at health foods across the country.  Make sure you buy vegan to make sure there are indeed no anchovies in the product.

Tags: ,

Sweet Plantain and Spinach Pastelón

17 Jul

This is one of my favorite pastelones ever!!!  It’s sweet and savory all at the same time.

I learned that my grandma has a plantain tree in her backyard.  I am super happy because now we have all these awesome and delicious plantains, at a time when plantains are close to $1 each.  Ludicrous!!!

This pastelón is made with very ripe plantains… if you take a look at this picture, the plantain need to be like the one in the bottom or even with more spots than that.  This will ensure the plantain is ripe indeed.  The one on the middle is not fully ripe, even when it looks pretty and yellow.

 

SWEET PLANTAIN AND SPINACH PASTELON

1 sweet ripe plantain
1 cup frozen spinach
4 oz of cream cheese, at room temperature preferably
½ cup Parmesan Cheese, divided
1 tbs butter
Dash of milk, optional
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
  1. First off, we need to boil the plantain.  So we cut off the ends, make a slit from one end to the other of the plantain and then cut into 4 pieces.  Do not remove the skin.  Drop them into a pot with salted water and let it boil covered for about 20 minutes.
  2. In the meantime, defrost the spinach and squeeze out as much water as possible.  Mix in with the cream cheese and season with salt and pepper.
  3. When the plantain is cooked, drain and remove skin, placing the skinless pieces of cooked plantains in a bowl.  Mash the plantains with the butter and ½ of the parmesan cheese.  Add the milk to the plantain mash now, if using.

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F.
  2. In a glass baking dish sprayed with canola oil, spread ½ the plantain mixture in the bottom.  Layer the spinach/cream cheese mixture and finish off with the remainder of the plantain mash.  Top the pastelón with the rest of the parmesan cheese to form a nice crust.
  3. Bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, until the cheese on top creates a crust and the flavors meld together.
  4. Leave in the oven for 15 minutes more to allow setting.

Tags: ,

Veggie Tortilla Soup

8 Jul

When I used to travel frequently to San Antonio I learned about a specialty they have – Tortilla Soup.  I am usually cautious about Mexican dishes or maybe even Tex-Mex dishes (because I don’t know if this is something truly Mexican or an invention from north of the border) because I do not enjoy very spicy dishes or a lot of cilantro in my food.  Maybe this will change in time, but that was the way it was when I first tried this recipe.

Tortilla Soup originally is a basically a tomato-based chicken soup that is garnished with any taco fixings, particularly cheese, sour cream and avocado.   And fried tortillas would come to replace the noodles in the traditional chicken soup.  I loved the flavors and I would order this soup each and every time I would visit San Antonio.  The last time I was there, I was already a vegetarian so I decided I needed to come up with a veggie version of this new favorite.

The other day I bought 4 avocados – they were “green” as in not ripe yet, so I was not worried.  Then all of a sudden they all ripened at the same time and I had to scramble…  Because “llora ante los ojos de Dios” if you throw away an avocado because you just let it spoil rotten before you get to eat it…  so the light bulb in my head went off and said – Tortilla Soup with lots of avocado and a Guacamole.

I gathered some inspiration from the 101 Cookbooks recipe here.  I think Heidi is just awesome and I would love to learn from her how to take such beautiful food photos…  She’s an inspiration in many ways.   Heidi and her cookbook SuperNatural were recently nominated for a James Beard Award… big stuff!!!

VEGGIE TORTILLA SOUP

2 corn tortillas
Some olive oil
Garlic salt
10 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
3 garlic cloves – no need to peel them, just smash them a bit with the side of your knife
1 tbs Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs sofrito
½ onion, chopped finely
½ sweet bell red pepper, chopped finely
1 cup of vegetable broth
½ cup water
10-12 grape tomatoes, quartered
Salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
2-3 slices of ripe avocado, cut into pieces
Sour cream, optional
Shredded Monterrey Jack cheese, optional
½ cup pumpkin, in small cubes, optional
½ cup baby red skin potatoes, cubed, optional
Handful of fresh baby spinach, optional

 

This recipe is enough for 2 people or for one, allowing for left overs for the next day.

There are several steps to making this soup… none of them are neither difficult nor time-consuming and they all add a special layer of character to this soup.

  1. First, place the grape tomatoes and garlic cloves still on their paper shells in a small oven-proof dish. Toss with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 350° oven for about 15-20 minutes.
  2. Take the tortillas and using a small kitchen brush, brush them with a bit of olive oil.  Quarter them first, then stack them on top of each other and slice them into strips.  Scatter them onto a baking sheet and bake in the same 350° oven where the tomatoes came out of.  Bake for about 10-12 minutes.  Tend to them as they can go from pale to burn in a second.  When they’re done, spread them onto a paper towel and sprinkle them immediately with some garlic salt.  Set aside.
  3. In the meantime, we build the soup…  In a medium saucepan over medium to high heat, we heat up some olive oil, sofrito, the chopped onion and peppers.  Add some salt and pepper to start layering the flavors.  Sweat it all together until softened.  
  4. Add the roasted garlic without their paper covering, the roasted tomatoes and the fresh tomatoes.  Sautee for a bit to combine the flavors with what was already in the pot.
  5. Add the vegetable stock and the water.  If adding the potatoes and pumpkin pieces, this is the time to do it.  Check the seasoning and add more salt or pepper as needed.  Simmer covered for about 20-25 minutes if you added the potatoes and pumpkins, if not, it may ready sooner, about 15-20 minutes.   If you’re adding the spinach, you can add it in the last 10 minutes of the simmering process.
  6. When the potatoes/pumpkins are fork-tender, turn off the stove and let it sit covered for a little while, about 10-15 minutes.  Nobody likes boiling soup burning their palates, no?
  7. Serve yourself a bowl of soup… now add the accoutrements – the pieces of avocado, the tortilla strips, a dollop of sour cream.

 

This Tortilla Soup is easy, tasty, comforting and super easy to make – for one, two or a crowd.

I tried this recipe in its original version first.  Then to the left-overs, I wanted to revive it with fresh additions and that’s when I added the potato, pumpkin and spinach.  It worked great.  So you can make it like that from the start or use your imagination to revive your left-over soup with new things…  the potatoes and the pumpkins are not traditional, but who cares???

Tags: , , , ,

Stuffed Chayotes

7 Jul

I like to stuff foods… I love to fill delicious things with other delicious ingredients and make them all even better.  I love to stuff crepes, mushrooms, manicotti, sweet bell peppers, tortillas, potatoes and now, I give you chayotes.

Chayotes are a fruit, but are mostly eaten very similar to the potato preparations.  What I like about them is they have very watery flesh after it’s been cooked, so it tends to be refreshing and light.  They’re perfect to eat during the hot summer days… or any other day if you happen to live in a Caribbean island like me.  They’re sometimes prickly, so be careful if the ones you get have the needles… just grab them using kitchen gloves or a kitchen towel.  After they’re cooked the needles kind of loose they’re potency.

I treat these stuffed chayotes the same way you would treat a twice-baked potato, only that we will only bake this once… the first phase of the preparation is boiling.  Check them out…

 

 

STUFFED CHAYOTES

1 chayote, washed very well and cut in half
1 tbs olive oil
½ onion or shallot, finely chopped
½ bell pepper, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 piquillo peppers, chopped
1 tbs capers
4-5 grape tomatoes, chopped
1 tbs goat cheese
2 tbs parmesan cheese
1 tbs almonds, lightly toasted
Salt and Freshly Cracked black pepper

 

  1. In a medium sized pot filled with salted water, place the chayote halfs and boil until the flesh is fork-tender just like a potato.  This should take about 20 minutes.  When you check for doneness, do not prick on the side of the skin, only thru the side of the flesh.  When they’re done, take them out of the water using a slotted spoon or a “spider” and allow them to cool.
  2. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet over medium high heat add the oil, onion/shallot, garlic and bell pepper and sauté until they’ve softened.   Add the piquillo peppers, capers and grape tomatoes and mix together and cook lightly so they release some of their juices until they become one with the onions/peppers mix.   Season with salt and pepper.  Turn off the heat and set aside.
  3. Carefully take the chayote halves and scoop out as much flesh as you can using a spoon.  I guess a grapefruit spoon would work great, but I do not have one.  Try not to disturb the shell/skin.   Set the shells aside while we work with the flesh.
  4. In a bowl mix together the flesh we just took out, the mix in the skillet, goat cheese and almonds.   Mix together by mashing everything with a fork or a potato masher. 
  5. Pre-heat toaster oven to 350° F.
  6. Refill the chayote skin shells with the mixture and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top.
  7. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is crusty and golden brown.

I made these a few weeks ago when I invited a dear friend to dinner…  I asked him to come over after he invited me to go out but I was already preparing dinner.  So I did not tailor the meal to his taste at all.  He actually had chayote for the first time that night and I must say he thoroughly enjoyed them.  I wish I had done more so he would have seconds…  Jesús, I promise that’ll make more the next time.

Tags: , ,

Roasted Potato and Pumpkin Salad

3 Jul

Tell me honestly… what did you think when you read this is a recipe for a roasted potato and pumpkin salad?  Something like the traditional potato salads drenched in mayo and seasonings?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the traditional potato salad, but this week I was in the mood for something fresher.  To add the roasted potatoes and pumpkins to a fresh green salad and dress with a light vinaigrette…  that’s something more summery!!!  I added the pumpkins because I wanted a little variety and that sweet flavor.  Plus, I had a big piece in the fridge and I didn’t want it to spoil on me. 

This might work perfect for your 4th of July picnic or backyard BBQ.

 

 

ROASTED POTATO AND PUMPKIN SALAD

4-5 baby red skin potatoes, washed well and quartered
1 cup of pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 tbs olive oil
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper
1 tsp Herbamare seasoning
Fresh Baby Spinach  – or a mesclun greens mix
Tomatoes, sliced
Sweet Bell Peppers – red, orange and yellow ones, cut into thin strips
Mustard Vinaigrette Dressing

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 400° F.
  2. In a roasting pan, toss together the potatoes and pumpkin pieces with the olive oil, salt, pepper and Herbamare seasoning.  Toss together until well coated.  Roast for about 30 minutes, turning the potatoes/pumpkins once, until the skins are golden brown.  Turn off the oven and leave them there for a few minutes. 
  3. In a salad bowl, combine your fresh salad components – spinach, tomatoes and bell peppers.  You can add ANYTHING you want here in your salad.  I’m just giving you what I ate and shows in the picture.  Add the potato and pumpkin pieces and toss with the vinaigrette.

 

 I guess this idea would also work with roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, sweet plantains or parsnips too.  A nice twist on the typical salad or potato salad…

Tags: , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →