Grilled Green Beans with Golden Almonds

I found this recipe online for Pan Roasted Green Beans with Golden Almonds.  It looked really good (and their picture is DEFINITELY better than mine), but I thought I could add more flavor to the recipe and I wanted to grill the green beans.  They also barely cooked their shallots and I caramelized and crisped mine.  Delicious!  

8 ounces green beans, trimmed

about 1 tbsp Pampered Chef Citrus Basil Rub or lemon pepper seasoning

1/4 cup blanched whole almonds, coarsely chopped

3 tbsp olive oil + more for marinating the green beans

1 large shallot, sliced thin

zest from 1 lemon

Add the cleaned, trimmed green beans to a shallow container (or even a Ziploc bag) with olive oil and Citrus Basil seasoning - I didn't measure the olive oil - it was probably somewhere around 1/2 cup.  Do this earlier in the day or even the day before.  When you are ready to grill the beans, drain them from the seasoned oil and grill until just cooked through with slight char marks.  You want them to still have a little crispness to them.  Place on a serving platter and keep warm.  

Meanwhile, toast the almonds in 3 tbsp olive oil until golden brown.  Remove from the oil and set aside.  Add shallots to the oil and cook, stirring frequently, until they are caramelized and slightly crispy.  Add almonds back to the pan and toss until heated through again.  Top green beans with the almond/shallot mixture.  Add lemon zest to the top.  

Vegan Apple and Sage "Sausage" Dressing

This is SOOO good!  I made it last year using Field Roast brand Italian sausage and my SIL (not vegan) immediately commented on how good it was, "...and I don't even usually LIKE Italian sausage!"  I knew I had a keeper on my hands!  I've adapted it to suit our tastes (as usual) and this is the result.

1 small loaf of fresh bread (this year I used a rustic Italian bread from Whole Foods), cubed and dried in the oven
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine
1/4 cup diced celery
1 large onion, diced
2-3 links of Field Roast brand sausage (this year I used the sage variety), broken apart with your hands rather than in neat slices
1 large crisp apple, peeled, cored, and diced in larger chunks - you don't want it to be as small as the onions and celery
2/3 cup roughly chopped hazelnuts
2 cups vegetable broth

Preheat oven to 350°.

Spray a large casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray or use an empty wrapper from your Earth Balance margarine.

In a large bowl, melt margarine over medium heat.  Add celery and saute' for a minute or two.  Add the onions and saute' until soft.  Add the sausage, apple, and nuts.  Continue sauteing until the onions are translucent, the apples are barely cooked, and the hazelnuts are lightly toasted.

Remove from heat and pour over the bread mixture.  Toss together.

Add about half of the broth and stir.  Keep adding broth until the whole mixture is moistened to the consistency you like.  I prefer mine a little on the drier side as opposed to mushy.  Taste and adjust seasonings.

Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes, basting during the last 10 minutes with a little more broth to ensure a crispy top.

Serve with Mushroom Gravy.

The Recipe Thief

I must admit, there are a few recipes I make and don't mess with at all.  The first is Susan from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen's Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping.  It is to die for!  This actually could be a dessert! I absolutely love it.  I made it for the first time last year along with the traditional marshmallow topped one that was my Mama's holiday standby.  This one disappeared before Mama's!  I even had to reluctantly admit I liked it better!  So I highly recommend you go to her blog and check it out.  You will NOT be sorry!

The second recipe is Sunny Anderson's Crunchy Sweet Brussels Sprouts Salad.  I saw this recipe on TV while cleaning in the kitchen a few days before Thanksgiving last year and thought it would be a nice, fresh addition.  And I was right.  It is delicious!

Spanish-Style Stuffed Peppers

This has been a family favorite recipe for many years.  It was a vegetarian dish, not vegan, but with the simple elimination of the cheese from the dish and just adding cheese to the top for my family, I can have a vegan option.  You can add shredded vegan cheese to this if you'd like.  

We have to triple this recipe for our family.  The original recipe (that I'll post here) serves four.  Without my adult son (who rarely ever eats with us), we are four.  But as I said, we have to triple the recipe.  Yes, they like it that much.  

1 pkg yellow saffron rice

2 medium red bell peppers

2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 small green bell pepper, diced (or you could use a poblano pepper if you like them - I don't)

1 green onion with top, sliced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided

1 tsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced

3/4 cup shredded vegan Mexican cheese blend, divided (optional)

2 tbsp water

Prepare rice according to the package directions.  We use this kind:

Check the ingredients.  Not all packages are vegan.  The one that our Target carries has chicken bouillon in the mix.  You can also make your own saffron rice if you prefer not to use a packaged product.  

As the rice cooks, prepare the bell peppers.  Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and stem.  In a large skillet, add the 2 tbsp water and place the peppers in the skillet; cover tightly with a lid and steam on medium to medium-low heat for about 5 minutes or until the peppers are crisp-tender.  Remove them from the skillet.  Pat them dry and set aside.  You'll use this skillet again at the end.  Put the lid back on it and set it aside.  

In a separate skillet, heat oil; add bell pepper and cook for about 3 minutes.  Add tomatoes and garlic and cook for a minute or two more.  Add green onion and half of the cilantro.  Stir and cook just until the green onion starts to soften slightly, another minute or two.  

Stir vegetable mixture into the rice.  If you are using cheese, add 1/2 a cup.  Place bell peppers cut side up into the skillet where you steamed them originally.  Spoon rice mixture evenly into each pepper.  Top with remaining cheese (if using).  Add a little more water to the skillet if it has evaporated - you don't need much.  Cover with a lid and heat over medium-low for about 3-5 minutes, just until the cheese is melted.  (If you aren't using cheese, you can skip this step).  Sprinkle with remaining cilantro.  

Serves 4.  (Or at my house, one and a half ravishing wolves - I mean kids.)  

I have served this as a side dish for company with other Mexican/Spanish/Tex-Mex dishes.  After cooking them, I do cut them in half again for a smaller portion.  

Breaking the Rules

Rule #1 for feeding non-vegans vegan food:  Don't feed them anything that looks weird.  

Well, I just couldn't help it.  I love this dish, so I made it for a Welcome Home party for my husband and son and served it with an explanation.  Everyone brave enough to try the "weird green potato salad" loved it!  There were a few wimps who didn't taste it.  

I absolutely love pesto, so when I came across this recipe in Vegetarian Times magazine, I had to make it, adapting it a bit to fit our family.  

Spinach Pesto Potato Salad

3 cups packed baby spinach leaves

1/2 cup packed fresh basil

3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup toasted walnut pieces

2 tsp lemon juice

3 tbsp olive oil

To make pesto, puree above ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste (this Cajun girl adds cayenne).  

1 1/2 lb baby red or Yukon gold potatoes, halved

3/4 lb fresh green beans, trimmed

2 tsp olive oil

1 large shallot, thinly sliced 

3 tbsp diced sun-dried tomatoes

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

3/4 cup quartered cherry tomatoes

Cook potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water for 10 minutes.  Add green beans and cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Drain; transfer to bowl and cover to keep warm.

Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Saute shallots for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until caramelized.  Add sun-dried tomatoes and red pepper flakes and saute about 3 minutes.  

Toss pesto and shallots with the potatoes and green beans.  Toss in quartered cherry tomatoes and serve.  

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If you are brave enough to serve it to non-vegans, reassure them there is no avocado in the dish.  That's what everyone thought at our party!  They breathed a sigh of relief when I assured them there was no scary avocado.  

Spicy Stir-Fried Radish Greens

 My sister-in-law has put in a fall garden and it is doing WONDERFULLY well!  I'm so glad she decided to start this little venture, because I'm also getting to reap her bountiful harvest!  

One thing she planted was a ton of radishes because her dad loves them so.  However, radishes grown in the hot South Louisiana (even in fall) tend to turn out a bit spicy!  Even for the radish loving dad.  She asked me if one could eat the greens.  I didn't know, but turned to the Knower of all Knowledge - the internet!  Yes, was the answer!  I sent her a recipe and she sent me an enormous bag of radish greens!  Then I couldn't find the original recipe, but I did come upon this recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen.  

I didn't have any garlic at all, which is so unusual for this household, but I did have some Pampered Chef Garlic Oil, which worked wonderfully well.  This Cajun didn't find the greens to be especially spicy, so next time I will double the sriracha sauce.  

It took me forever to wash all the radish greens!  She sent over an enormous bag!  It took me two hours to wash all the greens, but less than two minutes to cook the recipe!  It was delicious and I didn't find the radish greens to be bitter at all!  Brooke and I devoured the recipe so fast and when I was downing the last bite I thought, "Oops!"  No picture of the finished product for the blog!  Trust me - it was good!  

One of Susie's Watermelon Radishes.  It was DELICIOUS with just enough spicy bite.  The color was GORGEOUS!!!  And this radish was enormous - larger than a chicken egg!

Autumn Couscous

One of my friends went to Whole Foods today and posted a picture of a fall-inspired Israeli couscous dish.  I was hungry and had a butternut squash just waiting to be cooked, so my friend's lunch inspired me to do something I rarely do - make something up on the fly.  And it was delicious!  Perfect for a sunny fall day in Cajun Country.  Fall in Louisiana usually has nothing to do with cool temperatures.  At noon, it is already 81°, BUT the humidity is a low 39%!  No humidity = fall down South!

Ginger's Autumn Couscous

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp rosemary

1 tbsp olive oil

Toss together in an oven safe dish and roast at 400° for about 30 minutes or until butternut squash is tender.  

While the squash is roasting, toast:

1 1/3 cup Israeli couscous in 1 tbsp olive oil.  Add 2 1/2 cups of boiling vegetable stock, cover, and simmer over low heat for 12 minutes.  

When couscous is finished, turn into serving dish and add:

1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries (if you want them to be softer, add them to the couscous with the stock)

1/4 cup toasted walnuts or other nuts

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

the roasted butternut/onion mixture

Toss together and add salt and pepper to taste.