Easy Vegan Enchilada Tortilla Soup

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I find it a bit ironic that I set out to make this soup for one of the guys in my band, who was sick, and I am now the one sniffling as I type. Oh well, I'm just glad that it turned out so delicious. It all started with my craving for mole enchiladas and spiraled into a hearty vegan triumph. The spicy sweet hot flavors of roasted corn, mole and peppers were just what the doctor ordered.

I am definitely making this again.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

chopped red onion
1 zucchini chopped
1 bag of frozen roasted corn (or a can of white corn)
1 bag of sliced frozen roasted peppers (or fresh)
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 can of black beans
2 cups of crushed tomatoes
1 small can of enchilada sauce
1/4 cup of mole paste
1tbs vegetarian bouillon
dash of cumin
2tbs of brown sugar
4 blue corn tortillas
a few tablespoons of veg oil for frying
salt y pepper to taste

Saute the onions, garlic and zucchini until the onions are translucent. Add the frozen corn, peppers, black beans, tomatoes, enchilada sauce and 4-6 cups of water. Give that pot a stir then add the enchilada sauce, bouillon, mole, brown sugar and cumin. Let it boil for a bit to let the veggies soften and the tomato flavor to mellow out. About 30-45min

Meanwhile, heat up a frying pan with some oil. Cut your tortillas into strips and fry up in the oil. Drain and set aside.

Give the soup a taste. If it needs salt add that. You might need to add a bit of water if it is too thick. It's all about preference. Serve and garnish with the tortilla strips and some chopped green onions or, if you eat dairy, a dollop of sour cream.

NOTE: I think this would be great in a crock pot. Just add all of the ingredients, set it and forget it.

Almost Vegan Lasagna

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This recipe is almost vegan because it only uses a smidge of goat cheese mozzarella. You vegans out there can sub out vegan mozzarella. Easy and quick to assemble, this is great for a group of friends or to pack up for your lunches for the week. I originally made this for Episode 4 but it had eggplant parm in it. Last night I decided to give it another go.

Ingredients:
No Boil Pasta Sheets
2 cans of marinara
1 bunch of basil
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1 package of soft tofu (I only had firm in my fridge and it turned out fine)
1 package of soy crumble
1/4 cup chopped marinated sun-dried tomatoes
2 TBS of olive tapenade
1 white onion chopped
1 package of soy or goat cheese mozzarella
1 lemon

Start out making your "meat." Saute the onion in olive oil, salt and pepper.

When the onions are translucent, add the garlic and soy crumble. Cook for 3 minutes. Then add the sun-dried tomatoes and tapenade. Turn off the heat and set aside.

To make the "ricotta," crumble the package of tofu in your hands or mixer. Add the juice of one lemon and finely chopped basil. To chiffonade your basil: stack the leaves and roll into a cigar, then slice the cigar finely.

Mix the basil, tofu and lemon, adding a pinch of salt.

You are now ready to stack this sucker. In your pan, spread a bit of the tomato sauce to ensure the lasagna doesn't stick. (note: I would use more than you see here. Mine stuck a tad. Maybe use a bit of olive oil as well.)

Cover the bottom with a single layer of pasta sheet, breaking up large sheets to fill gaps when necessary.

Spread sauce over the pasta sheets. Add a 1/3 of the meat, sprinkled evenly. Then add 1/3 of the "ricotta," and sprinkle shredded mozzarella.

Over the mixture add some more sauce and then start the next layer of pasta sheets. Repeat two more times. The key to this is to make sure it's "saucy." Yes that's right, I got to use the word "saucy" with a straight face. Ok, it's not exactly straight.

When you have reached the top layer of pasta sheets, pour over the last of your sauce and finish off with some mozzarella. You may need to add more sauce as mine came out slightly dry.

Bake at 350 for about an hour. Check the cheese for a golden color.

Mediterranean Pearl Couscous with Rustic Tomato Chard

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Now that we have moved on to the letter "C" I can't seem to pick a veggie. With so many delicious choices I decided last night that I wouldn't choose. Couscous and Chard it is. All summer long my roommate and I were obsessed with a pearl couscous salad that we had been making with sun-dried tomatoes and kalamata olives. The great thing about this salad is that you use the juices from each jar to make the dressing. We eat it cold and hot, as a side dish or main course. My roommate added the fried tofu to make it a super filling main dish.

The chard in tomato is super yummy and would go great over pasta or risotto as well as the start of an Italian soup. Chard is so healthy for you, rich in Vitamin K, C, and beta carotene. It's great for bone and lung health, so you smokers should eat up on your chard! For more healthy bennies of chard and other veggies check out World's Healthiest Foods.


INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cup pearl couscous
5 julienned sun-dried tomatoes in oil
8 chopped kalamata olives
1 tbs of sun dried tomato oil (from the jar)
1 tbs of kalamata olive jar juice
1 tbs of red wine vinegar
1 pkg firm tofu cubed into small size
1 half red onion chopped
1 bay leaf

1 bunch of red chard de-stemmed and chopped
1 bunch of swiss chard de-stemmed and chopped
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 half of red onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1 tbs of capers
Mrs. Dash- or Italian seasoning

Start with the couscous.
In a pan with a tablespoon of Earthbound butter, salt, and pepper, saute the onions. When the onions are translucent add the couscous and toast the pearls until they are slightly golden.

Add the bay leaf and 1 3/4 cup of veggie stock. I used a Trader Joe vegetable stock pouch. They are amazing. Think the crystal light go-pouches but full of concentrated vegetable bouillon. They are great to keep in the pantry for sauces and soups.
Bring the couscous to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer and cover. Cook until the water is absorbed. Maybe 15 min or so. Lucky for me my lid is glass so I can just keep looking at it to make sure I don't burn it, which on occasion I still do.

In your frying pan, heat up a tablespoon of the oil from the sun dried tomato jar. Fry the tofu cubes until they are crusty and golden.

Transfer the cubes to a bowl when you are finished.

In your frying pan heat up a tablespoon of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Saute the rest of the chopped onion, garlic and slowly add handfuls of your chard. Keep stirring the chard into your garlic onion mixture so that the garlic doesn't burn. As the chard cooks it will shrink down so that you can add more. Once the last handful of chard has cooked down add your tomatoes and a bit of garlic seasoning or Mrs. Dash.

Continue to cook the chard in the tomatoes with the lid off.

Once your couscous is ready, add the tofu, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, olive juice, tomato oil and red wine vinegar. Toss a few times to mix up.

We decided that the flavors were so good together that we would plate the chard first and then the couscous over with a sprinkling of shredded asaigo. Either way this was fantastic, vegetarian and super healthy.

Chicken Stew with Artichoke hearts Over Pesto Couscous

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From Alphabeet Soup

After spending a whopping hour in Whole Foods trying to figure out an Artichoke recipe to start off Artichoke Week, I emerged clutching two giant sacks. In these sacks were artichokes (clearly), rotisserie chicken, canned artichokes in water, herbs, Better Than Bouillon vegetable stock, pesto pearl couscous, freeze-dried porcini mushrooms and canned crushed tomatoes. It was looking like I was making Chicken stew with Artichoke hearts.

First up- chopping up some white onions I had on hand. It was rough work, as I was racing the tears that were building, but got them into my Martha Stewart Dutch Oven. Olive oil, salt, and pepper (the seasoning bff's), all in there, as I saute the onions. I added a last minute cup of chopped carrots and I was in motion. Add some water to the onions and carrots once the onions are translucent or you are going to have a pot full of sadness, believe me I've done that plenty.

With the onions and carrot diligently doing their darnedest in the pot I started at the chicken.

IPhone: check. Speakers: check. Boyfriend's playlist: check. I highly recommend Dr. Dre and Aesop Rock when eviscerating chicken, somehow it just works.

OK back to the foul nature at hand...sorry had to go there. Rip that chicken apart. Problems at work? Issues with the boss? Tell that chicken how it is. TPS Report THIS!! Now you have a bowl of bones and skins and a bowl of meat (minus a few snuck morsels while I work). Oh and if you are like me, you can choose this opportunity to almost dump the entire cutting board of chicken juices, skin pieces and random bones on to the kitchen floor. Luckily, I have a roommate who loves to clean, at least that's what helps me sleep at night.

Add more water and some of the bouillon paste. I think I added about 6 cups of water but basically I filled it half full. Add the chicken carcass and some of the choicest skin pieces, a few sprigs of sage, rosemary and stripped twigs of thyme. (note: I almost posted this without mentioning the 4 cloves of garlic that I crushed with my knife and threw in whole, a nearly tragic omission)

Things are about to start smelling goooood. Really really good. Right about now people will start cycling through the kitchen with their noses in the breeze trying to track down what smells so divine. Roughly chop up the can of artichoke hearts and throw those puppies in along with the mushrooms.

Now it's time for a glass of wine. Let the soup boil down a bit. Let the yummy bones, skin and herbs ooze their flavors into the soup. Once you feel confident that what's in your pot is the straight bizness, with some tongs, remove the chicken bones and herb sticks.

Now we get to dump in that chicken meat and the can of crushed tomatoes.

Almost forgot the cup of red wine, add that here as well. Now your soup might taste a bit too tomatoey at this point. You're sad, I know, but trust me that once it boils down a bit it will mellow out and blend together into a maelstrom of flavor that will put you on your keister. But if you feel like it, throw in some more salt. Keep the lid off the pot. Let the wine cook into the tomato. Tomato and wine are like those irritatingly cute people on the eHarmony website, once they were matched and read each other's profiles it was love. True tomatoey winey love.

Start the couscous so that you have something to do while Tomato and Wine flirt with each other shamelessly. By the time the couscous is cooked you have Chicken Stew with artichokes.

I put a 1/2 cup of the couscous in my bowl, ladled the chunky soup over and finished it off with some freshly grated Parmesan.

Soooo good!! Seriously, I am patting myself on the back for this one.

Bon Appétit y'all!


(ADDITION: already good suggestions!! A shopping list was requested for this. Here goes..)

Ingredients List:
1 can artichoke hearts in water
1 rotisserie chicken
1 large can of crushed tomatoes with basil
8 dried porcini mushrooms soaked in hot water
1 bottle red wine
2 carrots
1 white onion
5 cloves of garlic
1 bunch rosemary, sage and thyme
2 teaspoons bouillon
1 tablespoon olive oil
1-2 tablespoons grated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Tools:
tongs
crock pot or dutch oven
wine opener
chef knife
patient roommate