Category Archives: Vegetarian

Asian Broccoli Slaw

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Salad, Vegan, Vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

This Asian Broccoli Slaw is so addicting. My husband and I could sit down and eat this in one sitting — which isn’t good because this recipe makes a lot of slaw.

Nom. Nom.

Asian Broccoli Slaw

2 pkgs. (16 oz) Broccoli Slaw
4 Green Onions

Asian Broccoli Slaw

Almond Mixture:
1 cup sliced Almonds
1/2 cup Sesame Seeds
2 pkgs. Ramen Noodles (crushed)
1/2 cup Butter

Dressing:
3/4 cup Oil
1/3 cup Rice Vinegar
1/4 cup Splenda or Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

Saute almonds, seeds and noodles in butter until lightly borwned. Set aside to cool, then store in refrigerator until ready to put the salad together.

Stir dressing ingredients together well.

Just before serving, combing all ingredients and toss lightly.

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Mushroom & “Chicken” Stroganoff

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Mushrooms, Vegan, Vegetarian and tagged with , , , , ,

Mushroom & “Chicken” Stroganoff

Last year I was on the search for the perfect stroganoff — like the kind I’ve had at friend’s houses over the years.  Finally I broke down and asked my friend Andrea for her parents’ recipe and I was not dissappointed. This recipe is exactly as I remembered.

This recipe is so simple that it’s my go-to recipe for a quick meal — or a post church lunch.  I’ve modified the recipe to accommodate the Game On Diet by substituting the sour cream for Greek yogurt.  I can’t tell the difference.

I also used Worthington Loma Linda FriChik for the protein. Actually you can substitute this for anything you like — beef, chicken, etc.

Give the recipe a try, and then please let me know what you think. I’m interested in knowing if you love this stroganoff recipe just as my as I do.

Mushroom & “Chicken” Stroganoff

1 can of vegecuts or gluten
4 oz. Mushrooms
1 cup Greek Yogurt
3 tablespoons Oil
1 pkt dry Onion Soup
Hot cooked Rice or Noodles

Cut vegecuts in 1/4 inch strips and brown lightly in oil. Add liquid from vegecuts, mushrooms and onion soup. Simmer gently. Add sour cream just before serving.

Macadamia Nut Butter

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Sides, Vegan, Vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Such an easy recipe that can be added to potatoes, cauliflower and more.  I can’t wait to try this as a Macadamia Nut and Honey Sandwich.

I tried blending the nuts in my Vitamix, but I wasn’t using enough nuts for the blades to grab on to — they kept getting stuck. So I transferred over to my Cuisinart Hand Blender and they blended up perfectly.

Macadamia Nut Butter

1 cup of Macadamia Nuts

With a hand blender, blend nuts until smooth. Takes about 3 to 5 minutes.

Pesto Zucchini Wrap

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Entrée, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Pesto Zucchini Wrap

This summer I’ve been fixing lighter, yet great tasting meals…or at least I’m on the hunt for such things.  Here is the recipe for a Pesto Zucchini Wrap that is just absolutely declicious — it’s one of my favorite go-to recipes.  The great thing about this wrap recipe is that you can add or subtract what ever you like.

Your husband not of fan of olives? Presto! Don’t even add them to his wrap, but double them up on your’s. As simple as that.

This is also a great recipe for vegans, and you can also use gluten free wraps for those who are glucose intolerant.

Pesto Zucchini Wrap

Whole Grain Tortilla Wraps
Pesto
4 Zucchinis, grated
2 Sweet Onions, caramelized
16 oz package Mushrooms, sliced
20 Cherry Tomatoes, halved
1 cup Kalamata Olives, sliced
1/2 cup Pine Nuts
Olive Oil
Salt

Place onions in skillet with 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tbl spoons of butter and saute on low for about 1/2 hour or light brown.

Shred zucchini and place in a bowl and drizzle with salt and olive oil. Mix and let sit to marinate.

 

Once onions are caramelized, mix in mushrooms to saute. Cook long enough to cook of the moisture from the mushrooms.

 

With each individual wrap, spread about 2 tablespoons of pesto on the wrap. Then layer the rest of the wrap with onions, mushrooms, olives, tomatoes and pine nuts.

Fold wrap in half or roll, serve and savor the flavors.

Baked Acorn Squash

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Vegetables, Vegetarian and tagged with , ,

Baked Acorn Squash

As I’m sitting here in the coffee house talking about what my friend Kim is making for dinner, I was totally reminded about my Baked Acorn Squash recipe.

So Kim, this is for you.

Baked Acorn Squash

1 medium size Acorn Squash
2 tablespoons Butter
2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
Black Pepper

Set oven to 350 degrees.

Cut acorn squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and place in a baking dish with 1″ water.  Trim the stem slighly so the squash will sit flat during baking.

Bake upside down for about 1/2 hour, so the meat of the squash will quickly soften. You can speed up this process by placing the baking pan and squash in the microwave for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and turn the squash right side up and place 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar in each half.  Sprinkle with black pepper.

Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the squash is tender.

Quick Southwestern Wraps

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Entrée, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Here’s a quick and easy dinner for the uninspired.

My mother-in-law whipped this up when we were visiting her last summer. We loved these so much that we brought the idea home with us.  What’s easier than heating up some refried beans, spreading them on a tortilla wrap, and then adding your favorite toppings?

This could also be converted to a gluten-free meal by using torillas like ones made by Food for Life.

You can also spice up the taste by using flavored torillas that can be found on your grocery aisle.  We like the sun-dried tomato tortilla wraps.

Make an assembly line of ingredients and let your children choose and assemble their own wrap. I find that if my children can help “make” the meal, then they are more likely to eat it.

Also, if you warm your tortilla up in the skillet first, it’s less likely to tear apart when you start to wrap it around the filling.

The ingredients are flexible, like a taco salad.  Choose what you and your family will eat. However here’s a simple guideline to get you started.

Southwestern Wraps

Tortilla
Refried Beans
Cheese
Red Bell Pepper
Yellow Bell Pepper
Onions
Fresh Spinach
Sour Cream
Salsa

Wrap up ingredients in up snug as a bug in a rug. Eat. Enjoy.

 

Curry Pumpkin Soup

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Soup, Vegetarian

Curry Pumpkin Soup

I was searching this blog for my Curry Pumpkin Soup recipe the other day, and I couldn’t believe I haven’t blogged about it yet. This is the soup of all soups that convinced me, that perhaps, yes, I can cook!

Ten years ago I journeyed to New Zealand with my best friend from high school to be a third wheel while she and her Mom visited family. Actually the trip Down Under was so delightful, and her Mom was very thoughtful in showing me all the highlights on the North Island. One of those discoveries was this Curry Pumpkin Soup at her cousin’s house in Auckland.

One thing to note, what Kiwi’s consider pumpkins would be what North American’s call squash.  The pumpkins that they used looked like Blue Hubbards, and that is what I prefer to use when I can find them in the fall.  However Acorn squash, or even our traditional orange pumpkins work fine with this recipe.

What I love about creamed soups is that you don’t have to chop onions or garlic really fine.  You can just quickly cut them in chunks  for sauteing. I also like to buy a few Blue Hubbards in the fall, bake them in the oven, gut them, and them stick them in the freezer so I can make this soup all year long.

Crusty Ciabatta bread and Curry Pumpkin Soup is really one of my favorite meals, and New Zealand is one of my favorite countries. On a side note; the pace of life reminded me of what America was probably like back in the 50s. Ideal and relaxing. No mega stores. However they did have deli selections at Starbucks (which wasn’t happening in Texas back in 2002), and they already had McCafe’s at McDonalds.  Didn’t we just get those just a couple of years ago?

Back to the soup. You can cut the fat and calorie count by sauteing the onion and garlic in water and using milk vs. cream.

Curry Pumpkin Soup

  • 1 large Onion
  • 3-4 cloves Garlic
  • 1.5 – 2 tspn Curry Powder
  • 5 cups Water
  • 8 tspns Vegetable Stock
  • 1/2 Pumpkin (Squash)
  • 300 ml Full Cream

Saute onion and garlic in melted butter with curry powder. Add water and vegetable stock, pumpkin (peeled & cubed). I bake the pumpkin until soft in the oven. Place pumpkin and liquid in blender and whiz to mushy liquid. Add cream and parsley.

Come join SoupaPalooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeast and Le Creuset.

Quinoa Gorgonzola Cheese Risotto with Spinach

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Entrée, Vegetarian and tagged with , , , ,

Quinoa Gorgonzola Cheese Risotto

Earlier this year I realized that I’ve never tried quinoa. I have friends who swear by it and calls it the “wonder grain,” and others who are grossed out by how it emerges from it’s shell.

So while I was at Whole Foods looking for tasty grain and legume options to incorporate into our meal, I decided to pick up a small bag of quinoa for the experimenting.

After a search on Google for some quinoa recipes I discovered this Quinoa Goat Cheese Risotto by Cooking Quinoa. What a terrific recipe to try quinoa for the first time, because the grain doesn’t come out dry and crunching like it can in many other recipes.

And though the goat cheese rendition is quite tasty, I’ve switched it out for gorgonzola cheese, to give it a bit of a tart kick. Either cheese choices are excellent.

I’ve had problems (perhaps lack of patience) making risotto before with rice, however this recipe is super easy — it just takes time. So be sure to plan for cooking to liquid down to a nice creamy texture.

Quinoa Gorgonzola Cheese Risotto

  • 1 ½ cup quinoa
  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1 T Butter
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 3 cups vegetable broth
  • ½ cup white wine
  • 1 lb spinach
  • 4 oz gorgonzola cheese
  • Parmesan, parsley and lemon zest for garnish

Directions

  1. Rinse quinoa in a fine metal sieve until your water turns clear.
  2. Spray a skillet with cooking spray.  Sauté spinach until tender. Set aside.
  3. Heat butter and olive oil over medium heat.  Add onion and sauté until tender.  Add garlic and cook for one minute.
  4. Add quinoa, wine and cayenne pepper.  Cook until the wine is almost evaporated, stirring frequently.
  5. Add enough broth to cover quinoa.  Simmer uncovered over medium low heat.  Add broth as the liquid absorbs and stir frequently.  Cooking quinoa will take about 15 minutes
  6. Stir in spinach in last two minutes of cooking.
  7. Remove from heat and add salt, pepper and 3 ounces of the goat cheese.  Stir.
  8. Crumble remaining goat cheese, parsley, lemon zest and parmesan over the quinoa.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Soup, Stew, Vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Recently I’ve been addicted to Pinterest and am finding I don’t have enough time/meals/days to make all the wonderful things my friends are discovering for me.  However I pushed this recipe for Roasted Cauliflower Soup to the top of my list; mostly because cauliflowers are in season at the farmer’s market, and secondly my sister-in-law gave this a huge thumbs up.

I probably used too much cauliflower because my soup turned out like a stew. However the flavor was oh, so good!  My husband gave this recipe his personal stamp of approval, so I think this will make it onto the family cookbook.

I must give @hailskitchen over at the Tasty Kitchen kudos for this recipe.  I used yellow sharp cheddar instead of white — only because that’s what I had available.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

  • 1 head Cauliflower, Roughly Chopped
  • 2 whole Shallots, Roughly Chopped
  • 3 cloves Garlic, Roughly Chopped
  • 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 4 cups Chicken Broth
  • 1-½ cup White Cheddar Cheese, Shredded
  • 1 Tablespoon Fresh Thyme, Chopped
  • 1 Tablespoon Coarse Salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. On a cookie sheet, drizzle the cauliflower, shallots and garlic with the olive oil and season with coarse salt. Roast for about 40 minutes or until the cauliflower is fork-tender.

Carefully place the vegetables in a food processor or blender and roughly puree. Texture is good, large chunks are not so good. Place the vegetables in a pot along with the chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about ten minutes. Add the cheese, thyme and a good dose of black pepper. Season to taste with salt. Serve with warm, crusty bread and enjoy!

Oops! There Goes the Pumpkin

Posted by thehipvegetarian in Soup, Stew, Vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

The Hot Pot before baking.

Ah, it’s fall. My favorite time of year because the pumpkins are back in the stores. So you can imagine my excitement when I received a new recipe for Aromatic Pumpkin And Chickpea Hot Pot that my friend Stacy found in the New York Times.

Like Stacy, I was going to back this Hot Pot inside a pumpkin — even though the recipe didn’t call for it. And like Stacy, I was going to impress the socks off my dinner guests.

I made some minor modifications to the recipe. I didn’t use chunks of pumpkin when assembling since it would be cooked inside one. I planned to just scrap the pumpkin meat off the sides when dishing out the stew. That makes prepping much easier.

I also cut the chickpeas in half and instead used a can of hominy.

This hot pot recipe was super easy to prepare.  I assembled and cooked it on the stove top the night before. Refrigerated over night and then placed it inside the pumpkin to bake for our noon dinner.

Guests arrived, dinner was ready, and all I needed to do was transfer the baked pumpkin filled with this awesome tasting hop pot recipe on to the severing platter for it’s final presentation.

The Remains.

As my guests were looking on in wonderment, I picked up the pumpkin from the 9″ cake pan it was resting in and I suddenly hear a WHOOSH! To my horror the stew dropped out of the bottom of the pumpkin, back into the cake pan, and overflowed in to the stove.

As I continued to look on in horror, my friend stepped in to take over. We were able to salvage what fell into the cake pan and serve it in the pumpkin, placed in a bowl, on top of the serving platter.

Dinner wasn’t a disaster, but it sure did come close.

The Final Presentation.