Ethnic Vegan

Made a great soup from this website I found yesterday. http://www.ethnicvegan.com/index.html

Forgot to take the photo of the finished soup~oops...

This vegan barley soup, which uses dried shitakes for an extra flavor dimension, will warm you up right down to your toes.

~ mushroom barley soup~
4-5 dried shitake mushrooms

3 Tbs. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1/4 cup celery, diced

1 medium yellow onion, chopped fine

1 large carrot, diced

12 oz. white mushrooms ( I used Crimini)

8 cups water

1 cup pearl barley

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. sage

1 tsp. thyme

Pinch of Hungarian paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

Parsley, chopped (I used cilantro, chopped finely)

1. Place the shitake mushrooms in a bowl; pour boiling water over them. Cover the bowl and let the mushrooms soften for about 45 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and pour the soaking water through a cone coffee filter to remove any sediment. Reserve the strained liquid. Dice the shitakes.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large stew-pot over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, celery, onion, and carrot until the onions are translucent. Add the white mushrooms and shitakes and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.

3. Add 8 cups of water, the reserved mushroom soaking liquid, barley, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Partially cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add remaining spices; cook, stirring occasionally, until the barley softens (about another 30 minutes).

5. Stir in chopped parsley right before serving.

We also made the beer batter bread (cheated a little) w/ some old home-brew Vlad had, pretty good. No butter needed...

 *  beer batter bread

This bread recipe is so easy, it's perfect for a fast weeknight meal. Try pairing it with veggie chili or bbq veggie chili.

2 cups self-rising flour*

3 Tbs. sugar

1 12-oz. can or bottle of your favorite beer

Olive oil

Grease a loaf pan with olive oil. Heat oven to 350°. Combine flour, sugar, and beer. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 20 minutes. Brush top of loaf with olive oil; return to oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until loaf is golden brown.

*If you don't have self-rising flour on hand, make your own. For each cup of self-rising flour, sift together:

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Check out the link:

http://www.ethnicvegan.com/index.html

They really have a good variety of different ethnic types of vegan food.

Lenten cooking can be simple & taste good.

 

I found this delicious hummus recipe on another website...

 

Cumin and Smoked Paprika Hummus

INGREDIENTS:
1 15-ounce can of chickpeas, with about half the water drained off
1/4 cup tahini
1 medium-sized garlic clove
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice (or more, to desired consistency)
1 tsp smoked paprika (can use regular if you don't have smoked)
1/2 tsp ground cumin

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a food processor, puree all ingredients together until smooth. Add more lemon juice to get your preferred hummus texture. Serve with chopped vegetables or baguette slices.
Makes about 2 cups of hummus.