Chorizo and Rice Stuffed Chillies

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Today's recipe was actually made yesterday, but it was such a great success with the family that I'm making it again today and blogging it. This one of my more cheat heavy dishes since it's really easy to make, the only time consuming part is preparing the chillies (and those you can get ready to cook at Costcos in Mexico if you want. I don't know about Costcos in other countries but you can call them and check). My son only ate the stuffing as the chili is a bit too spicy for him, so there are options if you don't like spicy food.

Ingredients

Stuffed Chillies
-2 Sabori Soy Chorizo 400 gr packs
-1/2 finely chopped onion
-4 cloves of chopped garlic
-3 cups of cooked rice
-1 cup chopped cilantro
-4 large poblano chillies
-450 gr. of tomato sauce
-1 avocado (garnish)

Red Sauce
-200 gr. of tomato sauce
-200 gr of any red chili sauce
-1 teaspoon of olive oil
-1/2 finely chopped onion
-2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
-1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
-3 finely chopped ripe tomatoes

The first thing you need to do is prep your chilies. Remove the core, any seeds, and the skin. Traditionally you remove the plastic like layer of skin by passing them slowly one by one through the fire on your stove, but this honestly takes a while. A much faster approach is wrapping the chillies in plastic, a plastic bag will do, and putting them in the microwave for rounds of two minutes until you can see the skin lifting. It still takes some time but not nearly as much as the traditional method. However, if you want a nice presentation the traditional method is better. By using the microwave you are basically cooking the chillies, so they wont keep their form. If you really don't want to use the traditional method but would like a nice presentation then I suggest using more chillies, cutting them into strips and mixing them into the chorizo. And like I said, you can get them pre-peeled at Costco (although they are considerably more expensive). Do not, under any circumstance, skip peeling them. Tip: if you have time and are using the microwave, heat the chillies for at least 4 rounds of a two minutes each the night before you make this dish. The chillies are easier to peel when they are cool.

Once your chillies are ready place both packs of chorizo in a large, hot frying pan. I've only found two easily available brands of vegan chorizo in Mexico, and of the two I prefer Sabori by far. You can get it at any supermarket store in Mexico City. If you're lucky to live somewhere with a wider rang of alternatives use whichever you prefer.

You don't need to add any oil to the frying pan, the chorizo is already quite oily. Give it 5 minutes to heat up before mixing in the finely chopped onion, garlic, cilantro, rice, and salt and pepper to taste. Don't forget to stir it every few minutes. Once the chorizo starts to get brown add the tomato sauce. I used La Costeña brand, but you can make your own. Leave on low heat for 5 minutes.

To make the red sauce that accompanies the chillies, heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a small pot. Add the onion garlic and cilantro and leave till lightly brown. Add the red chili and tomato sauces as well as the chopped tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Leave on a low fire for at least 15 minutes.

Stuff the chillies with the chorizo. If you skinned the using the microwave just add the red sauce and serve. If not cook the stuffed chillies in a frying pan with the red sauce.

Serve hot and garnish with avocado.

This recipe makes for four stuffed chillies and about two cups of leftover stuffing.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin and Portobello Tagliatelle

Yes, on with the pumpkin recipes! One more reason to love autumn. I hope you like pumpkin, because I bought the last big one I found at the supermarket. And when I say big, I mean HUGE. So let's see how many dishes we can get out of it, shall we?

Today's recipe is ridiculously simple to make, if you already have the pumpkin chopped up. Ours was so big, I had to do it from the get go to fit it in the fridge. 

Pumpkin and Portobello Tagliatelle

Ingredients

-500 gr of sliced Portobello mushrooms (the small ones look better, but any kind will do)
-500 gr of chopped pumpkin
-1 leek, sliced
-225 gr Tagliatelle pasta
-salt, to taste
-pepper, to taste
-a dash of red wine ("I love cooking with wine—sometimes I even put it in the food.” )
-olive oil

Leave the water boiling and the pasta cooking while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Place a frying pan on the stove and wait for it to heat up before adding 2 table spoons of olive oil. Once the olive oil is hot, add the sliced leek. Make sure you wash the leek thoroughly because you will often find dirt in the inner layers. Once the leek starts to look semi transparent, add the rest of the ingredients, except the red wine.

Cook until the pumpkin is done. It should take between 15 and 20 minutes depending on how small your cubes are. Add a splash of red wine. Just go ahead and pour it on there. I used a Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot mix, but any type will do. Box wine is fine too. Now a thing about wine. Not all wines (or beers for that matter) are vegan. Barnivore has a pretty comprehensive list of what alcoholic beverages are vegan. 

Leave the frying pan on a low fire for 2 more minutes, then mix in the pasta. Tip: if your pasta is ready before  the vegetables, keep it from sticking together by adding a dash of olive oil.  I think it would also go incredibly well with walnuts and cranberries, but that might just be the Thanksgiving  fever going through the blogosphere getting to me. Enjoy!

Makes 3 servings.

Kid and omnivore approved!

Pumpkin and Squash Tortiglioni with Crispy Basil and Toasted Peanuts

Wow, that was a long hiatus, sorry! Still making delicious vegan food, just haven't had the time to write about it. Today's treat comes from Chef Chloe's web page. I love, love, love her recipes, they are ALWAYS amazing. If I ever find myself stuck for ideas, this is one of my to go places.

I've been feeling the autumn vibes with Halloween and the Day of The Dead last week, and of course  we have some pumpkin from our jack'o lantern and some squash from the supermarket in the fridge. But I didn't really know what to do with them, till I saw Chef Chloe's Creamy Pumpkin Penne with Crispy Sage and Toasted Pecan recipe.  I had a look in the fridge and cupboards and adapted the recipe to what I have at home. You can find the original recipe and a lot more here. Most recipes will be very forgiving of small to radical changes, feel free to experiment!

Pumpkin and Squash Tortiglioni with Crispy Basil and Toasted Peanuts

Ingredients:

PUMPKIN AND SQUASH SAUCE
-500 gr. of Tortiglioni pasta
-4 tablespoons of olive oil
-1 white onion
-6 cloves of garlic
-1/2  kg of pumpkin
-3 squashes
-350 gr of tomato sauce
-2 cups of non dairy milk (I used soy milk)
-salt to taste
-pepper to taste
- 1 or 2 small green chillies (optional)
-handful of basil
-salt to taste
-1/2 cup of toasted peanuts

If you're starting off like me, with fresh pumpkin, you'll have to cook it first. Yes, not a great cheat, but I've never seen canned pumpkin in Mexico City. If anyone knows where to get it please let me know!  Clean out all the seeds and stringy parts. Peel, cut into smaller pieces and steam. I have a two part steamer but you can also use a metal collander inside a pot, however you must be able to cover it. You could boil it which is quicker, but I prefer steaming because I feel you end up with a better taste that way. Throw in the squash as well. I like to leave the skin on mine, but that's up to your personal preference. In total it took about 30 minutes to be done, but this will depend on how much pumpkin you're steaming. Throw in the squash (which cooks a lot faster) when the pumpkin begins to feel soft when poked with a fork.

While you're waiting for the pumpkin and squash, cook the pasta and prepare the basil. In a small frying pan heat two table spoons of olive oil. Make sure the oil is very hot before adding the basil and don't leave it longer than 5 minutes. I know it's tempting, but don't eat the basil while you're preparing the other stuff! You'll end up with Pumpkin Sauce Pasta. With no basil...

In another frying pan sauté the onions until soft. Add the garlic and chilies. If you want it spicy cut the chili as small as possible. If you just want a slight flavour cut it in half and take out all the seeds before adding it to the pan. This goes without saying, but I always forget and end up rubbing my eyes. Wash your hands very well after handling  chili!

Time for a quick infomercial. There's been a lot of super chopping  products on TV these last couple of years. I highly dislike  chopping. Absolutely abhor it. But I always thought they were like everything else on TV infomercials. However I found one of these little supper chopper bullets at Costco and decided to give it a try. It actually works! Saves me a ton of time and now things are actually more or less the same size. This little fellow is the reason I'm using real garlic cloves instead of plain old garlic powder.

To finish up put the pumpkin, squash, onions, garlic, chili tomato sauce and nondairy milk in a blender and blend until smooth. Toss in with the pasta, crispy basil and toasted peanuts. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Tip. Make twice the amount of sauce and freeze the remaining half for later use.

Next time I'll try making this with less milk and some avocado.

Kid and omnivore approved!

Hibiscus Flower Tacos

I love the concept of edible flowers. There's something simply romantic about eating beautiful flowers. This recipe was taught to me  by my mother, who is an excellent cook. It's great to treat visitors from out of town or simply to enjoy at home, besides being very easy to make. It can be served as a main dish or a starter. It's also an excellent finger food., for this variation wrap the tortilla, cut into 3 pieces and serve with toothpicks.


Hibiscus Flower Tacos


Ingredients:


-1/2 kg of hibiscus flowers (In Mexico you can find them at any grocery store or market. In other countries you might be able to find them at specialized grocery stores or ethnic markets. I found this page from Traditional Foods which I hope helps. If you know of a place to buy hibiscus flowers in your area, please share in the comments section)


-3 lt of drinking water


-2 table spoons of vegetable oil


-1 chopped red onion (white onion is good too) 


-tortillas 


-salt to taste


-pepper to taste


-minced garlic to taste


If time is not an issue, you can leave the flowers soaking in the water overnight. Otherwise, you'll need to boil the flowers for 5 minutes. Don't pour the water down the drain! Use it as a concentrate to make a Hibiscus drink, just add water to taste and a couple of tea spoons of sugar.


Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan. Once it's hot, add the chopped onion until it starts becoming transparent. Add the hibiscus flowers, salt, pepper, and minced garlic. The cooking time depends on the texture you want, if you prefer them soft and tender then 5 to 10 minutes is enough. If you would rather they were crispier then about 15 minutes should be enough. Taste them as you go to see what you like best. Serve on a hot tortilla!

The tacos can be filled with  a huge variety of options, beans, vegetable cheeses, vegetables, there's a wide range of options. My personal favorite  is mushrooms and chile de árbol hot sauce.


Serves 4 if you only fill the tacos with the hibiscus flowers.


Test omnivore approved, the test kid  wasn´t so sold on it.


Enjoy!

Winter Soup

These days it's been awfully cold. Few things are better than hot soup to comfort oneself, so here is my winter soup recipe. I hope you like it:

Winter Soup


Ingredients:


-1/2 kg of potatoes- I prefer cambray, but any type is good


-1/2 kg of carrots 


-1 soup spoon of olive oil 


-1 handful of coriander- if you prefer it, parsley is great too


-minced garlic to taste- for the non cheat version you can use two garlic cloves


-sea salt to taste


-freshly ground pepper to taste- or not so fresh, for the cheat version 


-1/2 cup of water


-1 cup of soy milk, for a creamier texture (OPTIONAL, can be replaced with other vegetable milks

-sun dried tomatoes, as garnish (OPTIONAL)


-coriander leaves, as garnish (OPTIONAL)


-Music: Zombie, The Cranberries (OPTIONAL)


To start off, set a large pot of water with a dash of salt to boil. Cut the potatoes and carrots into cubes, whatever size you like, they're going in the blender later on. The smaller the cube, the shorter the cooking time. Once the water boils, add the potatoes and carrots. When they're soft they're ready for the next step.

Blend the potatoes, carrots, water, vegetable milk, garlic, salt, pepper,, coriander or parsley in a blender or food processor. If you want your soup to be more liquid (as opposed to creamy), add water or vegetable milk to taste.

Leave on the stove at low heat till it boils. Serve hot and garnish with sun dried tomatoes and coriander. Any vegan bread goes great with this soup.

Serves 4 portions.

Kid and Omnivore approved :)

Enjoy!

Cheater? Me?

A year and a half ago I decided to become a  vegan. Since then, one of the most disconcerting questions I face is, "But you can cheat, right?" It doesn´t help much that the question is usually accompanied by some omnivorous dish being enthusiastically pushed in my face (imagine a caterer, insisting you try the delicious  hors d'oeuvres on their platter. The ones with cheese. Why is it always cheese?!) I mean, I'm not the straightest arrow around. I'm not ashamed to say I'm not above cheating at board games (Monopoly isn't Monopoly if you're not robbing the bank blind), and sometimes one needs a little help to finish that extra complicated level in a video game. But from that to "cheating" at what I want to eat...

It's  clear the misunderstanding arises from a difference in definitions. If you think veganism is a diet, like the carb diet, or the apple juice, the cabbage, grapefruit and lemon juice diets (Seriously? And I'm the freaky extremist?), etc., you can understand why one could consider cheating. But, if like me, you consider veganism as a lifestyle in which the goal is to cause the least suffering to other sentient beings... things change completely. I don´t want to, nor can I, cheat. How do you fool yourself?

I admit I'm a cheating vegan. I'm a mom, I have a job and I enjoy having some free time. So, you'll find a some recipes on this blog, where I might have skipped a step or two to save time and effort. Sometimes I buy processed foods. Because, honestly,  making my own soy milk or humus, although fun, isn´t something I have time for every day. Here´s hoping these recipes are a good guide for those looking to eat deliciously with a clear conscience (regarding other sentient beings, because I can't promise anything when it comes to calories :) )