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Posts Tagged ‘black beans’

Butternut Squash Chipotle Chili with Avocado

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on December 11, 2012| 1 Comment »

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Ahh, christmas. It’s right around the corner. How many of you are excited? How many of you are ready??

That is not me at all. Let me tell you a little bit about my relationship with christmas- we normally dont get along. I like christmas the week of Christmas but i spend the weeks leading up to it resembling Grouchy Cat:

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from Tardthegrumpycat.tumblr.com

I think we’re twins. LOL

BUT this year was different. I had a mission! I was going to make all my Christmas gifts by hand which means 1. No/minimal mall craziness. Thank gosh! 2. getting to try all the fun projects I’ve pinned on pinterest. Super exciting! and 3. All this Christmas project-ing would help me get into the holiday spirit!

Yeah well, I’m here typing this blog on my smart phone, at 1 am, in the dark, under my comforter because I forgot there would be a 4th component to handmade gifts- finding time to make it all! I’m just a wee bit behind on my to do list…and by a wee bit, I mean I don’t have one single project completed. And I just can’t sleep thinking of all the things I need to do! And all the work things i need to do! And my social life that needs fixing. Eek!

On the plus side, I managed to find some time to make some food- finally. A girl can’t make Christmas cards til 1am on an empty stomach! Or in this case, watch the Monday Night game without something hearty!

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Butternut Squash Chipotle Chili with Avocado
minorly tweaked from Cookie and Kate
Serves: 4

Ingredients
  • 1 medium red onion, chopped
  • 2 red bell peppers, chopped (or equivalent jarred roasted red peppers)
  • 1 small butternut squash (less than 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and chopped into small cubes
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • ground sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2+ tablespoon chopped chipotle in adobo* (I used 1 of the chipotle peppers in the can which was about 3/4 TBS)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 14-ounces canned fire roasted diced tomatoes, including the liquid
  • 2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 2 TBSP tomato paste
  • 2 cups finely chopped kale (optional)
  • 2 Avocados from Mexico, diced
  • cilantro (optional, for garnish)
  • Field Roast Chipotle vegan sausage (optional)
  • 3 tortillas, flour or corn (I used flour because it’s what I had)
 
Instructions
  1. In a 4 to 6 quart Dutch oven or stockpot, sautée the chopped vegetables (onion, bell pepper, butternut squash, garlic) in one to two tablespoons of coconut oil on medium-high heat. Stir the ingredients every few minutes so they can cook evenly.
  2. Once the onions start turning translucent, turn the heat down to medium-low. Add all of the spices (salt, chili powder, cumin, chipotle, bay leaf and cinnamon) and stir, cooking one or 2 more minutes until fragrant. Add all the canned ingredients (tomatoes, black beans, broth, tomato paste). Cover for about one hour, stirring occasionally. After 40 minutes, stir in the chopped kale if you are using it. After 1 hour, taste test for spice level and add more chipotle if desired.
  3. By the time your chili is done, the butternut squash should be nice and tender and the liquid should have reduced a bit, producing the hearty chili consistency
  4. To make the crispy tortilla strips: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the tortillas into thin little strips, about 2 inches long and place on a non-greased cookie sheet.  Brush the strips with some oil ( I ran out of olive oil so half had coconut oil and you couldn’t tell the difference). Sprinkle with salt, spritz with a lime (optional) and toss. Spread into a single sheet with minimal over lapping. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the strips are crispy and turning golden, flipping the strips over once at the half way mark.
  5. Serve the chili in individual bowls, topped with crispy tortilla strips and plenty of diced avocado. I sauteed up some Field Roast Chipotle vegan sausage and served on top of the chili as well and it was delicious. You don’t want to cook the vegan sausage in with the chili cause it will get super soggy and lose it’s flavorings.

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This comes together insanely fast. There a minimal veggies to cut (I may have bought my butternut squash pre-cut cause I have no sharp knives and because I had 800 crafts to do) and then you practically dump it all in a pot and walk away. It’s perfect for the holiday season when multi-tasking becomes 100% necessary but you want something warm and filling to hold you over.
 
My goal tonight: Start gift wrapping what I can and finish my Christmas cards! How is your christmas preparations coming along?

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Black Bean Butternut Squash Burritos

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on October 2, 2012| 3 Comments »

With the exception of the Red Sox game I got to go to, last week was so not fun. At All. Without getting into the gory details, I saw an end to the on-again, off-again two year relationship I was in, which sorta kinda feels really shitty. You don’t realize how much you care for a person until you try to remove them from your life.

On top of that, I got a nice chunk of change stolen from my checking account. Apparently someone got a hold of my debit info and withdrew most of my money. Joy.

Needless to say, by Friday, I was looking at some serious wallowing time. I’m talking sad Taylor Swift and Emo music on repeat, all-weekend pajama wearing, hours of trash TV and ice cream binges, because when your sad, ice cream is the best thing ever. I was heading for a weekend of full-blown, end-of-relationship gloominess… with a side of police reports and changing all my bank info.

Then, my friend Whitney called and asked me to come to Portland. Um, yeah! That sounds way better then ice cream coma! I’m in!

I ended up having a blast! The only downside was it rained non-stop. By the time I came home, I just wanted to curl up with something warm and comforting.  So I made these. And they were A-MA-ZING. They were hot, creamy and filling and they hit the spot just as much as quintessential comfort foods like mac and cheese or soup would.

Butternut Squash and Black Bean Burrito
from OhSheGlows

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
  • 1/2 cup uncooked short grain brown rice (yields: 1.5 cups cooked)
  • 1-2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 cup chopped sweet onion
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 bell pepper, chopped (I used green cause Dad gave me one from his garden)
  • 1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
  • 2 tsp ground cumin, or to taste
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
  • One 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed, or about 1.5-2 cups cooked if you’re using dried
  • 3/4 cup Daiya cheese (I used mozzarella daiya cheese)
  • tortillas of choice*
  • Toppings of choice: (avocado, salsa, vegan sour cream, spinach/lettuce, cilantro, etc)

* the recipe says this makes 4 servings if you use the large or extra large shells. I used medium sized, whole wheat flour shells and I got about 5 servings.

1. Preheat oven to 425F and line a large glass dish with tinfoil. Drizzle olive oil on squash and give a shake of salt and pepper. Coat with hands. Roast chopped butternut squash for 45 mins. or until tender.

2. Next, prepare the brown rice. Add 1/2 c. dried rice and 1 c. of water to a pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce to low and simmer for about 30 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

(At this point, with the rice and butternut squash done (and possibly black beans), you can continue the next day if you want and everything comes together fast. This is perfect if you are making this for guests.)

3. In a large skillet over medium-low heat, add oil, onion, and minced garlic. Sautee for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Now add in salt and seasonings and stir well.

4.  Add chopped bell pepper, black beans, and cooked rice and sauté for another 10 minutes on low.

5. Add 1.5 cups of the roasted butternut squash to the skillet and stir to combine. I like to add 1 cup of butternut squash mashed well with a fork and 1/2 c. cubed. I think it makes the burrito extra creamy. Add Daiya cheese and stir until well melted and combined

6. Add bean filling to tortilla along with desired toppings. Wrap and serve. Or, if you are a bowl person when it comes to comfort food (like me!), this is just as good sans a wrap.

I am so addicted to these burritos. They are arguably the best burritos I’ve had. Plus, they satisfy the urge for fall food AND the urge for comfort food. The recipe says that you can add additional toppings but with each serving of this I had, I put on less toppings. I started with spinach, avocado and roasted chipotle salsa and by the end of the week, I was just eating this filling in a tortilla. It’s just so good you don’t need bells and whistles!

It’s fall and I’m recovering from a pseudo-break-up. Expect some serious comfort food on this blog in the next week or so. And chocolate. What situation isn’t made better by chocolate??

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BLACK BEAN SALSA

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , on February 5, 2012| 6 Comments »

IT’S SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!

My roommates and I are having people over and I still need to:

– Buy a few more things to make another batch of this below bean salsa (like, um, the beans! Totally forgot those yesterday on my shopping trip)

– Make and decorate cupcakes (they are seriously the best cupcakes ever. I’ll give you the recipe tomorrow)

– Clean up the kitchen a bit and tidy the house, find enough chairs, etc.

Oh yeah, and do all this in the 90 minutes I have after I get out of work and before the game starts. Really? Whose going to go to a book store today? It’s practically a national holiday in New England people. Grocery stores? clearly need to be open.  Packies? Definitely! (though I bought my beer yesterday just in case! I forgot the black beans but hey, I remembered my beer!! Priorities!)

Anyway, so here is my last recipe for the super bowl. This was suppose to go to you last week since I usually don’t post on the weekends but after I talked about how I had no life and went to bed at 8:30, suddenly I got a life again. How annoying!

Black Bean Salsa
from Cooking Light

*the measurements for this recipe were weird. Who measures out 2 TBSP of chopped out jalapeno? If you do actually do that, please see the Cooking Light recipe above. 

  • 1/2  red bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 1/4 red onion, chopped
  • 1 cucumber, chopped
  • 1/2 plum tomato, diced
  • 1/2 – 1 seeded jalapeño pepper, chopped (depends on how much heat you like)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl; stir well. Cover and chill 2 hours. For best results, chill over night.

As you can see, my chopping skills are a bit lacking. I had about 15 minutes to throw this first batch together so it could chill overnight before heading to a friends. So, my tomatoes are more chunky then chopped BUT it still tasted delicious. You could also throw in some chopped avocado if you wanted because, really, what doesn’t avocado make better?

Oh yeah, one last thing:

GO PATRIOTS!!

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BBQ Chili

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on January 19, 2012| 2 Comments »

 

Within the last few weeks, one of the posts that got the most hits was the BBQ Tofu Pitas. One can conclude from these statistics that either you A. Really like BBQ or B. you were really bored on January 5. Chances are its the latter but I’m just going to pretend that your obsession with BBQ sauce is as pathetic as mine.

I could have said C. really like tofu, but let’s be honest. No one really likes tofu. It’s just kind of a wiggly mass of soy you use as a vehicle for awesomeness like BBQ.

Now, since I’m banking on A. being the reason that that post got so many hits, one can hypothesize that by posting this BBQ chili recipe, that it will also get above average hits per day.

Clearly, I was super good at science…

BBQ Chili
directly from Oh she glows, because this recipe was too frickin’ good to change!
serves 5 

ngredients:

  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 sweet onion, peeled and chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (optional)
  • 2.5 tbsp chili powder, or to taste
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika (optional)
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or crushed red pepper flakes)
  • 1 1/4 cup dry/uncooked black beans*
  • 6 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 (28-oz) can diced tomatoes, liquid drained
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste, to thicken
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds (or ground flax), to thicken (I used ground flax)
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 2 tbsp your fav BBQ sauce (I used  1/4 c. Bone Suckin’ Sauce)**
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
  • couple handfuls of chopped spinach, or other greens like collard, kale, etc (I used baby spinach)

1. Soak the beans in water overnight or for at least 3-4 hours. This part is optional, but it helps reduce cook time and makes the beans more digestible. Rinse and drain beans before using. In a large pot, add the oil and sauté the onion and garlic over medium-low heat for about 5-6 minutes, until translucent.

2. Add in the pepper and optional jalapeno and sauté for another 3-5 minutes.

3. Stir in the spices (chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne) and sauté on low another couple minutes. If you want, you can add just a bit for now and then add the rest to taste after it has cooked.

4. Add the dry black beans, broth, and drained diced tomatoes. Stir well. Now stir in the tomato paste. Simmer on low with the lid ajar for about 2.5 hours, checking often to make sure it doesn’t dry out. If it does, add a bit more broth to thin out.

5. About 15 minutes before it’s done cooking, stir in the flax, corn, and chopped greens. Also stir in the BBQ sauce, starting with 1 tbsp at a time and tasting as you go. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Can be made 2-3 days in advance and frozen if preferred.

Note: You can probably use canned beans, but you won’t need as much broth. I would add it slowly.

*Oh She Glows original recipe called for 1/2 c. dried black eye beans and 3/4 cup of black beans. I couldn’t find dried black eye beans anywhere in whole foods so I just used black beans. I think it worked really well. There’s so much going on in the chili, one type of bean was not a problem.

Also, I think I’m a total dry bean convert! Yes, I had to soak them over night but how is that any different from remembering to take the chicken out to thaw for dinner or something? They were so fresh and had a nice bite to them and weren’t slimey at all. I’m totally switching to dry beans…you know…until I grow super lazy and stalk up on cans…

** I’m OBSESSED with Bone Suckin’ sauce. OBSESSED! I just needed to repeat that incase you missed it capitalized the first time. It taste JUST like the McDonalds BBQ which I never get to eat anymore because I would rather commit some heinous crime then eat there. But, their BBQ sauce was always my favorite. I liked to get french fries at Burger King and BBQ sauce at McDonalds. It totally worked! The only thing about this Bone Suckin’ Sauce (which despite the name is totally vegan) is that it is thinner then most BBQ sauce so I added 1/4 c. into the chili…and then I may  have added a few more TBSP to each bowl of this I ate because I love it so much…and then I may have had a spoonful one night at like 12 pm when I was aimlessly meandering around the kitchen for something to eat.

I’m weird though, so I wouldn’t recommend doing that.

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Spicy Black Bean and Quinoa Soup

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on October 7, 2011| 10 Comments »

A few weeks ago was my Dad’s birthday. He turned the big 5-0 and courtesy of my second job, I totally missed his birthday dinner. Not cool, Erin. Not cool.

So to make it up to him, I decided to make him a super yummy lunch… which just happened to be vegan.  My thought was, if the meal is good enough he would never even realize he’s missing meat or dairy. And really, how can  he miss those things when you have beer pretzels and a Spicy Black Bean and Quinoa Soup, which is chuck full of flavors he loves??

Turns out, Dad had a bit of a surprise for me. Half way through the preparation of my pretzels and soups, he lets it slip that he had a brisket on the smoker. A brisket? As in, smoked cow? yeeeeah…that’s definitely not vegan, Dad! So much for stealthily sneaking that vegan lunch on him. Carnivore-1; Vegan-0

Meat or no meat, this soup is amazing! I’ve made it twice already. I like  dividing it up into 5 servings and taking it to lunch with me for the week.

Smoky Spicy Black Bean and Quinoa Soup

via Whole Living
serves 4 or 5

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
2 carrots, diced
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon oregano
4 cups vegetable broth*
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup quinoa
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce
2 cups cooked black beans
salt to taste
cilantro or daiya cheese to garnish, optional

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat and stir in the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally until onion softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and carrots, cook another 3 minutes. Add in the cumin, chili powder, and oregano and stir to coat.

Pour the vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, quinoa and chipotle chile in the pot. Bring everything to a boil, then cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. Once the quinoa is cooked, you should see the familiar little quinoa tail, stir in the black beans and salt to taste. Heat until everything is cooked through. Serve garnished with cilantro or vegan cheese. (I only used vegan cheese once or twice. I really like it just plain. It has enough flavor on its own)

*the recipe only calls for 4 cups of broth but the soup really absorbs the broth when you reheat it. I would suggest picking up an extra can or resealable carton of vegetable broth and keeping it on hand so that you can add it to the leftovers before eating.

This soup is also super versatile. I omitted the cumin and replaced the oregano with italian seasoning because that’s what I had and it still tasted great.

I know pretzels and soup sound crazy but it definitely worked. Trust me! It was delicious. 

(PS. Do you like my fancy, ripped paper towel. Someone get this girl some better kitchen props! )

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