Greetings from vacation!
Before I start, I just want to thank everyone who checked out Wicked Vegan for my St. Patty’s Day posts. I had a record high number of hits Thurs, Fri and Saturday, tripling what I normally get in an average day. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and got to make some yummy St. Patty’s day food!!
I’ve left the city behind for a week and have gone up north with some friends to the mountains. I had expected loads of snow and cold weather and lots of comfort food but, temperature-wise, it’s a record high up here and yesterday I went and sat in the sun for 2 hours. Of course, in true me fashion, everyone was in shorts and sandals and I was in boots, tights and a skirt. But, in my defense, I had packed for the mountains! Lots of hoodies and jeans and warm boots. Plus, my skirt had a floral print and my boots were suede ankle boots. It was practically spring gear!
Anyway, this weather is making me really glad I didn’t spend a boatload on a plane ticket to FL. It’s the perfect weather for shopping (which I’ve done a lot of!), not so good weather for holing up and scrapbooking/crafting (which was my plan).
It’s also throwing of my very rough idea of what I was going to be making food-wise. Plus, I’m in a strangers kitchen, which isn’t stocked like mine, so recipes this week may be scarce. I’ve already gone to the local smokehouse once and I’m contemplating going again tonight (they have a super delicious vegan burger with homemade hummus and BBQ sauce. I’ve already bought a jar to take home with me…).
I did manage to whip together this dish the first night I was here, when it was still cold, before I went grocery shopping and before I discovered where the smokehouse was so at least you’ll get one recipe this week!
Mushroom Gravy Rice Bowl
adapted from Oh She Glows
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup uncooked brown basmati rice
- 1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups chopped sweet onion (1 medium onion)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 cups sliced crimini mushrooms (300 grams)
- 1.5 tbsp minced fresh rosemary*
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1.5 tbsp low-sodium tamari (soy sauce)
- 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 & 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- Freshly ground black pepper & kosher salt, to taste
Cook your basmati rice according to the directions on the package (should take about 15-20 minutes).
While your rice is cooking, heat olive oil in a medium size skillet. Add the onions and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes.
Add the mushrooms in and cook for 12 minutes. Now add the rosemary, nutritional yeast and tamari/soy sauce. Stir everything in and let that cook for one or two minutes.
While that is cooking, mix together your veggie broth and cornstarch and whisk with a fork or small whisk until there are no clumps. Add to the mushroom mixture, stir and let cook for another 5 minutes or so until the mixture has thickened to a gravy consistency.
Spoon your finished rice into a bowl and top with gravy mixture.
*My only complaint about this recipe was that the needles of rosemary really took away from the gravy consistency. I would suggest running a knife through the needles before adding them to the recipes or grinding them up. You could leave them out all together but they add a great flavor to the gravy.
This recipe originally called for Kale and millet instead of rice but my super market didn’t have millet and I forgot my kale in my late night, night-before-I-leave packing. I imagine kale would be a great addition to this and will definitely add it next time I make it.
Even without it though, the mushroom gravy was delicious and hunkering down on the couch with a bowl full while watching movies was the perfect start to my vacation.
Now…off to finish scrapbooking Day 1 of my Italy trip I took 2 years ago. I’ve managed to buy an excessive amount of condiments while here and even buy a purple polka dotted paring knife at an outlet kitchen store but I haven’t even made a dent in my scrapbook, which is why I’m here! Let’s see if I can remedy that today.
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