Cajun Red Beans and Rice

Lately, I've been feeling a little nostalgic for New Orleans. I miss it. Lots. I came across this recipe in La Dolce Vegan, and decided to try to ease my heartache by blasting Lil Wayne while making red beans and rice.

If I had used the right kind of rice, I think this would have been a yummy way to pay vegan homage to New Orleans. Instead, I was an ass and thought, "Oh, the type of rice won't really matter. I'll use this long-grain brown rice instead of quick cooking rice, and it'll be fine."

Wrong.

When everything was finished, the rice was still slightly undercooked, and gave the dish a slightly crunchy texture. Not cool. The flavor was really tasty, but I just couldn't get over the rice situation. So, had I decided to fork out the two or three bucks for quick-cooking rice, this would have yielded way better results. Lesson learned.

And I don't miss NOLA any less. I guess it's time to start thinking about my next visit.

Tasty Tempeh Chili

This weekend was the annual DC101 Chili Cook-off, and several friends made posts about it on facebook. While I have no real interest in going to the cook-off, it did spark a serious craving for chili. Summer is quickly approaching, and with it, 90+ degree weather with humidity so oppressive the last thing you'd want to do is eat a bowl of hot chili. So I decided to take advantage of the weekend's beautiful weather to make a pot of chili.

In my three years as a vegan, I've yet to find a recipe that is my go to chili. I almost never make the same chili twice, just because I'm hellbent on finding a favorite. After leafing through my cookbooks, I decided to make the Tasty Tempeh Chili from La Dolce Vegan. Oh, man. So good. It's really easy and flavorful and awesome. I think it's the teaspoon of molasses that did it for me; it just added a flavor that I've found to be lacking in most chili recipes thus far. And the extra nice thing about this recipe is it doesn't make heaps and heaps of chili, so you don't have to eat chili for the rest of the month.

Chunky Chili

Hi, I'm not dead. I've just been sick for about forever (I very rarely get sick since going vegan, but wow the last month or so has been bad!), and after recently receiving an acceptance letter to grad school (yay!) I've been absorbed with getting everything set up to start classes in May. My apologies for neglecting you!

I've had chili on the brain for a while lately, so when the obnoxious question "What should I make for dinner?" arose, the answer was obvious. For once.

I didn't really follow a recipe, which is rare for me because I don't really trust my culinary instincts. I can follow a recipe like no one's business, but don't ask me to make up something. This was pretty much exactly what I wanted.

To make something similar, you'll need:

1 sweet onion
2 bell peppers
3 15 oz cans of beans (I used black and kidney)
28 oz diced tomatoes, with juice (I think it's 28 oz; I know it's the big can)
1 tbsp cumin
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
dash of sea salt
dash of cayenne pepper
pinch of red pepper flakes

1. Cut fresh veggies. (You can cut these however big or small you like them. I like mine kind of chunky.) Saute in 1 tbsp olive oil. After three or four minutes, add the spices.
2. When the veggies start to soften, add tomatoes and beans. Simmer until heated through.

Yeah. It was that easy. Not super fancy or elaborate, but yummy enough! Feel free to adjust veggies and/or spices and/or beans to your liking! This can easily be served over brown rice, too!