Saturday night was a regular bean patty night, but I used Red Kidney Beans in the Vcon' Chickpea Patty recipe and was pleasantly surprised. I prefer the less chewy consistency of the kidney beans to chickers. I had a perfectly ripe avocado to go with the patties - a perfect combo! I would really recommend trying this different bean with the Vcon recipe - not that Isa and Terry aren't vegan know-how goddesses, but I really think that this kidney has it beat!
Tonight we went all out and made some super scrumptious Belgian Seitan Stew, which we served with a fresh baguette from our favourite bakery. The stew was quite easy, just one of those "in parts" recipes. When I got home from the market I got busy getting the seitan together. I always prefer to steam mine, a la seitan sausages, rather than boiling the seitan. I find that the boiling method leaves me with a too-chewy outside.
After putting curtains up in the babies room, K got to work on the stew, using a traditional Belgian beef and beer stew recipe. The seitan was a perfect substitute for the beef. The stew was amazing.
Belgian Mushroom and Seitan Stew
1 yellow onion
2 tsp of flour
water
100 kilos wild mushrooms
200 kilos white mushrooms
1 pound of seitan
1 star anise
2 tsp of sunflower oil
1 bottle of dark belgian beer (Chimay)
How To: Brown the onions and seitan in the oil, turning it around, letting the seitan and onion brown, but making sure it doesn't burn. Take the seitan out of the pan and add the mushrooms and beer. Mix together some flour and water, to thicken the stew. Add the anise, and let the stew sit for two hours. Serve with mashed potatoes or bread.
I felt that we needed to take the comfort food a little further and made a pot of rice pudding. I used brown rice, and decided to get a little crazy and added a cup of coconut milk to the rice while it was simmering. The results were amazingly tasty. I was super happy with the consistency - I was a little worried that the coconut milk would make it a little too thick. Yummy.
I am really looking forward to all the fun I am going to have with this week's market haul. We picked up great organic goodies from my favourite farmer including: apples, pears, lettuce, aubergine, mushrooms, oranges, and cauliflower. Hoping to find some time to make a couple of soup, some salads and a cauliflower curry.
I wish everyone a happy week back at work!
17 comments:
Wow, everything looks so good! I love the idea of using kidney beans in the patty recipe, thanks for the idea!
Great eats! Kidney bean patties sound perfect, I'm a bean patty fanatic!
mmm, the seitan stew sounds incredible! I was just thinking about a vegan version of beef stew recently. Yum!
I'm curious about the rice pudding. Did you decrease the water by the amount of coconut milk you used or did you just let the rice simmer longer to soak up (or evaporate out) some of the extra liquid?
Thanks Tara and River - it was totally one of the best 'changearoos' I have ever made to a recipe.
VV - I cooked the rice on its own (3 cups of water, 1 cup of rice), and then added 1/5 cups of coconut milk and 1.5 cups of soy milk...and voila!
Mmm I love experimenting with those chickpea cutlets! They're so versatile. The red kidney bean ones look great. And yum! That casserole, I'll definitely be trying this when it cools off a bit (mid summer heat wave happening today :( )
YUM! Everything looks great! Love the bean patty idea! Thanks! Happy New Year!
good lord cowgirl, i had some serious catching up to do! everything looks really really good. and i was actually thinking about making black bean cutlets instead of the chickpea cutlets, so i'm super stoked and inspired that someone else tried to make another kind of cutlet. i hope pregnancy is suiting you and you're taking good care of yourself...those photos certainly indicate that!
oh wow! your Belgian seitan stew looks wonderful! wow! i wish i could handle seitan - my stomach disagrees with it too much. sadface! you think i could use tempeh instead of seitan?
totally gonna have to give the kidney beans a try in those patties. i was never one for the patties with the chickpeas (i know, i know - everyone loves them) - but i think kidney beans would be rock'n! thanks for the tip! :D
you calling chickpeas "chickers" is awesome! i might have to use that! tee hee!
i haven't had rice pudding since becoming a vegan last year. totally need to try some out! yours has got me craving some now! delicious, indeed!
Evil blogger - I hope this isn't a duplicate comment!
I've made those patties with white beans and they were good, but I have to try kidney beans! Great idea. And that stew sounds pretty darn delicious!
Your baby is so lucky and he/she doesn't even know it yet!
I'm currently in love with mushrooms in things so that stew looks really good to me! And anything coconut.. yum!
that stew sounds fantastic! anise and beer and seitan, mmm....
(I'll have some of that luscious rice, too! :P)
I've made those patties with kidney beans often and really like them that way.
Your Belgian stew sounds fantastic, can't wait to try it. I'd love to get to know a bit more about Belgian food.
I like the idea of swapping out the chickpeas for kidney beans, yum.
Coconut rice pudding sounds amazing too!
Thank you so much for this Belgian recipe. I really should give it a try one of these days. I think it would be perfect with 'frieten'.
That stew sounds awesome! I need to make that for Sergio. He loves Chimay! :)
Post a Comment