Chickpea and Kale Soup

Time flies! November will pass by in a couple of hours, and I am so ready to welcome my favorite month of December! It's the busiest time of the year for work and it's time for SOUP! I've been in the mood for soup and my whole family really enjoyed this tasty chickpea soup for last night's supper, so I thought I should share it with you all.

This is my bowl of chickpea and kale soup topped with saltine crackers, Mmmm!

This is Nathan's bowl, chickpea and sweet corn soup, he asked for "MORE, please"!

My husband asked for spinach instead of kale and he went to the stove for seconds, YUM!

Chickpea and Kale Soup

Adapted from "Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen"

by Deborah Madison

Ingredients for the chickpeas:

2 cups chickpeas, soaks

2 carrots, peeled (the recipe called for 1 carrot)

1 head of garlic, sliced crosswise in half

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried parsley (the recipe called for handful of parsley sprigs, tied together with string)

Ingredients for the seasonings:

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

4-5 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, finely diced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Pinch of dried thyme

3 garlic cloves, minced

Big bunch of kale (the recipe called for spinach)

Method:

1. Put chickpeas in a pot with the rest of the ingredients and 3 quarts water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer until the chickpeas are tender. Season with a teaspoon of salt and set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a second soup pot. Add the onions, oregano, thyme, and salt. Cook over medium-low heat until softened, occasionally giving them a stir. Add the garlic toward the end.

3. Using a strainer, lift the cooked chickpeas into the pot with the onions and discard the rest of the aromatics. Strain the liquid and add 6 cups in the soup pot, setting the rest aside for the moment. Add another teaspoon of salt, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Puree the chickpeas and return them to the pot. If the soup seems too thick, thin it with any remaining liquid. Taste for salt and season with pepper.

4. Wilt the kale in a skillet in the water clinging to its leaves, then chop and add to the chickpeas. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, then serve with your favorite crackers. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Easy Veggie dinners

It's VERY windy tonight and the power was out a couple of times. Since I've already uploaded all our dinner photos, I should publish this post as quick as I can before my computer goes down again. Enjoy, everyone!!!

Monday, October 26

Veggie And Herb Chowder

Inspired by Vegetable and herb chowder from Simply Life Blog . It was so filling and comforting. Of course, I have to say it was really delicious. The whole family loved it so much!

Remark: I used Rigatoni pasta, veggie broth, rice milk and green beans. Other than that, I followed every thing as per the recipe.

Sunday, October 25

Veggie And Herb Pizza (Pita)

Inspired by Zaatar Pizza from The Vegan Mouse Blog . I spread olive oil mixed with Italian herb over pita bread, put sun dried tomatoes, roasted bell peppers, diced onion, chopped tomatoes, diced zucchini and sprinkled black sesame seeds. Bake at 350 degree F for 8-10 minutes. It was incredibly tasty, YUM!

Saturday, October 24

I had a portabello mushroom Burger at Hennessy's in Manhattan Beach. It was really good but I didn't bring my camera so there is no photo for this dinner!

Monday, October 19

Easy Veggie Tofu

I've cooked this dish all the time. It's so quick and easy, I can serve my family in no time. I just use whatever kind of veggie I have in the fridge. I posted this dish before here .

Not much talking today, I'll try to be back to show you more of our dinners very soon!!!

Have a lovely week!!!

Vegan Food Experiment!

I've decided to experiment with vegan food in October, not only to support VeganMofo's awesome event but also for my own self. I learned from Vegetarian Starter Kit that vegans eat no meat, fish, poultry, eggs, or dairy products and vegan diets are the most healthful of all. That sounds so wonderful, doesn't it? I want to live a healthy life...so I am so excited to find out if I would feel healthier after one whole month of vegan diets!



Last Friday, I made veggie sushi rolls for dinner again. I had pan fried tofu, avocado, cucumber, carrots and black sesame seeds. The rolls were a little bit loose but they were so delicious as always.

I used up all my seaweed. I thought I would try to make veggie roll with out it. So Rose will know that it's possible to make veggie sushi without seaweed because she doesn't like its smell.

So I spread the sushi rice on the bamboo mat, put tofu, cucumber, carrots and avocado on top of the rice and then....I rolled.....and...rolled..... and when I tried to cut it.....

It was falling apart = I failed:(

Pan Fried Tofu with Teriyaki Glaze

This was our dinner for Monday night. It has been our all time favorite menu since I discovered the idea from The Vegan Mouse and Vegan Dad , I just keep changing the sauce and vegetable depending on what I have in the fridge. Highly recommended!

Kanom Jean and Namya Curry

Namya is an authentic Thai curry for Thai noodle which is called "Kanom Jean". The ingredients consist of Galingale, Garlic, Dried Chili, Salt, Onion, Lemon Grass, Sugar, and Spice. Growing up in the southern part of Thailand, I had a fond memory of eating "Kanom Jean" and Namya curry with a big plate of fresh green vegetables any time of the day, YUM!

The recipe called for 100 g.(3.5 oz)of Namya curry paste, 3 cups of coconut milk and 200 g. (7 oz)of fish or canned tuna... Oops! What should I do? I'm on a vegan diet! Do you see the above pic? YES, a cup of yummy chickpeas saved my hunger:) I smashed them while pretending they were fish and mixed them up with the curry paste and coconut milk. Super easy and Mmmm...Mmmm... really good!!!

I packed my Kanom Jean and Namya Curry with green beans and corns to eat for lunch at work, so delicious and satisfying:). The pic below showed how it looked when I mixed them up. YUM!

I'd like to share with you a couple of pics from Thailand when I was visiting my hometown in the south. I really enjoyed eating Kanom Jean and Curry. I ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. YES, I did:)

They always serve Kanom Jean with varieties of curry. From the left, without coconut milk; quite spicy, the second one was with coconut milk (the one I made), the next one was super spicy with pumpkin chunks (no coconut milk) and last one called "Nam Prik" which was sweet and not spicy at all (for children).

They served a gigantic platter of fresh and pickled veggies to eat along with the Kanom Jean and curry. (Please ignore the date on the pics, I messed up my camera, I had the right date but wrong year). Anyone can tell. Right??? Haha...:)

Most of the time, we ordered mixed curries depending on how we like it. I like mine with Namya and Nam Prik together. Really really goooood!!!

I've really really enjoyed experimenting with vegan food , so far so good!!! And looking forward to trying something new next week. Any suggestions for vegan easy cooking would be so much appreciated. :)

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!!!

Broccoli and Corn Pudding

Just a quick post to share with you what I'm cooking today.
I don't know why I really wanted to make this yummy pudding after I saw the photo and the recipe from eat'n veg'n blog. Maybe because I love coconut milk. YES! That's right!!!
I LOVE everything that has coconut milk in it. The best thing of all, the recipe is so simple which is perfect for easy veggie gal like me! Please go to "here" for the recipe.

I used 8x8 square pan and 1 lb bag of each frozen broccoli and corn, as you may know by now that I'm not good at using measuring cups so you can see that my pudding doesn't have enough of coconut milk and flour mixture.

The pictures didn't come out that great because I used my very old camera. But the taste of this beautiful pudding was so......
creamy ........ and........really ......really......gooooood!!!