Bryanna's Persian Chickpea and Green Bean Stew

This is another simple but wonderful recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan. It's from her cookbook "20 Minutes to Dinner." I got the recipe from a post Bryanna made on the Vegsource New Veggies board. I always serve this with brown rice.

1 onion, minced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 lb frozen whole small green beans or trimmed fresh green beans (I use 2 and 1/2 cups frozen cut green beans)
28 oz can diced tomatoes and juice
1 can (or 1 and 1/2 cups cooked) chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup chopped celery leaves
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a large nonstick pot, steam fry the onion and garlic until it begins to soften. Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, then turn down to medium heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes or until the green beans are tender.

Oil Free Tofu Mayonnaise/Dressing

Homemade tofu based creamy dressings are quite different from commerical dressings. I have to admit that when I first tried this recipe, I wasn't sure. It was OK but I wondered if I should bother posting it. Then the second time I whipped up my salad of mixed greens with this stuff I decided I did like it. The difference was that after I mixed my salad with the dressing, I added a sprinkle of nutritional yeast, freshly ground black pepper and some salt and gave the salad another toss. Perfection (at least according to my taste buds).

So maybe give this one a try and tweek it a bit to suit your own taste.

12.3 oz package Mori-Nu Silken Lite Tofu, firm
3 small garlic cloves
1 tsp dill weed
1 tsp onion powder
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sugar (or maple syrup)
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
water, if needed to thin

This ended up thick like mayonnaise. When I used it for my salad, I took about 2 tablespoons from the jar and put it in a small bowl and stirred in some water. By doing that, I was able to pour it onto my salad like you would a commerical dressing.

I just know this dressing is going to help get a lot of raw greens into me all summer long.

Bryanna's Homemade Tomato Salsa

This is the excellent tomato salsa recipe I have made over and over again. The credit for this recipe goes to Bryanna Clark Grogan who posted it on the Vegsource New Veggies board a few years ago. Since I found this recipe on a public forum and I am giving credit to Bryanna, I think it's OK for me to post it here. I have received a lot of compliments and requests for this receipe from friends.

8 garlic cloves
1 large onion
1 large green pepper, seeded
1/4 cup drained pickled jalapeño peppers OR 2 or 3 fresh seeded hot green chilies
OR use 1 Tbsp pureed canned chile chipotles
2 (28 oz) cans diced tomatoes, very well drained
OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup tomato paste
2 Tbsp lemon juice or red wine vinegar
1 - 2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano (or 1 Tbsp fresh)
OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro or Italian parsley
1 tsp dried red chile flakes (if you like it really hot--but remember that this salsa gets hotter as time goes on)

If you have a food processor, pulse the garlic cloves, then add the onion and green pepper, cut in chunks, and the jalapeños and pulse until minced. Add the drained tomatoes and the remaining ingredients and pulse until well mixed.

If you don't have a food processor, then you'll have to chop everything fine by hand.

Keep in tightly closed jars in the refrigerator. It will keep refrigerated for several weeks. Some clear liquid will rise to the top. Pour it off or stir it in, depending on the consistency you like.

Marinade and/or Salad Dressing

I used this recipe to marinate some portobello mushrooms for yesterday's BBQ. Well, actually hubby cooked some wrapped baked potatoes and beef burgers on the grill for our guests. For the vegetarians at our little gathering, I baked the portobello's in my little toaster oven. Our portobello burgers were wonderful and the meat eaters were happy with their burgers too.

Here are the ingredients for the marinade:

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, grated

I love the combination of these flavours and often use this as a salad dressing. Tonight for dinner we had steamed vegetables on brown rice and I drizzled some of this dressing over the rice and veggies.

I make this in little batches as I need it. If you start making large batches that you can't use up right away, the red pepper flakes start getting hotter the longer you leave it sitting.