Garbanzo Stew

Last Sunday, February 9th, the dinner request was, "Some kind of tomato-y garbanzo stew..."

Here are the delicious results!

2 cups cooked garbanzos (yes, canned is fine, just drain & rinse first)
3 cups diced winter squash (like butternut)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 "cloves" of shallot, chopped small
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
3 c water
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon herb mix (I was using "21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe's)
1 teaspoon tamari (shoyu, soy sauce, whatever...)
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast

You can use some olive oil to sauté the shallot & garlic or, instead of sautéing in oil, you can use water, tamari or broth for an ultra low-fat dish. Once they start to soften add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil then reduce heat to low. Simmer until squash is cooked through, about 40 minutes, and serve. We served this with some quinoa for an even more hearty dish.

This makes a good size pot of soup (about 8 servings?) - enough to have leftovers for lunch during the week! I'm tagging this "Quick" because it is easily thrown together and set to simmer while you can get other things done.

Tartar / Big Boy sauce...

Tammy, this one's particularly for you...

I've been missing Marc's / Bob's Big Boy lately ( :| ?! ) (as well as George Webb's, but that's exclusively a Wisconsin thing). I especially miss the classic messy as hell Big Boy burger itself, and the BBB sauce on it, which was a dill pickle relish based mayo/tartar sauce. Oddly enough, their sauce was really close to (ew!) McDonnald's fishwich sauce (read the ingredients!) Anyway, this is my go-to tartar sauce recipe that is about as close as a vegan sauce can get to that nasty goodness ;)

• 1 cup veganaise
  
• 2 tablespoon dill pickle relish
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder or 1tbsp yellow salad mustard
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp dill
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Use on just about everything, burgers, "fish" things, deli sammies, etc. I especially love this on onion rings (that's the Big Boy part for me...)

Quickie Lentils

This dish is made extra quick and easy since it uses lots of canned items. In fact, this is such a quickie I'm feeling a smidge guilty for posting it. However, since Amy's asked for more lentil ideas and Christie asked me to jot down what I did, here it is!

2 15oz cans of lentils drained and rinsed
1 7oz can of diced green chilies
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 - 1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon sweet, smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Sriracha sauce to taste

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and simmer for at least 20 minutes for the flavors to "marry". Yep, that's it. Put this in tortillas with salsa and greens for tacos or burritos. Serve as a topping to steamed grains, potatoes or yams.

Yes, I suggest Sriracha to give some heat to this dish, just add as much or as little as you like. I find in small amounts it adds a brightness and just a little heat to any dish, plus sometimes seems more easy to control than using powdered, hot chilies.

Except for the lentils you can really wing it with this recipe (really more a "suggestion" than a "recipe"). Heck you could even wing the legumes and use garbanzos, pintos, red beans... you get the picture. By all means, if you don't want to use canned legumes, don't. Just make the legumes first and use them drained -- about 3 cups or so.

Add more or use less cumin if you want. A squeeze of lime would be great in this. Fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves chopped up and added on top would be lovely (our's had gone nasty in the fridge... ooops). Leave out the green chilies if you don't have them. Add some mustard seed, powdered coriander, tumeric, ginger and black pepper (or just some garam masala) to start taking this more of an Indian dal direction.