Our Changing Kitchen

Our lives (and diets) have been changing lately to be more nutrient-rich and eliminate empty calories, toxins and other bad stuff. Basically it means we've been eating lots and lots of fruit, veggies, beans and nuts. We've also begun the process of purging our home of refined sugar, white flour, processed food and cutting way back on animal products. Sounds extreme, and in some ways, it is, but so far its been a delicious and extremely satisfying. I'll periodically post some of our new favorites and recipes.

This last weekend we had Southwest Black Bean Burgers with Whole Wheat Buns. So delicious!

The recipe for the Black Bean Burgers comes from Veganomicon, a wonderfully entertaining cookbook. I'm excited to try as many recipes as possible! 

Black Bean Burgers

(served with fresh avocado and spinach)

2 c. cooked black beans (or 1 15-oz can, drained and rinsed)

1/2 c. vital wheat gluten

1/2 c. plain whole wheat bread crumbs

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/4 c. water

1 tbsp. tomato paste (or ketchup)

1/4 c. finely chopped cilantro

2 cloves garlic

1/2 small onion

Mash the beans with a fork until no whole beans remain (half-beans are fine). 

Add the wheat gluten (and for those of you who have never used wheat gluten, don't skip this! it's worth a trip to the grocery or health food store to get this. It's the not-so-secret ingredient that gives the burgers their delicious bite and chewiness), bread crumbs, chili powder, cumin, water and tomato paste.

Mince, press or crush the garlic into the mix and use a grater to grate the onion in. 

Mix all ingredients with a fork then knead with your hands until the mixture is firm and thoroughly mixed.

Divide the mix into six equal pieces and form into patties.

Use a thin layer of oil to cook patties for about 5 minutes on each side.

The recipe I used for the Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns came from a friend's blog full of great nutritional information recipes and well-written and well-researched commentaries on health and nutrition. 

Oh Saint Valentine

 Sweet Saint Valentine made a long-awaited stop at our house last night. Curmudgeon is of the old "Valentines Day is an invention of flower companies to get us to spend money" school. So the fact that he caved enough to bring me a rose and switch his sleeping schedule in the middle of the week so that we could spend the evening together is a big deal!

 

We also got the cooperation of our children, who slept through the whole evening (at least until C. had to head off to work. Then it was business as usual).  We shared a lovely and high-falootin supper of a colorful and delicious salad (spinach, mustard greens, every color of pepper, tomatoes, grapes and strawberries) followed by the scrumptious collection of goodies you see here:

Home-made hummus and pita wedges, pears, apples, grapes, strawberries, peppers, dates, rice crackers and-- the treat of the evening-- honey-infused chevre cheese. As my husband can attest, I've been craving (and talking about craving) chevre for over a year now. Pretty much since I became pregnant with Punky and realized that I couldn't have any. The long yearning was deliciously satisfied last night. 

We drank Virgil's rootbeer. If you've never had Virgils then you are missing one of the great pleasures of life. Let me read to you from the ingredient list: Anise, Licorice, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Clove, Wintergreen, Sweet Birch, Molasses, Nutmeg, Pimento Berry Oil, Balsam Oil, and Oil of Cassia. Sounds delicious, no? Well it is.

Then for dessert, dark chocolate covered almonds rolled in turbinado sugar and sea salt. Mmmm.

It was a good day.

Indonesian Peanut Sauce (Sambal Kacang)

My dad tells me I ate peanut butter sandwiches exclusively until I was five. Though my palate has been conditioned for the stuff, I think you'll like this peanut sauce too! We typically put it on our chicken sate or Gado Gado. (Gado Gado is an Indonesian salad with many, many variations. Ours usually included big chunks of cucumber, tomato, sliced hard-boiled eggs, shredded cabbage, and limes).

You can include noodles in the salad too, or put the sauce on just noodles. Here's the recipe we've been using (you can also use regular peanut butter and coconut milk, of course):

Ingredients

0.5 cup reduced fat peanut butter 1.5 cloves garlic, chopped 1-2 hot chili peppers, chopped 1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped 4.5 teaspoons palm sugar 2 cups light coconut milk 2 tablespoons kecip manis (sweet soy sauce) 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

Directions

Makes 2.5 cups. Serving size: 2 tbs

1. Puree peanut butter, garlic, chili peppers, and ginger root in food processor. (You may skip this step if you are using already minced ginger and garlic from a jar).

2. Transfer mixture to saucepan.

3. Stir in coconut milk and kecip manis.

4. Gently simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or more, stirring often.

5. Let sauce cool. Correct seasoning, adding kecip manis or lime juice to taste.


Number of Servings: 20

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 20
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 61.4

• Total Fat: 3.9 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 112.8 mg
• Total Carbs: 5.0 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
• Protein: 2.1 g