Announcing My Legume Love Affair 43

 

I am honored to be hosting the first My Legume Love Affair of 2012, the popular legume-focused blog event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook.  I am so glad to be hosting this month in particular. Like most people, I eat too much rich and sweet food over the holidays and by January, I am ready for lighter, more nutritious fare. Legumes are the first post-holiday food I turn to.

Legumes include a wide variety of beans, lentils, dal, peas, seeds also known as pulses, and their edible pods. Peanuts are legumes, as are tamarind, carob and fenugreek. For this event, foods derived from legumes such as tofu and besan also qualify. Whatever your chosen legume, please make sure that it is a main ingredient; a mere spoonful isn't enough legume love here.

All courses and cuisines are welcome, and even though this is a vegan blog I’m not restricting entries to vegan or vegetarian ones. You can submit up to 10 recipes for this event (but only one will be counted toward the random drawing for prizes.) If you have any older recipes you would like to enter, please update and repost them during this month to qualify. You an also send recipes entered here to other events, assuming they meet the other event's rules of course. Recipes from those of you without a blog are also welcome. 

Use of the MLLA logo is optional; if you like, here is a smaller version of the one above for your sidebar. 

  

Please mention My Legume Love Affair in your post and link it to this announcement and Susan's host line up.

Email your entries to me at cdmcculloch7 [at] gmail [dot] com with MLLA 43 in the subject line and include:

1. Your name.
2. The name of your blog.

3. Your recipe title.

4. The URL of your blog post that includes the recipe.
5. Your location. This is necessary for the prize drawing, but I will not be publishing locations in the roundup.
6. A photo (optional). You can resize your photo to 400 x 300 pixels (either landscape or portrait) or I can do it for you. If you don't send me a photo, I'll grab one from your blog post.

I will post the round up during the first week in February.

And now for the prizes! These will be chosen by random drawing among all the entries except mine and Susan's, as we don't qualify. Only your first entry in MLLA 43 counts towards the prize drawing.

1. The 2012 Chile Peppers Wall Calendar -  This prize is offered by Susan without influence at her expense, and she will also absorb worldwide shipping charges.  F.T.C. Notice: Susan does not receive any compensation from Amazon.
2. Hurst Bean Box - A case of six bags of the winner's choice of Hurst Bean products, suitable for every diet, sponsored by Hurst Bean. (Due to shipping restrictions, this prize can only be awarded if the winner is a U.S. resident.) F.T.C. Notice: In May 2010, Susan, at her request, received two Hurst Bean complimentary products which are not available for purchase in her local markets. Susan does not generally accept free products from Hurst Bean nor is she financially compensated by them.

3. Drawing Structure - If the winner is a U.S. resident, she/he will be the recipient of both Prizes 1 and 2 above.  In the event that an international winner is drawn, a second drawing will be conducted from the U.S. pool of entrants to ensure that the Hurst Prize is awarded every month.  In these instances, the international winner will receive the book, and the U.S. winner will receive the Hurst Prize.

Soy and Cola-Braised Jackfruit Sandwiches

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!  I had a great Christmas, but I have just about had my fill of rich holiday food. It's time for something different.

A few weeks ago, I cut a recipe for Soy and Cola-Braised Pork Shoulder from Cooking Light, having no idea what I would do with it. A few days later, I saw jackfruit on sale at the Asian market and I had my answer. I've seen numerous recipes for jackfruit carnitas or barbeque and I've wanted to try it for a while. I used the sauce from the Cooking Light recipe and this jackfruit barbeque recipe as a guide. 

When I told the guys how I made these, they were calling them "fruit burgers." Despite how they look, the jackfruit doesn't taste anything like any meat I've had. The closest they come to is the mild vegetal flavor of yellow squash. The texture is soft, yet the pieces don't completely fall apart. The seeds soften in the slow cooker and meld into the rest of the jackfruit. Since it isn't very filling, I'd suggest baked beans or chili beans as a side.

The sauce is full of flavor. If you didn't want to cook jackfruit, the sauce would be worth adapting to a tofu or seitan recipe. 

I am entering this in the Hearth 'n' Soul blog hop and My Meatless Mondays.

Thai jackfruit and Mexican Coke

It even looks like pork, if pork had seeds

If it weren't for the seeds...

 

Soy and Cola-Braised Jackfruit Sandwiches 

2 (20-ounce) cans jackfruit in brine or water (not syrup)
2 cups cola, preferably made with cane sugar

1/2 cup hoisin sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1-1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled and minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

5 hamburger rolls

Green onions for garnish (optional)

Drain the jackfruit and transfer to a slow-cooker. Whisk together the cola, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Stir in the ginger and garlic. Pour over the jackfruit. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 to 10 hours.  (I used a combination of settings.)

Drain the sauce from the jackfruit into a saucepan.  Boil the sauce for 15 minutes until reduced to half the original volume. Shred the jackfruit by mashing with a potato masher, or with two forks. Stir about 1/2 cup reduced sauce back into the jackfruit and spoon onto the buns. Top with green onions if desired. Serve with the rest of the sauce on the side.

Makes 5 servings.

Chocolate Peppermint Gingerbread Cookies

These crinkle cookies have all the Christmas flavors in them:  chocolate, peppermint, pecans and gingerbread. When I first read the recipe on the label of my bottle of molasses, I thought that all those flavors together might be too much, but they meld together nicely.

I couldn't find any peppermint candy canes at the grocery store this year. They were all flavors like blueberry, cherry and bubblegum and had cartoon characters like Dora the Explorer on them. I guess your kids are supposed to get so excited about all the flavors that you accidentally come home with eight pounds of them. I used Starlight mints instead.

Why did you take the cookies outside? WHY DID YOU TAKE THE COOKIES OUTSIDE?

 

Chocolate Peppermint Gingerbread Cookies

An easy way to measure the margarine is to pour the 1/4 cup of canola oil in a liquid measuring cup and add margarine by the spoonful until they both total 1/2 cup. To crush the mints or candy canes, unwrap them and put them in a sandwich-sized zippered plastic bag. Squeeze the air out and zip up the bag. Then, hit the mints with the back of a large knife until they're crushed to your desired size.

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Pinch of salt

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine

1/2 cup molasses (not blackstrap)

4 tablespoons sugar, divided

6 ounces chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup crushed peppermints or candy canes

Measure the flour, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt and add to a medium bowl. Stir together.

Beat canola oil, margarine, molasses and 2 tablespoons sugar on medium until creamy. Turn the mixer to low and add large spoons of the flour mixture. Beat until just blended (In order to avoid over-mixing the dough, thereby releasing the gluten in the flour and making the cookies tough, I usually finish stirring in the flour by hand.) Stir in chocolate chips, pecans and crushed peppermints.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Oil two large baking sheets. Spoon the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar into a small bowl. Cut the dough into 24 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, flatten slightly, dip the sugar and place on a baking sheet, sugared side up. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies have crinkled and they smell like gingerbread.

Makes 24.

Melomakarona - Greek Spice Cookies

I've been on a bit of a Greek food kick lately. After making Moussaka and Spanakopita, I was browsing the web looking for new Greek recipes, and I came across a recipe for melomakarona, popular in Greece during holidays. Plain little cookies reminiscent of shortbread are dipped in a rich, spiced syrup and topped with walnuts. I followed the recipe from About.com, but I took a few tweaks from a recipe in The Washington Post. The only veganizing I had to do was to replace the honey with agave nectar. I also cut the recipe in half.

The recipe warns not to refrigerate the cookies as they'll get hard, so after we scarfed down half of them, I hid the rest away in an airtight container in the pantry for Christmas weekend. 

 

Melomakarona

The cookies:

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup canola oil

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon (packed) orange zest

1/3 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons brandy

3-1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts

Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Oil two large baking sheets. Beat the olive oil, canola oil, sugar and orange zest in an electric mixer until well combined. Add the orange juice and brandy and beat until creamy.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Turn the electric mixer to the lowest setting and add the flour a heaping soup spoonful at a time. When the last of the flour has been added, turn off the machine and finish stirring in the flour by hand. Only stir until the flour is just combined with the rest of the ingredients.

Transfer the dough to a cutting board and cut into 4 pieces. Cut each fourth into 8 pieces for a total of 32 cookies. Roll each cookie into a ball and transfer to the baking sheets. Use the tines of a fork to flatten the dough slightly in a crosshatch pattern.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until just starting to brown at the edges. While the cookies are baking, make the syrup.

The syrup:

1/2 cup agave nectar

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

1 1-inch piece cinnamon

2 whole cloves

1 1-inch piece lemon peel

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

In a medium saucepan, combine the agave nectar, sugar, water, cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon, cloves and lemon peel and discard.

When the cookies come out of the oven, allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Then use a spatula to transfer 6 or so cookies to the syrup. Allow the cookies to soak up the syrup for 2 or 3 minutes and then transfer to a plate. Once all of the cookies have been doused in syrup, top with the walnuts and a few pinches of cinnamon.

Makes 32.

Baked Corn Pudding with Spinach and Green Chilies

This was supposed to be spoon bread. But I forgot to divide by two. 

You see, spoon bread is typically made by cooking cornmeal in boiling water or scalded milk and blending with eggs to bake up something like a soufflé. I planned to use tofu instead of eggs. The recipes I was using as a guide called for between 3 and 5 eggs, which would be about 8 ounces of tofu. Somewhere in writing up the recipe, I made a math mistake and ended up using the whole block.

Sometimes when I cook I feel like Michael Bolton in the movie Office Space. "I must've put a decimal in the wrong place or something... I always mess up some mundane detail." Only in this case, instead of committing a very obvious fraud, I made an incredibly rich pudding! While it wasn't what I was expecting, by the second bite, I was crazy for it.  The pudding gets better after it stands out of the oven for 20 minutes or so and is even better reheated the next day. This also makes a stellar breakfast.

The chilies aren't distinct here but they provide a welcome warming note. I'd suggest if you don't want to use them, to include a 4 ounce jar of pimientos or 1/2 cup diced roasted red bell pepper in their place. Since the spinach is fresh, it gives off a good bit of water into the pudding while it bakes.  Thus, if you substitute frozen, thawed spinach, don't squeeze it dry.

Baked Corn Pudding with Spinach and Green Chilies

1 cup cornmeal

1-1/2 cups water

3/4 cup soy creamer or other non-diary milk, divided

4 tablespoons Earth Balance margarine

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 14 to 16-ounce package firm tofu

1 cup corn, frozen okay

1 bunch spinach, trimmed and chopped, about 8 ounces

1 4-ounce can mild roasted, diced chilies

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F. Oil a 3-quart casserole dish. In a medium saucepan, stir together the cornmeal, water and 1/2 cup of the creamer or milk. Cook, stirring frequently with a wire whisk, over medium heat until mixture thickens. Whisk in margarine. Transfer to a large bowl.

Chop the garlic in a food processor. Add tofu, corn, and the remaining 1/4 cup creamer. Process until smooth. Stir into the cornmeal mixture with a large spoon. Add the spinach, roasted chilies, baking powder, salt and white pepper. Mix well; this will take more effort than you probably expect. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes until crispy and firm at the edges - the middle will still be a bit jiggly. Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

Makes 5 main dish servings or 10 sides.

Vegan Spanakopita

Cheesecake pans aren't just for cheesecakes.

That's probably why they're not officially called "cheesecake pans" but rather springform pans. Still, I've always thought of them as cheesecake pans and it never occurred to me to make anything else in them. Then I came across a fillo and cheese pie that the chef had made in a springform pan and thought the idea was perfect for spanakopita. The pie is stunning when the ring is popped off. It's also easier to make one big pie as opposed to all those little triangles.

Another trick to make assembling a spanakopita easier is to fold each fillo sheet into quarters before fitting it into the pan. It's much less likely to tear or crumple up on itself this way. Also, did you know that you don't need to thoroughly coat each sheet with oil or butter? A quick and uneven application of olive oil with a pastry brush, not much more than a swirl really, is all that is needed.

This spanokopita gets its rich and creamy component from cashew nuts blended with lemon juice, salt and garlic. Assembled with herbed spinach and crispy layers of fillo, the pie makes a perfect meal paired with roasted potatoes and a green salad.

The first sheet of fillo in the pan.

The bottom layer.

The top layer and the filling.

A perfect slice.

 

Vegan Spanakopita

  

This recipe assumes you have fillo dough with 40 sheets to a 1 pound box. Some fillo comes 24 to 28 sheets to a pound. If you have this kind, use about 9 sheets total for the bottom layer and 6 for the top one.

 

2 10-ounce boxes frozen spinach
1 cup raw cashews
6 green onions, green and white part
5-6 cloves garlic
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for brushing fillo dough
1-1/4 teaspoons dried dill
1-1/4 teaspoons dried oregano
2-1/4 teaspoons salt
about half of a 1-pound box of fillo dough

Thaw spinach and squeeze it very dry. Transfer to a medium bowl. In a food processor, grind cashews to a powder. Slice green onions into 2-inch lengths, add to the cashews along with the garlic, and chop well. Add lemon juice, olive oil, dill, oregano and salt and process until creamy, but not completely smooth. Stir cashew mixture into the spinach.

Heat oven to 350 F. Oil a 9-inch springform pan. Have a small bowl of olive oil and a pastry brush at hand. Work with one sheet of fillo dough at a time and cover the rest with a piece of plastic wrap or a damp towel.

Place a sheet of fillo dough in front of you. Brush 1/2 lightly with olive oil - just a quick swirl. Fold sheet in half and brush half with olive oil. Fold in half again. Pick up the piece by diagonal corners and fit the corners along the bottom edge of the pan, so that one triangle extends along the bottom of the pan and another extends up the side. Fold another sheet into fourths and fit in the pan opposite the first. Repeat with 9 or 10 more sheets, placing them around the pan in even intervals, more or less, for a total of 11 or 12 sheets. Finish with two sheets, folded into fourths, placed in the bottom of the pan.

For the top layer, fold the fillo just as you did for the bottom, but place the diagonal corners of each folded sheet along the top rim of the pan. Use 8 sheets total.  Spoon the spinach and cashew mixture into the pan and smooth the top. Place a folded sheet of fillo on top of the spinach and then fold all of the edges of the other sheets over the top.

Bake for 25 minutes until golden. Remove ring from the spanakopita and slice into 6 slices.

Serves 6.