Orange scones

Orange scones
Originally uploaded by plainsight.

Selma had a tea party for her birthday, and these scones were my favorite thing on the menu (which also included tea sandwiches--cucumber with earth balance; tofutti cream cheese and tomato, faux chicken salad; and mini cupcakes). I had intended to use a recipe I found online for current scones, but when it turned out to have some issues, I came up with this instead.

1 3/4 cups unbleached flour
1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour (or whole wheat flour)
1/2 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/3 c. Earth Balance margarine
zest of one organic orange
1/2 c. soy milk

Preheat oven to 350

Combine flours, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine. Cut in margarine with pastry cutter. Add orange zest and stir to incorporate.

Add milk, and stir with a fork until milk is worked in, then mix with your hands. Dough should be soft--add more milk a teaspoon at a time, if needed. Form a ball and press dough into a circle 1/2" thick on a
floured cookie sheet.

With a floured knife, make 4 cuts most of the way through the dough creating 8 triangular pieces. Bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Serve warm with margarine, jelly, soy whipped cream... enjoy!

Green Bean & Mushroom Stew

I grew up eating a lamb and green bean stew--a Syrian recipe my mother and grandmother make called Lubee (which means green beans) or Roz n yuknee (which means rice and meat, the stew was served over rice pilaf).

I often make a vegetarian version with seitan. The combination of tomato and green beans is delicious and tastes like home to me. Of course the Syrian stew has cinnamon in it. When I first met James, he accused me of using cinnamon in everything because its such a common ingredient in Syrian cooking--he'd never had it in savory food before and had to grow accustomed to it. Even now, when I'm watching a pot of something he's cooking, he might say--"don't add any cinnamon!"

I saw a recipe in one of my most frequently used books lately: Robin Robertson's Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals that Are Ready When You are. It's a recipe for a stew she calls "Slow and Easy Mushroom and Green Bean Stroganoff," It didn't sound much like stroganoff to me because the stroganoff I usually make has white wine or sherry and nutmeg as the prominent flavors--but it did have that nice combination I like of green beans and tomato, so I thought I'd riff on it a bit (changing not only ingredients, but method, to simplify and avoid using multiple pots and pans). Here's what I came up with.

3 T tomato paste
2 cups veg broth (low sodium)
1 T Tapioca powder or cornstarch
2 T dehydrated onion flakes (I love the organic ones from Frontier--I can get them in bulk at my coop).
1 T paprika
8 oz small crimini (or white button) mushrooms, sliced
12 oz (2/3 pkg frozen) cut green beans
2 c soy curls, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes (You could substitute tempeh, chicken-style seitan, or just leave out the protein and use more veggies)
1/2 c tofutti sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

1 pound farfalle noodles, cooked al dente

Pour broth into slow cooker, stir in tomato paste and tapioca powder with a whisk.
Add onion flakes and paprika.

Carefully add mushrooms, green beans and soy curls and stir to make sure everything is coated with the sauce. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

When ready to serve, stir in sour cream, adjust seasonings.

Serve over hot noodles.

Green Goodness

Are you a member of the Vegan CrockPot Cooking yahoo group? I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of it, but actually, there are over 700 members. One of the nice things about the group is there are very few e-mails and they're almost always yummy recipes.

I just threw some stuff into the crock pot that's inspired by a recipe from member, Sue, of New Jersey.

Very Green Soup

There are some days where I love recipes like this, that aren't really "cooking," merely moving things from pantry to pot and just letting the heat do all the work.

1 quart vegetable stock
2 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. garlic powder
1 T. dried thyme
1 T. dried chives
1/3 c. nutritional yeast
1 lb bag frozen broccoli
1 lb frozen green beans
1 lb frozen collard greens
Tamari, to taste

Add stock, lemon juice, garlic powder, thyme, chives and yeast to crock pot, and stir to blend. Add vegetables, and cook on high for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, (or until veggies are soft).

Blend with stick-blender or transfer to food processor/blender to puree (ick, I hate moving hot liquids--I love my Bamix!) If you're serving kids, puree until very smooth--if you like the chunks, leave some in. Taste, and add tamari if necessary (some veg stocks are saltier than others, so you might not need it).

You can swap out vegetables for what you like or have on hand--Sue's original recipe called for spinach and asparagus--If we like this, I may add a little chopped tomato next time too.

I'm thinking of serving this over rice. I'll let you know how it tastes, but if I waited to blog this recipe, I'm sure I'd get busy and forget!

UPDATE: You can see some changes I made to this soup (that I've been eating for lunch all week, yum!) and how the rest of the family liked it here.

x-posted to The Hook and I.