Vegan Day 18: Winter in July

I have had such a lovely past few days of vegan eats. Nothing fancy, just a lot of tasty, healthy food. A friend of mine (who obviously isn't following my blog, for shame) asked me today if I was still hanging in with the vegan eating challenge, and I was happy to be able to easily say yes. I was thinking about my diet yesterday and, honestly, I am not eating all that differently than I normally do. OK, my desserts have been drastically cut down but that is a good thing as I am a bit of a sugar fiend. So far, the only thing I am truly missing is eggs. I want an egg really, really bad. There must be something nutritionally in an egg that my body is craving. Cholesterol? Omega 3's? I'm not sure, but I should probably find a way to get what I am missing so my cravings stop!

I was hanging out with Nea and Pablo on Friday night and we were talking about our CSA (we belong to the same one) and how, now that the harvest is fully coming in, we have a ton of veggies left over at the end of the week. Pablo, because he is a cooking genius, said they have been putting all of their remaining veggies into a crock pot meal every Sunday and enjoying it very much. Such a good idea, huh? Well, I don't have a crock pot but I do have a SOUP pot...so soup it was!

Anyone who has been reading my blogs for a while know I have a bit of an obsession with homemade soup in the winter months. I never make it in the summer, but there's a first time for everything, right? My goal was to use up a bunch of veggies, and use them up I did! Everything but the beets got their turn.

"Everything but the Beets" Vegetable and White Bean Soup

~3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 red potatoes, diced
1 medium squash, diced
1 leek, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup green beans
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon spice blend (I used Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute)
salt & pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook for 1-2 minutes, then add garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add carrots and leeks, season with a bit of salt and pepper, and cook for another few minutes. Next add the potatoes and let cook for a minute or two, and finally add the squash. Next add crushed red pepper, spice blend and tomato paste and make sure it is well combined with the veggie mixture. Dump in beans, tomatoes and vegetable stock and bring up to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until potatoes are tender (about 30 minutes) and season to taste. Add green beans about 10 minutes before serving to avoid overcooking. Garnish with chopped basil and parsley and (vegan) parmesan cheese if desired. Makes 4 servings.

The soup was great. This is the first time I've added tomato paste to a soup, and I really should do it more often because it adds a nice depth of flavor. The potatoes and beans give the soup some body as well, which is quite pleasant.

On the side, I attempted some vegan cornbread using this award-winning recipe. This was less successful. The texture was perfect, but it wasn't nearly sweet enough for me. Next time I would double the sugar. Also, this might have had something to do with me using white corn meal instead of yellow. Does anyone know anything about corn meal? I didn't even notice I'd gotten white until I got home. Is there a big taste difference? I assume most cornbread uses yellow because of the color. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Two Different Kind of Freaks
Sundays are killer, both for entertainment and my sanity as I blog about two different shows. I sure do like both Big Brother and True Blood, but my fingers are tired. Here are links to tonight's recaps:

'Big Brother 12': Rachel makes her nominations

'True Blood': Vikings, vamps and weres, oh my!

Now I shalll eat coconut milk ice cream and go to sleep. Tomorrow, a new batch of CSA veggies. I hear there is going to be corrrrrrrrrrn!

Comments

[kelsey@snackingsquirrel.com]

i hear ya on the egg cravings. another reason i couldnt be vegan. but i found tempeh and veganaise has a similar taste and texture .. even if u mix in nutritional yeast with it, does a good job at satisfying the eggy craving.

mmm this soup looks great! ive been making quite a few big pots of soup i love lots of beans and root veggies thrown in...but yea i think this is much better without the beets lol :)

[Autumn @ Good Eats Girl]

This soup looks great...way to put all the extra veggies to work!

[Jay]

The flax will give you omega-3's. There's nothing other than that that an egg will give you (besides disgusting cholesterol and a bit of protein that you can get elsewhere).

I put ground flax in my cornbread all the time. I'm like you, I love sweet cornbread! You could try some agave nectar (it's like honey) dizzled over the finished cornbread. YUMMY!

[Pablo]

The soup looks great! I do think yellow cornmeal is sweeter than white, but I don't think it's a huge difference. The last several times we've made cornbread, I've added finely grated carrot. This might help the sweetness some. It would be a little different, but little almond meal might not hurt either. With almond meal, you could probably use less soy milk too. I might try some almond meal with my next batch. It will definitely add some butteryness (word?).

[Carrie]

Almond meal...interesting. I don't think I could take out any of the liquid in this recipe, it is a really thick batter already. Maybe replacing some of the regular flour would be good. I imagine that nuttiness would be really nice in a cornbread.

Next time I'm definitely buying yellow cornmeal. Taste aside, it was weird eating white cornbread!