This is my version of the recipe without using a pressure cooker.  (Original recipe here.)  Using pre-cooked beans meant the soup cooked in about half the time (30 minutes), but prepping the rest of the ingredients – rather than just tossing them with reckless abandon into the pressure cooker – took quite a while.

You will need:

• 2-3 Tbs olive oil (or a healthy neutral oil such as grapeseed)
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced into coins
• 3-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary, de-stemmed and minced (if you don’t have fresh, omit this ingredient)
• 1 Tb fresh or 1 tsp dried thyme
• 4 cups filtered water
• 3 1/2 cups (or two cans) cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed, divided
• 1 cup uncooked ditalini or small elbow macaroni
• one large handful of dark, leafy greens, chopped into bite-sized pieces – kale and swiss chard work well for this recipe

Prep your veggies and herbs.  Heat the oil in a dutch oven or large, heavy soup pot over medium heat.  When the oil is heated, lower the heat and add your ingredients.  Slowly sweat the vegetables and herbs over low heat with the lid slightly ajar for about 20 minutes.  You will want them to soften, but not brown.  Stir from time to time to make sure they aren’t sticking, adding water as needed.

When your vegetables are nice and soft, add all 4 cups of the water and 1 cup cooked chickpeas.  Puree with an immersion blender until smooth.  Alternatively, you can add these items to a blender or food processor and puree, then return to your pan.

Bring the soup to a simmer; add remaining chickpeas and dried pasta, bring to a low boil for 3-4 minutes (or whatever half the time recommended to reach al dente is for the pasta you’re using).

Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes to thicken.  Season with salt and pepper, and serve with a drizzle of good olive oil.

Between my addiction to fresh baked bread and the drop in temperature outside, it seems that my oven is running non-stop.  In an effort to minimize how often I run this convecting behemoth, I’ve been very diligent about only using it when there is bread to bake, and throwing anything else I can think of in there at the same time or during the marathon warm up/cool down sessions.  Since this is just about every other day, it usually works out quite well (especially for roasting vegetables or making a quick batch of cookies).

Yesterday my appetite for baked beans landed on a night when I wasn’t going to use the oven.  Determined not to run out and buy them in a can, I hopped over to The Wednesday Chef where I was sure I’d seen a recipe some time ago.  Score!  These Fake Baked Beans (originally from Melissa Clark’s column in the NYT) were exactly what I needed.

Fake Baked Beans

Serves 4 generously

• 1 pound dry pinto or cannellini beans
• 1 thumb-sized piece of kombu (optional)
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard powder
• 1 splash Pukka or Tabasco sauce, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon of smoked Spanish paprika

Put the beans and kombu in a pressure cooker or pot with enough filtered water to cover by 2 inches.  Cook until beans are just tender.

The beans should be surrounded by just a little liquid; if too much cooking liquid remains, drain some off.  If beans are dry, add more filtered water.

In a small bowl, mix together ketchup, molasses, vinegar, mustard powder, Pukka sauce and pepper. Pour mixture into beans and stir well.

Bring everything to a simmer. Let simmer over low heat until beans are thickened, about 30 to 45 minutes. Season with salt if needed.

If the vinegar stands out too much, add brown sugar in increments of 1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) increments until the vinegar flavor is neutralized.

If a bottle of Fat Tire manages to evade me long enough for us to run out of bread, then I reward myself by throwing this together.  As long as my oven is being agreeable and heats up quickly, this bread takes less than an hour to get from the mixing bowl to the table.

Rosemary Garlic Beer Bread

• 3 cups AP or bread flour
• 1 T granulated sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 tsp course salt
• 2 T fresh rosemary, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 12 oz Fat Tire beer

Position baking rack in the center of the oven.  Preheat oven to 375°.  Lightly oil the bottom and corners of an 8-inch loaf pan.

Whisk everything but the beer together in a large mixing bowl.  Slowly add the beer and stir just until all moisture is absorbed.  Pour into loaf pan and bake until the top is nicely browned and the internal temperature is at least 200°.

In our family, one large sweet potato makes a decent serving size for one person.  I almost said it “makes enough,” but who am I kidding – can you ever have enough shoestring fries?

You will need:

• Sweet potatoes, at least one per person
• olive oil
• course salt and fresh cracked pepper

Position the oven rack near the top and fire up the broiler.  If your oven has multiple broiler settings, set it to low.  While the oven is preheating, scrub and peel your potatoes.  Cut them into long, thin sticks.  Resist the temptation to use a mandoline!  Sweet potatoes are just too dense.  If your potatoes are actually soft enough that you can use a mandoline without injuring yourself, then they probably aren’t edible.

Spread out on a baking sheet (lined with parchment if you have it, but otherwise don’t worry about it).  Drizzle lightly with olive oil, toss to coat, spread back out evenly, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Your oven should be nice and hot now, so these will only take a few minutes.  Pop them under the broiler and watch closely; you don’t need to worry about flipping them, since they are cut so thin.  As soon as you see the fries start to brown, take them out, as they will burn quickly.  Immediately remove from baking sheet and pile in a big, tangled heap on your plates.  These taste best served straight from the oven.

You will need:

• olive oil
• 1/2 large yellow onion, minced
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced/pressed
• 1 1/2 cups brown rice (short grained round or semi-round works best)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine, room temperature or slightly warmed
• 5 cups filtered water, room temperature or slightly warmed (you may need additional water)
• 3/4 cups pesto
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• course salt and pepper to taste

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot.  Add onion and saute until it begins to soften, about 5-6 minutes.  Add brown rice and stir until it starts to become translucent, 7-8 minutes; add more oil if needed to keep rice from sticking.  Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about one minute longer.  Reduce heat to low; add wine and stir frequently.  When wine is almost completely evaporated, add two cups of water.

Cover and allow to simmer for 15 minutes or until almost all of the water has been absorbed.  Add another cup of water; leave uncovered and stir frequently until water is almost completely absorbed.  Continue doing this until the rice is al dente – beginning to soften, but still firm in the center.  Stir in the pesto, then the nutritional yeast.  Season to taste and remove from heat.  Let stand a few minutes before serving.

Don’t let the curry scare you (I’m talking to you, Big Chew).  The fresh lemon juice added at the end really brightens things up!  (But it must be lemon juice…all you crazy lemon zesters out there, myself included – it’s not the same, so resist!)

Lemon Curry Lentil Soup

• oil for sauteing (olive or grapeseed)
• 2 cups red lentils, rinsed and picked over
• 8 leaves lacinato kale, leaves shredded and stems finely chopped
• 1 large leek, quartered and thinly chopped (don’t forget to rinse!) OR 1 med yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 cup finely diced carrots or winter squash
• 1/4 cup sofrito
• 1 T curry powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 T fresh lemon juice
• large drizzle of good quality olive oil
• course sea salt, fresh black pepper to taste

Heat a splash of oil in dutch oven over medium heat. Add leek (or onion), carrots, and kale. Saute until onion is softened, about 8 minutes. Add lentils and enough water to cover plus 2 inches, about 5 cups. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add sofrito, curry powder, and cumin. Simmer for another 20 minutes, or until lentils have softened. Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice, season to taste with sea salt, pepper, and olive oil.

This is so easy I feel a little silly posting it as a recipe, but it is what it is!

Delicious, is what it is.  In case you were wondering.

Black Bean Soup

• 5-6 cups cooked black beans (if cooking from scratch, use 2 cups dry beans, rinsed and sorted – and be sure to throw in a thumb-sized piece of kombu if you have any on hand)
• filtered water or light stock to reach desired ’soupiness’
• 3/4 – 1 cup sofrito
• course salt, pepper, and olive oil (now’s the time to get out the good stuff)
• top with guacamole or vegan sour cream (both optional, but so good!)

Put cooked beans in a nice, heavy-bottomed pot (or use your pressure cooker sans lid).  Add three to four of cups water or stock – enough so the beans can move around easily.  Add 3/4 cup sofrito, bring to a low boil and simmer for 20 minutes or so, adding more liquid as needed.  Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.  If you have an immersion blender, get it out and blend about half of the beans right there in the pot.  A potato masher works nicely, too, especially if you like your soup really lumpy.  If you prefer your soup smooth, then use a standing blender and puree in batches.

Return to heat and bring back to a simmer.  Heat through, season to taste with maybe a little more sofrito, as well as salt, pepper, and a drizzle of the best quality olive oil you have at hand.

I can’t help but add that this soup tastes really good served in bread bowls.

No matter how you spell it, sofrito is good stuff.  It’s the base for a lot of my (as of yet unposted) recipes, that secret ingredient that adds some oomph! to an otherwise ordinary dish.  It also saves on time and clean up.  Take guacamole, for instance.  It’s easy enough to make, but all that dicing can take awhile, not to mention make a huge mess.  But if you have some sofrito on hand, all you have to do is throw some avocado, fresh lime juice, course salt, and a couple of dollops of sofrito into a bowl, and in five minutes you have amazing guac!

Sofrito first made it onto my radar when I was exploring my Peruvian roots and other Latin American cuisines.  Before long I also found it in Italian, Spanish, Cuban, and Carribean dishes…the list goes on and on.

Most of them include some combination of the following:  tomatoes, garlic, peppers (both hot and sweet), onions, and of course, whatever herbs or spices define the cuisine’s region or origin.  The ingredients are sauteed or sweated, usually for at least half an hour, to really draw out all of the flavors.

Through trial and error, I realized that a cold, pureed sofrito works best in my kitchen – you could call it my House Sofrito, I suppose.  I make a huge batch of it about once a month, and it keeps just fine in the coldest part of my refrigerator.  I add or subtract ingredients based on what’s in season or the dishes I’ll be using it in, but nine times out of ten this is exactly what gets tossed into the food processor.

Basic Sofrito

In a large food processor, puree the following:

• 2 large green bell peppers, seeded and cut into chunks
• 1 large yellow onion, cut into chunks
• 1 large bunch cilantro (stems included!)
• 4-8 cloves garlic
• 3-4 jalapenos, seeded
• 4 3-4 inch sprigs fresh oregano (if stems are tender, include them)
• 2 T apple cider vinegar
• 1 T ground cumin
• 1 T ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp course salt

Stores for up to a month when refrigerated.

I posted a very similar recipe about a year ago, but this weekend we figured out the winning combination and Big Chew insisted that I post this, exactly how we made it yesterday.  His inability to decipher my serial killer handwriting was the impetus for starting this online recipe collection in the first place…perhaps I’ll come home from work someday soon to the smell of fresh baked cookies…?

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Preheat oven to 375°

Sift together in small bowl, then set aside:

• 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp baking powder
• small pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/3 cup raisins

Cream together in larger mixing bowl/stand mixer:

• 2 Tbs room temperature (solid) coconut oil
• 1/4 cup vanilla sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar

Add to creamed mixture:

• egg replacer + water equivalent to 1 egg, nice and frothy (I used 1.5 tsp Ener-G + 2 Tbs warm water)
• 1/4 cup full fat coconut milk

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until all flour is absorbed, but don’t overdo it. These cookies don’t spread out much while they bake, so you don’t have to worry about spacing them very far apart on the cookie sheet.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

This is an adaptation of the Buttermilk Sweet Potato Biscuits recipe from One Potato Two Potato – one of my top ten most used cookbooks.  It’s such a wealth of information on all things potato:  what characteristics define each type, how they should (and more importantly, shouldn’t) be used, and more insider tricks than Cook’s Illustrated has ever given me. And although it isn’t vegan, it’s absolutely spilling over with ideas.  How did I ever get by before I owned this book?  For a chemistry/alchemy junkie like me who finds starch to sugar ratios fascinating, it’s a dream come true.

The recipe below is simple, but there are myriad variations.  Adding cracked pepper or sage give it amazing depth; substituting butternut squash or pumpkin are subtly different, but just as satisfying.  If you are lucky enough to have freshly dug sweet potatoes, though, keeping it simple is the only way to do do them justice.

Sweet Potato Drop Biscuits

adapted from One Potato Two Potato

• 1 cup nondairy milk (soy or rice work best)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups AP or bread flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp course salt
• 4 T (1/2 stick) nondairy margarine, chilled
• 1 cup cold roasted sweet potato, peeled (but leave any blackened bits!)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees

Combine the milk and vinegar, stir, and set aside in the refrigerator.

In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients (flour through salt) together.  Drop in the margarine and toss it in the flour, then cut it into pieces.  Work the margarine into the flour until it resembles oatmeal.  If using your fingers, work quickly so that the margarine does not warm up.

Mash the sweet potato with a fork or potato masher until it is relatively smooth, then add it to the bowl.  Work it in lightly but thoroughly with your fingers.  Add the milk and stir until all flour is absorbed.  The batter should be wet and sticky, but not runny.

On a parchment-lined baking sheet, drop the dough in large dollops (about 1/3 cup per dollop), about 1 inch apart.  Bake for 15 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown.  Serve hot.