Vegetarian

This is a guest post from one of our friends in our Veglatino Facebook group. Thanks for the recipe Cynthia Marin-Soria.

Feijoada was originally made with leftover meats, feel free to replace or add different types of veggie meats of your choice. I have made this dish with left over faux hotdogs or Gardein meats. You can experiment with different types of veggie meats and make it your own.

Vegetarian Feijoada

3 Cups Black Beans previously soaked in water for at least 24 hours or canned beans
2 Large Oranges
3 Bay leaves
1 large white onion finely chopped
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
2 Boca Burger patties thawed
2 Chicken boca patties thawed
4  oz Soyrizo
1 or 2 Tofurky Kielbasa sausages

2 Tablespoons finely chopped spicy red peppers for topping (optional)

You can use canned beans, but for best taste I recommend cooking beans from scratch.

Cook beans in plenty of water, 1 garlic clove 2 bay leaves and 2 oranges with peel cut in half. When beans are tender but still in one piece, saute in a separate pan:
Onion, remaining garlic and soyrizo. You can use more or less depending on your preference.
Cut Boca patties in quarters and slice sausages in large chunks add to saute, when onion is tender add to beans add 1 bay leaf.
Season to taste and let simmer in low heat for about 30 -45 minutes. You can add to a crock pot and simmer for 1 to 1/12 hour if desired, the flavors blend well.
Serve with white rice and top with spicy pepper if desired,  fresh orange slices on the side and yucca frita.

Thanks to one of our followers on Facebook Cynthia Marin-Soria for this recipe.

If you don’t know what to cook for ThanksGiving, this will cover all of your basis tomorrow or anyday of the week.  

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

Recipe

1 1/2 C GARDEIN HOME STYLE BEEFLES TIPS previously prepared optional * see below
2 CUPS LENTILS COOKED IN WATER WITH ONION AND GARLIC
6-7 MD RUSSET POTATOES COOKED AND PEELED
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Soy Milk
2 T Vegan Butter or Vegetable spread
MD WHITE ONION CHOPPED
2 GARLIC CLOVES CHOPPED
4 MD CARROTS PEELED AND CHOPPED FINE SQUARES
Pinch of fresh Rosemary
1 tsp of Fresh Thyme
1 Cup chopped tomato
1/2 C frozen or fresh peas
1/2 C frozen or fresh corn

Cooking Instructions

Some of these things such as the cooked lentils, gardein can be prepared the day before.
POTATOES:
Mash potatoes or beat in electric beater until fluffy with 2 Tbls of Vegan Buttery spread, 1/2 cup hot unsweetened soy milk, season with garlic salt, salt & pepper (optional)  to taste, Set aside

FILLING:
*the Gardein was left overs from the day before, I had marinated them in a sofrito style with a little white vinegar marinade and slow cooked.

Saute onion, garlic, Rosemary, Thyme and carrots until tender in medium heat
add tomato, mashed up gardein & drained lentils, season to taste, let simmer over medium heat, add corn and peas, cover and cook until dry.

Take a glass 15×10″ oven safe baking dish and brush with olive oil or cooking spray.
Pour saute mixture and cover bottom of dish, spreading evenly to form a layer about 1″ thick
Scoop mashed potatoes with icecream scooper through out the dish, with plastic spatula spread evenly over the top forming an even layer.
Brush top of mashed potatoes with olive oil bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until top has formed a crispy light golden crust.

These are approximate measurements per Cynthia.

Photo Credits by Cynthia Marin Soria

Since I started cooking vegetarian meals for Raul @rj_c , holiday menus always stumped me. Our first ThanksGiving, I made him an eggplant lasagna. As we started expanding our vegetarian menu, I found a soy based dinner roll and a mycoprotein dinner roll, with several side dishes.

Photo by hapatxn

This year Raul is trying to avoid cheese and heading towards veganism. So our menu will not include too many dishes with dairy products. One reference that I will use as I did last year was the New York Times Well Blog to give me fresh ideas to cook delicious dishes.

With the birth of our daughter Daniela, we will be having our first family ThanksGiving dinner. I am excited to eat with her and cook some Sweet Potato Circles with cinnamon, making some type of legume, and making her favorite Banana Bread Muffins. I will be using Chia Seeds in our food since it will give us an extra boost of calcium and protein.

The only thing I wish I could get my hands on are collard greens! We can’t get them anywhere in Puerto Rico unless you grow them but I don’t even think they sell the seeds here. I have tried unsuccessfully to have someone send them to me from the states but they would have to be frozen and by the time they get here, they might not be edible.

I asked a couple of our friends what vegetable sides/dishes they would be making for ThanksGiving and they said:

Ivan: Mashed cauliflower, buttered corn with garlic, pecan pie and one of those tofurky deals.

Ana: Yo hice Butternut Squash soup unos dias atras, creo que la voy a hacer para thanksgiving porque quedo super rica. (I made Butternut Squash soup a couple of days ago, and I think I am making it for Thanksgiving because it came out super yummy.)

When I finalize my menu, I hope that we all eat healthy and hearty. I’ll also include some recipes with a post-Thanksgiving picture and update.

Thanks to those who have written for us on Veglatino such as contributors: Ana, Ivan, Deborah, Sandra, Chenille, and Pamela. Along with Raul we want to thank you for taking the time to write for us on Veglatino.

Happy ThanksGiving!