Sauteed Vegetables with Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam
This recipe was created on Easter Sunday. I did not want to eat the traditional foods that are normally served on Easter because Ham and the sides tends to have a lot of carbs, fat and sodium in it and there are consequences for me when I eat foods with too much of these things. This is an excellent dish as a meal or a side. This was one of the recipes that are vegan/vegetarian friendly. I used my favorite vegetables and beans for this sautéed stir fry dish. Enjoy!

Mixed Sautéed Vegetables with Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing
Created on 04/20/14

Easter04.14vegetables
Ingredients
1 pound fresh asparagus cut into bite size pieces
2 medium zucchini sliced medallion style
4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally
1 bag of organic non-gmo frozen corn
1 pint of cherry tomatoes cleaned and halved
1 cup of chopped green onions (approximately a bunch)
10 ounces of crimini mushrooms wiped clean and sliced thick
1 can of organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup of vegetable stock
Salt/pepper to taste

Lemon Vinaigrette (In a small jar with tight fitting lid – add the following ingredients)
1 full lemon squeezed
1 tablespoon of honey
Salt / pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of Stone ground Dijon Mustard
3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

Put all the ingredients in the jar, shake well and set aside.

Heat about 3 tablespoons of vegetable stock in a wok over high heat. This process will go very fast. Remember to season each batch of vegetables with salt and pepper suited to your taste. Sautee the carrots for about 5 to 7 minutes; you want the texture to be medium soft and remove and transfer to the serving platter. Then add about 2 tablespoons of vegetable stock and the mushrooms and cook for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, remove and transfer to the platter. Add more stock as needed and continue to cook the zucchini, asparagus, and green onions for additional 3 to 5 minutes and add to the vegetables previously added to the platter. Add the corn, tomatoes and garbanzo beans until fully heated through and transfer to the serving platter.

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Filed under: Dressings, Gluten Free, Simply Healthy Recipes, Vegan Recipes, Vegeterian Recipes | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Garbanzos kon Spinaka

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam
I have a pretty extensive cookbook library and one day I was walking down my hallway in my home where all my books are stored and I saw out of the corner of my eye “The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook” by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Thumbing through the book I came across a recipe with garbanzo beans and spinach. These two foods are my favorite things to cook and eat. I thought how perfect for a vegan or vegetarian meal with a salad and some homemade bread. The house was filled with this amazing smell of aroma of beans and onions simmering on the stove. The broth the garbanzo beans and onions made was just simply scrumptious. I plan to make some type of soup creating a broth from the beans and onions. The simplicity of the ingredients creates such an amazing dish. Absolutely loved it and I think it will be one of my dishes I make all the time.

Garbanzos kon Spinaka, created on 9/13/2012

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1 large onion sliced thin
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil (you can omit the oil if you don’t cook with oil – just use water)
1-1/2 cups of garbanzo beans soaked overnight
1 pound of fresh spinach
½ cup of minced dill
Juice of 2 lemons
Kosher Salt and Fresh Cracked pepper

Sauté the onion slices in olive oil over medium-low heat until the onions are soft but not browned – about 15 minutes. Drain the garbanzo beans and add them to the onions, turning them to coat with the olive oil. Cover with 1 cup of water and simmer gently until the garbanzo beans are tender about 40 to 60 minutes. You may have to add boiling water as the water does evaporate with cooking.

Clean the spinach rinsing thoroughly about 4 or 5 times and remove the stems. When the chickpeas are tender, add the spinach (no need to spin it dry) and the dill. Season the dish with salt and pepper and continue cooking for about 10 minutes till the spinach is tender. Add the lemon juice and adjust the salt and pepper as needed. Serve as a side dish or a main meal with a salad and bread. Dip the bread in the broth, it is just delicious.

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Filed under: Simply Healthy Recipes, Vegan Recipes, Vegeterian Recipes | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Avocado Garbanzo Tomato Open Face Sandwich

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam
I had quite a few avocados that I purchased on sale so I thought I better try and use some of them up. I was not in the mood for a super fancy breakfast/lunch kind of meal so I made this simple dish that did not take up a lot of my time as I had a lot of appointments. I like Garbanzo beans but I did not want to make a smooth hummus so I mashed the garbanzo beans really chunky, same as the avocados. I was impressed with the simplicity of my meal it came out really good. Filled me up, hit the spot and I was on the go so it was perfect! Enjoy!

Avocado Garbanzo Tomato Open Face Sandwich
Created on 03/21/2012

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1 can of organic garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained (you will use about ½ cup of the whole mixture)
¼ cup of Tahini sauce
1 Roma tomato cut into cubes
1 avocado, remove seed
1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice
1 whole grain English muffin toasted
Salt and Pepper

Mash the garbanzo beans in a bowl until you get a chunky texture. Add the tahini sauce and mix well. Season the garbanzo mixture with salt and pepper. Set aside. Cut up the tomato into chunk bite size pieces. Half the avocado and remove the seed. Scoop out the fleshy part of the avocado and put in a bowl. Add the Roma tomato, lime juice and cilantro in the avocado and mix well. You want a chunky smooth kind of appearance. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. On the toasted English muffin, smear about ¼ cup of the garbanzo mixture on both sides of the English muffin and spread on top with the Avocado/Tomato mixture.

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Filed under: Simply Healthy Recipes, Vegan Recipes, Vegeterian Recipes | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Everything but the Kitchen Sink Veggie Burger

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam
I am always trying to find decent vegetarian burger recipes for me to eat. My biggest frustration is keeping the patties together when I am cooking them. I found that the best way for me to cook veggie burgers is to put them on my stone and bake or broil them in the oven. This is less stress on the patty so there is no breakage. Veggie burgers usually come in all shapes and forms. I decided to make my own version and absolutely fell in love with it. What great flavor and so healthy for me. I just added things that I liked in a veggie burger and just kept adding till I achieved the flavors I wanted. Actually after adding all the ingredients, I couldn’t stop eating the veggie burger mixture. I think I hit it right on my taste buds! Adorn with your favorite things like pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, whole grain buns, caramelized onions, and mustard – whatever floats your boat. I think next time I might make Tahini dressing to go with this. Enjoy!

Pam’s Everything but the Kitchen Sink Veggie Burger
Created on 02/16/11

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1 can of organic garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
1 package of Tempeh from Trader Joe’s
1 cup of fresh corn sliced of the cob or frozen organic corn
2 organic carrots peeled and minced
1 cup of raw sunflower seeds
8 oz of mushrooms, cleaned and minced – I used Baby Bella mushrooms
1 small onion minced
2 garlic cloves minced
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley minced
3 Tablespoons of Low-Sodium Soy Sauce
Salt / Pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
¼ cup of egg substitute (if you have a better binder ingredient for the veggie burger please use that)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the vegetables; mince the mushrooms, onions, carrots, and garlic with a food chopper or with a knife. In a 10” sauté pan, heat up the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the vegetables, season with salt and pepper and sauté for a good 5 to 8 minutes until the carrots are sort of soft (not mushy). Remove from the heat.

In a food processor, pulsate the Tempeh and garbanzo beans until coarsely ground. Add the sautéed vegetables and pulsate a few times till mixture is blended. In the sauté pan, add the corn and sauté for about 3 minutes until the corn is cooked through, season with salt and pepper. In a glass bowl, empty the food processor bowl with the mixture into the glass bowl and mix in the corn. In the same sauté pan, toast the sunflower seeds until the color is a rich brown. Add the toasted sunflower seeds, minced parsley, egg substitute, and soy sauce combine well.

This makes about 8 to 9 patties. I formed the patties and placed them on the stoneware.

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Very lightly sprinkle olive oil over the patties so they do not dry out. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes until lightly browned and heated thoroughly.

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Filed under: Simply Healthy Recipes, Vegan Recipes, Vegeterian Recipes | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Toasted Walnut Spinach Baby Peas Ravioli

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam
I do not eat a lot of pasta because it causes my sugar to rise rapidly but every once in a while I do crave Italian food. I decided to become ambitious one day and attempt to make ravioli for the second time in my whole cooking life. I love spinach in anything so I thought I would try to make spinach ravioli with peas and walnuts. I did not want to use a tomato sauce so I blended up some garbanzo beans for the sauce base and the results came out good. I loved it! I planned my food menu very carefully that day because I wanted this. The dish was such a nice change for me. Enjoy!

Toasted Walnut Spinach Baby Peas Ravioli
Created on 1/6/12

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2 cups of baby spinach chopped – equal to roughly 2 handfuls
1 cup of frozen baby peas, thawed
½ cup of toasted walnuts
1 medium onion chopped
1 garlic clove minced fine
1 package of wonton wrappers, – I cheated did not make fresh
1 cup of Ricotta cheese, can use tofu – very good as well
½ cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Egg
1 tablespoon of water

In a 350 degree oven, toast ½ cup of walnuts. This takes about 10 minutes depending on your oven. The extra effort to toast the walnuts is worth it. Toasting the walnuts bring out a ton of flavor. Set aside and cool.

In a sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic stirring constantly for about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and sauté until the spinach is wilted. Add the thawed peas and sauté until peas are heated.

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Put the sautéed vegetable mixture in a food processor and cool. Add the toasted walnuts, and pulse a few times. You want the filling to be chunky.

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Add the ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese and mix well. Set aside.

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Crack the egg and mix with the water in a small bowl to make an egg wash. Set aside. On a clean board, prepare the Ravioli. This is a lot of work, but so worth it.

Lay one wonton wrapper on board. Add 1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons of filling. Brush the edges with the egg wash. Cover the filling with the 2nd wonton wrapper. Press seams together, and force any air bubbles out of the sealed wrapper so that the ravioli does not break or come apart during the cooking process. Repeat this process until you achieve the number of Raviolis you want.

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Put the raviolis on a cookie tray and cover with towel or a non-stick surface. Put the ravioli in the freezer for about 15 minutes. This helps prevent the raviolis from coming apart and makes it easier to cook.

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In a stock pot of boiling salted water, add the frozen raviolis one at a time. Cook for approximately 5 to 8 minutes just enough to cook the wonton wrappers and the raviolis float to the top of the stockpot.

Transfer the raviolis to a plate and top with your favorite sauce. In this recipe I used a garbanzo bean sauce topped with sautéed tomatoes in olive oil, salt and pepper.

This is a simple sauce that I use instead of a tomato based sauce. I make it to top over bread or pasta or steamed vegetables. Sometimes, I serve this with sautéed cherry tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. The chunky style kind of reminds me of hummus but without the Tahini sauce and lemon.

Garbanzo Bean Sauce
Created 01/06/12

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 can of organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté all the ingredients over medium high heat until beans are heated through. Put beans in a food processor or blender and pulsate until chunky or smooth. If putting on bread, I tend to keep the beans chunky. If I am putting this sauce over pasta it can be chunky or smooth, depends on the dish. If it is pasta I will probably keep the bean sauce chunky but if it is ravioli the sauce will probably be smoother.

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Filed under: Simply Healthy Recipes, Vegeterian Recipes | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Yummy Hummus!

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Simply Healthy Cooking with Pam
This is another one of my recipes that I make all the time and do not feel guilty with the calories. Yummy hummus is a healthy recipe, loaded with protein and an excellent dip to use in sandwiches. I keep the hummus in the refrigerator ready and available with cut up carrot or celery sticks so that if someone wants to munch on something that does not have a lot of calories, they can do that. Yummy Hummus is such an easy recipe to make with dried beans cooked or if pressed for time, canned garbanzo (a.k.a. chick peas).

Yummy Hummus!  

Recipe created on 12/09/2007

Hummus

1 – 2 garlic glove – peeled and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup good tasting olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup of water, depending on smoothness of hummus
16 oz canned chickpeas or garbanzo beans – rinsed and drained
1/2 cup Tahnini – make sure the Tahnini is stirred well a lot of it settles on the bottom of the jar

Put all ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth and has the desired flavor you want. Add salt, scrape the sides of food processor as needed. And attack with food!

I made a parsley oil – 1/4 cup olive oil with 2 Tablespoons of fresh parsley and dolloped that on top of hummus with roasted pine nuts.
Can be refrigerated up to 3 days

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Filed under: Appetizer Recipes, Dips, Simply Healthy Recipes, Vegeterian Recipes, Video | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »