Recipe Round-Up: Cook The Pantry

So many recipe from so many cookbooks to round up. This will be lifelong goal that I probably will never achieve, but it is also fun and gives my motivation to use my cookbooks more! Today I am continuing to work through Cook The Pantry, by Robin Robertson. You can see other posts about this book here.

Everyone's Favourite Black Bean Chili: This uses a mix of TVP and black beans. Technically the TVP is optional, but why would you leave it out? It's fantastic. I reconstituted it with some beef-style stock for extra flavour. I used a mix of mild salsa and tinned tomato to make up the quantity of salsa needed, which gave a nicer flavour I think. The sauce also has BBQ sauce in it, which I loved. And of course I left out the chili powder and replaced it with some smoked paprika.
Rating: :)



Cheesy Grits and Greens with Smoky Mushrooms: We don't really have grits here. We have polenta, which I normally use instead of grits. But for this I had some leftover gluten free corn polenta, so I used that. It gets the cheesiness from nutritional yeast, and I added a bunch more than the recipe called for because I just love that noochy cheese flavour. For the greens I used baby spinach, and I used chopped portobello mushrooms. My liquid smoke is extremely strong, so I did decrease the amount of that I used so it didn't taste like ash. The smoky level was good with this, but it did lack a bit of flavour, adding some soy sauce would be good.
Rating: :|



Hoppin' John and Collards: Given that I cannot get collards here and I canonly have black eyed peas if I cook then from scratch, I subbed in some frozen chopped kale and black beans, and I also added in an extra handful of baby spinach at the end of cooking. This was lovely with brown rice, beans, and greens. Topped with some sour cream and vegan bacon bits, and served with a cornbread muffin.
Rating: :)



Paella from the Pantry: This has a lot of ingredients, but comes together quickly if you have pre-cooked rice. I left out the roasted peppers and the chilli flakes. The flavour was a bit flat, despite all the other ingredients.
Rating: :|



Greek Freekeh and Spinach with White Beans: I really enjoyed this. It had simple flavours - freekeh, spinach, white beans, olives, lemon, dill - but they all went together really nicely. I added a whole big bag of baby spinach for extra greens. This says it serves four, but it really is more like three.
Rating: :)



Top-Shelf Couscous Pilaf: This has a bunch of things going on in it - carrot, spices, chickpeas, peas, nuts, and herbs. Though really you can add whatever extra vegetables or additions you feel like. It comes together quickly, and is satisfying. Another one that makes three rather than four serves.
Rating: :)



Jerk Tempeh with Coconut Quinoa: Thsi recipe calls for 225g of tempeh, I used a 300g block and doubled most of the sauce ingredients (except for the lime). The quinoa is cooked in coconut milk, I used a mix of light coconut milk and water to get the nice coconut flavour but keep it Susan friendly. The stronger flavours of the jerk tempeh went well with the coconut quinoa.
Rating: :)



Giardiniera Mac and Cheese: The recipe calls for a jar of giardiniera, but I made my own (from Robin's 1000 Vegan Recipes cookbook) so I could control exactly what vegetables I used in it. The cheese sauce is cashew based and has lots of lovely flavours in it. I also added some peas at the end for extra greenery.
Rating: :)



Puttanesca in a Pinch: I love puttanesca, though of course I leave out any spicy chilli flakes! This came together very easily. I used spinach fettuccini (which I sadly don't seem to be able to find anymore) and I also added some kidney beans and peas.
Rating: :)



Capellini with Palm-Heart Scampi Sauce: Hearts of Palm are not the easiest to find here, but I am always on the look out for them. This recipe was one of the first time I had every used them. I don't know why people use them in place of seafood, because they are more like a mild artichoke flavour than anything else? Which is good, because I don't like most vegan seafood products. This was a bit dry overall, so I added some extra pasta water to the sauce.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Buffy the clinic cat.