No Suprise

WWHFDLN

Fava bean dip!!! I tell you, the life of a vegan is a life of an adventurer! I was at my local big box grocery store the other day and I saw a can of fava beans! Check that, first I saw a bag of fava beans in the 'ethnic' aisle and grabbed them, THEN I saw the can and was like, ahhh, who'm I kidding, I'm never going to soak and cook these beans, and I put them back and grabbed the can.

ANYWAY, I always am reminded of some sketch my husband quotes about some fava beans and a nice Chianti- would that he were here to clear the mists in my mind and reveal what exactly that sketch is from... the Tick? a Simpsons episode? Spongebob Squarepants? (no, not that last one).

So I was wondering what I'd do with these fava beans, when I saw Jewbacca's post on her lima bean hummus and then I think I plugged fava bean into food blog search which I believe led me to Fava Bean Dip.

So I decide to halve the recipe because I only had one can of fava beans and then I dumped them into the food processor, added the FULL amount of oil, dumped some of that out into the rice cooker, and realized I was out of cumin. AAAAaaaaagh!

Anyway, it turned out fine, so phew. Pretty darn good, in fact. If I ever see another can of fava beans, I'll snap them right up!

Then, since I was at food blog search, I looked up whole wheat flatbread and found this at bitchincamero (which in turn reminded me of a Dead Milkmen song I used to listen to). "Skillet flatbread?!?", I says to myself. Well, it had to happen. I love the cornbread I make in the skillet, and this sounded good, plus it hailed from Mark Bittman!

So I made that, too. It turned out really crispy (I used the lower end of the continuum of water- anywhere from one cup to three and I used 1 1/2). Next time I may use more water, or flip it at 20m instead of 30m. Soooooo easy and so good! Whee! I'll be making this again.


And finally, I made (sortof) Spiced Lentils and Rice from Fat Free Vegan. And I learned something new! A long time ago when I made Mallika's Rajmah, I complained about how when I make rice in my little cheapo rice cooker (no fuzzy logic here, oh wait, there IS lots of fuzzy logic, just not with the rice cooker) it foams and spurts all over, so my solution had been to rinse very thoroughly the rice, and that has worked pretty well. But, in reading Susan's recipe, I discovered that she has had the same problem and just coats the bottom of the rice cooker with oil! So I tried it, not rinsing the rice or even the lentils (notoriously foamy) and it worked!!! Whee!

So I made my rice and lentils a little differently, but it was so simple and easy I'll probably make it again. Nothing beats throwing stuff in a pot and letting it go!

1 1/2 C rice
3/4 C moong dal, or yellow lentils
1/2 t curry powder
1/4 t turmeric
1 t salt
4 C water

This takes about 45m or so. If it's not dry, add 1/4 C more water and restart.

Oh, and we had green beans from our CSA that were frozen in the freezer. With fake bacon bits.

Here is another lovely dinner. Tofu with peanut sauce.

In the background there is some butternut squash I roasted for like, an hour at 350. I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, coated the cut sides with oil, added a sliced clove of garlic to each little cup and added some more oil in there and mixed it all up. Then, when I scooped it all out, I just mashed the garlic in there. Yummm....

For the last half hour the squash was baking, I added the tofu marinating in the peanut sauce and let that bake, flipping the triangles over halfway through.

Oh goodness, I liked this sauce.

1/4 C + 2 T smooth peanut butter
1/4 C soysauce
2 T brown sugar
spash of rice wine vinegar
1 clove garlic
1/2 C water

Whizz in blender. Press your tofu- cut the block into thirds longways and then in half the other way and then into triangles. Place these on a cutting board or countertop and cover with a tea towel. Put your heaviest pot on there and add some cans of stuff in there too. Let sit for up to 30m.

Pour a little of the sauce into a 9 x 13" pan, to cover the bottom. Place the triangles of tofu in the pan, and cover with a little less than half of the sauce. Put in 350 degree oven for 30m, flipping halfway.

Meanwhile, cook the rest of the sauce on the stove on med low heat, to thicken it.

Serve over rice and top with the rest of the sauce.

Still reading "Infinite Jest". No suprise there.