Appetite for Reduction (44 page)

SERVES 4 • ACTIVE TIME: 20 MINUTES • TOTAL TIME: 40 MINUTES

T
his stew is inspired by jambalaya, only it’s a whole lot more saucy. When I think kidney beans, I think, “This is a bean’s bean.” Big, meaty, and substantial, it demands to be front and center, not mashed or pureed.

The slight sweetness of butternut squash is a natural partner in this spicy stew with its Creole seasonings. I use white basmati here because of its shorter cooking time. If you’d like to use brown, then add the squash about 20 minutes after you add the rice and tack on about 20 more minutes’ cooking time. Everything can come together quickly if you prep the squash while the onion and other veggies are sautéing. (See butternut squash tip, page 80.)

Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion, pepper, celery, and garlic in the oil with a pinch of salt for about 7 minutes. Use a little nonstick cooking spray or broth if things are sticking.

Add the bay leaves, spices, herbs, and remaining salt, and saute for about 30 seconds. Add the veggie broth and tomatoes. Use a potato masher to mash up the tomatoes. Add the butternut squash, rice, and kidney beans. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cook the stew for about 20 minutes, until the butternut squash is tender and the rice is cooked.

Remove the bay leaves, taste for salt, and serve.

SERVES 4 • ACTIVE TIME: 15 MINUTES • TOTAL TIME: 45 MINUTES

D
ear Ireland: I know you eat more than beer and potatoes! Love, Isa. That said ... I love cooking with beer and potatoes and I imagine myself in the pub from
The Wicker Man
whenever I eat a bowlful. The original, of course, not the Nicholas Cage remake. Beer adds great depth of flavor, and a splash of lemon juice at the end brightens everything up. Serve with a hunk of good bread. Like the
Portobello Pepper Steak Stew
(page 247), this comes together right in your skillet. It requires a lid, but if you don’t have a large lid just use a cookie sheet to cover the pan.

Preheat a large, heavy-bottomed (preferably cast-iron) skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the seitan in 1 teaspoon of the oil for about 5 minutes, until browned. This is a good time to prep everything else. Remove the seitan from the pan and set aside.

In the same pan, sauté the onions and a pinch of the salt in the remaining oil until translucent, 4 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves, and sauté for about a minute, until the garlic is fragrant.

Add the beer and remaining salt and turn up the heat to bring to a boil. The liquid should reduce in about 3 minutes.

Add the potatoes and carrots along with 2 cups of the vegetable broth. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the green beans and lower the heat to bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender. Mix in the tomato paste.

In a measuring cup, mix the flour into the remaining broth to dissolve into a slurry (see tip, page 248). Lower the heat a bit and add the slurry to the pan. Mix well and let thicken for a minute. Add the seitan back to the pan along with the lemon juice and let thicken further; in about 5 minutes it should be perfectly thick but still smooth. Taste for salt and seasonings, and serve!

SERVES 6 • ACTIVE TIME: 20 MINUTES • TOTAL TIME: 40 MINUTES

O
f all the styles of cooking, the one most foreign to me is French. I’ve heard that a vegan can eat extraordinarily well in France, and I’m not surprised, but if you thumb through a French cookbook you will mostly see recipes that require pounds of butter, pints of cream, and other unspeakable horrors. So I’d always shied away from it. But I recently got a cookbook of Provençal cooking, referring to the Provence area of France, and the recipes were instantly appealing. Olives, fennel, tomato... it’s a vegan’s dream! Swap out some of those meats for lentils and super meaty eggplant and you’ve got yourself a winner of a stew. Serve over rice or with a big hunk of bread.

Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion, fennel, and garlic in the oil with a pinch of salt, for about minutes. Use a little nonstick cooking spray or water if things are sticking.

Add the remaining salt, pepper, and bay leaves, and saute for about 30 seconds. Mix in the eggplant, potatoes, carrots, red lentils, thyme, and marjoram. Add the wine and veggie broth. The liquid should just about cover everything, but it’s okay if some vegetables are poking out; they will cook down.

Cover and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender and the eggplant is mostly broken down. The lentils should be soft as well, but depending on your lentils it may take 10 or so more minutes.

Mix in the olives and tomato sauce and cook for 5 more minutes to get the flavors melded.

Remove the bay leaves, taste for salt, and serve.

MAKES 1 POUND; SERVES 4 • ACTIVE TIME: 10 MINUTES • TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR

S
eitan can get pretty expensive, even in small quantities. Simmering your own seitan from vital wheat gluten flour is not only more cost effective, but it’s more delicious effective, too! And it really isn’t very hard. If you’ve ever mixed up any dough, seitan-making isn’t any different. It’s just a small matter of a little kneading and then plop-ping into a simmering broth. So make the initial investment of a bag of the flour, and then seitan will be yours for weeks to come!

Begin the broth: Bring the 8 cups of vegetable broth and ¼ cup of soy sauce to a boil in a covered 4-quart stockpot. Meanwhile, prepare the seitan.

In a large bowl, mix together the gluten and chickpea flour. Make a well in the center and add the ½ cup of cold broth, the ¼ cup of soy sauce, and the lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic. Mix with a wooden spoon until most of the moisture has been absorbed and has partially clumped up with the dry ingredients. Use your hands to knead for about 3 minutes, until it’s an elastic dough. Divide into four equal pieces with a knife
and then knead those individual pieces in your hand just to stretch them out a bit. Let rest until the broth is ready.