Almost Interesting

Pesto is one of those things which most people have no idea where to begin when making. Despite the mystery around it, it’s really one of the easiest foods you can make – no cooking required!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups basil leaves
• 2 cups spinach leaves
• 8 cloves of garlic, whole and peeled
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes (optional but strongly recommended)

Method:

• Separate the basil leaves from their stems and loosely pack them into a big measuring cup until you have about two cups. (You needn’t be too accurate.)
• Repeat the above with the spinach leaves.
• Start the blender with the insertion piece on the lid removed and start dropping in spinach and basil leaves. When the leaf is shredded, drop another.
• After all the leaves are shredded, add the garlic cloves and salt.
• Add the olive oil, keep mixing.
• Keep the blender going on top setting until the mixture becomes completely smooth. Depending on your blender’s quality, you may have to stop it a few times and use a spatula to push the leaves down into the bottom where the blades can reach them.
• Add the nutritional yeast and blend a bit more until you cannot discern it anymore.

Easy! You can use this on pasta, sandwiches, and what have you. A little bit will go a very long way, so be sparing! This will keep for only about a day in the fridge, so don’t make much more than you will need. What’s more is it’s cheap – this recipe cost us $4.15 to make, and it would have been less if we had been able to locate basil and spinach at the farmers’ market last time. Now, green leafy vegetables are some of those things you really should be buying organic whereas they tend to retain more pesticides than things like onions, garlic, bananas and the like.

Lately Ro and I have been painstakingly eliminating processed and/or packaged foods from our diets and making more food from scratch at home. Of course, when most meaties think of vegetarian or vegan food, the first and second foods that come to mind are salad and veggie burgers respectively. It never ceases to surprise me these heavily-processed, over-packaged, overpriced smidgens of soy and wheat and what have you are often equated to health food! Now, I grant you they’re nowhere near as bad for you as cow burgers, but they’re clearly junk food in their own right. I had eaten a black bean burger at Bongo Burger a block from the UC Berkeley campus and was wondering how hard it would be to make on my own. The answer: not hard at all and cheap as hell, too! (This recipe came out to a whopping total of 74¢ to make.)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried black beans
• 1/2 onion, all diced up
• 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon granulated onion
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon smoke flavoring (optional)

Method:

• Soak beans in three cups of water for 7-8 hours. Less and your beans won’t cook properly; more and your beans will be flavorless.
• Drain and rinse the beans thoroughly. (Improper draining and rinsing are the prime reason that beans upset some people’s stomachs!)
• Cook the beans by simmering for 1 1/2 hours.
• Drain and rinse the beans thoroughly.
• Mash up the beans with a potato masher or something similar.
• Mix all the ingredients together, preferably in a (KitchenAid) stand mixer.
• Form the resultant mass into ~4-6 patties and cook, using minimal oil, in a skillet until lightly browned. (They probably would work on a grill, but I’ve not had the chance to try it out.)
• Put on bread, top, and EAT!

Easy, yeah? Now, I only use dried beans for economic and environmental reasons, but I suppose you could use a can of black beans, properly drained and rinsed. It would be easier, but unnecessarily more expensive and wasteful. (Cans don’t just evaporate after all.) I even made the bread myself too, though next time I’ll have to try my hand at making buns. Low-fat, full of fiber, cholesterol-free, and bursting with flavor!

Remember, kids: If you have heart disease, the odds are that you brought it on yourself!â„¢

Roman and I are crazy for this recipe. We originally got it at Tofutti’s website, but we have since modified it greatly. I’m posting it here in hopes that someone else may enjoy it as much as we do! Who says vegan food can’t be fattening?

Ingredients
6 Jalapen Peppers
1 Tub Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
1 Cup Flour
2 Cups Panko (Japanese-style Breadcrumbs)
1 Cup Soymilk
Canola Oil

Instructions

1. Start heating a pot of water on the stove. About three cups of water in a medium-sized pot will do.
2. Cut the tops off the jalapenos, then cut them in half length-wise and clean them out.
3. Once the water is boiling, carefully add all the jalapeno halves and allow them to boil for three or four minutes. Too short and they’ll be too crunchy; too long and they’ll be flavorless. Remove the jalapenos from the water and wait until they are cool enough to handle.
4. Fill the insides of the jalapeÃnos with the Better Than Cream Cheese. (You could theoretically use a different brand, but I’ve never tried it.) Be generous with the amount filled!
5. Put the soymilk, flour, and panko into three separate bowls.
6. Dip each stuffed jalapeno into the soymilk, then cover it in flour. Let it dry for about ten minutes.

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7. Dip each floured jalapeno in soymilk, then cover it in panko. Let it dry for about ten minutes.
8. Repeat step 7.
9. Deep-fry the jalapenos in canola oil at about 375 degrees Fahrenheit (or 190 degrees Celsius) for about two-and-a-half to three minutes each or until golden brown. (You can also do this in a big frying pan, but its easier to handle them in a deep-fryer.)
10. Cool and enjoy! Careful, the inside will be hotter (temperature-wise) than you’ll expect!