mexican-flare quinoa bowl

With my new cookbook, Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N) coming out in a few short months, I'm again craving more bowl foods. As you can imagine, after months of bowls for breakfast, lunch and dinner during recipe development and testing, we needed a bit of a break from the bowl foods, but that didn't last too long.

Bowls are convenient, easy and balanced, which is part of their appeal when dinner rolls around. Who wants to think about what to serve with a protein to make it a complete meal, when that is exactly what bowl food is all about?

Since I cooked up a batch of black beans earlier in the week, the next most obvious application for the legume was a Tex-Mex meal.

This bowl is full of Mexican flare, including roasted corn, fajita vegetables, avocado and a salsa sauce. The quinoa is dotted with spinach, adding more nutrition and flavor. Serve this bowl with tortilla chips and dig in.

Mexican-flare Quinoa Bowl

Serves 4

Quinoa:

2 ¼ vegetable broth

1 ½ cups quinoa, rinsed well

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed

Vegetables:

3 cups corn kernels, thawed if frozen

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Beans:

3 cups black beans
1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon dried oregano

Sauce:

¾ cups salsa

¼ cup vegan mayonnaise

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

Garnish:

Avocado, slices

Cilantro leaves

Tortilla chips

1. Quinoa: Heat the broth in a medium pan over high heat. Bring to boil, add the quinoa and salt, cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and steam for 10 minutes. Fluff with fork and stir in the chopped spinach. Return to medium heat and cook until the spinach is heated through.

2. Vegetables: Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the corn and cook until golden, about 7 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and black pepper and set aside in a bowl. Add the oil to the skillet and stir in the bell pepper and onion. Season with the garlic powder, salt and black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the onion is lightly caramelized, about 10 minutes. Remove from the skillet and set aside in the bowl.

3. Beans: Add the beans to the skillet. Season with the chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and black pepper, to taste, and cook until the beans are heated through, about 3 minutes. Set aside.

4. Sauce: Combine the salsa, mayo and lime juice in a small blender. Blend until smooth and transfer to a small pan. Heat over medium heat until warmed through, about 3 minutes.

5. Assembly: Layer the quinoa in the bottom of the bowl, topping with roasted corn, sauteed vegetables, beans and avocado and cilantro. Serve with the sauce and tortilla chips.

© 2015 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

tamale-inspired bowl with pinto and black beans

This tamale-inspired dish is made with cooled polenta, which is much easier to prepare than the traditional corn husk encased filled masa dough.

Prepared logs of organic polenta are now readily available eerywhere and make this meal ready for the table in less than 30 minutes. If, however, you want to make your own polenta, simply cook it and cool it on a baking sheet spread to about 1-inch thick. Once cooled, slice as needed.

The polenta roll (or log) is sliced and sauteed lightly. It is then topped with a combination of black beans, pinto beans, fire-roasted tomatoes and vegan cheese. Because vegan cheese melts easier on the stove-top than in the oven, there is no need to bake this dish and thus makes it even speedier. 

The beans are a bit spicy and a bit piquant. Add some vegan sour cream, salsa fresca, cilantro and more fresno pepper, if you wish.

This meal was a hit with the family and the cook. Not much beats a quick, easy meal that also happens to be delicious. 

And if you need a fast and equally fabulous Salsa Fresca recipe, there is one in my upcoming cookbook, Everyday Vegan Eats, which hits bookstores in a matter of weeks!

TAMALE-INSPIRED BOWL WITH BEANS PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

If you haven't entered, yet, to win Robin Robertson's updated Vegan Planet cookbook, your days are few, so get to it!

I am linking to these recipe parties: The blogs hosting Healthy Vegan Fridays are Suzanne at Hello Veggie, Anna at Herbivore Triathlete, and Kimmy at Rock My Vegan Socks.  

The blog hosting Gluten-Free Fridays is Vegetarian Mamma.

I’ve also decided to submit this dish to What I Ate Wednesday hosted by Peas and Crayons.

frito chili pie with authentic vegetarian texas chili

Authentic Vegetarian Texas Chili Recipe

FRITO CHILI PIE PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Have you become tired of hearing that "authentic" chili has no beans in it, only beef? I certainly have had it! It might be true that back in the "good ol' days," while our forefathers were rustling cattle, there were no beans to be found on the range, only the animals who were being herded to be in the stockpot in the first place. But does that really mean that we should stop the progression and evolution of the chili? I think not. As times, tastes and even the human species evolves, it is time to redefine what "authentic chili" means. After all, we don't have live birds flying out of pies in the civilized world anymore either. Authentic, maybe; desirable, not.

Not only are legumes a welcome culinary and nutritional addition to chili, they are darn tasty to boot. 

So what makes my chili "authentic?"  In a thought, it isn't the animal products that make an authentic chili "authentic," but the spices, the chilies and, heck, I'll even agree to excluding tomatoes that have come to muddy down the chili flavors. But beef? Doesn't make the chili.

This chili has 7 different dried chilies, black beans, coffee and Tex-Mex spices such as cinnamon, allspice and cumin. Not a single muted chili powder in sight. That is what makes a Texan Chili authentic - not the cruelty.

And all this to make Frito Chili Pie, as requested by hubby. Frito chips are vegan and interestingly only contain around three ingredients. Healthy, maybe not, but really good. You can melt vegan cheese over the casserole or use my Cheese Sauce, which is the option we went with. Toss some jalapenos, lettuce, tomatoes and other taco ingredients on top and have a Tex-Mex feast.