Sunday, January 13, 2013

Vegan Twice Cooked Mushroom and Vegetable Stew


Not a photo of my stew, but a pretty photo anyways. I don't have a camera right now!
My stew sort of looked like this ! Photo taken from here !


My friend Haellen was raving about her awesome twice-cooked beef stew, and it inspired me to make a veggie version!

It is so thick and Earthy :) Filled with that savoury Umami flavor that I crave on -7 degree days ..

Here is the recipe ..

(As always I made a huge batch to have enough for leftovers and didn't measure a thing .. )

Boil a pot full of water with quinoa, brown rice, salt, and a few bay leaves. These things cook the longest so they go first. I also added dried mushrooms in this step. I have an "assortment bag" of dried shrooms that my mom sent me, and they smell like the inside of a Chinese grocery store .. but taste delicious cooked and add a really Earthy Umami flavor to the broth. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Add buckwheat to the soup and cook for 10 minutes.

Add chopped potatoes, carrots, celery, rosemary, thyme, and cumin and cook for 25 minutes.

This is the first half of the soup. You could definitely just stop here and have a delicious soup ready to eat. I, however, set out to make a thick stew, so the recipe continues ..

After you have cooked this part, transfer it to a food processor or a high speed blender and process until it is  smooth. (Note to self: This creamy soup tastes so much like gravy for mashed potatoes, but is totally vegan! Really looking forward to making some mashed potatoes in the future and using the soup as the saus! )

Now, follow the above recipe all over again, but also using the "gravy" that you you just made .

This way when it is done, you will have a thick veggie stew with plenty of "chunkiness" to it from cooking it twice, with double ingredients!

YUM.

I think this soup would also be good with added coconut milk, chopped scallions, and tofu, but I don't have any of those things on hand so possibly I will try that another time!

Monday, January 7, 2013

IS THIS FOR REAL? Anxiety and freaking out in a good way !

OMG! IS this for realZ YO? Im going to South America? In less than three weeks I am arriving in MeXico  City !?

What the what ?!

Yeah so the past two days this trip feels more real to me than ever ! Like, it's happening.

I feel anxiety for sure, but just in an awesome excited way just like I get myself before every "deep" adventure I go on .. but this one is just .. different! I mean this is a HUGE trip!

I have never been out of the country after an age I could remember ... I mean me and Dan are about to become homeless bum gypsies travelling across COUNTRIES! ACROSS WILDERNESS! ahhh .. camping :) I can't wait to re-connect with LA TIERRA! JEEEYZUS I am crazy excited! So much energy inside me right now :PPPPPPPPPPPPP

Just gotta keep it light, keep it funny, keep it gay :)

AMOR
PAZ
Y
ALGO NUEVO!

SOFIE 
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