savory

Vegan Smothered Burritos with Red Sauce

April 24, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea Leave a Comment

Are you Team Taco or Team Burrito? These days, I’d probably have trouble picking a side, but I was staunchly Team Burrito throughout childhood. Burritos were actually one of my favorite foods, if there was a burrito on the menu, you bet I’d be ordering it!

There is just something so satisfying about burritos, whether handheld or smothered and baked. Breakfast burritos, bean burritos, wraps that pass themselves off as burritos, burritos stuffed with your favorite taco fillings–I love them all! I’m not sure I love photographing them though, haha. Well today I’m sharing a recipe for the kind of burrito I grew up eating, a vegan smothered burrito!…

Mexican Red Chile Sauce

April 19, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 1 Comment

If you love Mexican food (hi! me!) then you have got to make this red chile sauce. Made from dried chiles it has all that authentic flavor your Mexican food has probably been missing. I’ve been experimenting with this sauce for the past 6 months (basically as an excuse to always have some version of it stashed in the fridge). It’s the perfect base for your taco “meats” and Mexican soups. It makes for the most flavorful enchilada sauce, and adds so much depth to your beans. It even makes a darn good sandwich spread. And it’s the easiest to make! I think you’ll love it! It’s a streamlined, flavor-packed, 8-ingredient recipe with almost no hands on effort and is ready in no time.

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Hoisin Glazed Tempeh Bowls

April 17, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 2 Comments

Grain/buddha bowls have been hip for years, and I can see why. They’re super versatile, stuffed with veggies and your choice of protein, usually served with a whole grain, smothered with a yummy sauce, and the perfect vehicle for eating more avocados. They also are great for meal-planning and meal prepping. The veggies can be batch washed and chopped, you can cook the grain in advance, make the protein so it’s ready to go, and have dressings galore stored in your fridge. And leftovers pack up perfectly for lunch. Honestly, I don’t know why we don’t eat them more! Especially when they’re as delicious and straightforward to prepare as these hoisin glazed tempeh bowls….

Savory Crepes with Almond Cheese, Sautéed Spinach and Vegan Hollandaise

April 10, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 3 Comments

Are you more a savory or sweet crepe person? I was always more of a sweet crepe person growing up. Sweet fillings helped mask the eggy flavor of the crepes, which was definitely my least favorite thing about them. That’s all changed now though, as my vegan crepes do not taste eggy at all (obviously)! Don’t get me wrong, I still love chocolate filled crepes, but I’d rather start my day with savory ones (though, breakfast deserves a dessert finish too, don’t you think?)! These savory crepes are a perfect hearty start to your day, stuffed full of soft vegan cheese, garlicky sautéed spinach, and doused with an easy creamy vegan hollandaise….

Baked Gnocchi with Arrabbiata and Vegan Mozzarella

March 27, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 4 Comments

I love having gnocchi in the fridge, because it means quick and easy meals are a hop and a skip away. Like sure, usually gnocchi in the fridge means that I’ve put in a little (and I do mean that literally) effort to make it, because 1) homemade gnocchi is easy and tastes better, and 2) I’m very mistrusting* of the monoglycerides and diglycerides found in most store bought versions. Anyway back to the important things, gnocchi in the fridge means I get to make baked gnocchi, which is one of the most delicious dishes. Pillowy gnocchi is tossed in a spicy marinara (arrabbiata) and smothered with a creamy scrumptious vegan mozzarella sauce and baked until the sauce is hot and bubbly and the cheese is browned to perfection. And if you have the gnocchi already, the whole dish is ready in under 45 minutes, including making the mozz sauce and arrabbiata from scratch and 15 minutes of oven-time.

*And that’s just because those ingredients are often animal-derived, their chemistry in cooking and baking is actually pretty cool.…

Vegan Potato Leek Soup

March 8, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 2 Comments

I love this creamy, comforting, heart-warming potato leek soup. It’s so incredibly easy to make with only 12 pantry-friendly ingredients (and that’s including the garnish!) and it’s ready to eat in just over 30 minutes. There is something so satisfying about soup but I don’t make them very often, partly because we always eat leftovers for lunch and soups are harder to transport and reheat. But every time I do make soup I regret that we don’t eat them more often! They’re just so perfect. Especially this one. This potato leek soup blends up in the the most velvety, lusciously smooth texture and it is filling while not feeling too heavy or indulgent….

Vegan Malai Kofta: Indian Dumplings in Curry Tomato Cream Sauce

March 6, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 15 Comments

If malai kofta isn’t one of your top 5 Indian dishes you probably fall into one of these categories: you’ve never been to an Indian restaurant*, you’ve been vegan or lactose intolerant your whole life, you don’t like rich foods, or you’re really bad at ordering. Kofta are meatballs, and there are variations of them from the Balkans and Middle East through South Asia. In this dish they are typically made with potatoes and paneer (a fresh farmer’s cheese). Malai simply means cream. In this recipe we make easy swaps for those two non-vegan ingredients for the most delicious, richest tasting, better-than-restaurant style malai kofta. Sound like dream? Because, it is, and you should be eating it already!…

Easy Homemade Vegan Gnocchi Recipe

February 27, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 2 Comments

Gnocchi was the first thing I ever cooked. I must have been 4 or 5, and I remember watching PBS (that’s the public television channel, for my non-US readers) and there was a cooking show on. And on that show they were making gnocchi. I watched raptly for long enough to know that I NEEDED to have gnocchi in my life immediately! So I ran over to my dad and told him they were cooking something on TV and we had to make it. My dad comes into the family room and probably catches the tail end of the episode and none of the instructions, but didn’t let that deter him. We immediately went into the kitchen and made some gnocchi, recipe-free. I’m positive it was his first time making gnocchi. The dumplings were probably 3x bigger than typical, and they were on the soft (and watery) side. We tossed them in some marinara sauce and called it done. And guys, I was smitten….

Vegan Roasted Jalapeño Cheese

February 13, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 8 Comments

This vegan roasted jalapeño cheese is one of my go-to recipes. It packs in a ton of flavor and is so simple to make. It melts and stretches, and makes the best quesadillas. Before going vegan, I would regularly eat quesadillas for lunch or dinner, and would always make those with pepper jack cheese. When I cut cheese out of my life I thought I would never enjoy a quesadilla again. I mean of course I tried all the commercial brands, and while I’m fine with them in certain applications, I did not enjoy them in quesadillas, where the flavor and texture of the cheese is upfront. And then of course the cultured nut cheeses came onto the market, but they weren’t the right fit for quesadillas either! Delicious, certainly, but they weren’t trying to emulate gooey, melty cheeses….

Quick and Easy Homemade Breadsticks with Spicy Marinara

January 30, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 2 Comments

In high school I used to eat breadsticks for lunch multiple times a week. I know, I was pretty much living the dream life. These days my bread consumption had shifted to the morning, as I’m usually enjoying slices of homemade bread or a toasted bagel with a cheesy spread for breakfast. But that doesn’t mean I ever stopped loving breadsticks, I just got more practical about my consumption. I’ll regularly make a batch of breadsticks when I’m making pizza, my typical pizza dough recipe makes 3 balls of dough, and I’ll turn one of those into breadsticks instead of pizza. When it comes to making pizza I’m pretty adamant about making slow rise dough, because the flavor, texture, everything is better. But sometimes, even I’ll admit, that you shouldn’t let stubbornness hold you back from enjoying last minute cravings for breadsticks….