Wednesday, October 1, 2008

lets start october with some october beans

Welcome to my first post of Vegan Mofo!  There are so many people participating this year, and I for one, am very psyched about it.  I plan on posting as often as possible (at least 5 days a week) and cooking up a gosh darned storm.  Starting tonight.  I didn't cook last night because Michael and I got sushi and chinese food (no pics...it was kind of visually boring).  However, the night before I made a lovely winter squash casserole and the october beans that you saw from the end of my last post.  It wasn't my prettiest meal ever, but it was made up all on my own.
mushy yummy warm in my tummy

It was basically just a concoction of 2 types of winter squash, a block of tofu, some onions & garlic, coconut milk, veggie broth, and curry powder.  Bake it at 425F for about an hour (maybe a little more) and you get a squishy, sweet, curry-y, spicy casserole.  The flavor was pretty subtle, but it intensified in the leftovers and made a nice lunch the next day.  

So, I cooked the beans.  This was my first time ever cooking fresh beans like that (besides plain ol' green beans)...  and the texture was sort of weird.  I dunno if I cooked them too long or not long enough, but I definitely added the salt too early (the skins were sort of tough).  Still, with a nice squeeze of lemon juice and some seasoned salt, they were pretty damn tasty.
and they turn purple when they cook, neat-o!

That's leftover mexicouscous in the background, which may seem weird for this meal, but...  the flavor of mexi was slight enough that it blended in fairly well.  Gimme a break, this was a use up what we got type of meal!

Tonight we're making stuffed peppers with a special potato/pea concoction from my childhood that I am attempting to veganize.  I've been thinking about it all week, and I think it can be done.  Oh, today is worldwide vegetarian day, too.  So.  Awesome.  But...  VEGetariAN.  cutouttheshitinthemiddle.

Oh yeah, also, I changed my layout.  Whaddya think?

11 comments:

Chessa said...

Yum! That winter squash casserole sounds sooooo good! I'm going to have to give that a go soon. I love winter squash! Yay, fall!

What kind of beans were those? They look interesting!

Virginia said...

love the layout! makes the food pics stand out a lot better against the white! i have never heard of october beans. i need to look into this!

Anonymous said...

Whee what yumminess abounds! Plus I like the clean layout - shows off the food well.

allularpunk said...

thanks...i was getting a little tired of the black. i didn't think it worked well with food. and those beans were called 'october beans' at the farmers market. if you google 'em it'll show you what they are and how to cook them!

Anonymous said...

I thought I'd walked into the wrong blog for a second! You redecorated. I love what you've done to the place, very light and airy :0)

Anonymous said...

In honor of VEGetariAN day I made a totally vegan meal from our new cookbook (thanks to you). It was AWESOME! I'm not ready to go totally nuts yet, but there is something about vegan food on a cool fall day. Oh and what I made was the corn pudding crusty tofu and steamed green beans. Ditto on the new digs. Love, dad

allularpunk said...

yay, dad was here! i love love love my dad, you guys. it's so awesome that you are reading, my mustachioed father friend! (btw, i got my mom Veganomicon for her birthday, and they're using it! rad!) and did you hear that? my DAD is eating VEGAN occasionally! super exciting :)

Jes said...

Mmm winter squash--I'm so glad it's coming into season now!

jessy said...

your dad's eating some vegan foods?! hells yeah! :D

and hooray for VeganMofo, Jessica! and double hooray for october beans in october! sweet deliciousness! i've never cooked with fresh beans either. yours look tasty! and i can see how they would totally go with some leftover mexiawesomeness! we're all about eating up our leftovers here, too! 'cause you know, less food was = bad ass! w00t!

the squash casserole looks tasty as hell to me! mmmmmmmmm! i love the idea of adding curry. dan's not the world's biggest squash fan, but when he goes out of town here in november i'm totally making a squash casserole. aw, hell - i'm making brussel sprouts and lima beans too! all the things he hates - and mushrooms! yay!

i need some squash casserole in my yummy!

sarchan said...

I've never found it possible to cook beans too long--the longer the better in my experience--so I suspect if you weren't 100% satisfied, then undercooking was the culprit. Coconut milk + winter squash sounds delicious.

donesmoking said...

yeah, i tried to make beans from scratch a couple times but they werent ever that great....looking back i think it was the salt that messed 'em up.