vegan mofo: spicy green beans

spicy green beans are one my faves!  

status: good eating!

why i'm including it: i decided not to make this a normal post since it's really just french style green beans with hot sauce.  sometimes i use a mexian (like tapatio) or sometimes i used frank's.  in the background, you can see the chickpea cutlets from veganomicon with jessy and dan's white bean gravy and then a some roasted garlic mashed potatoes

would i make it again:  i do. all the time!

balsamic green bean salad

i made this a couple months ago almost exclusively using produce from greeley gardens.  i've blogged on a couple other csa-inspired dishes, but i really made a lot more than made it to this blog.  i was able to can a lot of the veggies so i can continue to enjoy them all winter long. what i love most about my weekly bag of produce is that i'm almost immediately inspired to create a new recipe.  you can check out the weekly pics of all my csa goodies here.

• 1 cup mixed yellow and green beans
• 5-6 baby potatoes, diced
• 5-6 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 8 button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tablespoons veggie broth
• 1 tablespoon vegan butter

for the miso balsamic dressing:

• 1¼ yellow miso
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 teaspoons rosemary
• pinch of black pepper

chop beans into 1-inch bite sized pieces. steam the diced potatoes and green beans for approximately 10-12 minutes. meanwhile, lightly sauté the mushroom slices in the butter and veggie broth for about 5 minutes and then set all the veggies aside to cool

mix the dressing ingredients in a magic bullet or blender.  put the cooked veggies in a dish and pour the dressing over top.  add in the cherry tomatoes and toss gently.

this can be served cool or warm.

green bean & peanut stir fry

i tend to make solo meals more spicy than when i'm cooking for others. this particular evening i was craving a stir fry, and had some fresh green beans lying around. i decided to add in some peanuts and give it healthy dose of chili oil. the green bean and peanut combination was fantastic!

• 1 ½ tablespoon chili oil
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 1 tablespoon veggie hoisin
• 1/4 cup party peanuts
• 1 large handful green beans (about 25)
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 3/4 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water

add oils, peanuts and garlic into a wok or large non-stick skillet. sauté on high for 1 minute. then add in the fresh green beans and stir fry until oil has almost cooked off. it's likely that your green beans are probably not very tender, so at this point, add in the water and hoisin and turn down heat to medium. let the water steam/cook the beans for while, stirring often. as the water starts to cook off (about 5-7 minutes), you'll find a nice glaze from the oil and soy starts to coat the beans and peanuts. this glaze is what i find so tasty about this dish. remove from heat when glaze is at your desired consistency. i think a thick coating with very little liquid, so i cook the full 7 minutes. if you are serving over rice, you might want it a little bit more fluid.

the measurements above were for a single-serving meal, so double or triple as necessary.

poor girl's cheesy green bean casserole

we are on pantry clean-out mode. i get this way every couple of months - i refuse to go major grocery shopping until we've finished off everything edible that's left in our house. i created this little recipe and thought it would be a perfect cheesy green bean casserole for holidays!

• 2 cans french style green beans
• 1 tablespoons sriracha (or more to taste)
• 3 tablespoons roasted potato blend
• 1/2 sleeve saltine crackers (wheat preferably)
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1/3 cup water

drain the green beans, and crumble a half sleeve of saltine crackers. mix all ingredients in an 8x8 casserole dish. i used half a pack of concord's roasted potato seasoning (original recipe). also, be careful with sriracha sauce - it is super spicy and those saltines soak it right up. i tend to love really spicy foods - but when i'm cooking for others (pot lucks, holidays, etc.), i ease up a bit.

pop it in the over for about 15 minutes on 350°f.

to be honest, i would have preferred to add soy milk instead of water to give it a more creamy taste. but it wasn't in our pantry so it didn't make it into this recipe.

sichuan green beans

this recipe was inspired by a spontaneous late night dinner at bolings, a fantastic chinese restaurant in kansas city. two days later i was at the asian super market buying sichuan peppercorns and chili oil.

• 1 pound of green beans
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 1 tablespoon chili oil
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons garlic chili paste
• 2 tablespoons vegetarian hoisin sauce
  
• 2 tablespoons ground sichuan pepper
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (optional)
  

steam green beans for 5-7 minutes - they should still reserve some of their crunchiness. heat peanut and chili oil along with garlic and ginger in a wok at about 350f° (medium-high). drop in green beans, and stir fry for about 5 minutes. add in the rest of the ingredients, and continue to stiry fry for about 10 minutes more. top with sesame seeds and serve (with rice if ya like).