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Recipes from the September 2006 Newsletter

The first 2 recipes in this month’s newsletter are from a website by Marla Erickson called Marla’s Marvelous Meals. All of the recipes are McDougall style, they are very creative, most are easy to prepare, and there is a wide variety to choose from. Visit this website at http://www.vegsource.com/marla/. Marla adds new recipes all the time, so visit often.

Sweet Corn Tomalito
By Marla Erickson, Sacramento, CA

Mary made this for her family last week to rave reviews!

A sweet corn pudding that tastes just like the one they serve at Chevy’s Mexican restaurants, but without the fat and dairy.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 60 minutes
Servings: 6

6 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed, divided in half
1 ¼ cup soymilk
½ cup masa flour
⅔ cup sugar
¾ cup cornmeal
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt

Blend 3 cups corn kernels with the soymilk until smooth. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add pureed corn and remaining 3 cups whole corn kernels and mix well. Pour into a rectangular loaf pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in steamer for 1 hour. Serve warm, scooping portions with a large spoon or ice cream scoop.

Vegetable Udon Soup
By Marla Erickson, Sacramento, CA

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Servings: 6

½ ounce dried shiitake mushrooms
2 cups boiling water
6 cups vegetable stock
¼ cup soy sauce
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
2 cups sliced button mushrooms
1 bunch scallions, sliced into 1′ pieces
2 cups shredded bok choy leaves
1 cup snow peas, trimmed
1 small daikon (carrot-sized)
½ red pepper, julienned
1 package lite extra firm tofu, cubed
10 ounce package dry udon noodles

In a small bowl, pour boiling water over dried mushrooms and let soak for 15 minutes. Drain and chop, reserving liquid.
Place the garlic and ginger in a nonstick pot and sauté, using a little water, until garlic is golden. Add mushroom soaking liquid, broth, and soy sauce. Bring to a boil. Add chopped shiitake and sliced button mushrooms, scallions, bok choy, snow peas, daikon, and red pepper. Cook for 5 minutes. Add tofu and cook for another 3 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook udon noodles according to package directions. Drain.
Into each individual serving bowl, place a portion of cooked noodles and ladle broth over the top.
Note: Keep leftover noodles and broth in separate containers and mix together just before reheating to avoid noodles soaking up all the broth.

Baked Mexican Pasta
This recipe first appeared in the newsletter 2 years ago. Mary has been working with brown rice pasta lately and adapted the recipe to use with Tinkyada, a delicious, healthy alternative to wheat pasta. Tinkyada brown rice pasta tastes wonderful and can be substituted for wheat pasta in almost all recipes. If you are going to use brown rice pasta in lasagna, it will need to be cooked before using in the recipe. It takes most varieties of Tinkyada brown rice pasta about 13-15 minutes to cook to al dente.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 6

8 ounces Tinkyada brown rice penne pasta
¼ cup water
1 onion, chopped
1 ½ teaspoons minced fresh garlic
1 4 ounce can chopped green chilies
½ teaspoon chipotle chile powder
1 14.5 ounce can fire roasted chopped tomatoes
1 15 ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 ¼ cups enchilada sauce
1/3 cup shredded soy cheese (optional)
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
½ cup tofu sour cream

Place a large pot of water on to boil and cook pasta according to package directions, just until barely tender. Drain and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the water in a large non-stick pan. Add the onions and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the green chilies, mix well, then stir in the chipotle powder. Add the tomatoes, beans and enchilada sauce. Mix well and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Add the cooked pasta and mix well. Ladle mixture into a covered casserole dish. Sprinkle with the soy cheese, if desired. Bake covered for 30 minutes.

Paella

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 8

1 cup uncooked brown rice
2 cups boiling water
2 ⅓ cups vegetable broth
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
¾ cup julienned green bell pepper
¾ cup julienned red bell pepper
1 10 ounce package frozen baby lima beans, thawed
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon ground oregano
¼ teaspoon sea salt
⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
pinch of saffron threads
1 15 ounce can water packed artichoke hearts, drained, sliced in half
1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Place the rice and boiling water in a bowl. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes, while preparing the remaining ingredients. Drain off water and set aside.

Heat the vegetable broth to boiling. Place ⅓ cup of the vegetable broth in a large slope-sided sauté pan (or use a wok). Add onion and garlic. Cook and stir over medium heat for about 2 minutes until onion softens slightly. Add peppers, lima beans and tomatoes. Cook and stir for another 3 minutes. Add the remaining hot vegetable broth and the drained rice. Stir in the oregano, salt, red pepper flakes and saffron threads. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Add artichokes and peas. Mix well, remove from heat, cover and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.