Food and Cooking

I'm not vegan but my dinner today fits the bill, as long as you use canned chickpeas:

• cut kabocha [pumpkin? squash?] into large chunks
• boil it in water or veg broth, alongside some seasoning
• puree it, send it back to the same pot
• [optional] add tomato paste
• add chickpeas, let them simmer together until the broth thickens due to the chickpeas juice

Amounts are eyeballed (in your case, heart-measured). Seasoning is up to your tastes, but if unsure: I use salt, curry powder, cayenne pepper. It tastes really great with some bread.

And yes, it freezes really well.

I tend to wing it a lot with stew-ish things. Here's one set of rough instructions:

• Saute any combo of mushrooms/onions/garlic/cherry tomatoes/peppers in olive oil
• Add 3 cups water/vegetable broth, bring to boil
• Stir in 1 cup green lentils/red lentils/yellow split peas/green split peas, stir as it comes back to a boil
• Season with salt/pepper/smoke seasoning/chili/whatever looks good
• Simmer 15-30 minutes till done

Freezes fine, though I usually eat it before it makes it to the freezer

If you have a blender, food processor, or immersion blender you can add beans, lentils, etc and veggies into a red pasta sauce to get your protein and veggies in with keeping a good texture. Just blend up yours beans and veggies (I use frozen stir fry mix but anything works) and add into the sauce as you simmer it for a while. Works well to thicken up a sauce by doing this, so save some pasta water to get the consistency right.

Depending on time I try to simmer my sauce for an hour or two.

If you combine this with whole wheat pasta you have a cheap, healtht, great tasting meal that's vegan friendly (if you don't add cheese at the end). I'm sure this is blasphemy for an Italian, but I love the meal.