Cupboard scrounging: black bean empanadas

Despite my love of cooking and general obsession with food, I sometimes get busy with other stuff and when dinner time rolls around I find I've forgotten to go grocery shopping since what seems like the Carter administration. Since I'm a) lazy, and b) cheap, the end result is usually a dinner thrown together from various non-perishables floating around my kitchen cupboards. Last night was one of those evenings and the end result was these:




Black bean empanadas! These were quick to prepare, filling, and even tasted pretty good! I also had leftovers so lunch today was all taken care off as well. This recipe makes enough dough and filling for eight empanadas. I made it up mostly out of my head so no guarantees on authenticity.

Empanada dough
2c. flour
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp. vinegar
2/3 c. cold water


Black bean filling
2 c. cooked black beans
1 c. diced tomatoes (I used three roma tomatoes)
1 small onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

1. Prepare the dough. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the oil to the flour and mix--the flour will become somewhat crumblike. Add vinegar and 1/3 c. water and knead together. Slowly add the remaining water until the mixture becomes a soft (but not sticky!) dough. Roll dough into a ball and leave to sit while you prepare the filling

2. Filling: In a frying pan on a medium heat stove, heat the oil. Add garlic, onion, and jalapeno, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cumin, coriander, and tomato and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the black beans and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until everything is nicely heated. Turn off the stove and get going on rolling dough.


3. Divide the dough into eight pieces. On a lightly floured board, roll each piece into a roughly 6" circle.

4. Place approximately 1/2 c. black bean filling on each dough circle, like so:


5. Fold half the dough over the fillings and crimp around the edges with a fork. Repeat until all the empanadas are filled. Place on a baking sheet and get ready to stick those guys in the oven:


6. Bake at 350F for ~25 minutes, until empanadas are lightly browned. Remove from oven, allow to cool for a few moments (unless you are into burning the roof of your mouth off, in which case, okay, cool, whatever floats your boat), then enjoy!

These empanadas were great with a little guacamole, and I bet salsa would pair nicely too:

Recipe: Black bean soup with kale and tomatoes

Although it is technically the peak of summer here, we've been getting a lot of cool, cloudy weather, courtesy of the local marine layer. Which means that fall foods like hot soup are totally appropriate for the menu rotation, especially paired with a simple salad and some delicious cornbread like the stuff featured yesterday:


Black bean soup is one of my favorites, but I find it can be kind of heavy if it's just beans. This version mixes things up by adding in tomatoes and kale. It's delicious, filling, and with the fiber, iron, calcium, and protein, also made of nutritional win.

Black bean soup with kale and tomatoes


Ingredients
5 cups cooked black beans
28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 15oz can vegetable broth OR 1 carrot and 1 stick of celery, diced, plus a pinch each of oregano and thyme
3-5 c. water (depending on whether or not you are using stock)
1 bunch kale (approx. 1/2 lb), finely chopped
1 medium onion, diced
4-5 cloves crushed garlic (you can dial down the garlic if you like, I tend to load it onto everything)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (adjust as desired depending on your heat preference)
salt and pepper to taste.

1. Assemble all your prepared ingredients:


2. In a large saucepan or soup pot on medium heat, heat the olive oil. When a piece of garlic dropped in sizzles, you're good to go.

3. Add the garlic to the oil and saute for 1 minute. Add the onions and continue to saute, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes. If you are not using stock, add the diced carrot and celery. Continue to saute until onions are nicely softened up and slightly clear (not carmelizing, although some carmelization will not ruin things, so don't sweat it too much). Add the cumin and coriander.

4. Add kale into the mix and cover pot for 1 minute, kale should be lightly steamed. Remove lid and stir for a few more minutes, until kale is fairly wilted.

5. Add cayenne, vegetable stock (if using, alternatively add 2 c. additional water), tomatoes, 2 c. water, and black beans. Stir together and cover pot. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn heat down and leave soup to simmer for 30 minutes. Check occasionally and add additional water if needed. Salt and pepper to taste. I find it's best to go light on the salt and pepper in the soup pot and then let people go with their own preference after it's been served into bowls. Which leads nicely to step 6....

6. Turn off burner and ladle soup into bowls. Serve with salad and cornbread.

If you don't have cornbread handy, a few tortilla chips crumbled on top are also a nice touch. Or just skip the refined carbs completely if you must, the soup will be delicious on its own.

sinquesadillas

Last weekend I had a potluck to go to, so I wanted to make something delicious and easy to eat. I cracked open my cookbooks and settled on the Grilled Yuca Tortillas recipe from Veganomicon, which is basically a recipe for quesadillas minus the cheese. However, when I went to pick up ingredients, I ran into a slight hitch: my food co-op did not sell yuca. The grocery store down the street did not have yuca (although they did tell me they have it sometimes, but it's a "seasonal" item). The grocery store by the library did not have yuca, and Trader Joes was also a yuca free zone.

I decided four stores was enough searching for one lousy root vegetable and started contemplating substitutes. After some conversation with the manager at my food co-op, I decided to go with a mix of russet baking potatoes and Garnet sweet potatoes. The Garnet potatoes are lighter in color than the usual sweet potatoes you find in the grocery store and are not as sweet. I picked up about 3/4 lb. of the Garnet potatoes, 2 large russet potatoes, and also one very large regular sweet potato (I made two flavors of this recipe, details below).

For the first filling, I used 1 1/2 russet potatoes and all the Garnet potatoes. I boiled all the potatoes and left the skins on since a) I like the taste of potato skins b) they add some nice flecks to the mashed potato and c) hello, that's where all the nutrients are! This version was made according to the main directions in Veganomicon, and I added in 2 roasted red peppers and approximately 1/2 c. of corn salsa that I had from Trader Joe's. This made enough filling for 7 large white flour tortillas.

The second batch of quesadillas used the regular sweet potato and remaining 1/2 russet potato. I also added in approximately 1 c. of cooked black beans, a few teaspoons of cumin and a pinch of salt. This made enough filling for 6 large tortillas. After all the filling was in the tortillas, I had a massive and beautiful stack of no queso quesadillas waiting to be cooked:


Looks delicious, no?

Next, the recipe calls for browning the quesadillas on the stovetop. However, I only own a single frying pan and I didn't have all night to brown quesadillas. Instead, I turned my oven up to 350F, oiled a couple of baking sheets, and placed 3 tortillas at a time on each sheet. I then lightly oiled the tops of the quesadillas and popped them in the oven for 10-15 minutes while I primped for the party. When the tortillas were lightly browned on top, I took them out and cut each quesadilla in half. Everything was then nicely arranged on a platter along with a bowl of tropical salsa (mango, avocado, tomato, lime juice, cilantro, not pictured...sorry! I was running late!).

For comparison purposes, I did also cook a few quesadillas on the stove. Honestly, I thought the ones in the oven were a little better--they had more crunch and did not seem as greasy as the stovetop version. However, if I were only making 1 or 2 quesadillas, I would probably still go with the stovetop method rather than going to the trouble of turning on the oven.


Ironically, on my way to the party, I had to stop in at a fifth grocery store, and what do you think I saw staring me in the face from the produce section? Yes, yuca. Unbelievable.