Thai Sweet Potatoes & Green Beans

Lacey, here!

I'm always looking for new flavors for dishes. I almost always go towards Parsley, Garlic, Oregano, Thyme...ya know, the typical spices. So, when my mom gave me this amazing Thai seasoning for Christmas, I knew I wanted to do something special with it.

In an effort to use up my last sweet potato, I decided to keep it simple: a string bean "stir fry", with some other special ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 TBSP vegetable oil

1 sweet potato, diced

1 lb green beans

1 onion, diced

Mushrooms (as many as you'd like)

2 roma tomatoes

Thai Seasoning to taste (or make your own, found here, or look at the ingredients in the photo below)

Directions:
1. In a wok or frying pan, heat oil and cook sweet potato on medium-high heat, constantly stirring.
2. After 5 minutes, add in green beans and onion. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Add mushrooms, seasoning, and tomatoes. Cover and let sit on medium-low heat for 10 minutes.
4. Serve and enjoy!

Honey Glazed String Beans & Radish Quinoa

New and interesting dishes have been my goal for the last few nights. Fed up with the same 7 or 8 recipes I make every week, it's been my goal to try new textures and flavors.  After buying our bulk 25 pound box of quinoa, we've been less hesitant to cook with it. While it's one of our favorite staples in the house, buying a small box from the grocery store was costing us around $5+ at two a week so we limited our intake to save some money.  Now, we're free to cook with it as much as we please.

This was a "thrown-together" recipe out of necessity to get rid of some string beans in the fridge and use up a few of the radishes I picked out of the garden this morning. Surprisingly, cooked radishes are a pleasant change from the raw radishes we eat in our salads daily.

Onto the meal:

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa + 2 cups water (cook per box directions)

1 teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 large radishes (6 or 7 small), sliced & quartered

1/2 small onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

Bunch of stringbeans

2 teaspoons honey (or to taste)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1 teaspoon thyme

2 T crushed walnuts

1/4 cup halved cherry tomatoes

Directions:

1. Cook your quinoa according to package directions. (Usually 2 parts water, 1 part quinoa. Bring to boil, then reduced to low-medium heat for about 20 minutes.)

2. In pan, add EVOO and allow to heat up. Add your radish, onion, and garlic. Allow to cook on medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes, stir every minute.

3. Add stringbeans, cover, turn to low-medium heat and allow to cook for 5-7 minutes. Stir halfway through.

4. Add honey and lemon, and allow to cook for about a minute. Toss in thyme and walnuts. Cover and cook 2 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

5. Toss in walnut and cherry tomatoes.

6. Serve string bean/radish mixture on top of quinoa on a plate. Enjoy!

 

The honey and lemon in this dish add a wonderfully sweet and fresh flavor to what could have been a fairly heavy dish with all this quinoa.  Hopefully this encourages you to explore some diverse and interesting ingredients to change up the taste of some of your dishes!

-Lacey

String Beans & Tomatoes: A Light Summer Dish

This has been my staple lunch a few times in the past 2 weeks. It's a flavorful way to get in some greens (although, I have no problem with that as string beans are my favorite veggie). This could be a great side dish, too!

Ingredients:
Vegetable Broth
String beans
Tomatoes (halved cherry or diced regular)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Thyme, Parsley, Dill Weed, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Salt & Pepper- all to taste (or any other Italian flavors you might like!)

Directions:
1. Pour vegetable broth in a pan, just enough to coat the bottom to steam your string beans. Depending on how big your batch will be will change how much broth you'll use. For a pound, use a few tablespoons.

2. Place beans and garlic in pan with veggie broth.  Cover pan and allow to steam on medium-high heat for approximately 5-7 minutes. I like to leave a bit of a crunch to my beans. No need to cook them so long until they're limpy and all their nutrients are gone.

 

3. Add in your seasonings, all to your liking.  Allow to cook on low heat for 5 minutes so the beans can absorb the flavors of the seasonings.

 

 4. Add your tomatoes and cover pan, keep setting on low for about 3 minutes.

 5.  After the three minutes is up, you're done! I don't like to cook the tomatoes too long. I leave them in just enough to get warm that way they don't get mushy and weird. This helps keep the dish tasting fresh and light.

 6. Pair with your favorite salad wrap or eat the entire thing by itself!!

To fresh dishes that fill you up without making you feel gross!

-Lacey

Feel free to Like us on Facebook for all of our updates!

Vegan Thanksgiving Recipe # 5: Shallot & Hazelnut String Beans

This is a blend of a few recipes I've seen online. So, it's still my own version, but heavily inspired by others I've seen out there.

Photo from Cooking Light

Ingredients:
1 pound string beans (cut off stems)
Olive oil (to your liking)
5 shallots (sliced thinly)
1 garlic clove, minced
salt & pepper
1/3 cup hazelnuts (chopped)
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves (must be fresh, not dried!)
1/2 tablespoon dried Thyme

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 425.
In a baking dish, toss string beans, shallots, garlic, and salt & pepper with olive oil (lightly coated).
Roast for 15-20 minutes, until string beans become lightly browned.
After pulling out of the oven, immediately add the zest, hazelnuts, Thyme and parsley.

Enjoy the fresh, light, and healthy taste as a side to your Thanksgiving meal!