The Queer Hipster Kitchen

This one is literally, actually the easiest soup we make.  It's a never-fail soup that could be hearty enough for lunches or make a fancy starter at some looming holiday meal. The Ingredients: 1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed 6 c. veggie stock 1-2 T spice of your choice: good options include cayenne, chipotle powder, ancho chile powder for the spicier crowd, or milder options like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg for a sweeter approach 3 cloves garlic black pepper The Process: Put all of it in a crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours or until the squash has gone totally soft. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup.  Adjust both spice and stock to taste: that is, if you need more heat, add it; if it's too thick, add more stock and let simmer a bit. That's literally it.  6-8 servings, depending on how hungry you are. Pro Tips: If this is lunch for the week, we will use 2 squashes, double the stock, and make it in the Great Big Crockpot. You can also add...

Hers and hers aprons. It is the last weekend of "freedom" - Karen starts her new school year on Monday.  That means that while it's definitely *not* the last week for experimental cooking, we'll have a few weeks of mostly tried-and-true recipes as we truly enter the swing of things.  So we set aside a little time for kitchen adventures today, particularly adventures that let us try things out from scratch. Our style of vegetarian-ish eating involves a lot of recipes where you don't miss the meat because, well, there never was meat.  Loads of cuisines don't use it, or use very little.  However, we like an occasional "faux meat" - crumbles or strips - particularly for some recipes.  And some nights you're just running late, or tired, and you want something quick and easy.  No matter how inventive you are, sometimes you're just not inspired. There's just one challenge: we are a pretty much soy-free household due to food sensitivities...

This one is sort of like a polenta, but seems to be firmer - and, of course, it uses chickpeas.  We've modified our version from Jennifer Schmidt's . The Ingredients: 1 cup chickpea flour 1 tsp salt at least 1/4 spice (we used ground ginger) 3 cups water (divided) Cooking spray or a neutral oil. The Process: Grease a pan or baking dish with the neutral oil.  An 8x8 is about right, but you can go smaller for thicker pieces or larger for thinner ones. Put 1 1/2 cups water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. While your water is getting to its boil, combine chickpea flour, salt, and spice in a bowl.  Mix in 1 1/2 cups water and whisk until smooth. Reduce heat on the saucepan to medium-high.  Add in the chickpea and water mixture, stirring constantly.  Continue stirring until the mixture thickens.  (Schmidt claims this will take 8 minutes.  It took more like 15.  Also, if you stop stirring, your tofu mix will bubble and spit at you....

This recipe is gently modified from the one available at Connoisseurus Veg .  The ingredients: 1 cup vital wheat gluten 1/4 cup chickpea flour  1 cup water 6 cups stock (veggie or otherwise) 1/4 to 1/3 cup soy sauce spices - whatever speaks to you The process: Mix wheat gluten with flour and add 1 cup water.  Stir to form a dough. Turn dough out onto counter and knead for at least 5 minutes.  (More is good, too.  You can let it rest, then come back to kneading.  Definitely give it more if, like me, you are not a super vigorous kneader.) Let dough rest for at least 5 min, then cut into pieces (at least 4). Combine stock, soy sauce, and whatever spices you'd like and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and add your dough pieces.  Be sure your dough pieces are fully submerged. Simmer your seitan for an hour.  Try not to let it get to a full boil, but be sure it is a hearty simmer. Remove from broth and cook/use as you wo...

Today is a bulk cooking day - we're a few weeks away from the start of new school years and semesters, which means it's time to start rebuilding our usual routines.  This involves setting back the alarm clock (which I hate already), getting our morning walk on, and, perhaps most importantly, picking up the batch cooking in earnest once more. One day of each weekend, our kitchen becomes an epic, delicious mess.  We take a couple of hours and do as much pre-preparing as we can stand.  This is a really crucial part of our ability to prepare healthy meals from minimally processed stuff during the week.  So today was the day to make rice ahead, pressure cook beans, whip up some hummus, make ice cream (a house staple!), and more.  It's a quiet weekend without too many other commitments, so it's also a good week to get our pasta and pizza dough on.  (Both freeze really well.) A few weeks ago, we bought carrots at the co-op that had really substantial greens ...

Confession: I love cooking, but I don't always want to cook when I get home at the end of the day.  I don't get people who claim they do.  Believe me when I say that I too come home tired, annoyed, and/or aggravated, and I am as tempted as the next person (if not more) to cry "screw it!" and hop on GrubHub. I was having just such a day today - not that anything bad or annoying occurred, but it was hot, and it's summer, and I just wasn't feeling it.  Karen and I had gone out to do a few errands, and as we drove home, it seemed like every restaurant was taunting us. I could smell Mexican food, and something else delicious, as we made our way homeward through increasingly annoying traffic.  But I knew that there was a fridge of CSA vegetables awaiting us, and something had to be done with them before the next batch arrives on Saturday. So, grumbling, I made my way to said fridge, staring for a bit.  We've started to have lots of "scraps" of ve...

This one is pretty easy to whip up with stuff you have on hand - at least, for us.  Adjust spice to your taste and put it on whatever's in the fridge. Modified from The Cooking Guy . For the rice: 3-4 cups chopped vegetables, whatever's handy 2 cups cooked rice 2 eggs (or stray egg whites) For the sauce: 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 T fresh ginger (or ginger powder) 1 T sesame oil (or any neutral oil + sesame seeds) 2 T rice vinegar 1/4 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup veggie broth 1/2 to 1 T sriracha or other hot sauce (per your taste!) 1 T sugar 1 T corn starch Instructions: Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. After making sauce, heat a large pan with about 2 T oil or a generous spray of cooking spray. Stir-fry vegetables as appropriate to what you have: harder veggies (carrots, zucchini) take 2-3 minutes.  Greens and softer veggies (cabbage, peppers, etc.) take less than 2 minutes. Remove veggies and put in a bowl.  Toss with s...

This recipe is modified from this one at Simply Quinoa.  We like the texture, but find the final product overly sweet, so I got creative and came up with some modifications. A note: this recipe makes a TON.  It makes six cup-plus servings.  However, it freezes really well. Ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped carrots 1 cup shredded jackfruit 1/2 cup finely diced onion 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 1/2 cups brown or green lentils 1/2 cup quinoa (uncooked) 8 oz tomato sauce 1/2 cup ketchup 1 T maple syrup (or honey, or other sweetener) 2 T hot sauce of your choice 2 T mustard 1 T chili powder 1 tsp paprika 3-4 cups veggie broth salt and pepper to taste The Process: Put all the ingredients into a slow cooker.  Stir to combine. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or low for 4-6 hours. Eat. Yes, it's that simple. Pro Tips: I like to shred the carrots, but if you want more texture/crunch, just chop them very small. If you like mushrooms, you might use tho...

This saag is faster than delivery.  I swear.  Eat it with rice or naan.  Though the recipe calls this "saag paneer," the bulk of the recipe is for the sauce: we sometimes make the sauce ahead, freeze it without paneer or other protein, and save it for an "instant dinner" in the future. Ingredients: 1 medium tomato 2 T ghee butter (or a mild-flavored oil) 1/2 medium onion 1 pound greens 5 cloves garlic, chopped 2 tsp minced ginger 2 tsp cumin 1 tsp tumeric 2 tsp garam masala 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste) 1/2 cup water 1 block paneer, chopped into cubes (or a can of chickpeas, or some tofu, or cooked meat) The Process: Put ghee or oil into the base of the Instant Pot and set to saute.  Once ghee is melted (or oil is hot), add garlic, ginger, onion, and tomato and saute for 1-2 minutes. Put greens, spices, and 1/2 cup water into the pot, and combine with garlic and tomato mix. Put the lid on the Instant Pot and be sure it's...

I adore pesto, but I complain about the cost of pine nuts all the time.  This one uses toasted walnuts and some lemon to kick the flavor up.  No complaints here - I could eat it with a spoon.  Adapted from a cooking class taken at Sur la Table. Ingredients: 1/2 cup basil leaves 1 bunch kale, stems removed (about 3 cups) 1 garlic clove 2/3 cup toasted walnuts 1/2 cup olive oil 2/3 cup grated aged cheese (pecorino) 2 lemons, zested and juiced salt & pepper to taste The Process: In a food processor, pulse kale until pureed.  Add garlic, walnuts, and basil; pulse until roughly chopped. Add olive oil slowly and pulse to combine. Move pesto to a large bowl.  Stir in cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice.  Stir by hand to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pro Tips: I am all about kitchen shortcuts, but you've gotta toast the nuts for this recipe.  It really does enhance the flavor.  I like to toast them a bag at a time ...

These are a house favorite.  They're delicious, quick and easy for a weeknight, and the colors are very aesthetically pleasing if you're serving to friends.  We often double (or triple) the recipe, serve the filling as a salad for parties, or sometimes just eat the filling straight out of the pan. A single batch should serve four, if you have incredible self control. (If you work with me, please don't start bringing this to potlucks...) Ingredients: 2 medium or one very large sweet potato 2 cups frozen corn 1 can black beans (or 2 cups black beans cooked) 1 avocado, chopped into small pieces 1/2 a lime 4 medium (or 8 small) tortillas Process: Peel sweet potatoes and chop into small cubes (1/2 inch to 1 inch).  Place on a baking sheet with olive oil, salt, pepper, and chipotle spice. Bake sweet potatoes for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees. While sweet potatoes are baking, steam frozen corn.  If using canned black beans, drain beans. Combine roaste...