Onion Soup

I had a bunch of onions I needed to use up. The quantities in this recipe are approximate.


Ingredients

8 red, white, or yellow onions
1/2 cup nondairy butter
3 quarts vegetable stock
2 tablespoons vegetable bouillon paste or powder
2 tablespoons Kitchen Bouquet
1 tablespoon smoked Spanish paprika
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Peel and slice onions very finely, then stack the slices and quarter them. Add them to the melted butter, and saute over medium heat til soft and lightly golden. Add stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and add bouillon, Kitchen Bouquet, and paprika.  Allow to simmer for 30 minutes, then adjust seasonings if needed, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Nutrition Information

Serving Size: 25 g
Servings per Recipe: 8

Calories: 145 Calories from Fat: 103
Total Fat: 11.5g, 18% of Daily Value*
Saturated Fat: 1.9g, 10% of Daily Value
Sodium: 719mg, 30% of Daily Value
Total Carbohydrates: 10.4g, 3% of Daily Value
Dietary Fiber: 1.9g, 7% of Daily Value
Sugars 4.7g
Protein 1.3g

Vitamin A 10%	•	Vitamin C 14%
Calcium 3%	•	Iron 1%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer*
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup nondairy butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons nondairy milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 375º F. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Using a wire balloon whisk or a blender, whip the egg replacer with the water in a separate bowl til it is thick and creamy. 

In a large bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar. When using dairy butter, it is necessary to leave it out til it reaches room temperature. When using non dairy butter, it is best to keep it refrigerated til ready to use, and do not over beat. Cream the butters and sugar for one minute, then add the milk and the vanilla. Beat for another minute, and add the egg replacer mixture. Beat til blended.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, one third at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Using a tablespoon, drop rounds of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet, leaving room between each to allow them to spread. You can flatten them with a fork, dip the bottom of a drinking glass into some granulated suger, and press the cookies, or make thumbprints in them and fill the thumbprints with jam.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, 15 minutes if you have filled them with jam, or until set and just beginning to go golden brown. Shorter cooking time yields a softer cookie. If you like your cookies well baked, use another cookie sheet under the sheet with the cookies on it. This will keep the bottoms of the cookies from burning when you want to leave them to bake longer.

Allow the cookies to rest on the pan for a few minutes, and then transfer them to racks to cool. Leaving them to cool on the pan with make them soggy.

While the number of cookies will depend on the size you make them, this recipe usually yields 24 cookies when I use a tablespoon to scoop them.

Nutrition Information 

Serving Size: One cookie
Servings per recipe: 24

Calories: 143                   Calories from fat: 71
                                                 
Total Fat: 7.9g, 12% of Daily Value**

Saturated Fat: 1.5g, 7% of Daily Value

Sodium: 157mg, 7% of Daily Value
Total Carbohydrates: 16.0g, 5% of Daily Value
Dietary Fiber: 0.7g, 3% of Daily Value
Sugars: 8.1g
Protein: 3.0g

Vitamin A 3%	•	Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 1%	•	Iron 3%

* In this recipe, egg serves as an emulsifier for the fat and sugar mixture, and a binder, to keep the cookies from melting and running all over the cookie sheet. You can buy Ener-G Egg Replacer, which is based on potato starch, or Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer, which is based on soy flour and algin, a gel derived from seaweed. Or you can simply use potato starch or soy flour. For this recipe, I used Ener-G. You can probably go ahead and use one egg if you aren't vegan, but I can't promise how the cookies will turn out if you do. Using an egg replacer makes these cookies cholesterol free and very low in saturated fat, depending on the source of fat used in your non dairy butter.

** Based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Ketchup. Or Catsup.

I ran out of ketchup, and I didn't feel like driving to town, so I found some tomato paste in the pantry and made some.

Ingredients

One 6 ounce can of tomato paste
Two to three tablespoons of vinegar
Two to three tablespoons of brown sugar
One teaspoon onion powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
Salt to taste
Water

Put the tomato paste in a small saucepan over low heat, and add wet and dry ingredients in increments, tasting after each addition til you like it. Add enough water to make it the consistency you prefer, remove from heat, and store in the refrigerator when cool. You can use regular paprika, but the smoked paprika makes this taste much better than ordinary ketchup. Even better than catsup.

Falafel

Ingredients
2 cups of dried chickpeas, soaked in water for 12 hours
Crumbs from 2 slices of  bread
5 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/2 small onion
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon salt
A pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Wash the soaked chickpeas and put them in a food processor with the garlic, onion and spices. Grind until you get a rough moist texture. Add a little water if needed.

Place the mixture into a large bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, except the baking soda, and put aside, covered, for 30-60 minutes.

Fill a saucepan with about an inch of cooking oil, like peanut oil, or another oil suitable for cooking at high temperatures. Heat at a medium to high setting on the burner, but do not allow the oil to smoke. Make sure it is hot enough to fry the falafel without the mixture disintegrating into a mush.

Add the baking soda to the falafel mixture and knead.

Wet your hands and shape the paste into little balls about the size of small apricots. Fry til golden brown, and drain on paper towels before serving. Serve inside pita pockets with plenty of lettuce, cucumber, and tomato, and drizzle with tahini.

Nutrition Information

Serving Size: 25 g
Servings per Recipe: 24

Calories: 107
Calories from Fat: 52
Total Fat: 5.9g, 9% of Daily Value*
Saturated Fat: 0.7g, 4% of Daily Value
Sodium: 33mg, 1% of Daily Value
Total Carbohydrates: 11.0g, 4% of Daily Value
Dietary Fiber: 3.0g, 12% of Daily Value
Sugars 1.9g
Protein 3.4g

Vitamin A 2%	•	Vitamin C 3%
Calcium 2%	•	Iron 7%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet