Beans!

Your shopping list so far:
1. Unbleached Flour - $4
2. Dry Beans - $1.16

Growing up, there was almost always a pot of pinto beans in the refrigerator. My mother used it for bean burritos (mashed beans and cheddar cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla) or bean chalupas (mashed beans and cheddar cheese on a fried corn tortilla). Both delicious, but you can do more...

A pound bag of black beans at the grocery store costs $1.16. Garbanzo, kidney beans, and pinto beans all run about the same price. This goes a long way.

And so many options!

Hummus is always an easy, versatile dish. On tortillas, in a sandwich, paired with a salad. It's always delicious, and can be fancied up for a dinner party.

Hummus

1 cup of cooked chickpeas (reserve some of the cooking liquid)

1 garlic clove, minced

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Blend the chickpeas, garlic, and lemon in a food processor, gradually adding in the olive oil. Use the reserved chickpea cooking water to achieve the desired consistency. Once it is the texture you want, add salt and pepper to taste.

If you want to get real, you can use a couple tablespoons of tahini, but I find that I don't use it enough to justify keeping around. Likewise, you can add roasted red peppers, olives, or sun-dried tomatoes for variation. But I'm partial to the classic.

Homemade Bread with Just Five Ingredients

As a follow up to yesterday's post on the importance of flour to your vegetarian pantry, I want to post a link to my dear friend's delicious bread recipe: 

http://www.lovingmarshall.com/2013/08/an-easy-homemade-bread-recipe-just-five.html?spref=bl

People will be unduly impressed.

Flour to the Rescue!

As I said in my opening post, one of my goals here will be to find ways to be a vegetarian on a budget. On a heart-stopping student loan budget. I'm going to do it ingredient by ingredient, and some delicious recipes will emerge.

Let's begin...

The first ingredient I suggest you always have in your kitchen is unbleached flour. Unbleached. Because bleached flour has bleach in it. Bleach. Yuck. Bleached flour is cheaper, but not worth it. You will use this ingredient on almost a daily basis, unless you're gluten-free.

As long as you have flour, you can almost always make something.

Here's the financial breakdown, using King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose as example:

On the website, you can get 5 pounds for $4.95, but 10 pounds for $8.95! Obviously 10 pounds is a better deal. 25 pounds is $21.95, but that might be difficult to store. $6 shipping decreases the value, so I would head to your local grocery store, unless they don't carry unbleached flour.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/ingredients/flours#

At the grocery store, you can usually get the 5 pound bag for $3.50-$6. I frequently find one of the premium brands of flour on sale.

Also, check out your store's bulk section. That will probably be your most economical and environmentally-friendly option, depending on the store.


Claire's very simple bread recipe:

2 cups of flour
3/4 cup of warm water
1 tablespoon of yeast (or one package)
teaspoon of salt

Dissolve yeast in the water. Wait until you see bubbles to see that the yeast is activated. Mix in with the flour and salt.

Once it gets too tough to mix with a spoon, start to knead. Knead it way more than you think you should, this will be worth it in the end.

Let rise in a oiled, covered bowl for an hour. Either use immediately as pizza dough, or shape into french loafs and let rise another hour.

Bake at 500. The time completely depends on your oven, the type of pan, the thickness of your bread, etc. But basically, not long.



Salad alone = sad. Salad + bread = meal. Soup + bread = meal. Avocado + bread = meal. You see where this is going.


You can also make pancakes. Pancakes are great because you can substitute almost everything in the recipe for something else. But not the flour.

I have a fantastic vegan muffin recipe I use all the time. I trade out the fruit, depending on what I have:

Simple Vegan Blueberry Muffins (adapted from vegweb)

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup non-dairy milk (I like almond or coconut, but you could use soy)
1/4 cup oil
1 cup blueberries, chopped apple, rasberries, nuts, etc.

Mix all ingredients together, pour into muffin tins, and bake at 400 for 25 minutes.



But the above are obvious...bread, muffins, pancakes. The real lifesaver comes with...frying. In our CSA box in the last few weeks, we have received bags and bags of spinach. Delicious, but we needed something besides sauteed or in salads. So I discovered the wonders of...SPINACH PAKORAS!

Here's the recipe from Veg Recipes of India: palak pakora recipe, how to make palak pakora or spinach fritters.

The only change I made is that I add a little honey to the batter. It was a fortunate accident that revealed how delicious the subtle sweet is with the savory. My three year old loves these. And he's not one of those toddlers that "loves" beets, but he likes Spinach Pakoras. I'll take it.


The point is that with flour, you can turn so many of your standard ingredients into treat. And that's what we're in it for, the vegetarian treats!

picture from http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/


Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links that will take you to Amazon, and if you choose to purchase items, I will receive a small (very small) amount of commission on your purchase. The price is exactly the same for you.

Welcome to my blog!

I admittedly live in Austin, definitely the easiest city in Texas to eat vegetarian. In fact, during my travels, I have found that Austin is easier than may other places. So this blog is less about defying the odds, and more about sharing recipes, tips, and questions about being vegetarian. Currently, my thoughts are on how to be a satisfied vegetarian on a post-graduate school budget. Woman cannot live on quinoa and black beans alone, so how can we make those ends meet, while still eating all the delicious foods we love?

Here's me:

I want to start from scratch, so instead of pulling up some recycled pictures of kale chips and black beans burgers, albeit delicious and impressive, I want to share some of my favorite resources.

Best restaurant in Austin...Bouldin Creek! My absolute favorite thing to get there is the chipotle-pecan pesto with pita and a side of avocado. Here's their website, with an endearingly bad link to the menu: http://www.bouldincreek.com/. Just trust me on the pesto.

I wish I could shop every single day at Wheatsville Co-Op. It is one of my favorite places on this planet, and that's not an exaggeration. Everyone is so nice, you don't have to examine every label for bleach or aspartame, and the prepared food is excellent. Popcorn tofu...for example. I have tried my darnedest to replicate the recipe, to no avail. http://wheatsville.coop/

  

In my experience, the best ethical and economic way to get your local, organic vegetables is through a CSA. Be prepared for an overload of certain vegetables (lettuce is literally spilling out of my refrigerator right now). But it makes you try new recipes and veggies, and to get over the Whole Foods syndrome of getting anything you want at any time. My very favorite is Urban Roots: http://www.urbanrootsatx.org/.