Broccoli-Bean Pie

Okay, okay – I wasn’t gone last night because I ate liver and rice. I actually never ate liver and rice, I was just not feeling blogging last night. I had a full plate! So it was sort of ironic that I joked about it the night before 😉

I’ve realized lately that I have a bit of a problem – all the meals I create are sort of…unappealing…in the looks department. I mean, how am I supposed to convince you that this:

is actually quite good?! Not sure I’d go for it at a buffet line! Actually, I probably would, since it’s quite evident that it’s full of beans and broccoli. Two of my loves.

I saw this recipe on Sarah’s blog last night and gears started turning. I remembered it today and, because I can never leave things alone and have this strange infatuation with veganizing things even though I am not vegan, I present to you:

Jess’s Broccoli-Bean Pie

for four servings (or however many you make it, who am I to judge?!)

Crust Assembly:

• 2 c. shredded sweet potato, raw (one small-medium potato)
• 1/4 c. grated onion
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 T. buckwheat flour
• 1/2 T. milled flaxseed mixed and let to sit with 1 1/2 T. water

In a medium sized bowl, combine the sweet potato and onion.

Add in the salt, flour, and flax egg…

no, those aren't ashes...it's buckwheat!

…and press into a lightly oiled 8″ casserole dish.

Bake at 400* for 30 minutes, and then broil for 5. When it’s done, take out of the oven and set aside, lowering your oven to 350*. If you’re as slow as I am, the thirty minutes it’s baking is perfect time for you to get the filling together.

Vegetable Filling:

• 2 medium Roma tomatoes, de-seeded, sliced into 1/4″ slices, and halved
• 1 large clove garlic, diced
• drizzle of olive oil – enough to go around your pan
• 1 t. dried chives
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 small-medium heads broccoli, chopped
• 1/4 of a red onion, diced
• 1 c. black beans, drained

In a large saute pan, heat your olive oil and add in the garlic and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and add in your chives. Allow to cook down for a couple of minutes.

Add in your red pepper and broccoli, and adjust salt and pepper seasoning as necessary.

Allow the broccoli to cook mostly through – until it is tender but still has a bit of a bite to it.

When the broccoli is “done,” shut off heat and add in the beans, stirring so all is combined.

Set aside, and prepare the cheese fillings and “custard” mixture. Realize you’re making a big mess of the kitchen with this project.

Cheese Filling:

• 3 T. Roasted Garlic Hummus
• 3 T. nutritional yeast
• 1 T. almond milk
• 1 1/2 t. yellow mustard
• salt and pepper

Wonder why you have a teaspoon and a half a teaspoon measuring spoon that appear to be the same:

I guess it should be noted that I used the “big tablespoon” when measuring the hummus and nooch 😉 Anyways – combine all and stir. Adjust mustard, salt and pepper as necessary.

MMMM - doesn't this look YUMMY?!

set aside, and we on to the next one.

Custardy Filling:

• 1/4 c. (generous) silken tofu
• 2 T. almond milk
• 1/2 a small tomato
• 1 T. milled flaxseed

Blend all together in a blender or processor.

Assembly:

Spread the cheese filling over top of the sweet potato crust.

Add the vegetable filling over top, and then pour over the custardy filling. Since the tofu mixture is a bit thick, you’ll have to sort of “mix” it into the broccoli. Next time I’d just combine the tofu-custardy filling with the veg filling – that’s something that might be worth a try for you!

Bake at 350* for 30 minutes, and then broil for 5 more.

All this puppy’s missing is a grain! Easily fixed with some savory oats on the side:

but it’d be super easy to incorporate some quinoa/millet/bulgur/some sort of grain of choice into the veg filling.

Notes: Next time I’d probably use more sweet potato. I didn’t pack down my two cups because I only had one small sweet potato anyways so there was nothing I could do about it. But next time I’d probably use a whole large sweet potato! I wanted more of it.

I wasn’t sure if this would turn out “weird” with the tofu mixture, and was afraid my mom was going to spit it out when she tried it (even though I loved it) but she actually really liked it, too – enough to bring it for lunch tomorrow 🙂 Winner, Winner, veggie dinner! I thought maybe it was a “this is really good, but i’m not sure if it’s weird so I probably wouldn’t make it for anyone other than myself.”

What else have I been up to? Well – I was out of bread for lunch (don’t worry – the new, fresh loaf is already baked and sampled!) so had to get creative.

And it sort of made me wonder why I’m so dependent on bread because this was really good. And then I remembered that little thing I have called a job.

Cook: 1/4 c. bulgur in 1/2 c. water.

Sautee: 1/4 of a large eggplant, cubed, red pepper, tempeh, tomato paste, garlic, and oil-packed sundried tomatoes.

Top with: Creamy Tomato-Pesto Sauce

This was my first time trying sundried tomatoes packed in olive oil. I hadn’t known there was such a difference – wonderful flavor combined to the dried kind I usually get! These were sent to me by Mooney Farms also – I loved getting a bite with a hunk of these in there!

I had a newbie for breakfast, too – a smoothie! It was actually layered, but it was all for naught because you can’t even tell

It was, however, quite delicious!

Layer One:

• frozen banana
• OV vanilla yogurt
• spoonful of silken tofu
• carrot

Layer Two:

• sliced pineapple
• ~1/4 c. cashews
• spoonful silken tofu
• acai powder
• small drizzle honey
• shredded coconut
• OV vanilla yogurt

Topped with wheat germ, quick oats, coconut, and dates.

What else have I been up to?!

• dumping 10 gigs of music off my computer
• bathing Teddie-kins (you should see how white his mane is!!)
• sweating (so. hot.)
• baking Super Charge Me! cookies
• been obsessed with stirring in jam as a sweetener (for the cookies, I cut back to 1/3 c. maple syrup like usual,  but added 1 T. of holiday jam – SO good!!)
• baking bread
• been a bit obsessed with this song
• finally got my mustard fix in the form of a fried egg sandwich:

yesterday's lunch - fried egg on WW with double that amount of mustard.

finger licking good. only because there was so much mustard that it got all over my fingers.

Gross visual. Only sort of true.