A Blatant Disregard for Tradition: Vegan Red Beans and Rice

Rice & Beans. It’s like bread. Every cuisine has it!

How fortunate are we to live in a time of canned goods. Yes, you can buy dried beans (very economical) or you can flip the top of a can and just get on with it. When you think about it, opening a can of beans is far more wallet-friendly than just about any other source of protein out there. Tofu? 2 to 3 times the price! Prepared Seitan? Forget it! So this really is the way to go.

We’ll feature budget friendly recipes highlighting our two best friends, rice & beans, as this blog continues.

Vegan Red Beans & Rice

For now, enjoy this animal-free recipe.

1/2 cup water (notice, no oil here)

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 bunch green onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced (add more!)

1  8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 tsp yellow mustard (keep it at a level tsp, seriously)

1/2 tsp ground oregano (grind between fingers)

1 bay leaf

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp ground thyme (grind between fingers)

1 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp basil

4 cups cooked small red beans (2-3 cans worth, drained and rinsed)

1 tube veggie sausage sliced into 1/4″ rounds (we used Gimme Lean from LightLine)

2 Tbs olive oil

4-6 cups cooked rice

Pour the water into a large saucepot with the onion, green pepper, green onions and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, over low heat for ten minutes. Add remaining ingredients (minus the sausages, oil and rice). Cook, covered, over low heat for 20 minutes or until the sauce is simmered down and thickened a bit. While the sauce simmers, fry the sausages and then add it into the mixture. When finished, remove the bay leaf and serve over rice.

Pan-fried patties are added to red beans.

Leftovers for work lunches!

Another great from Please Don’t Feed the Bears

Thanksgiving in Brooklyn!

Trump/Clinton

Wow! Enough said! moving on.

So speaking of Trump and Clinton let’s examine the heteronormative binary pertaining to turkeys. Gobblers/Hens!

Ok. How is everyone doing? Yeah, distressing no matter how you voted.

Did you decide that you don’t want to eat birds for Thanksgiving?

What a way we express gratitude in this country. We kill birds, remove their necks and digestive tracts and then shove them full of – well – what would make a corpse taste yummy? Shiitake mushrooms? Breadcrumbs? Celery and Carrots? Sage, thyme, rosemary and the like? Coat their cavities with Earth Balance? Fire up the oven and then shove them with what we’ve shoved into them into the oven. Delicious or disgusting? You, yourselves, be the decider!

Whatever. We aren’t eating birds on Thanksgiving. Once again, we’re gathering at Abdullah’s fabulous apartment in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn for fantastic vegan fare. We can truly be thankful that no male or female was harmed for our meal.

What am I thankful for? I am thankful for ever evolving consciousness. I am thankful for the many friendships that I’ve made and that you have all made through VegOut. Most of all I’m thankful for turkeys and grateful for how they enrich our world. Their absence during this holiday season is my wish for them and you.

The Details:

See Meetup for further details.

“Now I’m Fucking Pissed” Refried Beans

This is how we deal with election results at VegOut HQ. We make food. We didn’t know until we needed to know. All of a sudden the pantry was paramount. One of our food truck enthusiasts pulled out a jar of Goya Whole Japapeno Peppers (scroll down once you’re in there). Who knew? With the exception of a red bell pepper (seriously, you could easily use roasted jarred) we could make this anytime anywhere. Ultimate pantry cuisine in a pandemic of idiocy. Delicious, healthy and immune supportive. What more could cute lil’ vegans ask for?

This recipe is from Please Don’t Feed the Bears.

1 can vegetarian refried beans (Ortega was in our grocery)

2-3 bottle jalapeños, minced

3-4 Tbs red bell pepper, minced.

2 Tbs tahini

1 Tbs soy sauce

1 Tbs nutritional yeast

1/2 Tbs onion powder

1/2 Tbs cumin

!/2 Tbs chili powder

Two frustrated shakes hot sauce

Several drops super hot sauce!!!

Two angry shakes liquid smoke

Mix all ingredients together in some sort of pot. (We used a small Revere Ware 1 QT sauce pan as you can see in the photo).Heat it all up. Serve as a dip for chips, burrito filler, taco salad topping, or just throw it at the fucking wall.

Three NYC Parks You’ve Never Heard Of

Concrete Plant Park

Barretto Point Park

Soundview Park

What do these parks have in common? They’re all in the South Bronx!

What do they have to do with things vegan and queer? Good question!

All three parks are future forward, design conscious and by the people and for the people. They also host an array of free-living animals.

That’s right, not dogs and cats but osprey, snowy egrets, herons, canvasback ducks, fiddler crabs and ribbed mussels. There are plenty of the usual folk, too. Swans, pigeons, gulls and an abundance of black squirrels round out local fauna. Each park has a foot in the past. Concrete Plant hosted until 1987, you guessed it, a concrete batch mixing facility. Just off Barretto Point was the site of the worst maritime disaster to hit NYC – the sinking of the PS General Slocum. Over a thousand people died and their lifeless bodies were pulled up into what is now Barretto Point Park. Soundview contains a 10,000 year old glacial erratic and was initially composed entirely of marshland. That ecosystem is now being reestablished. We queer vegans care about others and believe that all beings should live on their own terms.

What’s palpable about these three parks is their vibrational energy. Yes, Manhattan has it’s great work of art Central Park and Brooklyn has Prospect. When you’re in those two parks the energy is anything but relaxing. It’s down right stressful to be in the lungs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Why is that? Vaux and Olmstead designed those two parks. Yes, there are natural features but nature submitted in plenty of ways to the architects’ will. In addition, there is the enormous amount of humans availing themselves of these expanses of horizon. What is it like to be a part of and to navigate all that activity? Today, these parks are what they are. They’re conveyances. They’re brief respites from the structured stalagmites of our environs. Their conduits to get from here to there. They have practically nothing to do with the elements of air, water, fire and earth.

Central Park and Prospect Park are also full of agendas. Must socialize. Must beat my own time and your time, too. Must cinch the deal. Must nail the date. Must find the perfect spot. Must make sure my power base isn’t slipping at any point. Must make it all about me.

What this adds up to is a colossal experiential shortcoming. It is nearly impossible to connect with earth, air, water and fire – all parts of ourselves – in this context. We need to take these two landscapes of artifice at face value. They’re urban works of art. In that regard, they are spectacular and have yet to be surpassed. They’re framed which means you’re framed within their borders. When you’re within, these two parks become the equivalent of film noir. Everyone is framed, double-crossed, mistaken and misunderstood.

With all that, the phrases ‘left for dead’ and ‘lifeless body’ can’t help but arise when navigating those two spaces. Why? Because of the containment of space, the confinement of energy, the environments that they are all promote energetic phenomena that abide these enclosures. You’re cornered, you’re badgered, you’re never free. The possibility of death is continuous side-eye surveillance for all.

What about the three jewels revealed thus far in the Bronx? For starters, those horrible death-related phrases just mentioned do not come to mind. Why is that? It is because these spaces engender dignity, quieting, connection and respect. There is much pride of place and it exists without competition. Nothing is fraught with capitalism. In other words, you know it when you feel it. You’re stepping into true natural topography. You’re not stepping into a shifting landscape filled with textbots and self-satisfied jerks. These parks aren’t ego theatres. They’re just parks. What’s brilliant about them is the spaces they occupy in the warp and woof within the fabric that is the great South Bronx. There is a renaissance going on in this part of the Bronx that has nothing to do with the traditional bullet points of gentrification. It’s about true connection to time and place which, in turn, taps into the timeless art of being – the quality of the eternal as opposed to the transformational – that every neighbourhood should hope to have.

We recently visited these parks with shoulders down, trapezius muscles in position and jaws unclenched. That dynamic of mind/body has never happened in Manhattan or Brooklyn. So consider the MetroCard swipe. Consider the transfer to a local bus. Be surprised. Experience relaxation and really feel at one with your city for an afternoon. Feel what it’s like to be home.

A little more on Concrete Plant

Concrete Plant Park is on the Bronx Blue Way and the Bronx Green Way

Concrete Plant Park is also the location of this interesting initiative.

A Reading Circle on the Bronx River

A little more on Barretto Point

A beach and boat launch with South Brother (L) and North Brother (R)

Immaculate eating facilities and bathrooms – really, they are.

Desolate and human-free environs across from Barretto Point

 

A little more on Soundview

Beautiful walking & biking paths abound.

Saltwater Marsh restoration underway (A NYC Park!)

Sports facilities abound…

…with gorgeous autumn colour.

Putting the sound in Soundview.

Saltwater Marsh restoration continues.

Your Plan:

To see all three parks, budget about four hours to pound through every path. Start by taking the 5 train to Intervale Avenue. Grab the Bx6 to Barretto Point Park. Then do the reverse but get off at 163rd Street/Southern Blvd and take the Bx5 to Soundview. When done hop back on and get off at Concrete Plant and enter at Bruckner Blvd. Walk through the entire park and exit to take the 6 train at Whitlock Avenue directly across the street.

OBEY! Cauliflower Bites with Whiskey BBQ Ketchup

What kind of comfort food does one need exactly when about to view one of the most disturbing documentaries out there?

That documentary would be Obey. This is a film based on the book “Death of the Liberal Class” by journalist and Pulitzer prize winner, Chris Hedges.

Obey is a film made entirely of clips found on the web. According to it’s maker, “it charts the rise of the Corporate State, and examines the future of obedience in a world of unfettered capitalism, globalisation, staggering inequality and environmental change. The film predominantly focuses on US corporate capitalism, but it is my hope that the viewer can recognise the relevance of what is being expressed with regards to domestic political and corporate activity.”

Comfort Food

Cauliflower Bites with Whiskey BBQ Ketchup

You could make this same delicious nibble on the evening of November 8, too.

Coated Pasta

Daiya has just come out with Deluxe Alfredo Style Cheezy Mac.

As you can see it is gluten & soy free, dairy & lactose free, 5 grams of protein per serving and an excellent source of calcium. So says the box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the skinny on this “deliciously dairy-free” product. It isn’t delicious. We want to love it but we can’t. We want to like it but we can’t save for transition food purposes. It just tastes like coated pasta.

There was a tradition in pre-foodie and cusp of foodie movement recipes that suggested one ‘stir to coat.’ So if you had a peanut sauce and were making cold noodles you would stir to coat. How about that General Tsao’s tofu? You’d stir to coat that curd.

This Daiya product, unfortunately, suggests base coat. You know, primer.

This Cheezy Mac does come together easily. Boil the brown rice pasta for 7 minutes.

Cut open the sauce pouch.

And squeeze contents over pasta and – you guessed it – stir to coat.

The texture is good although there is the slightest quality of elasticity which can be attributed to the xanthan gum. You could make this what you want by adding all manner of additions. Some finely ground nut flour and a touch of nutritional yeast could make this more interesting. A squeeze of lemon over the finished dish could do it (whilst stirring to coat). Use your own vegan parm! When we tested this at VegOut HQ, one of our members whipped out a container of smoked paprika which she apparently takes everywhere and sprinkles on everything. While this added some depth of flavour and beautiful color it didn’t begin to suggest ‘Alfredo.’

You could also add some cauliflower or broccoli florets and stir those to coat, too. This could be a good pantry staple (for $5.89 it’s a steep staple) that you make your own. On it’s own, not so much. The portion above is half the box. The box allegedly serves 3. You’re looking at 450 calories.

If we were at the beginning of our vegan journey this could be a nice transition food in the way that most transition foods are. They’ll do. They don’t pass muster but they’ll do. We think this dish looks pretty. And that can be just what’s right for right now.

Either way, the animals will love you for it!

Here’s a seasonal alfredo to go for: Pumpkin Alfredo!

Ms. Mar’s Dead Duck

“When an animal can be cooked and served in one piece, that is what Ms. Mar will do. Ducks are cured in salt for four days, then smoked, then slowly roasted, then doused with flaming booze at the table.  The skin is dark, and the meat is pink and pull-apart tender; it reminded me [Pete Wells of the NYTimes] of a slow-cooked Easter ham.”

Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture? Here is a corpse set on fire no less and set high on a silver platter.

Here is a photo of a living duck.

Rather magnificent, don’t you agree? And you thought that this kind of duck was just a brown duck. Check out the colour on this duck’s wings! Fabulous! There is no such thing as just a brown duck. We are all brown ducks. Each of us has something colourful and unique to offer. This aquatic environment is where and how ducks are meant to live.

Below is Norman Norrell’s Subway Coat. Drab exterior. When the coat is opened outward a lush gold sequinned interior is presented. A little like those magnificent wings of our friend above. A welcome surprise!

Back to Ms. Mar, Chef and Owner of the Beatrice Inn in New York City.

Pete Wells goes on to suggest that “you could just get a burger. The patties are tall, firm and moist with fat in the style of the Spotted Pig, where Ms. Mar used to cook. The ones in the dining room are made from beef aged for a month and a half.”

Let’s Delve Further

Beef aged for a month and a half. So what he’s really saying is that the cow (let’s call it what it is) was murdered 45 days ago. Good thing it isn’t raw cow meat (beef tartare) or that stuff would kill you! Think about it. Do you want to eat a flesh patty made from a dead animal that was stored for 45 days, then ground up into those squiggles of muscle tissue extruded from a die? Really?

Your patty source would be the one on the right.

A little too Walking Dead for me.

Back to Pete Wells, restaurant critic for the NYTimes. He readily volunteers: “Ms. Mar cooks animals, of course, but she also cooks for animals. She cooks for the animals that we are. She knows we have powerful senses of smell, that we can be led by our appetites, that certain instincts kick in when we sit together taking another animal apart.”  Ms. Mar offers several animals that will appeal to our “taking another animal apart” baser instinct.

And even further. . .

What he means by “certain instincts” is what Freud described as the id. This is the heart of tar that is inside each one of us without exception. When Wells says “we sit together taking another animal apart” he might as well be Donald Trump encouraging his supporters to assault protestors. What could be more bonding than “taking another animal apart?” Didn’t William Golding write so eloquently about that in Lord of the Flies?

Can’t we just stop at breaking bread?

Check out these recipes at Minimalist Baker for burgers that won’t kill cows or you.

Here’s to your health and to the well-being of ducks and cows everywhere – may they always have peace – and may you always look dazzling in whatever you wear.