When you have a vegan recipe and your carnivore of a husband loves it, you definitely have a keeper. This is one such dish. This is done in fifteen minutes using leftover rice, seasonings from your cupboard and two good old standbys, namely, store bought salsa and red kidney beans. It can be a meal in itself with a huge salad or a delicious side dish.
Easy Vegan Red Beans and Rice
1/4-1/2 cup vegetable broth (Note 1)
1/4-1/2 cup salsa (Note 1)
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/4 -1/2 tsp chili powder
1 15 oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups cooked rice (Note 2)
salt and pepper to taste
Add the first six ingredients in a skillet and mix at medium heat with stirring. Then add the rice and beans and mix and heat through with stirring at medium low heat. Add more broth if needed as well as salsa. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
You can garnish with cilantro and green onions if you like.
Notes:
1. The amount depends on the consistency of your leftover rice. If it is on the soft side start with the lesser amount and go from there.
2. Best cooked rice for this is one cooked with less water than recommended. In my case I found using approximately half cup less in cooking 3 cups raw rice gave the best texture.
3 .You can add other seasonings like dry oregano if you like. I did not and it was good enough for me and also my husband, my picky taster/eater, is a straight shooter. The simpler the better to please his palate.
This is a one pot wonder. Thanks Instant Pot. You cook the pasta first in the pot then dump the sauce and heat it through in the same pot.
The brown gravy is full of umami flavor from the soy sauce and enhanced by mustard and further deepened by, (surprise), coffee. All ingredients are straight from your cupboard. And no chopping.
The add ins are up to you. I was lazy and used prepared vegan meat but chopped vegetables like cauliflower or carrots combined with walnuts is a good whole food plant based option. (see here)
Instant Pot Wide Noodles with Easy Brown Gravy
Pasta in Instant Pot
16 oz wide noodles (note 1)
4 cups water
1 tsp salt
Easy Brown Gravy (double the recipe if you want sauce drenched pasta)
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup non dairy milk
4 tbsp soy sauce or to taste
1 tbsp Dijon mustard or more to taste
2 tbsp dry onion flakes or powder
2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp instant coffee powder (optional)
Add ins
1 cup vegan meat, chopped or sliced (note 2)
1 15 oz can green peas, drained and rinsed
Place the noodles, water and salt in the Instant Pot. The noodles do not need to be all covered with water.
Cook the noodles at high pressure for 1 minute for al dente or 2 minutes for softer noodles. Allow for natural pressure release for 5 minutes then quick release.
Mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl then add to the cooked pasta in the pot. You can add the vegan meat at this point.
Put the Instant Pot in the saute mode and heat the sauce and pasta with continuous stirring till the sauce has coated the pasta.
Add the peas.
Notes
1. I used store bought wide egg noodles. You can buy egg free wide pasta ribbons from Walmart. see here
2. I used Honest Pastures (order here) seitan based Jackfruit Beaf Ribz. I have also used Gardein beef crumble available in the freezer section of the grocery store. You can also use a whole food alternative, cauliflower walnut meat (see recipe here) .
In his book We Make the Road by Walking, my friend and colleague Brian McLaren describes some of the Spirit-led movements that shaped Judaism from the time of Moses, and sustained Christianity. We must remember that such movements are not simply a past occurrence, but something in which we are called to participate in our own time.
I believe that the Spirit of God works everywhere to bring and restore aliveness—through individuals, communities, institutions, and movements. Movements play a special role. In the biblical story [of Exodus], for example, Moses led a movement of liberation among oppressed slaves. They left an oppressive economy, journeyed through the wilderness, and entered a promised land where they hoped to pursue aliveness in freedom and peace. Centuries after that, the Hebrew prophets launched a series of movements based on a dream of a promised time . . . a time of justice when swords and spears, instruments of death, would be turned into plowshares and pruning hooks, instruments of aliveness [Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3]. Then came John the Baptist, a bold and nonviolent movement leader who dared to challenge the establishment of his day and call people to a movement of radical social and spiritual rethinking. . . .
When a young man named Jesus came to affiliate with John’s movement through baptism, John said, “There he is! He is the one!” Under Jesus’ leadership, the movement grew and expanded in unprecedented ways. . . . It rose again through a new generation of leaders like James, Peter, John, and Paul, who were full of the Spirit of Jesus. They created learning circles in which activists were trained to extend the movement locally, regionally, and globally. Wherever activists in this movement went, the Spirit of Jesus was alive in them, fomenting change and inspiring true aliveness. . . .
[Christianity] began as a revolutionary nonviolent movement promoting a new kind of aliveness on the margins of society. . . . It claimed that everyone, not just an elite few, had God-given gifts to use for the common good. It exposed a system based on domination, privilege, and violence and proclaimed in its place a vision of mutual service, mutual responsibility, and peaceable neighborliness. It put people above profit, and made the audacious claim that the Earth belonged not to rich tycoons or powerful politicians, but to the Creator who loves every sparrow in the trees and every wildflower in the field. It was a peace movement, a love movement, a joy movement, a justice movement, an integrity movement, an aliveness movement.
I have come up with a vegan mac and cheese that makes me do a happy dance. Another marker that it is good -- I want to eat the whole thing. The key is the Jill Mckeever's cheese sauce that I used. I added it to the macaroni that I cooked al dente in my Instant Pot.
I did this recipe since I wanted to test the Instant Pot method I have been employing by using a smaller amount, 8 oz, of pasta instead of 12- 16 oz. and it worked. I cut the water and salt in half while using the same cooking time and natural release time.
I added jalapeno, garlic powder and almond milk to the mixture of Mckeever cheese and pasta. The first two was to give the dish more oomph while the milk was added for a smoother texture.
Here is the recipe.
Instant Pot Vegan Mac and Cheese
8 oz elbow macaroni
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup McKeever Cheese (tecipe below)
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 pieces bottled jalapeno chopped
1/2 to 3/4 cup nondairy milk
Instructions
Put macaroni, water and salt in the Instant Pot.
Close the Instant Pot lid and set the valve to Sealing position.
Press the "Pressure Cook" or "Manual" button and set the time to 1 minute (or 2 minutes if you like softer pasta).
When it finishes cooking, let the Instant Pot naturally release the steam for 5 minutes then quick release using the venting position.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the pasta in the pot.
Jill Mckeever Cheese Recipe
from Jill Mckeever YouTube channel
Jill’s 5-minute Game Changer Cheese Sauce (nut-free, gluten-free)
FULL RECIPE:
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons onion granules
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 12-oz. jar Roasted Red Bell Peppers in water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon Pecan or Apple liquid smoke (I did not use)
4 cups warm water
Using a blender with the ability to cook food, blend on high for 5 minutes, or until sauce begins to thicken. (you can hear the Vitamix motor slow down and the sound deepens as the sauce hits the thick mark.) Once thickening has begun, stop the blender and quickly transfer to a large container. preferably heat resistant and that holds at least 6 cups. The cheese sauce will continue to thicken as it cools even slightly.
These burgers are not impossible to make. We can call them possible burgers that are full of flavor. They are plant based with no processed sources. Black beans as a base is popular but there are those made from quinoa, squash and potato spinach. They are nutrient rich and you control the ingredients and amounts. Enjoy!
The Asian soups shown in the collage have origins from China, Thailand, Japan and the Philippines where I am originally from. They feature various kinds of noodles, rice and vegetables as well as mushrooms and tofu for meatless alternatives. Aromatics and spices used range from ginger, garlic, tamarind, tamari, chili paste and miso paste and there is the ubiquitous presence of lime or lemon as garnish. You can substitute water for oil and nondairy milk for coconut milk if called for in some recipes.
Bonus:
I would like to add my easy version of, pho, the popular soup from Vietnam, Vegan Shitake Ramen Pho..
And the ever popular Chinese buffet favorite, Hot and Sour Soup. The vegan version is in this
Comforting and sinus cleansing soup. Easy peasy to prepare in the Instant Pot.
Instant Pot Vegan Hot and Sour Soup
4 cups vegetable stock
3 tbsps soy sauce
1/2 tbsp garlic chili paste
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup mushrooms, fresh or from a can, sliced
2/3 cup canned bamboo shoots
8 oz tofu, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1/2 cup water chestnuts, diced (optional)
2 green onion stalks, sliced (including tops)
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil (optional)
1. Place the first six ingredients in the Instant Pot and mix them with a whisk or fork. Add the mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu and water chestnuts if using.
2. Cook at high pressure for 2 minutes. Allow it to naturally release its pressure or you can quick release.
3. Serve hot in individual bowls. Add the green onions and sesame oil if using, on top of the hot soup.
3. richard rohr letting go is liberation narrative in writing.
Week Fifty
Self-Emptying
Letting Go Is Liberation
Friday, December 18, 2020
In talking about letting go, we are really talking about liberation. It’s a type of liberation theology for a Global North country, if you will. Here are the proper questions: What is it we need to be liberated from, and what is it we need to be liberated for? And who is the liberator?
I think we need at least six kinds of liberation:
Inner liberation from ourselves (letting go of the centrality of the small self)
Cultural liberation from our biases (which involves letting go of the “commodity” culture and moving into the “personal” culture) [1]
Dogmatic liberation from our certitudes (letting go of the false self and discovering the True Self)
Personal liberation from the “system” (letting go of dualistic judging and opening to nondual thinking)
Spiritual liberation for the Divine (some form of letting go happens between each stage of spiritual growth)
Liberation for infinite mystery (the mystery that what looks like falling is in fact rising), which is really liberation for love.
As you have often heard me say, if you do not transform your pain, you will most assuredly transmit it. Healthy religion on the practical level tells us what to do with our pain—because we will have pain. We can’t avoid it; it’s part of life. If we’re not trained in letting go of it, transforming it, turning crucifixion into resurrection, so to speak, we’ll hand it off to our family, to our children, to our neighborhood, to our nation.
The art of letting go is really the art of survival. We have to let go so that as we age, we can be happy. Yes, we’ve been hurt. Yes, we’ve been talked about and betrayed by friends. Yes, our lives didn’t work out the way we thought they would. Letting go helps us fall into a deeper and broader level at which we can always say “Yes.” We can always say, “It’s okay, it’s all right.” We know what lasts. We know who we are. And we know we do not want to pass our pain on to our children or the next generation. We want to somehow pass on life.
This means that the real life has started now. It’s Heaven all the way to Heaven and it’s Hell all the way to Hell. We are in Heaven now by falling, by letting go, and by trusting and surrendering to this deeper, broader, and better reality that is already available to us. We’re in Hell now by wrapping ourselves around our hurts, by over-identifying with and attaching ourselves to our fears, so much so that they become our very identity. Any chosen state of victimhood is an utter dead end. Once you make that your narrative, it never stops gathering evidence about how you have been wronged by life, by others, and even by God.
Maybe this is why scholars have said two-thirds of the teaching of Jesus is, in one form or another, about forgiveness. Forgiveness is simply the religious word for letting go. Eventually, it feels like forgiving Reality Itself for being what it is.
