Vegan Slow Cooker Candied Sweet Potatoes

This is an easy three ingredient crowd pleasing side dish for any occasion. The coconut oil and the coconut brown sugar if using give the dish that special flavor that would make your guests ask "what is that?".

Slow cooking is a convenient way to cook the dish but it could also be baked or cooked on the stove but why would you when you can just dump the ingredients in the slow cooker and forget it. Easy and delicious dish.

Vegan Slow Cooker Candied Sweet Potatoes

Adapted from this source

• 6 - 8 sweet potatoes, raw or previously microwaved, peeled and cut into two inch slices
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup coconut brown sugar or plain brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp salt

Place all the ingredients in the slow cooker and mix. Cook for 6 hours at low setting or 3 hours at high. I cooked mine in an Aroma Brand rice cooker/slow cooker for 2 hours at slow cooker setting. This can be served warm or cold. Delicious.

Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Every thanksgiving day, we have our official big meal as a family at 12 noon.  I also try to make it to the Thanksgiving mass at my church before this meal. This mass starts at 9:30 am so I have to have everything almost done when I arrive or ready to go in the oven or the stove or microwave.

After mass, usually the turkey is ready to come out of the oven and the traditional green bean casserole could then be baked.  If there are pies, they can also be baked then.  This year I requested my married daughter to bring the pies and the rolls. I still had to prepare the side dishes namely the mashed potatoes, dressing, sweet potatoes and gravy and also keep them hot.  So I resorted to my three multi-purpose crock pots.  Here was my timeline.

I peeled my potatoes and cut them the day before and stored them over water in the crock pot bowl and kept them in the fridge.  I sauteed the onions and celery for the cornbread stuffing in the butter called for in the recipe of the boxed stuffing mix in another crock pot bowl using the sauteed setting or (you can also use the steam setting) and stored the sauteed mixture in the bowl and kept them in the fridge.  I also prepared the ingredients for the green beans casserole in a dish except for the french onions and kept it in the fridge. I took out the turkey that has been defrosting in the fridge for 5 days and further defrosted it in a sink full of cold water.  I then slept.

I woke up in the morning and microwaved the sweet potatoes, peeled them and placed them in a crock pot bowl with the coconut oil and coconut brown sugar (recipe coming soon).  I slow cooked them for 2 hours while I was at church.  I drained the water from the potatoes and added to them the water and milk called for in the recipe below, the bouillon cubes and fresh garlic.  I slow cooked it for two hours, mashed them and added the rest of the ingredients below before I went to church.  The mashed potatoes was kept warm by the keep warm mode of the crock pot.

I added the water needed to the crock pot with the sauteed onions and celery for the dressing and allow the mixture to boil using the steam mode of the crock pot.  Once the mixture boiled I added the boxed corn bread stuffing and changed the setting to the keep warm mode and stirred the mixture.

I removed the sweet potatoes from the crock pot and transferred them to the serving dish and wiped the crock pot cleaned.  I transferred the broth that came from the baked turkey to the crock pot and allowed it to boil using the steam mode of the crock pot.  Once boiling, I added the slurry of cornstarch in water and whisked the mixture till it was thick.  I then kept it at the keep warm mode in the crock pot.

I placed the green bean casserole in the oven when I took out the turkey which I allowed to rest.  When my daughter and family arrived every dish was warm thanks to the crock pot.

This was the least stressful thanksgiving feast I have ever prepared except I forgot to buy the can of whole cranberries.

Here is the recipe for the slow cooker garlic mashed potatoes which I adapted from this recipe.  I lessened the liquid called for in the recipe and used cream cheese instead of sour cream. Everybody liked it including my two picky tasters, my husband and son in law.

Slow Cooker Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Adapted from this recipe

• 5 lbs red potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 chicken  bouillon cubes
• 5 large cloves of fresh garlic
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter
• salt and pepper to taste

Place the potatoes, milk, water and chicken bouillon cubes in the slow cooker bowl.  Place the garlic cloves on top.  Slow cook for 3 hours at high setting or 6 hours at low.  I cooked mine in an Aroma Brand rice cooker/slow cooker for 2 hours at slow cooker setting.

Using a potato masher, mash the cooked potatoes right in the slow cooker bowl. Stir in the butter and cream cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Easy Braised Green Beans

Thanksgiving is just a few days away.  The Green Bean Casserole is one of the favorite dishes and meets the so called vegetable requirement for thanksgiving day for some. This easy one pot dish is a healthy and convenient alternative.  You can use fresh or frozen whole green beans.  The other ingredients are from your cupboard.  One thing more, you are using the braising method thus no oil is used which means you will have more room for that favorite pie of yours (just kidding).

Try this refreshing change from gooey green bean casserole.  It is delicious and easy to make.

Easy Braised Green Beans

• 1 lb fresh or frozen whole green beans
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp dry onion flakes
• 1 tbsp dry garlic flakes
• salt and pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients in a saute pan and allow the liquid to boil till the green beans are cooked but still crispy.  Stir when all the liquid is nearly gone.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Brown Rice Biryani

One of the bright spots in Monroeville PA is the Udipi Indian Restaurant. It is a strictly vegetarian place frequented by people from neighboring places in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.

One of my favorite things to eat at this place (second to what I call pregnant bread) is shown below. It is their take on biryani rice. I have been buying prepackaged ones at the Patel grocery store which I sometimes finish in one seating. I felt it is time for me to make my own. 

Here is the recipe I came up with using ordinary brown rice instead of the traditional jasmine variety. I used my rice cooker to prepare the dish for convenience and also to satisfy my curiousity if it would work. I made this without oil to make it healthier and plant based. This is pretty close to what I have been eating straight from the package. 

Brown Rice Biryani

• 2 cups brown rice
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp coriander powder
• 1/8 tsp tumeric
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/8 tsp cardamom powder
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 tsp dry garlic flakes
• 1/2 tbsp dry onion flakes
• Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in rice cooker bowl. Cook in rice cooker using brown rice setting. 

Slow-Cooked Mac and Cheese

If you are one of those who could not resist saving or sharing the Facebook post that came from the one pot chef and its recipe for Slow-Cooked Mac and Cheese and wants to find out if it works, you have come to the right place.  I want to assure you in this post that it does and your family would love it.  We had this for our Easter dinner which we celebrated yesterday, a day early.

It would have been creamier looking if I added more milk as suggested in the one pot chef, but a good mac and cheese is as good as it tastes and this one was delicious.  It is so convenient to prepare too.  No precooking of the elbow macaroni at all.  You just dump everything in the slow cooker and forget it except for some stirring in the middle of cooking.  If you have a warm mode in your slow cooker like in mine, it is worry free.  The mac and cheese will be there ready hot enough to be served without any reheating or timing of the baking.  

Slow-Cooked Macaroni and Cheese

(Recipe from the one pot chef)

• 16 ounces of elbow macaroni, uncooked 
• 3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
• 8 ounces of cream cheese
• 2 1/2 cups of milk
• 12 ounces of evaporated milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Add all the ingredients in the slow cooker.  Stir so the cheese is distributed well.  Cook for 2 1/2 hours on the low setting. Stir a bit after 2 hours to make sure everything is melting properly, then put the lid back on and let it finish cooking. You can add more milk if you want the dish to be creamier.  

Comment:

(I slow cooked mine for 2 hours using an Aroma brand rice cooker/slow cooker at slow cooker setting.  I stirred the mixture after 1 hour and found a couple of spots that are clumped and browned but not burned at the bottom.  I stirred the mixture and allowed it too cook for another hour.   It cooked particularly well especially during the last half hour when the mixture was sort of boiling. This allowed all the cheese to melt and distribute better).

Cauliflower with General Tso's Sauce

If one goes to the Chinese buffets, one of the most popular dishes is General Tso's Chicken.  You can see this irresistible dish in almost all the overfilled plates. I have posted a Slow Cooker Healthier General Tso's Chicken recipe in this blog in the past.  I love its sweet and spicy taste and with that unmistakable kick in it that sets it apart from other sweet-spicy Chinese food.  Now that I am plant based I am still alive with all my cravings intact.  I decided to satisfy this yearning for this iconic Chinese dish by using cauliflower.  It is a hardy vegetable that I envisioned to be able to withstand being cooked in the sweet and spicy sauce and still retain its crunch.  I could have used tofu as this online website, the Minimalist Baker, has done but I just tofu-ed out for the week.  If this is eaten with quinoa instead of brown rice the protein requirement for the day can be met.

I used a tangy sweet spicy sauce in my Slow Cooker Healthier General Tso's Chicken with orange marmalade and juice in it.  It was really good but I wanted to try another recipe.  In this recipe, I based it on the one in the Minimalist Baker.  I did tweak it including adding chili garlic sauce.

Daphne Oz from the TV show The Chew has a recipe for General Tso's Cauliflower where she dredges first the cauliflower in rice flour cornstarch mixture with egg whites.  I did not have the motivation to go through that dredging step plus I want to stick to the plant based approach that refrains from using eggs.  So I decided to just cook the cauliflower florets with the sauce in the pan.  It is an easier procedure that even a burned out cook with no energy at the end of the day will be motivated to do.

I was really impressed that the cauliflower held its crunch as I envisioned and the sauce went really well with the florets.  The consistency of the sauce is left for the cook to decide.  I prefer mine thinner so I can scoop it with the florets and pour it in my rice or quinoa.  If it is to be served as an appetizer a thicker consistency will be the preferred so the florets are coated with the sauce as people pick them up.  It is a flexible and very easy recipe as you can see and so like the real thing, baby.  You can use it as a main dish, side dish or even as an appetizer.  Yes, yes.  I had it for breakfast today, the indicator it is addictive and haunting.

Cauliflower with General Tso's Sauce

Adapted from the Minimalist Baker  

                    

4 Servings

• 1 cauliflower head, cut into florets
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 4 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 -1 tsp chili garlic sauce 
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water

Mix all the ingredients except the cauliflower florets right in the saute pan.  Let it boil and then add the cauliflower florets.  Continue to boil gently the cauliflower in the sauce until it is cooked but still has that crunch.  You can boil off as much of the liquid as you want until you get the consistency of the sauce you want.  Do not overcook the cauliflower, however.  Serve topped with sliced green onions and over rice or quinoa.  Enjoy.  So good.