Bean and Barley Chili

What a delicious bowl of chili. It's hardy and spicy, and the barley makes it thick and creamy. The best part? The dry and canned ingredients have long shelf lives and can be bought for a very low price. The other best part? The vegetables are all from the Guelph Farmers Market.

Bean and Barley Chili

What you'll need:

Vegetables

- 1 diced red pepper

- 1 diced onion

- 1 stalk celery

- 4 cloves of garlic, minced or finely chopped
- 650 ml vegetable broth* or water

Dry goods

- 1 can (540 ml) of black beans

- 1 can (540 ml) of molasses-style baked beans

- 1 can (540 ml) of kidney beans

- 1 can (796 ml) of diced tomatoes

- 1 can (540 ml) of diced tomatoes with chili spices

- 1 cup of barley

Spices

- Chipotle sauce

- Cumin

- Chili powder

- Paprika

- Cayenne pepper

- Salt & pepper

Garnishes (optional)

- Grated cheese

- Green onion

- Sour cream

Ingredients for Bean and Barley Chili

How to make it

1. Saute the vegetables in a large pot for a few minutes, until onions are translucent.

2. Add the canned goods and let simmer on low.

3. In a separate pot, prepare the barley according to package directions. We made it using vegetable broth for a bit of extra flavour, but making it with water would work just fine!

4. Add the barley to the bean, tomato, and vegetable mix and let the whole thing simmer until the vegetables and barley are cooked, and your apartment smells amazing.

5. Add the spices to taste.

6. Garnish with whatever you have at hand! Our chili turned out pretty spicy, so the sour cream helped to tone it down and make it creamy.


*I make my vegetable broth by boiling vegetable scraps, following this Tasty video.

Udon Noodle Stir Fry

Adapted from Season & Supper's blog 15 minute Spicy Udon Stirfry. 

A noodle bowl that's spicy, sweet, crunchy, and colourful. What more needs to be said?

If you've never cooked with udon noodles before, this is a great recipe to start with. Udons are long, thick noodles that hold flavour from any sauce very well. This noodle bowl is similar to takeout, only it's faster, cheaper, and (dare I say it?) tastes better. 

Udon Noodle Stir Fry

What you'll need

Stir fry

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil

- 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks

- 1 onion, diced

- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3 stalks of green onion, diced

- 2 packages udon noodles

- A few handfuls of spinach or bok choy

Ingredients for Udon Noodle Stir Fry

Sauce

- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp Sambal Oelek
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup dark soy sauce

- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp ginger, minced

Ingredients for Udon Noodle Stir Fry Sauce

How to make it

1. Chop all of your vegetables and make the sauce before you heat up your wok. Seriously. Once you get started it takes almost no time to cook, so it's really important to have all of your ingredients ready to go. 

2. Turn your wok on high and let the vegetable oil heat up. 

3. Add the carrot, onion, garlic, and green onion and saute for 2 minutes. 

4. Add your udon noodles, then add your sauce and stir until everything is coated. 

5. Add your spinach last. Once the spinach has wilted, your noodle bowl is ready. 

6. Garnish with peanuts and extra green onions.

Sweet Potato and Baked Bean Soup

I love love love this soup featuring sweet potatoes (from the market!) and maple baked beans. It's a lovely thick soup that's perfect in the fall. And, this recipe makes a huge batch of soup, so you can get several freebie meals out of it. Not even midterms can stop us from eating well!

Sweet Potato and Baked Bean Soup

What you'll need

- 1 diced onion

- 2 cloves of garlic, minced

- 5 cups diced sweet potatoes (or about 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes)

- 2 cans (540 ml each) of maple-style baked beans

- 5 cups of vegetable broth*

- Fresh-cracked black pepper

Ingredients for Sweet Potato and Baked Bean Soup

How to make it

1. In a large pot, saute the onion and garlic until softened.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the sweet potatoes have softened (about 20 minutes). 

3. Puree until smooth.

4. Garnish with fresh cracked black pepper. 


*Note: I make my vegetable broth by boiling vegetable scraps, following this Tasty video.

Spinach, Broccoli, and Cheese Quiche

It is fabled that quiche is one of the ultimate "clean-out-the-fridge" meals, but mine almost exclusively features spinach and onion. When I don't have enough spinach, I add broccoli. Turns out, the spinach-broccoli-cheese combo is an absolute godsend. Put it in a flaky pie crust, and you can see why I love breakfast food so much!

Spinach, Broccoli, and Cheese Quiche

What you'll need

- 1/2 diced onion

- A few handfuls of spinach

- 1/4 cup of diced broccoli

- 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese

- 3 eggs

- 1 cup of milk

- 1 pie crust (9")

Ingredients for quiche

How to make it

1. Preheat the oven to 375.

2. Saute your vegetables just until the onion is translucent, the spinach has wilted, and the broccoli is tender.

3. Spread the vegetable mixture in the pie crust to even it out. Spread the grated cheese over the top of the vegetable mixture.

4. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs and the milk together. Then, pour the egg mixture over top of the vegetables and cheese.

5. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the eggs are solid and the quiche has browned on the top. 

Serves 3-4.

Note: Frozen pie crusts tend to come in packages of 2, and pie crust recipes are usually designed to make two crusts. This recipe is for one pie crust only, but I always double my quiche recipe so I can have leftovers. It keeps in the fridge for a few days and is still delicious the second day!

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Quiche recipe adapted from Raab, E. The Clueless Vegetarian: A Cookbook for the Aspiring Vegetarian. Richmond Hill, ON: Firefly Books Ltd.

Pie crust recipe can be found in Diver, Elizabeth (Ed.). (2001). The all new Purity Cook Book: A Complete Book of Canadian Cooking. Vancouver, BC: Whitecap Books.

Hummus

This is a good recipe if you're looking for a tangy hummus. As always, it's great for dipping carrot sticks, celery sticks, and pita bread. It also adds a great flavour to sandwiches!

Hummus

What you'll need

- 1 can (540 ml) of chickpeas (drained and rinsed - but keep the liquid!)

- 1/2 of the liquid from the chickpeas

- 3 tablespoons tahini

- 2 tablespoons lemon juice

- 2 tablespoons olive oil

- 1 tablespoon honey

- 2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion

- 2 cloves of minced garlic

- 1 teaspoon of garam masala

- 1/2 teaspoon tumeric

- 1/2 teaspoon cumin

- 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for hummus

How to make it

Add all the ingredients together and blend! I have a hand blender so I mix the ingredients together in a large bowl and pulse them until it's a smooth, even consistency.