Meatless Monday Recipe-Hominy Quesadillas with Grilled Tomatillo Salsa

Hominy Quesadillas with Grilled Tomatillo Salsa
Vegan; Serves 8; 30 minutes or fewer

Welcome summer with this light tasty meal. Letting the grill and the food processor do a lot of the work, makes this a super easy meal to prepare on a weeknight. I soaked cashews in the morning, before going to work and was able to make a cashew cream to take place of the goat cheese that the original recipe from Vegetarian Times called for.

3 large or a combination of small and medium equal to 1/2 cup, husked and halved
1 large poblano chile, halved lengthwise, stemmed and seeded (I used 1 1/2 smaller poblano chiles)
1/2 onion cut into chunks
1 Tbs. lime juice, plus extra to cut into lime wedges for serving (about 3 limes total)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup cooked hominy or canned hominy, rinsed and drained
1 cup cooked pinto beans or canned pinto beans, rinsed and drained
8 flour tortillas (I used green chile flour tortillas)
1/2 cup cashew cream
1/2 cup pepper jack daiya cheese
hot sauce

1. Preheat over medium heat, you may have to coat the grill grate or the grill pan with cooking spray. We didn't and didn't lose any veggies...

2 Coat tomatillos, poblano, and onion chunks with cooking spray. Grill for 10 minutes or until charred.

3. Pulse grilled onion chunks and tomatillos to coarse puree in a mini food processor. Add poblano and lime juice; blend until poblano is chopped. Transfer to bowl, and stir in cilantro.

4. Pulse hominy, pinto beans, and 2 Tbs. of tomatillo mixture in food processor until just beginning to stick together.

5. Press one-quarter hominy mixture over half of each tortilla. Add cashew cream and sprinkle pepper jack daiya cheese and fold tortillas in half. Grill quesadillas for 6 minutes or until filling is heat through, turning once. Let stand for about 2 minutes and serve with hot sauce.

Meatless Monday Recipe-Brown Sugar Orange Tofu

Brown Sugar Orange Tofu
Vegan; 30 minutes

This happens to be one of the tofu recipes the boys like. They of course like the sweetness of it, and I had to add the chilies to balance that sweetness. Serve this over rice or some noodles with wilted spinach to have more of a meal.

16 ounces extra firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup unbleached-organic, all-purpose flour (use brown rice flour to make gluten free)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 large orange or 1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tbs. grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp dried Thai chilies


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Toss tofu in a large bowl with flour and salt. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet. Shake off excess flour from tofu and place in a single layer in hot skillet. Saute until golden brown.

3. Spray a non-stick baking dish with cooking spray, then transfer tofu to baking dish. Squeeze the juice of an orange into the skillet with the leftover oil. Allow the oil, juice, Thai chilies and simmer until you have a slightly thick sauce.

4. Pour the sauce evenly over the tofu and top with brown sugar and ginger. Bake tofu in oven for 15 minutes until brown sugar-orange glaze starts to caramelize.

Serve warm with sauteed greens and rice, if desired.

Adapted from Tablespoon

Meatless Monday Recipe-Coconut Vanilla Custard

Coconut Vanilla Custard
Vegan; Gluten Free; Soy Free 10 minutes

Here the Coconut milk and Vanilla Almond milk create the perfect balance of not an over power of sweetness.

1 cup coconut milk, divided
1 cup vanilla almond milk
2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1. Over medium heat, bring 1/4 cup of coconut milk to a boil.

2. In a large mixing cup or a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with the vanilla almond milk and remaining coconut milk (3/4 cup). Add to heated milk, whisking to avoid clumping. The custard should begin to thicken in about 5-8 minutes and remove from heat. Allow to cool and refrigerate until need or ready to enjoy.