Curried Cauliflower & Chickpeas with Coconut Milk

August 5, 2015August 2, 2015 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 18 Comments

We are a big fan of curry in our family. Well, my husband is a big fan and I enjoy it, the girls on the other hand…I would say they have come to accept it 🙂

I am sharing one of our favourite curry recipes this week and will share another one in the coming weeks. They are not my original recipes. I got this recipe from my running buddy Kyrstol. She had us over for dinner a few months ago and made this – it’s awesome!

Curried Cauliflower & Chickpeas with Coconut Milk (with Rice / Fries).

Original recipe from Pampered Chef Cookbook – but this version is adapted for a vegan. It’s originally made with Chicken and Couscous instead of chickpeas/cauliflower and rice/fries.

1 can of chick peas (drained)
1 head of cauliflower (broken into small pieces)
3/4 tsp (4ml) salt
1/4 tsp (1 ml) ground black pepper
4 medium carrots (cut up in small pieces)
1 medium onion (cut up in small pieces)
1 tsp (5 ml) vegetable oil (I used Olive Oil)
2 tsp (30 ml) curry powder (I never measure this and put more in 😉 )
1/2 Cup (125 ml) golden raisins (I use red Thompson raisins)
1 can (13.5oz/398ml) coconut milk
Rice OR Long thin French Fries (large bag – follow directions on bag)

1.If serving on rice – make rice. If serving on French Fries (I know….it’s awesome), prep the oven and get baking.

2. Chopped up onion into small pieces and cook in olive oil (or vegetable oil) until soft.

3. Add in cauliflower, pepper, salt, carrots and curry powder – cook for 5-8 minutes (until cauliflower/carrots soften a little).

4. Add in raisins and chickpeas, then your coconut milk and cook for another 10 minutes or so. (Make sure you don’t burn it).

5. Once all cooked serve over rice or FRIES!!! I’ve never had curry over fries until having this at Krystol house months ago. It was the best idea ever! Might not be the healthiest choice….however, you can always make it with rice, couscous or another grain that you love.

Again – I altered the recipe from its original.

Do you like chickpeas?

Ever tried curried cauliflower?

What’s your favourite way to eat curry? On Rice, Fries, or something else?

{Vegan} Pumpkin Banana Muffins

October 30, 2012October 30, 2012 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 4 Comments

After I made my second vegan pie (post coming tomorrow), I had plenty of pumpkin left over. I figure I would just put it in my fridge and it would probably go bad 😦 OR I could make something else with it, right then and there.

So, I googled Vegan Pumpkin Muffins and came across “Week Of Menu’s” blog – it’s the only recipe I could find that didn’t call for nutmeg. Not that I don’t like nutmeg, but we didn’t have any in the house.

These. Are. Amazing!

I’ve made them twice since the first batch. These are a MUST TRY!

Vegan Pumpkin Banana Muffins

Makes 12 regular, 24 mini –> I found this recipe made more than the suggested amount.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
¼ white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup pumpkin puree (can)
2 bananas (riper the better) mashed well
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together 1 cup pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, mashed bananas and water. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until smooth. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

So good…gone so fast.

Give ’em a try.

What’s your favourite “pumpkin” recipe?

How often do you try a new recipe from a blog?

Fall Bucket List: Make {vegan apple} Pie.

October 29, 2012October 29, 2012 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 3 Comments

I’ve never made a pie before!

Crazy, eh!

Yeah, I think so too!

As the Canadian Thanksgiving was fast approaching a few weeks back on October 8th, I knew I had to make an attempt at making a pie. Let’s rephrase that – I had to attempt to make a VEGAN pie!

My husband and I sat down and looked through one of our cookbooks: “How It All Vegan!” by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. “Amazing Apple Pie” and “Perfect Pumpkin Pie” seemed like the perfect fit for our family dinner that was coming up. The only problem was that I’ve never made a pie or pie crust…and it had to be vegan or my husband couldn’t eat it.

My first thought was, okay let’s make two pies! One as a trial run and the other for our family dinner. If I screwed it up the first time, I had at least a week to pull it all together.

Amazing Apple Pie was the first pie to make.

Amazing Apple Pie

Ingredients:

6 – 8 large baking apples (Granny Smith are best) cored and sliced

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

3/4 maple syrup

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp cinnamon

2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder

1 pie crust (See end of post)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Core and slice apples into bite-sized pieces.
Bring a medium pot of water to boil, then reduce heat to medium and add the apples and optional raisins to simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Save 1/4 cup of “apple water” for use later (We actually drank the rest as our “fancy hot drink” on our Fall Bucket List.
Drain apples and place in a large bowl.
Mix carefully together the cooked apples, maple syrup, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, mix the 1/4 cup “apple water” with the cornstarch over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture turns very thick.
Add the cornstarch mixture to the rest of the ingredients, stirring until mixed well.
Pour into a pie crust and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Pie Crust: (Similar to Cristco pie crust – one serving)

1 cup and 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick of shortening (I use Earth Balance as it’s vegan)
3-6 tbsp of ice-cold water

Directions:

Mix flour and salt together.
Cut up shortening and mix into flour.
Add water by the tbsp.
Put in fridge for 30 minutes to chill (or freezer for 10 minutes)
Roll into pie crust

Everyone loved it…even our toddler who never had a piece of pie before!

And it didn’t last too long in our house 🙂

What’s your favourite pie to make?

Any secret tips to pass along to newbies like me?

Vegan Chocolate Banana (+Jr. Mint) Muffins!

June 18, 2012 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 4 Comments

This past Sunday I decided to multitask while Lilly took a nap (really, I should have napped too, but didn’t). I had to write a profile for Fitblogger as Piper’s Run is being highlighted tomorrow (fun). Since my husband was working, I blogged, did two loads laundry and hung them to dry and spent a little time on Pinterest.

I then came across the Vegan Chocolate Banana Muffin’s picture that looked too good to pass up. So, I “pinned” it but then the link didn’t work – disappointing. I figured my old buddy google might help me out …. and google did not disappoint.

The first blog I came upon was The Food Librarian, who modified the recipe ever so slightly. I always like to go to the original source, which lead me to Love and Olive Oil . Check out Love and Olive Oil’s recipe for the icing – looks delish!

This is what I did:

I wanted to make Jr. Mint cup cakes for Lilly’s 2nd birthday party (which is this coming weekend) but didn’t want to modify the recipe to make it vegan. Sometimes, if you don’t do it right….it can taste pretty bad. And then we are left to eat some bad food until it’s gone. When I came across this recipe, I thought this could work by adding in some Jr. Mints to the middle of the cup cake. OH MAN, THESE ARE SOME GOOD!

I had a little helper assist me in making the muffins and assuring the Jr. Mints were up to snuff to eat!!!!