Dinner-with a little help from the machines



Corn tortilla with "cheezy" sauce, kale with sauce, and refried pinto beans (and hot sauce)

Tonight's dinner is brought to you by a little advanced planning and the help of my kitchen gadgets.  I started the night before by soaking a few cups of dried pinto beans in a big pan of water. We tend to use dry beans but canned are great and I have a stash when I'm needing a little help.

When I got home from work, I fired up the gas oven to a medium heat about 350F, Craig started the beans in the pressure cooker, and cleaned up some kale leaves.


 Make raw/vegan "cheezy" sauce and slather liberally on corn tortillas and kale leaves.

For the sauce, in a Vitamix or other high speed blender, combine:
1/2 cup of raw cashews
1/2 red bell pepper
1/4 cup nutritional  yeast
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt, chili powder, pepper, and pinch of cayenne to taste

Blend until smooth.  Spread on kale leaves and corn tortilla.  Bake for 15-30 minutes, checking every now and then.

Back to the refried beans.

Haul out the food processor and quick shred a few handfulls of carrots.  Saute in a pan with oil, cumin seed, cumin powder, paprika, salt, pepper, onion powder, splash of salsa to taste.  When all soft and goey, add cooked pinto beans.

Watch to make sure that corn tortillas and kale aren't burning.

I have a Swiss Khun Rikon pressure cooker. Cook beans under pressure for 40 minutes.  I was in a hurry so I quick released the pressure which makes the beans a little mushy.  But this is OK since the beans are going to be "refreind" in a bit.  Add beans to the carrot mixture in the pan, simmer for 10-15 minutes, reseason.

Save kale from scorching just in the nick of time.  Take a few pics.  Family getting anxious.

Stack it all together with an artistic splash of hot sauce - "cheezy" tortilla, cheezy kale leaf, big scoop of beans.  Delish!



Corn tortilla with "cheezy" sauce, kale with sauce, and refried pinto beans (and hot sauce)

Now the "cheezy" sauce is out of this world so be warned - it's hard not to eat it all right out of the blender, scooping it up with chips or veg.  What's not to love about cashew sauce?  For the hard-core raw veganists, nutritional yeast is technically not raw but I suspect raw vegans overlook this aspect and eat it anyway for it's taste and health properties.  The kale with sauce can be dehydrated over night.

Dig in, it's crunchy, creamy, spicy all in one bite.

Astrid