An idea came to me, over the past year of 2018, that since it's hard to find easy to make vegan recipes for meals, I thought I would create my own chapbook of Vegan Recipes. Most all meals I make from scratch, and some meal ideas utilize easy to purchase vegan food choices found at some major retailers.
I thought I'd share today that I recently made an navy bean soup in my small crock pot, last week. I had a cup (or so) of the soup left over, so I'm using it as my soup starter for the next batch of soup for the week.
Here's an recipe I put together for others to try, which is based on making it fresh from scratch. This recipe is easy to prepare, doesn't involve much time in preparation, but it allows for about two hours of cooking to complete the whole batch of soup. I usually start the soup in the early afternoon, and by dinner time, it's ready to enjoy.
Acorn Jalapeño Soup
1/3 cup of organic Navy Beans
1/3 cup of organic Split Chick Peas
1/2 of an organic Jalapeño pepper (sliced thinly, no seeds)
1 baby sized organic Acorn squash (baked)
2 quarts of water
1/2 tsp of Tumeric powder
1 package of organic Tempeh
1 cup of ripple sliced organic carrot chips
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 can of organic Coconut Cream
Directions:
1) wash up and rinse off the (Pre-Soaked over night) navy beans and split chick peas and cover them with 2 quarts of fresh water and put them on to cook. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer for about an hour or so.
2) bake the small acorn squash, during the time the navy beans and split chick peas are simmering on the stove, at 375 degrees (for about an hour), then remove it from the oven. I save wear and tear on kitchen knives by just forking the squash, bake it whole, then when it's done, I let it cool for about 15 minutes, then easily split it open to remove the core seeds and scoop out the soft squash (to eat, or in this case, to add to the soup).
3) Once the beans and split chick peas have simmered in the stove for about an hour, drain off the water, then empty the beans and split chick peas into the crock pot. Add a fresh quart of water over the pre-cooked beans and split chick peas. Scoop out the acorn squash and add it all to the beans and split chick peas. Add the carrot chips too, as well.
4) Add the can of Coconut Cream, the turmeric powder, and thinly slice up some of the Jalapeño pepper. Crack sea salt and peppercorns, over the soup base mixture.
5) Gently mix entire contents of the soup inside the crockpot, then cover up the soup with the lid of the crockpot. Set the temp on the dial to High.
6) In a skillet on the stove, add some EVOO, then gently crumble the package of organic Tempeh, and grill the Tempeh until it is seared to a golden brown color. This usually takes about 20 minutes or so.
7) Once the grilled Tempeh is golden brown, add the Tempeh to the soup in the crock pot. Use a spatula to scrape the EVOO into the soup, too, because Tumeric needs a bit of EVOO to bind properly and so your digestive system absorbs the elemental benefits of the Tumeric powder spice.
8) Cover the soup again with the crock pot lid, and set the temperature dial to medium low heat. Let simmer and meld for about another hour, stirring occasionally, until one hour has passed.
9) Serve and enjoy your soup, now that it is finished cooking. You can add your favorite salad toppers (I used Everything Sesame Seed Toppers) to your bowl of soup, if you are like me and can't have certain bread products.
Enjoy!
