Recipes

Simplified Caribbean Style Stewed Pigeon Peas using canned Pigeon Peas {Vegan}

Recipes, Sides / By

Simplified Caribbean Style Stewed Pigeon Peas {using Canned Pigeon Peas}

When I was a child, in my mind, the Dominican Republic was clearly divided into 3 groups of people: the stewed kidney beans lovers, like me and my grandpa. The pigeon peas lovers, like my sister and my mom; and the “undecided”, who loved  every legume on earth; including split peas, chickpeas and lentils that I hated at the time. As I grew older, and moved around different countries, the flavors from home became very dear to me, so I opened my heart and tummy even for those dishes I didn’t enjoy at the time, and my love for traditional foods grew from there. 

In this recipe for Caribbean Style Stewed Pigeon Peas I use canned pigeon peas to make it easier and more convenient if you are abroad. You can often find canned pigeon peas in some African shops and latin mini markets in cities like Rotterdam and Antwerp. Even some surinamese shops sell it sometimes. If by any chance you come across frozen pigeon peas, you can grab those as well. Just rinse before using, and keep in mind the cooking time is going to increase. 

Probably the most important steps for this Caribbean Style Stewed Pigeon Peas are the preparation of the garlic-oregano base, and the blending of the veggies and some legumes. Keep that in mind if you want to have authentic flavor and texture. 

Simplified Caribbean Style Stewed Pigeon Peas {Vegan}

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Course Lunch
Cuisine Dominican Republic

Ingredients
  

  • 1200 gr Pigeon Peas, canned
  • 30 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil (2 Tbsp)
  • 20 gr Fresh garlic cloves
  • 10 gr Dried Oregano
  • 50 gr Yellow onion, cut in half
  • 1 Green bell pepper, cut in half
  • 10 gr Fresh Cilantro (also known as Coriander and Chinese Parsley)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • In a mortar and pestle, crush garlic and dried oregano with a pinch of salt, into a paste.
  • Add the olive oil in the pot and cook the garlic-oregano paste on low flame until fragrant.
  • Add the canned pigeon peas, and the rest of the ingredients, except for the salt. Cook on medium-low with the lid on for about 20 minutes.
  • Remove the lid, and with a soup ladle take one full spoonful of pigeon peas and add to a blender, together with the cooked onion, green bell pepper and cilantro. Blend until smooth. You can add a little bit of the liquid to avoid overheating the blender.
  • Add the blended mixture back to the pot and let it cook for a few more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  • Serve with white rice, salad and fried yellow plantains on the side. Enjoy!
Keyword legumes, pigeon peas

Have you make this recipe or any other from the blog? Use the tag #kasheribbean to share on social media and, don’t forget to follow on instagram and pinterest for more! 

 

Super Crusty No Knead Bread {Vegan}

Breads & Doughs, Recipes / By

Super Crusty No-Knead Bread {Vegan}

With this easy No-Knead bread we officially start our Pre-Pesach cleaning season. Ha! Better to start early with the cleaning of the infamous flour in the cabinets and this is an excellent recipe to get started, as it is effortless and you just need 4 basic ingredients, a bowl, a “caldero” ( or you can use a cast iron pot or dutch oven with a lid) and patience to wait until is done!  

You may also like Coconut Milk Brioche with Chocolate Chunks & Vegan Challah

Any person that bakes at home has to eventually make this super crusty No-Knead Bread. The most basic of all breads, continue to be the king, for its simplicity and perfect crusty exterior. It also requires minimum effort on our part, and it so versatile you can have it ready tomorrow for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. Any time is the perfect time to have freshly baked bread at home so, let’s get to it! 

Once you have mixed the dough, the dough have to rest for a long time. This is the price we have to pay for “no knead bread”!! This process is call “fermentation”. It is when the yeast is activated and start eating the sugars and fermenting the dough. I am not going to get into the nitty gritty of bread baking here, but essentially this process will help our dough rise, among other things. 

I let my dough for 12-14 hours at room temperature, and it was good; but in reality the fermentation process can be a lot longer (up to 24 hours in this particular case) if you want. This will develop more complex aromas in the dough. It’s magic happening. Your dough will be ready when is full of tiny air bubbles, very elastic, and at least doubled in size (image #1). At this point you need to she a ball. Your dough will be sticky so don’t panic. Shape a ball and get ready to bake. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: keep in mind that, when shaping YOU DON’T WANT TO INCORPORATE MORE FLOUR INTO THE DOUGH , you just need enough flour to be able to shape the dough into a ball without it being a sticky mess.

It is always a good idea to have some hummus, babaganoush and salads ready for when it’s munch time! 

Easy, Vegan & Super Crusty No Knead Bread {Just 4-ingredients}

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Course Breakfast, Dinner

Equipment

  • Dutch Oven or Cast Iron

Ingredients
  

  • 450 gr Bread flour
  • 300 gr Lukewarm water
  • 4 gr Instant yeast
  • 10 gr Salt

Instructions
 

  • In a bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt. Add the water and mix well with a fork or wooden spoon until a rough dough is formed.
  • Place the rough dough on a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature (see notes) for at least 12-14 hours.
  • Before you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 232°C (450°F). Place the cast iron pot or dutch oven with its lid inside to preheat as well.
  • Place the fermented dough on a flat surface sprinkled with enough flour to avoid the dough from sticking. Gently shape a ball.
  • Carefully take the cast iron pot out of the oven, place a piece of baking paper on it and gently place the dough ball inside.
  • Put the lid on the dutch oven, take back to the oven and bake for 30 minutes
  • After 30 minutes, carefully remove the lid and bake for another 30 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and crusty.

Notes

The time of 12-14 hours is average for room temperature (around 20°C or 68°F).
If the average temperature in your kitchen is over room temperature, you can ferment your dough in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap for up to 24 hrs. If that's the cake, before you are ready to bake, take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature before shaping and baking. 
If the average temperature in your kitchen is colder than room temperature, you can leave your dough to ferment in he counter. It might just take a bit longer to be ready for baking. 
Keyword baking, bread

When you make this easy Crusty No-Knead Bread use the hashtag #kasheribbean to share on social media and, don’t forget to follow on instagram and pinterest to keep up with our easy recipes from us and the blogosphere!

 

4-Ingredients Peanut Butter Hamantaschen {Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free}

Holidays, Purim, Recipes, Sweet Treats / By

You read that right; you just need 4 ingredients to make these Peanut Butter Hamantaschen.

A few days ago I was taking care of my son and niece, and they wanted not just to eat cookies but to make them; and the easiest cookies I could think of was the Classic Peanut Butter Cookies.

Mid-way to the process of gathering the few ingredients I thought, why not to make them “purim style” in the shape of hamantaschen? So… we made Peanut Butter Hamantaschen with Chocolate Chips as filling.

To be honest with you, I felt like cheating because this is pure and simple the old peanut butter cookies with a new shape, but this is one of those “oldie but goodie recipe” and if you are looking for something quick to do, you might find this twist useful.

How to make the Peanut Butter hamantaschen

To make these Peanut Butter Hamantaschen you’ll need peanut butter, eggs, sugar and chocolate chips (or your filling of preference). The process couldn’t be easier, just mix peanut butter, sugar and eggs in a bowl and mix with a fork until it forms a thick batter.

Then, scoop out your portions (I weighed mine 25 grams each) and you are ready to shape.

To shape the hamantaschen, take one portion of your cookies dough and flatten it out the better you can as a circle. Then, pinch the center with a fork and place a few chocolate chips in the center. Finally, fold in the edges until you have a triangle.

You may also like Classic Hamantaschen & Sweet Hamantaschen Round-Up

What you need to do next is to bake these goodies over parchment paper and enjoy! 🙂 Bake at 180ºC (350ºF) for approximately 12 minutes, or until the bottom is lightly brown. Let them rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes before munching!

When you make these Peanut Butter Hamantaschen, don’t forget to tag #kasheribbean on social media and, don’t forget to follow on instagram and pinterest to keep up with more easy recipes!

If you are short on time and your kids love peanut butter, or if you are simply looking for an easy recipe to do with them, this would be perfect for you. Even though these don’t look super pretty, I really enjoyed my time in the kitchen with the little ones and they had fun! It was also an opportunity to introduce them to a new activity (and who knows?! They might enjoy it as well in the future!) and the cookies disappeared quickly.

Now, tell me, what other fillings will you use for these Peanut Butter Hamantaschen? Let me know in the comment section below!!

Happy Purim!! 😉

Classic Hamantaschen {Dairy-Free}

Holidays, Purim, Recipes, Sweet Treats / By

These are probably the easiest crunchy on the outside and cake-y on the inside Classic Hamantaschen.

The other day I was updating some old posts, and because Purim is coming soon I decided to start with the Purim section of the blog, just to realize I haven’t written any Purim-related post yet! (How is that even possible?! Big Oops!) Thankfully, I am not too late to share the easiest Classic Hamantaschen.

I love this hamantaschen dough because it is:

Easy to make,
No need equipment. Just basically a bowl, a whisk and an oven.

It is made with simple, accessible ingredients.
Seven to be exact.

Making the dough

To make these Classic Hamantaschen, you’ll need the most basic ingredients for baking: Flour, sugar, eggs, oil and some flavorings. In this particular recipe I used melted coconut oil to avoid the vegetable oil, but you can use that instead if you prefer.

What I love the most about these cookies is that you don’t need a stand-mixer or hand mixer. Your hands, a whisk and a bowl will do the trick.

Regarding the steps, all you have to do is mix all ingredients (except flour) in a bowl. Then, incorporate most of the flour, making sure there is not dry bits when you finish mixing. Finally, add the last 50 grams or so and work the dough lightly with your hands to finish mixing, always making sure you don’t overwork it.

A lot of people ask, “how do I weight eggs?” Here in USA, you’ll find a standard large eggs is 50 grams and, an extra large will be approximately 55 grams. To measure by weight start by cracking eggs until you are close the amount you want. If you are short for a few grams, take another egg, whisk it on a separate bowl and then weight with the rest.

Shaping the hamantaschen

This is not your typical cookie dough, so it is slightly sticky which make it a bit challenging to work on any surface. In my experience it is actually easier to shape in my hands. It might be helpful to use gloves or just lighly oil your palms before starting.

All you have to do is place one dolups  in your hand, flatten it out to form a circle, then place the jam on the center and fold in the edges to form a triangle.

For these hamantaschen I used store-bought No-sugar added Cherry Jam I had on hand, but you can easily made a yummy filling with frozen berries. Just cook the frozen fruits on low, stirring constantly, until you get a thick jam like the one below I made a few days ago with frozen strawberries and frozen raspberries with no-sugar added.

Homemade No-Sugar Added Strawberry-Raspberry Jam

You may also like Sweet Hamantaschen Round-Up & Savory Hamantaschen Round Up. 

When you make these Classic Hamantaschen, don’t forget to tag #kasheribbean on social media and, don’t forget to follow on instagram and pinterest to keep up with more easy recipes!

So, now, tell me, what is your favorite filling for these yummy Purim cookies? Be bold and let us know in the comment section below!!

Until next time! 😉

Easy Hamburger Buns {Vegan}

Breads & Doughs, Recipes / By

Make these easy, fluffy and almost “no-knead” Vegan Hamburger Buns for your next dinner adventure!

The Hamburger Bun Dilemma

Hamburger is one of those things I don’t eat often, but when I do eat hamburger all I want really is to taste that juicy thick burger and not necessarily eat it with a bun that is too thick, heavy, overpowering and super difficult to bite into.

You just want a bun stable enough to hold that thick, juicy burger yet a bun that is fluffy enough to give you the ultimate burger experience. And, this is why, ladies and gentlemen, you need these hamburger buns in your life.

The are:

Easy to make: no need equipment to make, just a bowl, your hands and an oven (and even that can be skipped in some circumstances, lol) 
Vegan: so, no eggs, no butter… simple, accessible ingredients
Fluffy: zero overpower, just a fluffy guy 

Hamburger Buns in the making

To make these hamburger buns you’ll need the most basic ingredients of bread baking: Flour, yeast, water, salt, sugar, a little bit of shortening, and oatmeal to coat before baking; plus the process is fairly simple. So easy that you can totally make this by hand:

The last step will be to let the buns rest again at room temperature, covered with a damp towel, until they double in size again, and are ready to bake.

Hopefully you can see the difference in size 🙂

If you love this recipe, you may be interested in Coconut Milk Brioche with Chocolate Chunks & Vegan Challah

Baking the Hamburger Buns

When baking bread, make sure your oven is fully preheated so that your bread bakes beautifully. You can always use an oven thermometer to verify the temperature of your oven and have the same results every time.

I usually start preheating my oven after I have shaped the bread, and it is on the second fermentation that can takes around (30 minutes), but keep in mind some ovens can take less or a little more time, so an oven thermometer comes in handy.

When you make these vegan hamburger buns use the tag #kasheribbean to share on social media and, don’t forget to follow on instagram and pinterest to keep up with our easy recipes from us and the blogosphere!

So, now, tell me, what is your favorite burger to accompany these fluffy buns? Let us know in the comment section below your suggestions!

Until next time! 😉