Chunky Corn Cakes

These corn cakes go well with BBQ tempeh and veggies.

Ingredients:

1/4 Red Onion, chopped
1/3 cup corn kernels (frozen or fresh)
1/3 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 cup Yellow Corn Meal
1 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp ground Black Pepper
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
2 tsp evaporated Cane Juice
2 eggs
3 TB Walnut Oil

Chop the onion and put in a mixing bowl. You can add the corn kernels whole, but I chopped them for a few seconds in a food processor. Add the corn to the onions.

Beat the eggs with the walnut oil and add to the corn and onion mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add to the wet ingredients and stir until it is thoroughly combined. Cook like pancakes in a hot fry pan.

I served these with grilled carrots, yellow pepper, and red onion, and BBQ tempeh.

Quick Vegetarian Maple Beer Baked Beans

I don’t particularly care for baked beans out of a can. There are too many ingredients, most of them sugars, and they’re super syrupy and wet. Baking beans from scratch, on the other hand, is an all day affair. They are undoubtedly the best, but a day’s worth of dedication for beans is too much for me to give on a regular basis. So, we don’t eat many baked beans. To satisfy a baked-bean craving, I experimented and was extremely pleased with the results.

Ingredients:

2 cans Kidney Beans
1 can Beer, I used Lefthand Brewery ESB, an ale from a local brewery in Longmont, CO
Maple Syrup (the real stuff. Nothing fake, please. If it’s not from Vermont or Canada, toss it out and buy the real stuff)

Mix the maple syrup with the beer until it dissolves. I used around 1/2 cup syrup because the ESB (Extra Special Bitter) had a bite to it that needed to be balanced with sweetness. Rinse the beans well to get off all the canned goo, mix into the maple beer, pour into a pyrex baking dish, cover, and bake for close to 2 hours at 400 degrees.

In that 2 hours, mix the beans 2 or 3 times. Uncover the beans after the first hour to let some of the liquid cook-off. They’ll be done when all of the liquid is absorbed and they are just glazed with a maple beer coating. Salt and pepper to taste.