Plant Centered Diet Benefits & Vegan Nachos w/ Chili Lime Black Bean Salsa
#75: Winter Happenings @ Featherstone Garden
Welcome to Featherstone’s Garden Happenings Newsletter. Each week we will share a rotating variety of garden updates: from farm fresh subscriptions, plant-centered recipes, community partners, events and more. As a subscriber, you will be the first to know about our Garden Happenings. If you’re not a newsletter subscriber but would like to be, click below to signup.
Benefits of a Plant Centered Diet
By Renee S.
As we mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we’re kicking off the new year with a month-long vegan challenge (aka veganuary). Annie (our grower and co-owner at Featherstone) already abides by a vegetarian diet, but I still incorporate meat in my diet while being cognizant of how it’s sourced. Each year though, I challenge myself to go vegan for a month so that I can better understand how to meal prep and create recipes that both satiate the palette and are filling enough to keep me going throughout the day. I’ll be sharing a few snack-prep ideas next week that I promise will be more appealing than a handful of nuts.
During the month of January, we’re highlighting some ways in which a plant-centered diet can be beneficial, how to incorporate more plants into your diet, and links to podcasts and articles that provide interesting tidbits surrounding the plant-centered eating discourse.
The Art of Making Vegan Food for Non Vegans // A recent Substack post by Mark Bittman that includes a podcast interview with Pinky Cole (aka Slutty Vegan), and a cauliflower po’boy recipe from her new vegan cookbook.
The Hidden Cost of Cheap Meat // This Ezra Klein podcast has less to do with plant-centered eating, but more to do with the meat industry and gives insight into why meat prices have continued to stay relatively stagnant throughout the last 50+ years—quite alarming imo.
Recommended Instagrams // A few of our favorites who promote vegan and plant-centered diets: Sophia Roe, Bonberi, So Vegan, Justine Cooks Vegan, Bojon Gourmet to name a few.
And a few vegan recipe recs:
Vegan Tantanmen w/ Pan Fried Tofu by NYT Cooking
Vegan “Chicken” Broth by Nicole Berrie
(Accidentally) Vegan Tacos by Jenny Rosenstrach
Chickpea Buffalo Wings by Justine Colbert
Chocolate Tart w/ Tahini & Caramel by Alanna Taylor-Tobin
If you have any tidbits to share, vegan snack suggs, or article/podcast/instagram recs, feel free to email me (renee@featherstonegarden.com) or drop a comment below.
Vegan Nachos w/ Chili Lime Corn & Black Bean Salsa
This week, we’re sharing one of our favorite go-to snacky foods. We think it’s the perfect dish to share with a friend while vegging out on the couch (no pun intended 🙃), or make a batch for yourself to snack on throughout the next few days.
Making the salsa is the most involved component of this recipe, but feel free to substitute a store bought salsa if you’re pressed for time.
If you have some extra time and the right equipment (a high powdered blender), I highly suggest trying out my vegan queso recipe! It was adapted from a recipe by Minimalist Baker, but I made adjustments until I was 100% satisfied with the results, so much so that some of my (non-vegan) friends paid me to make it for them when I was cranking it out during the pandemic.
Recipe: Vegan Nachos w/ Chili Lime Corn & Black Bean Salsa
Yields: 3 cups corn salsa / 2-4 servings of nachos
Do Ahead: Cook 1 cup quinoa (revisit our past blog post with cooking instructions here).
For a bolder flavor, make salsa 1 day in advance to allow the flavors to marinate.
Ingredients:
1-2 handfuls mixed greens of choice, torn or chopped, per serving
large handful of tortilla chips, per serving
1 avocado, sliced
3/4 cup chopped cilantro, divided
1 cup black beans
1 can (1 ½ cups) sweet corn
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup red onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon sauce from canned chilis in adobo sauce (or 2 tsp sriracha)
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 tablespoon vegan mayo
Suggested Toppers:
vegan queso (find recipe at this link)
vegan meat or protein of choice, cooked through (i.e. crumbled beyond burger, soy chorizo, seitan) (optional)
pickled or fresh jalapeños
(Add your favorites, or add all!)
Directions:
Step 1
Preheat oven to 400F.
To prepare corn & black bean salsa: in a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup cilantro (set aside the remaining 1/4 c. for garnish), and the remaining ingredients from black beans down to the mayo. Mix well, taste, and add more salt, pepper, or spices if needed.
Step 2
On a tin foil lined baking pan or square dish, evenly spread tortilla chips. Top with enough corn & black bean salsa to cover the tortillas to your liking, and optional garnishes, such as: cooked vegan meat/protein of choice, lots of vegan queso, and fresh or pickled jalapeños. Bake for 4-8 minutes, or longer if needed.
Step 3
Layer the bottom of a large plate or a wide/shallow bowl with mixed salad greens. Transfer the baked nachos on top of salad; then add extra salad greens or microgreens, remaining 1/4 cup of cilantro, and avocado.
Store leftover corn salsa in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Enjoy!
Thanks for reading!
For more about our garden, check out our website and follow us on instagram (@featherstone.garden). Feel free to email us or comment below with any questions or suggestions.
Have a great week,
Annie, Aaron, Renee + Chili & Bean (our farm cats ₍˄·͈༝·͈˄₎◞ ₍˄·͈༝·͈˄₎◞)
