Enmoladas (Enchiladas with Mole)

It's Christmas time so I got a craving for mole.  The mole you see in the picture is Mole Poblano (from Puebla) and is the familiar (Doña Maria in the jar) sauce with chile, spices, and chocolate.  You could also use red, green (pipian) or black mole to cover your enmoladas.

20 medium to large corn tortillas
1 large jar of mole (2 small jars or about 4-6 cups of prepared mole)
Dried Ancho chile powder to taste
White cheese shreds
Veggies for filling
Canola or corn oil
Salt and pepper

First, cook your veggies.  I used zucchini sticks, bell peppers, and portobello slices that i cooked in a saute pan with salt and pepper.  You could also use just cheese, potato, squash, seitan, tofu, or whatever protein you like.  while the filling is cooling, steam your tortillas.  You can cook them on a burner one or two at a time, but steaming them in the micro is easier.

I fried my filled tortillas before baking to bring out the flavor in the tortillas.  You can just fill, roll, and place in your baking dish if you want to reduce the amount of fat in your finished dish, but you'll need cooking spray for the baking dish.  When you can handle both tortillas and filling with your bare hands, start rolling them into little taquitos.  Use toothpicks to keep them from unrolling and fry them until golden brown in a hot frying pan with sufficient oil to cover half of each taquito.

When they're cool enough to handle, take out the toothpicks and place in a baking dish.  Cover the top with shredded cheese, I used +Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack, and tent with foil.  Bake in a 350º oven for 15-20 minutes, just enough to melt the cheese and allow the mole to soak into the tortillas.  Usually I serve these with rice.

Note for IC Diet:  pipian is IC friendly. Please check the label for irritating ingredients or make it from scratch in a food processor. Fillings can include veggies on he safe list, like red bell pepper, mushrooms, zucchini, potato, etc.  Daiya cheese shreds are a good non-irritating  non-dairy cheese.

Guacamole with Jalapeno

2-4 ripe avocados

1-2 jalapeños for hot, 1/4-1 jalapeño for mild to medium

Vegenaise

Salt

Pepper

Oil

Read this if you need help shopping for avocados How to pick good avocados. I used a small food processor for this sauce, but a blender works too. Cut each avocado in half, remove pit, and scoop flesh into your processor. Add chiles, stem removed, cut into big chunks, seeds removed if you prefer less heat. Use gloves or coat your hands in oil if the chile bothers your skin. Do not touch anything else until you wash your hands well with hot soapy water. Blend until smooth and taste for heat. You can add more chile after you taste the sauce, so start slow with the heat. 

When you get to the heat level you want, add oil (I like limonolio) and a bit of Vegenaise (about 1 tb per avocado). Keep tasting and blending until you have the taste you like. Add salt and pepper last to avoid overseasoning, you may not even need salt. Serve chilled. Keeps in the fridge for a few days if covered in cling film to keep air off the surface of the sauce. Leave the pits in the sauce to help keep from browning. 

Enchilada Pasta

+Fresh & Easy

Tofu in Green Sauce

! box of firm tofu, drained overnight and cut into cubes
2 boxes of sliced mushrooms
1 can of green sauce, enchilada or made from scratch
Oil
1-2 cans of sliced black olives
Daiya cheddar cheese shreds
Salt and pepper

Cook the mushrooms in a dry pan until they dry out a little. Add tofu squares and oil to crisp up to tofu. Stir often to get even cooking and to prevent burning. Add the green sauce, stir, and bring to a boil.  Add olives and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the sauce is thickened, Season, then add cheese shreds. When the cheese is gooey, it's ready to serve. Plate with rice and beans, chips, corn tortillas, or use as tamale filling. 

Tapenade Pizza

Pizza dough for 1-2 pizzas

Parmela kalamata spread

Black olive or kalamata tapenade

Veggie parm for topping

Roll out your dough and cover first in Parmela, then with tapenade. Bake according to the direction of your pizza dough recipe and serve with veggie parm if you like it.

If Parmela is not available to you or has problem ingredients, use whichever cream cheese substitute is friendly for you (like Daiya). If tapenade is bothersome to you, use black or kalamata olives to make your own in a food processor. Add garlic and limonolio for flavor. 

Vegan Tips for Living With the IC Diet

Some of these are ideas that I've found on forums and others are from my own experimentation. Everything on this list has gone in my body and come out safely. BUT!! Every body is different and you know your body best. Don't try anything you think may cause a flare. 

Soy sauce:

Simmer molasses and water and add to stir frys to give them their familiar taste. Cook the sauce with red bell pepper chunks to lend a teriyaki flavor to the sauce. Add sesame oil and fresh ginger if you can tolerate it. Kafir lime leaf and lemongrass make the sauce a bit more savory. 

Soft drinks:

Torani makes fruit flavored syrups (Regular and Sugar Free) for Italian sodas. If you can tolerate them, add a tablespoon to a pint of cold water, sparkling if you can tolerate it, to make a tasty drink. Or you could make kafir lime infused water, add coconut, watermelon/blueberries (chunks, purée, frozen chunks), or chilled chamomile/peppermint tea with agave or honey for sweet tea. 

Pickles:

Bubbies dill pickles and sauerkraut are full sour. They have no vinegar or preservatives, but be wary of the sodium. Also, you can cook cucumber slices in salty sweet syrup with some mustard seeds to fake bread and butter pickles. The same goes for red and yellow peppers. 

Broth/Bouillon:

Zucchini/red pepper/potato purée thickens soups nicely as does a good roux made with plain unsweetened almond milk. Earth Balance makes a good soy free vegan margarine. Using herbs to flavor your cooking liquid helps too. Also, wine becomes less irritating when the alcohol is cooked off. And if you really miss grilled onions, carmaluze sliced fennel. It's anisey and sweet without being pungent like onions, but has a similar color and texture. See my cooking instructions here. 

Boyajian:  

Boyajian makes citrus oils--lemon, lime, and orange that you can use to flavor baked goods and sauces. I've used them in salad dressings and Daiya cream cheese to make cheesecake. Olive oil is often infused with other flavore, citrus being most popular. I use limonolio to flavor foods that call for lemon juice. 

Dips:

Salsas can be made with savory ingredients without using chiles. Roasted red pepper and sweet corn makes a great base for salsa. I've read that chile oil is not irritating, but it doesn't taste like jalapeño so I skip it. You can add dried parsley and avocado chunks to make a great party dip. 

Make your own hummus. Garbanzo beans, tahini, and limonolio make a good dip. You could add blended roasted red bell pepper or roasted eggplant to cut the calories too. The same goes for baba ghanouj; just add limonolio instead of lemon juice to brighten the flavor. 

Protein:  

Wheat gluten is a great source of protein. Unfortunately, seitan is the easiest product to find and it almost always has soy sauce in it. You can make your own; several brands of gluten flour are available at natural food stores. If packaged veggie meats are bothersome, you can still get concentrated protein from beans, nuts, and seeds. Ask your doctor/nutritionist for I nformation about food combining to help you make complete proteins. 

If you have any tips to add to this list, please share :)

Summer Rolls

1 package of rice paper (banh trang)

Lettuce leaves

Watercress leaves

Thai basil leaves

Mint leaves

Tomato slices

Avocado slices

Carrot shreds

Cabbage shreds

Cucumber slices

Bell pepper slices

Tofu (grilled, fried, baked, dried, etc.)

Other protein like wheat gluten, seitan, or tempeh

When I make these, I usually make a huge cake box Tupperware size amount because everybody wants to eat them, but nobody wants to make them. I really don't know why though, they're easy to make and are very refreshing on a hot day. 

This is my set up: a container to hold finished rolls lined with cling wrap and wet paper towels, a big pie plate or salad bowl filled with water to soften the rice paper, a selection of my favorite veggies and fillings, a cutting board to work on, and a towel to dry my hands and wipe up water.  Making these goes easier if you have your fillings precut and set aside to use as you roll. 

Soak a sheet of paper in water until it begins to soften. When you can move it it hour cracking it, but before it gets soggy, place it on a flat surface to roll. Fill with about a small palmfull of veggies.  If you use sauce inside, drizzle between veggies or between protein and veggies so it doesn't soak through the wrapper too much. Put your filling about a third of the way down, fold the bottom edge up over the filling, fold the sides over about one inch, and roll everything over until you have what looks like a tiny burrito. Soak the next sheet while you make the roll and it should be ready when you're done. It's time to change the water when the sheets take longer to soften than the previous sheet. Place in your lined container, sprinkle with water to keep moist, and cover with more wet towels and cling wrap. Refrigerate to chill, but can be served right away.  

These can be made with anything you like. Cutting your ingredients into sticks and tearing leaves from stems helps keep the filling from poking holes into the wrapper.  They'll keep for a few days as long as they're moist. Use anything you like as a dipping sauce:  soy, sweet chili, sriracha, sambal, teriyaki, peanut sauce, etc.