MoFo 6: White Bean and Barley "Risotto" with Kale and Tempeh

So I have this bad habit of shopping online. I'm so busy with school most of the time, and it's so convenient that pretty much everything I could ever need is available to be shipped to my door that I do take advantage. With Amazon as long as the order is over $25 it ships for free; because of this I have been known to just add things to my cart that I'd been thinking about purchasing, usually cookbooks. It sometimes doesn't save money, but other times, amazingly enough it does (cuz shipping can be hellza expensive). I know I have a problem; I doubt I'll seek help. A few of the cookbooks I've accumulated this way I have been extremely happy with and, as so, glad that I was "forced" to get them...like the one the above recipe comes from: Vegan on the Cheap. This is the first recipe I tried from it and I loved it!

The flavors in this risotto were great. I subbed cremini mushrooms for white (because white mushrooms=blech to me), but otherwise followed the recipe. The tempeh is cooked separately first to give it a "smoky" taste and it added a lot. This dish was hearty and was great the next day for lunch as well. This was also my first time working with barley. I'd had it in restaurants before, usually in soup, and have liked it, but I'd never found a particularly tempting recipe. Until now!

I know as per the MoFo agreement weekend posts are not necessary, but I felt like it anyway. So did lots of other bloggers! Here are some posts to check out today:

1) My friend Kelly over at Kohlrabi and Quince has a great post up about a crazy-ass run we did last weekend called Warrior Dash. There was a big group of people we knew who were there and it was painful, but a good time!

2) Amey at Vegan Eats and Treats is trekking along on her way through the world's foods, today she's cooked up some food from Cuba!

3) Wing-it Vegan is spending her MoFo time cooking up eats from other blogs! This week was all beets, and it ends on a sweet note with beet cookies! It's crazy-sounding, but the results are beautiful.

4) Over at Cake Maker to the Stars Kittee has a guest blogger today talking all about the fabulous vegan sandwiches available here in San Francisco. From the list I have only tried Ike's and it definitely delivered, maybe one day I can try out some of the others. The vegan "cheesesteak" from Jay's Cheesesteak and the torta from Gracias Madre sound like winners to me!