Vegan Cooking Club

Hey, We Moved!

2010-11-02T20:49:00.001-07:00

Hi there, we want you to know that we've moved the blog along to a dedicated domain and a fabulous new WordPress installation.

If you've been following posts here, please consider updating your RSS feed to follow us at Vegan Nosh!

http://vegannosh.me/

Please don't post any comments or link to any posts here any longer, please go do these things at the new site. All the posts and comments were imported there a couple of weeks ago.

Attention - We're Going to Move Soon!

2010-10-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hi there -

Thanks for following this blog, it is pretty cool that people come here for inspiration and ideas for making vegan food that rocks.

We've got a spiffy new domain and Sherri is in working diligently on migrating everything (posts, pictures and comments) over to the new digs. It still is a little dusty, but you can check it out Vegan Nosh. It should be up and fully running just in time for VeganMoFo 2010!

Once we're over the posts here will be locked except for one to remind you that we've moved. When that happens please update your RSS feeds, links, etc. We don't want to lose anyone in the transition so we're trying to give plenty of warning.

Adventures with Tomatoes

2010-10-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

Once again we managed to be busy, busy, BUSY during the peak of tomato season. This means several pounds have sadly gone to mush on the vine, but earlier this week I went out and picked pounds and pounds. I've been hearing all about people drying them in the oven ("sun dried" for Portland) and thought I'd give it a whirl.

Several of the "Roman Candle" paste-type tomatoes sliced into quarter wedges (the long yellow ones) along with the larger cherry types and some small plum types.

A whole roasting pan full of cherry and grape type tomatoes cut in half and put face down.

Hours and hours and HOURS later the yield: 3 cups of dried tomatoes.

The verdict: I think the oven is very inefficient for dehydrating food. We've been pondering an Excalibur model and this experiment has moved it up in priority a bit. This project took over the oven for quite a while and it would be preferable to be able to turn on a dehydrator and let it run.

Three Sisters Talking Story

2010-09-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

I came up with this casserole quite a while ago. It started as a reconstruction of a recipe Christie had made once for us, but has progressed to a new and even tastier dish.

I named it "Three Sisters Talking Story" for a couple of reasons. The use of "Three Sisters" pays homage to the ingredients that were once the staple of the Native American diet. Many groups doing outreach to Native communities are working to bring attention to the health benefits of the traditional diet. The Three Sisters refer to the corn, beans and squash that are the stars of this hearty casserole. "Talking Story" is a term we heard in Hawaii, it refers to a close conversation where each participant shares deeply from the heart. In this dish the 3 ingredients all share the credit in this dish, each shining through.

The Stuff

3-4lb winter squash (pick something with more flavor than an acorn squash for this: butternut, delicata, carnival, dumpling, hubbard, etc.)
2 cups cooked pinto beans (1 15oz can is fine, just drain and rinse well)
2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced (a 15oz can will work, Muir Glen's fire roasted would be perfect)
1/2 cup diced Anaheim chilies (or a 4oz can, I like Hatch)
1 small yellow or sweet onion, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup polenta
4 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup + 2 T fine nutritional yeast powder
1 t sweet, smoked paprika
1 t cumin seeds
1/2 t ground cumin
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

All of the steps for making this are split into separate steps that can be done concurrently. Each of the different steps will be combined at the end in layers.

Making: Roasted Squash

Pre-heat oven to 350. Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds. Lightly spray the bottom of a roasting pan with oil. Place squash in roasting pan, cut side down. Roast in oven until soft. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Roasting time will vary greatly depending upon the size of the squash you used. Delicata are very small and can be done within 15-20 minutes. A Hubbard is so large and dense that it should be cut into quarters, at least, and will take closer to 30-40 minutes to roast through.

Leave oven on, it will be used to bake full casserole.

Making: Cumin Polenta

Spray a little oil into the bottom the pressure cooker on medium-high heat. Add cumin seeds to heated pot and saute until the seeds are fragrant, darken and begin to pop & sizzle. Less than 5 minutes

Add the water carefully and bring to boil. Add polenta and 1/2 t of smoked paprika while stirring. Put lid onto pressure cooker, bring to high pressure, reduce heat, and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Remove pressure cooker and let sit for 10 minutes. Release any pressure if cooker has not unlocked and open. Stir in 1/3 cup of fine nutritional yeast and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.

**If you are not using a pressure cooker you can cook this on the stove top. Just bring the polenta back to a boil, stirring often, once it is fully boiling again reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring fairly often.

Making: Stewed Pintos & Tomatoes

Spray a little oil into a sauce pan on medium-high heat. Add onions and saute until just translucent (about 5 minutes), add garlic. Continue to saute until the onions and garlic begin to caramelize (about 5 minutes more). Add fresh chilies and saute until they soften (about 3 minutes). If you are using canned chilies they can be added along with the tomatoes (fresh or canned), cooked pinto beans. Stir in 2 T nutritional yeast, 1/2 t smoked paprika, 1/2 t of ground cumin. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the fresh tomatoes have softened, or at least 20 minutes.

Making: The Casserole "Three Sisters Talking Story"

In a dutch oven or a 9x12 baking dish spray a little oil. Scoop roasted squash out of skin and put into the bottom of the baking dish. Press down with spoon or spatula to get a even, 1-2" layer of squash. Pour stewed beans & tomatoes over the layer of squash and smooth out evenly. Top with the polenta, making as even a layer as possible.

Put casserole into the hot oven (350). Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and lightly spray the top of the polenta with oil. Return to oven and reset to low broil. Broil on low for 5 minutes or until the polenta is lightly browned and golden.

Remove from oven and let stand for at least 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with avocado slices if you want.

Makes 8 very hearty servings

Eggplant & Chickpea Casserole

2010-09-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

We do not share a love of eggplant in our home. Christie prefers to avoid it and I really like it. In getting boxes of fresh produce I find that I often have more eggplant than I am sure of what to do with and have already thrown out one lovely one this summer. In our garden we found a Turkish variety that yields small, orange eggplant with a tomato shape.

I had seen a recipe on the NYTimes that referenced a staple of Middle Eastern cooking. Tonight I made a variation with the ingredients I had on hand and the result was very tasty. I'll have to recreate at another time for exact measurements, but here's a review.

2 cups cooked chickpeas were added dry to a pre-heated cast-iron skillet on medium heat. I very lightly spritzed them with Canola spray (Spectrum) as they browned. Once they were beginning to look toasty I added a small onion, thinly sliced. Sauteed 5 minutes or so, until the onion began to go translucent and then I added a generous amount of dried oregano, some dried marjoram, lemon pepper, granulated garlic, and a pinch of nutritional yeast. Tossed all of that around to coat the chickpeas & onions before adding 1/4 cup of chopped, fresh Italian parsley, the juice of half a lemon, and one diced medium green tomato.

While all of that chickpea stuff was going on I had sliced in half 4 small, Japanese eggplant. I pre-heated our cast-iron grill pan and then added the eggplant, sliced side down. I put the lid of my small casserole dish on top of them to press them into the grill. After grilling for a few minutes face-down I flipped them all over, skin-side down, replaced the lid to press them flat and grilled for a few more moments.

The oven had been pre-heating to 375. After the eggplant was done grilling and the chickpeas sauteed, I gathered my casserole dish and 2 cups of crushed tomatoes. 4 eggplant slices went into the baking dish, topped with half the chickpea mixture and followed by half the tomatoes. Repeat, cover with lid, pop into oven for 15 minutes.

Tasty all by itself. If there were guests or I was less hungry I'd have garnished with fresh parsley and a slice of lemon. This would also be great paired with some whole grains or stuffed into a baguette. I enjoyed it with a big salad.

Organics to You - September 20, 2010

2010-09-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Between cutting back on boxes for a few weeks and the joyful craziness that was Wedding Camp there haven't been any updates from me for a while about our produce delivery. I'm doing some real guessing on the composted stuff since a couple of times I just cleaned out the fridge without noting closely what I was pitching into the bin.

That said, here's today's box full of goodies:

a head of Romaine lettuce
red grapes
broccoli
a leek
7 small summer squash, 3 kinds
3 chilies (1 sweet red, a poblano, and an anaheim)
bunch of beets, with greens
several small tomatoes
3 green pears
3 peaches
5 pluots
3 apples
2 ears of corn

In the fridge:

carrots
fava beans
cucumbers (including the first from our garden!!)
some garlic
a huge pile of apples (we went to the farmers market this weekend and the Pink Pearls are in!)
a few onions
1 red beet
a bunch of radishes
2 lemons
2 limes
1 enormous mango
1 orange
several bananas
green grapes
a few strawberries
several tomatoes, including many from our garden
several types of eggplant, including the orange Turkish ones from the garden
ginger
dill
Italian parsley
some lettuce
a little chard
a few bell peppers, many out of our garden
there's quite a bit of kale out in the garden too
red grapes
celery

The Compost Pail of Shame (what we didn't use and had to compost):

a whole lot of lettuce
an eggplant
several pieces of assorted fruit
some cucumbers
a little cauliflower
some broccoli crowns

Expect to see some more recipes coming soon. I will post about fabulous mac & cheeze (using a creamy cashew & nutritional yeast sauce), our amazing shepherds pie, I am working on Christie to post her amazing mashed potatoes (also using a tasty cashew cream sauce and integral to the shepherds pie), and the crazy good Sloppy Schmoe's (my new made-up name for our take on sloppy joe's) we came up with this week after volunteering at Veg Fest.

We've also been experimenting with homemade almond milk, fantastic & healthy truffles from our friend Wendy's new cookbook, Scatter Vegan Sweets. Aside from the rich dishes I've mentioned above, we've been turning again to healthier, very low fat dishes along the lines of those in Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book, Eat to Live. This change has meant great new looks at salad dressings, stir-fry sauce, and very hearty minestrone soup.

Organics to You - August 2, 2010

2010-08-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

We have started to cut back on the weekly boxes. We wisely did not get a box the week we attended OSCON since we ate out most meals. Last week we did get a box, but I was in a rush to just get stuff into the fridge, etc. that I never got it recorded.

That said, here's today's box full of goodies:

a head of red leaf lettuce
spinach
rainbow carrots
head of garlic
4 zucchini
a cucumber
green onions
green beans
blueberries
2 yellow peppers
5 apricots
2 huge grapefruit
3 nectarines

In the fridge:

carrots
fava beans
green beans
2 1/2 cucumbers (including the first from our garden!!)
some garlic
green & purple cabbage
4 apples
broccoli
head of cauliflower
1 red & 1 golden beets
radishes
a pile of lemons
1 small lime
2 nectarines
4 mangoes
3 plucots
1 apricot
2 small daikon
several bananas
green grapes
2 pints of strawberries
1 tomato
2 yellow onions
ginger
cherries
2 pints of blueberries
basil

The Compost Pail of Shame (what we didn't use and had to compost):

Green leaf lettuce
basil
bananas
some plums
green onions

I have managed to post some new recipes recently and am enjoying that a lot. This time of year I tend to make a lot of hearty salads that make for portable dinners for picnics and are great chilled. We also both adore stone fruit and have been having lots of it in salad form. This week there will be a cucumber salad and perhaps gazpacho to use up the several we have. I have been continuing to make lots of stir-fries, particularly with the cabbage and zucchini. I think tonight we'll be having a green bean stir-fry along with some miso udon soup.

Cilantro Citrus Vinaigrette

2010-07-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

I came up with this tasty salad dressing for a new Roasted Corn & Qunioa Salad recipe I came up with. This is so easy to throw together and would be great in a jicama salad or just as part of a tossed greens salad.

The Stuff

1 bunch cilantro (fresh coriander)
juice from 1 large lemon or 3 limes
2 T raw tahini
1/4 c rice vinegar (no, not the seasoned kind)
1/4 t garlic powder *optional
1/4 t xanthan gum *optional

The Making

Cut the stems off the bunch of cilantro about 3-4 inches up. Wash in a colander and shake off just some of the excess water.

Put wet, washed cilantro into blender, add remaining ingredients and blend on high until completely blended.

If the dressing seems a little thick or too vinegary, add some water a tablespoon at a time until it is the right consistency/taste.

If the dressing is very thin or if you would like a very thick dressing you can add the xanthan gum to thicken it. Bob's Red Mill is a good source for this ingredient.

Roasted Corn & Qunioa Salad

2010-07-27T16:18:00.001-07:00

Ahhhh, summer! The time of fresh, sweet corn is finally here and although I usually just like to roast it, coat it with lime juice and eat until there's nothing left, I did come this yummy recipe using some.

The Stuff

2 ears of roasted corn, kernels carefully removed
2 cups of cooked quinoa
1 small sweet onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1-2 cups of shredded, raw cabbage (red looks more dramatic)
4 small tomatoes, diced
8oz tempeh
1 batch of Cilantro Citrus vinaigrette
half a small head of Romaine or other crisp lettuce cut into big shreds
1 small avocado, thinly sliced
2 corn tortillas
Spray canola oil

The Making

Slice the tempeh into 1/2 inch strips. Heat a skillet, or a cast-iron grill pan (preferred), coat with a little canola oil, and add tempeh. Cook tempeh on both sides, using a little spray oil before turning, until golden. Set aside and cut into small pieces (roughly diced) once it has been cooled.

Heat oven to 425F. Cut tortillas into very thin strips with a sharp knife. Spray tortilla strips with some oil while tossing. Place tortilla strips on a small baking rack and put into oven. Bake for 5 minutes, or until crispy. Set aside.

While the tempeh is cooking put the remaining ingredients, except salad dressing, together into a large mixing bowl. Once the tempeh has cooled and been diced up add it and the dressing to the bowl and toss all ingredients together until everything is evenly coated with the dressing.

Serve salad on a bed of Romaine lettuce, topped with avocado slices and some of the baked tortilla strips.

Raw Kale & Chickpea Salad

2010-07-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

Last summer we picked up a raw kale salad from the deli at a co-op in Davis, California, and enjoyed it a lot. This salad doesn't really recreate it, but it was that salad that encouraged me to try using more raw kale in dishes. You can mix & match things like dressing, veggies used, etc., but this is generally what I stick with.

The Stuff

1 bunch of kale, any variety
2 medium carrots, shredded
1 bell pepper, diced small (I prefer a red just for contrast in colors)
1 medium sweet onion, diced small (you can use red or yellow, I'd just saute it first)
2 cups cooked chickpeas (or one 15 oz can, rinsed & drained)
1/2 cup pesto or balsamic salad dressing

Optional Stuff (tasty, pick a couple of these!)

1/4 cup sun dried tomato pieces, cut up small
1/3 cup green olives (oil cured, not canned, go to the olive bar if your market has one), sliced small
1/3 cup thin sliced basil
1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped up fine
1 cup cooked quinoa, brown rice, barley, or wheat/spelt berries **You'll need more pesto or salad dressing (this option makes for a nicely hearty dish - great for picnics)
Fresh tomatoes and cucumber (if this is going to be eaten right away), drained capers, raw cauliflower, beets and peas. Any additional veggies should be chopped up into small pieces.

The Making

Stem, wash and shred the kale into very small pieces and add to large bowl. Add in all other ingredients, pesto or salad dressing last. Toss well to evenly coat all of the kale and to keep the grated carrots from clumping together. Let stand at least 30 minutes before serving. Serves 8

This salad keeps very well and does very well being made a day ahead of serving. It travels great too.

Vegans at OSCON

2010-07-19T14:30:00.001-07:00

This week O'Reilly's Open Source Conference, or OSCON, is happening in town. There will be a few parties and events around town, but most of the action takes place at the Oregon Convention Center (OCC). I was lucky enough to win a ticket to all of the sessions from the Linux Fund and will be attending events most of the week. It is a great chance to talk to several companies about jobs as well as connect with other Open Source professionals.

I'm really excited, except for one thing... The OCC and the neighborhood around it is pretty lame as far as vegan options and good coffee go. In general the mediocre coffee issue and lack of interesting food options pretty much affects everyone, just for vegans it is somewhat of a hassle. The OCC itself is a pretty nice place to be, but the food/beverage issue requires some planning.

I did contact O'Reilly and asked abut vegan options. They said that there would be buffet lunches and I should be able to get something. This kind of response always leaves me personally a little dubious since food often isn't labeled clearly and/or it means some hummus and pita. It also can quite often mean an assortment of raw veggies. All of those things aren't bad, but sometimes I find I'm still hungry!

My awareness of this really played into what suggestions I made for the catering for Open Source Bridge. Yes, we had hummus & pita, but as part of a really nice mezza plate clearly marked as vegan. We also were sure to offer soy milk as an alternative to dairy milk as well as vegan cookies and doughnuts.

Anyway, back to this week and being a vegan at a big conference in the OCC. I can say that closer to Lloyd Center (a mall) there is a Chipotle, which is a vegan option if you stick with the black beans (the pintos are cooked in beef stock). A little further away on NE 15th is Blossoming Lotus which features a fantastic all vegan menu with many raw options.

Another option to finding something beyond the conference buffet is to take MAX across the river into downtown (free from the OCC) and check out a food cart. Since we get 90 minutes for the lunch break, this option is possible and is a lot of fun. If you walk 2 blocks west up Stark from the First & Oak stop there are 3 food carts with very tasty vegan options: Just Thai (will be closed this Monday & Tuesday - they offer a vegan Thai Iced Tea made with coconut milk - yum!), DC Vegetarian, and Sonny Bowl. There are also food carts ("pods") at SW 5th & Stark and SW 10th & Alder. Many of the food carts in Portland have vegan options and offer excellent food.

That said, check out Stumptown Vegans for reviews of mostly all local places. They have a map on the site with restaurants indicated, including those food carts I mentioned, and it is a great resource for vegans in PDX. Also, just in time for OSCON, The Portland Vegan 100 a great list compiled for Try Vegan Week that mentions many, many tasty restaurants and dishes around town.

Really though, Christie and I are actually planning to bring a lot of food. We find that eating out all week tends to leave us feeling a little blah, so having food along really helps. This means that a recipe for my raw kale and garbanzo salad with pesto is forthcoming! We're also making up some tofu salad and my garbanzo & nori salad (mock tuna-ish). I may even write down what I did for those and post recipes too!

Spot-on Toby's clone...

2010-07-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

I love Toby's. Pretty much everyone does. Like so many things, I just stupided into a perfect clone of this, -ala- my Yumm-Sauce clone a while back.

INGREDENTS:

1 16oz block Super- or Extra-Firm Tofu (undrained).
1 stick celery (cleaned, leaves on).
1/2 to 1 cup Vegenaise (depending on how creamy you like it).
2 green onions (cleaned, with greens on)
2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp sea salt.
1/2 tsp turmeric.
1-2 tsp water.
1 pack powdered guacamole seasoning (brand of your choice).

DIRECTIONS:

Place celery and onions into food processor. Whizz up until broken down into bite-sized pieces.
Break the tofu into chunks and place in food processor with all other ingredients except the water. Whizz to a paste, adding water until desired consistency is reached.

Vegan Dashi

2010-07-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

I began making dashi because we missed having soups when out at Japanese restaurants. This is a real problem since fish, usually as bonito, shows up in so many stock bases. We'd even found out, after assuring other friends it was alright, that a once-favorite local restaurant had been serving us soup with bonito extract in it! I'd been using a recipe from the mighty VegWeb, but since I've made several variations, I thought I'd post what I'm really doing.

The Stuff:

Kombu, at least 6 inches worth
4 large, dried, whole shitake mushrooms
4 cups cold water
1 t of wakame (just use a teaspoon to scoop out a big pinch worth, OK if it is a very rounded teaspoon!)
2 T of sake (use something decent that you can enjoy with dinner later. We like Sayuri a lot)
3 T of mirin
2 T shoyu or tamari

The Making:

Cut the kombu lengthwise, about 2/3 the way up. In a small stock pot add the cut kombu and dried shitakes. Let these steep at room temperature for at least 1 hour, more is OK.

Remove kombu and shitakes, making sure to squeeze mushrooms to get out liquid. Add the remaining ingredients and put pot onto medium high heat. Bring just to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Skim off the wakame and either use dashi immediately or store in fridge for up to a week. This also freezes really well.

Note: The steeped kombu and shitakes can be used again!

We actually don't care for mushrooms much at all, except in stocks, so we compost the shitakes after steeping. Feel free to slice them up to add to soups.
The kombu can be used in a kind of Japanese, fresh pickle. It is often sliced into small, thin pieces and marinated in some shoyu, rice vinegar and sesame seeds. This can be a nice kind of condiment to noodles or soup.

Yes, this IS the dashi I use for the miso udon stew already posted to this site!

Organics to You - July 5, 2010

2010-07-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

I think we're nearing the time when we will have to cut down to every other week or go into hibernation as we're starting to get more from the garden and the Farmers Market.

That said, here's today's box full of goodies:

a head of green leaf lettuce
kale
basil
yellow onion
4 zucchini
a head of green cabbage
2 ears corn
snow peas
a cucumber
blueberries
a cantalope
5 apricots
cherries
3 nectarines

In the fridge:

carrot sticks
carrots
green onions
peas
lettuce
1 avocado (might be beyond saving)
2 cucumbers
some garlic
a shallot
some onions
chard
celery
green cabbage
4 apples
broccoli
head of cauliflower
red beets
radishes
3 grapefruit
1 mango
a lemon
several small limes
1 peach
a watermelon
4 plums
2 pluots
2 apricots
2 small daikon
several bananas
pounds of strawberries
medium sized jicama
1 tomato
4 Walla Walla onions
ginger
cherries
pounds of blueberries
pounds raspberries
basil

The Compost Pail of Shame (what we didn't use and had to compost):

jicama
kale
spinach
lettuce
some apricots
some Russet potatoes

Came up with a great cilantro lime salad dressing last week, will be recreating and posting a recipe. Fourth of July provided the opportunity to make two big potato salads as well as a raw kale & garbanzo salad. This helped use up all of the red potatoes in the house. Although I tried having a few Russets, we just didn't get to them in time. I did make a pesto type dressing for the kale salad that used the garlic spears, mint and some basil as well as raw cashews and balsamic vinegar - very tasty!

This week - Several slaws with all that cabbage and perhaps a sweet & sour dish as well. The cabbage pairs so well with all the snow peas! Another pesto, this time with all the basil, perhaps to be served over zucchini pasta with grilled tempeh. I'm thinking I'm going to make a soup with the chard, perhaps a white bean soup. The kale will either go into another raw salad or appear steamed alongside the zucchini pasta & pesto.

Tortilla Soup

2010-06-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

In August I am teaching a one-day workshop on Metta (Loving-Kindness) and Hatha Yoga. I've requested that since I am teaching this and we are offering lunch, that the lunch provided be vegan. I just can't get behind the thought of teaching either things when the food isn't also sending the message of great compassion. The only request back was that I suggest a recipe I would like cooked.

In August there will be fresh zucchinis and tomatoes in great abundance. In recognition of these seasonal treats I've suggested that tortilla soup be served. It is light and should not feel too heavy for the work of meditation and yoga, much less the heat of August. At the same time the black beans give the soup some substance to sustain everyone for the rest of the day. The mix of citrus and tomatoes are lively and bright.

The Stuff

2 T canola oil
1/2 t cumin seeds (*optional)
1 medium onion, diced
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 large stalks celery, diced
3 large carrots, halved and sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced
8 cups water or vegetable stock
2 small/medium (10") zucchinis, diced
28 oz can diced tomatoes (I used Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes) OR 3 1/2 cups diced, fresh tomatoes
3 cups cooked, black beans (or approximately two 15oz cans)
2 limes juiced
1/4 cayenne pepper (or more, to taste)
1 t powdered cumin (more if not using cumin seeds)
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t sweet, smoked paprika (or more, to taste)
1/4 c nutritional yeast
salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
fresh cilantro, chopped
1 avocado, diced
4 corn tortillas
lime wedges

The Making

Heat oil in the bottom of a stock pot and add cumin seeds (if using). When seeds begin to darken and pop, add onions. When onions become translucent add in garlic and saute until fragrant. Add in diced celery and carrots, let vegetables cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions begin to caramelize. Add in diced bell pepper and continue to cook for 5 more minutes. Add water, tomatoes, and zucchini. Cover, bring up to near boil and then reduce heat. Add in lime juice, spices and black beans. Stir, cover and simmer until all vegetables are tender; about 25 minutes. Stir some fresh cilantro into the soup before serving.

While soup is simmering cut tortillas into very thin slices and toast under low broil until crunchy. Set aside as garnish.

Serve soup with more fresh cilantro, the diced avocado, toasted tortilla strips and lime wedges.

Makes about 6 quarts.

Kombucha Day 110

2010-06-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

Really, I should have been posting more often about the kombucha. The thing is, it has gone so smoothly, so effortlessly that the posts would have been something like this:

Kombucha brewing, bottled, etc. No issues. Still brewing with Oolong tea.

That's really been about it. For all my trepidation at the start this has been amazingly easy and has me considering trying other home brewing as well (ginger beer). I've been easily coming up with 3 liters every 5-6 days and keeping both myself and my Mom in good supply.

There have been a few interesting things I've learned and they all have to do with brew time. The brewing is best at 5-7 days MAX. I did one batch at a 9 day brew and it was pretty vinegar-esque and required the addition of a lot of fruit juice to render palatable. A week is the most it should stay in, but at the 5-6 day mark it is still a light, effervescent, very slightly tart drink. In that time frame I've come to really enjoy a big pint glass of it.

Now where am I at?

Well, the mother has acquired strata - layers upon layers of new culture growing.

This has been so amazingly successful that I've reached out to my Portland friends to see who wants to brew at home. Even Christie has expressed a wee bit of interest through her absolute horror at the mother "tea mushroom".

I also want to start to branch out to adding flavors to the bottles when I pour off a batch. I'm doing some reading on using fresh juice (e.g., ginger) and perhaps some fruit pulp. Need to research this a bit.

In the meantime today I poured off a batch. Interesting to note that for the first time I didn't get a little over 3 liters. I would have, but I've been leaving about a liter of brewed kombucha in the jar when I add the new tea and I would have only had about half a liter left. That might not be so bad, I believe that's how much commercial kombucha I used to start the culture going.

What's curious is where the tea went? It has been warmer & dryer in Portland (finally), so perhaps it is evaporating a bit more quickly? Does the huge culture consume more of the tea? Not sure, we'll see how the next batch goes.

Today's excitement was separating off two of the top-most layers of the mother culture for friends. This is how I got going, with a piece off the culture tended up at Great Vow, and it feels really cool passing on this culture to new people.

And here's one more crazy close up of the 110 day old culture floating in kombucha.

Organics to You - June 28, 2010

2010-06-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

Today is a day of massive fridge cleaning. We've been over run with deliveries, supplemental things we've picked up and farmers market finds. Combine all of that with some eating out and we're once again filling up the compost bin!

That said, here's today's box full of goodies:

a head of red leaf lettuce
kale
garlic spears
broccoli
a cucumber
green onions
peas
celery
10 red potatoes
3 yams
2 bulbs of garlic
cherries
blueberries
3 nectarines
5 apricots
cilantro

In the fridge:

green leaf lettuce
4 avocados (thrilled to learn that putting a ripe avocado in the fridge will let it sit for quite a while before getting around to using)
1 cucumber
some garlic
2 shallot
some onions
kale
chard
celery
green cabbage
5 apples
broccoli
head of cauliflower
2 bulbs of fennel
carrots
red beets
radishes
4 zucchini
5 grapefruit
4 mangoes
a lemon
4 limes
3 peaches
3 plums
3 pluots
2 apricots
1 plantain
several red & orange bell peppers
2 small daikon
several bananas
2 pints strawberries
medium sized jicama
1 tomato
young Walla Walla onions
3 red bell peppers
1 orange bell pepper
ginger
cherries
4 pints of blueberries
1/2 pint of raspberries
russet potatoes
red potatoes
yams
green peas (from our garden - yeah!)

The Compost Pail of Shame (what we didn't use and had to compost):

piles of lettuce
bunches of spinach
a little cilantro
some basil
sunchokes
bits of green pepper
some broccoli
4 ears of corn
a mango

Even more terrifying looking at it all written out...

OK, just how to cope with all this produce? Here's the ideas I've got, I'm grateful we have a party this weekend to help with the produce :)

Raw kale salad will use up the 2 bunches of kale easily
Tortilla soup (cilantro, zucchini, limes, carrots, celery, aromatics)
Jicama Salad (if it is still in good shape when I go to peel)
potato salad for the 4th of July
Miso Udon Stew (broccoli, carrots, shallot)
Daikon & Carrot Salad
Garlic spear pesto
Lots of fruit salad
Cabbage & Pea salad
Big stir-fry (more broccoli, chard, greens from garden)
Big green salad for the 4th of July

Organics to You - June 14, 2010

2010-06-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Missed last week's post due to the crazy busyness of getting ready for Open Source Bridge. We'd thought last week we'd come home and cook some, but were wrong. This week we have a crazy surplus of produce in the house including the contents of this week's box:

2 heads of red leaf lettuce
1 bunch of spinach
garlic spears
2 ears corn
a cucumber
asparagus
baby broccoli
bunch of carrots
6 Russet potatoes
2 yams
2 bulbs of garlic
1 avocado
2 nectarines
3 fuji apples
2 peaches
2 mangoes
bunch of basil

In the fridge:

Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) - yep, these are still there and STILL might be OK
red leaf lettuce
piles of spinach
6 avocados
1 cucumber
2 bulbs garlic
several onions
2 ears of corn
collards
celery
green cabbage
1/2 apple
some broccoli
head of cauliflower
2 bulbs of fennel
carrots
red beets
radishes
6 grapefruit
4 oranges
2 lemons
4 limes
2 nectarines
several red & orange bell peppers
2 small daikon
several bananas
Pounds of Hood/Honeoye strawberries
medium sized jicama
3 tomatoes

The Compost Pail of Shame (what we didn't use and had to compost):

cucumber
some lettuce
cilantro

We are still rather awash in produce! I tried to make some real veggie rich dishes last week to help use up some of the surplus. Between that and the gift of house guests who like veggie dishes we are making some headway. The garden is getting underway and I haven't listed the pounds of kale, mustard greens, bok choi and chard that are out there waiting for me to pick them and do something interesting. Oh yes, and lots of peas too. As things really start to produce we may need to stagger boxes to every other week, perhaps even pausing completely until late autumn?

This week -- I think I've been over thinking the whole making of saag and am going to give it a try. Christie's favorite Indian dish is aloo saag (potatoes with spinach) and since her birthday is coming up I thought it would be good to try it out. I am thinking of adding in some pieces of seared tofu as a kind of saag paneer, vegan style. The broccoli, garlic spears and asparagus will most likely become yet another stir-fry. The peppers were picked up to make fajitas this week and I think I'll make a huge pile of guacamole (freezing some) to use up the avocados.

Umbrian Inspired Favas

2010-06-08T20:44:00.001-07:00

Organics to You has been bringing us fresh fava beans for a few weeks now and I've repeatedly put them into a green bag in the fridge until I figure out what to do with this new produce. Tonight I finally decided to cook up the pile of them as inspired by a recipe I found online for an Umbrian fava bean stew, Scafata. I didn't have the ingredients exactly so I winged it quite a bit (so no exact recipe, just technique follows).

The result was very tasty! Here's a rough outline of what I used and did:

Roughly 3 pounds of unshelled, fresh Favas were used in the dish. I combined them with a small onion, 3 cloves of garlic, a small bunch of green garlic spears, a bulb of fennel, and 2 large stalks of celery. The onion was sauteed in olive oil along with the bulb garlic, then the celery, fennel, green garlic and the shelled beans. Once they all got going nicely and the fennel was softened a little I layered the chopped kale on top then topped it with a lid.

Once the kale began to wilt a little I added some thinly sliced, fresh sage and basil. I tossed everything together carefully to get the kale and herbs down into the rest of the veggies, then covered again. I added a splash of Vinho Verde we had on hand since it seemed like a little more moisture would help and covered again.

After the kale had fully softened I added some dried dill and marjoram (didn't have fresh, seems like thyme would be nice too) as well as salt and pepper. At this time I diced up 3 tomatoes and tossed them in. Given that the original recipe comes for Italy I decided to add some champagne vinegar as well as some balsamic & fig vinegar.

Simmer on low until the outside of the beans was tender - total cooking time was a little over an hour since it takes a while for the skins of the fresh favas to get tender. I served this with some garlic/pepper tempeh braised with balsamic vinegar.

Totally delicious and I'll certainly make again!

creamy and nutty greens soup!

2010-06-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

our lovely portland spring has inspired more soup-making than usual for this time of year. i had to share this recipe - i found variations of it on several websites and tweaked it to my liking. it's soooooo good, vegan, and gluten-free (if made with quinoa only)!

CREAMY AND NUTTY GREENS SOUP

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup lentils
1/2 cup brown rice or quinoa or combo
1/2 cup onion or leeks, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic (or more to taste)
4 Tbsp olive oil (or combo with canola oil)
2 tsp sesame oil
bunch of greens (i like kale and chard together - be sure not to use the stalks)
5-7 cups water
1-2 cubes veggie bouillon

SPICES
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp of chili powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp of sea salt, to taste
(you could use 2 tsp cumin in lieu of cinnamon and chili powder)

TAHINI DRESSING
1 to 3 Tbsp tahini or creamy peanut butter
2 Tbsp flax oil (optional)
Bragg's Liquid Aminos to taste

Wash greens and chop finely.

Add olive oil to a pre-heated soup pot on medium temperature. Once oil is hot, add onions/leeks and garlic and cook until soft. Add spices, being careful to blend well. Then add lentils and rice/quinoa and stir well. Add chopped greens and mix.

Add water and bouillon to about 1/2 inch above all your goodies. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Simmer on low for 45 minutes.

While the soup is cooking, combine tahini/PB, flax oil and Bragg's; mix until texture is smooth and creamy. When the soup is ready, puree with the instrument of your choice, until the texture is how you like it. Mix in tahini/PB dressing well.

Organics to You - June 7, 2010

2010-06-07T17:02:00.001-07:00

2 heads of red leaf lettuce
2 bunches spinach
asparagus
fresh fava beans
radishes
bunch of carrots
6 Russet potatoes
6 tomatoes
2 avocados
4 nectarines
2 apples
2 tangerines
a small cantaloupe
1 bulb of garlic

In the fridge:

Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) - yep, these are still there and STILL might be OK
red leaf lettuce
4 avocados
a small zucchini
2 cucumbers
1 bulb of shallot
2 bulbs garlic
half a large, yellow onion
fresh fava beans
collards
celery
baby bok choy
Napa cabbage
green cabbage
kale
3 apples
some broccoli
little bit of cauliflower
3 bulbs of fennel
garlic spears
asparagus
carrots
red beets
turnips
radishes
6 grapefruit
2 oranges
2 lemons
2 limes
1 plum
bell pepper
2 small daikon
several bananas
6 pints of Hood/Tillamook strawberries
medium sized jicama
cilantro

The Compost Pail of Shame (what we didn't use and had to compost):

4 bananas
some lettuce

We are awash in produce! Still getting more in the fruit category from the market to supplement the box. We picked the half-flat of berries this past Saturday out at the Bella Organics Berry Farm on Sauvie Island. I managed to make a couple of dishes using a lot of produce including a stir-fry with asparagus & garlic spears as well as a hearty stew that included asparagus, garlic spears, chard, shelling peas, carrots, celery and various beans.

With the pile of spinach I am leaning toward making a Korean wilted spinach dish that is often served with bibimbap. Christie has requested a carrot/daikon salad - perhaps served with a miso stew? Stir-fried veggies will certainly happen. I also want to do a jicama, lime & cilantro salad. I spotted a tasty sounding Moroccan stew using fresh fava beans, so that's up for this week too.

Kale & Chickpea Salad

2010-05-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

This is not the recipe, I have to recreate this one. This post is just the food porn about how good this salad turned out! I wanted a nice salad, but something that would be very hearty for dinner. I've had some raw kale salads in the past and really wanted to give another go for one.

What I had was green curly kale, golden beets, carrots, chick peas, red quinoa, fresh basil, and a young Walla Walla onion. I shredded all the veggies up fine and put everything into a bowl to toss. I actually shredded up the kale very fine first and tossed it with apple cider vinegar while I worked on the other veggies.

In the dressing department I discovered we were out of tahini so I soaked about half a cup of raw cashews in hot water for several minutes. I put these into the food processor along with a bulb of raw garlic, balsamic vinegar, white wine vinegar, fine flake nutritional yeast, and some other dried herbs. Everything was processed until quite smooth and then poured over all the veggies, chick peas & quinoa.

Toss well, coating everything, serve and and bask in the appreciative compliments. This got even better the next day or two. Will be recreating this very soon with a full recipe!

Sauteed Greens with Zucchini Pasta

2010-05-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

Last week for dinner one evening we had and excellent dish of shallot, sauteed with mustard greens and tempeh. Served this over zucchini "pasta", topped with marinara and finely sliced basil. This was a simple dish that came together quickly and was extremely tasty! This could be made to serve 3 if each person gets a little less zucchini or another one is used.

The Stuff

1 medium shallot, sliced fine
1 8 oz. package tempeh, crumbled
1 good sized bunch mustard greens, stemmed & shredded
3 small zucchini, julienne cut into small, thin ribbons
8 oz. marinara (we used some from Muir Glen)
Leaves from one stem of fresh basil, chiffonade
1 T olive oil
salt & pepper

The Making

Drizzle about 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a hot skillet. Saute shallot on medium-high heat until it begins to darken, add tempeh. Continue to saute until the tempeh begins to turn mostly golden. Salt & pepper to taste while tempeh is browning. Reduce heat to low, add mustard greens, and cover with lid. Continue to toss greens with tempeh and shallot every couple of minutes, returning lid between stirs, until greens are fully wilted.

While tempeh & greens are cooking bring a small saucepan of water to boil. When water is at full boil add julienne zucchini "pasta". Blanch for 4 minutes, remove from heat, drain. Dish equally onto two plates.

Divide greens & tempeh mix up equally between both plates of zucchini and top the "pasta". Add some heated marinara and top with finely sliced, fresh basil.

Organics to You - May 24, 2010

2010-05-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hmm... not a lot of fruit in today's box from Organics to You, excepting the tomatoes and avocados:

green leaf lettuce
spinach
asparagus
fresh fava beans
fresh shelling peas
radishes
bunch of carrots
5 tomatoes
3 avocados
2 cucumbers
fennel bulb
broccoli
shallots
2 bulbs garlic
basil
cilantro

In the fridge:

Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) - oddly enough these are still there and might be OK
green leaf lettuce
half an avocado
a few small zucchini
2 cucumbers
several bulbs of shallot
2 bulbs garlic
large, yellow onion
fresh fava beans
collards
baby cauliflower
2 red velvet apricots
2 d'anjou pears
some broccoli
a bulb of fennel
2 young Walla Walla onions
carrots
red beets
turnips
radishes
red Bibb lettuce
ginger
1 yam
4 grapefruit
6 oranges
2 mangoes
2 lemons
6 apples
2 kiwi
4 wrinkled peaches - these just didn't ripen nice last week
several bananas
a few pints of Hood strawberries

The Compost Pail of Shame (what we didn't use and had to compost):

2 bananas

We have been looking at what we eat and have noticed our tendency to not each much fruit combined with our shared sweet tooth and eating out a lot. The result is the decision to limit out eating out and limit sweets for special occasions. Last week I even made up a batch of almond cupcakes with almond icing and didn't have one!

The result has been the purchase of quite a lot more fruit and supplementary veggies for big salads. We found last week's green lettuce a little bitter and bought several heads of delicious, delicate red Bibb lettuce a the farmers market on Saturday along with a half flat of Hood strawberries, beautiful radishes, and snow peas (immediately went into a gingery stir-fry). We've been using a lot more veggies in all the lunch/dinner/snack dishes as well as a lot more fruit showing up at breakfast and for snacks.

We tried to supplement some things that looked like they were coming with a shopping trip to New Seasons yesterday, however, it somewhat backfired as several items did show up in the box. Now we have a surplus of garlic, radishes and cucumbers!

Organics to You - May 17, 2010

2010-05-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

Today's box from Organics to You:

green leaf lettuce
radishes
5 small zucchini
several bulbs of shallot
fresh fava beans
broccoli
asparagus
a bulb of fennel
fresh basil
2 d'anjou pears
an avocado
3 Fuji apples
4 oranges
4 peaches

In the fridge:

Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) - oddly enough these are still there and might be OK
Romaine lettuce
young Walla Walla onions
mustard greens
green, curly kale
a carrot
ginger
2 yams
4 grapefruit
4 oranges
2 lemons
2 kiwi

The Compost Pail of Shame (what we didn't use and had to compost):

a lot got composted right before we went out of town
some tomatoes
some citrus
cilantro
mint

We went out of town for a week, across two weeks, so I had the delivery suspended for those two weeks. The one before I just ran out of time and didn't get stuff posted up. Some of the produce in the house already was purchased by either Christie or I as we got back into town. We're looking forward to some nice salads for lunches and some more stir-fry dinners. Not sure what to do with the fava beans, but I'll be finding out!

Organics to You - April 19, 2010

2010-04-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

Today's box from Organics to You:

carrots
radishes
collards
green, curly kale
broccoli
2 leeks
red potatoes
salad greens
3 kiwis
an avocado
3 Fuji apples
2 Atalufo mangoes
2 oranges
2 stalks rhubarb

From last week the fridge still contains:

radishes
3 yams
Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)
a red beets & greens
a lot of celery
3 stalks of rhubarb
Romaine lettuce
salad greens
turnip greens
spinach
2 leeks
several small zucchini
a lot of gold potatoes
some rainbow carrots
several apples
several pears
2 Honeygold grapefruit
2 kiwis
2 tangerines

Supplemental produce in the house:

3 Meyer lemons
a lime
garlic

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

a yellow bell pepper
a mango
a lemon
2 artichokes (for which I feel considerable shame - they were really beautiful)

I'm surprised there isn't a bigger compost list. Perhaps it will grow considerably next week? Christie was in San Francisco most of the week and I realized that on weeks like that we should suspend the Organics to You deliveries! Some hash, some soup, and lots of collard wraps! We have a lot of produce on hand already with this week's delivery in the fridge.

Tonight I made a hash and I think there will be more collard wraps instead of bread for sandwiches. I believe I need to make more sauce out of some of the fruit. Perhaps miso udon stew again, with the broccoli.

Organics to You - April 12, 2010

2010-04-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

Today's box from Organics to You:

Romaine lettuce
salad greens
baby turnips w/greens
asparagus
radishes
baby red beets w/greens
raab
rapini
collards
more celery
kale
4 small zucchini
3 yams
orange carrots
3 Pink Lady apples
3 d'Anjou pears
2 Honeygold grapefruit
3 tangerines

From last week the fridge still contains:

2 artichokes
Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)
a red beets
some garlic
a lot of celery
3 stalks of rhubarb
some green lettuce
1 and a half yellow onions
spinach
kale
3 leeks
bunch of chives
several small zucchini
a lot of gold potatoes
some rainbow carrots
several apples
several pears
a Honeygold grapefruit
3 kiwis
an Ataulfo mango

Supplemental produce in the house:

4 Meyer lemons
2 lemons
a lime
a yellow bell pepper

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

beet greens
some salad greens
a tomato
parsley
cilantro
half an avocado

Last week saw some progress with a shepherd's pie helping out with mirepoix, zucchini and potatoes. Another savoy bread pudding helped with even more mirepoix, kale and some zucchini. This week might be challenging since Christie is on business travel most of the week. I may need to invite people over or take food to people! I'm thinking of some veggie heavy stir-fries and lots of raw turnips, radishes & celery sticks with hummus!

Organics to You - April 5, 2010

2010-04-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I forgot about the delivery until it was close time for me to leave to pick up Christie and go to a friends' seder dinner. I totally blew putting in the last delivery. Starting over again with today's box from Organics to You:

spinach
salad greens
red kale
a leek
bunch of chives
5 small zucchini
gold potatoes
rainbow carrots
3 Rainer apples
3 d'Anjou pears
2 Honeygold grapefruit
3 kiwis
an Ataulfo mango

From last week the fridge still contains:

2 artichokes
a few carrots
fingerling potatoes
Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)
2 small Russet potatoes
gold potatoes
2 red beets
some garlic
2 grapefruit
2 Mineola tangerines
a lot of celery
rhubarb
braising greens
a kiwi
5 pears
5 apples
2 leeks
beet greens
green lettuce
cilantro
2 onions
half avocado
half onion
red curly kale

Supplemental produce in the house:

4 Meyer lemons
2 navel oranges
5 bananas
parsley
a shallot
a yellow bell pepper

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

green curly kale
Romaine lettuce
an avocado (oh the shame of it all)
a few Chioggia beets
an eggplant

Last week shows what happens when we don't end up eating at home as much - more went into the compost pile unused and we have a lot of produce already on hand. The star of last week were the collard greens used in a seder friendly dish first, then the leftovers incorporated into a superb final dish that I'll be writing a recipe for: Collard green rolls stuffed with red quinoa, bell peppers, collards & BBQ Anasazi beans. Baked on top of more shredded collards and a tomato & corn sauce.

We have pounds of potatoes - I'm thinking I'll make a shepherd's pie (great chance to write out a recipe too) for Wednesday. Christie & I have a meeting on Wednesday so it would be nice to come home to a warm, potato-y casserole. Christie has also requested to savory kale bread pudding and since we have a lot of kale I'm thinking I need a stale baguette!

Savory Kale Bread Pudding

2010-03-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

A couple of blocks from our house lives a neighbor who runs a catering business. Christie & I were out for an evening stroll last week and ran into the neighbor as she arrived home after an event. She greeted us with a baguette in her arms, asking us if we wanted one. We said sure and as we walked we ate a few bites off the top. The rest came home, went onto the counter and promptly went stale & hard.

Usually at this point the compost pile is involved, but this time I thought I'd try out an idea for savory bread pudding. It turned out fantastic and Christie asked me to jot down a recipe.

The custard for this is based directly on a recipe from the Fat Free Vegan blog site for Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches. This is a fantastic recipe we've made several variations of, mostly because we don't like mushrooms, so we always wing the ingredients to fit something we'd enjoy more. I'd wondered for some time if I could adapt the tofu custard for other purposes so it immediately came to mind as a way to make the bread pudding.
The Stuff

1 stale baguette, coarsely cut up
1 medium bunch of kale, washed, stemmed & shredded
1/2 medium red onion, diced small
1 medium carrot, diced small
1 stalk of celery, diced small
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 12.3-ounce packages lite firm silken tofu, drained of water
1/2 cup plain soymilk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons tahini
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
sweet paprika

The Making

Preheat oven to 375.

In a skillet heat the olive oil and saute onion until they begin to soften, add garlic and continue sauteing until the garlic and onion begin to caramelize. Add in celery and carrots and saute until they begin to soften. Add kale, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Continue to cook, turning occasionally, until kale is softened. Remove from heat. Put coarsely chopped up bread and sauteed vegetables into a large mixing bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients into a blender. Process until mixture is completely smooth, occasionally scraping down the sides to be sure everything is incorporated. Pour this mixture over the bread and vegetables. Mix all ingredients together, making sure bread is coated with custard.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with canola oil. Pour bread, custard and vegetable mixture into dish. Lightly press down so that the pan is evenly filled. Lightly dust top with sweet paprika.

Put pan into the oven and immediately reduce heat to 350. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and cool before cutting and serving with a lovely salad.

Organics to You - March 22, 2010

2010-03-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

spinach
collards!!
asparagus
a yellow onion
a big leek
Russet potatoes
a bunch of cilantro
green leaf lettuce
orange carrots
3 Rainer apples
3 d'Anjou pears
2 Honeygold grapefruit
3 Mineola tangerines
an avocado (looks Haas-like)

From last week the fridge still contains:

2 artichokes
Romaine lettuce
a few carrots
fingerling potatoes
Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)
an eggplant
several potatoes
a few Chioggia beets
some garlic
3 grapefruit
2 Mineola tangerines

Christie has been making more smoothies so we have some supplemental produce in the house from New Seasons as well as a treat from the Farmers Market, which opened for the seasons this past Saturday on a gloriously sunny first day of spring!

Romaine lettuce
7 navel oranges
6 bananas
a Haas avocado
5 Roma tomatoes
Brussel sprouts rabe
parsley
shallots

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

Spinach (Ugh, two weeks in a row! I mean it is spinach, it isn't that hard to figure out what to do with it!)

Last week saw 5 qts & 2 pts of fruit sauce!! With all the kiwis in it (at least a half dozen) the end result looked like freckles in the blondish sauce of pears and apples. I believe some of this will go in the fridge or I'll set up the boiling bath to fully preserve a few of the jars. I did take pictures of this and will post about it. The mix of pears, apples and kiwis is really nice.

I also made a stir fry with asparagus, broccoli and fried tofu. Other quick, easy meals included pasta, veggies & tempeh crumbles over polenta and a hash made with potatoes, onions, broccoli rabe from the Farmers Market served with tempeh bacon. The Bacon avocado was divine and I made raw, sunseed pate from it.

While walking one evening last week a neighbor handed us as a baugette as we passed her place. She does catering had just come home from an event with extras. It meant we ended up with a stale, mostly whole loaf in the house so I experimented with a savory bread pudding that included kale, mirepoix, garlic, fresh parsley, dried herbs in a custard of silken tofu, tahini & cornstarch. It was pretty fabulously good and I will post the recipe.

This week has some trickiness to it since Christie and I have things going on every evening through Wednesday and Thursday we be on a trip. Now, I could leave leftovers for the friends who will be house sitting, but I'm not 100% they'll want them! I do have several dishes I am going to be cooking ahead on Tuesday & Wednesday to take with us, that will use up some of the ingredients.

Cooking for Mom is tricky since she is allergic to some nuts and somewhat soy-sensitive. She's also a bit picky and not entirely adventurous when it comes to food. The menu for the weekend will include:

Marvelous lentil quinoa nut loaf with mashed potatoes & miso shallot gravy (using chickpea miso)
Tostadas with re-fried black beans
Bean soup or perhaps a stir-fry with Aduki beans

Kombucha Day 7

2010-03-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

After seven days of brewing there was a distinct, apple-cider vinegar like scent coming from the glass jar. There were also a lot of bubbles and a new child culture forming on top of the mother culture I'd obtained from Jordan.

I did a taste test with a clean spoon and the result was tangy, not too strong, still a little sweet. I decided to go ahead and try making a new batch of sweet tea and bottling the brewed kombucha.

Here's everything ready to go. The two cultures have been removed to a clean plate. I have a water pitcher to pour kombucha into and 3 clean bottles (recycled Dragonfly Chai bottles) ready to fill.

Here's a nice close up shot of the child culture that has been growing on top of the original mother culture.

The kombucha filled the 3 bottles right up to the top with enough left over to keep the batch going as well as a glass for me to try. After having a glass full I realized it was still pretty sweet, perhaps it could have brewed for a couple of extra days? From what I've read on line the brewing can take anywhere from 5 days to two weeks at which time most of the sweetness should be gone.

The bottles will sit for at least 5 days to mature in flavor. Sometime next week I'll be opening them up to try it out.

Sunseed Pate

2010-03-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

This raw pate is served at Proper Eats in St. Johns. Christie & I order it nearly every time we're there. Piper, one of the owners, wrote down a recipe for me on one visit.

The Stuff

3/4 cup soaked, raw sunflower seeds (soaked at least 6 hours)
1 ripe avocado
1 Tablespoon sundried tomato (optional)
3 Tablespoons raw tahini
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
3/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup water (may need more or less depending upon desired consistency)

The Making

Pulse soaked seeds, avocado, tahini, spices, lemon juice and tomato in a food processor to incorporate roughly. Add in water a little at a time and keep processing until you have
a smooth consistency.

Serve with pear and apple wedges, veggies, raw crackers, etc.

Raw Almond Pate

2010-03-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

This is a variation a recipe served at the late Veganopolis. I enjoyed this so much I started looking for it to make at home, especially now that Veganopolis is no longer in Portland.

The Stuff

1/2-2/3 cup unblanched whole almonds (raw)
2 stalks of celery
3 spring onions (green onions)
1 carrot
lemon juice from half a lemon
1/2 tsp. dulse or snipped up nori
dash of cayenne pepper powder (or more to taste)
sprinkle of sea salt
1/2 tsp. raw apple cider vinegar (optional)

The Making

Soak the almonds at least overnight (changing the water every 12 hours), then drain

Roughly chop the celery, onions and carrot. Add vegetables and soaked almonds into a blender or food processor and process until smooth.

Add lemon juice to taste, mix in dulse/nori and seasonings.

Makes a great dip for fresh veggies or crackers, or as a wrap filling

Organics to You March 15, 2010

2010-03-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

spinach
green kale
asparagus
a yellow onion
green cabbage
yellow & orange carrots
fingerling potatoes
a big avocado
Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)
little Chioggia beets
3 apples
3 pears
2 grapefruit
5 tangerines

From last week the fridge still contains:

2 artichokes
Romaine lettuce
some broccoli
carrots
a yam
an eggplant
several potatoes
beets
1 yellow onion
1 red onion
some garlic
a whole lot of apples
too many pears
many kiwis
2 honey gold grapefruit
2 Orlando tangerines

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

Spinach

Thank goodness for the Interwebs and information on how to store & cook the sunchokes, totally a new veggie in the house for us. We have an embarrassing number of apples, pears & kiwis - Christie has suggested cooking them all together for another fresh batch sauce, it has become a favorite sweet snack for her. I'm pondering the rather large number of carrots and considering if there's enough to do some soup with them. I really like puréed carrot soups, so this might be a possibility. Might be a simple cabbage stir-fry this week or perhaps a borsht with the leftover red beets & and cabbage.

Miso Shallot Gravy

2010-03-13T09:38:00.000-08:00

Honestly, I really don't like mushrooms. I may be willing to use some shitakes in making my dashi, but generally I don't have much like for them. That said, the endless list of mushroom based gravies haven't exactly inspired me. I like gravy, but I don't really want mushroomy stuff. This past autumn, in time for all the mashed potato goodness of Thanksgiving I came up with the following gravy. Finally, here is the recipe (didn't realize I hadn't posted it yet).

The Stuff

1 good sized shallot, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup soy milk
2 Tablespoons white or red miso
Fresh pepper

The Making

Heat a sauce pan over medium-high heat and add olive oil. When oil is hot add minced shallot and fry in oil until well caramelized. In a small dish combine soy milk and flour, whisk well to make sure they are combined. Pour slowly into oil and caramelized shallots, reduce heat to medium-low and whisk to incorporate. Add in miso, whisking it in well, and freshly ground pepper. Let continue to simmer, whisking occasionally, until the gravy is a desired thickness.

A nice variation is to add in 1/4 cup of chopped up, fresh parsley at the end. This is wonderfully tasty.

Too thick? Add a little more soy milk, slowly.

Too thin? Sprinkle in more flour, a little at a time, and whisk well until it it the desired thickness.

**Update as of September 22, 2010**

I have made this using brown rice flour in place of wheat as well as rice milk in place of soy - making this gravy both gluten and soy free.

I've also tried this using only a little spray canola oil to saute the scallions and no additional oil. This has worked just perfectly as well and makes for a almost fat-free gravy!

Home-Brewed Kombucha - Day 1

2010-03-11T17:54:00.001-08:00

That's right! A bold new step into living the hippe-vegan stereotype... Home brewing kombucha!

The first few times I was offered kombuha I didn't really care for it. Too vinegary. Too funky tasting. Generally not very tasty.

I've been liking it quite a bit this past year, it has certainly improved into a tasty beverage. There are a few good varieties at markets around town and get some once in a while. A few places are putting it on tap around Portland, haven't checked out this yet. I really like a particular brand that I only get a couple of places around town, Kombucha Wonder Drink (Asian Pear, yum).

Last month I had some awesome homemade kombucha out at Great Vow Zen Monastery. After talking to the brewer, Jordan, I was encouraged to give it a try at home. He generously packed up a piece of his mother culture into a bag and it is been residing in the fruit crisper drawer for about a month now. I'm hoping it is still active, the cold should have kept it dormant. If not, I'm going to go out to Great Vow a week from Sunday and can always ask for another piece.

Shopping with Mom on the 5th I picked up a very large glass jar with a lid (which I won't be using since it needs to breathe). She also requested that I give it a try, she recalled it being beneficial to her one of the times she had cancer. Today's the day I decided to get going, cleaned the kitchen up and got out the supplies.

I'm following Jordan's advice as well as guidance from a recipe on the Get Kombucha site.

Into the jar I've got:

3 liters + 1 glass (8oz aprox.) water that was brought to a boil and cooled.
1 liter sweet tea made with Wuyi Oolong from Tao of Tea and 1 1/3 cups evaporated cane juice
1 piece of Jordan's mother culture
400ml of Kombucha Wonder Drink made with Oolong tea.

We'll see in 5 days if I've got my own kombucha brewing or nastiness in which case I'll get a new piece of culture and start over.

Organics to You March 8, 2010

2010-03-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

Today's box, with the promise of spring, from Organics to You contains:

small bundle of asparagus
2 artichokes
bunch of carrots
Romaine lettuce
red beets
Yellow potatoes
bunch of spinach
2 honey gold grapefruit
2 Orlando tangerines
3 Gold Blush apples
3 Bosc pears
a lovely eggplant
a yellow onion
an avocado

From last week the fridge still contains:

some broccoli
carrots
2 yams
leeks
a lot of potatoes
beets
parsnips
1 yellow onion
1 red onion
head of garlic
little bit of celery
12 apples
10 pears
4 kiwi

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

Spinach
an orange that went moldy in less than a week
half an avocado I'd missed in the back of the veggie drawer

This past weekend saw another fresh citrus juice fest as we used up all of the citrus in the house. Are now looking forward to this - Monday's citrus delivery becomes Saturday or Sunday morning fresh juice.

I find that we have a lot of beets and carrots so a shredded salad with both of them shall show up this week. I have plans for sweet & sour broccoli with tofu skins for dinner tonight. The lentil quinoa nut loaf was requested, served with some mashed potatoes will help out with getting those eaten. The sheer number of apples & pears indicates the need to make up some more chunky fruit sauce. We've both been enjoying that plain or added to oatmeal, so it will be a good way to process the fruit. The eggplant and parsnips are tricky since Christie doesn't actually care much for either of the, particularly the eggplant. I may roast or grill these up and have on hand for my lunches this week.

Quick & Easy Stir Fry Dinner

2010-03-08T07:45:00.000-08:00

I really file this one under the category of "Too Easy to Need a Recipe", however, I've been reminded repeatedly that to people who don't cook as often and/or do not have the level of experience & confidence that I do in the kitchen, this dish does not appear easy. In light of that, here's my favorite stir-fry with a few variations.

This does require some Asian ingredients. These can often be found at your "regular" market, however, if you have an Asian community it is worth the trek to an Asian market for these ingredients so that you have them on hand. They will be far less expensive and you'll also have the chance to shop for lovely things like steamed rice buns stuffed with mustard greens (or pumpkin, tofu & celery, etc.), delicious Asian veggies & fresh herbs including bamboo shoots in water (as opposed to canned/pickled), dried tofu skin, and other great things you won't find in an American market.

The Shopping List

Hoisin Sauce (often mistakenly referred to as "plum sauce", this is a must-have)
Mushroom Sauce (a.k.a. "vegetarian oyster sauce")
Sweet Chili Sauce
Mirin (a sweet cooking wine)
White Miso
Rice Vinegar
Seasoned Rice Vinegar (a.k.a. "Sushi Vinegar")
Sriracha (a.k.a. "Rooster Sauce")
Peanut Oil
Tomato Paste in a Tube

The Stuff

This is where you can truly be creative. Stir-fries and soup are the best way to use up the veggies you have on hand. Some work better than others, but if you just choose an assortment of what you have on hand and know you enjoy, the dish will be delicious.

Plan on having 3 or more cups of vegetables sliced or diced into relatively small, bite-size pieces. If you are using a kind of green that will cook down you will want to use at least 3 cups of the fresh greens cleaned that have been shredded/tore roughly. Consider using some of the following:

carrots
celery
beets (roots & greens)
chard (stems removed, diced and sauteed ahead of the greens)
kale
spinach
broccoli (crowns & stems)
rapini
rabe (broccoli, Brussel sprouts, etc.)
snow peas with pods
green beans
cauliflower
bell peppers
daikon
winter squash
summer squash
bok choi
...getting the idea here?
Add some aromatics:
- onion
- leek
- garlic
- shallot
- ginger
- Thai basil (e.g., Siam Queen basil)
- Shiso leaves
- Kefir lime leaves (for a very Thai flavor)
- fresh coriander (cilantro)
- fresh chilies

Then pick one of the following:
- 8 oz firm or extra firm tofu, cubed
- 8 oz tempeh, cubed
- 8 oz aduki beans, chick peas or other legume

The Making

Several variations here for you to experiment with. All, variations start by heating a tablespoon each of canola and peanut oils in a wok on medium high (use all canola if you have a peanut allergy). When oil is hot and forms ribbons on the bottom of the wok add in the onions. As the onions start to soften, about 3 minutes, add in garlic and/or shallot. If you are using leeks instead of onions saute the garlic and/or shallots first and add leeks when the garlic starts to soften. If you want to use fresh ginger, add it a minute after the garlic/shallot. If you are using tofu or tempeh, add it in next and stir-fry until some of the sides turn slightly golden.

Add in vegetables to onions and stir-fry at medium high for a few minutes. Reduce heat to medium low, add 2 tablespoons of water, and cover with lid. If you are using greens, do not add these in yet. Let the vegetables cook for 5 minutes, remove lid and stir. If they have brightened and have started to soften any greens can be added in next. If you are using legumes like aduki or chick peas, add them in too. Toss well and then add one of the sauce variations below:

Basic Stir-fry

Add 2 tablespoons each of hoisin and mushroom sauces and a dash of vinegar. Toss well with vegetables, cover and let cook on low for 5 more minutes. Nice served with Thai basil or fresh coriander as a garnish.

This variation reminds me a little of the basic brown sauce seen in some Vietnamese dishes, particularly if I caramelize the onions & garlic a bit first.

Sweet & Sour

Whisk together a tablespoon each of hoisin, mirin, vinegar, sweet chili sauce, water and tomato paste, add to vegetables, toss well, and cook on medium-low heat for 5 additional minutes. Toss vegetables in sauce often to help reduce liquid in sauce.

This has a more distinctly SE Asian flavor than a standard American/Chinese dish.

Thai-Style

*Kefir lime leaves should be added to the stir-fry when the vegetables are first added to any onion or garlic. Once the vegetables are tender, add 2 tablespoons each hoisin and mushroom sauces, a tablespoon sweet chili sauce, and the juice from half a lime. Toss well with vegetables, cover and let cook on low for 5 more minutes. Remove lime leaves before serving with Thai basil as garnish.

If you want to go extra crazy, chop up a stalk of lemongrass, smash with side of knife and add that in at the beginning as well. Remove chunks when the lime leaves come out.

Japanese Style

Whisk together a tablespoon each of tamari, mirin and white miso. Toss well with vegetables, cover and let cook on low for 5 more minutes. Garnish lightly with shiso leaves cut into very fine ribbons and furikake.

Kind of a sweet stir-fry as well. Also nice with a very small dash of sesame oil.

Serve stir-fry with brown rice, quinoa, steamed buns, rice noodles or just by itself. For 3-4 people.

Organics to You March 1, 2010

2010-03-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

chard
bunch of carrots
green curly kale
broccoli
red beets
4 Russet potatoes
parsnips
2 honey gold grapefruit
3 navel oranges
3 Enterprise apples
3 D'anjou pears
4 kiwis
a yellow onion
an avocado

From last week the fridge still contains:

red lettuce
some broccoli
carrots
2 yams
leeks
Russet potatoes
beets
1 yellow onion
1 red onion
head of garlic
little bit of celery
10 apples
7 green pears
2 honey gold grapefruit
2 blood oranges

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

Spinach
a few kiwis (oops)
a tangerine
some chard
bok choy (which went off surprisingly quickly)

Made a great stir-fry with the chard last week and fried onion tofu from Uwajimaya. On Saturday I made another huge scramble with broccoli, carrots, celery, potatoes and tofu - we fed a houseguest & ourselves Saturday plus had plenty leftover for Sunday breakfast. Sunday night I made the delicious potato, broccoli & fresh herb soup in Veganomicon - a great way to use up broccoli stems! I also made a huge amount of fresh squeezed juice on Saturday which helped us up the citrus we had around. We actually ended up eating out a lot last week, so we had a lot more go into the compost.

Tonight I'm making the ruby beet pockets as well as some broccoli & tofu stir-fry for dinner. There's a great rice casserole with chard in Veganomicon I'm going to try since we have the chard. Wednesday we'll be at Ignite, so eating at the Bagdad. I'm going to try to make some kind of hearty dish easy to take to the Dharma Center on Thursday for our monthly get-together with our practice cohort.

Organics to You February 22, 2010

2010-02-22T18:25:00.000-08:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

Rainbow chard
bunch of carrots
spinach
bok choy
broccoli
red beets
Russet potatoes
2 grapefruit
3 Mineola tangerines
3 Enterprise apples
3 Fuji apples
3 green pears
yellow onion
head of garlic

From last week the fridge still contains:

red lettuce
some broccoli
carrots
2 yams
leeks
Russet & red potatoes
spinach
chard
beets
2 yellow onions
2 red onions
2 Enterprise apples
4 green pears
4 honey tangerines
2 blood oranges

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

A beet that had gone moldy, one arrived kind of soft & I should have used it immediately
green kale

Made a great spaghetti sauce with tempeh, canned artichoke hearts and some spinach. Made a chick pea salad that included some celery and slightly caramelized red onions. I also made 5 pints of apple/pear sauce to use up the bulk of that fruit. We bought a good citrus juicer over the weekend, so there may be an uptick of fresh juice!

This week is a hectic, stressful week. Tonight I'm making miso udo stew, which we've both been craving. Might also be some more tostadas and a a few nice salads.

Miso Udon Stew

2010-02-21T15:30:00.000-08:00

This is the dish I came up with for our New Year's feast and have made a few times since. With a little advance preparation (having pre-made dashi on hand), this is a very quick to make, hearty meal.

The Stuff

1 tablespoons canola oil
1 medium shallot, diced fine
1 carrot, cut on bias in thin slices
1 medium head of broccoli, stem removed (and saved for later) and cut into small florets
A few pieces of wakame, snipped into small pieces
3 cups vegan dashi
1 cup water
1/3 cup red miso
8 oz fresh udon noodles
4 oz age tofu, sliced very thinly

The Making

In one soup pot bring water to boil and add udon noodles. Simmer udon noodles for time indicated on package. Noodles should still be quite firm. We have often use rice udon, obtained fresh from a SE Asian market, and like them a lot. When noodles are cooked, drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain well and put into bottom of soup bowls.

Saute shallot on medium-high heat in another soup pot with canola oil until softened and slightly browned, about 5 minutes or less. Add in dashi, water, carrots, broccoli florets, and wakame. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until vegetables are just tender, about 8 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add miso. Stir well to incorporate miso fully. Do not boil!

Top noodles with the thinly sliced age. Ladle hot miso broth and veggies over the noodles and tofu. Garnish your favorite type of Furikake, sesame seeds, and shredded shiso leaves, if you like, and serve immediately.

Organics to You February 15, 2010

2010-02-15T18:12:00.000-08:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

Huge, gorgeous head of red lettuce
some broccoli
A bunch of carrots
2 yams
1 leek
several Russet potatoes
spinach
chard
beets
1 big yellow onion
2 small red onions
2 Enterprise apples
4 green pears
4 honey tangerines
2 blood oranges

From last week the fridge still contains:

some lettuce
some broccoli stems
spinach
3 potatoes
some red beets
piles of apples
piles of pears
3 mandarins
several kiwis
celery
1 1/2 red onions
1 yellow onion
green, curly kale

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

A tangerine
green onions (really starting to think I should just ask that these not be included in our box)

Aloo gobi was made last week and between that and some roasted we used all of the cauliflower. A huge pot of split pea soup helped to use up more of the potatoes, celery and the carrots. Going to try to make us up some fresh apple/pear sauce to use up all of those, perhaps tonight. I also think there will be some fresh citrus juice this week. Salads will be in the week's line up. I'm also thinking of pasta with all the spinach.

Organics to You February 8, 2010

2010-02-08T18:18:00.000-08:00

I've been rather lax the past few weeks, just not as much time. Starting over again this week.

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

Head of Romaine lettuce
some broccoli
A bunch of carrots
2 enormous yellow potatoes
1 leek
celery
spinach
1 red onion
1 yellow onion
cauliflower
3 Enterprise apples
3 Bosc pears
3 red pears
3 Mandarins
4 kiwis

From last week the fridge still contains:

some lettuce
some broccoli
2 carrots
spinach
several potatoes
some red beets
piles of apples
2 Bosc pears
3 mandarins
several kiwis
celery
green onions
a red onion+
2 yellow onions
green, curly kale
head of cauliflower

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

A couple of oranges
some kale
some spinach
probably some other things, but I haven't kept track

In the past few weeks Christie has reminded me that fresh, squeezed OJ is a great way to use up an enormous pile of oranges & mandarins - yum! I need to make applesauce, that's the best way to deal with all the apples. I made a huge pot of stew that we actually managed to eat nearly all of! There's been roasted cauliflower and potatoes with tempeh and several gorgeous salads. Stir-fry dishes have been showing up regularly too.

This week I'm thinking aloo gobi and a dal of some sort, perhaps tomorrow night. We have such an enormous pile of potatoes and now 2 heads of cauliflower, plus so many onions, that it will be a great way to use up a bunch. Maybe I'll even surprise my two Indian co-workers with some to take home. I'm going to keep trying to make us salads in the evening to have for lunch the next day -- keeps on top of the lettuce and is a nice way to get some extra veggies eaten. We're planning a picnic on Sunday (in the car if it is pouring or someplace with a shelter, so I might make some potato salad & perhaps a bunch of tofu/broccoli stir-fry. All the mandarins might go into fresh juice for the Valentine's Day mimosas we're planning!

Ruby Treasure Pockets

2010-01-30T08:11:00.000-08:00

I've been really curious about bento lunches, I like the way the food is neatly arranged and portioned. I've not gone so far as to invest in bento boxes from Japan or making tiny flowers out of carrots, yet, but I have experimented with a couple of dishes that pack well into small containers for lunch. One of the easiest and tastiest are these little pockets of abura-age filled with rice and roasted beets. The beets turn the rice a gorgeous hue and look like little jewels. Christie supplied the lovely name for this dish.

The Stuff

2 large pieces of abura-age (check out an Asian, preferably Japanese market for these, we get them at Uwajimaya)
1 medium, red beet, peeled & diced into 1/2" cubes
2 cups of cooked, short-grain brown rice
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar ("sushi" vinegar)
1/2 T canola oil
salt/pepper
Furikake (to garnish, optional)

The Making

Pre-heat over to 375. Toss diced beet in canola oil and a little salt & pepper. Roast diced beet in oven until tender.

Add rice to a bowl and drizzle vinegar over. Stir vigorously, tossing the rice well in the vinegar and set aside to let rice absorb it. Once all the vinegar has been absorbed, add in the roasted beets and toss together to mix well. Rice will begin to take on a rich, red hue.

Slice the pieces of abura-age in half and carefully open up. Stuff rice, vinegar & beet mixture carefully, but firmly into the abura-age pouches. Sprinkle tops with your favorite furikake mix if desired.

Either serve immediately or pack into your bento lunch! The abura-age pouches make for a very neat way to enjoy the rice & beets. These even pack well for a hand-held snack while hiking!

The ruby beet pockets are at the top of this picture of a great, stir-fry medley we had a few weeks ago featuring broccoli/tofu/leek, the rest of the roasted beets not used for the rice pockets, and garlic/green beans.

Chipotle 'Yummay' Sauce...

2010-01-24T13:22:00.001-08:00

So everybody luvs teh Yumm(TM) sauce from Cafe Yumm down in Eugene. Unfortunately, it's pretty damn espensive, and as much as I believe in supporting local good companies, I support my "make yummy stuff myself and save teh dough" movement more. I was making a chipotle aioli, tweaked it by accident (added "too much" lemon juice) and suddenly went "Hey, this is Yumm Sauce(TM)!!"

½ cup Vegenaise
¼ cup lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp yellow mustard powder or 2 tsp yellow salad mustard
1 tsp Smoky Chipotle Tabasco
½ tsp Smoky Chipotle chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1-2 tsp garlic powder
2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast

Whisk together. Enjoy!

Organics to You January 11, 2010

2010-01-11T12:59:00.000-08:00

Today's New Year box from Organics to You contains:

Head of red lettuce
some broccoli
A bunch of rainbow carrots
4 lovely, enormous yellow potatoes
1 leek
green, curly kale
spinach
1 red onion
1 yellow onion
a pile of red potatoes
3 Jazz apples
4 Bosc pears
4 Mandarins
4 bananas

From last week the fridge still contains:

some red lettuce
some broccoli stems & two full crowns on stems
3 carrots
spinach
3 large potatoes
1/2 red beet
3 Pinova apples
6 red pears
1 Bosc pear
5 green pears
2 green apples
4 Fuji apples
4 oranges
1 Satsuma
4 kiwis
celery
2 leeks
1/2 red onion
green, curly kale

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

2 satsumas
1 orange

Wow, we have a lot of fruit in the house. Umm, still. Yeah, I'm thinking I need to bake some kind of apple/pear tart thing or Christie suggested a cobbler. That's got to be done, we're overrun with fruit! She's suggesting mashed potatoes again this week. I'm also thinking potato/leek/white bean/kale soup to use up some of this bounty. Christie has requested a quinoa/tempeh salad I've made, so that will show up again this week.

Last week saw some simple meals. Lots of steamed broccoli served simply with rice & grilled tofu. Split pea soup using up some celery & a potato (one of the huge ones). We ended up purchasing some collards since Christie wanted specifically to make them with BBQ black-eyed peas, which we served with quinoa. We also made a few lovely salads.

New Year's Extravaganza

2010-01-06T21:16:00.001-08:00

Really, this post is all about the food porn. I will be writing up the miso udon soup as a recipe, but for now I will talk about New Year's Eve.

In Japan people eat a traditional meal to celebrate the new year, Osechi Ryori. It is generally involved, highly symbolic, and vegan unfriendly. Needless to say, I took this as a challenge and we headed off to Uwajimaya.

Udon is a big deal - there's a special kind that gets made for New Year's with extra, extra long noodles. It is a challenge to try and eat it without breaking the noodle (one long slurp). This represents things like longevity of life, luck, etc. The udon are served in a simple, dashi broth with a few veggies.

Since I'd recently made a quart of vegan dashi (hell, yeah) this was the easiest dish to make. We'd picked up some of Jorinji's amazing red miso (small batch, miso made in Portland) and Christie wanted to include it in the soup.

The result as an amazing miso udon soup. There's a scallion caramelized first, then the dashi added, a few small broccoli florets allowed to poach, the miso added (but never boiled). Udon cooked separately, rinsed, and added to bowls. Top with age (fried tofu, this with bits of sea vegetable & carrot in it) and then add several ladles of the broth & broccoli. Top this with furikake and a piece of baked mochi (thank goodness for the Internet with this stuff... we got it home and discovered that ALL the directions were in Japanese).

So delicious. I chomped a lot of noodles, more than I slurped, it was heavenly.

I did make a salad of carrot & daikon with a little seasoned rice vinegar added to it.

This was our first course of the evening. After enjoying this we moved onto the rest of the dishes for the night.

Next the burdock, a root vegetable that's been recommended to us before. I have always been a little intimidated by it for some reason, but decided to try.

Here you see me already doing the wrong thing - peeling it fully! Apparently I should have lightly scraped off any rootlets, dirt and left the rest. I tried out a fairly simple recipe I found, but the final result was a little gray (maybe the pan, still not sure). It was fibrous and fairly tasty.

Oseschi Ryori seems to have all kinds of little fish cakes. I decided that instead we'd have sushi. I made a mango/sauteed aspargus inside-out roll, cucumber & fried tofu roll, and a shiso & avocado roll. There was some big pieces of fried tofu that I used as pockets to make a kind of inari from the last of the rice, mango & asparagus.

Here I am, looking tired after all that cooking! I'm happy we stayed home.

Some extra mango slices with lime juice for dessert, daikon/carrot salad, burdock root, sushi, and some lovely Sayuri sake

Smoky Sun-Dried Tomato Cheese Spread

2010-01-06T18:13:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

1 lb cream cheese (Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese--Non-Hydro is what I use)
2 tbsp port wine reduction*
1 tbsp cider vinegar
7-8 oz sun dried tomatoes in olive oil (drained)
2 tbsp brown rice syrup
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (optional)

Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend well (2min minimum so as to finely mince the tomatoes.) Refrigerate over-night for flavors to meld and spread to thicken. For a dip instead of a spread, double the water to 1/2 cup, or until desired consistency is reached.

Port Reduction

3 cups ruby port
3 tbsp dehydrated onion flakes
3 bay leaves

Bring to low boil uncovered. Reduce down to 1/2 cup, siring frequently with a whisk (about 30min). Strain. With the back of a mixing spoon, press onions of liquid, and save for something else.

May be reduced even further once onions are removed to make a syrup.

Garlic & Chive Cheese Spread

2010-01-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

1.5 lb cream "cheese" ("Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese"--Non-Hydro is what I use)
3 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp brown rice syrup
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp powdered garlic
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp dill
1/4 cup filtered water
Fresh chives to taste (about 2g worth)

Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend on high to combine. Refrigerate over-night for flavors to meld and spread to thicken. For a dip instead of a spread, double the water to 1/2 cup, or until desired consistency is reached.

Organics to You January 4, 2010

2010-01-04T21:01:00.000-08:00

Today's New Year box from Organics to You contains:

Head of red lettuce
a whole lot of broccoli (um, really? I'm thinking soup)
A bunch of rainbow carrots
bok choy
4 lovely, enormous yellow potatoes
celery (good, nearly out)
2 leeks
1 yellow onion
1 red onion
green, curly kale
4 Fuji apples
3 green pears
2 oranges
4 kiwis

From last week the fridge still contains:

Head of green lettuce
broccoli
2 carrots
spinach
more lovely, red potatoes
2 red beets
6 Pinova apples
3 red pear
2 bosc pears
2 green pears
5 oranges
3 Satsumas
1 Avocado
half a yellow onion

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

4 satsumas
some lettuce
a tomato

Wow, we have a lot of fruit in the house. Today I mindfully ate an orange and Christie mindfully picked an apple for a snack. I'm thinking I may need to bake with the apples & pears, make a compote or something. We have more than we can eat!

Last week we made a huge Japanese feast for New Year's Eve and Day. Sushi, braised burdock, udon miso soup, grilled asparagus, daikon (both from Uwajimaya) & carrot salad and mochi. It was pretty fabulous, but we were really only using up the broccoli (of which we still have some remaining) and an avocado. We also had a couple of mangoes as a New Year treat, which meant even less fruit in the house consumed. One dish I made used only veggies from the box last week - a roasted potato, tempeh & broccoli hash.

The bok choy went immediately into a sweet & sour stir fry tonight with the carrots from last week & some of the leftover onion. I probably should have made something using the avocado since it is ripe, but we'll have it tomorrow.

We need to do a lot of cooking this week. One night we won't use as much as Christie is planning on making barbecue black-eyed peas & collards (from New Seasons). However, the rest of the week is going to see a lot of salads & veggies! Maybe a garbanzo stew, it has been a while since I've made one. We have been asked to make some vegan treats for the 12-hour Chant for Peace on Saturday, maybe I'll do some kind of pear/apple thing to go with the cupcakes I'm planning.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

2009-12-30T21:36:00.000-08:00

These were my favorite cookie when I was growing up. My Mom would pretty much only make these for Christmas and I'd spend the rest of the year pining for them. This year I asked her for the recipe and found them surprisingly easy to create vegan versions!

The Stuff

1 3/4 cups flour (you can use half whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 sugar (evaporated cane juice)
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup shortening (Spectrum Naturals or Earth Balance)
2 T soy milk (rice or almond would work fine)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 t vanilla
2 T golden flaxseed meal (Bob's Red Mill) whisked with 3 T water
Extra sugar to roll cookies in
2 large bars of dark chocolate (70% cacao or more) broken into rough squares or rectangles (I used the Theo Jane Goodall bars)

The Making

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Blend all ingredients at low speed in a large bowl until a stiff dough forms. Shape dough into 1" balls and roll each ball in sugar. Place balls 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, until golden brown.

Immediately top each cookie with a piece of chocolate. Press down firmly and into the hot cookie so they crack around edge. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 3 dozen.

Organics to You December 28, 2009

2009-12-28T13:50:00.000-08:00

The last box of 2009 from Organics to You contains:

Head of green lettuce
a whole lot of broccoli
A bunch of lovely carrots
spinach
more lovely, red potatoes
3 red beets (no greens)
4 Pinova apples
3 red pears
3 oranges
3 Satsumas
2 Avocados

From last week the fridge still contains:

red potatoes
a yellow onion
bit of shallot
1 1/2 heads of garlic
2 green apples
2 Pinova apples
3 green pears
3 red pears
2 Bosc pears
5 oranges
4 satsumas
some lettuce
celery
a tomato

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

Persimmons (*sigh* oh, the guilt)
an apple that was dropped from on high and got all squishy

Last week saw an amazing lasagna, however, it didn't really use a whole lot of veggies from the box since the spinach, kale and zucchini in it came from New Seasons. However, since lasagna became something of a tradition on Christmas Eve in my family, I wanted to make it. I made an awesome herbed, pressed tofu for the filling. Next time around, more pasta layers.

Christie made the most amazing scalloped potatoes last week. Using some of the deep red potatoes from a couple of weeks ago, which turned out to be ruby red inside, and a sauce made of soy milk, nutritional yeast, raw cashews and assorted herbs. It was so delicious I wanted to eat up the entire, enormous pan - but I didn't and we are still enjoying the leftovers.

I also tried my hand at making dashi last week which culminated in an amazing dinner last night. It featured all the broccoli stems & remaining carrots in a stir-fry with the leek, ginger, tamari & dashi. Another stir-fry of the remaining green beans, a whole lot of garlic, some chili flakes & the rest of the red onion was a slightly spicy second dish. Finally were pockets of fried tofu stuffed with seasoned, brown jasmine rice & roasted beets. This will get a full post all by itself.

This week - well there's going to be some serious broccoli eating going on! We also have pounds & pounds of potatoes. Perhaps Christie's broccoli & potato soup again? Tonight we're thinking an orange glazed tofu served with a green salad topped with carrots, pears & apples. With the bounty of two avocados I'm wondering if there's a salad dressing I could make with one of them.

Organics to You December 21, 2009

2009-12-21T13:20:00.001-08:00

Today's Solstice box from Organics to You contains:

Head of green lettuce
more broccoli
A bunch of lovely carrots
celery (good, since I finally did run out)
green beans
a yellow onion
2 bulbs of shallot
a red onion
gorgeous red potatoes
4 Pinova apples
3 Bosc pears
3 green pears
3 red pears
3 oranges
4 Satsumas
a small bag of walnuts and chestnuts

From last week the fridge still contains:

red potatoes
some red cabbage
a couple of carrots
1/4 yellow onion
2 heads of garlic
1 1/2 green apples
2 green pears
3 oranges
2 persimmons
some lettuce
2 turnips
some broccoli stems & one crown
a tomato

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

Some more persimmons from earlier
an orange

Last week saw a whole mess of roasted veggies: parsnips (which I adore and Christie wasn't entirely wild about), Brussels sprouts (from New Seasons), potatoes, garlic, yams & onion. I made my Tres Hermanas (3 Sisters) casserole, but didn't get a recipe since in the making I discovered that our pressure cooker was broke! Turned out well, regardless. Miso soup with broccoli & leek was made Saturday night with the amazing, and local, Jorinji chickpea miso. I also made a quick, delicious hash of kale, potatoes, tomato & tempeh. We also enjoyed some tempeh, lettuce & tomato sandwiches yesterday for lunch. I did make my miso, squash stew this past week, but many of the ingredients came from either our garden (the squash) and New Seasons (the Napa cabbage).

This week - More miso soup has been requested. I'm thinking a big broccoli stir-fry to pair with the wholly intriguing lemongrass/chili fried tofu from Thanh Son we picked up at Uwajimaya on Saturday. Lasagna for Christmas Eve (strangly enough, this became a family tradition at some point during my childhood). Scalloped potatoes are high on my list for this week and the green beans are going to get a nice saute instead of going into a casserole this time.

Organics to You December 14, 2009

2009-12-14T18:40:00.001-08:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

Lacinato kale (I think my fave type of kale)
Head of green lettuce
more broccoli
A bunch of lovely carrots, 3 colors
parsnips (yes!)
turnips
a yellow onion
2 bulbs of garlic
gorgeous red potatoes
3 red apples
3 green apples
2 green pears
1 red pear
2 oranges
2 persimmons (I WILL figure out what to do with those this week)

From last week the fridge still contains:

yams
potatoes
some red cabbage
some shallot
2 heads of garlic
a leek
2 apples
1 green pear
1 red pear
2 oranges
3 tangerines
some broccoli stems

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

Those green onions

This week will see some simple roasted veggies (yams, parsnips & potatoes) with adzuki beans and I will be remaking the "Tres Hermanas" casserole which features winter squash, pinto beans simmered in adobo & tomatoes, and topped with garlic & cumin polenta. I have been asked to put together the recipe for that dish as well as the Italian version with white beans & fresh basil. I'm also considering a pear/apple cake from a recipe I was sent a few weeks ago. Christie is talking using the gorgeous red potatoes for a dish of mashed up ones (she came up with this cashew creme to add for Thanksgiving - pretty glorious). I've also been hankering for scalloped potatoes soon (maybe next week).

Squash & Cabbage Stew with Red Miso

2009-12-13T20:30:00.000-08:00

Hotpot stews, like gomamiso-yosenabe, are a type of winter dish popular in Japan. I'd had one of Napa cabbage, glass noodles and dumplings when I ate at Cha Ya in San Francisco in 2008 and loved it. With the bounty of this year's winter squash harvest (thanks to Christie's insistence on growing it) I wanted to go a different direction with the squash stews I'd been making and thought it would be fun & tasty to use red miso and sesame to make a rich, Japanese inspired hearty dish.

The Stuff

2 Tablespoons canola or olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
4 carrots, cut into thick rounds
2 large stalks celery, diced
3 - 4 cups winter squash cut into 1-2" cubes
1 28oz can Muir Glen fire-roasted, diced tomatoes
1/2 cup red miso
1 Tablespoon black sesame seeds (white is fine, black is more dramatic)
3 cups cooked Aduki beans
1 medium head Savoy-style cabbage chopped into large pieces
2 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil

The Making

Saute onions on medium-high heat in a large metal pot with canola oil until the onions begin to go translucent (about 5 minutes), then add garlic. Continue to saute the garlic and onions until they begin to brown (about 5 more minutes) then add in carrots, celery and winter squash. Saute all veggies together for 5 minutes, then add the Muir Glen diced tomatoes, miso, sesame seeds, and 4 cups of water. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer together until squash is tender (20 - 40 minutes depending upon type of squash used).

Once the winter squash is tender add into the pot the cooked Aduki beans, chopped cabbage, and sesame oil. Cover pot and simmer for 15 additional minutes to allow beans to absorb flavor and for cabbage to cook completely.

Serve stew with a steamed grain (brown rice or barley) or some crusty, whole-grain bread.

**I make this with great success in the pressure cooker. Instead of reducing heat to simmer, put lid on and bring up to pressure, then reduce heat & set timer. Using Delicata squash it takes 7 minutes. Hubbard squash take more like 9 minutes on full pressure. After that step I add the pressure cooked veggies into another pot containing the cabbage, beans and sesame oil. The intense heat of the pressure cooked veggies pretty much cooks the cabbage immediately.

Organics to You December 7, 2009

2009-12-07T15:04:00.000-08:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

Curly red kale
Big head of bok choi
A whole pile of broccoli
A bunch of lovely carrots, 3 colors
a leek
a red onion
some shallots
a bulb of garlic
more potatoes
4 red apples
3 red pears
3 green pears
4 tangerines

From last week the fridge still contains:

yams
potatoes
some red cabbage
bunches of green onions (just don't find a lot of uses for these - any suggestions?)
2 yellow onions
2 heads of garlic
a little flat, Italian parsley
celery
2 apples
1 green pear
1 red pear
2 oranges
some red lettuce

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

avocado (from 11/22)
more persimmons

The highlight from last week were the sauteed chard & red cabbage served with maple braised tempeh for breakfast on Saturday. We also enjoyed a fantastic dish of roasted yams, potatoes, onions, garlic & kale served with black-eyed peas simmered in tomato sauce.

This week -- I'm a little disappointed that the box didn't contain the Savoy cabbage listed since I'd wanted to do a the Japanese home-cooking inspired squash stew. Perhaps we'll still make it but use up the red cabbage we still have left. Christie is planning a broccoli & potato soup -- the extra piles of broccoli this week ought to really help that along.

We're starting to pick up on eating more fruit. Having it delivered and having to compost it has really highlighted to us that we easily overlook consuming fruit, particularly in the winter months, especially fresh.

Organics to You November 30, 2009

2009-11-30T14:06:00.000-08:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

Curly red kale
bunch of chard
Big head of red lettuce
Bunch of red beets w/greens
another, larger head of red cabbage
more turnips
yellow onion
2 bulbs of garlic
more potatoes
3 red apples
3 red pears
3 green pears
3 persimmons
2 oranges

From last week the fridge still contains:

Lacinato (dinosaur) kale
turnips
yams
More gorgeous, tiny golden beets with equally glorious greens
a head of red cabbage
bunches of green onions (just don't find a lot of uses for these - any suggestions?)
3 yellow onions
2 heads of garlic
flat, Italian parsley
nice carrots
celery
an avocado
an apple
3 green pears
2 persimmons

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

Another persimmon (from 11/16 )
bok choi (11/16)
green curly kale (11/16)
salad greens (11/22)
satsumas (we just aren't getting to our fruit!!)

Made a great lentil loaf last night and served with some garlic & lemon sauteed collard greens. Thanksgiving cooking helped us out with a lot of the veggies we had on hand, but we still had some things we had to toss. All in all, it seems like we're not composting much more than we did when we shopped for produce regularly.

This week's cooking will see some of the harvested spaghetti squash making an appearance on the menu as a side dish to something. A dish with cabbage in the works, there's a whole lot of red cabbage in the fridge now. Going to try to make us some salads so we don't end up tossing the lettuce the way the baby greens were.

Marvelous Lentil Quinoa Nut Loaf

2009-11-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

On the shockingly long list of vegan staples I've never tried making at home is the humble lentil loaf. Kind of a vegan stereotype of sorts, but one I've rarely encountered in person. I actually rather like the idea of a lentil loaf. Green lentils have a nice, earthy taste and I feel they pair well with walnuts & quinoa for a protein dense, rich loaf.

Great Vow has a nut loaf they make for special occasions, however, it is based around the use of eggs as a binder, so no luck in looking to that recipe for much inspiration. Online the recipes are hugely varied, to such a degree it is hard to find something that sounds right. After a lot of reading and recalling the meatloaf my Mom used to make, I came up with a very tasty dish.

It crumbles a little coming out of the pan, but not too much. Slices pretty well and we found it very satisfying, particularly when served alongside the very last of the amazing mashed potatoes Christie made for Thanksgiving. I'm going to be working on an entirely gluten-free version of this dish next.

The Stuff (for loaf)

1 small onion
3 large cloves garlic
2 stalks celery
2 cups cooked, green lentils (overcooked is better, should be mushy/mashed)
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
2 tablespoon red miso
2 T wheat germ
1/4 c flax meal whisked
1/4 c + 2 T water
3 T tomato paste (taken from a 6oz can)
1/4 c nutritional yeast
fresh ground black pepper
1/2 t sweet paprika
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t dried marjoram
2 T fresh parsley

The Making (the loaf)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk together the flaxseed meal and water in a large bowl, set aside. Dice onion and celery small, and mince the garlic cloves. Sauté the onion, garlic and celery until onion begins to caramelize. Add sauteed vegetables and remaining ingredients into large bowl with flax & water mixture and mix well. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and fill the loaf pan with the mixture. Press down and top with tangy tomato sauce.

The Stuff (the sauce)

remainder of tomato paste from 6oz can
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 t sweet paprika
1/2 t black pepper
1/4 t or less ground clove
1/4 c water

The Making (the sauce & the loaf)

Whisk together all ingredients for sauce and spread on top of loaf before baking

Bake loaf 30 minutes covered, 10 minutes uncovered. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Organics to You November 22, 2009

2009-11-22T15:03:00.000-08:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

Lacinato (dinosaur) kale
Collard greens
a pile of green beans
more turnips
a pile of potatoes, Yukon golds I'm guessing
5 yams
More gorgeous, tiny golden beets with equally glorious greens
a head of red cabbage
a bunch of green onions
4 yellow onions
2 heads of garlic
flat, Italian parsley
nice carrots
Even more celery (eeeek)
an avocado
salad greens

From last week the fridge still contains:

the green, curly kale
a couple of little yams
4 little satsumas
a bunch of green onions
some garlic
some flat, Italian parsley
a few carrots
3 green pears
2 apples
2 persimmons
celery

The Compost Pail of Shame (what I didn't use and had to compost):

A few of the persimmons (from 11/16 and 11/2)
baby bok choi (10/26)
ears of corn (11/2)
broccoli (11/2)
kiwi berries (10/26 & 11/2 - these need to be eaten right away)

I'm introducing the Compost Pail of Shame to try and track what it is we don't use up. Maybe this means the boxes get changed to reflect what we're really eating. Maybe it just shows that on a busy week, with lots of time away in evenings we don't get a box. Not sure, but I think it will be helpful to show what I just didn't get to.

One thing it is revealed to me already is that we're not so great on eating up the fruit. It is almost a relief to have a mix-up and not get any fruit this week (although we were looking forward to getting the cranberries). Need to work on this - not just to use up what we get, but some fruit every day is quite good for us!

This week, with Thanksgiving on the schedule, will include things like a baked, stuffed Hubbard squash (from our garden no less), a nice stew (today), I'm jonesing for scalloped potatoes, a green bean casserole, some more roasted beets, continued appreciation of raw turnips w/hummus, oven-roasted yam slices, and I think that braised celery is going to have to happen. I'm considering some kind of onion soup too, because we have so many onions.

Tonight I made us a pot of split pea soup. We haven't had it in a while and Christie requested it on the way home from the gym. Making it I manage to use up the following produce on hand: an onion, 3 large cloves of garlic, 3 stalks of celery, several small carrots, and 4 little golden potatoes.

Sherperd's Pie - Food Porn!

2009-11-20T20:09:00.001-08:00

My Mom really didn't make shepherd's pie as a dish growing up. She had a few other casserole things she did, but not too many. My Dad hated casseroles.

It was at college in Wisconsin that I was introduced to the shepherd's pie. It was any number of rich, hearty, perhaps not entirely-good-for-me fare I came to love in the Midwest. Despite this deep appreciation, for some reason I've never actually made it myself.

Until tonight.

I made a shepherd's pie in a cast iron pan filled will onions, garlic, tempeh, carrots, celery and roasted Brussels sprouts. In is mixed a golden gravy made with caramelized shallots & garlic, red & white miso, nutritional yeast, Earth Balance, fresh parsley and pepper (whole wheat flour & water too). The mixed up veggies and gravy are topped with mashed Yukon Gold potatoes.

I cannot believe I haven't tried this before!

This diner was so good. Hearty, rich, and topped with mashed potatoes! The gravy, a real experiment, turned out so nicely and it only has a little bit of added fat to it (and I sense I'm onto some kind of vegan Swedish meatballs with this gravy). Although we discussed what else could be used instead of the tempeh, it wasn't because it wasn't incredibly tasty and totally satisfying.

There is no recipe. I was in a kind of Zen work-practice mode with cooking tonight, so I am mindful of everything I did. But I just cooked food. I will be making this again and there will be a recipe soon, my friend Vicki has requested it to add to her Meatless Monday dishes.

Used from Organics to You: carrots, celery, onions, garlic, shallots, potatoes, parsley

Balsamic, Maple Braised Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Grilled Tempeh

2009-11-16T14:46:00.000-08:00

The name is kind of a mouthful, but it describes it perfectly. So tasty and simple. Come July I'll be dreaming about this dish.

The Stuff

1 8oz. package of tempeh
1 stalk or 2 pounds of fresh Brussels sprouts
1/3 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
2 T. olive oil
garlic pepper
Canola oil (spray preferable)
Sea salt & pepper

The Making

Pre-heat oven at 350F.

Trim Brussels sprouts of outer leaves and slice in half. Toss with olive oil and a sprinkle of the sea salt & fresh ground pepper. Pour into 9x12 baking pan and roast in oven until sprouts begin to brown in places, about 15-20 minutes, then remove from oven.

Pre-heat cast-iron grill pan on medium. Slice tempeh into 1/2" strips. When cast-iron is hot, reduce heat to medium low. Spray tempeh with canola oil and sprinkle with garlic pepper. Grill tempeh on both sides until golden and set aside.

In a small bowl whisk together maple syrup and balsamic vinegar. Move sprouts to sides, add tempeh strips into the bottom of the baking dish, and scatter sprouts around evenly. Drizzle maple & balsamic mixture evenly over all of the sprouts and tempeh. Return baking dish to oven and continue to roast in braising liquid for another 10-15 minutes.

I served this up with the most beautiful roasted potatoes from Organics to You:

Taking a little over a pound of fingerling potatoes washed and cut into 1" chunks. These are then microwaved for 4 minutes, stirred, and microwaved for an additional 3 minutes. The par-cooked potatoes are then tossed in a bowl with olive oil, sea salt and a little fresh ground pepper. Roast potatoes in a pan at 350F until golden brown on all cut sides, stirring about half-way through - approximately 30-45 minutes. If you're making this with the sprouts & tempeh, start the potatoes first and they can roast in the oven alongside the sprouts.

Serves 4.

Grilled, Glazed Eggplant & Tofu

2009-11-16T14:12:00.001-08:00

We'd received a nice eggplant from Oragnics to You, but since I'm really alone in my appreciation for eggplant, so this became my lunch one Monday afternoon.

Although I used eggplant in this dish you can use any vegetable to accompany the tofu.

The Stuff

1 small eggplant, sliced into 1/2" thick slices
8 1/3" slices of extra firm tofu, patted dry
Nutritional yeast
Garlic pepper
Maple, miso sesame glaze
Canola oil (spray works best)

The Making

Heat cast-iron grill pan at medium heat and set oven to low broil. When cast-iron is hot, reduce heat to medium-low

Lightly sprinkle one side of the tofu and eggplant slices with nutritional yeast and garlic pepper. Spray sprinkled sides with canola oil and transfer, oiled side down, to heated grill pan. When ready to flip, sprinkle top sides with more nutritional yeast, garlic pepper, and spray with canola oil first.

Transfer the grilled tofu and eggplant a broiling pan. Liberally coat the top sides with the maple, miso, sesame glaze and put in oven to broil for 5-7 minutes. Tops should be browned as the glaze caramelizes under the broiler.

Pair with brown rice or other hearty grain. Serves 4.

Maple, Miso, Sesame Glaze

2009-11-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

I like to add this glaze to grilled veggies, tofu & tempeh. I apply liberally on top then throw into the broiler for 5-7 minutes until it all caramelizes up nicely.

The Stuff

3 T. white miso
2 T. maple syrup
1/2 t. canola oil
1/2 - 1 t. sesame seeds
2 t. hot water

The Making

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl and either brush or spoon onto veggies, tofu, tempeh, etc. Use glaze as either a sauce for grilling or apply and broil food on low for about 5-7 minutes until glaze caramelizes and thickens further.

Organics to You November 16, 2009

2009-11-16T13:51:00.000-08:00

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

Green, curly kale
more turnips
some Russet potatoes
a couple of little yams
More gorgeous golden beets with equally glorious greens
4 little satsumas
a bunch of green onions
a couple of shallots
a head of garlic
flat, Italian parsley
nice carrots
4 green pears
4 apples
2 persimmons
Even more celery, amazingly long stalks (frantically looking for recipe for braised celery I spotted a while ago)

From last week the fridge still contains:

turnips
radishes
1 golden beet
glorious beet greens
A big bunch of arugula
3 little satsumas
a couple yellow onions
a few intertwining carrots
more celery, amazingly long stalks
A big bunch of arugula
3 lovely, mid-sized bok choy

I feel that this week will certainly feature the Saag-style beet greens, lots of raw turnips for lunch, roasted beets, and maybe we'll have another try at scalloped potatoes.

Last week's little fingerling potatoes just got tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper then roasted until golden and served with balsamic & maple roasted Brussels sprouts & grilled tempeh. The beets showed up in a cabbage soup and in a stir-fry with carrots, cabbage & tofu skin sticks. I am all alone with the eggplant and ended up grilling then broiling with a maple, miso, sesame glaze. Recipes to come soon for some of those!

Golden Autumn Stew

2009-11-09T21:23:00.001-08:00

Oh my goodness, I made the best stew tonight inspired by the veggies we had from last week as well as some of the new things delivered today. The result was a rich, almost buttery-tasting, golden stew.

The Stuff

3 leeks, sliced in 1/2 inch rounds & rinsed well
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 large golden beets, diced
4 medium carrots, diced
4-5 large stalks celery, diced
1/2 small white cabbage sliced into big shreds (about 2 cups)
3 cups cooked Great Northern beans
2 T olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

The Making

Heat oil in a large stock pot, add garlic and saute until garlic has browned. Add leeks and continue to saute until leeks are softened. Add beets, carrots, celery, and cabbage. Toss with leeks and garlic. Add 6-8 cups water, bring up temperature to almost boiling, reduce to low heat, cover and simmer until all vegetables are tender. Add in drained beans and salt & pepper to taste. Continue to simmer another 20 minutes. Serve with toasted croutons.

Makes... it is one of my stew recipes so it makes an enormous pot worth that you'll eat all week (at least 6 quarts). I seem to be incapable of making a small pot of homemade stew.

Oranics to You November 9, 2009, and Ellen's Gone Vegan

2009-11-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

First of all, cool news from the world of celebrities (queer celebs at that) - Ellen has gone vegan! She's got some nice resources up on her page as well as interviews, book recommendations, etc.

Today's box from Organics to You contains:

The most lovely red, curly kale I've seen in ages
turnips
a serious pile of fingerling potatoes
radishes
Gorgeous golden beets with equally glorious greens
A big bunch of arugula
4 little satsumas
a big leek
a few yellow onions
adorable, intertwining carrots
a lovely eggplant
more celery, amazingly long stalks
3 lovely, mid-sized bok choy

We're doing pretty good at making it through the produce that arrives. Mostly. Still leftover from last week:

celery (we already had a huge amount of this on account of buying more when we'd forget we had it)
garlic (relieved that none was delivered today)
onions
broccoli
corn
persimmons
a few carrots
2 leeks
2 Russet potatoes

Today I think I'm going to whip up some cabbage, leek, carrot, celery beet & bean soup to use up some of the veggies we have leftover. This week may see a revisit of the scalloped potatoes from last month. I think we were onto something with the creamy, raw cashew sauce and those little fingerling potatoes I think will be really tasty in it. I'm also thinking some kind of balsamic reduction with the arugula, tossed with pasta and beans. The radishes will go right into my lunch, raw, and be eaten with hummus (Christie only really likes daikon and none of the spicer types). I'll likely do a light grill on slices of the eggplant and top with miso, perhaps with some tofu slices as well, and take for lunch since I'm the one who really likes eggplant.

On another note of preserving/getting good at using up our produce purchases -- we aren't getting the apples and pears eaten quickly enough. We both tend to like apples very crisp and tart. I'm thinking of cutting up all of what's left, except the Asian pears (such a different water content), and making a maple & spice compote. Not quite cooked to sauce, thicker and more like a topping for the molasses pancakes Christie made the other day. That will get all the fruit processed before it goes to waste and the canned compote can be part of the edible goodies we'll be giving as holiday gifts this year.

Sweet & Sour Braised Cabbage & Carrots

2009-11-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

This is last week's cabbage. Gloriously purple, gorgeous shape, and as big as my head. Really. It was the Cabbage as Big as My Head (insert your own dramatic reverb here) This week a smaller head of white cabbage was delivered so it was high time to address the giant head already in the fridge. I'm cold and didn't want salad. We also had a whole lotta carrots and it seemed the sweetness of those would add nicely to the cabbage.

The Stuff

Half a large head of purple
4 large carrots
1/4 medium red onion, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, diced small
1/4 c. maple syrup
2 T white wine vinegar
1 8 oz block of tempeh

The Making

First slice tempeh into 1" wide slices and grill until golden brown on the cut sides. Sprinkle with garlic pepper and set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, roughly cut into 1" chunks and set aside

Halve the cabbage again and slice into 1" strips, set aside. Slice carrots on bias into 1/4", coins and set aside. Heat canola oil in large saute pan on medium heat and add onions. Cool until onions are shiny and starting to go translucent, then add garlic. Continue to cook garlic and onions until the onions began to darken and caramelize a little. Add carrots, cover, and cook until onions began to take on an orange hue from the carrots. Add cabbage, sprinkle with sea salt, cover and cook until cabbage starts to soften. Add in the grilled tempeh, maple syrup and vinegar. Cover and continue to cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed and cabbage is tender.

Feeds 4, I served this with qunioa for a nice, nutrient-packed grain accompaniment

Organics to You November 2, 2009

2009-11-02T14:04:00.001-08:00

Last week's cooking also saw another squash/bean/polenta casserole to serve to guests on Halloween, a delicious soup, a Saturday breakfast scramble and sweet & sour cabbage, kale cauliflower & tofu. I didn't make it through all the veggies, not even close!!

Some notes on the Halloween casserole. This variation on this casserole included 1 of the Schwartz Hubbard and 1 Delicata squash from our basement stash, roasted until they caramelized on the edges and mashed. The squash all went into the bottom of the 9 x 12, oiled pan and was topped with the white bean, leek, garlic, rosemary & olive oil combination. The beans were topped with dry-toasted pine nuts and a chiffonade of fresh basil & oregano (I am thinking a light sprinkle of shredded sage leaves would be more fitting to the autumn season). The polenta had once again been cooked in the pressure cooker, this time I'd darkened the garlic in the olive oil then fished it out so it was just the garlic infused oil. Then in went the polenta, sea salt, nutritional yeast, white miso, and a generous amount of pepper. The cooked polenta went on top again. Baked, the under the broiler to toast the polenta a little. Delicious!

I didn't touch the giant head of purple cabbage, the radishes (only I like these, Christie does not), the greens of the beets, the garlic (already had some), or the bok choy. The Halloween party helped use up some of the beets (served raw, sliced thin, most people hadn't seen Chioggia beets before, so fun to introduce folks), the carrots, some of the cauliflower and the rest of the broccoli. All of the produce, except perhaps the baby bok choy (which seemed a little beat up), was very tasty.

That we've started off this delivery experiment with several veggies in the fridge already along with pounds of apples, it isn't too bad. I managed to use up a lot of the veggies we had already and many of the ones delivered. I'm wondering how I can preserve some things we get too much of in a way we'd enjoy using it. Maybe a big pot of cabbage soup that can be frozen to serve for lunches? I also think I just need to chop up a bunch of stuff so it is easy for us to grab raw veggies to take to work, either to eat with hummus or steam.

This week's box has a much smaller head of white cabbage and some larger, nicer looking bok choy. 2 more good sized leeks, some more broccoli (a real winner last week), 6 very nice looking Russet potatoes, more garlic, 2 shallots & a yellow onion, celery, 3 small ears of corn, a bunch of collard greens, a head of Romanesco broccoli, 1 green bell pepper, and more kiwi berries.

I'm thinking we'll have either stuffed cabbage rolls or do this with the collard greens. Or perhaps some great raw wraps one day using the collard leaves. The corn must be the very last of the season - will just steam this in the husk and enjoy. We learned that we should eat the kiwi berries right away, by the time we were eating them Saturday many were over ripe. I'm also thinking I'm going to roast some of the extra heads of garlic, we now have 4, which is kind of a lot for us. Have a lot of yellow onions as well, which I may caramelize a lot of to serve later (perhaps I'll try my hand at Mjdara this week).

Organics to You October 26, 2009, and Apples!

2009-10-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday saw us out in Parkdale with friends to check out the heirloom apple/pear/Asian pear tasting day at Kiyokawa Family Orchards. A fave from last autumn, we wanted to take our friends to enjoy tasting the many varieties they grow there as well as pick a bunch to make applesauce. Turned out the apples had all been picked, but we still had a great time trying many varieties we'd never heard of before. 31 pounds of fruit later (that's just us), we were loaded up and off to our next stop.

Rasmussen Farms saw us leave with several fun gourds, a couple of pounds each of fresh, local walnuts & hazelnuts, ornamental corn, and 2 smallish Hubbard squash. Yes, I know we have a bunch of these in the basement, but these are the blue type we didn't grow. Oh yes, and pumpkins. There are 7 of them on our front steps. 6 of them Christie and I picked out. What can I say, we were having fun.

Into this collection of squash and apples arrived our first box from Organics to You. I offered to take it from the deliver guy, but he then offered to put inside for me because, "its heavy".

I ripped off the tape and opened the box to see a lovely bunch of red kale, some baby bok choy, radishes, chioggia beets, chunky carrots, onions, garlic, a huge head of broccoli, a head of purple cabbage bigger than my head (seriously), 2 big leeks, a half pint of kiwi berries and more fruit. 4 more apples, 3 more Asian pears and 3 red Bartlett pears. Uh yeah.

One good sized box of produce and a fridge already filled to the brim with mostly apples...

Yep, time to make the apple sauce. I chopped up 8 quarts of mixed varieties of apples and a few pears that needed to be used. Cooked until we had a chunky sauce and added the zest & juice from a medium sized Meyer lemon. That's it. Nothing else needed for that much deliciousness. I'm waiting on the water in the canner to boil, 20 minutes in the bath then we have lovely applesauce for the rest of the year and to go into the little gift baskets we're planning to do this winter for people.

That helped some. While the apples were doing the cooking thing I threw some Great Northern beans into the pressure cooker. Drained them when done and cleaned out the cooker to make soup. Into the pot I sauteed a bunch of garlic and most of the leeks, celery & Russet potatoes were added. Water, salt, pepper, and a sprig of fresh rosemary in the covered cooker, on high pressure for 8 minutes. Release valve, add in half the red kale that was delivered today along with half the white beans. Simmer with salt, some nutritional yeast, and more pepper. Serve with croutons. Yum!

The other half of the beans, more garlic and the remaining leeks have been stewed together with a little rosemary sprig, olive oil, tarragon, and some diced celery. This gives a lot more flavor to the Great Northern beans, which are not Christie's favorite. These have been set aside for later this week when I'm going to revisit the whole squash/polenta baked casserole, but with the white beans and some fresh basil pesto.

By this evening's end there will be lots of applesauce in jars, soup in the fridge, and some progress made towards Wednesday or Saturday's dinners. I've had some ideas about the cabbage and how to use up all the produce that's coming along with what we had already here. Right now I'm really enjoying the challenge of making food for us primarily based on what is brought each week.

Roasted Red Pepper Tortilla Soup

2009-10-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

1 box Trader Joe's (or like) Creamy Red Pepper & Corn soup
1 med sweet onion, diced
8 cloves garlic, diced
2 tbsp red taco sauce
¼ tsp smoked chipotle chili powder
1 bag frozen soup veggies
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
2 cans diced tomatoes with cilantro & lime
2 tbsp olive oil

To Prepare:

Heat a large stock-pot to medium. Add olive oil.
Add diced onion and saute covered for 4-5 min.
Add garlic and saute for 2-3 min.
Add in frozen veggies and saute covered for 5 min.
Add tomatoes and heat for 5 min.
Add in boxed corn soup, taco sauce and chipotle powder and stir well.

Serve over pasta or soy curls with sour cream, fresh cilantro, lime wedges and toasted or fried tortilla strips.

Squash, squash, squash!

2009-10-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

This is truly a "Nothing but food porn" kind of post. Immediately after the post that I'd be making all kinds of updates for Vegan MoFo 2009 I was diagnosed with an apparently months old sinus infection. Many days of antibiotics later I'm feeling a lot better and am having the energy to work on projects, writing, etc.

Did I happen to mention that Christie decided we should grow winter squash this year? The result is pounds and pounds of the stuff keeping cool down in the basement. I've not yet started on creative ways to cook the spaghetti squash, but I've been doing the Delicata and Hubbard styles a couple of different and successful ways.

First of all, a very homey, Japanese inspired stew of Hubbard squash, tomatoes, garlic, onions, Aduki beans, cooked with red miso and black sesame seeds (honestly because they look more dramatic with the squash). Everything but the beans go into the pressure cooker and 8 minutes on high-pressure later you have piping hot stew. Add the pre-cooked beans, some Nappa cabbage, and a good teaspoon or so of toasted sesame oil. Simmer until the cabbage has softened and serve with brown rice, bread, whatever. There's very nearly a recipe for this one done since Christie's mom got out her notebook and grilled me on what I'd done when the family was up here earlier this month.

The other winter squash winner has been a complete re-do of a recipe we tried last year. We had liked the casserole of squash, pinto beans and polenta but found it kind of uninspired. Great base ingredients, but lacking in a lot of places. The big thing we thought wasn't right was the polenta being at the bottom of the casserole where it never really firms up right.

This afternoon I slow roasted 3 of the Delicata from the basement stash and let them cool. I also put on a pot of diced, unsalted tomatoes and pre-cooked pinto beans. We had chili recently, so I threw a little in as well as adding sweet, smoked paprika, chili powder and cumin powder. I let all the juice cook out of the beans until it was just the chunks of tomatoes & beans coated in the reduction of the juice.

In checking around for cooking times, ratios, etc. for the polenta I discovered it is another thing that can be made in the pressure cooker. Fried about a 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds ('cause that's all that's left in the house - yikes) in 2 tablespoons of canola oil. Added 3 large cloves of garlic, diced and two hot, dried chili pods (seeded). Then the polenta, water, sweet, smoked paprika, chili powder and cumin powder. 5 minutes on high-pressure then let sit to come down and release the lock (about 10 minutes). Perfect polenta!

The dish came together with the mashed squash in the bottom of a 9x12 baking dish, coated with spray oil (like soup/stew I can't seem to make smaller quantities of casseroles). A generous sprinkle of nutritional yeast, add the bean/tomato mix, and top the whole thing with the polenta. Into a 350 oven for 30 minutes. Broil on high until the top is golden with a few toasty bits. Cool a bit and enjoy. Total redo of the recipe that we tried last year, absolutely what we wished it had been!

Real recipes for both dishes coming soon as well as my experiments with the spaghetti squash! We've also been experimenting with au gratin/scalloped potatoes and are on track with mucho yumminess in time for Thanksgiving!

Vegan MoFo 2009

2009-10-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Today kicks off a flurry of vegan blogging for Vegan MoFo (Month of Food). Started in 2007 by Isa Chandra as a way to give a vegan spin on NaNoWriMo. Two years later and there scores of vegan bloggers signed up to write. I have listed both my personal blog as well as the Cooking Club here and will be making posts to both!

That said -- I'm hoping everyone will throw in a few extra recipes, reviews, rants, and posts about why you choose to be vegan. I'll be putting up some new recipes, wax nostalgic (already) for the apple bananas in Hawai'i, talk more about my experiment with Dropping the Food Chatter, apple food porn, and field trip to an orchard (10/24, Hood River, I'll be posting more details elsewhere).

Look for the VeganMoFo2009 tag for the posts. Check out the other blogs. Send us some recipes, places to review, products to try!

Drop the Food Chatter

2009-09-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

It has come to this. A need to rant to a public forum. My Zen community and Christie have already heard this rant a few times.

Have you noticed my total absence of posts? Yes, there was the whole Hawaii trip during which no blogs were updated. There's also the sewing of rakusu (which I should be doing right now, but I'm writing instead... I've missed my writing practice).

The real reason I've not been posting recipes, reviews, food porn comes down to a Zen mindfulness activity I'm trying (poorly) to do.

Zen Community of Oregon has an email if you can join want to receive a weekly "mindfulness task". Little things to help you return to the present moment, stop wandering off, etc. One week it was a heightened awareness of the color blue. Another week - stopping to take 3 breaths whenever one hears a bell or bell-like sound. Awareness of the hands was suggested.

For the past several weeks, starting the week of September 3, has been tasks building upon the concept of not talking about food. First week, stop talking about it and refrain from "idle chatter" about food. Next week, refrain from that same chatter about food that goes on inside the mind. This week we're continuing to drop the idle chatter outwardly & inwardly and move to just noticing the physical sensations in the body as we eat or as desire for food arises in our thoughts.

Go ahead. Try it. I dare you. Try to not talk about food, with other people or in your head. Even for a day.

No posts about amazing fruit in Hawaii or just how satisfying a simple bowl of aduki beans & quinoa was after a day hiking in a volcano. No food porn about the produce from the garden or farmers market. No discussing how great a potluck dish or new recipe is. Nada. Let it all go.

The basis for my practice is in the relationship I have with food.

That said. I am a foodie. There, I've said it. A healthy, fresh-grown, organic, hippie, vegan foodie, but a foodie nonetheless.

People quite often assume that being vegan means food will be boring and bland. If anything, veganism has made me appreciate so many more flavors and subtleties about food. It has made me more passionate about the way food is produced and I have become very sensitive to the enormously intimate act that eating food is. I am deeply passionate about just how wonderful food that's good for you can be!

I like to share this passion with people. I talk about food, I write about it, and I cook a lot of it. I'm a pretty damn good cook.

The past few weeks have made we aware of just how much food chatter there is in my life. It takes up a whole category by itself; next to "Planning Conversations with Other People" and "Worrying I've Screwed Up" (more enjoyable than either of those by far). How I think about it, how I plan around it, how food gets my creative juices flowing, and how sexy I find it (hell, I use the tag "FoodPorn" all the time). I am acutely aware of the ways in which I just feel like I can't resist talking about how wonderful some food is.

So although I'm dying to tell you all about the delicata I made tonight (stir-fried with white cabbage, sweet onion & garlic in a maple/miso glaze). I'm trying not to.

Go on try it. I'd like to get some input from others about this mindfulness task.

How much do you talk about food? How much do you think about it? How easy or difficult is it to try and stop?

Please post your comments about your experience in trying to drop the "food chatter" here.

Like my sideways way of talking about food without talking about it?

Gratuitous food shot...

rhubarb sour cream cake

2009-08-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

if you like rhubarb, this is just yum yum yum. my mom gave me this recipe, and i made it vegan with sour supreme, lemon juice and earth balance.

ingredients

2 cups diced rhubarb

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sour supreme

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

earth balance

nutmeg to taste

directions

1. mix rhubarb and 1/2 cup sugar. let stand 30 minutes.

2. mix baking soda, sour cream and lemon juice. mixture will almost double.

3. sift salt, flour, and 1 cup sugar.

4. combine all and stir a little - don't overmix. mixture will be thick.

5. spread in a 9" pan.

6. sprinkle sugar, nutmeg, and dot with earth balance.

7. bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes (until cake springs back when touched).

east african nachos!

2009-08-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

thanks, sherri, for putting me on the list! i've been lurking here a while stealing recipes, and i thought it was just about time i gave something back...

this was an accidental fusion experiment that turned out to be a new favorite comfort food dinner at our house - especially when i haven't been to the store in a while.

the heart of these nachos is the lentil dish below, found in "1,000 Vegetarian Recipes" by carol gelles. i've made modifications to the original recipe to make spiced more like an ethiopian dish. you could use other types of lentils, but i like the taste and texture of french lentils in this. i've put most of the added spices 'to taste' because i tend to throw a few pinches in of each until it tastes like a good balance of what i like. you can even omit the 'to taste' spices altogether.

lentils in tomato sauce

1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 or 2 medium to large chopped onions

1 or 2 cloves minced garlic

1 or 2 chopped fresh hot peppers (i like jalapeños)

1/2 cup water

1 6oz can tomato paste

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon ground red pepper (depending on how hot you like it)

to taste:

ground nutmeg

chili powder

turmeric

ground black pepper

ground cloves

berbere spice mix

3 cups cooked french lentils

1. in a saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. add onions, garlic, and peppers, stirring until softened.

2. add water, tomato paste, salt and red pepper; stir until combined.

3. add lentils; cook, uncovered, about 5 minutes. spice it up with the 'to taste' spices until mixture tastes balanced to your palate.

4. puree until smooth.

to make the nachos, i put toasted quinoa over corn tortilla chips, and the lentils over the quinoa (i know it sounds weird, but it's good!), and then add whatever nacho toppings i have on hand, such as melted vegan gourmet cheese, soy sour cream or plain yogurt, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, cilantro, chives, avocado, hot sauce, etc. sautéed greens are an excellent additional layer as well.

Just Drool, Hawaiian Style.

2009-08-16T21:41:00.001-07:00

Gluten Free Vegan Hawaiian Macaroni Salad:

* 1 bag Mrs. Leepers Corn Rotelli, cooked, drained, rinsed and chilled.
* 1 1/2 c Veganaise
* 1/2 c teriyaki sauce (see my recipe if you want to make it yourself)
large handful of shredded carrots
* 1 bunch green onion ~ chopped fine
* pepper

Combine everything and let sit refrigerated in a covered bowl overnight if possible.

Vegan, Gluten Free Kalua "Pork"

2 large handfuls (about 2 cups) of Butler Soy Curls
2 Tbs of Nutritional Yeast Flakes (ground into powder)
2 tsp of Garlic Powder
2 tsp of Onion Powder
1 Tbs of Bacos (soya bacon bits) ground into powder
1/4 tsp of Salt
1/4 tsp of Pepper
1/4 tsp of Spanish Smoked Paprika
3/4 cup of Water
1 ring of fresh pineapple, chopped
1 tsp of Liquid Smoke
1 tsp of Garlic Olive Oil
1 Tbs of Tamari Wheat Free Soy Sauce

Combine all ingredients and cook over low to medium heat until curls are soft and pliable. Serve over steamed rice topped with Teriyaki Sauce.

Teriyaki Sauce:

* 1/4 cup Tamari soy sauce
* 1 cup water
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 5 tablespoons packed brown sugar
* 1-2 tablespoon Agave syrup
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 1/4 cup cold water

Combine everything except last two ingredients into a small saucepan and heat until warm, mix cornstarch and 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl to dissolve the starch then add to sauce until thick and bubbly, remove from heat and pour over rice.

Egyptian Kushari

2009-08-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

I was watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations: Cairo yesterday and he was waxing poetic about a super simple dish called "kushari" that is essentially Cario's fast/comfort food. There are a few variations of kushari throughout the region, and I remember having this a number of times but not knowing what it was called--just remembering how damn good it was. Extraordinarily cheap, rapid and very easy to make, it can be very high carb, but is also very high in protein. I skipped the make-the-hot-sauce portion and used Trader Joe's fab spicy tomato chutney which is a) great, b) pre-made, and c) rather close to the way I remember the sauce tasting when I first had this dish, so again, TJ's FTW.

INGREDIENTS:

1lb dried brow lentils
1 12oz can garbanzos
2 cups dried short-grain rice of choice (but I see quinoa working well here too)
1/2 lb spaghetti of choice
1/2 lb elbow macaroni of choice
1 extra large or 2 med sweet onions, sliced thinly
2 tbsp olive or peanut oil
1 bullion cube
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 pint apple cider (or white) vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 lemon (cut into wedges)

Sauce Options

1 can tomato sauce
1 tsp-tbsp of chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp curry powder

-OR-

Trader Joe's Spicy Tomato Chutney

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare pastas per package directions and set aside.
Prepare rice per package directions, but dissolve bullion cube into cooking water before adding rinsed rice.
Peel and chop garlic and add to bottle of vinegar, along with brown sugar. As this ages, it will get a more intense garlic flavor.
Prepare lentils per package instructions.
Heat garbanzos in stove-pot or microwave to cook through and slightly soften.
Using a mandolin or by hand, slice onion(s) thinly and fry in oil until dark brown and caramelized.
If making hot sauce, simmer tomato sauce in a pot with seasonings added.

TO SERVE:

In a large bowl, add rice, then pastas. Spoon lentils to cover half the bowl, then garbanzos on the other half. Top liberally with fried onions and tomato sauce. Serve hot with vinegar condiment and a lemon wedge.

Yes, it's carbapalooza, but also has a great deal of protein with the lentils and garbanzos. I think you can reduce the carb impact by using brown rice and whole wheat pasta. Bourdain says it sits in your stomach like a bag of nickels. I don't see that as a bad thing...

Balsamic Tempeh & Quinoa

2009-08-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

More Food Porn - really, this is just my way of gloating about something delicious I made so I can figure out the recipe later. Is that obvious?

Tonight was a discussion at the Dharma Center and we include some potluck food to share for our dinner. I've been trying to make something fairly hearty so we don't end up feeling hungry during meditation afterward. Plus if no one else remembers to bring anything vegan Christie and I have something for us.

She made chocolate chip cookies earlier today. I was in charge of "dinner".

First was to chop up all the cucumbers in the fridge and add in some vinegar. This was really was to get them out of the fridge to make way for the 1 "boothy blonde", 1 suyo, and 7 lemon cucumbers that Chrsitie picked yesterday!

For the real meal I thought of using the last of the leftover red qunioa. In the afternoon I grilled up all the summer squash from the garden on the cast iron, let it cool and diced it up. In went thinly chopped up Italian parsley and the last of the slightly limp looking basil.

I sauteed half a sweet onion and diced tempeh, added a little red bell pepper, and when that was all fried up nicely I roughly chopped up a large, over-ripe, heirloom tomato the neighbor had brought over yesterday. This immediately turned into a thin sauce coating the temepeh. All of this went right into the qunioa, squash and herbs.

For a dressing some balsamic and white wine vinegars whisked up with raw tahini, rice milk, and a little whole-grain mustard.

When the Garden Gets Going...

2009-08-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

...the Going Cook Creative.

Uh, yeah. Or something like that.

This week I've made gaspacho and tonight something I've dubbed "tabouli-esque" in response to the ever increasing amount of produce coming out of the back yard garden. Tonight I forced cucumbers on the neighbor and sliced up about 2 quarts worth of them to put into rice vinegar before they got all mushy.

I haven't even been able to deal with what's in the fridge and Christie asked me, "Did you go pick some more?"

The gaspacho involved a quart of veggie juice, about a half cup of little pieces of all the cherry & grape type tomatoes that are going crazy, 1 long cucumber ("Suyo", a fave of mine), 2 cloves of garlic, 2 stalks of celery, half a red bell pepper, some sweet onion, white wine vinegar, sea salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Then I forgot that it is a Spanish dish, or ignored it because the basil in the fridge was wilting, and tossed in about 1/3 cup basil cut into thin ribbons (chiffonade). I thought it was awesome and then recalled the whole Spanish Dish thing and decided to garnish with smoked parprika. Wow, was this good!

Tonight's dish involved more tomatoes and was topped by the cucumbers I chopped up then put into seasoned rice vinegar. I had leftover red quinoa and decided to try that out in place of bulghur wheat for tabouli. I had a lemon and some Italian parsley on hand in addition to the tomatoes, so it seemed perfect. To make it even a little more hearty & filling for dinner I cooked up some green lentils and tossed those in there as well (which reminds me of an Ethiopian dish that reminds me of tabouli with brown lentils in place of bulgher).

Kind of went a little off the track with the tabouli, aside from the quinoa & lentils, and added a little balsamic vinegar to the mix in addition to the lemon juice, sea salt & black pepper. Sliced up the remaining grilled summer squash from last night (also from garden) and topped it with some diced avocado (because there was some of that leftover too).

The garden's been pretty exciting this year. I suspect this is the first of many posts about creative dishes. We're a little scared of all the winter squash looming at the back of the garden, trying to push the fence down. Be prepared for all kinds of creativity around that crop! Types of winter squash planted: spaghetti, delicata, sweet dumpling, and hubbard. We may also get a watermelon and will have a few cantalope too!

I'll write down the actual recipes and post... sometime this month, maybe (lots of travel).

Vegan Marshmallows, Baby

2009-07-27T22:02:00.001-07:00

I have two words for you.

Vegan. Marshmallows.

I kid you NOT. After the last debacle around vegan marshmallows made with Emes not-at-all-vegan Sure-Gel it has been kind of a lost junk food. That brown rice based fluff stuff was OK for making rice krispy treats, but it wasn't something you could put on a stick and potentially light on fire. And the so-called strawberry version of the stuff? One bite and I took to referring to it as "Soylent Pink".

This year Chicago Soy Dairy came launched Dandies marshmallows on the vegan world. Soft, squishy, tasty, able to be skewered upon a stick, stuck into fire, and ignited!! Yes, real flames!

If you're into that sort of thing.

I'll be honest. I've kind of missed marshmallows. I haven't had one in about 9 years and I was kind of nostalgic for a marshmallow toasted over a real fire. I've been reading blog posts and tweets galore about Dandies so when we were by Food Fight this past Saturday we picked up a bag to take to a birthday party, with a campfire, that evening.

We pulled out our fancy marshmallows, spent several minutes explaining that "regular" marshmallows are made with gelatin, listening to the smart-ass jokes (these seem to nearly always ensue when omnivores feel defensive about their food choices, but want to be polite), building a fire, letting it die down enough, and waiting for the birthday girl to find us something stick like.

The only thing that would have improved the experience is a longer stick. I'm not one who goes for the charcoal effect. Someone else was delighted to discover that the vegan marshmallows light on fire just like the "real thing". I grew out of that and generally prefer a long, slow, methodical toast to golden brown.

The bamboo skewers were just too short for this approach without seriously scorching my fingers (worse). However, the result I could manage before the heat drove me back was very satisfyingly bubbly, lightly toasted, and gooey on the inside! I so look forward to trying this out with some dark chocolate, graham crackers and a better stick!

Cold Curry Quinoa Salad

2009-07-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

1 small sweet or red onion (diced)
1 small can diced tomatoes (drained)
3oz grilled extra firm tofu (diced)
1 smallish cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup slivered roasted almonds or cashews
1 tbsp curry powder
pinch of saffron
1 lime
chopped cilantro

Make quinoa as per normal, adding the curry powder & saffron in with the simmering water. While simmering, peel, slice and seed the cucumber, place in strainer and salt liberally to remove water. When quinoa finishes, let it cool to room temp, then combine all other ingredients. Let sit for at least 2 hours in fridge to allow flavors to meld. Serve cold topped with cilantro & fresh lime wedges to squeeze over.

Ginger Garlic Tempeh & String Bean Bun - Food Porn Version

2009-07-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

I've decided just to write about cooking rather than always wait until I have a recipe "just right" to post. It will help me recreate delicious things so I can put together a recipe later. These posts will be noted "Food Porn" to show that there's no recipe and have the tag FoodPorn as well, just my going on about something delicious.

Onto the food porn.

Best. Tempeh. Ever. Seriously.

We had in the house pounds of string beans from the garden and Christie asked for tempeh tonight. I stood around in the kitchen for a few minutes before deciding to make a stir-fry. Made up a marinade of ginger, garlic, shoyu, red miso, agave, peanut oil, canola oil, hot chili oil, and water all whisked up together. Diced tempeh went into this yummy mix.

Pulled the the tempeh out of the marinade and set it aside. The tempeh then went into a rather hot wok with some canola oil. Kept tossing it and frying with a lid on until the tempeh was browned. Then I added in a little bit of the marinade to coat the cubes further.

Some sweet onion, a carrot and a little red bell pepper for color were cut up small. All were stir fried with a pile of the green & yellow beans chopped up. After they cooked until the beans started to soften I added in most of the marinade. After the beans were cooked all the way I added the tempeh into the pan and tossed everything together.

Cooked up some rice noodles, vermicelli, which were the weakest part. Tasty, but not great. I'm really going for more of a Vietnamese bun. The noodles were a fine, just not as great as the stir-fry. Added some shredded, Farmers Market lettuce and sliced up cucumbers from the garden.

Yes, I will admit to nearly dancing in glee in the kitchen as this came together. We sat out on the deck in the breeze to enjoy. It was a lot of fun sitting a few feet from the golden string beans growing up the south side of the deck as we ate them for dinner.

Will have to try this whole thing out again with the "right" noodles as well as some cilantro, lime to squeeze over the top and mung bean sprouts. Those things would be a really nice addition to all the flavors. Christie also noted it would be great to have the cucumbers in a little rice vinegar as well. A recipe will be forthcoming on this and really, pictures soon.

Ginger Miso Dressing

2009-07-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight Christie tasted the dressing and we both agreed that this one needs to be saved. For sometime now she's wanted something kind of like the ginger dressing they serve over monk bowls at Blossoming Lotus. I've wanted something kind of like the Hollyhock dressing (from Hollyhock Cooks)they serve at Great Vow. This dressing is a delicious hybrid of the two!

A couple note on this -- since this is a raw dressing and won't be used for cooking I went all out with the ingredients. Bragg's Aminos, raw hemp seed oil, nutritional yeast, and miso -- these are all good things for you!

The Stuff

5 inches fresh ginger, peeled & cut into chunks
2 Tbs. agave
2 Tbs. white miso
1/4 c. good oil (I used hemp seed)
1/4 c. water
1 Tbs. toasted sesame oil
1/3 c. nutritional yeast
1 Tbs. Bragg's Aminos (tamari, shoyu, soy sauce, etc.)

The Making

This is easy -- put all of the above into a blender and process until smooth. I usually pop the top off mine mid-process and slowly add in the nutritional yeast so it doesn't clump at all.

Pour into jar, keeps in the fridge a couple of weeks. Take out when needed and pour all over your food! Yum! Repeat.

Vegan mushroom "clam-less" chowder.

2009-07-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

Somebody in my life who's been dipping their toe in the waters of vegetarian eating has been wanting New England-style clam chowder. This is a recipe mash-up that I came up with that works pretty well. Still missing that sea-food-y taste, but I think if I add powdered kelp, we may get even closer. IMO, it also needs some acid, like lemon. No matter, this tastes great! (Warning: a bit high in sodium...) Due to the mushroom base, this chowder comes out more brown than classic white, but it's still better than that nasty NY/Jersey red business they call "chowder" 0.o

1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
2 tbsp Earth Balance butter sub
4 medium (1 lb. total) red potatoes, diced
2 cups vegetarian broth
2 cups crimini mushrooms, torn into chunks
1 cup frozen corn kernels (I used fire-roasted from Trader Joe's)
1-2 cups celery-chopped (with leaves)
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
Freshly-ground black pepper (to taste)
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
1/2 tsp sage
2 boxes IMAGINE-brand potato-leek soup -OR- 4 cans creamy potato soup of choice, -OR- make your own potato soup.
1tbsp Wondra gravy thickener.

DIRECTIONS:

Steam fry the onion in the butter sub 3min. Add garlic and steam from 4-5 min more.
Add in mushrooms and veggie oyster sauce and steam fry 3-4 more min, or until the mushrooms start to release their juice.
Add potatoes, celery and corn. Stir and combine with other ingredients. Add broth and bring to a simmer.
Lower heat and add in potato soup and seasonings. Bring to boil, stirring regularly. Reduce to low and simmer for 20min, or until potatoes are tender.
Whisk the Wondra or like thickener into 1/4 cup warm water, then add to soup pot and stir. Turn off heat and let stand.

Ginger Orange Salad

2009-07-05T21:13:00.001-07:00

Christie had two requests today while we were walking around downtown enjoying the gorgeous July day: salad and something with Asian inspired flavors. We enjoyed these delicious, hearty salads for dinner outside in the cool breeze this evening.

Dressing

1/3 liquid from 1 can of mandarin oranges
2 teaspoons agave
2 tablespoons Bragg's Liquid Aminos (Tamari, Shoyu, or soy sauce would be fine)
1/2 inch fresh ginger, minced
1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons raw tahini
1/2 - 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
sea salt, to taste
chili flakes, to taste
Siracha, to taste
Black sesame seeds (because they look particularly awesome, however, white could be used)

Whisk together all ingredients until smooth in the bottom of a large bowl.

Into the bowl add:

The Veggies

Small handful of fresh string beans (I got to use the fabulous red ones from our garden)
Small handful of snow peas
1/2 small head Nappa cabbage
1/2 small head of Bok Choy
2 small carrots
4" from a large cucumber
1 cup spinach
1 can of mandarin oranges (set aside)
1/2 red bell pepper
**Sunflower seed sprouts to top (if you grow them or can get at a market)

All of the veggies are eiter sliced into thin, 1 - 2" pieces or shredded. Feel free to improvise, but I used this assortment.

Ginger Orange Tempeh

1 pack of tempeh cut into 1/2" strips
1/2" fresh ginger cut into thin, long pieces
1/3 liquid from mandarin oranges
Sea Salt
Spray Canola oil for frying

Heat pan and add oil, a cast-iron grill pan is ideal for this. Add in strips of tempeh and cook until browned with a lid to keep from getting dry. Spray top of tempeh before turning in pan and cooking the other side until browned, adding a little sprinkle of salt. Flip again, add ginger then juice. Cover until juice has cooked in and ginger browned slightly. Set aside to cool, then cut into small pieces and tossed into the dressing.

Toss everything in the dressing until evenly coated; go ahead and use your hands! Garnish with sprouts & mandarin orange slices and serve.

Makes two dinner sized salads or could serve 4 as a first course.

Simple Split Pea Soup

2009-06-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

This is another installment of the 'Ode to an Inexpensive Pressure Cooker' series. One of our favorite, in fact. Yes, this can be made without the pressure cooker, but I highly recommend one. I haven't bought canned beans since we purchased it.

So, here's the soup. There's comments about doing stove top, some variations, etc. below.

The Materials

2 cups dried split peas (yellow or green)
1 onion* diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced (or one enormous clove)
4 medium carrots, diced
4 large stalks of celery diced (or equivalent)
2 T nutritional yeast
1/4 - 1/2 t garam masala
1/4 - 1/2 t ground cumin
1/4 - 1/2 t sweet, smoked paprika
2 T olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
6 cups water

In the pressure cooker heat olive oil and saute onions until translucent, then add garlic. Continue cooking until these begin to caramelize a little then add carrots and celery. Cook together until carrots & celery brighten in color and are more aromatic. Add cleaned, rinsed peas and water. Stir together all ingredients then lock down the lid. Bring pressure cooker up to locked, when the valve begins to rock cook for 7 additional minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for several minutes before releasing the valve. Remove lid when lock releases then add yeast and spices. Let sit several minutes for the spices to blend into the soup before serving.

What else can you do?

Add curry powder and additional garam masala - more like a Indian dish then
Add some squirts of Siracha when serving
More smoked paprika will give a much smokier flavor
Add some chopped veggies, like cauliflower
Add diced potatoes to this
We like to serve it with a little quinoa & some nice bread
Give it a drizzle of Bragg's Aminos instead of salt at the table
Yes, you can make this without the magical pressure cooker. You just need to cook everything about 45 minutes

Saag Spiced Beet Greens

2009-06-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by a radish greens & kale saag a friend of mine mentioned recently and wanted to give it a try. While at the co-op I was thrilled with some gorgeous beets with lush greens and brought them home to try out. I am going to be making this again and soon, so a picture of this beautiful dish will be up soon.

Leaves & stems of at least 4 beets are needed. You should end up with about a cup of chopped stems and around 4 cups of leaves. I've also made this with a mix of beet greens and chard. Kale would be great... pretty much any greens will do!

The Stuff!

beet stems, chopped
beet greens, large leaves torn a little
half a medium, sweet onion, diced
2 inches ginger, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon garlic paste or 2-3 cloves minced (out of garlic, oops)
1 T mild oil
1/2 t Panch Poran (check out a Desi shop for this)
salt & lemon juice to taste

Saute onion in oil until it begins to brown and caramelize. Add in garlic, ginger and then the Panch Poran, cooking until fragrant. Then add in beet stems, a little salt, and cover. You may want to add a tablespoon or so of water to help steam the stems. After the stems start to soften a little add the greens and cover until they begin to wilt. Toss greens with stems and onions below to blend all together. Continue to cook covered until stems are cooked (we still like them kinda firm). Toss with a little more salt and lemon juice before serving.

Seitan Bacon

2009-05-05T03:10:00.000-07:00

So I says to myself, I says, "Dave, you could probably make something pretty darned bacony by layering seitan that's reddish brown with seitan that's kinda blonde." And I thinks, "Eureka! You'll be all kinds of Internet famous!" But then I thinks to myself, I thinks, "before you register davehadthisreallygreatideaaboutbaconseitan.com, you should Google that idea."

At which point I found that Tracy Williams did it a couple years ago.

She posted a method, but she didn't post a recipe, at least not one that I could find.

Celine Steen, however, posted an interesting bacon recipe at "Have Cake, Will Travel."

Here's a modified version of Celine's, which I used to make the above- and below-pictured slices of bacon sammish-bound loveliness.

Dry stuff, part 1:

3/4 cup vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup soy or garbanzo flour

2 T nutritional yeast

2-3 t smoked paprika

1-2 t garlic powder

1 t black pepper

Wet stuff, part 1:

2/3 cup water

3 T soy sauce

2 T maple syrup

1 T tomato paste

Dry stuff, part 2:

1/4 cup plus 2 T vital wheat gluten

2 T soy or garbanzo flour

1-1/2 T nutritional yeast

1/2 t garlic

1/2 t salt

Wet stuff, part 2:

1/4 cup plus 2 T water

2 t canola oil

You're making two batches of seitan. "Part 1" is the red, bacony stuff. "Part 2" is the white-ish streaky stuff.

Part 1: mix the dry stuff; mix the wet stuff; mix together. This dough is easy to work by hand.
Part 2: see Part 1, only do it in a different bowl (or in the same bowl after you clean it, or in another bowl-like object, or...).
Divide the reddish, Part 1 dough into 3 pieces.
Divide the white-ish, Part 2 dough into 2 pieces.
Lay down a piece of plastic wrap.
Put one piece of the Part 1 dough on it.
Lay another piece of plastic wrap over the dough.
Roll the dough out until it's about 1/4" high. You don't need to worry about shape all that much.
Put the rolled dough on a piece of sprayed foil.
Repeat the rolling process (steps 5-8) for the other pieces of dough and stack them on the first piece, obviously alternating the white and reddish parts. If they don't stack perfectly, that's good. If you get really anal and precise about this stuff, it'll look like it was made by a machine.
Put a piece of plastic wrap on top of the stack of doughs.
Rest a heavy book or something on the plastic wrap for 20 minutes or more.
Wrap the slab of scarily realistic bacon in foil.
Bake at 325 degrees F for about 90 minutes.

Cool it, slice it thinly, eat it cold or heat it up. It fries pretty well, and it seems to stand up to nuking for 20-30 seconds.

Wrong and Wonderful Sushi

2009-05-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

I made some sushi today (Alton Brown's rice method is dead simple and perfect), just the standard spicy (fake) tuna roll, spicy and non-spicy versions of a Cali roll with fake crab and chayote instead of avo (sorry, Sherri), and random veggie roll (cheap bag o' broccoli slaw makes an excellent, crunchy mix) with tofu, plus a couple of the above with brown rice. And some of it was good. One of the Cali rolls was very tasty. But I found myself wanting something more... weird.

Tonight I did a lot of searching, finding things like Tex Wasabi's weird and gringo-friendly sushi (sans nori) and Hawaiian Spam sushi. That got me thinking, and I made a couple super-simple experimental rolls.

Roll 1: vegan ham (seitan), mayo, and broc slaw mix

Roll 2: breaded vegan chicken patty, mayo, veggie ham, and broc slaw mix

Both were super tasty, particularly after I toasted the nori in the toaster oven for 20 seconds. And I could almost hear the graves of the ancient sushi chefs vibrating as their occupants spun crazily. My sushioija board spelled Breaded vegan chicken patty -- on SUSHI?!

But I don't care. I'm all into non-traditional sushi, now, plus twisting some American classics. For example, I'm thinking I might try a mock Philly roll with Tofutti cream cheese and veggie ham in place of the smoked salmon.

Isa has some interesting sushi ideas on her site, including the "Elephant Roll" with oily peanuts, which sounds fantastic! I'm betting Trader Joe's blister peanuts would be perfect, though maybe too crunchy.

So I put this question to the other clubbers and our non-existent outside readers: what other supremely non-traditional ingredients would be good inside a sushi roll?

Spicy Vegan Pepperoni Seitan

2009-04-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

I take only 1% of the credit for this, the remaining howevermany percent going to Radioisotope at Sparkpeople, Joanna Vaught, and Julie Hasson (y'all can fight over proportional credit).

By mashing together Radioisotope's fantastic pepperoni spice recipe (she uses tofu) with the steamed seitan sausage numminess of Joanna and Julie (and a little wingin' it on my own), I came up with a pretty decent pepperoni.

Dry ingredients:

2-1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup garbanzo or soy flour (replace with another 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten for firmer pepperoni)
1 T paprika
4 t ground black pepper
2 t salt
2 t fennel seeds, crushed
2 t Frontier vegan beef broth powder
2 t smoked paprika
1 t crushed red pepper
1 t anise seed, crushed
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1 t ground mustard
1 t cumin

Wet ingredients:

2-1/2 cups water (opt: replace 1 cup of water with your fave broth and delete the broth powder, above)
2 T olive oil
2 t liquid smoke (or sub 1-2 t smoked paprika in addition to the 2 t smoked paprika above)

Method:

Put a steamer's worth of the water on to boil. I use a stock pot with probably a quart of water.
Mix the dry stuff.
Mix the wet stuff.
Mix 'em together. The dough is really easy to work, so you don't need to dirty up the mixer. Just throw it in a bowl and mix it with a spoon or by hand. Hand-mixing bonus: pepperoni-flavored fingers.
Using a 1/2-cup measuring cup, scoop out a hunk of dough. Drop it on a piece of foil (Julie suggests muslin as a less-waste alternative). Whip out your trusty bamboo-placemat-that-thinks-it's-a-sushi-mat to shape the foil-wrapped dough into a sausage shape. Alternatively, you can just use shape the dough manually, but what fun is that?
Repeat until you're out of dough.
Arrange your soon-to-be pepperoni sausages in steamer trays and steam them for 30-40 minutes.

Let 'em cool. Fridge 'em. Slice 'em. Eat 'em. Why not dig out the springform pan you bought for that ill-fated cheesecake experiment and make a stuffed pizza?

Tip: If you're using a food processor to slice your pepperoni, freeze the sausages for half an hour or so first. The sausages are a little soft, but they're moist enough to take a good freeze without getting unworkably hard.

Convenient, Easy, Probably Unhealthy Tofu Toaster Scramble(r) Ripoffs

2009-04-04T00:59:00.000-07:00

This one's a no-brainer. A very tasty no-brainer.

Go to your friendly Asian grocery
Go to the tofu section
Find the packages of "Age Tofu" (formally "Agedashi tofu," sometimes written "Agé," pronounced -- without irony -- like "ah, gay tofu").

You'll see little puffs of fried tofu about the size and shape of playing cards and 1/4-1/2" thick. At Uwajimaya today, these were four for a buck and change or a dozen for three bucks and something.

If you're a sushi fan, you may know these as the puffs that are bisected, sweetened, and filled with sushi rice to make Inari, which is Japanese for "the only thing a vegan can grab with any confidence from the sushi conveyor belt/train/boat."

Age tofu isn't naturally sweet, so when you buy it in the store, it's pretty much a naked omelet already. To start making it into a tasty breakfast treat, you can do any of these:

Cut it in two pieces; open the cut side of each piece with your fingers to make two small pockets
Cut an opening along one edge; open the whole thing with your fingers, keeping the other edges intact, to make the whole thing one pocket
Slice it down the middle like you were slicing a hamburger bun, fillings-retaining pocket effect be damned

Now that you have some fillings-ready tofu, fire up some fillings.

Fillings suggestions:

veggie ham and veggie cheese
sauteed onions and mushrooms, with or without veggie cheese
thinly sliced mushrooms and fresh herbs
veggie sausage and cooked or canned potatoes
peppers and onions (vegan Denver)
spinach with veggie cheese and herbs (vegan Florentine)
creepy, frozen or vacuum-packed veggie meat substitutes from the Asian store with suspiciously misspelled ingredients lists, grilled

Because the finished omelet cooks for under a minute in the mike, you'll probably want to saute, steam, or bake anything that needs more heat and TLC (like onions, potatoes, peppers, or anything frozen) before you use it in the omelet.

Stuff the stuff into the tofu and cook, using one of these methods:

Nukerowave oven: wrap in a paper towel and cook for 45 seconds
Oven or toaster oven: Wrap loosely in foil and bake at 400F for 5 minutes
Pan-fry: medium heat for 4-5 minutes (the fried tofu already has enough oil that you shouldn't have to spray the pan)

Enjoy with some million-grain toast and Earth Balance with a side of Walla Walla onion hashbrowns.

Lazy Dave's $5-bread-machine Turkey-flavored Seitan

2009-03-15T01:07:00.000-07:00

Bread machine seitan. Yes, mamawafflin' seitan in the gol-darned bread machine. As in "dump all this stuff into the thing; press button; go away." Yeah. Life is good.

We've been making seitan loaves ever since the revered Seitan o' Greatness grabbed the Net by the tubes a couple years ago. But we're simple former carnivores, so we used animal-flavored recipes instead of the vaguely Middle Eastern, a-scoshe-too-much-cinnamon SoG. "La Dolce Vegan" has some pretty good spice combos that turn ordinary seitan into chicken-, turkey-, beef-, or ham-flavored seitan. To make the "loaf" version, we just moved the spices from the boiling broth into the dough (usually doubling or tripling the spices), rolled the dough up into loaves wrapped in foil, and baked at 325F for 90 minutes. It was a bit of a pain to make, because we always made a ton and you have to turn it every 20-30 minutes to keep one side from getting hard, but the result was worth the work.

Until...

The other day, I peeked into the upstairs appliance utopia at Union Gospel Mission in Tigard and saw... a bread machine. A bunch of 'em, actually, with a gleaming, state-of-the-art (10 years ago) Toastmaster, complete with manual/cookbook, for $5. Nineteen quarters, a dime, two nickels, and all five of my pennies made that little sucker mine, all mine. It's now made much bread, acres of pizza crust, hamburger buns, bagels, and baguettes, sparking many ideas in the process.

One of the ideas, as you may guess from the title of this entry, was seitan. And tonight, despite my trepidation that it'd burn, it worked.

Recipe

(probably a modified version of the one from "La Dolce Vegan," but maybe a modified version of somebody else's recipe)

Ingredients:

Wet stuff (goes first in my machine):

4 t vegan Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce, tamari, or Bragg's
1.5 to 2 cups water

Dry stuff

2 cups vital wheat gluten (I use Bob's)
1/2 cup garbanzo flour (Bob's, again)
1/2 to 3/4 cups nutritional yeast
4 t onion powder
2 t dried sage
2 t dried thyme
2 t salt (I use less)
2 t smoked paprika

Method:

Dump the wet stuff into the bowl.
Dump the dry stuff into the bowl.
Push the button, Frank.

My Toastmaster has a cycle called "Basic Medium" (as opposed to "Basic Light" and "Basic Dark"), so I tried that one. Seems to have worked fine.

The resulting loaf is moist and meaty, with an interestingly crispy (not hard) skin on five faces. Because the bread machine's cycle is set up for bread (mix, let rise, punch down, let rise, punch down, let rise, bake) it lets the dough settle a couple times and then spins it again with the mixing blade. Result: the center of the loaf is stringy in an almost spooky approximation of turkey.

To serve:

Slice it; dice it; tear off a hunk and eat it raw.

The sliced version makes tasty sandwiches (Wildwood Garlic Aioli and romaine, please) and barbecue (Bone-suckin' Sauce, if it has to come from a jar).

The diced version makes a chewy, flavorful protein for stir-fry, curry, stew, soup, mac'n'cheese, and doro wat.

Southwestern Stew

2009-03-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

When my afternoon plans this past Sunday were canceled I decided to make up a big pot of stew. Even though Christie was out of town, I knew this would be a great lunch when she arrived home on Monday and we'd have some great leftovers for the week.

I wanted to try a little something different from the garbanzo stews I've been making so made up a batch of black-eyed peas. The taste of those with yam and tomato evoked a more "southwestern" flavor so I went with the cumin and smoked paprika to finish the stew off.

Southwestern Stew

2 carrots, diced
2 stalk celery, diced
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups black-eyed peas (cooked or 1 can drained & rinsed)
1 can diced tomatoes
4 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 can corn (drained)
1 large yam, diced
2 small zucchini, cut into half rounds
1/2 red bell pepper, diced small
8 stems of kale, stemmed and chopped up (about 2 cups)
8 cups water
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin powder
1/4 chili powder or powdered cayenne (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon sweet, smoked parprika
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

You can use some olive oil to sauté the onion & garlic or, instead of sautéing in oil, you can use water, tamari or broth for an ultra low-fat dish. Once they start to soften add the rest of the vegetables (except the kale), beans, corn, and water. Bring stew to a boil then reduce heat to low. Simmer until all veggies are cooked through, about 40 minutes. Add spices, yeast and the kale, simmer for another 10 minutes and serve.

We served this with some quinoa for an even more hearty dish. Add a little Sriracha and Bragg's over the top at serving, yum! Would also be great topped with some lime juice and a little chopped up, fresh coriander (cilantro) -- but I didn't have any. I did top with some fresh diced avocado and it was muy delicioso!

This makes an enormous pot of soup (about 10 servings?) - more than enough to have leftovers for lunch during the week!

Really simple, really good, really veggie garbanzo-centric utility soup/stew

2009-03-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

This is a fast-assemble soup that is awesome with sourdough baguette/bread. I grilled some tempeh to toss on top as well...

Ingredients:

3tbsp oliv oil
1 large onion (sweet/white) diced or chopped
1 large bag mixed frozen veg (peas/carrot/corn, etc)
2 16oz cans garbanzo beans
2 24oz cans diced tomatoes
12-16 cups veggie broth
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup sliced crimini mushrooms
1 tbsp cornstarch or Wondra gravy maker
1 cup chopped frozen spinach

Directions:

Rinse and strain garbanzos
In a 12 quart stockpot, heat to medium, add oil, and saute' onions for 4-5 min, or until just this side of tranlucent.
Add mushrooms & garlic. Saute' for 4 min covered, stirring once or twice, until the mushrooms begin to let go of their liquids.
Add in frozen veg. Saute covered for 2 more min.
Add in tomatoes and their liquid. Stir well and cover.
Add broth to cans, swish to get all the rest of the tomato goodness. Add all liquid to stockpot.
Add garbanzos.
Cover ad bring to boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for a goodly long while.
Before serving, gather 2 cups of liquid, strain veggies, and place in a working bowl. Whisk in corn-starch/Wondra. Add back into stock-pot. Simmer for 5 min more while soup turns to stew. Add in 1 cup frozen chopped spinach.
Serve with bread or over pre-cooked pasta fusilli or rotini.

Serves more people than you probably know. I make BIG soup pots. Cheap meals for weeks.

Notes:

Obviously, you can take this soup in a number of directions. It can very easily be made into a tortilla soup (add cumin & cilantro and garnish with a slice of lime), or a tuscan (add an additional can of white beans, some fresh basil or 2 tbsp of pesto paste, garnish with lemon), florintien (add two cups of frozen spinach at the outset and cook in) or spanish (cumin & paprika, plus a small tin of sliced black olives & lemon). I typically start with this base soup, then do one or more of the varriations with the left-overs.

Green Chile Stew

2009-03-08T03:32:00.000-07:00

Some friends were bragging about real New Mexican green chile stew a while back, and I've been looking for a way to make it vegan and brag-worthy. Starting with every damned chile stew recipe on the Net (like this one), I replaced a few ingredients for reasons of availability, on-handedness, and/or laziness, and came up with a pretty good stew. I can't compare it to the original, but I'm happy (and full) with the results.

Food4Less sells some good-looking Anaheim chiles for cheap (I think my recent ones were under a buck a pound), but you can find them at most grocery stores for 2-3 dollars a pound.

Ingredients

about a pound of diced, thinly sliced, or chopped chicken, pork, or turkey flavored seitan
a medium potato or a can of potatoes, diced
a can of tomatoes with chiles (Hatch or Rotel for me)
a can of Mexi-corn (corn with peppers)
two pounds of Anaheim or New Mexico chile peppers (oven roasted, method below)
1 habanero pepper
1 orange rocoto pepper (or a couple of serrano or other hot ones)
1-2 shallots or 1 small onion
1 t garlic powder or a couple cloves of garlic, chopped
1 t onion powder
1 t cumin
1 t Mexican oregano
1 vegan "chicken" bouillon cube
a couple cups of water or broth

Method

Blend all the peppers. Yeah, I puree 'em. Sue me.
Throw everything into the crock pot.
Stew on High for 2-4 hours or Low for the whole day. Warning: your house will smell amazing.

Serve with Spanish rice, refried or black beans, and your fave tortillas.

Method: Oven-roasting chiles

If you, like me, lack a grill or a fire pit or a blowtorch or a blast furnace or any other thing that makes big fire, you can roast your Anaheim or New Mexico green chiles in the oven kinda easily.

Fire it up to 450 degrees F or so, lay out the washed chiles on an ungreased cookie sheet in a single layer, set the top rack as high as the oven allows, and cook for 5-10 minutes, peeking after 5 and being careful not to burn 'em.

I also flip them at the 5-minute mark, but I'm not sure whether that helps. They should blister a lot and brown a little, and you might get some blackening on the stems. As long as the skins aren't black, you're OK.

When you're happy with the blistering or nervous that you'll burn the peppers, drop the peppers in a paper or plastic bag, seal, and let 'em sweat for 20 minutes to an hour, even a couple of hours if you like.

At this point, you have a couple of options. Both options include rubber/latex/nitrile gloves, unless you hate your eyes and/or genitals enough to play pepper-pain Russian roulette with yourself the next time you touch yourself.

If you're as lazy as I am:

chop off the stems,
peel off the loose skin,
halve the peppers lengthwise,
throw away the seeds and loose membranes,
and blend/puree the flesh.

If you're as industrious as one of those 50-somethings who come back to school, actually do all the homework, and bring home-baked cookies to class three times a week, you can do the PAIN-IN-THE-(adults only) method. For this one:

chop off the stems,
peel off the loose skin,
halve the peppers lengthwise,
throw away the seeds,
cut out and discard the membranes,
use a knife or spoon to peel the pepper flesh away from all remaining skin (a process which will take the rest of your life if you do it right and you'll waste a lot of pepper flesh),
and chop/dice the (pathetically small lumps of) flesh (that survive).

Since I'm not that interested in biting into mushy pepper chunks, the puree method is parfait. Purists will hate me; I will not care. It turns this dish from an hour-plus labor into a 30-minute meal (20 of that is waiting for the peppers to sweat) that's doable in the morning before work and ready when you get home.

Ma's Chicken & Dumplings/Biscuits

2009-03-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

1 bag (or 12oz) of fake chicken of choice
1/2 white onion
3 tbsp minced garlic
1.5 cups frozen veg (peas, carots, etc)
1 cup sliced crimini mushrooms
1 cup chopped celery
3 cups Imagine Potato Leek soup
S&P

3 cups Bisquick** baking mix
approx 1 cup water or soy milk

1) Brown chicken in 3 tbsp canola oil on med heat in a cast iron dutch oven (aprox 5min).

2) Add in onion, mushroom & celery & brown for an additional 5 min, or until onion gets some color. Make sure to not over-brown garlic.

3) Add in frozen veg, stir in well, cover & let cook an additional 5 min, or until all is evenly hot throughout.

4) Take soups, empty into a mixing bowl, and reconstitute with half the called-for water. Whisk together. Pour into dutch oven, and stir to combine. Allow to come to a gentle boil at med-low heat.

5) Mix Bisquick powder & liquid, making sure not to over-mix. Get to a sticky runny dough. Add spoonfulls of dough to dutch oven, making sure to leave a full inch of headroom. Add all dough until stew is as covered as need be.

6) Cook on stove-top uncovered for 10min. For dumpling topping, cover and steam for an additional 10min, or until a toothpick comes out of a dumpling clean. For southern biscuit topping, preheat oven with broiler on HI. Turn broiler to LOW. Spray dumpling top with spray oil, and place dutch oven on 2nd to bottom rack. Broil until dumplings (now biscuits) are just golden brown (approx 5-10 min, depending on your oven.

** Yes, Bisquick is vegan. Who knew!?

Garbanzo Stew Redux Me, Baby

2009-03-01T21:16:00.000-08:00

Yes, there is a recurring theme to my Sundays, especially in the chilly, wet months. Stews, soups and thick warming dishes. The mix of garbanzos, tomatoes, and squash is so popular that I tend to just do some variations on a those three ingredients.

Today's stew is the best to date. Christie said to me while we enjoyed seconds that I had to write this one done. We tried to get a picture but discovered the camera had a dead battery.

2 cups cooked garbanzos (yes, canned is fine, just drain & rinse first)
1 smallish pie pumpkin peeled and diced (easily 4 cups)
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 small sweet potatoes (I used the Japanese type)
1 medium red onion, diced
2 15oz cans diced tomatoes (I used Muir Glen's fire roasted, no salt added type)
6 leaves of chard, stems diced and leafy parts in small ribbons
5 c water
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon sweet, smoked paprika
1/3 c nutritional yeast
1 packet vegetarian bullion (I used the liquid type from TJs)

You can use some olive oil to sauté the onion & garlic or, instead of sautéing in oil, you can use water, tamari or broth for an ultra low-fat dish. Once they start to soften add the rest of the ingredients except the chard and spices/nutritional yeast. Bring stew to a boil then reduce heat to low. Simmer until squash is cooked through, about 40 minutes. Add spices, yeast and the chard, simmer for another 10 minutes and serve.

We served this with some quinoa for an even more hearty dish. Added a little Sriracha and Bragg's over the top at serving, yum!

This makes an enormous pot of soup (about 10 servings?) - more than enough to have leftovers for lunch during the week!

Notice, other than the bullion packet (which yields one cup broth) there was no salt added at all!

Garbanzo Stew

2009-02-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, February 9th, the dinner request was, "Some kind of tomato-y garbanzo stew..."

Here are the delicious results!

2 cups cooked garbanzos (yes, canned is fine, just drain & rinse first)
3 cups diced winter squash (like butternut)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 "cloves" of shallot, chopped small
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
3 c water
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon herb mix (I was using "21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe's)
1 teaspoon tamari (shoyu, soy sauce, whatever...)
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast

You can use some olive oil to sauté the shallot & garlic or, instead of sautéing in oil, you can use water, tamari or broth for an ultra low-fat dish. Once they start to soften add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil then reduce heat to low. Simmer until squash is cooked through, about 40 minutes, and serve. We served this with some quinoa for an even more hearty dish.

This makes a good size pot of soup (about 8 servings?) - enough to have leftovers for lunch during the week! I'm tagging this "Quick" because it is easily thrown together and set to simmer while you can get other things done.

Tartar / Big Boy sauce...

2009-02-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

Tammy, this one's particularly for you...

I've been missing Marc's / Bob's Big Boy lately ( :| ?! ) (as well as George Webb's, but that's exclusively a Wisconsin thing). I especially miss the classic messy as hell Big Boy burger itself, and the BBB sauce on it, which was a dill pickle relish based mayo/tartar sauce. Oddly enough, their sauce was really close to (ew!) McDonnald's fishwich sauce (read the ingredients!) Anyway, this is my go-to tartar sauce recipe that is about as close as a vegan sauce can get to that nasty goodness ;)

1 cup veganaise
2 tablespoon dill pickle relish
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder or 1tbsp yellow salad mustard
1/4 - 1/2 tsp dill
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Use on just about everything, burgers, "fish" things, deli sammies, etc. I especially love this on onion rings (that's the Big Boy part for me...)

Quickie Lentils

2009-02-08T15:43:00.001-08:00

This dish is made extra quick and easy since it uses lots of canned items. In fact, this is such a quickie I'm feeling a smidge guilty for posting it. However, since Amy's asked for more lentil ideas and Christie asked me to jot down what I did, here it is!

2 15oz cans of lentils drained and rinsed
1 7oz can of diced green chilies
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 - 1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon sweet, smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Sriracha sauce to taste

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and simmer for at least 20 minutes for the flavors to "marry". Yep, that's it. Put this in tortillas with salsa and greens for tacos or burritos. Serve as a topping to steamed grains, potatoes or yams.

Yes, I suggest Sriracha to give some heat to this dish, just add as much or as little as you like. I find in small amounts it adds a brightness and just a little heat to any dish, plus sometimes seems more easy to control than using powdered, hot chilies.

Except for the lentils you can really wing it with this recipe (really more a "suggestion" than a "recipe"). Heck you could even wing the legumes and use garbanzos, pintos, red beans... you get the picture. By all means, if you don't want to use canned legumes, don't. Just make the legumes first and use them drained -- about 3 cups or so.

Add more or use less cumin if you want. A squeeze of lime would be great in this. Fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves chopped up and added on top would be lovely (our's had gone nasty in the fridge... ooops). Leave out the green chilies if you don't have them. Add some mustard seed, powdered coriander, tumeric, ginger and black pepper (or just some garam masala) to start taking this more of an Indian dal direction.