Cooking on Snow Days

It snowed a bit in Brooklyn this weekend.

So, I made some yummy stuff. First is this sautéed collard green dish that I adapted from a recipe in The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone.

I just sautéed some garlic and olive oil in a large pan, added chopped collards (with a little water on them from when soaking them to rinse them), stirred and covered for a couple minutes to soften the collards, added 2 tablespoons pine nuts, quartered prunes, and 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Stir to combine and sautee another couple of minutes. Voila!

  I also made a quinoa bowl with cooked quinoa, avocado, cilantro leaves, steamed carrot and broccoli, chickpeas, and homemade lemon olive oil dressing. For the dressing: I just juice a couple lemons, add olive oil, diced shallot, fresh thyme leaves, a tiny bit of Himalayan pink salt, and pepper. Yum!

September Cleanse!

So, September is when I like to celebrate the new year ... It feels like a new start. So, this year I'm cleaning out my closets and my insides!

I read CLEAN by Alejandro Junger and his thoughts about healthy eating seem to, for the most part, gel with mine. Part of the cleanse is to do a shake for breakfast, whole foods for lunch, and a shake for dinner. I'm eating whole foods for lunch and dinner, but I'm following the cleanse otherwise; that is, no caffeine, no diary, no processed foods, no alcohol, no soy, no sugar, no corn, no nightshade veggies (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, etc.), no wheat ... did I forget anything? LOL And, I'm drinking 2 litres of purified water a day.

The withdrawal symptoms following giving up caffeine were rough! I had my last coffee on Thursday, August 27th, and I had a dull headache from that Friday until Wednesday 9/2! I was achy and lethargic ... ugh. I'd been wanting to give up caffeine for a while, so this was a welcome detox in any event.

Now that the caffeine detox is over, I feel great! I've been doing lots of cooking and cleaning. I filled 4 giant bags with clothes to donate to the thrift store and my closets and drawers are still stuffed. haha! Fashionista issues ... I also bought the CLEAN EATS cookbook. It's got some great recipes for super healthy smoothies, salad and dressings, and dips - just ignore the non-vegan recipes.

Here are my favorite things I made this week:

Raw Berry Cream Brownies! These are really, really good and super easy to make! The hardest part is shopping for all the ingredients. The recipe is from Kris Carr's website and you can click HERE to find it. :) My advice is to double the recipe as the original recipe seems to make a teensie tiny bit.

 

Thanks to this week's CSA bounty, I cooked up some delicata squash and beet and collard greens with some pesto noodles for dinner last night. 

And ... OMG! These brown rice wakame noodles are SO FRIGGIN' GOOD! Gluten free, vegan, and delicious. I used Isa Chandra's Bestest Pesto recipe from p.140 of Isa Does It and mixed it with the noodles and some cannellini beans. Delightful.

Fancy Raw Chia Pudding with Cashew Cream and a Summer Salad

Fancy Chia Pudding with Cashew Cream

Ingredients:
1 cup raw cashews, soaked in filtered water overnight (or at least for 10 hours), drained, and rinsed
2 cups almond mylk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
seeds from one vanilla bean (I just throw the whole bean in my Vitamix)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
1/3 cup chia seeds

Method:
Place all ingredients except the chia seeds in your blender and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and stir in the chia seeds. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for 4 - 10 hours. Serve chilled with fresh organic fruit. Makes 6 servings.

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Mango and Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

(I think this is my favorite salad - ever!)

Dressing:
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Salad:
6 cups fresh spinach
2 cups arugula
2 large mangos, peeled and cubed
2 cucumbers, peeled, deseeded, and sliced
1/2 cup raw pistachios, chopped
Method:
Whisk together the balsamic, agave, thyme, salt, and pepper and add olive oil while whisking. Toss the salad with the dressing and serve topped with pistachios.

**Both of these recipes are from RAW FOOD COOKBOOK & DIET: 75 Easy, Delicious, and Flexible Recipes for a Raw Food Diet (by Rockridge Press) [Available on Amazon to download to your Kindle!]

Baigan Bharta and Steamed Kale and Prepping for the week ...

Today I made smoothies for breakfast and then hit up the gym and went grocery shopping for the next couple of days.

I made a tabouleh salad and a spiced beet salad for lunch and snacks tomorrow and Tuesday.

Click for the Spiced Beet Salad Recipe.

The Tabouleh Salad is just a box of Near East Tabouleh with fresh lemon juice, grape tomatoes, fresh parsley, black olives, cucumbers, and roasted red pepper added. Mmmmm.

Then, for dinner, I made Baigan Bharta - an Indian roasted eggplant dish with some steamed kale. More Mmm ...

After my nice long break, needless to say, I'm not exactly looking forward to the beginning of the work week tomorrow. meh.

Things I've made this week ... Mmmm

I made the Asian Noodles with Black Vinaigrette from Crazy Sexy Kitchen tonight. It's amazing! I love this cookbook! I made it for my husband and I to take for lunches for the next couple days. I also made it with organic kale and an organic red pepper from our CSA, a sautéed leek, and chickpeas since that's what I had on hand. I topped it with some raw sesame seeds, but I forgot to do that before I took the picture. ;p

We had an abundance of organic kale this week from our CSA (lucky us!), so I also made some tabbouleh with kale instead of parsley(pictured below). Yum!

Our CSA also got us an enormous yellow watermelon. What a difference an organic locally grown watermelon makes when it comes to taste!

Vegan Summer Rolls

I finally made summer rolls! They were far easier than I thought they'd be! I thought I'd be wrestling with broken rice paper wrappers and unable to actually make a neat roll. Not shabby for my first attempt ...

The lovely filling stuffs ... some avocado, sprouts, basil, julienned orange pepper, sliced cucumber ... I also put some shredded carrots and cellophane noodles in these rolls.


To make cellophane noodles: The package should have the instructions, but all you do is drop them in boiling water, turn off the heat, let them sit for about 10 minutes, and drain.
To make summer rolls: Just dip rice paper wrapper quickly in room temperature water until it becomes pliable. Lay on a cutting board and put in some of the ingredients you've chosen to stuff them with. Roll wrapper over ingredients, tuck ends in (like a burrito), and finish rolling up.
Voila! So healthy ... so delicious! 

I like to dip these in peanut sauce or sweet and sour sauce (both of which you can buy over the counter).

Saag Tofu (vegan)

Saag Tofu (Spinach Curry with Tofu)

Ingredients:
23 oz fresh baby spinach
olive oil
1 tablespoon ground coriander
3/4 tablespoon turmeric
1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1/2 tablespoon garam masala
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup vegan sour cream
1 (14oz) package firm or extra firm tofu, drained and cut into cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Method:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet with sides and fry the powdered spices for a minute. Put as much spinach as will fit into the skillet along with the water and stir to coat with the spices. Cover and let that batch wilt until you can fit more spinach. Add more spinach (and water, if necessary), cover, and let that wilt. Fold in the vegan sour cream and tofu cubes. Add the salt and sugar and stir well. Continue cooking over low heat for about 5 minutes so that the flavor of the spices gets into the tofu. Serve with basmati rice. Mmmm.

My basmati rice recipe is here: http://sundaegirl108.blogspot.com/2010/12/sweet-potato-curry-with-spinach-and.html

The above saag tofu recipe is losely based on the Paneer Sak recipe (p.184) in The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking by Adiraja dasa. You can purchase that book here: http://www.amazon.com/Hare-Krishna-Book-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0902677071/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344987514&sr=8-1&keywords=the+hare+krishna+book+of+vegetarian+cooking

HARE KRISHNA!

Brussels Sprouts with Crispy Tempeh Over Soft Polenta

Brussels Sprouts with Crispy Tempeh Over Soft Polenta
(recipe adapted from the one in The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life by Melisser Elliott - buy this book!)

Ingredients and Method:
Crispy Tempeh:
8oz tempeh, sliced very thin (at least 24 pieces)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed (I minced mine)
1 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a shallow pan, covering each side of the tempeh, and then allow to marinate while you chop the brussels sprouts and onion. Preheat a deep skillet over medium heat and spray it with a coating of cooking oil. Add the tempeh strips, reserving the marinade, and cook until crispy - about 5-7 minutes each side. Remove the tempeh and set aside.

Brussels Sprouts: 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 pound brussels sprouts, cut in half
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
leftover tempeh seasoning
1/2 cup water

Reheat the skillet over medium heat, add the oil, and sauté the onion until it begins to soften (3-5 mins). Add the brussels sprouts and sauté until slighty browned. Add salt and pepper. Add tempeh seasoning and 1/2 cup water. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and allow to simmer for about 7 minutes (until the sprouts are tender). Remove lid and simmer for a few more minutes to allow the sauce to thicken slightly.

Polenta:I just add one cup polenta to 4 cups already boiling salted water and stir continuously until the mixture thickens.

Spoon polenta onto plates and cover with tempeh, sprouts, and sauce. Mmmmmm...

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Veggie Sides!*

HERBED SOUR CREAM MASHED POTATOES
Ingredients:
2 pounds brown baking potatoes
butter to taste (vegan or regular - as you wish)
1.5 cups sour cream (vegan or regular - as you wish)
at least 2 tablespoons each chopped dill, chives, flat-leaf parsley
carmelized shallots

This is pretty self-explanatory. Boil potatoes for about 20 minutes or until soft. Mash potatoes with butter and sour cream. Stir in chopped herbs. Top with carmelized shallots. Mmm mmm good.



SPICY CREAMED SPINACH
Ingredients:
1 shallot
butter (vegan or regular - as you wish)
2 x 10oz bags spinach
1 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce (vegan or regular - as you wish)
1 cup veggie broth
1/2 cup sour cream (vegan or regular - as you wish)
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
a pinch of nutmeg

Cook 1 chopped shallot in a skillet with butter until soft. Add spinach and cook until it's wilted down. Add flour, Worcestershire sauce, veggie broth, sour cream, salt, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Cook 5 mins and serve. Mmm mmm good.



GLAZED PEARL ONIONS
Ingredients:
1 pound bag of frozen onions
1 cup veggie broth
2 tablespoons each molasses, cider vinegar, and butter
salt and pepper to taste
chopped flat-leaf parsley

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced to a glaze, about 20 mins. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Mmm mmm good.

*These recipes were adapted from recipes found in Food Network magazine - November 2011 issue - pages 132, 133, and 159.

Beet Greens with Black-Eyed Peas and Couscous with Dried Plums

Beet Greens with Black-Eyed Peas
beet greens from two bunches of beets
1 medium-sized red onion, sliced in thin strips
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (28oz) can whole peeled tomatoes
1 (15oz) can black-eyed peas
oregano
fresh ground black pepper
red pepper flakes
olive oil

Heat olive oil in a pot with high sides. Throw in onion and saute until it's translucent. Throw in garlic and saute for a few seconds. Toss in beet greens, tomatoes, spices, and black-eyed peas. Break tomatoes up with a spooon and turn heat to medium, cover with lid, and let simmer until the greens are tender and the flavors have combined.

Whole-Wheat Couscous with Dried Plums (aka prunes!)
plain whole-wheat couscous
prunes chopped in quarters
your favorite spice blend for couscous (I use Moroccan couscous spice)

Make couscous according to package instructions. )My instant couscous was one part water to one part couscous.) First, I boiled the water and then turned off the heat. I threw in the couscous, spices, and prunes and then covered the pot. Let sit at least 5 minutes and then fluff with fork.

I served this with the insanely delicious chickpea cutlet from Veganomicon. Mmm mmm, good.

Chickpea Cutlet, Spinach, and Old Bay Sweet Potatoes

Old Bay Sweet Potato recipe here:
http://sundaegirl108.blogspot.com/2010/11/old-bay-baked-sweet-potato-fries.html

I resolved this year to make more recipes from the many vegan cookbooks I own. :)

I finally made the chickpea cutlet from Veganomicon (p.133) this week! It is indeed heavenly. Mmm mmm good.

I also made the Sauteed Spinach and Tomatoes from Veganomicon (p.106). I highly recommend this one as well. Mmm.

Easy Lemon and Garlic Kale

Ingredients:
1 bunch kale, washed, ribs removed and discarded.
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup water

Method:
Combine all ingredients except kale in a large tall pot. Bring to a simmer. Throw in kale one handful at a time. Put a lid on it to steam the kale. Stir every once in a while. Cook kale until it's bright green and tender (about 5 - 8 mins). Enjoy!

Note: I made this with the polenta and seitan casserole from Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet. Unfortunately, the casserole didn't turn out so good, so I'm not posting it just yet. I'm going to have to tweak it with some spice additions of my own. ;) I think it'll also be better with some nutritional yeast added!

Indian-Spiced Kale and Chickpeas

This is delicious! It's healthy, inexpensive, and easy too!



Ingredients:
extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch of kale, ribs removed, coarsely chopped
1 cup reduced-sodium vegetable broth
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed

Directions:
♥ Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
♥ Add kale and cook, tossing with two large spoons, until bright green, about 1 minute.
♥ Add broth, coriander, cumin, garam masala and salt.
♥ Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is tender, 8 to 10 minutes.
Stir in chickpeas; cover and cook until the chickpeas are heated through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Source: http://www.realage.com/NutritionCenter/Recipes/Indian_Spiced_Kale_and_Chickpeas.aspx