Spinach Lasagna and Gingerbread Cookies

Wow! We haven't been updating the blog, have we? Coop's still going strong, though we are currently at 3 members: me, Claire, and Erika. We're working on adding a fourth back in after the holidays.

For Monday, I made a spinach lasagna with tofu ricotta. The recipe came highly recommended by friends and is in Joanna Vaught's The Yellow Rose Cookbook. I liked it; I did not love love it. But it was still very good.

I also made gingerbread cookies, ala the Post Punk Kitchen. These are always delish and the girls had a grand time making some of their own eating raw (vegan) dough.

Vaguely European evening

I try to keep meals coherent within one region, so today was Continental European-ish. I served French Onion Soup, baguettes, mushroom-walnut pate, and a salad with roasted chickpeas.

Keeping in mind that I haven't had true French Onion soup in 10 years (since we went vegetarian), I really liked this soup! Perhaps a little salty? But maybe that's a benefit, since you're supposed to float croutons in it. I didn't pre-slice or toast the baguettes, but that was an option. The mushroom pate was phenomenal on the baguettes as well.

Speaking of baguettes, this round (with fresh yeast) was much better than last week's! I also added a smidge more water to the dough, and it rose beautifully. Unfortunately, my oven got too hot, so the tops got too brown. 20 hours of preparation, scorched in the last 5 minutes! They didn't taste burnt, so I served them anyways.

I provided roasted chickpeas with the salad to give it a bit more body, since onion soup is a bit thin, baguettes aren't exactly filling, and there wasn't a ton of pate. I love eating these chickpeas while watching a movie, but it's very easy to eat way more calories than you intended! The recipe is from Vegan Lunchbox.

Gumbo with Andouille Sausage, Rice, and Bread

I decided to do a gumbo this week since it was the last week for okra at Boggy Creek Farm. I bookmarked a lot of recipes and eventually decided on this one from VeganDad. Amazing. He used the base sausage recipe from PostPunkKitchen and made it cajun. When we finished steaming them and cooled one down enough to try it, our jaws dropped. Oh my, wonderful. Definitely making these on a regular basis for David's protein fiending! They softened a bit soaking in the gumbo overnight, but they were just perfect right after cooking.

I was going to do southern-style collards to serve on the side, but instead, just subbed collards for the handfuls of baby spinach originally used in the recipe.

I attempted french baguettes using a King Arther Flour recipe, but that was a bust. I probably need new yeast, I don't think I made the dough moist enough, and I don't think I kneaded it enough. All three things combined for a super dense loaf, although the slow rise did make for excellent flavor and a nice crispy crust. Obviously, the faults were not in the recipe, so I will try again in the hope that practice makes perfect!

Cashew Curry

I adore Heidi Swanson and I often turn to her when I have no idea what to cook. So many of her recipes are so simple but yummy. In this particular case, David thought I could have upped the curry powder, but since I wasn't 100% sure at the time that I was adding curry powder since it wasn't labeled, I erred on the side of caution. (It was curry powder). Someday I'll make my own curry blend which is also included in the recipe here.

I served the curry with brown basmati rice, marinated cucumbers and pumpkin muffins (via the Post Punk Kitchen recipe).

p.s. I am so excited because I just ordered Heidi's cookbook, Supernatural Cooking!

Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry

This week's meal was one of my old Red Tent standards. I got the recipe from a vegan forum eons ago, and I have since lost the attribution, but it's simply onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, and lentils, cooked in vegetable broth and fabulously seasoned with curry powder and cumin. Amazing!

I served it with plain long grain white rice, and a side of Browned Onions & Collard Greens from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. I had forgotten how much Graiden loves well-cooked, well-seasoned collards, but he devoured a pile of them, and even Casper got in on the act. After simmering for an hour, they don't require a lot of jaw strength or perseverance to eat! I happily polished off the rest of the bowl.

Moosewood strikes again!

Sorry for my lack of posts lately. September was a crazy, heady month. I hope October remains a little more calm.

I wanted to make soup for tonight's meal b/c I recieved a new immersion blender for my birthday. So, I perused all my cookbooks and picked out Moosewood's Golden Split Pea soup. It has undertones of cinnamon, cardamom, cumin and turmeric in it, as well as sweet potatoes, yellow split peas and tomatoes. It was served with plain soy yogurt (which I swirled in very prettily and neglected to take a picture of) and chopped cilantro.

I paired it with a papaya salad that was a riff on a mango salad in the same cookbook. The original called for cucumbers, mangos and green peppers. I opted for cucumbers, papayas and pineapple. Mixed in were coconut, a dressing of lime juice and a little brown sugar and a Fresno pepper for a bit of spice.

I was going to send homemade bread with the meal, but got my dough making started too late yesterday to give loaves an adequate rise. Still, I am using the artisan bread dough that keeps in the fridge and the dough looks lovely so there's hope for homemade bread in the weeks to come. Standing in for my bread were fresh loaves of sourdough from the Whole Foods bakery.

Happy October, everyone. Welcome to fall.

Chili.......

For my meal this week, I made a Fall Chili. It had pumpkin in it, winter squash, black beans, and other ingredients that made it a hearty meal. I opted for TVP chunks to give it that chili taste. I also threw in some chipotle chiles. The chili was flavorful, but I felt it didn't have enough heat in the pepper department. I might add some cayenne next time I make it.

I served the Fall Chili with homemade bread and molasses cookies.

Broccoli Quiche and Waldorf Salad

It's brunch for dinner! I used the Classic Broccoli Quiche recipe from Vegan Brunch and served it with a veganized Waldorf Salad over baby greens. I haven't had waldorf salad in years, but I suddenly craved it with this quiche. A bit of quick googling, and it turns out that it's super easy to veganize. Just substitute the super-tasty Vegenaise for mayo, and voila! I even used the Omega-3 version of Vegenaise, so that makes it healthy, right? RIGHT?

I admitted my time constraints this week and used store-bought crusts, but I really like this brand, so it worked out okay. They're flaky, don't leave a greasy mouth after-feel, and they're only $3.50 for two.

Both my kids enjoyed this meal, and the older went so far as to ask for the leftovers in his school lunch tomorrow. I would have gladly eaten the last piece, but I suppose my desire for easy lunch packing trumps my desire to overeat :)

Curry in a hurry.....

For my meal last week I made curried mustard greens with chickpeas and rice. I also made chocolate pudding for dessert. I like how mustard greens add its own natural spice to a dish. And who doesn't love pudding. Mmm mmm.

I'm back.....

Did you miss me? Hee hee. I am back cooking with the co-op after taking a break during the summer. It is nice to be back with such wonderful ladies and good cooks.

For my co-op meal this week, I cooked New Orleans red beans with andouille sausage, rice, and cornbread. I also made brownies. Simple yet tasty.

Taco salad Tuesday

In keeping with things that can be eaten room temperature/chilled, today I served a taco salad. I made ground tofu with taco seasonings and simple black beans for the protein, served on top of shredded green & red leaf lettuce. I also provided chopped red onion & chopped tomato for garnish. The whole thing was topped off with a "honey" lime cilantro dressing from FatFreeVegan.com. I did omit the artichoke hearts from the dressing because I just wasn't going to buy a whole jar to use 1 as a thickener! The dressing was a little thin as a result, but still tasty, I thought.

This whole meal was extremely low fat, with no added fat or oils at all. I sauteed onion & minced mushrooms before adding the seasoned tofu to the pan to give the whole shebang a more savory & rich flavor without using the oil I would normally splash in there.

Expanding the summer repertoire

In my summer quest to use the oven & stove only when absolutely necessary, dinner tonight was a raw kale salad and a cooked-but-served-cold bean & tomato "salad." I put salad in quotes there because although the recipe uses the term, it is obviously a loose translation. Really, it's more of a curry consistency, slightly saucy & good for mopping up with flatbread. For being so incredibly simple, it had good flavor and was enjoyed by every member of this family. The baby was wolfing down the beans faster than I could separate them out! My 4yo even said "Mama, thank you for making this dinner. I really liked EVERYTHING! Can I have more kale?" Wow! (I never get thank yous. This was jaw-dropping.)

Both recipes were from the internet. Here is the original kale salad recipe. I modified it as follows: halved the oil & sunflower seeds, omitted the currants & gorgonzola. Next time, I might try creating a marinated tofu "feta" to mix in, but I didn't want to get too crazy with a a meal I had to serve to other families too! The beans were from vegweb. I admit I went hunting for a pinto bean recipe since I had just stashed 7 "cans" worth in the freezer & needed to use some to make space for chickpeas! Now that I think about it, I bet it would have been extra delicious (and rich) to put a dollop of the walnut-bread sauce from two weeks ago on top! Maybe I'll try that next time.

Beet Hummus and Polenta baked with Tomatoes, Corn, and Basil

There had been quite a buzz on the AM list that spilled over into FB, about this Beet Hummus recipe. I first tried it and took it on my cooking date (fairly daring given he is an Israeli foodie. I'm happy to say he loved it). I was happy to use the co-op as an excuse to make more of it. The other time I made it, I didn't realize I was out of tahini, and though several websites assured me you could make it yourself in a blender, I went through two different processors and a blender before resorting to my mortar and pestle. Worked really well, though with more texture than regular tahini, that's for sure. THis time around I bought tahini, so probably what takes the longest is just boiling the beets before throwing everything in the blender. I served the hummus with more of that yummy flatbread that Claire had served us the previous week with daal. That was what got me to finally join Costco, helped along by a reduced price membership coupon from my Amex card.

The Baked Polenta dish is another of my favourite summer meals from Annie Somerville's Fields of Greens, recipe book from Greens Restaurant. I just had to veganize the polenta, and the cheese topping. Prompted by Claire's suggestion of replacing the cheese in the polenta with nutritional yeast, I went searching on the web, and found this Nutritional Yeast Polenta Cakes recipe. I made the polenta the night before, and the tomato sauce, and then put it together and baked it the next day.

Tomato Sauce
makes 2 cups

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced (1 cup)
1/2 tsp dried basil
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 cup dry red wine
1.5 lbs fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped (2 cups) or a 16 oz can of diced tomatoes in their juice
1 bay leaf

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onions, basil, 1/2 tsp salt and a few pinches of pepper. Saute over medium heat until the onion is soft, ~ 7 mins. Add garlic and saute for 1-2 mins. Add wine and simmer 1-2 mins to reduce. When the pan is almost dry, add tomatoes and bay leaf. Cook over low heat ~ 30 mins. Add salt/pepper/sugar to taste.


Polenta baked with Tomatoes, Corn, and Basil
Serves 4-6

Polenta (see recipe link above)
Tomato Sauce (see recipe above)
1 Tbsp butter (I used earth balance vegan stuff)
3 ears of corn, shaved (2.5 cups)
3/4 lb tomatoes, cored and seeded (I used halved cherry tomatoes)
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup fresh basil, chopped
1-2 jalapeno chilies, seeded and thinly sliced (I skipped this for co-op)
2 oz Parmesan cheese, grated (~ 2/3 cup) - I used Daiya vegan mozarella shreds

Make polenta. While it's cooling, make tomato sauce. Remove bay leaf. Preheat the oven to 375F.
Melt the butter in a skillet and add the corn. Saute over medium heat for 10 mins till the corn is tender. Season with 1/4 tsp salt.
While the corn is cooking, cut up the tomatoes and marinate in olive oil with 1/4 tsp salt and some freshly ground pepper.
Cool the corn, toss with the tomatoes, half the basil, and half the chilies (if you are using them).
Pour the sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Arrange polenta triangles or fingers upright in the sauce, using all of the polenta. Spoon the veges into the spaces between the polenta. Sprinkle with cheese.
Cover and bake for 25 mins, then uncover and bake 10 more mins. Sprinkle on the remaining basil and serve.

Simple Summer Supper

I used Heidi Swanson's recipe for Grilled Tofu and Soba Noodles. I tripled it and found that I didn't need 9 serranoes (so glad I thought before I automatically added them all). I think I used either 6 or 7 and while the dish was too spicy for the girls, David and I really liked it. Also, I didn't need all the oil. I used about 1/2 to 3/4 a cup for the whole triple batch. I think 3/4 x 3 would have been way too much. Last, I didn't purchase enough cilantro so I used spinach in its place which upped the healthy quotient and I think tasted quite good.

Served with steamed broccoli and organic raspberries.

This was one of my cheaper recipes for coop since raspberries and broccoli were on sale and I only bought one bunch of organic cilantro (I already had the organic spinach on hand). I used three blocks of tofu. Biggest expense? Three packages of the noodles, but I discovered that two would have been plenty for four families. I have a big bag of cooked noodles in the fridge, as well as some uncooked noodles in the pantry.

The girls loved the soba noodles sans pesto which felt like a brilliant discovery on my part. Rory actually ate noodles, tofu, broccoli and raspberry.

Mock Tuna Salad

It's getting way, way too hot out there to be heating up the house with cooking! I'm switching over to my summer menus, which means lots of fruit, chilled soups, and bean/grain salads. Ideally, in our house, we convert to a "larger lunch, smaller dinner" system during the hot months, but that often doesn't work out, simply because we get too busy! I'm trying to figure out the best portion sizes for the co-op during the next few months, so bear with me.

This week's meal was a mock tuna salad served with iceberg lettuce cups & a fruit salad. It's a favorite lunchbox meal of mine, and we usually eat it with either tortilla or lettuce wraps. Since it wasn't having to survive till lunchtime in a lunchbox, I went with the more delicate lettuce. Next time, I'm going to find some good Bibb lettuce instead of iceberg, but I had to go with what HEB had in stock.

Beans.

With Father's Day and a child with a broken arm, I needed a simple meal this weekend, per my recent trend. So I used this recipe from the NY Times to make a batch of black beans, using organic black turtle beans from a Bob's Red Mill coop I recently participated in. I even found epazote at CM to add to the beans along with the cilantro (those are the little stick-like things you might see!).

I made a huge batch and have leftovers to now make homemade refried black beans.

I served the beans with brown rice, yellow tomatoes, avocado and CM's organic blue (frito-like) corn chips. And with organic strawberries on the side, on sale this week at CM. I meant to slice the strawberries and marinate them in balsamic vinegar and sugar. If you feel so inclined, give this a try - super yummy.

Hot weather food!

As we lead into the Texas summer, I've been trying to dig up my "Oh my god, it's too hot to move" recipes. I didn't have a lot of time for cooking this week (or shopping, or anything really) because I was stranded an extra day in San Jose over the weekend. While I'm grateful the plane broke while we were on the ground instead of at 39,000 feet, I had a lot of stuff I needed to get done in Austin!

So the meal this week was Cauliflower Ceviche & a simple Indian Daal with flatbread, both from vegweb. The ceviche was divine! Really really enjoyed it. Next time, I'll add a ton more cauliflower, because it really got lost among all the other veggies, even though I used the lower of the recommended ranges for each. It didn't help that both Casper & Graiden picked out all the cauliflower and left almost none for me!

The daal was a very basic red lentil mush. Both my kids gobbled it up. I left out the hot pepper, and only used 1/4t of cayenne in the doubled recipe.

The flatbread was from Costco, a brand called FlatOut. It only has 100 calories, but has 9g of protein & lots of fiber in each wrap. I gave each meal 3 wraps, cut in half.

Roasted Veggies with pipian sauce, Sweet potato stuffed tortillas and Mango-lime sorbet

Well here are the long ago promised recipes for my mexican cooking night.

First up I made Mushroom and Sweet Potato Stuffed Tortillas. I had found this recipe a few months ago looking for something to different to do with sweet potatoes. I made the first time with Shitakes and that was good, but expensive. Regular mushrooms worked just fine. Last time I added in some diced red peppers. This time I added some black beans (one can, rinsed and drained). It's a nice way to make something quesadilla-like without using cheese. I keep the filling for several days and just cook up a tortilla full when the kids need a snack.

Next was Roasted Mexican Veges in Green Sesame Pipian, taken from Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen, my favourite mexican cooking book. The sauce is a fair bit of work, but I enjoy making it, and it tastes great on a variety of non-vegan dishes too (salmon, chicken breasts, pork...). You can serve it as a side dish with rice, or as a filling for tacos, or even bake it topped with bread crumbs and/or cheese to make a gratin. I've read some short cuts for making a pipian sauce, and will write them in below. There are a lot of alternatives in this recipe. I used chard in the sauce this time, but think I prefer spinach. This year my epazote didn't come back in my herb garden, and I missed its flavour in the sauce too. Some year I'll find hoja santo and see what difference that makes to the mix.

Roasted Mexican Veges in Green Sesame Pipian
(feeds 4-6)

1 lb (~ 11) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
2-3 serranos, stemmed (I halved this amount, but they turned out to be pretty hot)
4.5 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium white onion, roughly chopped
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 cups broth or water (I used vege broth)
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup hulled sesame seeds
1 sprig epazote, or 8-10 sprigs cilantro (I used cilantro. My epazote bush had died.)
1 leaf hoja santa, or 1/2 cup chopped green tops of fennel, or 1/2 tsp freshly ground aniseed (I used fennel tops)
1 tsp salt
3 medium fresh cactus paddles (I used 2 extra chayote)
4 medium red-skin potatoes, 3/4" diced
1 large chayote, peeled, pitted, and 3/4" diced
2 medium zucchini, 3/4" diced
2 cups lamb quarters, or 3 cups purslane, or 3 cups chard in 1/2" strips, or 3 cups spinach (I used chard because I had some in my farm box. I'd recommend spinach for the faster cooking time over chard.)

Roast the tomatillos and serranos for 5 mins, 4" under a hot broiler, until they blister, darken, and soften on one side. Turn and roast the other side. Transfer along with juices into a blender. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook onion for 10 mins, stirring often, until golden. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 min. Add to blender and blend until smooth. Wipe skillet clean, add 1/2 Tbsp oil, heat on medium high. When hot enough for a drop of puree to sizzle, pour all the puree in at once and stir constantly for 5 mins until it darkens and thickens. Add the broth, boil, simmer briskly, stirring frequently, for 10 mins until thick enough to coat a spoon. Stir in cilantro. (You have made a tomatillo-serrano sauce. You can skip all of this and just buy a jar of green salsa and use 2.5 cups of it.)

In a small ungreased skillet over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds for 5 mins, stirring often, until golden. Add to the tomatillo sauce, add epazote (or cilantro) and hoja santo (or its substitute). Partially cover and simmer for 30 mins, stirring frequently. Put back in the blender, cover loosely, and blend for 1 min or more until the sauce is smooth. You can use a mesh strainer if you want it even smoother. Return the sauce to the pan, season with salt (about 1 tsp), add more broth if needed to bring it to the consistency of a cream soup. (You can prepare the sauce up to this point and refrigerate several days ahead. You can use tahini instead of toasted sesame seeds to make things even faster.)

I'm skipping the instructions of what to do with the cactus because I always just use extra chayote. Cactus takes a long time. Heat the oven to 375F. Scatter the potatoes on a baking sheet, drizzled with 2 Tbsp of oil, sprinkle with salt and toss to coat the potatoes well. Roast for 10 mins. Sprinkle chayote with salt, add to potatoes, mix with spatula to turn potatoes and coat chayote with oil. Roast another 5 mins. Salt the zucchini, add to the mixture, and roast till everything is tender, but not overly soft, about 8-10 more mins.

Just before serving, reheat the sauce to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in the lambs quarters, or equivalent and simmer until tender for 2-5 mins (chard took longer than that). Add roasted veges to the sauce, leaving behind as much oil as possible. Once heated, scoop onto a warm serving dish, sprinkle with sesame seeds, garnish with epazote or cilantro.

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Finally, I made mango-lime sorbet, which is my favourite sorbet ever, from the same Bayless book. It's very easy if you have an icecream maker. I make this every summer - it came out a little too sweet this time, but it depends a lot on the ripeness of the mangoes you use.

Mango-lime ice

2.5 lbs mangoes (4 large), peeled, coarsely chopped - about 2 heaping cups
Finely chopped zest of 1 orange
1.25 cups sugar (Sorbets are sensitive to the amount of sugar you use, and the ripeness of the fruit. The mix always tastes sweeter than when it does when it's frozen. The batch I made could have gone with a little less sugar. The only way to do it properly is to have a refractometer to measure the sugar level of the mix. I will own one one day. Well I have one in lab, but it isn't really food safe!)
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp vodka (not in original recipe, but I added because it lowers the freezing point of the mix and reduces the ice crystal size when you are using an icecream maker vs the other way to freeze it described below).

Use food processor to combine the ingredients plus 1 cup of water. Process to a smooth puree. If you want to, press through a strainer to make really smooth. (I never bother with this step.) If you have an icecream maker, pour it in and let it do its magic. If you don't, freeze in a stainless steel bowl or 9x9" pan, until the mixture is firm 2 inches in from the sides (about 2 hours). Whip with an immersion blender or process in a food processor until slushy. Repeat the freezing and beating two more times. Freeze for an hour before serving.

Beans and Kale and Gingered Lemon Bars

I know I still owe you last week's recipes. But this week is easy because both recipes are online already.

Cannellini Beans with Roasted Peppers and Kale is one of my fast, easy, yummy meals that I use for the Austin Mamas Red Tent group. I had already entered the recipe on our mamawiki. It originally comes from The Quick Recipe, a Cooks Illustrated cookbook. I usually serve it with crusty bread to soak up the juices (sorry I didn't get around to baking bread like I had planned to), and recently discovered it's pretty damn good served cold as well as served warm.

I found Gingered Lemon Bars on the Simply Recipes website a year or two ago and really liked how lemony they were and the nice kick of ginger in the crust from both powdered and crystallized ginger. I used that recipe for the crust, which I made vegan by just using Earth Balance instead of butter. The lemon filling was another story. I googled around for vegan recipes to see what people used instead of egg to help it set. It seemed the two main choices were silken tofu or agar agar. I had tofu, so that's the one I went with. I used this Vegan Lemon Bars recipe from Savvy Vegetarian to make my filing. It didn't set real well. Not sure if I just needed to cook it a little longer, or what. So sorry they were a bit gooey, but they taste good.

Moosewood Meals

We've been in the throes of busy-ness over here for the last few weeks so I have needed simple, one-dish type meals. The last two have come from Moosewood Restaurant Low Fat Favorites, a cookbook that I don't often remember I have. To be honest, I've hardly ever made anything from it before though I've had it for years (now, Moosewood Favorite Desserts is a different matter altogether). But I found some simple one-pot meals with a good amount of flavor. I appreciate the low-fat in them also during these hot summer days.

Last week I made black bean chilaquiles, a mix of black beans, veggies, spices and baked tortilla chips, not completely unlike a tamale pie, though I preferred it to the traditional tamale pie. I subbed crumbled tofu for the the cheese to keep in the protein. Sorry for sending the casseroles without lids; I believe David has misplaced them somewhere in the house.

This week's meal was Middle Eastern chickpeas and spinach, served over orzo with a yogurt sauce. Mostly, I tend to prefer simple one-dish meals and this one really fit the bill. I neglected to pick up some coriander while I was at the market, but the cumin and saffron were flavorful enough for me, even if it was mild. I think the yogurt/mint/garlic sauce pulled it together and actually made a creamy addition to the orzo. I fear this meal may not have been flavorful enough for everyone, but I'm the kind of person who could eat beans and rice most every day - simple simple and simple is usually my preference and what I find fuels me best.

I sent along organic watermelon with yesterday's meal. I think this was a particularly good melon and I am so glad I splurged on it at the farmer's market on Saturday!