Curried Lentils and Rice

The other night I made one of my favorite veg recipes of all time, one that I've been making for over 10 years - Curried Lentils and Rice.

Since going vegan and becoming all-around more health-conscious, however, I began to make this dish less and less often.  It's not that it's an unhealthy dish by any means but it uses white rice and white rice isn't exactly the nutritional powerhouse that brown rice is.  (I joked to Brian that if we were going to eat it with white rice we might as well be eating "Curried Lentils and Candy".  Slight exaggeration?  Perhaps.)  I had never made the switch because I wasn't sure about the amount of liquid to use to allow for a longer cooking time.  Finally I decided to just experiment with it and see what happened.  

Amazingly, the texture turned out perfectly and the brown rice dish made the even better than the original!  I think the longer cooking time really allowed the flavors to meld together better.  I used brown basmati but any type of brown rice would work well.   

Served with a side of Smokey Sauteed Collards (sauteed in water, not oil, for slightly healthier version)

Curried Lentils and Rice
(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 cup finely chopped green pepper

1 cup finely chopped sweet onion

1 clove minced garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp curry powder

1 cup green lentils

1 cup brown rice (any variety)

4 cups vegetable stock

2 cups water

Fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium heat.  Add green pepper, onion, and garlic; cook until softened but not brown.  

2. Add salt, curry powder, lentils, and rice.  Stir and cook 1 minute.

3. Add vegetable stock and water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 50 minutes, or until rice and lentils are tender and liquid has been absorbed.  (No need to stir; do not lift the lid until you are nearing the end - just let it cook!)

4. Season to taste with lemon juice.

Makes 4-5 servings.

What healthy recipe have you made even healthier?

A Vegan Meal for My Steak and Potatoes Man

People are often surprised to learn that Brian isn't vegetarian, let alone vegan.  I get a lot of questions about what we eat for dinner and how we handle our different diets.  I even had some strangers ask me recently if I was vegan when I met Brian if we would even have gotten married!  (Uh, I think our shared love for Ben Folds would have trumped the dietary differences, thank you very much!)

Sure, there are times when Brian and I don't eat the same thing for dinner.  Sometimes I'm in the mood for a big salad and Brian will order a pizza or pick up a sandwich from Potbelly.  Sometimes in the summer he'll get something meaty to throw on the grill alongside my black bean burger.  Although more and more he wants to eat the black bean burger himself...

But over the past few years, I've began to refer to Brian as an "at-home vegan".  He's swapped his 2% milk for almond milk, butter for Earth Balance, chicken for chickpea cutlets, and scrambled eggs for tofu scrambles.  Brian certainly didn't turn into an "at home vegan" overnight.  It's been a gradual transition.  I can honestly say I haven't been pushy about him eating vegan (right, Brian?) and he's been really accepting of my choices and open to trying new foods.  We plan and prepare meals together so I'm making sure they are meals he enjoys, as well. 

All that being said, Brian still loves meat.  I mean, really, what guy doesn't?  If he wants to cook up some meat for himself, fine, but obviously we aren't going to share that meal together.  So when we found the recipe in The Happy Herbivore Cookbook for portobello steaks that promised to be a great replacement for a meaty steak, he was very excited to try it.  We made it once and had it on ciabatta rolls, which was pretty good, but last night we had it the way it was meant to be eaten - with rosemary roasted potatoes and asparagus.  Sooooo goooood!  Even if you aren't a meat-lover at heart, you'll love this hearty home-style classic.  

We used very small potatoes, called "creamer potatoes".  You can use either Yukon Gold or red skinned potatoes.

For the Portabello Steaks: Get the recipe at the Happy Herbivore blog.

For the potatoes: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Rinse potatoes and cut in halves or quarters, depending on size.  Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray and lay potatoes in a single layer.  Spritz with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and fresh snipped rosemary.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, turning every 10-15 minutes or so until crisp and browned on the outside, creamy on the inside.

For the asparagus: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Rinse asparagus and snap off the ends.  Line a baking sheet with olive oil spray and lay asparagus spears in a single layer.  Lightly spritz with olive oil and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.  Roast for 15-20 minutes.  Drizzle with fresh lemon juice.


Making Your Mixed Marriage/Relationship Work

• Don't be pushy - you wouldn't want him to force you to eat meat; don't force him to eat tofu.
• Cook meals where you can have both meat and veggie options, such as tacos.  He can have ground beef and you can have tofu, TVP, tempeh, or just beans and veggies.  (FYI - that's what we used to do and now Brian doesn't even bother with the ground beef so you never know what may happen down the road...)
• Get him involved in meal planning - he's more likely to want to try new things if he helps pick out the recipes.
• Cook together - Brian and I have so much fun in the kitchen and we never cook without good music in the background.
• Find vegan replacements for favorite recipes.  Try Two-Bean Chili, Chickpea Cutlets, and Black Bean Burgers.
• Let him eat cheese!  So he's vegetarian, not vegan.  That's pretty damn awesome.  
• Don't judge him for ordering a burger or steak when you go out to dinner on the weekend.  If he makes plant-based decisions for breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout the week, let him live a little!  I do. 

What vegan "steak and potatoes" meal would you feed to a non-vegan?

Sweet Roasted Roots

I love roasted root vegetables, especially this time of year.  I could seriously eat an entirely plate just of roasted root vegetables.  Actually, I have been known to do that on more than one occasion!  This is one of my favorite recipes.  It makes an excellent side dish for lentil loaf, chickpea cutlets, tofu, or tempeh.  (We had them with our Christmas dinner this year.)  For a main meal, toss in some chickpeas and serve with grains or sauteed greens.

Any combination of veggies will do.  Just try to get an equal amount of each.  The total amount of vegetables used depends on how many people you'll need to serve.  Increase the liquid as needed.

Roasted Root Vegetables
(printable recipe)

Ingredients: 

1 sweet onion
1 sweet potato
2 carrots
2 parsnips
3 beets
2 turnips

2 tbsp. molasses 
2 tbsp. water
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
 
Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Peel and slice the onion into strips.  Peel and cut vegetables into bite-sized chunks.  Place in 9x12-inch glass baking dish coated with olive oil spray.

3. Whisk together molasses, water, salt, pepper, and cinnamon.  Toss with vegetables until everything is well coated.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until onions are starting to caramelize and vegetables can be easily pierced with a fork.

How do you like to eat your roots?

Harvest Burgers and Homemade Fries

The Detroit Free Press had a recipe in the paper a few weeks ago for these burgers and Brian and I made them last week.  Although a little time-consuming, they were not hard to put together.  We modified the recipe just slightly, using a sweet onion instead of a yellow onion and baking them instead of frying them in a pan.  

They are certainly some of the more flavorful burgers we've made, thanks in large part to the pepper and onion.  We topped them with lettuce and tomato and they were pretty good that way, though we felt they could have used some kind of sauce.  We just weren't sure what and they were really good on their own.  We didn't want to ruin them by adding the wrong flavor.  Maybe some mashed avocado?

Brian made some awesome fries to go with the burgers.  We adjusted the baking time and temperature so that the burgers and fries could bake together.  It worked out perfectly!

Harvest Burgers with Homemade Fries

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 sweet onion (such as Vidalia), diced
1 red pepper, cored and diced
1/2 cup corn kernals, fresh or frozen
1 cup cooked brown rice (I used brown basmati)
1 cup quick oats, lightly toasted
15-oz. can pumpkin or squash puree
2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

6 burger buns or large rolls
Condiments of choice

Directions:

1.  Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the cumin and onion and saute until the onion softens and begins to brown, about 5 minutes.  Add the pepper and corn and saute until just tender, about 3-4 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

3. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and cool for 5 minutes.  Add the rice, oats, pumpkin, cilantro, balsamic, cayenne, salt, and pepper.  Stir to combine.  Form the mixture into 6 patties.

4. When the oven is preheated, place patties on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Flip burgers and bake for another 15 minutes. 

Makes 6 burgers.

Homemade Fries

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

2 medium baking potatoes

Olive oil spray

Salt and pepper

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray.

2. Scrub potatoes and dry.  Cut into fries as evenly as possible.  Lay in single layer on prepared baking sheet.  Season with salt and pepper.

3. Bake for 20 minutes.  Flip and bake for another 10 or until browned and crisp.

Makes 2-3 servings.

We also had a side of sauteed collard greens.

What's your favorite veg burger recipe?

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we celebrated in the usual way - lunch with Brian's family and dinner with my family.  (This year at my grandparent's house.)  It always works out well.  Brian is more than happy to eat two meals and I just eat salad for lunch so I don't end up eating too much.

We took a big garden salad to both places.  The salads were perhaps a little, uh, too big but what's Thanksgiving without leftovers, right?

I also took Dijon-Herb Green Beans from The Happy Herbivore Cookbook to my grandma's.  For dinner I had a plate of side dishes - stuffing, sweet potatoes, and green beans.  Everything turned out delicious.  (For dessert there was a non-vegan pumpkin pie so I had some PB2 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls when I got home.  Hmmm...should have tried them with pumpkin...)

My favorite part of the meal was the sweet potatoes that my mom made.  She used coconut milk and ginger - that's it!  No sugar or margarine.  They were the smoothest and creamiest sweet potatoes I've ever tasted!  She was kind enough to let me share her recipe with you. 

Creamy Sweet Potatoes
(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

9 small-medium sweet potatoes
2/3 cup regular coconut milk [*See NOTE]
2 tsp. ground ginger

Directions:

1. Boil yams until soft.  Cool and peel.

2. Place in bowl with coconut milk and ginger; whip until smooth (a stand mixer works best).

3. Pour into a casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes or until heated through.

Makes 8 servings.

[*NOTE]: The amount of coconut milk will vary depending on how creamy you want the potatoes.  She used regular but you could probably use lite.  I'm not sure how that would affect the overall creaminess, though.  Leave a comment if you try it.


What was on your Thanksgiving plate?

Simple Sides: Baked Green Tomatoes

It was not a very good year for tomatoes in Michigan.  There was too much rain and we didn't have enough consistently warm, dry weather to get a good supply of red ripe tomatoes.  It didn't help that we planted ours so late, either.  

Anyway, so here we are in October with a lot of beautiful green tomatoes.  Yes, we can make green tomato salsa and chutney but what's the easiest thing to do with green tomatoes?  Fry them!  And what's even easier and healthier than frying them?  Baking them!  After a few different attempts Brian and I finally found a good method that gets that crispy with just a hint of fried goodness at the end.  (Without any actual frying involved.)

And since you aren't frying the tomatoes, you don't have to dress up as Kathy Bates or Jessica Tandy to enjoy them.

Baked green tomatoes with mushroom, onion, and pepper tofu scramble

Baked Green Tomatoes
(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

2 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup panko (Japanese-style breadcrumbs)
salt and pepper, to taste

4 medium-sized green tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices

Olive oil spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together Ener-G and water.

3. In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, panko, salt, and pepper.  

4. Dip the tomato slices into the Ener-G mix, then into the cornmeal mix, coating both sides evenly.  Arrange on a single layer on prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 40 minutes.

5. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and set the oven to a low BROIL.  Spray the tops of the tomatoes with a light coating of olive oil spray.  Return to the oven for 4 minutes.

6. Turn the oven up to high BROIL for 1 minute.  Watch the tomatoes closely and remove if starting to brown early.  Serve immediately.

What do you like to do with green tomatoes?

Maple-Roasted Delicata Squash

The other night I finally decided to do something with the 2 delicata squash that came in our CSA share and had been sitting on my counter for the past couple of weeks.  I'd never cooked or eaten them before and wasn't sure how to best prepare them. I thought about soups, purees, stuffed squash...all sorts of fancy dishes.

But a week went by and there they still sat. Then another. Clearly I wasn't going to get around to doing anything fancy with them.  Finally I decided to just do a simple roasting method.

Oh YUM! The squash roasted up nicely - firm and slightly crisp in the outside, soft inside.  They were slightly reminiscent of sweet potato fries.  And who doesn't love sweet potato fries? 

Maple-Roasted Delicata Squash

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

2 delicata squash

Olive oil spray

Sea salt

1 tbsp. maple syrup

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil spray.

2. Rinse the squash and cut in half lengthwise.  (You can peel if you'd like - I didn't.)  Remove seeds.  Cut into 1/2-inch slices and lay on baking sheet.  Spray with a light coating of oil and sprinkle with sea salt, to taste.

3. Bake for 15 minutes or until squash pieces start to brown.  Turn and bake for another 15 minutes.

4. Drizzle lightly with maple syrup and toss to coat.  Bake for another 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and serve immediately.

The sweet squash paired nicely with smokey sauteed kale and quinoa with chickpeas, mushrooms, and Italian herbs. 

What's your favorite winter squash?

Simple Sides: Broccoli Slaw

When I was at Kroger a couple weeks ago I saw a bag of broccoli slaw for only $0.99.  It was a "manager's special" because it was dated for that day (unlike the soy yogurt that was dated for 2 weeks ago and was NOT on sale).  We were having sushi for dinner and I usually like to have raw vegetables - carrots or snap peas - with my sushi rolls.  Why not broccoli slaw instead?  

I already had my favorite dressing mixed up in the fridge so I just dumped the whole bag of slaw into a large bowl, poured the dressing over it, mixed it up, and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours until we were ready to eat.  

I ordered one sushi roll instead of two so I had enough room to eat the entire bowl of slaw.  Normally I wouldn't recommend eating that much broccoli in one sitting...but I couldn't let it go to waste!

 

Broccoli Slaw with Agave-Dijon Dressing
(printable recipe)

Agave-Dijon dressing:

Mix equal parts Dijon mustard, agave nectar, and white wine vinegar.  Add a little bit of ground flax seeds and whole flax seeds.  Shake or whisk well.  As it sits it thickens up a bit so make in advance.  (optional: add a pinch of xanthan gum for a thicker dressing)

Pour desired amount of dressing over the broccoli slaw in a container with a lid.  Stir to combine, cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour.  Before serving, add fresh ground pepper to taste.  

To make it heartier, add canned chickpeas and dried cranberries.

Have you eaten broccoli slaw?  If so, how did you make it?

My Fruit Bowl - It's Cheaper Than Yours

 

I love fruit.  I usually eat 2-3 pieces of fruit each day, plus whatever I put in my morning smoothie.  My favorite way to eat fruit, however, is all mixed together in a great big fruit salad.  Especially in the summer when temperatures creep up into the 90's.  

Buying pre-cut fruit at the store can get really expensive.  I suppose you're paying for the convenience of not having to prepare it yourself but it's really a waste of money when you can make a huge fruit salad at home that will last for days.  

Last week when I went to The Dearborn Farm Market to buy my fruit I decided to save my receipt so I can compare the amount I spent on raw materials with the cost of buying pre-made fruit salads.  If you shop at either Westborn Market or Kroger, you'll pay $4.99/lb of fruit.  At Westborn, a container holding the amount that I would eat for lunch costs $7.50!  Anyone know how much Whole Foods charges?  I'm sure it's at least this much.

Panera offers a 5 oz. mixed fruit cup for $2.59 and Einstein has an 8 oz. cup for $3.17.  Although I do occasionally buy the one from Einstein, I refuse to spend the money at Panera.  Plus I've done so in the past and ended up with moldy grapes.  yuck.

My entire fruit salad cost me $18.68*.  I got 10 huge servings out of it, with each one being well over a pound, I'm sure.  It contained the following fruits:

• 1 whole pineapple
• 3 apples
• 1 bunch of grapes
• 1 pint of blueberries
• 5 oranges (3 cut up, 2 for the juice only)
• 3 kiwis
• 3 peaches
• 5 bananas
• 1 container of strawberries (16 oz.)

*These were not organic fruits, which helped keep the price down.  Obviously you'll pay more if you want organic.

Here's the finished product:

I put the fruit in an inverted Rubbermaid Cake Keeper so, as you can see, it makes a lot of fruit salad!  (I should have weighed it but I don't - and never will - have a scale in the house.)

Okay, I can probably guess what you're thinking right now.  Who has the time to cut up all this fruit?  Isn't it a lot of work?  Well...yes, it is time-consuming but after making as many as I have, I've found little tricks and short cuts to speed up the process.  I'd say this particular salad took about an hour to make.  But what's one hour when you're saving money and ending up with a delicious fresh fruit salad that you can enjoy all week?

Tips to save time making your amazing fruit salad:

• Don't peel apples, pears, peaches, etc.  It takes way too much time and you miss out on the added fiber and nutrients from the peels.
• Use an apple corer and divider, then just cut each section into a few pieces.  I can prep an apple in one minute flat.
• Unless you're concerned about a choking hazard for small children, don't cut the grapes in half. 
• While I think that whole fresh pineapples are the most flavorful, save time by buying one that is already peeled and cored.  They're often the same price.
• Use store-bought orange juice instead of fresh-squeezed to mix in with the fruit (the juice helps keep the apples from browning).
• Alternately, use canned Dole Tropical Fruit Salad in passion fruit nectar.  The nectar will eliminate the need to add orange juice and you won't need to spend time cutting up pineapple, either.  It's not as good as fresh pineapple but if it's the only canned fruit you use, you'll hardly notice.
• Use a citrus peeler to quickly remove orange peels.  Then just divide in sections and slice.
• Use this neat trick for peeling kiwis quickly and easily.

And, as with anything new, start small.  Don't buy 3 of every fruit you see in the store.  You will be completely overwhelmed.  Choose easy fruits to start and slowly build from there.  Plus, fruit salad doesn't last forever so you want to be sure that you aren't making so much that you can't eat it all.  Not everyone's system has the same tolerance for fruit that mine does.  That, too, takes time to build!

One more thing.  I do not make a fruit salad every week.  I would get tired of making it and tired of eating it.  Yes, I'm sad when the last of it is gone and the next day I wish I had more but taking a break is a good thing. 

So there you go.  It's almost the weekend.  Spend a little bit of yours making up a fresh fruit salad.  You'll be glad you did!   


Do you make your own fruit salad?

 

Beat the Heat: Simple Kale Salad

Kale is a green that I've only been eating for a few years.  I'd never heard of it before going vegan and now I absolutely love it!  Kale is packed with nutrients, including calcium, vitamin C, folic acid, and potassium (to name a few). I used to only put it in smoothies but now prefer to make spinach smoothies.  So I eat kale in other ways.  

Currently I have three favorite ways to eat kale - sauteed kale, kale chips, and kale salad.  In the summer when it's really hot, kale salad makes the most sense because you don't need to turn on the oven or use the stove.  Plus it's a nice change from the usual lettuce salad.

There are tons of recipes out there for kale salad, so although this isn't an exact recipe I found somewhere, it's sort of your basic recipe.  Some are more elaborate than others and may include tofu, avocado, or other chopped raw veggies.  I prefer to keep mine simple.

Kale Salad

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kale
Olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon

Bragg's Liquid Aminos

Nutritional yeast



Directions:

1. Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces.  Place in a large bowl of water to rinse and remove any dirt.  Drain and allow to dry completely.  (I use my salad spinner.)

2. When dry, pour some olive oil into a bowl.  Dip your fingers into the oil, massage the leaves so they are covered with oil, and place them in a large bowl.  I find that you don't really need a whole lot of oil - maybe 1 tbsp or so.  Once you've done about half the leaves, you should be able to add the rest of the leaves and the ones that are already covered will transfer oil to the rest.  Just keep mixing and massaging until all the leaves are covered.

3. Squeeze the lemon juice over the kale.  Sprinkle with a few dashes of Bragg's.  Using tongs or your hands, mix everything together.  Cover and refrigerate.

4. When ready to serve, put kale into bowls and top with nutritional yeast.  Taste and add additional Bragg's, if needed.

Makes 4 side salads.

We had this last night for dinner.  The kale came from our Living Stones CSA.

Have you had kale salad?  How do you make yours?

Smokey Sauteed Collards or Kale

Yesterday I posted a recipe for sauteed rainbow chard.  I mentioned that I normally saute collard greens or kale so I thought I'd give you my method for preparing those (which is similar - just different added flavorings).  I don't do much measuring so for those of you who like exact measurements, I apologize.  It's sort of fun to play around with it to fit your tastes anyway.  These taste great with so many dishes - tonight we're having collards with meatless BBQ ribs and sweet potato fries.

 

curly kale

Smoky Sautéed Collards or Kale 

Ingredients:

1 bunch collards or kale, rinsed well
1 sweet onion, such as Vidalia (if it's really large I just use half)
1-2 cloves garlic

Olive oil 
1 cup no-chicken broth (may sub vegetable broth or water)
Low-sodium soy sauce or tamari, to taste
Liquid smoke, to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare your greens (see below).  Set the leaves aside.  Cut off the the rough ends of the stems and chop the rest into small pieces.  Put into a bowl and set aside.

2. Dice or chop the onion into small strips and put in the bowl with the stems.

3. Mince the garlic and add to the bowl.

4. Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Pour in olive oil.  When the oil is hot, add all the vegetables except for the leaves.  Saute for a few minutes, adding a little broth as necessary.  I usually cover with a lid and simmer for a few minutes until the stems are soft and the onions have begun to caramelize, about 5-7 minutes. 

5. Add the leaves to the pan.  If there are a lot you may have to add some, cover, and let them cook down a little until there is room to add the remaining leaves.  Pour in remaining broth.  Sprinkle with a few generous dashes of soy sauce and liquid smoke.  Toss with tongs until everything is evenly mixed.  

6. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the leaves are bright green and tender, tossing a few times and adding more liquid if necessary.  I let the collards go for about 10 minutes; kale will need a little less time. 
 
7. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

To prep collards: Fold each leaf in half and cut along the rib, separating the leaves into two long strips.  Set the ribs/stems aside.  Do this for each leaf.  Working in batches, pile up some of the cut leaves and roll them up, starting at the top and rolling down to the bottom.  Then, take your knife and cut the rolls into 1-inch sections so you end up with a bunch of collard strips.  Repeat with remaining leaves.

To prep kale: Kale is much easier to prepare.  I usually use curly kale so I just tear off pieces of the leaves, usually keeping the ribs since they aren't as hard as the collard ribs.  



Serves 2.

Rainbow Chard

Last week in my CSA share I received a beautiful bunch of rainbow chard.  I often saute kale and collard greens but have never cooked chard before.  I based my recipe on the "Easy Stir-Fried Leafy Greens" recipe from Veganomican but made some modifications.  I also had one lonely kohlrabi from the CSA so I diced that and threw it in with the stems and onions.  You could easily make it without that.
  
Be careful not to overcook the chard leaves - they are more delicate than collards and kale.  I think I overdid them a bit so the texture was a little off but the flavors worked well together.  Feel free to make adjustments to make this dish your own.  I think some red chili flakes might add a nice bit of spice.  We ate the greens as a side dish with corn on the cob and Amy's Bistro Burgers.  They would also be delicious over brown rice or quinoa or with baked tofu.

Rainbow chard from my Living Stones CSA

Sautéed Chard with Kohlrabi

Ingredients:

1 bunch Swiss chard, rinsed well
1 sweet onion, such as Vidalia (I only used half)
2 cloves garlic
1-inch piece of ginger
1 kohlrabi

1 tbsp. sesame oil
Mirin (Japanese cooking wine)
Low-sodium soy sauce or tamari
Brown sugar (just a pinch, optional)


Directions:

1. Cut the stems off the chard.  They sort of resemble celery stalks.  Chop them as you would celery.  Put them in a bowl.  Cut the leaves width-wise into 2-inch strips.  I cut straight across, leaving the ribs.  Set the leaves aside.

2. Dice or cut the onion into strips and add to the bowl with chard stems.

3. Mince the garlic cloves and ginger.  (I used a micro-plane grater for both.)  Add to onions and stems.

4. Cut the leaves off the kohlrabi and cut them in half width-wise.  Set aside with chard leaves.  Peel and dice the kohlrabi into small pieces, taking care to avoid the hard center.  Add to other vegetables. 

5. Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Pour in sesame oil.  When the oil is hot, add all the vegetables except for the leaves.  Saute for a few minutes until they have reached your desired level of tenderness.  I added a little water, covered with a lid, and simmered for a couple of minutes.  

6. Add your chard and kohlrabi leaves to the pan.  Sprinkle with a generous amount of mirin and soy sauce.  Sprinkle with brown sugar if desired.  Stir with tongs so everything is covered.  Cook for maybe 2 minutes, until the leaves are bright green and wilted.  Serve immediately.

Serves 2.

 

Roasted Holiday Vegetables

Roasted Holiday Vegetables

1 large carrot, chopped

1 small potato, chopped

1 small sweet potato, diced

1 cup squash, cubed

1 small onion, chopped

 *See NOTE below regarding vegetables.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp molasses

1 tbsp water

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  In a medium baking dish, toss together all the ingredients until well coated.  Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes covered with foil or until veggies can be poked easily with a fork.  (Or bake 30 minutes covered with foil, 15 minutes uncovered.)

Makes 2 large or 4 small servings.

NOTE: Any combination of vegetables will do.  I used half of a large sweet onion, 3 parsnips, 2 sweet potatoes, 5 carrots, and 2 beets.  Although I didn't measure the veggies, I doubled the other ingredients because I had a very full pan.  It was enough for 6 people plus leftovers!

From La Dolce Vegan! by Sarah Kramer.

Wild Rice and Veggie Stuffing

As promised, here is the recipe for my stuffing.  It was in the Detroit Free Press in an article about vegetarian side dishes for Thanksgiving.  I've noted the ingredient changes I made.

Wild Rice and Veggie Stuffing 

1 cup uncooked wild rice 

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

1/2 cup chopped carrot

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion 

4 cups vegetable broth 

2 tbsp. Earth Balance

A few grinds of black pepper or to taste 

5 cups herb-seasoned stuffing cubes, such as Pepperidge Farm

    

NOTE: I substituted homemade French bread, cubed and dried, along with the following herbs: 

1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley

1 tbsp fresh snipped rosemary

1/2 tsp ground sage

1/2 tsp ground thyme

I also added 2 chopped Granny Smith apples and a couple handfuls of dried cranberries along with the bread cubes 

1. In a slow-cooker, place the rice, mushrooms, onion, celery, carrot, buttery spread, vegetable broth and black pepper. Stir well. Cover; cook on lowest setting for 5 hours.

2. After the 5 hours, stir the stuffing cubes into rice mixture. Cover; cook another 50 minutes. Stuffing should be moist and tender.

Serves: 8 / Preparation time: 20 minutes / Total time: 6 hours in a slow-cooker 

Nutrition Information (with Pepperidge Farm stuffing):  

 339 calories (44% from fat ), 17 grams fat (5 grams sat. fat ), 5 grams carbohydrates , 17 grams protein , 1,298 mg sodium , 8 mg cholesterol , 4 grams fiber. 

From Susan Kline of Troy. Tested by Susan M. Selasky for the Free Press Test Kitchen.

French Bread

1 cup plus 7 tablespoons filtered water*

2 tablespoons olive oil 

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice 

1-1/4 teaspoon sea salt 

2 teaspoons Sucanat or fructose 

4-1/3 cups bread flour 

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1. Add ingredients in the above order to your bread machine. Close lid and select the desired setting (many machines will have a setting for French bread). Press start and let bake. 

2. When complete, remove bread pan from machine and invert to remove loaf.

* I find that I usually have to add an extra couple of tablespoons water during the 1st kneading cycle because the dough seems dry.  Keep an eye on it.

From VegNews.com