Savory Collard Pies

I love Mediterranean spinach pies.  Love.  I decided to give this recipe a try, using collards instead of spinach because I had a bunch on hand.  The dough was nice and workable and after baking, the pockets were fluffy, yet thicker and stiffer than some spinach pies I've had at restaurants.  The leftover, uncooked, filling even made a great side salad!






















When using collards in this recipe, you can skip squeezing out the excess water, but you'll need to massage the greens a little longer. Also, make sure you remove the stems from the collards!

I didn't have sumac, so I left it out, but I definitely think it would be worth it to track down the spice if you plan on making this dish.  I also skipped the cornmeal in the recipe and instead used greased cookie sheets.  I really recommend piling in the filling, using much more than the recipe says.  I think mine could have used a higher filling-to-dough ratio.

Collards and Mac

Mixing a vegetable in with your mac and cheez isn't exactly a novel idea anymore.  I've done broccoli, cauliflower, and peas, but perhaps my favorite mix-ins are collards.  I like to cut them into long ribbons so I can swirl them up with my fork, each bite having a plentiful amount of both the veg and the mac.



Kristen from the Noochy Noodle spoke really highly of the Cheezy Mac recipe from Julie Hasson's Vegan Diner.  I just got a copy of the book from the library, so I thought it would be a perfect recipe to try for this dish.  And it was!  This recipe is creamy with a great smokey flavor.  It's only been recently that I've started liking smokey flavors, so it was my first time using smoked paprika, but certainly not the last!

So how did I prepare the collard ribbons?
I started out with enormous collard leaves, cutting out the stalks (and giving them to patiently waiting doggles), and lining them up on the cutting board.

 Then, I rolled them up, lengthwise and started slicing.

I plopped the collard ribbons into a pan and steamed them for about five minutes.

For dessert I made the couscous cake that won me over at A Bug and a Fish.  However, I flavored mine with rosewater instead of vanilla and used pistachios and home-grown strawberry slices for the top.  It was quite good.  Apparently couscous cakes have been around forever, but I've never heard of them before!  I think I'm going to try making it with quinoa for a nutty, gluten-free dessert.

Oy.  It wasn't ready in time for natural light.  And I wasn't going to wait until the next day to eat it!

Lastly, I leave you with photographic evidence of Andy's method of opening a soy milk container.

Oh, Andy.

Velvety Collards Soup

This soup became an instant favorite in my house.  I opted to make a creamy, blended soup that still had chunks of vegetables.  It's a really simple recipe, taking a short amount of time to create, and allowing the individual flavors of the ingredients to come through.  Hot, satisfying, and healthy, this soup can be enjoyed right now or anytime!

This recipe makes two generous bowls of Velvety Collards Soup, perfect portions for VeganMoFo, but you could definitely double it.

Ingredients:
1 large yellow potato, peeled and diced
1 small bundle of collards, stems discarded, and chopped
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 carrot, shredded
1/2 small onion, diced
1 sprig parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, smashed
4ish cups vegetable broth (I just used "Better Than" bouillon and added water until the right consistency was achieved)
salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce to drizzle on top

Method:
1. Boil the potato in water until soft (about 8-10 min).  Meanwhile, steam collards (about 5-6 minutes) until bitterness is gone and collards are soft.  Reserve about 1 cup of the potato cooking water, draining the rest.  Cool.

2. While potato and collards cool, saute the carrot, onion, parsley, and garlic in olive oil for 5-7 minutes.  Add vegetable broth.  Add half the cooked potato.

3. Blend the other half of the potato and the collards in 1 cup of the potato cooking water until smooth.  Add to the vegetable broth mixture and stir until the contents are well combined.*

4. Serve hot with a swirl of hot sauce and nice piece of sourdough and a salad!

*If you have a high-powered blender (like a Vitamix) you may need to spoon foam off the top of the soup.

A date with Kittee's cheezy kale chips

As MoFo veterans are aware and noobs will soon learn, VeganMoFo is almost as much about community-building and camaraderie as it is about the promotion of vegan food.  It's nice when you can involve your "real world" friends in the festivities too and yesterday, my friend Carly came over to make Kittee's deliciously cheezy kale chips. 

If you use your imagination, you can see kale, in its natural habitat, in the background of this photo!

Matt made it home from a hike in time to help us devour these beauties.  I think they were gone within 10 minutes, paired with Oregon-made Wandering Aengus Cider.

A fine snack!

These chips are everything you could ask for in a snack.  They're the perfect amount of flavorful and are totally modifiable to your taste preferences.  Extra spicy?  Sure!  I've even used a grated beet instead of the carrot for equally tasty results.  These chips are also pretty nutritious!  The only problems are that they're gone waaay too quickly and I guess they do take a little babysitting in the oven if you make them the way I did (see below).  I really, really recommend giving these a go!

A few notes about how we deviated from the original recipe:
-I don't have a dehydrator, so we used the oven.  I also don't have enough patience, so we adjusted the cooking temp to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and baked them for about 30 minutes total, flipping and checking on them about every 7-8 minutes.  Each time we took them out, we decided to eat the few crispy ones, since they'd just burn anyway!  -We used tamari instead of Bragg's, Aardvark hot sauce instead of Sriracha, and regular old chile powder instead of the chipotle variety.
-And, per Kittee's suggestion, we threw in a pressed clove of garlic.

Throw in that pinch of chile powder, Carly!

VeganMoFo GOES GREEN

Welcome MoFoers!

A note about my theme for 2011:
I have decided to pay tribute to my first vegetable garden (i.e. use up the veggies I have on-hand) and go with a “greens, greens, and more greens” theme this year.  Here at In My Vegan Life, during the month of October, you’ll find many greens dishes, both originals and cookbook finds ranging from savory one-pot meals to sides and snacks.  When I say “greens” I mostly mean collards and kale, but I will also be using yummies like spinach, chard, and beet greens on occasion.  In an attempt to avoid the dreaded “VeganMoFo Burnout”, I will most likely also include some non-greens posts.

Without further ado, I give you a recipe, which, although quite simple, quickly became a staple in our home after we watched a cooking video by Russell James, The Raw Chef.  This isn’t the exact original, but it’s pretty close*. I love the nutty creaminess that the tahini gives the dish, along with the tartness of the lemon, the sweetness of the agave, and the kick of the cayenne.  I think it can be eaten as a meal by itself, but it also makes a great side, and certainly creates the perfect bed for something like buffalo tempeh or baked tofu.  If you are a lover of kale, you will be a lover of this dish.  Give it a try!

Why yes, those are greens and tomatoes from the garden!

  

Massaged Kale Salad with Tahini and Lemon

Ingredients:
1 bunch frizzy kale**, stems removed
2 tsp lemon Juice
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup raw tahini (sesame paste)
Pinch of cayenne powder
1 tsp agave
Sesame Seeds, opt.
Grape/Cherry Tomatoes, cut in half

Steps:
1.    Massage kale with the salt and lemon juice, until it begins to wilt.
2.    Use your hands to mix in the remaining ingredients.

*I leave out the hemp protein powder and sprouted buckwheat the original recipe calls for.
**Even though I didn’t in this instance, I’d recommend using a frizzier type of kale in this dish.  It really makes a big difference.

PreMoFo Doggles

It's almost upon us.  You know what I'm talking about. IT'S ALMOST HEEEERRREE!

In the meantime, a totally non-food-related post, to ineffectively counteract the wave of food content that will soon be overtaking this blog:

You have a beautiful, sunny fall day in Portland.  What to do?  What to do?  Oh yes, soak up some vitamin D with the doggle buds and woohoo!  Doggle bath party!

Gah!  Naked Doggles!

 

 

 

 

Okay, so they don't actually love the baths so much, but they do love being out in the sun.  Poor timid-of-wet-grass Emerson has a few rough months ahead. 

Blackberry Cream Crepes

Inspired by the amazingly-dark purple blackberry syrup I made from the berries Matt and I picked last week, I decided to make Blackberry Cream-filled crepes for dinner.

The crepes were crispy around the edges and soft in the middle, textures which paired well with the richness of the blackberry cream cheese filling. The syrup on top gave the dish just a perfect amount of additional sweetness. As I devoured my crepes I was reminded of why they remain a favorite for lazy Sunday mornings. They're easy to make, filling, and really have that 'wow' factor. Just have a look at the color of that dollop of filling I plopped on top.

I usually make these with blueberry jam, which has pretty much the same effect. Here were my steps. (I didn't actually measure the ingredients!)

Crepes
makes 8 med-large crepes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
1 3/4 cups almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp canola oil

Filling:
3-4 tbsp vegan cream cheese
2-3 tbsp jam or fruit syrup (your choice!)
2 tbsp vegan yogurt

powdered sugar to sprinkle on top
fruit syrup to drizzle on top

1. In a medium-sized bowl mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and egg replacer. Add almond milk, vanilla, and oil and mix until smooth. The batter should be thinner than pancake batter. If it's too thick, add more almond milk.

2. Heat up a non-stick pan to med heat. A cast iron pan works beautifully. Use cooking spray each time you pour a crepe into the pan and before flipping it.

3. Pour about 1/3 cup batter onto pan and move the pan around until the bottom is evenly coated in batter. Let cook for a few minutes until it browns on the underside and isn't runny on the top. Spray the top with canola oil. Flip and continue to cook a few minutes. Transfer to a plate when finished and keep warm in the oven while you're making the rest.

4. While your crepes are cooking, mix together the ingredients for the filling. I find stirring it with a spoon, and then using a whisk to fully incorporate the mixture works best.

5. When your crepes are ready, spread about a tbsp of jam along the center of each and roll them up, from one end to the other.

5. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and drizzle with fruit syrup.