Fresh raw kale is the base of this lovely salad chock full of lightly caramelized dried fruit and smoked almonds, all glistening from just the right amount of a savory-sweet-tart pomegranate vinaigrette. The most virtuous dish on the Thanksgiving table may just be the tastiest too!
I served this salad last year and, though the whole menu was scrumptious, I typically don’t duplicate. But this dish made the cut and I will be serving it again!
Yield: 8 quesadillas
Different, but not bizarre, this quesadilla celebrates the cozy flavors of fall.
2 large apples, halved, cored and cut into 12 wedges each
Sea salt
Olive oil
8 ounces tempeh (I use Trader Joe’s “3 Grain” variety)
2 teaspoons soy sauce (I use a lite variety with less sodium)
1 teaspoon dry rubbed sage or a tablespoon minced fresh sage
Optional: 1 teaspoon fresh minced rosemary
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1/2 cup Quick Vegan Cashew Cream (Recipe Follows)
1/2 cup water
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
8 6-inch wheat tortillas
Optional: 1/2 cup caramelized onions
Garnish: dollops of vegan sour cream or additional Quick Vegan Cashew Cream, fresh sage or rosemary sprigs, roasted pepitas
Grill lightly salted apple wedges in well-oiled grill pan over medium high heat until tender and nice grill marks develop, about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large cast iron skillet. Crumble tempeh into the skillet, add a pinch of salt, and saute, stirring frequently, until golden brown in some places, adding about a teaspoon of olive oil if it appears to be drying out. Add soy sauce, sage and optional rosemary, and continue sauteing until golden throughout. Stir in balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, Cashew Cream, and water, and heat, stirring, until mixture comes together. Remove from heat and add additional salt, if necessary, and black pepper to taste. Transfer filling to a bowl or carton and wipe out skillet.
To make quesadillas, heat another tablespoon of olive oil in skillet over medium high. Place 1/8th of filling on half of each tortilla, top with 3 slices of grilled apple and optional 1/8th of caramelized onions. Fold other half of tortilla up over the filling and toast, 2 quesadillas at a time, in skillet for a couple of minutes on each side or until golden brown. Keep warm. Repeat with more oil as needed and remaining tortillas, filling and apples. Serve garnished as desired.
Quick Vegan Cashew Cream:
2 cups raw cashews
2 cups simmering water (heated stovetop or in microwave)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt or to taste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Place cashews in a heat-safe bowl and pour simmering water over. Let stand, covered, for a half hour. Drain and reserve 1 1/4 cups of water. Process cashews with sea salt and garlic powder until a thick past forms, about a minute or two. Reheat water and, with motor running, stream in 1 1/4 cups or enough to reach desired consistency. Serve as is, flavor as desired, or cover and refrigerate for use at a later date.
“Your peanut butter-apple pancakes were righteous!”
So proclaimed Gary Loewenthal of Compassion for Animals and Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale in an email last week.
He then explained that he had been invited to give a vegan cooking demo and talk at a health food store near him and asked if he could prepare my recipe and print it for the attendees, with a credit and link to The Blooming Platter.
That required no thought at all, only a resounding “Of course!” especially when he said, “One thing I loved about the pancakes is that the PB was not overpowering. I love PB but it blended beautifully.”
I haven’t made my Vegan Peanut Butter and Fresh Apple Pancakes with Peanut Butter Maple Syrup in a while, but he reminded me how good they are; and, with local apples cropping up this autumn in farmers markets everywhere, I thought I should post a link.
What a great way to celebrate the first weekend of fall. Thanks, Gary!
Yield: 8 servings (16 small pancakes)
The other morning, for some reason, I was thinking about pineapple upside down cake and how nicely that translates into pancakes. Suddenly, I had to have pancakes, though I am not much of a breakfast eater, unless I have breakfast for lunch. I didn’t have pineapple, but I did have fresh figs and Vegan Fresh Fig Upside Down Pancakes were born!
The ground sumac– a beautiful earthy red powder derived from a berry of the sumac bush–is used in Middle Eastern and Greek cooking. Since I think of figs in relation to Middle Eastern cuisine, and since I thought that the earthy lemony flavor of the sumac would complement the sweetness of the figs, I chose to add a little to the batter. It‘s not absolutely essential, but it is delicate, delicious, and adds such a special quality. Find sumac in Middle Eastern grocery stores and online.
Sage, too, is used widely in Middle Eastern and Greek cooking and I happen to have quite an abundant crop of it this year. So I decided to garnish the pancakes with some of their most small and tender leaves to add a subtle sage-y flavor. Eaten together, the trio is transcendent!
2 cups white whole wheat flour (this is what I keep on hand, but unbleached all purpose is fine, as is a mixture of all purpose and whole wheat)
1/4 cup natural sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Optional, but delicious: 1/2 teaspoon sumac
2 cups plain soymilk (I used lite, as that’s what I had)
Nonstick spray or canola oil
8 fresh figs, stemmed, halved and sprayed with nonstick spray or brushed with oil
Accompaniments: agave nectar and a sprig of small tender fresh sage leaves (yes, sage!–sounds a little odd, but is delicious with the figs!)
In a medium bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients, make a well in the center, add soymilk, and whisk ingredients together until smooth. Heat a large well-oiled skillet over medium high and make pancakes, 3 or 4 at a time, using 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter (they should be about 3 inches in diameter). Cook for about a minute, lay a fig half, flesh side up, in the center of each pancake, pressing very gently. You don’t want to submerge or for the batter to hide the fig when you flip it. Cook for another minute or two or until golden brown on the other side, carefully flip, and cook until set, another couple of minutes or so. Repeat with remaining batter, keeping pancakes warm while you cook the entire batch. Serve pancakes, fig side up, with a drizzle of agave nectar and a sprig of fresh sage. Note: if a very thin layer of the batter has eased over the edge of the fig, just pinch it off to reveal the perfect shape of the fig.
Yield: 1 dozen cupcakes
These may possibly be the moistest cupcakes you will ever put in your mouth!
A pint of fresh figs from a local farm market that needed used fairly quickly resulted in these beautiful confections. The lemon in the buttercream frosting provides a subtle but bright contrast to the cinnamon-scented fig cupcakes, while the brandy flavoring (use real brandy if you have it–my husband forbids me, jokingly–sort of–to use his) accents their ripe, earthy fruitiness for the perfect summer wedding of flavors.
Vegan Fresh Fig Cupcakes
1 cup soymilk (unsweetened or plain)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (I have used rice wine vinegar in a pinch and it works just fine)
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (this is what I keep on-hand, but unbleached all purpose is fine)
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons natural sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup walnut oil or canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
18 to 20 small-medium fresh figs, stemmed, and pureed in a food processor
Vegan Lemon-Brandy Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)
Garnish: 12 fresh fig halves
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. In a small cup or bowl, whisk together soymilk and vinegar to make a vegan “buttermilk.” When it curdles, whisk again and set the mixture aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the soymilk mixture, oil, and vanilla extract. Stir just until all ingredients are well combined and no lumps remain. Stir in the fig puree until completely combined. Fill muffin cups no more than 3/4 full and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack, and then remove cupcakes from tin. Place frosting in a pastry bag (mine came from the Dollar Tree!) fitted with a star-type tip, and pipe on top of cooled cupcakes in concentric circles, spiraling high. Top with a fresh fig half just before serving.
Vegan Lemon-Brandy Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup vegan butter
4 cups powdered sugar, divided
2 tablespoons soymilk (unsweetened or plain)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon brandy flavoring
Zest of 1/2 large lemon
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together shortening and vegan butter. With mixer on low, beat in half of powdered sugar and half of soymilk. Repeat. Beat in vanilla, brandy flavoring, and lemon zest, and then turn mixer to high and whip until creamy-fluffy.
Here in Eastern coastal Virginia spring has sprung and the Pungo Strawberry Festival is a thing of the past. But, I hope wherever you live, you still have access to fresh local strawberries and spring onions… or perhaps you aren’t the stickler for seasonal ingredients that I tend to be. 🙂
There were some delays getting this recipe published on One Green Planet because they questioned the quality of the photo, and rightly so. Earlier this spring, I came home from yoga and the farmer’s market one Saturday, whipped this dish up for lunch, and it was so tasty that I hastily snapped a photo of it despite less than optimum lighting conditions. After reviews and a protracted email exchange–all necessary for quality control–we decided to just go with it in the end. But, alas, by then it was summer!
Sure, I could retake the photo, but I’d have to buy the strawberries and spinach out of season. For now, we’ll leave it as is with my apologies for the quality of the photo but no apologies for the recipe which I think you will love…now or next spring!
Click HERE for my beautiful and simple recipe.
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Access my brand new super-simple super-food recipe for Vegan Pigs in Plums at One Green Planet.
Satisfy your craving for that irresistible sweet-savory-salty trifecta of f-tastes!
This may be the easiest–not to mention prettiest–side dish or snack that you’ll ever love.
My contributions to the burgeoning collection of roasted grape recipes on the internet are two “secret” ingredients: olive oil and thyme!
Find my recipe for Thyme-Scented Roasted Grapes on One Green Planet!
