When you are having one of those dip-n-chip cravings, but hoping not to lose all control and reverse months (or even just days of healthy eating), here is your ticket!
Find my brand new recipe HERE, published by my good pals at One Green Planet.
12/12/12 marked the eve of the 12 anniversary of my annual “Christmas, Chanukah, Curry & Cakes” party. That’s a lot of twelves!
Each year, about 20 or more (not 12) of my “peeps” gather at Joe’s and my home on the second Wednesday of December for some holiday cheer. For ten years, the format was a veg curry dinner–with lots of fun toppings–and gifts for all. Nobody was complaining…quite the opposite: it was a much-anticipated get-together.
But, last year, I decided to shake things up a bit by hosting the annual fete as a “swap” of new or gently used items no longer needed or wanted. It was such a hit–we all got so much holiday swapping done!–that I did it again this year and probably for the next ten! You can read all about last year’s party, including simple directions for hosting your own swap and the vegan menu with some dishes from The Blooming Platter Cookbook, HERE.
For this year, I changed all but one dish–the Indian Saag Dip–to create the following menu:
*From The Blooming Platter Cookbook (Note: I didn’t wrap the brie in pastry and bake it. Rather, I spread the chilled “cheese” on a serving platter and topped it with a different chutney than that in my cookbook. For a similar result, you could substitute red grapes in the recipe in the cookbook recipe.)
**This delicious and simple recipe is not yet posted–sorry!
Yield: 4 servings
Simple as it is, my Smokey Pumpkin Grits with Shitake Mushrooms in a Kale Pesto Cream Sauce is one of the tastiest and most satisfying dishes you will ever eat. Perfect for a fall or winter dinner or brunch, it is both rustic and refined. The smoked paprika in the grits and the smoked almonds in the pesto are a perfect pairing. Add to that the smokey notes of Chardonnay, and you have a tasty trinity indeed. Visually, it is also appealing with the warm, golden-toned grits setting off the creamy green-flecked mushrooms to delicious advantage. I hope you’ll enjoy this dish many times this fall. Note: the pesto recipe makes far more than you will need for one recipe of the mushrooms.
Vegan Smokey Pumpkin Grits (click on the title to go to my recipe on One Green Planet)
While grits cook, prepare mushrooms:
Shitake Mushrooms in Kale Pesto and White Wine Cream Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
10 ounces Shitake mushrooms, stems removed, and caps cut into 1/3 inch slices (just somewhere between a 1/4 and 1/2-inch; feel free to substitute other mushrooms if desired, but Shitakes are particularly tasty and toothsome in this dish)
Pinch sea salt
1/4 cup coconut milk or soymilk creamer
1/4 cup Smokey Kale Pesto (recipe follows)
1/2 cup dry white wine (a Chardonnay is nice for its smokey notes, but use what you have)
In a large cast iron skillet over medium-high, heat olive oil to shimmering. Add mushrooms and a pinch of sea salt and saute, stirring frequently and lowering the heat if necessary, for about 3 minutes or until mushrooms are softened. Add cream and saute, stirring, for 3o seconds. Then add the pesto and do the same. Add white wine and cook, stirring, for a final minute or until sauce comes together and reduces down to the desired consistency. Serve mushrooms immediately over hot grits (perhaps with a kale salad). Garnish as desired. (In the photo, I used fresh springs of rosemary, sage, and pineapple sage for its beautiful red colored blooms.)
Smokey Kale Pesto:
8 ounces trimmed kale (that’s one bunch with stems removed from our market)
1 cup smoked almonds
4 large garlic cloves
1 teaspoon powdered thyme (or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
In the bowl of a food processor, process kale in two batches until very finely chopped, returning all kale to the food processor before continuing. Add remaining ingredients except olive oil and lemon juice and pulse until nuts are very finely chopped and ingredients are well combined. Then, turn processor on, and slowly drizzle in olive oil and lemon juice until the mixture comes together. Check for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Or, freeze in ice cube trays and then remove and store in zip-lock bags.
Yield: 4 servings
This golden and delicious dish personifies fall. Whether you serve it for breakfast or brunch, as tapas, or as a side dish, it is sure to satisfy as a warm and comforting ode to autumn.
When I was growing up, my family probably ate cheese grits for breakfast on more Sundays than not. When I became vegan, I learned that cheesy grits need not be a faint and distant childhood memory, thanks to nutritional yeast.
For this recipe, I make the grits even more creamy and golden, with just a hint of smoke and savory sweetness, by incorporating coconut creamer, smoked paprika, vegan butter, and pureed pumpkin. The creaminess of the grits is perfectly set off by crunchy pepitas lightly toasted with more nutritional yeast, salt, and just a hint of maple syrup.
For some recipes, the garnish is nice, though not necessary. But for this one–though I would still make the dish even if I didn’t have fresh sage growing in the garden–I feel that tiny, tender and very young sage leaves add the perfect finishing touch to balance and accent all of the other flavor notes.
Find the simple and simply addicting recipe HERE at One Green Planet!
What would I do without my indoor grill pan?
This recipe is just one more reason why I love that pan so much. It is so basic: just a cast iron square grill pan by Lodge. But it transforms humble ingredients like early fall eggplant into magic.
Smoked paprika in the dish and sprinkled on top plays off of the char grilled caramelization of the veggies just perfectly. And the golden colors of the spread personify autumn to me, while the bed of fresh chives are the perfect fresh green counterpoint.
Speaking of colors…can anyone find the back of our beautiful brindle Great Dane, Minnie, in the photo? Whenever there is food around, that girl is never far away!
Find the easy recipe HERE at One Green Planet.
Yield: 4 servings
How exciting to share this recipe with you via my good pals at One Green Planet! Just click HERE for this unforgettable recipe!
I thought of this special recipe recently as our 22nd (!) anniversary approached and we were expecting dinner guests. This sauce was the star component in the first meal on which Joe and I collaborated for dinner guests as a newly married couple. And I can almost guarantee you have never had anything like it!
The sauce recipe came from a culinary magazine but, sadly, I don’t know which one, as I recopied the recipe and–shame on me–uncharacteristically did not credit the source. But I did write “Out of this world!” at the top. And it still is.
The only change I made to the original recipe was to substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth and vegan butter for the dairy variety in addition to using about 30%(!) less. We have served it over a variety of things, but this brand new combination was so tasty and so pretty that I wanted to share it with all of you.
So be sure to head over to One Green Planet…you won’t want to miss this one!
Yield: 4 servings
Bye-bye slime…hello sublime!
Do you know how some vegetables are utterly transformed by the cooking method, say, roasting broccoli or grilling radishes? Well, this is one of those vegetables and methods.
As a southern gal, I love fried okra, though I don’t allow myself to have it much. And, I used to love it in gumbo when I was a pescatarian. However, I’ve never found a vegan gumbo recipe I like–including at a local top notch fine dining restaurant–so I rarely bought okra because I didn’t know what to do with it.
But now I do!
Recently at Stoney’s, one of my favorite local farmer’s markets who grows both red and green okra, I was debating about what I wanted to purchase. One of the employees shared this method of roasting okra and I was sold!
It will forever change the way you think about this fury little veggie. For the best crunchy exterior–and creamy center–it must be enjoyed immediately after removing it from the oven. Also, it is best not to layer the pieces of okra on top of each other to serve, as they will steam and, therefore, soften.
2 tablespoons olive oil
Approximately 2 cups of fresh okra, trimmed
Sea salt to taste
Vegan Horseradish Sauce or the sauce of your choice
Preheat oven to 45o degrees. Pour olive oil into roasting pan. I like to use a large cast iron skillet for this because it browns the okra so nicely. Add okra and toss to coat. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and toss again. Roast for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown on one side (I like it fairly caramelized), then turn each piece of okra and roast 5-8 minutes on opposite side or until golden brown. Serve immediately in one layer with Vegan Horsearadish Sauce or any sauce you desire. The texture of this okra is vastly superior if served as soon as it is removed from the oven. If you are unable to serve it immediately, it will soften, but still taste good. So, I recommend reheating it in a skillet over medium-high until heated through, shaking occasionally, just before serving.
These beautiful tarts are so easy to make from summer’s bounty of butter beans, figs and fresh herbs.
The availability of these ingredients along with my Southern-steeped heritage were the inspiration for this unusual but really mouth-watering combination.
The butter beans cook while you make and bake the crust and then just get processed with the other ingredients. And the drizzle is short on cooking time. So, the tart goes together much more quickly than you would think, especially for something so darn pretty.
Find my recipe at One Green Planet. Thanks OGP!
Need a tasty topper that is as delicious and nutritious as it is cool and hydrating, not to mention lovely to look at?
Then just follow this link to my recipe on One Green Planet.
Thanks Team OGP. It’s an honor for my “platter” to be on your “planet”!
