Tag: vegetarian

Raw Onion Crackers

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It has been forever. I haven’t been developing recipes. More just experimenting in the kitchen and enjoying the freedom of being in the moment with cooking.  Not taking notes or writing anything down.  But, it is back to recipe making for me.

Of late, I have been trying to eat more raw while at home. Out. It doesn’t matter. I feel like our bodies give us signs that we need to change our diet or our lifestyle. And for me it was my hair. It started to look dry and brittle. No longer any shine or luster. I wanted to make sure my diet had less of my favorites (bread, dairy, sugar, caffeine) and more whole foods. Thank goodness it is spring and I can barely keep up with the food that I am harvesting from the garden. Vegetables abound. Yet, this recipe does not happen to include any such vegetables. Instead, it is for onion crackers. Which are totally inspired by Matt Amsden’s Famous Onion Bread.  They do happen to pair quite well as a side to a fresh garden salad though.

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This makes a small batch. Just enough for snacking on over the week. However, it is easily doubled or even tripled for that matter.

I use my oven as it can be set at 100 degrees. However, you can also use a dehydrator tray lined with a Teflex sheet, but I don’t own one so I cannot verify the time and temperature.

Ingredients:

  •  1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 3 Tbs sesame seed
  • 3 Tbs chia seed
  • 1 Tbs Nama Shoyu
  • 1Tbs olive oil, extra virgin cold-pressed
  • 3 Tbs water
  • kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and mix until you get a smooth puree. It will still have bits and chunks so don’t stress. Just until it is mixed and the onions seem chopped.

Spread the mixture on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Spread it as thin as you can without being paper thin. Just think a cracker. Then sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. You can go ahead and lightly score them if you want perfectly square pieces. I never do. I just break them apart once they are done.

Dehydrate them on 100 for roughly 20 hours (depending on how thin you spread the mixture, it may take up to 24), flipping them halfway through. I usually put another piece of parchment paper on them and us it to easily flip the entire mass. If you are prescoring them, score the other side as well.

Enjoy!

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Turnip + Kale Bean Soup

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The perils of winter and its shortened days.  The cozy warm fire beckons one inside.  The cold crisp air, although intoxicating to some even in its sharpness, acts to deter even the most beloved of activities.  Farmers markets are forgone for the ease and convenience of the grocery store.  As shamefully hard as it is to admit, I don’t know the last time I stepped foot at the farmers market.  Whole Foods on the other hand, has become a frequented location.

On these bitter cold days, when all I seem to want is to warm my bones, and baths have become a nightly ritual, soup seems the best choice for dinner.  Soup made of hearty ingredients.  Soup that has one dreaming of spring and warmer days.

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This soup requires a “bouquet garni”, or a bundle of herbs tied together with string and used to prepare soup, stock, and various stews. The bouquet is cooked with the other ingredients, but is removed before serving.  If it were spring, or even summer or fall for that matter, I would walk barefoot out the doors of our home, to the garden and wander along the beds, choosing an assortment of fresh herbs.  However, with winter at hand, I was at the mercy of the grocery store.

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Turnip + Kale Bean Soup

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 bouguet garni (with a sprig each of sage, oregano, rosemay, and tarragon)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3/4 lb turnips, chopped
  • 6 cups water (or vegetable broth if you prefer, but the herbs bring enough flavor on their own)
  • 2 cans of cannellini beans (I much prefer to use dried beans and cook flavor into them myself, however, I did not have any one hand, nor did the store), drained and rinsed
  • 2 large handfuls of kale, chopped
  •  juice from 1/2 lemon
  • 2 Tbs parsley, chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste

Gently heat oil in a large stock pot adding the onions and sauté until they begin to color and soften, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic, bay leaves, and bouquet garni and cook for another minute or so, seasoning with salt and pepper. Add the turnips and cook for just a moment (like 30 seconds) adding the water to the pot.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until the turnips are soft but not breaking down.  Add the beans and kale and cook until they are heated through. Remove from heat as well as remove the herbs and bay leaves.  Add the lemon juice and parsley and stir to combine.

Serve immediately and enjoy.

Winter Granola

Published on by VirginiaLeave a comment

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I rarely eat a hot breakfast, even in the winter.  Those are kept for special occasions.  The times the table is full of family and loved ones.  Most mornings (confession), I spend eating breakfast while I am getting ready to head out the door or eating while I sit down to begin the work of the day.  Either way, it is usually something that requires little more than putting things together in a bowl.  Granola is a perfect example of that.  Hence, it is pretty much a staple in my mind.  Keeping a bag in the freezer at all times just seems like a good idea.  Plus, cereal and granola have always been a favorite dessert or post dinner late night snack.

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Winter seems to me to be the best time for granola.  When no other fruit, besides the obvious citrus family, is fresh and in season, bananas are my staple.  And what better accompaniment to a banana then granola and yogurt.

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This recipe is dairy free and could easily be gluten free by substituting or omitting as necessary.

Winter Granola

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups oats
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
  • 1/3 cup chia seed
  • 1/3 cup flax seed
  • 1/3 cup buckwheat groats
  • 1/4 cup sucanat
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil, plus extra for baking sheet
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 Tbs coconut milk

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The directions here are the same for every granola I make (see here and here).

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly oil rimmed baking sheet with extra coconut oil.  Combine oats, pumpkin seeds, coconut, chia seed, flax seed, buckwheat groats, sucanat, spices and salt in a large bowl.   Set aside.  In a small saucepan over low heat, whisk together honey, oil, milk, and vanilla until mixture is completely melted and combined.  Pour over oat mixture and coat well.   Spread out on baking sheet.  Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring often.  Let cool on baking sheet on wire rack for 1 ½ hours undisturbed.  Break up and store.  (I like to keep it in the freezer.)  Makes over 5 cups.

Colcannon…a Winter Staple

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Well, maybe staple is too strong of a word. These days, nothing is really a staple.  I don’t know if I could even tell you the last five things I cooked.  Other than bread (which if we are being technical, I know, it is baking, but I am not into technicalities).  Bread has been my staple.  But I am trying to break that habit.  Thus far successful.  I have not baked a loaf of bread since Thanksgiving.

Colcannon.  My mother mentioned it the other day.  It is a word that creates instant craving.  A word that stays in my head until it has been satisfied.  Colcannon is one of those dishes I was introduced to later in life and was sold from the first bite. A simple dish of potatoes and cabbage, it is easy to cook. Rustic, basic, delicious. My only experience and knowledge with Colcannon is from Jane Brody’s “Good Food Book”. For me, that is all I know. Her’s is not the authentic (apparently, traditionally it is made sans the cheese and milk but I can’t imagine it without).  So, this recipe is an adaptation of an adaptation.  And with a French twist to an Irish classic.

Colcannon

serves 6

  • 1 3/4 lb russet potatoes, washed and left whole
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 5 c green cabbage, chopped
  • 2 c dinosaur kale, chopped (or similar hearty variety)
  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  • 1/3 cup + 2 Tbs whole milk
  • 2 Tbs butter
  • 5 oz gruyere, shredded
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • salt and pepper to taste

Begin by bringing a pot of lightly salted water to boil.  Add the bay leaves and whole, unpeeled potatoes.  Cook until they are tender and not overcooked and mushy.  Remove from water (but do not drain water) along with bay leaves,  setting aside potatoes to cool.  Discard the bay leaves.

Add the cabbage, kale, and onions to the potato water and boil for 5 minutes under tender.  Drain the vegetables.

Once the potatoes are cool and can be handled, peel of the skin.  Place in a bowl and add the milk and butter and mash until smooth.  (I actually don’t mind if they aren’t completely smooth…it adds a little texture.)

Add the cheese and nutmeg to the potatoes and mix until combined.  Add the vegetables and again mix.  Season with salt and pepper as desired and transfer to a casserole dish.

Heat in the oven at 375 until it begins to slightly brown on top and is heated through.

Vegan Pumpkin Soup

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With October came the cold. As if the earth awoke and realized fall had not yet descended.

I have fantasies of the changing seasons.  Fantasies based upon expectations.  Of excitement for what is to come.  Of being curled up before a bonfire. Of nights spent before the fireplace. Of crisp morning air. Of walking in the woods and the crunch of leaves underfoot. But there is always a bit of adjustment. The first cold is too cold. It is a shock. My body and soul call out involuntarily for the warm rays of the sun. My dreams belie my heart.  It is too sudden.  I am not ready for change.  I don’t welcome it.  I am not ready.  I am never ready.

The house feels cold. Aggressively cold. Not the cold of my dreams. Not the cold that is soothed by warm blankets, a fire, and the company of loved ones. No, this cold creeps into your bones. The constant longing for a bath. I know it will soon pass. I will get used to the cold. It won’t seem like much a month from now. Layers will continue to pile on my skin and seem as if my they in fact have become my skin. It will feel foreign to think of summer days and the sun’s rays baking upon my exposed skin.

So, for now, as all I seek is warmth and comfort from the constant chill, I will make soup. Soup will not cure the chill.  But it will do.  Because that is all that can be expected of it.

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Vegan Pumpkin Soup

Serves 6 as appetizers or an accompaniment

*of note, this soup has a kick…adjust according to taste

  • 1 medium pumpkin
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, divided
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2-1 Tbs + another 2 Tbs organic, cold pressed olive oil
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 Tbs garlic, minced
  • 1 Tbs ginger root, minced
  • 1 tsp turmeric root, minced
  • 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 6 cups vegetable broth (homemade preferably)
  • 1 tsp orange peel
  • 1 Tbs orange juice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2c coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 4oo.  Slice the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds etc.   Place on a baking sheet and cook until the flesh is soft and the skin begins to wrinkle.  Roughly an hour.  Remove from the oven and set aside.

Combine the ground ginger, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Whisk in enough olive oil and mix with the pumpkin seeds to coat.  Toss onto a baking sheet and cook until toasted.  Don’t forget them!  Allow to cool while you continue with the soup.

Gently heat the remaining 2 Tbs olive oil in a soup pot.  Add the onion and cook over medium low heat for about 5 minutes until tender.  Add the garlic and cook another minute.  Now add the ginger, turmeric, cardamom, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, bay leaf, salt and pepper (just a dash of both…to taste later).  Continue to cook until the spices meld.  Just a couple of minutes.  Add the cooked pumpkin (removing skins first…they should peel off easily).  Stir to combine.

Add the vegetable broth, orange peel and orange juice.  Bring to a boil.  Then simmer, covered for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from heat and remove the bay leaf.  Using an immersion blender, blend the soup.  Once smooth, add the coconut milk and stir to combine.  Taste for salt and pepper if need be.

Serve the soup with the toasted pumpkin seeds on top.

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