White Bean Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette

I love bean salads.  They go beyond a typical vegetable-based salad and allow you to make just one dish as a meal since the beans make the salad so satisfying.  You can eat it with some good bread, and maybe throw in some soup too.  When I make bean salads, I typically cook the beans myself, because buying dried beans is significantly cheaper than buying canned.  Canned beans are very convenient, and I still use them on occasion, but cooking beans is not difficult.  It’s something that has to be contemplated ahead of time.  Typically I use my crock pot to cook beans while I’m away, and I have them ready when I get home on a week night.  I plan to do a post soon about how to cook beans, because it’s a basic, useful skill, but not entirely intuitive if you’ve never done it before.  This recipe is a favorite of mine, but think of it as a template and not an inflexible recipe.  The beans can be white navy beans, like I use here, chickpeas, black beans, or whatever you have or want to use.  The vegetables are flexible as well, just as with any salad.  I like to add large amounts of fresh herbs to my salads.  Anytime I see a recipe that calls for just a few teaspoons or tablespoons of chopped herbs, I almost always increase that amount several time.

Ingredients

1 1/2-2 cups cooked white navy beans or cannelini beans, or 1 can of beans, drained and rinsed

3-4 stalks of celery, chopped

1 cucumber, peeled and chopped

Dressing:

1/3-1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 T red or white wine vinegar

2 T dijon mustard

2/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped finely

Drizzle of honey or 1 tsp sugar

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Combine the salad ingredients in a medium bowl.  Add the dressing ingredients to a small or medium bowl and whisk until well-combined.  You can also use a blender to make the dressing.  Stir the dressing into the salad, and stir until well-combined.  Taste, and add salt if necessary.  Serve immediately or refrigerate to allow the salad to marinate and flavors to combine.

Kale Class!

This week I invited my friend Karla to my place to show her three different ways of preparing kale.  We made kale pesto, ribollita, and raw kale salad.  Karla was surprised by how easy everything was to make.  I really love each of these dishes for different reasons, but I was excited about the ribollita.  Kale, white beans, bread, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and the rest, make a great soup.  Kale is one of those under-used, but oh-so-good for you vegetables.  Here is my contribution to show that there are many fantastic ways to get more kale into your diet.

Recipe #1:  Raw kale salad

Ingredients

1 bunch kale, any variety, washed and chopped

1/4 medium red onion, chopped

Handful pepitas (green pumpkin seeds)

Handful dried cranberries

Juice of one lemon

2-3 T extra virgin olive oil

1/2-1 tsp sea salt

Black pepper

Preparation

Place the kale in a large bowl.  Squeeze the lemon juice on the kale, and add the olive oil and salt.  Massage the kale until it softens, about 1-2 minutes or so.  Add the onion, cranberries, and pepitas.  Add some freshly ground black pepper, and you’re done.

Recipe #2:  Kale Pesto

Ingredients

1/2 bunch of kale, washed and roughly chopped

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup walnuts

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 tsp sea salt

Juice of one lemon

Preparation

Add the garlic, walnuts, salt, lemon juice, and about half the kale to the food processor.  Pulse until the kale is roughly chopped.  Add the olive oil and the rest of the kale.  Process until the mixture is at a uniform pesto consistency.

Recipe #3:  Ribollita

(This recipe comes from Heidi Swanson at 101cookbooks.com, though I didn’t copy it exactly.)

Ingredients

3 T extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

4 celery stalks, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 medium carrots, chopped

1 medium red onion, chopped

1 14-oz. can crushed tomatoes

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 bunch (1 lb.) cavolo nero (aka dinosaur kale, or lacinato kale), washed and chopped

4 cups cooked white beans

1/2 pound white bread

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

Zest of one lemon

Chopped black olives (I didn’t use these because I didn’t have them, but will try it next time.)

Preparation

In a large pot suitable for soup, combine the olive oil, celery, garlic, carrot, and red onion over medium heat.  Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring a few times to ensure even cooking.  Stir in the tomatoes and red pepper flakes, simmering for another 10 minutes or so.  Stir in the kale, 3 cups of the beans, and 8 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, mash the rest of the beans (the remaining 1 cup) in a bowl.  Tear the bread into bite-sized pieces.  Stir both the mashed beans and the bread into the soup.  Simmer, stirring occasionally until the bread breaks down and the soup thickens, about 20-30 minutes.  Stir in the salt, taste and add more if needed.  Stir in the lemon zest.

Serve immediately, drizzled with olive oil and topped with chopped olives.

Makes about 10 servings.

Tofu “Egg” Salad

This salad is a quick dinner to make on a weeknight, and the ingredients are pretty flexible.  I typically use shredded carrots in this salad, but I didn’t have any when I made this version.  It’s actually easier than egg salad since you can use the tofu right out of the package,whereas with egg salad you have to boil the eggs and allow them to cool.  Tofu absorbs whatever flavors you combine it with, and makes a great base for this salad.  I ate it atop toasted sprouted gran buns.

Ingredients

1 14-oz. package firm or extra-firm tofu

1/3 cup mayonnaise or Vegenaise

3 T dijon mustard

1/2 cup dill relish

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 of a red bell pepper, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1 T capers

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Drain the water from the tofu.  Chop into small cubes, or mash with a fork.  Add the other ingredients and mix well.  Serve on lettuce or a toasted bun.

Mexican Cheeze Spread

This spread is a lot like hummus because it has chickpeas, but is richer with the addition of cashews.  Like many homemade non-dairy “cheezes” this one has nutritional yeast to give it a cheesier flavor.  You can use this spread for a million different things, but I used it in a quesadilla with sauteed cremini mushrooms and red onion.  Yum!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 tsp sea salt

2/3 cup cashews, whole or pieces

3 T nutritional yeast (available in the bulk section of natural foods stores and well-stocked grocery stores)

1 jalapeno, roughly chopped (you can remove the seeds to reduce the heat, but I left them in)

2 handfuls fresh cilantro

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Juice of one large lime or 2 key limes

1-2 T water

Preparation

Add all ingredients to a food processor  and process until smooth.  Scrape the sides with a spatula, and process again to ensure all the ingredients are well-incorporated.

Photo Food Diary of My Trip to Chiapas

One of the things that’s become an indispensable part of my travels is photographing the food I eat.  Eating is such an integral part of the travel experience for me now, that only photographing landscapes simply won’t do.  The most notable part of my recent trip to Chiapas, Mexico, was a stop at La Casa del Pan, a vegetarian Mexican restaurant in San Cristobal de las Casas run by Kippy Nigh.  La Casa de Pan emphasizes local and organic foods, and the restaurant grows much of the food it serves.  I bought Kippy’s cookbook, A Taste of Mexico, about 5 years ago, never imagining when I bought it that I would one day meet the author.  We talked about food and her restaurant, and she was kind enough to take a picture with me.

It turned out that the day we arrived at La Casa del Pan was also El Dia Nacional del Maiz (National Day of Corn).  To celebrate the occasion, the lunch buffet menu was filled with corn-themed dishes.  This meal was the most delicious meal we ate during our trip. The first thing we ate was this wonderful corn soup, made with little balls of masa, fresh corn, and herbs, including chipilin, which one can pretty much only find in Chiapas.  It was a very special soup!  With the soup, we ate bread freshly made at La Casa del Pan’s bakery.

 

Next, the salad bar.  The menu included a multitude of wonderful salads, including green salad with cilantro dressing, an apple and beet salad, a corn salad with blue and yellow corn, a sweet potato salad, jicama and cucumber, cauliflower salad, and several others.

To drink, we had an atole–like drink, except it was not hot.  It was made with annatto seed (known as achiote in Spanish), and slightly sweet.

Next, the main event.  This was a corn pudding, with what I believe were poblano peppers, eggs, and maybe cream?  I couldn’t quite identify all the ingredients.  It was served over a layer of a smooth tomato-based sauce.

Last, but not least, corn for dessert!  We had a corn-based cake that was just the right level of sweetness–not too much, not too little.  I also ordered cafe de olla (sweetened and flavored with cinammon and other things).

We also had breakfast twice at La Casa del Pan.  I ordered a fresh juice called El Vampiro, made with carrots, beets, and I think parsley.  I also ordered scrambled eggs with a “cuernito” or a croissant-like bread.  It was so buttery and delicious!

Another place we love to eat is 100% Natural, a Mexican chain of restaurants emphasizing fresh, good quality food.  We ordered a vegetarian omelet and “German” eggs.  I also ordered a “Hierro” juice (Iron), with spinach, beets, and carrots.

The last outstanding restaurant we visited in San Cristobal was El Caldero, a restaurant that serves only caldos, which is Spanish for stew or soup.  I was thoroughly impressed with the fact that most of the 15 or so caldos on the menu included a vegetarian option.  The avocado we had at this place was perfectly ripe, and was enough to make a some satisfying tacos with the hot corn tortillas they gave us.

Chia Pudding

This “pudding” is two basic ingredients:  chia seeds and some sort of milk.  I used almond milk, but I have also used coconut milk before–so good!  I have also added other ingredients to the basic pudding, including honey or other sweetener, cocoa powder, and dried fruit.  I’ve been eating this batch with dried cranberries and brown rice syrup.

Chia seeds are so cool.  They absorb a LOT of liquid and form a thick, gel-like substance in record time.  No cooking required!  Plus, chia seeds are amazingly good for you, as they are rich in essential fatty acids, including omega 3’s. You can find chia seeds in the bulk section of most natural foods stores or well-stocked regular grocery stores.  You can probably find them pre-packaged also, but they will probably be more expensive.  This pudding is great as a dessert, but I’ve also eaten it for breakfast.

Ingredients

1/4 cup chia seeds

2-2 1/2 cups almond milk

Preparation

Mix the chia seeds with the milk.

Cover with some foil, and refrigerate for about an hour.  If you’d like your pudding thinner, add more milk and allow the pudding to sit longer.  Don’t worry too much about adding too much to the seeds–they absorb a lot of liquid.  Serve as is, or add dried or fresh fruit (mango is good!), nuts, and/or honey or other sweetener.

Serves 4 small-ish dessert portions.

Chocolate Double Buckwheat Muffins

I love buckwheat.  It may be an acquired taste for some, but it didn’t take me long to become a devotee.  Most buckwheat muffins or other baked goods recipes I’ve seen use a combination of wheat and buckwheat flour, though this muffin I made a few days ago contains not only buckwheat flour, but also cooked buckwheat.  I’ve seen recipes for muffins with cooked quinoa, so I thought buckwheat couldn’t be far behind, right?  These muffins make a very respectable breakfast food–very little sugar and completely whole grain, with cooked buckwheat, buckwheat flour, and whole wheat pastry flour.  I thought chocolate would make a nice flavor pairing with the buckwheat, so I added some good quality cocoa powder in addition to some grain-sweetened chocolate chips.  They turned out yummy!

Ingredients

1 cup toasted buckwheat (aka “kasha”)

2 cups water

Pinch salt

1 cup almond milk (I used almond milk because I had it on hand, but any nut milk, dairy milk, rice milk, etc. will do)

2 tsp ground flax

1/4 cup safflower oil (or other neutral-tasting oil)

1/2 cup barley malt syrup (honey or brown rice syrup would also work)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt

1/2 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preparation

Bring the 2 cups of water and salt to a boil and add the buckwheat.  Turn down to medium low, and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the grain is tender.  Set aside.  (This step can be done ahead.  You will have extra buckwheat you won’t need for the muffins–I ate mine as a breakfast cereal with dried fruit, almond milk, walnuts, and brown sugar.)

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and place muffin papers in a 12-cup muffin pan.  Alternatively, grease the muffin pan if you don’t have papers.  Mix the almond milk with the flax and allow to sit for about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients in a medium or large bowl.  Then, mix the oil, barley malt, and vanilla with the almond milk/flax mixtures.  Mix the dry and wet mixtures together, adding the cooked buckwheat.  Once combined, fold in the chocolate chips and dried cranberries until evenly distributed through the batter.  The batter will be thick.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick or fork comes out clean when you test a muffin.

Almond Soba Noodles with Broccoli and Green Beans

I made this unique dish, inspired by Heidi Swanson’s Almond Soba Noodles, for a recent Asian-themed potluck with friends.  My version replaced the pea shoots of the original recipe with steamed broccoli and green beans and the basil with a combo of parsley and cilantro.

Ingredients

2 crowns broccoli, cut into small trees

1 big handful of green beans, stems snapped off and cut into halves or thirds

2 tsp red Thai curry paste

1/3 cup almond butter (not the sweetened kind)

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp sea salt

6-8 T hot water

1 package extra firm tofu

1/2 cup parsley, roughly chopped

1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted

Preparation

First, cook the broccoli and green beans, either by steaming them or boiling for about 5 minutes.  Salt the vegetables if steaming, and salt the cooking water if boiling.  You want the vegetables to still be crunchy.  When finished cooking, set aside.  I steamed them:

Boil some salted water to cook the soba noodles.  The noodles will take about 5 minutes to cook thoroughly. Drain and set aside.

Next, make the sauce.  Mash the curry paste and the almond butter together.

Add the lemon juice and salt, and mash to combine.  Next, add the hot water, a tablespoon at a time until you have a pourable sauce that looks about like this:

Lastly, chop up the tofu into cubes or matchsticks (I was going for the matchstick effect, but they ended up a bit big and of uneven size…oh well).  Dry off the tofu with a paper towel.  Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil or safflower oil in a skillet.  When the oil is hot, add the tofu (don’t crowd the pan, or the tofu won’t brown).  Flip when one side is brown, and continue until all your tofu is browned.  Add more oil to your pan with subsequent batches of tofu.  I find that I usually have to add oil to brown multiple batches.  Place the tofu on a plate lined with a paper towel to soak up any excess oil.  Finally, mix the veggies with the noodles, the sauce, and the tofu.  When mixed, add the herbs and the almonds.  I toasted my almonds in a skillet on medium low heat.

Mexican Cabbage Salad with Chipotle Vinaigrette

I wanted a fresh, crisp salad when I got back from my recent trip to Chiapas, Mexico, and this salad is what I came up with.  I knew I wanted a cabbage-based salad, and a dressing that would incorporate Mexican ingredients.  I was missing two things:  fresh cilantro (which I had anticipated using but forgot to buy during my grocery run), and avocado.  In any case, this salad turned out to be very tasty and a nice pairing for some leftover chili I pulled out the freezer upon my return.

Ingredients

Salad

1/4 of a large head of green cabbage, shredded in a food processor or chopped very finely (purple would work great too, and be very pretty!)

1/2 cucumber, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

3-4 scallions, chopped (including the greens)

2-3 carrots, shredded

1/2 zucchini, shredded or finely chopped

1/2 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

1/3-1/2 cup raisins

Dressing

1 tsp dried chipotle

2 T honey

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp. sea salt

Pepper to taste

3 T extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 2 limes

Preparation

Wash and prepare the vegetables as described above.  For the dressing, whisk all ingredients together, or combine in a blender.  Combine dressing and salad, tossing until the dressing evenly coats the vegetables.  Taste, and add additional honey, vinegar, salt, and/or pepper if you like.  If your salad turns out too tart, add honey to counterbalance the acidity.

Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk and Pears

I gave away this soup entirely (almost) with the title of this post.  It’s so simple, the other ingredients are water, onion, and pumpkin seeds.  Butternut squash truly makes one of the creamiest, silkiest pureed soups that one really doesn’t need much else to make it fabulous.  I added coconut milk to this soup because I love coconut milk, but you don’t really need to do that.  It’s wonderful, though, so I highly recommend it.

Ingredients

1 medium (about 2 lbs.) butternut squash

1 medium onion

2 large or 3 medium pears of your choice (I used bartlett pears)

2 T olive oil

1 cup coconut milk (About half of a can–save the rest for another use, freezing if necessary.  I like to use it in my coffee!)

4 cups of water

Salt to taste

Pepitas (green pumpkin seeds) for garnish (optional)

Preparation

Chop the squash in half, and then small pieces to make peeling easier.  Peel the cubes of squash with a knife suitable for peeling.  Peel the pears and chop the onion.

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onion once the oil is hot.  Stir to coat the onion with the oil, and allow to cook for about 5 minutes.  Add the chopped pears and squash, stirring together. Add the water, and turn on high to bring to a boil.  Once the mixture boils, turn down to medium low, cover, and cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until the squash is tender (about like a cooked potato).  Once the mixture is cooked, use a hand blender or a regular blender to puree the soup, working in batches.  Be careful not to overfill the blender so the hot liquid does not pop out and burn you.  Transfer each batch to a large bowl or other container.  Once it is completely pureed, return to the pot, and add the coconut milk with about 2 tsp of salt.  Stir, and taste.  Add more salt if needed.  Serve the soup topped with pepitas.