lentil sorrel soup

Soup! Great even when it's over 110 F outside (which it is). This simple recipe is a treat if sorrel is available. I picked every leaf off my sorrel plant that inchworms hadn't reached first! Sorrel is a wonderful, lemony herb. I used to get it from my farmshare, and I've been growing it this summer. 

This is another adaptation from Deborah Madison's The Savory Way. 

LENTIL SORREL SOUP

1/2 cup lentils 

1/2 cup small red onion, finely diced 

1 bay leaf 

salt 

1 1/2 quarts water

3 handfuls sorrel leaves, shredded 

1 to 2 tablespoons soy milk or soy creamer

1/4 cup lemon juice, or to taste 

freshly ground pepper

Rinse the lentils and combine them in a soup pot with the onions, bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and water. Bring to a boil; then simmer, partially covered, for 20-30 minutes or until the lentils are completely soft. Puree half the cooked lentils in a blender until smooth; then return them to the pot. Add the sorrel and cook for another 10 minutes; the sorrel will turn olive green. Stir in the soy milk/creamer, taste for salt and lemon juice, and serve with freshly ground pepper. 

green rice! rice cooked with an abundance of green things: spinach, parsley, chiles, leeks, and dill

This is another recipe I modified from one by Deborah Madison -- actually from two by Deborah Madison, both of which are called "green rice." One's in The Savory Way, the other from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen. And they're really, really different! And neither is vegan, and each is not vegan in different ways. So here's my version.

GREEN RICE 

Ingredients: 

2 or 3 handfuls of spinach leaves, finely chopped

1 bunch chopped parsley

3 poblano chiles

3 medium leeks, white parts plus paler greens, chopped

1 tbsp finely chopped dill, or a 1 tsp ground dill

1 tbsp olive oil

salt to taste

1 1/2 cups rice

3 cups water

2 tbsp lemon juice or to taste
2 or 3 scallions, sliced, for garnish (optional) 

black pepper to taste

Char the chiles over a flame, then drop them into a plastic bag to steam for 15 minutes. Pull out the seeds and chop into 1/2-inch pieces.

Wash and cut everything else as suggested. Heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan; add the spinach, parsley, chiles, leeks, and herbs, and salt to taste and cook over medium heat for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the rice and cook for several more minutes, until the grains of rice begin to turn clear and golden. Add the water, bring it to a boil, turn the heat to low, cover the pan, and cook until the water has been absorbed, about 20 minutes. Add the lemon juice if using and stir it into the rice with a fork. Add pepper to taste and scallions if using. 

zucchini skillet pie with pine nuts & capers, topped with cherry tomato salad

I invented a recipe! As much as anyone invents a recipe, I think (feel free to correct me on this). I was originally trying to follow a recipe and it didn't work out. In Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Suppers, there's this gorgeous photograph of these zucchini skillet cakes. It calls for 2 beaten eggs, but says, in the recipe itself in several places, that you can substitute pureed tofu. I was skeptical, but I tried it. I used silken tofu, so my mixture had a texture probably similar to using eggs. Maybe it was also that I used wheat germ instead of bread crumbs. I can see how the starchiness of the breadcrumbs could help. But I really love wheat germ. 

So, after a couple attempts to fry my mixture into crisp, golden cakes, I gave up, dumped my mixture in a cast iron skillet, and stuck it in the oven. Once baked and broiled, it got gorgeously golden and even stayed together (mostly) in neat little wedges on serving. 

There's no crust of course, but it's still a pie. It's round and full of wheat germ and baked in the oven. 

First, the cherry tomato salad. 

CHERRY TOMATO SALAD

Ingredients: 

about 2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced in half (I just used a whole package) 

2 tablespoons olive oil 

2 tablespoons vinegar (try not to drop the bottle on your computer) 

2 tsp dried basil 

2 tsp dried oregano 

pinch of salt and pepper

Mix everything together. Refrigerate at least 2 hours to marinate, but the longer the better. 

ZUCCHINI SKILLET PIE WITH PINE NUTS & CAPERS

Ingredients: 

about 2 pounds or 6 medium zucchini, grated 

sea salt and freshly ground pepper 

1 cup silken tofu 

1 tablespoon olive oil 

3 tablespoons snipped chives

2 garlic cloves, minced 

1/2 cup chopped parsley 

2 teaspoons dried marjoram 

grated zest of 1 lemon 

1 cup wheat germ (or bread crumbs) 

1/2 cup pine nuts 

1/4 cup capers, rinsed

Preheat the oven to 350F. 

Toss the grated zucchini with a teaspoon of salt and set it aside in a colander while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Then rinse the zucchini and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. 

Toss the zucchini with the tofu, olive oil, chives, garlic, parsley, marjoram, and lemon zest. Stir in the wheat germ along with the pine nuts, capers, and salt and pepper to taste. 

Press the mixture into a large cast-iron skillet. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes, until it's firmed up and the edges are beginning to turn golden. Then broil for about 3 minutes, or until the surface is a lovely gold color. 

vegan braided cardamom bread with slivered almonds

Another recipe modified from the Savory Way, in this case quite heavily, in order to make it vegan and adapt to my tastes and what I have on hand. I love having this bread on hand as a quick (once it's baked) snack or breakfast, loaded with earth balance or even a dab of honey. 

VEGAN BRAIDED CARDAMOM BREAD 

Ingredients: 

1 ½ cups soy milk

½ cup earth balance

1 ½ tsp ground cardamom

½ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

grated zest of 1 lemon, or a couple tablespoons of lemon juice

a ¼ oz package active dry yeast

6 tbsp cornstarch or ground flax seed mixed separately with 6 tbsp cold water for dough

6 cups or more all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cornstarch / flax seed mixed with 2 tbsp cold soy milk or water or melted earth balance for glaze

½ cup slivered almonds, approximately

sugar for topping

Heat the soy milk with the earth balance, cardamom, sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Stir occasionally until the earth balance is melted and the sugar is dissolved. When the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, gently stir in the yeast and let the mixture stand for 10 minutes or until the yeast is nice and foamy.

Add the first cornstarch/flax seed mixture to the milk and yeast mixture. Next begin adding the flour, whisking it in to make a smooth batter until it becomes too thick; then change to a wooden spoon and continue adding flour until it is again too thick, at which point you can turn the dough out onto a floured surface and begin kneading. Work in more flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Knead for at least 7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and shiny; then set it aside in a bowl that has been slightly filmed with earth balance or a flavorless oil. Rub a little of the earth balance or oil on the top; then cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. When the dough has risen, turn it out onto the counter.

Braid into one big loaf. Glaze with the second cornstarch or flax seed mixture, press in the pine nuts or almond slivers, and sprinkle the surface with the sugar. Loosely cover the bread and set aside again to rise until about doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

While the bread is rising, preheat the oven to 350F. Just before putting it in the oven, check to see if the dough has expanded so that some areas are now unglazed and unsugared. Brush more glaze on these areas and cover them with a sprinkling of sugar and more almonds / pine nuts. Bake the bread until is a deep golden brown on top, about 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool before eating. 


PS: this bread was also on the lovely baking is hot! 

mushrooms on toast, other snacks

Another favorite recipe from Deborah Madison's the Savory Way, mushrooms on toast provencale style. Pictured above and below with an herb salad, mug of chai, and crispy kale. I had a large, late pancake breakfast and needed something green and filling to keep me from making a meal of and entire pacakge of corn chips and an entire jar of salsa. There are probably as many ways of making crispy kale as there are kale-lovers; mine is only slightly different from the crispy sesame kale recipe in the vegan yumyum cookbook (not on vegan yumyum's site, but the veggie gal has posted the recipe). My herb salad was a mix of store-bought and garden greens: baby arugula, parsley, sorrel, baby spinach, chives, celery, sunflower seeds, and walnuts.

MUSHROOMS ON TOAST PROVENCALE STYLE

Ingredients: (makes 2 generous servings)

1/2 pound firm white mushrooms 

1/4 cup mixed light and virgin olive oils

salt 

coarsely ground or crushed peppercorns 

1 garlic clove, chopped 

lemon juice

2 or 3 slices of bread 

2 tablespoons chopped parsley 

2 teaspoons chopped marjoram and 1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme, or several pinches of herbes de Provence

Cut the mushrooms into quarters. Toss them with the olive oil, a light sprinkling of salt, the pepper, garlic, a squeeze of lemon, and the dried herbs, if using. Set aside to marinate for at least 15 minutes. Just before you're ready to eat, toast the bread. Heat a saute pan, add the mushrooms, and saute them briskly, until they've begun to color. Taste and season with more salt and lemon juice. Add the parsley and marjoram, toss, and serve the mushrooms over the toast. 

A similar salad, with chimichurri on toast. Chimichurri is really a sauce for grilled meat, but I love just spreading it on toast, or serving it as an appetizer with crackers. It's also great on seitan, and probably on fake meat. But on toast! Yum. 

pasta with handfuls of herbs

When I have access to lots of herbs, this dish is a standby of mine. It's based on a recipe in Deborah Madison's the Savory Way, though much of the fun of it is playing around. This is what Madison has to say about this recipe:

A pasta for summer, when herbs are most prolific. Handfuls of herbs, at least a couple from fairly small hands, are what it takes.... If you grow herbs, you can make this pasta easily and frequently, varying it each time according to fancy or what is coming into leaf or flower. If you don't, you can make a simpler version drawing on the herbs that supermarkets carry, basing the mixture perhaps on parsley and adding basil, marjoram, thyme, and a shallot or scallion. A few narrow slivers of lemon zest will provide the tang that the sorrel does. You'll need about a cup of chopped leaves in all.

PASTA WITH HANDFULS OF HERBS 

what I used:
12 regular or lemon thyme branches or a mixture
a couple dozen large parsley branches
4 sorrel leaves
6 basil leaves
celery greens from 1 bunch supermarket celery
1/2 of one onion and 1 clove garlic, finely diced
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil 
1 tablespoon more oil for sauteing 
2 to 3 tablespoons earch balance
1/2 cup wheat germ 
salt
pepper
dried marjoram
8 to 10 ounces pasta

note: Madison called for 6 fresh marjoram branches, 3 lovage leaves, bread crumbs instead of wheat germ, half as much parsley, 2 small shallots instead of my onion-garlic combo, and no basil or celery leaves. I used the celery leaves since I didn't have lovage. she didn't call for cooking the shallots, but I don't like the taste of raw onion so I cooked it a bit with the wheat germ. 

chop the herbs fairly fine, but leave some texture. put the herbs into a bowl with the 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and 2-3 tablespoons of earth balance and set aside.

bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta. while it's heating, heat the sauteing oil in a frying pan, add the onion, garlic, and wheat germ. cook until the wheat germ is warm and crispy, the onion is getting transparent, and the garlic is getting golden. mix into the herb mixture.

when the water boils, salt to taste and add the pasta. cook until al dente. drain or scoop it out of the pot and add it to the bowl with the herbs, oil, butter, and wheat germ. season generously with pepper and toss well.