CSA #2 (&3)

This week (and the previous week-not too much was different, and I forgot to take a photo), we got some romaine lettuce, broccoli, peas, kohlrabi, strawberries, green onions, kale and squash.

With the Kale, I made one of our favorite meals so far, kale and potato enchiladas.  

I made an attempt at some kohlrabi fries, but I wasn't huge on it.  The strawberries and snow peas were eaten raw, the squash got sautéed with some onions and tomatoes, the green onions were used in multiple random things, broccoli got roasted, and the romaine was used in our tofu lettuce wraps.  

Tofu Curry Lettuce Wraps

We haven't been huge on tofu.  We have made tofu "chicken" nuggets, and a chocolate pudding made from tofu, but neither of those things have really been off-the-wall awesome tasting.  We find that it has a strange texture.  I suppose it takes a level of getting used to that we haven't quite reached yet.  We had some romaine lettuce that we got in our CSA box last week, so I thought lettuce wraps would be a fun way to use it up.   

These lettuce wraps are pretty good though.  White beans, tofu chunks, green onions, corn and spices.  With all that mixed together, the tofu texture sort of gets lost in the mix. 

Tofu Curry Lettuce Wraps

4 oz extra firm tofu, chopped

1 can white beans

1 ear of corn, kernels cut off (or you can use canned corn)

1 tbsp olive oil

2 green onions, white and green parts, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

handful of spices (we used curry, ginger, cumin, salt and pepper)

Place the tofu in a bowl, and add all the spices you want, to taste.  Let it sit at least 30 mins, in the fridge.

In a large skillet, heat the oil.  Add in the garlic and green onions, and sauté until softened.  Add in the rest of the ingredients, and cook until all warmed and cooked through, about 5 mins.  

Let cool and scoop into large pieces of lettuce!

Kale and Potato Enchiladas

I'm 93% sure that this is my favorite vegan recipe that I've made so far.  These enchiladas are sooo good.  The name sounds a little strange.  Potatoes and kale wrapped up in an enchilada?  It works, I promise.  

Potatoes and kale cooked together with spices and garlic, wrapped in a tortilla, covered with enchilada sauce, (vegan) cheese, tomatoes, and green onions.

I took these leftovers to work the next day, and everyone who saw me eating said, "Oooh what is that, it looks delicious!" and then they were all surprised and intrigued when I said it was filled with potatoes and kale.  Do yourself, your family and your lunch over-seers a favor, and make these as soon as possible! : )

Potato & Kale Enchiladas

Adapted from Veganomicon

1 lb potatoes (I used yukon), peeled and diced

1/2 lb kale 

3 Tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 cup veggie broth (or water)

3 Tbsp lime juice

1 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

8 tortillas

cheese of your choice

1 cup diced tomatoes

1 can of enchilada sauce (I used green, cause it's what I had)

1-2 green onions, green and white parts, sliced

Boil potatoes until soft, about 20 minutes.  drain and set aside.  In a medium pot, sauté the garlic in the oil over med-lo heat, until lightly browned.  Add in the kale, sprinkle with a dash of salt, and raise heat to medium.  Stir constantly, covering the kale in oil and garlic.  Partially cover the pot, and steam the kale until it has wilted, about 5 mins.  Remove the lid, add the potatoes, veggie broth, lime juice, and salt to the kale sauté.  Use a large spoon to slightly mash the potatoes.  Continue cooking until the broth is absorbed.  Add more salt/cumin/lime juice to taste.

Set out tortillas and fill with potato/kale filling.  Roll up tortilla and place in a lightly greased baking dish, seam-side down.  After all tortillas are filled and placed in dish, pour the enchilada sauce over the top of the tortillas.  Tope with diced tomatoes, cheese and green onions.  Cover dish with aluminum foil, and bake at 375 for 25 mins.  Remove the foil and bake for another 10-15 mins, until edges of tortillas are crisp/lightly browned and cheese is melted.  

Falafel and Vegan Tzatziki sauce

Falafel.  Whenever I think of falafel, I can't help but think of Ross on Friends.   

It wasn't until not that long ago that I actually had falafel for the first time.  And that's sad, because falafel is so delicious.  I had it while shopping at Opry Mills and eating in the food court.  I was searching around for something vegan that I could eat that wasn't a simple salad.  I saw falafel at one of the greek vendors, and decided to try it.  It was awesome.  

This recipe is just as awesome.  It is based off of Alton Brown's falafel recipe, but I did make a few changes.  It took 2 times to perfect this recipe.  The original recipe called for dry chickpeas, not canned.  Since I only had canned chickpeas, I figured I could use those and it wouldn't make much of a difference since they were just getting ground up anyway.  Well that was a major fail.  The canned chickpeas held in too much moisture and disintegrated when I tried to fry them.  So don't use canned chickpeas.  You'll get very angry and just end up eating french fries for dinner.  Or maybe that's just me.

Falafel are naturally vegan.  Traditional tzatziki sauce is made with cucumber, spices and yogurt.  I just substituted the yogurt for vegan sour cream, and the result was delicious.  

So I did have really good photos of these after I first made them, but I somehow accidentally deleted those photos, so what we are left with here are the leftovers, shot in a hurry-and-take-a-picture-before-packing-my-lunch-cause-I'm-running-late-for-work sort of fashion.  They didn't turn out half bad, right?  

Falafel & Vegan Tzatziki Sauce

For the Falafel: (adapted from Alton Brown)

1 lb dried chickpeas

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

4 small scallions, finely chopped

3 tsp salt (or more to taste)

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 quarts peanut oil

Optional for serving:  Pita bread, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes

For the tzatziki Sauce:

12 oz tofutti sour cream

3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp white wine vinegar

1 Tbsp fresh dill

1/2 tsp salt

1 large seedless cucumber, roughly chopped

pepper, to taste

To make the falafel:  Put chickpeas in a large bowl and cover with 2 inches of water.  Let them soak overnight.  

Drain the chickpeas.  Combine the drained chickpeas, cumin, coriander, garlic, scallions, salt, pepper, baking powder, cayenne and parsley together in a large bowl.  Now it is time to grind this mixture all up.  We did it in our stand mixer meat grinder attachment, but it will also work in a food processor by pulsing in medium sized batches.

Scoop out golf-ball sized balls of the mixture, rolling and squeezing the mixture together between your hands, to make it cohesive.  Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet until ready to fry.  You can make these ahead of time, they can sit out at room temp for about 2 hours, or overnight in the fridge.

When you are ready to fry them, heat up the peanut oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan, until the oil is about 350 (that's where you want the oil temp to stay).  Place the falafel (about 3 or 4 at a time) into the hot oil, and fry until nicely browned, about 5 minutes.  Once the falafel are done frying, place them on a plate with paper towels, to drain. 

Serve with pita bread, lettuce, tomatoes and tzatziki sauce (or hummus would also be delicious...chickpea overload!)

To make the tzatziki sauce:  combine all ingredients into a food processor.  Blend until smooth.  Serve with falafel!  or veggies.  or anything, really.    

  

CSA #1

Romaine Lettuce

Green Onions

Bok Choy

Scapes

Carrots

Easter Egg Radishes

Strawberries

Unknown Type of Lettuce

With both types of lettuces, I made simple salads.  The strawberries were so delicious, we pretty much ate those the same day I brought them home.  I didn't get to use all of the green onions, so I froze some.   I attempted to make a pesto sauce using the garlic scopes, but they were rock hard and I could not puree them into a sauce.  Major fail.  

I chopped up some of the raw radishes and mixed them with quinoa, green onions, and some greens for a quick lunch.  I dressed it with a cumin-flavored vinaigrette made of cumin, lime juice, white wine vinegar and olive oil.  It was delicious.

I also made some radish chips, which turned out ok, but not great.  I wasn't a huge fan of the bitterness of radishes mixed with sweetness of honey and cinnamon.  Toss sliced radishes in a mixture of honey and cinnamon, and bake at 375 for about 15 mins, until they are baked up crisp.

The carrots were my favorite.  They were very earthy tasting, and really good.  I roasted them with olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary, ate them alongside a BBQ bean burger.  

For the bok choy, I braised it in beer with sliced zucchini for a quick dinner after work.  It was very easy and yum.

Can't wait for next week's box!!

Lentil Potstickers

Lentils have become a staple in our pantry now that we eat a vegan diet.  They are in the legume family and are packed with protein and other nutrients.  I saw a recipe on Heidi Swanson's website, 101 cookbooks while looking for vegan recipes, and immediately decided to make this one for dinner that night.  

Jeremy and I both love traditional steamed dumplings found in janky little chinese restaurants, but instead of the ground up mystery meat that is traditionally inside, these little guys were filled with lentils and spices.  

I also made my own potsticker dough wrappers (you could make it easier by using store bought ones).  They were very simple, but I did make them a little too thick which is evident from the pictures.  I believe that one of these rolling pins would help me with that issue.  Still delicious none the less!  we devoured these.

Lentil Potstickers
adapted from 101cookbooks and MyWokLife

for the wrappers: 
2 cups flour
2/3 cup water
pinch of salt


for the lentil filling:
1/2 cup sunflower oil
8 scallions, chopped
1 small serrano pepper
 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 tbsp sunflower oil
1/2 cup chopped shallots (about 4)
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups cooked lentils + whatever spices you'd like to add. (I added a little bit of ginger, garlic powder, turmeric, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes)


To make the wrappers:  Place flour into a large bowl.  Add the water and mix together with a fork, until the dough comes together.  It should be lumpy, but will hold together.  It may require a little more water, add tsp-fuls at a time until you have the right consistency.  Knead the dough until it is pliable and no longer sticky.  Tear off small pieces (golf-ball sized-ish) of dough and roll them out onto a floured surface.  Roll them as thin as possible, without rolling them so thin that they are transparent.  Also try to roll them out as round as possible.  Set aside until ready to fill.

To make scallion oil:  heat 1/2 cup oil in small skillet/saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add the scallions and cook for about a minute, until scallions have softened.  Remove from heat and set aside.

For the dipping sauce:  Chop up the serrano pepper.  sprinkle the pieces with sugar.  In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce and water.  Add in the sugary peppers.  set aside.

For the filling:  Mix together the lentils with the spices in a food processor.  Add spices to taste.  In a large skillet, heat up the oil over medium heat, and sauté the shallots until tender and golden brown.  Add the lentil mixture and stir until the oil is soaked up.  The filling should be fairly thick and pinch together between your fingers.  Add salt to taste.

To Assemble and cook:  place a dollop of filling into the center of each dough circle.  Dip your finger in water and run it across the edge of the circular dough.  Fold the dough up together, bringing all the edges to the middle, gently pressing together to stick.  With folded seams facing up, gently press the dumpling downward, creating a flat bottom for the dumpling.  Set onto a lightly floured surface until ready to cook.  Repeat until all filling/dough is used up.

In a large skillet, heat up a few tbsp of oil over medium-high heat.  Place the dumplings in the skillet, seam side up.  Cook the dumplings for a few minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned.  Measure out a 1/3 cup water and set it next to the skillet.  With a skillet lid in one hand, add in the water to the skillet.  Immediately cover and cook for a few minutes, until the water has almost all evaporated.  Uncover and continue cooking until the water is all gone, about another minute.  Drizzle with the scallion oil and serve with the dipping sauce.

Avocado Egg Rolls

Avocado egg rolls.  These little guys are so addicting.  I had a few extra avocados lying around that needed to be used up before they turned too ripe, so I researched some interesting avocado recipes and landed on egg rolls.  Most of the searches that I found were comparing recipes to that of the Cheesecake Factory's version.  Although I've never had theirs, I've heard they're pretty darn good.  Well, these are suppose to be a copycat recipe of those, so if you like the one from the CCF, you'll probably like these!

Sundried tomatoes mixed with creamy avocado, cilantro, and crunchy red onions all fried up in a crispy shell.  They're sooooo good.  I used a sweet-chili dipping sauce to go with them.  The first time I made these, I was at home alone, and I may have eaten the whole plate by myself and called it dinner.  maybe.

Avocado Egg Rolls

adapted from MsVegan

1 large avocado, peeled, pitted and diced

2 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1 Tbsp red onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1/4 tsp salt

6 (ish) egg roll wrappers

oil of choice for frying

Stir all the ingredients together and stir until combined.  Place a Tbsp or 2 of filling into the center of each wrapper.  Starting with a corner, fold up to cover about a 1/4 of the filling.  Brush the rest of the corners with a little water.  fold in the side corners, and then roll up the last.  Press gently to seal.  Repeat with the rest of the wrappers and filling.

heat oil in a deep pan over medium high heat.  When the oil is about 350-380 degrees, add the egg rolls and let them fry for 2-3 minutes each side.  Once browned, transfer them to a paper towel-lined plate to drain excess oil.  Slice diagonally in half and serve with dipping sauce of choice!