Vegan Coconut Custard Pie

Coconut custard pie is one of Camille’s absolute favorites. They love eating it in the morning with a cup of natural coffee or some (oat)milky black tea. This recipe is inspired by the Minimalist Baker (one of Camille’s favorite food blogs). If you want to make their version of the pie you can find it here: minimalist baker’s coconut cream pie.

Makes: 1 pie

Time: 30 minutes active time, 3 hours (or overnight) resting time

Ingredients

For the crust:

1 cup gluten-free rolled oats (optionally sub gluten-free oat flour)

1 cup almond flour

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp coconut sugar

5 tbsp vegan butter, soy-free option

For the filling:

6 tbsp cornstarch

1/3 cup coconut sugar

1 pinch sea salt

2 cans full fat coconut milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup shredded coconut, plus more for garnish

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Pre-heat oven to 350 F and grease a standard size pie dish. If you don’t own one of these, you can use any 8X8 pan, or if you use multiple smaller pans adjust cooking time for crust.

Pulse oats in a high speed blender or food processor until it is the texture of fine flour. If you are using oat flour, you can skip this step. Mix this oat flour with the almond flour, sea salt, and coconut sugar in a bowl. Cut the 5 tbsp of butter into the dry mixture until it the butter is pea sized and you have dough that holds up when you squeeze it between your fingers. The dough may look crumbly. If it crumbles apart completely when you squeeze it, you can work in a bit more butter. Using your hands, press this dough into the pre-greased pie dish until it is an even thickness on all sides. If you find it’s very thick or it seems like you have extra, you can pull this toward the top edge to create thicker edge around the rim. Bake the crust for 15-25 minutes until it is starting to brown and smells cooked. Note, sometimes the crust doesn’t look very much browner to me even when it is fully cooked. Remove and set aside to cool.

When the pie crust is done cooking, or is only 10 minutes away from being done, add the cornstarch, canned coconut milk, coconut sugar, and sea salt to a sauce pan and stir to as smooth a texture as possible (you may not be able to break up all the lumps before you heat it). Add this to medium heat and continue stirring focusing on removing all lumps. Once this starts to boil, cook for about 6 more minutes stirring constantly. The mixture should be bubbling and getting thicker. Use a rubber spatula to keep scraping the bottom and sides to keep the custard from burning. Once the mixture is thicker and looks jiggly, remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup of shredded coconut and the vanilla extract. Stir this, and then pour it into the pre-cooked pie crust. Garnish with coconut shreds.

Let the pie cool on the countertop until it is room temperature, and then place it in the fridge at least 2-3 hours, ideally overnight, to set up. Note: if you your pie dish is made of glass, be especially careful not to put it in the fridge while still hot. Hot ceramic or glass cookware will break if you move it from cold to hot or hot to cold too quickly. Slice and enjoy!

Spinach and Sausage Bowl

We’re happy to be celebrating a new year with a hearty bowl of greens and vegan sausage!

Serves: 4

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white rice

vegetable bouillon (optional, gluten-free option, soy-free option))

2 tbsp high heat oil (like avocado)

1 package Beyond Meat Italian Sausage

1 onion

1 bell pepper

1 handful shitake mushrooms

2 large handfuls of spinach

3 tbsp white wine or rice vinegar

Salt

Pepper

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Cook the rice according to package. We like to cook rice in vegetable stock or with vegetable bouillon and a pinch of salt for more flavor.

Slice the onion while heating a pan to medium high heat with the oil. Add the onion to the pan, stirring occasionally until softened. While the onions are cooking, slice the bell peppers and mushrooms and add them to the pan as well. Slice the sausages and add them to the pan as well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook on med-high heat until the veggies are fully cooked and the sausages are browned. As things start to stick, add the white wine or rice vinegar. When everything is fully cooked, add the spinach and stir. Allow to cook until the spinach is wilted and bright green.

Serve over rice and enjoy!

Veggie Bean 'N Noodle Soup

The rains are starting here in the Pacific Northwest and we are enjoying cozying up with this warm, quick, veggie soup.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp tomato paste

3 cups seasoned white beans* (2 cans)

1 medium onion

3 carrots

4 cloves garlic

1 medium zucchini

dried oregano

dried thyme

pinch hot pepper flakes

14.5 oz diced tomatoes

4 cups vegetable broth, gluten-free option and soy-free option

14.5 oz water

1/2 lb pasta shells, gluten free option

4 large broccoli leaves (replace with chard if broccoli leaves are unavailable)

1/2 cup bean water

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If you are cooking beans from dry, put them in Instant pot to cook (or cook these from scratch before you start your soup).

Heat a large pot of salty water (for cooking pasta). When this water comes to a boil, cook the pasta el dente (usually about 2 minutes less than the recommended cook time). Drain and rinse with cold water until fully cooled down to prevent clumping.

Heat oil in a large soup pot. Cut the onions and carrots and cook over medium high heat until onions are soft, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. While these are cooking, cut the garlic and zucchini. Add the garlic and zucchini to the pot and cook for an additional 4 minutes. Add the oregano, thyme, hot pepper flakes, and tomato paste. Stir to coat, cooking for about 1 minute. Add the diced tomatoes, vegetable broth and the water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.

Cut the greens into ribbons. Add the cooked pasta, beans, and greens to soup and simmer for a final 5 minutes. Add salt to taste. If you like, instead of using salt you can use bean water (if you cooked the beans from scratch) or vegetable bouillon paste. Serve and Enjoy!

*Cooking white beans from dry:

In the Instant Pot:

To cook the white beans in an Instant Pot, add 1 1/3 cups of dried white beans to the pot.  Cover the beans with water (in the small Instant Pot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp cumin, a sprig of rosemary, and 1/8 tsp cayenne.  Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 28 minutes letting depressurize naturally. Drain and rinse, reserving 1/2 cup of the liquid, before adding to the dish.

On the stove:

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook white beans from scratch with a little planning. First you will need to soak the beans which can be done one of two ways. 1. you can soak them overnight making sure they have enough water and space to double in size or 2. you can put them in a pot and bring to boil, then turn off the water and let soak for one hour. Again, make sure you have enough water and space that they can double in size.

Once you have soaked your beans, rinse them and then put in a pot with salty water. These will be cooking for about 2 hours so you don’t want as much salt as you would use for pasta, but you do want to add enough that you can taste the salt. The best way to get good at this is to practice. Each time you salt the water, taste it and when the beans are done taste them to see if they are well salted. A well salted bean should taste flavorful but not salty. If it tastes like you are eating salt, you added too much. If the bean lacks flavor then you didn’t have enough salt.

For this recipe, also add 1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp cumin, a sprig of rosemary, and 1/8 tsp cayenne to the white beans as they cook. Cook the beans until they are soft but not falling apart (this will take 1.5-2 hours).  We recommend checking the beans at about an hour and then every 20 minutes until they are soft but not disintegrating. Drain and rinse, reserving 1/2 cup of the liquid, before adding to the dish.

Make sure your pot has enough water as I have definitely cooked all the water off before and burnt the beans! This may seem like a lot of work, however once you get the hang of it the work is almost all passive and the reward is high: beans cooked from scratch taste much better and are much cheaper! 

Late Summer Polenta Harvest Bowl

We love to top polenta bowls with aged balsamic vinegar. If you can afford it, balsamic that has been aged has a much lower acidity than non-aged, and the result is a syrupy and sweeter vinegar. Sometimes we’ve lived in places that have specialty stores that focus on olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Having been exposed to multiple producers has given us a real appreciation for tasty balsamic. One of our absolute favorite balsamic vinegars is apple balsamic from Rockridge Orchards and Cidery which is unfortunately only available at their farm stand in Enumclaw, Washington or at some Seattle farmers markets. The reason we include vinegar in this dish is the acidity can lift other flavors. When we don’t have access to aged balsamic, we use lemon juice, and it is delicious as well. If you have extra funds and like vinegar, we encourage experimenting with the many different types of balsamic!

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1hr with Instant Pot (or pre-cooked beans)

Ingredients

1 serving polenta

aged balsamic vinegar

For the broccolini

1 bunch broccolini

salt

oil

For the butter beans (lima beans)

1 1/3 cups (or 1 can) cooked butter beans*

For the Peppers and Onions:

1 red onion, thinly sliced

2 bell peppers, cored and sliced,

salt

oil

For the Chard:

1/2 bunch chard

3 cloves garlic

salt

oil

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Make the polenta & cook the beans*.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Cut the ends of the broccolini. Slice the peppers and onions. Mince the garlic for the chard and de-stem the chard and cut into small ribbons.

Toss the broccolini in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and put in the oven. Flip the broccolini after 15 minutes and cook a total of around 25 minutes at which point the broccolini should be bright green but with parts of it golden brown and crisp.

Heat a pan with 2 tbsp of oil. Add the onions and salt them. Cook for about 10 minutes (stirring regularly) or until they are starting to soften and add the peppers. Cook for an additional 10 minutes and set aside in a bowl.

Add 2 tbsp of oil to the hot pan. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute since the pan is hot). Add the chard, toss with the garlic and sprinkle the whole thing with salt. Once the chard is wilted (about 2 minutes) you are ready to assemble the bowls.

To serve, layer polenta, brocolini, peppers & onions, and chard into a bowl. Drizzle the entire meal with some aged balsamic vinegar and enjoy!

*Cooking butter beans (lima beans) from dry:

In the Instant Pot:

To cook the butter beans in an Instant Pot, add 3/4 cup of dried butter beans to the pot.  Cover the beans with water (in the small Instant Pot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp cumin, 4 garlic cloves, and 1/8 tsp cayenne.  Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 15 minutes letting depressurize naturally.  Drain and rinse before adding to the dish.

On the stove:

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook butter beans from scratch with a little planning. First you will need to soak the beans which can be done one of two ways. 1. you can soak them overnight making sure they have enough water and space to double in size or 2. you can put them in a pot and bring to boil, then turn off the water and let soak for one hour. Again, make sure you have enough water and space that they can double in size.

Once you have soaked your beans, rinse them and then put in a pot with salty water. These will be cooking for about 2 hours so you don’t want as much salt as you would use for pasta, but you do want to add enough that you can taste the salt. The best way to get good at this is to practice. Each time you salt the water, taste it and when the beans are done taste them to see if they are well salted. A well salted bean should taste flavorful but not salty. If it tastes like you are eating salt, you added too much. If the bean lacks flavor then you didn’t have enough salt.

For this recipe, also add 1 tbsp cumin, 4 garlic cloves, and 1/8 tsp cayenne to the butter beans as they cook. Cook the beans until they are soft but not falling apart (this will take 1.5-2 hours).  We recommend checking the beans at about an hour and then every 20 minutes until they are soft but not disintegrating. Make sure your pot has enough water as I have definitely cooked all the water off before and burnt the beans! This may seem like a lot of work, however once you get the hang of it the work is almost all passive and the reward is high: butter beans cooked from scratch taste much better and are much cheaper!

Roasted Potatoes with Curried Mayonaise

Potatoes, have we mentioned how much we love them? We can’t get enough of this super simple yet delightfully delicious dish!

Serves: 2-4 as a side

Time: 1 hr 15 minutes (15 minutes active)

Ingredients

6 medium sized potatoes (we like the waxy kind for this)

2 tbsp olive oil

salt

For the mayonnaise:

1 small shallot

2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp kosher salt

2.5 tsp curry powder

1/3 cup of vegan mayonnaise, soy-free option

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Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Wash and cut the potatoes into 1-2 inch chunks (or in 8ths). Put on cookie sheet (optionally use a silpat or parchment paper). Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast for 45 minutes to one hour, stirring every 15 minutes, or until golden brown and slightly crispy.

While the potatoes are roasting, mince the shallot and heat up a pan to medium high heat with some olive oil. Add the onions and salt and cook, stirring constantly until caramelized. Add the curry powder and cook stirring for about 30 seconds until it is a fragrant paste. Combine all of these ingredients with the mayonaise in a small bowl, whisking to emulsify.

Dip the roasted potatoes in the curried mayonnaise and enjoy!

Spinach Waffles and Eggs

We love these waffles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Although the recipe is written for spinach, feel free to use kale, collards, chard, or beet greens and if you have less than the recipe calls for that’s fine — we love it with 2 cups and it’s equally delicious with 1 cup.

Serves: 4

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

1/2 lb cremini mushrooms

black pepper

olive oil

For the waffles:

1 cup all purpose flour (optional Gluten Free: We recommend Minimalist Baker’s Flour Mix with Xanthan Gum)

1/2 cup oats blended to a rough flour (gf option, option to use oat flour)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp coconut sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cup almond milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice)

2 cups chopped spinach

For the scrambled eggs (substitute tofu if you like):

4 large eggs

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Serve with:

Sriracha (optional)

Almond ricotta (We like Kite Hill)

Vegan butter (We like Miyoko’s) (optional)

Maple syrup (optional)

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Preheat waffle iron.

Mix the dry ingredients for the waffles in a large bowl. Mix the eggs, olive oil, and non-dairy milk in a smaller bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir to just combine. Add the spinach to the batter and fold in. Leave to rest while the waffle iron preheats. When it is hot start making waffles. Anne’s waffle maker makes two large waffles with four quarters with this amount of batter. Their waffle iron does not need be greased, but feel free to add oil if yours needs it. These waffles may take longer to cook than a standard waffle because the spinach releases a lot of liquid. We like to check on our waffles once the steam dissipates, but we often cook them longer because we like a crisp waffle.

While the waffles are cooking, cut the mushrooms into thin strips and sauté with some olive oil for about 15 minutes until soft and slightly browned. In the last five minutes of cooking, pepper the mushrooms generously.

Scramble as much egg as you need for the current meal, we like an egg per serving. Whisk all the “for the scrambled eggs” ingredients in a small bowl. Preheat a large frying pan with some olive oil to medium or medium high heat. Pour in the egg and scramble to your liking.

Anne and Camille assemble this in different ways. Feel free to try one of ours, or make your own!

Anne skips the butter and layers the waffles with first mushrooms, then the scrambled eggs, and then sprinkles the ricotta cheese and tops with hot sauce. This gives a spicy/creamy effect as the hot sauce and the cheese interact.

Camille butters the waffles, then spreads the ricotta cheese thickly on top of that and tops with mushrooms and eggs. She often skips the hot sauce and sometimes tops with maple syrup. This is a buttery, creamy, sweet, and savory experience.

We would love to hear some of your creations in the comments. Enjoy!

Backpacking Food

I (Camille) went on my first backpacking trip last week! It was amazing to spend four days by a lake, swimming, watching fish jump, and filtering my water from cold mountain streams. The best part of the trip: being full on delicious food the whole time! I’m going to list here some of my favorite (and least favorite) meals that I tried.

I also realized in the process that next time I fly on a plane or travel to a place that is less vegan/gf friendly I can bring this food with me and won’t have to worry about not having access to a kitchen or restaurant where I can eat. In airports or cities you can go to any coffee shop and get boiling water to re-hydrate these meals. Also, lots of these meals only need cold water so that’s even easier.

As I write this, I’m living through a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest and enjoying eating some of these backpack foods so that I don’t have to turn on the stove and add to the heat in the house.

For this post I’m going to focus on meal-like foods although I stocked up on granola bars and chips as well, however that will have to be another post!

Outdoor Herbivore: love this company! While I sometimes struggle to navigate their website, their food is both scrumptious and feels good inside my body. Lots of great veggie options that remind me of the food I eat at home and make me feel like I could spend weeks on the trail.

Favorites

Sunrise Tofu Scramble - salty deliciousness. Note: I love salt and this is the perfect amount for me - if you aren’t a salt lover this might be too salty for you.

Hop Pea Slop - I’m so in love with this creamy crunchy veggie salad - this is probably my favorite thing by Outdoor Herbivore.

Open Sky Yasai - such good veggie yumminess. Would go GREAT in Ramen.

Naked Freckle Burrito - so good, medium spicy (perfect for me) and very beany. Ate with corn chips and that was delightful!

Instant Hummus - medium spicy very flavorful hummus.

Did not Love

Lemongrass Thai Curry — If you love spice you will love this, however for me it was too spicy to even finish.

Maya Kamal Everyday Chana and Everyday Dal: Pre-made food that needs to be re-heated (when we ran out of cooking fuel I ate them cold and that was delicious as well!)

Right Rice: *This brand uses some pretty heavy food moralizing claiming that rice made from beans and vegetables is more ‘right’ than rice. The centering of thin white beauty standards and attempting to label rice (a staple product eaten all over the world, and integral to many food cultures) as ‘wrong’ is deeply disturbing. It is also about twice as expensive as pre-made rice. Labeling this more expensive product as the correct or superior option is another way that, as a society, we label people with less money as morally inferior.* I choose to eat their product because de-hydrated rice-substitute made of beans and veggies feels good in my body. I want to share this as an option for folks who are looking for different tasty food options and am mindful that this product has very harmful packaging and ethos.

Tasty Bites: We really enjoy their brown rice and have yet to try their other products.

Miracle Noodle Pad Thai: *The amount of food moralizing on this package stresses my body out, so adding a trigger warning for diet culture.* I did enjoy the flavor and texture of this pre-made ‘pad thai’ it was a low to medium spice level and good both cold and hot. I needed two packages for 1 serving.

Harvest Salad with Creamy Dressing

I’ve been making a version of this salad every week with my CSA. The first week we had radishes, but by the time I wrote up this post radishes were gone and cucumbers were here! I recommend making the salad with whatever veggies you have on hand. We used agave to balance the sweetness of the salad dressing because that’s what we had on hand, feel free to substitute other sweeteners like honey, sugar, or maple syrup.

Serves: 2-4

Time: 1 hr (15 minutes active time)

Ingredients

2 - 4 eggs (depending on how many you want to eat)

1/2 lb - 1lb salad greens

1 bunch radishes

1/2 cup sliced pecans (option to toast these)

5 small potatoes, we like carola’s or a waxy kind

1/2 tub Kite Hill ricotta (optional)

For the dressing:

1/3 cup mayonnaise, we like the vegan versions of this best

2 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp almond milk

2 tsp mustard

1 tsp agave (or substitute sugar)

salt + pepper to taste

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Note: you can always make the boiled eggs and roasted potatoes ahead of time and then the whole salad only takes about 15 minutes to assemble. Often I will make triple of the eggs and potatoes so that I can eat this for the next few days with little work or re-purpose these cooked ingredients into different meals.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Clean and thinly slice the potatoes (no need to peel them). Place on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake for about 1 hour or until golden brown flipping every 20 minutes.

Place the eggs in a lidded pot with cold water. (We tried it with salted and unsalted water and it made no difference in the texture or taste of the eggs.) Bring this water to a rolling boil and then turn off the heat and let rest for 10 minutes. Remove the eggs and cool them immediately by running them under cold water or putting in an ice bath.

Hot tip: if you aren’t sure if your eggs are still good (if you’ve had them a while) when you put them in the pot of water if they sink or are near the bottom they are good to eat, if they float to the top they are not good, do not eat them.

Create the salad dressing by whisking all the dressing ingredients together. Feel free to double or triple and use over multiple days and or for other meals.

Rinse and dry the lettuce. Break into bite sized chunks. Clean and slice the radishes. To assemble put greens, radish, sliced pecans, feta cheese, sliced boiled eggs, and roasted potatoes in a bowl and pour the dressing over. Enjoy!

Polenta veggie bowl

We are fully loving spring and asparagus season. We are sharing a spring veggie polenta recipe with you today. We used broccoli greens instead of swiss chard this time because we had a lot from our spring broccoli harvest.

Serves: 2-4

Time: 1 1/2hrs

Ingredients

1 batch basic polenta

1 batch of shittake bacon

olive oil

salt and pepper

1 bulb fennel

1 bunch asparagus

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 red onion

1 small head of broccoli

1 bunch of swiss chard (feel free to substitute other spring greens)

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp aged balsamic vinegar

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Preheat the oven to 375 F. Begin to make the basic polenta and shiitake bacon.

Cut the fennel into slices and the broccoli into florets. Toss them with olive oil and spread on a lined baking sheet. Salt. Roast in the oven about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Slice the onion and saute until caremilzed. Mince the garlic and cut the chard into thin strips. Fry the garlic until fragrant, no longer than 2 minutes, add the chard and salt to taste. Saute until wilted. If you have multiple frying pans these steps can be done simultaneously.

Set the oven to broil. Trim the ends off the asparagus and put on a baking sheet with olive oil and salt. Broil for 7 minutes, flip, and broil for another 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with lemon juice.

To assemble, place polenta in a bowl and then add a bit of each element. Finish with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and enjoy!

Granola Bars

These granola bars are chewy, slightly sweet, and texturally pleasing. Biting into a blend of nuts, fruit, and every now and again bonus chocolate chunks is such a joy! Feel free to adjust which dried fruit and nuts you use to maximize your pleasure.

Pans needed: Ideally a 13” x 9” brownie pan (so the sides are about 3 inches tall. You may also be able to do this in a pan with shorter sides however you would need to adjust the cook time.

Serves: 15-20 bars

Time: 1hr 40 minutes (30 minutes active)

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned oats, gluten free option

1/3 cup coconut sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder (like this one)

3 cups dried fruits and nuts: my favorite mix is almonds, pecans, dried cranberries sweetened with apple juice, raisins, sunflower seeds, and chocolate chips (I love Hu Gems).

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon water

3 tablespoons almond butter

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Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Put a piece of parchment paper in a 13" x 9" pan perpendicular to the pan so it hangs over the two long sides.  Grease this and the sides of the pan that remain uncovered with vegetable oil.  

Blend 1/3 cup of the oats in a food processor until it is a rough flour.  Stir together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  The blended oats will coat the fruits and keep them from sticking together in a lump.  Pour the oil and water over the mixture and toss gently.  Add the maple syrup and mix until the mixture is a consistent wetness. Warm the almond butter gently to make it easier to pour (this step is easiest done in a microwave and can be skipped if you don’t have one). Stir in the almond butter.  Turn the mixture into the oiled pan and press down to cover the whole bottom of the pan including the corners.  

Bake in the 350°F oven 40 minutes or until the edges are browned.  Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for five minutes. Carefully lift the parchment out of the pan and place it on back onto the cooling rack for at least 20 minutes more.  If the bars are cool enough you should be able to remove the parchment paper without the granola bending too much. Cut into bars. There will be crumbly parts and crumbs, but they are just as delicious as the bars. Enjoy!

Mustard Brussels Sprouts

We got this recipe from Anne’s sister Virginia who got it from her mother in-law. We’ve made some changes for how we like to eat it, and love that it reminds us of family. We find this recipe works best for smaller sized brussels sprouts.

Serves: 2-4 as a side

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

1 lb brussels sprouts

2 tbsp high heat oil, like avocado

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp mustard seed

2 tbsp mustard (gluten-free option, soy-free option)

1/2 tsp salt

pinch hot pepper flakes

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Cut a cross into the base or stem end of your brussels sprouts. Make sure not to cut these too deeply as you still want the stem to hold the sprouts together. The goal is to allow the stem to soften more in the cooking process without having it lose shape completely. Par boil them about 3 minutes in heavily salted water.

Next heat a pan to med-high with 2 tbsp high heat oil and fry the brussels sprouts until golden brown and slightly crispy. Take them out of the pan, put in a bowl and set aside.

In the same frying pan on medium heat, add 2 tbsp olive oil and the mustard seeds. Keep them moving. They will begin to make a popping noise and jump up on the pan. Add the mustard and stir to combine. Add the brussels sprouts and stir to coat. Add salt and hot pepper flakes. Saute until the sauce is thick, about 2 minutes.

Harissa Tofu with Polenta Crusted Potatoes and Fried Broccoli

This week we are combining two previous recipe to make a full plate meal. Enjoy this tofu and potatoes with broccoli on the side!

Serves: 2-4

Time: 1 1/2hrs

Ingredients

1 batch of polenta crusted potatoes

1 batch of harissa tofu

1 bunch of broccoli

olive oil

salt

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Cook the polenta crusted potatoes and harissa tofu. Cut the broccoli into florets and cut up the stem into small pieces, removing the first inch which is very fibrous. Heat up a frying pan with olive oil and stir fry broccoli until soft (about 5 minutes). Add salt to taste. To serve assemble potatoes, tofu, and broccoli on a plate and enjoy!

Sesame Tofu Noodle Bowl

This is a meal we often make when we aren’t sure what else to make because it is easy to keep the needed ingredients on hand. While the recipe calls for swiss chard, we often use whatever is in our fridge. For us this is often red cabbage (since it lasts a long time in the fridge). We also love this meal with broccolini.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hr 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 batch sesame tofu

1 lb pad thai rice noodles

1 bunch of swiss chard

4 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp tamari

1 tbsp sesame oil

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Prepare the sesame tofu.

While the tofu is cooking, boil the pad thai noodles according to instructions on the package. Important: when the rice noodles are cooked rinse them with cold water so they don’t continue to cook into a large blob of noodle. Stir the sesame oil and tamari into the cooked noodles.

Then, wash the swiss chard and strip the leaves from the stem. Cut the chard into ribbons. Mince the garlic. Heat a pan with some olive oil. Cook the garlic until fragrant, add chard. Sautee until wilted. Toss the noodles with the chard and tofu and eat. Enjoy!

Burritos with Taco Tofu Meat

We love having these burritos on our menu plan. We usually make extra beans and/or extra tofu and eat those with other meals throughout the week. We really love leftover refried beans with fried potatoes for breakfast. For the toppings section we listed a bunch of options — we often go with what we have in the house. Feel free to just pick one or a couple that sound good to top off these delicious wraps.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hr 30 minutes if using InstantPot

Ingredients

Tortillas (gluten-free option - we recommend the following three for gluten-free options that are burrito sized depending on what your store has: Siete Burrito, Raw Wraps, or Mission Gluten Free Wraps. Also our all-time favorite corn taco sized option if you want to eat this as tacos are Three Sisters Nixtamal)

For the beans:

3/4 cup dried pinto beans

salt

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 onion

4 garlic cloves

3 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp cayenne

For the tofu:

1 block of tofu

3 tbsp high heat oil (we like avocado)

3 tbsp corn starch

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/8 tsp cayenne

1 tsp bouillon (we like Rapunzel or Better than Bouillon)

1 tbsp mamma lil’s red pepper oil

1/4 cup boiling water

For the Fajitas Veggies:

high heat oil

1 big red onion

2 red bell peppers

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 lime

Toppings (we don’t use all of these, just whatever ones we have around or are calling to us, feel free to mix and match):

1 tomato

1 avocado

lettuce

shredded purple cabbage

green olives

hot sauce

mamma lil peppers

cilantro

vegan sour cream

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In the Instant Pot:

To cook the pinto beans in an Instant Pot, add 3/4 cup of dried pinto beans to the pot.  Cover the beans with water (in the small Instant pot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tsp chili powder, and 1 tsp cumin. Add half an onion and 4 cloves of garlic.  Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 18 minutes letting depressurize naturally. Drain and rinse.

On the stove:

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook pinto beans from scratch with a little planning. First you will need to soak the pinto beans which can be done one of two ways. 1. you can soak them overnight making sure they have enough water and space to double in size or 2. you can put them in a pot and bring to boil, then turn off the water and let soak for one hour. Again, make sure you have enough water and space that they can double in size.

Once you have soaked your beans, rinse them and then put in a pot with salty water. These will be cooking for about 2 hours so you don’t want as much salt as you would use for pasta, but you do want to add enough that you can taste the salt. The best way to get good at this is to practice. Each time you salt the water, taste it and when the beans are done taste them to see if they are well salted. A well salted bean should taste flavorful but not salty. If it tastes like you are eating salt, you added too much. If the bean lacks flavor then you didn’t have enough salt. For this recipe, also add half an onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp chili powder, and 1 tsp cumin to the pinto beans as they cook.

Cook the pinto beans until they are soft but not falling apart (this will take 1.5-2 hours).  We recommend checking the beans at about an hour and then every 20 minutes until they are soft but not disintegrating. Make sure your pot has enough water as I have definitely cooked all the water off before and burnt the beans! This may seem like a lot of work, however once you get the hang of it the work is almost all passive and the reward is high: pinto beans cooked from scratch taste much better and are much cheaper!

Press the tofu between two layers of kitchen towel with a weight (like a sheet pan with some cook books on top) for about 10 minutes.

While the beans are cooking and the tofu is pressing, slice the onions and peppers. Heat a frying pan with high heat oil such as avocado to medium high heat. Add the onions and salt. Cook for about 7 minutes stirring frequently. Once the onions are starting to get translucent, add the sliced peppers and cook until the peppers have some browning about 7 additional minutes. Once everything is cooked squeeze half a lime over the veggies and then remove them from the heat and set aside.

Add 3 tbsp of high heat oil to a pan over medium heat. Crumble the tofu into the hot pan and scramble about 10 minutes until it is starting to color. Add 3 tbsp cornstarch, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp chili powder, and 1/8 tsp cayenne to the tofu and turn the heat up slightly. Cook an additional 5 minutes until you get some crispy bits. Dissolve the bouillon and mamma lil oil in the hot water and add to the tofu. The water should boil immediately. Mix the tofu until the water has mostly boiled off, about 5 minutes.

Once the beans are cooked, put them in the food processor and add 3 tbsp of olive oil and 1/4 tsp cayenne and blend until smooth. Add salt to taste, and a squeeze of lime, and set aside.

Slice and dice any toppings you are using. We like to warm our tortillas before assembling. We do that by putting them over the burner on a gas stove, or toasting them lightly in the broiler or a toaster oven. Assemble and enjoy!

Wild Mushroom Artichoke Heart Pasta

This recipe was inspired from Purple Carrot. We love how easy it is to keep most of the ingredients in the house (canned artichokes shelf stable, pasta shelf stable). Then when we need something quick and easy we pick up some local mushrooms and voila, a fancy hassle free meal!

We often like to double this recipe so that we have leftovers in the fridge to snack on during the week. Because artichokes and mushrooms are expensive, this can be more of an upfront cost which is why we are sharing the smaller portion size. Just know if you love it, it is great doubled!

Camille is gluten free and likes to eat this with Banza chickpea pasta. This pasta, made from chickpea flour, has so much protein that they often will leave out the crispy chickpeas entirely. That means both one less step to this quick and easy meal!

Serves: 2-3

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the chickpeas:

3/4 cups cooked chickpeas (1/2 can) optional

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp

pinch of cayenne

1/2 lb pasta (gluten-free option)

olive oil

1 can artichoke hearts

1/3 lb local mushrooms (shittake, trumpet, chestnut, and oyster, all work really well)

freshly ground pepper

1 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 tbsp vegan butter (soy-free option, nut-free option)

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

pinch hot pepper flakes

salt to taste

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Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Toss the chickpeas with olive oil salt, garlic powder, and cayenne. Spread them out on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven, stirring every 15 minutes until the rest of the meal is done or they turn golden brown. If you are using a can of chickpeas feel free to use the entire can and then snack on the chickpea nuts you don’t add to the pasta!

Boil salty water (water should be as salty as the ocean) and cook the pasta according to instructions.

Slice the mushrooms. Cook them about 10 minutes on med-high heat with oil, stirring frequently until they brown and have an almost crispy texture. In last 2 minutes grind some fresh pepper over top of them. Remove from heat and set the mushrooms aside.

Drain and rinse artichoke hearts. Put olive oil in the pan and fry. Allow the artichoke hearts to sit on one side until brown and then flip on other side until they brown. They are fully cooked in the can, you are just browning them.

Mix the cooked pasta and butter until the butter melts. Add 3 tbsp of olive oil. Add all the other ingredients and stir to combine.

Enjoy!

Chickpea Crepe with Dill Aioli and cumin roasted carrots

Hi All! Today I (Camille) have a story that I want to share. About 9 years ago I was living with a homestay family in a small village near Matam in Northern Senegal. One day a very wealthy ‘uncle’ came to visit the village. We each took turns going to great him. When my turn came, he handed me a bunch of money (like if I were to hand someone $100) and said “for you to buy soda'“. I told him I didn’t need the money and he laughed and pushed it into my hands. I put this money away for a day when I would need it.

Later that night, my 3 year old homestay sister said “look look, Uncle gave me $5”. My homestay mom asked her what she wanted to do with the money and she said, “well I’m going to buy myself some new sandals, and then my brother some new sandals, and new sandals for my sister, and wait how much is left can I also buy new sandals for my mom too”. My mom smiled and told her she was so wonderful and yes there would be enough for all of those sandals and they could buy them next week at market.

This story came back to me as I was listening to Braiding Sweetgrass by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer. Dr. Kimmerer talks about the gift economy and how when you receive a gift you give back to both the giver and to others. In this way the value increases as it is shared.

All this is moving through me because this week I received my stimulus check. For some, this is needed to pay rent, however for me right now this is a bonus. Through COVID I have been lucky to have a job that gives me enough money to be comfortable and also allows me to work remotely. So, when I received this extra money I thought, what should I do with this gift?

I have some of my own answers to that question and for today, I just want to share the question with you all. For those of you who are comfortable and for whom the stimulus check is a gift, how will you choose to share?

Serves: 4
Time: 1 1/2 hours

Ingredients

For the Veggies:

1 bunch lacinato kale

1 tbsp coconut aminos

1 bunch of small carrots

1/2 tbsp of cumin seeds (or ground cumin)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

olive oil

For the Crepe:

1 1/2 cups chickpea flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 3/4 cups water

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

For the dill aioli:

1/2 cup vegan mayo (soy-free option)

1 1/2 tsps of lemon juice

1 tbsp dried dill

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Preheat the oven to 375 F. Mix the chickpea flour, salt, water, olive oil, and spices. Whisk until smooth and let sit for 30 minutes.

Strip the lacinato kale from the stem, and cut into thin ribbons. Cut the carrots into sticks. Toss the carrots with salt, cumin, pepper, and olive oil. Spread the carrots out on a baking sheet and put in the preheated oven. Cook the carrots until they are soft and slightly golden which takes about 40 minutes (stir every 20 minutes). While you are doing this, heat a pan with olive oil and stir fry the ribbons of lacinato kale for about 3 minutes or until the kale has softened and is a darker green color. Add some salt and the coconut aminos and stir for another 30 seconds. Remove the kale from the heat and set aside.

In a large frying pan, heat a small amount of oil. Once the oil is hot, add about 1/3 cup of chickpea batter to the hot pan. Tilt the pan to spread out the batter, and cook until golden brown and crispy on one side. Be patient, when the bottom is golden brown and crispy, the edges of the top will start to show color. Flip the crepe over and cook until speckled with golden brown on the second side. Cooking crepes to have a crisp but flexible texture takes some practice. Some tips are make sure your oil and pan are hot before you add the batter. Don’t add too much batter. Allow the first side to cook until an even color is achieved before flipping. Remember, the first pancake rule applies to crepes as well. Your first crepe might come out under cooked and crumbly. Don’t be discouraged, keep cooking, be patient, and future crepes will be better.

We often cook as many crepes as we want to eat when we first make this dish. We then refrigerate the batter and fry fresh crepes for leftovers. When cooking batter that has been refrigerated, make sure to stir thoroughly before frying and, if it is too thick, you can add a little water to thin it out.

To prepare the aioli, mix all the ingredients together in a mason jar or small bowl. To serve, top chickpea crepes with the aioli, kale, and roasted carrots. Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Tofu

This recipe is yet another adaptation on a strongly American-ized take on the sweet and sour flavor pairing found in some traditional Chinese cooking. We love the complementary nature of the sour and sweet pineapple and the umami and saltiness of the tamari. We like it as written, but for a saucier experience double the sauce.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 1/2 hrs

Ingredients

oil

medium onion

2 bell peppers

1 cup rice

water

For the tofu:

2 blocks tofu

cornstarch

salt

For the sauce (if you prefer your food to be very saucy consider doubling this section):

1 cup pineapple juice

3/4 cup water

3 tbsp tamari

1 1/2 tbsp agave

1 tbsp cornstarch

salt

Red pepper flakes

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If you are cooking brown rice, you want to start your rice first. If you are cooking white rice we would put this on to cook after frying the veggies but before frying the tofu. Cook rice according to instructions on the package.

Cut your blocks of tofu in half so that you have four, one inch thick rectangles. Press the tofu between two kitchen towels, placing a cast iron pan, or something heavy on them to remove some of the liquid. This process can alternatly be done with a tofu press.

While the tofu is being pressed, slice the peppers and onions and heat a pan to medium high heat with some high heat oil. Add the onions and about 1/2 tsp of salt and cook until they start to soften about 7 minutes. Add the peppers and cook for another 7-10 minutes until the peppers are starting to brown. Then remove from heat and set aside.

Next slice the tofu into cubes or thick sticks. Combine the cornstarch and a generous pinch of salt in a shallow bowl. Toss the tofu, a couple of pieces at a time in the cornstarch mixture until coated on all sides. Heat 2 tbsp of neutral oil in a frying pan. Once hot, fry the tofu in batches on med-high making sure it gets golden brown on all sides. Feel free to add more oil if your pan gets dry. Be careful not to crowd the tofu as that will make it all stick together. We use tongs to turn each piece separately.

In a small saucepan combine all of the sauce ingredients except the cornstarch and bring to a low boil. Turn down to a simmer, add the cornstarch stirring consistently until it thickens and gets sticky. Taste and add salt as needed.

Once the tofu is finished cooking, add all tofu and the fried peppers and onions into the pan and cover with sauce. Toss until the tofu is completely coated, but not too long or the sauce will burn (about 1 minute).

Serve over rice and enjoy!

Potatoes Au Gratin

We love potatoes. We love to eat them every way possible and we love this recipe which makes a whole casserole full of delicious creamy potatoes. We tried cooking these with the peel on and it works but texturally we enjoy it more without the skins. We think these go great with lemon butter broiled asparagus and black bean burgers.

Serves: 6-8

Time: 2 hours (1 hour active)

Ingredients

8 waxy potatoes (2 lbs 10 oz)

1 cup cashews

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil

1-2 tsp minced rosemary

1 tsp mustard

1/2 tsp garlic powder

pinch cayenne

2.5 tsp salt

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Soak cashews in enough water to cover them for 30 minutes or more. While the cashews are soaking, peel and cut the potatoes into thin slices. This is best done with a mandolin (1/8 in thick) but can be done with a knife.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Strain the cashews and put them in a blender pitcher. Cover with water and blend until smooth. This is best done with a Vitamix as less high powered blenders will make grainy cashew cream. Transfer the cream to a liquid measuring cup and add rosemary, mustard, garlic powder, salt, and cayenne.

In a baking dish or casserole, layer potatoes and alternate drizzling olive oil and cream mixture. The final layer of potatoes should have both cream and oil.

Bake in the preheated oven one hour and broil for 5 additional minutes to make the top crispier. Enjoy!

The Best Vegan Burger

Black Seeded Cult Burger is one of Camille’s favorite restaurants and this burger is an homage to what they do so beautifully!

Serves: 2

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 hamburger buns (gluten-free option, vegan option)

2 Beyond Burger or Lightlife Burger patties

8 bread and butter pickles

4 pieces romaine lettuce

1 very small onion or 1/2 of a medium onion

olive oil

2 tbsp white wine (optional)

ketchup

For the dill aioli:

1/2 cup vegan mayo (soy-free option)

1 1/2 tsps of lemon juice

1 tbsp dried dill

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Slice the onions and heat a frying pan to medium high with olive oil. Add the onions and cook stirring consistently for about 15 minutes. When the onions are fairly caramelized, if you are using wine, add the white wine and continue to stir until the wine disappears (about 2 minutes).

Remove the onions, scrape the pan clean and leave the heat on. You do not need to add extra oil as the burger patties have oil in them. Add the burger patties to the pan and cook according to package instructions. Meanwhile, toast the burger buns. While this is happening, mix the aioli ingredients together and set aside.

To assemble, spread aioli on both pieces of the hamburger bun. Next add the burger patty, some caramelized onions, pickles, some extra aioli, ketchup, and romaine lettuce. Close up your burger sandwich and enjoy!

Vegetable Stock

Anne loves to have blocks of frozen vegetable stock in the freezer to use whenever a recipe calls for some. The way they accomplish this is to keep a silicone bag in the freezer and as they cook they put all the scraps of veggies that would be tasty in stock in this bag. Once every couple of weeks they dump the bag of collected scraps into a large stockpot and create the stock and then freeze it. Cooking stock in this way is really nice because it uses up most of the bits that are leftover after cooking other meals.

Here are some kitchen scraps that make really nice vegetable stock:

mushroom stems

onion ends and skins

garlic ends and skins

chard and kale stems

carrot ends and tops

squash ends

broccoli stems

ginger peels

cauliflower stems

Here are some items we don’t recommend for stock (although feel free to experiment and find what works for you):

bell peppers

any moldy bits of vegetables that you cut away

fruit

green bean ends

pea pods

Once you have a filled bag of vegetable trimmings, put them in a large stock pot and cover with hot water. Bring it up to a boil. Add 4 to 6 peppercorns, a generous pinch of salt, a bay leaf, and any fresh or dried herbs you have around (it’s ok to omit these if you don’t have any, but we really like rosemary, thyme, sage, and parsley for this purpose). Turn the pot down to a simmer and allow to simmer 20 minutes. Strain the liquid. Use hot, or allow to cool before freezing into small or large cubes.