Potato Salad

This potato salad recipe is the foundation that Camille uses to start a potato salad. She then adds other ingredients based on what she has in the house. If you make it just as it’s written it is delicious just like that, and feel free to experiment and add more things in as feels good to you. They love it because it’s fast to make, delicious to eat, and can be mixed up to use up whatever you have on hand. You can also substitute some of the ingredients to match what you have available, for example if you don’t have the garlic aioli you can substitute mayo, or you can use other fresh herbs in lieu of dill.

Serves: 4 as a side

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1.5 lbs waxy potatoes

salt

2 small dill pickles, or 1 large dill pickle

3 tbsp vegan garlic aoili

1 tsp minced raw onion (optional)

2 tbsp fresh dill, minced

1 scallion, minced

1/4 jalapeno, minced (optional)


Wash and chop the potatoes into small bite sized pieces. Boil them in very salty water (like the ocean) until they are tender. Strain and rinse. Slice the pickles into bite sized pieces and chop up the rest of the ingredients. Combine and Enjoy!

Taste for salt on this first bite. If you salt the water a lot you may not have to add any salt to this dish once you combine it. If it’s not salty enough, add salt. If it’s too salty, make some more but under-salt the second batch of potatoes. Alternately you can add in other un-salted ingredients like boiled potatoes or freshly chopped veggies (eg. celery, carrots, or minced cabbage) which will dilute the salt. The more you practice with salting water when you boil potatoes the better you will get at salting perfectly to your liking.

Crispy Spring Onions

We like to fry spring onions (or scallions or green onions) in olive oil until they are crispy and use them as a garnish for many meals. When you do this, you will end up with olive oil left over. This olive oil will have a delicious onion flavor and is good in so many things! We recommend saving this and using it as a replacement for olive oil in a salad dressing, as oil for roasting veggies and potatoes, or dip bread in it for a snack.

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 bunch of spring onions (or scallions or green onions)

olive oil (varies based on pan size)

salt


Rinse and thinly slice lengthwise the green parts of your spring onion. If there are white bulbs you can save these for another meal.

For this recipe you will need to pour olive oil in a pan until you have a full 3/4 inch of oil in the pan. We recommend using a very small pan so that you don’t have to use as much olive oil. Put your pan at med-low heat and let the olive oil get hot before adding onions. Cook them until they start to brown, turning and stirring constantly to keep them from clumping up. Use a fork to remove them from the oil and cool them on a kitchen towel or paper towel and salt generously. Eat them as a snack, top a salad with them, or use as a garnish in many meals.

At this point you’ll want to keep your olive oil. If you aren’t going to use it immediately, once it cools it would be safer to store it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. Enjoy!

The Greatest Vegan Croissants

Anne has loved croissants since they were a small child. They have been working to perfect this recipe for a few years now, and have enjoyed each step of the process. This version makes about a dozen flaky and fluffy croissants completely free of dairy. Making these tasty croissants is quite expensive as it takes more than a block of Miyoko’s. For other recipes we usually suggest Miyoko’s with the option to replace it with another kind of vegan butter. In this recipe the Miyoko’s is essential as we have not had as good a result with any other butter alternative, flavor or texture. Like many pastry recipes, this one requires a lot of control over the temperature of the ingredients. Chilling the butter and dough at regular intervals is essential, as is having a kitchen that is not too warm. It would be difficult to make this recipe on a day that it was warmer than 70 degrees F unless you were working in effective air-conditioning.

Anne used these two (not vegan) recipes as a jumping off point for our recipe:

All Butter Croissants by Sorted Food

How To Make Proper Croissants Completely By Hand by Joshua Weissman

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Makes: 12 croissants

Time: At least 13 hours (1 hour active)

for the dough:

2 tsp active dried yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup coconut sugar

3/4 cup almond milk (room temperature)

2 tbsp melted Miyoko’s butter

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

for the beurrage:

1 cup cold Miyoko’s butter (this is one whole block)

for the wash:

3 tbsp full fat coconut milk (if you don’t want to open a can you can use powdered coconut milk and water for this)


Put the active dry yeast in a small bowl. Add the warm water (should be warm to the touch, but not hot) and a pinch of coconut sugar. Give it a quick stir just to combine. Let it sit on the counter about 5 minutes. It should get a small amount of foam that shows you the yeast is still alive/active. If the yeast doesn’t change at all, you will want to start over using new yeast. This is why water temperature is important, too hot can kill the yeast but too cold won’t activate the yeast. Water that is warm to the touch should be perfect.

Put the flour in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour, and add the yeast mixture. Add the remaining coconut sugar, the almond milk, the 2 tbsp. of melted Miyoko’s butter, and salt. Stir to combine until a sticky dough forms. Rest this dough in the fridge for about half an hour. Once it has rested, you will roll it out into an 8 inch square. To do this, start by sprinkling flour on the countertop. Next put the dough in a ball on this floured surface and sprinkle the ball with flour. Pat the ball into a square-ish shape. Now roll it out, using a rolling pin (or wine bottle), and in between each roll-out use your hands to push the dough back into a square-ish shape. In this manner, the ball turns into a cube and then slowly into a thinner square. Stop when you have approximately 8 inches on each side. At this point, you can wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and put back into the fridge while you make the beurrage.

To make the beurrage you will pound your butter into a 6-inch square. To do this, get a piece of parchment paper and, using a pencil and ruler, draw a 6-inch square on the paper. Then, put the paper, pencil side down, on the counter (this way the pencil marks won’t touch the butter but you can see them through the paper). Cut the block of butter in half to make two slabs. Place these slabs on the parchment paper inside of the 6-inch square that you drew. You may need to cut the slabs into more than two pieces to fit them into the square, this is totally fine. Now, fold the parchment paper at the pencil marks so the extra paper (that is not the 6-inch square) creates an envelope around the butter. You will use this to help guide you in beating the butter into a 6-inch square shape. Next, use the rolling pin (or wine bottle) to gently hit the butter until it fills up the empty space thus creating a 6-inch square. Once the butter has spread to the edges of the envelope (aka is at a 6-inch square shape, but probably bumpy) keep the parchment paper envelope and now gently roll the butter slab to even it out into a 6-inch square of consistent thickness. Refrigerate your beurrage aka slab of butter for about half an hour.

Next we will describe how to put the dough and butter together and roll it out. We found it helpful to watch How to Make Proper Croissants Completely by Hand. We will describe the process below as well, and give you time markers for applicable parts of the video. Starting at 5 minutes and 57 seconds and ending at 8 minutes and 57 seconds will walk you through the next two paragraphs. Note: in this video there is a lot of attention to detail on having the perfect square however the croissants don’t actually need perfection to be delicious and delightful.

Flour the counter. Take your dough out of the fridge, and place it on the counter like a diamond, with a corner toward you. Carefully roll the corners out to stretch them just a bit, and then roll gently to flatten the whole diamond. Unwrap your slab of butter and place it so that the corners of the butter are in the middle of each side of the dough. Fold the corners over the butter so that all four corners meet in an x-shape over the butter. Pinch to seal the edges. Now wait for about 2 minutes so that the butter softens enough that when you roll it out it won’t break apart.

Now you will roll and do your first turn. First, add a bit of flour to the dough and butter packet to keep the rolling pin from sticking to the dough. Next, gently tap and rock your rolling pin (or wine bottle) over the surface of the dough and butter slab packet, first in one direction and then in the other. Then, using long, single direction strokes, roll the dough and butter slab packet out until you have an 18-inch long rectangle. Fold the end closer to you up the rectangle about 3/4 of the way. Fold the end that is further from you to meet the first end. Then fold the nearer end to the further end. Gently tap the dough to bind the layers. Rest in the fridge for one hour. After an hour, remove the dough from fridge and repeat this entire process, but in the opposite direction. When you get to the part where you fold the dough, this time you will only fold the dough in thirds. Wrap the dough again, put it in the fridge, and refrigerate overnight.

Roll the dough into a rectangle 8-inches by 25-inches. Cut into triangles 8-inches in height and 4-inches along the shortest side. Roll the triangle not too tightly (because it needs room to rise). Optionally, you can at this point and curve them slightly into the traditional croissant shape. Place on a sheet pan lined with a Silpat. This section can be seen in the video starting at 10 minutes and 58 seconds. Note that he is making his croissants larger than ours, so use our measurements above but you can check the video for some technique tricks. This section of the video ends at 13 minutes and 11 seconds.

Let the croissants rise on the counter until they are slightly bigger, fluffier, and softer. They have a bit of a ‘jiggle’ to them at this point. If you don’t let them rise all the way some of the butter will melt out onto your baking sheet as they bake (the croissants will still be delicious). This process takes about an hour. Preheat the oven to 425 F about 40 minutes into the rise. If your kitchen is cold, allow longer for the rising and start the heating of the oven a bit later.

If you are using powdered coconut milk, mix about 1 tbsp of powder with 2 tbsp water. Once the croissants have risen very carefully brush their tops with coconut wash, being careful not to push any air out of the newly risen croissants in the process. Once the oven is fully heated, bake the croissants on the center rack for 15 minutes. Make sure to turn the cookie sheet halfway through the baking process. Be careful, it is easy to leave them in a few more minutes to brown and they can easily burn on the bottom. Let cool before enjoying!

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


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!

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!

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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.

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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


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

We first posted about Harissa tofu in our Harissa Tofu Harvest Plate. Since then, we realized it would be nice to have this as a stand alone recipe since we use it in a lot of different plates and bowls. Delicious on it’s own or serve as part of a meal this tofu makes us happy every time!

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Serves: 2

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

1 block tofu

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp harissa

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp agave (option to substitute coconut nectar, maple syrup, or other liquid sweeteners)

Pinch salt


Cut your block of tofu in half so that you have two, one inch thick rectangles. Press tofu between two kitchen towels, placing a cast iron pan, or something heavy on them to remove some of the liquid. This process can be done with a tofu press. Cut the tofu into sticks about 3 inches by one inch by one inch. Put the cornstarch and 1/2 tsp 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. Mix the harissa, agave, pinch of salt, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Once the tofu is crispy, add harissa sauce to the pan, stir to coat the tofu, and remove from heat. Enjoy!

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Roasted hazelnut cheesecake

While perfecting this recipe we came to the conclusion that neither of us has had cheesecake with dairy. We cannot attest to how similar this confection is to said food, but it is smooth, creamy, a tad sweet, and is reminiscent of chocolate hazelnut butter. Right now the crust is slightly sweet with a less sweet filling and is perfect for our tastes, but if you enjoy a sweeter experience, feel free to increase the maple syrup in the filling. Or, if you use store bought chocolate hazelnut butter this will likely have sugar and can be another way to increase sweetness in the filling.


Pans needed: 4” springform pan

Makes: One 4” cheesecake

Time: 30 minutes active time; 4 hrs total

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Ingredients

For the crust:

⅓ c pecans

⅓ c dates

½ tsp salt


For the filling:

1 c soaked cashews

½ c almond milk plus additional for blending

⅓ c roasted hazelnut butter (optionally substitute for chocolate hazelnut butter)

2 tbsp melted cacao butter

2 tbsp raw cacao powder

2 tbsp maple syrup

½ tsp vanilla powder or extract


For the toppings (optional):

cacao nibs

hazelnuts

chocolate chips


In a food processor, mix all the “for the crust” ingredients until they are sticky and able to form a crust. There will still be some small chunks, that is ideal. Be careful not to over-mix since if you mix too much you will end up with nut butter (which is delicious but will not form a crust). Press the crust mixture into the bottom of your springform pan and set in the refrigerator.

In a blender, blend all of the “for the filling” ingredients using the tamper as you blend. If needed, add additional almond milk one tablespoon at a time (we used 2 additional tablespoons) until the mixture is fully blended.  Blend until smooth and then pour onto the crust. Put this in the freezer for at least 3 hours.

Remove from freezer 1 hour before serving. If you plan to top with chocolate drizzles, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave or a double boiler. Optionally top with cacao nibs and chopped hazelnuts. Drizzle with melted chocolate chips and enjoy!

Note: When we are removing the cheesecake filling from the blender we inevitably cannot get everything out — there is always a thin film of chocolate hazelnut stuck to the sides and bottom. Before cleaning the blender, we like to blend these leftovers with almond milk for some chocolate milk for us to enjoy while we finish making the cake.

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Polenta Crusted Garlicky Rosemary Potatoes

Some of our favorite things: potatoes, crispy food, salt and oil. This checks off all those boxes so you guessed it — it’s one of our favorites!

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Time: 1 hr

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Olive Oil

Salt

2 lbs red potatoes (about 6 medium)

5 cloves garlic

2 sprigs rosemary

1/2 cup polenta (or cornmeal)


Pre-heat the oven to 400 F. Bring a large pot of very salty water to a rolling boil (the water should taste as salty as the sea). Rinse the potatoes and cut out any bad spots. If they are large, cut them in eights. If they are smaller then cut them in quarters. If they are very small you can just cut them in half. The goal is to end up with approximately 1 inch chunks. Add the potatoes to the boiling water and cook until almost soft or soft but make sure to stop before they are falling apart (about 5 minutes). Strain and rinse with cold water. Taste one of these potatoes to see how salty it is — this will inform how much or little salt you add in the next step.

While the potatoes are par-boiling, peel the garlic and chop off any bad spots. Strip the rosemary and mince. In a bowl, combine the potatoes, rosemary, garlic, and polenta. Add some salt — note if the potatoes are already quite salty you can either skip this or add just a bit of salt, if the potatoes weren’t yet fully salted this is where you can add more salt. Toss this mixture making sure all the potatoes get coated. Oil a cookie sheet. Spread the potato mixture out on the cookie sheet and then drizzle olive oil over top.

Bake for 40 minutes, flipping the potatoes after 20 minutes.

Popcorn Tofu

We love this fried chicken style of tofu! It tastes best fresh, so we recommend you only make as much as you plan to eat. Extra tofu can sit in the marinade for a day or so if you want to fry in two batches or feel free to halve the recipe if you don’t want to eat everything at once.

One delicious way to serve it is with cholula, roasted broccoli, and rice; it’s nice to pour the remaining marinade over the broccoli and rice. Another great way to serve it is with roasted broccoli and pea-tatoes. Most recently, we ate it with a simple salad and a lot of cholula and that was delicious too!

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Serves: 2

Time: 1 hr + marinating time

Ingredients

1 block of tofu

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 tbsp sweet paprika

generous sprinkle of salt

For the marinade:

1/3 cup of lime juice

1/3 cup tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)

1/4 cup water

generous 1 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp salt

Cholula (for dipping)


Cut your block of tofu in half so you have two, 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 alternatively be done with a tofu press. While in some of our recipes you can get away with not pressing the tofu, in this recipe we found pressing the tofu is essential for it to come out well.

After pressing the tofu, tear each rectangle in half along the width. This will now resemble a tofu cutlet. Next, tear each of these 4 pieces into 5 smaller pieces leaving you with a total of 20 bite sized pieces. We tear the tofu instead of cutting so that there are more edges to get floured and fried.

Mix all the ‘for the marinade’ ingredients in a shallow dish. Add the tofu to the marinade, making sure all the tofu gets submerged, for at least 30 minutes or overnight. Remove the tofu and pat dry (if the towel used to press the tofu is still handy you can use this to pat the tofu dry). Again, it is important to pat the tofu dry. If you skip this step it will probably come out weird.

Combine the cornstarch, salt, and paprika and stir. 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. If you are unable to get color on your tofu, turn up the heat a little at a time until it browns after a few minutes. Be careful not to crowd the tofu as that will make it all stick together. We use tongs to turn each piece separately. It can be a bit harder to tell when this tofu is done, since the paprika makes it look slightly golden brown. If you are unsure taste one and if the breading is crisp, they are ready. When the paprika burns it doesn’t taste great so do some tests to establish a baseline.

Serve with cholula and enjoy!

Frozen Foods

Our intention with this blog is to share the food that we eat regularly. Posting our recipes online serve as a recipe box where we can easily find things we want to make again and we can share our creative selves with our family, friends, and friends we have not met yet. While this post isn’t a recipe of food from scratch, we do want to share some of our favorite frozen foods. In doing so, we want to normalize eating frozen food as well as give recommendations for allergy friendly frozen foods.

One of the stories that we soaked in from society is that there is ‘good’ food and ‘junk’ food. The terms ‘plant based’, ‘fresh’, and ‘natural’ are often used to mean ‘good’. At the same time, anything that has been ‘processed’, has sugar in it, or has been demonized in the diet de-jour is called ‘junk’ food. There is also a strong connection between foods that are labeled ‘junk’ and foods that are readily available and more accessible. Knowing this, what does it mean when we conflate a person’s value with the foods they eat?

It has been incredibly healing for us to learn that food is actually morally neutral. Although we tried for many years, it turned out we were never able to eat our way into being ‘good’. Reducing food to its nutritional ‘value’ and demonizing food that doesn’t meet the diet-culture rules of the moment strips it of all of the other ways that food can nourish us.

One of our dear friends and amazing community organizer Dan Lynn (DoBetterConsulting) talks about paying attention to what your body is wanting in this very concrete way: What textures would bring you pleasure? Do you want cold foods or hot foods? Do you want something sweet, salty, sour, savory? Having access to different foods that bring us pleasure and keeping them on hand has been so useful to us in learning how to trust and befriend our bodies. Today we will talk about 3 frozen foods that Anne likes to keep in their freezer.

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First up are ‘potato puffs’ (a food definitely not commonly referred to as tater tots as this is a trademark of Ore-Ida). I especially enjoy Alexia brand potato products. These Alexia brand ‘Yukon Select Puffs’ contain “organic potatoes, organic vegetable oil (canola, sunflower, safflower), sea salt, organic cornflower, organic dehydrated potato, organic apple juice concentrate” (as of 10/2/2020). These are currently gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free, and vegan, however Alexia brand recommends checking the ingredients each time you purchase their product as the ingredient list indicates the current contents and they may change. Many brands make a ‘potato puff’ product similar to these, however if you think you will be serving these to folks with allergies we recommend checking the ingredients closely as many seasonings include wheat and dairy. Alexia brand’s particular preparation of potatoes reminds me of the frozen hash-browns my father would keep around when they were on sale. They were soft on the inside and crisp on the outside, and honestly, I love potatoes anyway they are prepared.

My recent favorite is tossing these ‘puffs’ in creole seasoning when they are fresh and hot out of the oven. Creole seasoning is available from many spice brands or there are a bunch of recipes to make it yourself on the internet. I like to make it myself because I can control the spice level and allergen exposure. I haven’t tried them tossed in our ranch powder yet, but I look forward to that adventure!

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The next frozen food I love is these frozen samosas. You might notice a potato trend here, but what can I say? Potatoes are amazing. Samosas are a food that I have tried to make from scratch but mine didn’t turn out well and I didn’t enjoy the experience of frying them. When it comes to foods that are traditionally deep fried, I often feel this way. These samosas have a crisp pastry outside and a generous filling of spiced potatoes and peas. The chutney that comes with them tastes bright and herbaceous. I am a big fan of eating at Indian restaurants, and, for me, this is the next best thing. This brand of frozen samosas has the following ingredients (as of 10/2/2020): Potatoes, Wheat Flour, Water, Sunflower Oil, Green Peas, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following: sesame oil, soya bean oil, palm oil), Spices, Salt, Green Chillies, Coriander Leaves CHUTNEY: Water, Mint Leaves, Sugar, Dates, Tamarind, Coriander Leaves, Green Chilies, Salt, Spices.

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Feel Good Foods makes several varieties of potstickers which are all gluten free! I love the vegetable ones which are also vegan, the ingredients as of 10/2/2020 are: cabbage, water, rice flour, onions, tapioca starch, carrots, vermicelli (potato starch, mung bean starch, and water), canola oil, corn starch, scallion, sesame oil, mushrooms, salt, cane sugar, konjac flour, xantham gum, ginger, yeast extract, black pepper. The dipping sauce contains: tamari soy sauce (water, soybeans, salt, sugar), sugar, distilled vinegar, garlic puree, ginger puree, citric acid, and spice. When I cook these, I mostly follow the instructions on the box however tweak them a little bit: I like to steam the dumplings for just 10 minutes and then take the lid off for the last 2 minutes so they start to get a crust on them instead of being soft all the way through.

I like these potstickers because they have a variety of flavors and textures going on. The filling is umami and the dipping sauce has a salty sweet flavor. The wrappers, where steamed, have a delightful chewiness to them and on the bottoms they are crispy and delicious.

We want to acknowledge that the branding on this box contains food moralizing that makes us uncomfortable. Food is not good or bad, and you cannot become a good or bad person by eating certain types of food. If this doesn’t make sense to you, we’d love you to sit with the question “who profits from you believing that you need to eat certain foods in order to be good”?

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GF Vegan Cheese Crackers

One thing that’s moving through us right now is the complexity of sweet memories of Thanksgiving (also known as ThanksTaking) paired with our more recent understanding of how this holiday is a day of mourning for many folks, particularly for those who are Native to this land. We want to acknowledge that ThanksTaking is a holiday where settler colonists celebrate the myth of our ‘good relationships’ with the people who they committed genocide against, tried to erase from existence, stole land from, and continue to occupy un-ceded territories of. At the same time, ThanksTaking has always been Camille’s second favorite holiday: a day where you cook food all day, play games with people you love, and rest.

This year, the COVID pandemic is reminding us how colonists intentionally spread smallpox to Native folks for the purpose of killing and stealing their lands. We are holding the fact that there are Native song holders and language holders who could be killed in this current pandemic which could end some languages and some songs. Despite that, many white settlers are planning to continue their holiday traditions as usual.

One thing we are loving is this podcast episode from All My Relations Podcast: ThanksTaking or ThanksGiving? However you are spending this Thursday, we hope you are taking sweet care of your animal bodies. We thought we would share these crackers today because they are delicious and they go perfectly with Camille’s sister’s favorite ThanksTaking appetizer or any creamy cheese dip.

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Makes: 2 non-commercial sheet pans of crackers

Time: 1 1/2 hrs (30 minutes active time)

Ingredients

1 cup fine almond flour

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup oats

6 tbsp cornmeal

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tsp mustard powder

1/8 tsp cayenne

1 1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp Miyoko’s Creamery butter, cold

1 cup water

8-10 ice cubes

1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

and salt for topping

extra gluten free flour for sprinkling on counter top (rice or all-purpose gluten-free baking flour)


Put 8-10 ice cubes in a bowl with a cup of water and 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar.

Put the oats and the cornmeal in a blender or food processor and blend until it becomes floury. Add all the dry ingredients including what you’ve just blended into a big bowl. Add the cold butter into the dry ingredients and cut the butter into the flour.

There are many ways to cut the butter into the flour. You can use knives, a pastry cutter, or your hand. We use our hands to quickly pinch the butter into the dry ingredients. You should have butter chunks about the size of a pea. Do not keep going until the butter feels sandy, this is too far. You need to do this step fairly quickly so that you don’t melt the butter with your hands.

Once you’ve cut the butter into the flour mixture, add the 6-8 tbsp of ice water 1 tbsp at a time tossing with a fork in between each tablespoon. Eventually this will start to come together. When more than half of your mixture has come together you can start to smoosh with your hands to try and make a ball. Continue to add one tablespoon of water at a time until all the dough sticks together in a nice ball. You do need this to stay cool, however because this is gluten-free you don’t need to worry about ‘overworking’ the dough. You will have a decent amount of ice water left over, and that is okay.

Once this comes together, put your dough on a plate in the fridge. Once it’s in the fridge, pre-heat the oven to 350 F. This means the dough will sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes or as long as it takes for your oven to pre-heat.

Once the oven is hot, cut the ball of dough in half. If you have 2 sheet pans and 2 silpats (or enough parchment paper) you can roll each half of the ball out and cook at the same time. Keep the half you aren’t rolling in the fridge while you roll the first half. If you only have 1 sheet pan/silpat you will have to cook in batches. It is also okay to leave the dough in the fridge covered overnight and cook the second batch the next day.

Sprinkle the silpat or parchment paper with rice or all-purpose gluten-free flour then place half the dough in the center of the floured silpat or parchment paper. Next sprinkle the dough and rolling pin with rice or all-purpose gluten-free flour and then roll out the dough onto the silpat. If you don’t have a rolling pin you can use a wine bottle. If it starts to stick to your rolling pin, you can add more flour to the dough or rolling pin. Rolling out crackers is a skill that takes practice, so be gentle with yourself. The goal is to roll out the dough evenly so that it cooks evenly. Aim for the thickness of a thin cracker like a cheez-it, about 1/8 inch thick. During this process the dough will naturally crack near the edges, push the cracked edges back in to seal the cracks. This makes a thick section in your dough, roll it out again. In this way you can control the shape and edges of the dough. If this is challenging, just know they taste great even if the shapes don’t come out in a ‘normative’ way.

Place the silpat or parchment paper with rolled out dough onto a baking sheet. Cut the dough by pressing down with a dull knife. Don’t pull the knife, rather press down multiple times to cut through the dough in a straight line. This is because you don’t want to cut the silpat and don’t want to pull the dough out of shape. Use a fork to puncture the dough. Sprinkle with salt. If you have a second silpat and sheet pan roll out the second batch of your crackers at this point. While you do this you will either want to be baking the first batch (be careful with timing as it can be tricky) or put the first batch in the fridge while you roll out the second and then bake both together.

Bake for 9 minutes and rotate the pan 180 degrees (and possibly switch shelves if your oven is hotter on top or bottom). Then cook 10 more minutes. They will be slightly darker in color but not significantly. If you give them a poke they will feel firm. Let them cool on the sheet pan for 15 minutes. They will get crispy as they cool down. Do not skip the cooling step this is part of the cooking process.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Twice baked potatoes are one of Camille’s family recipes. It’s something her mom would always make for dinner parties, holidays, and when she just wanted the family to feel special. Adding a bit of sweet potato to the regular potatoes makes these morsels just the right amount of salty, sweet, fatty goodness!

A note on potatoes. Any kind of white potatoes can be used for this recipe, but Russet (or Idaho) potatoes are the easiest because they have more durable skin. Camille also likes waxy potatoes because of the tenderness of the potato skins. When using waxy potatoes, cook for a shorter period of time (about 45 minutes) and be gentle when scooping out the insides. Leave some extra potato on the skin to create a more stable cup.

We like to pair these potatoes with Mushroom Gravy and/or Cranberry Sauce, especially for the fall! Mushroom gravy is a great pairing not only because of the flavor combination, but also because together these recipes use a whole head of roasted garlic. If you opt to just make the potatoes, roast the garlic in a small cast iron pan at 350 F for about 20 minutes or until soft, flipping the cloves 10 minutes in.

This recipe is great for holidays when oven space is sparse because they can be prepared in advance and warmed up the day of. We highly recommend turning leftovers into a gourmet brunch experience by serving a fried egg over the open face of a twice baked potato. Garnish with chives and voila: glamour brunch!

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Serves: 8 as a side

Time: 2 hours 15 minutes (active 30 minutes)

Ingredients:

3 lbs of russet potatoes (about 4)

1 orange sweet potato/yam

olive oil

4 garlic cloves, roasted and smashed (optional)

3/4 cup cashew cheese

2 T vegan butter (soy-free option, we like Miyokos)

salt

pepper

paprika (optional)


Pre-heat the oven 375 F. Stab the potatoes with a fork and bake in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes or until tender when poked with a fork. If you have time, baking the potatoes the night before makes this a quick side. You can roast the garlic at the same time. Once tender, remove from the oven and cool.

Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and spoon the innards out into a large bowl. Mash with the other ingredients (except paprika) until you have a nice mashed potato consistency (we like lumps, but if you like smooth, go for that)! Spoon this mixture back into the empty potato shells. Sprinkle with paprika (optional) and bake for another 15 minutes. The second bake serves the purpose of re-warming the potatoes and achieving some crispiness on top.

Roasted Brussels sprouts

It is starting to feel like autumn here in the Pacific Northwest and we are feeling called to delicious fall vegetables. This recipe made us into brussels sprouts lovers. It’s the perfect amount of crispy, cheesy, salty deliciousness that will keep you coming back for more! As a bonus, it only takes 15 minutes of active time and then you have time to do other things while these morsels roast.

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Serves: 4 (as a side dish)

Time: 1 hr (15 minutes active time)

Ingredients

1 lb brussels sprouts, quartered and rinsed

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp nutritional yeast


Preheat the oven to 375°F.  In a large bowl, drizzle the brussels sprouts with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, garlic powder, and nutritional yeast.  Stir to coat. Spread the brussels sprouts on a lined baking sheet (lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat). Bake for 45 minutes, flipping the sprouts every 15 minutes.  The larger, loose leaves should be brown and crispy, the insides of the sprouts should be soft and creamy.

Crispy Chickpeas

There are still protests happening all over the country and we are grateful for the years of Black leadership that have gone into the current set of uprisings. We are keenly aware that freedom will not be achieved until All Black Lives Matter and this will not happen because of White folks, but also not without White folks. One way to stand in solidarity and support Black Leadership is to donate to Holistic Resistance’s Grief to Action Camp Fundraiser. If you are confused by why people are protesting, we recommend watching The 13th. It is a great look at some of the underlying structures of racism that have led us to where we are today.

We love making these crispy chickpeas and keeping them on hand to snack on, take to protests, or to sprinkle on salads, or as a garnish on soup. This recipe calls for cooking the chickpeas from dried. It is best to start the chickpeas cooking in advance. You can even cook them the day before you bake them. If you don’t have access to dried beans or would prefer to have quicker crispy chickpeas canned chickpeas can be substituted. If you want a more flavorful experience when using canned beans, double the garlic powder.

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Makes: 2 cups

Time: 2.5 hrs with an Instant Pot, more if cooking on stove top half the time if using canned chickpeas

Ingredients

1 1/3 dried chickpeas* (option to replace with 2 cans of chickpeas)

3 T olive oil

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt


Step 1: Cook the chickpeas using an Instant Pot or on the stove. (If you are using canned chickpeas skip to step 2)

In the Instant Pot: Add 1 1/3 cup of dried chickpeas 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, 1 tbsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne. Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 35 minutes letting depressurize naturally.

On the stove: If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook chickpeas from scratch with a little planning. First you will need to soak the chickpeas 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 in the water. 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, 1 tbsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne to the chickpeas as they cook. Cook the chickpeas 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!

Step 2: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Drain and rinse the beans. Put the chickpeas on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle the chickpeas with garlic powder and salt and stir to coat evenly. Spread the chickpeas out into a single layer and roast 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes until they are golden brown and crispy.

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Basic Polenta Recipe

It is natural that when we experience uncertainty on the scale we are currently experiencing, we feel threatened and try to hold on tightly to what we have. That can come up as overbuying, hoarding behaviors, and distrusting others. We are trying to practice holding things more loosely and coming together (not literally) in supportive community. This in an opportunity for us to build empathy for those who have been experiencing scarcity and isolation for years and to learn from others instead of reaching for our coping mechanisms of hoarding and insulation.

We’ve been hearing about pasta shortages in grocery stores right now and instead of offering options of stores that might have pasta, we wanted to offer another grain option. Polenta is a great grain dish to serve with meals. It is wonderful with roasted veggies and beans for dinner or fried with an egg on top for breakfast.

This recipe calls for corn meal. There is specific corn meal that is ground quite coarsely for polenta, and purists would say that using finer grain corn meal makes something else, not polenta. We enjoy this dish made with whatever corn meal is available. Sometimes that means finer, sometimes coarser, but no matter where on the spectrum, we love the result.

While we like polenta best when it is made with vegetable stock, in a pinch it can be made with water and bouillon, or even just with water. We use unsalted stock, so if you opt for bouillon that is salted, keep that in mind while you cook the dish.

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serves: 4-6

time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal

4 cups water, bouillon, or vegetable stock

2 tsp salt (less if your bouillon is salted)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp minced rosemary


Bring 4 cups of liquid to a boil. Pour cornmeal into the boiling liquid slowly and whisk continuously until it comes back up to a boil. Add 2 tsp salt. Turn the heat down to a simmer and whisk every time it gets close to boiling to keep from sticking to bottom of pan. Cook 45 minutes. After 35 minutes add the rosemary. Once you remove it from the heat whisk in nutritional yeast and olive oil.

The polenta will seem quite liquid when it is hot, but will firm up as it chills. If you would like to fry it, we recommend refrigerating in a shallow pan for easy slicing.

This tastes delicious scooped into a bowl with veggies on top or refrigerate to use for frying.


Garlic Bread

This garlic bread is completely amazing. In fact, it we had to make this a dozen times to take a photo, because we kept eating it before we had time to photograph it!

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Serves: 4 as a side

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

3/4 head + 1 clove of garlic, divided

1 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp vegan butter (soy-free option) (we recommend Miyoko’s)

1/2 tsp salt

14 inches of baguette (gluten-free if needed), cut lengthwise like a hoagie


Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Roast 3/4 of a head of garlic with 1 tbsp of olive oil. You can do this a number of ways and our two favorite are to use a garlic roaster or a small cast iron pan. If you are using a garlic roaster you will chop the tops off the garlic, drizzle a bit of oil into the garlic cloves, put this into the garlic roaster and roast in oven for about 45 minutes. To use a small cast iron pan, peel the garlic and place cloves in the cast iron pan with a small amount of olive oil. Roast this in the oven for about 20 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Either way, the garlic should look golden brown and be very soft. With the cast iron method, it is easier to burn the garlic so make sure to check on it.

Carefully remove roasted garlic from skin (if you haven’t already done this). Mash with butter and salt. Mince the remaining clove of raw garlic and stir into roasted garlic and butter mixture. Spread on the cut sides of the baguette. Put the baguette back together and cook for about 20 min in 375 F oven on a sheet pan. The outside of the bread should get darker in color, but not blacken. Enjoy!

Shiitake Bacon

This sweet and crispy bacon is great on pasta, polenta, or baked potatoes.

Tamari, coconut aminos, and soy sauce are all very similar. Tamari is a gluten-free soy sauce. Coconut aminos is a soy-free sauce that is on the sweeter side. If you don’t happen to have both tamari and coconut aminos on hand, feel free to use what you have. For example, if you don’t have tamari, substitute soy sauce or coconut aminos. Keep in mind that coconut aminos are sweeter so if you use more, reduce the maple syrup. Tamari is saltier so if you omit it, add a pinch of salt.

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Serves: garnish for 2 portions

Time: 1hr (30 min active)

Ingredients

3/4 lb shiitake mushrooms, (4 cups with stems removed and thinly sliced)

1 tbsp tamari/gluten-free soy sauce (optional) (omit for soy-free option)

3 tbsp coconut aminos (if you don’t have this substitute tamari or soy sauce)

1/2 tsp maple syrup

3 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp balsalmic vinegar

Pinch cayenne


Whisk together all the ingredients except the mushrooms in a medium bowl. Slowly add the mushrooms, mixing with a folding motion to make sure all the mushrooms are coated. Allow to sit, mixing every 10 minutes, for at least a half hour.

Heat a large frying pan to medium low and use a fork or slotted spoon to transfer the mushrooms to the pan. Cook, stirring regularly, until the mushrooms are dark brown, the edges may start to blacken, and the liquid makes a sticky coating, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Any leftover marinade can be used in any number of other ways, like to season stir fry, coat carrots for roasting, or put in rice.