Pierogies

This recipe makes a whole mess of pierogis.  After boiling them, if you want to freeze them, you can do this on a greased cookie sheet or a piece of parchment paper. Then once frozen, transfer to a plastic freezer bag. Do not freeze them all together in one bag without first freezing on a cookie sheet or they will clump together and be impossible to separate.

Our favorite way to cook them from frozen is to fry in a pan on medium heat and they get a bit crispy on each side.

In these photos, we served the pierogis with roasted broccoli, caramelized onions, and some vegan butter. That’s not included in this base pierogi recipe, but it is delicious! Would love to hear what you serve these with in the comments.

Serves: about 10

Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

For the Pasta Dough:

3 cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting

1 cup water

1 egg

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

For the Potato Filling:

1 3/4 lb Idaho potatoes

1 head of roasted garlic

salt

---

If you haven’t roasted the head of garlic, do so now. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. There are many ways to roast garlic. Anne cuts the top of the head and pours some olive oil over the garlic and then puts this in a garlic roaster in the oven (if you don’t have a garlic roaster you wrap the head in tin foil). Camille peels the garlic cloves and puts them in a cast iron pan with olive oil and puts the pan in the oven to roast. Roast the garlic until golden brown (about 20 minutes if the garlic is bare in a cast iron pan and about 40 minutes in a garlic roaster).

Peel the potatoes (we don’t often peel potatoes, but for this recipe it makes the texture more delightful for us) and cut into large chunks. Boil the potatoes in a pot of very salty water until tender. Once tender, strain and mash in a bowl with the roasted garlic and season with salt.

While the potatoes are boiling, put the flour and salt from the dough ingredients in a large shallow bowl.  Make a well in the center and put water, egg, and oil in well.  Mix the liquid into the flour slowly until a ragged ball forms.  Knead the dough on a flour dusted surface for about 8 minutes, until smooth, elastic, and supple, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking.  Overturn a bowl on the dough and let sit for 20 minutes.

To shape the Pierogis:

Fill a large pot with water and put it on the stove on high to boil.

Roll out the dough until thin on a cutting board dusted with flour (if you are lucky enough to own a pasta roller this is when to use it). Cut rounds about 3" in diameter (I use a cookie cutter, but a wine glass would work as well).  Put between one half and one tsp of potato filling in the center of each round. Wet the edge of the dough with a wet finger. Fold the dough over the potato, forming a pocket and tuck the corners in. Seal closed with your fingers and then crimp the edges with a fork. Once all the pierogis are shaped, drop them one at a time into the boiling water, about ten pierogis can cook at once.  Stir the pot with a slotted spoon once at the beginning of cooking to prevent sticking, and allow to cook about 3 minutes.  The pierogis should be floating when you remove them from the water.  Drain them.

Note: if it feels good to you, you can also start cooking some of the pierogis before you’ve finished shaping so that you are shaping and cooking pierogis at the same time. If this feels hard, feel free to ignore.

Now you can freeze these for later, or cook up whatever you want to serve with them and enjoy!

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!

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.

Last Chance Veggie Skillet

This last chance skillet is a great way to use up leftovers in your fridge in a delicious way that will leave you begging for more. The recipe is based on the leftovers we had in our fridge, so please use it as a template but add your own leftovers! The template is crumbly protein on the bottom (eg. beans, Beyond Beef crumbles, soybeans, crumbled tofu, etc.) followed by layered vegetables and then mashed potatoes on top. Below, we’ve listed exactly what we used, but feel free to swap out what you have on hand when you create this dish.

Serves: 10

Time: 1.5 hr (45 min active)

Ingredients

3 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 head garlic, roasted

6 potatoes, peeled and cubed

3/4 cup cashew cheese

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

4 medium carrots, diced

1/4 of a red cabbage, sliced

1/2 large onion, diced

1/4 poblano pepper, minced

2 cups of cilantro-tomato black eyed peas (can sub Beyond Beef crumbles)

3/4 bag of frozen peas

1/2 bunch of mustard greens, stemmed and thinly sliced

1/2 bunch green onions, thinly sliced

8 tbsp olive oil, divided

salt

pepper

---

Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Heat water up to a boil adding salt until the water is as salty as sea water. Add potatoes and boil until tender. Roast garlic and then mash into a paste. Caramelize the onions in one pan while frying the mushrooms in a second pan. Add salt to the onions and pepper to the mushrooms. Once the onions are almost done, add minced poblano. Next, cook the carrots and cabbage until tender. Salt and pepper these to taste.

Mash the potatoes with the roasted garlic garlic, 3 tbsp olive oil, cashew cheese, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper to taste.

The cilantro-tomato black eye pea recipe comes from Vegetarian India. You can use any leftover beans or Beyond meat burgers broken into crumbles for this step. Heat up cilantro-tomato black eyed peas, or whatever protein you are using and flavor to taste. Next, fold in cooked mushrooms into the protein mixture.

Layer a large cast iron skillet with black eyed pea/mushroom mix, onions, then frozen peas, mustard greens, followed by carrots and cabbage. Finally top with mashed potatoes. Before putting this in the oven crosshatch the potatoes and then drizzle them with 1 tbsp olive oil and salt. This will allow the mashed potatoes to crisp as they cook.

Cook for 45 minutes or until the top of the potato is crispy. Serve with green onion garnish.

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!

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.

Garlicky mashed pea-tatoes

Sometimes we feel all the things. Joy and grief can co-exist. We want to start with the joy we feel that the global uprisings in response to the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others are creating change! For those of you on the front lines protesting, for those of you sending money to support the uprisings, to the countless hours of un-paid Black labor that went into organizing this moment, and for all the labor that continues we thank you. Thank you for standing up to systemic racism and oppression, thank you for your work. Let’s celebrate together that the Minneapolis City Council is supporting de-funding police! Our voices can be heard. There is a long way to go and we need all of us in this work.

We also hold the grief of the immense amount of Black death and suffering that has, is, and will continue to happen until we can take down systemic racism. This is a lot to hold for us. If you are new to this work, and you are just seeing the injustice and inequity remember to be soft with yourself. We need you here today, tomorrow, and in 50 years. This moment didn’t come from nowhere, and the fight will continue. We trust that you are and will keep doing your part.

One thing we do to care for ourselves is eat lots of comforting foods. Comfort food looks different for everyone. For me, comfort food is usually something with a good amount of fat and salt preferably potato based. Also, any food that brings me back to sweet memories from my past is so comforting. It’s also a good reminder that food is never just one thing. White supremacy and diet culture often reduces food to it’s nutritional value. Food is so much more than nutritional value and it’s time that we re-contextualized the way that we think about it. Today, for me, that means remembering that comfort food can be relational. This recipe isn’t just about getting calories into my body (which is important and I’m thankful to be able to do). It’s also about remembering a deep friendship 30 years in the making and continuing.

This recipe is something Anne started making before she turned 10. At an early age we were already experimenting with different food combinations and enjoying inventing in the kitchen. We used to make ‘soup’ by throwing lots of random ingredients (whatever we could reach) into a pot of water and then telling our parents we had cooked for them. They were good sports, always saying how much they loved the food we made (even though we’re pretty sure they were only pretending to eat it). At one point, Anne started mixing peas into their potatoes and dubbed them pea-tatoes. For years, neither of us would eat mashed potatoes without peas (I’m sure our parents loved this new rule).

I’m making this for dinner tonight and I’m remembering how lucky I am to have such a deep friendship with this beautiful human who creates amazing food. I’ll be connecting to how the calories fuel my physical body and how the memories connect me to sweetness. This will be part of my survival kit. #covidcooking.

Pictured above: Anne + Camille cooking together at a young age.

Serves: 6 as a side

Time: 45 minutes (20 minutes active)

Ingredients

6 medium potatoes (I like the red ones)

1 head garlic 

A drizzle of olive oil

2 tbsp salt

3/4 cup cashews + water to soak them in

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup frozen peas

---

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Cover the cashews with water and put them in the fridge until you make the mashed potatoes. Roast the garlic. 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 chop the tops off the garlic, drizzle a bit of oil into the garlic cloves, put this into the garlic roaster and roast in the 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.

Quarter and boil the potatoes in very salty water until tender. The water should taste about as salty as sea water so that the potatoes soak in the water and are perfectly salted when done. Don’t worry if these feels like a lot of salt; you will be draining the water. Cook potatoes until almost tender, about 6 minutes, then add the peas to the boiling water, cook for another 4 minutes. Drain the peas and potatoes when the potatoes are fork tender.

Drain the soaked cashews and add them to a blender (we like the Vitamix) with 1/2 cup water until smooth. You can test for smoothness by rubbing some between two fingers. If it feels at all gritty, keep blending. Mash the cooked peas and potatoes with the roasted garlic, cashew cream, 1/4 cup olive oil, and nutritional yeast. We do not recommend mashing with a hand mixer as this can make your potatoes gluey.

Sheep Lover's Pie

This sheep lover’s pie is our take on a more traditional ‘shepherd’s pie’. The layering of peppered mushrooms, sweet carrots and cabbage, edamame, and fresh swiss chard makes a savory sensation you won’t want to miss! Topped off with our famous garlicky potatoes we always get excited when we have leftovers to eat day after day.

We love this dish because it is easy to use up whatever is in your fridge or whatever your farm has in stock. Speaking of farms, now is a great time to remember we still need to support our local farmers if we want to continue to have access to delicious local food!

If you live in the Portland area consider buying online from The Side Yard Farm https://www.thesideyardpdx.com/. If you live in the Seattle area, Kirsop Farm https://www.kirsopfarm.com/ has an online shopping option. If you live in Roxbury, Connecticut, Riverbank Farm has an online option with a pick up at the garage: https://www.riverbankfarm.com/.

We are great believers in the value of small local farms and farmer’s markets. Right now, many small farms are struggling because a large part of their revenue comes from farmers markets. Social distancing, and in some places closure of markets, means that farms can use any help they can get. Shopping directly from local farms is one way to help, another is to give to local funds that offer grants to farms who have lost revenue. A great way to figure out how to help is to check out your local farmer’s market website.

On the subject of giving back, many of us will have seen, or will soon see, stimulus checks in our bank accounts. As white settlers we are keenly aware that, due to systematic oppression, the pandemic is having disproportionate impact on black, indigenous, and people of color. For example, stimulus checks are being distributed widely, independent of level of need. This means that those continuing to work and seeing less impact receive as much as or more than the most impacted.

For those who have lost jobs or were already in a precarious place, the stimulus checks are a great boon, but Anne’s family looked at their situation and decided that the additional income is not as essential to them as it is could be to others who are bearing the brunt of this global pandemic. They chose to give their stimulus check to local organizations supporting those who are most impacted by the pandemic. We offer this thought: do you need your stimulus check? If you don’t, please consider giving to organizations in your area that are supporting those who do.

If you want some ideas of organizations check out: https://www.sharemycheck.org/

Serves: 4

Time: 2 hours (1 hour active time)

Ingredients

4-6 red potatoes (1 1/3 lb), quartered with skin on

3 tbsp salt, divided

1 head garlic 

3/4 cup raw cashews and water to soak

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 cup olive oil, divided

3 cups sliced cremini (1/2 lb), sliced

1/2 tsp pepper

1 medium onion (1 1/2 cups), chopped

2 medium carrots (1/3 lb), cubed

1/2 lb cabbage, chopped

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen edamame

5 leaves of chard, de-stemmed and chopped

---

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Cover the cashews with water and put them in the fridge until you make the mashed potatoes. Roast the garlic. 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 chop the tops off the garlic, drizzle a bit of oil into the garlic cloves, put this into the garlic roaster and roast in the 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.

Quarter and boil the potatoes in very salty water until tender. The water should taste about as salty as sea water so that the potatoes soak in the water and are perfectly salted when done. Don’t worry if these feels like a lot of salt; you will be draining the water. Drain the potatoes when they are fork tender.

Saute mushrooms in 1 tbsp olive oil until tender and starting to brown, about 20 minutes.  When they are soft, add the pepper. Layer the mushrooms on the bottom of a baking dish (we use an 8.5” casserole or a 12” cast iron pan).  Layer the peas on top of the mushrooms. It’s okay if they are still frozen.

Saute the onion and carrot about 10 minutes on medium high heat until the onions are translucent and the carrots are starting to brown, stirring regularly.  Add the cabbage and cook about 7 minutes longer, stirring regularly, until the cabbage has wilted and released some of its liquid.  

Drain the soaked cashews and add them to a blender (we like the Vitamix) with 1/2 cup water until smooth. You can test for smoothness by rubbing some between two fingers. If it feels at all gritty, keep blending. Mash the cooked potatoes with the roasted garlic, cashew cream, 1/4 cup olive oil, and nutritional yeast together. Taste and add salt if needed. There will be salt added to the top of the potatoes once the dish is fully assembled, so be careful not to over salt. Layer the onion cabbage mixture into the baking dish.  Salt this layer with 1 tsp of salt. De-stem the chard and chop or thinly slice. Add the edamame and chard before topping the whole dish with the garlicky potatoes.  Rough up the top of the potatoes with a fork and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and rough them up again. 

Bake about one hour until the top of the potatoes have some crispy, browned sections. Enjoy!

Fingerling Potatoes with Ginger and Mint

A new year and a new blog! This year Camille (formerly Gluten-free Soy-free Vegan) and Anne (formerly Hungry Griffin) have teamed up to co-create a blog featuring delicious recipes. We will be cooking food, eating food, and sharing our recipes with all of you to cook and enjoy as well. This time of year can be hard for us because starting January 1st so many people start to try to “eat healthy” or diet. We aren’t interested in encouraging people to make their bodies smaller, take up less space, or try to change because someone said they “should”. What interests us is joy, pleasure, and honoring our own bodies. In celebration of joy, pleasure, and honoring our bodies we’ll start the new year and our new blog with one of our favorite foods: potatoes!

This delicious side dish is an interpretation on a recipe that was found in an issue of Gourmet magazine about ten years ago. Time has not diminished our enthusiasm for these spicy and tangy potatoes. They are a delicious treat on their own or make a nice compliment to roasted cauliflower and garlicky greens.

Serves 4 (as a side dish)

Time: 40min (10min active)

Ingredients

3 tbsp sesame oil (divided)

2 tbsp sunflower oil

1.5 lbs fingerling potatoes, halved

3 tbsp minced ginger (divided)

2 cups water

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2 cup mint leaves, chopped

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Zest and juice of one lime

---

Heat 2 tbsp sesame oil and the sunflower oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the potatoes and 1.5 tbsp ginger. Cook the potatoes turning regularly for ten minutes. Some of the edges should be slightly browned. Remove from the heat and slowly add the water, chili, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Return the pan to the heat and cook the potatoes uncovered until almost all the water has evaporated, stirring occasionally.

This should take about half an hour, but watch to make sure the bottom isn’t sticking and stop before then. At this point, the potatoes should be tender, if they are not, add a little more water and continue to cook until they are. If you need to add water, remember, the potatoes will not be drained, so be careful not to add too much. Once tender, add the remaining one tablespoon of sesame oil, the remaining 1.5 tbsp ginger, the lime zest, and mint. Stir until this sticks to the potatoes, about 1 minute. Stir in the lime juice and enjoy!