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)

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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.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

We love this sun-dried tomato pesto on pizza. It also goes great on pasta (as pictured below) or served as a dip. When it’s in season we like to eat a pesto that is heavy on basil. We’ve also made this with just a couple of sprigs of basil and it still tastes great, so if you don’t have much basil feel free to make the dish with less. This pesto is a delicious spreadable sauce good for pizza or sandwiches without adding the optional water. However if you want a thinner sauce for example for a dip or for pasta sauce, then all you need to do is add the optional water.

Serves: makes about 10 oz of pesto

Time: 30 minutes, 5 minutes active time

Ingredients

1/2 cup sundried tomato

1/2 cup cashews

basil, we used 1.5 cups packed

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

(optional) up to 1/4 cup of water depending on the consistency you are going for

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If your sun-dried tomatoes are dried, soak them in hot water with the cashews for 25 minutes. If your sun dried tomatoes are packed in oil, still soak the cashews but you do not need to soak the tomatoes. Drain the tomatoes and the cashews and put them with all the other ingredients into a food processor. Blend on high until smooth, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl down if necessary. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Herbed Cucumber Salad

We love this summery, cooling cucumber salad. It is herbaceous, bright, and fresh. It is great to put in wraps, stir into hummus, or eat as a side. Quick to make, it adds a real punch of flavor to our summer meals.

Makes: enough to top 6 sandwiches

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup diced cucumber

1 small tomato, optional

1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

salt

1/4 cup minced parsley

1 tbsp minced green part of green onion

1/4 cup minced mint

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Wash and finely dice the cucumber. If using tomato, first cut it in half. If it is meaty, finely dice and add to cucumber. If it has a good bit of water, scoop out the water and seeds before dicing to decrease the liquid in salad. Finely mince the herbs. Toss the herbs, tomato (if using), cucumber, salt and lemon juice in a bowl. Refrigerate before enjoying!

Early Spring Salad with Orange Dressing

We’re still seeing late season citrus in our local grocery store and we love to add that late citrus to spring veggies that are in season here in the Pacific Northwest. Delicious asparagus, spring peas, and purple radishes with freshly picked greens. We didn’t include amounts of asparagus feel free to use as much or as little as you have or as you want to eat. We use the crispy fava beans as protein in this salad, however if you don’t have them boiled eggs or fried tofu would both be good substitutes.

Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

For the Salad:

Leafy Greens - early spring options include arugula, mustard greens, baby chard, spinach, radicchio, and pea greens

Asparagus

Radishes

Snow peas

Crispy Spring Onions

Good Bean Sea Salt Crispy Favas and Peas

For the Dressing:

1/2 cup orange Juice

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp mustard

salt and pepper to taste

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Move an oven rack to the top shelf in your oven, and turn the oven to the broil setting. Rinse and cut the ends off of your asparagus. Toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Layer the asparagus in a single layer on a cookie sheet and broil for 5 minutes. Flip the asparagus and broil for 5 minutes on the other side. The asparagus is easy to burn on the broil setting, so we recommend using a timer and watching them closely. Remove from oven and make the crispy spring onions.

Chop the remaining vegetables and cut or tear the salad greens (if you want to). Put all of the salad dressing ingredients into a jar with a lid and shake until it’s emulsified/fully combined. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add all the salad ingredients to a bowl (except the spring onions). Toss with salad dressing. Top with spring onions and enjoy!

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

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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!

Spring Rolls

Spring rolls are one of our go to meals because we can use up any veggies we have in the fridge! It does take a while to roll these, especially when you are new to it. However we have now become faster at this and deeply enjoy it.

In this recipe we chose not to list specific amounts of vegetables as we will often cut up a lot of veggies and then wrap up as many as we feel like eating. We often wrap more the next day when we want to eat more. Additionally, because we use this to clean out the veggies we have in our fridge, we use this as a template and then adjust how much of each vegetable we use. For example, we have cabbage heavy spring rolls if we have lots of cabbage and not a lot of carrots, etc.

Prep time: 20 minutes, total time depends on how fast you are at wrapping and how many you make.

Serves: we didn’t write this recipe with a specific portion size in mind, feel free to make as many as please you. If you are new to this, start small and then size up from there.

Ingredients

Spring roll wrappers

lettuce

grated carrot

sliced cabbage

mint leaves

basil leaves

bean sprouts

for the scrambled egg:

4 large eggs

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

for the sauce:

1/4 cup avocado oil

1 inch ginger

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup almond butter

2 tbsp tamari

2 tbsp coconut aminos

1 tsp sriracha

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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.

Rinse the lettuce, pat dry, and tear into 3 inch long rough ovals. Grate carrots. Thinly slice cabbage. Rinse mint and basil and remove leaves from stems. Rinse bean sprouts.

To make the sauce, start by mincing garlic and ginger. Heat a pan to medium high with oil and add the garlic and ginger. Cook, stirring constantly, until they are fragrant. Either turn off the heat (if using electric stove) or turn the heat very low (if using gas stove). Then add the almond butter and stir until it melts into the oil and becomes soft and liquid-y. Add the tamari, coconut aminos, and sriracha. Stir, put in a bowl, and set aside.

Next, make a spring roll station. Fill a wide shallow pan with 1/2 inch water. Using cold water the spring roll wrappers will take longer to soften, hot water makes the softening process faster. Make this choice based on how much time you want to roll the spring rolls. For example, if you want to move at a slower pace, cold water could be a good option. If you want to and are able to fill and wrap quickly, hot water is a good choice.

Next to the water, clear a surface to roll on. We like to do this on a large wooden cutting board. Then next to the cutting board place a large plate to put the finished spring rolls. Along the top and sides of this set up, place all of the fillings you prepared above (except the sauce) for easy reaching!

To roll, soften a rice wrapper by fully submerging in the water. Most spring roll wrappers have a subtle raised texture on one side. Once the wrapper has mostly lost its surface texture it is soft enough to work with. It should be soft enough to work with but not so soft that it sticks to everything a ton/breaks easily. Experiment until you find something that feels easy(ish) to work with. At first this task might feel challenging however it gets easier with practice. Once it is soft enough, spread this in front of you on the cutting board. If you’ve spread it on the cutting board and realize it isn’t soft enough you can wait 30 seconds or a minute as it will continue to soften — running your finger along it will help. Also note if it is very soft it will continue to soften as you assemble the ingredients so if you are slow to put all the ingredients on the wrapper you will want to pull it out less soft to account for that time. As you get fast at layering the ingredients you can work with a softer wrapper since it won’t sit there as long.

At the bottom, we have a video of how to roll these, and we will also describe it here: place a piece of lettuce in the center of the wrapper. Then make a log shaped pile of cabbage on top of the lettuce. Add pieces of scrambled of egg on top of the cabbage. Then add a couple of bean sprouts and then the grated carrot. Add mint and basil leaves across the top. Lift the part of the wrapper closest to you and fold up over your pile of vegetables. Fold in each side. Then roll away from you until completely rolled. Then place on plate and start another one!

Serve with sauce and enjoy!

Herbed Ranch Dipping Sauce

We love this herbed ranch dipping sauce. It’s great for fresh cut veggies, deep fried tempura tofu or veggies, or anything you would want to dip in ranch sauce!

Serves: dipping sauce for 6-8 people

Time: 45 minutes (15 min active)

Ingredients

1 cup cashews soaked in water for 30 min

1/4 cup water, plus additional if needed

1 and 1/2 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp of lime zest

1 and 1/2tbsp scallion

1/4 cup parsley

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 pinches (or some freshly ground) black pepper

pinch of cayenne

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Mince the garlic and then sprinkle it with kosher salt and smash it with the side of a knife (being careful not to cut yourself). Then mince the parsley and the scallions.

Blend the cashews, water, lime juice, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, and cayenne until it is smooth and creamy. For this, start with 1/4 cup of water and then add additional water if needed to make it blend well and to achieve a thick liquid texture. Now stir in the minced garlic, parsley and scallions and serve!

Hummus

If you have a food processor (or blender) this is both easy to make and usually much less expensive then buying it at a grocery store. Plus, you can add your own flavors/toppings to mix up the experience. Check out our suggestions for this below and we’d love to hear in the comments your favorite additions to a basic hummus recipe.

Serves: 4

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

3/4 cup dried chickpeas* or 1 can chickpeas

3 cloves garlic

1.5 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp olive oil

Water

2 tbsp tahini

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp Hot sauce or to taste

Pinch salt

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If you are using dried beans, cook them*. Once you have cooked the beans, drain and rinse them. Add all the ingredients to a food processor (or blender) and process until smooth.

You can add all sorts of delicious things to this hummus, or keep it plain and top with something yummy. Some examples of things you can add to the hummus or top it with are pine nuts, fresh herbs, roasted red pepper, roasted garlic, harissa, or olives! Serve with bread, crackers, or fresh vegetables or use on a sandwich. Enjoy!

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*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 3/4 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!

Vegan Ranch Spinach & Sausage Pizza

Meaty, cheesy, crispy deliciousness!

Serves: 4

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 box Simple Mills Gluten Free Pizza Dough, option to sub in your favorite dough

apple cider vinegar (for the dough)

olive oil (for the dough)

1 package Beyond Meat Breakfast Sausage links

1 onion

1 clove garlic

.5 lb shitake mushroom

1 handful spinach

1 batch cashew cheese

ranch powder

Salt

Pepper

2 Tbsp high heat oil

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Cook the Simple Mills pizza mix according to the instructions on the box. If you have a pizza stone, preheat it with the oven. The first bake on this pizza dough will be done on a cookie sheet. You can also do the second bake on a cookie sheet, but we like how crispy the crust is when the second bake is on a hot pizza stone.

While the dough is baking, slice the shitake mushrooms, onion, and mince the garlic. Heat a pan and fry the sausage links until crispy on all sides (the sausage will release oil as it cooks, so no need for oil in the pan). Once fried, slice the sausages into small chunks.

Fry the onions and mushrooms until the onions are browned and soft and the mushrooms are browned and slightly crispy. Add salt and pepper to taste. This works better if you cook the mushrooms and onions separately, however sometimes do this in one pan if I’m not too worried about getting the perfect texture. Once these are almost fully cooked add the minced garlic into one of the pans (or the one pan if you are doing them together) and stir for about 1-2 more minutes while the garlic browns. Finally, throw the spinach in and stir slightly just to wilt a bit.

Next, make the cashew cheese if you haven’t already.

Now, if you have a pizza stone, transfer dough to the stone, flipping it over. If you don’t have a stone, I like to flip the dough over on the cookie sheet before adding toppings. To top, first spread the cheese in an even layer over the whole pizza. Then, do a heavy dusting of ranch powder over the entire cheese pizza. Next, add the spinach, garlic, onion, and mushrooms. Finally, top with the sausage chunks. Put the whole pizza back in the oven for just 5-10 minutes to get everything warm and melded, but not so much that anything burns (everything is already fully cooked).

Slice and enjoy!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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

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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!