Pumpkin Bread (Chocolate Chips optional)

October has been unseasonably warm (and smoky) here in the Pacific Northwest but that hasn’t stopped our minds from moving toward cozy fall foods like pumpkin bread and hot apple cider. Anne loves this recipe for pumpkin bread and makes it every fall. It has a delicately crisp crust when fresh from the oven and is deliciously soft the following days.

Anne likes to make the pumpkin puree from scratch, but mostly just to make roasted pumpkin seeds and fill the house with pumpkin scented steam. If you don’t want to make the pumpkin puree from scratch you can use canned pumpkin. We recommend you make sure you are getting canned pumpkin or canned squash and not pumpkin pie filling. The cans can look similar, but pumpkin pie filling usually has spices and sugar in the can which would change the taste of the end product.

Anne always makes this in a bundt pan. If you don’t have this, feel free to use a different pan but know the timing will likely be slightly different. If you try it in another pan and it goes well feel free to share in the comments what timing you used and any tips for your pan.

We are planning to take November and December off from posting to get in a little recharge. We are excited to get back to sharing recipes with you again January 3rd.

Pans required: bundt pan

Serves: 8-12

Time: 1 1/2 hours (1/2 hour active)

Ingredients

1 cup oat flour

2 cups white flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

1 cup neutral oil, like sunflower, safflower, or vegetable

1 cup coconut sugar

2 cups winter squash puree

1 cup plus a sprinkle chocolate chips (optional)

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Preheat oven to 325 F.

Mix the oat flour, white flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix the remaining ingredients other than the (optional) chocolate chips in a large bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until mostly combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir until the white powder of the flour just disappears. Don’t overmix or your gluten can get very chewy. Pour into an oiled Bundt pan and bake 1 hour.

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before carefully inverting the cake onto a serving plate. Delicious hot or cooled completely.

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!

Veggie Bean 'N Noodle Soup

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

Serves: 4-6

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp tomato paste

3 cups seasoned white beans* (2 cans)

1 medium onion

3 carrots

4 cloves garlic

1 medium zucchini

dried oregano

dried thyme

pinch hot pepper flakes

14.5 oz diced tomatoes

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

14.5 oz water

1/2 lb pasta shells, gluten free option

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

1/2 cup bean water

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

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

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

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

*Cooking white beans from dry:

In the Instant Pot:

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

On the stove:

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

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

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

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

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!

Mustard Brussels Sprouts

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

Serves: 2-4 as a side

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

1 lb brussels sprouts

2 tbsp high heat oil, like avocado

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp mustard seed

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

1/2 tsp salt

pinch hot pepper flakes

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

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

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

Harissa Tofu with Polenta Crusted Potatoes and Fried Broccoli

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

Serves: 2-4

Time: 1 1/2hrs

Ingredients

1 batch of polenta crusted potatoes

1 batch of harissa tofu

1 bunch of broccoli

olive oil

salt

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

Sesame Tofu Noodle Bowl

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

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hr 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 batch sesame tofu

1 lb pad thai rice noodles

1 bunch of swiss chard

4 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp tamari

1 tbsp sesame oil

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Prepare the sesame tofu.

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

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

Burritos with Taco Tofu Meat

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

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hr 30 minutes if using InstantPot

Ingredients

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

For the beans:

3/4 cup dried pinto beans

salt

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 onion

4 garlic cloves

3 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp cayenne

For the tofu:

1 block of tofu

3 tbsp high heat oil (we like avocado)

3 tbsp corn starch

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/8 tsp cayenne

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

1 tbsp mamma lil’s red pepper oil

1/4 cup boiling water

For the Fajitas Veggies:

high heat oil

1 big red onion

2 red bell peppers

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 lime

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

1 tomato

1 avocado

lettuce

shredded purple cabbage

green olives

hot sauce

mamma lil peppers

cilantro

vegan sour cream

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In the Instant Pot:

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

On the stove:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

The Best Vegan Burger

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

Serves: 2

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

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

2 Beyond Burger or Lightlife Burger patties

8 bread and butter pickles

4 pieces romaine lettuce

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

olive oil

2 tbsp white wine (optional)

ketchup

For the dill aioli:

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

1 1/2 tsps of lemon juice

1 tbsp dried dill

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

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

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

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!

Orange Tofu and Rice Stir Fry

It’s nearing the end of citrus season where we live, and we are soaking up every last citrus filled recipe. We enjoyed adapting this deeply American-ized take on the sweet and sour flavor pairing found in some traditional Chinese cooking.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

high heat oil such as avocado oil

green onions, finely chopped as garnish (optional)

For the tofu

2 firm blocks tofu

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 tsp salt

For the veggies

3 bell peppers, thinly sliced

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 head of broccoli, chopped into small florets

For the Sauce

2 tbsp. mirin

2 tbsp. rice vinegar

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil

3 tbsp. coconut aminos

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp. agave

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp siracha

Juice and zest from 1 large navel orange (1/2 cup of orange juice and 1 tbsp. of zest)

1 inch ginger, peeled and diced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and diced

1 tbsp. cornstarch

For the rice

2 cups jasmine rice

4 cups of water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp bouillon cube or paste (vegan & gluten-free option)

1/4 tsp mirin

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Note: when we were creating this recipe, we only had one large fry pan. If you have two, you can fry the veggies and the tofu at the same time.

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 be done with a tofu press. Slice the tofu into cubes or thick sticks.

While the tofu is being pressed, slice the onions, peppers, and broccoli. Dice the ginger and the garlic and finely chop the green onion if using.

Heat up a pan with oil and stir fry the onions, peppers, and broccoli until golden brown (about 20 minutes). Remove these from the pan and set aside. Meanwhile, cook the rice. Put the rice, water, salt, bouillon paste, and mirin in a pot and bring to a boil. Stir well (making sure the bouillon is broken down fully) and lower to a simmer. Cook with lid on for about 15 minutes or until rice is done. One way to tell if the rice is done is by watching the steam coming out of the pot, once the steam stops, your rice is most likely cooked. After 15 minutes let sit off the heat for 5 minutes and then fluff with a fork.

Combine the cornstarch and a generous pinch of salt in a shallow bowl or on a small plate. 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.

Put the finished tofu and veggies in a large bowl.

To make the sauce combine mirin, rice vinegar, water, sesame oil, coconut aminos, salt, red pepper flakes, siracha, agave orange juice and zest all in a small bowl and whisk until fully incorporated. Once you’ve finished cooking all the veggies and tofu, put a small amount of oil in your pan. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the bowl of sauce ingredients and cornstarch. Stir for 1 minute to thicken.

Pour the sauce over the large bowl of veggies and tofu and stir until everything is coated with sauce. Spoon the mixture over rice and garnish with green onions (optional). 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)

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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!

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)

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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!

Kidney Bean Chili

It’s been raining here all week which made us really want some warm, cozy chili. We especially love this chili served over mashed potatoes but it also grows great with tortilla chips or some garlic bread.

Serves: 4

Time: 1.5 hours (30 minutes active time)

Ingredients

3 cups cooked beans* or two cans kidney beans

8 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced

2 bell peppers, chopped

black pepper

1 onion, (2 cups) chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 cups veggie stock (gluten-free option, soy-free option)

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If you are cooking the beans from dry, cook the beans according to the instructions below.

While the beans are cooking, saute the mushrooms in olive oil until browned, about 15 minutes. Grind some fresh black pepper onto the mushrooms about halfway through cooking. Once the mushrooms are done, set them aside and saute the chopped peppers in olive oil about 10 minutes and set aside.

Once the beans are cooked, in a large pot, sweat the onions over medium low heat until they start to go translucent, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for an additional 2 minutes before adding the spices. Continue to cook, stirring, about 1 minute until fragrant.

Add the tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes, stirring frequently, until the liquid is thickened. Add the beans after 25 minutes of simmering. Add the sauteed peppers and serve hot with garlic bread, tortilla chips, or mashed potatoes.

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*Cooking kidney beans from dry:

In the Instant Pot:

To cook the kidney beans in an Instant Pot, add 1 1/3 cup of dried kidney beans to the pot.  Cover the beans with water (in the small Instant pot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tsp chili powder, and 1 tsp cumin.  Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 17 minutes letting depressurize naturally. Drain and rinse before adding to the dish.

On the stove:

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

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

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

Ginger Lime Tofu

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

2 blocks firm tofu

1/2-1 cup cornstarch

salt

high heat oil for cooking tofu (e.g. avocado)

1 package rice noodles

1 tsp tamari

1/2 tsp sriracha

1 tsp sesame oil

1 bunch of chard or kale

For the sauce:

3 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp agave

1 tbsp tamari

3 tbsp sesame oil

1 1/2 tbsp minced ginger

loosely packed 1/2 cup mint leaves

1/2 tsp salt

pinch cayenne

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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 be done with a tofu press.

While the tofu is being pressed, thinly slice the mint and chard into ribbons. Cook the rice pasta according to the instructions (remember to add enough salt to the pasta water that it tastes like the ocean). Once the pasta is cooked drain and rinse with cool water to keep it from getting gluey. Add the teaspoon of sesame oil, the sriracha and the teaspoon of tamari to the noodles and toss to coat.

Combine the cornstarch and a generous pinch of salt in a shallow bowl. Cut the pressed tofu into sticks about 3 inches by one inch by one inch. Toss the tofu a couple of pieces at a time in the cornstarch mixture until coated on all sides. Start with 1/2 cup cornstarch, if you run out mix up some more cornstarch and salt. If you forget to add salt to the cornstarch you can optionally sprinkle salt on the tofu while it is frying or right when it is removed from the heat and still glistening with oil. Heat 2 tbsp of high heat 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.

To make the sauce heat the 3 tbsp sesame oil in a small pan with ginger just until the ginger starts to become fragrant. Add the ginger and oil into a bowl with the rest of the ‘for the sauce’ ingredients except for the mint leaves. Once the tofu is cooked, put them back into the pan and pour the sauce into the pan and stir until it starts to bubble. Sprinkle mint leaves over this and fold them in, cook for a short time longer (less than 1 minute). Remove the tofu and place over the noodles. Next, wilt the chard with any remaining tofu sauce and add this to the noodle dish as well. Stir and enjoy!

Black Bean Chili

Delicious warm chili for these cold nights. Happy solstice y’all!

We love eating this chili with garlic bread.

Serves: 4-6

Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (35 minutes active)

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped

5 cloves of garlic, minced

salt and pepper

1+ 1/4 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp taco mix

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 medium zucchini, chopped

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 cup of corn, optional

2 cups drained and rinsed black beans*

3 cups vegetable broth (gluten-free option, soy-free option)

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 cup brown or wild rice

1-3 cups of water

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

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In a big soup pot over medium heat saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until the onions are soft and fragrant about 7 minutes.  Add the chili powder, taco mix, garlic powder, salt, pepper, tomato paste, and zucchini.  Stir well and continue to cook about 5 minutes.  Add the tomatoes and corn (optional) and cook another 3 minutes until the tomatoes start to release their juice. 

Add the rice and the broth. Reduce heat to an active simmer and cook about 40 minutes until the rice is almost tender.  Add 1 cup of water, beans, and apple cider vinegar and cook another 15 minutes, stirring regularly.  If it starts to stick on the bottom, add more water. Enjoy!

*Cooking black beans from dry:

In the Instant Pot:

To cook the black beans in an Instant Pot, add 1 cup of dried black beans to the pot.  Cover the beans with water (in the small Instant Pot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 tbsp kosher salt, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne.  Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 19 minutes letting depressurize naturally.  Drain and rinse before adding to the dish.

On the stove:

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

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

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

Vegan Cincinnati Style Inspired Chili

Anne’s husband grew up eating Cincinnati chili when he visited with his grandparents. Anne created this recipe with Beyond Beef so they can give him a nostalgic taste of childhood without cooking meat (because Anne doesn’t enjoy cooking meat). Like any recipe on our blog, this one is an interpretation. We add mushrooms and beans because we like the way the chili tastes with those additions. This recipe can be made without those ingredients if you do not enjoy them. A signature part of the Cincinnati chili from John’s childhood is that it was served with spaghetti and oyster crackers, and if gluten is not a problem for you, we invite you to try it with both. If not, the pasta can be replaced with a gluten-free pasta.

Serves: 4

Time: 1 hr (30 minute active time)

Ingredients

1 13.5oz can kidney beans, drained

1 13.5 oz can of water

8 oz cremini or baby bella mushrooms

1 small onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1 box of spaghetti (gluten-free option)

oyster crackers (omit for gluten-free option)

For the sauce:

3 tbsp liquid from pickled banana peppers

1 13.5 oz can tomatoes

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp oregano

1 tsp cocoa powder

For the beef:

1/2 block Beyond Beef

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp taco mix

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Heat a large pot. Once hot, add 1/2 block of Beyond Beef (this has oil in it, so you don’t need to add oil). Stir to break beef into small crumbles. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the “for the beef” seasonings and cook an additional 2 minutes or until the beef is golden brown and still has some moisture. While this is cooking, thinly slice your mushrooms and chop the onions and garlic.

Set the beef aside and add some oil to the pan. Once the oil heats up add the mushrooms and onions and cook these on a low heat stirring frequently. While these are cooking, put all of the “for the sauce” ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Once the mushrooms have released their liquid and the onions are slightly translucent add the garlic, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp paprika and 1/2 tsp of salt to the pan. Cook for one more minute, being careful not to burn the spices. Add the sauce to the pan along with a can full of water (you can use this water to clean out your tomato can) and simmer this stirring frequently until it reduces by half, about half an hour.

Meanwhile boil a large pot of salty water. The water should taste about as salty as seawater so that the spaghetti soaks in the water and is perfectly salted when done. Don’t worry if these feels like a lot of salt; you will be draining the water. Once the water is boiling add a box of spaghetti and cook according to the package directions.

Once the sauce has reduced add the Beyond Beef crumbles and the drained beans. Cook another 15 minutes allowing flavors to meld. Serve over cooked spaghetti, optionally garnish with oyster crackers.

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.

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!

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.

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”?