Tag Results
7 posts tagged vegan
Spiced Almonds
It’s hard to write a post about nuts without making the obvious jokes. SO let’s just get this out of the way…
1) Testicles.
2) We’re mentally unwell.
Cheap laughs aside, nuts are fucking tasty. They make a great, nutrient dense snack all on their own and are the building blocks for some of our favorite recipes. While you could pay ridiculous prices for spiced nuts at the store; in about 20 minutes and 2 dirty dishes, you could make your own.
Try these on salads, roughly chopped in your favorite chicken salad sandwich, in your lunch box, or paired with some funky, ballsy blue cheese at your next dinner party.
Spiced Almonds
- 1 tbsp Low Sodium Soy Sauce
- 1/3 cup Olive Oil
- 1 sprig Rosemary
- 1 clove of Garlic
- 1 tsp Lemon Zest
- 1 tsp Chili Powder
- 3 cups Raw Almonds
Makes 3 cups of Almonds. Obviously.
Preheat your oven to 350°.
Mix together the Soy Sauce, Olive Oil, and seasonings. Toss with the Almonds until they are well coated.
Spread the Almonds onto a parchment lined baking sheet— the kind with sides— in a single layer. We’ve found that using the parchment paper helps reduce the number of nuts with over toasted spots and it makes clean up really easy. You can skip this if you want, but it does help.
Toast the Almonds on your oven until they are dry to the touch and a deep mahogany brown, about 18 minutes.
Allow to cool completely before storing, but start eating right away, if you’re so inclined. These taste great warm. That’s right. We love hot nuts. Keep them for about a week on the counter or basically indefinitely when tightly sealed in the freezer.
Garlicky Cauliflower Steaks with Lemon and Parsley
Cauliflower isn’t the sexiest vegetable.
It’s lumpy, it’s bumpy, and it kind of looks like it’s made of wax. Decades of abuse by well intentioned crudité trays and low-carb devotees have made our primary association with this brassica a bland, squeaky mess that smells like someone gently farted into a shoe. They leave it raw, which is just gross, or steam it to death, ruining its gorgeous texture. But Cauliflower can be fucking good. While it may never be Beyoncé, it doesn’t have to be LaTavia Roberson.
Think of cauliflower as Kelly Rowland. It’s a great, easy to work with side and, occasionally, it makes an outstanding main dish all on its own.
The key to making Cauliflower delicious— the key to making any food you may be averse to delicious— is handling it properly. As with all cruciferous vegetables, proper handling means roasting. Cooking hot and more or less dry minimizes the damage done by glucosinolates (also known as the sulfur rich compounds that makes veggies get stinky) and adds layers of deliciousness via the Maillard reaction. While cauliflower may not be inherently sexy, it’s also not garish or showy. It’s subtle, you could even call it sophisticated. Its sweetly nutty, creamy stalks make a perfect canvas for bold flavors like curries, ballsy tomato sauces, or, in this case, all of the garlic, parsley, and lemon in your zipcode.
Serve it as a cozy side for mussels, or try it on top of a big-ass salad as a surprising, vegan sub for chicken breast.
Garlicky Cauliflower Steaks with Lemon and Parsley
inspired by our dear friend Rachel Humphrey
- 1 head Cauliflower
- 3 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 cup Parsley, finely chopped
- 4 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
- Juice and Zest of ½ Lemon
- 1 tsp Paprika
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
Serves: 4-6 as a side, 2 if it’s your main
Preheat your oven to 475 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with tinfoil or a silicone liner to save yourself a few minutes of scrubbing.
Remove the leaves from the Cauliflower and try to not damage too much of the stem. Thoroughly rinse, and then slice the Cauliflower into ½ inch slices. At the ends, you will have odd bits that are a little less pretty, and that’s okay. They get extra caramelized and taste great.
In a large bowl combine Olive Oil, Parsley, Garlic, Lemon Juice and Zest, Paprika, and a small pinch of Salt. Carefully toss the Cauliflower in this mixture and arrange in one even layer on the cookie sheet. If you have extra of the marinade/mixture/stuff, slather it on top of everything once its on the tray.
Roast in the oven (obviously) for about 15 minutes, or until things are golden brown and crispy on the edges.
Roasted Tomato Soup
We would be such assholes if we gave you instructions on the perfect Grilled Cheese, but didn’t talk about tomato soup.
The perfect tomato soup is velvety smooth, without being creamy or rich, and sweet-savory, without tasting like a bowl of marinara. It’s comforting, intensely tomato-y, and refreshing. The secret to turning fresh, late-harvest tomatoes into a fucking yummy lunch that makes you say ridiculous words like “yummy” and “tummy” and makes you feel like your stomach is wearing its favorite sweater is roasting the tomatoes before they go into the pot, adding a touch of dry vermouth, and using a pinch of baking soda to give you control over the acidity.
What’s special about this soup is that it doesn’t have any dairy, so it freezes, cans, and stores really well. We’re big on feeding friends, especially if they need a little extra help, and this is a great recipe to make for folks who don’t have the time, ability, or resources to make dinner in their own kitchen. It’s comforting, easy to heat up, and can be adapted to suit a wide range of dietary needs and restrictions.
Roasted Tomato Soup
- 8 Tomatoes
- 4 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 softball sized Sweet Onion
- 1 small can Tomato Paste
- 1 qt Low (or no!) Sodium Stock— chicken is how we roll because it makes the soup even more savory and satisfying, but vegetable stock is a great choice that tends to give things more body and an earthy richness.
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 2-4 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
- 2 tbps Dry Vermouth
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
- Fresh Basil, like a handful
Serves: 4-6
Preheat your oven to 500°. Wash and quarter the Tomatoes, and arrange them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or foil, cut side facing up/skins down. Roast the Tomatoes until the start to collapse, about 20 minutes.
Thinly slice the Onion. Sauté over medium-low heat with Olive Oil, in your biggest, heaviest pot. We think a dutch oven does a particularly nice job. Cook the onions on low until translucent, about 10 minutes, and then turn up the heat to medium high. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes (20 if you can stand it), stirring frequently, until the Onions caramelize.
Add the Tomato Paste, Stock, and roasted Tomatoes to your Onions. Puree using a stick blender, or whatever you have handy, until smooth. Stir in your 1/2 tsp of Baking Soda. You will see bubbles and it will be cool. Add Vermouth and Balsamic, to taste.
Season with salt and pepper and simmer until everything is warm and tastes like soup. We found that simmering the basil in the soup made for a muddier, murky flavor, so use basil like a garnish to keep stuff fresh and bright
Salads can be a bummer.
Too often, especially in Midwestern American culture, they are used as a boring food, arbitrarily assigned to be virtuous, which atones for the crime of being a woman with a body. They’re eaten out of obligation, because of their designation as healthy, where “healthy” has come to mean: gastronomic flagellation through the consumption of flavorless, pleasure-less gruel.
While that kind of thinking does a disservice to people eating the food— and we’ll talk about that another time— it also gives good food a bad rap. Once you stop looking at salads as punishment or duty, it finally becomes possible to see them for what they are: fucking delicious. And this salad is our new favorite.
Juicy tomatoes paired with equally juicy peaches, tipped to the savory side with the faintest sliver of red onion and a healthy drizzle of olive oil. Nothing is more appropriate for the season and we have yet to find a better accompaniment to grilled meat. Don’t get tied up with the absence of lettuce; salads are much more than that. And, very simply, a pile of delicious foods tossed together in a dressing.
The finely sliced red onion is really what holds this dish together. While you can achieve that effect with a good, sharp knife, we like to use a mandolin slicer. Mandolin slicers are an essential tool in our kitchen and we use them most days. Whether slicing potatoes for a breakfast skillet, or making garlic chips, they speed up our prep and cut down on mess. You can get your hands on an inexpensive model at most markets but we really like this one. Make sure that the blade stays sharp, and always, always use the hand guard.
Tomato and Peach Salad with Red Onion and Basil
- 5 ripe heirloom Tomatoes
- 4 ripe Peaches
- 1/8 Red Onion
- 1 handful Basil
- 1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
- 4 Tbsp Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
Serves: 4, easily.
Wash Tomatoes and Peaches thoroughly. Cut into wedges that are roughly equal in size, and not so big that you can’t cram a couple into your mouth at the same time. Thinly slice 1/8 of a Red Onion with a steady hand or your mandolin slicer. Remove the basil leaves whole from the stems, and bruise them slightly. Toss everything together in a serving bowl, dress with Oil and Vinegar, and season with Salt and Pepper to taste.
Miso Rice Salad with Sesame and Radishes
We’re obsessed with Frozen Rice.
It’s exactly what it sounds like: cooked rice in your freezer, ready to go. No extra ingredients or preservatives and, most importantly, no extra cost. It shaves tons of time off meal preparation and is always 100% perfectly cooked. Sometimes we don’t even fucking heat it up. While the more civilized among us may zap it in the microwave for 30 seconds— we just pour half a cup in the bottom of a bowl and let a scoop or two of piping hot curry do all the cooking for us. Frozen rice is a foundation of quick but satisfying meals in both of our kitchens, and that applies doubly in shitty hot weather like this.
One of our favorite applications of frozen rice is a dish that is totally essential to our lifestyles: rice salads. They’re satisfying and hearty and don’t make you sweat when you eat them. A good vinaigrette, as you may have guessed by the little theme we’ve got going this week, is the key to making these salads happen. Since rice isn’t know for its, uh, particularly Robust flavor profile, it serves as a perfect backdrop for the intense flavors of the viniagrette. The fat in the dressing, beyond being fucking delicious, actually makes the rice and veggies we throw together more nutritious. It’s simple, it’s cheap, and it’s actual food that feels good to eat.
Miso Rice Salad with Sesame and Radishes
- 1 cup of Brown Rice, cooked and cooled or simply from the freezer.
- 1 cup of Wild Rice, ditto.
- or you can use one of those fancy schmancy rice blends-
- 1 cup of shelled Edamame- frozen also works nicely here
- 5 Radishes, thinly sliced
- 2 Carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1-2 Scallions, chopped
- 1/4 cup Sesame Miso Vinaigrette, plus more to season as necessary.
- Sesame Seeds
This is probably the easiest recipe we’ve ever given y’all. Put the rice and veggies in bowl. Toss it together. Add the dressing. Let it sit for a few minutes, until the rice is thawed. Check for seasoning; you won’t need salt but you may need more dressing because rice is generally bland and absorbs lots of liquid. Serve, and top with scallions and sesame seeds. Do this before bed, put in a storage container, and stick it in the fridge for a perfect, stupid simple, hella satisfying lunch the next day.
Hummus is boring.
We know that it’s vegan and mild and generally well tolerated by even the most allergic among us. We understand that it does a good (boring) job at filling the role of the inexpensive, easy party snack for busy hosts. We get that not all dips can be mayonnaise and caramelized onions; sometimes people need to eat things with food in them. But… hummus just isn’t fun. Like, Ooh, roasted garlic and aggressive amounts of cumin, I’m so fucking impressed, I’m sure.
Even worse than just being boring, hummus is not at all versatile. It’s dip, exclusively, and anyone who has thrown a party knows there is absolutely nothing you can do with the neigh untouched bucket of chickpea mush the next day.
We came up with three alternatives that are a little bit more interesting, and a lot more versatile. White Bean Spread with lemon, rosemary, and red pepper is hearty, protein rich, and can be made with stuff you probably already have laying around the house. Roasted Tomato Jam is a great candidate for canning and packs a powerful flavor profile that some how makes tomatoes taste tomato-ier. Avocado Pesto is creamy and zesty and our favorite. Once you start making it, you will keep it in your recipe heavy rotation for life.
All three of our patently NOT boring spreads are vegan, can be made for less than $8, and take less than 8 minutes of hands-on prep time. Try them with your standard crudités and crunchy chip things, and pay special attention to the end each recipe for some suggestions on how we like to re-purpose our leftovers.
Avocado Pesto
- 2 avocados- ripe is ideal but this recipe also works well with sliiiiightly under-ripe ones
- 1 small clove of garlic
- 10 leaves of basil, big ones
- 1/2 lemon- for juice only, but a little zest wouldn’t be terrible either
- 3-4 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Half and pit the avocados and scoop, squeeze, or otherwise get the delicious buttery flesh into a bowl. Microplane (or very finely chop) 1 small garlic clove into the avocado.
Chop, chiffonade, julienne, or just beat to hell in a morter and pestle about 10 leaves of basil. Combine with the avocado and garlic and mash the mixture with a fork or, as we prefer, a potato masher. Add the lemon, oil, and salt and pepper, and thoroughly stir. You can do all of this in a food processor, too, if you’re into that, but we like the rough texture with recognizable chunks of avocado.
The pesto tastes great right away, but tastes better in 2 hours. Put a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the dip and stick it in the fridge. Stir it into pasta, spread it on your bagel, mix it into scrambled eggs, or just grab some pita chips and go buckwild. We don’t know how long it would keep in the fridge because it’s never lasted more than about 45 minutes in either of our houses— but we’d guess, about, 3 days.
White Bean Spread
- 1 can- or 8 oz- of Cannelloni beans
- The juice, and zest, of 1 lemon
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 red pepper, roasted, seeded and chopped
- 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
- salt and pepper, to taste
Drain and rinse Cannelloni beans, shake off as much water as you can, and put them in a bowl. Add lemon juice and olive oil, mash everything a little so it looks slightly more appetizing and will stick to stuff more easily. Stir in the lemon zest, roasted red pepper, and rosemary. Season with salt and pepper— which will vary widely depending on what brand and type of beans you are using.
We particularly like this stuff as a spread on a sandwich; it makes a turkey sandwich a million times less boring and brightens up a grilled cheese. It keeps for about 4 days, in the fridge, tightly covered.
Roasted Tomato Jam
- 2 cups of your favorite small tomatoes- we love the fancy mini heirloom fuckers because they’re cute but a pint of regular grape or cherry are equally delicious
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed or scored
- 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped roughly
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste*
*we are always in favor of slightly under seasoning and adjusting in the end, rather than being stuck with liquids that reduced to being way too salty. This philosophy applies here doubly.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Thoroughly wash your tomatoes. They are deceptively filthy, I assure you. Slice them in half with your favorite super sharp pairing knife, or a small serrated knife if you’re having trouble making a clean slice. Toss the halved tomatoes with all of the other ingredients in a small, shallow baking dish— something with tall sides. Don’t use cookie sheets, but pie plates work great.
Bake the tomatoes for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally at first and more frequently towards the end of cooking to keep things from burning. You’ll know the jam is done when the tomatoes have separated into delicious tomato mush and skins, and everything else has gone from thin and juicy to opaque, reduced, and bubbly.
Carefully transfer the jam to any container without burning yourself, allow to cool slightly, and check for seasoning. Sometimes we like to add an extra shot of balsamic and fresh basil at the end to brighten up the flavors. You may need to mash things up a bit— especially the garlic cloves— and certainly want to give it all a healthy stir. The jam is ready to serve piping hot— with basically any fish? again with the ballz-to-the-wallz pita chip frenzy?— but when you leave it in the fridge for a few hours, flavors change and the jam thickens even more. It’s amazing stirred into pasta, risotto, or pilaf-y things to give it a deep, tomato-y savory-sweetness, and is a great addition to any savory breakfast, spread on toast or savory muffins.
Three Vegetables, Three Ways
Summer time is vegetable time. Local stuff is fresh and abundant, and, while they taste pretty good raw, just a little extra effort makes them truly fucking delicious. We picked our three favorite vegetables and prepared them our three favorite low-maintenance ways. Think of these methods less as recipes and more as formulas; add your favorite flavors, swap for whatever is in your CSA or looking good at the market, and use these simply prepared veg in your favorite pastas, sandwiches, and salads.
Pickles: Radish
adapted from Rachel’s Gramma’s recipe for fridge pickles
- 7 or 8 radishes, quartered
- 3 tbsp vinegar- I like apple cider vinegar, but pretty much whatever works
- 1/8 cup boiling water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 3/4 tablespoon salt
- 1 small piece ginger
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 clove of garlic, scored
- 1tsp peppercorns
- a shake or two of red pepper flake (optional)
- 2-3 cloves
Serves: it’s tough to say with pickles, since it’s some people think of them as a condiment but folks like Rachel hold them as the foundation of the food pyramid. Whether you want this as a side or garnish, this recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups!
In a small, heat proof container combine sugar, salt, ginger, bay leaf, garlic, peppercorns, red pepper flake (if that’s your thing), and cloves. Add boiling water and stir. Once the sugar and salt has dissolved, add your radishes and vinegar. Refrigerate. They’ll be ready to eat in about two hours (you can tell because everything will be a really pretty light pink) but they will keep OK for about a week. This pickle brine works great with cucumbers, zucchini, and carrots, and pickled radishes give an incredible zing to deviled eggs.
Roasting: Asparagus
- As much asparagus as you can eat in a sitting
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
Serves: 1 bunch of asparagus usually feeds the two of us as a side dish, with no leftovers, but we’re really, really into the stuff.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Snap or trim the tough ends off of your asparagus and thoroughly rinse. Shake off any excess moisture, but there’s no need to get prissy and use a towel. Arrange the asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet. Lightly drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Reserve pepper for after the asparagus is roasted, to avoid burnt, bitter, shitty things from happening.
Roast the asparagus until it turns bright green, with some brown spots, and is fork tender— which takes about 15 minutes. The good news about roasted asparagus is that it’s pretty much impossible to over cook it, whereas other methods can turn it into bloated baby food in minutes. Since you aren’t washing away all of the nutrients, deliciousness, and texture with water, if you take it a little too far the worst that can happen is extra flexible stalks. And that just means you can shove entire pieces into your mouth more easily.
Remove from the oven and top with a few turns of black pepper. Serve immediately and do your best to not eat it all before it gets to the table.
Any leftovers, though we don’t anticipate them, should probably get chopped and added to risotto or pasta tossed with butter, garlic, and Parmesan.
Haricot Vert with Bacon Lardons and Shallots
- 3 strips of good, thick cut bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 pound of haricot vert, or (for those of us allergic to pretentious bullshit) those delicious, tender, skinny green beans that are at their best in late spring, early summer.
- 1 huge pinch of salt, bigger than you think necessary
- 1 shallot, diced very small— or 2-3 cloves of garlic sliced paper thin
- 1 tbsp of cider vinegar
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Serves: 4, but these stand up well to gentle reheating. we recommend making enough for left overs.
Prepare a bowl of ice-water, about 2/3 of the way full, and set aside.
Heat your heaviest skillet over medium heat, add your bacon, sautee until the pieces turn a dark mahogany and you can’t stop eating them. Remove the bacon, and reserve 1 tablespoon of fat.
Fill your biggest pot half way with cold water. Bring to a boil, season with salt. Quickly blanch your haricot vert just until their green deepens and they become barely tender— about 2 minutes. Immediately transfer to the bowl of ice-water to stop the cooking.
Drain the beans very well. In the 1tbs of reserved bacon fat, sautee your shallots (or garlic) until deliciously translucent (or just hardly golden brown). Add your vinegar and the haricot vert, toss until everything is nice and warm. Season with black pepper and top with the bacon.
If you’re veg-an/itarian, this method works super great with your favorite fat, topped with any toasted nuts that strike your fancy as a sub for bacon! With our leftovers, we added roasted red pepper, and pistachios and it was, like, Unreal. Try this method with broccoli and cauliflower, and prepare to have your mind blown.
