Beluga Lentil Bruschetta

Today is the official first day of summer. In the Phoenix area we start summer much earlier. It has been super hot here for weeks now. This time of the year the oven is avoided at all costs. I love cold foods from June to September, I swear. 

The other day, Fred mentioned that the pantry overfloweth. He thought I should think about using some of the dried treasures on the shelves. Quite some time ago I bought some Beluga lentils for a recipe. I only used half the bag, so there they were. Cute tiny little protein packed lentils. They are sometimes called vegan caviar. They cook up very quickly and are very mildly flavored. They stay pretty firm, which makes them perfect for cold dishes.

The garden is starting to struggle in the 110+ degree weather. Luckily we had one last gasp of yellow pear tomatoes and a giant zucchini, which I happily diced up for this yummy take on bruschetta. 

Beluga Lentil Bruschetta

Makes 12-20 pieces depending on the size of bread.

1/2 cup Beluga lentils, rinsed

1 1/4 cup water

1/3 cup yellow tomatoes, diced

1/2 cup grilled zucchini, diced small

1/2 cup roasted peppers, diced small

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced

1 tablespoon fresh basil, minced

1 teaspoon capers, roughly chopped

2 tablespoon sweet onions, minced

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley

Note: all herbs are measured after mincing/chopping.

In a non reactive bowl, mix all ingredients. Let marinate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. 

French baguette approx 1/2 inch slices. 

Olive oil to brush bread slices.

Lightly brush both sides of each slice of bread. Place in one layer on a cookie sheet. Either bake in a 350 oven or on the grill for about 4 minutes per side until bread is nicely browned.

Using a spoon top each slice of bread with lentil mixture. Serve immediately.

The lentil mixture also makes a great salad all on its own if you are trying to cut out the carbs. It's gluten free too!!!

Freddie Skettie

One of Fred's favorite things to brew up in the kitchen is spaghetti sauce. He never makes it the same twice and rarely if ever writes down the recipe. This time was no exception.

I do know that he put in tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, onions, fresh tomatoes from our friend Robert's garden, a huge amount of fresh herbs from our herb garden. In a spicy twist he added some vegan chorizo.

While I have absolutely no idea what proportions went into it, I do know that is was full of rich tomato flavor. The sauce was so hearty from the chorizo, I was filled up with just a small serving. Just look at all that goodness!!!

I encourage all of you to play around in your own kitchens. Part of the thing I find most joyful about cooking is just throwing in a little of this and a little of that and coming up with something new and delicious. I'm glad Fred agrees on occasion!

Kale Three Ways

What do you do with an over abundance of kale?

I just can't do it yet. I just can't leave my old blogging home. Part of it is nostalgia and my gratitute for you guys! The other part is that I really don't have a good command of the new website and quite frankly it looks boring. So I will stay here a little longer. I hope you stay with me!

Kale is the new beef right? Well I thought I'd totally kale out. This is my kind of Trio! I had three different types of kale, so I thought I'd try three different cooking methods.

Salad

Lacinto Kale (recipe still in the works). This salad shows great promise, but I wasn't totally happy with the dressing flavor combo, so I will keep working on this and post it another time.

Saute

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

3 teaspoons olive oil separated

1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 bunch Red Russian Kale, de-stemmed and ripped into bite sized pieces

2 teaspoon Braggs or low sodium soy or tamari

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

In an 8 or 10 inch non stick pan or iron skillet over medium low heat add 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil. Add onions and sprinkle with brown sugar. Cook for about 20 minutes until onions are beautifully caramelized. Set aside in a small bowl. In the same skillet add remaining oil and kale. Saute kale for 5-7 minutes tossing frequently until the volume decreases by about 1/2. Add Braggs or low sodium soy and lemon juice. Add caramalized onions back to the pan. Saute for about 5 more minutes, until kale is soft but not mushy. Salt and pepper to taste.

Chips

1 large bunch curly green kale
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons Penzey's Northwoods seasoning or use your favorite low salt seasoning
1 scant tablespoon olive oil

Heat oven to 350.

Wash kale. De-stem and dry leaves. Rip into good sized pieces as they will shrink down quite a bit when baking. In a very large bowl place kale. Drizzle with olive oil and stir until well coated. Toss in nutritional yeast and Penzey's Northwoods Seasoning. Toss well making sure to get seasoning on all of the leaves.

On two cookie sheets, spread the seasoned kale leaves in a single layer. This is important or they will not crisp. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn leaves over and cook for 10 more minutes. It is a good idea to check the kale at about 7 minutes. They can crisp and burn quickly. The baking time can vary depending on the moisture content of the leaves.

Pull out of the oven. Let cool for 10 minutes or longer if you wish. Eat immediately. They will keep in an airtight container for about a day...if they last that long!

We're Moving...the Blog

It seems I never have time to sit down at the computer these days. I sorely miss the hours to peruse the internets and other vegan food blogs. I am working on slowly converting this blog over to my new digs at http://www.unconventionalevents.com/. I still need time to figure out the cpanel and other goodies. I am hoping I can figure out how to migrate my posts from here to that site.

UnConventional Events LLC is a little venture my friend and I are starting. We have a few dreams of what it will end up being down the road. For now, we are offering a limited number of cooking demonstrations and classes (vegan of course). We will also do the occasional catering gig when time permits. It is our hope to bring some yummy fare to our farmers' markets this fall. We both work full time, so we are starting slow and letting it morph into it's own fabulous being.

The website itself is still under construction, but the blog is up and running. I hope you will bookmark the new blog site and keep following. CLICK HERE to see the first post with pics on the new blog!! See you there!

The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen Dinner Night

Vine and Dine was canceled for this month. I had already found a couple of interesting vegan wines, so we decided to do our own Vine and Dine night. I am a multi-tasker, so along with vining, I pulled out another of my cook books that hasn't seen the light of my kitchen in what seems like years.

A long time ago, I checked out Donna Klein's The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen from my local library. I don't remember what I made out of it at that time. But I do know that I spilled stuff on the book and ended up having to buy the library a new copy. So my copy had the library labels including the Dewey decimal code on it.

I have to say that this book collects a lot of dust. This is not a reflection of the quality of the recipes, because what I have made has been pretty good. I have been reflecting a lot on why some books get more use than others. What makes me pick up a cook book? What makes me want to make something out of it? What inspires me? These musings have become a more serious matter to me these days. I am getting close to having the number of recipes I feel good about for my own book. Now I need to figure out what will make readers want to really use my book when it is published.

Historically I have not been a reader of cook book introductions. I usually dig right in to the table of contents, recipes and of course the gorgeous pictures. Pictures really make a cook book jump out at me. I think this may be the reason this book gets neglected. For all of its rustic and solid recipes, it is just plain boring to look at. There is not one picture inside the cover. What is inside the cover is some very simple and healthy Mediterranean fare.

I made two dishes for our dinner the other night:

Gratin of Macaroni, Tomatoes, Basil and Olives (pg. 111) and Cauliflower with Capers in Herbed Vinaigrette (pg. 144). Fred is a big lover of pasta/tomato dishes of many types. That's why I chose the first dish. My good friend and fellow gardener, Robert, gave me this big beautiful head of cauliflower. See the pretty hint of purple in the florets?

For the gratin I used quinoa pasta, not so much for the gluten free aspect, but more because it is what was in my pantry. The bread crumbs took care of the gluten. Actually if you use GF breadcrumbs this could be a very nice addition to the GF kitchen. This dish is a case of the whole is better than the parts. It has very simple ingredients that come together in a very homey satisfying dish. The saltiness of the kalamata olives works nicely with the creaminess of the elbow macaroni and the beans. Tomato anything makes us happy usually, and they were a great addition to this dish. The basil pull it all together with it's fresh summery flavor. The breadcrumb gratin never really seemed to get that firm golden brown I love in a gratin. But perhaps I didn't let it cook long enough. The recipe made a lot. We will probably get 3 meals out of it for the two of us. 

We served it with the Cauliflower with Capers in Herbed Vinaigrette. I puffy heart this dish. It is loaded with fresh basil, parsley, chives and capers. The white wine vinegar pulls it all together. I let it sit for about an hour. Oh man was the flavor incredible. It was quite delish the next day as a cold dish as well. If you want a refreshing way to use up some cauliflower, I highly recommend this recipe.

My adorable el Fredo getting his Vine on.

We chose the Duckpond Chardonnay for our Vine tonight. Duckpond is one of Fred's favorite vegan wine makers. This particular selection has a lot of tropical fruit notes; pineapple, mango etc. It would be a nice selection for a caribbean or latin dish that has a bit of heat to it. Sadly, it was a mismatch for this meal. The mellow and more delicate spices in the food made the wine taste almost sweet and not in a good way. I think a Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris or a nice dry Sauvinon Blanc would have been a better match in this case. 

Scott's Broccoli

What could be better than strolling through the farmers' market and picking out some beautifully local gown veggies? I'll tell you! Getting vegetables out of your (or your friend's) garden. While our garden is still trying to grow up and mature, some of my friends' gardens are producing crazy amounts of gorgeous vegetables.

My good friend and co-worker Scott and I chat often about our gardens. I love our garden chats and the advice he shares with me. His thumb is very green. He has been picking bunches and bunches of broccoli every day. He and his family can't eat it fast enough. He was sweet enough to share his mother load with me the other day. He brought in a super gigantic bag of tender, dark green, fresh broccoli. There was so much in fact, that both my office mate and I were each able to take home a healthy amount. Look at how pretty it is!!

I took a taste of it just raw and man was it tasty. I wanted to prepare it pretty simply so that the natural flavor of the broccoli would shine through. I also wanted to do some roasting. It's going to be hot here before we know it, and the oven will be the last tool I will want to use over the summer. Roasting also brings out the beautiful natural sugars in the vegetables; giving them a richer flavor than steaming or even sauteing. With these goals in mind, here is what developed:

Scott's Roasted Broccoli with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Garlic

Makes 4 servings (maybe 2 if you love broccoli as much as I do)

1 lb fresh broccoli

6 large sun dried tomatoes (in oil) thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

t tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Wash broccoli. Some varieties of broccoli have very thin stems. This is the kind I had for tonight. This makes it very easy to prep. You just break it up into little trees, no stem trimming necessary. If the broccoli you have is the type with thick stems, slice off stem about 2-3 inches down from where the florets start separating from the stalk. Cut off individual florets and part of the remaining stem.

Place broccoli in a very large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss to coat completely. Spread in a single layer on the lined baking sheet. Roast for 12-15 minutes until broccoli is cooked but still a bit crunchy. Enjoy!!

Don't have friends with awesome gardens? This time of the year here in AZ, you should have no problem finding some great fresh broccoli at the farmers' markets. Click here for a nice list of local farmers' markets.

Lavosh Pizza

Last week I was shopping at Trader Joe's and came across some whole wheat lavosh. My original plan for the lavosh was to make a wrap with some type of white bean dip and lots of fresh veggies. I'm not sure why that hasn't happened yet. Maybe later this week for lunches. What did happen was lavosh pizza! The lavosh was a great crust. It was very thin and light. The edges got super crispy with the center being more tender.

Probably the biggest reason I went with pizza is that I had small amounts of a few ingredients left over from other recipes. Pizza is such a great way to use up small amounts of goodies that might otherwise get left behind. I had opened a jar of roasted red peppers for some soup I made this weekend. I had just a small amount of kalamata olives left over. Then I found a partial onion hanging out. Then there was some basic about to brown on me. I had a few creminis hiding out, but sadly my fridge did a Mr. Freeze on them. This recipe is very flexible, you can use your favorite toppings. Make sure not to over crowd the pizza so the crust can get nice and crispy.

If you haven't made it yet, Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Tofu Ricotta recipe is a fantastic substitute for the dairy version. This is often my go-to recipe for first time vegan diners. I served stuffed shells to my very meat eating extended family. They had no clue it was vegan. It's just incredible. As an added bonus, it is super easy to make. You can make the ricotta and the sauce ahead of time to make this a quick week night dinner. I always have a hard time finding a pizza sauce that I really like, but I think I may have created a winner tonight. I'll let you be the judge. It's very easy to make and has lots of yummy herby flavor. If you do try it, I'd love to hear what you think...leave me a comment.

Lavosh Pizza

Makes two pizzas

2 Lavosh

1 recipe pizza sauce (recpe below)

1/2 recipe Tofu Ricotta

1/4 red onion, very thinly sliced

1/2 cup sliced kalamata olives

2 roasted red peppers, sliced into thin strips

12 slow roasted halved cherry tomatoes

15-20 medium sized fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 425.

Place each lavosh on a cookie sheet (no need to oil). Spread with a thin layer of pizza sauce over the lavosh, leaving about 1 inch of the edge naked. Drop ricotta by the generous tablespoon about 1-2 inches apart. Using the back of the spoon, flatten ricotta. This will help it cook more evenly. Spread toppings evenly over the top. Bake for 10 minutes until lavosh is crisp on the edges and ricotta is hot. 

Slice and serve immediately. Serve with extra sauce on the side. 

Pizza Sauce

Makes approx 1 1/2 cups

2 teaspoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped

1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped

pinch fresh rosemary

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

15 oz can organic tomato sauce