Capellini with Vegetables

We had a little dinner party the other night and it is always a little difficult to come up with menus for people you know, but not too well. Who eats meat, who doesn't, who is on  high protein low-carb, etc. So I just bridged it all by fixing beef tenderloin, crab cakes, capellini with vegetables, and a salad. I wanted a pasta dish with enough vegetables to serve as the starch and the vegetable dish. The pasta turned out really well. It was a very simple adapted a recipe from Ina Garten's cookbook Barefoot Contessa at Home.

3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bunch fresh basil
3 small zucchini
1 1/2 c. snap peas
1/3 c. olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 package capellini

Julienne basil leaves. Mix tomatoes, basil, olive oil, about 3/4 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate for four hours.

Near serving time, boil water to cook pasta. Meanwhile, steam snap peas until barely tender and still bright green (you could put in ice bath afterward to preserve color). Saute sliced zucchini in small amount of olive. After water comes to full boil, add pasta. The capellini takes barely any time so be careful not to overcook. Drain then toss with marinated tomatoes, snap peas, and zucchini.

Soup--The Ultimate Fast Food

For a long time I thought of soup as something that took hours to cook. Not so--soup is one of the easiest, quickest meals to throw together--a true fast food! And you really can improvise easily, substituting ingredients. Tonight when I got home about 6:00, Greenling.com had not delivered my tub o' produce so I was stuck with just whatever I had on hand--which turned out to be two cans of cannellini beans and some swiss chard that had been in the fridge a week but still looked pretty good. I checked a couple of cookbooks and web sites for recipes and of course didn't have everything for any recipe so I fused a couple of the recipes to make....

Swiss Chard and Bean Soup
2 T. olive oil
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 good sized bunch swiss chard, rough chopped
2 cans cannellini beans
1/3 c. arborio rice
Healthy sprinkle of Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1 tsp salt)
1 qt. container of Imagine "No Chicken" Broth

Cook chard until just tender in 1-2 c. water; drain, reserving liquid. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in a good sized pot.  Add beans (drain first), rice, liquid from chard, Italian seasoning, salt & pepper and the broth. Cook about 15-20 minutes until rice is tender; add chard and cook a minute more. To serve, drizzle with balsamic vinegar or sprinkle with parmesan if you want dairy.

Note: Instead of Italian seasoning you could use oregano and rosemary--whatever you have on hand. I love the little boxes of frozen herbs that you can use as you need. I think they are better than dried without the waste that sometimes happens with fresh herbs if you don't use them right away.

Portabello Paninis for Me & You

Sunday evening I made great portabello/red pepper paninis. Easy and really good. Got Swedish Hill ciabatta at Wheatsville and it was perfect though focaccia would work just as well.

Portabello paninis for deux

2 portabello mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 onion, cut into rings
1/3 c. Tofutti I Can't Believe It's Not Cream Cheese
1 T. chopped chives
1 T. chopped basil
Olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Gently scrape the underside of the portabello with a spoon to get rid of the "gills" which can be bitter. Brush onion, pepper strips and mushrooms with olive oil; also brush mushrooms with vinegar. Roast or grill the onions, pepper strips and mushrooms. Our grill was out of propane so I had to roast in oven. Doesn't take too long--just want them to be a bit browned. Flip once while they are cooking. While the peppers and mushrooms are cooking, mix Tofutti "cream cheese" with herbs and cut bread into desired size (I cut just a bit wider than the mushroom). Spread "cream cheese" mixture onto bread slices. Make sandwich with the vegetables and grill in panini maker or just in skillet as I did with a little olive oil. I pressed sandwiches lightly with cast iron skillet for the panini effect.

You could use real cream cheese for non-vegan version.

You Won't Believe It Has Collard Greens

It has been about 2 years since I've posted anything but recently got inspired by a blog by Marijo Harding who is participating in Pure Bikram Yoga's 60 Day Challenge. During the past 2 years I've gone down the slippery slope of adding dairy, then fish, then chicken to my diet but recently decided that I wanted to go back to eating vegan most of the time along with becoming more consistent in yoga practice. I have continued to cook lots of vegan meals the past two years because Will, my oldest, is a hardcore straight-edged vegan. No animal products touch his lips or feet.

So here I go, back to blogging. I have been on a big greens binge the past month or so. Wheatsville has had the most divine spinach. I have always been a fan of swiss chard and I like collard greens but am always uncertain about how long to cook--some see bitter. Wheatsville and Johnson Farms to the rescue--wonderful organic collard greens. And serendipitously, I was watching Food Network on Saturday and on Cooking for Real there was a recipe for collard green pesto--it was made with lots of parmesan and served with chicken meatballs and pasta. I modified a bit so no cheese and I reduced the olive oil used in the recipe. It turned out great and is really a pretty quick dish to put together.

Collard Greens Pesto & Pasta

1 bunch collard greens, roughly chopped, ribs discarded

1/2 cup pecans, lightly toasted either in skillet on top of the stove or in oven

2/3 c. olive oil (could even use 1/2 cup and I think it would be fine -- original recipe called for 1 cup)

1-2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/4 Kalamata olives, pitted (I forgot the olives first and taste was fine so to save calories and fat you could omit; I did add in the end)

13 oz. box of linguine

Boil pot of water; add greens and blanche for about 1 minute; remove to ice bath to keep the color bright green. Blot greens dry with paper towel and put in food processor. Add pecans, garlic and olives. Pulse a couple of times before running processor and slowly adding olive oil.

After mixed thoroughly toss with linguine cooked according to package directions. Enjoy!

Banana chocolate chip muffins

Unfortunately, I've now learned baking vegan goodies is the easiest thing ever. Or maybe with the holidays upon us, it is a good thing. With buttery vegan sticks from Earth Balance and 1/4 c. silken tofu to replace 1 egg, you can take most any standard recipe and get a respectable baked good. Case in point (and perhaps my most successful ever)--banana chocolate chip muffins adapted from a banana bread recipe I found on epicurious.com. Here goes:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 c. semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 c. toasted walnuts
1 T. flour

1/2 c. vegan margarine (1 stick of Earth Balance buttery sticks)
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. silken tofu
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 ripe bananas
2 T. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together first four ingredients in a medium sized bowl and set aside. Next mix chocolate chips, walnuts and 1 T. flour together in a small bowl. Make sure toasted walnuts have cooled completely. In yet another small bowl mash bananas.

In large mixing bowl, beat margarine until creamy (with electric mixer) and gradually add in sugar, beating until fluffy. Beat in tofu and vanilla. Beat in bananas and lemon juice; followed by flour mixture.

By hand stir in chips and walnuts. Bake in muffin pan (use either paper baking cups or spray pan with nonsstick cooking spray) for about 20 minutes or so--just until brown. I hate to say I didn't time these and original recipe was no help since it called for baking in loaf pan.

Bridging with Burgers

I love grilling "burgers" of all kinds because it is an easy way to bridge everyone's eating styles. I've made regular burgers for my two meat eaters and then portabello mushroom burgers for Will and I who are eating vegan. And easy--I've been marinating the mushrooms in balsamic salad dressing. I've posted the recipe for the dressing before. But when fixing it for marinade, I don't pay so much attention to proportions. I just mix a dollop of dijon, a teaspoon or so of brown sugar, then pour in roughly 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil and 3-6 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Choose portabellos roughly the same size as your burger buns. let them marinate 30 minutes-1 hour then toss on the grill. They are great. Ross has been having a double burger--meat and portabello. Easy and not much to clean up when you are grilling. My idea of great weekend cooking.

Back to school cookies!

We had about three coolish days (93 degrees--seemed so fall like!) and I thought about how I hadn't baked anything since the Fourth of July so I pulled out a new cookbook, La Dolce Vegan! Not only is it a pretty entertaining cookbook, it has a healthy (no not healthy as in low fat good for you; healthy as in chunky) section on desserts and decided to try these chocolate chip cookies. They are a little less sweet than regular chocolate chip cookies and have a cakier texture and little less fat than regular chocolate chip cookies. But very good with a glass of soy milk and I have to say, the uncooked dough was excellent!

Rachel's Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 c. vegan margarine
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c. silken tofu
3/4 c. Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a food processor, blend together the sugar, margarine, vanilla, and tofu until smooth. Add the tofu mixture and chocolate chips to the flour/soda/salt, and stir well. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of cookie dough on cookie sheat; press down with fingers. Bake 8-10 minutes. Let cool before removing from baking sheet. Makes 24 cookies.