Tasty Thursday: End of Summer Watermelon Salad

We've been blessed with a gorgeous yellow watermelon from our CSA share several times now.  First one went to my Dad's birthday celebration where it got rave reviews from all ages and provided some adorable photo ops with a baby who was having a ball feeding it to himself.  Last week's melon was left for my daughter to share with some company she had while we were out of town for the weekend, however she ended up not using it.  So when I picked up my share this week I knew I still had the one in my fridge and with there being little space for another one I chose the smallest one I could find and set out to make something with the older melon ASAP when I arrived home.  This is what came of it:

Into your nice, large salad bowl place the following ingredients then toss to mix:

Half a lovely organic yellow watermelon, cubed (reserve rind for pickling if desired)
Two cups organic home-sprouted mung beans
Two organic carrots, shredded
One small organic onion, chopped
A handful of organic cilantro, chopped
Sea salt and ground pepper to taste (optional)

I added balsamic to this, however one of the folks in my house doesn't have  a taste for vinegar lately so we dressed the salad individually once plated.  I served it over a bed of organic spring mix greens.

What are you waiting for?  Go cut that watermelon you have sitting in your fridge from this week's CSA share and enjoy!

Tasty Thursday: Vegan Mommy Chef's Sweet Potato Kale Frittata

I have to say that this recipe is a WINNER!  Not only did I find it delicious but my omnivore spouse finished up about half of the frittata, going back for seconds and thirds while delivering lots of compliments.  When an omni gorges on something that is made with a substitute for eggs when they are the major ingredient in a recipe it sure is a good feeling.

You can find Vegan Mommy Chef's recipe here and my version below.

Now I will mention that I do not own a food processor so this was a little more work to make than I like to put into a recipe but it was worth every bit of the effort.  I plan to make it again this week.

Ingredients:

'Egg' base:
1 1/2 cups Burmese tofu (I'll share this recipe tomorrow)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup Trader Joe's ground almond
1/4 cup tapoica starch
2 TB coconut oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pink sea salt
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 TB whole grain mustard
1 TB chia seeds
water as needed for blending (I ended up using 1/2 cup)




Vegetable filling:
1 tsp coconut oil
1 red torpedo onion from our CSA share, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, skin removed then cut into small cubes
6 leaves lacinato kale from our CSA shrare, stems removed and leaves cut into 1" bits
2 TB worcestershire sauce substitute (I'll share this one tomorrow too)
1 tsp local honey

First, I melted the coconut oil in a cast iron pan, then added the cubed sweet potato, stirred for a minute or two then added the onion.  I allowed it to cook for a few minutes, then turned it off because I had to answer a telephone call and was afraid I'd get distracted and let it burn.  It sat covered for about five minutes.  When I came back I added the kale, sauce sub and honey to the pan.  It cooked for about eight minutes, then I removed the lid, stirred it and let it sit covered with the burner off for a few minutes while I finished blending the egg sub items and greased my ceramic quiche dish with coconut oil.

While I was cooking the veggies I  ran the egg sub ingredients through the chopper attachment of my stick blender to break them down as far as I could, then transferred to the regular blender to liquefy.  This was a pain in the butt, however in the end it was all worth it.  I really should purchase a food processor.  Do you have a food processor you like?  If you do, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.  But I digress. 

Once the egg sub is blended, add it to the veggies in the pan.  Mix well, then scrape into quiche dish, distributing evenly.  Bake 35 minutes (or as long as needed) in a 350F oven then enjoy this delicious frittata!

Tasty Thursday: Sauerkraut!

I love, love, love fermented food and am expanding my horizons and beginning to make it myself.  This is my second batch of sauerkraut, curing in a gallon canning jar on the counter.  I wish I'd researched sooner because now that I have discovered how insanely easy it is to make I'll never purchase it again. 

The ingredients are 2lbs. cabbage to one tablespoon sea salt.  That's it!  You can of course adjust to whatever quantity of cabbage you have to work with.   I used beautiful heirloom conical heads from our organic farm share and decided to add a little dehydrated organic dill to this batch.  We are all crazy for dill in this house so I think we'll like it.  Next batch I'm going to experiment with adding some finely shredded carrot.

Remove the tough outer leaves and reserve, then simply slice the cabbage into thin strips, place it in a large bowl and add the salt.  Knead and massage the cabbage with your hands, working the salt into it.  The mixture will become very wet and the cabbage will begin to shrink as it releases its fluids.  Once it is nice and mixed, transfer to a jar or crock by the handful, tamping it down with your fist every now and then.  Push it down enough so that the fluid rises to cover the shredded cabbage.  When you have added all of the cabbage to the vessel and tamped it down firmly cover with the leaves.  This is important because the leaves will help keep the shredded cabbage fully submerged and prevent mold growth.  In order to keep the mixture firmly held down place a water-filled jar or zipper bag on top of the hard outer leaves.

Tamp down daily.  I began tasting the first batch at five days out.  My family began eating it at seven days out so I placed it in the fridge at that time.  I can't say how long it lasts because around here it was consumed in a week.

Have you ever made sauerkraut?  Did you add anything besides salt and cabbage to it?  I'd love to hear your ideas and experiences.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Pickled Watermelon Rind

So we got this gorgeous little organic watermelon from our farm share and I thought it was a shame to throw away so much rind.  I've never done anything with watermelon rind before but I really wanted to find a way to use this organic food rather than discard it so we gave this recipe from Eco Lesbo Vego a try.  Being only eleven weeks out from surgery I'm not planning to eat more than a taste but I know the rest of the family will enjoy it. 

Here are the ingredients I went with:
half the rind of a small, round, organic watermelon cut into 1" chunks, white only, skin completely removed and discarded
1 cup water
1 cup Bragg's apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup organic sugar

Simply combine vinegar, water and sugar in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved.  Add rind, stir, then turn off heat and leave mixture to cool.  Once at room temperature transfer rind and liquid to jars.  This quantity yielded two pint and a half jars.  (Did you spot my scoby photobombers in the picture above?)

This is not a recipe meant for canning and must be stored in the refrigerator.  Enjoy!

Lesson Learned: Tomato Sauce

I would have liked for this to be a Tasty Thursday feature, but instead it is a lesson learned.  These beautiful tomatoes are some of the last of the season's bounty from our CSA.  I decided to make some more tomato sauce before we left on vacation for five days.  I cut all the large red tomatoes, then thought I might throw in a few of the yellow cherry tomatoes.  Now, I've made sauce with red cherry tomatoes, red and yellow heirloom, red plum tomatoes, you name it.  But I've never used the yellow cherries.  For some reason they made the sauce taste 'off'.  We did eat it, but it wasn't the best.  Next CSA season I will know better. 

Tasty Thursday: Crockpot Red Beans and Veggies

It's a rainy fall day here so that calls for soup, right? I had a crock pot lentil soup recipe I had wanted to try but when I looked in my bean stash I discoverd I had only red lentils and in my experience those tend to get very soft very quickly so I wasn't sure if they'd work for that recipe. But I did have red beans so this is what went into my crockpot:

1 bag dry red beans, rinsed
5 cups water
1 cup chopped CSA onion
3/4 cup chopped celery (have I ever mentioned I love cooked celery but dislike raw?)
1 cup carrots, sliced into half moons and quarters
1 tsp fresh CSA thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
3 garlic scapes, chopped
1/2 tsp Applewood smoked sea salt (I added more to mine at the table)

Cook four hours on HIGH, serve over rice if desired.

Tasty Thursday: Italian Casserole

Recently I ordered five pounds of spinach powder.  The price was right and I had been under the impression it could be subbed out directly for flour in recipes.  This is my first attempt at cooking with it and I have to admit the results were delicious.

3/4 cup Bob's Red mill GF blend
1/2 cup spinach powder
1/2 a purple CSA onion, chopped
a couple of generous handfuls of fresh spinach from the farmer's market
egg replacer to equal 3 eggs
1 1/2 cups almond milk
a sprinkle of minced garlic
2 gorgeous CSA tomatoes, sliced
2 cups Daiya shreds
3 Tbsp Earth Balance
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350, coat 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.  Mix together all ingredients except for fresh spinach and tomato.

Line bottom of pan with spinach, top with tomato slices. 

Pour mixture over veggies in pan, spreading it out to all the edges.  Bake 35-40 minutes.  Cut into squares and enjoy!

Have you ever cooked with spinach powder?  Do you have any ideas you can share with me? I promise to play around with whatever I can and post about the results.

Gorgeous CSA Eggplant

How can you not love something that looks like that?

I baked a few slices until they were nice and crunchy chips - SO good!

Tasty Thursday: Farm Rainbow Chard and Scallions

A small bunch of beautiful Rainbow chard from our CSA.  I chopped up a few scallions and tossed it all in a cast iron frying pan with a little tap water. 

Yummy!

Tasty Thursday: Organic Chinese Cabbage and Scallions

The HUGE head of Chinese Cabbage I picked up with our CSA share this week has my pot overflowing!  I combined it with a couple of CSA scallions, added a little Simply Organic dried ground ginger and a bit of tap water. 

I have to confess that I rarely use fresh ginger - I can't buy a small enough piece for it to get used before it goes to waste.  Has anyone reading here dehydrated ginger?  Can you tell me about your experience?

As the Clutter Leaves, More Projects Get Worked On.

I had this fabric laminated more than a year ago. My plan for it was to line the shelves of my large hutch, sew appliance covers and cut a tablecloth from it. The nonlaminated fabric was to become napkins, window valances and a room divider for the laundry area. I got some gorgeous silk for sheers for the windows. It has sat there mocking me for some time now. Today when I went to change the tablecloth I found myself walking into the sewing room to lay my hands on this fabric. Happily, I have a brand new tablecloth and one long shelf lined. Hubby even asked where I got the nice new tablecloth. I'm back to work tomorrow, so no more progress this week, but I do plan to get this project completed over my next few days off. The room really needs the change, plus the cats are too interested in the long curtains. It's time to make some cute little short ones.




How gorgeous does that farm food look on my new tablecloth?

Tasty Thursday: Another Variation on Chickpea Salad

I've decided not to call this 'Mock Tuna Salad' any more. First, because there's nothing mocking about it, the stuff tastes great. And second because why promote the eating of fish in any way, even if just using the name of a fish dish to describe a delicious, vegan dish.

This variation has the usual can of TJ's chick peas and Vegenaise. The greens are CSA salad mix. I'm trying to go easy on the salt lately because I'm so darned addicted to it so I used granulated onion instead. And the new ingredient?

Flor de Izote in brine. Yum. Adds a nice tang and just a bit of crunch. I saw a big jar of it in the International section of our little local market and thought it looked interesting. At $5.49 the jar is a bit pricey but I thought it was large enough to last quite a few meals so I gave it a try. I'm glad I did!

Frustration at the Farmer's Market

Today I went to the Farmer's Market. Our local market is quite small but always worth stopping by. I got my hubby some nice dry Italian sausage at one stand.

At another I inquired as to whether the beautiful gluten-free items were also vegan. I was quickly told no, all items had both eggs and butter. I smiled, said 'thanks anyway' and started to walk away. The vendor stopped me to hand me her card. I told her I appreciated the effort but I am a vegan, and my daughter (who was not present), while still eating eggs, is an otherwise animal-ingredient free vegetarian. She seemed to become short of patience with me when she started to tell me she could make cupcakes that were vegan. I nodded and told her that baking vegan/gluten free was not easy, was a challenge I'd been up against for years and that I understood. She persisted in telling me how hard it is to make cookies vegan/gf, etc. I finally extracted myself from the situation wondering what she had hoped to accomplish. Did she expect me to suddenly not be sensitive (morally or physically) to animal products?

As I made my way back to my car I spotted nice quarts of sour cherries for $3. Stopping to buy some I experienced frustration #2 of the local market. I asked the woman not to bag them, since I had bags in the car. She nodded vacantly at me and picked up a plastic bag. I held out my hand and said, 'no bag necessary' thinking that maybe she hadn't heard me the first time, but she continued to bag them, then set them in front of me and asked 'is that bag, ok?' I gave up, it wasn't worth trying to explain when she clearly wasn't listening. So I hand her a nice, crisp $10 and apologize for not having a smaller bill. She hands me back two singles. I stop a minute, waiting for the $5 but she starts to go back to her chair. I politely tell her I gave her a 10, to which she says 'and I gave you back 7'. Meanwhile I'm standing in front of her dangling two singles from one hand and one single in the other hand which had originally held $11 till I gave the $10 to her. She stood there a moment, then begrudgingly gave me a $5 bill.

I guess I'll stick with my CSA, despite the fact that I don't get much fruit there. The people are such sweethearts I must be spoiled by them.