Category: Kale

Veggie and Tofu Quiche

7/18/2015

We spent the 4th of July weekend with some friends up in Maine. It was a great weekend getting out into nature and hanging out with friends. There were 10 of us and rest of the group was getting eggs and bacon to have for the breakfasts. Since that would take up a lot of space on the stove, I looked for something that didn't need the stove and didn't add too many cooks in the kitchen all at once, plus it had to be delicious and tempting to all the meat eaters. I decided to make a quiche - I could make it ahead of time and just heat it up in the oven, it was self-contained to one dish, and it was delicious and shareable.

I made the dish the night before we left and it was pretty simple. I chopped up all the veggies and sauteed them on the stove to cook the liquid out. Making the filling is as easy as blending together tofu, non-dairy milk, and spices. I used puff pastry as the dough since that was all I could find last minute. I would recommend a couple other crusts I've used before. The puff pastry did the trick but it was super flaky and messy after it was cooked.

The quiche was a big hit with the group. While they had eggs, bacon, and sausage it eat, everyone went back for seconds on my quiche. After breakfast the first morning there was just enough left for me to eat for breakfast the next day - no more sharing! I'm so glad I decided to make this, it's a great recipe to have in my back pocket and you can put whatever veggies you have on hand. I used kale, onions, mushrooms, and sun dried tomatoes, but some other great options would be broccoli, peppers, eggplant, squash, the list goes on.

Ingredients:
4 oz Mushrooms
Large Bunch of Kale
1/2 Cup Sun-dried Tomatoes
1 Small Onion
14 oz Tofu
1/2 Cup Non-Dairy Milk
1/2 Cup Nutritional Yeast
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon Sea or Pink Salt (Pink will have more of an egg taste)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 Cup Vegg Vegan Egg (optional but adds more of an egg taste)
Thawed Puff Pastry

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Servings: 10

Instructions:
If using a frozen crust (like my puff pastry was) make sure it is defrosted. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Chop your veggies and saute them over medium heat. I started with the onions and let them sweat a bit, them added the sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and kale. In total you should be sauteing for about 10-15 minutes.

Combine the tofu, non-dairy milk, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Vegg in a food processor and blend until smooth. You can adjust the seasonings to taste.

Turn off the heat on the veggies and add in the tofu filling. Mix until well combined.

Add the puff pastry to a nine-inch pie pan. Pour the filling into the pan. Put in the oven and bake for 50 minutes.

Let cool. Serve and enjoy!

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Lucky Green Bowl

3/15/2015

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Looking for something healthy to make for St. Patrick's Day? Look no further! This bowl is chock full of awesome, healthy, greenness. It's got edamame, broccoli, basil, salad greens, avocado - what more could you want? You can use it as a side or a main dish. The quinoa and edamame provide a ton of filling protein. The avocado and pine nuts give you some healthy fats. And the broccoli has a ton of potassium and vitamin C. Eating this just makes you feel good! You know you're treating your body well, it tastes great, it fills you up, and you feel festive!

Plus, it's super easy to make. Steam the broccoli a bit. Add all the pesto ingredients in a food processor or blender. Then dump everything in a bowl and mix it together - how easy is that? It's so easy I forgot to take pictures of it all! There weren't that many steps to document!

I made this for a St. Patrick's themed going away party at work (full of a ton of non-vegans) and it was a big hit!

Ingredients:
1 Cup Edamame
1 Small - Medium Sized Head of Broccoli
1 Cup Cooked Quinoa
1 Avocado
1 Cup Greens

Pesto Ingredients:
1 Cup Basil
1/2 Cup Pine Nuts
1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Cloves Garlic

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Servings: 3-4 as an entree

Instructions:
Chop up the broccoli so that you are left with small pieces of the heads - remove all the stems. You don't want the pieces of broccoli to be too much bigger than the edamame so that everything blends together well. Add the broccoli to a pot with enough water to cover about 1/2 of the broccoli. If you have a steaming basket feel free to use it. In that case the water should be below the basket. Cook for about 5 minutes, just so that the broccoli can be easily pierced with a fork.

While that is cooking add all the pesto ingredients to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Slice open an avocado, remove the pit, and slice the avocado into cubes.

If you have large greens, chop them up into smaller pieces.

Add everything to a bowl and mix together. Serve and Enjoy!

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Chik'n and Veggie Macaroni and Cheese

1/19/2015

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Yesterday I posted about Chik'n Alfredo Pizza and mentioned how the sauce that I made was double what I needed. I used the rest of the sauce to make this recipe. It was one of those nights where I needed to make something quick and just threw together what I had. That being said, the vegetables I used are totally interchangeable.

I'd just opened the Beyond Meat chicken so I wanted to keep on using it in case it went bad faster once it was open. It was a nice change of pace to the pasta dishes I've been eating recently and reminded me of the chicken and pasta stir fries that dominated so many of my dinners growing up. I've been really impressed at how long this one package of chicken is lasting. According to the package one serving is 6 strips, but I've only been using 6 strips per recipe, which makes it a much more economical option.

As you'll see below, it comes together really quickly. The timing really depends on what kind of vegetables you use and how soft you want them to be. The veggies and pasta cook at the same time, then you add the pasta and sauce to the veggies just to let the sauce heat up, and voila! You'll notice there aren't a lot of spices you add to this dish, because the sauce has so much flavor in it.

Ingredients:
1/2 Butternut Squash Cheese Sauce Recipe
1/3 Box of Bow Tie (or your favorite) Pasta
6 Strips of Beyond Meat chicken, sliced in thirds
1 Cup Kale
1/2 Cup Sliced Carrots
1/2 Cup Diced Onion

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Servings: 2 servings

Instructions:

Cook carrot and onions in a pan with a little bit of water until the carrots have softened a bit. You don't need to add any seasonings because the sauce is so flavorful.

Meanwhile cook the pasta according to the package directions. You'll want it a little al dente because the pasta will cook more with the veggies.

Chop up the kale and add it to the pan once the carrots and onions are just about done. Add the pasta and sauce to the pan with the veggies and stir all together. Cook until everything is warmed.

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Slow Cooker Vegan Lasagna

12/15/2014

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What a winning recipe! I like making slow cooker recipes when I'm home on the weekend. I was looking through my cookbook Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Patalsky and was inspired to make a vegan lasagna. I used tofu to make the ricotta and added tempeh to tomato sauce to make it resemble a meat sauce. Jay loved it! Here are some of his quotes while finishing his plate:

"Definitely Jay Approved!"
"I can't tell that this is vegan at all!"
"The tempeh tastes exactly like ground beef!"
"One of your better ones!"

He kept on raving on the texture of the tempeh and how it worked perfectly for ground beef!

This lasagna has tofu and tempeh in it - so it's packed with protein! Definitely a hearty meal. It doesn't serve quite as easily from the slow cooker since your slices will be taller than from a lasagna dish, so not every piece will include every layer. You can also cook this in the oven if you prefer.

Ingredients:
1 small onion
1 package tempeh
1 teaspoon vegan Worcester sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 large bunch of fresh cooking greens (I used kale) or two packages frozen
2 jars tomato sauce
1/2 package no boil lasagna noodles

Tofu Ricotta:
1 package firm tofu
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon onion powder

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

Servings: 6 generous portions

Instructions:

To make the tempeh meat sauce: Dice onions and cook over medium heat until translucent. Crumble the tempeh and add to the pan. Add the soy sauce and Worcester sauce and stir to coat the tempeh. Combine with the tomato sauce.

To make the tofu ricotta: Press the tofu to remove excess water. Crumble it into a bowl and add the nutritional yeast, minced garlic, and onion powder.

If you're using fresh greens, chop them up and heat them in a pan with a little water just to wilt them a bit.

Oil the bottom of your crock pot and layer the ingredients inside. Start with the tomato sauce, then a layer of noodles, followed by the tofu ricotta and greens and then start over again with the sauce. After you've placed the top layer of noodles pour the rest of the sauce on top. Cook on high for 1.5 hours or on low for 3 hours. Serve and enjoy!

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Cashew Chik'n and Vegetable Stir Fry

12/14/2014

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Jay had been saying how he wanted something with peanut sauce after I made the spaghetti squash with peanut sauce the other day. I thought that I would mix it up a bit and use tahini to make a sesame sauce. I wanted a recipe that would use my winter vegetables and all the cooking greens that I had and I thought a stir fry would be great.

I used bean starch noodles, also referred to as cellophane or glass noodles. There are other varieties made with potatoes or starches. You can find them in the Asian food aisle at the grocery store. They are normally packaged in three bundles of dried noodles. I normally use one bundle at a time. The package says it has three servings, but once you add in vegetables that one serving goes a long way. Jay has always been creeped out by them and this time was no different. If you don't like glass noodles you can use any other type of Asian noodle.

I used the rest of the seitan from the stew I made last week, about a half a cup. Jay thought it did a good job of filling in for chicken and was pleasantly surprised by the texture.

Ingredients:
1 bundle bean starch (or other Asian) noodles
1 carrot
1 medium sweet potato
4 oz mushrooms
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
1 apple

1 bunch cooking greens (kale, chard, mustard greens, collards, etc.)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Sauce:
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon sambaal oleek or sriracha or red pepper flakes (optional)

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4

Instructions:

Cook the noodles to package directions.

While the noodles are cooking, chop up all your vegetables in the order you'll cook them - garlic, onion, carrot, sweet potato, apple, mushrooms, greens. I like to start cooking the heavier vegetables while I chop the rest. Heat the garlic and onion over medium heat until the onions begin to turn translucent. Add the carrots and sweet potato and cook for about 5 minutes, then add the apples, mushrooms, and seitan. Finally, add the greens and let them wilt.

To make the sauce combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together. This makes enough sauce for a light coating, so if you want more you can increase the portion size of each ingredient. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and stir to evenly coat the dish.

I generally find that cellophane noodles tend to be very long, so after I drain them I like to put the whole pile on my cutting board and slice them once or twice. Combine the vegetables with the noddles. Serve and top with cashews. Enjoy!

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Purple Carrot Stew

12/3/2014

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Purple carrots? yep! Purple is actually carrots original color - orange didn't become the standard color until the late 1600s when the Dutch bred them to be orange in honor of William of Orange. While there are slight difference in flavor based on the color of a carrot, they all generally taste like carrots, so don't be cautious about trying different colors - it'll just add more nutrient variety into your diet, which is something we should all strive for. Since I was using sweet potatoes I thought I would use purple carrots instead of the typical orange to balance out the color in the dish - instead I just turned the whole thing purple.

So you can thank purple carrots for the lovely color of this stew, which turned my sweet potato stew into purple carrot stew. There is something about purple vegetables (I'm looking at you beets) that dyes everything they come in contact with more so than the pigment in any other vegetable. Next time I prepare purple carrots I'll have to cook them on their own, like grilling or roasting.

I added seitan into this dish as a protein source. If you don't have any, fear not, you can easily use beans, tempeh, tofu, or a grain instead - I actually got them all out and deliberated over which I wanted to use. For those who haven't had it before, seitan is an ancient Chinese protein source made with wheat gluten, water, and spices, in it's most basic sense.

Ingredients:
1/2 Onion
1 Cup Almond Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 1/2 Cup Water
2 Large Carrots, chopped
2 Medium Sweet Potatoes, chopped
1 Sprig of fresh Thyme
1 Cup Seitan (sub beans, tempeh, or tofu to make it gluten free), chopped to the same size as the carrots and potatoes
1/2 Cup Lentils
2 Cups Kale, chopped
2 teaspoons Ginger
1 teaspoon Garlic

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Servings: 4

Instructions:

Dice the onion and heat it in a large sauce pan on medium heat with a little bit of water or oil until it becomes translucent. Add the milk, water, carrots, potatoes, and thyme. Cover and cook on low heat for about an hour.

Add the seitan and lentils and cook for another 45 or until the lentils have absorbed enough water to your desired consistency. I prefer stews over soups, which is why I added in the lentils (to absorb the water), so you can add more water or cook for less time if you water it to be soupier.

Add the kale, garlic, and ginger and stir until the kale is wilted. Serve and enjoy! Store any leftovers for lunch!

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Southwestern Pizza

11/24/2014

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This is another recipe inspired by the awesome Vegan Richa (I told you she was one of my favorites).

I'd had pizza dough from Something GUD in the freezer for a while so Jay and I decided to finally make something with it. I let him pick from my Pinterest list of vegan pizzas and this is the one he picked! It was delicious and soooo filling. We divided the pizza into 6 slices and each only had one slice. Jay not only approved of the dish as a whole, but also the Teese Vegan Mozzarella and the dough individually. Jay had to taste the cheese ahead of time before he let me put it on the whole pizza and said it tasted exactly like mozzarella. It melted really well too.

I don't have a pizza stone, so I rolled my dough in a rectangle in order to get it to fit onto the cookie sheet. The original recipe called for spinach, but I had kale and thought it would be a good way to get some into Jay's diet, so I used that instead.

Ingredients:
Pizza dough
1 Cup Kale (or other cooking greens)
2 Cups (1 can) cooked beans - kidney, black, or pinto work best
1 Cup of sliced tomatoes
1/2 package Teese mozzarella (or other vegan cheese)
1/2 Cup BBQ sauce
1/4 Cup corn
1 Avocado

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
Servings: 6

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roll out dough until it is about 1/4 of an inch thick. Sprinkle a cookie sheet (or pizza stone) with cornmeal or place parchment paper on it. Cook the pizza dough for about 5 minutes on each side, so that its firm enough to hold up on its own, but not cooked all the way.

While the dough is cooking, prep your toppings. Chop/rip up your kale into smaller pieces.

Place toppings on top of dough in this order: kale, tomatoes, beans, cheese, corn, BBQ sauce.

Put the pizza back in the oven and cook for 15 or 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the dough has a nice golden brown color to it.

Let the pizza cool a bit, add avocado, and enjoy!

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Stuffed Acorn Squash

11/19/2014

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Stuffed squash is a great recipe to make on those days when you have a ton of random vegetables in your fridge and you don't know what to do with them. Just chop them all up and make some filling for a stuffed squash! If you don't have any squash the filling could also be used as a side dish or as a topping for baked potatoes. What's great too is that you can customize the flavor of your dish based on the spices you add. If you're full fledged into fall mode you can add some sage, nutmeg, cinnamon, and even pumpkin pie seasoning! Or make it spicy with cumin, paprika, and red pepper flakes.

Ingredients:
2 Small Acorn Squash
1/2 Cup Barley (or your favorite grain - quinoa, rice, farro, millet, etc.)
1 Small onion
1 Bell Pepper
1 Small head of broccoli
2 Carrots
1 Cup of Kale (or greens of your choice - collars, spinach, chard, etc.)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Serves: 4

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash with the cut side down into a glass dish with 1/4 inch of water in the bottom and cook for at least 30 minutes or until the squash is soft when poked with a fork. This will vary depending on the thickness of your squash. Once they reach the desired softness, remove them from the oven, drain the liquid, and return them to the dish, cut side up.

Meanwhile, cook grains according to package directions. Here is a quick guide to cooking times for various different grains.

While your grains and squash are cooking, prepare the rest of the filling. Chop your vegetables into your preferred size. If you want your carrots, pepper, and broccoli to be softer I would recommend chopping them smaller. Add some water (or oil) to a pan and cook the onions on medium heat, stirring frequently. Once the onions are translucent, add the carrots, bell pepper, broccoli, and greens, in that order. Continue adding water as needed to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan. Add the spices and cook for about 5 minutes, depending on how soft you like your vegetables, keeping in mind that they will continue to soften in the oven.

Add the cooked and rinsed grains into the vegetable mixture and stir until well combined. Scoop the mixture into the squash halves and return the squash to the oven. Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes. Enjoy!

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Roasted Cauliflower, Pear, and Kale

11/9/2014

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I finally had a chance to do some cooking this weekend and use some of the ingredients that I got in my Something GUD delivery last week. I've been thinking all week of how to use the cauliflower and I thought roasting it would be a great way to increase the flavor while maintaining its interesting structure. Jay however, did not agree with me. The spiky cauliflower pieces scared him too much so he was unable to try the dish.

I added the pears for some moisture and flavor and recently saw a recipe for roasted kale on Pinterest so I thought I would try adding some as well. Unless I cut it up really small, I'm not a really a fan of raw kale so I'm always looking for a way to new ways to cook it.

Ingredients:
1 Head of Cauliflower
2 Pears (mine were Bosc)
2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Tablespoon dried Sage
1 Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
1 Bunch of Kale

Prep Time: 10-15 Minutes

Cook Time: 30 Minutes

Servings: 3-4

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Prep the ingredients - chop the cauliflower and kale and slice the pears. Make sure you only use the leaves of the kale and not the ribs.
Add the cauliflower and pears to a glass casserole dish. Sprinkle the apple cider vinegar, pepper, sage and red pepper flakes over the kale and cauliflower.
Roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Add the kale and roast for 10 more minutes.
I only used about 2 leaves worth of the kale in the casserole dish. I put the rest on a cookie sheet and roasted them on their own (with some red pepper flakes).
Use as a side to a main dish or combine with rice, quinoa, or another grain to make an entree.

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Veggie and Tofu Quiche

Lucky Green Bowl

Chik'n and Veggie Macaroni and Cheese

Slow Cooker Vegan Lasagna

Cashew Chik'n and Vegetable Stir Fry

Purple Carrot Stew

Southwestern Pizza

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Roasted Cauliflower, Pear, and Kale

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