Pasta Stir Fry with Beet Greens

We've gotten beets several times from our CSA and thankfully the greens have always been included. You can use beet greens in any recipe that calls for greens. They're a little more delicate than kale or collards, though they don't cook quite as fast as spinach. We got shiitake mushrooms once too so I threw together this stir fry one night and we had it with pasta.

1 lb. pasta, cooked
2 Tbs. peanut oil
1 carrot, sliced diagonally
1 bunch beet greens, sliced
3 oz. shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 spring onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp. minced ginger
cilantro for garnish

For the sauce, whisk all this together in a small bowl:
1 c. veg. broth
1 Tbs. rice vinegar
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 tsp. maple syrup
1 Tbs. cornstarch

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large wok or skillet. Add carrot and cook for 2-3 minutes stirring frequently. Add beet greens and mushrooms and cook several more minutes until all the veggies are starting to get tender. Add onion, garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Stir in the sauce and cook just until it starts to thicken. Finally, add the pasta, mix well and turn off the heat. Serve garnished with chopped cilantro.

Lettuce Wraps

Almost every week so far from our CSA we've gotten two heads of Bibb lettuce. So yes, we've been eating a lot of salads but we also realized early on that the shape of this stuff lends itself perfectly to lettuce wraps. The first time we did them they were totally raw, the next time the filling was cooked. The raw filling recipe we used was the Garden Pate from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. We found this book at our library a while ago and really enjoyed this recipe so I wrote down the ingredient list. I don't remember if there were more detailed instructions but all I do is buzz all this stuff in a food processor until it's well blended:

1 c. raw almonds, soaked in water for several hours then drained
1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. salt
3 carrots
2 stalks celery
1/4 c. chopped onion
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1/2 c. raisins


We also did lettuce wraps with tempeh. I went the quick route and didn't marinate the tempeh first but you might consider marinating it in the soy sauce/maple syrup/lime juice/chili paste mixture. You can use the other half can of bamboo shoots in a stir fry another time.

Tempeh Lettuce Wraps

1 Tbs. peanut oil
1 can water chestnuts
1/2 can bamboo shoots
1 stalk celery
1 medium carrot
8 oz. package tempeh
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
3 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. maple syrup
1 Tbs. lime juice
1/4 tsp. chili paste
2 Tbs. chopped cilantro
1 tsp. sesame oil

Cut the water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, celery, carrot and tempeh into a small dice. Heat the peanut oil in a large skilllet or wok and cook all of the above for 5-10 minutes until the tempeh is starting to brown. Add the ginger and garlic and cook another minute. Then add the soy sauce, maple syrup, lime juice and chili paste and cook several more minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat and stir in the cilantro and sesame oil. Serve wrapped in lettuce leaves.

Product Review: WK Pacs (or Indian cooking made easy)

Recently the folks at Waverly Kitchens asked if we'd like to sample their WK Pacs, which provide a foolproof way to create an authentic Indian meal at home. Not being ones to ever turn down a good Indian meal we were happy to oblige. The WK Pacs include the spices and instructions you need to cook your own three course Indian meal. Ours included the Chola (chickpeas), Potatoes & Peas (a sabji, or dry vegetable dish) and a Spinach Raita (yogurt dish, or soy yogurt in this case).

I've dabbled in Indian cooking before and have even learned some tips from Indian friends in the past but this was probably the most authentic tasting Indian meal I've made. It's all in the spices and that's what you get from the WK Pacs. Plus a shopping list and straightforward instructions. Honestly, I'm not sure if we'll sign up for a subscription but this allowed us to enjoy a great home-cooked Indian meal and there's certainly something appealing about doing that every month.

Back Soon!

I've decided to end the hiatus so I hope we have some readers still out there. Within a week of putting the blog on hiatus we decided to sign up for a CSA for the first time and I've really been wanting to write about the produce we're getting and what we've been doing with it. For starters, we've been getting a lot of lettuce and some nights we'll just have a big salad for dinner. Like this one with two kinds of lettuce, arugula, spinach and radishes all from the CSA, plus carrots and Tofurkey sausages.

We've also done lettuce wraps a couple of different ways. Stay tuned for recipes. Another thing that has inspired me (and all the rest of the vegan world) to cook recently is the release of Vegan Brunch. I'm hoping to find time to delve more deeply into this incredible book but not long ago I did manage to make an awesome tofu omelet with spinach and mushrooms.

Finally, we've had the opportunity to review some cool new products recently so stay tuned for some product review posts as well. Our little guy is 13 months old now and keeping us as busy as ever but I'm hoping to get posts up at least a few times a month. Thanks for sticking around!

Seitan, Mushroom and Veggie Stew

First things first. A recipe will follow but the main point of this post is to announce that I'm putting the blog on hiatus for an indefinite period. This is our 600th post but it'll also be the last for a while. It took two years to get to 500 posts and another year and a half to get another hundred up. Which says something about the amount of time we have now. Not that quantity is more important than quality, but I'm having a harder time with the quality these days too. I'm generally happy with most of the recent posts but I'm struggling more to come up with creative ideas for posts and more importantly, to find the time to actually execute those ideas. Most of our meals lately are repeats of things that have already been posted here. I do have a number of ideas rattling around my brain and I hope to eventually find the time for them. Maybe as I do I'll save them and get back to posting once I have some things in the can.

At any rate, a huge thank you to all our readers for the comments and inspiration these last 3+ years. Keep us in your feed readers or otherwise stay tuned - I hope we'll be back here in the near future. (We're not totally done with blogging either because Darlene is about to start a mommy blog - if you're interested in that, she'll be here.)

Now for the recipe - I had some seitan patties that were seasoned in sort of an Italian sausage style and I was looking for a way to use them. When I went to our local produce market I found some nice broccoli and yellow squash, and also a decent deal on dried porcini mushrooms, so here's what I came up with.


1 c. dried porcini mushrooms
1 c. boiling water
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 lb. seitan, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried marjoram
1/2 ts. dried basil
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 c. red wine
1 medium yellow squash, quartered and sliced
2 c. broccoli florets
1/2 tsp. salt or to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste

In a small bowl, pour boiling water over porcinis, let stand for 15-20 minutes, then drain and dice mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid. Meanwhile, in a large pot, cook onion in olive oil over medium heat for a minute or two then add seitan. Cook for several more minutes until seitan and onion are starting to brown a little then add garlic, marjoram and basil and cook another minute. Add tomatoes and wine and cook a couple more minutes, then add squash, broccoli, salt & pepper, plus the mushrooms and their soaking liquid. Bring to a boil then cover, reduce heat and simmer until broccoli and squash are cooked to your liking, 5-10 minutes. Serve with rice or pasta.

Even Easier Curry

A few months ago I posted about this curry recipe I saw on Good Eats. It was quick and easy but nowadays I'm always looking for quicker and easier. Thankfully an Indian market recently opened right next door to my office. It was there I found this chana masala spice mix.

We tried it once with chickpeas and tomatoes per the package instructions, but I also figured it would be good to use with the aforementioned curry recipe. Oh sure, grinding and/or mixing your own spices is really the way to go but that takes time. For this shortcut I minced a couple cloves of garlic and cooked that in oil with a couple teaspoons of the spice mixture for about 30 seconds. Then I added some frozen veggies and a can of chickpeas and cooked until they were heated through. I added soy yogurt at the end and we had our "curry" over brown rice. Quick and delicious!

Blueberry-Walnut Scones

It was another morning where I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep, so I went into the kitchen to make something for breakfast. Something different from our usual oatmeal that is. My first thought was to make something fun we haven't tried before but with creativity lacking at 6 a.m. I turned to a tried and true recipe - scones from Vegan with a Vengeance. I jazzed them up a bit by adding blueberries and walnuts, the combination of which I think is quite delicious. So now I'm going to cheat a little (ok, a lot) by essentially just copying Isa's recipe here.

3 c. flour (I used 2 c. white and 1 c. whole wheat pastry)
2 Tbs. baking powder
1/4 c. sugar, plus extra for sprinkling on top
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. canola oil
1 1/4 c. soy milk + 2 tsp. cider vinegar
1 c. frozen blueberries (or fresh if you've got 'em)
3/4 c. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400° and lightly oil a sheet pan (or 2). Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl then gently mix in the soy milk/vinegar and canola oil. Now fold in the blueberries and walnuts. Drop by 1/4 cupfuls onto sheet pan, flatten the tops just a bit and sprinkle with a little sugar. Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly browned on the bottom.

Cooking with Beer

I'm not a huge beer drinker but I do like to toss back a cold one now and then. I think it's fun to cook with alcohol too, so when I saw the article on cooking with beer in the latest issue of Vegetarian Times I made it a point to try some of the recipes (4 of the 5 recipes are vegan too - bonus!). Plus this gave me an excuse to pick up a variety pack of local brew. A few days ago I made the Tempeh in Hearty Mushroom-Lager Sauce. It was simple to make and tasted amazing. Basically it's a mix of button and shiitake mushrooms simmered in beer with fried tempeh added at the end. We had it over red quinoa with some nice chard on the side (that I also simmered in beer).


Last night I made the Ale-Braised Cabbage with Leeks, and this was also a winner. Especially with tasty seitan patties on the side. I still have plenty of beer in the fridge so maybe I'll try the black bean chili next.

Food for Baby

Our little one is eating more solids these days and we've been trying to make as much of his food as we can. We occasionally get the pre-packaged stuff but it's not that hard to make food for him ourselves. We buy organic fruits and veggies, fresh where we can but sometimes frozen, and cook them until soft. Then we puree them in a food processor and freeze individual portions in ice cube trays. We store the little cubes in a container in the freezer and then thaw one or two at a time in a ramekin with a bottle warmer (and when I say 'we' I mean the royal 'we' because it's mostly Darlene doing this).

What's been cool for us about doing this is that it's made us appreciate how tasty and beautiful plain unadulturated fruits and veggies can be. What we have on hand at the moment is shown below - apples, cherries, mango, pears, spinach, cauliflower, red lentils, sweet potatoes, carrots and red quinoa.

He's eaten all of these, though with varying degrees of enthusiasm. His favorite fruit is pears and his favorite veggie is sweet potatoes.

Vegan and Cheesey

Not long ago a wonderful vegan friend gave us a gift certificate to Food Fight Grocery. It's the best gift we've received in a long time, and that includes what we got each other for Christmas. We got some yummy snacks (Tings are so addictive!) but perhaps what we were most excited about was the opportunity to try Sheese, the vegan cheese that everyone's talking (or blogging) about. We opted for the sharp cheddar style and the blue style and we already had in mind an application for each one. In the last post I mentioned that we had the cheddar style on a taco soup, but what we really wanted to do was make tacos. We also got a boxed taco filling mix from Food Fight so this was a super-easy weeknight meal. We toasted blue corn taco shells and added the taco filling along with salsa, shredded lettuce and shredded Sheese.


It's been a long time since either of us has had cheese but this stuff really reminded us of the dairy-based stuff (but without the cruelty). It shreds well and tastes great - in fact I'd go so far as to say it's hands down the best vegan cheese I've had.

Another obvious application is pizza. We weren't sure about how tasty the mozzarella style would be so we went the very non-traditional route. Neither of us were vegan in college and we both have had our fair share of Buffalo chicken wings in the past, especially since Darlene grew up in Western New York. Wings are frequently served with blue cheese dressing and we were seeking to create a similar flavor profile using the blue style Sheese. The sauce for our pizza was a mix of equal parts hot sauce and melted Earth Balance margarine. On top of that was some chicken-style seitan; more hot sauce went on top of that, and our pie was topped with the shredded Sheese. It didn't melt all that well but that didn't bother us because this was one awesome pizza! I had some dough and a little of the sauce left so I also made bread sticks topped with the sauce. Quite the fun and tasty meal!