Sopa de Espinaca [Vegan]

The easiest and most delicious soup, converted to be vegan (and cheaper). Simply add some water to a pot, plop in the goodies and let cook. Let it cool, then blend! 

Add in a spinach leaf if you want to be fancy and that is it!

Ingredients:

>> Approximately 4 potatoes
>> 2 onions
>> 2 cloves of garlic
>> 1-2 hot peppers of your choice
>> A sprig of ginger
>> water
>> Salt to taste

        Grill the onions in a large pan until browned, add in the potatoes (both diced) and cook in olive oil. Once the onions have browned, add in the rest of the goodies and then enough water in the pan to cover the vegetables generously, plus about two inches (more if you want it to be thinner). 

The end.

Asparagus Gruyere Tart

       This delicious tart, is ridiculously tasty, albeit hard to say. For those of you whom are simply less elite, don't feel bad that you perhaps have never tasted "gruyere"for it is of the gods (also I hadn't either). Alas, the damned Martha Stewart made it look so darn yummy, so I had to try. So be bold, be brave, (not cheap) and indulge your taste buds-I dare you.

                                    

                                              See the recipe above. Simply add a dabble of this, and tad bit of that: I chose to add in some walnuts, and a whole lemon to the olive oil dressing to give it that extra jazz. Plus, but of course some lemon-pepper and garlic powder.                                                    You'll need two puff pastry sheets, and remember to thaw them out well in advance for best results. If you forget however, a quick thaw trick without jeopardizing the goods is to simply place the puff pastry on the top of the oven while it is heating up, flipping every so often.          

The recipe ended up calling for two bunches of asparagus, the whole thing of puff pastry and way too much cheese. Let's be honest..gruyere cheese is expensive, so I used half of what the recipe called for.  

Instead, I supplemented the "nut-rich flavored cheese" with the walnuts to still keep intact that taste of the 1% ;) 

Once the puff pastry is thawed, unfold onto floured cookie sheet, painting with water on any cracks (ass above). Then swoop a fork and poke little holes half an inch from the perimeter, this will allow for good aeration. 

Cook the puff at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until the puff is puffed and looking a bit golden. Meanwhile trim the ends of the asparagus and prep the olive oil and lemon dressing. Plus grate the cheese and cut the walnuts up.

Broadcast the cheese over the puff, then alternating from head to toe of the asparagus lay the guys as close together as possible. Sprinkle with the dressing, the garlic powder and nuts. Then plop in the oven and cook for approximately 25 - 30 minutes at 400 until the smells dry all into the kitchen, it shouldn't take too long ;)

Dolmas [Vegan]

A quick recipe for delicious dolmas, ingredients: anything you have in your fridge. 

Dolmas Recipe:

 >> 2 Onions

 >> 4 Carrots

 >> 2 cups of rice (preferably long white, as it absorbs the flavors better)

 >> 3 tomatoes, diced

 >> Half jar of grape leaves (Sadaf is a pretty good company)

 >> A hot peeper, simply because I like spice in everything

 >> Juice of 1 whole lemon

 >> A handful of mushrooms (I used dry, but fresh are even better!)

 >> A few cloves of garlic

 >> Salt + Pepper to taste ;)

Toast rice in ghee, until some pop. Add in some water and let cook for twenty minutes or so. You want the rice to be partially cooked, later you will cook the rest. Add in your tomatoes, and let sit. 

Simultaneously as the rice is cooking, add in your onions and carrots and sauté! Add in the hot pepper and let cook, plop in the minced garlic and lemon juice. Once this is well cooked, combine with the rice and tomatoes. Mix well and get ready to stuff. 

Dolmas mean "to stuff", so take the pickled leaves out the jar carefully and begin by placing a teaspoon to a tablespoon, depending on size at the base of the leaf. 

Steam the bazillions of dolmas (stacking) for about 20 minutes and then let cool. 

Served best cold and with the company of friends. 

Kugel

   Kugel, one of my favorite dishes that if you try to make it vegan..it is simply disgusting. This has sour cream, cottage cheese and all of that other stuff that gives Jews heart attacks from high cholesterol.

   That being said, it is scrumptious, delicious and one of my favorite dessert dishes to make during the High Holidays. *Recipe from my Momma ; )

   Gather your ingredients, I found all of them at the local Trader Joe's..even the egg noodles.

* Add in any other yummies that you think would be yummy to add to the top for crunch or inside.

Collard Green Wraps [Vegan]

Delicious, nutritious, cheap and vegan! A quick and easy recipe that leaves your tongue tingling with spice. This past quarter I took Steve Gliessman's Agroecology course at the University of California, Santa Cruz; a great hands-on class that also had an amazing 2-unit lab. 

 Throughout the ten weeks we worked every Wednesday out on the CASFS Farm doing various experiments, the particular one that I am referring to was with collard greens and green beans intercropped system. Meaning that each week, we got to harvest (for scientific purposes but of course)...which equals delicious and copious amounts of free and organic food to make up new recipes with!

Fold that shit*

Furthermore, my old special someone got this new book "100 Foods to Stay Young" and it has an alphabetical list by food category, accompanied with a recipe...the best part is that next to the recipe for each one there is a nutritional content, so I thought I would do some research of my own. I present you with the following:

Health Benefits:

Collard greens are an amazing cruciferous vegetable oh my goodness, to be honest I was eating them for the iron, but man of man. Collards have cancer preventative properties, as in give me another helping! The cancer-preventive properties of collard greens may be largely related to 4 specific glucosinolates found in this cruciferous vegetable: glucoraphanin, sinigrin, gluconasturtiian, and glucotropaeolin. Each of these glucosinolates can be converted into an isothiocyanate (ITC) that helps lower our cancer risk by supporting our detox and anti-inflammatory systems.

This connection between collard greens and cancer prevention should not be surprising since collard greens provide special nutrient support for three body systems that are closely connected with cancer development as well as cancer prevention. These three systems are (1) the body's detox system, (2) its antioxidant system, and (3) its inflammatory/anti-inflammatory system. 

To get the most health benefits from collard greens, it is recommended to let them sit for a minimum of 5 minutes before cooking, sprinkling with lemon juice to help activate their myrosinase enzymes and increase formation of beneficial isothiocyanates in the greens (and flavor). 


Collard Green Wraps (and yes, they are Vegan):  
1 1/2 c. of Dahl
2 Green Serrano Peppers (any hot pepper would suffice)
1 c. of diced tomatoes
Enough collards to wrap up the insides

Make grain of your choice, I went with dahl (split garbanzo beans) and added in the diced tomatoes, and peppers. Selected some massive sized collard greens and wrapped them on up, them steam for ten. Also makes a perfect appetizer if you make them smaller, just saying ;)

Toto Postes (Honduran Style)

Toto Postes are the equivalent to our biscotti's, they are these hard corn cookies. Dip them in some coffee, and they are the most delicious ever! 

The tradition goes: you have your merienda (snack), which consists of a cup of coffee, a toto poste, and a spoon. You drop the cookie in, and when you finish drinking, eat it up with the spoon.

5lb de maiz

1 lb. de quajada

2 containers de margarina

2 lb. de azucar

2 sodas

½ de mantequilla

sal pisca

½ lb. de manteca

2 huevos

Pictured above is the President of Grupo de Mujeres of San Fernando, Yamaranguila. The women's group functions such that each member rotates taking on the various roles within the community so they all gain the experience.  They meet once a week, as a minimum and bake various treats to sell throughout the community. This week, when I photographed they were making hundreds of toto postes!

Mix up all the ingredients and then shape into rounds, pinching each end to form a circle. Once you have them all set, pop them in the oven and bake until they are nice and browned. 

The corn will turn from a light golden cream color to browned and dandelion yellow. Unfortunately, since they used a wood fire adobe style outside oven, I can't say how hot or for how long you should bake..so best of luck!

Strawberry + Rhubarb Galettes!

Start by prepping all of your ingredients for the filling: 

• 1/2 c. of sugar in a saucepan (add a tid bit of water on a med. heat)
• 2 c. of rhubarb
• 1 1/2 c. of strawberries
• 2 T of tapioca flour/powder
• 2 T balsamic vinegar
• Pinch of cinnamon

For the dough:

• 2 - 2 1/2  c. of whole wheat flour
• 1 stick of butter (yes this is NOT vegan)
• 1/2 c. applesauce
• Salt

Knead the dough until it can stay together on its own. Split dough into smaller balls of desired size. Add flour to a clean surface and role out until desired thickness (I like 1/2 cm). 

Roll out dough, transport onto parchment sheet (on a cookie sheet). Place the goop of goodies bam smack in the center and fold in each edge going around in one direction until you reach the beging, pinch to seal. Preheat the oven 375 degrees * you will be baking for approx. 15 minutes, or until the dough is golden and feels cooked upon touch. The insides if stuffed with lots of goodies should be bubbling and oozing over the edges. Slash just saying, this is would be quite delicious served right out of the oven with some vanilla ice cream.