Colcannon – Potatoes and Kale

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Colcannon - Mashed Potatoes with Kale, Garlic, and Thyme

Colcannon

I had never heard of Colcannon until I read the recipe in the wonderful but now extinct Vegan Yum Yum. It is simplicity itself. Although there are many variations, I make it with a lot of kale, as that is so nutritious. Another vegetable in traditional Colcannon is cabbage, which to my taste is a little too strong tasting to eat cooked. You can half the kale and up the soymilk to make a more traditional vegan version of Colcannon.

Like most of my recipes, you can leave out the oil and sauté in ¼ c. water until the onion is translucent. Bouillon is optional but gives the dish some extra flavor. I like Rapunzel for the best taste, and Savory Choice for the lowest fat bouillon. I also like twice the nutritional yeast, but it is a strong flavor which not everybody likes. Once you’ve been a vegan for a while, you might think, as many of us do, that it tastes cheesy.

This can be a one-dish meal, or you can add a salad for more veggies.

Colcannon

Makes about 4 servings
Preparation about 45 minutes
Best served as soon as it’s made

3 large potatoes (about 2 lb. total)
1 T. olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic minced or pressed
1 bunch kale
2 T. fresh or 2 t. dried thyme
Bouillon for 4 cups
2 T. nutritional yeast
½ c. vegan milk (I used soymilk)
½ t. salt
¼ t. ground black pepper

Peel and chop the potatoes. Boil the potatoes in water that just covers them until a knife slips easily off a chunk, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion and garlic until translucent.

Stem and chop the kale into small pieces and cook in a small amount of water about 5 minutes until the leaves are tender.

Pull the fresh thyme leaves off the stems.

When the potatoes are done, mash them with the soymilk, salt, and pepper. Add the thyme, nutritional yeast, and bouillon. (If bouillon is in a cube, dissolve it in ¼ c. hot water.)

Add the kale and stir well.

Tamale Pie with Polenta Type Cornmeal

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Tamale Pie with Tomatoes, Corn and Red Pepper and Red Leaf Kale

Tamale Pie with Polenta Type Cornmeal Topping

There are many different tamale pies, each one good in its own way. This recipe has a cooked cornmeal topping more like polenta than cornbread, although cornbread on the filling in this recipe is good too. You can make this very low fat very easily by sautéing the vegetables in water instead of oil, which I often do.

In the picture, I have red leaf kale. There are usually at least three kinds of kale at Whole Foods, red leaf, green, and dino or Lacinato kale. With each type, you have to take the stem off, which I do by grasping the leaf firmly with a finger on each side of the bottom of the stem. Then I push my finger up the stem and pull the stem away from the leaves. I chop the leaves up fairly small and steam them in a large pan with a little water at the bottom. I like kale, but my husband finds it bitter and eats it with a condiment such as Asian chili paste. I like dino kale the best for salads, it’s a little milder and more tender, but it is harder to stem and I have to cut the stem out with a knife instead of just swooshing my fingers down the stem. Green kale is often seen in display cases, as it doesn’t wilt fast. Surprisingly, though, I don’t find that kale lasts long after I buy it, and it is usually the first vegetable I cook after I shop.

Now, to the entrée!

Tamale Pie

Makes about 4 servings
Preparation about 45 minutes
Can be made ahead
Freezes well

Crust:
1 c. cool water
2 c. boiling water
1 ½ c. cornmeal
½ t. salt
½ t. ground chilies

Filling:
1 T. canola oil (optional)
2 onions
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 t. ground chilies
2 c. cooked drained pinto beans
½ t. salt
1 pasilla or mild chili pepper or a 4 oz. can chilies
3/4 c. (8 oz. can) tomato sauce
1 green or red bell pepper
1 c. corn

Preheat the oven to 350° and lightly oil an 8 x 8 inch baking pan or casserole.

Mix the cornmeal into 1 c. cool water (unless it is course ground, then cook in 3 c. boiling water without adding it to the cool water first). Stir the cornmeal and cool water into the boiling water. Add salt and ground chilies. Stir almost constantly until the mixture is thick. This took about 5 minutes, much less than polenta. Set aside while you make the filling.

Chop 2 onions and sauté in the oil or ¼ c. water until tender, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the chili and bell pepper. Add the peppers, garlic, ground chilies, salt, corn, and tomato sauce to the onion and cook about 5 minutes until the peppers are tender.

Now turn off the heat and put the pintos on top of the vegetables. Mash them with a potato masher until they are mostly mashed. Mix the pintos into the vegetables.

Spread about 2/3rds of the cornmeal mix in the bottom of pan and add the filling. Top with the rest of the cornmeal mix. It needn’t cover the filling completely.

Bake for about 30 minutes until topping is lightly browned.

Adapted from Laurel’s Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Bronwen Godfrey

Green Tea Cake

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Green Tea Cake with Green Tea Buttercream Icing

Green Tea Cake

I always liked green tea ice cream, so this cake was a natural progression for me. I use decaf green tea and brew it in the soymilk I’m going to use in the recipe, then set aside some for the icing and use the rest in the cake. You need to brew it double strong or more to get the flavor to shine through. I find decaf plain green tea at Trader Joe’s. Surprisingly, Whole Foods only has flavored decaf green tea. Of course, if you live easily with caffeine, you can use regular green tea.

I have used food coloring to make the icing greener, but this year I went with a more natural look.

Green Tea Cake

The tea:
4-6 bags (1 t. per bag) green tea
1 3/4 c. soymilk

The flour:
½ c. brown rice flour
¼ c. sorghum flour
¼ c. millet flour
2 T. potato starch
2 T. tapioca starch
½ t. xanthan gum

The cake:
1/3 c. canola oil
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract
1 ¼ c. flour (as above or your preferred mix)
¼ t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
¾ c. sugar

Put the tea in the soymilk and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer about 10 minutes. The milk will become light green. Strain or remove tea bags and measure out 1 ¼ c. Although the milk will have reduced, you should have at least 1 T. left over for the icing. If not, add more soymilk and reserve 1- 2. T. of the mix.

Preheat the oven to 350° and prepare an 8 x 8 inch baking pan by oiling lightly or line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, add the vanilla, almond extract to the 1 ¼ c. tea brewed soymilk.

Meanwhile, mix the flour and xanthan gum (if using gluten free flour) with the baking powder and baking soda and salt. Mix in the sugar. Add this dry mix to the wet ingredients and mix together.

Scrape the batter into the cake pan or fill cupcake liners with about ¼ c. batter for each.

Bake about 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool.

Ice with:
1 ½ c. powdered sugar
3 T. vegan butter
1 t. vanilla extract
½ t. almond extract
1 – 2 T. tea brewed soymilk

Mix together and add food coloring if using.

Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving (1/12th batch) – 249 calories/2.3 g protein/9.4 g fat/40.1 g carohydrate

A peaceful moment

Black and White Bean Soup

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Black Beans and White Cannellini Beans with Carrot, Celery, Onion, and Garlic

Black and White Bean Soup

I was doing a lot of low fat cooking, and invented this soup as an interesting combination of a very healthy and high protein food, beans. My husband likes this. I am grateful to Lauren Ulm for the idea of putting lemon juice in bean soup.

I have used navy beans as well as cannellini beans as the white beans. Both combine well with the black beans. I usually use canned beans. It is said that draining beans helps with any flatulence. I eat beans all the time and have no way of knowing if this does any good, but I generally drain my beans, as it is easier to measure the water for the soup. When my husband, who doesn’t eat nearly as much beans, ate this, he had no problems with digestion.

There are two vegan bouillons in my neck of the world. Savory Choice offers little packets of liquid bouillon that have no fat, if you’re interested in that kind of thing. Rapunzel makes vegan bouillon in delicious cubes which has some fat. I use the latter for anything I cook for people other than myself who are not vegans, as I want the food to be as delicious as possible. For myself, I choose the lower fat bouillon. You need to use several packets, each is for 1 c. liquid, so for this recipe I used four packets, whereas I would have used two cubes of Rapunzel bouillon. The Rapunzel bouillon is much higher in sodium. For a while, I found a Trader Joe’s brand of the Savory Choice kind of bouillon.

I like this soup with potatoes, which you can cook with the soup or add separately cooked potatoes. Any green can substitute for the kale.

Fresh herbs really add to the soup, if you can find them. I can’t grow them, but I try to keep them in the freezer, all chopped and ready to go.

Black and White Bean Soup

Makes about 4 servings
Preparation about 45 minutes
Can be made ahead
Freezes well

4 c. water or vegetable stock
Bouillon for 4 c. liquid
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
12 medium mushrooms
1 bunch kale (optional)
1 ½ c. cooked black beans, drained
1 ½ c. cooked white beans, drained
¼ c. fresh or 1 T. dried sage
¼ c. fresh or 1 T. dried thyme
¼ c. fresh or 1 T. dried rosemary
2 T. lemon juice

Heat the water and bouillon in a large pot. Chop the onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms, and garlic and add to the pot. When the vegetables are tender, add the herbs and beans and kale. Cook over medium heat about 5 more minutes, until hot and bubbling. Add the lemon juice and stir it in.

Waiting for Momma to finish work

Mushroom Squares

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Mushroom Squares with Carrot, Celery, Onion, and Parsley, Served with Mashed Potatoes and Spinach

Mushroom Squares

Here is another special occasion recipe from my first vegetarian cookbook, Diet for a Small Planet, adapted and adapted over the years. Long time readers will know that I love mushrooms, and this is full of the taste of them, with depth created by carrots, celery, onions, and garlic, and a creaminess created by garbanzo beans. Don’t neglect the parsley; it adds another dimension to the dish.

I always serve this with mashed potatoes and a veggie.

Mushroom Squares

Makes 4 large or 6 medium servings
Preparation about 45 minutes, baking about 30
Can be made ahead
Freezes well

1 ½ c. cooked garbanzo beans, drained (about 1 can)
1 T. olive oil
4 stalks celery
4 carrots
12 medium mushrooms
1 ½ c. onion
2 cloves garlic
½ c. fresh parsley
1 ½ t. Ener-G egg replacer whisked in
¼ c. water
1 t. salt
¼ t. ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350° and oil an 8 x 8 inch baking pan or casserole.

Chop the onion, mushrooms, and celery and sauté about 5 minutes in the olive oil or ¼ c. water until the mushrooms are tender and juice and smell is released. Grate the carrots. A grating attachment on your food processor makes this easy. Rinse the food processor unit.

Meanwhile, puree the garbanzo beans in the food processor until they are all smushed. They will still have graininess as you don’t add water or oil as you would with hummus.

Add the carrots, salt and pepper to the pan, and cook briefly, stirring frequently until the carrots are more orange and tender, about 1 minute.

Add the parsley and scrape into the prepared pan. Smooth out the top.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is firm and lightly browned.

Serve with mashed potatoes and a vegetable such as spinach, kale, or broccoli.

Adapted from Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe

Can I come in? Or will you come out?

Tortilla Chip Casserole

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Tortilla Chip Casserole with Pinto Beans, Vegan Cheddar, and Vegan Sour Cream

Tortilla Chip Casserole

Yummy, tasty comfort food!

Tortilla Chip Casserole

Makes about 4 servings
Preparation about 30 minutes
Can be made ahead
Freezes well

1 ¾ c. cooked, drained pinto beans (1 can)
1 onion
1 red bell pepper
1 T. olive oil (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 t. ground dried chilies
1 t. ground cumin
2 large fresh tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes
3 c. crumbled corn tortilla chips
1 c. vegan cheddar cheese
½ c. vegan sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Oil a large casserole or baking dish and put the tortilla chips on the bottom.

Chop the onion and red pepper and sauté in the oil or ¼ c. water until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté about one minute. Add the spices.

Pour the pinto beans on top of the mixture and mash with a potato masher until most are squashed. Add the tomatoes and heat up.

Pour the bean and veggie mixture on top of the corn chips. Top with grated vegan cheese and dot with sour cream. If you want a prettier dish, bake about 20 minutes before adding the cheese and put the sour cream on after the dish is out of the oven.

Serve with a green vegetable or salad.

Adapted from La Dolce Vegan, by Sarah Kramer, a cookbook that really taught me how to cook delicious vegan food

Hi There, Do you want to play with me?

Cherry Cake

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Maraschino Cherry Cake

Cherry Cake

Maraschino Cherry Cake has long been my birthday cake, at least since the 1970s. I started alternating every other year with Coconut Cake about ten years ago. This is the year for cherry cake. I found some cherries at Whole Foods that did not have artificial coloring, but they taste the same as grocery store maraschino cherries.

You use the juice in the cake and icing. It is very sweet, so you don’t need a lot. It gives a pink color to the cake. Save out about 4 cherries for garnish on the top of the cake.

Icing? Frosting? Is this cultural? According to Wikipedia, the word frosting is used for icing in the United States. I only use the word frosting for one thing, an egg White Mountain Frosting, made with a corn syrup sauce that cooks the eggs. Everything else, including anything vegan, is Icing.

At least in my part of the world, you cannot buy vegan powdered sugar. I use vegan white sugar and raw sugar whenever I can, but there is no substitute for powdered sugar for icing. We do what we can, and I carefully avoid gelatin in vitamins, shampoo tested on animals, and leather shoes, but for icing sugar, I make an exception. If vegan powdered sugar becomes available, I would use that. (Some sugar, notably cane sugar, is filtered through cattle bones. Whole Foods offers vegan sugar, which is probably beet sugar, which isn’t filtered. Raw sugar is also not filtered.)

Cherry Cake

Makes about 12 servings
Preparation about 35 minutes cake, 15 minutes icing
Can be made ahead
Freezes well

The flour:
1 c. brown rice flour
½ c. sorghum flour
½ c. millet flour
2 T. potato starch
2 T. tapioca starch
1 t. xanthan gum

The cake:
½ c. vegan butter
1 ½ c. sugar
2 ¼ c. flour
2 ¾ t. baking powder
½ t. salt
2 T. Ener-G egg replacer whisked with:
¼ c. water
1 c. vegan milk (I used soymilk)
¼ c. cherry juice
20 cherries (about ¾ c. chopped)
4 cherries: reserve as garnish
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350° and oil 2 baking pans 8 x 8 inch square or round cake pans.

Mix the dry ingredients and set aside.

Mix the vegan butter and sugar until creamy. Add the soymilk, cherry juice, vanilla and almond extract and mix.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.

Mix in the cherries.

Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake about 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely.

Ice with:
3 c. powdered sugar
6 T. vegan butter
1 t. almond extract
2 t. vanilla extract
1 T. soy or vegan milk
1 T. cherry juice

Mix the vegan butter and powdered sugar until creamy. Add the extracts, vegan milk, and cherry juice.

Garnish with 8 cherry halves.

Adapted from the Gold Medal Cookbook

Standing with favorite rope toy, now totally shredded

Tofu Stroganoff

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Tofu Stroganoff with Mushrooms and Onions with Vegan Sour Cream on Brown Rice Pasta with Kale

Tofu Stroganoff

One of my early vegetarian meals and a favorite comfort food is Tofu Stroganoff. It is relatively quick and easy. I have made it with all sorts of creamy sauces, but when vegan sour cream started to appear in the market, I liked it the best.

Although tofu changes texture when frozen, I like it in this dish, and like to have some in the freezer for quick meals. Eaten with a plain vegetable, the creamy stroganoff enhances the vegetable and the vegetable cuts the rich sauce.

To balance the sour cream, I like to sauté my tofu with coconut oil, which browns it more than just the tamari and maple syrup alone.

Tofu Stroganoff

Makes about 4 servings
Preparation about 30 minutes
Can be made ahead
Freezes well if the thawed texture of tofu appeals to you

The tofu:
14 oz. firm tofu
¼ c. tamari
1 T. maple syrup
1 T. coconut oil (optional)

8 oz. brown rice pasta
1 T. olive oil (optional)
1 large onion
12 medium mushrooms, preferably cremini
1 cube vegan bouillon
1 ½ c. vegan sour cream

Start the pasta cooking first.

Sauté the tofu in tamari, maple syrup, and coconut oil until the liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently.

Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms and onions in 1 T. oil or ¼ c. water until translucent. Crumble the bouillon into the vegetables and stir in well. Fold in the sautéed tofu and sour cream and heat.

When the pasta is done, drain and serve with the tofu mix on top.

Ready for a cozy evening

Tomato Enchiladas

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Enchiladas with Tomato Sauce Black Olives and Daiya Vegan Cheese

Tomato Enchiladas

I’ve been making a variation of this recipe for about 36 years. It went effortlessly from vegetarian to vegan, and then I took it in and out of very low fat vegan cooking and here is the version I made recently.

The recipe came originally from Diet for a Small Planet, my first vegetarian cookbook, which I cooked right through most of the first year I was vegetarian. There are still several recipes I cook from this book, and it seems an old and dear friend with me through many changes and permutations to my diet and life.

For a low fat meal, you don’t need any vegan cheese or olives, although Daiya mozzarella made it a feast fit for company, and for a number of years, this was my classic company meal. I made a lot of Mexican food when I was first vegetarian, it adapts so easily to vegetarian or vegan cooking. But eventually I got sick of Mexican food, and went on to Thai and other Asian meals for special and everyday feasts, with Mexican a rarer treat.

Tomato Enchiladas

Makes about 4 generous servings
Preparation about 50 minutes total
Can be made ahead
Freezes well

The sauce:
1 T. olive oil (optional)
2 c. onions
2 c. canned tomatoes
2 c. tomato sauce
4 cloves garlic
2 t. pure ground chilies
1 T. sugar
½ t. salt or more if canned tomatoes are salt free
1 t. ground cumin
¼ t. ground black pepper

The Filling:
1 ½ c. cooked pinto beans (about ½ c. dry pintos)
1 onion
1 red pepper
1 T. olive oil (optional)
4 cloves garlic
1 t. pure ground chilies
¼ t. salt or more if pintos are not salted

Additions (optional):
½ c. sliced black olives
¾ c. shredded vegan cheese

Start the sauce about an hour before your planned meal. Chop onions and sauté in 1 T. oil or ¼ c. water until translucent. Add garlic and cook another minute to soften. Stir in chili powder, cumin, pepper, sugar and salt. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce. Cook covered over low heat half an hour, stirring frequently.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Meanwhile, in a clean pan, sauté the onion in oil or ¼ c. water. Add the garlic, chili powder, and salt and stir in. Now put the drained pintos on top of this mix and mash with a potato masher until most of the beans are smashed. Stir in and heat through.

Heat the tortillas in a skillet individually about 20 seconds each, or wet and heat about 30 seconds in a pile in the microwave. Put about ½ c. sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Roll up about ¼ c. of the filling in each tortilla and put seam side down in the pan.

When all the tortillas are rolled, pour the rest of the sauce over the top. Top with shredded vegan cheese and dot with sliced olives, if you are using them.

Bake about 30 minutes until the enchiladas are heated and the cheese is melted. To help this along, you can carefully and watchfully broil about 1 ½ minutes. It burns quickly, though, so just stand there and watch it, don’t go washing your dishes or making your salad.

Adapted from Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per Serving – 491 calories/14.6 g protein/14 g fat/81.9 g carbohydrate

Soaking up the sun

Potato Chowder

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Potato Chowder with Carrots, Celery, Thyme, Kelp, and Soymilk

Potato Chowder

Appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day or any cold blustery day, this chowder uses kelp (you could also use nori sheets or another sea vegetable such as wakame) to give it the flavor of the sea that is humane and healthy. Actually, I have also had this soup in the summer.

There are two basic kinds of chowder, one made with milk, and one with tomatoes. This is the creamy version, which I grew up with, though I never cared for the rubbery, chewy clams my mom used.

An interesting addition, if you are not gluten free, is vegan bacon or, if you can find it, vegan seafood. I just usually sauté some small chunks of tofu in tamari and maple syrup and add that when the soup is almost done. Baked tofu is also good, and chewier.

Potato Chowder

Makes about 4 small servings
Preparation about 25 minutes
Can be made ahead

1 onion
1 T. olive oil (optional)
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
4 c. vegetable stock or water and bouillon
4 medium potatoes, diced
2 T. fresh or 2 t. dried thyme
1/8 t. or more ground black pepper
1 t. ground kelp or 1 sheet nori torn into tiny pieces
14 oz. baked tofu (optional)
1 c. soymilk

Chop and sauté the onion, carrot, and celery in the oil or ¼ c, water until tender.

Add the water and potatoes, thyme, black pepper, and kelp or nori. Cook over medium heat until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Add the tofu and soymilk and heat through, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes.

Adapted from the incomparable Sarah Kramer’s La Dolce Vegan

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving with tofu:  435 calories/19.1 g protein/13.2 g fat/59.9 g carbohydrate