Author: betsy

by betsy

Day 6: Panko Topped Cheesy Zucchini–“Cooking ‘The Blooming Platter Cookbook’ Julie & Julia Style”

Panko Topped Cheesy Zucchini(A sequential installment from Kim Hastings, my photographer friend and, along with her vet husband, owner of Independence Veterinary Hospital, who decided on her own to cook her way through The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes Julie & Julia Style for her omnivorous family as a strategy for more healthy eating.)

It’s leftover night at our house which is the night we clear out the fridge and put it all out on the counter as a self service buffet. There was a serious lack of anything green so I quickly decided to do a recipe that caught my eye a few days ago: Panko Topped Cheesy Zucchini. I read through the recipe while hiding out in the living room so I could impress my family by whipping up something new and tasty in less than 10 minutes and without them knowing it was from the vegan cookbook.

I grated up the zucchini on a box grater and started sautéing it. My husband was grazing at the counter and watching the preparation so now I can’t refer back to the book. Just great! I remember it said something about the zucchini releasing moisture. What the heck does that mean? So we watched expectantly and suddenly there it happened! Liquid started forming. Since he was standing there, I had described the process I now vaguely remember. Next I know it said something about evaporation. This is turning into a science project. So we watched until we decided the liquid had disappeared sufficiently. That’s when I threw in a handful of real Parmesan cheese – yes I cheated…again. Sorry.
Earlier I had dumped some Panko into another small pan and started toasting it. Unfortunately I burnt them a little when I ran to sneak a look at the cookbook about how much cheese. But no matter, I put the zucchini on a serving plate and topped it with the Panko. Done!! So easy!!

We each took a bite and literally couldn’t stop. We ended up eating almost all of it while standing at the counter. We only stopped out of guilt for not leaving any for our son (who loved it too).

This recipe is definitely going to be repeated over and over in our home. Oh and as part of my dedication to this challenge, I will be trying the “cheese” that is supposed to be used in this dish – I promise!

~~Kim Howard Hastings

Kim Hastings

 

by betsy

Day 5: Vegan Grits and Greens with Mushroom Gravy–Cooking the ‘Blooming Platter Cookbook’ Julie & Julia Style

Grits amd Greem with Mushroom Gravy(A sequential installment from Kim Hastings, my photographer friend and, along with her vet husband, owner of Independence Veterinary Hospital, who decided on her own to cook her way through The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes Julie & Julia Style for her omnivorous family as a strategy for more healthy eating.)

[Betsy’s note: this is the only time you will see “dead animals,” aka the shrimp, on this blog…that is, unless I “kill” one of my mischievious new pups for, oh, say, removing the other arm of my $1,200 vintage sofa…]

I took a huge risk today giving my grocery list for tonight’s recipe to my husband to include in his errands.  I chose Grits and Greens with Mushroom Gravy.  First thing out of his mouth was “Kale?!  Why?”  Ok I had to come up with something fast because in our house kale is strictly turtle food for our Russian Tortoise, Desiree.

“Well, first I feel like I need to give it a second chance (I hate it); everyone else seems to love it and it’s super cheap.”  I felt like that last point would seal the deal.  I waited.  “Why not collards?” he counters.   I pointed out how badly they stink up the house… and we’re done!  He’s getting the kale.  I thought we were in the clear until he asked what vegetable stock was.  Oh no!!  Thank God I didn’t add the nutritional yeast to his list.  I don’t even know what that’s for!  I’ll look that up later.

When he brings the kale in, we both just stand there staring at it.  I’m seriously having second thoughts.  He starts talking about how bitter it is but when I push, he admits that he has never really tried it.  So we both take a tiny bite of a leaf.  “Well it’s not bitter”, I say.  “True”, he says, “ but  it tastes very…. vegetable-y.”  So we decide, reluctantly, that we will share Desiree’s food for tonight’s dinner.

To be totally honest, I told my family we were having Shrimp and Grits with Greens and Gravy.  You mention Shrimp and Grits in my house and everyone is on board.  Since I don’t cook seafood well, I delegated that to my husband.

First step…grits!  LOVE!!!  I got those started because they take an hour.  Admittedly I have never put milk in grits but I’m following the recipe tonight…sort of.  So I used real milk instead of soy… guilty.   I just didn’t think coconut almond milk would taste good and I had no more room in the fridge for a third type of milk.  Oh, and since I didn’t get the nutritional yeast, I used Parmesan cheese.

Next step was mushroom gravy.  Easy enough until I saw that I had to get the dreaded food processor out…ugh! But I had no choice here.  It’s the only thing that will make white beans look like gravy.  I must confess that I had to lie and deceive a bit during this step.  There were two ingredients, rosemary and sherry, that, if my family knew I was using them, would probably head off to Taco Bell instead of show up to dinner.  So, when no one was looking, I quickly ran out and snipped a few sprigs of frozen rosemary from my garden.  (I only keep rosemary because it’s pretty).  Then I dusted off  the bottle of sherry and set it on the counter beside the twigs of rosemary.

Of course this is the moment my husband comes in and announces that he will start the shrimp now. Are you kidding me!  It was pretty comical then.  I’m trying to stand in front of the two offensive ingredients to block them from his view and convince him that I just need 10 more minutes. I begin analyzing the minutes required to bring everything together at the end. Men understand and respond well to this type of reasoning.  Thankfully it worked!  He left and I got the white beans and all the ingredients processed together into a beautiful gravy. Oh, and one more confession…I only used 1/8 teaspoon of rosemary instead of the 2 tablespoons arguing that mine was not truly fresh but very dry looking. Plus I only cussed out the food processor twice.  That’s a record.

Now it’s time to get the kale started.  I heated the oil in the wok, threw the stemmed and cut kale leaves in, and stirred them around; but I admit I had no clue what I was doing.  They ended up really chewy so I don’t think I cooked them enough, but I was really struggling with the fine line between green and bright green to test the doneness.

The final product was beautiful!  The grits tasted amazing and my guys never knew that the “gravy” was made of beans.  We plated it as we were instructed in the recipe with the greens first then the grits and gravy.  However my kale was so bad that we were soon scraping the grits and gravy off the greens and moving it over to cover the shrimp.  My son was the only one to eat the kale and I thought he was just being polite until he got up for a second helping of it.  Bless his heart!  Overall, thumbs up for the best shrimp and grits we have ever had!

~Kim Howard Hastings

Kim Hastings

by betsy

Day 4: Vegan Apple Peanut Butter Streusel Pie–Cooking “The Blooming Platter Cookbook” Julie & Julia Style


Valentines Pie(A sequential installment from Kim Hastings, my photographer friend and, along with her vet husband, owner of Independence Veterinary Hospital, who decided on her own to cook her way through The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes Julie & Julia Style for her omnivorous family as a strategy for more healthy eating.)

 

I decided to pick a dessert to celebrate Valentine’s Day so I chose the Apple Peanut Butter Streusel Pie. It was this and a clean garage for my man – strange how “gifts” evolve over 22 years of marriage!

I started reading through and it mentions the use of a food processor. Now it is a widely known fact in my home that I absolutely HATE my food processor. Just can’t stand it. My husband feels like I am totally irrational on this point. I admit my first excuse is lame. I tell him there are so many pieces to wash. He points out that we have a dishwasher. Ok true. Then I show him how I can’t seem to ever lock it in without a huge fight. He says…and I love this…”you’re doing it wrong”. So fine…you do it, I say. I cannot tell you the amazing sense of satisfaction I had watching him repeatedly try to lock it into place!! Ahhhhh!! Point made.

When I was very young, my mom taught me how to bake. Basic baking ingredients were affordable and it’s amazing what you can create with flour, sugar, powdered milk and imitation vanilla. If we found a great looking recipe with an ingredient we didn’t have, she would save up and get it for me. So I love to bake for the memories; and for this reason, I am really old school about it. So long story short, it’s a no on the food processor.

This recipe called for coconut oil. Ok that would be under the bathroom counter. I always thought it wWedding Ringsas for making great body scrubs. It never occurred to me to cook with it! I didn’t have enough so I went shopping. While I was standing in front of the overwhelming choices of coconut oils (refined, medium heat, virgin, unrefined) I was so tempted to text Betsy for advice. But seriously, did Julie have an option of texting the great Julia Child? Nope. I’m on my own here, so I chose the virgin, unrefined. It just sounded more vegan to me.

When it came time to make the tart dough, I was skeptical. Coconut oil instead of butter? Surprisingly it really did have the consistency required and it came together perfectly. I pressed it into a heart shaped pan but the sides kept slipping down so I gave up on that and just stuck it in the oven.

With the coconut oil out I just couldn’t resist giving my dry winter hands a spa treatment so I made a quick lemon sugar scrub in the palm of my hand. What could be better? Baking and a spa treatment!! Instant stress relief.

Everything else was a breeze and I was in my element. It was beautiful right out of the oven. I even sprinkled some red sugar over it for a more festive look.

Even though I was super careful to hide the coconut oil and the organic peanut butter, my men were circling it like a pack of wolves – going in, examining it, sniffing it and backing out again. What the hell guys! It’s just heart shaped!! Do they per chance suspect vegan?? Has my cover been blown so early in the game??

So here are the results. My husband kept shaking his head saying it needed more peanut butter (seriously I think he just meant it lacked Jif, his favorite), but he liked the crust saying it tasted like the apples. My son will eat anything and gave it a thumbs up on his way out the door. I, unlike my husband, tasted tons of peanut butter, but I must confess I really missed the butter in the crust and the topping. I do love the fact that the apples were sautéed before going into the oven. Overall thumbs up but sorry, I have to use butter next time. I sure will miss my hand scrub though.

~Kim Howard Hastings

Kim Hastings

by betsy

Day 3: Vegan Spicy Grilled Pear and Spinach Salad–Cooking “The Blooming Platter Cookbook” Julie & Julia Style

Pear Salad(A sequential installment from Kim Hastings, my photographer friend and, along with her vet husband, owner of Independence Veterinary Hospital, who decided on her own to cook her way through The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes Julie & Julia Style for her omnivorous family as a strategy for more healthy eating.)

 

If I were to channel a Southern Living or Martha Stewart magazine article, I would say today’s recipe, Spicy Grilled Pear and Spinach Salad, is a delight to the senses. The preparation is effortless and the presentation would make a beautiful addition to a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner.

But seriously, here’s how it really went down. It is a well known fact that my family hates fruit anywhere near their salads. I would have to blindfold them to get them to try this recipe. I, on the other hand, love salads with fruits. So I prepared this just for me as my lunch.

First I prepare the vinaigrette but my whisk is in the dishwasher so I simply shake it up in a covered bowl. Done! Next I core and cut the pear. Unbelievably, I have a corer so I tried it out, but it left the core in the pear so I just popped the core out of each slice. Perfect! I prepared the marinade in a small bowl as directed but no way could I get the pears coated in there so I scraped the marinade out with my finger (spatula also in dishwasher) and straight into a ziploc bag and threw in the pears. That works.

Kim Cooking PearsOk wait. I don’t own a grill pan so how will I get the desired grill marks?? You got it – 14 degrees outside and I’m wiping snow off the grill and firing it up. I will have grill marks! I lay the pears all out and wait two minutes as directed. No grill marks. Ok fine. Two more minutes. No grill marks. This went on for 14 minutes. Once I saw a faint grill mark appear I placed them on a plate and went inside. Looking at the photo now, I may have been imagining the grill mark but I was freezing!

Finally I got to arrange it all on the plate and decided the photo should be taken in the snow. Once I brought the plate back inside, there was snow all over the bottom, so I tried to wipe it off and almost dropped the whole beautiful plate right in the sink. Story of my life! Almost!

I have to admit that, while crunching on the smaller pears as I waited at the grill, I wasn’t sure about this recipe – that is until I tasted all the flavors together, including the toasted almonds. Incredible! Seriously incredible! So far I have really liked every recipe. But then again I have not chosen one with tofu yet. Stay tuned!

~Kim Howard Hastings

by betsy

Vegan Middle Eastern Roasted Tri-Color Carrots and Fennel with Cucumber-Chickpea “Yogurt” Sauce

Middle Eastern Roasted Carrots with Yogurt, Chickpea, Cucumber ToppingYield: 6 servings

On Saturday, I found myself bringing home produce before I had even prepared produce from a Whole Foods run a couple of weeks ago.  Afraid that something would go bad before I could get to it, I just combined the beautiful tri-color carrots from the earlier trip with today’s fennel bulb.  I also roasted golden beets, but in a foil pouch and I’m not yet sure what I’m going to do with those little beauties.

In the meantime, enjoy this lovely dish with it’s mellow Middle Eastern flavor notes in either–or both–of two ways.  There are lots of tried and true carrot marriages, e.g. dill, mustard, orange, and maple.  But I wanted something a little different.  So, while I did include mustard and dried orange peel, I substituted tamarind syrup for maple and added several of my favorite Middle Eastern spices.  If you aren’t able to find tamarind or pomegranate syrup, maple will be tasty; and fresh lemon zest–say 1/2 teaspoon– is a fine substitution for sumac, just not quite as earthy.

As you can see below, the carrots are a beautiful side dish and I hope you’ll trust me on the taste.  However, yesterday, home form school for President’s Day, I wanted a lunch of the carrots, but with some protein.  Remembering that I had purchased a cucumber on Saturday and had some chickpeas and vegan sour cream on hand (here, no one sells unsweetened vegan yogurt), it occured to me that, combined, they would make a luscious and fresh-tasting protein-packed sauce for the carrots.  And they were.  Enjoy these beautiful roots as a side or a main dish and you’ll be blissfully content either way.

Middle Eastern Roasted Carrots

1 fennel bulb with stalks

1 pound tri-color carrots (or any carrots, really), trimmed, peeled, and cut into 1-inch pieces on the bias

1 tablespoon olive oil

Sea Salt

Freshly ground black peopper

1 tablespoon tamarind or pomegranate molasses

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard

1 teaspoon dried coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried orange peel

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon sumac

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

4 cloves garlic, halved

Optional Cucumber-Chickpea “Yogurt” Sauce (recipe follows)

Optional Garnish: reserved fennel fronds, whole or chopped pistachios, and smoked paprika (note, if you serve the carrots with the sauce, stir the fennel fronds into it and garnish with the pistachios and smoked paprika)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Remove fennel fronds from stalks, finely chop, and store, covered, in the refrigerator.  Trim stalks from fennel bulb and cut into 1-inch pieces on the bias.  Cut bulb in half and then slice each half into 6 to 8 wedges, about 3/4-inch thick at the widest part. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil into a large roasting pan.  Add fennel stalks and bulb wedges, carrots, and about 1/2 teaspoon sea salt adn 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.  Stir well to coat vegetables with oil.  Roast for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  Whisk together molasses, mustard, corander, cumin, orange peel, smoked paprika, garlic powder and turmeric.  Drizzle over vegetables, add garlic, and stir to coat.  Roast another 10 to 20 minutes, stirring after 10, or until desired degree of caramelization is achieved.  (I like a lot of caramelization, so I roast them another 20, but be aware that the sugar content in the syrup means that too they will scorch more easily after it is added.)  Check for seasoning and stir in more salt and pepper if desired.  Serve warm or at room temperature garnished, if desired, with the reserved fennel fronds,  pistachios, and smoked paprika, or topped with the Cucumber-Chickpea “Yogurt” Sauce and garnished as desired.

Cucumber-Chickpea “Yogurt” Sauce

1/2 cup vegan unsweetened yogurt or sour cream

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1-7 to 8-inch cucumber, diced

Reserved finely chopped fennel fronds

1/8th teaspoon garlic powder

Pinch sea salt and freshly ground pepper

In a medium bowl, fold together all ingredients until well combined and chill in the refrigerator, covered, until serving time.

by betsy

Day 2: Vegan Indian Cauliflower Wraps–Cooking “The Blooming Platter Cookbook” Julie & Julia Style

Day 2--Indian Cauliflower Wraps(A sequential installment from Kim Hastings, my photographer friend and, along with her vet husband, owner of Independence Veterinary Hospital, who decided on her own to cook her way through The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes Julie & Julia Style for her omnivorous family as a strategy for more healthy eating.)

 

Tonight I decided to stick with cauliflower since I got a deal on them. So it’s Indian Cauliflower Wraps for dinner (and yes there is a big pot of chili on the stove so my guys don’t feel deprived).

I read through the recipe and saw “vegan mayo” – now if my family sees vegan mayonnaise in the fridge they will be on to me in a heartbeat, so ix-nay on the egan-vay! Then I see cilantro. My husband has a meltdown when he catches a whiff of cilantro so I’m switching to parsley. This morning I noticed that my parsley was still thriving in my herb garden so I ran out and chopped a bunch of it before the snow hit this afternoon.

Day 2--Indian Cauliflower Wraps--prepOk confession time. What I did not mention yesterday was that when I had cut my cauliflower steaks so beautifully and had them oiled and salted waiting to go into the oven, I turn around and my husband was covering them with “Zip It’, a powerful ghost pepper seasoning I found in Texas. Now my husband will tell you that I “over reacted”. Ok fine. Looking back that is probably a nice way of putting it. Anyway, tonight I separated one out for him to “ruin” as much as he liked.

With that compromise done, the rest was fairly easy. I admit I had to read it several times to keep the steps in order but I do that with all new recipes.

These wraps turned out so amazingly delicious that I drove one over to my son’s house two blocks away so he could experience them with us. Now the entire family is a big fan of this recipe!

~Kim Howard Hastings

Kim Hastings

by betsy

Day 1: Announcing An Inspired New Project–“Cooking ‘The Blooming Platter Cookbook’ a la the movie ‘Julie & Julia’ for my Omnivorous Family”: Vegan Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Roasted Cauliflower Salad(Today begins a series of sequential installments from Kim Hastings, my photographer friend and, along with her vet husband, owner of Independence Veterinary Hospital, who decided on her own to cook her way through The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes Julie & Julia Style for her omnivorous family as a strategy for more healthy eating.)

Note: Links to each installment will be added to the bottom of this post as we go along.

Why would an omnivore with a vegan-phobic family decide to do a Julie and Julia style challenge through The Blooming Platter vegan cookbook?

Simple! I decided I was tired of planning dinner every night and then deciding what to choose for the token vegetable on the plate – usually frozen or canned and then quickly microwaved just before serving. I just want to give the veggie equal footing with the other options on the plate. Am I crazy to hop scotch straight to vegan? Maybe just a little but here goes!

Since the book is divided into seasons, I decided to start with winter. I counted up 37 recipes and 39 days till spring. Unfortunately I will not be making my way through the soup section and I will tell you why. As a kid my family struggled financially and there were times we had nothing except the soups that people were kind enough to make for us. I will be forever grateful for their generosity, but I just don’t eat soups now.

I chose my recipes for the next week and went shopping. It’s no secret I would much rather shop for, well, anything except groceries. Yes even auto parts! And yes it was excruciating finding ingredients. I looked for a scallion for 20 minutes. I called home to ask my husband what exactly a scallion might look like. He was no help. I asked a gentleman next to me and he referred me to his wife who was so sweet and led me straight over to them without a trace of pity in her eyes.

Ok on to … Walnut oil??? There’s such a thing? An hour later I was done. Thankfully.

My recipe tonight was Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette. I started by following the directions about how to slice the cauliflower, fully expecting mine to be in crumbles on the cutting board but surprisingly they were beautiful. I kept reading and looking for the difficult part but there wasn’t one! It’s hard to screw up whisking oil, vinegar and mustard. And crispy capers!! Who knew??

I always avoid eating capers because I have no idea what they are (still no clue!) but crisp them up and you seriously no longer care what they might be–they are that good.

Overall I liked this recipe. My son said he would not have eaten it without the capers and my husband added ghost pepper seasoning–but then he adds that to everything. Biggest score of the night: no one knew it was “vegan”!!!

 

~Kim Howard Hastings

Kim Hastings

 

 

 

 

 

Follow Along…

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

 

by betsy

Vegan Valentine’s Medley–Sweet, Savory, Quick or More Involved, Choose from these 7 Favorites

Valentines Medley 2016Picking a favorite of my Vegan Valentine’s Recipes to post would be like picking a favorite dog.  So, I want you to pick.

From a breakfast of Red Velvet Pancakes to Red Velvet Brownies for kids or a little savory “Heart Tart” for lunch or dinner–plus lots of sweets, including mints and truffles that are perfect little heart-felt gifts from your kitchen–I think you’ll find something here to love.

Just click on the links.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

~betsy

Clockwise from top-left:

Vegan Chocolate Truffles–created when I was disappointed with other recipes I found online.

Vegan Red Velvet Pancakes (THE BEST!)–I created these when I was dissatisfied with all of the recipes I could find online.

Vegan Red Velvet Brownies–VERy popular on One Green Planet and, again, created when I couldn’t find what I wanted after searching online.

Vegan Peppermint and Chocolate Patties–peppermint and chocolate, a marriage made in heaaven, so pretty layered in a ribbon-tied box.

Vegan Chocolate Heart Cakes–the apricot-hazelnut ganache filling is sophisticated, but simple, and the espresso-cream cheese frosting a sweet dream.

Vegan Cocoa-Dusted Chocolate Truffles–bittersweet bliss.

Vegan Savory Heart Tarts–they look fancy, but are so flavorful and easy with prepared puff pastry (center).

by betsy

Vegan Coconut Dal (Yellow or Red Lentils) with Spinach–So Quick, Easy, and Tasty

Coconut Dal with SpinachYield: 6 servings

I have made other versions of this Indian staple, so rich, colorful, and satisfying without being heavy, but this may be the easiest and most straight forward, not to mention tastiest.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon curry powder (I used a fairly mild variety from Spice Ace in San Francisco, but use your favorite)

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon coriander

Optional: 1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1 pound yellow or red lentils (I purchased red which was all Kroger carried), but they cooked up yellow, which is what I wanted), rinsed and drained

6 cups vegetable stock

1-15.5 ounce can coconut milk (I used the “lite” version, but you get SO much more flavor with the regular)

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

6 lightly packed cups fresh baby spinach

Garnish: quartered red grape tomatoes and, if desired (recommended), toasted coconut

In a large pot (e.g. 4-quart), heat olive oil over medium-high.  Add onion and saute, stirring, about 3 minutes or until softened.  Add garlic and saute about 30 seconds.  Stir in spices, add lentils, stock, coconut milk, salt and pepper and simmer about 15 to 20 minutes or until desired consistency is reached, adding more stock, if desired.  Just before serving, wilt in spinach, 2 cups at a time.  Serve garnished with tomatoes and optional toasted coconut.

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