Category: Vegan Appetizers

by betsy

Vegan Smokey Pumpkin Grits with Shitake Mushrooms in Kale Pesto and White Wine Cream Sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Simple as it is, my Smokey Pumpkin Grits with Shitake Mushrooms in a Kale Pesto Cream Sauce is one of the tastiest and most satisfying dishes you will ever eat.  Perfect for a fall or winter dinner or brunch, it is both rustic and refined.  The smoked paprika in the grits and the smoked almonds in the pesto are a perfect pairing.  Add to that the smokey notes of Chardonnay, and you have a tasty trinity indeed.  Visually, it is also appealing with the warm, golden-toned grits setting off the creamy green-flecked mushrooms to delicious advantage.  I hope you’ll enjoy this dish many times this fall.  Note:  the pesto recipe makes far more than you will need for one recipe of the mushrooms.

Vegan Smokey Pumpkin Grits (click on the title to go to my recipe on One Green Planet)

While grits cook, prepare mushrooms:

Shitake Mushrooms in Kale Pesto and White Wine Cream Sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil

10 ounces Shitake mushrooms, stems removed, and caps cut into 1/3 inch slices (just somewhere between a 1/4 and 1/2-inch; feel free to substitute other mushrooms if desired, but Shitakes are particularly tasty and toothsome in this dish)

Pinch sea salt

1/4 cup coconut milk or soymilk creamer

1/4 cup Smokey Kale Pesto (recipe follows)

1/2 cup dry white wine (a Chardonnay is nice for its smokey notes, but use what you have)

In a large cast iron skillet over medium-high, heat olive oil to shimmering.  Add mushrooms and a pinch of sea salt and saute, stirring frequently and lowering the heat if necessary, for about 3 minutes or until mushrooms are softened.  Add cream and saute, stirring, for 3o seconds.  Then add the pesto and do the same.  Add white wine and cook, stirring, for a final minute or until sauce comes together and reduces down to the desired consistency.  Serve mushrooms immediately over hot grits (perhaps with a kale salad).  Garnish as desired.  (In the photo, I used fresh springs of rosemary, sage, and pineapple sage for its beautiful red colored blooms.)

Smokey Kale Pesto:

8 ounces trimmed kale (that’s one bunch with stems removed from our market)

1 cup smoked almonds

4 large garlic cloves

1 teaspoon powdered thyme (or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves)

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 1/4 cups olive oil

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

In the bowl of a food processor, process kale in two batches until very finely chopped, returning all kale to the food processor before continuing.  Add remaining ingredients except olive oil and lemon juice and pulse until nuts are very finely chopped and ingredients are well combined.  Then, turn processor on, and slowly drizzle in olive oil and lemon juice until the mixture comes together.  Check for seasoning and adjust if necessary.  Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  Or, freeze in ice cube trays and then remove and store in zip-lock bags.

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by betsy

Vegan Smokey Pumpkin Grits with Maple-Roasted Pepitas

Yield: 4 servings

This golden and delicious dish personifies fall.  Whether you serve it for breakfast or brunch, as tapas, or as a side dish, it is sure to satisfy as a warm and comforting ode to autumn.

When I was growing up, my family probably ate cheese grits for breakfast on more Sundays than not.  When I became vegan, I learned that cheesy grits need not be a faint and distant childhood memory, thanks to nutritional yeast.

For this recipe, I make the grits even more creamy and golden, with just a hint of smoke and savory sweetness, by incorporating coconut creamer, smoked paprika, vegan butter, and pureed pumpkin.  The creaminess of the grits is perfectly set off by crunchy pepitas lightly toasted with more nutritional yeast, salt, and just a hint of maple syrup.

For some recipes, the garnish is nice, though not necessary.  But for this one–though I would still make the dish even if I didn’t have fresh sage growing in the garden–I feel that tiny, tender and very young sage leaves add the perfect finishing touch to balance and accent all of the other flavor notes.

Find the simple and simply addicting recipe HERE at One Green Planet!

 

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by betsy

Vegan Moroccan Grilled Eggplant, Onion and White Bean Spread

What would I do without my indoor grill pan?

This recipe is just one more reason why I love that pan so much.  It is so basic: just a cast iron square grill pan by Lodge. But it transforms humble ingredients like early fall eggplant into magic.

Smoked paprika in the dish and sprinkled on top plays off of the char grilled caramelization of the veggies just perfectly.  And the golden colors of the spread personify autumn to me, while the bed of fresh chives are the perfect fresh green counterpoint.

Speaking of colors…can anyone find the back of our beautiful brindle Great Dane, Minnie, in the photo?  Whenever there is food around, that girl is never far away!

Find the easy recipe HERE at One Green Planet.

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by betsy

Vegan Black Bean and Pecan Butter Sauce over Grilled Eggplant and Sauteed Spinach

Yield: 4 servings

How exciting to share this recipe with you via my good pals at One Green Planet!  Just click HERE for this unforgettable recipe!

I thought of this special recipe recently as our 22nd (!) anniversary approached and we were expecting dinner guests.  This sauce was the star component in the first meal on which Joe and I collaborated for dinner guests as a newly married couple.  And I can almost guarantee you have never had anything like it!

The sauce recipe came from a culinary magazine but, sadly, I don’t know which one, as I recopied the recipe and–shame on me–uncharacteristically did not credit the source.  But I did write “Out of this world!” at the top.  And it still is.

The only change I made to the original  recipe was to substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth and vegan butter for the dairy variety in addition to using about 30%(!)  less.  We have served it over a variety of things, but this brand new combination was so tasty and so pretty that I wanted to share it with all of you.

So be sure to head over to One Green Planet…you won’t want to miss this one!

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by betsy

Vegan Roasted Fresh Okra with Horseradish Sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Bye-bye slime…hello sublime!

Do you know how some vegetables are utterly transformed by the cooking method, say, roasting broccoli or grilling radishes?   Well, this is one of those vegetables and methods.

As a southern gal, I love fried okra, though I don’t allow myself to have it much.  And, I used to love it in gumbo when I was a pescatarian.  However, I’ve never found a vegan gumbo recipe I like–including at a local top notch fine dining restaurant–so I rarely bought okra because I didn’t know what to do with it.

But now I do!

Recently at Stoney’s, one of my favorite local farmer’s markets who grows both red and green okra,  I was debating about what I wanted to purchase.  One of the employees shared this method of roasting okra and I was sold!

It will forever change the way you think about this fury little veggie.  For the best crunchy exterior–and creamy center–it must be enjoyed immediately after removing it from the oven.  Also, it is best not to layer the pieces of okra on top of each other to serve, as they will steam and, therefore, soften.

2 tablespoons olive oil

Approximately 2 cups of fresh okra, trimmed

Sea salt to taste

Vegan Horseradish Sauce or the sauce of your choice

Preheat oven to 45o degrees.  Pour olive oil into roasting pan.  I like to use a large cast iron skillet for this because it browns the okra so nicely.  Add okra and toss to coat.  Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and toss again.  Roast for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown on one side (I like it fairly caramelized), then turn each piece of okra and roast 5-8 minutes on opposite side or until golden brown.  Serve immediately in one layer with Vegan Horsearadish Sauce or any sauce you desire.  The texture of this okra is vastly superior if served as soon as it is removed from the oven.  If you are unable to serve it immediately, it will soften, but still taste good.  So, I recommend reheating it in a skillet over medium-high until heated through, shaking occasionally, just before serving.

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by betsy

Vegan Savory Southern Tarts with Butter Bean Puree, Fresh Figs and Sweet Tea Drizzle Published on One Green Planet

These beautiful tarts are so easy to make from summer’s bounty of butter beans, figs and fresh herbs.

The availability of these ingredients along with my Southern-steeped heritage were the inspiration for this unusual but really mouth-watering combination.

The butter beans cook while you make and bake the crust and then just get processed with the other ingredients.  And the drizzle is short on cooking time.  So, the tart goes together much more quickly than you would think, especially for something so darn pretty.

Find my recipe at One Green Planet.  Thanks OGP!

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by betsy

Vegan Tuna “Fish” Salad with Secret “Boiled Egg” Ingredient

[Photo caveat: I apologize for the quality of this photo.  My trusty camera finally went on the fritz.  And, while I plan to replace it soon, I want to upgrade, but don’t want to spend the money just yet.  So, this photo was taken with my phone, which is a Droid rather than an iPhone, and I don’t believe the quality is as good as the latter.  However, before the summer is out, I plan to have a new camera!]

Okay, so it’s not exactly standard July 4 fare, but…cold and creamy, tuna fish salad (vegan of course) sounded so good to me on a recent hot and humid day that I decided to create a batch, holiday appropriate or not.  (BTW, does it amuse you like it does me that the weather reporters act like 90+ and a hundred degree weather in July is “news”?)

I had never tried a vegan version.  I do make a Vegan Clam Chowder that receives rave reviews, so I felt sure I could capture that briny taste…and I did (!) courtesy of some Dulce granules available in health food stores and, possibly upmarket grocery stores.  I buy it at our local Organic Depot.

But my mother always made tuna salad with chopped boiled egg and I wanted to try to capture that flavor as well.  My Vegan Egg Salad is tops in many folks’ (recipe) books so, I decided to add a little of the secret eggy ingredient: Indian black salt.  It has an aromatic sulfury taste that mimics that of cooked eggs perfectly.  You can buy it most affordably at Indian markets, but you can also order it online.

But what about the protein?  The only one I had in the house after a whole week away at TICA (what a beautiful honor and experience that was!) seemed oddly appropriate: chick peas, lightly mashed.

The rest was easy:  a little mayo, finely chopped celery, pickle relish and, for good measure, celery salt (though celery seed would substitute nicely).  Enjoy this salad as you would any tuna salad: on crackers; in a sandwich with toasted bread and some curly lettuce; stuffed inside a firm, ripe tomato as we do “down South;” as a lighter canape on cucumber slices; or as the ultimate indulgence: on fried green tomato slices as in the photo!  I garnished them with dab more mayo, a sliver of dill pickle (because I didn’t have sweet), and a tiny pinch of both Dulce granules and Indian black salt.

I simply couldn’t resist the tomatoes at the farmer’s market.  To fry them, just slice them about 1/4-1/3 of an inch thick, dredge them first in a little flour seasoned with salt and pepper, then in unsweetened soymilk seasoned with the same, and then back into the flour before sauteing a couple of minutes on each side in canola oil over medium-high heat.   Drain on paper towels.

2-15 ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup finely diced celery

4-5 tablespoons mayo (I like my own homemade mayo or Vegenaise the best, but can rarely find the latter, so Nayonaise is fine; it just has a stronger taste.  If you use milder Vegenaise, you may need slightly less Dulce granules.)

2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish (use dill pickle relish if you prefer)

1 tablespoon Dulce granules (see note above next to “mayo.”  Also, feel free to substitute Kelp granules, but you may need to adjust the amount.)

1/2 teaspoon Indian black salt or to taste

1/2 teaspoon celery salt or celery seed or to taste

In a medium bowl, coarsely mash the chick peas with a fork or a potato masher and sprinkle celery over the top.  In a small bowl, whisk together mayo and remaining ingredients.  Pour over pea and celery mixture and toss well to fully incorporate.  Check for seasoning and adjust if necessary.  Refrigerate any leftovers in an airtight container.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though published a year ago, I hope my cookbook The Blooming Platter: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes will always be relevant with its emphasis on tasty, nutritious, beautiful, and seasonal vegan fare.  If you need a little gift for yourself or a friend/family member, you can obtain it simply by following the link. And thanks in advance !

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by betsy

One Green Planet’s April Fool’s Day Tribute Includes Vegan “Knock-off-amole” aka Fresh Pea Guacamole from The Blooming Platter Cookbook

This recipe seemed like the perfect “fooled you” dish.  And One Green Planet must have thought so too, as they published it today as one of their April Fool’s Day features!

My “Knock-off-amole” is so named because it is a delicious and nutritious guacamole “knock off” made with fresh green peas instead of avocado.  And like every good art teacher knows, green and red are complementary colors, making each other “pop,” so the chopped tomato and diced red onion look glisteningly gorgeous in this Mexican-Southwestern dip.

There is nothing non-vegan or unhealthy about traditional guacamole; to the contrary avocado is high in “good” fat.  So it wasn’t for those reasons that I sought a convincing substitute. 

No, sadly, it was because I developed a food sensitivity or allergy to avocados in my twenties.  It was a tragic day, as I was born in Texas, and loved my mother’s guac.  However, even the tiniest bit left inside a veggie sushi slice even afer the avocado has been picked out does a number on me.

So, craving my Mama’s guacamole and perusing the farmer’s market last spring, it suddently occured to me that their beautiful fresh green peas might make a fine substitute.  Indeed!  Though no one will necessarily think they are eating avocado, they won’t care because it tastes so good and is deliciously respectful of its namesake.

Therefore, whether you are an avocado lover or not, I know you’ll enjoy this fresh take on an old favorite.  Click HERE for the luscious recipe at One Green Planet.

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