Cooking with Kale

Summer is kale season. I take that back, it's ALWAYS kale season. But there are a lot more people growing it in the summer, even though it's one of the cold-hardiest veggies around. We even got kale FROM THE FIELDS in our winter vegetable share last winter! But with so much kale, you need an arsenal of recipes to keep it interesting.

I've created many
permutations of my
kale sunflower patties.
I even used kholrabi
leaves & stems in place
of kale earlier this season,
and added some quinoa
and chick pea flours to
boost protein content
while keeping them
gluten-free. I also switch
the variety of nuts & seeds
around with whatever I have handy, often using walnuts or almonds instead of sunflower seeds. This is a great family-friendly way to use a host of local produce at once.

So here's today's version...and it got raves from the kids, which is always important!

Kale Pecan Patties

3-4 large kale leaves
1 cup pecans
1 large potato, peeled
3 large carrots, peeled
3 sage leaves, chopped
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. olive oil
1 T. shoyu (naturally brewed soy sauce)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a food processor, add the kale leaves (stems removed) and the pecans. Process until no large pieces remain. Peel and roughly chop the potato and carrots. Add remaining ingredients. Process til relatively smooth.

Spray a metal baking
sheet with olive oil.
Spoon a big blob of the
pattie mixture into your
palm and make a
circular flatish shape,
then plop it onto the
baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, flip with spatula, then bake 20 more minutes. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.
Makes about 10 patties.

Another fave (and I forget to get a picture) is kale potato soup. It's rather like my potato leek soup, but the leeks are not necessary, which can be handy for earlier in the season when leeks aren't yet big enough for harvest.

Kale Potato Soup

2 T. olive oil
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
6 potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
a few grinds pepper
4-6 large kale leaves, roughly chopped
3-4 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup plain almond milk or rice milk

Cook onions in olive oil over med-low hear until quite soft.
Add potatoes, kale, stock, salt & pepper. Cook about 30 minutes or until potatoes and kale are very soft.
Allow to cool somewhat, add milk, then puree soup in a food processor until just smooth.
Serve & add more salt & pepper to taste.

And here's another idea (though I won't share my recipe because it's just not healthy enough, LOL! No need to enable eating battered fried foods...but once in a while, yummmmm. Though I don't know which was less healthy, the food or the sauce I made to dip it in!)

Beer battered tempura
kale! I also made onion
rings while I was at it.
And I used an entire bottle
of locally brewed Harpoon
beer. Pwin!

But for healthier snack fare,
don't forget about good old
kale crisps--quick and easy. Or kale pesto to add to pasta, bread, sauteed veggies, etc. Still nervous to try kale with your family? How about steaming it and pureeing it into a red sauce for pasta or pizza or layering in a lasagna.

Summer is a great time to give kale a try. There are many varieties. Our CSA added a third type this summer, lacinata, otherwise known as "dinosaur kale". Supporting your local farmer's by buying directly from farms or at farmer's markets is a great way to help the local economy. But you may also donate to the Federation of Mass Farmers Markets directly via PayPal. Just visit this link to their website for more information.

cookbook challenge, finale!

So I reached my goal...a few days after the solstice. I took the cookbook challenge, using Edward Espe Brown's Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings, cooking usually 3 recipes each week for an entire 3 month season.
There are still more recipes I'd like to try. But I'll be taking a needed break from cookbooks! This exercise reminded me that I should shuffle my cookbook around more often, and definitely pull out those few that I've barely used.
For the month of October I'll be officially participating in VeganMofo (vegan month of food) for the first time. I don't really have a theme in mind, but I post frequently enough and pretty much always on the topic of veganism in some fashion, so I don't need to do much to prepare.
Given the kids return to school and lots of stuff happening in general, I was feeling rather out of steam this last week. But luckily I had everything on hand to cook a final three recipes...

This Chinese Cabbage
Salad with Oranges
and Mint was not my
favourite, but it was
honestly better than I'd
expected. The orange and
cabbage together was a nice
combo.

What never ceased to amaze and confuse me was the authors use of salt on salads but not in most other dishes. I just HAD to add a touch of salt to these Tofu Burritos. The avocado and salsa was a tasty suggestion, but little salt for the tofu and to bring out the flavour of the avocado was a necessity in my opinion.
Only AJ was excited about these but then didn't eat more than a few bites. I think the red pepper turn him off. Everyone else demolished them...in fact I ran out of tortillas and only got one burrito for myself, sigh.

Another often simple
recipe from the book
to end on a fresh note:
the Garden Salad. Nice
fresh greens & herbs,
tangy balsamic vinegar,
with extra zing from
a shallot, topped with
sunflower seeds.

Thank you Edward Espe Brown for your gift of recipes and stories to the world. It was a pleasure reading and now finally cooking through your book! Bon appetit!

cookbook challenge, week 10

Can you believe I've been doing this cookbook challenge for 10 weeks?! Still going strong.
This week's recipes from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings are...

A very basic Cheese
Quesadilla recipe.
I think I would
personally like to grill
these, or at least spray
the pan with a little oil
to brown the corn
tortillas slightly. But the
author prefers the fat-free
dry saute method, so that's what I did. On the right I used his suggestion of salsa for a filling. On the left I made my own with spinach. For both I used Daiya vegan cheese. Everybody ate them, but I think I can improve these. The Daiya made these.

Another extremely easy
recipe was Simply Spinach.
It's really more of a method
than a recipe, telling how to
wilt spinach in a pan with a
little water, adding salt to
the layers for seasoning.
I was fine, but I prefer
blanching because dare I
say it's even easier! I ate this for breakfast (yeah, I'm weird) alongside a BBQ Sunshine Burger with vegan pepper jack cheese, onion & ketchup on a wheat bun.

My final recipe for the week was another simple one, but wow was it a good one. I thought, "it's just melon. Why would I want to mess with it? It's perfect as it is!" Given that I had fresh local organic watermelon AND cantaloupe from our CSA, I had no excuse but to try this...
The flavours of this Melon Salad with Lime and Mint were bliss. The tiniest dressing of lime juice, maple syrup & salt, and the fresh mint leaves. Whoa. Fantastic. Everybody lurved it.
Until next weekend!

cookbook challenge, week 9

Despite the tomato drought at our CSA, I scored at the grocery store's discounted produce trolley. I bought a dozen mostly organic local tomatoes for a couple bucks, so this week 2 of my 3 recipes from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings are tomato recipes.

Although very simple, this recipe entitled Celebrating Tomatoes! is likely my husband's favourite in the entire cookbook. I'm guessing it's the salt, pepper, & tons of sugar that he really likes so much. I could only bring myself to add HALF the sugar in the recipe, and I still found it to be very sweet. But he kept insisting it was perfect, and wanted to steal all the leftovers the next day.

Tomato Salad with
Provolone and Fresh
Herbs was much more
to my liking. I didn't
have any smoky vegan
cheese to replace the
provolone, so I just used
whatever I had, which was
vegan monterey jack style. The fresh herbs and balsamic vinegar were lovely, and the fact that one of our green farm tomatoes had ripened into a yellow tomato made it that much better.

Unfortunately I took the
photo of Red Cabbage
with Sake and Green
Onions late at night, when
I went back for seconds. I
was happy I used the whole
head of purple cabbage from
the farm for this, because
despite the recipe's mundane
appearance, this was really good! Cabbage paired with sake is just magical I guess.

cookbook challenge, week 6

A bit of background about this "self assignment". If you're reading this blog, you probably like food enough to have heard about the new film Julie & Julia, based on two true stories that opens August 7th. For the summer season I have chosen a cookbook to cook through, not necessarily every recipe, but a hefty portion to be sure. I can't wait to see the film next week.

This was a hectic weekend, and I only had time for two recipes from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings all week.

The first was a Potato
Salad with Arugula and
Garlic-Mustard Vinaigrette.
This was a fantastic way to
use arugula, and it went so
well with the dark dijon
mustard. Definite thumbs
up. I loved the way the
greens wilted over the
warm potatoes, then I half-chilled it in the fridge before serving with dinner.

Tofu with Mushrooms,
Carrot, and Spinach was
second. A little plain, could
have used more seasoning,
but good enough that the
kids enjoyed it and I looked
forward to the leftovers the
next day over some ramen
noodles.

cookbook challenge, week 5

More recipes this week from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings.

First up was Focaccia:
Olive Oil Bread with
Fresh Rosemary. The
recipe said it would also
be great as round loaves,
but in the future I think
I'd prefer it flat. It was
tasty though.


Next was a most intense concoction, Baked Beets with Dried Cranberries and Sun-Dried Tomatoes. Whoa! Strangely yummy, but no one else would touch it.

Finally, Macaroni Salad
with Tomatoes, Bell
Pepper, and Red Onion.
This was a good idea, but
rather bland. The capers
saved it. But I must admit
that after trying a few bites
I globbed on a bunch of my
own pesto, and then it was fantastic! LOL.

Only problem with my new camera-download-to-laptop situation is the lack of photo editing software. I'll have to try to remedy that soon, because dark pics and red eye are annoying!!

cookbook challenge, week 3

Moving right along...I made 3 more recipes from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings this week. But I didn't stay absolutely true to all of them. I cut back the heat on the chili, and it still ended up too spicy for the kids. And I used 1/2 regular flour in place of all whole wheat in the bread.

First up is the Black Bean Chili. Simple, hot, and my
husband and I liked it. If
it hadn't been too spicy, then
it wouldn't have made enough,
so in a way we got lucky. I
served it with grilled chreez
and tomato sandwiches.


Asparagus is hands down my
husband's favourite vegetable.
But everyone in the family
thought this Ginger Asparagus
recipe was fantastic. We usually
steam asparagus, sometimes
grilledor roast it, often stir-fry
it chinese style in a salty sauce...
but this was very simple, and
I absolutely will be making it
this way again!

I served the asparagus with
my baked bbq tempeh (recipe
being tweaked, but coming
soon!) and some Moo Potatoes
as AJ called them because Maia
liked them so much, but
basically just roasted red
potatoes with rosemary and
other herbs.

Last but not least, the
Overnight Wheat Bread.
I have never baked a
successful loaf of bread
myself from scratch. This
recipe looked so simple I
thought I couldn't screw it
up...and I was right! Yahoo!

It was a bit sour and wheaty,
even after replacing half the
whole wheat flour with
regular unbleached flour,
but Ryan and I still loved it.
My husband and Nate liked it
well enough. AJ ate it, but said
it wasn't his favourite.

The recipe made 2 loaves, so
I made one on a sheet pan
and one in a loaf pan.






The loaves didn't come out of
the oven until early afternoon,
but the first loaf was 2/3 gone
by evening. The second loaf I
am enjoying torn in chunks to
accompany a hearty soup.

Garlic eScape

When I think of how many garlic scapes are wasted in commercial production of garlic bulbs...oh that must be an aromatic landfill!

Garlic scapes are the top curly
tendril of a garlic plant where
it flowers. To increase the energy
a plant devotes to growing a head
of garlic, the scape is removed.

The scape has a milder garlic
flavour than the bulb. It can be
used raw in many recipes, or
sauteed for a delicate flavour that
doesn't overpower other ingredients.

To determine which part of
the garlic scape is the most
edible tender part, I recommend
snapping it like you would a
stalk of asparagus. Bend it near
the top and along the thick bottom
of the stalk, as I've indicated here
with the vegetable peelers. A
smaller younger stalk will have
more usable parts than older
longer stalks.

Garlic Scape Infusion

1/4 cup olive oil
6-8 garlic scapes, diced
pinch of salt
2 T. flat leaf parsley, chopped

Heat olive oil over low heat.
Add garlic scapes & salt.
Cook gently for 2-3 minutes.
Add parsley and cook for 1
more minute.
Remove garlic & parsley
with slotted spoon or pour
oil carefully into a dipping
dish.

This treatment gives olive oil
a subtle garlic taste, great for dipping slices of warm herb bread. You can also serve the chunky part as a more pungent dip or puree it like a tapenade.

Garlic Scape & White Bean Hummus

1 can (15.5 oz.) cannellini beans,
rinsed & drained
1 can (15.5 oz.) chick peas, rinsed
& drained
2 T. tahini
6-8 garlic scapes, chopped
1 green onion (scallion), chopped
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. olive oil
1/3-1/2 cup water

Put everything in a food processor (I use a Cuisinart), adding water slowly as hummus mixes.

Potato Salad with Avocado
and Garlic Scapes

10-12 new white potatoes,
cut into large bite-sized pieces
2 T. rice vinegar
1/2 medium purple onion,
finely chopped
6-8 garlic scapes, thinly chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1 ripe avocado, mashed
1/3 cup Vegannaise
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
1 T. lime or lemon juice
1 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
fresh ground pepper to taste

Cut potatoes and boil in water for about 20 minutes, or until just tender.
Drain and place in a large bowl. Add vinegar, onion, garlic scapes & salt. Mix gently. Chill until cooled.
In a medium bowl, mash avocado. Add Vegannaise, mustard powder & lime juice. Stir. Add to potatoes. Top with cilantro & black pepper.