Massaged Kale-Avocado Salad with Mango and Goat Cheese
This is gonna be a rough recipe, but I just made this and it is fucking delicious, so I wanted to share. This is for a one-person serving.
Ingredients
1 large leaf of kale
half of one small avocado
one small mango
lemon juice
goat cheese or feta or cashew cheeze
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
Directions
Tear or chop your kale into bite-size pieces. Prepare your avocado half, and squish it up with your hands (bonus moisturizer, woo!). Massage it into the kale until it is pretty well coated in avocado, and has broken down a bit. Drizzle on some lemon juice, to taste. Prep your mango. I diced mine. Add some salt and pepper (to taste, duh). Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil, and a tiny bit of balsamic. Crumble your cheese/cheeze. Eat that sucker.
i made chocolate chip ricotta pancakes with caramelized bananas. fuck yes.
Lunch: penne with avocado alfredo, cherry tomatoes, and goat cheese. really good. reblogging with recipe over at my food blog shortly!
I’ve played around with a few avocado alfredo recipes, and this is what I ended up with after adding my own personal tweaks, and also when I was looking to use half an avocado I had in the fridge, and not end up with leftovers. It has a nice garlic-y bite, a sweet creaminess, and a brightness from the lemon juice. Unfortunately this sauce doesn’t really keep! It’s so good I’ll be surprised if you have any leftover though.
Avocado Alfredo Sauce for One
Ingredients
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste
dried or fresh basil (a generous pinch or a few leaves, respectively)
Directions
Cook your pasta according to package directions. This sauce would work with any pasta shape, but I find my favorite pasta for featuring sauces is penne rigate.
Rough chop your garlic, stick it in a food processor/blender/magic bullet (or you can pulverize all of this together by hand if you lack these appliances, just mince up the garlic really small). Add the olive oil, lemon juice, nooch, salt and pepper. Blend this up until you get it as paste-like as possible. Add the avocado and puree. Add your basil and pulse.
Taste, and make any necessary adjustments. Pour it over your cooked pasta and toss well. Add any topping ingredients that sound good to you! Tomatoes are a nice touch, and I am really into goat cheese lately since realizing it doesn’t agitate my stomach issues. Cashew cheeze would be great, as would sundried tomatoes.
Enjoy.
I made the Blueberry Ginger Hand Pies from Vegan Pie in the Sky (and a mini-pie with extra filling and dough). Except without fresh ginger, and orange juice/zest instead of lemon for the glaze. There are no words to describe how fucking frustrated I am by making pie crusts. I feel like pies and I are just not meant to be. Cakes, cookies, I am good at making those. Pies are fuckin’ hard. But I’ll probably keep trying anyway.
Vegan Spinach Artichoke Hummus
Adapted from this Rachel Ray recipe to be vegan and also use what I had in my kitchen. Dip is hard to photograph in an appetizing manner, apparently.
Lately I haven’t felt like cooking much. I think about it a lot, because I love food, but there hasn’t been much follow-through. I often use cooking and baking as coping methods and outlets for depression and anxiety, but sometimes those things manifest in such a way that I just don’t have the energy or motivation. I’ll have bursts of energy now and then, though. And sometimes, you just really want some hummus. This is a fairly quick recipe to make, and is worth the effort.
Ingredients
1 15oz can chickpeas
2 tablespoons peanut butter (or tahini, but I never have tahini cuz it’s fucking expensive)
2 garlic cloves (I scoff at your 1 clove, Rachel Ray)
approximately 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (you can use lemon juice to taste, but I didn’t have any)
salt and pepper to your heart’s content
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 oz bag of spinach, chopped, wilted, and moisture as squeezed out as you can get it (you can also use a box of frozen spinach, thawed and drained well)
6 oz can of marinated artichokes, chopped roughly
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes (always flakes for me, never powder)
generous handful/slice/whatever of vegan cheeze of your choice
Directions
Put on your broiler to get hot for the cheeze melting.
In a food processor, place the chickpeas, peanut butter, garlic, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Blend it up until it’s a good hummus-y texture. If it’s too dry (mine was) add more olive oil a bit at a time until you like the consistency. Don’t forget to taste it and adjust your flavors accordingly!
Transfer your hummus to an oven-safe dish. Add the spinach, artichokes, nooch, and stir to combine. Put your cheeze on the top, and put it under the broiler until it is sufficiently melty/bubbly/brown. I used soystation pepperjack slices which looks kinda weird in the photo, but tastes totally delicious.
Serve with chips or crusty bread.
This was my get-out-of-bed motivator today. Moar pizza, pre- and post-baking. This one has tomato sauce, cilantro pesto, mushrooms, spinach, pepperjack cheeze, and of course potatoes.
I made my first from-scratch pizza! Used the dough recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance. The pizza has some cheeze (daiya cheddar & mozzarella, soystation pepperjack aka the last bits of cheeze that were in the fridge), tomato sauce from a jar, a whole bulb of roasted garlic, spinach, and thinly sliced yukon gold potato. My pizza pan is too big for our tiny oven, so rectangular it is. It is fuckin’ delicious. Ate it with hot sauce and nooch.
I am really loving making yeasty bready things that require kneading lately. I was afraid of trying it again after some not-so-successful attempts a long time ago. I think my culinary skills and intuition have grown since then, and I am feeling more confident with it now. Yay.
Started on this this morning*: vegan spinach & mushroom lasagna with tofu ricotta and a roasted red pepper tomato sauce with seitan crumbles, and daiya. Pre-oven shot. It’s in there now gettin’ all bubbly. I am excite.
Raw Beet and Carrot Slaw
Beets are the prettiest. This slaw is super easy and soo delicious. Crunchy, earthy, sweet and tangy. I served it on a (very messy) sandwich with caramelized onions and barbeque tofu. Be careful because beets stain everything really easily! The dressing I made for this is pretty much my go-to slaw dressing.
Ingredients
1 large beet, grated
1 large carrot, grated
2 heaping tablespoons veganaise
1 cap full of apple cider vinegar
agave
celery seed
salt & pepper
Directions
In a medium-large mixing bowl, make your dressing. Combine veganaise, apple cider vinegar (by a cap full I literally mean from the cap of the vinegar bottle), agave (a couple drizzles), celery seed (about a 1/4 teaspoon), salt and pepper. Be generous with the pepper.
Peel and grate your beet and carrot, and toss that in the dressing until it’s all coated. Give it a taste and adjust the ingredients if you feel the need. Put it on everything! I ended up just eating a lot of it out of the bowl.
Butternut Squash Soup with Garlicky Beet Greens
I am so in love with how this soup turned out. It’s super silky and creamy. Plus, when you saute beet greens and garlic, the garlic turns pink! The only thing that was missing from this meal was a nice crusty bread. This makes a pretty big amount of soup, you could probably serve 3 or 4 people with this.
Ingredients
For the soup:
oil for sauteing
1 butternut squash, roasted and peeled
half a white or yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 can of coconut milk
vegetable broth (i used most of one of these)
spices: curry powder (lots), cumin, coriander, garam masala, cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
For the greens:
oil for sauteing
3 cloves of garlic
greens from a bunch of beets (about 3)
Note: You will need an immersion blender/food processor/blender for this soup.
Directions
Start by roasting the butternut squash in a 400 F oven. Chop off the top and bottom, slice the squash in half, and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle with olive oil, rub it all over, and salt and pepper the squash. You can also chop the squash into smaller pieces to help it cook faster. Roast for 30 minutes or until squash is easily pierced with a fork (the thicker parts will probably take longer). Set the squash aside to cool.
Start heating up some olive oil in a large pot on medium-low heat. I have this amazing enamel cast iron pot that I tend to bust out in the wintery months. Dice your onion, and start letting that soften in the pot. Add your carrot and cook until the onion starts to look a little caramelized. Adding a little salt will help your veggies soften quicker. Add your spices. I used about 2 teaspoons curry powder and a dash of everything else. Oh, and a good shake of salt.
Make sure your butternut squash is cool enough to handle (I always have a hard time waiting), and peel the skin off of it. Chop it up roughly and add it to the pot. Now is the time to add liquid! Pour in the coconut milk and a fair amount of the vegetable broth. How much liquid you add will determine the consistency of your soup. If you like it thicker, add less! Stir it all up and let it simmer for a few minutes at a medium heat.
It’s time to blend the hell out of your soup. Do it in batches if you’re using a food processor or blender. I have an immersion blender, and it is tremendously fun and satisfying to use. I take great delight in the disgusting sounds it makes when blending a thick soup like this. Once it’s blended completely smooth (and returned to the pot if it was blended elsewhere), give it a taste. Adjust your spices and seasonings as you like them. This is when I added pepper. I like a lot of course ground pepper. In everything. Get it bubbling and turn the heat down low.
Now for the greens! Get a pan heating on medium heat with a little olive oil in it. Wash the greens and chop the stalky bits off. Don’t bother drying them, the water will help them cook. Thinly slice up three cloves of garlic. When the pan is hot, start sauteing them, making sure not to burn them. Roughly chop the greens, and then add them to the pan. Keep them moving around for a few minutes with the garlic, until they are tender and the garlic turns pink (yessss).
Ladle out some soup, top with a sprinkle of nooch, the garlicky beet greens. For ~extra fanciness~ I added a dollop (least favorite word ever) of vegan cream cheeze. Eat it up.
