Chopped Kale Salad with Tahini Dressing

I went to an Eat Like a Yogi vegan cooking class about six months ago with Siri Bani Kaur of Kundalini Yoga Boston. Most of the dishes were also raw. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to like the food as much as I did but everything was great. The Kale Salad recipe was so delicious that I've adapted it, and the tahini dressing slightly, and made it several times since the class.

Chopped Kale Salad with Tahini Dressing, adapted from Siri Bani Kaur's recipe
Kale Salad
1 bunch of kale
3 medium carrots
1 avocado
1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes
1 English cucumber
1 small red onion, finely diced
~ 2 c cooked quinoa, optional

Tahini Dressing
1/4 c Tahini
2 T Brewer's yeast
2 cloves garlic, pressed
juice from 2 lemons
3 T extra-virgin olive oil, to taste
1/2 t sea salt, to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 T water, or as needed

This recipe makes a huge amount, so make it when you have guests (or decrease the ingredients). It will last for a few days, but because everything is raw, you'll want to enjoy it quickly.

Chop the ingredients for the kale salad into bite-sized pieces and place in large bowl (I use the largest bowl I have or a large cooking pot); add the quinoa. Gently mix together so you don't mash the avocado.

For the dressing, mix all ingredients except the water. Add the water a little at a time, until you get the consistency you like. Add the dressing to the vegetables and stir gently.

Enjoy!

the easiest way to cut up an avocado...slice top to bottom
and then across...

and then scoop out with a spoon

all of the chopped up veggies

kale is washed and ready to be chopped into bite-sized pieces

the quinoa cooks while I chop up the veggies

ready to mix everything together

the tahini sauce is ready too

pour the sauce over the vegetable-quinoa mix and stir gently

done...so healthy and delicious!

served with some french bread crostini

yum!!

Bye for now...

Lentil & Split Pea Stew

Toward my effort at healthy eating, here is a Lentil & Split Pea Stew I made a few months ago. I was kind of winging it - a few carrots, a few onions, lots of garlic, some herbs, broth, salt and pepper. Very simple, but tasty.

I normally like to cook with French lentils because they cook really fast and are delicious, but these red lentils were great too (and fast cooking). The split peas however took much longer (I didn't soak them first), so I probably wouldn't combine them again. I started out by sauteing the onions and carrots in olive oil and then just added the remaining ingredients, gave it a quick stir, then added the vegetable broth, and cooked until the beans were soft.

The stew turned out to be rather thick because I had to keep cooking it because of the split peas. I served it with some crostini...delicious!

all of the ingredients combined

add a several cups of vegetable broth

cover and cook over low heat

served with french bread crostini

yum!

Bye for now...

Mixed Vegetable & Red Quinoa Stew

I get a weekly delivery from Boston Organics so I've been trying to find - or make up - recipes to use the contents of my boxes. Sometimes it can be difficult and I wind up with tons of potatoes or kiwis or something. But, for the most part I really love getting fresh fruit and vegetables delivered right to my door, and having the surprise of not knowing exactly what I'll get.

Here is a vegetable and red quinoa stew I made recently. I made up the recipe based on what I had in the delivery: carrots, kale (or any other green would work), onions, zucchini, summer squash, and garlic; olive oil, salt and pepper, and some hot sauce, with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice added at the end complete the dish.

ingredients - use what you like!

cooking down the carrots and onions in some olive oil

while the carrots and onions cook, I started the quinoa.
I love quinoa - so easy and very healthy!

the chopped garlic and kale are added to the carrots and onions mixture

after the kale softens, add the zucchini and summer squash
which don't need to cook for too long

done! How easy was that?

the quinoa is done when the germ (the yellow spiral bit) separates from the germ

mix the vegetables and quinoa together, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the top...
and voila!

time to enjoy a bowl

delicious!

Bye for now...

Thick & Hearty Mushroom "Bisque"

I've been wanting to make more soups lately - they seem so easy and delicious...and healthy! This weekend I wanted to make a mushroom bisque but I didn't want an actual cream soup so I figured I would try to use a vegetable broth and then "cream" the soup by blending the soup at the end to make it thick and creamy. Worked like a charm and my soup was delicious!

Here's my recipe, pictures are below:

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large vidalia onion, finely diced
2 leeks, white part only, finely diced
20 oz (two 10 oz packages) crimini mushrooms, finely diced
1 pound shitake mushrooms, finely diced
1 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp fresh thyme
4 cups mushroom (or other) broth
6 oz fat free yogurt
chives, to taste (1/2 tsp per serving)

Directions:
Chop onion and leeks into a very small dice. Heat olive oil and add onions/leeks, add 1/2 tsp salt and stir. Cover and cook over medium heat until soft, about 15 minutes.

While the onions/leeks are cooking down, clean and chop mushrooms. Chop them into as small a dice as you can. After onion mixture is soft, add mushrooms and sprinkle flour over (to thicken final soup), add thyme and rest of salt (1 tsp or to taste), stir well. Cover and cook about 10 minutes more until mushrooms are soft.

Add 4 cups of broth. I used mushroom broth for a deeper mushroom flavor, but any broth is fine. Cover and increase heat to high. Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for about 5 more minutes.

Turn off heat, remove cover and let cool for about 5 minutes before adding yogurt. Stir well to incorporate yogurt.

At this point you can leave as is for a more broth-like soup with chunks of mushrooms, or you can use an immersion blender to "cream" the soup a little, or you can go full "bisque" and use a blender to completely cream the soup. If you use a blender, do it in small batches so the hot soup doesn't explode up and burn you.

I used my immersion blender to cream the soup a little so my soup ended up thick and "creamy" but still had the chunks of mushrooms.

Serve while hot and snip some chives over the top. Yum!

Makes at least 8 1-cup servings.

mise en place

mushrooms added to the cooked onions

thyme - my favorite herb

gorgeous soup

a close up

yum!

Bye for now...

Happy Birthday to me!

It was my birthday earlier this month and I felt like baking for it (what else is new?!) so we had a small family dinner party which turned into a bit of a potluck/takeout party because the heat was just too much to have the oven on all day. I did, however, manage to make a few things and of course a birthday cake (well, cupcakes)...24-Karat Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Icing from Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions (page 239). These cupcakes were wonderful! They were moist and flavorful and topped with a delicious citrusy cream cheese frosting.

The roasted carrots pictures are actually from a few months ago but I stumbled on them when sorting through some pictures and thought they were so pretty that I wanted to share. I get a vegetable/fruit delivery from Boston Organics every other week but for a while was doing all vegetables on a weekly basis and was getting a TON of carrots, so roasted carrots and onions became my "thing." I love Boston Organics - a shot of the inside of my 2/3 vegetable, 1/3 fruit box is below. They deliver right to my door and I can even add on items like organic strawberries (fav!), other fruit/veg, fresh bread, coffee beans or chocolate bars. Love!

my cats showing their party spirit...I guess it's too hot for them too.

my delivery...oh, yum

carrots and rosemary

chopped and into the pan

salt, pepper, olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar go over the top and get stirred in

I roast them at a pretty high temp to get some good caramelizing action going on

yum!

this is my new favorite rice - 6 different grains! I get it from the Japanese grocery store

all the different grains

I usually mix in some white sushi rice (1/4-1/3 of the total amount)

my wonderful rice cooker - perfect rice every time!

rinse, add water to the line corresponding to the number of cups of rice, let soak for several hours...
and then the rice cooker does the rest

now on to my birthday cupcakes!

everything mixed together except the carrots and nuts

fold in the carrots and nuts

into their little paper cups and...

...voila, cute little carrot cupcakes

the cream cheese frosting has both lemon and orange zest...it was amazing!

frosted and ready to enjoy

moist and delicious!

Bye for now...