taste: Whole Foods Garlicky Kale

My Year of Salad resolution for this week was to eat more raw non-lettuce greens, which has finally gotten me motivated to try and recreate my favorite Whole Foods Salad Bar food of all time, Garlicky Kate.

First I started with the ingredient list off the salad bar:
Kale, Garlic, Tahini, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Liquid Aminos, Nutritional Yeast, Apple Cider Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Water.

Then I played around a little bit with proportions, until I got to this:
1 bunch Kale
3 cloves of garlic, pressed (or chopped really small)
4 T Tahini
2 T EVOO
1 T Bragg's Liquid Aminos
1 T Nutritional Yeast
1 T Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Lemon (juiced)
Water (to adjust for consistency)

Last summer, my friend's partner let me in on little secret to eating raw kale: you have to massage the kale. No, seriously. So, after mixing together all the other ingredients, and having T wash and de-stem the delicious locally grown kale, I pushed up my sleeves and set to work massaging some leafy greens.

Then I massaged in the dressing:


Then I (washed my hands) and enjoyed the best garlicky kale to be had in Kitty Hawk, NC.


Note: we really like garlic and lemon and tahini and kale and, well, all of these ingredients. If you have plans for a hot date later on, you could decrease the garlic a little bit. This stuff isn't called Garlicky Kale for nothing.

make!

Hello, faithful reader(s)! I'm getting over a nasty bug that had me on my back for a few days. This morning I woke up craving french toast in a serious way. This is what T and I came up with based on what we had on hand. We were pretty pleased with the results!



Vegan Chai French Toast

Ingredients:
4 slices bread (we used Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Tuscan Pane)

Batter
1/2 c soy milk
1/2 c chai concentrate (make your own or tazo)
2 T tapioca flour (or 1 T cornstarch)

Topping
2 T Earth Balance
1/4 c (or less) sugar
Optional: pecans, slivered almonds, maple syrup, other fun toppings

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350

Slice up the bread and spread it on a greased baking dish

Combine batter ingredients and stir with a fork until there are no more lumps. Carefully pour the batter over top of each slice, fully saturating.

Melt the EB over super-low heat until almost completely liquid. Remove from head, and add the sugar (+ extras) , and stir until combined. Immediately spread over top each slice of bread with a spatula.

Bake for 30 minutes. Top with bananas or berries as desired. Enjoy!

make! (repost)

Grandma's Pecan Pie is a annual Thanksgiving tradition in our household. In anticipation of the big day, I'm reposting my vegan-ized recipe!

Grandma's Vegan Pecan Pie

For years, we thought my Grandmother used a secret family recipe for her delicious pecan pie; then we found out it was just the recipe on the back of the Karo Syrup bottle. Oh, well. Here’s how I vegan-ized it.

Ingredients:

• 3 x Ener-g egg replacer
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup Karo Dark Corn Syrup
• 2 rounded tablespoons Earth Balance or Smart Balance, melted
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups crushed pecans
• 1 (9-inch) unbaked or frozen deep-dish pie crust

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine first four ingredients in a bowl.
   
3. Prepare egg replacer, making sure to mix out all the lumps, and add to filling mixture.
   
4. Stir in pecans.
   
5. Pour into pie crust.
6. Bake 60 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean. Cool on wire rack–if you can wait that long!

The last shot in the slide show shows the “original” recipe and my vegan version. So, you can see there’s a slight difference. It’s not quite as “solid” as the original recipe, and I keep planning on experimenting with stabilizers, but really, the pie’s never long enough for anyone to complain about the consistency!

Original:

Vegan:

make!

General Tao's Tofu

Inspired by this vegweb recipe. Definitely freeze your tofu first, but the egg-replacer in the recipe isn’t all that necessary (dipping your tofu in water first works just as well!). Perfect for an otherwise blah weekday night.

do!

I won! Okay, it wasn't quite like this, but I did come in first of all the alumna at the 5k this weekend (it was held at my alma mater). Admittedly, I did get beaten by more than a few 9 year olds (the school has a lower, middle, and upper school). In any case, what an exciting way to being my competitive running career! The event was sponsored by many local businesses, so as a "winner," I received a gift card to Clyde's of Chevy Chase.



The Clyde's Restaurant Group of Washington includes many notable DC landmarks such as The Tombs (where my father and sister spent many a night during their Georgetown University days), 1789, and Old Ebbitt Grill. When I was on the crew team in high school, we used to always celebrate after a regatta with brunch or lunch at Clyde's in Georgetown. The chef at each Clyde's restaurant I've ever been to has been fabulous about accommodating my vegan requests, by either "vegan-izing" something on the menu, or creating a vegan masterpiece just for me. I can't wait to get back to DC to see what they cook up this time!

taste!

Vegan comfort food:

(whole wheat pasta + nutritional yeast "cheese" sauce)

make!

Curried Pumpkin Lentil Soup

Warm and delicious and inspired by this.

My (only slightly modified) version:

• 1 small onion, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup red lentils
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree or roasted pumpkin puree*
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder, or to taste
• 1-2 apples, cubed
• salt/pepper to taste

Line a medium pot with a thin layer of water. Over medium-high heat, add onions and cook 2-3 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes or until water is absorbed. Add broth, lentils and apple pieces. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium and cook for 7-10 minutes, or until lentils are orange and soft. Add pumpkin, curry powder, cinnamon, garam masala, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Serve with crusty bread or brown rice.