Hop on the express train to a vegan, gluten-free Menu Plan Monday

Last week I sent out a call for advice on making my meal plans simpler, faster, and easier, and that call was answered with everything from tips to techniques to recipes to cookbooks. A visiting friend came over and while we made Gluten-Free Goddess’s yummy, elaborate Best Vegan Mac and Cheese I made her tell me in detail about the not-elaborate meals she makes. (My favorite, utterly doable one was steam rice in the rice cooker, throw in some broccoli towards the end, then top with Annie’s Green Goddess dressing. I immediately bought myself some Goddess dressing – the vegan version of Green Goddess – at Rainbow. That’s the kind of simplicity + yumminess I’m looking for!)

Christiana from The Harmonious Kitchen, another great CSA blog, recommended Jack Bishop’s A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. I went to check it out on Amazon, which of course then led me down a merry path to other cookbooks that “people also viewed/bought/sighed over/etc.” When I came across a cookbook called Vegan Express, by Nava Atlas, I had to order it from the library immediately. I picked it up earlier this week and it did not disappoint! I already have a billion little paper scraps marking most of the pages. So this week’s menu is almost entirely express-lane recipes from Vegan Express, and I’m pretty excited about maybe having a more low-key week of cooking!

I’ll get my CSA box on Wednesday which is timely because I’m nearly out of fresh produce. Tuesday’s meal is going to be all pantry and freezer ingredients because, except for onions and garlic (and the stockpile of celery I’ve amassed from my box), I’m going to be completely out. Getting to peek ahead to what will arrive on Wednesday is such a boon – I have my Vegan Express meals all planned out to match what will be coming. Later in the week I’ll also be making a definitely not-express batch of GF Goddess sweet potato and black bean enchiladas because they are so good that I must have them again immediately!

Sweet potato and black bean enchiladas with adobo sauce

This week Cheryl of Gluten Free Goodness, who organizes the GF Menu Swap, is also hosting, with the theme of kale. If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time you know how passionate I am about kale. Before I went back to getting my CSA box I had kale several times a week, and I do miss it now that I am trying to stick to what comes in my box and is at the farmer’s market. I bought some gorgeous Russian kale at Rainbow, however, and will be making a very yummy sounding skillet meal from Vegan Express. For a simple and delicious kale preparation, I recommend Kale with Kale Sauce, which Duck invented and which will be the gold-standard go-to kale recipe forever and ever.

More vegan menu plans can often be found at Your Vegan Mom, Musings from the Fishbowl, and Two Vegan Boys and Beyond Rice and Tofu plans her menus vegetarian and gluten-free. And as always you can find a heaping serving of menu plans (mostly not vegan and GF) over at OrgJunkie‘s Menu Plan Monday compendium!

Monday
Tempeh, kale, and sweet potato skillet with cashews (Vegan Express p 74)

Tuesday
Baked beans and white beans with tempeh bacon and spinach (a riff on Vegan Express p 103, using frozen spinach)
GF Cornbread (from Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook? haven’t decided yet which recipe to use)

Wednesday (defrost coconut milk)
Aloo Gobhi with Klamath pearl potatoes, cauliflower and tofu (Vegan Express 61)
Basmati coconut rice

Thursday
Sweet potato and black bean enchiladas (put a bit of soy cream cheese in each enchilada)
Green salad with butter lettuce and vinaigrette (Vegan Express p 221)

Friday
Bok choy, edamame, cashew and orange rice (Vegan Express p 83, use mandarin oranges)
Sauteed tofu (Vegan Express p 62)

Saturday
Pasta “Carbonara” with broccoli (Vegan Express p 132)
Green salad with butter lettuce and vinaigrette (Vegan Express p 221)

Sunday
Leftovers!

The pleasures of amaranth

“Amaranth” is such a beautiful word. It just rolls off the tongue, don’t you agree? It sounds like the name of a princess from a fairy tale.

Well, whenever Princess Amaranth is feeling hungry and cranky and tossing her royal golden slippers at the heads of her royal palace servants, the royal palace cook whips up a pile of delicious Amaranth Leaves and Potato Fry and suddenly little miss Princess is too busy stuffing her royal face to throw footwear at anyone. Yep, it’s that good.

I’ve been curious about fresh amaranth for years. I try to incorporate amaranth seeds into my cooking (so far without too much success, but I’ll work up to it eventually), but the pictures I’ve seen of those gorgeous, unusually-shaped leaves, often shot through with veins of purple, have whet my appetite for cooking with the plant itself. When I spotted giant bunches of fresh amaranth at my local farmer’s market, I knew I had to grab my chance (even though my fridge was still stuffed with goodies from my box – I’m such a produce glutton!).

I came home and began scouring Food Blog Search for recipes. I had the most luck with some of the wonderful Indian food blogs – I guess amaranth leaves are a much more common ingredient in parts of India than they are here. I found recipes for various curries, and finally settled on a recipe for Amaranth Leaves and Potato Fry (aka Thotakura Bangaladumpa Vepudu). Of course I didn’t have a few of the ingredients, namely dalia/putnala pappu, split gram dal, and curry leaves, but at least I finally have asafoetida so I’m a little closer to being able to actually make authentic versions of all the tantalizing Indian recipes in the blogosphere. I didn’t have any coriander leaves, either, so I substituted coriander seeds, which is entirely different, I know, but I really love ‘em.

I made a big batch of it, and served it with chili-glazed tofu and brown basmati coconut rice. It was all super delicious, but the amaranth and potato fry was the dish that just kept on giving. The next day, and the next, after the flavors had melded, I just couldn’t get enough of that bitter, tangy amaranth, those soft, flavorful seasoned potatoes, and the crunchy bursts of flavor from the crushed coriander seeds. An excellent foray into the world of fresh amaranth, I’d say! (Although as I mentioned in the comments of an earlier post, this dish is not something I’d serve to company – the bitter tang of amaranth is something I think people will either like or hate.)

Avocado for breakfast

It’s always fun to see what search terms bring people to my blog. One of the most enduringly popular phrases that leads people to In My Box is “spinach for breakfast.” Well, I don’t seem to get spinach in my box anymore, but instead these past few weeks have been all about “avocado for breakfast.” Avocados have always been a treat, something to be savored and parceled out, but we have been in the heart of major avocado season, and my CSA box, the farmer’s market, and Rainbow have just been overflowing with beautiful, ripe, local(ish) avocados. And in the midst of this unprecedented avocado glut I’ve discovered that the beautiful, precious avocado is the brilliant answer to all my vegan, gluten-free breakfast needs.

Fatty, filling, and flavorful — avocado turns a collection of  dairyless, gluten-free ingredients into a satisfying meal.

It all started with the breakfast burritos. Breakfast burritos are one of my top, top foods. (I know I have a lot of top foods but really, this time I mean it!) But this month I have elevated the vegan, gluten-free breakfast burrito to its highest form. It all started with these amazing Gluten-Free Teff Wraps from La Tortilla Factory. These things are serious flour tortilla impersonators. They’re flexible, light, chewy, roll without cracking, and brown beautifully in a pan. (My favorite burritos have that browned, crispy exterior to contrast with their soft, gooey interior.)

First I lightly brown one side of the wrap in a cast iron pan with no oil, and then flip it over so the browned side faces up. Then I just throw in anything that seems yummy. A thick smear of refried beans, a stripe of soy cream cheese, some sweet potato chunks maybe, or some leftover rice bowl with dandelion greens or even steamed broccoli. Top it all off with salsa and several slices of perfectly ripe avocado, leave it in the pan until the outside is golden and a bit crisp, then roll it up and eat it while moaning with pleasure. Sounds pretty amazing, right?

Then, inspired by Vegan Express by Nava Atlas, a cookbook I’ve been reading as part of my quest for simple, easy meals, I started making what Atlas calls “big quesadillas.” It’s like a breakfast burrito… only with no rolling! Brilliant, eh? Daiya cheddar vegan “cheese” was on sale at Rainbow this week so I decided to try it out, so I’ve been adding it to my quesadillas alongside my avocado, which I have to say really does make cheese irrelevant. (Plus, :-8******* That’s the “vomit” emoticon Duck invented for me. I am not a fan of Daiya. You know how American cheese tastes like the plastic version of cheese? Well, Daiya tastes like the plastic version of American cheese. And it doesn’t even melt very well. Ugh.)

Into every avocado-for-breakfast life, a little rain must fall, and one day I inevitably ran out of my precious teff wraps. No problem! That merely inspired my new, new favorite thing: Soft-cooked polenta, warm, mixed thoroughly with mashed avocado, a few squeezes of lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. It’s seriously the best thing ever, and so ridiculously simple. I invented it when I made a batch of polenta for breakfast and discovered to my total surprise that Earth Balance can indeed go bad. (I do think that tub had been in there since January or so.) I wanted something to add that little kick of smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the polenta, and so of course I turned to my best friend and constant companion. Look what a lovely shade of green the polenta turns! And the lemon sets the flavors off beautifully. It’s a true FASS meal, with fat from the avocado, acid from the lemon, salt from the salt, and sweet from the cornmeal.

So the next time you’re wondering what on earth to eat for your vegan, gluten-free breakfast that will be satisfying and delicious, turn to your friend the avocado! (And don’t worry about that whole fruit-made-of-pure-fat thing – read this article, The Avocado Advantage, and all your worries will melt away! Just like a delicious mouthful of perfectly ripe avocado…)

A somewhat wait-and-see vegan, gluten-free Menu Plan Monday

After a whirlwind two weeks with much fun and no menu planning, I have decided that “too busy to plan a menu” = “just plain old too busy.” Seriously! The amount of money spent on grabbing snacks out in the world and the amount of hunger experienced because of rushing somewhere and not having anything prepared to eat during my rare moments at home make a very conclusive case. If I don’t have time to plan (much less cook) my weekly menu, then I clearly need to take the kitchen scissors to my social calendar.

Fresh amaranth and new potato stir-fry from last week’s farmer’s market trip

This week is my no-box week, so I’m only able to plan through Thursday and then I run out of vegetables. I’ll have to conjure up the rest of the week once I see what the Farmer’s Market has to offer on Wednesday. (Will I ever stop being delighted with the magic of having a farmer’s market a few blocks from my house? Well, if I do, it won’t be this week – this week I’m getting my knives sharpened!!)

It wasn’t just busyness that held me back on menu planning, however. I do feel like I’m running out of steam. I need more fast and easy dishes (that don’t involve tofu) – I’m getting tired of the standards from my repertoire, but all the recipes that look tasty online and in cookbooks are complicated and time-consuming. Shelly of Musings from the Fishbowl left a sweet comment on my last menu plan saying my meals were so elaborate and that she should try to carve out some time for elaborate cooking, so this week I thought, Great! I’ll check out her blog for some nice simple meals. Um… Eggplant Parmigiana? Lemon Herb Coconut Tofu with Udon? Chickpea Patties? I think maybe I fooled Shelly by sprinkling parsley all over the food in my pictures, because when I look at her menu plans, her meals sound way more elaborate than mine!

So a general call to all the other menu planners out there: Where do you go (cookbook, blog, standards you improv off of) when you need mellow, relatively fast meal inspiration? One of my challenges is that everything has to be both vegan and gluten-free, so if I’m going to buy a cookbook, for example, it can’t be mostly meat recipes or mostly wheat recipes. (Grr… stupid V’con and Vegan with a Vengeance “sammich” obsession…)

Beet, beet greens, and chickpea curry with salad, quinoa, and Indian-spiced yogurt in my gorgeous new nesting flower bowls, a gift wheedled from my mom when we visited the de Young museum

Let’s hope I managed to keep it simple enough this week! (I know I probably didn’t, though…) For more gluten-free menu planning, check out Celiacs in the House who is hosting the GF Menu Swap with the theme of “book inspired foods.” I’m just barely making it with “refrigerator-contents inspired foods,” so sadly I’ll have to pass on the theme this time! (Although I guess you could say that everything I eat these days is “book inspired.” After 18 years of vegetarianism, and living for two years with my vegan partner but never feeling like I could make the leap myself, it was reading Jonathan Safran-Foer’s Eating Animals last Decemeber that finally facilitated my transition to vegan.)

Your Vegan Mom, Musings from the Fishbowl, Two Vegan Boys, and Homemaking on an Island usually have great vegan meal plan inspiration. And for a giant compendium of menu plans from all over the web, check out the MPM round-up at OrgJunkie.

Monday “Deli Night” (that’s my justification for a bunch of stuff that doesn’t go together flavor-wise, like piling a plate with options from one of those ritzy by-the-pound delis)
Caramelized baby bok choy with cashews and sesame seeds
Carrot, Dill, & White Bean Salad
My new favorite thing: Soft-cooked polenta, warm, mixed thoroughly with mashed avocado, a few squeezes of lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste

Tuesday
Best Vegan Mac and Cheese
Braised Celery Hearts (defrost 2 C. stock!)
Steamed broccoli

Wednesday
Leftovers

Thursday
Indian cabbage stir-fry (5 Spices, 50 Dishes)
Creamy chickpea curry
Brown basmati rice

White Corn and Baby Bok Choy ~ Week of May 19th

Not much to say about this week’s box. It came, it was full of deliciousness! There was one strange thing, though. I usually use the FFTY newsletter to write out the box contents for these posts. But this time when I happened to compare the contents list of a “Regular” FFTY box (which is what I get) on the newsletter to the photo that I took of my box contents, two items were missing: red beets and red leaf lettuce. There was nothing extra or similar in my box that might have been substituted, just two fewer items than there were listed on the newsletter. Very odd! I wrote to them today, and I’ll see what they say. EDIT: I heard back from FFTY the first business day after I wrote to them and they told me they’ll let the packing house know to make it up to me in my next box. All’s well that ends well!

Fun with perspective! Is it a tiny, tiny cabbage? Or a giant, giant onion? (It's both!)

The corn was so yummy-looking that I cooked it up right away in one of my favorite dishes, How to Eat Supper‘s Edamame, Corn, and Tofu Succotash. There were a couple of corn worms in with those gorgeous plump kernels, but that seems to be par for the course with organic CSA corn. They were gently removed to a new life in the compost bucket. I didn’t have any smoked tofu, so I made my own, adapting the V’Con recipe for basic broiled tofu and adding a little liquid smoke.

In this week’s box:

Valencia oranges (2)
Grapefruit (1)
Hass avocado (1)
Strawberries (1 lb)
Yellow peaches (2)
Broccoli (1 bunch)
Baby bok choy (1 lb)
Green cabbage (1)
White corn (3)
Nantes carrots (1 bunch)
Celery (1)
Yellow onions (1 lb)

The Market Report ~ Week of May 12th

My CSA box is delivered every other Wednesday. On the off weeks, I can now mosey down to the brand new Haight Street farmer’s market in my neighborhood, which also takes place on Wednesdays!

This week I still had tons and tons of produce left from my box and a trip to the store, so there was nothing I really needed. I couldn’t help wandering down there just to check it out, of course. It’s a medium-sized market. Definitely more stands than the little Kaiser market which used to be one of my closest farmer’s markets, with maybe five stands of mixed produce and a couple more with something specific, like strawberries or peaches. I only had a few dollars with me, because I wasn’t really expecting to buy anything, but then I was thrilled to see the Kashiwase Farms stand, with crate upon crate of white peaches! I like strawberries but I also find them inherently unsatisfying (I know, I’m strange), and so it’s been me and the citrus fruits for many months now.

The man at the Kashiwase stand told me these peaches were nothing compared to what he’ll have in the weeks to come, but the samples tasted like heaven to me! I got a lesson on picking peaches without squeezing and bruising them half to death (push gently right around the stem opening, just like choosing a melon, and then pick a mix of fruit that are soft and firm in that area) and picked out four beautiful, sweet, juicy peaches to take home with me and gloat over.

The rest of the stands are either specialty products, like raw milk and butter, nuts, or honey, or prepared foods. The market has everything from baked goods to Afghani and Indian prepared meals. Cruising around the market it seemed like those stands were getting by far the most attention. It always seems a little weird to me when the proportion of prepared food stands is greater than the produce stands, but from their popularity they are clearly a very welcome addition to the markets. (Or maybe they were so crowded because they all give away delicious samples!)

I thought I might get away with just my peaches, but then I went all the way to the back of the market to check out the stand that sold me a delicious bunch of gai lan last time I was there. This time they had huge bunches of fresh amaranth, which I’ve been wanting to try for ages. The bunch I bought was so big it filled almost my entire canvas shopping bag!

The amaranth, while inexpensive and a great deal, to boot, used up the rest of the cash I had on me. So I just strolled around for a while and checked out what else looked good and abundant. There were some beautiful multicolored chards, looking about as shiny and bright as any chard I’ve ever seen, and of course a multitude of fresh spring onions and garlics with their tops still attached. The other abundant item was my produce nemesis, the fava bean. (One of the best things about FFTY, my CSA, is that it lets me say which veggies I absolutely don’t want in my box. I am pretty much a lover of all produce, but I can’t eat bell peppers and I won’t eat favas, so having that option really reduces the amount of stuff from my box I end up giving away or throwing away.)

Avocados and Iceberg ~ Week of May 5th

Sorry for the long radio silence, friends. I was really enjoying getting into a rhythm with fellow bloggers and with menu planning! But last week was glorious, glorious vacation from everything! Unfortunately the one thing that doesn’t feel rested and renewed is my wrists – I have sporadic yet persistent RSIs from an old job. So this is going to be a short post (because I really shouldn’t be typing at all – bad girl!) but I want to at least keep my box contents up to date!

So this week’s box (err… in the sense where “this week” means “two weeks ago”) was a lovely treasure-trove of spring goodies. Some really simple things, but all of them gorgeous and of the highest quality!

In my box:
Avocados (2)
Baby broccoli (1 bunch)
Strawberries (1 basket)
Celery (1 bunch)
Zucchini (4 hearty ones)
Carrots (1 bunch)
Iceberg lettuce (1 head)
New potatoes (a bagful)
Grapefruit (2)
Navel oranges (2)
Radishes (1 bunch)
Chard (a giant bunch – this was in replacement for the fava beans that came in most boxes, as I have requested “NO favas!”)

Colors pop on a vegan, gluten-free Menu Plan Monday

Tofu Florentine (broiled marinated tofu over garlicky chard and roasted root vegetables, topped with Cheezy sauce) from last week (on menu from 2 weeks ago)

Last week was a good week. I ate really well. There’s something so lovely and self-caring about making gorgeous food full of fresh colorful veggies. Planning seems to be working out for me, and as an added bonus as I page through cookbooks and click through internet and blog recipes I’ve started compiling a mental (and actual) file of recipes I want to make. This means that when I’m at the farmer’s market, and there are beets everywhere, and not an eggplant or a zucchini in sight, I remember I’ve been wanting to make beet curry and can easily ditch the eggplant stew and rework things on the fly.

Sweet potato and black bean enchiladas with adobo sauce from last week

I tried a bunch of brand-new recipes last week and loved every single one of them. They also made fantastic leftovers – I had a sweet potato and black bean enchilada for breakfast for four days running! This time I have more new recipes and a few familiar ones. I feel like this plan is actually way overambitious, especially as things will be getting quite busy in the middle of the week, but I’ll just have to do the best I can.

“Mish-mash bowl” with quinoa, fleur de sel, flax oil, and nori, topped with sweet potatoes, broccoli, broiled tofu, avocado, grated carrot, radishes, pumpkin seeds, cashews, sunflower seeds, parsley, mint, and green onion, with tahini sauce (picture taken before the tahini sauce, 'cause it's prettier!)

This week Cheryl of Gluten Free Goodness hosts the Gluten-Free Menu Swap with the theme of Quinoa. I love quinoa and eat tons of it! I’m not doing anything particularly creative with it this week, like baking with it or turning it into breakfast cereal, but it will accompany my curry and form the base of the delicious mish-mash bowl I’ve fallen in love with. Mish-mash bowl makes a terrific leftover and a great lunch to pack for an on-the-go day. The trick I discovered last week is to toss the quinoa with a little salad dressing (I had some left over from my romaine and herb salad) before packing it into my lunch container. This keeps it from getting dry and unappealing. My favorite way to eat hot quinoa is to just toss it with a pinch of fleur de sel. The big flakey grains of salt don’t dissolve all the way, and their salty crunchy texture is a great complement to the little pearls of quinoa.

As always you’ll find tons of menu plans at the grand round-up over at OrgJunkie!

Monday
Beets, beet greens, cabbage, and chickpea curry
Quinoa
Romaine salad with carrots, green onions, celery, with Spa Vinaigrette with fresh dill

Tuesday
Rice bowl with dandelion greens and avocado
Steamed artichokes

Wednesday
Leftovers
Gai lan with garlic and soy sauce

Thursday
Moroccan veggie tagine with zucchini, potato, cabbage, celery, cauliflower, eggplant with harissa (*defrost 2 C. stock)
Lundberg GF brown rice couscous

Friday
“Mish-mash bowl” with quinoa, fleur de sel, and nori, topped with baby broccoli, avocado, grated carrot, radishes, pumpkin seeds, cashews, sunflower seeds, parsley, mint, and green onion, with tahini sauce (steam veggies and make tahini sauce ahead)

Saturday
Leftovers

Sunday
Chili-glazed tofu
Stir-fried iceberg lettuce
Coconut rice