Going Dutch on a vegan, gluten-free Menu Plan Monday

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but Duck is an amazing thrifter. He has amazing skill and amazing luck. Practically our entire house is furnished and decorated from thrifted or free furniture, artwork, cookware, appliances… I could go on and on. The best was when we needed a new sleeper-sofa. Duck picked out the exact one he thought would work best for us from the Ikea catalogue. Then he used his incredible powers of thrifting to find both pieces – the mattress and the frame – from separate people on craigslist, one for free and one for a fraction of the original cost.

His most recent conquest is our very shiny, very beautiful, very orange Le Creuset Dutch oven (well, according to them it’s a French oven, but I think they’re just being snobs). We’ve been wanting a Dutch oven for a long, long time, but even used they still sell for hundreds of dollars. I’m not even going to say how much (or little, rather) Duck found this one for, but I will say the woman it from was fully in her right mind and understood what a treasure she was bestowing on us, and when she showed us her stunning, brand-new set of cobalt blue Le Creuset cookware we felt quite equanimous about accepting from her our incredible bargain.

We lugged it home (they tell you and they tell you, but still nothing prepared me for how heavy this baby actually is) and thunked it proudly on the stove. Where it sat, admired, for several days.

“Do you remember why we wanted a Dutch oven?,” I finally asked Duck as we basked in the warm glow from our stovetop.

“I just like how they look,” he told me, gesturing to the vibrant enamel glaze that starts out fiery orange at the bottom of the pot and then fades up to almost sunrise yellow.

“But what did we want to cook in it?”

I remembered that at some point I decided I needed a Dutch oven, that there was something I just couldn’t cook without it, but now more than a year later I had no idea what that was.

Duck shrugged. His job was done. The prize had been attained. But as I wracked my brain and scoured the internet, I had to wonder – had we just gotten the world’s best deal on the world’s heaviest paperweight?

(Here’s the thing, in case you’re wondering if I’ve never cracked a cookbook in my life. I know what you use a Dutch oven for, but, you see, we’re vegetarians.)

Finally I came across a recipe online for Wine Braised Lentils over Toast, with credit given to Deborah Madison from her cookbook Vegetarian Suppers. This is one of my favorite cookbooks, and so when I saw that, memories clicked back into place. Debbie M. to the rescue again, this time incarnated as the Queen of the Meatless Dutch Oven.

So, without further ado, I present you with a meal plan designed for a week of glorious, vegan, gluten-free celebration of that enameled treasure of the stovetop, that weighty jewel of the kitchen, the Dutch oven.

Monday
Wine braised lentils over toast with Tuscan kale and pearl onions (Vegetarian Suppers)

Tuesday
Butternut squash green curry with mushrooms, eggplant, and tofu (Vegetarian Suppers)

Wednesday
Brussels sprouts and mushroom ragout with herbed dumplings (if I can figure out how to make them vegan & GF) (Vegetarian Suppers)

Thursday
Braised fennel with saffron rice timbale (Vegetarian Suppers)

Friday
Grits and greens with spinach, chard, scallions, parsley and dill (Vegetarian Suppers)

Saturday
Moroccan chickpea stew with harissa and apricots

Sunday
Greek-style braised green beans
Gigantes in savory tomato sauce (using canned gigantes beans)
Tzatziki

This week I have the honor of hosting the weekly Gluten-Free Menu Swap, and of course I self-servingly chose Dutch ovens as our theme! Check back as the day goes on for more wonderful gluten-free menu plans from all over the web.

Heather at Celiac Family is getting her Thanksgiving planning in gear (hmm, I should be doing that, shouldn’t I?) and on top of that she has an ambitious week planned. Butter chicken, boneless pork ribs, and GF pizza will all be new recipes this week, capped off by a Leftovers Buffet that’s sure to be gourmet if the rest of the menu is any indication of the contents of Heather’s fridge!

For a huge compendium of menu plans (most not veg or GF), check out the Menu Plan Monday round-up over at OrgJunkie.

Oh! And if you’ve been meaning to share a favorite bean, lentil, or other pulse or legume recipe for the Steady Pulse event, it’s not too late! Just send it to me by tomorrow (Nov. 17th) and it will still make it into Wednesday’s round-up and of course into the final Recipes You Can Count On compendium.

Welcome home to a vegan, gluten-free Menu Plan Monday

I just got back from a long trip. I had a great time (I was with my mom on the East Coast and in Canada), but the traveler’s diet is not heavy on dark leafy greens, and it was such a relief to come home and dive back into a delicious pile of kale. Duck had one waiting for me, of course, the minute I walked in the door.

We’ve put our CSA box on hiatus again, which means we can menu plan from cookbooks this week. So most of our meal plan is from Veganomicon or another cookbook, The Vegan Table, that we are trying out from the library. I hated it when I first looked at it because it seemed to be full of ingredients like “eggless mayonaise” and “tofu cream cheese,” but then I looked it over again and found many recipes that excited me, and then I tried a few and am back to feeling wary. I’ll let you know how the week goes.

Because of the heavy reliance on cookbooks I don’t have a lot of links or photos for you this week, just a few of the old standards – sorry!

Cheryl at Gluten Free Goodness is hosting the GF Menu Swap this week with the theme of Carrots, which inspired me to take on the delicious (and time consuming, but worth it every once in a while) Moroccan butternut squash and carrot stew shown above. If you’ve been trying to eat quinoa regularly but are running out of ideas, try the quinoa pilaf that goes with the stew recipe. It’s so good that I often make it on its own. And of course, for a huge compendium of menu plans from all over the web, check out the massive Menu Plan Monday round-up over at OrgJunkie.

And please don’t forget – Sunday is the deadline to send me a favorite, tried-and-true, tested-and-approved recipe for beans, lentils, dried peas, and other pulses. I am putting together a master collection to help me – and others – conquer beanphobia. No need to write up something new for this event – the recipe can be in an old blog post, and in fact the longer you’ve been making it the better! Then come back here Wednesday, Nov 18th to check out pulse inspiration from all over the world!

Monday:
Broiled smoky tempeh (VCon)
Smoky sauteed kale with onions (VCon)
Millet

Tuesday:
Rice bowl with black rice, kale, and leftover broiled smoky tempeh

Wednesday:
Hot and sour soup with tofu, carrots, shitake mushrooms, napa cabbage, and button mushrooms (VCon)
Braised bok choy with toasted sesame seeds (VCon)

Thursday:
Chana masala (made with canned chick peas)
Pumpkin coconut curry (The Vegan Table)
Brown basmati rice

Friday:
Cornmeal pizza crusts with chard & caramelized onions (Vegan Table) and balsamic portobellos (Vegan Table)

Saturday: Movie night – Little Chihuahua chile verde tofu burritos to sneak into the theater

Sunday:
Moroccan butternut squash and carrot stew with quinoa pilaf

Still crazy for pulses on a vegan, gluten-free Menu Plan Monday

This week’s menu plan is sort of half-retroactive and half-hopeful. We get our CSA box on Wednesday so we’ve been trying to make our menu plan then, but I didn’t make it to the store for the rest of the stuff we needed until Thursday, so the whole week’s plan got moved to Friday. So this is the ghost of menus past, present and future.

Tangy Red Lentils

We have another menu that’s heavy on the beans and lentils. We just can’t get enough! So cheap, so filling, such good protein and nutrients. We’ll get bored soon with the recipes in our own repertoire, though, so I hope there will be some great recipes in the Steady Pulse beans & legume recipe round-up!

This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is hosted by the lovely Cheryl of Gluten-Free Goodness. The theme for the menu swap this week is apples, and I don’t have any in my dinner plans, but we’ve certainly been crunching along all week long on the delicious first-crop apples that arrived in our CSA box! For millions more menu plans, check out the giant Menu Plan Monday compendium over at Orgunkie.

I usually do a little “mash-up” photo of some of the food from the menu plan to act as a header, but this week, for fun and inspiration, I give you the full-size experience!

Friday:
Nasu dengaku (broiled eggplant with miso)
Steamed bok choy with pickled ginger
Sloppy sushi with avocado

Nasu Dengaku - Broiled Japanese Eggplant with Miso Sauce

Saturday:

GF Mac and cheese (or “cheeze”) with green beans, tomatoes, and kidney beans

Sunday:
Cumin-crusted potatoes (5 Spices, 50 Dishes)
Punjabi creamed greens with kale and chard (5 Spices, 50 Dishes) (made with soy yogurt)

Punjabi Creamed Greens (kale and chard)

Monday:

Lentil dal (5 Spices, 50 Dishes)
Home-cooked cranberry beans
Dandelion greens with walnuts and raisins
Quinoa
Chocolate pumpkin loaf (made without eggs)

Tuesday:
Sweet potato and kale soup with fennel seeds
Pamela’s drop biscuits

Sweet Potato and Kale Soup with Fennel Seed

Wednesday:
Tangy red lentils
Roasted broccoli with pine nuts and lemon zest
Brown rice

Thursday:
Tinkyada brown rice spirals with vegan pesto, roast zucchini, tomatoes

Gluten-free spirals with vegan pesto, zucchini, and tomato

Don’t forget to send in your favorite tried and true recipes for beans, lentils, and other legumes and pulses!

Highly Delicious Grape Cake Pudding Thinamajig

Our Farm Fresh to You CSA box delivers our fruit in small paper bags. We take the larger pieces of fruit out of their bags and arrange them in various places as part of our endless experiment in food storage. (Fridge? Hanging basket? Kitchen table? Cupboard?) But grapes I like to eat cold, so the whole bag goes straight into the fridge. We’ve spent the last two weeks munching our way through an incredible bag of grapes – huge, dark, sweet, and firm, with that special, almost perfumed Muscat-type flavor that drives me wild. But while we munched we never realized we were neglecting another bag of grapes, similarly delicious but of a less firm variety.

We are a sensitive bunch when it comes to fruit texture. Mealy apples, spongy nectarines, hard plums – all go sadly into the compost. And this bag of soft grapes (soft, but not rotten!) was about to follow suit. But they were so pretty… So I hopped online to see if I could find a delicious grape dessert. I figured cooked fruit is supposed to be soft, so it could be a win-win for everyone.

Using the fantastic Food Blog Search, I found several recipes for grape pie and different types of grape cake. I have a horror of making pie crust, and have never yet attempted a gluten-free pie crust. Also, Duck hates pie absolutely. I decided on a recipe for Grape Cake from Supper in Stereo, only of course the recipe was neither vegan nor gluten-free.

If I have a nemesis these days, it would be vegan, gluten-free baking. Last weekend Duck and I tried to make Rebecca Reilly  GF mint-chocolate brownies using egg replacer instead of eggs. When the timer went off and I pulled the brownie pan out of the oven, it was full of a bubbling, boiling, oil-slicked mass of goo that hardened as it cooled to something completely inedible. (I was trying to describe the texture to my mom: “They were hard, but not like crisp hard…” “Hard like resin?,” she suggested. “Yes, exactly!”) Now I have all this mint glaze and nothing to glaze with it.

I’ve made four separate batches of not very good biscuits in the last month and a half. The only ones that came out well were the Pamela’s Baking Mix drop biscuits, which were fantastic, but I would love to not have to rely on a store-bought mix. I feel overwhelmed – the things that make vegan baking possible and the things that make gluten-free baking work are each canceled out by the restrictions of the other diet. I miss the days when I baked for sheer pleasure as a quick afternoon activity, or whipped something up a few hours before a potluck and knew it would be the star of the show.

I have used egg replacer successfully in GF muffins, but it doesn’t cut it when it comes to cake. I did some research online to check out the various egg substitution options and saw flax seed, bananas, silken tofu, soy yogurt, and applesauce suggested. The Vegan Baking post at the Post Punk Kitchen was especially detailed. I didn’t have most of the stuff on the list, so I decided to just kind of wing it, using flax to sub for one egg and applesauce for the other. (Although for every five people who claim “I use applesauce all the time instead of eggs, it works great!” there is one intimidating person chiding, “Applesauce subs for oil, not eggs!”)

The reason I chose this recipe is that it already used ground almonds for part of the flour, so I decided to up the proportion of almond meal and use my last bit of Pamela’s baking mix for the rest. I changed a few more things around to adjust for the new ingredients, followed the directions for the original recipe, put it in the oven and prayed.

This cake has a very fun element to it, which is that 15 minutes into the baking time you take it out of the oven and arrange a bunch of grapes on top, then sprinkle the whole thing with coarse sugar. This sets the grapes up into a golden, springy cake top and looks just beautiful. I baked my cake for about as long as directed, then let it cool and sliced it open.

Totally uncooked inside. The nice thing about vegan cooking is that nothing bad will happen to you from eating undercooked cake, but no one wants to eat a “slice” of wet batter. I put it back in the oven. And back, and back, and back. I don’t even know if it works to put something back in the oven after it has cooled – I’ve certainly never tried before this. But I really wanted this cake to work, at least to get to the point of edibility.

After another 20 minutes or so I decreed it done, and we ate it warm with spoons from a bowl. It was heavenly. That sexy, perfumed true grape flavor, in a rich, buttery base of almonds and lemon zest, with a crisp topping from the sugar sprinkling. I don’t know if cooking it longer would have finally resulted in an actual cake, but I suspect not. There was just no rising happening, no place for air pockets to puff the cake up and give it texture and form. This was more like a bread pudding, but with grapes instead of raisins. It was phenomenal. I can’t wait for more grapes to go soft so I can make it again!

Highly Delicious Grape Cake Pudding Thingamajig (vegan & GF-ized from Supper in Stereo)

1 T. ground flax + 3 T. water, whisked well
1/4 C. applesauce
2/3 cups sugar, plus extra for finishing the cake
4 Tbsp melted Earth Balance
3 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup  hemp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup Pamela’s Baking Mix
1 1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 tsp baking power (because of baking powder already in Pamela’s)
a pinch of salt
zest of one lemon (I keep a supply in my freezer)
2 cups flavourful grapes

Butter and flour a 9″ round cake pan, then set it aside. Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Beat the flax mixture, applesauce, and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until they’re thick. Beat in hemp milk, Earth Balance, oil, and vanilla.

Sift together the baking mix, almonds, baking powder and salt. Add the zest, tossing it to make sure it is well-distributed. Then stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, making sure it is well-combined. Allow this mixture to sit for 10 minutes to make sure the flour has absorbed the liquids.

Gently stir in 1 1/2 cups of grapes, then transfer the batter to your cake pan.

Bake on the middle rack for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, pull out your cake and top it with the reserved grapes. Sprinkle coarse granulated sugar overtop. Bake for about 1 hour, until the top of the cake is golden and springy and the center of the cake is cooked. (I had to actually dig into mine to see if it was cooked – the top was gorgeous but the inside was raw. I would not make this dish for the first time planning to present it to company!) Remove from the oven and eat warm as a pudding or allow to cool in the pan for a slightly firmer treat.

Triumph and disappointment in a vegan, gluten-free Menu Plan Monday

It’s so nice to be back again after so long away! Here are some notes from the trenches of another (retroactive) vegan, gluten-free Menu Plan Monday…

This week I tried to check out Veganomicon a bit more for inspiration, but I still get the feeling I might be happier with their previous book, Vegan with a Vengeance, since all the “basic” recipes I look for – tofu scramble, chocolate chip cookies, etc. – aren’t in the fancier V’Con because they already appear in the humbler first effort. I think that was a poor choice on the authors’ (or publishers) part. By including all those basic recipes in V’Con, they could have created a book that would be the cooking bible, the Joy of Cooking for vegan folks, but instead their big book is just one more on the shelf.

We have switched our Farm Fresh to You CSA box to a smaller size because we were getting a little overwhelmed, but we did a good job this week of using up all the veggies that came, even the lettuce, which is usually our downfall. Duck has also been volunteering at the food bank in our neighborhood, and they always insist on sending him home with some nice organic veggies, so those informed our meal choices this week as well. Last night I rediscovered a huge bunch of gorgeous black grapes that had gone past the point of eating raw (Duck and I like our grapes very, very firm) but were in no way rotten, so I tried something I’ve never done before and improvised a little gluten-free, vegan grape cake. It turned out a bit more like a grape bread pudding, but it was delicious!

This week’s menu post is light on recipe links, but that’s because the potato leek soup, the biscuits, and the tofu scramble were all first-tries and all disappointments. (Not so bad that dinner was ruined, but I wouldn’t recommend the recipes to anyone else.) If anyone knows a recipe for fantastic vegan, gluten-free biscuits, let me know and I will be forever in your debt!

For a massive dose of menu plans, check out the giant Menu Plan Monday compendium over at OrgJunkie. The Gluten Free Menu Swap is hosted this week by Asparagus Thin, with the theme of Superfoods. I got to feel all smug and healthy at how many superfoods from her list I used this week, and not even intentionally to meet the challenge. Avocados, chick peas, dark leafy greens, eggplant, flax seeds and hemp milk in the cake, garlic in everything, lots of nice fermented and sprouted soy, sweet potatoes, tea, whole grains, and yogurt – nearly her entire list!

Monday
Homemade falafel with tahini sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, and sriracha
Middle Eastern-style turnip pickle
Steamed kale with kale sauce

Tuesday
Semi-Nicoise salad with butter lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, steamed green beans, and red onion with Nicoise dressing (no anchovies)
Hot-sauce glazed tempeh (V’con)
White rice

Wednesday
Southern-style collard greens and beet greens with tempeh bacon and tomatoes (recipe to come)
Deborah Madison tofu
Quinoa

Thursday
Potato leek soup made with scrap stock
GF biscuits
Green salad

Friday
Bengan bharta (Indian eggplant)
Raita (goat yogurt with cucumber, mustard seeds, and spices)
Cucumber sunomono salad
Brown rice

Saturday
Pasta “alla California” (GF noodles with broccoli, red pepper flakes, and avocado) (VCon)
Roasted root vegetables (beets, carrots, red onion, sweet potato) with fresh rosemary

Sunday
Tofu scramble
Sweet potato fries with aioli
Tempeh bacon
Grape pudding-cake

Have a great week, everyone! And, if you have a favorite Bean, Lentil, Legume, or Pulse recipe, don’t forget to send it to me for the Steady Pulse round-up!

Steady on! A pulse-perfect gluten-free, vegan Menu Plan Monday

Beans, legumes, lentils, pulses – whatever you call them, they are incredibly healthy, with so many advantages and no nutritional downsides. They are high in protein and fiber, low in fat and on the glycemic index, high in B vitamins, folate, calcium, and potassium, and help to lower cholesterol and blood sugar. Dried beans, peas and lentils are some of the cheapest foods out there, and some of the most filling.

But pulses can also be intimidating, what with all the rinsing and soaking, long cooking times, and potential for coming out either too hard or too mushy or just bland and kind of gross. I’ve been put off myself for years from making bean and lentil dishes from scratch, but I’ve decided it’s time to conquer my beanphobia. It’s time to establish a steady collection of go-to recipes that will help to make cooking with pulses a regular and non-terrifying part of my life. 

I’m calling the project “Steady Pulse: Bean & legume recipes you can count on,” and I’m inviting food bloggers everywhere to contribute their most time-tested bean/lentil/dried pea/etc. recipes – the ones that will make legume converts of us all. The project will be ongoing, but I’m hoping to gather an initial round-up of folks’ favorite recipes by November 15th. For more information on participating, please visit the Steady Pulse page. 

To kick off the project and celebrate kicking my phobia, this week’s menu draws on my tiny personal collection of legume recipes, the ones I make again and again and love every time.

Monday:
French lentil soup with thyme, tarragon, and brandy (made with scrap stock)
Sweet potato fries with aioli

Tuesday:
Home-cooked cranberry beans
Fennel-marinated tempeh (Moosewood at Home)
Brown rice
Green salad with tomato, cucumber, carrot, pine nuts, red cabbage

Wednesday:
Home-fried potatoes with onion and tempeh
Fried eggs
Home-cooked cranberry beans

Thursday:
Tangy red lentils
Quinoa pilaf with red and white quinoa
Steamed broccoli

Friday:
French lentil salad with cucumber, tomato, mint, and feta
Steamed corn
Green salad with tomato and carrot

Saturday:
Chana masala from canned chick peas (Will try to get recipe up later this week)
Spanish rice
Steamed kale

Sunday:
GF fettuccine with vegan pesto, roasted yellow squash and red onions, and roma tomatoes
Salad of red-leaf lettuce, carrot, red onions, avocado, and beets

I also have the pleasure of hosting the Gluten-Free Menu Swap this week! My fellow gluten-free bloggers have planned out some amazing meals this week, so read on! 

Kimberly at Gluten Free is Life has redesigned her blog since I last visited and it’s all shiny and gorgeous! (Sorry if that’s old news, Kimberly – my computer has been in the shop for several weeks!)  She has no fear of pulses, adding chick peas and black beans and other legumes to her lunches and salads all the time. She has a great menu planned including a sweet potato with cinnamon and Greek yogurt that caught my eye (and made my mouth water), and there is definitely zucchini bread in her future (check out her post to see why and be astounded!!). 

Sea at Book of Yum takes another of her drool-worthy weekly trips around the world with a menu inspired by India, Mexico, and the American South. She’s just found out her new baby may have a casein sensitivity, which is sad news, but at least baby’s momma is one of the best vegan-recipe creators on the web. Sea’s latest dairy-free creation is a dreamy dairy-free soy-free pine nut basil tomato cream sauce for ravioli. It doesn’t get any better than this!

Cheryl at Gluten Free Goodness is a definite bean lover. She even uses beans in desserts and as a thickener for chocolate frosting (I want that recipe sometime, Cheryl!). She has a yummy, fresh-sounding summer menu planned and I basically want to eat everything on it. Chickpea crackers, roasted cauliflower, sauteed fennel, chestnut sauce – this week sounds like it’s going to be a flavor explosion of the very best kind!

For a whole host of other weekly menu plans, check out the mega-gigantic Menu Plan Monday compilation over at Org Junkie!

Gluten-free style from the Emerald Isle – Menu Plan Monday

About a month ago, Duck and I went to Ireland to participate in his sister’s wedding to a lovely Irish boy. (Boy? Man? He’s younger than me and quite hip, but maybe getting married gives you an automatic bump up to “man.”)

Things I was prepared for as I headed to Ireland: Serious difficulty and perhaps impossibility in sticking to our normal food regimes (vegan for him, gluten-free vegetarian for me). Ireland has has a much better climate for raising food from the animal kingdom than the plant one, and that means meat in and with everything. An unavoidable abundance of gluten; after all, drinking Guinness is one of the national pastimes, and that’s basically a big, dark, delicious glass of wheat. A whole bunch of new people to whom I would have to explain my dietary requirements and get funny looks or a frenzy of worry.

What I totally did not expect on my journey: Walking into the local Super-Saver and finding nearly half of a huge aisle devoted to gluten-free products. Pita bread, tender and fluffy; garlic-coriander naan, the perfect combination of crisp and soft; ciabatta rolls with a toothy crust an Italian grandmother would approve, just waiting to be layered with fresh mozarella, basil, and tomato. Table water crackers and digestive biscuits, which I thought I would never eat again. Scones with raisins. Pizza crusts that make Kinickinick look like rank amateurs. All of it packaged, not bakery-fresh and on the verge of going stale, happy to sit quietly on the shelf and be brought alive with the barest of toastings. I even found Worcestershire sauce that is both gluten-free and vegan, which I thought was like a mermaid or a unicorn, something only to be dreamed of but never actually encountered. Ireland even came up with the coolest not-that-healthy health food ever – thin rice cakes topped with a layer of that sweet yogurt that coats yogurt-raisins. (They come in chocolate-orange, too!)

Needless to say, I came home with an entire carry-on full of food. I’m trying to ration my new treats (they all have expiration dates around mid-July), but this week’s (retroactive, as usual) menu plan includes some full-on celebrations of Irish, gluten-free bounty.

For other marvelous menu plans, check out the huge Menu Plan Monday compendium over at Organizing Junkie. For more gluten-free menu plan madness, pay a visit to Cheryl at Gluten Free Goodness. She is hosting this week’s Gluten-Free Menu Swap.

Monday: Homemade falafel with baba ganouj, heirloom tomato, red leaf lettuce, and Sriracha hot sauce, stuffed into an incredible gluten-free Irish pita, kale with kale sauce

Tuesday: Broiled tempeh marinated with fennel, soy sauce, and apple cider vinegar (Moosewood at Home), roasted broccoli with lemon zest and pine nuts, quinoa with coconut oil

Wednesday: Gluten-free Irish pita stuffed with broiled eggplant (marinated in balsamic, olive oil, and herbes de Provence) and feta and buffalo mozarella marinated with balsamic, olive oil, and fresh basil, fruit salad, green salad

Thursday: Rice, lentil, and potato pilaf with cardamom, Impressionist cauliflower, spicy collard greens, gluten-free Irish garlic-coriander naan

Friday: Sauteed broccoli rabe with garlic and chile flakes in a gluten-free Irish pita with Bravo farms cheddar cheese

Saturday: Gluten-free Irish pizza crust topped with pesto, tomatoes, mushrooms, and broiled eggplant marinated in balsamic, olive oil, and herbes de Provence, salad

Sunday: Dal with potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and ginger, red and white quinoa, raita of goat yogurt with mustard seeds and spices

The thing of it is, I don’t even care much for bread products. But until this week, I had forgotten how amazingly convenient they are. One night I was super tired but I really wanted to cook up two gorgeous bunches of organic broccoli rabe (my absolute favorite veggie, but I rarely find it organic, so it was a real treat). But after cooking them I was so tired that I was kind of like, well… what now? Will I just have vegetables for dinner? But then I grabbed a pita, tossed it in the toaster for a minute, and made a mouth-wateringly scrumptious sandwich with white cheddar cheese and sauteed broccoli rabe. No long-cooking grain, no need for mind-bending creativity, and absolutely no stiff, crumbly, barely-worth-the-title GF bread. Most of the time I love the challenge and creativity of GF cooking, and I love that it calls on me to make, not buy, most of the elements of my meals. But sometimes it sure is lovely to have a break – and not feel cheated or deprived when I do.

Reinventing an old favorite, better than ever

I woke up today and felt like making lasagna. Lasagna used to make an appearance a few times a year on my cooking rotation, combining long-simmered homemade red sauce with thick layers of creamy ricotta and chewy mozarella. Oh, and some garlicky spinach for color, of course. Then came cancer year, and the long list of “no” foods, and I created a “no”-food-friendly lasagna recipe for my mom and the other people in her treatement group that had lots of veggies and none of the forbidden stuff like refined flour or cheese or soy or meat or anything else that actually belongs in lasagna. It was pretty tasty, but not terribly filling. You had to eat about half a pan to feel satisfied, which is totally antithetical to the whole function of lasagna, which, as far as I’m concerned, is to spend more time than usual preparing a fairly elaborate dish, but then get a payoff which is that one small square of that jam-packed, densely layered dish can feed a family of four for a week.

So today I woke up and felt like making lasagna for the first time in a long while, but this time it would need to be my first vegan, gluten-free, CFS-friendly lasagna. By CFS-friendly I mean that this would need to be a lasagna with the proper energy input-output equation; in other words, a few hours in the kitchen today that would translate to many “no problem, we’re having lasagna!” meals in the coming week.

As I gear up to recount the great lasagna adventure, now would be a perfect time to mention the big news of the summer. Not only has Farm Princess returned at last from the East, she has brought her joyful sense of fun, gracious disposition, and farming/cooking/preserving/sauerkraut-and-kombucha-fermenting savvy and know-how into our home for the summer, and Duck and I could not be happier with our new housemate. Part of my inspiration to make lasagna was the amazing lentil, potato, carrot, mushroom dal Farm Princess had made for us all the night before, spurring me to want to make an elaborate meal she could just relax and enjoy.

But of course, Farm Princess being Farm Princess, she had the day free and suggested that what could be more fun than making lasagna together, with her as my sous-chef, of course? So the great lasagna project got that much easier and a million times more fun. The only challenge that remained was figuring out what, exactly, would go in this thing. The gluten-free conversion for lasagna is easy since I’ve discovered Tinkyada brown rice pasta, the pasta that I actually prefer in texture and flavor to wheat pasta. But the vegan part is a bit trickier. There are many options – you can go the fake ground-meat route, or the soy-cheese route, or the just-veggies-and-red-sauce route, or, my personal favorite, the tofu-ricotta route.

I hate soy cheese in all its forms, and I don’t even like meat, so I am not going to go out of my way to find substitutes for it (most of which contain gluten, anyway). The just-veggies route seems to lead to rumbling, empty bellies five minutes after you finish a slice, plus I like my lasagna veggies simple. Just greens and maybe mushrooms, but none of this carrots and broccoli and zucchini randomness. But tofu-ricotta is tricky. You can crumble up tofu to the texture of ricotta, but it’s still crumbled-up tofu – bland, bland, bland. And sometimes it gets dry, because it doesn’t have all that nice dairy fat in it, and then you have a mouthful of dry bland tofu sandwiched between noodles.

To address the flavor issue I turned to vegan-cooking genius Isa Chandra Moscowitz of the Post-Punk Kitchen. Her recipe for Tofu Basil Ricotta sounded like exactly what I was looking for in the flavor department. And to deal with the lingering question of potential dryness, I called on my own vegan-cooking genius, and decided to incorporate some of my Savory Vegan Cream. I really think the addition of the cream was what ultimately pulled the whole dish together, flavor and texture-wise, plus I had not even anticipated the mouthwatering appeal of seeing a lasagna with a creamy red-and-white topping, as opposed to the usual plain vegan red sauce topping.

From my CSA box I had a huge bunch of chard, another of beet greens, and a few leaves of curly kale, as well as a bunch of fresh basil. Yum. Perfect filling. I made a simplified version of my old elaborate homemade red sauce, Farm Princess whipped up some vegan cream sauce (and a little gluten-free peach and blueberry crisp for dessert), I massaged my tofu into ricotta-like perfection, we steamed the greens, and then finally I layered everything together. That’s the nervous part, for me, especially because I am never following one single recipe. Will there be enough sauce for all the layers? Did I use too many greens in the first layer and they won’t stretch all the way across on the next one? How much cream should I put – I don’t want it to get greasy! But everything came together beautifully (the lasagna gods were smiling on us today) and when it came out of the oven… well, you can see for yourself. I don’t think the picture does justice to the rich promise of herbs and tomatoes and creamy goodness that emerged from the oven. Perhaps you’ll just have to try it for yourself. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it!

Incredibly detailed recipe below…

Washoku, the second principle

“Five ways, or go ho, urges cooks to prepare food by a variety of methods, simmering, broiling, and steaming being some of the most basic. By combining various methods at every meal, it is easy to limit the total amounts of sugar, salt, and oil consumed, thereby avoiding excessive calories.” — Elizabeth Andoh, Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen

I began my exploration of washoku, the Japanese “harmony of food,” by paying attention to having the five colors (red, yellow, black, green, and white) represented at each meal. Another aspect of bringing a meal into harmony involves attending to how my food is prepared.

“Avoiding excess calories” is something I don’t worry about in my home cooking (and it’s not like I have to hold myself back from eating meals that are entirely deep-fried), but within a cultural cuisine (and particularly within Japanese cuisine which seems to adore fried things as special treats) it makes sense to have a kind of checks-and-balances system to ensure meals will be healthful overall. And what I’ve found a lot of joy in for myself is the fact that bringing a variety of cooking methods to the plate means a greater range of textures; soft, chewy, crisp, crunchy – my mouth perks up when it literally has so much variety to chew on.

This meal may have been stretching it a little on the “five colors” front (red from quinoa, yellow from carrot, black from raisin, green from scallions, white from cauliflower – a more muted palate for sure) but it was brought to completion by attention to “five ways.” The meal originally contained quinoa, steamed, cauliflower, simmered, and tofu, broiled. I wanted to bring washoku to the meal in terms of cooking methods, so I added the scallions, which are raw, and made a quick carrot-raisin pickle.  These additions naturally brought so much more color to the plate as well, which is something I’ve found in my pursuit of harmonious meals – brinigng one facet into harmonious alighnment usually pulls in other facets simultaneously. Not to mention simply making the meal more interesting, more tasty, and more healthful!

The best broccoli of your life

I don’t like to post recipes without providing a picture, but I know the crappy picture I took late at night while everyone was eagerly waiting to pounce on the food is not going to convince you. I don’t know if my words are going to convince you. Maybe Adam over at The Amateur Gourmet, from whom I got this recipe (and the title of this post, because really, what else is there to be said?), can convince you. Perhaps a read-through of the recipe will sway you. Maybe the fact that we’ve made this recipe 15 or so times but I’ve never managed to make it last long enough for a real photo-shoot will carry some weight.

But really, the only thing for it is please, PLEASE just make this recipe. Make it once, and I won’t need to convince you. Because you’ll taste, and you’ll see, and you’ll know.

It’s broccoli, and it’s roasted. The recipe specifies the broccoli should be completely dry (we just get organic brocc and don’t wash it at all first) and that means you may be headed for your first ever not-gross roasted broccoli. It’s roasted with garlic, which is always a good idea, and the garlic is sliced instead of chopped, which means it doesn’t turn into burnt, bitter, angry little nuggets but instead becomes crisp and the essence of garlic. Then afterwards there is some lemon zest, and some lemon juice, and, as with everything, it’s even better if those lemons are Meyer lemons. And then there are toasted pine nuts, which are so enchanting, so enrapturing, that when you bite into the occasional lemon seed that has slipped into the dish and cunningly disguised itself as a nut you’ll just laugh and laugh because you’re so in love with this broccoli that there’s nothing in the world gonna bring you down.

Adam of The Amateur Gourmet got the recipe from The Barefoot Contessa, and I got him from him. I present it to you here veganized and featuring our choice of flavorings (Adam goes for parmesan and leaves out the basil and pine nuts, we leave out the cheese and herb but can’t imagine it without the pine nuts). We’ve found that kosher salt stays crystallized and gets caught in the broccoli crowns, making them too salty, so we use plain iodized salt or sea salt. I’ve also tidied the recipe a bit – Adam’s wonderful narrative recipe style is a little hard for folks with brain fog (like me!) to follow while trying to cook at the same time.

Writing this post I feel like I sound like Duck when he writes so lyrically and dreamily about The Best Song in the World. Because that’s what this is – the best song in the world, dancing across your tongue.

Roasted Broccoli with Pine Nuts and Lemon Zest

4 to 5 pounds of broccoli (maybe two large bunches)
5 Tbs olive oil
1 1/2 tsps regular salt or sea salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 lemon
3 T pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 425.

Cut broccoli into florets (but relatively big ones.) Here’s the key that she doesn’t mention in the recipe: dry them THOROUGHLY. That is, if you wash them. I didn’t wash my broccoli; I wanted it to get crispy and brown. If you’re nervous, though, just wash and dry it obsessively.

In a small bowl, combine olive oil, salt, fresh ground pepper, and stir until the salt is at least somewhat dissolved. Slice 4 cloves of garlic. Toss the broccoli pieces and the garlic slices with the oil in a large bowl, or straight on a cookie sheet if you are brave (line it with foil or parchment if you want easy clean-up).

Roast in the oven 20 to 25 minutes, until “crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned.” Keep a good eye on it – you don’t want to burn it, just brown it a bit.

While the broccoli is roasting, toast 3 Tbs pine nuts in a dry pan over medium-high heat, shaking or stirring the pan constantly so the pine nuts get slightly browned but not burned.

When it’s done, take it out of the oven–and here’s where it gets really good–zest a lemon over the broccoli, squeeze some lemon juice over it (a half to a whole lemon, depending on how juicy your lemon is and how acidic you like your food), and add the toasted pine nuts.

Sit down with the pan, someone you love, and two forks. Expect no leftovers.