virtual vegan potluck: pasta with beet pesto and tofu ricotta

Welcome to the fourth installment of the Virtual Vegan Potluck! I’m so excited to be a part of this fun event! I hope you have enjoyed all the amazing recipes you’ve seen so far. This is my first time participating and I am honored to take my place in the lineup. This fall’s potluck has a new twist — a featured ingredient — the glorious beet! I wanted to come up with something that was a little out of the ordinary. We’ve all seen or heard of beet salads, pickled beets, brownies with beets, beet ice cream, beet soup, and the like. I wanted something a little bit different.

I used to despise beets. My mom would serve canned beets at dinner when I was growing up and I couldn’t stand them. I quickly learned that if I didn’t put a few on my plate, my mother would give me a huge spoonful and I would have to eat them all. It was easier to choke down a few than the giant spoonful! Once I left home for college, beets never came across my plate again until a few summers ago. My CSA boxes started arriving with bunches and bunches of beets. The first few weeks, I either gave them away to a friend, or ashamedly threw them away. It was a waste. I finally decided that I had to force myself to like them.

It turns out that fresh beets are much more flavorful than the horrible canned things. Roasted and drizzled with balsamic and maple syrup, served over greens with walnuts, dried cranberries, and avocado, I finally began to appreciate them. I found initially that I preferred golden or chiogga beets better than the standard red ones because the flavor isn’t as “beet-y” but I can now definitely eat them and actually enjoy my meal without feeling tortured!

So what to make for the potluck? I initially planned to make a recipe I stumbled across in a meal plan I subscribe to on my iPad. It was for beetroot, lentil, and brown rice patties, topped with sliced tomato, sautéed mushrooms, and smashed avocado. It looked interesting, but each time I set about to make it, I never really felt inspired and ended up making other things instead. Then all of a sudden, a few weekends ago while I was blog surfing, I happened upon a picture of a bowl of vibrant pink pasta. I knew instantly that this was the start of what I would make for the potluck.

I turned to my trusty recipe file (i.e. Google) and finally settled upon this recipe for beet pesto, but I needed to find a substitute for the goat cheese. One of the many beet recipes I looked at mentioned topping the pasta with ricotta cheese so I decided to see if I could find a simple recipe for making tofu ricotta. I decided upon this recipe because I find the combination of miso and tahini so intriguing — it’s a flavorful collision of two vastly different world cuisines, two worlds that are both so integral in my food story. (This ricotta recipe, by the way, was so delicious on its own that I could have kept eating it by the spoonful. I’m anxious to see what other dishes I can come up with incorporating this ricotta).

The end result? For starters, this was not a difficult dish to make at all. The ricotta takes about five minutes to measure, chop, and mash everything up. The beets need to roast for an hour, but after that, it’s the time needed to cook the pasta, and a few minutes of food processor magic. (And making sure you don’t turn your clothes and kitchen pink in the process). For something relatively simple to make, this was crazy delicious. I was actually surprised how little beet taste there was in it — I was expecting to be smacked in the face with beet flavor, but the garlic and walnuts must have mellowed it out. It is stunning to look at — I did very little to edit these photos. That really truly is the color of the dish. It is guaranteed to make your dinner guests ooh and ahh when you place this in front of them at the table! It might even make your children eat beets without realizing it — my sister’s kids love pasta with basil pesto, so if they’re already used to green garlicky pasta, I imagine they might be inclined to try bright pink pasta, too.

pasta with beet pesto and tofu ricotta

ingredients

for the pesto

• 3 to 4 medium-sized red beets, scrubbed clean
• 6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup tofu ricotta (see below)

for the tofu ricotta (makes approx. 2 cups)

• 1 block extra firm tofu (14 oz), drained and pressed
• 1 1/2 tbsp tahini
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• a pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 tsp miso paste
• 1 lemon, juiced
• black pepper to taste
• 1 shallot, finely diced
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

• 1 pound pasta of choice

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400˚F. Drizzle beets lightly with olive oil. Wrap the beets (individually) and garlic cloves (together) tightly with aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet. Roast 1 hour, or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, make the tofu ricotta. In a medium bowl, crumble the tofu with your hands. Add the remaining ricotta ingredients to the bowl and mash with a spoon. Set aside.
3. Cook the pasta according to directions. Reserve a cup of pasta water before draining pasta. Drain pasta and drizzle lightly with olive oil to keep from sticking and set aside.
4. After removing beets and garlic from oven, remove foil and let cool slightly. Once cool enough to touch, use a spoon to peel skin off beets and coarsely chop. Squeeze roasted garlic out of the peel.
5. In a food processor, combine roasted beets, roasted garlic, two tablespoons olive oil, and toasted walnuts. Pulse until smooth and creamy, adding reserved pasta water as needed. Add 1/2 cup tofu ricotta and pulse until combined. Season with salt to taste.
6. Toss pasta and beet mixture until well combined. Top with more tofu ricotta, if desired.

I hope you have enjoyed my dish in the Virtual Vegan Potluck. Please use the image below to visit the next dish in the lineup!

pumpkin squared

Tis the season — pumpkin season, that is. I have two great pumpkin recipes for you today: pumpkin polenta squares and pumpkin beer bread. These have been my quick grab and go breakfast baked goods for the past several weeks and I’ve really enjoyed them. Both recipes are plant-based which means you won’t find any eggs or dairy in them, and the pumpkin purée eliminates the need for any oil. Also, they both use maple syrup as the sweetener — you could replace this with your favorite sweetener of choice. You’ll have to experiment with the amounts until you find what you like.

You can make your own pumpkin purée if you like, or buy canned pumpkin. Make sure you don’t buy pumpkin pie filling by mistake. At this time of year, I think canned pumpkin is actually harder to find in the store, or at least they keep it well hidden behind the pie filling!

pumpkin polenta squares

ingredients

• 2 cups polenta or cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon*
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves*
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice*
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg*
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger (optional)
• 2 cups pumpkin purée
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)
• 1/3 cup maple syrup

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease an 8×8 glass baking dish.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the cornmeal, baking soda, salt, and spices.
3. Stir in all other ingredients and mix to combine.
4. Pour mixture into baking dish and bake for 50-55 minutes.
5. Remove from oven when it is golden brown and firm to the touch. Place on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

*note: you can substitute 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice.

pumpkin beer bread

adapted from Gimme Some Oven

ingredients

• 3 cups spelt flour (0r flour of choice)
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 1 12-ounce bottle of beer (I used hard cider instead of beer)
• 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped (optional)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (optional)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9×5-inch bread pan with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper.
2. Stir flour, baking powder, salt, spices, maple syrup and pumpkin purée together in a large mixing bowl until combined. Slowly add in the beer, and stir until combined and smooth. Stir in cranberries and walnuts, if desired.
3. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean. Let bread rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

peanut butter chocolate chip fudge brownies

How’s this for a weekend treat? Brownies without flour, oil, eggs, dairy, or added sugar. Yup, you heard me right. And they’re ooey gooey, full of chocolate-y goodness, creamy peanut butter, and a little bit of a kick since I added a dash of cayenne. I was skeptical when I first saw the recipe on Ambitious Kitchen. How could peanut butter, applesauce, and cocoa powder ever bake up into a brownie? I don’t know what kind of mad science is involved, but what I can tell you is that these things are pretty amazing. Drop everything and try them yourself!

You can head on over to Ambitious Kitchen for the recipe. I used maple syrup instead of honey, and I added about 1/2 a teaspoon of cayenne pepper just to give it a bit of spice. If you have a peanut allergy, I’m sure you could substitute almond or cashew butter, or even sunflower butter to make it nut-free. I’m sure there are many things you could stir in to add or change the flavors–peppermint oil and chopped nuts come to mind. Well, what are you waiting for? Get baking!

miso udon with tofu, spinach, and shiitake

It rained most of the day yesterday. A little on the chilly side, but not cold enough to light the fireplace yet. I’m looking forward to those days — not the colder temperatures so much, but the coziness of sitting in front of my fire curled up in a blanket with a glass of wine. And my cat plastered to my side, no doubt.

It was still a miserable enough afternoon that some comfort food was in order. I had a lot of spinach to use up and a fresh batch of home-sprouted mung bean sprouts so I thought I would make a vegetarian version of miso chanko-nabe. Chanko-nabe is a one-pot meal that the sumo wrestlers in Japan eat. It’s a hearty meal that consists of broth, vegetables and meat or seafood. There are really no rules to making chanko-nabe. You can put in whatever you want, make the broth however you like.

When we lived in Japan, we would often eat this in the winter months. My mom would cook it on the stove in the kitchen and then transfer it to a pot over a gas burner placed in the middle of the dining room table. Then we could serve ourselves and refill our bowls as needed throughout the meal. There are a lot of Japanese meals that are served in this way, a method of keeping warm in the winter months since most houses are without central heating. Many families sit under a kotatsu together in the evenings for food, television, games, and conversation. A kotatsu is a table covered with a futon, or heavy blanket, with a heat source underneath or built into the table itself. I think this table played a big factor in the creation of much of Japan’s cold-weather cuisine.

For my version of chanko-nabe, I used individually packaged, pre-cooked udon noodles — the kind that cook in 3 minutes. I find mine in the Asian section of my grocery store. If you can only find the dried noodles, you will need to cook them separately before putting them in the pot. Also, if you have leftovers, I recommend storing the noodles separately from the broth, otherwise they will absorb all of the liquid and become very mushy.

I sprinkled some shichimi togarashi over my bowl when serving. Shichimi is a Japanese seasoning blend that literally means “seven flavor chili pepper”. The brand I use contains orange peel, black and white toasted sesame seeds, cayenne, ginger, Szechuan pepper and nori (seaweed). It can be found in most Asian food stores. If you can’t find it, you could probably make your own mix, or just sprinkle a bit of cayenne on top.

Update: I’ve shared this post on Pure Ella’s Comfort Food Potluck Party http://pureella.com/potluck-party-comfort-food-recipes/. Won’t you join in the fun, too?

miso udon with tofu, spinach, and shiitake

ingredients

• 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 3 packages instant udon noodles, seasoning packets discarded
• 1 package firm tofu cut into 1/2-inch squares
• 2 leeks, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
• 8-10 shiitake, sliced
• handful of snow peas, trimmed
• 3 green onions, the whites sliced into 1 1/-2-inch pieces, the green tops sliced thinly
• 1 bunch spinach, roughly chopped
• 2 cups bean sprouts
• 2-4 tbsp miso paste
• dash of shichimi togarashi

1. In a large pot, bring the stock to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and add the ginger and garlic. Add the leeks, snow peas, tofu and shiitake and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add the green onions, spinach and bean sprouts.
3. Place the miso in a medium bowl and add a ladleful of hot broth. Whisk until the miso is completely dissolved, then stir the mixture back into the soup. I like a strong miso flavor, so I used 4 tablespoons. Start with 2 and taste the broth after you pour the miso back into the pot, and adjust as desired.
4. Cook for a few minutes and sprinkle with shichimi togarashi, if desired. Serve piping hot.

orange, date, and walnut polenta muffins

I’m really enjoying these weekend baking sprees I’ve embarked on recently. I finished my last scone for breakfast this morning so I knew this afternoon I’d need to work on something else to get me through my breakfasts next week. I was planning on making those amazing avocado, blueberry, orange muffins again, or modifying my orange, cranberry, ginger, avocado scones, but my avocados weren’t ripe enough yet so I had to scratch that idea. I saw some recipes a while back for polenta cake that I filed away in my head for later use, which got me onto my polenta dinner kick recently. I decided to check google to see if there was such a thing as polenta muffins, and eventually settled on orange polenta muffins.

At this point, I’m not sure it’s possible to go wrong when you bake with oranges — with the scent of the batter while you’re mixing it and the aroma that wafts from the oven while they’re baking, how could they possibly taste anything but amazing? I was a little concerned when I removed them from the oven because they looked like they might be very dry, but they were anything but! They’re slightly sweet, tangy, with a hint of savory from the different spices. Very satisfying and definitely a great breakfast option!

You could easily adapt this to your taste by substituting the spices, fruits, and nuts for almost anything you want (although I think I hit the jackpot with my choice of spices)! I think it could be really good with peaches or blueberries–I’m not sure I’d want to sub out the orange. That’s the major key to the success of this recipe. I may try it using avocado instead of the oil next time, if I have a ripe one on hand. All in all, a successful rainy day baking adventure!

orange, date, and walnut polenta muffins

adapted from Orange Polenta Muffins

ingredients

• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk
• 2 oranges, finely diced (including peel)
• 1 cup dates, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
• 1 cup quick cooking polenta
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 1 cup wholewheat pastry flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

directions

1. Preheat oven to 395˚F. Line 18 muffin cups with paper or silicone liners.
2. Mix the brown sugar, coconut oil and almond milk together in a large bowl and let sit while you prepare the other ingredients.
3. Sift all the dry ingredients into another bowl.
4. Add the oranges, dates, and walnuts to the wet mixture, then add this to the dry ingredients. Fold together gently until mixed.
5. Divide between the 18 muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Leave in the muffin tray for 5 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool.

creamy polenta with spinach and mushrooms

 

Tonight, I planned to make a mushroom, spinach, and lentil phyllo-wrapped thing for dinner. (Yes, “thing” is the technical name). When I finally got around to cooking, I decided that it would take too long since I’d need to cook the lentils before I could assemble and bake the whole thing. I started googling mushroom, spinach, and phyllo recipes but couldn’t find anything that would be quick and easy to make. I stumbled upon this recipe and decided I would vegan-ize it. Instead of scallops, I used tofu as my protein, but you could use sausage, chicken, beans, etc.

It was creamy, savory, and very filling. I’ve never really done much with polenta before this, but I will definitely be making variations of this dish again. Instead of spinach, you could stir in just about any vegetable you want and I think the end result would be great.

 

creamy polenta with spinach and mushrooms

ingredients

• 3/4 cup polenta
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1 bunch spinach, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• firm tofu, cubed (optional)

directions

1. Put polenta and vegetable stock in a medium-sized sauce pan and stir well to combine. Turn stove to high and cook until the broth starts to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir often to make sure the polenta doesn’t clump. Cook until polenta is creamy and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add spinach and stir to thoroughly combine. Stir in nutritional yeast. Set aside.
2. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add about 2 tbsp of olive oil to the pan. Add onions to the pan and sauté until they begin to turn translucent. Add the mushrooms to the pan and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. If using tofu, add to the pan at this time (For chicken, sausage, etc., either cook separately and stir in at the end, or add to the pan after the onions and brown all sides before adding mushrooms). Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add wine to pan. Continue to cook until wine has reduced by half. Add almond milk to the pan and stir to incorporate. Cook for about 2 more minutes, then remove from heat. Adjust seasoning as needed.
3. Distribute the polenta between 4 plates and top with mushroom mixture. Serve immediately.

vodka sauce with heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, and mushrooms

I’m pretty sure I broke just about every rule in Italian cooking tonight. I made vegan vodka sauce and I used heirloom tomatoes, almond milk, and nutritional yeast to do it. Not only that, I put eggplants and mushrooms in the sauce. I can just hear all the Italian grandmas rolling over in their graves! But since I’m not Italian (I’m American-Cypriot), I’m not going to worry about it, and I’ll just enjoy my pasta!

My kitchen counter was overflowing today with tomatoes from my garden. I have a few san marzanos, a ton of heirlooms, and even more little yellow pear tomatoes. I knew that I needed to do something about this situation pretty quickly before the tomatoes went bad. I’ve already given away so many that people run away from me when they see me coming… I initially decided to make a tomato sauce that I could freeze for later, but as I started looking up recipes, I started thinking about vodka sauce. I’m not a huge fan of tomato and marinara sauces, but I do love a good vodka sauce! If I order pasta with sauce at a restaurant, it is almost always vodka sauce. I love the creamy, tomato-y (is that a word?) taste and for whatever reason, it doesn’t give me heartburn the way any other tomato sauce does.

A lot of the vegan vodka sauce recipes I googled called for using a jar of spaghetti sauce (seriously?) or needed cashew cream, soy creamer, mashed beans, etc. , things I wasn’t interested in getting involved in tonight. I finally found a recipe that called for almond milk and nutritional yeast as a substitute for heavy cream. Did I mention that I already had the onions, eggplant, mushroom, and tomatoes cooking in the pan before I decided to switch to vodka sauce? Yeah, after spending all that time trying to find vegan vodka sauce, I decided to give up and make plain old tomato sauce. Then halfway through, I grabbed my bottle of vodka, dumped it into the sauce and then I didn’t have a choice! Shockingly, it turned out quite well. It was creamy and tomato-y and I loved it with the eggplant and mushrooms. I will definitely be making this again!

vodka sauce with heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, and mushrooms

adapted from Tomato Vodka Sauce on about.com

ingredients

• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 medium-sized eggplant (or two small ones), diced
• 10 crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 8-10 fresh heirloom tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 6 basil leaves, torn by hand
• 1/2 cup vodka
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper

directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, and have an ice bath standing nearby. Score an X into the bottom of each tomato. Gently lower the tomatoes into the boiling water. Boil for 30-60 seconds until skin begins to peel away. Remove and place in ice bath. When tomatoes have cooled, peel off the skin — you can use a paring knife for the hard to remove bits. Dice and seed the tomatoes and set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the eggplant, mushrooms, and garlic and continue to sauté until lightly browned. Add the tomato paste and stir to incorporate. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
3. Add the fresh tomatoes and torn basil and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes, until sauce begins to thicken. Add vodka and simmer for another 20-30 minutes. Sauce will continue to thicken. Stir in maple syrup and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
4. Add almond milk and nutritional yeast and stir well to combine. Simmer for another 5 minutes until sauce thickens to your desired consistency, adjust salt and pepper as needed.
5. Serve hot over pasta of choice and enjoy!

 

baking with avocados

I’ve come to the realization that in order for me to cook regularly, it needs to become a puzzle for me that I have to solve. In the case of vegan cooking and baking, it’s figuring out how to substitute for dairy, eggs, and other animal products in a way that is close enough to the original recipe, or turning it into something completely different and wonderful. Even though I’ve always loved to cook, I never really did so regularly for myself. My two main reasons are because it’s really not a whole lot of fun to cook for yourself, and when you’re done cooking, you’re the only person there to clean up after yourself, and I definitely don’t enjoy cleaning! But when it comes to vegan cooking, since I know I can’t run across the street to McDonald’s or Wendy’s from school for breakfast or lunch, I have to prepare food for myself in advance at home. This has forced me to spend a lot more time in my kitchen than I normally do, and I’m really enjoying being creative in trying and adapting new recipes. I still don’t enjoy cleaning up after myself, but if I’m going to keep cooking, I eventually have to wash the dirty dishes and clear off the counters!

Ever since I stumbled across the vegan muffin recipes in Forks Over Knives – The Cookbook, I’ve been obsessed with vegan baking. I’ve baked vegan ginger peach muffins and banana bread several times in the weeks since school’s started. They are both simple, tasty, and filling items for me to grab for a quick breakfast when I’m running out the door to work. (And are much better than the egg mcmuffin or sausage burrito I’d get from the drive-thru more mornings than I care to admit!) Several days ago, one of the blogs I follow posted a recipe for avocado, blueberry, and orange muffins. I’ll let you head over to Poppy’s Patisserie for the recipe. They were amazing. I had no idea that this funky looking green batter would turn into such delicious, orange-scented muffins. I’ve never cooked with avocado before. Sure, I’ve put it in a million salads and made guacamole hundreds of times, but I had no idea that it was such a versatile ingredient. This got me hooked — if it tasted this good in these muffins (and there was absolutely no hint of avocado flavor at all in there), what else could I bake with it? So the search began…

I turned to my trusty recipe file (i.e. google) and began searching for baking recipes that used avocado. I eventually settled on making scones. I had trouble finding exactly the recipe I was looking for since most either used ingredients I didn’t have on hand, weren’t vegan, or were gluten-free. I’m not ready to dive head first into gluten-free baking yet — those require a little more science and accuracy than I care for at this point. Plus, I don’t have an issue with gluten, so whenever I make gluten-free stuff, it’s more a matter of wanting to experiment with alternative grains.

Anyway, I finally decided I wanted to make orange, cranberry, and ginger scones and would attempt to create my own recipe, adapting what seemed to be fairly standard ingredients and proportions in the scone recipes I found. The only thing I was really unsure of was how much butter or oil one avocado would replace. I couldn’t find anything specific online, but I decided to go for it anyway. The end result turned out pretty well. They looked amazing and the texture was definitely scone-like. The recipes I compared varied from 2 tablespoons to over a cup of sugar so I erred on the side of caution. Next time I’ll add more sugar or maple syrup or something–they just needed a little more sweetness. I also couldn’t really taste the ginger so I’ll either increase the amount of powdered ginger or add grated fresh ginger next time. I’m posting the recipe exactly as I made it, so be forewarned that it may not be sweet enough for your liking. Some recipes called for brushing the top with milk or sprinkling with sugar before baking, so those are some things I might try next time. This recipe could also be adapted to other flavors and mix-ins, so be sure to let me know if you come up with a great flavor combination!

orange, cranberry, ginger, avocado scones

ingredients

• 1 large, ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced
• 1 orange, juiced and zested
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp powdered ginger
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup raw sugar
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup almond milk

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400˚F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Put the diced avocado in the freezer for approximately 20 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, and flax seed.
4. Place the frozen avocado into the flour mixture and work it in using your fingertips or a pastry cutter until the mixture is in small granules.
5. Stir in the orange juice, zest, and cranberries.
6. Gradually add in the almond milk until everything is moistened.
7. Spoon the batter onto your prepared baking sheets (approx. 1/4 cup per scones). They will spread a little as they bake so leave some space in between.
8. Bake for 10-15 minutes until scones are golden brown and firm to the touch.
9. Leave on baking sheet for 5 minutes before placing on a cooling rack. Enjoy!

corn, edamame, peach, heirloom tomato, and pickled red onion salad

This is a really simple salad to throw together and is great when fresh corn is in season. You could use canned or frozen corn but fresh corn off the cob is simply the best! The flavors and colors are bright, you get a mix of sweet and sour from the corn and peaches versus the lemon and pickled red onion.

corn, edamame, peach, heirloom tomato, and pickled red onion salad

ingredients

• 2 ears of fresh corn (uncooked), removed from the cob (approximately 2 cups)
• 1 cup cooked shelled edamame
• 1 peach, diced
• 2 to 3 heirloom tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 cup pickled red onion (recipe below)
• fresh basil, chopped
• olive oil
• juice of one lemon
• red wine vinegar
• salt
• pepper

directions

1. Add the corn through to the red onion to a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat.
2. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the salad, and drizzle with 1-2 tbsp of red wine vinegar and toss again.
3. Salt and pepper to taste. Add the basil and toss again lightly.

pickled red onion

ingredients

• 1 red onion, sliced thinly in rings or half moons
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
• 5 black peppercorns

directions

1. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a tea kettle or small saucepan. Place the onions in a colander over the sink and pour the boiling water over them and let them drain.
2. In a two-cup or other container, place the onions and all other ingredients. Stir to distribute the flavors evenly.
3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. They will keep for several weeks in the fridge.

takikomi gohan – brown rice with tofu, zucchini, eggplant, shiitake

This was a spur of the moment meal that I started at 9:00pm Sunday night. I don’t recommend doing that since I added too much liquid to my rice cooker and after two-and-a-half hours, it still hadn’t beeped. I finally checked on it close to midnight and the brown rice was finally done. Learning from my mistakes, what I believe should be a faster recipe is below.

brown rice with tofu, zucchini, eggplant, and shiitake

ingredients

• 2 go of brown rice, rinsed
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 eggplant, diced
• 1/2 block of tofu, cut into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch cubes
• 8-10 shiitake, sliced thinly
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp mirin (sweet cooking rice wine)
• water

directions

1. Put rice in rice cooker and enough water for 2 go according to your rice cooker’s specifications. Add all other ingredients.
2. If your rice cooker has a brown rice setting, switch it to that, and press start.
3. When your rice cooker beeps, it’s done! (You may want to check on it after an hour and see how it’s doing, and then every half hour after that. The vegetables will add extra liquid as they cook down, so make sure you don’t make the mistake I did of putting enough water to compensate for all the ingredients.)