Kitchen Montage: Steaks, Soups, Sautes, Pizzas and Sundaes!

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone!  Phil didn't see his shadow, so spring is coming soon!   In the meantime, I wanted to share some wintery things I've been making lately.

Dawn's Philly 'Shroom Steak with Caramelized Onions, Garlicky Spinach and Roasted Beets.  Rosemary Sweet Potato Fries. 

The Cayenne Kicker: organic cayenne, freshly grated ginger, fresh squeezed organic lemon juice, and organic apple juice.  This drink effectively got rid of a cold I wasn't trying to catch!

T

Thai Curried Chickpeas and Broccoli (I served it with Coconut Lime Rice).  I can't find my recipe notes for this anywhere...boo! It was SO good. I know I used freshly grated ginger and garlic, some spices, olive oil, etc. just not really sure how I did it.  Oh well.

Quick Matzo Ball Soup. 

There was also a great Pea Soup, very simple and delicious. 

Oh, I made some rosemary fries to go with the soup! :-)

And an amazing Spinach Linguini with Artichoke Tomato Pesto :

You can see the my CSA pesto (I used a few cubes) swirled into our CSA jarred tomato sauce which I sauteed with lots of garlic and olive oil.  

Then, I had a craving for my Lemon Garlic Eggplant and I actually found organic eggplants at Wegmans last week!

Also had me a craving for homemade vegan pepperoni, so I made me a batch o' that...almost to the exact day of last year's pepperoni making! 

And what better thing to put Vepperoni and Eggplant on than Toaster Oven Pizzas??

Toaster Oven Pizza with CSA Marinara, Lemon Garlic Eggplant, Homemade Vegan Pepperoni and I think Follow Your Heart Mozz under there.

While I was making the pepperoni and the eggplant, we had to eat something! 

(Yves Pepperoni, FYH Mozz, spices, and CSA Marinara).

And you gotta have dessert, right??

 Blueberry "cupcakes" with Vanilla Glaze 

I used a muffin recipe but don't tell my son!

Vanilla "cupcake" with Chocolate Ganache 

We had an Almost Spring Sundae Party when it was near 70 degrees here on Wednesday:

SoDelicious Vanilla Ice Cream with Soyatoo Whipped topping and Organic Chocolate Sauce and Chocolate Sprinkles!

TJ's SoyCreamy Vanilla Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberries, Soyatoo Whipped Cream and Rainbow Sprinkles.  OMG.

Tonight I made a nice batch of seitan steaks (Tami's recipe from AVK, it's amazing!) and my Crispy Chipotle Seitan Gorditas.  They'd be great for a Superbowl party or a Wow it's Sure Quiet and this Store is Sure Empty, Everyone Must be Watching the Superbowl Party.  I'm also craving something like tofu "wingz" so I might make those tomorrow and maybe some nachos, too...

Hope you guys are having a great weekend!  It's snowing here right now. 

What the heck, Phil?

XOXO

Herbed Ice Cubes and Garlic Scape Pesto

If you have left over pesto, greens, or herbs, which, after blending the heck out of everything in your CSA box you are sure to have, just pour it into an ice tray, freeze it, and pop it out.  Then place cubes in a plastic bag and store in your freezer.  Cubes become an instant sauce for pasta, salads, casseroles, pizzas, etc. whenever you need it! Just stick it in a small microwave-safe bowl and microwave at 50% power or heat gently in a small pan over low heat until defrosted.  Add to whatever you like: pastas, pizza sauce, casseroles, tortillas pies, tofu scrambles,  veggie burgers, etc.

 Top cubes are Green Lantern Pasta Pesto (almonds, cilantro, garlic, lemon zest, big hit with my kiddo) 

and the darker ones are Spinach Cilantro Cubes (spinach and cilantro :-)

You can blend and store any herb or green or combination of both this way.  Just combine half the volume of herbs/greens with half the volume of water and/or oil, blend, and freeze.  Add some salt if you want.  

You can do parsley, basil, cilantro, mint, marjoram, the list is endless. 

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So, onto the CSA box...the only way I could think to make a dent in that HUGE bag of garlic scapes was to blend the heck out of them.  Basically, this is Groundhog Pesto with Scapes instead of garlic, and with organic arugula and almonds.  You can use any greens you have, and of course, any nuts or seeds.

Garlic Scape Pesto

1/2 cup Nuts and/or Seeds (I used almonds today)

1.5 cups chopped up Garlic Scapes (this is about eight large scapes)

Zest and Juice from one small Organic Lemon

2 tsps Kosher Salt

1 cup hot pasta cooking water (but grab at least 2 cups to thin it out later if needed)

2-3 cups Greens and/or Herbs

(today I used organic arugula that I bought last week before the CSAs started and some basil and rosemary from out back :-)

1/4 cup olive oil or any other oil you feel like using

Put everything in a VitaMix or Blendtech or high-speed blender in the order listed.  Blend about 30-60 seconds.  Add more pasta water as needed.  If using a food processor, add everything up until the pasta water and pulse until finely chopped, scraping down as needed.  Add hot pasta water gradually and pulse until incorporated.  Add greens and stream in oil with food processor running.  Taste for salt, seasoning, etc. and add what you feel like!  Add beans, tofu cubes, grilled seitan, or more veggies to top it if you like!

 Escapin' scapes.  Tonight in my home this pasta was, "Yoda's Green Light Sabers."

Now, what?

Groundhog Pesto

For whenever a groundhog eats all your basil, cilantro, or whatever other lovely green you wanted to make a pesto with, here is a flexible pesto recipe that uses whatever herbs or greens you have on hand and whatever nuts or seeds you like.  Many, many variants are possible, with versions such as "Middle Eastern" (cilantro, basil, sesame seeds), "Classic" (basil, pine nuts), "Moroccan" (Argan oil, walnuts), "Mexican" (cilantro, jalapeno oil), "Persian" (cilantro, parsley, basil, pistachios), "Winter" (arugula or spinach, almonds or cashews) and whatever other versions you can dream of. 

Not just a pest, a pest-o!

Groundhog Pesto

Note: If you are making this to go over pasta, grab about 1 cup of pasta cooking water before you drain the pasta.

Yields about 1 cup sauce.

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3 cups (total) of herbs and/or flavorful greens.

Recommendations:

Basil, Cilantro, Parsley, Arugula, Baby Spinach, even Garlic Scapes from your CSA! Try to use organic if possible. I just made GHP with 1 cup herbs (cilantro & basil) and 2 cups arugula and it was wonderful.

 2-4 garlic cloves (2 is standard, 4 is, well, a lot)

½ to 1 scant cup pasta cooking water OR ¼ to ½ cup olive (or other) oil

You can drizzle some oil in if you are using pasta water, too, or split the difference (ex:  ½ cup pasta water + ¼ cup olive oil, whatever). 

¼ to ½ cup nuts or seeds

Recommendations:

Pine Nuts, Sesame Seeds, Pepitas (Pumpkin Seeds), Cashews, Almonds, Walnuts, Pistachios, etc. You can use your nuts and seeds either raw or roasted/toasted.  If using roasted versions, be sure to soak them or use some hot pasta water in the pesto to soften them a bit.  If you have a VitaMix it probably doesn’t matter J

Juice of ½ to 1 lemon, add some zest, too, if you want it more lemony

1-2 tsps of salt (depends on your taste)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

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Wash your herbs or greens.  If using basil, take leaves off of the stalks.  If using cilantro, go ahead and use stems AND leaves! Did you know you can use the whole bunch of cilantro, stems and all, when making pesto?  The stems taste just like the leaves, not bitter at all like basil stems.  You can cut the bunch in half or thirds if you want to fit it better in your blender or processor, though. 

Put everything in a high-speed blender (like a VitaMix!) and blend for 30-60 seconds on high.  That’s it. 

If you are using a food processor, start by adding the garlic, pulse to chop, and scrape it down.  Then, add your nuts/seeds and pulse and scrape down alternately until you have a nice paste.  Then, add your greens/herbs salt, pepper and lemon juice and process.  With the machine on, drizzle the olive oil (or pasta water) in until it incorporates fully into the pesto.  Scrape down as needed.

Taste for seasoning and add whatever is lacking before serving.  Serve over pasta, beans, in tofu, seitan, or in soups, in salad dressings, etc.  You can use some more pasta water to thin it out to your desired consistency if needed.

Storage tips & tricks:

You can freeze pesto in an ice cube tray (put it inside a plastic zipper bag when freezing so pesto doesn’t get all over the place).  Once it’s frozen, you can pop out the cubes into that plastic zipper bag and store.  Use a cube to wake up sauces, soups, etc., or use multiple cubes to amp up your pesto power.

 My Precious.

Middle Eastern Pesto.

What is your favorite way to use pesto?