Arugula Pesto Stuffed Shrooms

12 Crimini or Baby bellas
1 colored bell pepper
2 c arugula
1/2 c pecans
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 cloves garlic
1/4 small red onion
1 T hemp oil
1 T miso
mushroom stems

Place all the ingredients, except the mushroom caps and 1/2 of the bell pepper, into food processor and blend until smooth. Fill caps with the smooth pesto and place in a glass dish with a touch of water for moisture. Make at 400 for 15 minutes. dice the remaining 1/2 of the bell pepper and use as garnish.

Falafel Bites

2.5 c cooked chickpeas
1 small red onion, chopped
1/4 c fresh parsley
2 T fresh cilantro, chopped
2 T oregano, dry (or 1/4 c fresh)
1 lemon, juiced
1 t cumin, ground
1/2 t coriander, ground
1 t salt
fresh black pepper
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/4 c + 2 T chickpea flour

Preheat oven to 400

Combine everything except the baking soda and chickpea flour into a food processor. Pulse until combined, but do NOT make a paste. You definitely want to leave some texture. Trust me. After many falafel trials... please, don't make a paste. Cool? Okay. Carry on.

So, transfer to a large bowl, and mix in the flour and baking soda. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper, then lightly spray it or rub it down with oil. Now, you can start pattying the batter into small rounds, and lining them on the try. I also lightly rub the patties with a little oil.

Bake for 10 minutes, flip, then bake for another 10minutes. Awesome!

Breaded & Baked Morels!!

MOREL Mushrooms.. they come & go so quickly every spring. And they're everybody's favorite! There guys are super rare, very seasonal and deliciously savory.
I manage to get my hands on some every year.. usually they get breaded & fried right away. These year I decided to take a healthier, vegan and gluten free route.

1 lb Morels, soaked in water
1 bag Whole Grain Corn Chips, crushed in food processor
3 T ground flax seeds
3/4 c water
1/2 c buckwheat flour

Soak the morels to remove debris.
Whisk together the group flax & water. This with replace the egg in a typical breading.
Set up a station with 1 plate flour, 1 bowl flax/water, 1 plate crushed breadcrumbs
Gently shake the water off of the morels. Then roll them in flour, dip in flaxwater, then roll in chips.
Set them on a greased sheet tray and bake for 25min at 400deg. Flip halfway through.

I enjoyed these with a good friend, creamy nutbased ranch & some BBQ sauce. YUM!

Nacho Kale Chips

These went too quickly to get a finished photo!! aahh!! Ill have to be more careful next time.

1 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c pine nuts
water, about 1/2-3/4 cups
1/4 c nutritional yeast
carrot, 2in chunk
red bell pepper, a 1/3
1 t mustard
tumeric, a pinch
onion, 1/8 c
garlic, 2 cloves
1 T miso
1 T applecider vinegar

Throw all of the above ingredients into a high powered blender.
Strip 2 bunches of Kale from their stems, keeping the leaves in large pieces.
Rub the leaves liberally with the Nacho dressing, then place in the dehydrator at 109 for at least 1 day.
Flip half way through.
Youll need to keep them in a sealed container once theyre dry or else theyll rehydrate & get soft.

Pea Shoot & Arugula Pesto

A pile of gorgeous Pea Shoots from Green Gate Farms!! I picked these myself, 

they're sprouting up everywhere!!

The Pea Shoot is just the top few inches of a new pea plant.. they grow like wild, so it doesnt do any damage to trim off the tops before they become big ole adult pea plants.

You can pick a pea shoot and eat it straight away.. it tastes like a blend of spinach.. and peas!! They wouldn't cook very well because they're so tender and delicate, but they'd be nice wilted into some pasta, on a pizza, sandwich or tossed in a salad. The arugula is growing like crazy too, so I decided to combine the two in a pesto for friends.

There are as many ways to make a pesto as there are people in this world. Feel free to play with the measurements til you have one that you love. Pesto freezes really well in tupperware, or in an ice cube tray (pop em out and store em in a ziplock bag in the freezer!)

I use miso instead of cheese. Try it sometime!

Pea Shoot Arugula Pesto
2 c packed pea shoots
1 c packed arugula
1/2 c cilantro, optional (i had some laying around)
toasted walnuts
olive oil
white miso
lemon
garlic

Combine the ingredients in a blender or a food processor. Or make a rustic pesto, by knife or suribachi! A suribachi is like a mortar and pestle, only the bowl is ribbed.

For my guests, I served this with

Carrot & Turnip Saute
4 baby turnips, or 2 large, shredded
5 carrots, shredded
olive oil
salt

Heat the olive oil, add the veggies and season with salt. Cook for 3-4 min on med-low.

Crostini
Delicious bread, sliced thin
dredged in olive oil, minced garlic & herbs
and toasted under the broiler

raw Ranch Battered Kale Chips

In the above photo, beautiful green Lacinato Kale and Red Russian Kale, which I harvested myself at Green Gate Farms. Beside the kale lies a bowl of my rich and creamy nut-based Ranch sauce.

Here is the kale, heavily battered, in a luscious cashew & pine nut based ranch

In the dehydrator they go! Lined on wax paper at 109 degrees

Ranch Battered Kale Chips

1 head Lacinato Kale
1 head Red Russian Kale
2 c cashews, soaked 3 hours
1/4 c pine nuts
white miso (to taste, for salt)
2-3 cloves garlic
2-3 scallions
dill & parsley, fresh or dry
2 t ground mustard
2 lemons juiced

This is one of the recipes that I developed for our final project at plant-based Culinary School. I'm not sure if  you can duplicate the silky smooth texture of this batter without a Vita-mix blender. But you could try!

Its important to soak the cashews before blending. Soaking germinates (sprouts) the nuts and also, fattens and softens them. After a couple of hours they take on a purplish hue. Sprouted nuts, seeds and grains are one of the healthiest foods on the planet. 

Blend the 2c cashews with 1 1/2 c water. adjust by adding more water if necessary. Add the rest of the ingredients and taste your batter. If it needs more salt add a touch more miso.. if you think it needs a brighter flavor add more lemon.. if the herbs and spices aren't coming through enough then adjust accordingly. 

Its important to note that flavors concentrate in a dehydrator. So you may want to slightly under-season the batter.

These need to dehydrate at 109deg for at least 24hours. It may sound like a long time, but its totally worth it and you'll impress your friends. Have fun!

Breaded Artichokes with Lemon Herb Aioli

This is going on the menu. Rarely do I post something cooked in so much oil... but damn. These puppies are freaking delicious. And vegan unless you garnish with Parmesan cheese. Eat your heart out.

Ingredients for Aioli

1/3 c veganaise (vegan mayo or use whatever)
1 lemon juice plus zest
Italian Herbs (pick your faves or use a blend)
garlic 1-2 cloves minced

Ingredients for Artichokes:

1 can quartered artichoke hearts
3/4 c flour
seasoned Italian bread crumbs (I just bought panko & seasoned them myself)
2 T ground flax seeds (or use 2 eggs)
1/2 c water

high heat oil (safflower, grapeseed, sunflower)

set up your station:
1 bowl flour
1 bowl flax seed whisked with water
1 bowl bread crumbs

dredge the artichoke hearts in that order, flour-flax-crumb, then gently drop them into the hot oil. Flip them half way through..
You may need to do a test artichoke until you get your oil temp right.
When you remove the artichokes from the oil, place them on a brown paper bag to remove excess oil..
Then get down on some delicious grub

Strawberry Salsa

FRESH LOCAL STRAWBERRIES ARE HERE!!!
We have already gone through several pints! Most fruits can be turned into delicious salsa, I also love to use fresh cherries, mangoes, papaya, pineapple, peaches... yeah!

This recipe has standard salsa ingredients, plus strawberries

1pint strawberries
1 small tomato
few T finely chopped red onion
cilantro
olive oil (just a drizzle)
2t balsamic (or to taste)
1-2 jalapenos
salt
lime juice

you could do variations on this.. add kiwi, orange juice, or garlic, or bell peppers, or agave nectar/honey... Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Pizza Sauce

I made this for some friends from culinary school, we ate it so fast that I forgot to take a picture!
For the pizza dough, you can buy your own or follow a general recipe on the web. I used a package of gourmet spinach infused dough that my Momma put in my stocking for Christmas :) She knows what I like. Thanks Mom!

The pizza would be great with cheddar, or kalamata olives, or however you want to dress it up. I chose a simple vegan route, and topped it with caramelized red onions.

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and chopped

1 drop maple flavoring/ or maple syrup to taste

8-10 fresh sage leaves

salt and pepper to taste

Toss chopped butternut squash in oil, salt & pepper then place in an oven safe container, filled 3/4 with water and cover with foil. Bake at 400 until squash are very soft and can be easily pierced with a fork.
Place squash in blender or food processor and season with the rest of ingredients.

I used the remaining squash puree for the soup in the following recipe.

Open Face Eggplant Parm Tortillas

I usually don’t buy jars of marinara sauce, my Momma taught me better. However, I work in a Natural Grocery store, this sauce was on sale and looked really really good. Its an Artichoke Parmesan sauce, every once in a while, if I do buy a jar of sauce I’ll throw it on something like this and call it lunch/dinner for a couple days. Its really easy and cost effective.

You could replace the eggplant with zucchini squash here.

1 medium eggplant
1 egg + ¼ c milk
½ c- 1c Italian style breadcrumbs (there is a breadcrumb recipe in August)
tortillas or bread
marinara sauce
cheese

Preheat oven to 400

Cut the ends off the eggplant, cut it in half, and cut/peel the skin off. I like to slice my eggplant long-ways (top to bottom), it usually makes less pieces. One medium eggplant, cut in half, then sliced length-wise made 8 pieces here. Salt each side of each piece liberally and let sit for 30min. This will pull all the bitter juices out of the eggplant and make a much better tasting finished product. Rinse off the eggplant and pat dry. In a bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. On a plate pour your bread crumbs. Dip each piece in the egg mixture, then cover in crumbs. Place each piece onto a greased tray. I find it helps to crisp the breadcrumbs if you spray olive oil onto each side of the pieces. Bake for 10-12 minutes on each side.

Nachos

I was cleaning out the fridge tonight, because we'll be in Virginia for the next week. I knew I had to use the last of a few things, and came up with nachos for dinner. Comforting, way healthier than taco bell, and delicious.

1/2 red onion
1/2 red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
handful dry beans
few T oil
2t cumin
1t paprika
1/4t cayenne
salt

After soaking and cooking the black beans I sauteed the onions in oil. Once they were tender I added the diced bell pepper, cooked it for a few more minutes, then 2 cloves minced garlic. I gave the garlic a minute to cook, then added the beans and seasonings. Then I mashed it with a potato masher.
Turn the oven broiler on low. Spread some healthy chips (Anna and I go through at least 2 bags of Food Should Taste Good chips a week) onto the foil, shred cheese on top, and spread the bean mix on top the cheese. Stick it in the oven until the cheese melts. Top with sprouts, (or any shredded greens) salsa, and sour cream.