Leafy Green Gumbo

For the greens, use any combination of:
spinach, kale, rapini, swiss chard, collard greens, tops of carrots/beets/parsnip!, broccoli, parsley... you will want 2-5 bunches of this, depending on how many servings you like (2 bunches is great for 1-2 people)

For the gumbo base:
1 tbsp dried marjoram
1 onion, diced
(optional: 1 bunch green oniong, both whtie and green parts thinly sliced)
1  green/red pepper
4 celery stalks, niced
2 large garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp chili powder (I like chipotle chili powder for its smoky flavour.... if you are worried about spices, this is optional)
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp allspice

a few tablespoons of flour to thicken
around 1/4 cup of olive oil to make a roux out of the flour
around 1 to 2 cups of water to make the sauce

Green Tabasco for seasoning (optional)

In a large pot, simmer the washed and cut up greens in enough water to barely cover them.

In a heavy bottom medium pot, heat some oil and add marjoram to release its fragrance. Add onion(s), green/red pepper and celery stalks and cook until translucent. Then add garlic.

At this point, create a small well in the centre of the vegetables, add a splash more oil in the centre of the well and then dump in all the powdery spices (the oil is there just to lubricate the powder and ensure that things don't get too dry and sticky). Stir up everything.

By now, the greens should be done. Pour off some of the water into a measuring cup. Reserve this liquid and set aside for the sauce below.

THEN. Depending on how many greens you have (if you are cooking up to 5 bunches/3 lbs of greens, then you will add around 2/3 flour and use up to 2/3 oil for the sauce! don't be afraid to be mingy with the oil.... all you want to do is use enough oil to saturate the flour you use), spoon in your flour. For 2 bunches, I used around 3 heaping tablespoons. Add enough oil to saturate the flour and mix everything well. If it looks dry, just add some more oil.

Cook this floury mix until it is a nutty peanut butter colour. (NOTE: I REALLY tend to not be so lavish with oil... this instruction about the peanut butter business indicates that you are using enough oil to actually make the sauce at this point quite liquidy.... in my experience, I just add enough oil to fry up the flour a little and then I depend on the leafy green stock to make it saucey enough to cook... just as flavourful and much easier on the arteries).

Once oil is well incorporated, flour has been cooked, start to add the reserved liquid a bit at a time, stirring well so that there are no flour lumps in your sauce. Add enough liquid so you have enough sauce for your greens. Simmer this for around 15 minutes. Add a bay leaf if you like.

YOUR GREENS: at this point, puree the greens... because some of the greens might have the texture of bat wings (think collard greens....), it's a good idea to puree with some of the liquid it was cooked in.

Add purreed greens to gumbo sauce and voila! you're done!

Serve with:
Rice or put it in a roti/tortilla and roll it up.

This is comfort food AND you're eating leafy greens.

Once

Carrot Corriander Soup

This one's a classic adapted from the Juice for Life (now called Fresh) restaurant cookbook...

Ingredients:
3 tbsp ground corriander
2 large onions chopped
3 large carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, de-stringed and diced
2 tbsp dried marjoram
6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp tomato paste (optional if you are worried about acidity)
1/2 teaspoon of umeboshi paste (optional if you can't find any but this is not only consider one of those alkalinizing "superfoods" (people down umeboshi tea as a hangover cure!) but also imparts the much-vaunted "umami" taste... this is invaluable for vegans as unami is usually achieved most easily with animal products like anchovy)
sufficient water to cover vegetables plus perhaps 1 inch above the surface of the vegetables

1 medium sweet potato, diced

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

In a dry heavy pot, toast the ground corriander for 1-2 minutes to release its fragrance, empty into a small bowl and set aside.

In the same pot, saute onions until translucent in olive oil. Add carrots and celery and around 1/2 tsp of salt. Keep stirring, and sauteing so that the water in the vegetables evaporates. Depending on your patience, you *may* wish to keep going to do the "pocket full of evil" aka pincage concoction I mention in an earlier post. Umami bomb! Highly effective but does take patience. Anyway, even if you just saute until things are looking soft and sticky, this will do.

Add dried marjoram, plus a bit more oil, stir, release fragrance. Add the garlic, stir, brown.
Add the tomato paste and/or umeboshi paste if your using them here plus a little water to make the paste more liquidy.... once it's at a state where all the vegetables are evenly coated by the tomato paste/umeboshi paste liquid, then stir in enough water to cover the vegetables plus 1 inch above the surface of the veggies. Add the sweet potato and then allow all of this to reach a boil, turn down to simmer and cook until sweet potato is done (around 20 minutes).

When everything is done, take off the heat, add fresh cilantro and puree the soup. I use an immersion blender and puree it right in the pot but if you are using a blender, you should let things cool before putting it in the blender. Depending on how smooth you want the soup, you can go to town with the pureeing or, leave a few veggies intact so you have something to chew on.

You're all done!

Feel free to garnish with things like:
fresh cilantro, tofutti soy cream cheese/sour cream.... but really, this soup is quite lovely on its own and also very nice if you serve some cooked udon noodles with it.