Lentil Pate

4 cloves minced garlic
2 large shallots diced
one grated carrot
1 quart chopped mushrooms
1/5 cups brown lentils
3.5 cups water
2-3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon umeboshi vinegar
1 tablespoon each dried marjoram and thyme
1 teaspoon dried tarragon

1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup white miso

1/4 cup chopped flat leaf Italian parsley

Saute garlic with shallots diced in a good chug of olive oil until shallots are soft. Add grated carrots, chopped mushrooms, cook until all vegetables are cooked.

Add lentils, water and bay leaves. Heat to boil, turn down to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Add two vinegars and stir. Add dried herbs in centre and saturate with more olive oil (allow the heat of the lentils heat up herbs to infuse flavours into the oil before stirring in).

Cook mixture for a further 5-10 minutes. Lentils should be soft.

Turn off heat, add almond butter and white miso. Stir into lentls until well-blended. Taste for seasoning.

Allow lentils to cool to room temperature and then blend with hand mixer with chopped parsley. If mixture is too watery (not enough body), add more almond butter.

Lemony Dill Lentils

Saute 1 heaping teaspoons of garlic granules in olive oil until golden with the finely chopped peel of 1 lemon
Add 1 large leek (sliced), saute leeks until soft.
Add 1 cup dried lentils (brown/French lentils)
Add 1 3/4 - 2 cups water
Bring to boil and then down to simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes

Add 1 tablespoon dried dill in middle of pot. Saturate the dill with more olive oil. Let the herb infuse in the oil in the centre of the lentils for 5-10 minutes with pot covered.

Turn off heat, stir in dillweed, add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Serve with mixed grains/rice and roasted brussel sprouts.

Basic Pesto

Dry roast any combination or even just one of the above:
Walnuts
Pinenuts
Raw pumpkin seeds

Whatever nut/seed you use, you want to end up with around 1/4cup

In a measuring cup, add:
1 minced clove of garlic
Juice of half a lemon
2-3 shakes of sea salt
2/3 cup - 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 roasted nuts/seeds from above
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Handblend the above together. If the pesto is too sticky, drizzle in a bit more olive oil. If it's too oily, try adding more basil or nuts.

That's IT.

This is very good when tossed with:
Fresh pasta
Roasted Spaghetti Squash
Steamed potatoes
White kidney beans

Creamy lemony lima beans

Saute generous tablespoon of garlic powder plus 2-3 good shakes of sea salt in 1/4 olive oil until garlic is golden. Add 2 finely chopped shallots, saute until translucent. Add 1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian flat leaft parsely, saute until wilted. Add around 1 cup cooked giant lima beans, stir to warm up beans and to coat and allow beans to absorb the garlicky goodness.

Creamy Lemon-Tahini Sauce

Combine in a measuring cup:
Juice of 1 lemon
1 heaping tablespoon of tahini butter
1/4 water (you may need to add a bit more later to adjust consistency)
1/2 teaspoon umeboshi plum paste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes (you may need to add a bit more later to adjust consistency)
2-3 twists of the black pepper mill

Using a handblender whizz the above ingredients into a thin smooth dressing. Too watery? add some nutritional yeast flakes by a tablespoon at a time to thicken. Too thick? add a little water to thin.

I like this dressing fairly thin, somewhere between the consistency between thin and thick cream so that it just coats the beans.

When your beans are warm and thoroughly coated in shallots, garlic and fresh parsley, turn off heat and drizzle the lemon-tahini dressing over the beans, mix to coat.

Serve beans over:
1. Bed of sauteed kale/rapini and/or
2. Steamed brown rice.

Bon Appetite!

Vegan Date Squares

Date Squares
Serves 8-12

•  cinnamon? maybe.
• 1 1/2 cup 1 minute oats
• ¼ cup of coconut oil
• 2 heaping tbsp brown sugar

Filling:

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 400g pkg. pureed dates (if not available use whole pitted dates)
• 3/4 cups water
• 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

In a small pot mix dates, cinnamon, water and jam. Stir on medium heat until blended and softened. If using whole dates, mash with a fork as they begin to soften. Some texture is perfectly fine. Remove to cool slightly. In a large bowl mix dry ingredients and 1 tsp cinnamon. Add coconut oil to dry ingredients to make a crumbly mixture. Line a 10"x 8" casserole dish with parchment paper and oil it up. Sprinkle 1/2 of the crumb mixture onto the bottom of dish and using the back of your fingers press crumbs down firmly. Dollop large spoonfuls of date mixture over crumbs and spread evenly from side to side. Sprinkle remaining crumb mixture over top to cover filling. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 35min. Allow to rest 10 min. then cut into squares and allow to cool completely. *If it cools completely before cutting it will be firm and sticky*

Holy ish I nailed it. VEGAN MACARONI AND CHEESE with roasted brussel sprouts

This was adapted from the Post Punk Kitchen recipe which called for 1 cup soaked cashew nuts. I didn't have any nuts or broth so I substituted the cashew butter for the nuts and added sweet paprika, dill and shallots to the garlic plus water for the broth.

Roast halved brussel sprouts in olive oil in 375 degree F oven for about 20-30 minutes.

Cook pasta and drain.

In the same pot, saute 2 minced shallots with 2 minced garlic cloves in olive oil along with 1 tsp dill and 1 tsp sweet paprika. When translucent, add 2 tablespoons cashew butter and start to add water, blending butter in carefully to remove lumps. Add around 3/4 - 1 cup water total but basically you want to eye-ball it for desired consistency. Note! leave it a bit thinner than you'd want because you will also add:
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon of white miso

Both of these things will also tend to thicken the sauce. AND THAT'S IT.

Just toss in the cooked pasta and roasted brussel sprouts and there you go!

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