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

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.

Herby red wine beans!

1/2 cup dried romano beans

1/2 cup black eyed peas

Soak beans overnight. In fresh salted (1 tsp sea salt) water, bring beans to boil, turn down and simmer until beans are tender (about an hour... but keep checking. The aim is to cook til tender but try not to let the beans burst their skins.... They are done when you blow on a bean the skin bursts)

In a large pot/skillet, heat up around 1 tbs olive oil, add 1 tsp dried marjoram and 1 tsp dried thyme, saute until fragrance is released then add 1 onion finely chopped and 2 cloves of garlic minced.

Dice:

2 carrots

1 turnip

6 new red potatoes or 1 large potato

2 portabello mushrooms or1 cups sliced cremini/white mushrooms

Add above vegetables to onions, cover skillet and continue to gently saute vegetables over a low heat to let mushrooms release juices and the root vegetables to start cooking in steam. Add 1/8 cup of dried porcini bits.

Add 1/2 cup of red wine to above and continue to cook gently.

Add the cooked beans.

When root vegetables are cooked, you're done!

Add freshly chopped parsley, black pepper and salt to taste.

Serve as is or with mashed potatoes or rice.