Ginger Dressing

Many years ago I went to a kayak gear swap and met a woman named Sandy Riggin. Sandy told me she was writing a book about her childhood, and long story short, I volunteered my editing skills. Little did I know the book was 1000 pages, and the subject so close to her that she wouldn't allow me to take the book home with me. So for many weeks, I drove up to her log cabin by Mt. Yonah, Georgia and we'd sit together discussing her work and I'd fail to get her to cut down any of the length of this book.
For my services, I received two Native American chevrons (trading beads) and she'd make some amazing snacks. She'd make this dressing and we'd eat entire tomotoes, avocados, and cucumbers drenched in it.

4 oz white onion
1/2 oz fresh ginger (cut it up before putting it into the blender)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 soy sauce
1/4 apple cider vinegar
juice from about 1/10 lemon (I know that looks silly- I just do it to taste)

combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

NOTE: I will usually add the olive oil, soy sauce, vinegar and lemon juice and then experiment with how much onion and ginger I feel like having. Sometimes I make this really onion-y because I love that strong flavor- other times I make it much more ginger-y. I slice up a cucumber and taste-test for about half the cucumber until I get it just right.

People sometimes add carrots to their ginger dressing- it will give it that nice orange color- I never do though, I dont want anything cutting the flavor of the onion and ginger.

This is probably one of the most requested things I make. Enjoy!

My favorite hummus recipe

I've been making hummus for a while, and for anyone who makes it, you know you can play around with the recipe a lot. Anyway, I stumbled onto this recipe from vegweb.com and it really is the best I've ever made. It uses a good amount of garlic, which I happen to prefer. I recently made it to bring to a party- the strong garlic made it everyone else's favorite too. Of course, you can adjust that to your taste too. That night I used all 5 cloves- today I did 4 and it was a little less intimidating.

Here goes:
1 can chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini (from roasted seeds)
1/4 lemon juice (basically 1 lemon)
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
salt (I only use kosher)
olive oil
parsley
water
The secret to this recipe being so yummy is making an emulsion of the tahini in a water based liquid first. Just throwing everything together in a blender won't do this.

First put the tahini and lemon juice into a blender and blend away until it's frothy, white, and creamy. You can also add a little warm water- less than a quarter cup.
Mince the garlic and blend it into the tahini cream and add salt to taste.

I rinse the chickpeas before slowly adding them- some recipes call to use the liquor from the can, but I don't love that taste.

Blend a handful of chickpeas into the tahini cream until it's smooth. Add salt to taste and maybe a little more water if you like your hummus slightly thinner. You may even experiment and not use the whole can of chickpeas- some make this recipe using half the can. Drizzle a little of the olive oil in while it's blending. You can get away with using none, or some people use more. Experiment!
Some people also advocate heating up the chickpeas first before blending them, it might make them blend a little easier. My food processor doesn't require this, but a less powerful one might.

This is Matt's all-time favorite sandwich- fresh hummus, whole wheat bread, sprouts, avocado, tomato and lettuce. Yum!

Winter Casserole with Herb Dumplings

I got this recipe from a vegetarian cookbook. It is so absolutely aromatic- it instantly became a favorite and an annual winter meal. I usually only make it once a year- the dumplings are kind of heavy, but the flavor is so wonderful and warming. Perfect on a winter day. Corny, but true. Plus it uses a lot of ingredients I don't normally eat and I like that- fennel bulb and rutabaga, in addition to lima beans. I'd love to hear healthier suggestions for the dumplings if anyone ever modifies the recipe.
Fennel bulb if you didn't know smells like licorice.

Here's what to do:
2 potatoes
2 carrots
1 small fennel bulb
1 small rutabaga (which become nearly indistinguishable from the potatoes so you can substitute/omit one or the other)
2 leeks
2 zucchini
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 X 15 oz can lima beans, with liquid
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cinnamon stick- this makes the BEST smell!!
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 bay leaves
salt to taste

dumplings
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 stick butter, freeze it then grate it
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
1/2 milk (I use skim)

1) cut all the vegetables into even, bite-size chunks. Don't kill yourself on the rutabaga- it's very tough to get the peel off so cut carefully, but don't feel guilty about being a little wasteful and removing too much with the peel.
Fry the veggies gently in the butter for about 10 minutes. You could certainly use less butter!

2) Stir in the flour then the liquid from the beans, the stock, tomato paste, spices, bay leaves and seasoning. Bring to a boil, stirring all the time.

3) Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, then add the beans and cook for a further 5 minutes.

4) Meanwhile, to make the dumplings, shred one stick of butter and mix with the flour, thyme, and salt to a firm but moist dough with the milk and knead with your hands until it's smooth.

5) Divide the dough into about 12 (you might get more) smallish pieces, rolling each one into a ball with your fingers. Uncover the simmering stew and then add the dumplings, allowing space between each one for expansion.

6) Replace the lid and cook on a gentle simmer for a further 15 minutes, though test a dumpling first to make sure it's ready before you take it off the heat entirely. Don't peek as it's cooking, you'll let out all the steam and mess everything up!

Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves before you serve this dish, steaming hot.

Nutritional yeast coated tofu over rice

More pictures and recipe coming soon. This is served with melted mozzarella and a drizzle of tamari. It's called Golden Bowl and I stole it from The Grit in Athens, GA-a favorite restaurant of Michael Stipe

Pasta with "meat" sauce

A quick, easy, and high-protein dinner. Start with Morningstar Farms Crumbles- they're a great substitute for any recipe that calls for ground beef. I thaw them first in a pan, just for a minute.

Stir in your favorite pasta sauce- here it's Prego three-cheese (which has no more fat/calories than non-cheese, guess they don't really put that much in it!)

Voila. Use whatever pasta you like, though it's probably best to use a small, bite-sized pasta. Usually I use farfalle, but today it was gemelli.

I always drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil into the pasta (helps it to not stick), and remember not to ever rinse your pasta, it takes away the yummy starches and washes away any vitamins. Also, don't over drain your pasta.

This dish literally takes as long to cook as it takes to cook the pasta- so quick and easy. Good, filling, comfort food.

I used 1 bag of crumbles, 1 jar of sauce (Matt likes to make sauce from scratch, but today I did this extra fast), and 1 box of pasta so we'd have enough for lunches tomorrow. You could definitely play with how much/little you add of crumbles to the sauce.

Enjoy!

P.S. here I'm using my favorite bamboo utensil- they don't scratch the pan and they're nice and smooth

Thai Basil with Lotus Root

Lotus root is a beautiful water vegetable.

When sliced, it makes for gorgeous presentation in this simple, vegan recipe.

Ingredients:

1 can coconut milk

green curry paste (to taste- start with just about a quarter teaspoon until you taste how much spice it adds!)

1 small lotus root (I get mine at the Spring Valley International Food Market)

Tamari or soy sauce- about4 tablespoons, but again, go to taste

FRESH basil

1 cup mushrooms

1 red pepper

1 cup cauliflower

handful of bean sprouts (always rinse them well and wash your hands after handling them, bean sprouts can carry salmonella)

1/2 can peas

The lotus root should be peeled and sliced thinly. It has to be boiled until soft- this can take at least 20 minutes or more, so get it started first. The thinner the slices, the quicker it will soften up. The presentation of the lace-like root is such an impressive feature! The flesh of the root should be white fiberous.

Put the can of coconut milk into a large skillet. It will come out at first in a big blob with liquid around it, but it will warm up to a nice consistency. Put in about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of the green curry paste, stirring to make it blend into the coconut milk. Add a bunch of fresh basil leaves, save some to use as garnish raw.

Put the lotus root into the coconut mixture as soon as it's firm but not crunchy.

Then put the cauliflower into the milk mixture, it will take the next longest to soften. I toss in the peppers and mushrooms and let everything simmer together for about 10 minutes. The peas and sprouts can go in last. (You can of course put whatever veggies you like into this, but the peas happen to be especially nice because they're a little sweet and the curry paste makes this dish spicy if you let it.)

I serve this over basmati rice or jasmine rice (smells like popcorn when it's cooking!)- pour lots of the coconut milk mixture into the rice and top with fresh basil which adds an enormous amount of aroma and flavor.

Enjoy!

Oh, I don't know about calories or fat (who cares!), but this is a totally vegan recipe- no animal products at all. It has so much flavor, you will never notice. Really.

Tofu can be added at any time for extra protein too.

Don't bother with the lite coconut milk stuff- it just doesn't taste good. I know it's more calories, blah blah, just use this recipe sparingly, and don't skimp on the coconut milk- use the whole can.