Tempeh Pot Pie with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potato Crust

A yummy stew with golden potatoes baked on top, a vegetarian, if fact vegan, rendition of all-American comfort food—what more could you ask for during this cool fall weather?

Get the garlic roasting in the oven, and cook the potatoes.  Save some of the potato cooking water and any coconut milk for the gravy sauce. Plump the tempeh in boiling tamari-spiked water.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes (October 12, 2012 post)

8 ounces tempeh

1 tablespoon tamari soy sauce

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 large carrots, cut in ½-inch dice

2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour

1 cup liquid (vegetable stock, leftover coconut milk and/or tempeh tamari water)

1 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning or ½ teaspoon each sage, thyme and marjoram

1 cup frozen peas

1 1/2 cups cooked spaghetti squash or butternut squash

Real Salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

Make the Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and set aside.

Put the tempeh in a saucepan and just cover with water by about ½ inch. Add the tamari and cook the tempeh for about 10 minutes to “plump”. Remove from water and allow to cool. Cut into 1/2-inch cubes.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and carrot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour. Cook a few minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon so the flour coats the onions and carrots. Add the liquid, stirring continuously. The gravy will thicken into a sauce: if it becomes too thick, add more stock or potato water. Stir in the poultry seasoning or dried herbs. Add the peas and squash and reserved cubes of tempeh. Season to taste with salt and cayenne.

Preheat oven to 375° F. Lightly oil a 9 x 13-inch casserole pan. Spread the vegetables and gravy in the pan. Top with the mashed potatoes. Bake 20 minutes.

Switch the oven to broil. Broil until the potatoes are golden brown on top.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

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Random Vegetables with Savory Peanut Butter Sauce

I had some “Thai” peanut and sesame baked tofu in the fridge. I wanted to serve it with the spaghetti squash and beet greens from last week’s Farmer’s Market. The problem was I had already stirred quite a bit of basil pesto into the spaghetti squash the night before and I needed a sauce that was compatible with both pesto and sesame peanut tofu. I must have looked in five different cookbooks for inspiration when I came across Deborah Madison’s Quick Peanut Sauce in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. (I have said it before,” If you want the best vegetarian cookbook out there, that is the one.)

The random vegetables are just that—whatever you have on hand, whatever you feel like eating, or whatever you find in your CSA box or Farmer’s Market. Garlicky and tangy and sort of sweet, this, my variation of Ms. Madison’s sauce, enriches an assortment of vegetables, as well as grains and proteins. Serve it cold, spooned over your choice of goodies.

Heaping 1/3 cup chunky (unsweetened) peanut butter

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ tablespoons tamari soy sauce

2 teaspoons brown sugar or honey

1 teaspoon chili oil

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

¼ teaspoon Real Salt, or to taste

¼ cup water

In a bowl, mix the peanut butter, vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, chili oil and water with a fork. Taste and add the salt if you deem necessary.

Makes about 1 cup.

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Roasted Carrots with Polenta and Anasazi Beans

A road trip from Durango to Moab, down in the Four-Corners area of southern Utah and Colorado, takes you through the “don’t blink” town of Dove Creek. If you don’t blink, on the north side of the road you will pass the Adobe Milling store that sells local pinto beans and the more gourmet Anasazi beans, named for the ancient Pueblo culture that lived in this area. Dove Creek Colorado calls itself the “Pinto Bean Capital of the World”, but I came away with a bag of Anasazi beans from the store. Paired with polenta and Roasted Carrots—well, tonight will be our third meal of the same.

I make a 1 cup recipe of polenta beforehand and let it cool in a 9 x 13” dish. Robbie cuts the cold polenta into squares and into the oven it goes—along with the carrots roasting to perfect golden tenderness.

ancho and guajillo chiles

I followed my basic recipe for pot beans, adding a couple of chiles, because they were sitting in a bowl on the kitchen counter asking to be used. The same with my go-to polenta recipe—easily cooked in the microwave. The roasted carrots are “simplicity itself”, to quote Anna Thomas, whose recipe I followed. In her cookbook, The New Vegetarian Epicure, Ms. Thomas suggests a meal of roasted vegetables and polenta. She includes roasted whole garlic and sautéed greens along with the roasted carrots and other surprises. I highly recommend the cookbook.

The vegetable broth and lemon juice add bling to the carrots. Since I keep a jar of Rapunzel powdered vegetable broth in the pantry, I mixed one teaspoon of powder with 2 tablespoons of hot water.

Roasted Carrots

1 pound small carrots

About1 tablespoon olive oil

Real Salt

2 tablespoons vegetable broth

1 ½ teaspoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Trim the carrots and scrub them well. If the carrots are not small, cut them into stick no more than ½ inch at their thickest point.

Put the carrots in a shallow baking pan and drizzle the olive oil over them Sprinkle lightly with salt. Toss them around so the oil and salt are evenly distributed. Mix the broth and lemon juice together and sprinkle over the carrots.

Roast the carrots about 45 minutes, moving them around every 20 minutes or so. The broth will evaporate and the carrots will become golden. If they are turning too dark before they are tender, add a wee bit more broth, but not so much that there will be liquid in the pan when the carrots are done.

Makes 4 to 5 servings.

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Tri-Color Orzo with Tomatoes, Dill and Feta Cheese

Our home office file cabinet’s lower drawer is all about cooking, bulging with file folders, from Appetizers to Yule Logs that reflect my dual interests of vegetarian and desserts. I am always tearing and tucking away possible ideas, articles and recipes that I think someday I might want. Admittedly it is clutter, but at least the clutter is labeled files in a cabinet, right?

Nowadays one can simply Google an ingredient and glean a recipe, but it’s not the same as the tactile feeling of paging through a cookbook or sifting through a folder of recipes. Just like I am positive this orzo recipe from July 2008 Gourmet Magazine is available on epicurious.com, I am pretty sure it would not have come across my radar without a thumb through my folder labeled “CSA Recipe Ideas.” The torn-out page is from a regular column titled Gourmet Every Day Quick Kitchen, and says “35 minutes” in the bottom corner. There is a photograph of this Orzo dish, juxtaposed next to Grilled Oregano Shrimp and its recipe. The vegetarian in me is musing, “Hmmm, grilled oregano tofu?”

I know I saved the article because dill shows up in our Ranui Gardensbox a few times a year and I wanted to be ready for just this occasion.

plain, spinach and tomato orzo

Tri-Color Orzo with Tomatoes, Dill and Feta Cheese 

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

½ cup finely chopped dill

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

½ teaspoon Real Salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

2 cups diced tomatoes

1 cup tri-color orzo pasta

1 ½ cups (6 ounces) crumbled feta

In a serving bowl, toss together the oil, dill, zest, salt and pepper and tomatoes. Let stand at least 10 minutes, or while you cook the orzo.

Bring a pot of well-salted (1 ½ tablespoon: 4 quarts) water to a boil. Stir in the orzo and cook just until it is tender to the tongue. Drain the orzo and into with the tomato dill mixture. Add the feta and toss again.

Serve immediately.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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Green Lentils with Kale and Steamed Quinoa

We are finding gorgeous tomatoes in our Ranui Gardens CSA box this month. You could use them in this stew-like dish, but I like to savor the rarity and freshness of the heirlooms in salads, sandwiches and raw—and use canned tomatoes here. I choose quinoa as the bed underneath the vegetables—feel free to substitute rice or any other cooked grain.

Precook the kale in another saucepan and add it at the last minute to the lentils.

1 ¼  cups red or tri-color quinoa

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 onions, chopped

2 tablespoons smoked paprika

2 teaspoons ground cumin

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 cup green lentils, sorted and rinsed

1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes

Real Salt

1 bunch Lacinato kale, stems removed and discarded

Freshly ground black pepper

Rinse the quinoa well to wash away the saponin coating. (Saponin is a natural pesticide quinoa produces so birds won’t eat it. It doesn’t harm humans; it just makes the quinoa bitter if not rinsed well.)

Bring 2 ½ cups of water to a boil and add the quinoa. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the water is absorbed, about 30 minutes. Just as with rice, do not stir—tilt the pan to see if there is any water left. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium flame. Add the onions and cook, stirring often until the onions are translucent, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the paprika, cumin and red pepper; cook and stir for several minutes.

Add the lentils, the tomatoes and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat; cook and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding more water if needed. The lentils should be tender to the bite.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the kale leaves and simmer them until the greens are tender to your tongue, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the water and let the kale cool on a cutting board.  Chop—about 1 inch apart with your knife, in both directions to cut the leaves. Stir the kale into the lentils. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve over the steamed quinoa.

Makes about 4 servings.

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Simple Leek, Garlic and Potato Soup

For a surprise color, I made this soup with the red-skinned and red-flesh Mountain Rose potato.

diced Mountain Rose potatoes

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 leeks, thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only, about 1 1/2 cups

7 cups light vegetable broth

2 pounds potatoes, well-scrubbed and cut in 3/4-inch dice

7 or 8 cloves garlic, peeled

Real Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chopped green onion, for garnish

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium flame. Add the leeks and cook, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Add the vegetable broth, potatoes and garlic and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are very tender.

Puree the soup on the pot with an immersion blender. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If your vegetable broth is low sodium, you will need to add more salt. If you prefer a smooth texture, strain out any skins that did not puree completely.

Serve in bowls, garnished with the chopped green onions.

Makes about 8 servings.

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Goat Cheese makes a Sassy Simple Sauce

We’ve known each other for close to 40 years

We visited our friends in South Lake Tahoe over Labor Day weekend. John and Julie planned and shared 3 full days of fun, with plenty of boating, hiking, biking, dining and toasting to golden and dear friendships. On our way out of town, we made the requisite stop at Trader Joe’s in Carson City for a road salad, their unrivaled dried tortellini and some hoppy microbrew to bring home.

We picked up our Ranui Gardens CSA box 8 hours later on the way into town. Golden beets went into the oven to roast, the basil became pesto via the Cuisinart and we saved the beet greens in a jar for the next evening’s meal.

Tortellini Pasta with Golden Beets and Greens in a Goat Cheese Sauce

Tortellini Pasta with Golden Beets and Greens in a Goat Cheese Sauce

1 bunch golden beets

1 ½ cups dried cheese tortellini

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

6 ounces fresh goat cheese

Real Salt

1/3 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Roast the beet the day before so they are ready for this quick meal.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the beet greens from the beets. Stick the beet greens in a jar with some water, cover with a plastic bag and store in the refrigerator. Place the beets themselves in a casserole dish with a lid. Add about 2 tablespoons of water to the dish, cover and roast about 45 minutes, until the beets are tender enough to pierce with a fork. Let cool.

Wash the beet greens. Trim away the stems. Chop the greens in ribbons, about 1/2 –inch wide. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add several teaspoons of kosher salt and stir in the tortellini. Cook the tortellini according to the package instructions; for Trader Giotto’s tortellini it is 15 minutes. Drain, saving about 1 cup of the pasta water.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a large skillet on low heat. Stir in the garlic and pepper flakes and cook, stirring about 5 minutes. Place the beet greens on top, cover with a lid, and heat until the greens have wilted and shrunk, 5 to 8 minutes.

Slip the skins from about half of the roasted beets and cut them into pieces about ½-inch wide.

Stir the goat cheese into the greens and garlic, along with about 2/3 cup of the reserved pasta water, breaking it up with a spoon, and stirring to make a sauce. Gently stir in the tortellini and the beet pieces and cook just until they are heated through, adding more pasta water if needed. Season with salt to taste.

Sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds and serve.

Makes 3 to 4 servings.

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Pesto Grilled Tofu

Let’s make pesto with the lemon basil and sweet “Genovese” basil in our Ranui Gardens CSA box and this time slather it on tofu, like I described in the last post. But let’s grill instead of bake the tofu out of respect for the heat—it’s just too hot to turn on the oven.

Start steaming brown rice before even pulling the tofu from the fridge so it will be cooked and ready to serve with the hot-off-the-grill tofu.

14 ounces (or thereabouts)  extra firm tofu

1/3 to 1/2 cup fresh basil pesto

Prepare the tofu. Turn the block on its side and cut into three thinner blocks, 1/2 to 5/8-inch thick. Keep the blocks in a stack and cut all the way through to make six triangles. Press out excess water: place the tofu triangles in a large shallow dish on top of a clean tea towel (without terrycloth nubs.) Cover with another towel or paper towels. Place a second dish on top, one that fits inside the first, and place something heavy in the dish–I use my blender. After 5 or 10 minutes the tea towels will have absorbed excess water, and the tofu triangles will be easy to pick up.

Brush oil on the grill grates and preheat the grill to medium heat. Remove the tea towel and arrange the tofu on a plate. Spread generously with pesto.

Cook the tofu triangles, pesto side down first, 5 to 10 minutes. Spread pesto on top of the triangles and turn them over. Cook a few more minutes, then spread with more pesto. Turn off the grill and let the residual heat melt the pesto into the tofu. Serve on a bed of brown rice.

Makes 3 to 6 servings, depending on how much you like tofu.

Pesto tofu on rice with salad

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Pesto Potatoes

Pesto Potatoes on the Grill

Earlier today at work, as I walked from a busy bakery to my office, I passed one of the cooks opening tubs of tofu. I notice tofu, more than I would a pot of turkey chili, mostly because it’s not on the menu everyday at Deer Valley and more so because I love tofu! Before going home, I watched the same cook arrange those triangles of tofu, hot and emerald green with pesto, on a bed of arugula. At his urging, I helped myself to the extra piece on the back line—even knowing I was going to have pesto potatoes before the sun had set behind the mountain.

Robbie mentioned pesto potatoes this morning and he says he thought about them all day. He must have thought well, because the ones he made us for dinner were perfect.

Early Rose Potatoes

He used Early Rose potatoes from our Ranui Gardens CSA box and dipped into the stash of basil pesto  tucked away in our freezer. (Every time we’ve had basil in the box we make up a batch of pesto.)

Pesto Stash in random containers

Any time you cook potatoes, if you have organic ones, by all means scrub them and leave the skin on. The Early Rose potato has a thin and smooth skin.  If you don’t know your farmer and her growing practices, ask. Potatoes make the Dirty Dozen pesticide list, so it might be best to peel them if they have been sprayed. These are so good you can eat them with your fingers.

 Pesto Potatoes

4 to 6 potatoes, sliced crosswise 1/2- to 5/8 inch thick.

Olive oil, as needed

Basil Pesto, as needed

Par-cook the potatoes in a steamer or nuke them in the microwave until they have begun to cook but are still pretty firm. (You can cook them entirely on the grill but it takes a lot longer. The par-cook step helps get dinner on the table sooner.)

Heat the grill to high if the potatoes are par-cooked, to medium high if not par-cooking them.)

Brush both sides of the potato slices with olive oil. Arrange them in a single layer on a grilling tray.  and cook until the potatoes are fork-tender and have some golden grill color, turning the potatoes to cook both sides. Brush one side of the potatoes with pesto and cook about 10 minutes more, until the pesto becomes part of the potato.

Serve immediately.

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Dinosaur Kale Risotto

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I am a great proponent of the pressure cooker for quick and healthful meal preparation. I especially like to use the pressure cooker for risotto—in addition to being a time-saver, the result is perfectly cooked creamy rice, something restaurant chefs fail to achieve with consistency.

Dinosaur or Lacinato Kale

Dinosaur kale is also known as Tuscan kale, Lacinato kale, black kale or cavalo nero. It has dark leaves, almost blue-green, flatter than curly kale leaves and really is the most prized kale of all. I once read a nutrition article–where I don’t remember—that said Lacinato kale is richer in cancer-preventing antioxidants than its cultivar varietals.

This risotto is green and white and very tasty. Arborio rice is recommended for risotto. It has plenty of starch for creaminess, and the grains plump as they cook into perfect bites to your tooth. Brown rice just doesn’t substitute.

2 tablespoons olive or grapeseed oil

1 cup finely chopped onions

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ cups Arborio rice

½ cup white wine

3 ½ cups vegetable stock

½ teaspoon salt

1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped in 1/2-inch pieces

2 tablespoons chopped basil or cilantro, optional

½ cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Heat the oil in a pressure cooker. Over medium heat, cook and stir the onions and garlic, for about 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the rice, and continue to stir to coat the grains. Stir in the wine and stir for about a minute. Add the vegetable stock.

Lock the lid in place. Over high heat, bring to high pressure. Lower the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for four minutes. Take the pressure cooker to the sink and stop the cooking by running cold water over one half of the lid. When the pressure indicator has dropped, carefully remove the lid.

Return to the heat and stir in the kale and chopped herbs, if using. Cook and stir constantly until the kale has cooked and shrunk, about 5 minutes. If the risotto seems dry (not creamy) add more vegetable stock, continuing to stir. Stir in the cheese. Taste and add more salt if needed. You can also brighten the flavors with a splash of red wine vinegar—about a tablespoon.

Makes 6 servings.

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