fajitas

You know what I like about fajitas? Everything! But I especially like the fact that they require almost no cooking, are super fast, and that there is only one pan to clean. So, it's kind of like the perfect meal. You can use whatever vegetables you want for this dish, the method just makes it special, and totally adaptable to anything you want to throw in the pan. (If you want to do something with meat in it, I would recommend cutting the meat into small pieces to assure proper cooking.) But anyway I digress. Let's fajita!

Ingredients:
1 package of seitan, roughly chopped
1 can of black beans, drained
2 peppers, julienned
2 carrots, julienned
1 yellow squash, julienned
1/2 onion, juli- gotcha!, sliced
1 scallion, sliced
3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
4 Tbsp. safflower oil
2 Tbsp. lime juice (2 limes)
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste

OK, here it goes in 50 words or less: Heat pan smoking hot. Mix oil and juice with spices. Toss with other ingredients. Add to pan, cook for four to six minutes, tossing constantly. Serve on warm tortillas. Top with cheese or sour cream. Eat fajitas! Only wash one pan!

lentil salad with purslane

Since moving to NYC one thing has become certain in our lives, we do not have as much time to cook as we used to. We have found a lot of ways to adapt. From prepping things a few days ahead, using our slow cooker more, or just making things that are simpler and still packed full of flavor we have found ways to save time and still make some amazing food. This dish is no exception.

This is also the first time we have used purslane. This happy little succulent is not only pretty damn tasty, its also the highest land vegetable in omega-3's. So eat up Veggies! Make friends and dinner with purslane!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups cooked lentils
1 bunch purslane, (2 cups of leaves)
1 red pepper, finely diced
1 spring red onion finely diced, about 1/2 cup
2 inches of onion greens, finely diced
2 garlic scapes, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
2 carrots finely diced
1 tsp lemon zest
juice of said lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Grab a large bowl. Throw all of the ingredients into it. Toss well, and season to taste. We served it on top of a pita warmed in a pan with a little bit of Earth Balance.

spaghetti squash with ramp pesto

Oh shit! Did you say ramps? Where are the ramps? How can I get them? It's not even ramp season yet!???!?!?!!?!

Shhhhhhh... quiet down lil foodie friend. We are excited for ramps too, but there is a way to enjoy them all year round. Just hold your horses and I will get right to it.


Ingredients:
1 big ole' Spaghetti Squash, halved long ways, and seeded
1 cup of Ramp Pesto
3 cups of frozen Edamame (or peas), thawed
1 cup of raw Walnut pieces
1/2 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 cup Olive Oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and Pepper to taste
Nutritional Yeast or Cheese (optional)

It is truly sad that ramps cannot be with us year round. Their little life spans are so short, and they bless us with their garlicky goodness for such a short time each spring. That doesn't mean that you can't have them all year though, and now that it is close to ramp season yet again, I thought it was time to open up a (freezer) door for you to show you how have rampy goodness all up in this piece all year long. It's really pretty easy.

Buy lots of ramps. Make pesto. Can or freeze. The ramp pesto we used in this recipe was made last May, and tastes exactly the same as it did when we made it, even after 10 months in the freezer. Other batches eaten earlier were also delish. This year I will definitely be buying way more, making a ton of pesto, and trying to can some as well.

On to the squash! Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Hack your squash in half long ways and remove the pulp and seeds. Spray lightly with cooking spray and place flesh side down on a baking sheet covered with parchment. Bake for 40 minutes.

Once your squash is cool enough to handle scrape out the "noodles" with a fork or a spoon, whichever you prefer. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the edamame, garlic, walnuts, and chili flakes to the pan. Toss in the spaghetti squash and saute' for 3-4 minutes, stirring so that everything is mixed evenly. Add the ramp pesto and cook an additional 3-4 minutes until warmed through. Season with salt and pepper, serve with warm crusty bread, and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast or Parmesan cheese.

saag tofu

We love Indian Food. Living in the Lower Haight we were surrounded by a ton of amazing Indian restaurants. However, in NYC we haven't really found one close to our house that we love just yet, so when we got the craving for some saag paneer, we just decided to make it. But we made it vegan, because well, we did. It turned out ridiculously delicious, and made plenty for leftovers. It was also pretty easy, so I imagine this might become a staple around our house. Let's get down to business.

Ingredients:
2 pounds Frozen Spinach
1 medium Onion, diced
2 cups Unsweetened Soy Milk
1 pound Extra Firm Tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Tomato, chopped
4 cloves of Garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp. minced Ginger
2 Tbsp. Garam Masala
1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
1/2 tsp. Tumeric
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Jalapenos, small dice
2 Tbsp. Safflower Oil (or your favorite cooking oil)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cooking Spray

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and place your tofu in a single layer on it. Sprinkle the tofu with one of the tablespoons of garam masala and some salt. Spray it again with the cooking spray and place in the oven to bake for 20 minutes.

While the tofu is cooking, place a large pot over medium heat. Add your oil, onions, garlic, ginger, tomato, and jalapenos and saute' for 4-5 minutes. Add the spinach and cover. Stir every few minutes until the spinach is defrosted. (If you defrosted your spinach ahead of time, or if you are using fresh spinach, just continue on.) Once the spinach is ready add the soymilk, and all of the spices, and season with salt.

Right about now your tofu should be ready to go. Here is where you have to make an important decision: Do I want to blend the spinach so that I have a uniform consistency, or do I want texture and chunks? We chose texture, if you want it smooth, go ahead and get your immersion blender. We can wait.

Done? OK. Add the tofu into the pot and simmer for just a few minutes so that everything is at a consistent temperature. Season again with salt and pepper, and serve with rice, naan, or both.

carrot ginger soup

OMFG its cold! Being back in the Northeast for a full Winter has me realizing just how full of shiat Whats-His-Name was when he was talking about S.F. Summers being the coldest thing ever. But the Northeast's Winters, and the year round S.F. climate have one thing in common; they are both perfect for soup!

Everyone loves soup. If you don't love soup you must be an alien, because you certainly are not a citizen of this planet. So far this Winter we have spent a lot of meals (and not a lot of time or money!) eating soup. This particular one came to me right before I was leaving work. I was thinking that the only produce I had in the house was potatoes, carrots, and scallions; but I didn't really want to go shopping for a bunch of stuff, and alas, it was born. This here soup is hearty, packs a lot of flavor, and the ginger warms you up pretty damn well. Plus, its not too carrot-y. So yeah, let's go!

Ingredients:
Soup:
2.5 pounds of Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
4 large Carrots, cut into 1 inch chunks
1/2 large Yellow Onion, diced
4 cups (1 Quart) Veggie Broth
2 Tbsp. 2X Tomato Paste, because its awesome
2 Tbsp. Earth Balance
1-2 cups Unsweetened Soy Milk
1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
2 Tbsp. Ground Ginger
salt and pepper to taste

Cilantro Scallion Pesto: *
1 bunch of scallions, washed and de-rooted
1 bunch of cilatro, washed and de-rooted
2 Tbsp. Lime Juice
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 cup + of Safflower Oil (remember, I told you so...)
salt and pepper to taste

Get a big pot. Put it over medium heat. Add Earth Balance and onions and saute' until translucent, about 7-8 minutes. Toss in the 2X tomato paste and let it toast for 2 minutes. DO NOT PUT THE GINGER IN NOW. I don't mean to yell, but most soups would call for the ginger to come in at the beginning of the soup, and well, that just really mutes its flavor, not to mention cooking away some of its awesome benefits. Just put the ginger down. Do it slowly. OK. Deep breath. Now back to cooking.

Sprinkle the pot with a lil pepper (cayenne if you wanna be dangerous), and then throw in the carrots, potatoes, and veggie broth. Put a lid on the pot and get a drink. These veggies will cook through in about 20-26 minutes, so we should probably make the pesto.

Get out your food processor (or chop-chop-grindy-shreddy mah-cheen as I like to call it) and put all the ingredients inside. Puree' them. After that difficult task you deserve another drink. G'head and grab one. I can wait.

* - Side note! This makes an awful lot of pesto. It isn't a bad thing. It has served us well, let me recount the ways so far...
1. Added to mashed avocado it is instant guacamole
2. It is a great topping for burritos and tacos
3. It was a pivotal ingredient in the dip for the recipe below
4. Chips and... Pesto? Hell yes!
5. We still have about 1.25 cups in the freezer to play with. OH YEAH! I forgot to mention that it freezes really well and can be frozen without losing flavor for a really long time.

Back to the soup. By now your veggies should be fork tender and ready to rock n' roll. So grab your immersion blender and let's get down to business. Don't turn off the heat the whole way just yet. Add in the nutritional yeast and 1 cup of the soy milk (or almond, rice, cow, goat, pterodactyl, whatever) and start to blend. If you need or want a looser consistency then just keep added more liquid. Is it totally blended and smooth? Now, add the ginger and blend for another minute. Aiiiight. You are ready to season and get down to some serious grub.

Add some of the pesto to the soup and chow down! BTW, you don't have to make dots. You can do zig-zags, tie dye prints, write names in the soup, it's all good.

zucchini pancakes

Hash browns, pancakes, latkes, tempura, fry cakes, whatever the hell you call them; we love them passionately. Especially when you can dip them in something awesome and shove them in your face without spending a lot of money or effort. Oh, and while drinking beer.

We got the idea for this dish a few nights before at a pub when Katie ordered zucchini pancakes and actually got pancakes, only with some chunked zucchini and onion in them. They were served with plain sour cream and a boring salsa. After a few bites we realized that we could do this better, and way less than $7 for 4 pancakes. So we started drinking some beers another night and this is what happened.

Zucchini Pancakes: (makes 20 3" pancakes)

2 zucchini
3 potatoes, russet preferably. About 1.5 pounds total.
1 onion, peeled. Please don't shred an unpeeled onion.
1/2 jalapeno, seeded if you please. (odds are this is a good idea).

You got a food processor? OK. Then shred this stuff above and mix it in a bowl. No processor? I hope you have very strong arms and a lot of will power. Rest assured that the end product will be worth the work. Meanwhile mix everything below in another bowl.

2 cups rice flour
3 tablespoons corn starch
3 teaspoons baking powder
salt to taste
2 cups H20, or club soda if you're nasty

Heat some (ahem, about 1 inch of) oil in a deep pan over medium high heat, we used safflower because of its high smoke point and neutral flavor. (Plus its REALLY cheap, its basically the new canola oil. Don't say I didn't let you in on the scoop.) Mix the slurry into the shredded veggie mixture and adjust for any overage or underage of moisture. What you should have should feel like a really grainy, thick and chunky paste. It should feel like something you would never want to eat. But we are about to deep fry it, so just be patient.

OK. First you have to do the unthinkable. You have to make a tester. Then you have to eat it. I HATE this step, but if I MUST make the food right its too crucial to skip. Use a 4 oz. ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup to make 1 pancake in the oil. Please be careful, its real hot. Flip it after about 2 minutes (when its golden brown and delicious on the down side) and cook for an additional 2 minutes on the other side. Check for doneness with the no fail-taste test and adjust your cooking time accordingly. When done, set to drain on paper towels or some fancy rack you have that we don't.

Need more or less cooking time? Then adjust. Keep tasting, this recipe makes enough for everyone and plenty for you to snack on as well.

If you are going to eat them now, keep them in an oven set to 250. If you are just torturing yourself, put them in the fridge. These also freeze remarkably well, just make sure to refrigerate them first so that the temperature change is gradual and you don't pull too much moisture from the veggies. Serve with the dipping sauce below, any salsa that doesn't come from a jar, and some nicely stewed black beans. Oh yeah, and a really fresh IPA.



Chipotle Sour Cream Sauce:

1 container tofutti sour cream
2 tablespoons chipotle sauce in adobo
4 tablespoons cilantro/scallion pesto (it's a basic pesto, recipe will be in one of the next entries)
lime juice and garlic to taste