Kale & coconut salad

 August 26, 2014

Our veggie box dictates a lot of our cooking these days, and with just half a bunch of kale to finish off before the new box arrived we went scouring our cookbooks for a solution. This salad from Heidi Swanson's book fit the bill nicely - it was easy enough for a work night dinner, didn't require any shopping and held out the promise of delicious toasted coconut.

I didn't do a great job on it - I'm still mastering our rice cooker, and the brown rice wound up being a bit undercooked, while my faffing about with it meant that the kale/coconut mix was slightly overcooked. It was a masterful display. Still, the recipe is pretty forgiving - the kale crisped up almost to kale chip texture, while the extra dressing helped to soften the rice out and the sweet, crispy coconut flakes made everything better. We served it up with maple-miso tofu (another recipe that I messed up but got away with anyway).

Kale and coconut salad
(very slightly adapted from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day)

80mL olive oil
1-2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
100g of kale
85g flaked coconut
250g cooked brown rice (the original recipe uses farro, any grain will do)

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cut the stems off the kale, remove the biggest stalky ribs and then roughly chop the leaves.

Combine the olive oil, soy sauce and sesame oil in a small jar and shake well to combine.

Combine the kale and the coconut flakes in a large bowl with 3/4 of the dressing and stir well to coat.

Spread the kale and coconut mix in a large baking tray (or two if you need 'em) and bake for about 15 minutes, until the coconut is golden brown - keep an eye on it every 5 minutes or so and stir things around a bit.

Put the kale and coconut mix, the rice and the last drizzle of the dressing into a bowl and toss well.

Serve as a side dish for four (we paired it with maple-miso tofu) or a main for two.

Broccoli gribiche

January 5, 2014

We had a rare non-vegan (but still gluten-free!) potluck on the last day of our summer holiday and a balcony garden sprouting both tarragon and chives. We trawled our recipe books for some sort of sharable salad and Cindy spotted a recipe for broccoli gribiche in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day that used up our herbs and looked delicious. It's a bit of a fancied up potato salad - the broccoli provides some vegetable variation and the very French dressing adds something new.

Making it is pretty simple really, although a bit time-consuming. The dressing process was a bit frustrating - as hard as I whisked I couldn't really make the egg yolk and oil emulsify. I may have over boiled my eggs slightly - the hard yolk didn't mash into a very smooth paste. It didn't seem to make much difference, the dressing was still delicious - tangy from the vinegar, rich from the egg and oil and bursting with the flavour of the fresh herbs. 

It's probably not something we'd make just for the two of us to eat, but it's a brilliant addition to a potluck lunch (which featured wonderful white bean soup, a haloumi and vegetable medley, patatas bravas, homemade baba ganoush, zucchini fritters, coconut icecream and on and on and on - it was a lazy five hour lunch).

Broccoli gribiche
(very slightly adapted from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day)

700g small potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into large but bite-sized chunks

350g broccoli florets

3 hard boiled eggs

150ml olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons capers

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 tablespoon chopped tarragon

1 tablespoon chopped chives

salt

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Toss the potato pieces with a tablespoon of the olive oil and sprinkle them generously with salt. Tip them onto a baking tray and roast for 30 minutes, turning halfway through.

Toss the broccoli florets with another tablespoon of oil, add salt and tip them onto a second baking tray. When the spuds are halfway along, pop the broccoli into the oven and cook for 15 minutes - the veggies should finish at the same time.

While everything is roasting make the dressing. Mash the yolk of one of the eggs and whisk it together with the remaining olive oil (tip the oil in very, very slowly). Beat it constantly and try to get the egg and oil to emulsify. Whisk in the vinegar and the mustard and then stir in the capers and herbs plus a decent shake of salt. 

Chop up the two whole eggs and the remaining egg white (you can include more hard boiled eggs if you want - the original recipe has 4 rather than 3) and fold them into the dressing. 

Combine the spuds and broccoli and then gently toss the eggy dressing through. Season if required and serve.

Carnival cookies

June 10, 2013

This was one of the first recipes to jump out at me from Super Natural Every Day, and it doesn't even include a photo! Mixing choc chips, peanuts and popcorn into cookie dough will do that. AOF's success with the recipe only made me keener. Sadly for some, these cookies also contains bananas, so I've been saving them up for while Michael was away.

As I popped my own corn, I found that 20g actually means 3 cups of the stuff! But even gently folding them into dough at the last minute, they broke down quite rapidly and I'd defy anyone to recognise them in the baked cookies. Instead the cookies are soft with much mashed banana and chewy with rolled oats. Even the peanuts just barely retain their crunch. Stealthily vegan and free of added sugar, these cookies are still plenty sweet thanks to the choc chips and banana.

While Heidi's carnival cookies are soft, sweet and comforting in their own right, they've also got me wondering how I might concoct something with a bit more crunch, a real showcase for the popcorn.

Carnival cookies
(a recipe from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day)

340g ripe bananas (about 2 1/2 large)
1 teaspoon vanilla
60g coconut oil, just barely melted
120g rolled oats
60g almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g dark chocolate chips
100g peanuts
20g (about 3 cups loosely packed) popcorn

Preheat an oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with paper.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas thoroughly. Stir in the vanilla and coconut oil.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, stir together the rolled oats, almond meal, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Tip them into the banana mixture and thoroughly combine them to form the cookie dough. Fold in the chocolate chips and peanuts, then lastly and most gently the popcorn.

Scoop generous tablespoons of the cookie dough onto the baking tray, using a second spoon to help shape them. Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes, until they're golden. Allow them to cool a while on a wire rack before eating.

Savoury strawberry salad

October 6, 2012

Cindy and I have decided to bring on springtime through sheer force of will - defying Melbourne's return to 13 degree rainy days by pumping out this summery salad as part of our dinner (to accompany this more weather appropriate pie). The salad is one of Heidi Swanson's simpler recipes and can be thrown together in about 10 minutes. Balsamic vinegar and strawberries are a winning combination, and it's those flavours that make the salad work. The parmesan adds a savoury bite, and the flaked almonds a bit of crunch - it's straightforward, but very satisfying. This recipe makes more than two people can eat in one sitting, and the greens turn a bit soggy overnight, so rescale as required.

Savoury strawberry salad
(the mixed green salad in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day)

150g mixed greens
1 punnet strawberries, chopped
50g flaked almonds, toasted
25g shaved parmesan cheese

dressing

A few garlic chives, chopped finely (the original recipe wants 1 shallot, but I wasn't buying a whole bunch just for one)

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

Whisk together the chives, pepper, salt and balsamic vinegar and leave to sit for five minutes or so. Add in the oil, whisking thoroughly to combine it with the rest of the dressing.

Combine the greens and the dressing in a big bowl and toss thoroughly to coat the leaves.

Add the almonds, strawberries and parmesan and toss again. 

Serve!

Wild mushroom tacos & summer corn salad

April 16, 2012

Cindy and I had planned a Sunday cooking extravaganza with Lisa, Lucy and Gill making delicious treats from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day, but everyone else fell ill or double-booked themselves, so we were on our own. We'd done our shopping already, so on Monday night we went ahead with a cut-down version, making wild mushroom tacos from the cookbook and a corn salad from Heidi's blog.

The mushroom tacos are super simple (especially if you lazily use packet tortillas). Just buy yourself some fancy wild mushrooms (we got some slippery jacks and pine mushrooms from the markets, plus some basic field mushrooms) and fry them up with onion, garlic and chilli. Sprinkle them with Mexican oregano and serve in the tortillas with a sprinkle of parmesan on top. Earthy and delicious.

   

The corn salad is similarly straightforward, and its crunchy tartness worked perfectly with the heartier mushrooms. These were both excellent recipes - simple combinations of a few ingredients and flavours that you can whip up after work without too much trouble.

   

Summer corn salad
(adapted slightly from a recipe from 101 Cookbooks)

4 cobs corn, shucked with the kernels shaved off the cob
A small handful of chives, sliced finely
1 1/2 cups of toasted pepitas and sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon of Mexican oregano

dressing
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons sunflower oil

Stir the corn kernels and chives together in a bowl.

Mix the lemon juice, salt and sugar together in a separate bowl. Drizzle in the sunflower oil, whisking like crazy until everything all comes together.

Add the seeds and the dressing to the corn and toss, making sure everything is nicely coated.

Sprinkle the oregano over the top, toss and serve.

Pomegranate-glazed tempeh & vegetables

February 13, 2012

This is one of the recipes that I was first drawn to when given Super Natural Every Day last year - caramelised tempeh chunks will do it for me every time! But it was a whole pumpkin arriving in our vege box that got us there. Michael meticulously chopped the pumpkin, tempeh and eggplant into 1cm cubes and took a sizable cube off his finger while he was at it, so I helped bandage him up and finished this dish off.

The vege cubes are roasted in a tangy blend of pomegranate molasses and olive oil, then served with a sprinkling of fresh herbs and feta. It's lovely on its own as a whole meal or a starter, served with couscous or quinoa or shared at a potluck. For a vegan version you could obviously just skip the feta - or make vegan feta! - but I reckon some roasted flaked almonds or roughly chopped smoked almonds would make a fine substitute.

My one cooking tip here is to arrange the roasting bits sparsely on their baking trays - this allows them to caramelise properly. I started out with the huge quantities below (roughly double Heidi's original) stuffed high in their trays and they got soggy. Taking the time to bake smaller portions in batches is well worth it.

Pomegranate-glazed tempeh & vegetables
(adapted slightly from a recipe in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day)

2 small round eggplants
600g tempeh
400g pumpkin
6 cloves garlic
2 small lemons
2/3 cup pomegranate molasses
2/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
handful of parsley, roughly chopped
100g feta, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line two large baking trays with paper.

Peel the pumpkin. Chop the eggplants, tempeh and pumpkin into 1cm cubes. Finely chop the garlic. Divide the vegetables and garlic evenly across the baking trays and grate over the zest of the two lemons (set the rest of the lemons aside for whatever else you want).

In a bowl, whisk together the pomegranate molasses, olive oil, salt and chilli. Pour three quarters of the dressing over the vegetables and toss it through to evenly coat them as best you can.

Now the veges will bake best if they're spread out with minimal overlapping. This meant I had to set aside half the vegetables and bake them in two batches. The baking totalled 60 minutes per tray, with a few pauses to toss them around for even cooking. They should be tender but still holding their shape when they're done.

Once the vegetables are cooked, spread them out on a platter. Sprinkle over the parsley and feta and serve.

White beans & cabbage

January 22, 2012

During those lovely days in Hobart, we had a commitment to attend to back home. Our previous vege delivery included an enormous cabbage - seriously, it was probably 2-3 litres capacity - and it was sitting in our crisper waiting to be eaten. We had ample time on Sunday afternoon to deal with it.

I was kinda bored with coleslaw, and spring rolls aren't the best work lunch leftovers. I wondered whether my newest cookbook included anything fun to do with cabbage, checked out the index, followed through to page 86 and realised I'd been over-thinking it. This lovely looking cabbage dish graces the cover of Super Natural Every Day!

It's the kind of dish Heidi does often and well - a bunch of fresh produce tossed together in a frypan, served up and sprinkled with a little something. In this case the produce is mainly cabbage, white beans and potatoes. I was a little wary of getting the potatoes completely cooked through purely by sautéing them for 8 minutes and was careful to cut them really small (cubes with no more than a 1cm side). This worked just fine. It's really important to wait out the frying as directed and build a golden crust on the potatoes and beans, 'cause this is where most of the fine flavour comes from. Of course a sprinkling of parmesan helps the flavour along too. As a vegan alternative, I'd suggest some extra salt, a bit of nooch or some of this stuff.

The recipe below is a double quantity on Heidi's version, since we had a lot of cabbage to get through. While her book predicts that this should serve eight, the two of us got a dinner and a lunch out of it each. We've got an appetite for cabbage that I never imagined.

White beans & cabbage
(adapted slightly from a recipe in Heidi Swanson's
Super Natural Every Day)

1/3 cup olive oil
230g potatoes, scrubbed but left unpeeled and sliced into tiny cubes
salt, to taste
2 x 400g cannellini beans
450g cabbage, finely shredded
a small handful of chives, roughly chopped
parmesan cheese, finely grated (optional)

Pour the oil into a very large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and a generous pinch of salt, tossing them to coat in the oil. Cover the frypan with a lid and give the potatoes 5-8 minutes to cook through, tossing them once or twice more along the way so that they don't burn but do develop a nice golden crust.

Add the beans to the pan and leave it uncovered, but go for the same cooking approach for a few minutes - leave the beans still to develop a golden edge, then toss it all around for a new crust on another side. Stir in the cabbage and chives, stirring and cooking until the cabbage just starts to soften. Serve it all up with a sprinkling of parmesan or some extra salt.

Miso-curry pumpkin

December 18, 2011

One of the many gifts I showered Cindy with on her recent birthday was Heidi Swanson’s newish cookbook Super Natural Every Day. We've been fans of Heidi's blog 101 Cookbooks for a while, and her photos and recipes look wonderful in printed form. The book has a similar vibe to Ottolenghi’s Plenty (which even the occasional reader will know we’re completely in love with), although the recipes tend to have fewer ingredients and steps – consider it a weeknight Ottolenghi perhaps.

I decided to have first shot at cooking from it for a potluck we were attending on the weekend, settling on the gorgeous-looking miso-curry pumpkin, in part because of the massive pumpkin in our vegie box delivery and in part because it was vegan and gluten-free by default. Score.

The recipe is pretty simple – cut up your vegies, mix up a sauce and bake. I was particularly happy that it just specified ‘Thai red curry paste’ rather than demanding that we make our own, especially since Maesri offers a vegan friendly curry paste in a tin that we’ve grown quite fond of. We made a few tweaks, largely to use up vegie box ingredients – doubling the size and replacing the kale with a pile of lettuce leaves and the coriander with basil and parsley.

I was worried about the pumpkin skin being too chewy so I ended up overcooking the vegetables a bit – the pumpkin in particular went a bit soft and lost its shape. Luckily the tofu was nice and firm, providing some textural variation. More importantly, the whole thing tasted fantastic – the combination of white miso and red curry paste is divine, and the pumpkin and greens just soaked up the flavours. This was a smash hit at the potluck and may yet be remade at home to deal with the half-pumpkin still sitting in our fridge.

Miso-Curry Pumpkin
(adapted from a recipe in Heidi Swanson’sSuper Natural Every Day)

700g pumpkin
1/2 cup olive oil
150g white miso paste
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste (we used Maesri)
500g tofu, cubed
8 small potatoes, quartered
4 tablespoons lemon juice
50g mixed lettuce leaves
120g pepitas, dry roasted
1 bunch basil, roughly chopped
1/2 bunch parsley, roughly chopped
Handful of chives, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop all the seeds out and chop into 1cm thick half moons (half of our pumpkin was roughly 700g, adjust based on pumpkin size).

Whisk together the miso, olive oil and curry paste. Take roughly half of this mixture and combine it with the tofu, pumpkin and potatoes in a large bowl. Get your hands in there and make sure that everything gets well covered in the sauce.

Add the lemon juice to the remaining sauce.

Lay the sauced-up veggies out on baking trays and roast. We ended up roasting them for about 45 minutes – this was probably a bit too long. Stick the recipe's recommendation of 30 minutes, but make sure you check up on things regularly and toss to make sure everything gets its share of roasting.

Once the vegetables are roasted, pop them into a large bowl and combine them with the remaining sauce, the lettuce leaves and herbs and the pepitas. Stir everything thoroughly (but gently if you want your pumpkin slices to retain their shape!) and serve. We had ours at room temperature and it was still wonderful.