Greens, Greens, and More Greens - Enjoy Them While They Last

We've been doing some rethinking about our catalogue and the things we have to offer this week, just kind of working it around in our heads. We're thinking we might want to reduce the number of things we offer so that we're not running around so much like chickens with their heads cut off (not such a great illusion for a vegan to use...). I've been thinking of what our specialties are. Certainly cheese falls into that category. We were in raw restaurant for lunch one day, and I asked the manager if they fermented their own nut-based cheeses. (They had quite an assortment on the menu.) She looked at me like I was crazy. She said that was way too time consuming. (Actually, it is a little labor intensive, but in my opinion, so worth it...) So, I'm thinking that the fact that we make all of our cheese indicates we've got that as one of our specialties.

Another thing we're pretty good at is desserts and ice cream. I don't know if I'd consider it a specialty. Most raw places do a pretty good job with it. I'm not crazy about most of them at the places we've gone to, but I think that's just because I'm really fussy about texture and so forth. I keep working at a recipe until it suits me. Of course, not everyone would like what I like... Still, I think desserts are an area that really helps a new vegan get over the proverbial hump from the SAD (Standard American Diet) to a healthier one minus the animal products. I've been reading Skinny Bitch this week. I had no idea this book was vegan oriented. I don't know what I thought it was, but anyway, I was surprised to find out the authors suggest a vegan lifestyle. Many of the foods they recommend are transitional foods, and dessert falls into that category for me. If we are eating a fruit-based diet, we would have little need for dessert, but most beginning vegans don't eat enough fruit. I think you kind of have to build up gradually.

Alicia suggested we ask our customers what they consider our specialties to be. That's a good idea. Maybe we could come up with a survey or something.

Personally for me, I'd be happy with fruit and juices every morning and the early part of the day. I love a nice big salad for lunch, and then I'm happy with snacking if I get hungry later on. I'm not bored with that kind of regime as long as I have a good salad dressing. I wish I were better about eating greens without dressing, but for now, I've got to have a good one. I usually eat my salads with ranch; we make it by the gallon now, but here's the single-size recipe as requested:


Ranch Dressing; the original recipe as it came from therawbodytwins.com; I've messed with it a lot, but this original one is quite good.

Ranch Dressing/Dip

1-1/2 c nuts (cashew or mac or combo) soak them for a creamier dressing (1-2 hr is fine, then drain)
3/4 - 1 c filtered water for blending
3 T lemon juice (translates into approx 1/2 lemon)
1/3 c cider vinegar
1/3 c evoo
3 T agave (or 3 soaked dates)
2 cloves garlic
1 t garlic powder
3 t onion powder
1 t dill
1 T sea salt
1/2 t basil

And to add after it's done:

1/4 c finely minced parsley
another 1/2 t dill, minced

Makes 3 cups. Serving size 2 T. Vitamix blend all ingredients till creamy and smooth except the last 2, then once blended, stir in the last 2 ingredients. Thickens in fridge. Thin to desired consistency if using as a dressing, or toss into wet lettuce leaves as is. Number of servings: 24

There's still some good cauliflower left until its season dies down, and we haven't eaten nearly as much as we usually do. I'm not sure why, but we did have some cauliflower soup for lunch today. We whirr it in the vitamix until it is nice and warm, and it is truly a comfort food when eaten that way. We don't sell it because cold it is not nearly as good. We have put the ingredients together for our customers that don't do any food prep, but it's an easy recipe:

Cauliflower Soup

2 cups roughly chopped cauliflower
2 - 3 cups water
1/2 cup cashews or pine nuts
2 T lemon juice
sea salt to taste

Put everything in a high speed blender (if you have one) and blend until thick and smooth (and a little warm). We like to put some fresh parsley or cilantro and some chopped green onion in our soup bowls and pour the soup over them. Delicious!

We had to come up with a few main dishes for a customer this week, and decided to make a lasagna. It turned out really good. Because we always have more than enough marinara, we also made a couple of batches of chili and some veggie soup.

Lasagna (this time's - it's different every time)

Pour some marinara in the bottom of a square dish or pan. (I like to use my square springform pan.) Lay in some thinly sliced zucchini. Sprinkle with marinated broccoli. Plop on some cheese. I usually use queso verde, but I was out, so I subbed in crema which was really quite nice. This zucchini/broccoli/cheese layer is repeated 3 or 4 times. More marinara is poured over top, and then I sprinkled on some dehydrated alfredo (we call it parmesan).

I placed this in the dehydrator until time to deliver it to Fred (and our lunch time), and it was a great hit with everyone.

Being out of queso verde created a sense of panic in me, so I made some first chance I got. I just love it with veggies and/or crackers. There is so much cilantro in this batch, it's like eating a green vegetable more so than cheese!


We've started selling our cilantro or parsley for our cost, and we still don't have too many takers, so it is a little discouraging. The parsley left over is not too big a concern as we can dehydrate it, but the cilantro doesn't dry too well in our experience. We love to have it, but we have to purchase 30 bunches. That's a lot of salsa! We thought that by offering it at cost we could get what we want and/or need, plus help our customers reap the benefits at a really good price. Maybe it will work eventually.... Last week we did sell out, but this week, it isn't looking too good. At least the cilantro looks good! It is a nice addition to the salad as well.

This week we also made our delicious olive tapenade to have over some shredded collards. Here's the recipe we used; it actually calls for spinach, but we were out of it, so used some of the still tender collards from the garden.

Spinach with Olive Tapenade

mix together:

9 loose handfuls spinach
2 cubed avocados
handful of soaked and dehydrated walnuts or pecans
generous tablespoon olive tapenade
dice in a few Roma tomatoes
3 tablespoons unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
3 generous tablespoons maple syrup
pinch or 2 sea salt
cracked black pepper to taste
2 generous tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Enjoy those greens! We won't have them too much longer fresh. We'll have to depend on their imported cousins from California!

We also made kale salad which is very similar to the above recipe. The kids love it!

Kale Avocado Salad

1 head kale, shredded
1 c tomato, diced
1 c avocado, chopped
2 ½ T olive oil
1 ½ T lemon juice
1 t sea salt
½ t cayenne

Mix all ingredients together, squeezing as you mix to wilt the kale and creaming the avocado. Serve immediately or let it marinate awhile. Both are good and different enough to seem like different meals. We also like it with a bit of chopped sweet or green onion.

Also made chili this week. This is really good served with crema!

Chili

1 quart marinara
1 cup corn
4 mushrooms
1 sweet pepper
1 lb. tomatoes
½ cup Mexican Fiesta (Frontier brand organic chili powder)

The smaller you chop the vegetables, the more this seems like "real" chili.

I'm sure to incur the wrath of the family for giving away so many house secrets. I figure nobody really reads this anyway, right?

Here's the weekly menu items:

Cauliflower soup atop cilantro and green onions with Alicia crackers

Spinach with olive tapenade

kale salad

chili con crema with Every day bread (good over shredded zucchini too for a chili mac)

i Viva La Verde ! salad with ranch dressing (spring mix, shredded carrot, minced celery, raisins, sunnies, tomatoes, dulse)

sweet potatoe souffle, braised spinach

lasagna

veggie soup