Lentil loaf

After losing my veg blog cred with the fennel-tomato soup with sausage, I had to post about the total hippie lentil loaf we had last week. Renee posted about it a little while ago, and I was intrigued. I got these frozen chipotle-spiced sweet potato fries on sale recently, and then I realized that I don't make a lot of meals that go well with potatoes on the side. In fact, we have potatoes less frequently than I would like because I don't normally know what to serve with them. Beans are high in protein, but I often don't like the starch-on-starch taste of eating beans and potatoes together. While it is lentil-based, I didn't get the unpleasant starch-on-starch feeling with this loaf, so I think it will be my new go-to main dish when I want to have potatoes.

Anyway, this is a great loaf. It's vegan (in addition to using flax as an egg substitute, some of the lentils are processed to help with binding), high in protein from the lentils, fatty enough to be satisfying from the pecans, and just all-around delicious. It gets quite a few dishes dirty, but it's really not that big a deal. The recipe is from Oh She Glows, and I only made a few minor modifications. I used pecans in place of walnuts because I think walnuts are just wannabe pecans. I didn't have celery or apple, so I subbed fennel stems instead because I had them leftover from fennelfest. I used Panko crumbs instead of regular bread crumbs because we only have seeded rye around right now, and I didn't think the carraway would be good. And I used a store-bought barbecue sauce instead of making the glaze because it was easier. Next time I might decrease the salt if I remember; I thought it was a bit on the salty side. ETA: Made it again, halved salt, and it was good.

What I ate for dinner last night

This is just a quick meal I made with some stuff I had in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. Since Jon has left and I will be out of town for a lot of the summer, I have been trying to eat through a lot of the food we've accumulated. I call it the freezer/pantry reduction diet. So this is what I had for dinner last night. The seasonings are Indian, but I don't know that the ingredients are particularly authentic. That didn't bother me, though. It was delicious over basmati rice. I tried to figure out a short, descriptive name for this but failed.

Indian-spiced chickpea, sweet potato, tofu skins, and kale stir-fry-ish thing

Vegetable oil for sauteing
1/2 tsp whole mustard seeds
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/2 tsp amchoor powder, optional
1/2 tsp kalonji, optional
1/2 tbsp curry powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1-inch cubes
4 oz tofu skins, cut into thin strips
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 bunch kale, washed, large stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add the mustard seeds and let them pop for about 45 seconds. (This can be slightly dangerous and is not advised for children or the shirtless.) Lower the heat to medium, add the cumin seeds, and let them sizzle for about 30 seconds. Add the rest of the spices, the onion, and the sweet potato. Stir to coat vegetables with oil and spices. Pour about 1/4 cup water into skillet to deglaze and put the cover on to let the sweet potato steam. Check on it periodically, push it around a little, and add more water if the pan gets dry and the spices start to stick.

When the sweet potato is tender, add the tofu skins and chickpeas and cook until heated through. Add the kale and cover the pan to let it steam. Check after a couple minutes and push it around a little to help it wilt. When the kale has wilted, remove pan from heat and serve.

Chocolate sweet potato torte

This is the third dessert we served at our pre-wedding dessert party. I got the recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I modified it a little. The biggest change I made was reducing the sugar by 1/3. Everyone agreed that it was sweet enough this way. The sweet potato flavor is pretty subtle, and you won't be able to taste it in a bite containing any of the chocolate topping, but it definitely makes a difference in the texture. As far as I can tell, this lasts indefinitely in the fridge. And it's gluten-free.

Chocolate sweet potato torte

1 cup sugar, divided
1 cup cooked sweet potato, mashed
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
4 large eggs (three separated)
2 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used one square of unsweetened baker's chocolate and one square of semi-sweet)
2 tbsp milk or soy milk

Spray nonstick cooking spray on a 9-inch pie dish and preheat the oven to 375.

Blend sweet potato, 1/2 cup sugar, almond flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a food processor until smooth. Add three egg yolks and one whole egg and pulse to combine. Transfer to mixing bowl.

Beat three egg whites in electric mixer until they hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until it holds stiff peaks.

Fold 1/3 of egg whites into sweet potato mixture with spatula. Gently fold in remaining egg whites. Pour batter into pie dish and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool, completely.

Fill a small saucepan about 1/3 with water. Place a glass mixing bowl on top and turn heat to medium. (Note: this is my version of a double boiler. It might be terribly unsafe, but it works for me.) Put the chocolate into the bowl. Stir as it melts. You might have to adjust the heat if the boiling gets vigorous. When the chocolate has melted, stir in the milk or soy milk. Spread chocolate over top of torte. Let stand until chocolate sets.

Sweet potato soup

I got the idea for this recipe from the inside of a Dannon yogurt container foil, but the foil accidentally got thrown away before I made the soup, so I had to wing it on the amounts of everything. Sweet potatoes were only $0.19/lb the week before Thanksgiving, so I bought a ton of them, and this soup was a very comforting, tasty way to use some of them.

Sweet potato soup

2 tsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder (by which I mean the spice blend containing cumin, oregano, and ground chiles)
3 medium sweet potatoes (about 10 oz each), cut into 1-inch cubes
1 qt vegetable broth
Pumpkin or squash seeds for garnish, optional
Yogurt for garnish, optional

Saute the onion in the oil until translucent. Sprinkle spices on top and saute another 30 seconds. Add sweet potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook about 20 minutes, or until sweet potato is soft. Use an immersion blender to make it nice and smooth, or process it in batches in a food processor or blender. Garnish with pumpkin seeds and yogurt if desired.

Stirring the yogurt into the soup yields beautiful patterns and reminds me of a scene in "Arcadia."

Roasted root vegetables with fennel spice blend

My sister gave me a coffee grinder for my birthday so I could use it as a spice grinder. I had always relied on pre-ground spices before, including a lot of pre-mixed spice blends. Now that I have the spice grinder, I feel free to make whatever exotic spice blends I want. This month's Vegetarian Times had an interesting-looking fennel spice blend, so I made it, and now I'm trying to use it in a bunch of different stuff. It was OK but not great in hummus and pretty good sprinkled on roasted butternut squash seeds, but it was perfect with this vegetable roast.

The vegetables themselves were pretty exciting. We used a total of seven different vegetables. Five of them were new to me in cooking, although I have probably eaten them before. Instead of the usual sweet potatoes, we used a garnet yam and a Japanese sweet potato (at least that's what Central Market called them). The Japanese sweet potato had deep maroon skin but a white interior. It was stickier than regular potato or sweet potato when cooked.

Japanese sweet potato on the left, garnet yam on the right

I am looking forward to doing a potato and sweet potato roast with Japanese sweet potatoes and normal new potatoes. I think the contrast in texture and flavor would be neat since there wouldn't be a color contrast. The other new to me root vegetables were celery root, turnip, and rutabaga. The celery root was pretty neat. I only used half of it and plan on trying remoulade with the other half. The rutabaga and turnip mostly provided contrast. This dish took a lot of scrubbing and chopping, but other than that it was really easy. Next time I might start cooking the celery root before the other vegetables. It was still a bit crunchy when the other ones were done, but we didn't mind the textural contrast. We served this with a beautiful salad made by Jon and corn chowder I made while the veggies were roasting. That recipe should be posted here soon.

Roasted root vegetables with fennel spice blend
Of course, you can vary the roots as desired. I think we had about 8 cups total.

1 garnet yam
1 Japanese sweet potato
1/2 of a large celery root, peel removed (This is a bit annoying. Just accept that you'll lose some of the root and use a sharp knife to cut the peel away as best you can.)
2 carrots, peeled
3 beets, greens and "tails" cut off
1 turnip, peeled
1 rutabaga, peeled
1 tsp olive oil (not extra-virgin)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp fennel spice blend (see next recipe)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Thoroughly wash and scrub all the vegetables that aren't peeled. Cut everything into 1 1/2-inch-ish chunks. Place all vegetables in a large baking pan. Mine was 13x9x2. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat thoroughly, adding a little more if necessary. Sprinkle with salt and fennel spice blend. Bake until vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Sprinkle with more salt and fennel blend at the table if desired.

Fennel spice blend (from Vegetarian times)
If you don't have a spice grinder, you can use the same amounts of pre-ground spices instead.

1/4 cup whole fennel seeds
2 tsp whole coriander seeds
1/2 tsp whole peppercorns
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp paprika, either smoked or regular

Toast fennel seeds, coriander, and peppercorns in a dry skillet on medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until they are very fragrant and maybe have gotten a little golden. Put aside to cool. When they are cool, grind them with a mortar and pestle or spice grinder until they are just short of completely powdered. Stir in the cinnamon and paprika. Store in a resealable baggie or rinsed-out spice jar.

Ginger-miso yam wraps

In the airport on my way to a wedding last weekend, I was browsing through magazines to kill some time and the Vegetarian Times caught my eyes. This was the first recipe I flipped to, and it looked intriguing enough that I bought the magazine. It provided good reading and lots of inspiration on the flight. I even bought a subscription when I got home, so I'm sure you'll see many more VT recipes on this blog.
This recipe turned out really well, and I would not thought to have put it together. In the magazine, it doesn't call for blanching the collard leaves, but it makes them more supple, so they don't crack when you roll them up, and I like the taste better. I will say, however, that the raw ones are a little less messy to eat, so if you wanted to eat this in the car or somewhere you didn't have access to a napkin or utensils, you might want to go with raw. You can probably use other greens in place of the collards if you want, but collards are generally the cheapest green at the store, and they work perfectly well. The recipe called for smooth peanut butter, but I didn't have any, so I substituted tahini. I know people often make the substitution the other way in hummus. Both of them are rich and nutty and work well.

Two blanched leaf wraps on the left, one raw leaf wrap on the right

Ginger-miso yam wraps (from Vegetarian Times)
1 lb sweet potatoes (2-3 small or 1 large)
2 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter or tahini
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp finely chopped shallot or onion
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup frozen shelled edamame
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
6 ox firm silken tofu, crumbled (1 cup)
2 tbsp chopped cilantro, optional
8 collard green leaves

Bake the sweet potatoes. I poke them a few times, wrap them in foil, and bake at 400-425 for an hour or so. When they have cooled enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and mash it. You can do this up to three days or so in advance and just keep it in the fridge. Mash the miso and peanut butter or tahini into the sweet potatoes.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium and add the onion, ginger, and garlic. Saute them for about 3 minutes. Add the edamame, 1/4 cup water, and cayenne. Cook 3 minutes more. The water should be mostly evaporated, and the edamame should be a good texture. Remove from heat and stir in tofu, cilantro if using, and sweet potato mixture.

Now prep the collard leaves. Wash them thoroughly and cut off the bottom part of the stem that extends past the leaf. Don't cut out the thick part of the stem in the leaf, but do thin it by cutting it in half through the part that sticks out behind the leaf. (I hope that made sense.) You can either use them raw or blanch them. If you want to blanch them, bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Place the leaves in the water and remove them almost immediately with tongs. I do this one at a time so none of them will get mushy. They should turn bright green and become very pliable.

To assemble the wraps, spoon 1/4-1/3 cup sweet potato mixture onto a collard leaf. Roll it up the best you can, trying not to let the mixture spill everywhere. I'm imperfect at this right now, but it still tastes good. You can also make smaller, two-bite wraps by cutting the leaves into halves or thirds before filling them. I would say 3 wraps is a good serving. Vegetarian Times says 2 wraps is a serving, but that's only 179 calories, and that's not many for a lunch. In case you're curious, they include the nutritional info for two wraps: 179 calories, 10 g protein, 5 g fat, 25 g carbs, 302 mg sodium, 5 g fiber, and 8 g sugars.

Sweet potato gnocchi

I was out of town for the weekend at a Sacred Harp singing. I stayed with a friend's parents, and we made this for dinner on Friday night. I didn't take any pictures this weekend, so I'm including a couple that I took a few months ago. Just in case you aren't Italian, gnocchi are little Italian potato or flour dumplings.

This is good company food. It's pretty impressive (homemade gnocchi!) but doesn't take that long to make if you start with cooked sweet potatoes or cook them in the microwave. I usually pop the sweet potatoes in the oven a couple days before I'm planning on making this so they'll be ready when I want to use them. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com, but I don't use their weird sweet potato cooking technique. I just bake the things like I would if I were eating them plain. The spice combination of garlic and nutmeg is really nice. I'd like to try this with butternut squash sometime, too. I think that would be good. I like to dress these with just a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and parmesan cheese, but butter is good too. You can use a standard tomato sauce, but it will overpower the delicate sweet potato flavor.

Rolling a snake of gnocchi dough

Sweet potato gnocchi

2 8-oz sweet potatoes
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour

Bake the sweet potatoes until they're soft, either in the oven at 425 F for 40-60 minutes or in the microwave for 6-9 minutes. Scoop the flesh into a medium mixing bowl and mash. It's OK if it's a little lumpy, but you will be able to feel the lumps in the finished product. Add the garlic, salt, nutmeg, and egg and mix thoroughly. Add the flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. You might not use all the flour. You want to use just enough to make a soft dough. After adding about 1 cup, you'll probably have to start kneading it instead of mixing it with a spoon. When you have a soft dough, roll it between your hands into snakes about 1 inch in diameter and cut the snakes into small pieces (see above pictures for rolling and cutting). You might need to incorporate a little more flour during this process if the dough is still sticky.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop the gnocchi into the water several at a time. (They don't all have to be cooked before you add more, so you can stagger the additions.) When a gnocco (yep, that's the singular) rises to the top, scoop it out with a slotted spoon and transfer to a bowl or colander. When all the gnocchi are cooked, eat them quickly. They are best fresh out of the pot.