Lacinato Kale with Corn and "Fancy" Tempeh, Quinoa, Salad

We got home late and I wanted to get dinner going quickly. I was pleased with coming up with a healthy and quick meal plan.



I had purchased some frozen organic corn kernels, and was thinking of boiling it with kale, separately preparing limed seitan and maybe even jerk limed seitan, then mixing them together. However, I remembered that I bought a day or two ago a prepared tempeh from Whole Foods Market, and wanted to use it. Though I had wanted to serve the tempeh on its own (as I recall, it had coconut and some interesting seasonings), it worked mixed in to this main course.

I hand shredded the lacinato kale leaves into bite-sized chunks, composting the stems and ribs. I had read on the web that vinegar would help in boiling kale, so I got a pot of water plus a few tablespoons of vinegar boiling, then put in the kale, intending to cook till the kale turned dark green - it turned out to be about 10 minutes. A few minutes before I thought I would be done, I added about 2 cups of corn. In the meantime, I was heating the tempeh in my toaster oven.

I drained the cook vegetables and mixed in the warmed tempeh. I added a little bit of chopped raw onion, a little soy sauce, maybe 1/8 or 1/4 teaspoon of dried oregano, about 1/8 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, and two or three shakes of a liquid smoke seasoning.

It turned out to be good! I would like to try similar dishes by boiling maybe kale plus turnips, and mixing in limed seitan.

I also made a simple quinoa side dish, and a salad. Organic avocadoes are on sale for ninety-nine cents each at Weaver Street Market!

Tempeh with Crookneck Squash, Hashed Brown Potatoes, Lightly Toasted Pane Casserechio with Macadamia Nut Butter

Tonight, I cut 2/3 of a package of tempeh into thin rectangles and sauteed over medium to medium-high heat, adding 1/4 of a medium yellow onion a few minutes into the saute. When the onion was slightly carmelized and tempeh browned (after maybe another 6 minutes or so), I added two small crookneck squashes, sliced into 1/4" pieces, as well as about a teaspoon of grated ginger. I cooked for another 3 minutes or so, then mixed in some dried tarragon and soy sauce.

I also made some hashed brown potatoes. I opened up a yummy bottle of macadamia nut butter yesterday, and served it on a seeded lightly toasted pane casserechio. Dinner was good!

Greek Cooking

My students made spanakopita, baba ganouj, hummus, Greek Salad, and couscous with pomegranate kernels.

Indian cooking class

Here is the plate of food that my students put together for tonight's Indian cooking.

Mexican cooking class

Here is the meal that my students put together tonight, including fajitas (made with seitan), cornbread, quinoa and leeks, potato soup, and "Dilip's Orangey Rice Pudding".

Carnaroli Risotto with Fennel and Asparagus, Jerk Tempeh

Tonight, I made my "Conference Call Risotto", as I have described before. I had some asparagus that I wanted to use up, and recently also purchased fennel, which I've only purchased maybe once before. I found a risotto with fennel and asparagus recipe online, and decided to take its ideas for the fennel and asparagus, and fuse them with my risotto recipe.

I cut off a bit of the rough ends of about a half dozen asparagus spears then blanched; I slowly put the asparagus into boiling water so as not to disturb the boil, then quickly took the spears out once they were just cooked (al dente) and showing a darker green color. I plunged the spears into an ice water bath to arrest the cooking and, once the spears lost their heat, drained the water and kept the asparagus ready to be cut just before I needed it.

As the recipe that I found suggested, I took the bulb of one fennel root and cut it into 1/2" matchsticks, and cut half of a (sweet) onion into a 1/4" or so cube. I sauteed both the onion and fennel together over medium heat until the onion cleared, in the stock pan in which I would make the risotto.

For the risotto rice base, I used some Carnaroli rice, a high-starch, short, plump variety grown in the Piedmont area of Italy (we visited a few years ago Milano, which is in this region). Instead of creating the stock as I usually do with a bouillon cube in water, I cooked the asparagus in water with a bouillon cube and used that asparagus-bouillon water.

Once the onion was ready, I proceeded with my risotto recipe, using less wine than usual (I actually used port - and used about 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup). About 5 minutes before the risotto was done, I cut the asparagus spears into 3/4" or so lengths and tossed them in. At the end, I went with the optional Earth Balance margarine as well as Eat in the Raw's vegan Parma!, salt, and freshly ground pepper.

I served the risotto with sauteed tempeh rolled in a bit of mild jerk seasoning. It was a good dinner! Neither my wife nor I (nor, perhaps, our 1-year and 1-day old daughter, who also sampled!) noted the fennel flavor.

Yesterday my daughter turned one year old! We had a nice party for her in the afternoon, then went to Sitar Indian Cuisine, where I had put together a family-style tasting menu of South Indian food for dinner. We ended up with way too much food, some of which will be showing up in upcoming day leftovers! We started with pakoras (vegetable dumplings), idlis (lentil-rice cakes) with spicy sambar soup and coconut chutney, and salad, then main dishes kept coming - dosas (one of my favorite foods - crepes filled with a potato mixture), uttapams (a flattened pancake/pizza, similar in composition to a dosa, but thick and not filled; Sitar makes the best uttapams I've ever had!), vegetable biryani (mixed vegetables in rice), and okra!

Vegan burger with Scottish Chive and Cheddar Sheese on bagel, onion rings