Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

Printable Recipe

BRYANNA'S CHEESE-Y VEGAN KALE & SUMMER SQUASH TORTA (ITALIAN-STYLE SAVORY TART) WITH CRISPY LOW-FAT OLIVE OIL PASTRY
Serves 4-6 (depending on appetites!)

Low-Fat Olive Oil Pastry Dough (make this first!):
2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup ice-cold water
Filling:
12 ounces kale leaves (weigh after taking stems off), thinly sliced
12 ounces summer squash (I used a combination of zucchini and pattypan squash), sliced about 3/8" thick (cut pattypan squash into thin wedges)
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
freshly-ground black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. dried mint, or 1 1/2 tsp. minced fresh mint
Cheese-y Mixture:
12.3 ounce box extra-firm silken tofu
1/2 cup nondairy milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 tablespoons cornstarch, wheat starch or oat flour, OR egg replacer powder
1 tablespoon light miso
OPTIONAL TOPPING:
a handful of shredded vegan melting cheese
a generous sprinkling of vegan Parmesan (We like GoVeggie! brand.)

To make the Dough:
Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl.  Drizzle in the olive oil and mix with a fork or your fingers -- there will be some small lumps, and that's fine. Drizzle in the cold water slowly, mixing with a fork.  When it comes together, knead it gently into a ball and cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth.
Refrigerate while you make the filling.

To make the Filling:
Heat a large pot of water over high heat until it boils.

Add the sliced kale and boil for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat and place the lid on the pot. Let stand while you place the zucchini rounds and/or pattypan squash wedges and sliced onion on a baking sheet, and sprinkle them with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper and mint.  Mix gently with your fingers and spread the mixture out again.  Place the the  baking sheet under your oven's broiler on High, about 4 inches below the heat source. Broil, watching carefully, until the vegetables begin to brown and are softened.

Immediately remove them from the oven and turn off the broiler. Preheat the oven to 375˚F.

Now drain the kale from the pot  in a colander and run cold water over it. Squeeze as much water out of the kale as possible. Combine the kale and zucchini/onion mixture in a mixing bowl.

In a blender or food processor, mix together the silken tofu, nondairy milk, nutritional yeast, starch or alternate, and miso until smooth.  Pour this into the bowl with the vegetables and mix gently. If you like, add some vegan Parmesan to taste-- a couple of tablespoons, if you like.

Spray or lightly brush a 14” pizza pan with oil and sprinkle lightly with flour.

On a floured surface (I use a large sheet of baking parchment sprinkled with flour) flatten the ball of Dough a bit and, using the “roll from the center forward, quarter turn, repeat” method, and flouring lightly as necessary, roll the dough out into a 18”-in-diameter round (doesn't have to be perfect!). This dough will roll out thinly quite nicely, but watch for tearing.

To transfer to the pan, sprinkle the round lightly with flour, fold loosely in half and then in half again. Transfer the dough carefully to the prepared pizza pan and carefully unfold the dough, which will overlap the edge of the pan by a few inches. (OR roll it up around the rolling pin, loosely, and transfer it to the pan by starting at the top of the pan and unrolling the pastry over the pan.) Evenly spread the Filling into a 12-inch circle in the center of the dough.


If you like, sprinkle the Filling with a handful of shredded vegan melting cheese.


Carefully bring the overlapping dough up around the filling, to make a freeform pie. Pleat the edges of the dough over the filling, leaving an open circle in the center. Brush or spray the dough lightly with oil.

Bake about 35 minutes, or until the torta is golden and starting to brown. Place the pan on a cooling rack. Cut the torta into 6 or 8 wedges and serve hot or at room temperature.

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 377 calories, 136 calories from fat, 15.5g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 521.5mg sodium, 649.5mg potassium, 47.6g carbohydrates, 4.8g fiber, 2.9g sugar, 14.6g protein.



Enjoy!

One-pot Cheesy Farfalle (Bowtie Pasta) with Asparagus, Zucchini & Soy Curls, recipe below

I must apologize for not posting much lately.  I seem to be suffering from bouts of IFS.  I was just thinking of it as "Internet fatigue", but, apparently, it has a name already-- Information Fatigue Syndrome.  So, I've been curtailing some of my Internet activities and reading actual books.

But I have not been totally inactive.  Actually, my husband and I have been (and still are) on a mission-- to use less energy in our home.  And, in two weeks, we have lowered our energy consumption by 40%!  (This is according to our BC Hydro website, our provincial electrical company, where we can see our monthly, weekly and daily electrical consumption.)


I've also been experimenting with some different cooking methods, especially to avoid boiling pots of water.  For instance, when we felt like having mashed carrots and potatoes (a favorite of DH) I cut the potatoes in chunks and the carrots in smaller pieces and pressure-cooked them together, using only 1/2 cup water, in 8 minutes.  Perfect!

These days, our preferred method of cooking pasta is this:  Bring a pot of water to a boil-- but not as much water as you might be used to. I use about 2 qts. for up to a pound of pasta, and I bring the water to a boil in an electric kettle, then pour it into the pot before turning on the heat. When it comes back to a boil, add your pasta, bring back to a boil, stirring a bit, turn the heat off, cover and let stand for 8-10 minutes or so. (Spaghettini will take 8 minutes, other pasta, such as rotini or other shapes will take 10.) Drain and serve as usual.  Trust me-- this works beautifully!  The pasta is tender but al dente and there is no stickiness.

Gemelli pasta cooked by the no-boil method in the paragraph above.

This method can be used for cooking other foods and it is also known as "passive boiling".  It is mentioned in two books that I recommend (actually the ONLY books on reducing energy-use in the kitchen that I could find): "Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen" by Kate Heyhoe (she calls it "reducing your cookprint"-- clever), and "The Green Kitchen" by Richard Ehrlich, a British journalist. See if your library has them, if you prefer not to buy them-- they are full of good ideas.

I have a confession to make-- I love cornbread.  My husband doesn't really understand this.  He likes it all right, but not with passion, if you know what I mean.  It must be an American thing.  I was born in the States and he was born in Quebec. Even though I've lived in Canada since I was 18, I've never lost my passion for cornbread, and as a vegan, I've devised several cornbread recipes that I'm happy with.  But, faced with a pile of zucchini and scads of ovo-lacto-laden zucchini cornbread recipes, I decided to devise my own vegan version-- with nuggets of corn added at the last minute.  I almost added some Daiya vegan cheese shreds, but decided that would be overkill-- although, if you do try it, let me know!

I was out of whole wheat pastry flour, so I used my High-Fiber Gluten-Free Flour Mix instead, and you'd never know the difference!


Printable Recipe

BRYANNA'S CORN KERNEL ZUCCHINI CORNBREAD (Can be GF and SF)
Makes 1/ 10" cast-iron skillet-full
Moist and delicious, with the extra nutrition of vegetables. PS: If you don't have a skillet, use a 10" round or 9" square pan-- the skillet just makes the crust crispier.

DRY MIX:
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup white whole wheat pastry flour OR my High Fiber Gluten-Free Flour Mix (or your favorite)
1/3 cup soy flour or chickpea flour
1/4 cup unbleached organic sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
WET MIX:
1 tablespoon lemon juice with soymilk, nut milk or hemp milk to make 1 1/4 cups
1 cup packed grated zucchini with skin
2 tablespoons oil or melted Earth Balance
ADDITION:
1 cup thawed frozen (or cooked fresh) corn kernels, or canned corn kernels, well-drained

Oil a 10" cast iron skillet and place it in the oven while you heat it up to 375 degrees F. Whisk the dry Mix ingredients together in a medium bowl. Whisk or blend the wet Mix ingredients together and add to the Dry Mix. Mix briefly and pour into the hot skillet. Bake 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 198.4 calories; 21% calories from fat; 4.9g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 284.2mg sodium; 345.9mg potassium; 35.7g carbohydrates; 4.0g fiber; 8.2g sugar; 31.7g net carbs; 5.6g protein; 3.6 points.

Made with Bryanna's High-Fiber Gluten-Free Flour Mix:
Nutrition (per serving): 217.3 calories; 21% calories from fat; 5.3g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 285.5mg sodium; 337.8mg potassium; 39.4g carbohydrates; 3.6g fiber; 8.2g sugar; 35.7g net carbs; 5.0g protein; 4.1 points.

Enjoy!

  My copy, with some sticky-notes marking the recipes I want to try next!


When my husband said "Oh, wow!" after the first bite of Betsy DiJulio's Panko-Topped Cheesy Zucchini from her book The Blooming Platter Cookbook, I knew this book was a winner!  DH is not a great zucchini fan, but I had a small pile of zucchini that needed using and this recipe was intriguing, partly because of its simplicity, and partly because of the interesting homemade cheese that was one of the primary components.  It was simple to make (and quick!) and , obviously, delicious.  The cheese (and I won't reveal the ingredients, but there's one especially genius addition) was a simple combination of ingredients familiar to most vegans, but its simplicity belied its complexity in the flavor department. We'll enjoy the leftovers on crisp rye crackers. (An aside:  DH instructed me to tell Betsy that he hardly ever likes other people's cooking as well as mine, but he loved that dish!)

  Panko-Topped Cheesy Zucchini 


  I served it with some leftover marinara sauce-- the two of us ate the whole casserole for dinner!

While this may be the first recipe I've actually cooked out of Betsy's book, I've been having some great times lately perusing it and picking out recipes to try.  Betsy's writing makes one feel that a good friend is writing to one, sharing special recipes and sometimes the stories behind her inspiration.  Reading statements such as: "...I have been consumed by what I like to call intense 'investigative' home-cooking and entertaining-- fueled by the advent of the food networks-- ultimately leading to part-time free-lance food writing and a bit of teaching. I remain an 'independent study' student of all things culinary." and "For as long as I can remember, food has been the blaze that marked the path of my life.", as well as her preference for soy milk, make me feel sure that Betsy is a "kindred spirit" (as Anne Shirley of "Green Gables" fame was wont to say).  And a bloody good writer, too!

My overall impression after studying the book is that it is the work of a curious, inventive, creative, and discerning cook, whose sometimes rather unusual combinations of fruits, vegetables and herbs, and savory and sweet ingredients in the same recipe, are not only spot-on, but inspire quite a few "why didn't I think of that?" moments.  Even without the lovely photos, one would find the recipes colorful and balanced, evidence of Betsy's artistic nature (she is a practicing artist and an art teacher).

Consider Creamy Summer Torta with Figs, with its savory, herbal vegan cheese filling and Balsamic reduction;


  or the startling Beet Muhammara  (the Turkish spread usually made with red peppers, here replaced by beets, walnuts, garlic, spices and pomegranate molasses); Blackberry and Corn Salad;


  Butternut Squash Bisque with Cranberry Gremolata; Curried Red-Lentil "Cheesecake" with Tamarind Sauce, to name but a few on my list of "got to make this" recipes. All I can say is, "Bravo, Betsy!"

(Oh, and by the way, there are a fair number of "basic" recipes in the book which you will probably want to use often in your own recipes, too-- White Bean Sausages, at least four homemade vegan cheeses, and Blue Cheese Sauce.)  


You're going to find many recipes in The Blooming Platter Cookbook that will surely send you into the kitchen on a colorful culinary adventure-- perhaps not the same recipes that call to me, but, believe me, there's something  for everyone in this lovely, delectable, and eminently usable vegan cookbook.

Enjoy!

My old 1970's cooking notebook

In this post, I talked about my old cooking notebooks, particularly the one from 1973.  Well, it inspired a hankering for a very simple zucchini recipe that my mother used to make frequently.  It's so simple that it isn't really a recipe!  I didn't make it for years because it requires cheddar cheese and when I first became a vegan there was nothing decent in the vegan cheese department!  Even now, vegan "cheddar" is usually pretty bland.  I think the best one is Sheese.  I didn't have any in the house to make this recipe and was stuck with Tofutti Slices, but it still brought back memories!  Next time I'll use Sheese Strong Cheddar.  (Sheese Smoked Cheddar and Cheshire are actually my preferences, but they don't sell them in our local HF store.)


ANYWAY, TO MAKE THIS, simply take some small zucchini (4-6 inches long), wash, trim, and cut them in half lengthwise, steam them until almost tender, and then lay them out cut-side-up on a cookie sheet.  Slather on some tasty tomato sauce and top with vegan cheese (see remarks above).  Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. That's it!  We gobbled this down as kids!  (Yes, it was the 50's and 60's, but  we were California kids with a half-Italian father-- grew up on zucchini and greens!)

I think I'll update this, not only with vegan cheddar, but with roasting the zucchini with a bit of olive oil instead of steaming it-- since you have to turn on the oven anyway.


OH, AND I WANTED TO GIVE YOU A TIP FOR CUTTING DOWN THE TIME WHEN MAKING BROWN RICE.  
I've done this for years. Before you leave the house in morning, or as you go about your morning business, soak the rice in 2-3 cups of water per cup of dry rice. Soak for 2 hours to overnight. KITCHEN PICS:
We got a new stove the other day and I decided to take some pictures of my tiny kitchen.  It works for me, though-- everything I use often is at hand.  (Though we have a big freezer outside and a pantry/closet for alot of our food.  I keep some of the serving dishes and bowls, etc., that I don't use often in the dining area.)






Cheers!

Happy Birthday to my oldest grandchild and first grandson, Levon!


My husband's bread cooling on the kitchen counter this afternoon.


I know it's a little late for zucchini in our neck of the woods, but I had one in the refrigerator that a good friend had picked from her garden some weeks back.  I had forgotten all about it!  It wasn't a huge one, and a little more mature than I like, but it was exactly the right weight for this soup, and the skin was tender enough to use it in the recipe. Adapted from my book "The Fiber for Life Cookbook", I posted a slightly changed version of the recipe in the book on this blog in August of 2007.  But I changed the cooking method this time and roasted the zucchini (used less oil, too).  I added the garlic to the broth rather than cooking it with the zucchini this time, as well, resulting in a more assertively-flavored soup.  It really tastes like a very different soup than the original one!  The original is delicious, too, but more subtle-- I like them both, but this was perfect for a cold winter day!



Printable Recipe



Blend the nondairy milk and the silken tofu or cashews in a blender or with a stick/immersion blender until smooth.  Add the resulting "cream", and taste for salt and pepper. Heat briefly. Serve with vegan parmesan  sprinkled on each serving.


Enjoy!

Who says that good vegan meals take hours to make? I was about to freeze some homemade pesto (we're having a good basil year!) and I decided to use some for a quick pasta lunch. I planned to cook some egg-free tagliatelle "nests" (check the label!), but I wanted to add a vegetable to the dish.

Tagliatelle nest

I had a zucchini from one of our neighbors, so I decided to make zucchini strands with it, using my handy-dandy Messermeister julienne peeler-- a great low-tech gadget that doesn't take up much room in your utensil drawer! You use it just as you would  peeler and it makes long, or short, thin strands.


Here are the results from one medium zucchini-- very nice!


I added the zucchini strands to the pasta in the pot about 1 minute before the pasta was done and then drained them all together: