Thai Enchiladas with Kale, Black Beans, and Sweet Potato

At long last, our CSA has started up again! This week, we got kale, spinach, lettuce, arugala, mustard greens, spring onions, sage, lemon balm, and radishes.

We had our official first CSA meal of the season last night at my dad's house, after picking up the vegetables. Last night I made a sweet and spicy stirfry with all of the mustard greens and some veggie chicken that my dad had (Trader Joe's chicken-less strips); the sauce was made from plum sauce, peanut oil, red pepper flakes, garlic, and some spices. We ate the stirfry over brown rice, garnished with some sesame seeds.

Alas, I don't have a picture of last night's meal (though I should have one whenever my dad e-mails it to me) -- so let's talk about tonight's meal, the second official meal of the season!

Tonight, we had thai enchiladas filled with kale, black beans, and sweet potato -- and they were awesome. The filling was creamy and delicious, and the various flavors blended really well to make an amazing meal. I considered keeping the secret of this complicated-sounding recipe classified -- but the best part of this super-tasty meal was how easy it was to throw together. This comes with a confession that I didn't make my enchilada sauce or most of this recipe from scratch; no, there was a very crucial assist from my friend carton of soup.

In our pantry, we had a box of Pacific Foods Thai Sweet Potato Soup. I strained out the liquid to be the base of the sauce and left the chunky sweet potato bits for filling. I added a can of drained black beans to the mostly sweet potato mixture, then added kale that had been chopped and sauteed.

The liquid from the soup is pretty thick to start, but needs a little bit of thickening to be really good as an enchilada sauce. I think coconut flour is a good thickener to use, since there is already coconut in the soup -- but really, any thickener will do. Whisk in a little bit of your thickener of choice until it is smooth, then heat gently until the sauce thickens up enough to pour over the enchiladas.

We only had small, taco-sized corn tortillas -- so these were really mini enchiladas. One container of soup and half of our part of the kale yielded nine small enchiladas. You'll want to drizzle a little bit of oil and sauce on the bottom of the baking pan so that the tortillas don't stick or get hard on the bottom. Roll up the tortillas with the filling and lay them in the baking pan; when they are all assembled and comfortably snuggled together into the pan, pour the sauce evenly over all of the enchiladas. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, covered in tin foil so your tortillas don't dry out.

When there was about five minutes left, I decided on a whim to sprinkle a bit of soy cheddar over the tops of the enchiladas to give them some cheeziness -- but that is definitely optional. The darker sauce on top of the cheese is a little bit of extra sauce drizzled over the top. You can see a bit of kale and black beans peeking out shyly at the end of the tortillas. Overall, not the most photogenic creation, but definitely super yummy -- and easy!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the big holiday in our family, so I spent most of the week getting ready for the big day. And here's what we had!

Yes, that is two kinds of stuffing on the plate there -- cornbread stuffing at the bottom and sausage stuffing at the top. All of the produce (yams, potatoes, chard, cranberries) came from the farmer's market. That delicious slab of protein in the middle there is Field Roast's hazelnut cranberry roast en croute.

Not pictured: pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, apple-cranberry pie, macademia creme, vanilla coconut milk ice cream. The apple-cranberry pie (made by my friend Sarah) was one of the very best apple pies I have ever eaten -- and certainly the best apple cranberry pie I'd ever had. Yum! In fact, the only apple pie to rival this one is the apple pie that my Aunt Karen (for whom the blog is named!) would make every year at Thanksgiving. If I can't have that one . . . well, this cranapple pie is a delightful substitute!

July in a Nutshell

Life has gotten busy, hence I haven't posted anything in almost three weeks; I've still been following the plan, it's just that the time for documentation has gotten scarce.  My summer class started, plus we had some car-related adventures leaving us stranded in Massachusetts for a few days.  Fun!

While I didn't document everything over the past three weeks by any stretch of the imagination, I do have a few highlights here to share -- from those few times when I actually remembered to bust out a camera!

Pinto Bean Burgers

I made these pinto bean burgers for the fourth of July, and we grilled them up at our friends' house.  Sarah, the lady of the house, also made some killer potato salad -- also pictured on the plate!  Sarah & Will had slices of soy cheese at their house, as well as some tomato and lettuce from the farmers' market.  The burgers themselves were an improvement on the black bean burger I'd made previously; much sturdier for grilling while being a bit lazier of a recipe.

• 2 15 oz. cans of refried pinto beans
• 1/3 c. whole wheat flour
• 2/3 c. vital wheat gluten
• 1/3 c. cornmeal
• 1/3 c. salsa
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional, to taste)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl until well mixed; if the mixture is too liquidy, add more flour or cornmeal as needed.  Divide into eight balls on a plate and refrigerate for at least an hour.

After cooling, flatten the balls into patties and grill at least five minutes per side until well-cooked.  Extra burgers can be placed between wax paper, wrapped together, and frozen until needed.

Vegetable and Gardein Kebabs

Again, at Sarah and Will's house, we made our first ever kebabs.  Although we all like kebabs, none of us had ever made them ourselves.  The peppers and tomatoes were from the farmers' market and the onions were from our CSA; the fake meat is gardein.

Sarah had bought wooden skewers to make s'mores, but she had plenty of extra skewers for the kebabs!  This picture is pre-grilling, though the kebabs looked a bit different after cooking.  Everything was supertasty, but the most notable thing for me was how deliciously sweet the onions were.  I was ambivalent about grilled onions prior to our kebab experience, but now I am a devoted fan of the grilled onion.  Mmm.

Swiss Chard Quiche

The swiss chard quiche was so good in principle, and such a disaster in practice.  The crust puffed up in all the wrong places, the chard was not soft enough . . . basically, this was a lesson in what not to do for quiche!  I used the crust recipe from Vegan Brunch and the tofu filling recipe from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.  The idea of the quiche was a good one though, and I'm not giving up on it!  I will defeat the quiche by the end of this summer, mark my words.

We have stopped getting greens from the CSA though, so I'll have to figure out another vegetable that is good to quicheify.  More on the quiche saga as it unfolds!

The last two photos are not actually foods I prepared -- though they are foods I enjoyed!

Blueberry Pie

This is my friend Sarah's famous blueberry pie.  It is as good as it looks . . . and maybe even better.  She makes it every fourth of July, with fresh blueberries from the farmers' market.  Did I mention that it is super good?  I'm not normally a huge fan of blueberry pie, but I absolutely make an exception for this deliciousness.  In fact, even the picture is making me crave it.  I don't remember her exact recipe, but I know it involves blueberries and lemon juice and no sugar.  And some kind of magic.  Yum.

Moroccan Sweet Potato Stew

Our friend Jimmy made this and brought it over to our house in early July.  His mother cut the recipe out of a magazine for him -- and we both thought it sounded fabulous.  Being the wonderful guy that he is, Jimmy whipped up a batch and brought it over to share with me and P.  It was super delightful, and we ate it over plain couscous.  Here's the recipe!

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed with press
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 3/4 c. vegetable broth
• 1 c chick peas
• 1 large (about 16 oz) sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 2 small (about 6 oz each) zucchini, cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 1 c whole-grain couscous
• 1/4 c loosely packed fresh mint leaves, chopped

In a nonstick 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and cook 8 to 10 minutes or until tender and lightly browned, stirring occasionally.  Stir in garlic, curry powder, cumin, and allspice; cook 30 seconds.

Add tomatoes, broth, chick peas, and sweet potato; cover and heat to boiling over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook 10 minutes.  Stir in zucchini and cook, covered, 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile, prepare couscous according to package directions.  Stir mint into stew.  Serve stew over couscous.