Kale Pesto

The other day, as I stared at a huge bunch of kale from our CSA, a thought occurred to me. I love basil pesto; I've heard of spinach pesto; why not kale pesto? We had two small sprigs of basil this week, so they were recruited -- along with said huge bunch of kale -- into pesto!

There wasn't anything fancy about the recipe itself -- it was a very standard pesto recipe, but with kale stepping in for the bulk of the greenery. It's extremely easy to make pesto; just put everything in the food processor and process the food until it has a nice smooth texture. This pesto was made of pine nuts, rice-parmesan, olive oil, garlic, kale -- with the stems removed and coarsely chopped, basil leaves, and a little salt and pepper.

It took just as long to wash and chop the kale, assemble the other ingredients, and prepare the pesto in the food processor as it took for my pot of water to boil and the pasta to cook. Quick and easy! And, to make it even easier next time, this recipe made three times as much pesto as I needed for tonight's dinner -- so I froze two individual servings of pesto for the next couple of times!

As easy as tonight's dinner was, I didn't have the energy even for this much work last night after I got back from doing work at school. I present you with a bonus photo of last night's dinner -- roasted CSA broccoli and farmers' market potatoes plus salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper.

I love roasting -- you just throw your vegetables in the oven and forget about them, then -- BAM! -- dinner's ready! Despite my intense love for both roasting and broccoli, I'd actually never had roasted broccoli before -- but this will certainly not be the last time. Roasting the broccoli gave it a fantastically nutty flavor; I may have just found my new favorite way to prepare my favorite vegetable.

Indian Potato-n-Kale Stuffed Peppers

We got some tasty-looking green bell peppers at the farmers' market last week, but I wasn't sure what to do with them -- maybe stuffed peppers? -- and then inspiration struck. With some red-skin potatoes (also from the farmers' market) and a bunch of kale (from our CSA), I would make an Indian-flavored, spicy mashed potato and sauteed kale mixture to stuff the peppers with.

P chopped up the kale nice and small so that there would not be big chunks mixed in with the smoother texture of the potato, while I chopped and boiled the potatoes until they were soft enough to mash and got the peppers ready -- cutting off the tops and scooping out the seeds inside. I sauteed the kale in a bit of olive oil and some Indian spices, including the hot curry paste I use for just about everything. Once the kale was cooked and the potatoes were mashed, I mixed it all up together -- it already tasted delicious, but I managed to get (most of) the mixture into the peppers anyway.

Once stuffed, I stuck the peppers in the oven at 375 for about 20 minutes, until the peppers were nice and soft -- but not too soft! The texture of the peppers was perfectly balanced between tenderness and crispness, and the top of the stuffing peeking out the top got delightfully crunchy from being uncovered in the oven. Fabulous!

We have one pepper left, and you can bet that we are going to be fighting over it for lunch tomorrow!

Grilled Kale

Last weekend, we barbecued with my dad -- and he had the idea to grill some kale along with our corn and veggie burgers. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical at first -- but he talked me into it. And I'm so glad he did! The kale turned out amazing.

It had that delicious smokiness from the grill, and was crisp on the edges while the rest of it was still nice and soft. We made sure not to cook it too long, so the kale wasn't bitter -- and it turned out with a perfectly rich, smoky flavor.

The preparation was simple -- we tossed everything in some olive oil, salt and pepper, and a little bit of cayenne pepper. First, we grilled some CSA carrots and spring onions with the chopped up pieces of kale stem; once those started to get nice and soft, I threw in the leafy part of the kale. I made sure to keep stirring up the veggies so that the kale didn't get charred on one side, but the whole cooking process only took about ten minutes.

You can see our farmers' market corn and black bean burgers in the background, but the grilled kale was definitely the star of this meal! Grilled kale is definitely a must for our future barbecues!

Asian Chik'n Salad with Scallion Pancake

Earlier this week, I made these delicious salads as part of my dad's birthday-father's day celebration. Having a nice big salad for dinner is pretty much his favorite thing, so I made these -- with some fabulous salad greens from the CSA, tangerine vinaigrette, and veggie chicken (Trader Joe's chicken-less strips -- my dad's favorite), garnished with sesame seeds. The chik'n was cooked up with some plum sauce, red pepper flakes, ginger, garlic, and a little peanut oil.

As you can see from the picture, we also had some scallion pancakes with our salad -- made from the last of the spring onions from our CSA and whole wheat pastry flour. Overall, a tasty, satisfying, light summer meal -- and, most importantly, my dad loved it!

Curried Chick Peas & Kale on Potato Pancakes

One of our classic family favorites is curried chick peas and some kind of green vegetable -- with some potatoes thrown in if I have them. I've posted about it before, because we really do have it all the time! Last night, however, I made a slight variation on the classic garbanzo'n'green extravaganza.

The chick peas and chard were prepared as usual, but -- instead of having potatoes as part of the curried mixture -- it was served on top of potato pancakes. It was delicious -- and a fun twist on one of our standard dishes!

Despite the fact that the chick peas were quite spicy, Zelda ate a million of them -- and refused to eat any of the potato pancake. In the background, you can see a glass of homemade limeade that we had with the meal. Zelda was watching Yo Gabba Gabba -- and Plex taught us how to make lemonade (squeeze lemons, add water, add honey, stir). We didn't have any lemons, but we did have a couple of limes -- so we made our limeade with agave nectar. Yum!

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!

Layered Chocolate Pie

Yesterday, my family gathered at my grandmother's house to celebrate her life. My grandmother was an amazing woman -- super glamorous, highly opinionated, passionate activist, wonderful artist . . . and ultimate gourmand. Everyone who knew her knew that she loved a huge range of cuisines and was extremely vocal about her opinions on different foods or restaurants. In providing dessert for the event, I knew that I wanted to make something delicious that she'd be proud of. Since she loved chocolate, I decided that one of my desserts would definitely be a chocolate pie; for variety, I also made a berry tart. Since there are several steps to each dessert, I'll just post about the chocolate pie here and will save the berry tart for another later.

There were a couple of considerations in making these desserts other than just trying to make them tasty! Since this was a day for family, I wanted everyone to be able to participate -- so these pies reflect the various dietary restrictions present. As always, there are no eggs or milk, but there is also no wheat, no sugar, and the whole thing is low-carb* to be diabetic friendly.

When I was shopping for ingredients, I came across coconut flour, which I had never seen before -- but in addition to being gluten-free it is also low-carb, with most of the carbohydrates coming from fiber. Since it looked perfect for my needs, I decided to give it a try despite having never cooked with it before! Some quick googling didn't turn up any useful recipes, so I plunged in blind -- but fortune was on my side, and surprisingly the results were quite tasty! I actually made two of each kind of pie, but halved my recipe below so the proportions are right for one pie.

Chocolate Pie

The chocolate pie consists of three layers -- the chocolate crust on the bottom, a layer of chocolate ganache, and a layer of chocolate custard.

Chocolate Crust

• 6 tbsp coconut flour
• 2 tbsp melted earth balance
• 1 1/2 tbsp ener-g
• 6 tbsp cocoa powder
• 6 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp agave nectar

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together dry ingredients, then mix in the wet ingredients until well-mixed. The dough will still be fairly wet, so use a rubber spatula to spread it on the bottom of a nine inch pan. I used a cake pan with flat sides for one (with crust only on the bottom) and a pie dish with sloped sides for the other (with crust up the sides); the cake pan is pictured above. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes.

Chocolate Ganache

Full disclosure: I was running out of earth balance when I made this, so I might have made more or used other proportions otherwise -- but this is the amount I made yesterday, and it worked fine. Feel free to make more though! Additionally, to keep it sugar-free I used grain-sweetened chocolate chips; if you don't care about the sugar but want to keep it gluten-free, use regular dairy-free chocolate chips.

• 1/2 c soy milk
• 1 tbsp earth balance
• 2 tbsp chocolate chips

Place s'milk and earth balance in a saucepot, then bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. As soon as it boils, take it off the heat and stir in the chocolate chips until they are well-melted and thoroughly combined. Pour the ganache into the prepared pie crust and place in fridge to cool.

Chocolate Custard

This is also great by itself as chocolate pudding, though it needs a touch less tapioca starch if you intend to eat it plain instead of as part of a pie.

• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 c cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp tapioca starch
• 3 packets of truvia stevia
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 tbsp agave nectar

Whisk all ingredients together in a saucepot before turning on heat. Once the mixture is well-combined, turn the heat on medium and continue to whisk. The mixture will thicken as it heats; once it is evenly thickened, pour the custard over the cooled ganache and refrigerate for a few hours. You may want to smooth the top with a rubber spatula before placing it in the fridge.

* With the ingredients I used, there were 13 carbs for a slice (1/12) of the chocolate pie.