Kale-Almond Pesto

Traditional pesto is made with basil and pine nuts but boy, is that expensive! The day that I learned that just about any leafy green and just about any nut can be combined to make a stellar pesto was a pretty life changing one indeed.

Ingredients:
1 bunch kale (or other leafy green)
1/3 c almonds (or other nut)
3 cloves roasted garlic (directions below!)*
1/2 t salt
2 T lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)
1 T olive oil
1 pinch red pepper flakes

Directions:

Steam kale for a few minutes until bright green.

Toast almonds in a dry skillet until fragrant BUT NOT BURNT, about 10 minutes.

Pulse kale in a food processor until finely chopped.

Add in almonds and roasted garlic and do the same.

Add in the rest of the ingredients and process until desired consistency is reached.

*How to quickly roast garlic:

Roasted garlic is the best. You can roast whole heads in the oven (shown here) but if you are faced with a time crunch, a skillet works just as well!

Directions:

Separate cloves from head and remove papery skin, leaving the immediate layer of skin as a protective barrier between the clove and the skillet.

Drop garlic into skillet over medium heat and allow to roast for about 10-15 minutes.

Move the cloves around every so often as to prevent burning.

Remove from heat when the innards feel mushy inside their skins.

Squish out the garlicky goodness and use to your heart's content!

<3

This is in preparation for a cooking demonstration that the Michigan Sustainable Foods Initiative is having on Wednesday! I was asked to be the "demonstrator" and, needless to say, I am more than excited.

The menu I have concocted is as follows:
Sweet Potato and Caramelized Onion Pizza with Garlic and Fresh Thyme
Spicy Roasted Tomato Pizza with Kale-Almond Pesto
Cinnamon Apple Dessert Pizza

I have never made any of these before so Wednesday will be quite the experimentation. Wish me luck!

Garlic and Greens Soup

I have a hard time making recipes more than once because I always want to try something new (maybe this is some sort of weird subconscious worry that that I am missing out on something amazing...) but the recipes I have made lately may change my mind! I have been unabashedly devouring the Millet Bake, Carrot-Zucchini Bread, and Red Lentil Soup.

This soup is absolutely no exception. Just exceptionally tasty.

(Adapted from The Vegan Table)

Ingredients:
2 bunches of kale (any leafy green will do!)
1 head of garlic, peeled and minced
4 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 T umeboshi plum vinegar (or rice vinegar)
8 c water
1/4 c tamari (or soy sauce)
2 T oil (I used coconut oil)

Directions:
Destem kale, tear into bite-size pieces and chop stems.
Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large pot.
Add onion and stir until softened.
Add the water, sweet potatoes, chopped stems, tamari, and garlic and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about 20-25 minutes until the potatoes are cooked.
Remove from heat and stir in greens.
Cover for a few minutes to allow greens to wilt.
Add vinegar and salt/pepper to taste.

I was curious about the nutritional information of this recipe because it has some powerhouses in it (i.e. sweet potatoes, kale and garlic) so after crunching some numbers, here's the break down:

Per serving (1 cup):
Calories: 165
Calcium: 12% of recommended daily intake
Vitamin C: 138% (No scurvy, hurray!)
Vitamin A: 500% (This is why sweet potatoes are rockstars.)
Iron: 10%
Fiber: 5g
Fat: 3.5g

Marinated Kale and Beet Salad

Ingredients:
Salad
1/4 c pumpkin seeds (AKA pepitas) (1)
1 bunch kale (2)
3 T olive oil (1)
1/4 of a red onion, diced
1 carrot, grated (3)
4 roasted beets, cubed (2)

Dressing
2 T balsamic vinegar (1)
1 t dijon mustard (4)
1/4 t freshly ground pepper (1)
1 t dried basil (1)
1 garlic clove, minced (5)

Directions:
Toast pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat when seeds begin to pop, set aside to cool.
Wash kale and tear into bite sized pieces.
Combine kale and oil and massage kale (yes, massage) until it softens.
Whisk together salad dressing.
Place kale, onion, carrots, and beets in a bowl and add dressing.*
Toss and sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds.

*I prepared this for lunch the night before. I mixed the dressing with the kale, carrots and onions the night before, keeping the beets and pumpkin seeds separate. In the morning I combined all of the ingredients and off I went!

(1) Bulk section of the People's Food Co-op
(2) Goetz Farm
(3) Snowman leftovers
(4) Pre-challenge stash
(5) Labelled as "Local" at the People's Food Co-op

Kale Chips: A Marcy Zatz Approved Recipe

Picture taken after Phase 1 Noshing.

Yesterday I woke up at 7 a.m. to walk a mile to the farmer's market in the snow. I would not say that this is a common habit of a college student on a Saturday morning, or the common habit of this college student. However, I was on a mission.

As I posted a few days ago, there is ONE farm at the Ann Arbor farmer's market that is selling leafy greens in late January. The market starts at 8 a.m. in the winter, and Goetz farm will sell out after about 1-2 hours. I got there a little after 8 and was able to take full advantage of the spread. Kale and chard and lettuce, oh my!

Kale Chips

You may have seen this recipe on the internet and heard the testaments about their truly amazing taste and texture (and nutrient density?) but you will not understand the magnitude of awesomeness until you make some of your own. Eat more kale!

We left our's in for a bit too long but still so good.

Ingredients:

kale

olive oil

salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Tear bite size pieces of kale from it's stem and place the pieces in a bowl.

Drizzle oil onto kale (1 T oil for 1 bunch of kale) and sprinkle with salt (1 t salt for 1 bunch of kale).

Massage oil and salt into kale until evenly distributed (I literally mean massage. With your hands.).

Spread pieces onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in a single layer.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

Melt-in-your-mouth good.

Quinoa, Sweet Potato, Kale Patties

Pre-bake but still pretty!

Based off a recipe from YumUniverse. Serious yum is happening. No, seriously.


Ingredients:
1 T ground flax seeds, 3 T water (optional)
3 c cooked red and gold quinoa
3 small sweet potatoes
1/2 c pumpkin puree
1 bunch of kale, de-stemmed
juice from 1/2 of a lemon
2 t sea salt
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
2 LARGE cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 t cinnamon


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F
Roast sweet potatoes for 25-35 minutes, until soft.
Remove skin from potatoes.
Whisk flax seeds into water.
Finely chop kale by hand or pulse in a food processor.
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.

For baking
Form into patties and put on cookie sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.


For frying
Coat patties in flour, cornmeal or bread crumbs.
Heat 1 T oil in a saute pan.
Fry coated patties until golden, about 2-3 minutes per side.


This recipe makes quiiiite a few patties, especially for one person... I ended up freezing uncooked patty balls on a baking sheet and then transferring them to a tupperware!

Purple Kale Salad with Roasted Delicata Squash

Now that finals are over, I can catch up on some past meals. Introducing: Pre-final Posts Series.

Pre-final Post 1:

So one major negative that I have come to find in squash is dealing with removing the skin. Easy thing if you are roasting it whole and scooping out the innards but if you want to roast cubes of the meat, you have to peel the thing first. BIG hassle.

Enter Delicata squash. These little beauties have a thin enough skin that peeling is not necessary! This unfortunately means that they will most likely not grow in Michigan late into the winter. But I do appreciate their deliciousness now!

Purple Kale Salad with Roasted Delicata Squash

The way this salad is constructed cooks the kale without actually cooking it! Therefore perfect for raw kale haters. Plus the sweet squash is the absolute best texture/taste/whole package of goodness.

Ingredients:
1 Delicata squash, halved and seeded (1)
2 t oil (2)
1 T balsamic vinegar (2)
1 T maple syrup (3)
a few leaves of purple (or regular) kale, de-stemmed and cut into bit sized pieces (4)
1 small onion, finely chopped (1)
1 garlic clove, minced (4)
1 T red wine vinegar (2)
salt and pepper (2)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F
Cut squashes into 1/2" semicircles.
Toss with 1 T oil and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake until tender, about 15 minutes.
Whisk together balsamic vinegar and maple syrup.
Brush mixture onto squash slices, reserving extra liquid.
Bake squash for 5 more minutes.
Turn on the broiler and broil for a few minutes to add color.

Place kale in a large bowl.
Heat remaining 1 t oil in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Add onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 4 minutes.
Add red wine vinegar and the reserved balsamic-maple syrup mixture and bring to a boil.
Immediately pour the hot dressing over the kale.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Cover bowl of kale with something that will keep in the steam (I used a large plate).
Leave be for 5 minutes.
Toss kale to cover leaves with dressing.
Serve with squash slices.

(1) Some farm stand at the AA Farmers Market, my fail for not noting the name...
(2) Bulk section at the People's Food Co-op
(3) Curry's Maple Syrup
(4) Tantre Farm

Kale, pear, and hazelnut salad with a lemon, ginger, and vanilla dressing

Vanilla in a salad dressing?? What?? YOU NEED TO TRY THIS! It. Is. The. Best.

Red kale! Swanky, I know.

Ingredients

Dressing

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

juice of 1 lemon 1 t dried lemon

1 T apple cider vinegar

+1 T white vinegar

2 teaspoons agave syrup maple syrup

1 teaspoon fresh ginger juice 1 small know of ginger, grated

a quarter of a teaspoon powdered ginger

a quarter of a teaspoon powdered vanilla 1/2 t vanilla extract

whole sea salt, just enough to taste

white pepper, just enough to taste freshly ground pepper, to taste

Salad

1 large bunch of kale, cleaned, stems and tough ribs removed

1/2 large and very firm pear, cleaned, quartered lengthwise, cored and finely sliced (you can use a potato peeler to make really thin slices)

2 handfuls of shelled walnuts roasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Whisk together salad dressing.

Put salad ingredients in a bowl.

Pour dressing on salad and toss.

Eat.

Self-explanatory? Probably...