So, I searched until I saw Marcus Samuelsson was also a fan of the very same salad and had created his own version of it. He’s almost exactly dead on with the flavors. The combination of the creamy cheese with the strong red onion flavors and the toasted hazelnuts is amazing. I don’t know how else to describe it. You just have to try it yourself.

I’ve made this recipe many times since and have introduced a few friends to the joy of raw kale as well. I hope you take the time to try this recipe and I’m sure you, too will become a fast fan.

I recommend serving it with the Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter from 101 Cookbooks I posted about recently. Also, you may want to make this a few hours in advance of serving it so the flavors have some time to meld together. Don’t worry, the raw kale is so… shall we say… ‘stout’… that it won’t wilt under the pressure of the dressing.

Photo by Lindsay Hunt via Marcus Samuelsson

Raw Kale Salad with Hazelnuts, Gruyere and Red Onion

Serves 2. Recipe derived from Marcus Samuelsson

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch kale, cut into ¼-inch strips horizontally, about 4 cups
• ¼ red onion, cut into 1/8-inch slices (a mandolin works well for this)
• ⅓ cup hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1 ounce Gruyere cheese, finely grated
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl, and toss to combine.
2. Combine olive oil and vinegar together. Drizzle over the ingredients, and add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Toss to combine, and serve.

Thank you, Pinterest (most addicting site ever!) for the idea.

Image from Whole Living

Almond Poppy Crackers with Ricotta and Honey

Recipe based on Whole Living
Makes 1 dozen. Serves 6

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour, poppy seeds, oil, salt, and egg white.
3. Transfer mixture to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover with parchment; roll out dough to an 8-by-12-inch rectangle (approx 1/8 inch thick). Uncover, and cut into twelve 2-by-4-inch crackers using a paring knife.
4. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool.
5. Spread with ricotta cheese. Drizzle with honey.

Nutrition (approx): 285 cal, 18g fat, 19 carb, 3 fiber, 10g protein

My slight modifications and recommendations:

• I used whatever lentils I had on hand (brownish). You don’t need to go out of your way to get green lentils unless you just want to.
• I didn’t use the coconut milk. I didn’t think it needed it, so I subbed a bit more broth in it’s place.
• Serve it with a crusty bread or naan. Delicious!

Image by 101 Cookbooks

 

Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter

Prep time: 5 min – Cook time: 45 min. Serves 4 to 6

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 6 cups good-tasting vegetable broth or water
• 1 1/2 cups green (or any color) lentils
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon Indian curry powder
• Fine-grain sea salt
• 1 bunch fresh chives, minced (optional)

1. Combine the 2 tablespoons butter, onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a large soup pot over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onions soften, a couple minutes. Add the vegetable broth and lentils and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender. This usually takes 20 to 30 minutes, but can take as long as 50 minutes.
2. In the meantime, warm the 3 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and let it brown. When it starts to smell nutty and fragrant, stir in the curry powder and sauté until the spices are fragrant, less than a minute.

When the lentils are finished cooking, remove from the heat, stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, and puree with an immersion blender. You can leave the soup a bit chunky if you like, or puree until it is perfectly smooth.
3. Stir in the spiced butter, taste, and add more salt, if needed, typically a couple of teaspoons if you used water instead of a salted broth. Serve drizzled sprinkled with chives and crusty bread or naan.

Recipe modified from a recipe from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson, copyright © 2011. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

 

Nutrition for 1/4th of the recipe (approx): 401 cal, 15g fat, 47g carb, 22 fiber, 19g protein

I call this my “power meal”! It’s an all-in-one meal and a power house of healthy ingredients, quinoa, kale, avocado. It’s high in protein, low in bad fats, high in good fats and straight up FILLING and DELICIOUS. Oh, and to make it even better… It’s super quick and easy!

I usually keep all the ingredients on hand and make more than I need and eat this for dinners and lunches for a few days. It’s my new favorite meal!

Here’s how I do it:

Quick (15 min) Quinoa Kale Bowl

Serves 2

• 2 cups kale, cleaned & coarsely chopped
• 2/3 cup cooked black beans, rinsed & drained
• 2/3 cup quinoa, cooked according to directions on the package (any color will work, I usually use red)
• 2/3 cup pre-made fresh pico de gallo
• 1/2 cup lowfat mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/2 avocado, cut into cubes
• Sea or kosher salt to taste

1. Make the quinoa according to packaged directions. Heat your beans (on the stove or in the microwave for 1-2 minutes). Steam the quinoa (in a steamer or 2 minutes in the microwave, covered)
2. Divide all ingredients except avocado and salt into two bowls and stir until just combined. Season to taste, top with fresh avocado, and serve.

Nutrition (approx): 300 cal, 7g fat, 43 carb, 9 fiber, 16g protein

Almond Butter

• 1lb raw almonds
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil (plus extra if needed)
• Approx 1 Tbsp honey (optional)
• Approx 1 Tbsp kosher or sea salt (optional)
• 2 Tbsp flax seeds (optional)

1. Roast the almonds in a 350 F oven for 10-12 minutes until starting to darken color and smell warm and nutty. Allow to cool for 5 mins.
2. Place almonds and oil in a sturdy food processor. (If you prefer a chunky almond butter, reserve about 1/3 cup of the almonds to add later.) Turn the processor on and let run until it begins to look like a traditional nut butter (3-5 mins) and is very smooth. Scrape down the sides occasionally. Add a little more oil if it’s too think for your preference.
3. Add the optional honey, salt and flax seeds and blend for another 30 sec-1 min. Adjust salt and honey to your taste preference.
4. If you’re making chunky almond butter, add the reserved almonds. Watching carefully, blend until they are well chopped up but not completely pureed.

1. THANK YOU, Smitten Kitchen, for this recipe.
2. GO make this recipe. NOW.

This is one of the richest, warmest, most satisfying vegetarian hearty meals I’ve had in a long time. And with the randomly weird, cold and rainy weather we’re having today here in the SF Bay Area, there’s no better time than now to pass this recipe along to you, my fabulous readers. It’s satisfying, homey, comfort food at it’s best!

I put mine with fresh, whole wheat noodles (from Whole Foods by Marin Pasta Works) and I used half portobello mushrooms and half “chef’s mix”. I really liked the variety. I think I wouldn’t have liked it as much with just all portobellos, so having the variety of texture, flavor and sizes of mushrooms really worked for me.

Mushroom Bourguignon Recipe by Smitten Kitchen

Image by Smitten Kitchen

Arugula and poached egg salad

Serves 2

Dressing

• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 tsp agave nectar
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Salad

• 4 cups arugula
• 1 sheet whole wheat lavash, cut in half
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp goat cheese, crumbled
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

1. In a small bowl, whisk mustard, agave nectar, and vinegar together. Add oil and whisk, combining well.
2. Poach the eggs (see link above for excellent directions and tips)
3. Toss arugula with dressing.
4. Place half of the arugula over each lavash. Sprinkle goat cheese over each. Top with poached egg, salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Image from wesleying.org

Until last year, I’d never had s’mores. (gasp!)

S’mores are one of those things that we vegetarians virtually never can partake. So, when everyone else is huddled around a fire pit happily toasting their marshmallows on a stick, we are trying to balance some dark chocolate on a stick to heat it up and sandwich it between the graham crackers – sans ‘mallow (don’t tell me I’m the only one who has done this).

The reason we vegetarians (especially vegans!) don’t get to join the s’more making parties is because marshmallows have 2 key ingredients that don’t work in the veg/vegan way – gelatin and (for the vegans) egg whites. And without those two ingredients, it’s REALLY (and I mean really) hard to create the perfect texture and flavor of the marshmallow.

After going years and years without rice krispy treats, rocky road, or s’mores, I finally went on the mighty quest for the ultimate vegetarian marshmallow (chronicled here and here). I tried a number of varieties and finally found marshmallow perfection in the form of Sweet & Sara.  S&S has literally perfected the vegetarian marshmallow and – dare I say it? – it is even better than a “real” marshmallow (your non-veg friends will never know the difference – they’ll just know they are having a super gourmet marshmallow). S&S’s ‘mallows are light, fluffy, perfectly textured morsels of gooey goodness that melt just right when making a krispy treat, hold up in a cup of hot chocolate and melt into spectacular s’mores.

I also have to keep plugging for S&S. I’ve been following her on FB and Twitter for a while. Not only do I love what she stands for and her business ethics, I also love how down to earth she is. She replies to tweets, responds to Facebook messages and signs each order invoice. She’s a super cool, normal vegan person who is making our vegetarian culinary lives that much better.  Thank you, S&S for giving me the opportunity to taste the delightful concoction that are s’mores!

Sweet & Sara Marshmallows

How to make s’mores:

1. Put your marshmallow on a stick
2. Toast it over an open fire (or cheat and microwave it for 30 seconds)
3. Smash the hot marshmallow in between two graham crackers with a square of chocolate (I prefer 70% swiss dark and even a smear of peanut butter on the cracker!)
4. Eat, being careful not to burn your tongue on the sticky ‘mallow. (Note: This is a very messy process, so just go with it, smear the chocolate all over your face and go ahead and lick your fingers. There are no manners with s’mores)

And now…. Because I just can’t keep this delicious goodness to myself, I want to pass the happiness on to YOU – my very special and kind readers – just as a thank you for reading my (somewhat sporadic) blog. And what better time than now as we move into summer and camping season?

I’m giving away Sweet & Sara marshmallows!

How to enter:

• Comment on this blog post (Make sure to use your real email address so I can contact you later. Don’t worry, it won’t be posted for anyone else to see and I promise not to ‘spam’ you!)
• Get additional entries by 1) Telling your friends by re-posting on your own Facebook page or blog OR 2) Liking my Facebook page and/or Following me on Twitter. Once you posted, liked, friended, followed, or whatever you did – come back and add an additional comment for each instance, telling me where you posted about the giveaway. I’ll randomly pick one lucky winner and send you a box of S&S marshmallows.

The giveaway contest will end next Wednesday (5/18) night at midnight, pacific time. All comments must be entered by that time and a comment will be randomly selected as our winner.

Good luck, and happy s’mores!!!

And the winner is…..

Comment #7 – Janice -  who says, “oh, wow, I’ve never heard of VEGAN marshmallows. I wonder how they taste “differently”.”

Congrats, Janice. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

On my list of “things to tackle”, French Macarons were high on my list (not to be confused with the American macroon – with 2 ‘Os’ and chock full of coconut). French Macarons along with souffles are a bit of the plumb line by which good bakers (in my mind anyway) are measured. They are like the holy grail of pastry chefs. So, tackle the macarons I did, along with my two sou chef’s – mom and sister. So glad they were up for the challenge! It was great to have a third pair of hands and lots of talking, laughing and double-checking to make sure I was doing it right. Also, I don’t know if I’d have ever got the macarons perfectly round without my sister there. She has much finer piping skills than I. The other great thing about having more hands is that I could actually capture some of the work being done with my camera. Yay.

After lots of research and browsing the internet to learn the typical hang-ups when making macarons, I finally felt armed with enough education to tackle a recipe. My personal favorite (and just so happens to be my sou chef’s favorites as well), I decided to make lemon macarons filled with lemon curd and vanilla bean buttercream – inspired by Bouchon’s lemon macarons.

But before we begin. What are those ‘key’ ingredients, you ask? It seems like there are a few of important steps to making a good macaron:

1. Aging the egg whites. What is the purpose of this? According to the French Pastry School Experience, aging egg whites allows some of the moisture to evaporate and losens the protein coils. (protein coils? huh? yeah, I don’t really get it either, but I did it and it worked, so I’m not asking. he’s the pastry chef – not me)
2. Letting the macarons rest for 1 hour before baking them, creating what is known as the “foot” of the macaron. (This one I mainly got from David Lebovitz. He tried one batch with the rest and one without the rest. The first batch didn’t have feet. The second did. I’ll learn from his experience and let mine rest!)
3. Use your food scale. This one is just because over the years, I’ve learned that weighing is a much more accurate measurement of ingredients than volume (hey, flour can get ‘packed’ or have air pockets – trust me, use your scale).

I did both these crucial steps and… success! Not only did my macarons have ‘feet’, but they were also delicious. I think even more delicious than a lot of the cheap and wannabe macarons that can be found at wannabe bakeries. They don’t quite live up to Bouchon’s amazingly fabulous perfection of a macaron. But really, who am I to even try to compete with Bouchon?

They were ultimately delicious morsels of crunchy, soft, creamy, lemony goodness. And oh so addicting. I could have kept eating them forever. I highly recommend. I’m so glad I took the challenge.

Here is the journey of the macaron… (and recipe at the very end)

Here’s the batter all ready for piping.

See the circle guide? It works! (I talk more about the guide in the recipe)

Meticulous piping skills combined with the guide = perfect circles! (thanks, sis!)

Resting… For one hour. So hard to wait!

Look! Feet! They have feet!!!

Starting the curd

The swiss meringue butter cream is piped (I did these. See? My piping skills aren’t nearly as neat as my sister’s)

In goes the lemon curd! (Don’t let the fact that they look like little eggs detour you)

Done! They were so addicting, we couldn’t stop eating them. I cannot wait to make them again. I will. Trust me, I will.

Lemon French Macarons

From Use Real Butter

Macaron cookies

• 110g almond flour (such as Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour)
• 200g powdered sugar
• 1 small lemon (preferably meyer), grated peel of
• 100g egg whites, aged for day and brought to room temperature
• 50g sugar
• 2 drops yellow food coloring (optional)
• Lemon curd
• Swiss meringue buttercream

Lemon Curd

• 2 meyer lemons, zest of
• 1/2 cup meyer lemon juice (about 3+ lemons)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 3 egg whites, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tea vanilla bean paste
• 1 cup unsalted butter, slightly soft (but slightly cooler than room temperature), cut into 12 pieces

Make the Lemon Curd:

• Stir together the lemon zest, juice, and sugar in a small saucepan.
• Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
• Beat the yolks together in a medium bowl and very very slowly add a little hot lemon mixture at a time while quickly whisking until combined. Continue to add hot liquid slowly until completely combined.
• Pour the egg mixture into the sauce pan and stir constantly over medium heat until the liquid thickens (about 5 minutes). It should hold a path when you run your finger down the back of a spoon.
• Remove from heat. Strain the curd through a mesh sieve to remove the zest. Let cool completely.

Make the Macarons:

• Combine almond flour, powdered sugar and lemon zest in a food processor. Pulse until well-blended.
• In a small bowl, mix the sugar and food coloring together until well blended (i.e the sugar turns yellow).
• Whip the egg whites until foamy and gradually add the granulated sugar while whipping until a shiny meringue forms (but not too dry).
• Add the almond mixture to the meringue and quickly incorporate the mixture into the meringue while taking care not to overbeat. You want to achieve a batter that flows and “ribbons” for at least 5 seconds.
• Pour the batter into a piping bag fitted with a large plain piping tip and pipe small rounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The rounds should be about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and at least an inch apart. (Helpful Hint: I made up a circle guide that I slipped under the parchment to help make even rounds. Download my PDF here – french_macaron_circle_patterns – to help you make perfect circles.)
• Let the macarons sit for an hour to develop a hard shell. (This is a good time to start on your swiss meringue buttercream.)
• Preheat oven to 300°F and bake for 8-10 minutes. (Note: If they aren’t completely done, they won’t lift off the parchment. It’s a delicate balance. You don’t want them brown, but they have to be completely done with dry bottoms). Remove from oven and let cool completely (if you don’t wait til they are completely cool, they will likely separate tops from ‘feet’). Remove from parchment.

Make the Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• Heat egg whites and sugar in a double boiler over simmering water, whisking constantly. Continue to whisk until they are 160 F.
• Transfer the egg and sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and whip on high until the egg whites form stiff peaks. They should not look dry.
• Add the vanilla, then the butter a bit at a time, mixing until fully combined and has the desired texture.

Assemble:

• Pipe small circles of buttercream around the edge of the macaroon
• Spoon a tiny bit of lemon curd into the hole and sandwich with a second macaron. Makes about 2 dozen.

I tried this recipe for strawberry balsamic cupcakes a while back. And while it was good, it wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped it would be. So, I decided to work up my own version with stronger flavors, and I was very pleased with the result. This one is GOOD! So additively good that I couldn’t keep my fingers out of the batter or frosting – especially the frosting. I made them on Friday night and Saturday afternoon for our Mother’s Day lunch.

Then, disaster happened… The cupcakes were in the fridge and I decided to show my husband how well they turned out. I pulled them out and realized there was a half inch of liquid at the bottom of my plate they were sitting on. Upon further exploration and sniffing, I discovered it was pickle juice. My jar of pickled okra tipped over on the shelf above and poured all the juice onto the plate. I scraped up some ingredients at midnight and with the help of my sou chef (aka husband), we finished up batch #2 around 1am.  The second batch wasn’t quite as good as the first, but it was a close second.

Also, for the record, I like the strawberry swiss meringue buttercream recipe better than my first strawberry frosting attempt.

These Cupcakes are available at A Cupcake Co.