Pumpkin-Ricotta-Spinach Casserole

1 small pumpkin (or spaghetti squash), roasted
1 bag frozen spinach
1 container fat-free ricotta
1 egg
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp roasted garlic powder

1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp salt
nutritional yeast
pine nuts


Shred the squash/pumpkin flesh.  Mix with the frozen spinach, ricotta, beaten egg, nutmeg, salt, white pepper and roasted garlic powder.  Dust with nutritional yeast and sprinkle on some pine nuts.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Farmers' Market Quiche

I only buy eggs during farmers' market season, and then only from farms that I know treat their animals well. This makes quiche a fairly rare delicacy around our house. This one was easy and delicious.

1 tube biscuits

1 tsp olive oil

3 strips tempeh bacon, chopped

3-4 stalks asparagus, diced

2 spring onions, diced

2 stalks of spring garlic, diced

1 Tbsp fresh oregano and/or thyme

1 large bag spinach, rinsed

4 eggs

1-2 Tbsp grated cheese

salt & pepper to taste

Spray a pie plate with oil. Squish the biscuit dough out until it covers the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the tempeh bacon, asparagus, onions and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until onions/garlic are wilted and the asparagus is tender. Remove the mixture from the pot and spread over the biscuit dough.

Add the spinach & 1/4 cup water to the pot and cover. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the spinach is dark green. Drain the spinach in a colander, squeezing out as much of the water as possible. Chop the spinach finely and spread over the biscuit dough. Sprinkle herbs on top.

Beat the eggs lightly. Mix in the grated cheese, salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture on top of the other ingredients in the pie plate. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Ingredient notes: I grabbed everything except the biscuits and tempeh bacon at the farmers' market this weekend. The eggs & spring garlic came from Coyote Run. The cheese was Prairie Breeze cheddar out of Milton (purchased at Gateway Market some months ago). The asparagus came from Reinhart's Family Farm. The spinach and spring onions showed up somewhere along the route, too. You could, of course, use a pre-packaged pie crust, but watch the ingredient list for lard.

Spinach-Mushroom-Artichoke Turnovers

2 tsp olive oil
1/4 onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz. crimini mushrooms, sliced
10 marinated artichoke hearts, diced
1 handful pine nuts
10 oz fresh baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste
1 pkg (2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a few baking sheets with parchment paper.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Saute the onion until translucent, then add the garlic and mushrooms. Once the mushrooms are soft, add the pine nuts, artichoke hearts and spinach. Stir until spinach is wilted.

Slice each puff pastry sheet into four pieces. Roll each piece out until it's roughly 6-7 inches on each side.

Put two-three tablespoons of filling on one half of the pastry. Wet the edges and fold the pastry over to form a triangle. Crimp the edges to seal.

Bake the pies for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Chickpea-Spinach-Tomato Pasta/Soup

The leftovers of this pasta topping makes for a tasty, hearty soup the next day.

For the pasta:
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp olive oil
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cans tomatoes, drained
1 tsp dried dill
pepper to taste
a few shakes Tobasco
6-8 oz. baby spinach, rinsed
4 oz (half a box) of linguine
splash lemon juice

Put on water to boil. When boiling, add the linguine and cook until no longer crunchy. Drain, then toss with a little olive oil and lemon juice and cover until ready to eat.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the garlic and dill and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the chickpeas, tomatoes and pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add the spinach and stir until wilted. Serve over pasta.

Makes two servings of pasta, plus a lot of topping leftovers.

For the soup:
1 can kidney beans, drained and rised
1/3 cup dry quinoa
2 cups veggie broth (or 2 cups water + one bouillon cube)

Add beans, quinoa and veggie broth to the pasta topping leftovers. Turn the heat up and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the quinoa has become translucent.

Chickpea-Spinach Curry & Whole Wheat Chapatis

I've been craving Indian food all week, but the buffets around town never seem to be open when I want to go. So tonight we made the Chickpea-Spinach Curry from 'Vegan with a Vengeance' with some whole wheat chapatis from 'The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen.' Now, I've never had much success with either curries or bread products at home. They always come out mediocre, and I never repeat them. This combo, however, was an unqualified success. Tastes just like the buffet, and it's damn good for you to boot!

I pretty much followed the curry recipe to a tee, so I won't repeat it here. I did stir in 3 tablespoons of plain soy yogurt at the end for extra tangy creaminess (I used Wildwood brand, which is made a few hours away from here in Grinnell, Iowa). I topped my curry with Pickapeppa sauce, which reminds me of the luscious tamarind sauce at Tandoor, and scooped it up with these fabulous flatbreads.

Chapatis
===============

Adapted from Peter Berley's 'The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen'.

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 fl. oz. water
1 Tbsp olive oil

Combine flours and salt. Add the olive oil and water and mix well. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes, or until the dough is no longer sticky. Form a dough ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for an hour.

Unwrap the dough, divide it into four pieces and roll each piece into a ball. One at a time, put the ball on a floured surface, then roll it out with a floured rolling pin until it's very, very thin.

Spray a skillet with olive oil, then heat over medium heat. Add the dough circles and cook for a few minutes on each side, or until they are browned with darker spots. Put on a plate and cover with a towel until ready to eat.

Grilled Plantains w/ Black Bean-Corn Relish & Gingered Mangoes & Strawberries

Grilled Plantains
1 semi-ripe plantain, cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch thick slices
2 tsp sucanat or sugar or maple syrup
1/4 tsp lime juice
dash salt

Rub the slices with lime juice and sprinkle with sucanat and salt. Generously oil the grill pan and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side.

Black Bean-Corn Relish
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
kernels from 2 ears of corn
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
a few shakes chipotle hot sauce

Combine the corn kernels and a little water in a small saucepan. Cook the corn for 3 minutes, or until no longer raw. Drain the corn and add to the black beans. Add lime juice, cumin, garlic powder and hot sauce and mix well.

Gingered Mangoes & Strawberries
2 ripe mangoes, peeled and diced
5-6 strawberries, quartered
2 pieces crystallized ginger, chopped or 1/4 tsp grated fresh ginger

Combine the mangoes, strawberries and ginger in a bowl and mix well. Let set for a few minutes, then serve!

Sundried Tomato Pesto

1/2 cup dry sun-dried tomatoes (not in oil)
1 cup water
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 tbsp dried basil
1/4 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper (to taste)
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil

Put the sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl. Boil the water in a kettle and pour it over the tomatoes, then cover and let sit for 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft. Drain and set aside. Put the pine nuts in a dry saucepan and heat over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring, or until just golden.

Crush the basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt & pepper in a mortar and pestle until they form a thick paste. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl, add the olive oil and tomatoes, and pulverize with the pestle. Finish the mixture off with a hand blender until smooth.

Toss with pasta or gnocchi and consume!

Spinach-Artichoke-Tomato Salad w/ Orange Dressing

1 bag (or several plants' worth) spinach leaves, washed and torn
1 tomato, sliced into chunks
10-15 artichoke hearts, drained

Put all ingredients in a bowl and toss to combine.

Dressing
4 Tbsp orange juice
1 Tbsp honey mustard
1 Tbsp olive oil

Whisk all ingredients together and serve on the side, so each diner can dress her own salad.

Spinach and Artichoke Pie

I adapted this from Fat Free Vegan, and it was delicious. Deeply satisfying, too, to wildly mush everything together, throw it in the oven and abscond to the living room to do yoga. We used our first spinach harvest from the garden in this dish. As in the original recipe, you can use phyllo dough to top the spinach mixture; I frequently do. But when I'm feeling lazy (which is often), I break out the puff pastry.

2 bags (16-ish oz.) baby spinach

12 oz. extra-firm tofu (the water-packed kind in tubs)
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp. salt, or to taste
1-2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
black pepper, to taste
a few shakes of hot sauce
7-10 artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup toasted pinenuts
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
olive oil for smearing

Set the puff pastry out to thaw. Put the spinach on the stove with a little water and cook, covered, until uniformly dark. In a colander, drain the tofu, and using clean hands, squish it until it resembles ricotta cheese, draining off the liquid. Put the tofu, seasonings and artichoke hearts in a bowl and mash well.

Drain the spinach in the colander. Throw a few handfuls of pine nuts in the bottom of a dry saucepan and cook, stirring for a 5 minutes, or until golden. Add the pine nuts and spinach to the tofu mixture and mix well.

Spread the mixture in the bottom of a glass baking dish. Top with the puff pastry. Smear a little olive oil on top of the puff pastry. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes, or until golden and puffed up on top.

Creole Okra, Tomatoes & Corn

A co-worker of mine brought this to our Mardi Gras potluck, and it was surprisingly delicious. Okra is a vegetable I've always been skeptical of (something about the combination of hairy and slimy that turns me off), but this is genuinely delicious. We served this with Red Beans and Rice Deluxe for a killer combination.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp onion powder
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced mild green chiles, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, juice reserved
1-1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 dash each salt and pepper
1 16-oz. package frozen okra pieces
1 cup frozen corn

Drain the tomatoes and the chiles over a large bowl to catch the juices. Saute the onion powder and garlic in the olive oil until they start to brown, then add the chiles, tomatoes and Cajun seasoning. Cook for 3-5 minutes, then add okra, corn and reserved tomato juice. Cover and cook until heated through and the okra is no longer crunchy.

Spanakopita

Before the unfortunate cholesterol diagnosis, spanakopita was one of our favorite dishes. But it just didn't seem right to try it without the feta and mozzarella. Tonight I overcame my fear and produced something very different from normal spanakopita... but delicious nonetheless.

1 block medium tofu
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 tsp each:
- garlic powder
- nutritional yeast
to taste:
- salt & pepper
- basil
- oregano
- dill
- lemon juice

Drain the tofu well and crumble it with your hands until it's roughly cottage cheese textured. Use a mortar and pestle or food processor to crush the pine nuts, garlic, yeast, salt & pepper into a paste. Add to the tofu along with the basil, oregano, dill and lemon juice and mash with a fork. Taste and adjust seasonings. Let sit for at least 20 minutes (preferably overnight) to let flavors develop. Defrost the phyllo dough.

1 portobello mushroom
2 splashes balsamic vinegar
1 10 oz. bag spinach
1/4 pkg whole wheat phyllo dough
baking spray
olive oil

Thickly slice the mushroom into bite-size pieces. Toss with the vinegar and a little olive oil and cook over medium heat, covered, until tender. Meanwhile, cook the spinach in a large pot with a little water, covered, until reduced but still vibrant green. Drain the spinach well.

Spray a baking dish well. Spread the mushrooms across the bottom and top with half of the tofu. Sprinkle with garlic powder and nutritional yeast, and drizzle with olive oil. Cover with a sheet of phyllo dough. Spray the phyllo with the baking spray. Repeat with 5 more sheets.

Top the phyllo with the spinach and the remaining tofu. Sprinkle with garlic powder and nutritional yeast, and drizzle with olive oil. Cover with a sheet of phyllo dough. Spray the phyllo with the baking spray. Repeat with 5 more sheets.

Bake at 375-400 degrees for 30 minutes, or until the top sheet of phyllo is crisp and golden brown.

Florentine Noodle Casserole

This is adapted from the Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, which I found at the local library this weekend. I left it in the oven far too long, which made it pretty mushy. However, I was blown away by the flavor of the sauce. I've tried other mac-and-cheese-like concoctions, and all of them were pretty gross. This one surprised me. We'll definitely be having it again.

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup Bulk Uncheese Mix
1 Tablespoon white miso
1/2 cup water
1 tsp dried mustard
Tobasco to taste
1 Tbsp lemon juice, or to taste

Mix all of the above in a bowl and blend until very smooth (I used an immersion blender).

10 oz. spinach, washed and drained
4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
8 oz. penne pasta, cooked until al dente

Lay the spinach in the bottom of a glass cooking dish. Mix the pasta and sundried tomatoes together and spread over the spinach. Top with the white bean sauce. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes... just until the sauce heats through. Serve immediately.

Cheese-Free Stuffed Shells w/ Spinach and Portobello Mushroom

This recipe came from the January issue of Vegetarian Times. I modified it slightly, and it turned out marvelously. We happily ate leftovers for several days.

1 batch Tofu Ricotta
1/2 portobello mushroom cap, diced
2/3 jar marinara sauce
1/3 cup vegan mozzarrella cheese
16 jumbo pasta shells

Boil a large pot of salted water. Drop in the shells and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain well. Prepare the tofu ricotta. Saute the mushroom dice in a little water until cooked through. Stir the mushrooms into the tofu ricotta.

Spread a thin layer of marinara sauce in the bottom of a glass pan. Stuff the shells with the ricotta mixture and lay in the pan. Top with more marinara sauce and a sprinkling of cheese.

Cover the pan and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Butternut-Apple Soup w/ Spinach & Sage

Adapted from minutemeals vegetarian.

1/2 cup pine nuts
1 apple, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried sage
2 cups cooked butternut squash (frozen is okay)
most of a bag of fresh spinach leaves
1/3 cup hard apple cider
3 cups veggie broth
salt and pepper to taste
nutritional yeast to taste

Spread the pine nuts in a baking dish. Cook them at 350 degrees until toasted.

Heat the olive oil in the bottom of a soup pot. Add the garlic, sage and apple and cook over medium heat until the garlic is getting golden. Add the squash, broth, cider and seasoning and heat through. Add the spinach leaves and 1 handful pine nuts and stir until wilted but still vibrant green.

Serve soup topped with toasted pine nuts.

Spinach-Mushroom Ravioli

This recipe was based on a free-floating idea I must have came across on the Internet (ravioli made with egg roll wrappers! Fancy that!). When I went back to research it, I found this recipe on the Food Network, which I used as a guide.

1 batch tofu ricotta, with the spinach included
1 package baby bella mushroom caps, chopped
6 egg roll wrappers
1 egg white, mixed with 1 tsp water
1/2 cup marinara sauce

Put the chopped mushrooms in a frying pan with a little water, and cook, covered, over medium-high heat until the mushrooms are cooked through. Drain and add to the tofu ricotta.

Lay out one of the egg roll wrappers on a clean surface. Brush with the egg mixture. Put four teaspoons of the ricotta-mushroom mixture on the wrapper, separated by about an inch. Lay the other egg roll wrapper on top, and press down firmly around the filling. Turn a Mason jar upside down over each filling lump, pressing to seal the edges. Cut into 4 ravioli. Lay on a floured surface and cover with a towel to prevent them drying out. Repeat with the other 4 egg roll wrappers.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Meanwhile, heat the marinara sauce. When the water is boiling, drop 2-3 ravioli in and cook until they float, about 2 minutes. Gently remove the ravioli with a slotted spoon and lay them on a plate, covered, until the ravioli are all done. Top with warm marinara sauce.

Ingredient Note: If you don't want to make the tofu ricotta, you could use low-fat 'normal' ricotta. Just add 1/2 cup chopped cooked spinach and 1 Tbsp garlic powder, and whiz it in a food processor until it's evenly mixed. You'll probably have ricotta-mushroom mixture left over, so save it to make more ravioli with or add it to Zucchini Eggplant Lasagna later in the week.

Storage Note: If you don't cook all the ravioli at once, you can freeze them by putting them on a single layer (not touching) on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Once they're frozen solid, put them in containers or ziploc bags. (If you just throw them all into one bag and stick it in the freezer, they'll stick together and turn into a gummy mess.)