Green Potato Leek Soup with Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 to 3 large leeks, thinly sliced

3 to 4 cloves of garlic, sliced

3 to 4 cups greens, thinly sliced and then chopped up into small short pieces (Here, you can consider using up all the limp celery you didn’t get to in the last weeks, leaves and all! Kale, collards, spinach, turnip or beet greens, chard all will work. Mix and match. This is your chance to clear out the old greens to make space for the new!

2 to 3 potatoes, sliced into 1-inch slices and then cut into half moons (No, I don’t peel my potatoes! But I do make sure they’re organic. If you don’t have access to organic potatoes, maybe it is worth the trouble of peeling them. Potatoes are amongst the heaviest-pesticide-carrying crop in the industrialized agriculture fields.)

salt and pepper to taste

2 to 3 bay leaves

1 to 2 tsp thyme

8 to 10 cups veggie broth (or chicken broth if that’s your jam) If I’m using bouillon cubes, I will use 2 cubes Edward & Sons Not-Chick’n and 2 cubes Garden Veggie.

10 to 12 mushrooms (or more!), sliced in fourths (This is about what you’d find in an 8oz box at the grocery store)

fresh parsley leaves and/or microgreens for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

Place mushrooms in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake in oven at 400 for about 10 minutes, or until beginning brown, sizzle and crisp a little bit.

Heat oil in pan and saute sliced leeks sprinkled with salt and pepper on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Add garlic (and celery, if you’re going with that!) and stir fry for a couple more minutes.

In a pot, add the veggie broth or water and bouillon cubes, bay leaves, thyme, potatoes, greens and your sauteed leek and garlic goodness. Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid and simmer until potatoes are cooked through. Turn off heat when ready.

Now, the quick and easy way to finish up is to get your potato masher (metal please! Don’t stick plastic into your boiling liquid!) and semi-mash your potatoes directly in the soup pot. This leaves you with a soupy/chunky mix that I love to serve topped with croutons and pan-fried veggie italian sausage. Although, doubling the mushrooms is healthier and often filling enough for me to skip the sausage.

Alternatively, and perhaps, more traditionally for a potato-leek soup, you can blend it smooth. An immersion blender works great and you can better control how smooth you want the soup to be. The last method I would suggest, if you love your soup smooth and creamy, is to let it cool a bit, then transfer into your blender. The big blender is faster than the immersion blender, gets it smoother, but takes more patience waiting for the soup to cool enough to transfer to the blender, and then, of course, there’s more clean up because you’re stuck washing the blender. Blend and return to your pot (reheat if necessary) and serve topped with your garnish and mushrooms. The upside of blending to me, is that the kids tend to eat more greens this way. Can’t pick them out if it’s all blended up!

Beet Soup

For the more authentic Classic Polish Borscht (a.k.a. Barszcz) recipe that inspired this post, click here! My version has simplified the process (I didn’t boil the beets whole, then remove half to dice them up, for example…) and includes more of our in-season veggies (gotta get the greens in when you can!).

Sometimes you just need soup on a cold winter day. Other times you just need soup to have a good excuse to eat more bread on a cold winter day. Once in a while, beet soup is just the right thing to nourish your body and brighten up your afternoon. Try it this week!

INGREDIENTS

2 or 3 beets, chopped into small cubes

1 or 2 turnips, chopped into small cubes (optional)

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 or 3 celery stalks, chopped

a couple of handfuls of dried shitake mushroom (or other dried mushrooms)

3 vegetable bouillon cubes (I used Edward & Sons Not-Beef)

and/or (if you’re not going for a vegetarian meal) 1 lb beef bones

8 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

3 bay leaves

2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp marjoram (optional)

1 to 3 cups greens, finely chopped (try using your turnip and beet greens here, and/or spinach and/or kale)

4 to 6 green onions, chopped

3 tbs fresh lemon juice

parsley, cilantro and/or microgreens (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Add all ingredients (except the greens, green onions,lemon juice, parsely, cilantro & microgreens) to a pot with around 12 cups water

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or so, until beets are cooked through.

Add greens and green onions and simmer for 3 to 5 more minutes

Turn off heat and stir in the lemon juice before serving.

Serve with crusty bread or croutons. Garnish with parsley, cilantro and/or microgreens!

Vegan Cashew Cheese

The fact that this recipe exists in my repertoire is due, in part, to our beloved Kooki and the secrets he’s gathered along his life journey and shared with us—one of which is just what makes this vegan cashew “cheese” so superior to other vegan cheese substitutes. He might tell you it’s the ground mustard seed. I, being (not strictly vegan, but still) generally anti-creaminess in many of my foods (read: extremely anti-mayonnaise/ equally anti-sour cream) love this stuff and would credit the beautiful balance between the tofu, cashew and nutritional yeast. Even if you do love the above-mentioned creamy foods, set your love for those aside and give this creamy food a try. I hesitate to call this ‘cheese’ because it really isn’t. It’s in a delicious category of its own and won’t leave you feeling heavy the way other cheeses and wannabee cheeses could. Smother some pasta and veggies with it (which is what I’m thinking to do with my leftover batch and this week’s broccoli and spinach) or use it on vegan pizza or in a vegan lasagna. It’s a project, so get ready, but when I made it last night, it managed to transform my grumpy six-year-old’s complaints that he doesn’t like cauliflower and will NEVER eat it to, and I quote(!), “This is magical, Mom. I love it so much, it makes the cauliflower and sprouts taste so yummy, it’s magical, I love you mom.” Yup. If you have little kids that sometimes refuse to eat their veggies, try it. Ok, here goes:

INGREDIENTS

1 medium onion

3 or 4 cloves garlic (peeled and chopped)

12oz soft or silken tofu (I use the unrefrigerated 12 oz nigari silken tofu boxes available at Sprouts— they keep a long time on the shelf and blend smoothly)

2 cups roasted and salted cashew pieces (½ 16oz bag from trader joes) or 1 cup (about half a jar) cashew butter

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

<½ cup lemon juice (or about 2 limes)

2 tsp ground yellow mustard seed

1tbs ground pepper

1 tsp Paprika

1 tsp turmeric

6 tbs soy sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

Slice up the onion and sauté in little olive oil until translucent and slightly brown.

Add onion and rest of ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth.

Scrape out the sauce and use as you wish! Again, think pizza, lasagna, a dip for raw veggies and more. Last night, we had quinoa-brown rice pasta with steamed cauliflower and spinach, smothered in this cashew sauce and topped with tatsoi microgreens. Magical, remember?!

Refreshing Radish Grapefruit Salad

Alright, I’m excited about this one! I had a collection of radish from the last couple of weeks and I often struggle to get through this healthy root veggie. I had been tending to just drizzle them in olive oil and roast them up with salt and pepper, but deep down my gut (and my reading about the importance of prebiotics to our gut microbiome and overall resilience) tells me that eating them raw gets me the maximum benefits. So, today, I decided to go for it and make a radish-based salad with grapefruit. I think my radish avoidance comes from the idea that the radish taste is overwhelming. However, upon first taste of this salad, I realized that idea is mostly in my head and that the crisp of the radish was quite delicious in this mix. It helps that the grapefruit also has a strong flavor. Plus the nut and spice blend just makes it beautifully flavorful. To my surprise, both my kids also liked the radish doused in the Dukkah nut and spice blend. The grapefruit is a different story! Ok, here’s the simple recipe—

radish (maybe 8 to 10 smallish ones)

grapefruit

lettuce or salad mix

salt

Trader Joe’s Dukkah Nut and Spice Blend (contains almonds, sesame seeds, fennel seeds, coriander, anise seeds & salt)

INSTRUCTIONS

Thinly slice the radish.

Peel and chop the grapefruit.

Toss and sprinkle with a little salt and a generous amount of the Dukkah nut and spice blend.

Serve over a bed of lettuce and enjoy feeling all clean and tangy inside!

Acorn Squash and Mushroom Tacos with Microgreens

Thank you Chicano Soul Food for the inspiration for this recipe. Can’t wait for you to start up again to enjoy your amazing tacos! In the meantime, everyone, make your own tacos and check out this article in which Sergio talks about Chicano Soul Food’s roots.

This flexible recipe is inspired by a recurring craving for the amazing pipian acorn squash tacos served at the Carbon Sink Convergence by Chicano Soul Food. Their pipian salsa (made with tomatillo and pepitas) was earth-shaking for me, as I had never had the opportunity to taste it before. It is southern Mexican deliciousness and my family is full of norteños (much love to all my relatives in Sinaloa and Sonora). This not being tomatillo season, though, I’ll leave the pipian recipe for another day. The simple act of pairing acorn squash with mushrooms in a taco is treat enough (yes, this was also earth-shaking for me!). I don’t see the winter squash pile up in my kitchen anymore wondering what to do with it. Instead, I savor the day I can make some tacos with it! Maybe this week, you too, have a stash of winter squash you haven’t gotten to yet. And maybe you, too, will delight in trying these tacos topped with a fresh bunch of this week’s spicy microgreens mix. Here goes—

INGREDIENTS

1 acorn squash (kabocha would also work here!)

1 box of fresh mushrooms (or more!), try cremini, white button, portabella or shitake

tortillas de maíz (corn tortillas, try La Fe’s corn tortillas—they’re the only affordable non-gmo option that I could find and they hold up well to the fire!)

microgreens (This week’s spicy microgreens mix goes great in a taco!)

your salsa of choice (My current favorite is just crushed chiltepin soaked in lemon and sprinkled generously with salt and pepper. Next on my list, if I’m in a pinch, would be the salsa de molcajete or the green salsa from Murphy’s Market. They get it right!)

INSTRUCTIONS

You can do this two ways—Cut the acorn squash in half, scoop out the seeds, rub with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake until soft. Then you can scoop out the squash to put it in your tacos. This method is less ‘work’ but more time in the oven, and an easy way to leave the skin off for those who prefer not to eat it.

The other way, takes a little more effort, but less time in the oven, gives the squash a chance to crisp and is best if you’re willing to eat the acorn squash skin, which, is full of good-for-you fiber! (Check out this take on which varieties of winter squash skin to eat.) Just slice up the squash into thin slices (maybe 1/2 inch) after scooping out the seeds. Then lay out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Bake at 400 degrees until soft (go longer if you want the crisp!)

Slice up the mushroom (i usually get four slices per mushroom) and put in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in the oven at 400 degrees alongside the squash and bake for about 10 minutes until slightly crisped.

Warm up your corn tortillas and serve up your tacos with the squash, mushrooms, microgreens and salsa of choice (or just a squeeze of lemon)!

Stir-Fried Greens with Apple

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch greens (this week, it could be collards, kale or arugula, but many other greens could work, too!)

3 tbs olive oil

1 cup vegetable or chicken broth

1 large apple or 2 small ones, sliced

4 tbs apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

almonds or other seed or nut of choice (optional!)

INSTRUCTIONS

Rinse slice your greens

Stir fry them in oil for a bit. Sturdier greens like collards, I would do for two full minutes, kale, for just one, spinach even less!

Add broth and apples and stir fry for a tiny bit more.

Add apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Sprinkle with almonds or other seed or nut of choice to give this dish a protein boost and some extra crunch!

Roasted Delicata and Beet Salad

This flexible recipe was inspired by this beautiful one! My modification simplifies it (I don’t see when or why I should remove the skin from my beets!) and suggests orange juice or honey instead of agave nectar for the sweetener.

Use this week’s veggies to make this flexible salad. Here are some ideas for different directions you can take it!

INGREDIENTS

1 delicata squash

1 large beet or a few smaller ones

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup feta cheese or sunflower seeds for a vegan version

salad mix

microgreens

For the Dressing—

1/4 cup red wine or balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dijon mustard (optional)

juice of one orange or 1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp rosemary or thyme or oregano

salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Slice the delicata in half, remove the seeds and then slice into 1/2 inch slices

Slice beet in half and then slice each half into 1/2 inch slices

Put on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkle with salt, pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Roast at 400 degrees until cooked through and slightly crisped.

Toss with salad, feta or sunflower seeds and dressing. Top with microgreens and enjoy!

Parsley Chimichurri

If you’re interested in more detail, here’s a great post with an authentic Argentinian chimichurri recipe and lots of interesting notes.

My first experience with Chimichurri was during a Health and Sustainability fair that my high school students excitedly organized in City Heights. Along with the awesome medicine making, yoga and dance workshops, I always remember our awesome friend and event caterer Fer and her empanadas with chimichurri. I couldn’t get enough! This week’s parsley has inspired a return to that excitement and we’re going to make it with what we’ve got.

INGREDIENTS

1 or 2 cloves of garlic

1 or 2 green onions

1 or 2 cups fresh parsley

1 or 2 tbs dried oregano

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

4 tbs olive oil

2 or 3 tbs red wine vinegar

1 or 2 tbs lemon juice or water

INSTRUCTIONS

Finely chop garlic, green onions and parsley

Mix all dry ingredients

Add vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice (or water) and mix

Let it rest a bit, or not! Goes great with potato, spinach & tofu empanadas (!), roasted veggies (try acorn squash!!), salmon, beef or anything else you dream up!

Vegetarian Menudo Recipe

I know, I know, it’s a stretch, for anyone acquainted with authentic menudo, to believe it can be made vegetarian. For those of you standing in disbelief—disregard the title of this post and let’s just call this a caldo de verduras. For those of you, like me, that have been witness to the wonders of menudo the morning after a long night of New Year’s Eve partying…but just happen to have made the choice to stick to a vegetarian diet, try this nourishing soup and call it what you want! A special thank you to my Tia Carolina and her audacious friend that invented a recipe and called it veggie menudo. Prior to her sharing it, I, too, thought it impossible. I’d always just stuck to veggie pozole. They aren’t that different, given the absence of meats that differentiate the traditional versions. To fulfill my own crazy need for categories, I’m reserving the cabbage and radish toppings for my veggie pozole. So, here is my version of veggie menudo, using this week’s in-season veggies. If you’d rather make the “real thing”, here’s a recipe for you.

Ingredients:

For the soup—

1 large onion, chopped

8 cloves garlic, chopped

1 handful celery tops

2 big handfuls dried shitake mushrooms (we buy these at our local Vietnamese grocery store)

2 tbs dried oregano

1 tsp lemon pepper

1 tsp dried chile flakes (optional)

6 small carrots or 3 large ones, sliced

1/2 head of Napa cabbage, sliced

1 cup spinach, sliced

6 cups hominy OR 1 large yucca root, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch slices (yes, I know this isn’t traditional but it saved me a trip to the grocery store and it did the trick!)

radish microgreens

lemon

tortillas de maíz

For the sauce— (mind you, this step is optional, if you’re ok with less work and a lighter broth or just spicing it up with chile flakes. Yes, I used chiltepin! On the other hand, if you want to go for it, you can make lots and then use the leftover sauce to make enchiladas another day)

6 guajillo (dried) peppers

1 tsp cumin

1 cup broth (from your menudo pot)

3 cloves garlic

Instructions:

Set aside a little bit of onion for garnish and sauté the rest of the onion in a pan with a little olive oil until translucent and a tiny bit browned.

Add the garlic and celery leaves and dried mushrooms with a little more olive oil and sauté for another minute

In a pot, add about 10 cups water along with the sautéed onions, garlic and celery leaves, 4 cubes veggie broth (this time, I used two “Not Beef” cubes, one “Not Chicken” and one “Garden Veggie” cube from Edward & Sons), oregano, lemon pepper and optional chile.

Once it’s boiling, add your veggies and the cooked hominy or yucca root.

If you’re going for the sauce, too, here’s what to do:

Toast the guajillo peppers in a pan

Break or slice the peppers and soak them in a bowl with broth from the soup until soft (maybe 10 minutes). Press them down into the broth so they soak thoroughly and put a lid on the bowl to keep the heat in and speed up the process.

Then blend them in the blender along with the broth, cumin and garlic.

Serve your menudo topped with radish microgreens, a squeeze of lemon, sauce to taste and a warm tortilla on the side.

Chard Carrot and Potato Dal

Chard is a powerful, nutrient dense green—standing out for its vitamin K content, lots of vitamins A C and E, iron and calcium. It’s known as anti-inflammatory to promote heart health and regulate blood sugar.

Thanks to Kelli Mcgrane for the recipe that informed this post. I have tweaked it a bit, doubling her original recipe, simplifying the steps a bit and changing the order so the greens don’t cook as long. Finally, this version has more liquid because any kind of dal makes me crave the first course served at Taste of the Himalayas, which is simply soupy and delicious. What better way to eat lots of chard?

Serves 6

Ingredients

4 tbs oil (try 1 tbs sesame and 1 tbs olive or coconut oil)

6 cloves garlic , peeled and chopped

3 inch piece of ginger, chopped or grated

2 tbs ground cumin

1 tbs paprika

1 tbs ground turmeric

1 tbs salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 large or 2 medium onions, finely chopped

4 to 6 carrots, sliced

1 bunch swiss chard, chopped

4 small or 2 large potatoes (try gold or red potatoes!), chopped into large cubes

1 cup red lentils

6 cups water

1 cube veggie bouillon

pea shoots or microgreens

Instructions:

Heat oil in a pan. Add spices and cook for 30 seconds.

Add onion and garlic and cook until onions are translucent.

Add carrots and cook until they start to crisp (maybe 6 minutes)

Add potatoes, water and veggie bouillon and bring to a boil. Then simmer for about 20 minutes until lentils and potatoes are cooked. Add chard and cook for a couple more minutes.

Serve hot and enjoy. Goes well with a side of rice and topped with microgreens or pea shoots!