Pad Thai-Inspired Yummy Noodles-With-What-We-Got

We’ve tried growing pea shoots year round, but it’s this in this change to the cool season that they are the happiest! Just look at how beautiful they grew this week.

The cool season is here, I have to admit it. Even with the current warmth brought by the latest Santa Ana winds (that my bones jump to absorb!), you can feel the change in the crisp cool of the evening air. I’ve been grappling with my ritual conflicting feelings with this yearly season change. I must fend off the blues that come with thinking that I won’t be running into the warm ocean waves for many moons. I counter those feelings by looking ahead at the beauty of the rains to come AND the yummy cool season veggies that remind me that even in the cold of winter, life flourishes. One of these cool season veggies that we grow and my kids love are pea shoots! And what better to do with pea shoots than a makeshift Pad Thai-inspired dish that uses lots of what we’ve got. I should mention, staples in our house are peanut butter, miso paste, rice noodles and tamarind paste. I use Aunt Patty’s Tamarind Paste, which I can usually find at Sprouts. I love it because I don’t have to spend a bunch of time picking seeds out. I should also mention that this is by no means meant to rival or replace the authentic pad thai dish that we all love so much! If you’re interested in some invaluable tips (including a few key ingredients to add to your shopping list) for making that at home, check out this Edible San Diego article by Chef Fern Tran on Master Thai Take Out Recipes at Home.

Ok here’s this week’s quick recipe—

Ingredients:

3 carrots, grated into long thin strips with a potato peeler

1 bunch green onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

3 tbs tamarind sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tbs molasses or 4 tbs brown sugar and/or juice of 2 oranges (or some combination thereof depending on what’s around and the call of your sweet tooth…)

1 or 2 tbs peanut butter

1 heaping tbs miso paste

1 heaping tbs chile (again, use what you’ve got—dry or fresh, maybe chili paste or even Sriracha. I tend to grab the chiltepin for most chile-related matters)

1 or 2 boxes of tofu (depending on how many hungry mouths you’re feeding…my two kids are tofu-eating-monsters sometimes and could easily finish a whole box themselves)

1 package rice noodles (around 14 oz)

1 box pea shoots (or bean sprouts, of course, but I highly recommend the pea shoots here!)

cilantro (another cool season ‘weed’ once it’s established in your yard) if you’ve got it

1/2 bunch of kale (and/or cabbage), chopped into fine strips

1 cup peanuts (chopped or crushed)

lemon or lime to taste

Instructions:

Prepare rice noodles as directed on package, drain, toss with the tiniest bit of sesame oil and set aside.

In a sauce pan, stir fry green onions and garlic in a spoonful or two of sesame oil.

Add tofu and stir fry a bit more (the aim here is just to warm the tofu up)

Add tamarind paste, sweetener (this your choice blend of orange juice, molasses and/or brown sugar), soy sauce, peanut butter and chile (optional, if you want it all spicy—with kids, I keep the chile on the side so people can spice up their plate individually) and mix over heat for a couple of minutes. You probably want to add a little water here to make a nice thin sauce and get everything blended up, especially if you didn’t add the orange juice.

Turn off heat and add miso (this keeps the probiotic goodness of the miso alive)

Add rice noodles, pea shoots, kale, carrots and toss to coat

Top with chopped cilantro and peanuts and chile (if you didn’t add it in before) and a squeeze of lemon or lime

Enjoy!

Simple (and Fancy!) Eggplant Dip

Inspired by this Eggplant “Caviar” Recipe, I’ve upped the herbs and vinegar and added cherry tomatoes to make this warming (roasted eggplant) and, at the same time, refreshing (fresh herbs and tomato) dip. Serve it with toasted bread or crackers. If you go with a few seedy Norwegian Crispbread Crackers (because, they pack the protein), I’d say it counts as a meal.

It’s been a stretch for me to get creative with my eggplant recipes, although I have posted a couple. Nothing beats a batch of vegan lasagna (I gotta post that recipe soon!) when I’ve got eggplant around, but that’s a lot of work. Simply sliced and roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper is also delicious but, for some reason, I don’t feel it’s enough of a “dish” for company (just a comfort food for me!). Beyond that, I just don’t love babaganoush…but THIS dip turned out to be filling, refreshing and deliciously ‘visitor-worthy’. Even though we don’t have many visitors these days, it’s nice to have a simple recipe for a ‘fancy’, healthy (not fried!) dish for us to enjoy at home (with a glass of red wine, maybe…). Ok, here it is:

Ingredients:

2 medium italian eggplants or 1 large one (or 3 to 4 asian eggplants)

½ an onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Large handful basil or parsley, chopped

8 cherry tomatoes, chopped in fourths

1 tbs red wine vinegar

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste 

Instructions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees. 

Stab the eggplant with a fork several times on all sides, then put on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper and roast until very tender (about an hour for a large Italian eggplant, check sooner, after 20 minutes, if using a smaller or more narrow variety of eggplant). 

Saute the onion over medium heat for a few minutes, then add the garlic and saute a couple more minutes. 

When eggplant is ready, take it out of oven and let cool a bit. Cut it in half lengthwise and scrape out the flesh and finely chop before putting in a bowl.

Add the sauteed onions and garlic along with the tomatoes, herbs (basil or parsley), red wine vinegar, oil, salt and pepper to the bowl and mix.

Serve with toasted bread or crackers. Again, if you go with a few seedy Norwegian Crispbread Crackers (because, they pack the protein), I’d say it counts as a meal!

Cheese Squash Soup with Collards and Fried Pear

This recipe is inspired by this Sage and Apple Soup NYT Recipe, but I’ve slightly modified it to better use what’s in season and in our box this week.

Here goes!

Ingredients:

1 long island cheese squash (any other winter squash could also do!), cut in half

1 onion

6 cups veggie broth

12 sage leaves (good excuse to go on a hike and harvest a few!)

a few collard leaves, finely chopped

1 cup olive oil

2 pears

salt and pepper to taste

microgreens

Instructions:

1. Remove seeds from squash (clean and set aside to roast for a yummy snack!)

2. Rub open face of squash with olive oil, sprinkle with salt. Place on a baking sheet and cover with foil. Bake at 400 for 30 to 45 minutes, or until soft.

3. Chop onion and saute with a bit of olive oil then set aside.

4. Add rest of oil and fry sage leaves for about 8 seconds, then remove leaves and set aside on a plate lined with a paper towel.

5. Add the pumpkin seeds to the sage-infused oil and for about 20 seconds or until they look toasted. When ready, remove the seeds from the oil and place on a plate lined with a paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

6. Once squash is cooked, scoop out the meat and put in a large pot if you have an immersion blender or place in regular blender with some veggie broth, onion and 1 sliced pear. Blend then cook in the large pot with rest of veggie broth, collards and a spoonful or two of the leftover sage-infused oil for about 10 minutes.

7. Saute rest of pear slices for a few minutes in the last bit of sage-infused oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

8. Serve up the soup! Add the fried pear, squash seeds and microgreens as toppings.

Long Island Cheese Squash is a winter squash named after its shape that resembles a wheel of cheese. If you have the space, buy or save a few seeds to try growing this beautiful pumpkin next year!

My Mom's Colache Recipe

Colache is a comfort food in our family. It’s what you do when you have a calabacita (zucchini or other summer squash) that’s really big, or your harvest is just so abundant…in short, it’s a great way to use up your summer squash. My mom just moved in with us and my kids are so lucky to have their abuelita around to play, teach and make yummy food. I am so lucky that she’s embracing retirement and spending her time with us. For the first time in my almost forty (!) years, I am getting her to write down some of her recipes for me. Here’s the first:

3 medium zucchini or other summer squash (or 4 smaller ones, or one HUGE one…), grated

1 tomato, chopped

1/2 - 1 cup chopped onion

1 chile (anaheim, or bell pepper if you don’t want it to be spicy), finely chopped (you can also skip the chile entirely to make it more kid-friendly!)

4 tbs olive oil

2 garlic cloves

2 cups corn (optional)

1 cup queso fresco, crumbled or grated (optional)

1 cup water

2 cubes veggie bouillon

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes.

Add tomato and chile and saute for a couple more minutes

Add water, bouillon cubes, corn and grated zucchini or other summer squash and cook over low medium-low heat for a few more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and top with queso fresco, if you like.

Cover and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Spaghetti Squash and Kale Veggie Balls

Here’s a simplified and slightly modified version of this Savory Almond Flour Veggie Ball recipe that uses this week’s spaghetti squash and kale. The kids and I love spaghetti squash in our veggie balls, so I thought this variation is worth sharing. Here is a super simple version that is great for little ones.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 spaghetti squash (cooked—You can slice it in half lengthwise and cook it face-down with a little olive oil on a cast iron pan, or place in the oven at about 400 degrees face up on a baking sheet with a little olive oil rubbed on the open face and cover with foil for faster cook time, around 30 minutes)

3 kale leaves, finely chopped

3/4 cup almond flour (You can get creative here and experiment with equal parts almond, quinoa flour and/or cassava flour)

1 cube veggie bouillon

1 tsp salt

1 tbs italian herb mix (or simply oregano and thyme)

1 tbs paprika

1 egg

about 1 cup dry oatmeal

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Mix and mash all ingredients except the dry oatmeal. 

2. Work in dry oatmeal until consistency of dough is firm. 

3. Form 1 ½ inch balls.

4. Drop them into boiling water or your favorite soup (ours is tomato!) and boil for 10 minutes. 

Makes about 12-16 veggie balls.

Enjoy!

Zucchini (a.k.a. Calabacita) at its Simplest and Most Exquisite

So, every now and then I feel the need to give a shout out to the person who brought a certain dish into my life. Ok, quite often, I feel this. All of my favorite foods have a person tied to them, so many come from moments of awe that something so simple could taste so revolutionarily delicious and nourishing—Rich invented the avocado tacos for me, Marta served up the best steamed broccoli…and this zucchini recipe comes with a big thank you to Ramon, aka Moncho. I am sure he will smile proudly and think I’m a little crazy for crediting him for this. He’s a big meat eater and is always a little stressed, I think, when he invites us over dinner and feels the need to create veggie options. But I do think he is one of my prime examples that it’s the love that goes into the food that makes it amazing. And sometimes, the simpler the dish, the more love it can freely gush out at you. So, here is the simplest and most exquisite calabacita recipe:

Ingredients:

Zucchini

Salt

Pepper (or lemon pepper)

Olive oil

Instructions:

Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise.

In a pan (cast iron is best!) pour a little olive oil and spread it around.

Place the zucchini open face down on the pan.

Cover the pan and let cook for a few minutes.

Flip the zucchini over so the open face is up and add salt and pepper (or lemon-pepper) once the open face is slightly charred and the zucchini is nearly cooked. It’s up to you how well-cooked you like it. If you are happy with the level of crisp on the open face, but would like it to soften up a bit more, add little water after flipping it and cover to cook further. The more you cook it, the softer the zucchini will get. Of course, zucchini can be eaten raw, so there’s not minimum cook time.

That’s it! Serve immediately, alone or as a side. I often make this a quick lunch by serving it with refried beans.

Agua de Melon (Cantaloupe Water)

Cantaloupe!

Few things remind me of my dad growing up like Agua de Melon…ok, lots of things, but this is one close to my heart. Nobody could make agua de melon as good as my dad. He also made agua de sandia (watermelon) and his favorite one to talk about was agua de tomate (yea, tomato). But my favorite is still this one—Agua de Melon. It’s so simple, but so amazing.

Here’s the recipe:

Canary Melon

1/2 a melon, cut into cubes with the peel removed (any other type of melon also works)

juice of 4 or 5 limes (or two large lemons)

water (enough to fill the blender)

a shake of salt

Instructions:

Put all ingredients into blender and blend. Some people strain, but we never did. Once well blended, pour into a pitcher and add more water if you like it less thick. It is important, for maximum deliciousness, to make this on a hot day and put in the refrigerator until it gets very cold. Then pour a big glass and enjoy.

Pesto!

This pesto recipe is might be close to traditional, but I tried to build in some flexibility. The deviations from more traditional recipes are because I like my pesto extra nutty and prefer the vegan option.

Ingredients:

1 cup basil (tightly packed)

2 garlic cloves

1/3 cup pine nuts (traditional, delicious but expensive!!), pistachios (not traditional, but still kinda pricey!) or sunflower seeds (saves you some $)

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil (or more, depending on your preference)

1/8 cup nutritional yeast (this is the vegan option!) or parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp salt

Makes 1 cup.

Instructions:

There are a few ways to do this.

Method 1: To destress (if you’re not in a hurry!) get your molcajete out (your mortar and pestle for those of you not familiar with the Spanish term with Nahuatl roots) and put your strength into grinding. I recommend you do the garlic first, then your nuts or seeds of choice, and add the basil last, a little bit at a time. Your setting yourself up for frustration if you pile the basil in—it’s just a lot harder to grind so many layers of leaves at a time. For me, it’s unsatisfying! But if you add two or three leaves at a time, you can really take pleasure in the meditative transformation of the beautiful leaves into a bright paste. After the garlic, nuts or seeds and basil is ground, scrape it out into a dish and then add the salt, nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese and, finally, the olive oil. This is where you decide how thick to make your pesto. If you don’t want it so think, add more oil.

Method 2: Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Or, put it in a slightly oversized dish (like a 2-cup pyrex container, for example) and use the immersion blender directly in the dish. This is not the fastest, but by far, the easiest clean up if you can manage to keep the immersion blender immersed below the level of olive oil so that it doesn’t spray everywhere when you start to blend.

Final tip: It took me a long time to assimilate our italian roommate’s discovery that the way to mess up pesto is by adding too much garlic. I love garlic so that was hard to hear. I think he’s right though because the power of raw garlic can easily overwhelm. (This from a person who’s mouth waters at the thought of taking a bite of the fresh whole garlic clove!) So, the tip is—When in doubt, add less garlic.

Serve with pasta, in place of tomato sauce on pizza, or over soup—our family favorite (Thanks, Tio Kooki for this!) white bean pesto soup (I’ll post that recipe soon!).

Honey Citrus Roasted Sheet Pan Dinner

Click here for the original inspiration for this recipe.

Inspired by this Salmon Sheet Pan recipe, I am taking this quick and easy (and beautiful) recipe and simplifying it to be quicker, easier and more flexible. Oh, and maybe even better for you since I’m cutting the honey in half and replacing some of the sweetness with orange juice. If you have the time and ingredients, I recommend you try the original recipe linked above. If you’re feeling like me, this week, thinking “a glaze AND a marinade—there’s no time for that around here”…then maybe you’ll want to try this one better. You can adjust proportions of ingredients based on your preference or what you have around.

Ingredients:

to roast—-

bok choy (whole if it’s small enough, chopped into big pieces if you’ve got a large one)

bell pepper (seeds removed and sliced into wedges)

cherry tomatoes (whole or cut in half)

onion (green onions roughly sliced or any other kind, chopped into wedges)

protein of choice (the original calls for salmon, tofu, tempeh or, even more exciting, a combination of mushrooms and cashews are good vegetarian substitutes)

the marinade/glaze—-

1/8 cup honey

zest and juice of 1 orange

4 tbs freshly squeezed lime juice (and the zest of one lime)

1/4 soy sauce

3 cloves garlic (pressed or finely chopped)

3 tbs oil (try roasted sesame oil or olive oil)

pepper to taste

sesame seeds

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Line a baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper.

Mix marinade ingredients in a cup.

In a large bowl, toss the veggies with half of the glaze mix, then arrange in a layer on the lined baking sheet.

Place the protein on top of the layer of veggies and drizzle with 1/4 of the glaze.

Bake for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how long your protein needs to cook (mushrooms are usually done in 10 minutes, tofu is safe to eat undercooked so it just depends on how crispy you want it, but maybe the salmon doesn’t have that flexibility) and how well-cooked you like your vegetables.

Save the last 1/4 of the glaze and add it as you pull it out of the oven just before serving.

Pico de Gallo Fresh and Simple Salsa Recipe

The freshest, most simple salsa recipe—pico de gallo (some also call it Salsa Bandera because, you know, red-green-white are the colors on the Mexican flag). I’m no flag waver of any kind, but I do love the tasty simplicity of this mix: Tomato, onion, chile, cilantro and lime. It brings so many dishes to life—a bowl of frijol de la olla (just fresh cooked beans in its own broth), a quesadilla, pretty much any taco or tostada, oh and nopales and verdolagas! And of course, all of the above-mentioned dishes look and taste great with a sprinkle of microgreens. There’s nothing like the raw goodness of this rainbow of fresh fruits and veggies to keep you healthy. The raw onion alone has so many medicinal properties!

So, here’s the basic recipe for a good-sized batch. Proportions can definitely be adjusted to your personal preference—

Ingredients:

1 lb tomato, diced (any kind will do! This could be roughly 1 large tomato, or 3 roma tomatoes or 1 dozen cherry tomatoes)

1 onion, diced (white is most traditional, but yellow, red or green onions could work, too!)

1 to 3 jalapeño or serrano chiles, finely chopped (you decide how spicy)

1/3 cup cilantro, chopped (I love it, but if you got someone with that weird cilantro-tastes-like-soap gene, you can leave it out or substitute with a handful of fresh oregano, maybe even parsley but that’s a big step away from Mexico and into Greece, I think!)

1 to 2 limes or lemon (the more you put, the better it keeps)

salt to taste

This fresh salsa has the best texture if eaten that same day but will keep just fine for a couple of days in the fridge.