Sweet Iced Tea

Iced tea is one of the simplest and most delicious drinks you can make, at any time during the year. It's tasty and thirst-quenching and mixes well with liquor (if you feel so inclined). When we make it, we'll fill several jars in one go so that we have it on hand for the next week. Yes, it only seems to last a short while before you have to make more. But really, don't you have 5 minutes to spare?

The three smaller jars are our 1L mason jars, the extra large one is 2L and fits two pots of tea

Ingredients

1 L of water
1 1/2 tsp tea leaves or 3 tea bags
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Preparation

Brew the tea as you normally would. I usually brew teas for 3 minutes maximum (unless it's herbal, in which case leave it as long as you like) and usually a little less if the tea is prone to bitter, such as white and green teas. Use fairly hot water for black tea, herbal, mate and rooibos, around 98° C. If you have a thermometer, you can use it now, but if not, just wait a minute after the kettle boils before pouring the tea in. For green and white tea, wait several minutes, until the water cools to around 74° C, and perhaps brew it for a little less than 3 minutes. About 1 L of water fits in a large, 3 cup teapot, which in turn fits in a large mason jar, the kind that pasta sauce often comes in.

Pour the brewed tea into the jar you will be storing it in, then add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice. These measurements make a sweet-but-not-too-sweet iced tea, with a pleasant acidity. You can adjust the proportions to your taste.

Stir your concoction with a chopstick or other stirring utensil, then let it cool a bit.

Refrigerate until cool, which will take several hours. If you're in a rush, fill your glass with ice, then slowly pour the tea over it.

Drink up!

Japanese Sprouted Salad

       I've always enjoyed that mysterious orange dressing that you get at Japanese restaurants. I looked around trying to find some similar recipes, and out of the few I rounded up, I created this yummy salad. Quite a bit more complex than the average sushi restaurant green salad.  This salad uses some of my favourite vegetables and incorporates some lovely sprouts! I've listed below what vegetables I've used to make this particular bowl, but feel free to use whichever vegetables you want. As for the main green, a crunchy lettuce, such as iceberg, as bland as it may be, goes perfectly with this zesty sauce.

Dressing

Makes about 1 1/2 cups of dressing, slightly more than you will need for one head of iceberg

Ingredients

• 1 5-6" piece of ginger root, peeled 
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp white onion
• 1 small clove of garlic or 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1-3 Tbsp water
• 1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil
• 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste 
• 1 Tbsp honey

Preparation

1. Roughly chop the ginger root.
2. Add all ingredients into a blender or food processor, start with only 1 Tbsp of water, and add more to thin out the dressing if desired. 
3. Blend until smooth.
4. If you add too much water and want to make it a bit thicker, add some more ginger and tomato paste.
5. Taste, add a bit of salt or more soy sauce if needed.
6. Transfer dressing to a mason jar, and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Salad

Ingredients

• 1 head of iceberg lettuce, cut or ripped to size
• Handful of washed fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 cup fresh sprouts
• 5 spears of asparagus, shaved or cut thinly
• 1/4 cucumber, julienned
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced thinly 
• 1 medium carrot, shaved or julienned
• 2-3 green onions, greens chopped
• 
  
• 1 avocado, sliced or cubed
• toasted sesame seeds

Preparation

The first two ingredients in this salad are the most important. The crunch of the iceberg and the fresh citrus notes of the cilantro are a must. As for the rest of the ingredients, feel free to take some creative liberty when dressing your salad. 
Combine first set of ingredients in a bowl and mix. 
Add the avocado before dressing/serving and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

This salad is perfect along side a stir fry, some home-made sushi or spring rolls. Yum!

Vegetarian Cabbage Pie

I know, the idea of cabbage pie seems a bit odd, but believe me, the end product is scrumptious. 
Sautéing the cabbage at a low temperature brings out its natural sweetness and richness. Complemented with a hearty whole wheat crust, this fiber packed pie is a great homey main. A comfort food packed with yummy goodness.


Total Time: 1h, 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
Cook: 400°F

Basic Whole-Wheat Pie Crust

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour (or half white mix)
pinch of salt
1/2 cold margarine
3-4 tbsp ice water

Preparation

Sift flour and salt into a deep bowl.
Add cold margarine, cut into small bits and cut into flour with two knives until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
Stir in ice water with a fork and mix until dough forms a ball.
Turn onto a floured board and knead briefly.
Form into two balls, flatten with the palm of your hand and wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Cabbage Pie Filling

Ingredients

1 large onion, diced
1 medium green cabbage, thinly sliced
olive oil to sauté
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2-4 tsp herbs, such as basil, thyme, oregano, etc.
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper, to taste
3 tbsp flour2/3 cup daiya cheese (optional)
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F.
In a large pot or Dutch oven, sauté onions olive oil for 2 minutes, add garlic and sauté an additional minute. Add cabbage, stir and sauté covered, stirring often until wilted, about 10-15 minutes.
When cabbage beings to soften up and shrink down, add herbs, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper. 
Continue sautéing until cabbage is cooked, about 15-20 more minutes, stirring often. 
Meanwhile, roll out dough on a floured surface and line 9" glass pie plate with the bottom dough, saving the remainder for the top of the pie. 
After 15-20 minutes sprinkle cabbage with flour and stir to combine, let cook an additional 5 minutes, tasting and adjusting seasoning appropriately. 
Remove Dutch oven from heat and mix in cheese.
Pour filling into the pie shell, mounding the cabbage in the middle. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the cabbage filling. Roll out the remaining dough to cover the pie. Crimp edges closed and prick top with a fork or knife.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden.
Let cool at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Serve along side potatoes and another veg, or just enjoy it by itself.

Enjoy! -K

Spring Sprouts!

12 hours

24 hours

36 hours

48 hours

60 hours

72 hours

84 hours

96 hours: Lunch Time!

With Spring fast approaching, its a great time to start sprouting. My currents favourites include alfalfa and chickpeas, but other varieties that are easy to grow sprouts include: fenugreek, radish, broccoli, mung beans, cabbage, mustard seeds, quinoa, lentils and pea sprouts.   

Sprouts are great on sandwiches or in salads. They taste great and they're good for you. Sprouts can be very expensive, and by growing them yourself, you can cut the costs and achieve fresher sprouts any time of year. 

My favourite sprouting method is growing sprouts in mason jars. To grow sprouts in mason jars, you will need a large glass jar, cheese cloth of mesh, an elastic, a drying rack, colander or large bowl to drain water. 

Soaking over night

Rinsed than left to drain

24 hours

To start sprouting, soak your seeds 2-4 times the amount of water, and let soak over night. In the morning, drain out the water, rinse, drain and let dry on an angle by a window. 

Rinse and drain sprouts twice daily, before bed, and in the morning works well. Harvest your sprouts within 3-7 days depending on the seed. 

Alfalfa can be ready to eat around 4 days, were as chickpeas takes even less time. For most sprouts, continue sprouting until they develop a long tail with a few green leaves. For some sprouts, such as chickpeas, quinoa, pea sprouts and mung beans and lentis, they can be eaten as soon as their tail emerges.  That being said, longer tails are commonly preferred for salads and some other raw dishes.
When these babies are ready, eat them or stick them in the fridge and keep refrigerated for up to 7 days.

Vegetable Lasagna

Wow! Am I ever stuffed. This is the best lasagna. There is something very appealing about having a lasagna that is not dripping with cheesy grease, yuck. This was my first time making a vegan lasagna, although I've made many non-vegan lasagnas with my family as well as vegan cannelloni. I was actually planning on doing manicotti with a zucchini wrapper, but Ryan wanted lasagna, so here we are! 
This lasagna has a great structure. I was surprised when I picked it up with the spatula and it didn't fall to pieces like so many lasagnas do. The reason it's so sturdy is most likely because we used both lasagna pasta and strips of zucchini, which we laid perpendicular to one another. Because we only added cheese on top, there were also no greasy layers for the pasta to slip off of. This is definitely a healthy lasagna. Layered with vegetables and tofu, it's lower in saturated fats, as well as calories and sodium, although it's probably more filling than other (non-vegan) lasagnas.

If you are not vegan and want to make this cheesier, you would be able to replace half the tofu with ricotta, just mix it in after the kale has wilted down or you could replace the Daiya on top with a nice goat cheese (which complements the flavours of the lasagna well) or with one of your favourite cheeses.

Serves: 8
Bake at: 375°F

Ingredients

13-15 sheets oven-ready lasagna noodles (less than a full box)
1 zucchini, cut lengthwise thinly with a mandolin
~2/3 cup Daiya vegan cheese
1 large portabello mushroom, 1/4" slices (optional)

1 brick of tofu, rinsed
1-2 cloves minced garlic
olive oil for frying
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 a bunch of kale (or 1 bag of baby spinach)
2/3 cup of water
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste

1 large onion, medium dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium red pepper, large dice
6 crimini mushrooms, sliced 
1 16 oz can tomato chunks, in juice
1 jar (650ml, just less that 3 cups) of your favourite spaghetti sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

In a shallow frying pan, simmer garlic on medium-low heat in olive oil until fragrant. 
Crumble tofu into frying pan so that it resembles ricotta cheese, and season with soy sauce and herbs.
Stir as needed to not overly brown the tofu.

Meanwhile in a large sauce pan on medium heat, sautée onions in olive oil for 2 minutes, then add mushrooms and garlic, then sautée until the mushrooms begin to brown.
Next add diced red pepper and let sautée for an additional 5 minutes before adding the tomatoes and tomato sauce.
Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10-20 minutes.
Taste and add pepper and salt if needed.

De-stem and wash kale, then dice. Add kale to tofu filling with about 2/3 of a cup of warm water. Cover and let steam. 
The water at this step is needed to help cook the oven-ready pasta noodles. Don't worry, the end product will not be watery.
When the kale is ready, uncover, and take off heat.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

In a 9x13" pyrex dish, ladle in 1/2-1 cup sauce to cover bottom.
Layer in the first set of pasta noodles, make sure to not overlap them. 
Next add a layer of sliced zucchini, overlapping slightly. Lay the zucchini slices in the opposite direction of the pasta noodles, perpendicular to them. 
Ladle on a substantial amount of pasta sauce, about half of what is left, so that there is a thick layer of sauce.
Next, layer the second set of pasta noodles. 
On top of the noodles, add the entire tofu filling, evening it out.
Then add a second layer of zucchini slices, in the same manner as the first.
Add the third and final layer of pasta noodles.
If you have enough room, you can add another layer of zucchini here, if not skip this step.
Ladle on the rest of the sauce to cover the noodles or the zucchini.
Sprinkle on the cheese, adding more or less as desired.
Distribute the portabello slices on top of the cheeses (this will stop most of the cheese from sticking to the aluminum foil).
Cover the dish with aluminum foil, puncture a hole in the middle with a fork and form a tent in the foil.
Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes.
Remove foil, then bake for an additional 20-30 minutes.
Remove from oven and test pasta with a fork.
Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Serve with Ryan's No-Knead Bread.

Hope you enjoy! We did!

Snow Pea and Sunflower Seed Pesto

I made recipe the other night and it turned out extra yummy. I wanted something different, something nutty. So, working off a basic pesto recipe, I made a snow pea, oregano and sunflower seed pesto and served it on gnocchi. Definitely not your usual Monday night pasta dish.
We only made one package of gnocchi, but we also had the pesto for leftovers with fettuccine  so there is enough pesto here for around 4 servings, depending on how much sauce you like. I added a tablespoon of pumpkin seed butter to round out the protein in the dish since it's a complete protein source, and it is also high in iron and a source of antioxidants. Sunflower seeds are also an excellent source of essential fatty acids, especially omega-6 fatty acids. So yay us on getting in some yummy extra nutrients. You guys might not really care what nutrients are in what, but nutrition is a passion of mine, so I have a tendency to think about my ingredients nutrient wise when I am cooking with them. Knowledge doesn't hurt, right?


Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 packages of gnocchi, or pasta for 4
1/2 cup roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds
optional-1 Tbsp pumpkin seed butter
2-3 cloves garlic
2 cup snow peas, washed
1 Tbsp packed fresh oregano (or thyme)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, the good stuff
Fresh ground pepper and sea salt to taste

Preparation

Toast the seeds until they smell toasty in a frying pan on medium heat.

Transfer toasted nuts and to a food processor. And pulse until crumbly.

Add pumpkin seed butter and pulse again until combined. 

Blanch snow peas in boiling water for around 15 seconds.

Add blanched snow peas, oregano, and salt and water to the blender and puree until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.

Add the olive oil and mix until well combined, then add the nutritional yeast and the lemon juice and mix again.
If you desire a thinner product, add more water or olive oil, and mix well.
Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook gnocchi as directed on package. 
Drain when cooked(don’t rinse, it needs the starch to stick), and sauce with pesto.

Enjoy

Summer Rolls

Also known as garden rolls or spring rolls, the un-fried variety, this appetiser is not only fun to make, but it's tasty too! This dish is great made ahead for parties, but the fresher the rolls the better. I've made the dish numerous times, both with family, or by myself while watching a corny movie or a cooking show. 
Garden rolls are all about what's inside, never use canned or frozen vegetables, all the vegetables should be fresh, but there are quite a few different varieties of vegetables that you can chose from. In the recipe below, I've included some of my favourites, but you can leave out ingredients that your supermarket doesn't have or that you dislike, or add in veggies you love. So you don't like tofu? Leave it out! Half the time I'm too lazy to prepare the tofu any ways,  but if you're marinating tofu for dinner, you might as well include it. Other popular ingredients include zucchini, red or green pepper, black or white fungus, lettuce, red cabbage....and the list goes on.
Perfect for the summer because there is no frying or baking involved, just cutting and rolling, but also great whenever you want to bring a a fresh note to a Thai meal or need an appetizer for a dinner party.

Serves: 8 rolls

 

Ingredients

8 sheets large rice paper rounds

fresh cilantro, Thai basil and/or mint
1 small green onion, just the greens, sliced lengthwise, 1-2mm thick
1/4 cuccombre, julienned
1 small carrot, fine julienne or shaved
2 large handfuls of bean sprouts
2 large handfuls of snow peas
half a package of enoki mushrooms
handful of greens (such as lettuce, or swiss chard greens used here)
1/4 yellow pepper, julienned
16 pieces of tofu (~1/4 of a brick), cut à l'alumette (about the size of your pinky finger), marinated 
Glass noodles, one small sachet, or 1 cup cooked.

Sauce to serve, such as sweet thai chilli or vegetarian hoisin sauce

Preparation

Marinate the tofu as needed, I followed the Marinated Tofu Recipe.
Wash all vegetables and cut appropriately.
Cook glass noodles until aldente, drain and set aside.
Wash counter or table and arrange all items around your work area.
Fill a large pan or dish with warm water to soak the rice paper.
One at a time, soak rice paper for about 15 seconds, then transfer to clean work area.
Layer on the vegetables, starting with the herbs and greens and finishing with the glass noodles, leaving at least an inch at each end.
To close, fold each end up over the vegetables, then fold over the one side. Be gentle, but firm enough that you create a tight roll. If you are right handed, and if you're vegetables lie vertically, close the bottom and top first then fold over the right side so you can roll to the left. Normally, this will let you achieve tighter rolls, alternatively, you can lie your veg horizontally and roll upwards.
Repeat as needed, you may wish to do more than one at a time.
Cover with seran wrap until ready to serve.

Enjoy with friends and family