Afghan Cilantro-Mint Sauce

The other day, I got to talking about a now-out-of-business restaurant that we used to love. "Parwana" was a local spot serving Afghan food, and they had lots of vegan options on the menu. The food was so delicious and full of interesting flavors. Just like Italian restaurants might give you bread and olive oil as a starter, or a Mexican restaurant will give you chips and salsa... Parwana always gave diners bread with this amazing mint-cilantro sauce.

So, we were talking about how much we missed that magical sauce... and I figured I could probably recreate it. Armed with a fridge full of left-over fresh herbs from my Persian New Year gathering, I searched around on the internet and combined a few different recipes and ideas. In the end, I came up with something just about perfect. I'm so stoked!

For dinner we had Moroccan Chickpea Soup (from "Healthy Hedonist"), Hindu Kush Flat Breads (from "Silk Road"), and some of this Afghan Cilantro-Mint Sauce. Very international!

Check out the sauce, I hope you like it. It's pretty darn zesty from the garlic and cilantro... but it's also easy to get down the hatch. I look forward to exploring more uses for it!

Afghan Cilantro-Mint Sauce

Makes about 1 cup

{Note: I used a small food processor to make this, which was perfect, but I'm sure you could use a regular food processor, a blender (and some patience), or even a mortar and pestle.}

1 clove garlic, peeled

1/2 c walnuts

1 c cilantro leaves, semi-packed

1/2 c fresh mint leaves, semi-packed

4 scallions, chopped

3 T lemon juice

1 T white vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1-2 T water, as needed/desired

Drop the garlic clove into the food processor or blender and chop it up. Add the walnuts and pulse a few times to chop them up. Add all the remaining ingredients, starting with 1 Tbsp water (add more if you want it saucier or if it seems too thick to blend easily). Blend it into a thick green paste. Eat it up!

The Kale Situation

Many moons ago, when the summer air was turning toward cool autumn temperatures, I was busy planting seedlings in my garden. I have three 4x6 planter boxes in the front yard, and I try to keep them going with various goodies. At the farmers' markets, there are always vendors selling various seasonal seedlings - greens, herbs, veggies, berries, and so on. So, all those months ago, I bought four 6-packs: Dino Kale, Winterbor Kale, and two Collards - and planted them all in the ground. By the grace of god, one of my collards turned out to be a 6-pack of broccoli, and three of the other collards never really went anywhere.

Nonetheless, I have been eating a lot of greens. That's fine, because (obviously) I like greens. But Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats most vehemently does not - so I'm not really sure why I went quite so overboard with the planting.

A few weeks ago, with the advent of springy weather, I noticed that ALL 12 kale plants and 3 surviving collards were beginning to bolt (flower and go to seed), and it was much, much more than I could comfortably consume in such a short time.

So, over the last couple of weeks, whenever time allowed, I have been harvesting and processing and freezing mountains and mountains of greens for later consumption. I followed the instructions on this helpful site.

Here's a batch of greens all laid out to go into the freezer. The only problem with this method of freezing them is that the frozen greens are very bulky... so when you transfer them to the baggies, they take up a lot of room. I officially am OUT OF ROOM in the freezer...

... due to about 11 or 12 sandwich baggies full of frozen kale and collards. Wooo hooo! I cleared out the planter boxes, amended the soil, and will soon be ready to plant a summer garden again. Yippee!

Also, thanks to the encouragement of my loving PPK friends, I finally tried my hand at the famous Kale Chips - basically kale bits tossed with olive oil and touch of salt and roasted for about 10 minutes at 375. I think I may have roasted them a little too long? Maybe some of you kale chip experts out there in cyberland can tell me if they look right or not. They are quite good, even if maybe a little overdone. I haven't run them through the Mr. VE&T test yet, but we'll give it a go later tonight...

EMERGENCY UPDATE: Mr. VE&Ts from the kitchen "Oh, those are good!" ...pause... "These are REALLY good!" ... pause ... "I guess I like kale." zing! bang! wooo!

In the meantime, I'm quite relieved to have that Kale Monkey off my back, and a freezer full of ready-to-eat good stuff!

ps. Next up, The Escarole Situation

Happy New Year! Happy No Rooz!

Happy New Year! Today is the Persian New Year, my most favorite holiday of the whole year. NoRooz is a beautiful holiday celebrating the arrival of Spring - full of symbolism about growth and rebirth and renewal. For many years now, I've celebrated NoRooz with family and friends, welcoming a new year at the moment of the spring equinox. This year was extra special because the equinox arrived here in California, quite conveniently, on a Saturday morning at 10:30, a perfect time for a brunch party! Of course, there were plenty of savory options, and plenty of sweeties too!

KukuSabzi, veganized! Kukusabzi is an omelette filled with LOADS of fresh herbs. In my efforts to veganize this classic dish, I've tried something a little different every year, but I think we finally have a real winner! I made a batch of the tofu omlette batter from Vegan Brunch, and mixed in: 1 bunch parsley, 1 bunch cilantro, 1 bunch dill, 1 bunch scallions, handful of fresh spinach leaves, about 1/2 cup fresh fenugreek leaves (all herbs must be minced and chopped to near-oblivion), 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1/4 c zereshk/barberries (which need to be rehydrated in warm water for about 20 minutes before hand). Because of all the added moisture from the herbs, the kukusabzi took a bit longer to cook than the plain VB omelette regularly does, but MAN it was so delicious!

Ash-e-Reshteh - special soup for the new year (recipe here). I love love love this soup. It's PACKED full with good stuff - greens, beans, lentils, broth, herbs, noodles... mmm. I made a huge batch to ensure plenty for everyone and some leftovers for later! You can't tell from the picture, but this is my special GINORMOUS pot... just for special occasions.

Sabzi Polow - persian rice with fresh herbs. I mostly followed this recipe here (minus the fish, obvs) This was - by far - my most successful "tah digh" thus far in life. Tah Digh is the special crispy golden part of the rice on the bottom of the pan. It still needs a little more work, and I need a little more faith that it won't burn... but I'm so happy to finally make SOMETHING resembling genuine tah digh. Also, you'll notice that a lot of these New Year dishes are loaded with minced herbs - it's because the herbs are symbolic of Spring time... fresh little bursts of green!

This is "Hindu Kush Rice Bread," from "Silk Road, A Vegetarian Journey". The recipe was a bit confusing... but the final product was CRAZY GOOD. (And totally gluten-free for inquiring minds). The recipe said "form the dough into a ball" - but the batter was more like thick pancake batter. Hm.... befuddling. So, I added another cup of rice flour (I used half white rice flour, and half brown rice flour), and it was still not "ball-forming." I just heated up the griddle, used some spatulas to spread out flat-ish shapes and cooked it up. Turned out great! I used the spatula to press down a little after flipping, to make sure it would be cooked through. The batter had serrano pepper, black pepper, mustard seeds and scallions, so it packed quite a pretty little punch!

Classic Persian Salad - cukes, tomatoes, fresh red onion, fresh mint. Mmmmmmmmm. I even got to use the pretty little Persian Cucumbers that I bought on our international shopping expedition.

My aunt Laura brought along a super delicious fruit salad - berries, citrus (tangerines, blood oranges, and cara cara oranges!), pears, apples... mmmm.

Our friend Jasmine brought this GORGEOUS apple dish - apples, sugar syrup and rosewater. It was so, so, so good.

A pomegranate spritzer drink I concocted - two pints of fresh pomegranate juice from the farmer's market, with a big bottle of sparkling water, and a squeeze of fresh lime, with a few lime slices in there. So Good!!!

Special Chickpea Cookies. I followed this recipe.* I won't lie, this recipe was seriously irritating, but I think that's par for the course. These cookies are meant to be quite dry and crumbly, so working with the "dough" is pretty maddening at times. I cheated and added 1 extra tablespoon of rosewater, though I'm not sure it helped too much. But, they came out much better than my previous efforts based on other recipes, so I'm very grateful for that. *(For anyone interested, I roasted the flour myself - for about 10 minutes at 170 F. )

Pomegranate Walnut Cookies... these aren't traditional at all, in fact, I made them up! But, hey - with pomegranates and walnuts and cardamom, I'm sure no one would object. They turned out quite nicely indeed, and my little nephew Chris was especially into them.

Pomegranate Walnut Cookies

1/2 cup FINELY chopped walnuts (pretty much minced, almost a course meal)

1/2 c whole spelt flour

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/4 cup sugar

pinch salt

-

1/3 cup pomegranate molasses

2 T canola oil

-

2 Tbsp coarsely chopped walnuts or walnut halves

3-4 Tbsp raw/turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (chopped walnuts -> salt). In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together the molasses and oil. Pour the wet into the dry and stir to combine. Have your raw sugar ready in a small bowl or shallow cup. Form into small walnut-sized balls and dip/roll the ball into the raw sugar, then place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat. The cookies will spread, so place them about 3-4 inches apart from one another. After all the cookies are on the cookie sheet, take a walnut piece and gently press one walnut piece into the middle of each cookie - lightly flattening the cookie ball a little in the process. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the outer edges of the cookies are slightly darker. Yields about 20 3-inch cookies.

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches!!! I was so stoked to find these wafer rounds at the Persian Market. I made up some pistachio-saffron ice cream, with a touch of rosewater for the filling. Not too heavy, and super fun to eat. I threw in some whole pistachios too, because I like nuts in my ice cream!

Sohan-as-ali, probably my most favorite new year treat of all! (recipe here) It's an almond brittle with rosewater and saffron... with chopped pistachios sprinkled on top. I used half brown rice syrup and half agave instead of the honey that is usually used. These sweeteners meant that the whole thing heated up a bit more slowly for some reason, but in the end I made a **perfect** batch of sohan. There are only 3 left!

And finally, I leave you with some scenes from the NoRooz decor... Beautiful Spring tulips from the farmers' market on the table...

... and here is the Haft Sin table that I set for this year - sprouts, candles, sumac, hyacinth, garlic, apples, jujubees, eggs (made of glass), ... all the essential elements to set the mood.

Happy New Year Everyone!

International Shopping BINGE!!

Last weekend my friend Sophia and I set off for an afternoon of foodie fun in the Sunnyvale-San Jose area. I had some specific needs for my upcoming Persian New Year Celebration (best holiday of the world!), and thought we'd make an adventure of it. In all we went to four stores: a Persian market, an Indian Market, a Chinese market, and an International-Mediterranean-Kosher-Halal market. We had so much fun!!

Having successfully cleared out my pantry quite nicely, it was time to fill it up again with a variety of fun goodies not readily found here in Santa Cruz. What follows is a guide to what I came home with...

1. Canned Green Jackfruit in Brine.

I've wanted to try Melisser's Jackfruit Carnitas for a long time, and now I can!

2. 'Banzo beans. Just cuz I needed some

3. Pindjur. From Macedonia.

We had this for dinner tonight with grilled red onions & cucumber slices on toasted whole-wheat flax sourdough bread. SO FREAKY GOOD!

4. Mini Whole Wheat Pitas

thick and moist and super delicious. These will be put to use for the New Year.

5. Dried Mulberries

Again, I'll put these to some use for the New Year

6. Zereshk/ Dried Barberries

An essential ingredient in Kukusabzi for new years!

7. Funny little blobby Bosnian pastas

I was super stoked to find a great selection of Croatian & Bosnian foods at the final market we went to - many favorites from when we were there, some new goodies like this pasta!

8. Mughrabia

Giant couscous. Need I say more?

9. Bottled Seltzer Water from the Republic of Georgia: Borjomi

because I am a total sucker, willing to spend $2 on selzter water, only for the thrill of touching and drinking something that came all the way from Georgia.

10. Jar of grilled eggplant

no added oil. Ready to become something marvelous and tasty.

11. Enormous bag of red lentils.

DAHL

12. Sambar powder, Rasam powder, Sesame Spice Mix powder

13. Samanoo

essential element for the Haft Sin table for NoRooz

14. Round Ice Cream Sandwich Wafers

I have big plans for these, yes I do.

15. Noodles for New Years soup

16. Fresh Fenugreek/Methi leaves.

again, for NoRooz dishes. I was SO stoked to find this fresh!!

17. Blueberry & Rosehip teas, which I fell in love with in Bosnia

18. Mustard oil.

An ingredient I once went crazy searching for in Santa Cruz County, to no avail.

19. Frozen Flaky Parathas

like a big, round, flat, vegan croissant.

20. Padadum!

21. Jaggery

Sweetener from India. I already have my eye on this recipe

22.Kalonji seeds

I bought these EXCLUSIVELY because Voracious Vegan once told me they were one of her favorite spices that she "puts on everything." I have no idea what they even are. So, Voracious Vegan, tell me what to do!

23. Fresh Curry Leaves

already in the freezer, awaiting Indian Food night

24. Finely Ground Bulgur Wheat

looks lovely, I can't wait to try it! (thanks for the tip off, Alana!)

1. Fresh Jujubees

Another item for the HaftSin table

2. Bag of Persian Cucumbers

for the NoRooz feast!

3. Mangosteen in syrup

4. Gyoza wrappers

I want to make tasty dumplings!!!

5. Giant colored tapioca balls

I really have no idea what to do with these, but was strangely unable to resist their allure

6. Udon Noodles

7. Pearl Coffee Soymilk

Sophia told me it's good, and I trust her!

8. Lotus Seed

Yet another HaftSin item

9. Ground Angelica

This is another ingredient that I called ALL OVER Santa Cruz County looking for without success. Happy to have it!

10. Sumac

mmmmmmmm. essential for Persian yum-yums

11. Pomegranate Paste

not sweetened like Pomegranate molasses. I'm happy to finally have some of this and to cook with it. Many, many persian recipes have pomegranate as a ingredient.

12. Rose water

13. Ground Lemon Omani

14. Ground Sour Grape

both spices are used for adding important sour element to Persian dishes

15. Fenugreek seed. I was all out

16. Salted Black Beans

Totally new to me, but once again, Sophia says it's good. Plus, Mr. Vegan Eats and Treats really likes Chinese food, so I will make him some.

17. Pearl Chocolate Soy milk

Well, Sophia says it's good, and I never buy chocolate soy milk, so it seemed like fun!

I hope you've enjoyed this little insight into my shopping excursion... keep your eyes out for all these ingredients to show up on this blog sometime sooner rather than later! If you have any tips or suggestions for any of my new ingredients, please share them with me!!

ps. I have so many good foods and pics to share from the last week or so, I think I smell another week-of-blogging on the horizon next week... after the new year celebration!

Lots of Tasty Eating Goin' On

We've been eating lots of great food here lately at Chez Vegan Eats & Treats... it's been wintery, and I've been happy for the excuse to cook up some warm, hearty meals.

This recipe has become a favorite of mine, it's a Sweet Potato and Collards dish with coconut milk from "Fresh Food Fast," except that I use butternut squash because someone (read: Mr. Vegan Eats and Treats) doesn't like sweet potatoes. It's very thai-inspired, it comes together in a flash, and it's so delicious. Plus, the hot jalepeno is a great touch on a cold day.

First up, a big batch of Roasted Root Veggie Soup - I had some turnips and butternut squash from the garden, and some rutabegas & carrots from the farmers' market. I even snuck in some sweet potato, which was well received!! I peeled and chunked all of them, tossed with a little bit of oil, and also roasted some shallots and garlic cloves... then I threw 'em in with some homemade broth, fresh herbs from the garden, salt and pepper... cooked it a while, and pureed it. mmmm. SO good. We ate it with fresh rye bread and roasted brussel sprouts. Perfect food for a cold and wintery night.

We are planning a trip to Morocco, Lisbon, and Spain in a couple months, so we asked our TV to record anything with the words "Morocco" or "Moroccan," which resulted in us recording an episode of Emeril, of all things! I made his Moroccan Vegetable Couscous, with a few modifications - 2 tsp of oil, instead of 6 Tbsp oil + 1 Tbsp butter (!!), and made my couscous the quick and easy way. It looks so incredibly lovely, but I have to say it was missing something. It was so very mild, even after I had doubled most of the spices. I wanted some heat, and it didn't have any... so we ended up adding hot sauce to jazz it up a bit.

Here it is, all plated up and topped with a lovely yogurt sauce also from Emeril. I used Wildwood Unsweetened soy yogurt, 1/2 an english cucumber (peeled and seeded and chopped), a couple Tbsp of fresh mint- finely chopped up, a pinch of salt, and about a 1/2 tsp of fresh lemon zest. SO good. After dinner I ate the whole bowl of yogurt garnish plain. It was lovely!

These baked jelly donuts are one of the recipes I baked up to help Alicia test for her upcoming cookbook. I was totally stoked on these little babies! Choosing the baking, rather than frying, option meant that these were a really nice treat and decidedly low fat. Definitely something I would make again. Also, it turns out that injecting jam into jelly donuts is a rare thrill.

Another evening of testing for Alicia, potato salad and baked beans - hearty fare for a hungry tummy!

Inspired by the success of my pantry party, I have been making some serious headway on clearing out more goodies from the pantry. When I was making the jelly donuts, I had risen two batches of yeast, because I was suspicious of their yeasty-rising-capacities. Well, it turns out that they BOTH rose just fine, so then I felt like "I can't just let this little bowl of rising yeast go to waste!" So, in about 10 minutes flat, I whipped up a batch of whole wheat cinnamon rolls and used my canned pineapple from the cupboard in the filling. MMmmmmm. I popped 'em all in the freezer and every once in a while I'll take one out for a treat.

Last week was our little dog Stevie Wonder's 5-year Adoption Day! So, to celebrate, I made a batch of sweet potato-peanut butter-molasses doggie treats. I took a recipe i found online, tweaked it around a little and made a big batch of treats for Stevie and her doggie friends.

Here is little Stevie, practicing a new trick of leaving the treat on her paw before she is allowed to eat it. I love you, Stevie!!

Here's the whole trio of them... staring at the treats longingly. They look pathetic, but don't worry, they got to eat SO MANY of them!!

ps. today is our cat Yummers Potatoes' 9-Year Adoption Day!! It's Yummers Day! So, he'll be getting a special bowl of broccoli or green beans tonight - his favorites. I promise to take pictures. :)

Clean-Out-Your-Pantry Party!

This weekend, some friends and I had a wonderful little "Clean-Out-Your-Pantry Party." The idea was to use up things from the pantry that had been sitting around for a little while awaiting inspiration or a "special moment." We cooked up some goodies, and did a swap with other goodies. It was so much fun and we ate really great food!!

I chose these two items from my pantry:

1. a can of unsweetened chestnut puree that I bought a couple years ago (which fortunately had such a long shelf life that it was still not slated to expire for another 1 1/2 years!!??), on a total whim, because the can was pretty. Seriously. Those impulse decisions can get me into trouble.

2. a jar of sweetened Alfonso mango puree, in a mango-shaped bottle, which I picked up on my last trip to India. I have been hoarding this special treat... just waiting for inspiration!

I apologize for all these dark pictures, but really, it IS still winter time, and it's just hard to get a good picture even in the middle of the day.

With my chestnut puree, I did lots of research, and used half the can for a batch of Chestnut & Celery Soup, and the other half for a batch of Apple-Chestnut Muffins. Both were great! The soup was light and savory... creamy and although thick, not at all heavy in the belly or on the palette. The muffins were totally GREAT and almost made me wish I had a whole entire new can of chestnut puree to work with! They were very hippy-healthy looking - but were delightfully moist and tasty on the inside. I'll post the recipes down below.

I put the mango to use with a quick and delicious batch of mango lassi - roughly following the recipe from "World Vegetarian." So good, so quick... mmmmm. Don't mind my collection of giant pomelos.

Sofia used up some of her epic amounts of frozen persimmon by making persimmon Cinnamon Rolls. YES. I love cinnamon rolls and these little babies were super yummmmmmmy.

She also has lots and lots of collards in her garden, so she balanced out her nutrient karma by also bringing a big, big bowl of a raw collard salad which was both tasty and virtuous.

Alana put together a really incredible middle eastern platter - her pantry items were falafel mix and canned fava beans. She made the world's most perfectly adorable mini falafel balls to go with mini pita breads (everything mini tastes extra special, don't you know!?), some CRAZY GOOD tahini sauce, stewed fava beans, some pickled eggplant (well, she didn't technically make that, but she shared it with us!), and some spicy eggplant. Oh, man. It was all so good.

Alana also had lots of canned pumpkin to use up, so she make some pumpkin muffins with cranberries in them which are really tasty. Obviously, we couldn't eat all this food in one sitting, so in addition to pantry swapping, we also swapped leftovers and everyone left with some muffins and cinnamon rolls and collard greens... mmmm. I got rid of a few pantry items, most of which had been gifts but weren't up my alley, and also came home with some Thai sticky glutenous rice and a few giant black caradmom pods. Fun!!

It was a really really fun evening and felt good to finally use up those special impulse buys. It's inspired me to make more earnest attempts at building some future menus around the random odds & ends already in the pantry or the freezer. Goodness knows, there's more where that came from!

Chestnut Soup - a mashup of a couple different online recipes

1/4 c minced celery

1/4 c minced onion

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp flour

1 medium potato - peeled & cut into 1/4-1/2 inch dice

4 c veggie broth

7 oz unsweetened chestnut puree

1/4 c mimicreme (cream substitute)

2 Tbsp Frangelico liquer

1/8-1/4 tsp white pepper

salt to taste

Heat oil over medium heat in your soup pan. Add the onion & celery and cook for about 5 minutes until softened. Add the flour, stir well, and then add the potato, broth, & chestnut puree. If the chestnut puree is in a big clump, use the back of a wooden spoon to break it up. Bring to a boil, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add in the mimicreme, Frangelico, pepper and salt. Yum. Makes about 4 small servings.

Apple-Chestnut Muffins (adapted from a recipe found here)

1/4 c plain soy yogurt

1/2 c almond milk

1/4 c canola oil

7 oz. unsweetened chestnut puree

1 1/2 c all purpose flour

1/2 c sugar, minus about 3-4 Tbsp. (in other words, not a full half cup)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 medium apple, peeled and chopped into 1/4 inch dice

topping:

maple sugar crystals, if you have them, or turbinado sugar

Preheat your oven to 375 & prepare a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners. In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, milk, oil, and chestnut puree. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, & salt. Pour the wet into the dry, add the apple bits and stir just until fully integrated. The batter will be sticky and quite thick. Plop the batter into the muffin tin, equally filling all 12 muffin spots. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with maple sugar crystals. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the tops of the muffins are golden, and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.