Vegan MoFo Day 12: Green Smoothie Gone Terribly, Horribly Wrong...and Pate

Let's just start off with some good: dinner, before we get to the bad: breakfast.  Are you noticing a pattern?

A friend recently shared with me a recipe for a green smoothie that he'd tasted and enjoyed as a sample at Whole Foods.  It was a little heavy on the fruit for this cleanse, so I cut it down to one small piece and gave it a whirl in my magic bullet.  Almond milk, kale, 1/4 green apple, cinnamon,  and agave smoothie:

Oh no.

For starters, the smell.  I'm already trying earnestly to get over my psychosomatic resistance to green beverages and then...I get close enough to sniff... liquid kale.  Not cool.  But, in the interest of trying new things, I held my breath and took a sip.  To my surprise, it wasn't horrendous.  Sweet, cinnamony, and...wait, what?  Must... chew?  Yes, there were significant kale bits* in my smoothie.  And what's more?  Un-obliterated apple skin.  NOOOO!  The whole mug of wretchedness went down the drain in a fit of abject disgust and I began to realize the circumstances under which one might require a water-pik.  I gagged my way through the commute recalling the morning sips and subsequent forest in my mouth, realizing that I'd discovered a whole other level of gagdom.  Looks like it will be back to juicing, friends; at least it's 100% liquid.  See that?  Sometimes you just need to find something worse to make the bad thing look better.

Later in the morning I ate some emergency celery hearts to get some green in me, not just on me.  Yes, to make matters worse, I also dripped said smoothie on my shirt.  And skirt.  Too bad I only noticed the former before I left the house; nothing like green goo splatter for the working professional!

For lunch, a new kale salad: curly kale with broccoli and radish, topped with shaved kale avocado salad dressing (CSD p.208).  Definitely needed more dressing for the florets.

In the late afternoon I had a few brazil nuts.  I really like these, but I can't help but to think that they taste infinitely better after you've had to struggle with a nutcracker to get to them. 

Dinner was a treat: The Natural Vegan Kitchen's lentil walnut pate (p.105) with quite a few substitutions.  Bragg's for the tamari, lime juice for the vinegar, and agave for the brown rice syrup.  I skipped the Mirin (no wine on the cleanse) and I have to say that the result was a much nicer texture than previous incarnations of this same recipe that have turned out too runny.  It never looks ultra appetizing, but it's got a great combination of flavors.

I served it with broccoli, zucchini, and radish: another evening meal of crudites and dip.

This dip is so filling and tasty that I really should grow a parsley plant so that I remember to make it more often.  It's also ridiculously easy; I make it in the Magic Bullet in massive quantities (the trick is batches).

I'm feeling better than I was: no more headaches or nausea (not counting the green smoothie-induced gagging), but still a bit tired and definitely exhausted from keeping up the shop/wash/prep pace and then blogging about it all.  There have been no significant changes to my routine, and I'm still waiting for the a-ha moment, i.e., the "oh, so this is why I'm doing this" sign.  For now, I'm planning to sandwich Lula's hard pumpkin ice cream between biscoff cookies as soon as this cleanse is complete.  Stay tuned.
 
* Yes, yes; I know.  The Vita-Mix is so powerful that it obliterates infinitesimal raspberry seeds and, thus, would have pulverized the kale.  Still not sure it's worth the investment (I certainly won't be revisiting that smoothie).  Cue all Vita-lovers to insist opposite.

Seemingly Endless Tempeh Salad Variations

Christine Waltermyer from the Natural Kitchen Cooking School introduced me to tempeh salad and I've been loving it ever since.  Now that I have her cookbook, The Natural Vegan Kitchen, I've been making it even more often and with lots of variations.

No offense to the original version intended, but I am very lazy busy; I don't always have the patience time it takes to follow recipes exactly as written.  So, this is how I've simplified my tempeh salad into a weeknight meal:

Abby Bean's No-Frills Tempeh Salad
(serves 4)

• Crumble 8oz tempeh into a medium saucepan with 2/3 cup water.

• Mix 2 tbsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp white miso, 2 tbsp lemon juice, and pour over tempeh; mix.

• Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes.
• Remove cover, mix, and simmer until water evaporates: stirring occasionally.
• Let cool completely (overnight in the fridge works, but I've been known to speed things up in the freezer) before dressing.



before

Now for the dressing variations (note that I like mine FULL of crunchy bits):


after

 Tempeh Salad Frill Options

Curry salad:
Mix 1/2 tsp curry, 1/4 tsp cayenne (or more), and 1/4 tsp turmeric into 2/3 cup mayo before coating tempeh.
Add 1/2 cup almonds, 1/2 cup raisins, and salt to taste.  Add 3/4 cup diced apples if you feel like it; I hate apples and this didn't kill me.

Egg salad:
Mix 1/2 tsp black salt into 2/3 cup mayo before coating tempeh.  Add 1/4 tsp turmeric too if you need it to be yellow.  Add 1/4 cup relish, 1 cup chopped onions, 1 1/2 cup chopped celery, and black pepper to taste.

Tuna salad:
Mix 1 tbsp furikake into 2/3 cup mayo before coating tempeh.  Add 1 cup chopped onions, 1 1/2 cup chopped celery.

Dill:
Mix 1 tsp dill weed into 2/3 cup mayo before coating tempeh.  Add 1 cup chopped onions, and 1 1/2 cup chopped celery .

Ume Plum:
Sub ume plum vinegar for lemon juice.  After mayo, add 1/2 minced plum, 1 1/2 cup chopped celery.

You can pretty much mix anything- within reason- into tempeh salad.  Once you get the hang of it, it's a great way to clean out leftovers from your fridge for a cool, summertime meal.

Yummy Curried Cabbage and Incredible African Stew, but Authentic Vegan Irish Soda Bread Remains Elusive

When St. Patrick's Day rolls around I always find green cabbage on sale have the urge to cook with cabbage.  This year VM picked me up a 6 pounder (yes, really), so the urge is now gone.  But, in the meantime, I made two dishes that turned out great.

First I whipped up the Curried Cabbage and Peas (p. 111) from Appetite for Reduction.  I did sub frozen sugar snap peas for regular (this is now a vegetable I do not recommend buying frozen) and it was really tasty: kind of like a less-carby, kicky, and healthier halushki.  I tried serving it over udon noodles (no, I don't know why), but that was a fail; the dish is much better on its own.

Then I tackled the African Vegetable Stew (p.148-149) from The Natural Vegan Kitchen.  I've taken classes with the author, Christine Waltermyer, and have always been very impressed by her flavor combinations; I've even successfully recreated many of her recipes (tempeh salad, lentil-walnut pate, basil summer rolls, broccoli slaw) in my own kitchen.  So, when her cookbook went on sale became available I knew I had to buy it.  I was a little daunted by the amount of ingredients in this recipe, but it came together quite easily.

The final dish was really impressive and hearty.  The base of the sauce is peanut butter with elements of clove, tamari, and cinnamon; I'd recommend throwing some actual peanuts in right before serving for extra crunch.  And, even though the scoops are much cuter, I'd suggest serving over rice; reason being, cute = work.  Why have to combine the dry rice into the meal as you're eating if the rice can be absorbing the delicious sauce from the moment it is plated?  You can't argue with this kind of laziness logic.

I had made up my mind not to attempt Irish Soda Bread this year because it never turns out authentic.  But then VegNews posted an easy recipe so I had to give it a try.  I decided to make mini-breads instead of one big loaf and I doubled the raisins, which was an excellent call.

Unfortunately, the result was the same as always: some sort of muffin/scone hybrid not at all like traditional Irish Soda bread.  It didn't taste bad, but if I wanted a muffin or scone I would have just made one.

Eh, Irish Soda bread isn't one of my favorites anyway.  I should have just turned my attention to potatoes.