Ginger and Cashew Stir Fry

(Reprinted from Edible Memphis, Spring '14)

I still remember how the shiny, enameled red lid of the electric wok would catch my eye as I sat on the kitchen counter and talked to my mom as she cooked. Those of us who lived through it recall the wok craze of the 70’s and 80’s. Everybody had one; our family was no exception. Us three vegetarians in the house grew up on soggy, salty stir-fry, and I carried this questionable tradition into my young adulthood. As a thrifty college student trying to start my own photography business, I’d budget $20 a week for groceries: fresh vegetables, rice, plus tempeh, eggs, or nuts for protein. So, what was (always) for dinner? Stir-fry! Sometimes I had it over rice and sometimes over noodles, but if we weren’t having spaghetti, we were having stir-fry…a pretty soggy stir-fry.

My version was so bad that my girlfriend, who’s now my wife, secretly hated it but covered by saying that she just wasn’t in the mood for stir-fry. She secretly hoped that I wouldn’t catch on. What I didn’t realize at the time is that my version of stir fry lacked that signature wok flavor that comes from this ancient cooking vessel when it’s in the hands of a true professional. So, I always started with a great assortment of fresh vegetables. That’s good! What was I doing wrong? I was missing that crisp vegetable snap with plenty of intense flavor from the Malliard Reaction that happens when the vegetables brown from contact with the hot pan. And, for goodness sake, why was my stir-fry soggy? The answer, it turns out, is simple. 

I asked James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and stir-fry guru Grace Young what the single most important thing one needs in order to make a successful stir-fry meal at home. She told me, “I would say it starts with choosing the right pan. There are many people using nonstick woks or skillets, and that is guaranteed to produce a soggy, lackluster stir-fry.” I could see myself in her words; I’m truly the Goldilocks of woks. I’ve had the plug-in electric kind, which didn’t get any hotter than warm. I’ve had the round-bottomed kind with a wok ring for a conventional stovetop. I’ve had the nonstick variety, a true waste of money. I’ll tell you from firsthand experience: don’t buy any of these. Grace says, “I recommend a 14-inch flat-bottomed carbon-steel wok. It costs less than $25, and it will last you more than a lifetime.” I agree -- the 14-inch flat-bottom wok I’ve had for 3 years now has been the best option for me, for sure. It’ll work on a gas or electric stove, and it offers the stability and control we all need in order to stir-fry correctly. 

Season your new purchase (or your old wok if you’ve never done so before) by following these simple steps. First, wash the new wok with liquid detergent and dry it thoroughly. Next, rub the inside of the wok with canola oil (or any oil with a high smoke point) and set it over a high flame until the whole pan darkens; this will take about six to eight minutes, depending on how hot the flame is. I’m going to recommend that you do this outside on your outdoor grill’s side burner since it makes lots of smoke! Repeat the process after simply rinsing the cooled wok with water and drying it. This will ensure a good, slick coat. What is really happening when you season your wok is a chain reaction of chemical changes. According to Modernist Cuisine, “New kinds of molecules will form, oxidize the iron, then polymerize into a waterproof film bound to the metal.”  In other words, it’ll make your wok slippery where it needs to be, easier to use, and it won’t rust. You want that! The result is that your brand-new wok will look ancient but work great...and that’s the whole point.

Now let’s head to the market. The wok makes it simple to eat seasonally, so pick up a few things that are at their best right now. Aim to stock your basket with a variety of colors and textures from the produce section. In spring, choose hearty greens like kale, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, an abundance of mushrooms like shiitake, fresh carrots, and because this is a stir-fry, we can’t forget traditional Chinese vegetables like bok choy that grow well in the Southern climate. Add garlic, fresh ginger, and spring onions. I usually throw in a few sweet bell peppers, too, for color, no matter what the season. 

The next step is to wash everything and thoroughly dry it. I like to shake the excess water off in the sink and then air-dry my vegetables on a clean dish towel to ensure that they’re completely dry. This not only helps them to last longer in storage, but I’ve found it to be crucial to the stir-frying process. Next, cut everything up into same-sized pieces so they cook quickly and evenly. There’s no need to be too fussy about this -- just eyeball it. Make sure to cut denser vegetables like carrots or the stem of the broccoli thin; a mandoline is a great tool for this, but you could just use a chef’s knife. Toss the vegetables together and store them in a large lidded container in the fridge until you’re ready to use them. 

Before I got to cooking, I paid a visit to Wally Joe, Chef, partner, and general manager at Acre Restaurant in East Memphis. He was born in Hong Kong and raised in Cleveland, Mississippi, where his family’s restaurant KC’s had a real-deal wok station. “Don’t be afraid of the wok,” he told me after I’d let him in on my years of failure with it. “It’s just like any other pan, but it’s just a different shape.” He laughed, “I break it out at home mostly to make a simple and easy noodle dish or stir-fry or a curry.”  While it’s just a pan of a different shape, I figured that there has to be a trick to it, so I asked for a hint. “Just remember to use high heat,” he advised. “That’s the best way to get the brown and crispy edges on the vegetables and noodles that are the hallmark of wok cooking.” 

“The wok is an easy pan to work with, but until recently, there hasn't been enough information to guide novice cooks,” Grace reassured me. After years of learning what not to do, and after my conversations with Wally and Grace, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it now. There’s nothing left to it but to do it, so here’s my new way with the wok. 

The first thing to remember is to have everything ready to go: vegetables cut, sauce made, and rice or noodles should be prepared and set aside. It moves way faster than you’d think, though nowhere near as fast as a professional chef cooking over a real 200,000-btu wok station. Put your seasoned wok over the highest heat on the stovetop and let it heat up until you see little wisps of smoke rise up off of the hot metal. Pour in the oil and wait for it to start to smoke, which is very important! If you put vegetables (or really anything) in a cold wok with cold oil, you simply won’t get the results you desire -- and your significant other will only eat it to be nice. Now, put your vegetable mixture into the wok and give a little shake. Never, ever use more than 4 cups of anything total in a wok; overcrowding the pan will result in the dreaded soggy stir-fry. Let the mixture rest in the hot pan for 45 seconds before tossing everything to redistribute it by pushing the pan forward and then jerking it back just like you’d do to flip an omelette or by using a spatula (maybe even stir-fry spatula!). You’ll notice the browned edges of the vegetables that were touching the hottest part of the pan. That’s flavor! Allow the vegetables to rest for another 45 seconds to 1 minute before flipping them again. Flip the vegetables one last time and allow them to cook for 1 minute. At this point, add your sauce and cook for one more minute. Once you notice the sauce starting to thicken, remove the stir-fry from the wok and place it in a serving bowl. The whole cooking process take less than 4 minutes, and it can feel a little reckless, but you’ll gain more control as you practice. 

There is so much more to wok cooking, such as learning about the Bao and Chao techniques, but this will set you on the right path. I appreciated that Grace shared this last bit of wisdom with me: “When you cook with a wok, you become a part of a cooking tradition that is over 2,000 years old. It's true that it takes a little time to learn how to work with it and care for it, but unlike most cookware, you'll develop a relationship with your wok. It is a pan to cherish.” 

Let’s do a quick review of our simple stir-fry method: the right wok that’s seasoned correctly, seasonal vegetables that are dry and cut to a uniform size, hot wok with hot oil, and slow it down just a little to attain that coveted wok flavor that comes from the browned edges of the vegetables. Avoid all the pitfalls I’ve experienced in the past by following these few simple steps! You, too, can have a beautiful, quick, and delicious meal of seasonal vegetables. Oh, and now after 20 years of avoiding my soggy stir-fry at all costs, my wife requests my new-and-improved, seasonal stir-fry on a twice-weekly basis. That, may friends, is a long-fought victory.


Ginger and Cashew Stir Fry

2 cups prepared rice
4 cups Spring Vegetable Mix (recipe follows)
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sambal (more to taste)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1-inch piece fresh ginger (minced)
1 teaspoon cornstarch 
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 spring onion (sliced)
1/2 cup roasted and salted cashews

Prepare rice according to package instructions. Prepare Spring Vegetable mix according to the recipe. In a pint-sized jar with a lid, add the broth, soy sauce, sesame oil, sambal, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and cornstarch. Screw on the lid and shake vigorously. Set sauce aside until ready to use.

 Put your seasoned wok over the highest heat on the stovetop and let it heat up until you see little wisps of smoke rise up off of the hot metal. Pour in the canola oil and wait for it to start to smoke, which is very important! Now, put your vegetable mixture into the wok and give a little shake. Let the mixture rest in the hot pan for 45 seconds before tossing everything to redistribute it by pushing the pan forward and then jerking it back just like you’d do to flip an omelette or by using a spatula. Allow the vegetables to rest for another 45 seconds to 1 minute before flipping them again. Flip the vegetables one last time and allow them to cook for 1 minute. At this point, add your sauce and cook for one more minute. Once you notice the sauce starting to thicken, remove the stir-fry from the wok and place it in a serving bowl. The whole cooking process take less than 4 minutes.

Spring Vegetable Mix

2 crowns broccoli
1 pound shiitake
2 small or 1 large bok choy
1 bunch lacinato (dinosaur) kale
2 large or 4 small carrots
2 cups snow peas 

Wash and dry everything thoroughly. Cut everything up into 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch slices. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Banana Muffins

We love banana muffins, banana bread, smoothies with bananas, banana pancakes, updated banana pudding (and this traditional version), banana ice cream cake, a plain old banana plus peanut butter for a snack. So is it really true that banana crops are having a hard time these days? If so, we're not going to make it in this world. It's going to be bad! We just love them that much. 

So this week, bananas on the brain, we took an old favorite muffin recipe and did a few things differently to make it over. Instead of sugar, sour cream, and all-purpose flour, we used honey, yogurt, and sprouted wheat flour. We've found that sprouted wheat is easier on a lot of folks' stomachs (and as you can read here: it acts more like a vegetable than a grain!) We added walnuts because they're good for everything including your hair and skin. And there's rum added, well, just because. 

(Just as soon as we made over this old recipe, we got MSL in the mail, and on the cover? 'Bake it Better: Healthier Takes on Cookies, Cakes, Bars, and More'. This month, there are recipes for granola cookies, lemon-yogurt cupcakes, no-bake chocolate almond bars, graham flour and jam pastry squares -- all with some great substitutions that add some nutrition to dessert. Love it!)

Banana Muffins 

3 ripe bananas (mashed well)
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1 large egg
1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla 
1 tablespoon rum
1 cup sprouted wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder 

Topping (optional):
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of cinnamon
1 tablespoon cold butter (diced)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the wet ingredients well. Separately, whisk the dry ingredients. Fold wet into dry carefully so the batter is just mixed. Pour batter into a muffin tin lined with something like these If You Care unbleached baking cups. Mix topping ingredients together and press on top of muffins. Bake muffins for 30-40 minutes until tops are crisp and lightly browned. Be sure to let them cool for at least 15 minutes before you eat them because they're actually better that way. (Makes 9 muffins.)

The Vegetarian BBQ "Boss Man" Salad with Yogurt Ranch Dressing

Long ago, my family would get BBQ for dinner at least once a month from The Germantown Commissary, a fixture in the old town square in the suburb where the wife and I both grew up. My standard order was a bit strange for a kid: I'd always order a salad. Granted, this was a huge salad by the name of the "Boss Man" that was covered in pulled pork and served with a thick ranch dressing. It was, to my nine-year-old self, heaven. 

I wanted to figure out a way to celebrate that dish, but update it for how we eat now. We have no shortage of BBQ recipes on this site, and any of them might work in place of the eggplant. I'm thinking that the portobello mushrooms or the artichoke hearts could work just as well.

The dressing, made with tangy yogurt, would be good on anything. The result of the mixture of crunchy lettuce, smoky eggplant, and rich dressing is our take on a Memphis classic that's big enough to be the boss.

The Vegetarian BBQ "Boss Man" Salad with Yogurt Ranch Dressing

2 medium Italian eggplants
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons The Chubby Vegetarian's Signature Dry Rub
1 head of romaine lettuce (chopped)
1 medium carrot (shredded)
1 cup shredded purple cabbage
1 small cucumber (thinly sliced)
1 large tomato (sliced and quartered)
Yogurt Ranch Dressing (recipe follows)
1 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce (warmed)

Preheat your outdoor grill to high. Prepare the eggplant by slicing each in half longways, then cut slits in the flesh of the eggplant every 1/4 inch; cut through most of the flesh, but not the skin.

In a medium bowl whisk together the olive oil, sesame oil, and vinegar. Drizzle each eggplant half with the oil and vinegar mixture. Apply The Chubby Vegetarian's Signature Dry Rub liberally to each eggplant.

Place eggplant skin-side-down on the hot grill and close the lid for 20 minutes. Remove eggplant and tent with foil. Allow it to cool so that you're able to handle it. 

While you're waiting for the eggplant to cool, prepare the salad by tossing together the romaine, shredded carrot, shredded cabbage, cucumber, and tomatoes. Prepare the Yogurt Ranch Dressing according to the recipe.

Now, using your hands, pull as much of the eggplant flesh away from the skin keeping the large strands intact. Discard the skin. Toss the eggplant with the warm BBQ sauce. Divide the salad among two plates (it's a big salad!) and top each salad with a heap of BBQ eggplant. Include the Yogurt Ranch Dressing on the side.

Yogurt Ranch Dressing

1/2 cup 2% Greek yogurt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Sea salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill

1 tablespoon minced fresh chives

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon olive oil

In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice, salt, pepper, dill, chives, parsley, and olive oil. Set aside in the fridge until ready to use. (Makes 3/4 cup of dressing.)

Simple Summer Cooking

We were so happy to be featured here in the paper this past week along with the amazing Jennifer Chandler! We'll talk all day long about our take on easy, quick stuff to make in the summertime, and we've had the family over a lot lately to make a meal that shows off great summer produce and takes no time at all to put together. We figured it's time to share a couple of basic and solid methods with you. 

The article featured two recipes from our cookbook, The Southern Vegetarian: 100 Down-Home Recipes for the Modern Table (Thomas Nelson, 2013). Check out our Baked Zucchini Fries and Summer Salad. They would be great to whip up this week after your trip to the market.

Another easy thing we do if we're in a hurry or being lazy or just crave something dead simple is turn the oven on or preheat the outdoor grill and then wash and slice every-thing we want to eat. The things that are good raw like tomatoes or cucumbers are hurried onto a plate and garnished with basil or parsley from our garden, salt, pepper, and good-quality olive oil. The vegetables that require a bit of cooking are dressed in the same way and heated through with minimal effort. 

Serve it all with a side of pesto or remoulade or tomato sauce if you have some on hand. It's what we lovingly refer to as a "country food dinner." Fancy food has its place and all, but nothing's better than this during the summer.

This is about learning to cook, not learning a recipe. Eating simply like this is a great way to hit the reset button on your palate. Okra, carrots, corn, green beans, wax beans, asparagus, potatoes, beets, mushrooms, and the like are all beautiful and perfect just as they are, so here are a couple of great ways to appreciate them. 

How to prepare just about anything from the farmers market in the oven:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash and cut larger vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Leave smaller ones whole. Toss in or drizzle with a little good-quality olive oil. Sprinkle with Kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Spread onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast until cooked through and caramelized on the edges.

…Or on the grill:

Preheat the outdoor grill to high. Wash and cut larger vegetables in half lengthwise. Leave smaller ones whole. Toss in or drizzle with a little good-quality olive oil. Sprinkle with Kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Grill about six minutes per side or until well-marked by the grill grates and cooked through. 

Figs in a Blanket

This dish was inspired by a late-night snack at Fat Possum Hollow last summer. I had brought along walnuts and also some figs I'd picked that morning from one of our trees for a quick snack. The cabin I was staying in had one thing in the fridge: American cheese singles. Famished after a long day of shooting photos, I wrapped my figs and walnuts in the cheese slices and let out a little laugh as I thought to myself, "I am now eating figs in a blanket."

Figs are coming in right now, and this is the perfect use for those giant ones you only find this time of year. Look for figs that are just ripe and avoid ones that are already soft -- they won't fare so well in the oven.

Go on and play around with it: switch up the cheese by subbing in some blue or feta, or swap out the walnuts for marcona almonds. You really can't go too wrong here! What you'll end up with is a snack that is on the savory side of sweet due to the smoked cheddar and cracked black pepper, and they're just rich enough. They're so simple to prepare and, as a bonus, will probably elicit a bemused laugh or two from, you know, the usual pig-in-a-blanket enthusiasts.

Figs in a Blanket

8 extra large figs (medium ripe)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)
1 tube crescent rolls
3 ounces smoked cheddar cheese (cut into 16 squares)
16 walnut halves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the figs in half and drizzle them with oil and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Using a pizza cutter, cut each pre-cut triangle of dough into half to create 16 long, skinny triangles. Stack one fig half, one slice of cheese, and one walnut half on each triangle. Starting at the fat end of the dough triangle, roll the fig, cheese, walnut stack. Place the resulting roll cheese-side-up on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat until all figs are used.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until rolls are golden brown. Allow them to cool or risk burning the heck out of your mouth -- trust me on this! (Makes 16 Figs in a Blanket.)

Brainless Banana Pancakes from How It All Vegan (& Expert Pancake Advice)

One of our go-to recipes at home is Brainless Banana Pancakes from How It All Vegan, the first book that made us really love cooking years ago. We have the other 2 books in the series, but this one, Sarah and Tanya's first, has been so well-loved for so long that it's completely falling apart now…time to order the anniversary edition this week for sure.

We figured that this was the recipe to use when we were on pancake duty at our goddaughter's 3rd birthday celebration with her family earlier this month. Frankly, pancakes aren't usually our very best friend. I mean, we can manage to make a couple of pretty ones for one of us, but the other poor soul eats the crumpled, slightly burned ones.

We needed help, so we got some tips on making a whole bunch of pancakes and having them turn out well from our friend Melissa Peterson, who is very knowledgeable and trustworthy on a wide range of subjects. Her advice via text message: make 1 1/4 pancakes per person; keep the griddle well oiled;  keep the heat to medium; only pour once per cake; when edges are dull and the bubbles start to pop, it's time to flip; and only flip them once, otherwise they'll be tough. This straightforward, stellar advice worked perfectly.

One last suggestion she gave after admitting how nervous we were to cook for a bunch of children: "Make faces with mini chocolate chips in the pancakes!" She said, "You'll be a hero."  Our banana chocolate chip smiley-face pancakes turned out to be a surefire hit with the  6-and-under set. Cooking for kids is really fun and certainly educational for folks like us who don't have any of our own. It seems like a huge compliment when little one love what you made; they seem to be pretty tough critics.

Later, we got a little obsessed with perfecting our chocolate-chip-smiley-face technique at home in order to use up the rest of the batter. We ended up giving two of our nephews 20 little pancakes to look forward to now for their upcoming breakfasts. Whether you have a bunch of kids running around the house or not, you've got to try Brainless Banana Pancakes for breakfast soon!

Cajun Boiled Peanuts in the Slow Cooker

On every road trip to Florida, no question, there were going to be boiled peanuts in a paper bag snagged from a roadside stand. My dad and I were the only ones who liked them, but we liked them enough for everyone. The hand-painted signed would point the way: "Produce" and then "Boiled Peanuts" and finally, "Next Right." We would start to get psyched up. The others? Well, they were crestfallen. 'They smell!' is really the only legitimate complaint they had. I couldn't see a problem with the spicy, earthy, peanut-y aroma, so I choose to tune-out my brothers' protests.

As promised, there was a kind Mississippi farmer just down the way peddling sweet potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon, and my beloved snack. After we procured a big brown bag full of warm boiled peanuts, I would climb up front into the much-coveted shotgun seat in our green Ford LTD station wagon. We would pass the bag back and forth while taunting the others: "Are you sure you don't want any? There's plenty to share!" My brothers and my mom just held their noses and shook their heads.

I couldn't understand it; I still don't. People fall squarely in either the love 'em or hate 'em category. I love them for their salty, rich, spicy addictiveness. Each one you open and pop into your mouth makes you hungry for more. They are SO good!

In all these years since, we've never made them at home, and it's a shame it's taken this long because the process is beyond simple. We added Cajun seasoning and bay leaves, but you could just as easily add whatever spices you like. Here goes…

Cajun Boiled Peanuts in the Slow Cooker

3 cups raw peanuts in the shell
1 beer (whatever you have on hand)
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning* (like Slap Yo' Mama)
2 bay leaves
Water to cover (about 2 cups)

Place peanuts, beer, cajun seasoning, bay leaves, and water to cover in the slow cooker. The peanuts will float at first, but don't worry, they're fine. Cook on high overnight or for about 12 hours. Drain and store in the fridge. Serve in a paper bag, as is road-trip tradition. (Makes 3 cups.)

*Use whatever Cajun seasoning you have on hand; just make sure the broth is as salty as you want the peanuts to be. You may need to add some to taste.

In Our Kitchen

The Chubby Vegetarian blog is all about inventive new vegetable recipes and wild, one-off experiments. Our first cookbook, The Southern Vegetarian: 100 Down-Home Recipes for the Modern Table, gathered all the Southern dishes that we make over and over again. Our love of cooking vegetables has taken us from our Memphis, Tennessee home to the James Beard House. We're proud to have been featured on The Food Network, in the The New York Times, in The Local Palate, by Woman's Day, and in The Washington Post…

…And most recently, on TheKitchn.com today! 

We so hope you love cooking with us. Look around some and let us know what works for you -- hopefully, you’ll land on lots of new ideas you hadn't thought of before and find some intriguing vegetable recipes to try. Below is our take on why we do what we do in the land of BBQ and how we learned to cook in a healthy way that's appealing to everyone. 

Oh, vegetables: you want to eat more of them because they make you feel great, or you need to eat more of them to displace some of the more dubious items on your plate. Either way, the question remains about how to take the natural, whole foods we all should be eating and transform them into something you and your family will crave. 

Our answer is simple: treat vegetables like a piece of meat -- really! We rub a pastrami cure onto beets and slice them for reubens, we BBQ spaghetti squash and slather it in a wonderfully spicy and rich Southern sauce, smoky lentils are tucked into tacos, and king oyster mushrooms are seared and served like little scallops.

On the blog as well as in our book, it’s not about replicating meat; it’s about moving vegetables from side dish to the center of the plate. It’s not about limitations or what’s missing; it’s about seeing the possibilities inherent in each beautiful vegetable and realizing its potential. Most of all it's about making delicious food that happens to be vegetarian.

For us, eating was not always about health. In 2008, when we started this blog, we were a combined 100 pounds heavier and now we know, a bit deluded about what we were actually eating. I mean, one of us is a strict vegetarian and has been for about 25 years,  and the other eats veg most of the time and has for ages…how bad could it have been? 

After making all the mistakes and going through our own health struggles, we became brave and driven enough to try something different. We both got with the program: running, biking, yoga, and eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and nuts and whole grains. We’re not satisfied with picking at a boring old salad everyday -- we were set on to making ‘healthy’ a little stealthy, appealing, and even more delicious than our old way of eating. 

We wouldn’t dream of life without hot dogs, tacos, or even steaks, so we figure out better ways to prepare them, or as we say in the South, to fix ‘em. All in all, what we strive to do through TCV and our book The Southern Vegetarian has turned out to be a mission for helping ourselves and others, and it's a passion that changed our lives for the better. Let’s eat well and enjoy it, let’s be strong and full of energy, and let’s get in the kitchen and cook something awesome, and then let's pull up a chair and all share a meal together. 

-- Justin & Amy

4th of July Cookout: TCV Appetizers, Salads, and Desserts

We're so excited about the 4th of July! Last year's highlight was a really nice and chill lunch outside with a couple of friends and some vegetarian paella on the grill; today, we're starting to think about what we'll grill out this time around.

We have blueberries ready for a pie and a general plan to make grilled carrot dogs. Also in the mix is a red, white, and blue dress from one of the patriotically attired mannequins here. We have some flag cups and toothpicks from a closeout sale last year. That's about as far as we've gotten. And, of course, seeing some fireworks on a 66-degree-low (!) Friday night. Love this part of the summer.

Earlier this week, we gathered a bunch of main-dish recipes and put together a new recipe for BBQ Artichoke Heart Tacos. Now here are some ideas for some of the extras for the celebration this Friday. So do you have plans together for what you're going make? Comment below and let's compare notes!

Appetizers:

Lemon Zest and Thyme Pimento Cheese (also used in our Tomato Pie)

Baked Cauliflower Wings 

Better Jalapeño Poppers

Deviled Tomatoes


Salads:

Grilled Watermelon Salad

Kale Caesar Salad

Summer Salad


Desserts:

Banana Pudding Ice Cream Cake

Mascarpone Banana Pudding in a Jar

Nannie's Blueberry Pie

Grilled Peach Ice Cream

Mixed Berry Crisp for a Crowd

BBQ Artichoke Heart Tacos + Our Favorite Vegetarian BBQ Ideas for the 4th of July

Summer…y'all, it suddenly seems like we're in the thick of it now. The watermelons, squash, hot peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are all starting to roll in, and everyone's obsessed with cooking out. That always begs the eternal question, "What does a vegetarian eat at a BBQ?" 

As you likely know if you've been here before, we have a few ideas about that. We wanted to give you something brand new for the upcoming 4th of July holiday this Friday, hence the BBQ Artichoke Heart Tacos we just had for lunch today. But we also wanted to recap some of our favorites for you, offer some choices, you know, because this is America, and we love freedom and everything like that. 

All of these recipes are simple to execute and are made from whole foods. The transformation from boring old vegetable to main dish comes when the smoke and fire infuse summer's bounty with flavor. 

So, in closing, we're wondering…what are you planning to grill this weekend? Leave a comment and let's get some ideas going!

This BBQ Portobello Mushroom Sandwich is always a favorite. We got the original recipe from Memphis's own Central BBQ, so you know it's good. 

These BBQ Spaghetti Squash Ribs are fun, and they can easily be transformed into BBQ sandwiches if you'd prefer! 

Our Charred Carrots Dogs have won over many. Some readers even say that this recipe trumps the taste of a real hot dog!

Eggplant is absolutely amazing grilled. We have lots of recipes to prove it like our Grilled Andouille Eggplant Po Boy and our very popular BBQ Eggplant Sliders with Caesar Coleslaw, or our recipe for Italian-Style Eggplant Sausages that was recently featured on Buzzfeed.

BBQ Artichoke Heart Tacos

BBQ Slaw (recipe follows)
2 14-ounce cans of artichoke hearts (whole or half)
1 tablespoon BBQ dry rub (Here's The Chubby Vegetarian version)
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup BBQ sauce (Here's The Chubby Vegetarian version)
6 small whole-wheat tortillas

Make BBQ Slaw according to the recipe and set aside in the fridge. Next, preheat your outdoor grill to high (you may also use a cast-iron grill pan for this if you don't have access to a grill.) Drain artichokes and place into a large bowl. Add the dry rub, vinegar, and olive oil. Toss to coat. Grill artichokes for 6 minutes on both sides or until well-marked by the grill grates. Toss with the BBQ sauce. Serve on tortillas with plenty of BBQ slaw. Makes 6 tacos. (Serves 2 to 4 people.)

BBQ Slaw

3 cups shredded purple cabbage (1/2 of a small cabbage)
1 tablespoon spicy mustard
1/4 cup mayo (olive oil or vegan...whatever you like)
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)

Toss cabbage, mustard, mayonnaise, and BBQ Sauce until well incorporated. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Makes about 2 1/2 cups.)

Young Coconut Smoothie

There is no better way to start making a smoothie than feeling the heft of a cleaver in your hand and bringing it down onto a young coconut. The thud is satisfying, and the rush of cracking into the tough outer shell to get to the lightly salty coconut water and the soft, rich meat is worth all the effort. As a vegetarian, this is about as close to butchery as I'm gonna get. And I have to admit, butchering a coconut is pretty fun!

Go look for a young coconut -- but know that they're not the classic-looking brown, hairy coconuts that monkeys carry around in cartoons. They're white on the outside and usually shaped into a cone at the top. Young coconuts have more water in them, and the meat is softer, almost jelly-like, and it's easy to scrape out with a spoon.

Once you've opened the coconut, you can make our new favorite smoothie using this amazingly healthy, loaded-with-electrolytes ingredient. We use cocoa powder to give it a chocolatey flavor and sweeten it with banana and dried dates.

Young Coconut Smoothie

1 young coconut
1 large banana (peeled, preferably frozen)
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
4 dried dates
2 cups ice
pinch of sea salt

To crack open the coconut: set it on a steady cutting board, take a cleaver or large knife in your dominant hand, put your other hand behind your back -- DO NOT EVER STEADY OR HOLD THE COCONUT WITH YOUR OTHER HAND! -- and patiently chop the cleaver into the top of the coconut four times, thus making a square. Using the tip of your cleaver, pry the cut part away to reveal an opening in the top of the coconut. Here's a quick video!

Pour the coconut water through a strainer and into your blender. Scape the coconut meat out with a spoon and place it in the blender as well. Add the banana, cocoa powder, dates, ice, and salt. Blend until smooth. (Serves 2.)

Mixed Berry Crisp for a Crowd

We go a little crazy when berries finally arrive at the farmers markets and then think, What in the world are we going to do with two flats of these? We froze them and used them for this! Frozen berries tend to work better for it because they seem to give off less juice during the baking process, and they also come together well without a thickening agent added.

So for the Father's Day pizza & potluck lunch over here last weekend, a big old summer berry crisp seemed just the thing to do. Whenever you're planning have a big crowd over for your next summer get-together, know that this recipe serves at least 10 folks (if that's too many, just halve it) and that it's really easy to throw together the morning of the party. It's got some good nutritional elements, and it's great with ice cream or Greek yogurt on top or even just by itself.

Mixed Berry Crisp for a Crowd

10 cups frozen berries (any combination strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries)
1 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
Juice from 1 lemon
2 cups oats
1 cup pecans (finely chopped)
1 cup flour (We used sprouted wheat.)
1 cup dates (finely chopped) or 1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
2 tablespoons spices (any combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and clove)
2/3 cup coconut or olive oil
Ice cream or Greek yogurt (optional, for topping)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Microwave the frozen berries for a minute or so and then you can mix them easily. Drizzle the honey over the berries and stir it in so that it coats them. Sprinkle the salt over them and add the lemon juice and stir again to combine. Brush a little olive oil or coconut oil on the bottom and sides of your baking dish(es) -- we used two for this recipe. Spread out the fruit in about a one-inch layer and bake it by itself for 10-15 minutes while you put the topping together.

In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the oats, pecans, flour, dates, salt, and spices. Drizzle in the oil and mix well. Take berry mixture out of the oven and spread the topping over it evenly. (You won't have a thick layer, and some fruit may peek through, but that's just right.) Bake for 1 hour or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit has cooked down into a jam-like consistency. Cool before serving and top with ice cream or Greek yogurt if you like. (Serves about 10.)

Deconstructed Borscht

Talking to Sabine about borscht while I was taking photos at ECCO on Overton Park the other day made me start to think about what all I would do with this traditional dish. So we thought about it, looked up a few recipes to glean the basic structure of borscht…and then we decided to just take it all apart. It's earthy as all get out with a good mix of mushrooms, sweet due to the beets, and tangy from the lemon, dill, and yogurt sauce. Maybe the presentation makes it look complicated, but it's simpler than it looks to make since it's basically making a dressing, putting veg in the oven, and whisking a sauce.

We picked up the beets from Brandon at Delta Sol Farm last weekend at the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market. If you haven't stopped by yet,  you really should check it out this Saturday! It's easy to park close, quick to run through and survey the goods, and you'll probably have the opportunity to catch up with a lot of nice folks you know while you shop. We like the  relaxed, low-key tone there, and we're so proud of our friend Caitlin and all she's doing to make it a great experience. There are great vendors with stuff that'll give you all kinds of ideas about what to make this Saturday for dinner outside or for an excellent Father's Day meal.

So, a plan has been forming around here lately. Really, one of the best things about summer is not having any sort of regimented meal planning at all and just letting all the amazing produce that's out there in abundance be the guiding factor in what you decide to cook. This summer, we want to do a post each week or two about what we're using from the many Memphis farmers markets all over town and what we've been inspired to make with our purchases. We'll see what's up next!

Deconstructed Borscht

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 cups cubed, peeled beets
3 cups wild mushrooms (We used chanterelles, morels, and maitake.)
 Kosher salt and cracked black pepper (to tatste)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
Zest from 1 lemon
3 sprigs dill (chopped, more for garnish)
Thinly sliced shallots and purple cabbage (to garnish)

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and vinegar to create a simple vinaigrette. Toss the beets with half of the vinaigrette and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet and into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 400 degrees and allow beets to cook for 20 minutes. Toss the mushrooms with the other half of the vinaigrette and season them with salt and pepper. Spread mushrooms onto a separate parchment-lined baking sheet and into the oven alongside the beets for 15 minutes.

While the beets and mushrooms roast, assemble the yogurt sauce by mixing the yogurt, lemon, and dill in a small bowl. Spread the yogurt sauce on the bottom of a plate. Top that with the warm roasted beets and the mushrooms. Garnish with shallots, cabbage, and dill sprigs. (Serves 2.)

Alisa's Summer Vegetable Bundt Cake

It's pretty fun to have two heaping cups of vegetables hiding in something sweet -- truly, this is a cake that's not as savory as you might expect it to be. Love this because we're very slyly planning to fit tons of summer vegetables into every meal this season, and we've been mulling over some new ideas for using all kinds of vegetables in desserts.

This cake was made using Alisa Huntsman's amazing recipe for Zucchini-Carrot Bundt Cake -- there are vegan and non-vegan versions of it on her site. We love the 'get excited for gardening -- 'cause there's cake!' bribery aspect in her story behind the recipe. Now I want to make some other things from her blogs, Easier than Pie and now Will Garden for Cake and get ahold of her cookbooks.

I think this cake just may become a bargaining chip for us as well…you know, if anyone wants to come help us weed some already embarrassingly overgrown flowerbeds this week around 6 a.m. before the June heat sets in…

Alisa's Summer Vegetable Bundt Cake

2 medium carrots (peeled)
1 small yellow squash
1 small zucchini squash
1 cup milk + 2 teaspoons white vinegar (let this sit for 5 minutes)
3 large eggs
2/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
2 cups light brown sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour (we use Bob's Red Mill gluten-free just due to preference; add 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum)
1 teaspoon iodized sea salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
About a tablespoon each of butter and flour for bundt pan
Lemon-Vanilla Glaze (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grate carrots, yellow squash, and zucchini using a box grater or run them through the food processor with a grater blade. (You will need two cups total.) Set aside. Whisk together the milk, eggs, coconut oil, and sugar and set aside. Whisk together the flour, sea salt, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice and set aside. Now add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Add the vegetable mixture and gently fold it into the batter. Spread cold butter into bundt pan and dust it with flour. Pour in the cake batter and place pan into the oven. Bake for about an hour or until knife inserted into cake comes out clean. Let cake cool and shake pan a bit after 5 minutes to loosen cake. Wait another ten minutes after that and then place a wire rack on top of the bundt pan then flip the cake onto the rack. Place a plate or cutting board underneath it. Drizzle the cake with Lemon-Vanilla Glaze while it is still warm and let it cool completely before slicing it.

Lemon-Vanilla Glaze

Juice from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder
1 teaspoon milk (add more if needed for the proper consistency)
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Whisk until mixture is the consistency of honey and set aside for drizzling over warm cake.

Beet and Goat Cheese Ravioli with Parsley and Mint Pesto

(This is one of the dishes we served at the wonderful 2014 Project Green Fork Spring Supper on 6/1/14 at Southward Fare & Libations!)

This is a dish we make for company or the family on special occasions. The bright and earthy pasta contrasts with the vibrant, green pesto -- both on the plate and on the palate. It's a dish that screams 'spring!' by making use of the fresh herbs, eggs, and beets that start to appear at the market in April. 

We don't write much about filled pastas like ravioli because they're pretty time consuming to make, and also because we're self-aware enough to know we may have a reputation for not having the simplest recipes in the world. (A common observation from some readers we meet: "So, y'all don't have kids, do you?") We'd hate to further bolster that notion about our sometimes-complicated-but-hopefully-worth-it food by asking you to put down what you're doing and make not only the filling of this ravioli from scratch, but also the pasta and the pesto sauce that accompanies it…but, hey, here we go. Just humor us and come along and see what you think. 

To be honest, we find this process relaxing, and possibly you will, too, just probably not the very first time you try to make ravioli. It takes about four good tries before things really start to come together, but you do learn more with each go at it. It's best to think about ravioli making as several little steps raher than one giant leap. Make the filling, make the pasta, fill the pasta, make the sauce, serve. See, it's simple!

You will need some special equipment. We use the food processor a lot in the kitchen. If you don't already have one, get one! You'll also need a pasta roller. We have one that attaches to the stand mixer. It's much easier than a hand-crank, but one of those will do just fine. Lastly, you'll need a fluted pastry wheel. This is the thing that you'll use to cut the pasta. The fluted shape helps to seal the ravioli so they don't unravel in the water as they cook. 

Let's go on and get started, but before we begin, place a head of garlic and 4 medium beets in a covered casserole and drizzle this with olive oil. Place into a 350 degree oven for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the beets are cooked through. Allow everything to cool. You'll need these things later on. If you don't have the patience for that, just pick up some good quality canned beets and some roasted garlic from the olive bar.

For the goat cheese filling:
10.5 ounces goat cheese
1 head roasted garlic (peeled)
1 large egg
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
4 sprigs of thyme
1/2 teaspoon champagne vinegar
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)

In the work bowl of your food processor, place the cheese, garlic, egg, panko, thyme, and vinegar. Pulse until all ingredients are well incorporated. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to taste. Scrape into a covered container and place in the fridge until needed. Rinse the food processor in order to use it for the next step.

For the beet pasta:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup peeled, chopped, roasted beet (about 1 medium)
1 large egg
about 3 tablespoons water

Into the work bowl of your food processor, place the flour and beets. Let it run until the roasted beet is completely blended into the flour. The result will look like magenta sand. Add the egg and blend. With the food processor running, add the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough forms a ball and runs around the container all clumped together; you'll know when this happens. Gather the ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place it into the fridge to rest. Rinse the food processor in order to use it for the next step.

For the pesto:
1 large bunch fresh parsley (long stems removed, about 2 cups)
1 bunch fresh mint (about 1 cup)
1 clove garlic
1 cup toasted hazelnuts (skins rubbed off)
Juice 1 lemon
1/2 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)

Into the work bowl of your food processor place the parsley, mint, garlic, hazelnuts, lemon juice, and olive oil. Pulse until everything is broken down but still chunky. Set aside until ready to assemble the dish.

To assemble the ravioli. Roll the pasta out starting at a #1 and working your way down to a #5 on your pasta roller. (Cut pasta to fit your well-floured work surface if it gets too long.) You should end up with about four 3-foot sections of pasta dough. Using a small ice cream scoop or a spoon, place about a teaspoon of filling on one half of the large pasta sheet. Leaving about the width of two fingers between each, continue to do this down the length of the pasta. Fold the side that's without filling longways over the filling and press the pasta all around the filling using the sides of your hands. Using the fluted pastry wheel, cut the front edge off of the pasta and run it in between each lump of filling. The hinged side should be left as is. This will make about 30 large ravioli.

In batches of 10, drop ravioli into a pot of well-salted water for about 2 minutes. Using a strainer, retrieve them from the water and toss in a large bowl with a teaspoon of olive oil to keep them from sticking together. Serve on a large platter garnished with the remaining beets and the pesto. (Serves 6 to 8.)

Olive-Bar Puttanesca with Cauliflower Chops

(This is one of the dishes we served at the wonderful 2014 Project Green Fork Spring Supper on 6/1/14 at Southward Fare & Libations!)

I love the olive bar. It just may be my favorite part of the whole entire grocery store. I really can't think of one item on it that I don't love, so it's natural that I'm so into this sauce. It's comprised of all the amazing things found on the olive bar and is in the style of a spicy puttanesca sauce. (We've played around with the same idea before for pasta and flatbread; this new recipe is a good low-carb option.)

Grab a quart container at the end of the olive bar and start filling that sucker up. First thing to remember is that you want to get the pitted olives for this dish. I don't mind a little work in the kitchen, but there is no need to put yourself through pitting a half-quart of olives when there are perfectly good pitted olives sitting right there. Second thing is to buy the olives you like. I prefer a mix of spicy calamata and large green Greek olives. You get what you like. 

Next, throw in a bunch of those awesome sweet pickled peppers. This will help add balance to your sauce. Lastly, top it off with a a dozen or so of the roasted garlic cloves that are always on the olive bar. You should have about a half quart of olives and about a half quart of peppers, garlic, and anything else you see that looks good. Don't cram it full, though; it should be lightly packed.

This puttanesca sauce is chunky and textured. I like it like that! We serve it over Cauliflower Chops, which are just big hunks of cauliflower roasted in the oven. The stem sticks out like a bone-in pork chop  so visually it's pretty cool. This sauce is also at home as a pizza sauce or over some penne pasta. It's very flavorful, so leave it as is or top it with Romano, herbs, and pine nuts if you like. 

Olive-Bar Puttanesca with Cauliflower Chops

Cauliflower Chops (recipe follows)
2 medium carrots
2 medium ribs of celery
2 medium shallot
1 quart mix of spicy olives, sweet peppers, roasted garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
1 teaspoon salt-packed capers (rinsed)
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 large can organic fire-roasted diced tomatoes

Using the slicing blade on the food processor, slice the carrots, celery, and shallots and  set aside. Next, using the same blade, slice all of the stuff from the olive bar: pitted olives, sweet peppers, roasted garlic. Set that aside in a separate bowl.

In a large skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil. Once that starts to shimmer, add the carrot, celery, shallot mixture. Cook until softened and starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the wine and cook until most of the mine has evaporated. Add the sliced olive bar mixture along with the capers, Italian seasoning, and the tomatoes. Cook, uncovered, until everything is warmed through. There is no need to salt this sauce due to the salt content of the olives and capers.

Serve Cauliflower Chops family-style on a large platter smothered in Olive-Bar Puttanesca. (Serves 8.) 



Cauliflower Chops

2 large heads cauliflower
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)

Carefully trim the leaves away from the stem of each cauliflower but leave the stem intact. Quarter each cauliflower starting at the stem so you are left with 4 wedges from each for a totl of 8. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. 

In a small bowl, combine the olive oil and sherry and balsamic vinegars. Brush each cauliflower liberally with the mixture. Place cauliflower into a cold oven and set the temperature to 425 degrees. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until tender; be sure to flip the cauliflower halfway through the cooking time. (Serves 8.)