Summertime is Grillintime

I love grilled vegetables. When Alex and I moved out of apartments, I bought a cheap gas grill to celebrate, like a housewarming thing. For me. And it’s just perfect for summer vegetables.

Everything I grill is my favorite. I love corn, portabellas, onions, and bell peppers. Yellow squash and zucchini are good, too. And I have okra coming in my farm bin Wednesday – it’s going on the grill, and it’s all mine.

Typically, I’ll cut the veg into chunks, toss it in some canola, and season with one of those shakers with a variety of pre-mixed seasonings. It’s my shortcut – I’m not endorsing it, and I can’t remember when or why I bought it. Sometimes, though, I plan a meal.

I recently grilled kale, sweet potatoes, and Field Roast smoked apple sage sausages. I love sweet potatoes and kale together, and grilling them worked really well. I used these instructions for pre-cooking and seasoning the sweet potatoes, and I just rubbed the kale with canola and put it right on the grill.

Some of it got a little charred, but that’s okay. It was delicious.

I bought one of those vegetable trays for my grill, and I just take it inside and scrub it after each use. It’s been in heavy rotation this summer.

In other news, I’m still waiting to hear back on the job, and honestly that’s been all I can think about lately. Sometimes I try to think about what to do for my first give-away, and here’s the problem: I learned so much about how to eat by blogging and “meeting” other bloggers. Seriously. I was eating tofu and black beans and had no idea what to do way back when. So what can give my teachers? A “best teacher” coffee mug? I am going to make a decision this week – promise. And a night with my wall-scaler Alex is still a possibility.

Callaloo–what?

Wow, where did summer go? I wore long sleeves all day today and was chilly. I talked to my mom – she says it’s cooler in her area, too, because it’s not 90. Oh.

I went back and forth on trying this new recipe. Turns out, I picked a perfect day for it. This recipe caught my eye in the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook I picked up at a used bookstore recently. It’s called callaloo, which apparently is both a green and a dish.

Unable to find callaloo (possibly because I only went to my mainstream grocer), I used red kale. This dish is most like a soup, but it’s made with lime juice that brings a summery flavor to it. This soup is made with onions, garlic, ginger, spices (turmeric, coriander, thyme, allspice), sweet potatoes, kale, okra, and tomato. All that simmers in broth, then it’s finished with coconut milk and lime juice.

Yep, the okra and sweet potato combo both intrigued and disgusted me. In the end, though, this was a tasty soup. I thought it needed some heat, though, and I wish I’d cut my grape tomatoes (like the recipe suggested).

Since that soup is not too pretty, I thought I’d leave you with a cute photo. Now that winter is over, the cats are out of their cat beds and taking over a chair. I’m glad they’re sticking to one – I don’t like to sit in fur. Anyway, sometimes they take turns, but often, in this cooler weather, they pile on top of each other.

I ate quinoa because he doesn’t like it either

I recently cooked a pretty awesome meal, if I do say so myself. I borrowed a cookbook from the library, Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, and actually ended up making two recipes from the cookbook.

I’ve made several versions of homemade veggie burgers or patties, and I’m still looking for my favorite. This one was pretty good. I tried the Quinoa, Red Bean, and Walnut burgers. I was flipping through the book and the author, Lukas Volger, said something that really hit home with me (sorry, quinoa lovers!) – he said he often finds quinoa a little too grassy for his taste.

These patties are made with quinoa, red beans, walnuts, and a steamed potato. The steamed potato is his binder in many of his vegan recipes. They’re flavoried with ginger, scallions, and cilantro. (I used cilantro because I had some, the recipe calls for parsley.) True – the ginger does cut through some of the grassiness of the quinoa.

The other recipe I made from the cookbook was the red cabbage slaw. Actually, I started with the recipe and kept going. This is simply shredded red cabbage and dressed it with rice vinegar, a little toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, scallions, and brown rice syrup. This was a sweet and sour cole slaw, and it was delicious, and the leftovers were great as the vinegar kept wilting the cabbage.

Round out this meal with roasted sweet potato wedges, tied together with more grated ginger. All of this was a little time consuming, but in the end it was worth it. Actually, it was most worth it when I had the leftovers for lunch and the work was already done!

Veggie Burgers Every Which Way has been returned to the library, and I might check it out again if I’m in the mood to try a different kind of patty.

The beginning of winter and the end of Thanksgiving leftovers

You really can make anything into a patty. Getting patties to hold together was a serious challenge for me in the past, but now? Easy. Maybe I’ve finally learned how to be gentle.

When I read about the sweet potato and white bean patties Jenny was making, I knew I needed to give them a try. That, and I had six large sweet potatoes on the shelf and leftovers from Thanksgiving in the fridge. I needed a way to use up what I had and get some variety at the same time.

I used mashed sweet potatoes, cannelleni beans, bread crumbs, and some sauteed diced onions and garlic. I seasoned the mix with salt and garam masala and ate my patty with leftover collards. Alex ate his with ketchup.

We got our first snow this weekend, and I made homemade tomato soup for the first time. Tomato soup + sweet potato patties doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was a great meal on a cold night.

My Thanksgiving

This is a typical Thanksgiving, for me. For the past seven years or so, I’ve pretty much done small Thanksgivings, either by myself (yes, really) or just with a few other people. This year, there were four of us - my parents, Alex, and me, at my house in my tiny kitchen.

It’s good when the plate is loaded with a variety of tasty eats, and this is one time of year that I don't mind my foods touching. I made many of the things my family typically enjoys, with a few changes to accommodate Alex’s requests, and of course everything was vegan. Clockwise, starting at 12:00 on the plate, we had:

• Cornbread dressing, made with cornbread, biscuits, celery, and onion
• Paula Deen’s corn casserole with vegan analogs (Better Than Sour Cream, Earth Balance, no cheese)
• Broccoli Casserole with a Daiya cheeze sauce similar to what I used as the macaroni and cheeze base, with cashew cream in place of soymilk
• Roasted sweet potatoes with maple and pecans
• Roasted Brussles sprouts
• Tofurkey with vegetables accompanying it during the roast (onion, carrot, celery)
• Cranberry relish
• Mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and mushroom gravy

All four of us enjoyed the meal. My parents even enjoyed the Tofurkey – my dad went back for seconds! I had offered to get some (pre-cooked) turkey for them, and thankfully they declined.

The cats are not enjoying the company; they’ve hidden themselves out of sight and are keeping each other warm in a bed built for one and have only come back into the open now that my folks have returned to their hotel:

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving, or a wonderful Thursday. I’ll share the details on the Derby Pie tomorrow – it was delicious! Right now, I have a lot to be thankful for, but on a lighter note - I’m thankful I’m not a Bengals fan. Cincinnati sports teams have broken my heart one too many times.

One More Round: Restaurant Food at Home

This goes way back to last May, when I visited The Chicago Diner. At the time, I was kicking myself for choosing a quesadilla when faced with more choices from their extensive vegan menu than I could wrap my head around. Still, it was really good. And even as I said to myself that I could make it at home, I never did. Until now.

I stuffed my tortilla with smashed sweet potatoes, steamed spinach, black beans, and grilled onions. After the photo, I added some spicy salsa. Yum! I should make this again.

Have a great weekend – I’ll be around!

Peer Pressure Pumpkin Chili

I’ve been seeing lots of pumpkin recipes all over. I’m sorry to say that although they all look good, I am not really a fan of pumpkin. Please don’t ban me from the blogosphere! I want to be open to trying new things, and maybe there’s a little bit of peer pressure, so I bought four cans of organic pumpkin puree. I read about people hoarding cans and stores running out, so I figured I should get plenty just in case I liked it.

I didn’t grow up eating pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. My mom would make pumpkin cheesecake. Instead of venturing into that (maybe later!), I decided to make pumpkin chili like I get at Loving Hut. Mine was much chunkier and it turned out really well. I combined so many recipes that I’ll share what I did, as I do consider it my own.

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato, diced
• 1 sweet onion, chopped
• 15 oz. diced tomatoes
• 15 oz. pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked and simmered
• 1/2 cup dried kidney beans, cooked
• 1/2 cup bulgur
• 1 cup water or broth, or more, for desired consistency (I used the sweet potato boiling water)
• 2 Tablespoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or small amounts of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice)
• A shake of cayenne, or more if you like it hot. Chipotles or fresh peppers might be good here, too.

Method:

This was pretty simple. My beans were prepared, so I boiled the sweet potatoes and sauteed the onions, then just combined everything else and cooked until heated through and the bulgur is done.

I wanted to take photos of the cooking in-progress, but unless you need to see my chopped onions or my sweet potato cubes, this is pretty much it. This was a quick and easy chili that was delicious. I like the two kinds of beans and the sweet-heat, as well as the chunks of sweet potatoes.

So, am I pumpkin convert? Maybe. What’s your favorite thing to do with pumpkin? Or, do you fall for peer pressure?

Super Quick Supper: Jarred, Frozen, and Fresh

I’m not sure what it says about my cooking skills, but sometimes the things I put together on the fly are better than meals I spend lots of time cooking. Here’s a dinner I put together quickly after work so we could eat before our 7:00 Italian class.

This is pressed, oven-baked tofu, oven roasted cubed sweet potatoes, and spinach and green peas in jarred Jalfrezi Curry sauce. I had a few sweet potatoes I wanted to use, and everything else I usually keep on hand: spinach from my smoothie stash, frozen green peas, and tofu.

Between Summer and Fall

I’m enjoying both summer squash and sweet potatoes topped with smarshmallows.

I found some really gorgeous yellow squash and fried it up along with some sweet onions, and I also made some dried black eyed peas and brown rice. I love my black eyeds with some sort of pickle or relish, Pickapeppa sauce, or both. This time I had sweet onion relish that was pretty good. Eventually, I’ll want to make my own relish for my peas.

The star of the show, though, was the creamed sweet potatoes with Dandies marshmallows on top. I baked the taters, then whipped them with some maple syrup and almond milk. The Dandies went on top for a quick blast in the broiler to make them all gooey and delicious.

I’m not waiting for Thanksgiving to enjoy a treat like this. The beginning of fall, even when it’s still in the 90s, is a perfect time for me.

Quick and Easy! Smokey Tempeh, Sweet Potatoes, and Kale

This supper came together in a matter of minutes, not including time to marinate the tempeh. But that’s not active cooking time, so it doesn’t count. I’ve just started using tempeh more, and I’m loving it.

This is Smokey Grilled Tempeh from Veganomicon, along with steamed sweet potatoes and kale with raisins and pine nuts.

This is the kind of supper I was hungry to have; it’s been busy here and quick meals don’t always feel this good. I mentioned slinging beers, and last night I served dinner at our local Ronald McDonald House like I do the first Monday of every month. I made a variation of my stuffed zucchini: whole wheat pasta with crushed tomatoes, cannellini beans, basil, and grilled zucchini. I even topped it with some Almesan. Those flavors are so good together, and this makes for a delicious pasta dish. But it’s still a rush to get there and have the food prepared immediately after a busy day at work.

We don’t always serve pasta – usually we’ll do soups, breakfast foods, Mexican, sandwiches, etc., but this happened to be “Italian” night. If you’ve ever offered to serve at RHM or in a similar situation, you understand that they discourage bringing pasta, well, because it’s cheap and easy and too many groups do this. Don’t worry, these folks ate up these cheesy, meaty casseroles with no complaints. And they dug into my dish, too. There was a line for half an hour!

I’m taking the rest of this week easy. It’s time to enjoy summer before it’s cold again.

If you haven’t already entered, check out this giveaway from vegan and so forth. Good luck!

Smothered Okra Success

Remember the smothered okra I had at DeJaVu? I tried it at home. I searched for recipes and ended up winging it, but I did consult a recipe from Emeril Lagasse. I started by making a half-batch of his Essence spice blend. I made a mess on the table, but it reminded me of making a sand art jar when I was a kid. I loved those, you filled in your jar with layers of colored sand. And yes, I got myself a label maker when I started buying in bulk. I’m a nerd like that.

Essence: paprika, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne, oregano, and thyme

I didn’t follow the recipe for the smothered okra exactly because I didn’t consult the recipe prior to shopping. I made this with chopped onion and garlic, which I cooked for a few minutes in olive oil while I prepared my tomatoes and okra.

I used two large tomatoes and cut them into large pieces, and I cut my okra into thirds. I’m really glad I used fresh tomatoes over canned, even though I was worried at first whether this would work. But fret not, you can stew fresh tomatoes! I didn’t buy a lot of okra since Alex doesn’t like it. In fact, he refused to try the okra in this dish and ate some tomatoes while carefully avoiding the okra!

I added my tomatoes, okra, and a cup of vegetable broth and cooked for a long time, along with a healthy dose of the Emeril’s Essence seasoning. I let this cook for close to two hours. The tomatoes no longer resembled fresh tomatoes, but were indeed like the stewed tomatoes I’ve had oftentimes from a can. The okra wasn’t slimy after all this cooking, either, and the heat from the cayenne really kicked in. I enjoyed this very much. It’s fine that I ate every bit of it, and Alex doesn’t believe what he was missing.

Summer veggie plate: mashed sweet potatoes, summer squash, green beans, smothered okra, and cornbread

Creole Soul in Memphis

I tried a new restaurant on my recent trip to Memphis! I’m excited because I typically find my myself going back to the same favorites each time I visit. DeJaVu has a vegan section on their menu, plus lots of non-vegan stuff people are raving about on Yelp and Urbanspoon. My folks each ate a chicken dish and weren’t impressed, but Alex and I both enjoyed our meals.

DeJaVu has two locations in Memphis, one downtown and the other newly opened in Hickory Hill. We visited the Hickory Hill location. It’s the larger location and even has space for live music on the weekend. Our visit was for a late lunch on Saturday and the place had a few leisurely diners scattered, televisions mounted on the wall showing ESPN bowling, and music playing over the speakers. The place felt cool, clean, and bright.

They brought out glasses of ice water, a bowl of lemon wedges, and corn muffins. The corn muffins are not vegan, but I hear they’re good. The restaurant has traditional New Orleans food (gator stew, anyone?) as well as Southern Soul standards and a handful of vegan entrees.

All of the vegetable side dishes are vegan. If you’re not familiar with Southern cooking, that may sound confusing. I think it’s remarkable, because it can be tough to even get vegetarian vegetables when everything is “seasoned” with ham hock, fat back, bacon grease, or chicken stock. All unnecessary – diners at DeJaVu may not even notice that the meat is missing in their sides. All the ones I tried were good, too, and I think if I go back I’ll get a 4-veggie plate. And I’ll be sure to try the grilled cabbage.

I chose the mock chicken salad. This was good, but messy. That can’t be a complaint. The salad was tasty and the portion was generous. I chose collard greens and smothered okra for my sides. The greens were good, tender and salty. The smothered okra was my favorite, though, even though it was a little on the sweet side (pictured above, under the sweet potatoes). I love okra, but I don’t eat it much since it scares Alex. And as I found out during lunch, my mom doesn’t like it with tomatoes, so this dish was unlike anything I’ve had before, even though it’s not uncommon. Given different circumstances, this could be a staple. I think I’m going to make something like this at home.

Alex chose the veggie rolls. These were delicious, if heavy, deep fried eggroll style. They were stuffed with curried cabbage, carrots, and raisins and served with a spicy-sweet sauce. The cabbage and carrots were delicious together. He chose spinach and sweet potatoes for his sides. These were both good, and the sweet potatoes were sweeter than most desserts, but he has a sweet tooth and cleaned his bowl.

The only other side I tried was the red beans and rice, which was good and even got the stamp of approval from my mom. These red beans were just spicy enough and in red gravy, topped with fluffy white rice. She also got collard greens, like me, and my father only chose one side: spinach. He liked that so much it was gone before he offered a bite to my mom.

The good news for me is that this place is right around the corner from my grandparents, so I’ll plan to drop in whenever I visit them. That’s not the only reason, convenient as it is, so even after they “leave town” as Papa says, I’ll stop by when I’m in town.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi and Kale

Cincinnati has a large city market open all year, Findlay Market. But yesterday I decided to stop by my neighborhood’s farmer’s market instead of heading downtown. I’m glad I checked it out, but there were only a few booths and the most popular ones were the meat and gelato booths.

I picked up some organic kale, sweet potato gnocchi, and a few other fresh goodies.

I knew I wanted to put the kale with the sweet potatoes, but I didn't quite know how to sauce them. I read several recipes for and decided to go with a variation of a cider vinegar sauce.

I started by cooking some sliced sweet onions low and slow, letting them brown in a bit of olive oil. Meanwhile, I cooked the kale down in a separate pot. And in yes, a third pot, I boiled the gnocchi according to the instructions until they floated.

I added some Earth Balance, walnuts, and apple cider vinegar to the onions, then tossed in the gnocchi along with a ladleful of their boiling water. I love the vinegar on the greens, and the walnuts added a nice little crunch. I’m not one to enjoy a plate of mushy pasta as the only thing I eat, so this combination was perfect and pretty easy at that, thanks to the prepared gnocchi available from a cooler in a parking lot yesterday. I think I'll be ready to make my own gnocchi, one day.

Restaurant: The Chicago Diner

I spent this weekend in Chicago to watch the Chicago Cubs play their biggest rival, and one of my favorite teams, the Saint Louis Cardinals.

The clever billboard references the Saint Louis Arch both for the Cardinals and Budweiser. Although I don’t care for either beer, I like this better than suggesting you have to take off your skirt to enjoy a good beer. After the game, we headed across the street for a really good beer at Goose Island and tried a few varieties not available from our local grocer.

Before the game, we ate at The Chicago Diner, just a short walk from Wrigley. This restaurant was a top hit when I was searching for vegetarian food in Chicago. It’s popular and honored with many awards. I think the main reason we went was because Alex spotted their Reuben featured on the website. I just found out that he loves Reubens when he couldn’t get over the one he ate last weekend.

When we walked in late Sunday morning the place was packed with brunchers and lunchers. We stood by the door, awkwardly hovering over a table, trying not to be obtrusive, waiting to be seated, following the instructions on the sign. Reading reviews now, it sounds like others have commented on this as well, but there’s just no room to stand. It was a tight fit, but we were seated pretty quickly in a large booth with a view of the bar where they were making both milkshakes and cocktails. The whole place kept with the diner feel, both in appearance and menu, and I really dug it.

No surprise here: Alex ordered the Radical Reuben. This one is made with seitan sliced thin and made to look like corned beef. The diner says “while we don’t believe in serving meat, we do believe in great tasting food. The quoted words are a quick way to describe flavors & textures like mom used to make. There’s plenty of protein in grains/beans, even if described like ‘meat’ … it’s still veggie love.” They go on to define tofu and seitan.

Although they don’t say “corned beef” and I didn’t even know that’s what’s in a Reuben until Alex informed me, this sandwich has it piled high. It’s topped with sauerkraut, onions, peppers, and swiss cheeze, served on marbled rye bread with a side of vegan thousand island dressing. The seitan really made this special. There might have been a little too much of it for my taste (or more appropriately, for how wide I can open my mouth), but that’s not something worth complaining about when you can just take some off and enjoy it by the forkful.

The Radical Reuben, with a side of sweet potato fries.

When I look back over the menu now, there’s a dozen dishes I want to try, but when I was there I had my eye on the sweet potato quesadilla. This was good and was just what I wanted that morning, but it’s much more like something I can make at home. I had my choice, though, to get something more exciting… I guess I’ll have to go back. Either that, or try to mock up some of their dishes at home through nothing but the menu description!

My spinach tortilla was stuffed with mashed sweet potatoes, fresh spinach, seasoned black beans, marinated seitan, and vegan cheeze. It came with a side cup of salsa, and I opted to upgrade and get an additional cup of guacamole.

I’ve looked to see if I can find comments on their guacamole because it was really strange. At first I thought I got a bad batch, but it seems like they include a flavor I’ve never had in guacamole before. It was almost chemical, but Alex assured me he didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. After I ate more, I pinned this as a licorice flavor. I found other recipes for tarragon guacamole described as having a hint of licorice. That could be it – has anyone ever had anything like this? I should have asked about it.

Otherwise, my quesadilla was both humongous and delicious. I was hungry and I couldn’t finish it. The seitan was spongy like when I make it at home, but it was still well seasoned and very tasty. I think this dish would have been just as good without it, though. For all my talk of the guacamole, I should tell you that I ate most of it and nearly all my salsa. The salsa was especially good.

Although my photo doesn’t show it, I liked the colors in this dish: the orange sweet potato, the almost purple black beans, and the bright green spinach. This dish was a winner, and I can’t dismiss it just because I feel like I could make it at home. Maybe I should take that as a challenge!

Sweet Potato Chili

Several days after having my wisdom teeth removed, I was feeling better, but still not up to chewing or eating normal foods. On top of that, I was hungry and bored with store-bought soup. I made some sweet potato chili, which I first heard of at Sweet Art but I’ve heard it mentioned several times since.

I grabbed a recipe from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, so all I had to do was chop some veggies, peel some sweet potatoes, and let my crock pot do the rest. (While I slept all afternoon.)

This is made with sweet potatoes, kidney beans, crushed tomatoes, onion, and red bell pepper, and is seasoned with chili powder and garlic. After all this cooks in the slow cooker, add some smoky chipotle peppers. In my bowl there, I mashed it slightly. This was good, and I like the combination of beans and sweet potatoes, but I still feel like it was missing something. I’ll try sweet potato chili again, but I think I’ll look at different recipes.

Sesame Scrambled Tofu with Greens and Yams

My copy of Vegan Brunch arrived, and as I flipped through, many many recipes caught my eye. I like that there are so many recipes with foods I like to use and very few ingredients I wouldn’t use more than once.

For my first recipe, I wanted to try making a tofu scramble, which I’ve had in restaurants but have never cooked. Because I was cooking for supper, I decided to try the tofu scramble with greens and yams to make a complete meal. Well, that and I love sweet potatoes and greens. Yes, I used sweet potatoes instead of yams. I used Swiss chard for the greens because they were the best looking greens available at my market when I shopped.

For this recipe, I wanted to make sure I had really firm tofu, so I froze, thawed, and then pressed a block of Trader Joe’s extra firm tofu. Isa Chandra Moskowitz, the cookbook author, has wonderful notes throughout the book and addresses the question of cubed vs. torn tofu in tofu scrambles. In the end, it doesn’t matter, but I like my tofu torn (or crumbled, but leaving larger chunks). I feel like the ragged edges make it easier for it to soak up seasonings. I don’t think there’s any evidence for that, though.

Besides planning ahead to thaw and press the tofu, this was pretty easy. Garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes are sautéed in sesame oil, then the tofu and soy sauce are added, then the greens, and finally the (baked, peeled, and chunked) sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Voila! And yum.

I alternate between grabbing recipes from the web, throwing things together from memory or based on what’s available, and using cookbooks. I’m really impressed with this cookbook, and I can’t believe it took me so long to cough up the $9 I spent – shipping included – to get it used from Amazon. I know I’ll be trying more cookbook recipes soon. What are your favorite cookbooks?

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

No, I’m not drinking green beer. I’m making patties.

Mediterranean Black bean quinoa burgers, served with sweet potato fries and snow peas. Topped with mozzarella.

I’ve been playing with the idea of making homemade veggie burgers or veggie patties for a while. Actually, I tried once in my pre-blogging days, without a recipe and without much success. The veggie burger is one of Alex’s favorites, and I’d love to be able to make them at home rather than buying frozen patties. You can see how often we eat patties from my recent post on mushroom patties and my description of Allyn’s (one of our favorites: I like the beer list, Alex likes the veggie patty they make).

I saw this recipe on The Voracious Vegan and was eager to give it a shot. I pretty much followed the recipe, except I didn’t have chickpea flour so I used brown rice flour, and I cut it in half. It’s made of mushed black beans, cooked quinoa, sun-dried tomatoes, flour, ground flax seed, and liquid smoke. I made two huge patties and one smaller patty. If I do it again, I’d make four smaller patties. Unlike ground beef, they don’t shrink when they cook!

The texture of this recipe was spot-on. They formed into patties really easily and held their form as I cooked them in a skillet. I ate mine without a bun (as pictured) but Alex went for the bun, along with ketchup, mustard, and pickles. I used some Pickapeppa sauce as it seemed a little bland. Black beans and quinoa are both pretty mild flavors, and there weren’t many other flavors until you reached a bite with sun-dried tomato. Note, though, the original recipe has a red onion and basil aoili that probably helps a lot.

I think I’m going to make burgers regularly. I’m already looking for my next recipe!

Sweet Potatoes and Caramelized Onions!

Another night of vegetables? Yes, please! Honestly, I’m a little surprised Alex ate anything I cooked here besides the sweet potatoes. I made brown basmati rice, black-eyed peas, and collard greens. Yes, collard greens. After my newfound love of kale, I decided to branch out and try some different greens. These were delicious.

I’ve never cooked collard greens before, but I kept it simple: I put some oil in a large pot, added the greens, doused them with a small amount of broth (3/4 cup for a lot of greens) and steamed them for about 10 minutes. Then I gave a quick splash of salt and vinegar. Yum!

The star of the meal, though, was the sweet potato puree.

I happened to be watching basic cable in a hotel room Sunday morning and I couldn’t take my eye off this puree of onions and sweet potatoes.

It’s this recipe by Claire Robinson of the 5-Ingredient Fix. Because Alex and I both love onions and sweet potatoes, I figured it was worth a shot. It was surprising, and although not bad, I’d rather do the chunks of sweet potato with maple and pecans like we did on Thanksgiving again.

The puree is made of roasted chunks of sweet potato along with olive oil and maple syrup. Separately caramelize a sweet onion in butter (or in my case, Earth Balance). In my photos, the sweet potatoes were done but the onions cooked much more – this is an in-progress shot.

Then, puree the sweet potatoes with some of the onions, leaving some to go on top. There you have it!