Category Archives: Vegan Dishes

Appetizers and Small Plates, Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Rosemary Chili Oil

Bread and butter is really a lot more elegant than we treat it as, kids.  It’s a fine marriage between savory, sweet, crusty, doughy, chewy, pliable goodness.  It comes in infinite permutations, such as a few of my favorites – poblano cheddar bread (from Best Buns in Arlington, VA) with Normandy beurre, or a crusty baguette with a slathering of lavender infused oil and butter.  Both are divine, but require a trip to DC or Marseille (the restaurant in NYC, not the city, although I wouldn’t mind…)  For my money, and for the sheer ease to reward ratio, I’m a fan of the infused oil with whatever artisan bread I can get my hands on easily.

Infused oils aren’t complicated – cheap oil works and just about any dry herb or spice can be used.  Just make sure to follow a few rules.  One – really and truly don’t include garlic in making your homemade oils unless you are going to consume them immediately.  Garlic, being a lovely root that grows in the earth, harbors tons of bacteria that would love to thrive in a bath of olive oil.  And voilá, you’ve got some botulism on your hands.  No es frio.  Some folks say that if you acidulate the oil and refrigerate it, you are in business.  I don’t leave my tummy up to fate.  If you want your oil to be garlicky, try muddling your finished oil with fresh or roasted garlic before serving.  Or, for the true infused garlic oil experience, just buy some from a licensed supplier who will guarantee you a botulism-free experience.  This is just a reminder that all cooking is chemistry, and while most chemistry mistakes in the kitchen will result in bad tasting food, some will actually result in illness.  Improperly infused garlic oil is one of those mistakes.

Secondly, as much as it looks gorgeous to store your oil on the counter, I’d advise you to keep it in the fridge.  It’ll last longer, stay fresher, and again, no risk of contaminants.

Lastly, I call for thai chilies in this recipe, that when you grind them, create a bit of pepper dust.  This in turn, if inhaled, will give you a few coughs.  Be careful with that.  Don’t breath in too much when you are transferring the pepper to the oil.  If you want to play it safe, use a milder chili like an ancho or pasilla.  Or use pre-crushed red pepper and avoid the dust altogether.  Likewise, you can go hotter as well – habanero or ghost chilies even.  Just be careful as you work with them, because they can be vicious.

This oil is lovely as the preface for a rustic italian meal – mix a few tablespoons of oil with a pinch of kosher salt and some chopped garlic and use it as a dip for focaccia or ciabatta.  You can also use a few tablespoons as the basis for sauces and dressings.

Recipe for

Rosemary Chili Oil

Ingredients
16.9 oz. bottle of olive oil
1/3 c. of thai chilies
3 sprigs of rosemary
1 sprig of thyme

In a spice grinder or food processor, grind chilies and herbs together.  I like to use a food processor so that everything gets a rather rough chop.  Using a cooking thermometer, heat oil in a heavy pan until 200°.  Carefully pour the chilies into the oil and let cook at 200° for 4-5 minutes.  Turn the heat off and let the herbs and chilies continue to infuse the oil as it cools to room temperature.

Pour into a clean bottle and store in the fridge for up to a week.

Lighten Up, Recipes, Rice Dishes, Side Dishes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Hoppin’ John (Black-eyed Peas and Rice with Collard Greens)

While the French slurp raw oysters and sip champagne for good luck on New Years’ Day, our family would tuck into heaps of black eyed peas, fluffy rice, and collard greens.  It’s amazing – I always considered it a southern tradition, what with black-eyed peas grown in Virginia all the way back to the 1600s.  But apparently the New Year’s tradition dates back to Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year), where in the Talmud it’s recorded that the humble black-eyed pea is a good luck symbol.  Apparently, people have been enjoying these little babies for a while.

Hoppin' John (Black-eyed Peas and Rice with Collard Greens) © Spice or Die

This recipe is a spin on Hoppin’ John, a popular dish of rice and peas served not only in the south but in the Caribbean as well.  The dish is sometimes made without the collard greens and often includes a bit of salt pork.  I like the collards because they remind me of my own New Year’s traditions, so I always include them when I can.  This version is absolutely vegan and so very flavorful, you won’t miss the pork one bit.  It’s good as a standalone dish, but if you are jonesing for some protein, try it with a little sliced andouille sausage or kielbasa.  Any way you eat, you’ll be a lucky ducky (if but for having the opportunity to tuck into such a tasty dish!)

Hoppin’ John (Black-eyed Peas and Rice with Collard Greens)

1 stalk of celery, chopped
1/2 a green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 red onion (white is ok), chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp of fresh thyme
2 tbs. of olive oil
1 tbs. of hot sauce
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp. of white pepper
1 cup of cooked collard greens (see note below)
1 c. of enriched long grain rice
1 can of blackeyed peas
water

Start with a heavy pot with a lid that is suitable for cooking rice (this is one pot cooking, kids!) and heat your two tbs. of olive oil.  Add the celery, onion and bell pepper and saute until translucent. While that is cooking away, drain your black-eyed peas, reserving the liquid in a measuring cup.  Add water to make a little less than two cups of liquid.  Set both the peas and the liquid aside, separately.

Add the garlic, thyme, hot sauce, salt, white pepper and stir.  Add your rice and greens and stir the mixture.  Allow to cook for a minute and then add the peas.  Stir, making sure not to break up the peas and then add the liquid.  Bring to a boil, pop on the lid and turn the heat to low.  Cook until all of the liquid is absorbed, about 20-25 minutes.  Pull off the lid and fluff with a fork. Return lid and let sit for 5 minutes.  Fluff again and serve.

Notes

  • For this recipe, I often use leftover Couve (Brazilian Style Collards cooked in garlic and oil), but if you are starting from scratch, you can always use frozen collard greens.  You can actually nuke them to defrost quickly, drain of an excess water, and then stir them into the rice.
  • Rice is one of those things that you have to trust to cook and not open the pot until the end.  When you open the pot while it’s cooking, you release all the steam inside the pot, which is the secret element to make it fluffy and gorgeous.  Keep the pot closed until the last few minutes of cooking when it’s acceptable to open the lid.  A trick that I use to tell if the water is absorbed without opening the pot is to carefully put my ear next to the bottom of the pot to hear if there is water still bubbling at the bottom.  But be careful – I am not going to be responsible for you setting your hair on fire.  You shouldn’t be using that much Aquanet anyways.
Lighten Up, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Couve (Brazilian-Style Collard Greens)

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If ever there was a dish that served as a celebration of my heritage, it’d be collard greens.  Marrying the southern roots of my paternal family from Durham, North Carolina, and my south-of-the-equator family on my mother’s side from Belem, Brazil, I get my love of collards fair and square.  In my house growing up, we oft ate the Brazilian national dish, feijoada completa.  This stew of various meats and black beans had to have a specific list of accompaniments in order for it to be correct – one of these primary components was collard greens.  While Mom and I were usually in charge of the black beans and rice, Dad was always in charge of the greens.  He had a special method of sauteeing the collards until tender, with his secret blend of onion, garlic, olive oil and ground pepper.  The whole process usually involved him breaking into an impromptu blues song about “greasy greens” that I’m sure he made up on the spot.  Never a dull moment in the house where I grew up.

Couve (Brazilian-Style Collard Greens) © Spice or Die

My version of the greens is closer to the traditional Brazilian preparation the first day that I eat them, but as leftovers, they are so much like my Dad’s version.  It’s wild – almost as if both sides of my heritage come out in the recipe in some way or another.  A lot of recipes have you simply slice ans sauté the greens, but this is a mistake.  You absolutely must blanch and shock them first – this cleans any grit from the greens and takes away a lot of the bitterness.  Right is right.  Also, by blanching the greens, you’ll reduce the cooking time for the sauteeing portion of the cooking.  Also, if you have a friend with impeccable knife skills, get them to chiffonade (thinly slice) these greens for you.  I get my friend Kate to do it when she is over, because the greens are wispy and perfect when she does it.  There’s something to be said for a skillful chop, and kids, she’s got it.

Although these are typically served with black beans and rice in Brazil, they are equally delicious with fresh fish, grilled chicken or steak.  Work them into your repertoire of side dishes for some serious garlicky goodness.  And speaking of garlic, if you use that prechopped garlic garbage in this recipe (or any of my recipes for that matter), just pick up your pan of greens and throw them in the garbage.  Fresh garlic is key, and if you don’t believe me, I want to punch you in the stomach.  Not really, but seriously, use fresh garlic.  Happy eating!

Couve (Brazilian-Style Collard Greens)

2 large bunches of collard greens
5 fat cloves of fresh garlic, minced
1/4 c. of olive oil
1/4 tsp. of salt
1/8 tsp. of black pepper

Put a large pot of heavily salted water on to boil.

Begin by rinsing the greens.  Place each green on a cutting board and cut out the middle, woody stem.  Stack the leaves and continue to prep the greens.  When you’ve got about 5-7 leaves prepped,  roll the leaves into a fat cigar and thinly slice as finely as you can, forming skinny strands like confetti.  Put the collard confetti in a bowl and continue to cut.

When the greens are cut and the water is boiling, dump the greens into the water and push them down so that they wilt and turn bright green.  You’ll only want them in the hot water for a minute or two.  Working quickly, drain the greens and then shock them by running cold water over them.  If you don’t shock them with the cold water, they will continue to cook and become to soft.  Drain greens well and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmering.  Add the collards, garlic, salt and pepper and toss in the olive oil.  Do not overcook – you basically want to coat the greens in the garlicky oil and then take them off the heat.  Your garlic will still be sharp and fragrant, and your collards bright green.  Serve immediately.

Lighten Up, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Greek-Style Oven Baked String Beans

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We always think of braising meats to bring out lovely, slow-cooked flavors, but what about veggies?  Just as vegetables are delicious barely cooked and raw, so too do they gain character from slow cooking.  Think of the beauty of caramelized onions, roasted eggplant or smoky greens.  This recipe takes advantage of the ability of fresh string beans to absorb savory, saucy goodness when slowly braised in the oven.  The Greeks often cook their green beans in tomato sauce until tender – this recipe is a spicy variation on that tradition.

Greek-Style Oven Braised String Beans © Spice or Die

These green beans are great because there’s no work in making them – just throw them in the oven and let them do their thing.  I like to make them with Pastitsio as a spicy side dish.  You can start these green beans in the oven and then prep your pastitsio.  By the time you put the pastitsio in the oven, both dishes will finish at the same time.

Greek-Style Oven Baked String Beans

1 lb. of fresh green beans, snipped of stems
3 small potatoes, sliced into thin half moons
4 cl. of garlic
1/2 onion, diced
1 c. of tomato sauce
1/3 c. of vegetable oil
1 c. of vegetable stock (can substitute chicken stock)
1 tsp. of oregano
1/4 tsp. of crushed red pepper
juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 375°.  Place all ingredients into a dutch oven or oven-safe pot with a lid.  Stir.  Bake covered for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the veggies are tender and sauce is bubbly.

Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Simple Roasted Asparagus

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I’m constantly on the search for easy, inspiring side dishes.  When you are making use of fresh, locally sourced ingredients, it’s easy to avoid reaching for the bag of frozen corn as a quick accompaniment to your main course.  That being said, I get extremely lazy sometimes.  To the point where I don’t even want to boil a pot of water for anything or anyone.  When I get a case of the doldrums and asparagus is in season, this is my answer to the big question of “What the hell am I going to eat with this?”

Roasted Asparagus © Spice or Die

For you folks that don’t dig asparagus (like my hubby and sis for starters), you can use this exact same preparation to cook string beans and haricots verts.  And also cherry tomatoes on the vine.  All of which are gorgeous and couldn’t be simpler.  There you go – 3 options for those days that you couldn’t possibly peel yourself off the couch to make anything involved.

Simple Roasted Asparagus

1 lb. of asparagus
1/4 c. of olive oil
2 pinches of kosher salt
1 pinch of black pepper

Preheat oven to 450°.  Snap ends off asparagus spears (and save for stock for Cream of Asparagus Soup).  Toss asparagus in olive oil, salt and pepper and spread out evenly over a flat baking sheet.  Bake in the oven until crisp and tender (I know, an oxymoron) – about 10 minutes for thin asparagus (cigarette size) and 17 minutes for thick asparagus (cigar-sized).

Variations

If you want to brighten things up for the summertime, mix 2 tbs. of lemon zest and two tbs. of chopped parsley to make a gremolata.  Top asparagus with the mixture and serve.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Recipes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Tomato Bruschetta

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I’m hoping that by posting this recipe, I’ll be making my sister Lexi really, really, really inspired to start making this for herself.  It’s her favorite – probably in the top five things that I make that she loves the most.  And accomplished chef and baker she may be, she always cons me into making it for her.  Maybe it’s like how I feel about a good grilled cheese – I can make it for myself, but it tastes so much better when someone else makes one for me.  Come to think of it, Lexi makes my favorite grilled cheese of all time – Tilamook cheddar, feta cheese and a tomato on slices from a pullman loaf.  Maybe we were meant to be sisters.

Tomato Bruschetta © Spice or Die

There are very few ingredients in this bruschetta, so you have to use the best ingredients possible.  Fresh ripe tomatoes, leafy basil and fruity olive oil make all the difference.  This topper is killer on toasted ciabatta, baguette rounds brushed with olive oil and baked, or even focaccia.  If carbs aren’t your thing, try it atop chicken paillard (or a simply grilled chicken cutlet) and a handful of arugula.  It’s a bistro meal without a ton of calories.  You can also toss this bruschetta with boiled, cooled potatoes and blanched string beans for my absolute favorite salad of all time (similar to my Potatoes Vinaigrette).

Tomato Bruschetta © Spice or Die

This bruschetta doubles and triples easily – make enough for friends, but not enough for leftovers.  It’s best eaten the same day before the tomatoes become soggy and too acidic.  It’s a carpe diem kind of recipe, so tuck in post haste.

Tomato Bruschetta

2 c. of chopped tomatoes
1 shallot, finely diced
3/4 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of black pepper
5 tbs. of olive oil
2 tbs. of red wine vinegar
7 leaves of fresh basil, stacked, rolled and thinly sliced
toasted bread or crostini

Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, shallot and basil to a bowl.  Toss with olive oil and vinegar.  Taste for seasoning.  Top crusty slices of bread with a few tablespoons of bruschetta and serve with sprigs of basil for garnish.  Or put out the bread and bruschetta and let people assemble for themselves.  For non-vegans, you can serve bruschetta topped with slices of buffala mozzarella as an added treat.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Recipes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Lima Bean Bruschetta

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Luscious Lima Action

This recipe was born of a 100% “oh, crap” moment – I was cooking dinner for myself when I found out that a few good friends were on the way over to share a drink.  My Brazilian/Italian roots are firmly planted in perennial hospitality – if people come over and you’re eating, you absolutely share what you’ve got, small though it may be.  There’s a Brazilian song that says that the more people that come over, the more water you add to your beans to thin them out.  All are welcome.

Lima Bean Bruschetta © Spice or Die

My dinner for one was barely enough to share with 4 hungry ladies, so I found myself rummaging through the freezer and pantry for items to whip into something special.  In a moment of divine inspiration, I threw leftover lima beans, parsley, and lemon into the food processor and blitzed away.  The result, similar to what Cesar Cardini must have felt when he turned lowly anchovies, garlic, eggs and oil into caesar dressing, was majesty.

This recipe is similar to a popular crostini topping that I used to eat all the time in Orvieto – there it was made from fava beans (or broad beans) and drizzled with fruity, golden olive oil.  The lima beans are great because they’re easy to pull out of the freezer in a pinch, and cheaper than fava beans.  That being said, if you see fresh fava beans at the market, grab them and try them as a replacement for the limas – they are so lovely.  I like this bruschetta plain, but for a bit of decadence, you can crumble a bit of ricotta salata over the top for some added salty goodness.  Lowly limas never had it so good.

This recipe is hard to make smooth without a food processor, but you can certainly do it with a mortar and pestle (or a mocajete).  Just make sure to chop your herbs first, and then stage the ingredients in the same order as listed for the food processor in the instructions below.

Lima Bean Bruschetta

10 oz. of frozen lima beans
1 c. of water

1 tbs. of lemon juice, freshly-squeezed
2 tbs. of red wine vinegar
1/3 c. of olive oil
2 – 4 cl. of garlic
4 leaves of basil
5 sprigs of parsley, leaves removed and stems discarded (save stems for stock)
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of crushed red pepper

Put the lima beans and water in a pot and cook until tender, about 6-7 minutes.  Drain and rinse with water to cool.

To your food processor, add your garlic, basil, parsley, salt and red pepper.  Pulse until chopped finely.  Add the vinegar, lemon and olive oil.  Pulse until smooth.  Remove to a tupperware and chill.  Serve spread on grilled bread or crackers and drizzled with good olive oil.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Olive Tapenade

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Like a Dirty Martini. Extra Dirty. Without the Martini…

Back when I fancied myself a writer and a thinker (ha!), I wanted to write a book on similarities and trends in people’s palettes.  I found that the folks that hated olives also hated coconut, avocados and other lovely things that I couldn’t imagine not eating.  It was like a package deal or something.  While my theories have yet to be tested on a larger scale, I definitely do believe that your palette can be trained to taste and eventually love foods that you may not like right now.

Olive Tapendae © Spice or Die

For me, one of the foods that I’ve come around to over the years are green olives.  I’ve always adored black olives – I was the little kid who put the canned ones on my fingers like a fool, only to eat them off – but absolutely abhorred green olives.  In a moment of revelatory tastetastiness (sure, that’s a word), I had olive tapenade at a local tapas restaurant as an amuse bouche.  The chef served it with plantain chips – a fun spin on chips and salsa.  Needless to say, I was hooked from that moment on. Continue reading Olive Tapenade →

Lighten Up, Recipes, Salads, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Sesame Mandarin Salad

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Open Sesame!

This salad is inspired by the delicious concoction that my buddy Maureen used to whip up for all of us working at my old job back in the day.  Perfectly tangy, crunchy, and sweet – it was probably the most requested item at our potlucks and parties.  Remind me to beg her for her recipe sometime.

Right around the time I left for NYC, my aunt gave me a copy of the Junior League of Yakima Cookbook, and lo and behold, they had a version of Maureen’s salad.  Their version had a few unusual additions, to include parsley, candied almonds and tabasco.  They also used a lettuce blend as opposed to the traditional iceberg.

Fast forward a bit, and out of sheer necessity and chronic cravings for interesting salad options, I came up with the following “hacked” version of the two recipes.  I ditched the candied almonds, added some splenda, and used a mix of extra crisp lettuces – frisee became the ace in the hole, adding both crunch and texture.  Topping off the whole shebang is a lovely toss of black and white sesame seeds.  The bright mix manages to make me grin just at the sight of it.  A nourishing enough meal on its own, this salad is also a great accompaniment to slices of Crispy Ginger Chicken.

Sesame Mandarin Salad

6 c. of mixed greens (iceberg, romaine, frisee, green leaf, red leaf)
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 c. of celery, diced
1 15oz. can of mandarin orange segments, drained
1/3 c. of sliced almonds

1/4 c. of vegetable oil
4 tbs. of rice wine vinegar
2 packets of splenda (or 4 tsp. of sugar)
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/8 tsp. of white pepper
1 tsp of white sesame seeds
1 tsp of black sesame seeds

In a large salad bowl, toss the greens, scallions, celery, almonds and oranges.  Set aside.  Mix together in a small bowl the olive oil, rice wine vinegar, splenda, salt and white pepper.  Pour the dressing on the sides of the salad bowl (a Thomas Keller trick to perfectly saturate each green with an even amount of dressing) and toss.  Top the salad with the sesame seeds.  Serve to deserving lovelies.

Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Vegan Dishes

Sweet Peanut Lime Dressing

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Sweetie Peeties

This dressing is a variation of one of my favorite go-to dressings, a light citrus combo that is sweetened with a bit of sugar and honey.  I use it on my Thai Chopped Salad with Crisp Noodles and Herbs, but if you leave out the peanut sauce, you can use it as the basis for a Mandarin Orange Salad or even as a marinade for meat or vegetables.  The recipe calls for peanut sauce, but if you don’t have any around, substitute a tablespoon of smooth peanut butter.  If you are vegan and looking to use peanut sauce, try to find one without fish sauce.  Or just use the aforementioned peanut butter trick.  Word. Continue reading Sweet Peanut Lime Dressing →