Corn Pudding

about 4 cups corn (frozen is OK)
1/2 onion (about 1/2 to 1 cup chopped)
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 can coconut milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup cornmeal or flour
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil an 8-inch baking dish or casserole. In a hot, nonstick skillet, sautee the corn until just starting to brown. Add onion and jalapeno and continue to fry just until soft. In a small bowl, mix together the coconut milk and the cornstarch. Transfer half of the corn mixture to a blender; add the coconut milk and cornstarch. Add the remaining ingredients to the blender and pulse about 20 times or so to incorporate. Mix with the remaining corn mix and pour into prepared baking dish. Bake 30 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees until firm and lightly browned. Let rest a few minutes before serving.

Curried Vegetables

Adapted from The Bold Vegetarian Chef.

4 carrots, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces

4 medium potatoes, cleaned and cut into bite-size pieces

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

1 onion, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 tablespoons curry powder

1 cup wine

1 cup vegetable stock

2 tablespoons ketchup

4 teaspoons evaporated cane juice sugar

3 teaspoons miso

salt and pepper

2 cups frozen peas

1 apple, peeled and coarsley chopped

Steam the carrots and potatoes until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the cauliflower and cook for an additional two minutes or until tender. Set aside. In a large skillet, cook the onion in the olive oil over medium heat until lightly browned, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the curry powder and cook, stirring, for about another minute. Increase the heat slightly and add the wine. Bring to a boil and stir in the vegetable stock, ketchup, sugar and miso. Cook, stirring until a thick sauce forms; season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the steamed vegetables and stir to coat. Add the peas and apple, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Roasted Beet Salad

This was the first year I tried growing beets in the garden and for all my labor (admittedly not that much), I was rewarded with just enough for one salad. Variations of this recipe seem abundant on the Internet; here's how mine went.

1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
freshly ground salt and pepper
4 to 6 beets, trimmed and washed
1/3 cup sliced red onions
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon evaporated cane juice sugar
fresh salad leaves, trimmed, washed and dried
blue cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, toss walnuts, 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 7 to 10 minutes until lightly toasted. Set aside to cool. Wrap beets in foil and place on baking tray; bake at 350 minutes for 45 to 60 minutes, until tender. Unwrap, cool; then scrub off skin before slicing. Toss in large bowl with onions and walnuts. Whisk together 6 tablespoons olive oil, the red wine vinegar salt, pepper and sugar. Pour over beets, toss well and let sit at least one hour. Just before serving, arrange beet mixture over salad greens and top with a bit of blue cheese.

Sage Dumplings

We still had a significant amount of leftover Minestrone Soup, so to dress it up I decided to prepare some dumplings using fresh sage from the garden. Here is the recipe I used after reviewing a variety of online examples. This brought enough dumplings to the soup that it will make at least one if not two more meals, a real bonus in crazy economic times like these.

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking powder

small bunch of fresh sage leaves, to taste, minced

freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste

4 tablespoons EarthBalance butter

1/4 to 1/2 cup soy milk

soup or vegetable stock

In a bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, sage, salt and pepper. Cut in the butter. Add just enough soy milk (a little at a time) until the mixture comes together to a soft dough. Tear off pieces and shape or roll into small balls. Drop into soup or vegetable stock that is simmering at a near-boil. Cook the dumplings about 10 minutes, stirring only occasionally, until the dough is no longer raw.

Green Bean Casserole

Yesterday, I picked a whole bunch of fresh green beans from our backyard garden and immediately began looking for something to make with them. I discovered a very mouth-watering photo of a Vegan Green Bean Casserole at Fat Free Vegan and came up with this adaptation.

vegetable oil
4 onions, sliced thin
1.5 pounds fresh green beans; cleaned, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces
salt
10 ounces or so of mixed mushrooms, chopped if necessary
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup vegetable stock
3/4 cup unsweetened MimiCreme or soy milk
2 slices of bread (maybe more)
1 tablespoon Earth Balance butter
more salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slowly fry the onions in the vegetable oil until caramelized (about 20 minutes or so), stirring frequently so as not to burn. Set aside. In a large pot, bring to boil about two quarts of water. Salt the water and add the beans; cook for about six minutes. Then drain the beans and rinse with cold water; set aside. In the frying pan, heat a little oil; add mushrooms and garlic and sautee for a few minutes; salt and pepper to taste. In a small bowl, whisk together the vegetable stock and flour; add to the mushrooms and cook a few minutes until thick. Add the MimiCreme (or soy milk) and adjust for consistency. Add the beans and mix well. Remove from heat. In a food processor, place the bread, butter, salt and pepper. Process until crumbly and then add to onions and mix. Oil lightly a casserole pan and layer with the bean mixture followed by the bread-and-onion mixture. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy

A good gravy was both a staple of my meat-and-potatoes childhood and, when done right, a badge of honor for any home cook. Mushrooms add a wonderful depth of flavor that is as rich, but not as heavy as making gravy with animal fat.

2 large potatoes
2 teaspoons minced garlic, to taste
4 tablespoons Earth Balance butter
soy milk
freshly ground salt and pepper

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic, to taste
1/4 cup chopped onion, to taste
1/2 cup flour
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cups vegetable stock or water
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
freshly ground pepper
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
soy milk

Chop the potatoes into large pieces. Bring a large pot of water to boil, salt lightly and add the potatoes. Boil the potatoes for about 10 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook garlic and oil over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add flour and soy sauce to make a paste. Add water gradually, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil and cook on medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add sage, pepper and mushrooms; mix well. Adjust seasonings to taste. Add more flour or soy milk to adjust consistency. When potatoes are tender, drain and place in large bowl. Mash and mix well with butter, milk, salt and pepper.

Cucumber and Avocado Salad

Our garden has given us wonderful cucumbers this year, which is what led me to this delicious recipe adapted from Vegan Fire & Spice by Robin Robertson. There's not too much heat in this recipe, but there is a lot of flavor.

1 medium cucumber, peeled, halved and seeded
1 scallion, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
pinch of evaporated cane juice sugar
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 ripe avocado

Slice the cucumber pieces and place in a bowl. Cut the avocado in half, discarding the skin and seed. Chop roughly and place in bowl with cucumber. Add the remaining ingredients and toss lightly.

Pickled Salad

More vacation, more pickling. And oh, my gosh, have my few cucumber plants suddenly produced a bounty! What else to do besides eat a few, share a few and turn the rest into pickles. I like this recipe, adapted from a recipe called Toby's Pickled Cucumbers in a cookbook titled Preserving by Oded Schwartz, because the ingredients come together like an instant salad: Just add lettuce. You can use some of the vinegar from the jar to finish off a vinagrette dressing, while you're at it. The original recipe, which is tripled here to net eight pints, didn't call for the asparagus -- I just added it because I had a bunch left in the fridge.

3 pounds cucumbers (about 3 large cucumbers), sliced 1/2-inch thick
6 tablespoons pickling salt
1-1/2 pounds onions, sliced into thin rings
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into smallish pieces
1/2 pound asparagus, cut into smallish pieces
12 garlic cloves, sliced
3 teaspoons black peppercorns
9 cups water
4-1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
12 tablespoons sugar
fresh dill (16 small sprigs or 8 large sprigs)

Prepare canning equipment (wash, sterilize, etc.). Put sliced cucumbers in a colander and sprinkle with half the salt. Mix well and let stand for about 20 minutes. Rinse the cucumbers under cold water and drain well. Mix the onion rings, carrots and asaparagus in a bowl, pour boiling water to cover then drain well. Arrange a layer of cucumber in the bottoms of the hot, sterilized jars. Add some garlic, dill and peppercorns. Cover with a layer of the remaining vegetables. Repeat until vegetables are used up and the jars are almost full, but loosely packed. Place the water, vinegar, sugar and remaining salt in a noncorrosive saucepan and bring to a boil for a few minutes. Pour the hot vinegar mixture into the jars, leaving 1/4-inch headroom. Poke the vegetables with a wooden skewer to make sure there are no air pockets. Then seal the jars. Cool and refrigerate. The pickle will be ready to eat in 2 days and should keep in the fridge for a couple of months.

What really happened: I actually went ahead and processed these in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes to seal 'em up for the long haul. Well, sure enough, all the bold, beautiful colors went bland and boring. Everything may still taste good (we'll know in a couple days), but it looks sad and pathetic. (sigh). Next time: Just close 'em up, refrigerate and eat before they go bad.

Walnut Pesto

This recipe, adapted from Ken Charney's The Bold Vegetarian Chef, makes a great sandwich filling (especially, as Ken points out in his book, in combination with pears and roasted red peppers). It would also make a great dip.

3/4 cup walnut pieces, toasted
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons maple syrup
freshly ground salt and pepper

Place the ingredients in a food processor and puree. Adjust for consistency and taste. Set aside for an hour before serving.

Simple Slaw

You could dress this up with fancy this and foo-foo that, but really it still comes down to cool, crunchy cabbage, doesn't it? Here's a simple foundation from which to experiment.

small head (or 1/2 large head) of cabbage, shredded
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons evaporated cane juice sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 cup veganaise
freshly ground salt
freshly ground black pepper

Combine ingredients in bowl and toss to coat cabbage. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Mixed Greens with Warm Pecan Dressing

For some reason, my backyard garden is very conducive to growing greens: spinach, kale, lettuce, collards and, this year, a bountiful crop of mustard greens. They're easy to prepare with simple garlic and olive oil, but this recipe from the Seasonal Chef kicks it up a notch without much more fuss. Here's my vegan variation, served this time with companion purple rice:

• fresh greens (mustard, turnip or collard; the original recipe calls for 6 cups each of two different kinds, or 2 pounds total; I simply grabbed a huge bunch of collards and mustard greens)
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons agave syrup
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (I actually used my homemade Orange/Tarragon Mustard)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
  

Wash greens well, dry thoroughly, then remove and discard the long stems. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Plunge greens into water and cook for a minute or two; drain and cool. Then roughly chop.In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, agave syrup and mustard. Set aside. Heat the oil in a skillet; add the vinegar mixture and pecans; cook, stirring reguarly for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the chopped greens and toss.