white bean and kale empanadas

Every culture has its favorite stuffed dough; empanadas are a Spanish and Portuguese stuffed bread or pastry. The name comes from the verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread. El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Haiti, Indonesia...each area has its regional twists on the filling. I enjoy coming up with new vegetarian fillings for these little pockets. Last night I experimented with white bean and kale. This is a delicious hearty filling that creates a whole meal in a pocket. These flavors work well this time of year...not to mention, a warm empanada in your hands is the ultimate comfort food.

Soaking beans and mixing your own dough is always an option, but I'm going to share the last minute version. This method makes use of canned beans and store bought pastry disks. You can find the disks in the frozen foods section of most specialty stores, or super markets with a well stocked international aisle. If you'd like to get comfortable making the dough now, here are a couple recipes:

Red Yucca Empanada Dough

Martha's Empanada Dough

To make the filling sauté half a cup of red onions in olive oil until they just start to get soft. Sprinkle a little cumin over the hot onions and oil. I love the flavor of cumin, but you might want to start with a pinch, taste and adjust to your taste. Next add two cans of cannellini beans (I had some left over red beans that I mixed in for this pot) gently stir until cooked through, add salt and pepper to taste, then add chopped kale and some mozzarella cheese. Mix gently and remove from heat.

Place your discs on the work surface and add a table spoon of filling just left of center; fold the disk over and press with a fork to seal the edges.

Now that the empanadas are filled you can bake in a hot oven for 20 min. at 400 or 450. Before placing in oven, brush with milk. To fry, heat oil in a deep-fryer to 365 degrees F. Place one or two pies into the fryer at a time. Cook for about 5 minutes, turning once to brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels, and serve hot. You're not going to eat empanadas every night so go ahead and fry them - the delicious bubbly crust can't be beat!

miso - it's what's for dinner

I love soup and will happily eat it all year round. Tonight I'm making miso soup; it's light and may not be a meal on its own soup, but it is a healthy accompaniment. Once you get the basic ratio down you can tweak it to your liking.

Miso is a fermented paste of soybeans, brown rice, or barley. It's tangy and salty and great for dressings and marinades - keep a container in the fridge (it lasts a while) and you can experiment.

For a basic soup:

• boil 4 cups of water
• add wakame, or arame (dehydrated seaweed) to the water. Let simmer for 10-20 minutes.
• add a third of a cup miso, but don't let it boil. A trick I learned is illustrated above - take a sieve and drop it in the water then push the miso paste through it with a wooden spoon. This helps it dissolve faster; you don't want to overcook any of the ingredients and loose valuable nutrients
• drop in cubed tofu and cook until it reaches the soup temperature
• add a dash of toasted sesame oil and/or soy sauce to taste
• throw some sliced green onion on top
• This is the base; you can add whatever veggies you like.

I'm hoping this soup will give me the energy to push on after tuck-in time. A client picked up a commission today and I have a little time before my next two are due, so tonight I can get into the studio and experiment a little. I went to the art supply store today and came home with canvas and some fresh new paints -- here's hoping my energy will hold out!

Saturday recipe

It's Saturday (vegetarian recipe Saturday) and I spent all day at a lemonade stand and yard sale with the neighborhood kids and all evening finishing a commission. I didn't even try for a quick and easy meal tonight - I ordered take out - a tofu dish and spring roles. In an effort not to deviate from my schedule so soon after its conception, I will share my plans for lunch tomorrow. I've been known to eat a tomato sandwich for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when they're at peak in the garden. The Alvarado Street Essential Flax Seed Bread makes it a meal...go find some and enjoy!

from the salad archive

Here's a favorite arrangement of garden goodies I made for the first time last summer.

First, there's quinoa. Quinoa is highly nutritious - you may have heard me touting the health benefits of this ancient grain on here before. This supergrain (technically it's not a grain, but the fruit of a green leafy plant) is gluten free and can supply the body with impressive levels of protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber. About half a cup of quinoa will provide a child's protein needs for one day. I hear that and it reinforces my belief that world hunger could be a thing of the past if our governments would get out of the way, but about the salad....

• Place some quinoa over lettuce, this was butter crunch from a friend's garden. You might want to make a little extra so that you can keep it around in the fridge for a couple days already steamed, this makes for easy salads and wraps if you're in a hurry.



• Next chop the veggies. I love the texture of a chopped salad, this one has cucumbers, radish, and tomato. I left the red onion in slivers because it looked nice.



• Strain some chickpeas and place them on top.



• Drizzle the dressing of your choice over the top - I like a mustard vinaigrette with this.

Great summer meal/salad for meatless Monday!

fast, fresh vegan meal (submitted by a reader)

There are many delicious summer desserts that incorporate peaches; here's a savory one suggested by a reader. There's not much to the recipe, just a concept that you can tweak to your liking:

• Make some long grain, brown basmati rice


• dice avocado and peaches


• place on top of a bed of romaine lettuce

I like to toss the avocado and peach cubs in some lemon juice and olive oil, add a little bit of finely chopped red onion, and sprinkle with sea salt.

This is a fast, well balanced vegan meal. Avocado has some amazing health benefits - you can read more about them here. I would also suggest some "So Delicious" coconut water lemonade sorbet for dessert.

Thanks, Nicole!

my favorite way to enjoy plantains

This is a dish I enjoyed making with three generations of women in my husband's family some time ago. It's a vegetarian dish that takes the humble plantain and gussies it up a bit.

Make sure the plantains are pretty ripe for this recipe - you want them much riper than you would for tostones. In the picture you can see they are starting to turn black in spots, this means they're just starting to get soft and sweet inside. The plantain's skin is very protective, much more than a banana, so don't fear the blackening. If it really gives way when you squeeze, then they've ripened too much.

Take off the peel, cut them in half, and boil until cooked.

Place the cooked plantains in a bowl. Once they are cool enough to handle, slice them lengthwise and remove the middle seeds and vein. Usually these stay inside fried plantains, but these will be mashed and the texture and appearance will be improved by taking them out.

Now mash them like mashed potatoes.

Take the mash and place a gob in the palm of your hand, make a thumb print to stick some cheese into. I really can't remember what cheese was in the recipe the first time I had it, but it was similar to feta and I like the way feta's salty bite contrasts the sweet browned plantain. Pull from the sides of the ball to cover the cheese, you can add a little more mash to cover and then smooth it - just make sure the cheese is covered, but not lost. Place the ball in hot oil and fry. give it a gentle press with the spatula to flatten a little, but not enough to break it open.

Cook through till cheese is cooked and the outside is nicely browned and sprinkle with a little salt.

They are delicious with crema, or sour cream and pico de gallo.

some quick dinner ideas

It was such a nice evening we decided to walk to the grocery store, this and the extra chore of adding some bedding for the chickens on this cool night left me with less time to cook than I had hoped, BUT there are a few things I always keep on hand for fast dinners - Annie's Salad dressings and Delhi Korma Simmer Sauce.

Tonight I made a salad with bib lettuce, radicchio, lots of red onions and hot portobellos on top. I love the way adding a hot element wilts the lettuce just a little. Alderwood smoked sea salt was a nice addition to the mushrooms; it complemented the earthy, meaty flavor. At the end I drizzled Annie's Shitake and Sesame Vinaigrette on top and - voila! This dressing also makes a great marinade for tofu and baby bellas.

Now, the simmer sauce is great because you take whatever you have in the house, put it in a pot with the jar of sauce and you have dinner. I usually steam a pot of basmati rice as well. Our favorite combo seems to be cubed tofu and green beans.

salad show-off saturdays

Yes, the garden has begun to feed the family again! Right now we're enjoying a variety of greens. The beans and peas are looking good, the strawberries are stout and healthy and the tomato babies go in tomorrow.

Tonight we had fresh baby greens with some sauteed mustard greens woven through, topped with brown rice, beets, red onion and capers. I love making salads and salad season is upon us. I'm starting, "Salad Show-off Saturdays" send me a picture of a salad creation rosemarymarkowski@yahoo.com and I'll post. I love seeing the flavor/texture combos people come up with - it will be fun!

Oh, did you know, going meatless even one day a week will greatly improve your health and reduce your carbon footprint? Reducing the consumption of meat on planet earth is the biggest thing we can do to save the planet -- 12 billion gallons of gasoline a year could be saved if we all went meatless once a week.

Check out this site http://www.meatlessmonday.com/about/

Let's share some of what we come up with on our meatless days -- be it one day a week, or all seven!