Ro Raggy! Scooby Doo Blueberry Burger

I was sitting around imagining what Scooby Doo would do if he knew what was actually in his Scooby Snacks. I mean, he’s a nice dog, right?

So I decided to imagine a kinder gentler burger for him and Shaggy.  It’s turned out so good I’m posting it right away, but I haven’t tested it extensively, so move forward at your own foodie peril.

Ro Raggy Blueberry Burger
Combine
2 cups cooked brown lentils
1 1/2 cups cooked whole grain mix* (could just use a sticky sort of brown rice). I used leftovers from this rice blend that I purchased at Costco
1/2 cup onion, grated fine
1/2 cup whole grain bread crumbs (or g/f if you like)

Toast
1/2 cup pepitas, hulled (don’t make the mistake I did once and use unhulled–very prickly)
In a food processor, blitz
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
2 tsp umi plum paste (use 1 T soy sauce as substitute)
toasted pepitas

Add to lentil mixture. Stir to combine.

Dust top of bowl with brown rice flour. Using as much flour as you need to handle the burger mixture, form into balls–somewhere between tennis and ping-pong. Put on a lightly oiled nonstick pan over medium heat and press down into patty shape with a flat turner. There should be some sizzling when you set them on. Cook patties 3-4 minutes per side, until well brown. They should hold together well, but they are still fragile. Flip and do the same on the other side.

They should look like this–nice and Shaggy

It helped that I paired my burgers with top-quality condiments, including
Vertical Paradise Baby Oak Lettuce

Refrigerator pickles

And Mazi’s piri piri sauce

Ro Raggy! This was so good I don’t think Scooby’s ever going back.

* Here’s the mix I used

 

 

Vegan Gruyere and Beet Carpaccio

Below, find the fun sort of things I do in my classes…

Oh, Miyoko! Our supper club guests were swooning over your version of vegan gruyere… I demoed it, but all the credit goes to you. I will add that if you want to make this exactly like what you tasted at Thought-Design, folks, use 2 T of South River Chickpea miso and you’ll need to learn to make rejuvelac, too. It’s not so pretty, but it is tasty!

So if you want something really pretty and really delicious, try the roasted beet carpaccio I brought. I garnished it with beluga lentils (you can use du puy!) and an almond ricotta. I put the overlapping flower shapes on squares of wax paper and then composed the salad on site. Voila!

Here’s how you do it…
Salt-roasted Beet Carpaccio with horseradish ricotta and French lentils
(serves 4-6)

Beets
Ingredients:
1 box Kosher salt
3 medium beets, rinsed

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Put a layer of salt, ¼ inch deep in a loaf pan. Place clean beets on salt. Do not let them touch.
Pour salt over beets until covered.
Roast in oven for about an hour. Remove pan from oven and let sit until cool.
Peel off skins and slice beets thin with a mandoline. Place them in an overlapping flower pattern on wax paper to keep until ready to assemble.

Lentils
Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 cup du puy lentils, rinsed and drained
1 veggie
bouillon cube (preferably no MSG)

Method:
Put all ingredients into a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil and quickly lower to barely a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes and remove from heat. Let cool 15 minutes.

Horseradish Ricotta
Ingredients:
1 cup whole, blanched almonds, soaked for 4-6 hours or overnight
2 T lemon juice
1 tsp. horseradish, or to taste
¼ cup plain yogurt
½ tsp. sea salt
Several grinds fresh pepper

Place all ingredients in food processor and run until it has reached a consistency you like. You will probably have to stop and clean the sides with a spatula a few times.

To assemble:
Lay each beet ‘flower’ on a salad plate. Spread ¼ cup ricotta in the center and sprinkle with drained lentils. Garnish with sunflower shoots of flat-leaf Italian parsley.

Geoff Fields’ Mushroom Poblano Gumbo

Well, I was tempted to call it ‘Yumbo,’ but that’s so corny and Geoff is so serious!

Seriously. This was delicious! Thank you, Geoff. Here is a man who takes his recipes very seriously. Recently, he wrote to us–

Disclaimer: I have always known enthusiasm is my strong suit, maybe to the point of excess. You have been warned…

So permit me to say that I have been working on a recipe for the PBSC next month that is, appropriately, fitting for St. Patrick’s Day. I made the second test batch tonight, and I can say beyond a moral certainty that I would eat this stuff every week. It’s the best vegan recipe in my playbook – at least judged by originality and taste – and I cannot wait to have you guys try it.

How cool is it that friends come up with this idea like “Plant Based Supper Club” so that people like me, and others, can spend a cold winter night imagining a recipe for the next get-together? My compliments to you both.

Peace, GF

So here’s the recipe in all its earthy glory…Geoffs Gumbo Recipe

Detroit Vegan Soul (Yes!)

Last Thursday, fellow foodie Morgan Doane and I, after listening to our friend Angela Topp rave about Detroit Vegan Soul, decided to head to the Motor City to check it out for ourselves. Morgan goes to Detroit for ball games all the time and has previously been limited to Subway. This all-vegan restaurant, begun from the heart by life and business partners Kirsten Ussery (1) and Erika Boyd (r), is such an exciting new add to Detroit’s food scene. Let’s cut to the food!

That wasn’t as easy as we thought. So many options to choose from. We began with okra stew, a thick and hearty veggie-filled gumbo-like dish that we both loved and made Morgan swoon, since she’s a dedicated okra groupie.

The sesame-kale salad was both crunchy and savory and we loved the bits of sun-dried tomato mixed in.

Angela recommended the soul platter with it’s beans and rice, stewed collards, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes and corn muffin. Delicious and filling.

I think my favorite was the to-fish sandwich. I’m such a sucker for this kind of comfort food. A great bun and breaded briny tofu with lettuce and tomato. Comes with sweet potato fries and cole slaw.

We managed to find a tiny extra bit of space to split a red devil cupcake and we recommend you do the same. There’s something indefinable about it. I felt like there was taste of ground graham crackers, kinda toasty. Really good.

Everyone is so friendly and restaurant itself with it’s luscious green walls and polished wood interior was an antidote to the dreary rain we experienced all day. Please visit Kirsten and Erika when you are in Detroit and try their food. You’ll be glad you did.

 

 

 

Y’all come back now!

 

Mustard Seed Market

To finish off my vegan month of food, I’ll show you what I do when I find a restaurant that serves vegan food. I go nuts!

We found this gem of a restaurant in Akron, Ohio, where we attended a wedding this weekend. I  made Roger take me back twice–total of three times–so we could try everything on the menu that was vegan.

Plus, look at the view.  The people watching was fantastic.  Health-food store shoppers take their time.

This was a plate of Mexican-spiced quinoa nachos in a cheesy cashew sauce. The olives were a bit…canned…but the quinoa, chips and sauce were deliciously crunchy and melty, etc.  I try to love vegan sour cream, but I don’t for the same reasons I don’t like dairy sour cream.  Taste.  Texture. I would have made an avocado cream, mixing lime juice and avocado with the s.c.

The tempeh reuben was fine, too.  Also nicely spiced and the tempeh wasn’t too thick.  One of the better tempeh reubens I’ve had.

I’ve never had much luck with this kind of a kale in a raw salad.  It just tastes like I’m a grazing animal.  The dressing was fine, but the chewy kale and raw onions–not so much.

This is the kind of dish that turns non-vegetarians right off. Calling it a steak?  It better taste pretty amazing.  But it tasted like–surprise!–a big slab of steamed cauliflower.  I would have breaded it and roasted the bejesus out of it.  Very nice tomato sauce and greens and grains below, but the cauliflower was unremarkable.

This was my favorite.  A risotto cake with vegan goat cheese in the center served on a bed of sauteed spinach all swimming in a creamy tomato sauce. I’m going to have dreams about that sauce.  I won’t rest until I’ve replicated it!