Greens with Peanut Ginger Sauce

Sometimes, when I'm on my own as a parent for an extended period of time, I feed my kids cornflakes for dinner.

There, I said it.

I have many friends and family members who are single parents, who get dinner on the table night after night on their own, and I think they're amazing. I do my best, but usually by my third or fourth evening of working, parenting, and managing the household solo it's all I can do to slap bowls, spoons, milk, and cereal on the table. Someday soon, my kids will be accomplished enough cooks that I can curl up in bed with a novel and a glass of wine while one of them makes dinner, but for now, with one kid away in college, one just fourteen and still learning the cooking ropes, and my partner out of the country for two weeks, it's pretty much up to me.

So when I realized that it had been over two days since Henry and I had eaten a vegetable, I tried to cut myself some slack, but the guilt overwhelmed me. I assume that guilt is a universal product of parenting, whether you're partnered, single, or one in a righteous team of sister wives. We all often feel woefully inadequate to the task.

There wasn't much I could do about the guilt, but I did the best thing I could think of in the moment - I stir-fried greens, vast amounts of greens, putting approximately three days worth of vegetables into one meal. 

It takes a little time to prep this quantity of vegetables (I taught Henry a neat technique for cutting collard greens), and to make the scrumptious sauce, but once the wok is hot the thing only takes a few minutes, not all that much longer than pulling cornflakes out of the cupbord. You could serve the stir-fry with rice and baked tofu for a more rounded-out meal, or you could let it be dinner on its own; a heaped plate of greens with a small side of guilt.

Greens with Peanut Ginger Sauce
Serves 2 as a main dish

2 medium - or 3 small - bunches of greens (I like a mixture of collard greens and kale), stemmed and sliced thinly.  To cut collards: stack stemmed leaves, roll up tightly, and slice (see photo at top)
2 cloves garlic minced as finely as possible
2 tablespoons coconut or peanut oil
1 scallion, sliced, optional
3 tablespoons smooth, unsalted peanut butter
2 teaspoons garlic chili hot sauce
1 tablespoon ginger juice (Grate 3 or so inches of ginger, gather into a ball, and squeeze to extract juice. Worth it, I promise)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/3 cup hot water

Prep vegetables: Wash and chop greens, garlic, optional scallion, and set aside.

Make the sauce: In a small bowl, mash together peanut butter, hot sauce, ginger juice and soy sauce with a fork. Add a little of the hot water and stir or whisk to blend well. Whisk in remaining water. Set aside.

Heat a wok over high heat, add oil and swirl to coat wok. Add greens, in batches if necessary, and stir-fry 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and stir-fry 1 minute. Add sauce, pouring down the side of the wok, stir well, and cook 1 minute more.

Serve immediately, with optional scallion sprinkled on top.

Now be happy: you ate your greens, you fed your kid, and you are probably not really the world's worst mom!

Sweet and Spicy Rice Noodle Stir-Fry

I should have brought the wok out months ago - stir-fry is the perfect technique for a teenage cook; loud, dramatic, fast, and fun, and it's the perfect way for an amateur cooking teacher to sneak in a whole variety of lessons in chopping vegetables, making sauces, and creating balanced flavors and textures.

We are going to be woking for a while; the variations are endless. Here's this week's experiment, a vegan, wheat-free, sweet and spicy delight.

Sweet and Spicy Rice Noodle Stir-Fry
Serves 4-6

1 8-oz package rice vermicelli
1/2 cup water
5 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin or cooking sherry
1 tablespoon brown sugar
big pinch cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons coconut or peanut oil
1 small head cabbage, cored and thinly sliced (approximately 4 chopped cups)
1 lb mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 green onions, chopped
Spicy sesame oil for serving, optional

Soak rice vermicelli in hot water, 15 minutes. Drain and set aside

Make sure all vegetables are chopped and close at hand. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup water, soy sauce, mirin or sherry, brown sugar, and cayenne. Set aside.

Heat wok over high heat - The wok is ready when a drop of water flung onto its surface evaporates immediately. Add oil and swirl to coat wok completely. Add cabbage, stir-fry 1 minute. Add mushrooms and peppers, stir-fry 3-4 minutes. Add garlic, stir-fry one minute. Add sauce and noodles and stir well to combine, 3 minutes. Add green onions.

Serve piping hot with optional spicy sesame oil.

Prepped everything, hot wok, can't lose.

It Takes a Village (to Teach a Kid How to Make Stir-Fry)

When I was fifteen I started dating a boy whose father loved food and cooked often. Over at his house, I saw things I'd never seen in any kitchen: ginger root, basil plants, black bean sauce, and a large, cast-iron wok. I thought my household was unconventional, with my mother's refusal to stock the fridge with soda and her insistence on brown bread (while everybody else in Indiana ate white bread, I thought), but this was really different. I might have complained about my all-natural peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat, but my boyfriend complained about his honey and tahini sandwiches on pita, and I had never even heard of tahini.

I was impressed. Especially after I'd had a few meals over there: spicy sesame noodles, eggplant with peppers, and bright stir-fries that brought tears to my eyes.

I was altered for the better by being exposed to a wide variety of kitchens as a kid, from my southern grandmother's grits and gravy, to my suburban friends' jello salads, to my sophisticated boyfriend's ginger root and wok, so this week's cooking lesson, based on the basic stir-fry technique I learned as a teenager, is dedicated to those early outside influences, a reminder about the benefit of foisting your kids on other households as much as possible!

Kale and Shiitake Mushroom Stir-Fry

Serves 4

2 tablespoons coconut or peanut oil (both hold up well to high heat)

2 large bunches kale, washed, stems removed, leaves chopped

1 lb shiitake mushrooms, sliced, stems discarded

2 tablespoons, peeled and minced, ginger root

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup water

5 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon spicy sesame oil

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Before you start making the stir-fry, put up a pot of rice or noodles. I like a blend of white basmati rice and quinoa.

Prep everything: wash and chop vegetables and set aside; mince garlic and ginger and set aside separately; whisk together water, soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside. You want everything ready and close at hand - once you begin it's all very fast and furious!

Heat wok over high heat - The wok is ready when a drop of water flung onto its surface evaporates immediately.

Add oil and heat for a few seconds before adding kale, a few big handfuls at a time while you STIR CONSTANTLY. If the kale begins to burn, reduce the heat a bit. Once all the kale is added, stir fry for 2 or 3 more minutes, until kale is almost tender. Add a few spoonfuls of water if it is sticking.

Add mushrooms and stir, stir, stir for 1 or 2 minutes, until mushrooms shrink and start to brown.

Push kale and mushrooms to the side of the wok (the sides are not as hot as the middle, so the cooking will slow down), and add garlic and ginger to the middle. Stir 1 minute, then stir everything together to combine.

Re-whisk the sauce for a second and then pour it down the side of the wok (don't pour it on the middle, it will cool the wok down, and might make your stir-fry turn out soggy, yuck.) and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes until sauce thickens and coats everything. 

Eat immediately, on top of rice or noodles.

It takes a ton of kale - kale really cooks down!

Have everything ready to go and close at hand.

Stir, stir, stir.

Vegan Split Pea Soup with Smoky Tempeh

It's official: I am sick of winter. Things that seemed charming back in December have lost their glow. Things like boots. And soup. My body still wants soup while my mind is springing forward to rhubarb, strawberries, arugula.

But we're not there yet, so here is one last soup - tasty and smoky consolation for the still-snowy ground and still-chilly air.

Split Pea Soup with Smoky Tempeh

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 medium onions, diced
3 medium carrots, diced
6 cups water
1 lb split peas (aprox 1 1/4 cups), sorted, rinsed, and drained
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
1 package smoky tempeh strips
Handful parsley, minced
Smoked paprika, optional

Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add onions (with a small pinch of salt) and cook, stirring, for five minutes.

Add carrots and cook five more minutes.

Add water, split peas, bay leaf, and salt. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to medium-low. Partially cover, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally (check to make sure peas are not sticking to the bottom of the pot), until peas are very tender.  Add more water if necessary.

While soup is cooking, prepare smoky tempeh topping:
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet and cook tempeh strips, flipping occasionally, until they are very brown and crispy - add a little more oil if you need to. Drain on paper towels and cut into 1-inch pieces.

To finish:
Remove bay leaf, taste soup, and add more salt if necessary. You can blend all or part of the soup for creamier texture.

Top with a few pieces of tempeh and some parsley (and optional paprika).

Vegan Maple Granola

First lentil loaf, now granola - I might have to change the name of this thing to "That 70s Blog." In fact I have an abiding love for all kinds of hippie vegetarian food; it reminds me of my hometown, Bloomington Indiana, in the 1970s: The Tao restaurant, Rudi's Bakery, and the Bloomingfoods Co-op, its bulk bins overflowing with carob and wheat germ.

But honestly, the granola they were feeding us back then contained enough fat to quench a Big Mac Attack and more sugar than a Jell-O Pudding Pop. It was not the health food it pretended to be. These days, you can buy tasty and reasonably healthy granola in the grocery store, but the price! And the main ingredient is OATS, still one of the cheaper items from those good old bulk bins. So I put the kibosh on prepackaged granola, and here are the delicious, econo results. This is an incredibly versatile recipe - use your favorite nuts or seeds, and play around with spices. I always use maple syrup, but I wonder if other liquid sweeteners, like agave, might be tasty too? If you try, please let me know.

Making granola is a nice Sunday afternoon project; easy, low-maintenance, good-smelling, and entirely kid-friendly (let your kid pick his/her favorite seeds/nuts/spices and invent a unique blend), and it's fun to enjoy the fruits of your labor all week. Although if you're aiming for all-week supplies (and if you eat as much as we do), you might double the recipe.

Lovesmiths Vegan Maple Granola

2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or other spices - or omit spice and use 1 teaspoon vanilla, very yummy)
Big pinch salt
3 cups rolled oats
1.5 cups nuts and/or seeds, any combination (We love sliced almonds+pecans+walnuts)
Optional: 1/2 cup dried fruit (dried cherries are our favorite)

Preheat oven to 300

Melt coconut oil over medium heat in a large, deep skillet. Add maple syrup, cinnamon, and salt. Stir well.

Add oats and nuts and/or seeds and stir constantly for a minute or so to completely coat and lightly toast nuts and seeds.

Transfer mixture to lightly oiled baking dish - either a rimmed cookie sheet, or a 13 x 9 dish - you want to spread the granola out evenly in a reasonably thin layer.

Bake 30-40 minutes, until toasty and brown, stirring every 10 or so minutes. If using dried fruit, stir it in immediately after taking granola out of the oven.

Cool completely (be prepared for grabbing hands), and store whatever's left in a sealed container.

Lentils and Caramelized Onions with Angel Hair Pasta

When I was a kid I picked the onions out of everything: chili, spaghetti sauce, meatloaf; most meals ended with a loathsome little pile of onions on the side of my plate.

I'm still kind of picky about onions. I don't much like them raw, and I strongly dislike them undercooked. But I am crazy about onions caramelized in olive oil. My younger self would be shocked to learn that caramelized onions, brown, sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth tender, are one of my favorite things in the world to cook and eat.

For this week's cooking lesson I had three aims: to show Henry another great way to serve lentils; to teach him how to caramelize onions; and to convert my onion-hating son into an onion aficionado.

Mission accomplished for two out of three, but I was so busy devouring my meal (this dish is mysteriously delicious) that I didn't notice until washing-up time that Henry had arranged his onions in a tidy pile on the side of his plate.

The circle of life.

Lentils and Caramelized Onions with Angel Hair Pasta
Serves 4

3/4 cup dried green lentils, rinsed and drained
2 medium onions, cut in half and sliced thinly
8 ounces angel hair pasta (if you don't eat pasta, omit and double the lentils)
6 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus two pinches for cooking onions and pasta
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
pinch cayenne pepper, optional
parsley, chopped

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add lentils, reduce heat to medium and simmer 15 minutes or until lentils are tender but intact.

While lentils are cooking, caramelize the onions: Heat olive oil in a large, deep skillet, add onions and cook over high heat, stirring constantly, until onions start to sizzle. Add a pinch of salt, stir well, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cover onions and cook for 5 minutes. Uncover and cook 10-15 more minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are sweet and delicious and you are tempted to eat them on the spot with a spoon. Resist.

After lentils have cooked 15 minutes, add angel hair pasta with a generous pinch of salt, and cook 4-5 minutes, until pasta is al dente. Drain and return to big cooking pot. Gently stir in caramelized onions, salt, pepper, and optional cayenne.

Serve warm, garnished with lots of parsley. If you have leftovers, this makes an excellent next-day lunch.

Lentil Loaf with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

We have been eating a lot of beans lately, and my family is begging for a break; anything, they plead, anything other than beans.

Fine - they can have lentils.

It's time for Henry to add a few good lentil recipes to his repertoire anyway. Lentils are versatile and inexpensive, they cook quickly, and don't require soaking. I already love them but my son has never been a big fan. "It's just hard to get very excited about lentils," he says.

Not for me it isn't.

Nobody tends to swoon over a bowl of lentil soup (except me, and maybe my friend Jennifer), but lentil loaf with mashed potatoes and gravy seemed like a more exciting starting place to sell lentils to Henry. As an added bonus, I could fold in a mashed potato lesson and a roux review. I used to make lentil loaf all the time.(In fact, if you had a baby in Bloomington, Indiana circa 2001 I probably made one of these for you and brought it to your house, with the gravy in a glass jar, remember?)

But I haven't made it much lately, so it was fun to dust off the recipe (originally from The Rice Dream Cookbook) and update it. Here's our vegan and wheat-free loaf. It makes a great family dinner with a side of green beans, and from here I can report at least minor swooning.

Lentil Loaf

1/2 cup lentils
1/2 cup white basmati rice
3 1/2 cups water
1 vegetarian bouillon cube (I used wheat-free bouillon cubes)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, diced small
1 large stalk celery, diced small
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 cup rolled oats, blended or food-processed into a course meal
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Mashed Potatoes

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 tablespoons vegan margarine, optional
1/3 cup or more almond, soy, or rice milk
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus big pinch for cooking water
pinch white or black pepper

Country Gravy

1 cup almond, soy, or rice milk
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
big pinch black pepper
optional pinch cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup spelt or other flour

Put lentil, rice, water and bouillon in a medium sauce pan, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30-40 minutes until everything is soft and cooked and water is absorbed.

(While lentils and rice are simmering, put up a big pot of water for cooking potatoes).

While lentils and rice are simmering, warm olive oil in a skillet and sauté garlic, carrot, and celery for 10 minutes until mostly tender. Stir in basil and thyme. Remove from heat and set aside.

Peel potatoes and add to boiling water along with a generous pinch of salt. Cook until very soft (15 or so minutes), drain, and mash with optional margarine and "milk"until the consistency seems right. Add salt and pepper, taste and adust. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 and oil a 9x5x3 loaf pan.

When rice and lentils are cooked, combine in a big bowl with veggie/herb mixture. Add oats and mustard and use a wooden spoon or your hands or some combination to blend everything together very well. Now you need to taste it and decide if it wants a little more mustard or a shot of soy sauce, but the mixture should be fairly stiff so it will hold up later to slicing.

Press mixture into loaf pan, and top with mashed potatoes. Bake for 30 minutes.

While loaf is in the oven, make the gravy:

In a medium bowl, whisk together "milk", water, salt, soy sauce, sage, thyme, pepper, optional cayenne.

Warm olive oil in a deep wide skillet, add flour and stir over medium-low heat 2-3 minutes.

Gradually add milk/water/herbs, whisking to combine fully.

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then reduce heat to low and cook 15 minutes.

Taste and adjust seasoning.

When loaf is done, slice carefully and serve topped generously with gravy.