Quick Dinner

Hello,

I just wanted to share our dinner from last night because it was super simple and tasty! I was pretty hungry so I didn't even take a picture of the finished meal, but this took less than ten minutes to make and only had a few ingredients involved.

2 Tofurkey kielbasas, in half-inch slices
1 cup of kale
2 Tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne
1 cup of cooked cous cous (we had some leftovers)
1 tablespoon of oil

Add the kielbasa slices and oil to a frying pan and sauté on medium-high heat for two minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the kale and sauté for another two minutes. Toss in the rest of the ingredients and lower the heat to medium. Cook for about two or three minutes and mix together well. Serve in two bowls and enjoy!

Kale Salad with Black Beans, Polenta & Avocado

1 package of polenta, cut into 1/4 inch slices
6 handfuls of kale leaves (about one bunch)
1 can of black beans
1 avocado, sliced
3 cloves of garlic
Olive oil for pan frying


Sauté the garlic in oil for 3-4 minutes. Add the polenta slices to the pan, frying on medium-high heat. Fry for 4-5 minutes on each side, until they are a golden yellow color. While the polenta is cooking, wash and rip up a few handfuls of kale for each bowl. Add the polenta slices on top of the kale. Drain and rinse the can of black beans and heat the beans in the pan for several minutes. Add the beans and avocado to the salad and serve! We had some Daiya shreds in the fridge so I added those also.

This was a quick and tasty meal and we both enjoyed it. I hope that everyone else is pleased with the results! : )

Kale Pesto

1 small shallot

1 clove of garlic

1/8 cup slivered almonds

2 cups kale

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

8 fresh basil leaves

1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes

2 ounces Daiya Jack Wedge Style Cheese

1.     Dice the shallot and garlic and add to a dry heated pan on medium-high heat with the slivered almonds. Stir occasionally until the shallots are translucent.

2.     Add the 2 cups of kale and stir occasionally.

3.     Once kale has wilted remove pan from heat and add the almond milk.

4.     Add the mixture to a blender or food processor. Add the fresh basil and pulse until smooth.

5.     Add the mixture back to the pan and stir in the nutritional yeast flakes.

6.     Add the Daiya cheese and stir until melted.

Simple Butternut Squash Soup

During the fall and winter nothing is better than a nice warm cup of soup; except maybe soup with seitan that has melted cheese all over it. We love this recipe because it is super simple and quick to make. Recently butternut squash was on sale for $0.49 per pound, so it was also really inexpensive to make.

• One medium sized butternut squash
• 6 cups of vegetable broth (ours was the leftover broth from a batch of seitan)
• 5 leaves of kale
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

1. Peel the butternut squash. We found the best method to be cutting off the top and bottom of the squash. Then you stand the squash up on a cutting board and just use a knife to cut away the skin. We don’t have any peelers that seem strong enough to take on a squash.
2. Cube the butternut squash and boil in a pot with the vegetable broth until fork tender.
3. Remove the butternut squash from pot and add to a food processor and pulse until pureed.
4. Add kale and pulse until mostly combined (we like big chunks of kale, if you don’t you could substitute for spinach, collards, chard, or just omit the greens altogether but they add a great flavor).
5. Add mixture back to the broth.
6. The soup should still be warm, but you can continue to warm the soup on medium heat.
7. Mix in nutritional yeast flakes and serve.

Cheesy Kale Spring Rolls

Here is another amazingly delicious dish from last May. Daiya cheese wrapped up with kale, how could that possibly be bad?

"The following recipe is for some delicious baked spring rolls we made just last night. They were cheesy and warm and delicious. Though they were slightly messy as the vegan cheese oozed out during the cooking process.

Here is what you will need for ingredients:

• 14 spring roll wrappers (rice paper wrappers)
• 5 kale leaves
• 2 cups of spring mix salad
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce
• 1 package of Daiya wedge style jack cheese (or your favorite flavor)
• About 1 tablespoon of oil

Here are the tools you'll need:

• A cookie sheet
• A rack that fits on the cookie sheet
• A plate or wooden cutting board for wrapping your tasty treats
• A food processor (we used Ninja)
• A large bowl of hot water to soften the wrappers.
• A brush to spread the oil

1. First thing you need to do is break your kale up into manageable chunks for your food processor or blender so it is easier for it to rip your tasty greens to shreds. We used curly green kale, but any style you choose will be delicious. Chop that up for a few seconds.
2. Next, douse your chopped up kale with the hot sauce (if you're like us you'll add even more, smoked chipotle powder would also be a great addition here). And stuff the spring mix in next. Give this a couple pulses to break down the greens and mix in the hot sauce.
3. Now the good part: cut up the wedge style Daiya. We used an entire container of the delicious cheese, but you could use half of the container and still have the same effect. This is a super cheesy recipe though, so you're going to toss all of those cut up wedges into your food processor and give it a few more whirls until everything is incorporated together.
4. Now you're going to assemble everything. At this point you should set your oven at 350 degrees, put the rack on the cookie sheet and use your brush to oil up the rack so nothing sticks. Fill your bowl with hot water (we just used tap water that was as hot as possible) and get ready.
5. The wrappers just need to soak for a minute or less depending on how hot your water is. Going one at a time just take your wrapper and soak it in water holding it submerged until it becomes translucent and hydrated. After being "cooked" by the warm water, spread the wrapper out on your plate or wooden cutting board. Take one spoon (probably about a tablespoon) of your filling and put it just off center in the wrapper.
6. Now proceed by rolling these like a burrito (well, at least how we roll a burrito). Fold the closest edge over the filling. Then fold the left side over, followed by the right side and then roll. *At this point it is probably important to tell you not to wrap them too tight, if you do some cheese will explode out during the baking process. Not necessarily a bad thing, but you should leave a little room for expansion.*
7. After you finish wrapping your rolls you should place them on the rack. We were able to get 14 rolls out of our filling which filled up our rack as well. Next, lightly brush each roll with the oil and set in the middle of the oven. The only thing that stands between you and those deliciously cheesy kale rolls now is ten minutes. Let these little guys bake for ten minutes, remove them and let them cool for a few seconds before you eat them.

We hope you will enjoy these tasty treats as much as we did, and hope that you experiment with some more fillings. We normally add garlic, I just forgot this time. Let us know what other delicious variations you try. And expect some more tasty recipes soon."