Vegan Sausage, Roasted Root Vegetables, and Sauteed Kale

This is my very favorite sort of meal. It's very simple, and the basic components are: a protein, starchy, garlicky oven-roasted vegetables, and leafy greens with vinegar. On this occasion, we ate Field Roast smoked apple and sage vegan sausages, roasted sweet potatoes, red potatoes, carrots, and local radishes with garlic, and local kale sauteed with onion and red wine vinegar. The combination of different colors, flavors, and textures are what makes this meal so special and appealing to me.

Aaron and I decided that although the vegan sausages were delicious (read my review of Field Roast sausages here), the real highlight of the meal was the roasted root vegetables. They are sweet, warm from the oven, and very rustic and comforting. I use this simple but extremely effective cooking method to cook root vegetables of all types, in all different combinations. Oh, and roasting radishes might sound odd, but the result is tasty - they lose most of their peppery bite and get very mellow, almost like a roast turnip.

Roasted Root Vegetables (makes four side-dish-sized servings):

What You Need:

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 8-10 medium-sized red potatoes
• 4 carrots
• 6-8 radishes (I used the purple-skinned variety)
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

How to Do It:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut the root vegetables into two-inch pieces. Try to get the vegetables into similar sized pieces, but don't be too worried with uniform shapes. Rustic is nice.
3. Put the chopped vegetables and garlic into a roasting pan. Drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Use your hands to toss everything together, making sure the vegetables are coated with oil.
4. Roast the vegetables in the oven until tender, gently stirring every fifteen minutes or so to ensure even cooking - about forty-five minutes. Enjoy!

The vinegary kale provides a delicious counterpoint to the vegetables. The texture is more hearty, where the vegetables are soft, and the flavor is green and slightly bitter (as leafy greens are), where the vegetables are sweet. Its more assertive flavor balances out the gentle roasted carrots and sweet potatoes. The cooking method for the kale is again very simple and works for all sorts of dark green leafy vegetables, like collards, turnip greens, chard, and beet greens.

Sauteed Kale with Onions and Red Wine Vinegar: (makes four side-dish-sized servings):

What You Need:

• 1 pound of kale, washed, stems removed, leaves cut into thin pieces
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1-2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• salt and pepper, to taste

How to Do It:

1. In a large saute pan (I used a non-stick, wok-shaped pan), heat the oil on medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the sliced onion, and cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent - about 5-10 minutes.
2. Add the kale to the pan and stir to combine (it will cook down quickly and considerably). If it seems to be drying out, add a tablespoon or so of water. Continue to cook until the kale is dark green and tender.
3. Season with the vinegar, salt, and pepper. Enjoy!

This, to me, is the best kind of vegan comfort food. And with its bright colors and abundance of different vegetables, you can tell right away that it is nutritious. In fact, according to the cookbook Power Foods (not a vegan cookbook, but with a distinct emphasis on plants) that I checked out from my local library, kale, sweet potatoes, and carrots are all designated "power foods" - some of the healthiest foods on Earth. So eat up!

"Almost Chipotle" Beans and Rice

Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of my favorite places to eat. The food is cheap, fresh, and good, and there are a lot of vegan options - all except for the meat, dairy, pinto beans (there's bacon in there), and honey chipotle vinaigrette for salads is vegan. This meal has a lot of the same ingredients and flavors as a vegan Chipotle burrito bowl - for when a craving hits, but you don't feel like leaving home. Incidentally, this happens to me about every other day.

This special version of beans and rice includes brown rice flavored with lots of lime juice, fresh cilantro (which, on this occasion, was locally grown in Virginia by the amazing Frog Bottom Farm), black beans seasoned with a bay leaf, oregano, lots of chili powder and cumin, and Tabasco chipotle pepper sauce. Those are topped with roasted onions, peppers, zucchini, and squash, and finally, a whole avocado, chopped and tossed with lime.

How to make "Almost Chipotle" Beans and Rice (makes about 4 servings):

What you need:

• 4 servings hot cooked brown rice, cooked according to package directions
• 2 limes
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 cans black beans (1 drained, 1 not drained)
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 Tbsp. chili powder (or to taste)
• 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
• 1 Tbsp. Tabasco chipotle pepper sauce (or to taste)
• 1 green pepper, cut into strips
• 1 yellow squash, cut into half-moons
• 1 zucchini, cut into half-moons
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. olive or canola oil
• 4 avocados
• salt, to taste
• extra hot sauce, to serve

How to do it:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the black beans, including the cooking liquid from the undrained can of beans, with the bay leaf, oregano, chili powder, cumin and Tabasco. Stir, and simmer on very low heat until the flavors have combined and the beans are heated through. Add salt to taste.
3. While the beans are simmering, toss the onion, pepper, zucchini, and squash with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt. Spread the vegetables evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and roast them in the oven until the vegetables are cooked and the edges are browned, about 20-30 minutes.
4. Combine the hot cooked brown rice with the juice of one lime and the entire bunch of chopped cilantro (use less if you prefer - but I love the stuff!) Adjust seasoning. Keep warm until ready to serve.
5. Remove the flesh from the avocados and chop into chunks. Toss the avocado with the juice of the second lime and season lightly with salt.
6. When all the components are cooked and ready, assemble the meal on a plate with a base of the cilantro-lime brown rice, topped with the black beans (try to remove that bay leaf, if you can find it!), then some of the roasted vegetables, followed by the avocado. The dish is especially good with Valentina hot sauce poured on just before eating. Enjoy!

This meal is truly a complete one, with grains, vegetables, beans, and even fruit. The leftovers reheat nicely, but if you plan to save some for leftovers, cut the avocados for the leftover portions when it's time to eat - they can turn brown overnight, even with liberal amounts of lime juice. Even though eating at Chipotle is really cheap, as far as eating out goes, it is even cheaper to make this meal at home. You also get to control the spice and seasoning level yourself, and swapping brown rice for Chipotle's white rice adds nutritional value to the meal - always a good thing!

Roasted Broccoli with Almonds and Lemon

Fall means lots of delicious green things to eat, like kale, turnip greens, collards, and my favorite - broccoli! It's delicious cooked a number of different ways, as long as it is not overcooked (the cardinal sin of cooking green vegetables). But one of my very favorite ways to cook broccoli is roasting it in the oven.

Roasting broccoli brings out the slightly nutty flavor and makes even the stalks delicious. Toasted nuts add crunch and complement the nuttiness of the roasted florets. Lemon juice adds a bit of brightness. It is a perfect method for autumn cooking, because the heat from the oven will warm your kitchen and fill it with a delicious, toasty aroma.

The broccoli I used was grown locally by Frog Bottom Farm, and was $3 per pound. I got two huge crowns of the stuff for $5.50 at Richmond's own St. Stephen's Farmer's Market on Saturday.

Here's the recipe for roasted broccoli with almonds and lemon:

What you need:

• 1 crown of broccoli, cut into florets, tender stalks attached
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped raw almonds (or other nuts - hazelnuts would be really nice)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Salt and pepper, to taste

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Drizzle the broccoli florets with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Spread the broccoli florets evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and put the sheet into the oven to cook.
3. Roast the broccoli in the oven until the stalks are tender, about ten minutes. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the broccoli about one minute before the broccoli is cooked, allowing the nuts to toast.
4. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, squeeze the lemon juice over the broccoli, and toss to coat.
5. Enjoy!

Everyone knows that broccoli is healthy, but here is some nutrition information about this vegetable, just for good measure. According to Nutrition Data, 1/2 cup of chopped, boiled broccoli has only 27 calories, but contains 84% of the recommended daily intake for vitamin C, as well as 138% of the vitamin K, 10% of the fiber, and 21% of the  folate you need for the day. As for almonds, they contain healthy amounts of fiber, vitamin E, riboflavin, magnesium, and manganese.

Enjoy!

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Crispy Baked Kale Chips

I have been meaning to try kale chips ever since they have (apparently) been taking the internet by storm. People have raved online about how crisp and delicious and amazing yet healthy these leaf-chips can be, but photographs of the stuff did not look particularly appetizing. I got eight ounces of curly kale in my weekly CSA from Frog Bottom Farm this week and kale chips seem to be a vegan favorite, so I thought they would be good to try as I re-embark on my vegan journey and as I begin this blog.

I can now confirm the rumors that baked kale chips are, in fact, delicious, crunchy, and even addictive. Aaron declared them "fun to eat and flavorful." I made three baking sheet's worth of chips from my half-pound of curly kale. And while they don't look particularly toothsome, they are surprisingly light and have an amazing crunch.

To make the chips, I looked around online at a bunch of different recipes, which are pretty much all variations on a basic technique - tear the kale into smallish pieces, coat with a little olive oil, spread evenly on a baking sheet, sprinkle lightly with salt, and bake until crispy.

The best part about this salty snack is that you can actually feel good about eating it. One ounce of kale (I used the data for boiled kale, as there was no data for baked or roasted) has 309% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin K, and 82% of the vitamin A you need in a day, according to Nutrition Data.

An added bonus is that kale gets pretty cheap during autumn. I saw some at my local grocery store today for 99 cents per pound. At that price, I used only 50 cents worth of kale to make this snack for two people. Not bad, considering the fact that you'd be hard pressed to find a bag of chips for 50 cents in most vending machines!