Fresh Pea Soup and The Garden of Talking Flowers

No, not really...I just like the sound of the talking flowers part; I thought it would reel you in. I wish my flowers could talk though.

Here's a summer soup from the garden. Peas were late this year...as are most things this season in our part of the world. Over the last week,  I got my first harvest of peas and fava beans. (If you think it's crazy that I'm only now harvesting peas and favas...don't hold your breath for the tomatoes!)

Hmm, what to do with the first fresh peas of the season?...They're good just raw in salads, so sweet with a light crunch. This neon-hued fresh pea soup is nice too, brighter and lighter than the regular old split pea variety. Mint is often used in fresh pea soup, and I was thinking of going that route, then I pondered basil...and then tarragon. In the end, I kept it plain and garnished it with chives.

Ingredients:

1 lb shelled fresh peas (save the pods for broth or stir fry etc. / See note)

1 large russet potato, peeled and diced

1 large leek, sliced

3-4 cups veggie broth

fresh herbs of choice, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Note: If the peas are fresh and tender (and preferably organic), you can also leave the peas in the shell  and just chop up the pods; I'd take the stringy bit along the seam out first though.

Sweat off the leek and potato in a tablespoon of olive oil until they are tender. Add the veggie broth, bring to a simmer, then add the fresh peas and simmer gently for 5 minutes...just until they begin to become tender. Blend in food processor and serve garnished with finely chopped fresh herbs of choice. 

Makes roughly 4 servings.

Here's some other fun flora from the garden at the moment:

Hens and chicks in bloom...sort of Seuss-y, they're just cute no matter what they do.

My sis-in-law gave us this Thompson's Flowering Maple at Easter, which is a bit more exotic and interesting than the usual suspects in my garden:

Its leaves look like maple leaves, but it's not related to Maple trees at all.  Apparently, this little guy is cultivated from a Brazilian shrub. We're really enjoying the blooms; thanks Linda!

I really like this Picasso Petunia with its lime-green petal tips. I saw it for the first time last summer, so I knew I wanted some in the garden this year.

Some borage:

Marigolds are sort of a plain jane flower, but they add cheer. I love the rich orange and gold of these: 

My favorite flowering pot at the moment:

I get most of my flowering annuals at the local garden center. Early in the season, I can usually buy them in sets of 6 starts for 1.50 each, so I go crazy.  This pot is the result of one of those splurges.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. It's sunny and warm here today...I think I hear the lake calling my name! 

Rose Tobin Seattle

Roseann Marie LaPonte

Rosanne Tobin

Silk Road Cooking...

This is just  a quick post about some stuff I've been up to lately. First up are a couple of dishes from Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey, by Najmieh Batmanglij. I've had this cookbook for a couple years and have cooked from it only a few times. It's one cookbook that I really want to use more, so I spent some time with it this weekend.

Pages from Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey

The book is full of beautiful photos, historical narration, and intriguing recipes. It's vegetarian, not vegan, but many of the recipes are vegan, and the others are veganizable of course. Here's a link to some sample recipes to give an idea.

The Balkh Brown Lentil Soup (above) calls for fewer herbs and spices than I would usually add to lentil stews and soups, but it is so tasty in its simplicity. The recipe calls for toasting cumin seeds in oil, adding onions and garlic, then lentils and water to simmer. Towards the end you add some fresh orange and lime juice (it calls for Seville oranges, but if you don't have those, you can use a combination of orange and lime juice) and also angelica powder. According to the book, angelica powder is used as a souring agent in Persian cooking. I didn't have any, so I used a teaspoon of tamarind paste instead. From what I've gathered, angelica is nutritious and has many healthful properties; I really want to get my hands on some. Seasoned to taste, and topped with fried onions and parsley, the soup is more than the sum of its parts. 

The next recipe I chose was a Bulger and Mung Bean Pilaf.  It's another winner, seasoned with cumin seeds, shredded ginger, turmeric, and chili peppers, it's so yummy topped with fresh lemon juice and fresh herbs. The mung beans and bulger go well together and create a great texture. I ate two bowls of the leftovers for breakfast this morning. 

The whole meal was a bit of a feast actually, we had the soup as a starter and then the pilaf with a spinach, mushroom, carrot salad and a tofu tart with roasted summer squash and tomato:

The tart turned out just "ok". The tofu filling was tasty enough, I added miso paste, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, almond milk, pine nuts, garlic, onion powder, kala namak salt,  and some ume vinegar, but it didn't cook through how I wanted it...I'm still trying to get a feel for the calibration of my new oven. 

For other news, the garden is thriving. I've been harvesting fresh greens galore.

So far, we've been munching on mustard-spinach ( a hybrid of the two and a less spicy than pure mustard greens), baby kale, spinach, and radishes. I'm waiting a little longer to harvest the dandelion greens and the lettuce. The chard and collard greens will be another few weeks before they grow into nice big plants. It's a bit overcrowded at the moment, but as we harvest, space will open up.

I keep the greens under a poly tunnel at night and on cloudy days, and it makes a phenomenal difference in how fast things grow. Here's the same bed about a month ago:

It's easy to make a poly tunnel. All you need is some rebar stakes, some pliable tubing that you can get in a hardware store, and some opaque painters' plastic. You can attach the plastic to the tubes with large binder clips. This works great in climates where the temps are cool in spring and fall.

Green juice from the garden: radish tops, parsley, mustard-spinach, celery (not from the garden) and sorrel:

Radishes are one of my favorite vegetables, and for any newbie gardeners out there, I highly recommend giving radishes a try. They grow quickly and easily...and, you get double for your efforts; harvest the roots for salads and what not (you can cook them too) and eat the greens in stir fries or juices. The greens are a bit stickery, but if you steam them or juice them it's not a problem. Radishes are just little turnips, so I wager that the greens are super nutritious like turnip greens. The radishes themselves are pretty nutritious too.

My tomato and pepper starts are some of the slowest growing little guys I've ever seen! Come on guys...get growing!

And finally, in some family news: my mom adopted a little dog from a K-9 death row rescue:

Her name is Lula, and she's super smart and sweet.  She adores my mom, and we all love her. I've been visiting a lot to get in on the walking action. I hope to post a video of her soon doing one of her happy dances, which are really adorable.

Shirataki Noodle-Mushroom Broth...and Kitty Cohabitation!

I swear I'm not a crazy noodle lady or anything like that, but here comes yet another post about noodles...I haven't posted in a while, but my last was about kelp noodles. This time, I branched out to try some shirataki noodles, and I can say unequivocally that I'm a fan.

I've seen people posting about them on various blogs for quite some time, and I bought a package that sat in my fridge for a couple of months...not sure why it took me so long to dive into them other than that through the package, they looked like they would be soft and mushy, which is not an appealing characteristic of noodles in my opinion. Looks can be deceiving though, because these cook up nice and firm.

They're made from the fiber of the Konjac plant, and like the kelp noodles, they're very low in carbs and calories. They smell bad when you take them out of the package, but once you rinse them and cook them the smell goes away.

I've made them a few times now. The first time I tried them in a stir fry with lots of veggies and a peanut-miso dressing...I wanted to post about that, but I accidentally deleted the photos. So, here's another dish I made with them; they're great in soup, just like ramen noodles.

This is a brothy, gingery, sweet and sour soup with Thai flavors. The measurements are approximate... I didn't measure everything precisely, but can serve as a guideline:


12-inches worth of lemon grass, with tough outer leaves removed and chopped into fine rounds
3 or 4 kaffir lime leaves ( I use dried ones)
4 or 5 good slices of fresh ginger
1 hot chili pepper sliced
About 1/2 - 3/4 of a pound of mushrooms: I used shitake and alba clamshell
~ 5 cups rich veggie broth or mushroom broth ( I used a combination of veggie broth and mushroom broth)
1 package of shirataki noodles

carrot and/or other veggies of choice, thinly chopped 

1/4 cup tamari
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar (if you don't use seasoned vinegar, you'll need to add some agave syrup or brown sugar to balance out the acidity)

1 generous teaspoon tamarind paste, or to taste

cilantro 

green onions

toasted sesame oil
fresh lime juice
daikon radish and sambal oelek to garnish

Put the lemon grass, ginger, chili, and lime leaves in a large sauce pan  and let them simmer in a little broth for about 5 minutes.

When the herbs are beginning to soften and become aromatic, add the shitake mushrooms and the rest of the broth and let it simmer gently for about 30 - 40 minutes.

The broth becomes flavorful from the mushrooms and the herbs. 

Next, add the tamari, seasoned vinegar and tamarind and stir through. 

Bring a small pot of water to the boil and par-cook the shirataki noodles for about 2 minutes. Drain the noodles and toss them into the simmering broth along with the clamshell mushrooms and some thinly sliced carrot and let it cook for another 4 - 6 minutes. 

Right before you serve it, stir in some cilantro (baby spinach would be good too) and the green onions. Drizzle a few drops of toasted sesame oil  over the top (not too much, or it will overpower the other flavors), and finally add a couple generous splashes of fresh lime juice. It's nice served with shredded daikon and some sambal oelek.

Now, on to some really exciting news: our kitties are beginning to like each other!  We adopted Lucky, the tabby cat, last September (I know that's a naff name, but it was his shelter name and it just stuck), and it has been a bumpy road in catville around here since then. Our longtime family member, Cheeky, didn't like the idea of having him around at all.  If Lucky came into a room where Cheeky was, she would leave and hiss at him every time she passed by.

We did everything to ensure that they each had their own space and places to sleep and eat...but it seemed like the best we could hope for is that they would ignore each other.  Well, over the weekend, I caught them napping together:

And more than once too...the sunroom is a favorite napping spot:

I'm delighted and hoping for the day when they actually snuggle together.  

The finest mussel soup of all times...

Do you know how to cook a mussel soup? Follow this recipe and you will have the finest and most delicate soup you have ever eaten in your entire life. First, manage to buy some very fresh mussels!


You will need: 1kg fresh mussels - extra virgin olive oil - garlic - red pepper - 1 can of peeled plum tomatoes - 1 tsp salt - fresh parsley

Start with scrubbing the mussels and rinsing them under running water. Put them in a large pot on a minimum heat with just an inch of water and cover them with a lid so that they can slowly open.

In the meantime prepare another large pot with an inch of oil and two cloves of garlic on a medium heat. Leave them for about 5 minutes, then add the can of tomatoes (if the tomatoes in your can are in one-pieces you first have to cut them in small pieces.) Add also a considerable pinch of salt and half of a red pepper (the quantity of red pepper is up to your taste!) Let the sauce cook for 5 more minutes. 

As soon as the mussels are ready and open (get rid of the shells that have not opened), drain them and add them to the tomato sauce, but do not eliminate the water in which they have been cooked, because you have to filter it until becomes clean, to get rid of the sand that may be in it. Once you have the water filtered, add it to the soup of mussels and cook all the ingredients together for about 15-20 minutes. Finally chop some fresh parsley, mix all together and serve with some fresh rustic bread in soup bowls. Enjoy!

Garlic Soup, Obsessed with Salad, and More Soup and Garlic

This soup makes a bigger sensation on the taste buds than it does on the eyes, but if you like garlic and are in the mood for a brothy, aromatic soup that clears the sinuses, this soup hits the spot. I like it this time of year as a warming cup or bowl after a long walk in the cold temperatures--warming and satisfying, but not too filling.

The recipe makes about 4 servings, and I used 8 good-sized garlic cloves, because that's the amount Mr D is generally comfortable with...I think I could go a few more cloves if I were making it just for myself. The sherry is optional, but it really does add a rich dimension to the soup, which I love. Also, the saffron is not strictly necessary...but very nice in this if you have it on hand.

Garlic Soup with Sherry and Saffron
8  good-sized garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil (or veggie broth for fat free)
6 cups veggie broth
salt to taste
pinch of saffron
2-3 tablespoons dry sherry (Manzanilla)
pinch of Spanish paprika to garnish (optional)
1 cup small pasta like orzo, stars, or alphabets, cooked

Put the garlic cloves and oil in a food processor and process until the garlic is finely minced. Alternately, you could put the garlic through a press or plane grater if you want the garlic to be more pureed with no bits. ( I like the bits.)

In a large pot, heat the garlic and olive oil mixture very gently (medium-low) for 2 minutes...just enough heat so it becomes aromatic and warm, not sauteed. Keep an eye on it, because if the garlic gets over heated here it will turn bitter.

Add the veggie broth to the aromatized garlic and bring it up to a simmer. Add the pinch of saffron and salt to taste.  Allow the soup to simmer for another half hour or so.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a separate pot, according to package instructions. Drain and rinse until cool.

When ready to serve, add the sherry to the soup and stir through. Scoop some of the cooked pasta into each serving bowl and ladle hot soup over it. Garnish with a pinch of Spanish paprika.

                                                                      
                                                                                          ***********

On to my latest food obsession: spinach and arugula salad. My mom made some with  Christmas dinner, and I've been eating copious amounts of it ever since. The spicy arugula goes so well with the milder, but spongey/leafy spinach. My favorite combo these days is making it with julienned carrot, red onion, and sunflower seeds. Sometimes I toss in some grapes, walnuts, and radish if the mood strikes. I seem to be craving raw onion these days.

I know, I know, big deal: it's just a flippin' salad. But sooo good, and well, it really is a large portion of what we've been eating lately chez Dandelion.  I've been dressing it with a mixture of Bragg's Aminos, sherry vinegar, whole grain mustard and nutritional yeast (v. yum)...a combo I read about on DirtyDuck's blog...here, where you can read about how it came to dress a somewhat unmanageably large salad. :D Thanks for the awesome dressing idea DirtyDuck!!

Another recent dinner was some leek-potato soup with bread rolls, roasted elephant garlic, manzanilla olives, and spicy brown mustard. Maybe, a slightly odd combo, but tasty. (The garlic is in the dish that has the knife sitting on it.)

So, I guess it goes without saying that with all the garlic and raw onions, it's just as well that I'm typing this rather than telling you in person. :0

For dinner tonight, I'm making some of baked onion rings that Sara at Busy Vegan Mama  posted about today...I think they're gonna be good!

Ciao!!!

Everything's Coming up Green Mangoes

Aamer Ombol and Aam Porar Sharbat: green mango refreshers

**Post Factum:** 

This is one of a series of posts for Vegan MoFo 2010; my theme was a 'Virtual Random Road Trip', where I used random.org's random geographic location generator to select locations around the globe, I then attempted to cook a few dishes from the traditional cuisine of that place. I didn't have a lot of time between generating the locations and coming up with recipes (~ 1 day). So, lacking time to do proper research, I can't vouch for the authenticity of anything I came up with. However, they are what they are, and it was a fun theme. 

This post couldn't be less appropriate to the local weather here at the moment. Both of the recipes are cooling summer treats, while here in the Pacific Northwest, we're having our first snow of the season.

Yet, the roadtrip happened upon Bangladesh and while searching for recipe ideas, these two caught my eye. I'm not trying to imply that the weather in Bangladesh is terribly warm at the moment. From what I can gather, April tends to be the hottest month there, while January is the coolest month with temperatures averaging in the mid-70's F. According to an online weather site, it's 84F and clear in Dhaka today. But, I digress.

I was a bit befuddled over the weekend, trying to figure out what to make for this destination...I quickly came to find that there are many regions, so many dishes: some sort of familiar, others completely new to me...Where to begin? What to do? How to begin on the path of the unititiated?

After all that, I decided to try a beverage and a cold soup, both made with green (unripe) mango. I have a confession about these recipes: I believe they are common in West Bengal, but I do not know for sure whether they are also common in Bangladesh. I'm hoping that they are...as I say, befuddled.

I'll begin with the chilled soup: Aamer Ombol – Chilled Green Mango Soup

This was my favorite of the two items. A thin, cooling soup, usually eaten as part of a meal during hot summer months, it consists of green mango, dusted with turmeric and then simmered with chili, mustard seeds, and some sugar.  If you're interested, I highly recommend reading the engaging post (with full recipe).

Note: In the recipe link above, I think she leaves out the turmeric on the ingredient list, but mentions it in the directions. I just sprinkled the fruit with a light dusting of  turmeric before adding it to the pot to simmer.

Not surprisingly, it tastes like stewed fruit, pleasantly settling on the tastebuds somewhere between sweet and slightly savory. The chili in my batch (I used 1 small chili)  was not too strong; I think I would have preferred it a little hotter. The turmeric and the mustard seeds add a mellow dimension and it turns into a mild soup with sort of a deep undertone (if that makes sense). It's easy to imagine this being very suitable and welcome in hot weather. As it was, I was happy to eat it for breakfast, amidst the snow.

The next item is called Aam Panna, or Aam Porar Sharbat (in West Bengal)

I forgot to save some mint for a garnish, (darn it), but this is a beverage made with roasted unripe mangoes, mint, cumin, black salt, and green chilis. (In case you haven't guessed, aam = mango.) It's a cool beverage, meant to be the consistentcy of orange juice rather than a thicker shake-like drink. Again, I encourage you to read through the delightful post where I found the full recipe.

After you roast the mangoes, you remove the skins, collect the pulp and blend it with the mint and other spices, along with enough water to acheive the correct consistency. It was a fun process, and the drink is wonderfully minty. I have to say, the cumin was a bit strong for my tastes, and making this again, would reduce the amount by half. According to the recipe, using the kala namak, or black salt, is essential to the flavor.

Post scriptum: I used the wrong kind of salt! The salt I used is indeed black, but it was black lava salt, the Hawaiian kind. Oh well, next time I'll try it with real kala namak! Thanks to Laurie for pointing me in the right direction.

...Looking in on the colorful world of aam from the snow:

Tailor's Collar Soup or Szabógallér-leves

**Post Factum:** 

This is one of a series of posts for Vegan MoFo 2010; my theme was a 'Virtual Random Road Trip', where I used random.org's random geographic location generator to select locations around the globe, I then attempted to cook a few dishes from the traditional cuisine of that place. I didn't have a lot of time between generating the locations and coming up with recipes (~ 1 day). So, lacking time to do proper research, I can't vouch for the authenticity of anything I came up with. However, they are what they are, and it was a fun theme. 

Szabógallér-leves is a traditional Hungarian soup: "leves" = soup, and Szabógallér = tailors' collar, which refers to the triangular ravioli-esque dumplings that are in it. This is a rich broth with veggies, dumplings, and in this veganized version, baked tofu.

For this, I made two varieties of ravioli/dumpling fillings (traditionally meat) which were potato-chive-parsley, and walnut-sun dried tomato-paprika. I was torn as to which sounded better, so I made some of each. The dough is just a basic pasta dough...I always use Vegan Dad's recipe, which I highly recommend because it's easy to make and just as easy to work with.

To get started, make the dumplings:

Vegan  Szabógallér-leves Dumplings (Soup recipe follows)

(Of course, these fillings are just my suggestions...whatever mixture that sounds good to you would work.)

1 batch Vegan Dad's pasta dough

Walnut-Sun Dried Tomato-Paprika Filling:
1 cup raw walnuts
6 sun-dried tomato halves, chopped into small peices (if using dry packed ones, reconstitute them in some warm water or broth for about 30 minutes first)
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika (use sweet or hot...whatever suits your fancy)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (or to taste)

Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until you get a mince-like texture.

Potato-Chive-Parsley Filling:

1 large potato
1 small handfull chives, chopped fine
1 small handfull parsley chopped fine
pinch of salt
Earth Balance or olive oil to taste

Boil the potato, then make a mash with the remaining ingredients.

Once you have your fillings and your dough made, roll out the dough to about 1/16 inch thickness. Cut out circles (~ 4-6 inches in diameter...the bigger the circle, the easier they are to make).

Cut each circle in half and place about 1 teaspoon (or more if it will fit) of filling on one side of the half circles. Make a "glue" by mixing 1 tsp flour with a little water to make a paste. Brush the pastry "glue" around the edges of each half circle. Fold the dough over lengthwise, and press the edges firmly, but gently with your fingers or a fork to seal the dumplings.

Now for the soup:

Vegan  Szabógallér-leves/Talior's Collar Soup
(serves 4)
6 cups rich veggie broth ( I used 1 cup no-beef broth, 2 cups low-sodium veggie broth, and 3 cups water)
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
2 carrots, diced large
1 (smallish) celeriac bulb, diced large
8 oz soy-baked tofu, cut into 1/2-inch chunks (I just marinated a few thick slices in soy sauce and baked them in the oven for ~ 10 minutes)
1 teaspoon whole pepper corns
Pinch of paprika (sweet or hot) to taste
Pre-made dumplings (see recipe above)
Salt if needed: depending on how salty the veggie broth is, you may not need to add any salt...taste and add salt if desired at the end

Saute the onion slowly over medium-low, allowing it to caramelize a little. Add in the garlic and saute for another ~ 2-3 minutes. Add in the peppercorns and veggie broth and bring up to a simmer. When the broth is simmering, add the carrots and the celeriac and continue to simmer gently. About 8 minutes before serving, gently drop in the dumplings and the tofu and continue to simmer until the dumplings float to the top. Taste for salt, add to taste if needed, and sprinkle with paprika to finish if desired.

dumplings and veggies simmering in broth
(The corner where my stove is has to be one of the darkest corners known to man.)

Note: The original recipe called for parsley root, which I didn't have. So, you may also want to add some parsley root along with the celeriac and carrot if you can find it.

This is a hearty and tasty soup; perfect for using autumn vegetables.

In doing some image searches, I see that the Hungarian capital is a beautiful city indeed:

 Source: http://www.budapest-transfers.net/

Széchenyi Chain Bridge over the River Danube between Buda and Pest 

and the Royal Palace Buda

 Source: http://www.destinationguidebudapest.com

Matthias Church (Mátyás Templom)

Source: http://www.destinationguidebudapest.com

Matthias Church (Mátyás Templom) by night

Source: http://www.transitionsabroad.com/

Budapest's Széchenyi Baths

Back in a day or two with another dish from Hungary. (All Hungarian, All the Time)
Rose Tobin Seattle

Roseann LaPonte

Rosanne Tobin