Kale Caesar with Polenta Croutons and Minted Pea Soup

I've been obsessed with peas lately...its spring for goodness sakes! And caesar salads, I have no explanation for that though.

I still had half of a cookie sheet of chilled polenta leftover from Jaimie's wedding that I was trying to use up, and recently realized I needed to harvest from my mint plant, so that is the primary inspiration of this dinner combination: necessity (and craving!).

The soup is vegan without the suggested yogurt or sour cream garnish and the caesar is not vegan due to the dressing I picked--- it has eggs in it. It is however vegetarian because I didn't use anchovies for the dressing like most chefs do in caesar!

For the soup:

Olive oil

1 yellow onion, diced

5 stalks of celery, diced

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

2 cups of frozen or fresh green peas

2 cups of vegetable broth (don't forget you can make your own! see recipe!)

1/3 cup of mint, rinsed and lightly chopped

Salt

Pepper

Plain yogurt or sour cream for a garnish

For the Caesar:

1 head of kale, about 3 cups rinsed and chopped finely (and I keep the stems, not everyone does...)

Olive oil

2 cups of chilled, prepared polenta (**) chopped into cubes or longish cubes

1 egg entire, and 1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon of dijon mustard

2 cloves of garlic, peeled

1/4 cup of loosely packed basil 

2 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/3 cup of finely grated parmesan cheese

Chop onions and celery and saute in a soup pan with a thin coat of olive oil over medium heat until the two vegetables soften.

Add garlic and broth.

Simmer over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes.

Blanche peas (add to boiling water, and then after 3 minutes submerge in cold water to save the color and texture) and afterwards drain peas and add to soup. Continue to simmer gently over **low heat-- making sure not to cook it so hard that you ruin the nice bright green color of the peas! 

Using leftover, chilled and shaped polenta, (**Prepare polenta as normal in a pan on the stove about 2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil, 6 cups of water and 1 cups of polenta stirring constantly and cooking for about 30 minutes over medium heat, spread cooked polenta onto cookie sheets, you can bake it and then chill it or just chill it. Chill it long enough (about 2 hours) that it holds it shape. Cut into pieces.) fry in a 1/4" deep layer of olive oil over medium heat until all sides are golden brown. This takes attention and filling constantly so as not to overcook any one side. 

Meanwhile, harvest your mint...errr prep your mint if you don't have a plant to harvest from in your kitchen garden (though I recommend it!)

Those polenta coutons take about 15-20 minutes to get to the right level of crispiness/goldenness (unless you have a deep fryer, I sure don't!) so keep watching them as your finish your soup with the mint...

Using a hand blender or regular blender, mix mint and soup together, tasting to see if you might like to add salt. I prefer my soup about 85% smooth and 15% rustically chunky, so I quit blending it when it got to that consistency. Cover and remove from heat-- heating it more at this point will cook out the mint flavor.

In a small food processor, add all ingredients for caesar dressing (egg, egg yolk, dijon, garlic, basil, lemon juice/vinegar) except** the oil. Blend all ingredients and then slowly blend in the oil, drizzling just a little bit at a time, which will emulsify the egg and acid, creating a creamy dressing. 

 All done it will look like this:

Coat your finely chopped kale with the dressing and parmesan cheese.

At this point (finally!) your polenta croutons should be complete-- let them drain on a paper towel to remove excess oil.

Add more cheese, salt and pepper so that the salad tastes as you like.

And serve!

I garnished the minted pea soup with a dollop of sour cream and a sprig of baby mint.

Quick Vegan Taco Filling: Anasazi Bean and Yam

So, geez. It's been a long couple of weeks. I sort of feel like I have been swallowed up under a tidal wave of a schedule, and so I am completely lacking time, especially Monday-Wednesday. Though it is all exciting a stuff I still can't help but feel like I don't have the space to concentrate on the things that make me feel good (like going to yoga and cooking delicious dinners for my woo-bear, AJ). In order to compromise both my tight schedule and my desire to cook a solid meal at the end of the day, I chose TACOS as a quick way to make a really satisfying dinner.

I will try to post a lot of taco fillings throughout the life of this blog as we eat them often and they always have basically whatever I can find in my cupboard or in the dredges of my refrigerator...so it is always a random, wild interpretation of the traditional taco fillings we are used to.

Tonight, I had yams.

What you will need for this recipe

2 cups of cooked beans (I had made anasazi beans in the slow cooker, with just water out and no seasonings of the sheer hurriedness of my life this week, they cook identically to the black bean recipe previously posted on this blog)
2 medium to small yams, skinned and diced
1/2 an onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 bunch of kale, chopped roughly
Salt
Cayenne (a pinch!)
Cumin, ground or whole or both
Coriander
Taortillas (we get Abbo Blue, local organically cultivated blue corn tortillas by Abbodanza farm/seeds: Rich, AJ's mentor found and culivated the strain of corn they are made of from a heirloom variety in Mexico: they are SO DELICIOUS)
1 avocado
Salsa, any other condiment you like on your tacos

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You will need the oven for your tortillas later.
Then saute the onion until translucent in a good layer of olive oil on medium high heat (I prefer, when cooking in my cast iron, especially with taco fillings, to get a "blackened" quality to my ingredients, especially with the likes of potatoes or yams). Add yams and saute, constantly flipping so as to keep them from sticking for about 6-10 minutes, or until they are soft and getting golden (or blackened edges, like I like them). Add your drained beans and garlic and stir in over medium heat for about 2-4 minutes. Season with salt, cumin, coriander and pinch of cayenne or another chili powder if you like spice.

Add chopped kale and let it wilt and get a little crispy, stirring for about 5 minutes. Taste and continue to season accordingly if you so desire.

Meanwhile, while the filling is resting on low heat and covered (because it is now done) lightly paint olive or grapeseed oil on your tortillas and place on a cookie sheet. Set in the oven and let them get soft and warm-- if you like them slightly crispy leave them in for up to 10 minutes, but I usually keep mine in for about 7. Certain tortillas are denser and take longer, so stick your nose in at 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes etc. and you'll know when they are heated and to your liking.

 While the tortillas are warming up in the oven, slice your avocado and ready any other condiments you might like (cheese, sour cream, crema, salsa, cilantro, hot sauce, etc.)

We kept ours simple and when our tortillas were ready we filled them with the yam-bean-kale fillings and only added the sliced avocado and salsa.

Twenty minute dinner, YAY. Who doesn't like tacos????