38 and counting

No, it's not how old I am. It's how many cookbooks I have! I received a cookbook as a birthday present (Vegan Brunch which looks awesome) and am thinking of getting another (Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar). If I keep up at this rate I will always have more than my age. I'm sure someday however I will not have enough room to keep them all. I already have a whole shelf for them in the kitchen. If it spills over into other parts of the house then I will know I have a problem.

For now I used my mad cookbook skills to make a casserole that I ate for an entire week. Yes, there's still one piece left and I was getting kind of tired of it, but it was the best thing for a week of late nights, eating out, and not home in time to make dinner. For example we ate at Millennium for my birthday:


And I ate at Samovar before my knitting class. So dinners were random and different but lunch was a delicious shepherd's pie every time.



On Sunday we made roasted root vegetables (carrots, rutabagas, celery root) with a side of almond greens and rice and lentils. The almond greens were easy and very tasty. (Recipe below.)





Monday night was the casserole night. It was based on a recipe from Veganomicon, which I highly recommend if you don't already have it. It was a version of a vegan shepherd's pie. I was going to include the recipe but it's pretty freaking complicated. It took almost 2 hours to make (compared to the 1 hour 20 minutes on the recipe. Liars!) We substituted Japanese sweet potatoes for the standard mashed potato top which I think really lightened the dish nicely. We also used fresh carrots and broccoli instead of frozen peas and corn. I know peas are traditional but I'm not into frozen veggies.



Saturday night I finally had time to cook again. I made stock and then made a Thai-style coconut-lemongrass soup. It was delicious though the internet had debates about whether to leave lemongrass in or take it out before eating. I left it in but didn't like it and ended up taking it out. I"d recommend either taking it out before serving (so leave in big pieces) or cut into small pieces and make sure they are cooked very thoroughly before eating.



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Recipe: Almond Greens

1 bunch greens (kale, chard, collards), washed and cut into pieces
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 spoonfuls of almond butter
soy sauce or tamari (to taste)
olive oil

Heat a pan with the oil and add the chopped garlic. Cook until the garlic is browned. Add the greens and a little bit of water or stock (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan). Let the greens cook for a while until they look wilted and almost done. Add a little bit more water or stock and 2-3 spoonfuls of almond butter. Mix the almond butter with the water in the pan and stir to coat all the greens. Add a dash or two of soy sauce to taste. Let the greens cook until most of the water is gone and the almond butter is coating everything and well mixed. If you wanted to be fancy you could even top this with toasted slivered almonds. But that's pretty fancy.