Recipe – Cilantro Pesto

This is a quick and easy topping for bread, pasta or anywhere else where a little zing is required.

???????????????????????????????4 T sunflower seeds, toasted
6 T extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/2 t salt
Cilantro 2 cup tightly packed (1-2 bunches)
3/4 t fresh squeezed lime or lemon

Put the sunflower seeds in a food processor with 2 T olive oil, 1 clove of garlic and 1/2 t salt. Blend until fairly smooth.

Clip and inch or two off the stem of the cilantro and discard. chopped the rest roughtly (1-2 inch) and place in processor. Run the processor, DaveCloseUp1pouring in 4 T olive oil as it runs. Stop and scrape sides. Pulse for a few seconds and scrape. Repeat several times. Try to run the processor as little as possible.

Remove pesto from processor and stir in lemon juice.

 

Upcoming Class – Making Beans and Grains Sexy

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It is said that bean soup was considered such an aphrodisiac that it was banned from the Convent of St. Jerome in the seventeenth century

Beans and grains maintain the healthy protein balance essential for life. Eating a wide variety of beans and grains ensures that the body has available all the essential amino acids. We will provide techniques and recipes for cooking a very wide variety of different beans and grains.

What: Learn how to make any bean and/or whole grain taste heavenly.
Where: Kirkwood kitchen at NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids
When: 6:00-8:00pm, Thursday, February 5, 2015
Who: Taught by David Burt

Sign up at Kirkwood Community College website.

This class is part 2 of a series on whole foods vegan cuisine. View full series description.

Four Square Meals – February 3

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  • BBQ Seitan– sweet, sour and spicy with carrots
  • Oliver’s Best – einkorn wheat and millet stew with eggplant and green cabbage
  • Southwestern Salad – black beans, tomato and seasonal vegetables with and ancho pepper dressing
  • Punjabi Summer Pastel – basmati rice and rye with sweet potato, cumin and bay
  • Paris in Istanbul – creamy French Lentils with aromatic spices and seasonal vegetables
  • Aloo Sem – Indian spiced potato and green beans
  • Tempeh alla Manna – marinated tofu with seasonal vegetables in a cilantro-lime sauce
  • King’s Rice – pink and brown rice and with seasonal vegetables and eastern flavors

To order click here.DaveHeader
For newsletter sign up, click here.

Produce and grains purchased locally at New Pioneer Food Co-op, Iowa City Farmer’s Market, Friendly Farm, Echollective Farm and Muddy Miss Farm.

Four Square Meals – January 27

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  • Mung Bean Magic – protein salad with mung beans, spices, tomatoes and leeks
  • Curried Rice – basmati rice and millet with black radish
  • Tofu Sangre – with red beets and asparagus in basil-caper sauce
  • Mixed Jeweled Pilaf – barley, rye, faro and kamut with pomegranite, raisin and apple
  • First Star Stew – split red lentils with star anise, fennel, cinnamon and green cabbage
  • Red to Green Line – brown and jade pearl rice with mixed greens, red onion and herbs
  • “Seitan Sunday Roast” – seitan with mushroom gravy and zucchini
  • Lemon Pepper Potatoes – with squash, fresh lemon and black pepper

To order click here.DaveHeader
For newsletter sign up, click here.

Produce and grains purchased locally at New Pioneer Food Co-op, Iowa City Farmer’s Market, Friendly Farm, Echollective Farm and Muddy Miss Farm.

Whole Foods Cooking Class

HeadShotChefCoat1Crop Chef David is offering the 4-part series on Whole Foods Vegan Cuisine, at the NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids starting next Thursday. Each class can be taken individually or as a series.

Registration is through Kirkwood Continuing Education. Details of the class and links to the other classes in the series are detailed below.Vegetable Sidebar

This 4-part class can be taken individually or as a series. We will discover a wealth of techniques and recipes to give flavor to a base of nutritious and healthful foods. The whole foods philosophy maintains that minimal processing maintains nutritional integrity. The vegan philosophy maintains that removing (and at the very least limiting) animal products in the diet is beneficial for the body of the individual and the body of the planet.

The series is split into 4 sections: Vegetables, Beans and Grains, Soy foods, Soups and Sauces, and draws on culinary traditions from around the world.

Broccoli Romanesco 11. VegetablesCIMG2759
The vegetarian diet is ideally suited to having vegetables at its center. Using vegetables as a focal point allows us to eat seasonally, and therefore locally, which I maintain being the healthiest way to eat. The range of phytonutrients is wide and varied over the year, fiber and micronutrient content is maintained. Take home recipes will be included and general guidelines discussed.

SEE DETAILS OF ALL 4 CLASSES HERE.

Four Square Meals – January 20

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Available for pick up Tuesday January 20.

  • Tempeh Cauliflower Cream – vegan take on cauliflower cheese sauce
  • Campfire Pilaf – Aged basmati, faro, sweet corn and smoked paprika
  • Mushroom Harissa – spicy mushrooms with seasonal vegetable in a spicy North African red lentil sauce
  • Two-Tone Rice – pink and black rice with seasonal vegetable, walnut and ginger
  • New Delhi Tofu – curried tofu in tomato-ginger sauce with seasonal vegetable
  • Golden Glazed Potatoes – with seasonal vegetable, garlic, ginger and turmeric
  • Black bean chili – with tomatoes and sweetcorn
  • Athena salad – Brown rice, barley and red cabbage tossed with olive oil, sunflower seed, nori

To order click here. For newsletter sign up, click here.

Menu January 27.DaveHeader

Produce and grains purchased locally at New Pioneer Food Co-op, Echollective Farm, Organic Greens and Grinnell Heritage Farm

Four Square Meals – January 13

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  • Korean Winter Stew – Kidney beans and seasonal vegetables with spices
  • Sweet Tooth Pilaf – basmati rice and rye with pear and green onion
  • Tofu Dijon – marinated in rich mustard sauce with seasonal vegetable
  • Exotic Tabouli – barley and jade cloud rice with Roma tomatoes, sunflower seeds, oregano and lemon juice
  • Aromatic Black Eyed Peas – a rich dal spiced with coriander, cumin and turmeric
  • Macro Mash – millet, cauliflower and amaranth with roasted garlic and nutritional yeast
  • Tempeh Slaw – with cilantro and crunchy vegetables
  • Potato chukander – Potato and beet in onion-cumin sauce

Recipe – Classic Gravy

Gravy
Yield 1.5 quarts

???????????????????????????????Wine   0.5 cup
Garlic, chopped   6 clove
Stock   6 cup
White wine vinegar   3 T
Tamari   0.33 cup
Paprika   1 T
Oregano, dried   2 t
Sage, rubbed   1 t
Thyme, dried   2 t
Salt   2 t
Roux   0.5 cup
Nutritional yeast   2 T
Black pepper   1 t
Flour, white or whole   1 cup
Sunflower or canola oil   0.67 cup

Make your own stock, or use vegetable bouillon cubes. Put the wine and the garlic in a pot Seitan Carrot Sidebarand simmer until about half the liquid is gone. Add the stock, vinegar, tamari, paprika, oregano, sage, thyme and salt and bring to a boil. Try to reduce to a simmer as soon as it boils. Simmer 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile make the roux.

Add the flour and oil to a pan and heat to medium, stirring to mix. Once it starts to sizzle stir constantly. Heat for about 5 minutes until a slight toasty aroma comes off. If brown spots appear, turn the heat off. Ladle half a cup or so of the simmering broth into the pan with the roux. Whisk quickly to smooth out. Continue adding broth half a cup at a time another three times. Then transfer this back into the main broth pot, whisking to mix and avoid lumps.

Bring back to a simmer for another 10-30 minutes to let the gravy thicken. Check for salt. This keeps well in the fridge and freezes too.

Corn starch slurry can be added instead of a flour roux. Use 4 T corn or potato starch in ¼ DaveHeader– ½ a cup of water.
For newsletter sign up, click here.

 

Four Square Meals – December 16

  • Masoor Dal – spiced red lentils with spinach
  • Moroccan Barley Pilaf – with quinoa, sweet corn and seasonal green
  • Mushroom Umama – roasted mushrooms in a savory miso sauce with seasonal vegetable
  • East-west Rice – Brown and pink rice with seasonal vegetable, brown mustard seed and nori
  • Kansas Avenue Tempeh – lemon marinated in a creamy roasted cumin sauce with seasonal vegetable
  • Aloo Gobi – Indian spiced potato and cauliflower
  • Levantine Green Lentils – with seasonal vegetable and spices
  • Persian Rice – basmati rice with amaranth seasonal vegetable and sumac

To order click here.DaveHeader
For newsletter sign up, click here.

Produce and grains purchased locally at New Pioneer Food Co-op, Echollective Farm, Organic Greens and Grinnell Heritage Farm

Four Square Meals – December 2

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  • Andalusian Pinto Beans – with roasted Roma tomatoes, carrots and spices
  • King’s Rice – brown rice with rye, seasonal vegetable, toasted sunflower seeds and nori
  • Tom Kha Tofu – rice noodles with Thai mushroom broth
  • Roasted Garlic Mash – potatoes with carrot and black pepper
  • Moong Dal – with spices and seasonal vegetables
  • Old World Pilaf – barley and einkorn wheat with green cabbage and caraway
  • Seitan Diable – tangy sauce with seasonal vegetable
  • Green Paella Nori – with jade cloud rice, seasonal vegetables and mixed nuts

To order click here.
For newsletter sign up, click here.DaveHeader

Produce and grains purchased locally at New Pioneer Food Co-op, Iowa City Farmer’s Market, Friendly Farm, Echollective Farm and Muddy Miss Farm.