Gluten Free Dumplings aka Potstickers

I love a good challenge.  So when my coworker/friend Darci challenged me to make a gluten free vegan version of the Kimchi Dumplings from the new Robin Asbell book, The New Vegetarian, I couldn't say no.  Plus, it's kimchi inside of a dumpling.  Come on-  It's got to be amazing.

I did put it off for a week, though.  I just figured that they're fall apart and be a real pain in the rear.  But then I found this GF vegan dumpling dough recipe from Jill Elise over at Hey, that tastes good!  It works!  And it tastes good!  And it wasn't any more of a pain than making wheat-based dumplings!  Success!

The dough was surprisingly easy to work with- as long as it stays moist and you flour the crap out of your counter top and rolling pin.  Look how pretty these are!

Before steaming

Robin's filling recipe was really awesome- I know cooking the kimchi kills all the good bacteria in it, but it's worth sacrificing some of your fermented cabbage for these little dumplings!  I think I liked them best just steamed, but Mike really liked them best pan-fried.  Either way, we dipped them in a tamari/rice vinegar/sesame oil/chili garlic sauce/ginger concoction and they rocked.

This Week's Make Ahead Meals

I didn't do as much prep work for this week's make ahead meals...And I really should have.  Tonight was the first night of basketball practice, AKA crazy night.  From now on I need to plan on a dinner that is ready in about 15 minutes or just give in and get Chipotle!

For tonight I had a special request for dinner: baked potatoes.  The kids are nuts about the baked potatoes at grandma's house, so I found out what she does special.  The secret is to rub onion salt all over the outside of the oiled potato before baking.  Then mix in Earth Balance with the center of the potato after baking.  Sounds like a winner!  What's that?  You don't have onion salt?  Me neither.  You can just mix onion powder and salt or you can chop an onion and then rub salt in the juices.  Or dehydrate your own onions, pulverize them with a mortar and pestle, and then mix them with salt.  I took the first option.

On the side we're having the Tangerine Baked Tofu and the Roasted Masala Brussels Sprouts from Veganomicon.

So here's how you can make this ahead:

• Prick the potatoes with a fork, rub them in olive oil or Earth Balance, and sprinkle them with onion salt.  Wrap in foil and put in the fridge until ready to bake the next day.
• Mix up the tofu marinade and add tofu.  Marinate in the glass baking dish that you'll use to bake them in the next day.
• Mix up the cornmeal/spice blend for the sprouts.  Wash and trim the brussels sprouts and store in a container you can use to mix them up with the spices and oil the next day.  
• On dinner night, put the potatoes in first- they can take up to an hour.  Then add the tofu after about 15 minutes.  Last, add the sprouts about 20 minutes later. 

Sorry for those who don't have Veganomicon.  Let this just be reason 8,265 you should buy it.  And this meal still takes an hour to cook, but the dinner night prep time is very little.  So you could put stuff in the oven while doing math homework with the kids or cleaning the house or during commercial breaks while eating ice cream in front of the TV.

More Co-op Booty

This week I got to visit both the Wedge Co-op and Lakewinds Co-op's Chanhassen store. Yippee- That means buying fun, new or hard to find products that I don't really need, but really want to try!

Here's the haul:

Let me show you a little more:
Pure Market Express Lemon Tart. Holy moly. I probably wouldn't make a habit out of paying $7.99 for a dessert, but ... well, maybe. This totally raw dessert is rich and tart- but not heavy or greasy or overly sweet. It's perfect. I hear their other desserts and entrees are pretty rockin', too. This is from Lakewinds Co-op.

Anyone who hasn't tried South River miso should go buy a jar right now. For real, this is the best miso ever. It's in glass jars. It's unpasteurized. And the company is super cool- I get their newsletter and they send yummy recipes and info about miso. My favorite has always been the garlic and red pepper variety...But this dandelion leek variety rivals that. I ate kind of a lot just with a spoon.
Pomegranate molasses. I've needed some for ever and after seeing a really awesome recipe for tofu with pom. molasses and walnuts, I think I need this. Got it at the Wedge.

I don't usually spring for fancy raw foods products, but I was told that this would "blow my mind". And how can you resist organic, raw pistachio pesto? This stuff is intense- it's rich and packed with flavor from olives and sun-dried tomatoes. I wish I could taste the pistachios more, but I'm excited to find all the uses for this stuff. So far I've been spreading it on crackers and thoroughly enjoying it.

I admit bias towards Silver Spring products. Mike is in a band with someone who works at the production plant, so we've sampled darn near every product they make. And I get to hear stories about giant tubes that transport organic horseradish and tamari valves getting clogged and such- Fun! (to hear about, not to actually deal with, I'm sure). Someday we'll get a tour! I extra like their products because they're cheap, tasty, local and organic- Win, Win, Win, Win.

Spices!!! I depend on the Wedge Co-op for various spices and herbs that I can't find at other stores. Sassafras, sarsaparilla, smoked paprika, and black cumin seed- hell yeah!

These Ines Rosales tortas are rockin'. I've never really had anything like them before- They're crunchy, but soft. Like big not-too-hard crackers made with lots of tasty olive oil. I've had the savory-sweet one with anise and olive oil and now this one with rosemary. The anise one is more unique, but both are really good (but pretty heavy on the fat content- these are no diet food).

I think plenty of people know about Uncle Eddie's cookies, but I don't have a steady hook-up for them and they're mighty addictive. So I was super happy to see them at Lakewinds! I think my favorite is the oatmeal chocolate chip.

That's all!

Loaded

About 4 days ago I was watching something on TV and saw some commercial for nachos. The commercial was pretty effective because I've been craving nachos since then.

My goal was to make nachos loaded with everything I ever want on nachos- No wimpy little chips with cheese that leave me wishing for more.

These were loaded with:

Whole Grain Milling Company organic corn tortilla chips

Taco style TVP

Melted nacho Teese

Green onions

Guacamole

Tofutti sour cream

Homemade salsa

Pickled jalapenos

I never imagined that leftover nachos were possible...But I made WAY too many for 2 people. I'm actually eating the leftovers right now, at 9am, for breakfast. Yum!

Chocolate Chestnut Pumpkin Cake

When I saw Kathy's recipe for Chestnut Chocolate Cake with Cinna Pumpkin Cream Frosting, I knew I had to have it. I've had a can of peeled, roasted chestnuts in my pantry for about 11 months. And chocolate chips and pumpkin are on sale at the Co-op. Oh, and it sounds freakin' amazing.

I did change the recipe to make it gluten-free, though, because it's so sad to see the look on my sweetie's face when he learns that he can't eat something I've just baked.

You should go to Kathy's site "Healthy. Happy. Life" to get the original recipe and the recipe for the frosting. I messed up the frosting recipe, but I thought the cake was so darn good it didn't even need it!

Chestnut Choco Cake

dry:
1 1/2 cup millet flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch/flour

1 tsp. xanthan gum
3/4 cup evaporated cane juice
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
dash of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
wet:
1/2 cup melted vegan buttery spread
1/2 cup canned organic pumpkin
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup vanilla soy creamer
1 cup vanilla soy or hemp milk
Batter Fold in:
1 cup vegan chocolate chips
1 cup roughly chopped chestnuts

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Grease with spray oil, a casserole dish.
3. Add all dry tea cake ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Mix well.
4. Add in the wet ingredients. Stir until well blended. You should have a fluffy dense batter. It will not be of liquid consistency.
5. Fold in the chopped chestnuts and chocolate chips.
6. Pour batter into casserole dish. Smooth out batter to edges with a knife or back end of a spoon. Drizzle better with a bit of maple or agave syrup and a sprinkle of sea salt. (Or pour into mini muffin tins!)
7. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until a light brown crust forms on the edges and the cake begins to pull away from dish. (Mini muffins only bake for 15 minutes).
8. Pull cooked cake from oven and allow to cool.
9. When both the cake and frosting have cooled, you can frost the cake. Sprinkle with leftover chopped raw pecans. Slice into squares.
10. Serve cool. Store in fridge.

Make Ahead Meals- Baked Penne

Baked pasta dishes are so easy to make in advance. I'm sure it'd be just as easy to just have pasta and sauce for a quick weeknight meal, but there's something extra rich and comforting about baked pasta.

Tonight we're having gluten-free baked penne with tofu ricotta. Here it is before baking:

It's super easy! First, cook up your gluten free pasta. I used Tinkyada brand GF pasta in a penne shape, but any type would work.

Then prepare a batch of tofu ricotta. You can use the recipe from Veganomicon or just wing it. I just threw a few cloves of garlic, a block of firm tofu, lemon juice, salt and parsley in the food processor.

Before you strain the pasta, pack a bunch of baby spinach in the strainer. Then it'll partially cook while you strain your hot pasta through it.

Then mix everything together (ricotta, spinach, pasta) in a big glass baking dish.

Top with 2-3 cups of tomato sauce (I used some home-canned sauce) and some fresh tomatoes if you have them around still. My green ones from the garden are slowly ripening and I had enough to top this dish. I think I'll add some grated cashew cheese just before baking it tonight. Anyways, put this in the fridge until you're ready to bake it.

Bake at 350F, covered in foil, for about 20-30 minutes or until warmed through. If topping with cheeze, just finish in the broiler for a minute or two to melt it.

Make Ahead Meals- Crockpot Dal

Without making meals ahead of time (or at least making the major components of meals), we'd either order pizza or eat what the kids have started calling "leftovers thrown together in a pan" on Monday and Tuesday nights. I'm trying to get better at really planning meals for these 2 nights. I was doing really good for a while and then fell off the meal-planning wagon.

Here's what we ate tonight:

Basmati rice with crockpot dal and raita

(My spell-check only recognizes the words "rice", "with" and "and" in that meal)

Here's how I put together the dal...approximately! It was super flavorful and packed with veggies.

The night before, combine the following in your crockpot:

2 cups of split peas

6 or so cups of water

Let soak, with the crockpot off, until the next morning. Then, before work, add:

1 bunch lacinato kale, chopped

4 small tomatoes, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 cup chopped carrots

Then in a small cast iron skillet, heat 4 Tbsp. (1/4 cup) of canola oil (you could do less, but this is for a LOT of dal!). Add:

1 Tbsp. cumin seeds

2 tsp. mustard seeds

1 Tbsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. turmeric

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. salt

When seeds start to pop and garlic is fragrant (not burned!), pour the oil into the crockpot with other ingredients. Cook on high for about 8 hours.

Then, all you have to do when you get home from work is cook some basmati rice (super quick) and stir together chopped cucumber, minced cilantro, plain yogurt, lime juice and salt. It makes a really tasty raita to serve on top.

Look for another make-ahead dinner tomorrow!