recipes

Mushroom Tacos

I really wanted to make Jamie Oliver’s mushroom shawarma dish but realized it was too hard and the ingredients were difficult to find. Where am I going to find a jar of preserved lemons in rural Illinois during a pandemic?!

Nope, I needed a simpler version. Luckily, Steve found portobello and oyster mushrooms at the store. For my easier take on Jamie’s dish, cook in a skillet:

  • 2 sliced portobello mushrooms

  • 1 sliced cluster of oyster mushrooms

  • 6-7 sliced button mushrooms

  • 1 teaspoon of paprika

  • 1 teaspoon of cumin

  • 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

  • Chili powder to taste

  • Salt and pepper to taste

While the mushrooms are getting soft, I did use Jamie’s recipe for flour tortillas, which were SO easy to make. I’m never buying tortillas at the store again. For 4 small flour tortillas:

  • Mix 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of filtered water, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

  • Knead into a dough, adding more flour or water depending on whether the dough is too sticky or dry.

  • When the dough is workable and no longer sticky, cut into four even pieces.

  • Roll out each piece with a rolling pin.

  • Add about a tablespoon of oil to a skillet on high-medium heat.

  • Place two tortillas on the skillet at a time (depending on how big your skillet is).

  • Flip when one side starts to form brown blisters.

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Chickpeas Please

Still on my vegan spree, I made these five-ingredient-chickpea cookie dough balls that were a cinch. The title is longer than the ingredient list, which is:

  • 2 cups of chickpeas

  • 1 tablespoon of tahini

  • 2 tablespoons of maple syrup

  • 1 cup of chocolate chips

  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Blend everything but the chocolate chips with an immersion blender.

Mix in the chocolate chips.

Roll into bite-size balls.

Chill and enjoy!

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Excuse My Tarty-ness

When we were looking for places to live in Berkeley, the lemon tree at our current home sold the deal for me. “Hope you like lemons,” our landlord said to us, “this house has one that is covering the yard with overripe lemons.”

“Yep, I want to live here,” I told Steve. “It has a lemon tree!”

Coming from the Midwest, where lemon trees are pretty much non-existent, I was super excited about having a fruit tree of my own. Needless to say, since moving in, my vitamin C levels have never been better.

This morning, I made lemon bars and they turned out to be more like lemon custard bars. Still delicious.

Ingredients for crust

  • 1/4 cup of honey

  • 1/3 cup of ghee

  • 1 egg

  • 2/3 cup of coconut flour

  • 1/4 cup of tapioca flour

  • Dash of salt

Ingredients for filling

  • 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice (about 4-5 lemons, pulp is fine)

  • Zest of one lemon

  • 3 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup

  • 4 eggs

  • 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

  2. Rub a light coat of ghee on a 8x8 baking dish.

  3. For the crust, mix together all the ingredients with a fork. The mixture should form a dough you can roll into a ball. Put the crust in the freezer.

  4. Then move on to the filling. Put all the ingredients in a blender. Mix until the liquid is light and foamy.

  5. Take the crust out of the freezer and press it into the bottom of the pan. Poke the crush with a fork.

  6. Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes or until lightly brown around the edges.

  7. Pour the filling onto the crust and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.

  8. Continue to bake for another 15-18 minutes. You’ll know the filling is set when you gently shake the pan and the filling only wiggles a tiny bit.

Ricotta Go Vegan

I’ve learned the hard way that my stomach just doesn’t like dairy, sugar, gluten, or processed foods. My cravings and my tastebuds do, but my stomach ends up throwing a tantrum. Since moving to California, I’ve been eating a more vegetarian diet. Both because there are simply more vegetarian options around me and because I’ve been trying to avoid purchasing factory-farmed meat. The more I eat vegetarian or vegan, the less I like the taste of meat. I never thought I’d say that!

Funnily, my two favorite vegan and vegetarian restaurants are The Butcher’s Son in Berkeley and The Butcher’s Daughter in Venice Beach. Apparently the Butcher’s kids are trying to make up for his barbaric ways (bad joke, I know).

When I visited Venice Beach last week, I loved the vibe and decor of The Butcher’s Daughter. But I especially loved the two things I ordered: the Golden State latte and the Angel Hair Carbonara. The Golden State was essentially golden milk made of turmeric, maple syrup, black pepper, and warm foamy almond milk. The carbonara consisted of “thinly shredded spaghetti squash, topped with cracked black pepper, cashew ricotta, ‘bacon’, cherry tomatoes, and wilted arugula.” I’m still thinking about that delicious meal.

Back home, I tried to recreate the carbonara dish and I mainly needed to nail the cashew ricotta. Here’s how I made it:

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups of raw cashews, soaked

  • Juice of 1 large lemon or 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

  • 2-3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast

  • 4 garlic cloves (or more depending on taste)

  • Dash of onion powder

  • Salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions

  1. I either soak my cashews overnight or in hot water for an hour.

  2. Throw everything into a Vitamix.

  3. Add a little bit of the leftover cashew water to the Vitamix if the mixture is too thick.

  4. Mix until the texture is a coarse paste.

  5. Store in an airtight container for up to a week, but it will likely be consumed well before that!

Kale-ifornia Salad

Kale. Stiff, bitter, dry kale. I didn’t appreciate it until I learned how to eat it.

Kale is good in soups and sautéed, but I finally figured out how to eat it in a salad. The key is to let the dressing soften the kale. Unlike spinach or lettuce, kale won’t wilt into a wet mess if it sits out in dressing.

ingredients

  • 2 bunches of kale

  • 1/2 cup of almonds

  • 3 tablespoons of tahini

  • 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup

  • Garlic powder

  • Salt

  • Pepper

instructions

  1. After washing the kale, pull the leaves off the stems. Chop into bite-size pieces and put them in a large mixing bowl for later.

  2. In a small bowl, mix the tahini, apple cider vinegar, and maple syrup. Add dashes of garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Adjust the measurements to taste.

  3. Pour the dressing over the kale and add the almonds.

  4. Massage the dressing into the kale. Over the course of the day, the dressing will soften the kale and make it more enjoyable to eat.

Alterations

  • I love adding a jammy egg or crispy baked chickpeas to my salad. Sometimes I’ll add dried cherries or red onions.

  • A teaspoon of dijon mustard in the dressing is a nice addition too - adds a nice tang.