Vegan cheddar jalapeño cornbread muffins that are also gluten-free in this easy to follow recipe with step by step instructions.
Maitake Mushroom Steak
Hen of the Woods, also known as Maitake, is an incredible and complex mushroom, with many small lips, and has a tendency to crumble. Pressing the mushrooms condenses the flavors, and squeezes out the natural liquid, allowing it to soak up a delicious marinade while firming the texture into a bite-perfect steak. Joining the already meaty flavor and texture of this mushroom, the steak will brown and bring on the smokey flavors of the marinade leaving an aroma in the air and a bold flavor on the palette. This recipe is a sneak preview inspired by the recipe in my upcoming book: Plant Based Gourmet
Jerk Jackfruit
Jackfruit looks strange from the outside– its giant and green, oblong and covered in a million tiny green spikes– but inside it is a mildly sweet fruit somewhere between a mango and an artichoke.
-
- Sriracha red chili sauce
-
- 1 tsp cinnamon
The young green jackfruit can be found in cans, or it can be found whole or pre-cut closer to ripe in most asian grocery stores. I always like to finish my jackfruit in a cast iron pan (I use this one from Lodge)
A little bit of bravery and a very sharp knife will cut through the thick outer skin of the whole fruit, giving you a great base that can take on many flavors from pulled v-pork to jerk v-chicken, giving you a healthy plant-based alternative to classic foods! Even better, jackfruit grows in abundance, making this a sustainable crop for local farmers year-round.
Kombucha for ALL
There comes a time for every health-loving vegan, every trend-loving hipster, and every ferment-loving culture-fiend, when it’s time to learn to make kombucha. And why not? Buying it retail is upwards of $5 a bottle, produces a fair amount of single-use package waste, and sometimes the flavor choices are…questionable. Preparing your own kombucha can be a little addictive, especially since the basics are easy to master, and a virtually endless amount of tweaking and flavor combinations can radically alter the outcome! It’s such a rewarding practice that you’ll probably be making your own by the gallon every month in no time!
This recipe uses a combination of ceylon and sencha with organic sugar and will have 2 ferments over the next 20 days! Basic recipes below, look for amazing flavor recipes in PART 2!
Homemade Plant-Milk, Nuts and More
The prospect of making your own plant milks at home can be a daunting proposition. You need to trust your instincts, and you’ll run into a lot of recipes that describe esoteric equipment and lengthy preparations and the need to plan ahead (overnight nut soaking!)
In this easy guide, I will go over the basic outline of a plant-milk recipe, that can be applied to practically ANY nut or seed to produce your own plant milk, and a few variations you can use to get different results, whether they be for flavor, sweetness, or speed.
-
- OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
We Can Pickle That- Snap Peas
Snap peas are incredibly versatile. They make great snacks raw, and you can basically throw them into any salad or sandwich no problem, and they get sautéed and added to a lot of stir fries. Just when you thought you had your snap pea game down, you realize that I, and Portlandia, might have another idea:
In this post, I will go over two different methods of pickling, one the lacto-fermented kind (despite the name, its definitely vegan, it is merely referring to the lactobacillus bacteria that is involved in all open air fermentation) and the other using vinegar. The vinegar method is faster, but not as beneficial for your gut flora as the fermented kind, however the combination is ideal because the apple cider vinegar serves as a prebiotic while the fermented produces probiotics, and in both cases your radishes, turnips, sweet peas, and another other veggies laying around can live long past their peak time.
Tamarind Turnip and Radish Greens
Don’t throw away your turnip and radish greens! A quick sauté in some Tamarind paste will deliver a powerful unrefined and unprocessed source of sweet and sour. This delectable little fruit paste is going to cram a ton of flavor into these spicy and sharp greens, AND with very little effort on your part– what could be better? And thanks to Karma Farms, you’ll have tons and tons of these in your fridge!
Head on over to your local Asian or Indian market, and grab a pack of Tamarind paste, and you can keep it in a zip-top bag in your fridge basically forever after (we are one year and counting with our last block).
Asian Salad — Karma Farm
Use this flavor -packed Asian salad as your lunchtime Rx to get over a case of the Mondays. Now that summer is in full swing, and staying inside during the day is even harder an inspired lunch idea will bring some of that sunshine indoors.
Snap peas and Choi can both be enjoyed raw, but in this salad we will sauté them to bring in a ton of flavor and a variety of textures. Some of the ingredients will be raw, like the raspberries, carrots and radishes, and you can serve this dish hot from the wok or chilled from your fridge.
Snap Pea Pate w/ Tarragon- Karma Farm
Nothing brings the fresh feeling of summer quite like a fresh and crisp Sugar Snap Pea, it’s green and light and bursts with a tangy spray in every bite, much like a radish or turnip. That hydrating and nutrient dense crunch– so refreshing!
Pate is the perfect medium for a small handful of peas, and makes a great fridge snack, as you can combine it with nearly anything else in your fridge or pantry like crackers or celery sticks. Best of all, the bright bright green of the peas makes an excellent color note against a bright pink of a radish, making it an excellent smile-inducing finger food for an outdoor garden party.
Sesame Soba- Karma Farms CSA
Soba is an earthy, traditionally gluten-free noodle, that is packed with anti-oxidant power from things like Manganese, and relatively low in carb while being high in fiber and protein, unlike our typical white refined pastas!
Bok Choi is the star of this show, providing bursts of fresh moisture, soft leaves, and a crunch, amidst the rich and creamy tahini sauce, while the meaty mushrooms satisfy our craving for a hearty bite. Last but not least, the Chinese Broccoli (which likes to hide in the soba!) compliments these textures, adding a complex and nutrient dense element beneath the surface of the noodles. If you are lucky enough to subscribe to Karma Farms CSA you’ll be receiving bok choi, chinese broccoli, and spring garlic in your box this week, and is the inspiration for this recipe. There’s still time to sign up!
Serves 4, and is vegan, gluten-free, and nut free