Collard Greens Galore

This is the report from the April 13th St. Helena's Communal #WFPB/Suppers Meal Prep event. We had five people.

We had a small group, and the program was a bit too much given the limited number of hands, but we had fun.


I had decided the theme for this time was collard greens, just to explore some different ideas. The salad was just an ordinary salad, but we split some ingredients with the stuffed collard greens later-on.

Salad:

Red leaf lettuce, baby spinach, beets and the works.

• 3 beets boiled, peeled, grated (with the mandolin)
• 1 head of red leaf lettuce
• 1 box of baby spinach
• a chopped white onion
• 1/2 buch of enoki mushrooms
• 2-3 cloves of minced garlic
• a yellow, orange, and red pepper cut-up in small chunks
• 5 tomatoes cut up fine
• 1/2 bunch of parsley - leaves cut up fine.
• several serving spoons of boiled quinoa
• chia seeds

1/2/3 dressing with lemon: 1 tbsp maple syrup, 2 tbsp dijon mustard, 3 tbsp balsamic, plus the juice of one lemon and two limes. (It all depends on how much juice you get).

That was one mean salad!

Soup:

Based on the recipe for Loaded Miso Noodle Soup from NutritionStudies, but with some additions - for 5 people, but we cooked way too much and people took quite a bit home, even after having seconds - we could have served 8-10 people:

5 servings of soba or brown rice noodles, uncooked

3 cups vegetable broth

10 cups water
1 sheet roasted nori seaweed, broken into pieces, or in our case we soaked about a table spoon of wakame to start the broth.

1 cup thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms  

5 leaves of collard greens, cut out the stems, roll them up and slice them thin so you end up with thin collard greens strips, similar to the julienned veggies.

1 cup julienned carrot

1 cup julienned zucchini

1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup of daikon, cut katsuramuki style, first in sheets and then rolled up and sliced into thin strips, again, like the spiralized veggies. Alternatively, you could simply julienne them on the mandolin.

8 Tbsp miso paste

1 (14-ounce) package firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes

1/2 cup chopped green onions

Preparation:

• Start the water, and add in the soaked wakame, or the nori, or both. (I have gone away from using hijiki because of its reputation for containing arsenic) this forms the foundation broth
• Noodles: you can cook them separately, as the original recipe suggests, but I like to cook them with the soup for the last 5-7 minutes, for if they sit around too long cooked, they will stick together.
• Prepare all your veggies, making sure you add-in the collard greens first, since they are the toughest. Keep the scallions (green onions) for last.
• Add in the veggies, except for the scallions and let boil on a slow rolling boil for 5 mins, 
• add in the 3 cup of veggie broth
• Scoop out some broth and use to dissolve the miso
• Add the miso, scallions, and tofu and let simmer for another 1 minute. Serve.

If you cooked the pasta separately, you add it in at the last moment, but I see nothing wrong with cooking the pasta in the soup for the last 5-7 minutes.

Oil-free hummus

1 15-Oz can of chickpeas, drained
1/4 cup of the aquafaba from the beans
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
zest of one lemon (thoroughly washed)
juice of one lemon
1 tsp of liquid aminos
if more liquid is needed, add some veggie stock or water.
optional 1 tsp paprika powder
optional some fresh parsley, or scallions

In the blender...

Stuffed Collard Greens and Collard Green Burritos

My idea here was that this is great food for picnics in the summer. You can make a stuffed collard green pocket or a burrito, and wrap it in a sheet of paper towel and wrap it in saran wrap and then use a sandwich bag. You can take that anywhere. I take it even to restaurants when I don't trust the food. "I'm on a diet." Eventually the restaurants will catch on. ;-)

I prepared the Collard green leaves two ways:
Steamed and then flatten the stems with a rolling pin - for the burritos
Fresh, but with the stems cut out and interleaving the two half-leaves, for the wraps.

For stuffings we had:

• a pilaf of brown and black rice
• quinoa with parsley and a splash of liquid aminos
• hummus was pre-made at home with garlic and paprika powder and some parsley
• steamed green beans
• scallions, sliced thin
• enoki mushrooms
• Upton's Jackfruit Chili Lime Carnitas
• Kimchi
• sauteed onions, green peppers and white mushrooms

OK, you can see now we had too much for just five people. Some other time, I'd like to do this again with a bigger group, and have people assemble the burritos and stuffed leaves at the table, so everyone can pick their own favorites.

Preparation/Assembly

You lay out the leaves, add a smear of hummus in the center, lay on some quinoa or rice stuffing and then pile on your favorite mix of stuffings and roll it up.

It is easiest with the steamed leaves - burrito style. For the fresh leaves, you might need a toothpick to keep them together, or just hold them and eat them right away.

OK, all in all this was an orgy of fresh leafy greens, but with lots of color as well.

Besides the general lesson, one of our members, Sylvia, taught us all a lesson by taking the parsley stems home for her own veggie broth. If you have the time, it is worth cooking your own veggie broth. I do it once every few months, when I feel brave, and I fill some ice cube trays with my own veggie broth.

Spaghetti Mission at ShopRite

Shoprite at Bruckner Commons is quite a find.

Today I went in search of a few things I can't get nearer to home, like radicchio. But the real mission was to stock up on some tomato sauce, including the Store brand, Wholesome Pantry, which offers brilliant and (nearly) oil-free spaghetti sauces in four flavors. They would not meet Plantricious standards, but close enough for a "plant strong" diet, but not for a "plant-perfect" diet for a serious heart patient - only oil-free is oil free. Muir Glen and Delallo make oil-free pasta sauces. Sometimes I can find Brad's Organic fat-free pasta sauce at Good-N-Natural. Brad's Organic has three fat-free flavors. Walnut Acres has a Low Sodium Tomato and Basil, which is very low fat also.


Pomi is also a regular in my pantry for when I want to make tomato sauce from scratch, which is really the best option. That's the way to get totally oil-free.
Meanwhile in the pasta department they have a great selection also from various vendors, but my favorite is probably Luigi Vitelli Whole Wheat pasta.

Luigi Vitelli Whole Wheat pasta

The bottom line of the whole pasta story for me is that I prefer to make pasta sauce from scratch, but you don't always have the time. The Wholesome Pantry brand is not totally perfect from a #WFPB standpoint, but close.

When I make it from scratch, I start with some onions, which I sauté with a few chilis and an jalapeno (you can leave that out, but I like it on the spicy side), first I stir-fry them dry, until the onions begin to glaze and almost stick to the pan and then I add in some crushed, chopped garlic and some ice cubes of veggie broth and fry that for another few minutes, while adding in perhaps some other cut-up veggies. At least I like some one or two carrots, and if I am making a mushroom sauce, this is when I would add them in, with some of the spices like rosemary, and/or marjoram and perhaps a bay leaf or two, three. I add in six chopped-up (pitted) dates, instead of sugar, to cut the acidity. Let it go until the veggies are cooked soft and add in a pack of Pomi chopped or strained tomatoes, or a 25 Oz can of Wholesome Pantry diced tomatoes. After a half hour of simmering slowly, take the out the bay leaves and make it smooth with an immersion blender. That's when you can add in a small (6Oz) can of tomato paste and let it go a few more minutes over low heat and voilà, you're done.

Store Brand Whole or Diced Tomatoes

Pomi is always a winner

Wholesome Pantry 4 flavors of Spaghetti Sauce