Suzi's Tips - I'll Set You Up!

It's often easy to identify the kitchen of someone who loves to cook. You know the kitchens...all cooking tools are handy within close grabbing distance near the stove. Slightly lazier cooks, like myself -- the quick veggie meal grrl, can learn a thing or two from this! :-)

Keeping everything you need at your fingertips means you can focus your time and energy on the actual cooking part of the meal preparation experience, instead of burning the onions (or pine nuts or... insert most recently charred item here) while you do the 20-yard dash around the kitchen searching for that elusive spatula or whisk.

As an aside...it seems funny to me that people still keep looking for ever bigger and bigger kitchens. One drawback of having a large kitchen (aside from more storage and counter space -- which is a good thing!) is that your prep and cooking time increase if you have to dash around your kitchen finding stuff. Although, the extra calories burned while running around the kitchen could translate into being able to eat more! Hahaha :-)

To be functional, though, a kitchen doesn't need to be the size of a football field. All you need is a good work triangle (i.e., 3 steps from stove to sink, and 3 steps from sink to fridge, and 3 steps from fridge to stove...that would be an equilateral triangle for all those geometricians out there) and an efficient layout of your work tools.

Ok, so here's my list of essential kitchen tools and supplies to keep near your stove:

• bottle(s) of olive oil with a "pouring spout" (these shouldn't be too big because you don't want your olive oil to spoil from exposure to the light and air)
  
• salt dish and pepper grinder
• a garbage bowl (ya, I have a Rachel Ray garbage bowl and I totally LOVE it!!)
• pastry cutter for scooping up chopped veggies
  
• basket of onions and garlic
  
• kitchen timer
• frequently-used dried herbs and/or spices on the counter (such as oregano, dried red pepper flakes, thyme, and bay leaves)
• other spices in a drawer or cupboard near the stove, depending on what you use most frequently, e.g., cumin, coriander, curry powder, cinnamon, etc
  
• set of stainless steel mixing bowls
• set of measuring cups and spoons
• large jar or holder containing: several wooden spoons, whisk, tongs, spatulas, pasta fork
  
• small plastic cutting board
  
• large wooden cutting board
  
• knife rack

Realistically, I know that no-one has enough counter space beside their stove to store all these items. So, depending on your counter space you'll need to rearrange your cupboards above the stove and the drawers beside your stove to accommodate those things that don't fit on your counter top.

At a minimum though, your counter top should have enough space beside your stove to store the olive oil, knives, salt and pepper, and the jar with wooden spoons. Happy (and efficient) cooking!

What else works? Let me know if you have any favourite work area layout ideas that help speed up your daily meal prep.

Earth Day - Saving the Planet One Bite at a Time

When we hear about the environment most people don't immediately think about how the food we eat may contribute to serious environmental concerns like global warming, land and water pollution, soil erosion or rainforest and wilderness destruction.

In fact, more and more experts are finding (including studies done by the United Nations) that a meat-based diet actually has a direct and often devastating impact on the environment compared to a vegetarian diet. Many people scoff at such a suggestion and it still hasn't been taken seriously in the mainstream media. It's an idea that most people have a really hard time wrapping their heads around, but it's not really that unbelievable.

It's true that most of us are disconnected from where our food comes from and how it is produced. We just need to try and imagine the sheer scale of animal agriculture today to understand how that poses a threat to the earth's air, land, and water. Not only are millions of animals confined on huge factory farms where their waste contaminates the ground water (remember Ontario's Walkerton?), but vast tracts of land are required to graze cattle and to grow feed crops which results in pollution, soil erosion and habitat destruction and other devastating impacts.

Here are some eye-popping facts:

It actually takes 7 times less land to feed a vegetarian compared to a meat-eater. What a difference in footprint size! In Canadian terms, a meat consumer requires 3.5 acres of land while only a half acre is required to feed a vegetarian. Livestock production currently accounts for 30 percent of the entire land surface of the planet.

In Canada, 77% of cereal crops grown are directly fed to livestock, not people! I was shocked to learn about this and have never been able to look at the "corn belt" in the Ottawa area the same again. Most of this corn won't end up on anyone's table as corn on the cob...it may end up as feed for livestock and most of the energy it provides will be used up by the animals producing motion, or it will be excreted or discarded as a waste product.

Since animals are inefficient calorie converters, far more caloric and protein content is fed to the animals than is returned to your plate in a serving of meat. The monoculture crops grown for animal feed are treated with polluting chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides which otherwise wouldn't be applied if the land was allowed to return to wilderness.

Oh, and here's a rather unappetizing statistic...farm animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States. The runoff from factory farms pollutes rivers and lakes more than all other industrial uses combined!

Rainforests, considered to be the "lungs" of the earth, are still being cut down to make way for feed cropland and for grazing cattle. The thin layer of delicate forest topsoil soon becomes degraded due to overgrazing, compaction and soil erosion due to livestock activity. In 2007 alone, 785 species were driven to extinction due to habitat destruction.

Livestock production also uses a tremendous volume of water, mostly for the irrigation of feed crops. For example, it takes 7000 litres of water to produce 100 grams of beef while it takes only 550 litres of water to produce enough flour for a loaf of bread.

And did you know that global warming isn't only caused by vehicle emissions? A full 18% of total globally-released greenhouse gases known to cause climate change derives from the meat production industry. A recent United Nations report found that the meat industry causes more global warming through emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide than all forms of transportation combined. University of Chicago researchers found that switching to a vegan diet is 50 percent more effective than switching from a regular car to a hybrid in terms of reducing global warming!

The good news is that vegetarian and vegan cuisine has come a long way from the "granola" days of tofu, hummus and steamed veggies. There's no excuse for anyone to say that vegetarian food is bland or boring anymore!! No longer is gourmet food limited to meat-based plates. Healthful, delicious and beautifully presented veggie offerings have become commonplace at most restaurants.

Vegetarian and vegan cookbooks abound with easy to make gourmet-style recipes using everyday ingredients for the home cook.

Replacing a few meals a week with vegetarian/vegan options is easy and delicious and just think what you'll be doing to help the planet.

Happy Earth Day and may Earth Day be Everyday!! Here's to the greening of your kitchens!

Sources:
Toronto Vegetarian Association; Eating for the Earth

Peta; Vegetarian Starter Kit

ArkII; The Activist: Vegans Lead the Way on Earth Day!

Toronto Vegetarian Association; Meat Production's Environmental Toll

Suzi Eats! A Day in the Life of a Herbivore

This Easter Sunday, it was just me, my hubby, and our kitty Mia. No big family gatherings. It turned out to be a pretty typical Sunday for us, actually, so you'll see this is more of a "day in the life of a herbivore" kind of walk-thru rather than actual recipes here. More recipes coming soon!

So, we kicked off the day with our usual organic, fair-trade Kicking Horse coffee and some oatmeal pancakes (also affectionately known as "oak" pancakes due to a now infamous typo).

Our favorite pancake recipe is from the first vegetarian cookbook I ever owned, Laurel's Kitchen. Its not vegan, but probably could be veganized pretty easily with an egg substitute and soy/almond milk. Sometimes I use gluten-free flour to make it gluten free, but today I used whole wheat flour. I never use pancake mix to make pancakes...it's just way too easy to make from scratch!!















Oatmeal (Oak) Pancakes
1 1/8 cups milk or milk substitute
1 cup rolled oats
2 T oil
2 eggs, beaten (or egg substitute)
1/2 cup whole wheat or gluten free flour
1 T brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Combine the milk and oats in a small bowl and let it stand for at least 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine oil and eggs, whisking well. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add the two bowls of wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Let stand for 15 minutes, then ladle the mixture onto a hot grill, turning when bubbly. Makes 6-10 pancakes, depending on how big you like to make your pancakes.















I like to serve my pancakes with real Canadian maple syrup along with a fruit sauce made with a handful of frozen mixed berries heated on the stove top with a bit of sugar and lemon juice until reduced by half and thickened. Today, we used blueberries and sliced strawberries. Sometimes I like a scoop of flavored yogurt alongside the berries and some Yves' veggie breakfast "sausage"...they look and taste so real don't they?!

After breakfast it was on to the relaxing and some more reading about how to use my new camera. Hmmm, my Exposure book has already jumped at light speed to shutter speed but I'm not ready to leave aperture yet. I must try to resist flipping ahead and just trust in the author's intentions.

Although breakfast was quite satisfying, its not long before I'm craving my usual weekend smoothie. My smoothies typically include: 1 1/2 cups of almond milk or soy milk, a spoonful of Greens+ or spirulina powder, a scoop of vegan protein powder, one small banana, and my frozen fruit of the day. Today's frozen fruit was peach, melon, and strawberry.

Sometimes I'll add a pinch of cinnamon and a bit of sweetener, especially if it is a mango-banana smoothie. YUM!!

Since today's a holiday, it seemed like a good day to go to the local mall parking lot to practice for my next driving lesson. Me and all the 16 year olds!! Haha! But not until after lunch!

Mini-pizzas on Greek pita bread.
Greek pitas are thicker than regular pitas and don't have a pouch in the center. They make great pizza crusts! Just throw a package in the freezer and thaw as needed. These are so quick and easy to make.

Top each pita with a few tablespoons of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce, sprinkle with a pinch of oregano, salt and pepper and pile on your favorite toppings...today was veggie pepperoni, sliced mushrooms, red peppers and onions. Then add your fav cheese. Mine included mozzarella, cheddar, and goat cheese, ya, decadent...but it's a holiday! Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and throw it in the oven for 20 minutes at 400F until the cheese is all nice and bubbly.

After lunch, its off to the mall. We had the parking lot all to ourselves until just before leaving. We were joined by a young teen out learning how to drive his family's huge mini-van with his dad (why are these things called "mini"??). We kept our distance from each other, both still anxious about sharing the road with other moving vehicles. One more of these sessions and I might be ready to hit the roads of a local, quiet neighborhood. All this driving around in circles and attempting to stall park is beginning to wear out my oh-so-patient co-driver!

I knew just the thing to unwind my husband...slice up five onions for tonite's dinner's caramelized onion tart and roll out the puff pastry! Good thing he used to be a catering cook and has a sharp chef knife...he finished with the onions in seconds!!

Rustic Caramelized Onion Tart with Sauteed Collards and Asparagus
This tart makes a great main for a vegetarian meal, served with a side of collards and asparagus, and it's easy to boot!

While my husband sliced five onions and rolled out the thawed puff pastry, I sliced a cup of cremini mushrooms and browned them in 2T olive oil, 1 T butter with 4 whole, peeled garlic cloves. I added a sploosh of red wine at the end simmering until completely reduced.

To caramelize the onions, heat 2T butter and 2T olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat, and add the onions and salt and pepper, sauteeing, stirring often, for about 20-30 minutes, until soft, sweet and golden brown. In the last 5 minutes, add 2-3 T of balsamic vinegar and cook until thickened. Add the mushroom mixture to the onions and let it cool for 5 minutes, then place the filling onto the puff pastry, leaving a 1" border. Dot with 4oz soft goat cheese and fold the edges around the mixture to prevent leakage. Brushing the edges of pastry with milk will help the pastry brown nicely. Bake at 450F for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden.















To saute the collards, I used a traditional Mediterranean recipe. Chop the collards into bite sized pieces, removing tough stems, and boil for 10 minutes or until tender. Heat 2T of olive oil in a large skillet and add 3 chopped garlic cloves and a pinch of red pepper flakes and infuse the oil on low heat for 5 minutes, making sure you avoid browning the garlic. Add the collards, stir and sautee for 3-5 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. I also added cubes of smoked tofu, which stand up well to the collards.

Oh, and I almost forgot the asparagus! Saute the asparagus in 1T of olive oil until tender, about 3-5 minutes, then sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with 1-2T lemon juice. Enjoy!!

Chocolate Chipotle Chile

Yay! Spring is here -- Happy Spring Equinox! Although it's Spring and the days are finally getting longer than the nights, there is still a chill in the air to remind us of winter. A nice, big pot of spicy, hot chili is just the thing to take the chill away!

I use canned chipotles in adobo sauce to give heat to my chili. These little cans of smoked jalapeños can be found in the Mexican foods aisle of most grocery stores. They pack a big punch so only use one chipotle (about 1 tablespoon when chopped finely) unless you or your fellow eaters like it screaming hot. The leftover chilis can be frozen and used as needed. If you can't find the canned chipotles, try 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of dried chipotle powder.

Another ingredient I like to add to my chili is chocolate. Yes, chocolate! Chocolate complements and adds depth to the heat of the jalapeno peppers and has been used in authentic Mexican cooking since the time of the Aztecs. Buen Provecho!



Ingredients:
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, red or green, seeded and diced
2 stocks celery, chopped
1 small zucchini, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1T chili powder
1T cumin powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
salt and pepper

1/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup vegetable stock
1 chipotle pepper in adobe sauce, finely chopped
1 small can of green chilis (110g) (optional)
1 19 oz can kidney beans, strained and rinsed
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 can (14 oz) crushed tomatoes

1/2 square (1/2 oz) of semi-sweet chocolate (optional - but believe me it adds a really nice depth of flavour)
1 package (12 oz) of veggie ground "beef" (optional)

Garnish with any or all of the following:
shredded extra sharp cheddar
chunks of ripe avocado
chopped green onion
chopped fresh cilantro
blue corn chips

Method:
In a big soup or stew pot over medium high heat, heat the olive oil and add the onion, pepper, celery, zucchini and garlic and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the spices and cook, stirring for another 1-2 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with the red wine, scraping up any flavour bits from the bottom. Simmer until the wine has been reduced by half then add the vegetable stock, chipotle, green chilies, beans, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

If you are using the chocolate and the veggie ground "beef", now is the time to add them to the chili and cook the mixture for another 10 minutes. Turn heat off and allow it to sit for 5 minutes, then scoop into your favorite mexican-style bowl and garnish as you like! You may wish to serve the chili with cornbread, which can be made while the chili simmers.

Corn bread (from my 1980 Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook):
I love this corn bread recipe and I've been making it for years! You can add 1 cup of shredded cheddar to the combined mixture, if you want to make this more cheesy.

Ingredients:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
3 T sugar
1 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup sunflower oil

Method:
Preheat oven to 425F. Grease an 8" by 8" square baking pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and oil and pour all at once into the flour mixture. Stir until just combined and pour into prepared baking pan. Let sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes, then bake 25 minutes or until golden. Cut into squares or triangles and serve with chili.

Tofu "Fish" Sticks

Even though I've been vegetarian for many years, I still have cravings for some of the meat and fish dishes I grew up with. Who didn't have those frozen deep-fried fish sticks growing up? They were one of my favorite meals as a kid! Throw in some french fries and some coleslaw and that's one kid-friendly meal. Here's my take on a vegan version of those fish sticks.

Ingredients:
1 block of extra firm tofu (350g), frozen, then thawed and excess water gently squeezed out

Tofu marinade--
2 T tamari sauce (or good aged soy sauce)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T white wine vinegar
2 T lemon juice

Breading--
1/4 cup fine bread crumbs
1T lemon zest
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried dill
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup all purpose flour

Vegan tartar sauce--
3 T vegan mayonnaise
1 T sweet green relish
1/4 tsp dried dill

4T sunflower oil
1 lemon

Method:
Place marinade ingredients into a medium wide-bottomed bowl and whisk until combined. Cut tofu in half across width and then cut diagonally. Slice triangles into 1/2" thick slices. Place tofu triangles into marinade and soak until all marinade is absorbed by all the tofu. Be gentle when swooshing marinade over the tofu, being careful not to break the triangles.

Set up a breading station: take 3 pie plates and fill one with the flour, one with the soy milk and one with the breading ingredients. Mix the breading ingredients until evenly distributed. Dredge the tofu first in the flour, then the soy milk and then the breading. Set aside.

Cover the bottom of a heavy bottomed frying pan with sunflower oil and heat to medium high. When hot and rippling, place the breaded tofu into the oil and brown on both sides until nice and crispy, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Combine the tartar sauce ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Cut up the lemon into wedges for sprinkling on the "fish" sticks when serving. Serve the tofu "fish" sticks with the vegan tartar sauce and enjoy!!

Asian Noodles in Spicy Peanut Sauce

One of my favorite mid-week meals, this is so fast to make and very tasty! I've even entertained with this on a weeknight after work. This is inspired by a recipe from an old cookbook of mine called "Best of What's For Dinner?" by Ken Kostick. I've tweaked the recipe to suit my tastes and style of cooking.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb medium rice noodles
2T sunflower oil
1/2 block of firm or extra firm tofu, chopped into 1" cubes

2-3T sunflower oil
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup sliced cremini and shitake mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T grated ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (I include seeds and ribs 'cause I like it hot but you don't have to!)
2 T peanut butter
1/4 cup tamari sauce (or good aged soy sauce)
2 T vegetable stock or water
1 T balsamic vinegar

Method:
Put pot of water on to boil and cook rice noodles according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed skillet, on medium heat, add first 2 tablespoons of oil and brown tofu cubes on each side, about 5 minutes in total. When browned on the outside but still soft on the inside, set aside to drain on a paper towel.

In a wok or large skillet with high sides, heat remaining 2 tablespoons of oil on medium-high heat and add onion, mushrooms, red pepper and garlic all at once, stirring often until softened, about 5 minutes.

Make a hole in the centre of the stir fry ingredients and add all the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Heat until bubbling and add more stock or water to thin, if needed. Mix the sauce together with stir fry ingredients and add the cooked rice noodles and the browned tofu, cooking for 1-2 more minutes so noodles soak up some of the sauce and the tofu is warmed up.

Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with some cilantro or flat leafed parsley. You could even sprinkle with some chopped peanuts. Enjoy!

Serving suggestion: this goes well with my mango-lime salad recipe ;-)

Suzi's Tips - Basic Knife Skills

Welcome to the first Suzi's Tips, which will be regular feature of Suzi's Green Kitchen (Ecogrl Cooks!!). I'll be sharing cooking and food-related tips and ideas that I've picked up along the way in my veggie culinary adventures. Questions and comments are always welcome, and if you have any vegetarian food-related topics you would like covered, please leave me a comment and I may cover it in a future Tips post.

I know I've already talked about chef's knives, but I really can't say enough about the benefits of a good knife... for me, learning to use a chef's knife really did help launch my joy of cooking and brought my culinary creations to a whole other level. So, here's to another knife post!

I first started to pay attention to my knife skills about 8 years ago when a friend of mine from work decided to change careers and go to chef school full time (I was so envious!!). I visited her shortly after she had begun the rather grueling-sounding program and she joyfully shared with me some of the things she was learning in her classes. When I mentioned that I was about to get a new chef knife, she gave me hers and asked me to demonstrate how to hold it. So, I just grabbed the handle and pretended to chop. Wrong way to hold the knife, she says! Although my husband had shown me how to hold a chef's knife properly and I'd seen it many times on TV cooking shows, of course I chose that moment to forget. As my friend explained, and as I already knew and later learned in my culinary school classes, how a cook holds their knife is a personal choice, but there are techniques that make it easier and safer.

Grab the handle of your chef knife and grip the metal part at the heel of the blade with just your thumb and index finger. This is that thick metal portion joining the handle and the blade which adds weight and balance and keeps your hand from slipping. Holding the knife this way gives more stability and control, plus you can also chop faster. It is also important that the heel portion of the blade is deep enough so you don't knock your knuckles on the cutting board when you chop with it.

Position the knife with the point on the cutting board well beyond the food to be sliced or chopped. With a rocking motion, keep the point on the cutting board and slice, dice and chop to your heart's content!


If you don't have to hold the food being chopped (a pile of parsley or walnuts, for example), you can place your free hand with your fingers flat on the top of the tip of the knife to give you even more control.




Most times you'll need to hold and maneuver your food while chopping. Hold the food with your finger tips curled under, like a claw, to keep them away from the sharp blade. Concentrate fully on the task at hand and focus on your fingers and where they are relative to the blade coming down on the food, and don't look away unless you stop chopping. Speed comes with practice...I was pretty slow at the beginning!!

A good, sharp chef knife is essential to making chopping easy and fun but it's also very important to prevent injury because a dull knife is more prone to slipping.

A 7" to 10" chef knife, a bread knife and a paring knife are really all the chopping tools a vegetarian cook needs in order to be able to whip up delicious and fast veggie meals. Using these basic knife skills helps to make chopping less of a chore, more fun, and even a stress-reducing (for me anyway!) experience. Happy chopping!! :-)

Vegan Chocolate "Mousse"

So, it's Valentines Day and that special meal you are preparing for your significant other just needs the perfect decadent chocolate finale. Here's a recipe for a super-luscious chocolate mousse that you can whip up in minutes! This recipe is adapted from one of Chef Harrel's tofu classes at the culinary school here in Toronto. You'll want to make this again and again, and your guests will never know it has tofu in it!


















Ingredients:
6 oz (6 squares) of vegan semi-sweet chocolate
10 oz/300g silken tofu
1 small ripe banana
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 T chocolate or hazelnut-flavored liqueur

1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
1 T fresh mint, chopped
1/2 tsp sugar or light maple syrup

Method:
Melt the chocolate in a large bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring just until melted. Remove from heat and let cool for 2-3 minutes.

Place melted chocolate with tofu, banana, vanilla and liqueur in a blender or small food processor and process until very smooth. If it's too thick to blend, add 1-3T of soymilk. Pour into individual serving cups and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Mix strawberries, mint and maple syrup and sprinkle on top of each cup just before serving.

Fast Foods and a Good Chef Knife

Unlike so many foodies, I didn't grow up surrounded by a culture of food or food lovers. My small, nuclear family, like so many others in the 60's and 70's, enthusiastically partook of the wondrous, newfangled time-savers like minute rice, hamburger helper, and canned vegetables. Frozen TV dinners were a treat and canned pasta was de rigueur for a warm winter lunch on a school day. Food back in the day was a necessary annoyance to be gotten out of the way as quickly and conveniently as possible.

Today, I love food and cooking, and I prefer my food to be FRESH...but I like it fast. The need to make quick meals is the one thing that must have stayed with me from my food experiences growing up. Back then, as with today, vegetarian cuisine had a reputation for being time consuming because of all the chopping. I don't necessarily agree, but when there is chopping to do, the right knife can make all the difference.

Way back, I'd invite friends over for dinners when I was in university and just discovering my love of cooking. One of my good friends, who worked in the food biz at the time, used to look on with horror while I chopped all the veggies for our meals with a dull paring knife. She'd warn me that I'd be more likely to cut myself with such a dull knife and that it would be alot faster and easier to chop with a sharp knife and that my hand wouldn't ache with a proper knife. It wasn't until years later that I finally discovered she was right! My husband had just splurged and bought himself a brand new 8" Wusthof chef knife.

He already had some great knives but despite his urging I refused to use them, preferring instead to use my dull bread knife because I was used to it. One day I decided to try the chef knife to cut some curly-leaf kale leaves from the thick woody stems and, WOW, it was like slicing through warm butter! It was so easy and fast! I was hooked forever. I became a chopping fanatic. Using a good knife was like the difference between riding a bicycle and driving a car. So, my husband bought me my own Wusthof and many speedy, vegetarian meals ensued.

Until, sadly, we sent the knives out to be sharpened. The sharpener shaved off a big curve from the heel to the middle of my knife and I lost contact of half the blade with the cutting board. Never again will the sharpening be done by anyone but me. I'm buying a stone and will learn how to sharpen it myself. I'm using a steel to keep the blade in good condition between sharpenings. My new knife is a lovely 7 " santoku that makes what many see as a chore into a relaxing and fun experience.

My old foodie friend is thrilled that I've finally discovered what she'd been trying to tell me for so many years and she has reaped the benefits of many a fast and fun vegetarian meal created with my good chef knife.

Kale with Vegan Sausage and Perogies

I'm fortunate to have recently moved to a lovely Polish neighborhood. The local commercial strip has a generous smattering of Polish bakeries (Yum!), restaurants, and, of course, lots of meat shops. However, being vegetarian generally means that if I feel like having a Polish-inspired dinner, I will need to make it myself.

So, feeling inspired last week for a Polish dinner, I stepped up my search and finally found a good, local source of Tofurkey products in a small fruit market in the 'hood. I picked up the vegan Tofurkey Polish-style sausage and began to visualize my Polish dinner coming together! The next stop was the local Polish bakery for some "home-made" fresh-frozen perogies. The ones with sauerkraut filling are vegan. My local Polish bakery also carries big jars of fresh sauerkraut, so I added one to my basket. On to the veggie market for some curly-leaf kale and my vegan, Polish-inspired meal was ready to prepare:

1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
pinch nutmeg
pinch red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup red wine
1 bunch kale, stems removed and coarsely chopped

Plus:
Polish-style vegan sausages
Vegan perogies, fresh or frozen
Prepared sauerkraut

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil on medium heat. Add the onions and soften, about 3-5 minutes. Then add garlic, nutmeg, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. Heat 1 minute, stirring, and add red wine and kale. Stir to coat the kale with wine, cover the pan with a lid and simmer on low heat for about 3 minutes or until kale has just wilted. Remove from heat and place the kale in a serving dish. The onions will be reddish from the red wine, so if you find that distracting or weird (my husband was weirded-out by the red onions), you can omit them or cook them separately, then sprinkle the onion over the perogies.

Meanwhile, slice the vegan sausage and cook according to package directions. When cooked, remove from heat and place in the serving dish with the kale.

Using the same pan, scoop out your desired amount of sauerkraut and just heat through. Place the sauerkraut in a separate serving dish.

Also meanwhile (yes, this is a multi-pan dinner!), cook the perogies as desired. Some people like to boil their perogies, but I like to pan-fry mine in a bit of olive oil until lightly browned...yummy!

Enjoy your Polish dinner of Kale with vegan sausage, sauerkraut, and perogies! I served this to a non-vegetarian family member of German origin and her good friend from Germany last year to favorable reviews!