June in the kitchen (part 2)

"They gave us weeds?!" moaned C when he saw that week's CSA loot. I ended up making a Greek-style dandelion salad with tomatoes, raw botija olives, and marinated artichokes. C liked it so much he didn't complain about the bitterness (unlike with the radicchio chopped salad we had later that week - me, I'm a nontaster . . . bitter-shmitter).






The beet and berry salad (inspired by The Berry Bible) was a great way to make use of our CSA beets, strawberries, and red leaf lettuce. It was lightly dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.










For one of our Sunday breakfasts, we had "power porridge with coconut-pecan marmalade" from The Candle Cafe Cookbook. Dare I say it . . . the marmalade was actually too sweet for me, but Eliza pleaded for porridge leftovers until they were gone.








Dreena Burton had an unusual and intriguing pizza recipe in Vive le Vegan! that I had to try. The "crust" is a whole spelt tortilla, and the toppings are beam-yam hummus, zucchini, olives, and fresh herbs. Eliza was disappointed the crust wasn't soft, but she was willing it eat the whole mess with a fork once we crumbled it for her.






One morning, Eliza and I shared scrambled tofu with zucchini that I winged (I've seen so many versions). To the tofu and zucchini I added a little tamari, curry powder, allspice, and probably something else I'm forgetting.







For next week's recipes, I'm trying out recipes from a new cookbook and an "old" favorite.

Foods That Don't Bite Back
tarragon lentil-nut loaf
Moroccan-style tempeh w/ apricots, dates, & olives
sundried tomato & basil pesto pizza
chilled cucumber soup
carrot-tahini sandwich filling
grilled summer vegetable salad

Vegan with a Vengeance
mango-ginger tofu
chickpea-hijiki salad sandwiches
sunny blueberry-corn muffins

Some are dinner recipes, but the carrot-tahini and chickpea-hijiki sandwiches are for packed lunches. When I was in college, I packed a PBJ almost every weekday for years and years. It's not that I'm such a fan of peanut butter but that I was completely clueless about what else I could make that wouldn't be extremely perishable (of course, that was a time in my life when I could barely boil water). I have a tendency to fall back on PBJs and ABJs (we alternate peanut and almond butter) with Eliza because they're easy to slap together, and they come with an iron-clad guarantee they won't be rejected. She also really likes tofu salad sandwiches, but I have to have a batch of tofu salad sitting in the fridge because Eliza's patience maxes out at the time it takes to toast bread. So I'm curious how this week's new sandwich recipes will be received. Isa Chandra Moskowitz (author of VWaV) says the chickpea-hijiki sandwiches satisfy her occasional tuna cravings. I haven't had tuna in 20 years and don't miss it a bit, but I've been known to sneak seaweed into soups and stews, so the recipe looked good to me.

I think I've tried almost every non-dessert in the book; believe me, I'd love to eat the desserts in theory, but I have to limit desserts to a couple times a month, so it takes a long time to go through them. I'm thinking for July's desserts we'll have the blueberry-lemon cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World while berries are still in season and probably something from VWaV - the carrot cake photo has been speaking to me, but I just had carrot cake at Sipz Fusion Cafe in May.