Creamy cauliflower queso and chips in a couple of my hand-built bowls.

When I recently made the lovely cauliflower alfredo sauce from Cupcakes and Kale, my recipe gears started to spin.  While many of us have fallen hard for the endless possibilities of raw cashews, using cauliflower and beans to make a creamy spread opens up new doors (and less calories and fat).  With different spices and varying amounts of liquid, it’s a veritable fount of creamy sauce possibilities.

The idea that stuck was a cauliflower queso with a hit of cheesiness from nutritional yeast flakes, depth from white miso, and a kick from chili powder, hot sauce, and pickled jalapeno slices.  I wanted the sauce to stay mild enough, so that it could be layered with salsa, spicy chickpeas or black beans, and served over tortilla chips for a nacho platter.  I wanted it to have enough body and flavor to stand out on its own, but not too much to overwhelm with other spicier ingredients.  The texture isn’t the same as, say, one might find from a nacho cheese pump at the movie theatre or baseball stadium.  (That’s a good thing, right?)  It’s more similar to a bean dip in depth but with a whippy viscosity from the blended roasted cauliflower.

Using a Vitamix or other high-speed blender, this queso becomes surprisingly smooth and velvety.  It can be used on its own as a dip or layered over steamed broccoli.  Put a dollop on baked French fries and top with more hot sauce and jalapenos, or go the cheesy baked potato route and top with chopped Smoky Soy Curls.

Cauliflower quesadilla and a simple salsa in a little bowl I threw on the wheel.

This queso also makes for a delightfully creamy quesadilla.  Spread it between two tortillas and toast on a dry skillet over medium heat, flipping once, until the tortillas have reached that perfectly nutty shade of roasted marshmallow brown.  You’ll never believe that there’s cauliflower inside of every bite.

Cauliflower Queso

Makes about 2 cups of queso

• ½ head cauliflower (approximately 2 heaping cups), broken into florets
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• ½ small yellow onion (approximately ¾ cup), diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ cup non-dairy milk + up to ¼ cup more if necessary (Rice milk is my favorite.)
• 1 cup Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 ½ tsp white miso paste
• ¼ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp hot sauce (Trader Joe’s brand is my favorite)
• 1 Tbsp pickled jalapeno slices
• Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Toss cauliflower florets in 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil and lay evenly across a parchment paper covered baking sheet.  Roast cauliflower for 20 minutes, stopping once to toss for even roasting.

While the cauliflower is roasting, heat a skillet under medium heat, add remaining 1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil to pan.  Sauté onions and garlic in pan for 5 or 6 minutes, until very soft, fragrant, and translucent.  (Turn heat to low if they start to stick.)

In a high speed blender, combine roasted cauliflower, onion and garlic mixture, and the remaining ingredients.  (Be careful not to be too heavy handed with the salt since miso, hot sauce, and pickled jalapeno slices are already salty.)  Blend until the queso is completely smooth and velvety.  If you’d prefer a more liquidy queso, add up to ¼ cup more of non-dairy milk and blend until fully combined.

Only one day left to bid on one of the tantalizing items up for bid on the fundraiser at Hobby and More supporting VSPCA – Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals. I donated one of my hand-built bowls, and there are all kinds of cookbooks, food items, jewelry, and more.

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Today’s recipe is a celebration of all that is in season and taking center stage at my farmer’s market – the aforementioned asparagus, garlic, spring onions, and spinach.  I roast chickpeas and asparagus (my favorite way to cook it), and then add it to a pan of spinach sautéed with garlic and onions, and dotted with the tart and tangy flavors of lemon juice and capers.  I like to serve it over my easy breakfast polenta.  However, it would be a mouthwatering spring meal over any grain, like farro, brown rice, or barley.

To spin dry my spinach for the recipe, I used the salad spinner I recently received from the folks at OXO.  As part of their Blogger Outreach Program,  OXO sent me one of their salad spinners for review and additionally one to offer to a reader (U.S. only) in a giveaway.  Although I already had a salad spinner, mine didn’t get a ton of use.  For one thing, it has these large, unfortunate air holes at the bottom of the unit.  I don’t know who thought that would be a good idea for the design, but it means that my countertops get an impromptu cleaning every time that I use it.  (Perhaps I should be glad for this bonus feature?)  So I generally just line a kitchen towel on the countertop, rinse all of my leafy greens and vegetables, and then pat them dry with another towel.  This actually works out okay since I’m rarely just using leafy greens, and so I’d need a towel for other vegetables and fruits anyway.

The OXO salad spinner has a pump at the top that can be hidden into the unit during storage, and it even has a brake, which is my favorite feature.  It makes me feel like I’m operating one of those Silly Silo style-rides at amusement parks, in which park goers stick to the walls.  It’s BPA-free and top-rack dishwasher safe, which is useful when it requires more than a rinse.  Most importantly, it dries greens nicely.  The only possible negative is that it’s ten inches across in diameter.  If you have limited kitchen space, that may be problematic.  If cupboard storage isn’t an issue, it means that one can pack a lot of produce into the center bowl.

To enter the OXO salad spinner giveaway, simply leave a comment below telling me about your favorite, must-have kitchen gadget.  Make sure to enter an email address into the appropriate field (if you don’t have a blog), so that I can contact you if you’re the big winner.  The contest is open to U.S. residents only and will be chosen randomly.  The contest will end May 31, 2012 at midnight, CST.

Roasted asparagus & chickpeas with sautéed spinach

Serves 2

• 1 heaping cup asparagus, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• ½ tsp + ½ tsp + 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ cup spring onions, chopped (Any variety onions or shallots will work here)
• 2 cups spinach, chopped
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp capers
• Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Put asparagus on one baking sheet and toss with ½ tsp extra virgin olive oil.  Toss chickpeas, nutritional yeast, and ½ tsp extra virgin olive oil on second baking sheet.  Put both baking sheets in the oven and roast chickpeas and asparagus for 20 minutes, stopping once to shake the pans so that they roast evenly.

While the asparagus and chickpeas are roasting, heat a pan to a medium heat.  Add 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil to pan and sauté the onions and garlic 5-8 minutes, until fragrant and translucent.  Add spinach to pan and sauté for one to two minutes more, until the spinach has wilted but before it becomes gummy and overcooked.  Add lemon juice to deglaze the pan.  Add capers and combine.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Once the asparagus and chickpeas have finished roasting, add them to the pan with the spinach mixture.  Fully combine and salt to taste.  Serve the Roasted Asparagus & Chickpeas with Sautéed Spinach on creamy polenta, farro, rice, or barley.

Disclaimer:  I received two salad spinners free of charge from OXO, one for myself and one to give away.  I didn’t receive any payment otherwise, and the opinions above are totally my own. 

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For that reason, collards and lentils play a consistent part in my weekly meals.  I love making a batch of slowly cooked, garlicky greens and topping them with brown lentils in coarse mustard.  On days when soup fits the bill, it’s this Double Lentil Mushroom and Barley Soup that calls my name.  This is my current favorite soup, and I make it regularly.  Sometimes I make it with less mushrooms, sometimes with more.  Sometimes I make it with farro or brown rice instead of barley or leeks instead of onions.   Sometimes I make it with garlic, and sometimes I make it with even more garlic.   Any way it’s modified, it always turns out beautifully.  This is the kind of soup that I’d want if I was starting to feel a bit under the weather, because with all of that garlic and collard green goodness, surely I’d snap out of it by the time my bowl ran dry.

Initially I always made this soup with brown lentils alone, and then one day my husband stepped in to make it.  After the soup was ready he called me in from the kitchen.  “We were out of brown lentils, and so I used red,” he said.  I anticipated that it wouldn’t turn out that way since red lentils just kind of disintegrate, but as it happened, it was quite a discovery.  The red lentils made for a creamier soup that is more dense.  By adding a mixture of brown and red lentils, we get the toothsome quality provided by the brown lentils along with a fuller viscosity thanks to the red lentils.

Lately I’ve been making this soup by dry sautéing the mushrooms to start.  Then I’m able to sauté the garlic and onions in the mushroom liquid.  I’ve read varying opinions on how to best do this.  Some people claim that the mushrooms should be stirred constantly.  Some people vote for a low or medium-low heat.  My preferred method is adding sliced mushrooms to a large, dry soup pot on a medium to medium-high heat and not overcrowding them or moving them too much.  My experience has been that if I leave them alone, they get all hot and bothered within a few minutes, and I’m able to use that mushroom liquid for sautéing instead of oil.  By the time the liquid has burnt off, I add a couple of tablespoons of extra dry vermouth to deglaze the pan, and that does the trick for the remaining sautéing until I add water or broth to the pot.  If you would prefer going the regular route and using oil instead, feel free to sauté the onions and garlic in a teaspoon or so of oil, and then add mushrooms and continue as followed in the directions.

Double Lentil & Mushroom Barley Soup

Serves 4-6

• 14 white button or cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small red onion, chopped small
• 2 Tbsp extra dry vermouth
• 6 cups vegetable broth or 6 cups water + 1 vegetable bouillon cube
• ¾ cup brown lentils, rinsed and sorted
• ½ cup red lentils, rinsed and sorted
• 1/3 cup barley, rinsed
• 2 cups collard greens, rib removed, chopped small
• 1 tsp herbs de Provence
• ¼ tsp smoked salt (Yakima applewood smoked salt is my favorite)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat large soup pot on a medium heat.  Add mushrooms to dry soup pot, spread evenly across bottom.  Warm mushrooms until they release their liquid, stirring only occasionally.  Once they have released enough liquid to sauté, lower the heat and add garlic and onions to sauté in mushroom liquid.  Once the liquid dries off and the onions and garlic start to stick, add extra dry vermouth to deglaze the pan.  Continue cooking until the garlic and onions are translucent and fragrant.  Add vegetable broth (or water and bouillon cube, if using), brown and red lentils, and barley to pot.  Bring heat to medium high until boiling.  Lower to simmer and add collard greens.  Cover with lid and cook for 40 minutes.  Add herbs de Provence, smoked salt, and salt and pepper to taste.  This will make a hearty and stew-like soup, but if you prefer it more liquidy, add water or broth as necessary.   Serve with roasted garlic and crusty bread or marinated olives.

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Generally, taquitos are made by warming soft corn tortillas in a dry, warm skillet until they’re pliable.  (If you try to roll a cold corn tortilla, it will break.)  Then they’re rolled with filling and fried in oil, seam side down.  Once a seal has been created, the taquitos are turned to brown on all sides.  The fried version is a delicious indulgence, but I try to limit the amount of fried foods I eat.  Plus, if a person incorrectly gauges how sealed the taquitos are and turns them too soon, one can end up with a pan full of fried filling.

In lieu of warming them in a dry skillet, I microwave the corn tortillas before filling them.  It saves time since I don’t have to warm the tortillas one at a time, but if you’re anti-microwave, feel free to do the pan method.  After that the tortillas are filled and then baked for fifteen minutes.  This baked version simplifies things to the point that make taquitos a doable and healthy weeknight dinner.

Baked Chipotle Black Bean & Sweet Potato Taquitos
Makes 10-12 taquitos

• 1 sweet potato, cut into small, bite-sized pieces
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided + extra for brushing tortillas (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup red onion, chopped small
• 1 ½ cups black beans (1 15 oz can), drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp coriander
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp chipotle chile pepper
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
• ¼ cup water + 2 Tbsp to combine (optional)
• Salt, to taste
• 10-12 corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 420 degrees. Put sweet potato pieces on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet. Toss with one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and spread them evenly across the sheet, being careful not to overcrowd. Roast potatoes for 20 minutes, tossing once for even cooking.

While the potatoes cook, heat skillet to a medium heat and add one teaspoon extra virgin olive oil to the heated pan. Rotate pan to spread the oil and add minced garlic and onions. Sauté onions and garlic until fragrant and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add black beans, cumin, chili powder, oregano, coriander, paprika, chipotle chile pepper, lime juice, and ¼ cup water to the pan. With a spatula, fully combine the beans and spices. Turn the heat off of the pan until the sweet potatoes are ready.

Once the sweet potatoes are ready, add them to the black bean mixture. If necessary, add 2 Tablespoons of water to fully combine seasonings.

Put the corn tortillas on a plate and cover them with a damp cloth napkin. Microwave the corn tortillas for 1 ½ minutes, until they are warm and pliable. (If they aren’t pliable enough, microwave for 30 seconds more.) While you fill each tortilla, keep the remaining plateful covered with the damp cloth napkin to keep them warm and pliable. Spoon two heaping tablespoons full of the black bean mixture onto the center of each tortilla and roll it into a tube. Place each rolled taquito on the parchment paper-covered baking sheet that you used for the sweet potatoes. Place the taquitos seam side down, and lean each of the taquitos against each other to keep them in place on the sheet.

Once all of the taquitos have been filled, brush them with a light drizzling of extra virgin olive oil, if desired, for optimum browning. Place the taquitos back in the 420 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Have you missed my other Spicy Black Bean recipes?  Check out Spicy Black Bean Tacos, Mango Pineapple Salsa on Black Bean-Stuffed Potatoes, and Black Bean Taco Pizza.

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During the training we were taught to do a few simple magic tricks involving a magic wand, including one vital one that gave us the power to remove our fluffy costumed paws.  (Yes, the tricks were really high tech.)  That way we could use face paint on the kids and make balloon animals. I learned how to twist balloons into the shapes of giraffes, bunnies, swords, and flowers.  Then on Fridays I’d drive to Culver City to find out who I was going to be for the weekend.  Sometimes I was a Power Ranger.  Sometimes I was Barbie or Cinderella.  Other times I was Scooby Doo, Hello Kitty, or even just a generic dinosaur.  (Of course, they never advertised their characters as those specific names for copyright reasons.  I was a fashion doll or a mystery-sleuthing hound.  You know the drill.)  The costumes varied from being quite realistic and well made to a little flimsy around the edges.

At first I really enjoyed it.  I was greeted like a princess rock star.

“Oh, my god.  Barbie is here.  Barbie!  At my birthday!”

I regaled the girls with stories about Ken and our dream house.  I painted hearts and flowers on their cheeks, made some balloon daisies, and gave my best queen-like wave goodbye.

Then after a few weeks, it somehow took an unfortunate turn.  The problems began when I started going to parties for children over seven.  I don’t know what it is about seven, but at that point suspicion came to life.  It’s not the full-blown affirmation that happens around ten.  It’s this nagging and overpowering sense that they might be getting duped.  If seven year olds had their own kiddy version of Cheaters, it would mostly involve finding out the real truth behind the Tooth Fairy.

“Betsy, we have this video footage of your mom grasping underneath your pillow while you slept.  Do you want to see it?”

It was at that age that I spent a good chunk of my time deflecting the question, “Are you real?”  Was I really Barbie?  My North Hollywood dream apartment and dream Chevy Cavalier would have pointed largely to no.  But what do you do?  The parents have shelled out money for their little one’s party all bent on the idea that this celebrity sighting would be a highlight of the day.

But I should get back to the subject at hand, and that is Easter.  On this Easter in question all of those years ago, I was to attend a small gathering dressed, of course, as the Easter Bunny.  When I picked up the costume, I was impressed.  It had a real lifelike look to it, much better than your average mall-variety bunny.  It eased my worries a little, as just a week before I’d had a particularly bad run-in with a ten year old who wouldn’t let it go that I couldn’t possibly be an actual dinosaur at his party.  “You’re extinct!” he screamed at me.  I only wish I was kidding.   So this bunny gig boded well.  It seemed like it would bring on better days.

I drove to East Los Angeles and popped on my bunny head.  (We were told to do all of this from outside of viewing distance from the home in case the kids were watching out the windows.)  I knocked on the door and was greeted by a mom who was surrounded by a group of seven to ten year olds and one baby.  The mother put the baby into my furry arms, left me with the children, and went outside presumably to mingle over fruit salad and mimosas.  I started into my shtick, but the kids weren’t having any of it.  (Although the baby seemed positively delighted.)

I should mention that playing Barbie or a princess was the easy part.  The hard part was when parents would leave you to play games and watch after their sugar-loaded kids while dressed as a fluffy bunny.  You know who doesn’t garner respect?  A grown adult dressed as a fluffy bunny.  I felt as if all of the tools I’d gained in adulthood in keeping order with children were now stripped from me.  (If parents really want their 18-year-olds to consider higher education outside of theatre school, they should show them a variation of those 16 and Pregnant-style precautionary shows.  It would pretty much be me wearing a headband to catch all of the sweat that pours into your eyes while wearing an enormous costumed head but that you don’t have access to with your hands.  I’d be sneaking up on a house, slipping on my rabbit head and saying,  “I didn’t plan on my twenties looking like this…”)

I showed the kids my magic wand.  I offered to make balloon animals.  But all they wanted to do was have that epic, existential conversation…  Was I real?  At this point it all seemed to be very surreal being dressed as the Easter Bunny, pondering the questions of our times.  Who was I to break the truth to these kids, once and for all?  After a considerable amount of debate, the kids gave up on me and ran outside.  I worried what that might do to my tip that I couldn’t keep the kids entertained.  I decided the only thing left to do was continue on with it for the amusement of the baby.  I removed my paws and started working on a few tricks for her, and then the kids had a change of heart and came back just in time to see me handless.

“See!  You aren’t real!”

“No,” I sputtered.  “It’s all part of the magic.  See, but you missed it…”  Happy Easter, kids.

It was completely fruitless.  I’d sealed my bunny fate as a fraud.

I did a few more parties after that, but I started looking for other things.  If I’d wanted to spend that much time pondering my own existence, I would have gone into philosophy.

Easter Basket Salad

• Pineapple, sliced & also shaped into a bunny
• Strawberries, sliced
• Kale, shredded with the shred blade in a food processor
• For bunny features: thyme leaves for eyes, red bell pepper for nose and mouth, strawberry top for hat, strawberry slice for necklace, and a chickpea tail

Assemble in a bowl and top with your favorite dressing.  I topped it with creamy cashew dressing, but a raspberry vinaigrette would also be lovely.

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“Why did the man put his car in the oven?  He wanted a hot rod.”  (Can you imagine the hot pads that guy must own?  They have to be huge.)

Then the kids would beg for quarters and run off to play in the arcade while parents talked over pitchers of pop and beer.  My brothers needed to be told when the pizza had arrived because they were immersed in the game room; however, I was only too aware.  My favorite spot at Happy Joe’s was the platform and window where you could watch the pizza being made.  I’d gaze at the pizza makers, pulling and stretching the dough and then loading it with toppings.  Then came the main event.  With the platform as my stage I’d turn to face the unsuspecting audience and regale the customers with dances from my tap class or my own homemade choreographed show.  I was 23.  I’m kidding, I’m kidding.  I was 5 or 6.

Once our pizza was ready, I’d run to the table, eager to eat my dinner…  of chips.  See, for a real tried and true taco pizza, you need crushed nacho flavored chips on top.  Think of it as the pizza version of those noodle casseroles topped with crushed potato chips.  The seventies were a marvelous time, weren’t they?  I’d start picking chips from the top of the pizza, happily crunching away, until my mom would inevitably size up the situation and tell me, “Cadry.  You can’t just eat the chips.”  It was worth a shot.  I’d settle in to a whole slice… with a few extra chips for good measure.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the state my someday-to-be husband was gobbling up taco pizza of his own.  Apparently, one time his dad even forgot his brother there in the arcade.  He came home with pizza for the family, and his mom said, “Did you forget anything?”

“No, I got the pizza,” his dad said.

“I mean your son.  Happy Joe’s called.”

What did I tell you?  That arcade was something of a Bermuda Triangle for preteen boys.

You can imagine my shock and disappointment when discovering that, in a similar fashion, on the West Coast taco pizza ceased to exist.  (I found one place between LA and Phoenix that has it, and that’s it.)  Happy Joe’s only made it as far as North Dakota and stopped.  (Did they suppose a restaurant couldn’t hope for more than a city called Grand Forks?  My sources say yes.)  In my fantasies, I imagined opening a restaurant selling taco pizza, showing the Angelenos what they were missing out on…

And then 9 years into living there I met my sooner-to-be husband, and I discovered that he too had a deep well of love for taco pizza.  That well was so deep, he actually had people in Iowa send him boxes of the taco flavored chips that were essential for the true taco pizza experience.  He had discovered in his time in LA that a SoCal chain had a similar crust to Happy Joe’s, and so in our early dating days we’d order their pizza, and then add raw chopped onions, lettuce, and taco chips.

It may come as no surprise after all of this that when we announced our engagement to my family back in Iowa, we all met up at Happy Joe’s.  In came an employee who honked her squeaky horn.  (Yes, I know.  We’re fancy.)  My family members looked at each other confused.  None of us were celebrating a birthday.  Then she said, “We have a special announcement!  Cadry and David are getting married!”  The siren sounded, and there were hugs all around, and then I realized I should have pulled David from the Skeeball game first.  (I kid, I kid.  He’s terrible at Skeeball.  He’s more of a Ms. Pac-Man guy.)  In fact, I even gave taco pizza a shout out in my wedding vows.

Then we went vegan.  And the taco pizza from Happy Joe’s with its dairy-based cheese, meat, and nacho chips were all put to the wayside.  I started making a chickpea taco pizza on a Vicolo cornmeal crust.  (You can check out the video here.)  It was and is delicious, but the chips for topping were elusive.  Nothing was quite right for the spicy, crunchy topping.  We tried blue corn chips, and they were too hard.  We tried seasoning our own tortilla chips, but the spice blend was never quite right and felt a little dusty in the mouth.  Eventually we gave up and settled to the idea of a life of chipless taco pizza.  Then, like a cilantro-fueled dream, Garden of Eatin’ came on the scene with their Pico de Gallo chips, and the chipful taco pizza was born again.  The crunch, the seasoning, it’s all right on.  (But very dangerous.  Somehow those bags have a hard time staying full in our kitchen cupboards.)

This recipe is part of my continuing series on ways to use one component of a meal for several entrees.  It utilizes spicy black beans and several cupboard and freezer staples.  If you feel like making homemade marinara and crust, go for it.  But we love this meal for something hearty, indulgent, fun and quick.  It’s an occasional treat with a lot of sentimental value.  Plus, using some premade products and leftover spicy black beans means that the whole shebang, including baking time, is done and on the table in twenty minutes.  You couldn’t drive to Happy Joe’s, park, order, and do a couple of tap numbers in that amount of time.  The only thing missing?  Those placemats with crosswords and corny jokes, but I’m working on that.  I came up with this little beauty last week.  Tell me if you think it’s up to snuff for a sheet of paper used to protect my table from splotches of pizza sauce…

“Why does the bird outside my window only sing the same one line to a song over and over?  Early bird gets the ear worm!”

No?  How about…

“What did the creamy cashew and garlic salad topping say to the refrigerator?  Close the door!  I’m dressing!”

All right.  I’ll keep working on it.

Black Bean Taco Pizza

• ¼ cup (heaping) Spicy Black Beans
• 1 Vicolo cornmeal crust
• A few spoonfuls of marinara (My favorite is Trader Joe’s Organic Tomato Basil Marinara)
• Any or all of the following toppings:  chopped tomatoes, onions, cilantro, avocado, red bell pepper, olives, and crushed Garden of Eatin’ Pico de Gallo chips

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Top the cornmeal crust with marinara and spicy black beans.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove the pizza (and hot rod, if necessary) from oven and top with your preferred toppings.

Update:  For a gluten-free crust idea, check out this post from Andrea at Cook Easy Vegan.

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Now whenever I cut open a mango, I can’t help but think of one of the company members who grew up in Hawaii.  His family had a mango tree in their backyard.  I imagined him running outside to pull a mango from the tree in the same way that I’d run down the hill in the yard of my childhood home to pluck mulberries.  He’d often bring mangoes to shows, cut up in slices, to share with the rest of us.  I’d purchased mango on my own many times, but I’d never been that impressed with the flavor.  It was kind of dry and a little woody.  That is, until I tasted the mango he’d brought.  It was succulent and sweet, juicy and tender.  I asked him about why our mangoes varied so much, and he said the key was in the ripeness.  There should be a slight give when you press with the thumb, when you smell the end of the mango, it should be fragrant.  Since then I’ve learned to be patient.  I don’t refrigerate the fruit, so that it can continue to ripen.  I leave it in the fruit bowl until it’s even starting to wrinkle just a bit.  I take in a whiff of its floral aroma, press on it gently, and know that it’s ready.

In my continuing series on simple ways to use Spicy Black Beans, here’s a recipe for Mango Pineapple Salsa on Black Bean-Stuffed Potatoes.  When people think of baked potatoes, their minds often jump to cheese or sour cream.  In this case, the freshness of pineapple and mango lighten the dish and inform the spicy black beans in a way that is vibrant instead of heavy.  The bright bite of the mango can almost transport you to Hawaii or at least to a grade school auditorium, wearing wigs and costumes, telling stories to children…

Using a teaspoon, scoop out potato halves to create bowls.

Fill with Spicy Black Beans, avocado, and Mango Pineapple Salsa.

Black Bean-Stuffed Potatoes

• Russet Potatoes
• Spicy Black Beans
• Extra virgin olive oil (optional)
• Mango Pineapple Salsa
• Avocado, diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Use a fork or knife to poke five or six holes in each potato.  Wrap the potatoes with aluminum foil and bake for an hour, until a fork can easily spear it.  Refrigerate potatoes until needed and/or until cool enough to handle.  Slice potatoes in half length-wise.  Use a teaspoon to scoop out the center of each half, creating a bowl for the black beans.  (Be careful not to tear or rip apart the potato.)  Fill the potato bowls with Spicy Black Beans.  Put the potatoes on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet.  If desired, rub a small amount of extra virgin olive oil on the bottom of each potato for added crispiness.  Bake potatoes with black bean mixture for 10-15 minutes, until heated through.  Remove them from the oven and top with Mango Pineapple Salsa and avocado chunks.  Serve immediately.

Mango Pineapple Salsa

Makes about 2 cups

• 1 cup fresh pineapple, chopped small
• 1 mango, peeled and chopped small
• 2 heaping Tablespoons cilantro, roughly chopped
• 2 Tablespoons lime juice
• ½ tsp chili powder
• 1/8 tsp cayenne
• Salt, to taste

Combine ingredients in a bowl.  Refrigerate until ready to use.  Flavors will continue to meld and deepen.

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When it comes to first forays into meatless meals, I suggest starting with something familiar, easy, and that can easily translate into leftovers.  That means less planning and preparing down the road since the bulk of the work is done.   It’s all well and good to decide to make a positive change, but it’s certainly easier when hunger hits to be able to grab a few essentials and make something that feels like your normal, everyday meal, just without the animal products.  No one wants to be left staring into the refrigerator with a stomach that is screaming “Feed me!” and wondering, “Now what do I do?”

For this series, I’ve given my recipe for Spicy Black Beans.  Over the next few posts, I’ll show you how those same black beans can play a leading part in several different and tasty meals.  In a way it’s like leftovers, but it doesn’t feel tired because it brings new flavors and textures with it in the form of different entrees.  (If you want to make all four recipes, you’ll likely need to double the batch.)

To start, these Spicy Black Beans can slip effortlessly into warmed whole wheat tortillas or corn shells.  Add all of the usual suspects – chopped romaine or kale, tomatoes, salsa, red onions, and avocado.

Spicy Black Beans

Serves 2-4

• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup red onion, chopped small
• 1 ½ cups black beans (1 15 oz can), drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp coriander
• ½ tsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
• ¼ cup water
• Salt, to taste

Heat skillet to a medium heat and add extra virgin olive oil to the heated pan.  Rotate pan to spread the oil and add minced garlic.  Set aside 2 Tbsp of the raw red onions to use as a topping.  Sauté remaining onions with garlic in pan until fragrant and translucent, about 3 minutes.  Add black beans, cumin, chili powder, oregano, coriander, paprika, lime juice, and water to the pan.  Use a spatula to fully combine the beans and spices.  Once it has warmed and any excess liquid has cooked off, add salt to taste and serve.

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The time is now to take the cover off of the grill, say goodbye to soups and stews and hello to asparagus, artichokes and ice cream.  But not all at the same time.  Why don’t we start with ice cream?

Frozen bananas are the David Copperfield of the produce world.  They are master illusionists.  Just don’t ask them to make the Statue of Liberty disappear.   (How do you make the Statue of Liberty disappear?  With a tall ladder and a boatload of Lyme-a-way.)  Of course, bananas are no strangers to cold desserts.  They play the leading role in a banana split, but why stop there?  Peeled and frozen in chunks until they’re hard, with a turn in the blender or food processor bananas become creamy ice cream in their own right.  I remember commercials in the eighties that involved kids reading confusing chemical-laden ingredient lists from conventional ice creams.  They boasted that their signature ice cream only involved a handful of ingredients, but how about three?  (If you want to go a step further, some people make banana ice cream in a food processor with frozen bananas and nothing else.)  I used my newest favorite homemade milk, cashew milk, to take this dish to melty perfection, but vanilla soy milk is also a tasty choice.

After the freezing is done, this quick dessert comes together in less than a minute.  The only addition this cool and creamy ice cream needs is perhaps a melted drizzle of semi-sweet chocolate chips or a Maraschino cherry or two.  (Most maraschino cherries are made with high fructose corn syrup and red dyes, and so I opt for the cherries from Tillen Farms.)

Banana & Chocolate Soft Serve

Serves 2 very generously

• ½ cup + 2 Tbsp non-dairy milk
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 3 bananas, peeled and frozen in chunks

Blend non-dairy milk, cocoa powder, and bananas in a blender until smooth but still thick.

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“What are we having for dinner?  Oh, cabbage.”  (Cue crickets.)

We’ll put it on tacos, throw a handful into a Thai noodle stir-fry, or steam it as a side.  Then I’m left to my own devices trying to figure out how to finish off a head of cabbage by myself.  It becomes the cabbage burden.

That is to say, it used to be the cabbage burden.  Ladies and gentlemen, a cabbage lover has been created.  In fact, just this afternoon over lunch my husband went back for seconds and took the final scoop of cabbage.  (Luckily, he saw my forlorn face and gave me the last bite.)  What brought about this change?  Roasting.

Yes, I know, roasting is not news.  Everyone knows about roasting.  Like its warm weather cousin, grilling, roasting has the ability to bring the sweetness of a vegetable to life while also deepening its flavors.  The caramelized and slightly burnt qualities give it an extra crispness and a fuller taste.  Many vegetables are improved when roasted – Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, Delicata squash…  Yet, somehow I’d never thought to try our cruciferous colleague, cabbage.

Crispy cabbage isn’t completely dissimilar to the web darling, crispy kale, but it’s more of a side dish than a potato chip replacement.  When you remove the core and cut it into small pieces, there’s a greater crispy, nearly burnt portion to green ratio.  With each satisfying bite, you get some crunchy parts, some buttery soft, and a little hit of salt.

Be warned, these bites of cabbage shrink by a good margin.  If you’re serving two, make a double batch.  Put the second batch on its own baking sheet, so that it has plenty of room to spread out.  If it’s piled together or there’s too much on a sheet, it means that it will steam instead of roast.  Roasting time can vary depending on your oven and how close the baking sheet is to the heat source.

Crispy Cabbage

Serves 1

• 2 heaping cups raw cabbage, chopped small
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Toss cabbage with extra virgin olive oil and spread evenly on a parchment paper covered baking sheet.  Roast for 20 minutes, stopping once to toss.  Top cabbage with a sprinkling of salt and serve.

In other news, I’ve been taking a pottery class for the past couple of months, and this week I did a guest post over at Earthfood Experiment on the topic of art and transformation.  Check it out!

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