ariel's making ... wasabi chard salad

this isn't really much of a "recipe." it's more of an idea. i love chard and for the summer, it's nice to eat it cold, as a salad. for this salad, i chopped and steamed a bunch of organic chard for about 3 minutes. then i drained it and washed it with cold water to stop it from cooking.

then i topped it with a spicy dressing of wasabi, soy sauce, fresh grated ginger, lemon juice, a dash of vinegar, slash of extra virgin olive oil and a bit of maple syrup. add whatever else inspires you ... top with toasted sesame seeds.

pretty darn tasty. enjoy!

kisses,

ariel

ariel's making ... a garden salad

the garden is alive and happy and wild with leafy greens this time of year! we had friends over for a japanese feast this past weekend and i was in charge of the salad. just before people came over, i went out to the garden and harvested some miner's lettuce, baby chard and some fragrant wild onion flowers.


then i toasted some organic sesame seeds 'til they were golden brown and starting to pop.


for the dressing i wanted to have some asian flavors, so i mixed organic soy sauce, organic toasted sesame oil, organic lemon juice, some organic extra virgin olive oil ... and of course, some fresh minced organic garlic!


i tossed it all together just as our guests arrived -- it was very delish and couldn't have been fresher!

i love having fresh spring greens!

kisses,

ariel

Karina makes garden lasagna!

A few weeks ago I invited my friend Aaron over for dinner and since I had never cooked for him before, I felt the need to push myself and create something new and really delicious. I was craving something warm and indulgent but didn't want the stomach ache and heaviness to come with it, so I went to the store and bought my bag fill of fresh, organic produce.

I decided to pull out the old casserole dish and make a vegan lasagna using only vegetables in place of noodles.

First I sliced red cabbage, yellow and orange peppers, and onions into thin stripes and set aside. I remembered when I made veggie dogs at my sister's down in Santa Cruz and had baked chard leafs in the oven until they became crispy and stiff to use as wraps, so I decided I would do the same thing and layer them as a type of lasagna noodle.

To do this I washed and dried my lovely chard leafs, and coated the with a mixture of olive oil, brags, lemon salt, pepper and cayenne. I baked them at 400* for probably 5 or 10 minutes on each side until they almost started to blacken a little.

I spread a layer of crispy chard leafs, then vegan almond "mozzarella" cheese, my fresh stripes of veggies, cut up kale, and then my vegan tomato cashew sauce and continued to layer.

For the sauce I soaked cashews, added 2 tbl tahini, 3 gloves of garlic, 1 can organic tomato paste, water for a smooth texture, fresh basil, oregano, lemon, salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne. YUM!

I baked this all at 400* for probably 25 minutes or so until it was cooked through and melted into a creamy hot lasagna-like dream!

I made a fresh salad or heirloom carrots and tomatoes, tossed with lemon, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, agave, salt and pepper. Vegan and gluten-free lasagna definitely never tasted so good!

ariel's making ... enchiladas and sesame chard

ever have one of those days when your like "man! there's totally no food in this house!" and you gotta get really creative? this was one of those days. chef sam had made some awesome pasta sauce earlier in the day with tofu and carrots in it and i had few frozen tortillas ... so i thought i'd throw together some enchiladas! yum!


for this recipe (which serves 2) you'll need:

2 c. leftover delish organic pasta sauce
8 organic corn tortillas
1 c. organic beans, mashed (i used black beans)
10 slices of organic shard cheddar cheese
1 t. organic extra virgin olive oil



grease a baking pan with olive oil. layer tortillas, beans, sauce, cheese -- repeat until all your ingredients are used up and add cheese as the very top layer. so easy! pop it in the oven at 350* for about 30-40 minutes, 'til it's pipping hot and cheese top is melted.


ok -- so that was done ... but what was i going to do for greens? i can't have a meal without something green in it -- that's just wrong!



off to the backyard! our bay area chard is super happy this spring so i cut a few leaves and headed back to the kitchen.


first i toasted some sesame seeds i found on the cupboard. i cooked them at low heat 'til they were golden brown in a dry cast-iron pan. careful -- if you toast them too long they start to pop all over the kitchen! (ok -- this is actually kinda fun!)



then i removed the seeds, added a bit of olive oil and cooked my baby card for about 1 minute (seriously! that's all it needed!). into a bowl it went, topped with the roasted sesame seeds and a bit of smoky salt from full belly farm.


popped a bottle of lovely organic albero wine from spain -- and dinner was made!


something from nothing ... well almost ;)

happy kitchen scavenging!

kisses,

ariel

Karina makes garden dogs!

I took a little trip down to Santa Cruz last weekend to visit my big sis, Alia. One of my favorite parts of my SC visits with her, besides the obvious proximity to the beach and her lovely company, is her luscious garden out front...

I was informed right away that my job was to prepare dinner that night, so I immediately went to see what I had to work with. CHARD. Lots and lots of chard. (I'm still so amazed that California offers such beautiful produce even in February!)

I thought of all the ways I've used chard in the past and realized I haven't been incredibly creative besides steaming or sauteing it with other veggies or in soups. I wanted to find a way to keep the fullness of the leaf, almost using it as a wrap, but didn't want the toughness or bitterness that would have dominated the dish if I had left them raw. So I decided to marinate them with a mixture of olive oil, brags, lemon, salt and pepper and set them aside to bake in hopes of reaching a crispy, almost nori-like wrap or "taco-shell."

I have experimented with veggie burgers before, but with the long slender shape of my chard wraps, I decided to try "veggie dogs" to fill the dish.

I bought some delicious, fresh organic beets and boiled them until soft.

I put my beets, a boiled sweet potato, sauteed crimini mushrooms, shallots, and a handful of dates in a blender.

I then added in black beans and gluten-free rice bread.

I continued to experiment and add ingredients to thicken the texture and perfect the taste. I added corn flake crumbs, peanuts, quinoa, corn, salt, pepper, cayenne, avocado, and lemon. When the mixture stopped falling apart and sticking to my fingers completely, I formed four hot dog shapes.

I heated up olive oil on the stove and grilled each side until thick and dark brown on all sides.

I prepared a salsa of my leftover chopped chard stems, avocado, carrots, peanuts, and apples and flavored with lemon, olive oil, agave, chili powder, curry, salt and pepper.

I turned the oven on at 400* and baked the chard leafs for 5-10 minutes on each side until crispy and sturdy but not burnt. They turned out exactly as I hoped, almost like nori, and were incredibly delicious. I prepared a quinoa on the stove and added sweet corn, green chili, salt and cayenne to it once it was cooked.

I put together our garden dogs and we feasted away...The wraps weren't necessarily able to "wrap" around the heavy dogs with out cracking into smaller pieces but they were so amazing we didn't care.

I think I would definitely go to more baseball games if these were the dogs they were offering up! Yum!

ariel's making ... wild greens frittata

sam and i have been trying to grow an urban veggie garden for about a year now. so far we've had a pretty successful potato harvest and our garden box is happy too. sam started planting amaranth, an ancient grain that the aztecs considered to be a sacred food, packed with minerals and vitamins. it seems to like the bay area climate and it was ready to harvest so i decided to make a wild greens frittata for dinner tonight.

we've also been growing wild bay area chard which is so happy in our garden that we've been able to harvest it all year long.

i also picked some rosemary and parsley from the garden before i went in to start cooking.

first i sauteed half an onion in organic olive oil and added the rosemary and parsley.

once the onions were translucent, i added the greens and cooked them for about ten minutes until they were totally cooked down. add some salt and pepper to taste once it's all cooked.

then place the cooked veggies in an oiled pie pan and cover with a strong organic cheese. i used a sharp cheddar ... yum!

beat three organic eggs -- add a splash of organic milk and pour the mixture over the veggies and cheese.

bake at 350* for about 20 minutes or until the eggs are totally cooked ... and voila! a simple, totally nutricious and delicious, homegrown meal!

happy harvesting!

kisses,

ariel