Eat Veggies, save the planet

Creole Butternut Squash Curry, vegan

austingardener — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:57:46 +0000

When you have over 20 butternut squashes on your counter you have to get creative. I made this curry for a potluck and it was well received. I used my microplane to grate the garlic and ginger. This way I didn’t need to peel them.

3 TBSP olive oil
2 onions, diced
5 garlic cloves, grated
1 inch root of ginger, peeled and grated.
2 large or 3 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed
large handful of flat leaf parsely , finely chopped
small handful of thyme , finely chopped
15 oz. coconut milk
salt and pepper
10 curry leaves
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp tumeric

Heat the oil and add the onions. Stir for one minute
Add the garlic and ginger. Stir. Cook until soft.
Add the curry leaves, allspice, cayenne, pepper and tumeric. Stir.
Toss in the butternut squash and stir again.
Add vegetable broth to cover the squash and bring to a boil.
Turn down to a simmer and cook until the butternut squash is soft. Test with a fork.
Add the parsley, thyme and coconut milk. Cook for another 10 minutes.
DO NOT let the coconut milk boil.
Add salt to taste, about 1 tsp.

Swiss Chard Dolmas, vegan

austingardener — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 15:21:29 +0000

We often see dolmas served at parties and since they are vegan I can usually eat them. But John says they are too greasy and slimy so I decided to make them with less oil. I didn’t have grape leaves so I used Swiss Chard from the garden. The leaves were so big that after I cut out the tough stem out each leaf could be cut again in half to make 4 dolmas. Here is my recipe.

3 TBSP olive oil
1 cup rice
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 TBSP currants
1 TBSP dried dill leaves
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 ts allspice
1.5 tsp sucanat
2 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable broth
A bunch of Swiss Chard

Filling

Put 2 TBSP of the olive oil in a medium hot cast iron pan and saute onions, stirring for 1 minute.
Add the rice, currants , dill, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper and allspice. Stir.
Add the vegetable broth, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Cool.

Leaves

Put a stainless steel frying pan with 2 inches of water on to boil.
Lower the heat.
After deveining the C leaf put it in the simmering water until it is completely wilted.
Remove and fill with 1/2 TBSP of filling.
Roll it up into a cylinder and put it in a covered casserole pan. The dolmas should be about 1.5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches olong.
Continue until all your filling is gone.
You should have about 20 dolmas.

Broth

Combine broth, 1 TBSP of olive oil, the lemon juice, 1/4 tsp salt.
Cover the dolmas with this mixture.
Put lid on casserole and bake in 325 oven for 30 minutes.
Take out, uncover and cool.

Tuscan style white beans and kale, vegan

austingardener — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:40:07 +0000

I found a recipe for Tuscan kale and Canneloni beans, but I had Russian kale and white kidney beans. So I made this Tuscan-like dish my way. The red Russian kale was the first kale I picked from my Fall garden in Austin in 2011.

1 lb of kale leaves, stemmed removed.
1 cup of cooked white kidney beans
1 small white onion
1 large clove of garlic
1/3 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp oregano
2 pinches of sage

Slice onion and saute in 2 tsp olive oil.
Add garlic and saute for another minute.
While the onion and garlic are sauteing cut the washed, wet kale into very thin strips.
Add to pan, cover and cook for 5-10 minutes on low.
Add beans, salt, sage, oregano and pepper. Stir.
Saute covered for one more minute.
Serve.

Eggplant salad with peanut dressing, cold

austingardener — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:05:16 +0000

1 Eggplant, about 1.25 pounds
2 TBSP peanut butter, crunchy or smooth(no corn syrup)
2 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP Rice vinegar
1 TBSP toasted sesame oil
2 tsp sugar or maple syrup
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp chili paste, optional
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
6 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro

Cut the epplant(s) into 3 inch segments about 1 inch wide
Steam eggplants for 15 minutes until soft.
Combine peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sugar or maple syrup, salt,chili paste and fresh ginger in a bowl.
Add steamed eggplant while hot.
Stir.
let cool in refrigerator.
Add cilantro leaves and stir again

I have so many eggplants that i have given oodles away to my daughter’s coop, to the food bank and to friends. Just as I thought I couldn’t eat another one I found a variation of this recipe and voila, here I am eating more eggplant.

Growing long beans in Austin, TX and goodbye to Steve Jobs.

austingardener — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:59:50 +0000

Three gardeners near me at Sunshine community garden were harvesting long beans in July. My green beans had died out, so I said to myself “Aha, long beans grow in the heat .” By the way, we just had our 90th day of over 100 degree temperatures. Now we are still unseasonably high, but down to the 90′s.

I went online and researched growing long beans(aka asparagus beans) in Austin and lo and behold I can plant them in August. I put them in the ground the first week of August. In late September I began harvesting them. So far I have picked 3 pounds. That is bettter than the measley 2 cups of Lima beans I have harvested in 4 months. I wonder if you can blanch and freeze them? This will be my next research project.

On a sadder note Steve Jobs died today at age 56. He will be missed.

Should you make your bed when you get up in the morning?

austingardener — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:54:26 +0000

I used to make my bed in the morning. I liked the way it looked and it brought a sense of beauty to the bedroom. Then I read an article saying that one perspires at night and the sheets are damp in the morning, so leave the bed open to dry out.

Check out this link and you too may wait until afternoon to make your bed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4181629.stm especially if you have allergies to dust.

Rose and Derek’s quilt

austingardener — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:17:00 +0000

The quilt pattern is called The Maze.

It is quilted in the pattern of”Funky Fleur de Lys”. The batting is Hobbs cotton. The thread color is “tea rose’>

This is the first time I have made a queen-sized quilt. It is 92″ x 92″.

Rose picked out most of the fabric for the quilt from Rachel’s Quilt Patch in Staunton, VA.

I carried the quilt in my suitcase to Germany to give to Rose and Derek. Now if they will only make their bed so they can see it?

Dehydrating peaches with pineapple juice

austingardener — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:22:41 +0000

With the drought in Texas the Stonewall peach crop was about half the size as normal and the peaches were smaller. But they are sssswwwweeeeettttt. Vogel Orchard won’t sell 1/2 bushels of number ones so I bought a half bushel of seconds and decided to try drying them in my dehydrator. that my son gave(lent) me.

I put on a pot of boil and dipped the peaches in for one second to wash them.
Next, I cut them in half and removed the pits.
Then I sliced them in 1/4″ slices.
I let the slices sit in a bowl of pineapple juice for a couple minutes. You can use ascorbic acid water or lemon juice water also.
Next I put them on the screens that came with the dehydrator.
I set the dehydrator at 135 degrees, turned it on and set it for 14 hours.
I checked it after 10 hours and the peaches looked ready.
You can tell if they are ready if you break one in half and no moisture appears.

Emma Naima’s quilt

austingardener — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:45:21 +0000

My roommate from college’s eldest son and his wife had a baby girl last month.

Mom does not favor pink(or so I have been told) so I quilted a red, green. black and white panda quilt for her daughter. I will take bets that when Emma grows up a mite, pink will be her favorite color?

I had a great time making it as soon as Margo sent me a message of her safe birth.

Can one grow tomatoes in the summer in Austin, TX?

austingardener — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:13:49 +0000

I planted 21 tomato plants the 2nd week in March. The plants still look good but they are stopping production. It has been over 100 most of June and not cooling down at night. The varieties still producing well are the Juliet’s, the Sun gold cherry tomatoes, the Black Cherry tomatoes, and the other cherry tomatoes. The Roma and the Viva Italia are determinate and done. The Rowdy Red, the Celebrity, the Better Boy, the San Marzano, and the heirlooms all did well. Only the Berkeley Tiedye died early and gave out only 8 tomatoes. So to answer my own question. You cannot grow tomatoes this summer in Austin, TX. But I have frozen, canned, dried and made roasted tomato sauce so we will be eating tomatoes all year.