Kale Dip from Superfood Snacks: 100 Delcious Energizing and Nutrient Dense Recipes by Julie Morris

If you grow kale, you can never have enough kale recipes! this one is a gooder: it uses 6 cups of kale! It is from the Superfood Snacks cookbook by Julie Morris: http://www.amazon.ca/Superfood-Snacks-Delicious-Energizing-Nutrient-Dense/dp/1454905581 There are tons of great kale recipes in this book

It's super easy to make and super delicious - I added some red pepper flakes, too for heat.
Just put 1/2 cup of raw cashews, 1 Tb of miso and 1/2 cup of water in a blender or food processor. Saute 1 cup of finely chopped onion, 1/2 tsp cumin and a pinch of cayenne, add 6 cups of chopped kale to wilt. Pour in the cashew mixture and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring. Put everything back into the blender and add 2 Tb lemon juice, 1 Tbs of nutrional yeast and pulse ( don't puree). add salt and red pepper flakes to taste. Eat it hot with crackers etc.

cauliflower and kale chowder

 All 6  of the orange cauliflowers matured at once (seemingly overnight!) and with a LOT of kale in the yarden, it was necessary to google kale + cauliflower and was happily surprised to  find a plethora of recipes that incorporate both veggies!


 I decided on kale  and cauliflower kale chowder from Tomato boots: http://www.tomatoboots.co/cauliflower-kale-chowder/



I had some homemade broth in the freezer ( I try to always have it in there just for this reason!) I added potatoes to thicken the chowder instead of using flour, and put the cauliflower in at the end with the kale as it cooks so quickly.  Served with some lime, green onion, cornchips and cheese, it is delicious!

I really love the orange colour of these 'Sunset' cauliflowers - seeds were purchased through West Coast Seeds: https://www.westcoastseeds.com/shop/vegetable-seeds/cauliflower-seeds/coloured-cauliflower-seeds/sunset-cauliflower-seeds/

beautiful, beguiling beans

While in the Bulk Barn (buying Chicago Mix eep!), I stumbled upon a bin of huge white beans - I have never bought, nor cooked these before, but they were so beautiful and beguiling - I just had to buy some! What to do with these big ol' beans? I checked out one of my favourite blogs:  /http://www.101cookbooks.com/ for advise, and sure enough, a recipe presented itself: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/giant-chipotle-white-beans-recipe.html I have kale, I have fresh oregano, I have cilantro all in the garden, so as soon as I got home I got 'em soaking:

The next day, they simmered in a pot with fresh bay leaves and garlic. The next day, I prepped the tomato/chipotle sauce, cilantro pesto, and breadcrumbs -

 fresh oregano makes all the difference!

 two kinds of kale!

 the big 'ol beans!

 cilantro pesto: so easy to make - just 4 ingredients: cilantro, oil, garlic and salt

 ready to assemble!

I decided it needed to go with polenta and just picked 'freckles' lettuce

And now I have leftovers for lunch, too :-)

tried this recipe today: http://www.olivesfordinner.com/2012/12/black-rice-noodles-with-fresh-kale-mint.html
uses fresh kale and mint from the yarden - can't wait to add fresh basil in the summer! liking the black rice soba noodles, too - contrasts well with the red peppers and chive flowers :-)

kale hummus for lunch

Too hot to cook? get some kale from your kale patch and make kale hummus! I put some on a just-picked zucchini for lunch - amazingly good! you could sprinkle some feta on top, if you like.

nutty for kale

Run out to your garden and pick some kale and make this salad now! it is just soooo good! Here's the recipe - simple!: http://www.livestrong.com/recipes/nutty-kale-salad/

I added some broccoli flowers and dried cranberries for colour - you could also add some grated beets, toasted seeds, or whatever you have on hand for colour and crunch. I think this is now one of my favourite ways to eat kale!

lunch this week featuring fresh dill and fresh thyme

Fresh dill is one of my favourite flavourings for veggie pies. This recipe is from Moosewood Cooks For Health, and has a crust made with brown rice, walnuts, and olives - to make the crust: put 2 cups brown rice, 1/2 cup walnuts, 1/4 cup olives in a blender or kitchen aid and grind them up - press into a glass 9" pie plate. Saute some leeks and asparagus, add red bell peppers, place neufchatelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neufch%C3%A2tel_%28cheese%29 on top of the vegetables, cover, turn off the heat, and let sit for several minutes to soften. Add 3/4 cup feta and 2 eggs, freshly chopped dill, and black pepper. Place into the piecrust and bake @ 350 for 35 minutes. The other lunch item is pasta with French lentils and Kale: cook 1 cup lentils in 3 cups water - simmer for 20 minutes. Cook up some wholegrain pasta, meanwhile, saute onions, garlic, diced carrots, until the onion is translucent. Add red pepper flakes, fresh thyme, and 1/2 cup of reserved pasta cooking water. Toss all together, add freshly grated parmesan.

recipes with herbs and cress

I have finally got my computer up and running again having had a nasty virus (the computer, not me, thank goodness) - so here are a couple of recipes I tried using some fresh herbs from the garden. The weather has been very mild this Winter (so far, knock on wood) - temperatures around 9 during the day! we are still gathering lettuces, beets, kale and chard, all of which have sweetened up nicely from a frost. rye bread with purple kale cream cheese and cress from the garden. Here's the bread recipe I used: http://www.essortment.com/all/germanryebread_rtye.htm the bread went well with the candied salmon a friend had given us, and a good, cold German beer. stuffed mushrooms with parsley from the garden ~ these are your basic garlic butter baked mushrooms, with a little herbed cream cheese and parmesan on top. I really just wanted to make fresh bread crumbs with my new food processor! Happy New Year! may your 2010 be filled with many wonderful garden adventures!