Asparagus and Blue cheese on Sourdough

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Who doesn't love sourdough toast? Raise your hands. Trick Question! Sourdough bread is another thing I always have around. This recipe makes use of the left over Asparagus from the tarts as well as a wedge of low-fat blue cheese that has been hiding in my fridge. Super basic, it only requires 4 ingredients and your broiler (or, a toaster oven eeeven- imagine snagglepuss just said that, it makes it funny).
Start out by getting a small pan of salted water on the stove and steaming. Wash and trim your asparagus to the length of your sourdough bread. Once the water is hot plop the asparagus in and let her rip- don't even pay attention to these. You're going to cook them to the point of no return.

Next, toast or broil your bread until golden-make sure both sides made the journey. Set aside on a baking sheet and let cool completely.
Once your asparagus is SOFT to the touch or with the side of a fork go ahead and drain off the water and place them on a paper towel to get excess water off of them.
Now, take your 'mayo' of choice- it can be regular mayonaise or veganaise- whatever does it for you. Do not be stingy! This is going to create sort of a sauce when it combines with the blue cheese. *Turn on your broiler while you're at it.

Alternate laying out your asparagus tip to bottom and create a nice layer (or 2) on your toast.

Lastly, lay some decent chunks or slices of blue cheese over the asparagus and put everything into your now smokin' hot broiler.

Once in, you'll want to let these go until the blue cheese has just a nice golden color to it and has 'puffed' slightly (probably about 3-4 minutes). Once that magic happens turn off your broiler promptly and prepare to eat- REALLY well.

Shopping List

1/2 bunch of Asparagus

1 small wedge blue cheese

*pantry item- mayo

*sourdough bread

Vegan Cream of Asparagus and Leek

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I've come down with a terrible cold and felt that soup was the way to start my week off right, not to mention the added bonus of soup for lunch the rest of the week. I hit Vons and grabbed two bunches of asparagus with large stalks, they can be larger since we are pureeing them, and two large leeks. Being lactose intolerant can be a big bummer when you love creamy soup and cheese. I decided to try figuring out a vegan version of the soup using a vegan roux. A roux is a thickening agent made by mixing melted butter and flour, often used to make cheese sauce and gumbo.

Ingredients:
2 asparagus bunches
2 leeks
Better than Bouillon- vegetable
Earthbound vegan butter
Silk unsweetened soy milk or soy creamer
whole wheat flour
1 clove of garlic

Tools:
Blender or food processor
optional- sieve

Start by cleaning your leeks, they can be a bit sandy, and chop them into about 1" sections, stopping at the dark ends. This is where you can smell their relation to the onion and may even tear up a tad. Cut them in quarters lengthwise. Cut your asparagus tips off at about 2" or so and save for later. Then cut the rest of the stalks into 1" sections. Make 8 cups of vegetable stock following the directions on the bouillon.

In your soup pot start melt a tablespoon of the vegan butter and saute the leeks and asparagus with salt and pepper. Add your chopped clove of garlic. When the leeks begin to release the onion smell and become slightly translucent add 4 cups vegetable stock. Let the veggies cook down.

Let's make some vegan roux. I'll admit that I initially only made one table spoon of butter and one tablespoon of flour's worth. But later, I found that I needed more for the soup to really get creamy. So, let's do 3 tablespoons of butter melted in our sauce pan. Add 3 tablespoons of wheat flour and mix until you get a paste. Now gradually add the soy milk, constantly stirring. You will notice how the paste suddenly becomes a creamy sauce.

Now we get to take that yummy cream sauce and add it to the soup. But not all at once. that can be a bit lumpy. Add a small amount of the soup from the pot to the sauce pan and mix together. Then add the soupy sauce to the pot. Stir it all up and reduce your flame down to med-low.

In a small saute start up some vegan butter melting and throw in those asparagus tips. Shake that pan. If you can flip a fancy pancake go ahead and show off. Flip those asparagus tips in the air. Add some veg stock and simmer till a tender.

Now for the fun/painful step: Blending. OK this part is scary but fun. Take a few cups of the soup and add to your blender. Make sure you cover the lid with a dishtowel or you will most likely burn the heck out of your hand. I know this because that's exactly what I did at this step. Hot steamy green shot up out off the lid and scorched my palm. Yowzah that hurt like a you-know-what! After that I learned to put the rag firmly over the lid when I blend.

Blend the soup in batches until you have a pot full of smooth green goop. If you have a sieve I recommend running the soup through so that you can remove any remaining fibers.

Heat back up to simmer.

You are ready to serve! Add the asparagus tips you cooked earlier to the bowls of soup for extra asparagus lovin'.

Quinoa stuffed Artichokes

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I started out this evening thinking that I definitely wanted to do a stuffed artichoke. In keeping with my attempt to keep these recipes health conscious and full of vitamins, antioxidants and protein, I switched out the breadcrumbs with quinoa and rice. For those of you who are unfamiliar with quinoa, it is an ancient grain-like seed pronounced keen-wah that originated in the Andes region of South America. Good ol' wikipedia informed me that it is more closely related to beet, spinach and tumbleweeds than wheat and oats. It is a protein powerhouse and unlike wheat or rice it is a complete protein, making it a great option for vegetarians.

This recipe is for two but easily translates to four. Start boiling a pot of salted water, by the time you are done preparing the 'chokes the water should be good to go. Trim the stem off the artichoke, making sure it is level to stand up in the pot. Pull off the smallest leaves bordering the stem and cut about 3/4" off from the top of the leaves. With culinary scissors, cut the thorny tips off of the remaining leaves.

Your water should be boiling now. Drop in the artichokes. Lovely Lady Julia Child recommends putting cheese cloth over your cut tops while they boil to keep the tips moist. Who has cheese cloth anymore? Luckily for me, my roommate the cleaning elf keeps us well stocked in paper towels. Solution achieved! Boil those little suckers for about 15-20 minutes.

Start your quinoa. I bought boxed quinoa from Whole Foods, omitting the season packet, and followed the old directions on the box. As that starts cookin', I chose this opportunity to chop up half a white onion, 6 cloves of garlic and 2 rosemary stakes. I tried chopping this all up pretty fine since we are shoving it between the artichoke leaves. Of course that means more face time with ol' Onion butt. I cried a ton, still not hard core enough.

Pull the leaves off of about 4 thyme twigs and put into the mix. Add some freshly grated Parmesan, I think I did about 1/4 of a cup, and salt and pepper. These ingredients are familiar right? Yup, leftovers from our soup last night back for another special engagement.

Check on those 'chokes and quinoa. If you are anything like me, that little onion crying fit put you back a tad. Careful not to let the quinoa burn. That sucker goes from soupy and sad to sizzling and married to the bottom of your cheap Ikea saucepan you got when you graduated.


So the artichokes are tender and have darkened in color. Pull them out with those tongs and bring them over to the cutting board! Burnt myself a lot on this step. I figured out kinda late in the game that you should keep the tongs gripping the body of the 'choke and use a spoon to spread the leaves gently out, blossoming into a flower. Once I spread the leaves out and revealed the center, I took the tongs and got the thin inner leaves out. You'll notice some furry business in the core there, that's the choke. Remove the choke with the spoon. I had to really get in there to get it. Which was a pain since the leaves start to fall off of the body if you are too rough with it, another reason for the tongs. Now I had a steamy artichoke with the center hollowed out like a bowl.

At this point the quinoa was done. I gave it a quick fluff and threw it in with the Parmesan and onion mix. Tossed some olive oil in there and started stuffing the mixture into the cavity. Then stuff mix between as many leaves as possible. Put the stuffed artichokes into an oven safe dish that keeps them firmly wedged against each other. Before you preheat the oven, move the racks so that you can fit your dish nicely in the center of the oven. Throw the dish in there with a bit of water and olive oil in the bottom, about an inch.

I baked it for about 15 minutes while my roomie cooked up some salmon burgers and polenta from Fresh and Easy. Pulled the artichokes out when they were a tad roasted on the tips of the leaves and sprinkled a bit more Parmesan for garnish.

I was skeptical, having thought this up on my own, but it was great! Bit too much garlic, I recommend cutting the amount in half. What was really surprising was how filling they were. Next time I think I'm making it a main dish with a Greek side salad.

Ingredients
2 artichokes
1 small white onion
garlic
olive oil
box of quinoa or couscous
1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan
rosemary
thyme
Salt
Pepper

Tools:
culinary scissors
baking dish
tongs
knife- serrated is good
paper towel ripped in half