Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

The pattypan squash are blooming-- can't wait for the little beauties!

DH does most of the gardening-- 99% of it-- around here, but neither of us is really into gardening. But you can't live in the country and not grow something in the summer! So here is a picture essay of our conventional garden and our deck garden. It's really producing now! So nice to have fresh greens and herbs, and there is is absolutely nothing like your own home-grown tomatoes!  (And our island market and market gardens can provide the rest for us!)

The Conventional Garden:


Lettuce, chard and kale


The tomatoes in the garden, surrounded by chicken wire to keep the cats from digging!


Chard up close


A pattypan blossom peeking out


A volunteer nasturtium cuddling up to a lettuce

BTW, in the front of the house, I have sage and a big rosemary bush, but I forgot to take pics!

The Deck Garden: (We always grow basil and cherry tomatoes on the back because it gets nice and hot, but this year we also have Italian parsley and we used some old dresser drawers to grow mesclun, baby spinach and more lettuce. I can go out and snip off some salad without getting my feet dirty! Evidently, if you cut lettuce about an inch above the soil, it will grow back! And I'm told you can do the same with spinach.)


I never had any luck with ordinary parsley, but the Italian parsley is doing wonderfully!


Dresser-drawer lettuce planter!


Dresser-drawer spinach-- so tender, and so clean when you snip it off!


Spinach and lettuce growing in drawers




Basil on the deck




Black cherry tomatoes-- so good!

The Harvest:


Fresh basil




Lettuce in the colander and spinach in the bag-- picked this morning!


Lettuce DH picked on Tuesday-- we save organic greens boxes and layer the cleaned, spun greens in them between pieces of paper toweling-- they keep quite well that way.


Fresh arugula in the spinner


My favorite lettuce spinner-- the Oxo Good Grips. It spins so well, it has a "brake" on it!

The Eating:


Lunch yesterday-- a "chef's salad" of fresh butter lettuce topped with Soy Curls sautéed in a little olive oil with some homemade bacon salt (no bacon in it!- here's my recipe), toasted pecans, and some strawberries and blueberries, with my Fig Balsamic Vinaigrette (low-fat). Yum!


Lunch today was a piece of leftover homemade pizza with this salad of fresh butter lettuce and arugula with marinated artichokes and some homemade bean salad.

Boy, don't we vegans suffer (not!)?

Enjoy!

What kind of lettuce is this?

This morning DH went to the Denman Is. Saturday Market, which is held on the grass outside of our Recycling Center. We have eaten up all of the lettuce we planted (more is coming), so he bought an enormous lettuce, pictured above. I decided to showcase this in a luncheon salad, and had the taste for something Asian, so, the recipe below is what I came up with and we ate every scrap of it! It's open to adding or using different lettuces, greens (maybe the ubiquitous organic mixed baby greens) and other veggies, so, be my guest!

I wondered what type of lettuce this was, never having seen it before. It felt like an iceberg lettuce, but it was so pretty, with it's dark green and red leaves. So, after lunch, I looked it up and it IS in the "Crisphead" lettuce family-- it's a "Red Iceberg" lettuce! The seeds seem to be widely available online, and, obviously, it grows well in Canada!

It was much nicer than an ordinary iceberg lettuce-- maybe because it was organically home-grown, and we could also use the pretty outer leaves, which you usually never see.


I have to tell you about a new little gadget I got when I was in California-- a Messermeister Pro-touch Julienne Peeler. It was inexpensive and looked like it would be so handy for making julienne carrots, zucchini, etc., to pretty up summer dishes. And, I do love it! It's easier to use than a mandoline or an electric gadget, for this purpose, anyway.

Cuispro, Oxo Good Grips, and Kuhn Rikon also make julienne peelers, but the owner of the kitchen store in Healdsburg, CA where I bought it said she liked the Messermeister best, so I took her advice, and have no complaints. A very handy tool to have in your kitchen!


So, I hope you're having a great summer! The weather here is just perfect-- sunny and warm, but with a nice breeze most of the time. Before our trip to California (with a stop in Vancouver), we had a lovely visit to Salt Spring Island, a little south of us, where DH has family. If you get a chance to visit Salt Spring, it is beautiful!

Here is that recipe, and I hope you enjoy it!



Printable Recipe

BRYANNA'S ASIAN-STYLE "CHICKEN" SALAD WITH SESAME DRESSING
Servings: 4 
This was a last-minute invention using what I had in my refrigerator, which included a beautiful Red iceburg lettuce, grown organically here on Denman Island.

4 cups reconstituted Soy Curls™ (4 oz. dry)
2 tablespoons (approximately) potato starch (or use cornstarch-- you can get organic)

(PS: If you don't have Soy Curls™, use any vegan chicken substitute that you like, cut into thin strips.) Read about Soy Curls, where to buy, and how to use here.
 
Marinade:
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce (I used Kikkoman Lite)
1/2 tablespoon dark sesame oil (Chinese, roasted)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Chinese  five-spice powder
1 dash Asian hot sauce (such as Sriracha)

Sesame Dressing:
1/4 cup rice vinegar (unseasoned)
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil Chinese, roasted)
2 tablespoons sugar or alternate
2 tablespoons lightly-toasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 

Cold Red lentil & Bulgur Kibbeh in Lettuce Cups with a grapefruit salad

UPDATE Aug 3, 2011: It just occurred to me (duh!) that these are a form of kibbeh (see here for info on kibbeh), so I've changed the name of the recipe.  

ALSO, I  had some of the mixture leftover this week, and I tried making small patties out of it and browning them in a pan-- delish!  See the recipe below for instructions and more pics.














I adapted this (with what I had in the house) from a salad recipe in "Eating Well" magazine. I thought I had ruined it because I over-cooked the split lentils, so that they were mushy (to be fair-- this is very easy to do, since they cook so quickly!). The salad kind of stuck together like a pâté. So, I cooled it in the refrigerator and hoped for the best. It was more solid than a salad would be, so I decided to roll balls of it (loose balls) and nestle them in the beautiful butter lettuce that we had just purchased here on Denman from Piercy Farm. Served with a bit more lettuce topped with juicy sliced grapefruit and olives (with a couple of sundried tomatoes on the side) in a balsamic vinaigrette, it was a filling and easy dinner for a hot summer evening! It was also delicious-- DH loved it!

In the following picture, I served the kibbeh with a roasted potato salad with edamame and grape tomatoes.



Printable Recipe

COLD RED LENTIL & BULGUR SALAD KIBBEH WITH DRIED FRUIT IN BUTTER LETTUCE CUPS, AND HOT KIBBEH PATTY VARIATION 
6 servings 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup bulgur wheat (medium or #2)
1/2 cup split red lentils
1/4 tsp salt 
1/2 cup chopped pitted dates (You can use 1/2 dates and 1/2 prunes, if you wish.)
1/2 cup chopped pitted dried apricots (You can use 1/2 apricots and 1/2 dried cranberries, if you wish.) 
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
2 Tbs aquafaba or Fat-Free Oil Substitute for Salad Dressings (You can use olive oil, if you prefer, but the calories and fat will go up.) 
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 Tbs grated lime zest (You can use lemon instead if you don't have limes.)
Optional: 1/4 cup dry-toasted cashews, chopped
FOR SERVING:
1 head butter lettuce, leaves separated, cleaned, spun and crisped well in the refrigerator 

Basil Mayo: lowfat vegan mayonnaise blended with fresh basil and a bit of garlic to taste.

Instructions:

Bring water, cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt to a boil in a small saucepan; stir in bulgur, remove from the heat, cover the pan and set aside until the water has been absorbed, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, combine lentils and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in a saucepan; add enough water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a simmer and cook until the lentils are mushy, like dahl, and don't drain them.

Add lentils, dried fruit, parsley, mint, lime juice and zest, and optional cashews and oil (if using) to the bulgur. Toss well and chill for several hours.

When ready to serve, scoop out lumps of the mixture, roll them into balls and place them in crisp leaves of butter lettuce to serve, along with a dollop of Basil Mayo (lowfat vegan mayonnaise blended with fresh basil and a bit of garlic to taste).

VARIATION-- HOT KIBBEH PATTIES:
Form the chilled balls into small patties and fry over medium-high heat in a nonstick skillet  or a well-seasoned cast iron, carbon steel or stainless steel skillet, sprayed with oil from a pump sprayer, until golden brown and crispy on both sides.  

Eat hot (minus the lettuce) with the basil Mayo Enjoy!