This recipe evolved over time in the kitchen on a snowy Saturday. It lacked body until I added the canned (boo) crushed tomatoes and the stout. Then it became magic. See for yourself. As it is vegan, to get men to eat it just tell them there is beer in it.
This is a perfect way to use up those tomatoes you froze this summer from your CSA when you couldn’t keep up with eating them. If you run them under water for a few minutes straight from the freezer the skins will peel right off and you will have perfect “stewed” tomatoes for chili.
3-4 C whole tomatoes, smashed (I used the frozen here, but canned whole would work fine here too)
3 chipotle en adobo, chopped
5 C cooked black beans, or 2 cans drained and rinsed
1 1/2 C frozen corn
2 tsp cumin
2 1/2 T chili powder
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp black ground pepper
2 tsp oregano
In a dutch oven over medium-high heat, saute the onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, red bell pepper until tender. Add garlic and saute another minute or so, then add the seasonings (chili powder, chipotle, oregano, salt, cumin, pepper), saute another minute or so, then add the liquids (broth, lime juice, crushed tomatoes, beer) and whole tomatoes, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and add corn and beans. Simmer as long as you wish, although you can chow down once the veggies are tender.
…in my CSA bag for 3 weeks in a row. I admit, even though I’m a well-seasoned vegetarian, this odd vegetable stumped me for uses and it was necessary to run to Google and figure out finally, after 3 weeks, what in the hell to do with multiple kohlrabi (is that the plural? So confusing.).
While strange looking, sorta like a hot air balloon while it grows, kohlrabi possesses many attributes worth notice:
Low in calories, only 19 for a half cup raw, sliced
High in dietary fiber, 2.5 grams for one-half cup
Potassium content peaks at 245 grams for one-half cup
Vitamin content for that same one-half cup includes 25 I.U. vitamin A, 43.4 mg. vitamin C, 11.3 mcg folic acid, and 16.8 mg. calcium.
Turns out, this little guy is also known as a German Turnip and is the bee’s knees in Kashmir where it is the most consumed vegetable (food must really suck in Kashmir). Everywhere I searched, the claim is that kohlrabi is delish both raw and cooked. Well, I’m here to tell you people, while there are several varieties of this alien veggie, I apparently got the two that suck raw. Both white and purple variety of kohlrabi, are dare I say it, horrible raw…so off to the interwebs I went in search of a way to browbeat this veg into submission. I found the perfect solution: empanadas! Pie crust can make ANYTHING taste better. I present to you: Kohlrabi and Sweet Potato Empanadas.
3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 inch of ginger, peeled and grated
2 tsp coriander, ground
2-3 medium kohlrabi, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 large sweet potato, cooked and smashed
2 large scallions, both white and green parts, finely cut
1 radish, minced (optional)
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T butter
salt and pepper to taste
dash of freshly grated nutmeg
1 box of pre-made pie crust or one batch homemade*
1 egg
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In a medium skillet, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger to brown. Add kohlrabi cubes, a pinch of salt and some pepper. Toss well and cook 3 or 4 minutes until kohlrabi are softening a bit. Add potato mash and continue to cook for 4 more minutes. Add scallions, radish, nutmeg, coriander and another pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well and cook for one minute before removing from heat. Set mixture to this side to cool. It should be a very, very dry, looking mixture. Moisture equals disaster for empanadas.
Roll out dough to be a little thinner than pie crust typically is. If you are using pre-made crust from the store, run your rolling pin over it once or twice. Using a cereal bowl or large circular cookie cutter, cut out 6 inch-ish circles from the dough. It should yield about 15, give or take depending on your cutter and dough thickness.
Pre-heat oven to 425F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Prepare egg wash by beating egg with a teaspoon of water and set to the side along with a small bowl of water.
To make the empanadas, spoon one teaspoon of kohlrabi mixture into the center of a circle of dough (it’s better to have less filling than too much or the empanadas won’t hold together. Feel out the right ratio that allows you to close off the dough without any filling popping out.). Dip your finger in the bowl of water and run it around the outside edge of the dough. Fold dough over the filling to create a half circle. Press down edges. Carefully pick up the dough pocket and pinch edges or use a fork, then place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush with the egg wash. The video below shows how to appropriately fill and thus seal an empanada. Caution: it only LOOKS easy. By the time you have made all of your precious empanadas your last one will look like this person’s first one; it is however, well worth the effort.
After you assemble the dough pockets, pop them into the preheated oven, cooking for 8 minutes on the first side, then flip and cook for 5 more minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly on a rack so they don’t get soggy. I served mine warm with what else, Frank’s Red Hot.
**My next kohlrabi experiment is going to be this: Kohlrabi Curry.
I consider it a personal challenge when I have a few stray veggies in the fridge and a container of eggs. It’s not really a food emergency or worth going to the store unless I am out of half and half for the coffee. With the eggs, I could make an omelet (how predictable), or I could bust out some spices and a piece of stale naan bread from the freezer and make the following:
Curried Sweet Potato Hash with Egg Over Easy and Grilled Naan
This is a toss it all together recipe, so I didn’t measure. Do the best you can with what you have on hand. In these photos:
1 small onion diced
1 jalapeno pepper diced
½ green pepper diced
1 handful edemame from the freezer
1 medium sweet potato diced
1 egg, over easy
1 piece of Naan bread, grilled
1 tsp hot curry powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
Dice up the veggies, approximately the same size. In a sauté pan or whatever is clean frankly, spray a little oil and add the sweet potato dice first, it will take a little longer to cook, when that becomes a bit soft, add all the rest of the veggies. Cook until just tender. Sprinkle mixture with curry, pinch of salt and pinch of pepper. While the hash is cooking, push to once side of the pan and fry the egg over easy. Over an open flame or in the oven warm up the naan bread. To assemble. Naan on the bottom, hash, fried egg.
Feelin’ really crazy? Butter your naan bread with peanut butter and slice up a banana on top of it before adding the hash and egg…this is called a Tickle.
For lunch this same day, I took the leftover hash, put it in a sauce pan, with a can of coconut milk, a can of water and some additional curry powder. Soup. 🙂
Crazy for Cumin? Try this one from Pinch my Salt, one of my fave food blogs.
Cranberry and Apricot crostini are this simple: toast a French baguette, slather a little goat cheese on it, top with dried fruit and honey if you so desire. For the cranberry crostini, I used cinnamon/cranberry goat cheese, topped with whole dried cranberries, and for the apricot crostini, I used honey goat cheese, topped with chopped apricots and lavender honey drizzle.
The TLT sammy recipe was adapted from Heidi over at 101cookbooks.com.
Ingredients
2 ripe avocados
2 pints tomatoes
2 packages fakin’ bacon tempeh
1 clamshell mixed baby lettuce leaves
1 small package regular plain goat cheese
1 French baguette, sliced and toasted
Juice of 2 limes
EVOO
The night before, preheat the oven to 400, toss the tomatoes with EVOO and roast until sweet and caramelized. Save these for the next day in the fridge. Day of, mash the avocado with the lime juice to make a make-shift-guac, this will go on the crostini at assembly. Prep the fakin’ bacon per the package instructions. To cook a bunch of it at a time, I cut the strips in half, put on a baking sheet and tossed into the oven for a few minutes until warm and crispy. Next, assembly is easy: take a crostini, top with a schmear of goat cheese, lettuce, avocado numminess, fakin’ bacon, and tomatoes. Or whatever order your OCD compells you to assemble this tasty bite.
So as not to lull you into submission or boredom with the length of this post here are the other recipes I made.
Veg Bon Vivant 