Low Sodium Blueberry and Summer Squash Muffins

I made my family fantastic muffins last night with summer squash from my garden and blueberries from our online food co-op. Zucchini would also work. I chopped up two small summer squash with a food processor we really like, the Cuisinart Deluxe 11-Cup Food Processor DLC-8S - Cuisinart Pro.  You may use other flours, but I am particularly fond of King Arthur. If sodium and cholesterol are not issues for your family, you can substitute one tablespoon regular baking powder for the Featherweight, and two large eggs for the egg whites. Here is the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 12 muffin tins.

  Dry Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• Dash of ground cloves
• Dash of lemon peel, optional
• 2 tablespoons Featherweight Baking Powder

Add-ins:

• 1 cup finely diced yellow summer squash
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained

  
Wet Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites from large eggs, beaten well
• 1/4 cup milk or soy milk (I used vanilla)
• 1/4 cup oil
• Heaping 1/4 cup packed brown sugar; more to taste

 Stir together the dry ingredients. Stir in the add-ins. Beat together the wet ingredients, fold them into the dry ingredients, and mix just until the batter is completely wet. If the batter seems too dry, add a little more milk or soy milk. Immediately ladle batter into muffin tins. Reduce oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until done.

Yellow Split Pea Stew

Here is another great recipe made with the local and regional foods we've been purchasing through our online food co-op. This recipe has been adapted from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna J. Sass. If you are new to using a pressure cooker, do a little reading first. This book is excellent to learn how to use one safely. Be sure to include the oil because split peas are foamy when they boil. The recipe serves 6.

• 1 tablespoon sunflower, safflower, or canola oil
• 1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons finely minced fresh ginger
• 2 cups coarsely chopped onions
• 1 teaspoon each  dried basil, oregano, and rosemary leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 medium sweet potato, chopped
• 2 small turnip roots, chopped
• 4 cups vegetable broth plus 2 cups water
• 2 cups dried yellow split peas, picked over and rinsed

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•  1/4 cup fresh  minced cilantro
• 1 cup fresh watercress leaves

 Heat the oil in the pressure cooker. Cook the onion and garlic for 1 minute or two, stirring constantly. Stir in the basil, oregano, rosemary, fennel, and bay leaf. Add the sweet potato, turnips, broth, water, and split peas, making sure the mixture does not fill more than half the space in the pressure cooker. Bring to a boil.

Lock the lid in place, bring to pressure, reduce the heat just enough to maintain high pressure, and cook for 10-11 minutes. Remove from heat and allow pressure to come down naturally. Remove bay leaf, stir in the cilantro and watercress, and serve.

Update: I made a variation of this that skips the sweet potatoes and other spices (except the bay leaves) and uses turnip greens, fresh mint, and fresh oregano instead of the cilantro and watercress. I put the mint and oregano in a bouquet garni, which I removed before serving. Delicious!

Kale Tofu Lasagna Recipe

A gallon bag of fresh, nutritious curly kale came to me from the Coastal Farms online local food cooperative today. Joining has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. I didn't order apples from Saunders Brothers this week, for example, so I tried some that Don had bought at the local supermarket. They were nearly tasteless! They were watery and had a very slight apple flavor. I immediately missed my Saunders Brothers apples.

Studies show that the taste of our produce correlates to nutrition, so I know those supermarket apples aren't as nutritious as the coop apples, either. I told Don we're increasing our weekly order to at least 10 lbs. for as long as we can get them.

Did I mention Don has a voracious appetite for apples? The idea is to try to get through the week without buying from the supermarket.

 Don didn't argue. He can taste the difference, too.

The kale is tasty too, and a great source of Vitamin C. You can use it in lots of recipes where you'd use spinach. Here's my original recipe for a kale-tofu lasagna. It came out tasting as good as the picture looks above. I didn't have quite enough noodles, so I am estimating the number needed. It might be a little high.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients:

8 lasagna noodles, cooked according to package directions, drained. I suggest you get the water boiling while you are preparing the other ingredients, and then cook the noodles when the sauce is almost done.


Tofu filling:

• 14 oz. organic soft tofu, drained and patted dry, then crumbled in a bowl with a fork
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. dried lemon peel
• leaves from 2 sprigs fresh oregano
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons wheat germ
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed

Sauce:

• 1/2 large watermelon radish, peeled and diced
• 3 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
• 4 cups clean kale leaves, tough stems removed, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced no-salt-added tomatoes
• 2 8-oz. cans low-sodium tomato sauce
• 1 sprig thyme and 3 small sprigs fresh oregano, tied into a "bouquet garni."
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tsp. sunflower or other oil
• 1/4 cup Chardonnay wine

While the water is heating up for the lasagna noodles, mix all ingredients for the tofu filling. Set aside. While you are making the sauce, cook the lasagna noodles and drain. Allow to cool slightly .

Make the sauce in a separate saucepan. Heat up the sunflower oil over medium heat until hot. Add the garlic, radish, and onion, and saute until the onion begins to soften. Increase the heat to medium-high. Add the wine and the kale leaves and cover, stirring occasionally, until the kale leaves turn bright green and begin to turn tender. Add the other ingredients, lower heat back to medium, and heat through, stirring occasionally, until hot and bubbly. Remove from heat. Remove the bouquet garni and discard.

Spoon a little of the tomato sauce  into a 9x9" baking panvand spread it to cover the bottom. Line the bottom of the pan with a layer of lasagna noodles--I used kitchen scissors to cut them down to size. Layer half the tofu mixture, then more noodles, then sauce. Then layer the other half of the tofu mixture, then the noodles, then the remaining sauce. 

Put the casserole in the oven for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Serves 2-4.

Update: I made a variation of this recipe that used a combination of swiss chard and sliced button mushrooms instead of the kale. It came out pretty good, too. I had some excess moisture from the mushrooms that I was too impatient to cook off, so I strained it into some vegetable broth I am planning to use this week. The juices look flavorful.

Shiitake Mushroom and Quinoa Soup

I ordered too many mushrooms from my online CSA this week. This recipe uses the caps for about 1/2 lb. of shiitake mushrooms. I threw the leftover peelings, extra celery, mushroom stems, etc., in a slow cooker to make vegetable broth with the trimmings, so there was very little waste.

1 tablespoon oil

2 tablespoons dried minced onion

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

3 cloves minced garlic

21/2 cups sliced shiitake mushroom caps

1/2 cup dry quinoa (pre-rinsed if needed)

1 teaspoon dry crushed rosemary

4 cups low-sodium vegetable stock (I make my own)

2 cups sweet potato, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup turnip, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch cubes (optional)

1/2 teaspoon dried lemon peel

2 tablespoons lemon juice

ground pepper to taste

Heat the oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven. Add the celery and garlic and cook until the celery becomes tender. Add the minced onion and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Add a little broth if the mixture becomes too dry. Stir in the other ingredients except the lemon juice and pepper, then increase the heat to high. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook about 12-15 minutes until the quinoa is done and the sweet potatoes are tender. Remove from heat, stir in the lemon juice, season to taste with the pepper.