Roasted Broccoli Galette with an Almond Meal Crust | VeganMoFo 2017 Day Fourteen

October 14, 2017October 14, 2017 / Kelly / 3 Comments

Week Two: Behind the Scenes
Repurposing food: Show us what you do with mushroom stems, stale end bits of bread, carrot tops, etc.

If I were to take this prompt literally and to show you what I do with leftover bits of food, I would be sharing a picture of the compost bin at work, where all my vegetal leftovers wind up. Not a pretty sight, but perhaps a reminder to try a little harder to use all the bits and bobs leftover after cooking.

One remnant I do use up, every time, is the almond pulp left over after making almond milk. Although you can certainly use it right away as a wet ingredient in crackers, feta, and even coconut Bounty Bars (!), I prefer to dry mine to create almond meal or flour. To do so, I spread the clumps onto a baking sheet and put it in the oven at a low temperature (~250˚F) until it’s dried and crackly on top. Then I turn off the heat and let it continue to dry out, sometimes overnight. I then use the dry container of my Vitamix to process it into meal. It’s a relatively hands-off process, and I’m left with quite a lot of almond meal each time.

That being said… when I checked my almond meal stores in the pantry before embarking on the recipe I’m about to share, here’s what I found:

That is a sadly depleted store of almond meal, alas! So, for this recipe — which, by the way, makes a pair of sweet toasty galettes — I’m using less almond meal than I would have liked. Next time, I’ll increase the almond meal and decrease the flour accordingly.

So, with that out of the way… with what shall I fill my only-slightly-almondy crust, you ask? Another oft-discarded ingredient: broccoli stems!

Well, not just broccoli stems, but the whole broccoli stalk. In this simple galette, crispy roasted broccoli adds a flavorful crunch and lots of nutrition to a cheesy filling. As I mentioned in last week’s cheese-centric MoFo post, I don’t actually purchase premade vegan cheese all that often, opting instead to make my own. And although it’d be relatively simple to spread a nice cashew cream (or my tofu-walnut ricotta) on this galette, truthfully, I didn’t feel like making one! I wanted a sharper, deeper flavor and more meltiness, and I wanted the simplicity of using something pre-made. Use your favorite cheddar or go for the gold and make your own cheese. It’ll be tasty either way.

Roasted Broccoli Galette with an Almond Meal Crust

Makes two single-serve galettes or one large galette

For the filling

Two heads broccoli
3 cloves garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Dash sea salt, optional
~1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cup vegan cheddar shreds

For the crust

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup vegan butter, chilled and cubed
1/3 – 1/2 cup ice-cold water
Nutritional yeast (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400˚F.

Roughly chop the broccoli, including the stems, into bite-sized pieces. I like to shave the rough edges off the stems but that’s not necessary. Toss with olive oil, salt, and garlic, then transfer to a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes.

While the broccoli is roasting, make the crust dough. Combine dry ingredients (flour, almond meal, salt, and garlic powder), then use your hands or a pastry cutter to cut in the vegan butter until it forms sandy crumbs. Drizzle in the cold water and stir to combine, using your hands to knead if necessary. Start with 1/3 cup and add more by the tablespoon if necessary. Work it gently until it comes together into a soft but not sticky dough; do not overwork. Form into a ball and place in the refrigerator while the broccoli finishes roasting.

When the broccoli is starting to crisp up and blacken just a little, remove from the oven. (It might take more than 15 minutes.) Turn the oven off to let it cool to 350˚F while you prepare the galette crusts.

Divide the dough into two equal balls. On a clean, lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a rough circle or oval about 1/8″ thick. Transfer to a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper. Leaving a 1 1/2″ border, divide most of the cheese between each crust, reserving about 1/4 cup. Pile the roasted broccoli on top of the cheese, then sprinkle with remaining cheese. Optionally, dust with nutritional yeast as well. Fold the edges of the dough over the filling, overlapping with each fold.

Bake at 375˚F for 30-35 minutes until crust is golden brown.

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Lemon-Dijon Broccoli & Quinoa Bowl

March 31, 2015February 28, 2016 / Kelly / 6 Comments

“I could eat this for lunch seven days a week,” said Steven, after tasting a forkful of last night’s dinner. High praise? Well, coming from a guy who is actually notorious for eating the same lunch every workday for nearly a month… maybe not. But I’ll take it.

On any given day, I’ve got a couple recipe ideas buzzing around my brain. I toy with them, mull them over, research similar recipes. Sometimes I actually make them. Every so often, though, a wholly unplanned meal idea just pops, fully-formed, into my head. I don’t ignore impulses like those—I head straight to the kitchen to cook. Thus was born Monday night’s dinner.

Tangy and abundantly flavorful, this dish is a winner. A zesty, creamy lemon-Dijon sauce is the perfect accompaniment for the more subdued flavors of broccoli and quinoa. This bowl is a surprisingly filling, fun-to-eat side dish that probably tastes just as good cold from the fridge as it did warm from the pot. You could add some baked tofu for some extra protein and to kick this into entree territory.

Lemon-Dijon Broccoli & Quinoa Bowl
Serves six (as a side dish); four (as an entree)

For the Bowl

1 cup quinoa (uncooked)
1 1/2 cup vegetable broth (I used a salt-free homemade broth)
3 heads broccoli, chopped into small florets
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (optional; for topping)

For the Lemon-Dijon Sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice
1 T Vegenaise
1 T olive oil
2 T Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the quinoa and vegetable broth in a small saucepan on high heat. Once the broth boils, reduce heat to low and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the quinoa has soaked up all the water and is light and fluffy.

In the meantime, prepare the sauce. Vigorously whisk the wet ingredients together until emulsified, then add the spices to taste. (You could use a food processor or immersion blender, but this is such a small portion that you can easily whisk it by hand.) Place the finished sauce in the fridge.

As the quinoa finishes cooking, chop the broccoli into small florets (if you haven’t already) and steam it lightly, for about five minutes. You want it to be not-quite fork tender; it should still have a little bite. I used a steamer pot, but you can use your favorite steaming method.

When the quinoa and broccoli are both done, mix them together in a large bowl. Remove the lemon-Dijon sauce from the fridge, shake it, and pour it over the quinoa-broccoli mixture. Let it sit for at least five minutes to absorb the flavors, top with pine nuts, and eat!

Easy Cheesy Broccoli & Brown Rice Bake

November 17, 2014September 27, 2016 / Kelly / 2 Comments

Well! Hello. For once, my extended absence wasn’t due to good ol’ fashioned laziness. No, this time a minor apartment flood situation kept me from blogging. Our upstairs neighbor’s sprinklers went off, and they leaked straight through her floors and into our living room. S and I rushed home from work and found that though the damage wasn’t terrible—nothing major was damaged, and our furniture is all fine—our ceiling was not in good shape. That same night, a cleanup crew tore up our floor (apparently the water could damage the laminate) and pulled down our ceiling. They left us with about seven industrial-strength fans, two huge dehumidifiers (complete with tubes snaking to our sink to drain the water), and strict instructions not to open the windows, no matter how hot it got.

Our poor kitchen in total disarray!

Well. It got hot. Like, 95˚ hot. That heat, combined with the lack of flooring/ceiling and the constant loudness of the fans and dehydrators, sent us scurrying to S’s mom’s house, where we stayed for nearly a week. Now, about two weeks out, the fans are gone, the water is gone… and our ceilings and floors are still gone.

So industrial chic.

We’re anxiously waiting for a contractor to come out and assess the damage and set up a time to fix things. We’ve mostly been holed up in our bedroom and in the kitchen for now, crossing our fingers that things are resolved soon. (It’s a tricky situation involving two insurance companies, two landlords, and us basically reduced to twiddling our thumbs while we wait.)

BUT. In the hopes of restoring some normalcy, we’ve gotten back to cooking. Our first night back in the apartment, I was determined to make something easy and nourishing. This brown rice and broccoli bake is exactly that. It’s easy as can be, especially if you cook the brown rice in advance. Lots of broccoli-rice dishes require pre-blanching the broccoli or sautéing garlic and onions, but I was in no mood for that many steps when I made this dinner. No, this dish is just about as simple as it gets. You pretty much just mix brown rice and broccoli in a casserole dish and stir it up with a basic cheesy sauce. Easy peasy.

Easy Cheesy Broccoli & Brown Rice Bake
Serves three

One large head broccoli, chopped into small florets
3 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup unsweetened almond milk (and an optional additional 1/4 cup)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or granules
1/2 teaspoon paprika
A few shakes or twists black pepper
1-2 tablespoons Earth Balance (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400˚.

Prepare a small* casserole or baking dish by spraying it with oil. Add the brown rice and broccoli florets directly to the dish and stir to combine.

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of the almond milk, nutritional yeast, mustard, salt, garlic powder, paprika, and pepper and whisk until combined. Pour about 3/4 of the sauce over the rice and broccoli mixture, reserving about 1/4. Stir gently so that the mixture is coated. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the dish from the oven, uncover, and stir. Dot with the Earth Balance. If the casserole is looking dry, add the additional 1/4 cup almond milk. Return to oven (uncovered), and bake for another 10 minutes, then remove from oven and pour the remaining sauce over the top. Eat!

*I use a vintage Pyrex casserole dish that’s about 11.5″ x 6.5″ . That’s not exactly a standard size, but it seems to be a 1.5 quart dish.

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I’ve made this dish twice since we’ve returned to the apartment. It’s comforting and homey—just what I need when my actual home is torn up. Here’s to hoping we get things figured out soon!

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