Oven-Baked Sweet Potato and Kale Patties

January 3, 2017January 11, 2017 / Kelly / Leave a comment

Happy 2017, pals! After the craziness of Vegan MoFo in November, I went 100% radio silent in December. What can I say? The holidays are always so busy, and since November was a mad rush of cooking, baking, recipe-writing, photographing, and blogging, I was pretty much spent when it ended. Let’s just call it a hiatus and move on!

I nearly always enter a new year with a few weeks of vegan cookie binging behind me, ready to incorporate just a little more good green food into my diet. It’s not that I don’t eat healthy foods during the holidays (I think I’ve eaten my weight in clementines in the past month!), but I tend to also eat lots of baked goods and indulgences. January seems like a natural time to re-calibrate and reset my eating patterns. Is it a resolution? Nah, just an intention to include more nourishing ingredients in my meals.

So in that spirit, today I bring you some simple oven-baked veggie patties, inspired by the sweet potato and mung bean croquettes I made a few years back. This recipe again features sweet potatoes as a base, but it also incorporates a handful of steamed kale and some crumbled tempeh for extra protein. I kept the flavors simple — fresh ginger, soy sauce, and curry powder — but you can add whatever spices appeal to you. The final step (brushing the patties with melted coconut oil and broiling for a few minutes) adds a little crunch and some extra flavor, but it’s totally optional; feel free to omit it if you’re cutting down on added fats.

Baked Sweet Potato and Kale Patties

Makes 12 patties

1.5 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 block tempeh, crumbled into small pieces
About 2 cups kale, chopped finely (measure loosely after slicing)
1/3 cup scallions, sliced thin (measure after slicing)
1/4 C coconut flour (or other flour; coconut adds a little nutty flavor)
1.5 T freshly grated ginger
1.5 T soy sauce
1/2 T curry powder
1/2 T coconut oil, melted (optional)

Method

Begin by steaming the tempeh and the chopped sweet potatoes for about 15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are fork tender. While they’re steaming, you can finely chop the kale and slice the scallions. Set both aside.

When the potatoes are done, add them and the tempeh to a large mixing bowl. Let them cool slightly while you steam the kale just until soft, about 3 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400˚F and spray a baking sheet with oil (or line with parchment paper).

Using a wooden spoon, mash the sweet potatoes and tempeh mixture. Add the scallions, ginger, coconut flour, soy sauce, curry powder, and kale, and mix thoroughly. Then use your hands to form about 1/4 cup of the mixture into patties about 2″ across and 3/4″ thick; you should have enough of the mixture to make 12 patties. Place on the prepared sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, then brush the patties with the melted coconut oil and broil for 5 minutes, just until they start to brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.

~~~

These soft fork-tender patties are best eaten drizzled with your favorite sauce, alongside a big helping of veggies. You could try this peanutty coconut sauce or this similar curried version.

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Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes

September 17, 2015September 22, 2016 / Kelly / 6 Comments

Day 17: Make (or eat!) a traditional local dish.

Maryland is one of those states that’s pretty synonymous with a specific dish — crabcakes. Or anything with crab, really. As a child, years and years before I moved to Maryland, I visited cousins who lived here and went out crabbing with them. Even then, I remember feeling unhappy with the practice and very uncomfortable with the whole boiling-and-eating-them thing.

Now, thinking about my participation in the catching and killing of perhaps dozens of crustaceans makes me feel sad and guilty. Tonight’s dinner — the Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes from Vegan Brunch: Homestyle Recipes Worth Waking Up For — is my small way of offering up a little tribute to those crabs of my youth.

With a tempeh base, these cakes are quite filling. I didn’t have a red bell pepper in the house, so I substituted a yellow pepper instead. I also made one other big substitution: using Old Bay instead of the spice blend in the recipe. You can’t make crabcakes without Old Bay!

I did have a little trouble with this recipe. The cakes didn’t hold together well at all; I ended up adding some aquafaba as a binder. They’re also pan-fried in oil, making them a little heavy for me. That side of sliced peppers certainly helped!

Here’s to you, crabs of Maryland, and here’s to eating tempeh instead of flesh!

Note: This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase something through my link, it costs nothing extra for you, but I get a few pennies. I’m not looking to make a fortune, just to cover hosting costs. :)

Navy Bean Biscuits & Roasted Garlic Gravy

September 18, 2014October 13, 2014 / Kelly / 3 Comments

Real talk: Finding substantial sources of calcium has been more difficult than finding sources of protein or iron. I’m learning that although lots of foods contain calcium, they usually don’t contain a whole lot of calcium. That’s not necessarily bad; if you eat a varied diet, you probably acquire little bits of calcium from lots of sources. There just aren’t a lot of calcium powerhouses out there. So far this week, I’ve relied heavily on chia seeds, but let’s face it: woman cannot live on chia alone. It’s time to stop relying on the chia crutch.

In my search for a new calcium crutch, I looked to the ever-faithful bean. Most beans offer a bit of calcium, but nothing to write home about (per cup, black beans have 5% of the RDV, dark red kidney beans have 6%, and pinto beans have 8%). But one bean stands out: the unassuming navy bean. With 13% of the RDV in a cup, they outpace their legume companions by a long shot.

With this recipe, I’m taking full advantage of my new discovery. Navy beans make their way into the two main components of this savory plate of biscuits and gravy, and almond milk and tempeh help increase the calcium content.

Navy Bean Biscuits with Roasted Garlic Gravy
Makes 16 biscuits and about 5 cups of gravy

For the biscuits:
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooked navy beans
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
3 tablespoons very cold vegan butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 450˚ and line a baking pan with parchment paper or spray it lightly with oil and then dust with flour. (If you’re going to chill your dough before baking, you can wait to preheat the oven.)

Using a standard blender or an immersion blender, puree the navy beans and almond milk until smooth. Set aside.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Using a fork, pastry cutter, or your fingertips, cut in the vegan butter until the mixture is coarse and sandy. Make sure there are no large lumps of butter remaining. Add the almond milk and bean mixture and stir with a plastic spatula or wooden spoon until the dough comes together. Don’t over-mix. It’ll be sticky, but that’s okay.

At this point, you can either refrigerate the dough for at least 20 minutes or go ahead and make the biscuits. Refrigerating the dough cools down the butter so that it melts into flaky pockets in the oven, but it’s not strictly necessary. When you’re ready to bake, place the dough on a clean, floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll it to a little more than 1/2″ thickness. Use a floured glass rim or your favorite round cookie cutter to cut the dough into circles. Place circles on the prepared baking dish about 3/4″ apart. Ball up the dough, roll it out again, and cut more circles. Repeat until you’ve used up all the dough. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the tops just begin to turn golden. There won’t be a big color change, so watch carefully.

For the gravy:
1 head roasted garlic, removed from papery skins
1 1/2 cups cooked navy beans
3 cups unsweetened almond milk
2 tablespoons vegan butter
1/4 cup flour, any kind
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fennel
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon sage
8 oz. tempeh
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

First, brown the tempeh. Add a little oil to the bottom of a large saucepan and heat over medium. Using your hands, crumble the tempeh into small chunks and add it to the pan. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the tempeh is lightly browned on all sides. Be careful that it doesn’t burn.

While the tempeh browns, use a standard blender or an immersion blender to puree the navy beans, almond milk, and roasted garlic until smooth. Set aside.

Once the tempeh is browned, turn the heat down to medium-low and add the spices and butter to the pan. Once it melts, sprinkle on some of the flour and stir so the tempeh is coated. Pour in about a quarter of the liquid mixture and stir. Add a little more flour and liquid and whisk thoroughly. Continue until you’ve added all the flour and the liquid, whisking carefully to prevent lumps. When all ingredients are thoroughly mixed, turn the heat up a bit (if necessary) until the mixture just begins to bubble. Turn down again and let the gravy thicken, stirring frequently.

Slice biscuits in half, top with gravy, and enjoy!

The navy beans stand in for some of the fat in the biscuits, making them less flaky than a full-fat biscuit. But once you top them with the rich, creamy, garlicky gravy, you won’t miss the fat! And you can’t taste the beans at all—I can testify to that. S was thoroughly surprised when I told him about that secret ingredient.

Two of these biscuits will give you 5 grams of protein, 11% of your daily recommended value of iron, and 7% of your RDV of calcium. Half a cup of the gravy offers nearly 7 grams of protein, 8% of your RDV of iron, and a whopping 17% of your RDV of calcium.

Now that’s something to write home about.

Recipe Testing: Tempeh Time!

January 12, 2013 / Kelly / 4 Comments

Now that the holidays and all their hustle+bustle are over, we’re settling back into our comfortable routine of weekly meal planning. Does that sound boring and all domestic-like? Perhaps it is, but I don’t mind – it keeps me from turning into an angry hunger-monster after work and ensures that our dinners are varied and, dare I say it, exciting.

I made one of our dinners this week extra exciting by trying a brand-new recipe from the ever-inspiring Joni Marie Newman. I tested for her delightfully crafty Vegan Food Gifts book a year or so ago, and now that that book is released, she’s back in the culinary saddle again with plans for yet another cookbook. And once again, I’m helping test recipes for it. So exciting! I won’t spoil the theme of this book (trust me, it’s a good one), but I’m very excited about it. All the dishes I’ve tried so far have been jam-packed with flavor, helped in part by a multitude of brilliant from-scratch sauces and marinades. This week, I tried an orange-y marinade with some tempeh, which I then cooked on S’s lovely little cast-iron grill pan.

Cast-iron grill pan sitting on an electric stove. In it are four wooden skewers with squares of tempeh on them.

Skewered tempeh.

These babies were also bathed in a citrus-y, garlic-y sauce that added even more flavor. I served some of the extra sauce over brown rice, and I even drizzled some onto my arugula side salad. Yum yum!

White plate with two tempeh kebobs, an arugula side salad, and a small mound of brown rice drizzled with sauce.

Ze full meal.

I was a little disappointed that my tempeh didn’t achieve those gorgeous grill marks you might get from a real, outdoors grill, but no matter – I was okay with the few little black lines I saw. The sauce and the marinade were excellent, but my meal was sadly marred by my first (!) experience with bitter tempeh. Until this particular encounter, I’d never understood why some folks complain about tempeh’s unpleasant bitterness – I’d never experienced it. This time, though, I used a new-to-me locally produced tempeh, and I didn’t steam it beforehand. S didn’t seem to mind, but it was a little off-putting to me, and I fear I’ve gone off tempeh for a while. Ah well. I can still use the leftover sauce and marinade on tofu! :)

Don’t forget to enter my cookbook giveaway by tomorrow (Sunday) night! I’m enjoying reading everyone’s exciting plans and hopes for 2013 – keep ’em coming!

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