Adventures in Veganism: Perfect Summer Dinner

It preeeeetty hot here these days. However, not terrible by our standards. I made this yummy fresh dinner tonight and pretended I was having a pretty picnic in a pretty park with a pretty breeze and all my pretty friends.

Here's what I made!

Kale salad, curried potato salad, and corn on the cob. Mmm.

Brief confession: I'm kinda a terrible cook. Not the worst by any means. The thing is, I kinda hate following recipes. Recipes are like a whole buncha rules and I really just wanna break em. You'd think  after screwing up recipes all the time I'd learn my lesson. I'm getting there. These are simple recipes that you can doctor and adjust to your tastes and it'll still be delish! Here's what ya do.

Kale Salad- One of my most favorite salads of all time is the Kale salad from True Food Kitchen. Only problem, it's covered in parmesan cheese.  Here's my cheese-less version. This little mixture is so fresh and light. I love love love kale.

A bunch of kale
1 lemon
1-2 cloves of Garlic
A smidge of olive oil
Pepper to taste

Roughly chop the kale. Using a grater or a microplane (if you don't have one get one. I love my microplane. It's magical) zest the lemon (half the lemon if you'd prefer) and squeeze the juice of half the lemon into a bowl. Add a clove of fresh garlic and a bit of olive oil. Stir in some fresh ground pepper and toss the mixture with the kale. If you'd like, you could add some red pepper flakes for a little kick. That's it! Yum!

Curried Potato Salad- Another thing I love- curry powder. I put it on everything. Here's a yummy vegan twist on boring, traditional potato salad.

A handful of baby potatoes
Onion (as much or as little as you prefer)
1 tbsp Vegenaise
Curry powder (as much or as little as you prefer)
Sprinkling of cinnamon
Splash of jerk seasoning (or red pepper flakes. or neither)
Dash of salt
Fresh parsley

Slice up your potatoes, toss them in a pot, and boil until tender. Mix up Vegenaise, lots of curry powder, a little cinnamon, and a sprinkling of jerk seasoning for some spice. Toss potatoes with the yummy mixture. Throw in some freshly chopped onion and parsley. Salt to taste. Nom!

One of the best parts of summer is corn on the cob!! I love going to my grandpa's farm in upstate New York and filling my belly with lots of corn. Boil yourself (or grill- even better!) up and ear and you've got a yummy dinner.

Vegan Apple Tart

I made a vegan apple tart for craft night tonight! I kind of tweaked this recipe from Hell Yeah It's Vegan (I wasn't sure everyone would be into the cheddar crust).  Everything on that blog makes my mouth water.

Here's what I did.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c flour

1/3 c vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)

1 tbsp shortening

ice water

3 granny smith apples (peeled and sliced thinly)

3 tbsp agave nectar 

1/4 tsp nutmeg

juice from 1 lemon

cinnamon

Cut butter and shortening into flour. Because I am bad at following directions, I added a tiny sprinkling of cinnamon into my dough mixture as well. Add ice water one tablespoon at a time until the dough can be gathered into a ball. Smoosh the ball into a disk then cover in plastic and put it in the fridge to chill for a good half hour or more. I took a long walk while my dough was chilling. (If your short on time, pop it in the freezer).

Toss the apples in the lemon juice, agave, and nutmeg (I added some cinnamon here too :). Grease a cookie sheet and preheat your over to 400 degrees. While your over heats up, roll your dough out to about 1/4 inch thick (I realized I did not have my rolling pin! So I just pushed out the dough as you would a pizza crust. If the dough splits just pinch the crust back together. The great thing about this is that it's supposed to look rustic so messy crust isn't that big of a deal).

Fill the crust with apples; up to 1/2 inch from the edge. Fold the edges over. Pour excess liquid into the opening and top with pats of vegan margarine. I had some coarse sugar crystals that I patted into the folded over crust- turbinado sugar would work just as well- just to make it fancy! Bake for 40-50 minutes. 

Do you have any good fall recipes? Please share!!