Creamy Vegan Potato Leek Soup w/Croutons

I made this soup last night for my dad who was visiting. A great way to use up leeks, potatoes, and greens that you've been getting in your CSA. A perfect, rich soup wonderful for a blustery early fall day. Next time, it may be good to add more leeks than I did below, but the following soup was still very delicious.

For 4 servings, you'll need:

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 leek, sliced thinly
• 2 pounds potatoes, washed and cut in 1" cubes
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
• 4 c vegetable broth
• 2 T nutritional yeast
• 1/2 c plain almond milk (soy milk would be okay too)
• 1 head of radish greens (or some other strong flavorful greens like mustard greens)
• 2 T balsamic vinegar
• salt & pepper to taste and depending upon your broth
• 2 t fennel seeds
• 1 t paprika
• 1 t crushed red pepper

The steps:

1. Saute leeks in a large, heavy-bottomed pot in olive oil over medium-low heat until tender and translucent. Stir often. About 5-7 minutes
2. While leeks are sauteing, peel and crush garlic cloves
3. Add garlic once leeks are cooked and saute another 3 minutes, stirring often.
4. Add salt, pepper, fennel seeds, paprika, crushed red pepper, broth, greens, nutritional yeast, and almond milk and cover. Turn heat to high, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
5. While that pot is boiling, roughly chop your greens and place in a large bowl. Lightly coat greens in balsamic and let sit until you're ready to add it to the pot. At least 15 minutes. This will help to soften the greens and reduce bitterness.
6. After 25 minutes, add greens to the pot, cover, and simmer until greens are wilted. About 5 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and blend in your food processor until smooth. Will likely take three stages because it won't all fit. Resulting texture is thick, sort of like mashed potatoes.
8. Serve hot with croutons on top

For enough croutons for 4 servings of soup, you'll need:*

• 2 slices of sourdough bread (I have a big oblong loaf, you'll need 3 slices if yours are more traditionally sized)
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 t grill seasoning blend (I use a garlic and herb blend that has salt in it)

The steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 400.
2. Cut bread into 1" cubes.
3. Place cubes in 9x13 pan and coat with olive oil and seasoning.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes, stirring once during the process.
5. Let cool and place on soup, salad, etc.

*If you want this soup to be gluten free, just don't use croutons or use Udi's bread to make croutons with.

Portobello Mushroom Sandwich

Here is a yummy late summer dinner I made tonight: portobello sandwich, corn on the cob, and spicy watermelon soup. I'll give you the recipe for the sandwich tonight. Corn on the cob is easy (especially if you grew up in Indiana and went to college in Iowa and have eaten sweet corn every late summer day since you were a kid and, no, Pennsylvania sweet corn is nowhere near as good). Unfortunately, I haven't perfected this watermelon soup, so I won't give you all the recipe yet. 

Sandwich time, here goes:

For 2 sandwiches, you'll need:

• 2 portobello mushroom caps
• 2 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 T olive oil
• 2 t grill seasoning (the kind you buy premixed for steaks. Mine has onion powder, garlic, salt, parsley, black pepper, etc.)
• 2 large slices of sourdough bread (or 4 slices if you don't have a big, oblong loaf of sourdough)
• 1 large [heirloom] tomato, sliced
• 1 leaf romaine lettuce, slice in half
• 2-3 T vegan margarine (Earth Balance truly is superior)

The steps:

1. In a shallow tupperware, combine vinegar, olive oil, and seasoning. 
2. Clean and remove stems from mushroom caps.
3. Place mushrooms in tupperware and let marinate for at least 30 minutes. Shake the tupperware occasionally to ensure even coverage.
4. While the mushrooms are marinating, toast the bread in a pan with a bit of margarine until lightly golden, if you'd like.
5. Once mushrooms are done marinating, pour the extra marinade into a skillet along with the margarine and heat until margarine melts.
6. Cook mushrooms over low heat, covered, for about 5-7 minutes, flipping once during the process. Mushrooms are done when they have softened all the way through (check in the center) and the bottoms are a little bit darker.
7. Assemble your sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, and mushroom. I think a light spreading of Vegenaise would be great too.

Cashew Cream Cheeze Sauce

Okay, so this doesn't really taste like cheese. Vegan cheese substitutes never do. It is, however, delicious and satisfies my [more than occasional] cheese cravings, so just think of it as a creamy sauce for your enchiladas or chips or whatever. This is another taken from Oh She Glows. I really like it, but I think Jeff is a little skeptical. Oh well.

For enough for a whole pan of enchiladas or a small bowl of dipping sauce for chips, you'll need:

• 3/4 c raw cashew pieces
• 1/4 c + 1 T nutritional yeast (I order mine from here, but many health food stores carry it in bulk)
• 1/3 c water
• 1/4 c salsa 
• 3 t chili powder
• 1 t cumin
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 t salt
• a couple shakes of red pepper flakes

The steps:

1. Place all in food processor and combine until smooth. You will need to pause a few times to scrape down the sides with a spatula.
2. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed until it's really yummy.

Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce

A simple sauce taken almost exactly from Oh She Glows. I used this on the enchiladas I made last night and also, later as a dipping sauce for chips while watching Breaking Bad later on. 

For a full pan of enchiladas, you'll need:

• flesh of 2 small avocados (to equal about 1 1/4c)
• 4 T lime juice
• 2 t apple cider vinegar
• 1 c fresh cilantro
• 1 t salt
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 t cumin
• a couple dashes each cayenne pepper and black pepper

The step:

1. Place all in food processor and combine until smooth. End result sort of has the consistency of mayo. Spread over your enchiladas.

Due to the avocados, this sauce won't store well, so only make as much as you'll use immediately. Enjoy!

Black Bean + Potato Enchiladas

Last night I made delicious vegan enchiladas with cilantro avocado cream sauce and a cashew cream cheeze sauce. I must admit, a great deal of this recipe is taken from this blog, a blog which I highly recommend for finding vegan recipes. Below, the recipe for enchiladas. Two other posts will have the sauce.

For 5 enchiladas (or, enough to fill at 9x13 pan), you'll need:

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped (to equal about 2c)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 c red fleshed potatoes, chopped small (I used these because I had them from the CSA and they are nice a sweet. Sweet potatoes of any variety would be good)
• 1 sweet bell pepper, chopped
• 2 handfuls fresh spinach, chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 1 1/2 c enchilada sauce (I used this)
• 1 T nutritional yeast (optional)
• 1 1/2 t cumin
• 2 T lime juice
• salt
• 1 t chili powder
• 5 medium sized tortillas (I used these)

The steps

1. Pre-cook your diced potatoes in a small pot of boiling water for 5-7 minutes. You don't want them to be fully cooked or mushy at all.
2. Heat olive oil in a pan and add onion. Cook over med-low heat until onions are beginning to be translucent
3. Add garlic and cook a little more
4. Add diced pepper, beans, potatoes, and spinach and cook for about 5 more minutes.
5. Add enchilada sauce, nutritional yeast, and spices and stir. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed, depending upon your enchilada sauce. Remove from heat.
6. Preheat your oven to 350.
7. Lightly grease your 9x13 pan and scoop about 1c of the filling directly into the pan. Spread evenly across the bottom.
8. Scoop about 1/2c filling into each tortilla and roll up like you would a burrito. Place in the pan seam facing down.
9. Spread any remaining filling over top of your enchiladas.
10. Bake for 20 min and serve immediately. While the enchiladas are baking, work on making your cilantro avocado cream sauce and cashew cream cheeze sauce.