Last Week's Minestrone

 Minestrone

Noun: A thick soup containing vegetables and pasta.

I make a big pot of "minestrone" almost every week.  There 

are a bunch of reasons I do this:

My kid will eat it and it is full of vegetables!

It is a huge pot of soup that we can have meal after meal!

It's full of protein and fiber!

It's delicious, yummy, good for you and it really fills you up!

It's really quite easy to make!

It freezes easily!

What do I put into my minestrone?

Olive oil

stock or water

Onions (yellow onion or fresh spring onions or leeks)

Celery

Carrots

Garlic

Potatoes

Green peas, corn, squash, green beans, etc

Kale, chard, collards - lots of chopped greens

parsley

tomatoes (fresh, frozen, or canned)

tomato paste or sauce

garbanzo beans, white beans, kidney beans

red lentils

orzo, pasta, barley or rice

Italian seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

Really, this could be called "what's in the pantry and refrigerator" soup. There are so many options and you should use my list only as a guide. Be creative and add vegetables you love and know you will eat.

The base of the soup beginning to cook - olive oil, onion, celery, carrots, and garlic.

1.  Chop an onion or two, chop a bunch of carrots and celery (at least a cup or two of each), and chop or press some garlic.

2.  Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a large soup pot and heat gently. Add the onions and saute for a bit.  Then add the garlic, carrots, and celery.  I let this cook until it begins to soften up.

I added chopped squash and potatoes to the base of onion, celery and carrot.

3.  I added chopped fingerling potatoes and chopped squash to the base of onion, celery, carrots and garlic and cooked a bit longer to soften everything up.  This is the time to add things like green beans, green peas, corn, etc.

4.  Add about a quart of vegetable stock and about a quart of water to the pan.  Turn the heat up and begin to bring the soup to a boil.  If you are adding a grain like barley to the soup now is the time to throw it in.

Why do I have a photo of red lentils on a minestrone blog post?  Read on to number "5" and  see why.

5.  I almost always add 1/2 cup of red lentils to my minestrone soup as it comes to a boil.  Red lentils should be rinsed well until the water runs clear.  I add red lentils to the minestrone because they bring a richness and thickness to the soup.  They are full of protein.  They are full of fiber.  They cook down and blend into the goodness of the broth and when you eat the soup you don't even know they are there.

6.  Add about 4 tablespoons of tomato paste and 2 - 3 tablespoons Italian seasoning to the pot.  You can purchase Italian seasoning in the spice aisle of any good grocery store.

7. Add a can of chopped tomatoes, 2 - 3 cups of chopped fresh tomatoes, or a couple handfuls of whole frozen tomatoes.  Yes, whole frozen tomatoes!  Grow some tomatoes, pick them, wash and dry them and toss them in a gallon plastic zip lock and store in the freezer to use all year long.  You can have summer goodness the entire year.

Here's a photo of my gorgeous Roma tomatoes from summer 2012 straight out of the freezer.

The soup is beginning to boil and you can see the tomato paste and whole frozen tomatoes on the surface. Here's the deal with whole frozen tomatoes.... they still have their skin.  I don't like to feel the tomato skin in my mouth when I eat the soup.  Once the tomatoes have heated I pull them out with a slotted spoon and skin them (really, the inside pops right out of the skin if you pierce them with a knife), chop them and put them back in.

7.  After the soup has come to a boil and simmered for 20 minutes or so I add canned beans, the chopped greens, and fresh parsley.  Don't skimp on the greens.  You can add cups and cups of chopped greens to the soup ---- don't be stingy.  The soup and your body deserve all the green goodness you can give it!  I used two small bunches of collard greens for the green goodness in this particular soup.  These poor little collards had been sitting in my frig waiting for something I wasn't getting to. I am so glad they found their way into the soup!

8.  If you are adding pasta add it in when you think the vegetables are really done.  Pasta will cook quickly and if you put it in too soon it will cook down entirely.  Don't underestimate how BIG the pasta will get and how much of the liquid it will absorb.  I only use about 1/2 cup of pasta in an entire huge pot of soup.  I really like to use orzo.  If you are watching your weight or carbohydrates I would just leave the pasta out and use a good grain like barley instead.  

9.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Once I've ladled a big portion of soup into a bowl I usually shake some balsamic on top.  It adds flavor and richness.  So yum!

Here's a photo of my minestrone lunch.  It was delicious.  We froze a big bunch of this soup and took it in the cooler to the mountains on vacation for a post hike dinner.  It kept the cooler cold and then was thawed and ready to eat by the third evening!  Delicious.

There are so many options for making minestrone.  Go to your local Farmer's Market  and choose things that look good or different!  Load your soup with as many vegetables as you can.  Eat lots of this soup!

Potage St. Germaine

Potage St. Germaine

(A fancy name for green pea and lettuce soup!)

About a year ago one of my yoga student's told me about a soup she made for company.  When she told me what was in the soup I had a hard time imagining how amazing and delicious it was going to be.  When someone tells you they used two heads of "baby gem" lettuce in a soup it is fairly hard to imagine or believe!  Lettuce in a soup?

I have become a huge fan of green soups.  We usually have a large container of green soup in the refrigerator.  Most of my green soups have been inspired by a woman named Anna Thomas. 

See this article on Anna and her personal green soup odyssey : 
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/easy_recipes/anna_thomas_green_soup_how_green_soup_became_a_way_of_life


I decided to give the "Potage St. Germaine" a chance.  Here is the basic recipe I use. I've made batches and batches of this soup.

1.  1 - 2 onions , fresh spring onions or leeks chopped - at least a full cup or more

2.  2 - 3 tablespoons olive oil

3.  2 medium heads of chopped baby gem lettuce/ 8 cups or so  (you could use romaine or butter lettuce)

4.  2 cups of fresh or frozen green peas

5. 3 - 4 cups of broth or water

6.  salt and pepper to taste

Heat 2- 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan with some sea salt.  Add the onions or leeks and sauté.  I like to keep the heat very low and let the onions cook for a bit of time so they begin to carmelize.

Here are the onions before I added all the green stuff.  I know that some of you like to use less oil and that is certainly an option but I find that a solid 2 tablespoons of olive oil really makes the difference in helping this soup's rich flavor.

Add the chopped washed "baby gem" lettuce on top of the onions.

Add the 2 cups of peas and water or broth to just cover all the green.

Bring the pan to a low boil and then turn down the heat and cook for about 10 minutes.  

Use a slotted spoon to scoop the contents into a blender and as much of the liquid as you desire.  More liquid will make a thinner soup and less a thicker soup.  Blend carefully because the contents are hot - I always use a towel on top of the blender and use the "pulse" button when blending anything hot.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

This is a vibrant delicious smooth rich pea soup. Absolutely delicious!  I love it!

I added a small amount of mint infused olive oil to the top of the soup and the mint perked the flavors up even more!  I simply washed the fresh mint and added it to the vitamix blender with some olive oil and kept blending until I had the right consistency.

I served this batch of Potage St. Germaine as the first course in a vegan dinner party I threw for some special friends the other night.  We had a fresh spring roll with spicy peanut sauce and the delicious vibrant Potage St. Germaine.

Where does one buy Baby Gem lettuce?  I buy mine at the local Farmer's Market.  I have never seen it at a local grocery and I have amazing grocery stores where I live. 

Eat and Enjoy.  It's really easy to make! 

What's in that????

Green Power Morning Drinks

When I go to work in the mornings I take a quart of green smoothie with me.  That's 6 mornings a week, folks.  It never fails that someone asks in a very interested (and sometimes skeptical) voice, "What's in that?".  I patiently explain the virtuous list of wonderful ingredients but it is long and varied day to day so I never expect anyone to remember.  

In addition to the daily green smoothie I try to juice fresh vegetables and fruit as often as possible.  I am currently working my summer schedule which is a blissful and simply lean schedule of work hours.  This gives me plenty of time to read about food, play with food, cook food, and dream about food.  It also gives me time to pick the vegetables in my garden, wash them, juice them, and then clean up afterward.  

This morning we had fresh green juice made up of the following items:

Kale fresh from the garden

Celery fresh from the garden

Parsley fresh from the garden

Cucumber fresh from the garden (that was exciting since the mice ate all my cucs last summer!)

and carrots, apple, ginger and lemon from the grocery

There is just about nothing that beats walking into your garden and picking stuff you grew!  It is fresh and delicious, you know where it comes from, it is still warm from the day, you know that the compost in the ground came from the last year's worth of food scraps you put in the bin....  it is truly fulfilling.

Here is the juice we drank (and no, I don't usually drink it out of a tall wine glass... it just looked really good in that container so I photographed it that way)

Why juice?  Some would say, "but it's void of the fiber that eating your fruit and vegetables provides."  I totally agree.  However, some of my favorite food heroes agree with me on this point... we just can't get enough green into our systems.  I eat tons of vegetables every day - green smoothies, salad, stir fry, steamed veggies, veggies in my tacos, veggies in my tofu scramble, veggies in my hummus, veggies by the handful and plateful. Juice is an amazing concentrated way to get more green. When I juice, I just feel better.  Period.

On to the green smoothie.....

Now here is the real "hero" of green.  This is the whole package, folks.  This is the whole "enchilada" - all the fiber and everything.  This is where I get cups and cups of greens, more grams of fiber than most Americans eat in a week, lots of omega 3's, plenty of protein, and tons of phytonutrients!  My husband and I each drink a quart of green smoothie almost everyday.

Look at that chard plant from my garden.  That's where most of the green came from in today's smoothie.  I suggest different greens everyday - chard, kale, dark green lettuce, parsley, dandelion greens, beet greens, fresh sprouts, and a myriad of other exotic and exciting green choices. If you live in Santa Cruz please visit the "Three Sisters" booth at the local Wednesday and Saturday Farmer's markets to be introduced to an amazing array of greens - it's the little stand with all the smaller baskets of beautiful greens. I buy my sorrel and amaranth greens there every week for green soup... but I digress.

Today's Green Superfood smoothie recipe is as follows:

 - 4 cups water

 - handful of cashews (you can use any kind of nut if you have a high powered blender      use nut butters if your blender doesn't have a vitmamix kind of engine)

 - 2 tablespoon chia

 - 2 tablespoon ground flax seed

 - 1 tablespoon maca root powder

 - 1 teaspoon acai powder

 - 1 teaspoon lucuma powder

 - 2 tablespoons Vitamineral Green

 - 5 huge chard leaves

 - 5 large kale leaves

 - handful of parsley

 - 1/2 cup watermelon

 - cup strawberries

 - 1 ripe banana

 - handful of organic red grapes 

 - slice of raw ginger

Blend until smooth and beautiful.  I drink this all morning long.  This can easily feed 3 or 4 people.  

Why maca, acai, lucuma, chia, flax, and vitamineral green?

I've become interested in what is now being called "super foods".  I know that my family eats super food everyday because most of the time I make it and I know what is in it.  We eat tons of vegetables, fruit, beans, grains,  fermented food like sauerkraut, and good fats like avocado and olives.   Those are super foods - nature made 'em and we consume them.  However, there are a whole class of foods that are now readily available in local health food stores which can add to our already rich and nutritious diets.

I recently bought and read a cookbook called "Superfood Kitchen" by Julie Morris.  I decided that it would be great to add some of these things to our smoothies.

Maca Powder

Maca is indigenous to the highlands of the Peruvian Andes where is has been used medicinally for thousands of years.  Maca is one of a rare class of plants called "adaptogens".  An "adaptogen", when consumed, can actually "adapt" and adjust to combat the different types of stresses that are put on the body.  Maca is supposed to strengthen and balance the body's systems.  It provides long lasting energy and combats fatigue without being a stimulant.  It contains 60 phytonutrients - that's reason enough to add it to a smoothie if you ask me.

Acai

Acai is a berry that grows in the Amazon.  It has been used for thousands of years both as a food source and medicinally. This small Amazonian berry is one of nature's most concentrated forms of antioxidants - twice that of blueberries (and those are pretty bomber in terms of antioxidants!).  Acai contains a broad range of vitamins and minerals as well as healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats.

Lucuma

Lucuma powder is a finely milled powder made from freeze-dried lucuma fruit, which is native to South America.  It has a full bodied maple taste but is very low in sugar.  It basically sweetens and is full of beta-carotene, niacin, and iron.

Chia Seed

Chia was once a staple food source among the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans.  It was used to increase strength and maintain stamina during long distance journeys.  Chia is an amazing plant based source of omega 3 fatty acids.  Chia is full of antioxidants , is an easily digestible source of protein, and a great source of fiber.  1 tablespoon of chia provides over 1/4 of our daily requirements for fiber (unless you believe, as I do, that we need much more fiber on a daily basis than governmental "requirements").

Chia contains a high content of mucilage which means the chia absorbs water really well and forms a kind of "gel" layer around each seed.  A chia seed can absorb about nine times its weight in water.  It expands in the stomach and creates a sense of fullness.

Flax Seed

Flax seed is a small seed that originated in Mesopotamia and has been used since the stone age.  Much like chia, it is known for its beneficial essential fatty acid profile.  Flax doesn't have quite the same antioxidant profile as chia but it is well known for its lignans.  Lignans are a class of phytonutrients known to help balance hormone levels.  Flax is full of protein and is very high in fiber.  Much like chia, flax has the same mucilage ability.

Vitamineral Green

This is a Health Force Super Foods product.  I use it because it is full of green from the earth and water - grasses from the ground and grasses from the sea.  It also has a probiotic element and an enzyme concentrate. 

Nettle, alfalfa, dandelion, barley green, oat grass, chickweed, spirulina, chlorella, kelp, dulse, nori, wheat grass, american basil, parsley leaf, and on and on.  These things help to alkalize the body (think anti- inflammatory)

This is a product that I think is well worth the money.  Staff of Life often has it on sale and that's the very best time to buy it!

Stay Green everyone!

I Missed My Vitamix on Spring Break

Can I lament for a bit?  I was on a trip with my daughter over spring break to re-visit two Colleges she is considering attending.  One of the Colleges was in Portland so finding plant based/vegan food was not a big issue.  The other was in Spokane and the search became a little more difficult and more "junk" vegan food was consumed than I like in my every day diet.

My main issue is that I just can't find the vegetable, seed, and nut content that I eat on a daily basis. Without my friendly Vitamix I can't consume my daily smoothie which is like drinking an amazing multi vitamin and mineral complex filled with fiber and soul in a quart jar!  Yes, I do drink about a quart of this stuff a day.

I did manage to consume organic apples, oranges, bananas, walnuts, and almonds every day for breakfast.  It's hard, though, to sit down and eat a fresh bunch of raw kale - so much easier to toss it into a smoothie and let it ease on down the pipes that way.

I was sooo happy to be back in my kitchen.  Our first dinner home was brown rice, kale, and tofu.  So simple and so amazing.  The next morning I made the morning drink that sustains us.   That particular smoothie consisted of the following:

water
banana
strawberries
blueberries
orange
parsley
kale
red beet
almonds
chia seeds
flax seeds
Vitamineral green
a plant based protein powder
maca powder

You'd be amazed at how much green stuff you can put in a smoothie.  I usually put in 8 - 12 cups of kale, chard, dandelion, parsley, lettuce, bok choy or whatever green I have in the frig or garden.  If we split the smoothie it means that we are imbibing in 4 - 6 cups of fresh green with each and every smoothie!

I drank this all morning and I was full until 2pm.  The chia, flax and almonds  have a powerful "filling" effect and they are loaded with fiber and omega 3's. Our stomach has something called "stretch responders" and those respond to food that is full of fiber, that bulks up and absorbs liquid as we digest it.  The only food on the planet that has fiber is plant food - nuts, seeds, beans, vegetables, whole grains, and fruit.  EAT MORE PLANT FOOD - regardless of what kind of daily diet you eat: vegan, omnivore,zone, herbivore, paleo.... we've got to eat more plant food.  The average American is only eating a measly 8 - 12 grams of fiber a day.  We need gobs more of that good stuff!  Try a smoothie - it's a fiber filled meal in a cup.

No photo.  I drank it before I photographed it!

Curried Red Lentil Soup

Curried Red Lentil Soup

I returned yesterday from a trip to re-visit 2 Colleges that my daughter is considering. Eating on the road is always a bit of a challenge for me.  I was able to eat lots of organic fruit, walnuts, almonds, some amazing food in Portland, and some decent food in Spokane but nothing beats our home cooked meals here in the kitchen. I tire of eating out fairly rapidly.

 I was craving this simple, delicious, filling lentil soup so after visiting the Farmer's Market this morning I came home and cooked.  There are so many other things I need to be doing - taxes, for one!  But.... I wanted to cook and cook I did.

Here is the list of ingredients I used for this red lentil soup.  It's always a bit different.  Please remember that this can be changed and manipulated for your taste, to use less oil, to add more vegetables, different spice combinations, etc.


2 tbsp coconut oil (you can use much less than this if you are watching oil/fat in your diet)
small handful of mustard seeds/maybe 2 - 4 tbsp?
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
4 carrots, chopped
1 quart home made stock
1 quart of water with a little more water as the lentils cooked
4 cups of red lentils, rinsed until the rinse water runs clear
1 -2 cups of fresh tomato or one can or more of chopped toms
2 tbsp tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
4 - 8 cups or more of chopped greens - kale, spinach, beet greens, dandelion
chopped cilantro for garnish (and taste)

1.  I used a large soup pot on low heat to melt the 2 tbsp of coconut oil.  You can use any oil you like.  I like the flavor of coconut oil and it is a high heat oil so sauteing is safe.

2.  Once the oil was warm I added the mustard seeds. (please see notes at the end of the post for nutritional information on mustard seeds)

3.  While the mustard seeds were cooking gently I chopped the onion.  You could easily use two onions for this recipe, or leeks, or even red onion.  I had one medium sized onion in the drawer so that's what went into the soup!

4.  Fresh minced ginger is so much better than powdered or leaving it out.  Fresh ginger is really good for you - a natural anti-inflammatory.  You can keep it in a baggy in your frig and use it in smoothies, stir fry, Indian inspired cuisine, salad dressings, etc.

5.   I don't always use minced garlic in this soup because I am too lazy to chop it.  However, it makes a difference to the flavor palette and I think it's really worth chopping.  Now If I can only remember this when I am trying to rush and cook - not advised, by the way, this rushing and cooking... something always goes wrong.  It's probably better to do the "be here now" thing when cooking.  

6.  While everything was sauteing I added the spices.  Spicing something like this is a really personal issue.  I used a spice combination that my friend, Laurie, gave me for Christmas.  It contains cumin, cardamom, coriander, tumeric, dry mustard, and cayenne.  I used 1 1/2 tsp.  You could easily use garam masala spice mix or just a bit of cumin, coriander, and tumeric.

7.  I did add some tumeric from my Indian spice drawer which is right next to my cooking surface.  I like tumeric.  It is a great anti-inflammatory and makes the color of the soup really beautiful.  I probably used 1 tsp.

8.  I used a quart of homemade stock and about a quart of water and added these to the saute.  Watch for splattering.  

By the way, it is so easy to make homemade stock.  Put a gallon zip lock bag in your freezer and simply put the ends of vegetables you don't use in that bag - pieces of onion, celery, carrot, etc. Collect bits and pieces until the bag is full and then add it to a big stock pot of water, adding parsley, salt, pepper, more onion... whatever suits your fancy.  When I make stock I add mushrooms to the stock pot because I can't stand eating mushrooms (they feel funny in my mouth) but they are amazingly healthy for us and should be consumed regularly.  After I cook the stock over low heat for hours and hours I strain it and then put it in quart sized baggies in the freezer.  They stack beautifully and are very easy to thaw.  The strained veg goes out onto the compost to help grow the year round veg garden. I know, I know, I am using plastic bags.  I tried quart jars and they burst in the freezer.  

9.  I used 4 cups of lentils for this soup.  We like this soup thick.  If you like a thinner soup, use a few less lentils and more water as the lentils cook.

10. Aren't these floating tomatoes cute?!

 I threw in about 16 - 20 smaller tomatoes from a batch I froze this last summer.  You can use fresh chopped tomatoes when they are in season, frozen tomatoes, canned tomatoes.  I think tomatoes add a lot to this soup.  

I also used about 2 tbsp of tomato paste.

11.  Bring this all to a boil and then cook on low simmer for 20 minutes or so. The red lentils cook really quickly.  Red lentils don't need to be soaked prior to cooking and they are fast so this is a meal that can be thrown together for dinner.

After the lentils have cooked down, add the chopped greens.  I used about 4 - 6 cups of chopped kale from the garden and about 2 - 3 cups of chopped beet greens.

Cook another 10 minutes or so.

I like to serve this soup over brown rice with chopped cilantro on the top.  This huge pot of soup will provide us with many meals over the next 4 days or so.  It also freezes well and re-heats beautifully.  

Mustard Seeds:

Mustard seeds are in the Brassica family so they contain plentiful amounts of phytonutrients called glucosinolates.  The seeds also contain myrosinase enzymes that can break apart the glucosinolates into other phytonutrients called isothiocyanates.  The isothiocyanates in mustard seeds and other Brassicas have been repeatedly studied for their anti-cancer effects. Isothiocyanates have been shown to inhibit growth of existing cancer cells and prevent growth of cancer cells, especially linked to gastrointestinal and colorectal cancers. 

Mustard seeds are full of selenium, magnesium, manganese and omega 3 fatty acids.  The selenium and magnesium component have a high anti-inflammatory effect in the body.

Cacao Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie/It's like a milk shake, but much better for you!

Cacao Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie

(it's like a milk shake but much better for you!)

I had an edgy and stressful week. I'm not sure what happened but I was not on my A game when it came to ease this past week.

On Thursday I drove all the way out to Aptos in the traffic to watch my daughter run in a track meet.  When I arrived I found out the team wasn't actually competing.  After a brief talk with her coach, who was just downright frustrated and mean to me, I felt like crap.  I drove all the way home through traffic and by the time I got here,  all I wanted was something chocolaty and delicious!

I learned how to make a version of this smoothie in a class I took from a woman named Becky Mahony who is a food educator.  It is delicious and actually pretty darn good for you.  I don't drink this as a morning meal drink but every now and then I pull this out as a nighttime snack or an afternoon pick me up.

2 cups of vanilla soy milk (this could be regular soy milk, almond milk, etc)
1 -2 frozen ripe bananas
2  tbsp ground flax seed
2 tbsp peanut butter (this could be cashew butter, almond butter, etc)
2 tbsp raw unsweetened cacao powder (more on cacao below)
1 -2 squirts of agave
handful of frozen strawberries
2 - 3 handfuls of spinach

Put this all in your blender/vitamix and blend until smooth.  There is enough for two generous servings or several small servings.  

We enjoyed this and I got my "chocolate" fix without dairy, lots of processed sugar or calories.  I felt super full and satiated and much happier.


Cacao is said to be, in its raw form, a super food.  It is very high in antioxidant flavanoids, sulfur and magnesium.  The essential fatty acids found in chocolate may help the body to raise good cholesterol and lower bad cholesterol.  There seems to be a link to high levels of antioxidants and the reduction of free radicals in the body. As with all nutritional claims, one needs to stay on top of new information and make wise decisions based in research.

Tofu "Ricotta" Lasagne

Tofu "Ricotta" Lasagne

I have been completely uninspired in the kitchen lately.  I think it has something to do with my taxes being due very soon and the stress of finishing them, sending them off, paying some outrageous amount to the State and Feds, and then wondering for the next 7 years whether I'll get audited!  That would stifle any good foodies creativity, don't you think?

I decided to make a big vegan lasagne for the week and hoped it would take care of most of our dinner needs for at least a few nights.  I opened my favorite all time/all around vegan cookbook, "Veganomicon, the Ultimate Vegan Cookbook" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero to search for the tofu "ricotta" recipe.    Here is what I did, following their culinary advice:

Tofu Ricotta

from "Veganomicon" page 206

Makes 3 1/2 cups

1 pound of extra firm tofu

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch of freshly ground black pepper

handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped finely

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1.  In a large bowl (I like using my big red bowl!  Remember my passion for bowls.  This is one of my all time favorites), mush the tofu up with your hands until it's crumbly.

2.  Add the lemon juice  (Thanks for the great Meyer lemons, Brenda!  Yummy)

3.  Add the garlic, salt, pepper and basil.  I used parsley because it is not basil season and my garden is not currently growing basil.  In the end, basil is much better!  Use it if you can get your hands on it.  I would add more garlic to the mix next time - maybe 2 - 3 cloves instead of 1.

4.  Mush with your hands again until it is very mushy and reaches the consistency of ricotta cheese.

5.  Add the olive oil and stir with a fork or large spoon.  Add the nutritional yeast and mix well.  (For those of you not familiar with nutritional yeast, it is what we vegan types use for a wonderful cheesy flavor.  The added benefit is that it is full of B-12 and that is a vitamin lacking in the vegan diet since it is primarily found in animal products)

6.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.  It stores well for a few days and can be used in lasagne, stuffed shells, enchiladas, and for pizza topping. You can also freeze tofu ricotta for later use.


I think my tofu ricotta was a bit bland.  Basil would have made a great difference.  I also think that I will use a bit more salt and some dried Italian spices in the next batch. And more garlic!

I used the tofu ricotta as the "cheese" base in our vegetable lasagne.

We have learned to use whole wheat noodles in place of white noodles and I have to say that it really doesn't taste all that different and isn't hard to get used to.  Nutritionally it's a bit better.  Brown is just better than white when it comes to most noodles or bread.

I cooked the noodles 4 at a time in salted water with a bit of olive oil.  I laid down about 4 tablespoons of red sauce - I used a combination of organic marinara from a jar and a bag of my basic red tomato sauce from last summer.  (I make tons of roasted tomato, basil, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar sauce and freeze it in quart baggies so we can use it all winter and spring)

I laid the noodles down to cover the bottom of the pan and then spread a generous portion of the tofu ricotta.

I added handfuls of fresh organic spinach and chopped broccoli.  Layer the raw vegetables on top of the tofu ricotta - they will cook while the lasagne is cooking.  I ladled lots of sauce on top of the vegetables and then laid down a new layer of noodles.

The second layer was tofu ricotta, more spinach, and roasted red and yellow peppers (again, from last summer - easy peasy, folks... just roast up a bunch of peppers from the Farmer's market every week and then freeze them in gallon bags and you have them all year round!  I think I bought these peppers for $2 a pound at our local FM)  I dumped even more sauce on top of that!

After adding the last layer of whole wheat noodles, I poured the remaining sauce on top and covered with ground cashews. (so don't even bother asking me where I get my protein... come on folks this thing is full of protein - cashews, whole wheat noodles, spinach, tofu!)

I baked it at 350 degrees for about 30 - 45 minutes until it was bubbling.

Truthfully, I thought this lasagne was a bit bland and needed something a bit more savory. The husband, however, loved it. I think I might use some sun dried tomatoes next time or some black olives or even a mixture of the tofu ricotta and the cashew ricotta (from the same page in the same cookbook!)  However, we have eaten it and eaten it for 4 days now.  Tonight we finished it off.

I roasted some organic asparagus brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt in the oven at 400 degrees .  Are you as happy as me about asparagus season?????!!!!  Heaven.  I plan to eat it every day until the season is over.

Enjoy!