Vegan Persimmon Pudding

This is one of my favorite desserts, it just tastes like Christmas to me. It’s one of the first desserts beyond sugar cookies I learned to make back in high school. You have to have super ripe and squishy persimmons for this. I get mine from the farmers market, they save them for me every year. I used walnuts but you could also use pecans. If you like raisins you could add those as well. For the pulp I strained the persimmons through a colander into a large bowl. (Remember to compost the skins and stems).

Persimmon pudding

2 cups of persimmon pulp

3 egg replacement (I used Follow Your Heart’s)

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 nutmeg (or pumpkin pie spice)

1/2 cup melted vegan butter

2 1/2 cups almond or cashew milk

1 1/2 cup whole wheat or unbleached flour

1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a large bowl add the egg replacement to the persimmon pulp, whisk in the sugar.  Add baking powder, soda, salt and spices.  Pour in melted vegan butter, stir & pour in the almond milk.  The mixture will be sort of soupy, whisk in flour, fold in chopped nuts.  Pour into a greased 9 X 13 pan.  Bake for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean.  Serve warm or room temperature with vegan whipped cream.

Composting is good for your garden and for climate change

This is a picture of my compost bin, after putting a bunch and brown matter on top and before adding water. It’s normally disgusting looking! I started composting spring of 2018, and I had no idea what I was doing, I kind of still don’t.

I just started throwing all of my produce scraps in a trash can and went from there. I know last year I didn’t add nearly enough brown matter but it still did it’s magic. After a year of composting I added it to my soil and it turned into super soil, my garden went crazy this year. As you can see from previous pictures and zucchini and cucumber recipes. Somehow I ended up with black soldier fly larvae, which according to the internet is one of the best things you could possibly have in your compost bin, again disgusting.

Composting is actually a very important part of combating climate change. Here’s a video done by our daughter about how composting is a part of the solution. Composting can not only remove existing greenhouse gases from our atmosphere, but stop the production of methane, a GHG that is 36x more potent than carbon dioxide!

(Fun fact: Sage was filming this video when I showed up in Berkeley to surprise her for her 21st birthday)

Roasted Eggplant Soup

Almost all of the ingredients for this soup came out of my garden, everything except the onion and the tomatoes. I’ve had the worst luck with tomatoes this year and last and it’s so frustrating because I love tomatoes! Anyway, I used the last of the eggplant and zucchini from the garden for this, so it was also a “clean out the garden” soup. Haha.

If you like eggplant Parmesan, you will love this soup. serve with some bread and a salad and you've got a great lunch or dinner.  

Roasted Eggplant Soup

2 small eggplants chopped into about 1 inch pieces

3 small or 2 medium zucchini chopped slightly smaller than the eggplant

1 onion sliced

1 large can of diced tomatoes

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

pinch of red pepper flakes

1 tsp sugar

fresh ground pepper

2 Tbsb fresh chives diced (or 1 tsp dried)

1 Tbsp fresh chopped basil (or 1 tsp dried)

4 cups vegetable broth

Put the chopped vegetables in a 9X13 pan.  Add olive oil, red pepper, black pepper, and garlic.  Roast in a 375 degree oven for about 35 minutes, or until eggplant is tender.

Transfer roasted vegetables to a soup pot, add tomatoes, broth, sugar, basil, and add a little more salt, pepper, and red pepper if you want to.  Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer for about 20 minutes.  You can stop right here if you want your soup really chunky.  I put mine in the blender on chop in batches until it was in very small chunks.  That's it, serve with some more basil and Parmesan cheese if you like.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Zucchini is one of the most versatile vegetables. I’ve had so much from my garden this summer that I’ve been putting it in everything! From zoodles, savory zucchini pancakes, soups, shredded in salads, muffins and bread. I revamped my chocolate zucchini bread so it’s now completely plant based. You can use one kind of flour or a combination like I did. I’ve made it gluten free many times by substituting the unbleached and whole wheat flour for all oat flour or 1/2 oat and 1/2 buckwheat or rice flour. (Buckwheat is a seed, not a grain. Quinoa is another seed that’s often mistaken for a grain). My favorite way to eat this is with a little vegan cream cheese or butter.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

1 cup unbleached flour 

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup oat flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

2 teaspoon baking powder 

1 teaspoon salt 

3/4 cup white or raw sugar 

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 flax ‘eggs’ 

1/2 cup avocado oil 

1/2 cup applesauce

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini 

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans or 24 muffin tins 

For the flax ‘eggs’ use 1 Tbsp flax meal and 3 Tbsp of water for each ‘egg’ (you can grind the seeds in a food processor). You can also use an egg replacer or chia ‘eggs’. Mix the flax meal with water and set aside until it’s a gelatinous texture.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Once flax ‘eggs’ have reached a gelatinous texture, start adding the wet ingredients. Make a ‘well’ in the middle of the dry ingredients. Add flax egg, oil, apple sauce, vanilla and shredded zucchini. Mix until combined. Add the nuts and chocolate chips. Spoon evenly into loaf pans or muffin tins.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, for muffins bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove bread from pans; cool completely on wire rack. Enjoy!

Quick pickled cucumbers

Just like my zucchini this year, my cucumbers have gone crazy, which is nice since last year we literally had 2 before ash from a fire wiped them out. I’ve had so many all at once that I’m now making pickles! Sandwich pickles, dill pickles, spicy pickles, sweet pickles, you get the picture, lots of pickles.

I use a mandolin slicer to get the cucumbers all the same thickness, just be very very careful….I’ve cut myself too many times to count. White vinegar is what’s traditional for pickling, you can use apple cider or rice wine vinegar they are also good. Want to add a little spice? Try 1/2 a jalapeno and some sliced garlic. Want sweet pickles? Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and reduce the salt. You can just put these in the frig and they’ll be ready in a few hours. But what I’ve been doing it putting them outside for a few hours to start the fermenting process and then putting them in the refrigerator, so you get some of the benefits of fermentation. So 1/2 fermented 1/2 pickled….fickled? Haha.

You really can’t mess these up, they’re so easy, just adjust to your taste and enjoy. You can also reuse the brine just add more cucumbers, dill, garlic etc. You can use this to make Giardiniera, I made some and it came out great. The sky’s the limit with pickling!

Quick pickled cucumbers

1 1/2 cups water

1/3-1/2 cup vinegar

1 tsp sugar (optional)

1 Tbsp pink salt

1 tsp pepper corns

pinch of turmeric (optional)

4-5 sprig of fresh dill

sliced garden cucumbers

Fill a large mason jar with cucumbers and whatever other vegetables, peppercorns or herbs you’re using. Add salt, sugar and turmeric to vinegar, sit and let it slightly dissolve, add water, pour over cucumbers, put the lid on and patiently wait. Easier said than done! Enjoy.

Lemon Zucchini Bread

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This year my garden has gone a little crazy. I’ve got more zucchini than I know what to do with. This particular one was too big for my spiralizer so I grated it, I still have tons of it! If anyone has some great zucchini recipes send them my way.  You can use any egg replacement you want, chia or flax seeds….whatever I just happened to have aquafaba (the liquid you get when you drain chickpeas) that needed to be used. You can also use whatever kind of sugar you’d like, I used raw sugar, and I used olive oil. Hope you enjoy!

Lemon Zucchini Bread

1 cup oat flour
1 cup barley flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
grated peel of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
the juice of 1 lemon
6 Tbsp aquafaba
1/2 cup almond milk
1/3 cup oil
1 1/4 cup (packed) shredded zucchini

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Grease and flour (or line with papers) a 12-well muffin pan.

Combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon peel in a large bowl. Stir in the walnuts. In a
smaller bowl (or a two cup liquid measure), combine the aquafaba almond milk, lemon juice and oil. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir just until barely combined and then
fold in the zucchini. Spoon the batter into the pan.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the muffins spring back when you press them with your fingertips.

Remove from oven and turn out onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or with a little vegan butter. Store, in an air tight container, for 3 days at room temp.