Read Super Natural Every Day Online
Authors: Heidi Swanson
Super Natural Every Day (20 page)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or
40 g
Clarified Butter
Fine sea salt
225 g plain seitan (wheat gluten), patted dry and cut into thin strips
3 leeks, trimmed, sliced lengthways into quarters, and chopped into 1 cm pieces
10 g fresh dill, finely chopped
2 tablespoons water
225 g green beans, trimmed and cut into 2.5 cm pieces
Add half the olive oil to a large, heavy-based frying pan over medium–high heat. Stir in a pinch of salt and the seitan. Stir to coat the seitan and brown it on one side. Turn with a spatula to brown the other sides and let the seitan get dark and somewhat crispy, 5 minutes or so. Scrape all the seitan out of the frying pan onto a plate and set aside.
Using the same frying pan over medium–high heat—it’s fine if there are little left-over bits of seitan—add the remaining olive oil, another generous pinch of salt, and the leeks. Stir until the leeks are coated and glossy. Cook, stirring regularly with a metal spatula every minute or two in the beginning, and more often as they brown, until most of the leeks are deeply golden and crispy, 7–10 minutes.
Stir in the dill, water, and the green beans. Cook just until the beans brighten up and lose their raw edge, a couple more minutes. Stir in the seitan strips, turn everything out into a bowl or onto a platter, and serve immediately.
SERVES 4
Leeks can be notoriously gritty. To clean them, I use a rinse-and-swish method. Chop them, swish them around in a big bowl of water, lift out of the water, drain, and repeat, if needed.
FRESH PORCINI MUSHROOMS, SEITAN, GARLIC, ASPARAGUS
 | This is a recipe for those times when you’re lucky enough to stumble across fresh porcini mushrooms. Those earthy, swollen-stemmed beauties are my fungi of choice here, but you can certainly substitute any mushroom—something I do with this dish when porcinis aren’t available. But skip the dried porcini; they’re an entirely different beast. |
Small splash of extra-virgin olive oil or
Clarified Butter
Fine sea salt
170 g plain seitan (wheat gluten), patted dry and cut into bite-sized strips
30 g slivered or flaked almonds
20 g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
12 fresh large porcini mushrooms, quartered
450 g thin asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 2.5 cm pieces
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Grated zest of ½ lemon
Heat the splash of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium–high heat. Add a pinch of salt and the seitan. Stir to coat the seitan and then brown it on one side until dark and somewhat crispy, about 5 minutes. Turn with a spatula and add the almonds to the pan so they have an opportunity to toast. Brown the other side of the seitan, about 5 minutes more. Remove everything from the pan and set aside.
Wipe out the pan and use it to cook the mushrooms. Heat the butter, the 1 tablespoon olive oil, and ¼ teaspoon salt over high heat. Add the mushrooms and stir until well coated. Let the mushrooms get nice and golden on one side; this might take a few minutes. Then stir once or twice and continue to cook to make sure all the sides brown up nicely, a few minutes more. Stir in the asparagus, then garlic. Cook until the asparagus looses its raw edge, barely a minute. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon zest, taste, and add a bit of salt, if needed.
Serve the seitan and almonds over the asparagus and mushrooms, the sooner the better, either on a platter to share or on individual plates.
SERVES 4
Sand and dirt clumps seem to love fresh mushrooms. Wipe down the mushrooms with a damp paper towel, if needed, or use a soft toothbrush set aside for this purpose. If thick asparagus is the only type available, simply cut each spear in half lengthways before cutting it into pieces.
Pomegranate-Glazed Eggplant with Tempeh
TEMPEH, PUMPKIN, RICOTTA SALATA
| This dish is something I make in the early autumn when the late-summer eggplants are still showing up at the market alongside the first pumpkin. |
I make it with long, thin eggplants, which I favour, not only for their subtly sweet flavour, but also because each piece retains a tender bit of skin, just enough to help each piece of eggplant retain structure. | |
Keep in mind, if you cut the pumpkin too large, it will take longer to bake, and the other ingredients could end up overcooked. |
1 long, thin eggplant (aubergine), cut into 2.5 cm chunks
225 g tempeh, cut into 1 cm cubes
125 g peeled pumpkin or sweet potatoes, cut into 1 cm cubes
Grated zest of
1 small lemon
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 medium garlic cloves
½ teaspoon chilli flakes
80 ml pomegranate molasses
80 ml extra-virgin olive oil
15 g chopped fresh coriander
30 g ricotta salata or feta cheese, crumbled
Preheat the oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4) with a rack in the middle of the oven.
Mound the eggplant, tempeh, pumpkin, and lemon zest on a rimmed baking tray.
Start making the glaze by sprinkling the salt over the garlic. Chop and smash the garlic into a paste using both the flat side and blade of your knife. Combine the garlic paste in a bowl with the chilli flakes and pomegranate molasses. Whisk in the olive oil. Drizzle three-quarters of the glaze mixture over the ingredients on the baking tray. Toss well and arrange in a single layer.
Bake for 45–60 minutes, tossing everything at the 35-minute mark, until the eggplant and pumpkin are soft and starting to caramelise.
Drizzle with the remaining pomegranate glaze, sprinkle with the coriander and cheese, and serve.
SERVES 4
Look for pomegranate molasses in the sweetener or international food section of health food stores. Alternatively, you can use maple syrup in place of the pomegranate molasses and smoked paprika in place of the chilli flakes.
CURRY POWDER, BROWN BUTTER, COCONUT MILK, CHIVES
| Small Shed Flatbreads, a restaurant in Mill Valley, is nestled on a side street near the centre of town and is known for their wood-oven-baked flatbreads. One afternoon, I broke with tradition and opted for a bowl of their curried green lentil soup instead of one of their pizza-like specialties. I’ve been making my own version at home ever since. Seek out tiny blue-green lentils or green split peas; the latter are the colour of fresh peas. After pureeing, split peas are a much nicer shade of green next to the curried brown-butter drizzle. |
Leftovers thicken up in the refrigerator; just add a splash of stock, water, or coconut milk to thin out the soup when you reheat it. |
40 g unsalted butter, ghee, or coconut oil, or 40 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 large brown onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
½ teaspoon chilli flakes
1.3 litres vegetable stock or water
300 g tiny blue-green lentils or green split peas, picked over and rinsed
60 g unsalted butter, extra
1 tablespoon Indian curry powder
125 ml coconut milk
Fine sea salt
1 bunch fresh chives, finely chopped
Combine the butter, onion, garlic, and chilli flakes in a large stockpot over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onions soften, a couple minutes. Add the vegetable stock and lentils and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender. This usually takes 20–30 minutes, but can take as long as 50 minutes.
In the meantime, warm the extra butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and let it brown. When it starts to smell nutty and fragrant, stir in the curry powder and sauté until fragrant, less than a minute.
When the lentils have finished cooking, remove from the heat, stir in the coconut milk and ¼ teaspoon salt, and puree with a stick blender. You can leave the soup a bit chunky if you like, or puree until it is perfectly smooth. Stir in half of the spiced butter, taste, and add more salt, if needed, typically a couple of teaspoons if you used water instead of a salted stock. Serve drizzled with the remaining spice butter and sprinkled with chives.
SERVES 4–6
