Vegan Lemon Miso Kale

Last weekend, I attended a cookout where another guest brought a lemon miso kale dish.  I thought I had died and gone to green leafy heaven.  I could barely wait to get my farm share this week and attempt to reproduce it.  Sadly for me, there wasn’t any regular kale in the selections, but I was pretty sure that dinosaur kale would work well enough (and then one of my dang kids chopped up 1/3 of what I picked to give to the lizards, so I didn’t get to make as much as I wanted – grr).  I had planned to look up some recipes, but then when I got home last night, I was in a hurry and just decided to wing it.  This is what I came up with.

2 bunches kale – washed and cut
1/2 sweet onion – diced
1 cup diced carrot
1/2 inch fresh ginger minced
3 T gold miso paste
1 cup water
1 lemon, sliced

Place onion, carrot, and ginger in large fry pan with water and cook on medium until carrots are tender crisp.  Add miso and stir until disolved.  Juice 2/3 of lemon into pan.  Add kale, remaining slices of lemon (for taste and prettiness), toss in miso lemon sauce, and cook until wilted.

And that’s it.  Let it cool slightly before serving and more of the sauce will adhere to the kale.  Extra sauce is great served over brown rice.  It was a big hit here with the non-green-haters.

L

Winter Day Easy Veggie Soup

I did pots of chicken noodle and veggie soup yesterday, and my house smelled wonderful.  A friendly tweep asked me to post the recipe for the veggie noodle, so here it is – though it’s pretty easy 🙂

2 carrots or 1.5 cup baby carrots, bitesize
2 stalks celery, sliced
2/3 block of firm tofu, chopped into small cubes
2 cans veggie broth (or 3 cups if you make your own)
4 veggie bullion cubes
4 cups water
black pepper to taste
1/2 lb rotini or other pasta
4 T miso paste

Put veggies (add others as you like – I often do onions or greens as well, but didn’t this time!), tofu, and broth in a large pan.  Bring to a boil.  Add bullion.  After bullion dissolves, gradually add additional water.  Bring back to a boil and then reduce to quick simmer until carrots are well cooked.  Add pasta and boil until done to taste.  Pepper (you likely won’t need salt) during this stage.  When pasta is almost done, add miso.  Stir in and then reduce heat to med/low.  Simmer 5 minutes and serve!