Vegan Chocolate Pudding

Several years ago, I bought the wonderful vegan cookbook ExtraVeganZa. Recently I made Triple Chocolate Kahlua Velvet Pudding. One could easily fool people until believing this was conventional (non-vegan) pudding.

Instead of gelatin, agar agar powder is used. You can generally find it in health food stores. Agar is quite amazing; it turns the pudding into a gelatinous blob, which is then smoothed out in a blender. (I wish I had taken a picture.)

Since the recipe is not available online, I scanned the page and posted it below. Please let me know if it is too difficult to read. I highly recommend ExtraVeganZa, by Laura Matthais. It contains many wonderful recipes utilizing farm fresh produce, healthy ingredients (such as brown rice syrup), edible flowers, and includes several gluten-free dishes.

For the love of KALE

Have you checked out 101cookbooks? It's a very popular healthy food-oriented recipe blog. Recently, I made the Raw Tuscan Kale Salad featured on the site. It was delicious. It reminded me of a another raw kale salad I had had before, from Urban Green Cuisine at the South Pasadena Farmers' Market. In addition to farmers' markets, Urban Green LA  does catering, and has a cafe called On Spring Cafe. If you are in Los Angeles you should try their food soon!

The raw kale salad from 101cookbooks helped me discover my new favorite kind of salad: marinated salads. Tougher raw greens like kale, cabbage, and collards taste really great when they've been marinating in a dressing for a day or more. "Normal" salad greens (lettuce, spinach) can get soggy quickly. If you don't eat the dressed greens within a short period of time, the salad has to be thrown out. A marinated salad would be great to serve at any gathering because if not all of it got eaten it wouldn't have to be thrown out, and it would be even better left over.

Here is the recipe as it appeared on the site. 

Raw Tuscan Kale Salad

1 bunch Tuscan kale (for ex: black or lacinato)
2 thin slices country bread, or two handfuls good, homemade coarse breadcrumbs
1/2 garlic clove
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus a pinch
1/4 cup (or small handful) grated pecorino cheese, plus adiitional for garnish
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for garnish
Freshly squeezed juice of one lemon (scant 1/4 cup or ~50ml)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Trim the bottom few inches off the kale stems and discard. Slice the kale into 3/4-inch ribbons. You should have 4 to 5 cups. Place the kale in a large bowl.
If using the bread, toast it until golden brown on both sides and dry throughout. Tear into small pieces and pulse in a food processor until the mixture forms coarse crumbs, or crumbs to your liking.
Using a mortar and pestle or a knife, pound or mince the garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into a paste. Transfer the garlic to a small bowl. Add 1/4 cup cheese, 3 tablespoons oil, lemon juice, pinch of salt, pepper flakes, and black pepper and whisk to combine. Pour the dressing over the kale and toss very well (the dressing will be thick and need lots of tossing to coat the leaves).. Let the salad sit for 5 minutes, then serve topped with the bread crumbs, additional cheese, and a drizzle of oil.
Adapted from the Raw Tuscan Kale Salad with Chiles and Pecorino recipe in Melissa Clark's In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite.