Cantaloupe Sorbet & Snacks

As if cantaloupe isn't good enough on its own - I had the bright idea to chunk up half a cantaloupe and froze it on a cookie sheet while I made dinner.  Then I put the frozen pieces into the ole reliable Breville blender with a bit of agave to lubricate the works and pureed the heck out of it.  I scraped it into a 9" x 9" light aluminum (no nonstick -yuk!) pan and put it back into the freezer.  Stir every 15-20 minutes or so and you'll have sorbet for 4 as soon as you all finish eating dinner. 

I really had to resist the urge to throw in frozen strawberries, too! 

This morning I sliced up the remaining cantaloupe to throw in the dehydrator - just three weeks til my 4 week motorcycle road trip, so I better get moving on the food prep and meal planning!

The Last of the Enchiladas Verdes!

I love summer but honestly, I am so very much looking forward to fall when I can get more chiles and tomatoes.  I've now just used up the last of my green enchilada sauce on a casserole dish of enchiladas stuffed with summer veggies.

The beauty of having a stock of homemade red and green enchilada sauce in jars is that I can make up the enchiladas with whatever I have at hand - I have used tofu, seitan, potatoes, any number of veggies, nut cheeses - you name it. I end up making enchiladas with the same stuffing maybe twice - and then move on. Here are instructions for tonight's dinner of:


Summer Veggie Stuffed Green Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1/2 med-large red onion, 1/4" dice
1-2 summer squash, 1/4" dice (you need about one generous cup of diced squash)
3-5 orange & white Chantenay carrots, 1/4" dice
3/4 cup corn kernels (froz or fresh)
4 cloves of garlic, pressed or finely minced
1 serrano chile, stemmed & seeded, finely minced
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tb cumin seed
1/2 tsp whole white pepper
extra virgin olive oil, as needed
2 pint jars of green enchilada sauce
1 c toasted pumpkin seeds
1 package corn tortillas (12 ct)

Directions:

1. Heat up a large cast iron skillet with 2 Tb or so drizzled olive oil.
2. Sautee the carrots until they start to get browned and soften.  
3. Add chile, onions & garlic and sautee til soft. Stir to prevent sticking.
4. Add squash & corn.
5. In a separate dry pan, toast the cumin seed and white pepper - grind in a spice grinder and add to the cooking veggies.
6. In the dry pan, spread the pumpkin seeds and toast - medium flame, move them to keep them from burning but not so much as to dissipate heat.  They should pop like popcorn.  Once they are toasted, remove from heat in a cool dish (they will continue to cook and scorch in the hot pan).
7. Spread 1/2 c of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 7" x 11" glass baking dish.  Put one tortilla in the pan, spoon some filling onto it.  Make sure it goes all the way out to the edge and roll it up.  Push it to the end of the pan.  The sauce on the outside of the tortilla helps soften it up and helps distribute the sauce a bit between the stuffed tortillas.  
8. Fill the rest of the tortillas - just squish them in together - if you run out of space and have extra tortillas, usually I'll have 1 or 2 extra - shred the tortilla into bits, ladle more sauce on the enchiladas, and then place the tortilla bits in areas that have space or where tortillas may have split when you rolled them up. 
9. Pour on the rest on the rest of the enchilada sauce, encouraging it to go down the sides into the ends of the stuffed tortillas with a spatula or spoon.
10. Bake in preheated 350 oven for 20-30 minutes until tortillas are softened. Sprinkle generously with salted toasted pumpkin seeds and serve.

Backcountry Vegan - Prep for 4 Week Road Trip

In just 4 weeks, I hop on my motorcycle to begin a four week road trip that has three legs - going from Oakland to Southern California by motorcycle, then by moving van to NE Ohio and then return to California on motorcycle via Memphis, New Orleans, Austin, West Texas, the Grand Canyon, the Eastern Sierras and Tioga Pass.

Since this isn't quite the same as a backpacking or camping trip - I'll have plenty of opportunity to seek out local natural grocery stores & farm stands, plus I'll be staying with family and friends at least half of the nights on the road.

Clearly, bringing everything for 4 weeks would be impractical and unnecessary.  So, then what do I need to bring? Here are the limitations & opportunities I identified:

• Space Limitations:  while I can carry more stuff in my bicycle panniers, and in the stuff sacks that I will attach to the luggage rack.  I'd rather bring tools & a spare tube than a gallon bag of bulky dried apples.
• Weight Limitations: are not the same as backpacking but still a consideration.  I can pack liquids in stainless steel bottles that will be safer from crushing & heat than plastic that I took on the trail in April.
•  Spoilage: same sort of issues as backpacking, but I will be traveling in much greater heat than Kauai in April.  Temperatures across the Midwest & South are pretty insane right now (yes, I will be doing some parts of Texas in the dark/pre-dawn). That means no matter how tempting those farmstand peaches - just buy enough to eat by the end of the next rest stop or that evening because they will not travel.

Preliminary Preparations:

• Coffee cone & filters, assam tea, mesh strainer & chai spices - it's always nicer to make your own hot beverages at camp in the moring.
• Pasta, couscous & quinoa - enough for several meals, easily replenished at the bulk section of a natural grocery store.
• Oatmeal, dried fruit (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, raisins, cantaloupe, persimmons) & granulated maple sugar -  yes, it will be much easier to make oatmeal than to wait around for quinoa for breakfast.
• Dried veggies (squash, onions, peppers, tomatoes, porcini & shitake mushrooms, carrots, turnip, beet) - about 1 gallon bag of the dried veggies & fruit in their own wax paper bags.
• Road's End Organics gravy packets
• Fresh garlic
• Olive oil & Meyer lemon zest

Meals that I anticipate making for myself will include pretty easy stuff like:

• pasta & marinara: a small can of sauce along with my dried veggies & pasta makes a pretty good meal!
• mushroom & veggie gravy on mashed potatoes - maybe with seitan sausage or chunks from the store means I can have seitan for breakfast the next morning, too!
• veggie soup with udon noodles or pasta & bread
• roasted or veggies from local farm stand, cooked with my spices & olive oil - great sandwich fixings for lunch the next day
• "Special of the Day" - you never know what you'll find in local groceries and it is summer - I might end up with the sweetest corn, or giant peaches that I can grill over the fire at the campsite. 

Recommendations? If you know of any good recipes, restaurants or natural grocery stores along my route - leave me a comment here.  I'm especially interested in veg-friendly restaurant recommendations for the east side of Cleveland, Ohio; Nashville & Memphis, TN; New Orleans, LA; Austin & Lubbock, TX. 

Surprise Apricot Sorbet!

Since the cherry plum tree in my backyard is about a week away from 20 gallons of plums being ripe all at once, I reached into my freezer to see what I could use and make space for this season's fresh fruit.  One quart size bag of something somewhat orange or gold had a smeared label - I couldn't tell what it said at all.  Pumpkin? Persimmon? What?  I let it defrost and was delighted to discover - I had 3 cups of delightfully sweet apricot puree in my hands!

Last summer, I picked a pile of amazing apricot's from my friend L's house - the skins are so delicate that I don't even bother to remove them when I make jam.  I filled my Breville blender with pitted apricots and froze the puree to use later.  The apricots were so sweet that I didn't even add sugar!

Easiest sorbet ever - I reprocessed the defrosted puree in the blender to aerate it a bit, then poured it into 9" x 9" metal baking pan.  Put into the freezer.  Stir every 20 minutes or so to keep it from sticking to the sides. 

Spoon it into  bowl when firm enough and eat with great contentment.

Backcountry Vegan Camp Meal: A Quinoa-nundrum on Grains

Ah, quinoa - the mother of grains - packed with nutrition & protein and very few calories.  However, I discovered that cooking black quinoa (which I selected for sheer novelty) - took way too long to cook on the trail.  My meals with quinoa included:

• quinoa with granulated maple sugar, raspberries & blueberries for breakfast
• quinoa with vegetable broth, onions, zucchini, carrots & peppers

The basic recipe is 1 c quinoa + 1.5 c water - 12 minutes for white and 15 minutes for black.  It didn't work - after 20 minutes, the quinoa was still quite hard.  Nothing attributable to elevation - sea level for both home and travel cooking attempts.

For my subseqent attempts to cook quinoa on the trail, I soaked the quinoa til it sprouted - and then put it in a pot with enough water, covered it and simmered - it took the better part of 40 minutes before I moved to someone's campfire. 

I cooked quinoa 3 times on the trail and each time was the same result.  I think I may try to dehydrate cooked quinoa to see if that works better on the trail.

Oatmeal is definitely going in my pack next time! 

Backcountry Vegan Camp Meal: Tempeh & Green Bean Stew

A quick trip to Trader Joe's can net some pretty healthy ingredients for a meal - I grabbed both tempeh and a tube of polenta (must have options) but when it came down to Friday night dinner on the tailgate of the truck, a single 2.5 qt pot and these delicious ingredients resulted in a very very tasty meal.

Ingredients:

• 1 package tempeh, cubed
• 1 bulb garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 can diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes with chiles (TJ's brand)
• 1/2 package of thin green beans, rinsed, trimmed and snapped into 1" to 1.5" pieces
• dried herbs or several sprigs chopped or snipped oregano, rosemary and whatever herbs you can grab from the garden or where you are camping (rosemary and bay are pretty widely available in Northern California)
• olive oil
• red wine (whatever variety you have at the camp site) or water

Instructions:

1. Sautee the garlic til it starts to soften.
2. Add the tempeh and cook until it browns.
3. Add green beans, sautee til bright green - stir with wooden spoon
4. Deglaze with a 1/4 c or so of red wine (to taste).
5. Add chopped fresh herbs or dried herbs, pepper and salt to taste.
6. Allow to return to simmer and reduce, then add can of tomatoes.
7. Reduce heat, warm up to simmer and then serve!

Delicious and filling!

Backcountry Vegan Camp Meal - Sweet Potato Pancakes

Before I went on this trip, I strongly resisted the idea of traditional convenience breakfasts - like oatmeal - and was fantasizing about tasty & colorful brunchy delights.

I steamed sliced & peeled sweet potato, pressed it through the ricer and dehydrated the sweet potatoes.  The dried cooked sweet potato seemed to pull a lot of moisture from the air, so I re-dehydrated and then powdered the sweet potato in my Breville blender.

My idea was to use the powdered dried sweet potato to make a thick paste, sautee it on both sides to make it brown - and have little latkes.  I had some granulated maple sugar to sprinkle on top of it - sounds perfectly delicious, right?

Since I did not test this recipe out before going on the trail, it could stand a little refining.  I used too much water and my patties did not brown as well as I had hoped and were a little squishier - but still quite delicious.

Next time - using less water or perhaps shredded dried sweet potatoes (instead of steam blanched/dried/powdered) - I will try sprinkling the maple sugar on the patties before flipping them to help along the browning/caramelization process.  I'm also considering shredding/grating raw sweet potatoes, dehydrating and then frying them up rehydrated - they should cook up pretty well so it may well be time to test that recipe before my next trip!

Backcountry Vegan Camp Meal - Vegetable Udon Noodle Soup

There can honestly be no backcountry camping meal that is easier to make - one pot is all you need, and a little restraint else you risk exceeding the capacity of your pot!

Less recipe and more about process - especially carrying a variety of ingredients that can be used in multiple dishes. 

Ingredients:

• vegetable boullion
• dehydrated vegetables
• dried wakame and/or hijiki
• udon noodles
• optional: kuro goma (spiced toasted black sesame seeds that add a little flavor and crunch to any soup)
• optional: chili flakes

Instructions:

1. Soak about 1/2 to 3/4 c dried veggies such as carrots, zucchini, peppers, onions and shitake mushrooms (I like to carry these whole and break them up before I dehydrate them) in your wide mouth Nalgene bottle - I like to do this as I am leaving my breakfast or lunch stop so they are soaked for my next meal!
2. Simmer 2 c water in a pot to dissolve your bouillion.  Bring pot to a boil.
3. Add udon noodles - you may need to break them in half or manage them manually til the noodles soften enough to fit in your pan.   
4. Bring water to a boil, add veggies & soaking water.
5. Bring water to a simmer, check veggies & udon noodles for tenderness.  Remove from fire.
6. Add wakame, stir til softened.
7. Enjoy with gusto & share with your campmates! 

Dried seaweed is the key to the savory flavor this soup carries - and dried wakame or hijiki weighs less than nothing!

Don't forget - unless you brought a small mesh strainer or use a bandana to strain the soaked wakame, it's already salty so do NOT add more salt to your soup until you have tasted it.  In addition to providing sodium, most dried seaweeds also provide Omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium and calcium -- all good nutrients to replace after exerting yourself on the trail!

Backcountry Vegan Camp Meal - Mushroom & Veggie Gravy & Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes with rich mushroom gravy is one of my favorite comfort meals at home - taking it on the trail is really a no brainer.  While instant potato flakes don't taste nearly as good as freshly steamed and riced Yukon gold potatoes - they weigh next to nothing, are very quick to prepare and very satisfying when covered with a rich sauce made by soaking some dried mushrooms (which also weigh next to nothing!) and the nutritional value is improved with the addition of other dried veggies in your pack.

This is less a recipe, per se, than process as ingredients will vary with your preference & preparation!

Ingredients:

• potato flakes (I buy these in bulk at Rainbow Grocery)
• dehydrated zucchini, porcini, cherry tomatoes, carrots & onions
• dried herbs to taste - thyme, rosemary, etc
• brown gravy or mushroom gravy - store bought packet is ok, or you can bring corn or potato starch
• fresh garlic made it into your pack? fresh herbs along the trail? 

Instructions:

1. Put about 1/2 cup of dried vegetables into a widemouth plastic quart bottle with 2 cups of water at least an hour before you get to your final destination for your meal.
2. Once you arrive at your destination, boil water and prepare the mashed potatoes, set aside.  Make sure that you don't make TOO many mashers if you are eating solo, you can just pour the gravy right into the same pan they were mixed.
3. If you have any fresh veggies - sautee those first and leave in the pan.
4. Strain the water from the pre-soaked veggies into the pan to heat up along with any dried herbs.
5. Bring to a simmer, whisk in the prepared gravy packet or starch with a fork to get the lumps out.
6. Add veggies and cook low til gravy thickens up.  Pour veggie gravy over top of mashed potatoes and eat with great relish and satisfaction, knowing that your other meals will be just as delicious and easy. 

Buen provecho!

Backcountry Vegan: 5 Truths About Eating on the Trail

1. No matter how good the  intentions, complicated recipes or advanced prep mean carrying around ingredients that the traveler may not feel like using because of time, light, energy, fuel or space restrictions. Good planning results in not just good nutrition but also satisfaction and a light or nonexistent store of provisions upon the return home.
2. Regardless of how enticing a recipe for chocolate cherry almond bark sounds - chocolate always melts if traveling anywhere warm.  Is it worth it?  Life is too short to eat broken chocolate - bring calorie rich treats that are appropriate to the environmental conditions of the trip.
3. Making homemade trail mix and granola always sounds like a good idea - but buying it is so convenient and such a good excuse to investigate local organic groceries along the way to the start of the trail or on the rod.
4. Despite best intentions - who doesn't end up picking up packaged snacks & treats to take along? It just happens - whether it's Lara bars, Nutter Butters, Primal seitan strips, or Sharkies - there are certain convenience foods that are easier bought than made.
5. Camping often means meeting people & sharing meals or using locally available or foraged ingredients -- provisions should allow for flexibility and scalability (up/down).