vegan valentine

what better way to celebrate valentine's day than with a vegan feast. i guess you could also spend it with your significant other.. but hey, some of us don't have significant others and are doomed to die alone, eaten by our cats.

on that note... may as well eat a bunch before that happens! here's what we had for our vegan valentine's:

• roasted tomatoes
• roasted broccoli with tahini-miso sauce
• pasta with broccoli rabe & raisins
• artichokes in mmmm mega delicious vegetable broth

these recipes were, in fact, inspired by my favorite people.. camellia introduced me to slow-roasted tomatoes, and dorothy first showed me how to make tahini-miso sauce. of course, it's even better when they make it :-)

roasted tomatoes (the CT way)

• small tomatoes, cut in half
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper
• oregano
• brown sugar (optional)

1. arrange the tomatoes in a ceramic or metal dish.. drizzle olive oil on top. the sprinkle with salt & pepper, oregano, and brown sugar (optional if your tomatoes don't look so great)
2. roast in the oven at 200F for several hours... as slowly as possible! they'll come out delicious!

roasted broccoli with tahini-miso sauce (the DK way)

• 2 heads broccoli, cut into florets
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• tahini
• white miso
• lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic

1. toss the broccoli with some olive oil, salt and pepper.
2. roast it in the oven at 400F, until tender.
3. meanwhile, prepare the sauce by blending the tahini, white miso, lemon juice, garlic, and water to desired consistency. here i leave out the proportions of tahini-miso-lemon and leave it up to you to decide; i used something like 1-1-1.
4. when the broccoli is done, serve it with the sauce!

pasta with broccoli rabe and raisins

• pasta of your choice
• extra virgin olive oil
• garlic, 1 clove, minced
• leeks, sliced
• broccoli rabe (cima di rapa), chopped
• raisins
• hot pepper
• salt & pepper

1. prepare a pot of boiling salt water. first, boil the broccoli rabe in the water for just a minute. do not overcook it!! (i hate overcooked anything...) then drain the broccoli rabe, but keeping the boiling water. prepare the pasta in this same water. usually when i cook pasta, i undercook it a little since i'll cook it again in the pan at the end.
2. sautee the leeks and garlic in olive oil. then add the broccoli rabe, and sautee until tender.
3. add the pasta and raisin, and heat through. season with salt, pepper, and hot pepper!

artichokes steamed in vegetable broth

• artichokes, 4
• olive oil
• garlic, minced
• leeks, sliced
• carrot, chopped
• celery, chopped
• celery root, chopped
• fresh thyme sprig
• fresh bay leaf
• salt & pepper

1. prepare the artichokes. in all honesty, i don't know how to do this myself.. you basically have to cut off all the outer layers and remove the central flower part. perhaps the intertubes would be useful here.
2. prepare the vegetable broth. sautee the garlic, onion, carrot, celery, and celery root briefly. then add some water and bring to a boil. lower the heat and simmer, with the fresh thyme and bay leaf, as well as the salt & pepper to taste.
3. steam the artichokes in the vegetable broth for about 10 minutes, or until the artichokes are sufficiently tender. be sure to keep that the artichokes are sufficiently covered in the broth and that the pot is covered while artichokes steam. just above, you can see a picture of what they looked like when they finished steaming!
4. not done yet! next bake them in the oven for 5 minutes, at 400F.
5. to serve, place one artichoke in a bowl, and ladle the vegetable broth over the artichoke.. and voila--super delicious awesomeness!