Blaze Kitchen: What I Eat in a Weekend Spring Edition

Spring has sprung, and these are a few recipes that I have been enjoying for refreshing, nourishing, and flavorful palates from these meals. To try my current favorite arugula salad, my go-to easy breakfast, a rich, satisfying spinach curry, or a luxurious whole wheat vegan ravioli with a fresh arugula sauce, keep reading for recipes!

Breakfasts

Apples and Cinnamon with Peanut Butter Toast

This simple and quick breakfast is light, sweet and satisfying. Cinnamon adds sweetness to your fruit, and you can make this breakfast in less than 5 minutes.

Ingredients:

Your Favorite Apple, I tried Cosmic Crisp this time, and it was delicious

Slice of your favorite Bread, I ate a couple of my Rye Sourdough slices I bake at home

Nut butter of your Choice, I used crunchy Peanut Butter

Instructions

Toast your bread, and add your peanut butter at your preference level.

Optional: add a pinch of flaky sea salt to the toast, or try drizzled with honey.

Slice and core your apple and top with cinnamon.

That’s it, enjoy!

Arugula Breakfast Salad

This refreshing, lightly “spicy” breakfast salad is my current favorite meal. The Arugula is flavorful and lightly seasoned with a Lemon-Olive Oil dressing. To me, the only non-negotiable ingredient is the thinly sliced red onion—it adds so much flavor to your salad. The cucumber and tomato have a light, fragrant sweetness that counteracts the spicy salad, while the avocado adds rich creaminess.

Ingredients

Two Handfuls of Baby Arugula

Cucumber

1/4 small Red Onion, 1/8 Large Red Onion to taste

1/2 medium Tomato

1/2 small Avocado

(optional) Two Boiled Eggs could be replaced with plant protein of your choice, cold, like lemon garlic tofu or seitan

Lemon Juice and Olive Oil to taste, 1:1 proportions, I used 1/2 tbsp.

Salt to taste

Cracked white pepper (or Black Pepper)

Instructions

Add two handfuls of Baby Arugula to your Bowl with lemon juice, Olive Oil, Salt, and Black Pepper.

Massage until well mixed

Slice the Cucumber, Tomato, Red Onion, and Avocado, and add to the salad

Top with Nutritional Yeast or finely shredded Sharp Cheddar

(optional) Add sliced Boiled Eggs seasoned with salt and black pepper.

Take a bite and enjoy!

Dinners

Spinach Curry

This is a warming, delicious curry for a cool spring night. With ginger, curry, cumin, and coriander, it’s chock-full of flavor, and a balanced meal with protein from the lentils, phytonutrients, and iron from the spinach. You can pair this with the carb of your choice, like brown rice, flatbread, toast, and more. This serves two hefty portions or three medium portions. I used the rest of this curry for breakfast later in the week.

Ingredients

1/4 Red Onion

1 tbsp minced Garlic

1/2 tbsp minced Ginger

1/2 tbsp (or to taste) Curry powder

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Coriander

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/4 Tofu block

1 1/2 cup Spinach (frozen, pack in if fresh)

1 cup Cashew Cream

Salt to taste

1/2 cup Red Lentils

1 tbsp Miso

1 tsp tomato paste

Instructions

Cube tofu and soak in thoroughly salted water for at least 10 minutes. (This is to help the tofu crisp)

Put 1/2 cup rinsed lentils into a saucepan with 1 1/2 cups of water, 1 tbsp miso, 1/2 tsp tomato paste, and salt to taste. Cover and cook on medium heat. The lentils are done once they soften and lose shape.

Add Olive Oil to a frying pan and turn on the heat. When warm, add and sauté onion, garlic, and ginger until onion is translucent. Add tofu to the pan and let it brown

Once Aromatics and tofu are browned, add a tbsp of rice vinegar or lemon juice, and mix. Then season with curry, cumin, nutritional yeast, and coriander powder. Mix and then add cooked lentils. Taste for flavor and add more curry if needed.

Blend spinach with cashew cream, with salt to taste and pepper.

Add blended spinach cream and stir quickly, let it warm up, but don’t overcook to prevent the green from dulling significantly.

Serve with your carb of choice, I prefer brown rice or flatbread, and savor.

Whole Wheat Vegan Ravioli with Arugula Sauce

This delicious, rich, indulgent pasta was a craving of mine. I needed a “cheezy” stuffed pasta that was healthy and plant-based, as I am mildly allergic to dairy, so this is the recipe I threw together. With a salty, tangy tofu-based “cheese” filling, and a creamy, slightly spicy fresh arugula sauce, this entertains your tastebuds while being healthful with whole wheat pasta and plant-based ingredients.

Ingredients

Pasta dough

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup of water (with maybe a tbsp more)

1/2 tbsp Olive Oil

Filling

1/2 block of tofu

1 tbsp of miso

1 tsp of white wine vinegar (or lemon juice)

2 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp of tahini

1/2 tbsp olive oil (optional)

Sauce

About 1/3 of the filling

1/4 cup water

2 handfuls of arugula

1 tbsp of minced garlic ( or 1/2 tbsp garlic powder for less pungent garlic flavor)

Garnishes:

Red onion, thinly sliced and soaked if you need a milder bite

Your favorite type of Fresh tomato

Cracked black pepper

Instructions

In a bowl, add whole wheat flour and salt and mix. Add water and olive oil, and mix until the dough comes together. It should be a drier dough, not sticky at all, but not crumbly. Cover and let sit for at least 10 minutes.

While waiting, add all the ingredients for the filling to the blender. Tofu, Miso, white wine vinegar (or lemon juice), nutritional yeast, tahini, and olive oil. Blend until completely smooth.

Back to the pasta dough.

Cut the dough ball in half. Flour your working surface and roll out a long strip of the first half. Here I use my pasta machine to roll out perfectly thin pasta, but you can also do this with a good rolling pin. You want your dough to be around 2 millimeters or 1/8 of an inch thick. Do the same for the other half.

You want these strips to be somewhat symmetrical for fold-over purposes, but don’t worry too much about waste, you can ball the leftover dough up and re-roll for more pasta working surface.

Start a small saucepan filled with salted water on the stove to heat until boiling.

Spoon about 1/2- 1 tbsp of the blended filling onto a small section of dough, keeping your filling compact so that it doesn’t spread and ruin your seal when pressing.

Fold the dough over itself and press with your press tool (anything the shape you want your ravioli in, with a blunt edge). You want to press the dough together to seal, but don’t press too hard, and cut the dough at the seal. (Tool options: I got mine from Amazon as a kit, a small empty food jar, or a fork.*) After sealing, cut out stuffed pasta with about 1/4 of an inch from the seal and set aside. Repeat until you are out of dough.

* If you use a fork, after you fold over the dough, cut with room for a border (1/4 inch). Use the fork to gently press the pasta shut.

Once the water is boiling, drop your ravioli in and stir very gently. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until pasta is floating. Drain and let cool for a bit. (Optional, you can add a little olive oil and nutritional yeast here)

Finally, to the approximately 1/3 filling left in the blender, add water, arugula, and garlic in the form of your choosing. Blend until arugula is completely smooth, with no leaf bits. Taste, and salt to taste if needed.

Add sauce, pasta, and garnishes to your pasta bowl and enjoy!