We’ve had Thanksgiving in Canada a month ago already, but no matter. I’m fairly grateful in a general way, so stuffing can certainly be made appropriate at a moment’s notice. I never go with a set recipe for this holiday meal fixture exactly. Like most of the things I make, it’s more of a feel-y approach. If anyone wanted to know what kind of cuisine I specialize in, that’s your answer: it’s feel-y. It’s incredibly easy to complicate the one life you have. A simple, but focused approach with food remains as a bastion of calm in mine.

Here’s two things I keep in mind throughout this decidedly felt cooking adventure: the bread should be really good (actually a defining characteristic of all of the bread in your life) and fat should be applied with abandon (arguably less appropriate at times throughout your life). That’s it, that’s all.

I went a cornbread route on this version. I had never done that before, but my love of this sweet-savoury treat has always been pretty serious. I was dreaming of its slight grittiness made crisp, paired up with smoky-spicy chipotles, sweet potatoes, garlic and some kind of greens. The chard in the garden continues to be prolific, staring me down from its thick rows every time I look out back. The earth is still soft and those perfectly emerald green and crinkly  leaves, with their defining salty bite, just grow taller. Put the little seed down in springtime and the land gives in the most utter sense; with no expectation of what is owed after all this time. A recognition of a love that intense that can just exist in the world makes my eyes go wide. Stating the obvious: I’m thankful for that. Big time.

sweet potato, chipotle  + chard cornbread stuffing
serves: 4-6
notes: I add some of the cooked chard towards the end of the baking process so that I still get some pretty green bits all through. Also, if cornbread isn’t readily available to you, Bryant Terry’s recipe is one of my favourites (link).

7-8 cups cubed cornbread
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp grapeseed oil, divided (+ extra for greasing/drizzling)
6 sprigs thyme, leaves removed and chopped
1 cooking onion, small dice
1 celery stalk, small dice
1 clove of garlic, minced
3-4 stalks of chard, leaves roughly chopped
1 small sweet potato, peeled, small dice
1-1.5 cups vegetable stock
1 chipotle pepper in adobo + extra adobo sauce (use as much or as little as you want)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease an 8 X 11 baking dish, line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Toss the cubed cornbread with 2 tablespoons of the oil, a pinch of the minced thyme, salt and pepper to coat. Place cubes on the parchment lined baking sheet and push into the oven. Bake until bread is golden brown and dried out a bit, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and dump croutons into a large bowl.

Heat the remaining 1/4 cup of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the diced onions, celery and remaining chopped thyme. Stir constantly until onions are soft and ever-so-slightly browning, about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic. Saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Start adding the chard. Stir the greens around with the other veg until they begin to wilt a tiny bit and turn bright green. Remove from the heat and scrape into the bowl with the bread cubes, reserving some of the chard for a later addition if you like.

In the same saucepan, place the diced sweet potatoes, chipotle + adobo and vegetable stock over medium heat. The stock should cover the sweet potato dices by an inch. Bring to a boil and simmer until sweet potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mash the sweet potatoes up with the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher so that you have various sized pieces.

Pour the sweet potato mashy-chunky bits and stock over the cornbread, greens and other vegetables. Stir gently to combine. Spread the whole mixture into the greased 8 x 11 baking dish. Drizzle a bit of oil over the top if you like. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown. If you’ve reserved some of the chard, scatter it over the top with about 10 minutes left of baking.

Serve hot.

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This warm rice bowl with chard, avocado, almonds and unbelievably good (+ super easy) ginger miso gravy is synonymous with my solo, city living days. I was in school full time studying nutrition and culinary arts, had 2 jobs, volunteered at a community food centre’s after school program, helped with school functions constantly, worked a line shift 3 times a week for my internship at a high end vegan restaurant AND managed to fit in a shred of a social life. I would come home and wilt onto the couch, gazing towards the kitchen of my teeny bachelor apartment thinking about what I could possibly motivate myself to make.

More often than not, the prospect of this meal lifted my tired body over to the stove: warm brown rice or quinoa with a mix of steamed/raw/leftover roasted vegetables, some kind of sauce/vinaigrette and crunchy topping things. Here’s why: I could always have cooked grains around pretty easily, I made sure my fridge had a good selection of veggies (my school was right by an awesome market–huge help) and when I had a spare 2 minutes I would make a batch of some kind of sauce/dressing in my blender for the week. I learned how to prepare myself/ just have good ingredients around and whoa, my body thanked me for it big time. Twenty minutes of jumping around the kitchen and back on the couch watching Curb Your Enthusiasm with a giant bowl of goodness? Happiest girl.

The vegetables and grains are always interchangeable but a good sauce is so key. This gravy is fresh with ginger and lemongrass, bright with lemon, a fragrant hit of coconut oil, there’s a bit of chili paste to keep it interesting and the miso makes it salty and perfect. I generally always have vegetable stock on hand for cooler weather meals because it makes an appearance in soups, pots of beans, mushroom sautes, curries and wonderful warm sauces like this. They sell decent quality tetra-packed versions so even if you don’t have time to make it, there’s an alternative for you.

I’ve given you a miso-ish gravy recipe before (with mushrooms, white beans and SWEET POTATO BISCUITS, guh I know), but this version is a million times easier. No blending, super straightforward, chop, pour, whisk, strain (optional) and go. It calls for spelt flour too, but if you don’t eat gluten, you could use a teaspoon of arrowroot powder in its place.

warm veggie bowl with ginger miso gravy
serves: 1
notes:  I reach for light miso because that’s what I have, but I imagine darker, stronger varieties would be so good here. Also, the lemongrass is certainly optional. There’s plenty of freshness happening with the fresh lemon juice and ginger.

gravy:
1/2  cup vegetable stock
1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
1 tbsp agave nectar/maple syrup/honey
1 tsp chili paste (or sriracha)
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp minced ginger
2 inch piece of lemongrass, bashed up with the back of your knife
juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 tsp light miso
1 tbsp spelt flour
2 tbsp water

bowl (just what I used for this one–use whatever you have/like):
1 heaped cup cooked rice, warm (I used a mix of brown basmati and black rice = purple rice!)
handful of string beans or broad beans, trimmed
3 chard leaves, stems removed and chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 small carrot, peeled into ribbons
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1/4 avocado, sliced
chopped almonds
hemp seeds

Make the gravy: Combine all of the gravy ingredients except the miso, spelt flour and water in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer. Stir the miso, spelt flour and water together until most lumps are dissolved. Add this slurry to the pot and whisk. Let the gravy simmer and whisk it here and there until it has noticeably thickened, about 3 minutes. Strain the gravy with a fine sieve if you like (but definitely remove the lemongrass stalk). Return gravy to the small pot, cover and put keep warm.

Set a medium pot with an inch of water over medium heat and cover. Place the string/broad beans in steamer basket. Once the water is boiling, put the steamer basket in and cover. Cook until beans are crisp tender, about 3 minutes. Add the chopped chard and cover again. Steam greens until wilted slightly, about 1 minute.

Place the cooked rice in a serving bowl. Top with the steamed greens and beans, bell pepper, carrot, green onion, avocado, almonds and hemp seeds. Give the gravy a quick whisk (just in case some lumps form) and pour it over the veggies and rice. Serve warm.

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One thing I really looked forward to while we were making our way back home (cozy comfy bed aside) was a giant heap of vegetables. We ate pretty amazingly on this trip. We went to all of our favourites, had a really special dinner here, tried the brand new NY outpost of this restaurant, so many treats, delicious coffee from Mud Truck, INSANE cocktails at Booker & Dax and completely fabulous potluck contributions from so many inspirational women at Veronica‘s rooftop oasis. In sum: we ate great food. Probably too much of it. Like probably-definitely.

I originally developed this recipe for the Toronto Vegetarian Association (their website here), a pretty rad volunteer-driven organization. I look forward to their Veg Fest on the waterfront in September every year. Lots of goodness and wonderful people, gorgeous scenery, it’s perfect. If you would like to read some accompanying nutrition facts about chard, you can read my little contribution right over here. I love using greens as a wrap for all kinds of things. In this version, I give you a few ideas for fillings and a BOMB mango dipping sauce for dunking. It’s like dipping a tidy salad into fresh, sweet, lightly spiced mango goodness, something totally called for after 5 days of indulgence for me.

raw chard salad rolls with spicy mango dipping sauce
Serves: 2
notes: If you don’t have access to chard, collard or boston lettuce leaves work wonders in the same application. In the event that you are transporting these (say for a summer picnic), I would recommend stabbing each one with a little toothpick to keep them together since chard lacks the natural “glue” of rice paper rolls.

rolls:
6-8 leaves of chard (depending on how big they are)
3 cups finely julienned/sliced fruits and vegetables such as:
-carrots
-bell peppers
-apples
-sprouts
-jicama
-shaved asparagus
-strawberries
-beets
-radishes
-sliced avocado
3-4 sprigs-worth of mild fresh herb leaves such as:
-mint
-basil (regular or thai)
-cilantro
-parsley

spicy mango sauce:
1 cup diced, ripe mango (or nectarine! or peach!)
juice from 1 lime
1 small jalapeno, veins and seeds removed
½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp grapeseed oil (or other neutral oil)
1 tsp nama shoyu or tamari soy sauce
¼ cup filtered water

Cut the stems out of the chard leaves: With a paring knife, carefully cut around the stem, on both sides, up to about the halfway point in the leaf. Repeat with other leaves.

Lay the cut leaf on a cutting board. It should look like the top half of the leaf has two little legs sticking out from under it. Cross one of the “legs” over the other one to form a unified oval-shaped “wrap.”

Place a good handful of julienned vegetables/sprouts onto the center of the oval-shaped leaf. Garnish with a few herb leaves. Carefully wrap the chard around the vegetables, starting with the crossed over/overlapped leaves end and working your way up. Once you’ve reached the end, place the roll seam side down onto your serving plate. repeat with remaining chard and vegetables/herbs.

Make the sauce: Combine all of the mango sauce ingredients in a blender. Turn the blender on to medium-high and puree the mixture. Once smooth and slightly watery, stop the blender. Taste for seasoning. Place sauce into a bowl and serve with the chard spring rolls.

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I’m not sure you could even technically call this a pizza. I used roasted butternut squash and garlic mash as the “sauce” and this genius recipe as inspiration for the dough that doesn’t even require rising time. It takes literally 10 minutes to make. Then I grilled the whole thing and essentially put a lemony and fresh salad on top. Maybe you could call it a grilled flatbread with very balanced stuff on it? I like to get technical, but I’m still inclined to call this pizza. It’s such a feel-good word.

I put some basil and swiss chard pesto into the mix too. I love squash and traditional pesto together so I thought it would be even better here. I never make pesto from a recipe really, just kind of throw some toasted nuts/seeds in the food processor with the leaves of my choosing, olive oil, a bit of salt and pepper and blitz it around and scrape down the sides until it seems like the right texture and it tastes good. It’s a total intuition thing and it always works out just right. Wait that’s like, 98 percent of cooking right?

grilled butternut squash pizza with lemony radicchio slaw
dough recipe adapted from The Faux Martha
serves: 4-6
notes:  You could use arugula, endive or whatever greens you like in place of the radicchio. If you don’t have a barbecue, preheat your oven to 450 degrees F and put everything on the pizza except the radicchio mixture and bake for 15-20 minutes. Also, advice on grilling pizza: have absolutely everything at the ready when you’re making it. Time is of the essence!

squash:
1 small butternut squash, cut in half and seeds removed
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 sprigs sage (optional)
salt and pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

pesto (there will be some leftover!):
3/4-1 cup basil and swiss chard leaves (or all basil, all chard etc)
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

dough:
1 cup warm water (not too hot!)
1 tbsp agave nectar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 3/4 cup white spelt flour
1 cup whole spelt flour
1 tsp fine sea salt

slaw
1 head radicchio, outer leaves removed, cored and sliced
4 sprigs flat leaf parsley, leaves finely sliced
juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

assembly/extras:
2 tbsp oil of your choosing
1 shallot, peeled, halved and finely sliced
small handful of pine nuts, toasted

Roast the squash: preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Season and place the squash halves face down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. In the little cavity where the seeds were, sneak the garlic cloves underneath. If using the sage, place the whole sprig under the flesh of the squash (see picture above). Roast until very tender, about 35-40 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, scrape out flesh into a bowl. Squeeze garlic cloves out of their peels into the bowl as well. Add oil, salt, pepper and a splash of water. Stir and mash with a spatula until smooth. Set aside.

Make the pesto: place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until everything is broken up a bit. Scrape down sides of the bowl with a spatula. Put the processor on high until a paste starts to form. Scrape down the sides again. Let it rip one more time until it’s super smooth. Season to taste. Scrape into a bowl and put a dab of oil on top to prevent discolouration. Set aside.

Make the dough: pour the water into a large bowl. Add the yeast, agave and oil. Whisk to combine. Let the yeast proof for about five minutes or until you see bubbles forming on the surface. Add the flours and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until combine. Knead with your hands until you have a smooth lump of dough.

Make the slaw: combine all of the ingredients radicchio, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper as close to serving time as possible. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Make the pizza!: Get your barbecue going to a medium-medium high flame. Roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness on a floured cutting board, pizza peel or anything flat that you can bring out to the barbecue. Brush one side with oil completely. Either flip or gently guide the oiled side onto the grates (you can oil the grates as an extra non-stick insurance policy). Brush the top, now-exposed side of the dough with oil and put the lid down. Wait about 3-5 minutes.

The dough should be browning and getting grill marks on one side and bubbling through on the surface. Flip it over. Spread the butternut squash and garlic mixture evenly onto the browned side of crust. Dollop the pesto on top and sprinkle the shallots on. Put the lid down and wait another 5-6 minutes before removing the pizza.

Place pizza on serving plate/large cutting board and top with the radicchio slaw. Sprinkle with pine nuts, cut into slices and serve.

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Fixing up some greens seems to be one of those things that people can get mystified over. This is roughly the technique/recipe my grandmother has used over the years and they’re always delicious, whatever the type used. Generally when she makes them for us, she throws in a handful of cooked flat or string beans for a bit of interest. It makes sense because they kind of grow together and produce consistently throughout the summer. I’ve never been one to question grandmotherly cooking logic. It just works.

The greens and beans get an initial cooking in boiling water to remove any toughness. Then they get sloshed around in a garlic and chili infused oil, a bit of salt and pepper and a good squeeze of lemon. The acidity at the end really makes them; not as noticeably cabbage-y and so bright.

good greens and beans
serves: 2
notes: This whole thing comes together really fast! It’s good to have everything nearby, at the ready.

1 large handful yellow, green or flat beans, trimmed at the ends
1 bunch greens of your choice, cut into slightly larger than bite-size pieces
2 tbsp grape seed oil
1 clove of garlic, smashed or cut into 4 rough pieces
pinch of chili flakes (or to your taste)
salt and pepper
juice of half a lemon

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Once boiling, add a big pinch of salt and the beans. Simmer until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Remove from the water and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process, set aside.

With the large pot of water still boiling, heat a large saute pan over medium. Add the oil to the saute pan, followed by the large pieces of garlic and chili flakes. Stir that mixture until it seems nice and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove garlic pieces from the pan and discard.

Drop half of the greens into the boiling water, stir them around a bit just to submerge them quickly. Remove from the water with tongs or a spider strainer and drop into the saute pan. Repeat with the second half of greens. This process should take about 20ish seconds. So fast!

Once all the greens are in the saute pan, add the beans in, season the mixture with salt, pepper and the lemon juice. Turn off the heat, toss everything together and serve immediately.

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