Black Bean Bowl with Poached Egg

Give me a potato, sweet or of the russet variety, and I'm a happy lady. Maybe it's because I'm Irish. Maybe it's because I love brunch food. Or maybe it's both. Regardless of the origin of my lusting, whenever I see a brunch recipe on the internet that manages to incorporate a potato, it's game over for me. If I see it on a weekday, whose morning are filled with oatmeal & drip coffee, I make sure to stash the recipe away for a few days. Sometimes on Pinterest, but usually by refusing to close its browser tab.

But this bad boy black bean bowl? I considered it made the first time I saw it. If you often find yourself short on time in the morning, the bulk of this recipe can me made the night before. Substitute canned beans for dried, even if it does raise the price point a bit. If you're like me and can't make your own poached egg with a perfect dribble, throw on a sunny-side-up egg instead. Don't like runny yolks? I don't judge - I was the same until a few years back. Try a scrambled version and no one will think less of you. In fact, your friends will probably be begging to brunch at your place again and again.

Another praise I can sing for this dish is about its leftover potential. Cook everything down  a little to thicken it up and throw it in a tortilla to call it "burrito lunch." "A" and I used ours the next morning for brunch to make blintzes. To stretch things out a bit more, add some stock and call it soup. It's a flexible dish that will bend to your needs without complaint. All it wants is to make you happy, as do I.

BLACK BEAN BOWL

Adapted from Spouted Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. dried black beans (rinsed and soaked overnight)
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 tsp. chile powder
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced in 1'' cubes
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1-2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste
• 4-8 eggs (use 1-2 eggs per person)
• cilantro and hot sauce to finish
• Cheese of your choosing 

Directions:

1. Drain and rinse the beans from soaking. Place them in a large pot and cover with a couple inches of water. Bring to a boil and simmer until the beans are cooked through and just tender (one to one and a half hours depending on freshness of beans), avoid overcooking. They should still have a tooth to them. Remove from heat, add a pinch of salt. Let the beans cool for about ten minutes before draining. Add the cumin, cinnamon, garlic, chile powder, hearty pinch of salt and broth. Bring the mixture to a low simmer.
2. Add the sweet potato to the warm beans, give it a stir and cover the pot. Cook for about 8-10 minutes until the sweet potatoes are cooked through. Stir in the tomato paste and olive oil and taste for salt, you'll likely need another pinch or two, and spices. You could add heat with a pinch of red pepper flakes or chipotle. Cover and keep warm until ready.
3. Bring a large pot of salted water with a splash of vinegar to a low boil. Poach the eggs to desired doneness (deliver the eggs to the water in a ramekin, seems to help them stay together well).  For a medium poach, simmer them 2-3 minutes. If you like the yolk more firm, take them 4-5 minutes. Serve each portion with a hearty scoop of the beans and poached egg on top. Finish with hot sauce, cilantro and cheese if using. 

Spicy Ginger Pickled Carrots

This is a quick n' dirty blogpost for a quick n' easy recipe. These carrots had bigger dreams and ultimately ended up in some homemade Bahn Mi (100% homemade to toot my own horn). That "recipe" will be coming soon but I already apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. Night isn't always the best time for lighting, as one would assume, but now that we're past daylight savings time, things are on the upswing! Unfortunately, I'm pretty backlogged with recipes that were taken after sundown. 

These picked carrots are less of a "recipe" than the Bahn Mi. It's more of making due with what you have on hand. I don't often keep fancy Mason jars on hand (a girl can dream), but I have mild hoarding tendencies and feel the need to save any decent glass jars. Perfect for bulk spices and leftovers alike, I can't ever bring myself to throw them out! So why are these carrots is a former fermented black bean jar you ask? Because I recycle (read: hoard) and because that's what I had on hand.

Back to the food. Basically, just take as many carrots as you can fit in the jar… then make them fit in the jar. Then top with pickling liquid and spices, or what will fit in the jar. Wait. Then… WHAM! Delicious easy, make-your-friends-jealous food!

Spicy Ginger Pickled Carrots

Ingredients:

• Carrots, peeled
• 1 ¼ cups water
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 ½ teaspoon powered ginger
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions:

1. Cut the carrots into matchsticks. Bring a medium-sized pot of lightly-salted water to a boil. (Use a non-reactive pot.)
2. When the water boils, drop the carrots in and simmer for one minute. Pour into a colander and rinse under cold water. Drain thoroughly and place in jar.
3. In the same pot, heat the remaining ingredients. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for two minutes.
4. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Once cool, pour liquid over carrots in car and chill. The carrots will be ready in about 3 hours but it's best to wait for at least a day.

Tomato Carrot Soup with Bacon Croutons

It's been awhile and I'm ok with that. I've been cooking and experimenting more than ever before and the pressure to not photograph everything has been spectacular. The early setting sun offers another bit of encouragement to sit down and enjoy a loving meal with A instead of waiting for the wafting steam to fade away.

I'm ok with it. You should be too. But now that the sun is hanging around a bit longer with each passing day, I'm more and more encouraged to snap a picture or two. I've also been enlightened by the book "The Everlasting Meal," but more on that in another post.

Thank god this picture isn't all moldy either as I'm pretty sure we ate this way back in December, but hold tight! I have a few more excuses: 2 weeks for the holiday's away from my now home to my childhood home. Then another 10+ days in January for a trip back to my other home (the Pacific Northwest). Then ta-da! End of January and I don't know there the time went.

This soup recipe was actually made by A as I don't eat bacon. He gobbled all that up while I had my soup sans bacon. Just as delicious but I guess not as boy-friendly. It was the perfect amount of smokey, soul-heating goodness balanced against the healthy hearty vegetable base. 

Tomato Carrot Soup with Bacon Croutons

Adapted from Bitchin' Camero 

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 4 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 7 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch medallions (about 2 cups)
• 3 1/2 cups peeled, seeded and diced tomatoes (canned ok)
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp. hot smoked paprika
• A few grinds of African Spice seasoning (Trader Joe's)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 5 saffron threads (optional)
• 3 slices, thick center-cut bacon, cut into lardons
• 2 cups cubed day-old bread

Directions: 

1. Set a large pot over medium heat. Once it’s hot, heat the olive oil then add the onions and cook for 7 minutes, or until they begin to brown a bit. Add the garlic and cook for a minute, then add the carrots and tomatoes.
2. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes, then add the chicken stock and simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Using an immersion blender, blender or food processor, puree the soup until no large pieces of carrots or tomatoes remain. Return to the pot.
3. Add the lemon juice, salt, pepper, paprika and saffron and continue cooking for another 10 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
4. While the soup is cooking, set a large skillet over medium heat and cook the bacon. When the bacon is beginning to turn brown, add the torn bread and cook until golden. Remove with a slotted spatula to a paper towel.
5. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with a heap of bacon croutons.

Makes 6 servings. 

Spicy Gravlax with Aquavit

Did I tell you my big news? It's a bit colder, but also kinda steamy, with beer and brats mixed in. You guessed it yet?

If you found yourself thinking "Madison, Wisconsin," you would be correct! If you thought "crazy cool camping trip in the North Cascades," you would be, sadly, quite awrong. As many of you may know, I hail from Michigan and my a-little-bit-less-than-quarter-life crisis involved me moving out to Seattle on a relative whim. I only visited the city once before moving here but the mountains, water and 50 to 75 degree no-humidity days did me in. I was hooked. I love Seattle more than any city I have ever lived in, made some life-long friends and know how successfully navigate from Capitol Hill to Queen Anne during rush hour without hitting a lick of traffic.

I'll miss Seattle and see myself coming back here a few times a year, but I love adventures and Madison is a new one. What's crazier is that I have never been to Madison. I am actually moving to a city I have never seen. With a guy. If you thought I went bonkers before you don't know what's coming. "A" accepted a job as a hydrogeologist with the USGS, my internship at Edelman ended and the timing stars aligned. 

So friends, readers, anyone in the Universe… as I have never been to Madison, I also don't know anyone there. If you want to meet up for coffee (Seattle got me hooked), just know this, I make a mean cookie. Who wants to hang out? I'll be the one with the curly red hair and box of friendship cookies. And maybe some of that salmon below.

But you don't want to hear about me pleading for a friend date and my 2,000 mile move back to the Midwest. You came here for the food, dangit! I think I have mentioned before that "A" is half Swedish (half German), translating to we eat lots of berries, pancakes and fish. But we wanted to dive into Swedish food a bit further and make our own gravlax, i.e. Swedish cured salmon. 

Pretty much since the dawn of dating him, he has told me about the little-used bottle of Aquavit in his freezer and an urge to cure his own salmon. That's basically how he wooed me. The gravlax itself is quite easy to put together with the most time consuming segment being mixing the spices together… and I guess that whole "curing" part too. To make things bit easier, when I went to the market to buy salmon, I told the fish monger exactly what I was planning on doing and he gave me two one-pound sections that fit together. If you don't have access to a monger, I recommend buying two equally sized tail cuts (no bones!) that fit nicely together.

I'll just leave with with the recipe as I now have peanut butter all over my keyboard (lunch fail) and have a bit of scrubbing to do.

Spicy Gravlax with Aquavit

Adapted from Kitchen of Light by Andreas Viestad

Ingredients:

• 2 one-pound salmon fillets, skin-on
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• 2 teaspoons aniseed
• 5 juniper berries (India Tree makes some dried juniper berries that should be available at most markets)
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
• 2 tablespoons Aquavit

Directions:

1. Rinse the fillets in cold water and pat them dry with paper towels. Crush the caraway seeds, aniseed, juniper berries, red pepper flakes and black peppercorns using a mortar and pestle. Or place the spices on a cutting board or other hard surface and crush them with the underside of a heavy skillet. Combine with the salt, sugar, and dill.
2. Place one of the fillets skin side down in a deep dish just big enough to hold the fillets. Rub the fillet with half the spice and dill mixture. Rub the other fillet with the mixture and place it skin side up on top of the first. 
3. Pour the aquavit on top, cover the dish with plastic wrap, and place a heavy weight, such as two heavy plates or a saucepan, on top of the fish. Refrigerate for three to four days, turning the fish every 12 hours and basting it with the brine that accumulates in the dish.
4. To serve, dust off some of the spices and slice the fish into thin slices with a sharp thin knife. The flesh from the tail will be leaner than the flesh from the belly. Serve with mustard sauce and dark rye bread, for open-faced sandwiches - see pictures for picnicking proof!

Thai Papaya Salad (Som Tam)

I'm a pretty big fan of making lists. Shopping lists, number one priority chores list, wanderlusting lists and just things that need to get done. Lately I've been doing a lot more of the latter but I keep on running into one big brick wall, without fail I will lose all the lists I write. Shopping lists somehow always manage to fall out of my pocket or purse somewhere between my apartment and the store. We all know what goes down when that happens, someone ends up with 5 blocks of cheese, no vegetables and a bag of chips. No one wins in that game, even the grocery store because they failed to move out the perishables. 

As I was saying, I've been making a lot of to do lists. It usually goes like this: finally go to the department of licensing (yes, I'm getting a Washington drivers license) and just buck up and write that blog post. The number one spot usually fluctuates depending on the type of hair day I'm having. Don't tell me that sounds silly because let's be real, I'm going to be stuck with that drivers license photo for at least a few years. Little Orphan Annie hair isn't always in vogue.

As you are now reading this blog post, I've obviously checked at least one thing off my list. I made "A" a complete Thai/Lao dinner a few weeks back. I would say when we go out to eat, we seem to lean towards the spicy & noodley variety. One of my favorite things he has introduced me to is green (raw) papaya salad; it's crunchy, spicy and the fish sauce makes it a bit salty too. After I've watched him make it a few times, I felt it was due time I made some too. If not only for the purpose that I could make it all just to gorge myself.

The actual preparation is straightforward and simple, but I do recommend having a few specific kitchen tools. You'll want a mortar & pestle to grind together a good portion of the ingredients and a julienne mandolin doesn't hurt to have to cut up the papaya. However, if you want to make this don't go out and buy a surplus of gadgets. With some basic knife skills, you can easily chop up the papaya and (sshhhh) I've totally ground together the spices and peanuts in a small food processor. No biggie.

If you want a healthy side dish with a flair of the exotic and a kick of spice, look no further.

Thai Papaya Salad (Som Tam)

Adapted from My Cooking Hut

Ingredients:

• 400g green papaya, shredded
• Cherry tomatoes, halved
• Red bell pepper, thinly slices
• 40g cup toasted peanuts
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 thai red chili (use more or omit depending of desired spiciness)
• 3-4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3-4 tablespoons palm sugar
• 4 tablespoon lime juice
• a few sprigs cilantro

Directions:

1. Peel the green papaya and shred with a julienne mandolin. Alternatively, slice the peeled papaya into very thin strips. Mix together with cherry tomatoes & red pepper in a large bowl.
2. Place the roasted peanuts, garlic and thai chili in a mortar and pound to a rough paste. Add this crushed peanut mixture to the shredded papaya, tomatoes & bell pepper.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. Add this to the shredded papaya, tomato, bell pepper and peanuts. Toss well. Garnish with cilantro. Serve chilled.

Chipotle Butternut Squash Soup

The soup has some serious heat and had the same magical powers as pho.  Remember how you feel the need to eat a whole bowl of pho every time you sense a sniffle or start covering coughs? I do. It's made even worse, or better(?), by the fact that there is a pho shop less than a mile away from me. And there isn't even that big of a hill to walk up on the way back. Too bad I don't think unemployment supports a pho-a-day habit so well. Good thing I know my way around a kitchen and can make things that are just as good, if not better, than what I was caving. Well, except Fro-Yo… if I knew how to make that you'd have to lift me out of my apartment window.

When the boy and I made this for dinner a few weeks ago, I can safely say it was the least sexy meal ever. We were both dealing with the consequences the sniffles a la jalapeño & chipotle. For anyone who has had pho, you know that this is the end goal. You want to be cleaned out and warmed up. These minor symptoms of hot soup shouldn't take away from the fact that this soup is delicious. Even more so, I was finally able to use up the butternut squash from my CSA's and fend off a winter cold. BONUS POINTS!

I would advise against eating this soup in the summer, that just might be considered torture.

Chipotle Butternut Squash Soup

Adapted from uTry

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small leek, use white and pale-green parts only, thinly sliced and rinsed
• well
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 jalapeño, finely diced
• 1 Granny Smith (green) apple, cored, peeled, and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 2 pounds Butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut
• into 1-inch cubes
• 1 pound red yam, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 6 cups chicken/vegetable stock
• 1 medium chipotle chili (canned in adobo sauce),
• can substitute with 1 tablespoon of chipotle spice
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup pepitas 

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute garlic, leek, carrots and onion until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add apple, ginger and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Add butternut squash, yam and stock; simmer until squash and yam are tender, about 15 minutes. Add chipotle or chipotle spice.
3. Puree using an immersion blender (or a standard blender, in batches).
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dollop teaspoon of pepitas right before serving.

Healthier Baked Buffalo Wings

I can't remember the last time I was this sick (fever, chills, sleeping until noon and the like), so I am going to keep this post short & sweet, actually, it's going to be a little more savory this time...

My dad told me I needed some "real food" on my blog.  Silly father, cheese puffs, brownies & cake are real food.  I mean, they may not be the healthiest thing ever, but they are real food!  Especially if you compare them to half of the things in the supermarket today - no artificial color, xanthan gum or Microcrystalline cellulose here!

So dad, here is some real food: Buffalo wings, adapted to be healthy.  They have protein, W sauce, hot sauce, love & deliciousness.  So I better not be getting a phone call later saying that I yet again didn't post real food.

As you probably guessed it, I made these for the Superbowl.  You'd also be correct if you guessed that I took this picture after I let all the vultures swoop in and take part in the wing feast.  I made somewhere in the ball park of 25 wings and 10 minutes later, these are all that were left.

For the actual cooking part, please make sure you have some jellyroll pans.  Aaron and his roommate somehow didn't own a single one and I had to jiffy-rig an aluminum foil covered oven rack in its place.  It worked, but not so well.  The chicken drippings dribbled all over the bottom of the oven, set off the fire alarm a few times (it's not good until the fire alarm goes off, am I right?) and had to crack every window in his apartment.  Even with all that drama, these turned out so well.  Aaron and his roommate made sure I talked them through the recipe and gave them a copy so they could make the wings again & again.

Best part, this was my first time ever making wings.  In the words of Charlie Sheen, WINNING!

Curried Chickpeas, Onions, and Kale in a Tomato Sauce

This recipe should be called "I bought a whole bunch of kale for a recipe and then forgot the recipe I needed it for, and now I need to use it asap."  But I have been making variations of this recipe for the past two years, and because I have yet to meticulously measure everything, it is different everytime.  Even in this attempt to write it down, every ingredient is an estimate.  While I do recommend using all the spices I listed, the amounts of certain spices are flexible (especially the spicy masala curry powder, and to a certain extent the mustard seed).

This is a quick meal to put together - I cut the kale and onions this morning before I went to class so that in my short break between classes and work I was able to make a warm, absolutely delicious, and satisfying meal.  It has a taste that is reminiscent of Indian food, but the tomato paste makes it a little more savory.  But you still get a nice delightful tingle of curry & sriracha sauce in the back of your throat… Mmm.  And the best part of this recipe?  It's low ingredient (and possibly pantry) friendly!  Maybe next time I make this I'll add some green onions...

And to John (the Kale-less wonder), try this to ease yourself into Kale.  Or have Sam make it for you.

Ingredients:

• a dash or two of Olive Oil
• 1 onion, diced
• half of a bunch of kale, chopped
• 1-15oz can of organic chickpeas, drained
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 2-4 TBSP (approx) Hot Masala Curry Powder
• ½ tsp yellow mustard seed
• a dash of cinnamon
• a dash (½ tsp?) coriander
• 2 gloves of garlic, crushed
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 or 2 TBSP Sriracha sauce

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet and cook onions with the mustard seed for a minute or so.  Then add about 1 TBSP of curry power, cinnamon, and coriander to the onions and continue cooking until translucent.  Add in chopped kale and cook down (it will shrink dramatically in size, this is good).  Sprinkle a few pinches of kosher salt and grind the black pepper over the kale - mix in.
2. Stir in chickpeas and crushed, cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.  Reduced the burner to medium heat and stir in tomato paste with the rest of the curry powder.  Stirring this in will take some effort, but just work to make sure "break up" the tomato paste and incorporate the vegetables/chickpeas into it.  Once all incorporated, drizzle Sriracha sauce and stir to incorporate.  
3. Serve hot, but it also works wonderfully heated up the next day (trust me, I know, I'm not so good at "cooking for one").  I usually cook rice to serve this over, but I ran out of time.  While rice compliments this very well, it is also delightful on its on.

Spinach Enchiladas with a Mexican Red Sauce

I made this for my dad and I one night for dinner a week or two ago. I don't have any pictures (I know, I know, a food blog post with NO pictures?!) because as soon as they came out of the oven my dad and I attacked them... and the remains were not pretty enough for pictures. These were so good that I'll be making them again when I get back from Europe (this time for my mom and sister), and I'll make sure to post a picture them. The backbone for these recipes again came from my favorite cookbook of all time, The New Moosewood Cookbook, but I changed them enough that I can almost confidently call the enchiladas 'my own.'

You'll want to make the Mexican Red Sauce ahead of time... (here comes the recipe)

Ingredients:

2 TBSP olive oil

1 cup minced onion

1 poblano chili, minced

1 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp ground cumin

1 TBSP chili powder

3 TBSP minced garlic

3 cups chopped tomatoes, peeled and seeded (directions how to do this at the bottom of the page)

1 cup tomato juice

Black pepper and cayenne to taste

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the onion, chili, and salt, and sauté over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the onion becomes transparent. Add cumin, chili powder and half the garlic, and sauté for about 3 minutes longer.
2. Add the tomatoes and tomato juice. Bring to a boil, partially cover, and turn the heat down as low as possible. Simmer for 30 minutes, adding the remaining garlic, and black pepper and cayenne to taste during the last 5 minutes or so.
3. Transfer to a blender and puree until smooth. Set aside for enchiladas!

The Spinach Enchiladas!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup onion, minced

1 package of "no sauce" frozen spinach, thawed

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Black pepper to taste

2 TBSP minced garlic

1 medium-sized bell pepper, minced

1 packed cup grated jack cheese (or any mild white cheese)

12 corn tortillas

Mexican Red Sauce (the wonderful recipe above this one)

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven. Add onion, and sauté for about 5 minutes over medium heat.
2. Add thawed spinach, salt, and pepper, and mix well. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Add garlic and bell pepper. Stir and cook 5 minutes longer, or until the pepper is tender. Taste to correct salt.
4. Remove from heat; stir in cheese.
5. Preheat oven to 350°F. Moisten each tortilla in water then place approximately 1/4 cup filling on one side and roll up. Gently place the filled enchiladas in a baking pan, and pour a full recipe of Mexican Red Sauce over the top. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes, or until heated through. Serve hot with beans and wild brown rice.

Indian Twist

Once upon a time I had a whole bunch of random, but delicious nonetheless, ingredients in my fridge at school. I wanted to make something with all of them because I knew the various ingredients could combine to make something delightful. Because I had made Samosas (recipe for that later) earlier in the week - I had a bunch of fresh Indian and Indonesian spices. Hence - the dish that I made was very reminiciant of Indian food - but all the ingredients you can get at your local grocery store! I never wrote this recipe down and every time I have cooked it again, it changes. Here is my first attempt to write it down!

Ingredients:

- 1 lb of extra firm tofu

- Kale (a whole bunch), roughly chopped

- Tomato Paste (1 can)

- Chick Peas (1 can)

- 1/2 an Onion, chopped

- A little bit of fresh ginger, pealed and grated

- 3-ish garlic cloves, minced

- Hot Sauce (I recommend Harry's Habanero Hot Sauce from the PFC in Ann Arbor)

- Mustard Seeds

- Coriander

- Curry Powder

- Kosher Salt

- Fresh Ground Pepper

- Rice (I either use Jasmine rice or wild long grain brown rice)

- Peanut Oil

Assembly:

1. Prepare rice according to directions, then set aside.

2. Cut tofu into 1/2 in cubes. Heat 1/4 inch of peanut oil in a frying pan then slowly add the tofu. Cook until all sides are browned and firm.

3. While the tofu is cooking/frying, heat a LITTLE bit of oil in a sauté pan. Add in the spices (garlic, ginger, mustard seeds, curry powder, coriander) so they have time to infuse into the oil. Add the chopped onions and cook until translucent.

4. Then add in the kale and cook down until their is more room in the pan. Add in chickpeas and incorporate.

5. Add tomato paste to the kale mixture and incorporate until all ingredients are coated with tomato paste. Add kosher salt and pepper to taste. Continue heating.

6. Add some hot sauce to the kale mixture to add a little kick, also add more curry powder.

7. Incorporate cooked tofu into kale mixture, making sure not to 'smoosh' the tofu when mixing in.

8. Serve over a rice and enjoy!

(and for all you people like me who have a hard time cooking for just one or two people, this keeps VERY well in the refrigerator and reheats well too).