vegan mushroom soup

Amazing, amazing vegan “cream” of mushroom soup…and the mushrooms are MORELS and DRYAD’S SADDLES! It doesn’t get better than this!

yellow morels

Vegan Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

vegan, gluten-free, soy-free

In a pot with water, boil:

• 3 potatoes, peeled, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic
• 5 button mushrooms (optional)
• salt
• pepper
• paprika

Boil until POTATOES and CARROTS are tender. Remove from heat.

Add CASHEWS and blend well. (We used our vitamix, but any blender should be fine.)

In a pan with olive oil:

saute chopped MORELS with salt.

In another pan with olive oil:

saute chopped DRYAD’S SADDLE with salt.

Dryad's Saddle

(I sauteed in them in two separate pans because later in the season dryad’s can become bitter, and in case this had happened, I didn’t want to ruin the batch of morels!!! But they were just fine.)

Return now creamy broth to pot and adjust seasonings: SALT, PEPPER, PAPRIKA  to taste.

Add sauteed mushrooms and enjoy.

PLEASE MAKE 100% CERTAIN OF IDENTITY OF ALL WILD MUSHROOMS USED!

~ Melissa

Food Under Foot

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Yum-mazing Morel and Mashed Potato Muffins

As stipulated in the 5th annual Morel Recipe Challenge, this recipe had to be baked. And what better way to bake than with muffin tins?

These Morel Muffins came out AMAZING. I have never baked anything in muffin tins, not even muffins. We only have the tins around to sort buttons and mix paint. But after today I may actually use them for savory recipes! I’m definitely making these again!

Dried Morels from Marx Foods

I used the wonderful dried morels sent to me by Marx Foods. To reconstitute them I simply poured boiling water over them, covered the bowl with a dish and let stand about 20 minutes. I then used that morel soak water to cook the potatoes, so make sure to save it! (You could also cook the quinoa in it…just make sure to use it, yum!) You could also use fresh morels in this recipe.

4 medium potatoes, peeled, cubed and boiled/steamed in the morel soak water. Then mashed. Add extra water when cooking if necessary and mash the potatoes and the cook water together at the end. You will need 1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes for this recipe.

And I added garlic mustard because, well, it’s that time of year and I love using wild ingredients! But you can either omit this altogether or substitute arugula or chives. I picked some garlic mustard leaves, washed and dried them then chopped them very fine and small.

garlic mustard

Yum-mazing Morel and Mashed Potato Muffins

An original gluten-free dairy-free vegetarian recipe by Melissa Sokulski for the 5th Annual Morel Recipe Challenge

You will need a muffin tin for this recipe.

• 2 oz dried morels, reconstituted as above and chopped. You could also use one cup of chopped fresh morels.
• 1 medium onion, chopped (it will be about 1 cup chopped onions)
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 Tbsp olive oil or butter, to saute morels, onions and garlic, plus a bit more to oil muffin tins
• 1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes (see above)
• 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup flour, plus a bit more to flour muffin tins (I used a mix of almond meal and buckwheat flour to keep the recipe gluten free, but you can use whatever flour you like.)
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp chopped garlic mustard (you can also use arugula, or chives, or omit, see note above)
• 1 Tbsp brown mustard
• salt
• pepper
• nutmeg

Tip: I made this recipe gluten-free and dairy-free so my family could eat it. However, I KNOW it would be DIVINE with your favorite cheese grated and mixed into the batter!

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Oil muffin tin with olive oil and sprinkle with flour to make it easier to remove “muffins” after cooking.
3. Reconstitute dried morels (if using dried) by covering dried morels with boiled water. Cover bowl and let sit at least 20 minutes, until mushrooms are soft and able to cut. SAVE soak water to cook potatoes or quinoa.
4. Boil (in morel soak water) and mash potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Boil 1/2 cup quinoa in 1 cup water (or morel soak water) for 15 minutes until quinoa is soft and water has been absorbed.
6. Saute chopped morels, onions, and garlic in olive oil (or butter) for at least 10 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Mix sauteed morel mixture with mashed potatoes, quinoa, and all other ingredients.
8. Divide mixture evenly into the 12 muffin cups.
9. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and let cool at least 5 minutes to help it set and make the muffins easier to remove.

Enjoy!!!

Festive foraging,

~ Melissa Sokulski

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Tangy staghorn sumac seasoning is perfect for this Middle Eastern salad

It’s fun dipping into the wild pantry to add zest and flavor to dishes. For this middle Eastern tabouli recipe, I dipped into the pantry not once, but twice. In addition to this tangy sumac seasoning, I stripped some dried mint leaves off a bundle I have hanging in my kitchen and crumbled those in. (Though it will be up soon, mint has not yet appeared in my neck of the woods - Western PA.)

The fun thing about sumac is that even if you missed harvesting it last fall, it’s available all winter. As long as you can find those red bundles on the otherwise bare trees, you can harvest and use sumac, which tastes fresh and lemony and is high in vitamin C.

Sifting Dried Staghorn Sumac

Last fall I dried some sumac clusters, broke them up in the food processor, then sifted out the hard seeds through a strainer. This makes a sour seasoning that is perfect to add to dishes like fatoush, tabouli and hummus.

Today I made raw tabouli salad (without grains), but you could easily add a cup of cooked quinoa, cracked wheat or cous cous to the salad to turn it into a more traditional tabouli. For fatoush, simply add small pieces of toasted pita into the salad.

Raw Tabouli Salad

• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 cucumber, seeds removed (and saved for smoothies or juices), chopped
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 tsp dried sumac seasoning
• bunch of parsley leaves, chopped
• 1 Tbsp dried mint, crumbled and added
• 1 Tbsp (or more, to taste) onion, chopped very small
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• drizzle olive oil (about 1 Tbsp)

Raw Tabouli Salad

Mix all ingredients and enjoy.

Think happy thoughts….it’s March 1 and spring is sure to be upon us soon. To those of you who have access to maple trees: now is the time to tap them for their wonderful sap. Soon another wild year will be upon us!

Festive foraging,

~ Melissa Sokulski

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Wait, is Thanksgiving next week…already?!? How exciting!
We can get all sorts of wild edibles on our Thanksgiving table, from mushroom to plant…but in our case we are going to let the wild turkeys roam (we are vegetarian foragers!)
So lets have a vegan gluten-free wild Thanksgiving!

I’ve been seeing lots of prime edibles:

• Burdock root
• Burdock leaf stalk
• Dandelion leaves and root
• Sassafras and Spicebush twigs and root
• acorns
• black walnuts
• hickory nut
• garlic mustard
• dead nettles
• nettles
• creeping charlie/ground ivy
• hen of the woods
• blewit mushrooms
• abortive entaloma (mushroom)
• bears tooth or lion’s mane

…so many possibilities!!!

And what about Vegan Gluten-Free Entrees and sides for the Thanksgiving table?

Try stuffed squash, like the delicata squash above with a wild mushroom stuffing with acorn flour biscuits, burdock leaf stalks in gravy and white bean and nettle soup. For a dessert drink: dandelion root coffee pumpkin latte.

Recipe for Wild Mushroom Stuffed Squash

• Delicata (or your favorite stuffing squash: butternut, acorn) - cut in half lengthwise, seeds scooped out AND SAVED FOR ROASTING!
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 2 cups wild mushrooms, chopped (I used hen of the woods)
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup seeds (I used sunflower seeds and pepitas which are shelled pumpkin seeds)
• Optional: 2 cups chopped greens such as nettles, deadnettles, dandelion greens or spinach
• 2 Tbsp gluten-free tamari
• 1 Tbsp dried sage
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

To Prepare Squash and Roast Seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Slice squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds.
3. Clean seeds and place on baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and salts and mix thoroughly.
4. Rub oil on the cut side of the squash and place face down onto cooking tray.
5. Place Squash and seeds in oven.
6. After 15 minutes remove seeds and mix again so they cook evenly. Replace in oven and cook 10 to 15 minutes more until done.
7. Check squash: depending on size/thickness it should take about 40 to 60 minutes to cook. It’s done when it is soft when the top is pressed.
8. Remove from oven, flip right side up and allow to cool.

To Make Stuffing:

1. In pan on stove, saute wild mushrooms in olive oil for at least 15 minutes, until thoroughly cooked. Remove from heat.
2. Saute onion in olive oil with sea salt until translucent.
3. Add garlic, mushrooms, celery and spices and saute at least 5 minutes more.
4. If using greens, add them now and saute until wilted.
5. Add seeds and saute another couple minutes.
6. Add cooked rice and tamari and mix while heating through.
7. Taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary.

Fill Squash with stuffing and serve.

I’ll continue planning our Thanksgiving table and keep you updated.

I made a recipe for White Bean Nettle Soup which I will share with you soon as well.

What other things can you think of for the wild table?

Please add your comments below.

Enjoy the fall!!

~ Melissa

Chicken mushroom

Chicken wings were a big part of my teenage years. Even though Syracuse, New York is not Buffalo, my friends and I saw our fair share of hot chicken wings in the 80’s.

I even worked at a fast food chicken joint in the 80’s and learned the secret hot sauce recipe:

• Hot: 3 parts Tabasco to 1 part butter*

• Medium: equal parts Tabasco and butter

• Mild: 1 part Tabasco to 3 parts butter

*now of course Earth Balance or another vegan butter replacement can be substituted to make it vegan

But all that was long lost since going vegetarian in 1987. And though I did not miss the stringy veiny chicken wings, that sauce….oh, that sauce.

Then I started finding vegetarian “chicken” wings made from seitan (wheat gluten) and I was so happy! They were delicious and all I could hope for. Except for the wheat. Since being gluten-free I’ve had to give up those and THOSE I dearly miss.

I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me earlier, but suddenly this was the year that I thought to use chicken mushroom and try to make those wings. Maybe because I never actually made wings or seitan “wings” myself before (aside from lowering wings into the fryer at the fast food place, then tossing them in a bucket to shake on the sauce. I’ve never deep fried anything in my own home.)

“You can use chicken mushroom in any recipe that calls for chicken,” I’ve seen written and heard said.

And so….

Hot "chicken" wings, made with chicken mushroom

Wonderful! Heavenly! Spicy nirvana!

I simply sliced and sauteed the chicken mushroom in olive oil (adding salt), then melted some butter (you can use a vegan butter substitute such as Earth Balance) and mixed in an equal amount of hot sauce (alas, we had no Tobasco at home so I used Frank’s hot sauce), and tossed the mushrooms in the hot sauce at the end of cooking.

This is definitely a keeper.

~ Melissa

Amaranth, lambs quarters and purslane abound this time of year! Take a walk and look around: they’re even coming up through the concrete sidewalks! These plants are strong and when you eat them you take in all that strength and resilience. (”You are what you eat” after all!) More than just the tremendous amounts of vitamins and minerals these plants have, they have an energy about them, and that energy is imparted to you! These are the freshest, most local, hardy veggies you will find. Enjoy!

This week’s share:

• wild grape leaves *NEW
• wild apples *NEW
  
• lambs quarters
• amaranth greens
• peppergrass
• purslane
• sumac
• wood sorrel (*New-ish…it was in your greens mix in week 9.)

We have included wild grape leaves this week! There are actually two kinds of grape leaf in your share this week: our planted ones (which are white on the back) and wild ones. We wanted to give you both so you could sample each.

pan fried stuffed wild grape leaves (recipe below)

Grape leaves are delicious…you may know them from eating stuffed grape leaves you find in Mediterranean markets and restaurants.  I have made them before and I love them. You can look up recipes online…some are very simple, stuffing with rice, pine nuts, lemon juice, salt and some have more elaborate stuffing. Here is an easy to follow recipe for delicious vegetarian dolmas (stuffed grape leaves.)

If you plan to boil the grape leaves after stuffing, you actually do not need to cook the rice first. The rice will cook as you boil the grape leaves. Just add uncooked rice as you saute onions, mint, salt, pepper, pine nuts and lemon juice. Then stuff and roll the grape leaves. Place them in a pan or pot and cover with water plus another inch. Then put a heat proof lid on top of the grape leaves and weight it down with a clean rock so they don’t float around and open up as they cook. Cook 45 minutes to an hour.

To avoid having to do that, stuff with cooked rice which is sauteed with onions, mint, salt, pepper, etc. Then you can either pan fry or lightly steam the grape leaves instead of needing to cook them for so long.

Here is a site I found last night that has a lot to say about grape leaves, and gives a recipe for stuffing and a how to on making the grape leaves. She also tells you how to brine them if you don’t want to use them right away.

To brine: store them in very salty water (brine) and put them away for later use. The website I mentioned recommends at least 4 Tbsp salt per quart of water.

Pan Fried Stuffed Grape Leaves

Boil the grape leaves until soft (about 5 minutes).

I let them cool in the water, then I removed them and cut off the stems.

Filling:

I recommend cooked brown rice, onions, pine nuts, mint, salt and pepper - saute in olive oil and add lots of lemon juice when done.

What I used (because I had no onions or pine nuts): cooked brown rice, jalepeno pepper (chopped), chives (cut into small pieces), mint (chopped), salt - sauteed in olive oil and then I added lots of lemon juice.

* salt, olive oil and lemon juice seem to be the key to yummy grape leaves! *

** if you are going to boil the stuffed grape leaves instead of sauteing, you do not have to cook the rice first. Stuff and roll grape leave and place in pot, cover with water plus an inch, place something on top of the grape leaves (like an overturned heat-resistant lid weighted down with a clean rock) and gently boil/simmer for 45 minutes.

Here is how to stuff/roll grape leaves:

boil grape leaves. The planted ones are on bottom and turned olive green right away. The wild grape leaves on top stayed a more vibrant green.

Lay the grape leaf out top down (underside with veins up):

Add a little filling to bottom of leaf:

Fold bottom up, then sides in:

Continue rolling:

Continue until all grape leaves are stuffed, seam down:

Saute in olive oil for a few minutes, then flip to saute other side.

Drizzle with extra lemon juice and ENJOY!!!

Other ways to use grape leaves:

• try them and see if you like them! You may want to use them (raw or cooked) as wraps for all kinds of food
• saute them into dishes
• chop and add to soup
• when pickling other things like cucumbers - especially if fermenting/pickling the cukes raw in salt water -  adding grape leaves on top will keep the cukes/pickles crunchier.

Have you seen the book Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Katz? I love this book! A great way to use some of these greens is to add them to ferments like sauerkraut, or perhaps even pickle as is. I think pickled purslane would be awesome. I will try some and get back to you. When I make pickles I do it the raw way…I will fill a jar with some wide stemmed large leaved purslane, put some garlic cloves in and maybe some dill seeds, fill the jar with water and add lots of salt (4 Tbsp per quart of water.) Add a grape leaf or two to keep the veggies nice and crunchy.

Wild Apples!

Wild apples

Yes, the have some blemishes. But they are delicious! Cut off the messy parts and cut the apple first (looking for worms.) Discard wormy areas if any and enjoy! If you want you can juice them or cook them into apple sauce.

I have been adding lambs quarters and amaranth greens to all sorts of dishes: lasagna, stir fry rice, stuffing (for zucchini), soup. I also enjoy lambs quarters as a fresh green on a sandwich. They both are great tossed in salads.

The wood sorrel is sort of new…you had it briefly in a salad mix back in week 9. This is a delicious and very sour green. It’s fun to eat by itself or add to salads. It’s best raw because it’s so zesty! Cooked is ok too, but it loses some flavor (and turns from a bright green to a sort of dull olive green.)

One word of warning: wood sorrel, lambs quarters and amaranth greens all contain oxalic acid, which is not good for people with or prone to kidney stones (similar to spinach.) Please eat these greens in moderation if at all if you are someone who is prone to kidney stones.

If you haven’t tried the sumac lemonade yet, please do! It is so delicious and refreshing on these hot days! If you have tried it you know what I mean and I’m sure you appreciate getting the sumac in the share again.

Enjoy this week’s share!

wood sorrel leaf

Love and wood sorrel leaves,

Melissa

Vegan (and gluten free) chicken mushroom fricassee with cashew cream sauce

Here is a delicious recipe using the wild Chicken Mushroom, or Sulfur Shelf (Laetiporus sulfureus). This is one of my favorite wild mushrooms. It tastes delicious once cooked (it must always be cooked!) and is fun to find. Bright yellow/orange, this shelf mushroom grows on dead wood (occasionally you’ll find it growing on live wood). It has no gills on its underside - this is very important! A gilled yellow mushroom growing on wood could be the poisonous Jack O’Lantern. The Chicken mushroom is a polypore, so its underside is made up of very tiny pores which you would actually need a magnifying glass to see. Just make sure there are no gills!

Chicken mushroom/Sulfur Shelf

As I was “plating” this recipe for photographing, the word “fricassee” popped into my head. I wanted to call it “Chicken Mushroom Fricassee,” but truth be told, I wasn’t 100% sure what “fricassee” meant. So I looked it up and here is what it said on wikipedia:

“Fricassee is a catch-all term used to describe a stewed dish typically made with poultry, but other types of white meat can be substituted. It is cut into pieces and then stewed in gravy, which is then thickened with butter and cream or milk (see white gravy). It often includes other ingredients and vegetables.”

So in a way: perfect! (and in another way…I replaced chicken with chicken mushroom, and my butter/cream gravy is made with cashew cream, making the whole recipe vegan and gluten-free, and my “white” gravy was orange due to the carrot…so again, perfect! )

Cashew Cream sauce

• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1 - 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp onion
• 1 carrot (optional, it will turn sauce orange)
• 1/2 tomato
• juice from 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp wheat-free tamari
• water to cover, and possibly more if needed as blending, should end up being a thick sauce
• 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional, adds a bit of cheesy flavor)

Blend all ingredients in vitamix or high powered blender until smooth.

Other ingredients:

• chicken mushroom, sliced (as much as you want and can find!) we used about a pound or so
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 - 2 Tbsp olive oil (to saute onion and mushroom)
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• pinch cayenne (optional)
• extra water if necessary
• extra gluten free tamari if necessary

Saute sliced chicken mushroom and onion in olive oil for at least 15 minutes, adding water to steam if pan becomes too dry.

Add cashew cream sauce, mix and heat through. Add spices. Sauce will thicken, add more water and/or tamari (for saltiness) if necessary. If you’ve added more water continue to mix and heat until sauce regains thick consistency.

chicken mushroom fricassee, still in the pan

Serve over brown rice or noodles.

Very yum!!!

~ Melissa Sokulski

Food Under Foot

While searching the area for mulberry trees which still had viable berries for our share yesterday, we passed some yellow dock plants where the seeds were already brown. Striking out with the mulberries we collected these for our share.

yellow dock seeds still on stalk

This morning I decide to make some biscuits using the seeds. Instead of our usual neutral-sweet biscuit on which we like to drizzle honey, I decided to make these savory, with jalapeno cheese and onions.

Gluten Free Yellow Dock Seed Onion Jalapeno Cheese Biscuits

After stripping the seeds from the stalk, I added about half a cup of seeds to my vitamix, along with 1 1/2 cups of buckwheat.  I grinded the mixture into flour. (You could probably use a regular blender or coffee grinder to do the same.)

I poured the flour into a large bowl and added a teaspoon of sea salt and 1 Tbsp baking powder and mixed well.

Then I added 1/2 chopped onion and 3/4 cup grated jalapeno cheese (cheddar would do, or to make vegan try daiya cheese), 2 Tbsp olive oil, and about 1/2 cup (or less) rice milk (slowly as you mix, you don’t want to much milk. It should just hold together.)

I dropped in small rounded balls onto a greased cookie sheet and placed in a preheated 425 degree oven for 14 minutes.

They are simply heavenly. Savory and delicious. Yum.

yellow dock seeds shaped into a heart

Love and yellow dock seeds,

Melissa