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Food Blog

Sweet potato hash and tempeh bacon

I needed a hearty breakfast today. I was meeting up with friends for a hike, and I opted to let my favorite pre-hike brunches of the past inspire me: breakfast at Ravens in Mendocino. So I made a simple sweet potato hash with spring onions, green garlic, and red bell pepper, with a little arugula wilted in at the end for good measure. But protein was also required, so I marinated thick strips of tempeh in a thin broth with apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, minced garlic, tomato puree, hot sauce, liquid smoke, and a tiny bit of coconut nectar, then pan-fried them. A little of the marinade was drizzled over the hash to help the arugula wilt (and add flavor); more was added to the pan with the tempeh after one flip and allowed to cook all the way down, to better infuse the flavors.

The hike was worth it.

Categories
Food Blog

Collards & sweet potato crunch bowl

On Wednesday nights, I try to make something that comes together quickly, because I go to Pilates when I’m normally working on dinner. Lately, of course, I have time to get everything prepped before I go–either have everything ready to cook and serve or make it and let it cool off. Tonight I ended up trying a recipe from Salad Samurai I’d flipped past but never tried before, and man, I won’t sleep on it again. This is a pretty good bowl, and easy too!

The main components are sweet potatoes (roasted in chunks), collard greens (raw or gently cooked), black beans, scallions, spicy nuts, and an orange-based dressing. I used walnuts instead of the recipe’s pecans because that’s what I had on hand; I also threw in a cup or so of leftover cooked quinoa just because. It’s spicy and bright and delicious. You could probably buy some spicy candied nuts and use baby greens for something even faster, but this was simple enough.