Why Pressure Cook Beets?

In short, they’re tastier, faster, and it’s the easiest way to peel beets!

For the longest time, I hated beets. I loved basically every vegetable I had ever tried, except beets. To me, beets tasted like dirt (literally, they tasted like garden soil smells). Turns out, most beets – especially canned or otherwise pre-prepared (overly redundant? haha) – don’t actually taste like beets. They taste like dirt. Beets are delicious when they’re done right.

I was also wary of beets because I had been told by countless friends and family members that beets were a pain in the rear to peel and prep. Recipes called for hours of baking wrapped in foil or hacking away with a carrot peeler. The I stumbled across a memoir-esque account written by a woman homesteading through a winter similar to those we see in Michigan. The whole article was cozy and inspiring, but the part that really stuck with me was when she pointed out that she could make beans from dried to ready-to-eat in under two hours (!!!) and that pressure cooked beets would pop right out of their skins. She, like me, had been a beet hater before she tried pressure cooking.

I wish I could cite this article. I’d love to read it again, but alas it’s been years and I don’t even remember for certain what periodical it was in. I suspect it was Mother Earth News. The idea of being able to switch from canned beans to dried was enough to get me to try out a pressure cooker, and it was everything I’d hoped. It’s been ten years, and I still use the pressure cooker at least once a week. And not only do I love beets now, so do the kids!

Instructions:

Creepy Edible Rat Tails for Halloween

One of my favorite Urban Earthworm classics! Creepy Edible Halloween Rat Tails

Pressure Cooker Times for Everything:

Let me know if you try this out, and comment below with your favorite use for the pressure cooker!

Whenever I try something new in my pressure cooker, I always use the times listed on Hip Pressure Cooking. It’s a very complete chart! Hasn’t steered me wrong a single time.

The post The Easiest Way to Peel Beets appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

Additionally, I’ve styled this as a one pot recipe. Any method that dirties fewer dishes is a plus in my book!

Recommended Tools

I’ve mentioned it before, and I can’t stress it enough, if you chop a lot of vegetables, you’re going to want a mandoline. I linked to a couple of fancier versions in the Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup recipe, but the one I use at home is much more basic:

And then there is the immersion blender. This thing is so. useful. I use it all the time, and it is so much easier and less messy than a traditional blender. If you don’t have one, you need to get one:

Recipe

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Colcannon Soup (Vegan)

This vegan colcannon soup is a hearty, satisfying winter soup hiding a lot of cabbage and an unrivaled depth of flavor.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Irish

Keyword comfort food, Vegan

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Equipment

• Immersion Blender

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 a green cabbage
• 2 tbsp olive oil or cooking oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 15 oz can cannellini beans, undrained
• 1/4 cup vegan butter
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1-4 cups water
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

• Scrub and slice or dice the potatoes. Shape doesn't matter since they'll be blended later. No need to peel.
• Boil the potatoes in salted water until they are fork soft all the way through.
• While the potatoes boil, dice the onion and finely chop the cabbage.
• Drain the potatoes and leave them in the strainer.
• Add the cooking oil to the pot followed by the onions, cabbage, and thyme.
• Sautée the cabbage and onions until the cabbage is fully softened, stirring frequently to evenly coat with the oil and evenly sautée. About 10 minutes.
• Return the potatoes to the pot with the cabbage and onions, and add the vegetable broth.
• Add enough water to bring the level of liquid almost level with the vegetables in the pot.
• Simmer 5-10 minutes.
• While the soup is simmering, blend together the cannellini beans (with the aquafaba – liquid from the can), nutritional yeast, and butter until smooth.
• OPTIONAL: For a chunkier soup, remove some of the cabbage and potatoes from the pot with a slotted spoon and set aside. Stir back into the soup after blending.
• Pour the blended bean cream into the simmering soup and use an immersion blender to blend it all together until reaching the desired consistency. I like to leave mine just a little bit chunky, but others prefer it completely smooth – especially if you have picky eaters in the house! If necessary, add more water during blending to thin out the soup.
• Season to taste with black pepper and salt.

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Amy’s No Chicken Noodle Soup is vegan and nails the chicken noodle soup flavor, but just isn’t hearty enough for me. Actually, I rarely eat a canned soup without at least adding a bunch of frozen veggies to it. The Amy’s soup can be a little hard to find at some grocery stores, but it’s easy to pick up on Amazon either by the can:

Or a case of 12:

Preparation Tip: Fast and Easy Slicing

If you cook with a lot of vegetables, a mandoline vegetable slicer is an amazing tool you will use ALL. THE. TIME. With mine, I was able to slice all the veggies for the soup in about 4 minutes.

Do you have a favorite “Cheater” recipe?

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Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup (Vegan)

This vegan Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup is a quick and easy weeknight comfort food that is "Cheater" because it uses some ready-made grocery store ingredients.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword cheater, comfort food, soup, Vegan, vegetarian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cans Amy's No Chicken Noodle Soup
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• up to 7 cups water
• 1 can cannelloni beans, undrained
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• 1 package noodles of your choice eggless dumpling noodles, orzo, and ditalini work well
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp garlic salt
• 1 tbsp oregano measurement is for dried, but fresh is phenomenal in this soup; adjust to taste
• 1 ½ tbsp thyme measurement is for dried, but fresh is phenomenal in this soup; adjust to taste
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp vegan butter
• 1 lb frozen mixed vegetables or frozen peas* See note below
• Salt to taste

Optional Add-ins:

• Diced mushrooms shitakes are especially good
• diced potatoes
• green beans
• diced root vegetables parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, etc.

Instructions

• Heat oil in a soup pot on Med-High heat.
• Add the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery.
  
• Sauté until the onions are translucent.
• Add 2 cups of water and the pepper, garlic salt, oregano, thyme, and cayenne.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add the 2 cans of Amy's Soup, the cannelloni beans, and nutritional yeast.
• Add 2 to 5 cups of water based on your broth preferences. I typically use the soup cans to rinse out anything that gets left in them.
• Add the noodles and butter and bring to a boil.
• Boil until the noodles are soft, add the frozen vegetables.
• When the soup returns to a boil, it's ready to serve!

Notes

*Frozen Veggies Mom Hack:  I seriously felt like a genius when I thought of this.  If you are going to need to cool this soup off quickly (say, for instance to children who are starving to *death* and cannot possibly wait 3 minutes for it to cool down), hold back some of the frozen vegetables and add them when you serve the soup.  So much better than adding an ice cube because it doesn’t water down the soup!  Bonus:  If you let the kids add the veggies themselves, they’ll often take even more than you would have given them.  BAM.  #momgenuity

 

The post Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup (Vegan) appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

Sourdough Inspiration

The day after our wedding in October, I was watching The Great British Baking Show and suddenly became moved to make sourdough starter. I had been thinking about it ever since I read Sourdough by Robin Sloan. If any book will make you want to bake sourdough bread, it’s that one. I love the subtlety of a novel that is just about the struggles and beauty of every day life with tiny bits of science fiction and fantasy sneaking in. Robin Sloan’s first novel, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, is one of my favorite books of all time (granted, that’s a long list, ha), and I know many a sourdough baker who started after reading Sourdough.

I knew I would need bottled water to create a starter since our tap water is chlorinated, and I thought I needed grapes (turns out I didn’t) – and I had both bottled water and grapes left over for the wedding! What better way to begin a sourdough starter that would live with our family than from ingredients from our wedding?

Sourdough Starter

So I created Lancre, my sourdough starter named after the home of most of the witches in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I used the water from the wedding and the grapes (even though they weren’t necessary), along with some wild grapes from our backyard. If you’re interested in creating a starter of your own, I find the information over at The Clever Carrot to be the clearest and most helpful of all the sourdough websites I’ve explored.

I’ve been trying recipes here and there to use the starter that I need to discard when I feed Lancre each week. I made some great pancakes a couple weeks ago and failed miserably at making crumpets not long after that. I was really excited to find some recipes for soft pretzels using sourdough starter discard, but none of the recipes gave me exactly what I wanted: vegan, soft pretzels using sourdough starter discard and not using added yeast. I found a great recipe for vegan sourdough pretzels from Holy Cow! Vegan, but it called for added instant yeast.

Vegan Sourdough Soft Pretzels Recipe

What I present to you below is my variation on that recipe without the added yeast. To accommodate the change, I handle the dough much more similarly to sourdough bread dough and my recipe calls for a much longer rise time. For a quicker version, if you have instant yeast on hand, check out Holy Cow! Vegan’s recipe.

If you try these out, please let me know what you think and leave a rating!

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Soft Pretzels – Sourdough Starter Discard (Vegan, no added yeast)

Vegan soft pretzels made from sourdough starter discard with no added yeast.

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword Cooking with Kids, sourdough, starter discard, Vegan

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 27 minutes

Servings 12 Pretzels

Ingredients

• 1 cup sourdough starter discard
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup warm plant milk (soy, almond, oat, etc.)
• 3 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour (I used 2 cups all-purpose and 1 cup bread flour because that's what I had on hand)
• 1 tbsp maple syrup or other sweetener (sugar, agave, etc.)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt (plus some to sprinkle on top of pretzels if desired)

Glaze

• 1 tbsp sweetener
• 2 tbsp water

Instructions

• Combine the sourdough starter, water, and plant milk. Stir until starter is dissolved.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until a shaggy dough forms.
• Autolyse: Cover the bowl and allow the shaggy dough to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. This will allow the gluten to start forming and make the dough more workable.
• Knead the dough until it comes together and forms a workable ball. If the dough is too dry or hard, add small amounts of water.
• Place the dough ball in a large, lightly greased (I use coconut oil to grease, but any plant oil will do) bowl. Cover in a relatively airtight manner. I will sometimes layer two plastic shopping bags over the top and secure with a rubber band, and have also found that a heavy pot lid without vents works well with one of my bowls. If you use plastic wrap, that works.
• Allow the dough to rest until it grows 50% to 100% – ie, until it gets half way to doubling or more. I rested it for 12 hours overnight. You can also put it in the oven with the oven light on to gently increase the warmth, which will cause it to rise more. This step will take anywhere from 3 to 12 hours depending on your starter, air temperature, and schedule.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
• Place the dough on a lightly greased surface and knead a few times into a ball.
• Divide the dough into 12 equal portions, covering the portions you are not working with a damp dish towel while they wait.

Shaping the Pretzels – Great fun for kids!

• Take one piece of dough and roll it out into a long snake – about 8 inches long.
• Lay the snake in a hill or "n" shape.
• Cross the legs of your n so you now have an upside down teardrop with legs.
• Cross the legs over again the same direction you did the first time. Now you have an upside down teardrop with a twist at the bottom and very short legs.
• Grasp the loop of the teardrop and fold it down to the bottom of the twist. This will result in the loop making a circle around the twist, the traditional pretzel shape. You may need to stretch the loop a little during this step to get the shape right, and that's totally fine! Also, you'll see from my pictures that they don't have to be perfectly shaped. It's more important that they're fun to make and taste great!
• Place the pretzel twists on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
• Mix the glaze.
• Brush the glaze evenly over the top of all the pretzels. We used our fingers for this since my kitchen brush has gone missing!
• Sprinkle lightly with salt if desired. Ours were very lightly salted with regular table salt.
• Bake for 27 minutes. For darker pretzels, you may want to place them on the top rack or bake them slightly longer.

The post Sourdough Soft Pretzels – Vegan, no added yeast appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

A few tips to keep in mind:

• It is best to use “second snow” or “later snow”: snow from after the first couple hours of snowfall.
• Make sure to collect your snow from a clean surface (above and below) that has not been trodden on or touched.
• Fluffy, dry snow works best for this recipe.  That’s one of the bonuses.  My kids are always disappointed when the snow is not packing snow, but at least we can make snow cream!
• Packing snow occurs when the temperature is within a couple degrees above or below freezing.  Fluffy snow comes when the temperature is more than a few degrees below freezing.

Vegan Snow Ice Cream Recipe 

INGREDIENTS
All amounts are approximate and should be adjusted to taste 

• 4 – 8 cups clean snow
• 1 cup soy milk* (or other plant milk)*
• 1/3 cup or maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt

* You can use any flavor of milk that you choose – vanilla, chocolate, sweetened or unsweetened, almond, coconut, hemp, flax, macadamia, cashew, etc.  If you use a flavored and/or sweetened milk, you may desire to adjust the amounts of sugar and vanilla.

DIRECTIONS

1. Whisk together all the ingredients except the snow in a large bowl.  (Leave the snow in a bowl outside or in the freezer until ready to stir it in.
2. Place the mixture in the freezer for 10 minutes.  (This step is optional, but snow cream melts very quickly and this step helps it last just a bit longer).
3. Mix in the snow about 1/2 cup at a time until the snow cream reaches a consistency just thicker than soft serve ice cream.
4. Serve and enjoy immediately!

As always, if you try this recipe, please let me know in the comments, like, and share this post!

Disclaimer:  All food comes with a risk.  I can’t guarantee that eating snow is safe, though I certainly feel comfortable with the snow ice cream we make and enjoy.  I find this article has good information on the comparative safety of consuming snow:  So You Want To Eat Snow. Is It Safe? We Asked Scientists

The post Snow Ice Cream appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

• 3-4 cups cubed butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into small cubes
• 1/4 cup vegan butter (something like Earth Balance)
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth*
• 2 tablespoons miso paste (yellow or red), dissolved in the broth
• 1/2 cup unsweetened plant milk (soy, almond, etc.)*
• 1 and 1/4 cups nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Optional: shredded dairy-free cheese (like Daiya cheddar shreds)

* In a pinch you can do all broth or all plant milk, for a total of one cup liquid.

1. Boil the squash cubes until completely tender and then drain.
2. Meanwhile, heat all the other ingredients except the optional shredded “cheese” in a saucepot until the butter, miso paste, and nutritional yeast are dissolved and the liquid is hot.
3. Combine the cooked squash cubes with the liquid and blend until smooth using a standard blender or an immersion blender.
4. Serve over prepared noodles of your choice.  I prefer to stir the noodles and sauce all together in the saucepot.
5. If desired, stir in Daiya cheddar shreds until they start to melt and stretch.
6. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

The post Vegan Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

In the US, Thanksgiving is a food and TV holiday.  Growing up, it was turkey followed by watching the Lions play.  These days, both my food choices and my Thanksgiving watch list have improved.  It’s only right that I should share what to watch this Thanksgiving with you!

Thanksgiving Morning 

We start the morning with America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – the parade through downtown Detroit that is just as old as the Macy’s Parade.  Interestingly, they are both tied for second oldest Thanksgiving Parade in the US behind the Dunkin Doughnuts Parade in Pilly.  No one really watches it, and the kids run around making as much of a mess as they can while I prep the cleaning.

For the Kids

While the Tofurkey is roasting and I’m taking the butcher knife to some Brussels sprouts, the kids start to settle down in front of Free Birds.

Family Thanksgiving Movies 

After dinner, we all collapse in our feast coma in front of my favorite Family Thanksgiving movie of all time:  Addams Family Values.

The Thanksgiving play sequence of this movie highlights the hypocrisy of the holiday in a fantastically funny satire:  We celebrate turkeys while brutally killing millions of them, and perpetuate the deeply problematic myth of the “First Thanksgiving” between the “pilgrims and Indians.”

This year, my favorite article covering the truth behind the holiday is this one:  The Thanksgiving Tale We Tell Is a Harmful Lie. As a Native American, I’ve Found a Better Way to Celebrate the Holiday

Though, to be honest, I originally clicked on the article because I wanted to know if milkweed pods were edible.  Spoiler alert – the article doesn’t explicitly say, outside of the photo caption.

Winding Down

As we tuck into additional plates of biscuits with mushroom gravy (me) and pie (basically everyone else), we transition to a classic with deep ties to past family holidays: All 9 Thanksgiving episodes of Friends.

Nightcap

And for the grand finale when the kids are in bed, nothing beats finishing off Thanksgiving laughing until it hurts to the best Thanksgiving movie of all time:  Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.  Seriously, I don’t care what generation you’re from, this movie is SO. GOOD.  This year, it is streaming on Hulu.

The post What to Watch This Thanksgiving appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

A friend of mine was kind enough to share her Taco Soup recipe quite some time ago, but I lost my phone (and therefore the pictures) shortly after I tried it out.  I think that actually turned out for the best, as it was even better this time!

For the fast, easy version of the recipe, simply go with the canned versions of all the listed ingredients, pre-mixed taco seasoning, and don’t bother with the toppings bar.  For a fun twist on Taco Night, lay out a whole spread of toppings – lettuce, diced tomatoes, olives, avocado, various salsas, tortilla chips, and so on.

Taco Soup Ingredients:

• 1 – 2 diced onion(s)
• 2 tbs oil suitable for sautéing (I used grapeseed)
• 46oz can tomato juice (low sodium preferred)
• 29oz can crushed tomatoes (low sodium preferred)
• 1 – 2 cups frozen corn
• 1 ½ cups prepared red kidney beans (or one can rinsed)
• 1 ½ cups prepared black beans (or one can rinsed)
• 4-5oz can of diced green chilies (mild to hot to your taste)
• ½ – ¾ cup Salsa (chunky)
• Taco Seasoning* to taste
  • Cumin
  • Garlic powder
  • Chili powder and/or cayenne
  • Cilantro
  • Garlic Salt
• 1 diced green bell pepper

Serve with:

• Diced avocado
• Shredded lettuce
• Tortilla chips (crunched up)
• Nutritional Yeast
• Olives
• All your favorite taco toppings!

*If you want to mix up taco seasoning to keep on hand, try this recipe.

Directions:
Note: This is a super flexible recipe.  The amounts of vegetables, beans, salsa, and seasonings are all completely flexible based on your tastes.  You could even add a lot more vegetables or tailor it to you preferred taco ingredients/toppings.

1. Dice the onion(s) and, in the pot the soup will cook in, briefly sauté them in the oil – only until they just start to soften.
2. Stir in everything else except the green bell pepper and the “serve with” ingredients.
   • You can thaw out the corn first, for slightly faster cooking
3. Bring to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add green pepper; simmer for 3-5 minutes, just long enough to heat the pepper through but not soften it.
5. Serve! Top bowls with crunched up tortilla chips, diced avocado, shredded lettuce, olives, nutritional yeast, and/or all your favorite taco toppings!

The post Vegan Taco Soup – Fast, Easy, Delicious appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

    Summer is the time for BBQ, and these Vegan BBQ Pulled Mushroom sandwiches are a major crowd pleaser in addition to being super easy to prep.  I hate to even reference meat here, but this really is an amazing vegan pulled pork alternative – and much healthier (though BBQ sauce is still pretty high in sugar – and watch out for brands with high fructose corn syrup).

I’ll lay out the basic recipe with a few alternatives to kick it up a level or two:

Required Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb Mushrooms (should be about 3 cups when raw and roughly sliced)
  • Best mushrooms for this recipe are, in order:
  • King Oyster
  • Oyster
  • Shiitake
  • Other mushrooms are an option as well, but the best texture is achieved with mushrooms similar in firmness and texture to those listed above.
• 1 cup BBQ Sauce
• Buns
• Oil appropriate for sautéing

Optional Ingredients:

• 1 large or 2 small Onions
• 2 tbsp minced Garlic
• 1 Red Bell Pepper
• 2 tbsp vegan Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tbsp Liquid Aminos
• 2 tbsp Dry White Wine
• 1 tbsp Nutritional Yeast
• Thick Sourdough Toast
• Hoagie Rolls

Amounts:

• This is a very flexible recipe and the amounts of the various ingredients will vary based on the overall amount you want to make.  For the purposes of this recipe, I will include rough amounts that make enough to feed 4-6 people (depending on the size of the buns you use).
• If you don’t use onions, you will need more mushrooms.  My amounts presume you are using onions.

Easiest Possible Preparation:

1. Slice Mushrooms into rough, thin strips.
2. Saute mushrooms over medium high heat until they begin to soften.
3. Add BBQ sauce.
4. Mix well and continue to sauté until desired consistency is achieved (mushrooms will get softer and sauce will get thicker as dish cooks).

Preferred Preparation:

1. Dice onions and place in pan (no heat yet).
2. Dice red pepper  and place in pan (still no heat).
3. Slice mushrooms into rough, thin strips.
4. Saute the onions, garlic, and pepper over medium high heat until the onions just start to become translucent.  If desired, add white wine, liquid aminos, and/0r Worcestershire sauce (I use all 3!).
5. Add the mushrooms.  Stir.  Saute until the mushrooms start to soften and release their liquid.
6. Add the BBQ Sauce.  Stir and Saute until the sauce thickens and reaches desired consistency.  Add more Worcestershire or liquid aminos to taste.

Note: Sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.  Avoid over-cooking the mushrooms, you want mushrooms not mush!

Scoop some onto a thick slice of sourdough toast with some nutritional yeast (or a hoagie or a regular bun), and enjoy!

The post Vegan BBQ Pulled Mushrooms appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

I grew up eating, and loving, Hamburger Helper Stroganoff.  Both my desire for nutritious food and for ethically produced food have long since separated me from this childhood favorite.  Last week, I finally created a vegan mushroom stroganoff that completely fills that comfort food sized hole Hamburger Helper had left behind.  Bonus: it is totally good for you.

This is such a convincing stroganoff that MacGyver actually asked if it had meat in it, even though he obviously knows better.

As a personal triumph, this is possibly the first recipe I have created entirely from scratch.  Most of my recipes are either amalgamations of a few other recipes or veganizations of my mom’s recipes.  It all started with one very important realization:  porcini mushrooms are the key to a good stroganoff.

The recipe feeds four – including one voracious breastfeeding mama (me) and one pre-teen in a constant state of growth-spurt (Punky).  There were no leftovers.

Ingredients
SAUTE
1 onion, diced
1 c (or more!) chopped mushrooms (I used a wild mushroom mix, but almost any mushrooms, including regular button, will do)
1-2 tbsp minced or chopped garlic
1/3 c dry white wine (optional)

SAUCE
1/2 oz (or more!) dried porcini mushrooms + 1 1/2 c water
1/2 c raw cashews, soaked
1/2 lb silken tofu (half a standard package)
1/3 c nutritional yeast
1 tsp thyme and/or oregano (dried)
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
vegetable broth, water, or unsweetened plant milk (like almond milk) as needed to obtain desired texture.
optional: truffle salt to taste

SERVE
1/2 lb wilted greens or vegetable of your choice (I used 1/2 a bag frozen kale) – Because, as Punky will be the first to tell you, I have to put green vegetables in everything.
Pasta of your choice, prepared – I’d love to have this over some high quality pappardelle noodles, but this kids chose penne this time around (whole wheat, of course).

Directions
1.  Soak cashews while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  If possible, soak for an hour.

2.  Dice onion and set aside to maximize nutritional value.

3.  Place a minimum of 1/2 oz of dried porcinis, broken up into small pieces, into 1 1/2 – 2 cups of water and bring to a boil (I just did this in the microwave).  Let sit at least 5 minutes.

4.  In a large pan, sauté the onion, garlic, and chopped mushrooms in white wine (or vegetable broth or water or a little oil) until the onions start to become translucent, the mushrooms brown, and the wine evaporates.

5. While that is going, combine all the sauce ingredients, including the water the porchinis simmered in, in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add vegetable broth, water, or almond milk (or similar) as needed to achieve the desired consistency.

6.  Add the sauce from the blender to the pan with the mushrooms and onions.  Mix and heat through.

Top your noodles with the greens followed by the sauce.  You can also mix it all together in one pot before serving.  Or keep the sautéed mushrooms and onions separate to top the sauce (noodles, greens, sauce, mushrooms and onions).  Sprinkle with just a dash of truffle salt if desired.

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