While I'm inside getting toasty, nothing ices the cake better than extra cozy comfort food and nothing is more comforting than down home southern cooking.
First we need biscuits. Lots of biscuits. Pantloads of biscuit. Start with a recipe and then double, triple, quadruple that bad boy. This healthy-ish recipe for vegan biscuits is perfect for a chilly day, moist on the inside, crispy on the outside and oh-so-buttery.
"Buttery" Vegan Biscuits
2 cups Unbleached Whole Wheat White Flour
1 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp Coconut oil (chilled)
1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
Preheat oven to 400. Combine dry ingredients then cut in oil with pastry cutter. Stir in wet ingredients, pat dough out on floured surface, and cut biscuits (I just cut mine into squares to save time, but these work great for round biscuits or any other shape). Place on greased or parchment covered pan and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Ok we've got a comforting starch, now let's fry something. As I ripped out the tomato plants I was sure to save all of those beautiful green fruits, perfect for this occasion.
Fried Green Tomatoes
3-4 large Green Tomatoes, sliced into 1/4 rounds
2 eggs
Breading:
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
Season Salt to taste
While you're preparing your tomatoes start the oil heating in the pot. For the best taste and benefit to your body, use Lou-ana coconut oil. It is refined so it doesn't carry a coconut flavor and it fries at a little lower temperature, but it is a much healthier oil than vegetable oil. It is more expensive that vegetable oil, but the benefit of the switch far outweighs the price. Not to mention, if you filter and reuse you rarely have to buy it. You can buy Lou-ana coconut oil at Walmart, Hy-Vee, and just about any other super market these days.
Toss your sliced tomatoes in a Ziploc with the eggs, seal, and shake. Put you breading in a paper bag (or another Ziploc) and pour your eggs and tomatoes into the breading bag, seal, and shake. Drop a sprinkle of flour into the oil to see if it bubbles, if it does, you're ready to go. Fry just until crispy the place on a towel lined plate, to absorb access oil.
Lastly we need some tangy braised greens. I picked some mizuna at the farm, and scored some hakurei turnips and fresh garlic from the Columbia Farmer's Market. I chopped up about 5 cloves of garlic, and sautéd in a tbsp of olive oil. Removed the greens from my turnips (and saved those guys for later) and roughly chopped along with my mizuna. I tossed it in the skillet for about 2 minutes and finished off with a squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of sea salt. D-lish!
These three comfy foods work well as a sandwich or served separately. One thing is for sure, ya'll will be back for more!
In the past I'd probably have stayed far away from something like this, but this really does look good and I'm trying to change my eating habits since my recent health problems. I have one question, what does the lemon juice do for the biscuits? Sorry just not a real knowledgeable cook.
ReplyDeleteThe lemon juice makes them taste like buttermilk biscuits without actually having buttermilk in them. If you ever need a substitute for buttermilk just add a tbsp or so of lemon juice or vinegar to a cup of regular milk, or in my case almond milk and viola! you have buttermilk.
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