Sunday, May 23, 2010

Kale and Chard Frittata



In an effort to use some of the fresh greens from my garden, I decided to try a recipe for a vegan frittata. I used the recipe from the Vegan Brunch cookbook with a few additions of my own. I had been reading about something called black salt or Kala Namak in Vegan Brunch and on the web. It's a an Indian condiment that is supposed to have an eggy flavor. My husband decided right away that from now on he is calling it fart salt because, you guessed it, it smells a little sulfury. I also added some Daiya vegan "cheese" to it because I can't seem to get enough of the stuff. If you haven't tried Daiya yet, I highly recommend it. I think the frittata would still be pretty good without the cheese, but I think it helped hold it all together.

Here is the recipe the way I made it:

Vegan Frittata

olive oil
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
A mixture of greens (I used Chard and White Russian Kale, but you could use pretty much any greens), chopped (about 4 cups)
2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. black salt
1 pound extra firm tofu
1 T. soy sauce
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. turmeric
several dashed freshly ground black pepper
1/4 nutritional yeast
1/2 cup Daiya cheddar cheese
salt, to taste

In a large pan over medium heat, saute the garlic in the olive oil until golden in color.

Add the greens and oregano and cook until the greens are wilted and soft.

While the chard is cooking, in a large bowl, prepare the tofu. Press tofu to remove any excess water. Use your hand to crumble the tofu into small pieces. Add the soy sauce, mustard, turmeric, pepper, nutritional yeast, vegan cheese and black salt and mix well. When your greens are ready, mix them into the tofu mixture. Taste for salt.

Lightly oil an 8-inch pie plate and firmly press the tofu mixture into it. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the top is golden and firm. Allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

3 comments:

  1. I'll try this soon--not sure where to get black salt, but I too have access to greens from the garden. Did the black salt substantially influence the flavor?

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  2. I'm not sure how much flavor it gave to the dish, I think it is a little salty though, so I wouldn't add a lot of additional salt. I'm sure it would be good without it if you can't find it.

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  3. I saw a recipe in the new Vegetarian Times for a frittata that uses chickpea flour instead of tofu, it called for the fart salt as well. They described it as adding an eggy smell to the dish and I was thinking "the smell is the thing I hate most about eggs!!!" So I probably wouldn't use it. The recips sounds interesting though, you cook the chich pea flour then chill it, it says it gives it the egg texture.

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