Portobello Mushroom Sauce for One

This rich and tasty sauce can go on pizza, noodles, rice--almost anything! If you like mushrooms, this will be your new favorite.

1 TBLSP olive oil

2 2-inch across baby Portobello mushrooms, sliced (you can use other kinds for a milder flavor)

2 green onions, diced

½ teaspoon vegan butter

1 clove garlic

1 TBLSP all-purpose flour (you can use a gluten free option too)

1 TBLSP white wine

½ teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce (I make my own)

3 TBLSP water or vegetable broth

½ TBLSP nutritional yeast

Pinch of dried thyme

Pinch of dried tarragon leaves

½ teaspoon dried chives

Pinch salt

Pinch black pepper

1/3 cup non-dairy milk (I like almond milk, but they’re all good)

1. In a skillet, add the olive oil and mushrooms. Cook for about 4 minutes over medium low heat, until they begin to soften and brown.
2. Add in the green onions and cook for another 2 minutes. Take it off the heat and set it aside.
3. In a small saucepan, heat the vegan butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 3 or 4 minutes. Whisk in the flour and combine well. It should make a paste. Turn the heat down if it’s starting to stick or brown.
4. Add in the white wine, Worcestershire sauce, and the water or broth. Let it thicken a bit.
5. Stir in the nutritional yeast, thyme, tarragon, chives, salt, and pepper. Add in the milk and whisk it in too. Let it thicken a bit.
6. Add this sauce to the mushrooms and toss in the black olives. Stir over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
7. Serve over pasta, zucchini noodles, your favorite faux meats, rice, breakfast biscuits—anything you can think of!

Variations:

• This would be lovely with 4-6 sliced black olives in there, or a crown of chopped and toasted walnuts.

Fennel and Mushroom Pasta for One

I love fennel. From its licorice-flavored fronds to its celery-shaped stalk, it’s something I could eat very nearly every day. When you fry it a little, the flavor gets milder, but no less delicious. Yummmmm.

1 serving spaghetti or fettuccini noodles

1 TBLSP olive oil

1 TBLSP vegan butter

2 thin slices yellow onion, cut into crescents

3 mushrooms, halved and sliced

½ fennel bulb, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

¼ cup white wine or 2 TBLSP vodka and 1 TBLSP water

Sprinkle of flour (use corn starch if you’re gluten free)

Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large pot, get the water boiling for the pasta. Don’t start the sauce until the pasta’s in the water—it goes fast! Once the water’s boiling, put the pasta in and start the sauce.
2. In a frying pan, heat the olive oil and butter, and sauté the onion and mushroom for a few minutes, until the onion is soft but not yet translucent.
3. Add the fennel and continue stirring and sautéing until the fennel is relaxed, the onions are transparent, and the mushrooms have lost and reabsorbed all their water and are turning a little brown.
4. Add in the garlic, give it 20 seconds or so, and then add in the wine or water and vodka mixture. Sprinkle the flour and stir it in to make a thicker sauce.
5. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on a bed of cooked noodles. Yum!

Biscuits and Gravy for One

I’d heard about biscuits and gravy for years but never tried it. It sounded strange to me. But when a friend from the south danced around my living room touting the virtues of this particular dish, I decided that I had to find out for myself.

For the Biscuits:

¼ cup almond milk

1 tsp vinegar

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp baking soda

1 ½ TBSP cold vegan butter

For the Gravy:

1 ounce white button mushrooms (or a variety), about half a cup

1 teaspoon vegan butter

1 teaspoon minced shallot (or onion)

2 teaspoons all-purpose flour (possibly a pinch or two more)

¼ cup veggie stock or water

Pinch of fresh or dried thyme

Pinch of salt

A few grinds of pepper

Make the Biscuits:

Preheat a baking pan or baker’s stone in a 450 degree Fahrenheit oven. A hot pan makes browner, crunchier edges. If you don’t want it crunchy, don’t preheat the pan.

1. Add the vinegar to the milk and stir. Set it aside
2. Place the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and combine. Cut the butter in with a fork or a pastry knife until it resembles wet sand.
3. Add the milk and vinegar, which should be nicely curdled by now, slowly and stir until combined. (You may not need all of the liquid, so add it slowly. It shouldn’t be too wet, but all the pieces should clump together.)
4. Turn the dough onto a floured surface, sprinkle a little flour on top, and knead the dough two or three times. You’re not trying to get a glutinous mixture, you’re just trying to make sure the fats are well-distributed.
5. Press the dough into a circle or rectangle. Don’t overwork it, or the biscuits will be tough. Cut with a biscuit cutter or shape into disks. This should make three very large biscuits or four or five medium/small ones, depending on how thin you press it out. It doesn’t rise much, so keep that in mind.
6. Place the formed biscuits on a hot stone or line the hot baking pan with parchment paper and put the biscuits there. Bake for 10-13 minutes.

While the biscuits are baking, make the gravy.

Make the Gravy:

1. In skillet over medium to medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the shallot and mushroom and cook for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and brown, and most of their liquid is evaporated.
2. Stir in the flour and reduce heat to medium. Cook for another minute or two.
3. Slowly add veggie broth or water while stirring to reduce clumps.
4. Add in the thyme and stir it in too.
5. You may want to use an immersion blender at this point if you want smooth gravy. I love the tang of biting into a mushroom, so I almost always skip this step.
6. Reduce the heat to simmer and continue to stir until it reaches desired thickness, about 5 minutes. If it appears too thin, add a touch more flour and whisk. If it’s too thick, add more broth or water.
7. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.  

Assemble the Plate:

1. Place the baked biscuits on a plate in a pattern that pleases you. I like a straight line or a slightly curved one, depending on how many biscuits I plan to eat in a single sitting.
2. Slosh the gravy over the top of the biscuits. Again, I like a line, but another way to go would be to make a puddle of gravy and settle the biscuits into it. 

Shown here with fresh fruit salad.