By Lisa Rimmert, Director of Development
I recently had the pleasure of visiting Portland for the first time, to meet with many wonderful Vegan Outreach donors there. Of course I had a long list of restaurants and shops to visit too, as everyone knows Portland is a haven of vegan goodness. I had some expected favorites, like Vtopian Artisan Cheese shop, Portobello, and a few others. But one place I ate surprised me and stood out.
Diane, an awesome VO donor, suggested Prasad, a little cafe inside a yoga studio, and I’m so glad she did. I ordered the BBQ Plate, made with barbecue chickpeas, jalapeño cornbread, millet, and steamed greens with jalapeño cashew cheese. It was one of my favorite meals in Portland, and that’s really saying something!
When I arrived home in Denver, I knew I had to recreate the meal. I made a couple changes due to laziness–using buckwheat instead of millet, because I had that on hand, and not including jalapeños in the cashew cheese. It was delicious! I made the dish for my parents, too, using farrow as the grain, and without nutritional yeast (a vegan sin, I know, but it’s hard to find where they live in rural Illinois!). It was delicious once again! I hope you make it and enjoy it even half as much as I did!
Ingredients:
- 2 cans of chickpeas
- 1.5 cups of buckwheat (farrow or rice also works great!)
- 1 bunch of kale
- 1/4 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
- 1/4 cup raw cashews
- 1/4 cup soy or almond milk
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp oil for frying
- Pinch of garlic powder
- Cook the buckwheat, farrow, or rice according to directions on bag.
- Meanwhile, rinse the kale in a strainer, then squeeze out water and remove stems. Rip or cut kale into large bite-sized pieces.
- Blend cashews thoroughly in food processor with garlic and nutritional yeast. Then add a little milk, and blend again. This should be a cream sauce, so add more milk as needed to get good consistency. Set aside.
- Heat kale on medium in big frying pan. Stir often. Remove from heat when nice green color and heated through.
- Drain water from chickpeas and heat on med-low in a separate pan. Stir often to avoid sticking. When chickpeas are heated through, place in bowl and mix with barbecue sauce.
- Serve the kale, chickpeas, and grains with cashew cream sauce drizzled on top. Enjoy!