Happy Collard Greens Day and Juneteenth Day!

Blogger of the Day: Michelle at Vegan Cooking with Love

I discovered Vegan Cooking with Love while searching for soul food, veganstyle. One of my oldest friends is from the Deep South and I am determined to show her that YES, she can go vegan and still enjoy all of her favorite comfortfood cravings! VCwL is like vegan happyland for her...a collection of crueltyfree Southern classics and a whole lot more! Perfect too for celebrating Juneteenth Day today!  :)

Michelle's video recipes are a pleasure to behold. Her YouTube channel shows you how to do it all from basics like How to Press Tofu without a Tofu Press and How to Cut Jicama for a Salad to making treasured treats like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles and Carrot Cake with a Cream Cheese Glaze. She even offers a superhelpful course on how to make cooking videos! The videos are short, slick and speedy...nothing complicated, just yumfully fun vegan cooking!  :)

Michelle’s Collard Greens

Barbecue Tofu

Green Beans with Bread Crumbs

Macaroni Salad

Savory Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Southern Potato Salad

Creamy Southern Grits

Applesauce Cake

Peach Cobbler

Sweet Potato Pie

Explore the rest of Michelle's menu for recipes from everywhere!  :)

Did you know that "greens" includes beet greens, broccoli raab, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach, Swiss chard, turnip greens, all sorts of Asian and African leafery and even some edible weeds! Which are your favorites and how do you like them? Do you groove on soul food? What do you crave most?  ;)

Find more feasts in our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Happy Chicory Day!

Blogger of the Day: Alice at cotto e crudo

Remember summertime days exploring forgotten fields and bringing home bouquets of wild things for your mom? Did you ever guess there were feasts in those flowers?

Check out chicory! By nature this bunch is on the bitter side but it can be tempered out by cooking if you like. The group of gourmet greens includes...
• Common Chicory-the leaves of this roadside bloom brightly flavor all sorts of dishes, and the root is often ground up and used in coffee substitutes...really good stuff!
• Sugarloaf-long oval heads of greens that sing in salads or stews
• Radicchio-deep green or rosy red bunches that add a spike of color and spice
• Belgian Endive-these tight white spears of leaves zing up any recipe...choose whiter leaves if you want a mellower taste

Now on to the recipes! I've only just found Alice's crazyamazing cotto e crudo ("cooked and raw" in Italian) and I'm lovin' it! So many supercreative recipes, combining the common with the exotic and developing flavors that are flippingly delicious! I've already spent hours on the site and can barely tear myself away!  :)

Radicchio and Fig Salad with Black Sesame Seeds, Balsamic Vinegar and Thyme

Fig, Chocolate and Hazelnut Open Sandwich

Whole Wheat Linguine with Radicchio and Seitan Ragù

Apple and Chestnut Mini Loaves with Hazelnut Sauce

Almond Pannacotta with Cacao and Carob Sauce and Prickly Pears

Rice Custard with Persimmon and Lavender Syrup

Polenta with Porcini, Tahin and Sage
served with Creamed Pumpkin and Sesame Seeds

Black Venus Rice, Asparagus and Curried Tempeh Salad

Mezze Maniche with Saffron and Zucchini Flowers

Pistachio and Chocolate Covered Figs

Cocoa Squares with Himalayan Salted Ganache, Candied Ginger and Chocolate Curls

Have you tried Radicchio or Belgian Endive or any other chicory? Do you experiment with new ingredients or do prefer the tried and true? What was your last experiment and how did it go? Who was the last person you surprised with a bouquet of flowers?  ;)

Celebrate some more with our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!