Recipe: Kate’s Vegan Lentil Tart

No traveling today. We had dinner guests over instead.
The main course was a big hit:


Kate’s Vegan Lentil Tart
(Serves 8-10 generously)

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.

1. Prepare the vegan double-crust pie dough of your choice. I use a simple double-crust pie crust recipe (specifically, from Joy of Cooking cookbook), substituting Earth Balance shortening sticks for butter/non-vegan shortening. Here, either go ahead and roll it out and put in a springform baking pan 12+ inches in diameter. If you want or have to use a deep dish pie pan, cut the ingredients in half or you can make two tarts (*you’ll need to double the crust, though, as well.) Roll out and set aside the top crust or put it in the fridge to chill until you are ready to cover the filling.
2. Prep the filling ingredients as follows:
   
   • ¼ lb chopped onions - size to your own taste, I like diced.
   • ½ lb pre-cooked lentils (I buy mine at Trader Joes, most of the time.)
   • ¼ broccoli - if using frozen, just let it sit and thaw to room temp; if fresh, chop into bite-size pieces and steam just a minute to soften - Unless you like crunchy broccoli, then leave raw before cooking.
   • ½ lb cooked rice - I love Basmati for this, but anything like rice or Quinoa, etc will do well.
   • 6-8 oz. mushrooms - chopped to match chopped onions or broccoli size.
   • ⅓ lb petite diced or thinly sliced carrots.
3. Put all the prepped ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir in 4T dry or paste vegan soupstock/bouillon. I make my own that has a little corn starch added to thicken, but if you use regular bouillon, make sure to add cornstarch as directed below.
   
4. Add spices to taste:
   
   • 2T garlic, dry ground or 1T chopped
   • 2T onion powder (I love onion, so this gives it even more onion-ey flavor!)
   • 1t Rosemary
   • 1t Basil
   • 1t Salt (more to taste, of course)
   • ½ t black pepper
   • 2T corn starch (if you want it to really set up when cooking, add 1T more for a more solid tart.
   • 1T vegan worchestershire (optional, for smokiness - liquid smoke is also good)
5. Mix all the ingredients together and fill the pan, covering with top crust, rolling and crimping the edges when done. I like to use a paring knife to make small slices around the top, but it’s not necessary. I also use what little bit of dough I have left over to make leaves or shapes, whatever, on top as decoration (They are nice and crispy when the tart is done.)
6. Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes. Check it periodically and remove from the oven when the crust is golden brown. If you make a smaller pie or larger one, a nice, golden crust really determines doneness.
7. Let it sit for a few minutes to cool (it’s super hot inside). This will make it solidify and make slicing easier.

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Bosphorus restaurant, downtown Cary

A convenient Turkish restaurant in downtown Cary, NC. If you like Lebanese or Greek food, you'll like this.

Just arrive early, and be prepared to wait a while since this place can get crowded.
They bring wonderful fresh hot sesame pita & olive oil to your table while you wait.


The Mez platter is fairly large.
The spinach pide is like a nice personal pizza with feta.

KoMo KoMo Korean

While grocery shopping at one of our fave local stores: Kroger, we finally timed it right to go to the KoMo KoMo Korean restaurant next door. (They have annoying hours.)

Not quite what we were expecting: it has a nice "date-night" atmosphere with the lighting down low, however, the chairs are un-padded hard wood, so you won't want to sit around too long. It wasn't crowded at all, and the service was very nice.

Among the typical Korean offerings there were a number of vegetarian options. We ordered the Rice Bowl (BiBimBop), and the Asian Noodle Salad. Both were very good. Perfectly substantial entrees, although not enough for leftovers to take home.

We'll definitely be returning to this establishment, but not quite as often as we'd like, since the prices are significantly higher than other local options.

Low lighting = grainy pictures.

Jake's Wayback Burgers

Who says you can't find vegetarian fast food?

Finding ourselves in a hurry (read that as: shopping emergency), we just wanted a quick and cheap bite to eat.

Normally, we would've ignored a place named "Jake's Wayback Burgers" on our Google Maps search, but they have a decent website which claims they can serve a veggie burger.

We've survived the fast food veg burgers at Burger King and SubWay, so figured we'd likely survive Jake's as well.

We were correct!

Just the standard greasy burgers & fries (the onion rings were extra greasy). If you really hate yourself, they also do yummy-looking milkshakes.

So, yes, if you want the true "fast-food experience", Jake's Wayback Burgers is perfectly acceptable for vegetarian food. (We're not officially giving this one a thumbs up or down though.)

Morrow Mountain State Park

This weekend is the 50th anniversary celebration of the federal Wilderness Act, and the 30th anniversary of North Carolina's Wilderness Act. So we signed up with the local Sierra Club and had a celebration at Morrow Mtn SP, just outside Uwharrie National Forest.

It's an easy 2-hour drive from Raleigh to the group camps at Morrow Mtn.
The group camps have minimal facilities and aren't spread out very much, but they are quite inexpensive to register.

We took a tour of the Kron house and grounds and were treated to a park history lesson from Ranger Ron Anundson. The (now restored) buildings date back to the early 1800's. Ron was to-date the most knowledgeable and friendly park ranger I've ever met. I'd say he can rival any college professor with his knowledge of local geology, anthropology and historic cultural events. We learned quite a few interesting facts dating back 12,000+ years ago when native americans inhabited the area.

Then we drove to the top of Morrow Mountain and took the easy .2 mile hike around the peak. Some decent views of the relatively flat countryside, but the most interesting aspect of this trail is that there are tons of remains of stone chips from Paleo-era quarry activity here. (We looked for points, spear heads, but didn't find any.) This is the definite "must do" hiking trail of the park.

The next day we went on another short & quick hike around Quarry trail (.4 miles), and saw a much smaller quarry area.

Lastly, since everyone told us that "the Rocks Trail is the most scenic hike in the park," we figured we had to try it. This is the most disappointing hike I've been on in quite some time. Even the perfect weather didn't make up for this abysmal trail: nothing but downed trees and burned vegetation from a previous forest fire. After a 2+ mile hike (some of it on a boring bridle trail) we finally got to the end: a 30 yard scrabble down some rocks to get to a decent overlook of the Yadkin River.

Meh. Nice view, but certainly not a "scenic trail". I recommend skipping this trail and spending extra time at the top of Morrow Mtn.


All in all, Morrow Mtn SP was ok, but the history is far more interesting than the actual hiking trails.

On the way back we had to eat a veggie patty at SubWay since there were no decent restaurants open in the town of Troy on Sundays.