originals: sweet potato, white bean and kale (tacos)

There's only one way to say this: until a couple of days ago, I was a kale virgin. I actually bought it a few times with full intent of using it, but every time I chickened out and I let it rot in my fridge. Believe me - rotten kale is NOT something you want to smell, ever. But as I'm finally realising my dream of cooking for a living (well, for drinks at least) and posing as a pro, I can't run away from it any longer. And so, looking for a vegan option for our tacos (at Ricos Tacos), I created my first recipe using kale!

Prep is key here, once you have everything sliced, diced and drained it's the simplest thing to cook EVER. And the ingredients, in order of appearance, are:

• canola oil
• 1 red onion - diced
• 1 garlic clove - minced
• 1 jalapeno - chopped finely*
• 1 large sweet potato (at least palm sized) - diced
• 1 can of small white beans - drained
• 1 packed glass of kale - chopped
• salt

Now this is really simple: heat oil in a wok, toss in the aromatics, cook on small heat until the onion becomes translucent, toss in the sweet potato, stir well until it's all covered in the oil and increase heat to high, cook for a couple of minutes, add the beans, stir until warm, salt, taste, salt again, add kale, stir until it gets a pretty vivid green colour, serve.

Now, we at Ricos Tacos serve it on warmed corn tortillas with cilantro, slices of avocado, pomegranate seeds and a quarter of lime, but you can serve it any way you want. E.g. on quinoa, if you feel sweet potato and kale aren't hipster enough for you.

*adjust to your own heat preferences, use more or seed the one you're using, but DO NOT leave it out unless you want to end up with a bland dish

originals: the Ruskies experiment

After a good run of making ruskies, I found myself with a couple of ingredients I didn't know what to do with. I made this amazing moroccan-style vegetable and chickpea stew (from The First Mess) for my fiancé's mother's and sister's birthday (I was looking for something vegan and gluten free to accommodate for everyone's needs) and was left with a couple sweet potatoes I never used before in my kitchen. So the idea came - let's make ruskies with sweet potatoes.


Long story short, I decided to substitute the regular onion for red one and the quark for smooth goat cheese. The red onions are slightly sweeter than regular ones and goat cheese works well with sweetness and balances it awesomely (I didn't want to make a dessert, after all). I think I did just fine, thank you. So the filling is:

• 200 g sweet potatoes, cooked, pureed
• 200 g white goat cheese (if given a chance, use one that's a bit harder, more like feta)
• 100 g red onions, chopped finely
• butter

The rest goes basically the same as with the ruskies - melt butter, cook onions (but not too much, let them be a bit crunchy, this makes the bite more interesting with different textures and stuff). The dough is the same, only this time it's additional point is that it's almost translucent and the pierogis look preeeettyyyyy (colours!). I make these smaller than regular pierogis, so I use something slightly smaller than a regular glass to cut out the circles.


They are pretty flavourful, they can work as a single dish, but they're also awesome as a side, which I tried out with steak and basil sauce. Enjoy!