Not-So-Dirty Rice with Cajun-Style Collards

Here's a nice southern meal for y'all! Also, here's a nice little tidbit I learned while making this meal: Traditional "Dirty Rice" gets it's name from the chopped up chicken livers which look like brown flecks in the rice. Nice, huh? I think I'd prefer my rice WITHOUT livers of any kind, thank you.
Anyway, both of these recipes come from one of my newest cookbooks, "Vegan Planet" by Robin Robertston. They're listed as separate recipes in the book, but it's suggested they're served together so that's what I did. And it was a good choice. This is another meal that's slightly outside of my comfort zone... I'm not exactly sure why, but it's not something I would not normally choose. But once again, I was happy I decided to try something new! You should note however, that the collards alone would be wonderful but the rice by itself really wouldn't be that great. I thought it was a bit dry and didn't have a TON of flavor. I bet if I added some veggie broth to the mix it would have livened things up a bit. BUT, with the flavorful collards served over the top, it was awesome. You'll notice the two recipes have a lot of the same ingredients- but they took on slightly different flavors, and together, it just worked really well. Give this recipe a try! (Oh, and for the record, I want everyone to know that I really don't ever say "y'all"... I was just trying to sound authentic in the spirit of the recipe.) Ok, now for the good stuff!

Roasted Asparagus Risotto

This is another recipe I chose in my quest to try new and exciting things. My neighbor tells me about the awesome risotto she makes all of the time, so it's been something I've wanted to make for a while. I thought it was just a fancy word for just plain ol' regular rice, and I was very poorly mistaken... If you're craving something creamy, and flavorful, and rich, then you really need to give this a try. After my first bite, I was hooked. I LOVE it with the roasted asparagus used in this recipe, and I'm excited to try it with other flavors as well. This recipe involves a lot of stirring and standing over your oven, but it seemed like it cooked fairly fast to me so it wasn't a big deal. I just served this with some garlic bread and it was plenty filling. I can not WAIT to make this again and I think this would be something perfect to cook for company. YUM!! Oh, and this recipe is from Donna Klein's Vegan Italiano.

Herb-Scalloped Potatoes

Before I went vegan, I used to love those boxed scalloped potatoes. And up until I discovered this magnificent recipe, I was checking the ingredients on all of those creamy potato boxes hoping that maybe, just maybe, there would be a way to recreate it. It never dawned on me that it's possible to make scalloped potatoes from scratch! And then, Veganomicon came in to my life and I discovered a scalloped potatoes recipe that is just as delicious and creamy as the kind mom used to make. I make this side a lot, and I think if you give it a try, you will too! Mmm Mmm Mmm!