Hi! Welcome to “good mood food” from Kale Me Maybe’s Carina Wolff. If you’ve made it here and aren’t yet a subscriber, come join! You can expect recipes, musings, and faves in your inbox every Wednesday! Paid subscribers get even more on Fridays — right now I’m doing a 30-minute budget meal series! Learn more about the paid tier of my newsletter here. You can also try a week for free!
This week has been a blur — I can’t even believe it’s already a new Wednesday since the fires started. I can barely wrap my head around the loss and destruction so many in my community have suffered. Anyone who lives in LA knows at least one person who has lost everything. Homes gone. Favorite businesses gone. Lives lost. Fear and anxiety all around as those waited with bated breath and boxes packed, wondering if they would be next.
The winds Tuesday night were nothing like I’d ever experienced. The noise was terrifying, and the lights would flicker every few minutes. I realized I need to pack up some essentials in case we’d have to evacuate, especially because we live in a hillside community with lots of vegetation. Thankfully, our home and neighborhood are both okay, but we know many others who can’t say the same. It’s been heartbreaking to feel so helpless.
We ended up leaving last week because we woke up to an AQI of over 400. We stayed with my parents until Sunday night, when things seemed to be improving. I’m back home now and still on high alert based on the weather, but watching the community come together has been beautiful. I love this city so much, and my heart goes out to anyone affected. Here to help as best as I can.
Instead of “What I’m Loving” this week, I’m changing this section to ways to help with the LA fires.
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World Central Kitchen is a non-profit that feeds communities in crisis, not just in LA, but all over the world. Right now, they are feeding first responders and victims of the wildfires. I am running a campaign on Instagram that’s almost at our goal, but you can also donate directly to the World Central Kitchen website as well.
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There are lots of families who have Go Fund Me’s to help with their recovery, and many of them have not reached their goal yet. Here’s a list of Go Fund Me’s for Displaced Latino Families, here’s one for Displaced Black Families, and here’s another for Displaced Disabled Folks.
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If you have items to send, you can send them to Altadena Boys, or you can also donate money to Altadena girls. Their Instagram posts have all the details on what they’re looking for, but the goal is to restore normalcy for the teenage victims of the Eaton Canyon Fire.
Trying to come up with innovative recipes can be hard. Sometimes, they just pour out of me. Other times, I have a craving, and magic is born. But in some instances, I struggle to come up with anything that feels fresh and exciting. When that happens, I usually decide to just stop trying and make what I know I love: a loaded bowl with lots of veggies and a fun sauce.
The crispy Parmesan white beans are the most exciting component of this bowl. They are inspired by Justine Snacks’s Parmesan-Crusted Butter Beans from her cookbook. They’re roasted with some diced sweet potato, and then added to a bowl with quinoa, massaged kale, diced avocado, pickled onions, and an herby, chimichurri-inspired dressing.
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3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
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1 medium sweet potato, diced
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1 15 oz can white beans, rinsed, drained, and patted dry
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1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
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2 cups curly kale, roughly chopped and stems removed
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1 cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes
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1 avocado, diced
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1/4 cup pickled onions
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2 tbsp hemp seeds
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Olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Add your sweet potatoes and white beans to a baking sheet. Drizzle everything generously with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss the sweet potatoes, and then add the Parmesan to the white beans. Toss, together, and then transfer to the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping both the beans and sweet potato halfway through, until beans are golden and crispy and sweet potatoes are soft and crisp around the edges.
2. While potatoes and beans are roasting, cook your quinoa according to package, and then set aside.
3. Prepare the dressing by adding everything but the olive oil and salt and pepper to a blender. Blend for 15-20 seconds until herbs are minced up and incorporated, but not fully blended. The dressing should have lots of texture and not be smooth. Whisk in the olive oil with a fork until fully incorporated. Season with a little salt and pepper.
4. Add your kale to a small bowl, and add a little olive oil and a pinch of salt. Massage with your hands until kale is soft.
5. When everything is ready, assemble your bowls. Add quinoa to the bottom and top with kale, crispy white beans, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, avocado, and pickled onions. Top with the chimichurri dressing and finish off with the hemp seeds. You can eat warm or room temperature like a salad.
Last week, paid subscribers received a recipe for a Chickpea Pizza Skillet — another 30-minute budget meal. I made this one twice this week because I loved it so much!
Just a reminder that anytime you become a paid subscriber, you get access to ALL of the past recipes in the archive. You can always do a free 7-day trial as well!
