As part of our Fresh Cooks Live: Today’s Spring Cookalong series, James Beard Award-winning husband-and-wife team Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine of Perennial Plate, a docu-series focusing on sustainable food, cooked up a vegetarian meal delicious enough that carnivores might forget about meat altogether.
Watch their full demo, which was livestreamed on TODAY.com Friday. Mirra and Daniel also answered viewers' cooking questions.
Below are the duo’s recipes for mushroom tacos with spring onion salsa, strawberry salad, quinoa salad and snap peas, so gather up the ingredients and join Mirra and Daniel on Friday to whip up the dishes!
Mushroom and fava bean tacos with spring onion salsa
Makes 4 tacos
- 2 cups mushrooms, medium diced (button or morels would be best!)
- 1 cup peeled fava beans
- 1 minced shallot
- 1 teaspoon chili flakes
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Zest of 1 lime
- Corn tortillas
For the favas:
Remove the favas from their larger shell. Bring water to a boil and add the favas for 1 minute. Remove them from the boiling water and add them to ice water. Peal off the second layer of skin from the favas. Set aside.
For the mushrooms and favas:
Brush any dirt off the mushrooms or wipe with a paper towel. Cut the bottoms off the mushrooms (reserve for mushroom stock if you’d like!). Cut the vegetables diagonally through the center and into a medium dice. If you are using Morels, cut them down the middle to make sure there are no bugs.
In a large non-stick pan, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Heat the pan until the vegetable oil moves quickly when you rotate the pan. Make sure oil covers the entire bottom of the pan, if a tablespoon isn’t enough to cover, add a bit more. Add the mushroom and cook for 2 minutes, or until they have turned a bit brown. Add the fava beans, the minced shallot, a teaspoon of red pepper flakes and 2 tablespoons of butter and the lemon zest. Cook for another minute.
Spring onion salsa
- 1 bunch spring onions
- 1 serrano chile
- Juice of 1 lime (or 2 tablespoons)
- 1 bunch of cilantro
- 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil or canola oil
Chop the spring onion (including the green tops) in as thin of slices as possible. Mince the serrano chiles and the cilantro (including the stems). Mix it all together and season to taste.
To plate, warm the tortillas on the gas burner and then put them in a cloth napkin to keep warm. Serve the mushrooms on top of the tortilla and the salsa on top of that.
Strawberry, radish and jalapeno salad
- 2 cups strawberries
- 1 jalapeno
- 4 radishes
- 1 small red onion
- 2 tablespoons toasted pumpkin seeds
- Cilantro
- Lime juice
- Olive oil (or pumpkin seed oil if you have it)
Slice the strawberries, jalapeno, radishes and onion as thin as possible. Lay them on a plate and sprinkle with salt, a good squeeze of lime juice, 2 tablespoons of olive (or pumpkin seed) oil and add some sprigs of cilantro and the pumpkin seeds. Serve.
Quinoa with olives and peas and oregano
- 2 cups quinoa
- 1/2 cup white wine (or water)
- 3 ½ cups water or vegetable stock
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small bunch of oregano (leaves mined)
- 1 small bunch of flat leaf parsley (leaves mined)
- 1 shallot
- ½ cup chopped kalamata olives
- 1 cup English peas
- 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 ½ tablespoons of salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Add the quinoa to a tall pot with the garlic cloves. Turn the heat on high. After the pan heats up for about a minute, stir the quinoa for another minute, until you can smell the toasting grains. You don’t want to burn them, but to get a small toasted color and flavor (the same with the garlic). Once you reach this point, add the white wine and one sprig of oregano, then add the water and 1 tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer, cooking for 20 minutes from the time you add the wine. If there is any liquid left in the pot, strain it out and remove the garlic and oregano.
While the quinoa is cooling, add half of the minced shallot, lemon, oil and olives – letting those flavors get absorbed in the quinoa.
Meanwhile, bring a small pot of water to boil. Drop the peas in the water and cook for 1minute on a boil. Then strain off the liquid and drop the peas in ice water to cool.
Once the quinoa has cooled, add the remaining ingredients and mix it all together. Taste the salt level to and add accordingly. Also, add more lemon juice if you like it to have a bite.
Sauteed sugar snap peas with butter and lemon zest
- 2 cups sugar snap peas
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon grape seed or canola oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 1 shallot or garlic clove minced
- 1 tablespoon of almost any herb minced (mint, parsley, cilantro, chives, etc.)
In a large non stick pan, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Heat the pan until the vegetable oil moves quickly when you rotate the pan. Make sure oil covers the entire bottom of the pan, if a tablespoon isn’t enough to cover, add a bit more. Add the snap peas and cook for 2 minutes, or until they have turned a bit brown. Add the butter, salt, minced shallot and lemon zest. Cook for another minute making sure it's all moving around and getting coated in the butter. Then add the lemon juice and herbs - taste and add salt if needed. Serve hot.