Vegan MOFO, day 10. So far it is going very well.  I have learned to be a little more forgiving of myself and not beat myself up too badly if I stray from the initial plan for the chosen letter of the day. Life happens. If you haven’t already, you should make some time to check out the blogroll where you can see what great recipes others are coming up with. Also on Vegan MOFO they have been highlighting recipes that have caught their eye.  Lots of good stuff and awesome blogs participating.

My families love affair with Hearts of Palm began about 6 years ago when my daughter was a year and a half old. Hubby and I stopped into a grocery store for a quick pre made lunch and our only vegan salad option was made with artichoke and hearts of palm. Not really knowing what hearts of palm was we decided to try it.

Veggie Ceviche with Hearts of Palm

Our daughter was still nursing at the time and didn’t care much for most food though liked the idea of trying things out was really interested in the salad. She instantly gravitated to the hearts of palm and ate all the pieces she could find. We then began buying it by the can and it became the daily treat that she looked forward to. She liked it so much that we had to come up for a code word for it “Hops,” because if we mentioned it by name she would have a fit until she was able to eat some.

Pea and hearts of palm salad

Six years later it is still eaten with her lunch daily and she will try anything that I used in. I am always searching for new recipes to add it to. If you have yet to experience a hearts of palm it is very similar to artichoke hearts and it may be used in the same type recipes. For more information on nutritional information check here. If you love hearts of palm also and have a recipe to share I would love to hear about it!

We have yet to get our daughter to appreciate soup and it is now soup weather so I had been reading up on hearts of palm soups but didn’t find one I really cared for. Then I read about cream of artichoke soup and decided to play with that and came up with “Two Hearts Soup.” It’s lemony and creamy and would probably make a great warm dip if you added some vegan cream cheese to it and heated it up.

Two Hearts Soup

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of salt
1 medium onion diced
1 stalk of celery diced
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp celery salt
1 tbsp pressed garlic (about 3 small cloves)
1/4 tsp ground lemon pepper
2 tbsp flour
4 cups water
1 tbsp Vegetarian Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base
3 tbsp vegan butter
12 oz artichoke hearts (we like frozen)
8 oz hearts of palm (canned or jarred), drained
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 1/2 cup heavy cashew cream

In a soup pot saute onion, celery, lemon juice, celery salt, garlic and a pinch of salt in olive oil over medium low heat until onions are translucent. Add lemon pepper and flour and cook for five more minutes. Slowly stir in 4 cups water. Add bouillon. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.

While broth is simmering, in a separate pan, saute artichokes and hearts of palm in butter with nutritional yeast for five minutes. Remove from heat and set aside separating out 1 cup of mixture.

After broth has simmered for 30 minutes add hearts of palm mixture (except for the 1 cup you put aside) and pour into a blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy. It took a minute or so in the Vita-mix. Pour broth and 1 cup of hearts of palm mixture back into soup pot and bring back to a boil. As soon as it has boiled remove from heat and stir in cashew cream. Do not let it boil once cashew cream is added because it will crack (remember this if you happen to have left overs that you are trying to reheat.) I recommend you serve with fresh ground lemon pepper and sourdough bread. This would be an excellent soup to serve in a bread bowl. It is not nearly as boring as it looks!