Mushroom Kale White Bean Ragu W/Chickpea Crepes

I've been cooking a ton for class as well as creating some new recipes of my own while I experiment in the kitchen. A few weekends ago, we went apple picking with friends. Pumpkin donuts seemed like the perfect start to our day before heading out. Who doesn't like pumpkin donuts? 

I veganized both cake and yeasted donuts because I couldn't decide which kind I'd prefer.  I'm also a huge fan of maple and wanted to create a maple glaze.  So many recipes use maple extract.  I'm not sure why anyone would use an extract when you could just use the real thing.  My glaze was full of straight up maple syrup goodess.  Expect an upcoming blog post with recipes so you can make your own. 

My Rouxbe coursework has most recently been about cooking for special diets.  This includes low fat, sugar and sodium as well a gluten free options. Clearly, I countered all this healthy cooking with a donut junket, but I digress. Last night for dinner I combined a couple of assignments. 

First, I prepared the No-Oil Mushroom Gravy.  The first step here is dry sautéing the onions/garlic to build up flavor and avoid oil.  The gravy was the base for the Mushroom Kale White Bean Ragu.  If you are looking for the recipe on Rouxbe, try searching for White Bean & Chard Ragu as I chose to use Dinosaur kale instead.  When looking for greens, I always default to those named after prehistoric creatures.  Yay for Dino kale! 

The Ragu was served in gluten free Chickpea Crepes.  You can also find that recipe on Rouxbe.  Though, I'll warn that in order to make the crepes, you need to thin out the batter.  This step is missing from the write up.  They also work best if you generously grease the pan.   

We both really enjoyed the mushroom gravy and the Ragu.  The crepes were ok, but not a favorite.  If you are looking for tasty, versatile gravy or Ragu then these recipes are worth a try.  Oh, and I recommend Dino kale over chard.