Vegan Nom Noms

Making Use of Those Cookbooks and Bookmarks: Part I

2012-01-26T11:09:00.001-05:00

One of my New Years Resolutions was to cook from my poor lonely cookbooks sitting on the shelves unused and to finally try out some of the 8000 recipes I've bookmarked. Thus, you might see a bunch of other peoples' recipes in the coming weeks!

This first one is vegan Moussaka from Veganomicon. My colleague was telling me about how she made a vegetarian lentil moussaka and mentioned she wondered if it'd be possible to veganize it. A challenge! I didn't even really know what moussaka was, but this was delicious, and there just happened to be a recipe for it already in Veganomicon, but you also find it on the PPK website here. Sort of like a Greek lasagna. I made the cream on top with cashews instead of pinenuts because that's what I had, used the red wine option in the sauce and added lentils. Cutting and roasting the vegetables takes some time, but besides that it wasn't actually that difficult. This made a TON and I froze it in portion sizes for work. Success! I will be making it again.

Carola from the German vegan food blog Twoodledrum asked me if I could write a guest post about something American and write it in German and metric. I figured it was a good challenge and finally got around to it last weekend. It was actually sort of a fun figuring out how to make Rice Krispies treats in Germany! There's only one shop that has vegan marshmallows in Berlin (Veganz) and they're imported and cost over 6 euro a packet, so I was on a mission for something cheaper! I used Heller Sirup (sort of like Golden Syrup for you English, I'd say) simmered with brown sugar, peanut butter and a bit of margarine to replace the marshmallows and managed to find Rice Krispy cereal in the grocery store around the corner from my flat for 2 EUR. These came out delicious. I brought them to a party full of Germans and they were gone pretty quickly and then fed some more to my American co-workers. The top is just peanut butter mixed with chocolate. Peanut butter does wonders for these babies, mmm! If you want to see me get my German on, go check it out!

These are the from the Deep Dish Cookie pie recipe from the Chocolate Covered Katie blog. I halved the recipe and didn't put anything on top so it wasn't quite a pie. The only problem was I forgot I was halving it when I added the oatmeal, so I think that messed up the texture a bit. There are also chickpeas in here, and I've been meaning to experiment with all these baked goods with beans recipes out there. This did have a bit of taste from chickpeas, but it wasn't bad. I'm going to try again with milder white beans and try not to fuck up the ratios next time and I'm sure it will be awesome.

An stand-by, but still so delicious. Vegan lasagna! I know I have a recipe up for Vegan Lasagna on this blog, but I don't really make it that way anymore because I'm lazy. I just double the cashew ricotta recipe from Veganomicon, make some sauce with crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, olive oil and Italian spices and topped with some Wilmersburger Pizzaschmelz and voila! The only trick is I shred 3-4 carrots and sneak that in with the ricotta for extra veggies. Mmm!

There you have it! I need to figure out what my cooking mission is for this weekend! I'm thinking of trying the vegan mac-n-cheese recipe with sauerkraut in it and then using the extra sauerkraut to make tempeh reubens later.

By the way, Vegan Nom Noms has a Pinterest account now if you didn't notice the button in the top right corner! I'll be using that to post pics from what I've made, as well as tag pictures from what I plan to make and other peoples' recipes I've tried! If you have an account, check it out! Also, if you have an account, please share it below in the comments! I need more people to follow! :-)

Ramen: 3 Ways

2012-01-08T19:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is a post about ramen. Don't judge me. I figure since I've been eating so much of it, I may as well write a blog post about it. Some of it is homemade, so I'm not ashamed! The one in the picture above came from a packet though, are you shocked?! Plus, everyone is busy sometimes. Does anyone else experience moved-to-a-new-flat-intimidated-by-new-kitchen syndrome, or is it just me? For some reason it happens every time I move! Here, let's start easy:

Normal ramen from a packet. This is probably not the best photo, but ramen doesn't have to be simply boring noodles! I like to cut up some combination of peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, etc. For protein I often add some tofu (fried or raw) and in this picture I experimented with some dried soy balls from the asia market (cheap!). I've been really intimidated by the dry soy curls, cutlets, etc. but I realized using them is super simple. I just throw the raw vegetables, tofu, soy balls etc. in with the contents of the package and cover it with boiling water. Let it sit for 2 minutes and eat! Doesn't take more than a few minutes, easy peasy! Just make sure the ramen you choose is vegan!

I really like that clear veggie broth you get with vegetable soup from a Japanese restaurant, but could never figure out how to make something like that. I've tried with veggie bouillon, but always found the flavor too strong for this situation and it was the wrong color anyway. How do they do it, I wondered!??! I decided to try just using no bouillon. I put some water, chopped leeks, garlic, onions, carrots and broccoli in a pot, simmered for 10 minutes, added noodles, then added salt, garlic powder and soy sauce and topped it with scallions and fried seitan.

This was good, but the vegetables were too soft from the simmering (duh). If you're going to do it this way, I'd recommend saying veggie scraps in the freezer and using a couple handfuls to make a single serving of broth, then strain, add new vegetables and do it that way. You can also save your mushroom stems and make some easy mushroom broth! This way you get the fresh broth taste without the mushy veggies!

Continuing my clear broth mission, we have the above result. While browsing one of the Asian markets in Berlin, I decided to peruse the bouillon cubes. Most were filled with meat and MSG, but, lo and behold, I found these!

As you can see on the bottom, they say, "for vegetarian and diet". The ingredients are simply: salt, sugar, fermented soy bean, mushroom flavor, black pepper, shortening and guar gum. I found a half a cube with about 2 cups of water made a broth that wasn't too strong or salty. Cut all your vegetables first, as they don't really need to cook that long and are not as tasty when they turn to mush! The bowl I'm eating as I write this contains chopped carrots, leeks, mushrooms, green peppers and broccoli. Topped with fried seitan and tofu and crispy fried onions, green onions and a splash of soy sauce. If I had Sriracha I'd definitely use that too.

Put the bouillon and water in a pot, turn to medium-high heat and stir until the bouillon breaks up. Throw in the carrots, add the noodles of your choice. For a true ramen experience, I broke one square of Long Life Brand Quick Cooking noodles (image below) into the pot, but rice noodles would be good too, I'm sure. Immediately add the other vegetables, except peppers. Stir so noodles are covered. Let simmer for 1-2 minutes. Add the peppers, turn off eat and pour into a bowl. Top with your fried seitan, tofu, etc. Add the toppings of your choice. If I had cilantro it would have been on there!

I apologize for the bad pictures! I was really hungry and it seems to never actually be sunny in Germany during the winter so my photos are suffering! The bowl I just ate was beautiful though, however, I was just way too ready to chow down on this! Here are the noodles:

I love the Asian food market! Delicious! The last is definitely my favorite method when I have more than five minutes to spare and it takes only about 15 minutes in all!

How do you eat your ramen? Any tips or tricks? Do YOU know how to make a good clear vegetable broth?!

Recipe To-Do

2011-12-30T12:36:00.000-05:00

A future storm is brewing in my kitchen, but until then I'm going to post a list of recipes I want to try. I've been really busy and eating way too many packets of instant noodles for main meals, but I don't even have the 'I just moved' excuse anymore, so coming this new year I am getting back into cookies and making an effort to cook through some of my cookbooks and have a go and some of the one billion recipes I've bookmarked. Here we go:

Savory Things:

- Vegan "Chicken" and Dumplings

This recipe from Vegan Chicks Rock looks SO good for the cold January to come!

- Sauerkraut Spaghetti

Sounds weird, but as we already determined, I am obsessed with sauerkraut and this recipe from Twoodledrum might just be genius.

- Peanut Meat/Nuttolene

In England there is this canned peanut meat called Nuttolene, which they sell at Holland & Barrett and I am somewhat obsessed with it. However, as I don't live in England, I've really been meaning to create my own and this recipe from Nac Mac Vegan is one of the only I've found out there. There've got to be more Nuttolene lovers out there! Anyone?

- Mac & Shews

Okay, okay, I know I'm obsessed. This recipe from the PPK for vegan mac-n-cheese using sauerkraut as the secret ingredient has DEFINITELY caught my eye and the reviews look fabulous!

- Hurry Up Alfredo

This alfredo from Vegan Yum Yum caught my eye because of the tahini in the sauce, seems like it'll add a nice kick to the cashew base!

- Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce

Another recipe for alfredo sauce from the blog Cupcakes and Kale. I'm intrigued by using cauliflower in different ways recently.

- Roasted Cauliflower Soup

Not usually a fan of cauliflower, but I do tend to like it when blended/hidden/cut really small in other things (ex: cauliflower rice). I can get behind this soup from the Vegan Cookbook Aficionado.

- Southwestern Corn Chowder

Soup from Vegtastic! All I can say is WANT. Can you tell it's winter?

- Savory Sweet Potato Bread Pudding

The picture of this from It Ain't Meat Babe looks so, so good.

- Pumpkin Spinach Quiche

The photos of this recipe from West Philly Vegan also look amazing and I have NOT eaten enough pumpkin this season!

- Kale Saag Soup

Mmmmm kale and coconut milk combined in a soup. Thanks BitterSweet blog!

Sweet Things:

- Linzer Cookies

A friend of mine made some vegan linzer cookies and ever since I've been obsessed with making my own.

- Apricot and Almond Yeast Braid

My return to the land of bread-baking will happen soon and then I will make this.

- Deep Dish Cookie Pie

Have been meaning to make this deep dish cookie pie from Chocolate Covered Katie. Still intrigued by the whole beans in baked goods thing!

- Butterscotch Pudding

Used to be my favorite flavor!

There you have it! What recipes do you have bookmarked that you've been meaning to try?! I'm always up for some more inspiration!

Things I Haven't Cooked

2011-10-31T05:02:00.000-04:00

Since I haven't really been in a living situation stable enough to cook anything exciting, I figured I'd give you some food porn of the things I haven't cooked myself! This weekend we basically went on an eating tour of Berlin. Proof that being vegan in Germany is really not so difficult!

The first two below are from a vegan restaurant called Viasko, which is probably my favorite sit-down vegan restaurant I've been to in Berlin. The menu is short, but I believe it changes according to season and allows what they do offer to all be super delicious. The food is vegan German-style and is relatively fancy, but the atmosphere is really chill and nice, sort of like the inside of an English pub--veganified.


homemade gnocchi with mushrooms, tomatoes and arugula in a vegan sage/butter sauce

risotto with pumpkin chutney

This was also from Viasko and wasn't mine, but looked delicious!


tiramisu

Vegan tiramisu! I had high hopes for this and it wasn't bad, but I liked my friend's vegan brownie with ice cream a lot better.

american-style pancakes with vegan caramel, bananas, walnuts and maple syrup

The next morning we went to get vegan brunch at a place called Sing Blackbird. This is a tiny place that sells vegan brunch and vintage clothing, cute! We ordered mimosas and when they didn't orange juice one of the owners' friends ran to get some and saved the day! Holycrap so good. We got there an hour early because their website says they open at 10:30, but they really opened at 11:30. It was okay, because there was a place called Kuchen Mafia literally right across the street where we could sit, get soy lattes and hang out the extra hour. This place also had vegan torte and linzer tarts!


tofu mess bowl

My friend and I split the pancakes above with this tofu mess bowl. Roasted potatoes, salad with yummy raspberry-something dressing, fresh salsa with cilantro, guacamole, tofu scramble and veggies. So. Good.

On top of all this we also ate some delicious Vietnamese food and yesterday with my friend I checked out a place called Yellow Sunshine, which advertises itself as a diner and serves vegetarian and vegan burgers with various toppings, fries, vegan desserts, etc. Delicious!

My stomach is super happy, but I think my wallet is suffering now...

Sauerkraut Takes Over

2011-10-11T15:50:00.000-04:00

Look what Germany has done to me! I cannot get enough sauerkraut. This seems like some ridiculous combination that would only make sense if you were pregnant (which I am definitely not), but it seems to make total sense in my current head space. It's very simple:

- tofu wurst/sausage
- gnocchi, boiled and then fried in a pan with oil until browned
- mushrooms
- garlic
- sauerkraut thrown in at the end to warm

I swear it works. I was going to do the same with potatoes instead of gnocchi, but was too hungry to wait for potatoes to cook. I have been eating really crappy since I've been in Rostock, Germany to teach a 7-week English intensive course and haven't had time to cook/had been living in hostels while working/Rostock isn't the most vegan city ever.

Anyway, found a Bio/Organic market and spent almost 30 euro there (ouch). My body will thank me though, I hope. I'll make up for it with all the lunches I won't be eating out during work now? Maybe?

But yes. I live in Germany now. This is why my updates have been a bit lacking. Unfortunately, the move and ensuing craziness mean I cannot participate in Vegan MoFo this year, but I will be back in a month or so with updates, recipes and the norm! Hopefully also cool vegan discoveries from Germany and Berlin! I have not abandoned you Nommies!

Until then, you may just have to put up with me raving about sauerkraut for a bit longer...

Marzipan Semolina Pudding (Grießflammeri)

2011-08-16T10:53:00.000-04:00

Last time I was in Berlin, I got a marzipan semolina pudding parfait at Goodies that was to die for. Ever since then I've been trying to figure out what was in it (semolina in a dessert...weird) and how to recreate it. I think I finally touched upon it! This is based off of a really simple 3-ingredient recipe I found here. I added more sugar to change it from a more breakfasty taste to a dessert, added chunks of marzipan and almond extract and, of course, cherries! The semolina lends to a very nice texture and the recipe is something you can dress up however you choose!

Without further ado...

Marzipan Semolina Pudding

- 2 cups non-dairy milk of choice (I used soy)
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar (depending on your taste)
- 1/3 cup semolina
- 1/2 tsp. almond extract
- marzipan, chopped up into bits (optional, for topping)
- cherries or cherry pie filling (optional)

The first thing I did was de-pit some cherries and cook them down with a pinch of sugar until they softened up and resembled pie filling. You could also just buy cherry pie filling or use fresh cherries, up to you! Once cooked, I set them aside for later.

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk and sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat. It boils over really easily, so keep and eye on it and remove it from the heat immediately after boil. Stir in the semolina and put back over medium heat. Bring to a boil again while stirring and add the almond extract. You want it to thicken, but still be pourable. This took only about 1-2 minutes for me. Once the desired consistency is reached (it will thicken a bit more once cooled so don't overdo it!), pour into serving bowls and add your toppings.

Done!

Pretty easy, if I do say so myself! You can also put a breakfast twist on this by decreasing the sugar and adding your favorite warm cereal toppings! Semolina is my new favorite thing to experiment with!

And the winner is...

2011-07-18T09:51:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone who commented! With the help of Random.org, I have picked the winner of the Biscoff spread.

*drum roll please*

The winner is....

Katelyn (new kid on the vegan block) who wants to try out the Biscoff spread on apples!

Katelyn, get in touch with me at nabramow (at) gmail (dot) com with your address and I'll send it out to you asap!

:-)

Biscoff Spread Giveaway!

2011-07-11T12:03:00.001-04:00

If you've been paying attention to the vegan blogosphere, you've noticed that speculoos spread has gotten quite the fanfare. Thus, when I saw some Biscoff Spread in a local store, I had to grab a jar. Then I thought, hmm, Vegan Nom Noms has never done a giveaway, why not? Two jars in hand, I headed out of the store excited about my spread made of cookies. You can't go wrong with that, right?

After receiving some Spekulatius cookies from Germany over the holidays, I've been making my own spread based on this recipe at Seitan Is My Motor. The homemade stuff is definitely not as sweet as the stuff in the jar, which I actually prefer, but I still haven't mastered the perfect consistency for the homemade version, so that's still a work in progress.

Regardless, I've been eating the stuff spread over a toasted piece of cinnamon raisin bread in the morning, but there are recipes galore for it out there, if you give it a google. I personally would love to try it in or over cinnamon buns. Mmmmm.

If you've been reading about this stuff, but haven't been able to get a hold of it, here's your chance! The only catch is that the jar has a use-by date in December, so you'll have to polish it off before the holidays (I'm sure that won't be hard)!

Here are the ingredients from the Biscoff website:

Ingredients: Biscoff 57% (Wheat Flour, Sugar, Vegetable Oils (contains one or more of soy bean oil, sunflower oil, palm oil), Brown Sugar, Leavening (sodium bicarbonate), Soy Flour, Salt, Spice (cinnamon)), Canola Oil, Sugar, Emulsifier (soy lecithin), Citric Acid.

To enter, comment on this post with how you'd like to try speculoos spread or how you've used it in the past! USA only, sorry!

For a bonus entry, write about this giveaway on your blog with a link, tweet about it @VeganNomNoms (new Twitter, by the way!) or like Vegan Nom Noms on Facebook and write about the giveaway in your Facebook status (also @VeganNomNoms). After you do that, write another comment on this post saying where you shared the giveaway!

After a week, I'll pick a random winner and will post here for the winners' contact info, so check back! I will mail out the spread within a few days!

Good luck!

Vegan S'mores Sugar Cookie Bars

2011-06-15T19:25:00.004-04:00

You guys, I've discovered the vegan goldmine. You know all that sugar cookie dough you have leftover from the holidays in your freezer (or is it just me)? Make this. Do not hesitate, just do it. Yes, it takes some time, but within it you find chocolate, vegan dulce de leche, vegan marshmallows and well, sugar cookie dough/shortbread. It is a vegan carmel s'mores bar. I mean, really? You need it. Take that, bikini season! Fat makes you float better, anyway. Now you won't drown so easily.

I cannot claim the recipes for all the ingredients, but I can claim the combination. I'm moving out and trying to use up all those mysterious items I shoved in the freezer at some point this year. This is definitely the best use of leftover cookie dough. Ever. Here is what you need:

Vegan S'mores Sugar Cookie Bars

Sugar Cookie Dough
(from this recipe @ Islaborg)

- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. margarine
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup ground almonds
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract or 1 tbsp. vanilla sugar
- dash salt

Combine all ingredients and knead into a smooth dough. Throw into the freezer until the other stuff is done.

Dulce de Leche
(from this recipe @ Seitan Is My Motor)

- 3 1/2 cups soy milk
- 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/4 tsp. ground vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 pinch baking soda (to prevent curdling)

Combine all the ingredients in a big pot and stir until the sugar melts. Bring to a boil and then quickly turn the temp down to low. Stir every 10-15 minutes for 2 1/2 hours and then more often the last 1/2 hour. It should become about half the volume and get thicker. Remember, it will get a bit thicker once cooled. Check out the link above for more instructions and photos on the process!

Toppings

- vegan marshmallows (I used Dandies)
- chocolate chips (make sure they're vegan)

Preheat your oven to 425F. Take the cookie dough out of the freezer and, I know this sounds weird, grate it with the largest side of your cheese grater into a greased square pan. Spread out across the pan and press down a little, but not too much. If you're lazy, you could just stick the dough in the pan and flatten it into a crust, but I like the texture of it much better this way! Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the edges start to brown.

Once the crust and dulce de leche are done, pour a layer of the dulche de leche over the sugar cookie crust. Smooth evenly over the surface. Top with vegan marshmallows and chocolate chips.

Stick it in the fridge or freezer until you're ready to serve, then place right under a broiler until the marshmallows brown and the chocolate chips melt. Cut and serve!

And the money shot...

Then, if you have extra dulche de leche and a candy bar mold like me, you can make this:

Vegan caramel candy bar! Holyfuck! It was an epic day in my kitchen last night, friends.

Cheaters' Miso Soup & Homemade Mushroom Broth

2011-06-10T09:43:00.004-04:00

Okay, so this doesn't involve any formal dashi or kombu or seaweed of any sort. The tofu was fried and there was kale and noodles, but damn, you haters can hate because this shizz was tasty. And easy! And did not involve buying new ingredients, which would be pretty silly since I'm moving. But that's another story, so let's start with this:

During the late winter I ate a lot of mushrooms. For a month or so I saved all the stems and added them to a ziplock in the freezer to be used later to make...mushroom broth! Now, a civilized mushroom broth would probably be made from only one type of mushroom, likely shitake. I don't really like shitake mushrooms and enjoy a bit of variety so these stems are from about 3 different kinds of mushrooms. Honestly, I don't think it really matters what kind. This is a really easy way to make something that seems really complicated and impressive! So save those stems! It's like recycling, yeah?

To make the mushroom broth just add all your frozen stems in a pot with water and simmer for 2-3+ hours on low. I'd say you want the proportions to be about 1/3 mushrooms to 2/3 water, but I didn't actually measure anything so just play around...if it ends up too mushroomy you can just water it down, no big deal! Let it simmer and taste it every once in awhile until it's to your liking. Freeze in ice cube trays or flat in a big ziplock so you can break pieces off, store in the freezer and you have easy mushroom broth at your disposal! Yay! Now on to the soup...

Cheaters' Miso Soup

- mushroom broth (however much you want)
- extra-firm tofu, fried (unless you prefer it raw)
- vermicelli noodles (those tiny white strandy ones)
- miso paste (I used awake (aka + shiro) miso paste, it was a light tan color)
- leafy greens of choice (kale, spinach, etc.)
- green onions, chopped
- mushrooms, sliced (optional)
- 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped (optional)
- salt, to taste

Cut and fry your tofu and chop your veggies. Set aside. Simmer your mushroom broth with the mushrooms, garlic and a pinch of salt for a few minutes. Turn heat to low and add in vermicelli noodles and leafy greens. Stir. The vermicelli noodles will soften in the hot water pretty quickly. Once noodles are good, turn off heat and stir in about a tablespoon of miso paste. Stir until combined and taste the broth. Add more miso paste and salt if desired. Be aware that the miso is very salty itself though! Pour into a bowl, top with chopped green onions and eat! Mmm!

See? That wasn't so hard. I almost wish it was winter again so I could eat more soup. Almost.

Thai Fried Pineapple Rice

2011-06-08T12:06:00.004-04:00

Oddly enough, when discovering a bag of frozen pineapple in the freezer, my first thought was not "smoothies", "pineapple upside down cake" or "yogurt", but instead...rice! If you have not tried pineapple in a savory dish, believe me, you are missing out. This dish is pretty easy and worth a shot for those with extra pineapple in a can or the freezer somewhere! It's also a great way to use up extra rice!

Fried Thai Pineapple Rice

- 3 Tbsp. soy sauce OR 2 Tbsp. veg fish sauce
- 2 tsp. curry powder

-1 can or about 1 1/2 cups of chopped pineapple
- 3 cups leftover rice (or make some and leave it in the fridge for a few hours)
- 1/2 cup of frozen peas
- 3-4 Tbsp. veggie or not-chicken broth
- 2 shallots, sliced thinly
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 red or green chili, chopped thinly (optional, if you like spicy)
- 1 cup fried tofu (about 1/2 block)
- 1 small carrot (optional)
- broccoli florets (optional)
- 1/2 cup cashews (raw or roasted, your preference)

- spring onions (optional, for topping)
- cilantro (optional, for topping)
- lime wedges (optional, for topping)

First, fry up the tofu (canola or peanut oil would be good, but use whatever you have). I like to add salt and pepper as well. Once well-browned. Set aside.

Next, whisk together the curry powder and soy/"fish" sauce in a bowl. I've used both massaman curry paste and regular curry powder and liked both, so play around with what you have. I think green curry powder or paste would also be great for this. Set aside.

Chop up all your veggies, garlic, shallots, chili, etc. This will make your life easier as they all go into the frying pan pretty quickly.

Pour 1-2 Tbsp. oil in a wok or large frying pan and heat to medium-high heat. Add the shallots, garlic and chili and stir for about a minute, until fragrant. If the pan becomes dry, add a bit of the broth to keep everything sizzling. Add tofu and stir, then add carrot, peas and cashews. Stir-fry for 1 minute, again adding broth if necessary when the pan becomes dry.

Next add the rice, and pineapple chunks. Drizzle the soy/"fish" sauce mixture over everything and stir-fry about 3 minutes until the rice starts making popping sounds. Do NOT add anymore broth at this point, as it will just make everything soggy. You want the pan to be hot and dry.

Remove from eat and add salt or more soy sauce as desired. To serve, scoop onto a plate and sprinkle with spring onions and cilantro. Serve with slices of lime if desired. Enjoy!

I've already made this three times, so good! Though it's currently way too hot here to even think about turning my oven on...until fall...or air conditioning!

Vegan Nom Noms has Facebook!

2011-06-04T16:28:00.003-04:00

Hey Nommers!

My little blog finally got it's own Facebook page! Check it out and "like" it for updates on what's going on in my kitchen between posts, foodporn, cool vegan products I've found, the occasional deal or coupon I've discovered and all sorts of things that are bound to make you hungry!

To like Vegan Nom Noms, direct your mouse to the top right hand corner of this site! Aw, I like you too!

And stay tuned, I've acquired a certain item for my very first giveaway! I know, you're dying with anticipation...

Raw Chocolate Macaroons

2011-05-24T15:27:00.003-04:00

Another delayed recipe from my Raw Food Week Challenge. When I originally made these, I used a recipe I found randomly on the internet and didn't save. This recipe called for keeping it in the freezer to keep them solid enough, so I had this stowed away for about a month or so before I rediscovered them during an intense chocolate-sweet craving while I was doing the raw thing. I threw in a lot more cocoa powder and some dried unsweetened coconut and ended up liking the texture a LOT better. I didn't measure, so these are my approximations, so if you end up doing something different, let me know!

Raw Chocolate Macaroons

1 cup dried unsweetened coconut flakes (the kind that is big and white and crunchy)
1.5 cups shredded coconut (the cheap soft kind in the rectangular bag)
3/4 cup maple syrup (or agave to be technically raw)
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
Dash Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup coconut oil

Put the unsweetened coconut flakes into the food processor alone and process until fine, but not powdery. You want it to be small enough to dry the mixture out, but not so fine it's like flour. Pour into a separate bowl.

Put the maple syrup, cocoa powder, vanilla and coconut oil in the food processor and process until smooth. Add the shredded soft coconut and pulse about 10 seconds.

In a separate bowl, stir together the processed coconut flakes with your maple syrup/shredded coconut mixture from the food processor. It should be pretty thick, so maybe you'll need to knead it. Once well combined, roll into balls and store in a Tupperware in the fridge. I'd say they're fine in there for at least 10 days. Enjoy!

Raw Cashew Cheese

2011-05-23T12:13:00.003-04:00

A bit delayed, lots of people mentioned that they'd be interested in learning more about how I made the raw cashew cheese. Though it takes a couple days, it's really easy! Most of the time you're just waiting for the cashews to soak and letting the finished product sit to develop flavor, so don't be intimidated!

Raw Cashew Cheese

- 1 1/2 cups raw cashews (or cashew pieces)
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice (fresh squeezed is the best)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

Put the cashews in a bowl and cover with enough water to cover the nuts by about two inches. Let soak for 2+ hours and then drain.

Combine the soaked + drained cashews, water, lemon juice, garlic cloves and sea salt in a food processor and blend. Scrape down the sides and blend again until completely smooth, a couple minutes or more depending on how good your processor is.

Put your "cheese" in a small bowl or Tupperware and cover it. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours to let the flavors meld and ferment a bit. After 24 hours, put the cheese in the refrigerator covered for up to 5 days. You can sprinkle herbs on the top if you like. To get it to look like my above photo, I just sprinkled smoked paprika, chili pepper flakes and black pepper in a circle on some plastic wrap and then put the cheese on top and wrapped it up into a circle. I think dill or scallions would also be awesome!

I used it to make these lettuce wraps with avocado and sprouts. Mmmm!

Have you made any other types of raw vegan cheeses? Do you like to mix other things inside? How else do you serve it?

The Raw Food Week Challenge

2011-04-26T21:37:00.002-04:00

A couple weeks ago I decided to challenge myself to a raw food week, where I could eat only uncooked, raw foods with two exceptions: tea and yogurt. No coffee, no alcohol, nothing cooked for 7 days. The whole time I only had 2-3 cups of tea and a couple small yogurts, so not bad! I guess I did it as sort of a "Spring Cleanse" and managed to make it through the whole week and definitely felt healthier by the end. I doubt I'll ever be a raw foodist, but it was a great reminder to include more fresh vegetables in my diet and a nice shift away from the lack of fresh produce I consumed during the winter! If I could sum up the experience, I'd say it felt like a fresh start.

Below you'll find some links to recipes and pictures of what I made. If a recipe is not included for anything you're interested in, let me know in the comments and I'll sort it out!

These are the Chocolate Coffee (Almost Raw) Dessert Cups I blogged about years ago when I was a wee little blogger. They are still freaking delicious. So much so, that I made them 3 times, even after Raw Week ended. Instead of using cocoa butter like I did originally, I made them with extra virgin coconut oil and left out the coffee this time. Sogood.

After day 2 I developed an unsatiable salty things savory craving, so I decided to take some of my raw cashews and made a "cheese" with them. There are MANY raw cashew cheese recipes floating around the internet, but mine consisted of just raw cashews, lemon juice, fresh garlic, water and salt, with some spices on the top. It takes 24-48 hours, but almost all of this is hands-off time, just waiting for the cashews to soak and everything to solidify. So good though. I used it to make:

Lettuce wraps! Raw cashew cheese, ripe avocado and big leaves of lettuce. I believe at one point there may have been some sprouts and tomatoes involved as well.

Day 3-4 I got a really bad craving for rice, so I sprouted the rest of the wheat berries leftover from my farm farm share. It takes a few days, but it was a fun experiment and the freshly sprouted wheat berries were super yummy. The gist of it is: rinse the wheat berries and soak them in a bowl of water for 24 hours. Rinse them again and put them in a jar covered with cheesecloth/tupperware with a vent away from the sun. Rinse 2-3 times a day and put them back in the jar/tupperware for 2-3 days until they look like the above picture. Success!

Here is my sprouted wheatberry salad! It consisted of wheatberries, fresh ripe avocado, organic tomatoes, onion, broccoli, garlic and lemon juice. I topped it with some aged cherry balsamic vinegar at one point.
I don't really remember what was in these because I made most of the better a few weeks before raw food week from some random recipe, didn't like the original texture and left the "batter" in the freezer. I remembered it again during my raw experiments and decided to mess around with it after eating a really good raw macaroon from the Co-Op here. I believe there was cocoa powder, coconut oil, some of that cheap shredded coconut you find in your Big Name grocery stores, big flaked unsweetened dried coconut, and agave nectar. The original was too mushy and weird so I whizzed the dried coconut into an almost-powder and added it with the original mix with more cocoa powder to make much more delicious and solid raw macaroons. This may be a future post because they were tasty.

The essential food porn shot of the chocolate coconut raw macaroons.

The first picture of this post and this one is Raw Spicy Red Pepper Soup from Vegweb. This happened the very last night of Raw Food Week when cooked foods were in sight and I was craving savory things something hard. I felt like a legit raw foodist making this in the blender. I followed the recipe, except I used raw cashews instead of an avocado for creaminess and red pepper flakes instead of a jalapeno. It was good and really pretty, but I still prefer cooked soup. I think it probably would've been better with the avocado, but I was all out. I'm definitely interested in trying out some more raw soup recipes though, because it was a cool idea and felt a lot lighter than normal soup.

I also ate a LOT of salads with raw walnuts, avocado, spouts, tomatoes, lettuce, onions and whatever else I could find. Usually breakfast was a smoothie, some raw fruit and nuts or some of the Chocolate Coffee (Almost) Raw Dessert Cups. The third day I spent the afternoon at Karma, a cafe where I live with lots of raw food options and it was freaking delicious. I got tea, raw lasagna, a raw brownie with coconut ice cream made from Thai young coconut meat and some dehydrated flax seed crackers to take home and eat with my raw cashew cheese. Everything was so delicious, I need to go back even when it's not raw week. The flax seed crackers, which I've never had before, were super flavorful.

Overall, the Raw Food Week Challenge was a success! Perhaps I'll make this a spring tradition. Have you ever experimented with raw foods? What are some of your favorite recipes?

Eating Prospect Park: Wild Foraging in Brooklyn

2011-04-12T16:41:00.009-04:00

A weekend set up to be full of drunken shenanigans turned into a very veg-centric one after a wild foraging tour hosted by Freegan.Info and the NYC Veg Food Fest both happened to fall on the same weekend I headed to Brooklyn to see some friends.

Ever since living in Prague, where people carry baskets full of walnuts foraged from the city's trees onto the metro and every single student of mine seemed to be born with the innate sense of which mushrooms will and will not kill you, I've been curious about wild foraging. I love food. I love free things. So clearly, food I can acquire in the local park fulfills both of these loves.

Below you will find some photos of edible plants we acquired. Please note, I am not an expert on plant identification by any means and though you may find something that looks the same as one of my photos, please don't eat it until you are 100% certain it is edible! We were lead by a guide who was very well-versed in what everything in the park was, so take along someone who knows what they're doing or find a good book to accompany you. Lots of these edible plants and mushrooms have doppelgangers that are very much not edible!

Okay?! Good. Now on to the photos...

Garlic mustard.

Garlic Grass (a.k.a. Field Garlic)

Kentucky Coffee Tree bean

Wild parsnip (can be confused with Water Hemlock that is deadly poisonous)

Chickweed

Day lilies. The entire plant, roots and tubers are edible, though there is another plant that looks very similar, which is NOT edible. You'll see more of this guy later...

I don't remember the name of this mushroom (help?), but it was tasty!

Same mushroom as above, different angle.

When we got back to my friend's apartment, I cut off the tubers from the day lilies and rinsed them until they were clean, like so!

Then I fried them with some garlic powder, olive oil and the mushrooms above. It was really, really tasty. The tubers from the day lilies tasted almost exactly like potatoes, but smaller and more delicate tasting. I sort of want to grow lots of day lilies just so I can eat day lily potatoes all the time.

A salad made from the leaves of the day lilies, garlic grass and garlic mustard. I later tossed it with some olive oil and vinegar. It was tasty, but I think it would taste better mixed in with some regular lettuce to balance it out.

Damn I'm happy it's Spring.

Thanks Prospect Park! If any of y'all are in the NYC area, you should check out Freegan.Info. In addition to the Wild Foraging Tour, they do a Trash/Dumpster-Diving Tour though NYC, host free markets and other skill-sharing events. While I haven't been, a friend who went on the dumpster diving tour mentioned it was very welcoming and even had a mother and daughter in attendance, so worth checking out even if you don't consider yourself the "type of person who does that kind of thing"!

Also, for more foraging food porn check out Dandelion Marmalade over at Gulliver's Kitchen!

Beghrir (Semolina Pancakes)

2011-03-16T21:46:00.009-04:00

More like crepes, I came across this recipe one day at work while paging through an older issue of Food & Wine magazine on my lunch break. After having an amazing marzipan pudding made with semolina in Berlin (a recipe that will hopefully be up here soon), I've been obsessed with the idea of semolina. More specifically, the idea of semolina in places you wouldn't normally find it (i.e. outside the homemade pasta world). Luckily, this recipe was almost accidentally vegan!

Originating in Marrakech, crepes may not sound that interesting (okay, maybe that's a lie), but these are A-MAZING. The semolina gives it a really amazing texture, or rather, "mouthfeel" if you will (teehee). Without the eggs, vegan crepes and pancakes tend to be a bit flatter, but these are perfect in my opinion. In fact, I was so enamored with these after my first bite that I immediately went on Skype and gushed about how delicious they were, mouth full of food, for about 30 minutes. If you need more evidence, I finished the entire batter myself within 2 days.

What's unique about these is that they have yeast. Thus, while cooking they get these little holes, which you can see in the picture below. Thus, it's almost like a flat crumpet. Perfect for catching fillings if you ask me!

You only cook them on one side and after making the batter, it's a pretty simple ordeal. Yeah, you have to let the batter rise for an hour, but whatever, perfect time to do the dishes and check your e-mail! The recipe calls for mixing in a food processor and I'm not sure if it's really necessary. The semolina is already in flour form, so perhaps the only point is to break up lumps. I haven't tried it without the processor yet though, so if you do, chime in and let me know how it turns out! I'm sure a blender would work equally as well for this, as the batter is very liquidy.

Without further ado, on to the best breakfast of your life. Although, I'm sure these would also transition well into a savory crepe/pancake or a tasty dessert...

Beghrir (Semolina Pancakes)
adapted from Food & Wine

- 3 cups warm water
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 3/4 cups fine semolina (sometimes called extra-fancy durum flour)
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- canola/vegetable oil, for cooking

For the topping
- 1/3 cup sweet syrup of your choice (i.e. agave, maple, honey if you eat it)
- 6 tablespoons Earth Balance magarine, melted

In a bowl, combine 1/4 of the warm water with the baking powder and set aside. In your food processor/blender, throw in the semolina flour, all-purpose flour, yeast, sugar and the remaining cups 2 3/4 cups of warm water. Yes, I was freaked out by food processing yeast too, don't worry. Process about 30 seconds until smooth. Add the salt and baking powder mixture and process another 30 seconds. Pour the batter into a large bowl, cover with a dish towel and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about an hour.

Heat a non-stick frying pan and coat with a thin layer of oil. You want a pan about 10 inches, though this depends on how big you want your pancakes. If you want them smaller, use a smaller pan, etc. While the pan is heating up combine the syrup with the melted butter. You can do this in a small saucepan over low heat if you need. If cooking for someone whose soy-free, make sure to get the soy-free variety of Earth Balance (duh).

After the batter has finished rising, whisk it until creamy. Ladle 1/3 cup of the batter into the hot pan, tilting the pan to distribute it evenly. I found it's better to lift the pan up off the heat for this part so it doesn't cook immediately and make it hard to distribute into a big circle. Your first one will probably come out misshapen, but it will still taste good! Cook the batter over medium heat until bubbles appear all over the surface and the bottom is pale golden, about 2 minutes. Shake the skillet to loosen the pancake, or in my case, slide something under the edge of the pancake to loosen it, then slide it onto a plate. Drizzle with your syrup-butter mixture and serve right away. Repeat with the rest of the batter!

I've had success storing it for 2 days, but am not sure how much longer it could go. However, when you store it in the fridge, make sure you put it in a container bigger than itself, as it will continue to rise. Perhaps a container or plastic wrap with a hole poked in it would be good, so the gases can escape, though I just pushed the top to release the gases every time I opened the fridge.

Enjoy!

Vegan Coconut Bacon WHAT

2011-03-16T16:49:00.004-04:00

Let me preface this post with a story about myself. When I first moved into my flat in Brighton, England, I went through a BLT phase. Every single time one of my flatmates came into our kitchen, I was eating a BLT. I'm pretty sure I was 'That weird American girl who lives in our flat that only eats BLTs with that fake bacon stuff". Okay, so when I like foods I tend to eat them for every meal until I get sick of them. Sue me. And then a year later I eat them again until I get sick of them again, and so on. There are several foods that are on this rotation: Vegan Mac-n-cheese, nachos with some sort of vegan cheese, lasagna with cashew ricotta, a conglomeration including tofu, kale and a smattering of other veggies I have...and vegan BLTs.

...I am back in my BLT phase.

In mid/early February my friend Lisa and I went to Montreal, where I was acquainted with the coconut bacon BLT from Aux Vivres. Let me be blunt, it was like an orgasm in my mouth. Who would've thought, coconut as a bacon substitute?! Apparently lots of people after a quick Google, but alas. I set to the kitchen and created my own version using smoked salt instead of liquid smoke like all the others. It may be an irrational fear, but as I can only find liquid smoke in the condiment section of my local Big Name grocery store, I'm afraid it's just filled with fake smoke flavors and chemicals. Maybe next time I'll go in search of a more natural version of the smoked stuff, but for now smoked salt works for me. Don't have smoked salt or prefer the liquid stuff? Your recipe is here. The rest of you...onwards!

Vegan Coconut Bacon

- 1 1/2 cups large-flaked unsweetened dried coconut
- 2 Tbsp. soy sauce (tamari is best if you have it)
- 2 Tbsp. water
- 1 Tbsp. maple syrup, agave, or your syrupy sweet thing of preference
- 1 tsp. smoked salt

Preheat your oven to 300F. In a small sauce pan, combine the soy sauce, water, maple syrup and smoked salt. Stir over medium heat until the salt has melted and the mixture is uniform. Take off the heat and set aside.

Sprinkle your coconut in an even layer on a large baking tray. Drizzle the soy sauce mixture over the coconut, toss to coat the coconut and re-spread the coated coconut in a flat, even layer. The only reason you do it this way around is if you put the coconut in with the mixture it gets soggier faster, but if it gets a little soggy, don't worry, it'll be fine.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. After 15 minutes keep a good eye on it. The first time I did about 22 minutes and it burnt to a crisp, but 18 minutes was about perfect for my second batch. It will get crunchier as it cools down, so don't worry if it's still a little flimsy when you first take it out. You just don't want it to still be soaking wet and still dripping in it's own liquid (that's what she said). Once the coconut flakes around the edges get browned and crispy is a good sign that it's ready. The middle will firm up as it cools.

Here's a closeup of the final product:

While we're at it, let me teach you the trick to making store bought tortillas awesome. Tortilla + Fire = NOM. I turn one of the burners of my gas stove on high and put the tortilla directly on it (you know, where the pan would go). If you have an electric stove, you'll just have to resort to lighting them on fire. J/K! Don't play with fire kids!

Okay, now that that's sorted...Eat BLTs until your heart is content! I like mine with sprouts and a good smattering of Vegenaise. It would also be a wonderful salad topping (bacon bits anyone?). If I feel like being extra fat, I like to fry/bake up a Boca Chick'n patty for a vegan "chicken" BLT, but let's not get ahead of ourselves...

How do you like your coconut?

How To Make Seitan: An Illustrated Guide

2011-03-10T19:56:00.013-05:00

Now if you really wanted to be a Level 5 hardcore vegan (or just don't have access to vital wheat gluten/gluten flour) you would make seitan using the flour + rinsing method. This involves rinsing wheat flour until all the starch dissolves and you're left with only the gluten part of the flour, but really, who has that much time? I certainly don't and while I'll probably try it once just for curiosities sake and to see if it tastes different, the more common (and much easier) method below works just fine and has tasted great for all of my seitan needs.

Anyway! A friend asked me to do a post about how to make seitan, so here it is! Saying as most peoples' reactions to any mention of seitan is "sei-what?!" it seems like a pretty good idea. For the uninformed, seitan is a fake meat made from the protein part (gluten) of wheat flour. The first time I ever made seitan was probably in the form of the infamous chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. Pretty sure I made that recipe every week for a long time, nommm.

As pictured above, all you really need is some vital wheat gluten and your veg broth and seasonings of choice. You need to simmer it for an hour, but it literally just needs to sit there during that time, so you can do whatever else you want while it simmers. Vital wheat gluten usually comes in a bag that looks like this and can be found in most natural food stores or ordered online:

In my case above are a saucepan full of veg broth with a soy sauce, garlic powder, olive oil and nutritional yeast. I use the "Simple Seitan" recipe from Veganomicon, but you can pick a recipe easily by just Googling "how to make seitan" are trying to use slightly different ingredients out of your cupboard. I've included the recipe off the PPK's website, which is only different because it adds lemon juice and has a slightly different broth mixture, but it's by the same author. Use what works for you! I've made a ton of varieties that include everything from tomato paste to vegan Worcestershire sauce, go crazy!

Simple Seitan
from the PPK website

- 1 cup vital wheat gluten flour
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- 1/2 cup cold vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic (minced fine or use garlic powder)

For the simmering broth:

- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 4 cups water
- 1/4 cup soy sauce

The first thing you want to do is prepare your broth and pour it in a big saucepan. What I do next is mix the wet and dry ingredients separately as shown, taking 1/2 cup of my saucepan broth for the wet ingredients mix:

Then you pour the wet into the dry and stir, at first it will look clumpy like this:

But after a while, it'll look more like this, and then you start with the kneading.

Knead for about 3 minutes by hand. I do this part on the kitchen counter. This allows the gluten strands to form, which creates the texture of the seitan. After you've kneaded, break the seitan into 3 pieces, like so:

Then knead each piece by hand to flatten it out a bit and make it bigger. It should be pretty elastic, so it will tend to just spring back to it's original position, but eventually you'll get something like this:

Take your three pieces and put them in your veggie broth. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer on the lowest setting for an hour. You want to make sure to catch the seitan AS SOON AS it boils, or else you'll end up with a yucky rubbery mess. Nothing to stress over, just make sure you watch the mixture and lower the temp to a simmer as soon as it starts to boil. Happy seitan simmering away...

It will puff up and get bigger and start to look like this. Don't worry, that's normal.

After the hour, turn off the heat and let everything sit in the saucepan for 15 minutes. Then drain and let sit in the colander until it's hot enough to touch. You'll want to reserve the liquid for storage purposes, so pour most of it into a container first before draining. The drained seitan will look as so:

The finished product...and a cross section!

It might not look pretty, but think of it as a vessel for many culinary possibilities! If you don't use all the seitan right away, put it into a container and cover it with the leftover broth. It should keep in the fridge for a week, though I've definitely kept mine in there for 10 days with no problem. Seitan ready for storage and extra reserved broth:

If my broth tastes good (this time I used some vegan chicken broth powder I made myself = yes), you can save it and use it for soups!

Now what to do with your wheat meat?! I often fry mine up with some olive oil and Italian seasonings. You can put it on top of pizza or spaghetti like this. In fact, I literally just ate some of this very batch as such!

However, my favorite creation with seitan thus far as been BBQ seitan, which I put on top of nachos with Daiya vegan cheddar! Sooooooooooo effing good! I even finagled my own BBQ sauce, which was really easy and came out orgasmically! But that's for another post...

Some recipes I've used or would like to use involving vital wheat gluten:

- Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon
- Seitan Chops Smothered in Apples and Ginger from the PPK
- Homemade Sausages from Vegan Dad
- Veggie Lunch Meat from Vegan Dad
- Yummiest Seitan Ever! (Baked)

What's your favorite recipe for seitan and how do you use it?

Things that have passed through my kitchen...

2011-03-01T19:28:00.005-05:00

Can you tell I'm trying to catch up on blogging? The month of February was crazy for me, but I'm back! Here are a few food pictures from things I've made in the past month. I have so many good ideas for new posts as soon as I compile the ingredients and get to the kitchen! I cannot wait for warm weather as I have a lot of warm weather foods in mind.

Awhile back I had this Ginger Peanut Soup from How It All Vegan! and loved it. I must say, this was the first vegan cookbook I purchased back when I was a babyvegan, so it holds a special place in my heart. Anyway, while shivering in my aforementioned cold apartment, I was reminded of this soup and decided to seek out the recipe. Of course, How It All Vegan! was one of the cookbooks I didn't bring up to my apartment with me, so a little Google-fu was needed. Good thing, I found the recipe off VegWeb! Win! Anything with peanut butter wins me over, so although I was a bit skeptical the first time, I'm a big fan!

After a delicious borscht at a vegan restaurant in Montreal, I was re-inspired to make it again, but with chunks this time. I could only find these beets at the Co-Op I went to and they were so pretty when chopped up with my other ingredients! They were a bit less strong flavored than normal beets, so I think for borscht I'll stick to normal beets next time, but I definitely would love to use these again for other things! If you're hurtin' for some of the pink stuff, you can check out my original post on borscht here.

This was a winning dinner. Some Virgil's root Beer and a vegan burrito that somehow mimicked the taste of Taco Bell (except a lot healthier, duh). For me, this is a good thing. Of course, real Mexican food is awesome, but the fake stuff holds a special place in the comfort food section of my stomach. This was made with homemade refried beans mixed with those picked peppers in the little cans, some mushrooms, rice with chipotle seasoning, hot sauce, onions and nutritional yeast wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla, microwaved for 40ish seconds and then baked in the oven for about 5 minutes. The guac is from Trader Joe's, who has the best packaged guacamole I've come across when you don't feel like making your own. It somehow avoids that "fake" vom flavor that most store bought ones have. Mmmmmm guacamole.

Vegan Truffles

2011-03-01T17:09:00.009-05:00

If you thought truffles were difficult to make, think again. I was also under the same impression until I found this recipe off of Food.com. Now truffles fall under the "really impressive looking but actually hella easy" category in my repertoire. The hardest part is cleaning the blender. Gosh, I hate cleaning blenders. But for these wonderful balls of pure chocolate heaven, it's totally worth it.

Vegan Chocolate Truffles
from Food.com

- 3/4 cup raw cashews
- 3/4 cup cold water
- 1 lb. bittersweet chocolate
- cocoa powder

Put the cashews and cold water in the blender and blend for 1-2 minutes. Don't be shy with the timing, as you want it to be really smooth and like heavy cream. Scrape down the sides and blend again until smooth.

In a double boiler, heat the chocolate until it's melted and then let cool a bit. Don't let water get in there or the chocolate will seize up. Once the chocolate is cool enough to work with, fold in the cashew cream. It will look pretty like this:

Stir until uniform and try not to eat all of it right then and there. Get ready to have some patience! Cool in the fridge for 2 hours. After solidified take it out and use a spoon (ice cream scoop works good for this) to make balls. The palms of your hands will probably get chocolate all over them, but that's okay since you get to lick it off later.

Make a plate/bowl of cocoa powder and roll one ball at a time in the cocoa powder before putting in a Tupperware to store...or eat right then and there. You can play around with other toppings too. I did half cocoa powder and half left over topping from my Mochi Truffles, which basically consisted of cocoa powder, powdered sugar and dried coconut flakes whizzed in the food processor. There ever-important inside shot:

They were tasty. The next truffle I'd like to try are these Marzipan Snowball Truffles also from Food.com, as I love all things marzipan.

Nom Nom's "Chicken" Noodle Soup

2011-02-19T15:20:00.013-05:00

This is the easiest thing to make ever. I often throw a me-sized bowl together, which is actually pretty large (see above), but it's soup, right? My apartment is real cold, kids, don't judge. If I'm constantly ingesting warm liquids it makes my life a lot better. We keep it at 55 F because we're cheap, so I basically spend my time trying to find recipes that involve keeping the oven on for as long as possible or miraculously appearing in the kitchen whenever one of my housemates starts cooking to steal their heat. On the bright side, our heating bill hasn't ever been over $25 each even in the dead of winter (I have 2 other housemates, do the math).

There are two key ingredients to this recipe, number one is nutritional yeast (1 lb. for $12.99 hellzz yeah, you really can't go wrong) and the other is Edward & Sons Not-Chick'n Bouillon Cubes. I get them at the Co-Op near my apartment, but I burn through them, so I may have to buy them in bulk next. So good. I'm sure you could just use veggie broth if you don't have access to this, but I love these things. They look like this:

Nom Nom's "Chicken" Noodle Soup

- handful prepared seitan, chopped in blocks (this one is fast and easy)
- 2 1/4 cups water
- 1 glove garlic, chopped
-1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 Not Chick'n bouillon
- big handful of the noodles of your choice (I especially like the Bionaturae Organic Rombi)
- handful each of frozen corn and peas
- handful of whatever other veggies you like (I usually do mushrooms, broccoli, and/or carrots)
- 2-3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

Pour water in a small sauce pan, add bouillon cube and bring to a boil. While it's coming to a boil chop the garlic and throw it in the water with the olive oil. Once the water is boiling, throw in a handful of noodles and stir. While the noodles are cooking, chop your unfrozen veggies and seitan. Add in the unfrozen veggies. Right before the noodles are ready, throw in frozen peas, corn and seitan. Take off heat and stir in the nutritional yeast. Slurp it up and be warm.

People are always impressed by this, but anything that involved frozen peas and corn is easy peasy in my book. I often throw this together for lunch in a crazed dash between my class and work.

Amazon.com Widgets

Definitely not a bad way to start a morning...

2011-01-20T13:50:00.005-05:00

A sourdough cinnamon sugar loaf on the left, fresh rosemary with olive oil and garlic on the right. Don't be too impressed, I just made one recipe, split it into two loaves and kneaded different things into each. I let it rise for two days (3 times), but only because I was lazy and didn't want to deal with it until this morning. Came out delicious though, my best loaves yet! Apparently patience (or laziness) is a virtue! For the cinnamon sugar, I just flattened it out, sprinkled some brown sugar and cinnamon, rolled it up like you would for cinnamon buns and sealed the sides and seams. Folded it in half, in half again (gently!) and brought the ends to the bottom to shape. As for the rosemary loaf, I'm still really excited about my little rosemary tree I bought from Trader Joe's. So much rosemary! Always! So cute!

As you can see, my bread shaping and cutting has gotten MUCH better since my last posts (here and here). My bread is also more airy as I've been working with slightly more wet loaves. Just goes to show, practice makes perfect, and cut those slits deeper than you think you should! It will be okay...see?

Also, get a baking stone. No seriously, you don't know what you're missing...

Happy almost weekend!

Steamed Frothy (Soy)milk and Babka Food Porn

2010-12-26T17:10:00.004-05:00

First steamed (soy)milk beverage with my new Aerolatte Milk Frother. Just sayin'. I made a black tea latte, and I'm in love. Thanks Santa! Or rather, my brother.

You can buy one of these for as little as $5, but I wanted the one with a travel case and a 5 star rating on Amazon, which upped the price to $20. But goddamn, am I a satisfied customer! Not to mention the money it will probably save by quelling my latte cravings!

And while you're here, how much does this make you want to foam at the mouth?!

I made this for brunch X-Mas morning and it was up there on the Best Things I've Ever Cooked list! And really not as intimidating as it looks! Check it out at Vegan Dad: Chocolate Cinnamon Babka! Here's a pre-baking photo:

Hope you all had a fabulous day, whether you're fighting off the post Christmas food baby or not!

This post brought to you by the fact that my flight to Germany was canceled by this ###$%@ing blizzard. I'm trying to make the best of it before my butt is hopefully on a re-scheduled 7:40pm flight tomorrow night. They gave me a middle seat, and the phone lines are shut down so I can't re-request my vegan meal. I think I might die. Or be in need of some serious beer when I finally hop this pond.

Tschüß!

;

Cookie Baking Party!

2010-12-13T22:08:00.005-05:00

First off, I discovered the BEST sugar cookie recipe EVER from Vegan MoFo. I've seriously made it 5 or so times since I found it and and holycrap. Delish. One of the only traditions we had each year growing up was a sugar cookie making party in December where all our friends would come and make anatomically correct snowmen (once we learned about such things) and decorate them/eat them until we never wanted to think about cookies ever again...until next year. My Mom and I would make all the dough and people would come bring extra rolling pins and decorate cookies all together, basically taking over the kitchen and dining room.

It was great, because it got everyone cooking and baking even if they didn't know how to cook. Sugar cookies are also a pretty neutral base as you can put whatever flavor you like on top and call it a day! I only altered it this year by asking everyone to bring a topping or couple bucks in exchange for the ingredients I bought for the dough, since, well, I'm not rolling in money (unfortunately). This ended up being awesome as everything was a surprise!

Let me re-iterate though, this sugar cookie recipe was fabulous. Usually I don't even like sugar cookies. Usually they're just a vehicle for transporting large amounts of chocolate chips into my mouth. But this was so good! I've tried to re-create the non-vegan recipe I used before, but this equaled and surpassed that, so win! There's almond meal in the recipe, which must be the secret. I put my substitutions below, which were really just all-purpose flour instead of pastry flour and almond meal that was already made with the skins.

Sugar Cookies / "Butterplätzchen"
from Islaborg

- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. margarine
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup ground almonds/almond meal
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180° C / 375° F. Combine all ingredients and knead/stir in a mixer until smooth and uniform. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in fridge. When ready to use, it worked for me better to let the dough warm up a bit, then roll it out and cut into cookies. Use flour to dust the dough to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin. I used parchment paper as my workspace on the table. The dough WAS a bit crumbly, so don't be discouraged. It'll all workout fine in the end! Bake for 8-10 minutes on a lightly greased baking tray, try covered with parchment paper, or my new favorite thing...my housemate's Silpat Baking Sheet.

And now, photographical evidence!

Charlotte made hot pink and green icing! I've never iced cookies before! They looked pretty!

My attempt at icing. Very intent. Serious business here.

Very blurry robots! And a bunny! Think outside the cookie cutter.

Okay really I would just like to point out my AWESOME ROSEMARY X-MAS TREE, but my friends and the cookies are cool too.

Ahem. To the top right is my "Princess Cookie" with sugar pearls and silver sugar. Then we have my Gay Rainbow Egg cookie and my house with really straight lines with coconut snow and a gay roof cookie. I ate these ones last.

Julia's attempt at icing was better than mine.

All of the cookies out on the table! I still have so much dough...in the fridge AND the freezer. Wanna come over?

Vegan "Chicken" (Seitan) Salad

2010-11-29T17:53:00.006-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #21

So I thought I was done with MoFo for the year, but then I sort of accidentally made vegan chicken salad and voila! I was in Whole Paychecks, I mean, Whole Foods yesterday because I heard Tofurkeys were on super sale after Thanksgiving. They were on sale, but still more expensive than the Tofurkeys at Trader Joe's so I passed on that. As I was walking past the prepared foods section, I had to tear myself away from the vegan chicken salad, which I love. With that in mind this morning, a plan was born as soon as I spotted the sad remains in my Vegenaise container.

I found Vegenaise I left at my parents' this summer during Thanksgiving, but there was less than 2 tablespoons in it. Rather than go through the trouble of scraping that shit out, I just threw everything in the jar and shook it up! The only thing I had to wash was my cutting board and my knife. Win! Make this recipe when you have some leftover seitan and the dredges of Vegenaise left on the bottom of the jar.

Vegan "Chicken" (Seitan) Salad

- 1 to 1 1/2 cups prepared and chopped seitan
- 1-2 Tbsp. Vegenaise
- 1/2 small onion, chopped finely
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 2-3 tablespoons worth shredded carrot
- 2-3 tablespoons worth chopped cabbage
- 1/2 tsp. celery seed
- splash apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp. agave maple syrup (or similar, something sweet!)

This is best for seitan leftovers since it only uses a cup, but I used the seitan recipe from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, which I liked a lot. Chop your seitan into small pieces and then squeeze handfuls of it at a time over the sink to get out as much liquid as you can. This allows the seitan to absorb the new flavors you're tossing it with! Put the seitan and all other ingredients in the Vegenaise jar, close, and shake it all up! Pop in the fridge to marinate for at least 25 minutes. Eat! I had mine on a wrap and it was super tasty.

The vegetables I used are not mandatory, obviously, they were just in my fridge. I think this would be great with some celery if you have it on hand!

My "Chicken" salad in its little Vegenaise jar. Mmmmm!

Last Day of MoFo: My Favorite MoFos!

2010-11-26T11:36:00.007-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #20!

It's my last day of MoFoing and wow! I think I posted more this month than I have this year (by far). I'm definitely proud of some of the things I've come up with and for sticking with it! But damn, it was hard on top of my already busy life so it will be nice to chill out for a bit. I do have some more ideas written in my brainstorming folder, however, so I plan to keep updating, maybe just a bit less than 5 times a week. ;-)

That said, on this last day of MoFo (for me), I figured I'd highlight some of my favorite posts from others! MoFo is about blogging yes, but it's also about finding other awesome food blogs! Here are some of my favorite recipes and posts I've stumbled across this month, hope you enjoy them! What were your favorite posts?! I tried to keep up, but there was an overwhelming amount of posting so I'm sure to have missed lots!

- Apfelkuchen mit Marzipanstreuseln
- Eggless Custard Tarts
- Hot Peanut Butter Chocolate Bliss
- Vegan Croissants (with pictures that make it actually seem doable!)
- Peanut Butter Fudge (although the cook until 234 degrees intimidates me)
- Pumpkin Spice Syrup (sooo happy to have this for when I live abroad without access to pumpkin lattes!)
- Chocolate toaster pies (these look incredible)
- Quinoa Brownies (I did need to use up some quinoa...)
- Coconut Fudge
- Cinnamon Sugar Peanut Buttery Chickpea "Peanuts" with peanut Flour
- Pecan Pie Truffles
- Sweet Potato Blondies

- Spaghetti Squash Autumnvera
- Vegan Loaded Potato Soup
- Lemongrass Noodle Bowl with Mock Duck (because I'm obsessed with mock meat in a can since finding it in Barcelona)
- Clam-Free Chowder

Non-MoFo Vegan recipes that look awesome!

- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
- Chocolate Acorn Squash Baked Custard (how unique!)
- Fat Free Baked Oatmeal
- Cauliflower Risotto (made this twice, so good)
- Quinoa Wild Mushroom Spinach Loaf with Cashew Gravy

Hope you all enjoyed my MoFoing and I will see you around!

Thanksgiving 2010 Noms

2010-11-25T20:46:00.005-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #19!

One more day to go, crazy! Here is Ricotta eating her Thanksgiving dinner...a green bean from my vegan green bean casserole. She really liked it. Along with that I've documented the other vegan things we had! Don't mind the blurry pictures, I was in a rush to eat it all!

Vegan green bean casserole my Mom made for me. Everyone ended up liking this one more than the non-vegan casserole with bacon in it the rest of my family made for themselves. Ha!

Oh Tofurky, I don't care how punny and stereotypical you are, I love you so! Especially as leftovers. This was especially tasty with some fresh sage from my farm share in the marinade.

Pomodoro sauce my brother made for dinner. While pasta is not a traditional Thanksgiving dish, it was tasty! Plus I'm currently on a pasta and sauce kick and I get to take some of the extra home!

Garlic rosemary olive oil sourdough bread. As I was scurrying to pack to go home, I threw some of my sourdough starter in a container and took it with me. Such a good idea! This is the best bread I've ever made. Fresh rosemary from my farm share and I got the texture better than ever, soft and fluffy! I didn't even use a recipe! I attribute it to the fact that I kept a wetter dough before baking. Normally I make it more solid and dry as it's easier to handle, but dealing with the stickiness was worth it for this! Good to know!

Bad picture of the sourdough once cut. Slathered with some Earth Balance, it was heavenly.

Vegan mashed potatoes with chives. OM NOM NOM.

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen using homemade butternut squash puree instead of pumpkin. I messed up the double layer part a bit due to some hasty pouring, but it was tasty nonetheless. I think one day I will play around with this recipe until I can get the same effect without the Tofutti, but I didn't have enough time this holiday. It is soooo gooood.

Vegan ice cream pie my Mom made me. I believe it has cookie dough ice cream and chocolate almond chunk ice cream. Yummy! Not sure how I'm going to eat all of this before I drive back home to Massachusetts, but I sure will try!

I also made beautiful looking cranberry chocolate chip scones, using almond milk I made myself in the food processor! Unfortunately the vegetable shortening my Mom had in the cabinet went off, so they tasted a little funky. I am so sad as I used the local cranberries from my farm share. Wasted! :-( Oh well, it happens. In case you were wondering though, oils and such do go bad! When they do they smell like horrible cleaning grease or something. Ew.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Anyone cook something especially unique? Share!

Lazy Pre-Thanksgiving Post

2010-11-24T17:49:00.004-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #18!

I am lazy and just drove back to my parents' for Thanksgiving, but as it's MoFo I will write something quick! Here are my contributions to dinner tomorrow in case you need last minute ideas:

- Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake from Fatfree Vegan (this is always a hit, but I'm using butternut squash puree instead this time)
- Rosemary Olive Oil Infused Sourdough Bread based on my go-to Sourdough recipe
- Cranberry Chocolate Chip Scones based on the Vegan Brunch basic scone recipe (not sure if that worked, but it's linked to Amazon.com and you can search inside the book there). Using fresh cranberries from my farm share!
- I also bought a Tofurky, which I love, but that doesn't really count as cooking!

The cinnamon buns above aren't for tomorrow, but I made them recently and they were delicious. I also froze some in portion sizes so I can eat them forever! Or, until they run out...

I autumnified them based on this recipe, subbing half the cinnamon for pumpkin pie spice and throwing some butternut squash puree I made with squashes from my farm share in with the glaze. Not sure if it's the best cinnamon bun recipe I've ever used, but they were still delicious! Here's an ugly picture of my butternut squash puree:

I may have to do this to the 234340340373 butternut squashes left from the farm share since I like them much better this way than savory!

Bratapfel (Baked Apple)

2010-11-23T08:05:00.000-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #17!

Last January, I worked on a smallholding in Kleinenhain, Germany for 2+ weeks through Help Exchange. Of the three farms I worked on, my time in Germany, by far, left the biggest impression on me. My hosts, Angelika and Axel, not only cooked vegan for me the entire time I was there, but also introduced me to so many new foods! This, by far, was my favorite...and so easy! I had these cooked over a wood burning hearth in a pub...can I say mouthgasm?

Not the prettiest picture (I accidentally cut part of my apple off before baking), but delicious nonetheless!

Bratapfel

- apples, however many you'd like
- marzipan paste, you can buy this in a can, log, or make it yourself**
- chocolate chips, chunks, whatever
- walnuts, almonds, whatever you have (I used pecans)
- vegan cream, if desired

Preheat an oven to 300F. Cut out the core of your apples so that they have no middle (like an apple tube!). Stuff about a tablespoon of marzipan dough into the bottom of the core to plug it up. Then layer your chocolate, and cover with another thin layer of marzipan. Sprinkle the nuts on top. Place in a pan (it will ooze, so foil or parchment paper recommended) and bake about 15-20 minutes on the bottom shelf (so the nuts don't burn), until the apples have softened, but not turned to mush. You want it to still have it's shape, so check on it! Serve in a bowl, with vegan cream poured on top. Don't worry, if you don't have the cream, it's still delicious!

Here's how it looked before baking:

*To make marzipan I usually throw together almonds without peels (already sliced, even better!), powdered sugar and almond extract in a food professor to taste to make a dough. This may not be the proper way to do it, but it works!

A Good Cuppa Chai

2010-11-22T10:51:00.000-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #16!

I had the best chai ever yesterday morning. Previously I'd just throw a chai tea bag in some hot water with milk and call it done, but taking the extra few minutes to simmer it really makes it amazing! I'd love to mix my own chai, but I'm not that cool yet. This was some rooibos chai tea from Allison's Gourmet I got as a Christmas gift last year and have been meaning to use up. Now I'm addicted! If only it had caffeine...next time I'll get the caffeinated kind!

A Good Cuppa Chai

- 2 Tbsp. loose chai tea (whatever you have)
- 12 oz. water
- 6 oz. non-dairy milk (I prefer soy creamer or coconut milk)
- sweetner of choice
- 1 tsp. fresh ginger (optional)

Put chai, ginger and water in small pot, bring to a boil then simmer, covered, for 5 minutes on low. Add non-dairy milk, stir and simmer for a few minutes more. Turn off heat, add your sweetner of choice, strain and drink! Sooo goood.

I love me some chai.

Mochi Truffles (Riceflour Truffles)

2010-11-19T11:45:00.000-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #15

All credit for this goes to my friend, Gulliver! I believe we are kitchen soulmates as everything he makes in his kitchen wants to be in my belly. Last November, he posted on my Facebook wall asking me to test a recipe for him, which was born during a failed mochi attempt. Okay, so really, this is an ode to the new creepy Facebook appendage that allows you to "See Friendship", or rather, "Freundschaft anzeigen" as my Facebook is currently in German. Don't judge! Think about how much you talk about Facebook! This is an important vocabulary theme in my life, people!

Ahem. Anyway. Without Facebook's stalktastic features, I would not have found this recipe he posted over a year ago. Thanks Facebook! Thanks Gulli! I'll include the recipe in his own words as they're funnier than mine. I changed the coconut as noted below* and used lemon juice as I didn't have orange.

Mochi Truffles (Riceflour Truffles)
makes about 10-11 truffles

Note: All tablespoons are heaped obscenely

3 heaped tablespoons riceflour
1.5 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons icing sugar (powdered or confectioner's sugar)
...a tiny, tiny amount of chilli
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 tablespoon shredded coconut (or apricot jam)
3-4 tablespoons soymilk

Mix the dry stuff in a tupperware/takeaway container with a lid. I do this by just putting the lid on and shaking it all up.

Put everything else in and mix until poopy-looking.

Microwave for a minute with the lid on, then 30 seconds off.

Roll into little balls when it's cooled down enough to handle, then roll in some more coconut (or cocoa powder for the apricot ones) to make it pretty. (I used some dried coconut flakes whizzed in the food processor and then mixed with cocoa powder and powdered sugar to coat them)

They taste better cool, so refrigerate those bad boys.

* Gulli said he wanted them to be moister, but my truffles came out with a good level of moistness, I think. My life is apparently just more humid. My theory is that his recipe called for dessicated coconut, which has all the moisture sucked out. I just used cheap shredded coconut from Stop & Shop since I already had it in my house and changed the recipe accordingly. You know, it's this stuff:

See? They look pretty moist! I think these would make good dessert hors d'oeuvres. Is that a thing?

Chocolate Apricot Scones, Homemade Coleslaw and Chickpea Scramble!

2010-11-18T11:05:00.001-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #14

A break from your regularly scheduled programming to bring you...food from other peoples' recipes! I spent today getting an emergency root canal and as half of my face is still numb, there were not many cooking adventures in my life. This also gives me a chance to use up some of the photos of goodies I've made saved up on my hard-drive. But come on, look at the dough up there. How could you not want to eat these:

Chocolate Chip Apricot scones. I used the basic scone recipe from Vegan Brunch, but had some dried apricots to us up hence this variation. Chocolate and apricot makes a great combination, by the way. I chopped and soaked the apricots in warm water while I was mixing the dough to be sure they were moist and delicious! I brought these babies to a tea party. Perfect.

One of my friends served me homemade coleslaw this summer and it blew my mind. I always thought of coleslaw and soggy mayo soaked cabbage, but I was wrong! When my housemate brought home some dumpstered cabbage, I knew it was time! I've used this recipe from Healthy. Happy. Life. twice now and am a big fan! The first time with the apples called for and the second without, both times substituting pecans because that's what I had. Celery salt is my new fav.

Last, but not least is this Chickpea Scramble I made once from VegWeb. Freaked out by tofu? Trying to serve breakfast to someone who is allergic to soy? Voila! I'm pretty sure I substituted the Tofutti for tahini. This will be in my future again soon, I'm sure.

Vegan Finds at Trader Joe's

2010-11-17T09:45:00.000-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #13!

While I'd been in a Trader Joe's before, I guess I hadn't ever really paid attention until I worked there. The store has been quite the buzz, what with the article about it in Fortune Magazine and all. After working there for a couple months, I decided to take a break from recipe-makin' and highlight some of my favorite items for you all with the prices from my store (YMMV). Plus, I still have tons of leftovers from my past posts in the fridge and need time to eat them!

Peanut Satay Noodle Box with sauce (11 oz.) - $1.99

Salsa Verde (12 oz.) - $1.99

Vegetable Burritos, mildly spiced (2) - $2.69

Frozen Vegetable Fried Rice (16 oz.) - $2.29

Soft-Baked Snickerdoodles (6 oz.) - $2.99

Frozen Vegetable Birds' Nests (10.5 oz.) - $3.29

Frozen True Thai Tom Yam Coconut Soup (one serving)- $2.29

Frozen Pad Thai with tofu bowl - $2.69

Frozen Thai Vegetable Gyoza - $3.49

Frozen Apple Strudel (2) - $2.99

Chickenless Strips (8 oz.) - $2.99

Fresh Dolmas (8 oz.) - $2.99

No picture, sorry!

TJ's Goddess Dressing (8 fl. oz.) - $1.99

Dried Just Mango slices (6 oz.) - $2.99

TJ's Cherry Chocolate Chip Soy Creamy (1 quart) - $3.69

Maple Agave Syrup blend (8 fl. oz.) - $3.29

Strawberry Soy Yogurt (6 oz.) - $0.99

And last but not least...OMG vegan ice cream mochi! I do not have a picture because I ate an entire box at work as soon as I found them, oops. There are six in the package in coconut, chocolate and mango flavor (2 of each) made with coconut milk...$3.69.

Fresh Ginger-Lemon-"Honey" Tea

2010-11-16T08:29:00.000-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #12

We'll leave the debate about honey elsewhere, but this tea is simple and delicious no matter what sweetner you use. Almost too simple to blog about, this got me through last winters' cold season. I dug these pictures out from the depths, having taken them from my American phone in Prague when my camera died, hence the quality.

Sure, you can buy this tea in teabag form, but it's neither as good or as good for you as investing in some fresh ginger root and lemons yourself.

Fresh Ginger-Lemon-"Honey" Tea

- about an ounce of ginger root, peeled and cut into chunks
- a few good slices of lemon
- your favorite syrupy type of sweetner (agave syrup, honey....?)

Peel the ginger and cut it into chunks. Put into your favorite mug. I like to make the ginger big enough that I won't swallow it while drinking the tea, which makes it easier to reuse the ginger for a a few batches of this and less annoying anyway. Cut three or however many you want good slices of a lemon, squeeze them into the mug, then throw the squeezed lemon slices in as well. Fill mug with hot water, add sweetner to taste.

Ginger is supposed to ease nausea and stomach aches and is definitely a flavor I always crave when sick. The lemon helps dilute the disgusting mucus one becomes filled with when ill, and also just tastes yummy.

What other syrupy sweetners do you use? I don't think maple syrup would work here, but perhaps brown rice syrup. What else is out there?

Savory Mochi or Rice Gnocchi

2010-11-15T08:21:00.000-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #11!

Yes, you read that right. Savory mochi. We're talking garlic, onions, peppers and olive oil, kids. Get ready. Some of you may remember my foray (read: obsession) with the rice gnocchi I could buy in Prague. I was really skeptical of this stuff before becoming addicted to it. For something that was commonplace in the Tesco in Prague, it is basically non-existent here. In fact, when trying to Google recipes, the closest I found was mixing rice flour into potato gnocchi, which just sounded, well...gross.

With no recipe in hand, I basically threw some stuff in a bowl and hoped for the best! Luckily, my result came out pretty similar to the stuff I ate in Prague. Whew! The only things I'd do differently next time are to make the mochi balls smaller and to not boil them as long (a.k.a. pay attention to the pot instead of wandering aimlessly around my kitchen getting distracted by food). Often a problem.

Savory Mochi
makes 3-4 servings

- 2 1/3 cup glutinous rice flour (I used this one)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup water
- vegetables of choice (ex: peppers, onion, broccoli, kale)
- salt, pepper and garlic to taste

Combine the dry rice flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add the water and stir until it forms a smooth dough ball. After some initial stirring, I covered my hands in dry rice flour and kneaded it outside the bowl until it was smooth and looked like this:

Then I broke pierces off, rolled them in my hand to make gnocchi shapes (ovals), rolled them in some more rice flour to keep them from ticking and stored them on a plate as I went. Some photos of the process:

This is my setup. Dough to the left, the mochi in my hand pre-shaping and the rice flour to roll it in on the right. I made mine too big, so I'd suggest making level teaspoon size mochi. You don't actually have to measure it, but make yours a little smaller than mine. They get a little bigger when you boil them. You'll end up with lots of mochi on a plate like this:

And up close:

Bring a large pot of water to boil, sprinkle some salt in the water. While the water was coming to a boil, I dusted a ziplock bag with rice flour and put half of them in there and froze them for later. This is obviously not necessary, but there were too many for me and I love freezers.

Once the water is boiling, put in your mochi and stir. KEEP AN EYE ON IT! They will only have to boil for 2-3 minutes, tops. As soon as they float to the top, they're done! Take 'em out promptly once they float or they'll be a bit mushier and not as fabulous. Mine looked like this after boiling:

No idea why the photo is sideways. It's normal on my computer, but Blogger has decided this is how it should be. Well, you get the idea.

Once those are boiled up nicely, throw some olive oil, veggies and lots of garlic in a pan and fry up with the mochi. I like 'em nice and browned. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. You did it! Savory mochi! I was joking as I made them that it was rice for giants. Rawr!

Quick(er) Pierogies!

2010-11-12T08:26:00.000-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #10!

Back into the realm of Polish food, we have one of my favorites: Pierogies. Dudes, when I was in Krakow this year there were literally 24 HOUR PIEROGIE PLACES. Heaven! The idea of a pierogie is simple, you have a basic flour dough wrapper, with potato and onion filling. Sauerkraut or cabbage filling is also completely acceptable. Let's just call them Polish ravioli's minus the whole tomato sauce thing.

I love pierogies. When I was in college, my dining hall would have vegan pierogies for brunch now and again and I would tupperware billions of them and eat myself into a pierogie coma. My devotion runs deep.

However, these things are often a lot of work, what with the making of the thin dough and all. Thus, I've recently discovered another fabulous use for wonton and dumpling wrappers! I kid you not, these things are becoming more and more essential to my life. They look like this picture I stole from the internet, go to your local Asian market and buy some, pronto:

The dumpling wrappers are round and the wonton ones are square. I use the terms interchangeably, forgive me. For these I used the round ones. These are seriously the most time-saving and versatile product ever. Without further ado, let me bring you unadulterated bliss:

Pierogies

- 1 package dumpling wrappers, thawed

Potato Filling:

- 1.5 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1/4 cup margarine
- 2-3 Tbsp. soymilkttt
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
- 1/2 tsp. pepper, or to taste

Cabbage Filling

- 1/3 head cabbage, chopped small
- 2 tablespoons regular vinegar
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste

Peel and chop the potatoes. Bring a pot of water to boil and boil potatoes until they can easily be pierced with a fork. While they are boiling, saute chopped onion with margarine, be careful not to burn. When potatoes are done, drain the water from the saucepan, add the sauteed onion, with the margarine and all liquid in the pan, to the potatoes. Add the soymilk, salt and pepper and mash. Set aside.

To make the cabbage filling, put cabbage in a saucepan with vinegar, salt, pepper and oil. Heat covered on medium heat until translucent. Stir occasionally to be sure it doesn't burn.

Fill a small bowl with warm water. To make the pierogies, lay out one dumpling wrapper, add a heaping teaspoon of your filling of choice. Wet your fingers with the warm water and use them to wet the inside edges of the wrapper. It shouldn't be soaking, just a little something to help it stick. Fold the wrapper over to make a half-moon shape and press down with a fork or fingers so it seals. Repeat this until all the wrappers are used up, or until you have enough pierogies. You can refrigerate the fillings to use later, if you'd like. For my pierogies, I mixed the potato and cabbage filling together and just used that, which was maybe kind of weird, but delicious. You can use them separately if you'd like.

There are two ways to serve them, but both involve boiling. In a large sauce pan bring water to a rolling boil. Carefully lower about 6 pierogies at a time into the water and boil until they float, about 3 minutes. If desired, you can then fry them quickly in canola oil so they brown on the outside. The ones in the pictures are fried, but I think both ways are delicious. If you do fry them, the whole adding boiled water-covered things to hot oil can be a bit dangerous so wear an apron and be careful. I found it was good to boil 6, lay them on a plate to dry a bit while I do the next 6, and THEN fry. This cuts down somewhat on splattering hot oil all over your kitchen...and yourself.

I learned this the hard way.

Serve with applesauce and vegan sour cream (as pictured) or eat them plain! I could eat these for every meal. There's lots of fillings as well. A brief look at Vegan Brunch shows a mushroom-sauerkraut filling, which sounds delicious. I also saw sweet one's filled with a sort of sweet cottage cheese in Poland, which I think could easily be translated to sweet cashew cheese with blueberries. OMGzzzz so good.

How to Successfully Veganize Boxed Brownies (And Make Your Vegan Friend Happy)

2010-11-11T10:47:00.002-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #9!

That's right. You'd think it'd be easy, but more often than not you end up with an oily pile of brownie goo instead of delicious fudgey brownies. You'd think making something from a box wouldn't be that hard, but think again! I recently discovered this trick after several failures in the past. The trick is simple...baking soda!

Of course, making your own brownies is much tastier, but sometimes I'm lazy. Or in this case, the boxed one's were so cheap! Thank you Deals & Steals!

How to Veganize Boxed Brownies

- 1 box brownie mix (make sure ingredients are vegan)
- 1 tbsp. ground flax seed + 3 tbsp. warm water for every egg called for on the box
- vegetable, canola, etc. oil
- baking soda

Prepare the brownie mix according to the box. For each egg called for use 1 tablespoon ground flax seed to 3 tablespoons warm water. Mix this well beforehand and stir quickly and well until it thickens some. Set aside. For example, if the box says to add 2 eggs, you'll put two tablespoons ground flax seed and 6 tablespoons warm water in a bowl and stir or whisk rapidly until combined. Add whatever other ingredients the box calls for as directed, usually just water and oil.

Now the trick, for each flax egg you use...add 1/4 tsp. baking soda. So if you used two flax eggs (like mine), then you'll add a 1/2 tsp. baking soda. Throw it in when you add the brownie mix and stir until combined. I don't know why or how this works, but it officially solved my box brownie problem! Perhaps because eggs also help things rise, or because the baking soda in some boxed brownies may have sat on the shelf so long it stopped working.

That, my friends, is how I turned this:

Into this!

Magic! My life is forever altered. Although, I still prefer my go-to brownie recipe as far as taste is concerned...

Chard & Artichoke Dip

2010-11-10T08:29:00.000-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #8!

My housemate and I went dumpster diving the other day and managed to acquire 8 POUNDS of artichokes. It was my first time dumpstering and I'm excited to go again! I am pretty proud that this was almost entirely free as the artichokes and onions were dumpstered and the Tofutti was free. WIN.

Let me tell you, having never cooked an artichoke, it was quite an adventure in my kitchen. Both myself and my roomie sifted through instructional YouTube videos, blogs, and our own wits, both gorging ourselves on the prickly artichokes, but finally...success! I looked at a few recipes, but we didn't have spinach and I wanted to use as much dumpstered and/or free stuff as possible, so I ended up just throwing stuff in the pot instead and GODDAMN. So delicious. I may have polished off the entire ramekin full myself. Good thing there's another one...

This is a little high on the processed vegan food, as I used Tofutti cream cheese since I got it for free. You could probably substitute it for 1/2 a pack (or 1 small Mori-Nu) container of silken tofu, mixed with some salt, a teaspoon of lemon juice and nutritional yeast and it'd be fine. As for the Daiya, try just topping with bread crumbs or roasted onions instead?

Chard & Artichoke Dip

- Approx. 12 artichoke hearts, cooked (fresh is better, but use what you have)
- 1 medium to large onion, chopped small
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup chard, pulled off of the stems
- 1/4 - 1/3 cup non-dairy milk (I used soy)
- 1 container Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
- 1/3 cup Daiya of choice (I used cheddar because I had it) + whatever you want for topping
- 1 small roasted eggplant, peeled (optional, I just had it sitting there and threw it in)
- salt and pepper to taste

If you're preparing your own artichokes, do this before anything as it takes FOREVER. The method that ended up working for us is microwaving 3 at a time upside-down in a glass bowl filled 1/3 way with water and covered in plastic wrap for about 10 minutes. We removed the very bottom leaves and cut the stem off at the base first, then let cool. Then removed all the leaves, scooped out the fuzzy bits and revealed the hearts (at last!).

Preheat oven to 350F (190C). Chop your onions and garlic small and saute in a saucepan until translucent, be sure not to burn and try to avoid browning. While they're cooking quickly peel your chard off the stems and rinse, set aside. When onions and garlic are almost done, add the artichoke hearts and last tablespoon of olive oil and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chard and stir until wilted.

Remove from heat and add to food processer (or blender, but it will be more annoying) with the soymilk. I'd start with 1/4 cup and add more if you think it needs it. Process until smooth, then transfer back to saucepan with the Tofutti cream cheese, 1/3 cup Daiya, and salt and pepper. Stir constantly over medium-low heat until everything is all melty and uniform.

Transfer to an oven safe container, top with Daiya (or breadcrumbs?) and bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the Daiya is all melted and toasty.

Serve with bread, tortilla chips, pita, whatever. I am now addicted. However, preparing artichokes is a pain! However, a bit better now that I know which part isn't poisonous.

Dumpster Diving: A Story in Food Porn

2010-11-09T10:03:00.001-05:00

(photo from All Things Footy)

Vegan MoFo Day #7!

I went dumpster diving for the first time last week with my housemate, a seasoned diver. I can't remember if my first reaction to dumpster diving was, "WTF gross?!" or "That's awesome, get ye in a dumpster!" but I'm a big fan now. My farm share is about to run out and the outside has officially become a cost-free refrigerator, so why not? Below you will find what, and how much we got, and some of the things we've made from our bounty thus far!

This is all our goods spread out on the table by vegetable. We then sorted through, weighed, and chopped up anything that needed to be chopped.

Weighing the artichokes! Soooooo many! But we'll get to that later. Our final count was:

- 1 lb. sweet peas
- 7.5 lbs. artichokes
- 4 lbs. 3 oz. green peppers
- 4 lbs. yellow squash
- 3 lbs. broccoli
- 7 large, white onions
- 1 lb. carrots
- 7 lbs. eggplant
- 1 pack green beans
- 1 pack yellow beans
- 1 pack sugar snap peas
- 1 bunch collards
- 1 bunch parsley
- 3 stalks celery
- 1 mango
- 1 bunch green grapes

That is a lotta food, my friends. So the rest of the night we scrambled to prepare and make stuff from it all so it wouldn't go bad. Here are some photos of our preparations:

The sugar snap peas, rinsed and looking all pretty. I put some of these in some homemade ramen soup I may blog about later.

The peppers, being all green 'n shizz. We cut any bruised spots off so we just had the good stuff. There's also a ton of whole peppers in the fridge that I have plans for. Well, for some of them. Our fridge is packed!

The eggplants after roasting in the oven. My housemate made these into an eggplant spread.

My housemate also breaded some eggplant in cornmeal and deep-fried them to yield these beauties, which later became eggplant parmesan.

The next day, I took peppers, celery and onions from our dumpster adventure and chopped them up with some garlic and parsley. Garlic was mine and parsley was from our farm share.

I also roasted the rest of the eggplants and chopped them up. I combined everything, plus some dumpstered broccoli and turned it into this...!

Here is some Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole from the blog FatFree Vegan Kitchen. It used the celery, eggplant, onions AND peppers from the dumpster, which is why I chose this recipe. I omitted the mushrooms, only because I didn't have any, though it would have been even better with them!

Some steamed artichokes. We steamed the entire 7.5 pounds of them, and damn did it take a lot of effort, but finally, we got these:

Twelve artichoke hearts, which I turned, along with some dumpstered onions, eggplant and previously dumpstered chard, into this vision of pure perfection (don't worry, that's Daiya!):

But you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that recipe...

Apples To-Go: Vegan Apple Hand Pies

2010-11-08T10:46:00.001-05:00

Vegan MoFo Day #6!

We've been getting a ton of apples in our farmshare, so when my housemate brought back a box of apples from apple-picking, it got a little apple-crazy around here. Afraid that they were going to go bad, one night we sat down, peeled all the apples, sliced them and froze them. What does this mean? Easy baked apple confections! Peeling and cutting the apples is the most annoying part, so having bags of frozen and ready apple slices in the freezer makes life wonderful! An idea for the next time you have a ton of apples and aren't ready to use them yet!

I was inspired by my friend, who recently bought a mini apple pie-making contraption, to make my own little apple pies. For some reason I'm not that excited by regular big apple pie, but am a huge fan of its offspring! I changed this recipe very slightly from La Pure Mama blog (original found here) by adding an extra tablespoon of margarine to the mixture as I wanted mine more fatty a la MxDonalds' apple pies (Did I just say that?). I've made 2 regular and one double batch so far and lots of apples left! I have plans to make a batch with added maple cream in the filling, as I think it would be DELICIOUS.

Apple Hand Pies

1 cup white flour + some for dusting
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. margarine
4 Tbsp. water
2 medium apples, peeled and cut small
1-2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch nutmeg

If using frozen apple slices, mix them with lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and allow to thaw a bit ahead of time. Mix together the flours, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add in margarine and incorporate. I stirred a bit and then gave in and just used my fingers until the mixture was a uniform crumbly texture. Add the water and stir/mix with fingers until combined. Once your dough is formed, shape it into a ball and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes in a sealed container (or plastic wrap).

If not using frozen and ready apples, now's the time to peel them and slice them very thin. Toss with the lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and set aside. I like my apples cut very small so there's more "apple goo", but it depends on what you like.

When the dough is sufficiently cold, plop the ball out and cut into equal eighths, like a pizza (but smaller of course). Flour your surface and roll one of the eights into a circle (doesn't have to be perfect, as seen above). Make sure the dough isn't too thin or it will break when you put the filling in. Once rolled out, add a 2 or so tablespoons of filling in the middle (whatever will fit, start with less so it doesn't get messy), fold over, press the sides together and then roll them over once more and press again to seal. Or do that thing with the fork that makes them look all cute. Repeat with the other seven eighths.

When finished, take a knife and cut three slits in each as shown above. This will allow the steam and goo to come out and look delicious.

I then carefully layed them flat in plastic bags in the freezer so I had quick apple treats whenever I wanted. Whenever you want to eat them, preheat an oven (or toaster oven in my case) to 375F or (190C) and bake for roughly 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them. When they're browned and goo is dripping out of them, they're ready.

What's your favorite/most unique way to use up apples? Another idea: Make your own dried apples.

Mission: Vegan Coupons

2010-11-05T08:12:00.000-04:00

Vegan MoFo Day #5!

I really don't like spending money, who does? I've been trying to cut down on the more processed vegan foods like vegan mayo, cheese, ice cream, fake meats, etc. in favor of real, whole foods. However, these things are a nice treat now and then and I'll occasionally add a tablespoon or two into something, which I don't feel too guilty about. The people who complain about veganism being expensive are often thinking of these products. And yes, they are expensive.

I decided to do something really obvious to solve this problem: E-mail my favorite companies and ask very nicely for coupons. I really did reap the rewards from this endeavor, even some free product coupons! Here's a rough estimate of what I got/didn't get:

Earth Balance:

- One $1.00 off Coupon

Tofurky:

- One FREE product coupon for a Tofurky frozen pizza with Daiya (I said I really wanted to try them)
- One 55 cent off coupon

Daiya:

Nothing, they said they don't give out coupons

Follow Your Heart:

- Two 55 cent off coupons for any Vegenaise product
- Two 55 cent off coupons for any Vegan Gourmet product

So Delicious

- 75 cents off any coconut milk kefir
- $1.00 off any coconut milk beverage
- 75 cents off any coconut milk creamer
- 50 cents off any coconut milk yogurt
- 75 cents off any coconut milk ice cream novelty product (ice cream sandwiches and bars)
- $1.00 off any coconut milk pint of ice cream

Gardein

- Four $1.00 off any product coupons

Tofutti

- Two FREE product coupons (not exceeding $3.99)!!!
- Two $1.00 off coupons
- Two 55 cent off coupons

Amy's

- One 75 cents off any Amy's Lasagna
- One 75 cents off any Amy's Kids Meal
- One 75 cents off any Amy's frozen prepared meal
- One 75 cents off any Amy's hot cereal bowl
- One 75 cents off any Amy's pot pie
- One 55 cents off any Amy's grocery item
- One 50 cents off any Amy's cakes

Sweet & Sara

Said they don't have coupons, but I believe Sara herself e-mailed me back and pointed me to a 15% off sale on their website!

Some of the responses were overwhelmingly nice and positive, some were "meh", but sent me coupons anyway (score!!). Overall, it was a little reminder that contacting companies and letting them know what's what is definitely worth the effort! I believe it was Amy's and Follow Your Heart whose coupons literally arrived at my door only a few days later. I was a little disappointed in Daiya, though. That stuff is expensiiiveee! I did, however, just manage to buy 5 pounds of cheddar Daiya wholesale AND on sale through one of my jobs for $30, which is super awesome! So ha, I managed to get my discount anyway and it is now taking up residence in my freezer! I'm still not sure how I'm going to eat all of it and I might even be sick of nachos soon...

What are your favorite companies or vegan-food money saving tips?

Cappuccino Muffins

2010-11-04T15:35:00.001-04:00

Vegan MoFo Day #4!

It took two tries to perfect this recipe, but holycrap are they delicious. The first time they came out tasting good, but didn't rise at all, which I attribute to a wet:dry ratio with too much, well...wet. Oops! I didn't account for the fact that oats don't absorb as much liquid as flour, so I increased the flour the second time and gave the oats a little whizzy whizzy in the food processor.

I really wanted my muffins to have some oatmeal and use actual ground coffee. After an intense Googling session, all I could find used either instant coffee crystals or liquid espresso. Why not just throw in the actual ground coffee?! So, I set to the kitchen and hurrah! Success! I also added a touch of cinnamon, which you can't taste per se, but it adds a really nice depth to the flavor.

Cappuccino Muffins
makes 12 muffins

- 1 cup + 4 tbsp. non-dairy milk
- 2 tablespoons ground coffee, on the finest setting possible, it should be powder
- 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup oatmeal or rolled oats
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar (can use regular if needed)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 scant tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4-1/3 cup applesauce
- 2-3 big handfuls chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F.

Grease a muffin tin with margarine and set aside. If using rolled oats, pulse them a few times in the food processor. If using oatmeal or porridge oats, you can skip this step. Mix the very finely ground coffee with 1/2 cup of the soymilk and stir until absorbed. I put this entire mixture in the food processor and whizz for a minute to make sure it is really combined. Add the other 1/2 cup soymilk and the apple cider vinegar and give a quick stir to combine (or a quick pulse, if using the food processor). Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Make a well in the center and pour in the soymilk/coffee/vinegar mixture, oil, vanilla, applesauce, and the last 4 tablespoons of soymilk. Stir until just combined and then fold in the chocolate chips. The batter should be thick, but not runny. Pour into greased muffin tin (I pretty much filled it up to the top, but you could make more smaller muffins if desired) and cook for 22-26 minutes.

I am so proud of these babies and they're great for breakfast as I usually have no time to cook, nor can I handle anything complicated in my tummy early in the morning. Plus, they even have the caffeine built in! Win!

Barszcz (Borscht)

2010-11-03T12:38:00.000-04:00

Vegan MoFo Day #3!

I have fond memories of drunkenly spooning very large amounts of borscht into my mouth in the kitchen of a hostel in Krakow, Poland. While that borscht came from a box (but it was Poland, so it still counts as real?), it was seriously the best drunk food eveeeeer during the freezing Polish January. I later got some "real" borscht in a Polish Milkbar, but the borscht broth from the box always stuck in my mind.

After some intense Googling, I was inspired to combine the ideas from several recipes and voila! I decided to go with shredding the vegetables to keep everything thin how I like it. While it was a lot of work to do that without a fancy food processor shredder, and I accidentally shredded myself in the process, it was so. worth. it. If you like the veggies bigger in your borscht, by all means forgo the shredding process and just throw 'em in in chunks!

Though some may be intimidated by the bright pink color, believe me, it is yummy. It's also great to use up those beets in your farm share and in fact, every single vegetable in this arrived in my farm share during the same week. Perfect!

Barszcz (Borscht)

1/2 large or 1 small yellow onion, chopped small
2 cloves of garlic
1 pound beets, peeled and shredded
2 medium potatoes, peeled and shredded
1/2 pound of carrots (about 2 large), shredded
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 head cabbage (red or white), sliced into small pieces
6 cups vegetable stock
1/2 tsp. celery seed
juice of 1 and a half lemons (3ish tablespoons, to taste)
salt
coarsely ground black pepper
vegan sour cream, if desired

Chop the onions and garlic and set aside. Shred the beets, potatoes and carrots into a bowl. Put the chopped onions and garlic into a large saucepan and saute for 1-2 minutes with the olive oil, be careful not to burn! Add the shredded beets, potatoes, and carrots with a pinch of salt and the vegetable broth. Stir and bring the mixture to a boil (about 5 minutes).

While the soup is working up to a boil, chop your cabbage into small pieces. When the vegetables are soft and the water is boiling, add the cabbage, and bring to a boil again. Once boiling, lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 20-30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, then add the lemon juice. The lemon juice really makes this, mmmm.

Serve hot or cold with a dollop of sour cream (if that's your thing). Delicious! Here's a close up. Unfortunately I took it during night time or you would see the vibrant pink color a bit better!

According to Wikipedia, "Barszcz in its strictly vegetarian version is the first course during the Christmas Eve feast. It's served with ravioli-type dumplings called "uszka" (lit. "little ears") with mushroom filling (sauerkraut can be used as well, again depending on the family tradition). Typically, this version does not include any meat ingredients, although some variants do."

Methinks I will have to have a go at these "uszka" soon. Also, borscht sounds so much better than what I usually eat for Christmas, mmmm.

Kabak Yemegi (a.k.a. Turkish Noms)!

2010-11-02T23:16:00.000-04:00

Vegan MoFo Day #2!

While visiting a good friend in Bonn, Germany, in January, she made this for us and I promptly scribbled down the ingredients in my travel notebook of sorts. In the little ramekin is plain soy yogurt. Normally, I'd eat it with something more like pita or naan, or anything but what is in the picture, but unfortunately this was the only bread-type thing in my house at the time.

Without further ado, here is the recipe as per my friend's instructions! The only thing I changed was to use tomato puree instead of something called "Salca", but I was informed they are basically the same thing, so, win!

Kabak Yemegi (a.k.a. Turkish Noms)

- 1/3 cup bulgur
- 1 onion
- 1 courgette/zucchini, striped and cut in moon shapes
- 1 tomato, peeled and chopped
- 3 tbsp. Salca (Turkish tomato thing, I used tomato puree instead)
- 2 cups water
- a bunch of fresh dill
- salt, pepper, chili flakes, to taste
- soy yogurt (however much you want)
- pita, naan, toasted bread, whatever for dipping!

To prepare zucchini, make stripes down it's length with a peeler and cut in half, then width ways to make small moon shapes. Chop the onion until the pieces are small. I'd also cut your veggies smaller than mine in the picture, but that's just personal preference!

Fry onion with olive oil until soft, add courgette/zucchini (same thing) and cook for 5 minutes. Be careful not to burn the onion! Add cut tomato and bulgur. Stir.

Boil the 2 cups of water and stir in the Salca/tomato puree, then add the tomato mixture to the rest with the dill (a lot of it, we're not talking a tablespoon here), salt, pepper, chili flakes, etc. Simmer the completed mixture covered for 10-15 minutes. Serve with yogurt and bread!

This was really good and a completely new food and food genre (can you say that?) to me, which rarely happens nowadays. So yay, and if you're reading this Hannah, thanks!

WTF are Collards?!: Easy Collards with Potatoes and Tofu

2010-11-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Vegan MoFo Day #1!

This was literally something I threw together. I got a bunch of collards in my farm share, and while I think I've eaten them before, I had no idea exactly how to go about making them delicious. I tried Googling things, but everything was either super complicated and involved fancy schmancy ingredients, or boiling the poor greens....and in my experience vegetables + boiling = bleh. Thus, here is my easy take on them based on what was in my kitchen! I'm sure they are far from "Southern Style", but they were yummy!

Easy Collards with Potatoes and Tofu

- 1 bunch collards, rinsed and cut into manageable pieces
- 1 medium red potato, cut into squarish pieces
- 1/4 cup water
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced or chopped small
- 2 tablespoons Earth Balance/oil/margarine, etc. (the EB adds a nice flavor though)
- 1/3 block tofu, cut into triangles or anything really
- 1-2 tbsp. canola/veg oil (for tofu)
- a handful of raisins
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Agave/Maple syrup mixture, or 1 tbsp. maple syrup
- salt and pepper, to taste

Rinse the collards, shake of excess water and place on cutting board. I just took a big knife and shopped them perpendicular to the stem, until the stem got too big, then I ripped the remaining leaves from the stem (this is just so you don't get big chunks of stem in your dish a.k.a. same with kale). A little bit of stem in the middle is fine. Set aside.

Chop potato. Put garlic and earth balance in a saucepan, add potato and turn on medium-low heat. Stir and add water (just to keep it from burning). Cover and let simmer until potatoes are soft, making sure not to let anything burn to a crisp (a.k.a. stir occasionally).

While that's going, heat up 1-2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan and put in your tofu in one layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and fry on medium heat. Once bottoms are browned, flip all the pieces over and sprinkle the other side with salt and pepper. Once done, put pieces on a plate and set aside.

By this time your potatoes should be ready. Put all of the chopped collards in the sauce pan, along with a handful of raisins. Stir and cover. In 2-3 minutes, once collards are wilted and ready, add in the maple-agave syrup or regular maple syrup (I got the Maple Agave from Trader Joe's) and stir. Transfer to a plate/bowl and add your tofu. Eat!

I was skeptical of the maple addition, but goddamn, was it good! I particularly like the subtlety of the maple-agave, but I'm sure regular maple would work too if you use a little less.

What's your favorite easy way to cook collards? Anyone have any non-traditional ways of incorporating them into meals?

Vegan MoFo!!!

2010-10-22T12:32:00.003-04:00

Hey Veganers,

Just a quick update as it's been awhile, and I have some good news! If you're wondering about my silence, it's for several reasons. Number one, I moved back to America, promptly got mono, then spent the summer trying to rapidly learn German for a Fulbright grant I'm applying for. I also moved back to Northampton, MA for the year, where I did my undergrad. I'm auditing a German course and had two jobs, now mostly one (whew) and am volunteering. Needless to say, though food has still been entering my body and digestion is happening, this blog took a little tripski to the back-burner! That is neither here nor there, but mostly not here, so if you'd like more of my babblings about my real life, you can check out my personal/travel blog.

Anyway! As it's been a busy year and I haven't posted nearly as much as I'd like, I decided I'd add another dish to my already piled high plate and sign on to participate in Vegan MoFo this year! For the first time! So really, I've been saving up ideas and posts for then so I don't die.

If you don't know what Vegan MoFo is, it's basically a vegan blogging version of NaNoWriMo. The idea is to blog as much as you can about vegan food for the month of November. It can be recipes, thoughts on veganism, your favorite way to cook pasta, favorite vegan product, whatever. The goal is to post once at least every weekday or about 20 times in the month. Imma try it! Wish me luck!

So loyal Nom-ers, get ready for November! Did I mention I have 51 followers now and about 25-30 unique hits a day, WHAT?! You guys are awesome, even if most of you just want in on that Peanut Butter Mousse Cup Pie, but who can blame you! I would eat that for every meal if it wouldn't lead to a series of unpleasant diseases and possibly death!

It's a good time too, as I just had an incident with the delete button, which involved my carefully indexed collection of vegan recipe bookmarks being deleted, so it's time to move on and up into new realms of delicious! See you in November! In the meantime, if there are any specific topics, recipes, or ideas you'd like to see, comment and I'll get my mind a-brewin'!

Bis dann!

Steel Cut Oats Pancakes & Documenting a Pancake Adventure

2010-08-29T13:25:00.009-04:00

For those who don't know, I spent most of my year abroad. In fact, these travels have continued now that I'm back in the US, which is what led to this pancake feast in Mystic, CT with a friend who was working there. You can't have brunch without pancakes and there are so many varieties it's hard to decide! Included in the stack above are gay pancakes (rainbow sprinkles!), chocolate chip pancakes, banana pancakes, peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes, blueberry pancakes and more! I've included some links to my all-time favorite recipes below, pictures of my pancake adventure as well as the recipe for my new favorite...pancakes with steel cut oats! After trying steel cut oats for the first time, I thought they weren't my thing. With a whole tupperware full of leftovers, I realized they suited me much better in pancakes! In fact, I like this pancake variety to much I've been making the oats specifically for it! But of course, this is a great way to get rid of your leftovers.

This is what our pancake making session looked like. We made so many pancakes (and ate so many) that I'm pretty sure I don't want to see another pancake for at least a few months.

My gay pancake browning on the stove. Does that make this a hate crime? It certainly tasted like love in my mouth.

Pancake eaters! All of them! And staff, interns, researchers, etc. of Mystic Seaport/friends.

Oh, I DID taste the rainbow!

Steel Cut Oats Pancakes

- 1 1/2 cups steel cut oats, cooked (amount can vary, whatever you have available)
- 1 1/4 cups soy, rice, etc. milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup whole wheat or buckwheat flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour or white spelt flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- sliced bananas, chocolate chips, blueberries, chopped nuts, etc. (optional)

Cook steel cut oats according to package directions. Set aside. Alternatively, just throw whatever leftover oats you have into the batter at the end. Heat up a frying pan on medium. If nonstick, no need to oil, but if not, do it. Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, then all the dry ingredients together in another bowl. You can use whatever flours you like for the 1 cup total of flour, I just like half and half with whole wheat and regular. Add the wet to the dry and stir just enough to combine. If you like thin pancakes, you might want to add a bit more soymilk until the batter is to your liking, just do it by eye! Pour batter to your preferred size pancake into the heated pan and flip with little bubbles have formed all over. Flip! Stack up on a plate and serve with your desired pancake accessories (maple syrup?).

Last, but not least, here are the other pancake recipes frequently used from my repertoire. They have been served many a time to hungover friends on a Sunday morning with delicious results!

- Yogurt Pancakes
- Veganomicon Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes
- Vegan Brunch Banana Flapjacks (on Google Books)

What are your favorite pancake recipes?

Cold Brewed Coffee

2010-08-21T18:08:00.007-04:00

Following the thought of "Things That Are Painfully Obvious", a friend sent along a link to me a week or two ago about cold brewed coffee. Now, I had heard of this before, but always assumed it was tedious or complicated and involved fancy equipment. Nope! Previously when I wanted iced coffee I'd make some in my stovetop espresso maker, pop it in the freezer for 25-20 minutes and then serve it over ice. The benefit of cold brewing your coffee is that it is apparently less acidic as there is no heat involved (which is what releases most of the acid in coffee) and you don't have to add more heat to an already hot summer day! I'm really not sure why I didn't think of this sooner. For cold brewed coffee, all you need is:

- an empty glass spaghetti sauce jar (cleaned, of course)
- 1/4-1/3 spaghetti sauce jar of medium-course grind coffee
- water

Fill the empty spaghetti sauce jar 1/4-1/3 of the way full with medium-course grind coffee. Fill with water, cover and shake. Leave on the counter at least overnight to "brew". Filter twice through a fine mesh strainer or coffee filter, get rid of grinds (or compost!) and put the translucent coffee "concentrate" back into the rinsed-out spaghetti jar. Store in fridge. Here is what was left in mine for the second filtering:

To make your coffee. Fill a glass with ice, pour about an inch and a half of your coffee concentrate (it's stronger than regular coffee) and dilute with soymilk (or your milk of choice) to taste. Voila! Because it is less bitter, it doesn't even really need sugar! I do this with my parents' Costco brand coffee only because I can't dream of buying more coffee when we have so many bags, but ideally I'd use a fresher, organic brand and I think it would taste even better!

The finished product!

You really don't need anything fancy to make cold brewed coffee, but if you want to make more at once or step it up a notch to avoid the filters, I was recommended this cold brewed coffee maker, which can be used for coffee or tea:

Vegan Dumplings and the Miracle of Steaming Things

2010-08-16T17:57:00.007-04:00

A week ago I realized the obvious: You don't need a steamer to steam things. Also, you can use wonton wrappers to make things besides wontons! The novelty! This made the possibilities of my wonton wrappers endless! Not only could I make dumplings, I could make pierogies and ravioli! All without the hassle of making dough and getting it thin enough without ripping or sticking to the surface I rolled it out on! And let me tell you, that has kept me from making these things for ages. So everybody go pick up some wonton wrappers from your local Asian food market (make sure they don't have egg) and go crazy! It took me all of 10 minutes to have dumplings in my mouth, so you have no excuse not to.

This is very similar to my Disappearing Wontons recipe but a different shape, easier and healthier! For dumplings, just chop up some veggies of choice. I recommend cabbage, peppers, onions, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, garlic, etc. Whatever you have around should work. I also added some seitan to mine for good measure. I made a big batch of chopped veggies and seitan, tossed it with soy sauce, a bit of ginger powder and about 1/2 tsp of sesame oil...shook it up in a Tupperware and put in the fridge so I could throw together dumplings whenever I wanted!

When ready, take a sauce pan filled with less than an inch of water in it, put a metal colander/strainer (the dumplings stuck to my plastic/silicone one so I recommend metal) in the pan so that it's not touching the water underneath, and have a cover ready for your new steaming apparatus. I just put a spoonful of the filling in the middle, dipped my fingers in warm water and rubbed around the edges of the wrapper to make it stick, then folded it in half and squished the edges together with my fingers. Poke a hole in each so they don't turn into big bubbles, then toss all the dumplings (10-15 at a time) into the "steamer", cover and let steam for 5-7 minutes. When they turn more translucent they're ready! Service with soy sauce or dumpling sauce!

I think I'll try making raviolis filled with spinach and cashew ricotta next, though I'll probably use two whole wonton wrappers sealed together for this instead of one folded in half. Again, the possibilities are endless! I'm so happy about my obvious discovery of a) steaming without a steamer and b) the versatility of wonton wrappers! I'm so excited about steaming things I might even buy a steamer basket!

Ready to go in my tummy...

Tofutti-Free Vegan Cheesecake

2010-06-22T16:20:00.005-04:00

I've had some good vegan cheesecake before, but virtually every recipe I've ever come across has used Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese. As this stuff is up there on the processed scale, I've been searching high and low for a Tofutti-Free recipe. At first I tried this one from the Seitan is My Motor blog, but for the life of me I could NOT get my yogurt to strain. I poured it into a cheese cloth placed in a strainer...a day later nothing whatsoever had strained out and it was the same consistency. No idea if I'm doing something wrong or if Silk Live soy yogurt is just a freak of nature. There is no yogurt cheese in my future, it seems. Needless to say, after some intense Googling, I finally came up with my own recipe.

Tofutti-Free Vegan Cheesecake

Ingredients:

- 1 pre-made graham cracker pie crust, or make your own (depends how lazy I am)
- 2 (16 ounce) packages medium to extra-firm tofu tofu (silken, if you can find it...I can't)
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp. grated lemon zest
- 2 tbsp. almond butter or tahini
- 1 tsp. almond extract
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 4 tbsp. soymilk

Prepare graham cracker crust according to instructions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). In your food processor, combine remaining ingredients and pulse until smooth. Pour into pie crust and bake for 20 minutes. Cool and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled and firm, at least two hours. This tastes better every day it sits, so I recommend letting it chill overnight before eating. Easy peasey. I've tried adding some cashews and vanilla extract. I didn't notice a difference with the cashews, but like the almond extract much more than the vanilla. I plan to play around with sweetners more, as I'd prefer to use something healthier than plain white sugar. If you try something different that works, let me know!

For a topping, try a mixture of your favorite berries, mixed with some agave nectar, lemon juice and your favorite jam simmered on the stove until most of the water has evaporated. Mmmm.

Another slice!

...aaaand the whole cheesecake from the spring-form pan!

Gardein Seven Grain Crispy Tenders

2010-05-31T21:35:00.004-04:00

I'll admit it, since I've come back to America I've been on a packaged vegan foods spree. Usually I aim to eat mostly food I cook myself and a lot more vegetables, but I had a bad case of mono for a bit over a month so I got a little lazy. Plus, there's a new Whole Foods near my house and so it's the first time I've had access to products like Gardein, Daiya and Dandies! I got a little excited, but I'm on my way back to normal.

The Crispy Tenders are my favorite and remind me of my childhood love for fast food chicken nuggets (no wonder I was a fattie), except I like to think they're at least somewhat healthier since they've never touched any surface of McDonalds and are made of grains, soy and pea protein instead of questionable hormone-filled chicken.

The main downfall of the Gardein products is the price. Usually they're between $4-5 for 2 servings in a bag, which is a bit steep for me. Coupons pop up once and a while, but the price is the one thing that keeps me from buying them more often.

gardein™ chick'n: water, soy protein, vital wheat gluten, ancient grains (quinoa, amaranth, millet and kamut®), natural flavors (from plant sources), potato starch, expeller pressed canola oil and/or safflower oil, pea protein, modified vegetable gum, carrot fiber, organic beet root fiber, organic evaporated cane juice, yeast extract, sea salt. seven grain breading: water, modified cornstarch, toasted wheat crumbs, wheat flour, onion powder, soy lecithin, spice, corn flour, baking powder, guar gum, rice flour, oat bran, oats, quinoa flour, amaranth flour, millet flour, kamut®.

Finally Fudgy Brownies

2010-05-24T22:22:00.006-04:00

It took me for-freaking-ever to find a vegan brownie recipe that lived up to my expectations. I've tried a lot of recipes and this one doesn't even have any weird ingredients like tofu or soy yogurt. After playing around with this VegWeb recipe for a year, I finally tweaked it to my liking. The secret? Don't use the cheapest possible flour and melt a whole good-quality chocolate bar in there. I like my brownies fudgy. In fact, in my non-vegan days I used to purposely undercook those box brownies by 5-10 minutes to make sure they were gooey enough (probably not the best idea in retrospect given that, well, they had eggs in them). So, if you want cakey brownies...just eat cake! Or find another brownie recipe. :-)

Finally Fudgy Brownies

Ingredients:

- 2 cups flour (I recommend a high quality flour like King Arthur)
- 1 cup water
- 1 vegan chocolate bar (I used Green and Blacks 70% Dark Chocolate)
- 1 cup brown sugar (make sure there's no clumps)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup oil (I used canola)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional, I used walnuts)

Boil water and 1/2 cup of the flour in a sauce pan over low heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches the consistency of a thin gluey paste. Break off about half of the chocolate bar with your hands and add to the flour mixture in pieces, while continuing to stir. Put aside the rest of the chocolate bar. Stir until chocolate is all melted and mixed into the flour mixture. Remove saucepan from heat and set aside to cool. I'm convinced this step is the secret to this recipe, but I've no idea why scientifically.

In another bowl add vegan sugar, salt, vanilla, cocoa and oil. Then add the flour-water mixture. It should be cool, but I'm usually too impatient to wait and it still seems to come out fine, though the time the brownies came out the best I did actually wait for it to cool (but only because I started the recipe and then realized I had no canola oil and had to go get some). Stir to combine.

Chop the rest of the chocolate bar into chunks with a big knife/hammer/other bludgeoning object. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour, baking powder and the chopped chocolate chunks and nuts (if you're using nuts). The mixture will be much thicker than your average brownie recipe and a bit hard to stir, so don't worry.

Stir until everything is combined, then spread the mixture into a greased 11 x 7 inch pan. Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 25 minutes.

Edit 5/27/2010: I just made these again using semisweet chocolate chips instead and it turned out equally fabulous, if only a bit less tart due to the lack of dark chocolate. If you're not a fan of dark chocolate or just don't have it on hand, sub 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips into the flour-water mixture and about 2 handfuls into the completed mix!

I ate the entire batch myself. Don't judge me. How could I help myself?

Sainsbury's Basics Noodles (savoury and quick, does the trick)!

2010-04-27T11:19:00.000-04:00

I have to admit, throughout my travels I've become sort of an instant noodles addict. What can I say? They're good and portable. In the US I'm always afraid to eat most of the ramen I see because it has so many weird ingredients and MSG. In the UK there's a supermarket called Sainsbury's and as soon as we met, we fell in love. The year I lived in Brighton I discovered that their 9p ($0.14) chicken and chicken curry flavored noodles, which is UK lingo for ramen, were vegan. Look, Sainsbury's even has a handy Vegan Product List containing everything they sell that's suitable for vegans.

There was no turning back. These are especially perfect on a cold day or when you're sick and miss the idea of chicken soup. I usually cut up some onions, pepper, mushrooms and broccoli reeeeallly small and add to a bowl with the contents of the flavoring packet, crunched up noodles (I like them small) and about a cup of boiling water from the kettle. I really can't be bothered to dirty a saucepan for this, so water from the kettle and a minute to soak after stirring works just fine. If I overdue it with the water I'll add a pinch of salt and some tumeric to balance out the taste. Voila! You have a yummy, easy and impressive looking snack (or meal if you add some tofu)!

People thing of ramen as a bland boring food, but adding some veggies to the package makes it into a whole new creation. I've also stir-fried them in a pan with half the water, veggies and some fake meat or tofu for a non-soup version.

Even better, as far as I can see the Sainsbury's noodles contain no MSG (monosodium glutamate). Win, win! I love Sainsbury's. If only I could find some instant chicken-flavored ramen without weird ingredients in the US...help me out?

Ingredients (for chicken flavor):

Noodles contains: Wheat Flour, Palm Oil, Modified Tapioca Starch, Water, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Stabiliser: Guar Gum; Carboxylmethylcellulose.

Flavour Sachet contains: Salt, Vegetarian Chicken Flavouring (20%), Yeast Extract, Sugar, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Maltodextrin, Colour: Turmeric, White Pepper, Dehydrated Carrot, Dehydrated Chives.

No-Muh-Chäs

2010-04-02T13:26:00.003-04:00

When I was in Berlin, Germany I went to an all-vegan grocery store ( !!!! ) called Veni Vedi Vegi where I found the best vegan cheese I've ever had. While I ate it in sandwiches and stir-fries my method of choice was to just eat it raw from the package. And let me tell you, this has NEVER happened to me with any other vegan cheese. Usually I just use them as a texture and do whatever I can to hide the generally funky flavor. Apparently it melts as well, though I was never patient enough to test that claim.

Bad news, I'm pretty sure it's only available in Europe, but if you're from the EU...rock on! I will definitely be eating more of this when I'm back in Berlin. Though with a price tag of €5.20, it won't be that often. If you wanna read more, check out this website under "Vegetable 'cheese'": http://www.vegusto.com. You can also buy it from there and it comes in several flavors!

Ingredients (from Vegusto website): water, vegetable oils and fats, potato starch, rice flour, nut butter, cereal flour, rock salt, carrageen, spices, yeast and yeast extract, flavour (vegetable), lactic acid (vegetable), colour (beta-carotene)

Rice Gnocchi

2009-12-14T06:27:00.005-05:00

This is almost too simple to post, alas. One thing I've been eating way too much of in Prague is rice gnocchi. First introduced to it while my friend Colleen and I were browsing the shelves of a nearby Tesco, I was a bit turned off, thinking they looked a little bit too much like freakishly white blobby aliens for me to eat them. Eventually Colleen cooked some for me in my kitchen and changed my mind. They're a bit chewy, different from regular semolina pasta or gnocchi, but in a good way. I like to fry them with oil in a pan once they're done boiling. Mmmmm. The general "recipe" goes something like this:

- 1/2 package rice gnocci
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed and cut small
- 1 large onion
- 1/2 green pepper
- kale, broccoli, other peppers, etc.
- salt and pepper, to taste

Boil a pot of water. While the water is heating up, heat the olive oil in a pan. Add veggies and garlic. Once the water is boiling, add the rice gnocchi with a bit of salt and oil, stir and watch closely. As soon as they start to float, strain them. Add to the veggies and saute everything until it's slightly browned and the gnocchi have some brown crispy bits. Add salt and pepper to taste. Voila! Easy meal.

The brand of rice gnocchi I found is vegan, not sure if most brands are usually. I know most brands of semolina gnocchi have mono-di-glycerides, so you may want to check!

Thanksgiving in Prague!

2009-11-29T09:36:00.006-05:00

Our spread included veggie pot pie, mashed potatoes with chives, mushroom gravy, boxed stuffing my flatmate somehow found at Tesco, cranberry sauce my friend ingeniously re-hydrated from dried cranberries, salad, dressing, sauteed kale with mushrooms and chick peas, apple crisp (not pictured) and red wine.

My pot pie, with cut up, fried chickpea cutlets inside! Recipe here, except I used from 1/3-1/2 cup flour instead of cornstarch for a thickener as I didn't have it on hand. This is the recipe for the crust.

Mushroom gravy made with some gravy powder sent to my flatmate from America, real mushrooms and some seasoning.

Cranberry sauce, expat style.

It was a good night and I think my (vegan) flatmate and I may have just impressed some of our friends with our vegan skillz! Now if only we'd had the resources to whip together a pumpkin cheesecake...

Wild Poppies (and their seeds)

2009-11-05T07:32:00.009-05:00

I didn't really have anything to do with this besides being the enthusiastic spectator and creepy photographer. In any case, the fact that my flatmate went for a hike in the country and came back with wild poppies is pretty neat, I think. The fact that she then made opium, I mean, lemon poppy seed cookies with the wild poppies is even cooler. I guess we can find/grow lots of this stuff in the States, but it seems much less common for anyone I know in the States to come home with poppies, walnuts, chestnuts and/or pears collected during a walk home from work, while this kind of foraging is pretty common in the Czech Republic. Maybe it's just because I grew up in the suburbs, though I live in a city here (Prague) and that doesn't seem to stop anybody.

Nature is awesome.

Poppy seeds in their home!:

My flatmate with her victims:

Things my flatmate "foraged" on her way home from work. For awhile we had a pretty large collection going...

Oh yeah, the cookies were pretty good too. If I actually made them I'd put a recipe up here, but I really just partook in the eating.

For reference, this is what a poppy flower looks like, because when she brought these dried poppies home I was really flabbergasted and confused as to the life of a poppy flower plant:

Vegan Prague Guide!

2009-10-08T06:01:00.007-04:00

It's been awhile. I haven't been very creative, though I just bought a food processor for $25 on the Czech equivalent of eBay. Unfortunately, right when this happened, I realized I lost my camera battery charger. You win some, you lose some.

Anyway, I'd mentioned making a Prague vegan guide based on what I've learned. Here it is. Not much here because I don't really care to re-iterate stuff you can find on other websites or happycow.net. This is the stuff I found out the hard way. For example, the literal translation of "nutritional yeast" into Czech is something that does not exist. I'll be adding to this as I go, so check back. If you have any questions or additions please comment and let me know as well!

Coffee Shops in Prague with Soymilk

1. Coffee Heaven (http://www.coffeeheaven.cz/praha.php)

This place has 5 billion locations, but is quite expensive. $6.30 for a large soy latte expensive and the soymilk costs about a dollar of that price. At least they have free wi-fi. They do have lots of fun toppings though, like toasted coconut, cocoa powder, raspberry powder (this one's not vegan, I think), cinnamon, etc.

2. Starbucks (http://www.starbucks.com/retail/find)

Starbucks is the same everywhere, which can sometimes be comforting. A tiny bit cheaper than Coffee Heaven, you can get an iced coffee with soymilk for 60kč ($3ish).

3. Mamacoffee (http://mamacoffee.cz/kavarna/)

This place is priced reasonably and all their coffee is fair-trade. Three locations, I've only been to the one on Londýnská street by the I.P. Pavlova metro station because it's near where I live (Vřsovice). Small place with about 3 tables inside and 6 outside in warmer weather, this place has lots of different coffee roasts to choose from.

4. Bakeshop (http://www.bakeshop.cz/our-story-en.html)

I haven't been here yet, but someone on the expats.cz forum mentioned they have soymilk. I just e-mailed them to confirm and they replied within 20 minutes! Here's what they said: "yes, we make a coffee with soy milk. We will be very happy be part of your soy milk list. We make also some vegan salads and breads. If you are interested about more informations feel free to contact us on 222-316-823." Sounds good to me! With a quick and great reply like that, I will definitely be headed there soon.

Vegan Brunch!

1. Radost FX (http://www.radostfx.cz/restaurant/index_en.htm)

Good for hungover mornings. A bit pricey at like $12-15 an entree, though, which wouldn't be so bad if I were being paid in dollars. It's a vegetarian restaurant/lounge, though they have some fish, and a club downstairs at night. I hear the restaurant is open until late along with the club, but I haven't tested this theory.

Vegan Buffet (by weight):

1. Country Life (Melantrichova 15, 110 00 Praha 1)

You fill your plate from the buffet and they weigh it and you pay. They have vegan ice-cream here! I love this place. Pretty reasonably priced for what you get and the atmosphere is nice. No-smoking allowed inside which I love. So tired of inhaling everyone's second-hand smoke. The best part about this place is they have free water, a luxury when you have to pay for water most everywhere else. This is why the statement "Beer is cheaper than water" is true.

Nutritional yeast (Lahůdkové Droždí):

1. Country Life (http://www.countrylife.cz/index.php?id=120)

Also a chain of health food stores, Country Life is pretty awesome. There's about 4 locations you can find on the website and they also have a cosmetics store. Nowhere near as big as Whole Foods or something, but still pretty quality. The one on Melantrichova street has a bulk foods section.

2. Eden Tesco (U Slavie 1527/3 10000 Praha, organic grains section)

Tesco is a huge grocery store chain from England. There are a few massive ones in Prague and this one is my favorite (and closest to my flat). After scouring the city for a month to find nutritional yeast, realizing this Tesco has it was a bit embarrassing. Oops.

Vegan Mayo

1. Tesco

F'realz, even Tesco has this. See? Being vegan in Prague is not so bad, so stop complaining. It's in a small purple/pink tub with a peel-away aluminum cover. I'd post a picture if my camera worked. It's by the company Kalma and says "VegaVital Sojanéza" on it in yellow. There's another type called "Tofunéza" in a smaller blue container, but I don't like how it tastes.

2. Country Life (http://www.countrylife.cz/index.php?id=120)

Same brand as above, though they also have soy tartar sauce, which I think is pretty neat. I like to put it on french fries, as seems to be the Czech way.

Bulk nuts, seeds, dried fruits

1. Diana—The Empire of Nuts (http://www.diana-company.cz/shops.aspx?l=1033)

Haven't been here yet, but once I get a paycheck I might go buy lots of raw nuts here to use as ingredients with my new food processor.

Bulk Spices

1. Farah Oriental Market (http://www.ita.cz/farah)

I originally came here to find hummus. I succeeded, but canned hummus is gross so don't make the same mistake I did. On the bright side, this place has about 100 bins filled with bulk spices. Pretty great.

Useful Czech food words:

1. Lahůdkové Droždí = nutritional yeast
2. Celozrna psenicka mouka = whole wheat flour
3. Cizrna = chick peas
4. Kukuřičný škrob = cornstarch
5. Hladka mouka = fine-grained flour (svetla is bleached and polosvetla is unbleached)
6. Lepek = gluten
7. Sojové mléko = soymilk
8. bez = without

9. s, se = with

The only thing I haven't been able to find here is vital wheat gluten (gluten flour), so my Mom is shipping me some soon. Then I can make vegan cold-cuts and life will be good. I also plan to fly over to London to visit friends and bring over a Tofurky for Thanksgiving from the Whole Foods in Kensington, I believe the only Whole Foods outside of America.

Again, this is a work in progress! Send me questions/comments/suggestions and your own additions if you've been to Prague!

Vegan Tartar Sauce

2009-09-09T10:50:00.003-04:00

It seems like every country has their own way of doing french fries. In America, it's ketchup. Canada, mayo. In the Czech Republic? Tartar sauce. You heard me. My favorite drunken food, I was sad to discover one night that my fries (or should I say, hranolky) were covered with ketchup and an unknown white subtance that did not look vegan. Since then, I've felt a little left out. I want to try this strange combination too!

Luckily, today I was wandering around one of Prague's little health food chains, Country Life, and found this gem: Soyová Tatarka or, soy tartar sauce. Success! I just moved into my new flat and I'm a little embarassed to say that frozen french fries with tartar sauce were my dinner. I'm still in that too flustered and unsettled to cook much stage, but eventually I'm going to bust out some quality noms. Until then, I expect a lot of posts of random ass vegan products I find around Prague.

I want to start a list or website or something listing all the vegan shit in Prague I find like coffeeshops with soymilk, nutritional yeast, etc. Maybe that will be in the works once I compile more info as I couldn't find anything like this myself in English and could've really used it. Luckily, my flatmate just pointed me in the direction of some nooch, which pretty much made my life. Would a list like this be useful to anyone?

She lives!

2009-08-25T13:32:00.002-04:00

I'm alive. I swear there will be updates eventually, I've just moved to Prague and am taking a month long intensive TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course and it is eating my life. Once it's done, expect some posts featuring how the heck I'm managing to survive as a vegan here. Not only is Prague not quite as vegan-friendly as other places I've lived, but most of the time my limited knowledge of Czech prevents me from even reading the ingredients lists at the grocery store. Alas! I have survived somehow thus far. I just have a terrible craving for hummus that isn't canned (even that took a trek to a Middle Eastern grocery to find) and I can't quite satiate this urge until I move into my new flat and track down some tahini. There are vegan restaurants here though and even some coffee shops that have soymilk. I'll make it.

You see, in a week or so, I'll be back!

Basic Sourdough Bread

2009-07-22T15:19:00.005-04:00

It's a wonder I haven't committed this recipe to memory yet. I'm not really sure why I haven't posted this yet, but this is the recipe I use to make my basic sourdough loaves. I've come a long way from my first attempt, let me tell you, which was not much more than a bread-shaped brick only edible right out of the oven. I hadn't quite mastered the art of making sourdough starter at that point. Speaking of, if making your own sourdough bread items strikes your fancy, let me direct you here.

Anyway, I only fussed with the original recipe a bit, making it a whole wheat and white flour fix and sometimes adding a bit of vital wheat gluten to add to the texture, though this is optional and I'm still not sure if I can tell the difference as it is mostly my family who gobbles this up after I make it.

ONWARDS.

Basic Sourdough Bread

- 3 1/2-4 cups good quality white flour (King Arthur works)
- 1 1/2-2 cups good quality whole wheat flour
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 cup sourdough starter (unproofed)
- 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

In a large bowl, combine the water, sourdough starter and 4 cups of flour (2 wheat, 2 white is what I usually do). Mix well and cover with plastic wrap in a warm place 8-12 hours (I do it over night).

The next day stir in the salt and sugar, then add vital wheat gluten (if using) and flour 1/2 to 1 cup at a time to make a very stiff dough and knead until smooth. Cover and let rise 2 to 2-1/2 hours.

After 2ish hours, punch down and divide in half. Knead till smooth and form into rounds. Place on a greased baking sheet (I put them on a baking sheet covered with finely ground corn meal and then transfer them to my baking stone for baking). Cover lightly (I use plastic wrap coated with a bit of olive oil so it won't stick) and let rise till double and puffy (1 to 1-2 hrs).

While this is rising mix the 1/2 cup water and 1/2 tsp cornstarch in a small bowl and microwave till boiling, remove from heat and let cool. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and carefully place a small pan of hot water on the bottom rack of the oven.

When done rising, cut two slashes across each other on top of each loaf. Bake for 10 minutes. Pull out the rack and baste each loaf well with the cornstarch mixture, then close the oven and allow to bake another 20-25 minutes. Loaves should be a light golden color and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Allow to cool for 2 hrs to develop the sourdough flavor fully if you can wait that long.

Chocolate Banana Almond Butter Pie

2009-07-19T16:38:00.005-04:00

Bananas, chocolate and almonds make a good combination. This was another one of those raw recipes that I ended up un-rawifying, but it was delicious as I'm sure its raw counterpart is also. I got it from the blog Adventures of Raw Goddess Heathy, which I am a big fan of. Mostly I just needed to use up a container of almond butter that had been sitting around the house for ages (it was made from roasted almonds, hence the not raw). Now if someone could only find me raw almond butter that wasn't $14 for a jar! Ooph. Anyway, on with the recipe: this dessert will definitely get you your protein, with almost an entire jar of almond butter in there and the pecans and almonds in the crust!

Chocolate Banana Almond Butter Pie
adapted from Adventures of the Raw Goddess Heathy

Crust
- 1 cup pecans
- 1/2 cup almonds, ground
- 1/2 cup dates, pitted

Filling
- 1 1/4 cup (raw) almond butter
- 1/2 cup agave nectar
-1/2 cup + 1 tbsp cacao powder
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/8 tsp salt (optional)
- 2 tbsp. softened cocoa butter

- 2 large bananas, sliced into rounds

Process ingredients for crust together in a food processor until crumbly and the mixture starts sticking together. Press into the bottom of a 9" pie plate to form the crust.

Combine all the filling ingredients, except for the bananas, in a food processor until smooth. The mixture is supposed to be pretty thick. Spread 1/2 of the filling over the pie crust, followed by a layer of sliced bananas, then the rest of the filling. Use reminaing bananas as garnish as shown below (or however YOU want to arrange them, be creative!):

Relocate to your tummy.

I Am Clearly Prolific

2009-06-24T19:48:00.003-04:00

I'm leaving for my summer job tomorrow morning and once that's over I'm only back home for 3ish days before catching a flight to England and my ultimate destination for the indeterminate future, Prague. My family doesn't really cook, but we have a CSA share for the summer. Food going to waste makes me really anxious, so I've been aggressively trying to convert our farm share plus all of my random food I've brought back from college to a form my family will eat in my absence. In the past (<) 48 hours I have made:

- Vegan Lasagna with the Veganomicon Cashew Ricotta and a side of sauteed swiss chard and kohlrabi (my first time cooking and/or eating kohlrabi...not bad)
- 12-grain bran breakfast muffins with fresh cherries, carrots, raisins and some vegan white chocolate chips (recipe forthcoming?)
- 2 loaves sourdough bread (recipe also forthcoming?)
- Dried sourdough starter (so I can take it with me to Prague)
- Radish Green & Arugula Pesto with Crumbled Pecans
- Fresh Salsa
- Black Bean Burgers from Veganomicon (in progress...the dried black beans are simmering now to become...undried)

I am impressed with myself. Now if only I could be so productive with my non-food related chores. They just don't cause me the same anxiety/push towards productivity that food going bad does. I'm not even sure where I picked up this instinct, as my family throws so much away.

Also, what can I do with beet greens besides sautee them?!

Homemade Flour Tortillas!

2009-06-17T15:55:00.010-04:00

Yesterday when I was too lazy to drive to the store to buy tortillas, I was reminded of my friend Colleen mentioning making her own. Making these babies from scratch was a much more favorable option than trekking the 5 minute drive through the suburbs to Stop & Shop in my head, not to mention the chances of me finding vegan tortillas could've been pretty slim. Damn you mono,-di-glycerides! No yeast needed, these were pretty easy to concoct. I know making your own tortillas seems pretty badass, and I mean, I AM pretty badass, but do not be intimidated. A quick Googling pulled up this recipe from Instructables. Easy peasey. That said....ONWARD!

Homemade Flour Tortillas

- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup warm "milk" of choice (I used almond milk because it was already opened)

Combine the first 4 ingredients in your mixer (flour, baking powder, salt and veg oil) and let 'er rip. It'll be super dry and crumbly, but that's cool. You just want everything to be well incorporated. Next, add the warm "milk" (I just microwaved mine for 45 seconds) slowly, 1/4 cup at a time until you end up with a smooth and well-mixed sticky mess. On a well-floured surface, knead the dough for a full 5 minutes until it's not a big sticky mess. I was lazy, so I just dumped a couple handfuls of flour in my KitchenAid mixer and revved that for 5 minutes until the dough wasn't sticking to everything anymore.

After you have a smooth and not quite as sticky dough, place it in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth for 20 minutes. This step is important so that your dough can rest a wee bit and become more manageable. After the 20 minutes, cut/rip the dough into 8 equal pieces, roll them into little balls and place them on a plate (make sure they're not touching!) covered with the damp cloth for another 10 minutes.

On a floured surface, pat your balls (lolz) into little circles about 4 inches in diameter. Then take a rolling pin and roll out the circles into 8 inch rounds, starting from the middle and moving out. heat up a pan and keep it dry - this means no oil or anything of the like. Once your tortillas are sufficiently flat (this was the hard part for me) place them one at a time in the pan for about 30 seconds per side, or less, depending on how hot your pan is. They'll get little (or big) bubbles when they're done. Keep the cooked ones warm in a cloth towel until you're ready to eat them or alternatively, if you don't want to eat them all at once, you can store 'em in foil or something in the refrigerator for a few days. Try re-heating them up in the oven wrapped in foil for best effect before serving.

Then...you can make....quesadillas!

OM NOM NOM!

Just fyi, one of my favorite recipes for vegan cheese sauce is from Shmooed Food, the blog of the person who does Vegan Lunch Box and the recipe can be found here. But I know you're lazy, so here:

Nacho Cheese Cip
from the Shmooed Food Blog

- 2 cups water
- ¼ cup raw cashews
- one 4 oz. jar pimentos, drained (I usually use jarred roasted red peppers or roast my own)
- 1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch
- 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1 ½ tsp. salt, or to taste
- ½ tsp. onion powder
- ¼ tsp. garlic powder
- ½ tsp. cumin, heaping

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Whizz until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens (about 5 minutes). Nom!

Chocolate Coffee (Almost Raw) Dessert Cups

2009-06-03T22:58:00.006-04:00

I have about 239495358 pounds of raw cashews in my kitchen so I've been doing anything I can to use them in just about everything. These were really good and pretty filling due to all the nuts. Definitely satisfied my dessert craving without that much sugar, nomnomnom. Oh agave nectar, how I love thee...

I adapted the recipe from this raw one on the Rawdorable blog, but again, I didn't have all the raw ingredients so this didn't turn out completely raw. Instead of raw almonds I used blanched, I used fine ground coffee instead of the Java Teeccino and I didn't have any almond milk so I just used soy, which I'm sure wasn't raw. For the whipped icing I didn't have coconut butter, so I used cocoa butter (the edible kind, leftover from when I made white chocolate awhile back) and that came out pretty tasty.

Chocolate Coffee (Almost Raw) Dessert Cups

Bottom Layer:
- 1/2 cup almonds, ground into flour (or just buy almond flour)
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tbsp. very fine ground coffee or instant espresso
- 1 tbsp. "milk" of choice
- generous drizzle of agave nectar, to taste
- sprinkling of cinnamon
- dash of cayenne pepper (optional, I didn't use)
- pinch of sea salt
*more cocoa powder and cinnamon for garnish

Whipped Top Layer:
- 1 cup cashews or a mix of cashews and macadamia nuts
- 1 cup "milk" of choice
- 1/8 - 1/4 cup agave (depending on how sweet you like it)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup cocoa butter or coconut oil

In your food processor, grind the almonds until they resemble a coarse flour. In a small bowl, whisk together the almond flour, cocoa powder, coffee (I just ground some coffee beans at the finest setting in my coffee grinder), cinnamon, cayenne pepper (optional) and sea salt. Add the "milk" and agave and mix to combine. Adapt amounts for your own flavor/texture preferences. The mixture should be damp, but still sort of crumbly.

For the whipped layer, blend everything in your food processor or blender until combined and smooth. In mugs or small containers, make a layer of the crumbly bottom mixture then cover it with 4-5 tablespoons of the whipped layer and chill in the fridge for at least an hour. When ready to eat, sprinkle with some cinnamon and cocoa powder and serve!

This made three of these little cups below. I'd say the serving size was about 1/2 cup each.

"Raw" Strawberry Cheesecake

2009-05-29T14:53:00.007-04:00

I'm back. Mostly I've just been cooking stuff I've already posted on here, but I saw this recipe on the Post Punk Kitchen Blog and it looked really interesting to me for some reason, so I had to try it. Thus, this is not my recipe at all, but it's pretty tasty! I put the raw in quotations because it would've been completely raw if I didn't use blanched almonds. Those are the only ones I had in the house, however, and I'm not actually raw and didn't want to spend more money so...oops. I should mention that when I think of raw foods my first thought is, "oh shit this is gonna take forever and be really complicated," but this was a lot easier than it looks. Mostly just a bunch of blending and the waiting for the nuts to soak.

"Raw" Strawberry Cheesecake
from the Post Punk Kitchen Blog

Crust
- 1 cup pecans
- 1 cup almonds
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 4 medjool dates, pitted and chopped

Filling
- 3 cups raw cashews, soaked overnight (or at least 3 hours)
- 1/2 cup agave nectar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (alcohol free preferred for raw desserts)
- 32 oz. strawberries (reserve about 9 for decorating)
- 3/4 cup coconut oil

Fluffy White Frosting
- 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp. agave nectar
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla (alcohol free preferred for raw desserts)
- 1/4 cup raw coconut oil

Strawberry Coulis
- 2 cups chopped strawberries
- 3 tablespoons agave nectar

Lightly grease a 9 inch spring form pan with coconut oil and set aside.

To prepare the crust, pulse nuts and salt in a food processor fit with a metal blade. When nuts are fine crumbs, add the dates and pulse until the dough holds together when squeezed between your fingers. Firmly press crust into the bottom of prepared cake pan. Set aside.

To prepare the filling, pulse cashews in food processor until crumbly. Add agave, water, lime juice and vanilla and puree until very smooth, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula to make sure you get everything. Feed the strawberries through the top of the food processor and puree until incorporated. The filling should turn a pretty pink. With the processor running, add the melted coconut oil in a steady stream. I don't have a big food processor so I just put everything at once into my blender and it was fine.

Pour the filling into the cake pan. It will look like a smoothie and you’ll think wtf this is weird, but it worked out okay for me. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to set for at least 4 hours.

Prepare the frosting in basically the same way as the cake. Pulse the cashews in the food processor until crumbly. Add the water, agave and vanilla and blend until smooth. With the food processor running, stream the coconut oil in through the top until combined. Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill until set, about 2 hours.

Prepare the sauce when you’re close to serving. Just mash the strawberries up with the agave until it’s all red and syrupy. I forgot about this part, but maybe you'll want to try it! Mine was still mighty tasty without it, but now I have extra strawberries.

To assemble release the cake from its springform prison. Use a mini scoop to place 8 mounds of icing around the perimeter of the cake and one in the center. Slice the tops off the reserved strawberries and gently smush them upside down into the frosting mounds. If you don’t have a mini scoop, just use a spoon and make them as pretty as you can, they’re gonna get smushed anyway.

To serve, place some Strawberry Coulis on the plate and serve the cake over it. Dig in! Nomnomnom.

This might be sort of diabetic friendly as well because any carbs (and it is mostly nuts except for the strawberries) are balanced out by all the protein and there's no processed sugar, just the agave, which has a pretty low glycemic index. I'm not really an expert though.

My pictures are a bit shitty because I really wanted to eat it.

Sourdough Baguettes

2009-05-06T12:52:00.006-04:00

Okay, so I made these a couple months ago, but they were pretty awesome! My life has been kind of crazy lately and I'm back at school without a kitchen, so I apologize for the lack of updates lately. Don't worry though, I am graduating in less than 2 weeks and then I will be FREE from university and life without a kitchen FOREVER! I hope. Believe me, though, I plan to make up for my lack of updating this summer and when I move to Prague in August.

I can't completely take credit for these though, as these Ultimate Sourdough Baguettes are pilfered from Recipezaar. I didn't quite cook them as the recipe described, but that's because I was in a rush to catch a ferry back up to college.

Sourdough Baguettes

- 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
- 2 cups proofed sourdough starter
- 5-6 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 4 teaspoons yeast
- 4 teaspoons vital wheat gluten

In a large bowl combine the water, starter, and 3 c flour, mixing until smooth. Stir in the salt, sugar, yeast, and gluten then add 2 more cups flour. Continue stirring until the dough starts to pull away from sides of bowl, add only enough flour to make a slack, sticky dough. Knead 5 minutes and turn into an oiled bowl to rise 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

After the first rising is done, deflate and divide dough into 6 thin or 3 thick baguettes or several rolls and place at least 4 inches apart from each other on parchment paper or something else that won't stick. Each one should be approximately 18 inches long. Place a lightly greased piece of plastic wrap on top and let rise 1 hour (don't forget this part or you'll end up with a mess!). Brush with water/very diluted cornstarch and sprinkle w/ desired topping (optional, try sesame or poppy seeds). Sprinkle baking tray/preheated baking stone with fine-ground corn meal and carefully transfer baguettes to it and bake at 450°F oven for 20 min with a tray filled with water in the oven to create steam. Remove from oven, place rack at top of oven then put bread back in and broil till deep golden brown in color, watching closely.

Tada!

Sourdough Bagels

2009-03-17T01:19:00.006-04:00

Okay, so this recipe isn't really my own making as I followed this one over at the Fresh Loaf exactly, but as a pretty amateur bread-baker a lot of the stuff on that post is over my head, so I thought I'd summarize it here with my pictures. For more details, you should go read that post, but I'm going to give you the jist of it here.

The first thing I should mention, is that when making bread apparently measuring everything by weight is the way to go, which is why the ingredients are listed in grams first below. This works fine for me when I'm at my parents' house as they have a kitchen scale, but I've included not quite so accurate cup measurements for those lacking in the scale department. Again, for info on how to get a starter going, try here or read my my last post. Also, the recipe calls for some instant dry yeast in addition to starter, which I just omitted in the place of slightly more starter.

Sourdough Bagels

- 350 grams (12 oz, slightly heaping 1.5 cups) 90% hydration white flour starter
- 20 grams (0.6 oz, 3.5 teaspoons) sugar
- 12 grams (0.4 oz, 2.5 teaspoons) malt syrup
- 14 grams (0.6 oz, 3.5 teaspoons) salt
- 359 grams (12.5 oz, 1.5 cups) water
- 186 grams (6.5 oz, heaping 3/4 cup) whole grain flour - maybe rye, whole wheat, Heartland Mills Golden Buffalo, or just use white flour
- 587 grams (20.5 oz, 2.5 cups) high gluten flour (substitute bread flour or other high protein white flour)

- parchment paper
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- cornmeal
- toppings of choice (salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried minced onion, dried minced garlic, etc.)

So basically you put all these ingredients in a bowl and mix/knead them up until everything is of uniform consistency. The dough should be dryish, but not falling apart dry. You want it to hold together well, but it shouldn't be that super sticky kind of moist.

When everything is combined well, cut little bagel sized pieces about 3 oz (6 tbsp) each. The goal is to get about 18 bagels out of the recipe, so keep that in mind. The way I shaped the bagels was to cut off a piece, roll it into a ball, stick my finger into the middle to make a whole and then spin it around my finger like it was a hula hoop. Once the hole is big enough I evened out the edges so there weren't some really skinny areas and some really thick ones. Roll out some parchment paper on a baking tray and lay the bagels down as you shape them. To make sure they don't dry out and form a "skin" spray them every couple minutes with water and/or cover with plastic wrap as you shape. Here's some shaped bagels:

Once they're all shaped, leave in the refrigerator overnight covered well with plastic wrap so they don't dry out. The next morning, take out one batch of the bagels to thaw/rise a bit while you get the next step going, about 30 minutes. Get a big pot of water boiling (recipe says 5 quarts, I used smaller and did the bagels one at a time) and add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to it, less if you use a smaller pot. Prepare your toppings by laying them out on plates to dip your bagels in.

Preheat your oven (and baking stone if you have one) to 400F. Once the water is boiling, use a slotted spoon to put one of the bagels in for 20 seconds. It should float to the top, so if it doesn't you may want to leave the bagels out to rise for a bit longer. I left mine out for almost an hour and they still all sunk, so who knows. Mine still tasted great once they were done, thus I'll gander this isn't super important unless your enough of a bagel connoisseur to tell the difference? One by one, give each bagel it's 20 second bath in boiling water. Remove and place back on the parchment paper to dry off enough that they won't flood your toppings, about a minute or two after boiling. You might want to boil half, put the toppings on those and then do the others.

When the first batch are dressed with their toppings, take out your baking stone and sprinkle generously with cornmeal to prevent sticking. If you don't have a stone, you can just use parchment paper on a baking tray. Bake the bagels for 20 minutes. Not all my bagels fit on my stone/oven at once, so I had to do two batches. If you're in the same boat, take out your second batch of bagels from the refrigerator to thaw as soon as you put the first batch in the oven. Once the first is done, repeat the above steps until everything's all cooked and yummy. Should make about 18, you might want to freeze 2/3 of 'em to keep them fresh unless you are a bagel eating fiend.

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Sourdough Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

2009-03-15T12:11:00.008-04:00

My first foray into sourdough bread making, and by extension sourdough starters, was during this winter break. Needless to say, I sort of failed. My sourdough starter just wouldn't get bubbly or active enough. I think it would have maybe with more time, but eventually I was only back here for 2 weeks before heading back to college, so eh. Luckily, Liz had more luck than I, so I took some of her sourdough starter to play with this spring break.

You may think I'm lame for blogging about bread when I should be naked, drunk, and swimming in some warm location of choice, but then you haven't tried this bread. I finally succeed at making something that actually rose AND is delicious.

I guess I'll start by pointing you in the direction of how to get your own sourdough starter going, since that's the key ingredient here. For those that don't know, starter is "wild yeast" that you cultivate yourself rather than buying your typical active dry yeast, and is what gives sourdough its, well, sour taste! My first recommendation for having your own starter, is find friends that have theirs and ask for some of it. If you don't have friends, a great page with detailed instructions on how to get your own going is here at the Fresh Loaf. If that sounds way too intimidating to you, you can always buy some dried starter off the internet and revive it to get your own going. Sourdoughs International has several different cultures you can buy for about $14.

Now that you have a starter doing, on to the recipe! For this I combined two different sourdough cinnamon-raisin recipes (here and here) and then changed them both around. Both only said to let the dough rise for 1-2 hours, which seemed a bit low to be, so I let the dough rise overnight instead.

Sourdough Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

- 1 cup active sourdough starter
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 3/4 cup lukewarm/cool water
- 2 cups bread flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoons melted Earth Balance (or other butter-like substance)
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons cane sugar
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cardamon (optional)
- fine-ground cornmeal for anti-stick purposes

Take your cup of active sourdough starter (once it's all bubbly) and mix it with the raisins. Let sit for about 20 minutes. Add in the water and bread flour, kneading the flour in a bit at a time until just combined. Lightly oil a bowl and let dough rise in there for about 4 hours covered with a damp washcloth. Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead in the baking soda and earth Balance. Add up to 1/2 cup more bread flour if needed. Roll out into a rectangular shape about 14-16 inches long by 8 inches wide. Combine the cinnamon through cardamon in a small bowl and sprinkle all over the rolled out dough leaving about 1/2 inch around the edges. You can look at the pictures here. Roll up the dough long ways (the way that would allow you to roll the most) to get the spiral effect in the picture. Once neatly rolled, pinch together the ends and seal it off so it's like a nice little package. You can wet the edges if that helps.

Line a mixing bowl with parchment paper, squish the dough more into a ball shape and plop it in the lined bowl to rise overnight. Like before, cover with a damp wash towel and let rise for at least 8 hours. It should increase in size by at least 1/3rd.

Preheat your oven (and baking stone if you have one) to 450F. Once pre-heated, take your stone out of the oven and sprinkle it (or your metal making tray) generously with fine-grouned cornmeal to keep the bread from sticking. Uncover the risen bread, lift it out with the parchment paper and then plop upside-down onto the tray/stone. Peel away the parchment paper. With a sharp knife, cut 1 large or 3 smaller slits in the dough about 1/2 inch deep. Put the bread in the oven. Fill a small metal baking tray halfway with water and put this in the rack below the bread to provide steam. Immediately turn the oven down to 400F. Let bake for 35 minutes and then carefully remove the bread. Let cool for 10 minutes before eating. Yum!

This came out amazing, light, fluffy and delicious. The raisins were moist and the swirl was pretty! Success at last! It sounds like a lot of work, but I swear anyone can do it with a bit of time and patience. Most of the time it taken up by waiting for the bread to rise, so just get it going while you're busy doing other things (or sleeping) and you're all set.

Back to Kitchen-Land

2009-03-14T18:59:00.002-04:00

I'm back at my parents house for about a week for Spring Break and am excited to cook up a storm. My current culinary plans are:

- Sourdough bagels using some starter I got off of Liz and am carefully cultivating on top of the refrigerator.
- Vegan danishes
- Sourdough bread of some sort? I'm thinking cinnamon-raisin.
- Plantains because I picked 3 up from Whole Foods and have never made them before, but they are so tasty so I must! What do you make with plantains? I'm thinking kale, because I love kale...with everything.
-Chickpea Scramble, and thus, beans in general. I want to see what I can make with beans because I need to stop eating so much soy, especially all the processed "meat" stuff. If anyone wants to point me in the direction of some cool recipes using beans in weird ways, please do!
- Other things!

So, hopefully expect some updates soon and maybe even some that are not desserts!

Snack Giveaway

2009-03-02T10:29:00.001-05:00

ZOMG COOKIE/BROWNIE/GRANOLA OVERLOAD!

Vegan Peanut Butter Mousse Cup Pie

2009-02-27T13:36:00.004-05:00

Man, I've been posting a lot of desserts lately. Can you tell I like chocolate and peanut butter? No matter, this is possibly the best dessert I've ever made. The best part is I made it up all by myself! Oh. My. Gosh. was this fabulous.

Vegan Peanut Butter Mousse Cup Pie

Peanut Butter Mousse Layer
- 12 oz. Extra-Firm Silken Tofu (I used Moru-Nu because I had it lying around. This would probably be fine with firm or non-silken, too.
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4-1/3 cup agave nectar/maple syrup/brown rice syrup, etc.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

**NOTE: I used natural peanut butter, so if you're using a peanut butter with more sugar already added you may want to cut the amount in the recipe down to keep it from being sickeningly sweet.

Chocolate Ganache
- 1/4 cup soy/rice/oat/almond milk (I used oat)
- 3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons agave nectar/maple syrup, etc.

- 1 vegan ready-made graham cracker crust of your choice (I'm lazy)
- vegan white chocolate (optional, for garnish)

Drain and rinse the tofu and squish out any excess water. Combine all the peanut butter mousse ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and well-mixed. Pour into pie crust and refrigerate while you make the ganache. It's okay if it doesn't fill the crust all the way to the top, hence only 12 oz. of tofu. You want room for the ganache!

Bring your vegan milk of choice to a gentle boil in a small saucepan. As soon as it boils, remove it from the heat and mix in the chocolate and syrup until everything is fully melted and evenly combined. Let sit for 10-15 minutes at room temp until it solidifies a bit more and then pour or drizzle over the peanut butter mousse in the pie crust. I decided to pour it completely over to make it look like a peanut butter cup, and because I was going to shave the white chocolate over it anyway to make it look pretty. You may choose otherwise. Put in the refrigerator for at least an hour to solidify before eating.

After the hour, feel free to put on the toppings of your choice. I took the vegan white chocolate I had just made and shaved it on top with a potato peeler of all things. It was pretty! I think chocolate covered hard pretzels would be cool too. Vegan peanut butter or butterscotch chips would be especially amazing, too. In fact, I kind of want to try making some vegan peanut butter chocolate by tweeking my white chocolate recipe a bit with some peanut butter flavored extract and some PB or something. Worth a shot!

But seriously, for how easy this recipe was to prepare, it was the most amazing thing I've ever made. Who said good desserts had to be complicated?

My Vegan Birthday Cake

2009-02-27T13:25:00.003-05:00

This is super belated, but my birthday was on February 8th and I needed to post a picture of the cake Liz made me. It's a princess cake made out of chocolate cake, with peanut butter frosting. The ice cream cones have white cupcakes with pink frosting inside them and the pink frosting was store-bought in a spray can that was surprisingly vegan. It was possibly the tastiest and most impressive cake I've ever had.

So amazing, that while I was holding it while sitting in the parking lot at Taco Bell while Liz was inside getting some food some bro's came out to get into their massive SUV parked next to me and freaked out about it. It went as such:

Bro 1: Yo, man, lookit that ice cream cake! That's awesome!
Bro 2: What?
Bro 1: Dude, bro, lookit that ice cream cake!
Me: *Makes eye contact and smiles awkwardly while holding up the cake*
Bro 1: That's awesome! Yo, bro, did you see that cake?!?! *Bros get in the car and drive off*

It was pretty funny. It goes to show that even bros love vegan princess cake...

Vegan White Chocolate

2009-02-22T15:21:00.008-05:00

I've been meaning to make vegan white chocolate ever since I got some food-grade cocoa butter for Christmas. I used a recipe from the Bitter Sweet Blog and went with it. Man, it was a lot easier than I expected to make the ever-elusive vegan white chocolate and so tasty.

Vegan White Chocolate
from the Bitter Sweet Blog

- 1/4 cup (2 Ounces) food-grade cocoa butter (like this one from Eastbluff Trading Company)
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
- 1/3 cup powdered Sugar
- 1/2 Teaspoon soymilk powder (I used Fearn brand soya powder, but I think actual soymilk powder would taste better this NOW Foods brand one is about $6)
- a pinch of salt

Put all your ingredients out and dole out the cocoa butter into a microwave safe bowl or double boiler. It can be kind of hard so you may have to break it out of the container in pieces, but don't worry, this is normal.

Melt the cocoa butter in until liquid, if using the microwave try 30 second intervals as cocoa butter has a much lower melting point than chocolate and you don't want to burn it. Once melted, mix in all the other ingredients and pour into your mold of choice. I used this candy bar shaped mold that I am quite happy with (and you can't go wrong for $2.29 off Amazon). Put in the refrigerator to set for at least 30 minutes.

Voila, you have some vegan white chocolate! The possibilities are endless. I used it this time to shave onto a vegan peanut mousse cup pie, a recipe that I'll post soon because it was the best dessert I've ever made. NOM. Look how pretty! Even I'm impressed with myself. It's super impressive for something so easy.

If you're going to eat the chocolate plain, it's pretty sweet, so I'd try adding some dried cherries or cranberries, coconut flakes, walnuts, etc. to it and maybe doing half vanilla extract and half almond if you're just using it as a candy bar. You could even make a vegan cookies and cream bar if you crushed up some Oreos or Newmans-O's into it. I think that would be deeeeeeelicious. My next mission for it is to make vegan chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. The blog I got the recipe from also has a recipe for vegan white chocolate mousse, which sounds amazing too. The best part is that the cocoa butter makes goes a long way. I still have enough left for plenty more treats!

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Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge: Dormitory Style

2009-02-13T18:55:00.006-05:00

All I have to cook with in my dorm/house at school is a microwave and a hot plate somebody graciously left for us to use in the tiny kitchenette. If you've noticed, I haven't posted for awhile. This is why. However, I had a few Sweet & Sara marshmallows left in my mini-fridge and was inspired to spruce up the usual fudge recipe I make to create a Rocky road version. I had to do this a bit creatively given the resources at my disposal, but it turned out pretty awesome nonetheless.

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Rocky Road Fudge

- 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (if natural, spill the oil on top off first)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 1/3 cup milk of your choice (I used rice, but I usually use soy)
- 3 tablespoon vegan butter (I use Earth Balance)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
- 1/3 cup nuts of your choice (I used macadamia)
- 3 or more vegan marshmallows

Since I didn't have any regular peanut butter, I got about 25 little packets of it as you can see above from my dining hall and scooped them out one by one to get 3/4 cup of peanut butter. Most of you can probably skip this step. I hope. I have to get my tuition's worth somehow, right?

Next, I mixed the peanut butter, chocolate chips, rice milk, Earth Balance and vanilla together in a bowl (well, microwave-safe Tupperware container) and microwaved them all in 30 second intervals until everything was melted. You could also do this on the stove, but I opted for the microwave since the hot plate in my kitchenette takes forever to heat up. I mixed everything together well and added the cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar then crushed the nuts with a cup and added those in as well. Last, but not least, the most important ingredient! I ripped up the vegan marshmallows in bite-sized pieces and mixed them in too. For this recipe I used the toasted coconut variety and it was super tasty. Once everything it combined, pour it all into a square pan or Tupperware and refrigerate at least one hour before eating. Mmmm.

I used rice milk in this recipe, but I think soy or almond milk would work much better. I've also always been meaning to try using almond or macadamia nut butter instead of the peanut butter. other fun add-ins to try would be shredded coconut, dried raisins, cranberries, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts. I think this would be super awesome with veganwhite chocolate or butterscotch chips if I ever feel like splurging. The butterscotch ones don't have ingredients listed, but I've read on a lot of forums that they're vegan. I'd love to think up some more fudge varieties to make myself, as I'm always drooling over this very expensive vegan Fudge of the month club: here. Let me know what you try!

New Years Party Food

2009-01-16T14:16:00.006-05:00

I usually throw a party for New Years and this year was no different. I think this one went especially well food-wise. At least, I thought everything was yummy. I don't have pictures for it all, but here's what I made:

1. Pecan Rocha from the Playing With My Food blog. This was super sweet, but really yummy. The base made out of saltines made me wary at first, but it worked out. Plus, it was super easy and fast to make!

2. Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches from the FatFree Vegan blog. These were super yummy and not too much work. The hardest part was getting them out of the tins intact. I'd been served tofu quiche before in my dining hall and it was gross, but luckily this far surpassed my expectations. I made them in mini cupcake tins so they'd be little hors d'oeuvres for my party. Mmmm.

3. Peanut Butter Creem Cheeze and Chocolate Chip Brownies from the Cozy Inside blog. I actually found these in my bookmarks, having forgotten all about them. They were SO GOOD. Oh. my. gosh. Delicious. I actually forgot to add the extra cup of chocolate chips it called for in the batter, but they were already so chocolatey and gooey it worked out fine. Peanut butter and chocolate are two of my favorite things, so together they pretty much make me want to pee myself in delight. I think these were my favorite.

4. Sweet Potato Salsa from my own blog. This is definitely a go-to recipe for any event. Mmm.

5. Really simple, I got some tofu sour cream and mixed it with those packets of french onion seasoning for soup or dip that come in the little blue boxes (I forgot the brand). Served the french onion dip with potato chips and voila! Just like pre-vegan times. I didn't even think to do this until recently.

6. Nacho Cheese Dip from the Schmooed Food blog (author of Vegan Lunchbox). This is my my favorite nacho cheese recipe. It's cashew-based and really easy to make if you have a blender or food processor. Mmm. I mixed it with salsa and heated it up with some torilla chips. Yummy!

7. Won-Tons from my own blog. These are always a big hit. I made the mistake of steaming these instead of frying them with a little oil and they weren't quite as good, but still tasty. Ah well, at least I know now.

I also finally made some sourdough bread and served that, but it wasn't that good and didn't rise as much as I'd have liked, so that's still a work in progress. In any case, I hope this gives you some ideas for your next party! I usually have problems thinking up party food that isn't just brownies and cupcakes and these all went over pretty well. I mean, there were still brownies, but I did find some more savory items as well! Yum!

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

2008-12-29T23:01:00.003-05:00

I made a second attempt at these peanut butter filled chocolate cookies from the Mac & Cheese blog a few days ago and they came out really well. The first time I tried to make them, I didn't have peanut butter so in a fit of cooking-craving mania I tried to make my own with stale peanuts, oil and a food processor. Did you know stale peanuts taste really gross? They do. Needless to say, the cookies were significantly better this time. I fed them to a few of my friends and they agreed. In fact, these were the only ones left after that night. I think I ate at least four of them. Oops.

Make these now, kthx.