Instant Vegan Gnocchi Recipe

Jeff and I are all about making things from scratch. But with our research work ramping up, the heatwave, and general laziness kicking in, we're trying to figure out a few shortcuts. One great idea we had was making gnocchi from instant potato flakes. We found some organic flakes sold in bulk at the amazing Honest Weight Food Co-op and bought a quart to try out.

This recipe is so easy that we don't even have to make a bunch and freeze it because it takes almost no time to make it in the first place! And all it takes is a bowl, spoon, hands and a fork to prepare.

Instant Vegan Gnocchi
Yields 2 servings

1 cup instant potato flakes (if you can, buy organic)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tbsp tapioca flour, Ener-G egg replacer, or dry egg replacer of your choice
1 cup water

1. Prepare a medium-sized sauce pan with water over high heat to boil.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the potato flakes, all-purpose flour and tapioca flour (or dry egg replacer of your choice).
3. Add the water, and stir to combine. At some point you will want to start kneading with your hands. Continue to knead until everything is mixed.
4. Remove teaspoon sized pieces of dough and roll into little balls. Optionally roll the balls over the tines of a fork (or if you're fancy, a gnocchi board) to obtain the trademark gnocchi ridges.
5. Boil for 3-5 minutes until gnocchi is tender. They will float when they're done. Drain the pasta in a colander and serve.

Super Easy, No Cook Vegan Ice Cream Recipe

I know I haven't posted in ages, I was just waiting for the perfect recipe to come my way. And when it rains, it pours. For now here is a recipe I invented during the beginning of the recent heat wave. I wanted ice cream, and didn't want to wait for it to cook and cool before putting it into my ice cream maker. Although it does require the turning on of a burner, it's very brief and doesn't add much to the prep time.

Super Easy, No Cook Vegan Ice Cream (Any Flavor)
Yields approx 3/4 - 1 quart

1 tbsp cornstarch + 1/2 cup soymilk
1 tsp flavor extract of your choice (vanilla or maple make great picks)
3/4 cup sugar
1 can coconut milk
1 1/2 cup additional soymilk

1. In small saucepan, thoroughly whisk the cornstarch and 1/2 cup soymilk until completely mixed. Add the extract. Heat on medium/low until just simmering and the soymilk begins to thicken.
2. Transfer the cornstarch/soymilk mixture to a mixing bowl and whisk in the sugar until dissolved.
3. Add the coconut milk and additional soymilk to the mixing bowl, and stir everything together until fully mixed. (You do not have to worry about only skimming the cream from the coconut milk, just dump in the whole can!)
4. Put into your ice cream maker and make as per your model's instructions. It may take a few extra minutes to fully form into ice cream due to the slightly warmer temperature of the mixture, plus the whole hot summer weather making indoors without A/C very hot. Don't worry, it'll be worth the extra few minutes!
5. Enjoy!

By the way, the ice cream in the photo was flavored with maple extract, and as a topping I poured on some peaches in rum sauce, recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

Vegan Energy Bars

Jeff and I have just started training for a 5-mile race that I've been running in since 2008. This actually entails quite a lot of running, and as we eat breakfast before running and lunch at the typical noon hour, we are left pretty hungry in the intervening hours. Instead of buying individually plastic wrapped processed bars, I decided to try my hand at making my own energy bars.

I was surprised at how hard it was to make these, because most of the recipes online call for nuts (which I can't eat because of my braces) or peanut butter (which I don't eat because I don't like it). A lot of recipes called for corn syrup, which I find to be icky, or lots of coconut oil. So I decided I had better invent my own recipe, hoping that the end product would be soft enough to be braces-friendly, delicious enough to eat and filling enough to hold us over until lunch.

Fortunately, the resulting product did live up to all of my exacting requirements! Here's the recipe for you to try out at home:

Vegan Energy Bars
Yields 12 bars

1 cup dates, pitted
1 cup oatmeal (uncooked)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried cherries (or dried fruit of your choice)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp water

1. Preheat oven to 350^oF.
2. Chop the dates as fine as you can, or process them in your food processor. (Mine pretty much just laughed at me and refused to chop the dates at all.)
3. Process or mix together the dates with the oatmeal, vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup.
4. In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix together the above with coarsely chopped dried cherries and water.
5. Spread this mixture evenly into a foil-lined 8x8 baking dish.
6. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
7. Allow to cool completely until cutting into bars. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Vegan Taco Pizza

Given the recipes on this blog, you would think that Jeff and I eat a lot of pizza. It's true, we do, because it's a great way to use up leftovers and it's usually pretty healthy as we rarely ever use processed vegan cheeze. I'm also a terribly picky eater, so if you can put it on a pizza I'm much more likely to try it!

Jeff and I had a glut of snack foods left over after our Superbowl Snack-a-Thon (no, we didn't actually watch the game) so we decided to revive a recipe I first made back in 2006 when I first went vegetarian: Taco Pizza. The idea behind taco pizza is simple, take your favorite taco fillings and use them on a pizza, substituting beans for the sauce layer to prevent the juicy salsa and other toppings from getting the dough too wet.



Vegan Taco Pizza
Yield: one hearty pizza
1 pizza dough (Jeff uses a recipe he has altered from the Joy of Cooking)
1/2 can of refried beans (or about 1 cup homemade refried beans)
Generous serving of salsa
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 jalapeno pepper, sliced and seeded
1 serving seitan or okara meatballs
Vegan cheeze of your choice (we used Vegan Gourmet in this instance but we mostly just make some sort of cheezy sauce to pour on top)

1. Preheat the oven to 400^oF.
2. Roll or toss the pizza dough onto a pre-cornmealed baking sheet.
3. Spread the refried beans over the dough, leaving a bit of space around the edges for crust.
4. On top of this, add salsa, onion, pepper, seitan, and any other delightful taco topping of your choice.
5. Grate or pour cheeze over top to cover.
6. Place pizza in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown.
7. Remove pizza from oven and slide onto a wire rack.
8. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting on a solid surface.
9. Enjoy!

Vegan Squash Ravioli

Having come upon a buttercup squash I immediately decided I wanted to make squash ravioli. Jeff and I purchased a ravioli rolling pin online to increase our chances of actually making the stuffed pasta, as stuffing by hand can be a pain. I looked for recipes online and was disappointed as most of them call for spiced butternut squash, which I think is a bit overrated. So I decided to invent my own recipe and I was not disappointed!



Squash Ravioli
Yield: Four moderate servings or two large servings
1 pasta recipe (I used Joy of Cooking, omitting the egg and adding extra water)
1 buttercup squash (or acorn or other similar squash)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1. Slice the squash into quarters or eighths, coat with olive oil, and roast in the oven at 400^oF for 30-60 minutes, until tender.
2. Cut the squash from the skin and place into a blender along with nutritional yeast. Puree as well as you can. (It's hard to puree things in my blender.)
3. Using 2-4 balls of pasta dough, prepare each one into a thin sheet as large as you can make it. (I am restricted in width by my pasta maker.) Try to make the sheets roughly equal size so that they can stack.
4. Lay out one sheet of pasta, and spread on top of that a layer of the squash filling, I would say no more than 1/8 of an inch deep. Cover with another sheet of pasta.
5. Using your floured rolling pin, roll out the raviolis by exerting enough pressure to press the two layers of pasta together. (The filling will automatically go into the pockets, so don't worry about having a mess in between!)
6. Slice the ravioli with a sharp knife or pastry cutter.
7. To cook, simply boil until the ravioli is floating. Or, separate the ravioli and freeze for another occasion.

Vegan Cheezeburger Pizza

Long-time supporters of the now-closed TJ Scallywaggle's, Alyssa and I had sampled all of their pizza offerings. The cool thing about TJ's was that they weren't afraid to push the envelope on pizza or politics, no matter how outlandish. Some recipes were great (chicken w/ funny mustard!), and some were flops (nacho??). Since they closed every so often I'll have a craving for our Favorite TJ's Pizza of All Time: Cheezeburger.

Cheezeburger pizza sounds like a horrible idea. I thought it was at first, but having tried my first slice, I couldn't get enough. The pizza tastes exactly like a cheeseburger, and you don't need to slaughter a cow to have the experience!

Here's our take on a TJ's classic:

Cheezeburger Pizza
Yield: 2-4 Servings

1 Pizza Dough

1/4 C Pizza Sauce

50:50 Vegan Cheddar:Mozzarella Cheeze Blend (or any vegan cheeze)

1/4 Medium White Onion

Pickles

Gimmie Lean "Beef" OR Okara Meatballs

Ketchup

Mustard

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F (if using a baking stone, ensure stone is in the oven).
2. Roll or toss the pizza dough onto a pre-cornmealed baking sheet.
3. Spoon pizza sauce evenly on top of the dough. Leave 1 cm or so around the edge for crust.
4. Grate cheeze on the pizza, leaving 1 cm around the edge.
5. Slice onion into rings and add to pizza with pickles.
6. Crumble the "beef" onto the pizza.
7. Drizzle on the Ketchup and Mustard.
8. Place pizza in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown.
9. Remove pizza from oven and slide onto a wire rack.
10. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting on a solid surface.
11. Enjoy!

The Finer Points:

I usually make a dough from scratch when I get home from work. By the time I've relaxed a bit, I head back into the kitchen and the dough is risen and ready to work with. The recipe I use is straight out of the Joy of Cooking. A simple dough recipe from a quick google search will do fine. Alternatively, if you don't want to make a dough yourself, most supermarkets (Shaw's and Whole Foods around here) have pizza dough available. I have tried this also and this can save you some time.

For the sauce, I usually use whatever is sitting in the fridge, provided that it's still good (no mold, tastes okay, etc.) For pizza, there is a rule that "less is more" so I tend to go with a red sauce on the plain side. I find that a sauce that is too complex can conflict and overpower the toppings. You want these flavors to be complimentary, so go easy on the garlic and basil. In a pinch I've used canned tomato sauce which can be a bit bland. I doctor this up slightly with a little garlic and dried herbs to taste.

For the cheese, there are a few options. The actual TJ's cheezeburger used a 50:50 blend of Cheddar:Mozzarella Teese, so I felt I needed to keep true with the written recipe. We ended up using Cheddar Daiya alone for the one in the photo, which worked fine. Use any vegan cheeze you'd like.

Now come the toppings. Remember that with pizza "less is more". You don't really want to over-do it with any one topping, because you'll end up with a mountain of same-tasting food with a big patch of undercooked dough underneath. Place down the pickles, sliced onion, and "beef" crumbles evenly and sparingly. This holds true for the ketchup and mustard, too. Remember that you plan to eat what you're playing with here.

When you're satisfied that you've created a masterpiece, you may run into some difficulty popping the sucker into the preheated oven. I recommend using a baking stone (heated with the oven), as it distributes the heat evenly and gives you a nice crispy crust from the soft dough's contact with a hot surface. This is why I recommended building the pizza on a flat cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal. In theory you should be able to slide the pizza off the cookie sheet and onto the hot stone. Sometimes I find that with all these toppings, and the size of my oven that I can't slide the pizza off. If you can't, don't worry, just place the whole cookie sheet on the stone. It will all work out fine.

Additionally, I check the pizza after 10 minutes to turn it around because my oven is hotter in the back than in the front. Your crust should be solid yet soft at this point, so rotating is easy. In 10 minutes the pizza will be done and ready to eat.

Congratulations! You're now enjoying delicious cheezeburger pizza!

Make Your Own Pumpkin Pie Soymilk: Vegan MoFo

Here I am three days into Vegan MoFo with no posts to show for myself. I'm neck deep in writing a Very Important Document for a Very Important Deadline for my PhD (not my thesis yet, thankfully), so, needless to say, Jeff and I have been eating a lot of pasta lately. Then on Monday, I got my braces adjusted, so now I've been eating a lot of mushy pasta. And soup. :)

Inspired by this recipe for a pumpkin pie shake, I bring you a recipe for the much simpler pumpkin pie soymilk. I think it's a somewhat less sweet version of the stuff Silk makes, but way more delicious.



Pumpkin Pie Soymilk
Into your blender add:
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (canned or homemade)
Soymilk up to the 2 cup line
2 tbsp maple syrup (more if you have a sweet tooth or are using unsweetened soymilk)
Sprinkle of ground cloves
Sprinkle of ground ginger
Sprinkle of nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

Blend until smooth. Feel free to add more of any ingredient after tasting. The best thing about recipes is playing with them until you discover what works best for you!

Until next time... enjoy the Vegan Month of Food!

A Couple Hot Sauces

In the spring I made a hot sauce recipe I saw with habaneros and a carrot base. It was super-spicy, which is what I was craving at the time and paired well with most of our meals at the beginning of the summer. Needless to say, it was so good that it was gone by the time I got around to writing a hot sauce post. While I was looking for another recipe to write about I found that many hot sauce recipes are just chili purees, a base ingredient, and spices. Feeling adventurous, I decided to come up with my own recipe and post it here.

As summer came to a close a few weeks ago, farmers were unloading the last hot peppers of the season at the farmer's market. I picked up a few lbs. of "hot peppers" (I think they're cayenne) and let them sit in the fridge until I had some time last night to throw together some hot sauce.

The sauce is sweet on the nose with a spicy bite at the end. The cumin and coriander serve to balance the flavors in the middle. The tomato sauce makes an excellent base for any sweet and savory sauce. You might compare this to arrabiatta-style sauce but with a bit more balance and kick.

Spicy and Sweet Tomato-based Hot Sauce

Yield: 16 fl. oz.

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

3 Cayenne Peppers (or 1 C chilies of your choice)

1/4 Large Red Onion (or 1/2 Small Red Onion)

1 Tbsp. Roasted Garlic (or 1 - 2 Cloves Fresh Garlic)

1 Cup Tomato Sauce or Crushed Tomatoes

1/2 Tbsp. Chili Powder

1/8 tsp. Paprika

1/8 tsp. Cumin

1/8 tsp. Coriander

1/4 Cup Vinegar

1. Finely chop (or blend) Chilies, Onion, and Garlic.

2. Saute Chilies, Onion, and Garlic in oil on medium heat until softened.

3. Add remaining ingredients, cover and simmer on low for 15 - 20 minutes.

4. Remove cover (be careful of fumes), and taste. If the sauce is spicy enough remove from heat and bottle. If it is not, simmer uncovered for 5 more minutes to cook off more liquid, then remove from heat and bottle.

The notes in parenthesis are alternative options that I think will work equally well. Blending will result in a much smoother sauce. As it stands, this sauce is a little thick; perfect for tacos, burgers, sandwiches, meatballs, etc.

Recipe: Vegan Okara Meatballs

Now that Jeff and I make our own tofu, we have become connoisseurs of okara. Okara is the "honorable pulp" that is what's left in the cheesecloth after pressing out the soy milk from the beans. I think it's fair to say that we eat the okara faster than we eat the tofu. We've reviewed a recipe for okara burgers but now I'd like to introduce our own invention: okara meatballs.

These meatballs have become one of my favorite foods. They're very versatile and Jeff and I keep coming up with new ideas for tweaking the recipe for various applications. Just today I made the Italian style recipe, and instead of forming balls to bake, broke it up into chunks and fried it in olive oil on a skillet, mixing it with marinara to make "meat" sauce. It was really thick, but hit the spot after an 8 mile run, when I want to eat something quick, delicious and filling.

In this recipe, I I don't recommend using raw okara, but okara that has been cooked in a soy milk maker or simmered before manually extracting the soy milk. It really does make a big difference in the final product.

Okara Meatballs
Yield: 2-4 servings
1 cup okara
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic powder (feel free to use 1-2 cloves finely minced garlic)
2 tsp onion flakes (similarly, substitute 1/4 small onion finely minced)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp ketchup (or tomato paste)
2 tbsp water

Spices: Italian Version
1/4 tsp black pepper (or 1/2 tsp if you really like black pepper)
1 tsp Italian seasoning (or mix of oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary and sage)

Mexican Version
1 tsp taco seasoning (or mix of paprika, chili powder and cayenne pepper)

If baking, preheat oven to 350^oF (175^oC).

Mix all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Use your hands to work the ingredients together and get the gluten nice and elastic.

Option 1:
Form into 12-16 balls and place in a glass baking dish. Bake in the oven at 350^oF for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

Option 2:
Form into many teaspoon sized balls and fry in your favorite oil on a skillet for 10-15 minutes until golden all around. Making small meatballs is important as the larger ones won't always fry through completely, leaving a very elastic center.

Serving Ideas
Jeff and I love the baked meatballs served over pasta and topped with marinara, freshly crushed black pepper and nutritional yeast.

Fry the Italian version, not in meatballs but in tiny broken-up chunks, and mix with your favorite marinara to make a "meat" sauce.

Similarly fry the Mexican version to create a delicious "ground beef" substitute for tacos, burritos, enchiladas, or your favorite Mexican meal.

Add many tiny fried (or baked and broken up) Mexican meatballs to your favorite mac-n-cheese recipe before baking the mac. (My favorite mac recipe comes from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook.)



Okara

Fully Fermented Dinner: Tempeh Reuben with Fiddlehead Ferns

I've had a small crock pot sitting on my counter for a couple of weeks filled with cut up cabbage and brine. I was tired of wasting cabbage, which I had been getting loads of from our produce shipments, so I checked out Wild Fermentation's sauerkraut recipe and decided to go for it. I'm always slightly skeptical every time I try a new food project like this. I know that fermentation isn't magic, but when the end product is going to be consumed, I like to know in advance that what I make isn't going to make me sick.

I shouldn't have worried. The sauerkraut came out excellent, and was probably the easiest thing I've ever made. A word of advice if you plan to try this: definitely keep the cabbage submerged in the brine the ENTIRE time, not just at the beginning. I used the lid for a plastic take out container (my crock pot is just too small for a saucer) with a quart jar filled with water on top. That was completely sufficient to keep the cabbage under water, and I put a napkin on top of the crock pot afterward. I almost forgot it was there for the most part, as it just sat unobtrusively on my counter top. Over the past few days, however, the aroma has been getting better and better, and I knew it was time to finally dig in and eat some.

Jeff and I decided to make tempeh Reubens, after having eaten some at Red Lentil after running in a local road race a month ago. It was my first Reuben, and I loved it. Jeff prepared some sourdough from his starter, which fermented and rose all weekend. He baked two loaves this morning, one of which we used for the sandwiches. Then we went to the grocery store to pick up the stuff we don't make (yet): tempeh (fermented soy beans), ketchup and some Vegenaise for the Russian dressing. While at the store, I eyed some fiddlehead ferns and couldn't help but pick up a few to try out.

The meal was delicious and we topped it off with some of our Sauvignon Blanc, for an almost entirely fermented and homemade meal. The fiddleheads were delicious, and I regretted only buying a few ounces. Next time I'll definitely get more. They're simple to make, and apparently quite abundant in New England, so it's nice to eat a truly local food.



Tempeh Reuben
Yield: 2 servings
4 slices of bread
1 8-oz package of tempeh, sliced in half width-wise
A few heaping spoonfuls of sauerkraut
Russian dressing (see recipe below)

Assemble ingredients to your liking, enjoy!

Vegan Russian Dressing
1/4 cup Vegenaise (or vegan mayo of choice)
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tsp sweet pickle relish

Mix ingredients, store any unused dressing in the fridge.

Sautéed Fiddlehead Ferns
1/2 pound fiddlehead ferns
1 tbsp olive oil
1 quarter of a lemon

Wash the fiddleheads thoroughly until all of the dirt is gone. Sauté the ferns in the olive oil. You will know when they're done as they turn a dark green and become tender. Serve with fresh juice from a quarter wedge of lemon.

Recipe Mashup: Caramel Coffee Vegan Ice Cream

I don't like to have too many gadgets around my apartment, but sometimes a case can be made if something is going to save me a lot of money. Case in point: ice cream maker. A 2-quart Cuisinart model set me back 60 dollars on Amazon, and it probably won't take long before Jeff and I have eaten that much ice cream and sorbet.

Excited to receive the package a day earlier than I expected, I anticipated scooping beautiful mounds of creamy perfection later that evening. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that although ice cream can be made in roughly half an hour, it takes time to make the "ice cream soup," and even longer to let it cool down enough before churning. Lesson learned! But that wasn't enough to set me back from using my awesome new gadget. I figured I'd just have something sweeter than usual for breakfast.

My first try was Vegan Dad's basic vanilla ice cream, mixing in some chocolate chips (both dark and white chocolate) at the end. But what is even better is the stuff I made last weekend. Looking to recreate the caramel macchiato recipe from The Blooming Platter, I decided to do a sort of mash-up of recipes between that and the aforementioned Vegan Dad vanilla. The results were nothing short of amazing. While the frozen product can tend toward the icy rather than the creamy, waiting 30 seconds or so before eating (if you can exercise that much restraint!) yields a delectably creamy mouth feel, without having to spend big bucks on So Delicious at the store.



Caramel Coffee Vegan Ice Cream
Yield: Approx 1 Quart

3/4 C brown sugar (packed)
2 T vegan margarine
1 T soy milk
2 C soy milk

Heat the brown sugar, margarine, and 1 T soy milk in a saucepan over medium heat until everything melts, whisking continuously. When the consistency gets thick (but not hard), add 2 C soy milk and whisk to combine. Let simmer on low while you do the next step:

1 can full fat coconut milk (cooled so the cream has separated)
Soy milk or creamer
2 T arrowroot or cornstarch
1 T coffee (you can use instant, I didn't)
1 T vanilla extract

Skim the cream off of the top of the coconut milk until you get to the watery stuff left over, and put it into a medium sized mixing bowl. Add enough soy milk or creamer to make 2 cups of liquid. Stir, and also mix in the coffee and vanilla extract.

Take half of this mixture and put it into a small bowl. Add the arrowroot and whisk until it is combined. Pour this into the saucepan with the brown sugar and soy milk, and whisk. Let it bubble and thicken, and the texture should be (as Vegan Dad puts it) glossy. (It's an apt description.) Then add the other bowl of coconut milk / soy milk / coffee / vanilla and whisk until it becomes glossy again.

Pour the (almost) finished product into a bowl, cover, and put it in the fridge until it is thoroughly cold. Then churn it up using your ice cream maker's instructions.

Homemade Vegetable Bouillon

Why didn't I think of this before?

I use vegetable stock to make LOTS of dishes--mashed potatoes, curries, sauces and gravies, and obviously soups, but I never thought about making my own stock. Too much time, too much work. Not interested.

But Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks posted a recipe (most annoyingly in ounces and grams instead of cups like a normal American) for a vegetable paste preserved with salt that you simply add to water to make vegetable stock. Awesome!

For this recipe, you will need about 2 lbs of vegetables. My big issue with most vegetable stocks is that they taste heavily of carrots, which just seems cheap to me. I'm going for a richer flavor, with leeks, shallots, celeriac, and dried mushrooms for depth. I used a combination of morels, chanterelles, porcini, and black trumpets.

I have a 7 cup food processor and this recipe was crawling up its walls, so if yours is smaller, half the recipe. Store the finished bouillon in jars in the freezer--it won't harden because of all the salt!

Vegetable Bouillon
makes about 2 pints

Ingredients:
2 large carrots, washed and chopped
2 leeks, washed and sliced
1 shallot, peeled and sliced
1 celeriac bulb, peeled, rinsed, and chopped
2 stalks celery with leaves, washed and chopped
1/3 cup dried mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 cup fresh oregano, stems removed
1/4 cup fresh thyme, stems removed
1 cup, plus 2 Tbl salt

1. Add the first four ingredients to your food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse about 20 times. Add the last ingredients and pulse until your mixture is a smooth paste, patting down the top if it isn't getting to the blades. Blend until the mixture is fully combined, at most 30 seconds.

2. Scoop into jars and keep in the freezer. Add one Tbl per 1 cup of water to make stock, adding more water or bouillon to taste.

Mushrooms and Collards in Lemon Pepper Sauce

Alyssa and I were looking through the fridge to figure out what to cook for lunch after our morning run. We rummaged through various cookbooks and food blogs trying to match or modify recipes. After a while with no luck, I decided to wing it. I do admit, however, that this is (very) loosely inspired by the Sausage and Collards recipe from Vegan Brunch, in that it involves collard greens and red pepper flakes. All else besides, this is an original Vegtopia certified recipe. I served this over a small batch of homemade spinach fettucini that Alyssa and I froze a few weeks ago.

Mushrooms and Collards in Lemon Pepper Sauce
Ingredients
6 Mushrooms, sliced
1 Small Onion, chopped
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
3 Stalks Celery, chopped
1 Bunch Collard Greens, chiffonaded
2 Generous Pinches Red Pepper Flakes
1 Tbs. Olive Oil
1/2 C Veggie Broth
1 Tbs. Vegan Margarine
1 Tbs. Lemon Juice

1. Saute mushrooms, onion, garlic and celery in a pan with the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add the red pepper flakes and mix thoroughly.
3. While these ingredients are sauteing, wash and chiffonade the collard greens.
4. When the mushrooms look cooked and the onion is translucent, add the collard greens and veggie broth.
5. Cover and let simmer for ~8 minutes or until the collard greens are tender.
6. Uncover and add the margarine and lemon juice.
7. Cook for ~5 minutes on low or until most of the liquid has cooked off.

Serve with a grain of your choice.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures to describe how tasty this recipe was. By the time we realized that this recipe was a hit for the blog, we were already halfway through lunch.

Enjoy!

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

I admit it--I went to bed early last night. Eleven, to be exact. I got off work early, but I was still too tired to stay up for midnight.

No matter. It was worth it to be up at 8 this morning and enjoy the quiet morning streets, strewn with snow and metallic confetti. Three pancakes (chocolate-peanut butter-banana pancakes), a soy hot chocolate, and a grocery trip later, Corey and I were home with tons of winter produce. Blood oranges, grapefruit, lemons, parsnips, turnips, and celery root, they are all working their way into this week's meals.

I received a beautiful cookbook from my dad this Christmas called (wait for it): Vegan Recipes by Nicola Graimes. Not the most inspiring title, but it is definitely going to be my favorite cookbook this year. Every recipe has step-by-step color photographs, and the region most prominently portrayed in the book is planet Earth. Morocco, Iran, Japan, Italy, Spain, they are all there, and more. And in the book is, you guessed it, Roasted Root Vegetable Soup.

I'm not using the recipe in the book, I'm just winging it, (this is in the present tense because the vegetables are roasting as we speak) honestly because I didn't think about making soup until I was in the grocery store with celery root and parsnips in my hands. I remembered the beautiful photograph in the book, and, well, I want to go to there.

I'd highly recommend Nicola Graimes' cookbook for new vegans, vegans who are new to cooking, and vegans who have every other vegan cookbook. Again, step-by-step color photographs of every recipe, a wide array of dishes from around the world, and the introduction has extensive health information for new vegans, for vegan parents, and for pregnant vegans.

For the soup, feel free to use lots of different root vegetables. I like the squash because it gives the soup a pretty orange color, and I avoided carrots because the parsnips smelled like carrots (they were under investigation). I've never cooked with turnips or celery root before, so I got one of each to try them out (the celery root, or celeriac, turned out to be a total winner). As for the herbs, I like thyme, but you can roast the vegetables with bay leaves, fresh sage, or rosemary, too.

 
Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

1 small butternut squash, seeded, peeled, and 1" cubed
2-3 parsnips, peeled and 1" cubed
1 purple top turnip, washed and 1" cubed
1 celery root, peeled, washed, and 1" cubed
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
several sprigs of fresh thyme
4 cups Vegetable stock
2 Tbl ground sage
2 Tbl ground cumin or toasted cumin seeds
1 Tbl  toasted coriander seed

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the cubed vegetables in the olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper, and place them in a deep baking dish in a single layer. Place sprigs of thyme throughout and roast for 45 minutes, turning half way through.

2. Add half of the vegetable stock and half of the roasted vegetables to a food processor fitted with a metal blade, removing the thyme. Add the sage, cumin, and coriander. Puree until smooth. Add the rest of the stock and vegetables and puree, adding more stock if necessary.

Serve very warm with sour supreme and french bread!

Creamy Sausage, Broccoli, and Pepper Pasta

When people think of lasagna or baked ziti, they think of tomato sauce.

Nothing against tomatoes, but I get really tired of the acidity, especially in the winter. Still, baked pasta dishes are easy to put together, delicious, and versatile. And they make great leftovers. That's why I came up with this creamy baked "ziti" recipe. It's perfect when you know you need to eat vegetables, but you're more in the mood for comfort food.

The Gimme Lean sausage offsets the sweetness of the red pepper and broccoli, and the peppery cream sauce ties them together nicely. I use unsweetened soymilk for this cream sauce recipe, because the sugar in other soymilk is really noticeable in savory dishes.

When you pour the pasta into the roasting pan, a lot of the sauce is going to sink to the bottom. Don't worry. While serving you can spoon it over the pasta, and after it's refrigerated, it turns solid, making it easy to scoop up as much as you like for your lunch later that week. It melts right away in the microwave.

Creamy Sausage, Broccoli, and Pepper Pasta
(8 servings)

1 lb penne or ziti or other small pasta
1 package Gimme Lean - Sausage Style
2 crowns of broccoli, florets cut into bite-sized pieces
1 large red bell pepper, diced
your favorite soy cheese

Cream Sauce: 
3 Tbl olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
Black pepper and salt to taste
2-3 cups unsweetened plain soymilk
2 Tbl onion powder
1 8 oz. package Better Than Cream Cheese

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

2. Lightly oil a large frying pan (I like non-stick cooking spray in a wok). While the pasta is cooking, break up the Gimme Lean sausage into small pieces over the pan and cook until browned over medium heat, turning over regularly. Remove from pan and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3. In the same large pan, add the oil, garlic, pepper, and salt and cook over medium-low heat for 2 minutes. Add the soymilk and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the Better Than Cream Cheese. Break it up in the pot to help it melt. Add the pasta, red pepper, and broccoli and toss to coat in the sauce. Add the sausage. Cook for 8 minutes over medium heat.

4. Pour the pasta into a large roasting pan, sprinkle with soy cheese and bake for 10 minutes.

Autumn Harvest Stew

Alyssa and I have been receiving shipments of produce from Boston Organics since last winter. We recently changed our shipment from the small box (1/2 fruit, 1/2 veggies) to the regular-sized box (1/3 fruit, 2/3 veggies) because quite frankly, we're addicted to fresh, varied, organic produce.

We opt out of a few items to make the box more local and tailored to what we will eat over the course of 2 weeks. We used to get lettuce, but it turned out that only I would eat it. Eating a big salad every night was nice, but not fair between the two of us. We also used to get bananas, but would rather support more local produce. They are good about offsetting items on your "no-list" with other offerings that are available that week, such as an extra squash or head of broccoli.

Last week's box included Sweet Potatoes, Summer Squash, Beets, and Parsnips. After a long Sunday of cleaning the apartment, a stew was in order. We had some onions, garlic, mushrooms, ginger and carrots laying about so we gathered all the veggies together:


and chopped them up!

In the pot they went, with a half gallon of water, a little wine, and a blend of spices. While the pot was simmering, Alyssa and I set out tidying up the apartment. I went out to get a wood saw for another one of our projects, and when I came back the apartment smelled amazing. After another 30 minutes or so, the wait was unbearable. The Autumn Harvest Stew was perfect for the appetite we had worked up from projects that afternoon. The stew was delicious! In all, it should last us for about 3 meals, and it is highly recommended that bread accompany this dish.

Next time we will likely leave out the beets from the stew:


They look really funky and are really awesome to cook with on their own, but their sweetness can dominate a dish. In this case they clashed a bit with the earthy flavors of the other vegetables.

We might be making another Autumn Harvest Stew in a couple of weeks when our next shipment comes in. Here's what's going to be in the next box:
"2 Anjou Pears (WA)
0.75 lbs Empire Apples (VT)
1.5 lbs Fair Trade Bananas (Ecuador)
2 Navel Oranges (FL)
1 head Cauliflower (NY)
0.75 lbs Celery Root (MA)
1.5 lbs Delicata Squash (MA)
1 head Green Leaf Lettuce (MA)
1 bunch Kale (MA)
1 4oz Mixed Sprouts (MA)
0.75 lbs Mixed Summer Squash (FL)
1 lbs Purple Top Turnips (MA)"

Vegan White Hot Chocolate Recipe

What's a vegan who loves white chocolate to do? I've tried to make my own, but have never gotten this recipe to work, even after five or six attempts. Fortunately, Cosmo's Vegan Shop carries white chocolate chips, and they had a booth at this weekend's Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. I bought five bags and stuck them in my freezer.

I decided to make some white hot chocolate last night, and there are a lot of recipes out there that call for heavy cream or half and half, but I decided to just keep it simple.

Vegan White Hot Chocolate
Yield: 1 Serving
1 C soymilk
1/4 C white chocolate chips
1/8 t vanilla extract
1 oz Kahlúa (optional)

Heat up the soymilk in a saucepan, and when it starts to get foamy, add the chocolate chips. Whisk it until it melts and combines with the soymilk. Add the vanilla extract and taste. If you like a stronger vanilla flavor, put in a bit more extract. Pour into mugs and enjoy! If you'd like a more grown up version, I added a jigger-full of french vanilla Kahlúa, and it was divine.



White Chocolate