Lasagna

I live right down the street from an amazing family-owned Italian market, Glorioso’s. Honestly, I’m there at least four times per week. If I leave the house at all on my increasingly frequent “work from home” days, my destination is most likely Glorioso’s. They are fully stocked with an infinite selection of pastas, oils, vinegars, olives, Italian goodies, wines, and a decent produce section. Their sorbets are a lifesaver on humid summer days, and the deli section is abundant (that’s surrounded by the meaty and cheesy section, so I tend to stick to the produce side). Since I kill plants when I try to grow them on my windowsill, ample bundles of fresh basil leaves that don’t cost an arm and a leg make their way into my grocery basket every week. It’s so easy to waltz in for one or two items, then leave with two full grocery bags in tow and a lighter wallet. It’s not that Glorioso’s is expensive. It’s actually quite affordable if you shop with intention, but it’s so easy to buy everything in sight as you make your way around the store. Since I live so close, I’ve had to convince myself to start viewing the market as an extension of my pantry that I can easily get items from when I absolutely need to use them. I’ve managed to avoid buying the $11 bottle of chocolate balsamic sauce until I’ve convinced myself I absolutely need it for a recipe, that day. That strategy can apply to any store to prevent impulse buys, if you want to try it. It seems to work in this case because I wouldn’t mind making the trip every day. A quick stroll around the store will get you several warm greetings (this has made me feel better on a crappy day, on more than one occasion), and I think it has gotten to the point where the cashiers recognize me. Glorioso’s has saved the day during many a culinary crisis invoked by a missing ingredient. In addition to the bountiful stock of Italian goods, they have pretty much every plain old kitchen staple one would need. I tend to frequent the market to make delicious Italian food though.

I’ve always lived and breathed Italian food, making it my go-to cuisine when in doubt, and synonymous with “normal” comfort food for me. I grew up eating pasta by the boatload, plucking tomatoes and fresh herbs out of the backyard garden, and holding handfuls of basil up to my face to breathe in the aroma. Lasagna is one of my most coveted comforting dishes. Every Christmas, my grandma makes trays of lasagna to indulge in. While I haven’t been able to partake in the lasagna tradition for the past seven years, I’ve made a few dairy-free lasagnas over the years.

Making lasagna isn’t a decision to make lightly. There are many steps involved in making a truly substantial dish that it becomes a long, meditative process. Lately while sitting in my Monday morning art history class, my mind has been going back and forth between the topics of Italian Renaissance and food I’d like to cook. I came up with the elaborate plan of a Monday evening lasagna last week that I was going to make happen with no interruptions. I picked up all the ingredients at Glorioso’s and got to work on pesto, cashew almond parmesan, and cashew tofu ricotta. While all these parts were homemade, I cut myself a bit of slack and used jarred marinara and roasted red peppers. I had a nice crusty loaf of bread with olive oil and pesto and a bottle of red wine to tide me over between steps while working on dinner. It was such a fun, relaxing evening. Mmm, lasagna.

I kind of made up these recipes as I went along, referencing other vegan and non-vegan recipes as I went along, so amounts were written down a bit haphazardly. The parmesan makes quite a bit extra, but I like to use it as garnish for the lasagna and keep it around for other recipes.

Lasagna

Parmesan:
1 cup raw cashews
1 cup raw almonds
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
½ teaspoon salt

Pesto:
3 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons walnuts or pine nuts
2 cups tightly packed basil
¼ cup Parmesan (recipe above)
1/3-1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Ricotta:
1 block tofu
1/3 cup cashews
½ cup Parmesan (recipe above)
¼ cup basil leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons chopped onion or shallot
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Lasagna:
16 ounces lasagna noodles

One medium onion
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

1/2 cup artichoke hearts, chopped
1 cup roasted red peppers
1/3 cup pesto
3 cloves garlic

2 jars (about 26 ounces total) marinara, mixed with:
1-2 tablespoons Italian spice blend, or your own mixture of oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, fennel seeds, etc.

Daiya mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Start by pressing the tofu for the ricotta. Set aside and begin working on the other components of the lasagna.

Parmesan: Combine the cashews, almonds, nutritional yeast, and salt in a food processor. Grind until the mixture reaches a sandy texture, just like parmesan.

If you store your nuts in the freezer, let them warm up before making the parmesan. The oils in the nuts will remain solid and the nutritional yeast won’t adhere to the nuts if they’re too cold.

Pesto: Combine the garlic and nuts in the food processor and blend until finely chopped. Wash the basil and add it in, along with the parmesan. While graduatlly drizzling in the olive oil, blend the pesto just until it is no longer gritty. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Ricotta: Combine all ingredients but the tofu in the food processor and blend until finely chopped. Add the tofu and pulse until the tofu is finely crumbled and the ingredients are homogenized throughout the tofu. Alternatively, you may want to crumble the tofu by hand. The food processor can quickly turn your ricotta into paste.

Lasagna: Boil lasagna* to just before al dente, according to package instructions, about 4-5 minutes.

*In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t boil my noodles beforehand with this lasagna. Doing this ended up sucking up way too much moisture. But if you don’t want to boil your noodles, add a bit of water to your marinara and use way more than you think you’ll need because the noodles will absorb it!

Slice the onion into large pieces and sauté in olive oil with the garlic over medium-high heat until fragrant and browned, about 7-8 minutes. Set aside.

Combine the artichokes with the roasted red peppers, then stir together with pesto. Mince the garlic and stir in. Feel free to vary the vegetables used here.

To assemble: Drizzle olive oil on the bottom of a 9×13-inch pan, cover with a thin layer of marinara, line with noodles.

Top layer with marinara, then dollop on tofu ricotta and scatter the sautéed onions and garlic. Top with more marinara and another layer of noodles.

Top this layer with artichoke and roasted pepper mix, tofu ricotta, and a little marinara. Add another layer of noodles.

Finally, top this layer with marinara (liberally, as the top layer tends to dry out) and pesto. Sprinkle on parmesan, about half a bag of mozzarella, salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Cover in foil and bake for 35-45 minutes, until the lasagna is bubbling, the cheese is melty. Check to make sure the noodles aren’t over cooked, every so often. Enjoy!

I may or may not have eaten leftovers for every meal for two days.

Thanksgiving 2011

While my kitchen is quite equipped in terms of gadgets and ingredients, it doesn’t really have space going for it, so I find myself missing cooking large scale dinners for people. When I found out two days before Thanksgiving that a holiday that I could cook for would be hosted at my parent’s house for the first time in quite a while, I jumped on the opportunity to cook. My full day of class on Tuesday was seemingly neverending, but I spent the last couple hours researching menus, reading through books, and deciding on recipes. I was not going to settle for another holiday of bread, salad, and vegetables while staring longingly at all the delicious vegan feasts on the internet. I want to eat more than vegetables and bread, mofos! I don’t care if I have to eat leftovers for three days (actually I do care. very much. yum) or that there’s already two potato dishes planned (that I can’t eat…which is why I’m cooking more, duh!), I’m going all out!

Here is a teaser of the final vegan Thanksgiving feast:

It was too late to buy a pre-made roast or Tofurkey, so I was set on making my own seitan. Which I kind of wanted to do anyway. I’ve never had a not-turkey tofurky roast type thing for Thanksgiving, so I decided to stop being a masochist and make Joni’s Seitan en Croute. It was surprisingly very easy to make. The seitan dough mixed right up in the stand mixer and the puff pastry was ready to go. I’ll admit I had to google a refresher course on lattice pastry crust, but it turned out to be quite straightforward.

The only alteration I made to the recipe was the addition of apples and sage. I steered away from adding large apple slices to the dough or as a filling for the roast, fearful the cooked apple would create a texture akin to apple pie. Instead, I subbed spiced apple cider for some of the vegetable broth and chopped up an apple into very tiny pieces and kneaded them into the dough. Many of the pieces ended up falling out, so I sauteed those with onions and garlic and stuffed them in the center of the roast as a filling. The addition of sage was easy. I just added a few teaspoons into the dough with the other spices. The liquid smoke I used was also apple-flavored.

Verdict? Even with all the apple-y goodness, the other flavors overshadowed it and I didn’t really taste apple. I wasn’t complaining though because everything about this roast was delicious. It was the perfect texture, avoiding both extremities of gummy and dry, and the flaky pastry crust was the greatest. Now I would like to encase everything in pastry.

No plain steamed vegetables allowed. Ever. These are maple mustard potatoes and beans from Vegan with a Vengeance, with the addition of Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.

I just received a copy of Dynise Balcavage‘s new book, Celebrate Vegan. This book is going to save holidays for me. Every holiday you can think of is represented in this book with a complete menu. I was going to make the Thanksgiving menu, but ended up mixing and matching from different menus of the book, and recipes all over the internet and other books. I’m definitely going to make a complete menu from this book soon though!

These are apple cider cranberry donut holes, a variation on a new recipe of mine, apple cider donuts!

Plated! I didn’t make the mashed potatoes, bread, or cranberry sauce, but they were all vegan-friendly. The gravy is the mushroom gravy from Celebrate Vegan!

Leftovers lasted forever and ever. I brought a bag of Dandie’s with me, so I made some marshmallow sweet potatoes because I was feeling gross and nostalgic for the non-vegan version from the previous day.

(Upton’s) Seitan Beats Your Meat: Chicago Vegan Chef Showdown

I participated in this great event in Chicago last month, so this post is just a little bit late! I met the very wonderful people behind Upton’s Naturals at Mad City Vegan Fest back in June and they told me about this fundraising collaboration with Mercy for Animals taking place this summer. I heard about it on Facebook recently and planned on participating: a Chicago vegan cooking competition using Upton’s seitan where all the proceeds benefit Mercy for Animals. What’s not to love? There’s a very thorough write up on Quarrygirl to check out, and here is my take. I hadn’t been to Chicago in FOREVER so this was a fun trip. I also stopped at my friend Natalie‘s Bake (and Destroy…cupcakes in my mouth!) sale on the way and scored a french toast cupcake.

My friend Gopal and I decided to team up and cook Grilled Chipotle Seitan and Black Bean Tacos with Mango Jicama Lime Salsa and Smoky Avocado Sauce, loosely based on my chipotle black bean taco recipe.

The venue was the Funky Buddha Lounge. There was mood lighting and dance music the whole time! It was a really great atmosphere filled with nice people and delicious food.

All hail Upton’s seitan!

A few dishes I got to try.

Deep dish pizza by Vegan Miss, savory muffins by Canary Confectionery, and curry by Arathi and Elizabeth

Ravioli by Megan and Blythe (one of the winning dishes!)

As always, I got to see some great friends and meet inspiring new ones! Chicago vegans and their events better stop being so awesome, or they’re going to convince me to move there one of these days!
Thanks to Upton’s and Mercy for Animals for putting together this event!

Two dinners: Chipotle Black Bean Tacos and Seitan Piccata [recipes]

Truth be told, after a day of baking combined with my busy schedule and living alone, I cook whatever is quick and easy for dinner. Lots of beans, veggies, stir fries, and grains. At the end of the day, it’s just not always practical to make elaborate dinners with multiple sides (and multiple pans and dishes to wash by hand) just for myself. But I do love cooking, so when I do get the chance to cook (and be in the presence of a dishwasher), I go all out.

Chipotle Black Bean Tacos with Mango Jicama Lime Garnish

Serves 4-5

These tacos combine so many different textures, flavors, spice, and temperature. The black beans are flavorful and pack a little punch from the chipotles, the veggies are smoky and roasted, the mango jicama garnish is cool and spicy, and adds a crunchy texture from the jicama and sweetness from the mango. They’re great for parties because everyone can serve themselves buffet-style and make their tacos to their liking. If you want more or less spice, vary the amount of jalepeno you use rather than the chipotle, which adds a lot of flavor.

1 lb dried black beans*
Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

1 large onion
1 green bell pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 jalepeno
Olive oil
Cumin
Smoked paprika
Chile powder
Oregano
Salt and pepper
Lime juice

Garnish:
1 ripe mango
1/2 jicama
2 limes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons jalapeno, finely diced
1/2-1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 large chipotle pepper, plus sauce
1/2 teaspoon oregano
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Tortillas
Salsa
Lime slices

*The chipotle flavor cooks into the black beans, so using dried beans is ideal. However, if you would like to use canned beans, let the chipotles marinate the black beans for as long as possible before you cook the beans.

Soak the black beans according to the package’s instructions. Drain them, then add to the cooking water 2 chipotle peppers, and half the adobo sauce in the can, the smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Cook until the beans are soft.

In the meantime, make the mango jicama garnish.
Slice the mango and jicama into thin chunks:

Add the juice of the two limes, the garlic, jalapeno, smoked paprika to taste, the chipotle pepper, oregano, salt, and pepper. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

When the beans are almost done cooking, roast the veggies. Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Slice the bell pepper and onion into strips, dice the garlic and jalepeno, and combine in a large bowl. Drizzle in some olive oil to lightly coat and toss with the spices, to taste. Everyone’s spices and tastes vary and I don’t usually measure spices when cooking, so add your spices a little at a time to your liking. Squeeze in the lime juice. Spread the veggies over a baking sheet lined with foil and coated in a thin layer of olive oil. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn over the veggies and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.

While the veggies are roasting and your beans finish cooking, drain the excess water. Over medium heat, drizzle in some olive oil, and add extra chipotles, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir until incorporated and let cook for 5-10 minutes.

Heat a skillet to medium-high heat and warm your tortillas, one at a time, and place a basket lined with a towel and cover until ready to use.

Set out all your ingredients, like so, and make your tacos. Take a tortilla, fill with beans, top with veggies and the cold mango jicama garnish, as well as some salsa. Serve on a plate with some lime wedges so each person can squeeze on some lime to taste. Enjoy!

Seitan Piccata with Dill Cayenne Mashed Potatoes, Grilled White Wine Squash and Asparagus with Lemon Butter Sauce, Raspberry and Grilled Peach Arugula Salad

Makes 4 servings

Candle 79 Seitan Piccata (recipe from here)

6 seitan cutlets*
Whole-wheat flour for dredging
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons drained capers
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
2 tablespoons soy buttery spread (soy margarine)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

*I made seitan loosely based off of the PPK recipe, then soaked it in a marinade of white wine, olive oil, lemon, caper brine, garlic, salt and pepper. After making the seitan and grilled veggies, I mixed the marinades together then thickened it up by whisking in cornstarch over medium heat, adding a bit of lemon zest, more juice, and Earth Balance margarine. I drizzled this Lemon Butter Sauce on the mashed potatoes and over the grilled veggies.

Dredge seitan cutlets in whole-wheat flour, shaking off any excess.
In a sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over high heat. When oil is hot, sauté cutlets until crisp and golden brown, about 30 seconds per side. Place each cutlet on an individual plate or arrange them all on a platter.
Add remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil to the sauté pan and return to high heat. Add shallots, onion, garlic, and capers, and sauté, stirring frequently, until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in wine and lemon juice and cook 3 to 5 minutes more.
Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for about 1 minute to combine flavors. Whisk in soy spread, parsley, salt, and pepper. Pour over seitan cutlets and serve at once.

Dill Cayenne Mashed Potatoes

6 medium russet or Yukon gold potatoes
1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine
1/4 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons dried dill
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
Salt and pepper to taste

Peel the potatoes.
Bring potatoes to a boil in a pot of water over medium-high heat and boil until soft, 10-15 minutes.
Drain the water from the pot, then mash the potatoes.
Add the Earth Balance buttery spread and continue mashing,
Gradually add the soy milk as you are mashing. Depending on how thick you want your potatoes, you may not need to add the entire amount, or may wish to add more.
Mash in the dried dill, cayenne, and salt and pepper. Start with a little cayenne at a time depending on your spice preference. Cayenne can get really spicy!
Scoop your mashed potatoes and serve!

Grilled Veggies

Marinade the veggies (I used yellow squash and asparagus, but any veggies would be great) in a mixture of white wine, olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon, then grill both sides thoroughly in a vegetable basket. For the peaches, I used a mixture of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Plating

On each dish: plate the arugula and toss on a few raspberries and the grilled peaches. Dress with olive oil, lemon juice (and/or a balsamic vinegar), salt, and pepper. Place a scoop of mashed potatoes next to the salad, as well as the grilled veggies and drizzle with lemon butter sauce. Plate the seitan cutlets, top with the piccata veggies and a slice of lemon. Drizzle on the piccata sauce, as well as a grind of salt and fresh pepper, and serve!

ExtraVeganZa eats

As much as I’d like to say I live off cupcakes and frosting, I do cook real food sometimes.

I recently got my hands on a copy of ExtraVeganZa by Laura Matthias and I’m so glad I did. The flavor combinations Laura employs are creative, delicious, and a step out of the tofu scramble/nooch mac n cheese/chocolate cake box (not that there’s anything wrong with any of those). When I was flipping through the pages, I found myself bookmarking recipes left and right because they all sounded SO good.

Here’s a few that I initially tried out:
Sundried Tomato Olive Spread (page 11) and Lemon Lavender Blueberry Muffin (page 123)

The sundried tomato spread is a coveted variation on the standard kalamata tapenade. The Mediterranean flavors of the sundried tomatoes and kalamata olives are complemented by earthy pumpkin seeds, and a yummy blend of herbs.
I love baking with lavender. Working with floral flavors is a welcomed deviation from the same old desserts. It stands out perfectly in this sweet lemon lavender muffin studded with berries.

Spicy Peanut Coconut Sauce (page 57) over stirfried veggies and tofu

The coconut and peanut butter cut the strong flavors of one another in this smooth, flavorful sauce with a bit of a kick. It was yummy over tofu and veggies stir fried with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce.

Black Bean Sweet Potato Almond Burgers (page 72), topped with Ste Martaen vegan cheese

I’m a big fan of the sweet potato black bean combination in burritos and enchiladas, so it was nice to see it in another application, spiced a little differently from the norm. Side of mashed potatoes with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from VwaV.

Chocolate Jalapeño Cake (page 155)

I’m no stranger to the sweet and spicy combination with baked goods, but this was my first time baking with jalapeños. This cake was moist, rich, chocolatey, and had a mild pepper flavor throughout. It takes a bit getting used to, but I’m in love with peppers in baked goods now!

There’s many more recipes I’d like to try out of this book! Laura’s approach to flavor combinations is the way to my heart!

Vegan Pizza Day, Snow Day, Vegan Food Truck Day, and Birthday

The collection of food photos I took recently are all incredibly random and I like to OCD categorize things, so realizing most of them were all for some sort of special day came easy.
I swear I will edit and upload the photos from, and blog about my San Francisco trip one of these days!

First up is in celebration of January 29th, which is Vegan Pizza Day. Vegans worldwide celebrated this day by dining at pizzerias, ordering out, or making their own pies. Vegan Milwaukee had a dinner meetup at Transfer Pizzeria. I ordered a personal pie with garlic, artichokes, fresh basil, olives, and cheese (they use Teese).
An off-topic note: I was just thinking about how very few restaurants in Milwaukee use vegan cheese and those that do are all pizzerias (and the Riverwest Co-op), and none use Daiya cheese. I think Comet Cafe would be the perfect candidate for adding vegan cheese to the menu, given they serve decadent comfort food and have a large vegan menu.

A few days later, the “Snowpocalypse” descended upon the nation, and Milwaukee was no exception. I got out of school halfway through my day on Tuesday, and the entire city appeared to shut down on Wednesday. I have Wednesdays off anyway, so there was not much to be gained out of a snow day. Anyway, I was scrolling through my facebook news feed on Tuesday and saw Casablanca was offering their lunch buffet for half off for the snow day! $4 for all you can eat vegan Middle Eastern food. The only non-vegan items were a couple of the desserts. How can you go wrong?!
This was plate number one.

I hadn’t legitimately gone grocery shopping in weeks when Wednesday rolled around, so for breakfast, I made a tofu scramble using everything I could scrape together from the fridge. Luckily I finally went shopping yesterday.

If you’re familiar with the Chicago vegan scene, you probably know of the Ste Martaen vegan food truck. They travel around the city selling vegan soul food to hungry herbivores. They decided to start coming up to Milwaukee once in a while and after a few weeks, they decided to come up EVERY Saturday. How cool! I feel like a child running after the ice cream truck whenever Ste Martaen is in town.
This is from the first week: maple bbq drumsticks! Yum. I couldn’t wait to devour, so the picture is a little hazy.

Always end with cupcakes! I decided to make the hugest cupcake ever for my friend Ryan’s birthday last month. It is two mini cake pan’s worth of chocolate cake, and that mound on top is 100% frosting! It’s a little bit ridiculous, but that’s how we roll.

Jalapeño Mac N Cheese recipe and new WholeSoy flavors

WholeSoy just released two new yogurt flavors, plain unsweetened and key lime! I was able to try both these flavors right before they hit the shelves and was quite impressed. I’m a key lime fiend, so naturally I loved this new flavor and look forward for it to become a regular WholeSoy flavor.
I had never tried an unsweetened soy yogurt, so this new “flavor” intrigued me. The amount of sugar in soy yogurts can be off-putting sometimes and a sweet yogurt just won’t do when you are using it in a savory sauce or curry, so luckily there’s now another option for an unsweetened yogurt. At first I was just eating it with cereal and adding fruit, nuts, and agave to adjust the sweetness to a perfect amount that wouldn’t be overwhelming for breakfast, but I definitely wanted to be more creative and try using it in sauces and entrees. I was making spicy jalapeño mac n cheese one day and remembered the yogurt in my fridge and thought the tangy coolness would complement the hot peppers, so I decided to make a different version of this dish a few nights later using soy yogurt as a base. The result was a Tex-Mex style mac and cheese. I added roasted red peppers, and I think the addition of black beans, avocado, and black olives would also be great to make this dish a well-rounded main course.
Speaking of mac n cheese, my friend Kristen (as did Kerstin!) tested this recipe. She just started a blog all about mac n cheese called The Noochy Noodle where she reviews mac n cheese recipes from books, restaurants, online, and her own. She already has an extensive guide of recipes up on the blog. All mac n cheese, all the time. That is serious dedication, so go check out Kristen’s blog!

Without further adieu, the recipe:

Jalapeño and Roasted Red Pepper Mac N Cheese
Serves 4-5

1 lb pasta, any kind

1 medium onion
2-3 jalapeños
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
cayenne pepper, to taste
black pepper
salt

3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon tahini
3 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons spicy brown mustard
½ cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup salsa, any kind
½ of a jarred roasted red pepper, diced
1 cup unsweetened soy yogurt

Put a pot of water on the stovetop boil the pasta, and cook while preparing the sauce.
Dice the onion, jalapeños, and garlic. Use more or less jalapeños (or leave some of the seeds in) to adjust the level hotness to your liking.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the onions, jalapeños, and garlic. Sauté for about 5 minutes, then add all the spices and the salt and peppers. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the onions sweat and begin to caramelize.
Deglaze the pan with the lemon juice, then stir in the tahini, margarine, ketchup, soy sauce, mustard, and nutritional yeast. Stir until the tahini and margarine melt, and the mixture is combined. Add in the salsa and roasted red peppers, then remove from heat and stir in the soy yogurt.
Drain the pasta when it is done cooking, then pour the sauce over it, and stir to coat the pasta. Adjust seasonings, salt, and pepper to your liking, then serve immediately.

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan: Avocados

I confess: I have a horrendous habit of not planning ahead. When it comes to cooking, I’ll remember a recipe in so and so’s book that I really wanted to make while on my way to the grocery store, then realize I probably should’ve looked what I needed and made a grocery list BEFORE I left, which usually results in not cooking from recipes very much, or altering them to oblivion.

Throughout the semester I was waking up to an alarm every day, even on weekends, running out the door to whatever I needed to do, coming home, working some more, and falling asleep. Not doing nearly as much cooking as I’d like. But I have a month off, so I’ve gotten back into the swing of things, kicked my garlic powder habit (gasp!), and am going to commit to plan ahead. For everything!

I’ve decided to do a “cookbook challenge” type of deal throughout the months of December (well now December’s practically over…) and January where I pick a few books to cook from and review. It seems like a feasible goal, and focusing on one book at a time won’t result in being overwhelmed with a billion recipes I want to make from 50 different books. I’ve got a month off, a bookshelf that’s bursting at the seams, and a brand new kitchen, well for me. I moved into a studio apartment at the beginning of December with an adorable kitchen and dining room that is basically half the entire apartment, which I’m certainly not complaining about! Maybe a kitchen photo tour is in the near future.

The first cookbook I tackled during my break is Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. I’m a big fan of Vive le Vegan and the Everyday Vegan, but ED&BV is brand new for me. Around the same time, I bought a couple avocados to take to my parent’s house to cook with, and found an entire bag of mini avocados waiting! I live off of guacamole. Naturally, that was the first thing I made and promptly devoured, but when one is faced with over 20 avocados, it’d be sort of lame and uninspired to use them ALL for guacamole or just eating. And you know, I didn’t make plans of what to make so I had to scour my cookbooks for recipes that I actually had the ingredients for, with an avocado theme.

I was eyeing the Smoky Avocado Sauce, and liked the idea Dreena presented in the book-Mexican pizza. Perfect! I could make the sauce and the pizza was all up to the imagination.

I found a quick and easy pizza crust to make, then picked some veggies to load it with. Chili powder spiced sweet peppers were roasted in the oven, as well as some onion:

While those were roasting, the pizza dough was rolled out, and I rubbed it with some oregano, chili powder, olive oil, and roasted garlic (the garlic was roasting with the peppers).

Assembled on the pizza dough was a can of refried beans (doctored with some of the roasted onions, salsa, olive oil, and spices), cheddar Daiya, the roasted peppers, black olives, and the avocado sauce:

Baked:

Yum yum.

The avocado sauce was mild and smoky. I may add a little more spice next time, but it was so good and cooling as is.

Avocados were also used in the Avocado Pinto Bean Enchiladas.
I don’t think cilantro tastes like too terribly like soap, but I’m also not a big fan of it. What kind of soap is it supposed to taste like?

This dish doesn’t have avocados, but it is the Blackened Tofu from ED&BV stir fried with curry spice kale, onions, and sweet peppers. I threw the dish together at last minute so I’d have something to eat at Christmas dinner. Bah. I just want to cook everything one of these holidays!

MoFo #16: Thanksgiving, Smoky Foodz, and Caramel Sauce

I came across my bottle of liquid smoke and have been so into putting it in everything I’ve been making this week and calling it Smoky _____. Smoky Chocolate Pie, anyone? Well, not really. But I did use it in my Thanksgiving entree.

My Thanksgiving dinner was a frantic last minute thing. I was spending all morning on Thursday, and the night before, baking cookies until I realized, ohshit, I don’t have anything made for dinner yet.

This is creeping me out because the tofu really looks like meat in this picture. It is SMOKED cranberry and kale stuffed tofu atop a bed of roasted yellow squash, onions, sweet potato, and spinach.

I don’t have a recipe, but it kind of went like this: the tofu and kale were marinated in a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, sage, rosemary, black pepper, soy sauce, liquid smoke, hot sauce, and salt. I cut a slit in the side of each piece of tofu and stuffed it with kale and dried cranberries. Cooked fresh cranberries or cranberry sauce would be really good too! I ended up topping this with cranberry sauce at dinner. Baked the tofu at 450F for 15-20minutes, flipped them, and baked for another 15 minutes. Finally, broiled for 5-10 minutes to brown them and make the kale crispy.

The veggies were just roasted in the oven til nice and golden, in a mixture of the same ingredients as the tofu, minus the smoke, plus balsamic vinegar and a drizzle of agave.

When both trays were out of the oven, the tofu went on top of the pan of veggies. I dressed it with a little more balsamic, black pepper, and hot sauce. MMM.

Dessert was Rum Balls from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur and Oreo Caramel Pudding Pie.

The pie was kind of an experiment. It was really good, but I wasn’t entirely happy with how it turned out. It was basically a cookie crust, a layer of oreo vanilla pudding (then baked), a layer of cream cheese frosting, then topped with caramel sauce and cookies.

The caramel sauce is fucking awesome though, so here’s the recipe!

Cream Cheese Caramel Sauce

1/3 cup soy milk
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cream cheese
3 tablespoons agave nectar
2 teaspoons cornstarch and 1 tablespoon soy milk
1 tablespoon margarine
¾ teaspoon vanilla

Combine the soy milk, brown sugar, cream cheese, and agave nectar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook the mixture, stirring frequently, until the sugar dissolves, 3-5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the soy milk. Add it to the sauce, and stir until it thickens up. Remove from heat and stir in the margarine and vanilla.
Serve immediately, then store any remaining sauce in the fridge, and reheat when using again.

What do you like to use liquid smoke for?

Crepes, Cake, and Dinner Parties of Summer ’10

I moved to Milwaukee for good at the beginning of August and took great advantage of the month of August before completely shifting gears to the lifestyle of the photography student-reading, shooting, reading, editing, shooting, shooting, coffee, not sleeping, etc.

Milwaukee is all about its food carts. Satellite Crepes is a travelling crepe cart in Milwaukee that offers a garbanzo bean batter that is vegan, and they now have vegan cheese! I succumb to the deliciousness of the Fresh Orb every time: tomato, fresh basil, lemon, garlic and truffle oil, and Daiya cheese, all in a crepe. Nomnomnom! Satellite Crepes is at the East Side Green Market in the Beans and Barley parking lot every Saturday during the summer-ish.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake from Beans and Barley.

Watermelon Basil Pomegranate Balsamic Salad

The night I moved in, Chris and I made Thai food and guacamole and had dinner with Skylar.

The spread

Prep

Approval

Vegan Pizza night!

Alexis arrived back from Virginia at the end of August and we had a little dinner party to celebrate.

The spread

Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes and Lavender Shortbread (not pictured)