Collard greens with leeks and garlic over jasmine rice

I have my CSA box to thank for my new-found love of collard greens and leeks.  Here's most of my haul from the recent CSA box - lots of greens, some really delicious seedless satsuma mandarins, and some amazing carrots, and there were also some great kiwis that didn't make it into the picture.  There are things that I don't love about the CSA box - they never send me what they say they're going to send me, they give me way too much lettuce, and the produce is very dirty and sometimes full of bugs, among other things.  But, on the plus side, it's delivered right to my door, it's organic and fresh and amazingly healthy, it allows me to support local agriculture, and it forces me to break out and try new fruits and vegetables - all good things.

Anyway, I am now in love with both collard greens and leeks.  The photo above is of a second batch of collard greens I bought at Whole Foods after liking the first batch from my CSA box so much.  How beautiful are those dark leafy greens?  One of my favorite things to eat in the whole world. 

And leeks - I had never really worked with leeks, and I think I had only really encountered them in potato-leek soup, where they tend to be overpowered by the other ingredients and you don't get a chance to appreciate their amazing leek-ness.  They're smooth and buttery and wonderful, and even though you want to think they're going to be like mild, quirky onions, they really have a personality all their own.  They're even beautiful as you chop them - fresh and spritely, shades of spring green, so tender on the inside that they almost fall apart.  I'm a big fan. 

So here's how I cooked the collards and the leeks together:

1.  Prepare some vegetable broth: in a big saucepan or soup pot, dissolve a couple of vegan bouillon cubes in 2 cups of water.  I really like this bouillon from a company called Rapunzel.  Then throw in two bay leaves, because bay leaves make everything better.  Let it boil away while you prepare your collard greens. 

2.  Wash two big bunches of collard greens.  Remove the center stems and the larger veiny stems, and roughly chop the remaining greens.

3.  Take the bay leaves out of your broth and discard them.  Put the chopped collard greens in the broth.  Boil for 10 or 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

4.  While the greens are cooking, get out three leeks.  Cut away the leafy part, leaving just the tender white part.  Dice the white part and put the diced pieces in a saute pan with some minced garlic (I really like garlic, so I use 8 or 10 cloves; if you don't like it so much you could scale it back to even just 1 or 2 cloves or maybe even leave it out altogether) and some olive oil.  Saute over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring pretty much constantly so that you don't burn anything.

5.  Drain the collard greens, then stir in the leek/garlic mixture. 

6.  Serve with fragrant jasmine rice.  The best way to eat this is to have a little bit of rice, a little bit of collards, and a little bit of leek in every bite.  Buttery, nutty, velvety smooth and delicious - and, of course, full of all kinds of great nutrients that will make you strong and powerful and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.  I could eat this every single day.  I also added some Gardein Chick'n Scallopini patties, which I have blogged about before, for protein and bulk and further deliciousness.  This has become one of my favorite dinners.  Enjoy!

Sweet and salty butternut squash

Haven't been posting much lately - I'm super busy and will continue to be so through February.  After that, I'm looking forward to doing lots of cooking!

I have made some yummy things recently, but I don't always get around to taking a picture - or things taste delicious but aren't very photogenic.  But here's a picture of the "sweet and salty butternut squash" recipe I made last night.  It might not look like much, but it's outrageously yummy.  It was inspired by the huge butternut squash that came in my CSA box a couple of weeks ago and a container of maple syrup that my Secret Santa at work got for me. 

The recipe is online, here.  I tweaked the quantities a little to account for the fact that I had a HUGE squash and the recipe called for a medium one.  Here's what I did:

- Peel an enormous butternut squash and cut into 1-inch cubes.  Put the cubes in a large soup or stock pot.

- Add 2 cups vegetable broth, 4 tsp soy sauce, and 2 Tbsp maple syrup.

- Cover, and bring to a slow simmer.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes or until soft.

I served it with brown rice and Gardein Chick'n Scallopini.  It was filling, warm, nutritious, savory and delicious.  I think I'm getting another squash in my CSA box tomorrow - if so, I'll repeat this recipe!

Vegan pumpkin pie

I had trouble with my pie crust this morning - I used a random recipe that I found online and the proportions were all wrong.  It called for 3 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup margarine and 5-6 tablespoons cold water.  I mixed the first three ingredients (using my brand new pastry blender from Williams Sonoma, which is awesome and only 10 bucks), then added water, water and more water, and it still wouldn't hold together.  I then looked at my tried-and-true pie crust recipe (why I didn't use that in the first place I really don't know) and saw that there needed to be either less flour or more margarine.  So I added some more margarine and it still wouldn't hold together, so I decided to just press it into the pan like a graham cracker crust.  It worked out okay, but was a little too thick for my taste.  But I did manage to do my first sort-of fluted pie crust edge, which looks pretty good.

Then I assembled my ingredients for the pie filling and discovered that my newish jar of applesauce that had been in the fridge for a little while had somehow grown some mold - blech.  No worry - I peeled and chopped a Granny Smith apple, cooked it in a little water with some sugar for 10 minutes, then pureed it in my food processor.  Voila - applesauce!  It was pretty good, and super easy.

So here's what I did after I finally finished making the pie crust and the applesauce.  I'm really pleased with the result - my in-house photographer and I each just had a big slice and it was delicious!

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine:

   3/4 cup vegan sugar
   1/2 teaspoon salt
   1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
   2 teaspoons cinnamon
   1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
   15-ounce can pumpkin puree
   2 teaspoons applesauce
   1 cup soymilk

Whisk until the mixture has thickened a bit, then pour into the pie crust.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Then reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for 40-50 minutes. Cool in refrigerator for about an hour then serve.

Moroccan tagine

I love putting together a recipe to use up all of the odds and ends I have in my fridge and pantry. 

This recipe for Moroccan Tagine appeared in my facebook news feed earlier this week (thank you, VegNews).  I looked at it this morning and realized that I had most of the ingredients it called for, that I could also throw in several of the ingredients I had in the kitchen that I needed to use up soon, and that I could improvise as to the rest.  The result was really delicious - spicy, unique, warming, filling and healthy.  A perfect one-pot meal for a crisp autumn day.  Here's what I did:    


Mix the following spices in a little bowl and set it aside:

   1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
   1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
   1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
   1/2 teaspoon turmeric
   1/2 teaspoon salt
   1/4 teaspoon paprika
   1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Chop up the following items and put them in a small baking dish. 

   3 smallish potatoes - one purple, one red and one yellow
   4 small turnips
   6 or 8 cloves of garlic

Add salt and pepper to taste, then drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven at 450 for 15-20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, chop 4 leeks (just the good, tender part - not too far up the stalk) into 1/4-inch slices.  Saute in a big soup pan with a little olive oil for about 5 minutes until softened.  Then add your spice mix and cook for another 30 seconds. 

Then add:

   4 cups vegetable broth
   2 bay leaves (remove before serving)
   small can of tomato puree
   about 2 cups of fresh green beans, cut into 1-inch pices
   15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
   1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Then measure out:

   1 cup dried apricots

While the stew is cooking, soak the apricots in hot water for 30 minutes.  Then drain and cut the apricots into 1/2-inch chunks and add them to the stew.

Cook the stew, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Stir in:

   1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
   2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

Cook 10 more minutes then serve hot over brown rice, quinoa or other grain.

Some products I love

Of course I love having a kitchen full of fresh fruits and vegetables and all kinds of grains and spices and accoutrements to help me make delicious vegan food from scratch.  But I also love having certain go-to products that make cooking easier and faster and still meet my standard of not contributing to the cruelty in the world.  Here are a few of those favorite products.

Rice Dream - Vanilla Enriched:  I've been using this product for about 20 years and I love it.  Sometimes I buy the Trader Joe's version because it's a little bit cheaper, but I really think the Rice Dream tastes better.  I use it in coffee and on cereal, for smoothies and protein drinks, and for baking, and I occasionally just have a glass by itself.  An 8-ounce serving has 30% of your daily calcium, 25% of your B-12, and some other vitamins.

Earth Balance products:  Let me count the ways.  I use the "buttery spreads" just about every day - the Whipped version on bagels or mixed in with pasta, rice or steamed vegetables, and the Original version for baking.  The Original version has given me perfect cookies, cakes, breads and even pie crusts.  Plus it's really flavorful and delicious all by itself.  The peanut butter is out of this world - it's no-stir, which is great because I find it pretty much impossible to deal with natural peanut butter that has separated, and it's sweetened with agave which gives it a light, sweet taste.  Really yummy on a sandwich.  I have a recipe for vegan peanut butter cups up on my computer screen right now, and I think the Earth Balance peanut butter will be perfect in it.

Soy Vay products:  I've been using these sauces forever, in my stirfrys and as a dipping sauce for potstickers.  My favorite is the original Hoisin Garlic sauce, but I also really like the Veri Veri Teriyaki and the Island Teriyaki with pineapple juice.  These sauces make it possible for me to come home after a long day and whip up a quick, really good dinner - I just chop up some tofu and veggies and saute them in a little oil until they're almost done, then pour in some Soy Vay, cook it for a couple more minutes, and I'm done.  The flavor is complex and interesting, and it's thick enough that it really sticks to the vegetables.

Imagine Organic Creamy Tomato Basil soup:  The creaminess comes from soymilk.  This is a new discovery for me - I think it's a pretty new product - and I've been using it a lot.  I basically use it as a condiment for rice or pasta.  It has a fresh, comforting, slightly tangy taste. 

Daiya vegan cheese:  I'm so crazy about this stuff - I don't know how I ever lived without it.  I use the Mozzarella Style Shreds on pizza, and it really melts and acts a lot like real cheese.  I usually top my pizzas with Tofurky Italian sausage, broccoli and red bell peppers, but a couple of weeks ago I made one with brussels sprouts, corn, and thinly-sliced purple potatoes, and it was incredibly yummy (not to mention really cool-looking).  The Daiya makes all of this possible.  I also like the Cheddar Style Shreds - I use it for quick mac-and-cheese (cook some pasta - bowtie is best, but any kind will do, drain it, then while it's still really hot stir in some Cheddar Style Shreds and sprinkle in some pepper).  One of my favorite comfort-food dishes lately. 

Whole Foods vegan chocolate chips:  I don't have a link for these, but I almost always have a bag of them in my pantry.  My philosophy in baking is that just about anything is made better with the addition of a little chocolate, so I love having these chips around to throw into banana bread, zucchini bread, various kinds of muffins, etc.

Gardein Chick'n Scallopini:  I'm seriously crazy about this stuff.  I generally stay away from vegan "meats" - they're just not my thing - but Gardein does such perfect things with the texture and flavor of this product that I can't resist it.  You get them in the frozen foods section and throw them in the freezer, then when you want a really quick, warm, satisfying dinner you saute them in olive oil for 3 or 4 minutes and they're done.  They're perfectly seasoned, so you just put them on your plate and go.  Each serving has 90 calories, 2 grams of fat, 14 grams of protein, and 25% of your daily iron!  And I basically always eat two servings in one sitting, so those are some pretty impressive nutritional values.  Gardein has recently published a recipe for Sage and Pumpkin-Seed Encrusted Gardein with Cranberry Cabernet Sauce, which uses the Chick'n Scallopini filets as a base - it sounds amazing and I'm going to try it soon.

New series: Reason to be vegan #1: Lower your cholesterol

I'm starting a new series, because I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking (and eating!), and I am overwhelmed with the number of reasons to be vegan.  I'm not sure that I'll ever run out of reasons.  #1 is not the most important reason, it's just the first one, selected pretty much at random, because it's something I happen to have read about yesterday. 

High cholesterol is one of the major controllable risk factors for coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke. As your blood cholesterol rises, so does your risk of coronary heart disease.  Here, I'm referring to LDL-cholesterol - often called "bad cholesterol," which is the stuff that clogs, hardens, and ultimately blocks your arteries.

People who follow a plant-based diet have significantly lower blood cholesterol than meat eaters, and vegans fare best of all.  Study after study bears this out.  See, for example, the long list of studies discussed here.

• The Oxford Vegetarian Study followed 6,000 vegetarians and 5,000 non-vegetarians over 16 years and published its findings in 1999:  "Cross-sectional analyses of study data showed that vegans have lower total- and LDL-cholesterol concentrations than did meat eaters; vegetarians and fish eaters had intermediate and similar values.

• A study by researchers at The University of Toronto found that following a vegan or near-vegan diet "was as effective as medication at lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in people at risk for heart disease."    

• A 2006 study of people with type-2 diabetes assigned participants to follow either a high-carb vegan diet or a "conventional diabetes diet" conforming to the 2003 American Diabetes Association (ADA) Guidelines.  The study found that "those on the high-carb vegan diet had lower blood sugars (and so could reduce their meds more), lower LDL cholesterol, improved kidney function and over double the weight loss. There were also significantly greater reductions in BMI, waist circumference, and total cholesterol in the vegan group compared to the ADA group."

Cholesterol is found ONLY IN ANIMAL PRODUCTS.  The medical center at the University of California at San Francisco posts useful information about cholesterol intake in the Patient Education portion of its website: 

• Depending on whether you have risks for heart disease, you should consume only 200-300 mg. of cholesterol per day.

• An egg contains about 212 mg. of cholesterol.  An ounce of cheese has 30 mg.  A 3-1/2 ounce serving of beef, chicken or salmon (which, let's face it, is considerably smaller than the average American serving) has 89, 85 or 63 mg., respectively. 

• Fruits, vegetables, legumes, tofu, margarine, and vegetable oil have NO CHOLESTEROL.  

People whose diets are based around animals and animal products find it very easy to eat too much dietary cholesterol - even when they eschew common culprits such as cheeseburgers, KFC meals, pepperoni pizza, ice cream and huge portions for lean meats and "sensible" portions.  The American Heart Association notes that: "Eating one egg for breakfast, drinking two cups of coffee with one tablespoon of half-and-half each, lunching on four ounces of lean turkey breast without skin and one tablespoon of mayonnaise, and having a 6-ounce serving of broiled, short loin porterhouse steak for dinner would account for about 510 mg of dietary cholesterol that day — nearly twice the recommended limit."

Many people who have switched from a meat-based diet to a plant-based diet have found that their cholesterol has dropped.  Bob Harper from The Biggest Loser reported that he became a vegetarian to lower his cholesterol, and his cholesterol dropped 100 points.  My boyfriend had a physical around the time we met, and his LDL-cholesterol level was "borderline high" (130); thereafter he started eating a lot less meat and a lot more vegan food, and his LDL level at his next checkup was 96 (within the 100-or-lower "optimal" range noted by doctors and the American Heart Association).  Coincidence?  I highly doubt it!

Not convinced yet to switch to a plant-based, vegan diet, or at least greatly reduce the amount of animals and animal products you eat?  Don't worry - I have about a million more reasons, so stay tuned!

Chocolate cupcakes

I'm getting ready to make some vegan chocolate cupcakes for the homeless guests in the San Mateo County Home and Hope program tonight.  I'll make a big pot of yummy pasta with vegan meatballs too.
Here are some photos of my cupcakes, which were a big hit at the San Francisco Vegan Bakesale a couple of months ago.  Below the photos is the recipe.  I've made these cupcakes 5 or 6 times, and they're easy and consistently good.

CUPCAKES (makes 12 cupcakes):

1 cup soy milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

STEP 1:  Prepare cupcake pan with liners.

STEP 2:  Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl; let sit for a minute or two.

STEP 3:  Add sugar, oil and vanilla and beat until foamy.

STEP 4:  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain.

STEP 5:  Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake 18-20 min. at 350.

---

FROSTING (makes enough to VERY generously ice 12 cupcakes):

2 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup soy margarine (Earth Balance), softened
¼ cup vanilla rice milk
¾ cup unsweetened pure cocoa powder
½ t. vanilla

Using an electric hand mixer, cream the powdered sugar with the soy margarine until mixture is thick but well combined. Add the rice milk, cocoa powder and vanilla, and continue to mix until smooth.

Tofu scramble

It's good to be back in the kitchen now that my September traveling is over.  I'm looking forward to posting a blog entry about all of the amazing vegan food we found on our trip.  But for now, a little post about the tofu scramble I just made.

A tofu scramble is like a stirfry in that it there are several necessary components, and each component can be varied almost endlessly.  For a stirfry meal there's protein (tofu, tempeh, etc.), vegetables (any kind you want), sauce (the sky's the limit) and some kind of starch (rice, noodles, quinoa, etc.). 

For a tofu scramble the components are tofu (of course), liquid, seasonings, and whatever else you find in the fridge or pantry.  I started by sauteeing two cloves of crushed garlic in a little margarine.  Then I opened a package of extra-firm tofu (Whole Foods brand) and drained it by squeezing a lot of the liquid out in the sink.  Some people are really into pressing the liquid out of a block of tofu by wrapping it in towels and putting a heavy book or pan on top of it until as much liquid as possible has been squeezed out, but it's not that big a deal to me.  If I end up with too much liquid I just siphon it out of the pan with a turkey baster.

Then I crumbled the tofu in my fingers and added it to the pan with the sauteed garlic.  It's easy to over-crumble the tofu so that you end up with a very mushy scramble.  I prefer to break it up into pretty big chunks initially, then let it break up further during the cooking/stirring process.

Then I added some flavoring - splashes of tamari and pinches of salt, pepper, celery salt, onion powder and turmeric - and sauteed another minute or two to get everything integrated.  Then I added the other ingredients I had on hand - sliced mushrooms, a diced red bell pepper, and fresh chives from my kitchen garden.  A few more minutes of sauteeing, along with periodic tasting and addition of more seasonings, and I had this yummy scramble.

This dish is fast and easy, and infinitely adjustable.  You can use Italian seasonings like oregano, garlic and basil, or Mexican seasonings like adobo seasoning, chiles and lime juice, or Indian seasonings like cumin and curry powder; and you can throw in whatever vegetables and fresh herbs you want.  If you're using harder vegetables you may want to pre-sautee or steam them before you start cooking the scramble so that you don't end up overcooking your tofu while you're waiting for the veggies to soften up.

Traveling

Just a quick little update.  We're on a big roadtrip, seeing lots of beautiful scenery, meeting fantastic people, and finding all kinds of great vegan food.  I'll post details and pics when we get back.

Veganized rosemary-lemon cupcakes

Still working on my recipe to submit for the Better Homes & Gardens "Mad For Plaid" recipe contest, where entrants are to take a recipe from any of the 15 editions of the BH&G cookbook and put their "own spin" on it.  I decided to veganize BH&G's recipe for Rosemary & Lemon Cupcakes. 

I have it at the point where the cupcakes taste amazing - really lemony and melt-in-your-mouth moist. 

Unfortunately, despite my ministrations and purchase of fancy cupcake papers and little purple flowers, I'm not that happy with the way they look.  For some reason, the cupcake papers won't stay stuck to the cupcakes - I think it's because the cupcakes are so moist.  They just peel right away, leaving my cupcakes looking kind of deformed and weird. 

I'm going out of town for a little bit, and will make another batch when I get back.  I'll fill the cupcake papers a little fuller, so the finished cupcakes peek over the tops of the papers a little more; I'm hoping that will help them adhere to the cupcakes better.  I want the cupcakes to look a little more abundant and decadent; at this point I think they look a little skimpy.

Here's the recipe, in case anyone wants to try these.  Again, they taste really, really good, and they're vegan!

INGREDIENTS:

   1/2 cup soy yogurt

   1/2 cup soy milk
   1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine, softened
   1 cup granulated sugar
   1-1/2 tsp lemon extract
   1/2 tsp vanilla
   1-3/4 cups flour
   1-1/2 tsp baking powder
   1/2 tsp salt
   2 tsp finely-chopped fresh rosemary
   2 or 3 organic lemons
   1 cup powdered sugar

STEP 1:  Preheat oven to 350.  Line 15 muffin cups with paper bake cups (next time I might just do 12 and fill them fuller, then increase the baking time accordingly).

STEP 2:  Combine first 6 ingredients in large bowl.  Beat on medium speed until just combined, scraping bowl.

STEP 3:  In separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and rosemary. 

STEP 4:  Add dry mixture to wet mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.

STEP 5:  Stir in 1 tsp finely-shredded lemon peel and 3 Tbsp lemon juice.

STEP 6:  Fill prepared cups 3/4 full.

STEP 7:  Bake 22 to 25 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely.

STEP 8:  Prepare Lemon Glaze: combine powdered sugar and 4 or 5 tsp. lemon juice until desired consistency is reached. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel.

STEP 9:  Spoon glaze on to cupcakes.  If desired, garnish with a sprinkling of lemon zest.

"Kitchen sink soup" (sort of)

Made something yummy last night - it was supposed to be a soup that used up everything in the fridge, but all the broth got soaked up by the other ingredients.  It was too ugly to be photo-worthy, but it was delicious.  I'm looking forward to eating the leftovers today after they've had more time to percolate.  Here's what I did.

1.  Rounded up all vege odds and ends in the fridge - cabbage, portabellos, broccoli, some other stuff. Tossed it all in the food processor and pulsed until it was pretty small.

2.  Sauteed it all with several cloves of garlic (crushed) and some red chili sesame oil, then dumped the mixture into a big pot of vegetable broth.

3.  Diced some tofu and sauteed it for a minute or two, then tossed it into the pot.

4.  Added salt, pepper, tamari and mirin to taste; threw in a big hunk of ginger (which I later removed).

5.  Let the whole thing simmer for about half an hour.

6.  Added a big package of rice noodles and let them cook according to the package directions.  They soaked up all of the water so it ended up being kind of goulash-y.  Not beautiful, but really tasty and healthy!

Vegan pizza to Daiya for

I make THE BEST pizza, if I do say so myself, and it's really pretty easy.  I could make my own crust and sauce, but I can't imagine that they would be better or cheaper than the ones I get at Trader Joe's.  I use their whole-wheat pizza dough in a bag, and their pizza sauce that comes in a little black tub.

Here's what I did last night:

1.  Preheat the oven to 450.  Oil a pizza pan (I use a 9x13 baking sheet) and pour a little pile of whole wheat flour (maybe 1/4 cup) in the middle.

2.  Take the pizza dough out of the bag and plop it down in the pile of whole wheat flour.  Let it rest for 20 or 30 minutes.

3.  Using floured hands, stretch the pizza dough until it roughly matches the size and shape of your pan.  I pick up the dough by one edge and let it stretch itself down a little, then rotate it a little and grip it by another edge and let that part stretch itself down a little, and keep repeating until it's the right size and pretty evenly stretched.  Then I lay it down on the pan and push and prod it into place until it's pretty even in thickness all over and it covers the vertical sides of  the pan. 

4.  Spread sauce evenly over the whole crust.  I only leave about a millimeter of uncovered crust around the edge.  Then mix in some finely-chopped fresh basil if you have it.

5.  Then sprinkle on some vegan cheese.  I used Daiya mozzarella-style shreds for the first time last night, and it was DELICIOUS, and really easy because it's already shredded.  I used about 3/4 of the 8-ounce package.  It has a slightly sweet taste that I wasn't quite expecting, but I really liked it.

6.  Chop up your toppings so they're all about the same size, then spread them evenly across the pizza.  Give it a good look to make sure each slice is going to get a good distribution of toppings, and make adjustments if necessary.  I used one Tofurky Italian sausage, some pre-steamed brussels sprouts seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil, some small portabello wedges brushed with olive oil, broccoli florets and a red bell pepper.

7.  Then bake for 8-10 minutes, allow to cool for 10 minutes, slice and eat! 

Recent misses among the hits

I've had a few misses among the hits in my kitchen this week.  I don't know which is true: when you cook a lot you're less likely to have misses because you're learning and gaining experience and expertise, OR when you cook a lot you're more likely to have misses simply because you're generating more food and you're likely to screw up at least a certain percentage of the time.  Who knows - I guess the more new recipes you try the more likely you are to have misses, especially when you're adapting or veganizing another recipe or just making it up when you go along.  In any case, here's what happened this week.

On Friday I made a really good plum crisp, similar to the apple crisp recipe in the original Moosewood Cookbook.  We got a bag of ripe plums on special for $1.00, and I needed to do something with them.  This recipe turned out really good - here's basically what I did:

1.  Peel plums (about 6 big ones), and slice into small wedges.  Sprinkle liberally with lemon juice and toss with hands.  Add a tablespoon or so of vanilla extract and toss again.  Sprinkle on 1/4 cup white sugar and toss gently.  Pour into greased 9x9 pan. 

2.  In a separate bowl, mix the following: 1 cup rolled oats * 1 cup white flour * 1/4 cup brown sugar * 1 tsp cinnamon * a dash each of nutmeg and allspice * 1/4 teaspoon salt * 1/2 cup melted butter * 1/2 cup finely-chopped walnuts.  Spread over the fruit mixture and pat into place.

3.  Bake uncovered at 375 for about 35 minutes.  Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes, then serve with vegan vanilla ice cream.

So a couple of days later I got a bag of really cute, good-smelling little apples, and decided to make the recipe again.  I chopped up the apples without removing the skins (mistake #1), then found that I had too many apples to fit in the 9x9 pan again, so used my 9x13 pan.  I used a glass pan this time, instead of a metal pan - possibly mistake #2.  Then I increased the quantities of all of the other ingredients to about 1-1/2 times what I had used for the plum crisp - mistake #3.  Then I decided to add about 1/4 cup sunflower seeds to the topping, then decided that since there was only about another 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts left in the bag I should add them too - somewhere in here was mistake #4.

So basically I now have a big pan of apple crisp with a very thick layer of topping, and the topping didn't get integrated with the apples since they were much drier than the juicy plums, so the whole thing kind of has the consistency of sawdust and the only way we can eat it is by putting it in a bowl and adding rice milk and eating it like it's cereal, plus the peel I left on the apples makes the texture kind of unpleasant.  Lessons learned! 

(Post-script: the boyfriend informed me just now that he had a big serving of the apple crisp sans rice milk last night and it was delicious - I guess I can't argue with that, but he does eat pretty much anything.  In any case, it wasn't up to my standards and I know what I'll do differently the next time.)

I also worked on version 1 of the lemon-rosemary cupcakes I'm trying to veganize, and they didn't turn out very good, but now that I've told the story of the failed apple crisp I don't want to write about another failure!  I need to get to work on version 2 of those cupcakes soon - hopefully today or tomorrow.

Happy eating, everyone!  I guess we don't get the successes without a few failures, right?

Pasta pomodoro

Made this fresh pomodoro sauce the other day, and it was so good it was almost a religious experience!  It was inspired by a dish I got at a restaurant in Manhattan about a month ago, and I think mine came out just as good as the restaurant's version.  Really packed with flavor - it could possibly have used a tiny bit more spiciness, but it was nice to be able to really taste the ingredients and not have them overpowered by spices.  The two of us ate the whole batch along with a pound of spaghetti!

I started with 6 medium tomatoes - these were the "tomato on the vine" type.  I got them along with some really nice sweet Italian basil at Dean's Produce in Millbrae, which is one of my favorite places to buy produce - it's surprisingly inexpensive, the produce is always fresh, and they have great variety.  

I removed the skin from the tomatoes by putting them in boiling water for about a minute then plunging them into a bowl of cold water - the skins then peeled right off.  Then I cut the tomatoes into wedges and removed most of the seeds, then put the wedges in the food processor and pulsed until they were barely chunky - I like a pretty smooth sauce.

Then I realized that this might not give me enough sauce, so I dumped a pint of mixed grape tomatoes (red, green and yellow - very pretty) in the food processor and pulsed them until they were about the same consistency as the larger tomatoes.  The grape tomatoes were pretty small and their skin was thin enough that I didn't need to worry about removing it.

Then I did the following:

1.  Heat about 5 Tbsp olive oil in a deep skillet.  Add 6 cloves garlic (sliced or crushed, whichever you prefer).  Saute over medium-low heat for 2 or 3 minutes, being careful not to let the garlic burn or turn brown.  Add a pinch or two of crushed red pepper flakes if you like a little heat. 

2.   Add the tomatoes, some dried oregano (I used about 3 pinches), and a pinch of black pepper.  Let the mixture simmer over medium-low heat for about an hour, stirring every few minutes.  The goal is to reduce the sauce until it is just a little more watery than you want it.  If it seems like it's not reducing fast enough, turn up the heat a little.

3.  Add white sugar and salt to taste while the mixture is cooking, tasting the sauce as you add new ingredients.

4.  At some point you will boil some pasta (in salted water).  When your sauce is almost done, reserve a quarter-cup of the pasta water and whisk it with some white flour to make a paste, then add this paste to the sauce and let it cook for another 5 minutes.  I liked what this did for the consistency, plus I'm always reading that you should use some of the pasta water because it's starchy and flavorful.     

5.  Right before you serve the sauce, mix in 1/2 cup of finely-chopped fresh basil.  The sweet Italian basil I found at Dean's Produce was really delicious.  Actually, it was mild enough that I could have used 3/4 cup or even more, but basil is often quite a bit stronger.  Next time, I'll smell it and try to gauge how strong or mild it's probably going to be.

6.  I added the pasta (spaghetti) to the sauce and mixed it up, then served it right away. 

Seriously, as good as pasta pomodoro you would get in a good restaurant.  If I were still eating dairy products I would probably have automatically sprinkled some grated parmesan on top, but I have to say I didn't miss it at all, and leaving it off allowed the flavors of the fresh tomatoes and basil and spices to shine through.  Can't wait to make it again.

Recipe contest!

I'm so excited about this.  Better Homes & Gardens is hosting a "Mad For Plaid" recipe contest; entrants are to take a recipe from any of the 15 editions of the BH&G cookbook and put their "own spin" on it.  Of course I immediately saw this as an opportunity to veganize a new recipe, and possibly win a thousand bucks!

I think I might start with BH&G's Fresh Rosemary & Lemon Cupcakes recipe (pictured above).  I'll veganize them, then make one batch with the original lemon glaze and another batch with some decadent creamy frosting.  I just bought a rosemary plant over the weekend, so I'll have really fresh rosemary to use.  I'll make them on Friday, then take them to a dinner at a friend's house and put everyone to work tasting and critiquing them. 

Then I'll post photos on the website, and visitors to the website will get a chance to vote on it!  (HINT!)

Very excited.

Photography

I am fortunate to have my very own, very talented live-in photographer, who can be persuaded to take photos of the food he is about to consume, and then crop and edit them and make them as beautiful as possible.  Fortunate, and very happy! 

A favorite easy stirfry

I love a good stirfry that's warm and delicious and healthy. I make one at least once a week. Here's my basic procedure:

1. Heat some oil in a deep frying pan. Sesame oil is good, or peanut oil, or just olive oil. If I use olive oil I might add some finely minced garlic and/or ginger in the pan.

2. Cut extra-firm tofu into triangles about 1/3-inch thick. Arrange triangles in pan so that each triangle is touching the pan. Let them cook for 3 to 5 minutes until the underside is golden brown. Then, turn the burner off for a minute and use a fork to flip each triangle over.  Turn the burner back on and let the tofu cook for another minute.

3. Next add your hardest vegetables that will require the most cooking. For me this usually involves broccoli. I like to squirt a little lemon juice right on the broccoli - I think it really brings out the flavor.

4. Pour on your sauce, both to keep the tofu from sticking and to provide some liquid that will help steam your hard vegetables. I often use Soy Vay teriyaki or hoisin sauce, especially when time is short. Sometimes I make my own sauce from whatever I have on hand - tamari, Bragg's, lemon juice, fresh or powdered ginger, sesame oil or seeds, mustard, gomashio - I just mix things together until they taste good.  Saute a couple more minutes, tossing mixture so that everything gets coated with sauce and so that the hard vegetables get some direct contact with the hot pan.

5.  Add softer vegetables, such as the chopped up red bell peppers I use here, then saute another minute or two, again tossing mixture as in step 4.

6.  Repeat step 5 with softest vegetables, such as red chard or other greens, and water chestnuts.  You can use a lot of greens because once they cook down they will reduce greatly in size.

7.  Sometimes I use a separate pan to grill chunks of pineapple (to make sure they maintain contact with the pan and get a good sear) - then I just toss them into the finished stirfry and mix everything around. 

8.  Serve over rice, quinoa, noodles, etc.  I like Trader Joe's Harvest Grain Blend (Israeli style couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa - chewy and flavorful, even if you don't put any sauce on it).

Pasta with avocado pesto

This was fantastic - I found the recipe on the vegnews website.  I didn't have any pinenuts so I substituted walnuts, and I used fusilli instead of linguini because I like the way fusilli holds on to pesto. I also really love salted, halved grape tomatoes with pesto, so I sprinkled some on top of the finished dish.  The next time I make it I'll choose two smallish avocados instead of the medium ones I used the first time - the avocado flavor was almost overpowering. Still, this was really good and I look forward to making it again.

Vegan breakfast muffins

My own concoction! I'm trying to come up with a new name for these muffins. A friend ate one and said it made her feel physically and spiritually healthy - maybe something that reflects those ideas.

Makes 18-24 muffins. The idea here is to have a healthy, filling muffin you can grab for a quick breakfast. These muffins have flax seeds, oatmeal, applesauce, zucchini, nuts, seeds and dried fruit, among other great ingredients. They are very flavorful, and not too sugary. You can substitute different kinds of nuts, seeds and dried fruit (I would stick with fruit that adds a little extra sweetness and moisture - unsulfured apricots might be good, although they wouldn't be as pretty as the cherries).

If you skip the streusel topping, increase the brown sugar in the muffin recipe to 2 cups.
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STEP 1: Grease muffin tins (no liners needed).

STEP 2: Whisk together:
- 6 Tbsp ground flax seeds
- ½ cup + 1 Tbsp warm water

STEP 3: Add:
- ½ cup canola oil
- ½ cup applesauce
- 1-3/4 cups light brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 3 medium zucchini, grated (I do mine in the food processor)

STEP 4: Combine in separate bowl:
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp nutmeg

STEP 5: Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until everything is combined. Then fold in a handful or two of each of the following:
- chopped walnuts
- non-sulfured dried cherries (I got mine at Trader Joe's)
- sunflower seeds (I used raw, unsalted sunflower seeds)

STEP 6: Fill muffin tins all the way to the top.

STEP 7: In separate bowl, make streusel topping by combining the following (I mixed it with my hands until it had a good texture):
- 6 Tbsp brown sugar
- 12 Tbsp rolled oats
- 4 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 6 Tbsp cold vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)

STEP 8: Top each muffin with enough streusel mixture to cover the top of the muffin.

STEP 9: Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before eating.

Quick product reviews

Very quick. I really love these items that I have tried recently:

- Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream AND Better Than Cream Cheese. I don't know why I haven't tried these before, but they're both outrageously good. Great texture and flavor - I would never know the difference between these and the dairy versions. I served the "sour cream" with black bean-sweet potato chili burritos, and the "cream cheese" on bagels with sliced summer tomatoes - yum.

- Trader Joe's new creamy hummus - the roasted red pepper flavor. These creamy hummuses are brand new as far as I can tell - I think Trader Joe's is trying to emulate the premium hummus brands like Sabra and Tribe. I took the roasted red pepper flavor to an outdoor concert the other day and I was supposed to share it with everybody in the group but couldn't stop myself from eating almost the whole container. I make good hummus, but this is A LOT better. I can't wait to get more.

- Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss vegan ice cream - the chocolate hazelnut fudge. Had a sample of this at Whole Foods yesterday and it was unbelievable chocolaty and rich and delicious. I didn't buy it because it was 99 degrees outside and I knew it would be a puddle by the time I got it home. But the demonstrater gave me a 50-cent coupon, so I'll be back.

- Eden Foods mirin. I keep running across mirin as an ingredient in recipes, so finally went out and got some. It's a little pricy - about 8 bucks for this bottle. But I brought it home and tasted a little bit right out of the bottle, and YUM! I have a fridge full of stir-fry ingredients, and can't wait to cook with this new find.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I have been doing a lot of vegan cooking lately and sharing the recipes, photos and ideas on my facebook page. A few people have suggested I start a blog, and I loved the idea so here I am!

Why vegan? It's an ethical decision for me; maybe I'll talk about it more some time, but for now you can probably find about a million hits if you Google "ethical vegan." I have been vegetarian for over 20 years, and this is my third or fourth go at being vegan. The first few times I found it too hard to find enough vegan food to keep me fueled and going, but that was because I was relying on a lot of prepared foods and not doing much of my own cooking. Attempting a vegan diet centered around store-bought foods - even foods bought at a lot of natural foods stores - is problematic for a variety of reasons.

For one thing, a lot of natural brands are now owned by huge industrial conglomerates whose policies are far out of line with my values. See, for example, http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/08/29/who-owns-your-favorite-organic-or-natural-food-company. After years of reading about industrial food production, I have amassed a long list of reasons to not trust the ingredients, safety or general wholesomeness of products made by these companies. There are natural brands that I trust, but I try to used their prepared foods somewhat sparingly, because you just don't know what happens when food products are produced in large-scale factories with only periodic quality inspections, and many of these foods are packed with preservatives and questionable ingredients to make them stick together, look pretty, smell good, etc. I think Michael Pollan's advice that we should never eat anything that our great-grandmothers didn't eat is spot-on. I'm appalled every time I walk through a major grocery store and see aisle upon aisle of stuff that is sold as "food" but really isn't food at all. What a terrible state of affairs this is - I am convinced that these chemical-laden non-food food substances full of high fructose corn syrup and all kinds of horrible stuff are responsible for most of the diseases and health problems that plague Americans today. There's plenty of beautiful, good, wholesome, healthy food out there, and it's very possible to eat a healthy, vegan, plant-based diet for less than you would spend on the average shopping basket full of crap. In short, the only way you can know what's in your food is to buy ingredients - grains, fruits and vegetables, baking ingredients, spices, etc. - rather than prepared food.

I also love to cook vegan food - cooking is pretty fun in and of itself, but vegan, whole-foods-based cooking with beautiful, fresh ingredients is not only even more enjoyable, but a constant, daily revolution and protest against the shady policies of the food industry and profit-obsessed corporate American in general, and I love that. And I don't want to minimize the other good reasons for cooking this way - these foods taste really good and keep you really healthy and help you live longer, all without hurting animals or creating more cruelty in the world.

So that's it for the moment - I'm going to post some recipes and photos from my facebook page, then get on to some new vegan projects!