White bean plate

Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen's "New Orleans style white beans" with the infamous vegan blue ribbon corn bread recipe (with cheddar Daiya and scallions mixed in) and something I am calling "trail mix greens". I sauteed collards with garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and a little orange juice, then tossed in some slivered almonds and dried cranberries and let it cook down a bit.

Udon noodle salad

Is there anything not improved by peanut sauce? No, there is not. Summer, winter, hot, cold, spicy, sweet, on satay, noodles, banana pie, anything. I ate a peanut butter sandwich every single school day of my childhood. I am likely made up of 90ish percent peanut matter. The cravings are now cell-deep.

Tomas made this long ago. It's udon noodles, chopped raw spinach, scallions, red peppers and zucchini with homemade seitan (the Viva Vegan "red" recipe, so excellent) and peanut sauce, garnished with sesame seeds and lime.

Birthday worthy desserts. Maybe I will blog more-ish this summer?

The best (worst) kind of blog post: dessert pics and a reminder about how I never post anymore! Blah, blah, blah grad school. Blah, blah, blah summer break from grad school now occupied by full-ish time work. I am the *most* fun of all the overworked depressing documentary watching people *ever*!




Anyway, these were coconut mini cupcakes topped with the dulce de leche recipe from Viva Vegan. I had them at my birthday. In January. Also consumed were these double chocolate chip mini cupcakes with my own invented (and since refined) pomegranate frosting. Tomas also made empanadas (seitan-potato-tomato, and butternut squash-black bean), tostones and sweet plantains. Apparently I did not photograph these things! My underfed social work grad students buddies loved it all! Then again, they love everything--they are professionally trained Nice People.

















Last week was Tomas' birthday. I made him a vegan-approved ice cream cake that was experimental, but happily successful. I made a chocolate chip brownie crust (doubled the Joy of Vegan Baking recipe, added chocolate chips) in a spring-form pan, then smooshed in a layer of chocolate cookie ice cream, crushed newman-o's, strawberry ice cream, whipped topping (recipe in Joy of Vegan Baking) *and* chocolate covered strawberries. Tomas also made the courico tacos with pineapple salsa from Vegan Brunch again. His friends were again astounded that he managed to keep the fact that he can cook from them for so many years. His favorite gifts included a box of assorted sunglasses, an adopted chicken from Woodstock Animal Sanctuary (what's up Pearl, how's the feed up there?!) and some fine haberdashery.








Party!

Chick-pan-dilla just doesn't like labels!

Part chickpea pancake, part quesadilla and yet filling a distinctly omelette-y role, this is something I maybe invented. Or something. This was the result of random leftovers + having secured a steady sources of locally available Daiya: two savory chickpea pancakes (aka pudla, cheela, socca or farinata depending on what country your recipe came from) made with scallions, cumin, turmeric and pepper sandwiched with white Daiya vegan cheese, chopped tomato, onion, fresh cilantro and spinach. Accompanied by some store-bought cilantro-chili chutney.

Potato Bread with Scallions

I regret that I let yeast doughs intimidate me for so long. Making bread at home is really easy, it makes your apartment smell super. Barring some crucial mishap (and I haven't had one yet, and I doubt you will) you'll have better bread than you'd be eating otherwise and you'll pay less for it.

This is from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. The recipe is for potato bread with chives but I used scallions and substituted whole wheat for some of the white flour in the recipe. The onion flavor was subtle, but nice. Oh, and it made a two fat, happy loaves!

The thing is-- pizza always looks good...

Nothing new, but the picture was so nice I figured I'd post:

Pizza with basil-tofu-cashew ricotta, tomato sauce, spinach, cherry tomatoes and breaded fried eggplant. Asparagus, zucchini and red onions with some olive oil, salt and pepper made in a grill pan.

Pasta Fagioli

Pasta Fagioli: olive oil, celery, carrot, onions, garlic, vegetable broth, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, kale, navy beans, macaroni, oregano, red chile flakes, pepper.

Served with homemade whole wheat flax bread and roasted cauliflower.

Vegan Gyros

Homemade sesame-semolina flatbread with pan fried homemade seitan seasoned with pepper, oregano, cumin and tamari, tomatoes, baby spinach and cucumbers and topped with vegan yogurt sauce: plain vegan yogurt, lemon juice, minced garlic, dill, salt, pepper. A side of potatoes, onions and green bell peppers, roasted in a mustard-white wine sauce with paprika.

Gado-Gado

Here is the gado-gado recipe from Vegan Express from Nava Atlas. It's an Indonesian salad with baked tofu, steamed and raw veggies, rice and peanut red curry sauce. Really easy and really satisfying.

Cocoa V

My friend Sandy gave me these great chocolates from Cocoa V months ago when I left my job for grad school. The lollipop has a kitty face because we like our kitties! The chocolate was preposterously good. Support vegan chocolatiers by buying your favorite vegan fancy chocolates.

Also, I miss work friends!

So, what did tofu do to you exactly?

Some people think vegans live on salad and tofu. This is not true. I live on kettle corn, whole wheat toast and juices and Tomas eats a diet of 100% vegan sausages in ketchup.

Sometimes, when we feel bad about this, we eat a salad and call it even.

Tofu was marinated in white wine, garlic, tamari and pepper and pan fried with olive oil. Salad includes baby spinach, carrots, red onion and cucumber and is topped with agave-mustard dressing.

Voting Yes on Proposition "Raw Cake"

Like an outdated lolcat meme, I was skeptical, yet curious. Ultimately, I found this Ani Phyo recipe to be a success!










It's really fast: you blend dates, walnuts, and cocoa to form the cakes, layer them with fresh berries and a frosting made with cocoa, dates, agave and avocado. It works! Of course it does, it's sweet and full of yummy healthy fats! Especially with coconut vegan ice cream.

Fancy Butternut Flatbread

Recipe from Chef Chloe. I used my own semolina-flax pizza dough recipe (will post once I perfect it-- semolina is magic!) and topped with Chloe's recommendations: butternut squash, apples, spinach, garlic-white bean puree and caramelized onions. This is a great recipe, and you should go make it now if you like things that taste good and are healthy and awesome.

Blueberry-chocolate cake, sweet potato bread

Hi everybody. Grad school is kicking my butt, but I still do eat food, so here are some pics:



Blueberry-chocolate cake, recipe from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blog. I used a chocolate-hazelnut spread my friend brought me back from Paris to adhere the fruit to the cake in lieu of agave. This was delicious, quick and looks pretty fancy to boot. I used these farmers market blueberries that made you say; "oh yeah, that's what these things are supposed to taste like!"





Braided sweet potato yeast bread loaf, recipe from IVU (International Vegetarian Union). Delicious, but somewhat dense. The recipe doesn't instruct you to warm liquid ingredients to room temperature, and I only thought of that halfway through the process, but it still rose quite a bit, so I think next time using warm soymilk and yams it will be even better. I made two spreads for this, both based off of Bryanna Clark-Grogan's vegan "boursin" recipe. One was made with cranberries, walnuts and orange zest and the other had dill, garlic and scallions. Both were delicious (google that recipe, I make it all the time!) but neither were super photogenic unfortunately.

Recipe-less stuffed mushroom plate

Baby bella mushrooms stuffed with more mushrooms, vegan sausage, panko bread crumbs, red peppers, onions, garlic, olive oil, red chile flakes, oregano, pepper and salt. Sprinkled with paprika. Cooked at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Mashed potatoes with Earth Balance, salt, pepper and soymilk.

Baby spinach sauteed with olive oil and garlic very very briefly.

Viva Vegan!

Tres leches cake with coconut and fresh fruit. The cake is soaked in a boozy, milky spice mixture and finished off with a coconut custard type topping. I've never had the "real" thing but this is delicious cake. Tomas says it tastes pretty accurate. This is funny because I think I reduced the liquid too much at first and then just winged it making more soaking liquid and had no idea if it what work. It did! Fair warning: time intensive recipe. Will impress (and quiet) your (drunken) friends!



Potato seitan tacos (use the skewers recipe, but not the skewers is all), refried black beans and jalepeno-lime rice. The tacos, like a few recipes in this book could stand to have to oil content reduced a bit, but were thoroughly delicious all the same. You'd think as a vegan you'd be pretty jaded about rice and beans; "I've tried it all" you say in a raspy voice to the young and naive veg-inclined. But NO, you discover you haven't tried them all. These particular dishes came out so light and so delicately flavored (almost *fluffy* I could say) all descriptors not usually used on rice and bean dishes or about a lot of Latin food in general.

All recipes from Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero. Aka my new favorite cookbook. To be fair, Tomas has been the one cooking the most from it, but I have really enjoyed *eating* everything, so I am still an expert and stuff. We also have made the yucca with Cuban garlic-lime mojo sauce, the Brazilian braised kale, annatto oil, arroz con leche(rice pudding), peanut sauce, steamed red seitan and steamed white seitan and the dough recipe for baked empanadas. Honestly, all the recipes so far are incredible and the only modification I would suggest is possible decreasing the amount of oil in some of the recipes which really is a matter of personal taste anyway. It was just surprising to me because I do have a personal taste for a goodly fat content. Anyway, the seasonings are dead-on and the methodology is user-friendly.

Muchas gracias Terry!

BBQ Tempeh Rice Bowl

I can't really give you much info on the cooking methods or ingredients, because Tomas made it, but I can tell you it was delicious. Brown rice topped with kale braised with chili and garlic, BBQ tempeh chunks, carmelized onions, sliced avocado with sesame seeds.

PB Crispy Rice Treats

I melted peanut butter, Earth Balance, and Dandies Vegan Marshmallows and then added some crisp brown rice cereal to coat and set the mixture in a pan to set. Once the treats firmed up I sliced them up and gave each one a little dip in a semi-sweet ganache bath (chocolate chips, soy milk) and topped them with a few roasted salted peanuts.

Dandies, (the candies with the happy bow-tied marshmallow on the bag) are great for this kind of dessert or any other classic puffy sugar application-- you know, your s'mores, your hot cocoas, etc etc. I like the Sweet & Sara marshmallows too (They come in fancy flavors! And I can see their factory out the subway windows on my commute! Their logo is a bunny!) but I think they are better appreciated on their own, maybe served with some fancy chocolate and fruits.

Rockie Road Cookies

These are from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. They have roasted almonds, chocolate chips and vegan white chocolate chips, which can be tricky to find (I usually order them online). They were a fun change from regular chocolate chip cookies and well received by the other vegans in my office. (There are 3 besides me now!)

Peanut Butter Waffles

Peanut butter waffles with sliced bananas and maple syrup. Recipe from Vegan Brunch, which has to be my favorite vegan cookbook at this point.

I got a waffle maker (a $20 one from Target) because of this cookbook's many waffle recipes. All of the ones we've tried have been great. I used to be a bit intimidated by homemade waffle-craft, but that seems silly now. Making waffles is less time-consuming and more dummy-proof that pancakes and they re-heat better too. If you make one batch of waffles over the weekend, you can just pop the leftovers in your toaster during the rest of the week. These peanut butter waffles are easy to make using 1/2 whole wheat flour and go great with some applesauce and cinnamon if you want a healthier breakfast.

Mango Seitan

Mango Seitan: Fry seitan chunks dusted in cornstarch. Drain and set aside. Stir fry red onions, green bell peppers and fresh mango chunks until veggies are softened. Add minced garlic and ginger and let cook for a minute longer. Add seitan pieces back to your wok and toss. Stir in a slurry of orange juice, lime juice, tamari, agave, sriracha, black pepper and cornstarch. Cook and toss until sauce thickened. Serve over rice and top with chopped roasted cashews, sliced scallions and fresh cilantro.

Getting serious about Vegan Pizza

Pizza made on a pizza stone (new!) with tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, garlic, spinach and fresh basil. Topped with Daiya Italian Blend vegan cheese. Daiya is melt-y, cheese-y and soy-free if you care about being free of soy. I don't but I think it's cool that they made "cheese" out of cassava.

We can't find anywhere to buy Daiya in in NYC, so I order it from VeganEssentials.com when we want some, but if anyone knows where to get this locally, let me know in the comments! The cheddar flavor is also excellent is quesadillas.

Also, Fleischmann's brand yeast makes a special pizza yeast. I didn't think it would make a difference but it does. Makes the crust chewier and more toothsome. Recommended.

Bienvenidos a Queens!

It's been a while since I posted and lots has happened in food- and non-food related news. I'm starting grad school in August, cut my hair off, and started baking bread every week. Also, Tomas, Simone and I moved to Sunnyside, Queens and I've been eating well the whole way.

Queens has fewer exclusively vegetarian and vegan restaurants than Brooklyn does but there is lots of good eating for vegans and overall everything here is considerably more affordable. In our neighborhood we have a Mexican restaurant with a special vegan seitan burrito on the menu (and they deliver!) as well as some very friendly Thai spots whose staffs have all been very accommodating to our "no egg, no fish sauce, extra tofu!" requests. We live above a 24-hour grocery store with a seemingly special room for kimchi and fresh noodles and there are several specialty Middle-eastern markets within a 3 block radius so many varieties of halvah and spiced teas are readily available. We also enjoy an abundance of Irish bars with very affordable happy hour specials for those rare occasions when food isn't really necessary...

Some recent homemade dinners made by Tomas, who is happy to be back to his home borough (where his New York-ese accent fits in better):



Here are the Courico Tacos with Grilled Pineapple Salsa from Vegan Brunch. God I love this book. And tacos. I love tacos. Seriously, the spicy soy filling is a great contrast to the salsa: sweet pineapple chunks, cilantro, red onion. I would eat these for any meal.









Yellow rice with peppers, cilantro and pinto beans, garlicy kale and sweet fried plantains (platanos maduro).

On it like chocolate on strawberries!

All dressed up and everywhere to go! Chocolate-strawberry vegan cheesecake and cupcakes make you the most popular guy or girl at the party. Cupcake recipe is just the faithful old chocolate Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World one, topped with chocolate ganach. The cheesecake recipe is here at Bakingsheet. I just reduced the lemon juice, added some vanilla and baked a double batch in a homemade chocolate cookie crust.

New Farm Macaroni

Mmmacaroni and cheese- vegan style. Recipe is from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. I added some peas to the casserole and topped it with sliced fresh tomatoes and lots of paprika. Comfort food to the max.

If you're not familiar, the New Farm cookbook is great stuff. It's the favorite recipes of an intentional community called The Farm in Tennessee circa the '70's(complete with groovy cartoon illustrations and great vintage hippie action pics) . The Farm is still around, and besides pioneering simple down-to-earth vegan home cookery, they also were the first to distribute my beloved nutritional yeast (vegan dietary supplement and "cheesy" flavoring of the gods) and also apparently they also published a lot of work about natural birthing techniques. Anyway, it's cheap as heck used on Amazon, and you won't be disappointed, unless you're like looking for low-fat recipes or something. The brownies and the oatmeal cookies are particularly yummy.

Kitty pic for a good cause!

"Simone here, Jill's adorable rescue kitty here sporting my 'treats nao bish plz' face to remind you to please adopt an animal and to never ever patronize fly-by-night puppy mills and pet shops! 4 million adoptable cats and dogs are put down each year in shelters. I'm one example of an awesome rescued cat. I was found dumped in an abandoned part of the city, and then after I was rescued, I waited a whole year in a crowded cat rescue before I got a real home. Even after I found my home, I hid for weeks from the humans in the house because I was a scaredy-kitty, but now I *love* snuggling with my people, watching wildlife documentaries (OK, sometimes I fantasize about being a cheetah or a lioness!), meeting new visitors and obvs-- TREATS."

It's almost Halloween, when, sadly, many black cats are adopted as props or pranks nationwide and soon after discarded or worse, hurt because they're no longer "needed" for "decorations." Black cats (and black dogs) are already less likely to find a permanent home (seriously!) so give them a second look when you're out looking for a furry friend. Even if you have your heart set on a particular breed, there are lots of purebred animals in shelters and there are also plenty of breed-specific rescue organizations you can contact too. Just because an animal is in a shelter doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them. This campaign from Animal Care & Control of NYC does a good job of illustrating that. All these animals are "guilty" of is wanting some love!

Adopt A Pet, Save a life!
Black dog syndrome/ black cat syndrome

Perogies

Yukon gold potato-dill perogies served on a mound of perfectly caramelized onions. These were far and away the best perogies I've ever had, and I've had a quite a few. This recipe is in Vegan Brunch, my newest favoritest cookbook of all time. Tomas made them for me, so I'm not sure exactly how time-intensive they are, but from his exhausted state when I came home to find these cute little guys, I would assume they're a good bit of work. But the recipe make a LOT and they're all you'll want to eat anyway, so I say they're well worth it!

Bento Box: Curry Noodles, Avocado-Cucumber Roll, Steamed Dumplings

The curry noodles are whole wheat noodles with curry sauce (curry powder, vegetable stock with kombu and dried shitake, earth balance, chile flakes, tamari, cornstarch), sliced shitake and diced sweet potato. The sushi is cucumber avocado, nori and rice seasoned with rice vinegar and mirin with sesame seeds, and the dumplings are steamed from frozen, taro and red bean flavors.

Nacho!

Vegan nachos are really glorious with cold beer. Really. *Pats tummy* Multi-grain tortilla chips layered with vegan cheese sauce (nutritional yeast, raw cashews, cornstarch, tomato paste, lemon juice, oregano, pepper, onion and garlic powders, salt, turmeric), vegan sour cream (silken tofu, raw cashews, salt, lemon juice, umeboshi vinegar), guacamole (avocados, cilantro, lime juice, salt), black beans, chopped bell peppers and scallions.

"OhyespleasemorenaoNOMNOMNOM!" Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Pecan-Cranberry Filling and Orange glaze

So I made a pan of these for Easter brunch, to be enjoyed with some TLT's (homemade tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and vegenaise on whole wheat), curry roasted brussels sprouts and yukon gold potatoes, various fruit, tea and juice. Despite demolishing the other offerings, over 1/2 the pan of cinnamon rolls was gleefully consumed over the course of the afternoon, by, um, four people... And Tomas I had our way with the rest inside of two days.

Much thanks (and fat pants love!) to Katie from Don't Eat off the Sidewalk. Her original recipe here. My mods = double the filling, add pecans and cranberries to filling, and add orange zest to glaze recipe.

Better than Delivery Pizza

Vegan pizza bianca (white pizza): pizza dough from this, the easiest and fastest dough recipe of all time (generously pointed out to me by the wonderful queen of comfort food at Yummy Vegan dinners ) topped with cashew-tofu ricotta from V-con, and some chopped plum tomatoes, and sprinkled with fresh basil and cracked black pepper after baking. Simple, summery and a big hit with everyone!

101 Tacos, er, posts!

Happy 101st Bitchin' Vegan Kitchen post! Enjoy this celebratory taco! (Filling: soy beef, black beans, sauteed in olive oil with onions, bell peppers, garlic, tomato paste, vegetable broth, cumin, oregano, paprika, chile powder and salt, served in a corn shell with lettuce and tomato and guacamole: avocado, cilantro, salt, and lime juice.)

Note: it is impossible not to like this. True story!

Roasted kabotcha with broccoli and peanut sauce

Roasted kabotcha squash with broccoli, peanut sauce and brown rice. I got the peanut sauce recipe from The Enlightened Kitchen: Fresh Vegetable Dishes from the Temples of Japan. The author, Mari Fujii suggests it with fried kabotcha but I roasted it instead. This book is gorgeous by the way: color photos, diagrams, simple but elegant recipes. No onions and garlic though, as this is all vegetarian (mostly vegan) Buddhist temple-style cooking.

Japanese yam dumplings and sesame lemon asparagus

Behold: your inner dumpling.








In trying to re-create a favorite guilty pleasure from Vegetarian Dim Sum called, ahem, treasure balls, I stumbled across a magical flavor combination: Japanese yam (the purple ones that are white inside), Earth Balance, tamari, fresh minced ginger, garlic and sliced scallions. Difference that the infamous deep-fried golden dim sum orbs, but when stuffed into a little flour wrapper, a glorious, new dumpling is born. Served with some asparagus briefly boiled, tossed with earth balance, lemon juice and sesame seeds.

Chocolate chocolate chip pistachio cayenne cookies!

Recipe is a modified JOVB recipe; remove the peppermint from the chocolate cookies, add pistachios and cayenne. Yum.

Birthday Post '09

I turned 24 a few weeks ago and had a party at my apartment to celebrate. As usual, I went overboard with the food, and was stressing myself out about it, but everything went over well, so I was extra happy. The snack theme started as Latin-Middle Eastern fusion, but ended up being more eclectic than that. Good music, good booze, good food, cute new dress, lots of good friends. Thanks to everyone for coming :)

The Food:







Mini pita breads, with store-bought avjar (eggplant and red pepper spread), homemade chipotle-pumpkin hummus (chickpeas, canned pumpkin, tahini, lime juice, salt, powdered chipotle, paprika, fresh parsley), baby carrots, broccoli and red pepper strips.










Guacamole (avocados, lime juice, cilantro, onions, salt), chips, some chili-lime cashews from Trader Joe's. I make awesome guacamole. It disappears like whoa.













Coconut lime cupcakes (recipe in vctotw) with pomegranate frosting (eb, spectrum shortening, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, coconut extract, and the secret ingredient is pomegranate molasses, my new favorite thing) topped with coconut shreds and pomegranate seeds were a giant hit, and some yummy pistachio-rosewater cookies from veganomicon that my oven burned most of (TWICE!)









"Chicken" tikka masala skewers were some very fun party food (who doesn't like food on a stick?). The "chicken" is TSP (texturized soy protein) chunks rehydrated in veggie stock, tomato paste and liquid smoke, then squeezed out and marinated in plain soy yogurt with a packet of tikka masala flavorings, plus extra garlic, turmeric, paprika, cumin, lemon juice and liquid smoke. The chunks sat in the yogurt mix for a few hours and then we skewered them with pieces of white onion and green bell peppers and roasted them in the oven for a few minutes. Guests said this was very meat like. I also ate some of the unskewered leftover chunks and veggie pieces stir fried over coconut-almond brown basmati and it made an awesome morning-after-the-party brunch with tea, consumed while watching lots of DVD's.

Tempeh-tastic

Homemade tempeh bacon based somewhat on the VWaV recipe: steamed tempeh marinated in maple syrup, tamari, liquid smoke, orange juice, garlic and chile flakes fried in peanut oil. Roasted yukon gold potatoes (just with a little canola and salt,) and some mixed baby greens with maple-mustard dressing (maple syrup, dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt).




If you've never cooked with tempeh before, you should definitely give it a try. Tempeh is a Indonesian-style fermented soy product. It's made with whole soybeans and has more protein an fiber than tofu. You can pick it up at a well-stocked health food store or grocery usually in long cakes. I usually steam it first, to remove some bitterness and to tenderize it. Just a few minutes will do fine. Then throw it in a stir-fry, like this one...




Tempeh stir-fry: Steamed tempeh, steamed kale, broccoli, red bell peppers, sesame oil, peanut oil, scallions, minced fresh garlic, minced fresh ginger, agave, tamari, peanuts, sesame seeds, served over brown rice.

Samosa stuffed baked potato

This might be my favorite recipe from Veganomicon so far. The samosa stuffed baked potatoes are assembled much like traditional twice-baked potatoes, but instead of adding lots of cream, butter and cheese to your mashed potato filling, you add a mix of vegetables and spices traditionally used when making samosas, the Indian appetizer of fried dough with spiced potato and vegetables. The only additions I made were adding a little extra salt and some chile flakes to the mix, and sprinkling the top with paprika for the traditional twice-baked mystique.