Veganomicon - Revisited!

Ah, so good to revisit a cookbook that I pull out so often. Since it's starting to get pretty chilly out there, I've been turning to warm soups and comforting entrees.

Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans - Tasty, but some baby spinach or something else green would have added some nice colour I think.



Eggplant Rollatini - OMG. Heavenly! ALOT of work, as indicated in the recipe, but so darn good! I really wonder if this would freeze well, as I'd be up for all the effort to just magically pull it out of the freezer one day and enjoy. I'm going to try the Eggplant Moussaka this week since it seems similar but less work.

Acorn Squash, Pear and Adzuki Soup with Sauteed Shiitakes - Sooooo glad I had Kyle peel that acorn squash. I would have hurled it across the kitchen in frustration for sure! Thanks Isa for the warning! Kyle didn't suspect a thing when I asked him to help out...hee hee. The flavours of this were great and I really liked the mushroom topping alot.

Chickpeas Romesco with Saffron Garlic Rice. I didn't have any white rice on hand, so I used brown and it was really sticky and mushy. I didn't really notice the saffron/garlic at all, oddly enough. But the Chickpeas Romesco part was delicious!

New Stuff!

So much for relying on the other sister to draft some posts! Kidding - we were both mentioning how we've made mostly tried-and-true recipes lately, so nothing too postworthy.

But I did have a creative burst of energy, and tried some goodies (please note that titles are not exact, as I'm nowhere near Vcon right now and taking advantage of some free time while the little one sleeps):


First up - Low Fat Banana Bread from Vcon. Delish! I think I used 3 large bananas, so it was pretty gooey. I also added some walnuts and chocolate chips. Yum!


Next - a creation I made on my own. Cooked up some onion and garlic, added some roasted cubes of sweet potatoes, Yves Chick'n Tenders and veggie broth to serve with pasta.


Finally, after trying quinoa a decade ago and finding it bitter, I thought I'd try it again. Am I ever glad I did! No idea what recipe I had tried before that made it taste so gross, but Vcon's Quinoa Salad with Black Beans (again, title might be wrong), was soooo good. I used red onion instead of scallions. I think it will be a good summer staple...I think I made it now with the million pounds of snow we have here in an attempt to bring on summer :(

Food for Hibernation

I've been trying to cook my way out of February and the long cold winter. May spring come quickly and without warning. First a few soups, synonymous with cold weather comfort.

Vcon's Ancho-Lentil Soup with Grilled Pineapple. Now I love grilled pineapple.



From the same, Tomato-Rice Soup with Garlic and Navy Beans. I was too environmentally conscious to fire up the oven just to roast the garlic, so I used the lazy alternative. But I didn't use canned beans! I made a huge pot of white beans, so we'll be seeing more of them in the near future. This recipe is really, really good and totally blows canned tomato soup out of the pantry.



I'm still working on the Nov/Dec issue of VegNews and tried the Barley Soup with Porcini and Dill from page 79. It was tasty, not stellar, but simple to make.



I love Vcon's Black Bean Burgers and have made them twice so far. This is a lousy photo that does not do them justice. They are super topped with avocado slices and Cilantro Sour Cream.



While we were at Rainbow Foods I bought some pre-made seitan and have been eying the Vietnamese Seitan Baguette with Savory Broth Dip recipe ever since I first got Vcon. My only regret is that I didn't buy two packs to make more sandwiches. I want to try again with a huge batch of homemade seitan because these were awesome. The sauce is kinda reminiscent of St Hubert's dipping sauce from my getting-sketchier-by-the-year childhood memories.



I borrowed La Dolce Vegan! from the library and picked out Portobello Pot Pie because Costco sells portobellos by the boatload. This recipe was easy and really good! Both Pete and Princess raved about it. I sauteed everything in a cast-iron skillet and then placed the crust on top and popped it in the oven.



One recipe in Vcon that has received a lot of press is Eggplant-Potato Moussaka with Pine Nut Cream. So of course, I had to make it. In particular, I chose to make it on a night that Sarah let me bring dinner over for the new parents. So far, it's my absolute favourite thing that I've made out of that book, and there's some pretty stiff competition. Here is the calm unbroken expanse of Pine Nut Cream.



We ate it faster than I could take a good photo of the inside.



In top spot for The Best Vcon Dish That Can Be Thrown Together on a Busy Weeknight - Tangerine Baked Tofu. I took a pic of the ingredients because I can't believe how so few things can taste so good together. Of course, booze helps.



Ya, that's Loblaws tofu. I hate shopping there, but they do have good tofu. And here are the citrusy baked 'fus cavorting with broccoli.



Finally, dessert! I took Dreena's recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and changed up the amounts a bit to yield enough cookies to feed our family for a couple of days. At least a day. They are great for lunches because they don't have any nut-related ingredients.

Healthy Kid-Friendly Oatmeal Cookies

Dry
2 cups spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice (omit if using chocolate chips)
Wet
½ cup organic sugar
½ cup canola oil
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup soymilk
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp blackstrap molasses
Extra
1 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins, dried cranberries or chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine Dry ingredients in small bowl. Mix Wet ingredients in stand mixer on medium speed or in food processor until sugar is dissolved. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix. Add in Extra ingredients. Scoop onto cookie sheets lined with silicone or parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes then let cool on sheets. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

You know I love this Cookbook

This week brings - you guessed it - more Veganomicon food! But just to prove that I do try other things, there are a few dishes from elsewhere.

Smoky Grilled Tempeh and Sauteed Collards. So good, especially if you like smoky things. I still prefer the Hot-Sauce Glazed Tempeh.



Grilled Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tortillas. Using mashed sweet potatoes for the traditional cheese is brilliant. I should have done these on the grill pan, but had the skillet out so I used that. I can't wait to try these with yuca.



Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Seed Rice Paper Rolls. These were good, but I needed something denser in the middle of the wrap, like tofu. The dipping sauce was AMAZING, with the perfect combo of hot, sour, salty, sweet.



Fat-free Vegan's Ethiopian-Inspired Red Lentil Soup. I've been wanting to try this because the picture on her website is fantastic and kittee has me in an ethiopian food mood. It was really hearty and tasty. Not for kids.



Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango. This would be perfect in the summer out on the patio. I made this on a freezing cold winter's night which was probably a mistake, but dammit, mangoes are on sale now!



Spaghetti and Bean Balls. Perfect food for a family dinner night. I loved the taste of the beanballs. Next time, I won't bake them with the sauce on top because I would have liked them crisper. Vcon's marinara sauce is superb. It will be my standard go-to tomato sauce from now on.



Israeli Couscous with Pistachios and Apricots and Mediterranean-Style Baked Lima Beans. I screwed something up on this one. The couscous was tough. The beans were tougher. They could have had a gang fight right there on the plate. But, you have to learn from your mistakes. Next time I would cook the couscous in water first, then add to the skillet. The flavours in the recipe worked well together. As for the beans, I might use cannellini or navy next time. Too many of the lima beans split in half during soaking and the split ones never softened.



Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stirfry. Really good and fairly easy. Princess liked it.



Skillet Corn Bread. I think anything cooked in a skillet is beautiful. This was super easy and made enough for an army. Or a gaggle of peace-keepers.



Ani Phyo's Raw Japanese Miso-Shiitake Soup. Puke. I should have known better given that this recipe calls for 1 cup of olive oil, but I couldn't eat more than a few spoonfuls. I've come to the realization that I don't like raw garlic.



Luckily my Homemade Kimchee was spicy hot enough to kill the taste from the soup. This was fun to make, letting cabbage rot on the counter intentionally. The recipe is from Maddhur Jaffery's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking.



Inari!



VWAV's Maple Walnut Cookies. My new favourite not-healthy cookies. Damn, these are good! I eat too many of them though, so they are not-healthy for me.



Dreena's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. My new favourite healthy cookie. The recipe doesn't make enough cookies for our family, so I'm playing with it to make a bigger batch with even more health thrown in. A big bonus for these is that Princess can take them to school in her lunch because they are nut-free.

Adventures and Leftovers

As per Sarah's last post, I made sushi for our recent family gathering. I needed to pick up a few Asian specialty items, especially the inari "bags" for Sarah's favourite sushi. However, going to our usual Asian market, Kowloon, is a trip downtown and isn't too easy on the stomach. It is smelly, dirty and can be crowded. The last time we went, it contained a very strong odour of, well, to put it bluntly, feces, which doesn't really inspire any sort of culinary adventure in me. Pete and I had heard rumours of a new Asian market in the East end through a woman at work*, but she has since moved to California and we were left only with our sketchy memories of her vague directions.

I wanted to stop in at Lush's St Laurent location and pick up some vegan deals, and afterwards Pete drove through the progressively worsening snowstorm and found the mythical clean and tidy Asian grocery mecca we once could have only dreamed about - Uni Mart. It was bright, spotless, well-stocked and relatively odourless. I picked out a basket of items and we made our way to the cash. After ringing us through, we were told to go to Cash #1 for our "free gift". How exciting! I'm not sure what we did to deserve one, but free stuff is always fun. The woman at Cash #1 took our receipt, and reached down and lifted a HUGE can of oysters onto the counter. Oh no. How did I explain that I didn't want her free gift? I told her that we didn't eat animals, so she reached down again and brought up a bag of frozen shrimp. Uh, no thank you, really. I saw a stack of hundreds of packages of little bundles of yam noodles in the corner and pointed at it. She shook her head at me, said "Just for fondue!" like I was a crazy woman and handed me a package. I thanked her many times, smiling. Anyway, if you're in the Ottawa area and want great deals on anything for your Chinese, Japanese or Vietnamese cooking, check out Uni Mart. Just be warned about their generous gifts.

I made a soup with my newly acquired udon noodles, lotus root, tofu and enoki mushrooms.



Later in the week, I made more dishes from the Great Tome** of Vegan Cooking - Veganomicon. Here is Penne Vodka. I like the sauce so much more that a run-of-the-mill marinara.



There were leftover mashed potatoes wallowing in the fridge, so I tried Home-style Potato Rolls. They were chewy dough-y goodness. The recipe made so many rolls that I should have stashed some in the freezer, but didn't think of it at the time.



I had cooked a batch of chickpeas and wanted to use them up, so I tried Tomato and Roasted Eggplant Stew with Chickpeas, over the suggested Poppy-Seed Polenta. This was so amazing, I would suggest it for any eggplant-haters in your life - they will realize the errors of their ways. The eggplant melted in your mouth and the flavours were amazing.



* This woman at work, who came to Canada from China about eight to ten years ago, saw me making tea at work in a stainless steel teapot and found it ABSOLUTELY imperative that I understood to NEVER cook snake in metal. Glass or ceramic only. Ya, snake. I made sure that she was talking about the reptile. Yep. I assured her that I never would.

** The definition of tome is "often one volume of a multi-volume scholarly work". I hope that I eventually have a whole bookshelf of Isa and Terry's works.

Season's Eatin's

After the hustle and bustle of holiday festivities, we had a few days of peace and relaxation. Which explains why I'm a little late in posting our Christmas dishes. Dinner this year was at Mom's house and I wasn't used to the lighting in the dining room, so only a few of the pics are decent enough to share.

Sarah made a Cranberry Edamame Salad which was bright and festive.


Wayne and Penny made a roasted vegetable dish.



I made a raw Shaved Fennel with Blood Oranges, Pomegranate, and Pinenuts salad.



We also had mashed potatoes, dressing, Chickpea Cutlets, veggie gravy, butternut squash and carrots. I almost didn't have room for anything on the cookie tray. Almost.

For Second Christmas, we tried to minimize the gluten in the food. I made Vcon's Spaghetti Squash Mexicana with Tropical Avocado Salsa Fresca with Sweet Potato Fries and Corn Muffins from How It All Vegan. The squash was a relatively easy and tasty dish, although I will split the squash lengthwise before baking next time, instead of across the "waist". I loved the salsa.



We topped it with Sour Cilantro Cream also from Vcon.



Sarah made a Spinach Salad with marinated mushrooms. I could have eaten all of the mushrooms, they were so tasty.



Two days later for J's birthday dinner, I made Veganomicon's Black Bean Burgers which looked so pretty topped with red onion, tomato, and avocado slices and the Sour Cilantro Cream. So pretty in fact that I ate mine before I even thought about taking a photo. Luckily I remembered before cutting the cake - Lower-Fat Deep Chocolate Bundt Cake from guess where... Veganomicon! It was so moist and delicious that even I, someone who doesn't get too excited about cake, really enjoyed it. Please excuse the candle divet.



We tried the Red Wine Roux on the Chickpea Cutlets and were kind of turned off by the colour, but pleasantly surprised by the flavour. I still want to try the Mustard Sauce before I declare a Cutlet Sauce winner.



I had planned to make the BBQ Black-Eyed Pea Collard Rolls (from Vcon) for New Years Eve, but by the time the evening rolled around and after a raw key lime pie disaster, just the thought of making the BBQ sauce was too much for me. I'm glad I waited, because I started early on New Year's Day and had the sauce simmering on the stove and everything prepped ahead of time. It was then just a matter of assembling the rolls. They were really yummy. When I make them again, I'll add a little brown rice inside to soak up the saucy goodness.



Last night I tried Vcon's Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelized Onions and Sage Crumb Topping. It was savoury and I can see why it is popular as a comfort food.



Now it's time to cut back on the hibernation food and eat a bit more lightly. There are one too many cookies hanging out on my bathroom scale.

Happy New Year!

2007 ended with some tasty treats...for Xmas morning breakfast, I made Mrs. Bad Mouth's Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns, as it's a tradition to always have cinnamon buns in the morning. I had made them in my breadmaker on the dough setting on Sunday, stuck them in the fridge (where they shriveled up and had me quite worried), then let them rise for an hour on Tuesday morning, and they baked up perfectly!



I'm hoping that Tracy will post our Xmas meal pics soon!


Later in the month, I made the Black Bean Vegetable Soup from Vcon. It made alot, and it took Kyle and I almost a week to get through it all!



I also made Blueberry Lemon Pancakes from Vcon as well - I found that I had to add about 1/4 cup more flour to make them a little thicker. Might have had something to do with the fact that I used whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose. Very good!




Finally, I made up some treats for a small New Year's gathering - first up was a veggie tray with vegan soy sour cream (non-hydrogenated) with the addition of the same ingredients listed in Vcon's Sour Cilantro Cream. Yum!



Next, I made the Mushroom-Walnut Pate from Vcon. Sooo good! Makes quite a bit though, so I would halve the recipe next time. I'm thinking it might be good to mix with some veggie broth and veggies to serve with pasta...



Back by popular demand, the Voluptuous Vegan's Guacamole. Guaranteed to give everyone the worst garlic breath ever.



I also made mini-pizzas with Creamy Pasta Sauce from Bryanna Clark Grogan's Almost No Fat Cookbook. I made these a month or so ago, and thought they'd be a great addition. It was very easy to make the sauce and cook the veggies in advance and simply assemble and bake the pizzas on the night of the party.



Finally, I think what has to be the most amazing cake ever. Vcon's Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake. There are honestly no words for this delectable dessert - extremely easy to make, beautiful in presentation with a light dusting of icing sugar, and so tasty served with Vcon's Vanilla Ice Cream. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I'm so happy that it made as much as it did as I can't wait to dig into the leftovers today!


Hope everyone has a very happy and healthy 2008!