Spicy Collards and Black-eyed Pea Soup

I've had a package of pre-washed, pre-chopped collard greens in the fridge for a few days, and I was hoping to do something different with them. But as time went on and no new recipes came to mind, I started to get afraid that they'd go bad; at the very least, they were losing nutrients every day that they sat there (everything's always more nutritious closer to harvest.) So in the end, I took an old favorite soup, Lorna Sass' Collards and Black-eyed Pea Soup, and gave it the Louisiana treatment: green bell peppers, diced tomatoes, creole-type seasonings, and loads of spiciness. And since I love smokiness, I kind of went wild with three different smoky seasonings--chipotle powder, fire-roasted tomatoes, and smoked paprika--and my husband and I loved the results. I know that not everyone is the smoke addict that I am, so if you like spicy but not smoky, just substitute regular chili powder, regular diced tomatoes, and regular paprika.



Spicy Collards and Black-eyed Pea Soup
(printer-friendly version)

2 onions, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 cup diced green bell pepper
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups dried black-eyed peas, picked over and rinsed
6 cups water
1 pound collard greens, tough stems removed and greens chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme (divided)
1 teaspoon oregano (divided)
1 16-ounce can tomatoes (fire-roasted preferred)
2 cups water (or vegetable broth)
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper -- (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
1 -2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
1 tablespoon double strength tomato paste (or 2 tbsp. regular)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Spray a pressure cooker or large pot with a light coating of olive oil. Heat it and add the onions. Sauté for about 5 minutes, until they begin to brown. Add the celery, green pepper, and garlic, and cook, stirring, for 3 more minutes.

Add the black-eyed peas, water, 1 teaspoon of the thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon of oregano.

Cooking:

If using a pressure cooker, seal the cooker and cook for 10 minutes after it reaches high pressure; use a quick-release method to bring down the pressure.

If cooking in a regular pot, cook until peas are tender, about 45-55 minutes.

Once the peas are tender, add all remaining ingredients and cook for at least 25 minutes to allow flavors to develop. Serve with brown rice with additional hot sauce. (Garnishing with fresh oregano is optional.)

Makes at least 6 servings. Each provides 242 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (4% calories from fat); 16g Protein; 45g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 488mg Sodium; 11g Fiber. Weight Watchers Core/4 Flex Points.

Creole Black-eyed Peas

Last year, a cold made me feel so miserable that I didn't even think of having my traditional New Year's black-eyed peas until a few days into the new year. This year I was determined to have them on New Year's Day, despite the fact that a sizzling, burning short in our breaker box had knocked out most of the electricity to our all-electric house. Though last year had turned out perfectly fine despite the delay, this year I wasn't going to take any chances, even if it meant cooking on our little Coleman camp stove.

All right, all right. Actually, I'm about as superstitious as a pair of old boots. And as I've mentioned before, I'm not really big on traditions (or maybe I just like to pick and choose the traditions I follow). The truth is, I just like black-eyed peas, the long-simmered kind you make from dried beans, not the canned variety (which are fine for ordinary meals but nothing special), and the beginning of the year reminds me to go ahead and make them. When I was growing up, my mother made black-eyed peas, greens, and corn bread for lunch every New Year's Day, and carrying on the tradition brings back good memories. Even though I probably turned up my nose at it at the time, these days it's a meal that epitomizes comfort food to me.

My mother isn't fond of heavy seasoning (and truly, black-eyed peas are flavorful enough that a minimalist treatment is all they need), so she would probably never think of adding so many ingredients to her peas. But she grew up in Alabama where she learned the art of plain cooking, while I grew up in Louisiana and fell in love with embellishments: the "trinity" of onion, bell pepper, and celery and the heat of a little cayenne and hot sauce. In this "Creole" take on black-eyed peas, the seasonings combine in a nice, thick gravy that envelops the peas like a cream sauce and actually isn't spicy at all, as long as you keep the hot sauce to a minimum. Even my mother would approve.



Creole Black-eyed Peas
(printer-friendly version)

This is so much faster in a pressure cooker, but if you don't have one, soak your peas overnight and follow the instructions at the end of the recipe.

1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups dried black-eyed peas, picked over and rinsed
5 cups water
15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon hot sauce (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Liquid Smoke flavoring

Spray the bottom of a large pressure cooker with a light film of oil. Over high heat, sauté the onion until it begins to brown; add the bell pepper, celery, and garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the black-eyed peas and water, seal the cooker, and bring to high pressure. Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow pressure to come down naturally.

Once the pressure is down, open the cooker and add all remaining ingredients except Liquid Smoke. Cook for 15-30 minutes, until peas are completely soft and thickened. Add the Liquid Smoke and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve hot over rice with more hot sauce on the table.

To make without a pressure cooker, soak the peas overnight in cold water. Drain. Follow the directions for sautéing the vegetables. Then add all ingredients except liquid smoke to the pot, along with enough additional water to cover the peas by one inch. Cook until peas are completely tender, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding more water as necessary. When they're tender, add the Liquid Smoke, cook for 5 more minutes, and serve over rice.

Makes 6-8 servings. For 6 large servings (not including rice), each contains 299 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; (6% calories from fat); 18g Protein; 58g Carbohydrate; trace Cholesterol; 481mg Sodium; 12g Fiber.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Chocolate-Orange Cake

It's citrus season in the Deep South. All along the highways of southern Louisiana and Mississippi, vendors are setting up stands selling local satsumas and oranges. I noticed them when D, E, and I were driving back from New Orleans at Thanksgiving, but I didn't need to stop because we were already en route to my parents' house, where we're fortunate enough to get to pick our fill of fruit off their trees. If this all seems familiar to you, it's because we did the same thing last Thanksgiving and I took photos of it. Invariably we take more fruit than we can actually use, so I'm constantly on the lookout for good citrus recipes.

And I found a great one, in an article all about citrus in a local magazine. The recipe that caught my eye was a decadent-looking dessert containing one of my favorite flavor combinations, chocolate and orange. I love creamy dark chocolate spiked with tangy bits of orange, though it's far from a fat-free food. But as I looked at the cake recipe, I thought, "I can do this--and make it fat-free and vegan!" So I took the basic idea for the cake--to add orange juice and peel to a chocolate cake--and used it with my standard chocolate cake recipe, the one I pull out for birthdays and celebrations. In order to keep the cake low-fat, I needed to substitute something for the 3/4 cup of oil that the recipe calls for. Lately I've had excellent results using soy yogurt instead of oil, so that's what I did.



The verdict? Best fat-free cake ever! While it's not as light as a normal cake, the denseness contributes to the dark chocolate feel. It sparkles throughout with the taste of orange, and because it's not a super-sweet cake, the icings provide just the right accent without being cloying. I served it to my daughter and her friend without mentioning the lack of fat (or the inclusion of whole wheat flour) and they both loved it. I wouldn't hesitate to serve this cake to guests.



Chocolate-Orange Cake
(printer-friendly version)

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup soy yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons grated orange peel

Chocolate Icing:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa
2 teaspoons orange juice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/8 tsp. if double strength)
--plus extra orange juice as needed

Orange Icing:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon orange juice
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/8 tsp. if double strength)
--plus extra orange juice as needed

Spray a Bundt cake pan with non-stick spray and dust it lightly with unsweetened cocoa. Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add the yogurt, vanilla, balsamic vinegar, water, and orange juice. Beat by hand or with a mixer on low speed just until well-combined, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in the grated orange peel, and pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert it onto a serving platter and cool completely.

When the cake is cool, make the icings. For each icing, mix the ingredients in separate small bowls. One half teaspoon at a time, stir in enough extra orange juice to make a drizzling consistency. Drizzle the chocolate icing over the cake, wait a few minutes for it to set, and then drizzle the orange icing.

Makes 16 servings. With icing, as shown: 198 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (3% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 47g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 294mg Sodium; 3g Fiber.

Cake without icing: 167 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (3% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 294mg Sodium; 2g Fiber.

---

See those orange pieces in the first cake photo? I put them there just for decoration, but my daughter insisted on squeezing some over her cake. I didn't try it, but she says it tastes great that way. She and her friend ate a whole orange along with their cake. Now that's one way to get children to eat fruit!

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Post-Thanksgiving Miscellaneous Edition

We had a good Thanksgiving visit with my husband's family in New Orleans, but I'm glad to be back home. A couple of people wanted to know what the Soy and Seitan "Turkey" was like, so I thought I'd post our impressions along with a couple of photos.



Here's how it looked just after it came out of the oven. I cooked it in my Chinese claypot, and when it went in, it was a small oval shape. By the time I turned it for the first time, it had grown to fill the pot and start to double back on itself. It wound up being somewhat misshapen, but it looked scarily like an animal roast. It took about 4 hours to cook.



The texture inside was very dense in the middle but more porous on the outer edges. We kind of liked the taste of the porous parts best because they were more flavorful from the cooking broth. Overall, it was chewier than regular seitan and not quite as tender. We weren't really impressed right at first but then we sliced it very thin using a mandolin and made roast seitan poboys. That's sliced seitan roast and hot gravy on French bread with vegan mayo, lettuce, and tomatoes. Out of this world! D and I were "ummmm"-ing and "ohhhh"-ing so much that it sounded obscene. It tasted amazingly like the roast beef poboys we grew up eating. That's enough reason for me to make this seitan roast again.

The recipe made a huge amount, especially considering that D and I were the only ones eating it. (E doesn't really care for seitan, except Ribz. I heated her a few slices with barbeque sauce, and she would eat only one.) We've had leftovers for at least one meal a day every day since Thursday and still have enough left for another 2 or 3 days.

I was very happy with the other dishes I made for the big day--Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping, Cranberry Relish, and Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake--but there was so much food at the dinner that my dishes kind of got lost in the crowd. We didn't mind at all because that meant there was more for us.



On Friday, we took a little time to take E and her cousin for a ride on a streetcar. The St. Charles' Avenue streetcar line reopened about two weeks ago after being shut down for over two years since hurricane Katrina. Neither E nor her cousin A had ever been on a streetcar, and they were both happy to get to take a ride.





If you look closely, you can see E through the back window. The car was so full that they had to stand for the first part of the trip. (Don't worry--D rode along with them!)

I stayed behind and took a few photos around Lee Circle. My favorites are these of the Lee statue reflected in a window of the Circle Bar:





No trip to New Orleans would be complete for me without a visit to the Hong Kong Market. If it didn't smell like fish, this huge Asian foods store would be heaven on Earth! I guess I don't make a very good locavore because I love shopping here for produce from all over the world. In addition to baby eggplants and baby bok choy, I picked up a whole bag of some green vegetables that look like tiny bok choy, about an inch tall. I also found something I've been wanting for a while:



Fresh water chestnuts! I've been hoping to veganize this recipe ever since I saw it, and now it looks like I'll be able to. Hmmm...I wonder how it'd be with leftover seitan roast.

Finally, here's the reason I was so anxious to get home:



About 2 weeks ago, we added a new member to our family. Her official name is Clementine, though I call her Tiny and D forgets and calls her Catalina. After hearing me call her tiny so often, E thinks we should rename her Clemen-Tiny!

She really is tiny, so it was hard to leave her here alone with our three other cats, who want nothing to do with her. Still, I thought it would be better than being in a cage at a kennel for three days, and it looks like she used the time to get better acquainted with two of the cats. Domino, however, still won't tolerate her. He's used to being the baby of the family, and it's going to take him a while to come around. But he will. Who could resist this face?

Hope you all had a great holiday and got home safely to your loved ones!

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Garden Gumbo

Even the best cooks can't work their magic without good ingredients. I like to think I know my way around a kitchen, but I can say with certainty that without fresh ingredients, my cooking would be pretty blah. In the summer, cooking becomes very simple for me: walk outside, see what's ripe, and combine it with some of fresh herbs growing in the corners of the garden. Anyone can do it, anyone who's lucky enough to have room to garden.

So I'd like to take a moment to thank the suppliers of two of the ingredients that went into today's dish:



Next to my tomato plants, the hardest workers in my garden have been this Japanese eggplant bush and its 3 companions. They have kept my family eating eggplant 2 and 3 times a week, for which I, at least, am thankful. This is just the top of one plant, and you can count 4 developing eggplants as well as the flower at the top--it'll be an eggplant soon. There were 4 more eggplants on the lower limbs of this plant and more on the other plants.



I didn't plant enough okra, but the ones I planted have been steadily producing enough for me to be able to toss a handful into soups and casseroles every few days. Next year I'll plant more, just so I'll have enough of the young, tender vegetables to make Roasted Okra. The plants have such pretty flowers that I'm actually considering filling the flower bed in front of the house with them. See the little okra in the background? It's just the right size for roasting, but I'd need about 20 more that size in order to justify heating up the oven.

Today's recipe is really just a modification of the Chickpea Gumbo I've been making for years, except I walked outside, saw eggplants that were getting too big, picked them, and threw 'em in the pot. I increased the amount of broth and seasonings I use just a little, and the results were so good that even E the Eggplant Hater loved it. (It probably didn't hurt that she was in the kitchen helping cook this, which always increases her appetite for foods she says she hates.) But if you don't have eggplant (or really don't like it), don't let that stop you from making this recipe. You can substitute any vegetable you want for the eggplant, and I've even heard of some people substituting for the okra, though I really don't advise that. In my opinion, gumbo without okra is just soup!



Garden Gumbo
(printer-friendly version)

2 tablespoons unbleached white flour
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green or yellow pepper, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups vegetable broth
2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes
8 ounces eggplant or other vegetables, diced*
1 pound sliced okra, fresh or frozen
1 16-ounce can chickpeas -- (drained)
1 teaspoon salt -- (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper -- (or to taste)
1-3 teaspoons Tabasco
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring (or chipotle chile powder to taste)
2-3 cups additional broth or water

In a small skillet, toast the flour over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until it is a uniform tan color, about the color of whole wheat flour. (If you use whole wheat flour for this, it will of course be darker.) Be very careful not to burn it. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Spray a large non-stick pot lightly with olive oil, and sauté the onions, pepper, and celery over medium-high heat. When the vegetables begin to get brown, add the garlic and browned flour and stir to combine. Add the vegetable broth and tomatoes, stir, and add all the remaining ingredients. The gumbo should have enough liquid to resemble a chunky soup; if it is too dry, add some more vegetable broth or water. Cook for at least 30 minutes, until the flavors have a chance to mingle. Remove the bay leaves and serve over rice.

*If you use softer vegetables like zucchini or summer squash, add them after the gumbo has cooked for 15 minutes; adding them earlier will make them mushy. Carrots, eggplant, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and other longer-cooking vegetables can go in with the okra and other ingredients.

Makes 8 servings. Each (without rice) contains 135 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (6% calories from fat); 6g Protein; 28g Carbohydrate; trace Cholesterol; 611mg Sodium; 7g Fiber.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

New Orleans, Part Deux, and a Little Biloxi

[Click here for Part Une]

For dinner on our second night in New Orleans, we decided to get in our car and leave the French Quarter for a little Chinese restaurant uptown, August Moon. The Chinese restaurants here in Jackson are sadly lacking in the vegan (and taste) departments, so D. and I were really looking forward to this meal.

The restaurant was clean and pleasant, but we were the only customers. Perhaps that's because we were there around 9:00, though nine on a Saturday night in New Orleans doesn't really sound that late to me. (Insert plea here for more people to visit New Orleans. Restaurants like this need your business!)



We started out with Tofu Spring Rolls, and being new to this photography-in-restaurants thing, we dove right in and started to eat them before remembering that I needed to get a photo. As you can see from my broken roll in front, they consisted of a slab of fried tofu, lettuce, and noodles wrapped up in rice paper. I thought the large piece of tofu was a delicious change from the more delicate rolls I usually make, but the sauce was just so-so. It was too heavy on the hoisin sauce, but I'm really not complaining; I would be happy to see these rolls on a menu here in Jackson.



We chose two tofu dishes as our main courses--I wanted the General Tao's tofu and D. wanted the Kung Bo, so we decided to get them both. (In hindsight, I wish we'd opted for the eggplant, but if it was on the menu that night, I didn't notice it.) I liked that the Kung Bo had a variety of vegetables--bok choy, mushrooms, and snow peas, among others--but the sauce on the General Tao's (in foreground) was tastier to me. D. said that the Kung Bo sauce grew on him after a few minutes.

It was pretty late (at least for these old people) by the time we made our way back to the Quarter, but we decided to drop in on a small bar near our hotel. This was more of a local bar, not a tourist spot, and we enjoyed the drinks our bartender "THC" mixed up. (I almost stumped him by ordering a drink he'd never heard of, but he was able to recreate it perfectly from my description.)

The next morning, I had high hopes for something that non-vegans take for granted: breakfast. When you're traveling, the hardest meal for a vegan to find is breakfast. Sure, you can often get toast or a bagel or grits, if you're in the South, but a really satisfying vegan breakfast is hard to come by unless you're lucky enough to find a vegetarian restaurant. I'm not a morning person, but ever since I'd seen the Slim Goodies Diner menu online, I'd become obsessed with trying their Vegan Slammer or Vegan Breakfast (or both, since I would have my partner there to share his with me). There was even a Vegetable Napoleon that looked good, if we decided to venture away from the traditional breakfast options.

Unfortunately, Slim Goodies was packed, the waiting list was long, and their menu was abbreviated to their "Brunch and Bizzy Day" menu, which did not include any of the vegan options. We would have stayed and seen if they could accommodate our veganness, but our plans had changed and we had to be somewhere soon. So, hungry and in a hurry, we left Slim Goodies and went down the street to a CC's where we had some good coffee (soy latte for me) and a couple of dry bagels. Story of my vegan life!

Now, we hadn't planned on having to be anywhere. Our original intention was to check out of the hotel, have a leisurely breakfast, and spend the rest of the day and night at D.'s mother's house, where E. and Jazzy, our dog, were waiting for us. But, D's sister and his cousins had come up with another idea--to drive over to Biloxi and spend a night at the beach. Even though it was somewhat inconvenient having Jazzy in tow, we made a reservation at a motel that takes pets, picked up Jazzy from my in-laws, and headed east toward the Gulf Coast, where we were to meet up with E. and the others. After all, could you turn down this child's plea to swim in the ocean?



We met up at the beach with D's mom and 14 other family members. (Seriously, his family travels in a pack; I've never heard of any of them going away alone for a vacation or even a weekend, which probably explains why it's taken my husband 5 years to arrange a little alone time for us--it's just not in his blood.) E. had a great time playing in the water with her cousins, though Jazzy wasn't so thrilled with her first visit to the beach. After finding the water salty and scary, this was about as close as she wanted to get:



She did love all the attention she got from everyone, including our niece A., who enjoyed playing with her outside of the hotel swimming pool.



Unfortunately, if Biloxi offers any opportunities for vegan dining, we didn't try to find them. No one wanted to venture away from the hotel, so we ordered perhaps the worst cheeseless pizza ever and ate it (or tried to) in the room. Many of the restaurants we used to visit on the coast are now gone, and driving down the beach road is an exercise in depression; so many of the beautiful old houses and trees have simply vanished, washed completely away. The fact that we were able to get hotel rooms at the last minute on Memorial Day is evidence that recovery is going to be a long time in coming to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. (Insert plea for tourists to visit the Gulf Coast: The sand on the beaches is nice and white and the crowds are light. Stock your little motel fridge with vegan food and cook it in your tiny microwave. It's doable! )

The next day we made our way home. Though the trip had been wonderful and the food good, I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, and my stomach was rumbling for less-fatty, more veggie-centric fare. It's going to take a lot of exercising to work off all that fried tofu!

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

New Orleans, Part Une

In my last post I mentioned that I was looking forward to taking a break, and this past weekend, I got one. To celebrate our 11th anniversary, D. and I dropped E. off at his mother's house and headed across town to a hotel in the French Quarter:

While E. was spending time with her grandmother, aunts, and cousins, D. and I planned to spend two nights blissfully alone. This is only the second time since E. was born that we've been childless for the weekend. The last time was exactly 5 years ago, when we left E. with my parents and retreated to New Orleans. So you can probably figure that we've been looking forward to this little getaway for a long, long time.

Our basic plans were simple: to eat, drink, and relax. We spent a good amount of time just sipping wine on the balcony of our room or martinis in the courtyard of the hotel, which featured fountains and plenty of blooming flowers:

For dinner the first night, we wanted to stay close to the hotel, so we consulted the best source of info on eating vegan in New Orleans, Eating Out New Orleans, and found several restaurants within walking distance. We decided on Sekisui, an uncrowded sushi restaurant with a cozy atmosphere.

[Let me pause here and tell you that I did something that I've never done; after a year and a half of writing a food blog, I finally broke down and took photos of our restaurant food. I even bought a cheap, pocket-sized camera so that I wouldn't have to lug my big Canon Rebel around with me. I still felt pretty conspicuous, though no one said a thing about it. Except for D., that is!]

Our edamame appetizer came quickly, followed in just a few minutes by the Vegetarian Plate that we decided to split:


It was a fairly tasty dish of fried tofu with vegetables and sauce on top. Two slices of tempura sweet potato came with it; unfortunately, they were both undercooked. A few minutes later, our sushi order arrived:


The vegetable rolls and avocado rolls were standard fare; the only really outstanding part of the meal were the Double 'Shroom rolls you see on the left. Believe me, I'm going to be trying to make these at home, though I don't know for sure what the two types of mushrooms were. (Vegans, be sure to tell your waitperson to hold any sauce that might contain dairy or eggs; I think these normally contain a mayo-based sauce.)

We spent the next couple of hours walking around the Quarter, watching the tourists (which we were now 2 of) and drinking some pretty bad frozen drinks. Then it was back to our hotel to sit on the balcony and count the number of men (5) who stepped behind the dumpster across the street to urinate. (I say this to you in all seriousness: Never walk behind a dumpster in the French Quarter! And fratboys on vacation, New Orleans is not your toilet. Find a (rest) room!)

The next morning we slept late and decided on an early lunch at Tandoori Chicken, just a couple of blocks from our hotel.



In fact, we got there too early, before the lunch buffet was set out. We were invited to come on in and sit down in the dining room overlooking Canal Street. We sat drinking water and taking photos of the street cars that passed every few minutes.



Finally the lunch buffet was ready, and we filled our plates with pakoras, dal, bangain aloo, and curried vegetables. You really can't tell much from this photo, except what an absolute glutton I was:


Everything was delicious, and we completely stuffed ourselves. Afterward, we talked with the owner for a few minutes about business in post-Katrina New Orleans. He says it's been slow going (we'd noticed that there were only 3 other customers in the restaurant that Saturday) because many of the businesses that provided them with customers have not re-opened yet. So let me say this for any future New Orleans tourists or Googlers: If you're looking for Indian food in New Orleans, check out Tandoori Chicken, 115 University Pl., in the heart of the business district, right across the street from the Quarter. The lunch buffet is a real bargain!

To work off that huge lunch, we spent the afternoon strolling around the French Quarter, popping into shops like this bookstore, where we spent a long time browsing the crowded shelves:



We bought so many books that we had to take them back to the hotel before we could continue on with our sightseeing. Next, we stopped in at Cafe Du Monde for an afternoon pick-me-up of Cafe au (soy) Lait:



No, you can't get soymilk at the Cafe du Monde, and I probably committed some kind of sacrilege by bringing in my own Silk milk. But maybe if enough of us vegans start bringing our soymilk and posting photos on the interweb, they will get the message and one day there'll be soymilk at the Cafe du Monde. (Yeah, right. And world peace, an end to the death penalty and no more global warming. But I can dream.)

After we got all caffeinated, we listened to some music by the river...

...and strolled around Jackson Square past the cathedral.

In my next post, I'll continue with the very good dinner we had that night and the surprise trip we took the next day. Until then, keep away from those dumpsters!

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Strawberry Shortcake

When my parents visited this past weekend, they came bearing a box full of the last Louisiana strawberries of the season. (My parents never visit anyone without bringing a sample of whatever fruit is in season. This makes them very welcome in my house.) I'm a little prejudiced about strawberries, but I think that late season Louisiana berries are the best in the world. My home town was actually known as the "Strawberry Capital of the World" until a neighboring town got the idea to host a yearly strawberry festival in the early 1970's and appropriated the title for itself. But anyone who knows strawberries knows that Hammond, La., is really the strawberry capital, not that other town which I will not deign to mention.

See? Just a little prejudiced! But our local strawberries truly are deep, dark, juicy, and sweet, and the berries my parents brought with them were no exception.

My parents, being the dessert fanatics that they are, figured that my mother could slice the strawberries up, I could make a vegan cake, and we could all enjoy some delicious strawberry shortcake. I don't believe in biscuit-like shortcake; I grew up eating regular vanilla cake with strawberries, so that's what I made--or at least I tried. My cake came out much tougher and chewier than I'd like, and it really wouldn't have been a success at all except that the juice of the strawberries tenderized it. I probably just tried to healthify this dessert a little too much. (I used half white whole wheat flour and made it fat-free on top of being vegan.) I'm not going to post the cake recipe until I've done some heavy revising to make it meet my standards, but you can make this using your favorite vanilla cake recipe. In fact, feel free to leave links and recipes in the comments.



Strawberry Shortcake

2-3 pints strawberries
1/4-1/2 cup sugar
1 vanilla cake
1-2 pints vanilla soy or rice "ice cream"

At least an hour before serving, hull and slice the strawberries and mix them with sugar (use more or less sugar depending on the sweetness of the strawberries). Let them sit at room temperature for about an hour or in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, until strawberries are softened and juicy (macerated).

Once the strawberries are ready and the cake is made, place a slice of cake on a serving plate, spoon some strawberries and juice over it, and top with a scoop of ice cream. Or, for big appetites, build a "tower o'shortcake" using two slices of cake and extra strawberries and ice cream. Be careful not to let it topple over on you!

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Seaside-Stuffed Mirlitons

In Louisiana, we call them mirlitons (pronounced meela-tawns in certain parts of the state). In your grocery store, you'll probably find them labeled chayote. There are over a dozen different names for this watery, squash-like vegetable, which is used all over the world. I've grilled it, stewed it, and added it to soups and casseroles, but what I do most often is stuff it, usually with beans that have gotten the Louisiana treatment: spiced up with generous amounts of onion, green pepper, celery, and cayenne. But this time I wanted to make something closer to the mirlitons my mom makes, stuffed with a shrimp dressing and topped with bread crumbs. So I substituted a tofu version of my Okara "Crab" Cakes and topped them with crunchy panko bread crumbs. The result was a stroll down memory lane for my taste buds. (Okay, bad image, but you get the point!)

If you can't find chayotes, feel free to stuff this into something else. Zucchini is probably the vegetable most like chayote in terms of texture (you won't need to cook the zucchini first, though), but I think this would also make a good stuffing for artichokes or patty-pan squash. It's a very light stuffing, so choose a lighter vegetable to stuff it in. Mmmm...now that's good eatin'!



Seaside-Stuffed Mirlitons (Chayote)
(click for printer-friendly version)

The wakame is what gives the stuffing its seafood taste, so be sure to use it or another type of sea vegetable.

4 mirlitons (aka Chayote or Chouchou)
1 package (about 14 oz.) firm (not silken) tofu
1/2 cup minced celery (use a food processor to chop all vegetables quickly)
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, minced
1/2 green pepper, minced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 slices whole wheat bread, whirled to crumbs in blender
1-2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning or use Creole seasoning to taste
1 1/2 - 2 teaspoons wakame or other sea vegetable
2 teaspoons corn starch
salt and pepper to taste
panko or other toasted bread crumbs (about 1/2 cup)

In a large pot of boiling water, cook the mirlitons until they are tender, about 35-45 minutes. Remove from the water and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Once the mirlitons are cool enough to handle, cut them in half lengthwise (cutting through the widest side) and remove the seed. Use a grapefruit spoon or melon baller to remove the flesh from the center; be sure to keep the shell about 1/4-inch thick on all sides.

In a large bowl, mash the mirliton pulp and set it aside. Mash the tofu and add it to the mirliton pulp.

In a non-stick skillet lightly sprayed with olive oil, sauté the onion until it begins to brown. Add the celery, carrot, and pepper and cook for 3 more minutes. Add the sautéed vegetables to the tofu-mirliton mixture. Stir in the parsley, breadcrumbs, Old Bay seasoning, wakame (sea vegetable), and corn starch. Add salt to taste.

Sprinkle the mirliton shells with salt and pepper, if desired, and stuff them with the tofu mixture, piling the mixture above the top of each mirliton. Sprinkle the tops with panko or dried bread crumbs, pressing it in lightly. Place them in a large baking dish and put them in the oven. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until tops are lightly browned.

Serve with tartar sauce or spicy cocktail sauce. (Tartar sauce is easily made with vegan mayo and sweet relish; make cocktail sauce using ketchup, prepared horseradish, and hot sauce, to taste.)

Makes 4 servings, two stuffed halves each. Each serving contains 234 Calories (kcal); 6g Total Fat; (21% calories from fat); 14g Protein; 36g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 276mg Sodium; 7g Fiber.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Weekend Country Photo Blogging

I spent most of the weekend at my parents' house and came home with a few edible goodies in a cooler and a full Compact Flash card in my camera. Here are a few photos from southeast Louisiana, where the trees are bigger than the buildings:

This is my parents house, dwarfed by the giant oak tree whose branches completely cover the roof. After hurricane Katrina, my mother was more worried about the tree than about their house or their car (which was smashed by one of the many trees that fell). A large pine tree fell into the oak but fortunately the damage wasn't fatal.



Here's another old oak tree that's almost on top of the ramshackle barn.



At this time of year, my parents' yard is a wonderland of color. My father breeds dozens of different varieties of azaleas, some with stripes...



...and some with spots. Some of the individual bushes are bigger than a bus!



I don't want to step on KathyF's cow-blogging toes, but this new calf was too cute to resist. He's about 7 weeks old.



Here's a taste of one of the edible goodies I came home with.

I bought a flat (12 pints) of fresh strawberries for $10.99. I'm about to get to work cutting and freezing them before they go bad. I'll be typing with stained fingers tomorrow!

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free Louisiana

Home Again

Every Spring break, my parents, my sister's family, and my family gather at a state park either in north Louisiana or in south Arkansas. My sister and brother-in-law and their three kids drive in from Austin, Texas, while our parents come up from southeastern Louisiana. We try to pick a location equidistant from all of us, but invariably my sister winds up with the longest drive and D., E., and I wind up with the shortest. This year, we chose a spot only 3 hours from Jackson, beautiful Lake D'Arbonne:


Sunrise over Lake D'Arbonne

If the park hadn't been so nice (excellent tennis courts as well as a lovely lake) and the lodge we rented so large and well-appointed, my sister (M.A.) probably would have never let me live down my the fact that I drove 3 hours to her 8 hours. But I think we found a new favorite meeting spot. Everyone enjoyed playing tennis and canoeing, and M.A. and I found lots of opportunities for antiquing in the nearby towns.

As far as cooking goes, I didn't even try to come up with any new recipes, though we did have a few dishes that I've written about before. It's come to be a tradition that on the first night my mom brings lasagna for the whole group. She makes two versions, a cheese lasagna for the non-vegans and a tofu-ricotta version based on my favorite lasagna recipe. For dessert that night, I prepared a Pineapple Coffee Cake and, just to see how it tasted, added some coconut to the batter and sprinkled on top (it was good). The second night we roasted hot dogs (SmartDogs for us vegans) over the fire, but for the third night, I got out the pressure cooker I had brought with me and made Curried Split Pea Soup with Cauliflower.

The only other food of note was a veggie muffaletta that D. and I shared in Monjuni's restaurant in Ruston, La. It contained fried (sorry!) eggplant and artichokes as well as olive salad, and the bread was really good. I'm sure the fat and calorie count was through the roof, but hey--I was on vacation! I'm home now, so I'll try to get back to cooking up some good fat-free food to share with y'all soon.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Gumbo z'Herbes with Cajun Tempeh Bacon

Most people outside of my home state have never had this "Greens Gumbo," but it's an authentic Louisiana dish. Traditionally, it was made without meat to serve during Lent, but with Louisianians being the great seafood and meat lovers they are, ham and seafood eventually made their way into this naturally vegetarian soup. Well, now they've made their way out again!

You can use any kind of greens you want in this gumbo--the more varieties the better. I've heard it said that for each green that's put into the soup, you'll make another new friend during the coming year. So don't hesitate to add more than the 5 (including parsley) greens I've used. You can never have too many friends!

I've paired this with my favorite tempeh dish, Cajun Tempeh Bacon, but if you prefer, you can add one of the optional protein ingredients instead. But the spicy, smoky tempeh really takes it to a new level.



Gumbo z'Herbes
(click for printer-friendly version)

1/4 cup flour (I used white whole wheat but may be omitted)
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
12 cups water or vegetable broth (I used water)
3 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 head cabbage, finely chopped
1 pound chopped turnip greens (I used frozen)
10 ounces spinach leaves
1 cup minced parsley, packed
8-10 ounces collard greens, trimmed and chopped (about 6 cups chopped)
1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon hot sauce (optional)
1 teaspoon liquid smoke (or to taste)
salt and black pepper to taste

Optional: 3 cups beans (great northern are good) or 1 pound smoked tofu, cubed

First, brown the flour in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. (If you avoid flour products, you may skip this ingredient entirely, but it will give the gumbo a richer, deeper flavor.) Add the flour to the hot skillet and stir constantly, scraping the bottom, until it is a uniform medium-brown, about the color of light brown sugar:



Expect to spend about 10 minutes browning the flour. Be careful not to burn it! If it burns, please throw it out and start over.

When the flour is browned, remove it to a plate to cool.

Put the onions in a large soup pot, and brown them for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and bay leaves and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add the browned flour and stir well. Add the water, a little bit at a time at first, stirring well. Add all the remaining ingredients (except optional ones) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and sim