Fatfree Vegan Kitchen

Spicy Collards and Black-eyed Pea Soup

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:58:00 +0000

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.

Grilled Asparagus and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:09:00 +0000

I'm really overwhelmed at the response to my last post. Thank you all so much for your words of support and encouragement and for your menu suggestions. I'm keeping a tally and will definitely let you know what will be on the final menu. I wish you could all be there!

I suppose I'm going to have to refer to this as "the recipe that broke my grill pan." To be fair, it wasn't the recipe's fault that the pan broke--I blame that on Emeril. A fairly new cast iron double-sided griddle, it should hold up in an earthquake, not succumb under the pressure of some tender, green asparagus. It was only the fourth time I'd used it, the second day in a row I'd used it to grill asparagus for this salad, and I wasn't abusing it or teasing it or anything. The asparagus were sizzling, and I was on the other side of the kitchen tossing the spinach with the salad dressing when I heard a loud POP. When I rushed to the stove I found my grill sporting a 4-inch long crack from one side into the middle.

Fortunately, the asparagus were fine. I may have lost a grill, but I wasn't about to lose my asparagus! Since creating this salad the day before, I had developed a constant craving for it that wouldn't go away. That doesn't often happen to me when salads are involved, particularly fat-free salads. You may not have noticed, but I don't put a lot of salad or salad dressing recipes on this blog, and there's a reason for that. While many fat-free dressings are good enough for me to use to moisten my own salads, they don't really pass my First Test of Bloggability: Would I serve it to someone else? Honestly, for most fat-free salad dressings, the answer is no. When company comes over I invariably whip up an olive oil vinaigrette rather than subject my guests to one of my fat-free dressings. The Goddess Dressing is a notable exception--as is this one.

While I would call the Smoked Paprika Dressing good, it's very good in this particular salad. Its smokiness complements the real star of the show, the grilled asparagus. Though I love roasted asparagus, it's got a rival in my affections now. Something about the grilling, even in a pan on the stove, imbues the asparagus with the deep, slightly-charred flavor of a charcoal grill. They don't cook long enough to get scorched or soft, so they maintain a solid, salad-like crunch. Even if you decide to skip the dressing, do give the salad a try, tossed with your own favorite dressing. But maybe use a different brand of grill.

Grilled Asparagus and Spinach Salad
(printer-friendly version)

If you're eating this salad as one course of a meal, consider this recipe about 2 servings. But if you're like me and like a really big salad as a meal on its own, call this one serving and perhaps toss a handful of chickpeas into it to make it more filling.

8 ounces asparagus, tough ends snapped off
olive oil spray
salt and freshly ground pepper
4 ounces baby spinach
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (may omit or substitute chickpeas)
Smoked Paprika Salad Dressing (see below)

Set a seasoned grill pan over medium-high heat. While it is heating, snap off the tough ends of the asparagus, place it in a dish, and spray it lightly with olive oil (just a couple of quick sprays). Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss to distribute the oil and seasonings.

Put the asparagus on the grill and cook, turning often, until just beginning to brown in places but still crisp and bright green, about 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cut spears in half.

Toss the spinach with the dressing and arrange in two bowls or plates. Divide the asparagus between the two salads, and sprinkle each with a tablespoon of walnuts.

Makes 2 standard servings. Each serving, with walnuts but excluding dressing: 60 Calories (kcal); 4g Total Fat; (47% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 46mg Sodium; 3g Fiber. Weight Watchers 1 Flex Point.

Without walnuts or dressing: 36 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (30% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 46mg Sodium; 3g Fiber. Weight Watchers Core/ Zero Points.

(The grill the day before it cracked.)

Smoked Paprika Dressing

2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon white organic miso
1 tablespoon Nayonaise (or other vegan mayo) OR silken tofu
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon ground flax seeds
1/2 teaspoon paprika
small amount of sweetener to taste, just enough to offset the lemon juice (I used a tiny scoop of calorie-free stevia.)

Put all ingredients into a small blender and puree until smooth. Let rest for at least a half hour to allow flavors to develop. Makes about 4 servings (enough for 4 standard-sized salads).

Per serving (using fat-free Nayonaise and stevia): 12 Calories (kcal); trace Total Fat; (23% calories from fat); trace Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 82mg Sodium. (Calories and fat grams increase slightly when made with other mayo or sweeteners.)

Family-Friendly Recipes Class

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:07:00 +0000

I have some huge news...and a favor to ask. A few days ago I received an email from Mary McDougall of the McDougall Program asking if I would be a part of their Celebrity Chef Weekend. Well, after I checked a few times to make sure that a) she hadn't misaddressed the email and b) I wasn't hallucinating, I wrote her back confessing that I had never given a cooking demonstration before. I don't even watch cooking shows on TV. Plus I get stage fright whenever I have to talk to more than one person at a time. But I told her that if she is willing to take a chance on me, I would love to do it. After all, I owe my both veganism and the theme of this blog to the McDougall Program, which changed my diet for the better about 14 years ago. And though I may not always stick to it as diligently as I should, I know that the program really is the healthiest way for me to eat.

So I agreed to come out to Santa Rosa, California, and teach a class on "Family-Friendly Recipes." I intend to focus on easy, low-fat recipes that everyone, particularly children and omnivores, will enjoy. I've got just a few weeks to come up with a menu, and that's where I need your help. If you've cooked something from this blog that your omnivorous family and friends have enjoyed, please drop me a comment and let me know what it was. My daughter has already put in her votes for Mac and Cheese and Lasagna, but I could use some more vegetable-heavy recipe suggestions. Help!

And if you're able to attend, I'd love to see you at the weekend, June 27-29. (I have a hard time typing "Celebrity Chef" in relation to myself, so from now on I will just call it "the weekend.") I think the schedule is still being worked out, but I know for sure that Bryanna Clark Grogan will be there (I'm a huge fan!) You'll also get to meet Dr. John and Mary McDougall and eat some amazing food. Details are available here.

I know that my posts have been scarce this week, but stay tuned. I've got the recipe for my new favorite salad almost finished and should have it posted tomorrow.

Note to email subscribers: To comment all you have to do is click on the title of the post, and a window will open in your browser; scroll all the way to the end and click "Post a Comment." A comment box should pop up; if it doesn't, you may have to set your browser to enable pop-ups.

E Cooks: Banana Coffee Cake

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:54:00 +0000

It's been a long time since my daughter has helped me out with a recipe, so yesterday when E volunteered to assist me with breakfast, I eagerly set her to work measuring and stirring. I had the recipe all worked out on paper, so I didn't think there'd be much opportunity for her to contribute creatively. As she does with any endeavor, she asked a thousand questions: "What's the difference between baking powder and baking soda?" "Why do you add salt when cake isn't salty?" "Why do you call it 'flax egg' when there isn't any egg in it?" Though she often takes her interrogations to ridiculous extremes ("If we shot the batter into space..."), on this particular occasion she asked a lot of good questions that gave me the chance to educate her a little on baking--or at least the little I know about baking.

When it came time to add the banana to the cake, she stopped me with a question: "What, only one banana? It needs more than that or it's not really banana cake!" I had to agree, so I dutifully added another banana. And you know, the higher fruit to batter ratio just might have been what made this cake so incredibly delicious.

It's creamy. It's sweet. It's so creamy and sweet that I almost called it Banana Pudding Cake. The bananas melt down to a creamy layer that dissolves into the cake around it so that it's hard to tell where bananas end and cake begins.

All four of us--my crew plus E's friend G--were amazed at how good this was. D and I actually had the same articulate response: "Mmmmm. Ohhhh." In fact, this cake may have been too good: with 4 of us and only 6 pieces, there weren't enough "seconds" to go around. Perhaps it would be better to serve it as dessert after a full meal than to count on it as a filling breakfast because it will just make you want more!

Banana Coffee Cake
(printer-friendly version)

I like to use turbinado or demerara sugar for the topping because the coarse texture adds crunch, but feel free to use any natural (or brown) sugar.

1 tablespoon flax seeds, ground
4 tablespoons warm water
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup soy yogurt
1/3 cup vanilla soymilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup agave nectar
1 cup white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 bananas

Preheat the oven to 375F and oil a pie pan or an 8-inch square baking dish.

Mix the ground flax seeds with the warm water and set aside to thicken.

Mix the turbinado sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Combine the soy yogurt, soymilk, vanilla, and agave nectar in a bowl. Add the flax mixture.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Pour the soy yogurt mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan and spread to cover the bottom. Slice the bananas and place the slices over the batter. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon-sugar. Spread the remaining batter over the bananas. Sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon-sugar. Bake for 25 minutes, or until cake appears set in the middle. Allow to cool for a few minutes before cutting into 6 slices and serving.

Makes 6 servings. Per serving: 211 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (5% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 49g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 308mg Sodium. Weight Watchers: 4 Flex Points.

If you're looking for easy recipes that kids like to make as well as eat, take a look at some of our other E Cooks collaborations:

Banana Coconut Bars
E's Fruit Salad with Strawberry Sauce
Southern-Style Banana Pudding
Rainbow Stir-Fry

My other coffee (aka "breakfast") cakes:

Pineapple Coffee Cake
Coconut Chai Breakfast Cake
Sugar-Free Coconut Chai Breakfast Cake

Rasedar Rajma (Kidney Beans in Curry Sauce)

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:37:00 +0000

Have you ever picked up a cookbook and opened it right to the page with the perfect recipe, the one that exactly suited your mood and for which you had all the ingredients? No? Well, neither have I. Normally I pour over multiple cookbooks, imagining this recipe and that--or this recipe combined with elements of that--but I never just pick the first recipe I come to. Until yesterday.

I was all set for a long perusal of Neelam Batra's The Indian Vegetarian, a book which miraculously had no torn bits of paper or sticky notes marking its pages. I settled into my comfy chair, sipped my coffee, and allowed the book to fall open, to page 266 as it happened: Kidney Beans in a Curry Sauce on the left, Black-Eyed Peas with Garlic and Scallions on the right. I was immediately drawn to the kidney bean dish because it sounded a lot like an Indian version of my home-state comfort food, Red Beans and Rice. I checked over the list of ingredients, and except for fresh ginger, I had all the ingredients. After a 15-minute trip to the nearby Indian grocery, where the ginger is the freshest in town, I had everything I needed for a complete Indian dinner, including a package of onion naan, brown basmati rice, and tender young okra to be roasted with curry powder.

I took several liberties with the recipe, including leaving out the 1/2 cup of cilantro which Ms. Batra adds to the beans along with the ginger. (I'm one of those people who doesn't like cilantro, though I have been training myself to tolerate it in small amounts as a garnish; feel free to use it if you like.) I also changed the cooking method of the beans, omitted the oil, and adjusted the seasonings a bit. My dish, while still mild, may be a little more highly spiced, but I think it's true to the flavor and style of the original--simple home-cooking, the kind that's universally comforting, nourishing, and delicious.

By the way, my husband insists that Black-Eyed Peas with Garlic and Scallions should be the next thing I cook from this book, and if I can get around the whole cup of cilantro it uses, I just might give it a try.

Rasedar Rajma (Kidney Beans in Curry Sauce)
(printer-friendly version)

2 cups dried kidney beans
6 cups water
1 tablespoon ginger root
1 teaspoon salt
1 onion,minced
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ajwain seeds
2 cups tomatoes, finely diced
1/4 cup soy yogurt
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground fenugreek
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/8 teaspoon red chilli pepper or cayenne (more to taste)
chopped cilantro (optional garnish)

Rinse the kidney beans and put them in a large pot or pressure cooker along with 6 cups water, the ginger root, and the salt. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. (In a pressure cooker, bring to high pressure and then remove from heat.) Remove from heat and allow the beans to rest, covered, for at least 1 hour. Drain the water, add another 6 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Simmer until beans are tender, about an hour. (Alternately, pressure cook the beans: bring to high pressure and cook for 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow pressure to come down naturally.) When the beans are done, leave them in their cooking liquid while you make the sauce.

Spray a saucepan with canola oil and heat to medium-high. Add the minced onion, and cook until it's beginning to brown, stirring constantly. Add the garlic and ajwain and stir for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook until their liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Stir in the soy yogurt and the coriander, fenugreek, turmeric, garam masala, and chilli pepper.

Drain 2 cups of liquid from the beans and stir half of it into the sauce. Add the sauce to the beans and stir. If the sauce is too thick or dry, add some or all of the reserved bean cooking liquid. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and flavors have blended. Check seasonings and add salt to taste. Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with cilantro if you like, and serve with basmati rice or chapatis, paranthas, or naan.

Makes about 6 servings. Per serving: 240 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (4% calories from fat); 16g Protein; 44g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 386mg Sodium; 17g Fiber. Weight Watchers Core/4 Flex Points.

[Since so many people have commented on the bowl, I thought I'd let you know that it's by Alissa DeAmonti at DeAmonti Designs. I bought it and several other of her pieces (including this green dish) at the Mississippi Farmers' Market last month, but I believe she also sells her pottery at ARTichoke at 1012 E. Fortification Street in Jackson. ]

Spring Green Quinoa

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:01:00 +0000

I love a good one-pot dish, but sometimes it's just not possible. This simple recipe is a good example. Oh, how I would have loved to have figured out a way to make it without using three separate pans. I combined steps as much as possible, quick-cooking the asparagus and zucchini in the same pot as the edamame, but my husband was still greeted with a pile of pots to clean after dinner.

Nevertheless, I think he'd agree that the meal was worth the clean-up. I served the quinoa along with a simple green salad for a meal that tasted fresh, healthy, and decidedly springish. (Yes, springish. It's my new word and I plan to spread it around!) I kept the seasoning light to allow the fresh flavors of the vegetables to shine though, but feel free to add more to your taste. Or, if you have fresh herbs on-hand, I know they'd take this dish to a whole new level of deliciousness.

Spring Green Quinoa
(printer-friendly version)

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 clove garlic, minced
4 (about 1 ounce) sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil), chopped
10 ounces frozen edamame (2 cups)
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch slices
3 -4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon oregano (more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon basil (more to taste)
1 generous pinch red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon lemon juice (more to taste)
salt and pepper, to taste

Rinse the quinoa well in a fine-mesh strainer. Put it in a pot with the water, 1 clove of minced garlic, and the sun-dried tomato and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and cook until water is absorbed and grain is tender, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and keep covered.

While the quinoa is cooking, bring a large pot of water to boil (Dutch oven sized, about 1/2 full). When it reaches a boil, add the frozen edamame. Return to boil and cook for 4 minutes. Add the asparagus and zucchini and cook until they are tender but still crisp, about 3 minutes. Drain well, and place in a large serving bowl. Add the quinoa and toss well.

In a small non-stick pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable broth. (If you're not following a strict fat-free diet, you may use 1 tsp. of olive oil.) Add the minced garlic and cook for one minute. Add the remaining broth, oregano, basil, and red pepper. Simmer, stirring, for about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Pour over quinoa and mix well. Taste and add additional seasonings, including lemon juice, as needed. Serve warm.

Makes 4 large servings. Per serving: 270 Calories (kcal); 6g Total Fat; (19% calories from fat); 15g Protein; 44g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 168mg Sodium; 8g Fiber. Weight Watchers CORE/ 5 Flex Points.

The Lucky Winner

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Thanks to all of you who took the time to share your favorite recipe. What a goldmine of recipe resources! With thousands of vegan recipes in books and on websites, it's hard to tell the great ones from the just okay ones from the truly inedible ones. Cooking something new is always a gamble, but the odds of finding a winner are better when a recipe is recommended by people you trust. And it goes without saying that I trust the readers of my blog to be pretty discerning folks!

If I could, I'd give everyone who entered a book. And I'd give everyone who picked one of my recipes two books. (Just kidding about that last part. Really!) I wasn't about to try to pick the best recipe myself, so I let the random number generator at Random.org do the choosing for me. And this is what it said:

Lucky number 13 is Lori, who offered this recipe as her favorite:

Congratulations, Lori! (Email me your mailing address and I'll get your book in the mail.) That hummus was chosen by a couple of people, and if you don't have a copy of Cook's Illustrated, you can find the recipe at What Did You Eat?

If you didn't leave a comment because you already had Veganomicon, feel free to leave one on this post and share your favorite recipe. And if you haven't already, look through the contest comments--you'll find a lot of great recipe recommendations.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Spinach-Matzo Pie

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:48:00 +0000

When I saw the Spinach and Matzo Pie recipe in this month's Gourmet, I thought, "Wow, an easier way to make a spinach pie! No fooling with thin sheets of phyllo, just lay down some matzos instead." I figured it'd be a snap to take my Spinach and Artichoke Pie and just substitute matzos for the phyllo. But then I read the recipe.

Since matzos are on the dense side, the Gourmet recipe would have you soak them in a mixture of cottage cheese, whole milk, and eggs for 15 minutes before picking them up and layering them in the baking dish. Never mind that I wasn't planning on using any of those ingredients; I just couldn't imagine picking up soaking wet matzos, which are basically thick crackers, and being able to transfer them intact to the baking dish. But since there wasn't that much liquid in my original recipe, I also couldn't imagine them getting soft enough if I didn't add some more moisture.

In the end I wound up with a recipe that bears little resemblance to either Gourmet's recipe or my old recipe. Instead of cottage cheese and eggs, I used a mixture of Toffuti cream cheese and soymilk, and instead of the feta that tops Gourmet's pie, I used pine nuts. I stuck with the seasonings of my original recipe--oregano and cumin--and skipped the dill in Gourmet's (besides the fact that we're not big fans, I had no fresh dill on-hand). The result is this delicious, though not really easy-to-make, main dish.

A Couple of Caveats

The addition of vegan cream cheese and pine nuts takes this out of the realm of low-fat eating and right into feast-food territory. If you want to cut the fat, I suggest sticking with my Spinach and Artichoke Pie. Or, if you want to avoid the problem of soaking the matzos altogether, try using matzo meal instead and skip the Tofutti mixture. For a gluten-free version, try using either gluten-free bread crumbs or crackers.

I should also mentioned that though the Gourmet recipe was kosher for Passover, this one is not: The soy products make it off-limits for anyone observing the Passover dietary laws. (I took this to a Unitarian-Universalist Seder where, like most things Unitarian, anything goes.) I was unable to get a photo of it once it was cut, but you can see an important detail in the photo below: the matzos don't reach all the way to the edge of the pan, so keeping it intact after cutting is nearly impossible. For a beautiful presentation, phyllo dough wins hands-down.

Spinach-Matzo Pie
(printer-friendly version)

1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
20 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and most liquid squeezed out
1 8-ounce package Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, divided
3/4 cup soy milk, divided
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
14 ounces extra-firm tofu (one 14-16 ounce pkg.)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons oregano
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons kalamata olives, minced
1 pinch cayenne
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
black pepper, to taste
6 matzos (about 6 inches square)
1/2 cup pine nuts
olive oil spray

Spray a non-stick pan with olive oil. Heat. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and spinach and cook, stirring, until hot. Then add 1/2 of the Tofutti and 1/4 cup milk, stir until well blended, and remove from heat.

Put the remaining Tofutti into a blender along with the rest of the soy milk and the nutmeg. Blend until smooth. Set aside.

Mash the tofu well with a potato masher. Add the nutritional yeast, oregano, lemon juice, kalamata olives, cayenne, and cumin. Mix well, then add it to the pan with the spinach. Stir until combined and then add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with non-stick spray.

Place two of the matzos in the bottom of the baking pan. Pour about 1/4 cup of the Tofutti mixture over them and use a brush to coat the matzos well. Cover with half of the spinach. Put two more matzos over the spinach, coat with another 1/4 cup of Tofutti mixture, and top with remaining spinach. Put the final two matzos on top, cover with the remaining Tofutti, and sprinkle with pine nuts. Spray lightly with olive oil.

Bake uncovered for about 20-30 minutes, until golden and set. Cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Makes 8 servings: 336 Calories (kcal); 15g Total Fat; (39% calories from fat); 13g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 662mg Sodium; 5g Fiber. Weight Watchers: 7 Flex Points.

Don't Forget: There's still time to win a copy of Veganomicon! Just tell me your favorite recipe of 2008 (no matter when it was written) and you'll be entered into a random drawing. Contest closes tonight, so don't wait!

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Top 10 Recipes and Earth Day

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:29:00 +0000

Erik Marcus over at Vegan.com has polled the top vegan cookbook writers to come up with the Top 10 Recipes of 2008. He started by compiling a list of ten of the best recent vegan cookbooks, including two that I've reviewed here in the last couple of months, Vegan Express and Vegan Fire and Spice, and asked each author to pick one favorite recipe from his or her book. I know one thing: It's given me some new recipes to try!

Speaking of top 10 cookbooks, how would you like to win one? I have an extra copy of the bestseller Veganomicon, and I really want to share it with someone. Leave a comment below telling what your favorite recipe of 2008 is (just the name and where it can be found is enough), and I'll have Random.org pick a winner on Friday morning. Comments will close at 10 PM Central time Thursday, 4/24/08, so work fast. And please, if you already have a copy of the book, let someone else win! (It's a heavy book, so I'm sorry but I can't send it overseas; North American addresses only.) Sorry! Time's up! A winner has been chosen.

Now, no blog post is complete without a photo, and since it's Earth Day, I think it's fitting to post a couple of photos from my (organic) garden.

Remember the tomato plant I showed you, the one that was blooming even after being knocked over during a tornado? Well, here's how those flowers look two and a half weeks later. They've miraculously turned into grape tomatoes, and the biggest ones are almost fully grown. After the storm, I just picked the plant up off the wet ground and tied it to a stake to keep it from rotting. I like to think of this as a small example of how the Earth can heal itself if we only make the effort to help it.

If this rose illustrates anything, it's that growing things organically is easy. All this rose seems to need is periodic watering and a place in the sun. Other than a little trim in the winter, that's all I've given it, and this year it's exploding with blooms. Mother Earth gets all the credit.

Happy Earth Day to you all. If you have time to do a little reading, check out these Earth Day posts on other vegan blogs:

Vegan Bits tells us how research shows that eating vegan does more for the environment than eating locally.

Food Snob lists her Earth Day Resolutions for the year.

Living Vegan is celebrating Earth Day by voting in Pennsylvania.

Vegan Chai links to several interesting Earth Day posts.

Vegan Vice lists her Earth Day goals and sees some hope for the future.

An Animal-Friendly Life says that eating vegan can, of course, help the environment, but if we want people to stay vegan, it has to be about the animals.

And finally, several Vegan Etsy stores are having Earth Day promotions in their shops, offering discounts and/or donating part of their sales to Earth-friendly organizations. Buy handmade and help the environment!

Don't forget to check back on Friday to see if you've won the book.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food

Cinnamon Swirl Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:39:00 +0000

It sounds a little pathetic, but these days the only dinner guests in my house are of the 11-year-old girl variety, so I never get the opportunity to pull out all the stops and make a five-course dinner and blog about it. Not that I'm complaining. No, I'm more about feeding my family than impressing guests, the rare exception being those Sunday mornings when I wake up and remember that I have some other parent's child under my roof--and that it would probably reflect badly on me if I let her go home hungry. (I can hear it now: "They only have soymilk and weird brown bread and there are cats everywhere and Mrs. V kept talking about Satan!*")

So I'm always a gracious host and do my best to feed the little visitors. But when the visitor is used to bacon, cinnamon rolls, and Fruit Loops with whole milk--and my usual breakfast options are oatmeal, smoothies, and whole-grain cereal with soy milk--then we have a problem. Even my special occasion, tofu-based breakfasts of omelets or quiches or frittatas are out of the question when the guest thinks that tofu is "pukey" and wants nothing to do with it, even the deep fried kind in the Chinese take-out she refused to eat the night before. [Note to parents of E's friends: This guest-child is a composite, exaggerated for effect, not your little princess. Rest assured that when she spent the night with us, your daughter was a perfect angel, eagerly eating whatever was put before her at the table without making gagging sounds or miming barfing into her lap. Your child has never done that in my house. Really. Almost never.]

So, to my way of thinking, it comes down to two options: pancakes or muffins. D is more of the pancake maker of the household, so if he happens to be awake (ha!) I'll usually pass the spatula to him. I personally prefer making muffins because, frankly, they're easier. Mix 'em up, pour 'em in, and let 'em bake--no standing over a hot skillet waiting for bubbles to appear. I can be checking my email or reading the Sunday paper while the house fills with the heavenly aroma of muffins baking. They also keep well, so if the rest of the house sleeps for another hour or two, no harm done; I'll usually save them a couple.

Since I don't cook breakfast very often, when I make muffins I like to shake it up and try different recipes, never cooking them the same way twice so that I'll have something new to blog about, something that isn't made of eggplant. Consequently, I'm never exactly sure that they'll be edible. Once I tried to make quick cinnamon rolls, adapting a recipe that was on the Vegetarian Times website, but the fat-free vegan treatment just didn't work for them and they came out misshapen and tasting like cinnamon-flavored dog biscuits. The kids called them "Cinnamon Splats" and used them to play hockey in the driveway. [Children are such a joy.]

So it was with some trepidation that I tried another cinnamon-heavy recipe, especially since the guest last Sunday morning was the same girl I'd tried to poison with Cinnamon Splats. I managed to be out of the room taking photos of the muffins (just in case) when the rest of the family sat down to eat, so it was only after the fact that I heard that they were, indeed, delicious. Actually, I didn't hear that from our guest, but D and E insist that she did, in fact, give them the Omnivore Seal of Approval. I ate mine a little later, after it had been photographed half to death, and I found it tasty but a little on the bland side. D and E apparently ate theirs with margarine--so much for fat-free--and E liked them so much that she asked for them again the next morning. (Sorry, they're all gone, but have you tried my licorice version?) So consider these kid-tested, mother...yeah, whatever.

*The only "Satan" I ever talk about is seitan. But yep, that's how I pronounce it.

Cinnamon Swirl Muffins
(printer-friendly version)

1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1/3 cup soy yogurt
2/3 cup orange juice
1/2 cup soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup agave nectar

4 tablespoons sugar (substitute agave nectar if you dare)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray. (I find it best not to use paper liners--the muffins will stick to them.)

Mix together dry ingredients (flour through flax seeds) in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix wet ingredients (yogurt through agave). In an even smaller bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon.

Pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until thoroughly moistened. Do not beat or overmix. Spoon about 1 heaping tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. Sprinkle each half-full muffin with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar and fill with remaining batter. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon sugar over each muffin. Take a toothpick or thin knife, insert it into the batter and swirl gently.

Bake for 17-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before serving.

Makes 12 muffins. Per muffin: 146 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (4% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 33g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 278mg Sodium; 2g Fiber. Weight Watchers: 3 Flex Points.

If cinnamon swirl doesn't float your boat, how about trying one of my other muffin recipes (Cinnamon Splats not included):

St. Patrick's Day Zucchini Muffins

Berries and Spice Muffins

Carrot Spice Muffins

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

Banana-Date-Walnut Muffins

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Cherry-Chocolate Mousse Pie

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:35:00 +0000

E had a wonderful birthday yesterday and appreciated all of your comments. She spent the afternoon playing with her new basketball goal, the present that she asked for and got early because it took D and me two weekends to put it together. After eating the dinner she requested (Mac and Cheese), she opened her other presents and ate a slice of her birthday pie.

Why pie? Well, I guess we're just non-traditional like that. E will have a cake at her official birthday party, but just for the family, I wanted something simple and easy to throw together on a week night. I really hadn't planned to post the recipe here, but after so many people wrote to ask about it, here goes:

The basic pie, which definitely fits into the Ridiculously Easy category, is impossible to mess up; I've thrown everything from almonds to oranges to peanut butter in it, and it always comes out delicious. It's a variation on the chocolate mousse that every vegan knows, the first vegan dessert that many of us learned, the one that's printed on the back of your Card Carrying Vegan Card. (Just kidding--I think it's the wacky cake recipe on the card.) This time, I had some dried cherries that I wanted to use, and I have to say, I think I like this variation best of all. It reminded me, in a good way, of the chocolate cordial cherries my parents used to buy every Christmas.

Warning: This recipe is nowhere close to fat-free. Though I've heard of people making a lower-fat version by using cocoa powder instead of chocolate chips, I've never been brave enough to try. My philosophy is that certain occasions, such as your only child's birthday, call for real chocolate chips.

Cherry-Chocolate Mousse Pie
(printer-friendly version)

1/2 cup dried cherries
1 12-ounce box light silken tofu (or extra-firm silken tofu)
2 tablespoons agave nectar (more if you want it sweeter)
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 prepared Graham cracker crust

Cover the dried cherries with 1/2 cup of boiling water and soak them until soft. Drain (and reserve) the water, and put the cherries into the food processor. Pulse to chop. Drain the tofu and add it to the food processor along with the agave nectar and vanilla. Process until smooth.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Pour it into the food processor and puree, scraping down the sides as needed to make sure it's well blended. Pour into a prepared crust and chill for several hours.

Makes 8 servings. Each slice contains 341 Calories (kcal); 16g Total Fat; (39% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 49g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 155mg Sodium; 3g Fiber. Weight Watchers: 8 Flex Points.

(See, I told you it wasn't fat-free!)

If you'd like to make it without the crust, here's the info for a crustless version: 231 Calories (kcal); 11g Total Fat; (38% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 35g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 40mg Sodium; 3g Fiber. Weight Watchers: 5 Flex Points.

Serving Suggestion: Take the reserved cherry-soaking water, add some sugar, and simmer it on the stove until it's reduced to a syrup. Drizzle over pie just before serving. (Here's a sneaky photographer's secret: I added some grenadine to the cherry syrup to brighten the color.)

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Happy Birthday to E!

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:18:00 +0000

E. at Eleven

It's hard for me to believe that it's been eleven years since I gave birth to this amazing person who, though smart and sensitive...

...is just about impossible to get to hold still or be serious for the camera!

Happy Birthday, E! Now, come help me make your birthday ~~cake~~ pie!

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Curried Eggplant Soup

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:22:00 +0000

Things are getting back to normal here, at least in my house, after last week's storm. Though I've been slow in returning your emails, I want you to know that each one was read, sometimes several times, and appreciated. I feel very lucky not only to have survived the storm with so little damage but also to have the supportive thoughts of people like you.

I've had weather on my mind lately but not, apparently, when I was deciding what to cook this week. I seem to have been stuck in "soup mode" since this fall, and when I decided to cook this roasted eggplant soup, I did it not realizing that the temperature here was expected to be in the high 80's; otherwise, I would never have chosen to cook something that required me to turn on the oven as well as the stove. Fortunately, this is a soup that tastes great hot or cold; I can't decide which way I like it best, but I do know that it made a refreshing cold lunch on a day when I had all the windows and doors thrown open to drive out the midday heat.

Before I get to the recipe, let me take a minute to discuss curry powder. You may have noticed that when one of my recipes calls for curry powder, I usually specify "good quality" or "best quality" curry powder, and you may be asking yourself, "What exactly differentiates regular curry powder from 'best' curry powder?" The simple answer is You. Your own taste is what separates a good from a not-so-good curry powder, and if you've found one you like, by all means use it. But, if you're using McCormick's or Kroger's or whatever store-brand's curry powder because it's all your grocery store had and you've never tried another curry powder, it might be time for you to do some experimenting. For one thing, supermarket spices are often old and past their prime before you even buy them. If you have a chance to shop at a store that specializes in spices, do it--the turnover is quicker, and the spices are much less likely to have gotten old and lost their flavor. As I've mentioned before, my personal favorite mild curry powder is Penzey's Maharajah, mainly because it contains saffron and I love saffron; since I discovered Maharajah, I actually use curry powder more often, instead of mixing my own individual spices, because I like the taste that much. But you don't have to use it just because I do. Another good one that I've tried is The Spice House's Sweet Curry Powder (though they have a maharajah-style curry powder, I've never tried it, so I can't say how it compares to Penzey's). If you live close to either of these spice stores, I envy you; if you don't, please consider ordering by mail, as I do. (And no, I don't receive any monetary compensation from either of these companies, though I'd be glad to be hired as their spokesperson; they could pay me in Maharajah!)

Armed with a really good curry powder, you can make a soup that will make even eggplant-haters forget that they're eating the dreaded purple fruit. The idea for this soup came from a book called Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon. Though most of the recipes aren't vegetarian, they're inventive and interesting, and many can be veganized with a little creative substitution. This one began as Curried Cream of Eggplant Soup-Stew, but in my veganized version I've substituted white beans for the dairy with, I think, wonderful results.

Curried Eggplant Soup
(printer-friendly version)

1 large eggplant (or 2 smaller ones)
1 large onion, diced
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
1/2 cup diced tomatoes (drained canned tomatoes or fresh)
1 1/2 -2 tablespoons best-quality curry powder
1 pinch cayenne (or more, to taste)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons agave nectar (or other sweetener)
1 15-ounce can great northern beans, rinsed and drained
4 cups vegetable broth, divided
1/2 cup soy milk or other non-dairy milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
6 tablespoons soy yogurt (optional)
Parsley or cilantro, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F. Peel the eggplant and slice it 1/4-inch thick. Place the slices on a sprayed baking sheet and cover with foil. Roast until eggplant is very tender, about 30 minutes.

Remove the eggplant from the oven and allow to cool. Put half of the slices into the food processor. Chop the other half coarsely and put them in a large pot. Add 3 cups of the vegetable broth and bring to a low simmer.

Spray a non-stick skillet with canola oil and get it hot. Add the onions and sauté until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the diced apple and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato, curry powder, cayenne, soy sauce, and agave nectar and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the reserved 1 cup of broth and cook another minute. Pour this mixture into the food processor with the eggplant.

Add the beans to the food processor and puree until it forms a thick paste. Scrape the paste into the pot with the broth and eggplant, stir well, and add the non-dairy milk. Season to taste with salt and pepper (and more curry powder if necessary). Turn down to very low and barely simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve hot or chilled, stirring in one tablespoon of soy yogurt into each bowl (if desired) and sprinkling with parsley or cilantro.

Makes 6 servings. Per serving, without yogurt: 143 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (7% calories from fat); 7g Protein; 28g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 183mg Sodium; 7g Fiber. Weight Watchers: 2 Flex Points; Core (omit agave nectar).

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Unexpected Storm

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:50:00 +0000

Friday morning started off like any other. After my morning coffee, I took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood, both of us glad to be out on such a beautiful day. When we got back to our yard, I grabbed my camera to take a shot of the first blooms on one of my tomato vines--they'll be tomatoes in a couple of months, I thought. While I had the camera out, I snapped photos of some of the flowers blooming as well as the new fence we just had installed; its golden cedar color will fade to gray quickly, and I wanted a record of how new it looked.

The rest of the morning I spent cooking and doing sporadic cleaning. We'd made plans to go away for the weekend with a bunch of friends, and I was planning to bring a big pot of chili and a chocolate-orange cake for Saturday night's dinner. I'd gotten the chili on the stove and was eating lunch around 12:15 when the tornado siren went off. At first I ignored it, but as it continued shrieking, it started to dawn on me that maybe I should turn on the TV to see if there really could be a tornado in the area.

Every local station was broadcasting weather alerts: the storm was crossing the interstate, and its projected path went directly over my house. "Get into a closet or central hallway and cover your head with pillows and blankets," the meteorologist advised. I took one look at the black skies out the window, grabbed the phone and a few pillows, and crouched down in the hallway. I fumbled with the phone, trying to call my husband at work to tell him I'd taken cover, but just as I managed to punch in the phone number, the electricity went off, making my cordless phone useless. As the wind began roaring louder and louder, I heard a strange thing--a knocking on my back door. At first I wasn't sure what it was, but it came again, an insistent knocking on the door farthest from where I was huddled. The wind was pounding at the windows and I was hesitant to leave my nest of pillows, but I thought that a neighbor might be in trouble so I ran to the door.

I called out "Who is it?" but the storm was too loud for me to hear if there was a response, so I opened the door to find a woman I didn't know standing in my carport. She'd been driving down the street, she said, on her way to her child's preschool, when a huge pine tree fell in front of her car. She'd pulled into the closest side street and then realizing that her car was not a safe place to be, she'd knocked on a stranger's door--my door-- seeking refuge. I told her to come in and apologizing for the messiness of my house (that Southern hospitality thing is ingrained!) led her to the hallway in the middle of the house to wait out the storm. As the wind shrieked and hail pelted the front doors and windows, we talked nervously about the storm and our children, and when I mentioned E's name, an uncommon one, my visitor realized that we weren't such strangers, that her daughter and E had taken dance lessons together a few years ago. I'm sure she felt better that the stranger whose messy house she'd entered wasn't such a stranger after all.

The storm lasted maybe 10 minutes. Once the threat was past, my guest went on her way, eager to get to the preschool to check on her child, and I went outside to assess the damage: an apple tree uprooted in our backyard and a pine tree broken about a quarter of the way up, the top having smashed through our new fence and into our neighbor's yard. Shingles from the front of our roof were now in our back yard, but other than that, our house looked fine. Across the main street from us, however, it was a different story. Pine and oak trees criss-crossed the street, their tops and trunks piercing the roofs of houses and crushing cars; it looked like a giant had played a game of pick-up sticks with them. All I could think was that if my surprise visitor had turned right rather than left onto my street, she and her car would have been under one of those trees.

The rest of the afternoon is a blur. Neighbors gathered outside to compare damages and commiserate. D and I canceled our plans to go away for the weekend and began cleaning up the yard. Late in the afternoon, we took a walk, trying to navigate the same route I'd walked with the dog that morning, but downed trees made the streets impassible. Most of the houses we passed had severe damage; one had been hit by three different trees, each of them about 2 feet in diameter, evenly spaced so that no part of the roof remained intact.

It's been four days now, and fallen trees and power lines still block some of the streets in my neighborhood. Our electricity was turned back on this morning, but after 4 days of making cold sandwiches and reheating chili on our camp stove, I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to make the transition from emergency cooking to food blogging. Perhaps if I were a more creative cook I'd be able to whip up some wonderful concoction from the thawed contents of my freezer, but I just don't have it in me. I'll get my bearings soon, I'm sure, but for now I'm just riding the waves of mixed emotions, grateful to be safe but dismayed at how quickly the landscape around us can change.

Gerbera Daisy Before the Storm

Our Tree, Our Fence, Neighbor's Yard

Gerbera Daisy After the Storm--Like us, wet and grimy but still standing.

Coleman Stove and Melitta Coffee Pot to the Rescue

Bent but not broken, the tomato plant still has two flowers.

Asparagus and Mushroom Quiche with a Brown Rice Crust

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:40:00 +0000

Chris, of the popular vegan food blog Eat Air, observed in a post last week that the overwhelming majority of vegan food bloggers are women. To address this disparity and provide some good male role models for his son, he posted a challenge to the men of the house: Cook something and then write about it.

When I read the post to D, he agreed to take on the challenge and began mulling over what he could cook. I've mentioned before that when we first started dating D impressed me with his cooking skills, wowing me with roasted vegetables in balsamic sauce, couscous with curried vegetables, and other delicious dishes that he created from his stash of vegetarian cookbooks. If he had the time, I'm sure he'd want to do more of the cooking around here--that is, if I'd let him. Cooking is the one domestic duty that I actually enjoy, so I tend to hang onto it as my "thing." (I allow dish washing and cleaning the litter boxes to be his things.)

So, he was planning to do a little cooking over the weekend, but on Thursday morning, I woke up with lower back and hip pain that worsened over the next few hours so that by dinner time, I could barely walk. For the next three days, D took over all the household as well as parental duties, even spending all day Thursday at the district science fair with E (proud parent moment: she won 6th place in microbiology for her project on yeast). We ordered take-out on Thursday night, but for every other meal, D was in the kitchen cooking. Unfortunately, no photos were taken, dashing his hope of food blogging glory. Still, he was my hero, singlehandedly taking on everything while I sat by helplessly, back pressed up against an ice pack, popping pain killers and reading mystery novels.

By Sunday night, resting, icing, and stretching exercises had reduced the pain so that I felt steady enough on my feet to attempt to cook. Sitting on an ice pack had given me a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do with the asparagus in my fridge, and I'd worked up quite a craving for quiche. I could have added asparagus to my Mini Crustless Quiches, but I wanted something a little more filling. I decided to try making a full-sized quiche with brown rice as a gluten-free, fat-free crust.

I'm happy to report that it was an resounding hit, adult as well as kid-friendly. I'm not so happy to report that it remains a light meal--light in the sense that it won't fill you up. Though I've written it up as 4 servings, the three of us finished the whole thing and would have put a big dent in a second one, had there been one. My advice for this quiche is the same as for the mini quiches: Serve it with plenty of side dishes or be prepared to make a double batch.

Asparagus and Mushroom Quiche with a Brown Rice Crust
(printer-friendly version)

Brown rice makes a crispy, chewy crust that makes this quiche more satisfying without adding refined flours and fat.

One 12-ounce package firm or extra-firm silken tofu*
1/4 cup plain soy milk
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon tahini
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
3/4 teaspoons salt

2 cups cooked brown rice
1 tablespoon vegan parmesan (optional)
freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 bunch asparagus (about 12 ounces)
1/4 cup shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 heaping cup (about 4 ounces) sliced mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 350. Put first 8 ingredients (tofu through salt) into blender. Puree until completely smooth, stirring a couple of times between blending.

Mix rice with 3 tablespoons of the tofu mixture and the vegan parmesan (optional). Add freshly ground black pepper to taste. Spray a pie pan with cooking spray or canola oil, and press the rice into the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven.

Snap the tough ends off the asparagus and discard. Cut off the top 3 inches and set aside. Chop the remaining stalks into 1/2-inch pieces.

Spray a medium non-stick saucepan with olive oil and heat. Add the shallots and cook for about 1 minute. Add the garlic, asparagus, and two tablespoons water. Cover and cook for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms, bell pepper, and 2 more tablespoons water. Cover and cook 2 more minutes. Remove cover, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, and cook, stirring, for a minute or two until most liquid has evaporated. Separate out the asparagus tips from the rest of the vegetables. (NOTE: Next time I will not pre-cook the asparagus tips; they should cook well enough in the oven.)

Spread the vegetables (excluding the asparagus tips) on top of the rice crust. Pour the remaining tofu mixture over the vegetables, stirring lightly to distribute it through the vegetables. Arrange the asparagus tips over the top and spray lightly with olive oil.

Bake for 60 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes before cutting (this helps make the quiche slice more cleanly, but if you don't care about that, go ahead and dig in; we did!)

4 servings: 223 Calories (kcal); 5g Total Fat; (18% calories from fat); 12g Protein; 34g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 441mg Sodium; 4g Fiber. Weight Watchers Core (omit tahini)/4 Flex Points.

*Tip: Make this lower in fat by using lite silken tofu and fat-free soy milk: 200 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; (10% calories from fat); 11g Protein; 34g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 485mg Sodium; 4g Fiber. Weight Watchers Core (omit tahini)/3 Flex Points.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Pasta with Asparagus, Cannellini Beans, and Porcini Cream

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:26:00 +0000

One of the things I love most about this time of year, besides the flowers and the birds and not having to wear a jacket all the time, is that fresh asparagus is actually affordable. When the price drops below $2.00, I start buying two or three bunches at a time and eating it almost every day. It's one of those vegetables I consider luxury foods, and it fits easily into just about any type of meal. Making a stir-fry? Throw it in. Need a side dish? Roast some up. Quickie pasta? Roast it, stir-fry it, or steam it and toss with noodles for an elegant meal that doesn't require you to spend all night in the kitchen.

And that's basically what I've done here. This sumptuous recipe makes use of seasonal asparagus as well as one of my year-round staples, dried porcini mushrooms. They're great for adding a deep woodsy flavor to sauces, soups, and stews, and I particularly like the contrast of the fresh, green asparagus with the earthy mushrooms. Adding the porcini soaking water to the dish amps up the mushroom flavor, but be sure to strain it first; I've had dishes come out with sandy grit when the porcini juice hasn't been filtered--not a pleasant mouth-feel!

Pasta with Asparagus, Cannellini Beans, and Porcini Cream
(printer-friendly version)

It's not exactly ridiculously easy, but this recipe comes together fairly quickly when you cook the pasta at the same time as you do the sauce and asparagus.

1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1/2 cup boiling water
12 ounces pasta of choice (I used campagnelle but could use gluten-free)
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
1/2 cup light silken tofu (or firm silken)
1/2 cup plain soymilk
1 clove garlic
1 pinch nutmeg
salt and pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sherry
15 ounces cannellini beans (or great northern beans), drained and rinsed

Pour the boiling water over the mushrooms and soak until they are completely rehydrated, about 20 minutes. Strain them through a fine sieve or a coffee filter, catching and reserving the liquid; rinse them if gritty and chop. Set aside.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. When it's done, drain it, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water, and put pasta into a serving bowl.

While the pasta's cooking, blend the silken tofu, soymilk, and garlic until smooth. Pour it into a saucepan, add a pinch of nutmeg and the reserved mushroom liquid and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice, sherry, and the drained beans. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until beans are warm.

And while that's cooking, steam the asparagus until tender but crisp, about 5 minutes.

Add the asparagus to the cooked pasta and toss in the sauce. If it seems dry, add a little of the pasta cooking water. Add more salt or pepper to taste and serve.

Serves 4. Per serving: 446 Calories (kcal); 3g Total Fat; (5% calories from fat); 19g Protein; 85g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 258mg Sodium; 8g Fiber. Weight Watchers: 8 Flex Points.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free

Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:44:00 +0000

New recipe coming up! In the meantime, I wanted to point out that I've added something to the right sidebar, a little box entitled "what am I doing." I've signed up with Twitter, a micro-blogging service that lets me send little updates throughout the day telling you (or anyone who's interested) what I'm doing right at that time.

Unfortunately, my life is about as exciting as leaf mold, so what you're apt to see are announcements of what I'm eating or what I'm thinking of cooking or links to articles I've found interesting or photos I find funny (Warning: There may be Lolcats). If you're interested, just look for the little box near the end of the right-hand column and check it periodically; if you're very interested, sign up at Twitter, where you'll be able to "follow" me (sort of like cyber stalking without the ickiness) and record your own little "tweets."

Dublin Coddle with Vegan Irish Sausages

noreply@blogger.com (SusanV) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:21:00 +0000

Finding something different to make for St. Patrick's Day isn't easy when you've never been to Ireland and have no idea how authentic any of the dishes that we Americans think of as Irish actually are. I set out looking for something different from the Corned "Beef" and Cabbage I'd made last year, something that hadn't already been made vegan a dozen times before like Colcannon, and finally settled on Bangers and Mash, a favorite in Irish pubs in the United States. And then I saw this: "An Irish Sausage is not a Banger." According to this Irishman, sausages are called bangers in England, but not in Ireland (though I wonder if in these multicultural times the term hasn't been adopted in at least some parts of Ireland).

So, it turns out that Bangers and Mash is not an Irish dish, and I really, really wanted an authentic Irish dish for the occasion. I already had my taste buds set on using Julie Hasson's brilliant steamed sausages technique to make Irish Sausages (as I now knew they should properly be called), so I started looking for other recipes in which to use them and stumbled upon Coddle (it was actually mentioned in the article that disillusioned me about bangers, so I had to check it out). This simple stew looked like the perfect vehicle for my vegan sausages.

Coddle contains a few standard ingredients--sausage, potatoes, onions, parsley, and bacon. Making it vegan just meant substituting vegan sausage for pork and leaving out the bacon, though to make up for the bacon flavor, I added a little Liquid Smoke to the broth. The coddle is then slow-cooked (or "coddled") until the vegetables are tender; adding dark beer near the end increases the authenticity of the dish and deepens the flavor. (Don't use Guinness, even though it's traditional, because it isn't vegan; check online sources for vegan beers.)

It's simple, yes, but absolutely delicious--hot and filling and the very definition of "comfort food."

Coddle before cooking

Dublin Coddle with Vegan Sausages
(printer-friendly version)

4 Irish Fauxsages (see below) or about 12 ounces of other vegan sausage, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 1/2 pounds baking potatoes (about 4 medium), cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 large onion, sliced
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth or prepared bouillon
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
3/4 cup dark beer (optional)

Brown the "sausages" in a non-stick skillet. In a large Dutch oven with a heavy lid, layer the ingredients in this order:

Half of the potatoes
Salt and pepper
Half of the onions
Half of the parsley
All of the Fauxsages
Remaining Potatoes
Salt and pepper
Remaining Onions
Remaining Parsley

Mix the Liquid Smoke into the broth and pour it over all. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to the lowest setting and cover tightly. Cook for about an hour, or until potatoes are very tender. Add the beer if you're using it, and simmer for about 15 minutes more. Ladle into bowls and serve with Irish Soda Bread.

Note: This could easily be cooked in a slow cooker; for best results, double the recipe for large crockpots and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Makes 4 servings. Per serving (without beer): 293 Calories (kcal); 4g Total Fat; (7% calories from fat); 25g Protein; 43g Carbohydrate; 0g Cholesterol; 589mg Sodium; 5g Fiber. Weight Watchers Flex Points=5.

With beer: 311 Calories (kcal); 4g Total Fat; (6% calories from fat); 25g Protein; 44g Carbohydrate; 0g Cholesterol; 591mg Sodium; 5g Fiber. Weight Watchers Flex Points=6.

If you haven't tried it yet, you have to make a batch of Julie's Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausages. The recipe is wonderful in its simplicity and its consistently delicious results. You can see for yourself how easy it is by watching Julie's video. She's even challenged people to put their own spins on the recipe, so if you do a Veg Blog Search, you'll find dozens of different sausage variations on other blogs.

Since Irish sausages are mild and sweet, not spicy or smoky, for my Irish variation I completely changed the spices to reflect traditional Irish sausage recipes. Marjoram, ginger, and nutmeg are standard, but since gluten doesn't have any flavor of its own, I needed to add a few non-traditional seasonings--sage and thyme--to build up a flavor base. Irish sausages typically contain bread crumbs as a binding agent, so I added some to mine, making them moister and a little less firm than Julie's original recipe (a good thing, in my opinion, though how firm you like your sausage is a matter of personal taste!) They turned out the texture and color of cooked Gimme Lean, and I think they'd make a nice breakfast sausage, perhaps with just a touch of smoked paprika or Liquid Smoke.

Irish Fauxsages (Vegan Irish Sausages)
(printer-friendly version)

1 vegan bouillon cube (enough to flavor 2 cups water, see below)
1 slice whole wheat bread
1 cup vital wheat gluten (about 4.5 ounces or 127 grams)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon flax seeds, ground

1 cup cool water
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cashew butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Dissolve the "beef" bouillon cube in 2 tablespoons of hot water and set aside to cool. Toast the piece of bread until medium-brown, and then put it into the food processor and pulse until it's in fine crumbs.

Put the bread crumbs into a large bowl and add the remaining dry ingredients, wheat gluten through flax seeds, stirring well to distribute the seasonings evenly. Mix the bouillon mixture with the cool water in a large measuring cup or bowl and add the garlic, cashew butter, and soy sauce. Whisk or blend with a hand blender until ingredients are well-distributed.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir to mix just until evenly moistened. Add a little more water if it seems too dry.

Place a piece of aluminum foil on the counter, and scoop 1/2 cup of gluten mixture onto it. Shape into a rough tube, fold the bottom edge of the foil over the gluten, and roll up. Roll the tube back and forth, pressing lightly with your hands, to give it an even shape, and then twist the ends closed. Repeat with the remaining gluten to form 5 sausages.

Place all the sausages in the top of a steamer, cover, and steam for 35 minutes. Remove them from the heat and let cool until easy to handle. Fauxsages can then be used in recipes or eaten as-is. (I always eat one right away--just to check the quality, of course!)

Makes 5 sausages. Per sausage: 157 Calories (kcal); 4g Total Fat; (10% calories from fat); 22g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 614mg Sodium; 2g Fiber. Weight Watchers Flex Points=3.

In this recipe I used one cube of Edward & Sons' Not-Beef Bouillon; it's vegan, and one cube flavors 2 cups of liquid. Since I wanted the flavor to be a little stronger than normal bouillon, I used double the amount, so if you're using another kind of bouillon or broth powder, I recommend using enough to flavor two cups of water.

Happy St. Patrick's Day...2009!

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free