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Simple Scrambled Tofu and Kale with Sweet Potato Fries

February 6, 2012
Simple Scrambled Tofu and Kale with Sweet Potato Fries

I’ve long relied on soups as a way to cram as many vegetables as I can into my family’s diet, but the truth is, my daughter prefers to eat her leafy greens mixed into one of her two favorite foods: lasagna and tofu. Lasagna will always be her first choice, but for a super-quick meal [...]

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Kathy’s Slow-Cooker Hot and Sour Soup

October 3, 2011
Hot and Sour Soup

My poor slow cooker has spent most of its life gathering dust on a shelf, but lately it is getting a workout thanks to Kathy Hester’s new book, The Vegan Slow Cooker. With easy recipes, a clean layout, and lovely photos, it’s enticed even a last-minute cook like me to think ahead a little and [...]

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Bryanna’s Low-Fat Veggie “Guacamole”

September 26, 2011
Bryanna's Low-Fat Veggie Guacamole

In my den, two bookcases sag under the weight of the dozens of cookbooks I’ve managed to cram into them. Cookbooks spill out onto the neighboring coffee table, line the counter between kitchen and den, and form heaps around my bed. Sometimes I read them like novels, the sidebars and stories especially, and sometimes I [...]

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Hearty One-Pot Meal Miso Soup

September 19, 2011
Hearty Miso Soup

Usually I serve miso soup as part of our “sushi meal.” I make or buy vegetable sushi rolls, cook some edamame, toss some green leafies with some tahini dressing, and make a simple miso soup. On a recent rushed weeknight, I decided to skip all the separate dishes and just throw everything into the soup.

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Thai Salad with Slow-Cooked Tofu in Pineapple Barbecue Sauce

September 12, 2011
Thai Barbecue Salad

One of the highlights of my trip to Portland happened after Vida Vegan Con was over. That Sunday night, I got to meet my friend and long-time reader Maria, whom many of you know from the comments as Moonwatcher. Maria traveled ten hours to visit her son in Portland and timed her trip so that [...]

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Cashew Carrot Salad

July 31, 2011
Cashew Carrot Salad

I’ve discovered a salad that my daughter will gobble up like candy. In fact, she eats so much of it that she’s almost in danger of turning orange! I’m talking, of course, about good, old-fashioned carrot salad–but with a few updates and improvements.

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Vegan Zucchini Frittata

June 7, 2011
Zucchini Frittata

When I was living on my own for the first time, a friend’s mom gave me a battered, 1960′s edition of The Joy of Cooking, and for the next year I taught myself to cook by following its often dated but always instructive recipes. I was particularly fascinated by the chapter called “Eggs, Souffles and [...]

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Ridiculously Easy Curry-Scrambled Tofu

May 19, 2011
Ridiculously Easy Curry-Scrambled Tofu

For years, the only scrambled tofu I ever made required a seasoning packet called Tofu Scrambler. I loved that product. It had just the right blend of seasonings and thickeners to conjure some magical response out of the blandness that is bean curd and turn it into what I considered the perfect breakfast. The idea [...]

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Green Curry Tofu Cakes

May 9, 2011
Green Curry Tofu Cakes

If you made my last recipe, I know you have a jar of Thai green curry paste somewhere in your fridge, although you could have done the wise thing and stored it in your freezer. But, if you’re like me, you always believe you’re going to be using it right away, so you keep it [...]

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Thai Green Curry with Vegetables and Tofu

April 28, 2011
Thai Green Curry with Vegetables and Tofu

I’m not one of those food snobs who think that absolutely everything I cook has to be made from scratch. Though I believe that the results are usually better (and more nutritious) when all the ingredients are homemade, I’m not above using packaged ingredients, such as vegetable broth or canned beans, when the ingredients aren’t [...]

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Gluten-Free King Cake Cookies (Cinnamon-Pecan Cookies)

January 20, 2011
Gluten-Free King Cake Cookies (Cinnamon-Pecan Cookies)

Mardi Gras season officially began on January 6, and though the parades don’t start to roll in New Orleans until mid-February, I already have Mardi Gras–or more specifically King Cake–on my mind.  I haven’t had a piece of King Cake in years, but that doesn’t stop me from craving the sugar-laden, gaudy confection.  Even more [...]

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New Orleans’ Style White Beans

December 28, 2010
New Orleans' Style White Beans

Come on, tell me you’re tired of rich holiday food and are ready to settle down to some healthy–even homely–fare.  I know I am.  I never thought there could be such a thing as too much dessert, but after stuffing myself on pumpkin cheesecake, cherry-chocolate mousse pie, and the downright obscene rum- and margarine-soaked bread [...]

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Thanksgiving Meatless Loaf

November 17, 2010
Thanksgiving Meatless Loaf

This is not your mama’s meatloaf.  This is not even your mama’s seitan loaf, tofu turkey, or nut roast.  It doesn’t taste like meat.  It doesn’t even pretend to have the texture of meat. But if you like savory, Thanksgiving flavors so concentrated that you can just skip the gravy and dressing, you will want [...]

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Ridiculously Easy Vegan Buttermilk Salad Dressing

October 5, 2010
Ridiculously Easy Vegan Buttermilk Salad Dressing

The question I get asked most by people who are just beginning to follow an oil-free diet is “If you don’t use oil, what do you put on your salad?”  Frankly, getting used to salads without olive oil can be difficult, though I do believe you can train your taste buds to enjoy salads without [...]

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Bok Choy and Baked Tofu Stir-Fry in Ginger-Citrus Sauce

September 29, 2010
Bok Choy and Tofu Stir-Fry with Ginger-Citrus Sauce

I love baby bok choy.  With its crisp, light green stalk and its leafy dark green top, it’s almost like two vegetables.  The leafy parts cook in seconds, so I always separate them from the bottom halves as I slice them and toss them in at the end of cooking to retain their bright green [...]

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Sea-sational Chickpea Salad

September 8, 2010
Sea-sational Chickpea Salad

Eaten any good algae lately?  Chances are you have, even if you didn’t know it.  Algae, or sea vegetables, are used as stabilizers or thickeners in everything from mayo to ice cream, and even if you avoid processed foods, you’ve probably enjoyed sushi wrapped up in nori or miso soup flavored with wakame.  But if [...]

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Basic Low-Fat Coleslaw

August 16, 2010
Basic Low-Fat Coleslaw

There’s been a surprising development in the V family kitchen.  My daughter E has actually been asking for coleslaw, a food she used to have to be bribed to eat.  This phenomenon began after I stopped buying bagged coleslaw and starting using fresh heads of cabbage.  I could say that E likes the fresher taste [...]

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Grilled Tofu with Blueberry-Peach Salsa

July 24, 2010
Grilled Tofu with Blueberry-Peach Salsa

If my daughter had her way, I’d be using our haul from the U-Pick farm to bake blueberry-infused treats like Blueberry-Banana Bread, Blueberry-Oat Bars, and Berries and Spice Muffins every single day.  Unfortunately for her, blueberry season coincides with the time of year that I am least interested in turning on the oven, and even [...]

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Baked Spring Rolls and Low-Fat Lo Mein

May 22, 2010
Easy Baked Spring Rolls

Instead of having two recipes for you today, I came very close to having none.  If my husband and daughter hadn’t walked in right in the middle of my culinary meltdown, tasted a couple of the misshapen spring rolls I had managed to coax out of the dried out wrappers that had been buried in [...]

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Chinese Vegetarian Chicken with Simple Five-Spice Sauce

May 4, 2010
Chinese Vegetarian Chicken

Sometimes I’m a bit slow.  I decide to make something and then, for no clear reason, it takes me days, weeks, or months to get around to actually cooking it.  This time, it’s been close to three years since I first tasted this dish, blogged about it, and even bought the main ingredient for it.  [...]

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Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole

December 28, 2009
Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole

There are certain recipes that fall into a category I call “Louisiana Church Potluck Dishes.” These are dishes that I grew up eating regularly because they were staples at the monthly “Family Night Suppers” at the church of my youth. I remember sampling delicacies like baked cushaw, mirliton supreme, and eggplant casserole without knowing what [...]

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Celebration Pot Pie with Pumpkin Biscuit Crust

November 14, 2009
Celebration Pot Pie with Pumpkin Biscuit Crust

I’m leaving you—and my husband and child—for a little over a week. By the time you read this, I will be cruising the Caribbean with my parents and sister. But at least I’m providing you with a new holiday dish (and the family with leftovers). Since I won’t be getting back until just before Thanksgiving, [...]

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Pumpkin Pie Bites

November 9, 2009
Pumpkin Pie Bites

My daughter and I go kind of pumpkin crazy this time of year. It starts when we see the first small pie pumpkins in the grocery store and she convinces me that we just have to have one. She takes it home, decorates it with permanent markers, and then refuses to let me cook her [...]

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Stir-fried Tofu and Vegetables with Miso Sauce

November 2, 2009
Stir-fried Tofu and Vegetables with Miso Sauce

I don’t post a lot of stir-fry recipes because, as I’ve mentioned before, I tend to make them by feel, adding whatever amounts of vegetables and sauce feel right. Since I usually use the same basic ingredients, most of my stir-fries taste about the same. But not this one. Adding a miso-based sauce to my [...]

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Roasted Beet-Tofu Burgers

September 21, 2009
Roasted Beet-Tofu Burgers

High Noon Café, the only vegetarian restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi, where I live, serves the most unusual veggie burgers, bright red with beets and soft in texture from the tofu. The first time my husband recommended I try one, I was afraid to order it, but once his burger came, I couldn’t resist sampling it. [...]

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Chipotle Barbecued Tofu

September 14, 2009
Chipotle Barbecued Tofu

I love barbecue, but I have to admit that I don’t always take the time to make my own sauce. The bottled stuff is so quick and easy, though I have yet to find a brand that I really like. I may stop using bottled barbecue sauce completely, however, after concocting this zesty new recipe. [...]

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Almost Instant Frozen Fruit Yogurt

September 1, 2009
Almost Instant Frozen Fruit Yogurt

It’s not often I get to have dessert for breakfast and consider it a healthy meal, but that’s exactly what I did yesterday. A sudden craving for something frozen and sweet got me thinking: Why are some foods considered breakfast and others dessert? What’s the difference, really, between muffins and cupcakes, pancakes and dessert crepes, [...]

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E’s Samosa Wraps

June 23, 2009
Samosa Wraps

Like a lot of 12-year olds, my daughter E is hesitant to try new foods—and when I say hesitant, I mean she has to be bribed, threatened, or otherwise coerced into trying them. So when I recently picked up a couple of Amy’s Samosa Wraps because they were on sale, I hoped to get her [...]

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Potato-Green Bean Salad with Lemon and Basil

June 14, 2009
Potato-Green Bean Salad

Potato salads can be dangerous. I’m not just talking about Aunt Mabel’s mayo-laden concoction sitting outside at the picnic all day, growing an army of bacteria. No, I mean the less immediately life-threatening danger that typical potato salads present to those of us who love, love, love them but don’t love the added fat they [...]

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Blueberry-Banana Bread

June 9, 2009
Blueberry-Banana Bread

Q: What’s black and yellow and soft all over? A: The bananas on our kitchen counter when we got home from the beach on Sunday. Of course, when we left on Thursday, the bananas were firm and yellow, even a little green. I’d meant to take them with me, but in the rush of packing [...]

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Savory Swiss Chard Pie

June 1, 2009
Swiss Chard Pie

This year I got a little ambitious with my summer garden plans, and as a result, nothing’s really as it should be. By this time of year, I’m normally harvesting the first tomatoes and seeing the promising beginnings of eggplants and okra, but because I decided to try to grow heirloom varieties from seed this [...]

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Wasabi-Roasted Asparagus

April 16, 2009
Wasabi Roasted Asparagus

You know that feeling you get when you accidentally gulp down too much wasabi, that white-hot fire blazing through your mouth and up your nose? Well, I like that feeling. Now, I don’t coat everything with wasabi, and when I do use it, I try to use moderate amounts, but when I accidentally over-smear a [...]

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Fat-Free Mini Donuts

April 10, 2009
Fat-free Mini Donuts

If it weren’t for my daughter, I probably wouldn’t post this recipe. Cute though they are, mini donuts, even if they’re fat-free and made with whole wheat flour, really aren’t the healthy kind of food that I want to advocate. But my daughter couldn’t get enough of them and insisted: “I rate them 6 out [...]

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Strawberry Snack Cake

March 19, 2009
Strawberrry Snack Cake

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Sherry Lucas, the food writer for our local newspaper, who asked if I’d like to be the subject of an article. Though naturally camera-shy (as well as people-shy), I agreed, and when she suggested that I cook a dish using something seasonal, my very first thought [...]

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Colcannon Puffs

March 15, 2009
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With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, tonight I couldn’t resist making one more Irish-themed recipe. I had a bunch of kale in the fridge that I needed to use up, so my thoughts immediately went to colcannon, the traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes and cabbage or kale. Then a conversation about potato [...]

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No-Queso Quesadillas

March 5, 2009
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I got a craving for quesadillas after seeing a recipe for them in the current Vegetarian Times—which is odd because I don’t think I’ve ever had a quesadilla. Like a lot of popular foods (buffalo wings is another that comes to mind), quesadillas didn’t come on the scene until after I’d become a vegan. So [...]

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Chocolate Covered Cherry Pudding Cake

February 9, 2009
Chocolate-Covered Cherry Pudding Cake

A few days ago I challenged you to come up with delicious Valentine’s Day dishes that contain vegetables, and now here I am offering up a V-Day dessert that is completely devoid of vegetables. How hypocritical is that? What can I say? With all of you (15 bloggers so far) handling the vegetable dishes, I [...]

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Sweet Potato Falafel with Yogurt-Tahini Sauce

January 4, 2009
Sweet Potato Falafel

I don’t exactly know how I came to have about a dozen sweet potatoes in my pantry. I seem to remember buying a few for a casserole that I never got around to making, but I’m not quite sure how the others got there. My secret suspicion is that while behind closed doors, they’re multiplying [...]

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Mushroom, Lentil, and Wild Rice Timbales

November 23, 2008
Mushroom, Lentil, and Wild Rice Timbales

My Thanksgiving menu planning will always be an exercise in fantasy because we celebrate the holiday at my in-laws’, but if I were serving Thanksgiving dinner at my house this year, my menu would include Green Bean Casserole, mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, cornbread dressing, Cranberry Relish, Sweet Potato Casserole, Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake, and these [...]

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Scrambled Tofu with Porcini Mushrooms

November 4, 2008
Scrambled Tofu with Porcini Mushrooms

Scrambled tofu is one of my family’s favorite breakfasts, but I think we enjoy it even more for dinner. There’s something comforting about coming home at the end of a long Autumn day to a plate piled high with scrambled tofu, toast, and possibly some creamy grits and vegan sausage. It’s the kind of soothing [...]

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Pumpkin Cookies

October 30, 2008
Pumpkin Cookies

What I love most about sharing recipes online is the conversation that follows, when readers share their tips and variations. I’m constantly getting ideas from you: ingredients I haven’t tried, short-cuts that make a recipe faster, substitutions I’ve never thought of. Case in point, this email I received earlier this week from Emily Findley in [...]

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Two Chickpea Salads

October 11, 2008
Creamy Chickpea Salad

October may seem like a strange time to be writing about salads, but even in the cooler months, I like to eat salads for lunch. I load up on raw vegetables for my midday meal and concentrate on cooked veggies, beans, and grains for dinner. But raw vegetables don’t really fill me up or keep [...]

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Tofu with Lobster Mushrooms in Ginger Broth

October 6, 2008

Some tourists visit places of scenic beauty, others seek out man-made wonders like cathedrals and museums, but when I travel, I look for… grocery stores! Okay, that’s not strictly true. I tend to start with the scenic spots, take in a man-made wonder if it’s nearby, and then, if time allows, head for a grocery [...]

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And the Soymilk Maker Goes to…

October 5, 2008

751 comments! In my wildest dreams (or scariest nightmares, depending on how you look at it) I never imagined I’d get that many responses to my contest. I’m bleary-eyed from reading them all–yes, I read them all, though they began to run together after the first hundred, so I can’t tell you who said what! [...]

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Making Tofu

October 1, 2008
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[Update: The contest is now closed.] Happy World Vegetarian Day! I never thought tofu had a flavor until a few years ago when I first made my own. Up until then, I thought of it as a blank slate, something to suck up the flavors of whatever it was cooked with. But the first time [...]

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Okara (or Tofu) Coconut Cookies

September 26, 2008
Thumbnail image for Okara (or Tofu) Coconut Cookies

It’s a hard job, but somebody had to do it, and I hope you all appreciate what I went through for you today. I mean, it’s bad enough having to make one batch of cookies, but to make another batch of them the next day? And to have to test these little morsels of coconut [...]

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Vadouvan: A Delectable Seasoning and Two Recipes

August 22, 2008
Red Lentil Soup with Vadouvan

You may not have heard of vadouvan, but I’m predicting it will be the next trendy ingredient. It’s been popping up on restaurant menus a lot lately and caused a bit of web chatter when Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet, mentioned trying it a few months ago, but now that Gourmet has published a recipe [...]

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Blackberry-Lime Tartlets

July 26, 2008
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Can we talk about the weather? I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but here in central Mississippi it’s officially sweltering. I was just out watering the garden and between the heat and the clouds of hungry mosquitoes, I couldn’t get inside fast enough. In this heat, I don’t really feel like doing [...]

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Polenta and Tofu Skillet

July 20, 2008

When Nava Atlas wrote to me a couple of years ago and asked if I’d consider taking the photos for her new book, Vegan Express, I recognized it as a unique opportunity to expand my photography skills and have my photos published in an actual book–a chance that wasn’t likely to ever come along again. [...]

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Golden Potato and Tempeh Casserole

July 12, 2008
Golden Potato and Tempeh Casserole

Does anybody make casseroles anymore? I’ll be the first to admit that just the sound of the word is enough to give me flashbacks to the potato chip-sprinkled, tuna and cream of mushroom soup concoctions that were so popular when I was growing up. They were enough to drive a kid to vegetarianism, which, now [...]

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Cumin-Grilled Tofu with Papaya Salsa

July 5, 2008
Cumin-Grilled Tofu with Papaya Salsa

I know that some of you are eager to hear how the McDougall Celebrity Chef Weekend went, but I’m sure others couldn’t care less and are just waiting for the next recipe to be posted. So, in the interest of being all things to all people (a character flaw of mine), here’s a quick summary [...]

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Tofu and Vegetables with Lower-Fat Thai Peanut Sauce

June 5, 2008
Tofu and Vegetables with Lower-Fat Thai Peanut Sauce

We were in Phoenix our last night in Arizona and really should have eaten at Green. We’d planned to, actually, but after D and I made the executive decision to eat lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant, E complained that we never let her decide where to eat. So, reluctantly–and playing up Green’s great qualities–I presented [...]

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Pistachio Crusted Tofu

May 19, 2008
Pistachio-Crusted Tofu

After looking for them for months, I finally managed to find a 1-pound bag of shelled, unroasted pistachios at the Indian grocery. Of course, after all that time I’d forgotten what it was I planned to do with them, so they’ve been languishing in my fridge for a couple of weeks, tempting me to open [...]

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E Cooks: Banana Coffee Cake

May 5, 2008
Banana Coffee Cake

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 [...]

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Spring Green Quinoa

April 27, 2008

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 [...]

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Spinach-Matzo Pie

April 24, 2008
Spinach-Matzo Pie

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 [...]

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Asparagus and Mushroom Quiche with a Brown Rice Crust

March 31, 2008

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 [...]

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Pasta with Asparagus, Cannellini Beans, and Porcini Cream

March 27, 2008

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 [...]

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Porcini Wonton Ravioli

March 12, 2008

I went a little wrapper crazy on a recent trip to the Asian market. For some reason, I felt compelled to pick up wonton wrappers, gyoza, spring roll wrappers, and thin sheets of tofu. I didn’t really have anything in mind to do with any of them, and since they were all frozen, I figured [...]

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Korean Noodle Stirfry

March 7, 2008

I’m always saying that I love Korean food, but when I stop to think about it, what I really love is certain flavors of Korean food: kim chee, Korean barbecue sauce, and gochujang, the hot pepper paste that Koreans consider one of their three essential condiments. I’m sure there’s more to love about Korean food, [...]

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Personal Polenta Pizza

January 29, 2008

It was Friday night, and I was in the mood for pizza. But I’ve been strong, sticking to my resolution to eat healthier, and I knew I needed something lighter than the standard crust. You may remember that I’ve already used potatoes as a pizza crust; this time I wanted something a little more crust-like [...]

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Chocolate-Orange Cake

December 3, 2007
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 [...]

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Sichuan Tofu with Garlic Sauce

November 28, 2007
Sichuan Tofu and Garlic Sauce

My family had only one complaint about this meal: there wasn’t enough of it. I’d been looking for fresh water chestnuts ever since I saw the recipe for Chicken with Garlic Sauce on the food blog that has taught me the most about Chinese cooking, Barbara Fisher’s Tigers and Strawberries. According to Barbara, the recipe [...]

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Red Chile Rice with Black Beans and Dried Tofu

November 6, 2007
Red Chile Rice with Black Beans and Dried Tofu

I don’t have a lot to say about today’s recipe other than that it’s an adaptation of a Rick Bayless recipe from a book I checked out from the library and that I bought a jar of ancho chile powder just to make it. The original recipe included chicken, white rice, and 2 tablespoons of [...]

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Can This Recipe Be Saved Contest

November 1, 2007

It was a good idea and I ruined it. I was all set to veganize a recipe for Thai fish croquettes using chickpeas and wheat gluten, but for some inexplicable reason I decided right at the last minute to use canned pumpkin instead. Maybe it’s because it was Halloween and I hadn’t made anything remotely [...]

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Double Mushroom Miso Soup and Sesame Broccoli

October 27, 2007
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When my husband is out of town, I often let our daughter E pick what we’ll have for dinner. Almost always her first pick is lasagna, followed by peanut butter noodles or macaroni and “cheese.” The girl loves her pasta. Recently, however, I was thrilled when she told me what she wanted: Miso soup. Actually, [...]

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Tofu and Vegetable Cacciatore on Roasted Spaghetti Squash

October 21, 2007
Tofu and Vegetable Cacciatore on Roasted Spaghetti Squash

Last night I made a dish with two ingredients that I don’t like very much, and it turned out so delicious that my husband is insisting that I make it every week, and my daughter, who doesn’t like three-fourths of the ingredients, ate every bite. If you take a look at the title up there, [...]

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Vegan Magic Cookie Bars

October 17, 2007
Magic Cookie Bars

Warning: This is not a fat-free recipe. In fact, there is absolutely nothing healthy about this recipe except, perhaps, the nuts. This is definitely the most fat-filled, junk foodish recipe that you’ll see on this blog, ever. I just want to make that clear right from the start or else I’ll get letters. I’ll probably [...]

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Easy Macaroni and “Cheeze”

October 1, 2007
Easy Macaroni and Cheeze

It’s a funny thing, but the recipe I’m asked for most often is the one I’m most reluctant to give out. Every time I mention that macaroni and “cheese” is one of E’s favorite dishes, parents wanting to wean their kids off the dairy stuff and onto something more healthy ask me for the recipe. [...]

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Vegan Omelette for One

September 19, 2007
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I’m not a big breakfast eater. In fact, ordinarily I skip breakfast and don’t even miss it. But I’ve been trying to change my ways since finding out that people who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight than people who skip it. In addition to speeding up your metabolism, eating breakfast has also [...]

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Black-Eyed Pea Cakes

September 14, 2007

What can I say? Ever since I saw KathyF’s Black Bean and Rice Cakes with Chipotle Remoulade and Roasted Corn Salsa I’ve been craving that remoulade sauce, lusting after the whole gorgeous dish, really. At the same time, I’ve had it in mind to create a version of these black-eyed pea cakes that I once [...]

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Greek-Style Soy Yogurt or Soy Yogurt Cheese

September 10, 2007

My new favorite food! Or maybe it’s an old favorite? Ilva combines it with wine-simmered peaches. Heidi uses it to make frozen yogurt. And just about everyone is using it to make Tzatziki. Normally I just ignore non-vegan ingredients in recipes, but lately I’ve started to notice so many mentions of Greek-style yogurt that I [...]

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Home-Style Tofu with Shiitake Mushrooms

August 18, 2007

I don’t often cook other people’s recipes, at least not exactly as written. I like to get inspiration from cookbooks and other people’s blogs and then go off and do my own thing, incorporating the techniques that have worked well for me in the past. But when I saw the recipe for Peng’s Home-Style Bean [...]

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Grilled Baby Eggplants with Korean Barbecue Sauce

August 14, 2007
Grilled Baby Eggplants with Korean Barbecue Sauce

Blame my husband. Normally I wouldn’t post back-to-back eggplant recipes, but while visiting his family in New Orleans, D took a shopping trip to the Hong Kong Market and brought home the last thing we needed, more eggplant. But he knows how much I love baby eggplants, so he and E couldn’t resist buying them [...]

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Peach Upside-Down Cake

August 7, 2007
Peach Upside-Down Cake

No long introduction to this recipe, folks. I could talk about how it’s peach season and the sweetest, juiciest, not-quite-local peaches come from Chilton County, Alabama. Or I could travel down memory lane and plague you with childhood stories of how I used to gorge on peaches in my family’s orchard until the fuzz burned [...]

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TLT Sandwiches

August 5, 2007
TLT

When I told D that we needed to use the tempeh soon before it went bad, he got this far-off, dreamy expression on his face. I thought for a minute he was having some type of male menopausal seizure, but no, he was just thinking about tempeh “bacon.” The first place D ever had tempeh [...]

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Nasu Dengaku (Japanese Eggplants Broiled with Miso)

June 25, 2007
Nasu Dengaku

E. holding this summer’s first eggplants Over the weekend, we harvested the first of our Japanese eggplants, and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with them. Our favorite sushi restaurant used to have this eggplant appetizer that I loved until they slowly stopped serving it. I say “slowly” because at first it was [...]

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Baked Spinach Kofta with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce

June 22, 2007
Baked Spinach Kofta

I never buy cookbooks for the pictures, but I broke that rule a few months ago after previewing Tropical Asian Cooking. It’s nowhere near a vegan book, though there are several vegetarian or near-vegetarian recipes, but the photos were just so lovely that I had to have a copy. So I bought it and it [...]

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Maitake and Beech Mushrooms with Simmered Tofu on Sesame Rice

June 12, 2007

Maitake Mushroom I’ve been interested in mushrooms for a while and once even grew my own shiitakes on a log, a hobby that I’m planning to return to. But I’ve become a little more interested ever since picking up A Cook’s Book of Mushrooms (ACBOM) while I was in New Orleans. Who knew there were [...]

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Palak Tofu (Tofu in Curried Spinach Sauce)

May 15, 2007
Palak Tofu

Let me take a moment to wish a belated happy Mothers’ Day to all you moms and kids. I was very lucky this year to be able to spend the day with my own mother, which happens very rarely even though we live only a few hours apart. The older I get, the more grateful [...]

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Seaside-Stuffed Mirlitons

April 13, 2007

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, [...]

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Strawberry Whip

March 29, 2007

Recently, after I posted about the lovely strawberries that I brought back from my weekend trip to Louisiana, several people left comments saying that they couldn’t wait to see what I was going to make with them. I was a little embarrassed to admit that my plans were pretty boring: freeze most of them for [...]

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Vegan Corned Beef and Cabbage, Roasted Potatoes, and Soda Bread

March 20, 2007
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Instead of St. Patrick’s Day, this year we celebrated St. Patrick’s Weekend. After being out all day Saturday, I didn’t feel up to preparing a big meal, so we waited to have our “official” holiday meal on Sunday night, when I had the time and energy to make it special. And this really was special! [...]

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Chocolate-Peppermint Pudding

March 11, 2007
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Spring is springing and school is breaking here in the Deep South, so I’m going to be taking some time off from blogging for a few days. But I thought before I go I’d leave you with an old favorite recipe for easy, microwave chocolate pudding, all gussied up with soft peppermint sticks.

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Carrot Spice Muffins

March 4, 2007
Carrot Muffins

Here’s one way to get your kids to eat their vegetables: Bake them into muffins (the vegetables, that is, not the kids!) I baked these muffins over the weekend, and my daughter E. didn’t even bat an eye at the shreds of carrot in them, despite the fact that she’s never even had carrot cake, [...]

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Gumbo z’Herbes with Cajun Tempeh Bacon

February 28, 2007
Gumbo Z'herbes with 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 [...]

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Yaki-Fu Stew

February 25, 2007

This package of roasted gluten has been in my pantry ever since I bought it at the Hong Kong Market right after Thanksgiving. I’ve been searching for a way to use it but couldn’t find a mention of it in any of my Japanese or Asian cookbooks (including Madhur Jaffrey’s World of the East). I [...]

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A to Z Pasta Salad

February 16, 2007

Since I don’t eat a lot of pasta anymore, this blog is sadly lacking in pasta recipes. Recently, however, I needed to make a dish for a potluck, and since asparagus is once again affordable, I decided to make my generic, go-to pasta salad (even if it’s definitely not salad weather here in frosty Mississippi). [...]

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Polenta Lasagna with Portabellas and Kale

February 6, 2007
Polenta Lasagna

You know I really like a recipe when I make it two days in a row. I first made this dish for dinner last night, and though I liked it and my husband thought it was “outstanding,” I still wanted to tinker with the recipe. It was good, but I thought it could be incredible. [...]

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Making Soy Yogurt

January 29, 2007

My family is crazy about soy yogurt. My husband puts it on his breakfast cereal, my daughter likes it in smoothies, and I eat it with fruit, mostly frozen berries at this time of year. But I have a problem with store-bought soy yogurt. The only brand I can find “plain” is Whole Soy, and [...]

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Susan’s Lite Goddess Dressing

January 23, 2007
Susan's Lite Goddess Dressing

A couple of weeks ago, someone in the Fatfree Vegan YahooGroup asked if anyone had a lower-fat alternative to Annie’s Goddess Dressing. Over the years I’ve heard a lot about this dressing, but I’d never tasted it. Since it comes so highly recommended, I decided to buy a bottle, test it out, and try to [...]

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Dried Tofu and Vegetables in a Light Ginger-Garlic Sauce

January 7, 2007

I was racked with indecision. I hadn’t really cooked for days, and finally my family was back home with me, my cold was waning, and I wanted to do something with some of the produce in my fridge before it all turned to compost. At first I craved Indian; then I thought Thai curry. I [...]

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Chickenless Soup for the Cold

January 2, 2007

If I were a superstitious person, I’d be worried. I’ve had black-eyed peas every New Year’s Day that I can remember, until yesterday. I started the new year off with a cold so bad that everything tastes horrible. Though I had planned to cook a new black-eyed pea dish, I realized that I had absolutely [...]

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Vegan Eggnog Cheesecake

December 23, 2006
Eggnog Cheesecake

You know a dessert is good when your photo shoot is cut short because you started eating it! But it’s no wonder I gave in to temptation; I decided to combine two things I can’t resist—eggnog and cheesecake. (Vegan versions, of course.) And the combination was just as delicious as I expected. But enough from [...]

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Rainbow Stir-Fry

December 6, 2006
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I had planned to write about a pasta dish today, but I’m under strict orders to post this recipe immediately. I don’t really mind; in fact, I’d love to use the phrase “guest post by my daughter” right now, but the truth is, E. likes to cook the food, photograph it, and eat it, but [...]

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Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches

December 4, 2006
Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches

I don’t have a lot to say about this recipe. I mean, there are only so many ways I can say something’s delicious—Mmmmm! Yum! Wow! Awesome! Kid-Friendly!—without sounding like a 4th grader. The story on these quiches is that I saw a non-vegan recipe for mini crustless quiches in a magazine and wanted to try [...]

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Tofu Stuffed with Brown Rice and Mushroom Dressing

November 14, 2006
Tofu Stuffed with Brown Rice and Mushroom Dressing

Thanksgiving came early to our house this year. Though we’ll be visiting my in-laws for the main big feast, I decided to have a little celebration just for my own little family. After all, we have a lot to be thankful for. Besides, I wanted to try my hand at something that couldn’t easily survive [...]

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Chinese Barbecued Tofu and Vegetables

October 20, 2006
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It was one of those days when I needed a clone–you know, someone to do the cooking while I did everything else that had to be done. Since science has yet to reach the point of providing me free kitchen help, I reached into my cabinet and pulled out the next best thing: The Crockpot. [...]

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Vegan Eggplant “Parmesan”

September 17, 2006
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I haven’t had eggplant parmesan in so many years that I’ve literally forgotten what it tastes like, so I can’t promise that this tastes like the “real thing,” but I can promise that it is delicious–rich and creamy inside and a little crunchy outside. The method I used is taken from a recipe by Bryanna [...]

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Shiitake, Sweet Potato and Zucchini Foo Yung

September 5, 2006
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I’ve been interested in trying my hand at Paper Chef for a while. It’s a blogging event/contest hosted by Owen at Tomatilla! and anyone can participate. It works like this: On Friday we’re given a set of four ingredients to use and we have to come up with a dish over the weekend. I may [...]

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Eggplant Paprikash

August 29, 2006
Eggplant Paprikash

Yes, it’s my weekly eggplant recipe! I know you’re as excited as I am. After all, you can never have too much eggplant. As part of my agenda to convert everyone into Eggplant Lovers (aka Aubergine Admirers and Brinjal Buddies), I’ve transformed the traditional Hungarian chicken paprikash into a vegan dish worthy of an eggplant. [...]

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South Carolina Golden Mustard Barbecue Sauce

August 22, 2006

When I moved to South Carolina, I was surprised to discover that the barbecue there was yellow instead of red. Tangy and sweet, mustard-based barbecue sauce was very popular, but I don’t think I ever got a chance to sample the barbecued pork that the natives raved about because I became vegetarian shortly after moving [...]

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Eggplant and Tofu in Spicy Garlic Sauce

August 17, 2006

I know some of you are probably tired of seeing eggplant here. Eggplant recipes appear on this blog so often that I could probably change the name to FatFree Eggplant Recipes. But there’s a reason for that: I love eggplant! I think it’s one of the most versatile vegetables around. If you’ve been avoiding it [...]

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Grillin’ in the Rain (Orange-Ginger Tofu)

August 10, 2006

Grilled Orange-Ginger Tofu with Mango Chutney, Shirataki Noodles, and Grilled ChayoteLast night I barbecued in the rain. I had this grand idea to marinate tofu in orange-ginger sauce and cook it along with chayotes on the grill. I was so busy planning what I was going to cook that it never occurred to me to [...]

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Thai Red Curry with Mango Chutney

July 29, 2006
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While researching uses for mango chutney, I stumbled upon a recipe for Crawfish Curry that I just had to try to veganize. Anything that combines elements of Louisiana cooking with Thai and Indian cuisine is just mixed-up enough for me. I had to lose the crawfish, though, and since nothing can ever really replicate its [...]

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Inari Sushi and Kale with Mushrooms and Water Chestnuts

July 21, 2006

Every now and then I prepare a meal that I’ve been reluctant to blog about because it’s not at all fat-free. Inari are rice-stuffed pouches made of fried tofu, and they’re very easy to make if you buy Inarizushi No Moto in a can. I’ve been working on a way to make the pouches myself, [...]

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Artichoke Pesto Pasta Salad

July 19, 2006

Last weekend I attended yet another potluck dinner. Something about the summer just screams “potluck,” I guess. For this one, I threw together not one but two pesto pasta salads: a regular one made with semolina pasta and olive oil, to share with the crowd, and a fat-free, healthier version made with whole wheat pasta [...]

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Okara "Crab" Cakes

July 17, 2006

If you make your own soymilk, you know what okara is–it’s the soy pulp that’s left after all the “milk” is strained out. And if you’ve been throwing it out, you need to stop that right now because it’s very valuable stuff: It has almost as much protein as tofu but has 32 times as [...]

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Colorful Tofu Salad with Basil and Cashews

June 28, 2006
Colorful Tofu Salad

It’s swim-meet season, that dreaded time of year when once a week my family sits outside in the humid Mississippi heat while my daughter periodically gets to jump into a pool and swim as though Jaws himself were after her. She stays nice and cool while the rest of us wilt. Since we’re out there [...]

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Thai-Style Basil Tofu and Asparagus

June 22, 2006
Thai Style Basil Tofu and Asparagus

We’re a family of basil lovers. I’ve found that I can get my daughter to eat just about anything if it tastes like “pesto” (witness the miracle eggplant and squash quinoa from a few days ago). So each year I plant as much basil as I can find room for. This year I have a [...]

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Chocolate a l’Orange Mousse Pie

May 12, 2006
Chocolate-Orange Mousse Pie

Special Mothers’ Day Fat-Full Edition! Even vegans watching their diets deserve some chocolate decadence every now and then–and this goes doubly for mothers. Most of us watch not only our own diets but also our children’s and significant others’. So I say, give your mom or your children’s mom or your partner’s mom or your [...]

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Hot and Sour Shirataki Noodles with Tofu

May 11, 2006

I gave in and tried a fad-food. While shopping in the local Asian grocery store yesterday, I noticed shirataki noodles in the refrigerated section. They may have been there all along, but I noticed them only because I’ve been seeing them mentioned on the internet as the next diet wonderfood. In case you’ve missed all [...]

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Vegan Onigiri

May 8, 2006

On Saturday, I made Onigiri to go with the Cabbage Nori Rolls I served to my family and our young guest. Though the rolls didn’t contain any rice, Onigiri are virtually all rice. They’re made by simply cupping sticky, hot sushi rice in your hand and pressing it into a triangle or other shape around [...]

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Cabbage Nori Rolls

May 7, 2006

Here’s a recipe that proved to me that my daughter will eat anything wrapped in nori with baked tofu. Though the friend she invited to eat with us didn’t care for them (she’s not a fan of sushi either), E. couldn’t get enough of these. She must have eaten 12 of them by herself. If [...]

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Guacamole Goddess Dressing

May 3, 2006
Guacamole Goddess Dressing

I eat a lot of salads–big lunch salads that fill an entire serving bowl–and because I hate a dry salad, I wind up eating a lot of salad dressing. So finding low-fat salad dressings that I like has practically become my life’s work. As far as I’m concerned, the less fat it has, the better [...]

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Teriyaki Tofu and Vegetable Kabobs

May 1, 2006

A beautiful Sunday afternoon inspires in many of us one thought: Get out the barbecue grill! Yes, even vegans like to cook outside on the grill from time to time, and I especially like it because my daughter will eat any vegetable (except pepper) if it’s cooked on a skewer. Yesterday’s decision to grill was [...]

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Creamy Herbed Coleslaw with Grape Tomatoes

April 19, 2006

Rather than have my usual lettuce and spinach salad for lunch today, I decided to enjoy a nice big bowl of coleslaw. And since there’s a 2-pound package of grape tomatoes on my counter (my daughter pleaded with me to buy them, saying she’d have them for snacks, but that’s a lot of snacking) I [...]

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Spinach and Artichoke Pie

April 18, 2006

I rarely rave about a recipe, or at least I don’t think I do. But I have to rave about this one because it was quite simply the best thing I’ve eaten in a long time. (And that is including decadent deserts, too!) This was something that was both long in the planning and thrown [...]

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Tofu and Broccoli with Pineapple Sauce

April 11, 2006

I was really excited about the meal I was preparing last night, until I got a call from my husband, in New York on a business trip. He was just sitting down to a meal at Sacred Chow, an all-vegan restaurant in Greenwich Village. He’d ordered three tapas–Orange Blackstrap BBQ Seitan, Mama’s Soy Meatballs, and [...]

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Somen with Tofu and Asparagus in a Chinese Dressing

March 27, 2006

Once again, I’d fooled around too long reading about food and it’d gotten too late to cook any food! Or maybe I wasn’t reading but enjoying some time with my husband or working in the yard. Whatever the reason, dinnertime on Saturday came, and I was totally unprepared for it. But at least there was [...]

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My Favorite Lasagna

March 24, 2006
Easy Vegan Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna

Last night I had the pleasure of having dinner with a group of people taking a Civil Rights Tour through the South. The menu for the night was barbecued pork sandwiches and pork-and-beans, the idea being to give them a little taste of local cuisine (which revolves around pork, apparently). The only problem: Several of [...]

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Yin & Yang Tofu with Bean Sprouts Salad

March 23, 2006

Dinner for One I enjoy cooking for others, and I rarely go to much trouble on the rare occasions when I’m on my own for dinner. Last night, however, I went to a small bit of trouble and treated myself to a dish I’d been creating in my head for a couple of weeks: Yin [...]

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Korean Tofu and Vegetable Stew

March 19, 2006

I’ve been eager to use the new bowls I got from the Korean grocery store, so I looked around the internet until I found a stew that looked perfect at Vegetarian Times. I have to admit that I hardly changed anything about this recipe, just made a few substitutions for ingredients I didn’t have. The [...]

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Miang Kum Rolls

March 18, 2006

What do you get when you combine a Thai snack food with a Vietnamese spring roll wrapper: Miang Kum Rolls, of course! Here’s the back-story: I was thinking of making up a batch of Spring Rolls, to go with the Korean Stew I was planning for dinner last night. And I also had a craving [...]

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Tofu Jambalaya

March 11, 2006
Tofu Jambalaya

I’m going to be away from the computer for a few days, but before I go, I’d like to share with you a couple of recipes from my native state, Louisiana. First up is a somewhat non-traditional jambalaya, based on a recipe for Chicken Jambalaya that I used to love in my omnivore days. It [...]

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Hurry-up Hoisin Tofu and Vegetables with Rice Noodles

March 1, 2006

I debated whether to post this recipe at all because it wasn’t a big success. D. and I liked it, though I thought it could have been better; E. hated it, which is a shame because she loves noodles and tofu. It was a bad night for cooking at all because I had to leave [...]

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Non-Traditional Sushi (Brown Rice and No-Rice Sushi)

February 9, 2006

First let me say that what follows is not traditional sushi. Perhaps I shouldn’t even call it that. For those purists out there who think that you have to use white sushi rice in order to make sushi, I officially rename this meal Interesting Stuff Wrapped in Seaweed. But for brevity’s sake, I will refer [...]

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Thai Coconut Soup with Tofu and Mushrooms

February 7, 2006

Last night I realized that I had an open can of coconut milk that I needed to use soon–never a bad situation since coconut milk is one of my favorite foods. I decided to try to recreate the coconut milk and tofu soup I’ve had in Thai restaurants, while reducing the amount of coconut milk [...]

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A Simple Stir-fry

February 2, 2006

Stir-fries are one of the dishes that my family and I usually have regularly, about once a week. But for the past 3 weeks, we haven’t had it once. Why? This blog. You see, though I know how to make a stir-fry and think I make a pretty darn good one, I don’t use a [...]

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Rigatoni with Zucchini and Eggplant

January 29, 2006
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If you’re a vegan and you’re invited to a dinner, banquet, or other large party involving food, you usually have two choices: either eat before you go and find a lettuce leaf to nibble on or offer to bring some of the food. Last night I attended a dinner at our local Unitarian Universalist church, [...]

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Monterey Frittata

January 22, 2006

Last night I decided to give myself time off for good behavior. After being on my feet all day, I did what people down through the centuries have done when they’re too tired to cook: ordered Middle Eastern food. Or at least that’s what our ancestors would have done if they’d known the joys of [...]

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