Author Archives: Kinenchen

Hot pot!

When Brent and I are feeling particularly lazy but still want to eat something healthy, we make hot pot. This is an East Asian fun thing that can be enjoyed by small groups of friends or just your family. We use a simple electric wok that’s resistant to tipping over and fill it with our favorite kind of broth. It’s a great way to use just about any vegetables that are available in our refrigerator – broccoli, green beans, baby corn, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, bean sprouts, tofu, tofu skins, mushrooms, snow peas, broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, noodles (we use thin rice noodles and konjac noodles). Napa cabbage, spinach and Romaine lettuce are favorites.

After that, all you need is some fresh veg chopped into bite sized pieces and maybe some dipping sauces. Our broth recipe is as follows
1-2  liters of water

1-2 cubes of bouillon (we use “chicken” or mushroom)

1 tbsp of Szechuan peppercorns (we like spicy, what can I say)

2 star anise pods

15-20 goji berries

10-15 scallion onions, chopped into 2 inch pieces

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

a pinch of ground cumin

2-3 pods of allspice

1 coin size slice of ginger (optional)

juice from 1/2 lemon (optional)

1 tbsp chili or garlic flavored canola oil

salt and pepper to taste

I combine everything but the scallion onions in my pot and boil for 30 minutes or more until it’s fragrant and steamy. Then I add the spring onions and take the pot to our table. You put the veggies into the soup pot and wait for the liquid to return to a boil. Then we remove the vegetables without chopsticks, wait for them to cool or dip them in sauce or not (I like a home-made chili-lime-peanut sauce, Brent prefers a garlic chili sauce) and DEVOUR! Just be careful that the hot liquid doesn’t splash anyone and that the contents don’t spill onto anyone. It’s HOT (hence the name *hot* pot)! This might not be a dish for the faint of heart, but it is for the hungry, adventurous and lazy. Just put down a towel for all the drips and splashes.

As versatile as this particular dish is, there’s something for everyone. Just don’t get hurt when you realize someone ate your mushroom.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Umeboshi; Japanese Pickled Plums

This is one of a long list of things I’ve been waiting to try as a vegan delicacy.  I figured it might be a good start for my re-entry to the land of blogging – a little weird and a little wonderful. They’re reputed to be good for digestion and hangovers. Who knows if I’ll ever get to try the latter out, but until then I’ll give it a shot for my digestion.

This was the first box I’ve seen of this particular product. I was pretty excited to finally see it, scooped it up and brought it home. Of course I paid for it, but that’s another story.

I opened the box and put a whole plum in my mouth and discovered that it really is a pickled plum – salty and sour like a pickle, but with a surprising floral aftertaste. My next stop with these will be to use them for hot pot which is a regular fun thing in our house. I think they’ll make a great addition to our regular szechuan style seasoning. Have you ever tried pickled ume plums?

This is Christie, signing off!

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Vegan Smoked Salmon

Sophie’s Kitchen has been making assorted vegan versions of beloved seafood for a while now when I noticed their vegan smoked salmon.

We tried it with Tofutti cream cheese and some home-made teff bread (a new house favorite; the recipe is a work in progress) and the flavor was there. It isn’t smoked salmon but it was smoky, salty, oily and fishy. The texture wasn’t what I expected; the konjac fiber dominated but wasn’t offensive. The ingredients were unobjectionable but highly processed. As far as vegan comfort food goes, it didn’t wow me, but I think it’s worth a try for the rest of you out there.

I don’t think it will convince most carnists, but was a welcome change from regular Tofutti cream cheese on toast. Let me know what you think.

This is Christie, signing off!

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GAZPACHO!

Sounds funny, tastes delicious… This is a simple cold summer soup that is loaded with good nutrients and packed with flavor. It should be a staple in your diet whether you’re vegan or not. Ours is made from the following ingredients:
2 bell peppers, stems and seeds removed (I like 2 different colors, in this case yellow and red)
1/2 cup of cilantro stems
2 cucumbers
juice from 1 lemon
5 tomatoes, stems removed
1 jalapeño (optional for the brave)
6-8 scallion onions, chopped just as the bulb turns green, stems diced
4-5 strawberries (optional)
hot sauce and salt to taste

Brent cut up the vegetables into sizes that fit easily in our food processor. The skins can be left on the cucumber for a richer flavor if they’re organic, otherwise I remove most of it if not all.


The tomato, cucumber, peppers, strawberries, lemon juice, scallion bulbs and cilantro stems all went into the processor and was blended until smooth. Afterward I added salt and hot sauce to taste, garnished with scallion onion (you can use cilantro too, if you like). and served with grilled cashew cheese sammiches. It hit the spot after a day in the muggy Florida heat. Let me know what you think!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Birthday CAKE!

My personal favorite birthday cake is chocolate and vanilla marble cake with coconut frosting. Being gluten-free and vegan makes this an adventure. We tried Wholesome Chow’s vanilla cake mix, chocolate cake mix (both prepared with vegetable oil and soy milk) and their vanilla frosting mix prepared according to their glaze instructions. with 1/4 tsp coconut extract and some flake coconut sprinkled over the top. We baked it according to the instructions but had to bake it for an additional 30 minutes before it became firm. Not a problem, if you ask me.

I brought it to a gathering with some omnivore/carnist friends and it disappeared. For how easy it was to make and how delicious, I’d recommend it to anyone out there. Also, belated blog happy birthday to co-author Melissa!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Restaurant Reviews

I have long been a reviewer on Yelp! after the web based service saved my bacon by warning me which gluten-free menus were actually gluten-free while visiting friends in an unfamiliar city several years ago. The only thing I can think of that’s worse than being sick while being away from home is being arrested and I’m lucky never to have experienced the latter.

Brent and I routinely visit local restaurants of various specialties, nationalities or ethnicities and put them to the test for what’s gluten-free and vegan. Recently I got a response to a scathing review (mostly about customer service) from the owner of a restaurant that proved to me I can make a little difference for a kind of business that classically struggles to make ends meet. He informed me that he’d spoken to his staff about the customer service issues and would try to add a vegan option to their menu starting in the new year. I’ve been eagerly watching their online menu, awaiting the needed change so that we can give their generous drink specials another try.

Contrastingly, I also got a message from another Yelp! user, below.

For your review of: XXXXX Restaurant

Why would you go to a Colombian restaurant with the expectation that you would find a variety of items that are not even Colombian? This is not useful at all and you ruin the reputation of good restaurants. Try Colombian restaurants if you want Colombian food. What you did is akin to going to a Indian restaurant and wondering why they dont have a great steak on the menu. It seems you need to be a bit more wordly in you culinary pursuits.

Naturally I responded.

To answer your question there are 3 reasons why I would go to and review a restaurant in the manner you describe.
1. As a person with food allergies, I’m really grateful to Yelp! for reviews that inform me as to whether I’ll be able to eat at a particular restaurant without getting violently ill. I’m paying it forward.
2. As a customer, even when a menu doesn’t look promising (with respect to dietary restrictions), a good kitchen will try to accommodate the needs of a customer. This addresses a customer service issue.
3. Restaurants might not know that they can broaden their base and increase revenue by adding menu items that will entice people who might otherwise avoid trying something new because of food allergies or religious, medical or personal reasons for avoiding certain foods. This notifies the restaurant of a demand they’re not filling.

I hope that answers your questions. Thanks again for asking.

Do any of you Yelp!? What do you think of the service? Have you had an experience like this one? Another option is Vegan Food is Everywhere that also helps vegans find food. Who uses it? Do you like it?

This is Christie, signing off!

Mushroom Spinach Risotto

I admit I’ve been delinquent in my duties as a blogger. We had to move (our former land lady disagreed with us on an appropriate time frame for air conditioner repair in Florida in the summer). I can’t find my camera, but that’s no excuse. I’ve got a phone. Brent is pretty awesome and cooks for both of us when I’m too exhausted from work or moving or all the bologna that goes with all of that, so I wanted to treat him for being so proactive in the kitchen with some comfort food.

I started by making some creamy cashew cheese.

3/4 cup of dry cashews soaked overnight in water (hemp hearts can be a suitable substitute if you’ve got a nut allergy)

juice from 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp herbes de provence

1 pinch salt

I blended this up until it was creamy and put it into the fridge until I was ready to make my risotto. We ate a lot of it with crackers. Oopsie!

To make the risotto I assembled the following additional ingredients.

1/2 cup arborio rice (this is more than enough for 2 people)

2 cups spinach (our was frozen)

1 and 1/2 cups chopped mushrooms

1 cup of white wine (I like chardonnay for this recipe, but I used pinot grigio because we had it)

1/2 tsp herbes de provence

1 quart of water

1 cube of vegetable bouillon

1 onion, diced

1/2 tsp garlic paste or chopped garlic

1 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

I started by microwaving the bouillon and water, stirring to dissolve the bouillon cube.


I then put the rice into my pan with the wine and herbes de provence over low heat until the wine cooked off and some of the liquid was absorbed. I continued to add the broth while I started to sautee the onion in the olive oil.

After the onion was soft I added the mushrooms. Once they started to soften, I added the spinach and turned off the heat once it was wilted.

Once the rice had absorbed most of the broth and was mostly translucent except for a little opaque bit in the middle of the rice grain, I added the nutritional yeast, garlic paste and then combined that with the sauteed vegetables.

Then I stirred in 1/2 cup of my cashew cheese and adjusted the salt and pepper to taste. Hey, guess what… it’s ready. The addition of cashew cheese makes this dish more reminiscent of the cheesy delightful artery clogging dairy rich dish but it’s way better for you and super ultra mega tasty.

This is Christie, signing off!

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What is “Vegan”?

Typically something is vegan if it’s not an animal product. Vegans usually rationalize this choice by offering any or all of three justifications:

1. It’s better for the planet.

2. It’s better for the animal.

3. It’s better for my body.

Nothing is ever so grey as real life, even in the face of something that can seem very black and white. A question I’ve been pondering is “what about farmed shellfish?”

1. Is it better for the planet? After some research, I’ve learned that clams, oysters and mussels when farmed actually have a positive impact on their local environment when farmed. These organisms filter water of microscopic algae, plankton and other particulate from the water, leaving it cleaner than it was before the addition of the creatures. Because removing impurities from water is their food source, they require no outside food source like fish or corn meal, making them sustainable in terms of their nutritional requirements during farming. They can also be seeded on posts in shallow water, ropes in open water and bags in deeper water. These are retrieved when the bivalves are ready for consumption without bycatch or damage to the ocean floor (as opposed to dredging – the ocean’s environmental equivalent of clear-cutting a forest).

2. Is it better for the animals? Because I doubt the sentience of these organisms because of their highly simplified nervous systems. I subsequently doubt that they can suffer the was a suffocating fish can. If they’re also responsible for cleaning water, this improves the lives of other marine animals.

3. Is it better for my body? Molluscs offer a suite of nutrients that vegans often have trouble getting, including zinc and B12. The nutritional profiles of clams, mussels and oysters include copious omega-3 and -6 fatty acids, iron and protein. Unfortunately they’re also rich in cholesterol which I consider to be their only drawback.

Would I stop being a vegan if I decided to start occasionally including these organisms as food in my diet? I admit I would eat ants, grasshoppers, worms and snails if they were readily available so maybe this was inevitable. I’m curious as to what other vegans think.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin, Sundried Tomato Bread!

I’ve been working on my baking with encouragement and inspiration from Somer at VegedOut and Annie of An Unrefined Vegan. These two ladies are ace bakers and manage to survive without eggs, milk and sometimes even wheat. Pastries are a little easier since lower protein flours have a good texture for cakes and cookies, but not bread. Bread is the one thing we can’t reliably get that’s gluten-free, vegan and tasty. Usually commercially available breads fit one or two of those three criteria. Therein lies my quest.

My early attempts at gluten-free vegan bread were unreliable and didn’t always rise properly so things have come up a few notches since then.

One of the big things was getting a stand mixer with a dough hook. I can knead bread myself, but this makes mixing much more consistent. I got a cheap used $55 3.5 quart stand mixer. I’ll probably get something nicer when this one goes, but for now it’s perfect for experimenting.

The biggest issues I find with gluten-free vegan bread is that it’s usually dry, crumbly and/or dense. I’m still struggling with these issues, but things are improving slowly but surely.

My ever evolving bread recipe is currently as follows.

1 cup garbanzo flour

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup teff flour

1/2 cup chopped sundried tomato

1/2 cup chopped nuts, sunflower seeds or pumpkin pits (shelled)

1 tsp herbes de provence

1 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp yeast (or one packet)

1/4 cup flax meal

1 cup water, warmed slightly in the microwave

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup tinned unsweetened pumpkin

Preheat the oven to 300F/150C. I combine the dry ingredients (except for the yeast in a bowl. Mix them lightly.

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I combine the water (warmed) and dissolve the yeast in it and then put that and the rest of the wet ingredients including the pumpkin in the bowl of my trusty stand mixer and give it a quick mix on the lowest setting. Then I wait for 3-5 minutes until the yeast starts to activate and look bubbly.

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After that I start to add the dry ingredients one cup at a time until it’s all mixed and doughy. It’s usually pretty sticky but holds its form well. I plop that onto a floured baking sheet and quickly mold it into a loaf form. (I haven’t tried any other formation, but you’ll know when I do!)

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I slash the top of the loaf to allow some of the steam to escape. When I tried skipping that step I ended up with a loaf of bread that looks like it exploded in the oven. I baked this for 2 hours and then started checking every 5 minutes to see if it was cooked all the way through by checking to see if a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf came out clean.

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This bread is still a little dense, but the flavor and texture are getting there fast. We’ve been enjoying it for simple things like grilled ‘cheese’ or toast with jam or vegan cream cheese.

 

This is Christie, signing off!

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Sunday Bunday in the shade!

We took the bunnies out for a romp in the grass. This is an image of our foster bunnies. They were keen to bounce around and dig holes in our verdant, lush lawn.

And here’s our forever bunny. He mostly wanted to lounge. He’s pretty good at it and we think he deserves it.

They had so much fun. Rabbits aren’t appropriate outdoor pets, particularly in a place as hot as Florida. Bunnies don’t tolerate temperatures above 75F or cooler than 55F and there are too many stray dogs, feral cats and birds of prey to make me comfortable leaving the fat little morsels outdoors unsupervised even with the protection of a hutch. Instead we keep them inside so that they can dart out from under furniture and demand attention.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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