Category Archives: Cooking

Oct 07 2012
10 Comments
Cooking

No Need to Knead Gluten-free Vegan Bread

I’m going to start this post by thanking 2 bloggers who have inspired me to take a stab at vegan baking. Somer of Vedged Out and recently featured on Forks over Knives and an Unrefined Vegan who has organized Virtual Vegan Potlucks have tickled my eyes, nose, mind and mouth in the best kind of way. They are two bloggers who seem to bake effortlessly. Vegan baking is certainly a nuanced thing but if any of you are experienced with baking gluten-free know that these recipes require lots and lots of eggs. So what’s a girl to do when she wants bread without gluten or eggs?

For baking bread today I’m using ground flax seeds. Flax is full of omega fatty acids and other important nutrients but practically speaking they’re also loaded with long chain polysaccharides that make it a great binding agent. With chicken eggs, protein forms the binding agent along with lots of cholesterol and recent studies bolster the claim that eggs are worse for your body than smoking. I don’t want that in my body so flax it is! Combine your ground flax seeds with water half an hour before baking (mix well) and you’ll notice the gelatinous texture that will help hold your bread together forming in your container. To start, we assembled the following ingredients

1 3/4 cups gluten-free all purpose flour (I’m using Bob’s Red Mill)
1/8 cup oats
1/8 cup quinoa flakes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp agar agar or suitable vegan gelling agent
1/4 cup lightly packed coconut sugar
5 tbsp flax meal in 1/2 cup of water (mix well and allow to sit for 20-30 minutes)
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons almond milk or other vegan alternative
1 tbsp active dry yeast (no need to put it in water first, seriously)

First, Brent combined all the dry ingredients in a large bowl including the yeast.
In another bowl, I combined the vegan milk, oil and flax “eggs”. It looked kind of gross.


I added the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Beat the batter until smooth. This can be done with a stand or hand mixer, but I like to use my Brent for this; his muscles are amazing. The batter should be thick but not doughy.


I sprayed a non-stick pan with olive oil. Then I poured the batter into the bread pan and sprinkled the top of the batter with sunflower seeds and buckwheat groats. You can also sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds.

We set it aside to rise for about 50 minutes or until the batter was peeking above the rim of the pan.


We baked it in a 375°F pre-heated oven for 50 minutes; until a toothpick comes out clean. We let it cool for 15 minutes. Then we removed from the pan and cool thoroughly on a rack. A glass pan might be better for next time.


As a first effort to bake gluten-free and vegan in about a year and a half, I’m pleased. The texture of the bread was good, lightly crispy outside and fluffy inside. I have had problems in the past with vegan gluten-free breads being far too dense for my taste.

The taste was lightly sweet and nutty but nothing special. Next time I plan to add some nutritional yeast or carob and maca powder and Braag’s aminos to bring out more of the flavors in all those grains and seeds. Quinoa, flax, sunflower seeds, buckwheat groats, rice, sorghum, oats and almonds make for awesome bread.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Oct 01 2012
8 Comments
Cooking

Vegan Bistek Part II

It seems like a really long time ago when I posted about Tofustek! and I actually find it hard to believe that it took me this long to make the recipe using soy curls instead of tofu.

 

Here is the recipe using soy curls:

1 cup soy curls
1/4 c soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice or calamansi juice if you’ve got it
2-3 tbsp veggie broth (I used ‘Not Beef’ boullion)
ground black pepper
1 medium onion, sweet vidalia recommended but any onion will do
olive oil

Rehydrate the soy curls as directed on the package, drain, and then add the soy sauce, lemon juice, broth, and black pepper. Mix and set aside to marinate. In the meantime, slice the onion into rings.

Fire up a pan and brown the soy curls in olive oil — do not add the marinade and set it aside, you’ll need it later! When done, put the soy curls in a bowl. Then, put the onions in the pan and cooking to your liking: I like them to be more on the raw side. Add the marinade to the pan and then remove from heat.

Place the onions on top of the soy curls and pour the liquid over everything. Ta da! You’re done!

This goes great with fresh veggies. Try it out! –Melissa

 

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Sep 24 2012
7 Comments
Cooking

Potato & Chorizo Tacos

It’s both a blessing and a curse that I cook vegan meals for myself and pretty much no one else. It’s good because I can try using new products in a handful of ways — which is what I have been able to do with Tofurky Chorizo — but bad because I don’t enjoy cooking for one and it can be rough going through an entire package of food by myself.

My latest experiment with Tofurky chorizo was potato & chorizo tacos. Now, this came out of wanting some vegan corned beef hash, but since the chorizo is already spiced as chorizo and I had tortillas, I went with the tacos instead.

This is a really simple recipe. First, I washed and cubed a potato. Then I browned some minced garlic and onion in olive oil, added the potato and about a half a cup of water, and let it cook in a pan until all the water had dried up.

Then, I added some Tofurky chorizo, onion powder, garlic powder, chipotle chili powder, and salt. I sauteed the mixture for about 5 minutes.

This was a great savory dish that would go just as well with rice or even by itself. I definitely enjoyed it more than the chorizo alone! –Melissa

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Sep 22 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Tofu & Chorizo Scramble

It’s officially fall here in Chicago and I’m happy to report that it actually feels like fall outside. We’re talking sweaters and having to wear socks and weird pumpkin cravings. On a crisp morning, a nice spiced up breakfast of tofu scramble with soy chorizo makes a perfect vegan breakfast.

 

I used silken tofu for the scramble and seasoned it as I usually do. After the tofu was ‘scrambled’ and the spices were mixed in well, I made a hole in the center of the pan and plopped some Tofurky chorizo on there:

 

I added some garlic powder and Tapatio hot sauce to the chorizo and mixed it up before stirring it together with the tofu.

I opted to eat this with buttered toast (butter=Earth Balance) and a tomato-onion salad. My Mom made breakfast tacos instead. Versatility is a wonderful thing.

 

Yum! Have a happy first day of autumn! –Melissa

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Sep 17 2012
1 Comment
Cooking

Steak & Potatoes

I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight when I spotted this:

Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick is a pretty damn good spice blend. “Hmm,” I thought. “This seasoning makes steaks so delicious. It’s too bad that I don’t eat steak anymore. But I can still use the seasoning!” Then I spotted some red potatoes and decided that I wanted steak and mashed potatoes for dinner, dammit.

I used soy curls for my ‘steak’ and I mashed my potatoes in the laziest way possible.

Soy Curl ‘Steak’ Ingredients

1 cup soy curls
1-2 tbsp McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
a sprinkle of Butler Chik-Style Seasoning (optional)

Lazy Mashed Potato Ingredients

um… potato(s)
Earth balance
salt
pepper

First, I put my soy curls in a bowl with water to rehydrate. Then, I washed my potatoes, covered them in a wet paper towel, stuck them in the microwave, and pushed the “baked potato” button.

These are the post-microwave potatoes.

Once the soy curls were rehydrated, I mixed them together with the other ingredients. I set it aside while I prepared the potatoes. Okay, stand back while I amaze you with my dazzling mashed potato method: quarter the ‘baked’ potatoes, throw them in a bowl, plop some Earth Balance on them, and then mash. Once they’re mashed, add salt and pepper to taste. I would have added some almond or soy milk, but I didn’t have any. Crazy, right?

Next, I heated the soy curls in a frying pan. Baking is good, too. Do whatever floats your boat.

Holy crap, you guys! I didn’t expect this to taste so good and be so satisfying. This was super easy to make and didn’t take a ton of time.

I will never crave real steak again! Okay, that’s probably not true… but I have a great vegan alternative and that makes me happy. –Melissa

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Aug 30 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Spaghetti and Hot Dogs

You may be thinking, “Isn’t this blog supposed to be about vegan food?” YES! Even non-vegans are grossed out by the idea of hot dogs and spaghetti, but it’s Filipino food gospel. After trying out some vegan frankfurters, I was anxious to use them in one of my childhood favorites. Oh, who am I kidding? I still prefer hot dogs as the protein in my spaghetti as an adult.

Making this dish is easy. All you have to do is add sliced hot dogs to your sauce when you’re heating it. This only works with marinara or other tomato-based pasta sauce (hot dogs and alfredo? yuck!). Clearly, it works with any kind of pasta. I had penne this time around so that’s what I used.

To prep these vegan frankfurters, I removed them from their casing and sliced them. I chopped some onions and garlic to add to the sauce because why not?!

First, I browned the hot dogs with the garlic and onion. Then I added some tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. You can also use your favorite jar of pasta sauce. Mix together and heat it through.

Not only was this tasty, it warmed the heart of my inner child. Spaghetti and hot dogs. Try it! –Melissa

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Aug 28 2012
6 Comments
Cooking

Adobo Sitaw

We’ve been really lucky with how the backyard garden turned out despite the drought this summer. Right now, we are up to our ears in long beans or sitaw. Check this out!

We often cook these beans adobo-style. It’s tasty, goes well with a lot of other foods, may be eaten hot or cold, and it lasts awhile. It actually gets better the longer it’s been sitting in the fridge. As a bonus, it’s easy to make!

Like with the soy curl adobo, you will base the amount of garlic, soy sauce, and white vinegar that you use on the amount of beans you use. It’s basically a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce and vinegar along with lots and lots of garlic.

Chop the garlic and then combine the soy sauce and vinegar in a bowl and top it with some black pepper. Now, you can either add the garlic to the mixture OR you can saute the garlic with the beans first. My Mom was the chef for this one and she chose the latter approach for this batch.

Once the beans are cooked but still crisp, add the mixture. Mix everything around for a few minutes and then cover and let it simmer. If you want a more soupy dish, add some more soy sauce.

Here’s how it looks about halfway between adding the mixture and the final product. In this instance, let it cook until the beans get wilted.

I devoured this with some rice and a tomato-onion salad. Some pickled peppers gave it a good kick. This is an ultimate comfort food for me. It’s deliciously savory and I’m so glad that it’s vegan as-is. –Melissa

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Aug 25 2012
7 Comments
Cooking

Perfect Pancakes

I have tried a handful of vegan pancake recipes and they have all been disasters until I decided to try this 5 Minute Vegan Pancakes recipe. I first tried it about one or two months ago. They turned out so well that I really wanted to write about them, but I decided that I better try them again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

It wasn’t a fluke.

There is a minimal number of ingredients. In addition, both times I have used this recipe, I didn’t have to do the usual tossing of the first pancake. You know what I’m talking about.

I tweaked the recipe a bit today and used the following ingredients:

1 cup flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
1 tbsp turbinado
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsbp flax meal
pinch of salt
1 cup almond milk (I used soy milk the last time; either is fine)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c or so of dried blueberries

I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl…

…and then I cooked the pancakes. That’s all there was to it.

Yay! Fluffy vegan pancakes! As you can see, I couldn’t even pause to take a photo before digging in. Actually, I ate the first pancake as soon as it came off the pan. That’s how delicious these are. They’re even better with some maple syrup and a side of tempeh strips.

Next vegan pancake challenge: Swedish pancakes! –Melissa

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Aug 19 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Southwest Soy-curl Salad

I needed a break from cooking so I decided to make something easy. I assembled the following:
1 tomato, diced
1/2 onion, diced
2 Hass avocados or 1 green avocado
1 cup of soy curls
1/4 cup salsa verde or fajita seasoning and juice from 1 lime
flake red pepper and salt to taste

I reconstituted the soy curls according to the package directions and sauteed them lightly in olive oil with salsa verde. When they were lightly browned I set them aside to cool.

Brent diced the avocado while I chopped the tomato and onion with a device Brent got for me after I cut off the end of my finger last spring. I recommend it; it’s easy to clean and makes dicing onions and other spicy, fragrant or acidic foods virtually painless.

We mixed it all up in a big bowl.

Chopped cilantro and minced garlic might have improved this but it was excellent on bread with some spinach. It was exactly what we needed: creamy, lightly acid, buttery, spicy, and hearty.

We hope you get to try it!

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Aug 18 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Long Beans and Heirloom Tomatoes

Yay! Tomatoes are finally popping up in the garden. We have a nice crop of beautifully colored heirloom tomatoes.

I decided to throw some of these babies in with sauteed long beans.

First, I sauteed about a cup of long beans in olive oil with 2 cloves of minced garlic. Long beans are not meant to be eaten raw, so if you have them, make sure you cook them. They maintain their crunch even if they wilt, if that makes any sense.

I cut up one of the tomatoes. Unlike the other tomatoes that we grow in the garden, these are much more meaty, less juicy, but still sweet and tasty. I love that the tomatoes we grow in our backyard require little to no embellishment to be tasty. You can eat them like apples!

I boiled some penne, coated it in olive oil, and threw in freshly minced garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and nutritional yeast. I topped it off with the cooked beans and the raw tomatoes.

Easy, delicious, nutritious. The only thing missing is a glass of fine wine! –Melissa

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