Category Archives: Cooking

Jun 05 2012
5 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes

Vegan Breakfast Burritos!

I like breakfast. I also like burritos. Whoever thought of the breakfast burrito is on my “AWESOME” list. The word “burrito” means, “little donkey”. I like to make my burritos about the size of a small donkey. Do you see where I’m going with this?

We had some more chili tortillas and decided, “what the heck.” We made a tofu scramble. I prefer silken tofu but otherwise this recipe is pretty standard.
1 box of soft silken tofu

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 pinch of sun dried tomato flakes

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 pinch paprika

1 pinch turmeric

salt and pepper to taste

Stir that up in your non-stick skillet until it’s hot and awesome. More importantly…

We cooked up some black beans. What breakfast burrito would be right without beans? We used the following:

1 onion, diced

6-8 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup of dry black beans, soaked overnight in an excess of water OR 1 can of beans, drained

salt and chili to taste

We heated the onions until they started to turn translucent. Then we added the beans and a jalapeño and just waited until they were hot and tender.

The beans and scramble made their way into the tortilla along with some salsa and cilantro. This was one of the better breakfasts we’ve had in a while. It was savory, spicy and loaded with delicious garlic and cilantro. We forgot the Daiya but neither of us missed it.

This breakfast is loaded with balanced protein to keep you going and a good serving of carbs to get your started. There’s virtually no fat and no cholesterol which is great because the fiber will help you digest all the other deliciousness for a strong body. Happy breakfast!

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Jun 04 2012
9 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Rice Cooker Cuisine: Arroz con Gandules

Arroz gon gandules has always been an exotic dish to me. I imagined that in order to cook it well, you needed someone’s abuela to teach you. Therefore, I never tried making it. Ever. Until yesterday. I found myself craving it and also wanting to cook something that was easy to bring for lunch and reheat at work.

Ingredients:
4oz dried gandules
1 cup rice, uncooked
1 packet Sazon Con Culantro Achiote
3 clove garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 tomato, diced and crushed
olive oil
salt and pepper

I went to the store looking for frozen green gandules but settled for dry non-green ones. I took the beans beans and left them to soak for about 6.5 hours. I literally left them: I left the house and wore myself out doing stuff, so believe me when I say that the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was slave over a stove. So, I decided to use a rice cooker.

In a perfect world, I would have boiled the beans a little bit at this point. But, I didn’t. And things still turned out OK. Here’s what I did do: I rinsed and drained the beans and added them along with the rice and the seasoning packet to the rice cooker pot. Then, I heated up the onions, garlic, and tomato in a pan with some olive oil. I first let the garlic and onion heat up. Then I added the tomato, crushing them with my hand before while adding them to the pan. When the tomato was soft, the onion was translucent, and there was some nice liquid in the pan, I added all the pan contents to the pot with the rice and beans.

Now, here is where I get really scientific. I added enough water to the pot to hit the 3 cup line. This doesn’t mean three cups of water. I don’t know what it means. You’ll have to ask my rice cooker. My rice cooker doesn’t talk. I’m sorry! I mixed the ingredients and then turned on the rice cooker.

Here’s what it looked like about 10-15 minutes in. Now, even though my intent was to let this dish cook itself without me having to supervise, I should have stirred things every 7-10 minutes to prevent sticking. Of course, I kind of enjoy sticky rice, so it ended up OK. After the rice cooker declared things finished, I stirred up the rice again and pressed the cook button again. It went for at least another 5 minutes. Here’s how it looked:

I was worried my rice would be too mushy. It ended up perfect. I was worried my beans wouldn’t cook all the way through. They weren’t as soft as I would have hoped, but they turned out okay. Boiling the beans beforehand would have helped. I’m actually surprised that this didn’t turn into a soupy mess.

I’m really happy with how this turned out and I know my next attempt at making it will be even better! Things I will do next time is throw in some minced fresh cilantro, more garlic, more salt, maybe some spice, and some chopped olives. Yummm….

Not bad for a “lazy” dish! –Melissa

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May 28 2012
5 Comments
Cooking

How This Vegan Did Memorial Day

Memorial Day in the United States is (or should be) a day of remembrance and a time when we should stop and thank those who have shown their bravery and made sacrifices to serve in the armed forces. Memorial Day in the United States is also a day of grilling… grilling meat. Lots and lots of meat. Hot dogs, pork chops, brats, ribs, steaks and are you ready to vomit yet?

I had a packed Saturday and Sunday with the nieces so today was a day of relaxation. It was hot out today, too hot to grill in my opinion, and it was just me and my parents anyway, so we didn’t do anything fancy. For lunch, I made some guacamole and some bean burgers.

I used Christie’s recipe for the burgers but minus the mushrooms. My mom and I went back to Jerry’s today, which is still one of the most annoying places on earth to go to, but we also got a crapload of stuff for less than $100. Seriously. If you are in the Chicago area, a trip to Jerry’s is worth whatever it takes to get there and be there. That said, all they had in terms of mushrooms were button mushrooms (packed or you could pick) and giant portabellas. I wasn’t quite feeling either of those.

Now, get ready to vomit again. I really miss the McRib. I know, I know!!! It’s so nasty. But, even after reading what actually goes into a McRib, I still found myself craving it. CRAVE NO MORE, MELISSA. Soy curls and BBQ sauce to the rescue!

I soaked the soy curls and then covered them with some barbecue sauce. It’s as easy as that — the proportions you use are up to you. Unfortunately/fortunately, we had a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray’s which is the best BBQ sauce but is not totally vegan because of the brown sugar. I baked the soy curls in the toaster oven for 15 minutes at 325 degrees, turning over once, and then for another 5 minutes at 350 to get them a little crispy.

It looks dry, but I like having the BBQ flavor without having sauce dripping all over the place. This was tasty and just about one of the easiest soy curl recipes ever. I finished off the day with a slice of vegan chocolate cake and some blueberries and raspberries (not pictured on account of I ate it all).

Finding vegan ways to celebrate what are essentially food-centric holidays is a small victory. VICTORY! –Melissa

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May 27 2012
14 Comments
Cooking

The Vegan Survival Guide – Chapter 2 : Substitution

On your way to becoming a vegan master, you will undoubtedly run into several obstacles when it comes to making your favorite dishes. The good news is you don’t have to say goodbye to baking, making cream sauces, or any other edible or drinkable that requires dairy. This post will assist in your survival in your perilous vegan journey of DOOM!

… only not really. The doom part. Whatever.

Milk

Milk is easily substituted in consumption and in cooking. Our go-to is almond milk. It is mostly allergen friendly, has some protein, twice the calcium of moo milk, and tastes effing delicious. For cooking, non-sweetened plain almond milk is suggested. It won’t add any mysterious extra flavors, and can seamlessly be integrated into your dish for similar results. Other alternatives include coconut milk and soy milk. Coconut milk is distinctively thick and coconutty. I recommend it for smoothies and as a density agent for things like sauces. Soy milk comes last; it’s pretty well known and established in most stores. It has a buttload of protein (thank you, soybean), and can be a solid substitute for cooking. Speaking of soybeans, to make a cream sauce you can start with a block of silken tofu as a base. Alternately, use cashews that have been soaking overnight. Boomsaucylaucy!

PROTIP : Almond milk is portable and storable. It can be purchased in little boxes that store well in most conditions. Christie, for instance, has a box of chocolate almond milk at her work desk. She can keep it there until she needs it. No refrigeration necessary. Booya!

Eggs

Substituting eggs is a deceptively simple task. At first glace as a vegan, you’ll say ‘But Brent, you magnificent beast, there’s no substitute for the sexiness of chicken embryo!’ Nay, I say to you. Forsooth! Hark! Gadzooks! Flax seeds! No, really, that last one was what you were supposed to read. Flax seeds when ground down with your mighty fists can be a nice substitute for eggs.

How to make an egg :
1 Tablespoon Ground Flax Seeds
3 Tablespoons Water
Heat in microwave for ~20 seconds, stir. Repeat until mixture is thick, consistency agrees with you.

If making your own does not appeal to you, you can use applesauce when baking fluffy things. Note that it may affect the flavor of your creation. Finally, commercially available egg substitutes are available. EnerG makes a boxed egg substitute. But since you will have to mix it with water, you may as well just stick with the flax seeds.

When baking isn’t your game, but breakfasting is, tofu scramble is a go-to for us. It’s simple to make, and with the right texture of tofu, it will resemble eggs with virtually no magic. Virtually.

PROTIP : More like ‘good for you for choosing an egg alternative’; By not consuming eggs, you are avoiding salmonella, cholesterol, and cruelty in one fell swoop. Feed your kids cookie dough batter with no consequence! Throw them at cars! Make a Rocky shake! Whatevs!

ADRIAAARRRRRRRGABLLGH!

Cheese

This one was really hard to give up when it came to going vegan. The good news is there are plenty of alternatives. Commercially available cheeses are freaking everywhere, and they are gaining strength in the market. What’s more is that they are tasty, healthier, and some even melt like moo cheese. I could wax about vegan cheese alternatives, but Christie and I already have!

PROTIP : Daiya for melty goodness. Also check out our three cheese posts to date! 1.1 2.0 3.0

Sexy Conclusion
After reading this, I’m sure you’re thinking ‘Wow, Brent, you are a smelly hairy weirdo!’ And you’d be 100% correct! But what you may not have known before this post is that substitution is integral to your success as a venturing veganator and AND it doesn’t have to be rocket science. By getting this far in the post, I can assume that you care enough to seek alternatives to your cooking needs, and that’s freaking awesome. Take the next step and try some of these alternatives out!

Peace out, my vegans.

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May 26 2012
6 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Vegan Kalbi with Mustard Salad

I miss Korean BBQ. A lot. So I veganized it using soy curls.

Traditional Kalbi uses short ribs. The meat is thinly sliced, quite fatty, and can take a lot of work to get “right” because the meat will need to be tenderized quite a bit lest it end up tough. Soy curls are a lot easier to prepare. Soak them in some water for ten minutes, drain, and… well, that’s it. As a bonus, you don’t have to worry about icky stuff like e. coli. For this batch, I used about 3/4 cup of dried soy curls.

Kalbi marinade

1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2-3 cloves garlic, coarsely minced
sesame seeds
1 tsp turbinado sugar (optional)

I mixed everything but the sesame seeds in a plastic container and then added the soy curls. I mixed it around so the soy curls were covered. After I mixed it around, I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top.

Here are before and after shots of the soy curls. The photo on the right was taken about an hour after I added the curls to the marinade. My advice: don’t let them marinade for much longer than that. I baked the soy curls for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Okay, I totally burned them, but they still turned out yummy!

I had planned to go to the store to pick up veggies and seaweed salad to accompany the kalbi, but the store was CRAZY. If you’re in the Chicago area, I’m talking about Jerry’s. Oh, Jerry’s. Prices and product are so good, but I feel like I die a little every time I go there because it’s so crowded. Anyway, I asked my Dad to pick some fresh mustasa (mustard greens) from the garden for me and made it into a little side salad with lemon, olive oil, salt, and freshly ground pepper. The mustasa was in prime form and gave a serious mustard kick to the kalbi. It was delicious.

Here’s my niece, granting peace to all of you and posing with the food. She didn’t try the kalbi and opted to have cereal for dinner. I was glad I didn’t have to share.

It’s Memorial Day weekend and I’m spending it hanging out with family. I’ll be away from home most of the weekend, so I cooked the rest of my soy curls this morning so I would have something vegan to eat. I opted to cook them in a pan this time, mostly because I didn’t want to burn them again. It ended up looking more like bulgogi than kalbi, but regardless — this wins out over meat versions because look at the lack of fat and oil on the plate! Soy curls have the perfect texture for this. This is also where I learned that marinading soy curls overnight in soy sauce is probably not the best idea. It’s still good, though, and I am still amazed by the soy curl.

I am so happy that I can still have Korean BBQ! All that’s missing is one of those little grills that I can put in the middle of my kitchen table… Have a lovely Saturday! –Melissa

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May 25 2012
5 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Thoughts

WTFennel!?

Fennel is something I periodically see at my farmer’s market and when I made daikon a week or so ago, I mused about adding the anise flavors in fennel to the turmeric and paprika infused radish. Well, I went and did it.

We separated the bulbs, stems and leaves. I froze the leaves for later and put the stems and bulbs into a bamboo steamer.

I cooked my daikon as before, adding a few chopped leaves to  the reduction I made while deglazing the pan with a crisp pinot gris diluted.with water. This works without the wine too but I dig wine. I poured it over the fennel before serving it.

We also steamed some rutabaga. When it was soft we mashed it and mixed in some Daiya and Earth Balance buttery spread. I would do it again, It was a weird alternative to mashed potato. I like weird, especially when it involves buttery dairy-free cheese. Next time that I mash rutabaga I plan to make 2 changes: substitute nutmeg for Daiya and use a food processor instead of my favorite mashing man for a more even texture. They’re kind of fibrous.

This was definitely an experiment. Overall I was pleased with how it worked out, especially using so many ingredients that aren’t common in my kitchen.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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May 16 2012
2 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes

Mustard Greens and Tofu

Mustard greens or mustasa are not my favorite, but they symbolize the start of summer and my Dad’s garden. We end up with a mess of mustasa when the weather warms up, and we prepare it in many different ways. As Filipinos, we put it in some soupy dishes such as sinigang, and it’s traditionally eaten raw with fish, rice, and buro. Fresh mustasa almost looks like loose romaine leaves, but it has a slightly bitter taste.

One very easy way to cook mustasa is to gisa or sautee it with scrambled egg, onions, garlic, crushed fresh tomatoes and fish sauce, and then serve with rice. My Mom did just that today.

Since Mom is awesome, she also made a vegan version. She dropped the egg and fish sauce, and added tofu:

I added some Sriracha and it was a yummy way to enjoy mustasa! Now that I’m turning veganese, I’m curious about how else I can cook mustasa.

Do you have any suggestions for vegan dishes using mustard greens? Let me know! –Melissa

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May 11 2012
10 Comments
Cooking, Recipes

Pumpkin Lentil Lower Carb Burritos!

This is one of the easier things Brent and I have made in a while, all we needed was the following:

1 head of cabbage, raw

1 14.5 oz tin of pumpkin

1 cup of dry lentils

1 cube of veggie bouillon

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1 jalapeño (optional)

chili powder or chili paste and salt to taste

Start by cooking the lentils. Combine them with 2 cups of water and your bouillon cubes and microwave at 2 minute intervals until all the liquid is absorbed. You can also cook them on your stove at low heat until the liquid is absorbed.

Now put them into a sauce pan with the pumpkin and spices. Heat until it’s all steamy. Adjust the seasonings as necessary. You can also add a can of diced tomato and a diced onion but this recipe is designed to accommodate a friends with tomato and onion allergies, respectively. It’s delicious and filling just as I’ve written it.

Now carefully remove a cabbage leaf, add a scoop or two of your burrito filling and whatever other things you like (we’re adding cilantro and Daiya cheddar cheese).

Roll them up and insert into your face.You might not even realize you’re eating a cabbage leaf. This is a great way to have a low carb, low calorie wrap for your sandwich or burrito and doesn’t cost a whole lot. I hope you like it!

 

This is Brent and Christie, signing off.

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May 09 2012
3 Comments
Cooking, Recipes

Weird-Looking Pasta Dish

I mentioned in a recent post that I have been having a gross-looking but tasty week in terms of food. If I were to rank the meals I had that fell into this category, my avocado pasta would have been the clear winner.

I wanted to use the items I had on hand instead of going to the store (the weather was crappy), so I had to get a bit creative.

1 avocado
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1-2 garlic gloves, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup button mushrooms
3/4 c penne, uncooked
salt, pepper and crush red pepper to taste

I put a pot of water on the stove for the pasta and then prepared the rest of my ingredients while I waited for it to boil and for the pasta to cook.

I stuck the avocado, lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic into a food processor and mixed it until smooth. Believe me, I wondered why I even bothered with the food processor since it ended up as un-lumpy guacamole.

I don’t have pictures of the next steps, but I lightly browned the mushrooms with some garlic and then mixed it in with the cooked pasta and the ‘sauce.’

Looks gross… tasted great! I’ll admit that it would have tasted better with some tortilla chips instead and mushrooms and avocado are a bit of a weird mix. Still, it was a hearty meal and I was able to use ingredients that I already had at home. WIN! –Melissa

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May 06 2012
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Cooking, Recipes

French Onion Soup Au Gratin, VEGAN style.

French onion soup is caramelized onions in beef broth along with bread (read: eggs, butter and milk) and cheese. Comfort food… are you surprised? This was a favorite of mine as a kid so Brent and I decided to make it ourselves. The only thing you might have to search for is “beef” bouillon and some good vegan cheese. I’m a big fan of Massel bouillon but most any wort will do.

We assembled the following:

4 onions, sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp herbes de provence

juice from 1 lime

“beef” bouillon (I used Massel)

1/4 cup of red wine (optional)

salt to taste

You’ll also need bread and some sort of vegan cheese. We used some gluten-free bread we bought at a local market and Follow Your Heart Gourmet mozzarella. We just baked it in the oven on a tinfoil lined sheet for 10 minutes at 350F/175C until the cheese was melty and bubbly and the bread was toasty. The soup is only slightly more complicated.

In a medium put I sauteed the onion in lime juice and olive oil until the onions were lightly caramelized. Don’t stir them too much while waiting for them to caramelize or you’ll end up with a sticky mess.

When you find the amount of caramelization suits your taste, add about 1 liter of water, herbes, the bouillon and the red wine. Simmer 15 minutes, up to 45 if your guests are late… or you want to watch fireworks on your balcony. Salt to taste.

We put the melty cheesy bread into the onion soup and devoured it. This would make a great appetizer for a dinner party, especially if you put the bread into the bowl and bake it in ramekins so the cheese bubbles down the sides like it does in restaurants. For easier clean-up… do what we did. Happy comfort food that’s surprisingly good for you!

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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