Tag Archives: Cooking

Jan 09 2012
3 Comments
Cooking, Thoughts

NEWSFLASH: I Love to Cook!

I have learned a lot about myself since changing my lifestyle. One of them is this: I love to cook. Food is so much a part of our lives, yet it amazes me how many of us take cooking for granted. Ingredients and what you put into your body are important. Just as important is how those foods are cooked or prepared.

Thanks in large part to Christie, I knew that going vegan would mean getting into the habit of cooking. Here is an exercise for anyone who is a carnivore or even a vegetarian: pick your top three favorite restaurants and look through the menu for items that are truly vegan. Now cross out any that are salads. You likely are left with zero options (excluding those that you can substitute or from which you can remove ingredients, such as cheese). Restaurants are no longer as fun to go to, and I have found myself eating a LOT of potatoes–none mashed nor baked.

Cooking more often has opened my eyes to many new things and has made me more creative. Adding balsamic or red wine vinegar can bring out flavors in simple dishes. Garlic does wonders. There is more than one way to cook broccoli or cauliflower or beans. Recipes don’t need to be followed to the letter.

I am at a place now where I lament not having time to cook, or not having certain ingredients around the house to play with. The act of cooking a vegan meal is just as satisfying as eating the meal itself. I have dabbled with the idea of learning new skills such as painting or music or sewing. Now, I am looking into taking a cooking class, specifically a chopping or knife class, which is a skill I know I will put to good and practical use. I even want to start baking, which is major for me. The best part? I see how my cooking skills are improving. Few things in life are better than the empirical knowledge that you are getting better at something.

I used to be a lazy cook. Making an omelette was as adventurous as I would get. I am so happy that I have embraced cooking. Anyone who is committed to being vegan or vegetarian should make time to cook. We all gotta eat, right? You won’t be sorry and it will help you stay true to your lifestyle.

Looking forward to sharing more recipes and cooking adventures with you! –Melissa

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Jan 06 2012
5 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Lasagna… hold the meat and cheese, please.

I usually use eggplant in place of lasagna noodles because of the whole… alergic to pasta thing but I encourage you to use it if you’re so inclined. The great thing about eggplant is that it’s also low in calories relative to traditional semolina pasta and has a lot of fiber and nutrients that pasta lacks. I’m biased. I dig plants.

For this recipe I took a large sized eggplant (2 medium would do) and sliced it thin. I wouldn’t recommend soaking the eggplant for this recipe since it can get kinda soupy if you do.I leave the skin on but you can remove it if you want. Pre-cooking the eggplant will result in a softer texture, you can do this by pan frying it or baking it until golden brown. This is my recipe for vegan ‘ricotta’. It’s a little more flavorful than regular ricotta cheese but I doubt anyone will complain.  In your blender or food processor, combine the following:

1 16oz. box firm silken tofu (I like Mori-nu for this recipe)

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp Italian seasoning

2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional but recommended)

1tsp garlic powder

1 2 tsp starch (I used arrowroot)

1 pinch nutmeg

garlic salt to taste

Blend all of this until it’s uniform and creamy. After this mixing step, I added 2 generous handfuls of spinach – this is optional but a girl needs her iron.

I blended it lightly and then spread it on a layer of eggplant that I had positioned on a lightly oiled baking dish.

I put another layer of eggplant on top, (you can make more layers if you want but it’ll take longer to cook) followed by a generous helping of your favorite pasta sauce. I buy whatever is vegan, gluten-free and on sale. Cover with foil and bake 35 minutes. Remove the foil, toss on some crushed walnuts, if desired and bake another 20 minutes.

I served it garnished with some sliced olives and fresh basil.

This is Christie, signing off… I will probably eat that whole dish of lasagna tonight.

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Dec 27 2011
4 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Chili and Cornbread: the Vegan/ Gluten-Free Way.

This is how most of my cooking adventures with my best travel buddy begin.

We didn’t actually leave the kitchen… except in our mouths… MINDS! I mean our minds. We made chili this particular evening. This recipe includes winter squash. We decided to use canned pumpkin but an equal volume of roasted butternut squash, acorn squash, or whatever you can get your hands on should work perfectly. The squash adds its own unique flavor and balances the acid from the tomato with the heat from the peppers. Normally the lard from ground meat would do that job but this way you don’t have to add a lot of grease to get a delicious bowl of chili. To start, you’ll want to assemble the following ingredients.

3 tins of beans (any variety), include the liquid when you add them to the recipe

28 oz tin crushed tomatoes

1 15 oz tin pumpkin

2 chiles, minced (we used jalapeno)

3 chipotle chiles in adobo, minced

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced (we used 6 but we love garlic)

1 tsp cumin

pinch of cinnamon

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tbsp chili powder

salt to taste

hot sauce to taste

Add the onion and a dash of olive oil to a large pot.  Stir on medium/high heat until the onions begin to turn translucent. Combine the rest of the ingredients except for the beans and liquid. Heat to boiling. Add the beans (we used white, black and kidney but any mix would do) and adjust liquids to desired consistency with bean liquid and possibly water. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Garnish with cilantro. If you like your chili really spicy, include the seeds from the peppers, otherwise, discard them and add a little hot sauce for pep. Wear gloves when mincing the peppers to prevent an evening of burning fingers (sorry, Brent).

3 cups almond flour

1 tsp baking soda

big pinch of salt

1 generous handful of shredded Daiya cheddar cheese

2 peppers, minced (again, we used jalapeno)

3 tbsp starch

1/5 cup almond milk

Preheat oven to 325F/160C. Combine almond flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Mix in grated cheese and serranos. In a separate bowl, mix the starch, almond milk, and water. Combine the wet and dry ingredients until they just come together. Drop batter in large spoonfuls onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until slightly browned on top. If you’re allergic to nuts, try this with ready-made polenta and skip the almond milk and starch.

This recipe (as written) is perfect for 3-4 people to have a generous serving. Brent and I were both stuffed and the floor also had some. Oops. I hope you get to try it!

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Dec 12 2011
4 Comments
Desserts

Strawberry crisp: delicious, easy, healthy… what’s not to like?

I went strawberry picking with some friends Sunday. You might ask, “it’s the middle of December and you’re doing WHAT!?” It’s Florida, our weather is so good it’s criminal.
I’m going to make a quick note about sugar before we start. You might notice that I haven’t listed granulated sugar in any of the recipes I’ve submitted to this forum. It’s always molasses, agave nectar, etc. The granulated sugar that you buy at the supermarket isn’t vegan. It’s bleached using the charred bones of animals. If that wasn’t icky enough, brown sugar is granulated white sugar mixed with molasses. WTF?
Anyways, other available sweeteners have unique flavors and nutrients that are removed from granulated sugar during processing. For example, I use molasses for most of my sugar needs. I like that it comes from plants and has iron in it. Girls need a little extra iron, right? Ounce for ounce, molasses has almost 3 times the iron of beef and none of the cholesterol. Black strap molasses has a unique earthy flavor robust enough to eat drizzled over plain tofu. I also like maple syrup because it’s delicious and promotes preservation of old growth forests. It has a light woody flavor that’s great for cookies and cakes. Sometimes I get granulated coconut sugar at my farmer’s market. It’s lightly fragrant and creamy in flavor. I’m a big fan of agave and rice nectar: both have low glycemic indexes and a light mellow honey-like flavor but it’s beginning to sound like all unrefined sugars are my favorite. Let’s talk strawberry crisp. In this recipe I used turbinado sugar (which is actually semi-refined sugar) but granulated coconut or maple sugar work fine.
You can use any kind of sweet non-citrus fruit for this recipe as far as I’m concerned. Frozen or fresh – it doesn’t matter, just as long as it’s ripe. I’ve done this with peaches, apples, blueberries, and today I’m using strawberries.
5 cups fresh fruit, pitted and sliced (I like to leave the peel on but you can take it off)
2 tbsp turbinado sugar
2 tbsp corn starch, tapioca flour or arrowroot starch
juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2 tsp)
I just mixed them directly in a glass baking dish
For the topping,
1 cup quinoa flakes or rolled oats
1/2 cup turbinado sugar (granulated maple or coconut sugar are fine too but harder to find)
1/2 cup flour (I used rice but whatever kind you like)
almond milk to texture
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp olive oil
cinnamon or pumpkin spice to taste
In a medium sized bowl, stir the dry ingredients together.
Work the olive oil in, and then the almond milk. Stop adding when it starts to get crumbly. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit and bake 375F/190C, for 30 to 35 minutes, until the fruit is tender and the topping starts to brown.
Serve hot and enjoy! Soy or coconut milk ice cream is an excellent compliment.
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Dec 07 2011
4 Comments
Main Dishes

WTF is moussaka!? (kinda like lasagna but not…)

The final product in this recipe fell apart and wasn’t ready for it’s close-up, Mr. DeMille. I thought about scrapping it and waiting until the next time I made it but then I put it in my mouth and realized it would be criminal not to share.

I bought this bad boy at my farmer’s market. It’s an “heirloom zebra eggplant” or so the sign said. For this recipe, any eggplant will do. Moussaka is a dish I was introduced to by a Greek friend. She’s from Cyprus so my recipe might have a different flare than you’re used to. I learned to make this dish with cream and lamb. There’ll be none of that today. Moussaka is kind of like lasagna: it’s comfort food layered with eggplant (or zucchini), meat, potatos, and mushrooms and then smothered with a bechamel cream sauce. But like I said… no meat or cream. This recipe is comfort food with fiber, protein, lutein, vitamin C, and enough other nutrients to make your mom proud. Okay, get a load of this.

1 eggplant, sliced longwise, 1/4-1/3 inch thick and soaked at least 4 hours in lightly salted water (zucchini also works and you don’t have to soak it)
1/4 cup bread-crumbs or blanched almond flour
For the filling…
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1-2 chopped soy sausages (optional, or you can use my black-eyed pea burger *winkyface*)
1/2 onion, diced
1 chopped tomato or 1/3 cup canned diced tomato
2-3 tbsp tomato paste
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp sage
salt and pepper to taste
Combine the onion and garlic in a medium frying pan. Sautee over medium-high heat until the onions begin to become tranlucent. Then astir in the sage.
Add the rest of the ingredients and set heat to medium-low, stirring occasionally while the mushrooms cook down and get tender and allowing some of the moisture to evaporate.
Make the bechamel sauce while this happens. No pictures… it just looks like ranch dressing.
‘bechamel’ sauce
1 box silken tofu
1 tbsp onion salt
1 tbsp garlic salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
1 dash of lemon juice
1 pinch of nutmeg
salt to taste
Combine all the ingredients for the bechamel sauce in a blender or food processor. Mix until smooth and creamy.
Preaheat the oven to 350C/175F. Coat your pan lightly with olive oil. Cover the bottom of the dish with half the bread-crumbs or almond flour (I used almond flour). Add a layer of eggplant, overlapping if necessary (you can sautee it lightly first if you want it extra tender but it can make them harder to work with and I like mine a little chewier), the mushroom/soy sausage filling, another layer of eggplant and top with the bechamel sauce and the rest of the almond flour or bread-crumbs.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the moussaka begins to bubble.
EAT IT!
This is Christie, signing off. I’m full.
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Dec 03 2011
11 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Who can live without burgers? Not this girl.

Okay, I love sausage and burgers. I just hate that they’re full of stuff that’s not very good for you like cholesterol and lots of fat and that animals have to die to make them. This is a recipe I’m still working on but it’s more than good enough to share. To make my black-eyed pea burgers (taste better than they sound, promise) you’ll need to combine the following in a large bowl.

2 cups/15.5 oz tin of black-eyed peas (field peas also work), drained and set the liquid aside
2 tbsp tapioca, potato, or arrowroot starch
2 tbsp flour (I use oat but whatever kind you like)
2 tbsp rolled oats or quinoa
2 tbsp flax meal (optional)
1/4 very finely chopped mushrooms
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1.5 tbsp Italian seasoning (if you don’t like your sausages spicy, I recommend herbes de Provence instead)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp coriander seeds
garlic salt to taste
hot sauce to taste
oil for frying

Once everything is in the bowl except for the garlic salt and hot sauce, start mooshing. This might be a great job for any children in the house, it’s fun and can be done with your hands. Add the liquid from the canned peas until the mixture is doughy and somewhat dry but not crumbly. You shouldn’t have to add very much.

When it starts to look uniform (as above ) take a taste. Don’t worry, there’s no risk of E. coli or Salmonella, it’s not meat! Start adding hot sauce and garlic salt and continue mooshing until it tastes right to you. When you like the flavor and texture, pick up a good handful of the mixture and form it into a patty shape. This recipe should make 3 generous patties for a regular sized bun. They won’t shrink much during cooking because there’s no lard to dribble off into the pan leaving you with an emaciated burger.

I prefer to bake mine at 350F/175C for 25 minutes or until crispy outside and still mooshy inside but you can pan fry them in olive oil to the same effect if you’re feeling decadent. I like that these are fat and cholesterol free but mostly because my Dad and sister have high cholesterol and I’m sure they’re not alone.

I toasted my buns and melted my cheese for the last 2-3 minutes of the bake. This cheese is Daiya. They sell 5 lb. blocks and shreds. Yeah, I admit it. I have a 5 lb. block of non-dairy cheese in my fridge. I’m not ashamed of my 5 lb. block of non-dairy cheese. Daiya is the best cheese substitute I’ve found for cooking. It’s great in quesadillas, on ‘burgers’, for mac and cheese, pretty much anything you can think of… okay, that’s my Daiya plug. There are other non-dairy cheese that I like but that’s another blog post.

Did I mention that you can refrigerate these burgers for 2-3 days until your ready to cook them up or freeze them for up to 3 weeks? Yeah. You can. Also, the buns came from the Zen Cat Bakery (http://zencatbakery.com/) a gluten-free and vegan bakery. They are also awesome and make gluten-free vegan brownies that can defeat my PMS with a single bite!

This didn’t last long. If you try it, would you let me know how it goes? Here’s to your healthy burger!!!

this is Christie, signing off.. to eat another guilt free burger.

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Nov 21 2011
1 Comment
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes, Thoughts

Tofu and Mushrooms in Green Curry

For dinner last night, I was in the mood for something with a kick, so I decided to cook some tofu with Trader Joe’s Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce.

I minced 2 large garlic cloves, threw it in a pan with some canola oil (I would have used sesame oil if I had some), and then browned firm tofu cubes. I added some mushrooms and salt, and let it sautee for a bit. When the mushrooms were about halfway where I wanted them to be, I added about a half cup of the curry sauce and coated the tofu and mushrooms. Then, I added about a cup of frozen peas, covered the pan, and let it all simmer. I served it to myself with some white jasmine rice.

I give this dish a B. The sauce does have a kick but is otherwise pretty bland; I had to add more salt as I was eating. The mushrooms took over the dish. I’m thinking that it may work out better if I sautee them a bit in garlic first, drain any liquid, and then add the tofu and more garlic. Fresh chili peppers would have done wonders for the dish, too, as well as some fresh ginger.

The challenge going forward will be to find non-Asian ways to cook tofu. I’m Asian myself, so I can do Asian everyday, but I know tofu is versatile and I’d love to cook it in pesto or something.

Another note on tofu: my sister has a soy allergy and so she avoids tofu, soy bean sprouts, soy milk, and even edamame. So I’d love to find non-tofu and non-meat protein sources so that we can enjoy vegan and vegetarian meals together.

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