Tag Archives: fun

Jun 08 2012
3 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes

Vegan Rainbow Bake!

I was feeling adventurous today so we made something a little different. I picked my ingredients based on an inexplicable urge to eat more colorful foods: orange sweet potato, indigo blue potato, and vivid green Brussel’s sprouts.

This is what we used:

1 sweet potato, cut into bite sized pieces

8 small blue potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces

1 lb Brussel’s sprouts, cleaned and cut in half

1 tbsp fresh chili paste

2 tbsp capers (optional)

juice from 1 lemon

1/3 cup of veganaise

I put the vegenaise, capers, lemon juice, and chili paste into a bowl and mixed it.

Then I added the potatoes and sprouts and mixed them until everything was evenly coated with veganaise sauce.

I put everything onto a foil lined baking sheet and baked it 45 minutes at 350F/175C.

It came out moist and flavorful and crisp and caramelized around the edges.

We will probably do this again: the spicy lemony sauce went well with the herbal flavors in the sprouts, the creamy sweetness of the sweet potato and the starchy comfort of he blue potato. It was filling and full of vitamins and minerals.

 

This is Christie, signing off!

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May 20 2012
4 Comments
Snacks

Mango Margarita POPSICLES!

What is this madness, you say? MANGO MADNESS! Mango is in season and it’s making its way into everything I cook… or don’t cook.

This particular variety is called Irwin and is one of the more common varieties. It is very sweet and soft when ripe and is great for drinks and sauces.

Today I’m making mango margarita popsicles. I sliced up a skinned, pitted mango and added 3-4 slices to each popsicle mold along with a few cilantro leaves, a squeeze of lime, and (for the more daring) a splash of tequila. We use Lunazul tequila because it’s vegan. Lime is really important because these mango are VERY sweet. I also like to use a fork (as above) when I squeeze lemon or lime juice into something, wiggling it back and forth to help break the membranes in the fruit. I find it makes it easier to get more juice out of the fruit and reduces the incidence of citrus-to-eye events. I filled the molds the rest of the way with coconut water.

Here are the popsicles right before they went into the freezer. When they come out, give them a light dusting of salt and put them back into the freezer for 10-15 minutes to let the salt set. Licking up the side will give you all the flavors of the cilantro, salt, mango and lime, or sample each flavor nibble by nibble for the deconstructed version of a mango margarita.

This is my daring food model, trying out my mango margarita pop. Doesn’t he just make it look delectable? Maybe I’m alone but suddenly I want a mango margarita.

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Jan 14 2012
1 Comment
Cooking, Snacks

Tostones… vegan junk food, not a party game.

Plantains are like bananas in appearance but they’re not as sweet. Usually they’re cooked (fried, boiled, grilled, baked, whatever) green when their texture and flavor resembles that of a potato. When overripe they’re either eaten raw or fried in thin chips. Plantains are basically the Inspector Gadget of the banana world.

Here’s me peeling one… they’re a little stubborn. I’m going to make them into tostones, a regional specialty, sometimes called patacones.

Most recipes for tostones call for twice fried plantains, but I prefer to boil for the first round instead of frying. This results in a tostone that remains soft after it cools. Traditional recipes can get hard and unpalatable when cool. Anyways, I chopped my plantains into inch long sections (2-3cm) at a slight angle. I dropped them into water, brought it to a boil, reduced the heat to a low boil and allowed to simmer for another 25 minutes.

After boiling, they should be soft and yellow. I poured the water over a strainer to collect the plantain pieces.

One by one I placed each piece onto a clean plate that I moistened with warm water…

… and SMASHED it with a clean damp glass jar. Do this carefully to maintain the aesthetic or just smoosh them for the fun of it.

Then I fried it on each side for about a minute in grapeseed oil, until golden brown. You can use whatever kind of oil you like as long as it’s suitable for frying. I know Melissa likes safflower oil. I place them onto a clean dry paper towel to drain off some of the oil. They’re great with hot sauce, mojo (a garlic and parsley sauce) or just salt. They’re also rich in vitamins A and C as well as magnesium and potassium.

Let me know how you like them!

This is Christie, signing off!

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