Tag Archives: nut-free

Sep 06 2012
10 Comments
Main Dishes

Hope and Corn Chowder

The Vegan’s Husband named me as a baton carrier in the Hope relay and I’ll tell you I was a little nervous. It seems like a lot of responsibility.

I wanted to include a recipe that was easy and delicious and loaded with nutrition. Chowders are usually loaded with fat and cholesterol so I’m giving you one that’s high in fiber, protein and flavor. I started with the following:

1 12 ounce carton of silken tofu (we use MoriNu organic)

cilantro (stems and/or leaves)

3 tomatillo, chopped

1 small onion, diced

1 6 ounce jar of sliced pimientos

1 jalapeño, diced (optional, for spice)

1 10 ounce bag of frozen corn (we used Cascadian Farms organic)

1 cube of veggie bouillon

1 generous pinch of flake red pepper

1 cup of water (more or less depending on your needs)

1-2 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

First, pre-heat your oven to 400F/205C. Grease a baking sheet lightly and put your tomatollos (whole but papery husk removed) on it. When the oven is hot, put them on the top rack near the broiler coil. This particular day it took only 8 minutes to blacken the skin (above). I wish I knew a better way to time this stuff without lighting them on fire but all I can advise is to watch them closely after 5 minutes. When they’re done, set them aside to cool. Also, don’t forget to turn off the oven.

I put the block of tofu into my blender along with the cilantro and bouillon cube. Whenever I use leaves from cilantro I put the stems in a bag in my freezer for use in recipes like this one. Freezing preserves the aromatic compounds that give cilantro it’s unique (and to some offensive) flavor that is lost in dried coriander powder. The stems are also very flavorful and full of fiber. I blended the tofu until it was creamy.

Meanwhile I added a teaspoon or so of olive oil to a pot and sauteed the onion, pimientos and jalapeño. We like food spicy so if you’re shy, consider adding a quarter or half of the jalapeño.

When the onion had become translucent, I added the flake red pepper and frozen corn  and continued stirring until it was thawed.

I added the tofu and used another cup of water to get some of the remaining tofu out of the blender. I added it until I liked the consistency of the chowder.

I took my tomatillo and chopped them roughly. I stirred them in gently and served garnished with fresh cilantro leaves.  Brent ate his with corn chips and there were no leftovers which made me sad. I love awesome lunch and even better when it’s high protein comfort food.

My recipe is soy based so if you’re sensitive to soy I’d love to hear if this recipe works with cashew or coconut cream

Now that we’re full of delicious food I can be more objective in my choices on to whom I’ll pass on the Hope baton!

1. Whatcha Reading? is a blog that covers a broad range of topics relevant to vegans from cooking and baking to eating out and weird situations that come up when you’re a vegan in a carnist world.

2. an Unrefined Vegan Is anything but unrefined. This blog features stunning photography or mouth watering vegan food and something out of my cooking comfort zone: baking. Breads, cookies, cakes and muffins abound here along with other vegan goodies… give it a look.

3. CameraPhone Vegan appeals to me through 4 things: cooking, reviews, sampling local eateries and being local to me so I can go and try those delicious foods. The writing style is lively and accessible and they give helpful hints about what’s gluten-free and vegan and both! (Thank-you!)

4. I’ve become a big fan of the Teapot Vegan. This blog is so honest as to be indispensable. It reminds me that identity and being vegan are intertwined with health, self image and day-to-day life. I often suffer from tunnel vision and this blog brings me right back to seeing the whole picture.

5. Last and not least Vegan Monologue is a blog that does great product reviews and doable recipes. The photography is great and the instructions are easy to follow.

That just about wraps up this post!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 29 2012
8 Comments
Raw

Mean Green Openface Sandwiches!

I’m calling this the mean green sandwich because it’s full of raw, good-for-you awesomesauce and they’re open face because I like to look my meal in the eye. Fortunately these don’t have any eyes because I have issues with that. The first thing I did was make a basil garlic spread using the following:

1 very large handful of basil leaves

5-6 peeled garlic cloves

1/4 cup of pumpkin pits

1/4 cup shelled hemp seeds

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 tsp Meyer lemon olive oil

2 tbsp veganaise

1/2 tsp flake red pepper

1/2 cup of water (you might not use all of it)

I blended all of that up, adding water as needed to form a spreadable texture. We spread it on sliced, toasted gluten-free bread and topped it with spinach and avocado.

I added a lot of extra flake red pepper because I’m just that kind of girl. This was a fast and delicious meal. The buttery avocado was a great contrast to the spicy basil and pesto. The nuttiness of the bread and hemp reminded me I was getting a heaping dose of omega fatty acids and protein to go with my antioxidants and iron.  It would have been great in a nori wrap with sprouts too for a real raw meal! Maybe we’ll do that next time and until then, nom on!

This is Christie, signing off!

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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 13 2012
4 Comments
Raw

Raw Vegan Crackers 2.0

Brent and I manage to juice more often and that’s fine with me. I’m writing this because our cracker recipe has gotten more complicated and more delicious! Our juice varies but usually involves some combination of spinach, kale, parsley, mint, basil, apples, oranges, lemon, ginger root, carrots, celery, mango, beets and cucumber. When we don’t have time to make crackers, we just throw the pulp into a baggie and freeze it.

The ratios don’t matter much, but you’ll find the stronger flavors will come out (celery in particular) in the crackers and will complement the spices well. If you’re not using any sweet fruits or vegetables, you might consider adding a little molasses. Typically we juice everything that we can make into crackers (which is just about everything except for cucumber) and then empty the pulp into our blender. If you’ve made enough juice for one person you’ll add the following (and this doubles nicely)
1/3 cup of flax meal
2-4 teaspoons of soy sauce or suitable substitute
2-3 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp flake red pepper
water as needed
We blend this up until the consistency is uniform and somewhere between a batter and a dough. Taste it and adjust the seasonings. It took me a while to get used to the idea of eating this raw or dehydrated so I understand if you’re wary. We use a spatula to spread it into the non-stick trays that go with our dehydrator and let it go overnight.

Sometimes I sprinkle sesame seeds on top but this isn’t necessary. You’ll have to put some pressure on each seed to make sure they don’t fall off once the crackers are dry. It’ll take some time adjusting the thickness of the dough when you spread it out in your dehydrator but you’ll end up with light crispy crackers that are great for you and awesome with hummus, bean dip or spinach artichoke dip. We store them in a giant plastic bag to keep the Miami humidity from softening them.

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Aug 10 2012
2 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Daal Biryani

Bryani is a dish that’s a regional specialty in one of my co-workers’ home town, Hyderabad, India. She gave me her recipe which calls for lamb and asked me to know how the vegan version pans out. I told her I planned to use lentils and she corrected me, “daal” so that’s what I’m calling it. We used the following:

1 cup of lentils or black-eyed peas, soaked and drained
1 cup split lentils, washed and drained
2-3 chili peppers (we’re using 2 jalapeños)
1 big toe sized piece of ginger, sliced
1 thumb sized piece of turmeric, sliced

some curry leaves if you’ve got them
2-3 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 carton of silken tofu
juice from 1 lemon

2 medium onions, sliced into strips
4 smallish tomatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces
4 medium white mushrooms, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 pinch of cumin seeds
3 bay leaves

corn oil

1 cup of basmati rice

Put a tablespoon or so of corn oil into a large pan and add the cumin seeds. Heat it until they start to sputter, then add the onion, peppers, ginger, turmeric, garam masala, coriander, cumin, tofu and lemon juice into a large pot, add a little corn oil and stir fry. Add about 1.5 liters of water and use a hand blender to mix everything into a smooth creamy broth.

Chop your veggies while that heats to a simmer.

Now mix in the veggies, legumes and rice.

We added eggplant in addition to mushrooms. They’ll float to the top, this isn’t a problem; it means you won’t need a lid.. Cook until all the water is absorbed and the rice and legumes are tender. This will take about 1 hour give or take 15 minutes on low heat. You can also bake it at 350F/180C in your favorite baking dish for about an hour.

This is a great meal for hungry people who like curry. I don’t know how it measures up to the carnist version, but we managed to eat all of it within 2 days and considering it was almost too big for the pot I was using, this is really saying something. Brent wanted to add some chopped green peppers to the mix immediately before serving next time for a sweet crisp crunch and I agree that would add something. If you try it, let me know. Enjoy!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 07 2012
6 Comments
Raw

Jicama and Papaya Salad!

Jicama is something they sell in most supermarkets here in South Florida. It’s a root vegetable with a texture reminiscent of radish with a soft slightly sweet flavor. It has a thin brown skin and white flesh. It’s great in salads and we make one at home usually with papaya, lime and cilantro.

The one above has been cleaned and peeled by Brent. We combined it with the following:

peeled cubed papaya

cilantro leaves

spinach and/or snow peas (optional)

and a dressing made from juice of 1 lime, cayenne pepper to taste and 1 tbsp vegan mayo (optional) whisked together.

We just pour the dressing over the salad and munch away. The spice of the cayenne with the cooling cilantro, sweet papaya and mellow jicama is sure to please. It’s low fat, high fiber and loaded with nutrients. Here’s a salad with spinach and no mayo in the dressing; we just squeezed the lime over it.

Here’s another with snow peas and veganaise dressing!

I hope you find some jicama and create your own summery salad!

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Aug 03 2012
8 Comments
Snacks

Apple Tempeh and Mozzarella Sammiches!

This was a really easy meal on a night when we were exhausted. The suggestion came from a friend (THANK YOU!) and it was definitely worth it.

We browned some smoky maple tempeh while some multi-grain bread topped with teese mozzarella. This is bread that a local lady makes for us, gluten-free and vegan. She’s an incredible baker and I hope all of you who aren’t expert bakers and a few who cartinly are(I’m looking at you) can find vegan [gluten-free] bread that doesn’t taste like it’s been frozen between 2 pieces of cardboard in a diesel truck for 2 years. Well, that’s my opinion of most store bought bread. On to noms!

We stacked the tempeh on the bread with some spinach and apple slices. I like royal gala apples. They’ve got a buttery mellow flavor that isn’t too acidic. We use them to juice too!I like my sammies open faced (above) but Brent is more traditional (below).

Mustard is important to me when I make this particular sandwich (but back in the day it was with turkey and soft cheese. Ew.). I think the spiciness brings out the flavors in the tempeh, spinach and apple. The mozzarella is just awesome and I want to take it on a date.

Don’t tell Brent he’s got competition from non-dairy cheese or the sammies will end up… oh… yeah, he’ll eat it all. Yay!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 02 2012
12 Comments
Lazy Vegan, Reviews

Hipster Chic Volume II : Marinated Tofu

A vegan friend was discussing vegan cooking gadgets with us on her visit from elsewhere and suggested we try out the TofuXpress. We decided to give it a spin, and I will sing its praises for years to come. The TofuXpress is freaking sicknasty bodacious.

As the resident tofu presser in our household, I have struggled with the perfect way to make the texture of tofu meatier. I tried conventional pressing methods (tofu on paper towels, pressed down and weighted by a plate on top), and not so conventional methods (freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw). The former was certainly the most effective, but it necessitated a lot of waste. The TofuXpress makes it easy for me to make a nicely textured tofu that I can marinate.

So, for this simple recipe, you can use the paper towel method, or in my case, use a TofuXpress.

Take your block of tofu, drop it into the Xpress, use the heavy spring for pressing. Before putting it in the fridge, dump some of the already pressed liquid down your sink drain for optimal drainage. Stick it in the fridge, and go do something fun for an hour. I chose to dance to some Earth, Wind, and Fire records.

Pull the tofu out of the fridge, drain the liquid, remove the press. Now, to marinate, there’s a handy lid that attaches to the base of the Xpress that also acts as a seal for marinating.

Go ahead and prepare your marinade. For this experiment, I used a combination of soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, Sriracha and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos. The soy sauce and liquid aminos are there to help thin out the mix as tofu is not quite porous enough to soak in the teriyaki and Sriracha, which is where the awesome flavor is at. Dump your marinade into the Xpress with the tofu, let it soak for a half hour. After that time is up, flip the tofu, put the lid back on and let it soak another half hour.

The final step is to press out excess marinade for a last half hour period. I know that this has taken up 2.5 hours already, but I promise it’s worth it. Drop the excess marinade into a dish, save it for later, or use it to dip. You can slice up the tofu and eat it as is, or pan sear it for science.

If you want to save time, do the following :

  1. Prepare marinade.
  2. Press tofu overnight.
  3. In the morning, drain, switch to marinade.
  4. After daily activities, enjoy your tasty marinated tofu.

This will save a lot of waiting time, and your tofu will be freaking amazing after that nice long marinade session.

In short, the TofuXpress made it super easy for us to make firmer tofu, and enabled us to experiment with marinades. It saves us from wasting paper towels, and doesn’t take up a counter top. It’s dishwasher safe, and all of its parts store inside of itself. The TofuXpress has been a boon to us. Let us know if you have one, your marinade recipes, or feel free to ask us about it.

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Jul 17 2012
11 Comments
Cooking, Lazy Vegan

Lazy Vegan: Stuffed Peppers!

Stuffed peppers aren’t uncommon in our household.

These are campesino and poblano peppers. When you cut them in half, they’re a great little natural bowl for delicious food and this adventure is no different. This was a last minute dinner.

We just mixed a can of black beans with some flake red pepper and some Dixie Diner Ham (NOT!), stuffed the poblano peppers, and baked them for 30 minutes. Then we sprinkled some Daiya over it and baked for another 10 minutes.

Then we ate them with some salsa verde and Dixie Diner Chicken and Cheese Fajita soup. We’ve been trying a lot of their products, which are mostly flavored textured vegetable protein (TVP to veterans). So far, we’re fans.

We hope you get to try them. Let us know what your favorite Dixie Diner products are… so we can EAT THEM!

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Jul 15 2012
5 Comments
Cooking

Rosemary Garlic Roasted Potatoes!

I’m a big fan of potato. I think it’s a vegetable that gets a bad rap due to all the Atkins style carbohydrate bashing. Potatoes are actually a delicious source of protein, fiber, vitamin C and iron as well as a bevy of other important trace nutrients like niacin, folate and B6. They’re also versatile and easy to work with whenever you want something tasty.

You’ll need the following:

5-6 fist sized red potatoes, cut into bit sized pieces

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp garlic powder

juice from 1/2 lime

6-7 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 tbsp corn oil (or any other oil suitable for high temperature cooking)

garlic salt and flake red pepper to taste

Pre-heat your oven to 375F/190C. Place the potatoes and the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl and stir until they’re evenly coated. Spread them out on a foil lined sheet and bake. Depending on the size, they’ll be ready after 40 minutes if they’re on the small size (3/4 inch cubes) and longer if they’re bigger.

We served this up with some steamed asparagus. I trimmed the asparagus and steamed them in the microwave by adding a little water to the bottom of a large bowl and the asparagus on top. Three minutes was all it took for lightly steamed crisp veggies.

We also tried something new: vegan mahi mahi from Veggie Brothers. I’m usually wary of vegan meats because they’re usually ersatz and expensive. I was impressed by the flavor and texture, especially given the attractive appearance. It was tasty but overpriced. We bought a ‘single serving’ and split it. At $5 per person, it wasn’t quite worth it. I do look forward to seeing more from them and hopefully a price drop.

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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