Tag Archives: recipe

Feb 27 2012
2 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes, Snacks

I like to call this one, “Tandoori Tofu”

This is a dish about spices. I love Indian food but am wary of restaurants (even though Southeast Asian cuisine usually has ‘safe’ options for people who are vegan or vegetarian but I have the additional issue of gluten free). This is a great main or appetizer with an exotic blend of herbs and spices. Clockwise from top is cilantro, lemon (zest and juice), ginger root, garlic and something you may not be used to: turmeric root.

Turmeric is what gives Indian curries and indeed a lot of vegan foods their rich golden coloring. It’s very similar to ginger root in it’s appearance and texture but the flesh is a rich orange compared to the pale gold of ginger. It’s slightly sweet and intensely herbal in flavor when consumed in the root form. If you can find it, I recommend cooking with it whenever you can. I store mine in a paper bag, wetting with water occasionally to keep it from drying out completely. One tablespoon has 15% of your recomended daily allowance of iron. OMG!

All of these spices are excellent sources of anti-oxidants and micronutrients that you just can’t get anywhere else.
For this dish, you’ll need 1 package of firm Chinese style water packed tofu, cut into bite sized pieces (I used Nasyoa).

The marinade consists of the following:

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated or minced (a piece about the size of your big toe)
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric powder or a piece about the size of your thumb, grated or minced
chili powder to taste
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil
juice from 1 lemon (add a little zest if you’re feeling adventurous)

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade.

Spoon over the tofu, tossing gently to coat. Let set for 30 minutes so that the flavors can marry and sink into the tofu.

Line a baking tray with foil, spray lightly with olive oil and place tofu on the tray. Bake at 400F/200C for 20 minutes on a middle-upper rack. Serve hot, with cilantro sprinkled over the top and lemon wedges for squeezing.

You can do this with any vegetables: potato, zucchini, mushrooms… even make kebabs! This is an easy way to impress taste buds with healthy exotic cuisine.

If you’re a purist and need raita, I AM working on a vegan version. So far it’s okay but needs a little something more. I’ll let you know what happens.

This is Christie, signing off.

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Feb 24 2012
3 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Vegan Butternut Squash and Mushroom Risotto… want some?

I have been missing this comfort food so I decided to make some. I’ve never had so many pots and pans out at once. I’m a lazy simple girl when it comes to food and this was a first. You’ll need a baking sheet, a sauce pan, and 2 medium fry pans. You’ll need the following:
1/2 cup of arborio rice (this is more than enough for 2 servings)
1/2 liter of water
1 cube of veggie bouillon
1 cup of butternut squash
1 quart of baby bello mushrooms, sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/4 onion, diced
1 tsp olive oil
salt to taste
herbes de provence
white wine, I prefer pinot grigio for this recipe. Just use something you would drink. Don’t cook with wine you wouldn’t drink. That’s just nasty.

I cut the top off my butternut squash (guestimating a cup) and wrapped it in tinfoil. I put it in the oven at 350F/175C for about 30-45 minutes or until the skin gets translucent and it starts to become tender.

Set it aside to cool.
I put about half a liter of water into my sauce pan along with a bouillon cube and brought it to a boil. Then I turned the heat to low.

While I was waiting for the water to boil, I added the onion, garlic and olive oil to one of my fry pans and heated them until they began to sputter. Then I added the mushrooms and turned the heat to medium-low and began cooking the rice.

I put the rice in a fry pan with a cup of wine and a generous pinch of herbes de provence. I turned the heat to low. I sliced up the squash (no skin) into 1 cm cubes and added it to the risotto.

I added the broth 1/2 cup or so at a time until the rice began to get tender and the liquid was mostly absorbed. It should be translucent except for a little bit in the middle that should still be opaque white when it’s done. You might not use all the broth. I mixed in my mushrooms and added a tablespoon of nutritional yeast but I do that to everything. I garnished it with some basil from my balcony garden.

I was pretty pleased with my ability to make some serious comfort food. If you get to try it, let me know what changes you’d make to improve it.

This is Christie, signing off.

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Feb 23 2012
5 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes, Snacks

Easy Baked Eggplant

Eggplant is awesome. It’s purple… sometimes white or marbled, and versatile. This recipe is an easy addition to any meal: it’s low in calories, tasty and easy to prepare. Most of the calories in this recipe come from the almonds. Almonds are a great source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. These two nutrients are often overlooked by vegans. Omnivores get them from fish along with such delicious contaminants as heavy metals mercury and lead or pesticides like DDT. Flax seeds and nuts are a great source of these nutrients that are vital for brain function. Your brain is the fattiest organ in your body! Weird, right?

For this recipe slice your eggplant into one inch thick pieces and ‘bread’ it in a mixture of the following:

1 cup of almond meal

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

a pinch of salt

Now place the pieces on lightly oiled tinfoil (I rest each on top of 3 almonds or sprinkle some corn meal for better air flow), cover with foil, and bake it at 375F/190C for 25-30 minutes.

After this you’ll remove the foil and poke with a knife every 5 minutes or so until they’re tender.

Just imagine this smothered with pasta sauce and melted soy cheese… Okay, I’m drooling.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Feb 17 2012
3 Comments
Main Dishes, Recipes, Snacks, Thoughts

Great big raw green dinner!

I am getting ready to go out of town and I wanted to make sure nothing in my kitchen spoiled. I had some weird foods: Spinach, kumquats, yellow zucchini and avocado. What am I supposed to do with that!? Because this was an experiment I didn’t take as many pictures as I would normally like but it was good I decided to share.

I decided to julienne the zucchini and mixed that with some sun dried tomato and mixed it with 1/3 of my avocado as a binding agent. I also added a pinch of sea salt and a tablespoon of nutritional yeast.

I mooshed it into a mold and put it into the freezer while I did the next part. I chopped up the kumquats, a big bunch of mint leaves, and again mixed that with 1/3 of my avocado.

Next I took the rest of the herbs in my fridge (parsley, basil, and dill) and put the stems and leaves into my blender with a generous tablespoon of tahini, the remaining 1/3 of the avocado, juice from 2 lemons and 1 lime, and a little bit of almond milk until the flavor was balanced as a dressing. I blended it until it came out nice and creamy.

I covered a plate in spinach, put my chilled zucchini mixture onto that and then spooned the kumquat mint relish onto the sides. I added a quick drizzle of my tahini herb dressing and sat down to a healthy raw vegan dinner.

The mellow flavors of the zucchini and sun dried tomato were a good base for the tangy, sweet mint kumquat relish. The herb tahini dressing was really good but I think it brought too many flavors into the dish. The avocado brought the whole thing together as a common element in all the parts and the spinach helped me get it into my mouth. I think if I do this again, I might try adding some raw garlic to the zucchini and save the herb tahini dressing for plain spinach salads.

Experimenting is probably my favorite part of being vegan. I hope you get to experiment a little. The more you do it, the more things will ‘work out’ instead of being composted. Good luck!

 

This is Christie, signing off.

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Feb 12 2012
6 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Cooking Challenge: Chicken/Chickpea Piccata

My sister and I have started a cooking challenge of sorts. We take a dish and then, together, make two versions of it: vegan and non-vegan. It has solved two problems for us. First of all, she has three kids that keep her busy and so we aren’t able to spend as much time together anymore. Cooking is something that she has to do for her family and that we both enjoy doing, and it’s a fun way for us to hang out and be productive at home. Secondly, it solves the problem of having to accommodate my vegan diet. Last week, we made two versions of chili (we used Christie’s recipe for the vegan version) and two versions of sausage balls (vegan recipe will be posted pending further experimentation and satisfactory results). This week, we made chicken piccata and chickpea piccata.

Chickpea Piccata

1 16oz can garbanzo beans, drained
1 sliced shallot
5 or 6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp breadcrumbs
2 cups vegetable broth (I used two packets of Swanson Vegetable Flavor Boost and 1 cup water)
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup capers
juice of half a lemon, save the other half for garnish or to spritz fresh lemon juice on the dish after plating
3-4 cups spinach
olive or safflower oil
salt and pepper

Heat up the oil in pan. Brown the shallots and garlic. Then, add the breadcrumbs and mix until the crumbs are toasty.

Add the broth, wine, salt, and pepper. Let it heat to a rapid boil until it’s reduced a bit. Then, add the chickpeas and capers. Once it is all heated through, add the lemon juice and remove from heat. Top it with the spinach, which should wilt nicely. Piccata dishes are great with pasta, mashed potatoes, probably even with rice. We used spaghetti.

I tried a bit of my sister’s chicken piccata. Both dishes turned out tasty. I’ll go ahead and say that in my completely biased opinion, I liked mine better. Both recipes were easy and used ingredients that we are both likely to have on hand at any given time. The vegan version cooked more quickly, and it’s a plus that undercooked chickpeas aren’t potentially life-threatening. Bonus: no cholesterol in the vegan version. I think I will be making this recipe many times.

Cooking is always more fun and satisfying when you share it with someone you love! XOXO… Melissa

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Feb 11 2012
9 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Vegan alfredo!

A few days ago, LuminousVegans posted a creamy alfredo recipe and reminded me how delicious creamy pasta sauces are. I’m making my own soy-based creamy alfredo which can be made nut free for those of you with nut allergies. If you’re sensitive to soy (or even if you’re not), definitely try LuminousVegan’s alfredo recipe. Her recipes are amazing!

The ingredients are as follows:
1 12 oz. box silken tofu (I like MoriNu)
1-2 tbsp Italian seasoning
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1-2 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 pinch nutmeg
soy or almond milk as needed
garlic or sea salt and crushed red pepper to taste

Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender, adding soy or almond milk as necessary until you get a rich creamy sauce. That’s it, you’re done making high protein, low-fat, low-calorie alfredo sauce. I do recommend heating it either by microwaving or in a skillet with some white wine but this isn’t necessary, it just helps to marry the flavors.

I tossed it with hot pasta and a sliced soy sausage that I browned with some garlic.

I also added some raw red and yellow bell pepper. I tore up some more fresh basil for presentation but it wasn’t pretty for long because I ate it.

I love the sienna with the red and yellow on the creamy backdrop and vivid green. I’m a sucker for food that’s beautiful as well as delicious and good for you. Food should nourish your mind and your body. I love the sweetness of the pepper, the spice of the soy sausage with the creamy tofu and savory nutritional yeast and pasta.

If you want creamy pesto instead, add a generous handful of raw basil, a dash of lemon juice and about half a bulb of garlic.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Feb 10 2012
5 Comments
Cooking, Recipes, Snacks

Has everybody gone crackers?

I like to make juice. Like… serious health conscious vegetable juice. If that’s your bag, this post is for you.

Tonight I made some juice from 6 carrots, 1 apple, 1 peeled lemon, one beet and a generous chunk of fresh ginger. In the early days of enjoying my frosty beverages I was thinking of things to do with the leftover pulp.

What’s leftover after you juice the veggies and fruits is a lot of soluble and insoluble fiber and nutrients that didn’t get mooshed out in the juicing. I hate wasting things. It’s partly my inner hippie, my years of farm living, and some personal issues I can’t get into on the internet. Anyways, this is what I use to make my home-made crackers. As far as I know, pretty much any fruits and veggies will do except for cucumber, sorry. Just think about the combo and how it will taste when paired with hummus or whatever. This recipe is for carrot sesame crackers.

Take the pulp and pick out any large chunks. To the pulp, add the following (amounts don’t need to be exact)

1 heaping tbsp tahini (this is where the sesame comes from)

2 heaping tbsp flax meal

a few dashes of tamari or soy sauce (or just regular salt if you’re soy-free)

Moosh it with your hands until you can mold it into a ball that’s at least somewhat doughy. Spread it out into your food dehydrator on one of the plastic sheets intended for fruit leather and such and dry overnight. My dehydrator doesn’t have heat settings or a timer so I can’t be more specific than that. It works, that’s all I know. You can also spread it out on a wax paper lined baking sheet and covered in tin foil. Bake them at 200F/90C for 30-45 minutes, depending on the thickness of the dough. Check it frequently to be sure it doesn’t burn.

The rich color and sweetness comes from the carrots and beets, slightly savory from the soy and nutty from the tahini and flax. You might also get some bite from the ginger! They’re great with home-made hummus, soy or nut cheese, salsa, cheesy bean dip, spinach artichoke dip, guacamole or whatever it is that blows your skirt up.

Here are my finished crackers: low calorie, preservative free, low glycemic index due to no added sugar or processed flour, high flavor and incredibly filling (remember… lots of soluble and insoluble fiber.) You can also customize them adding whatever your heart desires. Pulp from spinach mango juice makes great spinach sun dried tomato crackers: it’s a favorite when mango comes into season here in Florida in the spring. I’ve also been known to make spinach pizza crust. They will keep in a plastic baggie in your fridge for 3-4 days.

This is Christie, signing off… to finish off last night’s hummus with my fresh crackers.

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Feb 06 2012
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Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes, Snacks

Kale and White Bean Soup! It’s what’s for lunch.

Kale is so awesome that it might overshadow the white beans in this particular dish but white beans (also called navy beans or Northern beans) a’re a standout food on their own. Kale is full of vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, calcium along with a number of other micronutrients like lutein and zeaxanthin (both important for vision) that are all really important for a healthy body and immune system. It’s low in calories and loaded with fiber to help you feel fuller faster and longer. So how can white beans possible compete? They offer a different variety of nutrients that complement those present in the kale: calcium, iron, and other micronutrients like coumarin and ferulin which are currently under scientific investigation for their activity as antioxidants.

Oh right, soup. Gather together the following.

12-16oz bag of dry white beans

1 bunch of kale, rinsed and cut into ribbons

1 tomato, diced

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cube of bouillon a pinch of cumin seeds (optional)

1.5 L water (does NOT include water for soaking the beans)

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

To prepare, I recommend soaking the beans overnight (or at least 4 hours) to reduce the cook time of your soup. Cover the beans completely with water plus another inch or so. The beans should about double in size. Don’t be alarmed. It’s normal. I like dry beans because it’s cheaper but if soaking dry beans isn’t your thing, 2-3 tins of white beans works great and will reduce your prep time considerably.

In a huge pot, add the olive oil and coriander seeds and wait until the seeds start to sputter. Add the tomato and garlic and stir a few times.

Add the beans and stir until they’re coated with the tomato and olive oil. Add 1 liter of water and the bouillon. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 1.5 hours (longer depending on how dry they are, just keep testing them to see when they start to get tender). Start to stir in the kale a handful at a time when the beans start to soften.

Add more water until you reach the desired consistency. Remove the bay leaves. Bring to a boil before serving.

Other things you can add to this traditional favorite include: sliced vegan chorizo or soy sausage, pasta, and sun dried tomato. Add the chorizo or soy sausage right after the kale so it doesn’t fall apart, you can also brown it lightly in a fry pan first. If you add sun dried tomato, add it with the regular tomato. I like this soup for lunch. It’s inexpensive, highly nutritious and delicious.

This is Christie, signing off.

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Feb 01 2012
2 Comments
Cooking, Snacks

I’m Fallin’ For Falafel

I love me some falafel. I am so happy it’s vegan. Falafel is ground chickpeas that are seasoned, formed into balls (heehee… balls) or patties and then deep-fried. Chickpeas are yummy, versatile, and seriously nutritious. I refer to them as garbanzo beans. Growing up, garbanzos were added to some Filipino dishes such as menudo.

I had never noticed garbanzo flour in the grocery store until I sought it out after seeing (or rather, smelling) something delicious that one of my co-workers brought for lunch. I grabbed some Bob’s Red Mill Garbanzo Bean Flour, which is even more versatile than the bean itself. You can use it in place of traditional flour for baking. You can also use it to make hummus and falafel.

I decided to try making falafel patties. After all, the recipe was on the package and I had all the ingredients. So… why not? Visit their site for the recipe, which is super easy and great for experimentation. I opted to fry some of the patties in safflower oil and bake the rest. The ones in the back are fried; the ones up front that seriously look like peanut butter cookies were baked (in the toaster oven, natch’).

These were so easy to make. The fried ones had a better texture and were slightly – very slightly more delicious, but the baked ones were great, too. There’s really no way to go wrong with this recipe.

I didn’t have any pita so I ate them with white rice, which is always available in my house. We had leftover hot sauce from a pita place, which was GREAT. So what will I do differently next time? I’ll use fresh ingredients next time: parsley, cilantro, garlic. Definitely more garlic, as well as a tad more salt. And I’ll buy or make some tahini next time, too. Oh, delicious.

I can’t wait to use the garbanzo bean flour to make other foods! Yay. Happy eating, everyone… Melissa

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Jan 25 2012
2 Comments
Cooking, Recipes, Snacks

Tabouleh… gesundheit…?

Tabouleh is an awesome snack, exotic salad or side dish that’s relatively simple to prepare and sure to impress. You can use traditional bulgur if you want but I can’t make any recommendations on how to prepare it.I make mine with quinoa because of the whole gluten thing and this is my interpretation of the traditional dish. Parsley is the star in this dish: it’s a great home remedy for bad breath (truly, it works… don’t tell my boyfriend) so if you’re inviting that good looking soul with the gnarly breath over for dinner, consider this bad boy for your appetizer. You’ll need the following:

1/2 onion, diced

1/2 cup quinoa

1 cup  water

1/2 lemon

1 generous bunch of parsley

1 tomato, diced

2 tbsp chopped mint (optional, but makes it very authentic)

pinch of sea salt

pinch of pepper (optional)

1 tsp olive oil

Combine the quinoa, olive oil and the water in a microwave safe dish and microwave at 2 minute intervals until the water is absorbed. Here’s my quinoa in the microwave… don’t judge me. I’m a little lazy.

Meanwhile, chop up the parsley (make sure it’s well rinsed so there’s no grit in your tabouleh), mint if you’re adding it, tomato and onion.

Put the tomato and greens in a bowl.

Add the onion to the quinoa after the liquid is absorbed and microwave another 2 minutes, until it starts to get soft. The onion will add some sweetness to balance the tart lemon and herbal parsley. Combine the tomato and parsley with the hot quinoa, sprinkle salt, and squeeze the lemon over the top. The heat will cause the parsley to wilt slightly and take on the flavors of the dish.

Mix again and refrigerate until you’re ready. I think it’s better cold, but warm pleases too.

This is Christie, signing off.

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