Tag Archives: soy-free

Aug 18 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Long Beans and Heirloom Tomatoes

Yay! Tomatoes are finally popping up in the garden. We have a nice crop of beautifully colored heirloom tomatoes.

I decided to throw some of these babies in with sauteed long beans.

First, I sauteed about a cup of long beans in olive oil with 2 cloves of minced garlic. Long beans are not meant to be eaten raw, so if you have them, make sure you cook them. They maintain their crunch even if they wilt, if that makes any sense.

I cut up one of the tomatoes. Unlike the other tomatoes that we grow in the garden, these are much more meaty, less juicy, but still sweet and tasty. I love that the tomatoes we grow in our backyard require little to no embellishment to be tasty. You can eat them like apples!

I boiled some penne, coated it in olive oil, and threw in freshly minced garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and nutritional yeast. I topped it off with the cooked beans and the raw tomatoes.

Easy, delicious, nutritious. The only thing missing is a glass of fine wine! –Melissa

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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 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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Jul 31 2012
2 Comments
Main Dishes

Double Cherry, Almond and Long Bean Salad!

Melissa brought us some GORGEOUS long beans from her Dad’s garden. Green beans are easier to find in your supermarket but long beans have a subtly sweeter flavor. Here she is below, breaking off the ends and snapping them into bite sized pieces.

We used the following:

3-4 cups of long beans, ends trimmed and cut

1 carton of cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1/4 cup of dried cherries (dried cranberries work too!)

15-20 toasted salted almonds, crushed

Melissa blanched the beans by steaming them.

I tossed together the fruits and veggies and dressed it with 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar that I whisked together with a tablespoon of Dijon mustard.

This salad disappeared fast: sweet fruits and veggies, savory nutty almonds and tart dressing. The textures were contrasting and very welcome and this is a light filling salad that’s beautiful to boot! We hope you get to try it.

This is Melissa, Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Jul 20 2012
9 Comments
Cooking, Lazy Vegan, Snacks

Hipster Chic Volume I : Peanut Butter Pickle Time

Growing up, my father introduced me to what would become a life-long obsession. And today, in this post, I will share the secret family recipe for this small slice of gourmet culinary nirvana. I present to you the peanut butter pickle sandwich.

Ingredients :
Bread
Peanut Butter
Pickles

Prep Time :
1 Hour (Without Instagram, 5 Minutes)

First, slice your bread. What we have here is an artisan gluten-free muesli loaf hand crafted locally here in Miami. Slice as many starchy canvases as you deem necessary. For this post, I will be making it face ouverte.

Next, take your peanut butter, and spread a generous layer on top of the bread prepared in the previous step. Don’t be shy with your peanut butter as it will be the mortar holding together what will become your masterpiece.

For the third step, take your pickles and slice them if they are not pre-sliced (as pictured here). This slightly sour ingredient will be what makes your sandwich sing. It compliments the creamy sweetness of the peanuts nicely.

Finally, enjoy the effing crap out of that sandwich. Treat it as a secret lover you meet with for a secret tryst after months of longing for its soft, lusty buss.

*Smugness in this post powered by Instagram

 

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Jul 19 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Southwest Pumpkin Chili and Corn Soup‏

A good friend found a huge pumpkin growing in her backyard and when she eventually harvested it she found herself with more pumpkin puree than she knew what to do with. This is where I come in as the lucky recipient of 16 ounces of pumpkin puree. It was really sweet and mellow so I decided to make a Southwest pumpkin chili and corn soup. You’ll need the following:
1 lb. of pumpkin puree
1/4 cup of salsa verde or juice from 1 lime if you’re short on time
1 generous pinch of chili powder
1 pinch of paprika
flaked red pepper and garlic salt to taste
1/2 cup of frozen corn
1/4 cup of cilantro leaves

I melted the frozen puree over medium-high heat in a sauce pan adding the dry spices. When the puree was melted and everything was getting steamy I adjusted the seasonings and added the corn and cilantro leaves. I stirred it in and reduced the heat to low until I was ready to serve.

The tartness of the lime will accentuate the sweet corn and mellow pumpkin. Cilantro will make the whole thing fragrant and beautiful.

I garnished mine with some paprika. Sprinkling some tortilla chips over the top might add to the texture but it’s awesome as is!

This is 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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Jul 05 2012
8 Comments
Thoughts

Gadgets for Budgets!

I managed to find a used soy-milk maker for $30 bucks (SoyQuick, retails for about $120) on eBay a few weeks ago and we’re pretty excited about the end products. It’s definitely a device that can help your budget and keep you from heading to the store late at night for a carton of milk.

The first step fr this particular machine is to soak and wash the soybeans. We soaked for 8 hours (instructions call for at least 4 hours to overnight). Ours needs about 1/2 cup of beans.

The next step is to fill the basin to the fill line with water (we used distilled water) and the cup with beans and then we put it on the counter and pressed the button. It heated the water and ground up the beans and before we even expected it, we had made our own soy-milk. It was incredibly easy and as you can see the machine is kind of deadly looking: perfect for my favorite guy to make his contribution to kitchen life.

The end product consists of 2 things: a cup of spent beans (above) and the milk itself (below). Not all of the beans got ground so we might use a little less than 1/2 cup next time and see if the milk is as awesome, maybe a heaping 1/3 cup.

Based on our preliminary work with the machine, our *very* conservative estimate is that we can get about 3 gallons of soy-milk from a 26 ounce bag of organic soybeans that we bought for just under $5. That’s a STEAL! You can also use almonds, cashews, flax seeds (which I’m particularly excited about) or whatever kind of beans, seeds or nuts make your day. If you’ve got an allergy and can’t risk cross contamination, this might be your bag. I’m also excited to add carob, cocoa and maca to flavor our milks and add extra nutrients.

I’m also trying to figure out what to do with the ‘waste’ product from making soy-milk which is the cup of spent beans. I’m hoping that they can be incorporated with the pulp that results from making vegetable juice to make crackers that are vegan, gluten-free and loaded with fiber instead of calories.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Jul 02 2012
7 Comments
Main Dishes, Recipes

Eggplant Parmesan for Dummies

My sister and I decided to have another one of our cooking challenges where we take a dish and make traditional and vegan versions of it. Our next dish was eggplant parmesan. I looked at several vegan recipes and decided that I was going to follow this one from Oh She Glows. It was a good plan until I botched a critical step (thus the ‘dummies’ part of the title). It doesn’t matter because I ended up with a great version of vegan eggplant parmesan anyway!

Vegan (and Soy-Free) Eggplant Parmesan

1 fat eggplant (I paid an arm and a leg for an eggplant from a place that rhymes with Shmole Broods and then saw prettier looking ones for $2 at a farmers market the next day. BLAST!)
1 c unsweetened and unflavored almond milk
3/4 c whole wheat pastry flour (use a gluten-free flour for a GF version)
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 c breadcrumbs
1 jar pasta sauce (I used Organicville Italian Herb pasta sauce)
1 pkg Daiya shredded mozzarella or other vegan mozzarella cheese

I cut my eggplant into 1cm slices and ended up with 14 slices. I then sprinkled some salt on the slices to draw out some of the water –I’m afraid I may have drawn out some of the flavor as well– and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

Okay, now here’s where I screwed things up. While the eggplant was chilling out, I was supposed to mix together the milk, flour, vinegar, and spices. Instead, I mixed all that and the bread crumbs. Um. Yeah. Dummy. Oh She Glows calls for the eggplant slices to be dipped in the batter and then coated with the bread crumbs. There was no turning back once I added the bread crumbs, but I will say that it all smelled very good and mixed together nicely.

I had to get over my mentally challenged moment and work with what I had (big thanks to my sis for calming me down). First, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees. Then, I grabbed a deep roasting pan, sprinkled the bottom with the bread crumb mixture, laid the eggplant on the crumbs, and then topped it off with the rest of the bread crumbs. I stuck it in the oven and let it bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I put a pot on the stove to cook pasta to go with the eggplant parmesan, cursing myself the entire time for being unable to follow a brilliant and simple recipe. I chose this spinach spaghetti from Shmole Broods. I tossed it in olive oil and freshly minced garlic.

After the eggplant had been baking for 20 minutes, I poured the entire jar of pasta sauce into the pan, sprinkled some more Italian seasoning on top, and baked for another 15 minutes. Then, I topped it off with the shredded Daiya (I didn’t use the entire package but you can) and baked for another 5 minutes.

It tastes as good as it looks, and I hope it looks good to you. Wondering how the traditional version turned out? We didn’t make one — this version worked for everyone, including my Italian brother-in-law.

I can now say that I’m pleasantly happy with how this turned out. I undoubtedly would have found a way to screw up the breading of the eggplant, and I probably would have ended up with a lot of unused breadcrumbs. This worked out quite well and is how I plan to make this dish in the future. –Melissa

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