fresh organic strawberries with vanilla soycream, garnished with pineapple leaves

i recently lent out both my copy of extraveganza and of veganomicon, but this post has helpings of each.  first, from memory, i made the strawberry jalapeno cornbread muffins… they weren’t quite like i remembered, but i was surprised i got the proportions pretty right as far as wet and dry ingredients!  they are also seasoned with oregano and fresh basil.  i had a mine alongside a simple pinto beans and rice soup:

with the leftover basil from the muffin-making, and a deliciously ripe pineapple waiting for me on the counter, i threw together a cashew-veggie-rice stir-fry, and i seem to remember something similar appearing in veganomicon (only using quinoa instead of rice, and probably some other vegetables).  i really wanted the vegetables to come through in this and to try some different flavoring, so i omitted the usual soy sauce and added a pinch of five-spice powder and a dash of balsamic vinegar (a combination i recently learned and love, especially with fresh basil).

i almost exclusively buy raw cashews (for making raw food and nut cheeses), so i toasted mine in the oven before adding them to the rice and veggies.  the smell of freshly toasted nuts is one of my favorite smells, and adds a nice depth of flavor too.  what went into this dish is as follows: yellow onion, garlic, fresh ginger, carrots, broccoli, yellow bell pepper, pineapple, cashews, fresh basil, scallions, balsamic vinegar, and sea salt (cooked up in a bit of canola oil, of course).  see how that bit of broccoli glows!

and for dessert, the warmth of the spring air inspired a simple treat i remember from swedish summers (only vegan, now!): fresh strawberries with vanilla soycream and a little dusting of sugar.  oh, how the later-night-light makes me happy…

baby romaine with sliced bartlett pears, carrots, radishes, and sahale soccoro blend nut and fruit mix with annie’s papaya poppy seed dressing

i started going to yoga classes this week, and after an intensive and really good class, i went across the street to the coop and picked up a couple of things to make a giant salad.  i used:

1/2 bag organic baby romaine
1 large carrot, sliced
1/2 bartlett pear, sliced
3 radishes, sliced
1 handful sahale soccoro blend (macadamias, hazelnuts, papaya, and mango with chipotle)
a good drizzling of annie’s papaya poppy seed dressing

so simple and good!  it was fun to make the salad pretty, though i do apologize for the lack of natural light, which would have made it even more scrumptious-looking.

i also recently made the maple pecan cookies from extraveganza…highly recommended!  behold how beautifully crinkled their texture is:

fresh out of the oven, they were soft and chewy and just subtly sweet.  i had some wine and passed out for the night (oops), so i neglected to put them in a bag which i think dried them out a bit the next day.  but they are still tasty when crispy!  i’ve eaten ridiculous amounts of them already (and the recipe made 30).  it’s a good thing i’ve got that yoga thing going on.

when i got home from work today i set straight out to make a batch of julie’s seitan
… only i used the basic measurements and changed nearly all the spices to make it asian-style for spring roll use.  once the dough was mixed up, i went into my supplies drawer to find one small sheet of recycled aluminum foil.  it was enough for a sausage.  so i dug out my cheesecloth for the the remainder and there was only enough for two!  bah.  two items for the restocking shopping list.  i had to make three large seitan sausages instead of 5-6, but it worked out fine (just steamed them a little bit longer).

we still haven’t mastered a dipping sauce for the spring rolls - ours have been too salty, too peanut-y, and too thin.  we need to get back to jasmine deli to try and dissect their recipe!  but as far as fillings go…delicious!  i stir fried some seitan pieces in tamari, sesame oil, and a splash of balsamic.  while a dealt with the cilantro, mint, and basil, i julienned carrots and mini sweet peppers, shredded red cabbage, and chiffonaded (is that really a word?) spinach.  we also cooked the necessary rice noodles, and got to work soaking rice paper.  a bit of a sloppier job on the rolling this time, but they still tasted yummy.  perhaps we need to make less.  when you have five apiece, the tummy swells!

a couple of hours after dinner i got a craving for cookies.  i flipped through extraveganza and decided on the coconut oatmeal cookies with pumpkin seeds.  however, i had no brown rice flour… simple! i’ll just use spelt.  then i pulled out the maple syrup… only a couple of tablespoons left!  i needed 3/4 cup.  this was a bit of a blessing too, because i’ve been wanting to finish off the horribly user-unfriendly tin of syrup i got months ago (it drips onto the top and makes the lid stick).  but i didn’t know what to do.  i ended up adding some agave nectar and then making up the rest of it with sucanat and a little water.  the dough held together well, and i also added some chocolate chips.  it baked well too.  but the taste… kind of boring.  there seemed to be pockets of tastiness in the cookies, but most of it was bland and not sweet in a satisfying way.  well, more maple syrup it will be when i get to the store next.  which, knowing me, will probably be tomorrow.  i don’t really need to eat cookies anyway.  not until i start a yoga class, that is.

i’ve heard it’s going to be -30 again by tonight. i can see and hear the wind blowing the leafless branches outside our 3rd story window. brrrr… so instead of dwelling on that, i’m going to conjure up fond memories of yesterday’s lunch and dinner; involving one of my favorite meal bases - noodles.

lemongrass, garlic, ginger, clementines, red peppers, scallions, pac choy, and carrots

first up we have a homemade creation - citrus peanut soba noodle saute. i bought a box of clementines that needed using, and also knew that the lemongrass i’d bought for dinner’s pad thai would be far from being all used. i realized i haven’t posted a recipe in ages, so here’s how it happened:

citrus peanut soba noodle saute (serves 1):

1 “bundle” soba noodles (one serving)
juice from 1 clementine (or half an orange)
1-2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp tamari
2 tbsp sesame oil
1-2 tbsp warm water
oil for sautéing
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp ginger, grated
1-in piece lemongrass, minced
2 tsp red chili pepper, minced
1 pac choy, roughly chopped
1 carrot, julienned
1 scallion, cut on the bias
toasted sesame seeds or gomasio, for garnish

cook soba noodles according to directions while you prepare the sauce and vegetables. drain, and set aside.

to make the sauce, “soften” the peanut butter with a little warm water in a bowl (depending on how “mixable” your peanut butter is - you may not need this step). add the citrus juice, rice vinegar, tamari and sesame oil and whisk together. set aside.

heat some oil in a saucepan or frying pan over medium heat. add the garlic, ginger, lemongrass, red pepper and carrots and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant (a minute or two). add the pac choy and continue cooking until pac choy begins to wilt slightly. add cooked noodles, sauce and scallions and mix well, then transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with gomasio. then eat!

i like the simplicity of soba noodle dishes like this. a nice sauce, some veggies, and no tofu or tempeh or seitan getting in the way. the softer bite of the soba noodles goes nicely with the crunch of carrots and cabbage. of course, it could be simplified even more, served hot or cold, and/or turned into a nice potluck treat.

getting back to that lemongrass i bought a week ago… i had been inspired to make some pad thai and have heard many rave reviews of vwav’s brooklyn pad thai. as i was flipping through extraveganza! earlier, i came across a vegan pad thai recipe in there too! since i’m on such a kick with that cookbook, and there were more vegetables involved with it, i decided to roll with it, even though that recipe didn’t call for lemongrass. i made it as is with the following changes: added lemongrass, subbed onions for scallions, subbed carrots for yams, omitted water chestnuts. i made a full batch, though i should only have made half because 1) we are only two and 2) i don’t have a wok and i ended up having to mix everything together in a glass mixing bowl. still, it worked, and was delicious! i liked that the bean sprouts were added as a saute ingredient rather than a garnish; that way they could soak up more flavor. i still want to try the brooklyn pad thai, but am certainly happy with how this one turned out.

roasted tempeh with leeks and carrots and extraveganza! lemon cardamom rice with green peas

tempeh marinated in tamari, dijon, garlic, thyme, and white pepper; tossed with sliced leeks and carrots and served with lemon cardamom rice with green peas.  this was really good, but also a little bitter.  i think i need to start boiling my tempeh before marinating it when i can’t marinate it for a few hours, for one.  and the lemon cardamom rice, because of the cardamom and turmeric, i’m guessing, was also a bit bitter.  even a bit of garlic or onions would have evened it out, i think.

this morning after an early shopping trip, i made a half batch of the lemon lavender blueberry muffins, also from extraveganza!.  i was a little worried about lavender in cooking/baking, which is something i don’t have much experience with.  when i worked at cafe latte we had a lemon lavendar cake that by some accounts tasted like floor cleaner…eek!  luckily not the case here, although i may have mismeasured the baking soda/powder in halving the recipe because it had a little bit of a baking soda aftertaste.  still, they were ultra moist and flavorful, and the best part (besides using half whole spelt flour and half ww pastry flour)?  just look inside!

somehow my post-birthday, cheap-whiskey hangover dinner slipped through the cracks.

i marinated tempeh in red wine, dijon, bragg’s, garlic, and thyme and then browned it. the color is really dark and meatlike, but not in a creepy way… in a vegan delicious way! with broccoli buttercream mashed potatoes (my favorite kind of potato!), and citrus beets from extraveganza! beets are a good cleanser, and if you are a fan of beets, you know what i mean when i say you know you’ve eaten beets.

after a weird day at work yesterday i was in the mood for more comfort food. something rich, succulent, delicious. i copied down a recipe from work and veganized it into seitan bourguignon. i was a bit lazy and used smartlife bacon, but i did make my own seitan from the everyday dish website (although not exactly following the spices called for because i needed something a little more…french). served over whole wheat penne (oh what some rotini could have done for me!):

sometimes you just need something warm, and rich, and salty, and tummy-filling. both of these did the job beautifully.

with xmas, and a’s pre-xmas illness, i didn’t get to cook and bake as much as i’d wanted to, and documentation of what little was done was even more sparse.  so this is a bit of a backlog of some things i haven’t had the chance to post.

my love affair with extraveganza! was in high gear the other week.  i made two new recipes:

tofu baked in almond mint cilantro sauce (served over brown rice):

this was really tasty, creamy, and simple to make.  there was both plain and smoked tofu, green peas, and a mint and cilantro almond butter sauce.  so good!  i will make it again for sure.

ginger fried rice:

with leftover almond mint cilantro tofu:

though not reflected in my usage above, what i really like about this recipe was that there isn’t any tofu in it.  i love tofu fried rice, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes a big load of vegetables and some spice is all i want.  i think i ended up adding a few extra vegetables because i had some in the fridge, but the recipe has a tasty variety already.

with my usual habit of not eating breakfast, and especially now that i have to work so early in the morning three days a week, me making anything beyond toast is a pretty big deal.  inspired by oatmeal discussions on the ppk, i bough a can of mccann’s irish oatmeal and made enough for a couple of meals.  irish oatmeal, cooked up in apricot nectar, with bananas, walnuts, and cinnamon:

the first recipe i tried from yellow rose recipes, per josh’s recommendation, was the sweet potato and black bean flautas.  delightful!  i also made the tangy sour cream (yum!).  i had cilantro to use up so i also served it with chimichurri sauce, and some free avocados i got from work:

another cookbook/zine i am super excited about but hadn’t gotten a chance to use is kittee’s.  i remedied that last night by making a cake, using the non-chocolate cake recipe from papa tofu, and adding some chopped rhubarb, cinnamon, and cardamom.  i’m not much of a cake decorator, but here is the whole thing:

inside shot:

must say it smelled so good while baking that i almost didn’t decorate it!  but i resisted, whipped up some maple frosting from vctotw, and ate a piece as soon as i was done with the photos.  next time i will add more rhubarb (i wasn’t sure how tart it would be), and maybe even some raspberries or strawberries.  yay kittee!

lastly, my dinner tonight… a creamy potato-leek soup with red chard.  i was craving something like this all day at work, and also thought back to the christmas eve dinner soup that a’s brother in law made (though it involved lentils and ginger and fennel and coconut milk).  i added a little bit of anise to the soup as a nod to the rye bread i didn’t have a chance to bake today (tomorrow it will have to be!), and i really liked it that way.  i want to tweak the recipe a little bit, but this really hit the spot.  the rich creaminess of a potato soup with the tender crunch and beautiful colors of swiss chard (not to mention nutrition), with a hint of anise and white pepper:

spinach salad with cranberries, roasted red peppers, and goddess dressing; kraut; EB on toast, and a sage and apple field roast with mustard and ketchup.

my ladyfriend will attest to me not being very good at eating leftovers. i think the problem comes from me growing up cooking for at least four or five people, then finding myself cooking for one or two… i make big batches like i’m used to, then realize i can’t eat it all in one or two meals, and have no one else to help me. it’s a poor excuse for wasting food, i know, but it is mine. i’ve been trying to be better, especially since our fridge death fiasco a couple months ago, where i lost a bunch of food i hadn’t gotten the chance to make anything out of.

another problem i’ve been having lately is not making very healthy food… i’ve been baking more, which is awesome (yay baking!) but then all my energy goes to that and i don’t have any left to put thought or time into something delicious and nutritious. for some reason the easy way out for me is to saute or fry stuff, or just not really care. i was really good about it for awhile, but i don’t know what happened. my meals are unbalanced, i hardly eat anything when i’m at work (except cookies and smoothies, though recently i’ve changed my smoothie habit into fresh juice). and i can feel it: i’m tired, unmotivated, and feel kind of blah. it hasn’t totally changed (note upcoming baking post), but i’m working to change my recent habits.

proof no. 1: spiced lentil soup from extraveganza! topped with sauteed kale

now this still could have been a bit healthier (steaming the kale for example, and i thought the soup could have done with a lot less salt) but after days of bread and cookies and sweet potato fries… this is definitely a step in the right direction.

you know when you rediscover a cookbook and it’s like a treasure all over again? i feel that way about extraveganza! i really like that there are a lot of recipes just full of vegetables and unprocessed proteins like nuts and beans and legumes, and not too many tofu and seitan recipes. i got inspired and picked out a few recipes to make this week for dinner that i’m really excited about.

speaking of cookbooks, i just got joanna’s new cookbook yellow rose recipes in the mail yesterday! i am really excited to cook something from there, and since i got extra sweet potatoes and black beans at the store yesterday, josh’s recommendation to try the black bean and sweet potato flautas might be just the ticket… if you haven’t already, you should really check it out. i’m totally on the periphery of this group of people over at the ppk, but there is something so warm and friendly and family-like that is super supportive of creating and promoting awesome vegan things. i have a big ol’ crush on the ppk and herbivore. yay!

in all the hubbub of pie and things, i forgot to post some pictures of some recent deliciousness.

for breakfast one morning, tempeh bacon from vwav and rosemary potatoes…maple syrup drizzled over the tempeh, and blasphemous ketchup on the potatoes (sorry, it’s just so good!):

pistachio coconut cardamom cookies from extraveganza!.  i’m glad i picked this book up again.  there is so much in it that i want to make and devour.  this were very popular, light and crispy, too.

i made the chickpeas romescu from v*con, but didn’t have any white rice for also making saffron garlic rice, so i just made brown rice to go with it.  isa and terry have made me LOVE fire roasted tomatoes.  they make such a difference in recipes, and coupled here with the roasted red peppers: just perfect.  definitely going to make this dish again, as i’ve been kind of tofu’d, tempeh’d, and seitan’d out lately.  i also got on a grilled asparagus kick, marinating them in olive oil, balsamic, and lemon zest, then sprinkling some salt and pepper on top.  in reality i also had FOUR half-pieces of toast, but i thought it might look a bit overcrowded for this picture:

spelt-rice bread with imagine foods sweet corn soup and a baby romaine and tomato salad with annie’s lemon-chive dressing:

today was a bearable day, almost chilly at times, which is a welcome change from the heat and humidity of late. so i decided it was cool enough to try some baking. i found this recipe in my ExtraVeganZa! cookbook and have been wanting to make it for quite some time because it sounded so weird (cooked rice, spelt, cornmeal, no yeast or leavening agents!). it has a really weird name too, with somebody’s name and old english spellings (?) that sound like more of a quote than a title. it also asks for sesame seeds in the recipe without listing it in the ingredients, so i put my own version below. anyway, i popped into work and got a container of cooked rice (because i was a little lazy) and some soup and salad fixings. then i got to work…

spelt-rice bread (makes one loaf):
1/2 c. cornmeal
2 c. spelt flour
1 tbsp. olive, corn, sesame, or other natural oil
1 1/2-2 c. brown rice, cooked and cooled
2/3 tsp. sea salt
3/4 c. (or more) water
about 1/8 c. sesame seeds

in a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, and salt, and rub in the oil with your fingertips. work the rice with your fingers until all of the grains are separated and kinda coated with the flour mixture. add enough water to make a dough that sticks together easily. it will look something like this:

shape the dough into a round loaf. place the sesame seeds on a plate, then roll the loaf in the sesame seeds until it is completely covered (or until all the seeds are used up):

sprinkle some sesame seeds on a baking sheet, then place the loaf on the sheet. put loaf into a cold oven, then turn oven to 350 degrees and bake for one hour. remove from oven and allow to cool. serve with soup and salad, or just with your favorite topping! keep remaining bread in sealed container or plastic bag to retain moistness.

observations:
this dough is quick to make, and easy to work with (not very sticky like other doughs can be). it doesn’t rise (duh), so don’t be alarmed if it’s the same size when you pull it out of the oven as when you put it in. it’s super-dense, simple, and (so far) pretty moist. i bet toasted it would make a good open-faced sandwich base (mmmm… cashew cheese!!).

on a related note, i’m going to try and make my own sweet corn soup soon. the imagine foods brand is delicious (and vegan of course) but i bet homemade it could be even tastier. the ingredients don’t seem to weird or vague, either, so whenever my corn crop is ready for eating, sweet corn chowder here i come! (or i may have to make it sooner).