Roasted Cauliflower Soup With Curried Cashew Crème

New Years resolution #1: Venture outside of your comfort zone.  A couple facts about me: I'm not a fan of soup and I've never really cared about cauliflower.  Therefore, I generally stay away from both.  So what better opportunity to put my new year's resolution into action than to try Robin Robertson's Cauliflower Soup recipe in this months issue of VegNews.  I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised!  This soup is so flavorful, hearty and creamy, it feels like you're coating your insides with spoonfuls of velvet.  It sounds fancy and will take about an hour to make, but the steps are cake and most of that time is spent waiting around while the oven and pots do the work for you.  You could even double it and freeze the rest for a bonus meal a couple weeks down the road.

Broccoli Cheese! Broccoli Cheese!

Broccoli Cheese was the highlight of my holiday dinners.  The responsibility (and high honor) of making it would alternate between us and the McDevitt cousins.  One year when it was our turn, our beloved dog, Goober, enjoyed the entire casserole to herself while we stopped at McDonald's on the way to the family gathering.  It was an utter tragedy, and so was losing the broccoli cheese.  This tasty concoction consisted of a block of velveeta cheese, a can of cream of mushroom soup, frozen broccoli and spinach and fried onions (the canned kind).  When I became vegan, I mourned one dish only - Broccoli Cheese.  How could I replicate coagulated cream of mushroom soup? And a mysterious block of orange goop with such questionable edibility??  Impossible!  Well not anymore.  We've done it!  With real ingredients that will make your heart skip- not stop.  This year I had the pleasure of having non-vegans over for Thanksgiving.  They were self-proclaimed cheese fanatics who couldn't believe their taste buds.  "This isn't cheese?! Really?!?."  Really.  So now, I have the great honor of presenting one of my most proud moments in vegan cooking history.  I give you...the Broccoli Cheese.  

Rich Man's Toasted Walnut Pesto Pasta

...you'll be rich from all money you didn't spend on the pine nuts and Cuisinart.  Traditionally, a pesto is made in a cuisinart with a lot of olive oil, pine nuts, basil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.  I wanted to simplify the recipe and see if it tasted just as good without the cuisinart, loads of oil and parm cheese.   It was awesome! I think this will become a staple because of how easy and delicious and healthy it is!  Yay for new staples!

Lentil Loaf with Truffle Scented Mushroom Gravy

Ok, I'm kinda really proud of this recipe.  I created it without the help of someone else's recipe, and I have to say, it DELISH!  I tested it out on some friends last night and it was a huge success.  I'm going to serve it in honor of the bird that will be happily frolicking in a meadow and not laying on my table :)  It's a lot of ingredients, but it's Thanksgiving!  I'm going to make this a day in advance so I can just pop it in the oven on Thursday.  Sorry, I'm not able to get a picture up til Friday - we ate the whole thing last night!

Indian Dahl

Not only will your taste buds be giddy, your heart will thank you too! This delicious recipe is from Caldwell B. Esselstyn's book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  There's some chopping that has to be done, but you basically throw it all in one pot and let it cook.  It's super easy!

 If served with brown rice, it serves 6.  If not, it probably serves 4

Ingredients
2 1⁄2 cups lentils (any color)
5 cups water
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 can of chopped tomatoes with green chilis (OR 1 tomato, chopped, and 1 jalepeno
1 1⁄2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp curry powder (optional)
handful of cilantro, chopped
1 carrot, shredded (or about 12 baby carrots, shredded)
1 bell pepper (any color), finely chopped
1 zucchini, finely chopped

Chili

 I love chili on a chili fall day ;) This is a basic recipe that is amazing on it's own but can also be pimped out to your liking.  Michael likes to add celery but I am anti-celery unless it has peanut butter and raisins on it :) You could also add a zucchini, red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, butternut squash, etc... This is also a recipe where you get to call upon your inner chef.  I'm a flavor lover, so I usually go heavy on the spices and add a little more than what's listed here.  But start with these amounts, let your chili simmer for a couple minutes to let the spices incorporate, and then test it and go from there.  I know this recipe looks like it has a lot of ingredients, but besides chopping the onion and whatever veggies you decide on, the rest is just canned goods and spices that get thrown in.  Plus it's a one-pot meal! My FAVORITE!  

If you want to get really creative, sometimes Michael and I turn it into a cornbread-n-chili casserole.  Reduce the simmer time for the chili to 5 minutes, pour into a large casserole dish, top with the your favorite cornbread batter (stay tuned for a cornbread recipe -still trying to perfect it), and bake according to the cornbread's instructions.  Super yummy and fun!

Lentil and Brown Rice Goodness

This recipe cooks itself.  It's so easy and so delicious it might just become a staple for you as it has become for us.  If you don't have all of those spices, don't fret, just add a little more of what you do have.  If you want to add some garlic, go for it - it's not a picky casserole.  And if you don't have vegan cheese, it'll still be really good.

This will take 10 minutes (at the most) of prep and then cooks in the oven for an hour and a half (while you take a long and relaxing bubble bath).
Serves 4

Black-Eyed Pea Croquettes with a Dijon Glaze

This recipe is in the Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone (an awesome book/cookbook).  She found it in The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics by Jessica Porter, and Jessica acquired it from her friend Lisa Silverman.  How's that family tree for ya ;)  When we saw this recipe and how easy it was and how yummy it looked, we thought it was too good to be true.  But alas, it's super easy and super yummy!

Creamy Kabocha Squash Soup

When Kristen had me over for dinner and told me we were having a squash soup that she found in The Kind Diet, my heart sank.  I really hate squash soup.  And when she excitedly told me it was just squash, water, and salt and pepper, I wanted to go home.  But I was a good friend and stayed and I'm so glad I did! Kabocha squash on it's own is so sweet and creamy that you don't need anything else!  We made it a meal by pouring it over broccoli and rice with some bread for dipping.  You could also add some tofu or tempeh!  If you can't find kabocha squash, butternut would work too. 

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 cups kabocha squash
3 1⁄2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1.Cook the Squash:
Place squash in a saucepan with the water and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes until soft. 

2. Mash the Squash:

Mash with potato masher, mixer, or fork right in the pot.  If you're using a non-stick pot, make sure to use non-stick friendly masher-o-choice.

3. Simmer the Squash:

Add another pinch of salt and some pepper and simmer for another 7-10 minutes or longer

4. Serve

Place rice and a broccoli on the plate and spoon soup over it.  Salt and Pepper to taste.

Gluten Free

Burrrrrrrritos!

 I realized I haven't been posting enough lunch or dinner recipes.  So I'm going to make an effort to share more of those!  The only problem is that the camera doesn't take the best pictures at night and we eat pretty late, so I might not be able to post pictures with all of the recipes.  But rest assured, they look beautiful and taste great!  This is a go-to meal we make at least once a week for lunch or dinner - we're always using different veggies depending on what we have in the fridge, so these are never set in stone.  This recipe is courtesy of my wonderful hubster, Michael.  Thanks love!

DIVINE Lettuce Wraps

Michael found this recipe in VegNews.  Now, I'm not the type of person who gravitates toward recipes where lettuce is involved, but he insisted we make this and I'm SOOOOOOO happy we did.  We used a new spice: Chinese five-spice, we used a new veggie: jicama, and we used a new sauce: hoisin!  We love when we incorporate new foods!  This is a really fun meal to share with friends - your all digging into the same bowl, it's a little messy which I think is fun, and competing for best lettuce wrapper never gets old.  Hands down, I think this is the yummiest recipe I have posted on this blog so far.  I mean it's amazing.  A-MA-ZING!!!!!!

Prepare your tofu first, and prepare everything else while the tofu is baking.  It might seem involved, but once you get the ingredients chopped, it basically all just gets thrown in a big pan and you'll be finished with the filling by the time the tofu is done.  The leftovers (pictured above) are just as good, if not better :)

Serves 4

Baked Tofu
Ingredients
1 16-oz block extra firm organic tofu sliced into eight pieces
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. peanut oil
1⁄4 tsp Chinese five-spice powder

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Between two clean dishtowels or paper towels, press tofu to remove excess water
3. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, peanut oil, and five-spice powder 
4. In a lightly oiled baking dish, place tofu and cover with sauce
5. Bake for 45 minutes until golden and firm.  Flip tofu half way through baking 

Wrap Filling
Ingredients
1 Tbsp peanut or grapeseed oil
1 inch cube of ginger, peeled and minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1⁄2 pound of daikon radish or jicama, finely chopped (daikon radish isn't in season right now so we used jicama and it was perfect)
1 cup frozen, shelled organic edamame
3 scallions, ends trimmed and thinly sliced
the baked tofu, finely chopped or crumbled
2 Tbsp soy sauce (or tamari for gluten free-ers)
1 tsp-ish hot sauce - your choice how hot you want it!
1⁄4 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1 1⁄2 cups toasted peanuts or walnuts (we used walnuts), coarsely chopped
10-ish sturdy lettuce leaves (we used butter lettuce which was good, but not sturdy.  VegNews recommends Boston, bibb, or red romaine)
hoisin sauce for dipping/dabbing/sprinkling

Directions
1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, preheat oil, stir in ginger and garlic, and cook for 45 seconds or until fragrant.  Add radish or jicama and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes until softened.  Stir in edamame and cook for another 2 minutes or until tender, then add scallions and tofu.
2. Sprinkle with soy sauce, hot sauce, and five-spice powder and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is hot and completely coated with soy sauce, 3 to 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in cilantro and nuts-o-choice.
Serve filling right out of the pan or in a deep dish, stack lettuce leaves on a plate, and pour some hoisin sauce in a small bowl.
3. To serve: take a lettuce leaf, spoon a few tablespoons of filling into the center and dab on hoisin sauce.  Fold the bottom of the leaf toward the filling then overlap the sides (like a little burrito) and eat immediately.  Make sure there are lots of napkins at the table.

*If you use tamari instead of soy sauce (which is what we did) and hold the hoisin sauce, this is Gluten Free!

This recipe is courtesy of Terry Hope Romero via VegNews.  She is the co-author of Veganomicon (one of our favorites), Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (which I will be buying shortly), and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (another amazing one).  Viva Vegan!, her first solo book, was released earlier this year!  If I could only have one vegan cookbook, it would be Veganomicon!  Thanks you for keeping our mouths happy and our bellies full, Terry!!!

Mexican Feast!

I had some friends over last night and we had a big Mexican feast!  It was soooo yummy!  I didn't get a picture of it, but it wouldn't have done it justice anyway.  With some help from Michael, it took us a little over an hour.  Worth the effort though.  Worth. The. Effort. :)
Serves 6-8

The Menu

Seasoned mixed vegetables with pinto beans (recipe below)

Refried black beans

Spring mix greens

Spicy rice (recipe below)

Guacamole  (recipe below)

Citris Sour Cream (recipe below)

Chopped tomatoes

Chopped cilantro

Salsa

Blue Corn hard taco shells

Whole wheat soft taco shells

Tempeh in a Hearty Mushroom Lager Sauce

This recipe is from Vegetarian Time's March 2009 issue.  We made it last week, but it would be a great meal for a cozy winter night as well.  It's soooo yummy!!  I've never cooked with beer or millet before, but I'm an official fan of both.  And grab an extra beer or two to serve with the meal!

Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1 7-oz package of tempeh, cut into bite size cubes
1 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce or tamari (which is what I used)
2 large portobello mushrooms, sliced and chopped in thirds
6-8 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
2 Tbsp. flour
1 1⁄2 cup lager (we used Lobotomy Bock and it was awesome)
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp agave nectar
2 green onions, white and green parts finely sliced

Directions:
 1. Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large frying pan or skillet.  Cook tempeh cubes 8-10 minutes or until browned  on all sides, stirring frequently.  Add soy sauce and cook 1 minute or until pan is almost dry.  Transfer tempeh to a paper towel-lined plate.
2. Add remaining 2 Tbsp. of oil and all mushrooms to pan, and sprinkle with some salt.  Sauté mushrooms 10 minutes or until browned and slightly caramelized, stirring occasionally. 
3. Reduce heat to medium-low, and stir in flour.  Cook 1-2 minutes, or until flour begins to brown, stirring constantly.  Increase heat to medium-high, add beer, mustard, and agave and bring mixture to a boil.  *If sauce is too bitter for your taste, add a little more agave.  Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 15 minutes or until sauce is thickened.  Stir in tempeh cubes and simmer 5 minutes more.  Serve sprinkled with green onions.

Enjoy!

Party Soup!

I didn't know what to name it - there's so many fun and yummy things in it.  It's super duper easy and easily modified to please your personal palette!  I had left over rice, diced tomatoes and my carrots needed to be used so I just threw everything together without exact measurements.

Cucumber Pesto Salad w/Tomato Basil Dressing

This salad is as healthy and delicious as it looks.  Michael and I have been reading a book called Thrive by Brendan Brazier.  Brazier is a professional Ironman Triathlete and a vegan...just wanted to make sure ya got that ;)  I haven't finished the book yet, but we're trying to bring our "healthiness" to a whole new level.  This salad is from that book.  So if you want to be uber healthy for the day, include this as one of your meals!

Salad
Ingredients
1⁄2 clove garlic, chopped
1⁄2 Cucumber, grated
couple handfuls broccoli florets
1 bag mixed greens
2 Tbsp pine nuts
Nutritional Yeast and Sesame Seed Topping (1 part nutritional yeast flakes, 1 part unhulled sesame seeds ground together in coffee grinder.  This mixture imitates parm cheese)

Dressing (makes about 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients
2 tomatoes
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp hemp oil
1 Tbsp dried basil or 3 Tbsp fresh
1 Tbsp agave
salt and pepper to taste

- Blend ingredients in a blender or food processor to desired consistency (we liked ours a little chunky)

Toss salad ingredients with desired amount of dressing.  You will have extra salad dressing.  Save it for the next recipe I post!! Top with a little extra "parm cheese" mixture.

What's the deal with...

Hemp oil?
Nutritional Yeast Flakes?

check out the "intriguing ingredients" page to learn about 'em!


You can find Nutritional yeast flakes usually by the vitamins in health food stores.

Gluten Free!

Chipotle Ranch Pizza with Portobellos, Spinach and Smoked Apple "Sausage" ...yeah

"You want some pizza?"

I know.  And it's even yummier than it sounds if that's possible.  It requires some love, but I think just the name is motivation enough.  This was inspired by my twin sister, Kate, who enjoys dipping her crust in Ranch.  Brilliant, Kate, brillant.

Ingredients

Pizza:
Pizza dough (sometimes we make it from scratch, but with this, I'd get pre-made at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.  Or I'm sure if you don't have access to those, any grocery store would have it.  Or actually, I've heard that any pizza parlor will sell you dough if you ask).
1 or 2 Portobello mushrooms depending on how much you like em, diced and mixed in a bowl with some olive oil, salt and pepper
3⁄4 bag of spinach
Smoked Apple "Sausage" , sliced into round discs (we got it from Whole Foods - but any sausage would be yummy if you can't find that)
Cheese (we used Daiya cheese.  It's this amazing new product that you can find at Whole Foods.  It melts amazingly and it's sooo yummy.  If you can't find it, any ol' rice or soy cheese will do.)

Sauce: combine ingredients in food processor.
1⁄2 Cup Veganaise
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp agave
tiny dash of fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Chipotle seasoning (less if you don't like spicy)
pinch dried celery seed
5 cloves roasted garlic (recipe below)
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Roasted Garlic:
Preheat oven to 400°F.  Cut off bottom of head of garlic leaving the center to keep it together.  Place in foil boat cut side up.  Drizzle olive oil on top and sprinkle with salt.  Turn over so cut side is down.  Close the foil boat and roast in oven for 40 minutes.  You can do this one or a few days ahead of time.  Roasted garlic stays good in the refrigerator for at least 4-5 days.

Directions
1.  Flour a pizza pan.
2. On a well floured surface, sprinkle flour on ball of dough and spread dough into a round disc to fit your pizza pan.
3. Pile ingredients starting with the sauce.  Then add spinach, mushrooms, sausage, and cheese.
4.  Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.  Finish in broiler to really get the cheese melty and the crust crispy and brown.

Enjoy!

Italian-ish Quinoa with Tofu

Another creation of mine!  Quinoa is an ancient grain that is high in protein and low in calories.  It has tons of nutritional benefits and is super duper healthy.  It cooks like rice (2 parts liquid to 1 part grain), and can replace rice in any recipe for a fun little change.  Click here to learn all about it!

Quinoa is virtually flavorless, but almost to a fault.  In order for it to absorb flavor, you have to sauté it with the other ingredients in the recipe before you cook it in the broth.  *if you don't have vegetable broth, use water and a low sodium bouillon cube.

This shouldn't take more than 40 minutes - probably less than that.  This recipe serves four.

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic (if you're a garlic lover like me), minced
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp-ish dried thyme
1 tsp-ish dried oregano
1⁄2 cup white wine
1 cup Quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth
1 block super firm tofu
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1.  Melt butter in a large sauce pan.  Add onion and cook until soft.
2. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes more.
3. Add Quinoa, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper and cook for about 4 minutes on medium-high
4. Add wine and cook until all the liquid is absorbed.
5. Pour in broth and bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes - read package directions.
6. In the meantime, drain and cut the tofu into bite-sized cubes.  Heat olive oil in a pan, add tofu, a little salt, and pepper until tofu is browned on all sides.
7. When Quinoa is done, it should be fluffy with a teeny tiny crunch to it.  Add the tofu, and cook on low, uncovered for about 3-5 minutes (just to get some flavor into the tofu).  Mix in lemon juice and serve.

I served this with Sautéed Spinach:
3 cloves garlic
olive oil
1 tsp. butter
dash of lemon juice
salt, pepper to taste
1 bag of baby spinach

Cook garlic in oil.  Add spinach and butter, salt and pepper.  Squeeze lemon juice when cooked - don't over cook!

Your mouth and heart will thank you.

Gluten Free!

Burgers Baby!

We had the yummiest dinner EVER tonight! And it was super duper easy.
- Veggie Burgers
- Broccolini
- Sweet Potato Fries
*First things first: get the oven pre-heated and the burgers in the pan.

Burgers
We were shopping at whole foods to get the stuff Trader Joe's doesn't carry, and we were starving. So we spent about 8 minutes in front of the frozen veggie burgers drooling over all of the selections we had no idea they had! We came across the new Bahama Rice Burger. These are gluten free, vegan, no soy (for those of us who are a wee bit sensitive to it), cholesterol free, high in fiber - they're amazing. We went with the Jerkin' Spicy. These were mushy when they warmed in the pan, so throw them on first thing, and let them cook until crispy and browned.

Possible toppings:
Tomato
Avocado
Sautéd onions
Garlic Aoili
Ketchup
Mayo (Vegenaise)
Grilled Portobello mushroom
Romaine
Sprouts
Spinach
Kale
etc...

Broccolini
No boiling necessary. If you can't find broccolini, broccoli or asparagus will definitely suffice!

1Tbsp-ish Earth Balance
1 clove garlic
dash lemon juice

Heat butter, garlic and a little olive oil in a medium heat pan.  Cook garlic for about a minute. Place broccolini in pan and toss to coat. Cover pan to steam the brocclini until bright green.  When cooked, squeeze a dash of lemon juice on top and maybe even some lemon zest.

TIP* Don't overcook your veggies. As soon as heat is added to veggies they start to lose their nutrients, so the less cooking the better. A good rule of thumb is wait until their natural color is nice and bright.


Sweet Potato Fries
We get ours from Trader Joe's.
1. Open the bag.
2.Place on cookie sheet.
3.Read directions and cook accordingly.

Add some applesauce or baked beaners to your plate if you're feeling feisty. The possibilities are endless.

mangia mangia!!

Gluten Free!