Edamame Hummus!

This recipe is courtesy of my cousin Elise - an amazing chef!  She made this for a cousin home-video viewing party.  It was great fun and I ate this hummus non-stop the entire time I was there (and I'm eating it right now).  This is a super healthy and super delicious snack!

Makes 2 cups

2 cups shelled edamame (from the frozen section in the grocery store.  Thaw for an hour.)

2 cloves garlic

1⁄4 cup fresh parsley

1⁄4 cup fresh cilantro

1 Tbsp chives

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1⁄2 tsp ground cumin

3 Tbsp tahini (sesame seed butter found by the peanut butter in the store)

juice of 1 large lemon or two small

1-2 Tbsp olive oil depending on the texture you want, just keep adding til it's like a hummus texture

1-2 Tbsp water to help with the texture too, it'll make it a little less viscous

salt and pepper to taste (I think try it out with whatever chip or pita you're eating the dip with because if that's a nice salty chip, you won't need too much salt.)

In a food processor, blend all ingredients until smooth - add water as needed.  

Thanks Elise Bobise!

gluten free!

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.

It's a Jolly Holi-dog!

My sister found this on youtube and I thought it was so cute!!

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.