Green Bean, Carrot Stir-Fry with Brown Jasmine Rice

I had a dish of green beans once in Beijing coated with tasty bits of pork (or what I thought was pork). I dreamed about this meal as much as I pined away for the lychee tea, and I never thought that I'd try to recreate the crispy beans at home vegan-style, but I was recently overwhelmed by a desire for a mountain of salty, smokey green beans.

I think that green beans are highly underestimated in American cuisine. Growing up my only experience with green beans came by way of a metal can or as an overcooked mush-fest of a casserole covered with funions. It's not that I didn't get fresh vegetables at home, it's just that green beans weren't really on the menu. When I first decided to purchase fresh beans, I was a bit taken aback by the hairy, spindly pods that felt like bony fingers when I scrubbed them. Then there is the prep time; scrubbing, cutting, steaming - they aren't a quick pop in the pot kind of meal. But, there really is nothing like a medley of crisp green beans lightly flavored. Plus they are just so damned gorgeous on the plate! This quick recipe has recently become a weekly treat. Sometimes I forgo the brown rice bed and just eat a heaping plate of veggies.

Green Bean, Carrot Stir Fry with Brown Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:
Marinade
1/4 c vegetable broth
1 T soy sauce
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T liquid smoke
1 T maple syrup
1 clove crushed garlic

Stir Fry
1 T olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 lb fresh green beans, scrubbed with ends cut
1/2 C baby carrots
1 orange pepper (optional)

• Add all the marinade ingredients together and let sit
• Cut and prep all the vegetables
• Heat olive oil in a large skillet
• Add marinade and all veggies together
• Saute' all vegetables for about 10 minutes until onions are browned, peppers soft and beans and carrots softened (they should be crisp not mushy!)
• Serve on top of cooked brown jasmine rice

The key for me in this recipe is the crispy, over-cooked onions. They soak up the marinade and particularly the liquid smoke, and give the vegetables that salty goodness that I love.

So good!

No-one-likes-the-Vegan-Police Burritos

Yes, I have been avoiding you. I have been in a food slump. For the past three months vegan cuisine has been...well, kinda difficult. There, I said it. Vegan Police come get me.* It all seemed so easy a year ago in Rome when I was forced, without a properly equipped kitchen or an adequate budget, to invent recipes as I went along with ingredients that I just happened to have on hand.** So easy, in fact, that I decided to start blogging about it!

So why did I find myself a mere few months ago unable to throw two things together to concoct anything resembling a meal without a serious cookbook consultation? What happened to my relationship with food? All of a sudden vegan food didn't seem so cool anymore. I couldn't remember the last time it made me smile. Things just weren't as exciting as they used to be. Night after night it was just bitterness and disappointment. I just didn't know what to do..... It was time to take a break. First I tried an even stricter diet that didn't work, then I went a little crazy in Spain with some cheese. Nothing seemed to help.

Finally, I got my groove back. I reacquainted myself with delicious food in Italy. Deep red ripe tomatoes lightly bathed in olive oil and a touch of aged balsamic vinegar, fresh crusty bread dipped in vegetable minestra, lightly sauteed green beans slightly salted, and limone gelato. One week back in the boot reset my love of vegetables! It didn't hurt that someone else was doing the cooking either as I was able to remember that cooking is only a prelude to the reward of eating.


So, that revelation with the help of a new job, new city, new kitchen and a once again poorly stocked pantry, have reset my creative juices -- which are basically various flavors of olive oil! Enjoy this fabulous new recipe from a born-again veggie lover!


NO-ONE-LIKES-THE-VEGAN-POLICE BURRITOS or
SMOKEY CHICKPEA RICE AND ONION BURRITOS


This recipe is a total invention. I pulled leftovers from the last few days and threw a bit of everything into the frying pan. I have yet to restock my spice rack from the move, so the flavors are accidental, but pretty wickedly tasty!

Ingredients:
1 medium onion chopped
1 T olive oil
two shakes of liquid smoke
1 tsp red chili olive oil
1/2 tsp celery salt
3 T tomato sauce
1 C cooked chickpeas partly smashed down with a fork
3/4 C cooked brown rice
2-3 T water
1 T chopped parsley

1. Saute onion in olive oil in a medium frying pan until translucent
2. Add the liquid smoke, hot olive oil, celery salt and cook for about a minute and add tomato sauce
3. Add chickpeas and rice and stir to combine. Add water and stir. Cook until the sauce thickens.
4. Remove from heat add the chopped parsley and place in a soft burrito shell
5. Add salt and pepper as needed

The chili olive oil gives this dish a really beautiful orange hue and some spice, and the celery salt and liquid smoke combo really makes this dish "meaty" in flavor. Don't forget the parsley to add some much needed green to the dish. Buon appetito!!!

* see Scott Pilgrim vs the World
** to be completely fair, all ingredients in Italy are better, fresher, prettier, tastier...need I go on?

Wasabi Hummus

Ten days before a three week trip to Spain and Italy, I had the brilliant idea to start a diet. But you are vegan, you ask? Of course, and I do eat many healthy things, but I also eat a lot of junk. Just because it's vegan doesn't mean it's healthy. Shall I give you some examples? My morning cup/s of coffee are coupled with about a cup of non-dairy creamer (which is mostly fat) and a very generous helping of sugar. I snack on those dangerously vegan things like Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos, or Peanut Butter Zigzag non-dairy ice cream, and the worst culprit of all is the gratuitous amount of olive oil I use to drown the vegetable dishes that I make. I'm not saying that EVOO is bad, merely that when you start to use a quarter cup of it each night for dinner, then it may start to have an adverse effect on you. Not to mention my fair use of processed soy products which helped me through the initially uninspired years of veganism. I would have most definitely quit this eating routine without the ease of tofu, tempeh and soy milk. It is still a good way to sneak protein into your diet, but soy is also one of the most fatty vegetables.

So, here I was thinking about how I was going to live through Spanish tapas (which, btw are pretty much all meat or cheese) and I figured that it was the perfect time to cut out all the fat from my diet all together. No oils, less salt, no processed foods. Now, I know that there are critics out there that may laugh at my attempt to go even more healthy than vegan. I risk becoming a social pariah never able to enjoy a meal with her friends. Come on! I'm not going raw, just going lean for a few days. There are vegans of all sizes, and there is one thing that is true for most of us, we love to eat. So, for this impromptu diet I have been eating only things that come from the ground and that come to me in the form that they appear in nature like oats, rice, quinoa, vegetables and fruits. I'll be honest, it totally sucked at first, but I have been getting better at making incredibly flavorful things that satisfy any hunger pang. Today, I'm sharing one such recipe that I came up with that can easily be translated from hummus to potatoes!

WASABI HUMMUS

This is the BEST. No need for added salt, olive oil or anything but a cup of chick peas from the can or soaked and cooked and wasabi paste. If you have not been introduced to the versatile flavor of this Japanese horseradish, then you are seriously missing out. It is a perfect addition to spice up anything from mashed potatoes to stir fry and it gives this hummus a streak of heat.

Ingredients:
1 can chick peas drained and rinsed
1/2 C h2o
2 tsp wasabi paste*

Place all ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Eat with sliced vegetables or pita chips.

*For full disclosure, you can't find tubes of wasabi paste in nature, but the paste has nothing artificial about it and you are using such a small amount. You can also use a fresh wasabi root and grate it for use in this recipe.

Almost-ten-years-but-not-quite Black Bean Tamale Notes

Like Valentines day, our Anniversary was filled with a lot of cooking. Well, my husband doing a lot of cooking to be exact! Usually our wedding anniversary falls during a time when I am abroad. June seems to be the month most convenient for research trips to Italy (and I am not complaining!), so this year we wanted to forgo the typically fancy dinner and we made a feast from one of my favorites The Voluptuous Vegan. If you have followed some of my earlier posts you will know that this book offers some crazy satisfying meals (I mean full meals with plating instructions to boot!) that are, at times, labor intensive, but always worth the work.

For the big 7th my husband and I went for this fun recipe for Tamales to show our dedication to both cooking and each other. This meal comprised of Pickled Red Onions, Masa Harina Tamales with Black Beans and Tomatillo-Cilantro sauce and Chayote, Red Pepper and Corn salad. We also threw in some brown rice made with black bean water, which was a nice addition.

Green Pepper, Hot Oil & Daiya Tortilla Pizza

What is Daiya? Well, let me enlighten you. Daiya is the first cheese substitute (but I really hate to call it a substitute, let's just call it a super yummy cheesy topping) that I can no longer live without. There are only two other vegan edibles out there that match this new obsession: Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos and Purely Decadent Peanut Butter Zig Zag. Oh yes, these are vegan delights, and I am sure that you can imagine the menu of my junk food paradise, which in no way constitutes a healthy eating habit, even for a vegan. This is why I keep these items rarely stocked in my kitchen and almost never at the same time, lest I lost all sense of control.

As more and more vegan-friendly products are in demand this list of dangerous addictions grows, but Daiya is particularly satisfying for me. I have always been a cheese junky. It has been documented as we have recently discovered, in the pages of my sister's childhood journal, that I had a rather tiresome love of cheese. It started with Kraft slices, a seemingly innocuous childhood snack, and moved on to Velveeta dips, cream cheese, then plain blocks of cheddar and baby swiss. It wasn't until college that my taste in cheese refined to asiago, aged Parmesan, and Brie. I am sure that you can imagine that my first of many trips to Italy nearly knocked my cheese loving socks off, and really, to make a very long story short, I am still in disbelief that I gave it all up three years ago.

One day I literally stopped eating cheese in all its flavorful iterations, and I haven't missed it much. I did try here and there some soy/rice slices for grilled cheese to some success, but nothing to write home about. I have never brought myself to invest in having gourmet nut cheese (which some people swear by) shipped to my door. But then again, I haven't really been searching to fill the cheeseless void. My vegetable pizza can surely rival any double-cheese, pepperoni laden pie, and I am a much more discerning tomato sauce consumer and creator. If the world never created a good "cheese" I would have been a content vegan.

But, then there is Diaya and it's good. It's available at my supermarket at reasonable price. So far I have tried it on pizza, pasta and veggies and I have to say, I am hooked! It is a non-soy healthy version of a cheesy topping. Check it out --> Diaya

This is one of the quick lunch recipes that I make for dissertation writing breaks.

GREEN PEPPER, HOT OIL & DIAYA TORTILLA PIZZA

Ingredients:
1/2 C tomato sauce
1/2 green bell pepper chopped
1/2 T hot pepper oil
1/2 C Shredded Daiya mozzarella
1 wheat tortilla

• Heat the oven to 425 degrees
• Oil a baking pan
• Place the tortilla on the baking pan, add the sauce, pepper and cheese, drizzle some hot oil over the top
• Bake or 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Orto Love

This little garden is busting out of it's recycled door boundaries! I, of course, have overcrowded all the vegetables growing in this small little box of bounty, and the zucchini are encroaching on the poor little peppers who are the runts of this litter. The tomatoes, after months of weak stems, are reaching to the sky at amazing speed, and the lettuce has been harvested. I am amazed at how little effort that this blooming little patch of earth required and I have so many plans for the next one! My goal for the summer is to have a salad of greens and tomatoes entirely from my garden served with zucchini and pasta. The little hot peppers need a miracle to make it, but if they do survive a mean salsa is in store!



If you can catch a glimpse of it, I also have some mild onions and arugula in the side pots!

Tomato Pesto

My vegan friend Jennifer got me hooked on the fabulously beautiful blog Vegan Yum Yum, which I totally recommend, though it makes my messy blog look like a third grade craft project entirely created in blue-green crayon. Among the fabulous recipes, I must thank Lolo for teaching me how to chop an onion correctly so that I can now enjoy hacking into those tearjerkers as much as I love eating them. She also has some fab tips on food photography, which, as you will note, I am not so good at taking to heart. In any case, despite how inept this online masterpiece makes me feel, I love her blog and book (aptly entitled VeganYumYum) so much, that I really can't feel bad for long.

So, as I was writing, one of my few vegan friends sent me a link to a magically quick and creamy recipe for Tomato Basil Cream Pasta. I loved it, but in a quick pinch to replicate it one day when I was too lazy to turn on the computer to seek it out anew, I came up with this Yum Yum inspired tomato pesto that had me going for seconds! Plus, this is a really rich way to take care of those tomatoes that are just about ready to go.


TOMATO PESTO

Ingredients:
3 large tomatoes quartered and squeezed of seeds
1/2 C pine nuts
1/4 C sun-dried tomatoes
1/8 C fresh basil
2 cloves garlic chunked
2 T olive oil
1 tsp salt

• Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water for about 15min to rehydrate.
  
• Add all ingredients into a food processor and process until well integrated but still chunky.
• Mix with your favorite pasta!
  

I loved this recipe and found myself counting down the seconds until leftover lunch the next day. So, whip up some of this and start checking out the much more refined culinary creative force of Lolo's version!

Fresh Red Leaf Lettuce with Tart, Sweet and Creamy Dressing

This post comes straight from my own New Jersey yard! My very first harvest from the experimental box garden is a bunch of crisp red leaf lettuce. I have previously posted about my sprouting, planting and nurturing of this first attempt at more sustainable living, but today is all about the luxury of moseying on out your kitchen door to make dinner. Nothing is more fresh, organic and eco-friendly then your homegrown food, and nothing is going taste better than the fruits of your own hard labor and care. In honor of this momentous occasion (did I mention that my name and green thumb have never quite been used in the same sentence?) I am whipping up some uber simple vegan dressings to lightly accompany the earthy goodness of the greens. Because these leaves have such a delicate flavor I wanted to make a simple salad lightly spritzed with my favorite flavors. And, basically I wanted to show all the non-vegs out there that animal-friendly condiments will knock your dairy-eating socks off!

THE COMPASSIONATE CONDIMENT TRIFECTA

Creamy Tahini
Ingredients:
2 T Tahini (sauce made of ground up sesame seeds)
2 T cold water
1/4 tsp salt
herbs

This is the vegan's answer to ranch dressing. It is creaming, flavorful and so darn good that I basically try to put it on all my veggies raw or cooked. This is amazing on salad, but absolutely crazy-good on sauteed greens. Whisk the tahini, water and salt together until combined. Add more water for thinner dressing. Add chopped parsley or cilantro for added flavor.

Tart & Sweet Balsamic Lime
Ingredients:
3 T high quality balsalmic vinegar
juice of 1 lime

The easiest and healthiest of all dressing. You must be sure to have good quality balsamic vinegar or it will be too strong. Add the lime juice to the vinegar until desired flavor. Let sit for a half hour and serve. The result is a smooth, rich and slightly sweet dressing that goes with a lettuce or bean salad.

Light Miso
1 T light miso paste (made from fermented soybeans)
3 T warm water
1/2 T olive oil

I love the super salty flavor of miso for soup, but it is also a fantastic dressing as well. Simply add a bit of warm water to the miso and whisk until thinned out and dissolved completely. Add a bit of olive oil and serve.

I couldn't even wait to cut a tomato to dig into this perfect salad, I just added some almonds (always protein!) and drizzled a little of each of these on the bed of greens. Fantastic!!!

Garden Experiment - It has survived!

So, along with my food posts, I am also updating the blog with my very unprofessional, experimental foray into gardening. There has been no formal research about this tiny, crowded raised box garden, and I haven't even solicited free advice from local green thumbs. Nope, I am just wingin' it. I grew all of these from seed and transplanted them into this make-shift garden box. So far, zucchini and red leaf lettuce seem to be the most robust, but I am holding out for the tomatoes and pray for the hot peppers! Here is shot of the baby garden and the tender shoots while Baci, my cat lurks around the perimeter.

The Grill is Not Just for Men Who Love Meat!

It is definitely spring. The azalea's are bursting into bloom and the thick winter grass is in need of some serious TLC. It is that tentative moment before the heat of summer when we venture outdoors without the bulky winter coats, pale skin exposed to the long missed warmth, allergies reminding us that the world is a buzz with life. Yes, spring is a happenin' time, and nothing marks its coming more for me than the smokey aroma of the outdoor grill. Yes, you read me right, I mean that classic contraption cultivated for men's culinary carnivorous delight (excuse the excessive alliteration!). Ahem, well, I am here to tell you that the grill can be vegan BBQ friendly, and it may even get some of your grillmasters to leave some room by the flame for zucchini, asparagus or squash. Ladies who love veggies, listen up, the grill is your new BFF!

Forget the mysterious hot dog, or the oh-so-boring meat pattie, slap on some of your favorite vegetables and maybe some hot tempeh and people will be asking to take a bite off of your plate. For my first spring BBQ, I marinated some tempeh steaks as hot as I dared and added a basket full of crisp sides. If you don't have a grill, then a grill pan will work just as well, but you'll miss out on all the fun of being outside!

Vegan BBQ
1 package tempeh
1 red pepper cut into small pieces
1 onion cut into quarters or eighths
1 asparagus
1 medium squash cut into spears
1 large tomato

Marinade: 1/2 C red wine, 2 T soy sauce, 3/4 C hot sauce, 2 T lime juice, 3 garlic cloves pressed

1. Cut the tempeh to half of its width. Thinner slices will soak up the flavor better. Cut the thin sides into four rectangle steaks. Marinate for about an hour or longer. *
2. While the tempeh is marinating, cut up all your vegetables and sprinkle them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Skewer some if desired.
   
3. Warm up your grill and let it go for about 1/2 hr until it is smouldering and hot.
4. Place everything on the grill. Note that the peppers, onions and tempeh will take the longest, so I tend to put those in the middle, and then gradually add the tomatoes, squash or zucchini and asparagus. I also like really charred things so I leave everything on the grill until it is black and juicy in the vegetable's case, crispy for tempeh.
   

Enjoy this! What is better than eating a plate full of charred vegetables and super hot tempeh outside? Nothing.





* If you are not used to tempeh, you might want to boil it in water or steam it for about 10 minutes as this takes away some of the bitterness. I tend to like the stronger flavor of tempeh so I don't do this step. You could also easily marinate tofu steaks as well.

Garden Photos

My garden is sprouting all over my kitchen! I cannot wait to move everything outside, but in the meantime, I don't mind these cheery shoots getting in my way! I have started some hot peppers, grape tomatoes, arugula, green onions and zucchini.

Mediterranean Noodle Casserole

I remember with longing the Tuna Noodle Casserole of childhood. It was rich and creamy, crunchy on top, and each bite so flavorful. I often wonder why this was one of my most relished dishes since I harbored such a forceful aversion to both mushrooms and fish, but something about this combo made the strange texture and taste of those sworn enemies edible. The meal was so satisfying that as a post-undergraduate adult who was leaving behind quick eating for sit-down meals, I was shocked to find out how easy it was to make. At the time, the ease of the canned-dinner-casserole was heralded as a smashing success in our household. Although I do not decline the sometimes necessary use of canned consumables, I have found that using fresh ingredients as close to their natural form as possible yields rather delicious results! But don't crucify me for using the highly unnatural Textured Vegetable Protein and canned artichoke in this very recipe. Here is my albacore-friendly, non-dairy creamy TVP* noodle casserole!

The original recipe (even without the canned tuna and cream of mushroom soup) is almost 100% non-vegan, so this was a bit tricky to tweak, but I think that by taking a more Mediterranean inspired approach I was able to come up with a super satisfying meal that did not try to dupe my taste buds. Word of advice: when veganizing your fav foods of yore, it is always better to upgrade and derive then to try to approximate. Trust me, your results will NEVER be like the spoonfuls of homey goodness made perfect by years of distance and nostalgia.

As I was saying, this recipe's ingredients were difficult: egg noodles, tuna, milk, Parmesan and believe it or not, most bread crumbs (most store versions have some sort of dairy in there). I basically had to recast the entire show! The result: a super-fab casserole with a hint of cheesy saltiness and sweet red pepper.

Mediterranean Noodle Casserole
* The original inspiration is from a Martha Stewart recipe, but I have changed most everything but the title, which I liked.

Ingredients:

1T olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 lb rombi pasta (these give a great egg noodle-like texture, but you can use rotini as well)
1 red bell pepper sliced into very thin strips
1 can artichoke hearts quartered
1/4 C flour
1/2 C soy creamer
2 C rice milk
1/8 C soy butter
1 C Textured Vegetable Protein (rehydrated w/ vegetable broth and a 2tsp kelp granules - optional)
3 scallions chopped
1/2 C vegan Parmesan
1/4 C vegan bread crumbs

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Boil water and add pasta for about 8-10 min until done.
  
• While the pasta is cooking heat the oil and butter in a skillet and saute' the pepper until soft. Salt and pepper.
  
• Add the flour and stir until a paste forms.
• Slowly add the creamer and milk until a creamy sauce forms.
• When the sauce begins to simmer turn off the heat and add the rehydrated TVP, onions, artichoke hearts, and noodles and mix until combined.
• Salt and pepper.
• Add 1/8 C vegan Parmesan to the sauce.
  
• Place ingredients into a baking dish and cover with bread crumbs and remaining Parmesan.
• Bake 25 minutes until the crust is browned.

There you have it! It is a tasty casserole to sate the comfort food craving!

*TVP - textured vegetable protein is made by extracting the soybean oil from soy flour. It is a great source of protein and has essentially no taste, so it is easy to throw into any meal. It naturally resembles tuna flakes, so I basically added some salt with the broth and some kelp for a mild sea aroma.

Delicious Winter Herbs

To expand my green horizons I have decided to embark upon the messy but satisfying task of gardening. Like my cooking, this is a trial and error process that will assuredly end in some pitiful wilting, but what better way to toil the day away than to coax a beautiful bounty from the Jersey soil?

My head-first jump into the garden is more of a toe-wetting. I am planning a small backyard box garden to experiment with some veggies and flowers. Some cherry tomatoes, arugula, chard, possibly a zucchini (just to see if I can do it!) and some hanging peas all lined with some lavender and pansies. I know, I know, how big will this box be, you ask, won't you be overcrowding? Well, yes, but this first garden is an experiment, a little test to see what grows in this earth as well as a huge test of patience for me! If all goes well, I may try some daring plants in the fall! I will update you on my progress. Next up: building a box frame, a task that promises to be dangerous (when did I last use a hammer?) and informative (about what NOT to do!)

In the meantime, to combat the dreariness of this snowy winter, I have planted some simple indoor herbs. This is a perfect winter hobby and the tiny green tendrils peeking out of the pots are so cheery that even another nor'easter couldn't bring me down!


Winter Herb Garden

Needed: Seeds, potting soil, some rocks, small pots

• Again, I admit that I really don't know what I am doing, but that is what makes it fun and surprising! So, on the advice of some websites I soaked my seeds overnight before planting.
• In the morning I filled my pots first with some rocks to help with drainage, and then potting soil. I used simple old potting soil, but I am sure that there is something fancy for growing indoors.
  
• I sowed the seeds according to the instructions, but need to warn you that soaked basil seeds are not easy to work with. The next time around I will pull those little suckers out for the pre-soak!
• Then I lightly covered them over with soil and easily watered them.
  
• Next I covered each pot with plastic wrap, but later found that sandwich bags work better. It forms a tiny greenhouse!
• Put them near warmth and sun.
• And low and behold, THEY GROW!
  
  
  
  I chose to plant basil, cilantro, parsley and chives. I literally threw these babies into the soil without any expectations. There are probably a bit too many sprouts and I and most definitely watering them too much, but it is such a pleasure to wake up each morning to a tiny new great shoot with my morning coffee!
  
  
  

Carbohydrate Crisis - Gnocchi, Ravioli, Fettuccine

I received a hand-crank pasta maker for Christmas. This could have been a wonderful boon to get me in touch with my Italian culinary roots, a machine that might forever destroy my relationship to boxed pasta!

Well, as it turns out, I am not the culinary scion of the family, so I can still enjoy the ease of cheap spaghetti. My pasta adventure was not complete failure, but the ravioli tasted more like spring rolls and the fettuccine felt like rice noodles - maybe I was just yearning for Thai food? In any case, the gnocchi were delectable, but they were also the only recipe that did NOT involve the crank!

I enlisted the help of my good friend Nina who patiently watched as I slowly became a walking white mass of flour. So, let's get this mess started!

Delicious Potato Dumplings of Goodness otherwise known as Gnocchi

Ingredients:
4 big potatoes
2 C Flour (Bread or wheat flour is good)
dash of salt

This is the easiest recipe in the world. You will never have frozen gnocchi again!

• Bake the potatoes in the microwave or in the oven.
• As soon as they are done, peel them with a knife (they basically fall apart) but watch your fingers!
• Use a food grinder to mash up the potatoes.
• Place the mashed potatoes onto a floured surface and sprinkle some of the flour onto of the potatoes. Add your dash of salt.
  
• Knead together.Keep adding flour until it acquires a doughy consistency.
• Roll out the dough into long strips with hands.
• Cut strips into 1.5" pieces. You can press them with a fork if desired.
  
• Place the cut gnocchi in boiling water until they float.
• Savor!

Now the difficulties ensue, but all-in-all our creations were delicious!

Cashew-Tofu-Ricotta-Sun-dried-Tomato Filled Ravioli and Fettuccine

Filling:
1 package extra-firm tofu pressed
1/3 C semi-re-hydrated sun-dried tomatoes (soak them in boiling h20 for 15 min)
1/2 C raw cashews
olive oil

Ravioli and Pasta dough:
1 C Flour
2 C Semolina Flour
3/4 C water
olive oil
1 tsp salt

Filling:

• Place tomatoes, cashews and a drizzle of olive oil into a food processor. Process until a paste is formed.
  
• Crumble tofu into the mix and process until smooth adding a bit more olive oil.
  

Ravioli:

• Mix the flours, water, olive oil and salt together in a bowl. Mix/knead until an elastic dough forms.
  
• Let the dough sit for a half-hour in a slightly oiled bowl covered by a towel.
• Cut the dough into threes, take one piece, return the others to the covered bowl.
• Lightly flour the small piece of dough and form into a rectangle. Run through the thickest setting of the pasta maker.
  
• Fold the sides in and repeat on the thickest setting. Do this three of four times.
• Reduce thickness and crank the dough through one time, and repeat thinning the dough with each new setting until desired thickness is reached. I went too thin and would suggest that the third to last is best for ravioli.
  
• When the dough is to your liking, cut rectangle sheets to use for both fettuccine and ravioli.

Ravioli:

• Place small spoonfuls of the filling close to one side of a dough sheet. Fold the sheet over filling and press down.
• Use a ravioli cutter (or teacup in my case) to cut out the ravioli form.
• Use the tines of a fork to seal the edges.
• Place finished ravioli in boiling water until tender.

Fettuccine:

• Basically you just need to run the sheet through the fettuccine cutter of the machine, make pasta nests and sprinkle with flour until ready to use.
  
  
• Cook for only about three minutes until the noodles separate.
  

Valentine French Toast and some Random Notes

I woke up this morning to some delicious aromas permeating the house: strong hot coffee, warm cinnamon, frying batter and the faint scent of pear. Knowing how much I love food, and how much of a treat it is for someone else to do the cooking, Jason prepared a surprise Valentine's Day breakfast!

Breakfast is the most difficult meal for a vegan. American traditions like eggs, bacon and even buttermilk pancakes are hard to replicate in vegan cuisine (I am not a huge fan of tempeh bacon in the morning or tofu scramble, they are much more of a dinner affair for me!). Jason decided to make French Toast with thick Italian bread, cinnamon bananas coupled with the delicious pear bellini! This was the perfect Valentine's gift - that's right, no flowers, no chocolate, no jewelry - all I want is a great cooked meal!

This recipe is adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance and uses chickpea flour, soy cream, rice milk to make the great crusty coating. If you haven't already gotten this cookbook it is about time to order it!

French Toast (based on "Fronch" Toast in VVengance)

Sliced loaf of Italian bread, toasted slightly in the oven
1/2 C soy creamer
1/2 C rice milk
2 T cornstarch
1/4 C chickpea flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
canola oil for cooking

• Mix dry ingredients together in small bowl
• Mix wet ingredients into a large bowl
• Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined
• Dip bread (both sides) into the batter and fry in oil until browned on each side.
  

Cinnamon Bananas

1 banana sliced
1 tsp coconut oil
cinnamon

• Melt coconut oil in skillet
• Add banana slices and cook until just warmed
• Sprinkle with cinnamon

Pear Bellini
* this is not a classic Bellini recipe, rather it is a light drink inspired by the Bellini

Italian prosecco
Pear Juice (or Peach)

• 2 oz juice to 3 oz prosecco
• add a raspberry for garnish
  

********

I am also posting some photos of recipes that I decided to try from The Voluptuous Vegan and the essential The Joy of Vegan Baking.

The VV was recommended to me a while back and I have only recently been trying out some of the recipes. Unlike most of my cookbooks, this book is arranged by full meals. Each recipe bunch works together as a decadent (voluptuous) display of culinary skill. There are even plating suggestions! While I have only gotten through a few of these, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves to cook or is looking for really impressive way to entertain. Many of the recipes have a spicy flare and most of them require a lot of time and deft kitchen appliance juggling, but the finished result is well worth it! Even with a messy and impatient cook like myself, these recipes miraculously end up perfect. The other day I made VV's chili and corn-bisciut casserole to great success!

I also recently made this no bake chocolate peanut butter pie from Joy. I am not a fan of PB and chocolate, but I was itching to cook something and went with what I had in the kitchen. This lovely pie tastes like creamy fudge paired with a crispy graham cracker crust! mmmmmm!

Up next: Vegan TVP Noodle casserole. This is my recipe so I'll post it in its entirety.

Happy Valentines!!!

Vegetable Pot Pie Cups for the Super Bowl

This is the easiest hearty meal in my repertoire. It takes all of 30 minutes and hits the comfort food spot with a splash of charm.

Of my recipes this is probably the least homemade and I wouldn't recommend putting it into the weekly meal rotation, but for an easy indulgence for game day it's perfect! There is something about this meal that faintly reminds me of Yorkshire pudding crossed with a hearty stuffed pie. There is, of course, no meat or cheese in here, but I make up for that with the addition of flaky puff-pastry, a true delight. This last addition also makes this meal quite filling, so I might suggest going light on lunch!

VEGETABLE POT PIE CUPS

Ingredients:
1 package frozen puff pastry cups (check the label some are not vegan!)
1 small onion chopped
1 T olive oil
1 large carrots finely chopped
2 celery stalks finely chopped
1 C chopped potato
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
3C vegetable broth
1C unsweetened soy milk (or rice milk)
3/4 C cooked peas
3 T cornstarch dissolved in 4 T cold water
1 C TVP* (optional)
1 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Sage
1 tsp Tarragon
Salt and Pepper to taste

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees and add puff pastry cups when ready. Cook for 20-25 min.
  
• While the cups are cooking saute' onion, celery, carrot and potato in olive oil for about 7min adding the garlic when there is about 2 min left
• Add TVP if using and saute' a few more minutes
• Add thyme, sage, tarragon and saute' another minute for the flavors to combine
• Pour in 2 cups of the broth and 1 cup soy milk and bring to a rolling boil, reduce to simmer
• Add peas
  
• Add the remaining broth if necessary. I tend to eye the pot and if it seems to chunky I add a 1/2 cup at a time
• After about 15 min (or when all the vegetables are soft) add the cornstarch to thicken
• Turn off the heat when it is to your preferred thickness and let sit for five minutes
• Fill the pastry cups with filling and enjoy!

Most of the time I am too impatient and my vegetables are a little crisp, but it is still a super satisfying meal. This recipe makes a large batch of stew, but this is good the next day over some rustic bread (sort of a vegetable hot "turkey" sandwich).

*TVP or Textured Vegetable Protein is basically protein crumbles derived from soy. It is quite easy to work with and in this recipe gives a chicken-like texture. I like to add this to increase the protein of the meal. It comes hydrated or dehydrated (which needs to be soaked in water before use). You can substitute the TVP with tempeh or tofu cubes if you wish or simply leave it out.

Ode to the Compassionate Cowboy Boots

This is not a food post nor a lyrical poem, rather it is an effusive gush post about my long-coveted black faux-leather cowboy boots. Before moving on I must apologize to my foodie-followers for this unapologetic display of commodity fetishism, but there is just something about those kickin' no-nonsense boots!

Ok, I must admit that I have always been smitten with the tough, traditional style of the cowboy -- let's not get confused with cowgirl here, these are decidedly not-feminine and I am most assuredly ruining any faint sense of style that I may have possessed prior to owning this pair -- boot. It has long been my logic that owning a pair of these boots would get me that much closer to owning the thing that all little girls dreamed-hoped-wished-desired-cried-begged-for most of all in the world - a pony. From the cradle I was rocked to sleep, as many children are, with the dream that "Daddy 's gonna buy me a Shetland pony" and a promise the if it runs away "Momma's gonna buy me another one some day," of course I wanted a pony! But, like most of the girls clinging on to this very same dream, I never did reach the next step of actually owning a pony, but I will never forget what it felt like at seven to know that my boots were a link to that impossible dream. Each time that I slipped those snug, heavy-heeled boots on I felt as if I had a key to another world, a world so near that I could perhaps walk there if I tried.

It turns out that twenty-three years later they are a key, perhaps in more of a Proustian way, but a key nonetheless to a more lighthearted, dreamy side of myself. I was convinced that if I were to acquire a pair of these babies that I would be able to feel like I did when impossible dreams weren't out of the question. So I set out to find the ultimate pair of boots. The problem was however, that I had since become vegan, and even though my veganism might not be as dedicated as others (I don't throw away the leather that I already owned pre-veg days) it seemed fitting to look for a compassionate way to feel comfortable in my boots, so to speak.

But where does one find stylish vegan boots that don't look like shiny pleather majorette booties? I wanted the worn and rugged look of shoes fit for an ancient race. I searched far and wide and was willing to fork out a small graduate-student fortune. Finding nothing, I had all but given up my search when a small impossible dream came true - my husband, through no prompting of my own, gifted me a pair of simple black vegan cowboy boots for my 30th birthday.

Now, I am not a dedicated materialist (as my fashion sense painfully makes clear) but I love these boots (Steve Madden if you must know). I feel like I could weather the post-apocalypse in them. They let me be bold, they offer me a peek back at myself in more carefree times, they are compassionate, they remind me of my husband's thoughtfulness, and they are simply awesome!

Soup-tastic Beet show! - Great Delicious TV recipes

I owe my culinary successes to many amazing vegan recipe creators who have undoubtedly convinced me with their incredibly tasty cuisine that there is absolutely no need for eggs, milk or butter in the kitchen. One of these is Toni Fiore and her show Delicious TV where she teaches viewers how to be conscious consumers (of food) and at the same time reveals the ease with which I too can create delicious dinners at home. If you are vegetarian and do not know Toni, get to know her fabulous recipes today!

This post I am showcasing two of Toni's recipes that can be found on her website:

CHICKPEA AND LEEK SOUP WITH PARSLEY
ROASTED BEETS WITH CURRY DRESSING


1) The soup is easy and is terrific for those of us not sure what to do with leeks! These flavorful relatives of the onion have a milder flavor that permeates the dish and make a great base to any soup or vegetable stock. I would suggest not using the tumeric, even though I love the warm color that it gives the dish.



2)Beets are notoriously difficult to deal with because they leave your counter tops, cutting boards
and fingers looking like you either bled to death or spilled a jug of red wine on them. Toni's recipe gives tips on how to work with them, and the sauce is packed with flavor (I even used the leftover to make a curry the following day). I have no idea what insane original beet-eater ever thought that such a potently purple vegetable was worth the trouble... I mean yes, they are good, but even with Toni's tips I won't be working with these difficult little roots much in the future...I hope that making beet sugar is less colorful!