Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Hoisin Tofu & Baby Bok Choy

This took ten minutes but it wasn't very good. I mean, it wasn't bad, but just okay. I guess it was good for ten minutes of effort.

I sprinkled the tofu with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and fried it in my electric skillet while steaming the baby bok choy for a few minutes. Then I dumped some jarred hoisin sauce in the skillet with some water to thin it out, added the bok choy and tossed everything around, and served it over microwaved brown rice.


Everytime I try to use jarred sauces I'm disappointed. It really is worth the extra work to make my own.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Portobello Pepper Steak Stew

This is one of the last recipes from Appetite for Reduction that I've really been anxious to make and haven't yet, mostly because mushrooms go bad almost instantly so they're sort of inconvenient to put on the weekly dinner plan. The seitan here is a simmered recipe - I almost always steam it, but decided to go the simmering route just to see how it turned out. The texture is not as dense as the steamed version, and I think the flavor was better. So HM. Now I have a dilemma about my preferred seitan method.

Anyway I was going to serve this stew over a nice big baked potato, but I forgot how freaking long a baked potato takes, so they weren't ready in time. It worked out fine anyway, because we had cheesecake for dessert and are eating the potatoes for lunch with stew leftovers today.


I really loved this recipe and will be making it again for sure.

We eat dinner on the couch, because we are uncultured, but these jerks took my spot so I had to sit on the floor. Hmph.


Sunday, January 29, 2012

Tahini Dill Sauce and Cheesecake

So after we ate that pizza the other night, we decided to have more pizza the next day also. And then we both started to feel pretty gross and fat. So for our next dinner I went super simple and light, with some steamed kale, baked tofu, and Veganomicon's Tahini Dill Sauce.


That tahini dill sauce is SO GOOD. So for today's lunch I went to the store and got more kale and did some smoky tempeh to serve it with.




I also made a cheesecake. This recipe is from Vegan Planet, a Robin Robertson book I got from the library to try out - I've been feeling like I'm about ready for a new cookbook. It's supposed to be key lime, but somehow I forgot to get limes so I used lemons instead. I also made a blueberry-ginger sauce for topping.



It is delicious. The best vegan cheesecake so far. However, none of them have been quite dense enough. This one has a 1:3 ratio of silken tofu to vegan cream cheese and I'm thinking of starting to experiment and use more cream cheese than tofu. Experimenting seems scary, though! We'll see.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Pizzzzzaaaaa

OK, I've made and posted this exact pizza before. But it's been a while, because at some point in my head I decided vegan pizza wasn't really worth the hassle and quit making it. Uh. Why did I do that? This pizza is super great.

Ben makes the dough from a recipe provided by my friend Kate, who I think is the only person I know who loves food as much as I do. It is terrific every time, and as an extra bonus Ben decided at some point he was the master doughmaker, so I always let him do it. I'm not going to argue if it makes my life easier!



My toppings are pesto and tofu ricotta, both whipped up in the food processor while Ben mixed up the dough, with some shiitake mushrooms and Trader Joe's jarred pizza sauce. Perfection!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Butternut Jamba Stew with Kidney Beans

This is a new-to-me Appetite for Reduction recipe, a jambalaya-inspired stew that is bulked up with butternut squash.



I liked it but Ben wasn't sold. He's not a huge fan of kidney beans and green peppers, though, both of which are sort of prominent here. Oh well! More for me.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Chickpea Noodle Soup & Garlic-Dill Bread

This winter has been basically like winter in Los Angeles. I think we've had less than 10 cold days. It's weirdly disorienting and I'm going to be a little disappointed if we don't get a little snow or ice or something before the brutal Southern summer pops back up again. We had one chilly day today, sandwiched in between two full weeks of 60+ degrees, so I made the most of it with homemade bread and soup.

This garlic-dill bread is from Vegan Diner and was maybe the easiest bread I've ever made. No yeast! It took about five minutes to mix together and stick in the oven. It came out looking kind of like a huge biscuit, but the inside was moist and bready and delicious.


The soup is a Veganomicon recipe I've been trying to make for two weeks, but I kept forgetting to get the called for mushrooms at the grocery store. I went to the store today and forgot them again (seriously, why are the mushrooms in a completely different area from the rest of the produce?), but decided to go ahead and make it anyway. I added some celery to fill in for the bulk of the mushrooms and it worked fine. This is very reminiscent of good old canned chicken noodle soup, except without the massive amount of salt and weirdly gelatinous broth.



We have a fire in the fireplace and ate our soup and tomorrow it will be 62 degrees again.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Quinoa Puttanesca and Italian Tofu

This quinoa recipe is from Appetite for Reduction and is basically just quinoa in a spicy tomato sauce. There are supposed to be olives in there but obviously I left those little nasties out. I marinated the tofu (Veganomicon recipe) overnight and it was delicious.



I thought this dinner would be kind of boring but it very much exceeded my expectations. The quinoa was really interesting and held up well for leftovers the next day, too.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Curried Tofu with Arugula and Roasted Potatoes

This is a super basic curried tofu scramble recipe with some arugula mixed in. I roasted some tiny potatoes to go with.



I ate about six thousand extra calories (including the famous Northstar Veggie Burger which I totally failed to photograph myself) over the weekend at an Internet Friends Meetup in Columbus, so this was a nice light dinner to get back on track.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Moroccan Zucchini & Chickpeas

This is an Appetite for Reduction recipe I hadn't tried yet, chickpeas and vegetables in a cinnamony broth served over brown rice. It probably would have been more authentic to serve it over couscous, but brown rice can be microwaved from store-bought bags and, as far as I know, couscous cannot.



It was good! Very vegetabley.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Sauteed Collards and Chorizo with Yellow Garlic Rice

MMMMM I could eat this every day. I chopped up about ten cloves of garlic and used half of them for the collards & (Viva Vegan) chorizo and half for the rice. The rice is made yellow by the addition of a tablespoon of annato-infused oil. Other than the garlic, this is flavored only by salt & pepper. How is it so delicious?? I have no idea.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Tofurky

When you are a vegetarian, meat-eaters think it is super hilarious to say, "How was your tofurky?" after Thanksgiving. I've been a vegetarian for quite a few Thanksgivings in my life and had never had one. Last week Trader Joe's had them clearanced for $2.99, though, so I thought it was worth trying. (Note: They're still $24.99 at Whole Foods. TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS. Ben said we should buy up a bunch at Trader Joe's and sell them at a $10 mark-up in the Whole Foods parking lot. But we did not do that.)



I put it in the crockpot on low for about 5 hours, with some vegetable broth, thyme, rosemary, and half a chopped onion. Pretty easy! And then I roasted some potatoes and green beans to go with. We did not eat the gravy that came with the Tofurky because I'm not a gravy fan unless I've made it myself.



People on my vegan boards said it can be sort of dry, so I made sure to spoon some of the broth over it before serving. It wasn't bad! However, it wasn't terrific, either. My own food is way better and, unless you're getting these things on super clearance like I did, way less expensive, too. I'm eh on tofurky. But at least I can say now that I've had it.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Samosa Mashed Potato Pancakes & Tomato-Carrot Soup

These Indian-spiced mashed potato pancakes and the apple cider chutney alongside are both from Vegan Brunch. They were both super good. I had to add extra flour to the potato mixture because my first "pancakes" did not work out well, but after adding flour they held up much better. The chutney is great - I'm having leftovers in my oatmeal this morning.



My BFF Anna made the carrot-tomato soup when she was here a few weeks ago - it's a recipe she learned from her Indian employer and it was really, really good. We froze it and I think that might have even made it better, letting the flavors really settle in. Or something.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

I Made Cheese! And Empanadas!

Look at this crazy cheese I made from cashews! I am VERY excited about it. It has a smoky sesame flavor you can make it taste like anything you want and REST ASSURED I'm going to be trying some variations because this stuff was great with crackers.



I also used it to stuff a veggie burger. Glorious. If I'd known it was going to set up so firm I would have tried to pour it into the bowl with a completely smooth surface. Next time!

Then I made empanadas. This is a simple corn dough stuffed with black beans, rice, and plantains. You're technically supposed to fry them but we're on the post-holiday reduction plan so I baked them. I was a little worried about not liking the corn but it was good! I made cilantro-lime (tofu) sour cream to go with, which is about five times better than the very expensive store-bought plain version. And then a nice green salad with avocado & tomato and a citrus-cilantro vinaigrette on the side. It was a great healthy dinner!


I also learned that if you spill brown sugar on a hot burner it will immediately burst into flame. Happy New Year to me!