Broiled Vegetables in Yogurt Sauce

I finally caved last week and bought How To Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.  I kept going to look at it on Amazon and finally realized "it is NINETEEN DOLLARS" so I went for it.  It is completely enormous and overwhelming and I had a ton of fun reading through it over the course of a couple of days.  This week's dinners are all from the book - I think I could probably cook from this thing for the rest of my life and not get everything made.

The first thing I made was a basic baked mac and cheese, which was a little weird because it turns out my unsweetened soy milk was a little sweetened after all.  Ben liked the weirdness but I was not too much of a fan.

Last night I made his Broiled Eggplant with Peppers & Onions in Yogurt Sauce.  The recipe title pretty much says it all - you broil vegetables in the oven (first eggplant, then peppers & onions, then tomato), season with salt, pepper, and thyme, mix the vegetables up with 2 cups of plain yogurt, then return to the oven for a little more broiling.  It was a little time consuming as you have to watch the oven to make sure everything cooks for the proper amount of time, but it was really basic and simple and surprisingly delicious.

Look at all the peppers! (pre-broil)

And this is the final product, which looked very restauranty if I do say so myself.

I served the vegetables over a rice pilaf with slivered almonds and dried cranberries.

We made crepes!

I've been wanting to make crepes for ages, but it always seemed so intimidating somehow.  I am not very good at pancakes, so maybe that's why.  But I got a crepe pan for Christmas (thanks, mom!) and finally got up the energy on a Sunday morning to give it a try.

I started with a classic, non-vegan recipe, from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I wanted to be sure I could handle the basics before trying vegan versions.

SUPPLIES

Everything I've read says the first crepe never turns out and to throw it away.  This was the first one.  It wasn't pretty but why should you throw away perfectly tasty food?  I ate it.

They definitely did get better after that, though!

"Smile, Ben!"

Yummmmmmmmm

So the verdict is that homemade crepes are easy and super delicious.  Next attempt will be vegan!

Ben says I have to post this picture of him to prove he doesn't look like a cancer patient in real life.

Black-Eye Pea Fritters

In the South you are supposed to have black-eyed peas and collards on New Year's Day, for good luck.  I did my black-eyed peas in fritter form this year, and we also ate it on January 2nd because it turned out that we were too lazy on New Years Day and decided to go out for Mexican food instead of cooking.  So hopefully that will not negate the good luck effect!

This recipe is from Vegan Soul Kitchen, and the fritters are supposed to be deep-fried but I pan-fried them instead.  They were still good!  They were sort of like falafel, except with black-eyed peas.

I did the collards my usual way (boil for a long time while cooking other things, then drain and saute with a chopped onion and some garlic, adding soy sauce & liquid smoke to flavor).  And then also made my old standby yellow rice from Viva Vegan.  Delicious!

Tempeh Mafe

I made this last week (or maybe the week before?? I'm getting bad at updating).  Mafe is an African peanut stew typically made with meat, naturally, but in this version the protein is baked tempeh, which really goes well with the peanut flavor.

The recipe is from Vegan Soul Kitchen and I felt like it was a touch fussier than it needed to be - the tempeh  had to be baked in marinade first, but as it was then just dumped into the stew, I think I will probably just steam it a little bit first the next time I make this dish.

What really makes it are the roasted seasoned peanuts ("Spicy Goobers", also from Vegan Soul Kitchen).  We still have a bunch of those in the fridge and they are great for a little snack.

Asian Groceries

I went to Grand Asia Market last weekend in search of wonton wrappers, which for some reason Harris Teeter seems to have quit carrying.  I found them!  And naturally they were practically free.

While I was there, I picked up a full range of sauces that Terry Hope Romero uses in her new cookbook Vegan Eats World.  She has a lot of awesome-looking noodle recipes I've been wanting to try, but you need Thai Thin Soy Sauce or whatever.  I was kind of surprised I was able to find all this stuff!  And again, it was way, way cheap.  I love the ethnic grocery store.

I also picked up various weird tofus.  The tofu section in this place is incredible!

I already used this stuff in a rice dish - it was not spicy at all, but was flavored nicely and really dense and chewy.

Yet to be used:

This one says "halogen taste-flavor dried TOFU" in case you can't read it.  How could I not buy that?