Quesadillas

Daiya pepperjack is now available at our Whole Foods and I've been wanting to try it out. Daiya is by most accounts the best vegan cheese available and it's certainly the best I've tried, but it's not super fantastic or anything. I'm so-so on the cheddar flavor and I like the mozzarella on pizza, so I thought I would give the pepperjack a go in a quesadilla with seitan, refried beans, and peppers and onions.

See how it gets melty?! I thought it was fine, but Ben hated it. And honestly, this doesn't even come close to those enchiladas we ate Sunday. The longer I'm vegan, the less I like store-bought vegan products. I really just prefer my own cooking, with real food that doesn't pretend to be meat or dairy.

Pasta e Fagioli

Garlic, tomatoes, white wine, pasta, white beans, spinach. Easy, hearty, and great!

Potato & Kale Enchiladas

I've been wanting to make these enchiladas (from Veganomicon) for a long time, mostly because I didn't really believe potato and kale enchiladas could be very good. I've only been completely vegan for a few months, you know, and I have a hard time believing things I've always considered cheese-based can be as good in a non-cheese format. So far, though, I've not been disappointed at all. These were delicious!

They were also complicated, but that's okay. There is not much more I love than spending a couple hours in the kitchen with some crappy TV show streaming on the computer. Today I got to watch two episodes of Stargate: Atlantis while these came together.

First I had to roast some Anaheim chiles. Every time I roast peppers under the broiler, I forget about them completely until the last possible second. Every single time! Fortunately they're sort of hard to screw up. You broil them until the skins are crispy, let them cool, then peel and chop.

While they were roasting, I made this cilantro sour cream (main ingredient: silken tofu).

Then I put the sauce together.

And toasted some pumpkin seeds, which were chopped up and mixed into the potato/kale filling.

Here's a shot in the midst. I had a lot going on.

And here is the final product! My one complaint about enchiladas is that they're hard to get out of the pan without mushing them all up. They taste the same, but the pictures don't turn out very well!

Nevertheless, they were super tasty and a good way to wrap up my weekend of food.

Seitan with Mushrooms & Spinach, plus Cake

I thought this sounded like kind of a light dinner but it ended up being really hearty. And easy to put together, which is always a bonus. I already had the homemade seitan on hand, so I just cut it into strips and sauteed with onion, garlic, and mushrooms, then added some white wine, vegetable broth, and spinach at the end. Served over mashed potatoes, of course!

The star was dessert, though. I made my first vegan pound cake, and topped with strawberries and blueberries from the farmer's market. It made a perfect spring dessert!

Sesame Tofu Scramble with Kale and Sweet Potatoes

Technically I was supposed to crumble the tofu into bite sized pieces to make it seem like scrambled eggs, but I like it better when it's cubed and a little crispy on the edges.

This was a really fast, simple, and healthy dinner - I baked the sweet potato the night before, so all I had to do was let the tofu cook for a little while in sesame oil, add the seasonings (garlic/ginger/red pepper flakes/soy sauce), let the kale cook down, and stir in the sweet potato to heat through. That's black sesame seed on top. There's no specific reason to use black sesame seed; it was just the first kind I found in my cabinet.

Gnocchi with Vodka Sauce

Quick weeknight dinner - I made a vodka sauce out of canned crushed tomatoes and served it over toasted gnocchi. Most non-vegan vodka sauces have cream in them, but this one is made creamyish by the addition of slivered almonds, which are then pureed into the sauce. It was tasty! I felt so seedy going to the state-owned liquor store to buy my airplane-sized bottle of vodka, though!

Cornmeal Crusted Tofu, Southwestern Corn Pudding, and Green Pumpkin Seed Mole

This meal was awesome. The corn pudding is the type of thing that would normally have a bunch of cheese in it, I think, but of course that's not the case here. The creaminess came from pureeing some of the corn with a cup of light coconut milk, and it was really perfect. The tofu was coated in a cornmeal/chili powder crust and then baked - it turned out all spicy and crispy. The green pumpkin seed mole really took it over the top, though. Roasted pumpkin seeds pureed with parsley, cilantro, green onion, garlic, and a couple of lettuce leaves. I have a ton left over and I'm already trying to figure out what else I can eat it on!

Jambalaya

Rice baked with vegetables, various beans (from the freezer - kidney, black, and black-eyed peas), and seitan. This recipe made a ton so we'll be eating it all week for lunches, too!

Creamy Mushroom Fettuccine with Seitan

I never know how to spell fettuccine. My browser says two c's is correct but it looks weird. ANYWAY.

This is from Appetite for Reduction, a very simple recipe that makes use of a lot of garlic and a box of creamy portobello mushroom soup. I added seitan for protein.

Tempeh Helper

As a lifelong superfan of Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper, I've wanted to make this recipe since the moment I got Appetite for Reduction. I had the vague idea Ben would be against it, but for someone who still eats real cheese, he's turned out to be a surprising fan of nutritional yeast-based "cheesy" sauces.

This looks amazingly like the real thing, doesn't it? (If you imagine the tempeh is ground turkey in there rather than ground beef, anyway.) It continues to amaze me how closely nutritional yeast sauce can mimic cheese. The taste was a little bitter, though. I used Trader Joe's tempeh and I think it has a stronger flavor than the brand I usually buy. I'm going to try this again but using Boca fake meat crumbles instead of the tempeh, so that the flavors in the sauce will be more prominent.

Seitan Saltado

This is another Viva Vegan recipe, for a Peruvian-style stirfry of seitan, onions, and tomatoes. I added some chiffonaded spinach because I'm a fully indoctrinated vegan at this point and feel anxious if there aren't any green vegetables on my plate.

The especially exciting thing about this stirfry is that instead of serving over rice or noodles, you serve it with FRENCH FRIES. Genius.

Lasagna with Spinach & Roasted Cauliflower Ricotta

Ben claims to not like cauliflower, so I didn't tell him that the "ricotta" in this was made from a mixture of roasted cauliflower and tofu until after he pronounced it delicious. HA. It really was. He also said, "This is the first vegan lasagna I've ever had!" which I'm sure you loyal readers recall is not true. Sigh. Maybe this one will stick with him, because it really was stellar.

Orange Mojo Tofu, Lime Rice, & Kale

I've been reading rave reviews of this Viva Vegan tofu recipe - baked in a citrusy, garlicky marinade - since I first went vegan, and now I can finally cross it off the list. It was super great! I made a lime rice to go with (was supposed to be cilantro-lime but I used up all the cilantro yesterday) and sauteed lacinato kale. Whole Foods has about six kinds of kale and this was one I hadn't tried yet, but it tasted the same as the regular stuff that's all over the place around here.

Sushi Rice Edamame Salad

My second fancy salad of the weekend! Romaine, brown rice, edamame, cucumber, carrots, green onions, avocado, and black sesame seed, with a green onion-miso dressing. This thing took forever to put together but it was worth the wait.

Chickpeas Romesco

These chickpeas were simmered in a broth of pureed tomatoes and roasted red peppers, thickened a little with ground almonds, and served over brown rice. It was supposed to be saffron-garlic rice, but as I started to cook I realized I had neither saffron nor garlic.