what the hell _does_ a vegan eat anyway?: March 2006

Friday, March 31, 2006

Dinner 3/31

Farfalle Pasta with Homemade Tomato Sauce

Butternut Squash Soup
(butternut squash, carrot, orange juice, shallot, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme)

Steamed Artichokes

Roasted Cauliflower with Pine Nuts
(broken into florets, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and into 400° F oven for 30-35 minutes -- depending on the florets size -- toss the pine nuts in with about 5 minutes to go)

Dessert

Lemon Pound Cake

recipe adapted from Cooking Light (!)

3 tbsp dry breadcrumbs
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup soy margarine, softened
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp lemon extract
3/4 box of soft tofu
1 1/2 tbsp grated lemon rind (about 2 lemons)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, divided
8 oz soy sour cream (or soy yogurt)
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350° F

Coat a 10-inch pan with cooking spray, and dust with the breadcrumbs.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; stir well with a whisk. Beat the margarine in a large bowl at medium speed of a mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add the granulated sugar and lemon extract, beating until well-blended. Add the soft tofu, beating well. Add grated lemon rind and 2 tbsp lemon juice; beat 30 seconds. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with soy sour cream, beating at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minute on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Combine 2 tbsp lemon juice and powdered sugar. Drizzle glaze over top of cake.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Raw Food Wednesday Thursday: Pea Shoot Roll-ups, Zucchini and Butternut Squash Spaghetti with Tomatoes, Romaine Lettuce and "Feta Cheese" Salad

Raw Food ~~Wednesday~~ Thursday 3/30

Pea Shoot Roll-ups
(zucchini, cashew cheese, salt, pea shoots)

Zucchini and Butternut Squash Spaghetti with Tomatoes

Romaine Lettuce and "Feta Cheese" Salad

We went shopping all day yesterday (hence the delay in RFW) and came across the pea shoots (at the Mustard Seed in Solon) which are just fantastic -- a nice chunchy texture and distinct pea flavor -- and they really made the zucchini roll-up's a taste and visual treat...

UPDATE: yes, I forgot the quotes around the "feta cheese" -- sorry ;)

it's a Charlie Trotter/Roxanne Klein recipe from "Raw" -- the link to the "cashew cheese" recipe is here...

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Dinner 3/29

Eggplant Frites

Tomato Sauce

Braised Brussel Sprouts

Tarragon Salad with Grapes

* due to our Spring Break schedule, Raw Food Wednesday has been pushed back a day...

sort of an instant re-run night -- this time longer eggplant fries, and the shot I should have taken last time...

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Dinner 3/28

Stir-Fry
(tofu, carrot, red bell pepper, garlic, ginger, tamari)

Hoisin Green Beans

Jasmine Rice

spring break stir-fry ;)

Monday, March 27, 2006

Dinner 3/27

Crepes Stuffed with Lentil and Seitan Stew

Steamed Artichokes

Bistro Salad

the crepes are from VwaV, while the stew is seitan, onion, garlic, fennel stock, green lentils... together though -- magic ;)

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

more testing for the upcoming vegan cupcake cookbook from Isa and Terry -- a good cherry balance and the kids ate most of them after the photo session ;)

here's the eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was...

coming out...

macro

small group

overhead

cake plate

close-up

cupcake porn

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Dinner 3/26

Tofu with Roasted Garlic

Braised Leeks

Fingerling Potatoes
(boiled, with soy margarine, garlic salt and pepper)

Watercress and Quinoa Salad

Tarragon and Grape Salad

Baguette

a bunch (gaggle? flock?) of small bites tonight -- the salads nicely balanced the leeks/potatoes/tofu/bread...

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Dinner 3/25

Pizza 1
(tomato and soy cheese)

Pizza 2
(lion's mane mushrooms, red onion, green olives, rosemary, roasted garlic)

guess which pizza the kids had? ;)

Liz was busy today -- not only did she make the focaccia dough for the pizza, she also knocked out some more cupcakes (which you'll see here soon)...

Friday, March 24, 2006

Dinner 3/24

Black Bean Burgers
(from Candle Cafe Cookbook)

French Fries
(cut russet potatoes soaked in cold water for 30 minutes, drained and rinsed, then blanched in small batches of peanut oil at 275° for 6-7 minutes. Let the potatoes rest for 15 minutes, then back into the peanut oil in small batches, deep-fried at 375° F for 2-3 minutes)

the kick-off dinner for spring break and our kids wanted burgers and fries, so that's what we got ;)

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Dinner 3/23

Panade

Chickpea and Collard Greens Soup

Steamed Big Heart Artichoke

Dessert

Peaches in Amaretto

The big heart artichoke was a surprise -- usually purple foods revert to green when cooked, but this kept the color and was really tasty to boot....

Also we pulled out the peaches in amaretto we had canned back in the fall of 2004 and had them over soy delicious vanilla ice cream -- well worth the wait ;)

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Raw Food Wednesday: Salad Nicoise, Raw Cashew Cheese and Flax Seed Crackers, Avocado with Raw Cashew Cheese, Raw Leek Soup

Raw Food Wednesday 3/22

Salad Nicoise
(green beans, cherry tomatoes, nicoise olives, romaine lettuce, olive oil, meyer lemon, sea salt, pepper and herbes de provence)

Raw Cashew Cheese and Flax Seed Crackers

Avocado with Raw Cashew Cheese

Raw Leek Soup *

* We wanted to have a French-style onion soup along with our niciose salad. But we learned our lesson from the raw borscht -- in which the beet makes up only 1/4 of the liquid (mostly for color), otherwise it overwhelms the palate.

We started with a base of 1/3 cup of soaked almonds and 1/3 cup of soaked cashews, drained and then added to the vita-mix with one cup of leftover rejuvelac liquid from the cashew cheese (or you can just use filtered water) and pureed them. Keep in the blender...

Then we juiced one leek (white part only) and 2 medium turnips (peeled). Out of that resulting juice, we took 1/4 cup of the leek/turnip mixture and mixed it in the blender with the cashew/almond milk, 1/2 tsp of sea salt and grated nutmeg (to taste). Leeks/Onions can get very bitter when juiced, so you might want to add the leek mixture 1 tbs at a time. Give it another quick hit with the blender and check for salt and strain (or not if you like the texture) into two small bowls.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Dinner 3/21

Eggplant Frites
(eggplant rolled in seasoned flour, then a cornstarch slurry, finally in breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and soy parmesan. deep-fried at 375° F for 3-4 minutes)

Linguine

Spinach Salad
(spincah, radish, dried cherries, fig vinaigrette)

OK, so it's not quite the "inside out" eggplant parmesan thing, but close ;)

Monday, March 20, 2006

Dinner 3/20

Stir-Fry
(tofu, carrot, daikon, jalapeno, lotus seeds)

Grilled Eggplant
(sesame oil, tamari, salt and pepper)

Deep-Fried Kale

Jasmine Rice

Lotus Root Chips *

oh, did I mention Spring Creek Tofu was back? There are few foods make me this happy ;)

* peeled lotus root, cut on a benriner/mandoline at a 45° angle, deep-fried at 375° F for about 2 minutes, then salted. A tasty looking snack that looks like "The Scream"

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Dinner 3/19

Tofu Stuffed with Roasted Garlic
(pan-fried with herbes de provence, salt and pepper, stuffed with roasted garlic, splashed with tamari, finished in the oven for 10 minutes @ 350° F)

Braised Brussel Sprouts

French Fingerling Potatoes

We probably missed an opportunity to gild the lily by adding wrapped potato threads around the tofu, but that just gives us something to shoot for later ;)

More importantly Spring Creek Tofu has made a return to our co-op. As Liz said, "Everytime we think they're gone, they keep pulling us back in!"

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Dinner 3/18

Chiles Rellenos
(poblano stuffed with potato, onion, soy cheese)

Collard Greens With Chipotle Cream
(shredded collard greens with chipotle infused cream sauce)

the cream sauce is 1/2 cup of water, 2 tbs. powdered soy milk*, 1/2 cup of soft tofu and 1/2 a chipotle en adobo depending on your heat tolerence -- pureed with a hand blender and poured over the wilted greens until reduced by half.

roughly 1/2 a chipotle en adobo per 1 cup of cream sauce seems to be a pretty good ratio...

* we used "better than milk"

Friday, March 17, 2006

Dinner 3/17

"Cock of The North" *
Seitan Stew with Onions

Colcannon

Beer Gravy

Soda Bread
(pix 1 | 2 | 3)

The stew has quickly a become a traditional favorite -- of course anytime you have to flame a dish with whiskey, you know the kids will say "do it again! do it again!"

Colcannon is usually served on Halloween, but who needs an excuse to eat mashed potatoes and kale topped with a gravy made with Samuel Smith's Brown Ale?

OK, full disclosure: the kids opted for plain mashed potatoes sans gravy. "um, green things in the potatoes? pass..." ;)

* should be said in a Christopher Walken (as Bruce Dickinson -- yes the Bruce Dickinson) voice.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Dinner 3/16

Sweet and Sour Seitan
(seitan, onion, red bell pepper, carrot, pineapple with a sauce of ketchup, tamari, rice vinegar, water and cornstarch)

Chinese Long Beans wrapped in Grilled Eggplant
(seared/steamed long beans with tamari and hoisin. grilled eggplant brushed with tamari/hoisin/sake)

Napa Cabbage Salad
(shredded napa cabbage, scallions, daikon and carrot w/ yuzu vinaigrette)

It wasn't until the plating of the eggplant and long beans that I realized they should be combined somehow... ;)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Raw Food Wednesday: Raw Pad Thai

Raw Food Wednesday 3/15

Raw Pad Thai
(young coconut, red bell pepper, red cabbage, daikon, zucchini, carrot, cashews, cilantro, tamarind sauce)

I noticed a few hits coming from the peta2 board the other day about raw food, so I thought we'd make one of the easiest to prepare raw food dinners, which doesn't take much advance prep (although you could make the sauces earlier). As always, recipe from Charlie Trotter / Roxanne Klein's "Raw"

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Dinner 3/14

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna
(roasted zucchini and eggplant, tofu ricotta, thyme, tomato sauce, lasanga noodles)

Braised Fennel

Bistro Salad

Ciabatta

Liz has been talking about making a lasagna for a while and today she had some time to put it together -- and as you can see, it turned out really nicely -- the difference with this one was using soft japanese-style tofu (comes in a tube) in the ricotta (with the addition of vegan parmesan and herbs). It held together and easily spread between the layers...

Monday, March 13, 2006

Dinner 3/13

Broccoli Rabe with Pasta and Pine Nuts

Yellow Tomato and Potato Soup with Sage

Braised Brussel Sprouts

Ciabatta

what a couple of weird weather days with temps near 70° F. We had to leave the deck windows open during dinner despite the thunder and lightning -- it was either that or go look for the fan we usually keep in the kitchen during the summer ;)

The Broccoli Rabe recipe is modified from the April 2006 issue of Bon Appetit p.34 (just omit the pancetta or add sun-dried tomatoes)...

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Dinner 3/12

Stir-Fry
(tofu, abalone mushrooms, chinese long beans, baby corn, garlic sauce*)

Jasmine Rice

A new mushroom (for us) to play around with tonight -- the extremely large abalone mushrooms, and the always visually stunning chinese long beans. Tonight, we deep-fried the green beans, as well as the tofu to go along with the garlic sauce -- it's our yearly attempt to make our favorite (pre-vegan) restaurant dish -- Garlic Tofu -- from Lemongrass in Cleveland Heights.

* garlic sauce recipe

In a sauce pan over medium heat, add 2 tsp of canola oil and quickly saute 2 tbs of chopped garlic with a pinch of red pepper flakes until golden.

Then put 1/2 cup of mushroom stock, 1 tbs of tamari, 2 tsp of palm sugar, 1 tbs of lime juice, 1 tsp of freshly grated ginger. Bring to a simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves.

Finally, mix 1 tsp of cornstarch with 1 tbs of water to dissolve. Add the resulting slurry to thicken the sauce at the very end.

Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cupcakes

More from the upcoming cupcake book from Isa and Terry... These were a great deal of fun to make with the swirling of the two batters together. I like the way they "pop" against the white backdrop and the grey marble...

going in...

...coming out

close-up with snakes

group shot

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Dinner 3/11

White Bean and Oyster Mushroom Stew
(cannellini beans, onion, roasted garlic, oyster mushrooms, olive oil, smoked salt, smoked paprika, black pepper)

Green Beans w/ Roasted Garlic

Pureed Cauliflower Soup
(onion, roasted garlic, veg stock, cauliflower, salt, pepper, parsley)

Baguette with Roasted Garlic

Can you sense the theme ingredient in tonight's meal? ;)

Friday, March 10, 2006

Dinner 3/10

Tofu Mole
(onion, garlic, mexican oregano, chipotle en adobo, dried ancho and pasilla peppers, tomato, molasses, mexican chocolate, salt and pepper)

Rice Pilaf
(onion, garlic, mexican oregano, basmati rice, salt and pepper)

Plantains and Soyrizo

We went up to the West Side Market today, stopped by Urban Herbs and bought some dried peppers and spices and decided to play around with a mole sauce -- it turned out brick red (as you can see) and was more of the delayed reaction / cumulative kind of spicy, which was exactly what we were going for...

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Dinner 3/9

Pasta with Tomato Sauce

Garlic Bread

Bistro Salad

Leftovers tonight, so no pictures of the food (but enjoy the leftover shot of the garlic). A quicky dinner as the school functions are starting to pile up...

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Raw Food Wednesday: Eggplant Ravioli Stuffed with Walnut Pesto topped with Tapenade, Zucchini Noodles, Dehydrated Oyster Mushrooms, Spinach Salad

Raw Food Wednesday 3/8

Eggplant Ravioli Stuffed with Walnut Pesto and served with a Raw Tapenade

Zucchini Noodles
(spirialized zucchini coated with salt, pepper, herbes de provence, olive oil and dehydrated for 30 minutes at 105F)

Dehydrated Oyster Mushrooms
(nama shoyu, olive oil, oyster mushrooms dehydrated for 2 hours at 105F)

Spinach Salad with Meyer Lemon Dressing
(spinach, dried cherries, raw pine nuts, meyer lemon zest, meyer lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper)

Here's a quick rundown on the eggplant:

The eggplant was cut into thin rounds on a mandoline, then marinated in 2 tbs. of lemon juice and salt for two hours.

It was then stuffed with the Walnut Pesto: a puree of 1 cup soaked walnuts, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup basil, 1/2 cup chopped parsley, 1/2 cup kalamata olives, 1/2 cup manzanilla olives, 1 tbs. raw white miso, salt and enough olive oil drizzled in during blending to make a nice paste consistency (about 2/3 of a cup). This will make about twice of what you need for stuffing the eggplant -- either cut the recipe in half, or use it the next day on raw flax seed crackers...

After stuffing with the pesto, they were then put into the dehydrator at 105F for six hours (also, what they look like coming out of the dehydrator...).

Finally, they were plated with the Zucchini Noodles and topped with the Tapenade: In a blender, puree 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, 1/2 cup of diced red bell pepper, 1/4 cup of diced cubanelle pepper, one small diced tomato, garlic, salt and pepper, kalamata olives and with enough olive oil drizzled into the blender to make into a sauce -- about a 1/3 cup.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Dinner 3/7

Inside Out Eggplant Parmesan

Garlic Bread

About 5pm tonight, I finally snapped. Eggplant Parmesan, again.

Not wanting the kids to revolt, they had their's in the traditional way, but our's took a decidedly odd turn.

The eggplants were cut about 3/4" thick and then split in half again about 3/4 of the way through, creating a pocket. Then they were salted inside and out for 30 minutes, rinsed, drained and patted dry. The eggplants were then stuffed with sort of a modified cassoulet sauce (onions, garlic, soyrizo, white beans, tomato sauce, soy parmesan) and dipped into a Fritto Misto type batter (flour, soda water, salt, pepper, cayenne), and then into the deep fryer at 375F until golden (about 4-5 minutes), finally drained on paper towels.

They came out looking like a giant burger or an eggplant UFO, but inside everthing was cooked through, none of the ingredients leaked out and the batter stayed nice and crispy through out the meal with the addition of the leftover sauce on top of the eggplant...

Monday, March 06, 2006

Dinner 3/6

Cold Asparagus with Sesame Seeds
(asparagus, tamari, sesame oil, chile oil, toasted sesame seeds)

Steamed/Seared Bok Choy
(tamari and chile oil)

Stir-Fry
(tofu, red bell pepper, carrot, scallions over refried jasmine rice)

Garlic Soup
(roasted garlic, thin noodles, veg stock, chile oil, tofu, tamari)

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Dinner 3/5

Bindaeduk Cho Kanjang
(Mung Bean Pancakes with Dipping Sauce)

Hoisin Tofu Rice Paper Salad with a Yuzu vinaigrette
(napa cabbage, carrot, daikon radish, watermelon radish, red cabbage, cilantro, jalapeno, hoisin tofu)

Shiitake Mushrooms and Shiritake Noodle Soup
(yam noodles, dried shiitake mushrooms, mushroom and fennel broth, tamari, pepper, scallion)

the Korean style mung bean pancakes were fun -- rapid prototyping (i.e. failure with the first batch) saved them from all being lost ;) They just needed more time in the vita-mix and less liquid so that they held together...

For a change, I wrapped the rice paper salads -- usually Liz handles these -- and after about the third one the muscle memory finally kicked in. When we cleaned out the pantry last week we found five boxes(!) of the wrappers -- it's just one of those things we always pick up when we go to the market ;)

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Dinner 3/4

Manti
(dumplings in a roasted garlic broth with soy yogurt and mint)

Cretan Stew *
(seitan, tomatoes, unfiltered/unfined red wine, pearl onions, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, orange juice, orange halves,

Couscous
(couscous, ground cumin, cinnamon stick, turmeric, smoked paprika)

Braised Fennel

We just love this stew -- adapted from an issue of Saveur from 2000 -- the ingredients and flavors are just so different -- which is always a plus around here ;)

And as a bonus, more manti! We had leftover dough and filling and decided to make more as a soup in the broth tonight

* that's from the the island of Crete you, uh... cretin -- man, I'll bet they never get tired of that... ;)

update:

Here's the recipe -- we went back to the original and worked out the changes we made...

16 oz. of seitan (home-made or 2 8oz. packages)
2 cloves garlic chopped
20 black peppercorns
6-10 allspice berries
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
1 lb. small white onions (or pearl onions)
4 plum tomatoes, cored and quartered
2 cups unfiltered/unfined light bodied red wine (or use veg stock as a substitute)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 orange, washed and halved

Preheat oven to 375F

In a large Dutch Oven, cut the seitan into 1/2" cubes and sear over med-high heat in small batches with 1 tbs. olive oil, until a nice crust forms. Remove the seitan and place on a plate. Add 1 tbs of olive oil and saute the onions with a pinch of salt for 3-4 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and saute for an additional 1-2 minutes.

Put the seared seitan back into the pan and stir in the peppercorns, allspice, bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Add the tomatoes, wine (or veg stock) and olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Squeeze the orange halves over the stew, then add the squeezed halves as well.

Cover and cook for one hour, remove cover and cook for an additional 20 minutes -- but check to see how much liquid is left, there should be a little left over.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Dinner 3/3

Manti
(dumplings stuffed with tvp, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, cooked in a herbed broth and served with soy yogurt, pepper and mint)

White Bean and Kale Soup
(cannellini beans, onion, roasted garlic, carrot, "red boar" organic kale, veg stock, smoked salt, smoked paprika, sumac, cinnamon)

Loubieh/Loubeh/Loubie/Loubie Bzeit/Loubie Bi Zeit *
(slow cooked green beans, onion, tomato and roasted garlic)

The Manti recipe is adapted from the new issue of Saveur -- we subbed out tvp for the traditional ground beef/lamb and used egg replacer for the dough. There's basic versions here and here to give you an idea...

* yes, rapidly approaching the numerous spellings of the all time champ poppadams/papadams/poppadoms/puppadoms/pappadams/pappadums ;)

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Dinner

Lyonnaise Potato Salad
(yukon potatoes, green lentils, carrot, onion. dressing: olive oil, red wine vinegar, shallots, mustard, salt and pepper)

Braised Brussel Sprouts

A simple warm potato salad and braised brussel sprouts with a hearty Syrah from Coturri and my evening was pretty much set... ;)

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Raw Food Wednesday: Lo Mein, Dim Sum, Star Fruit, Little Fluffy Cloud

Raw Food Wednesday 3/1

Raw Lo Mein
(noodles of zucchini, cucumber and butternut squash coated with a spicy tamarind sauce* and dehydrated for an hour @ 105F with hon-shimeji mushrooms, carrot, red bell pepper, scallion and cilantro)

Star Fruit

Raw Dim Sum
(Watermelon Radishes stuffed with Sweet and Sour Garlic Eggplant** on a bed of shredded Red Cabbage)

Little Fluffy Cloud
(spiral cut daikon salad with yuzu dressing, black and white sesame seeds and orange zest)

* Tamarind Sauce

2 tablespoons tamarind juice
1 tablespoons raw agave (or maple syrup)
2 tablespoons nama shoyu
1 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoons minced jalapeno chile
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

soak the tamarind for an hour or so, then puree with the agave (or maple syrup), nama shoyu, garlic, jalapeno chile, olive oil and salt.

** diced baby eggplant, salted, squeezed, marinated with garlic, raw agave, apple cider vinegar and red pepper flakes then dehydrated for 3 hours @ 105F