a vegan food blog that will be composed of recipes, straight up food porn, nutritional info and general food talk. occasionally, it will also be mingled with bits and pieces from my life outside of food which might include bicycles, art and my cat.

Friday, October 10, 2008

More simple dinners... Tofu and rice.



This dinner was a quick and simple one.
I marinated some tofu for a about an hour in half and half white wine vinegar and tamari, with the addition of lots of dill, a bit of tarragon, and a teaspoon of agave nectar.

I cooked up some rice, and then added to it some peas and corn, and a few teaspoons of cumin seeds. (i love cumin seeds like crazy, they are good on just about anything.)

Grilled the tofu.

Grated some carrot on top.

DONE!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

SOUP!



There's nothing quite like a hot bowl of soup. Nourishing. Comforting. What more could you ask for?!
The best part is that you can make a big pot of soup and then keep it in the fridge to eat as a quick lunch or dinner throughout the week.
Here's a simple recipe (kind of), for the soup pictured below.



SOUP!
ingredients (roughly)
-about 2 cups of potatoes*
-1 large carrot*
-lots of garlic
-1/2 package of tofu*
-half a zucchini*
-small can of tomatoes
-1/2 cup of corn
-mushrooms*
-1/3 of a head of sui choi
-6 cups of veggie stock
-a few splashes of tamari
-1 teaspoon of chilli paste
-1/2 teaspoon of oregano
-1/2 teaspoon of tarragon
-chilli powder
-salt and pepper
-1 teaspoon of hoisin sauce
-1-z tablespoons of olive oil

*chopped into bite-sized pieces

Alright...
To start soup of I like to heat up the olive oil in the bottom of my soup pot, and then add in a bunch of chopped garlic to cook for a few minutes.
I then add any spices that I want to flavour the soup with, and stir those around with the garlic and oil for about a minute.
Add the tofu, and let it absorb all of the spicy garlicy goodness.
Add root veggies and stir for a few minutes.
Then add the veggie stock.
Bring to a boil, and then let simmer. Check the root vegetables regularly: when they are almost done cooking, add all of the other vegetables (except the sui choi!!)

This is when I add all of the non-spice ingredients (hoisin sauce etc.)

Finally, when the soup is almost done, I add the sui choi (it doesn't really need to cook a whole lot).

You don't need to add the veggies that I have listed here. You can pretty much ad anything you want. It's just important to keep in mind that different vegetables have different cooking times. If it's a root vegetable, it takes longer. Soft things take less time.

Umm... that's all for now.

Tomato and black bean hummus



A few posts back I talked very briefly about the versatility of bean dips, and how you can add basically anything to them.
So here is a prime example: Tomato and black bean hummus!!



Alright... so I will be the first to admit that it looks a little like cat food... but it was so yummy!!

The recipe:
-1 large can of chickpeas
-1 large can of black beans
-half a small can of tomato paste
-juice from one lemon
-about half a teaspoon of maple syrup
-2 tablespoons of tahini
-between 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
-half a teaspoon of chilli paste
-GARLIC

Blend everything until it reaches the consistency that you desire. For a runnier hummus, add a bit of water.

I get the feeling that I might be forgetting something from this recipe... but you get the idea (hopefully).

I think that I am going to try testing out different bean and seasoning combinations more this month, so get ready for lots of bean dips!!! om nom nom.

Tomatoes and pasta.



TOMATOES! They are so very lovely. I honestly can't wait for tomato season every year (though I did not take full advantage of it this year). The shear variety never ceases to astound me.



I picked up these guys at the farmers' market, and decided to make another really simple tomato sauce similar to the one made a few posts back.

The tomatoes were chopped up and thrown in a pan with lots of garlic and a bit of olive oil. Once they had broken down into a sufficiently saucy texture, I added a pinch of sugar and a whole bunch of fresh basil.

Meanwhile, I cooked up some penne, and grilled some yellow beans on my newly seasoned cast iron grill (I LOVE IT!)

Here is the result.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Tofu, roasted veggies, mashed potatoes and cheesy sauce!!


Vegan MoFo Post #3!!

I was having a group of mostly omnivorous boys over for dinner, and wasn't really sure what to make, so decided to go with comfort food. It turned out to be a good decision!

I marinated some chunks of tofu in equal parts white wine vinegar and tamari, flavoured with a huge bunch of chopped up basil. I set the tofu aside to soak up flavour while the rest of dinner was prepared.

Next, I boiled some potatoes in preparation for mashing, and put some water on in which to blanch some swiss chard. The chard was blanched for three minutes and set aside until the potatoes were fully cooked.
Mashed potatoes are a great vessel for other things... beans, greens, tomato paste, mashed up squash... if you are cooking for someone who is a fussy eater and you want to sneak more veggies into their diet... seriously... mashed potatoes... it's the way to go.
To these potatoes, I added:
-Earth Balance
-unsweetened almond milk (I don't measure these first two ingredients; instead, I add them a bit at a time until the potatoes have reached the consistency that I desire.)
-lots of garlic
-1 tablespoon of miso paste
-an entire bunch of blached swiss chard
-salt and pepper

Meanwhile, I tossed some mushrooms (lightly coated in olive oil) in the oven at 375 F to start roasting, followed by some zucchini about ten minutes later. These were left in the oven together for an additional ten minutes.

Cheesy sauce was made according to the recipe from the Veganomicon, to which I added a few tablespoons of tomato paste, and half a can of coconut milk (plus roughly one extra tablespoon of flour to compensate for the additional liquid.)

The tofu chunks were then grilled.

All of this was garnished with pea shoots and served with some lovely flat bread that I picked up at the store.

PHOTOS!!





The most satisfying part was that even the boy who had never eaten tofu before totally loved it. SUCCESS!

Soba noodles with arugula, zucchini and pea shoots.


Post number 2 for Vegan MoFo!!



This was a very quick and simple dinner that was super tasty, and full of greens.

I took an entire bunch of arugula and wilted it in a pan with a little bit of Earth Balance. I chopped up some zucchini, and tossed it into the pan when the arugula was almost done.

Meanwhile, I cooked some soba noodles.

Once the noodles and veggies were done, I tossed them in a bowl together, and topped them off with some fresh pea shoots. Everything was sprinkled with a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Easiest dinner ever!

(one more photo.)

Peanut noodle salad, mushrooms, fingerling potatoes and white bean dip.

Ok, so it turns out that SO FAR, I have been a total Vegan MoFo slacker! Not in so far as cooking, but in so far as posting. (I had a calculus midterm this week, give me a break.)
Seven posts to follow, from the past week.



OM NOM NOM!
This was a simple dinner, of the variety that I usually seem to end up making.
I love, love, love peanut sauce, and really liked this salad the last time that I made it, so decided to whip it up again.



Peanut noodle salad:
-Peanut Sauce (as I stated in an earlier post, you can find recipes for this stuff anywhere, you basically just have to fiddle with the proportions of the ingredients until you find one that suits you.)
-Noodles (again, depends on what you are going for. I like soba noodles a lot.)
-Veggies! These can be whatever you want, but it works best if they are fresh, and if you chop them up into fairly small pieces.
I have never been a huge fan of cucumber... but OMG, I bought one from the local farmers' market, and it was the best thing EV-AR! So sweet and flavourful. It was shocking. It was kind of expensive compared to what I am used to, but well worth it.

The rest of dinner!!



I tossed some fingerling potatoes, and cremini mushrooms in olive oil, and roasted them in the oven. YUM!

Then covered the potatoes in a huge glob of white bean dip (recipe taken from "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan".)
I've been extra into bean dips lately... they go on anything, and you can basically put anything in them, depending on what you are feeling like that day.
As long as you have the key ingredients:
-beans.
-tahini
-olive oil
-garlic
-lemon juice
Everything else can be adjusted. Try different types of beans, and different herbs and spices to suit your mood. I will elaborate on this in a future post.

Food! I love it!