mashed potatoes! tofu! salad!

I have been trying to cut down on the soy products lately, so have been keeping tofu intake to a minimum. This is partly because I don't think that eating too much of any one thing is terribly good for you, and partly because a lot of soy is grown in huge monoculture crops. Soy is kind of like corn in a lot of ways... it's become ubiquitous...
and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
On that note... this is the first meal that I've made using tofu in weeks!
And it was delicious!

The tofu was marinated in (roughly) the following:
- 3 tablespoons of HP Sauce
- about two dashes of Hickory liquid smoke
- 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of grainy mustard
- 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
- some water to make it more liquidy and marinadey

If there was anything else in the marinade, I don't remember what it was. Womps.
I cleaned and quartered some mushrooms before tossing them in a pan and cooking until they started to release their water. I then threw in the chunks of tofu with their marinade and basically just let this simmer until all of the water had cooked off.
The tofu was sweet and smokey and totally delicious. YUM!

Mashed potatoes!! I cooked a giant pot of mashed potatoes, and added in a parsnip for a bit of kick. While the potatoes were cooking, I wilted a bunch of spinach in a pan, and chopped up some basil.
Once the potatoes were done cooking I began the mashing process.
I added the following into the potato/parsnip mash:
- olive oil and unsweetened original almond milk (I start off by just adding a splash of each, and then slowly add more until the potatoes reach the desired texture)
- the wilted spinach
- a handful of chopped up basil
- fresh garlic, minced, to taste (I add A LOT)
- 1 tablespoon of light miso paste
- several pinches of tarragon
- lots of fresh ground pepper
- Alder smoked salt, to taste

Finally, the salad... pretty basic and classic, the salad was made of chopped up cherry tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, cucumber and pea shoots. I also shredded in some carrot. The dressing was a favourite of my friend Kate-lynn's: pretty much equal parts olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sesame oil. DELICIOUS!!

And here's the most important part! The photo!
OM NOM NOM!!



I LOVE FOOD SO MUCH!
VEGETABLES! HURRAY!

SUMMER UPDATE!!

OK... so I have not updated in a very long time. Sorry!
What with graduating and summer and some very big deadlines at work, there has just not been a lot of extra time for food blogging. Plus, I have been lazy.

I am not going to update with any super new recipes at the the moment, but I WILL post a bit of food porn from the last few months, followed by some brief descriptions.

YUM!



I went to the farmers' market and picked up some oyster mushrooms, sunburst tomatoes and... BLACK TRUFFLE SEA SALT!! FYI: Sunburst tomatoes are these tiny little orange guys, and are probably the most flavourful, lovely tomatoes that I have ever eaten in my life.
For this breakfast, I cooked up the oyster mushrooms and spinach with a bit of Earth Balance. I boiled some potatoes, and topped them with a white bean dip. Then, I sliced up some tofu and poached it (using white wine vinegar) for a few minutes. I topped the tofu off with a bit of my new truffle salt. OM NOM NOM!

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Did you know that cauliflower and potatoes take about the same amount of time to boil?? And furthermore, that cauliflower and potatoes mashed together and then baked are absolutely DIVINE? I didn't! Then I tried a cauliflower bake at a vegan restaurant, and had to make it myself. Here, I think that I mashed a bunch of Earth Balance, veggie bouillon powder (I know, sounds strange, but is a good mashed potato seasoning) and nutritional yeast into the potatoes and cauliflower.



YUM!! I remember this brunch!! The best part of all was the sauce... oh, the sauce!! It was a blend of avocado, a bit of coconut milk, some tomato paste, hickory liquid smoke, and chipotles in adobo sauce (plus a few other things... not sure what though... probably at least some lime juice). It was AMAZING! It was served with some fresh baking powder biscuits, brussel sprouts that had been chopped very finely and pan fried with sliced almonds and salt and pepper, mashed potatoes and yams, and tofu that had been marinated in some sort of agave nectar and lime juice mixture and then baked. By far one of my favourite brunches in life, ever.


OK! That's my quick update! I will try to stay more on top of things in the months to come, if only to post some food porn here and there.

Happy eating!

brunch! hashbrowns, and vegan bennies.

I have decided to start cooking brunch for friends on a pretty regular basis; below I posted details of my first foray into this endeavour!

Brunch this weekend consisted of hashbrowns, and some broiled tofu, with spinach and mushrooms, on english muffins, topped with dill-tahini sauce.

YUM!!!!





The tofu, and sauce recipes were both taken from the Veganomicon, and were completely delicious.
The spinach was simply wilted on low heat, and the mushrooms were fried in a pan with a bit of tamari.

HASHBROWNS!!!

Potatoes take a bagillion years to cook in the oven, so I like to speed the process up a bit.

I cut potatoes into bite-sized bits, and boiled them until they seemed like they are not quite done. You know... you can stick a fork in them, and they are kind of soft, but you wouldn't want to eat them yet.

Then!!

I pre-heated the over to 350F, threw the potatoes onto a pan, and coated them in olive oil; I then added a few other things to the mix, but for the life of me, I cannot recall the measurements…

Stuff that I put on the potatoes:

- Nutritional Yeast (lots!)
-a pinch of: cayenne and paprika
-several splashes of tamari
-salt & pepper

Oh shoot... I believe that there were a few more seasonings, but I forget right now, because I didn't write them down while I was making the potatoes.
Once they were thoroughly coated, I threw the potatoes under the broiler for roughly 15 minutes.

They were so delicious.

OM NOM NOM!!!

I like to accompany food that is kind of rich with some sort of fresh veggie, so I grated some carrots and beets on the side.

HURRAY, BRUNCH!!

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!

more potatoes, tofu, roasted veggies, heirloom tomatoes!

I picked up these beauties at the farmers' market this weekend...



I decided that they would have enough flavour to hold their own in a very basic sauce, and I was right! They were so very lovely.

I used about the amount of tomatoes that you see in the photo above, or maybe a handful more.

I cleaned the tomatoes and cut them in half, heated some olive oil and garlic in a pan, and then tossed the tomatoes in.

I simmered them until they were a bit liquid-y, added 1 teaspoon of sugar (they were pretty tart), and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. I then continued to let them simmer on low heat until they reached a more sauce-like consistency.

SO SIMPLE!



The rest of dinner was composed of some roasted mushrooms and zucchini; some leftover "burger" mix (see earlier post), simply pan fried instead of floured into burger form; and some stips of marinated tofu.



Roasting veggies!
Mushrooms were cleaned and rubbed with olive oil before tossing them into the oven preheated to 350F. They stayed in there for about 10 minutes before I added the oiled zucchini chunks to the mix (it takes less time to cook). They probably stayed in for another ten minutes. I don't usually time roasted vegetables, but rather test them periodically to see what's what.

The tofu was the "Marinated Asian Tofu" from the Veganomicon.

The whole thing was sprinkled with fresh cilantro.

All-in-all, pretty delicious dinner.

Curried tofu stuffed peppers; potato, pumpkin and black bean "burgers"; greens.

The other day i made a lot of potatoes... a lot! I had a huge pot full of boiled yellow potatoes, so I decided to mash them up with some other delicious things that I had kicking around the kitchen.

"Burgers"



- Large saucepan half full of potatoes. (ok, so that's a pretty ghetto description, but i don't really know how to quantify the potatoes)
- Half a can of pumpkin puree (make sure that it is NOT pumpkin pie mix!)
- One bunch of chard, chopped and blanched for three minutes.
- One can of black beans, rinsed.
- LOTS of garlic.
- Several tablespoons of olive oil.
- Salt and pepper.

This delicious mess was formed into patties, and then patted with flour. They were then fried in a hot pan with a bit of oil for about 3-5 minutes on either side.

I also sprinkled them with some Sheese, "cheddar style" fake cheese.

Stuffed Peppers
The peppers were stuffed with a crumbled curried tofu, and some really lovely green tomatoes that I picked up at the farmers' market. The peppers were rubbed with a bit of olive oil, before being stuffed, and tossed in the oven at 350F for roughly 12 minutes.



Tofu, roughly:
- 1 package of extra firm tofu, crumbled.
- 2 teaspoons of peanut oil (but any oil will do, really)
- 1/4 teaspoon each of cardamom and ground ginger.
- 1 teaspoon of curry powder.
- 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds.
- several splashes of tamari.
- 1/2 teaspoon of chilli paste.
- garlic!!

The greens were just a mix of random things picked up from the farmers' market, and were tossed in lemon juice and flax oil.

more tofu burgers! peanut sauce! baby bok choy!

Once again, marinated a whole whack of tofu in my go to marinade of tamari, sesame oil, sriracha, garlic and ginger.
Shredded up some carrots and beets, and sliced up some zucchini and spinach for toppings.
On the bun (errr.... multi-grain bread): dijon mustard, ketchup, and the most delicious mayo spread ever!
I bought some super amazing liquid hickory smoke the other week, and decided that it would probably taste great mixed into some vegan mayo with a bit of maple syrup. HEAVEN! I am going to start putting this on pretty much everything.





Along side the tofu burger is some lightly steamed baby bok choy slathered with a tasty peanut sauce.
In the peanut sauce:
peanut butter (obvs) about 1/2 a cup
teaspoon of chilli paste
garlic - lots of it
small can of coconut milk
a few splashes of tamari
ginger
lots of like juice
teaspoon of rice vinegar
tablespoon of maple syrup

Mix mix mix, and add water until desired thickness is reached.
It's good to play around with the proportions a bit until you find the peanut sauce that is perfect for you.

Ps. Did you know that you can buy coconut milk in tetra packs??? It's a bit cheaper, and nice to just have hanging out in the fridge, say... to add to coffee (delicious!), or to hot chocolate, or cherry flavoured soda (vegan italian sodas, whaaaaat?). I should probably just devote a whole post to coconut milk sometime soon...

3 course meal! thai-style coconut soup, asian noodle salad with spicy peanut sauce, mushroom risotto with smokey tofu and green beans.

Recently, the Grace Gallery in Vancouver held a "40 hours of food and flicks" event, where a local chef cooked for continuous two hour sittings for 40 hours. A movie was shown for each sitting. Sadly, for me and a few of my vegan friends, there was no vegan option... so we decided to make our own fancy dinner. HURRAY!

Course 1: Asian Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce.



This recipe was taken from Vegan Planet, with a few modifications. The recipe recommends using Udon noodles, which we agreed were too thick for our liking, so we used some Soba noodles instead. To the peanut sauce in Vegan Planet, we also added a few tablespoons of maple syrup, for sweetness, and the juice from half a lemon. The recipe was also modified with the addition of peas.
This salad was SO delicious! It was also super easy to make. Peanut sauce recipes are easily found in just about any vegan cookbook, or all over the internets. Try playing around with different ones until you get the right flavour for you. You can also experiment with different types of noodles (spelt, kamut, buckwheat) or varying degrees of thickness, and you can basically add any vegetables that please you.

Course 2: Thai Style Coconut Soup.



Also from Vegan Planet, but slightly modified with the addition of fresh lemongrass and thai basil. I'm not sure what i would do differently in making this soup the next time... maybe add more coconut milk? Maybe add some sweet chilli sauce? I just don't know. It was light, and refreshing, but didn't quite have the oomph that I was looking for.

Course 3: Mushroom Risotto with Smokey Tofu and Green Beans.



SO MANY MUSHROOMS! We picked up a variety pack of organic mushrooms from the farmers' market, which included shitake, portabello, pink oyster and some other kind whose name I'm not sure of. We sauteed these for a bit before adding them into the risotto. The risotto was made with a mushroom broth and then finished off with truffle infused olive oil. YUM! We also added some swiss chard.

To marinate the tofu, we took the recipe for Smokey Grilled Tempeh, from the Veganomicon (obvs, without the tempeh). We let the tofu marinate for a few hours and then pan-fried it. Smokey deliciousness!

The green beans were blanched for three minutes, put into a cold water bath and then tossed in flax oil.

tofu! hummus! garlic!

tofu!
lately, i really love to bake tofu... in just about any kind of marinade.
this time, i took one out of VCon (which is where i seem to be getting everything that i cook these days...). I made the "marinated asian tofu", with the only modification being that i loaded it up with a ton of roasted garlic and some toasted sesame seeds.
yum!



I also pan fried some new potatoes with a bunch of roasted mushrooms and garlic, then served these both with a huge dollop of hummus (insert basic hummus recipe plus roasted garlic, chipotle and a bit of balsamic vinegar), and some shredded carrots.
Unfortunately for the hummus, I didn't have any raw garlic on hand, and the roasted garlic just didn't have enough oumf/umf/oumph (?). The lemons that I bought seemed to be a little lack lustre in flavour, hence the addition of balsamic vinegar. Sadly, it added more sweetness than kick into the mix. womp. Still delicious, but I would do things differently next time. (what can i say? it was my first time making hummus)



In case you didn't guess from this post, I love garlic... especially of the roasted variety.
One of the produce stores near my house sells huge bags of pre-peeled garlic on the cheap, so every now and then i grab a bag, toss it in olive oil and roast it. Then I put roasted garlic on/in everything... or you know, just eat it as a snack (yikes!). Occasionally, I will also add a mass of mushrooms to the mix, and then they soak up all of the olive oil/garlic goodness and taste absolutely divine. hurrah!

tofu burgers!

summer is here!!
with summer, comes tofu burgers!



here's a quick simple recipe for some delicious tofu burgers that i stole from my friend shmoo...

buy a package of pressed tofu and slice into appropriate burger sized portions (they should be about 1/2 inch thick)
chop up a bunch of garlic and ginger (the amount really depends on taste... i like a lot of garlic, so i go with about 4 or 5 cloves, with a similar amount of ginger)
toss the ginger into a dish appropriate for marinating with about a 1/3 cup of soy sauce or tamari, 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, and a hit of sriracha sauce.
toss in the tofu and leave to marinate for as long as you want (i would give it at least an hour... it only gets more delicious with time)

these can be grilled on the bbq, or fried in a pan... whatever is easiest.
cook about 5 minutes on each side.

i served these burgers on a multi-grain bun with vegan mayo, ketchup, jalapeño hummous and a pile of wilted spinach.