Vegan Football Sunday: Potato Skins, "Wings," and Guacamole

The Eagles were televised yet again, so I thought it would be fun to have a few friends over to watch the game.  I decided to do a number of vegan friendly and football friendly finger foods for the occasion: "wings," loaded potato skins and guacamole.

The wing recipe is from the October 2011 Vegetarian Times.   I used Upton's Naturals original seitan, Cholula hot sauce, Whole Foods maple syrup, Original Vegenaise and the smoked paprika we had handy in the spice cabinet.  The wings needed to marinate for two hours before being breaded and cooked, so I did that step first and then popped them in the fridge.

Next, I started the prep for the potato skins.  My husband had picked up a five pound bag of medium potatoes for me earlier in the week, so I baked those in the oven for 45 minutes at 425, and sent them on a wire rack to cool.

While the potatoes were cooking, I made tempeh bacon crumbles.  The October 2012 Vegetarian Times had a recipe for Warm German Potato Salad that included directions for the "bacon" crumbles, so I decided to try those for my skins.  The recipe's not online yet, but it includes tempeh, low-sodium soy sauce (I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos), blackstrap molasses, ketchup or tomato paste, and liquid smoke.  I ended up using both ketchup and tomato paste to get the crumbles to a more "bacony" color, and also cooked them in the pan a bit longer than the recipe called for to get them to crisp up more.  There is a TON of "bacon" left over, so I'll likely sneak it into recipes throughout the week.

To finish the potato skins, I used this CHOW recipe as a guideline, but veganized the ingredients. Instead of butter, I used Earth Balance, and I stuffed the potatoes with the vegan bacon crumbles and daiya cheddar cheese, then topped them with freshly chopped chives.  The potato skins were definitely the hit of the party - my non-vegan friends couldn't believe they were vegan, and especially that I didn't use real cheese.  When I explained what daiya was, my friend Greg joked that I have "gone to the dark side."

To make the guac, I used four ripe avocados,three roma tomatoes (diced), two serrano peppers (seeds removed, minced), half a red onion (minced), four cloves of garlic (minced), the juice from one fresh lime, fresh cilantro (chopped), sea salt and freshly ground black pepper,  I set out the guac with some Garden of Eatin' Multigrain Blue Corn Chips for my friends to eat while I finished the skins and wings.  I also had a tray with carrots, celery and hummus.

After the potato skins were out, I finished up the wings, using whole wheat panko for the breading.  The breading really didn't stick as well as I would have liked, but they had a nice golden exterior.

 

For dessert, thanks to my friend Carol, we had Football Shaped Oreos.  Did you know Oreos are vegan?  (My friend Valerie describes them as "accidentally vegan.")  That's yet another example of an everyday food that non-vegans eat that's vegan friendly.  I'd put them in the same category of pasta with marinara sauce, PB & J, rice and beans and the guac I made today.

Are you a vegan football fan?  How do you veganize your favorite football snacks?

Sunday Football Lunch: Quorn Vegan Burger and Alexia Organic Crinkle Cut Fries

I've written before about my favorite vegetarian and vegan football eats, and I thought it would be fun to see what I eat on game days throughout the 2012 season.

Last week, I went to Rhino, which is DC's Eagles fan HQ.  They've changed up their menu (though the website doesn't reflect it), and added a veggie burger that's made with grains veggies and black beans.  It's a bit dry and was lacking garnish, so if I order it again, I'll remember to ask for some fixins and douse it in ketchup. 

Today, since the Eagles are televised and we're headed to Erev Rosh Hashanah services right after the game, I'm at home and thus able to prepare my own football food.  Since last week's burger was lackluster, I decided to prepare my own.

Quorn now has a vegan burger.  It's soy free and the texture isn't bad.  Husband was in the kitchen and helped prepared my lunch (it is unwise for me to be near hot ovens and sharp knives unsupervised during an Eagles game), and he thought that it smelled like barbeque.  I topped the burger with daiya, and garnished it with raw kale, grape tomatoes, red onion and german mustard.  Since our local market didn't have good vegan whole grain bun options, I ate it on Spring Mill Bread Company whole grain bread.

For a side, I tried Alexia Organics Salt and Pepper Crinkle Fries.  I was happy with the seasoning level and didn't feel the need to add any additional salt.

"Eggs" and potatoes for breakfast

Now that I know I can tolerate Non-GMO soy, I decided to take a stab at tofu scramble.  I always enjoyed scrambled eggs in the mornings, and tofu scramble is as close as vegans can get.

When I picked out my tofu at the store on Monday, I decided to go with Mori-Nu brand silken extra-firm tofu, rather than regular tofu.  My only reason was that the package size was smaller, and since I'm currently the only tofu-eater in my house, it seems less wasteful.

The difference between silken tofu and regular tofu is mainly in texture.  I feel like I see silken tofu more often in dessert recipes - it's allegedly more creamy than regular tofu.  When I opened the package, it definitely looked like a block of cream cheese - less little pockets than regular tofu.  When I handled it, I felt like the texture resembled hard-boiled eggs, which, to me, was perfect for this tofu scramble experiment.  My guess is that silken tofu might also make an excellent "egg salad."

Since I tend to oversleep in the mornings, I need a breakfast which doesn't take a lot of time to prepare (aka, why I usually default to toast).  So I decided to prep my tofu-scramble and some roasted potatoes Monday late afternoon to reheat for today's breakfast.  First, I pressed the tofu for 15 minutes.  While the tofu was pressing, I chopped a small amount of red onion finely.

I heated a little under a tablespoon of olive oil for a minute or so, and then sauteed the onion.  I then crumbled the tofu into the pan, breaking it up further with a wooden spatula.  A number of blogs I've read have suggested adding tumeric to the tofu to give it an "eggy" color, so I stirred in a teaspoon of tumeric, along with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt.  I let the mix cook for about minutes, stirring it frequently to keep it from sticking to the bottom of my pan.  When the tofu was lightly browned, I took it off the heat and stirred in some dried parsley, and then put it in a glass container. This morning, I reheated it in the microwave with a touch of mozzarella daiya, along with some leftover cooked broccoli.  I think next time I will need to be more aggressive with the seasoning, but it was tasty.

What goes nicely with "scrambled eggs"?  Breakfast potatoes!  I had some leftover mini red, purple and gold mini-potatoes, so I chopped them up small and tossed them in olive oil, dried minced onion, sea salt and pepper.  I let them roast in a single layer in a pyrex dish at 425 for 30 minutes, stirring them at one point so they wouldn't stick.  I reheated them this morning in the toaster, rather than microwaving them, so they'd stay crispy.

What are your favorite vegan breakfast treats?

Vegan Pizza at District of Pi

Tonight, my friend and I went to Chinatown to catch a movie.  We had plenty of time for dinner beforehand, so we decided to go to District of Pi.  I had eaten some of the veggie thin crust and deep dish pizzas there before, and knew they had vegan options available.

District of Pi is very vegan friendly.  The thin crust pizza dough is vegan, and you can substitute daiya cheese and Match meats for the toppings.  I have heard of Match, but I wasn't sure if it was GMO-free soy,so I didn't try it.  The Match website doesn't list ingredients, and the internet was no help, so I may have to look for it in a store so I can look closely at the packaging.

You can also get vegan deep dish pizza at District of Pi, but since the regular deep dish dough has butter, you need to give them advance notice if you'll be ordering it so they can ensure to have the vegan dough available for you.

My pizza tonight had red sauce, daiya, arugula, artichokes and red onions.  The crust was super crispy and the vegetables were all very fresh.  The thin crust pizzas come out quickly, but if you are ordering the deep dish, make sure you budget 25-30 minutes to wait for it to bake.  If you're hungry, you can snack on some vegan friendly appetizers while you wait.  The server told me that they can do a vegan garlic bread, and you can also choose from cucumbers with thai chili, roasted mushrooms with garlic and rosemary, olives and orange or the pi hummus plate with pita, red peppers and olives.  There are also salads that you can easily order without dairy or meat ingredients.  And, if you're into beer, they've got a great rotating selection, including Arrogant Bastard from Stone Brewing Co. (I went there on a work event earlier this year) and various beers from local brewery DC Brau. 

Stay tuned for when I try their vegan deep dish!

Road's End Organics Dairy Free Shells & Cheese

A busy weekend filled with family activities, coupled with a rainy Sunday afternoon, left me craving comfort food.  For me, that's always been macaroni and cheese.  Fortunately, there are a number of vegan friendly macaroni and cheese products on the market, including a number of products made by Road's End Organics.  (For my gluten intolerant friends, they make two vegan-friendly, gluten free products made with brown rice pasta).

Tonight, I tried the Dairy Free Shells & Chreese Cheddar Style pasta dinner.  The "chreese" sauce is made by combining a powder of nutritional yeast and seasonings with either water or a non-dairy milk.

To make the sauce, I used some of the coconut milk I had in the fridge.  I also took the box's suggestion to add a teaspoon of buttery spread and added in some soy-free Earth Balance.  Since I remember some boxed vegan mac and cheeses not being as creamy and cheesy as I prefer, I also added in a quarter cup of cubed daiya cheddar style wedge.

Making the cheese sauce is a bit more unwieldy than making traditional boxed mac and cheese.  After draining the pasta, you take the empty pan off the heat and whisk together the powder, the milk and the butter (and, in my case, the daiya) until the nutritional yeast power has completely dissolved in the milk.  You then bring the sauce back to a medium hot burner and stir in the pasta shells until the sauce completely coats it.

I actually thought the taste and texture of this was pretty good, and it hit the spot for me in terms of my mac and cheese craving.  Adding the daiya definitely helped give it a little more "cheesiness."  I definitely prefer it to the frozen vegan mac and cheese products I've tried before.

So, why might you choose a vegan mac and cheese over a traditional boxed brand?  Well, if you're not eating dairy because of ethical reasons or a lactose intolerance, this type of product will be a good fit for you.  On the nutrition side of things, it's also a slightly healthier option.  Granted, mac and cheese isn't exactly a health food, but let's play "eat this/not that" for a second, and compare the nutritional facts between the Road's End Product and traditional boxed mac & cheese.

Nutritional yeast is a great source of Vitamin B12, and, according to the box, one serving of the Mac & Chreese provides 40-50% of the DV for B12.   All humans need B12 to help maintain their metabolism and central nervous system.  Because of how sanitized our food system is, it can be difficult for vegans to get enough B12.  You don't get B12 from traditional boxed mac & cheese.  I'm not advocating for Vitamin Mac and Cheese, but it's nice to know this product has a good source of B12.

Nutritional yeast also is a good source of protein, and thus you get 13g of protein per serving of the mac & chreese, plus additional protein from your non-dairy milk. Traditional boxed mac & cheese has 10g of protein, plus whatever you have in the milk you combine.

Iron, calcium and fat are comparable, with the Road's End product having a slight edge on saturated fat.  There's also slightly less sodium in the Road's End product (380 mg vs. 580), and slightly more fiber (4g vs. 1g).

If you're concerned about food additives, the Road's End Organic might be also something you're more comfortable with.  It's certified organic, and the color and flavor come from annatto, garlic powder and mustard seed.   Unlike traditional boxed mac and cheese, there are no artificial colors.
 
So, if you've eliminated dairy, or are just cutting back, and craving the occasional mac and cheese, dinner, give this product a try!

Daiya Cheese Wedges and Home Yoga Practice

I've used daiya shredded cheese quite a bit in my previous cooking adventures, so I was super excited to when the daiya wedges came available at Whole Foods.  I decided to try both the jack and cheddar flavors.

My thoughts?  It's a mixed bag.  I was thinking I'd like this unmelted on crackers or in a sandwich, but I don't particularly care for it unless it's been warmed - something about the smell and the texture.  It's definitely closer to a velveeta than a block of monterey jack or mild cheddar.  I also had trouble using my cheese plane on it.  That said, it melts extremely well, and makes for a less messy vegan grilled cheese or a vegan open face toaster cheese sandwich (like the pumpernickel one I had for breakfast this morning).   But, I think I'll stick with the shreds in the future, though I will try the "jalapeno-garlic-havarti" wedge if I do eventually see it.

*

If you know me well in real life, you know that I'm passionate about regular yoga practice.  I've practiced at Tranquil Space in DC for about eight years.   While my practice was sporadic in the beginning, over the past few years it's become very regular, to the point where I find my self in the studio 4-5 days a week.  I completed the level one teacher training course in 2010, and I am seriously considering the level two teaching course for this fall, which would give me a yoga alliance certification to teach (!).  My work travel schedule can make a commitment like this challenging, so I'll have to think about it over the next few weeks, but I am hoping to make it work.

So what does my yoga practice have to do with this blog?  I can tell you that I sincerely believe that regular yoga is the reason I eat a vegan diet.  Part of it is likely from learning more about ethical vegetarianism, but I think it's more than that, really.  Yoga has taught me to stop and listen to the signals my body is sending me and to honor them.  Some people describe it as "mindful eating." This Yoga Journal article describes it more eloquently than I do:

"As you continue to practice yoga, an intuitive sense of what is right for your own body will emerge . . .Just as you'd modify a favorite recipe to fit your own tastes as you prepare it repeatedly, so you can adapt a food system to support your practice." 

Without yoga, I wouldn't be eating a plant based diet, and without a plant based diet, there'd likely be no blog.  SIo, you may see more posts that include some musings on my yoga practice, like today's.

After the aforementioned breakfast of pumpernickel vegan cheese melt with a side of raspberries, I had a strong desire to do a home yoga practice.  Part of my dilemma with home practice is my tendency to criticize myself.  Am I doing this "right?"  Is this sequence "right?"  So, in addition to home practice being a practice of asana for me, it's also a practice of self-compassion.  Today, I just got on the mat, cranked up my playlist, and went for it. I didn't plan what I was going to work on in advance, and the only thing I made sure to keep track of was that I was giving the same amount of attention to both sides of my body.

And, boy, did I have fun, and worked up a good sweat!  My favorite moment was doing a transition from half moon to reverse half moon - wild!

What really makes home practice click for me is a carefully curated playlist.  Similar to the playlists at the studio, I run mine for about 75 minutes in a "bell curve" - slower, mellower songs in the beginning, with more energetic songs in the middle, and then mellowing out again at the end.  At home, I do tend to practice to some louder and crazier songs than I hear in the studio.

I'm particularly pleased with the playlist I used for today's practice, so I thought I'd share that with you all for your home listening pleasure, and perhaps your own home yoga practice!

Lavash with Mushrooms, Tomato and Arugula

While it is never a good idea to go to the grocery store when you are tired and hungry, sometimes good things can happen in such a situation.

After a long week at work and a weekend trip ahead, I was looking forward to a lazy Friday night at home with minimal cooking.  Our local market has a decent selection of to go stuff, as well as a number of vegan friendly frozen foods, so I figured it would be easy to find something quick.

Well, I don't know if the selection was off tonight or I was just feeling feisty after a long week of commuting and metro red line woe, but I wasn't feeling anything.  I found myself wandering around the aisles, checking ingredients and muttering to myself.  At one point, I stood in front of the decently large selection of frozen pizzas and said (hopefully to myself, though it might have been out loud) "Why are none of you vegan?"

At which point it dawned on me - make your own damn vegan pizza!  I realize that this isn't exactly a huge triumph of modern thought, but it was better than me staring dumbly at the freezer case wondering "But, where is the me food for the eatings?"

Ah, but where to begin?  We had already explored the premade pizza crusts on sale at the market, and they were off limits to me allergywise because they included soy ingredients.  Although I'm more than capable, I had no desire to make my own pizza dough.

The answer?  Lavash!  If you're not familiar with it, lavash is a soft, chewy flat bread.  It's more substantial than a pita, and thus makes a nice base for a flatbread or pizza.  The ones I bought tonight were whole wheat and made at a Beltsville company called Middle East Bakery, Inc.  The lavash was vegan and, more importantly for me, didn't contain soy.

To prepare the lavash, I used our pizza crisper, which helps the bottom cook as evenly as the top.  Then, I topped the lavash with red onion, mushrooms, garlic, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella daiya and arugula, but feel free to mix and match the toppings!  Broccoli, kale, peppers and/or eggplant might all be fun toppings to try.

Re-energized by this super easy and satisfying dinner, I actually wrote a recipe out for you:

 Lavash with Mushrooms, Tomato and Arugula
 Serves One (easily doubled or tripled)

One slice of whole wheat lavash
1/3 of a red onion, sliced into crescents (cut rings, then cut rings in half)
3 button mushrooms, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil (feel free to use more or less, but keep in mind that more adds some nice moistness to the crust) plus more for brushing & drizzling
3-4 large cherry tomatoes, sliced
1/4 cup Daiya mozzarella cheese (add more to make it "cheesier," - feel free to use soy cheese or regular cheese if you're a lacto-ovo vegetarian)
1 cup of arugula
Sea salt
Black pepper
Italian seasoning blend

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place lavash on a pizza crisper and set aside.

While oven is warming, saute onions and mushrooms in olive oil on high heat.  Season with salt and black pepper to taste.  Cook for five minutes, until mushrooms soften and onions become translucent.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, one to two minutes.  Season to taste with Italian Seasoning. 

Spread the mushroom and onion mixture on the lavash, leaving a "crust" around the sides.  Layer on sliced tomatoes and sprinkle Daiya on top.

Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until cheese is melted.  Remove from oven and top with arugula.  Drizzle arugula with olive oil and return to oven for 3-4 minutes, until arugula is slightly wilted.

Serve and enjoy!

The Green Frankenburger

Burger more green in person than in picture.  :)

There are food bloggers out there with fail safe recipes and gorgeous photography.  And then there's me - someone who loves cooking, isn't afraid to experiment and sometimes turns out something slightly bizarre and isn't afraid to admit it.  Tonight was definitely more Lucille Ball than Julia Child.

Some of my more fun posts to write are when I have a kitchen debacle, such as my Passover cake drama.  Tonight, I decided to try and wing my own black bean burgers.  Now, I have made black bean burgers before using Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Cookbook recipe several times, so I thought I'd be ok winging it.

As many of you know, I love kale and have been enjoying making kale chips. I usually put a bit of kale in my version of Tosca's recipe.  Tonight, I thought it would be a good idea to put in, oh, five giant leaves.

It all started off well and good - I put the kale, some red onion and two garlic gloves in my food processor.  A lovely green juice aroma came out.  A pesto like substance emerged.  So far, not so bad. 

I added oats, sunflower seeds and carrots, measuring as I went, thinking to myself, "This will be a great recipe!  I will put it on my blog with actual measurements!"  And then I noticed the mixture was bright green.

"I just need to add the beans," said I.  So I did.  The mixture, at that point, became greenish gray.

"Screw the measuring," I sad, and I added in more oats, more beans and some nutritional yeast until the burgers became . . . somewhat less greenish gray.  At that point, I decided I had put so much food into them that I had to eat them, no matter what awful color they were.  So, I seasoned the mess with salt, pepper and cumin, formed them into six patties and popped the thing in the oven for 25 minutes and hoped for the best.

My intention was to serve this with a baked sweet potato.  However, when I went to prepare my sweet potato, it was . . . slightly mutated and looking dangerously inedible.  While I was willing to try the Green Frankenburger, I wasn't sure I was willing to risk this sweet potato.  So, I rummaged through the fridge for side replacement and ended up with some leftover corn kernels and scallions.  So, I heated them up in a pan with some olive oil, tomato paste concentrate and salt and pepper.  

With five minutes to go with the frankenburgers, I decided to take pity on myself and cover them with cheddar daiya, hoping it would make them more attractive.

The result of the actual food - not that bad.  They could have been a little firmer.  And while the color was definitely weird, I didn't mind the flavor.  I may try and disguise the leftover patties in something else this week.

The result of the cooking itself - I had a good laugh.  Life isn't perfect - why should your kitchen be?  I had fun, I tried something new and nothing caught fire.

While I may not make the Frankenburger again, I'm glad I made it.  Not only did I get my green veggies for the day (and perhaps the week), but I got a reminder of what cooking for me really is, and that's fun.

So, if you want to try cooking, but are intimidated, let this blog be an inspiration to you.  Sometimes even good cooks (and I consider myself a good cook, and so does my mother) have strange things happen in the kitchen.  Cooking is an art, but it's also a learning process, a way to enjoy time with family and friends and a way to discover what you need to nourish yourself.  Most of all, it should be fun. 

What fun have you had in the kitchen lately?

Vegan Black Bean Quesadillas and Kale Chips

Yesterday, I cooked up a large batch of black beans to use for this week's meals.  Tonight, I used some in my vegan quesadillas.

To make the filling, I cut 1/2 a red onion and one yellow pepper into strips.  I sauteed them on high heat until they were soft and slightly browned, a little over five minutes.  I then stirred in the black beans and some minced garlic, and generously seasoned the mix with cumin, salt, pepper and fresh cilantro.  Once the mix was heated through, I removed it from the heat and stirred in a few handfuls of baby spinach.

To cook the quesadillas, I used my griddler.  The griddler is essentially a combination of an electric grill pan and an electric griddle.  Using the panini setting on high gave me grill marks on both sides.  Before I put the top layer of tortilla on, I added cheddar and mozzarella daiya.  I then let the quesadilla cook until brown grill marks appeared on top and the quesadilla was flat.

While the quesadillas were cooking, I made a quick salsa with heirloom grape tomatoes, minced red onion, fresh cilantro and lime juice.

I  also made my own kale chips, using this recipe as a guide for prep and cooking time (300 degrees, 20 minutes).  I decided to amp up the seasoning by adding minced onion instead of salt and pepper.  I think I added a little too much olive oil, but the seasoning mix was spot on.

The quesadillas were very filling.  Granted I overstuffed the second batch, which is what I had for dinner tonight.  I ended up eating three of the four slices.  The first one was a little flatter, and that's likely what I'll eat for lunch tomorrow.

Sunday Night Dinner: Stuffed Peppers

Awhile back, I mentioned that I was looking forward to making stuffed peppers, and I finally got around to it this evening.  After researching a few recipes, I decided to wing it.

There's a number of variations you can do with stuffed peppers.  You can serve them cut in half, with each side of the pepper forming a little bowl, or you can take the top off and stuff the entire pepper.  Either way, you will want to make sure you scrape out the seeds and the inner white parts.  For this recipe, I elected to cut the peppers in half, figuring that it would be easier to store and transport the leftovers for lunch.  I seasoned the insides of the peppers with salt & pepper and put them in a baking dish coated with cooking spray.

For the stuffing, I sauteed red onions and mushrooms, seasoning them with salt and pepper, and let it go until the onions were translucent and the mushrooms were soft.  I then added sliced grape tomatoes, a can of cannellini beans, and four cloves of minced garlic.  When the garlic was fragrant, I stirred in some leftover bulgur and some rough chopped arugula, and seasoned everything with Italian seasoning.  I then took the filling off the heat and stirred in some mozzarella daiya.  Once the daiya melted into the filling, I stuffed the six pepper halves and then topped them with more daiya.

I covered the dish with foil and put it in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes.  When there were 10 minutes to go, I removed the foil to let the tops get a little crispy.

Peppers, mid-assembly proces

I can see many variations on this dish, using the formula of something with a meaty texture, a grain, beans, something to add creaminess, additional veg, and a green veg.  Here are some ingredients you can use in various combinations for your own stuffed peppers:

Meaty Texture: mushrooms, vegan sausage, vegetarian grounds
Grain: bulgur, quinoa, brown rice, couscous
Beans: black beans, pinto beans, chickpeas, kidney beans
Creaminess: daiya or other cheese alternative (vegan), boccatini, cotija, feta (lacto-ovo)
Additional Veg: zucchini, corn, onions, garlic, tomatoes
Green Veg: spinach, arugula, kale, swiss chard

My peppers tonight have more of a Mediterranean vibe  I can see a delicious Mexican version with onions, vegan chorizo sausage, quinoa, black beans, cheddar daiya or cotija, corn and spinach, seasoned with cumin, garlic and cilantro, perhaps drizzled with some tomatillo salsa.  You don't necessarily need to use a meat substitute or beans or a cheesy element - feel free to add or subtract any ingredients that you'd like!

Vegan Eggplant Rollatini with Daiya Cheese

I can't recall exactly what brought about my craving for eggplant rollatini this week, but I decided to indulge myself and give making it a shot.  I also decided I'd try and do a vegan version.

Eggplant rollatini involves taking thinly sliced eggplant, frying it, stuffing it and baking it in sauce.  Since I've never made it myself before I consulted two recipes to get a sense of the techniques involved.

I used my mandoline to slice the eggplant.  The advantage of using the mandoline is that you get uniform pieces and the slicing goes very quickly.  I then salted the slices and let them drain on paper towels.

I then set out to make my sauce.  I chopped a medium size yellow onion and a large handful of sliced cremini mushrooms, seasoned them with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper and sauteed them in olive oil.  I then added five cloves of minced garlic.  Since there were some brown bits on the bottom of my saucepan, I deglazed it with a bit of wine.  I then chopped up 10 roma tomatoes and added them to the pot, along with some very generous sprinkles of Italian seasoning.  When it came to a vigorous bubble, I turned the heat down and let it simmer.

I then dried off my eggplant and prepared to fry it.  Sometimes, eggplant rotini is breaded, but I didn't like how my test breaded piece came out.  So, instead, I just pan fried the eggplant plain.  I used some olive oil in the pan, but also spritzed the eggplant pieces with olive oil cooking spray.

Once the eggplant pieces were done frying, I set them aside and began work on my filling.  I had some leftover kale from earlier this week, so I sauteed that with some garlic.  Once that was done cooking, I used tongs to put a small heap on the edge of the eggplant, and topped the heap with daiya mozzarella and fresh thyme and parsley.  

I then rolled the eggplant into tight little packages and put them in a square glass baking dish.  I had a little kale & garlic left over, so I sprinkled that, along with the leftover herbs, on top.  Then, I covered the eggplant rolls with sauce and a generous sprinkle of daiya.  

I let the whole thing bake for just under 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven, the point at which the cheese had melted and the sauce was bubbling.  It was a little hard to get out of the pan - in hindsight, I probably should have used toothpicks and let it sit longer, or perhaps made a chunkier sauce or let it cook longer so it was less wet.  But, the flavors were nice and it was a filling dinner, so I am counting this experiment as a success.

 

Stuffed Pattypan Squash, Brought To You By Multiple Cousins

Last weekend, when my cousin Rachel came over with her culinarily adventurous 14-month old daughter, she also came bearing some squash from my cousins Greg and Susan.  One of the squashes was a Pattypan Squash, a white, salad plate sized gourd with scalloped edges.  While I was researching them on the internet, I realized I had seen their smaller squash cousins at Whole Foods in their mixed baby vegetable pack.

The Monday after dropping off the squash, Rachel emailed me a New York Times recipe for Pattypan Squash Stuffed with Corn.  I decided to make it today's lunch, but as a vegan meal rather than a vegetarian one.

I was a little nervous about being able to cut the squash in half.  I'm still reeling from an incident with a butternut squash a few years ago that ruined an entire (cheap) set of knives.  But, my good chefs knife slid right through the patty pan.  A good reminder - if you're going to have one good kitchen implement, get a really good knife!

The same good knife also made chopping the onion and the inside of the squash a breeze.  The sharper the knife, the more precise your dice will be.  To get the corn off of the ear, I used our corn stripper.  Before we got the corn stripper, I used a large knife to remove corn kernels, but it was always a bit unsteady and I was always a little worried about cutting myself.  The corn stripper is a lot easier to handle and also keeps the corn contained in a little container, so it's also less messy.

Whole Pattypan Squash

The good knife also came in handy when chopping the cilantro.  A nice tip for chopping cilantro or parsley if you don't want a lot of stem in your food: Hold the herbs upright in one hand.  With the other hand, slide your fingers down the stem.  The leaves should easily slide off and be ready for chopping.

The recipe called for gruyere or swiss, as well as egg and milk to make a custard.  Instead of the gruyere, I used mozzarella daiya.  After filling the squash halves, I poured a little bit of vegetable broth over the top.

I was so happy with the results.  I usually prefer white corn, but accidentally picking up yellow corn was a bonus.  The bright yellow kernels were a nice contrast for the pale interior of the squash.  The vegetable broth soaked into squash flesh, which gave it an added flavor dimension.  Husband came in from some errand running at the end of my meal, had a few bites and pronounced it "hearty and well seasoned."  So, look for more stuffed squash recipes on the blog soon!

So, thank you, Greg and Susan, for supplying the ingredient for this delicious meal, and thank you Rachel, for bringing it to our house and providing a recipe!

Adventures in Random Vegetables: Cherry Bomb Peppers

After practicing yoga very regularly the last several years, I've noticed I'll often get odd ideas in the middle of a particularly vigorous class.  Granted, one of these weird ideas was "I don't want to eat meat anymore," and clearly, that's worked out well for me.

Tonight, after a particularly creative warrior sequence, I got fixated on the following idea - "I want to cook with a vegetable I've never eaten before."  Given that I'm an adventurous eater, this was no small challenge. 

However, the Safeway next door to my yoga studio actually has a nice produce section with a variety of more exotic items - rambutans, dragon fruit, quince, etc.  Given the bevy of fruits available, I was confident I'd find a vegetable that would suit tonight's yoga induced craving.

Cherry Bomb Peppers

I decided to go with Cherry Bomb Peppers, which, coincidentally, were featured on a rerun of Chopped I watched this weekend.   I wasn't sure offhand how hot they were, so I only grabbed two.

After I, along with a platform full of red line refugees, was abandoned by an impatient metro driver who shut the doors before all the passengers could even get off the train and left with a TWENTY minute wait for a train (yoga only gives me so much beatific patience - I. WAS. MAD.), I had time to do a little culinary research on the Cherry Bomb before I got home and got cooking. 

For those of you unfamiliar with Scoville Units, it's a measurement of how much capascin is in a pepper.  Capascin is the chemical that gives peppers their "heat."  The higher the amount of capascin, the more heat a pepper has.  According to this chart, a Cherry Bomb has 2,000 Scoville Units, which puts it solidly ahead of a bell pepper (10 units), but still less spicy than other familiar peppers such as Jalapenos (4,000), Serranos (8,000) and Habaneros (200,000).  Since I regularly use Serranos in my guac, I had better sense of the heat I could expect from the Cherry Bombs.

Anyhow, I decided to finely dice my Cherry Bombs with my Oxo chopper.  I didn't get them as small as I'd like, but had I been less hungry and cranky from my metro debacle, I  would have worked at them a little more.  I then put some minced yellow onion in olive oil and let that cook up, and then added the peppers, shredded kale and black beans.  I seasoned the mixture with a healthy amount of cumin and oregano.  We put it on top of brown rice that my husband made in the rice maker while I was stuck waiting in tunnel and hungry (yes, still bitter two hours later), and I put some mozzarella daiya on mine to balance out the heat a bit.

Husband was a big fan - he finished his meal before I even got halfway through mine, and I'm usually the faster eater.  I liked it also but I think it would have been improved with more of a "sauce."  I was hoping to use some vegetable broth to make one, but our carton in the fridge smelled off, so I didn't use it.

As for the heat, it was satisfying, but not overwhelming.  My lips are still a little tingly a few hours later.  If you like hotter salsas or spicy guac, you'll enjoy cooking with Cherry Bombs.

Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes with Chickpeas

I, along with the fiance, am a big fan of eggplant.  In addition to having a good amount of fiber, minerals and vitamins, it also is incredibly versatile and lends itself particularly well to filling vegetarian dishes.

A nice way to prepare eggplant is to roast it - it can give the flesh a nice creamy texture.  Tonight, I tossed a whole cubed eggplant (unpeeled, but peel if you wish) with two handfuls of quartered grape tomatoes with three tablespoons of olive oil.  After I spread the mixture on a baking sheet, I sprinkled it with 3/4 of a tablespoon of za'atar, and then a few pinches of freshly ground pepper and kosher salt.  I let it roast in a 450 degree oven for about thirty five minutes.

When there was about ten minutes to go, I minced half a bulb of garlic and sauteed it in more olive oil, and stirred in some leftover chickpeas and roughly chopped baby spinach.  I then tossed in the roasted eggplant and tomatoes.  After turning off the heat, I stirred in a generous handful of chopped fresh parsley.

I did add a touch of mozzarella daiya to my first serving, but I also had a second scoopful without the daiya that was also delicious.  And if you prefer real cheese, a smoked mozzarella might be quite nice with this.

Vegan Comfort Food: Grilled "Cheese"

I loved grilled cheese as a kid, and that love affair continued well into my teenage years and adulthood.  Grilled cheese was a great high school kids on a suburban rampage, 3:00 a.m. Jersey diner meal, and also a nice, quick thing to make when I was tired, cranky or otherwise wanted to feel like less of an adult.

And sometimes, I just crave it.  Tonight was one of those nights.  While attempting peacock pose in tonight's yoga class (and by attempting, I mean getting one foot off the floor, whacking my forehead on my mat and falling over), I kept having the same thought - "You know, I really want grilled cheese for dinner."

I decided this might be a great opportunity to give yet another one of my childhood favorites a vegan, whole grain make-over.  I started with seven grain bread from a local bread company, Spring Mill Bakery.   The bread has a great texture, and a touch of sweetness from honey. All of their breads are made with whole grains, and have no preservatives or high fructose corn syrup.  Locals, you can pick up this bread from seven area locations, and perhaps even at a local store.  Ours came from Grosvenor Market.

To get the nice, crispy browning effect that is the hallmark of truly excellent grilled cheese, I spread both slices of bread with soy-free Earth Balance, a vegan butter substitute.  The Earth Balance website notes a number of nutritional advantages in comparison to butter or margarine, namely a good amount of Omega-3 fatty acids and no trans fats.  If you want to try Earth Balance and don't care about whether it has soy or not, you can get it at pretty much any supermarket.  However, if, like me, you are soy allergic or severely soy intolerant, your best bet is Whole Foods, which carries multiple types of the spreads.

For the cheese, I used cheddar style daiya.  You've heard me wax rhapsodic about daiya before, but, to recap, it's a vegan cheese alternative with no soy ingredients, and it's also free of lactose and casein, which more and more folks are realizing they have sensitivities to.  It has a "meltyness" that most vegan cheeses lack, and meltyness is another crucial element of a yummy grilled cheese.  Since it comes in shredded form and melts more slowly than traditional cheese, you need a little more dexterity during the flipping process than you might with a traditional grilled cheese.  Daiya is available at Whole Foods and MOM's in the DC area, and also at Wegmans, Kroger, Giant Eagle and a host of other natural and traditional supermarkets.

A traditional side to a grilled cheese is either french fries or potato chips, but, since this is a healthy make-over as well as a vegan one, I paired mine with fresh cherry tomatoes and Brad's Raw Kale Chips in the Vampire Killer flavor.  A serving of kale chips provides 140% of your Vitamin A, as well as five grams of fiber, and only 0.5 grams of saturated fat.  Beats potato chips any day!

The result?  Same great grilled cheese flavor and crunchy/cheesy texture, but without any animal products, and filling in a satisfying, rather than heavy way.

Choosing My Plate: Veggie Loaf with a Side of Mushrooms and Spinach

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know I was super excited about today's USDA announcement of Choose My Plate, especially about the recommendation to make half your plate fruits and vegetables.  Even before I was a vegetarian, I tended to have a ton of fruits and veggies with every meal, and, now that I've given up most animal products, I'm eating more produce than ever before.

So, I kept Choose My Plate in mind with tonight's meal - half a plate of veggies, 1/4 protein and 1/4 grains.

I decided to try The Field Roast Meat Company's Classic Meatloaf.  The "Meatloaf" is made from a variety of veggies - carrots, celery, onions, tomatoes, garlic, etc., along with some whole greans and soy-free, vegan friendly protein. To prepare the "Meatloaf," you put it on a baking sheet, baste it with ketchup and let it cook in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.  When it's done, slice and serve (and douse with more ketchup - it definitely needed a little more moisture).

For my veggie half, I sauteed red onions and portabello mushrooms in olive oil, then stirred in fresh baby spinach and fresh chopped chives.  I topped the veggies with toasted pine nuts and mozzarella style daiya.  Loved how the veggie mixture came out!  I am usually impatient with cooking mushrooms but I let these go until they really had cooked through, and it was worth the wait.  The pine nuts added a nice crunchy texture to the dish as well.

Vegan Comfort Food: Loaded Baked Potato

When I was a kid, we used go to the Cherry Hill Mall Food Court for dinner.  The Food Court had all sorts of delights for an elementary school aged child  - Bain's Deli, Taco Bell, Haagen Dazs, etc.  But, my ultimate favorite was the Potato Pub, where you could get a ginormous baked potato stuffed with pretty much anything.  My favorite was "The Big Cheese."  The Big Cheese was a potato about the size of my ten year old head, a cup of butter and likely a pound of cheese.

I've been making a healthier version of "The Big Cheese" for years now - cutting down drastically on the butter and cheese and adding veggies, either spinach or broccoli.  It's a great dinner option if you want something hearty, but don't want to engage in active cooking time.  Tonight, I decided to see if I could successfully make my already healthier remake as a vegan version.

Yes, this really and truly is vegan!

First, you need to bake your potato. I use a russet potato - it hold up better to the stuffing to come.  I microwave mine.  You can bake it in the oven if you so desire, but it takes 9-10 minutes in the microwave versus, say, half an hour or so in the oven.  Just make sure you stab the potato all over with a fork so that steam can escape.

Carefully remove the potato from the oven and cut it open with a knife.  Fluff the baked part of the potato with a fork.  I added a little bit of Soy-Free Earth Balance.  You can use a bit of butter (if you're not going vegan), or a touch of olive oil, or omit this step.  However, a little bit of Earth Balance or butter/oil will help keep the potato moist.

Next, top with your veggie of choice.  My go to is broccoli.  I usually go with a chopped fresh broccoli, but we already had a mess of steamed broccoli in the fridge, so I used that. But, feel free to use any veggie that suits your fancy! I then topped the whole thing with two kinds of Daiya - cheddar style and mozzarella style.  You can use regular cheese or another vegan cheese alternative, but Daiya does melt quite nicely.

I am giving a thumbs up to the vegan version - it has the same deliciousness as the non-vegan version, but without the heaviness of the dairy.

If you are skeptical that a potato can be good for you, keep in mind that how a potato is prepared is what makes it healthy or unhealthy.  Think about it - what makes french fries and potato chips unhealthy is the oil they're cooked in, rather than the starting product.   Using a large potato like the one I used for this main course dish meant 278 calories.  Figure the other elements added another 150-200 and it's still very reasonable for a main course dinner.  Plus, I got 7 grams of fiber (and even more from the broccoli and Daiya) ,7 grams of protein and a healthy dose of Vitamin C and Iron.  Yes, I eat the entire skin - you should too!  No matter how you're preparing your potato - roasting, baking, etc., keep that skin on to up the fiber count and keep those nutrients in your food.

Busy Week? Make a Dinner That Stretches

It's been a busy few weeks for me and it will only get busier.  Now that I'm back from my office's annual convention, I find myself in the final gauntlet (read: less than two months to go) of preparing for our wedding.  So, between random wedding tasks, work and yoga, I find myself with limited time in the evenings to cook.

Stretch Meal #1 - Beans & Veggies Over Brown Rice Blend.

In times like these, I need to balance my desire for nutritious, sustaining meals with some sense of variety with the desire to have said meal at hand quickly.  The best way I've found to accomplish all of this is a Stretch Meal.

What's a Stretch Meal, you may ask?  It's a series of meals that uses essentially the same ingredients, but takes on different forms.  One of the best ways I've found to do this is to make several servings of a bean and veggie mixture that can be repurposed in different formats.


I started my Stretch Meal on Monday by sauteing shallots, two yellow peppers (cut in very narrow strips), a cup or so of chopped mushrooms and several handfuls of spinach in olive oil, and stirring in a can of black beans.  I seasoned it with ground black pepper and oregano.  In hindsight, I should have added some cumin. 

I also had some Lundberg Jubilee Wild Rice going in the rice cooker.  This particular rice blend is a blend of Wehani, Black Japonica, short and medium grain red rice, short and long grain brown rice and sweet brown rice.  I find it has a more interesting flavor and texture than plain brown rice.

Once the rice and veggies were done, I plated about 1/3 of the veggie mix on top of the rice, and added some cheddar style Daiya for good measure.

Stretch Meal #2 - Black Bean and Veggie Burrito

Tonight, I used another 1/3 of the veg mixture to make a bean burrito.  I wrapped all the veggie goodness in a flour tortilla with (you guessed it!) more cheddar style daiya, and let it heat up in the microwave in two minutes.  Add in a side of steamed cauliflower and broccoli and my dinner was in front of me in five minutes.

I still have enough veg mixture left over for one more meal - I could do a spinach salad with it, make a quesadilla, or mix it with wholegrain pasta and tomatoes for a Southwestern style pasta dish.

Linguini with Eggplant, Tomato and Vegan Sausage

Ever on the lookout for soy free meat replacements, I was happy to stumble upon Field Roast Grain Meat Company's products in Whole Foods.  Field Roast takes Seitan and seasons it with European style flavors to make sausages, meatloaf, roasts, cutlets and other meat-style products, all vegan and soy free!

I picked up two flavors of the sausage on my latest shopping trip - the Italian flavor and the Smoked Apple Sage flavor. For tonight's concoction, I decided to cut two Italian sausages into half round slices.  I sauteed the sausage pieces in olive oil until they were browned, then set them aside.  Then, in the same pan, I sauteed shallots and cubed eggplant in more olive oil, then added fresh garlic, two cubed fresh tomatoes and a handful of halved grape tomatoes, freshly ground pepper and two large handfuls of fresh baby spinach.  While the sauce was still coming together, I stirred in linguine to finish.

The fiance was willing to try vegan sausage after smelling it cooking, but he drew the line at vegan cheese.  So, I topped mine with mozzarella daiya, and he topped his with freshly grated parmesan.

Quorn with quinoa, arugula, and tomatoes

I've mentioned Quorn before as a meat substitute.  It comes in a variety of forms - patties, grounds, tenders, etc.

Quorn is primarily mycoprotein.  According to the Quorn website:

Mycoprotein is the main ingredient in all Quorn products. It's made from a member of the fungi family, which includes mushrooms and truffles, and is a high-quality meat-free protein that's naturally low in fat with very few calories. Mycoprotein also is high in dietary fibre, which is important for your digestive system, and has the essential amino acids your body needs, with no cholesterol or trans fats. 

There are egg whites in quorn, so it's not vegan.  But it is meat-free, so if you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian like me, I encourage you to check it out. It's also soy free, which means I can eat it without having an allergic reaction.  And, with 10 grams of protein per serving, you're getting 20% of your DV on a 2,000 calorie diet.  

Tonight, I threw together a super quick meal using the Chick'n Tenders.  I sauteed the tenders in olive oil, and gradually added chopped onion, tomato chunks, pre-cooked quinoa and arugula.  I seasoned it with cumin, garlic powder and freshly ground pepper, and stirred in some mozzarella style Daiya.  The tenders are spongier than chicken, but it's a texture I prefer to actual chicken.