Is it spring yet?

I thought spring had arrived here in Vancouver once the cherry trees began blossoming. Then things took a turn for the chilly and everything stopped. Minnesota is warmer than it is here this weekend! So it is no surprise that I have gravitated towards hearty grain dishes and baked pastas.

I made manacotti stuffed with tofu ricotta (just some lemon juice, crumbled tofu, a little sugar, lots of basil, some oregano, and salt) and tempeh sausage crumbles. The top is covered in cheap jarred pasta sauce and the last of a $7 block of Vegan Gourmet mozzarella. This dish is great to pull together in an unfamiliar kitchen because it is pretty much just boil, stuff and bake. The asparagus is the only clue that it is becoming spring, although I am sure it was imported from California.

I also made spaghetti and beanballs from Veganomicon. This complimented my laziness and spring cold snap carb cravings perfectly. I love these bean balls because they are so filling and chewy. These are served up with some carrots and broccoli covered in Spike seasoning.

These are the cheesy zucchini calzones that are based on the recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. The filling is a tofu ricotta (different from the one I usually throw together for several reasons, the main one being it includes nutmeg), and sauteed zucchini. Although every other calzone I have made has the sauce baked inside, I decided to try the method of leaving it out. I never like how soggy the sauce makes the calzones after they sit for a while. This method was nice as the filling stood its own and the dough remained dry yet soft. Next time I may add a little sauce to the filling and serve some on the side.

From the Complete Vegan Cookbook, this is the bulgar and red lentils with kale and olives. Don't look too hard for the olives, though because I left them out. This would have been an easy weeknight recipe, as everything just sort of simmers together for about half an hour. I liked how filling this dish is and am a little worried how much I am craving wheat these days. Whether it is kamut, bulgar, or just straight up white flour, it seems like all my comfort foods are full of wheat. I will have to experiment with some other chewy grains and hope that spring vegetables are ready soon!

Spinach Noodle Kugel

Since I first picked up Veganomicon, I've wanted to try the Spinach Noodle Kugel. Casseroles are such a comfort food, and I can't pass up a chance to celebrate spring with fresh dill. Since matzos were on sale last week for Passover, I thought it would be a good a time as any to try out kugel making.

I don't know much about kugels, but the (non-vegan) recipes I have seen for this dish include copious amounts of egg, milk, and egg noodles. It is always impressive when recipes like this can be veganized and still taste rich and creamy. Of course this recipe was another winner. I didn't have any ribbon style noodles, so I used orchiette instead. Although I normally don't use aseptic silken tofu, because it has a beany taste that overpowers most dishes (chocolate mousse, yuck). However I couldn't pick out its taste it in this casserole. It was probably overpowered by the dill. On the side are steamed carrots with an earth balance, lemon, dill sauce. I would definitely make this again, which is a good thing because I have so much matzo left.

Lots of Food

I haven't updated in forever for three reasons. 1.) I am super lazy 2.) I got a new computer, and I haven't figured out how to organize my photos yet 3.) My camera is officially broken, I dropped it while walking a dog over winter break, and it so photos are blurry and the batteries look like they are constantly trying to escape. I can't justify buying a new one until I decide I'm going to learn basic principles of photography. But spring is in the air, so maybe I will be more motivated. Plus I need a new camera for cherry blossom season, I think.

Over the last while I have made a lot of food. I'm going to unload some photos and describe very little. My new Canadian computer is somehow locked into French mode, and so some of the English punctuation buttons are not working very well.

Tofu with broccolini and soba noodles.

Tofu scramble with spinach and roasted red peppers

Tacos with Mexican Quinoa with Pepitas and Cilantro from the New Whole Grain Cookbook. Thanks Liz!

Avacado, scallion, cucumber, asparagus, carrot sushi

Sundried tomato, garlic, broccoli pasta with vegan gourmet cheese on a hot dog bun - I know, pretty classy.

Happy St. Patrick`s Day! These were the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I included the bottle in the picture, because I`m no beer connoisseur, but I thought it was cute to mention that I found Oatmeal Stout from Quebec.

I made Julie Hasson`s fabulous spicy veggie sausages, and used them in a variety of ways. In this dish they are sauteed with onions and bell peppers and served with broccoli and baguette.

Smokey tempeh with collards and quinoa tabouli.

This is seaweed soba soup with bran. The bran chunks were at this Asian mock meat store on Main, and I thought they would go well in soup. They soaked up the dashi nicely, and had a slight sour taste. I will probably cut them up a bit more next time I use them, but I really liked their chewiness and the texture they added to the soup.

Samosa stuffed baked potatoes from Veganomicon.

Millet polenta with spinach and sundried tomato pesto from Vegan with a Vengeance, and Cuban black beans, steamed asparagus, and a couple slices of Julie`s steamed spicy sausages.

Tofu with broccoli, cucumber, and scallions over soba noodles. The peanut sauce here was a quick mix of water, peanut butter, tamari, maple syrup, and sesame oil. It was so smooth and salty that I declare this to have been my favorite meal of the past month.

Orange tofu from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan with brown rice, scallions, carrots, and pea shoots.

I made a Latin themed brunch last weekend. Here is a plate of some of the dishes. There is chorizo, tofu ranchero, Cuban black beans, fried plantains, fresh fruit, guacamole, and a tortilla.

This is the veggie chorizo and Mexican Chocolate Rice Pudding from Vegan with a Vengeance.

Here are the Cuban black beans and tofu ranchero, and my friend Sharmin digging into the fried plantains.

I had a lot of kamut that I picked up on an impulse buy a few months ago, and decided to use it by making Dreena`s Kamut Bean Stew from Viva le Vegan. This stew is soooooo good. The kamut is nice and chewy, and Dreena`s herb combination (dill and coriander) is so inventive and delicious. I will be making this again every rainy day this spring.

This is the red and white bean jambalaya from Veganomicon, except I omitted the white beans and added more of Julie`s spicy sausage. So good.

These are hardshell tacos, something I haven`t had since I was last at Little T`s in Minneapolis. These are filled with refried beans, Spanish rice, cilantro, salsa, red onion, and Vegan Gourmet cheese.

This is Dreena`s Lemon Lentil Soup from Eat Drink and Be Vegan. I think that this soup should be renamed to reflect the complex flavour. When I first chose to make this soup, I thought it would be boring because of the name (although good, who doesn`t like lentils and lemons) but this soup is anything but boring.

Some dahl curry

Chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Au gratin potatoes and chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon

Gumbo from Veganomicon

Steamed BBQ pork buns. These are from Bryanna Clark Grogan`s Authentic Chinese Cuisine. They were a bit of extra work because the dough is yeasted and needs to rise. Also the seitan pork goes through two different processes before it becomes filling. However they steam up very quickly and taste amazing. I didn`t get any inside shots, but they were full of red miso goodness.

Artichoke spaghetti

Tofurky slices smothered in Joanne Stepaniak`s nacho cheeze sauce and toasted in a whole wheat tortilla.

Dreena`s chickpea patties from Eat Drink and Be Vegan. These are very different from Isa and Terry`s version. Dreena uses brown rice and capers, which make these softer patties have more of a zip.

That`s all for now, I will make sure to update more frequently so I don`t end up spending several hours finding pictures on my computer.

Enchiladas, Stir Fry, and Spinach soup

Last week I made the kale and potato enchiladas from Veganomicon, Szechuan "beef" and broccoli from Authentic Chinese Cuisine, and spinach soup from an old recipe I used to make in college. This weekend I made pizzas, but they all look the same after a while, so I didn't bother to take pictures.

The enchiladas were amazing. They were a little extra work, but making the sauce from scratch was one of the most gratifying culinary experiences I have had in my lazy kitchen. I was floored by how good these were and refreshed at how veggie-centric these were. Usually veggie enchilada recipes rely on soy cheese or fake meat crumbles to mimic the taste/texture of authentic enchiladas. This recipe shows just how easy it is to make authentic tasting enchiladas that are unabashedly vegan. The sauce is filling and bursting with flavor and the filling has a fresh taste due to just enough lime juice. I can't wait to make these again.

Then for Chinese New Year I made some Schezuan "beef" and broccoli from Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe. She does a fantastic job of mimicking the distinct flavors of Chinese cuisine while using a fraction of the fat. This recipe is fast and easy, but it was great for Thursday night. I was snowed in on campus Wednesday night (I work on top of a mountain, and it closed down) so I didn't get to make anything for New Year's Eve (the big meal). I just made this as a quick meal the next day. I went to the huge Lunar New Year parade in Chinatown on Sunday and was inspired to make Bryanna's BBQ pork dumplings, but I fell asleep after all the excitement and ended up making pancakes and tofu scramble for dinner. I'll have to learn about some other Chinese holidays so that I can make a huge feast. There is always dim sum.

On Friday I had a lot of spinach to use (can you tell I didn't menu plan at all this week) and so I resorted to one of my old fall back meals from college. It is lentil and spinach soup, a recipe from the international food section of some old blender cookbook that my ex's grandmother had. I have no idea what it was called. Interestingly enough, the country this recipe represented was Mexico, although I had no idea that Mexico is known for spinach, brown lentils, or lemon juice. The only thing remotely Mexican inspired is the touch of hot sauce added at the end, which I never added. However, this time I thought I would go ahead and add it because it wasn't really "authentic?" without it. The recipe is super simple - an onion, some garlic, a carrot, a pound of lentils, six cups of water, a bunch of spinach, and some hot sauce. It is all boiled together until the lentils are soft and then it is pureed in a blender (hence the inclusion in the Blender Cookbook). Very simple, but surprisingly satisfying.

This week I did meal plan. I felt that I hadn't given Dreena Burton's new cookbook, Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan enough of a chance as a lot of it seemed like stuff that I would choose to put together. It is true that Dreena relys on a lot of simple combinations, but there is still a lot of full flavor in the simplicity. I really enjoyed Vive le Vegan, and I really don't know why I haven't picked up her new one. This weekend, I decided I would put together a list of recipes from the book that I would like to try and then another list of those I might try (but can't now because ingredients are out of season or what not). This was actually pretty easy, making a list isn't that big of a commitment. Another nice thing is that Dreena lives in my area and even shops at the same grocery chain that I do, so I can really replicate the same products she uses and everything. This week is an entirely Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan week of dinners.

To start off, I made the black bean and orange hummus. I am choosing recipes that are totally unlike anything I would think to put together, just to show myself how stupid my line of reasoning concerning this book has been. The jury is still out on this one. Normally I am not a fan of sweet and savory, so I don't know why this sounded so interesting and appealing. The first few bites and my palette is like, yuck - almond butter and orange zest with garlic and cumin. But the third and fourth bites and so on are very good. I can see why she says in this recipe's intro that you could finish a whole batch once you start snacking. It definitely tastes better the more you eat it.

I also made the Lemony Lentil Chickpea Soup. The title makes it sound sort of boring. But it is really anything but. Dreena uses paprika, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, thyme, bay and oregano to really spice this soup up. I was very skeptical as I was making this and couldn't even bring myself to taste it until the very end. But I was pleasantly surprised. This soup was nothing like I expected and had a mellow spiciness to it. I will post pictures tomorrow (or this week at least, as long as I am not getting snowed in on any mountains.). Other recipes from the book I plan on trying include, Orange Sesame Tofu, Walnut Spinach Canellini phylo rolls, Chickpea patties and popcorn fries.

This week in food

I haven't been so busy, in fact I even got a snow day and a half this week. However, you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at my blog, or my menu for that matter. This week I had planned to make black bean and vegetable soup, Ethiopian stew, tater tot hot dish, and kale and potato enchiladas. I used a gift certificate for Greens and Gourmet on Monday, ate leftovers on Thursday, and had take out sushi on Friday. So I didn't really stick to my menu. I was equally unprepared for lunch at work and managed to scarf down Amy's non-dairy burritos.


This is the black bean and vegetable soup from Veganomicon. The beans are from a can, which I'm sure drastically changed the texture. To compensate, I used my hand blender to mush some of the beans and veggies halfway through cooking. I think I would use lime juice instead of white wine vinegar at the end, because I thought it tasted a little like olives after I added the vinegar. Also, I bought a bag of onions (normally I pick out onions individually) and could tell that they were past their prime when I started cooking with them. So that could have been a factor in the taste. I would also bet that if I had cooked the beans myself, they would have absorbed some of the strong vinegar taste. I have always loved beans, sometimes kidney beans taste like candies to me when I eat them out of the jar. But black bean soup has really been a final frontier on the bean front. I remember in college I would choose any other vegan soup over black bean soup. So it is nice to have a recipe that has gotten me over that final bean prejudice.


Talk about bad menu planning. My Friday dish, Hoppin' John, was turned into cajun chickpeas because, as you can guess, I did not have the black eyed peas. At my old apartment my pantry was totally stocked, and I must have mistaken seeing my jar of black eyed peas with some other legume. So instead of buying a can of them, I decided to just use some of the same ingredients to make cajun spiced chickpeas. I sauted onions, garlic, celery, bell pepper, and carrots along with bay, thyme, and hotsauce. I served it with roasted brussels sprouts. It's not something I would make again, but it sufficed and covered up my planning blunder.


To use the rest of the pizza dough I had after the Punjabi pizza last week, I made a cheezeburger pizza. It is pretty much just pizza sauce, tempeh sausage (loosely based on the recipe from Vegan with a Vengence, but I sort of alter the seasonings depending on my mood), and a quarter batch of rinotta.


The Berbere stew that Susan linked to on the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen last week looked too good to pass up. I quickly concocted the spice mix, and although I thought it would be too overpowering, it was actually very balanced and mellow in the context of the stew. I am sure the lentils and potatoes helped that by mellowing the flavor. It was really a fantastic, warming, filling stew and I can't wait to make it again.

I found out that Safeway has some really fresh and cheap organic produce. Were I still in Minnesota, I would be supporting my local co-op. Since Vancouver has a dearth of co-ops (I've only seen one and it was very small and had a very limited selection), I don't really feel bad about choosing Safeway over Choices or Capers (Whole Foods). Especially when I can get Earthbound Farms organic scallions for 50 cents a bunch or spinach for $1.69 a bunch...in January. I am amazed. Obviously I can't get everything I need from Safeway, but I think I may stop by there once a week. I also went to Veggie World, an vegetarian fake meat store on Main. I normally don't like to buy a lot of overly processed fake meat, but the mini sausages I picked up will make great appetizers. I also picked up some spinach noodles and dried wheat bran chunks. So this week, I am starting menu planning with a few ingredients I would like to incorporate into my meals. I will post the list tomorrow to keep myself motivated.

Pizza Bombay

This recipe is from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. It's called Pizza Bombay, and basically it is an Indian inspired pizza. It is like eating a curry on a crispy crust. The topping is sauteed onions, spinach, curry powder, and brown lentils. The crust is pre-baked for a few minutes before the topping is added to keep it from getting soggy. I served it up with some garam masala cauliflower, which was really tasty. I think I just put a head of chopped cauliflower in a pan with some water and tamari, added whole cumin and mustard seeds, garam masala and a little curry powder, red pepper flakes and a little salt. Then I heated it until the liquid was gone and the cauliflower was soft. I garnished it with some lemon juice and then sliced up that pizza.

Last night I also made oatmeal raisin cookies from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. These were made with spelt flour and were delicious. They had a strong vanilla flavor and a perfect balance of spices. I would have taken a picture, but they didn't even last that long. They were that good.

Tomorrow I plan on making Hoppin' John with a side of roasted brussels sprouts. Hopefully my collard greens have not gone limp in the fridge since Monday.

Udon soup

This udon soup recipe from Tofu 1-2-3 was fun to make and even more fun to eat. At first, I found it was a little bland, however the most important flavors were already present. It only needed to be tweaked a little to turn it into something satisfying.

The udon noodles I used in the soup are the kind that are sold in the frozen section at Asian grocery stores. They are much thicker and chewier than the kind that are sold dry and then boiled. Since there were three blocks of noodles sitting in my freezer getting freezer burned, this turned out to be a good use for them. The veggies in the soup included thinly sliced carrots, green onions, red bell pepper, and shitake mushrooms. The base of the soup was veggie broth, tamari, and ginger. I added cayenne pepper and nori strips to spice things up a little more. The soup is served over a bowl full of the udon. I ate it with chopsticks and edamame pods on the side and watched my favorite anime.