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Vegan Iron Chef Ty: a self imposed challenge

This challenge came about because the basil that I had intended to use for Thursday’s meal was dead in the fridge by Wednesday. Of course, if I had read the instructions on the hydroponic packaging first, I wouldn’t have put it in the fridge, but rather in a glass of water on the counter as suggested, but hindsight is 20/20. RECIPE AT THE END! : )

So… enter Thursday, the weekend approaching and produce that still needed using up. I decided a pasta dish was in order and this is what I had to work with…

I decided to bake the tofu in the 1/2 jar of marinara sauce I had left over. Since I found sprouted, pre-pressed tofu, I’ve been using it almost exclusively as a time saver. I simply cut it into squares, tossed them in the sauce and baked for 20 minutes.

I was out of garlic, so I used some shallots and red onions as my base for a from scratch sauce. I used a little red wine to deglaze the pot.

Here the fresh tomatoes go in with a bunch of spices…

I added some frozen, chopped spinach at the very end of the sauce. Just a few minutes to heat through, but so that it stays nice and bright.

And here is everyone in, and tossed around to thoroughly combine.

Angel Hair w/ Tofu, Spinach & Greenbeans

8 oz package of thin pasta of choice, cooked al dente according to instructions
1/2 lb of green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces, added to cooking pasta for last 6-7 minutes!

1/2 jar of marinara sauce
1 block of pressed tofu, firm or extra firm

Olive oil for misting pot
1 shallot, chopped finely
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
2 large tomatoes, chopped
Splash of red wine, optional (I used some cabernet)

1/2 tsp. of garlic powder (I was out of fresh!)
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. of thyme
pinch of rosemary
pinch of salt
fresh ground pepper
crushed red pepper for heat

~1 c. of crushed tomatoes
1-2 c. of chopped frozen spinach

Directions:

1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400*F. Pour half of jar sauce into a baking dish. (An 8×8 or glass pie dish works great!) Add tofu squares and cover with remaining sauce. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20-30 minutes. (I baked for 20 minutes and turned off the toaster oven, and just let it sit until I was ready.)

2. (Set your pasta water to boil!) Mist a medium pot with olive oil and raise to medium heat. Add shallots and onions, and cook for about 5 minutes, until golden and softened. (If you have some garlic, add a clove or two, minced here! I was out!) Pour in a splash of red wine if using, and let it cook off for a minute or two.

3. Add tomatoes and spices of your liking, and cover to simmer for 5 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes and simmer until pasta is almost ready. Mix in the frozen chopped spinach a few minutes before the pasta is done.

4. Add green beans to cooking pasta for last 6-7 minutes. Drain, return to pot, add sauce, and tofu and sauce and combine well. Top with nutritional yeast and/or vegan parm. Enjoy!

Result:

This was pretty good! Still got a nice, fresh tasting dish, even with some of the jar sauce mixed in. The baked tofu gave it a nice mozzarella type feel, and the green beans cooked up perfectly. Yum!

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Categories food pix, recipes

Appetite for Reduction’s Chili-Lime-Rubbed Tofu, Mashed Yuca & Kale Salad

24 Apr

Well, by the end of this past weekend I finally had unpacked and organized all of my remaining kitchen items. (A few things had to be returned to their owners or donated.) I made out a meal plan for the week, for what seemed like the first time in ages, and headed to the store. I’ve been favoring AFR lately in an attempt to make my cooking life a little simpler and leaner. And I even managed to make a couple of dishes from it in the midst of being half unpacked the last few weeks.

This ended up being 3 courses of mixed latin fusion inspired goodness.

The Kale salad was of my own invention to use up some ripe mango and avocado I got from my mother. I used kale because I’m addicted to it and crave it all the time, but I snuck in a little chiffonade of basil since I had just bought it and it smelled so good. It made for a very nice, fresh contrast. I added black beans and some super fresh corn to give it a sort of mexi vibe, and dressed it very lightly with lime juice, a tiny mist of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and some fresh ground smoked black pepper.

Mango, Avocado, Kale salad

1 bunch of kale, stems removed, ripped or chopped into tiny pieces
10 basil leaves, cut into chiffonade or chopped finely, optional
1 mango, small dice
1 avocado, small dice
1 can of black beans, well rinsed
1 tbsp. of red onion, chopped finely
fresh corn cut from one ear
lime juice, to taste
olive oil, optional
salt & pepper

I was going to try Isa’s suggested Mashed Yuca with Cilantro & Lime, but both stores I went to were curiously out of cilantro. I was already planning on buying the Goya frozen yuca instead of buying fresh, since that’s all I’ve ever seen my family use, and it was easier. That’s what’s in that pot there below on the right, 2 small bags worth. I had a little red onion left from the salad, so that’s the pink you’ll surely notice in my final result. I used this and 2 big cloves of garlic to make a quickie mojo, because I just can’t imagine eating yuca without it. So I’ll put my little version here as well. It sure tasted good. But honestly, just the yuca straight out of the salted water tasted amazing. I love yuca. I had never made it before. I did use Isa’s suggestion for reserving a cup of the cooking water to mash with.

So I made a double batch of the tofu, because Thomas is a tofu eating machine, and I wanted some leftovers to eat with the leftover salad for lunch the next day. (PS- I did, and they were extremely delicious together!) So that’s me putting fork holes in two bricks of sprouted, prepressed tofu. The only thing I didn’t double in the marinade was the oil. I stuck with just the 1 tsp. and I used less salt in the rub, and not quite double the chili powder.

In the marinade…

With their rub on…

Baked, flipped, baked some more & outta the oven…

Ty’s Mojo Infused Mashed Yuca

2 lbs of frozen yuca chunks (I used the Goya Brand), cooked according to package directions/taste. I like mine a bit “al dente” for lack of a better term. Yuca will get mushy, but for me the perfect texture is still firm on the inside.
1 c. of reserved cooking water
1 tbsp. finely chopped onion
2 large cloves of garlic, very thinly sliced
mist of olive oil
2 tbsp. lime juice, split

Directions:

1. In the last 5-10 minutes of yuca cooking, spray a small skillet with a little olive oil and lightly fry up onion and garlic. As it gets dryer, splash in 1 tbsp. of lime juice, and cook down.

2. Drain yuca and return to pot or to a large bowl you can mash it in. Remove the fibrous little strings in the centers of the chunks, preferably with a fork so you don’t burn your fingers. Add “mojo” mixture, additional lime juice and enough cooking water to get to your desired consistency. Mmm! This made a wonderful bed for the tofu.

Final Thoughts…

So if you’re really cool, you could knock this out in 30 minutes flat. If you make the salad while the other 2 cook. I’m not that cool, so it took me somewhere between 45-60 minutes so that I could include dancing and beer drinking too. If you haven’t checked out Appetite for Reduction, it’s worth checking out. The recipes are a lot simpler than let’s say the Veganomicon, but still packed with plenty of flavor and guiltier items too like corn bread and onion rings, etc. I like it so much I even bought the kindle edition with the intent of selling back or giving away my hard copy, but don’t think I will after all.

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Categories cookbook review, food pix, food tips, recipe testing, recipes

Veggie Potpie Soup

12 Mar

Since I was SO behind on posts, I’m going to pepper in a few cooking posts with the restaurant reviews from our recent travels. A few weeks ago I had Thomas pick out a few meals from Appetite for Reduction. Around the same time we also found a cheap bag of TSP (TVP chunks) at WF that we couldn’t resist buying. The two meetup in this adapted version of Isa‘s Veggie Potpie Stew from AFR. The TSP chunks taste even better the next day after soaking up all the flavors. Speaking of the next day, I added 3 cups of water to it on day 2 (it thickens up a lot!), along with half a bag of frozen, chopped spinach to give it a delicious little makeover as a second dinner. I served it with my drop biscuits for a warm, comforting, healthy dinner. Enjoy!

Veggie Potpie Soup

olive oil for misting

1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tsp. dried sage
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh ground pepper

1/2 c. split peas
6 c. filtered water + 2 bouillon cubes
1 c. TSP chunks, optional

3 small potatoes, cut into small pieces
1/2 lbs carrots, cut into 1/2″ chunks
3 small zucchini, chopped

1 tbsp. dried thyme
1 c. filtered water
1/4 c. flour
1 c. frozen peas

Directions:

1. Mist a 4-5 qt pot lightly with olive oil, add onions, and raise to low-medium heat. Cook until translucent. Add garlic, sage, salt & pepper, and cook another minute.

2. Add split peas, water and bouillon, and raise to a boil. After 5 minutes, add potatoes, carrots, zucchini, and TSP chunks (if using). Cover and simmer 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Whisk the flour into the cup of water, to dissolve it fully, and add it to the pot along with the last of the thyme and frozen peas. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 more minutes. It thickens up quite a bit, and even more so overnight.

(4. The next day I added 3 c. of filtered water & half a bag of frozen, chopped spinach.)

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Categories food pix, food tips, recipe review, recipes

Carrot Juice in the Vitamix Blender

1 Mar

I had been really wanting to try out a raw carrot cake recipe (post to follow) and needed to come up with either 2 cups of shredded carrots or carrot juice pulp. I decided I might as well go with the juice & pulp, since I’d have 2 things to show for my efforts. Since I was using a cheesecloth to strain, I worked in 2 batches. I was able to use some of the 1st batch of juice for the 2nd batch’s wetting agent, resulting in a total of 1 cup of added filtered water to the recipe, and nice potent juice. It took 2 pounds of carrots to get 2 cups of very dense, dry pulp. I had about 28? ounces of juice that I went on to use as a base to make a nice green juice.

Carrot Juice in the Vitamix

2 lbs carrots, scrubbed and cut into 1-2″ pieces
1 cup of filtered water

Directions:

1. Add half of the carrots and 1 cup of water to the vitamix. Slowly bring the blender up to full speed, using the tamper to push carrots down, as necessary. When fully blended strain using a cheesecloth over a sieve (as pictured) or with a nut milk bag.

2. Add remaining carrots to blender with 1 cup of carrot juice. Blend & strain. Enjoy!

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Categories food pix, recipes

Coconut Red Lentil & Split Pea Soup

23 Feb

I followed a link for roasted brussel sprouts the other day, and ended up finding this soup recipe on La Petite Maison Verte. As I read further, I found it amusing that the recipe had a history. She had found it on 101 Cookbooks, who was turned on to it by her neighbor, who had adapted it from a copy of the Esalon cookbook. And now I pass it onto you, as I have made it. ; ) I had about a cup of roasted onions, carrots, and steamed collards that I used instead of fresh carrots, and though I attempted toasting the curry powder, I’m not sure that it made much of a difference. It may make more of a difference if you’re actually toasting the whole spices and grinding them yourself, as they do in traditional Indian cooking, so I just left it as an option.

This one is definitely going in my permanent rotation. It made a lovely meal on one of our last “winter” cold snaps. The pictures aren’t the greatest, but it was really delicious!

Coconut Red Lentil & Split Pea Soup

1 c. green (or yellow) split peas, rinsed
1 c. red lentils, rinsed
7 c. water
1 piece of kombu

olive oil for misting
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped or sliced
3 tbsp. fresh peeled and minced ginger

2 tablespoons curry powder (optional: toasted by heating over low heat in a small skillet until fragrant)

olive oil for misting
4-5 green onions, thinly chopped cross-wise
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 14-ounce can [light] coconut milk
1-2 tsp. sea salt ( or low sodium soy sauce/shoyu/tamari or bragg’s, to taste )

1/2-1 c. fresh or frozen chopped greens, optional

Directions:

1. Place lentils, split peas, water and kombu in a large pot and set to boil. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet misted with olive oil, add onions and carrots and cook over low to medium heat until softened. When lentils and water boil (skim off any foam!), add onions, carrots and 2 tbsp. of the ginger. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

2. Mist the skillet you cooked the onions and carrots in with a little more olive oil (or you can use a thin layer of water), and set to medium. Add green onions, remaining tablespoon of ginger, and raisins. Cook for 2 0r 3 minutes, stirring frequently, and add tomato paste. Cook an additional 2 or 3 minutes.

3. After soup simmers for 30 minutes, add green onion mixture, curry powder, coconut milk, salt and greens, if using. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. At this point you can use an immersion blender, or pour it very carefully into a blender in batches to get a wonderful, smooth consistency.

Enjoy!

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Categories food pix, recipe testing, recipes

(Raw) Vegan Milkshakes

19 Feb

Today we had a classic lunch of burgers and shakes, just done a little different. The burgers were simple enough… Gardein patties on sprouted grain bread with ketchup, mustard, and pickle relish. For dessert, we had these luscious vanilla milkshakes. (I was out greens, so no green smoothies today!) The little flecks of flax seed are reminiscent of vanilla bean. You can make these raw by using raw nut milk! You can customize these however you like by adding fruit, raw cacao, peanut butter, etc.

(Raw) Vegan Milkshakes
2-4 servings

2 large ripe bananas, frozen
3 c. of non-dairy milk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. ground flax seed, optional
2 handfuls of ice cubes
pinch of cinnamon, optional
squirt of raw agave, optional

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Adjust ice, milk or agave if necessary.

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Categories food pix, recipes

Juice Pulp Crackers – mini batch trial

14 Feb

After my green juice experiment, I had about a half a cup of juice pulp left behind. It wasn’t much, but I thought it might be fun to try a mini batch of juice pulp crackers in my toaster oven. I used the same blog post Jenna did as a guide!

Juice Pulp Crackers – Mini batch

~1/2 c. juice pulp
2 tbsp. ground flax seed
1 tbsp. nutrtional yeast
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dehydrated minced onion
1/4 tsp. cumin
1 pinch of salt
1 grind of pepper
1 tsp. of water

Directions:

1. Turn toaster oven to warm or lowest heat setting. Put juice pulp in a medium sized bowl and add all other ingredients. Mix thoroughly with a fork, until completely combined.

2. Spread into one layer into a 8×8″ baking dish using a small rubber spatula to make it even.

3. Bake for 1 hour with toaster oven ajar. Carefully flip and bake for 20-30 more minutes, or until completely dry.

Result: These came out great! They reminded me of some kind of commercial veggie crackers I ate years ago. I ate some with avocado salsa, and plain. They were almost better plain because they were so flavorful, and even though avocado salsa makes everything amazing, it completely masked the taste.

These were also one more point for me buying a juicer & dehydrator. Though I’d just get a cheapy dehydrator, because the reviews on amazon don’t seem too bad for this model, and others have been recommending this guy for a juicer. Though, I’m thinking his half the price brother will do the job nicely. Thoughts? I have time to decide. I promised I wouldn’t buy more kitchen stuff until Seattle! (maybe!)

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Categories food pix, recipe testing, recipes

Raw Taquitos / Raw Taco Meat

13 Feb

I had seen raw tacos popping up all over the place lately ( here & here ) and decided to make my own attempt at nut/seed based raw taco meat. I used collard leaves to roll them up into cute little taquitos, but you can also use romaine leaves to eat these as raw tacos.

Raw Taquitos
3-4 servings

1 bunch of collard leaves, cut down the middle, rib removed

3/4 c. raw walnuts, soaked for 2+ hours and drained
1/4 c. raw pumpkin seeds, soaked for 2+ hours and drained

2 small carrots, cut into pieces
small shallot or about 1 tbsp. of finely chopped onion
2 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for 10 minutes and drained

1 tbsp. taco seasoning of your preference, mine is the one from VCF

1 recipe Avocado Salsa, below

Directions:

1. Pulse pumpkin seeds and walnuts in the food processor until you get small crumbles. Scrape out into medium bowl and set aside.

2. Pulse carrots, onion, and sundried tomatoes until finely chopped. And add along with taco seasonings to nut/seed mixture. Use a fork to mix until well combined.

3. Take one half of a collard leaf (inside up) and place about 2 tablespoons each of nut meat and avocado salsa, and roll tightly. (see pix below!)

Avocado Salsa

1 or 2 ripe haas avocado
2 tbsp. of lime juice
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped finely
2-3 tbsp. of finely chopped white onion
1 minced garlic clove
1 large handful of cilantro, chopped finely
1/4 c. of fresh or frozen corn kernels*, optional
salt & pepper, to taste
cayenne pepper or 1/2 a jalapeño, chopped finely, optional

Directions:

1. Scoop out avocado into a bowl. Add lime juice. Add all other ingredients, and mash to desired consistency. Eat fresh or chill in the fridge to let flavors combine further.

*If using frozen corn kernals, just run them under some warm water in a fine mesh sieve before adding.

Result:

These were super good and will definitely be added to the regular rotation! We eat that avocado salsa right out of the bowl with a spoon.

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Categories food pix, recipe testing, recipes

Raw Apple Pie #1

12 Feb

I get a little weird about how much nuts are used in raw recipes. Though I didn’t notice any weight gain from eating high raw, I was mindful of this when I selected my recipes. Then I found out about buckwheat groats. Turns out you can use them for crusts instead of nuts! For my 1st raw apple pie attempt, I didn’t exclusively use groats (just in case!), but at least they were only about a third of the bulk of the crust. I used 1 1/4 c. of groats, but 1 c. would have sufficed so that’s what I jotted down below for you. I just didn’t want to have a 1/4 c. laying around. : )

Next I will probably try some kind of raw cacao banana pie!

Raw Apple Pie #1

1 c. buckwheat groats
1/2 c. raw almonds
4 dates
2 tbsp. of raisins
1 tsp. oil, I used light olive oil
1.5 tbsp. raw agave
2 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of ground ginger
small pinch of salt

1 apple, cut into chunks
1 ripe banana, broken in half or quartered
2 tbsp. raisins
1 tsp. of cinnamon

1 apple, thinly sliced for topping

Directions:

1. Add buckwheat groats and almonds to a food processor and grind down to a sandy texture. Add dates, raisins, oil, agave and spices, and pulse until well combined. Press firmly into a pie plate with a rubber spatula.

2. Add apple, banana, raisins and cinnamon to processor and blend until smooth. Scrape out with spatula and spread onto crust.

3. Arrange apple slices in a pinwheel pattern to completely cover pie. Sprinkle with cinnamon and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

This slices up best when left to set in the fridge overnight!

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Categories food pix, food tips, recipe testing, recipes

Raw Vegan Nachos

25 Jan

So maybe seeing raw vegan nachos on Greenwave’s menu stuck with me, or maybe it’s just that I really love nachos… either way, I had raw vegan nachos on the brain. After reading a few recipes for sauces, I figured I had some pretty good ideas of my own to try, and took to the Vitamix. I think the secret to this sauce is really the smoked paprika. A nod to what makes Bang, Bang Cafe in Seattle’s vegan mac so good. I put a bit more turmeric, smoked paprika and cayenne than what’s listed below, but that’s a good place to start, and then you can customize it to your palette.

I really love the flexibility and creativity I’m feeling with raw food. It’s great to have so many fresh ingredients on hand and just use what I’m in the mood for, or what needs to be used up. For the nachos, I cut up the last three pieces of raw onion bread I picked up Saturday at Greenwave. They were starting to get crispy from sitting in the fridge, so they really worked well. For toppings I used the last of some romaine I had, a big handful of chopped cilantro, a seeded, chopped tomato, and a few sliced kalamata olives. Then I drizzled it all with this raw vegan nacho cheese sauce. I didn’t use any additional water because I liked the thick consistency, so I started with about 1.5 cups worth, and used about 1/2 cup of it. I saved the rest for another use.

This is obviously a limitless recipe of possibilities, and I must say… the sauce came out AWESOME!

Raw Vegan Nacho Cheese
makes 1.5-2 cups, depending on consistency

1 c. of raw cashews

1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/4 c. of water, plus more if you want it a little thinner
~1/2 tsp. olive oil
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1/2 a small shallot or a little bit of onion
~ 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika (or more)
~ 1/2 tsp. turmeric (or more)
2 pinches of salt
cayenne pepper, optional

Directions:

1. Put dry cashews in a high powered blender or food processor and chop until they’re a fine powder.

2. Add all other ingredients, and blend until smooth. Adjust seasonings and thin with additional water as desired. If using a vitamix, you can blend a bit longer to warm mixture a bit. I just held the carafe to monitor the temp.