Sunday Vegan Brunch with houseguests

This past weekend, I had the joy of having both my Mom and my Mother-in-law (they are best friends!) and their good friend in town. We had a girls night out to see the musical Wicked, which was great! Then we spent a relaxing Sunday, for which I made brunch and we took our doggie Cooper to play at Fort Funston. Brunch turned out to be just perfect for a sunny Spring morning. I have the wonderful cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz aptly titled Vegan Brunch, and so far everything I have made from it is spot on delicious! Isa is one of my favorite cookbook authors not just because of her wit, and lively commentary throughout her books but also because her food is always what you expect it to be!

So, from Vegan Brunch, I made the Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins that were just perfect, and I adapted another recipe to make some pastry bites with a filling of sauteed mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and mashed cannellini beans, along with lots of spices such as fennel seed, cumin, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, etc. The topping for the pastries was a Caramelized Onion Cashew Creme that I had already made from the day before.  (Cashew creme is easy to make and extremely versatile. I will soon write a post about everything that you can do with Cashews!) I also made my own recipe of classic hash browns seasoned with Old Bay Seasoning, served with a sauce of ketchup, vegan mayo, chipotle powder, and a teaspoon of relish. It was a nice tangy and spicy addition to the potatoes. Lastly I served a simple fruit salad dressed with Vanilla Coconut Yogurt to which I added some cinnamon and chopped fresh mint. (BTW- If you haven't had Coconut Yogurt it is out of this world delicious! It is a wonderful and healthy alternative to dairy yogurts.

I am definitely a breakfast person, no doubt it is my favorite meal of the day. Food just tastes really good in the morning, I think. This breakfast was filling and pleasing to the palate, cholesterol free, and best of all relatively simple to make! Nobody wants to get up and slave for 2 hours to make a nice breakfast.  I highly recommend Vegan Brunch, I promise you will love it!

Vegetarian Chili and Cornbread for a rainy day

I have been meaning to do this post for awhile now... I have again not been able to blog as much as I would like lately, so I have all of these food pics and topics building up!
When I was a kid there were a few dinners that were my mom's staples. My favorites were tacos, lasagna, and chili with cornbread. There were others that were also her staples that were not my favorites, but we won't go into that...

So, I have created my own version of her chili that is now without the ground beef, and chock full of hearty and healthy vegetables. There is really nothing more comforting and cozy on a rainy day (and the day that I made this was just that.) The foundation of the chili is one diced red onion, one diced red bell pepper, one diced jalapeno pepper, and 3 cloves of garlic sauteed together until soft. I then add diced tomatoes (organic canned are the only way to go this time of year), 1 1/2 cups pinto beans, and 1 cup kidney beans. The beans should be fully cooked. Canned beans are ok, I just always recommend buying organic and rinsing them to reduce the salt on them before you use them. Now it's time to turn this into a chili. The spices I add in are: 2 tablespoons of chili powder. If you can find chipotle chili powder use half this and half regular chili powder. This will add a great smoky flavor to the chili. Then 2 teaspoons of ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, and 1/4 cup of tomato paste for thickening. Add in about a cup and a half of water and stir to combine. Bring to a light boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Let the chili simmer on low for at least a half an hour, but an hour or two is better if you can to bring the flavors together.

While the stew is cooking, prepare your toppings. I can't go without diced avocado and scallions. This time I also added a generous sprinkling of Daiya cheddar cheese and  my own homemade cashew sour cream.

Lastly, but certainly not least, is the cornbread. My favorite recipe is this one. Jazz it up by adding some Daiya cheddar, fresh corn kernels, etc...

The best part is the leftovers for the next couple of days!

Cashew Creamed Spinach with Gnocchi, Gardein, and SunDried Tomato Pesto

I decided to try something I had never tried, ever before. I have never had Creamed Spinach. As a matter of fact I had never had any "Creamed" food ( ie creamed corn, etc) until the other day I had Creamed Mustard Greens, and they were to die for. So, being that was at a vegan restaurant, I knew that I needed to make this deliciously wonderful dish at home, so that I could have it anytime! So, that is what I did, and man was it great.
I used my homemade Cashew Creme (a blended version of  cashews, lemon juice, water and salt) which is a wonderful dairy substitute, especially when you use the awesome vita-mix blender! I sauteed leeks and garlic, then added organic bloomsdale spinach that I got at the farmer's market. I sauteed the greens down and then added about a 1/2 a cup of my cashew creme. I seasoned this with nutmeg, salt and pepper and served it with vegan basil garlic gnocchi.
I also really wanted to make some sun dried tomato pesto. This included the tomatoes, of course, garlic, lemon juice, capers, basil, and pepper, all whizzed up in a food processor, but you should leave it a little chunky for texture. If it's too smooth then it's a paste more than a pesto. This has so much flavor, you really don't need any salt.
I smothered that on a Gardein "Chicken" Scallopini which I browned up in a skillet. If you haven't tried Gardein products, I highly recommend them! Even though I don't often use meat "analogs" because I really don't miss meat at all, Gardein makes a really nice tasting and textured product that is made mostly from real vegetables! Not overly processed and refined.
Monday night dinner? Check.

Shepherd's Pie with Yams and Tempeh

Happy New Year! I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season! I have just returned from two back to back trips, one back home to visit my family and another back to Chicago to celebrate New Year's with some great friends. Before I go on, I just want to say that I ate at the Chicago Diner while I was there which is an amazing all veggie restaurant that has been around since 1983. The food was awesome. They are famous for their Reuben sandwich, but by looking around I could tell that all the food was great. I had a burger with a kale salad that was great, and my hubby had a "fib-rib" sandwich that he loved. And we shared a strawberry shake... mmm... Anyways, I highly recommend it if you are ever in the windy city!! I experienced the coldest weather I have ever known while I was there, at times it was as low as 3 degrees!  Still a fabulous visit though.

So, on to some comfort food. This is a take on a traditional shepherd's pie. This is something we did when I was in school for my Natural Chef certification. It is a pie made with a mixture of mushrooms, crumbled tempeh, onions, garlic, red onions, tomato paste, red wine, carrots and peas. You saute this mixture and then layer it into a pie dish. Simultaneously, roast yams, and then mash them (I use a hand mixer to ensure they get creamy) and spread them on top of your saute mixture. Then bake your pie until the top is golden brown and it is cooked through. Serve it with some fresh vegan biscuits and a salad and there's your dinner! It is comforting and healthy (full of beta-carotene if you can't tell from the color of the pic!) Proof that you can feel comforted, healthy, and satisfied without animal products.

I hope that 2010 can be a year where we can all be healthy and thrive. It has definitely been a lesson to the world this last year that excess is not good, whether it be money, food, or just consumption in general. I hope to see more people eating less meat and feeling the satisfaction of taking care of themselves and all of the earth's inhabitants.

Pumpkin Dumplings in Ginger Miso Broth

I can not believe it has been a month since my last blog post. This was not intentional! The holidays have kept me super busy as I have not only been doing all the regular holiday stuff: shopping, attending holiday parties, etc... but I have also been spending a fair amount of my "free" time preparing for a series of cooking classes that I will be teaching in Menlo Park, CA starting in January! I am really looking forward to the classes, they will be all vegan, and have a focus on seasonal and organic cooking for optimum health.
Anyways, now that the gifts are all wrapped, my bags are packed for our trip to our family's home, and only a few hours stand between us and a wonderful Christmas celebration, I finally have some time to blog about some of the food I have made in the past month. I will separate out the blog posts, but this was one of my favorite dishes of the past month.
I was at the farmer's market one chilly Saturday morning, and a woman was selling, amongst other things, a section of what was once a much larger pumpkin. It wasn't your average halloween pumpkin, it was clearly of a different variety, and as I was told, a very flavorful squash.
I brought it home and roasted it, and indeed it was very flavorful. So I decided to make some dumplings with it. I had some wonton wrappers (which I am so happy are vegan!) so I pureed the squash, and because it had so much natural flavor, the only thing that I had to add to it was a bit of sea salt and red pepper flakes. I spooned the puree into the wonton wrappers and created the cute little dumplings that you see pictured above. I then steamed them for about 12 minutes in my bamboo steamer.
Simultaneously, I started a broth with fresh ginger, garlic, tamari and filtered water. I let this simmer for 15 minutes and added in fresh bok choy. I removed the broth from the heat and added in some miso paste. Miso paste is a fermented soy product, which contains beneficial bacteria. You never want to heat miso very high, certainly not to a boil, as the high heat will kill all of that beneficial bacteria.

I finished the broth off by adding my dumplings (probably more than I needed but they were sooo good!) and some fresh chopped scallions. The combination of the squash, the chewy dumplings, the bok choy, and the complex ginger was just heavenly.

Delicata Squash Tart with Bloomsdale Spinach and Caramelized Onions

I was reading the always inspiring and ever handy Martha Stewart mag the other day, and there was a feature on a mostly vegetarian Thanksgiving. I say mostly because the family was vegetarian yet were preparing some non-vegetarian foods for their guests, but the majority of the meal was vegetarian. Obviously, my Thanksgiving is chock full of beautiful and satisfying dishes that are animal free and full of flavor and nutrition. I was inspired by a dish in the feature using these beautiful delicata squash rings on a tart, so after a trip to the farmers market I decided to make something similar. I bought the most beautiful, organic bloomsdale spinach, and one of my favorite combinations is winter squash and dark leafy greens.

I have to admit, I wasn't feeling like making a yeast dough from scratch, so I cheated a bit and bought the whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe's. It works great if you haven't tried it before. So I sauteed up my spinach with a bit of garlic,  grapeseed oil, sea salt and pepper. (Keep in mind, you must always cook spinach! Spinach contains high amounts of oxalate which binds to nutrients that you need, and blocks their absorption. If you cook your spinach, you will inhibit the oxalate so that you can take in those valuable nutrients such as iron and calcium that are so rich in spinach). I also caramelized some onions for that touch of sweetness.

I sliced the delicata squash into rings (you can leave the skin on for this purpose, it adds some color and is not as thick as the skins of other squashes), and roasted the rings in the oven for 15 minutes. I layered the spinach, onions, and squash onto my par-baked dough. I finished it off in the oven for another 12 minutes to get that nice browning on top, and a crisp crust on the bottom. A drizzle of fresh olive oil, a pinch of salt and red pepper, and a fresh fall entree is on the table. De-lish. And thanks again to Martha for the inspiration.

In the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving, I am so thankful for my wonderful family: my husband and our sweet doggie, my parents and my brother and his wife, my in-laws and siblings in-law. My friends, my health, and the wonderful blessing of the journey of becoming vegan, and being in a position to share the joy and benefits of wonderful, healthy food with others.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

Homemade Coconut Milk Ice Cream

One of the best small appliance purchases I ever made was that of my ice cream maker. It was not expensive and is not fancy, but it sure does the trick. The experimenting to be done with vegan ice cream is endless. From the ice cream base: soy milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, rice milk, almond milk, etc... to the add ins: chocolate, (duh), peanut butter, cookies, cookie dough, fruit, spices, etc... First, however it is of utmost importance to nail a good vanilla ice cream to build from. And this is mine. I use a combination of 1 can of light coconut milk, and one can of regular coconut milk. With that, I use my vitamix blender to combine the milks with agave nectar, soy lecithin (a soy product that you can get in vitamin stores that is good for brain function, and also works to help bind non-dairy ice cream without eggs) and I use some vanilla extract, along with the seeds of one fresh vanilla bean.
From there, I refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes, then transfer to my ice cream maker. 30 minutes or so later, you have the most delicious homemade ice cream that does not compare to anything you buy in the store.