Cook Now, Study Later

  It feels like forever since I wrote my last post. This past week dragged on way too long. I had exams in two different classes yesterday, so I spent most of the weekend studying after working the 5am opening shifts at Starbucks. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but I'm working towards a Masters in Nutrition and Registered Dietitian certification. I applied to Hunter College in Manhattan, so I'm still waiting to hear if I've been accepted to the program. For the past year, I've been taking the pre-requisite science courses at my local community college. I was also busy playing homemaker this week, since my mom was visiting my grandpa in Florida for his 93rd birthday. I always cook my own meals, but this week I had to feed my dad as well. He was born and raised in Sicily, so he really only has a taste for dishes with familiar Mediterranean ingredients. In addition to Italian food, I can usually serve him Greek or Middle Eastern style dishes, but Asian is out of the question. I made the "French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme" and "Chestnut Lentil Pate" recipes from Veganomicon one night. The soup was nice, but next time I would add tiny pasta and give it a spicy kick with cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. I used a bag of organic roasted chestnuts that I bought at a Korean market in the pate and substituted green lentils. I served the pate with melba crackers. It had a subtle sweetness from the chestnuts, but the nutmeg was a little overpowering for me. I also made a side of "tempeh bacon" from Vegan With a Vengeance, which is one of my favorite recipes. Another night I adapted a recipe for a chickpea, artichoke, and almond salad from Vegan Yum Yum by adding crushed tomatoes and serving it over whole wheat pasta. I had made this variation once before, and it was definitely better the first time. I think I overcooked the pasta a bit, because I usually prefer mine to be chewy "al dente" style.

On Friday night I picked an unassuming recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance, because it sounded healthy and I had most of the ingredients on hand. I made "beet, barley, and black soybean soup with pumpernickel croutons" (which is author Isa Chandra Moskowitz's interpretation of the classic Russian borscht). The soup had a beautiful magenta color, and interesting sweet, sour, and earthy flavor. I didn't have pumpernickel bread, but substituted some dense, chewy German dark rye bread for the croutons. These, as well as some fresh dill, rounded out the dish. My picky father actually ate two large bowls of this soup!
                


















Tonight, Danny and I made a vegan version of "Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos" from AllRecipes.com, which we served with arugula salad and Trader Joe's sweet potato chips. We substituted black beans for the kidney beans and added some sweet plantain. They were good, but to make them really addictive I would add a lot more plantain, some brown rice, and corn. After dinner we baked up "Chocolate Chai Cupcakes" from VegWeb. They had a nice moist consistency, but the chai flavor was not strong enough (I even used three tea bags). I don't bake often, so I've never made frosting before. We attempted a recipe for "fluffy" frosting, but it turns out that coconut oil is not a good substitute for shortening. The frosting tasted good, but didn't really thicken, so we were unable to pipe it. If anyone has suggestions for making good frosting, let me know!

It seems as though I've tested a ton of recipes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's books this past week. Some were hit or miss, but overall her recipes are solid. I just remembered that I also tried the "chickpea cutlets" with "mustard sauce" from Veganomicon last weekend. I was actually really grossed out the first time I tasted the cutlets. I'm not a fan of vital wheat gluten, so the gumminess that it gave the cutlets turned me off. The mustard sauce was also overpowering, because I used a strong Dijon mustard and the capers were too vinegary. The next day I baked the leftover cutlets in the toaster oven, and they seemed to cook through more in the middle. I spread some tahini on them and then the mustard sauce and voila! the taste and texture had improved tenfold. Next time I make them I might try baking them instead of pan frying them and serving them with a different sauce. I had a gallon of this mustard sauce leftover, but found a great use for it! My new favorite salad is romaine lettuce, orange wedges, kalamata olives, chopped Medjool dates, and hemp seed with the mustard sauce as a dressing. If you don't want to whip up the mustard sauce, I've had this salad before with a simple olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Chew on This: Vegan Brunch!

I'm back in action! I've recovered from last week's wisdom tooth extraction for the most part, and I ate my first solid food meal on Saturday morning. For about seven days I stuck to a liquid and soft food diet, which forced me to get quite creative towards the end of the week:

• I made mashed sweet potatoes by roasting 4-6 sweet potatoes until tender in a 450 degree oven, then removing the skins and blending them with 1 tbs. mellow white miso, 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar, and 2 tsp. cinnamon. This mash makes up the top layer to NYC Candle Cafe's Paradise Casserole, but it is delicious on its own! I also sauteed ripened plantains in coconut oil and mashed those for another sweet, yet healthy sidedish.
• I turned this black bean hummus recipe into a black bean mash by cutting the amount of lemon juice and cumin in half to make it less pungeant and more appropriate as a sidedish.
• I adapted this recipe for So Healthy Chocolate Mousse by using 3 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder, 3 tbs. agave nectar, omitting the orange zest, and including 2 soaked medjool dates and 1 tsp. raw coconut oil combined with about half of a dark chocolate bar, melted. I used Green & Black's Espresso dark chocolate, which gave the mousse a nice depth of flavor.

To celebrate my transition to solid foods on Saturday, I cooked up a vegan brunch with Danny. We attempted our first tofu scramble by following the recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance, adding spinach at the end. It was not nearly as delicious as the tofu scramble I tasted at 3 Brothers Pizza, but it was worth repeating. Next time I would add extra onion and reduce the amount of cumin and nutritional yeast (I have an aversion to cumin and cilantro, but I'm trying to develop a taste for both). I also baked skillet corn bread from Veganomicon in my cast-iron skillet. I added sweet corn kernels and used spelt flour in place of all-purpose flour. The corn bread had a subtle sweetness and held together nicely. (It's seriously adddictive...I ate most of the loaf myself in 2 days!) I served the cornbread with Earth Balance and a drizzle of pure maple syrup. Lastly, I prepared some sweet-and-sour aduki beans, which I had made once before by following this  recipe for black eyed peas. I considered including tempeh bacon and hash-brown potatoes in my brunch, but I didn't have the ingredients on hand and I try to avoid using too much soy in one meal.

                                        

A year or two ago, I would have spent most of my recovery glued to the Food Network. However, I recently discovered that vegan cooking is developing a strong representation in online videos. Since subscribing to Spork Online, I have found several other similar projects:

• Vegucating Robin - chef Gavan Murphy, aka "Healthy Irishman," teaches Robin Quivers about vegan cooking in short online episodes
• I'm Vegan - a series of short documentary profiles that feature vegans from all walks of life
• The Post Punk Kitchen - Isa Chandra Moskowitz taped this cooking show in her small Brooklyn aparment prior to the release of her now-famous cookbooks
• Heavy Metal Vegan Cooking - the male version of the Post-Punk Kitchen
• Everyday Dish - I found these free vegan cooking videos on YouTube, but the website offers a subscription service similar to Spork Online.
• Vegucated - "a guerrilla-style documentary that follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks and learn what it’s all about"; due to premiere in spring 2011...look for screenings near you!
• You can find a ton of other vegan cooking shows by doing a Google or YouTube search!

Confessions of a [Food] Shopaholic

I love to shop. And I don't mean clothes shopping, I mean grocery shopping. I only make 2-3 trips to the grocery store a month, but I really stock up each time I go. I never really buy anything unnecessary though; I stick to the staple foods on my shopping list. Lately I've been trying to see how long I can go with just the staples in my pantry, fridge, and freezer. That means I have to search my cookbooks and recipe databases online to find recipes that will utilize what I have on hand. Last night I made an "Ethiopian-Inspired Red Lentil Soup" from Fat Free Vegan. It wasn't as flavorful as I expected, and the tiny red lentils nearly disintegrated into the stew. I also substituted peas for the string beans and added some bulgur wheat. I'm not a huge fan of potatoes or peas, so I think those ingredients turned me off. It definitely wasn't bad, but next time I would prefer it spicier and with some injeera bread to dip in the stew. I also had some fresh basil in the fridge, so I made the pesto recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance, replacing the nutritional yeast with hemp seeds. I made the pesto a little too salty and garlicky, but it was delicious nonetheless. Just when I thought I was done cooking, I had an urge to bake. Since I had work at 5am the next morning, I decided to make a quick and easy recipe. The recipe for"Vegan Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies" was printed in my local newspaper recently, and despite the misleading title, it does not contain any artificial sweeteners! By "sugar-free" it just means without refined sugars. Instead, this recipe uses only 2 tbs. of pure maple syrup and bananas to naturally sweeten the cookie. I found the exact recipe online here, but don't be fooled by the horrible reviews! This cookie is chewy and moist, with just the perfect amount of sweetness. I added carob chips to some of them to give a chocolately flavor. I'm sure they are really versatile too--just maintain the same ratio of wet-to-dry ingredients. You could probably use almond butter, coconut flakes, dried fruit, nuts, etc.

Reunited with "Vegan With a Vengeance"

When I first became vegan, my mom borrowed Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan With a Vengeance (VWAV) cookbook from the library that she works at. Having been so overwhelmed with new information about veganism at the time, I only made one or two recipes from the cookbook. I had been resisting purchasing any cookbooks over the past few months since my mom works in a library, but I finally caved recently and bought both Vegan With a Vengeance AND Veganomicon. I started the week with one of my favorite recipes of all time from VWAV, "Tempeh and White Bean Sausage Patties." These do not really resemble breakfast sausage patties, but they taste far superior!  I have gotten my family members to try this recipe, and I now have to hide the patties from them if I want to keep any for myself. I have made this recipe over half a dozen times and I've tweaked the recipe to perfection:

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. package tempeh, crumbled into bite-sized pieces (Lightlife Tempeh with Wild Rice is best)
• 1 -3 tbs. soy sauce or teriyaki sauce (I use a blend of tamari soy sauce and Soy Vay Hoisin Garlic Marinade)
• 2/3 can cooked black beans (sub white beans)
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced 
• 1/2 tsp. fennel seed, crushed
• 1/2 tbs. chopped fresh thyme
• 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh sage (about 5 leaves)
• pinch cayenne pepper (sub paprika)
• pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 tbs. hummus (sub tomato paste)
• 1/8 cup wheat germ (sub bread crumbs)
• 1/8 cup nutritional yeast
• dash salt/pepper

Preparation:

1. Place tempeh into a saucepan and just barely cover with water (some tempeh can peek out); add 1 tbs. soy sauce, cover and bring to boil; simmer for 15 min or until most of water is absorbed; drain remaining water and transfer tempeh to a large bowl
2. Add beans to the bowl of tempeh, give a quick stir, and set aside to allow the beans to heat up 
3. Give the saucepan a quick rinse and dry; saute garlic and fennel seed in 1 tbs. olive oil over low heat, just until fragrant (about 1 min); add remaining spices and stir constantly for 30 seconds; add to the tempeh mixture along with hummus and remaining tbs. of soy sauce
4. Mash everything together with a potato masher or fork, until it’s  just a bit chunky and there are no whole beans left (you don’t want it pureed, you should still see some beans); add wheat germ and nutritional yeast and combine well with fork; taste for salt and spices and adjust as needed; let sit for 15 min to allow flavors to meld
5. Form into patties, using about 3 tbs. of mixture; heat remaining tbs. of olive oil over medium heat; cook the patties until brown, about 3 min each side; you may need to add a little more oil when you flip them over
6. Serve with tahini or rolled in a wrap with hummus

The tahini drizzle is a must for this recipe! For those of you who have never heard of tahini, I'm sure you've had it in hummus and never realized! Tahini is a paste made of sesame seeds, and it is usually sold in a peanut butter-sized jar in the nut butter section of the grocery store. It's also the base for hummus that makes it creamy and a bit tangy.

I also tried a new recipe from VWAV: "Curried Split Pea Soup." If you're picturing your grandmother's green split pea soup with chunks of ham, think again! This split pea soup is pig-friendly and is flavored with a blend of Indian spices, onions, garlic, and fresh ginger. It is so easy to make--just throw the ingredients into a pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for an hour! This recipe resembles one of my favorite Indian inspired recipes that I would make in college with yellow split peas. I used to serve it with brown basmati rice or pita bread for dipping. Don't be intimidated by the long list of spices and herbs that I used in both of the recipes listed above! If you will be cooking a lot of vegetarian and vegan dishes, spices and herbs will give your dishes fantastic flavor, color, and health benefits. Most of the spices listed above can be found at your local grocery store. Buy the smallest containers that you can, and they will usually last you the whole year. Many of these spices can be purchased cheaper in bulk at health food stores and ethnic grocers. As for herbs, I grow most of my own outdoors in summer and dry them or freeze them for winter. You can do also dry or freeze fresh herbs purchased at the store to have on hand all year. 

Tempeh vs. Tofu

I'm not your typical vegan. I don't really care for tofu or soy products. I get most of my protein from legumes, nuts, seeds, etc. But, I have recently fell in love with tempeh, which is literally a block of fermented soybeans that like tofu, originated in Asia. In my opinion, tofu is too soft and tasteless, but tempeh has a nice texture and flavor. Since tempeh is less processed than tofu, it is a whole soybean product that has more fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals. I first tasted tempeh in the "tempeh and white bean 'sausage' patties" recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance. I now substitute black beans for white beans in the recipe and it has become one of my favorite things to make (drizzled with tahini of course!) I've even tried the Vegan With a Vengeance recipe for "tempeh bacon," which is totally addicting! While I usually try to make things from scratch, I have recently become obssessed with Turtle Island Foods' marinated tempeh strips. These are made by the same people that produce Tofurky, and you can find these at Whole Foods or most health food stores. I stocked up on them during a recent sale, and I have been putting them in everything from salads to sandwiches to curries. For lunch yesterday, I tried the coconut curry flavored strips served with a ridiculously easy carrot kinpira salad. As with all soy products, make sure that your tempeh is made with only organic soybeans (most soybeans grown in the U.S. are genetically modified!) Don't completely shun tofu in favor of tempeh though: organic tofu is still a minimally processed healthy food that is even more versatile than tempeh. I will have to give tofu another chance--I hear that pressing it improves the texture. I have a block of tofu in the fridge right now, so I think I know what my next project is...