Chilled zucchini soup

I signed in to maybe write a new blog post and discovered a partial draft from AUGUST, oops. So while it's totally off season to post about a chilled soup, it's also cold and snowy here right now and I like remembering that it was once too hot rather than too wintery.

It was above 90 degrees several days in a row this summer and we don't have air conditioning, so the baby and I mostly sat in front of fans on those days, and when it came time for dinner I wanted something cool. This Chilled Zucchini Soup from Food and Wine was perfect on those days.

We had it with pita bread and these sesame yuba noodles (so much protein!). It does require heat, but that part is short and totally worth it for the flavor it adds, even on a disgustingly hot day. And if you don't have purslane or arugula, don't fret--the greens are just a garnish. I did have purslane (it grows as a weed around here and overtook two of my pots of dill in the garden), but next time I make this soup I'm just going to have it (or a different green) on the side.

Side note: the baby LOVED this soup!

holiday meals

Normally my family uses tofu turkeys for their holiday entree, which are simple: you just take them out of the box and bake them. If you haven't tried tofu turkeys, they're simple marinated/seasoned tofu shaped like a happy turkey. They're gluten free and come with an easy-to-make gravy. And they're just so cute!

However, my sister-in-law is sensitive to soy,  and I wanted something we could all have. Many vegan entree options have gluten, but half the people at our meal were gluten-free, so I was pretty much left with one option: THE VEGDUCKEN. This recipe (and similar ones) was circulating around the internet for a while, just calling to be veganized. First, I have to tell you, this recipe is good, but poorly written. Or, at least, poorly organized--the list of ingredients isn't in any particular order. I ended up rewriting the whole thing in a Word doc just to make it make more sense.

Here's what I changed: I used vegan butter (homemade, but Earth Balance would work) and halved the butter for the layering/sauce, and never used any mint. This turned out just fine, and we had plenty. I used two flax "eggs" (2 Tbsp flax meal mixed with 6 Tbsp water) to replace the eggs, and to replace the parmesan cheese, I just used 2-3 Tbsp light miso. (Because of the miso, this means the recipe wasn't completely soy free, but you could use a soy-free vegan cheese like Daiya to make it so.) I used gluten-free breadcrumbs--the Hannaford store brand is just corn, sugar, and salt. Oh and my mushrooms were reconstituted dried. Finally, because I am allergic to nightshades, I replaced the eggplant layer with lightly steamed sliced celery root.

And here's the thing: even with all these (in some cases rather dramatic) substitutions, it tasted great. And went together really easily.

Here it is before putting the sides together and baking:

And here it is, baked and with some slices taken off.

I recommend carving it at the table and serving it one piece at a time; when we tried to cut several slices in advance they fell apart and were not as pretty to serve.

It serves a lot! I actually made two because there were 11 of us eating and my family are big eaters, but we never ended up finishing the first, let alone cutting into the second. And everyone really liked it!

We hosted Thanksgiving so we wouldn't have to travel with the baby, but our dining room is small so half of us ate in the dining room and half of us ate in the makeshift second dining room (the living room).

My side of the family! My brother is holding the baby in the back.

Christmas dinner was a much smaller affair, with just us and Kevin's mother, so we cooked the meal together. Our entree was Elizavegan's vegan tourtiere, made with sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes, and phyllo dough instead of pastry crust--which was a delicious substitution! The crisp of the phyllo went well with the sweet potato and made up for the lack of starch the white potatoes would have provided.

For Christmas dessert, I wanted to make something special. Inspired by The Great British Baking Show, which I watched in less than two days during my first week home with the baby, I decided to try my hand at a Swiss roll (also known as a jelly roll). And it went GREAT!

The cake is the chocolate cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, spread out on a baking sheet and baked for only 10-15 minutes. I cooled it just enough to handle, then rolled it in a tea towel and let it cool completely.

After that I unrolled it, spread it with strawberry jam and Coco Whip (I didn't have time to make frosting), rolled it back up and decorated it. It was huuuuge, so I only used half of it to decorate and serve (halved, with edges trimmed off for neatness, it served 5 people). I couldn't believe how simple and yet elegant it was! I'll definitely make Swiss rolls in the future, hopefully with yellow cake that I can decorate with batter like they do on the show.

I also dressed my baby as a reindeer.

Finally, New Year's brunch is a big meal in my parents' house, with loads of food and plenty of relatives to eat it all. With a baby in the house we were lucky to make it till midnight, and were not up for making a huge brunch the next morning, but we did something a little special: Kevin made a delicious fruit and nut coffee cake (from Angelica Kitchen) and I made tofu florentine with a hollandaise sauce from Vegan Diner. I usually make the one from Vegan Brunch, but I don't find it too flavorful. The Vegan Diner one has a lot of flavor, but I think the wine comes through a little too strong. Still a delicious New Year's brunch!

Now the holidays are over, we're back to simpler meals... more on those later!

vegan deviled eggs from Lagusta's Luscious

We'll get to the deviled eggs in a moment, but first a small announcement: I'm pregnant! I'm at 17 weeks (4 months). I am, of course, vegan, and my doctors are totally fine with every aspect of my pregnancy. There have been many great vegan bloggers who openly blogged about their pregnancies well, so I am not interested in doing that myself at the moment, but I am happy to answer any questions people have.

The biggest change for me since being pregnant is how much more often I get hungry! I fill up easier, which means my meals are often smaller, but my body still needs more calories per day, which means I'm snacking about every hour or two. Women should up their protein intake during pregnancy, so I try to make sure that at least some of my frequent snacks are protein-rich. But after 4 months, all my usual snacks are starting to bore me. So when I found Lagusta's Luscious recipe for vegan deviled eggs, I had to try them!

I had all the ingredients on hand, but I do not have egg-shaped molds. I have these though!

And I don't mind if my "eggs" are shell or dome shaped.

The "egg white" recipe calls for soy milk, though Lagusta  and the comments on the blog entry all say that almond milk makes for a firmer and whiter white. I went with soy to make sure the eggs were higher in protein, but I did notice a little of the graininess she mentions. 

They hold up well, but next time I might use a little more agar (2.5 tsps?) to make them even firmer.

And then I filled them! Before you judge how they look, remember that my eggs are upside-down shells. I also spooned in the filling instead of piping it in because I am lazy.

The filling is pretty good, but it is WAY TOO SALTY for me. My mother's deviled eggs always had a lot of mayo, so I did up the amount of vegenaise, which could contribute to the over saltiness, but when I make this next I'm going to skip the whole 1 1/4 tsp salt and just salt to taste after all the other ingredients are in.  It's okay in combination with the whites since the whites are a little bland, but the whole deviled egg is still a little saltier than I'd like.

And holy cow, look how much filling is left! I mixed some of it with the scooped-out parts of the whites for an egg salad that I'll have on bread for lunch. Lagusta says that it makes a good dip, but like I said, it is WAY too salty on its own, so I'll probably blend in some cashews before I can use it straight.

Despite the saltiness, I liked this recipe a lot, and will definitely make it again!

uzbek dinner! plov and tashkent salad

A while back, a friend linked to one of those buzzfeed posts--you know the ones, "the top 20 things you have to eat in [city name]" or "30 signs you're [insert age]." But the one my friend linked to was about food. And I often click the food ones. I don't even remember what the list was, but at the side, another recommended article was "16 Delicious Uzbek Dishes You Need to Try Immediately." I love delicious food, and knew NOTHING about Uzbek cuisine, so I clicked--and discovered a whole list of very non-vegan things. (There is actually one vegan thing: a tomato salad, which, since I'm allergic, was sad.)

For some reason, rather than deciding Uzbek cuisine was not my thing, all this started me on a quest to try to make some vegan Uzbek food at home.

Vegan Tashkent salad, "roasted" garlic (I'll explain later), and Plov!

The most obvious dish to start with: Plov, which is essentially a rice pilaf. After a long internet-rabbit-hole search, I decided to mainly stick with this recipe from Olga's Flavor Factory (ironically, the blog is Russian, not Uzbek, but I swear, this was the most promising recipe to start with). Traditionally, plov is made with lamb or beef, for which I substituted chickpeas. (Chunks of seitan would probably be better if you wanted it to be really authentic, but since I'm vegan and nightshade-free, I never really bother with authentic, and chickpeas are what I had on hand.) Her recipe is also enormous, so I halved it. So here are the ingredients I ended up with:

Chickpea Plov

Serves 3-4, depending on how hungry you are!

2 Cups (or 1 can, which is a little scant but fine) Chickpeas

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

2 carrots, shredded

salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 bay leaves

1.5 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric (this was to substitute in color for the paprika she uses)

A generous shake of ground allspice

1.5 Cups rice (I used brown basmati for extra flavor)

3 Cups water

1 head garlic, most of the papery skin peeled away (as much as you can with just rubbing it)

I sautéed all the veggies and spices together first, until the chickpeas started to brown, to give everything lots of flavor:

From there I followed the directions from the original recipe: add the rice, stir to mix it all together, then add the water, lower the heat, and cover.

And here's the coolest part, the "roasted" garlic. In the last 10-15 minutes of cooking (so if you're using white rice, pretty much as soon as you cover it--if you're using brown rice, after about 15-20 minutes), you put an entire head of garlic right in the center of the pilaf, so it steams and gets soft and creamy on the inside--just like roasted garlic from the oven, but less messy and in way less time! I could not believe how cool this was, and have done it with other dishes now.

There it is! Hidden in the center of the plov! At the time I was really worried about the garlic burning or sloughing off its skin into the rice, but it all worked out just fine.

The tashkent salad (or is it supposed to be salad tashkent? I do not speak Uzbek so I have no idea) was a veganized version of this recipe from Tasty Arbuz. Tashkent salad is basically a creamy slaw made of radishes and tongue, which, you know, super not vegan. (Have any of you read Hugo Hamilton's memoir The Speckled People? There is a tongue-as-food-related scene in it that is incredibly well written... and it describes how gross the whole family found it. If I were still doing my "food from books" series, this would be such a good one!) But I had some leftover baked tofu from a previous dinner, which, thinly sliced, was a perfect tongue substitute. And I used vegenaise instead of mayo, and everything was fine! 

Verdict: I would definitely make plov again, and am so excited about this "roasted" garlic technique. As for the tashkent salad, it was fine, but essentially a radish slaw, for which I don't really need a specific recipe in the future.

Have you ever had Uzbek food? Is there any dish from that buzzfeed list you'd like to make/veganize? Keep me posted!

aburaage, inari, and kitsune udon

I have decided to admit to myself that I am not good at blogging regularly. Admit it, get over it, and try to update at least more than one month a year. So hello again!

When I go out for sushi, my FAVORITE thing to order, hands down, is Inari. For those of you who haven't had it, it's fried tofu that has ben simmered in soy sauce, sugar, and mirin, then turned into thin pouches that are then stuffed with rice. It's sweet, salty, and filled with rice, so it has pretty much everything I love.

At various Asian markets, I have seen canned and refrigerated prepared aburaage that is just ready for stuffing with rice, but the ingredients are awful. Many have fish flakes, high fructose corn syrup, and/or MSG, all of which I avoid. (For the record, many restaurants make their own, so you can ask if you're concerned about these ingredients.) So I decided to try to make it on my own.

To prepare inari-style tofu, you "start" with aburaage, I say "start" because aburaage is deep fried, thinly-sliced tofu cutlets. You can make these yourself, but who wants to spend a bunch of time deep frying thinly sliced tofu? Not me. I bought it.

 I harbored secret hopes that the interiors would be pre-split, like pitas are, so that the "pouch" effect would be really easy to attain. This was not true. But also not something I had to worry about yet. I followed Just Hungry's methods for preparing inari, which first involves blanching the tofu, then patting it down with towels, to help get rid of some of the extra oil.

The next step was to slice them in half, then simmer them for a little while in a broth made of dashi (mine is always made from boiling kombu and wakame for a few minutes), tamari, mirin, and sugar. I don't have sake, so I just doubled down on the mirin. The thing I liked best about making this myself was being able to cut back on the sugar; I like it a little sweet, but some inari is too sugary for my taste.

 After they simmered and cooled in their own broth, I separated the insides (using the method recommended by Just Hungry--poking around in it with a chopstick) and stuffed several of them with rice. (Another thing I liked about being able to make it at home: brown rice!)

 I served the inari with nimono made primarily from butternut squash, more rice, and some sesame-garlic collards. This is Kevin's bowl; mine had a heck of a lot more inari pouches, but his looks daintier so we're going with that.

BUT I didn't use ALL the prepared aburaage for inari sushi. I saved some of it to make kitsune udon! "Kitsune" means fox, because in Japanese folklore, the trickster fox loves fried tofu. I agree with the fox. I followed this recipe from Just One Cookbook almost exactly, except no fish cake, obviously. And, as usual, gluten-free tamari instead of soy sauce.

I know the cropping is a little weird, but I wanted you to be able to see how our cat Molly creeped into the corner of the picture, lurker that she is. This udon was AMAZING, and we both went back for more.

agedashi tofu!

I've always wanted to order agedashi tofu in Japanese restaurants, but I know that bonito (fish flakes) is a large part of the dish. It is usually sprinkled on top, so it may be possible just to leave it off, but notice the word dashi in the name of the dish--a word for a fish-based broth. It's possible the restaurants could make a completely vegan agedashi tofu, but it's usually easier to just safely order veggie sushi.

HOWEVER. Who would pass up deep-fried tofu if they got the chance? NOT THIS GIRL. So I decided to make my own!

I looked up a lot of different recipes online, but it turns out I didn't need a recipe, just a method. Cube silken tofu (I used the boxed kind, but I recommend using the water-packed kind, because the boxed kind is really slippery to work with--hence the broken one on the bottom of the pile). Lightly coat each side of each piece with cornstarch. Deep fry. Done!

The broth that you pour over is a mixture of dashi (for a vegan version, seaweed simmered in water for a little while), soy/tamari, and mirin. I looked up various recipes for it, but just settled on a to-taste version: salty, savory, and a tiny bit tangy. Topped with chopped scallion and kelp flakes. Served with (in the back) brown sushi rice and teriyaki-flavored chard.

In general, I find deep frying tedious; it's hot, it's messy, it requires a lot of oil, and I sometimes end up burning myself (as I did while making this). I'm not likely to make this dish often, but I will definitely make it again, and I am really happy I got to try it!

dessert friday: gluten-free mini tarts

I am fortunate enough to be able to eat gluten, but there are many people in my life (my mother and 2 brothers, my sister-in-law, friends, etc) who are gluten intolerant. So around holidays and family events, the food almost always needs to be gluten free.

For my sister-in-law's bridal shower, I was in charge of making a dish that was dessert-y but easily eaten as finger food. I used Vegan Pie in the Sky's gluten-free variation of the press-in almond crust to make mini tarts! (Note: in the cookbook, though not on the site, Isa recommends using 2/3 cup oat flour and 1/3 cup rice flour as the flour substitute.)

I pressed the crust into a muffin tin lined with paper cups. Since it was a fall shower, the fillings (also from Vegan Pie in the Sky) were cappuccino mousse and pear frangipane.

They were a little crumbly, but VERY well received and VERY delicious. So I decided to make some variations on the theme for my family's Thanksgiving dinner!

I winged these fillings on my own; a straight chocolate mousse (made of tofu, melted chocolate, and cocoa powder), and an apple-pie-type filling. They were both great but the chocolate mousse ones were my favorite of all 4 options!

If you plan on trying this at home, one note of caution: the individual tarts don't keep very well, because the crusts get soggy after not too long, and start to lose their structural integrity. They still taste delicious, though!

the joy of bowls

I've been getting really into bowls lately. Not the actual dishes themselves (though actually I love buying bowls more than any other dishes; they're so pretty and round!). I mean what some restaurants refer to as "Dragon Bowls." They always, on menus at vegetarian restaurants, sound like one of the more boring options: a grain (usually rice), a green (usually kale), a protein (usually beans, sometimes tofu), and a sauce on top. But they're also usually one of the more reliably nightshade-free options at a restaurant, so I have started ordering them more often.

AND LOVING THEM. I have never had a bad Dragon Bowl. Recently I realized it's ridiculous that I don't make them more at home, especially when they're fairly easy to put together, so I've been giving it a shot.

Starting off simple, this bowl has maple-glazed grilled tempeh over sauteed zucchini, carrots, and spinach (basically the first veggies I reached for in the fridge), and rice.

Beans, quinoa, and teriyaki zucchini and greens, all under green goddess dressing. (And, for Kevin, some Indian pickles on top.) We had an abundance of chives this year, so I might have over-chived the dressing.

This one isn't very pretty, but was so tasty: chickpeas sauteed with greens and green beans, rosemary beets, and rice, with a light tahini sauce on top.

To show you that this was actually a pretty meal BEFORE it got to the bowl, here are the beans and beets cooking:

I think one of the things I like best about Dragon Bowls is that I don't have to worry about having strong or distinct flavors as I prepare each element (though that's a nice touch); adding the sauce at the end ties it all together.

What are you favorite things to put on Dragon Bowls? What sauces do you like?

roasted cabbage slaw

I really love roasted cabbage, so when I found this Kitchn recipe for Roasted Cabbage Slaw with Hazelnuts and Lemons, I had to give it a try.

Soup, sandwich and slaw! I love all the colors on this plate. They call for half red cabbage and half green, but all I had was a lot of red, so mine is especially purple/pink.

The slaw itself was decent, and didn't require as much chewing as normal cole slaw because the cabbage was softer, but I'm not sure I roasted/broiled it long enough to really get a good roasted flavor. I didn't let any of it blacken, since I was afraid of burning, but next time I'm going to wait till the edges are charred to pull it out of the oven.

One thing I like about cooking is how much chemistry and science are involved; if I had been taught real-life (okay, fine, just food-related) applications of science in school, I would've liked it better. Like beets, the color of red cabbage depends on the chemicals around it--acids in the recipe (like lemon juice) make it pinker, while more basic ("basic" as in the opposite of acidic, not as in "easy") ingredients keep it darker purple/bluish. You can see the chemical reactions in action in the picture below, which is the step at which I added the lemon juice, but had not yet stirred it in. See how the lower edges of the slaw in the bowl are a more blue-purple? You can tell where I sprinkled on the lemon juice, because it's where the cabbage starts to turn more pink. (Mostly at the top and right of the bowl.)

This all reminds me of that T-shirt that says "Baking is Science for Hungry People." Science is really cool when you can eat it!

korean bbq marinade

I've used Emily Ho's recipe for Korean BBQ Marinade several times for tofu and tempeh dishes. I've never had Asian pear juice, so I usually add a splash of lime juice to help give the recipe a little acidity.

Here served over stir-fried bok choi and carrots, with rice. I almost always add some homemade kimchi to the top.

I love Korean food to begin with, and I like that this is one recipe I don't have to adjust because of my allergies to hot pepper--it's not spicy at all. It's also gluten-free if you use gluten-free tamari instead of soy sauce, which I do for most recipes. It's a little sweet, a little salty--in short, it's my favorite marinade.

Sunday Brunch: my favorite: tofu "eggs"

This is the last Sunday Brunch of Vegan Mofo! So I'm posting a couple brunch-y dishes I haven't had a chance to write about individually: tofu "egg" dishes.

Back when I was vegetarian, my favorite brunch/breakfasty foods were egg-based dishes: scrambled eggs, fried eggs, omelettes, French toast, etc. So as you may have noticed, our Sunday Brunches tend to be veganizations of eggy things. Tofu, in my opinion, does a good a job of mimicking the texture and ease of all the above dishes, and with a bit of black salt (a sulphur-tasting salt used in some Indian cuisine) to top it off, the flavor is essentially the same as well.

Tofu eggs florentine, made with fried tofu. It's only sort of "florentine," since I used spring greens instead of spinach.

Tofu eggs benedict, only Kevin's famous tofu bacon is on the side instead of on the "eggs." And a side of Japanese (white) sweet potato hash browns.

And, of course, scrambled tofu. It's not exactly easier than frying tofu to resemble fried eggs, but it's still really easy, and just strikes me as being a heartier breakfast.

 

 With sweet potatoes, the natural (or at least, ubiquitous, in our house) accompaniment to tofu "egg" brunch dishes.

Saturday Snack: Fomu: Boston's tastiest vegan ice cream

Fomu is a vegan ice cream parlor that has been open in Boston since this summer, but I haven't been able to get there until this month. They have a wide variety of flavors available as scoops or in pint containers. You can have your ice cream in a bowl, in cones, or IN VEGAN WAFFLE CONES (even gluten-free ones!), and they have a large selection of vegan toppings, from fudge sauce to gummi bears.

Most of the ice cream is made with a coconut base (but tastes less coconutty than the Purely Decadent brand ice cream), though they have a few flavors made with nut bases. When I was there, of all the possible flavors, only 2 (cake batter and cookies and cream) contained wheat-the rest were gluten-free! The employees are friendly and will let you try a tiny bit of any flavor if you're torn between options.

This is a "single scoop" of cookies and cream and was actually too much ice cream for me. In the best possible way.

I also got pints of Strawberry (because it's tied with cookies and cream for my favorite ice cream flavor), Salted Caramel (because when the lady behind the counter let me try it, I knew I HAD to bring some home for Kevin), and Bourbon Maple Walnut (for my mother's birthday, not pictured).

Fomu is in Allston, two doors down from Peace O' Pie, Boston's vegan pizza parlor. It's also just down the street from Grasshopper, a vegan Chinese restaurant, AND a short walk from Genki Ya, our favorite, organic, not-vegan-but-very-vegan-friendly sushi restaurant, so heading out to this neighborhood means you can eat a great vegan meal and have a fantastic vegan dessert afterwards.

Friday Dessert: soy panna cotta

A couple years ago, I needed a light dessert for a small dinner I was hosting. The dishes were almost all Italian and a little on the heavy side, so I wanted a light, Italian dessert. I started browsing and found the Vegan Bicyclinguist's Panna Cotta. In a recent search for vegan panna cotta, I've noticed that vegan adaptations abound, but at the time, his was the only one I could find. So, in my normal spirit of ignoring the rule that you shouldn't make a recipe you've never made before for a dinner party, I decided to give it a try!

Sorry about the dim photo--I sneakily took this shot just before bringing them out to the table.

It was delicious, though I had my doubts in the making. The batter itself wasn't delicious. You combine soy yogurt, soy creamer, water, and agar. and before it set, the mixture had a tang I did not like. Figuring I had nothing to lose and just wouldn't serve dessert if it failed, I put the panna cotta into little bowls to set, just in case. After they set and chilled for a while, they were awesome! I used vanilla yogurt so that they had a slight vanilla flavor, and I topped them with canned peaches, some of the syrup from the peaches, and a couple pinches of cinnamon. I've never had non-vegan panna cotta, but from what I've read about what it should be, the texture was spot-on.

There may be other, newer vegan panna cotta recipes out there (point me to them if you have any favorites! I'm interested in trying other approaches too!), but this one will always have a special place in my heart for being the first one out there.

what a dal

UGH I'm already sorry for the pun. But dal! Made with lentils or split mung beans, dal is a simple, hearty, easily-adapted dish that I love. I sometimes use my Lord Krishna Cuisine cookbook for spices and flavorings, but usually I just wing it, using my own curry powder.

Here's a dal with sliced carrots, served with rice and homemade pickles; you can tell this is Kevin's plate because he has a serving of spicy garlic pickle in the back.

 

And here's a dal with radishes, served with poppadums, white rice (a rarity in our house, but so tasty) and a side salad.

Hasselback (sweet) potatoes

I have no idea how I heard about Hasselback potatoes. I think a character in a book had one? Or referred to one? Because I remember seeing the words and quickly doing image and recipe searches for Hasselback potatoes and wondering how I had never encountered these before. I thought I knew of everything you could do to a potato (or in my nightshade-free case, white sweet potatoes). And then once I found out about them, of course I had to make them.

Hasselback potatoes are sort of a fancy version of baked potatoes, and a way to serve potatoes that makes it look like you've done a lot more work than you actually have. They are sliced thinly only part of the way down and baked with butter, often topped with breadcrumbs or cheese.

I topped mine with breadcrumbs and served them alongside some Tofurky beer brats over greens.

My "recipe" for these is actually more of a process, since the ingredients are very simple and flexible. I use white sweet potatoes because I can't eat regular potatoes, but feel free to use whatever kind you want; orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, real potatoes, taro roots, whatever. (In fact, any root vegetable would probably be tasty this way, though cooking times would be vary depending on the vegetable.)

Hasselback (Sweet) Potatoes

1 potato per person
Olive oil and a pinch of salt OR vegan butter/margarine, depending on how much work you want to do (you'll see what I mean below)
Optional toppings:
1-2 Tbsp bread crumbs per potato/person
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast per potato/person
1 clove garlic, crushed, minced, or sliced incredibly thinly
1-2 Tbsp shredded vegan cheese per potato/person
Optional garnish:
Chopped fresh herbs

Preheat your oven to 425, line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and wash your potato(es) thoroughly.

Set your potato on a cutting board and prop it between two chopsticks. These serve as guides for your knive, so you won't chop all the way through the potato as you make your slices. You can also use barbeque skewers, or you can even set the potato in a large spoon if it'll fit. This sounds tricky but is very easy. Now slice through the potato, stopping your slicing when you reach the guides you set down. You will have an accordion-like potato at the end of this step!

Here's where you can make this easy, or a little more work. If you want it easy, as I did, you can now simply drizzle olive oil over the potato, trying to get into each of the slots. Sprinkle on a little salt. If you want to do a little more work for a slightly more delicious potato, slice cold margarine into very thin slices, and place a slice in each potato slot. This would also be a good time to add very thinly sliced garlic to each potato slot, if you wanted to. (I want someone else to do this for me, because it sounds awesome but I am lazy.)

Place your potato on your baking sheet and bake for about 40 minutes, until soft all the way through with crispy, browning edges. If you want any of the optional toppings, (which you can mix and match by the way!), take your potatoes out of the oven after 30 or so minutes, before they're completely done, and sprinkle your topping over the potatoes. Push some of it into the slots if you can, but I had some trouble with that step because the potatoes were hot! Return to the oven and let the potatoes cook for 10-15 more minutes, until the potato is cooked all the way through and the topping is starting to brown a bit.

Enjoy!

Saturday Snack: molasses milk

A quickie Saturday Snack today, since I have a busy day ahead! One of my quick fixes for when I need a snack, especially if it's late at night, is simply stirring a tablespoon or so of molasses into soymilk (or whatever kind of "milk" I have around). The taste sort of reminds me of ovaltine, which I only had a few times when I was little but loved.

Depending on what brand you use, just one tablespoon of blackstrap molasses has 10-15% of your recommended daily amount of calcium, and 5-20% your recommended daily amount of iron, so it's good for you in addition to being really tasty.

Vegan Diner veggies and dumplings

Julie Hasson's Vegan Diner was a really exciting find for me because of how much Kevin loves diner food. It has a lot of great recipes for great vegan comfort food. Most of the recipes (especially the ones I love) seem to revolve around seitan, bread, or flour, so I don't know how gluten-intolerant folks would do with it, but otherwise the book is great.

The recipe I keep coming back to is the Veggies and Dumplings.

 

I think it's supposed to mimic chicken and dumplings in flavor, but I never had any sort of soup with dumplings before going vegan, so I don't know what it's supposed to taste like, I just know it tastes good. It's surprisingly quick and simple, and I have discovered I loooove dropping dumplings into soups. I've made this recipe quite a few times, and have never had any problem swapping things in and out when I didn't have the right ingredients.

I've even made a gluten-free version! I generally use chickpea flour for the roux anyway, to get a little extra protein in, but a couple times now I've tried making the dumplings with chickpea flour in place of the white flour. They don't get quite as firm, and they don't keep as well (they start to dissolve after being stored in the fridge for more than a day), but if you serve them right away, they're a great substitute for normal white-flour dumplings. However, this dish DOES make for great leftovers, so if you're like me and looking to make something that will last you for a few days' worth of meals, I'd stick with the normal recipe.

panisses (chickpea fries!)

You all know I'm obsessed with chickpeas, right? I don't know if I've ever properly discussed my love of chickpea flour, but I find that as versatile as the whole chickpea itself. I use it most often to make socca, but I recently discovered another use for it that replaces one of my long-lost loves: french fries. Being allergic to nightshades means I can't eat potatoes anymore, and while sweet potatoes usually do the trick for me, they always get even sweeter upon roasting, so they're not the best French fries.

Panisses with an enormous salad and a dab of homemade apricot ketchup

CHICKPEA FRIES, on the other hand, have all the delicious texture and starchiness of the real ones, while actually being a bit healthier. Called panisses in France, chickpea fries are really easy to make.

You start by making a simple, quick, chickpea flour polenta, let it cool, then cut it up and sauté it in a pan of olive oil. I was going to give you a recipe here, but two French-cooking experts have already done it so well before me that I will just link you do them: David Lebowitz and Mark Bittman both provide great recipes and explanations.

MAKE THEM.