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.

choose-your-own quinoa salad

Due to some renovations in our building, we haven't been able to use our oven or stove for 8 days. We went out for dinner once last week, but neither of us are keen on going out too often, so I've been making all of our meals using our rice cooker and toaster oven. This is not much fun, let me tell you. But I do feel pretty inventive, and I'm definitely using the rice cooker to the utmost of its abilities! So far I've made pasta, soup, paella and quinoa in the rice cooker. You may hear more of my rice-cooker meals if we don't get the gas hooked up today, but I'm really hoping we do. It doesn't help that for the last week, I've been craving warm, stove-cooked meals, since Boston's been looking like this:

We can finally see the sun today, though, thank goodness. Anyway, while I've been wanting warm meals in the evenings, I usually have cold food for lunch, including leftovers, sandwiches, and salads. One good lunch salad I've picked up from the boyfriend is a simple, easily customized quinoa dish. Before I moved in and took over on the cooking, he used to make it each weekend so he'd have something to eat throughout the week. I get bored of having the same food every day, so I make it a little less often (or in smaller amounts), but it's a good staple to have, especially if you have a busy week ahead (or a week without an oven/stove...) and want something that will fill you up.

You can use any grain for this, really, but we like quinoa because it's so high in protein. The body takes longer to digest proteins than other kinds of food, so you'll be fuller longer.

Because we change up the flavor of ours every time, instead of a recipe, I'll give you the components. Think of it as a Choose-Your-Own Quinoa Adventure!


This one has balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sage, rosemary, cranberries, lots of black pepper.


Choose-Your-Own Quinoa Salad

• Quinoa. If you're eating this as your entire lunch, you're going to want to bet on almost 1/2 C (dry) quinoa for each serving. So if you want it to last you all week, go for about 2 Cups of quinoa or a little more. Boil 2 parts water, then add 1 part quinoa, cover and reduce the mixture to a simmer (so, for two cups of dry quinoa, that's 4 cups of water), the way you'd cook rice or other grains, for 20 minutes or until all the liquid has ben absorbed. Put all the quinoa in a big bowl, and add the remaining ingredients.
• Vegetables. To keep up the "salad" aspect of this dish, aim for at least 2-3 cups of veggies. Carrots, celery, onions, and some kind of chopped green (spinach, chard, kale) are good go-tos for any combination of other ingredients, but you can vary your veggies by what you have and what you feel like eating. You can just add them to the cooked quinoa raw, or, if you're like me and prefer your veggies a little softer, toss them into the pot in which you're cooking the quinoa during the last 5 minutes of cooking, so they soften a bit.
• Liquid. I think 1/4 C oil and 1/4 C vinegar are pretty essential, but you can use any kind of oil and vinegar you want, to help vary the dish. Sometimes I use balsamic, sometimes apple cider vinegar. Sometimes I use olive oil, othertimes sesame oil for an asian flavor, and sometimes canola oil so the other flavors in the dish can shine. Add more of either ingredient to taste after you've finished adding all the components. You can also add a couple tablespoons of soy sauce or coconut milk or orange juice or any other liquids at this stage; the quinoa will soak up additional liquid as it cools.
• Seasonings. Herbs and spices! You want at least a tablespoon of (dried) herbs and/or spices, and up to 1/2 C fresh. I like sage and rosemary for a fall-tasting one, or dried ginger and garlic for asian flavors, or curry powder for an Indian taste. Italian seasoning and herbes de provence are good blends, too. Add 1/2 tsp salt and up to 1 tsp pepper, then adjust to taste.
• Protein. Optional, but tossing in some beans, cooked tofu, olives, or toasted nuts can give you more interesting textures, and help keep you fuller longer.
• Fruit. Also optional, but I love adding dried raisins, currants, or cranberries to contrast with the vinegar and salt.

Mix it all up in a large bowl, and then keep it in the fridge. If you are making it to eat the same day, try to let it sit for at least 30-60 minutes to help the flavors develop.

This one (eaten at my desk at work) has Asian veggies and flavors--bok choy with carrots, celery, and scallions, seasoned with sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin, rice vingar, and some teriyaki-cooked tofu.

I do eat food other than cupcakes

...but this is a valentine's day post, and v-day is a day that MUST be filled with chocolate and pastel pink:
More on this little fellow later. First I need to post a REAL recipe, something without sugar, so you believe me.

A couple years ago, a friend of mine studied abroad in Ghana. She visited many West African countries while she was over there, and spoke pretty highly of many of the dishes she'd tried there. I've since veganized a few - though you haven't seen them (yet), I make mean ghanian groundnut veggies and a decent senegalese stew. I love the spice combinations in North African food: Moroccan, Algerian, and Egyptian dishes are great. Pretty much all of the African cuisine I've tried, I like. But when my roommate's sister spent several months in Tanzania recently, I realized I have no idea what is typical of eastern African cuisine. So I looked ut up! and found a great website called the African Cookbook. It's not very vegan, though. So I veganized and adapted a few of the recipes, and have found one I really like.
Tanzanian Braised Cabbage
(serves at least 4 as an entree, 8 as a side)

1-2 Tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large head of cabbage (2 lbs-ish), roughly chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp salt
cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes to taste
3/4 cup veggie broth or water
1/4 cup tamari
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks (optional)
1 handful of spinach or other such green, roughly chopped (optional)

In a large pan, saute the onion over medium heat in the oil until transparent. Add the cabbage, spices, and salt. Saute until the cabbage is slightly tender, about 10 minutes. Then add the veggie broth, tamari, and optional carrots. Cook until the cabbage is soft, at least 10 more minutes. Adjust spices to taste. Once the cabbage is at the tenderness you want (I like mine pretty darn soft), remove from heat and stir in the optional spinach.
(Pre-spinach. I made a half-batch because my cabbage was tiny.)

Serve over rice, millet, or, if you want it to be a one-dish meal, add a little extra water and serve it in a bowl with glass noodles! (aka bean threads, starch noodles, vermicelli, worm noodles, or cellophane noodles, available in asian food stores, natural food stores, or the specialty aisle of a normal grocery store)
I love these things because 1) they are made from bean starch (you can also get ones made from sweet potato starch, but they smell awful. Taste okay, smell awful), so they are pretty much free of EVERYTHING and 2.) all you have to do to prepare them is let them sit in hot water for a few minutes.

Okay, healthy food aside: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! My coworker had a delicious vegan potluck dinner, and my contribution (surprise) was CUPCAKES! I really wanted to try the Red Velvet cupcakes from vegan cupcakes take over the world, but I don't believe in food coloring, and as I made them around midnight last night, I was too tired to bother to make my own. I used a bit of beet juice in the batter, but it wasn't strong enough to cover up the cocoa powder:
Though not red, they were a little paler than chocolate cupcakes would be. These cupcakes had a really light texture and rose quite a bit in the over.
Gorgeous! I made a little Earth Balance, Soymilk (colored with beets), powdered sugar glaze and topped them with pecans, which sort of resemble hearts, right?
OH but do you want to hear a cupcake-related (well, sorta) tragedy? I had a nasty nightshade reaction (ie, a rash)to something I ate in NYC this weekend, but I wasn't sure what. After reading my last entry, my mother asked, "didn't the babycakes desserts make you sick?"
"Of course not," I said. "Why would it?"
"There's potato starch in it."
"No there's not," I told her. "I asked the workers if there was potato starch in anything and they said no."
She pointed me to the babycakes website, where they say all of their frostings have potato starch. On one hand, it was good to know whence my rash came. On the other hand - the spacy hipster babycakes employee BETRAYED ME. So I rescind some of my babycakes review. Really good taste, slightly less allergy-friendly than they advertise, especially because the employees don't actually know what's in their products...

That's why I bake so many cupcakes of my own. Because NO ONE ELSE'S ARE SAFE. : /

quick one-dish meals

being at my parents' house for the holidays is nice - not very relaxing, though, as we work all day at their organic and natural food store. So making dinner at night is a rushed affair - we are all tired and very hungry, as we spend all day looking at food. I have to be creative at home with quick meals, because there is one thing I love that my mother does not: the one-dish meal.

My mother likes having sides, salads, thick crusty bread (my mother would like thick crusty bread with every meal, if I'd let her get away with it, no matter what - stir fries, curries, tacos) with her entrees. One-dish meals don't do it for her. So this entry is in honor of the thing I can't have until I get back to boston (tomorrow night): The one dish meal.

I don't have a recipe for one-dish meals. Some, like this oriental-style millet, comes from cookbooks - this is from Christina Pirello's cooking with whole foods.

But I can give you a basic guide to a one-dish meal. Take a grain, any grain: quinoa, millet, amaranth, rice, pasta, couscous. While the grain is cooking, saute some veggies - carrots, celery, and spinach are my defaults, because they go with any kind of cuisine, but mix and match! - with a protein (tofu, beans, or nuts) - and then the third and final element: a flavor. Christina Pirello's is sesame oil and tamari, or you can do pesto or tomato sauce, or a store-bought stir fry sauce, curry or chili powder, or even a salad dressing - and you have a one dish meal!

mmm, fennel pesto pasta...

In ice-cream news, I DID bring the ice cream home - I packed it in a plastic bag filled with snow, and it made it through the four-hour drive home without melting at all! I had a tasting with my vegetarian aunt, my vegetarian (almost vegan!) mother, my non-dairy meat-eating brother, and my vegetarian-starting-on-new year's father. The chocolate was a hit all around, as was the pumpkin (in fact, dad, who won't eat non-dairy ice cream under normal circumstances, attacked the chocolate late last night) My non-dairy vegetarian mother LOVED the pina colada. The raspberry won fewer accolades, but that disappeared last night, too.

internet in cooperstown is a dismal situation - this took, I kid you not, two hours to finish : / I'll update again after christmas - in the meantime, have a great one!