Tag Archives: vegan

Gluten Free and Eggless Homemade Bread

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I’ve been on the hunt for a store-bought, eggless, gluten free bread because I’ve been craving a slice of toast for weeks now (especially since my boss gave me a jar of her homemade plum jam – that jam is phenomenal!). I finally found a loaf at Whole Foods, but it was $9 for a very small loaf of bread! I like fun food finds as much as the next person, but that just seemed too steep for me. I decided it was time to pull out my bread machine and start googling like a mad woman.

Just so you know, it was just as difficult to find a recipe online – the vegan recipes I did find required so many different flours that I just didn’t want to add to my pantry at this time. I finally came across the following recipe, and the bread turned out fantastic.

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cup warm (110°) water
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 Tbsp honey
  • 1 3/4 cup GF all-purpose flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill GF All-Purpose Flour)
  • 3/4 cup tapioca flour (or arrowroot powder – same thing)
  • 1/2 cup brown rice flour
  • 1 Tbsp xanthan gum
  • 2 1/2 tsp rapid rise yeast
  1. Mix the all-purpose flour, tapioca flour, brown rice flour, and xanthan gum in a medium bowl until well combined. Set aside.
  2. Add the water, oil, salt, and honey to the bread machine in the order listed. Gradually add the flour mixture to the machine. Make a small well in the center of the flour (make sure no liquid pokes through) and add the yeast into the well.
  3. Set the machine for either the white or basic bread cycle (or the gluten free cycle if your machine has it) and a medium crust. Also, unless the size is preset, set the size to 2 lb.
  4. Remove the bread from the machine and let stand in the pan for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove the bread from the pan to a wire rack and allow to cool at least 30 – 45 minutes before slicing.

I’m enjoying a slice of this bread toasted with Spring Hill butter and plum jam (and a cuppa Earl Grey of course).  I’m going to have to maintain some level of control with that whole loaf of bread waiting for me…the possibilities are endless right now!

Experimenting with Cashew Cream – Tomato and Basil Pasta

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I feel like blogging is a habit I need to form again – or maybe all my crazy work travel to San Diego is putting a damper on my “free” time. Whatever the case may be, I feel as if I just haven’t had a chance until this weekend to sit back and come up with something new to try out.

Making a cream sauce using a cashew base has been on my to-do list for months – I’m not a fan of any of the fake cheese products on the market, so in general, I’d rather do without. That being said, making my own creamy or cheesy sauce using cashews seemed like a healthy way to incorporate another variety of nuts in our diet – and help us avoid eating foods made in a science lab.

I had a fresh bunch of basil from my CSA delivery last week – I decided to make a tomato basil sauce to serve with whole wheat spaghetti. I used onion, lots of garlic, homemade tomato paste (from my freezer) and fresh basil as the main ingredients in this recipe.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups raw cashews
  • large bowl of salted warm water
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 serrano chili (or more or less – depends on how brave you are)
  • 1 to 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 medium onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 bunch of fresh basil
  • non-dairy milk of choice – I didn’t use any, but good to keep on hand in case you need to thin the sauce – another option would be to save the pasta water
  • 4 servings of whole-wheat spaghetti
  1. Soak the cashews in the salted warm water for about 3 hours – I used mineral salt as my salt of choice
  2. I didn’t have any vegetable broth already made, so I just simmered the stalks from some broccoli (which I never use otherwise) and a celery stalk with some salt for about an hour while the cashews soaked. If your broth is already made, warm it up to just before boiling./li>
  3. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
  4. While the pasta cooks, drain the cashews, and blend them with the warmed vegetable broth – you may need to scrape down the sides to make sure all of the pieces are pureed fully. Add the serrano chili and a few basil leaves into the blender and blend completely.
  5. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it into a colander (I always reserve some of the pasta water just in case). In the same pan, add some olive oil and saute the onions until soft. Add the garlic into the mix until it also softens.
  6. Add the tomato paste and cook until it mixed into the onions completely – then add a ladle of the cashew mixture into the pan and stir until it all comes together.
  7. Add the rest of the cashew mixture into the pan and stir thoroughly – if the sauce is too thick, use some non-dairy milk or the pasta water to thin it out. Add the fresh basil and mix in the spaghetti.

My conclusions? I think this recipe was a success! The huz said that if he hadn’t seen me using the cashews, he probably wouldn’t have known that I hadn’t used real cream.  I rarely have heavy cream in the refrigerator – soaking some cashews for a couple of hours is so easy to do as a quick substitute if necessary.

I served the pasta with some grilled asparagus we picked up at the new San Jose Farmer’s Market at San Pedro Square – it’s nice to know that we have another option if we can’t make it to our regular farmers market on Sunday.

Vegan Japanese Feast – Sushi, Tempura and Miso Soup

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Ever since our trip to Japan, I have been meaning to fire up a feast of my own, similar to the one we experienced in our cooking class. I can’t believe it took me five months to finally try those recipes on my own again. I took advantage of having a quiet day on Christmas Day where there were no other distractions to finally cook up my own storm.  You’ll notice that many of the same ingredients are used over and over again in the various items – makes it fairly easy to stock your pantry to have these items readily available.  Also, if you buy a wheat-free soy sauce, these recipes would be gluten free as well.

I started by making dashi (soup stock) out of kombu – during our class, it was described to us as being similar to kelp – luckily, kombu was readily available at my local Japanese market and I didn’t have to go hunting for an alternative.

To make the dashi (stock):

Ingredients

  • 10 sq cm of dry kombu
  • 1L water
  • 1 or 2 dried shittake mushrooms, if desired (provides an earthiness to the stock)
  1. Rinse the dry kombu.
  2. Let the kombu (and mushrooms if using) sit overnight in the refrigerator in the water or simmer it on low heat for 10 minutes – it is important to follow this specific step to prevent sliminess

The next item I attempted to make was tempura – I started out with making small pieces of broccoli tempura to use in some rolls. Most tempura batters call for a long list of ingredients, including eggs and various types of flours, but I kept mine simple and it was a success. I mixed equal parts rice flour and cold club soda – my first batch of tempura turned out to be much better than the second – I think it was because I made a smaller batch of batter the first time around, and the club soda was fizzier and colder the first time around as well.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup rice flour (I used brown rice flour and it worked just fine)
  • 1 cup cold club soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • pinch cayenne
  • veggies prepped and sliced to your liking (I used yams, zucchini, broccoli and green beans)
  1. Mix the rice flour and club soda until the batter is no longer lumpy – do not over mix.
  2. Add the salt and cayenne.
  3. Allow the batter to sit for about 10 minutes.
  4. In the meantime, heat up some oil (I used vegetable oil) in a wok or tempura pan.
  5. Add a spot of the batter into the oil to test to see if it is ready – if the batter quickly floats to the top, your oil is hot enough.
  6. Dip your veggies into the batter and place them into the oil – I used wooden chopsticks for this process – kept my hands clean to be able to manage other tasks at the same time.
  7. Your tempura is ready when the batter has turned a light golden brown.
  8. Serve immediately.

For the tempura sauce:

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dashi
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 tbsp sugar
  • grated daikon (optional)
  1. Mix the liquids together and begin to simmer on low heat.
  2. Add the sugar to the mix and stir until dissolved.
  3. Add the grated daikon before serving if desired.

I made the tempura sauce in advance and left it in the pot. I brought it up to a simmer just before serving.

Using the remaining dashi, I made a batch of miso soup. To make the soup, I brought the dashi to a boil (after removing the kombu) and added in 3 generous tablespoons of red miso.  Once it had all mixed together, I turned the heat off.  When I was ready to serve the soup, I brought it back up to a boil and added in chopped green onions and tofu to the mix. Easy-peasy!

The last item I made was a large variety of sushi rolls. I started out by making the sushi rice using the following recipe:

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sushi rice
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp agave nectar
  • 1 tsp salt
  1. Rinse the rice under cold water until the water runs clear.
  2. Combine rice and water in a pot and allow to sit for 30 minutes before cooking.
  3. Bring to a boil and stir once.
  4. Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
  5. In the meantime, mix together the rice vinegar, agave nectar and salt – warm up the mixture slightly (I used the microwave) and ensure that it has all mixed together consistently.
  6. Remove from heat and let the rice stand in the covered pot for 10 minutes.
  7. Place hot rice in a large (preferably wide and shallow) glass bowl – make the sure the bowl is not metal.
  8. Toss the rice gently with the vinegar mixture with a plastic or wooden spoon.

I’m not going to go through a tutorial of how I rolled the sushi, but we had a large variety of items to fill the rolls with. We made a spicy “tuna” roll by crumbling the Hot and Spicy flavor of Tofu Life tofu and mixing in some Sriracha – it was one of my favorite combos.  We also had our broccoli tempura, avocado, plain tofu, sweet potato and daikon to mix in to various combinations.

We also tried making some rolls with Soy Wraps – these colourful wraps were easily to work with and gave a bit of variety to the rolls – they were especially helpful when we ran out of rice (the rolls weren’t as pretty, but tasted just fine).

Vegan Peanut Butter Cups – Reese’s, eat your heart out

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Fun times were recently had catering appies and desserts for a dear friend’s baby shower. I wanted to make an assortment of mini desserts to serve – for no other reason than any food in miniature form is automatically awesome.

For the dessert assortment, I made (with the help of some fantastic folks) cinnamon cupcakes with an apricot jam filling and lemon frosting, mini berry crumbles (using my favourite standby recipe) and peanut butter cups.

For the peanut butter cup recipe, I looked around on various blogs and websites – I ended up choosing Alicia Silverstone’s recipe from her blog, The Kind Life. The recipe made 24 mini pb cups.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup Earth Balance butter
  • 3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (preferably unsweetened and unsalted)
  • 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs or 10 graham cracker squares
  • 1/4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener
  • 1 cup grain-sweetened, nondairy chocolate or carob chips
  • 1/4 cup soy, rice, or nut milk
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans, almonds, or peanuts
  1. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
  2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  3. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar and mix well.
  4. Remove the mixture from the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 tablespoons per cup, among the muffin cups.
  5. Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted.
  6. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture.
  7. Top with chopped nuts.
  8. Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.
Here’s a picture of the peanut butter cups as we were filling in the graham cracker/peanut butter layer – unfortunately, I forgot to take an after picture (I know, blogging suicide, right?).

Amaranth, Pepitas and Almond Granola – The End of Store-bought Cereal

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I generally don’t eat a lot of cereal because I prefer savory breakfasts over sweet ones, but in a pinch, I’ll grab a bowl of cereal to have with yogurt. I have been meaning to make my own granola, and finally came up with what I think is a perfect combination of ingredients – and to top it off, the ingredients are all gluten free (if that is a concern for you).

I’ve been meaning to experiment with amaranth for a while now. This gluten-free grain is a great source of protein along with other minerals. The only thing to keep in mind is that it is very high in phytates, which can inhibit mineral absorption – it is important to cook or soak the grains before consuming. I also added pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds) which are a great source of protein, iron, omega-3/omega-6 fatty acids, amongst other minerals.

To make the granola:

Ingredients

  • 8 tbsp amaranth seeds, popped
  • 1/2 cup pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds)
  • 1/2 cup raw almonds
  • 1-1/2 cup oats
  • 5 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  1. Preheat the oven to 300F.
  2. Begin by popping the amaranth – heat up a pan on medium-high heat until a drop of water placed in the pan sizzles.
  3. Add 2 tablespoons of amaranth seeds, cover the pan, and move the pan around so the amaranth doesn’t stick. You should hear a faint popping sound as the amaranth cooks. Make sure your pan is hot enough, and keep it moving so the grains pop evenly and don’t burn.
  4. Repeat the process three more times with the remaining amaranth – the whole process should take less than 10 minutes.
  5. Mix the amaranth along with all the remaining ingredients in a bowl, until everything is well coated with the maple syrup.
  6. Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper and spread a layer of the ingredients onto the pan.
  7. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes – stir the granola, and then cook for an additional 15 minutes.
  8. Allow the granola to cool on a cooling rack before placing into a container.

This granola is delicious as a snack on its own, but I am looking forward to mixing some up with my favourite yogurt or with some warm almond milk in the morning for breakfast.

Recreating *Vegan* Cupcake Wars

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I’ve been on a bit of a blogging hiatus, but not because I haven’t been working on my blog – I’ve just been doing a lot of work in the background.  I realized I had a lot of housekeeping to do as well as cleaning up some of my earlier posts to make the recipes easier to follow – I’m almost finished cleaning up all my posts, so you should very easily be able to follow the recipes I’ve posted.

Now onto the real matter at hand – cupcakes.  I was already a fan of the Food Network show Cupcake Wars, but when they added vegan contestants to the mix, I was hooked!  I still find it quite annoying though that most cupcakes shops continue to leave out a vegan option on their menu.  Sprinkles finally has a vegan red velvet cupcake, but other bakeries in my area, such as Kara’s still don’t (bizarre).

The most exciting episode of Cupcake Wars was the one where Chloe Coscarelli won the contest – take that non-vegan cupcakes!  Ever since then, I have been meaning to try out the recipes that these fantastic chefs competed with (ya, I know…real vegan bloggers were probably all over this months ago!).  Kim Garr of C’est La V Bakeshop did not win during her episode, but did post all the recipes she was intending on using on her blog.

This week, I decided to recreate two of Kim Garr’s cupcakes – the first time I tried out this recipe was with my guest blogger, Amandeep.  There are two reasons why I decided to remake the same cupcakes – the first being that I wasn’t blogging yet when we made these cupcakes, and the second reason being that I was only on decoration duty during our first attempt – Amandeep did all the baking last time.

The first cupcake I made was Kim Garr’s Jelly Donut and Coffee cupcake – a delicious white cupcake with a jelly filling and a coffee frosting.  The nutmeg and cinnamon in this cupcake really shines through and balances the sweetness from the jelly and frosting.  I pretty much followed the recipe as directed with the exception of the evaporated cane juice (I just used regular sugar because that is all I had available) and the instant coffee (I brewed a very strong cup of regular coffee instead).

The second cupcake I made was also from Kim Garr’s website – Midnight Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake.  I didn’t have the black cocoa powder, so just used more of the regular cocoa powder and the same thing again with the evaporated cane juice. This cupcake was pure heaven, although I had a hard time picking a favourite (and honestly, who needs to pick a favourite when you can just have one of each).

Here’s links to the other vegan cupcake wars recipes that are still on my to-do list:

  1. Kim Garr’s third cupcake war entry – Grasshopper Cupcake
  2. Chloe Coscarelli’s Creme-filled Chocolate Orange Cupcake

If you want another great source of veganized recipes, check out www.vegansaurus.com for their Veganizing Top Chef: Just Desserts series.  This bundt cake by Terry Hope Romero is one my favourites!

Scone dreams…

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I have a weakness for scones – often I’ll stop by Whole Foods and indulge in an egg-free scone (or two, I often buy a second for later).  This past weekend I had a serious scone craving.  Unfortunately, scones are made with heavy cream – definitely not vegan.  After an internet search I found a great, simple recipe on food.com, which turned out really well!  The recipe called for blueberries, but I used a raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry mix.  I hope you try these and enjoy them as much as I have been!

Mix dry ingredients, add in softened vegan butter, sugar, and lemon juice and mix.  Last, add in the frozen blueberries – don’t over mix as berries will soften and change the colour of the scones to a dull greyish-blue instead of golden.   Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown at 400F.   Enjoy!

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup quick oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 dash salt
3/4 cup vegan sugar
1/2 cup vegan butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup soymilk or 1/2 cup rice milk
1 cup frozen blueberries or 1 cup frozen raspberries

Good food for good friends – a vegan Californian experience

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A friend of ours (who happens to be vegan) was visiting our home for the first time since we moved to California.  It was great to see him, but unfortunately, we only had one evening to share together.  I wanted to make sure he had the opportunity to experience the summer bounty in California, and as a result, decided to pull together various finds from the farmers market and our garden to ensure he experienced California cuisine at its best.

What better way to showcase California than an heirloom tomato salad.  The tomatoes are definitely not at their peak just yet, but are getting there.  I dressed the arugula with a quick dressing (juice of half a lemon, 1tsp of brown mustard, 3 tbsp olive oil and pepper), layered on the tomatoes and topped the salad with fresh lemon basil.  I usually end up buying sweet basil at the market because of the beautiful aroma, but the lemon basil was so fragrant yesterday, I decided to mix things up a bit.  I also enjoy adding kalamata olives to this type of salad, but in this case, I really wanted to showcase the tomatoes.

I also picked up some beautiful heirloom carrots from the market yesterday – purple, orange and two shades of yellow.  I wish I had taken a picture of the bunch before preparing them.  I chopped them on a bias-cut, just because it looks so much prettier with carrots.  I also added some Japanese sweet potatoes into the mix.  Before roasting the vegetables in the oven, I coated them with a bit of olive oil, cayenne pepper and white pepper and tossed them with some fresh rosemary from my garden.  I roasted them at 400F for about 20 minutes and they were perfectly cooked.

Also on the menu was some Tofu-Life Hot and Spicy Tofu.  I picked up this variety of tofu at Whole Foods last week – it is a local product from Benicia, CA, which is only an hour away from where we live.  I cut the brick into small triangles (who doesn’t love tofu geometry?) and grilled them on my cast-iron grill – super easy. The tofu had a smoky flavour which went well with this meal.  I also picked up other flavours of this tofu and am looking forward to trying them.

The last item on the menu was farro cooked up with mushrooms (from Monterey of course), red onions, and lacinato kale (from our garden). I cooked the farro using a 2.5 to 1 ratio of water to farro – cooked it the same way you would with rice for about 15 minutes.  While that cooked, I sauteed 8 large mushrooms in a bit of olive oil until they gave away their water.  I then added one finely-chopped red onion, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 2 serrano chilis and some salt to the mix.  I mixed the veggies into the cooked farro, but it looked like it needed a bit more spunk, so I grabbed some kale and fresh oregano from the garden and added it to the mix.  Right before serving, I added the juice of half a lemon, which gave the dish a fresh flavour.

I had such a fun time preparing this meal – must have been the inspiration from the great company!

Potato and Leek Soup

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Sunday was a beautiful spring afternoon in the Bay Area, and I took the opportunity to bring out some of our patio furniture to do some outdoor reading.  My book of choice was Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson, a recent birthday acquisition.  I loved reading about all the different ingredients she recommends using to make your own balanced meals instead of stocking up on processed soy and gluten products from the grocery store.  I was especially intrigued by her Nacho Cheese sauce – I can foresee a future post trying out that one!

The one recipe that caught my eye was for a potato and leek soup.  I’ve made this type of soup before, but her recipe called for mushrooms as well.  I’m not sure why I never thought of that myself – I love the combination of mushrooms and leeks, especially in risotto. Also, this recipe called for pureeing the soup after cooking up all the ingredients, which makes prep very easy – you can be carefree about how consistently you prep your veggies.  I’m usually quite particular about prepping my ingredients – I think it might be the math geek in me wanting everything to be perfectly proportionate.  A fellow foodie-friend found this link which pretty much sums up my feelings about food prep.

I took some liberties with her recipe, but most of this inspiration comes from Julie Hasson’s fabulous book, which reminds me of a quote on Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s twitter feed: “All great chefs beg, borrow and steal, but only the greatest ones give credit.”

Ingredients:

  • 3 leeks washed and rough chopped
  • 2 stalks celery chopped
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 10 medium mushrooms (I used cremini)
  • 2 peeled and chopped russet potatoes
  • 1/4 cup quinoa
  • Seasonings: white pepper, salt, green chilis

Instructions:

  1. Saute the leeks, celery and bay leaves until the leeks are softened.
  2. Add the mushrooms until they release their water.
  3. Add the potatoes and then add enough water to cover the ingredients.
  4. Add the quinoa and seasonings, bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are fully cooked.
  5. Turn off the heat, grab your immersion blender, and puree to whatever consistency you like best (I always prefer a few chunks).

This soup is hearty enough for a meal on its own and the quinoa gives you an added protein punch!

Vegan Experiment – Week Two Complete

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I’ve reached my half-way point…woohoo!  I went back and read my post on week one of my vegan experiment, and I realized that there was a lot of chatter about cheese in it…I guess I really am a cheese junkie!

Here’s my summary of week 2:

  1. I found that my skin has been really dry over the last couple of weeks.  I think it is just more important for me to pay attention to the fats I am including in my diet since I am so prone to dry skin already.  I tried to add a lot more avocados to my meals (check out my Raw Kale Salad recipe).  I’m also going to try to adding a tablespoon of Udo’s Oil 3-6-9 blend into my morning smoothie to see if that helps.
  2. With the exception of the dry skin issues, my complexion has cleared up quite noticeably.
  3. I’ve dropped four pounds without even really trying – guess my after work habit of snacking on a cheese string and olives was making a difference :)
  4. I don’t crave unhealthy food – perhaps my body is getting used to feeling so great.  That being said, I do expect a lot of flavour in all of my meals.
  5. I don’t enjoy Starbucks coffee at all – I am a Peets girl all the way.  BUT, there is a Starbucks close to work that I like to walk over to in the afternoons as an excuse to get away from my desk.  I am hooked on the Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte (unsweetened) with Soy.  By skipping the simple syrup, it is an indulgent, guilt-free beverage :) .

I’m ready to face week 3!