Know Your Roots

Long, long ago back in May 2008, I blogged about a new creation for my cookbook — Seitan Root Veggie Pot Pie:

It was everything I love — hearty winter root veggies and tender morsels of "chicken-ish" seitan — stuffed between two flaky whole wheat crusts. The perfect comfort food.

But that original recipe needed a few improvements, namely I'd made way too much filling for one pie. In in an effort to perfect the measurements in the recipe, I finally tried it again last night. The result was a perfect pie, filled with just right amount of sweet potatoes, white potatoes, turnips, carrots, and seitan.

Veganizing Better Homes & Gardens

A few weeks ago, I picked up a very retro-looking copy of Better Homes & Gardens Meatless Main Dishes from the Kitchen Witch new and used bookstore in New Orleans. Though it's a vegetarian cookbook, it was printed in 1981 and almost every recipe is LOADED with dairy or eggs. I purchased the book for the challenge of veganizing a few of the recipes.

I chose to start with this Mediterranean Stroganoff:

A rich, cream sauce with fresh broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and olives tops healthy quinoa pasta. Of course the recipe didn't call for quinoa pasta, but that's what I had on hand ... so that's what I used. Probably healthier that way anyway. Honestly though, the recipe tastes perfectly sinful. I used a ton of vegan dairy substitutes, including my new favorite thing — MimicCreme! I picked up several cartons at a health food co-op in Jackson, Mississippi (about 3 hours south of Memphis) since it isn't sold here.

I don't typically share recipes from other people's cookbooks, but I heavily adapted this one. It called for heavy cream, sour cream, ricotta cheese, and parmesan. So, um, I made some serious changes. I'll share this one, and hopefully, Better Homes & Gardens won't hate me.

Veganized Mediterranean Stroganoff
(adapted from Better Homes & Gardens Meatless Main Dishes)

2 cups cauliflower, chopped
2 cups broccoli, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 Tbsp. Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
3 cups button mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups MimicCreme Non-Dairy Cream Substitute or soymilk
1 vegetable bouillon cube, crumbled
1/3 cup sliced black olives
1/2 pound firm tofu, drained
3/4 cup Tofutti sour cream
1/4 cup vegan parmesan cheese
12 ounces quinoa pasta (or other pasta)

Steam the cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots in a steamer basket until tender. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook pasta according to package directions.

In another saucepan, melt the margarine. Add onions and saute 2 to 3 minutes or until soft. Add sliced mushrooms and cook for about 7 minutes or until the mushrooms shrink down a bit. Add garlic and saute one more minute.

Quickly stir in flour and then add MimicCreme or soymilk. Crumble in bouillon cube. Stir until thick and bubbly. Carefully fold in steamed vegetables and black olives. Turn off heat.

In a separate bowl, mush tofu with your hands for about three minutes or until it achieves a ricotta-like consistency. Add sour cream and vegan parm and stir to combine. Slowly add the tofu ricotta/sour cream mixture to the cream sauce in the saucepan. Return to a low heat and cook several minutes or until heated through, but not boiling. Serve over hot pasta.

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In other news, the awesome Zel Allen (author of Nut Gourmet) has posted the recipe for Nutty Oatcakes (which I posted about on Monday night) on her blog. Check it out here!

Adopt a Turkey, Don't Eat One

Okay, so I totally ripped off that blog title from Veg Out with Us. But that's where I got the inspiration today to start a new Thanksgiving tradition — adopting a turkey from the Farm Sanctuary.

Meet Gideon — the turkey I chose to sponsor for a $25 donation to Farm Sanctuary:

There were several turkeys to choose from, but Gideon's little red skin flap was too cute to resist. The donation money will help Gideon and his turkey buds live peacefully at Farm Sanctuary's locations in California and New York.

Since 1986, Farm Sanctuary has rescued more than 1,000 turkeys, placing them into loving homes. They also educate folks about the plight of commercially-raised, factory-farmed turkeys and provide recipes for meat-free Thanksgiving dinners.

I've been meaning to start a turkey adoption tradition for years. But I finally hopped over to the Farm Sanctuary's website today and made a donation after reading this post on Veg Out with Us. I gave up meat in 1994 on the day after Thanksgiving, and 10 years later, I liberated myself from dairy and eggs on the day after Thanksgiving. Adopting a turkey every year seems like a fitting tradition.

Nutty Oatcakes

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to receive a box of three cookbooks to review from the Book Publishing Company in Summertown, Tennessee. The regionally-run book company produces loads of popular vegan titles by such esteemed vegan chefs as Joanne Stepaniak and Louise Hagler.

The review package included The Nut Gourmet by Zel Allen, a vegan cookbook filled with recipes involving — you guessed it — nuts! After thumbing through the cookbook, I settled on Nutty Oatcakes for my first review recipe:

These are flaky breakfast flatbreads made from rolled oats and ground walnuts. They were wholesome and absolutely delicious spread with Apricot Cashew Butter, another Nut Gourmet recipe:

Okay, full disclosure: I subbed dried peaches for the apricots in the recipe so it's technically Peach Cashew Butter. For some crazy reason, my Kroger doesn't carry dried apricots, though they sell every other dried fruit on the planet. I figure peaches and apricots are pretty similar though.

Anyway, this homemade cashew butter is totally fruit-sweetened ... no white sugar or artificial sweetener here. It's a little different from the cashew butter I buy at the store, but mostly because I'm not used to sweet nut butters. This would also be delicious spread on some whole wheat toast.

Pre-Thanksgiving Party!

Because one day of gluttony just isn't enough, our local vegetarian group Food Awareness held a pre-Thanksgiving party to help gear up our tummies for the big day. About 45 folks — some vegetarians, some vegans, some omnis — packed into fellow member Vaughan's house for a Saturday night filled with delicious vegan food, wine, and a random late-night poetry slam. Here's a picture of the folks still hanging on at the end of the party:

Left to right: (Top) Vaughan, Barbara, Michael (Bottom) April, Me, Greg, and a nice German girl named Lena ...

Here's my first plate, loaded with savory goodies:

There's Carol's AMAZING vegan mac & cheeze, my cornbread dressin', a roasted sweet potato, Vaughan's super-spicy kale, some pineapple rice, lentils, and almond quinoa.

I made my mom's veganized recipe for Cornbread Dressin'. It's not the sexiest-looking dish, but it's very, very tasty. My mom's will ALWAYS taste the best, but I think I came pretty close this time. It seems to get better and better every time I make it. Practice makes perfect, I guess.

Barbara made some yummy Edammame Dip for pre-dinner snackin':

And we had tons of dessert! I took a photo of my dessert plate — loaded with pies, cake, cookies, you name it. But it didn't turn out so well. Here's a sample of what went on it though ... like this delicious Vegan Sweet Potato (or maybe it was pumpkin?...I can't tell the two apart!) Pie:

Or Stephanie's (Poopie Bitch) Bourbon Pumpkin Pecan Pie (just look at her fancy embellishments!):

And Stephanie's (yes, she totally outdid herself with TWO beautiful pies) old-school Apple Pie:

We even had a raw Sweet Potato Pie, courtesy of our raw friend Judith:

By the end of the night, I was miserably stuffed ... just how one should feel after gorging on an amazing vegan Thanksgiving smorgasboard. Now I just hope I still have room left when the real Thanksgiving comes...

Food Is Better In a Bowl

There's something totally satisfying about a big ole bowl of whole grains, veggies, and a healthy protein. The combinations are endless — beans/broccoli/rice or tempeh/squash/millet ... you get the idea. I think I've found my favorite healthy bowl combo with this Monk Bowl from 30 Minute Vegan:

It's simply quinoa, baked tofu, and steamed broccoli, carrots, and zucchini. All that goodness is layered in a bowl and topped with soy sauce (I used Maggie seasoning), nutritional yeast, and flax oil. Oh, and I added a few spicy squirts of sriracha for good measure.

Then I mixed it all together and enjoyed bite after bite ... until it was all gone and I was wishing for more. The tofu was probably the highlight. It's Furama Savory Baked Tofu, which I buy at my neighborhood Asian market. It has a hint of five-spice powder flavor, and it's the firmest tofu I've ever eaten. I baked it again after marinating in some soy sauce for a few minutes. Delish!

Treat Time!

When I say "Datsun, want a treat-treat?," my big ole' puppy always comes running. Even if he's been a in a dead sleep. So I knew when I got a copy of The Simple Little Vegan Dog Book by Michelle Rivera that I'd absolutely have to try my hand at making homemade dog biscuits.

These Yeasted Gourmet Dog Treats were a huge hit with Datsun. See ...

He really wants me to stop taking pictures and give him the damn treat. I took at least ten of these photos, and his patience was wearing thin. When he finally got a chance to gobble down the biscuit, he looked up at me as if to say, "Can I have seconds?" I made him bones, flowers, and cute little pumpkins using cookie cutters:

The recipe is really basic — flour, yeast, veggie broth (I used water because I couldn't find unsalted broth), and soymilk. The yeast gives them a bit of rise, but the treats sit in the oven overnight (with the heat turned off, of course) to get crunchy.

In fact, they were still waiting in the oven when I arrived home from work tonight. I'd forgotten all about them and set the oven to pre-heat for 30 minutes or so to bake some tofu. Then I noticed the aroma of something baking even though I'd thought the oven was empty. Oops! Luckily, the extra cooking time just made the biscuits crunchier ... and Datsun seemed to like that even more.

By the way, the Vegan Dog Book is published through the Book Publishing Company out of Summertown, Tennessee.