Tofu Omelets ... Again

In Crunk news:

• Vegan Perv-Nerds Take London is giving away a copy of Cookin' Crunk to celebrate their blog's birthday! How cool is that? I'm honored they'd choose my book for their giveaway. Click here for details on how to enter.

• Vegan Corner is giving away a whole slew of new vegan cookbooks! There's Cookin' Crunk, Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day, Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats, Artisan Vegan Cheese, DirtCandy Cookbook, Vegan Eats World, Vegan a la Mode, and prizes from Gardein! Check it out.

• And Erin of Vegan Homemade is still raffling off all kinds of goodness, including Cookin' Crunk, in her effort to raise money for the ASPCA. Click here for info.

Now, let's talk omelets. If you've been following this blog for awhile, you're probably sick of hearing me gush about vegan omelets and sharing pics of my omelet successes and omelet failures. But I love tofu omelets, and I'm probably going to blog about them every time I make one. 

This morning, I made the first vegan omelet recipe I tried several years ago. That would be Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen's Tofu Omelet for One:

It's not my best work. What you can't see here is the giant hole in the other side where I tore the tofu egg as I attempted to fold. But I've done much worse. I've only ever perfected the tofu omelet once, and it was damn beautiful. But regardless of what it looks like on the outside, it's what's inside that counts, right?

This one was stuffed with sauteed bell peppers and onions and Galaxy Mozzarella Vegan Shreds. It was lovely served with a slice of whole wheat toast schmeared with pepper jelly.

If you've never tried a tofu omelet, get thee to Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen stat. It's made with blended silk tofu, cornstarch, nutritional yeast, and some other magic stuff. You spread the batter in a skillet and it cooks up JUST LIKE EGGS! Just one more way to prove that eggs are pointless. There's also a great tofu omelet recipe in Vegan Brunch and a baked omelet in Happy Herbivore. I like to alternate the three in my breakfast repertoire. 

Bluff City Vegan Eats: Evelyn & Olive

Memphis may be a far cry from the islands, but Evelyn & Olive offers a little taste of Jamaica. This quaint little eatery and wine bar has been open for awhile, and I knew they had vegan options. But for some reason, I'd put off trying them out. Evelyn & Olive is tucked away in a Madison Avenue storefront that I rarely drive past, so I guess it just slipped my mind.

But now I wish I'd stopped in sooner because this place is AMAZING with a capital "A" (and as you can see, a capital "MAZING" too). It's that good. My friend Leslie and I had lunch there a few weeks back. She started with a glass of Jamaican Sorrel, a drink made from hibiscus:

I'd never heard of sorrel, and I assumed it'd be some hot tea drink. And I'm not a huge fan of fruity, herbal hot teas, so I passed. But when this frosty glass arrived at the table, I was pretty jealous. I tasted it, and it had a remarkably tangy flavor that was kind of awesome. I'm ordering this next time.

We had Fried Plantains for an appetizer:

These were yummy, but they were a little sweet for my tastes. I prefer to eat plantains when they're not fully ripe so they're less sweet. But we added salt and they tasted much better.

The real treat came when my entree arrived. These are the Black Bean Tacos with Rice & Peas:

Now, black bean tacos may not sound that interesting. But y'all, they put magic in these tacos. Black beans, seasoned tofu, homemade slaw, and kiwi salsa are stuffed into crunchy shells. Wow. I could eat these every day and be happy. I don't know what they use to season the tofu, but I'm pretty sure that's the special ingredient because it has an amazing flavor. The tender rice with pigeon peas was a perfect and filling side.

Leslie ordered the Marley Meal — Kingston Cabbage, Rice & Peas, and a Cucumber & Tomato Salad:

I didn't try her cabbage, but I've been hearing nothing but good things about their cabbage sauteed with sweet peppers and Caribbean spices since the day this place opened. It's legendary. I'll have to try that next time if I can pry myself away from those tacos.

Other veg menu options at Evelyn & Olive include a black bean veggie wrap with mango BBQ sauce (ask for no cheese) and a chipotle black bean burger (I don't know if this is vegan). Plus, there are a couple more vegetarian options for all y'all cheese-eaters out there.

Evelyn & Olive is located at 630 Madison. Call 901-748-5422.

Low Fat & Delicious

We all know that "low fat" and "delicious" don't always belong in the same sentence. Y'all know how I feel about oil. I like it ... a lot. And I think it's healthy when used sparingly. I occasionally cook low fat, no oil recipes though to make up for all the French fries and ramen noodles I eat. Life is all about balance (and yes, I'm a Libra, so I can use that cliche and get away with it).

But I often roll my eyes at the "no oil ever" crowd. When I was asked to review the Complete Idiot's Guide to Low Fat Vegan Cooking, I assumed the recipes would fall into the "no oil" McDougall/Fuhrman camp. However, I was surprised to find that many of the recipes in this book by Bo Rinaldi do call for oil (mostly virgin coconut oil), as well as nuts and seeds (lots of hemp seeds). Now that is my version of low fat.

Maybe I was just really hungry when I was flipping through the book at first, but I swear every recipe sounded like something I'd want to make — Raw Cheesy Hemp Spread, Caribbean-Style Yuca Pie, Margarita Mochi Pizza. It's all really fun, original stuff.

I settled on the White & Green Chili with Tangy Green Chili Sauce and Hemp Sour Cream:

Now, this recipe isn't a come-home-from-work-and-throw-it-in-the-pot dish. It has a lot of steps. First, you make the world's most delicious raw sour cream using hemp seeds. I couldn't stop eating this stuff out of the blender, and I was wishing I'd made more to top the chili with since it's stirred into the chili sauce.

Next, you make the tangy chili sauce with peppers that you roast over an open flame. The hemp cream and chili sauce are combined and that becomes the base for the white bean and tofu chili. You can use canned white beans, but I cooked mine from scratch, so that took longer too. But it was well worth the work and the wait. The roasted green chilies, cumin, and cilantro lend the chili a flavor that's so very different from your average red chili. And I love how the tofu is just crumbled into the mix.

I served my chili with a side of Jalapeno-Corn Cornbread from my book, Cookin' Crunk. It's a sweet cornbread that's loaded with corn and chopped, pickled jalapenos:

But back to the Complete Idiot's Guide to Low Fat Vegan Cooking. I tried a couple more recipes from the book, but I don't have pictures since both were enjoyed while it was dark outside and I was too lazy to drag out my light box.

The Super Green Popcorn (topped with nutritional yeast, spirulina, cayenne, and garlic) was perfect for Friday's movie night. And I enjoyed the Spirulina Splash Smoothie this morning before my run. That was made with frozen blueberries, pomegranate juice, coconut water, spirulina, chia seeds, and hemp protein powder. Delicious!!

Anyway, there's loads more recipes from this book on my list. The snack chapter is especially ripe with awesomeness. There's Curry Quinoa Crisps (baked rice-like crackers made with quinoa) and Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips! I also want to explore the sauces chapter and try the Chia Mole sauce and the Sea Salt and Lime Cream Sauce. This is how low fat should be done!

Halva Toast

First some Crunk news:

• Blogger friend Erin of The Vegan Weight Watcher is raffling off some AMAZING vegan prizes to raise money for Team ASPCA (that's the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in case you didn't know). Erin will be running the Rock 'n' Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon with Team ASPCA in October, so she's raffling cool stuff as part of her fund-raising efforts. She's raffling a copy of Cookin' Crunk, as well as other really cool stuff like a freakin' Vitamix, two tickets to Disney theme parks, a box of 24 Go Max Go candy bars, and much, much more. So get over there and buy a raffle ticket! 

• Fellow Memphis blogger Melissa of Treats with a Twist is giving away a copy of Cookin' Crunk. Click here to enter. She'll pick a winner on Friday.

And now let's talk halva toast! Full disclosure: I've never tried halva. For shame, I know. My BFF Sheridan swears it's the best thing in the world, and I know many brands of halva are vegan. So I'm not sure what I'm waiting for. 

But let's back up a bit. A few weeks ago, I received a sample of Golden Millstone Sesame Butter:

It was a teensy little jar, so it wasn't enough to make hummus. Plus, I figured I'd have a better review if I enjoyed this as simply as possible. So I made Halva Toast:

This may not be anything like halva, but I figure it has to be close since halva is typically made with tahini and some kind of sweetener. I spread a little tahini on some whole wheat toast and drizzled it with Bee-Free Honee (agave would work too). Voila! This was delicious. Like a healthy dessert for breakfast.

Now let's talk about that Golden Millstone Sesame Butter. It was richer than most sesame butters I've tasted. The sesame flavors were more pronounced. It was more liquid-y than some brands, but that made my toast seem all the more like dessert because I had to eat it with a fork. I'd love to try this stuff in a batch of homemade hummus.

More Quinoa!

In Crunk news, fellow Memphis blogger Melissa of Treats with a Twist is giving away a copy of Cookin' Crunk. So if you missed the last giveaway on Allison's blog, here's your chance. Click here to enter.

And now on to tonight's post: On Sunday night, I promised you two quinoa cookbook review posts this week, and I'm making good on that promise with tonight's review of 500 Best Quinoa Recipes by Camilla V. Saulsbury. Much like the Complete Idiot's Guide Quinoa Cookbook that I reviewed on Monday, this book isn't vegan or even vegetarian. But as to be expected with a quinoa cookbook, there's plenty of vegan dishes. I mean, with 500 recipes, how could there not be some vegan ones?  I also assumed there'd be vegan recipes since the book's author, Camilla V. Saulsbury, has written vegan cookbooks for this same publisher, Robert Rose.

The chapter on Vegetarian Dishes has a recipe index that could fill a small cookbook on its own. Seriously. There's got to be about 40 dishes in there, and most are vegan. Most are also pretty unique and feature very inventive uses for quinoa, which as I've mentioned, I could use a little help with. There's a Quinoa-Millet Polenta with Mushrooms and a California Quinoa Club Sandwich (with hummus, avocado, and quinoa sprouts).

But I was drawn to the Chimichurri Tempeh & Quinoa Bowls:

First, you make a tangy chimichurri sauce with lots of cilantro, and then you mix it into the cooked quinoa. That's topped with sauteed tempeh and bell peppers, more chimichurri sauce, and optional fresh mango. I think, perhaps, it was the savory use of mango that made me want to try this. The garlicky sauce, fluffy quinoa, meaty tempeh, and sweet mango were the perfect combination. And look how pretty and colorful it is!

If you're looking for a few new ways to use quinoa, don't let the meat recipes in this book turn you off. Some, like Broccoli, Chicken, and Quinoa Stir-Fry, would be easy to make vegan with a meat-free stand-in, like Morningstar Farms strips or Soy Curls. Plus, there are loads of veg recipes tucked into various chapters outside the Vegetarian Dishes chapter. I found a Roasted Cauliflower Quinoa Soup recipe in the Soups, Stews, and Chilis chapter that is calling my name. And the Toasted Coconut Banana Quinoa Pudding in the Desserts chapter sounds like healthy sweet ending.

Happy Labor Day!

So I said I was going to post another review of a quinoa cookbook tonight. But that's because I forgot today was Labor Day, the official last day of summer. Okay, technically, summer is here until September 21st. But we all know summer is kinda dead after Labor Day, right?

My friend Greg and I decided to grill out on the last day of summer. We made tofu kabobs with cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, zucchini, oyster mushrooms, and red onions. Here's Greg making a kabob and looking very uninterested, as he always is:

And here I am, looking very interested:

We basted some kabobs with vegan oyster sauce and some with BBQ sauce and sriracha, and then we tossed them on the charcoal grill:

I enjoyed an O'Fallen Kite Tail as we waited since today is the last day to enjoy summer seasonal beer. It's all stouts and Octoberfests after today:

And here are the kabobs, roasting on the grill:

I ate about four of these, as well as copious amounts of chips and salsa!

Quinoa-tastic

I'm starting off this week with a couple of posts dedicated to cookbooks on quinoa, that magical grain with the funny name. I tend to get stuck in quinoa ruts, only using it as a side grain in the same way I would use brown rice.

I was offered a copy of The Idiot's Complete Guide Quinoa Cookbook to review, and even though it's not a vegan (or even vegetarian) cookbook, I decided to give it a gander anyway. I figured, although there are some meat dishes in the book, a cookbook about quinoa is bound to be filled with veg options. And I was right. Despite recipes for Thai Chicken Quinoa Salad and Quinoa Roast Beef Wraps, there actually seem to be more vegetarian dishes in here than meat ones. And many of those are vegan or are easily veganizable.

And yes, I believe that is cheese on the cover. But just pretend you didn't see that.

Veg recipes are peppered throughout the book, but there's also a chapter dedicated to Vegetarian Dinners. Some of the dishes in this chapter use quinoa as a side grain, but most are pretty darn inventive. There's Quinoa Veggie Burgers (and they contain sriracha!) and Quinoa Muffins. I found the most original use I've ever seen for quinoa in this recipe for Black Bean Hummus with Quinoa:

This is unlike any hummus I've had. There's no tahini and no chickpeas, which in my opinion, pretty much makes it not hummus. But it's tasty nonetheless. I might have called it Black Bean Spread with Hummus, but that's all semantics. What's in here? Well, cooked quinoa for one. Duh. But also black beans, hominy, tomato paste, chili powder, lots of cilantro, and lime and lemon. See? Totally unlike hummus. But delicious. The quinoa added a nice chew, but it was still very soft and creamy.

Since one cannot live on hummus alone, I served this spread and bread with some homemade Summer's Bounty Veggie Soup from my book, Cookin' Crunk:

I know summer isn't really the time for soup, but you have to make this soup when everything — the okra, sweet corn, squash, basil etc. — is in season. And since the tomato base is made with fresh tomatoes cooked into a broth, it's crucial to use juicy, summer tomatoes. My book is out now, by the way. You can order your signed copy on my page (PayPal button on the right) or check your local bookstore.

But I digress. I'm really here to tell you about The Complete Idiot's Guide Quinoa Cookbook. If you're bored with quinoa taking a backseat to your main dishes, this book is for you. Recipes like Cucumber Mousse with Quinoa Caviar (not vegan, but easily veganized) and Crispy Quinoa-Stuffed Wontons (they have tofu in 'em!) are sure to expand your quinoa horizons.

Now tune in tomorrow for another review of another quinoa cookbook!