Trader Joe's Lust

Memphis doesn't have a Trader Joe's. But I think I can speak for most Memphians (or at least Midtowners) when I say, there's nothing we'd like to have more. For years, there have been Trader Joe's rumors. So-and-so development is going up, and so-and-so heard a Trader Joe's was moving in. But they're always rumors. Sigh.

Sure, we have a Whole Foods. And it's nice. It's about to expand into the massive old Office Depot space next door, and it'll be a super Whole Foods. And that will be awesome. But that's all we have. No indie-owned health food shops. And no Trader Joe's. I know, I know ... first-world problems.

But the lack of a TJ's didn't stop me from reviewing Kris Holechek Peters' new cookbook, The I Love Trader Joe's Vegetarian Cookbook.

I've been following Kris' Nom! Nom! Nom! Blog for years, so I knew the recipes in this full-color book would be delicious. Now, because the book is for Trader Joe's, it's a "vegetarian" cookbook. But since Kris is vegan, every recipe has a vegan version. And since it's written from a vegan perspective, the vegan versions are never that far from the original. Even in the vegetarian recipes, you won't find any super cheesy or overly eggy recipes.

Because it's a Trader Joe's cookbook, each recipe calls for specific TJ's brand items. Some are items you can't find anywhere else, but you'll likely be able to find something similar elsewhere. Other items are pretty basic, like cans of chickpeas or firm tofu. Any brand will substitute just fine.

Since I don't have access to TJ's brand products, I picked a recipe that would work with any brand — the BBQ Bowl:

There's chickpeas sauteed in BBQ sauce, quinoa cooked with veggie broth, and roasted brussels sprouts, and it's topped with Parmela vegan aged Parmesan. I love bowls, and this one really takes the vegan cake. It combines my favorite grain, my favorite bean, and one of my fave veggies (I can't ever pick just one). Plus, that Parmela is some amazing stuff. If you haven't tried it yet, get some. Tastes exactly like dairy Parmesan.

I wanted a simple salad on the side, so I made the Massaged Spinach Salad:

It's like a massaged kale salad but with baby spinach. The simple olive oil and lemon juice dressing is worked into the spinach, wilting it into a tender, tasty green. I added garlic to this recipe because garlic is awesome.

Everything in this book looks amazing, and most can be made with substitute brands if you're not lucky enough to live by a TJ's. Next on my list is Roasted Carrot Risotto, Olive My Love Pasta (spaghetti with assorted olives!), Tahini Broccolini (tender baby broccoli with tahini sauce), the East Meets Midwest Breakfast Bake (a breakfast casserole with tofu, peppers, coconut milk, hash browns, and cucumber raita!), Tuscan Tomato Soup, and the Amazing Everything Cookies (peanut butter, chocolate chunk, walnuts, and banana chips).

Memphis may never see a Trader Joe's, but at least I can use this book and pretend. Right?

To India and Back

Okay, I didn't really go to India. But I did the next best thing: I went to Memphis' annual India Fest this weekend. Every year, the India Association of Memphis puts on this massive festival with food from every state of India, dance performances, vendors selling saris and jewelry, and lots of henna artists.

They really go all out with the decor. Check out this huge Taj Mahal!

My friends Cassi, Leslie, and her daughter Toya (all pictured here), and Stephanie, Richard, and their kid Peter all met up at the fest. And yes, I wore an Indian shirt and a bindhi on my head. I'm a nerd.

We immediately went in search of food, but we didn't have to go far since the fest has soooooooo much food. It's impossible to try even a smidgeon of what's offered. Every year, I try to vary what I eat. But I always, always order a Samosa (pictured here with a sweet tamarind sauce):

There are food booths representing the various states of India, so I like to order a small dish from several states so I can sample my way around India. After I downed my samosa, I found this Idli with Sambar at another booth:

Idli, the white things, are lentil and rice dumplings. They're like little soft pieces of bread, and they're served with a coconut sauce. That soup is sambar, a tamarind and pigeon pea stew. It's often served with idli. I like to dip my idli in the soup.

As I was walking to find a place to sit and eat my sambar and idli, I stumbled across a vendor selling my favorite Indian food — Vada!!

They look like donuts, but vada are actually savory. They're made with dal or lentil flour, and they're typically served with a sauce. This one was served with a brothy soup that had chunks of potato. So good!

Now, I had mostly chaat (street food that's typically served at roadside carts in India), but there were plenty of full meals offered too. I just didn't want to fill up in one place, so I stuck with snacky fare.

I was pretty full after all the chaat I'd eaten so far, but I kept seeing people walking around with plates of this puffed rice looking stuff. And I really wanted to try it! I'd had some before, but I had no idea what it was called. So I went from booth to booth, looking for this stuff. I finally found it when we were in line for henna tattoos. The booth next to the henna artist was selling this Bhel Puri:

Bhel puri is a spicy, savory street food snack made with puffed rice, veggies, and tamarind sauce. This plate had fresh onions, sev snack sticks, cilantro, peanuts, and some other stuff. It was so amazing. I savored every bite while Cassi and I waited in line for our henna tattoos.

Here I am getting my henna done:

And here's the finished product. This black stuff flakes off, leaving behind that brown henna dye that stays on your skin for a few days:

Plant Based Protein

You'd think a book called 250 Best Beans, Lentils, and Tofu Recipes would be vegan or at least vegetarian, right? Well, it's not. The new cookbook from Robert Rose Inc. actually features a combination of vegan, vegetarian, and omni recipes with legumes and tofu as the star ingredient.

It's rather interesting to see recipes for, say, a Cuban-Style Tofu Sandwich alongside recipes for Spicy Halibut on a Bed of Lentils or Easy Chicken Tacos. But at least the book does introduce tofu to meat-eaters. This book would be a great gift for someone looking to add some veg options without going full force yet.

But nonetheless, I found plenty of mouth-watering vegan recipes to choose from. After all, there are 250 recipes! I finally settled on Cajun-Style Tofu with Okra and Tomatoes:

The tomatoes are slow-simmered in a Crock Pot, and then the okra and corn is added toward the end of cooking. The tofu is lightly breaded with flour and Cajun seasoning and fried in a little oil. The meal was absolutely delicious. I loved the lightly fried, spicy tofu, and I'm always a fan of anything with okra. For this, I used some fresh okra that my Granny had canned this summer. I just washed off the salt and vinegar, sliced it up, and threw it in the pot of tomatoes.

There's a whole chapter of this book dedicated to Meatless Mains, and there you'll find recipes for the Indian dish, Bengali Khichri (a rice and lentil dish that resembles risotto), Cider Baked Beans, Penne with Creamy White Bean Sauce, and Moussaka with Tofu Topping (a Greek eggplant casserole). I don't think there's a single dish in the Meatless Mains chapter that isn't on my to-make wish list.

But there are plenty of vegan options in other parts of the book as well. I bookmarked a Curried Squash and Red Lentil Soup with Coconut in the Soups chapter, a Red Hot Hummus (with hot chili paste!) in the Appetizers, and Pumpkin and Black Beans in the Sides and Small Plates chapter. All the vegan recipes are clearly marked as "vegan," as are the vegetarian ones. And any vegetarian recipe can be easily made vegan.

If you're looking for a vegan tofu and beans book, this isn't it. But if you're looking for a book to help an omni ease into healthy eating, this is the perfect fit.

Happy Halloween!!

Tonight, on the last night of Vegan Mofo, I have a fabulous post about my family's Halloween tradition. But first, I have a very important announcement — Bankrupt Vegan was the winner of the Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day giveaway!!! Yea!!!

And before I get to Halloween night, check out my costume. I didn't dress up tonight, because I wore my costume on Saturday for a couple of parties. I started Saturday night at the Friends for Life Halloween party. The theme was "Apocalypse 2012: The Party to End All Parties," and besides Cher, what will survive the end of times? Roaches. That's right. So I went as a roach motel:

Throughout the night, at both parties, my roaches, which were hot-glued to my dress, fell off. So I left a trail of roaches in my path. Fab!!

Okay, now onto tonight. Every year, my family gathers at my Me-Maw's house in Jonesboro, Arkansas for Halloween to eat chili dogs. My Me-Maw LOVES Halloween! It's her fave holiday! Here she is sporting one of her many Halloween sweatshirts:

Me-Maw goes all out for Halloween. She trades out all of her knick-knacks and other decor for witches, pumpkins, ghosts, and bats. She even has a Halloween tree:

Here's some more decor:

Even her pot holders are Halloween-themed:

And if that wasn't enough, check out her Frankenstein toilet cover!

I wish I had room here to show you everything, but that would take a million years. There's literally Halloween in every inch of her house. It's overwhelming. Nothing goes un-goblinized.

Everyone else eats real hot dogs and meat chili, but my mom always brings over veggie dogs for me. And rather than feed me vegan chili from a can, she makes my chili from scratch. I piled my dog high with chili, relish, onions, vegan cheese, and jalapenos:

My mom also made these adorable Halloween cookies using Oreos and Nutter Butters:

And although Oreos and Nutter Butters are vegan, the dip stuff she used wasn't. So she made me vegan chocolate chip cookies with Halloween frosting and sprinkles to make up for it:

I got to spend time with my family and eat chili dogs. It doesn't get much better than that. Before I left, I snapped a quick pic of my Me-Maw (mama's mama), my Mama, and my Granny (daddy's mama):

Happy Halloween! And for those who read this on November 1st, Happy Dio de los Muertos!

Feast of the Dead

My last two posts during Vegan Mofo won't be sandwich-themed. Instead, I'm posting about my Halloween traditions. Tomorrow night, on Halloween, I'll tell y'all about my family tradition, but tonight, I'm inviting you all to my annual Feast of the Dead.

Long before Americans were celebrating Halloween, folks of the Gaelic tradition were celebrating Samhain, the last harvest and the night when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead are thinnest. I like to celebrate that ancient holiday with a little feast honoring my friends and family members who have passed.

Every year, I set a table with pictures or items representing everyone I know who has died during my lifetime. As I get older, my guest list grows. This year, I "invited" 13 people:

There were places for Trudy (Mama Dragon), Tammy (Tzaddia Morningstar), Daniel, Adam, Flick, Smoky, Xander, David Ray, my grandpa Haas (my mama's daddy), my Pa (my daddy's daddy), my Aunt Ruth, my kitty Alexius, and my kitty Patches.

I light a candle for each person who has passed and think about my memories of them as I dine on Smoky South American Seitan Stew from Grub:

I don't know why, but I make this same stew every year for the Samhain feast. I always have, and I never make it any other time of year. It's so delicious that it's worth saving for such a special occasion. The chipotle-tomato broth is loaded with homemade seitan, red potatoes, fried plantains, and cilantro. I dipped slices of toasted garlic bread into the soup and washed it down with some red wine.

No Feast of the Dead is complete without dessert. Some years, I make a harvest-themed dessert, but now that my friend Stephanie sells her vegan cakes at Imagine Vegan Cafe, I can be lazy and buy a slice. Her cake is better than anything I can make anyway. I purchased a slice of her Halloween-themed Chocolate-Orange Cake last week and froze it for tonight:

In case you're wondering how well cake freezes, well, let's just say this slice tasted as fresh as if it were baked today. I wrapped it in plastic wrap, froze it for a week, and thawed a few hours before dinner.

Don't forget to enter my Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day giveaway! I'm picking a winner on Wednesday night! Happy Halloween!

Burger Without a Bun

Is a sandwich without bread still a sandwich? Some might say no, but for the sake of my Vegan Mofo sandwich theme, I'm saying yes.

Tonight, I made a bun-less burger from The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni Marie Newman — the Enchilada Burger:

This unique burger is unlike any burger I've had. TVP is simmered with onions in enchilada sauce, and then you mix in black olives, scallions, and masa flour to form a dough. It tastes like a cross between an enchilada and a tamale. I absolutely love the black olives! Perfect addition.

And I really like how the masa flour makes the burger hold together. Some homemade burgers taste amazing but fall apart the minute you pick them up. Not this guy. It's meaty and, dare I say, toothsome. God, I hate that word, but I'm not sure how else to say it.

Anyway, I served the burger, as suggested by Joni, with vegan sour cream and a corn tortilla. On the side, I made the suggested Cilantro Lime Rice:

Joni says this is supposed to taste like the cilantro lime rice they serve at Chipotle, and oh my god, it does! Exactly like it. It's buttery, lime-y, and loaded with cilantro.

The only thing missing from this meal was salad and salsa, but I was out of both. I picked up a lettuce mix and some corn salsa at Kroger tonight though, so my leftovers will be a complete meal.

Don't forget to enter my Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day giveaway!

Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day Giveaway!

Throughout Vegan Mofo, I've been blogging about sandwiches a few times each week. Now, I've always loved a good sandwich, but I must admit that my Mofo theme was influenced by a very special new cookbook — Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes.

My copy arrived from Amazon just a few days before Mofo began, and I knew I wanted to spend much of the month drooling over it and trying a few things. And then, as if by some strange twist of fate, Tami asked me to participate on the Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day blog tour. That means I'll be doing a review here, and then we're giving away a copy to one lucky Crunk reader!

A flip through this full-color volume reveals that same rustic-meets-retro photography that has become so synonymous with Celine's previous work with Joni Newman. That's because Celine does all the photography, and she has a style all her own. Tami's downhome influence shines through in so many of the recipes, which are all comfort food, pure and simple.

The 101 sandwich recipes are organized by type: There's a chapter for breakfast sandwiches (my fave! check out my review of the Country Tempeh Sandwich), topless sandwiches (open-faced if you're prudish), cold sandwiches, diner-style sandwiches, dessert sandwiches, and one devoted to "bold new ground" (crazy sandwiches that push the culinary envelope).

Of course, I flipped the book straight to the Bold New Ground chapter. I love going on crazy new taste adventures. The Mac-Shroom immediately caught my attention:

Why, yes, that is macaroni and cheese on a bun. And it's sitting atop a barbecue portabella mushroom. Brill, huh? The recipe reminded me of the Mac-No-Cheeto Wrap (mac & cheese, BBQ Soy Curls, and peppers on a wrap) from Homegrown Smoker in Portland. BBQ sauce and mac & cheese go together like butter and toast. Oh, and this sauce is homemade with all sorts of stuff you wouldn't expect to find in a 'cue sauce, like apple butter and freshly brewed coffee. But it works! The sauce has a smoky-sweet flavor that is just amazing.

There are so many sandwiches I want to try from this book: the Retro KFC-Style Sandwiches (made with cornflake-crusted homemade seitan!), the Torta de Tofu (marinated tofu, avocado, and veggies on a baguette), the Bananas Foster Cake Sandwiches (basically an ice cream sandwich with cake as the sandwich), French Tofu Salad Sandwich (tofu and white grapes!), and the Navajo Tacos (Indian tacos with homemade fried bread).

If you don't have the book yet, you too can have a list of must-makes. All you have to do is leave a comment here telling me about your favorite sandwich, and you'll be entered for a chance to win a copy of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day. I'll randomly select a winner on Wednesday night. By the publisher's request, the contest is only open to readers in the U.S. and Canada. If you're Blogger profile does not include an email or way to contact you, please leave your email address in the comment so I can contact you if you win.