April » 2011 » VeggieGirl

Cookbook Project Week 17: The Vegan Table

I like Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s The Vegan Table so much that when it came out I bought a bunch of copies and gave them to clients as gift’s when they finished my 6 month program. I love the way the book is divided into occasions, such as Romantic Dinners for Two and Casual Meals for Four to Six. Each section has recipes that are categorized by season, and there are lots of bits of trivia sprinkled throughout the book. I’ve cooked from this often so I was anxious to dig in and start cooking from it again. To try to stick to eating with the seasons, I cooked mainly from the Spring recipes.

I can’t resist a curry recipe, so I made Thai Curry with Vegetables. I used red curry paste and I thinned the coconut milk down with a little vegetable broth. This was quite tasty! Once again, I made a large pot of brown rice at the beginning of the week to serve with meals throughout the week.

I also can’t resist a Pad Thai recipe. I think the sauce for this could have used a little more peanut butter because it was on the tangy side, but this was also really tasty.

The Tofu Scramble recipe was pretty much the same way I usually make tofu scramble. I did have a little more spice in it than I usually use. I felt that there was a little too much cumin, but otherwise it was delicious. I added a little Daiya cheese for a little extra something-something.

Mac and Cheese is another recipe that I have a hard time passing up. I have made this cashew cheese sauce before, and it’s always turned out very thin. I wonder if I’m doing something wrong? The recipe makes about twice as much as you need for a 16 ounce bag of macaroni. It has a really nice flavor to it though and would work well with other dishes. I added broccoli to the macaroni because I love broccoli in cheese sauce.

This Sweet and Sour Tempeh is new to me. It’s made with apricot preserves, apple cider vinegar and miso paste. It also contains red pepper flakes, which I think I added a touch too much of, because it was pretty spicy, but it was still pretty yummy!

Double Broccoli Quinoa

This is one of my favorite springtime recipes. It’s perfect for picnics and potlucks! I love the broccoli pesto and have made it with pasta as well as with quinoa.

Serves 6

Ingredients

3 cups cooked quinoa
5 cups broccoli, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup of water
15 ounce can of chickpeas
3 garlic cloves
2/3 cup cashews
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil + 1 teaspoon

Directions

1. Add the water and broccoli to a large pot and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, just enough to take the raw edge off. Broccoli should be bright green.

2. Remove two cups of broccoli and set aside for the pesto. Add one teaspoon of olive oil and chickpeas to the pan. Cook for five minutes

3. To make the broccoli pesto, puree two cups of broccoli, garlic, 1/4 olive oil, cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and sea salt in a food processor.

4. Mix together pesto and cooked quinoa in a large bowl. Add the rest of the broccoli and the chickpeas.

Optional toppings: vegan feta cheese, roasted red peppers, avocado, basil or anything else you wish!

Vegan Bake Sale

As I mentioned last week, Montclair’s contribution to the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale will be on Saturday April 30th at Go Lightly from 11:00 to 4:30. We will have cupcakes, muffins, cookies, brownies, etc. All proceeds will go to JerseyCats and the Montclair Animal Shelter. Please come out and eat some yummy baked treats for the animals!

I made these delicious chocolate cupcakes with chocolate mousse frosting for my friend Jessica’s vegan bake sale last weekend and they were a such a huge hit that I will be making them again.

Go Lightly is located at 4 So Fullerton in Montclair. And why not stop inside and try some vegan ice cream while you’re there? See you Saturday!

Cookbook Project Week 16: The Gluten Free Vegan

I picked The Gluten-Free Vegan by Susan O’Brien as the cookbook of the week this week. More and more people are going gluten-free these days, and gluten has been in the news as causing all sorts of health problems. Even if you don’t have celiac disease, you may have a gluten intolerance and not realize it. Gluten is the protein found in wheat and is difficult for the body to digest. I challenge everyone to go gluten-free for a week and see how they feel. You’ll probably notice an increase in energy and things like brain fog and body aches going away. I will admit that I’m not 100% gluten-free, but I try to avoid it whenever possible.

I started out the week by making Spinach Tofu with Peanut Sauce. I served it over rice noodles. This was so simple and so good!

The word paella always conjures up images of Estelle Costanza yelling “what am I supposed to do with all this paella!” because the Seinfelds don’t want to go over for dinner. So I just couldn’t help but make this Vegetable Paella and walk around saying the same thing. I cheated a little here because I made a huge pot of rice at the beginning of the week and heating it up each night for each meal. I served the dish over raw spinach, and the heat ended up steaming it. You can do that with just about any leafy green, and it’s a good way to get greens into your meal.

Lately I’ve been picking a casserole to make at the beginning of the week so I can just heat it up on busy nights, and I’ve had a lot of busy nights lately. This week I made Spring Casserole, which is basically just a bunch of vegetables cooked together. Because I have a tendency to not measure my ingredients, I added too much broth to this dish. I also added some chickpeas because everything’s a little better with chickpeas.

These Veggie Stuffed Peppers were really delicious and since there are only two of us, we got two meals out of the dish.

I was intrigued by the Vegetable Ratatouille over Rice because it contained carrots, chickpeas and sweet potatoes, which all ingredients that aren’t traditional to ratatouille. This was pretty much just a large veggie stew, and it was really good. This is another dish that made several servings, so we were set for lunches for a few days.

Indonesian Tempeh with Green Beans and Crushed Peanuts

By now, my love of peanut sauce is well known. This dish is one of my favorites for its spicy, peanutty goodness. I adapted this recipe from one I found in Vegetarian Times. I taught it in a protein cooking class last year, and it was a huge hit!

Serves 4

Ingredients

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
8 ounce package tempeh, cut into cubes
3 tablespoons soy sauce or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
2/3 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chili sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons crushed peanuts
1/2 cup water + 3 tablespoons

Directions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add tempeh and sear for 3 minutes on each side. Add water and half of the soy sauce. Cook tempeh for 5 more minutes, until all of the liquid has been absorbed. Transfer to a plate and let cool, until it’s easy to handle. Crumble by hand until no large chunks remain.

2. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in wok over high heat. Add green beans and stir-fry for 4 minutes, until they begin to brown. Add 3 tablespoons of water and simmer beans for about 5 more minutes. Add coconut milk, peanut butter, garlic, ginger, chili sauce, remaining soy sauce and crumbled tempeh and stir-fry for about 2 minutes. Garnish with crushed peanuts. Enjoy!

Spring Clean Your Body

Once again, it’s time for my Spring Cleaning Detox Program!

Spring is a time of renewal, so why not cleanse from the inside out?

Detoxification, if done correctly, can bring you:

An Increase in Energy
An Increase in Concentration and Clarity
A Decrease in Digestive Problems
Clearer Skin
An Improvement in Vision
A Reduction of Aches and Pains
A Reduction or Elimination of Food Cravings
An Improvement in Sleep Patterns
A Jump-Start to Weight Loss
And Can Help You to Spring Forth to Improvement in Overall Health & Wellness

Program includes:

One Week Detoxification Program
One Week Menu with Recipes
One Week Shopping List
Online Group Support
Personal Email Support

This is a whole foods based detox program. Each day focuses on detoxing a different organ to give a comprehensive body detox. It’s simple and easy to do. There is no fasting and you will not go hungry. I am running it with my colleague Karen Yagnesak, who is also a holistic health counselor.

Spring Cleaning Detox Program – $59

Sunday, May 15th

Lavage, 24-26 Church Street, Montclair NJ

Early bird special:

What people are saying:

Dianne and Karen, thanks for putting together such an effective and enlightening program. It was particularly good for first timers, like me. It was easy to follow, and despite intense sugar cravings, I remained committed to it. That is largely due to the kindness and support from my on-line group, especially when my carb obsession was at its peak. The recipes are delicious and easy to prepare and I’ve continued to make many of them even now that I’m not officially on the program any longer.

- Sue

Vegan Ice Cream at Go Lightly

Great news for Northern NJ vegans!! Go Lightly in Montclair now has delicious dairy-free ice cream! Many of the flavors are gluten-free too.

Flavors are:

Hemp Chocolate
Hemp Vanilla
Hemp Maple Walnut
Hemp Blueberry
Hemp Cookies and Cream
Hemp Mocha Almond Fudge
Soy Chocolate Chip Cookie
Soy Coffee

Custom ice cream cakes can be ordered as well. Cakes can be made with just about any type of dairy free milk: coconut, cashew, almond, hemp and soy.

Cookies and Cream ice cream.

Chocolate Chip Cookie ice cream.

Go Lightly is located at 4 So. Fullerton Street in Montclair. They also currently have vegan Easter chocolates!

Cookbook Project Week 15: La Dolce Vegan

I learned my lesson about overbooking myself last week. That said, I still had a lot to do this week. It was mainly things I could at home, so it wasn’t quite as exhaustive, but I still needed to make sure my dinner plans wouldn’t take up a huge chunk of time each night. I picked La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer as the cookbook of the week because it has a wide variety of quick, easy and delicious recipes. In fact, there are so many recipes in this book that I was disappointed in myself for only having time to make three this week! I’m going to have to revisit this book again later in the year. I had actually bought this book a few years ago as a gift for someone else but I liked it so much that I kept it for myself and gave my friend something else.

I cooked ahead for a busy night and made Wendy’s Lentil and Brown Rice Casserole. This dish was super easy to make. You simply combine all of the ingredients in a casserole dish and pop it in the oven for an hour and a half. When we were ready to eat it, I opened a package of baby spinach and quickly sautéed it in garlic and olive oil.

I made Emira’s Speedy Gourmet Kale and Tofu Delight, but I had to use swiss chard instead of kale because Whole Foods was out of kale. (How can Whole Foods be out of kale??) I also substituted cashews for the pine nuts called for in the recipe because I’m allergic to them. this was indeed speedy and tasty.

I’m a big fan of pesto sauce so I Jen’s Creamy Basil & Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta was a natural choice for me. This was really quick and easy and super delicious. I topped the dish with a little nutritional yeast and some chopped olives.

Frozen Pizza Taste Test

I’ll let you in on a little secret: I don’t always feel like cooking. Sometimes I just want dinner to appear before me with no effort on my part so I can just relax on the sofa and watch a spot of tellie. And since things have been pretty busy for me lately, I’ve felt like that more often than usual. So when I noticed vegan frozen pizza at Whole Foods, I decided to pick some up for just such an occasion. Dennis and I made two frozen pizzas for dinner one night and had a mini taste test.

I’ve wanted to try Tofurky’s vegan pizzas since they announced they were coming out about a year ago. This was the first time I’d seen them at Whole Foods, and unfortunately they didn’t have any of the varieties with toppings – they just had cheese pizza.

I always see American Flatbread frozen pizzas at Whole Foods, but I just figured there wouldn’t be a vegan one, so I’ve never checked them out. Somehow I saw this vegan pizza out of the corner of my eye and was quite happy to find it.

Both pizzas were small, so we took half of each. The Tofurky pizza (on the right) was pretty good, but it did taste like a frozen pizza. The crust had that “frozen-pizza” taste to it and the cheese was a little oily. The American Flatbread Pizza (on the left) had a nice thin, crisp crust and the cheese wasn’t as oily. It had a fresher taste to it and reminded me of pizzaria pizza. I’d definitely buy it again.

So now that vegan frozen pizza is finally on the market (and it’s not cheeseless), can someone make a gluten-free one with lots of veggies? Thanks!

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale

It’s that time of year again! Time for the Wordwide Vegan Bake Sale. Montclair Vegans are getting in on the action with a bake sale on Saturday April 30th at Go Lightly, which is located at 4 So. Fullerton Avenue. The proceeds will be split between JerseyCats and the Montclair Animal Shelter.

We will have lots of yummy, cruelty-free treats for sale, so please stop by between 11:00 am and 4:30 pm. We’re also in need of bakers! If you’re interested in baking, please contact me. Details can be found on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182854551759098

I hope to see you there!