I really love Amber Shea Crawley‘s first book Practically Raw, so I was super excited when I heard she was working on a follow up dessert book. Practically Raw Desserts is packed with easy recipes for treats of all kinds (not to mention gorgeous photos of the finished goodies), and it’s destined to become my go-to dessert cookbook.

The title “Practically Raw” is a play on words, as Amber’s recipes are practical because they’re easy to make and don’t require fancy equipment or weird ingredients, and they’re practically raw because directions for using an oven are included where applicable for those who don’t have dehydrators. Most recipes also list ingredient substations, recipe various and chef’s tips. The recipes are easy to follow and don’t require to much time to make, so they’re great for raw food newbies and people who say they’re not good at baking, but they’re interesting and creative enough for kitchen veterans to enjoy. 

Amber begins the book with kitchen and raw food tips along with a pantry list, and she then explains how to make your own nut butters, flours and “milks”. Recipes range from cookies, bars and cakes to pies, puddings and candies. All of these treats are raw treats are totally free of dairy, eggs, gluten, wheat, soy, corn, refined grains, refined sugars, yeast, starch, and many of the recipes are also free of oils, nuts, and added sugars.

So far I’ve made Cocoa Crunch Clusters using dates subbed for raisins and Goji Berry Granola Bars with dried cherries instead of gojis. Both recipes took just a few minutes to make and both were incredibly delicious. (Why have I been buying granola bars all of these years when I could have been making my own?) I have a lot more recipes bookmarked, and I know I’ll be uncooking my way through Practically Raw Desserts all summer!

Be sure to check out my interview with Amber on Chic Vegan: http://chicvegan.com/interview-series-amber-shea-crawley/

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On Wednesday I interviewed Rory Freedman for Chic Vegan. We talked about her new book Beg, her dogs and vegan food, among other things. The interview can be read here: http://chicvegan.com/interview-series-rory-freedman/

My Pad Thai with Spicy Peanut Sauce was featured on VegKitchen.com: http://www.vegkitchen.com/recipes/pasta-and-noodles/peanutty-pad-thai/

And some of my grilled dishes made an appearance in Kathy Hester’s grilling post on Key Ingredient: http://www.keyingredient.com/blog/post/15338304914/confession-time-im-not-a-griller

Since it’s Monday, be sure to check out both Devil Gourmet and Hot From the Kettle to see what I’m to for Meatless Monday.

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Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

The Office ends its nine year run tonight and I’ve stuck with it to the bitter end. I feel a special connection to the show, as I was the art director for a paper company for six and a half years. We sold scrapbooking paper and stationery rather than copier paper, but there were enough similarities to keep my former coworkers and I amused. The company ended up being sold, and my last day was spent hurriedly trying to finish projects and packing up my department equipment up to ship to the new owners in another state. For the past year I’ve had reoccurring dreams about packing up my office, and strangely some of the staff of Dunder Mifflin make appearances as coworkers. (Perhaps I should see someone about this?)

I’m going to a viewing party for the finale at a friend’s house tonight, and we’re making food to commemorate the show and to commiserate its end. Some menu ideas that came up were Jan’s 3 Hour Osso Bucco, Shove It Down Your Gullet Hot Dogs, Kevin’s On The Floor Chili, and of course, a stapler incased in Jello for dessert. While this Roasted Beet and Citrus Salad isn’t exactly taken from an episode of The Office, I made it as an homage to Dwight’s beloved beet farm.

Ingredients

• 8 medium beets (I used 4 red and 4 gold)
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• sea salt
• 4 medium oranges
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 4 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I used tangerine flavored balsamic)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 6 cups arugula
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• ½ cup toasted pistachios, chopped
• ½ cup fresh parsley leaves

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Scrub the beets and pat them dry. Rub them with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt. Place on a foil-covered baking sheet and bake for about an hour, or until they are tender when pierced with a knife. Set aside and allow to cool.
2. Peel the beets (the skin should peel or rub off pretty easily) and then slice into cubes about ½” to 1”. (This might get messy, so don’t wear your nicest white shirt while doing it.)
3. Supreme the oranges by trimming the tops and bottoms off the oranges and then carving off the peels and white pith. Carefully slice the orange segments away from the membrane, cutting as close as possible so not to waste too much of the orange. Cut the slices into ½” to 1” pieces.
4. Add the orange juice, lime juice and vinegar to a large bowl and mix together. Slowly add the remaining olive oil to the bowl while whisking the mixture. Add beets to the bowl, toss to coat, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Gently fold in the orange slices. Cover bowl and let sit for about an hour to allow the flavors to mingle.
5. When ready to serve, toss the arugula into a bowl along dressed beets and oranges. Top with the toasted pistachios, scallions and parsley. Serve and enjoy! (That’s what she said.) 

 Serves 4 as a main dish or 6 to 8 as a side dish. 

I’m submitting this recipe to Healthy Vegan Fridays and Gluten-Free Fridays.

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Linda Long wrote her new book Virgin Vegan: The Meatless Guide to Please Your Palate as a primer for new and aspiring vegans, as well as to answer that lingering questions “What do vegans eat?” You don’t need to be a newbie to enjoy Virgin Vegan though – I bought it for the recipes! Linda compiled recipes from vegan notables such as Victoria Moran, Fran Costigan and Our Hen House’s Jasmin and Mariann as well as from the menus of prominent vegan restaurants such as Candle 79 and Peacefood Café.

Virgin Vegan is not just a book, it’s also a multimedia project. The Virgin Vegan website contains a wealth of information including recipes and resources and video discussions. Linda conducted 50 interviews with well-known vegans such as Gene Baur, Russell Simmons and Brendan Brazier which can be found on the site as well. New video clips are being added to site all the time, so be sure to check back often.

For my full review of Virgin Vegan, check out the post I did on Chic Vegan, which also includes a recipe for Linda’s favorite soup. http://chicvegan.com/virgin-vegan-cookbook-review-and-recipe/  Also make sure you take a look at the chat I had with Linda as a part of Chic Vegan’s Interview Series. http://chicvegan.com/interview-series-linda-long/

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Happy Monday! I don’t really have much in the way of news this week, so I thought I’d do a little wrap of what’s going on with me. Last week I went to see Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, who was doing a meet and greet at Peacefood Cafe‘s new downtown location. I originally met Colleen when I hosted a speaking event for her for my MeetUp Group Montclair Vegans, and it was fun to see her again. I also got see Erin from Red Radio and spend some time with friend Sharon from Big City Vegan. Colleen was promoting her wonderful new book On Being Vegan, which you should check out.

Speaking of new books, last week I reviewed Rory Freedman’s new Beg: A Radical New Way of Regarding Animals for Chic Vegan. Look for an interview I did with Rory later this week on Chic Vegan as well. 

Since it’s Monday, it’s time for my Meatless Monday columns! I’m back on both Hot From the Kettle and Devil Gourmet, so make sure you take a look at both. 

I had a lot of fun participating in the Virtual Vegan Potluck this weekend (even if I did bring leftovers!), and I hope you had fun visiting all the stops along the way. If you missed any of it, you can start at the beginning and click the links to check out all of the stops.  

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I heard about the Virtual Vegan Potluck last year, but I wasn’t really sure what was going on. Now I realize it’s just a blog chain full of yummy vegan recipes, and I’ve decided to participate this year. I signed up a month or so ago, and I had grandiose plans of cooking up a new, incredibly creative dish that would wow readers to the point of speechlessness. Alas, my schedule got incredibly busy with working, writing, teaching cooking classes and whatnot, so that incredibly amazing and creative new recipe has not yet been unleashed from the back of my brain. Instead of coming up with something new in a rush, I’ve decided to share a recipe from earlier in the year that I’m really fond of, and I hope you become fond of it too!

Tempeh Fricassee with Wild Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 8 ounce packages of tempeh, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 2 tablespoons Braggs Liquid Aminos or soy sauce
• 4 large leeks, thinly sliced
• 2 cups white button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups shiitake mushroom caps, sliced
• 2  large portobello mushroom caps, chopped
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped, optional

Directions:

1. Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and tempeh; sauté for about 8 minutes or until golden brown. Add the wine and soy sauce and cook until almost all of the liquid evaporates.
2. Add leeks and mushrooms to pan and sauté for 5 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook 1 more minute, stirring frequently. Add the celery seed, thyme, dried parsley, garlic and broth to pot and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Uncover and cook 3 minutes or until thick. Stir in the lemon juice, salt and pepper and sprinkle with parsley, if using.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

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As I mentioned on Wednesday, I attended two potlucks in two days earlier in the week. At the potluck I hosted on Sunday, my friend Lydia from From A to Vegan gave me The Best of Vegan Cooking by Priscilla Feral, a cookbook from Friends of Animals. I knew I was going to my friend Jen’s potluck on Monday evening, and I wanted to cook something with ingredients I had on hand (my pantry is out of control!), so I flipped through my new cookbook looking for something that would be good for a potluck and contain ingredients I wouldn’t have to go buy. I came across Himalayan Red Rice Salad with Cranberries, and it seemed to fit the bill. I made a few changes according to the contents of my pantry, mixed up the rice salad and took it to the potluck. Much to my surprise, it was a big hit! I hadn’t planned on sharing the recipe when I originally made the salad, so this week’s food photo is a little less inspired than usual. Don’t let the boring photo fool you though – this is one tasty dish!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups water
• 1 ½ cups brown rice (I used Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Medley.)
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube
• ½ cup slivered almonds
• 1 tablespoon good quality olive oil
• 3 tablespoons fig balsamic vinegar (You could use any type of balsamic, but I think the fig vinegar I used really complemented the flavors of the other ingredients in the salad.)
• 1 tablespoon tamari
• ½ teaspoon powdered ginger
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 2 celery stalks, finely diced
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• ½ cup dried cranberries

Preparation:

1. Because times may vary, cook the rice according to the package instructions, adding the bouillon cube to the water. Set cooked rice aside and let cool.
2. Toast the slivered almonds by either heating them over medium heat in a dry pan and stirring frequently or popping them into the toaster oven (on a small cooking sheet of course) for 5 to 7 minutes. They should be slightly brown and fragrant. Let cool.
3. Once the rice and almonds have cooled, mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Taste and adjust spices if needed. Allow to sit for 30 minutes to an hour to let the flavors combine. Serve at room temperature.

Serves a lot of people!

I’m submitting this recipe to Healthy Vegan Fridays and Gluten-Free Fridays.

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