(Road) Avocado: Let it bean!

I'm at my parents place for the weekend. As a vegan, this means I either eat "the sides", or I cook. So I made pancakes this morning, and I'll make dinner tonight--but last night my brother surprised me by making us all a super-simple and super-delicious red sauce and pasta for dinner.
He tells me it's a recipe from Jean-Christophe Novelli, an amazing celebrity chef who he may have a slight crush on. He makes it all the time and people like it so much he shares the recipe with them. It is one of those awesome recipe that is incredibly simple but also incredibly flavourful. And frankly, it's always a treat to not have to cook dinner and just be eating the same food everyone else is eating.
My brother says to make it with heirloom tomatoes, but he says he has made it in January with crappy winter tomatoes and it's also find. The vanilla bean is unexpected but it seems to add depth and round out the flavours.
You can Google the recipe, but basics are:
Slice as many tomatoes as will fit in a sauté pan in half, and seat a few minutes until soft. While they are searing, add salt and pepper to taste and a pinch of sugar. When tomatoes are soft, squish with a potato masher or back of a spoon to release the juices. Slice a vanilla bean in half, remove seeds and add seeds and the pod to the tomatoes. (When we were cooking last night, my brother's said at this point to add the vanilla and let it be. "Let it bean?" Eye roll.) Continue cooking over low heat to simmer. (The original recipe also calls for star anise but my brother doesn't like it.) Cook until thickened to a paste and add roughly chopped garlic, fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil. Cook for about ten more minutes to infuse flavours. If it's too sweet, add a touch of vinegar to balance it out. Serve with your favourite pasta.

Fall in love with tofu, all over again

Tofu is a vegan staple. It has been around so long we take it for granted. Unlike newer foods some of us may still be discovering ("OMG, have you tried kale/tempeh/quinoa yet?? It's SO AMAZING!"), everyone knows about tofu. If there's a vegan option at a restaurant, it often includes tofu (probably because it's a stir-fry).
So we take it for granted: "Yeah, I use tofu, I know what to make with it, why try something different, I've cooked it a million times."
NO. Trust me, try this recipe: General Tao's tofu. I have no idea how fucking cornstarch turns tofu into a crispy fried delicious morsel, but it does. And it's easy! You can use your own favourite Asian-style sauce, like I did, and it takes maybe half an hour (longer if you don't have the rice made already), most of which is waiting for the tofu to brown . However it's so simple you'll want it everyday.
Confession: I made it for dinner last weekend, and then I ate it for breakfast AND lunch the next day too. Because once again I'm smitten.

New Year's Carbolutions

It's the time of year when everyone's vowing to do something different. Fuck that! Watch too much TV, add things to your Pinterest board instead of actually doing things, make snide remarks about people who cut you off in traffic and eat things people say you shouldn't. Including carbs. Actually, eat ALL THE CARBS.
I don't have anything against carbs. My general philosophy is to eat things that have been messed with as little as possible. So if I'm going to eat something that's already made and packaged, I want to eat something that's been processed less, if I can help it. So I usually buy non-wheat bread and pasta for home, and choose whole grains if it's an option when I'm eating out.
Accordingly, when I made today's All-Carb Dinner, I used kamut pasta. I did use white bread for the crumbs, but that's because I had some old sourdough bread that was given to me that I had to use up anyway. So I don't feel guilty, even though it was two kinds of carbs rolled up in delicious fat. And that's the way it should be! Eat good food, be full, and don't feel guilty unless you've done something horrible like poke kittens in the eye.
The All-Carb Dinner pasta dish I made tonight was Pasta con Aglio e Olio--pasta with garlic and oil. I had variations of this a few times while I was in Italy--let's face it, a vegan often gets simplest pasta on the menu by default. Some variations had tomatoes or parsley or chili flakes added. My extensive five minutes of googling tells me that adding the breadcrumbs makes this a Milanese version. (Don't be confused by the shallot and greens in my photo--they were for food styling only, because plain pasta makes for boring-ass photos.) In my opinion, it's the breadcrumbs that make the dish, although like many traditional homey foods, it's whatever version your mom/dad/gramma/grampa made for you that is truly authentic. For you cooking pleasure, a not-a-recipe follows. Vary it until you find your favourite, then tell your kids/your cats/the people who borrow your pepper mill that it's the only authentic version around.

A not-recipe for Pasta con Aglio e Olio
Add as many servings as you'd like of your favourite strand pasta to boiling water. Lower heat if it starts to boil over. While the pasta cooks, chop as much garlic as you'd like (I used four small cloves for one serving but that may be while I'm still single); and using the smallest holes on a metal grater, make crusty stale bread or lightly toasted fresh bread into as many crumbs as you can before you get tired. I used about a quarter cup to top one generous serving of pasta, but some recipes I saw called for a  little over a third of a cup per serving. When the pasta is almost al dente, heat the oil in a frying pan. When hot, add the chopped garlic and saute, stirring occasionally, only until the garlic is white and fragrant. Add the breadcrumbs and fry for a few minutes to toast the crumbs. When the pasta is al dente, drain thoroughly and add to the pan, stirring to coat. Add chopped parsley or chili flakes if desired. Plate, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and serve.  

Satisying a craving: chipotle breakfast burrito

I was reading Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day last night when a breakfast burrito craving hit me. BAM! It was their Scrambled Burrito recipe that inspired me, but it calls for tempeh, which I can't find without making a major effort--and on a dreary, rainy October day, I didn't feel like straying too far. So I went on a major grocery mission to the store about a 5-minute walk away, and came back with, among other things (many other things), onion and red pepper to supplement the ingredients I already had.

One of the first breakfast burritos I had was in New York, at 'Snice, a veg cafe near my hotel both times I've been to NYC. It had turmeric (making the tofu yellow) and black beans and favoured crumbled tofu. I prefer to cube it (I find it easier than crumbling) and my flavour palate tends toward Mexican-style spices most days. So while I was cooking, I found myself myself reaching for cumin, chili powder and chipotles, knowing I could top it off with some salsa when assembling the the deliciousness. So here's what I made, with the addition of kale to help me get my veggies* for the day. Enjoy!

Chipotle breakfast burrito
Makes 2 to 3 burritos,  depending on how large your shells are and how much stuffing you cram in

a dollop cooking oil 1/2 red pepper
1/2 a medium onion, diced
1 block extra-firm tofu, cubed or crumbled, as you like
1/2 teaspoon dried chipotle peppers, or 1/2 chipotle in adobo sauce
cumin, paprika, and chili powder and black pepper, to taste
a few dashes liquid smoke

1/2 cup cooked kale (about 1.5 to 2 cups chopped raw kale)
dash salt
salsa, to taste
2-3 large tortilla shells

Heat pan, add oil and saute red peppers and onions until translucent. Add spices and stir to combine and heat thoroughly. Add tofu and a few dashes liquid smoke and stir to combine and heat thoruhoughly. Watch out, the tofu is prone to sticking! But I didn't want to add more oil so I kept stirring until the tofu was warm and then turned off the heat. I took a tortilla shell out from the package and laid it over the mixture and the spatula in the pan to steam it--I use sprouted grain tortilla shells so they can be a bit stiff right out of the fridge.You could also microwave them for 30 seconds or heat them in the oven (be careful not to burn them!! I ALWAYS toast my tortillas when I try to heat them in the oven. Just sayin'--learn from my stupid-ass mistakes). I spread the tofu mixture and the kale on a shell, added some salsa, folded it up and toasted in my panini press. If you want a toasty exterior but don't have a press, you could dry-fry it in a pan, again being very careful not to burn it. I thought I would use about half the mixture in today's burrito, but there are a good 2 tortilla's worth left. Like most burritos, you end up with a fair amount of filling on your plate by the time you're done eating, but that's half the fun.

*Does anyone actually eat 7 servings of veggies a day? Tell me if you do, I'll pick your brain for tips.

Don't give up on dumplings

I had given up on dumplings. I love dumplings, so I tried to make them a couple times, but I got frustrated. You need a tablespoon each of 8 different things, but they're not things I have on hand. So I'd spend $20 bucks or something like that to get $4 worth of ingredients to make $15 worth of dumplings. And what's more, chopping all the ingredients took me an hour and then lovingly stuffing and sealing all the dumplings took much, much longer. And then I still had to cook them. No! I gave up. I realized you could order dumplings from a variety of restaurants. It was more expensive but it was well worth saving the time. It was pretty much a done deal: I'd never make dumplings again. 
Then somehow I discovered this recipe for edamame dumplings. I almost couldn't believe it at first: only a few ingredients, all of which were cheap and easy to procure, which required minimal prepping on my part? Yes, I still had to stuff and seal the little darlings, but I could live with that.
And they were easy. Cooked edamame practically puree themselves, and they were so adorably green inside that they won me over. Take it from me: it'll be the only dumpling recipe you ever make again.

Spinster buns

I bought a stand mixer last week. It was on sale for Mother's Day--$199 down from $349!--and since I'm going to be a cat-hoarding childless spinster forever, I figured I might as well buy it for myself. I finally set it up on Saturday, and this being a long weekend in Canadia, I have had two and a half days to play with it. And play with it I have! I have already made seitan, focaccia, and cinnamon buns.


I've never made cinnamon buns before. When recipes involve making dough, kneading dough, and rolling it out, my eyes start to glaze over and, zombie-like, I pull out my cupcake cookbook.


But this was delightful. The stand mixer kneaded the dough for me, twice! And then mixed the icing too. I used VegNews' recipe here; I found it less fussy than the other one I checked. And now I have cinnamon buns to share with my friends and co-workers, which is who you share baked goods with when you're a spinster.

Peanut butter cups of awesome

I posted this photo on Tumblr and those Tumblr vegans loved it. Come on, I got 21 notes! I know that doesn't compare to the few thousand or so notes Animals Talking in All Caps gets. (And no, I'm not jealous, why do you ask?) But for me it's pretty good. Someone even asked for the recipe! It's not a recipe as such, but here it is, cross-posted from Tumblr:

It’s really easy! They’re just labour-intensive—it usually takes me an hour or so to make a batch. Mix some peanut butter with some maple syrup or agave—maybe 1/2 cup peanut butter to 1/4 cup agave. It’ll thicken and get hard to stir, but that’s what you want, so it won’t leak out of the chocolate cup when you bite it. Melt vegan chocolate chips or semi-sweet baking chocolate in the microwave—about a cup or one and a quarter cups. I usually nuke for a minute then stir and repeat until it’s melted and smooth. The key to getting them to look right is to use silicone muffin/cupcake cups. Smooth some melted chocolate into the cups until you’ve used up about half your chocolate. With a spoon, scoop out some of the peanut butter mixture and gently use another spoon to scoop it into a chocolate-d silicone cup. Repeat until you’re out of peanut butter mixture, or you’ve used up all your choclate-d cups. (If you have leftover melted chocolate or peanut butter mixture, you can make more of what you don’t have—until you run out of silicone cups!) Cover the peanut butter mixture scoops in the cups with more melted chocolate—just enough to cover. If the chocolate has cooled while you were scooping out the peanut butter mixture, do another nuke-and-stir to melt it again. When you’ve run out, you’re done! Just allow the peanut butter cups to cool so that the chocolate hardens, but if you’re impatient you can put them in the fridge for a few minutes instead of leaving them at room temperature. Pop them out of the silicone and if you’re not eating them the same day, you can leave them on the counter, but cover them with plastic wrap. Enjoy!

Un-photogenic butternut squash soup

I used to be a waitress. It coincided with my discovery of the joys of cooking, and introduced me a whole new way of looking at food. One of the recipes I gleaned from my days there for butternut squash and mushroom soup. I kept pestering the chef what was in it that made it taste so good. I even made it at home, sadly concluded that no, it didn't taste the same, and asked him again. Finally he told me: black pepper. Seriously? Seriously. Just black pepper. It made all the difference. Add fresh ground black pepper (if you don;t have a pepper mill, you should get one--they're awesome) before eating, and your taste buds will thank you. A rough recipe is below. I used it to make the soup pictured, but added a triangle of focaccia to make it photogenic because let's not kid ourselves--pureed orange soup just ain't that pretty.

Butternut squash and mushroom soup
2 teaspoons cooking oil
1 onion, chopped medium-fine

1/2 cup wine

1/2 pound mushrooms, cleaned and quartered (chef's recipe called for shiitake, I used king oyester the soup pictured)
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 can vegetable broth, plus water

Saute onions in oil until golden, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms and cook until soft, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring every couple minutes. Add wine (whatever wine you have on hand, whether old or cheap, or even a full cup, no one will know unless you tell me, in which case I'll blog about how I do the same thing) and de-glaze pan, watching carefully. When wine has reduced, add broth and cut butternut squash and additional water to cover. Simmer until the squash is very soft, and mushes a little when you stir it, about an hour. Puree everything--I strongly recommend a stick blender, to avoid an accidental exploding blender incident. Add fresh ground pepper to taste, about half a teaspoon. Also tasty as leftovers.

Spicey noodle breakfast

Late breakfst today: steamed bok choy and brown rice noodles with "dipping sauce" poured over top. Spicey, and suitable for chopsticks, and even healthy--some of my favourite things!! Recipe from Vegetarian Times (and makes 'fast pho' as leftovers too).

Vegan gluten-free bookclub part 2

Another successful mostly vegan and mostly gluten-free bookclub! I made two gluten-free items for this month's event (since I was hosting): curried potato-cauliflower from Vegetarian Times. I omitted the peas listed in the recipe because I forgot to buy them, but it was yummy! I also made walnut-mushroom pate from Veganomicon--I made a ton and expected it to disappear, but there were so many delicious things there is still some left over for me. The gluten-free bookclubber brought sandwich cookies from Bunner's Bakery. There was also two kinds of hummus and delicious spinach salad with red onion, pear and avocado. And yes, in addition to eating, we did talk about the book a little. I think this month, most of preferred the food to the book!

Of course he loved the sausage

Like cooking, dating can be messy. You try something you thought you'd like and it goes horribly. Or something you were loathe to even contemplate turns out great. Either way, the fun is as much in the process as the end result. Which brings me to sausage.
Now bear with me as I resist the urge to giggle like a 13-year-old, but I bring up sausage because of a date I had on the weekend. I was cooking dinner for a date who indicated he preferred to stay in. Well, fine. But when a vegan hosts an omnivore for the first time, the question is always what to serve that will absolutely and in one fell swoop dispel the myth that vegan food sucks. As it is to so many things, the answer is sausage. Because I only had so many things in the house--my glass of wine after work with a colleague the night before had ended at 10:00 p.m., so I didn't manage to stop at the grocery store on the way home. Which left frozen tomatoes, an onion and some red peppers to form a meal. Pasta it is! With Italian-style navy bean sausage. Mmmmmm.
But when my date appeared I was informed he did not eat carbs. They made him gain weight. Well, fine. Despite the absolute lack of notice--even after a previous conversation about what to make for dinner during which no objections to carbs were raised--I modified the menu and served sausage with the red sauce and zucchini and one very small baked potato. (Even though I suspected his food anxieties were more about the flavour of my vegan dishes than the amount of carbs.) And upon tasting the sausage for the first time--I swear to god I have a straight face right now--my date declared it was delicious. I resisted the urge to scream I told you so and insist it would taste better with some kamut pasta. But it brings me full circle--my date thought the food would be mediocre and it was fantastic, and I thought the date was going to be awesome, and...Well, fine.
Just because things don't often go the way you expect them to, here's a recipe for pinto bean sausages instead.

Pasta e fagioli saved my life

Pasta e fagioli: this dish saved my life. Okay, so maybe not my entire life, it maybe just stopped me from being super hungry and cranky on vacation after a long day of sight-seeing. and maybe the particular restaurant I went to happened to also have a very cute and flirty waiter, but hey, it was Italy, so there were lots of cute and flirty waiters. But this dish certainly was delicious! And the waiter may have proposed to me in Italian while I was eating it, but hey, it was Italy!
This is one of those accidentally vegan foods that you mention when vegans say, "But what do you EAT?!?" (Have you ever heard of a little place called ITALY?!?) Of course, it can sometimes be made with meat broth, but unlike dishes you have to veganize, this one is easy-peasy without substitutions.
Some pasta e fagioli recipes you see are rather, um, chunky. But the picture shows the dish as I ate it when I was in Italy: the beans were partly pureed into smooth deliciousness and partly left whole, and combined with cooked pasta. That's it! A basic recipe follows, from my memory (which is why there are no quantities) but you can add herbs and spices as you like. More beans and less water will make the soup thicker. A side dish of grilled veggies rounds out this meal.
Cute Waiter Pasta e Fagiloi
Vegetable stock
Minced garlic
Chopped onion
Cooked pinto beans
Cooked pasta
In stock pot, saute garlic and onion until soft. Add stock and cooked beans and heat through. Using strainer ladle, remove 1 cup of beans and set aside. With stick blender, puree remaining stock and beans. Return beans to pot and add cooked pasta. Heat through, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with bread.

The Bowl: just eat it

The Bowl: it's a staple of vegan life. You know, when you have some rice or quinoa, and some stuff to it, and then eat it. It's so much a staple that Appetite for Reduction has a section on The Bowl. Fully one-fifth of the non-beverage menu at my hometown vegetarian resto is about The Bowl. Really, The Bowl is just an opportunity for you to put some things you like altogether with some sauce or dressing, and eat to your heart's content. The thing is: it's also really, really, healthy. Unless you add two whole avocados, way too much dressing, or a bowl bigger than your head, your Bowl is likely to be ridiculously nutritious and satisfying.
The other thing about The Bowl is: it's so versatile, it's almost mid-boggling. You are limited only by what you feel like eating. If you have leftovers, you can probably make into a Bowl! My bowl tends to be the same, because I tend to pick up the same things when I feel like making a Bowl: quinoa base, red peppers (they're not my favourite but they're nutritious), eggplant, mushrooms, chickpeas, avocado and usually store-bought Italian dressing. This time, I went crazy and added arugula and caramelized onion, and left out the chickpeas and the avocado. And you can see I put on a Plate--I mean a plate--and not a bowl, for better photo staging. But it was still delicious! I've listed some additional ingredients below--I had to stop because my fingers got tired. But The Bowl is your friend--make from scratch, use up leftovers, make a make-your-own-bowl spread for dinner. However you do it, it's always delicious!

Veggies:
Peppers
Zucchini
Sweet potato or squash
Kale or other greens
Mushroom
Eggplant
Bok choy
Bean sprouts
Corn
Broccoli
Beets
Cauliflower
Cucumber
Radish
Tomato
Carrot
Onions (raw or sauteed)
Brussels sprouts
Celery
Sun-dried tomato
Protein:
Chickpea, pinto beans,black beans, navy beans, kidney beans...beans!
Tofu
Tempeh
Lentils
Seitan

Vegan sausage or other 'meat'
Fruit and extras:
Mango
Peach
Apple
Strawberry
Berries, dried or fresh
Dates or figs

Walnuts, almonds, cashews, pecans. etc.
Fresh herbs
Dressing/Sauce
Basic balsamic vinegar and olive oil
Rice vinegar and sesame oil with chopped garlic and ginger
Store-bought Italian or Greek
Peanut sauce
Tahini-based dressing
Curry sauce

Giant bowl of guac

Guacamole. It's one of those things that makes me happy to live in the time that I do. Yeah, ther modern age gave me my beloved smart phone (which found that vegan pizza photo eventually), lolcats, and birth control--but without the availabilty and diversity of the foods I now know and love, I would be a less smiley person. Especially as a vegan--I've said it before and I'll say it again, but ethnic foods are a vegan lifesaver when you're eating out, since are often accidentally vegan. Inari sushi anyone? Chana masala? Stir fry? Cheeselss basil and tomato pizza? Hummus or falafel? Bean burrito..with guacamole?
I've brought guac to office pot lucks a couple times. It's been wildly popular. It might be because I buy a bag of 5 avocados and make a giant batch, and everyone loves a bowl of guac the size of your head, but...I also like to think I make a decent guac too.
It's easy. You can vary this recipe if you want (variations are listed), but it's basics, and makes everyone happy. And if you've never made guacamole before, this'll help you awaken to how easy and satisfying it is!
The only critical ingredients is ripe avocados. They're ripe when the skin is dark green and they yield a little to the pressure of your finger. If they yield a lot they're over-ripe, and will be brown inside. There's nothing wrong with the brown bits, they just taste bad, and look bad. If you're planning on making guac for an upcoming event, plan ahead. If your grocery store usually stocks unripe avocados, go to the store 5 days or so in advance, and buy unripened avocados and leave them on the counter until you need them. If you're making the gauc in advance, put it in a bowl, smooth the top, squeeze half a lime over it and cover it with plastic wrap so that no guac is exposed to the air. In a pinch, this way you can keep the guac over night with minimal browning.
Otherwise, the rest is easy!

Recipe makes a bowl of guac the size of your head.

5 avocados, halved, seeded, skins removed and mashed
half a red onion, chopped very fine
bunch of cilantro (coarse stems removed), and chopped
one lime, at room temperature, juiced (they yield more juice a room temperature)
optional: 1 or 2 fresh tomatoes, seeded or unseeded, chopped; 1/2  cup salsa; fresh (seeded or unseeded) or jarred chopped jalapenos to taste; chipotles and adobo sauce to taste; 1 or more cloves of garlic, chopped fine; hot sauce to taste more onion
Combine all ingredients, and whichever optional items as you wish. Clearly, tomatoes and salsa kinda cancel each other out, as do jalapenos and chipotles, so use your judgement. Serve with tortilla chips, home-toasted tortilla shells, crackers--whatever your heart desires! And if you have margaritas with it, then so much the better.