White Bean Soup with Tomatoes and Basil

This was inspired by a No Fish Go Fish soup I had a few weeks back. Soups are never really measured properly in my kitchen so here's best my shot:

White Bean Soup with Tomatoes and Basil:
1 1/2 cups white beans - roughly smashed with the potato masher
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups soy/rice milk (more for a creamier taste)
3 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes - drained
1 bunch basil
rosemary
taragon

Saute garlic rosemary and taragon in some olive oil in a large soup pot.
Add broth and bring to a boil then add the beans.
Once boiling again add the drained diced tomatoes.
Keep stiring until it reaches your desired texture.
Turn heat to low, throw in the chopped up basil.
Cover for 5 minutes and serve warm with fresh cracked pepper and salt to taste.

Best served with a side of toasted garlic bread.
This was a wonderfully light tasting soup. It was nice to have tomatoes in a soup without tomatoes being the base.
This would have been better with a potato or two to thicken it up.

Holliday Sweets

Lemon Gingerbread Cake:
This cake was made using the Bake n Fill. The cake is gingerbread recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. In the center is lemon pudding and the icing is vanilla lemon.


Almond Lace Cookies with Soy Cream:
I don't remember where I found the recipe for the lace cookies, but it was pretty basic and simple to make and clean up. Here's an example.

These were rolled into cones while warm and later dipped into chocolate and even later filled with rocky road soy cream.
They look so fancy but it was a a very simple dessert to create. They could be filled with anything: fruit, whipped soy cream, mousse, pudding...

Tofu Florentine

This is a test recipe for the next Post Punk Kitchen. I normally don't like posting these test recipes because 1. they aren't my creations, and 2. I can't share the recipe with you.
BUT, this tofu Florentine is great. My husband and I go to Vita Cafe often just so he can get his filling of this dish. Isa has hit it spot on and he was so excited about this that he wanted me to share it.

It's an English muffin stacked high with with slices of tofurky, steamed spinach, tofu and smothered in a creamy sauce.

Poached Pears with Persimmon Poppy Seed Sauce

Oh man. These are so great! This recipe was created for the Vegan_Cookoff's Sauce Challenge.

Persimmon Poppy Seed Sauce:
1 Persimmon - skinned and mashed
1/2 tsp. poppyseeds
1/4-1/3 Cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar

Toast the poppy seeds in a dry skillet for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Make sure they don't burn.
Add sugar and stir, then the remaining ingredients.
Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce becomes an even consistency.

Spoon 2 tablespoons of sauce over each pear before baking.
Bake the pears as normal.
Spoon two more tablespoons of sauce over pears after removing from the oven and before serving.

Taste:
The light sweetness of both the pear and persimmon blends perfectly! Neither over powers the other, but the poppy seed brings this wonderful almond flavor to the simple sauce. Perfect!

Normal Dinners

Like most bloggers I take photos of most the food I eat, even if it's not that interesting or have real recipes. It's always interesting to see what others are eating so here you go.

Chickpea soup with spinach and noodles with a side of dill carrots.
I've been working on my carrots. My partner misses these mushy carrots his grandmother use to make. So I've been trying to over cook my carrots to a mushy perfection and coat them with a pinch of brown sugar, dill and earth balance.

Vegan Chicken Sticks with agave-mustard dip and garlic greens.
While at Food Fight I felt like I needed to support their new freezer so I picked up these weird fake chicken legs. They are on little sticks which are actually sugar cane sticks - It's interesting. The dip was

Fall Desserts

Chocolate Pumpkin Pie:
Pumpkins grew out of my compost this year and this was my first sacrificed pumpkin for pie. However, it wasn't a sugar/baking pumpkin. It looked like one - but didn't taste like it so I just added a bunch of chocolate.


Chocolate Pumpkin Pie:
- One baked pumpkin
- 1 container silken tofu, firm
- 1 1/4 Cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin spices
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder

Blend everything in a blender. Pour into premade pie crust and bake for about 30 min. at 350F.


Harvest Balls:

These were from the Vegan Lunchbox cook book.
You can check Jennifer's website for the recipe - or go get her book because it's awesome.

Just a note about these. They were a bit too sweet for me. Next time I will cut the sugar down from 1 cup to 3/4 or 1/2 cup so I can taste the popcorn a bit more. Also I used currents instead of cranberries.

Taramisu and Spinach Salad from Sage's Cafe

Most of my posts are my own food creations, but this was too good not to share with the world.
When I had a few hour layover in Salt Lake City a couple of weeks ago I could think of no better place to go than Sage's Cafe. It's one of those great vegan places where they care about the food they create and it shows.

Wilted Spinach Salad w/ Balsamic Vinegrete:

Taramisu:
Sage's even has an all you can eat pizza night for $10!! If I hadn't spent my teenage years being harassed and tormented in that city - the pizza buffet would almost get me to move back!
If you're ever in Salt Lake go eat there and say hi to those mountains for me.

If you'd like to see more photos of the vegan food I've eaten at restaurants - check this out.

Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies

OH my! These are amazing - if you love mint and chocolate together. This is adapted from my favorite cookie.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dry:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Wet:
8 tablespoons margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 brown sugar (Sometimes I will mix up the sugar amounts as long as I have 1.5 cups in the end.)
2 eggs, or equalivant (I use ener-g powdered egg replacer.)
1 Tbl. soymilk (If you feel your mixture is too dry. The texture of the margarine determines if it will be too dry or not)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon peppermint flavoring
1-4 Tablespoons liquid if it's too dry (soymilk works best)

Extra:
chocolate chips or any other thing you like in your cookie.
crushed up candy canes.

- Mix the dry. Mix the wet Add together. Add chocolate chips put in the fridge for awhile. (You don't always have to put it in the fridge.)
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Place your favorite sized dough ball on a sprayed cookie sheet.
- Sprinkle the tops with broken candy cane pieces.

Bake for 12 minutes.
(They may seem a bit under done, but they are best that way.)
Enjoy!

Working Thanksgiving Menu

In response to Jess, this is what I am thinking of feeding myself and my husband for Thanksgiving. Since that sweet potato pie looks so tempting we may drive back from our vacationing location and steal some of Jess's food.

-Pear cider and garlic 2-day-marinaded Tofurky
-Roasted squash soup
-Simple salad
-Mashed potatoes and gravy
-Pumpkin pie
-Harvest popcorn balls from The Vegan Lunch Box
-Soy Nog
-Blueberry sparkling juice

What are you making and for who?

Recently I was in Denver and Salt Lake, so I'll be posting some food pictures from there - stay tuned!

Pumpkin Muffins and Snacks

Pumpkin Muffins
From Vegan with a VengaenceThese are the best pumpkin muffins I've ever had.

Yesterday I went to Herbivore to be one of the first to get my copy of Jennifer McCann's new cookboook: Vegan Lunchbox. I wasn't sure if I wanted it or not, but after thumbing through it and thinking of all the food I had seen on her blog and wanted to make but never did - I bought it.

Buying a new cookbook right before leaving town is annoying. I want to make so many things but I just don't have the time. I decided to make some of the more snack-like foods for my up coming trip to Green Build in Denver.

Perfect Pepitas

I'm not sure if is okay posting her recipes on the web, other than her own blog, so I am leaving it out. But basically it's cayenne pepper, liquid smoke and Braggs.
I made another batch with garlic powder. YUM! I did have an asthma attack after adding the cayenne pepper, so I'll have to alter this in the future.

Roasted Chickpeas

These were so yummy before baking them that I barely had any left by the time the oven warmed up! Just simple chickpeas with nut. yeast and salt. The nut. yeast was really subtle when they were done so I tossed with more when they got out of the oven.

_______
Side Note:
If you're in Portland and wondering where to eat out, I have some photos to help. In my photo gallery I have one set aside for Portland Food. I also post these photos on my other blog, if you're interested.

Carrot Pear Pizza w/ Tahini Sauce

Carrot- Pear Pizza w/ Tahini SaucePizza dough by Trader Joe's (or your own special dough)
1/4 block silken tofu
2 Tbl. Tahini
1 clove minced garlic
1 1/2 large grated carrot
frozen spinach
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare dough as suggested.
In a food processor chop garlic. Add tofu and tahini. Blend until creamy.
Spread the sauce over the dough.
Sprinkle the grated carrot until evenly coated.
Add 1/2 pear in slices.
Sprinkle frozen spinach clumps over carrots.
Bake as suggested.

This pizza is a wonderfully simple pizza to put together and the taste is outstanding. For those who like the combination of savory with a hint of sweet - this is for you.


This recipe was created for the Live Journal Vegan_cookoff's Pizza Contest. Go check out the other unique entries.

Fall is in the Air!

Every year I look forward to the Apple Tasting at the Portland Nursery. This year I ropped Jess into going with me. It was a wonderful way to kick off fall. Every year I've been it's been held on beautiful, sunny days where the sun is warm and the shade is cold. Unfortuntally, Portland doesn't have many of these type of fall days that I grew up with, but yesterday was one of them.

The follow is how we celebrated.

Pumpkin Pie
1 box of silken tofu
3/4 cup sugar
1 can pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
pumpkin pie spices to taste

Blend in blender until smooth. Pour into premade crust and bake for about 1 hour at 400F.


Simple Maple Salad
Salad greens and other veggies of choice (I used shredded carrots, thiny sliced onions, lettuces)
1/2 pear chopped
1 Tbl. maple syrup
1 Tbl. balsamc vinegar
pepper

Mix and serve.
Toasted nuts and other fruits are also a nice touch to this dressing.


Roasted Veggies
Any random veggies you need to get rid of. Looks like I used potatoes, leeks, onions, carrots, winter squash. All mixed with olive oil, garlic and some rosemary.
The special touch to this simple dish was adding roasted kale on top. I just baked 4 leaves until crispy. Once the veggies were done I sprinkled the dry leaves on top. It added a nice depth to this dish and put some leafy greens into a roasted dish.



Apple Strudel
Totally inspired by the apple tasting.
Many sheets of phylo.
2-4 apples
powdered sugar
olive oil.

Lay a couple of phylo sheets down, spraying olive oil between each sheet. Layer on sliced apples, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Repeat a few times. Fold/roll phylo once the apples are done to make a latice across the top.
Bake about 20-30 min at 350F.
Once out of the oven coat in vanilla frosting.

A simple dessert that only looks fancy.


Lentil Soup
I wanted a brothy soup and found a quick way to use up those left over roasted veggies.

Boil left over roasted veggies for 30-60 minutes.
Strain veggies and add 1/2 to 1 cup of lentils, depending on how much liquid you added to your veggies.
Add salt and pepper to taste. let look until the lentils are tender.
Garnish with shredded carrots and chopped chives.


I've updated the cupcakes I've worked on. Check out this post for new pictures.

Cupcakes Galore!!!

14 different cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
I was a tester for the cookbook so I made most of these many moons ago.

Taramisu
These were so simple to make, and the flavor was intense. These will be made again for personal enjoyment as well as a party pleaser.













Boston Creme Cupcakes.
















Creme goodness on the inside!
















Chocolate Mint Cupcakes.
Easily one of my favorites. I was surprised by how perfectly the mint and chocoltae were matched.














Simple Vanilla Cupcakes.
Baked in ice cream cones with a lemon frosting.



























Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Mousse.
In the back gound is a 'Smores Cupcake.













Coconut Lime Cupcakes.
Another of my all time favorites!



Lemon Ginerbread Cupcakes.
Unfrosted but later frosted with lemon icing.














Dulce Sin Leche Cupcakes with Coconut.
These were SO sweet and left a sticky mess everywhere they went.














Orange Pudding Cupcakes.
If I were to make these again I would omit the filling because it just takes so much time to do that step. But if someone else wanted to do it for me....
The jam under the ganache is perfect!











Chai Cupcakes.
These are perfect for those who don't like super sweet treats.














Can you name this cupcake?
I forget what this is.




























Peanut Butter with Chocolate Ganache.
No photoshopping required when it's in your belly!










Fauxtus Cupcakes.
Possibly the cupcake that started the madness.














Marblers
Vanilla and chocolate swirled cupcakes with vanilla frosting and shaved chocolate.













Jelly Doughnut Cupcakes:

Mac and Bleu Cheese

I bought this expensive cheese at Food Fight and have been using it so slowly. My choice of bleu cheese is because I was never able to eat it as a non-vegan because I am allergic to molds. Next I will try out the moz.
This is a wonderfully rich food. I was able to cut down the sharp flavor but still give a sense of it.

Mac and Bleu Cheese:
1 cup soy milk
1 cup shredded bleu cheese from Scheese.
1/4 cup tofutti cream cheese
1 Tbl. Nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste

8 saltine crackers

8 lasagna noodle, broken (or other pasta that you need to use up.)

1 large tomato

1. Cook pasta as normal
2. Bring the first 4 ingredients to a boil in a medium sauce pan, then reduce until it is all melted. add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Chop tomato into bits.
4. Drain pasta and rinse with cool water.
5. Mix pasta and scheese mixture until evenly coated. Add tomatoes and mix a bit more.
6. Press into 9x9 pan and sprinkle with crushed crackers.
7. Bake for 30 min 350F
8. Let cool, serve and enjoy!

Sweet Tofu and Green Beans

This was fantastic! But there's no real recipe, but I will try my best.

Hazelnut marinated tofu with almond breading on a pile of Sweet onion sauce sauteed with green beans.

At my local farmer's market I found this hazelnut marinade. It's pretty much soy sauce with a lot of hazelnut flavor. That's the main part of this recipe.

I marinaded one block of tofu over night in this hazelnut marinade.
The next day I breaded the tofu in a mixture of chickpea flour, almond flour, cayenne pepper, salt and a dash of ginger.
These were baked on a cookie sheet at 425F for 12 min. each side.

The sweet onion sauce is a wonderful recipe I tested for Isa and Terry (of the Post Punk Kitchen fame). They have a new cookbook coming up and though it's far from being ready for sale, you should keep a look out for it.
The sweet onion sauce was mixed with green beans and sauteed until done.

The sweetness of these two dishes went together nicely. If I drank wine, or knew anything about wine, I would have served wine with this dish because it just seems appropriate.

Chick Chicken Soup

Is it clear yet what my favorite bean is?
This wasn't a good summer soup, more of a hearty winter soup, but very tastey.


2 Cups Veggie broth
1 Cup chickpeas
4 Cloves garlic
1 cup chopped Wheat Meat
1 Head broccoli
2 Tbl. nut. yeast
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the garlic with some olive oil, when clear add veggie broth and cooked chickpeas and wheat meat and bring to a boil.
Add nutritional yeast, mustard powder and other spices.
Cook on high for another 10 minutes. The soup should start to thicken.
Add chopped broccoli and serve when broccoli is bring green in color.

Pesto Chickpeas

As you may know, I am not a fan on pasta, but once again I found myself wanting pesto pasta. After figuring out it was really just the pesto I wanted, this is what I came up with:

Pesto Chickpeas:

1 cup cooked chickpeas
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
1/2 bunch basil
2 Tbl. chopped sun dried tomatoes
2 Tbl. pine nuts
salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute the chickpeas with some garlic and olive oil until the chickpeas are cooked all the way through.
2. Prepare the pesto. Food processors are best for this job, blenders second best, and mincing with a knife is third. My food processor left, the blender broke and I was left with a good sharp knife (I could write a country song!) Basically, process, blend, mince, everything together. Add some olive oil and mix until pasty.
3. Mix together and serve warm.

Sweet and Savory Green Dinner

Simple Salad and Green Beans Dressed Up
With very lose recipes.

Salad with Figs and "Honey" Mustard Dressing:
Simple salad of: torn butter lettuce, thinly sliced carrots and onions; tossed together.
Chopped figs and slivered almonds added.
Then drizzled with an agave, mustard mixture right before serving.

Maple-Mustard Green Beans:
This was based off of Isa's maple, mustard potatoes and string beans.
Steam the green beans and just before they are done, transfer to a frying pan.
Mix the sauce and pour over the green beans in the frying pan. Cook until the sauce has been cooked and well coated on the green beans.
Serve warm.

Sauce:
2 Tablespoons yellow mustard
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

The Brian Burger

Mr. Bolsh, my pseudo-husband, is a big guy and needs to eat a lot of food to stay alive. I often like light meals that highlight the flavors of the veggies. Brian just likes anything that tastes pretty good and fills him up.
I like to try to make things for him that taste FANTASTIC and fill him up. So this is what I came up with:

The Mr. Bolsh Burger
Toasted bun
Lots of Vegenaise
1 grilled portabella mushroom cap that was marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, thyme, salt, garlic, and onion powers
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Tempeh faken bacon, or some marinated temphe in some braggs, liquid smoke, spices and a splash of maple syrup.
Mustard
Avocado slices
Tofurkey slices
Love

In order of appearance: (from bottom to top) bun, vegenaise, portabella mushroom cap, avocado slices, mustard, tomatoes, tofurkey slices, tempeh, avocado slices, lettuce, vegenaise and a toasted bun.
We did decide the tofurky wasn't needed to make this burger.

He was quite happy. I must admit, I was a bit disappointed he needed to eat two of these, but he loved the taste so much he couldn't stop!

Sweet Scramble

This was made for the livejournal Vegan_cookoff.

I'm a big fan of sweet things for breakfast, but I wanted to play along in the vegan_cookoff community, so this is what I came up with. It's a lot like oatmeal, but has a different texture. Next time I will add more apples and roast them.


Sweet Scramble
1/2 block firm tofu
1/4 cup agave
1/4 cup chopped apples
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup blue berries
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
large dashes of: clove, nutmeg and ginger

1. Shred tofu and start to saute with some olive oil an 1/4 cup agave
2. Add chopped apples and spices, saute more.
3. Add apple sauce and saute until sticky. Add sliced almonds.
4. Place blueberries on top of scramble and let cook for about two minutes.
5. Mix together and serve with sprinkled almonds.