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!