I did it! I did it! Vegan, GF Pastry Crust!!! And Beautiful Individual Apple Galettes

Note added October 15, 2010. This pie crust is good, but I have made a new and improved one!

Just take a few seconds and look at that galette! I finally made a vegan, gluten free pasty crust that is neither oily nor taste like sand. It tastes like pie crust :-) I asked my dad the all important question...is it good considering it's gluten free, or is it good? The response was that it's just good!

I basically followed the recipe for the Individual Heart Shaped Apple Galettes from Veganomicon, but obviously I didn't make them heart shaped. I was having issues drawing just one heart with a knife. I didn't have the patience to do 6. So I got out a saucer and traced around it with the knife. I only got 5 of them instead of 6, but with a slightly smaller circle, I could easily make 6. I also used closer to 2-3 tsp of apricot preserves per galette so that I would have a thin layer over the whole crust. Mine was a reduced sugar preserve from Trader Joes. I also replaced the regular brown sugar with turbinado sugar just because it's what I have in the cupboard.

As lovely as the galettes are, and they are indeed lovely, for me the most important thing here is the crust.

Here goes...

• 1 cup of this gf all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup garfava flour
• 3/4 sorghum flour
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (2011 update: spectrum shortening works even better)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup very cold water (you may end up needing more, but I did not)

Before beginning to mix the crust, refrigerate the coconut oil for about 15 minutes to get it more the consistency of shortening. Don't leave it in the fridge too long or it will be hard. Trust me on this, I did it once - I could hardly cut through it with a knife.

In a medium bowl, using a whisk or a fork, mix the "all-purpose", garfava, and sorghum flours with the xanthan gum. Add and mix the salt and sugar. Divide the coconut oil into thirds. Add 1/3 coconut oil in small chunks to the flour mixture and cut in. Repeat with each of the other two thirds. (You will cut in 3 times).

In a separate small bowl or measuring cup, mix the vinegar with the 1/2 cup of water. Again working in 3 batches, mix the water/vinegar mixture into the dry ingredients with a fork. The dough should hold together. If you need to add a little more water to achieve a good dough consistency, you can add up to 1/4 cup more.

Gather the dough into a ball and knead it until it all holds together. Form into a ball and flatten out a bit. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes it is ready to roll for the galettes or for a pie. Keep some of the gf all-purpose flour on hand for rolling. Flour the surface (my surface was wax paper taped to the counter) and the rolling pin and lightly flour the dough surface.

I haven't baked a 2 crust pie in many years, but I would expect this crust would be plenty. It was even easy enough to work with that I think it might make a nice lattice crust. It didn't stick, it rarely cracked and I could pick up the rounds of it and carry it over to the pan that was waiting to bake these beauties.

Hey, I just noticed something!

My first "In Love with Leftovers" post took me to 18 posts for the year so far. That's the same number I had all of last year!! At least I'm improving on something :-)

In Love with Leftovers 09: Nachos

As I mentioned earlier this month, I've started a new thing this year. I cook a couple main dishes and usually a breakfast item over the weekend. I have a 1/2 work day on Mondays so often the cooking spills over into Monday afternoon. Then I put everything in containers in the refrigerator and I have ready-to-eat meals all week long. As long as plan correctly and have some fresh salad items on hand, I have well balanced meals for every meal. There are no more junk food dinners, except on the rare hormonal occasion ;-), and I end up saving money. There is rarely any wasted food and I don't run into the grocery to get hummus and rice crackers every day for lunch because "it's really the only thing I can have that I don't have to prepare." I feel better, my skin is clearing back up and I'm losing weight - slowly but surely. Basically, I'm loving it.

One of the things I love most about this new plan is this: as the week begins drawing to a close, I have leftovers of some things. I enjoy taking those items, adding some new ingredients and making completely different meals out of them. I do this partially out of boredom for the same things for a couple days and partially out of actually wanting to prepare something. Admittedly, another reason is so that you'll have something to look at :-) Throughout the year, I'm going to try to look at the food in my refrigerator like I look at the clothes in my closet : when I get tired of the same outfits, I mix up the pieces to get new outfits. Here begins my journey of being "In Love with Leftovers"

I had leftover:

• Black Beans (Veganomicon)
• chick cheese (The Ultimate Uncheese book - my copy should be coming today!)
• A little piece of red bell pepper
• Some quickly fading green onions

My mother had just bought me a beautiful bag of veggie tortilla chips from Trader Joe's. Yum! And I had just purchased some lovely grape tomatoes for the upcoming week's salads. Nachos were in order.

First I thinned the chick cheese with water and added chopped red bell pepper and one sliced green onion. I added Texas Pete (one of my favorite men - he's always in my refrigerator!) for a little kick and had a wonderful cheese sauce.

I arranged some of the chips on the plate, topped with black beans, grape tomatoes (cut in 2-3 pieces) and covered in the sauce. Then I microwaved the whole thing until warm. The chips were soggy because of the thin cheese (which did thicken up a little more when cooking) so they were a mess to eat. So in the future, I'd warm everything up and just put them on top of the chips after heating. They aren't much to look at. In fact, I realize they look a little gross, but they surely were delicious!

Noche Latina a Mi Casa (Latin Night at my House)

Me gusta la comida hispanica mucho. Oh, this blog is supposed to be in English...I love hispanic food! It was way past time to make it. Dinner tonight was delicious in it's simplicity.


The beans are the Black Beans with Chipotle Sauce from Veganomicon. I couldn't believe how bland they were at first bite. That's very unlike a recipe from V'con. I looked at the recipe again and I realized I didn't salt and pepper them. Once I did that they were tasty, soft beans. The sauce had a nice chipotle flavor, but I'm not a huge fan of the chipotle in most things so i think I'd just serve them with salsa next time.

The quesadillas...yum!! I thinned out some chick cheez from "The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook", and spread it on corn tortillas. I folded the tortillas in half (they did actually crack down the middle when I folded them) and grilled them in the cast iron skillet that I lightly oiled. The chick cheez is a little sharper cheese than I would normally have used for quesadillas, but against the mild flavor of the beans and the fresh flavor from the salad, they were wonderful. My cast iron skillet absorbed a lot of the chipotle flavor from making the bean sauce, so the quesadillas were uncharacteristically spicy this time.

Chasing the spicy skillet rabbit...Unfortunately, I'm going to have to scrub down the skillet so that my cassoulet on Sunday retains its comort food status and doesn't send my friend running for the tea pitcher. BTW, does anybody else's skillet do this? I've had this happen before with red pepper.

Ok, back on the original trail... The final portion of my dinner was a simple salad of spinach, cucumber, red bell pepper and jicama marinated in orange vinegarette. I eat a lot of undressed salads, so the marinated jicama was enough flavor for me. If you don't like your salads naked, you could make extra vinegarette to drizzle over the whole salad.

Diced Jicama with Orange Vinegarette:

Mix -
Juice of one orange
1 Tbsp grapeseed oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp agave nectar

Dice 1 jicama and put it in a bowl that has a lid
Pour the vinegarette over the jicama, cover the bowl and refrigerate until ready to prepare salad. Mine marinated for about 3 hours. It seems that it will last for quite awhile and I'll be able use it throughout the week. I'll post back about it's lifespan.

Quinoa Quest 2009 Part 2: Zucchini Lemon Quinoa and Quinoa Porridge

There are two parts to today's quest for ways to I will love quinoa:

1. Zucchini Lemon Quinoa (a variation on Donna Klein's Zucchini Lemon Couscous in The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen).

Grade: A-

Notes/Substitutions: I didn't have dried lemon peel so I used fresh lemon zest. I substituted toasted almonds for toasted pine nuts. And most notably I used quinoa instead of couscous. To substitute the quinoa, put it in at the same time as you add the broth and lemon juice, bring to a boil and let simmer until all the liquid is absorbed (about 20-25 minutes)


Review: First of all, it's pretty :-) Those fresh green scallions peeking out from the golden quinoa mixture just looks so appetizing. The only thing that kept this from being absolutely fabulous was that it was just a little bit bland. I have a feeling that the quinoa soaked in the lemon flavor more than the couscous would. So to have an "A" all I think I need to do is add more lemon juice and zest next time. It wasn't particularly labor intensive which is also very nice. I ate it with tomatos (canned, not the fresh cooked ones as suggested in book) but I didn't really like the combination. I liked the quinoa and the tomatos both better separately. Overall, it was a win.

2. Quinoa porridge.

Grade: A

No substitutions because I just made it up as I went along.

Review: I didn't take a picture of this or measure anything because I expected to want to throw it in the trash. But I was shocked! I had some leftover quinoa from the muffins I made earlier in the week (more on those in a later post). I put the quinoa in a bowl and stirred in rice milk, about a teaspoon of almond butter and cinnamon. I warmed it in the microwave, though it would be great on the stovetop too. Top with fresh cranberries. It was warm and delicious! WAY WAY better than those quinoa flakes that I eat on occasion because I miss oatmeal so badly. I can now have a quick, warm "cereal" that I like instead of tolerate.

The quest is looking up!

You Are What You Eat: Sleepy Lettuce Soup

I've seen several people on "You Are What You Eat" (BBC) respond with an upturned nose at the mention of lettuce soup. But then, after tasting it, they all respond with something akin to, "actually that's quite lovely, isn't it?" All the ingredients seemed harmless enough (translation: I like them all separately). I tend toward the anxious end of the spectrum, so I liked the idea of a soup that is soothing to the nervous system. I was determined that I was going to try this.

Here's my review: It was a LOT less work than the aduki bean stew with millet mash that I made last week. The soup is a lovely green color. It has a nice creamy consistency - an amazing feat for something with no milk/cream/yogurt or vegan substitute in it. I know, I know...how did it taste? Well, honestly when I tasted the first spoonful, I thought...it tastes like I'm drinking a salad...it needs salt. Gillian McKeith encourages people to not add salt to their food so I was going to trudge on through and eat it as it was. But, then I thought, the recipe says to use wheat-free bouillon - not salt free. The vegetable stock cube I used was completely salt free so I felt ok adding just a little and still calling it low sodium. I sprinkled just a tiny bit of garlic salt and stirred it in. Just that little tweak changed it from ho-hum to yum-yum.

A tip for re-heating: It gets REALLY thick in the refrigerator. All it needs is some water before putting it on the stovetop or in the microwave. Speaking of re-heating...I think I'll go have another bowl.

Actually, it is quite lovely. Isn't it?

4 Hours Later: It's still Snowing!

I'm not sure how much longer this is going to last, but it's been fun working from home today right by a window over looking the neighbor's pond. The snow is still coming down! I've gotten the report I was working on figured out and am now taking a break to watch the inaugural speech and take a few more snow pictures.

It's my baby honda's first snow! She will be staying under the snow today. Perhaps she can play in it a bit tomorrow.

It's my home's first snow too.

Because of the wind (the snow is falling almost sideways), some spots look like this

And some spots look like this

On average, I'd estimate we have about 3 inches so far.

Petrovsky is a happy penguin sitting in the snowy window.

Hey, panda with cookie. perhaps I should become penguin with gluten-free cookie ;-)

Cocoa Time!

Nothing is more perfect on a snowy morning than a nice hot cup of cocoa.

Here's how I did mine:
In a small saucepan combine and heat: 1-1/2 cups unsweetened rice milk, 1Tbsp of cocoa powder, 1/8 tsp stevia extract (There's a little bit of an aftertaste - I'll reduce this next time)
Pour it in my handy dandy Gilmore Girls cup, and 1 squirt of agave to take the "edge" off of the stevia. Grab it before the penguin does. Sit down and enjoy!

Just a tip from experience - rice milk "explodes" in the microwave.

Haha...I almost forgot to post the picture. The comment about the penguin would have made little sense.

It's Snowing!

Ok, so this post is totally off topic. I could stretch it and say maybe I'll cook a little something because I'm home today. But we rarely see snow in this part of NC. Even though I have a big stack of work that I brought home to do today, it's exciting to see the snow.

Here's the view from my bedroom window:

And a couple out the back door...

And a couple out the front door...

Maybe at some point today, I'll take some pictures from outside the house. Honestly, the prospects for that aren't looking too good. I think I'm ready for a cup of rice milk hot cocoa.

I Love Savory Breakfasts

I have to leave my house by 6:30 in the morning. If I want a decent breakfast, it needs to be prepared ahead. I like muffins and cereal as much as the next girl, but I love savory breakfasts. I'm not a coffee drinker, so other big, strong tastes are just what I need to wake me up and get going.

The Millet and Spinach Polenta with Sundried Tomato Pesto from Vegan with a Vengeance is perfect for this. The last time I made this polenta, I did the pan fried method. While that was really delicious, it was a little greasy, and I'm trying to cook things so they are more healthful. This time, I formed the polenta in mini muffin tins and cooked them under the broiler. This method is suggested in Veganomicon (broccoli polenta). I'm notorious for burning things under the broiler, so I don't put the polenta nearly as close as it says in V'con. I "broil" it on my regular top oven shelf (about 7-8 inches away from the top) and just cook it longer. It usually takes me about 20 minutes until it's lightly browned. As per usual, I replaced the basil in the pesto with fresh parsley.

Served with some celery or carrot sticks and my big water bottle, this is a perfect start to my day.

It's also good for lunch or dinner. I've even been known to grab one (or two) of the mini muffins right out of the refrigetor, dip it into the pesto and eat it cold. Yummy!


Convenience Tip:
1. The baked/broiled version of this polenta warms up great in the oven or in the microwave. So go ahead and make a whole batch even if you are the only one that will be eating it. I've had it around for 4-5 days and it stays fine. It might even last even a little longer, but I'll probably never find out ;-)

2. I like to have dishes straight from the oven/stove the first time I eat them. Since I wanted them for Sunday morning breakfast, I made the pesto and mixed/formed the polenta on Saturday evening. Then Sunday morning, they were ready to take out of the tins and pop in the oven while I was getting ready for church.

You Are What You Eat: Aduki Bean Stew with Millet Mash and Onion Gravy

Last weekend, I broke out the You are What You Eat Cookbook again and made the Aduki Bean Stew with Millet Mash and Onion Gravy.

Review:

At first I thought...ewww...this looks gross. But the more I looked at it the more I appreciated the beauty of all those fresh vegetables: Kale, butternut squash, carrots, onions.

My appreciation of the flavor was similar. The more I ate it, the more I liked it. First of all - it may be called millet mash, but it was cauliflower mash with millet in it. I'm not a big fan of cauliflower. But, then I actually mixed it in the stew and it was much better. One of the things that Gillian McKeith reminds people on her show is to slow down and really chew the food. The more I chewed it, the more the natural sweetness came out. It's almost as if she knew that, eh? She also says to not to add salt to food. On the last portion of stew, I added just a tiny bit of salt to it. Yuck! It was way better with out it. Again, it's almost as if she knew it when she wrote the recipe. The gem of this recipe was the aduki (aka adzuki, azuki) bean. This was my first time eating them. It's a tiny, sweet, delicious little bean! I hope to find some more ways to find it soon.

The onion gravy was more lake an onion broth with big rings of onion in it. I could probably add a little more onion to the stew and skip this step.

It's probably not one of those dishes that I'd serve to just anybody because it looks and tastes like health food. The beauty of that is that it is healthful. I could almost feel my body being nourished while eating it.

I may have a new favorite pizza: Roasted Vegetable White Pizza

I hate throwing away food. I spend my hard-earned money on it and it's just so wasteful. I especially hate to throw away beautiful produce. Since I was sick last week and didn't cook much, I had some vegetables that were sitting in the crisper drawer needing to be used. But I have been craving pizza for about 2 weeks (even some of the time while I was lying on the couch half awake). How could I balance the two? Here's what I came up with...

Roasted Vegetable White Pizza (Makes One 10-12" pizza)


Vegetable Mixture:

1 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise then cut in half-moon slices
1 small orange bell pepper, cut in half rings
1 small onion, cut in half-moon slices and layers separated
4-5 cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp olive oil

Toss all of the ingredients above on a rimmed baking sheet and roast in a preheated oven at 400F for 15 minutes. This is 5-10 minutes less time than I would normally roast vegetables because they will be cooked longer when put on the pizza.

Meanwhile, prepare the pizza crust. I veganized the gluten free pizza crust from easypizzacrusts.com. I actually don't have a kitchen stand mixer, so I mix it in my food processor with an s-blade and it works great.

Crust:

2/3 cup garfava flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 Tbsp almond meal
1 Tbsp gluten-free yeast
1 Tbsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2/3 cup warm water
1 tsp.vegetable oil
1 tsp. vinegar

Add all dry ingredients together in a kitchen mixer or food processor and combine well. Stir in liquids while beating on medium speed. A stiff dough should form. Let the dough sit about 10 minutes to let the yeast work a little magic. You might not see much change in the size, but the finished product makes this worth the wait. Press/roll gluten free pizza crust dough onto a pizza pan lined with parchment paper. Prebake this crust for about 10 minutes at 350F.

"Pesto":
Drizzle crust with olive oil (about 2 tsp), then brush it evenly across crust.
Top with fresh parsley (about 3 Tbsp, chopped), dried oregano and ground rosemary. It would probably even be better to use all fresh herbs, but this is what I had around.
Sprinkle almond meal (around 2 Tbsp) on top of the herbs.

Voila! Pesto without actually making pesto. If you like basil pesto, use basil in place of/in addition to the parsley...I just don't like the stuff.

Top "Pesto" with the roasted vegetable mixture. (I actually didn't quite use all of it and have a little leftover)

Put spoonfuls of pine nut cheese on top of vegetables. I used about 1/3 cup total. See information about pine nut cheese on my post about roasted vegetable salad.

Bake an additional 15 minutes until crust turns slightly brown on the bottom. At the very end, I like to brown the cheese by turning on the broiler. I don't move the pan up near the broiler (so it's about 7 inches away) and broil for 2-3 minutes. Be careful - it can go from perfect to burned in seconds!

Optional: Garnish with fresh scallions and serve with a salad of spinach, tomato and grated carrot.

A Convenient Truth: Rice Cakes with hummus and vegatables

The truth is, when you eat a soy-free, gluten free vegan diet not much is convenient. If it is convenient it's rarely healthful (e.g. potato chips...my latest broken addiction). While I've been spending more time in the kitchen making healthful meals, sometimes, particularly for breakfast or a snack, I just dont want to fix anything! And yet, I still want to eat something. Enter the rice cake-hummus snack. Put together in under 5 minutes this is a quick, savory breakfast. Even if you need to pack it in container and eat it in the car.

1. Rice Cakes - I really like these new Suzie's Thin Cakes. There are two reasons I like them better than traditional rice cakes. First off, because they are thin, I can eat more of them (translation: I get more hummus). Three of them are the nutritional equivalent of one of the thick rice cakes. Secondly, because they are thin, they don't have that "styrofoam-y" texture that so many people find objectional. Mind you, I've always quite liked rice cakes and don't mind the texture, but these just seem crisper.

2. Hummus. Sure, I could make homemade. But the idea here is convenience. Use store bought. My favorite is Tribe. I usually use the roasted garlic variety because I can get that at a grocery store that charges about $1 less for the hummus. But, my favorite is the cracked red chili pepper. (Note to self: must learn to make my own cracked red chili pepper hummus!)

3. Spinach leaves.

4. Grape tomatoes, optional

As if you needed them...Directions:

Spread hummus on rice cakes (I usually use 3-4). Top with fresh spinach leaves (spring mix or other greens would even work). Put tomatos on the plate or in the container if you want them.

Ta-da! Convenient breakfast, or snack, or light lunch/dinner is ready. Complex carb, healthy fat, protein, fiber, what more could you ask of something so easy? Oh yeah - it tastes good and looks pretty too.

Just fyi, when I packed these altogether and waited until I got to work to eat them (about an hour after packing them). The rice cakes weren't so crispy. They were more like a chewy bread - which is also not objectional when the only bread you can eat is about $5, has only around 12 slices a loaf, has to be kept frozen and must be toasted to have a good texture. Wah, wah, wah...yeah, yeah...all that to say, I don't eat much bread.

Basic Chili

Earlier this week, I was coming down with the cold. One of the things I think helps with congestion is spicy food. I was so glad I already had cooked beans and onion/pepper in the refrigerator. I'd been wanting chili anyway, but it was certainly a blessing to have started the preparation when I started feeling under the weather. This chili is hot to me. I grew up on really mild chili though, so you can pump up the heat with more cayenne if you want. Don't base the heat on a taste test right when you mix everything. It gets hotter as it all cooks down and the flavors mix together. It's not the prettiest picture, but it was kinda dark in the kitchen when I finally got around to wanting to take a picture.


Basic 2 bean Chili (aka Sick Day Chili)

1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp olive oil

3 cups red kidney beans, cooked (if using canned – 2 cans)
1-1/2 cups black beans, cooked (if using canned – 1 can)
1 can Tomato Puree (28 oz)
1 can Diced Tomatoes (14.5 oz)
1 can Tomato Paste (6 oz)
Water (Tomato Puree can full)

1-1/2 Tbsp Chili Powder
¾ tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp Cocoa

Put beans and all tomato products in the crockpot. Fill puree can with water.

Saute pepper and onion in olive oil until onion is translucent and starting to brown. Add garlic and sauté for another minute. Use a little of the water from the puree can to deglaze the pan. Add water, onion mixture, spices to crockpot. Cook on high for about an hour. Turn down and cook until desired thickness. I cooked it about 6 hours because I like thick chili. Salt to taste. Garnish with scallion if desired. I served mine with thin rice cakes.

Convenience Tips:

1. Since I was cooking beans anyway, I went ahead and cooked up a whole pot of kidney beans and a couple pots of black beans. It's no more work to cook up a whole pot than it is to cook up just enough for a recipe. I then freeze the remainder in 1-1/2 cup portions. 1-1/2 cups is the equivalent to 1 can. I now have beans for the next several times I need them.

2. I'm learning to use free, potentially wasted minutes to save time/effort later. A couple days before I was going to be making the chili, my mom and I were catching up on some old Eli Stone episodes (it's getting cancelled...wah!). Between each episode when we were taking bathroom breaks, etc. I spent a couple minutes chopping onions/peppers. I put the onions and peppers all in one containter in the fridge. Since they were going in the same recipe, there was no reason to use separate containers. When I was ready to use them, they were ready for me.

I haven't disappeared

Just in case you think I've fallen off the blogging wagon again, I haven't. I've been sick this week, but I did cook over the weekend and have some pictures to catch up blogging on.

I will, however, post just a little about how I've been doing things lately. For the last two weeks, I've cooked 2-3 main dishes over the weekend and some other fill-in stuff (breakfast muffins, snacks, etc) so that I don't have to work too hard during the week to eat healthfully at each meal. I haven't had popcorn or potato chips and hummus as a meal for over two weeks. That's some kind of record! It's been especially helpful to have things ready when I've been sick. I'm on the upward slope and will get to posting as soon I'm well.

Quinoa Quest 09 Part 1: Vicki's Quinoa Hummus Casserole

My first attempt to find quinoa dishes that I love led me to my new book Vive Le Vegan! and straight to Vicki's Quinoa Hummus Casserole. As noted in the comment on the previous post, the quinoa itself was actually pretty good. In that comment thread, Vegetation suggested that perhaps my issue with quinoa is in the cooking method. I'll test that out at some point and see if that's the case.

But, I digress - back to the first dish...

Vicki's Quinoa Hummus Casserole from Vive Le Vegan (Dreena Burton)

Grade: B/B-

Notes/Substitutions: As a vegetable mixture, I used mostly zucchini and fennel (as stated in the recipe) and used small quanitites each of red onion, cremini mushroom, red bell pepper. I used the Cannelini bean and Yam quinoa from Vive Le Vegan (suggested in the recipe as an option)

Review: It wasn't bad. In fact, it was pretty good and I will finish the leftovers. My mom, a fellow quinoa-hater, also liked it pretty well but had some issues with the fact I used red peppers so she will not eat any more. On strictly taste alone, I would give this dish a B. But it still has a taste potentional of an A with a few changes:

• Use a different hummus. The cannelini/yam hummus with the vegetables is an odd combination to me. The sweet, smoky dip (which is fabulous with rice crackers and cucumbers, by the way) with the naturally sweet vegetables just didn't seem to fit just right for me. I think a plain ol' chickpea-lemon juice-garlic-tahini hummus or a scallion hummus would be nice.
• Use a different vegetable mixture. This was my first try at fennel and it was good, but not something to jump up and down about (at least in this combo). So I think next time I'd try mostly zucchini, mushrooms and the perfectly sweet red onions. Any onion would probably do, but I was pleasantly surprised at the taste the red onion took on when roasted.
• Use less oil. I had a lot of vegetables, so I went with the 2 tbsp olive oil. I could taste the oil too much. I think I'd reduce it by at least half next time, probably even to 2 tsp. You really don't need that much oil to get a good roasted vegetable.

I border between B and B- because it's not pretty. Sure, that's not the most important thing about a meal, but I like pretty food. I can't help it. It does weigh in on the grade.

So, while it wasn't a stellar success, my first dish in the quinoa quest taught me that at least I'm not destined to be a quinoa-hater for all eternity.

I'm on a Mission

First, I have a confession to make: I don't like quinoa. I know it's good for me (if you're not familiar with quinoa, you can read about it here. This is very unlike me. I can usually try things a few times and learn to like them. I used to never touch a bean. Now I love almost all of them. Before going vegan, I was pretty limited on the vegetables I liked. Now, I eat parsnips and kale and even the occasional brussel sprout. But not quinoa. I've been able to adjust to using the quinoa flour sometimes and to eating the quinoa flakes with fruit and nuts for breakfast. And I like the almond quinoa muffins from Veganomicon. But to just eat the grain? bleck!!

But not too long ago, I tried a quinoa dish on the hot bar at my local Whole Foods Market and found myself questioning whether it was really quinoa. It was actually pretty good.

So, here's my mission. I am going to find at least 3 ways that I like quinoa that are a main dish or side dish (no desserts allowed on this mission!). I'm starting tonight. I plan on making the Quinoa Hummus Casserole from Vive Le Vegan! I figure if anything will make me like quinoa, it's hummus (drool...). I'm even going to use the Cannellini Yam Hummus from VLV because it's one of my favorites. I will report back to let you know how it went.

If you don't like quinoa either, maybe this quest will encourage you to try it again. If you already love quinoa and have some suggestions of dishes to try, feel free to let me know. Just remember - make it vegan with no soy, no gluten. I'd rather not have it with fruit in it, because of sugar issues, but small amounts of fresh fruit I would probably try.

I'm on a roll...

Two posts in one day!! Now that you've picked yourself off the floor...I wasn't feeling all that great today and thought the soup I made yesterday would be just the way to get in lots of good nutrients even though I didn't feel like eating anything substantial.


I found this roasted eggplant soup and veganized it. Not hard to do...replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth and replace the cream with rice milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk).






Since I was only cooking for me (and only had one eggplant in the refrigerator), I halved the original recipe. Here's my version.


Vegan Roasted Eggplant Soup


Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant, cut into 4 wedges lengthwise
2 small tomatoes, each cut in 4 wedges
1 small onion, cut in 4 wedges
3 medium cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 - 1 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups vegetable broth *see note below
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup rice milk
Fresh scallions, red bell pepper and toasted almonds to garnish

Preparation:Heat oven to 400°. Line a large baking pan with foil and brush with a little oil or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large food storage bag or bowl, toss the tomato wedges, eggplant slices, onion wedges, and garlic with olive oil. Spread the vegetables in the baking pan. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, turning once or twice, or until the vegetables are tender and browned.

Scoop eggplant into a large saucepan; discard peel. Put remaining roasted vegetables in the saucepan along with the basil, vegetable broth, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil.


Reduce heat to medium low and cover; simmer for 45 minutes, or until all of the vegetables are very soft. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes.

Blend the eggplant and vegetable broth mixture with immersion blender until pureed. Stir in ricemilk. Heat until it begins to simmer. Add more broth if the mixture is too thick (mine was fine). Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with a little scallion/toasted almond slivers/red bell pepper, if desired.


If you don't have an immersion blender, you can puree in a regular blender in 2 batches, but make sure it cools first. If you don't cool the mixture first, it will probably end up spewing out of the blender and burn you. After pureeing, return soup to saucepan to stir in the ricemilk.


Serves 2 to 3.


*Note about vegetable broth: I found this soup a little salty for my tastes (and I LOVE salt), so next time, I'll do one of the following:

• halve the regular vegetable broth with some non-salted vegatable broth
• use all non-salted broth and salt to taste
• use 1/2 vegetable broth & 1/2 water and add some additional dried herbs (particularly parsley)

Overall, it was a tasty, warming lunch and I highly recommend it.

Another Healthful Meal: Chickpea Burgers

These are the chickpea burgers from the You Are What you Eat Cookbook (Gillian McKeith). The texture was a little softer than ideal. I'm still adjusting to things not being as chewy as I might like them. But in all fairness, I did process it a little longer than the recipe suggests, so that might have something to do with it. The flavor was delicious! There was a light oniony taste with the nutty taste of sunflower seeds. The recipe makes 20 mini burgers. For a light dinner, I combined them with some fresh cucumber slices for a little crunch, and some plain sweet potato fries.

Roasted Vegetable Salad: Yum!

I'm still planning to post the last couple of cookie recipes. Sure, it's too late for 2008 holiday baking, but you'll have plenty of time to test them before 2009!

But for today, I want to post my delicious, healthy lunch of roasted vegetable salad. I had some beautiful vegetables that needed to be used before they started to go bad, some leftover pine nut cheese, and some leftover pine nuts. It's loosely based on Gillian McKeith's recipe for "Goat's Cheese Salad with Roasted Tomatoes, Peppers and Rocket" (For those of us in the US - rocket=arugula) from the "You are What You Eat Cookbook" This is what I made...

Roasted Vegetable Salad (serves 2)

1 yellow bell pepper, halved and deseeded

3 small tomatoes, quartered

2 slices from a large red onion, cut rings in 1/2

3-4 cremini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced

2 tsp olive oil

approx 1/4 cup of pine nut "goat cheese"* (i just used the amount I had leftover from a pizza earlier in the week)

fresh spinach (as much as you'd like for your salad base - torn into small pieces)

2 tsp lemon juice

toasted pine nuts and fresh parsley for garnish

Preheat the oven to 395F/200C

Line a baking sheet with foil (or be prepared to scrub it when finished)

Place all the vegetables (peppers cut side up) on the baking sheet. I mixed the onions and mushrooms at one end, put the tomatoes in the middle and had the peppers at the other end. Drizzle vegetables with the olive oil (after drizzling, toss the onions and mushrooms to get them coated a little better. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes.

Spread 1/2 of the pine nut cheese inside each of the pepper halves. Roast for 8 more minutes.

Put a few toasted pine nuts on the top of each pepper and roast for 2 minutes to warm up the pinenuts. If you only have raw pine nuts (I happened to have toasted ones leftover from something else), put the pine nuts on a few minutes earlier so they will toast.

Divide the spinach onto 2 plates. Top with roasted mushrooms and onions. Arrange 1/2 the tomatoes on each plate. Drizzle each with 1 tsp lemon juice. Place 1 of the pepper halves on each salad. Garnish with some fresh parsley

My cute new little plate says it all:

*I make the pine nut cheese from Dr. Ben Kim's site with a few changes. I don't like the shallot in it, so I leave it out. I also use WAY more nutritional yeast. It gives it a cheesier flavor and a thicker texture. Play around to make it the way you like it. I rarely make a full batch because I only like to keep it for about 5 days in the refrigerator. I find that basing the recipe on 1 cup pine nuts makes enough for a pizza with a little left over for a couple tortilla pizzas or other small things like this salad.