Thai Root Veggie EWWWW!

Sometimes, I like to get outside my comfort zone with food. Strangely, thai curry is inside my comfort zone, and I still didn’t care for this dish. At all. I can tell you one very clear reason why: parsnips.

Okay, I try to love all vegetables. And I’m not huge into beets, or bell peppers, or butternut squash (I know, weird, right?), but I like to try new things. But parsnips? Eugh. They have the most disturbing flavor ever. Am I right here? Creepy. Now I really want to find a recipe that I can like parsnips in, just to prove myself wrong.

I did learn something awesome from making this dinner, though. I love rutabagas. Rutabagas forever!!

Recipe from Appetite for Reduction. Eat at your own risk.

 

What? I can eat pot roast again!

Squee! Thank you, Happy Herbivore!

First–like actual pot roast, this takes a bit of time and effort. Second–like actual pot roast, this tastes fantastic. But it doesn’t make you feel queasy, like pot roast always used to do to me! I was really surprised at how close this was to the “real thing”–not in texture, but in taste.

Texture is the only place you’re going to be let down–the roasted seitan has that spongey, seitan texture that we all know and love. I think it would be better, instead of baking it, to cut it into chunks and sauté with mushrooms–then you can also make a really easy gravy, too.

Bonus tip: when you do make gravy with the cooking liquid, add about 1 tsp of blackstrap molasses to it. It’ll give you that awesome brown gravy color you’ve always wanted. Ta da!

 

Blueberry Coffee Cake

My mom was out visiting, which is a perfect excuse to make some really killer coffee cake. And sheesh, did this ever take the proverbial cake. So moist! So sweet! So crunchy! I pretty much wanted to slap anyone’s hand who tried to reach for a slice.

I believe that the Post Punk Kitchen has a version of this up…yep. I used the recipe from Vegan Brunch, but it amounts to the same thing. I’m kinda wondering, though–do you think there’s any way to reduce some of the fat content in this? Like, if, say, I wanted to eat it all the time. I can’t be downing 3/4 cup of oil for every cake. Even though it’ll last me 4 or 5 days of breakfasts. Someone. Help!

 

Maple Sausages & Hash

This dinner is brought to you by brunch. And by the Post Punk Kitchen! And the letter K, and the number 7.

I’ve wanted to try these maple sausages forever. And my only beef *snicker* with them is that they’re too firm. I’m like baby bear when it comes to sausages. Not too soft, not too hard. I think the Happy Herbivore Spicy Sausage has the best texture, for my money, and that’s what I prefer to make. So now I just need to figure out the ratios so I can get different flavors–because the smoky maple flavor in this sausage was fantastic! It seems sorta funny to me that when I was an omni, I hated sausage. But I totally, completely, head-over-heels adore vegan sausage.

The rest of the dinner was just a bunch of steamed kale with garlic salt and nutritional yeast on it (the most vegan-y thing in the world) and Red Flannel Hash from Vegan Brunch. I’ve made it before, and guess what? Still good.

 

Homemade Wontons!

Shockingly easy to make, and insanely good. I had no idea making your own wonton wrappers wasn’t very hard–though it is a little time consuming. I searched through three grocery stores to find vegan versions–but every single one had egg. And I think these ended up being a little more like gyoza, I loved them. LOVED.

The recipe for the filling and sauce comes from…you guessed it…the October issue of Vegetarian Times. Sambal Oelek, baby! If you’re making this at home, feel free to cut the amount of soy sauce way, way down. I only used 1 T in the filling, and 1 T in the sauce. I replaced the rest of it with veggie broth, and it was freaking delicious.

Weird side note, two days after I made these, we went out to eat at a fancy asian restaurant that has lots of vegan options. When their pot stickers came out–guess what? They tasted almost exactly like this recipe!

Roasted Veggies with Orzo

Mmmm…roasted veggies. I believe this is the Autumn Roasted Vegetables with Orzo from October’s Vegetarian Times Magazine. Man, that October issue has tons of great recipes! This one is no exception. And while there wasn’t anything that screamed “AUTUMN!” about this dinner, it was super classy. Kale, roasted cauliflower, roasted celery root, creamy orzo. How can you go wrong? And those little tiny baby potatoes! If you thought fingerlings were cute, you need to take a look at these.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Funny, isn’t it? I’ve been trying out different recipes, testing out different theories about what makes a good chocolate chip cookie, and the answer was there all the time. This is pretty much my same exact recipe for chocolate chip cookies, just with two easy switches to make it vegan. And it’s perfect. Sure, that sounds like bragging–but you’ll see!

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 2 dozen):

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 T maple syrup
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 3 T umilk
• 1 T ground flax seeds
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/3 cup flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt (you can use 1/2 tsp, if you like saltier cookies)
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

First, mix your unmilk and flax seeds together in a small cup, and set aside. Then, in a medium mixing bowl, combine sugars, maple syrup, canola oil and vanilla. Really stir them together–for two minutes or until your arm hurts. Then, add the flax and unmilk. Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the bowl and mix until dough forms. Here’s a tip to know if you’ve added the right amount of flour: the dough should appear wet, but isn’t sticky if you pinch off a bit. If it sticks to your fingers, add a little more flour–about 2 T. Now, add the chocolate chips, stirring to combine.

Now, make little individual dough balls about the size of a walnut, and flatten gently onto your parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake on a cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes (depending on the size of your cookie) in a 350 degree oven. I usually just make cookies in small batches, and keep the dough in the fridge. However, I’ve noticed this dough gets sorta crumbly as it gets cold, so if you want good looking cookies, I would either let it get back to room temp, or just make all the cookies at once.

But yeah, they are seriously awesome. And no fussing with cornstarch! Or tapioca starch! Hooray!

(Okay, I just realized that I posted virtually this same EXACT recipe before, but the results were completely different! How weird is that? Anyway, check it out!)

Buffalo Seitan

Just another stop on my long road to buffalo-ing everything; I made these buffalo seitan hot wings from a recipe in October’s Vegetarian Times Magazine. I have to say, they were really terrific. It’s not a combination I would have thought of, which is silly–seitan can do anything!

To make the recipe easier, I used the chicken-style seitan recipe from Happy Herbivore. But I added about 2 T of Frank’s Red Hot to the cooking liquid. This saves you the marinating time the original recipe calls for, because the flavor is cooked right in. Secondly, I used the left-over cooking liquid to make a thick buffalo sauce to go over the top–just add in about 1/4 cup of additional Red Hot and some cornstarch to the mix. Whisk over medium heat until it thickens.

My best, best, best invention, though, was the super easy ranch dressing for the side. I mean, this is the easiest vegan ranch I’ve found anywhere, and it tasted great. Here’s what you do:

Vegan Golden Ranch Dressing (makes about 1/2 a cup):

• 1/4 cup low-fat vegan mayo (I use Trader Joe’s brand)
• Up to 1/4 cup unmilk (adjust thickness of dressing how you like)
• 2 T nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 T dried onion flakes
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1/4 tsp dried dill
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and keep cold. Can you believe it’s that easy? You can adjust the spice mix to your liking–more or less garlic, more salt, etc. But this worked really well for me. Remember, a little dried dill goes a loooooong way. If you don’t like how it tastes with that little dill, add more. But be careful!

Moroccan Stew

I’ve been terrified to make this.

I get a little scared to cook with mint. Yes, I know I love mint in other dishes. But hot mint? In a stew? With cinnamon? I’m just not used to thinking outside the box like this. My tastes have always run a little, well, predictable. Not strictly “American” food, but certainly with very tame spice combinations. I’d hoped this wouldn’t be like all my curry experiments gone awry.

But guess what? It was really, really good. Really.

We all liked it–even my picky 2-year-old. Which is amazing, if you know 2-year-olds. My husband likes anything with ginger in it, so I knew he’d be happy. But this whole dinner was really comforting, filling, and easy to make. Couscous is amazing, too. I don’t know why I didn’t start cooking with it earlier. The whole deal gets a definite thumbs up!

Recipe from Appetite for Reduction.

 

Noodles & Veg

Ah, Vegetarian Times. Some months, there is nothing to cook in there at all. And the other months–a beautiful extravaganza of vegan delights. This month they are totally on their game. This is the first of a few meals I’ve made from the October 2011 issue, and they have all been terrific.

This picture is horrible, though, right? This is the best one! I took about a million pictures, and this one was the only one that wasn’t blurry. ARGH! I think my problem is that the Vegetarian Times dinners are SO much more work, I’ve barely had time to do all the dishes afterwards before crawling into bed.

Anyhow, I believe this one is called “Vegetables and Noodles with Sesame Dressing.” That isn’t the sexiest name for a recipe that I’ve ever seen, but it gets the job done. I would say my only real complaint here is the steamed tofu–why on earth would anyone want to eat just plain steamed tofu. Is there anything less flavorful in the whole world? Even when you put the sauce (which is amazing) on it, it doesn’t help much. I’d recommend marinating it in a little bit of sauce and then dry frying it for some added awesome.