Biscuits with White Bean and Tempeh Sausage Gravy

This is another favorite here in our house. The biscuit recipe I get from The Joy of Vegan Baking, I like this one because it doesn't use shortening, which I prefer not to use whenever possible. The gravy recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance.

For the gravy, the tempeh is cooked up with some spices (I double the crushed red pepper) first and then pureed white beans, olive oil, and water are added. The resemblance to white gravy is uncanny--although this version is protein-packed and cruelty free! I have made this dish for more non-vegan than anything else. They've all loved, so it has great crossover appeal as well!

Taco Night

These tacos (Chipotle and Beer marinated Seitan and Potato) are from the October 2009 VegNews. The recipe is by Terry Hope Romero and I imagine it would be included in her latin cookbook due next year (working title: Viva Vegan!). These are really fabulous; the flavors are amazing. Next time I will double the amount of chipotle though, these were nowhere near spicy enough for me.

The seitan marinates while the potatoes roast, and then both get cooked up for the main filling. We served them up taco bar style with all the fixin's: lettuce, tomato, cilantro, refried beans, hot sauce, and Tofutti Better then Sour Cream. These are messy, but they're lick your fingers good!

Zucchini Date Muffins

I had planned to make these muffins from Get it Ripe to take in the car with us for our trip, but time got too short. So, I made them when we got back. These require a fair amount of prep: pitting, chopping, soaking, and then mashing the dates, and grating 2 cups of zucchini. They turned out quite good though. They're sweet, but not overly because the dates and zucchini supply the only sweetness, and they have a nice crunch thanks to the added flax seeds. I was able to find some spelt flour, which is what the recipe called for, so this was also my first time baking with that. It gave a nice, somewhat earthy flavor here; the muffins tasted a bit like a bran muffin, even though there was none.

Spiced Cocoa

Mmm...cocoa. One of the best things about cold weather (others: fires and sweaters). Until I became vegan I had never made cocoa from scratch (like a lot of things) before, always relying on little paper packets. Big mistake. Quick to make in a saucepan and worth every minute.

Spiced Cocoa

makes ~2 cups

1/8 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch salt
1/3 cup hot water
2 cups soymilk (or non-dairy milk of choice)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine cocoa, sugar, spices, and hot water in a saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until boiling, then stir about a minute more. Add soymilk. Heat through. Remove from burner. Add vanilla and serve.

Variation: leave out cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Instead, once removed from heat add 1/4 tsp mint extract.

Yes, this is great with vegan marshmallows! I'd really like to try it with soy or rice whip too.

Mexican Tofu Scramble

First day back from our trip (we went to Magic Mountain and Disneyland), I wanted a nice hearty breakfast, something that I hadn't had in a few days as it's hard to get as a vegan while traveling. I roasted some potatoes, cooked up some black beans, and made a tofu and salsa scramble. So good, so filling, so exactly what I wanted.

For the potatoes: Peel and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Lay out on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and a little salt. Mix around. Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. Stir and flip as best you can, then cook for about 10 minutes more.

For the beans: I just pour a can of black beans into a pot (juices included), then add lime juice, cumin, cayenne, garlic powder, and hot sauce. Cook on medium until hot, then turn down to low until the rest of the food is ready.

Tofu: my basic tofu scramble recipe, add salsa.

There we go, pretty simple, but tasty. Tortillas probably would have been a nice addition.

Brownie Bites

This was the first recipe I tried from The Urban Vegan. Yum, in a word. In several, these were rich, chocolaty goodness. I didn't have two of the flours called for (soy and spelt), so I subbed a couple different ones (chickpea and all-purpose), but everything worked out just fine. Although, I did have to bake these for about 20 minutes instead of the 8 specified; I don't know if this was due to the subbing or not. I also didn't add espresso powder, and just added a little more cocoa powder.

These were the perfect size (mini muffin sized), and had a great consistency. There were also chunks of chocolate mixed in. Needless to say these didn't last too long.

Broccoli, Mushroom, Tofu Stir-fry

We were heading out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday, so it was getting down to pretty slim pickings in our fridge and pantry. This was Asian Shiitake Tofu from The 30-minute Vegan. I subbed creminis for shiitakes because that's what we had on hand. Their suggestion was to serve over quinoa; I just cooked up some Thai rice noodles and threw those in. The flavor was really good, however I didn't take into account how much liquid the rice noodles would take up, so it could have been saucier. All in all, a nice quick dinner and plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day (just added some more soy sauce and some hot pepper sauce prior to heating up).