Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday. We're heading out to a party in just a bit. We have a small group that will all be dressed as tourists (we found some great Hawaiian shirts and fanny packs at our local Goodwill store). I whipped up a batch of the Chocolate Almond Brittle from The Joy of Vegan Baking for the occasion. This whipped up pretty quick, then just had to set for a couple of hours. It tastes great, but the chocolate starts to melt pretty quick in your hand.

Alright, have some fun, and may your night be filled with more treats than tricks!

Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelized Onions and Sage Breadcrumbs

When I was flipping through Veganomicon the other day this recipe caught my eye and I knew just by reading the title that I needed to try it. I had never noticed this recipe before but it sounded super amazing. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that it was. V'con is my favorite cookbook (and I have a lot. When I went vegan I think everyone thought I would starve because I got almost nothing else as gifts). Isa and Terry put together some amazing, inventive recipes and they never disappoint!

This ziti showcased the flavors of autumn so well. The pumpkin is enhanced by nutmeg, walnuts, and the caramelized onions. A cashew-tofu ricotta is also mixed in with the pumpkin to give it a real creaminess and gives this dish some protein. I made fresh breadcrumbs for the topping and the spices mixed into them really rounded out the flavors.



It took a good amount of time to whip this up, and a whole lot of dirty dishes (both bowls of my food processor and the dry blender container) but this made a lot and we will be happily eating it for several days. The only thing I would change upon making this dish again is to reduce the amount of onion. There were 2 whole onions chopped up and caramelized in there; I personally onion to be a background flavor and it was pretty strong in this. Still good, but strong. I'll probably have onion breath the rest of the evening.

Asparagus and Lemongrass Risotto

Today the wind was whipping around like crazy, so some warm comfort food was in order. Tonight it was another favorite in our household; this recipe comes from Veganomicon--it is fabulous. It has amazing flavors with the blending of the lemongrass, basil, mint, asparagus, lime juice, and peanuts. This recipe takes a little longer than your usual risotto because it requires making your own lemongrass and vegetable broth plus sauteing the asparagus, basil and mint together before even starting with the rice stirring process. But, it's worth it! I left out the called-for shallots, mine were moldy, and subbed Pinot Grigio for sherry (I always make sure I have a cheap bottle of red and white wine around for cooking; no matter how cheap it is 2-buck Chuck just isn't worth it though--blech)

When making risotto it's important to stir, stir, stir. I just turn something on the TV and stir while I watch (tonight it happened to be Tool Academy; I know, I know, but it's a guilty pleasure). Below is a picture of how I keep my area set up while I'm stirring. I keep the broth to the back of the rice pan, set to low so it stays warm. To the right (I'm right-handed), I keep a measuring cup for adding broth. I keep the measuring cup in a larger container so the counter doesn't get all messy.



It takes about 35-45 minutes to stir all the broth in and get the rice to the correct consistency, then you can dig in!

Vegan Giveaways!

There have been a plethora of giveaways for cookbooks and treats recently. Just thought I'd clue you in to some that are still open so you could give it a shot!

From VegNews: Marshmallow Ghosts from Sweet and Sara



Enter to win here. Sweet and Sara marshmallows were the first I had after becoming vegan; I first tried them just a few months ago. They made me very happy, they're so good.

Next up, a plethora of cookbooks:

Go Dairy Free and My Sweet Vegan: Passionate About Desserts here. I don't own either of these books, but based on Hannah Kaminsky's blog (she contributed to GDF and wrote MSV), I'm sure they're both great.
















Robin Robertson's new tome 1000 Vegan Recipes is available here from PETA. Again, I don't own this one; it's pretty new. There is some great food porn from it here though. There are also a few recipes on Robin's site.



Also from PETA, The Conscious Cook is up for grabs. This won "Cookbook of the Year" from VegNews magazine and is both highly rated and a top-seller on Amazon. I just recently acquired this one. I have not yet made anything from it but some of Tal's dishes certainly look amazing; his dishes are certainly ones that will impress vegans and non-vegans alike.



Some of these are ending quite soon, so make haste. Good Luck!

Tofu Scramble and Hashbrowns

This morning I was off from work so I cooked up a real breakfast. I had about a 1/2 pound of leftover tofu in the fridge from the tofu bennys, so I made up a quick scramble with that, some spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes. I also had a handful of golden potatoes sitting around so I cooked up some hashbrowns to go with it.

I usually make a fairly simple tofu scramble. I just put a little olive oil in a pan, then add a sprinkle of cumin, turmeric, and garlic powder. I mix these up until the oil is hot, then I add the crumbled tofu. Everything gets mixed up so the tofu is covered in the spices and I just let it cook for a while (until most of the water from the tofu is gone). Then I add some nutritional yeast (usually a couple of tablespoons). Today I threw in the chopped spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. Other times I might add some beans. I always eat my scramble covered in hot sauce.

For the hashbrowns, I started by peeling the potatoes. Then I grated them up and cooked them in the microwave (a couple of minutes; 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between). I sprayed a non-stick skillet with oil, then added the cooked potatoes. I sprinkled salt, pepper, garlic powder, and nutritional yeast on them, then just kept stirring and flipping until they were cooked. I had attempted hashbrowns before, but didn't cook the potatoes first and they did not turn out well; they just weren't cooked enough in the middle. The pre-cooking helped a lot and the spices imparted a wonderful flavor.

Good breakfast.

Lentils In Onion Gravy, Rice, and Stir-fried Red Chard

This was a use up what's in the pantry kind of dinner. I look at what I have, then take a look in several cookbooks until I come across a winner (one that sounds good and works with the things I have on hand). This lentil recipe is from Vegan Fire and Spice. It tasted much better than it looks in this photo. Poor lentils, they just don't photograph too well. Chard, on the other hand, always looks pretty.

The lentils were cooked up with lots of onions and garlic, then simmered with water and spices. Some soy yogurt was thrown in the end to give it some thickness.

I cooked up the chard like so: heat up some peanut and sesame oil in a wok, add garlic, add (cleaned, chopped) chard, stir and let wilt a bit. Then add a splash of soy sauce and mirin, and continue stirring until completely wilted. This is our favorite way to serve up greens, it is incredibly tasty!

Tofu Benny

I just received Vegan Brunch from Amazon, as I was flipping through for the first time this recipe caught my eye, I showed it to my boyfriend and he demanded it for dinner that night. The tofu has a delicious marinade and all the flavors from everything come together so well. We devoured this quickly.

I didn't have all of the ingredients called for, like the two special salts (Black and Roasted) that Isa calls for in her recipe, but this still turned out great. I also ran out of white wine vinegar while making the marinade for the tofu. Since quite a bit was called for in the sauce I got a different sauce recipe from How It All Vegan. I added a little thyme to it though to give some more flavor.



I served this with a smoothie: 1 cup soymilk, frozen banana, 8 frozen strawberries, a couple of handfuls of spinach and about a 1/2 Tbsp of flax seeds blended to perfection. Yum! It was a very ugly brown color, so no photo (you can see part in the upper right corner of the second photo). I love putting greens into a fruit smoothie, it's so good for you and with all the sweetness from the fruit you don't even taste them.