MoFo 1: Tofu, Spinach and Daiya Lasanga

Welcome to MoFo! There are over 500 bloggers participating this year--vegan bloggers out in full force!!! I'm going to spend the month catching up with my cooking posts and doing a daily roundup of my fave blog posts of the day.



The dish above I'd been hearing rave reviews about, and I have to say that it lived up to the hype. It's the tofu spinach lasagna from The Vegan Table. I added the Daiya, because as you may know I was swimming in the stuff,and it made a very nice addition. I know I said that I had found a new favorite lasagna back in December, however this one is definitely a contender for that so coveted spot. It's also a bit easier. For the sauce I used the basic marinara recipe from Veganomicon, it's my go-to and it's always great! I really recommend this dish for that lasagna-loving person in your life.



While every dish from Colleen's book hasn't been amazing (case in point), this is one amazing lady who does know what she's talking about. She's one of my vegan role models, have you heard her podcasts?! Or checked out her website, Compassionate Cooks? She just released a new book, Color Me Vegan. I haven't had a chance to check it out, but it sounds really fun.



Hope you all have a great night, I got to this post in just in the nick of time. If you have a chance, check out my fave vegan blog posts of the day:

1) The always-adorable Amey from Vegan Eats and Treats is blogging her way around the world this MoFo, first up: Mexico!

2) Angela at Oh She Glows has come up with an amazing looking recipe, a cake in a jar--perfect single serving size!

3) Over at Vegansaurus, they're posting a recipe a day of Chef Tal Ronnen's Gardein Thanksgiving menu. Today is Sage and Pumpkin Seed Crusted Gardein with Cranberry Cabernet Sauce! Imagine serving that to your loved ones this Thanksgiving. I bet it would blow their socks off. I'm gonna have to keep this in mind for my celebrations. Also, don't miss the first recipe of a beet and orange salad!

4) Also from Vegansaurus: they're getting a new vegan chef/blogger each week to veganize the winning recipe from the Bravo show Top Chef: Just Desserts. This week it's a fried lemon pie with salted caramel ice cream...whoa! They're on week seven, don't forget to check out all the other amazing veganations!

5) Seeing as I'm a lover of all things pumpkin, and not only this time of year, Ashley over at The Edible Perspective got me salivating with her Baked Pumpkin French Toast. It's pumpkin food porn madness over there!

Lettuce Wraps

A couple of my good friends got married recently. They always tell me how much they love my food, so for their gift I made them a cookbook. Another friend told me about this site, Tastebook.com, so that's where I organized everything and had it printed up. It turned out beautifully; if anyone's interested in making up a cookbook, I'd definitely recommend Tastebook.

I went through all my cookbooks to pick out the best of the best recipes, and it was hard to narrow it down. I also found new ones I wanted to try, like these lettuce wraps above from The Vegan Table. It makes up a tofu and pepper mixture (I added some shiitake mushrooms), and a sauce which gets combined with cucumber, basil, and of course hot sauce in a lettuce leaf. These were pretty good. The tofu mixture was a bit watery, so I'd recommend pressing the tofu real well before cooking. Water chestnuts would have made a good addition to the tofu mixture as well.

Chickpea Cutlets with Mustard Sauce and Artichokes with Tangy Dipping Sauce

We've got the super-jumbo artichokes in season here; they can almost be a whole meal in and of themselves but I wanted some protein to go with, so I threw together the always good chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. The mustard gravy (also from V'con) is what we always serve with these, the flavors just go together superbly. I've been reading PinkVegan's blog, she's cooking her way through all the recipes in The Vegan Table and The Conscious Cook, to see what I want to make next from both of these books. A while back she made the tangy dipping sauce for artichokes and it went over well with her family; it sounded great and I'd been wanting to try it. That's the sauce in the background of my picture, I halved the recipe, and it still made a whole lot. I used basil as my herb of choice and it was super good. It was creamy and definitely tangy--it tasted great on the artichokes. We had a lot of this sauce left; I used some of it in an upcoming dinner post and I'll have to think of something/s for the rest (it's mostly Vegenaise, so it makes a great spread).

Chana Masala, Spinach, Rice and Naan

Using the Indian style spinach recipe from Alternative Vegan, the Chana Masala recipe from The Vegan Table, and the naan recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking I was able to make full-blown Indian feast for dinner. The spinach we make often and is a real winner, so full of flavor. I'd never used this chana masala recipe before, but it didn't disappoint. Since the naan took several hours to make (mix, rise, roll, bake) I let the chana simmer for a while to give it more flavor. Every twenty to thirty minutes I would add more water and stir. It was on the stove for a good two to three hours; it had tons of flavor and left the house smelling amazing. I added a bit of plain soy yogurt at the end to give it some creaminess. I would have liked for it to have been a bit spicier, so next time I'll add some chili peppers. The naan didn't turn out as I had hoped. It had great flavor and tasted pretty authentic but the texture was all wrong. It was too dense. There are lots of recipes for naan on the internet so I'll have to try a different one next time to see if I can find something closer to what I've had in restaurants (pre-vegan, since I've been unable to find it anywhere without ghee or milk in it). I served this up with some brown rice instead of the more traditional basmati. Of course, when we ate this we just mixed everything up together and scooped it up with bread, but it looks nice all separated like that. Leftovers of Indian food are always fabulous because the spices just continue to mix together--great lunch the next day!

Toasted Quinoa and Lime Baked Broccoli

To use up the remainder of our broccoli from the baked potatoes I decided to try the "Basic Broccoli" recipe from Alternative Vegan. It consisted of a lemon juice marinade (I used lime) that was tossed over the broccoli and then the broccoli was baked. I'd never cooked broccoli this way, and to my delight it tasted great! It did lose its heat really quick, but it's cold out now and that happens.

The toasted quinoa recipe was from The Vegan Table. I halved the recipe and it still made enough for two dinners and lunch the next day. I left out shallots and instead added half a green bell pepper. This was a very nice, lightly spiced quinoa recipe and the addition of the almonds and cranberries gave it that little something special. Toasting the quinoa prior to cooking gave it a nice taste and it also had the added bonus of making the house smell amazing.

Herbed Grilled Polenta with Roasted Red Pepper Coulis and Swiss Chard with Caramelized Onions

I had high hopes for this meal. It's from The Vegan Table and the pictures in the book were mouthwatering. We were disappointed.

The polenta was good, it had sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and parsley mixed in, then after it had cooled in a dish, was grilled to a nice crisp on the outside. I wasn't able to get small enough chunks of any of these mix-ins though; I would definitely recommend a food processor because my knife just didn't get the job done well enough and it would have been much better without large-ish chunks. I also would leave out the parsley. I think it's disgusting. I tried it because it was such a small amount, but every bite I had with it in there was just gross. I have vowed before to never use it again, somehow I always end up doing it though, thinking the recipe author must have a reason and this will be the time I like it. It's never worked and I am now going to take a stand: no more parsley!

The coulis was also good, it gave some moisture in addition to more flavor to the polenta. I think it needed some tomato though. In the book Colleen's photo of the coulis is the color and consistency of marinara. Not only would that color have been more appetizing than the odd orange color of ours, I think the tomato would have complimented this very well.

Now for the chard. My least favorite part...which is sad because chard is one of my favorite vegetables. First we caramelized the onions. We let them get really dark, they smelled great, then kalamata olives, capers, and the chard were added in. Once the chard was wilted lemon juice was squeezed on top. All of these mixed together was just way too bitter. I was able to eat it all, but it wasn't with the joy I usually have while eating chard. I won't be making this one again.