East Coast Coffee Cake

East Coast Coffee Cake


The cake crumb was light and tender with just a hint of sweetness.  I decided to make this with one of the suggested options of swirling raspberry jam into the batter and I'm glad I did because without that extra bit of flavour and tang, the cake would have been a little bland.  I was disappointed in the topping, all I could taste was flour.  I think it's worth playing around with next time in order to perfect the cake.  Recipe from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. 

Jam swirly coffee cake before it gets topped!

For our weekly cooking challenge my friend and fellow blogger Kathryn over at The Hedgehog in the Kitchen has made some pretty tasty looking stuffing.  Check it out here.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

I don't know why I haven't tried to make these before, they're easy, delicious and good for you too.   A big thumbs up from my four year old even though they had cumin which she normally doesn't tolerate too much of.  I started with the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance which is basically a bit of oil, cumin and coriander and then added sesame seeds and salt to the mix.  The sesame seeds made these really delicious!


Sweet Potato Fries



Cauliflower Poppers

I'm not usually inspired by this particular vegetable and so was searching for something to do with half a large head of cauliflower.  I came across something called Cauliflower poppers that appeared to be simple, fast and tasty.  I've combined a couple of different recipes from the web and am very pleased with the results.  We were out of lemons so instead I substituted 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar with my fingers crossed that it wouldn't affect the flavour too much.  Also, because I added 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast, the mixture was a little thick so I thinned it out with some water. 

My four year old's reaction when she tasted this, "Mmmm, I want it".  She has never eaten cauliflower in her life, need I say more?  For some reason I was expecting the cauliflower to be crispier (the popper in the name perhaps) but the texture was soft like roasted vegetables usually are and the flavour is outstanding!   Definitely my favourite way to eat this unassuming veggie yet. 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
2 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Separate the cauliflower into bite-sized florets.


Whisk together the remaining ingredients and toss with the cauliflower, then bake for 40 minutes, stirring once about halfway through the cooking time.  

Enjoy!


Cauliflower Poppers



Tomato and Caramelized Onion Pizza (Cheese free!)

Once a week, I usually I cook up a fresh batch of vegetable tomato sauce.  It's very useful to have around the kitchen and can be used as a base for many dishes.   To make it, I roughly chop one large onion, one large carrot, one red pepper and about 4 good sized ripe tomatoes.  Saute the veggies for a few minutes, throw in the tomatoes, a bit of salt and some water or vegetable stock.   I let this simmer on the stove for about 1/2 an hour and when it's cooled down I whip out my favourite kitchen tool - an immersion blender and puree the sauce.  This is the only way my daughter will ever get these particular vegetables into her body.  She has the uncanny ability to be able to sense the tiniest piece of onion in any dish, separate it and spit it out.  I happen to adore onions so I thought I would make a cheeseless pizza covered in slightly caramelized onions, tomato, garlic and a few other seasonings.   It turned out to be amazing.  I'm in the process of eating the entire thing as I write and it was so simple to make! 

Tomato and Caramelized Onion Pizza

one red onion
one large tomato
1 large clove garlic
1/2 tsp basil
1/8 tsp thyme
1/3 cup of tomato (vegetable) sauce
olive oil (approximately 3-4 Tbsp)
salt
nutritional yeast (optional)
pizza dough

1.  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2.  Chop the tomato and combine in a bowl with the minced garlic, a bit of sea salt and about one tablespoon of olive oil.  Let the flavours combine while you prepare the onions.

3.  Sautee the onions in olive oil along with the thyme until soft and slightly browned and then turn off the heat.

4.  Stretch out your pizza dough and brush with olive oil.   Evenly distribute the onions and the tomato mixture.  I used a teaspoon to distribute the tomato vegetable sauce all over the pizza (basically around all the spaces left by the veggies).  

5.  Sprinkle with nutritional yeast and a tiny bit of sea salt and then pop it into the oven for about 20 minutes or until it's done how you like it. 

6.  Eat!

Tomato and Caramelized Onion Pizza

Stuffed Mutant Flatbread - Vegan Cooking Challenge - Week 6

Stuffed Mutant Flatbread - this week's surprise challenge recipe

Wow, it's been six weeks since we started the challenge and there's a lot going on around here.  This past week has been super stressful (we are in the middle of trying to buy a house) and I haven't done much cooking but I set this challenge for a reason and I was determined to create something wonderful today.  I'm so glad I stuck to my guns because the end result was so mouth wateringly delicious that I have created a separate post for my creation.  I had intended on making a mashed egpplant recipe from The Indian Vegan Kitchen and decided to look for a simple flatbread recipe to accompany it.  Along the way, my plans were diverted and the resulting flatbread became a stuffed flatbread that was devoured in record time.  Click here to see my entry for this week's challenge or you can just look at the post before this one.  Simple, filling and completely satisfying.   The mashed eggplant is sitting abandoned in a bowl on the countertop waiting for some attention!  I'll finish it later and let you know how that goes. 

This week Kathryn has submitted her unique take on a classic dish.   Check out her Jumbalaya here!  It's so satisfying when you create your own version of something yummy and it turns out wonderfully.    Cheers to you and your husband for getting creative and I hope your transition to vegan cooking is going well!    

Jeannette is sharing an adaptation to an old family recipe, here it is!   Happy Labour Day everyone.  

When I was growing up, I ate a lot of casseroles. When I was growing up, I ate a lot of casseroles. My mom liked something she could put together in one dish and then bake. These dishes were always made with hamburger. When I stopped eating meat, I missed these comfort foods, so I set out to duplicate them. For this dish I slice one large sweet potato and 3 large potatoes into 1/4 inch slices (halve the slices if they are too large, the pieces should be similar in size). I par-boiled them, just until they are no longer raw-crisp. Drain. This is the basis of the dish. To the potatoes I add one drained can of garbanzo beans and 1 cup or more of pasta sauce. I use a sweeter sauce to compliment the flavor of the sweet potatoes. Last night I added small pieces of cauliflower, also parboiled, and some leftover corn kernels. I usually add frozen green beans, but I subbed in the cauliflower. I always parboil any uncooked veggies to reduce the baking time, and to make sure everything has the same texture. I put this in a 9x12 glass dish and bake it, covered, at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. We eat it as a main dish, but it would make a nice side dish, too.


1 large sweet potato
3 large potatoes
1 15oz can garbanzo beans
1 cup (or more) of pasta sauce, enough to coat the veggies

extra ingredients:

1/2 head of cauliflower, 1 cup corn kernels, 1 cup green beans

The measurements are not exact. Add more or less of any of the ingredients to suit your taste.

Cinnamon Rolls

Last night while I was making my challenge recipe, I had another project going in the kitchen, my first ever cinnamon rolls!   In fact, I've never made any kind of bread and the search for the bread hook attachment that came with my stand mixer was lengthy, dusty and hot (but absolutely worth it in the end!). In total, the process took over four hours from start to finish with a good portion of that being rising time.  I used the recipe from my go-to baking book The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goodreau.  I tried to document with photos what the rolls look like in each step.  And lets just say that when they were finally out of the oven and iced at about 11:00 pm, I couldn't stop eating them.   I managed to stuff down THREE big rolls.  I couldn't stop myself and even though I'm a little on the bloated side this morning, I may just have to indulge myself for breakfast.   Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Rising in the pan before they go into the oven.

 

Just out of the oven before the icing goes on

I'm in Cinnamon Roll heaven.

      

Pizza!!!

Yes!  Today is the day I made my first Daiya cheese pizza.  The excitement and tension level in my kitchen this afternoon was off the charts.  The dough we purchased at Whole Foods on the weekend turned out to be gluten-free and when I unwrapped it from the packaging it just fell apart.  There was no way I was risking my pizza on that crappy dough so I pulled out my recipe books, found a simple one with lots of great instructions in Vegan with a Vengeance and got to work.  After a frustrating and lengthy search for yeast in which I re-organized my pantry, I was then faced with the dilemma of figuring out the equivalent of 1/4 ounce in teaspoons of yeast.  I have bulk yeast instead of those individual wee packets but with a quick google found this great conversion site called metric-conversions.org.   It's 1/2 tablespoon in case anyone wants to know! 

It's a good thing I started early because for a five ingredient recipe this takes a little time.  After mixing and then kneading for a good ten minutes, (my pre-pizza gorgefest workout) I left the dough under a damp towel to rest for an hour.   

The crust when baked was not as tender as I'd hoped.  It felt fine while I was kneading it but I think it may be my fault for not letting it rest long enough.   I was too hungry and excited to wait much longer than 15 minutes afer the second punch down and kneading.

We made three pizzas, one with just cheese for my daughter and two with veggies.   As an experiment, I laid the Daiya down first with the vegetables on top while the other had the Daiya on top of the veggies.  I think I had really high expectations for the cheese, never a good idea because as far as I'm concerned it did not live up to the hype.  It was good and melted well on one of the pizzas but the pizza that had the cheese on top was a little dry and not as gooey.   Flavour wise, again it was just okay, definitely not as salty as regular cheese.   Despite my reactions to the product and dough, I managed to scarf down an entire dinner plate sized pizza all by myself.  Now I need a nap. 

Melted Daiya pizza bite.

Daiya on top.

Daiya cheese underneath veggies stood up well. 

Roasted Kale = Yum!

Kale is one of my favourite vegetables and one of the few my daughter will eat so I don't know what took me so long to try roasting it.   The bunch I had in the fridge was looking a little sad so I decided today was the day.   If I don't eat some greens every day I notice myself getting cranky so it's always nice to discover a new way to prepare them. 

I tossed the kale in a bowl with a little sesame oil, sesame seeds and salt, threw it in the oven for 10 minutes and voila!   Easy, healthy finger food.  We gobbled up the entire pan in a few minutes. 

She ate almost the entire plate!

Crispy Roasted Kale