Flax-Berry Pancakes with Simso's Strawberry Sauce



Flax-Berry Pancakes with Simso's Strawberry Sauce


When I find a recipe I like, I sometimes get into a rut.  I've been making the same pancakes for over a year now and this morning decided to bust out a few cookbooks and look for something new.  My choice was Flax-Berry Pancakes from Vegan Planet: 400 Irresistible Recipes with Fantastic Flavors from Home and Around the Worldand to top it all off Simso's Strawberry Sauce from Vegan World Fusion Cuisine.  I must say, as a Canadian who can't imagine using anything but maple syrup on my pancakes this was a pretty radical idea.

The pancakes were tasty and easy, except for the bit where you have to scrape ground flaxseeds out of the blender jar.  I was a little more hesitant about the strawberry sauce it but exceeded my expectations.  The recipe called for chopped strawberries, water, a little sweetener of your choice (I used agave), mirin, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of cardomom which I hate so I left that out.  My only complaint is that it only made enough for one person.   Next time I will double or triple the recipe.  All in all though, it was a successful breakfast and my weekly cooking challenge is complete!  

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My friend Kathryn was way ahead of me this week and whipped up some tasty, savory black beans and rice for our challenge.   Go and check it out at The Hedgehog in the Kitchen. 

Happy cooking everyone!

Creamy Tomato-Cashew Lentils

Creamy Tomato-Cashew Lentils

I think I have the toughest taste tester in the world, a five year old daughter who would choose to eat pizza five times a week if I let her.  I'm always searching for ways to introduce new and nutritious foods while still appealing to her palate. 

When I tried cooking lentils this way a few weeks ago and she ate them, I felt like I'd hit the jackpot.  Indian recipes and spices often don't go down well even when I omit the cayenne or chilis.  I’ve made this dish three times now and each time she has eaten and enjoyed it in small amounts.  This is an easy and satisfying way to cook lentils and they taste just as great if not better reheated the day after.  It's very mild, made without any chilis or large amounts of strong spices.  The cashew paste adds a really yummy creaminess that balances out the acidity of the tomato.  I've used brown lentils as well as french lentils - both have been great! 

Creamy Tomato-Cashew Lentils

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon grated ginger


½ tsp cumin powder

½ tsp dried coriander

¼ tsp turmeric

1 cup lentils

3 cups vegetable stock or water

2 chopped tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp agave nectar (or other sweetener)

½ cup raw cashews

1/3 cup water

In a medium sized saucepan, heat the oil on medium high.  Add the ginger, cumin, coriander and turmeric. Stir for about 30 seconds.  Add the lentils, stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and sweetener. Bring to a boil and then simmer covered for about 35 to 40 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

While the lentils are cooking, blend the cashews and water together until fairly smooth. When the lentils are tender, stir the creamy cashew liquid into the pot and heat for a few more minutes.  Season to your taste. 

Serve with rice or grain of your choice.

Leek Potato Soup



Leek Potato Soup

 I don't often cook with leeks but they are definitely one of my occasional, vegetable impulse buys at the grocery store.  I had three sitting in my fridge getting a little dried out and thought it would the perfect ingredient for my weekly cooking challenge.  I've always wanted to make potato leek soup and searched my cookbooks for a recipe.  I found an appealing candidate in Lauren Ulm's wonderful Vegan YumYum with relatively few ingredients. 

This simple, warming soup was a big hit with everyone in our house. I liked it's velvety texture and the fact that few ingredients were required. Next time I will reduce the amount of salt and season at the end if required. 
 
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And now lets go and see what Kathryn has made over at The Hedgehog in the Kitchen.   Ooooh, it looks like some yummy middle eastern lentils and rice from Veganomicon.   I must give that one a try.   Go Kathryn!  Keep on cooking!

No Bake Chocolate Cookies - Oh Yes!



Da Kine No Bake Chocolate Cookies

 Valentines Day was the official end of my no-sugar challenge.  I never thought in a million years I could go six weeks without indulging in a daily hit of sugar but I actually did it with the support of my good friend Merry.  I must say there was a noticable improvement in my energy levels.  That awful, mid-day, sluggish, slump disappeared and after about 3 weeks the cravings lessened.  Tonight I made my first real treat, a recipe for no bake chocolate cookies from Vegan Fusion World Cuisine.  These were very simple to prepare, just melt the chocolate or carob chips and mix in the remaining ingredients which included raisins, pecans, coconut flakes, almond or peanut butter, a bit of maple syrup, vanilla and cinnamon.  The mixture cooled and firmed up quickly making it easy to shape the cookies.  We popped them in the fridge and after about 15 minutes, the upper limit of my daughter's waiting tolerance, she tried one.  Total success!  She loved them except for the raisins which were spit out, no surprise there.  Then, it was my turn.  I made a cup of tea, sat down and bit into chocolatey goodness.   Mmmm, they almost taste like very firm fudge with chunks of pecans and raisins.  I was only going to eat one because they are so rich but could not resist attempting a second.

Eggplant and Black Bean Chili



Eggplant and Black Bean Chili


I started reading chili recipes today in the hopes of finding one that would use up some TVP I had in the cupboard.  I've never cooked with it before and thought chili would be the perfect vehicle.   As often happens none were quite what I was looking for although I borrowed heavily from Robin Robertson's Very Veggie Chili.  I liked the idea of using eggplant and so used her recipe as a jumping off point but the great thing about this dish is that there are endless variations of ingredients to play with.  Next time I will probably double the amount of black beans.  I served this with macaroni today but I often eat chili with rice or quinoa.

Here is my version which I'm calling Eggplant and Black Bean Chili.

1 onion chopped
1 celery ribbed chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium sized eggplant peeled and chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 can tomato paste (5.5 ounces)
2 tablespoons molasses
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp soy sauce
6 fresh tomatoes
4 cups water or veggie stock
1 20 ounce can black beans
1 cup TVP (dry) reconstituted with 1 cup boiling water
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, saute the onion and celery in the olive oil until soft.  Add the eggplant, red pepper and garlic and cook with the lid on until the eggplant is soft, about 10 minutes.  Stir frequently so the eggplant doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. 

Stir in the tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, soy sauce, molasses, tomatoes, water, TVP and black beans.   Add salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes until flavors are blended. 

Easy Chocolate Cake



Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

 This is my daughter's favourite and most requested dessert - Chocolate Cake from The Joy of Vegan Baking.  I love this recipe because it's so fast and easy to put together.  If you double the recipe it makes a bundt cake and is also great for cupcakes.  I always have the ingredients in my pantry, it doesn't require any egg replacer just flour, salt, sugar, cocao, baking soda, vinegar, vanilla, water and oil.  The cake itself is not too rich on it's own but if you make the chocolate buttercream icing to go with it, the decadance factor goes up a notch.  We enjoy it both ways.   I don't often get a photo of this cake because it gets eaten too quickly and that means as soon as it's out of the oven, I am being pestered for a piece.   As you can see from this photo, there is a slice missing.

Pineapple Pick Me Up!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I've been feeling a little down lately with all the stress of preparing to move and listening to the caveman who lives below us swearing, ranting and raving all night long.  So to cheer myself up, I decided to infuse the space with the sweet fragrance of pineapple upside down cake.  I've always wanted to make one and happily discovered a simple looking recipe on vegweb.  Unfortunately, I was so anxious to taste the cake it came out of the oven without being tested and when we cut into it, the middle was like mush.  The cake is a basic white cake but the pineapple/brown sugar adds sufficient sweetness and moisture to make this an enjoyable, casual dessert.  

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup pineapple juice/water (see below)

1/3 cup oil

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 20 oz can pineapple chunks in unsweetened pineapple juice

1/4 cup UNPACKED brown sugar

Directions:

 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.

Pour juice off can of pineapple into 1 cup measuring cup - it should be about 3/4 cup juice. Add water to make 1 cup.  In a separate bowl, combine oil, vinegar and juice.

Dump pineapple chunks into the bottom of a 12 inch spring form pan (you could use an 8x8 or other sized spring form, just adjust cooking time). Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Quickly mix wet ingredients into dry, stirring quickly to combine ingredients well and get out the big lumps. Pour into pan on top of the pineapple/brown sugar mix.

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Baking time will depend on pan size.

Let cool and loosen sides of cake from pan. Remove side ring and place serving plate on top. Flip cake over onto serving plate and remove pan bottom.

 





Stuffed Mutant Flatbread - A Starch Lovers Dream

Stuffed Mutant Flatbread - Yummy!

I'm so proud and impressed with myself that I can barely contain my excitement!   I was looking through some Indian cookbooks this afternoon looking for a flatbread recipe to accompany the mashed eggplant I had planned on making tonight when I came across an appealing sounding stuffed flatbread.  I've never attempted anything like this but after my success with cinnamon rolls last week, making a bread based recipe didn't seem so daunting.  I knew we had a couple of boiled potatoes in the fridge leftover from breakfast and the idea took root then and there.  I didn't have any whole wheat roti flour so I ended up improvising a recipe based on the ones I had skimmed.  The filling started out faithfully following an actual Indian recipe but quickly veered off into a completely different direction when I decided to dump some sauteed shallots, garlic and tomato into the potato mixture which had been destined for another project.  Oooh, I had a very good feeling about this.   The smell coming out of the pan was awesome and I wasn't wrong.  This is the best thing I've made in a very long time. 

The great thing about this type of recipe is you can basically season the potatoes with anything that hits your fancy.  Or even add other veggies, really the sky's the limit.   The only thing you need to be careful about is adding lumpy ingredients because when you roll the dough out with the filling encased you don't want anything bursting through.   I experienced a few tomato bits squeezing out the edges.  

Stuffed Mutant Flatbread

Filling:
2 medium cooked potatoes (I used leftovers)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp paprika
2 or 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
pepper to taste

Saute:
1 shallot chopped
1 garlic clove minced
1/2 tomato finely diced
1 tablespoon olive oil

Mash up the potatoes with a fork or your hands and mix in the remaining ingredients including the sauteed veggies.  

Dough:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 to 3 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1 tsp salt
1 cup water

The dough was very simple, just mix the flour, ground flax seed and salt and mix in the water. Knead for a few minutes until the dough is smooth. Cover and leave it until you're ready and then divide it into 8 little balls.

Have some flour handy.  Take each ball, coat it in a little flour, flatten it with your hand and then roll it out into a circle about 3 inches wide.   Add approximately 1/4 cup of the potato mixture, pinch up the dough around the filling and seal it inside the ball.   Gently roll out the ball into a 5 or 6 inch circle.   
 
Heat a cast iron pan on medium heat.   Add enough vegetable oil until it is lightly coated.   Pan fry the bread for about 1 to 2 minutes until there are gorgeous brown spots on the bottom and then flip it over for about the same amount of time.  I brushed on a tiny bit more oil on top before I flipped it because I didn't want the bread to be too dry.  You can pat the bread a little with a spatula as it's cooking so browns evenly.  It will puff up a little as it cooks.  Serve warm or at room temperature and enjoy!  I don't know how well they store because we wolfed them down immediately.  My daughter liked the bread more than the filling because of the bits of shallot.   She has a supernatural tongue that can sense any bit of onion-like material and spit it out no matter how small.  

This is supposed to be a circle - Hah.

In the cast iron pan!

Vegan Cooking Challenge - Week 4

Fudgie Wudgie Blueberry Brownies

Even after a sugar laden week, I ended up making Fudgie Wudgie Blueberry Brownies from Veganomicon because I was asked to contribute a dessert for my dear friend Elizabeth's birthday party last night.  Most people like brownies right?   I was hoping they would be enough of a variation on the standard chocolate dessert to not be boring and I think they turned out well.   Nice and fudgy.  I must admit that I was in a bit of a hurry and instead of greasing the pan with Earth Balance I used olive oil spray.  I didn't think anyone would notice but my husband took a bite and had a strange look on his face.  No one at the party seemed to mind but I guess I won't be doing that again.

 And take a look at this Pumpkin Pie Brownie that Jeannette made this week!  I want a piece of that!

Pumpkin Pie Brownie

Pumpkin Pie Brownie

I took this week’s recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. The authors were generous enough to post this recipe on their blog:

I have been looking at this picture for weeks now, in a bookmarked tab, so it’s finally time to attempt it. I wanted to do it by the book; I even went out and bought plain soy milk! But, my canned pumpkin turned out to be canned sweet potato. :) For the recipe, I measured 1 cup from the 15 oz. can for the pumpkin layer and used the remaining canned sweet potato in the brownie layer. It was probably a rather scant cup. Also, I omitted the ginger (don’t like) and added extra nutmeg (love).

This was definitely a success! My taste-testers were unanimous and exuberant in their praise. “Pumpkin pie -- followed by chocolate!” The brownie bottom is fantastic (the melted chocolate has a lot to do with this). The pumpkin layer was good, too, but I think I might add either a bit more sugar or some maple syrup next time. It just could have been a little sweeter. Maybe it was the sweet potatoes or maybe it was the missing ginger.

Anyway, I never would have imagined that something without eggs and butter could taste so good! I will definitely make this again.

Lasagna a la Leftovers!

Lasagna a la Leftovers!

We've had a busy week house hunting, (eating crap while on the road) and I was craving something comforting as well as nourishing so I decided to throw together a lasagna for dinner tonight.   Using the tofu basil ricotta recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen and digging through the bottom of my vegetable drawer, I came up with a couple of old zucchinis and some mushrooms to use add some interest.   I had just enough leftover homemade tomato-vegetable sauce languishing in the fridge to make this work.   I sliced and roasted the zucchinis for a bit and then sauteed an onion with the mushrooms.  Layering as follows; sauce, noodles, zucchini, the tofu-ricotta mixture and then more sauce followed by noodles, mushroom and onions, tofu-ricotta, sauce, noodles and then the remainder of my Daiya cheese.   Not bad!   Next time I'll leave off the Daiya cheese.  I don't think I'm a fan and I figured out why tonight.   It has this strange almost sweet flavour that doesn't sit well with me.  I can live without it. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

When the recipe for these cookies popped into my inbox last week courtesy of The Healthy Bitch Daily, I knew I would be baking them up soon.   Never one to resist homemade chocolate chip cookies, I was curious as to how different they would be from the recipe I'd been using for the last 8 months.  Let's just say they turned out so well, I managed to stuff down about 5 or 6 before feeling slightly sick.   They were chewy perfection, I will definitely make these again but next time, will cut the amount of white sugar.     

Kim’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

What to Buy:
4 1/2 teaspoons of Ener-G Egg Replacer
6 tablespoons of warm water
1 cup Earth Balance non-dairy butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup evaporated cane juice sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or you can use half whole wheat pastry flour and half all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 (12-ounce) package vegan chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional but delicious)

How to Make It:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine the Egg replacer and the water and whip until fluffy. In a separate large bowl, add the Earth Balance, cane juice sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Mix with a beater until well combined. Add the Egg replacer mixture and stir well. In a separate medium bowl add the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined like a soft dough. Add the chocolate chips (and the nuts if you are using them). Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Scoop out small spoonfuls of batter and place on cookie sheet, making four rows of dough. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Makes 48 cookies.

What It’s Gonna Cost You:
Serving Size: 1 Cookie (28g) Calories: 130; Fat 7 g; Saturated Fat 2.5 g; Cholesterol 0 mg; Carbohydrates 15 g; Fiber 1 g; Protein 1 g

Amelia Bedelia Cake

Last night at bedtime, I was reading one of those awful Amelia Bedelia books to my daughter and at the back of the book she discovered a recipe.  I knew what was coming next, M was going to request we make it and I was dreading having to say no.  I thought it would be an egg and dairy laden dessert but when I read the ingredients out loud I was shocked to discover it was vegan!  What!  Cool!

So, after my daughter extracted a promise from me that we would make it first thing in the morning, she happily went off to sleep.  I love the rare days at home when I can devote an afternoon to browsing through my cookbooks, baking treats and planning future meals.  Lately, those days seem far and few between but happily today was one of them.  

We quickly assembled the ingredients from the pantry and my only complaint was that it called for everything to be mixed in the baking pan with a fork.  I found it a little tedious getting the wet and dry ingredients mixed properly in the darn corners.  It would have been much easier and faster to use a large mixing bowl.  This is a great recipe to make with kids because they can do it all from start to finish with minimal assistance.  It was moist and not too sweet but I found some inconsistency in the batter because it was mixed in the pan (and shhhh don't tell anyone but we didn't sift the dry ingredients).

Amelia Bedelia's Sheet Cake

3 cups of flour
1 3/4 cups of sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup of cocoa
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups water

Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa directly into an ungreased 9" by 13" pan.  Add oil, vinegar, and vanilla.  Pour water over all ingredients.  Mix with a fork until smooth..

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. 

Okay, so we didn't exactly sift the dry ingredients. 

Mixing with great concentration.

Chocolate sheet cake fresh from the oven.

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

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

If these decadant treats are any indication of a typical dessert recipe in Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet, I think I'll have to add a few more to my queue.  The steps were quick and painless, just two pots on the stove to melt a few ingredients, some layering in cupcake liners, sprinkle a few chopped nuts on top and then pop them in the fridge for a couple of hours.   Of course I had to sneak out of bed at 2 a.m. to test one after they had set!  

Be warned, the peanut butter base is very rich. I don't think I could eat more than one at a time.  There wasn't quite enough chocolate to cover all of the cups so next time I make these, and there will be a next time, I'll increase the amount of chocolate chips.

Alicia has kindly included the recipe on her website so if you don't have her book you can still enjoy these delicious treats!   Recipe here.

chocolate peanut butter cup

Perfect Pancakes and Peaches

This morning we woke up to fresh, ripe, Ontario peaches on the windowsill and decided the best way to enjoy them would be with a batch of pancakes smothered in maple syrup.    A perfect summer breakfast. 

And then I got greedy with the peaches.

My first home-made veggie burgers!

Yesterday I was craving a veggie burger but couldn't find a recipe among my small collection of cookbooks that spoke to me.  The garbanzo and wheat gluten combo is inspired by the awesome Chickpea Cutlets recipe in Veganomicon.  My very picky four year old daughter actually liked them so I will be making these again with various additions and tweaking of seasonings but for the first attempt they were pretty tasty.  This recipe makes six medium sized patties or four large patties.

Lee’s Veggie Garbanzo Burgers

½ large onion chopped (about 1 cup)
½ red bell pepper chopped
8 white or cremini mushrooms chopped
1 cup cooked garbanzo beans
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp tahini
½ tsp coriander
½ tsp cumin
1 tbsp ketchup
¼ cup vegetable stock or water
¾ bread crumbs
¾ cup vital wheat gluten

Sauté onions, bell peppers and mushrooms in one tablespoon of olive oil until onions are translucent (about 3 or 4 minutes).

In food processor pulse together sauteed vegetable mixture, garbanzo beans, 2 tablespoons olive oil, soy sauce, tahini, coriander, cumin, and ketchup.
Empty mixture from food processor into a medium sized mixing bowl and add bread crumbs, vital wheat gluten and stock or water. Mix together and then knead with your hands for a few minutes until the gluten begins to form strings.

Divide into six equal parts and form patties. Fry on medium heat in a thin layer of olive oil until brown and then flip and cook another 4 or 5 minutes until done.