Almond Milk

Posted on by
Reply

Almond milk is pretty expensive to buy in the store and usually has a long list of ingredients besides almonds and water.  So we ventured to make our own almond milk, and it’s pretty darn easy.  It doesn’t quite have the same texture of store-bought almond milk, but it tastes much better and only has three simple ingredients– almonds, water, and sugar. All you need is a cheesecloth or something similar. Note: You do not need to soak the almonds, although you can if you want. We noticed no difference between soaked and non-soaked batches.

  • 1 cup blanched whole almonds (can increase quantity for richer milk)
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • Blend almonds with cold water and sugar in a blender for just over 45 seconds.
  • Pour unfiltered milk through cheesecloth into milk bottle or other vessel.
  • Squeeze almond milk to get more almond milk out and into your bottle.
  • Discard the leftover almond meal (or save and use in other cooking applications).
  • Serve cold from the fridge!

The milk will definitely separate in the fridge so give it a good shake before serving. It looks rather unappetizing when it separates, but shaking will bring it back to milk consistency and it is quite delicious.

If you don’t use a cheesecloth or something similar (we used a nut bag and rinse it every time), some of the meal from the almonds may make it through to the milk. The resulting milk will taste mealy and unappetizing.  Try to really sieve out all the grit.

CheeseclothFabric.com is a great place to buy cheesecloth in bulk for a great price.  If you’re using cheesecloth, you’ll need quite a bit so it is worth purchasing in bulk.

Red Pepper Pasta

Posted on by
Reply

This pasta is incredibly easy to make and very delicious. Amazingly, this sauce is so rich that it really tastes like it is made with cream.  Even better, it’s vegan! You can even skip oven roasting the red bell peppers and it will still turn out extremely tasty, and still faster.

  1. Roast bell peppers in 400 degree oven until a bit charred (30 minutes or so).
  2. Remove from oven and mostly de-jacket the peppers by dousing in cold water.
  3. Process peppers, oil, garlic, salt, and pepper in food processor until smooth.
  4. Pour over pasta and serve!

Naan

Posted on by
Reply

There’s nothing like fresh naan.  Fortunately, you don’t need a tandoor oven to make delicious homemade naan.  We prefer to use a preheated pizza stone and a hot oven, and the results are amazing (if you don’t have a pizza stone, you can also place the naan dough on the oven rack directly, as we did for the naan in this photo). You can brush a little bit of ghee or butter on the top of the naan after you take it out of the oven to give it a nice finished look. Serve piping hot with excellent curry.

  • 2 cups all purpose flour (plus more for rolling)
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon (or half a packet) active dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 3 heaping tablespoons plain unsweetened (whole milk or soy) yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee (and optionally more for brushing)
  • pinch baking soda
  1. Dissolve yeast in warm water
  2. Mix flour, sugar, salt, soda in a large bowl
  3. Add yeast mixture, yogurt, and oil.
  4. Cover with kitchen towel. Let dough rise for an hour (or until it doubles in size)
  5. Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees (with stone if available)
  6. Divide dough into around 6 equal pieces. Roll out into rounds using extra flour as needed.
  7. Place naan dough, a few at a time, in oven and bake for around 4 minutes or until slightly brown.
  8. Optionally, brush with ghee or oil.

Simple Tomato Sauce

Posted on by
Reply

Sometimes, there is nothing like a simple tomato sauce – especially when its made with your own, home grown tomatoes.  I actually believe that the best sauce for a fresh pasta is a sweet tomato sauce, made from cherry tomatoes.  If you grow summer cherries, a mix of orange, yellow and red cherry tomatoes make a fantastic sauce.  If you use roma or San Marzano, you’ll get a richer sauce which is wonderful for lasagna or other baked pasta dishes, and pizza.

  • variety of tomatoes (cherries, roma, San Marzano, heirloom)
  • garlic cloves (crushed)
  • sea salt (to taste)
  • fresh black pepper (to taste)
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • red table wine (big dash)
  1. warm up some extra virgin olive oil in a shallow saute pan
  2. toss in garlic and pepper
  3. toss in the fresh tomatoes, you can slice them or if small enough, even whole
  4. add more oil, and add salt
  5. get simmering and add red wine
  6. after a bit you’re ready to serve it with pasta!

Vegetarian “Chicken” Noodle Soup

Posted on by
2

If you grew up non-veg, there is no way you didn’t grow up eating some version of chicken noodle soup. Whether it came from the can or from a family recipe, it was a staple dinner option for non-veg families. Now you can enjoy a vegetarian version of the classic noodle soup, with chicken replaced with delicious homemade seitan. Even my grandmother loved this soup, and frankly didn’t care whether it was chicken or “chicken” made from seitan. Enjoy!

  1. 4-6 pieces homemade seitan**, chopped into bite-sized pieces
  2. 4 oz egg noodles (or other variety of noodle)
  3. 3 carrots, chopped
  4. 2 stalks of celery, chopped
  5. 8 cups vegetable broth (homemade is preferred, otherwise store-bought is fine)
  6. 2 tbp dried basil
  7. 1 small sweet yellow onion, minced
  8. 1 cup chopped green beans (optional)
  9. 2 cloves garlic, minced
  10. 1 bay leaf
  11. 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  12. 4 tbp canola oil

**The recipe we used for homemade seitan is from the postpunk kitchen. Find the recipe here.

  1. Sautee the onion, garlic, green beans, celery, carrots, and bay leaf in canola oil for 5 minutes.
  2. Add vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
  3. Toss in seitan and turn soup down to a simmer. Add chopped parsley.
  4. Add noodles and simmer until noodles are done. Remove bay leaf.
  5. Serve hot with fresh bread and enjoy!

This soup freezes well, so if you want to save some for later, feel free!

Veggie Potstickers

Posted on by
Reply

Veggie Potstickers

Potstickers are surprisingly versatile. You can really put anything inside that you like, as long as you cook it before wrapping it in the wrappers. This recipe uses cabbage, chinese greens, bok choy, and baked tofu. Feel free to adapt the recipe as desired.

Ingredients

  • 2-3 carrots, sliced thinly or grated
  • 3 cups chinese greens, chopped finely
  • 2 cups cabbage, chopped finely
  • 2 cups bok choy, chopped finely
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 block baked tofu, sliced thinly
  • 3 tbp canola oil + 1 tbp sesame oil and more for light frying
  • 2 tbp low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tbp vegetarian oyster sauce (mushroom sauce)

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a wok and then add all veggies. Sautee for several minutes.
  2. Add baked tofu.
  3. Add soy sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce.
  4. Remove from heat after veggies are cooked.
  5. Place 2 tbp of veggie mixture inside one circular wonton/gyozo wrapper
  6. Fold wrapper in half and seal edges with a touch of water
  7. Fry potstickers in oil until brown

Rice Krispie Treats

Posted on by
Reply

Vegan Rice Krispie Treats

If you haven’t been able to have rice krispie treats since you turned vegetarian or vegan, this is the recipe for you! Dandies, the vegan marshmallow made by Chicago Soydairy, are completely indistinguishable from gelatin-based marshmallows. You won’t be able to tell the difference– they look the same, feel the same, taste the same, and melt the same (they just cost more)!  So to make vegan rice krispie treats, you can follow your traditional recipe but just replace Dandies for gelatin marshmallows. They taste perfect!

Ingredients

  • 6 cups rice krispies cereal (feel free to use brown rice cereal if you want– or really you can substitute with most cereals)
  • 10 ounces (1 package) Dandies vegan marshmallows
  • 3 tablespoons earth balance vegan butter

Instructions

  1. Melt vegan butter in a large pot
  2. Add vegan marshmallows to butter and stir, on medium, until completely melted
  3. Remove from heat and stir in rice krispies.
  4. Pour krispies into a large pan and press firmly to mold. Let cool for 20 minutes, then cut into squares.

** This is a basic vegan rice krispie recipe. If you want to make yours more decadent or interesting, go ahead and adapt it! If you like your rice krispie treats on the sweeter side, use 5 1/4 cups of cereal.

Bran Muffins

Posted on by
1

Bran Muffins

These bran muffins extremely moist and totally vegan! Most of the ingredients you likely will have in your cupboards, other than perhaps ground flaxseeds (a staple for vegan baking) and apple cider vinegar.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups wheat bran
  • 1 cup soy milk + 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/3 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
  • 1 flax-egg
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup raisins (fattened by soaking them in water)
  • 1/2 tbs molasses

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 and prepare muffin pan (either line with paper cups or spray)
  2. Prepare “buttermilk” by combining soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl. Stir vigorously for a minute so the soy milk will curdle.
  3. Add wheat bran to “buttermilk”. Let sit for 5-8 minutes.
  4. Prepare flax-egg by boiling 3 tbs water in a small saucepan and adding 1 tbs of ground flaxseeds. Lower to a simmer and stir with a fork until mixture becomes gooey and much of the water has evaporated.
  5. Add flax-egg, oil, brown sugar, applesauce, molasses, and vanilla to “buttermilk” mixture and stir vigorously (or beat).
  6. Sift in flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. Combine thoroughly.
  7. Drain raisins and fold into batter.
  8. Distribute batter to muffin cups and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Blueberry Pie

Posted on by
2

Blueberry Pie

How can you go wrong with a blueberry pie? So many ways to count, but apart from any misinformation you previously obtained from grandma, pies are not that easy to make unless mush and snot are the textures you desire on the inside. Blueberry pie is a gold standard pie, in many ways, like apple pie. Oh, but much better in my opinion. When well done it has crisp, fresh, tart and sweet texture and flavor. The crust is buttery, light and flaky. There is no soggy goo or seepage. Don’t be dejected the first time you make this, that may happen, but take heart that next time will be much better. Make sure to prepare the pie crust earlier.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all purpose flour, plus much more for dusting and consistency adjustment
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) of fresh, cold unsalted butter OR EarthBalance type vegan replacement.
  • 2 teaspoons vegan granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3 tablespoons super ice cold water
  • 2 cups frozen blueberries, completely thawed, drained and lightly pressed out
  • 3 cups fresh blueberries, washed and thoroughly drained
  • 1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
  • 1/2 cup granulated vegan cane sugar
  • 2 teaspoons light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour, cornstarch, or Wondra like thickener
  • 1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon cold butter

Instructions

  1. First to prepare the pie crust. This is a double crust pie so you will split the dough and flatten it out into two pieces, for the bottom and the top. All dry ingredients for the crust should be tossed into the food processor and then the super cold butter chunks are added.
  2. You will obtain a dry meal consistency. Mash them into equal sized balls and put them in the fridge for a few hours to settle down.
  3. When the crust is almost ready, mix all the other filling ingredients in a large bowl. Make sure that any unneeded water is out because the blueberries will release a lot of juice during the baking process.
  4. Flatten and roll out one of the dough balls and place it properly inside of a 9 inch pie pan.
  5. Pour the filling into the pan
  6. Roll out the top crust and place on top of the open pie pan. Use a fork or crimping tool to enmesh the crusts.
  7. Bake 30 mins at 375 degrees F and then 30 mins at 350 degrees F.
  8. Let cool and serve slices. Some folks like vanilla ice cream with the pie.

Fresh Vegetable Stock

Posted on by
Reply

Fresh Vegetable Stock

So many recipes call for vegetable stock. So many store bought stocks are horrible. Many are cubes of vegetable waste by-products and are mostly salt. There isn’t much to say here other than real well made fresh vegetable stock can mean all the difference in any dish, from the recently posted Gallo Pinto to risotto and even many sauces. I find myself using stock all the time and it really makes a difference because it lends flavor to aspects of cooking that would have little or none.

Ingredients

  • Variety of garden vegetables, including scraps, about to wilt or perish, including
    • carrots
    • onions
    • celery
    • leeks
    • turnips
    • mushrooms
  • Variety of herbs, fresh or dried, including
    • parsley
    • cilantro
    • thyme
    • bay leaves
  • Water
  • Vegetable oil
  • Good quality sea salt and/or soy sauce
  • Fresh ground pepper (alternatively, whole peppercorns)

Instructions

  1. Cut up the vegetables into disparate pieces and chunks, no aesthetics required. Avoid tomatoes and red cabbage as it dominates the stock flavor.
  2. Toss them into some hot oil in a heavy bottomed cast iron soup pot
  3. Add in the herbs, spices, salt and pepper to taste. Remember, this is your stock so adjust the sodium or make it sodium free. Some salt is good as a preservative if you plan to freeze.
  4. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour on very low heat
  5. Let cool to room temperature, and then strain through a fine colander.
  6. Compost the boiled mass and preserve the stock.
  7. Use immediately or freeze. I read somewhere that you can pour it into a tray of ice-cubes if you want to use just a small amount of it. I find that when I use stock I use at least a cup at a time, so that isn’t very useful for me.