Vegan MoFo Day 28: Superfood!

This was the saute I made myself for dinner on Sunday night. I’d spent all day marking, was feeling tired, and wanted to use the dinosaur kale (black kale, lacinato kale–this kale has so many names!) getting lonely in my vegetable keeper. I sauteed three cloves of garlic in a bit of oil, then added the bunch of kale, all chopped up, plus some tamari, hot sauce, and seasoned rice vinegar. Folded it all around to wilt and covered it. Then I went hunting in my trusty freezer and found the dregs of a bag of Green Giant lima beans! Score– these went in a pot with water to boil for a few. Then a baggie of pepitas! Handful of those in with the kale. Once the beans were done they got all mixed in with the (now quite cooked) kale and the whole thing was seriously delicious for something so simple.

Ironically, after that I had the worst sleep ever and woke up with the flu. I have to think that my feeling tired the whole second half of that day before dinner meant the flu was already on its way, and no amount of kale and garlic and beans and seeds was gonna stop it.

Vegan MoFo Day 27: An Ode to Soup

As I said, I’m sick this week with the flu. Whether it’s just “the flu” or “THE flu,” who knows– I’m already starting to feel a little better, so I’m not too worried. But what a perfect time to come down with the flu, when there’s so much soup in my freezer! Four kinds! Here’s two: above we have the Diner-Style Cabbage Soup, and below, the Acorn Squash Soup with Shiitakes, both posted last week or so.
The thing is, I was raised to not think of soup as a proper meal. My mom had a thing about it; one might call it a downright dismissal of soup. I had packets of chicken noodle, but that was about it. My mom has had a lifelong hatred of Campbell’s soup, so chicken noodle was always Lipton, never canned, and the wisdom in our house was that soup wasn’t meal-worthy unless you were ill. This slowly started to change as I got older. The first breakthrough was in the early nineties when my parents stumbled across a “Senegalese Lemon” soup mix that they loved, and then again in the late nineties when they discovered tetra-pak butternut squash soup, to which they added curry powder and made it a new staple– usually as an appetizer. My mom’s now perfectly alright with the whole soup thing, or even downright enthusiastic a lot of the time!
And as an adult, I’ve come to the conclusion that soup is the consummate meal. Often it’s got all the food groups, not a ton of calories, it freezes and reheats so well… it’s my perfect fall/winter food, especially.

Vegan MoFo Day 26: Nada!

I think this is the first weekday of October I haven’t had a post! I even have some pictures from last week waiting in the wings, but I’m sick today and just can’t bring myself to do anything. Except eat soup out of the freezer and sleep and watch television. I think it’s the flu… at any rate, I’ll be back tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo Day 23: Chocolate Confetti

In my latest order of vegan goodies (mostly makeup) from Veganstore online, I included some Soydairy Dandies marshmallows. I ate about an eighth of the package, and then thought “what can I do with the rest?” They were more delicious and fluffier than non-vegan marshmallows, but I didn’t want to just slowly eat the whole bag, I wanted to do something with them. So I looked through my trusty Company’s Coming: 150 Delicious Squares (which should be called 150 Recipes for Insanely Sweet Yet Addictive Candy) and found the recipe for “Chocolate Confetti.” It should be called “Chocolate Cocaine,” based on how addicted I got to it until I’d eaten the whole pan in short order, but I suppose the “Company’s Coming” cookbooks are pretty invested in a certain heteronormative family-friendliness.

Chocolate Confetti (veganized)
1/4 c. Earth Balance
1/2 c. peanut butter (I used Maranatha Organic)
1 c. chocolate chips (again, I went all fancy-pants and used organic dark chips)
250 g. Dandies marshmallows, cut in half (a package is 283 g., so you can eat some first)

Mix EB and peanut butter in a saucepan over heat until melted together. Take off heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted. Cool until you can hold your hand comfortably on the bottom of the pan. Add marshmallows and stir until they’re all coated. Spread evenly in a 9×9 pan that has been lined with tinfoil for easy removal and cutting. Refrigerate until firm, cut into squares, and keep in the freezer, keeping in mind that this step is not really effective in keeping you from eating it constantly until it’s gone.

Marshmallows cut in half:

Vegan Mofo Day 22: Porcini Wild Rice Soup

To carry on with my soup parade, here’s the Porcini Wild Rice Soup from Veganomicon! I didn’t have carrot or any fresh herbs, so I added some dried thyme instead of fresh and just omitted the carrot and chervil. And the soup was great! Isa says to track down chervil because if anything, it’ll “make a great blog entry.” Well, I’m turning my lack of chervil into a blog entry instead!
Next day, the wild rice soaks up tons of water, so you need to add more. But the rice gets all curly and neat-looking!

Vegan MoFo Day 21: Lentil Soup and Hollandaise Fries

Another one of those chain reaction cooking stories. I made these oven fries, roasted asparagus, and red pepper and ate it with the Hollandaise Sauce out of Vegan Planet (haven’t cracked out that book in awhile!) The sauce was a bit sharp, so I added a bit of ketchup for more of a rouille feel.

The next day I made up my other potato into oven fries for lunch and ate them with the sauce again!

Then for dinner I ate the last of the sauce on a slice of bread I ate with French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme from Veganomicon. Now, this soup probably deserves its own entry. It is one of few recipes I have made more than twice, because I love it so very much. This time I added a bit of chopped celery I had kicking around, and it was a lovely addition. This is a recipe that needs no tweaking, though: it is so great. It also bears the distinction of being the first dish I ever liked tarragon in.

Vegan MoFo Day 20: Acorn Squash and Pear Soup with Sauteed Shiitakes

Man, I’ve been cooking up a storm (MoFo has inspired me!), so most of this soup is now hanging out in the freezer! This is from Veganomicon, and I’ve made it before, a year or two ago. It is delicious. I used bosc pears instead of whatever they asked for, because I like them best, and didn’t peel them. I’ve been trying to eat more soups recently, as I’m trying to lose a bit of a spare tire I’ve developed, and soups deliver quite the nutritional and taste bang for your caloric buck!
Below are the lovely squashes I used, unfortunately from the supermarket and not the Farmer’s Market. Wherever I buy winter squashes, they always look kind of forlorn, like they know they might sit there awhile because of their lengthy shelf life. But so pretty, too! Forlorn and pretty, a very romantic combo.

Vegan MoFo Day 19: Spinach Noodle Kugel

In my ongoing efforts to live up to Becca’s designation of me as an “Honourary Jew,” I’m actively cultivating my love of kugel. My friend Michelle claims she has always hated kugel, but I think it is because she has never tried vegan kugel made from an Isa recipe. I drunkenly promised once to make her a kugel she’d like, but that hasn’t yet transpired. I love both this one, the Spinach Noodle Kugel from Veganomicon, and the Cauliflower Dill Kugel I’ve made twice from Vegan With a Vengeance. For this one, used a small bunch of steamed chopped kale, about a quarter-bunch steamed chopped dandelion greens, and one thawed package frozen spinach in place of the three packages of frozen spinach. I had a few little matzoh crumbs left in my freezer, which I supplemented with bread crumbs, also from the freezer. For the broth I used chicken-style, for a little schmaltz-appeal. The broken-up noodles were also from the freezer, from the time Isa and Terry’s Veganomicon lasagna recipe called for too many lasagna noodles (bad Isa and Terry!) for Mack’s birthday dinner. Wow, this is clearly the “mention friends by name” post (except Isa and Terry; I don’t know them personally). I should do this more often. Namedropping on the food blog…

Vegan Mofo Day 16: Stufado to the Pesto to the Asparagus

See a continued theme from a couple of days ago? Cooking for one person, whatever I make I usually have leftovers, and then make something else to use up the leftovers, and then have leftovers of the thing I made to jazz up the leftovers. A chain reaction of cooking, if you will. Below, we have the Stufado, or Basic Italian Stew, from Nonna’s Italian Kitchen. This dish is itself made from leftover reconstituted soy chunks I had in my freezer from the day I made Scaloppine Alla Marsala! Anyways, a delicious “brown-tasting” stew, if you know what I mean. Umami up the wazoo. Calls for parsley, which leaves a 3/4 bunch of parsley in the keeper…

Which calls for parsley pesto to jazz up the leftover stew! I also used some of the parsley pesto in some vegan mayo I whizzed up to take along to Breakfast Club (yeah, this entry is one of those “waiting in the wings” ones, I have to admit. So much cooking recently, so much backlog!) But I had lots of pesto…

So I spread it over some asparagus fresh from the Hamilton Farmer’s Market and broiled it for lunch!

Vegan MoFo Day 15: Diner-Style Cabbage Soup

You know that 10 cups of cabbage coleslaw I had to eat this week? I gave up, and made a big batch of soup with it. Along with a bunch of other stuff I had kicking around my fridge and freezer!
I wanted a humble tomato-cabbage soup like I’ve seen as Soup of the Day at down-home diners. This hit the spot! I think this only worked as a proper cabbage soup because the coleslaw was quite lightly dressed, and thus only partly wilted to begin with.

Diner-Style Cabbage Soup
1 T. oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 small beets, chopped
Saute with a shake of salt and pepper for awhile, say 10, 15 minutes?
1 large clove garlic, minced
Shake of celery seed, 1/2 t. each thyme and caraway
Saute additional minute.
Chop up the 8 cups of leftover coleslaw you just can’t fathom eating–chopping compacted the amount a great deal!– and add.
Add about 1/3 cup of tomato paste you’ve had in your freezer for a long time, and 7 cups of water mixed with 2 “beef” bouillon cubes.
Add 1 T. each tamari and balsamic vinegar, plus two bay leaves.
Simmer for awhile– 15 minutes? Add a can of drained kidney beans and boil for a minute.
Now, since I was making this with lightly-dressed coleslaw from Vegan Soul Kitchen, the simmering step made some silken tofu solids rise to the top. I was able to skim this off– it was only a couple of tablespoons of unattractiveness– and the soup was redeemed. This obviously wouldn’t happen if you’re starting from plain cabbage.