Author Archives: eric

Vegetarian Summer Food Porn

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The vegetarians are not starving!

It has been a very long time since I last posted.  Tons of excuses.  None of them should have prevented me from spending the three hours a week to share our awesome vegetarian/vegan meals.  The good news is that I have pictures of all of the great dinners Mary and I have cooked up.   As time allows (and if we remember how we made them) I’ll come back and add the recipes.

Enjoy the food porn!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Backstory

About three years ago Mary and I were jonesing for something sweet. We took a quick trip up to Whole Foods and grabbed a couple of vegan double chocolate chip cookies.  They were amazing!  Every since then I have been trying to replicate that cookie.

This recipe is the work of two years of trying out different combinations of egg-replacers, flours, sugars, oils, and butters.  The final result is a cookie with a soft, fluffy center that does not fall apart when you pick it up.  It has the perfect sweetness that is balanced out by the bitterness of the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Give this one a try and you will never even know it was missing the eggs and butter.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup of Earth Balance or homemade vegan butter 
¾ cup sugar
½ cup maple syrup
¼ tsp molasses
2 flax eggs (use golden flax to get the golden yellow color in the cookie)
2 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
¾ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 package of semi-sweet chocolate chips (make sure they do not have any milk or butter in them!)

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.

Like all chocolate chip recipes, make sure your butter is softened. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl beat together the butter, flax eggs, sugar, syrup, vanilla, and molasses until it is creamy.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, and salt.  Slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet.  Scrape down the sides and add the chocolate chips.

Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Use a tablespoon to spoon out balls of dough onto the sheets.  Bake 12-14 cookies at a time for 10-12 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes, or burn your tongue trying them right away like I always do!

Note(s)

  • You will notice that I didn’t use any brown sugar here.  I was not sure if the brown sugar in my pantry was vegan or not so I quickly substituted it with the touch of molasses and maple syrup. They did not taste like gingerbread cookies.
  • If you do not have molasses and are cool with brown sugar, just leave out the syrup and replace with 3/4 cup of brown sugar.

Vegan Pancakes

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Vegan Pancakes

Pancakes are perhaps one of my top 5 guilty pleasure foods.  As soon as I found out how to make perfectly round and fluffy ones at home, Mary and I would frequently have them for brinner and weekend brunches. Then I stopped eating butter and had to start the journey of perfecting the recipe all over again. After countless batches, I believe I found it!

The key to fluffy vegan pancakes is to mix equal parts baking soda and baking powder. This creates just enough rise so you are not eating syrup slathered bread (well, I guess technically you are…) and enough air pockets inside to get that fluff.

For liquid ingredients, you can use any non-dairy milk, or even water if you had too. My favorite is unsweetened almond milk.

Do not forget to add the vanilla!

Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons vegan sugar (I use Florida Crystals)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups almond milk
2 tablespoons melted vegan butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Sift together all of the dry ingredients, including the sugar, in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter, milk, and vanilla.  Pour the wet into the dry, being careful not to over mix.  If it is too dry, add another splash of almond milk.  At this point, you can add berries or chocolate chips.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat. Drop the batter by large spoonfuls onto the griddle, and cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry. Flip, and cook until browned on the other side.

Makes 8-10 three inch wide pancakes.

Quick and Easy Egg Substitute

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Trying to bake egg-free but can’t figure out how everything is going to stick together? My go-to egg substitute in baking is to mix 1tbs of ground flaxseed meal with 3tbs of warm water. Let the mixture stand for about five minutes and you will see it begin to look like the texture of a whisked egg.

This replacement has been successful in baked goods like cookies, muffins, breads, and just as well in veggie patties.

Your baked goods stick together and you are getting some extra fiber!

Brands I like:

  • Bob’s Red Mill Golden Flaxseed Meal
  • Hodgson Mill Milled Flaxseed

Both are readily available at your local supermarket. (I was actually able to find some up in Liberty, NY…so you should be able to get it wherever you are!)

Sneak peak at some cookies I made this weekend.

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Tempeh with Cabbage and Onions

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Cabbage

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Cabbage is part of the Brassica genus of plants known more commonly as the group of cruciferous vegetables, it is a great source of Vitamin C, is low in calories, and high in fiber.

We sautéd with onions, garlic, and tempeh to make a main dish that packs a serious punch with nutrients, flavor, and overall satisfaction.  I definitely would make this one again! We served with an avocado, tomato, and romaine salad.  (Recipe was adapted from christinacooks.com.)

Recipe

Makes 4-5 servings and is perfect for lunch the next day!

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves fresh garlic, thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced into thin half moon slices
8 ounces tempeh, crumbled
Bragg’s liquid amino (for some extra amino acids!)
2 teaspoons brown rice syrup
1/4 head green cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels

Directions

Place oil, garlic, and onions in a skillet over medium heat. When the onions begins to sizzle, add tempeh, a splash of liquid aminos, and the rice syrup. Sauté for 3–4 minutes, until the tempeh is beginning to brown and the onions are soft.

Stir in cabbage and corn and, season to taste with another splash of aminos; cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until the cabbage is quite soft, 10–15 minutes. Serve with a side salad or a grain of your choice.

eric

April 16, 2012

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Every weekend Mary and I take a trip to one of two farmers markets near by. This week there was some awesome looking leeks, cabbage, and chives. Not knowing exactly what we were going to get keeps us on our toes for cooking exciting and different meals each week.

Here are some things that might come out of this week’s bounty:

  1. Roasted leek and root vegetables over polenta.
  2. Tempeh with cabbage and onions.
  3. Tofu and cabbage stir fry.
  4. Miso soup with chives instead of green onions.

Besides cole slaw, I have not really tried many different things with cabbage so we shall see how they come out!

5 Vegan Lunch Ideas

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Eggless Salad Sandwhich

As a vegan I am constantly asked “what do you do for lunch?”  At face value this may seem like another crack at vegans, but I think that people in general struggle with lunch ideas.  Here is a list of my top five lunches.

5. Soups

A pot of soup can last for a couple of weekday lunches.  Spruce it up each day with something different, like a chunk of wholegrain bread one day (for dipping) and toss in some rice or quinoa for another day.

4. Sandwiches

Just because there is no meat does not mean you can’t enjoy an awesome sandwich!  I like to bake some bread at the beginning of the week so I can quickly whip up a sandwich any day I need it.  The bread is fresh and full of nutrients so I know I will have plenty of energy to get through the day. What do I put on the bread?  It’s actually easier to list what I do not put on sandwiches:

  • meat, cheese, eggs

All kidding aside, I load my sandwiches up with roasted veggies, tofu, tempeh, tomatoes, lettuce, eggless salad (pictured above), hummus, and other combinations of raw veggies.

3. A bucket of veggies

Start the week off by cutting, slicing, or dicing your favorite veggies.  Mary and I like carrots, celery, broccoli, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and avocados. This is probably one of the cheapest and  most satisfying lunches I pack during the week.  If I do not have time to cut up all of the veggies the night before, I will stop by a market before work and pick up a bunch of pre-cut stuff.  Why is this satisfying?  You can eat as much as you want without worrying about having to skip a meal later How many meat/cheese based lunches can this same claim be made?

2. Loaded Salads

So much to talk about here with salads that I might just have to have a separate post for my top favorite salads for lunch.  Basically, use your leftover veggies and throw them on top of some lettuce, spinach, or other greens.  If that is not enough, top it with some beans, seeds, or nuts.

1. Leftovers!

My number 1 lunch that I pack is leftover dinner.  Mary and I cook at home more often than going out to eat (most weeks at least) and there is always something leftover for at least one of us to take the next day for lunch.  If you get tired of the leftovers, find a way to make it more interesting by recooking it with some other ingredients.

 

Vegan French Toast

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Whoa, that's some good looking toast!

One of my fondest memories from childhood was waking up to French Toast on holidays and long weekends.  The sweet smell of cinnamon wafting throughout the house was a sure way to get my brothers and I out of bed.  My mother’s recipe, which changed every time it was made,  ranks amongst the best tasting egg-based french toast I have ever had.  It didn’t dawn on me until a few weeks into my selective veganism that I would never be able to have my mother’s french toast again.

After freaking out for five minutes (Mary will claim that it lasted much longer), I quickly hopped onto google and found that like so many other classic animal-based dishes, a vegan alternative exists!

Egg is easily substituted with soy milk while keeping the flavor adding spices the same.  Using homemade bread that is loaded with omega-3′s, B-vitamin’s, protein, and fiber yields a nutritionally superior french toast.  After one bite, I was immediately brought back to days where the hardest decision I had to make was to watch Spider-Man or Ninja Turtles.  In other words, the flavor is there without the egg, which I never thought would be possible.  Give it a try, and let us know what you think.

The Recipe

Serves 2 people and yields 4-6 slices of french toast.

1 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (The secret ingredient!)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4-6 slices of bread (I used homemade, 100% whole wheat)

Pre-heat a skillet on med-high heat.  In a small bowl combine the soy milk, vanilla, and spices.  Mix well to incorporate spices.  You can pour the mixture into a shallow pie dish if you want, but that is just an extra dish to clean up afterwards.  Instead, put a slice of the bread in the bowl, let it sit for 2-3 seconds and flip it over.  Put some vegan margarine on the skillet and then place the bread on top of the margarine.  Stir up the mixture for each slice of bread.  Let it cook for 4 minutes on each side, or until each side is golden brown.

Drizzle some real maple syrup on top and enjoy!