Tag Archives: dairy free

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.

Battle of the Roasted Nuts

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Peanuts with Bacon and Maple Syrup

Last weekend when Jacquie and I hosted a small dinner party for our friends we decided to both try out some new roasted nut appetizers. Jacquie made one and I made one and we had our friends to a “blind” taste test. Okay, maybe it wasn’t so “blind”… can you guess which one I made? The one with bacon, you say? You got me.

I got this idea when Jacquie and I ate at Bull City Burger  and Brewery in Durham, NC a couple of weeks ago. If you’re ever visiting the Durham area I highly recommend checking this place out. It’s an independently owned burger joint that embraces the “farm to fork” concept with all of their food. The result is one really mean burger. They also have really great fresh-brewed beer. I have been dying to try making their “Bull Nuts” appetizer made from NC peanuts, bacon, sugar and salt. I decided to do a slight twist on these and make them with some spices and replace the sugar with maple syrup. Not-quite paleo with the peanuts but they came out really good and were actually better leftover.

Roasted Bacon and Maple Peanuts

Ingredients

  • 16 oz roasted and lightly-salted peanuts
  • 1 tsp each of dry mustard, cayenne and thyme
  • 1/2 c. maple syrup
  • 1/3 – 1/2 # bacon. I used uncured ends and pieces. They take a little longer to cook but are great if you are just going to chop them up to incorporate into a dish

Procedure

  • Cook and drain the bacon and chop into small pieces.
  • Combine the spices, peanuts, bacon and maple syrup and mix to combine.
  • Spread on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and roast at about 325 F for about 20-30 minutes, until the syrup is thickened but not burned.

Mixed Nuts with Rosemary and Orange

Jacquie made mixed nuts with rosemary and orange. This recipe, which was originally from Real Simple used Trader Joe’s roasted unsalted nut mix with cashews, macadamias, almonds and pistachios. I am a huge fan of these nut mixes that you can buy without “filler nuts” and I love that you can get them unsalted. These are paleo except for the little bit of granulated sugar. I wouldn’t bother trying to replace that though because the crystals added something nice here.

Mixed Buttered Nuts with Rosemary and Orange

Ingredients

  • 1# unsalted or lightly salted mixed nuts
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter (grass-fed preferred)
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp fresh rosemary (fresh is key here, I don’t recommend subbing dried here)
  • 1 tbsp fresh orange zest

Procedure

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the nuts, sugar, rosemary, and zest and cook, tossing, until the sugar is melted and the mixture is fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Let cool and serve.

Grilled Sweet Potato Salad

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Vegetables are often overlooked when grilling. And with beer in hand, grilling is what I like to do on warm Sunday afternoons. So next time you throw those steaks on the grill, consider grilling some veggies to go with it.

I used to make this salad with red potatoes or yukon golds. Since going paleo, I decided to try it with sweet potatoes and it came out great. I used to add some honey to the vinaigrette but I left it out of the sweet potato version. For even a bit more bite (a little less sweetness) I might try replacing the cider vinegar with red wine or rice vinegar. For our non-vegetarian friends, may I also suggest some bacon?

Grilled Sweet Potato Salad

(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients

For the salad…

  • 4 sweet potatoes
  • 1 red onion
  • 2 jalapenos
  • 6 green onions
  • ~1/4 c. parsley + more for garnish
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper

For the vinaigrette…

  • 6 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp whole grain dijon mustard

Instructions

  • Wash the sweet potatoes and slice about 3/4″ thick. Boil the sweet potatoes until they are barely fork tender. Don’t overcook them since they will be going on the grill. I think if I could cook a vegetable medium-rare, that’s about where these would be.
  • While the sweet potatoes cook, trim the ends from the green onions and peel and slice the red onion about 3/4″ thick. Don’t go too thin with them since all of this is going on the grill. I get about 3-4 slices per onion.
  • Prepare the vinaigrette by mixing all of those items well.
  • After the sweet potatoes have cooked drizzle all the veggies with a little bit of oil and season them with salt and pepper. Throw them all on the grill. Pull the green onions off after a quick char (that will go pretty quickly). Cook the sweet potato and red onions on each side until they have a nice char as well. Turn the jalapenos frequently until the outside skin is blistered and charred. The jalapenos, onions and sweet potatoes take about the same amount of time, about 6-10 minutes total.
  • After the veggies are done dice the jalapenos and onions. Cut the sweet potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Combine the veggies and dress with the vinaigrette while everything is still warm. Mix in the fresh parsley and serve while still warm or at room temperature.

 

 

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!