Ripe From Around Here and More!

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

Strawberries, rhubarb, and spelt flour make for one heck of a muffin! These beauties are for the upcoming book Ripe From Around Here by Jae Steele and the recipe can be found on her site. Yes folks, I am testing for another book and am truly enjoying Jae’s recipes which focus on local ingredients. These pictures don’t do these muffins justice, they are fabulous:

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffin

I also made this very tasty roasted cauliflower:

Roasted Spicy Cauliflower

I definitely have other recipes that I am excited to try out so stay tuned for more RFAH porn!

This week I also made Spring Onion Pancakes. If you’ve never had these chinese delights I highly encourage you to. They are pretty simple to make and with the abundance of spring onions at the farmer’s market it’s a great time!

Spring Onion Pancakes

The recipe is pretty standard: for 4 pancakes I used 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup boiling water, and 1 tbs. of cold water. Stir to form dough and then on a lightly floured surface knead for a few minutes. Cover and let rest for about half an hour. Divide dough into 4 balls and roll each into a disc. Spread some sesame oil and sprinkle chopped onions. Fold in half and roll into a log and then roll the log lengthwise to make a spiral (kinda like a cinnamon roll). Let rest for 15 minutes. Flatten out each one into a flat disc and your onions should be incorporated into the pancake.  In a skillet add a 2 tbs of oil and fry til golden.

Pancakes!

They are oh so tasty! Next time I will defintely make more because these were gobbled up in a minute. The dipping sauce is Blackberry Wine Soy Sauce with some toasted sesame seeds and onions added. Here’s a close-up of the dipping sauce in my cute little fish bowl!

Fish Bowl

And last but not least, have you tried Coconut Bliss  yet? If not, what are you waiting for?? Best vegan ice cream EVER! Seriously!

Coconut Bliss

This is the Naked Coconut flavor with some sliced strawberries – pure bliss! Luna & Larry definitely got the name of their product spot on – this is coconut bliss! So go out and get some, you won’t be disappointed!

Til next time…

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Cheater Lasagna!

Cheater Lasagna!

Why “cheater” you ask, well, because it doesn’t have any noodles and I used jarred pasta sauce! This can easily be made on a weeknight as long as you have your components made ahead of time, so its super easy! Here’s what I did: I took one japanese eggplant and one medium zucchini and sliced the lengthwise – these are your “noodles”. I made the cashew ricotta from Veganomicon! I used 1/2 an onion, 4 cloves of garlic ( I like garlic you can use less), 1/2 of a red bellpepper, and about 6 shitake mushrooms – all sliced and sauteed in a little olive oil. I also used some Trader Joe’s Organic Marinara Sauce – use whatever kind you like. The topping is stale whole wheat bread ground up in a food processor with some oregano, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder – I used about a cup of these breadcrumbs and added 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast!

To assemble take a baking dish and lightly coat the bottom with olive oil. Place a layer of eggplant as your base. The next layer is the ricotta, then the rest of the eggplant. Add some sauce to the top of the eggplant and then add the sauteed veggies. A layer of the zucchini is next and then some more of the ricotta. The last layer is the rest of the zucchini, some sauce, and then the bread crumb mixture. Cover with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 45 minutes. Uncover (test with a knife to ensure all your layers are cooked), raise the temp to 400 degrees and bake for about another 15 minutes until the top is golden. Let cool before slicing or it might fall apart! This is what it looked like:

Cheater Lasagna

It was sooo tasty! I totally did not miss the noodles or the cheese! The cashew tofu ricotta bakes up wonderfully and all of these flavors worked very well together.

Veggie Lasagna

I will definitely be making this again!

Farmer’s Market & Grilling Sundays!

Every Sunday I head over to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market to load up on fresh, locally grown fruits & veggies for the week. I not only save money, but I find that I am highly disappointed if I shop at any grocery store. The quality and taste is far superior! Check out this week’s haul:

FM Haul!

I got  all of this beautiful produce for $22.50! But wait there’s more:

Shitake!

Those shitake mushrooms are simply beautiful! Oh and I also got some okra:

Okra

Can you believe I got all this stuff for such little money! My new obsession are these japanese eggplants. Not only are they pretty but oh so delicious. They are not bitter at all and their texture is just divine! The grower I get them from told me they will be in season for the next month or two and I plan to eat as many as I can til then!

japanese eggplant

I couldn’t resist getting these white pattypan squashes because they were so attractive (OMG I find vegetables attractive…):

Pattypan Squash

I finally busted out the Weber last weekend and plan to regularly grill every Sunday for the summer. Nothing beats drinking a few cold ones and driving your neighbors crazy because you’re only grilling veggies and fruit! All of the veggies are grilled with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Here is that lovely japanese eggplant:

grilled eggplant

Grilled Okra (which by the way tastes delicious when grilled):

grilled okra

Cherry tomatoes and assorted mushroom skewers (my two vices – I could eat these for days!):

Tomatoes and Mushrooms!

I also grilled an avocado. Yes, an avocado! Grilled avocado tastes quiet earthy and nutty and is just absolutely amazing! If you’ve never had one, I highly recommend it! Once its cooled scoop it out with some chips or spread it on bread…

Grilled Avocado!

And last but not least I also grilled some Tofurky Beer Brats because as you well know us vegans need our protein 🙂

Tofurky Beer Brat

This was my first time having one of these and it was pretty tasty!

I am totally set for the week now with a ton of great tasting grilled veggies that I can make sandwiches with, make a pizza or pasta, or just eat right out of the fridge cuz they’re just that damn tasty! My goal is to post once a week about my Sunday farmer’s market haul and grilling extraveganza so I hope you enjoyed this post!

  

Asparagus Cashew Cheese Struedel

I’ve never made anything with phillo dough but am always amazed at the things people do with them. Well, after much contemplation, today was my day to create something with it. I decided that I wanted to use the pepper crusted cashew goat cheese that I’ve made before (recipe from VT) and some grilled veggies. I settled on grilled asparagus, and a mixture of onions, garlic, crimini mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes seasoned with some fresh rosemary and thyme.

Asparagus Cashew Cheese Struedel

Phillo dough is pretty simple to work with as long as you’re delicate with the sheets. Of course I ripped some but the end product still came out pretty because you just keep layering the sheets. I used a whole box from the Fillo Factory that  I found in the freezer section of Whole Foods.

Asparagus Struedel

I sprinked a mixture of poppy, sesame, and  caraway seeds, and coarse salt and pepper on the top.

Struedel

After assembly I popped it in the oven at 350 for about 55 minutes. The flavors melded beautifully and overall I was very happy with the results! I wanted to do one of those posts where I take pictures of the process but once I got going, I totally forgot! I did get this kind of interesting shot of the grilled asparagus:

Grilled Asparagus

Til next time…

Vegan Brunch!

Finally got my hands on Vegan Brunch, the new book by vegan goddess Isa Chandra Moskowitz! Aside from all the great recipes it is such a darn pretty book! I can’t wait to make everything.  So I decided to have brunch for dinner! I’m vegan and I break most of society’s food “norms” anyways so why not!  I made the Curried Cauliflower Frittata because it sounded lovely and I had all the ingredients on hand. Check it out:

Curried Cauliflower Frittata

I also roasted some new potatoes with garlic and rosemary and had a salad with tomato and avocado! The frittata was really delicious and I can’t wait to try all the rest of the recipes. So if you haven’t gone out and purchased this book yet, what are you waiting for!

Short post but I couldn’t wait to show you all my frittata!

Homemade Bagels, Part Deux!

As promised, here is the 2nd installment of my life with homemade bagels…

Homemade Bagels!

Aside from eating these toasted with Earth Balance, I decided to make some veggie patties so I could make bagel sandwiches! I had some leftover cooked wild rice/brown rice combo and decided to make red kidney bean wild rice patties. Here is the recipe I made up:

Red Kidney Bean Wild Rice Burgers

Yields aprox. 6 burgers

 15 oz. can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

½ cup onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ cup red bell pepper, diced

1 cup crimini mushrooms, diced

1 ½ cups cooked wild rice

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. parsley flakes

½ tsp. sage

½ tsp. chili powder

1/2 cup cornmeal

 Directions:

 In a food processor add all of the ingredients except the cornmeal. Process for a few seconds and scrape down the sides. When it is well incorporated start to add the cornmeal a little at a time. Process for a few more seconds and check the consistency. You may need to add more or less cornmeal until the mixture is neither too wet nor too dry. The mixture should be a good consistency for forming patties. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning to your taste.

 Transfer the mixture to a bowl and put in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place a silicon mat, parchment paper, or lightly grease a cookie sheet. Form the dough into balls and press into patties of the desired size.  Bake for 15 minutes and then flip the burgers and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

I didn’t have any breadcrumbs so I used cormeal as a binder instead. I was really pleased with the result as the cormeal gave the patties a nice crunchy texture!

Red Kidney Bean Wild Rice Burgers

These were so yummy and it brought me a sense of accomplishment that I hade made everything myself in my kitchen! So if you’ve never tried to make homemade bagels, I highly recommend you head over to Kamutflake Girl’s  blog and grab the recipe for these tasty bagels!

I also made this pumpkin cheesecake from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook  with a pistachio, date, and cardamom crust.  It’s tasty but wasn’t quite the texture I expected – more pumpkin pie than pumpkin cheesecake! The inspiration for this came from Swell Vegan’s beautiful raw pumpkin pie!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

And if that isn’t enough I scored some beautiful portabella mushrooms at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market and had to bust out the Weber! Of course these mushrooms couldn’t just go any any store bought bread so I had to make some Rosemary Focaccia Rolls from Veganomicon! I used Isa’s recipe for the marinade from here.

Portabella!

The sandwich is the grilled portabella, grilled red peppers and green onions, red leaf lettuce, some Vegenaise, and some grilled japanese eggplant – simply delicious! Funny story: while at one of my favorite vendors at the fm, I came across these beautful japanese eggplants. I knew they were eggplant but I wasn’t certain of the variety. I asked what they were and the lady told me they were japanese eggplant. I replied that they were beautiful but I wasn’t certain what I’d do with it. She said “why cook it and eat it of course!” We both looked at each other and started laughing hilariously – classic!

Homemade Bagels!

I love reading other people’s blogs and getting inspired to try and make something I’ve never made.  So is the case when I was reading Kamutflake Girl’s  blog and saw a post for homemade bagels. I love bread of any kind and the thought of making my own bagels just sounded grand to me! So off I went to the market to procure the ingredients to make these:

Everything Bagels!

I never imagined that bagels were so easy and fun to make! As long as you are patient because you have to let the dough rise for several hours, they are pretty straightforward to make.

Bagel Close Up

For the tops I added caraway seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, granulated onion and garlic, and a little coarse salt. They’re fantastic all on their own or with a little Earth Balance:

Bagel with EB

I made some veggie burgers to make bagel sandwiches but I will leave that for my next post because I need to finish writing up the recipe. Til next time…

Tempeh ala Swell Vegan

So for dinner tonight I decided that I needed to do something with haricot verts and yellow wax beans that I didn’t want to go bad. I decided to use up some tempeh and wild rice too. After flipping through some recipes, it was decided that I would try Swell Vegan’s  Savory Baked Tofu recipe but with tempeh instead.

Savory Baked Tempeh

This marinade is delicious – a complex, almost smoky flavor that goes really well with tempeh, in my opinion. If you haven’t already done so, go check out Swell Vegan’s  site and order the zine!

Wild Rice!

The beans were sauteed with a bit of olive oil, garlic, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. The wild rice was cooked in a rice cooker with veggie broth. Overall a delicious meal!

Daiya Cheese @ Cruzer Pizza!

So thanks to quarrygirl,  I had one of the best vegan pizzas ever! After reading her post I headed over to Cruzer Pizza to test out the Daiya vegan cheese pizza for myself. I ordered my pie with mushrooms, tomatoes, and basil:

Daiya Vegan Cheese!

This stuff rocks! The cheese is stretchy and really does have the flavor and texture of real cheese!

Vegan Pizza Close Up

I just can’t say enough about this pizza! So all you vegan angelenos head on over to Cruzer Pizza and try it out for yourselves, you won’t be disappointed!