Dried Black Bean Slow Cooker Chili

I read in a cookbook about cooking beans from dried in a slow cooker, directly without any soaking, and I wanted to try it. It worked! I am very impressed by the ease of this as it takes one more step away when using beans. The result was super yummy too.

Black Bean Chili

1 lb dried black beans
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup chili powder
28 oz can diced tomatoes with liquid or 12 frozen roma tomatoes, peeled
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (this apparently prevents the beans from bursting but some say it's not necessary)
2 3/4 cups water

Sort the black beans. Spread them out on a cookie sheet and check for small stones. Trust me, you want to do this. Corey and I have seen how beans are dried on the side of the road. It's not surprising that a few stones will get into the mix.

Put everything into the slow cooker and mix well. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. At the half-way point, check that there is still liquid in the slow cooker. Add more if needed. You could also add frozen corn or other veggies at this point if you wanted to.

I served this on chopped lettuce with an avocado and tomato salsa. I chopped two avocados and 1 tomato into chunks, added 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili flakes, and salt then mixed that together.











Did you know that 2016 is the international year of pulses as named by the UN? Check it out at fao.org.


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Broccoli Soup

I like this recipe because it uses a lot of broccoli so that when I buy some, I don't only use half and have this little sad piece looking at me each time I open the fridge. I harvested the last of the broccoli from the garden and used it all up for this thick soup.

Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup

3/4 cup raw cashews
1 tbsp raw coconut oil (the raw is less processed and has a slight coconut flavour)
1 large onion, diced
3 carrots, chopped
7 cups broccoli, chopped
Salt
Pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ginger
6 cups water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar

1. Soak the cashews in enough warm water to cover them while you make the rest of the soup.

2. Heat the coconut oil on medium in a large saucepan.

3. Fry the onions until translucent (about 3 minutes) then add the carrots, ginger and cumin. Fry for 5 minutes.

4. Toss in the broccoli and fry another 5 minutes.

5. Add 5 cups of water, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

6. When the broccoli is soft, use a blender or immersion blender to make the soup as smooth as possible. It will be very thick. Blend it in batches if you are using a blender and be careful not to get burned.

7. Drain the cashews and blend until completely smooth with 1 cup of water. I used my Nutribullet.

8. Stir in the cashew cream. If the soup is still too thick, add some 'milk' to thin it to the right thickness. It will depend on your preference.

9. Stir in the lemon juice and sugar. Bring back up to a gentle boil but be careful to heat it slowly as it can stick and burn to the bottom and tends to bubble like a volcano and could burn you when it boils.

10. Taste and add more salt as needed. I find it needs a fair bit of salt.

Enjoy!






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Carrot Pulp Cake

I love my juicer. I have a Cuisenart Compact Juice Extractor and I use it fairly often, especially for carrot juice. But I am always concerned about the pulp that is left. I hate wasting it. I know people say that there is "nothing" left in the pulp of value but it is still food and I am loathe to waste it.

Today, I created about 7 cups of carrot pulp after making juice from "ugly" carrots at the market. I decided to try two ideas with the remaining pulp. One is still drying so I'll wait on sharing that with you but the other is carrot cake. I think it's yummy. Give it a try and let me know what else you do with juicing pulp please. I doubt I'll have any favourable responses from home if I try making cucumber pulp cake or something like that!

Carrot Pulp Cake

2 cups flour (I use Spelt all the time but regular is fine)
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

3.5 cups (or so) carrot pulp from juicing
3/4 cup melted coconut oil

1/2 cup carrot juice (you could use orange too)
3/4 cup apple sauce

Raisins and Walnuts as desired

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x11 cake pan or muffin tins.

In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients with a large metal spoon. Mix in the carrot pulp and coconut oil. Make sure it is really well mixed.

Mix in the carrot juice and apple sauce. Again, make sure it is all really well mixed together. Add in the raisins or walnuts. The batter will feel really heavy, more like cookie batter than cake batter.

Spread in the pan. I used my hands to level it out. Bake for 45 minutes if you are making the cake. If you are making muffins, bake for 25 minutes then check that a knife in the middle comes out clean. Let cool. This cake is really orange. Maybe the orange juice would change the colour?













Now, if you want vegan icing, this is the best recipe ever.

1/4 cup tofutti cream cheese
1/4 cup vegan mayo
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp lemon juice as desired

Mix the icing sugar, cream cheese, mayo and vanilla together. Add 1 tsp lemon juice then taste. Add more lemon juice as desired. Spread on cooled cake.

I cut the cake in two and layered it. There was enough icing to do this.

Keep the cake refridgerated. Because it is so moist, it will quickly become "wet" and ferment.







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Pasta and Peppers

It is currently 39 degrees according to the weather man on our balcony. I don't doubt it... It's so hot that my greedy cats haven't asked for food since 11am...












...and my poor nasturtiums on the balcony have gone from being all perky this morning to wilted and cooked this afternoon.






What a perfect time to make a cold supper. Unfortunately, the cold supper I decided to prepare required boiling and baking which are not the best activities on the hottest day of 2015 so far! Oh well, hopefully it will be yummy.

I have two bags of mini peppers and while I love them raw, I decided to roast a few. The result is delicious!

Roasted Mini Sweet Peppers





20 mini sweet peppers
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put parchment on a baking sheet and place the peppers in a pile on the parchment. Drizzle olive oil on them and mix them around so they all glisten. Spread them out, sprinkle with salt (I used the new trendy Maldon salt flakes and proceeded to spill the container all over the counter and floor while I had oily fingers), crack black peppers over top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Take them out and eat hot or let cool but be forewarned that they will be very hot inside! When they are in the oven, they will still be all puffy but they will collapse once they start to cool.






I baked tofu at the same time as the oven was on as we needed something more than just roasted peppers! Tofu bakes for 60 minutes.

I also decided to make a pasta salad since Corey had been saying how much he was craving pasta salad and the one at IGA is certainly not vegan (or really that good in my opinion.) Why not just boil water while the oven is on??

Creamy Pasta Salad (it never makes a good photo!)





In a large bowl, mix:
4 cups cooked pasta
Celery
Peppers
Carrots
Any other raw veggies you like

In the Nutribullet or blender, blend:
1 pkg soft silken tofu (although medium or firm would be fine but not the banana flavoured kind)
3 tsp chopped fresh dill
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Pour over the pasta and veggies, mix, and put in the fridge until you eat! Pasta salad always tastes better the longer it sits. Well, not weeks but hours or a day.

And while the oven was on for the extra half hour for the tofu, I decided to make the rhubard loaf I wrote about last week except I made into muffins. They took 40 minutes to cook.

Not my proudest energy-conscious day as now the air conditioner is going full blast.

Have you tried this olive oil? It smells delicious and has a nice flavour.






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Slow Cooker Brownies

Yes, these are indeed cooked in the slow cooker. We found them to be a little under-chocolatey but maybe adding a bit more cocoa will help next time. We'd certainly eat them again!

This is a double batch for a large crockpot. If you have a small crockpot for 2, make half the recipe.

I used chia seeds and water but you could also use ground flax seed. If you use chia seeds, there are little seeds in your brownies. Doesn't change the flavour, just the look.

Adapted from Vegan Slow Cooking for Two or Just You

In a medium bowl, mix:
1.5 cups flour (I used spelt)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

In a large measuring jug, mix:
4 tbsp chia seeds and 1/2 cup warm water and let sit a couple minutes until it starts to get gluey

Add to the chia mixture:
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used coconut)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. Add chocolate chips or nuts if you want.

Spray your crockpot then pour the batter in and spread it out to be even. Put a teatowel under the lid to collect the moisture as it cooks.

Bake 45-90 minutes on high depending on your crockpot. Mine took 90 minutes. The top should be firm. Let cool and enjoy!






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The Most Amazing "Cauliflower" Recipe

This recipe calls for cauliflower but I found this great broccoflower at Nature's Fare and couldn't resist. Its flavour isn't as strong as cauliflower and it just looks so cool. I would certainly buy it again.










I made this with the real greek yoghurt. I used organic but it was still milk. You could try using soy or coconut and I would be interested in hearing how it worked out for you. The greek yoghurt is thick so it really coated the broccoflower and stayed on throughout the baking.

It was quite spicy so I used the leftover yoghurt mix as a dip. It seemed to be less spicy when it hadn't been cooked.

Spicy Broccoflower (adapted from Shape Magazine)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 head broccoflower
1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons chile powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a small baking sheet with vegetable oil. Set aside.

Trim the base of the broccoflower to remove any green leaves and the woody stem.

In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt with the lemon juice, chile powder, cumin, garlic powder, curry powder, salt and pepper.

Dunk the broccoflower into the bowl and use your hands to smear the marinade evenly over its surface. (Excess marinade can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to three days and used with tofu or other veggies.)










Place the broccoflower on the prepared baking sheet and roast until the surface is dry and lightly browned, 40 minutes. The marinade will make a crust on the surface.










Let the broccoflower cool for 10 minutes before cutting it into wedges.










It was delicious! I could have eaten it all!




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Cooking the Book: Cook with Kindness

I love cookbooks and I always want to buy more and more and more. I look through them and if there is one recipe that looks tempting then I want the whole book! Corey suggested that if I wanted to add to my cookbook collection, I should maybe start "cooking the book" and forcing myself to cook three recipes from a cookbook each week for a month to work my way through at least 12 recipes before leaping to my next book. Makes sense.

I decided to start with one of my books that is already on my shelf to see if i can actually do it.

Cook with Kindness is a book published in Canada that my sister-in-law gave to me. It's the best friend of the sister of one of her best friends who wrote it. Not only is it vegan but it's also gluten free. It's a beautiful book.



I have made the recipe on the cover, the peanut butter cups, and they are as delicious and decadent as they look.

I have also made the flax crackers twice and they are scrumptious. They store forever and can be flavoured with spices. I made my second batch with onion flakies. For us, we like to sprinkle salt on top before they bake and we added more onion flakes than we thought they needed and it worked out perfectly. It was also suggested to use salted, roasted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds to add more saltiness. All my seeds were raw in my recipes.

One recipe covers almost an entire cookie sheet. Make sure you line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.

3/4 cup flax seeds
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 tbsp hemp seeds
1/2 tsp sea salt (I added more and add another spice of your choice as desired)

Mix the flax seeds and water in a bowl and leave for an hour until all the water is absorbed. It makes a gluey mess. Kinda gross looking. Add everything else.

Spread onto the parchment paper and bake at 250 for an hour. Turn off the oven and leave it in the oven until it's cool. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.



Tonight we are having Roasted Squash, Garlic and Red Lentil Soup. It,s a blustery rainy evening so it's a good choice. I'm using the hubbard squash from our garden that is leftover from thanksgiving dinner. It's tasty! Garlicky but the garlic is roasted so not overly so. So far the recipes are yummy!




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Roasted Veggies

It's not quite officially fall but the fall veggies are coming out so we made our first batch of roasted veggies tonight for dinner. The temperature is supposed to drop below freezing at the airport so the gardens will soon be cleaned out. It did snow in Calgary yesterday... That is a little depressing as it is only September 9th.







The beauty of roasted veggies is that almost any veggie can be used. Our mix today had baby potato, patipan squash, zucchini, carrot, celery, baby eggplant, garlic, and broccoli. Normally we would have added cubes of onion but we suddenly realized that we had none! We also often add cubes of tofu.

I roasted an acorn squash and beets at the same time to eat with the roasted veggie mix. Corey doesn't like beets so I keep them separate and the acorn squash tends to get too mushy.







Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Get the root vegetables you want. No need to peel unless you are adding beets directly to the mix in which case I would peel those. Cut them into cubes about 1 inch square.

Mix all the veggies together in a large bowl. Drizzle olive oil over the veggies and several pinches of salt, cracks of black pepper, and shakes of italian herb mix. You could use any spices you like.

Mix, mix, mix then spread the veggies out over one or two cookie sheets. You don't want the veggies crammed together or else they won't cook properly. Put them in the oven and wait. After 15 minutes, stir the veggies, switch the trays if you have two on separate levels, then leave them to bake some more.

Total cooking time is about an hour depending on the type of veggies and the thickness of your trays. Darker cookie trays take less time to cook.

As for the squash, I cut it in half lengthwise, then half widthwise, then into two pieces each to end up with eight pieces. Cut out the seeds, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place skin side down on the tray. Leave in the oven with the veggies, about an hour or so, depending on the size of the squash.

My beets I just top and tail, rinse, and put directly on the bbq. Once they are black all around and I can stick a fork in them, I take them off the bbq, let them cool and peel them. You can do the same in the oven but they won't turn black. You'll have to test them for when they are soft enough to peel. I've heard that when they are soft you can take them out and put them into a paper bag to sweat for a few minutes and the peel comes off very easily. I've never tried.




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Kale Chips

Welcome back to me! It's been a year since I've blogged here because being vegan in Uganda was a bit harder than in Canada. Not impossible though as there is a plethora of fruits and veggies but still not as vegan friendly as home.







It is garden time here and Mum has beautiful big kale plants lining one side of the plot. We are making kale chips to use it up (as well as freezing it for smoothies) and enjoying the crispy healthy snack. So far we have only used salt and pepper as flavours but I am sure we will soon move onto chili and other spices. Maybe cumin?

Easy peasy lemon squeezie...

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale (about 12 leaves)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper

2 cookie sheets

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Tear the kale leaves off the ribs into fair sized pieces. The size they break to is what I leave them at because they shrink a lot as they dry.

Wash the leaves well and dry in a salad spinner or with a cloth. Don't use paper towel. It's a waste. Just a tea towel works and then the towel dries on its own. I put half the leaves in the spinner at once so split the leaves into two bunches.

Put 1 tbsp olive oil into a bowl and toss in half the leaves. Swirl them around with your hands. It may not seem like enough olive oil but it will spread and get into all the nooks and crannies of the kale.

Spread the kale onto a cookie sheet. It's ok if the kale covers the cookie sheet because it will shrink but you don't want a double layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (or other spices.)

Do the other half of the leaves with the other 1 tbsp oil and spread them onto a second cookie sheet.

Bake for 45 minutes, shaking the pans and switching the level of the pans after each 15 minutes (so the pan on the bottom goes to the top rack and the other goes to the bottom rack.)

If the leaves are mostly crispy, turn off the oven and leave the pans in there as the oven cools. Be careful though that they don't burn. Burnt kale stinks and doesn't taste very nice!

Let cool and store in an airtight container.





This kale covered the pan before being dried.


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Cinco de Mayo Taco Salad

Corn, black beans and rice. What a perfect combination. You could make this mixture and use it in tacos, wraps or on a salad as the recipe intends. Use whatever you like in the salad: taco chips, lettuce, avocado, tomato, cucumber, salsa, cilantro... This is adapted from the Eating Well website.

Taco Salad

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cup corn kernels
1 large tomato, chopped
1 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 1/2 cup cooked beans (black, pinto, kidney)
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp oragano
1/4 tsp salt

lime wedges for the salad dressing

Heat the oil. Add onion and corn and cook until the onion starts to brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until the tomato breaks down. Let cool before adding to your salad or serve hot in the taco shells. Squeeze the lime over the mixture when you mix it with the salad.

Baked Beans

So Corey and I have started griping about our limited and boring repertoire of food. Maybe it's the grey days but we are both uninspired when it comes to cooking and both of us are starting to crave pizza on a daily basis. However, we are trying our best to fight against this cooking lethargy and we are attempting new recipes from our plethora of cookbooks.

Tonight I tried a recipe for baked beans and we ate them on top of pasta (one thing to note - rice pasta does not freeze well as I found out when I reheated the pasta we had in the freezer... ugh! I just cooked a new bag.)

Baked Any Type of Beans

5 cups cooked beans (I used my frozen black-eyed peas but you could use kidney or pinto or other beans)
1 cup water
5 cloves garlic, gently crushed with the side of the knife
3 tbsp minced ginger
4 tbsp soya sauce
3 tsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup smoked tofu in small cubes
4 drops liquid smoke (or more or less depending on your smoked tofu or preference for the smoky flavour)

Preheat over to 375. Mix all the ingredients together and put into a bean pot or deep casserole dish with a lid. Bake for 45 minutes. Easy!

Easy Yummy Indian Lentils

I received a book from a friend in Nepal who is caring for 15 orphan girls and putting them through school. She is from England and returns home every so often so on one of her trips home in 2012, she mailed me this awesome little cookbook entitled Indian Vegetarian Cuisine by Kikky Sihota. I've tried several recipes and have found them all to be yummy. I always modify them a bit based on my needs but I have not hit a dud yet! On Monday I wanted to eat some Indian food to go with the naans Corey had made so I tried two new recipes from this cookbook. The lentils were amazing and SO easy to make. I hope you enjoy them as well!

Mixed Dal

3/4 cup dried red/yellow lentils
3/4 cup dried brown/blue lentils
5 cups water
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp minced ginger
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 salt
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chilli flakes

Pour small amounts of the lentils onto a plate and swirl them around to check for rocks and other debris. Put all the ingredients into a large saucepan (lentils foam up when they boil so they need a lot of space.) Bring to a boil uncovered. Turn down the heat to medium and cover but allow the steam to escape and let bubble until the lentils are done. I removed the lid and let the mixture thicken a bit as well before serving. DELICIOUS!

Avocado and Spinach Pasta

When I tell people that I use avocado as a warm ingredient in pasta, their reaction is not always so positive. If you are someone who believes that avocado should only be eaten cold, in sandwiches or in guacamole, you are missing out on the creaminess that it offers in a pasta dish. Try it!

Avocado and Spinach Pasta

454g bag of linguine or other pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
4 large cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp salt
fresh ground black pepper
4 cups chopped fresh spinach
2 tomatoes, cut into chunks
3 avocados, peeled and chopped into chunks (the riper the avocado, the creamier the sauce)

Cook the pasta according to package instructions.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Toss in the garlic and red pepper flakes. Stir around for a couple minutes making sure the garlic doesn't burn. Add the wine and let it bubble another couple minutes. Add the broth, lime juice, salt, and pepper and bring up to a boil then reduce the heat to simmer. Toss in the tomato and once it is heated through, add the spinach and mix until it is wilted.

Toss the pasta and sauce together and leave on the heat for a few minutes until it is all hot again. Stir in the avocado and let it heat through. Enjoy!

Tortilla Soup

Not sure where I ever got the taste for tortilla soup but every so often I get a craving for a bowl of this yummy soup. There are many recipes for tortilla soup that just are soup with tortillas in it but I wanted a recipe with tortillas actually as an ingredient. This soup came together quickly and was delicious. Adjust the amount of cilantro depending on how much you like cilantro but don't omit it entirely or else you lose a vital flavour.

Tortilla Soup

4 cups veggie stock
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 green onions, sliced with the green parts
8 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped (or one can of diced tomatoes)
a handful of cilantro, chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1.5 tsp cumin
3-4 handfuls of tortilla chips (and more for on top)
salt, to taste
1/2 cup corn kernels
1.5 cups cooked black beans

In a medium stock pot, bring to a boil the stock, onions, garlic and green onions. When it's boiling, add the tomatoes and bring to a boil again. Toss in the cilantro, the chili powder, the cumin and the tortilla chips. Remove from the heat. Once the chips have gone soggy, use an immersion blender to blend it all smooth.

Taste and add salt to taste depending on how salty your chips are.

Add the corn and beans and heat back up to a boil.

Serve with a few crushed tortilla chips on top. You could also add chunks of avocado if you wanted!

Roasted Asparagus Corn Chowder

This rain is depressing. It's June 7th and I have the fireplace on to warm up because the outside temperature drops to about 6 degrees at night. It shouldn't be time to be making soup but who wants salads and sandwiches when we are wearing scarves and gloves in the morning and at night? Ridiculous!!

I made this chowder in the slow cooker and left it for about 4 hours on low. You could do it in a regular pot and cook it faster. It depends on your time. You could also toss in raw asparagus if you don't want to roast it but I can't guarantee that the flavour will be as good. Play around!

Roasted Asparagus Corn Chowder

2 tbsp canola oil
1 medium leek, sliced thin (see note below)
3 medium carrots, sliced
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 lrg can garbanzo beans or 1 cup cooked garbanzo beans that you have waiting in your freezer
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
2 cups corn kernels, frozen or fresh
1 package powdered coconut milk
5 cups water
1 vegan stock cube
chopped roasted asparagus - however much you have left

If you are making this in a slow cooker, omit the oil and throw all the rest of the ingredients, minus the roasted asparagus, in the slow cooker, mix really well to get the coconut powder to dissolve as much as possible, and leave on low for 4 hours or so. Add the asparagus in the last 30 minutes of cooking. If you are using raw asparagus, add it at the beginning.

If you are doing this in a pot, heat the oil and fry the leek until the pieces start to brown. Add all the other ingredients , minus the roasted asparagus. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and leave to simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. Toss in the roasted asparagus and leave to simmer another 5 minutes. If the asparagus is raw, toss in with the rest of the ingredients so that it cooks.

Leek Note: Leeks can be full of dirt. To clean them properly, cut off the root end and slice down the length of the leek so that you cut the rings in all the way down. Don't cut all the way through, the knife should go half way through to the core and then slice down. Put the leek under running cold water and use your thumb to separate the layers to wash the grit caught in-between the layers. You can even pull the leek layers apart, wash them, and then put them back together.

Kabaka's Koffee Flavoured Kake

I made this cake last weekend and was sitting at the counter enjoying a piece when Kabaka decided that he LOVES coffee cake and wanted to crawl onto the counter to get a bite. This is the first human food he has tried to get. His claws were dug into my thighs and he was using all his 20lbs of weight to push against me as I tried to stop him from getting to my piece. I like the cake too, as does Corey.

Kabaka's Koffee Flavoured Kake

1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 heaping tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups flour (mine is whole wheat but I will also try with other types of gluten free flours)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a cake tin/muffin cups/ loaf pan.

Measure out half of the milk and stir in the coffee granules. Once they have almost all dissolved, add the other half of the milk and vinegar. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the centre and add the oil, milk mixture, and vinegar. Stir together with a metal spoon until just combined.

Pour into the prepared pan and cook until a toothpick comes out clean. Muffins are about 25 minutes. A loaf is about 40 minutes. Set your timer for 5 minutes less and check. My oven is a bit off for temperature so I set it higher and cook for about the same amount of time. You know your oven best.

When the cake is cool, you can make a coffee icing that is 1/2 cup margarine, powdered sugar, and instant coffee dissolved in a tbsp of milk. The amounts vary on the intensity of the sugar/coffee flavour that you want.

I have also made these as chocolate chip muffins and added 1/2 cup chocolate chips after mixing in the dry ingredients.

Friday Morning Scones

I love my Fridays off... it has been awesome to have a three day weekend even if most of my Fridays were spent working on my Master's project. Next year it's back to full time. Sigh...

This morning while Corey went for a run (I ran 60 minutes last night for the first time - yahoo!) I decided to make scones for breakfast for when he returned. I modified a recipe from Vegan Brunch which is the same book that I got the muffin/loaf recipe from. These recipes are always great.

Friday Morning Scones

1 1/4 cup "milk" (I used the new almond/coconut milk but any milk will do)
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
3 cups flour (I used a mix of whole wheat and white)
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine (the block, not the tub kind)
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet or use a piece of parchment paper. I use my Silpat.

Measure the "milk" in a large measuring cup and add the vinegar. Set aside to curdle while you make the rest of the mixture.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Cut the margarine into small chunks and crumble it with your fingers into the dry ingredients. The mixture will be like little crumbles when it's all mixed together. What you are aiming for is to not have large clumps of margarine in amongst your flour.

Make a well in the centre of the mixture. Pour in the curdled milk, vanilla and canola oil. Using your fingers again, gently mix it all together. You want to be gentle and use just your fingers, not your whole hand that will overwork the batter. The batter will come together but there will be some dry patches, maybe some dry mixture left at the bottom of the bowl but most of it will hold together. Use your hands to divide the batter into 12 pieces and mould them gently into scone shapes.

Place on the cookie sheet and bake about 20 minutes. They will start to brown on the top and a knife stuck into the centre will come out clean. Eat warm!

The scones are fairly large so next time I will make a half-batch for Corey and I. We still have 8 scones left. The advantage of these is that they are not sweet so they can be eaten with soup or stew. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup sugar with extra to put on top but that makes it too sweet for us. You could add cheese into the batter or blueberries or herbs depending on the rest of your meal or your mood!

Meat-free Monday Burgers

We just returned from Calgary where we had a great vegan/vegetarian lunch at a little place called The Coup on 17th Ave SW. There is also a bar next door but it wasn't open. The food was delicious but expensive. Everything is made fresh and the menu items are quite original. I had a tempeh dish which was very tasty. It was busy so plan on arriving before or after the meal rush. You can't make reservations.

Another place we visited was the new Spark Science Centre which had a display about climate change and what we can all do to help slow down climate change. Everyone is invited to write a little card and post it on the metal people. This was mine:

Tonight we are heading to Mum's for dinner. She is making her yummy tacos and for us she makes these awesome re-fried beans. This is not the recipe for the beans but one day I will get it from her and post it here. The burger recipe that I am sharing came from the back of the Urban Harvest Herald that we get each week with our delivery of organic fruits and veggies. If you live in the Kelowna area, I strongly suggest that you get Urban Harvest. If you do, mention my name so that I get a credit on my order! If you live somewhere else, look into this type of service. It's well worth it. I love getting a box of fresh organic fruits and veggies each week delivered to my door.

Dixie Burgers (adapted from the Moosewood Restaurant recipe)

1 tbsp canola oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 pinch salt
2 cups grated raw sweet potato
1/3 cup minced celery
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 red pepper, minced
1 cup chard, stemmed and finely chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups canned or cooked black beans
4 oz firm tofu
panko or other fine breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a cookie sheet.

Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Add onions, garlic and salt and cook until translucent. Add sweet potato, celery and thyme and cook for a few minutes, stirring often. Add red pepper and chard, stir, cover and cook on medium-low heat for another 5 minutes until the greens are getting tender. Remove from heat and stir in soy sauce and black pepper.

While the veggies cool a bit, pulse the beans and tofu in a food processor until mashed but not smooth. Mix the veggies into the bean mixture. Add panko or breadcrumbs to make the mixture a bit more solid for shaping into patties. The recipe says to make 4 patties, we made 6 and even they were quite big.

Bake on the cookie sheet for 20 minutes until firm.

I love lasagna!

I used to make lasagna quite often but gave this wonderful one-pot meal up when we became vegan. I really don't like many of the soy cheese products and I try to avoid as much wheat as possible but when I came across this recipe in the Accidental Vegan cookbook I just bought, I could not resist (with a few modifications of course!) I was having good friends over for dinner so I decided they could be my guinea pigs. That's what good friends are for!

There are several steps for this recipe because you make all three sauces but each one is made quickly so the overall time is not a big deal. You could melt soy cheese on top but as we have recently discovered, some brands have casein from milk in them. Check your labels carefully.

I use the instant lasagna noodles because I hate fighting with lasagna noodles that stick in my pot when I am boiling them and then fall apart as I transfer them into the lasagna pan. It limits my options for "flavours" of lasagna noodles but for these rare occasions, I don't mind just eating plain white semolina flour noodles.

Spinach Pesto Lasagna

1. Spinach Tomato Sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried oregano (been to Abby's yet?)

2 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
6-8 large tomatoes skinned and chopped or just chopped fine
1 pkg frozen spinach, thawed

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add onions, garlic, herbs, spices and salt. Fry on medium heat until the onions start to become translucent. Add the tomatoes, lower heat, cover and let simmer 30 minutes. (This is when you make the other sauces.) Squeeze the water out of the spinach and mix it into the sauce. Let it heat through.

2. Pesto
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted in boiling water
2 cloves garlic
3 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1 cup shelled walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Put the garlic cloves in the food processor and chop finely. Drain the tomatoes and add all the ingredients to the food processor. Process until finely chopped and well mixed.

3. "Cheese" Sauce - nothing like cheese at all really except the creaminess of a cheese sauce
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (great source of B12 - one of the only sources for vegans)
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp prepared mustard

Gently heat oil over medium-low heat. Add flour and yeast and whisk until it is all mixed together. It will be a combined crumbly mixture. Add the water, raise the heat to medium and whisk continuously until the sauce boils and thickens to the consistency of pea soup. It will burn fast so it is important to whisk it all the time. Remove from heat and whisk in the salt and mustard. 

LASAGNA

1 pkg express lasagna
1 pkg soft tofu, drained and crumbled into a bowl
the 3 sauces above

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix the pesto into the bowl with the crumbled tofu. In a 9x13 pan, spread 1/3 of the tomato-spinach sauce. Layer noodles onto the sauce. Spread 1/2 the tofu-pesto sauce on top. Add another layer of noodles. Spread 1/3 of the tomato-spinach sauce on top then cover with the rest of the tofu-pesto sauce. Another layer of noodles. Cover with the rest of the tomato-spinach sauce. Pour the "cheese" sauce on top, cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Each of the sauces are good on their own for pasta. I boil macaroni then fry onions and tomatoes together, toss in the macaroni, add the "cheese" sauce, put it in a baking dish, cover it with breadcrumbs and bake it for 20 minutes. Makes a great lunch!

Wednesday Morning Pancakes

The advantages of being on Spring Break is that I can cook more and I can blog more recipes as I try them. Corey had this morning off so I decided to make some pancakes. It is a rare morning when we have time or energy for pancakes and I find that recipes are usually too big. I know I can reduce the amount but then that adds another mental step and that makes the task even more onerous! All for silly pancakes.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz to the rescue.Her book Vegan Brunch has great recipes in realistic quantities. This one made 8 small pancakes which was perfect for us. I modified the recipe a little so this is my modification. If you want her real recipe, buy her book!

Wednesday Morning Pancakes

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp canola oil
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
2 tbsp maple syrup

cooking spray

Heat a skillet (or two) over medium heat while you make the batter. You want these to be hot and dry.

Sift the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients. Use a metal spoon to mix the two together until just mixed. A few lumps are okay. Don't over-mix or the pancakes will be tough.

Turn the heat down just a little under the skillets. Lightly spray the skillets with cooking spray. You only need to do this once. Drop a large dollop of batter on the skillet and move the skillet around to get a somewhat circular shape if that matters to you. I used about 1/3 cup of batter per pancake. Leave the pancake to cook about 3 minutes. There will be small bubbles popping on top and the top will seem almost dry. Flip and cook the other side for about 1 minute.

Serve with maple syrup, agave syrup, blueberries, or whatever takes your fancy!