On Sunday my most excellent residency hosts, Krista and Zak (at the Philadelphia Art Hotel) hosted the other resident, Jessica, and I for brunch.  It was super thoughtful of them to make a batch of Swedish pancakes just for me (the only vegan).  I provided applesauce as an egg replacer (1 tbsp as = 1 egg).  Because they are cooked in a griddle, the applesauce didn’t bind quite the way their batch did with the egg, but it did work, and they tasted amazing, as you can see from the photo.  I promise there are pancakes under all of that goodness.

Here’s the recipe Krista followed for about five pancakes:

Vegan Swedish Pancakes

• 2 tbsp applesauce
• 2.5 cups soymilk
• 1 cup flour
• Earth Balance (TM) for cookin’ and slatherin’

Whisk applesauce, soymilk and flour together until a bit runnier than “normal” pancake batter.  Pour a bit into a hot pan freshly dolloped with Earth Balance (TM) and swirl the batter in the bottom of the pan to make a thin, even coat.  Allow to cook until a bit less shiny on top and flip with a spatula.  Once finished, use the spatula to fold the pancake into quarters and pop onto a plate in a warm oven.  Repeat until you have a stack of yummy pancakes.

We served ours with more EB, powdered sugar, blackberry sauce, and fresh strawberries, blueberries and chopped white peaches.

Let us know if you have a go-to Swedish Pancake recipe, or have other ideas on how to veganize this one.  Maybe next time we’ll try ground flax + water.

I don’t know where I first came across this recipe (if you can call it that; it’s so simple), but grapefruit and avocado has been one of my favorite hot weather treats for a while now.  Chop a chilled ripe grapefruit and chilled avocado half (I like it when it’s still slightly firm) and mix them together.  I top them with seasalt and pepper because I put salt and pepper on everything.  I find that duo actually brings out the sweetness in the grapefruit.  Enjoy!

I’m curious what everyone else’s favorite hot weather snack is?  I know there are a bunch of good ones out there, so let’s share the wealth.  If you have a foodie blog, you could link to your vegan recipes in the comments.  Thanks everybody…and stay cool!

Hot on the tail of Mark’s “Cooking For One” post, I wanted to chime in with the perspective of cooking for one in my very particular situation: at an artist residency, in a shared kitchen, in a foreign country, as a vegan.  I been fortunate to have the time and space to reflect and observe my habits a lot in the last couple of weeks. I noticed that when we arrived, and I was somewhat stressed with jet lag and a new situation, my eating habits tended toward satisfying cravings, comfort food, and quick fixes–such as fast pastas and a lot of bread and carbs in general.  As I grew more comfortable in my situation, my attention turned toward my health and I realized I needed to put more care (and fresh fruits and veggies) back into my diet.

Here are a lovely breakfast fruit salad and luncheon sammich chock-full of veggies, herbs and slathered in Dijon mustard with soda water and juice.

We’ve also continued eating meals together in a group.  Often, people happily eat vegan food we prepare together, such as this tom yum soup made from scratch by Julie. She kindly made it with veggie stock and had fish sauce available for the non-vegs and tamari for the veg-heads.  It was delicious and I was fortunate to get to eat it again as leftovers.

It helps that there is another vegetarian in the group.  If the main meal involves meat, then we whip up some sort of veggie something and a veggie salad, which everyone can eat.  Last night Julie made lamb (very prevalent in Iceland) and polenta and sauteed mushrooms.  She saved out some polenta for me (and added cheese to it for everyone else) and made the mushrooms vegan so I could partake.  I made these yummy sauteed veggies (a lot of zucchini, garlic, onion and tomato) with fresh thyme and A LOT of paprika, which I have been putting on everything since returning from Hungary in March.  A splash of red wine in with the olive oil made it really flavorful.

Communal eating with new friends in a foreign country is a wonderful opportunity to get to know some new recipes and share food with fascinating people.  I have found that if I am as considerate as possible concerning my dietary preferences and values, people are generally very respectful and accommodating.  Skál!  (Cheers!)

I’m sure you’ll hear more from Mark in the next few days on how he’s fairing without me (poor guy… *wink*).  Next up from me: more eating out adventures around Iceland- in and outside of Reykjavík.

We have attended many a brunch in the last couple of years- vegan and otherwise.  At almost every brunch, our friends Abigail and Steven descend with their heavenly looking (and smelling) waffles, but alas, they contain milk, eggs and butter.  They kindly gave us the recipe and this last Sunday they debuted in the IV kitchen in all of their veganized glory.  Behold:

So, the MAJOR trick to getting these waffles right is to really get to know your waffle iron, and to pre-plan, since they need to be started the night before.  Mark spent a lot of time testing time and heat settings to get the perfect level of finish (ratio of crispness to doneness).  I was not at all sad to be the taste tester for this process as I whipped up the quiche.   Truth be told, the waffles in the photo are the teensiest bit underdone, but were wonderful with Earth Balance ™ and real maple syrup none-the-less.  So, we suggest practicing these with your waffle iron on some long morning where you can experiment, before you unveil them at a brunch.  I think his best efforts occurred somewhere in the middle of the testing.  Since the only other folks present for this brunch were my mom and brother, we bought their patience with bites of hot waffle goodness.  Here goes nothin’:

Abigail and Steven Waffles: Veganized!

• 2 1/4 cups milk of your choice (warmed)- we went with unsweetened soy milk.  I bet vanilla soy would be good!
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp yeast
• 8 tbsp buttery spread (melted)- we use Earth Balance ™
• 1/4 cup water (warm)
• two egg substitutes- we used Energ Egg Replacer ™ (follow the directions on the box), but next time we may try apple sauce, one tbsp per egg
• 1/8 tsp baking soda

The night before:

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large-ish mixing bowl (it should be able to fit into your fridge).  Add milk, flour and melted butter.  Mix.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

*Tip from Abigail: Set the bowl onto a cookie sheet or tray in case the yeast causes the batter to overflow in your fridge (it did in our case and we were happy for the tip!).

The morning of:

Beat egg replacer and baking soda into batter.  Follow the directions on your waffle iron at first, and if those don’t cut it, experiment as mentioned above until you have golden brown waffles of glory!

Thanks Abigail and Steven!

We served the waffles with this wonderful quiche, but this time I substituted a huge handful of chopped baby spinach (in season!) for the rainbow chard, since we had the one and not the other.  My very non-vegan mom and brother ate everything up and loved it!  Victory!

So, everybody loves breakfast for dinner, right? Like when you were 8 and you got to have Fruity Pebbles ™ for dinner?

Well, this is like that–but the opposite! It’s about taking regular dinner-y foods, and converting them into something palatable for breakfast. So, we’re not talking about firing up the grill at 7am and cooking up a black bean burger; we’re talking about the breakfast burrito–with which you’re probably already acquainted–which consists of a tofu scramble, soysage, and potatoes, all wrapped up in a lightly toasted tortilla, and the breakfast pizza–a delicious new treat–which consists of a toasted pita, topped with the same tofu scramble, soysage, and potatoes, but with the addition of pinto poblano/refried beans & chilis.

Truth be told, I’m not sure what relegates these to breakfast. The tofu in your scramble is the same as the tofu in your stir fry. We’ve used tempeh/tvp soysage/soyrizo in soups and all manner of Mexican delights. So what makes this any different?

Thusly, you have our blessing to indulge in dinner for breakfast for dinner.

For both recipes, you will need the following scramble:

Dinner-for-Breakfast Scramble

• 1 batch of tempeh soysage (or the same recipe, using 1 cup dried TVP, rehydrated in 3/4 – 1 cup water)
• 1 lb of extra firm tofu, drained
• 3 medium-sized red potatoes, cut into small cubes
• 1 medium – large yellow or white onion, diced
• 2 – 4 cloves of garlic, minced (optional)

Prepare the tempeh/tvp soysage as instructed in the above link, and let sit, allowing the flavor to soak in. In a large pan, saute the onions in oil over medium heat, until they start to get tender. Add in the soysage and cook until the soysage starts to brown on one side. Crumble in the tofu and add in the potatoes, stirring well. Cook for about 5 minutes, then lower heat to medium-low and cover, stirring occasionally. Cook until the potatoes are tender.

Breakast Burrito

• dinner-for-breakfast scramble
• 6 – 8 tortillas (or however many you plan on eating–but this should fill 6 – 8 )

In a toaster over or frying pan, lightly toast a tortilla (you want it warm, but not crispy). Generously fill with the above scramble. Top with salsa, if available. Roll up then eat up. Outstanding!

Breakfast Pizza

• dinner-for-breakfast scramble
• 6 pitas (same as above, my friend)
• olive oil OR Earth Balance ™
• ~ 2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 cups pinto poblano soup OR
  • 2 cups (1 can) cooked refried beans
  • 1 4 oz can of diced green chilis
  • 1/2 poblano or green bell pepper, diced
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp smoked chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp oregano
  • 1/4 tsp ground cumin

Prepare the scramble as directed above. If you don’t have pinto poblano soup on hand, add the pepper and chilis in with the onions. When the scramble is ready, mix in either the pinto poblano or the refried beans and spices. Continue heating until it’s heated through and through.

Meanwhile, prepare your pitas. If you don’t have a toaster oven, preheat your over to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly brush the pitas with olive oil or slather them with Earth Balance (we used Earth Balance), then sprinkle them generously with dried thyme. Bake in the (toaster) oven until they just start to brown.

Remove them from the oven, then allow them to cool for a few minutes. Dollop the bean-y scramble on them and spread. You can serve these with a fork and knife, or cut them up in advance, pizza-style. Using the latter method, these would make a great brunch treat. Phenomenal!

We found this power-packed smoothie recipe at Beauty That Moves.  We modified it a bit based on what we had on hand and what would fit in the blender.

Green Smoothie

• 1 apple, sliced (we used a big crispy Fugi)
• 1 banana, halved (since we didn’t have any pear on hand)
• frozen strawberries to taste (we used half a bag- about 5 oz.)
• about 3 cups fresh spinach
• 2 tsp honey (or agave nectar)
• 2 cups filtered water

Plop everything in the blender except for the spinach.  Blend ingredients until smooth, feeding in spinach slowly through the lid opening of the blender.  This makes one FULL blender’s-worth, enough for two people. Delicious and nutrient rich!

It’s a rainy sunday and we needed a scramble with an extra dose of heartiness. So, hot on the tail of my recent culinary upcycling kick, I whipped up a tofu scramble using our leftover chili and some wild rice from our wild rice and mushroom soup.

If for some reason, you happen to have the ingredients handy, here’s how it works:

Tofu Chili Scramble

• 1 medium-sized white or yellow onion, diced
• 1 poblano pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 lb tofu, crumbled
• 2 medium-large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 cup chili
• 1/2 cup cooked wild rice
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• cooking oil
• salt, to taste

In a large pan or soup pot, saute the onion and poblano in a dash of oil over medium heat until they begin to soften. Toss in the potatoes and cover, cooking for about 5 minutes, browning the potatoes on one side. Crumble in the tofu. Stir in the remaining ingredients, cover, and cook until the potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally (about 15 minutes). Serve with a side of rainy.

Mark agreed to do the dreaded task of mulling through the taxes today, so I wanted to take good care of him and feed him well all day.  For some reason, I feel like having breakfast cooked for you is one of the most comforting acts someone can perform, so I declared it breakfast day and decided to make a couple of different breakfasts throughout the day.  I decided to indulge and make some pancakes for actual morning-time breakfast.  I adapted this recipe from Vegweb.

Buttermilk Pancakes (emphasis on butter)

On Vegweb, this recipe called for Egg Replacer and oil in the pancakes.  I like a buttery taste, and use Egg Replacer as seldom as possible, so I substituted apple sauce for the egg and melted Earth Balance ™ for the oil.  To make the pancakes fluffier, I used a little apple cider vinegar to curdle the soymilk and make buttermilk.

• 1 cup white all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp apple sauce (we use apple cinnamon flavor)
• 1 cup soymilk
• 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons melted Earth Balance ™ plus more for cooking

Mix wet ingredients in a medium sized bowl.  Mix dry ingredients in a larger bowl. Pour wet ingredients into dry – mix well until smooth consistency.

Dollop some batter onto medium heat (preheated) pan with a pat of Earth Balance ™ melted into it. Flip over when each pancake begins to bubble on top and goes from shiny to matte.

Serve with toping of your choice- ours is more Earth Balance ™ and piping hot real maple syrup.

Yum-er-oo!

Rainbow Chard Tofu Quiche

The other day we were at our local coop and saw a beautiful bunch of rainbow chard, which we had never really worked with before.  A recipe from the latest (March/April 2010) issue of VegNews involving chard came to mind and we snapped it up.  Having declared today breakfast day, I decided a yummy quiche should be our dinner and busted out the VegNews.  Now you recall the great quiche-off of 2009.  I was never hot on either of those quiches.  I think it’s because we tried to get all cheesey with them, when this quiche is perfect without any kind of cheese substitute.  This one is also so much “eggier” somehow- fluffier, not pastey like the other two.  At any rate, here it is, re-written by us here for you, and adapted a tiny bit based on the ingredients we had on hand.

First make the Basic Flakey Pie Crust:

(the recipe calls for shortening, but I didn’t have any, so used our friend Earth Balance ™ instead and upped the amount to increase the fat content)

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cold Earth Balance ™ (the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening)
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup of very cold water

In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt.  Slowly cut Earth Balance ™ into flour mixture, until you are left with pea-sized balls of flour-butter mixture.  Drizzle a tiny amount of the water over the mixture and gently work it in, first stirring, then moving into kneading when it seems solid enough.  Repeat with water until a firm, slightly sticky ball of dough has formed.  Wrap dough in a large sheet of wax paper and refrigerate for an hour.

Spred out wax paper on your countertop (I used a rolling mat so the paper wouldn’t slip).  Lightly flour your rolling pin and gently roll out dough, working from the center outward until dough is 1/4 inch thick.

Picking up the wax paper, carefully flip the dough over and lay evenly onto a pie plate. Tear off pieces of excess dough and patch any holes uneven areas around the edges. Fill with quiche filling and bake according to directions below.

Rainbow Chard Tofu Quiche (filling and baking directions)

• 1 lb. firm tofu, drained
• 1/3 cup unsweetened soymilk
• 1 tbsp safflower oil (the recipe calls for olive oil)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced (the recipe calls for 2)
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
• 1 tsp salt (the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• a few cranks of pepper from a pepper mill (the recipe calls for 1/8 tsp)
• 1 medium-sized bunch of rainbow chard (the recipe calls for a large bunch of red chard) leaves thinly sliced and stems finely diced
• 1 Basic Flakey Pie Crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a food processor blend the tofu and soymilk until smooth and set aside.

In a saute pan, heat safflower oil over medium-high heat.  Add garlic, onion and salt and cook for several minutes until onions are translucent.  Add oregano, turmeric, pepper, and chard.  Cook until chard leaves are bright green and stems have softened.  Turn off heat and fold into tofu mixture.  The recipe doesn’t specify, but I would taste the mixture at this point and add salt and/or pepper to taste.

Pour mixture into prepared uncooked pie crust, spreading smoothly and evenly.  Bake for 25 minutes, remove from oven, drizzle top with a touch of oil, rotate and place back into oven for 20 more minutes for a total 45 minutes of cooking time (or until crust is golden brown).  Let cool and eat up!

This is our new go-to quiche recipe!

We served the quiche with a little fruit salad of apples and clementines and mimosas to celebrate the completion of taxes (with a nice little return) for yet another year!

As a side note, even though we still have a bit of winter left here in Michigan, our seedlings for our garden are growing up up up!  We spent the after-dinner hours transplanting the lettuce, kale and tomatoes into larger pots so they can grow big and strong.  Behold:

No, this is not a hilarious dance performed by the natives to this continent–it’s a tofu scramble made with local ingredients, namely wild rice and acorn squash. I like to imagine this as the Thanksgiving Breakfast, pilgrims and natives alike feasting cruelty-free on tofu and native crops. No one gave anyone smallpox and everyone lived happily ever after. The end. Manifest Destiny only required that the food was delicious.

We made this for a brunch this morning (well, this afternoon). This being the Year of the Brunch, it’s been a real challenge to make a sufficient variety of breakfast foods without (a) repeating ourselves and (b) overlapping with what others are making. Remember that brunch where you all made potatoes?

This was inspired by a scramble we had some time back at Seva, a local vegetarian restaurant. It’s a little labor intensive for your usual breakfast, so it’s more ideal for a brunch-type scenario. Accordingly, this recipe is for a double batch–so be sure to halve everything if you’re only feeding a few people and/or don’t want a ton of leftovers.

Indigenous Scramble

• 2 medium-sized white onions, diced
• 2 lbs of tofu, drained
• 1/2 medium – large acorn squash
• 1 cup (uncooked) wild rice
• 2 cups water
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp herbs d’provence
• salt & pepper, to taste
• high heat cooking oil

Preheat your over to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the acorn squash in half and place on baking sheet in a small drizzle of high heat cooking oil (like Safflower). Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, until you can remove the skin, but the squash is still solid enough to cut into pieces. Don’t worry too much about overcooking it–it’ll still be awesome, but you’ll lose a little something in texture.

Meanwhile, in a medium-sized saucepan, heat 1 tbsp cooking oil over high heat. Add in the wild rice, tossing, and cook for about 3 minutes. Add in the water, bring to boil, then reduce heat and cover, cooking until the water is gone and the rice is done.

Meanmeanwhile, saute the onion in oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once the onions are soft, add in the tofu, crumbling. Now add in the nu yeast and the turmeric. When the squash is done, peel the skin off and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Add it to the tofu. When the rice is done, add that too, Finally, add in the spices, salt, and pepper. Mix it up. Eat it up.

There are a lot of vegan french toast recipes out there. For some reason, though, none of them has every really done the trick.  They’re always okay, but either (a) just create a crispy layer on the outside without really transforming or flavoring the bread, or (b) soak all the way through the bread, making it soggy and very difficult to cook all the way through. A lot of this has to do with how thick your batter is. Too thick and you get (a); too thin and you get (b). For this incarnation, I tried a yogurt and soymilk base with a tinch of cornstarch and nu yeast.

The consistency was pretty good. I think if we’d had the right bread–thick, light bread, not dense Rudi’s multigrain–this would have been just right. The yogurt adds a little tartness that, for standard french toast (served with syrup), probably isn’t desirable. It would be just the thing, however, with a nice compote or jam.

French Toast (Yogurt Version)

• 4 pieces of thick, light bread
• 1/2 cup unsweetened milk-like beverage
• 1/4 cup plain, unsweetened yogurt
• 1 tsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp corn starch

Fire up a large frying pan or griddle at medium (or just under) heat. Toss in a dollop of Earth Balance ™. Whisk all of the non-bread ingredients together in a bowl large enough to accommodate a piece of bread. When the butter has melted, briefly dunk a piece of bread in, coating both sides but not getting soggy, and toss it in the pan/griddle. Repeat for as many pieces of bread as your pan/griddle will hold. Cook until the bottom side of the bread is brown, then flip, cooking until the other side is brown. Remove from heat and serve hot.

Simple, eh?