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!

My sincere apologies to readers who visit IV for recipes. It’s been a bit scant lately, because of all the “arts & culture” posts. But think of it this way, if they ever release Trivial Pursuit: Vegan Edition, you’ll be golden. The pink/brown pie will be yours!

Whoa…that sounded kinda gross.

With Amy gone in Reykjavik, it’s time to nestle in for a few weeks of solo-cookin’! Unlike the usual “Mark finds weird-and-occasionally-delicious things to do with leftovers” posts you’ve come to know and love, for the next few weeks I’m going to try to focus more on menu/lifestyle. This is because (a) we ate all of the leftovers before we left, so nothing would go bad and (b) as a culinary dynamic duo, we frequently neglect the often-disparate experience of cooking for yourself. I generally find I’m more inventive and am willing to put more time into a meal I’m making for other people. While I certainly love to eat, I also like to help other people love to eat. The more people, the more time and energy I’ll typically spend. But by myself, it’s easy to get into a pattern of making a giant meal every several nights and just living mindlessly on leftovers.

So, since getting back, I’ve been trying to cook more frequently, but to make quicker, easier dishes. So here’s the rundown:

Night 1

I got home from work and started pressure cooking 2 cups of chick peas. I let them cook for 45 minutes while I took care of other biz, and then proceeded to cheat by going over to Amy’s brother Joe’s place and eating his culinary masterpiece, Spicy Ramen (I will post this soon! You shall wait with baited breath.). I did bring over some fresh local broccoli and tempeh to round out the ramen (it’s especially awesome with seitan chik’n). And, with very little effort, I cooked up a mess of chick peas (more on this shortly).

Night 2

I made hummus with 2/3 of the chick peas, and saved the rest on the chick pea water. I also whipped up a batch of smoky tempeh and made smoky tempeh hummus wraps, including lettuce from our garden.

Night 3

Using the remaining chick peas and some tomatoes that were on the verge of going bad, I made a chick pea, tomato, and quinoa dish. I just cooked 1.5 cups of quinoa in veggie stock, then added the chick peas and tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, then garnished with sunflower seeds and almond slivers for a little crunch and pizazz. I told you I learned something from that last Reykjavik supper. I served it (to myself, of course) with steamed sesame kale–from our garden! Huzzah!

Brunch 4 (and 5)

I made the world’s most standard tofu scramble for brunch (well, I did add in poblano pepper that was starting to resemble a gigantic raisin), knowing that this would provide me a good 3 meals. 1 and 2, down.

Night 4

As many of you know, it’s asparagus season, so I’ve been cooking the hell out of some asparagus recently. I feel like I missed a week, and now I have to make it up (I don’t know what this is going to mean for strawberries…). In keeping with my recent Keep It Simple approach, I just sauteed a head of garlic in olive oil, then tossed in some chopped asparagus and cooked briefly, then covered. I boiled up some noodles, then tossed the noodles, asparagus, and garlic in more olive oil and tossed in fresh chives, oregano, and thyme from the garden, along with a few dashes of crushed red pepper (and salt & pepper, to taste, of course).

Night 5

We made chick patties about a month back, and did a double batch and froze the rest. Sunday was the ideal kind of day to pop one on the grill along with more asparagus (brush both the grill and asparagus in a little oil–I used a blend of olive of sesame oil). This took almost zero effort to make–and was all made from fresh local ingredients. Thank you past self!

Night 6

Remember the hummus from earlier? Remember the smoky tempeh? The lettuce from our garden? Well, it’s been 4 days, so it was time to enjoy another wrap. I’ve also got a stash of local broccoli and tortilla chips, should the wrap prove insufficient and the hummus too tempting.

The moral of the story, my friends, is that all of this has been really easy to prepare, healthy, and satisfying. I don’t feel like I’ve been “bogged down” by cooking (though it’s pretty unlikely that I’d ever feel that way), but also feel that I’ve eaten relatively well without having to rely on any pre-made (except by me) or processed foods.

Stay tuned!

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!

Let’s just start this with a picture:

Every year when fall blows in and we buy that first jug of cider, a desire for apple cider doughnuts begins worming its insidious way through our brains. This is fueled largely by nostalgia for visits to the apple orchard as kids. Knowing this does not help quell the desire. What does help is making freaking apple cider doughnuts!

And since we rarely bake sweets, I thought it was only right to finish off Vegan MoFo by making something I wouldn’t normally make, challenging myself a little.

As you’ve quite possibly learned by now, we’re not into frying so Amy hunted down this baked apple cider doughnut recipe. I took great pains to veganize it by, well, leaving out the egg. That simple. They were still light and fluffy, so I’m not really sure what the egg was supposed to do in the first place. Maybe in the olden days people had more eggs than they knew what to do with? Like me and zucchini.

It’s been a long time since I had a proper apple cider doughnut, and these weren’t fried, so I can’t compare very well. Amy thought they were delicious, but not a perfect replica of the platonic form of ‘apple cider doughnut’.

I should mention in advance, that you’ll need a doughnut pan for thus. You can get them pretty cheap in the intarwebs–be sure to get a nonstick one.

In any case, here they be:

Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/3 cup apple cider
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine all of the dry ingredients, except the brown sugar, in a large mixing bowl. Combine all of the wet ingredients plus the brown sugar in another, mixing thoroughly. Pour the wet mix into the dry and mix until just moistened.  Lightly oil or spray the doughnut pan and pour enough batter in each pocket to fill about half way. I filled them my first time using the pan and the doughnuts were all huge and lopsided. Caution, dear readers, caution. Bake for 15 minutes, or until they spring to the touch. Let them cool for a few minutes, then remove them from the pan using a knife to pop them out. In a small bowl, mix about 2 tsp cinnamon to 1/4 cup sugar (until it tastes sweet and not too sharp). Spray/brush the doughnuts with oil lightly and dunk the doughnut in the dry mix, coating thoroughly. BooYa!

Eat with hot cider. Or else:

Happy Halloween!

Happy Final MoFo!

Hummus was probably the first “exotic” thing I ever ate as a vegan, and has remained one of my favorite snacks for nearly a decade. Over the years, I’ve had a wide variety of hummus recipes–starting with the one in How It All Vegan (the first cookbook I ever owned, I think), which has onions and soy sauce and all manner of craziness. In these, my golden years, I’ve settled on a more traditional hummus, a simpler hummus, a more humble hummus.

Hummus

• 4 cups or 2 cans of chick peas
• 1.5 tsp cumin
• 1/8 – 1/4 cup of lemon juice (to taste)
• 1/8 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 cup of tahini
• salt to taste
• 1/2 medium-sized white onion, sauteed (optional; sauteed with the garlic, if you’re going this route)
• 2 – 4 cloves of garlic (optional)

Yep, that’s it. Blend all of the above ingredients in a food processor until they’re as smooth as Barry White’s deep soulful voice.

Should this produce a less-than-excellent hummus, you might consider the following:

• if you’re using canned chick peas, cook them for 20 minutes
• attempt to remove all of the thin shells by gently massaging the chick peas in water and spooning out the shells when they float to the top
• experiment with different brands of chick pea and tahini–you’ll be amazed at how different they can be
• use dry chick peas and cook them yourself (ideally, with a pressure cooker)
• add the tahini, olive oil, and/or lemon piecemeal– you can always add more

You can make this seem really fancy by serving it with a few things you probably have on hand anyway–a drizzle of olive oil (I like to make a little pool), a sprinkle of paprika, and/or some minced garlic (ideally in the olive oil pool).

You can also make this like 100X healthier by baking some pita to eat with it instead of chips.