Vegan Lasagna

Yes, lasagna.  I don’t make it nearly enough.  And it’s so good–that is, if you make it like this:

To me lasagna is all about fresh pasta.  Those wide noodles with the curly edges just don’t do it for me.  Many people are intimidated by fresh pasta, but for no good reason.  It’s quick and easy, especially if you invest in a pasta rolling machine.

Start with about 2 cups of semolina flour.  Add a pinch of salt, a dash of olive oil, and enough cold water to bring it together into a hard dough.  I mix it right on the counter, adding just a few tablespoons of water at a time.  Knead it for a while, then either knead it for 10 minutes or start feeding it through the large setting of your pasta roller around a dozen times.  Either roll it out very thin, or use the machine to gradually thin it to the thinnest setting.  Cut pieces the length of the pan.  It cooks right in the oven.

Meanwhile, I steamed some spinach, squeezed out the water, and chopped it up.  I also made a white sauce–about a tablespoon of earth balance and a tablespoon of flour cooked into a roux, a little salt and pepper, a cup of soymilk (add gradually and whisk until smooth) and a little nutmeg.

The layers go like this:  Olive oil and a little tomato sauce (I used a jar this time).  Pasta. Tomato sauce and cheese (FYH jack or mozzarella slices). pasta. Spinach. Pasta. Tomato sauce. Pasta. White sauce. Pasta. Tomato sauce and cheese.

It goes into the oven at 375 for half an hour or so–feel free to cover with foil or put under the broiler to achieve your desired level of meltiness and crispyness on top.

Other things I sometimes add as layers: fresh basil, sauteed mushrooms, tofu mashed up with herbs, salt, and garlic.

It sounds kinda complicated, but it really only took about 20 or 30 minutes to make!  C and I inhaled 2/3 of it right away.

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Many vegans have discovered the tasty whipped cream in a can made by Soyatoo.  It’s pretty good on desserts, although it loses its fluff quickly.  I recently picked up a little box of whippable cream by the same company, and decided to make chocolate mousse. 

It turned out pretty delicious, although I would make a little change next time.  I started by melting 8 oz of chocolate (yes, half a pound.  I used Trader Joe’s “Pound Plus” 72% dark chocolate).  Meanwhile, I whipped up the cream with the contents of about half a vanilla bean (it’s fine to use extract, or leave it out altogether).  It took about 4 or 5 minutes on high to get it whipped up really well in the kitchenaid.  I’m not sure if I would attempt it without an electric mixer.

I folded the whipped cream into the chocolate–here’s where I would make a change.  I was worried that the cream wouldn’t be very stable, so I let the chocolate cool down considerably.  It turned out the cream was quite stable, and the cooler chocolate hardened into very tiny chunks in the cream.  Anyway, I continued folding in the cream bit by bit (folding means gently scooping up the bottom of the bowl with a spatula and laying it on top over and over to break the fewest air bubbles).  I served it in some martini glasses with a bit of shaved chocolate on top.

I think this is definitely something I will make again, and work into some other pastry/cake recipes in the future!

Vegan in NYC

I just got back from a great long weekend trip to NYC.  One of the highlights was definitely the food.  It seems like a great place to be vegan.  Here are some of the highlights:

Longans in Chinatown–these are sort of like Lychees, but tastier and without that annoying papery part next to the seed

Vegan Kebab (somewhere on the Lower East Side)–Authentic Afghani?  Maybe not, but it was spicy and tasy in a grilled wrap with veggies.

Song (Park Slope, Brooklyn)–really fantastic Thai food (and cheap!) with a nice atmosphere.  The flames shot a few feet above the woks in the open kitchen.  We had basil chili wide rice noodles and green curry.

Chinese in Flushing, Queens–Almost like being in China!  Some amazing steamed dumplings at a veg chinese restaurant, and a fried sesame ball.

Indian in Jackson Heights, Queens–A few subways stops away, fantastic Indian food at the Jackson Heights Diner.

Vegetarian Dim Sum–Chinatown, Manhattan–This was actually the name of the restaurant.  Fried banannas, dumpings, steamed buns, tofu rolls, potato balls.  Yum!

Imhotep (Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn)–The first vegetarian restaurant in Brooklyn.  It was more of a grocery store with a deli, but the Carribian rice, bbq ribs, tofu, pumpkin, and chicken-y stew (all on one plate) were amazing.

I also cooked up some black beans and rice with fresh thyme, fried plantains and yucca, jerk tofu, avocado and lime juice.  All in all, a great food weekend!

Chewy Berry Nut Bar

I made up this recipe in no time flat, inspired by something I saw at a Starbucks.  I know, I’m admitting I was in a Starbucks.  I had a gift card and went to go buy a soy chai.  They had this nice looking blueberry bar that looked tasty, other than the fact it was probably way too sweet, full of dairy, and overpriced.

Anyway, I wanted to make cookies tonight but not the same old thing.  And I was feeling lazy.  So this is also a really easy recipe.

I started with a basic shortbread–1 stick earth balance, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups flour.  I whisked that up (butter and sugar first) until it was like coarse sand.  I reserved about a cup of this mixture and pressed down the rest in a buttered baking dish (9×13).

I had some mixed berries in the freezer and the end of a bag of raspberries (you can use whatever berries you want).  I think I used about 2 cups total.  I added a few tablespoons of sugar (not much) and cooked on the stove until it was bubbly.  I whisked it to break up the berries and spread evenly on the pressed down dough.

I chopped up about 1-2 cups of pecans and walnuts (again, you can use whatever nuts you want) and mixed with the remaining dough.  I sprinkled this over the top and baked at 350 for about 30-40 minutes (until the bottom gets a bit browned).

They ended up super tasty and chewy.  It’s hard to believe that the chewy, solid bottom is made of exaclty the same thing as the crumbly top!

Croissant update

My vegan croissants baked up perfectly out of the freezer.  I just let them thaw on a baking sheet at room temperature for about an hour and baked at 400.  Yum!

Baked Potato and Roasted Tomato Soup

We made an especially satisfying dinner last night.

It started with the under-appreciated baked potato.  Just a nicely sized russet potato rubbed with some oil and salt and placed directly in the oven at 400 for about 45 minutes.  Take them out and either wrap with foil or put in a covered bowl for at least 10 minutes.

We served them with vegan sour cream (tofutti), green onions, and little slices of fried up smart bacon.

I adapted the tomato soup from a NY Times recipe.  I took a can (big one) of diced tomatoes, drained off the juice, and baked on a sheet pan with olive oil and salt at 400 until they just started to turn black on the edges.  Meanwhile, I sauteed some onion and carrot with a bit of rosemary and garlic.  I added the tomatoes, the juice, and a bit of water.   That simmered away for half an hour or so.  I added about a cup of breadcrumbs from some leftover sourdough rye bread to thicken up the soup. 

Add a simple green salad, and you’ve got an easy, cheap meal that’s satisfying and healthy.

Vegan cheese? “Sheese” review.

For the few years when I was vegetarian before I went vegan, I ate a lot of cheese.  I really liked it.  I thought it would be super hard to give up, and it was at first.  By now it just tastes vaguely rotten, but for a while it was enticing.

There actually are a few vegan cheese products that I like.  I use tofutti american cheese style slices to make grilled cheese sandwiches, and I use “follow your heart” brand mozzarella for pizzas and the like.  Neither of these comes close to the real thing–anyone who thinks they do is fooling themselves.  But they serve their purpose for a few recipes rather nicely.

So, I had some hope that I would get some joy out of the 8 oz of “Sheese” I bought for $9.25 at a vegan grocery store in town.  I got the “strong cheddar” style.  The texture looks normal enough–maybe a bit waxy looking.  It also sliced up nicely–good texture.  Unfortunately it tasted, well, appalling.  Some vegan products are pretty good but have a strange aftertaste.  This one tasted awful at the beginning, middle, and end of the bite.  The flavor was something like funky nutritional yeast with some sugar added. 

Maybe I’m exaggerating a little.  I revisited it a few times, trying to like it, but each time it sort of make me make an involuntary grimace.  As to how it matches up to the real thing?  C, who enjoys real cheese on occasion (and the afore mentioned vegan varieties I regularly cook with), had to spit it out and wash out her mouth.

The company does make many other variaties–and maybe some of them might taste good.  But for ten bucks a pop, I’m not likely to.

Anyone have any experience with the other flavors?

Roasted Asparagus

If you want a bit of a change from steamed, boiled, or sauteed vegetables, don’t forget your oven!  Last night I roasted up some fresh looking (and cheap) Asparagus that I bought at Uwajimaya. 

I simply tossed the trimmed spears (they were small, so I just broke off the ends–I usually peel larger spears) in some olive oil, balsalmic vinegar, salt, and paper.  Then I laid them out on a cooking sheet and put them in the oven at about 425 until they got just a little charred on the ends, about 12 minutes.

This treatment also works great for broccoli!  Or for something a little different, use lacinato kale (sometimes known as dinosaur kale).  Crispy and delicious!

Nutritional Yeast

By request… if there are any other topics you want me to cover, send me a message!

Nutritional yeast is one of those foods that you can probably find in any young, vegan household.  I don’t really know why it has become so ubiquitous–it probably has something to do with the fact that some (but not all) varieties have substantial quantities of vitamin B12, the only vital nutrient almost completely missing from a vegan diet.  Now that soymilk, fake meats, and other products are regularly fortified with B12, this is not a compelling reason to eat NuYeast.

So why eat it?  Well–because it tastes good.  It actually does have interesting nutritional properties–lots of protein and fiber–but these are things not usually missing from a vegan diet. 

There are two places it shines–as a topping on popcorn and in vegan mac and cheese.  (Sometimes I like it sprinkled on some pasta, and in my early vegan days I doused all kinds of things with it to enliven boring dishes my housemates made).

The recipe I use for “cheese” is somewhat adapted from the one in The Farm cookbook.  I start by making a roux with a few tablespoons of flour and a few tablespoons of earth balance.  After it gets nice and golden brown, I add a few cups of water and cook until it thickens.  I then add tons of salt, some fresh garlic or garlic powder, a tiny pinch of turmeric (for color), a heaping cup of NuYeast, and about half a stick of earth balance (you can make it as rich as you want using less or more).  Oh, and sometimes a dash of soy sauce.

You can also adapt this recipe (make it a little thicker and adjust the seasoning) to make a pretty good imitation of the sort of nacho cheese dip you would get at the fair or a baseball game.

If you like vegan mac and cheese and popcorn, eat NuYeast!  Otherwise, don’t try and eat it if you don’t like it.  There’s no reason that vegans need it nutritionally.

All about tofu

It’s impossible to avoid jokes about tofu when living as a vegetarian/vegan in this country.  The word is even used pejoratively, implying falseness or weakness.  Why all the hostility?  Tofu is soft, mild, and white.  What could be more unoffensive?

Like other mild foods (rice, white bread, chicken), tofu needs a little attention to be delicious.  What it needs most is salt–under-salted tofu is probably the primary reason that people don’t like it.  Tamari is a natural pair, but a little table salt and garlic or herbs is wonderful too.

The other thing it benefits from is proper treatment in the pan.  Of course, there are many ways of cooking tofu, but for standard dishes this is the way to go:

First, you have to identify the kind of tofu you’re working with.  I’m not even going to discuss the stuff that comes in the aseptic package in the grocery isle.  The refrigerated stuff comes in two primary forms–in a tub with water or in a brick wrapped in plastic.  The tub tofu can be anything from silken (not appropriate for frying) to extra firm.  The wrapped tofu is usually either firm or extra firm. 

Softer tofu benefits from a thorough draining, and even pressing between some towels (paper or cloth).  Firm tofu is ok right out of the pack.  Heat a non-stick skillet (or well-seasoned cast iron pan or wok) over medium-high heat.  Add at least a tablespoon of oil and your tofu chunks, slices, or whatever, and SALT.  Even if you’re adding soy sauce later.  The salt helps draw the moisture out of the tofu.  Get everything settled in place and turn your stove to HIGH HEAT.  The highest you’ve got.  Before long (longer if you have softer tofu, be patient), a nice brown crust will start forming.  You can fry each side, but I usually just flip it once and get nice color on 2 sides.

Turn the heat back down, throw in some tamari and chili flakes and basil (what I did last night), let things dry up, and you’re done.  Or move forward with some vegetables for a stir fry.  Or use as-is with some soba noodles.

So… salt + high heat + nonstick pan = tasty tofu!