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?

Vegan Croissants/Pain au Chocolat

What better to do on a lazy Sunday than spend all day on a baking project?  I was inspired by Ariel’s gift of tubes of almond paste.  I’ve made croissants before, and I like to vary them a bit by rolling some chocolate in the middle to make pain au chocolat.  Adding a little roll of almond paste makes them a delectable vegan pastry that would satisfy anyone.

There’s lots of tricks to making decent croissants.  The first step is to knead 3 sticks of earth balance with about 1/4 cup of flour.  It’s important to get this mixture smooth, because any chunks of butter will later break through the layers of dough.  Form the butter into a 6×6″ square on some foil and put it in the fridge to chill.

The next step is to create a simple yeast dough.  Use 2 cups of warmed soymilk, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 tablespoons (or packets) yeast, and 4 cups flour.  Mix well, knead (adding more flour as needed), put it back in the bowl, and refrigerate.

A few hours later after the butter has firmed up and the dough has risen in the fridge, you’re ready for the next step.  The idea here is that the dough and the butter have about the same consistency.  Knead and roll out the dough into a square about twice the size of the butter, and place the butter on top.

Fold in each corner like you’re wrapping a present.  Keeping everything well floured, turn it upside down and start rolling out into a long rectangle, about three times as long as it is wide.

If the butter starts squeezing out, everything is too warm and return it to the fridge for a while.  If the butter seems too hard and starts breaking through the dough, it’s too cold–let it warm up a bit.  Fold in thirds, bringing each end in (like a letter).  Again, keeping things well floured roll out again into a rectangle.  This time fold into fourths–fold each end to the middle then close the whole thing like a book.  Things will really be warming up by now, so wrap tightly in plastic wrap and return to the fridge for a good hour.

Unwrap and roll out again into a rectangle.  Fold in thirds.  Wrap and return in to the fridge for 3-5 hours, or longer (overnight would be fine). 

You’re now ready for the final roll.  It’s really important to keep things cold at this point.  I let a bunch of ice cubes melt on my counter for a while–if you have a marble slab by all means use it.  Unwrap, and roll out into a large square/rectangle until things are about 1/4 inch thick.  Cut into triangles with a sharp knife, place them on cookie sheets, and return to the fridge.

At this point you can simply roll them up into croissants.  I took about half and added a roll of almond paste (marzipan works fine too) and some chunks of bittersweet chocolate. 

Place them on a cookie sheet, let rise an additional hour, and bake at about 400 for 15-20 minutes.  They’re great right out of the oven, but they actually get more flaky as they cool.

They turned out pretty well this time.  I had a few issues–my triangles were a bit more like right triangles than the isosceles ones that work best. I sort of rolled each one individually to make them more in the right shape.  My first few ended up a bit ugly, but by the end they looked great.  The other problem was my oven heats much more from the bottom than the top–even on a high rack in a well-preheated oven, the bottoms got brown too fast.  I flipped them with about 5 minutes to go and they ended up looking fine.

 

I also have about a third of them in the freezer (unbaked) for a later occasion!  I’ll let you know how they turn out.

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.