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A variation on trail mix bars. With a deep chocolate flavor this time.
In a small saucepan, heat 1/2 cup rice syrup, 1/4 cup almond butter, 1/4 cup chocolate chips and 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder. Stir over medium/low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour 3 1/2 cup puffed cereal (I found puffed kamut at my Safeway) into a large bowl and mix with syrup/chocolate mixture. Add more cereal as needed to make a good bar consistency. Spray a 8 inch square pan with cooking spray. Press bar mixture into pan and let cool before cutting into 9 squares.
I moved to California from Austin almost six years ago and still long for the Tex-Mex breakfast and brunch options from places like Trudy’s or the former Las Manitas. The closest I’ve found in these parts is Papalote. Their salsa is excellent and they have great grilled veggie tacos (zucchini/eggplant) or seasoned tofu tacos. When I was there last weekend, I bought a jar of their salsa and that has me fired up to use it as often as possible. Here’s what I put together to approximate their offerings.
Caramelize an onion by slicing into thin half moons and heating in a skillet over high heat for about 10-15 minutes, lower heat and continue to cook for another 30 minutes or longer until very well done. Set aside. Chop up 4 small zucchinis and cook in the skillet until brown. Combine with the onions. Season and bake some tofu from this recipe here. Heat some refried black beans, and serve with onion/zucchini mixture. Add sliced avocado and salsa if you’ve got it! You can also serve with corn or flour tortillas or I enjoyed this with blue corn tortilla chips.
This is my first experiment with baking tofu. It’s a nice change in texture from raw or stir frying, a bit chewy and the seasoning give it some kick. I used Penzy’s Medium Hot Chili Powder, which I love love love, and got the chipotle powder from Rainbow Grocery which has great bulk spices.
Ingredients:
1/2 block firm tofu
1 teaspoon chipotle powder, or to taste
1/8 teaspoon medium chili powder, or to taste
Directions:
Cube tofu into about half inch squares, toss with spices. Taste and add more seasoning if you like. Cook at 400 for 40 minutes tossing every 10 minutes or so.
I’ve wanted to see about “veganizing” some of the Joy of Cooking recipes for a while. This morning, I made my first attempt and am calling it a total success. I don’t think I can print the recipe here, but I used the “corn meal pancake” recipe and made substitutes for all the animal products. Instead of milk I used unsweetened vanilla soy milk, in place of the egg, I used one Tablespoon well-ground flax seeds shaken up a jar with two Tablespoons additional soy milk and one Tablespoon water. Vegan margarine instead of butter and voila, it’s vegan. And still REALLY good. Nicely buttery. I used canola oil spray for the skillet and re-sprayed between each batch.
If you are curious about eating fewer eggs (I was spurred on to do so after reading the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Saffran Foer) and making substitutions in your baking recipes, the flax seed and water/soy milk combination works really well.
Fake meat….can be hit or miss. I struggle with vegan “turkey” slices, but with some vegan “cream cheese” and dijon mustard, this can be quite a nice little treat. And it’s cute in that 50’s appetizer kind of way.
Ingredients:
vegan turkey slices
vegan cream cheese
dijon mustard
Directions:
Spread each turkey slice with cream cheese. Squeeze dijon mustard in a line down the middle of each slice. Roll up the slices and pin together with a toothpick. Enjoy!
Yum. I can’t stop making this. Another winner from Vegetarian Times. Total Eclipse Chocolate Cake. I keep telling myself I just need one more sample to figure out how this combination of ingredients could possibly turn out so rich. So chocolaty. Love. Can you see where I ate the corner off before I took the photo? : ) This is half the recipe which fits into a 8″x8″ pan. Double and you can use two 9″ round pans and make a more traditional birthday like stacked cake.
Cake Ingredients:
3/4 C white flour
1/4 C + 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp flax seeds, ground very fine (a coffee grinder works well)
1/4 C pitted dates (about 5 dates)
3 oz silken tofu
1 1/2 tsp vegetable or corn oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C maple syrup
Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Soak dates in half a cup of hot water for 30 minutes. Spray a 8″x8″ pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle in a little bit of cocoa powder and shake pan to distribute/coat sides. In a large bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda.
In a small blender mix the ground flax seeds with half a cup water for about 30 seconds until frothy. Add dates, their soaking water, oil and vanilla and continue to blend until smooth. Add to dry mixture with the maple syrup. Stir until just combined. Pour into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until springs back to touch on top or a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 5-10 minutes then turn out onto a rack to cool further.
Recipe for frosting to follow!
I wish I were in Austin this weekend! It’s SXSW and I would love to be filling up on Trudy’s breakfast tacos and then heading out to hear some music. To fill the taco void, I made a satisfying tofu scramble for breakfast. And now I will throw on some L’il Cap’n Travis and finish my taxes. Sigh.
Ingredients:
1/2 block of firm tofu, drained
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon taco seasoning
1/2 a small onion, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 roasted red pepper, chopped
vegan american cheese, about a half a slice
chili powder
Directions:
Crumble tofu with your hands into a medium sized bowl. Sprinkle in turmeric, garlic powder, taco seasoning and mix with a fork. Prep a skillet with non-stick spray. Over medium-high heat, cook onions, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini and brown for another few minutes. Add tofu mixture and peppers. Stir in chili powder, to taste. I like a few teaspoons full. Continue to cook over a high heat until slightly browned, about another 5-10 minutes. Add american cheese and stir until melted. Serve with salsa, a side of black beans and some vegan sour cream if you’ve got it. I added a handful of blue corn tortilla chips. Avocado slices would have been a nice addition as well.
The best yellow split pea soup I’ve ever had comes from Harvest & Rowe in downtown SF. In fact, with one exception, the only place I’ve ever had YSPS is at Harvest & Rowe. But never tried to make some myself until last night, and I’m pretty happy with the results.
Ingredients:
One crushed clove of garlic or about a teaspoon of minced jarred garlic
One large carrot, chopped
Half an onion, chopped
1/2 a pound of yellow split peas
2 roasted red peppers
4+ cups of water
2 low salt bullion cubes
Directions:
Prep a large soup pot with cooking spray, over medium heat cook garlic and onions for about 3-5 minutes. Add split peas, carrots, water and bullion. Cover, turn down the heat to more of a simmer and cook FOREVER. Seriously, the key is to get the split peas totally melted. I probably cooked the soup for about one hour, fifteen minutes, and probably could have gone about another 20 minutes as there were still some firm peas in there. I started with 3 cups of water and kept adding, so keep an eye on it and add water as you need to. I added the red peppers at about the one hour mark.
This amount is about four servings. Double it if you want a bunch of soup.
Wow, was this good. Barely feels like a recipe, but I need to share. I think the trick was to brown the onions over a pretty high heat and then they got all caramelly and gooey. Mmm.
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic, or I used about a teaspoon of jarred minced garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 lb fresh asparagus, with the tough ends snapped off and cut into short pieces
Juice of half a lemon
Generous splash of white wine
Directions:
Spray a frying pan with non-stick spray. Over medium high heat, add garlic, then onions. Cook for about five minutes, tossing/stirring regularly so onions get a bit browned. Add asparagus, lemon juice and wine and cover to simmer (I added just a little water as well) about 5-10 minutes or until the asparagus is al dente. Serve!
I had a lovely ladies brunch to attend last weekend and wanted to tackle the challenge of making a savory dish that was still vegan and easy. A friend suggested something with polenta and a lightbulb went off… I had some Whole Foods roasted red peppers in a jar, a can of black beans… and a trip to my fantastic local market, Bi-Rite to look for something like pesto but not quite like pesto yielded a small container of their house-made Chimichurri sauce. Not familiar with Chimichurri? Me neither. I asked what it went well with, and got “it’s great on steak!” Hmm. I muttered something about polenta and trusted my instinct that it would work with my idea, and I was right. I’ll try to make my own someday, but for now, Bi-Rite has me hooked on their version. Ingredients: Italian parsley, Champagne vinegar, garlic, serrano peppers, EVOO, S & P. If you don’t have access to or feel like making the sauce, the rest of the ingredients can stand on their own. Try with a bit of fresh pepper, olive oil and balsamic instead. Maybe some chopped fresh basil?
Ingredients:
Polenta – I used one of those long shelf life tubes and cut it up into 3/4 inch rounds
2 roasted red peppers, chopped
1/4 of a red onion, diced
1 can of black beans – drained and rinsed
Chimichurri sauce - about 1/4 cup or to taste
Directions:
Slice polenta and place on a cooking-sprayed cookie sheet. Broil on both sides (took about 10 minutes on each side). Keep a close eye on it, you don’t want it really browned. You can either serve the polenta with a pepper/bean/onion mixture on top, crowned with a bit of sauce, or cube the polenta and mix everything up. Option one has more curb appeal, but for the brunch I went with option two and it was easier to serve and still worked. If going with option two, however, it occurred to me later that it might have been better to roast the polenta in cubes, rather than cutting up the rounds post-roasting which was less clean looking.
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