Coconut Ginger Vegetable Soup

Early last year I had the chance to go to Vegfest in Seattle. It is a food festival for vegans and vegetarians, and they are held all over the country. Chances are, if you live in the United States, there’s one not too far from you. It’s fun because you get to sample a lot of food products from well-known brand names, buy cookbooks, get freebies, and attend cooking demos.

While there, I attended a handful of cooking demos presented by PCC, a local co-op with locations in and around Seattle (very similar to Whole Foods, but smaller and member-focused – although anyone can shop there). I learned some interesting new techniques for cooking, as well as some inspiration for what to make next in my kitchen.

One of the demos showed us how to make a Thai coconut ginger vegetable soup, or Tom Kha Ja. It’s a lovely soup with some really interesting flavors and textures intermingling – lemony, spicy and creamy. The nice thing is that you don’t have to use the vegetables listed in this recipe if you don’t want – you can use whatever is on hand or others that you might prefer. The only things that I would recommend not skimping out on are the lime leaves (or lime peel), lemongrass (if you have it available in your grocery store), ginger, and of course, coconut milk. There are a few other key ingredients, but those really set the tone for supporting flavors.

Coconut Ginger Vegetable Soup
This recipe is based on the one created by Pranee Khruasanit Halvorsen, who also happens to be the person who demoed it, and who is a PCC Cooks instructor.

• 5 tablespoons canola oil
• 8 ounces or one package firm tofu, diced
• 1/2 carrot, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 small onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 8 button mushrooms, stems removed and diced
• 3 cups water
• 3 Thai or serrano chile peppers, smashed
• 2 stalks lemongrass, trimmed and smashed
• 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, cut into 8 pieces and smashed
• 8 Kaffir lime leaves, or peel of 1 lime
• 4 shallots, trimmed, peeled and smashed
• 1 small zucchini, diced (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1 jalapeño pepper, peeled and diced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 4 tablespoons lime juice
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, optional but highly recommended
• 2 tablespoons coconut cream (the top layer on canned coconut milk), optional

Drain and prepare your tofu.

Cutting up tofu to fry

Heat a wok or skillet, then add three tablespoons of canola oil. Fry the tofu until all sides have a golden crust.

Frying the tofu

Remove the tofu from the pan, and set aside.

Dice your carrot, onion and mushrooms.

Diced carrot, onion and mushrooms

In the same pan you used to fry the tofu, sauté your carrot, onion and mushrooms with the remaining two tablespoons of oil for three to five minutes until translucent and fragrant.

Sautéing carrots, onions and mushrooms

Place the vegetable mixture in a large pot with water and bring to a boil.

Adding the water

Prepare your chile peppers, lemongrass and ginger by smashing them all. Just use the flat side of your knife and give each of them a few good whacks. You don’t have to do it too hard or too many times. The key is to allow the soup to extract the flavors of these ingredients.

Trim the top, then smash with the flat side of your knife

Trim, then using the flat side of your knife hit the lemongrass a few times to smash it

Do the same with the ginger - using the flat side of the knife hit the ginger until it is smashed

If using lime peel, trim and roughly peel a lime with a knife.

Trimming a lime for its peel

Prepare your shallots by peeling and dicing them. I recommend that you use one full shallot or two to four shallot cloves (they look like very large garlic cloves).

Chopping up shallots

When your water comes to a boil, stir in the chile peppers, lemongrass, ginger, lime leaves or peel and shallots. Let boil for five minutes.

Nearly there - just a few more steps!

Prepare your zucchini.

Dicing zucchini

Remove the stem and seeds from your jalapeño, then dice. Grab your corn (I used a whole package of frozen corn).

Diced jalapeño and frozen corn

Add zucchini, corn and jalapeño to your pot and cook for two minutes.

Adding the rest of the vegetables to the soup

Stir in salt, coconut milk and lime juice.

Add some coconut milk to make it creamy

To serve the soup, remove the large pieces of lemongrass, ginger and chile peppers, as well as the lime peel and lime leaves, then ladle into soup bowls. Add your fried tofu and garnish with cilantro and one teaspoon of coconut cream.

Delish!

This is such a yummy soup – and so versatile and forgiving if you don’t have everything you need. I think potatoes would go nicely in this, as well as snow peas, and other kinds of mushrooms, too. To reduce the fat, use a low fat coconut milk, sauté your vegetables in water, and bake your tofu (without oil) instead of frying it.

What soups are you enjoying right now?

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcake

So many people love red velvet cake and cupcakes. I haven’t ever really been one of them, probably because I was never given too many opportunities to try them. When I finally had a red velvet cupcake several years ago in New York, I was underwhelmed. The flavor wasn’t very memorable – mainly it was just pretty. But then I made them myself a few weeks ago, and I got why they were special: chocolate.

Don’t mistake me – red velvet cupcakes don’t have a very strong chocolate flavor, but you do have a hint of it, which is sometimes all you need. This particular recipe is a winner because the flavor, color and texture is all exactly what you’d want in a red velvet cupcake. It’s sweet, mild on the chocolate, the color is a lovely shade of dark red, and moist, plus the cupcake holds together pretty well. The frosting is not very thick, but it complements the cupcake with a creamy, sugary finish. I shared these cupcakes with some friends, none vegan, and they all agreed that they were delicious!

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes
This recipe is taken from Food.com
Yields approximately 12 cupcakes

For the Cupcakes:

• 1 cup vegan milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup vegan granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vegan red food coloring* or two small bottles of red food coloring
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon chocolate extract, optional (this can be hard to find, so omit it if you cannot locate it in your local store)

For the Frosting:

• 1/4 cup vegan butter, softened
• 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups vegan powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line muffin pans with liners.

Whisk together the vegan milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. Note that I have only used soy milk in this recipe, so I do not know if other vegan milks will thicken in this step.

Curdling soy milk with apple cider vinegar

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.

Sifting the dry ingredients

Add the oil, food coloring, chocolate extract (if using), vanilla extract and almond extract to the curdled soy milk. Whisk well to combine.

You'll use about two small bottles of red food coloring

Make well in center of dry ingredients and gently fold wet ingredients into dry, mixing until large lumps disappear. Do not over mix, or your cupcakes will turn out gummy – small lumps are okay.

Finishing up the batter

Fill cupcake liners about three-quarters full as these cupcakes will rise fairly high. And make sure you use the right size of cupcake liners – mine were too small for my pan, but I used them anyway!

Filling the liners with the batter

Place in hot oven and bake 18-20 minutes until done, or until toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes in the pan for five mintues, and then transfer to a cooling rack or surface to cool completely.

Cooling on the rack

Using a hand mixer (or by hand), cream together the vegan butter and vegan cream cheese until just combined.

Mixing it all by hand

Whip in the powdered sugar in 1/2 cup batches. Scrape down the sides and mix until smooth and creamy. Mix in the vanilla.

Now it just needs to chill to firm up a bit

Keep tightly covered and refrigerated until ready to use.

When ready, spread some frosting on each of the cupcakes.

Spreading frosting on red velvet cupcakes

Then serve and enjoy!

Worth it.

What is your favorite cupcake?

Algerian Bouzgene Berber Bread

I love it when I find a recipe that is already vegan. Of course, I enjoy turning popular vegetarian or meat dishes into vegan ones – that is probably pretty obvious by now – but there is something more satisfying when I discover that a recipe is already free of milk, eggs, meat or fish. What is even better about it is when the recipe doesn’t exist to be vegan, the recipe just is what it is. Believe me when I say that those are some of the best recipes out there – they aren’t trying to be something they are not.

I recently came across just such a recipe. It intrigued me for two reasons – first, I didn’t have to change a thing in the recipe, and secondly it uses semolina flour for a flat bread. I have always associated semolina flour with making pasta, so I was surprised seeing it used in this way. I can tell you that it most definitely works, but the bread is heavy and dense. You’ll want to make this to be a meal in and of itself if making this for a handful of people, or as a side or appetizer at a party – there is so much bread to go around that it really can’t all be eaten by one or two people. Plus, it tastes best fresh, so be sure to make the bread the same day that it will be eaten, but the sauce can be made a day or two in advance if you want to save time.

Algerian Bouzgene Berber Bread with Roasted Pepper Sauce
This recipe is from Allrecipes.com

Sauce

• 2 red bell peppers
• 4 tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
• salt to taste

Flat Bread

• 2 pounds semolina flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
• 3 cups water, or as needed
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 tablespoons olive oil, for frying

Preheat your oven’s broiler. Place red bell peppers and tomatoes on a baking sheet, and roast under the broiler for about eight minutes, turning occasionally.

Roasting red peppers and tomatoes

This should blacken the skin and help it peel off more easily.

The skin should start looking like this

Cool, then scrape the skins off of the tomatoes…

Removing skins from roasted tomatoes

…and peppers, and place them in a large bowl. Remove cores and seeds from the bell peppers.

Removing the skins is really easy now - just be careful handling them as they might still be a little hot

Chop up your garlic.

Preparing the garlic

Chop up your jalapeños, discarding the seeds first.

Chopping jalapenos

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the jalapeños and garlic, and cook until tender, stirring frequently.

Sautéing garlic and jalapeños in olive oil

Remove from heat, and transfer the garlic and jalapeño to the bowl with the tomatoes and red peppers. Using two sharp steak knives (one in each hand), cut up the tomatoes and peppers to a coarse and soupy consistency. Stir, and set sauce aside.

Making roasted red pepper and tomato sauce

Grab your semolina flour.

You can use whatever brand you want, but I used Bob's Red Mill

Place the semolina in a large bowl, and stir in salt and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Gradually add water while mixing and squeezing with your hand until the dough holds together without being sticky or dry, and molds easily with the hand. Divide into six pieces and form into balls.

Mixing all the ingredients together

For each round, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Roll out dough one round at a time, to no thicker than 1/4 inch.

Rolling out the dough

Fry in the hot skillet until dark brown spots appear on the surface, and they are crispy. Remove from the skillet, and wrap in a clean towel while preparing the remaining flat breads.

Frying the bread

To eat the bread and sauce, break off or cut pieces of the bread, and scoop them into the sauce.

So hearty and delicious!

What are you doing with this summer’s last tomatoes and peppers?

Homemade vegan ice cream sandwiches

Officially summer = officially time to make ice cream, even here in the Pacific Northwest. Last week, I finally got my ice cream maker out of its box, cleaned it up and stuck it in the freezer. It was time.

But then I realized I could take my ice cream one step further – ice cream sandwiches. I had never made my own ice cream sandwiches, but it’s really not that hard. It just takes a bit of time and effort, and once you’re done you’re rewarded with some pretty good tasting stuff.

How easy is it? Well, if you’re not up for baking cookies or making your own ice cream, just grab a box of your favorite vegan cookies (any should do) and your favorite vegan ice cream (vanilla is probably best) and start making sandwiches. But if you want to go the homemade route, then read on.

You can make ice cream sandwiches with any cookie. At first I thought I’d go with chocolate chip, and a part of me wanted to go with oatmeal raisin, but then I remembered a recipe for chocolate cookies I had come across a few years ago on FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I only modified the recipe a tad, and they are absolutely perfect for this summer vegan recipe.

Vegan Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen cookies

• 1 cup unbleached white flour (or to make it gluten-free, use gluten-free baking flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons vegan butter
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup soy yogurt or vegan milk (if you use vegan milk, you may need to increase the flour by a tablespoon or two)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Sugar or Celtic sea salt, both optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Mix the flour, soda, and salt together and set aside.

Mixing flour, baking soda and salt

In another bowl, mix the cocoa with the granulated and brown sugars and set aside.

Mixing cocoa powder with granulated and brown sugars

Melt the vegan butter in a medium-sized saucepan. When it is completely melted, take it off the heat and add the sugar and cocoa mixture, then stir to combine.

Melting the butter, then adding cocoa mixture to it

Then add the soy yogurt or vegan milk, vanilla extract and balsamic vinegar and stir until mixed.

Mixing together cocoa mixture with vegan milk, balsamic vinegar and vanilla extract

Finally, add the flour mixture and stir just until it’s combined, but don’t over-mix.

The cookie batter finally comes together!

Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop tablespoons of the dough onto the baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Chocolate cookies ready to go into the oven

If you want your cookies to be uniformly round, instead grab a spoonful and roll it in your hands for a few seconds then place the cookie ball on the sheet. It will be more perfectly round that way.

Sprinkle lightly with your choice of vanilla sugar or Celtic sea salt (I opted for the latter on about half of the cookies), and place them in the oven.

Adding a sprinkling of Celtic sea salt to my chocolate cookies

After about five minutes, switch the pans around so that the one on top is on the bottom and the front sides are in the back. Check again in another five minutes. Be careful – depending on the type of pan you use, they can go from underdone to burned in seconds. They shouldn’t need more than 11 minutes and will look soft on top, but they’ll harden as they cool. Note that I baked these for a maximum of 10 minutes because I wanted to keep them a little on the chewy side.

Remove from the oven and transfer onto cooling racks.

A mix of small and large cookies, some with salt on top and some without

Next thing I did was make a basic recipe of coconut ice cream. I also doubled this recipe, but it’s really probably not necessary. I still have some ice cream in the freezer that I didn’t use.

The ice cream was still too soft once it was done, so I stuck it in the freezer overnight. I used a metal bowl and just covered it with plastic wrap.

Perfectly frozen coconut ice cream

I then used a melon baller scoop and scooped out a generous amount of ice cream and placed it on the bottom side of a cookie. Take another similarly shaped and sized cookie and place it bottom down on top of the ice cream and press down.

Finally - introducing the ice cream and the cookies so they can party together!

You can either do one of two things:

1. Eat it right away, but it will definitely be more messy because it will melt fast.
2. Stick in your freezer for a few hours, then individually wrap each in plastic wrap and store in your freezer for up to five days.

Yum - vegan ice cream sandwich

These are fantastic, but I would definitely allow a couple of days to prepare if you are making these totally from scratch for a party, picnic or event. I thought I’d be able to make them in one day, but the ice cream really needs to be pretty well frozen to make it easy to put these babies together.

One variation I wish I had tried: blending a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter with the ice cream mixture. That would have been pretty awesome. A good excuse to make them again!

Do you ever make ice cream sandwiches? What is your favorite combo?

Moroccan Lentil Salad

I don’t like salad, or perhaps it’s better said that I generally do not like salad. Sometimes the greens are too bitter or the tomatoes not how I like them (I prefer whole cherry or grape tomatoes, not diced tomatoes) or the dressing isn’t to my liking (no honey – or agave – mustard for me, thanks). But I do like it more when I can add more interesting flavors and textures like dill or kidney beans. Still, I would rather have potatoes or pasta over salad.

But I have decided that I am going to make an effort and try to make salads I can enjoy and maybe even love. I have added, for the first time, a category for Salad on Novel Eats, and I’m going to start filling it with recipes I try, and I’ll be honest if I like them or not.

This first salad is a result of a search I did the other day for lentil salad recipes. This one caught my eye because of the addition of spicy peppers and lime, and I actually like it pretty well. I do think it works better as a side rather than on its own, but its flavors are fresh and the colors beautiful. A good start to my self-imposed salad challenge.

Moroccan Lentil Salad
The original recipe can be found on Allrecipes.com

• 1/2 cup dry lentils
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup pre-cooked or 1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 2 hot green chile peppers, seeded and minced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Sort, rinse and then place lentils and water in a small to medium-sized pot. Bring water to boil, reduce to simmer. Cook for 30 minutes or until tender. Once it has finished cooking, drain and rinse with cold water.

Sorting dry lentils

In a medium to large-sized mixing bowl start combining your ingredients as you prepare them.

First, add your garbanzos. Normally I like to cook these at home, but I was lazy this time and just grabbed a can of organic. Make sure you drain and rinse them if you use a can (if you rinse, it will remove the excess salt it may have been packed with, reducing the sodium you’ll intake).

Organic garbanzo beans

Chop your tomatoes.

Chopping up a couple of tomatoes

Chop your green onions, making sure to discard any wilted or damaged parts.

Beautiful green onions get chopped

Chop your green, yellow and red peppers. You can use just one color if you prefer, but each has a subtle, yet unique flavor all its own.

Green pepper goes next

Just half of this one is needed, but you can do the whole thing, too, if you want

Then finally the red pepper

Juice a lime straight into the bowl with the other ingredients.

Quick tip – I don’t show this in the picture, but if you turn the lime the other way (upside down), you can squeeze more juice out of it more easily.

Juicing a lime

Chop up some fresh cilantro.

Chop fresh cilantro

Add the lentils to the bowl if you haven’t already, then about half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of salt and the olive oil.

Ready to mix

Stir well, then chill for about 20 minutes, as you want to serve it cold.

Ready to serve

This is great on the first day, but I found that if it sat overnight, it got really watery. Best to serve and eat on the day you make it, but it’s still good if you want to save it for later.

I would also say that I would probably want to add another chile or two just to increase the kick a bit, and if you’re wanting to save calories, you can skip out on the olive oil. I forgot to add it until the end, and it tasted just fine without it.

A bite full of flavor and color!

What is your favorite salad?

Irish Boxty, vegan-style

When I was a kid, one of the things I most remember about my North Carolina grandmother was her breakfasts. They weren’t exactly healthy and they were most certainly not vegan, but they were rich and delicious. One thing I recall her and my mom making when we’d visit was potato pancakes, usually made with leftover mashed potatoes and eggs (to bind), and for the last several years I have wished I could find a similar no-egg recipe. When I was looking for Irish recipes for St. Patrick’s Day, I kept seeing recipes for Boxty, which is such a common food in Ireland that it even has rhymes and sayings created in honor of it:

Boxty on the griddle, Boxty in the pan, If you don’t eat Boxty, you’ll never get a man.

When I finally took a look, I was pretty excited. Despite the minor differences from what I experienced growing up, this was pretty much the recipe I had been longing for for years, and when learning more about Boxty, I discovered that it doesn’t always have eggs. It’s a bit of work and takes a little time, but it’s so worth it to make every few weeks or months for breakfast – savory, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

My biggest recommendation is that you make mashed potatoes the night before to save time, and a minor suggestion from a personal flavor perspective would be to grate in an onion along with the grated potatoes.

Irish Boxty
Recipe based upon a Boxty recipe on the BBC

• 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes, cooked, mashed and cold
• 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes, peeled, grated
• 1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
• 1-2 tablespoons melted vegan butter
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 3/4 cup vegan milk
• Olive oil
• Maple syrup, to serve

First, if you do not already have mashed potatoes available, peel, cube and boil about 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes until they are tender.

Preparing mashed potatoes for Boxty

Drain and rinse the potatoes under cold water, then cool them down quickly by putting the bowl or container of boiled potatoes on top of some ice and water in another container. This will help to bring the temperature of the cooked potatoes down. Mash the potatoes well, but don’t worry if you still have lumps. To save time, mash the potatoes and refrigerate the night before using in this recipe.

Mashing potatoes for Boxty

Peel and grate your other 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes, then rinse well.

Grating potatoes

Wrap the grated potato in a clean kitchen towel and/or paper towel and wring well to get rid of any excess liquid.

Removing excess liquid from grated potatoes

Transfer the mashed potato and grated potato to a mixing bowl, then mix until well combined. Add the flour and baking powder to the potato mixture and mix again until well combined. Stir in the melted vegan butter and season, to taste, with about one to two teaspoons salt and a few dashes of black pepper.

Mixing together the potatoes and dry ingredients

Add the vegan milk, a little at a time, to the potato mixture, beating after each addition until the milk has been fully incorporated into the mixture. When all of the vegan milk has been incorporated into the potato mixture, it should resemble a thick, heavy batter. If the mixture is too sticky, add more vegan milk as necessary.

Adding the vegan milk

Meanwhile, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium to high heat. Add spoonfuls of Boxty batter into the oil, leaving enough space around each spoonful for the mixture to spread. Fry them on medium to high heat for about five minutes on each side, or until the patties are golden-brown and the grated potato is cooked through.

Frying it up!

Remove the Boxty patties from the pan and set aside to drain on paper towels and keep warm. Repeat the process with the remaining Boxty mixture. You may need to continue adding oil each time you add a fresh new batch of batter.

Draining on paper towels

Serve with maple syrup, if desired, and some vegan breakfast meat (I had some yummy Yves breakfast patties). If you refrigerate these for later, you can get them crispy again by sticking them in your toaster oven for about five to 10 minutes or you can warm them up on the stove over medium to medium-high heat for about the same amount of time.

Fried Boxty goodness!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Do you have a favorite Irish recipe?

Vegan Irish Soda Bread

There are two things I associate with St. Patrick’s Day: wearing green and being pinched if you forget to wear green (meanwhile claiming that you are wearing green underwear, so please stop pinching me!). But now that I feel like I am a verifiable amateur home cook, I am now adding a third item to the list – learning how to cook some new Irish recipes every year in March.

I don’t recall ever having Irish soda bread, but I was definitely ready to try it. There are so many variations of this bread, many of which call for eggs, that I wanted to find something that could be veganized without the use of an egg substitute. I was really pleased for two reasons when I came across Nana Dot’s Irish Soda Bread Recipe – first, it had no eggs (yay!) and second, it is a family recipe that comes from Ireland. I love it when I find something that has history and authenticity.

I was also really curious by the list of ingredients. A lot of the recipes I had run across did include things like raisins, but this was the first I had seen using caraway seeds. The recipe had so many rave reviews, though, that I trusted I’d probably like it with the added unusual flavor. The end result was most certainly interesting – very scone-like, not too sweet, and a lot of balanced flavors milling about together. Truthfully it reminded me very much of other European breads I had years ago when studying in Spain, which was a nice thing because it just added to the authenticity of this bread.

Vegan Irish Soda Bread
Adapted from Nana Dot’s Irish Soda Bread Recipe on Allrecipes.com

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan butter, cut into pieces
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup currants (You can substitute raisins if needed.)
• 2 teaspoons caraway seed, optional
• 3/4 cup vegan milk
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and grease two baking sheets (or you may use silicone baking sheets in place of greasing).

Stir or whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl until evenly blended.

Whisking together the dry ingredients

Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or your hands until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

Cutting in the vegan butter

Stir in the raisins, currants (if using), and caraway seeds (also if using).

Stirring in the raisins and caraway seeds

Make a well in the center of your mixture and pour in the milk and vinegar. Stir with a spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Combining the wet ingredients with the dry

Turn the dough out onto a well floured work surface, and knead gently 8 to 10 times.

Kneading helps to combine the remaining dry and wet ingredients

Divide the dough into two balls, and place onto the prepared baking sheets.

Ready to go into the oven!

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven’s heat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake until the top of the bread is golden brown, about 15 minutes more. You will bake your soda bread for a total of about 30 minutes, however you may need an extra 5-10 minutes (I should have baked mine for another five minutes at least as it was still a little doughy in the center). Allow the bread to cool before cutting or storing.

Cooling on racks

Cut into wedges, then serve! They are perfect as they are, or you can add vegan butter.

Lots of goodness going on here!

Have you ever made Irish soda bread? What is your favorite variation?

And P.S. Don’t forget to wear green this Thursday!

Braised Endive

You wouldn’t believe how much I’ve missed cooking, I mean really cooking over the last few weeks. I’ve made a few things here and there, but my community supported agriculture (CSA) veggies and groceries have been aging and wilting ever since I have been putting in so many extra hours at work. A couple of weeks ago, the people over at California Vegetable Specialties sent me a complimentary bouquet of endive (pronounce it on-deev and you’ll feel French for about a minute), plus a few extra, and I was crossing my fingers that they would last until I could use them the soonest. It really bothers me when I get such amazing produce and it winds up going to waste because of little time or energy available to me.

I was so excited this weekend, when I finally was in the kitchen, to discover that every single head of endive was usable. A miracle. Or a miracle of packaging. I have never seen endive with its root still attached, but the root is about the same length or longer than the endive plant. The bouquet I received all had the root still attached to each, and I imagine that this is what helped to keep them intact.

Endive

Endive, as a general rule is very bitter raw. I had it raw a few years ago and didn’t like it, but I read recently that the French frequently cook it, thus reducing the bitterness and bringing out some of the more subtle flavors. As soon as I found out that I would be getting some endive in the mail, I knew I’d be braising it.

There are many different recipes out there for braised endive, but I decided to go with a vegan adaptation of an adaptation of Julia Child’s braised endive. Prep time is fast, but it spends some quality time in the oven. You can make this ahead of time and reheat, or just be sure to give yourself plenty of time to make this before serving – about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Braised Endive
This recipe is based upon Julia Child’s Braised Endive at Sippity Sup

• 12 small, or 8 large belgian endives
• 1⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
• 1⁄2 cup water, plus more as needed
• 1⁄2 lemon, juiced or 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons vegan butter, sliced into 1/2 tablespoon pieces (if making this gluten-free, be sure the vegan butter you use is gluten-free – not all vegan butters are)
• 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, minced as garnish, optional
• Vegenaise, optional

Prepare the endive for cooking by trimming the root ends of the endive, being careful to ensure that the leaves remain attached. Remove any wilted leaves and cut out the brown portions. Wash under cool running water.

Preparing endive

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Arrange the endives in a single layer in a stove top and oven-proof casserole or baking dish just large enough to accommodate them.

Ready to cook

Add the salt, water, lemon juice and vegan butter. Cover the dish with a lid or foil and simmer on top of the stove, until just tender, about 20 minutes.

Adding the ingredients, then cooking on the stove for a few minutes

Remove the cover and lay a piece of parchment cut to size onto the surface of the vegetables. Place into the preheated oven and bake about two hours. Baste the endive several times during cooking with the liquid in the dish. If you do not have a baster, just use a ladle or large spoon to pour the liquid over the endive. You may need to add more water to make sure that the liquid remain at about 1/4-inch deep.

Endive about to go into the oven

They are done when the endive is very tender and a pale golden color. Remove from the oven, discard parchment and garnish with parsley if using. Serve warm. To cut the bitter flavor down further, try serving with a little Vegenaise.

Fresh from the oven!

I’m definitely a fan of endive now that I’ve tried it cooked. It is still somewhat bitter, but it is not displeasing and the other flavors that come through – a bit reminiscent of steamed or baked artichokes – are really mellow, yet rich.

Delicious!

There are other recipes I’d love to try, and I’d even be willing to try endive raw again. But what is your favorite way to enjoy endive?

Popcorn made on the stove

Life has been extraordinarily busy for me lately and I feel like I have little time to focus on food. It’s sad, really, because I have been getting such interesting produce in my CSA box. I just don’t have the time to cook the eggplant or celery root, and as a food blogger that is a hard thing to swallow. The reason, of course, is I get things I don’t normally cook with and all I want to do is make something and share it with you! I’m thanking my lucky stars that this madness is only temporary and eventually I’ll be able to get back to cooking (and posting) more regularly.

The other night I grabbed my camera, and decided that a good post to share with you would be on how to make popcorn on the stove. I’ve only made it this way three times, and I am completely sold. For years, even growing up, I have made popcorn in a popcorn popper, and while that’s great, I’ve discovered that popcorn done on the stove lends a more nuanced flavor. The way that this popcorn is done means that you don’t need to add extra butter or salt once popped – just sprinkle on a few of your favorite seasonings and you’ve got a tasty and well balanced bowl of popcorn.

How to Make Popcorn on the Stove
This recipe is based on the Perfect Popcorn Recipe from Simply Recipes

• 2 tablespoons canola, peanut or grapeseed oil (high smoke point oil)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup popcorn kernels (try to use organic)
• Additional seasonings to taste

In a large saucepan (about 3-quarts), add your oil, salt and two or three kernels, then cover and put your stove on medium heat. When your kernels pop, you’ll know that your pan is hot enough to take the remaining kernels.

Note: I have tried using oil with a lower smoke point (sesame oil, specifically), and it works, but it does make the kitchen smoky if you’re not careful!

Adding oil, salt and a few kernels

Add the remaining kernels, and remove from heat for about 30 seconds. This allows all of the kernels to be brought up to the same temperature and makes it so they are all more likely to pop.

Adding the rest of the kernels to the pan

Return to the heat source, cover with a lid. Make it so the lid is partially cracked so that the steam can escape. Every once in a while pick up the pan slightly and shake back and forth so that your kernels do not burn.

Shaking allows the kernels to move around and not get burned

Pretty soon, your popcorn will begin popping. Continue to shake periodically because the popped corn is more likely to burn on the bottom of the pan.

Finally - it's starting to pop!

Once there are about two or three seconds between each pop, turn off the stove and take the pan off of the heat. It will still continue to pop for a few seconds, but it’s pretty much done at this point.

You can add melted vegan butter and additional salt if you like, but I have found that the oil and salt that I used to pop the kernels is sufficient. I just like to mix in a little bit of nutritional yeast, and sometimes a pinch or two (or three) of cayenne pepper to give it some heat.

I've added nutritional yeast to this batch of popcorn

Do you ever make stove-top popcorn? What are your favorite seasonings? And do you have a favorite oil?

Yummy popcorn!

P.S. Here’s a great little video showing these steps in action.

Curried Parsnip Soup

When we lived in New York we were members of a local community supported agriculture group (CSA), Hellgate CSA. The setup was that we would pay for a season of vegetables and fruits, then each week our farm(s) would deliver freshly picked produce to a central location where we would then gather our bounty. It was because of that CSA and those farmers that I have such a passionate interest in food. Yet, I admit that it wasn’t always perfect. Because of the way it was structured (and many CSAs follow this model), we didn’t have a huge choice in the food that we would get from week to week, so it was either an opportunity to discover something new to love or, yes, something to never want to eat again (I still have yet to figure out if I ever want to try bitter melon of my own accord again).

Not too long ago we joined another CSA run by Full Circle Farm in Washington. It’s modeled in such a way that we have more choice, however they still will send you a predetermined box of produce if you do not make any changes. A couple of weeks ago I saw that we would be receiving parsnips and I can’t say I was thrilled about them. I had parsnips for the first time in New York, likely thanks to our first CSA, and I recall that I roasted them along with some other vegetables, but I didn’t quite like the combination of flavors and never was inspired to eat them again. (Parsnips, if you have never had them, are similar to carrots in sweetness, but otherwise the flavor is somewhat unusual and savory.) But I realized that I couldn’t let parsnips go by the wayside this time, and so I left them on the list.

I’m so glad I did, because I wound up making this very creamy and delicately-flavored parsnip soup. It’s perfect as a starter to a meal or on its own with some salad or bread. While the curry in this dish does add additional spiciness, it is not hot. To add some heat, sprinkle some red pepper flakes to each individual bowl for a little kick.

Curried Parsnip Soup
Recipe based upon Spiced Parsnip Soup from Allrecipes.com

• 2 tablespoons vegan butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 pound parsnips, peeled and cubed
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 3 1/4 cups boiling vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup vegan milk, plain and unsweetened
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes or paprika for garnish

Chop your onions. Melt the vegan butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, and fry the onion in butter until soft, about five minutes.

Sautéing some onions in vegan butter

Peel and chop your parsnips, and chop your garlic.

Chopping parsnips

Add the parsnips, garlic and curry powder to the pan, and fry for a couple of minutes to release the flavors.

Frying parsnips, onion, garlic and curry

Boil the vegetable broth, and pour into the saucepan with the parsnips, onions, garlic and curry powder. Stir to remove any bits of vegetable from the bottom of the pot. Simmer for 15 minutes or until parsnips are soft and easy to break with a spoon.

Simmering parsnips and vegetable broth

Remove from the heat, and blend with a hand mixer, immersion blender or regular blender for a good 30 seconds to a minute.

About to blend parsnips into a creamy soup

Pour back into the large pan (if using a regular blender), then stir in the vegan milk, and heat through, but do not boil.

Stirring in the vegan milk

Taste test, then season with salt and pepper to taste if needed. Serve in individual bowls, then garnish with red pepper flakes or paprika.

So smooth and creamy!

This is definitely a soup I’ll be making again, and I may try some variations with things like cauliflower or potatoes. Do you have any favorite parsnip recipes?