Food

Dinner: Quick Vegan Gumbo

Dinner: Quick Vegan Gumbo

For some reason I like making food related to holidays that I don’t even celebrate.


Methodical Cookbook Project: Asian Eggplant Caviar with Black Sesame Buns and Saffron-Lotus Root Pickles

Methodical Cookbook Project: Asian Eggplant Caviar with Black Sesame Buns and Saffron-Lotus Root Pickles

Another recipe from The Artful Vegan. I was especially intrigued by the idea of the pickles because 1) I am generally intrigued by pickles these days (I recently bought this book about tsukemono, or Japanese pickles) and 2) because I’ve tried to cook with lotus root before and have been completely underwhelmed. I love how [...]


Methodical Cookbook Project- Miso-Broiled Japanese Eggplant over Noodle Cakes with Walnut Miso Sauce and Wasabi Cream

Methodical Cookbook Project- Miso-Broiled Japanese Eggplant over Noodle Cakes with Walnut Miso Sauce and Wasabi Cream

I finally got a chance to try another recipe from Artful Vegan. Even though the whole point of this project is to make my way sequentially through each and every recipe in the book, I finally decided to skip one after deciding that the primary ingredients are simply not to be found in this part [...]


Christmas Dinner 2009

Christmas Dinner 2009

This year’s Christmas dinner:
Soup: Winter White soup from the book Voluptuous Vegan. It is a creamy pureed soup with roasted cauliflower, roasted garlic, potatoes, celery, etc. We garnished it with soy bacon, caramelized shallots, and chopped chives.

First Course: Fried spinach-basil ravioli stuffed with oyster and chanterelle mushrooms sauteed with shallots. Served with pepper aioli, okra [...]


Dinner 11-3-09: Sweet Potato and Kimchi Pancakes

Dinner 11-3-09: Sweet Potato and Kimchi Pancakes

I have an excess of sweet potatoes from the CSA, so I was happy to come across a recipe for Sweet Potato and Kimchi Pancakes on the Serious Eats site. I love sweet potato pancakes, and I love kimchi, but have never thought of combining them before.
Here are the ingredients: sweet potatoes cut into matchsticks, [...]


Restaurant review: Kaijitsu

Restaurant review: Kaijitsu

Kaijitsu is a vegan restaurant in New York that serves Japanese shojin cuisine.


Vegan MoFo! Hot chocolate and marshmallows

Vegan MoFo! Hot chocolate and marshmallows

I finally got my hands on some of these Dandies marshmallows! I went into Whole Foods to buy Earth Balance and agave nectar, and found these and just had to buy them. Because that’s what being vegan does to you- it makes you buy things that you totally do not need, just out of sheer [...]


Vegan MoFo! Mom’s breakfast bake- a veganizing challenge!

Vegan MoFo! Mom's breakfast bake- a veganizing challenge!

Sunday October 25, 2009.
My mom used to make this casserole for Christmas mornings. I always had a love/hate relationship with it- it contained so many things I disliked (even pre-vegan)- eggs, sausage, swiss cheese. But somehow it all came together into something satisfying, even if I did pick out the larger chunks of sausage.  I [...]


Vegan MoFo! Pizza!

Vegan MoFo! Pizza!

Dinner, Saturday October 24, 2009. Pizza with homemade dough, Muir Glen tomato sauce, Yves veggie pepperoni, Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet monterey jack cheese. I keep hearing people complain that FYH cheese does not melt. It does, it just takes a while, and also benefits from a few minutes under the broiler.


Vegan MoFo! An experiment in onion rings

Vegan MoFo! An experiment in onion rings

Dinner, Friday October 23. I was really craving onion rings, but didn’t want to buy frozen ones. So I decided to try making them at home, which I’ve never done before. I considered frying them but then thought of baking them. I sliced up one onion into rings and battered them with “buttermilk” (1 cup [...]


Vegan MoFo! Apples…and failure

Vegan MoFo! Apples...and failure

Thursday October 22. (Photo- beautiful honey crisp apples from the campus farmer’s market. I’ve been eating a lot of apples lately!)
I think I’ve reached the point in this Vegan Month of Food blogging challenge where I’m hitting a wall, and I just have to push on through to the end. I didn’t post anything yesterday [...]


Vegan MoFo! Noodle soup with steamed pac choi

Vegan MoFo! Noodle soup with steamed pac choi

Simple, delicious noodle soup.


Vegan Mofo! Ravioli with tofu and squash filling and roasted garlic cream sauce

Vegan Mofo! Ravioli with tofu and squash filling and roasted garlic cream sauce

Fresh ravioli? On a weeknight?


Vegan Mofo! Vegetable and tofu rice paper wraps

Vegan Mofo! Vegetable and tofu rice paper wraps

Dinner, Sunday October 18, 2009.
Rice paper wraps are a great meal- quick and easy, infinitely variable. They are fun to serve to guests because everyone can choose their own combinations of fillings. Tonight we had tofu sauteed with garlic, chile paste, and hoisin sauce, mixed greens, scallions, cucumbers, lime wedges for squeezing, and shredded carrots. [...]


Vegan Mofo! Roganjosh Curry and Roasted Garlic Parathas

Vegan Mofo! Roganjosh Curry and Roasted Garlic Parathas

Dinner Saturday October 17. Totally non-traditional curry with Roganjosh curry powder from Penzey’s, potatos, chickpeas, onions, garlic, and tomatoes. But it was tasty! Served with parathas stuffed with some of the garlic I roasted the other night, and five different kinds of chutneys and sauces.


Vegan MoFo! Panko-crusted tofu with roasted-garlic Guajillo quinoa and acorn squash

Vegan MoFo! Panko-crusted tofu with roasted-garlic Guajillo quinoa and acorn squash

Dinner, Friday October 16.
This time I was smart and started preparing things for this dinner in advance the evening before. I roasted the two pretty acorn squashes from the CSA, and also two heads of garlic, so they’d be ready to go for Friday evening and preparing dinner wouldn’t take two hours.

I also marinated some [...]


Vegan Mofo! Vegan’s Hundred List- better late than never.

Vegan Mofo! Vegan's Hundred List- better late than never.

Vegan Hundred list!


Vegan Mofo! Manicotti!

Vegan Mofo! Manicotti!

Dinner, Wednesday October 14.
Tonight I felt more motivated to make something complex. I also wanted to make something that would have leftovers that I’d actually want to eat since I know I’ll need something quick for tomorrow’s dinner. Although we just had pasta over the weekend, I was craving some kind of baked pasta dish. [...]


Vegan MoFo! Sweet potato and turnip cakes with chile-lime sour cream

Vegan MoFo! Sweet potato and turnip cakes with chile-lime sour cream

Dinner, Tuesday Oct. 13


Vegan MoFo! Veggie Stirfry

Vegan MoFo! Veggie Stirfry

Monday October 12, 2009. Dinner- stirfry of shiitake mushrooms, kohlrabi, turnip, kale, baby bok choy, broccoli, onion, garlic. Served with homemade kimchi and a slaw made from shredded daikon radish and carrots. All the veggies except the mushrooms and garlic courtesy of our CSA!  Stirfry is the best for when you’re short of time and [...]


Vegan MoFo! Philly restaurant- Soy Cafe

Vegan MoFo! Philly restaurant- Soy Cafe

Sunday Oct. 11. Today D. and I went to Soy Cafe in the Northern Liberties section of the city for a late lunch. I had tried their wrap sandwiches at an art event in the summer, but we had never actually been there before. It’s always nice to see “Vegan Friendly” on a sign at [...]


Vegan MoFo! Fresh pasta with roasted garlic cream sauce and griddled tomatoes

Vegan MoFo! Fresh pasta with roasted garlic cream sauce and griddled tomatoes

Fresh pasta! Yum.


VeganMoFo 10-9 (BBQ tofu)

VeganMoFo 10-9 (BBQ tofu)

Dinner Friday October 10. A quick and easy dinner – garlic couscous, panfried BBQ tofu, and spinach salad. I used to buy bottles of BBQ sauce but stopped once I realized how easy it is to make. This batch contained ketchup, blackstrap molasses, liquid smoke, agave nectar, and some hungarian hot paprika.


Vegan MoFo! Corn chowder, and the virtues of planning ahead

Vegan MoFo! Corn chowder, and the virtues of planning ahead

Well, this corn chowder was SUPPOSED to be my dinnertonight, along with some freshly-baked biscuits. But alas, the proverbial shite hit the fan at work and I was an hour late getting home, and I forgot to stop at the store on my way home to buy plain soymilk, and had to go back out, [...]