Vegan and Vegetarian Cooking and Living

Oatmeal Walnut Cookies

This is a wonderful cookie recipe passed down from my Godmother, through my mom, to me. I have asked for it over and over again through the years because I seem to misplace things to say the least. I recently had dinner at my Godmother’s who, is a master macrobiotic chef. When I walked into her house, a plethora of delicious smells wafted from the kitchen. There was a hearty minestrone soup on the stove, a beautiful salad laced with pomegranate and persimmon and multiple trays of my favorite cookies. I made sure to get the recipe for the cookies once again, along with two other cookie recipes. She also gifted me with a lovely Vegan cookbook called Vegan Holiday Kitchen by Nava Atlas, I am sure I will be experimenting with many more recipes in the near future.
I was also gifted with another wonderful vegan cookbook from my step-mom titled Veganomicon, The Ultimste Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, my step-mom has made many wonderful dishes from this one, I have yet to try them out myself. 

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cup rolled oats
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (can also be made with gluten free flour)
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped coarsely 
• ½ cup chocolate chips (optional)
• ½ cup canola oil (or any oil vegetable or nut oil that does not have strong flavor)
• ½ cup maple syrup 
• 2 tablespoons vanilla (I used hazelnut extract which is very nice)

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Oil cookies sheet
3. Place ground oats, flour, salt, baking soda, nuts and chocolate chips in a large bowl. Mix well. 
4. In a smaller bowl combine, oil, maple syrup and vanilla. Wisk together
5. Stir wet ingredients into dry
6. Shape dough into golf ball sized balls and place on baking sheet. Flatten dough to a thickness of 1/3 inch. 
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy and share with friends and neighbors!

-L

Yum Yum Alexandria Sandwich

 
E and N come from a lineage of vegetarians. I’m their mom, and have been a vegetarian since 1974, and a vegan for many of those years. My sisters are also long term vegetarians. Between the five of us we have almost 160 years of vegetarian living!

When I eat in vegan restaurants and find something I love, I go home and try to recreate it. That is how Yum Yum Alexandria Sandwiches were born. While visiting my sister in DC, we rode bikes on a cold and rainy day to Alexandria, Virginia and ate some very delicious sandwiches, which I recreated and we have been eating and enjoying for many years now.

Ingredients

• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Some type of ridiculously processed plant protein such as Tofurkey roast beef slices, vegan chicken or vegan turkey slices
• Vegan mayonnaise
• Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Broth
• Vegan Cheese
• Vegan Bacon (optional)
• Deli Rolls or Dutch Crunch Rolls

Preparation

1. Slice onions and sauté slowly in pan with a little olive oil until caramelized.
2. Add sliced mushrooms, any herbs you want, along with undiluted  “Better than Bullion” veggie broth, and cook till all the liquid is gone.
3. Slice your ridiculously processed plant protein and then pan fry.
4. Mix  vegan mayonnaise with some of the Better than Bullion” veggie broth, and spread on both sides of the  bread
5. Add the pretend meat, onion-mushroom mixture,  vegan cheese, and melt in oven.
6. Remove from oven, add avocado, and optional vegan bacon, close and eat. Yum Yum.

-A

The Devil’s Tofu Scramble

N and I apparently share a brain. At the same exact time she was writing a rant about her disdain for tofu scramble, I was returning home after a morning dance rehearsal with a growling belly to a fridge full of… tofu. And not much else.

Now I’ve seen a lot of tofu scramble recipes floating around the vegan blogosphere of late. I’ve been ignoring them because, like my sister, I generally think tofu scramble tastes like turmeric-flavored glop. What is it with the turmeric, people? I swear, go to any breakfast joint in California hip enough to throw a tofu scramble on its menu and you will receive a pile of squished, undercooked soy product mixed with tiny shreds of carrot and celery and a healthy dose of that ubiquitous golden dust.

In any case, due to my lack of other ingredients, I decided to reverse the trend and make my own, totally delicious tofu scramble with what I had lying around the kitchen. Here are the ingredients I scrounged:

• Tofu (duh)
• Coconut oil or other greasy substance
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 stalk slightly wilted green garlic, sliced thinly
• Dino kale, chopped
• Tamari (soy sauce or Braggs would work too)
• Brown Rice Vinegar
• Hot sauce (Off-brand Sriracha, to be precise)
• Nutritional yeast
• Salt n’ peppa
• Turmeric (I know I know, I’ll get to that)

Here’s what I did with them:

1. Sauté onions in a couple tablespoons of coconut oil on low heat until translucent. Add a pinch of salt.
2. Add green garlic, cook another minute or two.
3. Add kale and a splash of water, cook until kale begins to soften.
4. Meanwhile, smash up tofu in a bowl. I should note somewhere that although I am normally a fierce advocate for medium-firm tofu, in the rare case of tofu scramble, extra-firm actually works better. Add Tamari, rice vinegar, hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add tofu to pan of veggies, cook for a WHILE. As in, until liquid starts to evaporate and it starts smelling good. I think a lot of tofu scramblers just don’t cook it long enough, and it’s their downfall- nobody likes raw, mushy tofu.
6. Add a dash of nutritional yeast, cook for one more minute.
7. So I got to this step, and my scramble tasted pretty good- the roughness of the dino kale was a nice complement to the squish of the tofu, and the green garlic did its job of giving the dish a great flavor. However, the hot sauce had turned my breakfast a disturbing shade of pink. I can’t say whether it was nature or nurture that made me want to add it (do people put turmeric in tofu scramble because it tastes good, or do people put turmeric in tofu scramble because they think they’re supposed to?), but without thinking my hand reached for the little yellow jar, and before I knew it I had joined the ranks. Jumped on the turmeric bandwagon. Insert one more turmeric-themed cliche here. My breakfast turned yellow. I scarfed it down. And it was damn good.

Sauteed Breakfast Potatoes with Spinach and Black Beans

As a vegan, I don’t like going out to breakfast. Your choices are between a 5 dollar cup of fruit-that has spent 3 weeks traveling from every corner of the earth, only to arrive as a mealy flavorless pile of gush-or if you are somewhere with a little consciousness, a tofu scramble. I’m sorry if I offend vegans everywhere, but I do not like tofu scramble. Tofu was not meant to be scrambled. Curry powder or whatever they use does not make it taste like an exciting flavorful party in my mouth, it makes it taste like an overeager 6 year old just cooked me a mud pie.

However, this morning I woke up wanting a nice hearty breakfast, so I decided to make things happen for myself. I used all locally farmed veggies: an irish butterball potato, a white onion and some spinach, sided with trader joes black beans. It was quick and easy to make, tasty, and had a balanced combination of veggies, proteins and carbs. Best of all, it felt like I was eating at a restaurant without spending the money.

Ingredients:

• One large potato
• 1/3 white onion
• 2 large handfuls of spinach
• 1/2 can black beans
• Canola or olive oil
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
• Optional: ketchup, hot sauce, lemon wedge

Directions:

1. Chop your onion into bite size pieces, and put in a large frying pan with some oil
2. Chop your potatoes into thin bite size pieces (if you cut them too large they will take a long time to cook)
3. Sautee potatoes and onions together ,adding oil as needed
4. Cover with a lid and let it steam for a few minutes
5. Add your spices
6. Meanwhile, heat up the black beans
7. When your potatoes are pretty much cooked through, add the spinach and cover again
8. Remove lid, let any moisture cook out, and serve with beans on the side
9. Squeeze some lemon on your potatoes or add ketchup and hot sauce on the side

Happy vegan breakfasting! 

 -N

Broccolini and Mushroom Risotto with Sautéed Bell Peppers

This is my own interpretation of two recipes from my Veganomicon cookbook. This is warming and hearty risotto dish. The original recipe calls for asparagus, but it is out of season now so I worked with what I could find. The whole process took about 1 hour. I recommend you recruit a friend, or dad in my case, to help out; it will go faster and be more fun.

Lemongrass broth:

• 3 cloves garlic, whole and unpeeled
• 1-inch piece ginger, sliced into ¼-inch slices
• 1 small stalk lemongrass or 1 Tbls dried chopped lemongrass
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 3 cups water
• 3 Tbls soy sauce

 Risotto:

• 1/3 cup cooking sherry (I used rice vinegar)
• 1 pound asparagus (or veggies in season, I used Broccolini and button mushrooms)
• 5 Tbls peanut oil
• 1 cup basil leaves
• 2 Tbls chopped fresh mint
• 6 large shallots, sliced thinly
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 serrano red chile, sliced thinly, or red pepper flakes
• 1 ½ cups Arborio rice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 Tbls lime juice
• Chopped roated peanuts and lime wedges for garnish
• I also cooked bell peppers and onions as a topping for the risotto

Recipe:

1. Slice lemongrass stalk in half lengthwise, cut into sections of 3 to 4-inch lengths, then slice into matchsticks.

2. Lightly bruise ginger slices by pounding them with side of knife. Crush garlic cloves with the side of your knife as well, keep whole.

3. put the lemongrass, ginger and garlic into a porous pouch, such as, muslin or cheese cloth and tie off (I has neither so I put it all in the pot with the liquid and strained it later).

4. Place all the broth ingredients in a large pot and bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer for 10 min. Then strain broth and cover to keep warm for later.

5. This is the part where I went wild and experimented a bit. While the broth was doing it’s thang, I chopped the broccolini, found another large pot, added about a Tbls of oil and sautéed it for about 3 min, added a bit of the vinegar. I then chopped and added the mushrooms, put a lid on and let it all simmer for about 5 min. Then add the basil and mint and let simmer for about 30 seconds more. Remove from heat and put ingredients in a separate bowl.

6. Add the rest of the oil into the same pot, Sauté the shallots and garlic for about 6-8 min, stir in chile pepper and rice and sauté for about 8 minutes until rice smells slightly roasted. Add the sherry of vinegar and stir until liquid is absorbed.

7. Ladle about ½ cup of broth at a time into the rice stirring constantly until each addition is absorbed. Stir and cook until rice is creamy but still a little firm in center. When broth is almost gone stir in sugar and lime juice before adding to the risotto. You may need to add some extra water if broth runs out. This whole process will take about 35 min.

8. This part is optional. While you are stirring with one hand, chop onion and bell peppers with the other, or call a friend to help. I have found the second option to work out better. Chop the onions into half moons, chops pepper into sticks. Add a bit of olive oil to a pan, sauté onions and peppers together, add a pinch of salt, put a top on and let cook together for about 30 minutes.

9. When the risotto is about done, add in the vegetables that you set aside, even the peppers if you would like, or you can spoon this on top as I did. Garnish each bowl with peanuts, a bit of chopped basil and mint and a lime wedge.

Buon Apatito

-L 

Simple Tomato Based Flu Season Soup

When you are sick, you need soup. That’s just how it goes. When you are sick, you also don’t have the energy to make a fancy meal. That’s how this soup came about.

Tomato sauce can be a great soup base; it’s mainly tomatoes which are flavorful and add texture, plus its already flavored with garlic, onions and a few other spices. I used Better Than Bouillon Veggie Broth for extra flavor, which you can find at natural food stores or whole foods. I put in noodles (comfort food) and just a few veggies to keep it simple. I put in a clove of garlic, and actually ate one clove while I was cooking. Garlic is a natural antiviral, as well as antibacterial and antifungal, so it’s great to eat when you are sick. I also made sure to add lots of hot sauce to clear my sinuses. 

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 TBS Better Than Bouillon Veggie Broth
• Tomato Sauce of Choice (I used Trader Joe’s Marinara Sauce)
• Half a White Onion
• 1 or 2 Cloves Garlic
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Noodles of Choice (I used rotini, or corkscrew noodles)
• Frozen Peas
• Carrots
• Hot Sauce

Directions:

1. Boil a pot of water, add noodles when water is at rolling boil
2. Add Veggie Broth
3. While noodles begin to cook, chop your garlic, onion and carrot into bite size pieces, and add to soup
4. When water returns to boil add frozen peas
5. Mix in several large spoonfuls of tomato sauce, taste and add more as needed
6. Add salt, pepper, hot sauce, and any other herbs and spices you desire
7. Enjoy, and get plenty of rest :)

-N

Simple Chow Mein with Green Garlic

Green Garlic has come! Easy to miss, this little-known flavor vessel looks like a fat green onion or a skinny leek, and will make your food taste fragrant, but not metallic. It’s available at farmer’s markets in the early spring (which comes extra early if you live in Cali), and is good with pretty much everything: in stir fry, on pizza, with your egg or tofu scramble…

The chow mein recipe is loosely based on this one: http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2012/01/04/golden-garlic-leek-chow-mein-noodles/. It’s quick and easy, and can be made with whatever vegetables and protein you have lying around your kitchen.

You’ll Need:

• 1 pack chow mein noodles (Asian foods aisle)
• 1 stalk green garlic, chopped
• 2T grease of choice (margarine, olive oil, coconut oil…)
• Veggies, cut into bite-size morsels (I like broccoli but anything goes)
• 1/2 cup veggie broth
• 1T Tamari or soy sauce
• Veggie protein of choice, cut into bite-size morsels
• Hot Sauce (optional)
• Lemon wedge (optional)

To Make:

1. Boil water.
2. When it’s rolling, add noodles and rest a strainer full of veggies over the water. Cover with lid so the veggies steam while the noodles cook. Keep an eye on this pot as you continue, as the noodles may finish cooking before the veggies.
3. Cook green garlic on medium low heat with grease of choice for 2-3 min.
4. Add veggie protein of choice, sauté until golden brown.
5. Strain noodles and veggies, add to pan.
6. Add veggie broth and Tamari, saute until liquid is gone.
7. Serve with hot sauce and a squeeze of lemon.

-e

Yellow Curry

Finding a restaurant to please veg and non-veg diners alike is always a bit of a battle, and our family is no exception. There aren’t a lot of options that please two vegans, one lacto-ovo vegetarian and an omnivore. However, there is one restaurant we’re all fairly obsessed with: Thai Osha in Pleasant Hill, CA. http://www.yelp.com/biz/thai-osha-pleasant-hill After eating at dozens of Thai restaurants all over the Bay Area, we agree this place is the best. Their food is inventive, there’s a huge veg and non-veg menu, the staff is friendly, and it’s pretty inexpensive. One of our favorite dishes is their pumpkin yellow curry (actually made with Kabocha squash). A few years ago I got the hankering to make my own, and after some googling and modifying, this is what I’ve come up with:

You’ll Need:

• 1 white or yellow onion
• 2T Thai yellow curry paste (In the Asian foods isle at the Berkeley Bowl, or at an Asian market if you’re not in the East Bay. I like Mae Ploy brand.)
• 1t Sweet yellow curry powder (I like Spicely Organic)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 4 cups veggie broth (I use the vegetable Better Than Bouillon)
• 3 limes (some for juice, some for garnish)
• 2T brown or palm sugar
• 1T tamari or soy sauce
• Thai Basil, for garnish
• Vegetables of choice- potatoes, pumpkin or kabocha squash, broccoli, green beans are all delicious but anything works
• Veggie protein of your choice (I use Hodo Soy medium tofu or Mock Chicken)
• Rice or rice noodles, cooked
• Large iron skillet (the deeper the better, I have a shallow one and my curry always overflows) 

To Make:

1. Sauté onion in skillet on medium low heat until translucent.
2. Add curry paste and powder, stir to coat onions.
3. After about 1 minute, when curry becomes fragrant, add coconut milk and vegetable broth. Bring to a simmer.
4. Add vegetables, starting with slow cooking ones (potatoes, squash). When these begin to soften, add quick cooking items (broccoli).
5. When sauce thickens and all vegetables are soft, turn off heat.
6. Mix in sugar and tamari.
7. Add lime juice to taste (I usually start with about 1T).
8. Serve over rice or rice noodles. Garnish with slices of lime and Thai basil.

-e

N’s Famous Veggie Soup

This is my best, tastiest, most widely known recipe. My family started making a version of this soup in high school, and since we made it every morning it became known as ‘morning soup’. When I went off to college I began making my own improved versions. It varies every time I make it depending on what I have in the house, but there are a few staple ingredients. It’s pretty light (which means I can eat about 6 bowls in one sitting). I use Better Than Bouillon Veggie Broth, which comes in a jar at natural food stores or Whole Foods. It’s a great base for any soup, and I like it better than veggie broth cubes. My veggies really vary, but this version has red onion, frozen peas, kale, carrots, and purple cabbage. I often use frozen edamame (soybeans), broccoli, cauliflower or brussel sprouts. 

I usually add a grain, either cooked brown rice at the end or soba or udon noodles when its close to being done. I also often add Trader Joes Thai Gyoza, which are frozen potstickers that taste like wontons when they are in soup. When you’re making the soup, just keep tasting veggies to see when they seem cooked; since there is a lot of freedom on what you add, it’s hard to give specific cooking times. 

Ingredients:

• 1 or more spoonfuls of Better than Bouillon Veggie Broth 
• Onion of your choice
• Soy Sauce
• Rice Vinegar
• Lemon juice
• Sriracha or other Hot Sauce
• Fresh or Powdered Garlic
• Veggies of your choice, cut into small pieces
• Tofu, cut into small pieces
• Grain of your choice
• Optional Potstickers
• Optional Nutritional Yeast

Directions:

1. Boil water in a medium or large pot
2. While you wait for the water to boil, chop your veggies and tofu into similar sized pieces and mince the garlic
3. Add a spoonful of Better Than Bouillon and mix it into water
4. Add garlic and onions to the pot and let them cook for a few minutes
5. Add veggies depending on their cooking times (so I added carrots, then cabbage, the frozen items, then kale, with a minute or two in between each one)
6. When there is about 6 minutes left, add noodles if desired
7. Add tofu
8. If you’re using cooked rice, put it in when the soup is almost done
9. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, lemon juice and hot sauce to taste, and more veggie broth if needed
10. Turn off heat and serve, sprinkle nutritional yeast on top

Happy Souping!

-N

Vegan Chocolate Cupcake from Saturn Cafe

Saturn cafe (on Laurel St at Pacific in Santa Cruz and Allston in Berkeley) makes delicious vegan cupcakes. Last night’s choices were chocolate chocolate, chocolate rasberry and chocolate vanilla. Saturn is a vegetarian diner style restaurant, with things like club sandwiches, veggie burgers, salads, nachos, and dairy and vegan desserts. It’s all vegetarian but many things have dairy so make sure to double check when you order (They use morningstar fake bacon, which I recently found out is made with eggs-boo!)

Anyhow, enjoy drooling over this :)

-N

Soba Noodles with Tofu

Soba noodles are Japanese noodles, made out of buckwheat. This is a great dish for noodle lovers like myself, if you want to stay away from bleached white pasta,try some asian flavors and eat a yummy and quick new dish. 

Nutrition info here: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5776/2

I used Hodosoy (local tofu seller, that E used to work for, their tofu is organic and SO much better than other brands) medium-firm tofu. You can find this at many farmers markets and grocery stores in the extended bay area. 

Ingredients:

• soba noodles, which you can find at any asian market, whole foods or other natural foods store
• tofu
• soy sauce
• rice vinegar (any grocery store should have this)
• lemon juice
• nutritional yeast
• sometimes-sesame oil. it has a strong taste so I only use a teeny bit. 

Directions:

1. boil water, add soba noodles
2. cut up tofu into small pieces
3. when noodles are done, drain water and mix in a bowl with the tofu
4. add all sauces to taste, stir well, enjoy :)

-N

Burdock Carrot Kinpira

This is a macrobiotic (see definition below) dish that is especially yummy and appropriate for this time of year. Autumn time and even into winter, the kidneys are weaker and more susceptible to illness. Both burdock and carrots are tonifying to the kidneys. Burdock root is also used to promote urination and overall physical vitality. Cooked carrots are great for improving anemia. After an excess of sugar, root vegetables, especially burdock and carrots are very helpful in rebalancing the body. 

This recipe is a nice balance between the sweetness of the carrots, the slight bitter of the burdock, the salt of tamari and spicy and warming ginger root. 

Ingredients:
-2 stalks of burdock root
-3 stalks of carrot 
(may do more or less carrot/burdock depending on preference, may want to experiment)
-Dark sesame oil
-Grated ginger 
-Tamari or soy sauce 
-Sesame seeds (optional)

Recipe:
Start by cutting the burdock root into matchsticks (this is done by cutting the root into thin diagonal slices in the round, then by stacking about three and cutting into match size pieces). Add about a tablespoon of sesame oil to a pan, then add the burdock, put a top on and let sit while you cut the carrots into matchsticks as well. Add the carrots after about five minutes. Stir together; add about a tablespoon of tamari and cook on low with a lid for about 20-25 minutes until liquid is evaporated. You may need to add a little bit of water along the way. When the dish is done, grate about a tablespoon of ginger and squeeze in palm of hand over the entire dish. Add dark or light sesame seeds to garnish if you like. 
Enjoy this hearty, tonifying dish as a side dish or a main meal. 

Macrobiotics is a lifestyle centered on the principles of Yin and Yang. Its goal is to bring balance to our lives and our diets. The roots of macrobiotics come from Chinese medicine and the Japanese cuisine. The diet is mostly vegetarian and vegan, although some people do eat fish. The main components to a macrobiotic diet are fresh, local, and in-season vegetables. Grains are also a large part of the Macro diet. 

-L (Friend to Sisters N & E and new contributor to the blog)