Tea and cornbread from The Joy of Vegan Baking in February

Ginger Tea and Cookbooks

February has been a full month, as I moved to a new apartment in wintry weather conditions. Then promptly got sick with a nasty cold. When I finally unpacked my VegCookbook Club books, the cookbooks of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, all I could manage in my sickly state was tea. Luckily The Joy of Vegan Baking has two excellent and medicinal tea recipes that I brewed up repeatedly.

Pictured above is the Ginger Tea, which uses fresh ginger root. I made it hot and strong, sweetening with agave nectar, as suggested. I think this tea healed me. Below is the spicy Chai. This recipe let me dig out lots of spices, like I was cooking. (Man, I need more spice in my life!) This richly-flavored brew calls for cardamom, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla.

Chai

Eventually I did manage to bake, after much drooling over Patrick-Goudreau's lovely cookbooks. The cornbread recipe below is also from The Joy of Vegan Baking. (I never cracked my copy of The Vegan Table but will cook from it come spring.) To me this cornbread was perfect, not overly sweet or oily. I swapped white whole wheat flour for the all-purpose. And I left out the whole corn kernels but might try blueberries as an addition next time. The cornbread was served with hot soup but it would be great at any meal, any time of day. 

Meanwhile, the oven at my new apartment bakes like a champ! However the oven light doesn't work. (I wonder if I can replace it?) This kitchen is smaller than my last one, but I'm sure it'll produce lots of good vegan food. The March VegCookbook Club has been announced. It's The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon, from the popular and beautifully designed blog, Oh She Glows.

Cornbread

Six Shades of Red Soup

This isn't a Fifty Shades of Grey joke. At least, I hope not. Instead, "Six Shades of Red" is another alluring soup from Color Me Vegan. I still haven't been able to get my hands on this red hot cookbook, the February VegCookbook Club selection. It would be cool if my library stocked as many copies of this title as they do for the E. L. James bestseller. (I may just have to skip ahead to the Club's March pick, which has just been announced.)

Lucikly, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau posted this crimson soup recipe on her website. I changed things up slightly, substituting sweet potatoes for the red potatoes and white miso for red miso. Plus, I added some white mushrooms and white beans. (Both quickly turned pink.) I didn't have any vegetable juice on hand, so I opted for vegan bouillon instead. What a sweet, tasty soup this made! The miso at the end made it taste quite different from borscht. It's a vivid cure for winter doldrums.

Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Chocolate cherry cookies

I'm still "cyberstalking" Color Me Vegan, the VegCookbook Club's February selection, until my library has an available copy. (Update: one of their two copies is now reported "lost and paid." Maybe a reader was smitten with the cookbook and didn't want to part with it?)

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I decided to try this adaptation of Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's chocolate cherry cookies, posted by another blogger, Niki of Meet Your Treat.

Cookie close-up

These cookies tasted much better than they looked, which was slightly turd-like. In hindsight, I think it would be better to bake and fully cool the cookies before adding the chocolate coating. Then the sauce wouldn't slide off the top of the cherry and puddle around the cookie. Otherwise the cookies provided a fine excuse to eat chocolate and Maraschino cherries together. They did make me hanker for a Shirley Temple or similar fizzy cocktail.

Coloring outside of the cookbook

My library hold for the VegCookbook Club's February pick, Color Me Vegan, still hasn't arrived. The library has two copies. However the first one went missing and the second is still checked out with another patron. It must be a popular cookbook!

Here is a colorful soup recipe that I found posted on Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's website to tide me over in the meantime.

Minestrone with Kale
Minestrone is one of my staple weeknight dinners and Colleen Patrick--Goudreau's version isn't too different from the soup that I usually improvise. The addition of kale gives the rainbow of colorful veggies a healthy green glow. I added green lentils here and doubled the tomatoes.

Some other items that I often add to my own minestrone include: mushrooms, peppers, quinoa, sweet potatoes, squash, and broccoli. And I usually load on the Italian spices: oregano, thyme, basil, etc. Plus some balsamic vinegar to taste. This version is clean and simple with just parsley and bay leaf.