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

Cooking with Lindsay S. Nixon for January

This month's VegCookbook Club featured author is Lindsay S. Nixon, aka the "Happy Herbivore." I don't own any of her cookbooks but was able to borrow The Happy Herbivore Cookbook through my public library on Overdrive. I find the Overdrive app a little cumbersome for cookbooks. It's hard to navigate to a specific recipe; I usually start in the index but am plunged into random locations from there. However Lindsay Nixon has a number of well-designed print books and many recipes available on her user-friendly blog.

Here's what I've made so far this month. I'm not sure how much more I'll cook up, as I'm moving to a new apartment in February and my energy is shifting to those non-foodie preparations. All of these recipes are highly recommend for fast, uncomplicated, and healthy eats.

Baked Onion Rings
I never thought I'd be able to make healthy onion rings at home but these oil-free versions--made with whole-wheat bread crumbs, cornmeal, garbanzo flour, vegan milk, and spices--are the bomb. You get all the fun of onion rings without feeling gross from deep frying. I served these with a trio of condiments: ketchup, mustard, and Sriracha vegan mayo.

Quick Queso Sauce
This is a nutritional yeast sauce more than a "queso" or cheese-flavored spread. That said, it is a cinch to make and really livened up my leftover burritos this week. It calls for whole wheat flour, vegan milk, spices, and "nooch." You heat it on the stove top, taking care not to burn the bottom. Maybe next time I'll add tomatoes and green chilies.

Single-Serving Brownie
Another quick and easy recipe, this time it's a dessert. This single-serving brownie is a cinch to throw together. I cooked it in a metal measuring cup in my toaster oven, one of the suggested methods. An intense chocolate fix in 15 minutes without firing up the oven; how cool is that?

Tofu Ricotta Cheese and Low-Country Cucumbers

I made these two recipes on a Sunday to use on salads throughout the week. The tofu ricotta cheese recipe tastes less like cheese than herby tofu, which is fine by me. The cucumbers were simple and spicy. They disappeared faster than the tofu.

East Coast coffee cake and West Coast shopping

East Coast Coffee Cake

Vegan Brunch, the March VegCookbook Club selection, has been impossible to put back on the shelf. Here's a final sweet baked item from The Bread Basket chapter: East Coast Coffee Cake. I opted for a double variation, using blackberries and chocolate chips. I also swapped white whole wheat flour for the all-purpose.

The coffee cake was easy to assemble. You make the topping and cake separately and then add the variation ingredients. The cake smelled divinely of sugar and spice while baking. The hardest part was waiting a full hour for it to cool. My boyfriend kept feeling the sides of the pan to assure me of its rapid progress. But I made him wait and it was well worth it. Holy sugar bomb! This is another decadent holiday treat.      

Hot out of the oven.

Meanwhile, Britt Bravo has announced the April VegCookbook Club book. It's a classic, How It All Vegan! by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. The pick is kind of a tribute too, to Sarah Kramer, Queen of Vegan Cookbooks (and apps). Sadly, Sarah has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is blogging about her experience at her awesomely titled website and asks that folks shop at her online store, Sarah's Place. I'm definitely going to shop there for Mother's Day and upcoming spring birthdays. And I'll be sending healing energy and virtual vegan gratitude out towards the West Coast too.

In an online shopping mood? Please visit: Sarah's Place

Baking for Vegan Brunch

Muffin close-up

Here are two recipes from The Bread Basket chapter of Vegan Brunch, the VegCookbook Club pick. Both involved firing up the oven. These may be some of the last items that I bake until fall. DC has such a brief springtime window that it'll probably be no time at all before the long hot and humid summer stretches before us. I do hope our next few club cookbooks have some raw recipes.  

Toasted Coconut and Chocolate Chip Muffins 

These tropical muffins called for mango but I opted for the chocolate chip variation on the back page. The toasted shredded coconut perfumed my kitchen delightfully. The muffins came together easily after that key toasting step. The resulting muffins were nicely spiced with nutmeg and allspice. The white whole wheat flour also gave these muffins a sturdy texture and made them taste slightly wholesome while still being a sweet treat.  

Cornbread Biscuits
Another simple and quick baked good. I ended up halving the recipe and using white whole wheat flour (in addition to the cornmeal) for these biscuits as well. I added a little more liquid to compensate. And, of course, I had to add jalapeños, the suggested variation. In fact, I "forgot" to halve that step and made the biscuits extra peppery. This is a recipe I'll return to for sure. Sweet, spicy, and savory.

A brunch pie and cheesy sauce

Here are two more Vegan Brunch recipes, from the March VegCookbook Club pick. By the way, Britt Bravo, the Club founder and guiding force, was recently interviewed on Tranquility du Jour, a podcast by DC's own Kimberly Wilson. In the episode, they discuss the Club and some time-saving strategies for weeknight veggie dinners.

Mushroom, Leek, and White Bean Pie
I had an extra store-bought whole wheat crust on hand (total time saver), so I decided to try Isa Chandra Moskowitz's solution for a tofu-less quiche. While not as pretty as the classic quiche, this savory pie tasted and cut better.

The leeks in the pie were rather subtle. I think if I made it again, I might try onions in their place. I also didn't have extra thyme sprigs, so I used some pickled dilly beans for decoration. I served the pie with hot sauce and malt vinegar, which was an odd but effective condiment combo.

Cheesy Sauce
This cheesy sauce is a simple stove-top recipe. It tastes strongly of nutritional yeast, or "nooch" as Isa has christened it. I love nooch, so I can image pouring this sauce on everything. Which is good because the recipe made three cups. Sadly, I didn't serve this savory sauce with the pie above. Instead I made it in advance for burritos (my time-saving, go-to weeknight meal) later this week. We'll see how this sauce reheats and if I can keep my tasting spoon out of it until then.

Brunch on!

This is an early bird post for the March VegCookbook Club selection, Vegan Brunch, because I couldn't wait until tomorrow to start brunching! This beautiful, colorful cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is a hoot, filled with her usual humorous voice and 175 homestyle, comfort food recipes. It's like having a friend dish all her "hostess with the mostest" brunch secrets.

The recipes are divided into the following sections: The Savory, The Sweet, The Sides, The Bread Basket, The Toppings, and The Drinks. There are also glorious food porn photos that make you want to drop everything and get your brunch on, 24/7.

I made both of these brunch dishes for dinner but I'm looking forward to having some lazy weekend brunches in the near future. (Maybe even a brunch picnic, if Spring ever arrives.) This book has me breaking out the tofu blocks until then.  

Basic Scrambled Tofu with Roasted Portobellos
I'm not usually a tofu scramble fan. Often I find these breakfast scrambles to be dull and dry. However, this recipe was super tasty, as promised. I added onions, carrots, and cremini mushrooms to the scramble. Because it was nicely seasoned with cumin, thyme, turmeric, and garlic, I didn't need to drown my plate in condiments. In the future, I'd recommend doubling the recipe in order to make seconds or leftovers.

Scrambled tofu close-up

I topped the scramble with roasted portobellos, a side recipe. This easy and tasty mushroom preparation is also a keeper. It simply calls for cooking wine, soy sauce, garlic, oil, and balsamic.  I wonder if I could roast the mushrooms in a toaster oven rather than heating up the "big oven?"

Classic Broccoli Quiche
This quiche looked so pretty. However compared to the scramble, the tofu here tasted bland. This might be because I forget to add Dijon mustard to the tofu and cashew blend. (I served the mustard on the side with hot sauce and ketchup.) Also I didn't have any tarragon on hand but I added some dill as a substitute green herb. The cherry tomatoes were a nice decorative touch.  

Quiche cross section

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.

New Year's Eve cookies

Chocolate Nut Cookies

Here's my final recipe from the VegCookbookClub December pick, Vegan Holiday Kitchen by Nava Atlas. I made these spicy chocolate nut cookies for a weekend party but still have some extra for New Year's Eve. I used granulated sugar for topping rather than powdered sugar. It gives the cookies a snowy, sparkly look--very fitting for the holiday.

I enjoyed Nava Atlas' cookbook and will surely return to it for special occasions. But I'm eager to quit overindulgent, seasonal eating. Next up is January's book, Crazy Sexy Kitchen. I scored a copy from the public library and am excited to dig into it. Kris Carr's motto is "Make juice not war!"

Pot pie and dilly dip

Here are two more recipes from the VegCookbookClub December pick, Vegan Holiday Kitchen by Nava Atlas. The cashew chocolate mousse pie that I made last week turned out great! My parents were impressed and I had a left-over pie crust. So this time, I tried a savory pot pie recipe and a quick appetizer.

Hearty Vegetable Pot Pie
Above and below are two photos of the vegetable pot pie. I'd never made a pot pie before but I remember them from my childhood. This recipe had lots of room for play. I got to choose 3 veggies: collard greens, broccoli, and mushrooms. Then I swapped Japanese sweet potatoes for the regular white potatoes. I "made" the breadcrumbs as directed, which wasn't hard at all. And used a Penzeys salt-free seasoning blend called "Forward!," instead of Spike or Mrs. Dash. Overall, I was happy with this recipe. It didn't slice perfectly, but I really stuffed it with ribbony and chunky veggies. I'm certain to make the pot pie again with other variations.

Pot pie cross-section

Dilled Miso-Tahini Dip
This creamy, versatile dip was a cinch to make with soft tofu, tahini, and white miso blended together with lemon juice, dill, and scallions. I left out the optional nutritional yeast but added garlic, giving it a "hummus flavor." This recipe makes a thick dip that really clings to your crudités. (I recommend raw broccoli.) It also makes a nice sandwich spread and a handy dressing for massaged salads.

VegCookbookClub for December

My library hold finally became available for the VegCookbookClub's December selection, Vegan Holiday Kitchen by Nava Atlas. This cookbook is a hardback collection of over 200 recipes with some great photos by Susan Voisin. It has a charming introduction with sage advice for vegan holiday meals, such as "If you're going to be the lone vegan..bring a main dish, at the very least. Bring plenty of what you'll be eating, because everyone will want some..."(ix). How true! I'm interested in trying some of Atlas' go-to holiday fare. I decided to start with these two simple recipes.

Cashew Chocolate Mousse Pie

This chocolate tofu pie, from Chapter One: Thanksgiving, was a breeze to assemble. It requires soaking cashews, then blending the cashew butter with silken tofu. You heat that mixture, melting in chocolate chips and adding maple syrup to taste. I used a store-bought whole wheat pie crust, and topped it with some stray mini chips before baking. I'll have to report back on the results because I'm saving it for my parents' visit this weekend, as a belated Thanksgiving treat.

Baked Tofu-Tortilla Extravaganza 
I did taste this dish, which comes from the small brunch section in the final chapter of the book, Chapter Six: Brunches, Appetizers, and Potluck Dishes. Perhaps this casserole should be called Extra-Vergüenza because, much to my shame, it looked solid in the pan but fell apart when served. Maybe I should have used a shallower dish? It was an easy recipe to throw together, almost like making a tortilla lasagna but without all the fuss of layering. It has tofu, onion, garlic, corn tortillas, tomatoes, chili peppers, spices, and some grated vegan cheese on top. Next time, I'd leave off the fake cheese and add nutritional yeast.

Willa Cather's birthday with cornbread and tea

Today is the birthday of Willa Cather! I've been reading her novels all year long, taking the 2012 Willa Cather Novel Reading Challenge hosted by WildmooBooks. 

Here is a list of Willa Cather's twelve novels with links to my Goodreads reviews.   

• Alexander's Bridge (1912)
• O Pioneers! (1913)
• The Song of the Lark (1915)
• My Ántonia (1918)
• One of Ours (1922)
• A Lost Lady (1923)
• The Professor's House (1925)
• My Mortal Enemy (1926)
• Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
• Shadows on the Rock (1931)
• Lucy Gayheart (1935)
• Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940)

I was going to make a fancy dessert to celebrate but decided upon a simple tea time snack in homage to Cather's Southern roots. This cornbread and tea combination is based on her final novel, Sapphira and the Slave Girl. Food is very important in this historical drama, set in Old Virginia. Cornbread is the stuff of slaves, unlike "light bread" made of wheat flour, which confers a higher social distinction and goes to the slave owners' tables.

The black tea is rum-less. In the novel, the protagonist Sapphira pours tea for her husband, "smuggling in a good tot of Jamaica rum." This is her secret weapon for coping with domestic unhappiness. Her husband is taken aback: "That's why it tastes so good! I must try to get up here oftener when you're having your tea."

The cornbread recipe (from Lindsay S. Nixon via Nava Atlas' VegKitchen website) is quick and simple. Not overly sweet and with a good texture. I think Willa Cather would approve.

It's Millet time!

Here are two millet recipes from Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook, the November VegCookBook Club pick. I've been wanting to experiment with this grain, on the unsolicited recommendation of an OK Natural Food Store counter person. While millet isn't "the new quinoa" in my opinion, it does offer variety from brown rice, barley, and other staple whole grains.

Millet Loaf Balls
The cookbook has a two-page recipe for this plant-based take on traditional meatloaf. The loaf recipe itself isn't too complex but it appears with two detailed variations: BBQ balls and Swedish Meatballs. I ended up making balls, without BBQ sauce, as the millet loaf didn't bind very well on the initial bake. (In fact, it ungraciously slopped out of the loaf pan.) This simple variation only took another 15 minutes to bake. I served them like mini build-your-own sandwiches with small squares of bread, extra ketchup, and two types of mustard: Dijon and horseradish.

Millet Stew

The millet worked better in this stew recipe, which featured North African-inspired spices. I didn't have any cauliflower on hand, so I added broccoli, okra, and mushrooms for the main veggies. This recipe was too cinnamony for me and could benefit from the addition of chickpeas or another bean. The cookbook has definitely inspired me to use millet in my future soup-making.

VeganMoFo inspired...Cookie Dough Truffles

Over the weekend I made cookie dough truffles, which I spotted in a post on the tumblr busted afternoon. I like this site's Buffy the Vampire Slayer MoFo theme; it's very Halloween appropriate too.

Sidenote: Speaking of Halloween VeganMoFo themes, my Netflix que has been growing considerably from posts like this at The Spooky Vegan blog. Next week I'd like to attempt a Halloween recipe, as it seems like all the cool MoFo bloggers are doing them.

This cookie dough truffle recipe seems like something you would pin on Pinterest but never actually make. But VeganMoFo is encouraging me to try some new things, including cat food. And now these crazy truffles.

This simple, no-bake recipe comes from Chef Chloe Coscarelli, who I heard interviewed recently on the Toronto Vegetarian Podcast. (Chef Chloe seems as sweet as her recipes.) The recipe is easier than baking actual cookies and would be a good option to make in the summer, when you don't feel like firing up the oven. You also get to dip cookie dough balls in chocolate, which is messy fun.

The recipe made loads, so there were truffles to share. Being an ingredients examiner myself*, I gave everyone a head's up on the truffle filling but it'd be interesting to surprise someone with a shock of dough.

*This reminds me of the vegan lightbulb joke:
Q. How many vegans does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. Two--one to screw in the bulb and one to check the ingredients first.

Go Vegan! with Sarah Kramer app review, part 2: New recipes

Screengrab from the Go Vegan! app.

Here is part two of my review of the Go Vegan! with Sarah Kramer app for the iPhone. Yesterday, in part one, I wrote about some of the tried and true recipes. Today I will review some of the new recipes. Using the app, I made a dinner with three brand new recipes and one older recipe that was new to me. Overall, I found the recipes elementary, perhaps a good primer for new vegans. The format of the iPhone app also seems to encourage streamlined recipes.

Faux "Parmesan" Cheeze
The steps to this super easy recipe fit on a single iPhone screen. In short, you blend nutritional yeast and walnuts in a food processor and salt to taste. This recipe seems almost too basic to warrant inclusion. But it reminded me that the app is entitled, "Go Vegan!," so perhaps it is aimed at newbies rather than longtime vegans. The latter would probably already know that "nooch" + nuts = cheesy goodness. (They'd also know what nutritional yeast is.)

Sarah Kramer's cookbooks are so approachable and appealing because they include building blocks such as this condiment. However, in one way, I think Kramer is misleading to new vegans here. The recipe description says that this dish can be made for under $1. Maybe in Canada! Walnuts and nutritional yeast are rather expensive in the U.S. I estimate that this batch cost me $5. That said, the batch will last some time and has many uses.

Shoshana and Teresa's Wilted Kale Super-Salad

Again, this is a simple recipe, something easy to improvise without steps. The greens, root veggies (grated beets and carrots), and dried cranberries marinate in a basic balsamic dressing to provide the wilted effect. I added garlic to the dressing and onions to the salad for more flavor. Instead of adding chopped nuts as required, I used some of the faux parm as a topping. I'll definitely make this style of salad again but I'm not sure that I need to bookmark the recipe. It'd be a good gateway salad for newbie vegans.

Cast-Iron Chickpea Flatbread
On the app, Kramer feeds this flatbread to a dog in a fun video. I didn't have one of its four-ingredients, chickpea flour, but it was easy to find at the health food store. (Sadly, I couldn't find a cute, hungry dog.) My flatbread didn't flip out of the cast iron pan as easily as Kramer's did in the video but that could be because my pan isn't as seasoned as it ought to be. I think I'll make this recipe again, especially as I now have a bag of chickpea flour to use.

Tortilla Chip Soup
This one wasn't a new recipe but also was easy. It is basically a tomato-based soup with some cumin, chili powder, and peppers. I don't think I'll make this again, because I like my soups to be more substantial and stew-like, with plenty of grains and beans. However I will duplicate the tortilla chip garnish on other soups. 

Go Vegan! with Sarah Kramer app review, part 1: Tried and true recipes

I finally purchased the Go Vegan! with Sarah Kramer app for the iPhone. This is the first cooking app that I have ever downloaded but it is definitely not going to be the last because I'm smitten with it. (I hope Dreena Burton releases one next.) 

So far, I've made two of the fifty recipes offered. Forty of the recipes are from Sarah Kramer's previously published cookbooks, ten are new. (Tomorrow, in part two of this review, I'll try a couple of the recipes debuting in the app.) I do wish that the app would cite the specific cookbooks that each of the recipes are sourced from. It would be a handy to be able to reference the original recipe. For example, if you want to recommend it to your iPhone-less, cookbook-loving friends.    

Owning this handy app is like having Kramer's Vegan A Go-Go! in an even more portable version--which I didn't think possible because that book is already pocketable. Below is a photo of how the app sizes up against Kramer's previous pink-covered cookbooks. 

In terms of design, this app is uncluttered eye candy with attractive, functional menus. Each recipe is broken down into an ingredients page and a steps page, with pink apple and whisk icons to toggle back and forth. The app has an easily manageable favorites section and a helpful shopping list function. (Although it is funny that the app adds water to your shopping list. I tend to get water from the faucet, not the grocery store.) 

Other new content in the app includes informative short videos and audio intros for select recipes. And there are drool-inducing photos for every recipe, a feature that Kramer's cookbooks haven't always offered. 

My one personal pet peeve about the app is that it played music automatically on start up. While the music is peppy, I don't like to be blasted by audio unawares. However it was easy to set the music to "off" and it hasn't bugged me since.  

Here are photos of the two recipes that I've already added to my favorites que. Above is Sarah and Tanya's You-Must-Make-This Dressing. This salad dressing recipe is one of my all-time favorites. For this batch, I used a mix of fresh garlic chives and regular chives.  

I also made another familiar favorite, the "Anything Goes" Fruit-Filled Muffins. These muffins are nice because they are flexible; you can add anything (fruits, nuts, chocolate, etc.) into the mix. For this batch I used apple, raspberries, and blackberries for the fruit filling. I also added some whole wheat flour to make it slightly more healthy. I wish the recipe had more spice suggestions but maybe that is a challenge to experiment further.

Update: Here's part two of my review.         

Whole wheat bread

Continuing my baking comeback, I'm searching once again for a solid whole wheat bread recipe. I don't have a bread machine (so very tempting) and haven't joined the no-knead movement yet.

The original Laurel's Kitchen was once my bread bible but I donated away my aging copy of that cookbook. (It used to fall open at the basic whole wheat bread recipe.) Sadly, this staple recipe seems much maligned these days. Even the Laurel's Kitchen folks revise it in their subsequent Bread Book.

I decided to try a new recipe, a whole wheat variation of a white bread recipe. I liked this vegan recipe because it looked simple, used 100% whole wheat flour and not too much fat and sugar. In fact, I used only one tablespoon of sugar. I didn't have a mixer, so I used my Cuisinart's dough blade. (I also didn't attempt the shaping suggestions but will if I make it again.)

The resulting bread reminds me very much of the Laurel's Kitchen whole wheat. It is very dense, almost brick-like. Free of preservatives, so it doesn't age well. (I froze the second loaf right away.) After the first day, it tastes best toasted and makes good croutons. Above are two toasted slices topped with some leftover burrito filling.  

Classic chocolate chip cookies

I didn't bake much last year in Baltimore, largely due to a temperamental smoke detector in our small apartment. However I've decided to remedy this and return to baking, now that I'm back in DC.

So this weekend, I baked up a big batch of classic chocolate chip cookies from one of my favorite cookbooks, Sarah Kramer's Vegan A Go-Go! I'd never made this particular cookie recipe before but it was easy to follow and made scads of cookies.

I also highly recommend the chocolate chip coconut cookies recipe. Sarah Kramer made a great video for that recipe. (Her video finally convinced me to invest in an oven thermometer, after years of guesswork.)