The last recipes of March's VegCookbook

Carrot Apple Ginger Soup

Here are some final items that I made from The Oh She Glows Cookbook, the March VegCookbook Club pick. I never located a copy of the physical cookbook but the website of its author, Angela Liddon, offered me lots of recipes to sample. Based on these positive experiences, I think this cookbook would make a great Mother's Day gift or personal spring detox planner.

Carrot Apple Ginger Soup

The carrot apple ginger soup (above) was a colorful, zippy, and cleansing puree. And I finally used my new blender to make a soup! I concur with Liddon's Vitamix recommendation of working with hot liquids in small batches. Because my boyfriend dislikes anything remotely pumpkin pie-flavored, I did leave out the nutmeg pinch. But I increased the ginger to great results. 

Easy Salt & Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas

Easy Salt & Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas
This simple recipe really did taste like salt & vinegar potato chips without the greasy guilt. I used less vinegar than it called for in the recipe, just enough to fully submerge the chickpeas. The roasted chickpeas made enough for snacking and salad toppings.

The Hummus That Changed Everything

The Hummus That Changed Everything
Look out, Dreena Burton. Here's another great hummus recipe. Very well-proportioned and classy with the olive oil drizzle and paprika atop. Plus a hidden kick from the Tabasco. (I used their habanero blend.) This hummus moved quickly. It'd be a good fail-safe recipe for picnics, parties, and other hummus requisite events.

A trio of childhood classics

Here are three more recipes that hark back to some favorite foods of childhood. Both are from How It All Vegan!, the April VegCookbook Club pick.

Vegan Sloppy Joes
For this filling sandwich, you make a tomato sauce in the food processor, rehydrate the protein, and then add both to a sauté of veggies and spices. I used some textured soy protein that I've been trying to finish, rather than the textured vegetable protein called for in the recipe. (You could probably also use tempeh or cooked beans for a less processed meal.)

The finished mash is rather spicy, calling for both chili powder and cayenne. The secret, surprise ingredient is chopped pickle (genius), which adds a nice crunchy bite. I used the sloppy joe mixture to fill tidy pitas, rather than serving it on a sloppy bun. No condiments required.

Spicy Creamy Tomato Soup
Another classic recipe. Like many kids, I, sadly, had an aversion to tomatoes. Luckily, I've been cured. This spicy soup is very adult, with a nice mix of spices and lots of garlic. I ended up using unsweetened almond milk rather than soy milk or soft tofu. I'd like to try the tofu version another time, to see how that might change the thickness. The fresh tomato garnish is a nice final touch. I'll make this soup again.
  

Fabulous French Dressing
This French dressing didn't taste like the bottled version that I had in my childhood but it did have the appropriate orange hue. The oil and vinegar dressing gets its color from dry mustard and paprika. However, with no sweetener included, I found it rather tart and unpalatable. I think I'll stick to the You-Must-Make-This Dressing from the Go Vegan! app (review).

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.

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.

Chili in PA

I'm home for a visit to my family's farm in chilly Pennsylvania. Here's a photo of my Mom's spicy and nourishing black bean chili. She freestyled this vegan recipe with black and broad beans, veggies, and chipotle chili pepper. Plus a secret ingredient: orange zest. Serve over brown rice and/or quinoa. It's the perfect bowl for snowy weather.  

Beetbox Juice and Butternut Bisque

Beetbox juice

Here are two healing liquids from my winter sickness recovery. Inspired by Kris Carr, I drank a healthy, raw juice this weekend. Juice bars are few and far between in DC but one has recently opened downtown, steps from the National Mall. Protein Bar, a Chicago-based fast-food health chain, has a handy Penn Quarter location at 398 7th Street NW.

Their beetbox juice (above) is a blend of apple, cucumber, beet, carrot, and ginger. This drink was a light and attractive mix, not too earthy or challenging. Protein Bar seems serious about their juice. They have a sign posted at the counter that warns customers to expect a wait of up to fifteen minutes due to the dual-disc juicer process. And they give you a buzzer for your juice!

I'm definitely going to go back for more juice-ups and to try the food. It looks like they have many vegan menu options. (Plus they have large Sriracha bottles on the condiments table. Always a good sign.) Protein Bar also offers blended drinks, including some with funny names that are interesting to compare with their Chicago menu. For example, "Wrigley Peeled" becomes the "Federal A'Peel."

Butternut Bisque
This bisque is from Crazy Sexy Kitchen, the January VegCookbook Club pick. It is a sweet and soothing broth, just the thing for a sore throat. The book's recipe features pumpkin as the main veggie but also recommends squash and sweet potatoes as alternatives. Good thing, because we had a huge butternut in our kitchen, just waiting for soup-making. The recipe also calls for onions, roasted garlic, veggie stock, maple syrup, spices, and wine. The resulting butternut bisque didn't produce the bright orange-hue that a pumpkin soup might, so I used an Instagram filter.

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.

More VegCookbookClub with the Forks Over Knives Cookbook

Maple-Mustard Dressing

Here are two more recipes that I tried from Forks Over Knives--The Cookbook, the November VegCookbook selection. I'm finding that this cookbook is accurate with its serving sizes. Both recipes really could serve 6.

Kale salad close-up

Kale Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing

This recipe by Julieanna Hever features a thick, flavorful oil-free dressing. It is a tasty blend of beans, tahini, mustard, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, maple syrup, and lemon. I used garbanzo rather than cannellini beans in the dressing. I also added two cloves of garlic for even more "hummus" flavor. My boyfriend said this made the dressing taste like falafel sauce.

For the salad veggies, the recipe called for kale, red cabbage, carrots, and broccoli. I swapped arugula for the red cabbage, because I had that on hand. I also added some yellow pear tomatoes and the remaining tin of chickpeas to the mix. Overall, I thought this salad was great--a meal in itself.

Sweet Potato Bisque
This was my first attempt at making a bisque and it turned out creamy and smooth. The cookbook describes this as almost "a dessert soup." It did have a pumpkin pie flavor with ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, as well as the zest and juice of an orange. It calls for only three types of veggies (onions, garlic, and sweet potatoes), veggie broth, and unsweetened almond milk--so the spices are pronounced and clear. It was fun to dust off my immersion blender too.