rolling veggie swag 2011: veg[etari]ans unite and cook the tastiest food imaginable (omnis u shd get in on this, too)

first tip - listen to stevie and co, they are AMAZING.

listen to me, master of being vegan and chubby

i want that balsamic-roasted asparagus like right now omg

Dude it was so simple and so flavorful and just omg nom

i made this tonight and it is crazy delicious

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/quinoa-chickpea-and-spinach-salad-recipe.html

my life is immeasurably richer for having smoked paprika in it now btw

i also don't even particularly like cherry tomatoes or feta and i am devouring this

Yo, smoked pap is off the hook

made the best motherfucking vegan brownies tonight!!!! no applesauce! super fudgey and dense!! totally amazing!!

OMG RECIPE PLZ??

4 tbsp melted earth balance margarine
3.5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 c sugar
1/8 c boiling water

3/4 c flour + 1/8 c
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 walnuts or hazelnuts

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F and move one of the racks to the lower third. Line an 8 x 8″ pan with tin foil (make sure it’s sticking out over the edge of the dish so you can remove the brownie easily.

Place the cocoa and choc chips in a bowl and pour the boiling water over: mix with a spoon till silky and lump free. Add the sugar, melted marg and vanilla. Whisk really well till completely combined.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda with a fork till well combined, then add the chocolate mixture. Mix in with a wooden spoon or spatula – don’t overmix it, though, just till combined. Fold in the nuts.

The batter should be really, really thick and quite dry – almost like a dough. Press it into the pan with the spatula and bake for about 30 mins.

all that fake meat is soy/gluten and not that good for you. pretty high in sodium as well.

This is already making me raise my eyebrow about veggie/vegan foods, I bought some Tofutti cream cheese the other day and it is loaded with thickeners and weird gels and chemicals and god knows. It seems a strange irony that one would be kind to animals by being vegan but possibly horrible to the temple of their own body by eating all this weird meat/dairy replacement crud :( I'm sure there are more organic and natural ways around this stuff tho! :)

for many vegan ppl, eating vegan isn't anything to do with being healthy at all - it's about not exploiting animals.

that said; most vegans would have way better blood work than any meateater. and while that tofutti might have lots of weird ingredients, so does any kind of processed food (and meateaters eat plenty of processed foods, on top of the unhealthy cholesterol/fats in meat and dairy).

ya there are not less than a few vegans who r all health power bout it but rly, FUCK THAT...CUPCAKES AND TOFURKY SAUSAGES AT ALL MEALS PLZ

my life is immeasurably richer for having smoked paprika in it now btw

― Sittin' Fran (donna rouge), Monday, April 11, 2011 10:36 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

SO TRUE

I bought some a couple months ago when I was making collard greens to substitute for the ham hock and it's amazing. Best spice.

It does sound really good, two of my favourite flavours combined.

quinoa-chickpea-and-spinach-salad-recipe.html

^^^ this was amazing, thanking u!

Never thought abt using smoked paprika as a kind of BBQ flavour boost for vege food. Nice idea! Might try something involving chickpeas and onion.

BTW it wasnt my intent to suggest that fake meats/vegan readymeals are any kind of hypocrisy if thats how that came across, that wasnt at all my intent, sorry. I was more musing on the concern for my own perference, as even as a meat eater i pretty much dont touch processed food. My meat/eggs/dairy is all organic, I cook from fresh vegetables etc. Sure, its unavoidable to an extent with stock powders, condiments etc but I just dont like frozen meals, packet sauce mixes, that kind of thing.

BTW that Gardein stuff is not available in Aus :(

I finally discovered what was missing from my chana masala: Amchoor powder (aka khatai), which is finely ground dried mango imparting a sharp tartness to balance out the roasted cumin. This recipe is highly recommended, perhaps better using commenter 48: Shannon's trick of sauteing part of the spices in oil to be poured over the finished dish.

This post is brought to you by:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TNQgSUxwJhA/SQXV8HOs24I/AAAAAAAAAm8/4SChhHnIgNU/s320/1481_Grape%2520Nuts.jpg

I have been looking for cheap ways to keep my belly full on my trip, and a friend who's doing a year-long x country thing on his bike recommended:

GRAPE NUT YUMBARS!!

3/4 cup reduced-fat peanut butter
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
4 cups Grape-Nuts Cereal
(recipe also sez you can add 1c of dried fruit!)

MICROWAVE peanut butter, corn syrup, and sugar in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or just until mixture comes to boil, stirring after each minute. Add cereal; mix well. PRESS cereal mixture firmly onto bottom of 13x9-inch pan sprayed with cooking spray. Cool completely. CUT cereal mixture into bars. Wrap individually with plastic wrap. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

Now, I've been experimenting w/ this a bit. The first time I made it as-is, which was good, but the second time I used:

1/2c peanut butter
1c brown sugar
1c corn syrup
4c Grape-Nuts
1/2c choc chips
1/2c raisins
a bunch of sprinkles of cinnamon

they were waaaay better better, even though a lot of the choc chips melted. Next time I will add a pinch of salt, too, and also experiment with different ratios of add-ins. They are very tasty and pretty filling, and also way cheap to make. I am trying to make them not-very-often bcz I don't want to get sick of them before I even leave (So far I've only made two half-batches and tried to give abt half of each batch away)

Also, for the record, Grape-Nuts + almond milk + drizzle of agave nectar = decidedly happy mouth and belly.

Fruity Nut Bars recipe
Vegetarian Pemmican Bars recipe

FWIW, ground flax seed is about the most efficient ingredient in the world for sensation of fullness/vs weight.

i made fantastic tofu burgers last night, with mushrooms, cashews and sunflower seeds. only made a half batch bc i was convinced they were gonna be awful ("this recipe has hardly any ingredients! it's too easy! they must be awful!" etc) but they were delicious - not sure how they would fare eaten on their own (my was covered in parmesan, served on bread with mustard/tomato sauce/lettuce/carrot/onion), but i made some of the mixture into balls which i'll try tonight.

love this site by the way: 101 cookbooks

4 weeks of hospital food 24/7 is making me feel fat and horrible, give me delicious inspirations ppl

I just made this again tonight and holy omg it is so good, VERY rich, tastes like a million bucks. It's actually sort of not fair that my dinner tonight tastes so so good and most other peoples' doesn't. But you have to make 1c (dry) worth of jasmine rice to go with it.

HOT SAUCE GLAZED TEMPEH

8 ounce package of tempeh
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup hot sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons tamari (you could maybe do 1 if you are salt-sensitive)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (juice from 1 lemon)
2 cloves garlic, crushed/minced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Bring a pot of water to boil.
2. Whisk all marinade ingredients together in a bowl large enough to fit the tempeh slices.
3. Cut the tempeh in half width wise then cut each of those squares diagonally to form 4 large triangles. When the water is boiling, add the tempeh, lower the heat and steam for 10 minutes.
4. Use tongs to remove the tempeh and then immediately place them in the marinade bowl for 1 hour, flipping them every now again to cover with the marinade.
5. Preheat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add tempeh and fry about 10 minutes, turning often and spooning marinade over the tempeh after each turn
**6**. IF YOU WANNA GET RAD W/ THIS, when the tempeh is about 2 minutes from being done, pour a good portion of the marinade into the pan and let it sizzle and steam and reduce until it's, well, glazey. This is super-rich and will be perfect for a drizzle over the finished product.

Enjoy this with a healthy portion of jasmine rice, and smile knowing that your dinner is superior.

gbx, you should def check out that 101 cookbooks site - really simple, really interesting, delicious-sounding recipes. i got the tofu burger recipe from there, and fried those remaining 'meat' balls tonight - they were really good!

man, i have been on a motherfucking ROLL the last few months with my cooking - but now i have moved into the phase of daydreaming about fancy kitchen appliances/tools.

i might have spent an hour today looking at kitchen blogs

i wish i was kidding about this

yeah my entire food routine has basically been reinvented - like, i probably spend at least a few hours every week reading recipe blogs, food articles etc., and MEAL PLANNING which is an entirely new thing to me: i actually decide on what 5-6 meals i'm gonna make, plus brunch on the weekend, and compile a detailed list of ingredients i need and stick to it when we go to the supermarket.

we hardly ever eat out anymore!

OMG i think i may have finally found the perfect VEGAN mac n cheese recipe... it's in the oven, but tastings of the 'cheese' sauce were extremely good...

Ooh just1n3 did you ever try the VegNews one w/ puréed veggies and no nootch? Will be v impressed if you found a way to top it!! :D

fuck the vegetables!!! this one has 'cheese' http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/000685.html

gonna leave the garlic out of the crumb topping next time, it was a bit much

when you guys make those chick pea fritters, what do you have with them?

usually eat them

very droll.

i mean do these things come out dry? they look dryish in the photos. some sort of sauce?

guys

made some good tempeh

so on friday i had some ppl over to grill and i made some smokey grilled tempeh from the veganomicon for my gf. that only turned out OK because the grill was acting wonky. however, i had some leftover so i let the stuff sit in marinade until today

since i'm not gonna fire up the grill for lunch (tho why not i guess), i decided to fry it. i was gonna do the standard flour/almond milk/panko deal until i noticed a can of coconut milk in the cupboard. so i did flour, coconut, panko.

damn.

I've been cooking some great stuff from this book. Very charming and imaginative with a good mix of everyday and more complicated recipes.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paradiso-Seasons-Denis-Cotter/dp/0953535347/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305048981&sr=1-1

the coconut milk wasn't even that noticeable, tbh, but it definitely improved things imo.

i ate two wedges of the stuff straight up because i am lazy, but with some crusty bread, spicy aioli, and veggies it would be a p baller sandwich

I've been reducing the amount of meat I eat kind of by accident. Wild garlic/ramps pesto and sage pesto plus fresh linguine or spaghetti is why.

I bought so much wild garlic from our local co-op that my freezer is full of the wild garlic pesto now.

good luck with those chick pea fillets, caek - everyone everywhere raves about them but mine have always been a failure, both in texture and in taste.

xp to gbx: it's amazing how good stuff tastes when it's left to soak in its own flavours. i made a potato and squash gratin with a pesto-y kind of sauce (sunflower seeds instead of nuts) that was ok/nothing special, but we ate the leftovers last night and goddamn it was 10x better.

Oh just1n3 I have spent the morning looking at 101 cookbooks & I can see why you are repping it.

i know, right??? the gratin was from her site. and i'm also making her saffron-infused vinagrette pasta thing with asparagus tonight. oh man, i went to this fancy market on sunday and bought two packages of ridiculously expensive pasta, for the first ever.

anyone cooked farro before?

oooh that reminds me: abbott you will probably really like this recipe blog too - http://chubbyvegetarian.blogspot.com/

You are right again Just1n3. Savory Bread Pudding with Roasted Tomatoes and Goat Cheese = pretty sure this recipe came from a brain scan of my unconscious desires.

Vegan Black Metal Chef Episode 1: Pad Thai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeZlih4DDNg

I am eating vegan choc chip cookie dough (soy) ice cr?m

owns