Avocados and Ales

Orzo with Sausage and Zucchini

One of my favorite side dishes to make is orzo with basil and nutritional yeast. It’s cooked slowly in broth which achieves a creamy texture, similar to risotto. Nutritional yeast gives it a cheesy taste and tang, like grown up mac and cheese. I’ve always liked small pastas like orzo and ditalini, they’re much more fun to eat to me.

The sausage and sage make this dish a fantastic fall meal, great for lunch or dinner. It’s hearty and rich enough to be an entrée but could easily be a side for a larger meal.

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Tags: dinner, food, pasta, recipe, sausage, vegan

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Categories grains, meat alternative, pasta, vegan

Vegan Banana Bread

10 Nov

We always buy bananas at the beginning of the week for packed lunches, so inevitably at the end of the week we have a few very ripe bananas leftover. Because of this, I’ve been baking this banana bread almost every week for months. We always have a loaf on the counter to snack on after dinner or with coffee. The recipe is originally by Isa at Post Punk Kitchen, and it’s become our favorite. I love adding chocolate chips, blueberries, or topping it with struesel topping.

A trick I’ve learned recently is that if your bananas are not quite banana bread ripe, but too ripe for normal eating, you can toss them in a 350°F oven until they are black and mushy.

If you love your family, make this bread. I promise they will love you back.

Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup vanilla almond milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Cream together the coconut oil and sugars. Add bananas, almond milk, and vanilla.
2. Mix in flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
3. Pour batter into greased 8×4 pan. Bake for an hour to an hour 10 minutes at 350 ˚ F.

Tags: bananas, bread, breakfast, food, recipe, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories american, breakfast, desserts, grains, vegan

Mapo Eggplant

3 Nov

This could easily be called sichuan eggplant, but I prefer to think of it as mapo eggplant, as that’s what inspired the recipe. I’ve expressed how much I love mapo tofu in my previous post and this dish runs a close second. I came up with this to use up our abundance of eggplant in our garden this year; my desire for spicy foods prevailed over traditional dishes like moussaka.

The eggplant gets a perfect soft and chewy texture when fried, and soaks up the sauce perfectly. I use mushrooms and seitan to mimic the pork in traditional mapo tofu and add some green onions for color. I usually grind my own sichuan peppercorns and make my own chili oil, but you don’t have to go through all that effort if you can buy them both. The fermented black beans and chili bean paste are key in this recipe; you can make it without them, but they add a depth you can’t get without them.

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Tags: asian, chinese, eggplant, food, mapo, recipe, rice, vegan

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Categories asian, chinese, gluten-free, vegan

Fried Rice

1 Nov

I’ve previously talked about my employment at a popular Asian restaurant that shall remain nameless (hint:you find it in most rest areas across the country and it features a bear in its name.) I spent my first few weeks there solely making fried rice, which is a lot more complicated in large amounts than it seems. I never tried their fried rice, because it contained chicken broth, but I started replicating the recipe at home with great success.

The key to good fried rice is old rice, high heat and a well seasoned wok. It’s going to be really hard to achieve the latter two on a home stovetop, because most people don’t have restaurant style burners. Bearing that in mind, you can still make some pretty tasty rice. I use dark soy sauce because it gives the rice that rich, dark brown color. Feel free to use regular soy sauce, just increase the amount you use.

I love having a big bowl of this in my fridge, I sneak bites of cold rice throughout the day. It’s one of my ultimate comfort foods, especially with chili sauce or teriyaki sauce on the side.

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Categories asian, chinese, grains, meat alternative, vegan

Buffalo Seitan

26 Oct

Football on Sundays is a tradition in my house. I usually serve nachos, but some weeks I want something different. We love spicy foods and finger foods:buffalo wings are an easy answer. Obviously we don’t eat wings, but seitan is an easy substitute. I’d love to try wrapping the seitan around skewers so you get the “handle” for eating. Something like this from Meet the Shannons would work great.

I was curious as to why they are called buffalo wings, and Wikipedia gave me this answer “One of the more prevalent claims is that Buffalo wings were first prepared at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, by Teressa Bellissimo.” One more question I will no longer have to wonder about.

(Hopefully you think ahead before you make these and don’t run out of hot sauce like I did.)
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Tags: buffalo, finger food, food, ranch, recipe, seitan, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories american, dips, grains, meat alternative, vegan

Review: Hampton Creek Just Cookie Dough

23 Oct

We received a package on the front porch today…Ilyana was very intrigued by the labels on the side, I was quite curious to see what was inside. I’m currently waiting on another package, so it could have been either one. I won a contest on the Hampton Creek facebook page, so they were sending me a jar of cookie dough to try, but I’m also waiting on a hoodie from their “justashelfie” promotion. I’ve talked about Hampton Creek in my recent posts, so if you need to catch up, please look back to the mayonnaise cake and chipotle chickpea salad.

It’s cookie dough! It was packaged in a cold pack and I could feel how chilled it was when I opened the box.

She was just as excited as I was.

I love their simple packaging-good food doesn’t always need excessive labels.

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Tags: cookies, food, hampton creek, just cookie dough, review, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories desserts, review, vegan

White Seitan

20 Oct

I tried pre made seitan a number of times before I realized how easy it was to make myself. We’ve cut back on our soy consumption so seitan has been a good protein source for many of our favorite recipes. The first recipe I tried was chicken seitan by PPK, but despite following the instructions perfectly, I ended up with the dreaded “brain” texture. I made it multiple times, with only one success.

Then I learned about steaming seitan and I’ll never go back to boiling. I haven’t had one bad batch since! So if you’ve had terrible seitan before, there’s hope!

This seitan is a perfect stand in for chicken in most recipes and I’ve even ground it to use in chili and “meat” sauce. Always cook it before use in any recipe, otherwise you may end up with mush. I always season it during the second cook, so the seasoning you use before steaming isn’t hugely important.

I make using the dough hook on my Ninja blender, but if you don’t have that, just stir and knead by hand for 5 minutes. I also use my pressure cooker to steam this, so I only steam it for about 20 minutes.

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Tags: dinner, food, gluten, meat substitute, recipe, seitan, vegan, vegetarian, wheat

Comments 12 Comments
Categories breakfast, grains, vegan

Chipotle Chickpea Salad

17 Oct

I’ve already expressed my obsession with Just Mayo in my previous post, and I was excited to find the Chipotle mayo in a nearby store. I should be receiving a jar of their new product Just Cookie Dough in the mail next week, so I plan on doing a review here. Check back for it!

I wanted to use the Chipotle mayo for something more exciting than just a sandwich, and I couldn’t imagine a better application than in chickpea salad. I love recipes for chickpea salad as a tuna salad/chicken salad replacement because I grew up eating those for lunch over the summer. The chipotle mayo adds a really nice kick; I would love to try this with some chopped cilantro or in a lettuce wrap. You could even serve this as a warm dip with hot sauce and chips.

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Tags: chickpea, dinner, food, gluten-free, recipe, salad, sandwich, vegan, vegetarian

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Categories dips, gluten-free, vegan

Vegan Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

16 Oct

Mayonnaise cake seems like something someone who was hoarding for the apocalypse would invent while trying to use up their food stash. It definitely tastes better than you would expect most post apocalyptic meals to taste, especially since it’s full of chocolate.

I made this for my husband’s birthday, and didn’t tell him there was mayonnaise in it until he finished his piece. This recipe definitely beats out my old chocolate cake recipe; I have to thank Hampton Creek for the original. I’ve posted it below if you’re too lazy to click the link, but I didn’t make any changes beyond pan size and it came out perfect.

If you haven’t tried Just Mayo yet, you need to leave your house and go buy some right now. There’s even a $2.50 coupon on their website, so you’re basically getting it for free. This stuff is better than regular egg based mayonnaise and way more sustainable. I’ve tried it on sandwiches, in chickpea salad, with sambal on sushi, and straight off the spoon. Granted, I tend to get over enthusiastic about new products, but Hampton Creek is a really great company and worth a try, even if you’re not vegan.

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Tags: birthday, cake, chocolate, dessert, food, recipe, vegan

Comments 3 Comments
Categories desserts, vegan

Chickpeas and Eggplant in Red Curry Peanut Sauce

14 Oct

Thai curry is a pretty common go to in our household – just a few ingredients and you have a rich, filling meal. This recipe features my favorite vegetables, eggplant and mushrooms, but I often use anything in the refrigerator that needs to get eaten.

I started adding peanut butter recently, as we both love peanut noodles, and we really like it. It’s just as good without the peanut butter, so feel free to leave it out. Try to use a natural version if you can; the flavor and texture is better. I also use coconut oil, because I’m addicted to the stuff, but any neutral oil will work. I used Black Beauty eggplant, because that’s what is growing in our garden, but if you use Asian eggplant, there’s no need to salt. Chickpeas are my current protein of choice, but tofu, seitan, or tempeh are all equally good here.