Yet Another Soup

We eat a lot of soups. So I post a lot of soups. This one is a garbanzo bean soup/stew that features Bryanna's Chicken Broth Powder. Really, without that, don't even make it. I always like to use the little bit of leftover broth from making the cutlets from her Everyday Dish recipe. Sometimes it's in a sauce, sometimes a soup. This is one of those un-recipes, but here it is.

Do your basic mirepoix (plus)-
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
4-5 carrots, chopped (I go heavy on the carrots)
5 cloves garlic, crushed
about 3 potatoes, quartered, then sliced
1 Tbsp oil
1 can garbanzos, drained and rinsed
leftover broth (plus more as needed)
juice from 1/2 a lemon
spices
white wine, if desired

Saute all that for a bit, then add some spices. I use thyme, basil, parsley, lemon pepper and a little rosemary, all dried. Then toss in a can of drained garbanzos and broth. I usually have about 1/2 a cup of the chicken broth and add about a quart more liquid. Add some white wine if you're using it, the lemon juice,, more spices, salt and pepper, a little cayenne if you like (it helps) and cook til the vegetables are tender. We like it thick, but of course you can add more broth. It's a nice hearty soup that comes together quickly.

And, speaking of Everyday Dish, check out Isa's blog which has a version of Julie's sausage. That
sounds a little weird, but just go with it. Here is a picture of mine.
These are spicy and wonderful. The technique is crazy easy and could be adapted for a lot of different flavors. I made it using my old fashioned hippie style steamer, so you can go low tech and still get great results.

Tonight's dinner: homemade pasta! I got a pasta attachment for my kitchenaid and can't wait to try it.

How About a Cookie, Cookie?

Thin Mints

Thin and Crispy Peanut Butter Cookies

Yeah, cheezy, I know. I post about cookies a lot and it's hard to come up with something creative. So let's just get to the goods.

These first two are testers from Autumn Vegan and Garrick. The next three are for Isa and Terry's cookie book. The Thin Mints beat the old Girl Scout cookies any day. And who doesn't love a nice crisp peanut butter cookie?

Sesame Wine Biscuits

Peanut Pretzel Drops

Key Lime Shortbread

The wine biscuits are fantastic with wine, with a slightly nutty yet sweet undertone. The Peanut Pretzel Drops are packed with flavors you wouldn't even expect. But my favorite in this post might be the Key Lime Shortbread Cookies. They look so festive and taste fantastic!

Tonight's dinner: Salt and Pepper Tofu, per request.

Vegan Marshmallows! Really!

Look what I got in the mail on Saturday! If you couldn't guess it's a vegan marshmallow kit from Angel Food!

It comes with a couple of packets of secret vegan ingredients, then you add your own corn syrup (or syrup of choice), sugar, vanilla and water. To get this:



Which you then dump into a pan and eventually cut to get 50 or so marshmallow that look like this:



These are incredibly light and delicious. So sweet and wonderful that words really can't describe them. They are happy little clouds of marshmallow goodness that dance in your mouth. Just amazing. I don't think the kits are available for mail order quite yet, but they will be soon.

Thanks, Alice of Angel Food, for making such a wonderful thing! You'll make vegans everywhere very happy.

A Forgotten Post

I meant to post this a little while ago and somehow never did. It was an awesome dinner! With the snow flying, the temperature dropping and the wind whipping, this really hit the spot.

These are the ribz from Susan V over at Fat Free Vegan. I have to admit, the first time I made them I wasn't impressed. We cooked them outside on the grill and I had really idealized the whole thing. Then cutting into them, they were a little bready and a disappointment. I like peanut butter, but I didn't like the taste of it in my ribz. These had gotten so many rave reviews that I had to try them again. This time with tahini instead of peanut butter, longer kneading (I think that was the texture issue the first time) and cooked them on the grill pan inside. The result was a huge success!

We followed them up with Strawberry Shortcake, using that recipe that was making the rounds at the PPK. I added an extra tablespoon of sugar and glazed the strawberries with a little agave. The strawberries were surprisingly good for this time of year, but I figured it wouldn't hurt.



This was a great meal for any time of year! It also made spring feel just a little bit closer.

Using Leftovers

Pesto Tofu Scramble

I get a little crazy about using up the ends of dishes, especially if the dish is made up of 'parts'. It's fun to see what I can come up with that obviously shared it's history with the original dish, but still steers off on it's own. Here are the latest examples.

First up: Pesto Tofu Scramble (a Crack of Noon tester). This is a fantastic scramble and I intentionally made double the amount of pesto for the next day. I love pesto and I'm not crazy about hauling out the food processor. For the second day, I made a Pesto Tofu Cutlets by thinning the pesto a little with soymilk, then dredging them in panko seasoned with salt, pepper and some herbs. On the side we had a pesto pasta thing. Try saying 'pesto pasta' 10 times fast. I can't do it.

Pierogies

Last night we had these amazing Pierogies, another tester. Easily the best we've ever had! I happened to have a little leftover filling, so I added to it and used it as topping for this grilled seitan chicken sandwich. You could just use sauerkraut and it would work fine. The dressing was mayo, chipotle and mustard. That mustard/chicken seitan combo really has me hooked right now. Broil the bread, toss it all together with lettuce and tomato and you have a totally bastardized reuben, which made a fantastic lunch! It tastes better than it looks.

Tonight's dinner: Pad Thai. What else after pesto, pasta and pierogies?

Seitan Stir Fry with Spicy Noodles

Sometimes I call this Spicy Seitan with Saucy Noodles sometimes Seitan Stir Fry with Spicy Noodles. Whatever. It's really good!

Marinade:
3/4 cup broth (or less, all that you need to cover your seitan)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp ginger, minced
1 Tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 Tbsp tamari
2 tsp chili or sesame oil (go for the chili if you like spicy!)

For the noodles:
1/2 pound linguini
1/2 cup sliced green onions (extra for garnish if you're fancy)
1/2 cup basil, sliced (optional, but great)

Follow up marinade ingredients:
1 Tbsp szechuan sauce
1 Tbsp tamari
2 tsp sirachi
1 Tbsp arrowroot

Chop seitan into bite sized pieces. Marinate in the above marinade for at least an hour. Drain but reserve marinade. Stir fry seitan in a small amount of peanut oil. Add about a Tbsp of sherry. Remove from pan and set aside. Stir fry the vegetables. While all this is going on, cook your noodles.

Take the leftover marinade and add the follow up marinade ingredients except the arrowroot. Heat in a small saucepan, testing for seasonings then whisk in the arrowroot to desired thickness. Add this to the drained noodles, tossing in the green onions and basil.

Vegetables- here's what I usually use, but use your faves. As if you need my permission. I usually do them in this order, adding as I go.
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 cup broccoli in florets
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1 cup sugar snap or pea pods
1 cup chinese cabbage, sliced

Throw the seitan back in and add tamari (or more heat) to taste. Keep warm. Remember the noodles are going to be spicy, too. Serve with the noodles on the plate, then scoop the veggies/seitan mixture on top. Garnish with extra green onions and sesame seeds if you want.

This recipe is a lot easier than it sounds here, so don't let my crazy directions intimidate you. It's really good. Just the noodle part makes a great base for an asian style pasta salad, too.

Rainbow Carrots

Aren't those the most beautiful carrots? They're organic rainbow carrots and they seem magical. We had them roasted alongside that amazing mustard seitan cutlet from YRR. You know, the one that I've posted so many times that it's almost embarrassing. Just almost. You can see it's not stopping me. We had a mushroom risotto on the side.

But just focus on the carrots.






Today's breakfast was the VwaV tofu scramble, which we have at least once a week. Check out those hash browns on the side. It was a trick that someone (I'm sorry, I forget who) posted at the PPK quite a while ago. They're cooked in the waffle iron. I should have let them cook longer, but the day was getting away from us. They were good, but I guess I like all that extra oil when I do them in cast iron. It sure would be a handy way to make them if you're doing other things. The waffle iron makes a cool imprint on the hash browns, too.

Tonight's dinner: tempura, maybe.

Chocolate Drizzled Granola Bar

Not many words, but here is the picture!

This is another tester for Autumn Vegan and Garrick's cookie book. You can add as much chocolate as you want to cover it, but I went conservative. (I know, just trying something different!).

Good stuff! Take my word for it.

African Improv Soup

Just be up front, I'm not sure how African this is. Something about the spices could be, but otherwise, it's basically roots I had in the fridge and other leftovers.

Here's a recipe outline--
onion (chopped)
carrot (chopped)
celery (chopped)
carrot (chopped)
turnip (chopped)
parsnip (chopped)
celeriac (chopped)
cauliflower (a cup or two, in florets)
baked potato (leftover, if you didn't guess!)
another tater (raw, not leftover!)
handful of cremini's (chopped)
head of roasted garlic (I try to always have some in the fridge. Why roast just one?)
about a cup of split peas
spices: I used coriander, cumin, chili powder (now this sounds Mexican, ooops)
black pepper, white pepper, salt
lots of stock
1/2 cup or so of white wine
tamari (or soy sauce)
hot sauce

Follow your usual soup routine and spice it up however you like. The big news on this soup is that it not only used leftovers, but also several ingredients that I've never cooked before! I know it's hard to believe, but I've never cooked split peas. Same with turnips, parsnips and celeriac! That celeriac is sweet which kind of threw me for a loop. The soup was kind of stick-to-your-ribs good, and I'm sure I'll make a variation of it again.

Belgian Style Seitan Stew and Tester Goodies!

Last night's dinner ended up being a Seitan Stew from Vegan Planet that I've been meaning to make since I saw it on Get Sconed. Or at least I thought I saw it there, but now I can't find it. Anyway, it's from Vegan Planet and I finally made it and it was quick, easy and good. A great dish when you really don't have the time to do a lot of prep. Not the prettiest of dishes, but damn tasty. Yeah, I just said 'tasty'. You can get the recipe here.

And more tester goodness! Check out these babies: Coffee Chip Muffins! They're for the Crack of Noon, the brunch cookbook. These are going fast in our house.


Yes, even more deliciousness! These are the Coffeehouse Hermits from the cookie book that Isa and Terry are working on. Kind of complex for a cookie and really wonderful.


I also want to pimp a cool new blog, the Vest Squad. It's a cool collaborative effort that involves making recipes from vegan blogs. I could tell you more, but see it for yourself.

Tonight's dinner: pizza and salad.

Tester Mishmash

This is a glorious mishmash of testing. It's mostly for Isa's upcoming brunch book, The Crack of Noon. I've already posted the Broccoli Quiche and a couple of cookie recipes for Isa and Terry's upcoming cookie cookbook. I'm so excited to be a tester- so let's get right to the pictures!

Cornbread Biscuits- light and flavorful!

Mexicana Scramble with Paprika Rosemary Potatoes and Grilled Tortilla-- talk about a breakfast!

Tomato Rosemary Scones - just delicious!

Fennel Risotto with Smoky Shiitakes - great any time of day!

Guess you can tell I'm excited. That's a lot of exclamation points. But I'm going with it.

This Weekend in Food

I made falafel for the first time ever! It's one of my husband's favorite things and he almost always orders it if it's offered on a menu. It's just never done it for me, so I never bothered to try making it. (That sounds rather selfish, doesn't it?). Well, we were sitting on the couch and I was flipping through VwaV and my husband saw the recipe. Of course, I'd never mentioned it was in there because I had no intention of making it. Since I was busted, I gave it a go and am happy to say they were really delicious! Now I'm a convert, but from tasting Jim's in restaurants, I think I'll stick to homemade once in a while rather than the restaurant version. The tahini sauce is awesome and makes a great salad dressing, too.


We also had another first: Pho! I have no idea if this is how it's supposed to be, but we really enjoyed it. I used the recipe from Robin Robertson's book Quick Fix Vegetarian. Now I really want to try the real thing. In the meantime, this hits the spot in a really pleasantly spicy way.

This is the Almost No Knead Bread posted at the PPK, originally from Cook's Illustrated. If you like a bread with a softer crust, this is the one for you. If you like a crunchy crust, stick to the original No Knead Bread. The flavor on the Almost recipe is good, slightly sweet and it had a nice texture. The coolest thing about the recipe is the parchment trick to move your loaf into the hot pot. The recipe is worth that trick alone! I'm sticking with the original recipe from now on. I like a crust that bites back!

I finally made my first recipe from My Sweet Vegan: the Caramel Macchiato Cheesecake! The crust was fantastic, the filling had a lovely coffee flavor, the white 'sour cream' topping was right on.. the only thing that wasn't quite up to par was the caramel sauce. The sauce was good, but not as great as the rest of the cheesecake. It needed something. I tried to doctor it with vanilla, but that wasn't what was missing. Would I make it again? You bet, when I'm feeling decadent. I'd have to tinker with that sauce a little more though. Just for the record, the sauce was in pretty pattern before we took it on the car, instead of the 'all-over look' in the picture.

Dinner tonight: still debating.