Vegan Lasagna
Mmmm, Vegan Lasagna
I'm a fan of the vegan brownies and vegan banana nut chip muffin recipes in The Joy of Vegan Baking
The first recipe we tried was the less than successful Matzoh Ball Soup recipe I wrote about in my last post. But I know this author has some excellent recipes in her repertoire... so I begged Jane to make the Vegan Lasagna. She's got a few other things earmarked to try. But since she likes to "surprise" me, I couldn't tell you what she's got planned.
Back to the lasagna. YUM!!!! We've already had it twice, and we haven't had the cookbook for a month! We get three dinners out of this. We wound up using a slightly smaller pyrex dish, so Jane used a tad less pasta, but didn't cut down on the sauce and filling. We've found the first serving is a little wet. The second meal has the perfect level of moisture, and we tend to need a bit more sauce for our third dinner.
Having grown up in New York, on Sicilian-style Italian cooking... lasagna, ravioli, baked ziti, we tend to shy away from the veganized versions of these foods. Cheese is just something that doesn't usually work. But I can heartily recommend this recipe for even a cheese-loving omnivore.
Vegan Matzoh Ball Soup
In the past I've written about certain foods we haven't been able to successfully "veganize" -- no matter what other people might say. One of the things we'd pretty much given up on was a Vegan Matzoh Ball Soup, but then two things happened... 1) We picked up a copy of The Vegan Table
Unfortunately, Goudreau's recipe completely fell apart. The matzoh balls looked more like gelatinous lumps, and I didn't care for the taste of the gelatinous lumps at all, so we won't be trying it again. But I have faith that there will be other recipes worth making. The cookbook looks divine!
The good news is Ellen A. from Connecticut''s recipe worked out well for us. We actually had matzoh balls that resembled matzoh balls. Jane thought the taste was a little off... but neither of us has had authentic Matzoh Ball soup in years, so who are we to judge. Also the matzoh balls were a little dense, so Jane will be using a bit of seltzer in her next batch. Anyway, below is Ellen's recipe verbatim. If you're still on the lookout for a vegan matzoh ball soup, I recommend giving this a try.
Start with a box of Streits' or Manischewitz matzo ball mix. For eggs - use egg replacer powder. The matzo ball box comes with two envelopes. For each envelope they ask for 2 eggs however this needs to be tripled....the equivalent egg replacer for 6 eggs per individual package. Whisk the mixture. Add the oil as directed. (do not increase amt. ) Whisk again.Then add the contents of one envelope of matzo ball mix. If the batter seems to be a bit loose, add 1-2 tablespoons of matzo meal. Combine well. Leave the bowl in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Remove - roll into 12-15 balls. Reduce your large pot of boiling water to a simmer. Gently place balls in water and cover tightly. (there must be no rolling boil). Remove with a slotted spoon and let cool. Refrigerate. Reheat in the soup. (Jane used a vegan "chicken" soup powder she found at Whole Foods. It tasted surprizingly like Chicken Soup.)
By the way - my daughter Maribeth Abrams is the author of Tofu 1-2-3
, the book and the DVD. Her next book is out in a month - the 4 ingredient Vegan. both available at major book stores. We are always experimenting with new recipes.
Vegan Matzoh Ball Soup
In honor of Chanukah, and the first day of winter, Jane made the matzoh ball soup recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance
Fast forward to yesterday in the grocery store. Jane grabbed a box of matzoh meal. I asked what she was planning on making with it. She replied, "I think it's time to try the matzoh ball soup again." This time she used extra firm tofu and refrigerated the mixture over 24 hours. (We decided the previous failure was due to the 1 hour refrigeration.) As they were cooking the matzoh balls floated; they sank when we removed the lid from the stock pot... as expected. But even though the matzoh balls held together, we were both unimpressed with the taste.
Over time, I've learned there are just some things you can't veganize. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining... perhaps that would have been a complaint last year when I was trying to acclimate to my new way of eating. But over this last year and a half, Jane and I have discovered some really wonderful dishes we might never have tried otherwise. I'm just not sure we'll be trying to veganize matzoh ball soup any time in the near future.
Anyway, we wish a happy Chanukah to all of our readers who are celebrating tonight.
Vegan Asparagus Soup
RFDs Asparagus Soup
I've been going to the farmers market to get my produce ever since I moved to California. Over the years I've noticed a change in the "seasonality" of certain produce, notably strawberries and asparagus. They used to be available only in the spring. But not anymore. The local growers have figured out how to make these items available year round. Shockingly, the strawberries taste like strawberries, not fake looking strawberries with ae pale white interior that I used to get when I lived in New York.
This week, we picked up asparagus. We knew it would be a warm week, and Jane had it in mind to make us asparagus soup. She used the recipe from the Real Food Daily Cookbook
Top 10 Recipes – Take Two
Hi All -- It's Jane writing tonight. Well, I finally got around to making the Thai Coconut Corn Soup from Vegan Express, by Nava Atlas. Lane and I love Thai food, and this looked like an old favorite of ours, Tom Ka Gai Soup. Vegan.com ranked this recipe number two in their list of top 10 vegan recipes of 2008, so I've been meaning to get around to it. Actually, I'm planning on trying all ten, but don't seem to be overly motivated these days.
Normally, I try to follow a recipe to the letter the first time I'm making it. Of course, I taste as I go along, so there is the odd occasion when I'll decide to modify a recipe on the first try, especially if the recipe is heavy on an ingredient I don't particularly care for. Tonight, however, I made an outright error. I mistook my container of white pepper for the container of curry powder I was looking for (don't ask me how, since my spices are clearly labeled and every one of them has it's own place). Luckily, I don't love curry powder in significant quantities, so I only put one teaspoon in the pot (the recipe calls for two). It didn't smell overwhelmingly of curry, that was promising. I taste-tested to see if I should add the second teaspoon... And where did that heat come from? Then I looked at the spice container in my hand and lo and behold... "White Pepper." Oy! So, I added the curry, but only one teaspoon... that was enough. And then I omitted the red curry paste as I thought the soup might be too hot if I included that ingredient. (We had red pepper flakes which I put out, like they do at the Thai restaurants we frequent.) Finally, the recipe calls for a red bell pepper, which I thought I had, but it was ready for the compost pile. I didn't tell Lane about my faux pas until after he'd eaten it and given it his seal of approval. I'm not sure the red bell pepper is even necessary, but it would certainly make for a more interesting picture.
So, I didn't quite make the recipe as written, but the soup I made was delicious and oh so easy. And it only took about 20 minutes to get together. I think it will be even better, next time, when I make it correctly. If you're interested in giving it a try, here's the link:
Recipe for Thai Coconut Corn Soup.
Cheers -- Jane
Top 10 Vegan Recipes
At the beginning of the month Vegan.com put together a list of of his favorite vegan cookbook recipes for the year. I must have been sleeping, somehow I missed it. But I also read the Vegan Planet blog, and Robin posted about it today.
Having reviewed the recipes with Jane earlier, we feel compelled to share this with our readers who might not visit these sites. Some of these recipes look very interesting. And since they rate as "top 10" they're probably very worthy of a test drive.
The recipes that make the cut are:
- Plantain Omelet - From Mark Reinfeld and Bo Rinaldi’s Vegan Fusion World Cuisine
- Thai Coconut Corn Soup - From Nava Atlas’ Vegan Express
- Indonesian Coconut Rice - From Robin Robertson’s Vegan Fire & Spice
- Baked Ziti - From Beverly Lynn Bennett’s Vegan Bites
- Moroccan Phyllo Rolls - From Dreena Burton’s Eat, Drink & Be Vegan
- Italian Stuffed Crepes - From Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Nonna's Italian Kitchen
- Chickpea Curry - From Hema Parekh’s The Asian Vegan Kitchen
- Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding - From Isa Chandra Moskowtiz and Terry Hope Romano’s Veganomicon
- Root Beer Float Cupcakes - From Hannah Kaminsky’s My Sweet Vegan
- Fresh Mango Cobler - From Ani Phyo’s Ani's Raw Food Kitchen
Make sure to visit Vegan.com for the actual recipes, if you don't already own these cookbooks. We'll let you know what we think after we've tried them, but Jane wants me to put a caveat here: We have amassed a ton of "must try" recipes. So it isn't likely that we'll get through this list in the immediate future. Be sure to let us know what you think!
Vegan Brownies
Over the past few months, I've been complaining about the results of Jane's vegan baking efforts. Don't get me wrong... she's been complaining too. Overall, we've come to the conclusion that vegan baked goods just aren't as good as traditional baked goods. And while we miss the olden days of Princess Cake (the most amazing cake -- genoise, marzipan, whipped cream, raspberry filling... mmm, princess cake) and other goodies, we're willing to make this "sacrifice." Well, as of today, that's changed. Jane made the vegan brownie recipe from "The Joy of Vegan Baking
These brownies are not too sweet. They don't have that "hmm that's different" taste that many vegan baked goods are subject too. These brownies taste exactly like BROWNIES. They're so good that Jane is making me take the remainder in to work tomorrow because she doesn't trust herself to be around them. And she's already planning to make a second batch to welcome our new neighbors this weekend. Who needs Starbuck's vegan brownies when you can make these at home.
Carrot Soup and Homemade Bread
Jane and I were out tooling around today and had a large lunch, so we weren't very hungry for dinner tonight. Since it was a little damp and overcast, it was a perfect night for soup. The soup, Indian Spiced Carrot Soup, is from Epicurious.com with minimal veganizing. We replaced the yogurt with Tofutti Sour Cream, and used vegetable broth, of course. Thanks to Christiane for suggesting it the other day. It has a light exotic taste.
And what goes better with homemade soup than homemade bread? So Jane baked the Simply Crusty Bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
We cannot recommend this recipe enough. It's simple... four ingredients! And best of all, you make the dough and whatever you don't use goes into the fridge so you can have bread any time you want (within two weeks of making the dough). This bread tasted just as good as the Julia Childs french bread Jane made for the February Daring Bakers Challenge, but it was oh so much easier. (And there was no blood involved!)
If you decide to try the soup, we would suggest cooking the carrots and onions until they're tender before adding the broth. Also, Jane uses an immersion blender (if you don't have one yet, buy one!) instead of trying to transfer the hot soup to a food processor.
Veganomicon — Mac ‘n Cheese
Smokey Grilled Tempeh and Cheater Baked Beans. The tempeh and baked beans were okay, but we both decided there was no need to make the tempeh again. The beans were tasty, and worthy of a second try (and very easy to boot).
There's so much positive buzz about this cookbook that we figured we'd do well with one of the more popular recipes. Unfortunately, we're now one for three here. The mac 'n cheese just didn't work for us. Though I thought it was alright, I wouldn't ask Jane to make this again. She actually disliked it, so much so that she said she won't eat the leftovers. To put that in perspective for you, we don't typically throw food away in this house. I didn't have that strong an aversion to the dish, but something didn't work for us, perhaps it was the large quantity of nutritional yeast. 
I hate to take such a contrarian stance, but so far this cookbook isn't living up to it's hype, for us at least. Last time we posted about the tempeh, everyone who commented said they loved it. So we're left to wonder if our taste buds are out of sync with the rest of the world, or perhaps Jane's having trouble following recipes lately? So far, we're much happier with Vegan Planet and the Real Food Daily cookbooks.
We're not ready to give up on this book just yet. It's a great big cookbook, and you all seem to love it so much. Next, Jane's going to try the Chickpea Cutlets which the authors state is their signature dish. If we dip below the Mendoza Line (one for six), we'll have to hang up our Veganomicon cleats.
Veganomicon — Smokey Grilled Tempeh and Cheater Baked Beans
Jane has Veganomicon
Anyway, Veganomicon looks to be a pretty good cookbook. Jane tried her hand at the Smokey Grilled Tempeh and Cheater Baked Beans tonight. The beans were really good. The tempeh was interesting, but neither one of us loved it enough for Jane to consider making it again. The cookbook suggests pairing the two with collard greens. We had steamed snap peas instead, one of our favorites.
We're reserving our comments on the cookbook until we've had a little more experience with it... but there is a lot of positive buzz out there. Many of the recipes we've been interested in trying seem to require between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours to prepare though; not the kind of meal Jane likes to prepare during the week.
The next recipes we've earmarked for Jane to try are the Chickpea Cutlets, which the authors tout as one of their best recipes, and the vegan Mac 'n Cheese because we miss that comfort food! We'll keep you posted.
