I couldn’t think of a better way to end Vegan MoFo (and to celebrate Halloween at the same time) than with our beautiful cat, Maya!  I wanted to write about her for my last MoFo post because she had a lot to do with us going vegetarian. I think when you live with an animal, you start to realize that they aren’t just “things”, and that realization made us look at all animals differently.

If you want to add an animal companion to your life there are so many wonderful animals that need to be adopted.  Please go to a shelter or a rescue organization rather than going to a breeder.  Maya was a stray that we adopted from a former roommate (thank you, Kathryn!), and if we could afford to take more animals in, we would do it in a heartbeat.  Having her in our lives is so wonderful, and she makes us laugh all the time.  Check her out up there on that pillow.  Seems a little big, you say?  Oh, that’s funny, she didn’t notice.

Now that Vegan MoFo has come to a close, I have to say that I’m so glad I participated.  I really loved reading all my favorite blogs, and also finding new favorites.  I’m excited that so many people were a part of it, because it really is proof that the vegan movement is strong and growing.  All of this amazing food might just convince a meat eater to try at least one veg meal a week, and then maybe two, and so on and so on.  I used to swear I would never be a vegetarian, and yet here I am. If someone like me can change, anyone can.  There is hope!

Now, since this month is supposed to be about vegan food, and it is almost Halloween, I have to leave you with a food image that makes me feel like going out and trick-or-treating!  Something about those curly stems, and the lighting of this photo just evokes the feeling of a cool Halloween morning for me.  Hope you enjoy yours and you get your fill of vegan candy!

I know that the pasta up there looks a little crazy, but man did it taste good!  I bought it at the Mangi Con Amore stand at the Hollywood Farmers Market in anticipation of wanting a simple weeknight meal, and that shape – Traditional Trofie – was recommended as going really  well with pesto sauce.   (I also got the tip to shave a little bit of walnut over the finished dish.)  They have several fresh, egg-free pasta options, but I think this one has to be my favorite.  It’s so chewy and yummy, and I imagine it’s perfect with whatever sauce you serve it with.

Going along with keeping it simple, we also used some pesto that we’d bought at the market from Basiltops.  They have several dairy-free pesto sauces, and they’re all really good.  The hardest part of this meal was making the spread for the garlic bread (and that was pretty easy too!)

A few years ago I attended a “Helping Animals 101″ weekend held by PETA.  I know that PETA can be a pretty controversial organization, but one of the great things they do is put out awesome recipes.  We got a packet that weekend with a bunch of recipes, one of them being for this Garlic Bread Spread, which has become my favorite.  It’s so simple to throw together and it tastes so good!  We’ve served it to many a dairy-eater and they always love it.

The Best Garlic Bread Spread
This makes a lot, so I usually half the recipe and keep it in the fridge.

1 tub (8 ounces) Earth Balance margarine, softened
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup raw garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons garlic powder
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup Italian herbs (I use half oregano and half basil)

Mix all ingredients well, then chill the mixture.  To serve, spread the mixture on vegan bread and toast to a golden brown.

I left the fresh garlic out of this the other night (yes, I was that lazy), and it was still amazing.  You can play with the herbs, and add whatever you like best.  Enjoy!

Ah, Biscuits and Gravy, one of Ryan’s all-time favorite dishes.  Before I stopped eating meat, I’d never had “real” biscuits and gravy.  Being the picky eater that I was, the idea of blobby, white sausage gravy grossed me out.  Gravy was definitely not something I ate as a kid, and even as an adult I wouldn’t eat gravy at Thanksgiving (probably the only time of the year it was on the table.)

It wasn’t until I started making vegan gravies that I actually liked the stuff.  And lest you think, “Oh she likes them because she doesn’t know what gravy should taste like.  I bet it tastes like weird vegan food,” we’ve served vegan gravy to many a meat-eater and they too have loved it.

Now, the part of the Biscuits and Gravy that I could always get behind was the biscuits!  My favorite biscuit recipe is in the book How it All Vegan by Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer.  I’ve made these so many times that my book actually opens up to the page with “Easy Biscuits”, and the name is no lie.  These are usually mixed and cut before the oven is even heated.

So vegan biscuits are the easy part – vegan sausage gravy?  It hasn’t actually been hard, but it has taken some tweaking over time.  I feel like I finally have it the way I like it, although it’s easy enough to alter the recipe if you like yours thicker or thinner than this version.  You can also add whatever seasonings you like.  I keep this pretty simple, but you certainly don’t have to.  The main thing with this is that you want to use unsweetened non-dairy milk.  Even the smallest amount of sweetener can make this gravy taste way too sweet once it’s cooked and reduced.

Vegan Sausage Gravy

about 1 Tablespoon + 1/4 cup canola oil, divided
1 small onion, minced
1 package or 8 ounces vegan sausage, diced (see note)
1/2 cup All-Purpose unbleached flour
2 1/2 cups non-dairy unsweetened milk (I’ve used soy and almond)
sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

Heat the canola oil (about 1 Tablespoon) in a large, deep skillet or sauce pan over medium to medium high heat.  Saute the minced onion and a pinch of sea salt until the onions soften and become translucent.  Add your vegan sausage and saute until heated through and slightly browned.  Transfer the onion and sausage mixture into a small bowl, and return the pan to the heat.

Add 1/4 canola oil and the flour to the pan.  Whisk together to make a thick roux, and cook until it bubbles and smells nutty.  You just want to cook out the raw flour taste. Slowly add the non-dairy milk while whisking to dissolve the roux.  Stir constantly over medium heat (or lower) to let the gravy thicken.  (This is usually when I put the biscuits in the oven.)

Once it’s simmered and become the thickness that you like, add the sausage and onion mixture back to the pan.  Stir everything together and add the seasonings. You’ll want to use a lot of  pepper and plenty of salt.

This makes a pretty thick gravy.  If you want it a bit thinner, just add a some non-dairy milk until you get the consistency you like.  If it’s too thin for you, let it continue to reduce and simmer.

Note: Make sure to check that your sausage is vegan.  I’ve used Morningstar Farms, and I could swear that it was vegan back in the day, but now it contains egg whites. (This link lists Morningstar’s vegan products.)  It’s a good idea to always check the label – even on products you’ve used in the past.  Companies often change the ingredients, and the only way to check this is to read the ingredient list. Tofurky Breakfast Links work well, and another good vegan sausage to try is Gimme Lean.  If you’re up for it there are also lots of vegan sausage recipes on the web. They’re actually not too difficult to make, and the best part is that you can control exactly what goes into them!

I saw Nigella Lawson make this Middle Eastern roasted eggplant dip on one of her cooking shows years ago, and since then I’ve made it many times for get togethers at our place, or as a dish to bring to a party. This doesn’t have an overpowering eggplant flavor, so even if it’s not your favorite vegetable, there’s a good chance you’ll like this dip.  Ryan usually hates eggplant, but loves this.

It’s also very easy to make, and you don’t need to use a food processor or blender for this.  It does take a bit of time since you have to roast the eggplants and wait for them to cool, so just make sure to plan ahead.

The original recipe would be totally vegan were it not for the addition of Greek yogurt.  The first time I made this I was a bit stumped on what to use instead.  Regular soy yogurt would be too thin, so that probably wouldn’t work.  I decided to try vegan sour cream in place of the Greek yogurt and it works perfectly.

The recipe also calls for saffron threads – that’s them in the photo above, blooming in some warm water. Saffron can be expensive.  I found a tiny box of them that didn’t break the bank, and I got them just for making this dip.  I have made it without the saffron and it turned out fine, so don’t sweat it if you don’t have any.

I think that the mint and pine nut garnishes are what make this so amazing.  Just remember that pine nuts can burn quickly, so be sure to keep an eye on them when you toast them.  I usually do this in a small, dry skillet while I saute the onions and garlic.

I always love to find a recipe from a chef who is nowhere near being vegan, but has recipes that you can easily veganize and that are still really impressive and delicious.  This dip is both, especially when served with pita chips.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I have!

Last week in my  Bakin Wrapped Dates post I mentioned a Date Cake that I’d made, and here it is!  When I first passed the date stand at the Farmers Market I had a flash of this cake that my Mom had made when I was little.  I probably remembered it because dates sounded really scary to me, but the cake had been surprisingly tasty. I imagine it was one of those times that they had to tell me what was in it after I’d taken a bite and liked it.

This cake is so incredibly delicious and moist.  The dates almost give it a caramel flavor.  If I make it in a mini loaf pan I sprinkle some chopped pecans on top.  Their hint of buttery, caramel flavor compliment this nicely. For this version in a bundt pan I added about a half cup of shredded sweetened coconut, because I had some on hand, and it seemed like it would work well with this cake.  It was really yummy, but you could certainly leave it out if coconut’s not your thing.

I end up tweaking this recipe a bit each time I make it, and I’ve only ever made this in a mini loaf pan or in this small bundt pan.  I’ve tried it with less sugar (since the dates and chocolate chips add sweetness), and I’ve also tried it with reduced amounts of margarine.  It seems to work well each time, so it’s a good recipe to try if you’re intimidated by baking.  It’s pretty resilient and will probably be delicious even if you make a couple mistakes.

Also, if you don’t want to use Ener-G you could probably use flax eggs in this recipe. Just mix 1 Tablespoon flax seeds with 3 Tablespoons water and let the mixture sit to thicken.  (Reduce flax to 2 1/2 teaspoons if you’re using pre-ground.)

I’m so grateful that my Mom has held onto all these recipes, and that I get to make them as an adult.  I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I do!

Chocolate Chip Date Cake

1 cup pitted, chopped dates
1 cup boiling water (or less if using fresh dates – anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 Cups)
1 cup non-hydrogenated margarine
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon non-aluminum baking powder
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips

Topping (optional)

1/2 Cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place chopped dates in a small bowl, and pour boiling water over them.  Set the mixture aside.  Sift dry ingredients into a separate small bowl, and set aside.

Cream margarine and sugar together.  Beat the egg replacer with the warm water, and add it to the creamed mixture along with the vanilla extract.  Scrape sides of the bowl and mix in the dates and water.  Scrape sides again, and add the dry ingredients.  With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the chocolate chips.  (This is also when I added the coconut).

Pour the mixture into a greased and floured 9 x 13 inch pan.  Mix topping ingredients together, if using, and sprinkle them over the top.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool, and enjoy!

A few years ago I saw a Good Eats episode featuring fried plantains.  They looked and sounded so good, and I made a mental note that I’d have to try them someday. Cut to breakfast a few months ago at Hugo’s Restaurant.  They were featuring a special that had plantains as part of the dish, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever had there.

Then back in September, I came across this post, and I’ve been thinking about making fried plantains ever since.  The last picture in the post, of the salty plantains with the little bowl of guacamole was just too much to take.

So yesterday when I was at the store and saw some plantains, I knew what I had to do.  I grabbed two, which turned out to be the perfect amount for this recipe, the one I’d seen so many years ago.  (Or maybe it was months, I have no sense of time when it’s always the same temperature outside.)

I started out by making the guacamole.  I used one avocado, because that’s all I had.  I added about two tablespoons of chopped shallot, but I sometimes use red onion if I have that instead.  I like my guacamole with LOTS of lime juice (or lemon, if that’s what happens to be in the fridge), so I used the juice of half a lime. It was a juicy one. Sometimes those limes are pretty dry, so just use enough for it to taste good to you.  Then I added a generous pinch of sea salt.  I mashed it all up, tasted it, and did a little dance because it was so good.

Then I prepped everything for the plantains and fried up them according to the recipe, though I think I could have mashed them a teensy bit more and let them go longer on the second fry to get a bit crisper.  Even so, they were pretty amazing.

I’m going to make a bold statement now, but I feel that I have to do it… This was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.  The guacamole was perfect thanks to a great avocado (and lime, and shallots, and salt), and the fried plantains were perfection for a starch loving girl like me. It’s like a banana and a potato had a plantain baby, and then I got to fry it up, sprinkle it with salt and dip it in guacamole.  Does it get any better than that?

The other day when I was looking for a particular post, I came across this photo in a draft that I had totally forgotten about.  I have no idea how this slipped through the cracks!  I meant to write about it this summer, and just forgot I guess.  Poor loaf.

I made this when Ryan and I went to the Hollywood Bowl with our dear friends Mike and Shannon (two of the best people in the world).  I used the Cherry Almond muffin recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, but just baked the whole thing up in a loaf pan.  I had a mixture of yellow and red cherries – please note those official names. You can see a couple of the yellows peeking out.  I’d made this recipe once before and remembered loving it.  The cherry/almond flavor combo is one of my all time favorites.

I would love to try this loaf with dried cherries, since fresh are around for such a short time and can be so expensive.  Muffins and loafs combine two of my favorite things – bread and sweet.  A loaf is even better because it’s so much easier to make!  Too bad it’s so hard to work off of your hips.  This one might still be hanging around mine, even months later…

Recently when I was buying our produce at the Market, I passed by the date stand (Dates by Davall) and thought I’d take a look.  The woman at the stand encouraged me to try the samples, and I have to admit I was a little freaked out to eat one plain. I’d read about them since they’re used so much in raw cooking, and I’d eaten them in other things – just never on their own.

With that bite of date, I’m pretty sure my life changed.  It tasted amazing!  It was like eating a piece of caramel candy.  It’s no small secret that I have a raging sweet tooth.  To think that I’d been missing out all this time, that all those nights I wanted something sweet I could have been eating dates, which are so much healthier than what I’d used to deal with sugar cravings.  It was a revelation.

Apart from eating them plain and using them for date cake (more on that in another post), I remembered bacon wrapped dates.  I’d never actually had one – dates freaked me out, remember – but I’d had bacon wrapped water chestnuts back in my meat eating days.  I looked up recipes to get a frame of reference and saw that many of them called for stuffing the dates with things like almonds or blue cheese.

You can certainly make your own tempeh bacon, but these are super easy when you use LightLife’s smoky tempeh strips.  I used Sunergia Soy Bleu as the “cheese” stuffing.

All you have to do is cut the dates to remove the pit, stuff a little piece of blue “cheese” in the opening, close it back up and wrap it in about half a slice of tempeh bacon.  You can secure the pieces with a toothpick if putting them seam side down isn’t enough to hold them together.

I baked these at 400 degrees for about ten minutes or so, but they could probably go a little bit longer.  (I ended up reheating them after Ryan took the photos, and I liked them a bit crisper.)  Just check them to see if the tempeh bacon is crisping up, or take them out while it’s still soft if you prefer it that way.

These were SO good.  I couldn’t believe how much the filling tasted like real blue cheese, and the smoky flavor of the tempeh bacon complemented the sweet dates perfectly.  I would be happy to serve these at a party, both because they’re so delicious, and also so easy!  Next time I might even try baking them with a little barbecue sauce, which sounds awesome to me!

This is the kind of recipe that I would never think I would be able to eat as a vegan, and it’s always pretty great to get one of those back.

I love this photo.  I know that tomatoes feel like summer, so these aren’t exactly seasonal.  But it’s hot here again, so when the weather is so confusing, why not just go with it?

Man oh man did I HATE tomatoes as a kid.  I wouldn’t even touch ketchup or tomato sauce.  I wonder how many times I’ll write the words, “my poor parents” in my lifetime.  I fear the day that Ryan and I have children of our own because I expect some serious karma is coming my way.

My sisters were good eaters.  They ate all their vegetables, while I pushed mine around the plate.  My poor Dad used to try to get me to eat my Mom’s baked carrots (which I bet I would just love today) by saying, “Mmm Mmm, these taste just like candy!”  There were a couple vegetable things I remember my family doing – one was sprinkling green pepper rings with a little salt.  For some reason, that stands out in my mind.  I liked those, and still like green peppers to this day.  Can’t stand red or any other color though.

The other thing I remember is that my family used to sprinkle tomato slices with sugar.  They loved it!  It would be such a treat when my Mom brought that plate into the dining room.  Oh how I wished I could like them, but all that glorious sugar was sitting on top of an evil tomato.   I was so jealous that they all seemed to be in food heaven, while I was in hell, terrified I’d have to actually try one.

My Dad used to tell us the story, “Do you girls know that I didn’t try pizza until I was seventeen years old? Seventeen!  Can you imagine that?!”

Us – “Why not, Dad? Pizza is so good!”

Dad – “You know why?  Because I thought it looked gross, and I was afraid to try it. You should always at least give a new food a try before you decide that you hate it. What’s if it’s as good as pizza, but you never find out because you wouldn’t try new things?”

That story stuck with me and became like gospel.  My God, can you imagine not eating pizza?  For seventeen whole years?!  I thought of this again when I was older and realized that it just might have been a bit of a… let’s call it a “truth stretch.”  I mean, could the man really not have eaten pizza for that long?!  Was he maybe just trying to make a point (a very effective point) to get us to not miss out on new things? And how about the fact that the sauce on that delicious pizza happened to be made from one of my most hated foods? Makes ya think.  A wise man, my Dad.

I can still be a little weird about raw tomatoes.  Making my own fresh salsa (I still remember that first batch) broke me in a bit.  I also have a bruschetta recipe from Healthy Life Kitchen that I love.  I tend to cut the tomatoes pretty small though, and they have to have lots of garlic, basil, olive oil and salt and pepper on them.  I still don’t really like raw tomatoes on my sandwiches, although there is one big exception…

The TLT, made with tempeh bacon.  On really good bread, with some Vegenaise, romaine, and heirloom tomatoes sprinkled with a little salt and pepper, this could probably be one of my favorite sandwiches.  I’ll admit that I never had a BLT in my meat-eating days.  That was another special night in our house growing up – there would be so much excitement in the air on BLT night.  I think I probably had bacon on white bread. No lettuce, and no tomatoes, thank you very much.  Maybe I would have allowed the mayo.  But it’s a big maybe.  My poor parents.

I’ve been obsessed with trifles for a long time.  For years I would save cake scraps in the freezer (much to Ryan’s annoyance), just waiting for the day when I would use them in this amazing dessert.  But I didn’t have a trifle dish, so that was my excuse.  Then I finally got one, however, now the problem was that it would make so much and I hardly had an occasion to need such a large dessert.  This thing feeds a crowd, but when we’d have a crowd over, I wouldn’t have time to make one.  See the pattern here?

Last week I saw this post on the Post Punk Kitchen message boards, and I got inspired.  I had a bunch of mini cupcake orders last week, so with each batch I made a little more than I needed and also recruited the less than perfect cupcakes that I wouldn’t want to serve.  I had chocolate and banana pudding mixes in the cabinet, and a Soyatoo carton in the fridge.  I layered vanilla cupcakes, chocolate pudding, chocolate cupcakes, banana pudding, velvet cupcakes (red velvet minus the food coloring), and then the Soyatoo, which I whipped with a tablespoon of vanilla extract.  I topped the whole thing off with grated bittersweet chocolate.

I think this would have been even better with some fruit thrown into the mix, like strawberries or cherries. Next time I make a trifle I’ll plan ahead and take the time to make homemade pudding or custard.  These puddings were okay, but I could really taste the soy in the chocolate pudding.  I also didn’t have time to let the puddings chill as long as they should have, which would have helped with their flavor.

I have more trifle ideas (black forest!), and now that I’ve tackled one I’m really excited to make more.  It’s a dessert that looks so impressive, and really isn’t too difficult to put together.  Plus it makes a ton, so it would be great for the holidays. (There were three of us eating this last night and we didn’t even put a dent in it.)  I think the key is making the cakes and puddings ahead of time.  Assembling everything is really easy.  Once I finally made this one, I couldn’t stop staring at it.  Is there anything better than cake, pudding and whipped cream?!  I can’t believe it took me so long to make one!