Vegan Lush

2010-07-02T13:45:00.001-07:00

I’m attempting to consolidate all of my disparate interests and manifestations of myself, so from now on I will be making all blog posts (food or poetry related) on my tumblr blog: embarrassingthoughts.tumblr.com. For now, it’s an experiment to see if all my thoughts and interests can go in one crazy place. If you’re following my blog, please switch to that feed. I will tag things with their subject matter to make it easier to follow what you’re interested in. See you on tumblr!

London's Bag of Vegan Tricks

2010-05-10T03:35:00.000-07:00

In my three months here, I’ve found that the UK has some fun and not so fun products in its vegan bag of tricks. Of course, I ran straight to the closest nice-looking supermarket in my neighborhood (Pimlico). This was a nice big Sainsbury’s on Wilton Road that is surprisingly well stocked with vegan goods. Overall, supermarkets here seem to be quite sensitive to the idea of people with allergies, and so even in a mainstream market like Sainsbury's there is a whole isle of "free-from" items. This means free from all dairy, eggs and gluten. Unlike in the U.S., they don't seem to try to sneak in any dairy additives like whey or butter fat, etc.

Hence, this package of completely vegan caramels that are pretty damn good, especially the caramel filling. They also make mint chocolate circles that are a nice little after dinner treat.

Pudding is a big deal here and vegans can participate in this with these lovely little alpro vanilla and chocolate pudding cups. They are creamy and smooth and yummy, perfect with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top!

Another product from this section that I have taken advantage of is this giant tub o’ curry paste! Why in god’s name do we only have the tiny little glass jars in the U.S. when we could have this huge tub! And, it’s really good too! It’s very similar to the Thai Kitchen red curry paste that I usually get, but you have a lot more leeway with proportions with such a large bucket! I’ve included a photo of it in action with a nice glass of wine.

Now, I have to explain that meat is kind of a big deal here in the UK. It’s a huge part of the culture and all the talk of sausage and meat pies can sometimes make a veggie kid feel a bit alienated. Luckily, Linda McCarthy was awesome and her company has done its best to make sure us veggie kids can have some of the traditional British treats sans the meat and dairy. Not all of her products are vegan, but the pies and sausages are, and they’re both pretty delicious. The pies are especially good with a big pile of peas mixed in. Peas are also a big deal here. Sadly, the butter substitutes are not quite up to par with these other products. Their best attempt at something like my beloved Earth Balance is Pure, and to me, it tasted kind of like what I imagine that paste they made you use instead of glue in kindergarten tastes. It’s very bland. I also found the non-cold soy milk to be kind of unappealing, though the cold alpro is fine. All in all, I’ve found a fair amount of products to be bland when I was least expecting it, but just like any city, as long as you have enough vegan tricks up your sleeve you’ll be just fine in London.

2010-03-10T05:40:00.001-08:00

I’ve been wanting to talk a little bit about my cleanse experience here for a while, so even though I am far, far away in London and basically doing the opposite of a cleanse, I’m sharing some thoughts on what it means to give up the sweeter thing in life. First off, I do seriously heart wine and cocktails and, contrary to popular belief, beer too! That’s part of the reason I started this blog, coupled with my deep love affair with veggie food. However, it was really refreshing to socialize sans the alcohol for three weeks. My boyfriend and I threw parties, went to social events and even bars and felt totally fine sipping tonic water with a lime wedge (note, this is a great drink for a night off the booze, since no one will offer to get you a drink if you already have something that looks like a drink in hand, plus it’s yummy). So, lesson learned, it’s possible and even pleasant to go out to events involving alcohol and abstain.

The second lesson I learned was much, much more difficult but well worth it. That’s right, my other great love, caffeine! For some it may be completely difficult to believe, but I gave up coffee, tea and soda for the full three weeks (OK, had a little white tea to curtail the massive headache that came upon me the second night). Cleansing my body of caffeine was an intense experience. The second night, I felt that my head was caving in and was oddly emotional (I was nearly in tears when my boyfriend offered to get me tea and tried to take care of me). After my evening from hell, it wasn’t so difficult and I found myself able to get up and about without my usual caffeine boost. It felt nice to actually detox my body of these chemicals that I had been so dependent upon. It’s also allowed me to drop my usual intake down to a small pot of chai or a single latte per day (down from a double latte plus soda or tea). It was like pressing the reset button on my body.

The last difficult task was eliminating refined carbs from my diet (the rest was cake, no pun intended, since I clearly have experience eating vegan food). I have a hardcore addiction to baguettes, udon noodles, capellini, white jasmine rice, brown sugar and so many other refined carbs, and I had to let them go. It’s not so difficult to replace rices and pastas at home, but going out became a challenge. Luckily there are a few places in SF that offer brown rice and whole wheat bread. I found myself visiting Gracias Madre and Herbivore more than once. While I will never fully give up an occasional sour baguette with earth balance and hummus slathered on it, this definitely showed me I could go for long stretches without them.

In case you’re wondering what sorts of things I ate, here are some of the yummy foods I made at home. Most are foods I’ve already mentioned here with whole grains substituted for any refined grains.

Here is some miso soup I made with brown rice miso base. It’s a little more pungent than the white miso, but still palatable.

Next some delicious curry I made for a game night we had during the cleanse. I used cabbage (Farm Fresh to you had been sending us an ungodly amount) and peas, but the recipe is the same as my former post.

This is sort of an impromptu peanut noodle dish. I bought the ginger people peanut sauce (yum!) and sautéed some veggies (of course including cabbage) in it, then served it over soba noodles.

This is a big stand by in our apartment, Pho! Here it is in the pot with our mulled wine ball (used for the pho spices instead). We basically threw in any veggies we had on hand (yes, more cabbage) and cooked in the lovely pho spices, then ladle it over brown rice udon noodles.

I loosely based this spicy tomato and leek pasta on a recipe from gourmet, but I changed around some stuff. It’s basically sautéed up leeks with chili peppers and garlic and then some chard thrown in for good measure. The pasta is brown rice macaroni. By the way, one thing about whole grain pasta is it has a very short window of time where it’s cooked right. You have to somehow be ready for it or you end up with hard or mushy pasta!

Lastly, here’s a shot of my chickeny noodle soup. I love this stuff, and it’s cleanse friendly as long as you use a whole grain noodle.

Stay tuned for my adventures in London food. Instead of my usual home cooking posts, I’ll probably focus more on the fun vegan products they have here and restos I visit, since my kitchen isn’t quite as well set up here.

Chocolate Bark

2010-01-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

To be fair, these were my X-mas treats. I made them for my friends, but even though it's belated I thought they were worth posting, because they are so delicious and super duper easy to make! Also perrty. When I saw Ina Garten make Chocolate bark on food network TV by simply melting some chocolate chips and sprinkling stuff on top, I thought it can’t be that easy! Oh, but it is.

I did use a double boiler to make sure I didn’t burn or chunk up the chocolate (just took a Pyrex bowl and put it on top of a pot of boiling water). I used one bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips with a handful of bittersweet chocolate chips and melted them down. Then I just spread the mixture out on a baking pan and sprinkled on my treats. I took a special trip to the Ferry Building farmer’s market for the best dried fruit and nuts I could find. I ended up with dried figs, dried white nectarines, candied ginger, almonds that I roasted myself and a little sea salt for toppings. I just chopped them up and pressed them into the melted chocolate. I threw that in the fridge, and a few hours later, voila! Impressive and delicious treat to give my friends.

For pairing, I would definitely go for a port! There are so many wonderful ones out there and many made here in California that pair beautifully with dark chocolate.

Oh, how I wish I could eat some of this with a nice glass of port right now, but alas, I have embarked on a 3 week detox (a la Great American Detox Diet only compressed into 3 weeks instead of 6) where I eat completely vegan (der, not difficult), no refined grains, no refined sugars, no alcohol and worst of all noooooo caffeine, my most beloved and dearest drug of all. This is day 4 and I’m feeling a bit sluggish, but powering through. I’ll be sure to post some detox-friendly foods in the coming days.

Back with Easy Peasy Black Bean Soup

2009-12-17T17:59:00.000-08:00

After taking a long hiatus (also known as a job that took up all of my time and energy), Veganlush is back to share more yummy food and wine pairings! For a long time I have neglected creative pursuits, healthy eating and exercising, but now I’m back on the wagon and ready to write up my epicurean adventures.

I’m starting out slow with an easy peasy black bean soup. This starts as usual by sautéing a few cloves of garlic in olive oil. Then, add some diced chilies (we used Serrano) and half an onion. After that, just toss in a can of black beans and a can of diced tomatoes. Pour in about a cup of no-chicken chicken broth, depending on how liquidy you want it. Then, chop up and add some veggies for nutrition and of course to add some flava. We used mushrooms, chard and a red bell pepper. For spicing, I added cumin, chili powder, salt and a bay leaf for good measure. Let that all cook up until the veggies are tender, but not mushy, and viola, you have a filling and low-fat winter soup. Garnish with some lime to add extra kick.

To pair, beans can be tricky for sho. A medium-bodied red with some tannins like a Cali Merlot or a French Côte due Rhône should be able to stand up to all that proteiny goodness in the beans

Summer Tips & Tidbits

2009-07-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some super easy, fresh and yumtastic meals I’ve been making this summer.

First off, here is my favorite favoritist breakfast of all time or yunno of the past few weeks: bagels and hummus with veggies! I like to get the Alvarado Street sprouted bagels, because they help me pretend this is a healthy meal. I slather them with my favorite hummus (spicy flavor is the best) add chopped veggies (tomato, cucumber, avocado) and salt and pepper. Then I stuff it all into my face (nom nom nom!). To pair, I would suggest a nice glass of orange juice or a soy latté, or if you’re having it for lunch, perhaps a cold beer would do the trick.

Next up is my recent go-to lazy day meal; Thai curry. You can buy vegan Thai curry paste at most stores. I use Thai Kitchen red curry paste. It says “vegan” right on the jar, so no need to worry about hidden ground up fishy bits! Yay! Take some tofu or seitan and whatever fresh veggies you have on hand. I had green beans, red bell peppers and mushrooms. Sauté them with oil, garlic, chili peppers and fresh ginger if you have it. Then simply mix the curry paste with coconut milk to your liking and pour it over your tofu and veggies. Allow all the flavors to combine while you boil up some rice or soba noodles. Dish up some of the noodles and pour your curry mixture on top and you have a delicious meal that didn’t hurt your brain to make! To pair, you might want a wine with a little bit of residual sugar, because the coconut milk is lightly sweet. I suggest a Viognier or a Riesling with just a touch of sugar.

As a bonus, here is some food porn of my vegan bake sale submission. These are the Vegan Joy of Baking oatmeal raisin cookies with lots of chocolate chips added. They sold out! Woohoo!

Also, from my recent trip to Orange County, here are two fantastic dishes from native foods. The Philly Peppersteak Sandwich and my personal favorite the Chicken Run Ranch Burger. God that stuff is good! (Please, please, please open a restaurant in SF!) I went there twice in one long weekend! We paired these with their delicious Native tea and their special summer Watermelon Agua Fresca. They told us this was super easy to make at home by combining watermelon, agave and some mint in a blender. This is the perfect summer drink!

Seitan is My Friend: Stuff I’ve Been Cookin’ up Lately

2009-07-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

My bf recently had a birthday, and since I have no trabajo and am subsisting on unemployment, I decided to make him a fancy pantsy dinner instead of taking him out to a nice resto (Although I did consider going to the new Plant Café on the Embarcadero, would make a nice date spot, veggie kids!). I knew he liked seitan and asparagus, so that was my outline. As I contemplated the two ingredients, a recent conversation about the types of meat I once liked as an omni (Yes, I still remember.) popped into my head. One of my favorite things was Steak Oscar (steak with hollandaise sauce and asparagus), and I thought, why not try to reproduce that in an elegant veggie dinner?
I did this by using packaged White Wave seitan (this stuff is the bestest best pre-made seitan ever). For this, I sautéed some garlic and chili peppers in olive oil, added the seitan and seasoned with some herbs de provence, a little extra thyme and salt and pepper. I then sautéed the asparagus in EB until just barely tender and sprinkled it with salt and pepper and a splash of lemon. To round out the meal, I made lemony potatoes from Veganomicon (I seriously think it’s a requirement for boys to love potatoes). Lastly, I used the recipe for hollandaise from VeganYumYum with some extra EB and fresh parsley added, which was well, yummy, but not terribly hollandaisish. I plan to do some experimenting and come up with my own recipe at some point (I’m thinking possible avocado or coconut milk based). The end product was an elegant veg meal that the bf seemed to enjoy a lot.

We paired it with bubbly, of course. Champagne can be a great counter to rich foods, and it made a nice complement to all the citrus in the meal. It cuts through the fats and cleanses the palate, readying it for the next bite of food.

I thought I’d share some photos of variations of this meal I’ve made in the past. First off, this is a veggie tube sausage I grilled up with pre-packaged vegan white gravy with mushrooms added.

Here is a version with roasted broccolini, which is super easy. Just toss it with olive oil, chili peppers, garlic, salt and pepper and maybe some lemon and roast until tender at about 360 degrees. I also made some canned beans on the side that I gussied up with some extra spices and a splash of lemon. To add some starch, I made brown rice in veggie broth.

For pairing, seitan is a versatile food that, like tofu, takes on the flavors of the things you cook it with. Although it is often used in a similar manner to red meat, it doesn’t overwhelm white wines in the same way many red meats can, so go ahead pair it with a nice chilled white or bottle of sparkling. You might even go for a blanc de noirs with a bit of light fruit and mouth watering acid. These can make great summer deals, especially if you stick to $20 Cali versions.

SF Vegan Bake Sale

2009-06-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the lovely SF vegan bake sale! I’m thinking I’ll make some yummy oatmeal raisin cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking (photos will, of course, be posted). Here’s the info:

The writers behind the popular SF blogs The Urban Housewife and Vegansaurus! are putting on two exquisite vegan bake sales as part of the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale.
Sales will benefit two wonderful Bay Area non-profits: Animal Place (a sanctuary for abused and discarded farmed animals) and East Bay Animal Animal Advocates!

SATURDAY, JUNE 27th, 2009
Time: 11 am to 4 pm
Address: 3506 16th Street at Sanchez, in front of Ike's Place.

SUNDAY, JUNE 28th, 2009
Time: 11 am to 4 pm
Address: 800 block of Capp St. (near 24th St., about 1/2 block from 24th st BART!)

There will be cupcakes, cookies, brownies, pie, whoopie pies and much more. There will also be Gluten Free options & treats for dogs. Additionally, a selection of cupcakes will be provided by local vegan bakery Sugar Beat Sweets! The treats are sure to be fabulous, so stop by if you can!

Peanuts are Magical! Chocolate Peanut Butter Milk Shake

2009-05-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share this little treat with ya'll, because I haven't been terribly productive lately due to my recent unemployment. I know you would think that would free up more time for blogging, but I have found quite the opposite! I'm a super busy gal, now that I'm looking for a job. Anyway, here is a fabulous concoction that proves a theory I posed last time I was in NYC: Peanuts are magical! My apologies for the less than stellar pic.

For this delicious shake, just place two scoops of vegan ice cream (vanilla or chocolate chip or cookie dough) into your blender. Then add about a tablespoon of the magic ingredient; peanut butter. Throw in some chocolate chips (about ¼ cup) and just enough chocolate soy milk to make everything mix well. Put your blender on high and blend until the chocolate chips are no longer chunky, and voila! You have a rich and decadent chocolate peanut butter milk shake.

Vegan Cocktail Party

2009-05-08T17:54:00.001-07:00

Vegan entertaining is not so different from omni entertaining, but sometimes it seems like you need to put a little extra effort in to completely dispel any preconceived negative ideas about vegan food and drinks. Here are a few tips on throwing a successful vegan cocktail party with examples from a recent bubbly and finger foods fête I threw.

Pick one or two impressive but not incredibly complicated recipes that are sure to be crowd pleasers. For this, I chose Candle Café’s meaty grilled seitan chimichurri in citrus herb marinade and lovely little corn fritters from VWAV. These recipes had about two cups of oil in them, but that brings up another one of my party rules: Indulge a little. Make that extra fatty recipe that you love. You’ll be sharing it amongst all your guests, so you don’t have to worry about eating the entire thing yourself and waking up five pounds heavier.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I asked my guests to bring an app if they could, and we ended up with a delicious bounty of eclectic dishes. Sadly, I don’t have a photo, but a friend of mine and her chef boyfriend made a beautiful trio of bruschetta; one traditional tomato, one made with beets and a third with chickpeas and fresh herbs. They were to die for.

Pepper the rest of your menu with simple, easy dishes and artisanal store-bought goods. I also served mango spring rolls, which are super easy to make, except for the julienning (Thanks, Marc!). To round things out, I bought hummus and set out bowls with nuts and chips.

Include one decadent sweet. I love to blow my friends away with rich baked goods that they would never guess were vegan. Because my party was spring-themed I made cute lemon cookies from VWAV with lemon frosting and blue sprinkles.
Set up the bar beforehand. Have your white and sparkling wines chilled. Uncork a red or two. Use a decanter for a nicer red, and have it waiting for guests. If you’re planning to serve mixed drinks, make sure all your fresh juices are squeezed, any herbs are chopped and ready and other mixers are chilled. And, of course, have a bucket of ice ready.

I love throwing parties for all of my friends, especially when they only include vegan food. This isn’t because I want to convert all of my friends to veganism (wouldn’t that be nice!) It’s because I like to show people that vegans can serve up gourmet hor d’ouvres and drinks just as well as any omni can. So, follow these tips and show your friends that the vegan life can be the lush life.

Vegan Frittata

2009-04-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

It turns out making vegan frittata is super easy. There are no messy and finicky eggs to deal with; just fluffy tofu! I looked at a couple recipes for inspiration and put this together myself. As usual, I started by sautéing some garlic and chili peppers in olive oil. Then, I added onions. I threw in the veggies I happened to have on hand: asparagus, red bell pepper and spinach then squished up the tofu and put that the pan too. I spiced it up with some turmeric, salt and pepper as well as some basil and oregano. Then I placed the whole thing in a cake pan and baked it for about a half hour at 375 degrees. Don’t quote me on the specifics, but it turned out nicely if not completely solid.
To pair, I would go with an acidic and slightly herbaceous white wine, perhaps an Albarino with some citrusy and grassy notes.

Irish Boyfriend Soda Bread

2009-04-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

OK, so my boyfriend isn’t from Ireland, but his family originally is, and I’m a lucky duck, because he veganized an old family recipe for me, and it was super yummy. This is a lovely, lightly sweet loaf of bread that is wonderful toasted with some earth balance. I even have a full recipe to go along with my photo. I know it’s way past St. Patrick’s day, but this bread makes a fab breakfast or snack any time of year.

4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp sugar1 tsp salt

1/4 cup Earth Balance (preferably sticks)

2/3 cup raisins or currants

2 tsp caraway seeds

1 cup (soy) milk

1/2 cup white or apple cider vinegar

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees.
Soak raisins or currents in hot water to plump.

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and caraway seeds together and cut in EB until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Drain raisins and add to flour mixture.

Mix milk and vinegar (let sit for a min until it gets thicker), and add to dry mix until just blended.

Put on floured surface and kneed gently (Not long).

Shape into round and cut an X in the top.

Put into greased pie plate or on greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 40 min. Cool on wire rack.
Easy peasy, right? For pairing, I think this would go best with a nice herbal tea. It would be just delicious with an orange blossom tea or perhaps plain old lemon zinger. If you wanted to pair it with wine, you might try a Viognier with a light bit of residual sugar or a Riesling.

2009-03-30T18:14:00.001-07:00

For a long time I tried to produce Indian food in my own home with very little success. Then, I realized the virtue of a few choice ingredients, and I was able to make a curry that, while not terribly authentic, is delicious and satisfying. One key ingredient is fresh coriander! I like to grind it myself with a mortar and pestle. You start with olive oil, chili flakes and garlic, then add the ground coriander. When the garlic has begun to cook into the oil, add some canned diced tomatoes. After a few minutes you can start to add your veggies. I love cauliflower in curries, so that’s what I used in this one. Then, I usually add a legume. Peas are delicious in Indian food, because they soak up all of the intense flavors very nicely. Mushrooms are also a lovely addition. After you’ve added your veggies, you will need to add the other key ingredient; coconut milk! This stuff is the best for veggie kids who want to add creaminess to a dish without using soy. You can add as much as you would like depending on how creamy and coconuty you want the dish. Then, add some chili powder, some good quality pre-made curry powder and a dash of garam marsala. You need to let this simmer for about 15 minutes or so in order to allow all of the flavors to integrate. Then, voila, you have a beautiful home-made curry.
To pair, I would suggest a light Chardonnay with some oak adding hints of vanilla to match the richness and light sweetness of the coconut. You could also try a Gewürztraminer with a light bit of residual sugar to counter the spice.

I Ate Half of Manhattan: A Love Story, Part I

2009-03-19T21:47:00.000-07:00

I am a lucky little vegan who gets to go to NYC on a regular basis. This last trip was somewhat bitter sweet, because I had recently been through some personal drama, but the fabulous food and the company of my best friend Julia (see matzo bellow) were very cathartic. I usually plan my trip itineraries around the many, many amazing vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants in and around Manhattan I want to hit, so I thought I would share some of the fantastic food adventures I had during my last trip there.

One of the most wonderful food experiences I’ve had in a long time was going to 4 Course Vegan. This is one of those underground dinner party deals, where you reserve a spot at someone’s apartment and eat with strangers. Yes, it may sound sketchy, and in fact, I had my doubts as we trekked out to Brooklyn to what looked like an old warehouse to get to Chef Matteo’s loft. As soon as I took one bite, though, all of my doubts disappeared and I fell into food love! The meal started with a beautiful little amuse bouche that consisted of a raw cashew cheese ravioli. This had to be some of the best cashew cheese I’ve ever had. Chef Matteo told me that he made it using a similar technique to Roxanne Klein for whom I incidentally used to do PR and whose cookbook I happen to already own! I will surely be trying this out soon.

The next course was a lovely creamy parsnip bisque with crispy shallots and apple relish. The shallots were such a nice salty addition, and the soup was flavorful and hearty.

After that we had another amazing nut cheese! This romaine salad covers up a generous dollop of macadamia nut cheese that was also incredibly delicious and very much like soft cheese I remember from my dairy-eating days. Incidentally, I had nearly given up on vegan cheese recently after too many bad experiences with Follow Your Heart and Tofutti, but this trip really brought back my faith! Vive le fromage végétalien! I’m ready to join the vegan cheese revolution.

Our main course was a rich lasagna with portabella mushrooms and a pesto sort of sauce. The cream sauces he made were mind blowing. They would blow any omni’s socks off.

We ended with a cute little cinnamon and carrot torte that was light and sweet. It has been a long time since I’ve gotten a tasting menu where every course was this spot on, and this is just one guy in his own apartment, making only one set of dishes to please everyone! It was truly impressive.

We paired the entire meal with an Alsatian white wine we bought at wine shop down the street. By the way, we only paid $40 for this fresh gourmet 4 course meal! That is a serious deal.
This is me and Julia lookin' very happy at the dinner!
One spot I always, always have to hit when I’m in NYC is Atlas Café. They carry Vegan Treats desserts, which are the most orgasmically, unbelievably decadent and delicious desserts! This time we ordered a brownie with peanut butter mousse. I have no idea how they made this rich fluffy mousse, but my god, was it good. We also got a slice of chocolate s’more cake! This was almost too sweet, but we sacrificed ourselves and ate it anyway. The whole shebang was paired with soy hot chocolate.

As long as I’m talking about desserts, let’s move on to Babycakes. My friends and I ordered a vanilla, a chocolate, and a carrot cupcake. The carrot was by far the best with its thick coconutty frosting and light moist cake.

Another place that I will absolutely not miss when I go to Manhattan is Counter. Their brunch rivals that of Fellini in Berkeley, and that is one of my all time favorites. Pardon these terrible photos, but the lighting was poor at our little corner booth, but I decided to forego asking to be reseated, because I was enjoying the ambiance. We ordered a tofu frittata Florentine and breaded French toast with banana flambé. Both were painfully good. The frittata was eggy with a dreamy hollandaise sauce, and the French toast was decadently rich. We paired this with fresh orange juice and soy lattés. That’s all the vegan adventures I can tell you about tonight. Stay tuned for part II, and tales from my next trip this April.

A Very Belated Valentine's Post

2009-03-18T18:20:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share some lovely treats that I made this Valentine’s Day. The first are the chocolate stout cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with cream cheese frosting from that same book with a dusting of cocoa powder instead of the crumb top (I just figured that would be more decadent.) Note; boys love things made with beer. They just do. Don’t question it, just learn how to make these or beer potatoes (I’ll have to do those in another post).

The second treat is a classic bit of pastry that I made for my Valentine’s dinner. I used the recipe for a fruit tart from The Joy of Vegan Baking. The shortbread crust is genius! The pastry cream is delicious, and the fruit choices were fabulous (thanks, me!). In case you can’t distinguish, I used clementines, kiwi, strawberries, and raspberries.
For pairing, you might couple the cupcakes with a nice creamy stout (there are many vegan ones), or you could go with a robust dessert wine such as a tawny port. I also recently tried a Muscat that was aged in Rye barrels that would go nicely. The tart would do well with a demi-sec sparkling wine. The tart is not a terribly sweet dessert, so a lightly sweet demi-sec would go beautifully with it.

Guest Post by Julia - Adventures in Vegan Jewish Cooking

2009-02-26T22:25:00.000-08:00

Jewish food is totally weird and amazingly delicious. Unfortunately almost none of it is vegan. I was raised semi-Jewish (we celebrated holidays but never went to temple), and these foods are near and dear to my heart. Since going vegan about 7 months ago, I've been thinking about trying to make some of my favorite things -- I can't live the rest of my life without matzo ball soup! Unemployment leaves a person with a lot of time on their hands, and I spent the past two days cooking up a vegan Jewish feast!

I made matzo ball soup, latkes (potato pancakes) and homemade apple sauce. The soup recipe is courtesy of Isa at the ppk, and the recipe can be found at: http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=147 If you have the time, I really recommend making your own soup broth instead of using pre-made broth. Definitely make it the day (or days) before. The broth recipe on the PPK website is pretty good. But her matzo ball recipe is awesome, and I swear it would fool any Jewish old ladies. Fresh dill is a must!

It’s pretty easy to find a vegan recipe for the latkes. Basically it's just grated potato and onion with salt, pepper, and some flour (or matzo meal if you wanna be fancy). Add some applesauce to help them stick together a bit. The recipe I used came from the Candle Cafe cookbook.
Applesauce is absolutely essential if you are serving latkes, and it's so easy to make from scratch! Granny smiths are a good choice, or a blend of a few different apples. Just de-core and cook for about an hour with water, lemon, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I like to leave the skins on, but you can also peel them.

This meal totally rocked, if I do say so myself. And Passover is just around the corner!

As for pairing, I'm not really an expert at this, but I would think a Chardonnay would go well with the rich soup flavors. Just don’t pair it with Manischewitz.

Super Easy Soups and Stews!

2009-01-29T23:07:00.000-08:00

It has been unusually cold in San Francisco this winter (stupid climate change!), so I’ve been turning to simple but flavorful soups and stews to keep me warm. One easy way to create a soup or stew is to start with a mirepoix! Mirepoix is just a 2:1:1 ratio of onions to carrots to celery. Sauté this with olive oil and garlic and maybe some chili peppers and you’re set for several kinds of soup.

For my first soup I added faux chicken broth, parsnips, and white beans to the mirepoix. Then I seasoned with salt, pepper and herbs de provence with a spash of soy milk to create a creamy stew. This second soup is my very own special feel better chickeny (That means mock chicken in lush speak) soup! I started with a mirepoix, added faux chicken broth, White Wave seitan sautéed with some Earth Balance and Braggs, chopped up kale and spelt pasta. This was seasoned with Bay Leaves, Thyme, fresh parsley and salt and pepper. This last soup didn’t start with a mirepoix, just onions and garlic. The recipe is from the PPK http://www.theppk.com/recipes, and includes instructions on making your own chili powder. One tip, we found that using a mortar and pestle is better than a food processor for this. It has an intense and spicey flavor, but is so simple to make. The pineapple garnish makes a huge difference, and the lime adds a nice splash of flavor.

Pairings: Each of these soups has its own unique character, so my suggested pairings are quite diverse. The parsnips have a very light and pleasant sweetness that would do nicely with a slight bit of residual sugar. A very lightly sweet Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling would go well with this soup. For the chickeny soup, I would also go for a white wine. The delicate broth couldn’t stand up to a red. For this, you could go with a light-bodied Chardonnay that doesn’t have too much oak or perhaps a Rhône white like Viognier, or a Rhône white blend. For the lentil soup, I would go with an earthy red to match the savory bean flavors. Try a Napa or Sonoma Merlot with a couple years of aging, nothing too young and fruity. The combination of hot and spicy stew with a nice glass of wine is a great way to ward off winter chills.

2008-10-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

After a brief hiatus, I’m back with something fresh, beautiful and delish; rustic bruschetta. (The Vegan Lush has been going through some big life transitions, but now things have settled down, and I’m ready to blog about fabulous vegan food and wine again!) Yes, it is the end of tomato season, but some markets are still carrying sweet and juicy little heirloom cherry tomatoes, and they make a really lovely bruschetta. For this version I chopped up a couple pounds of tomatoes, a handful of basil, and about a half cup of pitted olives. I tossed it all with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Lastly, I topped it with sea salt and freshly ground pepper, et voila! The croustini is just sliced French bread that I brushed with olive oil and broiled for a couple minutes. It is so easy and makes a great party food. I took this to the Vegan Brunch Cartel meeting in San Francisco last month.

This is a refreshing dish, so I definitely recommend a zippy wine. The tomatoes are so sweet and tart that they would do nicely paired with a California Sauvignon Blanc with a good amount of acid, or you might even try a nice dry Rosé with some fruity watermelon notes.

More Adventures in Vegan Baking

2008-08-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

I am discovering a love for baking these days, and I especially love making baked goods for groups of people, because then the goodies don’t sit in my fridge and force me to eat some every time I happen to open the door. I made this batch of classic chocolate chip cookies using the recipe from the Vegan Joy of Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I have made them once before, and I found that when you use Earth Balance and add the salt she suggests, they turn out a bit too salty. This time I may have overcompensated a bit, because I made them with Soy Garden Earth Balance, and I added less salt, and they turned out a little under salted. Nonetheless, they were pretty fantastic. I made them for my acting class, and I truly enjoyed the shocked and amazed looks on people’s faces as I told them the yummy cookies they had just eaten were in fact vegan! One girl looked at me as if I must have made them with some sort of magical poison potion, but when I explained that Earth Balance was vegan, she seemed to calm down a bit.

Baked goods are hard to pair! Elegant lightly sweet tarts and dark chocolate gateaux are much easier to pair than old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies. You need something to stand up to their cakey sweetness, but also to the richer flavors in the semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli, by the way). This could probably do well with a tawny port or a light ruby port. Most white dessert wines would have trouble next to the chocolate. You might also try a late-harvest Zinfandel with a good amount of residual sugar or a Cognac with some nice caramel notes.

Sweet Golden Beets

2008-08-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

As shocking as it may seem, in the not too distant past I was a beet hater! It’s true, I’m ashamed to admit it, but I once did not see the virtue of their earthy, lightly sweet magical flavor. Having roasted baby beets over a creamy celery root puree at a Christmas party last year really helped to start turning things around, though, and I’ve been experimenting with the delicious little jewels ever since. My favorite varieties are chioga (candy cane) and golden beets. They are a little lighter in flavor than red beets and lend themselves to simple preparations that highlight their naturally complex flavors. For the golden beets below, I simply peeled and chopped them into inch-wide chunks. Then I tossed them with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, herbs de province (OK, I need to look into some other spices), chili flakes, salt and pepper. I placed them on a cookie sheet in a pre-heated 375 degree oven, and I baked for about an hour. After about 45 minutes or so, I start checking every once in a while by poking them with a fork, until I get them to the right consistency (still firm, but cooked through enough to easily sink your teeth into).

Since these guys are so earthy tasting, I would recommend an earthy wine, maybe a Paso Robles Pinot Noir for something a little fruitier or a Côte du Rhône for something a little hardier. Otherwise, you might play off of their sweetness and slight bit of acid and try a wine with a little residual sugar like a lightly sweet Riesling from Germany.

Mythical Chickpea Cutlets of Glory

2008-07-21T22:27:00.001-07:00

Yes, I made them; the infamous chickpea cutlets of Veganomicon! They were tasty, although they didn’t quite blow my mind the way they seemed to for other vegan kids. They tasted a bit wheaty, but when covered in a packet of golden vegan gravy (just add water on the stove), they were hearty and satisfying. For a little side dish, I sautéed some kale and mushrooms with onions, garlic, salt and pepper. I think next time, I might try running the chickpeas in a food processor, because they were also a bit chunky for my taste.

The best news is this is a red wine friendly meal. Don’t let people tell you vegan food is for white wine. They are ninnies! Yes, I used the world “ninny.” I would consider a European red wine with subtle tannins for this. Specifically, it could go nicely with a Montepulciano from Italy with a good amount of fruit and smooth tannins.

Guest Post from Julia in NYC

2008-07-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

My lovely friend who lives in New York created a hardy salad with a combination of fresh and grilled veggies. If you want to make a salad that is filling and satisfying, adding grilled veggies is a great idea. Here is her description:

After catching up on Veganlush today, I felt inspired to create a meal that was both delicious and beautiful! My boyfriend went and got our CSA share today, so we had lots of fresh veggies. I made this awesome salad (and BF helped) with fresh lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, tomatoes, quinoa, grilled zucchini and shredded radish. Delicious! Everything was grown at an organic farm upstate except the tomatoes and quinoa. It was so pretty I had to take a picture and share it with you.

We paired this fresh salad with a glass of ice water to combat the ever-present heat, but I think it also would have been very nice with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc or a light Chardonnay.

My Thoughts: I love that there is a Dunkin Donuts bag and other random stuff on the table, so NY! While salad doesn’t necessarily have to be paired with white wine, the hot weather in NYC, and the herbal quality of the veggies used in this dish call for it. A grassy Sauvignon Blanc would definitely hit the spot.

Lush Chow Mein

2008-07-14T22:19:00.001-07:00

I like to cook up an easy batch of chow mein from time to time when I have some good Asian greens like baby bok choy or cabbage. It’s so simple. In reality, I usually use buckwheat soba noodles, but you can use any noodles you like. First just sauté up your veggies of choice. I always start with a little bit of oil and a couple cloves of garlic, let the garlic cook for a minute, then add some onions and chili flakes. After that toss in all your veggies and some tofu. I had carrots, celery, and baby bok. Flavor the veggies with some Tamari (or soy sauce if you must) and/or Bragg’s amino acids. If that's just not enough salt, use some veggie broth or powdered veggie broth. Then add some spices to jazz it up. I used a bit of chili powder and lemon. You can also add ginger if you like the flavor.

For pairing, the light flavors in a veggie chow mein don’t like red wine! Stick with a softer white, maybe a subtly oaked Chardonnay, or if you’ve used a lot of lemon, you might want something more zippy like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Simply Elegant

2008-07-12T15:03:00.001-07:00

This is a simple but elegant meal of roasted herbed tofu, asparagus, and potatoes. Roasting veggies is one of my favorite preparations, and it’s super easy. Just chop up your veggies toss them with olive oil and herbs (in this case herbs de province, salt, pepper, a bit of paprika), and roast them until golden and crispy. This is usually at about 450 degrees in the oven for 25 to 35 minutes, depending on the veggie. Thinner asparagus will take less time, and so will thinly cut potatoes. You should stir them around with a spatula from time to time to make sure they cook evenly, and check whether they are done yet.

Most wine writers are frightened by asparagus, but the flavors in this meal are clean and savory, and I don’t think it’s too hard to pair. A dry Riesling would do nicely (that’s what we had), so might some California Sauvignon Blancs, or you could be adventurous and get an Albariño from Spain, known for their grassy characteristics.

Devil Cookies

2008-07-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

So, I listened to the devil and made the chocolate cookies for the evil chocolate cookie frosting sandwiches I thought of. I had a little extra time one night and I busted out Isa’s recipe for chocolate-chocolate chip walnut cookies from Veganomicon. I didn’t have a bunch of stuff, including soy milk (for which I subbed half plain silk soy creamer and half hazelnut soy creamer, ‘cuz that’s just what I had), walnuts (for which I subbed more chocolate chips), canola oil (for which I subbed "vegetable" oil), or flax (for which I subbed nada). They still turned out great and made some ridiculously decadent cookie sandwiches! I know the photos aren’t the loveliest and neither are the cookies, but they were rich and sweet and very satisfying.

To pair, I would suggest a tall glass of cold soy milk. You would need a really sweet wine to stand up to this. Perhaps a Tawny Port with some nice caramel notes, but wow would that be a sugar rush!

Pasta Party!

2008-07-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

I decided to blow everyone’s socks off (that’s right I said it) at my book club this month, so I made a baked pasta dish with cashew cream topping. I apologize for the awful photo. I realize now it looked a lot more appealing on the plate! For the pasta I made my go-to arrabiata sauce that has just a hint of spice. It’s trés simple, considering the delicious results you get. I just start with a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, add a few cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped) and about a teaspoon of chili peppers. Next I add the sauce and let it simmer for about a half hour. Approximately fifteen minutes in, you can add any veggies that suit your fancy. I used mushrooms and spinach in this. Olives work well too. I spread that out in a pan and topped it with cashew cream (blended up cashews with some water, lemon juice and in this case fresh basil, salt and pepper). I got the idea from Vegan Yum Yum http://veganyumyum.com/2008/03/gnocchi-with-thyme-vinaigrette-and-lemon-cashew-cream/ (those peeps are genius!). Then I baked it at 350 for about a half hour, just until the pasta seemed nice and heated through. My friend made a super easy garlic bread for this. She spread Earth blance on a crusty bread, then spread chopped up garlic on it and baked it for about 10 minutes.

A few nights later I made some marinara from a mirepoix base. Mirepoix is just onions, carrots, and celery in a 2:1:1 proportion. You have to be sure to chop up the veggies really small for this sauce, then coat them in as much crushed or pureed tomatoes as you want and cook for about a half hour. I’m not too precise about pasta, because it usually turns out well no matter what you do.

To pair with these recipes, I would definitely consider two different wines. With the baked pasta, go with something acidic enough to stand up to red sauce, but also something earthy enough to match the cashew cream. A fruity youngish California Cab might work or you might want to go to France and try a Côte du Rhône wine. For the mirepoix sauce, I would stick to tradition and go with a Chianti. Chiantis are ideal for red sauce, because they have the acidity to stand up to the tomatoes. I’m not usually a traditionalist when it comes to pairings. I don’t think you need to have a German wine with German food, or sake with Japanese food, etc. I think it’s all about flavor, but marinara is one of those things where you just can’t go wrong with a good Italian wine.

Wakey Wakey

2008-07-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

I am not a morning person. I usually hit snooze four of five times, then force myself out of bed for a bowl of cereal with soy milk and a glass of bottled orange juice, but one thing that can get me going, especially when I have some time on the weekends is a good tofu scramble. My methodology is pretty simple. I start with a little bit of oil in a pan, then add garlic, onion and usually some chili peppers. Then I chop up some plain firm tofu into tiny little squares (For some reason I usually don’t use the squish method; maybe it’s the dirty hands.), and I dice up whatever veggies I have in my fridge and add them in order of whichever will take the longest to cook. I try to add veggies that complement each other, of course. This one happened to have asparagus, mushrooms and tomatoes. If it’s that sort of combination, I usually call it garden vegetable scramble and add Herbs de Provence (my favorite spice combo), some braggs, and maybe a little extra garlic powder, et voila; a lovely tofu scramble is born. For a variation, I will sometimes use more Mexican friendly veggies, add black beans and Mexican spices and serve with tortillas. For this version, I toast some bread with Earth balance.

To pair with this weekend brunch, I made fresh squeezed orange juice. We happened to have a lot of oranges and a brand spankin new juicer to work with. You also can’t go wrong with mimosas for brunch (unless of course you drink way too many and are useless for the rest of the day… not that I’ve ever done that.)

2008-06-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

Cake just makes me smile. Its presence in a room lights everyone up, and although many vegans have lived a vanilla cake free life, because there is an oddly large proportion of vegan chocolate cake out there, it is really quite easy to make a fabulous vegan vanilla cake. I simply adapted the recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I doubled the vanilla cupcake recipe and the vanilla frosting recipe, leaving me with a ton of frosting afterward (The little devil on my shoulder is thinking cookie frosting sandwiches). I made two layers and spread strawberry preserves with frosting in between. I also added a little bit of almond extract to the frosting to give some depth of flavor and had a little fun with decorating (I love the little red sprinkle doodas!) and voila; a perty little cake.

For pairings I would highly suggest a sec (sweet) or demi-sec sparkling wine. Don’t ask my why they are called that. Sec actually means dry in French, and usually dry means not sweet when it comes to wine, but for some reason they decided to make it extra confusing for everyone. Another type of wine that might work would be a lightly effervescent dessert wine like a Muscato (my personal fave). These are Italian dessert wines that are white, lightly sweet and usually have deep blueberry flavors. They make a great dessert on their own but pair nicely with a variety of cakes and tarts.

Baked Tofu!

2008-04-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

Baked Tofu in the store can be quite pricey and not nearly as good as home made. We used about.com’s method [http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/maindishes/r/bakedtofu.htm] with Veganomicon’s Italian marinade to make baked tofu at home, and it turned out crispy, light, and delicious. It had that perfect Umami protein flavor and a lovely firm texture.

First you squeeze the heck out of the little tofus that you have cut into rectangles. You mush them with books and get as much liquid out as possible. Then you marinate them for about an hour in the Veganomicon recipe (or any others that suit you)

Afterward, you bake them at 300 degrees for about an hour and a half to two hours.
Then you get lovely golden brown tofu cutlets!

We incorporated them into a pasta dish in an olive oil sauce with mushrooms and asparagus.

By itself this tofu would probably be overwhelmed by a red wine. I would suggest a white wine with some nice acidity and some citrus notes, perhaps a California Sauvignon Blanc. Since the marinade isn’t very strong, a light Pinot Grigio would probably go well too. If you do something like we did and add asparagus, I would suggest a more herbal Sauvignon Blanc with grassy notes or maybe a Viognier to to contrast and cut the herbal flavors. Basically there are two schools of thought with pairing. One is to complement the flavors with a wine that mirrors the food. The other is to cut the flavors in the dish with a wine that has apposing flavors. You can do either here.

2008-03-06T21:53:00.000-08:00

Many people do not realize how versatile sparkling wine is. While it is great as an aperitif at a special occasion, it can also be paired with all different types of meals and snacks. One fun pairing that is often talked about is potato chips with sparkling wine. Sparkling wine is refreshing and palate cleansing next to salty snack foods. Because sparkling wines come in several different percentages of residual sugar they can go with a variety of different foods. This site: http://www.californiachampagnes.com/brut.html has a nice little chart, although I disagree with the usage of Champagne to describe California wines (don’t get me started, but suffice it to say Champagne is a place, not a type of wine and California is simply not Champagne).

I created a meal of roasted root vegetables, quinoa pilaf and herbed black lentils that I think would go nicely with a brut sparkling wine. So far the only bubbly I was able to confirm is vegan is Moët & Chandon. This can be a bit pricey for an everyday meal, but they do make some lovely Champagnes (yes they are actually located in Champagne). I would recommend this meal with one of their brut wines.

I do not closely adhere to recipes, nor do I measure things, so unfortunately all I can give you are estimations and links to the recipes that inspired me.

For the roasted root vegetables I started by chopping up four small red potatoes, one medium rutabaga and four Jerusalem artichokes. I then melted some Earth balance and oil (a little more than enough to coat) into a pan and I sautéed half an onion and some garlic in that. After that I added the veggies so I could coat them in the fats. I also added Herbs de Province, salt, pepper, and a bit of paprika. When that was all done, I placed them on a baking sheet and cooked them for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

For the lentils, I placed one cup of lentils with two cups of water (I ended up having to add a bit more) in a small pot. I added powdered mock chicken broth, some onion and garlic powder and salt and pepper. Then I brought it to a boil and simmered it until the lentils had absorbed the water and were soft.

For the Quinoa Pilaf, I sautéed half an onion and a couple cloves of garlic in some oil, I added the quinoa, let it get toasty, then added water, more mock chicken broth, and more of the herbs de province.

The earthy flavors in the vegetables and the lentils play nicely off of the brisk acid in a brut wine. There is a slight sweetness to the rutabaga that gives contrast to a dry Champagne. The root vegetables also take on a slight appley flavor that is matched in many sparkling wines.

I’ll be suggesting some other pairings for sparkling wines and giving you more wineries where you can buy vegan bubbly in future postings.

Hi vegan and vegan-curious foodies!

2008-02-28T15:33:00.001-08:00

I am thrilled to be starting my own blog about vegan food and wine, because frankly I am tired of drooling over vegan food porn and trying to explain vegan pairings without a good outlet for my own ideas. This blog is going to blow red with meat, white with chicken and fish out of the water (no pun intended). Stay tuned for posts on subjects like vegan French toast and mimosas, lentils and spaetzle with dry Riesling, and reviews of veg-friendly restaurants with good wine lists.