Guest Post by Julia - Adventures in Vegan Jewish Cooking

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!

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.

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

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

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

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

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.