New recipe in November

Where has this year gone???

I'm getting more writing done at work, but not here.  I guess I only have so much writing in me at any given point.

I found this recipe and I knew I needed to modify it! It sounded so yummy, but I always substitute some other non-dairy milk for coconut milk, usually cashew milk and indeed, that's what I did here.  I also changed out the lentils for garbanzo beans. I used frozen veggies because I didn't have fresh and didn't feel like a store run. And I didn't have the kind of curry that she had so I googled to see what all went into it and improvised. 

I mostly measured my spices... Or at least I did at first.  If I added more, I'm not sure how much so I put a range on those spices that I increased as I was cooking.

Oh She Glows called this a Butternut and Cauliflower Curry. That's a pretty good description.  We'll stick with that.  It's a winner!  New dinner!

Super easy dinner.  I threw everything into the pot and cooked it for 45-ish minutes. 
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups water, 1/2 cup cashews, blended into cashew milk
1 can (28-ounces) diced tomatoes, with juices
1 bag frozen cauliflower
1 -2 carrots 
1 bag frozen butternut squash
1 can (29-ounces) garbanzo beans
1-2 tablespoons curry powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 -2 teaspoons garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/4-1/2 teaspoon coriander
1-3 teaspoons chili powder
juice of 1/2 lemon

2 cups frozen broccoli (put in after everything cooks for 15 -20 minutes) -- this could be kale if you prefer.

Look, a bad picture.  I'll get a better one at some point.  Serve with sourdough bread, rice, quinoa, or just eat!

Cashew Cream "Cheese!"

I am loving cashew cream "cheese!"

Inspired by this recipe, I made a cheese.

What I did:
1.5 cups raw cashews
water (soak the cashews in the water for 2-8 hours) then drain.

Put soaked cashews in the food processor along with
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced (or as much as you like)
½ teaspoon sea salt
black pepper, to taste
½ tablespoon dried basil
½ tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon honey* (or vegan sweetner)

Process until smooth.  It may take 5-10 minutes with stops to scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl.

Chill and enjoy!  (Or eat straight out of the food processor while it's warm.... your call.)


Someday, I want to make the "tomato jelly" on that same blog. It sounds FABULOUS.



*Yea, I know honey isn't vegan and I know we don't want to exploit bees, but I think if we treat bees right and use only small amounts of their honey, then they will be more valued and have more people on their side to help them. Bees are shipped around to different fields of produce to pollinate the fields. We need our bees and we need them to be healthy and we need to take good care of them. (We have so many problems with our food supply and the way we do things to make enough food for everyone in the country.)  See http://waywardspark.com/transporting-bees-locally-and-to-california-for-almond-pollination/ for more info--in my opinion really interesting.

Yum!

It's  been a month since my last blog post. I'm done with my class and I return with a fun recipe of chocolate frosting from the Cupcake project.

3 cups raw cashews (soak for a couple hours)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Blend.  Eat. OMG.

Note, this is not sweet. We like it that way. Also, we always have to add more water to get it to blend into a smooth frosting. Since we're not doing anything fancy with it (mostly putting it on graham crackers or a spoon) we don't need it to be super thick.

A new holiday tradition

For Thanksgiving, I made this delicious bad boy! (Yea, I realize it's almost February and I'm just getting around to telling you about it.)

My pictures aren't as good as the pictures on that (linked) web site, but I was so proud of my first ever, "rolled cake." I thought it would be harder than it was. The hardest part was figuring out what a jelly roll pan was. I put my silicone liner on it and baked and it worked well!

After it cooled the prescribed amount of time, I frosted one side and rolled it up. Don't be shy with the frosting!

I then slathered it all up.

Here's the recipe copy and pasted from the other site. (They get full credit; I just like to put the recipe here for safe-keeping.)

Dry Ingedients
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour (Can use 1/2 unbleached white flour and 1/2
whole wheat pastry flour for a slightly lighter cake)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
1/4-1/2 teaspoon allspice (optional)  

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Wet Ingredients
1 tablespoon of flax seeds
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh, drain off liquid if using fresh)
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
2/3 Maple syrup
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut parchment paper or use a silicone pan liner to fit a 9 x 12 inch jelly roll pan.
2. In a large bowl sift the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
3. Put the wet ingredients into a blender and blend completely.
4. Gently pour the liquid mixture in to the dry mixture and stir.
5. Pour and spread the batter into the prepared jelly roll pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes, check after 10 minutes, cake should be just firm with a little spring. Remove from oven and cool for 2-3 minutes.
6.Roll the cake with the parchment paper inside the cake and place seam side down to cool. (I did this with my silicone liner and it was fine to use!)
7. Prepare the filling and when the cake is completely cooled, gently unroll the cake being careful not to break or crack it and spread with filling on the inside.
8. Sprinkle half of the Cinnamon Walnut mixture inside the cake on the filling. (I left this out 'cause some little girls aren't into nuts.)
9. Roll the cake back up again without the parchment paper, wrap it with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
10. Frost with remaining filling and sprinkle with the cinnamon nut mixture.
Makes about 10-15 servings.

Tofu-Cashew Frosting 
2 12.3 oz packages extra-firm silken tofu – drained and pressed dry.
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
1/3 cup light grade A maple syrup
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Put all ingredients into a food processor.
2. Puree ingredients in a food processor until very smooth.
3. Refrigerate while you make the cake. Check the frosting when you take
the cake out of the oven. If it is too firm to spread, leave it at room
temperature while the cake cools. Refrigerate the frosted cake.

Cinnamon Walnut Topping and Filling
1 cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 cup of sucanat (dried cane juice) (Can use brown sugar)
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Mix ingredients together and sprinkle on the frosted cake

All Cashew Frosting
2 cups raw cashew pieces
1/2 cup pitted dates
1 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

My notes:
I used the tofu frosting, but next time, I'll use the all cashew frosting.
What the original site doesn't tell you is to make it in advance! The cake gets more moist from the frosting and is softer and more delicious after at least 8 hours in the refrigerator. The one I let sit in the fridge overnight was HEAVENLY. I might need to make this again soon!

Gratuitous shot of a homemade pumpkin pie.  (Store bought crust… I don't love crust so it hasn't been my mission to make a homemade one. I am trying to figure out a pecan-chocolate one and will report back.)

cornbread

Earlier this fall, Nick wanted cornbread. I had nixed his favorite brand of cornbread because the corn wasn't organic and I dislike GMOs. I bought a bag of organic corn meal and figured I'd find a good recipe online. The first recipe I made was okay...

I went searching for other ideas and I found this cornbread recipe from a fabulous blog that I don't often frequent but need to more often! It was good cornbread--very tasty. However, I really wanted to get rid of the oil. I'm not against fat, but I like to cook with whole, low-processed foods--hence, no oil. After making PPK's recipe a few times, I figured out how I wanted to modify it.  Here's the modified version:

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3-1/2 cup of cashew cream** (replacing the oil)
3-4 tablespoons maple syrup 
2 cups soymilk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (upping the apple cider vinegar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350, line a 9×13 baking pan with a parchment paper, a silicone sheet or use a silicone pan--or use a regular pan with a little oil wiped on it so the cornbread doesn't stick.

Mix the soymilk and the vinegar together and set aside.

In a large bowl, add the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt and mix (by hand is fine).

Make a thick cashew cream... For my blender to grind the cashew cream well, I have to make  way more than I use in this recipe. I stick the extra in the refrigerator. I always use it in a day or so; I'm not sure how long it will keep, but I bet it would freeze okay.  

For my cashew cream I used 1 cup of cashews and (almost) 2/3s of a cup of water. Here's what it looked like when done. You can see it's pretty thick.

Add the maple syrup to the soymilk mixture. Stir or whisk for about 2 minutes so it can get more bubbly.

Pour liquid mixture into the dry mix, plus 1/3-1/2 cup of cashew cream and mix well (no need for a mixer, by hand is fine. 

Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and let set for about five minutes before you bake for 20-30 minutes; start checking at 20 minutes because you don't want it to get too dry. In my glass pan it tends to be done in 20 minutes.Test with a knife or a toothpick for doneness.

If you like soft, sweet cornbread, do the 1/2 cup of cashew cream and add 4 tablespoons of maple syrup. The more cashew cream, the softer the bread (I've been known to add more than 1/2 a cup). Obviously, more maple syrup means a sweeter bread. Enjoy!

Square Pie? Pie Squared?

I decided I wanted to make a pie crust for our pumpkin pie that didn't involve flour. I'm not a huge pie crust fan. One of my daughters is though, so, on Thanksgiving, we'll have traditional pumpkin pie for her. For me and the two other little girls, we're trying some new things. Today, we experiment!

I took this recipe from Straight Up Food

&

this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie (this was for a very small amount of pie crust)

and combined them into:

15 dates (the 365 brand from Whole Foods that come in a bag, I don't know what kind)
3/4 cup of oats
4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
3/4 cup of walnuts
1 tablespoon soy milk (or as needed)

Process the dates and walnuts until pretty smooth, then add the cocoa and walnuts. After the mixture is processed determine if you need the soy milk (it should be pretty darn sticky). I needed about a tablespoon to get it to a good texture.

Press into a pie pan.
Bake for 10 minutes at 350.

On the Straight Up Food blog, there are instructions on how to roll the pie crust out and transfer it into the pan. This method did NOT work for me. I rolled on a silicone sheet, but I couldn't get it to come off in one piece. It was okay; I just mashed the pieces back together in the pan. I was going to use my round glass pie pan, to make the pie, but I didn't think the crust would EVER come off of the glass since the mixture really stuck to the silicone. I opted instead to use my square silicone baking pan, instead and that's why we have a square pie (I'm buying a round silicone pan right now!)

For the pie filling, I made (mostly) this recipe from my blog; but of course, I changed it! No oil! Less tofu! Cashew cream!

Here's what I did this time:

1 package of silken (soft) tofu
2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cashews
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
2/3 cup maple syrup

(optional chocolate chips)

Add cashews, maple syrup and tofu to the blender. (Drain as much of the liquid from the package of tofu as you can (easily), but you don't need a tofu press or anything like that.)  Blend until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the chocolate chips, and blend! (I don't feel I can get a good texture from my mixer, so I just use the blender. Plus, if you're using cashews you need the blender and why dirty up more bowls/appliances?)





















Scatter chocolate chips on the crust. Here's what my scattered chocolate chips looked like:

Pour the filling on top.


Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Here are the nutrition facts for 1/12th of the filling (I think it would make 2 pies if I had pie pans.) Note, these nutrition facts do NOT include the chocolate chips or the pie crust. Often times, I make pumpkin pie with no crust. I always include the chocolate chips, but I lie to myself and tell myself that chocolate is medicinal and that calories don't count in medicines--but that's just me. 

The results?

The girls love it and I like it! I think it's a little too sweet and will do a version with less maple syrup. The texture was GREAT; I'm still debating about how I feel about nutmeg. The crust was good; definitely what I'd use for an "everyday" crust--lower fat, healthier, but I might try with more walnuts and less or no oats for Thanksgiving. Truthfully, I like pumpkin pie filling on top of chocolate chips best. 

(Despite the review, note, I've eaten a lot of this pie--going to spend some time on the treadmill. Heh.)

Currently, the plan is: one pie like this--er, with more walnuts and less oats in the crust; one pie with regular crust and no chocolate chips; one with regular crust and chocolate chips; one with chocolate chips, less sweet, and no crust. We'll see if we need more than 4 pies.

Edited to add:
I liked this crust, but am not sure I love it and I didn't end up making it for Thanksgiving.

Potato Soup

It's Sunday. Since I just declared I'd make a soup a week for simplifying my life, I needed to make a soup. Nothing on my blog jumped out at me so I decided to try my hand at a simple potato soup. Here's what I did:

3 yukon gold potatoes somewhat peeled, but not all the way
1 yellow onion
1 carrot
10 ounces of frozen cauliflower
32 ounces of veggie broth
~2 cups of water
1 cup cashews (to make into cashew cream)
Soy milk (for cashew cream or any type of non-dairy milk)

Cut up the veggies and cook until soft. Don't worry about cutting them small as you'll be pureeing them after they are cooked--just cut them in even sized chunks.  I cooked my large chunks (~1 inch or so) for about 30-40 minutes.

After the veggies are soft put all the veggies in the blender and puree. I had to do two batches of blending. Turn the blender on slow so it the hot vegetable mix doesn't burst out of the blender. Tonight, I didn't have any blender accidents, but I have in the past. The vitamix can be left on high (BAD DESIGN) and then when it's turned on it's going super fast. It's not pretty when that happens! After everything is blended, keep some of the warm, blended soup in the blender and make cashew cream.  Add 1 cup of cashews and ~1 cup of soy milk (could be whatever kind of non-dairy milk you like). I blended and then poured it all back in the pan. If you don't add enough warm soup, your cashew cream will be "lumpy" when you mix it into the pan. You can remedy this by re-blending the soup.

I added ~1 teaspoon of salt and quite a bit of black pepper (didn't measure).

Yum! Simple and delicious. We ate it with baguette and 4 out 5 of us loved it. The vegan who doesn't like vegetables tasted it and said she didn't like it.

I'll be playing with the recipe and potentially adding pepper and corn to the recipe as I think this would make a great base for corn chowder! Or nutritional yeast and broccoli for "cheezey"broccoli soup. I'll keep you posted on what evolves with this one. (Tomorrow, I'll try to get a picture. I forgot tonight.)

Pasta Primevera revisited

2 weeks ago, I made Pasta Primevera from Forks over Knives. See my post and review here. It was great, but I couldn't get all the girls to eat it since the veggies and the sauce were cooked together. Tonight, I ran to my favorite produce market and saw asparagus. I got a hankering and some inspiration. I decided to take apart the recipe and make things separately and use asparagus. Here's what I did:

Sauce

4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 cup raw cashews
2 cup soy milk
1 cup oat flour
garlic (to taste 1-4 cloves)
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
(Double the other recipe, but I made more noodles and I wanted to have some left over to try on broccoli and kale!)

Pasta
16 ounces of whole wheat fusili
(Not gluten free, but you can use whatever noodle you like! The quinoa noodles that were in the original recipe were great, but I didn't have any and didn't go to the store that had them.)

Veggies
1 medium onion
2 bunches of fresh asparagus
enough veggie broth to first sauté the onions and then the asparagus (I had to add more as I started the asparagus.)
cherry tomatoes


First, I ground the cashews and oats into flour.

At the same time (in 3 pans):
I heated the 4 cups of vegetable broth, and the non-dairy milk with the garlic, basil, and oregano.
I boiled the water for the pasta.
I sautéed the onions in veggie broth.

I cooked the pasta while the onions and sauce ingredients heated. The pasta finished and I drained it; the onions finished and I set them aside; then I mixed in the oat flour and cashews in the veggie broth, non-dairy milk, and spices.  I stirred forever trying to get it smooth; it was very clumpy.  I would have stuck it back in my blender to smooth it, but I already had our green smoothie blending in the blender.  With a lot of stirring, the sauce turned out just fine without the blender.

I mixed the sauce and the pasta (not all of the sauce, just enough to cover the noodles well), and then set about cooking the asparagus.  I gave the younger two girls their bowls of noodles and sauce and then served Nick, Natalie, and me the good stuff....  noodles with the heavenly asparagus, a little more sauce, and cherry tomatoes. When I presented this to Nick, he ran to get the camera and snapped the picture below.

And now the report of who ate it...  Kira and Tia (the younger two girls) ate a LOT of the sauce with noodles. They drank their kale smoothie so I didn't force the asparagus on them. Nat had two large-ish bowls (with veggies).  Nick and I stopped (mostly) at one bowl.  I will make this again.  As I thought when I made it the first time, it's a very flexible dish! The sauce is great with asparagus. It'd be super with any vegetable.  Enjoy!

I really can't follow recipes...

I was going to make the soup linked in the blog post below.  I ended up making a different soup.  I started off with lentils and most of the spices Oh she glows recommended, but then I changed it up a bit.

The ingredients:

1 teaspoon of olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/8th tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
2 14-oz cans of diced tomatoes
12 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1.5 cups red lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup of cashew cream (1 cup raw cashews blended with a 1/2 cup water)
salt to taste (1 teaspoon)
10 oz. of raw baby spinach

What I did:

 Sauteed the garlic and onion in the olive oil for a few minutes.  I actually added a little broth while sauteing.

Added spices, tomatoes, broth, water and lentils and let it cook for 25 minutes and then tasted the soup.  I loved it, but Nick thought it needed to be thickened up a little.  We didn't want to do PB 'cause we ALWAYS do PB.  I decided to try cashew cream.

You're supposed to soak the cashews in water for at least 4 hours for cashew cream but I just threw caution to the wind and threw the raw cashews into the Vitamix with some water and made a thick cream. 

I added the cream to the soup and that didn't work out so well...  It got all clumpy.  I couldn't stir it out so I added some of the soup and the lumpy cream back to the blender.  Can I just say I love my Vitamix?  The soup came out beautifully.

I added a little salt to the soup 'cause the cashews made it taste less salty; then, I added the spinach.  Then, I ate too much.

I'll try to make this recipe again.  Oh yum!