Maple Strawberry Walnut Bars

I came up with this recipe after seeking a granola bar recipe that didn't use a bunch of butter. Thanks to Jolene, who introduced me to Kinako (soy bean flour).

1/4 cup walnuts (finely chopped)
3 1/2 cups rolled oat
1/2 lemon
3/4 cup of diced strawberry ( I used frozen, but fresh should work similarly)
1 1/4 tspn flour
3/4 cup of maple syrup
2 tbspn of water
1 tbspn vanilla extract
1 tspn salt
1 tspn Kinako
1 tspn sugar ( I used locally grown Hawaiian Turabindo Sugar)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread diced strawberry chunks onto a baking sheet and bake for about 5-7 minutes--just enough for some of the syrup to separate. Spread the oats on a baking sheet and sprinkle with nuts to lightly roast.


Bake oats and nuts about 7 minutes, stirring half way through. When you take strawberry chunks out of oven, sprinkle with lemon juice from a scored half-lemon. Stir gently.

Add oats and nuts to a bowl and add flour. Stir.

Get a saucepan and put in maple syrup, water, honey, vanilla, and salt. Melt together and then combine with oats and nuts. Once this mixture is done, add the strawberry chunks and stir gently.

Then press the mixture into your prepared pan - make sure to press firmly so that the bars aren't crumbly. Bake at 300 degrees for 25-35 minutes (depends on oven).

When you remove the mix, sprinkle with a mixture of the kinako and sugar to bind the bars together. Let mixture rest in pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove and cut.



Store in an airtight container. Makes 10-15 bars.

Reminiscing...

...couldn't help myself.  miss you all so much it hurts!!!

Vegan Clam Chowder

I didn't forget about you Veganbobegan! I have to share this recipe. If you feel like splurging on the somewhat expensive bits, I promise it is amazing. I got it from my sister's friend. Not sure where she got it from originally. It is delicious beyond reason and might even pass for authentic clam chowder for non-vegans. The seaweed is an essential ingredient since it gives it a lovely seafood taste.

Vegan Clam Chowder!

Ingredients

4 cups of cashews

3 Veggie bullion cubes

Olive oil for sautéing

1-ish cup of coined carrots

1-ish cup of onions

1-ish cup of chopped celery

A few cubed red potatoes

1 - 2 Tbl Thyme

2-3 Tbl Ground Fennel Seeds (or if you want to go really fancy you can add in some fresh fennel and sautee it with the other veggies)

Salt and pepper to taste (needs a decent amount of salt if not using bullion cubes)

7 cups of water

Seaweed - One good handful of each: wakame, dulse, arame or some other stringy kind

1. Soak cashews in a blender with enough water to cover them

2. While the cashews are soaking, sauté the onions, carrots, potatoes and celery in the bottom of a big pot on low heat.

4. Once the veggies soft and the onions starting to look clear, dump in the water and add the bullion cubes (or you could just use veggie broth instead) and spices.

5. Bring this to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer for 15-30 minutes.

6. Blend up the cashews into a creamy consistency

7. Add the seaweed to the hot soup and let it hydrate a little bit.

8 Add the cashew cream to the simmering soup, make sure to do this at the end otherwise the oils will get all separated and weird. Simmer for another couple minutes until it reaches a nice servable temperatures and remove from heat.

9. Serve. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This makes a huge amount of food. Great for dinner parties and such, or just half the recipe and you'll still get some leftovers. I also recommend buying the seaweed at a Japanese market. It will be significantly cheaper than anything you can get at a health food store (for example, wakame at kokua was 7.99 same size bag from japanese store across the street 1.99). It might also lead to misinterpretation and a new interesting ingredient (in my case, black miscellaneous noodles instead of arame hah! Still tasted alright) Enjoy!

Black Bean & Tofu Chipotle-Lime Fajitas with Herb-Infused Tortillas

Fajitas:

3 bell peppers (green, yellow, red, orange)
1 onion
1 tomato
1 lime
1 cup black beans
1 package of firm tofu
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup Chipotle Cholula
1/4 cup Louisianna Hot Sauce
Chile Powder to taste
Cayenne Powder to taste
Onion Powder to taste
Garlic Salt to taste
fresh cilantro

Herb-Infused Tortillas:

2 cups flour
4-5 tblsn vegetable shortening
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4-1 cup warm water
excess flour for rolling out tortillas

Cook Tortillas first so they can steam while you prepare the filling:

Chop fresh cilantro and dry on parchment paper in oven at 200 degrees for 5-10 minutes, or until cilantro crumbles in fingers without turning black. Set aside. Mix dry ingredients, then add shortening. Cut shortening into dry ingredients (I use my hands) until mixture has a crumbly, cornmeal appearance. Add warm water a bit at a time and knead. When dough is no longer sticky, knead for 3 minutes, then set aside with a towel for 10 minutes. After, split dough ball into 12 smaller balls. Roll out tortillas on a floured surface, turning every few seconds to prevent sticking. When tortillas are rolled out, wet a paper towel and run over the surface of the tortilla. I like to use fresh dried cilantro and dried thyme. Sprinkle herbs of choice on sticky side, then dust with flour and roll with pin to seal. Cook on a med-high castilla for 5-10 seconds on each side. Wait until dough bubbles begin to turn a golden brown. Store in a towel so tortillas can steam.

Fajita Filling:

Mix cholula, Louisianna sauce, and seasonings. Cut up tofu and marinate for a few hours. Soak and cook the black beans. Cut onion in half - dice one half and cut 2nd half in large chunks. Dice tomato. Cut up fresh cilantro. Mix diced tomato, onion and citantro with cooled black beans. Set aside. Cut up bell peppers. Add vegetable oil to a frying pan, then add bell peppers, onion chunks, and marinated tofu. Season with sauces and seasonings to taste. Cook until onions are clear and bell peppers are cooked but not soggy.

Cut lime into slices. Take herb-infused tortilla and fill with bell pepper filling and black bean filling. Season with lime juice from slices to taste.

Chilaquiles, PDX Vegan Deeeeluxe Style

Chilaquiles are a recipe my abuelita taught me that basically involves frying up a bunch o' tortillas that need to be used up pronto, and whatever else you can toss in with 'em, plus some yummy sauce over everything.  They are amaaaazing hangover food (grams didn't teach me that.)

Basic recipe is as follows...

Ingredients

-Oil for frying

-Stack o tortillas, cut into strips of whatever shape & size you like (3-4ish tortillas per eater? I dunno, I usually eyeball it)

-Garlic chopped up

-Onions chopped up

-Some sort of sauce--I usually mix a can of El Pato sauce with some salsa or enchilada sauce.  Pretty much anything with a tomato/chiles base works.

-Salt

-Pepper

-Lime

-Cilantro

Optional:

-Cumin (adds some nice flavor)

-Fresh tomatoes

-Avocado

-Garlic Jalapeño "Sour Cream"

-Greens (chard, kale, etc.)

-Tempeh or veggie sausages

-Beans on the side ('specially if you have no other protein)

What'cha do with 'em

Fry the tortilla strips in oil til they get crispy.  Grandma always deep-fries, but I usually try to dry-fry with just a bit of oil.  Takes a while.  Practice yer Spanish in the kitchen with yer eagerly waiting friends while you wait.  When they're starting to get crispified (the tortillas, not the friends), make a hole in the center of the pan, drizzle a lil' more oil and add the onions and garlic to it.  These can be put in at any time, I just don't like 'em to get overcooked.  About minute later, add yer sauce.  Just mix it all up together until the sauce soaks in and it starts to get crispy again.  Add salt & pepper to taste and then squeeze some lime juice over the whole deal.  Garnish with cilantro, (avocado, etc.) and you will have something like the deeeeeeelicious looking picture that Kelsey took in my kitchen. =)

¡Buen provecho!

This recipe makes my tofu say: MISO YUMMY

Get it!?! I called Big Dawg to get that tasty miso recipe so I could rub it all over my tofu and bake it in the oven. He didn't have one so I improvised:

1/3 c miso

~2 tbsp oil (I used grapeseed, it's all I had)

~2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (recipe called for rice, but alas...)

~2 tbsp soy milk

~2 tbsp bragg's

salt

honey

powdered ginger

garlic would have been good (but I didn't have any)

THESE ARE ALL APPROXIMATIONS as I just dumped a bunch of stuff in a bowl and got to mixin. I brushed this all over thinly sliced firm tofu then topped it off with some delicious nutritional yeast. I flipped 'em once after about 15-20 minutes at 450 (may require more or less time depending on how well you press the extra water outta yo' tofu), put on more miso, more nutritional yeast and added sesame seeds - let them cook for about 5 more minutes and voila, heaven! Then I exclaimed: YOUSO YUMMY, MISO TOFU. I even took a picture but I can't figure out how to upload it...?

How to Cook a Tofurky Roast that You Forgot to Thaw Before the Big Feast

So it happens, right?  You waited til the last minute to read the package on the Tofurky Roast?  Then you realize it shoulda been thawing for 24hrs already but you've only got an hour and a half until it's s'posed to be the star of the show?

I frantically googled to find a sneaky trick for this debacle and found none!  So here's what we did, and hopefully someone else in a frozen Tofurky googling-frenzy will discover our solution to save the day.  You're welcome. =)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Follow the package instructions, but bump up the temp to 430-ish degrees.  Leave it in there for about 45 mins to an hour, then take it out of the oven and CUT THE ROAST IN HALF.  This may require sawing through some still-frozen stuffing.  Put the inside facing up, put the foil back over the top, and continue cooking for the remaining time.  Voilà!

The resulting roast may be a tad bit dryer than a thawed Tofurky, but it was still hella yummy and we didn't have to wait a billion hours for it to cook (as per the box directions for a frozen roast).

Yay!  Three cheers for vegan procrastinators!

DIO (Do it Ourselves) Vegan-Bo-Began Cookbook???

Hey kidz,
I got inspired while surfing the world wide innertube today and thought--why don't we bust out a paper version of our deeeeee-frickin-licious island-inspired vegan dinner nights blog?  Many of us have found ourselves far away from coconut trees and ocean breezes these days, and I for one would love to have a little keepsake full of recipes and memories from that epic Vegan Dinner Night Era.  Who's in?

If you're interested, email me at: carlyn.arteaga@gmail.com with (1) your fav recipe (or two or three) (2) a brief memory of a Hawaii VDN (3) any ideas for how you'd like this to all pan out.

I'm thinkin this would come to fruition in the early Spring.  Lemme know yer thoughts!

Chocolate Beer Waffles, baby!

I was introduced to these waffles during my favorite VD (Vegan Dinner, NOOOT the other VD) theme: BREAKFAST FOR DINNER, by my FAVORITE LADY, Ms. Becky Super Vegan! The original recipe is from Vegan Brunch authored by an equally amazing woman: Isa Chandra Moskowitz. You can check out the book here AND she also has a bunch of other amazing recipes posted on her website.

These waffles are great for bribing people to take you to your driving test, or to get free rides to work from friends when it is too cold and you are just too grumpy to ride your bike to work.

CHOCOBEERWAFFLES

Makes 6, 6-inch round or 8, 4-inch square waffles

INGREEDAMENTS:

1 &1/2 C flour

1/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tes b. powder

1/2 tes salt

1/2 C sugar

1 C almond milk

3/4 C porter, or other dark beer

1/4 C canola oil

1 tes pure vanilla extract

+ cooking spray for the waffle iron

1. Preheat waffle iron. Sift flour, cocoa powder, b. powder, salt & sugar into a large mixing bowl.

2. Make a well in the center and add almond milk, beer, oil and vanilla

3. Spray waffle iron, cook, eat!

I recommend that you serve it with Cashew butter! Take roasted, unsalted cashews and process with a little oil, water, sugar and salt, or if you want to skip the additives, I would soak raw cashews and just blend them!

Anybody want to give this a go with me?

I figure we have enough people to blog almost everyday about super tasty vegan treats!

http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/

Tomato Onion Relish (Goes great with Hummus and Pita!)

1 onion (finely chopped)
3 garlic cloves (minced)
1 T fresh thyme
1 T oregano
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp red pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 tomatoes (chopped)

Bring all ingredients EXCEPT tomatoes to a boil in frying pan. Turn down heat once it starts boiling and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and mix together!!

Hummus!!! (VJ's style!)

40 oz garbanzo beans (two and a half 1# cans, drained)
3/4 cup Tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 T salt
1 T minced garlic (or more if you love garlic)

***Put all ingredients in to food processor and blend until smooth and delicious!

Naan...na na na naan, na na na naan, na na naan, na na naan, na na na NAAN!!!

Such delicious vegan naan, makes you break into song.

Ingredients

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons soy milk
• 1 egg-replacement
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)
• 1/4 cup vegan butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.*
2. Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.*
3. During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat.
4. At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

*As I am always making this when I want to eat it, I have never ever waited an hour for the rising, or done the second rising at all...maybe this will make it fluffier and even more scrumptious if you have the patience, but it still turns out as an absolutely deeelish flatbread if you only let it rise once for about 15-20 mins.

Recipe snatched/adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Naan/Detail.aspx

Best Banana Bread bo began

james with his legendary banana bread in zero gravity
at hi-pdx reunion jan 2011!!!

First of all, you must love bananas and bread to enjoy this tasty delight. Second you need access to an oven. If you don't personally have an oven, call a friend and tell them you will make this recipe for them, and then maybe they will let you cook at their place. Once you are in the kitchen you will need:
2 cups flour ( simple white flour works best, some granola enjoying earthy people enjoy wheat flour. There is no reason for this phenomena to exist)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 pinches salt ( kosher please)
3-4 very ripe medium sized nanners(banana lover slang for banana).
1/3 cup oil (any kind works, olive oil gives it a rich bourgeois flavor)
1/2 to 1 cup sugar (you don't really need much sugar, it's all personal preference)
1/4 cup soymilk ( i like plain, some perverse people that lack properly developed taste buds enjoy vanilla, once again, personal preference)
1 teaspoon vanilla

To begin, find yourself 2 bowls, one very large and one medium bowl. Take the smaller bowl and put in the flour/baking soda/salt. let it chill while you do more baking.

Take the larger bowl and whisk the sugar and oil together. Then mash in the bananas until they are sufficiently mashifified. I am usually pretty lazy, so they don't need to be too mashed to be made into delicious bread. After that, add in the soymilk and vanilla. I sometimes add a pinch of cinnamon, but be careful as a little cinnamon goes a long way.

After this, mix in the dry ingredients and stir until it makes an awesomely gooey banana bread mixture. Its should slowly goop off of a spoon, if its too dry i add soymilk till i find the texture of my liking. if too wet i add more flour.

If you like chocolate, at this point you should add a cup or two of chocoalte chips. really anything can be added, ive made it with coconuts, cashews, raisins, oreos, etc. it is all good.

once you are done, get a bread pan and your mix should fill it about 1/2 way. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes, depending on how you like it. i poke it with a chopstick to see if it is ready. once the chopstick comes out dry, you should take it out.

Final Reminder: Baked good are like marijuana, they are meant to be shared. So if you make a delicious banana bread, don't bogart that shit. Go out and share it with your friends, neighbors, employees, fuck buddies, casual acquaintances, just share that shit.

Enjoy

Vegan Eggs Benedict!!!

I got the basic recipe from: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=32293.0

Ingredients:
3 English muffins

1 pkg fake canadian bacon (they have it at down to earth)
1 lb tofu (it calls for soft tofu, but I used medium-firm and it was still OK!)
3 tblsp soy sauce
3 tblsp vinegar
a bunch of spinach
1/4 c. salt water

garlic powder

Hollandaise Sauce:
2 tblspn earth balance
1 c. unsweetened soymilk (IMPORTANT!!!! "ORIGINAL" DOES NOT MEAN "UNSWEETENED"!!! found that one out the hard way!)
5 tblsp nutritional yeast
lemon juice to taste (prob about 1/2-3/4 of 1 lemon)
1 tblspn cornstarch
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, tumeric
dill weed (optional....i didn't use any because they didn't have any at down to earth, but dill in hollandaise is yummy!!!)

1. Cut the tofu block into 3/4"-1 inch thick squares (to cover english muffins). mix the soysauce/vinegar in a bowl, then marinate the tofu in it.

2. Make hollandaise sauce: melt earth balance over med. heat. Add the nutritional yeast, 3/4 c. milk, and spices. in a side bowl, mix 1/4 c. soy milk with the cornstarch until lumps are gone. add to the stove. bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and the sauce will thicken. reduce the heat to keep warm (or take off stove and cover)

3. Make spinach: put salt water and spinach into a pot or frying pan. cover, turn on heat, let steam until the spinach is wilted. put aside.

4. Heat the tofu: put the tofu in a frying pan with a little bit of the marinade. Pan fry until lightly brown on all sides. put aside.

5. At the same time, pan fry the fake canadian bacon. put aside.

6. Toast the english muffins, spread some earth balance while still hot to melt.

7. Assemble, in order from bottom to top:

english muffin

canadian bacon

tofu

spinach (sprinkle a little garlic powder/blk pepper on top of the spinach

hollandaise sauce

The trick to this recipe is to multitask, especially if you want to serve it warm. If you're slow (like me!), you can assemble it in your own time, and then wop it in the oven to warm the whole shebang up before serving.

Comfort Foods: Fried Okra

Fried Okra
Who says vegan food has to be healthy?

Fresh okra is usually available at local farmers' markets here in Honolulu, but I've been feeding you guys the frozen stuff when I make fried okra for vegan dinner. Okra gets kind of gooey and sticky when it's wet, which is helpful for making the batter stick before frying, so I like the frozen stuff. If you use fresh okra you will want to slice it into 1/4 inch rounds, and discard the stems. (You can buy the frozen stuff pre-chopped.) I recommend soaking fresh okra in cold water for at least an hour before attempting to coat it with cornmeal.

Ingredients

Okra (I think I made 1 pound for vegan dinner)
Cornmeal (2 cups?)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder


Preparation
If using fresh okra chop it and soak in cold water for at least an hour prior to preparing.

If using frozen okra, you'll want to defrost it completely before frying. I usually run it under warm water or just soak it in the refrigerator for an hour or so just like I do with fresh okra.

Combine cornmeal with cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper and garlic powder in a large bowl.

Drain the okra and toss it with cornmeal/spices mix until well coated. At this point, I usually end up having to add more cornmeal than I originally measured out.

Heat a skillet with about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of oil in it over high heat.(My southern mother recommends peanut oil because of its high smoke point, but I always use canola oil and it works just fine. Canola can withstand pretty high temperatures too.)

Fry okra in the oil until crispy and browned. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Best served hot.

Comfort Foods: Vegan Gravy

So... this is the recipe I used to make gravy for biscuits and gravy on Comfort Foods night. But I'm not sure how well I followed it?

I do remember it took way less than 8-10 minutes to thicken the gravy. Also, I didn't do any "chopping" or "mincing." I just put half an onion and five cloves of garlic in our food processor and pulverized them.

I used more than 1/2 tsp dried sage, but I think that's a good starting point. Add more as you taste, etc...

Vegan Gravy

Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 tsp nutritional yeast
4 Tbs shoyu
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Directions

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, nutritional yeast, and soy sauce to form a smooth paste. Gradually whisk in the broth. Season with sage, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, stirring constantly, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until thickened.

Rice Milk

Ingredients:
Cooked rice, water, sweetener
1. Combine cooked rice with four times as much hot water in a blender
2. Blend until smooth
3. Sweeten to taste with sugar, vanilla, agave or whatever you like
4. Pour into pitcher and chill, filter through cheesecloth if you don't like pulp

Nut Milk

Ingredients:
Nuts, water, sweetener
1. Soak Nuts overnight
2. Add nuts to blender
3. Add twice as much water as nuts to blender and blend until mixture is smooth
4. Sweeten to taste with sugar, agave, vanilla or hot sauce if you like
5. Pour into a pitcher and chill, you can filter the liquid through cheesecloth or something if you don't like pulp.

Baking Soda Biscuits

2C flour
5t baking powder
t salt
3T shortening
2T margarine
2/3C non-dairy milk/liquid/water
Sift in dry ingredients. Cut in shortening and margarine. Add liquid and mix well. Roll out onto floured surface until 1/2 inch thick and cut with circular thing, or just shape into biscuit looking things. Bake at 450 for 12minutes on prepared baking sheet. These are nice and flaky