i eat plants

tasty vegan food, dinosaur-approved

[veggiesaurus--rex]

Last night I made the most delicious dinner. See all those yummy layers?! I love this Lasagna Bolognese from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli. This is totally one of those vegan recipes that I genuinely think you could trick somebody with. The “meat” is a blend of mushrooms and seitan, sauteed in olive oil and spices and chopped up together in a food processor. It has an incredibly savory flavor and excellent texture which is almost creepy. The sauce is just jarred marinara with some almond milk and brown sugar. AND the tofu ricotta is incredibly rich and creamy but really easy to make. This recipe comes together really quickly, too- but it tastes like you worked all day. You could even make the ricotta ahead of time, and it would be even faster.

I like Chloe's Rockin' Ricotta recipe (a blend of olive oil, tofu, onions, garlic, fresh basil, salt, pepper and lemon juice) better than several other tofu and nut-based recipes I've tried! I think it might be my favorite vegan ricotta. And being all tofu (instead of nuts, etc.) makes it a little healthier as well as giving the meal a big solid protein boost, so it's more filling! Although that didn't stop us from going back for seconds.

It was SOOOOOOOOO good. I served it with some yummy garlic bread, as usual, and now I am getting hungry writing this and I'm probably going to go have the leftovers for lunch RIGHT NOW!

[veggiesaurus--rex]

What’s better than chocolate chip cookies? Vegan chocolate chip cookies! And what’s better than vegan chocolate chip cookies? VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

This recipe came from veganbaking.net, which is an absolutely amazing resource for plant-based baking. Two notes: 1.) I did not use all-natural peanut butter; I used Skippy because it is all I could find at the time. I reduced the salt and sugar content because Skippy contains both (unlike plain, all-natural peanut butter). I probably could have cut down on the oil content a little bit, as well. 2.) I used maple syrup in place of molasses. The recipe only calls for 1 tsp so the maple flavor is not noticeable. Anyway, the cookies are still delicious and the texture is PERFECT.

I love chocolate and peanut butter anything so I was bound to love these cookies. They are an excellent little twist on the expected chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’m totally having them for breakfast tomorrow.

[veggiesaurus--rex]

Creamy Avocado Chimichurri Pasta 15 minutes, serves 2-3

Creamy Avocado Chimichurri Pasta 15 minutes, serves 2-3

8 oz uncooked pasta of your choice 2 cloves of garlic 1/4 cup fresh cilantro 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley 3 tsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp olive oil 1 ripe medium avocado 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp dried crushed red pepper (or more, or less, to taste) Black pepper (to taste)

Boil the pasta according to package directions.

While the pasta is on the stove, blend the cilantro, parsley and garlic in your food processor (or blender- I used my ninja and it worked fine) until everything is nice and chopped up. Add the red wine vinegar and avocado flesh and 1 tbsp water and blend until it's nice and smooth. You can add more water if the sauce is too thick (it actually took 3+ tbsp to get mine from guacamole territory to a nice creamy sauce). Add the salt, crushed red pepper and black pepper and give it another pulse or two to get everything combined.

When the pasta is done cooking, take it out and rinse under cold water to cool it down and stop it from cooking. Top with the creamy sauce and serve!

(I don’t know why I didn't take a picture of everything all stirred up!)

Story time: Soo last night, I wanted to make on of my favorite quick recipes, 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta from Oh She Glows (it's in her fabulous cookbook, too!). But I realized, as I was boiling the pasta and getting ready to make the sauce, that I didn't have any basil left since I had used it all making pesto risotto the night before. OOPS. Luckily for me, I had a bunch of parsley and cilantro sitting around in the fridge and then I remembered a half-forgotten bottle of red wine vinegar hiding in the back of the pantry and realized I could still make the dish but with the yummy, fresh flavors of chimichurri instead!

[veggiesaurus--rex]

I just finished gobbling up the leftovers from last night’s Pesto Risotto with Roasted Zucchini. I got the recipe from my FAVORITE COOKBOOK but you can also get it from the Post Punk Kitchen. 

Risotto is not really that hard to make when you don’t have Gordon Ramsay yelling at you, even though it seems complicated and scary. This risotto is sooo creamy and filled with fresh pesto yumminess. Isa’s Bestest Pesto recipe is probably my favorite pesto that I have tried- she uses a combination of pine nuts and walnuts (this is good because pine nuts alone are crazy expensive) and basil, cilantro and fresh time. (For cilantro-haters, you don’t really notice too much cilantro flavor here- it just adds to the herbal goodness and tempers the basil, but if you REALLY hate it, I bet you could use parsley and be just fine).

The zucchini is also really great roasted... it gets soft and yummy and garlicky and delicious. I think this would also be great with some crispy breaded tofu on top!

[veggiesaurus--rex]

LOOK AT THESE PICTURES. Don’t you want to eat this right now?! This is a Vegan Sushi Bowl and I just want to stuff it all in my face at once. The flavors and textures are EXACTLY like sushi, except you can use a great big spoon to eat a whole pile of it and no fish were harmed to create it.

This bowl of vegan sushi deliciousness is honestly one of the tastiest things I’ve made this year. And it was embarrassingly easy. The recipe came from the vegetarian Cooking with Trader Joe’s cookbook, which is an excellent book for me because I probably do 90% of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. I SERIOUSLY LOVE TRADER JOE’S. Sometimes I have to buy a few weird specialty things at Whole Foods but I complain about it the whole time.

But anyway, you don’t even NEED the recipe because it is so easy and requires, like, no cooking. I used pre-cooked frozen brown rice from TJ’s (obviously you can easily make your own), let it cool, and threw sliced baked tofu (also from TJ’s but again, if you are not terminally lazy like me, it is really simple to make your own), crumbled up roasted seaweed snacks, cooked edamame, some chopped avocado and sesame seeds on top. Then I topped it all a sauce made of equal parts rice wine vinegar and soyaki sauce. You can add some wasabi if you want (I used wasabi-flavored roasted seaweed and it worked out perfectly).

This is an amazing recipe for lunch or a quick dinner (perfect for summer when you don’t want to cook or eat something hot, too).

[veggiesaurus--rex]

Look at this yummy yummy VEGAN TORTILLA SOUP that I made! This recipe came from patron saint of vegan cookery Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s great low-fat vegan cookbook, Appetite for Reduction. It’s a great cookbook and a worthwhile addition to anyone’s library, vegan or not, “healthy” or other.

The spicy, brothy, tomato-based soup gets lots of delicious texture from the tortilla chips- some of which are simmered in the soup to get nice and soft, with some sprinkled on top for crunch.

[veggiesaurus--rex]

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

I googled "best vegan chocolate chip cookies" and found this recipe (with accompanying story, in which the writer explains that SHE found the recipe by googling "best vegan chocolate chip cookies." Who knows how deep this goes?). The recipe is SUPER EASY and while I don't know if I would say it is THE BEST (I really like Isa Chandra Moskowitz's recipe for Rosemary Chocolate Chip Cookies, which could be made sans rosemary if you are some kind of purist or something) but it is really good and wins bonus points for being REALLY EASY. No flax eggs here! And it's true- Trader Joe's chocolate chips are vegan, so have fun with that.

The cookies were chewy and chocolatey and everything I wanted a chocolate chip cookie to be. The ONE tip I would give you is that you might want to add a bit more salt, if the following applies to you. I realized that when I made non-vegan chocolate chip cookies, I always used salted butter because that was typically what I'd have on hand. Since coconut butter is obviously not salted, a little extra sodium might make the difference between a slightly flatter-tasting cookie and one that is basically indistinguishable from a non-vegan cookie.

[veggiesaurus--rex]

Hello again! It's been an unforgivably long time since I posted. I have not had a lot of chances to cook lately, let alone blog about my cooking, and it kind of sucks! But I have a few tasty dishes to share and I will continue to post when I can- and make more time for cooking and writing.

Last week, I was craving pasta and wanted to make something simple and delicious. I settled on the Pasta in Pink Sauce from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli. It was going well (the creaminess comes from a delicious, rich cashew cream and it's so yummy) and then I was suddenly inspired to throw in some booze and make it a vodka sauce! I added about 1/4 cup of vodka (pretty sure it was Trader Joe's brand) to the sauce and gave the alcohol time to cook out and it was really yummy. I still don't know if vodka sauce is really all that different from a tomato cream sauce (supposedly the vodka releases extra special flavor compounds in the tomatoes, blah blah blah), but it was good! 

I also made some quick garlic bread to go along with it because it's so easy and yummy- chop up some garlic (you can see that I like lots of big chunks!) and stir it up with a few tablespoons of olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and basil, spread on sliced bread and broil for a couple of minutes.

[veggiesaurus--rex]

Tonight I made something that my husband has been bugging me to cook again for AGES, Chandra Malai Kofta! This is Isa Chandra Moskowitz's version of the Indian dish malai kofta (basically dumplings in a creamy cashew sauce), and it is pretty much my favorite recipe from my favorite cookbook, Isa Does It. The kofta dumplings are made of shredded zucchini, breadcrumbs, chickpeas and almonds with cumin seed, fresh ginger, garlic and cilantro for seasoning. They are crazy flavorful and have a creamy texture inside with a crisp exterior. Meanwhile, the sauce is rich and decadent with deep flavor from more garlic and ginger and spices- curry, cumin and garam masala. I served the sauce and dumplings on top of some basmati rice and it made for a perfect meal. There are just so many layers upon layers of amazing flavor in this dish. It takes time to make but it is worth it! I go out for Indian food fairly often but there are times when I would rather be at home eating this than out at a restaurant. I just ate a ton of this stuff for dinner and I'm really full but I'm already looking forward to lunch tomorrow because we get to eat the leftovers! (It freezes and reheats really well, too. Just keep the dumplings separate from the sauce!)

[veggiesaurus--rex]

HELLO to all of my new followers! I don't know where you guys came from, considering I've been away from my blog for weeks due to travel (an amazing trip that involved Hello Kitty Con, Disneyland and a cruise) and the holidays. Now that things have settled down a little, I am happy to settle back into my cooking and blogging routine!

I wanted something quick and simple tonight to ease me back into things, so I started to make this oven-baked casserole from Vegangela.  I was missing the black beans, and being extra lazy, I decided to make the recipe even simpler, eliminating the need to remove the dish from the oven and stir in the corn and beans in the middle of the cooking time. The result is a really hearty, wholesome and flavorful dish that was ridiculously easy to make.

Mexican Quinoa-Chickpea Bake Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil 1 yellow onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed 1 14.5 oz can diced fire-roasted tomatoes, with juice 1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 cup frozen corn 1 cup water 1 tbsp tomato paste 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp oregano 1 tsp ancho chile powder Salt & pepper

Optional toppings: cilantro, lime juice, avocado Preheat oven to 350 F. Heat olive oil and sauté onion and and garlic over medium heat, under translucent. Throw everything into casserole/baking dish, stir to combine. Cover (with lid or foil) and bake for about 1 hour, or until the quinoa is fully cooked. Spoon into bowls. Top with chopped cilantro, diced avocado and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Enjoy!

[veggiesaurus--rex]

I had a ton of potatoes and onions to use this week, so I made one of my favorite soups: the Post Punk Kitchen's Roasted Potato & Fennel Soup. I love how simple yet flavorful this recipe is. There are no spices or seasonings beyond salt and pepper; all of the flavor comes from roasting the fennel, potatoes and onions. It's also super easy to make and there was hardly any clean-up. I even made the whole thing without a pot, using just two baking sheets and a mixing bowl (in which I pureed everything together with my immersion blender, and which doubled as a storage container for the leftovers).

Filling, savory, delicious, EASY!

[veggiesaurus--rex]

So I feel like I crossed a vegan cooking threshold tonight, because I just successfully made (and devoured) a KALE recipe. I know kale was super trendy for a while and it seems like everyone still loves it, but I have never been a fan. I have eaten exactly ONE kale dish at a restaurant that I enjoyed, a kale salad at Lot 2 Restaurant and Wine Bar in Omaha, NE, a couple of years ago. This was especially remarkable because in addition to disliking kale, I also don't really like salads. That salad was so ridiculously delicious. It was not vegan, but I am pretty confident that it can be veganized; I hope to post about it one day! SO ANYWAY, I have eaten and enjoyed a few kale chips in my day, and our CSA share has been bursting at the seams with kale lately so I figured it was about time I made my own. Luckily, I found the Oh She Glows recipe for (Flawless) All-Dressed Kale Chips. This recipe and tips were immensely helpful and allowed me to make pretty much perfect kale chips on my very first try. Drying the kale THOROUGHLY and baking slowly at a lower temperature = perfect texture. The seasoning, a blend of nutritional yeast, cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic, onion & chili powder and salt and pepper was also really delicious. I should know; I just ate the whole bowl of chips. The chips were so flavorful, crispy, crunch and toasty. I am really happy that I have some kale leftover to make more chips tomorrow for lunch! I am going to try to cram a lot of cooking into the next week and queue up some yummy recipes for you guys, since we will be traveling for a few weeks and I will be away from my kitchen! I have a lot of stuff to use up before we go, like this weird oblong pumpkin I got from our last CSA and a big jug of apple cider that my parents gave me, which I hope to partially turn into… dun dun dun… VEGAN APPLE CIDER DOUGHNUTS!

[veggiesaurus--rex]

I had a cute little delicata squash from our CSA share to use for dinner tonight. I tend to prefer savory squash preparations to sweet, so I decided to roast it simply, with some garlic and onion. The result was a tender, flavorful squash, and a pretty, colorful dish! I served it with some Field Roast veggie sausages and couscous on the side. Roasted Delicata Squash with Garlic & Onion Serves 4 Ingredients: 2 small delicata squash 1 small-to-medium red onion 4 cloves garlic 1/4 cup fresh parsley Olive oil Salt Pepper Preparation: Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking pan or cover it in parchment paper. Dice the onion, mince the garlic and finely chop the parsley. Toss with olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cut each squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and lightly coat each half with olive oil (or cooking spray) and a pinch of salt and pepper. Fill the middle of each squash half with the garlic/onion/parsley mixture. Bake for 45 minutes or until the squash is tender and browned at the edges. EAT!

[veggiesaurus--rex]

I was talking to my mom tonight and telling her about my pumpkin-filled baking plans. She said that she is, quote, "so over" pumpkin everything. Well... I'm not, haha. In fact, I kept thinking about how much I love PUMPKIN EVERYTHING and so last night, after I finished studying for my final exam, I decided that I HAD to bake something and it HAD to be pumpkin. I made a plain beer bread last week and I loved how unbelievably easy it was to make. So I found a recipe for pumpkin beer bread and I maple-ized it and I made it a teeny bit more pumpkin spicy. And then I ate it. And here it is. Maple Pumpkin Beer Bread (adapted from Gimme Some Oven) 3 cups flour 1 Tbsp baking powder 1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp salt 4 Tbsp maple syrup 1 cup pumpkin puree 1 12-oz bottle of pumpkin beer 1. Lightly grease a loaf pan and preheat your oven to 375 F. 2. Add flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt to a large mixing bowl. Stir it all together nicely. 3. Add the maple syrup, pumpkin puree and beer. Stir to combine. 4. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick stuck in the center of the loaf comes out clean. I found the bread to have a subtly sweet pumpkin flavor. The exterior is crisp, the interior dense and hearty- it tastes great warm, either fresh from the oven or toasted. As I write this, actually, I am eating it for breakfast: toasted, spread with a little Earth Balance and drizzled with maple syrup. It's delicious! I hope you enjoy! If you try this recipe, be sure to let me know how it turns out. HAPPY PUMPKIN SEASON!

[veggiesaurus--rex]

Tonight I made a quick & easy pasta puttanesca for dinner, adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe. To make the pasta sauce vegan, I only needed to replace the anchovies. I've seen seaweed used as an anchovy replacement before, so I ground up some nori in my spice grinder and added 2 tbsp of the powdered nori + 1 additional tbsp capers (fried in olive oil at the beginning of the recipe, when the anchovies are added) and a dab of marmite (you could also use tamari or soy sauce) to add the big umami taste that the anchovies would add without actually using gross little fish. The sauce was good! It has a bit of a fiery kick and a yummy salty-savory flavor that I really enjoyed. It was supposed to be served with spaghetti, but I only had rotini and I think it worked just fine. I topped the pasta with some fresh parsley from last week's CSA box and served it with some crusty garlic bread, which I make by spreading sliced Italian bread with softened Earth Balance, fresh chopped garlic, Herbamare, basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes, then broiling it all in the oven for 4-5 minutes. Delicious! That's all for right now! I have a big exam tomorrow evening, so wish me luck! Hopefully after that I'll be able to spend more time in the kitchen, maybe doing some baking- I have a recipe for pumpkin scones and gingerbread that I have been dying to try out.

[veggiesaurus--rex]

Last weekend, my husband and I went on a day-long rampage through the countryside, searching for a pick-your-own apple orchard. Apparently, our last amazingly crappy winter made for a lousy apple harvest this year. We found a few orchards that simply had no apples, a few that, instead of offering "u-pick" were actually BRINGING IN APPLES FROM ELSEWHERE (I have no idea where. The grocery store?!) and putting them in bins out in the orchard so you could feel like you were doing something outdoorsy and agricultural, and only two that actually had apples on the trees that we were allowed to pick. Of those two, only one was actually open. We talked to the lady in charge of "U-Pick" and were told that they had actually had a really good harvest this year, in contrast to the other local orchards. I don't know why; maybe it involves witchcraft. Regardless, we picked 10 lbs of apples from five different varieties that, according to the "apple lady," were currently most in season: Royal Cortland, Gala, Golden Delicious, Empire and Pioneer McIntosh.

So now I am drowning in apples. I don't really eat apples raw (although I have had a couple of these, and they are tasty). I wanted to make a pie, but I've been too lazy thus far (I might finally do it this weekend OKAY?).

My mom said something about making an apple crisp and so I found this recipe from The Minimalist Baker (I love many of their recipes!) for Vegan Gluten-Free Apple Crisp. Only I didn't actually make it gluten-free because I am lucky enough not to have celiac disease or any kind of gluten intolerance and I see no glory in gluten freedom for its own sake. So I used regular old flour and it turned out just fine.

This was SO EASY TO MAKE and yet sooo good that it's kind of ridiculous. It takes a little while to peel and chop the apples if you don't have a fancy peeling/coring device but everything else is totally painless. I used a blend of basically all the apples we picked and was rewarded with a filling that is a bit tart (too tart for my husband's tastes; I may have been a bit heavy-handed with the lemon juice, so be careful there). The apples get all gooey and soft and yummy and once it cools a bit, the topping is crunchy and sweet and delicious. IT'S SO GOOD and if I can pick up some vegan ice cream tonight, it will be even better.

[veggiesaurus--rex]

We got a nice big fennel bulb in our CSA box this week, and when I found this recipe for Coucous with Chickpeas, Fennel and Citrus from The Kitchn, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for dinner! The dish consists of a citrusy couscous topped with chickpeas and caramelized fennel. The fennel was sooo good- cooked like this, it loses some of its strong licorice-like flavor and gets sweet and tender and delicious! The fennel and chickpeas are seasoned with lemon and coriander and everything combines just deliciously, with so many contrasting textures and complimentary flavors. It was really quick and simple to make, too. The zesting and juicing of the orange and lemon can be done while the fennel is cooking- it takes 10-15 minutes to caramelize. It's worth it- the couscous had a fresh citrus flavor that I didn't want to stop tasting, and the caramelized fennel is amazing. My changes: I believe I upped the coriander content a little bit and added a little extra salt to the couscous. I was scared of the olives (but I wasn't going to leave them out- I'm facing my food fears this month, remember?) so I only added like 6 and I chopped them up a lot, rather than halve them as the recipe calls for. I was happy I did this, as the little bits of olive added a nice flavor throughout the dish without being overpowering! I topped everything with some chopped up fennel fronds and voila! So satisfying and delicious!