Vegan Ambrosia

For a vegan potluck the other day, I made a Raw Beet Ravioli with Nut Cheese from an Epicurious recipe: It was delicious, but I used up all my nice big beet slices and had a cup each of the "cheese" and cream sauce leftover.  Soliciting help from my Facebook friends, I came up with this recipe, using the leftover nut cheese, some bits of beet (which had come from my wonderful CSA ), and scallions from my garden.  Thanks especially to my childhood friend E, who has grown up to be a chef, and who came up with the idea and suggested using beets as a sweet substitute for the crab.  The wrappers are homemade - a rare attempt on my part to make dough from scratch - drawing from  another vegan crab Rangoon recipe on the Purple Carrot blog . Filling: Pine Nut "Goat Cheese" 1/2 cup raw pine nuts 1/2 cup raw cashews 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 small shallot, peeled and diced 1/4 teaspoon lemon 2 Tablespoons fresh...

I spent a few days camping at Savoy Mountain State Forest this week, and on the way out there, I picked up my CSA share.  I found myself with the following haul: two quarts of strawberries, two tomatoes (which could use a couple more days of ripening, imho), a bag of spinach, a bunch of rainbow chard, and a head of green leaf lettuce.  The strawberries were too good for anything but eating straight, as many as I could in three days.  I saved the spinach and tomatoes in the cooler, and they survived quite well the return home.  But I had to use some of the greens, no?  How does one cook greens on a campfire?  I could have cheated and used my camp stove, but instead I had great success steaming them in foil. Soaking the greens in fresh water in the wash basin, just as I would do at home, removed all the grit and such.  I saved the water for the first rinse of the dirty dishes. Break up the chard and the lettuce separately by hand. Mix toge...

I recently decided that, even as I cut back on calories overall, I need more chocolate in my life. More and more research is coming out about the health benefits of chocolate, with the only caveat I see is that it comes with unhealthy fats and refined sugars we don't want. So let's eat chocolate in forms that are healthier and still enjoy the benefits (including deliciousness)! This recipe gets its sweetness from agave syrup and dates, and the fats come from nuts and legumes. I adapted this recipe from a few others, and really, you can adjust ingredients and amounts to make this your own. Brownies: 1 cup raw walnuts 1 cup raw pecans 2 cups pitted dates 1 cup raw cacao powder 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut shreds 1/2 cup agave syrup dash of salt In food processor, chop walnuts and pecans coarsely.   Add dates and cacao powder and chop together until a fine crumble; then add coconut, salt, and agave syrup.   Run food processor unt...

What can I say?  Spinach pie, made with cashew/tofu ricotta and lots of garlic. Filling: Half pound of baby spinach 2 Tbsp chopped garlic 1Tbsp olive oil 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight (or at least 3 hours) 1/8 cup lemon juice 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 tsp salt 1-2 Tbsp nutritional yeast 1 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1 tsp dried basil 1/8-1/3 cup water, to facilitate blending 12 oz (one package) silken tofu Saute spinach with olive oil and garlic (or have a willing friend do it, as I did).  Blend next nine ingredients (cashews through water) together until smooth.  Crumble silken tofu into mixture and mix by hand. Stir cashew/tofu mixture into cooked spinach.  Lay out defrosted phyllo dough (store-bought is all I know how to use) sheets flat.  Take one at a time, and assemble spanakopita as follows:  Fold phyllo dough in thirds and drop a large spoonful of filling near the top edge. Fold the top corner down at a d...

I've been drooling over cashew-based raw foods for years, my favorite being the raw vegan "cheesecake" at places like Ecopolitan in Minneapolis and Cafe Gratitude in California.  I imagined that these foods involved more magic than I could muster, and so I never attempted to make them myself. Last week, as always, my mother was making the ever-popular Yule Log (or Bûche de Noël for you francophiles) for her annual pre-Christmas family dinner.  I have been making an additional dessert for some years now, usually an apple or pecan pie.  This year I wanted to do something different that utilized the fresh, local fruit that I crave whenever I visit California.  I decided to make a fruit tart with a custard filling much like a vegan cheesecake.  It turns out there is no magic, just a little preparation and some trial and error. I'll do my best to reproduce the recipe here, but since it's a result of a lot of eyeballing and taste-testing, you may want to...

While I understand and respect the various objections to Thanksgiving, for me it is an excuse to cook and to eat particular kinds of foods, always with copious amounts of gravy.  This year, I had a nice, quiet day at home with my Tofurky.  I was so pleased with how everything turned out that I decided to post it here, after my long hiatus from blogging. Here is what I had: Tofurky roast with homemade gravy Quinoa with mushrooms Braised Brussels sprouts with maple walnuts Five seed bread (like this bread, but with chia instead of bulgur wheat) Apple custard crumb pie with vanilla Rice Dream I'll do my best to reproduce the recipes here, but keep in mind that I made them up as I went along, and so amounts are my best guesses. Tofurky This is for the small Tofurky roast (not the whole dinner package).  Remove the Tofurky from its plastic wrapping and place it in a casserole pan with a lid with large pieces of veggies (some combination of carrots, celery, on...

Yes, it's been a really long time since I've posted.  The dissertation-writing process is long and weird, and it's hard to focus on anything else.  My posts in the future might continue to be infrequent and also possibly less elaborate, but I'll try to throw something up here a couple times a month. Meanwhile, it's summer!  Which means, in Massachusetts, it's the season for CSAs , farmer's markets, and berries, berries, berries!  I got two quarts of strawberries from my CSA last week, and about half of them went into this simple strawberry pie.  I used agave and Bee Free Honee , a sweetener the consistency of honey but made from apples.  I do eat honey, but I love having another option for sweeteners.  I tried it when I got an online coupon and quickly became a fan.  It's a Minnesota-based company, and so my Twin Cities friends can most easily find it . 1 pie crust, baked (I used a whole wheat, vegan version from Whole Foods' freezer.) 1 q...