Bean and Broccoli Pie

 After making the Latke Breakfast Pie and the baked beans, I still had about 2 cups of beans left to use up before they got funky.  I also had that light puff pastry crust to use, and a head of broccoli that was getting a little sad.  So pie was a pretty obvious choice.

I used the bean, leek and mushroom pie (I'm too lazy to look at the actual name of it) from Vegan Brunch as a guide.  Instead of walnuts (I'm allergic), I used almonds (not allergic and had them to hand), and I used broccoli in the filling instead of leeks and mushrooms.

Bean and Broccoli Pie
with thanks to Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Ingredients:
1 pie crust, ready made or homemade*
1 medium-large head of broccoli**
1 c roughly chopped almonds
2 c cooked haricot beans (navy beans in the US) with liquid***
1/4 c nutritional yeast
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic granules (or powder)
1/2 tsp onion granules (or powder)
extra water as needed for blending

Preheat the oven to 375F/190C/gas mark 5.  Press your crust into a 9" or larger pie plate (I have a 10 or 11" plate, so you might have some leftover filling if yours is 9").

Chop your broccoli into smallish pieces and steam for 5-10 minutes.  Make the filling while the broccoli steams.

Blend the almonds until they're finely ground and sorta sandy.  Add the beans and bean liquid and blend until relatively smooth.  Add a bit of water if they don't blend easily.  Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until incorporated.  Pour the filling into a medium bowl and fold in the broccoli, then pour the mixture into the prepared pie plate.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the crust is browning and the filling is relatively firm.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.  This will allow the filling to set a bit more.

I served this with green beans cooked relatively similarly to the garlic green beans in Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations.  Mike liked it so much that he actually suggested I make it again, though with a different vegetable.  He thought it tasted like chicken pie, so I bet it would be even more like chicken pie with some soy curls or light TVP chunks soaked in chicken-flavour stock.

I had some leftover dough, so I mixed about a tablespoon of Vitalite, 3 tsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 2-3 tbsp of chocolate chips, put it in the middle of 2 scraps of dough, rolled them up (sorta), and baked in the oven after the pie came out.  And it was amazingly delicious.  I'm actually a little impressed at how great today's evening meal turned out.

In that spirit, what was the best meal that you made up on the fly?

*If you care about crustiness, you might want to blind bake the crust for 10 minutes or so before adding the filling.
**I just used the florets, so if you use the stem, you could get away with a smaller head of broccoli.
***Because you include the liquid, it's probably best to use homemade or tinned organic beans.

Bakin'

First of all, I can't believe I forgot to blog yesterday. I didn't even think about it until I was in bed and the computer was off. I wasn't about to get back up and switch my computer back on just to talk about having oatmeal for dinner (and not even give you a picture of it), so I just went to sleep. That means I've broken my awesome MoFo streak of blogging every day. Oh well.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier this month, I have things to bake for. They both happen to be this Saturday. I don't know how I managed to do this, but I've baked for two bake sales in one day before (during the Worldwide Vegan Bakesale for Haiti, I held 3 sales in one week, two on the same day in different places) so it shouldn't be a problem.

I have a bake sale for a work event (coffee morning) and one at the roller derby bout. Since there are people at work who are baking but not going to the coffee morning and therefore bringing stuff in to the office tomorrow, I worked out to bring stuff in as well so I could get a head start. Tonight, I managed to make the Coffee Chip Muffins from Vegan Brunch:



and these low-fat Snickerdoodle Blondies, combining my favourite bar with my favourite cookie:



I love making the Coffee Chip Muffins because they're just so super easy. It probably takes less time to mix them than for the oven to pre-heat. I find the coffee flavour a bit lacking, so I always use instant espresso instead of regular instant coffee. I have some coffee extract, so maybe next time I make them I'll throw that in as well.

The Snickerdoodle Blondies were amazing. The only thing I might change is to make them like regular blondies (with chocolate chips - it's really the only way) in addition to the cinnamon-sugar topping. In fact, I might make another batch tomorrow and do just that.

The plan for tomorrow night (since that's all the time I have left) is to make some gluten-free The Best Pumpkin Muffins Ever from VwaV (double batch so I can cover both events), French Toast Muffins from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes (since I was sent maple extract in my PPKare package last month), and possibly the Green Tea Cupcakes from VCTOTW. Oh yeah, I also have to make the chocolate raspberry cake - I almost forgot about that. I'll upset at least two people if I don't make it since it was specifically requested.

So I'll be busy tomorrow night. I probably should've made at least one more thing tonight, but I'm dangerously low on cinnamon and don't have all the ingredients for the other stuff I'm making. But I'll get it done.

Revisiting a classic - Tofu Scramble

Huge surprise - Mike didn't make bread today! He says he'll do it tomorrow when he gets home from work, but that's unlikely. We'll see.

Since I didn't have a guest blogger, I decided to revisit one of my favourite topics. I've written at length about tofu scramble. I believe it to be an essential dish in any vegan's repertoire (unless you're soy-free, though there are some interesting soy-free tofus being made by enterprising individuals). In fact, you should probably know how to make tofu scramble even if you just live with a vegan for whom you might end up cooking. I'm actually a little surprised I haven't forced Mike to learn how to make it without my help (though it is one of the 2 dishes he's ever cooked for me).

It seems like it's also a really personal dish - there are probably as many ways to make tofu scramble as there are vegans who eat it. My favourite way to scramble is similar to the recipe in the PPK recipe archive and Vegan with a Vengeance. I usually leave out the thyme (being jabbed in the gum by a dried sprig of thyme once too often put me off it in scramble) and double the nooch, and I use whatever veg I like (most often onion, red pepper if I have it, and broccoli).



But that's the great thing about tofu scramble - you can put pretty much anything in it, and it's great.

If you look back at some of my older post (from last year's MoFo and earlier, mostly), you'll see that I've blogged about scramble a lot. I love a lot of the various scramble recipes from Vegan Brunch, but the VwaV recipe is my go-to, never-fail, don't even need the recipe scramble.

So, how do you scramble? I'd love to hear from soy-free people about making scramble without (soy-based) tofu. I'm also curious to hear your take on 'tofu scramble' v 'scrambled tofu' - which do you prefer? (I think my preference is obvious.)

Cookbook challenge, week 10, day 4 - Get It Ripe

I made two things from Get It Ripe today. There's no photo for the first, and I haven't uploaded the photo for the second.

I made the Carob Chai cake this morning. I didn't have enough time to make the cardamom icing, but it turned out more than fine without it. Also, I subbed out some of the oil with applesauce, and I replaced about 1/3 of the maple syrup with golden syrup because I couldn't justify using an ENTIRE CUP OF MAPLE SYRUP for one single-layer cake. Anyway, this cake was really, really nice. It was kinda like a mild gingerbread (minus the molasses), moister and fluffier and a little milder in flavour. It was actually perfect without frosting. The only thing keeping me from making this again is that massive amount of maple syrup. Maple syrup is pretty damn expensive, and 1 cup is nearly an entire bottle. I might try some other sweeteners to see if it works with something cheaper.

The other thing I made today, which I've actually made quite a few times but haven't made in at least 6 months, if not longer (I haven't made it once since we've been in this flat), was Andrew's Butternut Risotto.


I love this stuff. It takes quite a while, especially if you do what I did and use pearl barley because you can't be arsed to find short grain brown rice for one recipe. But it's worth the time spent, especially because you end up with a shit ton of leftovers. We had plenty with our dinner, and there's enough left over for several more meals.

We had the risotto with the Swiss Chard frittata from Vegan Brunch. I made two changes to the way I usually make it, and it made all the difference in the world. First, because I was roasting garlic for the risotto, I roasted an extra bulb and used that instead of the sliced garlic called for in the frittata recipe. Second, I cooked the frittata in the cast iron skillet that I used for cooking the chard. This was the best frittata I've ever eaten. Absolutely freaking delicious. From now on, I'll be throwing some roasted garlic in my frittatas as much as possible.

Movie night!

It was actually yesterday. My friend Ella came over and we watched Gigi while eating French food. It was pretty damn good, though the movie was a little bit creepier than I remembered (a man easily in his 60s singing 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls' - just a bit ooky).

We started with White Bean Boursin from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak eaten on baguettes from Sainsbury's (I forgot to take a picture of these). The reason I bought bread is because, when I started to make my bread, I realised I didn't have enough flour, and by that time, it was too late to buy flour and bake the bread. As a compromise, I bought the part-baked baguettes (which were the Basics range and only cost 39p for two - score!).

We then had the French Onion Soup Gruyére, also from Ultimate Uncheese

(Sorry about the quality. It gets dark around 4 PM these days, and I had a lot of stuff going on in the kitchen, so for all of these pictures, they won't be the best quality. It's not exactly the prettiest soup anyway.)

This was some good damn soup, and easy as hell to make. It requires very few ingredients and takes less than 30 minutes if you plan it right. We ate it with baguette yesterday, but I had leftovers with croutons this afternoon. It tastes good either way, though I think I preferred the baguette. Even Mike liked it, but then again, I didn't put any of the cheese in his. This is definitely going in my 'make again' memory file.

The main entree was Vegan Brunch omelets with roasted marinated asparagus (I couldn't be bothered getting out my grilling device) and Miso Tahini sauce (also VB)


I've had the VB omelets many times (and will again soon because there was half a tub of tofu left from these), and they're always delicious. I wasn't all that keen on the asparagus, though it was alright. And the sauce was really nice.

Dessert was a veganized version of this chocolate mousse recipe


I used GranoVita Soja Saane for the heavy cream and only added about 2 tbsp of sugar because the GranoVita stuff is already sweetened, and the chocolate had some sugar in it as well. This was super easy and really delicious. I ate way too much (neither Ella nor Mike could finish theirs, so I helped them out), but it was so good.

Overall, it was very successful, though I hesitate to call it a dinner party because only one person showed up and Mike was away until just before Ella had to leave. But at least the food was good.

This week's cookbook challenge is Get It Ripe by jae steele. I actually own this book, and there are a few things I never got around to making, so I'll be participating fully. Also, I've set myself a project to figure out some stuff to make for lunches, since I finally got a temp contract. It's only 4-6 weeks, but at least it's something, and hopefully it'll eventually lead to something permanent.

Farmers' Market and getting ready for tomorrow.

Another Saturday, another Farmers' Market post. Today I got a sack of tatties, some shrooms (which hopefully I'll actually use this time), some Swiss chard (frittata!), and kale from the organic farm, and another three bars - chili and coffee to send to a friend in TX, and winter spice for us - from The Chocolate Tree. It was sprinkly and chilly, and there weren't a lot of other stalls that I fancied (though the other farm stand had squash, but I just can't afford £2.50 per Kg), so it was a quick trip.

Tomorrow is movie night - French food and Gigi! I'm really excited. I've already made a White Bean Boursin from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. Tomorrow I'll make a baguette from La Dolce Vegan to serve with it, as well as French onion soup (also from Ultimate Uncheese), omelets from Vegan Brunch, and something for dessert that I haven't quite decided on - maybe crepes, but I'm not sure I have that kind of patience or time. (Now I've got this song stuck in my head. And for you Buffy/Angel fans, yes, that's Wesley.)

Mike's off to Gamers from 11, so I'll have about 7-8 hours to clean the flat and get most of the rest of the food made. I hope I have enough time and energy to pull this off. And I hope no one bails, because I don't have room in my fridge for leftovers from more than one dish. I probably don't even have room for leftovers of one dish.

Cookbook challenge, week 9, day 2 - La Dolce Vegan

I had oatmeal twice today. Breakfast was a quick and simple golden syrup oatmeal since I had to be at the Scottish Studies library at 11, and lunch was savoury oatmeal, similar to last night but with the addition of a few drops of liquid smoke. Since I don't have anywhere in particular to be tomorrow (just grocery shopping), I think I'm gonna try mocha.

Today was supposed to be Movie Monday, but only one of my friends could make it, so we ended up playing Settlers of Catan. We still had breakfast, which was two recipes for this week's cookbook challenge. The original challenge was for How It All Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard. But we realised that not everyone had HIAV, but almost every challenge participant had at least one Sarah Kramer book, so we've decided that this week's challenge is just Sarah Kramer recipes (any recipe from HIAV, Garden of Vegan, or La Dolce Vegan). I have LDV, so that's what I'm using.

I feel like I'm now compelled to try every variety of tofu scramble I find, just to see if I like anything other than the spice combo in VwaV. So tonight's dinner was Sleepy Sunday Morning Scramble with Vegan "Sausage" Hash

(Sorry, it's not a very appealing picture. We were in the sitting room (bad lighting) and had already started eating when I remembered to take it.)

I used VB Italian feast sausages for the hash, and I only had a red onion, so that went into both recipes. Everyone liked the food. I still prefer Isa's scramble seasonings, but I liked the addition of Dijon mustard in this one. If I'd been at all prepared, the whole meal could've been ready in about 15 minutes, I imagine. My only complaint is that the hash recipe was very non-specific. It just says 'cook until done', without any real indication of what 'done' looks like. This doesn't seem to be the norm, though.

We've tentatively rescheduled movie night for Sunday. Mike won't be home, so we're gonna watch a movie he wouldn't want to see - Gigi! It's one of the classic MGM musicals from the 50s. So, we're gonna have French food and watch a musical about a French courtesan (essentially)! I'm not sure what to make, apart from Pain au Chocolat from VB, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

Bonsai!

Mike and I went to Bonsai for lunch today. It's probably our favourite Edinburgh restaurant, so we go there as often as we can afford. They have a large enough selection of vegan items that we can get a few different things every time we go in, but since I'm the type of person who finds a favourite and sticks with it, I tend to always get the same thing.

Today I had the yakisoba, agedashi tofu, and inari nigiri sushi. I'm starting to really like getting the yakisoba, especially since they stopped doing the lunch specials and no longer serve the miso ramen bowl. The agedashi tofu is really tasty - fried tofu in a ginger and soy sauce - but I rarely get it because it's a pain to eat with chopsticks (the sauce makes the coating on the tofu mushy, and the tofu isn't really firm enough to hold up on its own). And I always, always, always get inari. I kinda treat it like dessert, not just because it's a little sweet, but also because I know I'm gonna love it, so I like to end my meal on a high note. Mike got the miso soup (as he does almost every time), teriyaki tofu, rice, and wasabi peas. I'm pretty sure he liked everything because he finished all of it (then ate the rest of my yakisoba), which is unusual. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures because I forgot my camera.

Mike had Gamers tonight, so I had savoury oatmeal for dinner. It was actually really good. I added 1/2 of a chopped up Vegan Brunch Italian feast sausage, about a tablespoon of nooch, about 1/8 tsp each garlic powder, onion powder, and salt, and a few grinds of the pepper mill. I only did half a bowl because I wasn't really sure how it would turn out, but I really liked it. But since I'd only done 1/2, I decided to make some chai latte oatmeal for dessert - cooked the oatmeal in about a cup of brewed rooibos chai and maybe 1/4-1/2 c soymilk, then added cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and clove. It's quite nice.

My movie for Movie Monday is gonna be the John Hughes classic, The Breakfast Club, with which I will be serving brunch (and possibly sushi, since Claire has sushi for lunch). We'll see. I have a really busy day tomorrow, so I might only be able to do the breakfasty things. I still haven't even decided on what to make. I should get crackalackin' on that.

Lazy day for cooking

Today's been a pretty lazy day for cooking. In fact, I don't think I turned on the stove at all. Everything we ate warm today was either from the toaster or the microwave - oatmeal (me) and crumpets (Mike) for breakfast, a tortilla with some of last night's pot roast for lunch, crumpets for a snack, and leftover soup for dinner.

I made some delicious apple pie oatmeal for breakfast - 1/2 c oats, 1 c water, microwave for about 4 1/2 minutes, then add a few shakes of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, a pinch of salt, brown sugar to taste, and 1 grated apple (peeled and cored). Nom. I might try to change that up a bit, maybe cook the apple in the brown sugar with a bit of margarine to make it kinda like a caramel apple.

Oh, I also made bread today, just a standard wholemeal loaf in the breadmaker. I like freshly baked bread, but I hate dealing with cutting it because none of my knives are really up to the task. Maybe that should be on my Xmas list this year.

I've decided to do a Movie Monday next week, but I'm not set on the movie, and therefore not sure about the menu. I'm leaning towards brunch and The Breakfast Club, but I'm not married to the idea. My only other idea is Gigi and French food, but I'm not sure I even have any idea what I could make that's French-ish, apart from the Pain au Chocolat in VB. I'll keep thinking about it.

Soupy day and English muffins

Today started out fine - we had a long lie-in, I made English muffins, we watched some Buffy. Then, right before Mike went to Gamers, I started to sneeze...and I haven't stopped. I hate allergies.

Today I tried to make English muffins from Vegan Brunch. The first go was unsuccessful - my yeast was dead, so my dough didn't rise. Boo-urns. Luckily, Real Foods had yeast on sale a few months back, and I had the foresight to buy a tin, so I had a backup. I tried again, and, with foamy yeast, managed to get a risen ball of dough. Unfortunately, I was over-zealous in my dough rolling -


As you can see, they're a bit flat. I only got about 2 that were nearly the right height. Also, no wonder I got 10 muffins and 2 rolls out of a recipe that should've made 8 muffins. Oh well. They taste great, which is really all that matters. I should point out that I used a mix of wholemeal and plain flour for these, since the store that sells wholemeal muffins is pretty far away whereas the one that sells plain muffins is around the corner.

As I said, I've been sneezing. Also, it's finally starting to get cold again. And feeling like crap when it's cold means only one thing - soup for dinner. I was tempted to make this soup week, but that would be logistically impossible because I have no space in my fridge to store multiple soups.

I have a go-to soup recipe that I love. It's super easy, though it takes a while to get to eatable stage. But I almost always have all the ingredients on hand, and prep-time is minimal. I don't really have a recipe - I usually just eyeball it - but this is as close to what I made tonight as I can get.

'Beef' Vegetable and Barley Soup

Ingredients
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 small onions or one large onion, quartered
2 litres (approx.) water and/or vegetable broth (I used the broth from the Simple Chicken-style Seitan in Yellow Rose Recipes with additional water)
250g country soup mix (I use Sainsbury's because it has pasta and, more importantly, doesn't have marrowfat peas)
100g (approx.) pearl barley
1 c TVP chunks
1 head of roasted garlic

Heat a massive stock pot over medium heat and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Bung in the carrots and coat with oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5-10 minutes, being sure not to burn them. Add liquid, onions, soup mix, and barley. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. Add TVP and simmer another 10-15 minutes. Ladle out a bit of broth and blend that with the roasted garlic, then pour the mixture into the soup and stir through. Let simmer for another few minutes. Serve with a sprinkle of nooch, and you get this:


I didn't add any extra seasonings because I figured the broth would add enough flavour, but if you find it lacking, parsley and thyme are usually nice in this. I also sometimes add some potatoes, but they're not necessary. I meant to add some red wine to this, but I forgot.

This soup soaks up a lot of liquid when stored, so you'll want to add some water to it before reheating.

Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow and thus able to finally attempt the cupboard cleaning project.

Cookbook challenge - Yellow Rose Recipes

As promised, I'm gonna catch up with the Yellow Rose Recipes cookbook challenge that happened a couple of weeks ago.

First off, a bonus Vegan Brunch recipe - Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes


These were so amazingly good. Just a bit spicy, not too dry, and the remoulade really brought the flavours together. Mike wasn't as pleased, so I ate the rest the next day!

Another bonus - Feesh Fingers from the blog The Great Vegan Conspiracy


Really tasty! I baked instead of fried, and I probably baked them a little too long because they were a bit too crunchy. I also didn't have any dill, I think, and I didn't bother with the nori, which was a mistake. Next time, I'll add the nori, maybe marinate the tofu for a bit longer, and try to remember the herbs. We ate them with make-shift tartar sauce, which was basically Isa's remoulade minus the chipotle sauce.

My first YRR recipe for the cookbook challenge was Tofu Scramble


Mike and I could both eat tofu scramble every day, but I have my preferences. I have to say, I wasn't terribly impressed with this. It was slightly healthier than my usual scramble (because of the additional veg), but it wasn't all that flavourful. I did, however, like the method. My normal scramble is the Vegan with a Vengeance recipe, usually with about half the tofu but not reducing anything else (and no shrooms because Mike is a hater). But that one takes forever, it seems, so I've since been combining the method and some of the ingredients for the YRR recipe with the flavourings from the VwaV recipe. It's worked so far.

Next up was the Sloppy Joannas


OMG these were amazingly delicious. Mike and I both had seconds. The recipe makes a lot, but we didn't have any leftovers. I really want to make these again soon. The only downside is that, every time I see the name of the recipe, it makes me think of the Michael Jackson song 'Dirty Diana'.

My next YRR recipe was the Chicken-Style Seitan/Mustard Crusted Seitan


Another winner. The seitan itself takes ages to make, mostly because you have to form it into individual cutlets, so it's not nearly as easy as the V'con recipe. However, the results are totally worth it. Mike has since requested these for his lunch sammiches. They're awesome to fry up with some breading, as with the Mustard Crusted Seitan pictured. I loved it, but Mike thought they were too mustardy. I made them again the other night, omitting the mustard for his and using slightly different breading, and we both thought they were wonderful. I would love to do the Beer-Battered Seitan, but I don't usually have beer around, and I'm not too keen on the amount of fat in them. Maybe for a get-together.

I also made the Spiced Applesauce, which by itself isn't great. I think I prefer my applesauce without the 5-spice. It just kinda has a wang to it. However, I later made the Spice Cake


and it was soooo good! The 5-spice isn't noticeable at all. The cream cheese frosting made this cake almost literally irresistible. I made a double recipe in a 9x13" pan (well, it might have been 11x14") on Tuesday, took it to an Ethnology Society meeting on Wednesday afternoon, had some friends over before going out Wednesday evening, and ate the rest of it when I got home that night. We just couldn't stop eating it. I wish I had some right now.

Like I said, I had friends over, so I made the Tamale Pie for dinner that night.


I used the taco salad 'meat' and nacho sauce (minus jalapenos because they're kinda expensive here) topped with the sour cream recipe in the book. Also, I forgot to buy tomato sauce, so I just bunged in two things of chopped tomatoes in their juices. Everyone loved it. LOVED. Except Mike, who doesn't like cooked 'cheese' or sweetcorn in things. But everyone else had seconds. I thought it was delicious and actually didn't mind that Mike didn't like it that much because that meant all the leftovers were for me! Anyway, I want to make this again, but if there are only 2 of us eating it and one person doesn't like it, it seems like a waste of time and effort. Maybe for another dinner party or something.
Breaking it down - Taco salad TVP was a little weird and grainy. If I make it again, I'll either use larger granules or just buy a bag of frozen mince. The sour cream was really good, but a little limey. I might do slightly less lime and slightly more acv next time. Nacho sauce was amazingly delicious. I want some nachos. I kinda wish I'd made the whole recipe (though Mike would've liked it even less, but I suspect it was the polenta part rather than the nacho sauce that he didn't like).

Oh yeah, Mike's birthday happened in there, so here are pictures of his cake, made from the Mint Chocolate Cupcakes recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World


Yeah, I busted out the heart-shaped cake pan again.



What I did here was halve the cake and do a layer of mint frosting, then a layer of ganache, then put the other half of the cake on top, another layer of mint frosting, and another layer of ganache. I've done this before, and it never disappoints. It didn't last long. This is actually one of the easier and less time-consuming 'fancy' cupcakes in the book, which is even easier made as a cake. I love this cake.

There were actually a couple other things in there, but this post is already really long, so I might save those for another time. I'll probably do my cupboard clean-out tomorrow, with before and after shots, and then figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do with all the stuff I have in there. It would be nice to know what's there.

Cookbook challenge, week 3, days 4-7 - Vegan Brunch

I haven't been making a lot from VB, which is why I haven't blogged in a while. I'm doing a catch-up today, though I can't really remember what I made on which nights, to be honest. I mean, there was at least one night when we had cereal for dinner, and last night, I'm ashamed to say, we actually had donuts and coffee cake for dinner. I had every intention of making decent food, but Mike ended up not being particularly hungry after eating 3 donuts and a piece of coffee cake. Anyway, I digress. I'll go in order.

At some point this week, I made Spinach and Millet Polenta with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto:


This one is actually a hold-over from last week's challenge, Vegan with a Vengeance. I had intended on making it last Sunday with spinach I got from the Farmers' Market, but I didn't get around to it because it is a bit time consuming. The spinach was on the brink, so I decided to make the polenta before I ended up having wasted the money (although I think we got a deal on the spinach because it was the end of the day and they were trying to get rid of everything).

I baked the polenta to avoid the extra fat from pan-frying, and I used ground almonds for the pesto since I had a big bag of ground almonds and a small bag of slivered almonds (and no whole almonds). I served it with roasted asparagus.

I can't believe I waited so long to try this recipe. I think I was scared off by the pesto, since I can't have regular pesto (allergic to pine nuts), or maybe the sun-dried tomatoes, or maybe even the amount of time it takes to make. Either way, I'm so glad I finally made this. It is freaking amazing. The pesto was a perfect complement to the polenta. It was so delicious that I actually turned the oven back on to make seconds. I will definitely make this again (though probably in stages and well in advance so I can just throw everything together, because it took ages).

I made East Coast Coffee Cake (jam swirl variation) on Friday:

Oh yeah, I busted out the heart-shaped pan!



I've actually made this before (raspberry jam swirl and chocolate chip layer variations), but I needed to use up some applesauce that's taking up room in the fridge and wanted to make something from VB for which I had all the ingredients on hand. This time I made it with seedless bramble jam I got from the Farmers' Market. It was just as delicious as last time. OK, I lie, nothing is as delicious as chocolate and raspberry. But it was delicious. I love this recipe.

Finally, tonight's dinner was Sesame Tofu Scramble with Greens and Yams:


This was delicious and super easy (if you prepare ahead, which, for once, I did). It has just a few ingredients and takes less than 20 minutes to cook. We both scarfed this stuff. The flavours were really subtle - a bit of saltiness from the soy sauce, just a bit of sweetness from the sweet potato, the slightest hint of heat from the peppers. It felt a bit lighter than regular tofu scramble. It was really nice.

Mike is going out tomorrow, so I'm gonna try to make the Matzoh Brie and Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes at some point.

Cookbook challenge, week 3, days 2 & 3 - Vegan Brunch

I've managed to make quite a few recipes in the past couple of days - two for dinner last night, one for lunch today, some muffins, and tonight's dinner. So, here they are in order of when they were made.

Last night's dinner was Basic Scrambled Tempeh with Roasted Squash:


I used the mystery squash from this post instead of the butternut in the recipe, but I think the results were the same. It was exactly what the recipe said it would be - a bit crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. I usually roast squash with sweet things (i.e., maple syrup), so this was different, but in a good way. It was a nice accompaniment to the tempeh, which we thought was just alright. It tasted a bit too much like health food. We both liked the dish, though Mike left most of his tempeh and tried to eat my kale. I don't know if I'll make it again, since tempeh is kinda pricey and I like for it all to get eaten.

I had a really long day today (up at 6 AM and out the door before Mike even had to start getting ready for work, which is very unusual), so I decided that I deserved a proper cooked lunch, and I made the Puttanesca Scramble.


I've been wanting to try this for a while, but Mike isn't a fan of olives, so I had to wait for a time that I could make it just for myself. I'm so glad I did. The flavours were really nice, even though I had to sub dried for fresh herbs (I couldn't find fresh) and boxed chopped tomatoes for fresh (because I can't be arsed). It came together really quickly, too. My only complaint is that it didn't seem very filling. I made a half recipe, and I ate the whole shebangabang in about an hour and still didn't feel full. This is the type of dish that's best served with something else.

I also made the Pumpkin Bran Muffins:


I have to say, although these were nice, they just aren't as good as The Best Pumpkin Muffins from VwaV. The bran made them feel very health food-y, which isn't necessarily bad. They're good, but I won't be replacing the VwaV muffins any time soon.

And since I'd opened the jar of pumpkin puree and didn't have room to store it, I made Pumpkin French Toast for dinner:


This was tasty, but the pumpkin flavour wasn't pronounced enough to make me want to use a muffin recipe's worth of the stuff to make this again. The funny thing is that Mike thought it was too pumpkin-y, and that it wasn't spiced enough. However, I should also mention that he thinks it needed pepper. Anyway, I also think the bread should probably have been sliced a little more thinly. I got as close to one inch as possible, but I thought it was a bit too thick. It also left me with some slightly tough crusts. I don't really make french toast that often, but I think I might be a bit boring when it comes to it. I should've made the Fronch Toast in VwaV last week. Oh well.

I only plan on making one more recipe for this cookbook challenge. Or, at least, I had, but I've just realised that today is only Tuesday, and I haven't really planned for meals for the rest of the week. I might have to re-evaluate my plans, preferably to include more veg.

Cookbook challenge, week 3, day 1 - Vegan Brunch

OK, I was really kinda crap with last week's cookbook challenge. I'll try to be better with this week. That said, this week is Vegan Brunch, and there are so many recipes I want to try, I've decided to just do a few this week and then use this book as my VeganMoFo project.

We had one of Mike's friends over, so I made the Coffee Chip Muffins:


They both really liked them, though I wasn't all that keen. The coffee flavour was pretty subtle, and I was hoping for a lot more. I also thought they were a bit too chewy and not quite as fluffy as I would've liked. Still, all but two of them are gone (and those only survive because I put them away before Mike could eat them - they're going with him for his lunch tomorrow). I'm beginning to wonder if I'm so tired because I'm crashing from the caffeine. Anyway, I don't know if I'll make these again. Maybe if I'm having a coffee fan over. And I might double the coffee if I do.

Here's where my post gets sad. I wasn't feeling making dinner, but then I looked at the recipe for the Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes and realised I had all the ingredients, and they don't take that long. So I got out my tempeh...and it smelled of fish that's about to go off. It was pretty disgusting. I don't know why it was like that. I didn't even realise tempeh could smell like that, especially since it still looked fine (though it's really hard to tell when tempeh's gone off just by looking). I really wish I'd bought the other package of it when I was at Real Foods.

So, I decided instead to make omelets with burnt broccoli, since we'd bought broccoli at the Farmers' Market yesterday. But when I cut up the broccoli, I kept finding bugs. If it had only been one or two, I would've been OK. But there were several, and I couldn't be sure that I'd gotten them all. I actually felt ill thinking about the possibility that I might end up eating a bug, so we decided that it was better to waste the money than for me to throw up my dinner. We ended up having cheeze omelets, which were still delicious.

Oh, and we finally managed to get to the Farmers' Market when the Engine Shed was there, so we got the delicious Gypsy Cream cookies they sell. These are oatmeal cookies with a coffee buttercream sandwiched between them. Nom! I really need to make these myself. Two packages of two sammich cookies each cost us £3. I'm sure I could make them for cheaper.

Cookbook challenge is almost here!

So, the PPK cookbook challenge starts tomorrow (well, technically Monday, but I'm starting tomorrow). The point of the cookbook challenge is to get us to use our vast array of cookbooks in a structured way, so that we can share experiences and favourites and try new things that we might not have. We're meant to make at least three recipes from the book chosen for that week and post in the forum about how we got on. The first book is Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. I'm super excited. I already have my recipes picked out, including at least one dessert (so I can make use of my oat flour), and I'll be posting as I go along. Hopefully this will be good practice for VeganMoFo.

I went back to the Edinburgh Farmers' Market today for the first time in at least a month. I'd been missing Swiss chard and was hoping to find some good stuff to use for the challenge. To be honest, I stopped going because basically one side of the market is almost entirely comprised of meat producers, with some of them offering cooked meat products at the stalls, and frankly, it makes me a little nauseous. It would make my life a lot easier if the meat producers were all on one side and the non-meat people (even the cheese toasty people) were on the other. Oh well. I'm hoping that today's score is indicative of increasing variety, which would at least temporarily alleviate my other problem - they had the same stuff every week. But this week, I got my standard greens (chard and spinach, though I could've gotten kale as well), but I also got two lovely squashes. One was a 2Kg spaghetti squash, the first time I've seen one since I moved to the UK. The other was this lovely squash that they couldn't identify, but PPKers identified as a kabocha:


I've been told that it's best when it's left to its own devices for a few weeks, otherwise it pretty much tastes like courgette. So, I'll be saving that beauty for a later challenge. Anyway, the chard went into a delicious Swiss Chard Frittata (recipe in Vegan Brunch), and I'll figure out what to do with the spinach later.

I also managed to find a use for the carob chips my sister brought from the US (she was supposed to bring chocolate chips), and here are the results:


The Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. Not the best picture, I must admit, but they were tasty as hell. I almost always make modifications to the recipe when I make them, but they are by far the best muffins I have ever eaten in my life, regardless of how I change them up. This batch had about 1/2 c of carob chips, used only 3/4 c of sugar, subbed half the oil with applesauce, and subbed the flour as follows - 3/4 c plain flour, 1/2 c wholemeal pastry flour, 1/2 c spelt flour (also, the recipe in the book, which is what I use, doesn't have soy yogurt). The sweetness of the carob balances out the 'healthy' taste of the flours, even with 1/2 cup less sugar than the original recipe. These also do really well with chocolate chips, and I would imagine they would taste alright with some kind of berry, if you go in for that sort of thing.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to post my first cookbook challenge experiences tomorrow. Yay! Also, I just realised that it kinda looks like I'm whoring for Isa since I've posted all but one of her (and Terry's) books. I'm really not - I just love the books, and they happen to be the ones I use most. Part of why I'm taking part in the cookbook challenge.