Tofu Ranchero

I love spicy food, so I decided to try my take on a classic dish and veganize it.  We loved how this turned out, and I will definitely add this to my breakfast rotation.

Tofu Ranchero

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 pkgs. extra-firm tofu, packed in water, drained
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbs. chili powder
1 packed cup chopped cilantro
1 - 29oz. can vegetarian refried beans
3 jalapenos, either fresh or pickled Mexican-style, sliced in rings
Your favorite salsa

Directions:

In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion, carrots and celery and cook for ten minutes, until they soften.  Add the tofu and mash directly in the pan.  Cook for twenty minutes or until tofu begins to brown.  Add the spices and cilantro and cook for another five minutes.  Meanwhile, heat the beans up in a separate small pot.  Serve tofu mixture over the refried beans and top with jalapeno slices and salsa.  This is great with English muffins on the side.  Enjoy!  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Fava Bean and Green Chile Succotash

Fava beans are in season now, and I've been playing around with different recipes featuring them to see if I could really present them in a way that I like.  They are big and meaty, and that tends to turn me off when it comes to beans.  But, I wasn't giving up, and I came up with something that I really like, and I hope you will too.  It's my version of succotash, and even though I wanted to dump a can of tomatoes in the dish - because tomatoes makes everything taste better - G had been eating tomatoes for days and wanted a break.  Can you believe him?  Anyhow, I was skeptical that I would like fava beans without tomatoes around, but this is a very flavorful dish, and the green chiles add just the slightest punch.  Served over quinoa, it makes for a complete meal.

Fava Bean and Green Chile Succotash

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 head garlic, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
4 stalks celery, sliced
1 - 12 to 15oz. can of corn, drained
1 - 4.5 oz. can chopped green chiles
1 cup shelled fava beans
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup quinoa, prepare according to package directions

Directions:  

In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic, carrots and celery, and cook for about ten minutes, until they are fork tender, stirring occasionally.  Add the corn, green chiles, fava beans and seasonings, and cook for another ten minutes, until beans are softened, and everything is cooked through, stirring occasionally.  Serve over quinoa.  Surprisingly tasty!  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Freezing Asparagus

I am planning on doing a lot more food preserving to save money and enjoy foods at their freshest when they are not in season.  In keeping with that, I decided to preserve asparagus in the tastiest way possible: by freezing them.  If I have to eat non-fresh veggies, I prefer them frozen, rather than canned, especially asparagus.  (Unless they are pickled!)  Anyways, I brought an extra twenty dollars to the farmer's market and bought eight bunches of asparagus.  Follow these super easy steps to freeze your own!

Here are those bunches of beautiful asparagus.  My family eats two bunches at dinner, so that is how I will prepare and freeze them.

If I'm making asparagus for dinner, I usually just snap off the tough ends of their stalks.  But, since I was working with such a larger quantity, the quicker way to do this was to simply cut off about an inch off the bottom.  To make it a neater process, keep them banded together while cutting.  Afterwards, you can take the bands off and rinse them.  Save those tough ends to make broth,or chop them small and add to a soup!

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.  Carefully put the asparagus in and leave in, or blanch, for about one minute.  It's okay if you somehow forget and the time creeps up to two minutes, but try not to leave them in beyond that.  You don't want mushy, boiled asparagus.  The water will inevitably stop boiling when you put the asparagus in.  That's okay; do not leave them in waiting for the water to come back to a boil.  Simply start your timer when they go in.  Bring water back to full boil before adding your next batch, however.

Use tongs to remove asparagus from pot and place in colander.  Rinse under cold water for another minute or so to stop the cooking process.  Shake as much excess water through the holes as possible when done.

Place in freezer bags, two bunches at a time, if you are freezing them in the same quantities I am.  Press the air out and seal the bags.  Freeze until you are ready to prepare them for a meal.  Simply thaw and cook as usual.

I hope this was a useful step-by-step program on how to preserve delicious springtime asparagus.  Look for more tips coming up soon!

Walnut Cake with Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this cake for Mother's Day for my mom.  She doesn't really have a sweet tooth, so I knew I had to create something that wasn't overpowering.  This turned out really well.  It is moist and has a texture that was appealing to everyone.  I used ingredients I had on hand (meaning I didn't have an inordinate amount of powdered sugar), so the frosting came out differently than my normal ones, but I really like it.  It comes off as seemingly too thin at first, but it sets up well, especially if you chill it for about ten minutes after spreading.  I also forgot to cream the sugar and margarine together, as is normally the custom - I whisked the sugar in with the dry ingredients instead.  Realizing my goof, I just added a bit of oil to the wet, and all turned out well.  In fact, I kept this "mistake" in my directions.  (I also used Trader Joe's vegan cream cheese instead of Tofutti, so the frosting isn't very white.)  Hope you and yours enjoy this, my latest original recipe.  

Walnut Cake with Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting

(unfortunately on a plain cake carrier for traveling)

Slice of that wonderful cake

(on a nice plate :-) )

Walnut Cake with Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

Cake:

Non-stick spray
Flour for dusting
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup vegan or raw sugar
3 cups almond milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts, that have been chopped small

Frosting:

1 - 8oz. pkg. vegan cream cheese, room temperature
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 and 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup finely ground walnuts

 Directions:

 For the cake:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray two round cake pans with non-stick spray and lightly dust them with flour.  Set aside.  Whisk together in a large bowl the flour through the sugar.  Add the almond milk through the vanilla extract.  Blend with a hand mixer on medium low speed until well mixed, about three minutes or so. Stir in the walnuts.  Divide batter between the two cake pans.  Bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Set on cooling racks for fifteen minutes.  Remove cakes from pans, and continue cooling on racks until completely cooled.

For the frosting:  In a medium bowl, cream the cream cheese and vanilla extract with a hand mixer on low speed.  Add the powdered sugar and continue blending.  When well blended fold in the walnuts with a spatula.  Spread a generous amount of frosting on the top of one cake.  Add the second cake on top, and finish frosting.  It's easiest if you frost the top first, then take a non-serrated butter knife or a narrow spatula to spread the sides.  This frosting seem a tad runny at first, but chilling the cake for a few minutes after the frosting has been spread will help it set up.  This is very good and different.  Feeds five hungry vegans and a couple of grandparents with leftovers to boot.

Classic Tomato Sandwich, Toasted...or Not

I was still trying to use up my farmer's market tomatoes this week, and what better way to do that but to make the all-time tomato lover's sandwich: the humble but delicious Tomato Sandwich?  Before I met G, I had never had a sandwich where the tomato was the lone star of the show, but he showed me how they can stand on their own, and I've been eating them ever since.  As the post title says, you can either toast the bread or not; it's delicious either way.  And just to show you that is the case, I've taken pictures of both versions.  All the work I do for you!  So, behold the Classic Tomato Sandwich in both glorious forms.

Classic Tomato Sandwich, toasted

Classic Tomato Sandwich, untoasted

Classic Tomato Sandwich, Toasted...or Not

Ingredients:

A ripe, red tomato, sliced thickly
Vegenaise
Good bread that can stand up to a wet ingredient - we used sourdough
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

If you are doing the toasted version, toast your bread slices until they are light golden brown.  If not, just continue from this point. :-)  Spread a generous layer of Vegenaise on both slices of bread.  Top one slice with tomato slices.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to your liking.  Top with the other slice.  Bite.  Is good with chips or baby carrots or pickle spears on the side.  Use a couple of more tomatoes to feed five hungry vegans.

Classic Tomato and Cucumber Salad

I saw the first tomatoes at the farmer's market yesterday, so I had to pick some up.  They were perfect and tasted like we were already in the dead heat of summer.  Yum.  I also bought an English cucumber and realized right away how I was going to combine these two finds: into my Classic Tomato and Cucumber Salad.  As far as cucumbers go, I really prefer the English kind; the skin is not waxed and not too thick, and the seeds are not too big.  I find that I peel the other version and scoop out the seeds, but I eat the complete English cucumber.  (I also like little pickling cucumbers.)  Also this salad is perfect with just a sprinkling of salt and pepper, but if you really want a dressing, just add a splash of olive oil and vinegar.  This can be a completely raw recipe, if you leave off the dressing.  If you've never had this simple pairing in a salad, you're in for a treat.

The whole salad in a serving bowl.

My salad plate.  I ate it all up!

Classic Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

2 - 3 ripe tomatoes, quartered and wedged
1 English cucumber, ends trimmed and sliced in circles or semi-circles depending on the diameter of the cuke
1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Put all ingredients into a serving bowl and toss well.  Eat immediately.  Don't chill; it will ruin the texture of the tomatoes.  So, no leftovers!  You have to eat it all in one night.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Tofu with Wild Spinach and Almonds

Once again I found an unusual treat at the farmer's market.  One of the farmer's had on hand some wild spinach.  It was beautiful and not the smooth oval shape as traditional spinach.  It was pointier and had rough edges to the leaves.  When cooked it tasted about eighty percent like traditional spinach but had a bit of a different taste, as well, kind of grassy.  It was very good.  I wanted their flavor to be be pronounced, so I cooked and seasoned them lightly.  I think the dish below presents their color and flavor very well.

Tofu with Wild Spinach and Almonds

Two bunches of wild spinach

Look at their leaves!

Tofu with Wild Spinach and Almonds

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. olive oil
2 blocks of water-packed tofu, drained and cut into triangles
2 bunches of wild spinach (or traditional spinach), leaves cut free from their stems, 4 - 6 cups worth
2 - 3 Tbs. soy sauce or tamari
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pan over medium high heat.  Add tofu, being careful not to get splattered.  Cook over medium high heat until tofu starts to brown, then turn down to medium.  This takes about ten minutes.  Cook for another ten minutes or so, until tofu is browning on all sides.  Add the spinach and soy sauce and stir quickly until spinach just wilts, about two to three minutes.  Turn off the heat and add the almonds and stir.  Delicious, simple and quick.  Feeds five hungry vegans.