Vegetable Supper Invasion!!!

So, my computer totally shit the bed. Not sure what's wrong with it, and I've not bothered to get it fixed, rather I've just been enjoying my limited internet time. I have, though, still been cooking with vegetables and sometimes even taking photos of my meals. I have my brother's computer to myself this afternoon, so here're a bunch of photos of the meals we've enjoyed over the last month. I hope I remember the ingredients sufficiently to give you an idea of what each dish was about. Also, I miss you.

"Cooking with Dog" is one of my favourite youtube channels. It's a show where you're taught to make Japanese dishes by a dog named Francis. He tells you how and the lady actually makes the dish. This dish, Tofu Nimono, is the best one I've tried so far. I will take any excuse to have a dog tell me what to do with delicious fried tofu. Damn it's good. If you think you don't like tofu, you should try it fried. For this version of Tofu Nimono, I used potatoes, carrots, turnip, daikon radish, peas. Another incredible feature of this stew is its delicious brothy base (as I don't have the special starchy potato to make it thick. I suppose I could use kudzu). When I was in Japan, I couldn't figure out how anything was seasoned. This recipe helps unlock that secret. Allow Francis to walk you through this dandy.

If I'm not mistaken, this dish is a recipe that I created last year, which is basically Indian spices and, well, it used to be purely chickpeas, cabbage and a humongous onion, but Bruce doesn't like onion, so I amended this one and also threw in some red pepper. I served this over the lovely yellow rice that I learned from Manjula of Manjula's Kitchen. She rules and every recipe I've tried has been amazing. Here's the video.





This gorgeous dish was really quick to make and is also extremely good for you and delicious. You couldn't ask for a much better meal than that, eh? It's from Jae Steele's wonderful debut cookbook "Get It Ripe," and it's called "Sesame Kale Soba" and also notably features arame, a cool black seaweed. Page 192. Make it, and get some kale and seaweed into that body of yers.






So I'm reading this book about kudzu called, aptly titled, "The Book of Kudzu." Kudzu is both a much-loved and much-hated vine that grows in Japan and the Southern U.S. Kudzu deserves its own post, so I'll make that happen soon, but for now, I just had to show you the drink that I totally made up using kudzu (which is, for the purpose of this post, a delicious, alkalizing thickener). Basically, I was feeling really overheated digestively-speaking, so I thought-- what would be better than thickened peppermint tea? That's right-- nothing. So I did it. Peppermint tea sweetened with a bit of maple syrup, coloured with some liquid chlorophyll and thickened with kudzu. Oh yeah. It felt perfect. I drank a ton of it. Here it is presented in the Shuswap mug Mom and Dad brought me back from British Columbia.




I estimate that a clear 70% or more of my meals are Indian dishes, based on the principles of Ayurveda, because I have holes in my bowels and these delicious dishes (that sounds so cool!) nourish me, and I'm a big dork who yearns to be an expert in Ayurvedic cooking. This dish, a Digestive Kichadi from "The Ayurvedic Cookbook" by Amadea Morningstar and Urmilla Desei, is one of mine and Bruce's favourites. I usually alter it slightly because Bruce loves things a little spicier. This dish features split mung beans, basmati rice, carrots, maybe sweet potatoes, peas and a medley of delicious Indian spices. I will absolutely devote a huge post to this book soon. It's got tumeric stains all over it.

I love nog. Since becoming vegan, I've been obsessed with So Nice's version called Noel Nog and I wait for it each season with no semblance of patience at all. This year, after having recipe tested for Jae Steele's forthcoming masterpiece "Ripe From Around Here," I didn't actually buy one carton of Noel Nog. I considered it a couple of times, but concluded that it was much less delicious and much more saccharine than the version from Jae's book. Here it is in my bat mug that my beloved friend Ingrid made with her own little elf hands. This nog is stupid good. While I can't tell you the recipe, I can say that its base is almond milk, and is doped up with coconut milk and a warming array of spices. And maybe rum or bourbon. I think the book is due out in the spring, and I recommend you make it then.

A few nights ago I wanted pasta so I made pasta. Nothing terribly special, just pasta with sauteed vegetables (garlic, leeks, zucchini, mushrooms, yellow pepper, yellow beets-- yes, yellow beets!, spinach), and basil pesto over garlic parsley kamut linguine noodles. This was my leftover meal the next day for breakfast and even though I had the afternoon light, this meal still looks kinda gray. Ooops!





This is a weird one. I've always been into the idea of savoury squares. My oft-missed friend Emily and I always lamented the fact that you can't buy a savoury energy bar or square. Always with the sweetness, never the savoury. With some tweaking, this could be it. This recipe, "Endvo Savory Squares," was the first recipe that appealed to me from "The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook," but it took me a while to make it because it's kind of involved. I tweaked it and used cream of brown rice rather than cream of wheat, and this recipe is basically a lot of rice cream with cabbage, carrot, peas and spices. Here it looks ghastly and gray, but it was actually bright and tumericky. It was delicious, but was a bit dry and in need of chutney or to be served with a soupy dish.

I've had my eye on this dish since last summer when Bruce and I planned to make it and then for some reason didn't. The other day, after tasting chipotle peppers the first time on a veggie chili-making date with my galpals Tracy and Laura, I knew I needed more chipotle in my week. This one's called "Southern Bowl: Chipotle Black-Eyed Peas with Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Collard Greens." Daaamn, chipotles are hawt and smoky and lovely. I figured I was kind of stupid to make this dish when my belly was already feeling terrible, but I couldn't talk myself out of it and oddly it didn't make it worse-- it actually might've even inexplicably made me feel better. And oh yeah, this recipe is also a Jae Steele classic from "Get It Ripe." I misread this recipe and made it a bit differently, but it still turned out wonderfully, if I may say so. Bruce, full of about four sandwiches, even ate a bunch. He didn't try the collards, of course, but still.

Geez, those're all the photos I have from this month, except for the photo shoot of Bruce making me soup. That one gets its own post because it was so awesome. Stay tuned, dude(tte)s.

Blizzard of Brocsnip Soup!

Today was awesome. I trudged through the freshly fallen snowstorm to the market with Brucifer. It's always really hard to drag my ass out of bed and be there by 8 on a Saturday morning, but he suggested that it was a beautiful morning out so I left with him when he went to work. I got a lot of great stuff at the market, which was dead as a tomb due to the holiday and the snowstorm. I scored some more carrots, a spaghetti squash, a pumpkin, a small broccoflower (this will be my first time using it), parsnips, a couple of sweet potatoes, some candy cane beets (white and pink swirls on the inside!), a bag of curly kale, a small daikon radish, a bunch of leeks, a piece of celeriac, two pounds of California Herb tofu and one kilogram of blackberries.

I kind of just chilled and drank tea and read today, and looked through some cookbooks for new ideas to use the produce I bought. Inspired by a recipe called "Christmas Parsnip Soup" by Kristina Turner from "The Self-Healing Cookbook" --which is more than just a cookbook, but a guide to the link between food, cooking and how we feel-- I made a really quick but wonderful soup. Anyway, here's my variation on her recipe, inspired by Halifax's first big storm of the winter:

Blizzard of Brocsnip Soup

4 c. water
3 c. parsnips, sliced finely
1 c. broccoli, including stem if necessary
2 tsp. dried sage
1 tsp. summer savoury
1/2 tsp. rosemary leaves
1 scant tbsp. light miso
a swirl of bragg's amino acids
sea salt and pepper to taste

Bring water to a boil and cook parsnips and broccoli with herbs for about 20 minutes, or until tender. When soup cools down to a temperature you don't mind getting splattered on your skin (just in case), add miso, salt and pepper and a touch of Bragg's and puree with blender, hand blender or food processor until desired consistency. This should be about right. Serves 3-4.

Parsnips-- sweet as hell and wicked sliced thin and pan-fried as chips, are also high in fibre, the oft-forgotten important but relatively difficult to find mineral manganese and vitamin C. The parsnip's flavour architect, winter frost, hath arrived most everywhere that's gonna get any. Grab 'em while you can and make 'em into something you can eat during a blizzard.

Pumpkin & Sexy Pepper Curry is a good thing

I never expected Martha Stewart to be helpful to me twice in one season, but it happened. My wonderful friend and Naturopathic Doctor, Sandra Murphy alerted me to this recipe last month, and it was evident I needed to make it pronto (yes, this is how bad I am at updating my blog-- I made this--okay-- about three weeks ago). I made it the next night. It's a pretty simple recipe, although my version ended up looking as if it'd been stored in a plastic grocery bag and dragged through the city. Okay, so I'm no food photographer-- I guess that's no secret. That, and I added the tofu early because I wanted to, and it wasn't as firm as hers. But it was still wicked.


As I was cutting up the peppers, I noticed one piece naturally formed an "s," which I thought was pretty rad. I looked further and easily found an "e." And I think peppers are sexy anyway, thus me spelling the word "sexy" using the red peppers that I'd roughly chopped. Bruce took this photo for me. How sexy is that?

The curry (Martha calls it stew, and hers looked like stew, but mine didn't) was spicy as hell because I used a muchi curry powder (which is hotter) rather than the usual organic one I use. It was SO very DAMNED HOT (for me-- for curry powder, anyway). I'm sure some of y'all'd be all like "it's not hot at all!! You call THAT spicy?!" Everything is relative, and I'm just as adamant about showing off about certain things, so let's let it rest. But if you're looking for a hot powdered curry blend, muchi might be the one. Anyway, this stew/curry was extremely quick (like 40 minutes all told, probably) and simple and delicious and used very few ingredients. Peeling the li'l pumpkin was much less tedious than I'd remembered. As for the recipe, I varied it only slightly (for me, anyway). I used whole coconut milk because light coconut milk is for pussies and I used almond milk because rice milk is only for people who are allergic to absolutely everything. To me it's outdated and gross. I used it before almond milk became the new soy milk. Anyway, I also used a lime because a) limes are better than lemons in Indian cooking and b) that's what Martha pictured with her stew, even though she called for a lemon. ZING! Oh, I also omitted the jalapeno pepper (because I can't have too much heat) and the onion (because Bruce thinks they're evil, about which he's wrong, but I appease him). And finally, I omitted cilantro leaves. I may be in the minority here, but I'm just don't like them. I won't say cilantro's gross, I'm still working on liking it.

This was our curry and it was a good thing, or whatever.

All Hail Black Kale!

Okay, it's purple kale, but it's soooo dhark and gets even darker (and somewhat greenish) when cooked. Anyway, I've been neglecting my kale intake lately, so I thought I'd try preparing it an Ayurvedic (for all intents and purposes-- in a balanced Indian style) way in hopes I would tempt Bruce to eat it as well. He did smell it and agree to try it at a later date, but he was so into his fishsticks and fake chicken that he wouldn't stray. So..., I just ripped pieces of kale off the stalk, boiled it until tender (you could also steam it but I wanted the energetic effects of boiled kale, plus I'm gonna use the purply mineral-rich boiling water for soup!). In another little pot, I warmed about a teaspoon of coconut oil (this one, a new one was full-flavoured and therefore tasty!), added 1/2 tsp. of cumin seeds and when they started popping, added a tsp. of coriander powder. I then poured this oil mixture on the kale and added some Bragg's liquid aminos (saltiness) and a sheet of nori seaweed (the stuff of sushi) torn roughly into squares. I was shocked at how delicious this was-- the bitterness of the kale kind of vanished-- this is a highly recommended kale preparation method. Anyway, this bowl of kale was all I ate for supper. I baked apple blueberry oat muffins later. I ate tofu for breakfast and Indian cauliflower and potatoes for lunch. I've been eating so strangely lately. It's been fun, so I've been going with it.

KALE-- it's what your creakin' bones've been askin' you for.

Fig Almond Butter Shortbread Hearts & Hummus Sushi

I subscribe to a few google alerts, so I can keep abreast of what's going on without hardly having to lift a finger. One awesome recipe that came through recently on my vegan google alert, was one for Fig & Almond Shortbread. It came from here and it was aparently her first attempt at making a recipe (at least for baking) vegan. Her adorable substitution of almond butter for butter impressed me. I'm not sure if she thought it would be the closest susbstiution, or she just couldn't bring herself to use magarine (good girl), but regardless-- I knew I had to bake them-- especially after several "what's for dessert?" cries from Bruce, and several near-demands that it have chocolate in it, and assertions from both him and Blake that they didn't like figs but would still try it. And I had to try out our new convection toaster oven.

Here's how I ended up making the recipe:

Fig Almond Butter Shortbread Hearts

1/2 cup old fashioned oats + 1/8 cup
1/4 cup light spelt flour
a pinch of grey sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup finely chopped dried figs
0.5/3 cup almond butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. In a food processor, blender, coffee grinder or what have you, grind up the oats, keeping the extra eighth of a cup aside. Add the ground oats and reserved oats to a bowl, then add the flour, nutmeg and sea salt. Stir with a fork to mix. Then add the figs, mixing thoroughly to coat. In another bowl, cream together the almond butter and brown sugar. When mixed completely, add rum and vanilla and stir until homogenous. Add the flour n' fig mixture wet mixture and combine using a wooden spoon, or if necessary or desired, your hands (fun)! When this mixture makes a non-sticky ball (adding a tiny bit of flour if necessary), roll the ball out on a floured surface with a rolling pin (or wine bottle) until it's about a quarter of an inch thick. Here, you can choose to cut your dough in shapes or use a cookie cutter like I did. Don't bake these for too long. I baked mine for about 15 minutes in my convection oven and burned at least half of them somewhat. The original recipe (which was double the size), suggested 25-30 minutes. I'd guess at15-20 in a regular oven, but please watch them and make sure they're not burned. Sure I could perfect the cooking time before I post this, but what's the fun in that? I trust you. So basically I made this recipe wheat-free and full of rummy goodness and it yielded 12 little hearts. And I forgot the sliced almonds, so you could pound some into the top if you were so inclined. Anyway, they were dope and yes, the boys ate them.

Hummus Sushi

On the day in question, I was really about eating lightly. I've been into eating rice cakes with veganaise, ginger-carrot sauerkraut and cucumbers lately, and had eaten a bunch in the afternoon (my morning). For a light supper, I kind of wanted sushi, but was getting super-hungry. And I also wanted chickpeas. Ta-da! Hummus sushi was conceived. And while I figured it had already been thought of (a cursory internet search gave me 2960 hits for the term), I was pretty stoked. Anyway, here it is in all its delicious glory. I made the hummus from scratch (with my beloved hand-crank food processor which allows me to burn calories while I'm making hummus ;) to use as the bed for the toppings, and then laid down some sweet yellow pepper, grated carrots and fresh parsley (all local and in season) and rolled it all up in some nori sheets. The sushi was pretty good on its own, but the pickled ginger put it over the top! I made 12 pieces and pounded them down. The photos look kind of '80s to me-- the hummus looks like some sort of egg filling. Anyway, win.

Two Canadian Thanksgiving Dinners

For some reason I didn't post this after Canadian Thanksgiving, so I'll post it in time for American Thanksgiving. I hope that everyone has a delightful day off (if you get one) and I hope that you enjoy the fruits of the autumn harvest in good company and with lots to be thankful for.

I was lucky enough to eat two Thanksgiving dinners during Thanksgiving weekend. The first was at my friends, Kevin and Sophie's new home, joined by her sister and my brother. We had mashed root vegetables, roasted root vegetables, steamed brussels sprouts and swiss chard, green leafy salad and tofurkey slices. We also managed to fit in some pear ginger crisp and chocolate pumpkin cake, but we ate them without taking photos ;(

Here's the recipe for tofurkey slices. I've been making these since mom made them for me when I first became vegetarian in 1997.

Tofurkey Slices 1 pound firm tofu, rinsed and patted dry Marinade: 3/4 c. water 3 tbsp soy sauce 3 tbsp nutritional yeast ½ tsp poultry seasoning** ½ tsp coriander ½ tsp onion salt ½ tsp garlic powder Coating: 1/4 c. flour 1/8 c. cornmeal 1/8 c. nutritional yeast 1/4 tsp onion salt 1/4 tsp salt dash black pepper Cut tofu into 1/4 inch or appropriately sized slices and place them in a wide, shallow mixing bowl or shallow baking pan. Place all ingredients for marinade in a bowl and whisk them together. Pour marinade over tofu slices, ensuring all slices are covered. Cover and place marinated tofu in refrigerator. Let tofu set for several hours or overnight, turning slices a couple of times. When you are ready to cook the tofu, combine the ingredients for the coating mix in a bowl and stir well with a fork. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mist baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray, set aside. Remove each tofu slice, shake lightly to allow extra marinade to drip off and dredge each piece in the coating mix, allowing for total coverage. Arrange tofu on baking sheet. Mist tops lightly with cooking spray. Bake tofu for 15 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown. Flip slices over and bake for another 9 or so minutes, until other side is golden brown. Makes 10 or more slices. (4 -5 servings) ** or rosemary, sage, summer savory. Eat plain hot or cold, with make it into a sandwich.

My second Thanksgiving dinner was at home on Thanksgiving Monday with my lovely bedfellow, Bruce. I made mashed potatoes, a mixture of white and pink sweet potatoes-- they were sooo sweet and delicious-- Bruce's favourite part of the dinner--, ginger-glazed carrots, a recipe test from Jae Steele's upcoming cookbook "Ripe From Around Here," mushroom gravy that's been a standard in my kitchen during holidays for years, and a complicated-looking but actually really simple mounded tofu turkey courtesy of my friends Mat and Dave of the award-wining radio show Let's Get Baked.
Tofu Turkey & Fixin's Turkey: 5 pounds of firm tofu Stuffing: 2 tbsp oil 1 large onion 1 cup celery, diced 3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 tsp marjoram 2 tsp thyme 3 tsp Herb de Provence 1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari 2 cups bread crumbs 1 cup wild cooked wild rice salt and pepper to taste Basting mixture: 1/2 cup toasted sesame oil 1/4 to 1/3 cup soy sauce or tamari 2 tablespoons miso 2 tablespoons orange juice 1 teaspoon mustard 1/2 cup nutritional yeast Mash tofu together in a bowl. Line a Colander with cheese cloth and dump tofu in. Use a plate to press out the excess water from tofu. leave a heavy weight on the plate for an hour or two to drain as much water as possible (preferably in the fridge). take colander full of tofu and hollow out a place for stuffing. In a sauce pan fry up the garlic, onion, and celery. when they are sufficiently brown mix in the rest of the ingredients for the stuffing thoroughly and dump it into the hole that you have made in the tofu. pack it tigthly and flip onto a baking sheet. Cover the tofu turkey with the basting sauce and bake at 375 for an hour or so until it is golden brown. If you have the time you can cook it longer and a lower temperature and baste it a couple more times for extra amazing flavor experiences. Enjoy!














Good Gravy

* 8tablespoon vegetable oil
* 3-6 cloves of garlic, squashed and minced
* 3 slices of yellow onion, chopped
* 8tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 2tablespoon nutritional yeast
* 4tablespoon low sodium soy sauce or tamari
* 2 1/2 cups water (to start)
* 1/2 teaspoon ground sage (dry)
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
* 1/4 cup red wine (optional--but a huge help)
* 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
* 6 sliced mushrooms (optional)

I can't take all the credit for this great gravy. Unfortunately I cannot recall exactly where I came upon it. My apologies to the original source. I made some slight adjustments. I often opt for a plain ol' mushroom gravy, but this is the deluxe one I like to prepare.

In a medium saucepan heat oil on a medium or medium-low heat. Add garlic and onion and cook until slightly tender and translucent.

Add the flour, yeast and soy (or tamari) to make a paste or roux. Be careful not to let it burn. GRADUALLY add the water, stirring constantly. With frequent stirring, bring the gravy to a boil and allow it to thicken. Add pepper, mushrooms, vegan wine and balsamic vinegar. If you don't want to add vegan wine, you might try a bit more balsamic vinegar or a red vegan wine vinegar in its place.

If the gravy is too thin (unlikely) add a small amount of cornstarch which has been dissolved in some cold water. (Dissolving the cornstarch in water first will prevent lumps.)

Can you tell me how to get... how to get to Vegetable Street?

I admit I had forgotten about the marvelousness of Sesame Street's incredible plant-promoting superhero, Captain Vegetable, but as soon as I heard a verse of the song, memories came floating back and I was able to retrieve the lyrics from some hardly-used portion of my '80s childhood brain.

Here's the transcript of the song:

Out of his secret garden somewhere in New Jersey comes your newest favorite super hero!

It is I, Captain Vegetable
With my carrot, and my celery
Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me
And they're good for you, so eat them too
For teeth so strong, your whole life long
Eat celery and carrots by the bunch
Three cheers for me, Captain Vegetable
Crunch, crunch, crunch!

My name is Andy
I love candy
And I eat it whenever I can
If it's handy
Gimme some candy
It's so good and sweet
The perfect treat
It's such a thrill
To eat my fill
And gobble till there's nothing on the plate
Candy is great, but wait!

Who are you, some kind of bad dream?
Do I look like a bad dream?

It is I, Captain Vegetable
With my carrot, and my celery
Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me
And they're good for you, so eat them too
For teeth so strong, your whole life long
Eat celery and carrots by the bunch
Three cheers for me, Captain Vegetable
Crunch, crunch, crunch!

My name is Eddie
I love spaghetti
So I eat it whenever I can
If it's ready
Gimme spaghetti
It's a lovely thing
It looks like string
It's such a thrill
To eat my fill
And gobble till there's nothing on the plate
Spaghetti is great, but wait!

What are you? Are you some kind of weirdo?
Do I look like a weirdo?
It is I, your newest super hero

It is I, Captain Vegetable
With my carrot, and my celery
Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me
And they're good for you, so eat them too
For teeth so strong, your whole life long
Eat celery and carrots by the bunch
Three cheers for me, Captain Vegetable

Gee, Captain Vegetable this is the best thing to come around since meatballs!
Three cheers for Captain Vegetable!

Three cheers for me Captain Vegetable
Crunch crunch crunch!

and here, you lucky folks, is the video! It's so damn catchy, we've been singing it around the house a lot.



OMG! I found an updated version featuring John Leguizamo as Captain Vegetable wherein he refers to Elmo twice as "Playa."



Sesame Street has been trying in strange ways to get us to eat vegetables and learn to count and be kind to each other and whatnot for 40 years, and to celebrate Sesame Street's 40th birthday, they invited America's First Lady Michelle Obama to Sesame Street (again) to teach kids how to plant an organic vegetable garden and to promote eating healthy vegetables.

She rules. This rules. I'm a happy girl. Gonna go eat some vegetables.