Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

My holiday is split this year: I’m spending tonight in Arlington with my Uncle and Cousins, and tomorrow I’ll be heading home to New York to be with my Mom and her boyfriend. For that reason, it’s as good as Thanksgiving for me right now, as I write. How better to commemorate the special occasion with the two – that’s right, two—fabulous vegan Thanksgiving stuffing recipes I concocted today?

Stuffing: it’s one of the most beloved Thanksgiving mainstays. Unfortunately, it can also be one of the most calorie-laden and often the least healthy, what with the sticks of butter and pounds of white bread. The following two options offer more healthful alternatives and “swaps” to the originals (for example, coconut oil in place of butter) as well as a higher concentration of veggies! Both are also gluten free.

The first of the two stuffings has a traditional bread base. It is also a gluten-free bread base, which I know will send shouts of joy through the ranks of my GF readers: I used the Food For Life millet bread, which I actually got so that I could experiment with a GF version of my banana caramel bread pudding (more on that soon!). I will confess that I don’t love this bread on its own—for toast, for example, I will always use good old Ezekiel bread—but I do love it in other applications, like this stuffing. It has the thickness and texture of cornbread without the hassle of actually baking cornbread, and it’s made from one of my favorite whole grains—millet!!

Don’t be deterred by the long procedures in either of these recipes. As someone who is always very short on time, I designed them so that I could make them in a stepwise fashion, starting one day in advance with roasting either the veggies for the first stuffing or the mock meat for the second. But you can definitely make them in a single day if you want. Once the initial roasting step is over, it’s easy as pie!

Millet, Butternut Squash, Brussels Sprout, and Cranberry Stuffing, a.k.a. “Kitchen Sink” Stuffing! (gluten free, vegan)

Serves 6

1 lb butternut squash, cubed
1 lb brussels sprouts, halved
4 shallots, thinly sliced
2 tbsp coconut oil, divided
1 cup onion and celery, diced
10 slices Food for Life Millet bread (or any bread of choice), left out for a day to become slightly dry and cut into cubes
1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp poultry seasoning (check labels to be sure it’s vegan)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Salt and pepper to taste

1) Heat oven to 375 degrees. Toss the squash, sprouts, and shallots in 1 tbsp oil and season well with salt and pepper. Roast till vegetables are very tender (I actually like my sprouts a bit singed) and remove from oven. Reduce oven heat to 350.

2) Heat other tbsp oil in a large pot. Sautee the onion and celery till translucent (about 5-8 min). Add the bread cubes and allow them to get golden brown with the veggies in the oil. Add a dash of salt and pepper.

3) Add the roasted vegetables, broth, nutritional yeast, cranberries, and seasonings. Stir the mix till the broth has absorbed in the toasted bread. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Serve hot. And delicious.

This second stuffing is based on my friend Ricki’s amazing mock “meat” made with cauliflower. I added some veggies and seasonings, but the concept is the same. If you like the sounds of an all veggie and nut mock meat—sans soy isolates or other junk—check out the lasagna Ricki makes with this!

"Meaty" Wild Rice Stuffing (gluten free, vegan)

Serves 6

1 small head cauliflower, loosely chopped
1 cup walnuts
2 tbsp low sodium tamari, nama shoyu, or soy sauce
2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp poultry seasoning (see above)
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1 diced carrot
2 clove garlic, minced and divided
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 cups mixed mushrooms (cremini, bello, shitake, etc.)
1 cup wild rice, cooked
1/2 cup vegetable broth

1) Process cauliflower and walnuts till crumbly in a food processor fitted with the S blade. Transfer to a large bowl and add the tamari, onion, carrot, 1 clove garlic, celery, poultry seasoning, and liquid smoke.

2) Roast cauliflower and walnut mixture at 350 degrees till nicely browned, about 30 minutes. You’ll want to stir it every now and then for even cooking. Remove from oven and set aside.

3) Cook rice according to package instructions in a rice cooker or over the stovetop. When it’s almost ready, sautee the other clove garlic and mushrooms till tender and thoroughly cooked. Add the cooked rice to that pan, mixing well, and then add the cauliflower mock "meat." Add the 1/2 cup broth and mix everything well. You should end up with a hearty, filling, "meaty" rice stuffing that tastes divine–earthy from the mushrooms and savory from the veggies!

This post is proof, I hope, that there are incredible stuffing options for every table that are 100% vegan, as well as 100% whole foods. While both of these stuffings are hearty, they are tremendously healthy.

Most importantly, both of these dishes are designed to please omnivores, but they are animal friendly food options for a holiday which is often anything but. Feel good about the flavor and the nutrition, yes, but most of all, make these stuffings and know that no living creatures suffered so that they could taste good.

With that, off to VA I go. Have a cozy, warm, and happy pre-holiday eve!

xo

I’m almost sad not to have a Vida Vegan Con recap for today! If you missed any of my dispatches from the weekend, you can check them out here:

• Day One: Champagne reception and VegNews dinner at Portobello
• Day Two: Panels and Galarama
• Day Three: Panels, closing remarks, dinner with friends, and breakfast at Black Sheep Bakery

Travel is great, especially when it involves vegan restaurants in cool new cities. But to be honest, I always greet a return to my kitchen with glee To see me run out for fresh groceries and start cooking (sometimes before I’ve even unpacked my carry on) you’d think I’d starved on vacation, which is never true. I’ve just missed the pleasures of doing it all myself.

When I got home from PDX, I was greeted with terrifying reality of organic chemistry. I know, it sounds so nice, right? Organic! But let me quote the interwebs for you:

There is nothing quite like organic chemistry to strike fear into the hearts of pre-med students everywhere. Few other subjects require such massive memorization of terms and concepts, and even fewer cover so much difficult work at such a feverish pace.

If you have any doubt, your orgo professors will apparently be glad to confirm these legends by spending the first few days of class warning you what you’re in for.

To distract myself, and to celebrate coming back to the hobbit house after ten days of travel, I decided to prepare a dish that was both homemade and inspired by my restaurant dining in PDX. Remember the goddess bowl I ate not once, but twice at Blossoming Lotus? If you don’t, it was steamed kale and raw baby greens over a bed of hot quinoa, topped with balsamic and smoked avocado dressings and some avocado slices. It’s as if someone googled “choosing raw dream comfort food” and then constructed a dish according to my wishes. Heaven.

In honor of that dish, I decided to make a slightly raw-er version for lunch on Tuesday, subbing kelp noodles for quinoa and spiralized zucchini for mesclun, and adding some of my favorite power food, hemp, for a little extra protein and fat. I threw in some cherry tomatoes, too, and ended up with a bowl that was lighter and brighter than the Blo Lo creation, but totally authentic in terms of flavors.

I’m going to use the same idea and dressings to make a more authentic, hot version next week, which I’ll also be sharing.

The Raw Goddess Bowl (inspired by Blossoming Lotus in Portland, OR; high raw, vegan, GF and soy free)

Serves 1

3 cups kale, chopped
1/2 cup broccoli florets, chopped
1/2 zucchini, spiralized
1/2 cup kelp noodles, soaked and drained
1/3 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp hemp seeds

Smoked avocado cumin dressing
Balsamic tahini dressing

1) Lightly steam kale and broccoli, and blanch in cool water to retain freshness and color.

2) Mix zucchini and kelp noodles, and toss them with a generous serving of smoked avocado cumin dressing. Add cherry tomatoes and toss again.

3) Plate the kale and broccoli, and drizzle them with some balsamic tahini dressing. Top them with the dressed noodles and tomatoes and then sprinkle the whole dish with hemp seeds. Serve.

Avocado, hemp, greens, and sea veggies—so much unbelievable nutrition in every bite of this dish!! This is what I call a power meal. Maybe orgo won’t be so tough, after all.

Speaking of power foods, raw foods, super foods, and the people who know them best, my dear friend Brendan has a new book coming out—Thrive Foods. It’s already available for order on Amazon, and I’m already planning on a giveaway, but right now you can download a FREE sneak peak on his Facebook site. Don’t waste a single minute! Brendan’s recipes are stellar, but that’s not even the main reason to invest in his work. He may be the single most balanced, intelligent, inspiring, and well-educated person writing about high raw, plant-based, and nutrient dense foods out there. Beyond that, he’s a professional athlete and tireless entrepreneur who fuels his busy life with the same foods he writes about. I don’t throw praise around lightly, so trust me: this one is worth it.

See you back here tomorrow with a special “back to school” feature!

xo

I made it!

Thank you all for the tweets, comments, emails, and good wishes as I made my way from NYC to DC. We arrived safely and soundly, and, a few minor hitches aside, things went according to plans. The last two days have been spent in a flurry of unpacking, cleaning, cooking, and also trying to squeeze in a little R&R: it may be moving weekend, but it’s also a holiday weekend, and since I have a week before classes begin at Georgetown, I’m taking my sweet time.

I’m excited to take photos of the new place and tell you all about it, but in truth, it’s a mess, and you don’t want to see it. Not yet, anyway. Instead, I’m giving you some Memorial Day food porn to gaze upon. I came up with these burgers last week, in the thick of packing, and my first reaction was delight at how easy and nutritious they were. Of course “easy” is a relative term: they’re a little more time intensive than my raw spinach burgers, for example. But most of my cooked food is more time consuming than my raw food, so I’m used to that. As far as cooked recipes go, this is a simple one, and it’s sure to be a hit at any summer barbeque!

Ginger Lime Edamame Sweet Potato Burgers (Vegan, Gluten Free)

Makes 4-6 Burgers

3/4 cup shelled, frozen edamame beans
1/2 small onion
1 inch ginger, chopped
1 tsp coconut oil
Flesh of 1 large sweet potato, baked or steamed (about 1 cup)
1/3 cup quinoa flakes
2 heaping tbsp flax meal
2-3 tbsp lime juice (to taste)
2 tbsp tamari, nama shoyu, or coconut aminos (reduce amount if sensitive to salt)
1 small handful (1/4 cup) cilantro, chopped
Dash red pepper flakes (optional)
Water as needed

1) Thaw or lightly steam 3/4 cup shelled edamame and set aside.

2) Saute onion and ginger in 1 tsp coconut oil (or coconut oil spray) till soft and fragrant (about 5 minutes). Add edamame and swirl.

3) Place the edamame, onion, and ginger in a food processor and add the sweet potato, quinoa flakes, flax seed, lime juice, cilantro, tamari or coconut aminos, and dash of red pepper flakes, if using.

Pulse to combine, then run the motor and add some water until consistency is very thick but easy to mold.

4) Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, or pan fry till crispy on the outside but still chewy.

These burgers are wonderful: a little sweet, a little spicy, and tangy from the cilantro and lime. They scream “summer,” and since it’s 94 degrees in the District today, that feels pretty apt to me. I highly recommend topping them off with some guac:

A lot of you have emailed to ask me—and I don’t blame you—how it feels to be in a new place. Honestly? Not that weird. Yet. I’m familiar with DC, I’ve got tons of support here, and I’ve been mentally preparing myself for this move for months. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t burst into tears as our car leapt out of the Lincoln Tunnel and swerved into Jersey (because I definitely did). It just means that I’m happy and excited to be here, and actually quite relieved that the transition itself has passed. One day at a time, right?

Readers, tell me: when was the last time you moved? And how did you feel in the days that followed? If it’s relevant, what did you manage to eat as you were unpacking? I’m eating like a Queen here at M’s, but not everyone has the luxury of an operational kitchen post-move.

Hope you try the burgers soon. Happy long weekend!

xo

If you caught yesterday’s sweet potato hummus post, you may have heard me mention the fact that Saturday was Vegan Pizza Day. A momentous occasion, if ever there was one. M and I spent ours at Cafe Viva on the Upper West Side, ogling the many vegan options:

By the end of the weekend, I’d had two of Viva’s famous varieties. First, I had my favorite, the “Zen,” which is green tea herbed miso-tofu, green tea basil pesto, shitake mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, caramelized onions, sundried tomato, roasted garlic on a green tea herbed spelt crust. (I’ve never tasted the tea part, and I think that’s a good thing.) I also had a slice of the “naturale,” which is organic tomato sauce, tofu marinated in miso, eggplant zucchini, red pepper & spinach. Both slices were amazing, and they made me think back to a wonderful dinner a few weeks ago that I’ve yet to post: pizza night in D.C..

Once upon a time, I, like other cooks I know, was pretty terrified of making homemade pizza. I’ve never been a whiz kid with bread-making, and so the idea of homemade crust was just a bit more than I thought I’d be able to handle. What if I burnt it? What if it didn’t rise correctly? What does “kneading” really mean, anyway? How the heck do I choose my toppings? Do I cook the crust and then put toppings on, or vice versa?

You get the idea.

When I made my first homemade, all-from-scratch, 100% vegan pizza pie a few years ago, I could not possibly have been prouder. And what stuck with me most was how incredibly easy the process was. In fact, it’s a wonder I don’t make pizza more often, except that I just don’t happen to love the stuff as much as most people do. Every time I do make it, though, I’m delighted with the process, and I resolve to make it more often. Now that I have a boyfriend who appreciates a good vegan slice, it’s all the more reason to get creative.

This post, though, isn’t just about getting creative. It’s about matching the creative with the classic. One of the things I like most about Viva is that they have both wacky and super-healthy pizza slices (like the Zen), but they also have traditional style pizza: just good dough, good sauce, and the magic of Daiya. Since my regular pizza crust recipe yields two crusts, not one, and since I made this particular dinner on a night when I was on vacation and feeling ambitious in the kitchen, I decided to follow Viva’s model and make both a non-traditional and a traditional pie. Lucky for you, I’m sharing recipes for both.

Let’s start with crust. This is my basic pizza crust recipe, and I rarely wander from it. Follow it closely, and there’s truly nothing to fear from your pizza-making adventure:

Basic Herbed Pizza Dough (Vegan)

Yields approx. 2 pizza crusts

1 1/2 cups warm water (I used to mess up every homemade bread by using water that was too hot and killing my yeast. You want this just at about 100 or 105 – take the temperature if you have to)
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast (check the expiration date on the package–if it’s expired, you’ll be in trouble)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (you can use bread flour too, for even better results, but I usually use all purpose)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence (optional)

1) Place water in a bowl. Sprinkle on the yeast and let it sit for five minutes or so, or until it looks as though it’s dissolved.

2) In a large mixing bowl, stir together 1/2 of the flour, the olive oil, the salt, the herbs, and the sugar. Add the warm water and yeast, and begin to mix it all together with your hands. It will be sticky and wet. Add the remaining flour, continue to mix by hand until it’s all incorporated.

3) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface that’s very clean. Knead for about five full minutes, until the dough is smooth and stretchy. You may need to add a little flour as you go (if the dough is too sticky), and you may need to knead it for an extra minute or two; use your kitchen intuition, guys!

4) Place dough into a well oiled bowl and turn it to coat. Cover it with something (I used a clean dishtowel, but plastic wrap will work well) and leave it someplace warm to rise for 1 1/2 hours (longer is OK). It should double in size; if it doesn’t, that means your yeast was either dead or only half-alive. Bummer. The dough will still work, but it won’t be as light and airy as you may wish.

5) After the rise, go ahead and punch the dough down (it’s fun). Divide it in two. At this point, you can freeze your dough in an airtight container for up to two weeks, or you can get ready to rock!

Pizza Prep:

1) Prep all of your toppings (my two particular recipes follow).

2) Preheat your oven to 475 or 500 degrees (this accounts for the fact that ovens vary; if yours runs hot, use 475, but if it runs cool, use 500). Let the oven pre-heat for a good long time — I gave M’s about 30 minutes, or as much time as it took for his apartment to transform itself into a sauna.

3) Using clean hands, start to flatten each ball of dough into a round that’s about 1/2 inch thick and even. You can do this on a clean surface and then transfer it to a baking dish, but I like to do it right in the pan or tray I’m baking with.

It’ll take some patience and a good sense of humor–I always end up with thin spots in my pizza dough! Relax. This isn’t the SATs. If you have slightly lumpy crust, no one will care. I recommend starting in the center of the dough and working outward with flat palms.

Once the dough has been flattened, you may want to let it "rest" (and rise) for about five minutes. Then, begin stretching and flattening the dough again.

4) Keep working diligently until you have a large circle that’s about 1/2 inch thick and about 10 or 12 inches in diameter (Ack! School word. That’s 10 or 12 inches across). Using your fingertips, pinch the edges of the dough to form a little "lip" that goes all around the circumference (Drat! I did it again! I mean the edge) of the circle.

5) Make little dents in the dough with your fingertips (this can prevent bubbles). Brush the dough very lightly with olive oil, and you’re ready to make pizza.

6) If you haven’t been shaping the dough on your baking surface so far, now is the time to fold it gently in half and gingerly transfer it. Place your dough on a pizza stone that’s been dusted with cornmeal, if you’re lucky enough to have one, or an oven that fits one. But guess what? This New Yorker doesn’t. This means that I usually squeeze my pizzas onto two regular baking trays that I’ve dusted with cornmeal. It’s never easy, but it always works just fine. See?

Layer your dough with sauce and toppings, and bake for about 15-18 minutes, or until it’s crisp and browning on top.

Obviously, what I’ve just described will work for most any toppings, though if you intend to top your pie with something slow-cooking (for example, sweet potatoes), then I suggest pre-cooking them. For all watery vegetables (broccoli, spinach, onions, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.) don’t bother cooking your toppings beforehand. If you’re short on ideas, try one of these two babies.

Artichoke, Onion, and Sun-dried Tomato Pizza with Cashew Cheese (Vegan, Soy Free)

Makes 1 10-12 inch pizza

1 recipe Sun-dried Tomato and Walnut Pesto (below)
1 9 oz package of frozen artichoke hearts, thawed, or a package of fresh ones (some companies are doing this now)
1/2 large red onion, sliced thinly
8-12 sun-dried tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 cup cashew "goat cheese"

1) Spread the sun-dried tomato pesto in a thick layer on the crust. You’ll have a bit leftover, but not too much.

2) Spread the pesto with artichokes, tomatoes and thinly sliced red onions.

3) Dot the pesto and veggies with the cashew cheese, and bake at 475 or 500 degrees for about 15 minutes, according to instructions above.

Sun-dried Tomato and Walnut Pesto (Vegan, Raw, Gluten Free, Soy Free)

Yields Approximately 1 1/4 cups

1 cup tightly packed, fresh basil
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup walnuts
10 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for ten minutes in warm water, drained, and roughly chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine all ingredients but the oil in a food processor, and pulse to turn into a meal.

Add oil in a thin stream till the mixture is getting thick and smooth. Add more oil as needed, until the texture is perfect.

This pizza is truly divine: salty, savory, and bursting with flavor. I could have eaten leftovers for days.

And I did.

See how browned and delicious the cashew cheese gets? Incredible stuff.

Sometimes, though, we don’t want cashew cheese. Sometimes we want hot tomato sauce and cheese that melts—just the way we remember most pizza of yore. Which is when the following recipe comes in handy.

Classic Mushroom Pizza (Vegan, Soy-Free)

Yields 1 10-12 inch pizza

1 package sliced button mushrooms
1 cup tomato sauce of choice mixed with 2 tbsp tomato paste (I use Muir Glen everything)
1 package Daiya mozzarella style cheese (you may not use it all, but have it around)

Optional: 9 oz artichoke hearts, thawed (I didn’t intend to use them here, but I had leftover from the other pizza, and they worked nicely!)

1) Prepare pizza crust according to instructions above.

2) Layer crust with tomato sauce. Sprinkle it with Daiya to taste–M and I love our pizza cheese, but we’ve been known to, um, smother it a little, so try to eyeball it smartly. I’d say that 1 or 1 1/2 cups is about right.

3) Top the cheese with mushrooms. Bake at 475 or 500 for 15 minutes, and enjoy!

Of the two pizzas I made on this particular evening, I have to admit that I thought M would like this one better than my other pizza. Cashew cheese? Artichokes? It all seemed a little…out there. In the end, though, although we both loved the Daiya treatment (and agreed that it was pretty awesome as cold leftovers), we both preferred the artichoke, red onion, and pesto pie. I’d keep the Daiya variety around for a humdrum night, and save the artichoke and red onion pizza for a special night!

So that’s it, friends. All the proof you need that pizza making is much more fun, and much less freaky, than you think. I’d love for you all to give it a shot, and to tell me what you make. In return, pizza lovers, I swear that I’ll come up with more combos—both traditional and wacky—in the months ahead.

But for now, it’s off to a chem quiz. Happy Monday!

xo

Tis the season for…salad?

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not the most seasonal eater. I happen to be on a breakfast smoothie kick, even though it’s freezing in NYC right now. I often find myself going through juice crazes or raw food crazes in the dead of January and February (part of me wonders if this is my desire—emotional or biological—for freshness in the middle of a dead season). And it’s also not unheard of for me to roast, bake, and sauté my way through portions of the summer. In short, there seems to be only a vague correlation between outside temperatures and the temperatures of my food.

This has been a week of salad. All salad, all the time—different sorts, with different greens (butter lettuce, kale, spinach, frisee). I’ve had a nutrient dense salad every night for the last four, and many midday salads, too. Part of this is time management—salads are always my fastest and most simple dinner option. But that can’t be all of it. Perhaps, in keeping with the logic above, my body is preparing itself for the barrenness of winter with tons of fresh, raw vegetables. Or perhaps it’s that I’m a little stressed out, and I’m seeking out my favorite comfort food (yes, salad is my idea of comfort food). I know for a fact that I crave salads—which are easy for me to digest and always leave me feeling particularly well—when I’ve got a lot of external pressure to handle. Whatever the case, the first week of advent has brought in one salad after another. A much better holiday remembrance than the milk chocolate they stuff into advent calendars, right?

The salad I’m about to share was my favorite of last week. It’s the embodiment of winter: spicy and bitter, but made festive with a sweet, tangy dressing and the crunch of fennel. I like my greens cold and crunchy, but I made a last minute choice to warm up the dressing for a while in my VitaMix, and it was genius. Cool greens meet warm dressing. What could be a better way to enjoy raw foods in December?

Chicory Salad with Warm Mustard Dressing (serves 2)

For the dressing:

1/4 cup olive or flax oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

For the salad:

1 head chicory, washed, chopped, and spun
1/2 cup fennel, thinly sliced
1/2 cup torn raddichio leaves

To assemble the salad, mix all the veggies together. To make the dressing, blend all ingredients in a blender till thoroughly mixed. If you have a high speed blender, leave the dressing in there for an extra moment, so that it gets warm. If not, heat this gently (only so much that you can still touch your fingertip to it) in a saucepan.

Dress the with as much dressing as you like, and enjoy!

The perfect textures, tastes, and colors for a cold weather salad:

With a perfect “bite.” I served mine with veggie juice pulp mush:

And from a nutritional perspective, it’s a powerhouse: more than 33% of your daily Vitamin A, a good dose of Vitamin C from the chicory and the fennel (both good sources) and some calcium. Even if Vitamin C doesn’t ward off colds, I’ll pretend this salad has magical preventative powers. Gives me an excuse to eat it again.

Hope you’re inspired to get some fresh greens into tomorrow’s meals! What are your favorite winter salads?

xo

Every year, there are certain special occasions I look forward to with childish glee. One of them, I’ll admit, is Christmas. Give me carols, decorations, hot apple cider, and anything that smells like gingerbread, and I’ll melt. Another is the first crisp day of fall, my favorite season—the first day you can smell September in the air, and get busy removing your boots and nubby sweaters from storage. The commencement of opera season at the Met is always met with some excitement in my world, and so too is the first blockbuster weekend of summer movie going. I’ll even say that the first day I spot heirloom tomatoes at the Union Square farmer’s market each summer is a cause for celebration: hey, it’s the little things, right?

Another occasion I look forward to all year round is Vegan Mofo, or the vegan month of food.

For those of you who haven’t participated in this fun tradition before, it’s simply a month dedicated to celebrating vegan food around the blogosphere. Over the course of the month, veg*n bloggers write as much as humanely possible about vegan eats. It’s not a scary commitment or major time drain; the idea is merely to show some love for vegan cooking and the vegan lifestyle in print. If you already do this, the idea is for you to write a little bit more, or a little bit better, or with a little bit more energy than usual. In fact, I think all of we vegan scriveners look at it as a reason to update our blogs more consistently than we do – even if that means putting up a photo of the salad we made for lunch. I always participate, and I encourage you guys to think about signing up, too! The blogroll isn’t complete yet, and it’ll grow throughout the month (in fact, CR’s not up yet), but you can see that it already comprises an impressive roster of vegan culinary talent. I think it’ll be particularly fun to celebrate Vegan Mofo during the Thanksgiving holiday this year – who among us doesn’t need more vegan recipes with which to impress our family and friends?

Of course, I never need a reason to celebrate vegan food. I like to think I celebrate it three times daily, when I sit down to eat. As a first photo op for Vegan Mofo, I figured I’d share a dinner I made recently. It seems appropriate to share with you on the first day of Vegan Mofo because the centerpiece of the meal came to me courtesy of one of my favorite vegan chefs, Dreena Burton, and Vegan Mofo is all about sharing mutual admiration (expect to see my trying a bunch of my fellow vegan bloggers’ recipes on the blog this month).

It was a chilly Sunday night, and a football game only minutes away, and I’d yet to decide on dinner. Sunday dinners seem to scream for comfort food, and so I settled on the obvious: baked tofu and mashed potatoes. Dreena’s lemon herb tofu, which appears in Vive le Vegan, is about as cozy and comforting as it gets, and it also happens to be insanely simple to make—just toss marinade ingredients into a baking dish, stick it in the oven, and let it be till serving time. When you do plate it, there’ll be gravy at the bottom of your baking dish. If you can resist drinking it, you’ll definitely want to pour it over the tofu!

Along with it, I served up some mashed potatoes, veganized. These ended up tasting incredible, though the texture was a little funky: I suspect it’s because I used potatoes that had been sitting in my pantry for…well, kind of a while. They were oddly gelatinous when cooked. Even so, the flavor was spot on. Promise.

Vegan Herb Mashed Potatoes (serves 2-4)

8 small yukon gold potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup almond or rice milk
4 tbsp Earth Balance (I like the soy free variety)
4 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped
4 stalks chives, chopped
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Salt and black pepper to taste

1) Boil potatoes till very fork tender. Drain, reserving a touch of the boiling liquid.

2 Place potatoes in a cuisinart and pulse till broken down. Add about 1 tbsp of the boiling liquid and pulse again.

3) Add milk and keep pulsing till the potatoes are creamy, but not without some texture (you don’t want them to seem processed!).

4) Transfer potatoes to a bowl and stir in Earth Balance and herbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

In truth, I prefer my raw cauliflower mashed “potatoes,” which are less traditional but more in tune with my tastebuds. Until the boy is ready for raw mash, though, these ‘taters are delicious. Along with some salad, this was a perfect Sunday supper:

A perfect reminder that veganism is a wonderful way to celebrate the senses!

How do you guys plan on celebrating Vegan Mofo? And if you don’t plan on participating, don’t think I’m not already wondering what’s on your Thanksgiving menus. Because I am. Heck, I’m curious about Christmas and Hanukkah meals, too, but I’ll save that till at least the 26th. Tell me all about it.

Happy first of the month!

xo

Greetings all!

Did the title of this post surprise you? Bet you guys never expected to see diner food here on Choosing Raw.

Well, this isn’t your typical diner food, of course. In my banana soft serve post, I mentioned that I think there’s a delicious, all natural equivalent for nearly every dish to which we’re all accustomed in the Standard American Diet. And the BLT—which is apparently the United States’ s second most popular sandwich—is no exception. Here’s my raw take on the BLT, which utilizes one of my all-time favorite foods: dulse.

Remember my post on iodine? I mentioned that dulse is my seaweed of choice, and with good reason: it’s smoky, salty, not too fishy, and utterly delicious! Inevitably, when I introduce my clients to dulse, it’s love: they start to use it in everything from tossed salads to soups to sandwiches. And all make the same observation: dulse tastes a while lot like bacon.

Well, OK. Maybe  not exactly like bacon (roll up your tongues, my carnivorous readers). Even so, dulse is about the best plant-based and natural equivalent you can find for that most beloved of meats: I urge clients to toss it in salads in place of bacon, or even to replace the saltiness of cheese. Ever make spinach salad with bacon or bacon vinaigrette? Try using dulse instead.

Or, use it in a veggie BLT. The idea here is so damn simple: take two slices of romaine lettuce (bacon lettuce or napa cabbage would be great, too), and layer it with tomato, dulse, and the raw mayo I’m about to share. Voila: a perfectly combined and perfectly delicious spin on the old favorite.

Um, minus the white bread and bacon and mayonnaise.

I’ve already shared one recipe for raw mayo with you guys. Here is another, which uses almonds as the base. It’s richer than my cashew mayo, so you’ll only need a tiny drizzle. This would be a great addition to any raw wrap, or even nice as a very decadent vegetable dip:

Gena’s Raw Almondaise

1 cup almonds, soaked at least 8 hours
1 tsp salt
Juice of two lemons
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic
1 cup water
½ cup olive oil

Put all ingredients in a high speed blender or food processor and blend very well. Next, drizzle the oil in a thin stream, just as you would to make an emulsified dressing. When you finish, adjust the tartness and saltiness and texture to suit your taste.

Here’s the sandwich, pre-dressing:

The mayo, stored in a traditional-looking diner squeeze bottle:

And the sandwich, ready to be covered.

Yum.

I hope you’ll all love this little spin on comfort food. Soft serve, berries and cream, BLT sandwiches, spaghetti: what’s next, I wonder?

xo