Popeyes Biscuits

The other day I was browsing around on Pinterest and it seemed like there was an abundance of pins with a veganized version Popeyes biscuits.  As a teenager, I was a huge fan of Popeyes restaurant and one of my favorite things to order was the biscuits. 

One pin pointed me to this blog.  The recipe couldn't be more simple.  It is just 4 ingredients!  I'll warn that I found the dough rather sticky and ended up using quite a bit of flour on the bottom/top in order to cut out biscuits.  In addition we prefer a little more crunch, so I baked them for a few extra minutes to get the darker, golden toasty goodness.

We had hot tasty biscuits in less than 20 minutes including cooking time.  The worst part was the clean up (as usual).

If you are looking to make these a little healthier, you can easily cut back on the margarine.  I went with the lower amount of Earth Balance, just two ounces.  Next time, I'd likely half it again as these were rich enough. 

I googled for other copycat Popeyes biscuit recipes and the standard version is basically the same recipe.  The author just subbed margarine and vegan sour cream.  One interesting tidbit is that a lot of recipes use Sprite instead of soda water.  That doesn't sound very good to me.

In the future, I could see making these with some nutritional yeast and maybe some chives for a more sophisticated flavor. 

Anyway, behold the beautiful biscuits!

Garden Gille - Fregola Bowl

We stopped in for dinner at one of our favorite haunts, Garden Grille Cafe in Pawtucket Rhode Island.  I've written about it before on my dining guide, but failed to post pictures.  This entry should help, though I'll be better about documenting our food adventures in the future!

Garden Grille recently remodeled and changed up the menu.  The wooden tree branching out over the bar definitely impresses on your first visit to the new digs.

It is almost guaranteed that we will order the Barbeque Chipotle Seitan appetizer with the wasabi mustard dipping sauce as well as the special greens of the day.  We shared the smoked cauliflower hazelnut bisque which was delightful.  The seitan was fabulous and we especially enjoyed the extra crispy pieces.  The greens of the day were also quite nice.  There was a beautiful plate of collard greens, chickpeas and garlic.  Thursday there was a special that caught my eye, but I had no idea what fregola is!

Smartphone to the rescue.  I quickly learned that fregola or fregula is a pasta from Sardinia.  It resembles Israeli couscous.  The pasta is toasted in the oven before packaging which gives it some color.

We ordered the Fregola Bowl in addition to our standard meal.  I really enjoyed the variation in this dish. 

Cauliflower, hearts of palm, french horn mushrooms,

charred endive, with preserved lemon aioli.

Vegan Superbowl

Well, I can't say I am much of a football fan.  However, the Superbowl gives me an excuse to cook for my friends and this is perhaps the one time I look forward to commercials.

Sunday I made up a batch tempeh buffalo wingz.  It is an awesome recipe from a friend's zine. You can find a copy of it online here: http://donteatoffthesidewalk.com/the-zine/sample-recipes/ (Scroll down to the 3rd recipe!)

The wingz were a hit and we'll probably try some other variations in the future.

Awhile back, I saw some blog posts about root beer float cupcakes and couldn't wait to try them.   Root beer extract was rather elusive though and it prevented me from making up a batch.   A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon a jar of the stuff and Sunday seemed like the perfect day to crack it open.  You can find the recipe here: http://vegan.com/recipes/vegancom-top-10-recipes-of-2008/root-beer-float-cupcakes-vegancom-top-10-recipe-2008/

The cupcakes were good, though everyone agreed that tasting root beer out of context was a bit weird.  It is unlikely that I'll try this recipe again. 

Back on the Blog Wagon...

Lately I've been reading lots of blogs, but I've really missed posting.  What better time to start than today?

At the end of October, I headed to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival with my girlfriend.  We had a blast.  It was especially nice because this year, they sold tickets to attend the first hour.  That means there was some time to wander around and meet with the vendors before it got too crowded. We managed a decent haul of freebies and coupons and purchased a few items to try out as well.

Uncle Eddies's Vegan Cookies were there this year.  I'm a huge fan of their chocolate chip peanut butter flavor, so it was nice to see them.  Vegan Treats Bakery was also there with an amazing spread.  They had cannolis which I couldn't wait to try.  Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan.  I'll definitely stick to their more interesting pastries like the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bomb, in the future.

We picked up a couple of items at the Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe table as well.  They actually had imitation pork rinds. Seriously! Who thinks of these things?

Pic From Cosmo's Site

I don't recall ever wanting to eat pork rinds, but I couldn't resist buying these.  Even though I normally wouldn't try something, I'm often feel compelled to try a vegan version if there is one.  Why, we'll never know.

The verdict...  Not bad.  They were just crunchy squares of thin, salty dough.

That's all for now.  I'll be posting soon about making watermelon radish pickles because there was a pound of very pretty watermelon radishes in my organic veggie box last week.

Raw Marinated Artichoke Salad

I stumbled upon the BSI (Blogger Secret Ingredient) Event and thought it sounded like fun.  This week the ingredient was artichokes.  With my recent live foods kick, I was worried about whether, this could work.

From Google, I learned that raw artichokes are commonly served in Greece and other countries.

Here's my first brush with raw artichokes:

This salad is the kind of thing you just throw together, so feel free to make substitutions or changes.  My recipe and instructions are below.

Raw Artichoke Salad Recipe

2 fresh artichokes
chopped tomatoes
marinated mushrooms (baby bella is what I used)  and onions
Kalamata olives
crumbled cheese (cashew cheese in this case)
greens (baby arugula in this case)
sliced scallions
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
lemon juice
Nama Shoyu or soy sauce
Italian spice blend

First, slice the mushrooms and onion.  Mix  a splash of Nama Shoyu, olive oil, and vinegar with a generous sprinkle of the spices.  Add the mushrooms and onions and mix to coat.  Refrigerate for a few hours or days.  The longer the better. (Shaking the bowl to mix it up occasionally is a good thing.)

Juice a lemon and mix with a bowl cold water to prevent the artichoke from browning.  Prepare the artichokes by removing tough outer leaves and the fuzzy choke as well as any purple leaves in the center.  Dip in lemon water as you work.  Slice the artichoke thinly and leave in the water while you prepare the salad.

Mix tomatoes, chopped olives, marinated mushrooms and onions in a bowl.  Add the artichoke slices and a splash of vinegar.  Stir again to combine.

To plate:  Start with greens, add the artichoke mixture.  Garnish with crumbled cheese and sliced scallions.

Hope you enjoy it!

The artichokes were a little tough at first, but the texture grew on me.  I've added my remaining artichoke slices to the mushroom marinade in the fridge and will check to see if that softens it up without destroying the color.

ETA: I'm so excited to say that this recipe actually won the contest.  It is very encouraging so see a vegan recipe beat out standard fare.  In this case raw vegan made the grade!

Raw Beet Patties

I saw a recipe for smokey beet cakes that Alicia Silverstone posted and decided they could easily be converted to a raw dish.   With a few ideas in mind, I also searched to see what others have already tried.  This recipe followed pretty closely to what I was thinking already.

Soaking walnuts takes up too much time, so I opted to use sunflower seeds and ground flax instead.  The rest was a matter of what was in the fridge.

The final product with some onion bread and crumbled cashew cheese.

There were a couple of  Twitter requests for the recipe.  It certainly wasn't exact, but here's an attempt at documenting it.  

 

Raw Smoky Beet Patty Recipe

1 cup of carrot/celery pulp leftover from the juicer (whatever you have will work)
1/2 red beet
1/2 yellow beet
1 onion

1-2 cloves of garlic

1/2 tomato

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

2 Tbl of ground flax seed mixed with 2 Tbl of water

1  tsp of smoked paprika

Salt or Nama Shoyu to taste

Food process to incorporate, adding water if necessary.  Basically, you just need a consistency that allows for making patties.   Form patties, then dehydrate at 105 degrees overnight.   These were best right out the dehydrator with a crispy outside.  Though they are still great the next day and keep well.

 

Enjoy!

Tal Ronnen and Gardein - Conscious Cooking

Today I was excited to know Tal Ronnen would be demonstrating recipes at Whole Foods near my office.  At lunch time I headed over there.  He was set-up in a small area speaking to an audience of about 10 people and showing them how to make recipes.

I sat down and watched while he made Gardein Chik'n Marsala.  The sample was delicious.  You can get the recipe on Gardein's site by clicking here.  Unfortunately, my seat didn't facilitate photo taking for this dish.  Tal was so friendly and down to earth and really tried to speak with everyone.   At one point he took a break to sign cookbooks.  I was bummed that my copy was on the shelf at home. 

The second recipe that Chef Ronnen prepared was Asian Gardein Beefless Stir Fry.  While he was making this dish he talked about his cookbook, The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat. I was surprised to learn how popular it is outside the vegan community.  The book actually made #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list.  Epicurious also named it one of the top ten cookbooks of the year!  While it is great to see a vegan book making a mainstream smash, it is disappointing that some of the other great vegan cookbooks out there don't have as much commercial support.  Hopefully, Tal's influence will make people explore some other titles.

Below is a picture of the stir fry before Chef Ronnen served it up.  This dish was also mighty good.  After that, it was back to office for me!

Raw Kale Chips

With the recent bout of warm weather, I've been experimenting with a high raw diet. So far I'm really digging it and feeling great.

Most of my meals are simple salads, fruit or smoothies. Occasionally, I've prepared a more involved entree like raw tacos. This week I'm planning on raw pizza. The crust is actually in the dehydrator right now!

Awhile back I checked out Prana Raw Cafe and really enjoyed the kale chips that came with my meal. These have been on my list to make for awhile. Google turned up some complicated recipes, so I opted to wing it.

Basically, I mixed together a little cold pressed olive oil, nama shoyu, and raw sesames seeds. Then I poured the mixture over some kale leaves that I had torn up. After mixing it up well and making sure all the pieces were coated, I tossed them in the dehydrator for about 5 hours. These came out great. Prana definitely used more oil, but I was happy with these results.

The yellow/orange you see in the picture is some nutritional yeast.  I sprinkled about 1/3 of the chips with nutritional yeast, to add some cheesy flavor.  Both varieties are great.

Many people make kale chips in the oven, so no dehydrator necessary.  Soy sauce works fine in place of the nama shoyu if you aren't trying to adhere to a raw diet.

Give these a try, kale chips will surprise you.

Puerto Rican Pink Beans

Joyfulgirl415 posted a family recipe for Puerto Rican Pink beans on a vegan forum I frequent.  The post got a lot of attention and I decided to give it a try.

The first thing I needed to figure out is what exactly pink beans are.  I originally though this was just another name for pinto beans.  That is incorrect.  Pintos and pink beans are good substitutions for the each other though.  It turns out pink beans are their own variety.  Sometimes they are also called chili beans.  They are smaller and lighter in color than kidney beans.

I bought a bag of the dry beans and used the pressure cooker for 5 min to avoid the long soak time.  Then, I followed the recipe here.  Note that Joyfulgirl415 originally forgot the green olives and listed them later on in the thread.   When I googled around to learn more about this dish, I found that it is commonly topped with slices of avocado.

The recipe is simple to make, healthy, and really delicious.  Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!

Update:  The link above doesn't work, so I googled and found the recipe on her blog.  It can be found here.

Candied Orange Peel

I've been doing some recipe testing for the upcoming Vegan Bakesale Cookbook.  When I saw Dundee loaf, it was tops on my list to try.  It is a slightly sweet bread with marmalade, fruit, and other tasty flavors.  One complication was that the recipe called for candied orange peel. 

None of the local stores around here carry it.  Online the prices were pretty crazy, so I opted to make my own.  Believe it or not, this is deceptively simple.   Here are the steps to make your candied orange peel:

1.  Use the larger side of a zesting tool to slice strips of orange peel (preferably organic as the skin is where pesticides and wax would be concentrated).   If you don't have a zester, no worries.   I didn't either, so I sliced thin pieces of peel off the orange.  Then used a small knife to cut off as much of the white bitter pith that was still visible on the pieces.  After that, cut into strips. 

2.  Mix 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and bring to a slow boil to dissolve.

3. Add the orange peel and let simmer for 30-45 min until the peels start to get translucent.

4.  Put 1/2 cup of sugar on a shallow plate.   Scoop some of the peel  up with a fork and toss it in the sugar to coat.  Then put it on a tray to dry out for a few hours.  Repeat.  

Save the orange syrup for use in tea, lemonade or other flavoring!

Gluten Free Vegan Gingerbread

I've always sympathized with the gluten free folks.  Like me, they are limited at restaurants and parties.  My sister called me last week asking if I knew how to make gluten free gingerbread for one of her friends.   Making something without gluten is a fun challenge just like veganizing a recipe.  A success would work out conveniently, because my stepsister has Celiac and I had an invite to a family party later in the week.  Fortunately she likes gingerbread.

My sister stopped by and I started with a vegan recipe that I know and love: Bryanna's Low-Fat Vegan Gingerbread People.

We mixed it up using Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour.  The dough was stickier than I remembered and I knew some doctoring was necessary.  I took a quick taste and noticed that it had a very beany flavor.  I decided on some brown rice flour to counter the bean based red mill and thicken up the dough.    In addition, I added some instant coffee to cover it up and make for a richer taste.  As I added more flour and the dough continued to be sticky, I got worried that it wouldn't hold together well so I added some xantham gum.

In the end, these turned out perfectly and everyone enjoyed them including the folks that didn't have vegan or gluten free requirements.

Here's my best attempt at documenting the recipe!


Gluten Free Vegan Gingerbread Recipe
*Based on Bryanna Clark Grogran's Gingerbread People Recipe

1/4 cup of Earth Balance
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of xantham gum
1 T of maple syrup
1 T of warm water mixed with 1.5 tsp of instant coffee
1/3 apple juice
1/2 tsp of each: ginger, allspice, and cinnamon
1/2 cup + 1 T of molasses
3 1/4 cup of Bob's Red Mill gluten free mix
1/4-1/2 cup of brown rice flour

In a large bowl mix together: sugar, Earth Balance, baking soda, baking powder, salt, xantham gum, and spices until creamy. Add the juice, syrup, coffee, and molasses and thoroughly mix.  Slowly add Red Mill and 1/4 cup of rice flour and mix until it forms into a dough.  Add more brown rice flour as necessary.  This dough will be a little sticky until chilled.

Chill 2 hours or up to 4 days.  The longer it chills, the better these cookies taste.  The first batch was good, but the second batch made two days later was really incredible.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll out dough to 1/4 inch think and cut out cookies.  Don't be shy with the flour, this dough is stickier than standard wheat flour based dough.  I used rice flour for rolling.   Bake until lightly browned for 10-15 minutes.   Let cool 5-10 minutes on sheets and then move to a rack.

Thanksgiving

This year I was lucky to be overwhelmed with invites to various feasts.  Unfortunately, I couldn't say yes to everyone.  Since I had promised to help make  vegan Thanksgiving meal with some friends, my schedule was quite filled up with cooking. 

In the afternoon, I bowed out of further cooking responsibilities and headed over to my family's for an omni meal.  It was nice to visit with everyone and I snacked  bit on the few vegan side dishes before heading back to the vegan meal.

We had a wonderful salad that was topped with grated beets, carrot, and rutabaga.  I didn't even think to take a photo at the time. The meal consisted of colcannon, homemade cranberry sauce, braised carrots, stuffed butternut squash, roasted asparagus, shitake gravy, and Hazelnut En Croute Field Roast.

The photo of my plate was taken with my phone as I forgot a camera.  Not bad, huh?  This was the first year we tried the En Croute Field Roast.  It is incredibly flavorful.  The stuffing is made with cranberries, apples and ginger and the crunchy phyllo dough crust is great.  It is a little expensive, but certainly easier to make than the homemade unturkey roast that I normally bake.

The stuffed butternut squash is a recipe from from Joanna's new zine called Potluck Mania.  The recipe is actually for quinoa stuffed acorn squash.  The acorn squash I grabbed from my CSA stash had started to go bad, so we subbed butternut.  Also, because we had some omnis visiting,  I was worried that quinoa might be too different, so I used brown rice.  Otherwise the recipe stayed the same and to be honest, it was a hit with everyone!  Here's the stuffed squash, isn't it pretty?

A couple of the folks that joined us, brought fresh mint and rum.  We had quite a few mojitos and by dessert time rolled around, I once again forgot photos.

The original plan was sweet potato pie.  Unfortunately, the sweet potatoes had seen better days, so we were forced to use canned pumpkin.  It was still delicious.  The other hostess also made cranberry kissel.  This is a Russian dish that is basically a fruit pudding.  It is simply, pureed fruit and sugar with a thickening starch.  She served it with some vanilla soy milk drizzled on top and sliced almonds.

It was wonderful, cruelty free meal.  Hope everyone out there also had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family.

Gingerbread Sourdough Pancakes

One of my favorites restaurants in Providence serves vegan gingerbread pancakes during the fall/winter season.  Since the sourdough at my house required feeding, it seemed like a good idea to adapt the standard recipe I use for sourdough pancakes.

The recipe I started with, is from this website.  When using their recipe, I always skip the egg replacer and most of the oil.  The sourdough I am using, seems to handle the lack of egg just fine!

These gingerbread pancakes came out perfectly.  They'll likely become a holiday staple at my house.

Jody's Vegan Sourdough Gingerbread Pancake Recipe

2 Cups of sourdough starter

2 Tbs of molasses

1  tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp of salt

a  splash of canola oil

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

optional: 1/2 tsp of instant coffee mixed with a few tablespoons of warm (NOT hot) water

Mix starter with molasses, salt, and oil.  Let sit for a few minutes.  Sprinkle baking soda and fold in. (Make sure you use a big enough bowl as sourdough can expand a lot due to the baking soda.)  Mix in the coffee and spices.  Then make your pancakes!

Boston Vegetarian Food Festival

My posts have been few and far between here. Though, I have been regularly updating Vegan Cookbook Challenge. Recently, I checked out the new pizza restaurant in Allston called Peace o' Pie. The entry is on my New England Vegan Dining Guide blog.

This weekend was busy. On Saturday, I headed to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. This year they expanded to two days. Part of the reason was to help with overcrowding. To be honest, it was still pretty crazy. My goal was to get there early, check out the vendors, score some free samples, and leave as quickly as possible to avoid being pushed around by the mass of people.

The highlight this year for me was the Vegan Treats Bakery table. Those folks make some amazing stuff. I got two items: the Peanut Butter Bomb which I tried in NYC a few years ago and of course, I had to get a glazed doughnut too. There was so much amazing sugary goodness. It makes me wish I lived in PA, thought it is probably best that I don't!

Just a portion of the table:

There were many great vendors sharing samples of their products. I tried everything from veggie burgers to ice cream to sauerkraut to vegan chocolates. Here's a snapshot of the freebies I snagged. In addition, I picked up a bunch of coupons. The mac and cheese was a purchase as I haven't tried that brand yet.

Also this weekend, we drove down to RI to see the Jackolantern Spectacular. Here's a some of my favorite photos from that event.

Obama and the oh so scary double George Bush pumpkins

Corn, Glorious Corn!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend a cooking class with Didi Emmons. She is one of the original owners of Veggie Planet in Cambridge and has authored a couple of vegetarian cookbooks. I'm a huge fan of Entertaining for a Veggie Planet.

The class was based completely around corn. There was about 30 students. Didi showed us how to make some of the recipes and then we broke into groups and cooked. After, we sat down and enjoyed dinner together. I met some great people. Here are some of the pictures I took!

Bowls and bowls of corn after removing the husks...

Corn stew with yellow tomatoes.

This is a Deborah Madison recipe from Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets.

The dinner plate wasn't incredibly photogenic.

It includes: corn on the cob with a spicy dressing, tomato and basil salad, the corn stew, and Didi's own corn pudding. We also had a delicious corn soup with avocado cream to start! For dessert we had some chocolate zucchini cake.

Pumpkin Ravioli and Amazing Brownies

I've been lax in my posting. Sometimes life gets in the way and sometimes I'm just not that inspired. This weekend a friend that also loves to cook called. We chatted and decided that we would get together on Sunday try out some new recipes. It was a great day and the creativity really sparked me to start blogging again.

Pumpkin pasta seems a little odd for this time of year, but Cindy had been bugging me to teach her how to make fresh pasta and this is my favorite kind. It is amazingly simple to create noodles with the pasta maker. Ravioli were honestly a little too much work and I'd likely avoid it in the future.


The pasta itself is just flour, canned pumpkin and some nutmeg. For stuffing we made a tofu ricotta with chopped up garlic, shitake mushrooms, and parsley. She grabbed some fresh sage from the garden. I sliced it up and sauteed the sage with some earth balance for a flavorful and simple finish.

The garden was brimming with zucchini and I stumbled upon a recipe for Zucchini Brownies over at VegSpinz, so we gave them a try. Honestly my expectations weren't high, but these completely blew us away. These are hands down the best homemade brownies I have eaten vegan or not in years. They're moist and rich and just incredibly good. Make them now!

No Excuses

Hi folks, sorry for my lack of posts for such a long time. Honestly, I don't have a good excuse. Once the summer rolls around I want to spend lots of time outdoors. I've been camping and hiking while trying to keep up with new server installations at the office.

A few weeks ago we picked blueberries and before that I picked strawberries with my aunt. This year I signed up for a share at the CSA again. Each year they get more knowledgeable and our crops are better. We've seen tons of greens, beans, onions, squash, zucchini and cucumbers. I'm looking forward to tomatoes and corn soon.

I'm not sure what to post first. Though, I owe the folks at LightLife a big thank you for sending out a box of samples earlier this year. One of the first recipes I cooked with their products was Tempeh Wingz from DEOTS.





This past week, I made some sourdough French bread. The recipe came from: The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook. This bread came out wonderfully and is my first sourdough loaf baked without adding yeast.

Here's a pic of some sauteed veggies from the farm with sun dried tomatoes.

Pittsburgh!

When I found out Chihuly's glass exhibit at the Phipps Conservatory was leaving on February 24th, I knew I didn't have much time to get there. A hasty trip was planned and I did some research to learn about vegan eats around the city. To my surprise, Pittsburgh was extremely veg friendly. Perhaps more so, than Boston.

Unfortunately, I've been sick since I got back which has prevented me from posting.

Here's a few of the more than 600 photos I took at the Conservatory:

Our first night in the city, we dined at The Church Brew Works. The brewery/restaurant is actually inside an old church. It was a very neat place and waiter/chef had no problem veganizing a dish for me. We shared a plate of the home made chips and I had an Israeli cous cous salad with tofu.

Day 1: Chihuly day time viewing

Lunch at The Quiet Storm

Cococino (Soy coconut cappuccino)

"Chicken Tenders"

Magic Snake (Seitan philly steak)

In the evening, we took the incline car up Mount Washington and viewed the city on a very chilly night.

Dinner at Double Wide Grill, a veg friendly BBQ joint. My camera was toast at this point, so pics from my phone will have to suffice.

I loved how they displayed the wines!

BBQ Seitan Wings

Pulled Seitan Sandwich

Double wide added pearl barley to their seitan which created some great texture. That is something I'd like to try in the future.

Day 2: We checked out the East End Food Coop for breakfast and snacks. What a great store! Besides the loads of bulk options, they had home made vegan baked goods/entrees.

The Mattress Factory is renowned as one the of best installation art facilities in the country. We stopped there to walk through some really interesting exhibits. The cafe there was veg friendly and I enjoyed some beet soup and a salad.

The Heinz History Center has 7 floors to explore. There was so much to see here that we actually ran out of time. From Lewis & Clark, to the history of the Heinz Company, to the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, to Pittsburgh's cultural history...this was one place I would like to check out again.

After this, we rushed to see the Chihuly again at night. The Phipps cafe was vegan friendly which I've yet to see at many Boston museums. I grabbed a Thai tofu wrap and some Thai tomato soup.
We shipped out of Pittsburgh the next morning and made it back to Boston just after a snowstorm started. Luckily for us, our flight wasn't canceled.