Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

Monday, January 23, 2012

Pot Pie... made from scratch and vegan, too!

This is an easy pot pie recipe that is almost naturally vegan. I made this last Sunday when we had dinner company. It's a crowd pleaser, and is pretty much fool proof. Use common sense though. I tend not to measure the flour and almond milk ratio, so basically try and make a one pan white sauce and you'll be okay.

First the crust:
2 cups flour
2/3 cups vegetable shortening
6 tablespoons of water
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 325.

Cut the shortening into the flour and salt. Once the dough is the consistency of pea sized crumbs, add the water and mix into a dough ball.

Roll onto a lightly floured surface and with a floured rolling pin flatten till it is wide enough to cover the bottom of your pie pan and lay flat across the top too. Roll up around the rolling pin in order to lay across the pie pan. Cut off excess dough and reform into a ball, lightly coat with olive oil and wrap in plastic. Set the ball aside for now.

Bake the shell for 15 minutes, then set aside.

Filling:

Dice one baking potato, 3 carrots, 2 celery stalks.
1/2 cup frozen peas
4 garlic cloves diced
1 1/2 to 2 cups veggie broth
1 can cannellini beans
Olive oil or vegan margarine
Almond milk
1/2 cup flour approximately
Summer savory herbs (or thyme, sage, marjoram)
Salt and pepper

Sauté fresh diced veggies and garlic in olive oil or vegan margarine with herbs. Add veggie broth, bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes. Add more broth if needed. Potatoes should be just tender. Add peas.

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

Add flour a bit at a time until the veggies are coated and liquid is absorbed. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let cook in the pan till the flour begins to brown, then add almond milk slowly, stirring to evenly distribute. Keep adding the almond milk until the filling is about the consistency of a thick stew. Add in the cannellini beans and remove from heat.

Pour the filling into the pre-baked pie shell. Roll out the remainder of the dough to cover the top and pinch down with fingers.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until you see the crust turn a golden brown.

Eat and be merry, once it cools, of course!

*Also, we have have eaten this pot pie before taking a photo of the finished product. Oops.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Vegan Eastern Carolina Style BBQ Jackfruit Recipe

Do you love vinegar based BBQ, or buffalo sauce? Do you crave new ways to stuff your face with spicy vinegary goodness? Okay, well maybe I'm the only one who likes to take a swig of hot sauce in-between dashing it on the food stuffs. So I will tone down the cayenne in this recipe just for that reason!

Eastern Carolina Style BBQ Jackfruit

2 cans brined Jackfruit (They sell it in syrup, not a good idea)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tbs molasses
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs hot sauce
1/2 Tbs cayenne

Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk till sugar is dissolved. Drain the jackfruit and chop to BBQ-esque sized pieces. mix the sauce and jackfruit together in bowl. Cover and let marinade for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator. You can go overnight and it will just make everything taste better. Heat till just boiling, then let simmer for at least 10 minutes (tip: I added a 1/2 Tbs of coconut oil to the BBQ while simmering... the thought being that some fat might enhance the yum factor). Serve on hamburger buns, with coleslaw if you so choose.
chopped jackfruit

Easy Coleslaw

1/4 head cabbage (shredded)
2 carrots (shredded)
2 tsp celery seed
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Veganaise
salt and pepper to taste

mix all ingredients in a bowl. Chill and serve a top your BBQ sandwich.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Three Tips for Eating More Veggies Than You Ever Thought Possible

Don't let this happen to you.
Have you ever opened your refrigerator and looked at all the cucumbers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, avocado, eggplant, fresh herbs, kale, okra, green beans, mango, kiwis, strawberries and broke down in tears wondering how you were going to eat all that food before is goes bad?
...oh! Well, okay. Me neither.

The point is, around this time of year our refrigerators and counter tops are full of the summer's yummy fruit and veggie bounty, often this means we cannot even give the the stuff away to our friends, as they are trying to lessen their burdens as well!
I know, I know, first world problems, right!?

So here are 
Three Tips for Eating More Veggies Than You Ever Thought Possible:


More veggies than this Russian Dwarf hamster EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE!!!

1. Smoothies. Veggie smoothies, i.e. Green Earth Soup and fruit smoothies will not only make a great choice for your breakfast lunch and dinner, but also give you a powerhouse of raw, easy to absorb nutrients that will allow your body to digest easily, especially in the August heat.

2. Sauces. While we typically think of a pasta sauce as tomatoes, garlic and herbs, you can add sauteed squash in to the blended tomatoes and herb mixture to make a delicious creamy pasta sauce. In addition to that, you can chop your zucchini up and add that to the sauce for a great bit of texture. Of course, you can make as big a pot of sauce as you want, and store or freeze it for latter.


3. Fruit rolls! Yum! And so easy! Take all the fruit that is just a bit too ripe to enjoy cut up as breakfast and dessert, chop it up, blend, and pour mixture into the bottom tray of your dehydrator... or on a baking sheet in your oven on warm. This takes about 8 hours. The secret is to never go above 140 degrees or you will kill much of the great enzymes and nutritional value of your fruit.

What are some more ways to use up all the veggies before they turn into compost? Please, help me devour my produce before it's too late, please!



Thursday, July 28, 2011

How to Host a Vegan Baby Shower for Non-Vegans

VEGAN BABY SHOWER
OMG!!! Have a baby and you too, can have a pile-o-presents!


Apparently having babies is the new hip thing... well, for others. I'm bucking the trend, but it was bound to happen that I would eventually be tasked to throw one of these suckers.

A few things to note:
1. I am on a tight budget
2. 23 ladies not including myself would be in attendance
3. Ladies, while fine with eating lighter fare, will descend like locusts upon said lighter fare!

The Menu:

  • Limeade
  • Cupcakes that resemble Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster
  • Salsa Verde
  • Guacamole and tortilla chips
  • Fruit Salad
  • Israeli Salad
  • Hummus and Fresh toasted pita chips

Teehee!

Total Grocery Store Bill: $70 or about $3 per person

Tips:

I did a do it yourself limeade station. Really this was because I forgot that I didn't have a punch bowl! But also, when you run out of ginger ale, you can fill the limeade pitcher with water and add more lime slices for refreshing lime water... only thing that would be better would be cucumber water!

Pita chips can be pricey. Buy the actual pita bread and bake in the over for 15 minutes at about 275 degrees.
Mutant cupcake!!!! Notice how none of the other cupcakes judge? mutant cupcake is just one of the crew.

I made three types of cupcakes from my new favorite cookbook, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Vanilla, Chocolate and Lemon. Chocolate goes first. Always. i used the recipe for vegan butter cream icing, and added dry food coloring rather than the liquid to keep the texture such that it could be piped properly.
These cupcakes are like lemmings... blindly following each other to their doom...

The mom-to-be's only request was for my guacamole. it is pretty darned amazing. true. So, i figured I'll go ahead and post that recipe here:

Jen's Addictively Good Guacamole:
(Also so easy, it's crazy)
1 avocado
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 teaspoon salt

smush all ingredients together, till thoroughly mashed up.

I know. So crazy easy!

Last tip: Have someone else do the games. I do the cooking and the hosting... let another person do that part while you are refilling the guac!