I am sure you will feign no surprise when I share the name of tonight's pate: Asparagus and Chickpea Pate. Yes, more asparagus, but enjoyed in an unusual way. A fantastic experiment.

Ingredients:
-2 large bunches of green asparagus.
-1 cup of chick peas
-1/2 cup of pine nuts
-1 teaspoon of soy sauce
-cumin
-cracked black pepper

How to: I roasted the asparagus for 30 minutes. I added the raw pine nuts and chickpeas to my food processor and pulsed them for a few minutes. I added the roasted asparagus and whirred at top speed. Cumin was the last addition. Yummy.



I also made a simple little dish of tofu, cucumber, tomato and mixed salad.

Post-Marked Friday of Last Week...

This whole week has felt like an extended Sun Kil Moon song. Let me interpret: I have been sullen, full of cranky energy and rather frazzled in any attempt to do anything. Some ebbs in this slurry of disheveled revelry have included: Wednesday night pizza with a huge helping of good people, hikes in the forest with a pack of ridiculously cute children, and a great partner who, despite crankasaurausrexes on the horizon, cooked up a delicious and experimental dinner for me last night!!!

K's menu included his fantastic fresh salsa that he has graced me with on a previous occasion, a really scrumptious allotment of grilled asparagus (I swear to god we DO eat things other than asparagus) and some marinated and then baked tempeh. We ended up joining efforts towards the end of his kitchen heroics to create a quick couscous - most of which made its way into our lunches today.

Mango Pie . Oh My!

Anni's post from a couple of days ago inspired me to make our coffee treat for today: Mango Pie. I admit to never having had given a moments thought to using mango in a pie. A cheese cake, maybe. A stir fry, for sure. But a pie? Nope. It had never really crossed my mind. I changed a few of the ingredients to prevent an otherwise unnessesary trip to the shoppe, and what we ended up with today was quite yummy.


Ingredients:
Filing
-1 fresh mango, purreed (according to Anni's recipe, you could have used much more mango)
-1/2 cup silken tofu
-2 tablespoons of soy yoghurt
-about 15 dates
-a dash of Agave syrup
-1/4 cup of water
-2 tablespoons of agar flakes
Crust
-1 cup of oats
-1 cup of whole wheat flour
-2 tablespoons of oatmilk
-3 tablespoons of canola oil

How To:
I added all of the crust ingredients together and mixed them until they looked properly distributed and then I pressed it into the bottom of my spring form pan. I baked the crust for about 10 minutes at 160. I then assembled all of the filling ingredients (sans water and agar) in my food processor and whired it right up. If you don't like the look of date speckles throughout the end product, I would opt for Anni's suggestion of sultanna raisins. I quite liked the date skins throughout the otherwise orangey hue of the pie.

For the agar component, I let the water get to an almost boil, added the agar and whisked until my arm was aching. It was amazing how quickly the seaweed powder turned the liquid into a gel. I added this to my mango/tofu purree and whizzed it all a little bit more. I used that gorgesous purple spatula of mine to add the filling to the crust. To jump start the cooling I popped it in the freezer for 1 hour and transfered it to the fridge for about 10 hours. (you don't need this length of time, but we didn't need any pie last night after our pizza, so decided to leave it chilling until this afternoon.)

Anni suggests enjoying it with some vanillia non-dairy ice treat. We had ours with coffee, the new Breeders C.D. and a book.

A book! A book! A BOOK! Guess what arrived? Guess what is sitting at my feet? Guess what I will be reading on the stationary bike all week (no tredmill because I can't read while running)?

Lyndsay's Victory Lap Banana Bread!

Bananas very rarely manage to ripen in my favourite orange veg and fruit hanger (circa 1969). However, for whatever reason, this week has seen a decrease in the number of bananas appearing in oatmeal.

This morning, I found myself, a wide awake Vegan CowGirl, with a load of nearly nasty bananas. What does a Vegan CowGirl do with a load of nearly nasty bananas? Obviously she makes banana bread. Now. Let me tell you. There were many, many, many attempts to make banana bread back home. It was, after all, one of my omni-mom's best kept secrets (psst: lemon zest, sour cream and cream cheese...sorry mom).

Despite dedication to reinvention, I was never satisfied with what came out of my Ontario oven. Many moons have come and gone since I felt capable enough to battle the banana bread god (desses), but, perhaps with the support I feel from this wonderful vegan blogging community, I was able to champion my demons and from out of my Belgian oven and onto K's plate came a steaming and delicious slice of LYNDSAY'S VICTORY LAP BANANA BREAD.

I share my disasters (see last post) and my victories. Raw Raw Roar.

The recipe was one I fiddled with from Isa's never ending plethora of foodie knowledge. I omitted the fat, went with apple sauce, cut down the sugar, but added dates (I quite liked the ones on top). K reports a crispy top, moist, yet firm interior and an apartment that smells oh so sweet. (come on K that is obviously ME!)

I served the bread with our usual morning tea (No, not the uber-expensive (read: over priced) tea we bought from the tea shoppe which in turn inspired last night's disaster).

I had a great day! It was so wonderfilled! We met great people, had excellent food, discovered new parts of our city, bought some rockin' music, found EGG REPLACER (!!!!) and I even had the chance to use a new ingredient.

We headed off downtown with the intention of getting some shopping done and meet up with our vegetarian (vegan friendly) wedding caterer extraordinaire. Her restaurant is just a touch off the funky St. Katerine Square, and despite being off the beaten trail it was heaving by the time we finished our lunch. Annabelle can be found M-F (11 - 3) at Picnik, where she and a small number of folk whip up fresh and tasty vegetarian delights. K and I both had a small bowl of her lentil soup. I followed the scrumptious soup up with a roasted veg salad (that included the unusual, but really delicious, celery root), and K had a chinese noodle and tofu salad. The price was right, the food was great and Annabelle seems to share similar beliefs about food and life as this vegan cowgirl. So, although we haven't signed any contracts yet, I think she is the one!

After lunch we stumbled upon a great chinese shop where we had an amazing tea service performed for us, and met a really funky lady whose life seemed to be spread out all over the world.

After a workout I came home to tackle some sushi/maki. Still boosted from Anke's contest, I decided to try my hand at making, amoung other sorts, some squash sushi. After wrestling with some Nori, me and my favourite almost-vegan-boy had a nice little meal on the floor, complete with some atomic wasabi and Neko Case. Good Times. We are just waiting on our Strawberry and Coconut Agar Jelly........

Squash (and other sorts) Sushi and Many Veg Maki

Ingredients:
-Squash (sliced and baked)
-Sweet Potato (sliced and baked)
-Red Pepper slices
-Cucumber slices
-avocado slices
-tofu (sliced and baked)
-sushi rice (we actually used risotto rice and washed it off after boiling)
-rice vinegar
-sesame seeds
-wasabi
-soy sauce
-nori sheets

How To:
Maki - Cook the rice, cover with 3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar. I like to let it cool down for a small while. Lay a nori on the sushi mat and cover 3/4 of the nori with the rice, in the bottom 1/4 line up any combo of ingredients (it will take you a couple of trys before you become aware of how much 'stuffing' works best for your sushi), sprinkle with sesame seeds, rub cold water on the non-riced top 1/4 and roll. Some of the combos I used: Squash, red pepper and avocado. Tofu, Avocado, Cucumber.

Veg Sushi - (Squash and Asparagus in the photo). Use your hand to craft a little 'ball' or oval of rice and lay an appropriately shaped veg atop. Tie with a cut sliver of Nori.

EggPlant Pockets and Carrot-Coconut Muffin-Cakes

I was starving at the end of my day and had intentions of making some of the much blogged about carrot cake cup cakes, but I needed a little something else to go with them. I left work feeling pretty cranky - late night listening to the poorly engineered Tegan and Sarah, and then making the silly decision to run to work - cranky to say the least. But, once I started crafting a dinner plan in my head I felt bright and shiny. Ready for the most missing of essential ingredients or the most over-stuffed muffin trays. Bring It!!!

In the pursuit of slowly cleaning out the fridge in preparation for our Sunday departure for Slovenia, I decided to work on the premise of using the two eggplants I bought on Sunday. I didn't want curry, I didn't want fried (please remember the re-kindled love between me and my oven), so I opted for throwing together a new recipe that I am christening my Eggplant Pockets.

They were wicked yummy, and, given the middle eastern spices I used and the middle eastern nature of eggplant itself, I decided to serve it with some hummus and rice cakes (ok - so rice cakes aren't so middle eastern).

Ingredients:
-2 eggplants
-1 onion
-1 can of chickpeas
-cumin, coriander
-1 can of tomatoes
-a tiny bit of olive oil

How To:
I cut the eggplants in half (along the horizontal) and hollowed them out. I added oil to a pan (yes, I did have to use the stove top) and chucked in the onions, followed by the spices. I let this cook down for a while before adding the eggplant-innards, which I diced up. I added half the can of tomatoes (reserving the other half for later), and chickpeas and let it cook for about 15 minutes. Stuffing the eggplant shells was quite easy because they were still raw and firm. I cooked the four 'pockets' for 45 minutes - adding the remaining tomatoes across the top for the final 5 minutes.

My baking tonight was inspired by the various scrumptious looking photos posted by Happy Herbivore, Dr. Stonielove, and Pleasantly Plump Vegan. However much I wanted to taste the flavours being raved about on these blogs the dream of recreating a recipe was not to be had. Tweaking was necessary, when, after picking up what I thought were all the essentials, I realized that I was fresh out of apple sauce, or rather, I was fresh out of fresh applesauce. For, I had mowed down on all the organic sugar-free for breakie and had only a skanky, moldy bottle of apple sauce hidden away back behind some atomic mustard we bought on our trip to Ghent.

Hmmm...what to add. In the end, inspired by the title of P.P.V's recipe, I decided to add Coconut Milk to make up for the lack of apple sauce. I admit, my goodies aren't fat free - ahh well. The other little twiddle that I did to the recipe was...I didn't end up making cup cakes, so much as I made Muffin-Cakes. I guess I was a little too indulgent with my spatula and ended up adding a wee bit too much to each little cavity in the tray...and well, hey...they came out looking like muffins - but! the more yummy nummy good stuff to add my yogurt, coconut milk (why stop?) and maple syrup 'icing' to? My friend/colleague Britt is receiving a special Muffin-Cake treat tomorrow - she has had a hard week and needs a little vegan baking love.

Ingredients:
-1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp Cinnamon
-grated ginger
-2 grated carrots
-2 tablespoons of ginger and rhubarb preserves
-2 tablespoons of maple syrup
-1/2 cup of coconut milk
-2 tablespoons of olive oil
-1/4 cup of sugar

How To:

I added all the dry ingredients, mixed them up and then added them to the wet. I added the coconut milk until I had the consistency that I was looking for. I popped them into the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Alright, two days of work await me before my holiday. Can't wait.

Today was excellent. I enjoyed a spontaneous day trip to Durbuy, which is in the south of Belgium and has some of the most amazing rock formations, and loads of tiny town qualities that one begins to forget when living in a big capital city. The houses were so quaint that it was silly. I felt as if I were constantly looking at a post card. The river was a rush with spring rain fall (not that it needs to be spring to be raining in Belgium).

I started my Sunday in a slow cooking kind of way with a hearty oatmeal that looks an awful lot like the breakfast Jennifer was enjoying in Columbia.



This oatmeal recipe comes not out of a book, but out of years of repeating the same simple steps - and always with the same delicious and satisfying results.

Ingredients:
-4 apples - cored and chopped
-1 stick of Cinnamon
-1 wee bit of soy milk
-1-2 teaspoons of maple syrup
-powdered ginger as you like
-dried fruit (dates and raisins) as you like

This oatmeal is also amazing with rhubarb - but there is none to be had in Brussels at the moment. Cést la vie.
I ate my lunch in the car on the way down to Durbuy (K had croquettes and a really dressing-saturated salad in a Brasserie upon our arrival). My salad was a quickly thrown together collection of diced veg and a bit of baguette that we bought at the market this morning. As you can see - K brought with him the cookies from the other day....but they didn't all end up in his belly. I had a nice dose of Arcade Fire for the drive down and Great Lake Swimmers most recent album was our (my) choice for the ride home.



Tonight's dinner was inspired by a walk through the seafood department on Friday night. I don't usually find myself passing through aisles of mussels and cod, but, it was this unusual detour that resulted in K's discovery of a veg that I would have never noticed. Samphire isn't a usual accoutrement to the fruit and vegetable departments I have frequented (and with my obsessive food shopping there have been many walks through grocery shops). Upon plunking it into my basket I recalled seeing this fingered, green and bizarre looking marsh growing vegetable in the interesting bio/cook book Garlic, Gooseberries and Me.

After our rocking road trip I turned the samphire into a kicking salad that we had with our Polenta and Sage Crusted Tofu Steaks. YUMMY.

Fire Starting Samphire Salad
Ingredients:
-samphire: soak in cold water for 20 minutes and cook in boiling water for 60 seconds
-Boston lettuce
-2 pears (I used red organic pears)
-crushed walnuts
-balsamic vinegar and olive oil


What do you do when you break your fiancee's favourite trapist beer glass? You make him his favourite desert. This apple crisp was BY FAR the best apple crisp I have ever made. I don't know. Perhaps it was the extra love I have been giving to my oven every night before bed. Maybe it is the sweet nothings I have been whispering in its ear every time I pass by. Doesn't matter, all I am certain of is the sumptuous finale to tonight's dinner. It turned out so wonderfully.



Make Up for It Apple Crisp
Ingredients:
-8 apples - cored and cut into bits
-walnuts
-brown sugar
-maple syrup
-apple sauce
-olive oil
-oats
-flax powder
-whole wheat flour

I made a 'crust' by crushing half of the walnuts I had on hand and adding flax powder, oats, maple syrup, a bit of oil and pressed it into the bottom of the pan. I added the diced apples, which I coated in maple syrup and a tiny bit of brown sugar. To the top of the cut up apples I spread some apple sauce. In a separate bowl I mixed together whole wheat flour, oats, maple syrup, powdered ginger, cinnamon, and a small bit of water. This makes a crumble and will easily cover the apple mix. I put it in the oven at 360 for about 50 minutes. I served it with a little bit of soy milk. And - I was forgiven for cracking the glass. :)



I read some amazing blogs today. Veg*an Cooking and Other Ramblings has a great recent entry, and Authentic Deliciousness was just amazing. The writing quality in the vegan blog world is high quality! Billy's Vegan Talk is an excellent example of some great food/ethics journalism and Chocolate Covered Vegan writes like a great magazine reporter. Excellent stuff out there.

Cookies are the perfect answer for oven-deprived vegans.

I decided to avoid the hard cover cook books today and went (sent K) instead to the grand vegan web. The likes of PPK turned up a chocolate cookie recipe that I tweaked a little bit. Searching for a macaroon recipe I had promised myself to make but, in classic VeganCowGirl way, forgot to bookmark, K found an interesting recipe for vegan macaroons that didn't call for any sugar in the white or brown form. I was game!

The truth: the macaroons taste NOTHING like macaroons, but they are a great substitute for baking a whole loaf of banana bread. The bite sizeness of them works with the (ironically) intense sweetness embedded by the dates, coconut and bananas. The initial recipe of: dates, coconut and 1 banana seemed to be seriously lacking something - so I went a little wild and added oats and vanilla. It really only seemed right - they had to be baked for 15 minutes, and it seemed insane to through them in their without a grain or two.

I ended up with two batches of goodies that will keep us sweet and full for the rest of the weekend and might even need to go into the freezer for desert next week.

They May Not be Macaroons, But They Taste Great, Macaroons

Ingredients:

-1 banana

-8 dates

-1 tsp of vanilla

-1/2 cup of oats

-1/2 cup of coconut

I put everything into my food processor, pulsed it for 30 seconds and then pulled the 'dough' out and added it to my cookie sheet in art deco looking shapes.

They sat in the oven (at 160) for about 15 minutes - they could use a turning half way through.

Belgian Style Vegan Chocolate Bits Cookies

Ingredients:

-1/2 bar of Belgian vegan chocolate: chopped (by one seriously cute geek)

-2 cups of whole wheat flour

-1/4 cup of sugar

-1/2 cup of apple sauce

-2 tablespoons of oil

-vanilla (as you like)

-1/4 cup of cocoa

-1 teaspoon of Cardamom

-2 tablespoons of maple syrup

-2 tablespoons of flax

-1/2 cup of soy milk (plus more if it gets a bit dry)

I blended the soy and flax and set aside. Upon insistence of a back-seat-cook I sifted the flour, cocoa and baking soda in my big bright blue bowl. I added the wet ingredients, the chocolate bits and the flax mix and mixed it all together. It was super mega sticky (wasn't really expecting that) and in the end it seemed a bit more on the cake/scone end of batters, but the cookies, after a 10 minute tan on 180 in the OVENNNNNN, turned out quite wonderfully.

Perhaps the best part of my day was how after buying the new Nick Cave and Vampire Weekend C.D.s a trip to the International Festival was in the cards. And guess what this vegan cowgirl found at the Canadian Booth? President's Choice Maple Syrup (so worth the 7 euro), AND they had a chef making Beaver Tails. Jesus, I could have been in Ottawa - but, alas, the butter and milk in the batter wasn't so vegan. I opted for a bite of a vegetarian spring roll from the Bangladesh booth. Yum.

I hate to share this with my Canadian readers who are still struggling with the cold and damp, but my terrace door is wide open and today officially began patio season. Whop. Whop.

I just wanted to say how great it was to read about Chocolate Covered Vegan's Friendship Day. What a great cause, and a wonderful account of what seemed to be a great day.

It's Back!

Our oven came home today. And tonight, rather then the regular night out, we opted for a night in with our most longed for appliance.

We knew it had to be roasted veg - of course. But, we needed something to go with it, and I suggested the famous Veganomicon Chickpea Cutlet that I have been reading so much about. We played with the recipe a little bit. And K took his new status as a husband-to-be-to-a-vegan to a whole new level with a great fresh Tomato and Basil salsa that was out of this world. This meal was not all VeganCowGirl by any means - it was total joint effort.

Hold the Chicken Cutlets

Ingredients:

-1 cup of chickpeas

-1/2 cup of wheat gluten

-1/2 cup of chickpea flour

-2 tsp of soy sauce

-2 tsp of olive oil

-1/4 cup of water

-fresh sage, fresh basil, fresh thyme

These were so easy. So easy. I mashed the chickpeas and oil with a fork while K got busy with the veg. Once the chickers were nice and squished I added the remaining ingredients - in no particular order - and let the bowl sit for about 15 minutes (not sure if this had any real effect on the end product, but we wanted the veg to cook off a while before warming the cutlets). When ready to go I added some oil to a non-stick pan and browned the cutlets on both sides for about 7 minutes. Apparently they work really well baked....next time.

K's salsa was out of this world, and although we think we will pair the cutlets with something more Mediterranean next time, a la roasted eggplant or hummus, the salsa is a definite keeper. I was totally impressed. If I hadn't already said yes last weekend, I would be asking for his hand after the flavours in this dish.

K's Salsa
Ingredients:

-3 red/green tomatoes

-cilantro

-a wee bit of red chili

-apple cider vinegar

-olive oil

-cracked black pepper

-finely diced spring onion

From what I saw, he finely chopped everything, and added it to the bowl, topping the fresh ingredients with the olive oil and vinegar. He mentioned that the taste increases in intensity when you let it sit for a while - but we weren't waiting for anything last night. We served it on the side, and I found it was a nice compliment to the other two more 'heavier' components of the feast.

All in all it was a great meal. K was trying to figure out how much we could sell it for at the imaginary restaurant I will one day open in Brussels.

After binging on our food we headed for a drink with some friends. Good times with Mojitos.

In other really excellent news Leonard Cohen is touring and where is going to be on July 10th? In Brughes. Where am I going to be on July 10th? In Brughes. K snapped up the tickets yesterday morning - I can NOT wait.

Tag, I am IT! And so is Vegan Sausage.....

Wow. People are talking about the vegan blog world. I couldn't figure out why folks kept linking to me via slashfood, and upon a little bit of investigation (otherwise known as distraction-at-work procrastination) I discovered that people have noticed the little bonding party we have had over our vegan sausage discovery.

Tonight's dinner started out with a bit of a disappointment - a funky cabbage. And, no one, no matter how hungry you are, wants to eat a funky cabbage. Ever since last night, (when cooking was just totally out of the question after spending an hour in the car looking for my PhD supervisor's illusive address), I have been dreaming about a red cabbage, shredded apple, edamame and pumpkin seed salad. I was ready, having stopped at the shop and armed myself with some additional supplies, to tackle this culinary dream. I ducked my head into the cupboard to pull out the hard, crunchy and purple cabbage, and all I got was a stinky, green-dotted, slightly toxic vegetable. I swear it has been there for about 1 week - Skanky water is to blame I think.

I didn't give up. I perservered. Committed to having a raw night (with K out of the house I always take the chance to have a nice big salad - not that he isn't down with the greens, he just needs something hot and 'bigger' at the end of the day), I scavenged through the fridge like a racooon with a mission. I found some treats I picked up at the market last night, and started chopping. What I ended up with was a beautiful salad. I topped it off with some Balsamic and soy sauce and wolfed it down while listening to Bishop Allen.

Red and Green Salad

Ingredients:
-1/2 an English cucumber
-1 red pepper
-1 carrot: sliced
-5 big fat market strawberries
-2 stalks of celery
-1 cup of edamame (stemmed or boiled)

5 Things...About Me..I feel silly writing this...but, I adore Pleasantly Plump Vegan, and she tagged me...so.

1. I can not, under any circumstances, wear socks to bed.
2. I am a Canadian who has moved to Brussels, Belgium. I didn't come for the beer or chocolate, but I am exceptionally happy.
3. I am a pretty big geek. Reading, knitting, geek music, flat mary jane shoes, and strippey sweaters are the name of the game. I think being smart is sexy, so I read the dictionary as often as possible.
4. The reason why I went from vegetarian to vegan in 2002 was because: I kept having a reoccurring nightmare of my cat (bigger) being hooked up to a milking machine.
5. Ok, something a little more personal. I got engaged on Saturday. K asked me to marry him, and I said 'yes'. A vegan wedding is on the agenda for next Easter holiday. Wow. It all looks so real when you type it. Yikes.

I have tagged: Urban Vegan, Vegan Vancouverite, Jenn from Vegan In Vancouver, Abram from Vegan Miscellanies, and Mihl from Seitan is my Motor

Chocolate and Date No-Bake Balls

What makes more sense then making desert before making dinner? Nothing - except, maybe that chocolate tastes good even when you are full.

Work was great today, but the world got a whole lot more exciting when I got home and started playing around with some dates, raisins and a lot of vegan Belgian chocolate. My only regret is the banana - next time I will nix the banana and maybe try some coconut milk. Don't get me wrong - these balls are blissful (and totally satisfy my cookie cravings when my oven is 5 days away from its return home), I would just do something a little more exotic next time.

These are uber-easy and so tasty that you will skip dinner and just fuel up on these little nuggets of goodness.

Ingredients:

-20 dates (pitted)

-1/2 cup of sultana raisins

-1 cup of oats

-1/4 cup of cocoa

-1 banana

-1 1/2 walnuts

-1/2 cup of maple syrup

I guess having the chance to share some really exciting news with my family at a silly early hour this morning (they are six hours behind me) got me thinking about my mom, because I pulled out my hand me down Braun food processor in my afternoon ball adventure. With the Euro-adaptor this 15+ year old kitchen machine handle the voltage with no problem and was my accomplice throughout this yummy process. I also had a pretty handsome looking side kick who was right there rolling balls, pitting dates and experimenting with double broiling.

How To:

In a food processor crush the walnuts and pour them into a glass bowl. Add the dates, cocoa, raisins and banana to the processor and pulsh until you get a sticky mess. Add the walnuts, maple syrup and oats - this will give them a structure that allows you to roll these bad boys into tasty little balls of goodness.

I dumped the contents of the f.p. into a glass bowl and pulled out a golf ball size of 'batter' and rolled until I had a firm and well-rounded ball. K covered a plate with organic cocoa, which we then rolled the goodies through, covering them completely. We had a bit of inspiration at the last second and threw some chocolate into a do-it-yourself double broiler and rolled a couple of the balls in the liquid chocolate.

They were delicious and topped off a great dinner of tomato soup and steamed brocolli.

Really easy no-bake desert. I can imagine rolling them through coconut, crushed nuts, puffed millet etc.

And what did I have for dinner last night? Oh my.

I found some white Belgian asperagus at the market earlier in the morning and ended up making a great salad, (and some not so great artichokes). The salad was really just about the asperagus, but had notable guest appearances from balsamic mariantated red pepper and some simple grilled tofu steals. The lettuce was a beautiful red, again, from the market. Excellent and really satisfying - I feel summer and its salads, roasted veg (and my trip to Italy) right around the corner.

Mission Accomplished!

I did it. I made the vegan sausages! This Sunday's brunch did not disappoint (see last week's post on damn pancakes).

I was up and at them quite early this morning, finished up some reading, tidied for a while and then attended to the project I had set for myself: my first faux-meat. After all of these vegan years I have never made a sausage, a burger, or a hot dog. The closest I have ever come is referring to my square slices of tofu as 'steaks'. But now, I have been initiated into the ever growing vegan group (vegan dad, post punk kitchen, vegan in vancouver) of those with enough energy on Sunday morning to tackle a session of sausage making.

To be honest, these were so easy, that I could have drank much more wine at last night's very important dinner and managed just fine this morning. Do it! Do it! Do it! Even all of you wacky non-vegans out there - you will love them, you will dig them, you will worship them (ok, maybe I have been reading too much of the medieval female mystic stuff this morning...you won't worship them, you will like them).

Ingredients:
-1 1/4 cup of gluten flour/vital wheat gluten
-1/4 cup of nutritional yeast flakes
-1/2 cup of white beans, mashed with a fork
-2 dashes of soy sauce
-1 teaspoon of olive oil
-2 dashes of maple syrup
-1 cup of water (cold)

herbs: use your own discretion with the quantity - but it was the spices that really made it!
-crushed dry fennel
-fresh basil (red and green), fresh rosemary, fresh thyme
-powdered cumin

How to: (I used vegan dad's guidance for this part and watched a pretty kickin' video on ppk.)

While I was measuring out my ingredients, and cutting/grinding my spices, I started my water. I added everything together in a large mixing bowl, and was amazed by how quickly it began to form into such a firm substance. I pulled golf ball sized chunks out of the bowl and rolled them between my hands until I had little cigar-ish sausages. I laid each one on the end of a piece of aluminum foil (next time I will use cheese cloth - not impressed with the amount of waste) and rolled the suckers up, twisting the ends up nice and tight.

I stacked my Chinese (all the way from Spadina Street in Toronto to Brussels) bamboo steamers onto my pasta pot full of boiling water and added 8 sausages to the steamer - side by side. I added a second level and filled it with a 'burger' and a larger sausage - to steam and set aside for later use.

I waited 25 minutes, checked them, decided to turn them and let them have another 25 minutes (this departs a bit from vegan dad). I let them sit in their bamboo tower while I headed down to the market - I was planning a feast and I needed a little more.

When I returned with bags full of goodies I cooked up tofu scramble (eggs for K), warmed up the sausage in a bit of maple syrup, soya sauce and olive oil, and had K make some sauteed mushrooms while I cleaned up the kitchen. The syrup, sauce and oil browned the sausages into disguise and no one could have picked my vegan sausages out of an almost all-meat line up. I served brunch with some nice dark bread and a big pot of Lady Grey Tea. K was totally impressed and is demanding vegan sausages for every meal from this day forth.

To be honest, having never worked with wheat gluten, I am really impressed. Dead easy. Dead yummy and, most importantly, fun!


And hey, if you are looking at those super sexy containers in my top photo, you can find them at Habitat in a range of styles and colours. They are super cute with birds and ferns; they have a great seal so your goodies will stay fresh.

Thanks for the comments on the new layout. Much appreciated. I am pretty content with it as well.

Content is one thing. But, overjoyed and ecstatic are totally different. These exuberant emotions filled me last night as I munched on my dinner last night. I implore you all to make this little VeganCowGirl-experiment-gone-right. Please.



I was feeling a little funny last night, looking around the shop, filled with thoughts about today's presentation (which is but an hour away) and couldn't quite focus on what I was buying, or what I had hidden in the fridge. About the only thing I had nailed down was that I wanted some tofu and I was feeling like a salad. My brain hopped onto an old favourite - 'the single girl's salad' - which I love. I adore. I pine for. And would have gladly eaten. However, given aforementioned mental state, I didn't think to buy anything but the tofu and the lettuce - and I had not much more fresh and summer-salad stuff hanging around. I had a moment of raw carrot consideration (if it was good for a mid morning snack there is no reason why I can't eat it for dinner), but then I decided to be wild and make a Warm Salad with the rest of the vegetables laying to waste in the fridge (maybe not waste, that is an exaggeration of sorts).

My Wild and Warm Eggplant Salad

Ingredients

-eggplant
-white mushrooms (i used a lot. in fact, maybe an actual lot's worth)
-garlic
-canned tomato (just a small bit).
-fresh crushed black pepper
-one cutlet of (shock, horror - but sorry they were out of the usual plain fu) flavoured tofu
-organic boston lettuce (I used about half a head)
-a few green olives
-balsamic vinegar
-juice of 1/2 a lemon

I started with warming up about 3 tablespoons of the tomatoes and adding some basil, fresh rosemary and the pepper. I added all of the mushrooms, and the lemon juice, letting it all simmer for about 20 - 25 minutes. The tofu was very firm and didn't really need to be in the pan for any practical reason - accept to heat it up, but I decided to throw it in quite early - and I am glad I did, the fu had a great coating of the sauce when it was laying on top of the lettuce. I added the garlic and eggplant to the mix, and moved it all around so that the eggplant was flush on the pan with the mushrooms/fu a top. Here, I added a dash of Balsamic, I wanted something heady and rich - and it did the trick.

I washed and ripped the lettuce, adding it to one of my favourite green bowls, finally, placing the warmed fu/veg to the top. A few more splashes of vinegar and I had my masterpiece ready for munching. It was amazing, satisfying and had a surprisingly large depth of flavour. Overall, one of the best vegan experiments yet!

I also had another great discovery last night - I listened to the Czars. Really great band. Impressive C.D. called goodbye. Get it.

Look At That View...

No, no, not the hummus sitting atop my kidney beans. Look past the acceptable lunch time fare and be incredibly jealous of the view that I get to look down upon when not wondering about Julian of Norwich, or whether or not my new blog format works.

Lunchtime didn't involve dipping into any fantastic left overs. Sadly, no. Rather, I had the layered salad bar treat that started with red kidney beans and ended with some corn. It wasn't as exciting as my mid-morning snack of carrots and hummus.

I adore the ceramic container that I had my carrots in, which was later transformed into my lunch bowl. These containters are fantastic! I have them in two sizes, but wish that I had about 40. In addition to being a million times better for the environment (when compared to some Tupperware out there), they are also acceptable for the microwave (if you so choose to use one) and are great for VeganCowGirls who have memory problems and aren't quite too sure how long the soup has been sitting in the fridge. Each container has a 'chalk board' strip on the side that allows you to write everything from: VeganCowGirl's Lunch to Chickpea Delight March 6 2008. Excellent stuff! They wash up wonderfully as well. Not that I ever do that.

Today, while reading about the infused bread made by pleasantly plump vegan, I got to thinking about the joys of bread making and how much I miss the (once to me) conventional ovens of North America, and how I long for something other than the dinky (and currently busted) oven I have been continuously complaining about. I miss baked loaves from the shores of Lake Ontario.

So, in honour of my much missed bread baking parties I am going to share one of my favourite things to do at the end of a bread baking session....by far one of the best reasons to bake the bread in the first place!

Ingredients
-left over newly risen dough (preferably something whole grain/wheat
-left over (or freshly made) chili
-olive oil
-parchment paper
-pizza stone
-sea salt
-rosemary (crushed)

How to create your very own CHILI BOMB!

Roll out some dough into a shape that resembles a thick mini pizza shell (about 2 cms thick and about 5 cm wide). Add a splog of your chili to the middle of the dough, sprinkle some rosemary on top (and/or any other applicable spices). Now...here comes the fun....if you are wrap challenged, now would be the time to call in your favourite vegancowgirl to the rescue.....grab the 'sides' of the shell and start to pull it together at the top like a little purse. Hold the top bits tight in your hands for a few seconds to let the dough settle into a nice little dough clump atop your chili bomb (I even got really fancy at one point and tied an elongated piece of dough around the pieces - but not necessary). You want to have your chili bomb tight packed tight enough so that it feels like the tummy of a fat kitten (does that make sense? or is it gross?). The trick is figuring out how thick to make your dough so that you can make your bomb without it breaking through.

Bake the bombs on a pizza stone, after coating them in olive oil (or not) and a little bit of celtic sea salt (or not). Enjoy!

Pumpkin Curry

There are so many things I want to share! My curry from last night, the amazing blogs I have been reading, my love for puffed millet, the bubbling excitement I have for my weekend project: making the vegan sausages I have seen on VeganDad and Vegan Miscellanies.

Let's start with the curry. Over the weekend the cauliflower and broccoli where imploring me not to let them go bad this week. No problem. The thai curry from last week, and the quarter bit of pumpkin I picked up on the way home from work, inspired me enough to ignore the power point I was making for Friday just a little bit longer and whip up a curry.

I started by skipping the oil and adding half the juice of a can of tomatoes. Next I added the onion, garlic and a load of tumeric (I was reading a National Geographic article about the Okinawan people and the connection between their use of tumeric and their notable longivity.) Next, I put in a spoonful of the red thai curry paste I used in last week's curry - spicy!
As I threw in the pumpkin, I also added about 250 ml of water - to help with the cooking of this brightly coloured veg. I let the pumpkin cook for about 20 minutes before I added the brocolli, peas and cauliflower, which was about the same time I added the coconut milk. A surprising addition was a handful of organic/fresh spinach that was sitting in the crisper.

The dish was great. But, like K's beans, it was even better for lunch. The clue here is that I should buy a slow cooker and chuck in everything before heading to work in the a.m. This makes loads of sense considering my close relationship to the Energizer Bunny at 5 30 am. Why stop at whipping up juice, doing the laundry, making breakfast, tea and lunch - let's get dinner in there while I'm at it!

Of course the eating festivitites were hardly over for the night - walnuts and dates were chewed on before bed.

Ok, so, I have been reading. I admit, the reading has not been professional development, heady fiction or Scientific America. It has been blogs, blogs and more blogs. Specifically vegan blogs. I have been addicted lately. My assumed reason for this new addiction is that I don't have the time to run to bookstores anymore, and my circle of vegan friends in Brussels is quite small (ummm....me, can I be my own friend?). So, I have started to look towards the work of my fellow bloggers to become inspired and adventurous. I am most pleased by the connections you can make and the information that can be share. Mostly, I have just been enjoying the writing of so many cool people, whose personalities are bright and shiny on the computer screen. I am particularly taken with Pleasantly Plump Vegan, her blog is hilarious and the recipes are totally manageable and yummy looking. Vegan Dad is a great writer (I think he might even be a prof of some type), Vegan Talk has a political edge that I love, and Chocolate Covered Vegan is just so sweet (oh! that pun is great!). I love the idea of collaborative blogging and will be writing on What Do Vegans Eat - looking forward to sharing VeganCowGirl's recipes with Josh's audience.

My dinner plans for tonight are malleable. Not sure yet. Could be anything from a carrot (because us vegans really only like carrots, and they have to be raw) to a Tofu Wellington.

Input? Ideas? Offers to Cook?

I just had the best lunch. This isn't something that I usually get to say when I am writing from school. The cafeteria is a little daunting for this little vegan, with a salad bar as my only option most days. And, really, how many times can you eat shredded carrots and not feel a little disenchanted with the whole raw food movement?

Last night, in response to my statement of "I am not doing any more domestic activities for the weekend", K made a spectatcular dinner. I don't have enough trumpets on hand to support the style of fanfare I think appropriate for this culinary coux, but suffice to say he did wonders. And it was an intensified pot of left overs that I peeled back the lid on a mere 10 minutes ago. Thank you Mr. Healey, Thank you!

Bring on The Beans

Since I was lounging on the sofa, shouting a variety of orders and obscenities from my perch, I am not 100% certain as to the exact recipe. I will have to wing it.


olive oil
onion
garlic
fava beans
chick peas
tomato sauce
frozen - thawed tofu (crumbled)
rosemary

I am pretty sure that he cooked the onions down for a wee while before adding the garlic and tofu, which he crumbled (he wasn't very impressed with the browning abilities of the tofu). He then added some tomato sauce, the beans and the rosemary (which was the standout flavour in the dish) and let it sit until I couldn't wait any longer. K is all about the slow roasting - which of course pays off in the end.

So that's it! Please, please make it. If you have some thyme throw it in as well. Apparently this is an adaption of an old favourite, which originally included some type of (cover your eyes) sausage. It was wonderful.

I think I might spend less time in the kitchen and more time on the couch.

Ode to my Juicer

It has been about 2 months now, since I purchased my Philips HR 1861, and it is as cosmically wonderful as its name is science fiction fodder. The clean up is a breeze and the assembly is no stress.

With rare exception my morning begins with some peeling, plunging and pouring. The machine, and its end results are totally satisfactory.

Now, I am not the kind of girl to get all silly about machines - there are a few that have served me well, but most, like my OVEN (!!!), break down, don't live up to expectations or, occasionally, seduce me into procurement and then sit idle in some dust covered state. Not this puppy though. This past week, I have been in a bit of a juicing rut (see previous tempeh post, obsession is not unusual). I can't stop creating the concoction below. Yummy.

1 pomplemouse (grapefruit - pink or yellow)
2 apples
2 blood oranges
5-7 strawberries
1 thumb of ginger
1 iphone - watch this video

A few mornings over the past week I have added a little bit of echineaca to ward off the warnings of a cold. (sniff, sniff).

This morning was another early morning. Up with the birds. Feeling as though I had already accomplished a huge deal at 7 am (with a lab and half an article written), I thought I would tackle the vegan pancakes that were aborted twice last week for lack of ingredients.

Apparently, Brussels is on a different altitude than Oakville. The last time (of about 25) that I made vegan pancakes they were as great as every other attempt - never a problem. I have almost always used a combination of recipes from Vegan Planet, with results that pleased many a Sunday morning palette.

I actually went through 3 frying pans this morning (finally resting with the tiny cast iron option), a whack of batter and more patients than I knew I had stored up after a night of DIY IKEA style. The end results were none too pleasing. I'm not sure if it was the different soy milk, the flour, the flax....hmmmm....but either way, I am determined to figure it out. In the end they were gobbled up by the badger living under my bed.

The dodgy pancakes could easily be a way of the vegan gods to balance out the OH MY GOD IT WAS SO GREAT curry I made last night. Who knows? I through together onion, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, chick peas, red curry paste, coconut milk, water, bean sprouts and tomatoes and ended up with heaven. It was, by far, the best little cook-off I have had in a while.

Strawberry and Tempeh Salad

Anyone who has loved me, and maybe even a couple of folks who have hated me, will tell you that when I love something (a food, a C.D., a person) I go all the way. I love the hell out of it. There have been a variety of food examples: Pickles, mushrooms, dates, all vegan items at La Luna. I lose all sense of other options existing and focus totally on whatever has taken my fancy. I must have logged over 5 marathons worth of running to Franz Ferdiand and ONLY Franz Ferdinand (right now, I can't stop working out to the older Killers disc.)

So - my recent adoration of tempeh, which, when I had it previously, only registered on the 'acceptable protein source' section of my food radar. But, since last Saturday night's recipe, I just can't stop. Tonight, I make no indication of slowing down, as I am patiently waiting to top a great looking salad with some browned tempeh.


Ingredients (all from tonight's market):

5/6 leaves from a Boston Red Lettuce
5 strawberries (no, they aren't local, but....)
1 blood orange
1/2 English cucumber
8 pieces of tempeh
1 cup of bean sprouts
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of sesame seeds
Soy sauce - as you need/like

I added a little bit of the oil, 1/2 of the orange's juice, and loads of soy sauce to a warmed pan and let the tempeh quietly brown (can tempeh brown quietly?), and then eventually added some sesame seeds to the warmed tempeh. In a medium sized bowl I laid out the lettuce, which was torn up, the sliced strawberries, the other half of the orange, sliced. I cut the cucumber in half moons and added the bean sprouts. I had the best intention of adding an avocado to this little dinner of mine - but, the dark coloured skin betrayed me. The internal flesh was more pasty white than the bright green I was hoping for.