August 24, 2011

Squash Blossom Tempura

Holy vegan deliciousness. Squash blossom tempura. If you have a squash plant or a farmer's market that offers these tasty flowers, pick them up. I use the term "tempura" sort of loosely here.



Batter Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground mustard seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup ice-cold water

Whisk all these ingredients together right before you're ready to fry

Heat up a pot of canola oil (or whatever oil you desire)

Dip the de-stemmed squash blossoms in the batter and drop into the pot of oil

Let them fry until they are slightly golden brown

Dipping Sauce Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
 1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp. honey



Totally not healthy, but totally amazing.

August 20, 2011

The best Zucchini Bread ever.

Yeah, I made that claim. And I'm standing by it. I can't get enough of this stuff; I've been making it a lot since I perfected this recipe to my liking. Even my omnivorous friends love it!

Ingredients:

  • 5 tbsp ground flaxseeds
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup homemade applesauce
  • 2 cups brown sugar (loosely packed)
  • Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp. vanilla extract)
  • 2 large zucchini, grated
  • 3 cups oat flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 Tbsp. cinnamon
  • 2 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. cloves
  • 3-4 oz. grated dark chocolate
Mix the flaxseeds with the warm water until it thickens


Mix this mixture together with the oils, applesauce, sugar, and vanilla


Stir in the grated zucchini. Set aside


In a different bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients (flour-cloves)


Stir the zucchini mixture into the dry mixture

Fold in the grated chocolate until well-mixed




Grease 2 loaf-pans with Earth Balance or oil and divide the batter equally between them

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes 

Enjoy this with some good coffee and you won't be sorry.


August 14, 2011

Miso Tofu Nori Rolls

I altered the Smokey Miso Tofu marinade recipe on veganyumyum.com (an awesome blog, btw!) just a smidge, and wrapped it up in some nori sheets instead of making sandwiches out of it. Pretty solid/filling vegan "sushi":

Marinade:
2 Tbsp. white miso
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp. toasted sesame oil

Mix all this in a bowl like so:

Cut a block of (well-drained) firm tofu into slices. Soak those slices in the tasty marinade for about 10 minutes and then place in a baking dish:

Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to brown.

For the filling:
Avocado slices
Veganaise
Sprouts

Lay a sheet of nori on a flat surface and layer the filling ingredients and the baked tofu:

Roll it up and slice!


Really tasty! Unless you don't like the taste of seaweed.

August 13, 2011

Sacramento Veg Fest

I dropped by the Sacramento Veg Fest today and it was really nice. A bit smaller than I thought it was going to be, but lots of yummy raw, vegan, and vegetarian food and drink to sample and buy. Foodies are such friendly folk. 
I came away with a box of Lydia's Raw Italian crackers and a jar of Nacheez vegan nacho cheeze:
I've been wanting to try Lydia's raw crackers for a while, but they're $9/box at my local co-op. But lucky day, they were just $6/box at the VegFest! That nacho cheeze is actually really tasty, probably because they used cashews as the base instead of soy-something. I'm usually not at all impressed by vegan cheese substitutes so I tend not to buy them, but this one is pretty top-notch at $6.50/jar.