Showing posts with label Sauces and spreads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sauces and spreads. Show all posts

Friday, April 20, 2007

Yeah, been at it again

This ballooned into something much bigger than we had planned--but when you put three overworked accountants into a room together, this is the kind of madness that ensues. As soon as someone mentioned that they had been itching to learn how to make hummus, it was settled--time for a hummus party.

We made four different varieties (recipes at the end of the post):




We served the hummus with cucumbers, broccoli florets, sliced mushrooms, and toasted pita wedges. But that's not all, no, that's not all...

Roasted asparagus:


And, for dessert, strawberries in balsamic vinegar (as I saw on Scottish Vegan's blog a while back and have been thinking about ever since):


How I wished we had some fresh mint or basil leaves as a garnish... but all we had was cilantro. With strawberries? Not so much.

The whole, elaborate, elegant spread:



It was a night of delicious vegan food, of creativity and experimentation, and of good fun with good friends. Just the way I like it!

By the way, the all the different varieties of hummus were very good and very distinct. The southwest-style hummus was definitely non-traditional, but it was unique and still very nice. I would make any of these again, in an instant. Each of these recipes represents half a "regular" batch of hummus; if you choose to make just one, I suggest doubling the recipe. Just toss all your ingredients in the food processor and go to town, adding liquid as needed to get a smooth consistency.

Basic Lemon-Garlic Hummus

1 cup chickpeas
1 tablespoon tahini
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon water
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Garden Hummus

1 cup chickpeas
1 tablespoon tahini
1 large green onion (white and green parts)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 pieces sun-dried tomatoes (from a jar, packed in oil)
1 clove garlic
Salt and black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons oil from the sun-dried tomatoes jar
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Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

1 cup chickpeas
1 tablespoon tahini
1/2 red pepper (roasted for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees, cooled, and peel removed)
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic
Salt
1 tablespoon water
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Southwest-Style Hummus

1 cup chickpeas
1 tablespoon tahini
1 teaspoon chipotle paste
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 jalapeño pepper, or to taste
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
Salt
1-2 tablespoons water
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Balsamic-Roasted Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus, stems trimmed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Garlic
Salt
Black pepper
Paprika

Place vinegar and oil in roasting pan. Add asparagus and toss to coat. Sprinkle asparagus with seasonings and spread out into a single layer in the pan. Roast at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, until tender.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Feliz Navidad

Do you think it's weird that my friends sang me "Feliz Navidad" on my birthday? Yeah, I guess it does sound weird. But it was really special to me.

Let me start from the beginning. Bob planned a surprise birthday party for me, and I never suspected a thing. One of my friends had to work in the afternoon and wouldn't be able to make it to my party, but she asked me if we could have breakfast together. I love cooking breakfast, so I was very excited to have her. I made these basic waffles courtesy of Alton Brown, using Ener-G for the eggs, soy milk + vinegar for the buttermilk, and oil for the melted butter. They're delicious, basic waffles that we have made before, and this time there was enough to freeze some leftovers. Also, since it was my birthday I decided to get fancy with the topping. I found this recipe for apple ginger syrup. It was very special. I know it doesn't look terribly special from the picture, but if you ever try the syrup you'll know what I mean.


Then, around lunchtime, Bob told me I had to leave so he could make me a cake. I thought he wanted the cake to be a surprise. So I went shopping, and when I came back everyone was there, and they broke into the aforementioned song (as is tradition on birthdays around here, for some reason), complete with Bob on guitar! And Bob didn't make the cake, but my friend Mary did. Pumpkin spice cake with Tofutti cream cheese frosting. Apparently the cake underwent some jostling in transit, but it was so tasty that no one even cared about the lopsidedness!

I think it was perhaps the best birthday I've ever had. Bob took me out to dinner later yesterday evening, but the cake was so rich that neither of us was extremely hungry so we split a salad and an entrée. There is a restaurant here in Athens called Farm 255, and it is 100% organic and mostly supplied from Athens farms. It's a really cool premise, so we wanted to try it out. "The" vegan entrée was roasted red potatoes, sautéed fancy mushrooms (I don't even know what kind they were), a baby greens and barley salad with a warm vinaigrette, and whole wheat bread with olive oil. After dinner we enjoyed a French press of organic, locally roasted coffee. All in all, it was a nice experience but we found the restaurant to be fairly overpriced and not as veg-friendly as it is touted to be.

Bob gave me a dessert decorating set, so now I will be making beautiful, artful cupcakes (but hopefully not too often). He also got me some vegan gummy bears and some chocolate-covered espresso beans. My goal is to make all these sweets last FOREVER. The best gift he gave me, though, was a 1-hour professional massage. That happened today, and it was pretty heavenly. Two of my friends gave me a gift certificate to The Grit (my old favorite restaurant), and they "wrapped" it in an empty Tofutti cream cheese container. How clever! I received a couple of other gifts too, and I felt very loved, which was the best gift!

Well, today we had to eat as well. I made a quick hummus for lunch--great on a whole wheat tortilla with spinach, sprouts, and cukes.


I was quite pleased with this particular variety of hummus, so I'll share the recipe with you at the end.

For dinner I made some gypsy soup that I have made before, except this time I used sweet potatoes instead of squash. It's a deliciously spicy and healthy pot of soup. Anyone else like to eat soup out of a mug?


Back to life as usual tomorrow. I shall see you all again soon!


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Toasty Sesame Hummus

2 cups chickpeas
2 tablespoons tahini
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 bunch green onions
Salt
Pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor and purée until smooth. Add water as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time, to smooth it out and reach a nice, "fluffy" consistency.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Simply homemade


This is fougasse, a French bread that is a staple in the region of Provence. As is customary, I slashed this loaf to resemble an ear of wheat. It's cute, and it is so fun to hold a warm, homemade loaf of bread that is this artful! It's tasty too. (Recipe included at the end.)

Besides homemade bread, I have another homemade venture to share. Inspired by Dori's post about soy milk, Bob and I decided to purchase a soy milk maker. It wasn't a rash decision; we have been thinking about it for a while, and really it is ridiculous to pay the prices that commercial soy milk is sold for--even locally produced soy milk (which, here, I cannot find any local soy milk that is made with non-GMO soybeans). Here is the machine in action:


We ordered it from this site, and we have used it several times now. The soy milk it makes is very tasty, depending of course upon your inputs. We're still tinkering around to find that perfect recipe for our tastes, but as soon as I have it figured out I will share it with you.

Finally, here's something that's hardly homemade at all. Waaaay back in November, we found one of these in the frozen section of the health food store, and we bought it and saved it until now. It's a Tofurky.


We hadn't planned on buying one, but some vegetarians we met at a veg*n potluck were raving about them so when we saw it we just went for it. We didn't feel compelled to take it to Bob's family's house for Thanksgiving. So we kept it. Tonight, while I was studying, Bob got in the kitchen and roasted it, alongside some carrots and onion wedges and potatoes. He also lightly wilted some Swiss chard to go along with it and, at the last moment, we decided the Tofurky probably needed some gravy. In a pinch we used the mushroom gravy recipe on the Tofurky box. I'll include the recipe, in case you're interested.


We both were surprised at how good the Tofurky actually was. I thought it might be bland, but we really didn't think it was. The stuffing on the inside was perhaps a little bland. Oh well. The gravy was decent--as Bob put it, it served the purpose of gravy. It was very easy and quick to make, and so it served us very well tonight when we failed to plan ahead! The Swiss chard was delicious--it would be hard to mess that one up.


Apple Hemp Muffins from Vive Le Vegan! Dreena never misses a beat, does she? I love the flavor of hemp seeds. Another thing I appreciate about Dreena's recipes is her use of ground oats. Oats are a wonderful alternative to wheat flour, and they lend a soft texture to her baked goods. These are simply delicious!

Speaking of Dreena, guess what I got in the mail this week?


A lot of you probably know that I won her recent cookbook giveaway. A lot of you probably further know that I won her last giveaway as well. Sheesh! How does that happen to one person??? Anyway, just so you know, I definitely plan to BUY Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan when it hits the market--not even going to try and win a third freebie! But, thanks Dreena! I am definitely looking forward to hitting up this book some... probably this weekend, when I have some time to breathe.

Looking forward to catching up with you all!


---------------

Fougasse

1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup very warm water
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt

Mix the yeast, sugar, and 1/2 cup water in a bowl. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 10 minutes, or until foamy.

Sift flours and salt together and make a well in the center. Pour in the cup of water and then the foamy yeast mixture. Mix to a soft dough and gather into a ball. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, until smooth. Place in a large, lightly oiled bowl and leave in warm place for an hour, or until doubled in size.

Punch down dough and knead for one minute. Press into a large oval, 2 centimeters thick and make several cuts on either side. Lay on a large floured baking tray (or I recommend a baking stone, for best results) and leave to rise for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 415 F.

Bake for 35 minutes, or until crisp. After 15 minutes of baking, spray the stone and the loaf with water to make the crust crispy.

I'm going to play with this recipe some more and try to get the proportion of whole wheat flour up--this is already a better ratio than the original recipe prescribed. Fun to make!



----------------

Mushroom Gravy

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup sliced onions
1-1 1/2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons oil
4 cups stock, vegetable bouillon, or soy milk (I used stock)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Lightly sauté the mushrooms and onions in the 1-1 1/2 tablespoons oil. In another pan combine the flour and remaining oil and whish over low heat for one minute. Whisk in the stock, soy sauce, and pepper. Cook until thickened. Stir in the mushrooms and onions.

I actually cut the oil by about half in the recipe, and it worked just fine.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

A few good eats...

Blah. Blah blah blah. There has been sickness and laziness and fatigue at our house since the weekend. Saturday evening, Bob started feeling sick to his stomach. Then Sunday his stomach was okay (relatively), but he was just sick and sore and achy all over. And I didn't feel too hot either on Sunday. Monday we both stayed home from our classes/jobs; neither of us felt like eating much. I had a headache on Monday too, and it persisted through yesterday. I'm feeling tons better today, thank goodness. I think the weather we've been having--55 degrees and sunny one day, 75 and rainy the next--has been causing it, at least partly.

Hence, no cooking or posting. What we have eaten this week has been leftovers, and they're about gone now. And on Sunday I went to a friend's birthday party, which was a tea party. She made a whole platter of vegan tea sandwiches (Tofutti cream cheese, cucumbers, sprouts), and since I was the only vegan there, I ended up taking home all the leftover vegan sandwiches (and all the other leftover vegan goodies--scones, ginger cookies, coconut cookies... wow). Monday, those sandwiches were about the only thing I could stomach to eat, so it was a very wonderful thing that they were sitting in my refrigerator.

Yesterday I finally made Dreena's Banana Bliss Pancakes from Vive!, which I had been intending to make again for quite a while. I've posted about these before, but they are so good that they merit another look:



I asked Bob to make me some soup for dinner last night, but then he reminded me that he had thawed out some pizza dough. So pizza it was. It was definitely tasty, as our homemade pizza always is. I know pineapple on pizza is controversial, but Bob and I love it. I wasn't very hungry, but it was delicious just the same. Broccoli, mushrooms, and pineapple chunks, along with some tofu ricotta and the wonderful pizza sauce from VWaV.

After reading Leslie's recent post about it, I got it in my mind and have not been able to shake it. Easy Caramel Sauce from Vive! So last night after dinner, as Bob was kneading a loaf of bread, I finally got in the kitchen and made some of the caramel sauce. Wow... This stuff is incredibly tasty, and the consistency is just perfect. It was great on apple slices. I used demerara sugar, which gave it a very light color. I'm used to light colored and light flavored caramel sauces, so this tasted like what I expected. Maybe sometime I will try it with a darker sugar like Leslie did to see the difference.

And today for lunch, I made a quick hummus. I've been meaning to do that for a while now too. I used:

1 can chickpeas
3 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
Fresh dill, fresh parsley
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper



That's more tahini than I have used in the past, and I think from now on I will keep to my 2 tablespoon standard. The tahini tastes just a little too strong in this hummus. I threw in the dill and parsley mostly because I had it and wanted to use it up, and I added the extra lemon juice (I usually only use half that much) to contrast with the strong dill flavor. Very tasty. I had it on an open-faced sandwich with cucumbers and mushrooms for lunch. Now the dishes are piled up by the sink, and I hate washing the food processor. Ugh. Oh well, it was worth it.

Time for me to run to class. I'm going to catch up with you all very soon, now that I'm feeling up to it. Take care and enjoy the day!

Friday, November 17, 2006

Cookin' up excitement

I had a wicked exam last night, but now I feel like my semester may as well be over. Hooray! Thanks for all your kind words and thoughts. I guess I probably did alright...

Though I had to stay away from Blogger this week, that didn't stop me from cooking. So I do have some things to share with you. And I can't WAIT to get caught up on reading all your blogs this weekend--I've been peeking at them here and there, and I can see that everyone has been up to some great things.

Here is thing #1 that I made: Fudgy Brownies from Vive! (p. 128). Let me tell you, these things are very fudgy and rich! They didn't last long around here, I'm afraid. I've never had a better brownie in all my life. Honestly. I have a weakness for chocolate, and I swear... This was chocolate heaven.



Speaking of chocolate, have you ever tried this? We've tried several different flavors now, and so far I liked the cookie avalanche one the best. But when I tasted this... wow. I'm amazed. I didn't know something could taste so much like chocolate. This stuff is the best.


On Sunday we went to a friend's house to cook dinner together. She's a vegetarian (well, she still eats fish every now and then, but otherwise...) and very intrigued by vegan cooking and baking. It's nice when your friends are willing and even eager to take a leap like that for you. Anyway, we made a simple stir-fry with green beans and mushrooms and tofu, and it was served on top of soba noodles. It was 100% organic. She made a teriyaki sauce to go with it; I'll provide you the recipe (which she found on allrecipes.com), though we all agreed that it was too salty and just not exactly right. Next time we will try a different recipe.

Teriyaki Sauce

2/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sherry
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine all ingredients and heat until thickened.

I made another variation of my banana ice cream earlier this week (this was before we bought the chocolate obsession), and I liked it particularly so I thought I would share.


It's just one frozen banana, a small spoonful of cocoa powder (maybe 2 teaspoons), about four drops of agave nectar, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I processed it all with just enough vanilla soy milk so that it would come together. Yummm...

Finally, we made our usual version of Leslie's sloppy lentils for dinner on Tuesday night. This recipe has become a staple of ours, so I tried to write down our approximate recipe so that we don't have to re-invent it every time. Though I have to give Leslie credit for inspiring me with this and getting me hooked.

Sloppy Lentils (Leslie-style)

1 1/2 cups red lentils, rinsed
1 bunch kale, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed & minced
1 14-ounce can tomato sauce
Crushed basil
Crushed red pepper
Tamari, Worcestershire sauce (with no fishies, of course), & liquid smoke, as needed

And then, you know, just throw it all into the same pot and let it cook until the lentils are soft and the kale is tender and until it has enough flavor to make you happy.


We've been lax on making bread lately, but I found a loaf of rosemary focaccia bread in the freezer that I had made recently, so we had that with the lentils. Though it's better with a nice, crusty whole wheat bread. Sadly, after three servings apiece, the lentils were gone. Next time we'll really have to make a double batch; they never last as long as I think they will.

Apart from that, we've been unthawing chili and stuff like that from the freezer to eat this week. And I've been eating a lot of edamame. I really love that stuff.

Today, there's going to be a lot of cooking going on at my little apartment. But I can't tell you about it--not yet. It's a secret. I will show you tomorrow, after it's all over and been a great success, what it is that I'm cooking up around here today. All I can say is, I'm super excited.

And that's that. I hope you all have a great Friday and a marvelous weekend. I'll bee seeing you on your blogs soon, I promise! Peace!

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Hummus tweaking and south-of-the-border

Here's what I've been up to these days:

Saturday: I wanted hummus for dinner, but instead of making it the exact same way as I did last time, I decided to play around with the recipe a little bit. Here's what I came up with:


Spicy Hummus

1 can chickpeas
3-4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons chipotle paste
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Process until smooth and creamy.

Bob noticed the "kick" in the hummus that came from the chipotle paste; I wish it had been a little more pronounced and I may add more next time (if I can get away with it). Even so, I love the texture of this hummus--it's smooth and creamy. And maybe the best part is, since I left out the olive oil, this hummus tastes better and has a better texture after being refrigerated than hummus with olive oil in it (which seems to harden when refrigerated).

Sunday: The fellowship lunch was great! All the salsa I made was gone, except for one spoonful (which I took care of once we left). After that, we went out to the farm to see Bob's family, and we had a nice visit. We took some of Dori's bread to share, and it was a hit all around. And for dinner, Bob took me to The Grit! He had the falafel platter, which came with falafel fritters, pita points, lemon-tahini dressing, and assorted veggies. I ordered a teriyaki tofu and veggie wrap, with a cup of their roasted red pepper and mushroom soup. Everything was fantastic, as we expected. I particularly LOVED the soup--it was creamy, and the roasted red pepper flavor was not too strong (as it can be sometimes). When I came home I pulled out my cookbook--and behold, I have the recipe for the soup! Hooray! So when I make it, you will get to see pictures.

Yesterday: I came home for lunch and Bob had a friend over, and they were making guacamole. Awesome! Bloggers have been creating tacos and burritos lately, which have been making my mouth water. Well, here is our version of "burrito day":

Black beans, lettuce, mushrooms, guacamole, and salsa all piled inside a whole wheat tortilla. It was a perfect lunch! The guacamole has avocado, tomatoes, garlic, red onion, lime juice, salt, pepper, a bit of hot salsa, and a bit of silken tofu to make it creamier.

In keeping with the theme set by lunch, we made a nice black bean chili for dinner. Often I follow The Grit's recipe, which calls for bulgur. This time, I wanted to leave out the bulgur and instead add in some TVP. So we played around for a couple of hours and ended up with this recipe:

Black Bean Chili

2 pounds dried black beans, rinsed and soaked
2 smallish onions, chopped
2 smallish green bell peppers, chopped
3 jalapenos, minced
1/2 bunch of celery, diced
4 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon chili powder
2 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon oregano
4-5 shakes cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Simmer all this together with the lid on for about an hour. Then add:

1 can crushed tomatoes (or whole tomatoes, crushing them yourself--add the juice too)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 tablespoon chipotle paste
2 cups frozen corn

Let simmer for another 30-45 minutes. Making sure there is still a good amount of liquid in the pot, stir in 2 cups TVP granules. It will get very thick; if needed, add more water. Let it cook for another 15-20 minutes, keeping an eye on the liquid level. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for about an hour before serving.

It took a lot of playing around to get the spices just right, especially the heat. After 3 jalapeños and still no detectable heat, I finally just started throwing cayenne pepper in. After it all sat for an hour or so, though, the heat really began to come out. So this chili actually ended up being pretty spicy--but both of us were satisfied. And the result looks like this:


Lastly, I will just leave you all with a look at why I love fall... Yesterday morning was just amazing.

So happy fall!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Sweet things and salsa

I've been cooking up carby, sweet stuff in the past few days, mostly because we've been clearing leftovers out of the fridge again for our "real" meals. So Thursday night I decided to make this gingerbread from the Post Punk Kitchen. However, I wanted to make a single pan of gingerbread rather than cupcakes, so I just baked it in an 8-inch square pan for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and it worked fine. Besides that, I made the following modifications to the recipe: I used brown rice syrup instead of maple syrup, and I reduced the amount from 1/2 to 1/3 of a cup. I used blackstrap molasses instead of light molasses. I went light on the oil, probably using closer to 1/3 of a cup. I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of white flour. And finally, instead of making the icing in the recipe, I used some leftover icing from the Lemon Gem Cupcakes in VWaV.

This is the best gingerbread I've ever made. The chunks of crystallized ginger really added a lot of flavor, and they added a nice amount of sweetness. Overall, the gingerbread is not very sweet but the icing is, so the contrast is nice. Next time, I may just make a lemon glaze to pour on top--which I've done before with other recipes, and it's great because the glaze just seeps down into the gingerbread and makes the whole thing moist and lemony.

This reminds me--I have an awesome gingerbread cookie recipe that I want to try to make vegan soon. I was wondering, for those of you who veganize cookie recipes, what is the best replacement for butter in a cut-out cookie recipe? I would hesitate to just use Earth Balance in place of the butter, because it probably doesn't act the same way in a recipe. Any input is appreciated!

This morning I made Dreena's Fantastic French Toast from Vive! (p. 23), and the name says it all--this really was the best vegan French toast I've ever had! The custard that you dip the bread in really did get thick and it stuck to the bread like the traditional egg mixture does. I have to say, I was a little skeptical at first because the tofu did not get smooth when I blended the custard mixture, and I was afraid that the chunkiness of it would not work. But when I cooked it in the pan, it cooked just right and looked just right. And tasted just right. I made her Blueberry Maple Syrup (p. 20) to accompany the French toast, and the only thing I did differently was to add a little bit of cornstarch to the blueberries to thicken them up before I added the syrup (since I was using frozen berries, they were very watery once I cooked them down in the pan). Mmmm!



After church tomorrow we are going to have a fellowship lunch. I've been afraid of fellowship lunches ever since we became vegan, because with the type of food that usually shows up (keep in mind, I'm in the Bible belt here) I can't imagine there would be any point in even asking if anything is vegan. But we had a week's warning this time, and so tomorrow we are going prepared. It's going to be a "baked potato bar" (how funny!) and we were all asked to bring toppings for baked potatoes. What is my favorite vegan baked potato topping?

Salsa! So today I mixed up some quick black bean salsa. I think it came out pretty well, if I may say so.


Black Bean Salsa

1 can chopped green chilies, drained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup cooked corn kernels
4 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup green bell pepper, finely minced
1/4 cup red onion, finely minced
2 teaspoons granulated garlic (alternatively, 1-2 cloves minced fresh garlic)
2 teaspoons chipotle paste
Juice of 1 lime

Place everything in a bowl and stir to combine. Chill for several hours before serving to allow the flavors to meld together.

It's a good medium salsa--didn't want to go too hot if I was going to be sharing it with a bunch of people. It's very juicy and delicious, and I can't wait to take it tomorrow! What do you all like to put on baked potatoes?

Don't worry, I have been eating balanced meals lately, despite the evidence to the contrary that you've seen on my blog. Yesterday I went to the dining hall on campus where hubby works and had lunch with him--all kinds of nice vegetables, some beans and brown rice and guacamole, all made it to my plate, and a little spoonful of VEGAN sweet potato soufflé as a sweet ending!

Monday, August 28, 2006

Tempeh and hummus

I finally got the nerve to try the tempeh, so I made Tempeh Bacon from VWaV last night. Here is an open-faced TLT to prove it. We looooved the marinade. The tempeh really does beat tofu, at least in the way of a bacon substitute. But I had a really hard time working with the tempeh--it was really crumbly when I tried to slice it. Does anyone else have that problem?

I'll try tempeh again soon, but I think in my quest for frugality tofu will prove to be a more suitable item. We did really enjoy this sammich, though!

Tonight I made hummus for the first time in a while. I get bored with hummus sometimes, because it never seems to vary that much. Anyway, tonight I made just a basic hummus:

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
5 cloves garlic
3 scallions
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. tahini
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp. olive oil

Just process everything together in the food processor until creamy.

Hummus is a quick, easy meal, and delightfully refreshing with tons of fresh veggies! Bob and I like to top our hummus with toasted pine nuts, too. This was probably the best hummus I've ever made. And there's plenty left over!


That's all, folks!