Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpeas and Olives

When I was visiting home a couple of weeks ago, my Ma and I found this recipe from her latest issue of Cooking Light. It instantly appealing to me, as it contained two of my most favorite things to roast EVER, cauliflower and chickpeas- but I was hesitant that the olives would fit in to the mix. Anyways, olives won me over yet again and the dish was super good (except for a little overly cooked garlic) and I decided to make it again tonight.

When I made it with my Mom we decided the olives and garlic should be added after the chickpeas and cauliflower had a chance to get a head start roasting, which I did tonight. The results were perfect! Cooking Light suggests serving this as a side dish or with other small plates, but I think it's a perfectly fine and filling meal on its own- an added plus is it doesn't result in a lot of dirty dishes :)


Please excuse the blury photo- I don't know what is up with my bad photography lately!

Vegan MoFo: Pasta with Chickpeas and Roasted Broccoli

As per my mother's request, here is a peek at what I had for dinner tonight. I was really not in the mood to cook, and this was pretty easy to throw together.

I sauteed an onion, garlic and basil in some olive oil, the added a can of chickpeas. I boiled some pasta, roasted some broccoli in the oven, and threw the whole thing together and topped it with some fresh lemon juice. The only thing that would have made it better is whole wheat pasta, but this was a pretty easy meal with some quick protein I plan on making again.

Vegan MoFo Day 3: Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits; Apple Wrapper Pie

Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits
Cookbook: Veganomicon
Author(s): Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

Result: I had made this recipe about a year and a half ago when I was at home with help from my mom. I remembered it being delicious and very comforting. It was pretty good again this time, although it lacked a little bit in flavor, so I added some more salt. It was still a little bland, but over all a filling fall meal with a good dose of protein (I added the suggested seitan).



Apple Wrapper Pie
Cookbook: Betty Crocker's Cookbook
Author: Um.... Betty Crocker?

Result: I love having people over for dinner because it always gives me an excuse to make a pie. I turn to my handy-dandy Betty Crocker cookbook whenever I need a really basic recipe, and it always comes through for pies. I wasn't in the mood to make a double crust pie today, but had a request for pie made from some apples scored at the Farmer's Market this morning.

The "Wrapper" pie is an easy and perfect solution when you want pie but don't want to put in a whole lot of effort, and don't want the fat that comes with two pie crusts. I sub Earth Balance soy butter for the shortening the recipe calls for, but the result is still a flaky and delicious crust, and I highly doubt most people can tell the difference... We enjoyed this puppy with some vanilla coconut ice cream.

DIY Veggie Stock

I am sure a lot of people have much more exciting things to do on a day off then sit in their apartment making homemade vegetable stock, but I am not one of them.

Whether you are a vegan or not, chances are you use vegetable stock in your cooking from time to time. Sure, it's convenient to grab some prefab stock at the store, but read the label on one of those sometime- ick!

If you really want to make your food taste extra yum, you have to make your own stock. Luckily, it's pretty easy. There are lots of great resources out there on how to make your own, I particularly enjoy this post at vegan yum yum.

In my neighborhood, I can grab a huge thing of "soup greens" for about a buck fifty at the corner deli. Sadly they are not organic, but I can get a bunch of carrots, celery, onions, leeks, turnips and parsley for cheap. Does this type of thing exist outside of Brooklyn? I find it magical.


Anyhoo, basically I just chop up the aforementioned soup greens and throw them in a some heated olive oil in a large soup pot as I go. I then add eight or so whole peeled cloves of garlic, any fresh herbs I have on hand (this week it was rosemary), a few tablespoons of tomato paste and a few tablespoons of tamari. And salt and pepper, of course.


Finally I add about ten or so cups of water, bring the whole thing to a boil and then down to simmer for an hour or two. When the veggies look very brown, pale and sad I strain the broth a few times, let it cool, then freeze it or put it in the fridge for a couple of days.



It sounds complicated, but it's pretty easy peasy, and strangely therapeutic to make your own stock. And it really does make a world of difference in soups, sauces, etc.

Rosemary Chickpea Tomato Soup

This soup appealed to me today on many levels. I forget what the inspiration was exactly to look for a recipe for chickpea tomato soup, but I found one that was simple enough and decided to give it a go. I intended to cook the chickpeas from scratch (I have a bunch in the pantry) but then realized the whole process would take about 24 hours. Wanting instant gratification, I opted for organic canned chickpeas instead.


I kind of halved the recipe, and probably could have used a little less rosemary, but on the whole it was a very filling and satisfying soup. I encourage you all (vegan or not!) to try it on a dreary rainy day. Get the recipe here.

Calling a truce with Setian- Sort of.

Last night I finally made a dinner that was super tasty- it's been a few weeks, I have either had no time to cook, or cooked things that were just kinda blah. Why I have not tried the Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon until yesterday, I will never know. Mashed chickpeas are combined with vital wheat gluten (my former enemy) veggie broth, bread crumbs, and a few other things and then baked until crispy perfection. They needed just a little umph, so I made a quick white wine/shallot/picada like sauce for the cutlets- PERFECT. YUM!!!!! I made herb scalloped potatoes (also from Veganomicon) and Phil's new favorite thing, kale chips, as well. I only wish I had the energy to make the same meal tonight- I'm hungry!

Soul-ish Food

It's SUCH a good time to go to the farmer's market! I am trying to live it up, I know soon there will only be apples and potatoes for months... I built tonight's dinner around some collard greens I scored at the market this morning, and they were yummmmmmy.

I made some black eyed peas from scratch and added some onion, green pepper, and soy chorizo.

The cornbread recipe is here (I subbed agave nectar for the sugar).

The citrus collards with raisin redux recipe is here. I checked cookbook this is from, Vegan Soul Kitchen, out from the library a few months ago, I think I need to purchase it.

Tempeh Kabobs

Since this summer I'm staying in a house that does has a BBQ, and I do have access to it (yay!) I thought I would do a variation on the idea of grilled tempeh. Tempeh is one of those secrets of being a vegetarian that for some reason is kept from non-vegeterians. This is frustrating for those who have embraced alternative protein sources, and I have found myself on more then one occasion defending it, and trying to convince meat-eaters that they would really like it. It's less of an acquired taste then tofu, and while I'm personally only in the mood for it ever so often, it's so very good grilled, as Lindsey previously demonstrated.

These kabobs are simple, straightforward, and full of summer. I used zucchini, red and yellow peppers, and one block of tempeh to make about three kabobs. Don't forget to soak the skewers first! (Mine still burned on the grill...not soaked for long enough? Any thoughts?) I brushed on a made-up sauce:

-lemon juice of half a lemon

-1/2 tpbs of Seseme Tahini

-1/2 tpbs Dijon mustard

-splash of tamari

Wisk together. Mostly I made this because when using a BBQ, it feels unnatural not to brush something on whatever you are grilling first. I'm thinking that pretty much anything you wanted to brush on would work...

Chief (my dad) gave me a lesson in being a grill-master, and also let me use his Weber. Thanks C!

Farmer's Market Skillet

When in doubt, throw it all in one pan and hope for the best...

So, I have caught on to this whole CSA thing a little late, and was not able to join the one down the street from me for this year. I've been kinda bummed about it, so I have been trying to be diligent about going to our neighborhood Farmer's market every week and stocking up.

This week I scored some apples, maple syrup, rainbow chard, a parsley plant, fingerling potatoes, and garlic scapes. The scapes were free because I told the nice man at the potato stand I was curious about them and he gave me a few to try.

I had planned to cook all these veggies this weekend, but things got kind of crazy and we ended up going out for every meal. The chard was looking a little sad today, so after trying to think of different ways to use each veggie, I decided to cook them all together.

I chopped the scapes and sauted them with some olive oil, then tossed the fingerlings in and cooked them for about 20 mins until they were crispy and tender. I then turned off the heat, threw in the chard and put the lid on the pan so it would wilt. With some salt and pepper, it wasn't half bad!

I've been thinking a lot about how much food we waste, even when we are trying not to. I am going to try to start throwing any veggies that are about to go bad and odds and ends from cooking into the freezer to use at some point for broth, hopefully it will yield yummy results...