Veggie Goes Vegan

VegCookbookClub May Cookbook: Veganomicon

This month the Veg Vookbook Club I try to be a part of is cooking out of Veganomicon, by Isa Chadra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero [affiliate link]. I've had this book for a long time, and conisder it the one, true, must-have vegan cookbook for all.

The picture at left is the Sauteed Kale, Seitan and Brussels Sprouts. 

The book is full of great recipes that are simple enough to feel achievable, but combine ingredients creatively enough to feel like it was worth it to actually buy the book.

Two of my other favorite recipes are the Mac Daddy vegan mac & cheese (must-try, no really) and the Corn-Edamame Salad (to which I add avocado to make it even more awesome).

The Kale, Seitan and Brusselse Sprouts feels insanely healthy and tastes savory. I think it would be very easy to replace the kale with collards, or even spinach, if you're not a kale fan. Either way you're getting a lot of iron and protein in this dish...makes you feel like going to lift weights or something!

Do you have Veganomicon? Do you agree with me it's the Desert Island Vegan Cookbook? If not, what do you think is the DIVC? 

Ellen DeGeneres says her vegan diet wasn’t always easy, but glad she made the change - The Washington Post

“I’ve always called myself an animal lover. And yet I ate them,” she said. “Until four years ago I would be driving past these cows on pastures, and think ‘What a lovely life that is,’ and I’d go and order a steak. It takes a click, just one light bulb, and you’re like ‘I can’t do that anymore.’”

via www.washingtonpost.com

As always, Ellen is a radical who is somehow adorable and loved. It's subversive, I tell you!

Starbucks ends use of cochineal extract in response to furor

 As I first shared on March 29, we’ve learned that we fell short of your expectations by using natural cochineal extract as a colorant in four food and two beverage offerings in the United States. Our commitment to you, our customers, is to serve the highest quality products available. As our customers you expect and deserve better – and we promise to do better.

via blogs.starbucks.com

Online activation and agitation works.

End of story.

A vegan barista forwarded a picture of the changed ingredient formulation of Starbucks's strawberry frappucino mixture to a vegan bloggers. Firestorm ensued. Starbucks reviewed and is changing their change.

if you ever wonder if it's worth it to raise your voice, wonder no more.

SOPA
Komen-Planned Parenthood
JC Penney-Million Moms

Just these last few months real online outrage has spurred real offline change.

This is, IMO, inarguably awesome.

Plant Based Diet Experiment

Started things off right today.  Juiced:

via plantbaseddietexperiment.blogspot.com

This blog is exactly what Veggie Goes Vegan was when I started it in 2006: One person's chronicling of their effort to go vegan, including sharing exactly what they're eating, what works, and what they could do better.

Bites - Viva los veggies? Vegas restaurants gamble on vegetarian menus

Over the last decade the Las Vegas dining scene has won tourists over, becoming one of the best dining destinations in the country. Now, more restaurants are gambling with meat-free menus and hoping to hit the jackpot.

via bites.today.msnbc.msn.com

You may all know I'm a big fan of the Wynn Las Vegas and its rich, robust, ubiquitous vegan menus. Sounds like they might be influencing the rest of Vegas for the better!

Tuna-Less Tuna Salad from VegCookBookClub April Cookbook: Blissful Bites by Christy Morgan

This month the cookbook we're cooking from for the Veg Cookbook Club is Christy Morgan's Blissful Bites.

I downloaded it, so I'd have it right at the start of the month, and first I have to sau that I really still think cookbooks are better in print. It's just a little hard to flip through in normal eBook format. I hope more e-versions of cookbooks emulate more of the iPad design element of swiping through images/recipes.

That out of the way, this recipe is based on mashed chickpeas, flavored with a variety of things...mustard, tamari, vegenaise, pickle relish, and even a little kelp seasoning...and then crunched up with chopped up celery and carrots.

I already had a bunch of avocado earlier in the day, so I ate it simply, on dry sourdough toast.  but I think I'll be bringing sandwich fixings to work tomorrow and will bulk it up with avocado (and maybe add a little more vegenaise on the bread).

All in all: A great, quick, tasty sandwichi spread. One I think I will make again and again. Here's the shot, still in the bowl:

 

Veg Cookbook Club Recipe #1: Saag Tofu from The Inspired Vegan

I made my first recipe from this month's cookbook for the Veg Cookbook Club. The book is Bryant Terry's The Inspired Vegan, and I admit I found it intimidating.

He cooks with dried brans, grains and rice. A lot. I buy those frozen 3-miunte organic brown rice bags and canned beans.

He features recipes with 10 spices apiece. I cook with salt, peper, garlic, and maybe some cinnamon or cumin if I'm feeling daring.

He pulls out 3 pots or pans for every recipe; I have a tiny little kitchen with a tiny little stovetop. And I hate cleaning.

In other words, I earmarked a bunch of recipes, but never felt like I had time or energy to make them...reading not eating out of my cookbook.

Until I realized that there was no reason I couldn't approach his recipes the same way I do any other: As a guideline. In fact, Bryant encourages that in his book!

I did have a block of tofu and some fresh spinach in the house, so my first recipe was the Saag Tofu.

No, I did not have any mustard seed (or even turmeric) in the house. But once the marinade for the roasted tofu got liquidy, I added actual mustard.

And here's my big confession: I didn't pre-blanch the spinach!! I just tossed it in the skillet raw with the chiles, onion and garlic after they had cooked a bit and cooked it that way.

Does this casual, OK, lazy, approach always work? Well, I do think next time I will cook with unsweetened rice milk, not soy milk (the soy has a more distinct flavor, which wasn't bad, but probably wasn't as authentic as it could have been). And I do intend to go buy some turmeric...one should have some, don't you think?

But my S.O., who always claims not to like cooked spinach, only raw, really really liked this dish. As did I.

Also: The roasted tofu tossed in marinade then roasted on parchment paper for 30 minutes in the over. IT IS TO DIE FOR. Crispy outside, soft inside, and oh so flavorful.

I may just cook a block of tofu every other night with that approach. Truly, WOW.

Here's the picture:

All-Vegan Cupcake Wars Tomorrow at 5PM PT

There aren't a lot of cooking shows I watch on TV, mainly because there aren't any veg-focused ones.

But while watching this weekend's episode of my friend and colleague Ree Drummond's Pioneer Woman show, I saw a commercial for a show just for me.

And maybe for you, too, so I thought I'd share.

A show called Cupcake Wars is having an all-vegan cupcake episode tomorro at 5PM PT on The Food Network.

Now I'm so out of it, I don't really know anything about this show, but vegan cupcakes? Sign me up.

The only thing is, it will be a total sham if they don't have Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero there, given they literally wrote the book on vegan cupcakes!

That's my public service anouncement for the day: Enjoy.

Quick Link: The L.A. Times on the Vegan Choices at the Wynn Resort in Vegas

Since I've now stayed at the Wynn twice and experienced first hand the wonders of their always available vegan menus, I thought I'd share this article on same in the L.A. Times.

I need to go back, since there are still more restaurants to try.

Have you tried the Wynn's vegan cornucopia yet?

 

The Vegan Table: Magical Miso Soup with Shitake Mushrooms

As part of the Veg Cookbook Club we are cooking recipes from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Vegan Table this month. [affiliate links, FYI]

Two nights ago I made the Magical Miso Soup with Shitake Mushrooms from page 116.

As I mentioned before: I'm a careless cook. So this time the problem was that Whole Foods didn't acutally have any shitake mushroom in stock! I KNOW!! So I bought Portabello mushrooms and made it with those instead. Verdict: It totally works.

Thoughts on this recipe:

-It is hard to imagine a simpler recipe. There are two ingredients besides water: Miso paste and Mushrooms. 

-Per a suggestion in the book, I did also add cubed tofu to give the soup some protein and heartiness, because I was basically having the soup as a meal.

Should you make this dish? If you're a mushroom fanatic like me it's a NO-brainer. My S.O. also really liked it and had two bowls, one after the other.

Next time I will actually try it with shitake mushrooms to see if there's any difference.