Veggie Goes Vegan

The New Millennium in Oakland

I have a #veganconfession to make: Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco was never my favorite vegan restaurant. I loved that it was elegant and upscale...there are exactly zero such restaurants South of San Francisco...but I always had one significant quibble. I felt like every dish tried just a little too hard. Too many primary ingredients jockeying for dominance.

But I never pass up a chance to go to any vegan restaurant, including Millennium, when it presents itself (you can't imagine the luxurious feeling I get when I can pick from ANYTHING on the menu!) so I leapt at the suggestion to celebrate a girlfriend's birthday at the new Millennium in the Rockridge section of Oakland last night.

We decided to splurge on the five course tasting menu...and let's just say we were starting to hit the wall before the main entree arrived. Here's what we were treated to.

Course #1: A Cauliflower Bisque
May have been my favorite course! Creamy, smoky, delicious.



Course #2: Pakora Vegetables on lentil dal



Bonus Course: Fried King Trumpet Mushrooms with a Sweet & Spicy Pepper Jam

Hard to go wrong with deep fried anything (and pepper jam) but these were super tough.



Course #3: Seared Chickpea Cake (also with pakora vegetables)
Pretty close in flavor and ingredients to the second course, so I wish they had perhaps offers something else in this slot.



Course #4: Glazed Smoked Tempeh
I'm not usually a tempeh fan, and I don't cook with it. I don't know why more restaurants don't do more dishes with Seitan, my favorite alternative protein source. All that being said, this was the most palatable tempeh I ever had!




Course #5: And finally, dessert! A sampler platter consisting of a white chocolate/hazelnut truffle, a poached pear/marzipan phyllo purse, a pumpkin cheesecake with date crust, and a dark chocolate ganache with vanilla ice cream.
I didn't try the truffle (don't like white chocolate or hazelnut). The pumpkin cheesecake was good, the ganache delicious, and the marzipan phyllo purse was MY FAVORITE I LOVE MARZIPAN!!!!!




And there it is: Our Five (really six) Course Tasting Menu.

A good time and full belly was had by all.

Week One Cooking from Mayim's Vegan Table #vegcookbookclub

I'm trying to get back in the swing of things with the #VegCookbookClub, and this month's selection was the perfect one for me, since I already owned Mayim Bialik's Mayim's Vegan Table, and was looking forward to trying it. I also knew I wasn't traveling the entire first half of the month, so I'd be in the position to be *able* to cook at home. Which isn't always the case.

So, I'm pleased to say I got off to a roraring good start and made four, count 'em four recipes from Mayim's Vegan Table last week. I did my usual poor planning and #lazycook approach that frivolously substitutes and omits ingredients, but all in all, all four recipes came out pretty well.

The first picture above is of the Tofu and Vegetables Curry.  The recipe makes a LOT of food, in fact I had to move to a bigger pot mid-prep, because I understimated how much it would make.

My #lazychef approach:
I substituted coconut oil for canola oil.
I omitted the cinnamon stick and lime juice, as I didn't have any.
I omitted the cilantro, since I have an allergic reaction when I eat it (and I'm beginning to think coriander (cilantro's seed) does the same!
And I really didn't measure the sweet potato.

When I filled the (now bigger) pot with all the vegetables, it really didn't seem like enough liquid to adequately simmer it all (perhaps I had too much sweet potato?) so I added an extra cup or two of water.

Anyway, it was super-easy, didn't take tooooo long, and very subtly spicy. It suggestt serving it over rice or noodles, but I pretty much ate it like soup or stew, on its own. I'd make it again.

I also made the Creamy Enchilada Casserole, pictured at left. This also made a large number of servings. Her book is geared towards families, but the portion sizing also makes it perfect for someone like me, who can cook  a dish for dinner one night, then bring servings of that same dish to work for lunch for another day or two.

My #lazychef approach:
I of course used way more than one garlic clove, I mean WHO can you just one garlic clover?
I chose to use the black beans (not a #lazychef thing, but just thought I'd share what I used)
Again omitted cilantro, because yuk
Also omitted the oregano, because I don't like oregano that much to begin with and *definitely* don't think it belongs in a Mexican-inspired dish.
I used corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas for the layers. Just cause.
For the cheese sauce I chose soy milk out of the mil choices offered.
And here's the biggest #lazyweb substitution of all. The recipe called for a package of Daiya shredded cheddar, and I had a package I had opened and used a bit of in the fridge, so I hadn't bothered to buy more. But I realized that was probably WEEKS ago, because that Daiya had died-a. Luckily I had some other vegan cheese in my fridge...a new brand called Door 86 (that started as a Kickstarter project, from what I can tell). The flavor I ahd that seemed most apropos for the dish was not the Sriricha Cheddar that I had gobbled up earlier, and not the Candied Lemon Cashew Cheese that I still had some of, but the only other flavor I ahd left, the Gruyere. So I used that.

I think the cheese choice (and the fact that Door 86 is probably not as focused on melting applications as Daiya) was problematic. But when heating up the sauce I just added a bit of nutritional yeast, and in the end the sauce was fine, the overall flavor of the casserole was fine, and I even served it to a non-vegan friend, who liked it. I *might* make this again, but would probably use a slightly smaller casserole dish (so it would turn out thicker) and use the called-for cheese option.

The other two recipes I made, I ate them up without remembering to take photos. This is how you know I'm not the best food blogger. Or even, really, a food blogger :)

First I made the Corn and Black Bean Salad. It's pretty much corn, black beans, and hearts of palm...hard to go wrong with those ingredients. The dressing, however, is vegenaise-based, and frankly I would have probably preferred some kind of salsa dressing or sesame dressing. I like vegenaise in appropriate mayonnaise-y situations, like in my mock tuna salad, but I've never been a mayonnaise-y salad dressing gal, so this didn't totally float my boat. 

The other dish I made that I didn't snap was the Udon with Edamame and Peanut Sauce. Again, kind of hard to go wrong! I used rice noodles i had on hand, rather than actual udon noodles, but this was a very simple and flavorful dish. Blending up the peanut sauce in my VitaMix was a piece of cake. I can see how the sauce might have been a little less powerful with heariter udon noodles, but I don't mind a powerful peanut sauce :) 

As always, you can count on the fact that I leave cilantro out. And you know another #lazychef thing I regularly do? I don't grate things. I hate grating things. So I just chop up the carrots pretty fine, btu don't grate them. Same for ginger. Same for, well, anything.

I'm happy I got off to such a good start on this month's #vegcookbookclub sselection. Now I'm off to plan what I'll make in week two. Because on April 16th I leave for some travel, and I don't think I'll be cooking much the second half of the month!

Vegan MoFo Day 14: The best laid plans...

...of this blogging vegan, were completely waylaid by a little thing called work. Sigh. Bad Vegan Mofo Hanger-On, BAD!

Of course that little thing like work had me leaving the house by 7AM most days this week, and getting home late and just generally not being on a schedule or doing the healthy vegan thing I want to do.

I did eat at Hobee's twice this week...meaning I had their tofu scramble with hash browns and a soy latte. Yes, I order the same thing every time. No, I don't see anything wrong with that!

And I also threw together a few things from what I had lying arond in my fridge. Including this meal of: Seitan, Portabella, Poblano Chile, Pine Nuts, Garlic and Nutritional Yeast. 

But the cutest picture I took all week had nothing to do with food or veganism. (Although I like to think a vegan was cool enough to be behind it.) If I had a cute little car I would definitely be on the look-out for hte accessory on this VW Bug:

 

Today is Day Fourteen:

 

Vegan MoFo Day 8: Impromptu Dinner

Last night I wanted to cook, and I had the following goals:

 

1. Use up a bunch of produce that was starting to reach the edges of its freshness 2. Quick, easy
3. Get some protein in, since I really hadn't had any all day

The choice was clear: Yes, to roasted vegetables, but I needed to give them a protein boost with something.  This is what I came up with:

One baking tray full of roasted vegetables: Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Leek, and Poblano Chiles. I tossed them for the first 15 minutes of roasting in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. At the 15-minute mark I took them out and sprinled both nutritional yeast and almond meal on them, tossing them so everything got coated. I then roasted for another 15 minutes. (Oven at 450).

At the same time, in the very same oven, I had a baking tray of Roasted Tofu, using the recipe from former #VegCookbookClub book Bryant Terry's The Inspired Vegan to coat the tofu (it's olive oil, cumin, turmeric, mustard seed, fennel and salt). These also came out at the halfway mark to be turned.

Together these two trays of vegan goodness were a hearty, nutritional, quick, easy dinner. Looks pretty nommy, eh? I assure oyu it was :)

Today is Day Eight:

 

Vegan MoFo Day 7: My (wannabe) morning ritual

At around the same time last year I read Kathy Freston's The Lean, and I bought a Vitamix.

Both created habit changes, even if I'm not perfect at doing all 30 Lean tips every single day. 

One of the most significant habit changes that I'm pretty faithful to is makeing smoothies. I would like to make one just about every morning as my breakfast, but I confess I'm not quite there on smoothie dedication.

I don't know why, given it truly takes about 3 minutes to make one with my beautiful, powerful Vitamix. And the Vitamix is super-easy to clean, which I do immediately each time I use it.

Like every good habit, practice will make perfect, so I'm going to try to practice what I preach and make more smoothies!

This morning I made a very typical morning smoothie:

Coconut Water (I use Zico, and I get a case auto-delivered every few weeks from Amazon)
1 Banana
1 cup baby spinach leaves
2 TB ground flaxseed
1 scoop of Vega Vanilla Almondilla protein powder (This is really the only vegan pritein powder I have found at all appetizing)
1 cup frozen strawberries 

Et voila:

And serious, if you don't have a Vitamix, you should consider getting one. It's magic. Grinds up frozen stuff like a champ. One things I haven't tried yet is to make soup in it. Apparently if you run the blender at high speed long enough it heats up the contents, so you can make pureed soups right there in the Vitamix. Crazy!!

And no, not being paid to say how much I love my Vitamix, which I bought with my very own money, although this is an affliliate link.

Another recommendation, wait for those 20% off postcards from Bed, Bath & Beyond and use that to buy your Vitamix. That's what I did.

Today is Day Seven:

vegan MoFo Day 4: And just like that...

I miss a day. Sigh. It's a lot easier to blog daily on the weekend than on the weekdays, that's for sure.

So, in honor of Vegan MoFo Day #3 I ate a Sofritas Burrito at Chipotle. If I'm being totally honest, I could be equally happy with a Beans/Rice/Guac/Salsa buritto. The Sofritas aren't necessary. but I want to support their very existence by buying them every time I go to a Chipotle. 

Are there any vegan foods you buy pretty much just to encourage the manufacturer or retailer to continue making or carrying them?

In honor of Vegan MoFo Day #4 I had a great talk about veganism with a co-worker. She was making a frozen meal by Amy's for lunch, and I mentioned that I often buy that particular meal. So, it's vegan. And was she going vegan?

Maybe not, but she's awfully close to vegan as it is. She asked me if I felt better being vegan, and I pointed out that I'm rarely, if ever, sick, and that I don't look my nearly 50 years in age. And I attribute that to veganism (and staying out of the sun). I also mentioned that I think living your beliefs makes you happier and boosts your immune system.

A totally unscientific opinion from a data-oriented person, but I believe it anyway :)

Do you find your health has changed a lot since being vegan?

#VeganMoFo Day Two: Hungarian Goulash

I just couldn't let August's #Vegcookbookclub  book go, and had to make one more recipe from Betty Goes Vegan by Annie and Dan Shannon: Hungarian Goulash

That means I also finally used my slow cooker, hooray!

This recipe was rich, savory, easy. 

Take a look at the beautiful finished product:

Today is Day Two:

Vegan MoFo starts TODAY!

OK, I had to go check my archives to confirm: No, I am not crazy to be surprised to see Vegan Mofo filling my feed reader starting today. For the last several years Vegan MoFo month has been *October*, and while time indeed does fly, it is not actually October yet. They've just moved Vegan MoFo up a month. Which means I missed the call for adding one's blog to the Vegan MoFo blog roll :(

I will try to participate nonetheless, because much as BlogHer's NaBloPoMo re-energizes much of our community to blog, Vegan MoFo does the same for me. Belonging to the #Vegcookbookclub re-energizes me to vegan-cook each month. We've just wrapped up Betty Goes Vegan by Annie and Dan Shannon and we're kicking off cooking from Vegan Indian Cooking by Anupy Singha

 

These exercises may seem artificial, but sometimes a little external encouragement, a little group activity can really help. Just like I stick to my walking regimen because I do so with a friend. The days we don't walk, I just don't self-motivate myself out there!

So, for a little #VeganMoFo food action, here are photos of two Betty Goes Vegan recipes I made this week:

Peach, Plum & Pomegranate Salad:

This was yummy (I used almonds instead of walnuts, which was great). I do think my S.O. had it right though, in that pomegranate seeds are always better in theory than execution. They look awesome and have a nice sweet-tart flavor, but they do add this gritty texture into the dish.

And Easy Jambalaya (with vegan sausage and shrimp):

 

This was easy, spicy, and fed me for three days! Would definitely make again. The book suggests using a brand of "shrimp balls" I've never seen in a store, so I used the vegan prawns that are carried in Whole Foods, and they worked great.

There were a ton more recipes I wanted to try from Betty Goes Vegan, and I'm a little skeptical of my own patience and taste for cooking Indian food...so I may still fit a few more Betty recipes in this month.

So, are you participating in #VeganMoFo and did you make it into the blog roll?

 

I've actually been cooking, just not posting

Thanks to the VegCookbookClub, I've actually cooked regularly. I don't claim to do anything facy and recipe-based more than a few times a month, but I am keeping up.

The problem is that then I snap the shots of the food, post them to Instagram, and never quite make it over here to blog it.

August's cookbook is Betty Goes Vegan by Annie and Dan Shannon. And I've made three recipes:

Greek Lemon Soup:

Thoughts: I like lemon, I like artichoke hearts, I like garlic. In other words: This worked for me. I might add some tofu for some protein (although the recipe already does call for chickpeas). 

Mexican Meat Loaf:

Thoughts: So easy. And pretty damn hearty. I'd make this again.

Cheezburger Pie:

Thoughts: Go light on the vegan cheese. Even if oyu like Daiya shredded cheddar, which I do, a little goes a long way.

I'll be trying a few more recipes form the book before the month is out, because I'm actually not traveling at all the next 3 weeks, so looking forward to it!

Last weekend's farmer's market beauty and bounty

The farmer's market is always a sight for sore eyes, and I'm surprised how often I run across a fruit or vegetable I don't actually recognize.

Last weekend it was these:

I understand they're a kind of eggplant. Eggplant isn't my favorite food inthe world (I know, weird for a vegan not to like eggplant) but these were so pretty I was tempted to take them home. I didn't.

Have you ever seen these and cooked with them before?