Tomato Soup

For the very best tomato soup I have ever tasted, find the YouTube video by Laura Vitale for fresh tomato soup. Episode 627 from about 6 years ago.

Smoked Salmon for the Plant Based Dieter, or Vegan Lox

This is a new recipe that works really well in an Instant Pot. Cook the carrots under pressure for 8 minutes and let sit for another 16 minutes without releasing the steam and removing the lid.  This tastes best after a night in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

4 or 5 large carrots, rinsed and sliced into 1/8" strips, the length of each carrot (not cut across the carrot in round slices, but long ribbons)
1/2" of water in the Instant Pot, or slightly less
2 teaspoons olive oil, or other oil such as canola
2 Nori sheets or other dried seaweed, about a handful
1 sheet of dried kelp, 4" square or so (this really makes a difference to how "seafood" the carrots taste)
generous sprinkling of dulce flakes if you have them
1 to 2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 - 3 teaspoons liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon of agave nectar
pinch of smoked salt

Start by putting water in the pot, then layer everything else, sprinkling the liquids over layers of sliced carrots. Pressure cook for 8 minutes and then let sit.  Test carrots for softness with a fork, if not extremely tender, then process for additional 4 minutes or so. Let cool slightly then transfer to a glass container and chill overnight.  Keeps for 3 or 4 days.  Fabulous on bagels with vegan cream cheese and greens, tomato slice, capers and onion if that's your thing.

 

Vegan Lox, or Smoked Salmon with the fish

 

 

I like to look for dried seaweed at my local Asian market and pick up as many different kinds as I can find to use in this recipe and also in my recipe for Vegan Tuna Salad.
I have made this recipe using all different colors of carrots and I have to admit that only the orange ones look appetizing to me after cooking.
 

Lemon Snowdrop Tea Cookies, no eggs or dairy butter

One of my favorite cookie treats are little lemon cookies covered in powdered sugar that are available for sale at gourmet kitchen shops and gift shops.  I just love them. But I can't see buying enough in little bags for big prices to be able to share at Christmas time so I set out to figure out how to make these lemony delights.
After about 4 or 5 attempts and tweaking, this is a recipe that makes me very happy.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 sticks vegan butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup almond flour
3/8 tsp lemon oil

Place first four ingredients into
mixing bowl and mix together until creamy.
While this is mixing stir dry ingredients together in separate bowl:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt

Add dry ingredients to butter/sugar mixture while mixer is operating at it's lowest speed.
Turn up and only mix until everything is combined.  Don't over-mix the dough.

Scoop with a 1 tablespoon size scooper or roll into balls about the size of a small walnut and place on cookies sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack until just warm, then roll in the lemon powder/sugar mixture coating both top and bottom. Set back on wire rack to finish cooling.  These freeze well.

Powdered Sugar to Lemon Powder ratio: 1/4 cup powdered sugar to 1/8 cup lemon juice powder
Use this mixture to coat the cookies.

Not Tuna Salad made with Hearts of Palm and Garbanzo Beans

This is another re-post to keep some of the best recipes up on top where they belong.

If you are like me you have probably been hearing a lot lately about the benefits of eating seaweed.  Doesn't sound too appetizing, right?  As it just so happens that is a nice ingredient to turn chickpeas into a mock tuna salad.  Tuna was one of my favorite lunches before I read, "The China Study" and "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" and gave up meat within a couple of days.
Let me reiterate:  I ate meat for 47 years and then quit because the research impressed me so much regarding how much healthier I could be by not eating animal protein or added oils and fats.  There are going to be foods I miss and tuna has been high on the list of foods difficult to mimic.

Here is a way to get yourself back into the zen of a tuna lunch.

1 can hearts of palm, drained, cut into 1/2" slices, then shred with a fork
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced dill pickle
2 tablespoons Dried Seaweed, such as dulce flakes or minced nori sheet
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
4 tablespoons vegan Mayo
2 tablespoons fresh minced parsley
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons mustard
1 teaspoon vinegar or pickle juice
1/2 teaspoon Bragg Sea Kelp Delight Seasoning (optional)
1/4 teaspoon dill
pinch black pepper
dash of dried or fresh chives

1. Crush garbanzo beans with a potato masher, set aside with shredded hearts of palm.
2. Chop celery and dill pickle, add to beans.
3. Crush seaweed together with sunflower seeds in a mortar and pestle, add to beans.
4. Add remaining ingredients to bean mixture and stir.  
5. Serve rolled inside Nori Sheets, in a traditional sandwich or with crackers.

Dried Seaweed and sunflower seeds after grinding

Not Tuna Salad 

Not Tuna Salad Sushi Rolls

Meatloaf for the plant-based diet, no added fat

Low Fat Meat-less Meatloaf

The first step is to turn on the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Combine:

1/2 cup boiling water with
1/2 cup dry TVP granules, or beef flavored TSP and set aside while you get everything else going.

In a food processor, combine the following:
(or you can make this entire meatloaf without a food processor by dicing everything very fine but it may need a bit of water to make everything stick together)

1 Box silken tofu
1can black beans, drained
1/2 cup walnuts 
1/4 cup flaxseed meal whisked with 1/3 cup hot water
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 teaspoon hot sauce such as Sirachi 
1 tablespoon vegetable bouillon paste, or "not-beef" flavor powder
2 tablespoon fresh parsley—don't skip this, at least use dried
1 tablespoon fresh basil
2 cloves garlic or more
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1 tablespoon vegan worcestershire sauce—don't skip this
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Pour into very large bowl along with:

1/2 cup chopped celery 

1 1/2 cups chopped mushrooms

1/4 cup finely sliced or shredded carrot 

1 cup of dry breadcrumbs (if you are out, put three slices of whole grain bread through the food processor and use that instead, or oatmeal or soda cracker crumbs)

3/4 cup vital wheat gluten
rehydrated TVP

Roll up your sleeves and stir it all together with your hands (don't forget the TVP—I can't tell you how many times I forget that….) Knead for a couple of minutes to get the gluten forming.
Form into a loaf shape and place in one large or two medium sized bread pans (lightly spray-oiled).

Brush the top with the super-fantastic-extra-special red sauce (really, don't skip this part):

8 tablespoons ketchup
4 tablespoons brown sugar or date sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Bake for  75 minutes, remove from oven and let sit for 20 minutes before devouring.  If you want it done quicker, use two smaller pans. If baking as two medium loaves adjust the time down to one hour.

Hard boiled egg yolk (vegan)

To make a vegan egg that is of a hard boiled consistency, the texture has to be right. Start with a scoop of mashed potatoes, add a pinch of India black salt and 1/8 tsp turmeric, a drop each of vinegar and sriracha sauce and 1/4 tsp. Vegan mayo. I added a pinch of paprika but it doesn’t really need it. Roll into walnut size ball. Wait 5 minutes for sulfur flavor to develop.

Stuffing! Vegan Cornbread, Wild Rice and (not) Sausage Stuffing Recipe, or Plant-based with no added fat

Previous Post but this is the perfect time of year to bring it back!

On Thanksgiving, I can forego everything but the stuffing.  We began eating a plant based diet just a few weeks before Thanksgiving the year we started this--2011-- and what a holiday to not be able to sit down and eat the traditional meal.  So it was essential for me to find a way to have a stuffing that tasted as close as possible to my recipe of cornbread stuffing with wild rice and sausage, the recipe for stuffing that became our standard after working on it for years.

The new plant based version is very similar, a combination of the stuffing I grew up with, cornbread stuffing, and the stuffing my husband likes--wild rice and sausage.  This version leaves out the diced boiled eggs, diced gizzard, heart and turkey broth and meat from the neck that I used to boil and include.

You know what?  I actually like this version better.

Cornbread Stuffing

Recipe:
1 batch cornbread from a plant-based, no added fat recipe prepared and cooled (can be made a day ahead, I always do it the night before--it's a tradition)
2 cups long grain and wild rice mix prepared by simmering in 2 cups vegetable broth and 1 tsp. dried herbs (Bragg 24 herb mix recommended)
1 cup vegan sausage substitute like textured soy, as low fat as possible (or see recipe below)
4 stalks celery, diced
1 cup soy curls, rehydrated with 3/4 cup hot not-chicken bouillon and diced into 1/2" pieces
1/3 cup walnuts (toasted) and chopped coarsely
3 cloves garlic finely diced
1 can sliced water chestnuts drained and chopped very coarsely 2 tsp. dried rubbed sage or poultry seasoning and 1 tsp. granulated garlic and dash of blach pepper
1/2 cup fresh parsley
2 cups broth (mushroom, vegetable or not-chicken bouillon stock)
Paprika to dust top of casserole with before baking

Cut cornbread into 1/2" cubes and set aside.
Sauté celery and garlic in nonstick skillet,
add broth and cook until garlic is tender.
Toss all ingredients in large bowl.  You may need to add more broth to make sure stuffing is moist but not saturated, then transfer to baking dish, 9x13 or similar.  Cover with foil or casserole lid and bake at 325 degrees farenheit for 60 minutes.

Sausage recipe:
3/4 cup TVP (textured vegetable protein, unflavored) 
1 cup vegetable broth, hot
1/4 tsp dry powdered ginger
1/8 tsp anise, crushed fine
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sage
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp rosemary, crushed
Stir all seasonings and broth into TVP and let sit for 20 minutes.
(Stir in 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten if pressing into patties such as for breakfast.)

Stuffing is even better the second day!  Serving suggestion: sprinkle dried cranberries over the top of  each serving.
This is ideal stuffed into large mushroom caps and baked until mushrooms are tender in a covered casserole with a little vegetable broth.

Vegan Cornbread, no added fat

Vegan Cornbread for the plant-based diet

Nearly fat free cornbread recipe without dairy, eggs and oil.  Re-posting in anticipation of Thanksgiving cornbread stuffing.
9x9 square pan, 400 degrees f for 35 minutes
Combine dry ingredients and set aside:
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup oat flour 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (do not substitute plain whole wheat flour or it will turn out flat and dense)
3 tablespoons date sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sage
1/2 tsp chives
1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika


1/2 tsp thyme
Combine wet ingredients:
3/4 cup rice or almond milk
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon VeganEgg substitute mixed with 
1/2 cup cold water (whip until frothy)
1/4 cup pumpkin, pureed (or use the traditional ingredient such as safflower oil or melted vegan butter--it just won't be as heart-healthy)

Add wet ingredients to dry all at once and stir just until combined and pour into pan.  Dust the top with more paprika.
Bake 30 minutes.  This is ideal for making corn bread stuffing.