Scrambled chickpeas: what!?

Yuppers, full of doubt was I. You could call me Thomas. (Props to you who understand the biblical reference:) ) I saw the recipe over and over in my cookbook, Isa Does It, and I wasn't convinced chickpeas would suffice for breakfast. Stop right there, heinous thoughts! Why I ponder the legitimacy of Isa's recipes occasionally, I don't know. What I do know is I had to blog about this really easy, delectable recipe immediately! 

I'm home on a snow day, and I had a hankering for a "fun" breakfast. I pulled out my cookbooks and sifted through the options. A vegan I am, but having tofu on hand is not yet engrained in my mind. Scrambled tofu is delish; I had it back in VA a few times at a vegan-friendly restaurant, Bus Boys and Poets. You should go if you're ever in the Northern VA/DC area. I miss that place! 

So here was the scrambled chickpea recipe staring me down, and I finally gave in. I had extra tomatoes on hand, and now that we're members of BJ's, we always have a plethora of chickpeas in our pantry. Snow day + all ingredients on hand = scrambled chickpeas!

I don't usually enjoy being proved wrong. I'm a tad stubborn. Today I was proved wrong! Wow! These scrambled chickpeas were just spectacular and a tasty way to pack some protein into my morning before the gym. I followed the recipe to a T except for the turmeric seasoning. We don't have any which is surprising. Turmeric is another one of those spices I'm kinda "eh" about. It's another one of those curry-esque flavors to me, and bleh, I need those flavors few and far between. I saw we had Old Bay seasoning, and I became very excited. I thought Old Bay would be a fun alternate, and I was right! 

The key to this recipe is making sure you season well and keep the chickpeas somewhat moistened. My trick was to steam them with a couple TBS of water right before I was getting ready to eat. Here's the simplified recipe from Isa Does It!: 

-Caramelize one small, red onion, quartered and sliced thin. 

-Throw in two 8.5 oz cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed.

-Warm up chickpeas in the pan for a few minutes, then mash until ~ 2/3 of the chickpeas are soft/mashed. 

-Add in your spices, (TBS Old Bay, salt, pepper)

-Add 1 TBS oil, mix and let chickpeas alone to cook until slightly charred. 

-Push chickpeas to side, and add 1 tsp oil and 1-2 cloves of garlic minced to cook for 15 sec. Mix into chickpea mixture.

-Add 2 TBS lemon juice and a 1 TBS dill weed. Mix until thoroughly combined.

-Add 2 TBS of water and cover the pan to steam a bit. After a minute or two, serve on toast and with fresh tomato! 

I had to stop myself from throwing in more toast and eating the entire pan. Definitely a new breakfast fav! Thanks, Isa!!

Cauliflower hot "wings"

I got out of work early for the snow, and Elphie
was ready and waiting for Mommy!

I've seen this recipe numerous times online, and I'm fairly certain I've pinned multiple versions.  Even when I ate meat ages ago, I wasn't a wing fan. However, this recipe was another potential appetizer for parties and such. Hubby and I were at Trader Joe's the other week, and I finally remembered to grab a head of cauliflower for this recipe. It's been sitting in the fridge for a week, and as we prepare for the snow storm to hit tonight into tomorrow, we were anxious to sit back, relax, and have some snackies!

This recipe was exceptionally simple. The key, I learned, is the dredge and baking the cauliflower at a high temperature to bake up/fry the "wings." I followed Evolve Vegan's recipe which you can find here: Cauliflower Wings. My review follows...






The soy milk wasn't enough to dredge the wings. That is, it wasn't thick enough. Next time, I'll make my own vegan buttermilk or use a creamer in order to thicken the dredging liquid. I also added salt and pepper to the soy milk.  I substituted whole wheat flour for the chickpea flour but used the same seasonings called for in the recipe. I found the wings baked up very nicely, though I can see how the chickpea flour may have been a better choice texture wise. The whole wheat flour very much baked up and cooked completely, but to me, it gave the wings a dry texture. Also, the seasoning wasn't strong enough for me! That could be because I didn't douse my wings in hot sauce like you're supposed to. I'm getting better with heat, but I'm not quite ready to drown my wings in hot sauce yet. I substituted vegan butter for soy milk in the sauce, as well. That being said, the hot sauce I did have added a punch of flavor, but I guess it wasn't enough to really spice up the wings. I was left feeling like the wings themselves were kinda bland.

Regardless of the above paragraph, we really did enjoy these wings and see the potential! I would spice up the dredge next time and thicken the liquid, but other than that, I think we are on to something in this house!

Butternut squash and pepper soup!

Blurry; my bad.

I just settled from preparing and consuming my delectable soup and knew in the process of cooking I had to blog about it. I love butternut squash! That and acorn squash, which tastes nearly identical, are my favorite squashes and it's one of those veggies I always wonder as to why we don't have it on hand throughout the winter. We get it a handful of times, but it should really be a winter staple in our kitchen.

So I saw the gigantic squash below in Trader Joe's the other day, and I immediately deemed it worthy of a warm soup for the brrrrr nights we're finally having! And, yes, let's get this out of the way. The squash I chose is uncomfortably phallic in shape, but it was the most for the price. I felt uneasy the entire time cooking it until it was blended into the soup, so it is what it is. :-/ Moving on...

Ingredients:
1 medium to large butternut squash (the larger the better..."that's what she said")
2 Tbs olive oil
Salt, pepper
1/2 a small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic minced
4 cups veggie broth
1-2 Bay leaves (optional)
1 cup frozen or fresh sliced pepper (any color)
1/2 cup coconut milk creamer (or your own favorite soy/coconut milk)

First, preheat the over to 400 degrees. Slice the squash length wise; be careful, the squash is really tough when uncooked. Keep the skin on and lightly oil the flesh side and sprinkle salt and pepper all over. Do this for each of the two halves of squash. Lay flesh side down on an ungreased cookie sheet (skin side up) and roast in the oven for 45 minutes. When it's done cooking, keep the squash on the pan to cool a bit.

At this point, heat the rest of the oil in a large, soup pot and add the onions and garlic on medium-low. Once the onions are translucent and the kitchen smells decently of garlic and onion, add about 1 cup of broth to pan. Now you're ready to peel the skin off of the squash. You should be able to peel it off with your hands (as long as it's cool enough) while the squash is on the pan. You may need only a teensy bit of help from a butter knife or fork. Once the squash is peeled, you can break it into chunks with a knife in order to make it easier to transfer to the pot. Once the squash is transferred, add the rest of the veggie broth and peppers. Add salt, pepper, and two bay leaves if you have them around. They're not required though. Put the lid on the pot and let the soup simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Once you've let the flavors marry, take off the lid and mix everything with a wooden spoon. Retrieve the bay leaves if you put them in and throw away. The squash should be breaking or already broken down into the soup. Get your immersion blender out at now (or transfer to a blender, but I find that very tedious and messy). Blend until smooth. Now add the coconut creamer to thin the soup a bit and add a creaminess. Blend for 15-30 seconds more until the creamer is completely blended into the soup.

If you think there's anything else to be done, you be wrong! Your soup is ready! I loved this soup for its simplicity and rustic quality. Out of habit, I was searching our herbs and spices cabinet for more seasoning but realized there was no need. This soup allows the squash and the peppers to shine together, and it really was a perfect, easy soup for this December dinner.

This is what my husband does when he's waiting for the soup to cool. Make a cracker fort, what else?

Savory vegan breakfast hash...yum!

I had a sweet tooth on this rainy, Saturday morning and ventured to my go-to vegan cookbooks in hopes there was a pumpkin cinnamon roll recipe.Turns out no recipes existed in my books, so I turned to google search. I forgot how long they took due to the rising; likely 2+ hours. Blah. We weren't willing to wait. I sifted through my cookbooks again, and a breakfast potato hash caught my eye. Isa Does It Again described a potato hash that sounded up our alley, though I knew I'd have to take some liberties since I didn't have all the ingredients in her recipe. That being said, her recipe was a guide, and I ended up doing my own thing! The whole thing was really simple and took ~30 minutes start to finish.

My mother-in-law always gives us cans of sliced, cooked potatoes that we usually end up using for a soup. I figured this would be a great, different way to use them. You can use whole potatoes, but you have to dice them into fairly small cubes for cooking time's sake. First, I drained three 10oz cans of sliced potatoes and dried them with a paper towel. If they're wet, they won't brown in the pan like you want them to. I had everything ready to go on my cutting boards for ease so I wouldn't have to worry about prepping ingredients as I cooked. I sliced one small, yellow onion (would have preferred red, but none on hand), two Tofurkey Italian sausage links (you can get them at Trader Joe's) cut length wise and then diced, minced two medium cloves of garlic, juiced two small lemons, and had a tiny pile of my herbs and spices. I chose 1 Tbs salt, pepper, 1/4 tsp of smoked chipotle pepper, 1 tsp Fines herbs, 1/2 Tbs sweet basil, and a pinch of dill weed, and 2 Tbs olive oil for cooking.

I heat up my cast iron skillet with 1Tbs of oil on medium heat. I threw in the potatoes to warm up for a few minutes then added the sausage to cook together and brown with a healthy dash of salt and pepper. I placed a cookie sheet on top to contain the heat in the skillet for ~10 min. and found them nicely browned after. At this point, I mixed the hash pretty vigorously with a spatula (NOT metal; it will ruin/scratch the cast iron). I created a space in the pan and added the last Tbs of olive oil and quickly threw in the onions to soften in the oil. Be careful; the pan will be hot and the oil could splash. Hence why I say quickly put in the onions, or just spread the oil through out the pan and make sure the onions find the oil with your spatula. I also added the garlic at this point with all the herbs and spices except the sweet basil. I mixed everything together and put the cookie sheet back on for everything to marry within the pan. After about 5-6 minutes, I took off the sheet and added the lemon juice and sweet basil. I mixed one last time and turn off the heat. The hash was ready!

Ken and I were really happy with the result! Herbaceous, a hint of lemon, and hearty for sure. We both wanted more, but we decided to save the rest for another serving tomorrow. I've missed having savory breakfasts since eggs, hollandaise, and other traditional breakfast items are no longer on my menu.  This was a scrumptious, new addition to weekend breakfasts! I totally should have added scrambled "eggs" AKA chickpeas or tofu and a vegan hollandaise. That might be the next addition to our hash. Additionally, missing was diced avocado on top of the hash for freshness like Isa recommended. Usually we have avocados for our tacos we have 2-3 times a week (SO good. I will write a short blog about them). Regardless we were fans of this savory hash, and by the looks of it, so was Elphie!!

Vegan Champagne Peach Cake

Greetings again! I'm back with some delectable recipes from my recent accumulation of vegan cookbooks. I'm up to four so far, and I really can't decide which is my favorite! For this recipe, I dove into the Sticky Fingers dessert cookbook. I have to introduce Sticky Fingers first, however.

Sticky Fingers is a 100% vegan bakery in NW Washington DC.  Doron Petersan, the creator/owner/baker extraordinaire, also won twice on Food Network's Cupcake Wars! Quite some accolades there! We first ventured there when my in-laws were in town, and I was flabbergasted by its scrumptious treats! This was when I was vegetarian/considering veganism, so it was a great time to try it out. It has, to date, the best vegan bacon I've ever had. The con? Wow, it's expensive for teeny tiny portions. Honestly, we only went back solely because we had a gift card. And even then, everything's a la carte so getting a full meal will likely cost you $20/person. Yikes! Now, I'm not here to knock them; I absolutely acknowledge being vegan can be very expensive! However, it's not really a place that I would want to frequent. I'm all about a deal. Now if their portions were bigger and/or had meals rather than separate items to sell, that'd be another story. Nevertheless, they have some of the best vegan food I've ever had. Probably second to Vedge, right here in Philadelphia. Though Vedge is far more upscale and decidedly not a bakery. Regardless, they're both yummy! So look them up: Sticky Fingers Bakery

Alas, we arrive at my peach champagne cake thanks to Linvilla Orchards here in PA! I've been bummed about not being able to go and pick peaches, apples, tomatoes, etc. in PA since living out of state. My mother-in-law goes every year, and it's such a festive, fall-ish thing to do that I was elated we could join this year! Enter, fresh white and yellow peaches straight from the trees! It was so much fun to sit on a tree and eat a peach straight from the branch. Best peaches ever. Enter peach champagne cake, inspired by a recipe in the Sticky Fingers' Sweets cookbook!

I won't go into the details because, frankly, it was a bit laborious and I'm not going to write out the entire recipe here. I highly recommend getting the cookbook, however! I took the idea for a raspberry cake in the book and switched it to peaches while adding a small amount of champagne sitting in my fridge I've had since graduation. Th result was a glorious, fruity peachy peachy cake! I made a frosting with fresh peach puree to top it all off.

The verdict? Personally, I'm not a huge fruit fan in my desserts let along chunks of it like I left in. I wanted everyone to get the taste of those fresh peaches, so I didn't puree them for the cake. I didn't put am million chunks in, but it was enough to feel like I was in peach overload palace. That being said, a peach fan would probably fall head over heels for this cake. Me? Eh. I would switch it up next time and  puree the peach for the cake batter and leave the frosting alone as plain vanilla. Again, I'm not a huge fan of fruity desserts except for a fruit pie e.g. Apple or whatnot. I guess I just don't like chunks of anything in my desserts. Ah well. It was still worth the effort, and it was my official first foray into the Sticky Fingers cookbook!

Homemade, whole wheat pita bites

After some reflection, I decided the pita I made last Sunday deserved its own, dedicated post. It's an absurdly easy recipe, which is exactly why it warranted a post. These are too easy not to make if you love pita bread. While I made these bite sized using a mini spice tin (or the tiny tin your ketchup comes in when you're out to eat), you can make them as large as you want!

What you need: whole wheat flour, active dry yeast, sugar, olive oil, salt, and warm water (not in that order!) These are generally things you have on hand anyway, though you may have all purpose white flour rather than whole wheat. You mix, you rest, you roll out, then bake. Easy peasy! Go to Veg Recipes of India for the recipe: Make your own pita bread

I bake my pita in the oven, but feel free to use any method described in the recipe. This is a recipe added to that list of, "will never buy in the store again" foods. These pita bites are pillowy, chewy, and perfect as part of your dinner or as a snack to dip in your hummus! Store bought pita? NEVER AGAIN!!

Appetizers galore!

It's probably obvious, but I feel I should be clear that I've made the official decision to go vegan. I did so after my graduation weekend in May, but it was a rough start. I definitely fell off the wagon a few times, made excuses that I had a lot of vegetarian food left in our place I needed to eat, bla bla bla. So I compromised myself a few times. Then I stumbled upon a blog post from a former vegetarian who went vegan, and her advice was screaming my name. It's as if she wrote the article with me in mind! She basically said she had been doing the same thing I was doing, excuses as to why she couldn't commit to veganism cold turkey. Not out of laziness, but out of logistics and practicality. However, she realized she needed to make the commitment to be vegan 100% of the time and stick with it. As a result, she didn't allow herself to be compromised by the vegetarian food in her fridge (I think she gave it to family or something) and it worked for her. I was like, "Yes! Just dive in, Erin!" Ever since I read her article, I've been going strong.

So, that brings me to our first get together/hosting event in our new home in PA! Ah right- we moved two weeks ago to PA from VA. It was VERY stressful, but we're quite content and settled so far! My new SLP job starts Monday and I don't have an ounce of anxiety. Woo! I'm praying it lasts! We had my in-laws over on Sunday afternoon/evening last week, and it was such a great time. Other than visits from family in VA, which weren't all that frequent, we've never been able to cook/host for friends and family. And for we foodies, that is just inexcusable!

Ken and I decided to serve:

Appetizers consisting of olive tapenade, mini eggplant meatballs with romesco sauce, and pita caprese bites. Then we had risotto with marinated summer squash and sausage (chicken for the meat eaters, tofurkey for me) as an entree, and a blueberry and raspberry cobbler for dessert from the lovely vegan cookbook, Isa Does It, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Now I want ALL her cookbooks, and indeed they are on my Amazon wish list.  

I'm going to break down each pretty simply, because otherwise, I'd be here all day. But suffice it to say the meal was, like, utterly divine. The caprese bites were my favorite; I ate the entire amount of the vegan versions in about 10 minutes (probably less). Did I mention I made homemade pita bread for them? Yep. Sure did. So the caprese bites were made of whole wheat, homemade pita bread. Then we topped them with a slice of tomato, mozzarella cheese, spinach and basil pesto, and balsamic (sans cheese for mine, obviously). SCRUMPTIOUS! Not to toot my own horn, but they were the bomb. The pita really made a difference and my husband makes a hell of a pesto.

Next up, eggplant meatballs (you can find that recipe in my past blog post) which I molded to be bite size. Hubby made a romesco sauce which is basically almonds and red peppers blended in the food processor. That is, indeed, a very simple explanation. They were also of the scrumptious variety. And then of course, Hubby made an olive tapenade with your typical green pimento and kalamata olives and chickpeas blended to a chunky hummus consistency. This was reminiscent of a restaurant that served endless breadsticks and olive tapenade in Reston, VA which we just adored. ::sigh:: As much as I am really happy to be back in PA, I miss VA. It's very surreal. Below you can see our apps being showcased for our guests. Yummo! 

On top: romesco, middle: tapenade, bottom: eggplant meatballs.

I would comment on the entree and dessert, but I'm discovering I never took any pictures. Eeks! Risotto has been on my blog before or you can google any basic risotto recipe. I veganized by using my "fake" butter and veggie stock rather than butter and chicken stock. The summer squash was marinated overnight in fresh lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, fines herbs, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Then we roasted them in the oven the next day. The cool thing with marinade is you can make it whatever you want.

 The cobbler is a recipe from Isa Does It, so look for it online or buy the book. Yeah, you should really buy her cookbook. The family loved it and didn't know it was vegan until the end! All it needed was a dollop of ice cream, which everyone had but my uncle-in-law and myself, but I made a note to get soy ice cream or whatnot for next time.

Overall, a seriously dee-lish meal from beginning to end! A very happy and successful start to our future events in PA!