Whipped Tofu & Greens Toast

I keep meaning to post recipes. In the time between this post and the last (TWO YEARS!), I've made some delicious things, often followed by "I should post this on my blog!" And yet, here we are. I would love to say that I'll keep posting things here, but my best intentions aren't quite paying off. 

Also since my last post, I've lived a lot of life! Nicole and I have done some amazing travel, I've taken students on a research trip, I've met new friends and said goodbye as other friends have moved elsewhere, lost two kitty cats, I sold my house and Nicole and I bought a new house, and so much more! 

In the process of making our new house a home, we've spent some good time cooking together. However, we've also done a lot of home projects, in addition to our full time jobs, so sometimes we just need a quick and healthy dinner with foods we have on hand. Enter this whipped tofu and greens on toast recipe. We had some greens from CSA that needed to be used soon, but both wanted more than just greens. With a bit of back and forth, we landed on this experiment, which wowed us both and has returned multiple times. It's a surprisingly satisfying dinner, doesn't really heat up the kitchen the summer, and uses things we keep on hand. I hope you'll like it just as much as we do! 

Maggie's Lazy Dinner Air Fryer Tofu Poppers

Almost two years since my last post here. Two years of life, love, work, growth, travel, and a whole lot of cooking! Here's a super brief summary of the past two years: I finalized my divorce after almost one year of separation, I finished up my role as interim dean and returned to teaching full time, and I've been dating my wonderful partner, Nicole. 

Meanwhile, I've been cooking a ton and hope to put more of those recipes here. Nicole has such a fun palate and loves to play with flavors and try new foods. Nicole isn't a cook, but is an amazing sous chef and has encouraged me to experiment with new flavors and recipes. Despite that, this first post back is not a great example of all the amazing new things I've been cooking. 

This post is an example that Lazy Dinners still happen and new tools open new avenues for them. Through Nicole, I have a new tool in my kitchen, an air fryer! Nicole had a large one and a small one, so brought the larger one to my place and kept the smaller one at home. These air fried tofu poppers were a "hmmm, let's see if this tastes good" idea that turned into an easy meal in regular rotation. Serve them with any dipping sauce you like - my favorite is a vegan sriracha mayo!

Maggie's Asian Salad with Sesame Dressing

Last summer I kept looking for new ways to eat food that also involved the least amount of heating in my kitchen I could handle. For me, the obvious solution was meal-sized salads, but I had to do a bit of Shana convincing... When I got a begrudging approval for a salad as dinner, I knew it had to be a good one. Luckily, I found a winner with this salad, filled with beautiful colors, lots of texture, and Asian-inspired flavors.

The recent hot streak we experienced this summer was the perfect impetus to see if this salad was still a dinner time success. It still was! Mix and match ingredients to your own tastes, buy a pre-made salad dressing if you find one you like, or do whatever - this salad will still be delicious.

Maggie's Vegan Charoset for Passover

Happy Passover, friends! As you've read in other posts on my blog, Shana was raised Jewish and I've been slowly developing a repertoire of traditionally Jewish foods. For example, I've got two recipes for kugel (sweet and savory), challah, matzo ball soup, and a faux brisket.

Both the frisket and matzo ball soup graced our table recently when we hosted our annual Seder for Passover. I *love* Seder. It's filled with tradition, symbolism, storytelling, and singing. It brings together an amazing group of people (we always bring in at least a couple of Seder newbies). Moreover, the fundamental message that's relayed is that no one is free until all are free. I love everything about all of that.

One of the symbolic foods eaten at a Passover Seder is charoset (huh-ROE-set), a lovely mixture of apples, walnuts, and other ingredients. I think of charoset the Italian red sauce of Seders - every family has their own traditional version, which they claim as the best. I'll stake my claim on that as well, because my charoset is so good you'll want to eat it other times of the year!

Rainbow Quinoa Salad

At the beginning of this year, a high school aged friend of ours decided to go vegan. We invited her and her mom, whom we know from an organization in town, over for vegan dinner. Her mom was very supportive of her daughter's plan to be vegan, but didn't quite know what to cook for her when she was also cooking for her 11 year old son, 4 year old daughter, herself, and her husband. We figured that we could invite them over and answer vegan food questions while also providing an example of a delicious vegan meal.

In asking what they'd like to eat, they said they were pretty open to flavors, so we chose to serve one of Shana's favorites - broccoli, tofu, and garlic sauce. They asked what to bring and we suggested "something that goes with dinner?" In other words, we were super unhelpful. However, our friends rose the challenge and brought a delicious Asian quinoa salad! Overall, dinner was a giant success. We answered all sorts of vegan-related questions, laughed a ton, and ate amazing food.

Since our dinner, we've eaten this salad a few times. I tweaked the original recipe, found at Two Peas & Their Pod, to make it more our style - doubling some veggies, removing some ingredients, and adjusting the dressing. It's SO delicious! It's also great for the unseasonably hot temps we've been experiencing - when I just don't want to eat anything. This salad has tons of protein and fiber and is a feast for your eyes as well.

Seitan Nuggets

You know the videos that get shared on social media sites? The ones that show a pair of hands cooking a dish from start to finish in a minute or so? That's where I found this recipe.

Of course, for the life of me, I can't find that video any longer. If you find it, let me know so I can cite it, will you? Luckily, I watched the video a few times and wrote down the recipe/instructions. Then I put the paper in my stacks of recipes and promptly forgot about it.

Sometime this winter I got sick of everything we were eating, went digging through one of my "you should try this" stacks of recipes and found my scribbled notes for these seitan nuggets. They went on the meal plan for that week, dipped in barbecue sauce, and then they were gone.

We ate all of them. We did it again a few days later, and the next time, and the next. So worth it.

KMW's Vegan Honduran Black Bean Soup

It was this time two years ago that we were moving into our new house. We are so happy here and a lot of that has to with our neighbors. We have AWESOME neighbors.

One set of our across the street neighbors, Katie and Marc, work at one of the other colleges in town. Both of them are biological anthropologists. They do field work where they dig for bones or artifacts in carefully arranged grids. (And habits die hard; you should have seen them digging a very precise 3'x3' hole for a new tree they planted!) Although they do field work in a variety of places, one of their primary locations is Honduras.

A while back, they invited us over for dinner. They were a little worried about what vegan thing to cook, but then realized that a traditional meal they ate while doing field work in Honduras could easily be made vegan. Katie Neighbor* told me that two women, Rosa Hernandez and Elvia Martinez, in Copan, Honduras taught her the recipe. I'll never meet these women, but I am SO glad they shared with her. This black bean soup was so. freaking. good. Seriously good. The underlying flavor is layered and complex and round. Plus, each of us gets to personalize our own bowl with the via all sorts of add-ins. Finally, while I hate to tell anyone how to eat, whichever add-ins you choose, you simply must add the radishes! Yes, radishes.

Summer Tortilla Pinwheels

A few months ago, some friends moved from our town and threw a big going away party. They are always very conscious of the myriad eating habits of all of their friends, so they made sure that some vegan-friendly food was available. One of those dishes were tortilla pinwheels that some vegan potluck friends brought and I've been dreaming about since. They were so simple, but so delicious!

I finally decided I needed to stop dreaming, so I contacted the friend who made them for the recipe. Her response sounded pretty much like what I say when Shana asks how I made something new and delicious: "Well, I added some of this, some of that, a little bit of that, and some of something else." To Shana, that response is infuriating, but to me, it leaves the door open to experimentation. My friend said she used my sun-dried tomato spread recipe, a "hummus" made with cannellini beans and cashews, and arugula, but wasn't sure exactly what proportions she used or what other ingredients were in the hummus. That was enough of a start for me, so I set to work to figure out my own version.

My own version in hand, Shana and I made our way to a Fourth of July party. I cut into the rolls, hoping they'd stay together (they did) and made sure to express to our hosts and other friends that the recipe was new and that I'd love feedback and wouldn't be offended if people didn't like them. As the wraps disappeared, the only feedback I heard was "mmmmmmmmmmm" and "these are delicious, Maggie!" We took just a few of them home with us, but Shana ate them the next day and has been asking for them since. Recipe success!

Vegan Viands #18: Christmas Spritz Cookies

"IIIIIIIT'S CHRISTMASTIME!"

Shana, my culturally Jewish wife, had no idea what Christmas was like the first year she joined my family at Christmas. The second year, the words above were her refrain; she had the excitement of a 6-year old. The third year, we had to set rules about what time she was allowed to wake everyone else.

If you've been an even somewhat-regular reader of this blog, you'll already know that I love traditions. Although sometimes traditions can stifle, when there's room to take them or leave them or change them to suit your needs/life, they can be wonderful, providing things to anticipate and/or structure in a chaotic world. No matter what (if any) religious faith you follow or grew up with, religious holidays are filled with tradition. One of the Christmas traditions at my house has been spritz cookies. Spritz Christmas cookies come from a long history in Germany or Sweden. Given that Germans and Swedes are two of the major immigrant groups who settled Minnesota, it's no surprise that these cookies make an appearance at Christmas time. They are a sweet, buttery cookie that is squeezed* out of a tube through a disk with a shape cut into it.

Therein lies the difficulty, you can't make these cookies without a spritz cookie machine. Machine isn't a really accurate word for the tool, as the machine is kind of a glorified plunger. But anyway, you need the tool! Although the one I use at my family's house is ancient, one of the more highly rated ones can be found here. After you have the spritz cookie tool, you're on your way to quick, easy, and tradition-filled cookies.

Vegan Stuffed Shells

This semester has started off at a run and I'm not sure I'm catching up. Thus, I haven't had a lot of time to make new meals. Well, that's not quite true. I've made two, both of which were delicious, I just haven't had time to post them. This particular dinner we ate weeks ago. And wow, was it good! The mellow flavor of the garlic is just wonderful and the texture of the tofu mixture is perfect. Shana also thought that flavor developed even more in leftovers.

I will say that this is not a meal you can make in a hurry. There are a lot of different parts that need to come together and you use a ton of dishes. But for a dinner party or something like that, this would a great option! It's something that non-vegans would find familiar, but not necessary miss the cheese due to the consistency of the tofu and the roundness of the flavors from garlic, miso, and nutritional yeast.

Maggie's Spring Carrot Salad

If you read my last post, you'll know that our awesome CSA has been giving us lots of carrots. The past two weeks, we've also gotten some beautiful French breakfast radishes. One of the things I was so excited about with our CSA is that it would force me to explore new (or in this case, new uses) for veggies. Enter this salad. 

Apparently, shredded carrot salads are common in other parts of the world, but Americans don't eat them that often. I don't know why that's the case, because this salad was so easy and delicious. The only thing ingredient I don't keep on hand is the green onions, which is easily remedied. This salad comes together in no time with the aid of a shredding disc for a food processor. As the weather gets warmer, I'm thinking that this will be making an appearance on our menu more frequently and might even go to some warm-weather pot lucks. 

Vegan Sun-dried Tomato Spread

Long ago, for much of high school and even some early college breaks, I worked at a bagel store called Bruegger's Bagels.* While working in the same place for so long, you get tired of eating the same things over and over, so I would experiment with new foods and food combinations over the years. It helped that while I was working there, Bruegger's started introducing new foods and expanding their menu. One of the new foods I tried was a sun-dried tomato spread. I had never been a big fan of sun-dried tomatoes, and I'm still not, but dang was this spread delicious. As time passed, I stopped working at Bruegger's and then went vegan. Although there's stuff for me to eat there as a vegan, the sun-dried tomato spread is not on that list; it contains cheese and gelatin.

I had essentially stopped thinking about this spread until a ridiculous craving for it hit me.  Luckily, it turns out a vegan version of this is super easy to make and just as delicious as I remember (and without the non-vegan bits). I brought this to school the other day to eat on a bagel sandwich (everything bagel + faux turkey + lettuce + spread = magic). I also shared some with some colleagues over lunch and I was rewarded with rave reviews! Many of them asked that I share the recipe. So, colleagues, here you go!

Vegan Viands #14: Bryanna's Brilliant Pumpkin Pie

We are in Minnesota with my family for this whole week - being teachers has its perks! Actually, the only reason Shana has the whole week off is because her school district is on a "balanced calendar," which leads to earlier starts and later ends, but a great schedule of breaks throughout the year. This trip to Minnesota has been great so far. We've not wandered too far from home, as my mother's health isn't all that hot, but it's been great to be low-key and have family time. With that said, we have done some fun things, such as seeing a show at Chanhassen Dinner Theater and cutting down a Christmas tree.

Yesterday (Thanksgiving) we spent a low-key morning and started cooking in the afternoon. My parents are omnivores (but my mom eats very little), but since Shana and my sister are vegetarians and I'm vegan, most of what we ate was a veganized version of traditional dinners. The dinner menu was marinated/broiled tofu for "the girls," turkey for my parents, stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetables, gravy, and pumpkin pie for dessert. Everything was going well until we realized the oven wasn't working. Seriously. The oven stopped working on Thanksgiving. After a couple of moments spent staring at each other, my dad and I realized the broiler still worked. We just moved the oven racks down low in the oven and stirred/rotated food more often. Since I'd planned on broiling the tofu anyway, that part was perfectly fine.

Luckily for all involved, I'd made the pumpkin pie a day in advance (required for this recipe). Although I knew that Shana and I loved this pie, I was worried about my dad liking it, as he's the main pumpkin pie cooker in our house. He said it smelled good while it was baking and said that it looked good when it was cooked, but the real test is in the taste. After a bite, the verdict was in - delicious! Whew. I wish I could take credit for the recipe, but this is a very subtle adaptation from Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe. If you've not heard of Bryanna Clark Grogan, she's an amazing vegan cook who really helped to usher in the current vegan food movement. She's got numerous cookbooks, too. Absolutely check her out! But, enough small talk; on to the pie!

Crockpot Corn Chowder

As I mentioned a week ago, I'm using Tuesdays this semester to attempt new crockpot meals. This week got a little turned around with a dinner for a potential new faculty member on Tuesday night, but Wednesday night was parent-teacher conferences, so Shana stayed and I attempted a new crockpot dinner. I was trying to decide between two different meals in my crockpot book, and although I'm not sure what made me choose this dish, I am very glad that I did!

Perhaps I was predisposed to like this meal because of the ease of crockpot cooking. Perhaps it was just that I was really hungry when I first tried the chowder. But I don't think that I've ever had non-vegan corn chowder, so I might not be a fair judge (though I did share bites of it with two omnivores at school today and they both liked it). In reality, I think the recipe is just a delicious one! Plus, you can make this using fresh from the farm corn in the summer or frozen kernels in the winter. To be honest, I used frozen kernels even though it is summer because it's just easier.

Overall, this soup is full of corn flavor and fresh whole foods. By pureeing some of the cooked veggies and then adding the puree back into the soup, there's a slight bit of weight to each spoonful without an overpowering heaviness. The corn makes it a bit on the "sweet" side (think sweet corn, not cake), but maybe that's normal for corn chowder? Regardless, there is certainly a balance of other savory flavors. If nothing else, the chowder is a lovely shade of yellow!

Sister-in-Law Greek Pitas

We've been back from our whirlwind travels for almost two weeks now. The first week back we used every opportunity to make meals that we'd missed while we were traveling. However, then I realized that it is summer and I should be using my (relative) free time trying new meals, especially since summertime meals are the hardest for us. We're hot, I don't want to heat up the kitchen, and heavy dishes just sit in a lump. I've got a few things in the works, but it was actually a simple recipe I saw for a vegan "feta" that led me to remember this meal.

This recipe for Greek pitas is a vegan version of my sister-in-law's recipe. She used to feed this to Shana before any of them even knew I existed. I'm not sure where she got it, but it's easy, quick, and delicious - a winner! Plus, although it does use a pan on the stove, the cooking time is pretty short because there's no need to cook raw meat. That makes this a great summer dinner.

Vegan Moo Shu Vegetables

I've mentioned before how much Shana loves Chinese food. It really is her automatic go-to choice for dinner. Thus, when I was showing her some of the new recipes I wanted to try, this recipe for vegetable moo shu wraps jumped out at her. Since they sounded good and looked reasonably do-able, I agreed. Plus, they were an excuse to buy one new ingredient and test out the slicing blade on my food processor. This second time around they were as delicious as the first time and I figured out how to make the tofu work.

If you've never had moo shu wraps, they are basically shredded veggies that are stir fried, sauced, and then wrapped in a thin pancake. I would assume that they are infinitely adaptable ("gee, I should really use up this bell pepper in my fridge"), but I've not tested it out. A word of warning though: if you do not have a food processor with a slicing (and shredding) blade, the prep time on this would be tedious! But, with a food processor, you'll be ready to eat in less than 30 minutes.

Veganomicon's Penne Vodka for my Minions

On Monday night, Shana and I hosted our semi-annual "Minion Dinner " (that's Shana's term for the students that help me out in various ways throughout the semester, not mine!). Minion Dinner is a night at the end of the semester when I cook for the students who have helped me out during the semester as either Research Assistants (RAs) or Teaching Assistants (TAs). This tradition is one I started just before I finished grad school. To thank them for all of their work (on my dissertation, no less!), I had the undergrad RAs and my lab-mates over to our house for a games/dessert party. That 2008 group was so much fun (see below)!

Since then, I've done something fun for my RAs, and also my TAs now,  every semester, and this one was no exception. This semester, I had 5 students over for Minion Dinner. They are such a great group of students; I'm lucky to have had them working with me. They certainly made my life significantly easier this semester than it would have been otherwise. We played games, laughed a lot, and they ate and enjoyed an entirely vegan dinner and a mostly vegan dessert! I think they were a bit hesitant, but they all left full and satisfied. 

Feeding a crowd (is 7 a crowd?) is always a challenge, but the added issue of feeding a crowd of non-veg*ns with vegan food they will like takes the challenge up a notch. Luckily, I have some go-to recipes for times just like this. One these go-to recipes comes from the cookbook Veganomicon, which is a bit like a vegan The Joy of Cooking. The recipe included for Penne Vodka is so good that one of my best friends calls it "Love Sauce." Judging from the speed with which this gets devoured every time we make it for anyone (omnivores and veg*ns alike), I think many people would agree with that assessment. Plus, it's a pretty quick dinner - under 30 minutes!

Broccoli Rice Bake

It's cold here. Although we didn't get much of the outskirts of Hurricane Sandy, we have been treated to a string of drizzly days with highs in the upper 30s. I think the weather kept many of the trick-or-treaters at home. Also because of the weather, everything on the meal plan for this week is something that warms us, warms the kitchen, or both. Our meal plan looks like this:
Sunday = Vegan Chinese Garlic Sauce
Monday = Lentil Soup
Tuesday = Almost Irish Stew
Wednesday = Broccoli Rice Bake
Thursday = Chili and cornbread muffins
Friday = Pizza
Saturday = foraging for vegan-friendly food in another corner of Indiana

Broccoli rice bake is slightly mis-named, as there is more than just broccoli and rice in the dish. In reality, this is a casserole with broccoli, cauliflower, rice, and creamy goodness. As a good Minnesotan, casseroles hold a special place in my heart. I honestly don't recall my family eating them that frequently (am I crazy, Mom and Dad? Did we eat them all the time?), but casseroles/hotdishes (and "bars" and "salads" made out of jello) are part of Minnesotan cuisine and culture. Lest you think I kid, Senator Al Franken has held "Hot Dish Offs," there's a major political blog called Hot Dish Politics related to Minnesota's biggest newspaper, there's even a Hot Dish Cookbook! There are three beautiful things about a casserole. First, it can include anything you like. Second, it has that creamy mouth-feel of something decadent, even though it doesn't have to be decadent. Third, it warms your kitchen (and soul). Convinced yet?

Potato Soup

There was frost on my car when I went outside this morning. I suspected as much since I could see frost on the neighbor's roof. We're due for another night of freezing temps tonight, too. In all honestly, the cold doesn't bother me too much. It means sweaters and cold noses, crisp-smelling air, beautiful fall colors (hopefully they stay for our drive to State College), and as many soups and stews as I can eat in a week! I wasn't kidding when I said we eat soups and stews frequently in the fall and winter.

Tonight Shana and I had two friends over for dinner. One is a friend from my job and the other is her foster daughter (a first-year student at the University of Evansville who was back on her fall break). When our friends arrived tonight, we got right down to making dinner. This soup doesn't take an incredibly long time, but we were all hungry. For all its simple ingredients, this soup is a winner in my book (it's the one we call "fatty fatty potato soup"). It's a great cold-night, warm-tummy soup, and Shana and I think it tastes a little bit like the breading on Kentucky Fried Chicken due to the dark roux and pepper. Neither one of us is huge pepper fans, but in this soup it's worth it! We also made roasted broccoli, but I think a post on oven-roasted veggies is in order some time soon. Anyway, on to the recipe!

You can see I used white potatoes here.

Maggie's Tofu Pot Pie

Long ago, shortly after I went vegan (so, really only 10-ish years ago), my aunt found a cookbook published in 1978 from The Farm, a purposeful vegetarian commune established in 1971. This cookbook is SO quintessentially 70s! There are drawings and pictures and all of them scream 1970. Even the language used in the book is decade-specific. Although the cultural snapshot is great, the recipes are also pretty good, too, especially given that the members of The Farm were vegetarian before many other people were vegetarian. The cookbook has all sorts of recipes that are generally obsolete today (for all but the more hardcore DIYers, anyway), such as making your own wheat gluten (used in seitan, a meaty protein) by washing flour or fermenting your own tempeh (pressed soybeans). We can buy all of this at the store today.

This cookbook is a great reminder that we don't need fancy ingredients to make delicious and wholesome vegan food. In fact, one might argue that the recipes in this cookbook make even more wholesome food because they do NOT rely on fancy ingredients. (This is a conversation for another day.) In the cookbook is a recipe for a tofu pot pie. Although I don't really follow any of their directions (or even use most of the same ingredients), it prompted me to attempt to make a tofu pot pie. In my pot pie, I do use the gravy recipe from this cookbook, which is absolutely delicious and totally makes the pie! 

A word of warning: this is NOT a fast recipe. It's easy, yes, but it takes a while and uses a number of pots and pans. However, it's very much worth it, and feeds Shana and I for three meals.