Pepper-Crusted Cashew Goat Cheese

Cheese. The food of the devil. It is probably the one food that stops many a vegetarian from becoming vegan. And I can't say I was immune.

When I was a girl, my favorite activities were to eat and read. Simultaneously. There are an embarrassing number of photos of me with an open book and a plate of cheese and crackers. Mostly cheese. The smellier the better as far as I was concerned. It was a vice I shared with my father.

I remember being sad that I would have to give up cheese but, after I discovered how much my health improved after I gave up dairy, it really wasn't that hard.

But when I saw a recipe for goat cheese (and feta and cheddar) in Vegetarian Times, I was all over it. Especially since it used cashews, something I haven't been able to get enough of lately.

Just making it was fun! You get to throw everything in the food processor, wrap it up in cheesecloth and hang it up to age for the day. I knew it would be good when I tasted the 'batter' from the food processor. But I was very surprised when I tasted the finished product: It's smooth, salty, creamy and dead on.

I used it to make CD's Greek Style Pizza again. Unbelievable. And so easy. I told people I was making cheese and they were dumbfounded. But it was the easiest thing to do. You should try it. It will certainly fix any cheese cravings you might have.

So when the devil comes knocking, there's no need to answer the door.

STATS
Vegan
Calories: 140 per serving (no indication of serving size)
Makes: 10 oz
Find it: Here
Tastes: Fabulous!

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

I'm not a big fan of chocolate, but I made these twice in the span of one week. My mother used to make non-chocolate thumbprint cookies when I was small with a little dot of frosting in the middle. As I recall, she used her actual thumb which I think leaves a special little trace of love (gag!). So I was happy to try these even though I wimped out and didn't use my thumb (they're hot!).
At first blush, I thought I'd messed up as the batter is quite thick, but they turned out perfectly the first time (the second time was a different story). I used several types of jam (surprise!) to try them out: Red raspberry, apricot, black raspberry and strawberry. That's the order in which I liked them and will use again.
Feel free to add more flour if the batter is in any way runny. You need it to be quite thick and able to hold the shape of a ball before baking. About halfway through baking, you pull them out and make an indentation (if you're tough you can use your thumb, if you're me you use the back of a melon baller), drop in a teaspoon of jam and pop them back in for 5 more minutes. Done.
And wonderful.
Eating them is a delightful, moist bite of chocolate and then a surprising little blast of jam. The red raspberry and the apricot play off the chocolate so well. You might want to make a double batch to ensure that someone else gets one. Just one.

Stats:
Vegan
Makes: 2 dozen
Find it: On page 205 of Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Taste: Great!

Hot-and-Sour Asian Vegetable Soup

I want to like hot and sour soup. I found another recipe for it here that I'm going to try. I guess I want to like it so much because everyone is always raving about it. And it seems so..exotic? Fancy? to me. But I tried this. And I tried to love it. But it was only okay. In fact, I probably won't make it again. And I feel really bad about that. I'm pretty sure the soup was really good, it just wasn't my thing. So, you can try it. And you can try to love it. And then we can chat about how we just didn't. Or you can join the ranks of the elite and truly love it. Either way - here are its stats:

Vegan
Makes: 6 servings
Calories: 134
Find it: On page 45 of Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews
Taste: Probably very good. Provided you like hot and sour soup.

Chinese Black Bean Chili

Tasty. And interesting in a I'll-have-another-bowl-to-figure-out-what's-up-with-that kind of way.
You know I love garlic, chili, Chinese food and a slow cooker. This recipe combines them all.
It makes for a great tasting dish and, with the green onion and chow mein noodle garnish, a dish with various textures. In fact, I'd go so far as to say you NEED the garnish to pull this dish together. It takes 4-6 hours in the slow cooker and is a great meal to come home to after work. It's so easy: Just open the cans, dump everything in the slow cooker and listen to your family tell you what a great cook you are. I'll absolutely make this again. And again. And again.

Stats:
Vegan
Calories: 280
Makes: Serves 8 according to the recipe
Find it: Here: Vegetarian Times Issue: January 1, 2006 p.30 or Here
Tastes: Really good.

Bakery-Style Berry Muffins

Best muffins I've ever made. Just a touch of sweet and moist, almost creamy muffin. Plus, the recipe calls for you to fill the tin up so they explode over the top and make for towering muffin tops. So good. The recipe allows for most any type of berry. I've made this with mixed (excellent) and blueberry (superb). Both muffins were delicious with the berry acting as bonus goodness. If you only make one muffin from this book, let it be this one. Until, of course, I try out all the others and let you know.
The recipe does call for soy yogurt. Which I substituted for with sour cream. Which I left at work (I bought groceries on the way to work so as to avoid the rush afterward). So then I substituted with buttermilk. Which I then substituted for with rice milk and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Turned out great!

Stats:
Vegan
Makes: 12 huge muffins
Find it: On page 160 of Vegan Brunch
Taste: Like straight-from-the-bakery muffins

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

So good. They have a nice, lemony zing to them. Be sure not to over cook them as you want these nice and moist. It also helps if you have a lemon juicer as you need 1/4 C of lemon juice which ended up being the juice from one lemon. You'll also need 2T of zest, which I found to be the zest from about two lemons. So you'll have one (zestless) lemon left over to do something with.
Excellent for a true lemon poppy seed lover.
Stats:
Vegan
Makes: 12 muffins
Find it: on page 159 of Vegan Brunch
Taste: Good! B+/A-

Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes

Okay. I've never had crab cakes. I can't personally tell you how these stack up. But I did have a crab cake lover tell me these were good. So I guess if you trust him...
I made these for our monthly sibling/cousin brunch. They were a hit. I knew they were good when I couldn't (fine - didn't want to) stop eating the uncooked batter.
Jewel didn't have the panko bread flakes so I used bread crumbs and then only 2 cups instead of 3. Otherwise, I made no variations. I'm not sure the nori sheets really added a whole lot of 'fishy-ness' to the dish. But I super chopped them in the food processor and put them in anyhow.
The remoulade she has you make is the PERFECT topping for these bad boys. I imagine that this is really what crab cakes are like. Even the tempeh helps out by reamaining in chunks that fall apart easily - reminicent of crab meat. They weren't 'lick the platter clean' but they were good and a fun, fancy change of pace. I'll definetly make them again should I have company. I might try putting in some Old Bay Seasoning to make it taste more 'fishy'.

Stats:
Vegan
Makes: 10-12 2" patties
Find it: On page 132 of Vegan Brunch
Taste: Pretty Good. B+

Roasted Potatoes

I made use of a variation of this recipe and made Garlic Roasted Potatoes. Shocking, I know.
It is such an easy recipe. I made a big, fancy brunch recently and this easy, simple, no-brainer dish was the most raved about. And it's so easy. When someone asked for the recipe, I was almost embarrassed to give it out. But if you're having brunch, you gotta have potatoes. And not only are these divine, they'll make people think you're a fancy chef. Don't worry, I won't tell if you don't!

Stats:
Vegan
Makes: Enough for 4-6 people
Find it: On page 112 of Vegan Brunch
Taste: Like seconds

Classic Broccoli Quiche with Basic Pastry Crust

Excellent. I could barely stop myself from eating the filling before it cooked. And by barely I mean I didn't. Starting with the crust: All the basic crust making tricks apply; Be sure that everything is stone cold, mix as little as possible, etc. Also, be sure you don't add too much butter. Dark waves of smoke will emit as the excess butter drips out and burns. Ask me how I know.
As far as the filling goes, it was so, so delicious as is. It's smooth and tasty with just enough bite from the broccoli chunks to make it toothsome. I've never had egg-quiche so I'm not sure how they compare but I found this to be delicious. Plus, I now have a great crust recipe for pie!
Also, making this gave me a great excuse to use my fancy quiche pan.

Stats:
Vegan
Makes: One quiche
Find it: On page 41 of Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Taste: Excellent - fancy enough for guests

Tempeh Bacon

I used to love bacon as a kid. I liked it cold and burnt. I can't remember the last time I had from-the-pig-bacon. And, to be honest, I don't really miss it. But I did jump at the chance to try this Tempeh Bacon recipe.
I made a whole batch but only made a few strips, putting the rest in the fridge to use for a good breakfast for the next several days.
It was really easy to make even if I had to wait at least an hour before I could eat it (for marinating purposes). I knew it was a good recipe when, after turning the strips in the marinade, my hands smelled TERRIFIC.
Don't think this is a replacement for bacon - you'll never fool a meat eater with this. But it IS quite good and certainly earns a place on your brunch plate.
Isa recommends taking the garlic bits out (I minced mine) but I left them in. This is the first time I've ever used liquid smoke and it's an invaluable ingredient. It really adds that BBQ-ed/smoked layer to the bacon.
I also sliced my tempeh a bit thin (remember, I liked bacon burnt) so I got more servings than Isa suggests. But it seems to have turned out just fine.

STATS
Vegan
Makes: About 12-15 strips depending on how thin you slice it
Cooking Time: About 10 minutes (plus a minimum of an hour to marinade)
Find It: On page 23 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: Excellent

Basic Gravy with Variations

Just in time for Thanksgiving! Considering last year's scant vegetarian offerings (cookies and bread), you'll understand why I'm arming myself with plenty of vegetarian options for this year - including bringing my own gravy. This gravy is really good! I'll keep shopping around for other gravies but this one is exactly what the title says: It's a nice, basic gravy.
It's pretty easy to make even if I tend to be a bit impatient when browning the flour. And I beg of you to pour the stock in SLOWLY and make a bit of a paste first before dumping in the rest of the stock. Otherwise you'll have little, undissolved flour bits floating around. The ingredients are all things I tend to have on hand so it's super easy to make. The only change I made was to saute some finely diced onion and red pepper (about 2T each) to add in at the end. It makes a really nice addition. Oh, I think I threw in a dash or two of Spike for seasoning. Delicious!
The recipe yields two cups and I see no reason why you can't 'volunteer' to bring the gravy to Thanksgiving dinner. No one will be disappointed with this gravy and it's vegan! Now if I can just take over the making of the potatoes...

STATS
Vegan
Makes: About 2 Cups
Cooking time: About 15 minutes total
Find it: On page 117 of Vegetarian Meals for People On the Go
Taste: Excellent

Vindaloo Vegetables

Great. This dish was spicy! It had really interesting layers of spice and heat that would build up. It was so good. I think it was the very first thing I made in my new slow cooker, too. I highly recommend making this dish. I love that it's so easy and it's flexible, too. You can put all kinds of veggies in here and it will still work. This is also a good dish to introduce someone to cauliflower in a way that isn't that mushy, steamed junk so many of us were served as children. This dish was lovely and the only thing stopping me from making it more is all the new recipes I want to try...

STATS
Vegan
Total Calories: 1321
Makes: About 7 cups
Cooking Time: 6 hours on low
Find It: On page 80 of Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker
Taste: Spicy and excellent.

Sloppy Lentils

Sloppy Joes. I used to love 'em as a kid. So I tried this.
Not the same.
I managed to finish the pot so as not to waste food but it wasn't completely enjoyable. Part of the problem was that the lentils maybe weren't done all the way so they weren't super soft. I've heard red ones are creamier and fall apart more easily so I might try that. They certainly have potential, though. I'll be making these again - probably with red lentils, more water to make the lentils softer, more mustard (I like 'em tangy) and plenty of onions. I served it on toasted rolls split in half. It was a nice, one-pot meal that I think will turn out better next time.

STATS:
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you on that
Makes: A lot
Cooking time: 8 hours on low
Find It: On page 104 of Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker
Taste: It has potential. C+/B-

Sunny Blueberry-Corn Muffins, Carrot-Raisin Muffins, The Best Pumpkin Muffins

MUFFINS!

I got invited to a brunch and, thanks to my mom, it's impossible for me to show up to an invited meal empty-handed. So, I made some muffins.
First up, Sunny Blueberry-Corn Muffins.
Good. Not great. But good. I think next time, I will coat the blueberries in sugar instead of flour as they needed a little boost. Also, I would like to try it with smaller blueberries next time. But they were still good. In fact, they were my sweetheart's favorites - much to my surprise. I also substituted about half the required oil with applesauce to reduce the calorie content. I don't think it made a noticeable difference and they were very moist.

STATS
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you on that
Makes: About 13 muffins
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Find it: On page 50 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: Good. I give it a B

Next up, Carrot-Raisin Muffins. Excellent. I actually substituted dates for raisins and I think they came out just fine. I thought there might be too much carrot in here but it's just right. These are delicious. The spices are just right, too. Enough to notice but not enough to overpower anything.

STATS
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you on that
Makes: About 13 muffins
Cooking Time: About 30 minutes
Find it: On page 47 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: Excellent! Make them for breakfast!

Last up - The Best Pumpkin Muffins. I made these because I'd heard they're good and also because my sweetheart loves pumpkin donuts. I thought he might really like them and he did, but he liked the blueberry ones better. I thought these were out of this world. Again, I used applesauce (and didn't do my homework so I used a 1:1 ratio instead of a 2:3) and they were a little more dense than I suspect they were supposed to be. But no harm done and that's easily fixed next time. These, too had excellent spices to accompany the pumpkin. SORT OF like a pumpkin pie...but not. They were really good.

STATS
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you on that
Makes: About 13 muffins
Cooking Time: About 30 minutes
Find It: On page 52 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: EXCELLENT!

I actually only baked about 3 of each muffin and, as per Isa's advice, froze the rest in separate muffin wrappers. So now, when I want a muffin, I don't have to bake (and then eat) a whole batch, I can just pop one in the toaster oven (in a tiny bowl) and have a fresh baked muffin in about 20 minutes. I tried it this morning and it worked great!

Isa Pizza - including Pizza Dough, Pizza Sauce, Basil-Tofu Ricotta and Classic Pesto

My goodness, is this good! I think it might be better than PV's Greek Style Pizza...but I don't know. I guess I'll have to make it a bunch more to decide!

This is one of those annoying recipes that is five recipes in one (see title). But I was able to put everything else together while the dough was rising and, as usual, once you've done it a couple of times, it's not so hard.

The dough was easy to make but this is coming from someone that has made dough before. Still, Isa's directions are great and can walk even the most naive of virgins successfully through it.

The Ricotta was easy to make. It's okay. I'm sure I'll use it for something in the future but it wasn't "eat me out of the bowl before the dough is ready" good. Like the pesto.

I've never had or made pesto before. But this was SO GOOD I was eating it out of the food processor before the dough was even close to ready.

The sauce was easy as (pizza) pie and is a great, basic sauce.

I didn't use mushrooms or olives but I did throw on some onions. I'm not sure the pizza needed it. It was interesting enough without them. I really can't say enough great things about this pizza. My only word of warning is that the pesto came out a bit salty and I may omit the 1.5 teaspoons called for in the recipe. Additionally, I'll be spreading the pesto on a bit more thin next time.

But no complaints. This pizza is DELICIOUS! And it's vegan.

STATS:
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you on that
Makes: Two 14" pizzas
Cooking Time: 1.5 hours (mostly waiting for the dough to rise)
Find It: On page 131 of Vegan with a Vengeance
Taste: Quit reading this and make it now!

Sweet and Sour Tofu

I love, love, LOVE this! It really is just like take out Sweet and Sour. And it's so flexible. Just put in whatever veggies you have on hand. The first time I made this, I used tofu like she suggests. The next time, I used chopped 'chicken' breasts from Quorn - a product I discovered by accident and now am in love with. I like the Quorn version better, but the tofu is a nice change of pace as well.
I cut big time calories by using the LaChoy brand sweet and sour sauce since all the others had almost twice the calories (320 vs. 600).
If you want to use broccoli, make sure you put it in toward the end as it tends to get mushy. I only put it in for about 30 minutes on high before it was done - but then, I like my veggies just a little bit firm.
This was just SO easy to make and really tastes great!

STATS:
Vegan
Total Calories: About 155 calories per cup
Makes: About 8 cups
Cooking time: About 1.5 hours on high
Find it: On the blog 'A Year Of Crockpotting'
Taste: A+

Jelly Donut Cupcakes

How could you NOT make these? They sound so good! And they were quite easy to make.
I don't have a lot of experience with vegan baking so I can't appreciate the genius behind the substitutions and tricks that she came up with. All I know is that I can't tell the difference between her cupcakes and non-vegan ones. They're so good!

As usual, I went overboard. I couldn't decide which type of jelly to use so I bought three: Strawberry jelly and red and black rasberry preserves. The jelly ones were NOT good. PLEASE use jam or preserves. Even though my sweetheart likes strawberry jelly the best, even he said the jelly ones weren't nearly as good as the others.

The recipe calls for a heaping teaspoon of jam on top of each cupcake. Please don't skimp and please don't spread it out. The weight of the jam needs to be centered so as to sink it down into the cupcake and for the cupcake to cover the jam and 'seal' it inside. If you don't use enough jam or it's spread around too much, you end up with a yawning, jam cave in your cupcake. Which isn't the end of the world but, as my policy is that the chef has to eat the rejects, my bluejeans can't take too many 'jam cave' cupcakes.

Additionally, the recipe calls for powdered sugar to be sprinkled over the top but all the jelly donuts I've ever had have used regular sugar. So did I.

Lastly, the directions say to leave these out to the air to harden a bit. Please do so. Don't think you're smarter than her and put them in a tupperware container. Just leave them out.

STATS:
Vegan
Total Calories: I'll get back to you
Makes: About 12
Cooking Time: About 30 minutes
Find it: On page 253 of Veganomicon
Taste: I made it twice the first week I owned the book. They're GREAT!

Lentil and Rice with Carmalized Onions

I really wanted to like this. I LOVE a good, spicy rice dish and this smelled SO good while the rice was cooking. But it turned out...a tad bland. There is hope though, I think I can put in some cayenne pepper when I put in the cumin. Also, the dish was a little oily. No surprise since the recipe calls for 3/4 CUP OF OLIVE OIL. Really? I love fat in my food but that's a LOT. I reduced it to half a cup and it's still too much. Next time I'll go for 1/4 a cup and see what that does. Also, I'll be adding balsamic vinegar to the onions as they caramelize. I used brown lentils this time since the store didn't have red, so I'd like to try it with red next time.
There did seem to be one problem with the recipe. It calls for 4 cups of water but by the time I put in the lentils, the water was already gone and I had to add about 3 more so the lentils would have something to absorb. A bit of the rice stuck to the pan before I could rescue it but it still turned out okay. However, I am confused as to how the water requirements could be THAT off.

I've planned a lot of changes for next time. Even though, this dish didn't turn out too badly. A little salt gave it a nice kick and I think it's passable. Still, I'm excited for the next time.

STATS:
Vegan
Total Calories: About 2500 (as written)
Makes: About 4 cups
Cooking Time: More than an hour
Find it: On page 177 of Veganomicon
Taste: Decent, shows great promise

Sweet and Spicy Chili, Backyard Barbecue Chili and Orange and Thyme-Scented White Bean and "Sausage" Chili

I love soup and especially chili when it gets cold. Plus I got a new cookbook (Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson) with several new chili recipes. So, it's no surprise that I cooked up three pots of chili in the span of about one week.

The first was Sweet and Spicy Chili.
Delicious! Not as good as the chili from Passionate Vegetarian but this chili was fast and easy to make. Plus it was a good, solid chili. Not too spicy but with enough flavor to keep you interested. I made a few alterations; Four cloves of garlic instead of two, four oz. of tomato paste instead of six and only one teaspoon of olive oil. I ate this served over jasmine rice.

Stats:
Vegan
Total Calories: 1970
Makes: about 8 cups
Cooking Time: About an hour
Find it: On page 321 of Vegan Planet
Taste: Good. I'll make it again when I want chili fast and easy.

Next up was Backyard Barbecue Chili.
I was excited about this one because I LOVE BBQ sauce. Sadly, this chili was only okay. It did not fulfill my dreams of the love child of BBQ sauce and chili. I did eat it all but it was more of a 'I'd better eat this so it doesn't go bad'.

STATS:
Vegan
Total Calories: 1584
Makes: about 6 cups
Cooking Time: About an hour
Find it: On page 324 of Vegan Planet
Taste: Passable. But with all the other awesome chilies out there, I won't be making this again.

Last, Orange and Thyme-Scented White Bean and "Sausage" Chili
Not good. Which is too bad cause it sounded so fancy. It even says in the description that it's 'sophisticated enough for company'. But I would not serve this to company. The tastes were all very strong but didn't seem to meld. Ever. Even after extra simmering and a few days. I hate to waste food so I did finish it, but it was a struggle.

STATS:
Vegan
Total Calories: 1234
Makes: About 6 cups
Cooking Time: About one hour
Find it: On page 325 of Vegan Planet
Taste: No thanks. I won't be making this again.

I meant to make all the chilies in this book but since the last two were less than wonderful, I think I need to reset my chili tasters and make the Neo-Chili from Passionate Vegetarian.

Back in the Saddle with Spicy Peanut and Eggplant Soup

Hi. I remember you! It's been a LONG time since we talked. That's my fault. Really. My life was completely derailed last year and I feel like I'm sort of back on track. I thought I might get back to the business of testing every vegetarian recipe out there. So, here I am. I hope you can forgive my absence.
I also hope you'll forgive me if I change the scope of my blog - just a bit.
Instead of cooking my way through Passionate Vegetarian, I thought I would just keep testing new vegan recipes and posting my results.
Starting with my most recent: Spicy Peanut and Eggplant Soup from the kick ass tome that is Veganomicon.
I should tell you upfront that I've decided to lose weight. So why I chose to make a soup the author took time to emphasize that it is NOT low fat, I've no idea. Except that it sounded good. Also, I'm not a big fan of eggplant. I've just never had it prepared to where I thought it tasted good.
But, this sounded good so I gave it the old college try.

It's good. No question about it. I'm just not sure if it's worth all the calories. But it was easy to make and didn't require anything TOO weird. I sense it would taste really good over jasmine rice - as if it were a curry dish. It has nice layers to the spice and it is very rich. Again, it's good but I would look to find ways to cut calorie corners (WAY less oil and a bit less peanut butter).

Overall, it's good. I would love to make this to serve at dinner for guests or to store in little containers and freeze for a 'once in a while' treat.

STATS:
Vegan
Total Calories: 1690
Makes: About 8 Cups
Cooking time: More than an hour
Find it: On page 147 of Veganomicon
Taste: Pretty good. I'll make it again.