Guacamole

Yes. I HAVE been living under a rock. I've never made my own guacamole. But that ends here. HOLY COW. It was SO good. I have no words. I used apple cider vinegar instead of lime juice to no ill effect. I've made this four or five times in the past week so I've had plenty of time to experiment with lime juice or cider and whether or not I like tomatoes and other 'extras' in there.

Turns out, I like guacamole. I doesn't seem to matter what's in it.

Make some. Now. It's delicious.

STATS:
Calories: Depends on what's in it. One cup of avocado contains 235 calories
Makes: Again, depends on what you put in it. Somewhere in the ballpark of 1.25 cups
Find it: On page 69 of Veganomicon
Tastes: Divine

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

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.