Posts published during May, 2008
Eating healthy raw food is great, but sometimes, about one week a month, a girl just needs some chocolate cake. So while we had a lovely, healthy raw dinner of Sunflower Seed Paté on celery sticks and Gazpacho from Raw Food Made Easy:
Afterwards, there was cake. I had bananas I needed to use so I asked the interwebs about chocolate banana bundt cakes. I found Memmaw’s Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake. To make it even more chocolaty, I made a half batch of the ganache from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and drizzled it on top. The cake is moist and lovely with little chocolate chip bombs throughout. I like the texture but will warn you that it’s slightly non cake like, or at least not what you’d expect in a bundt. Maybe it’s all that banana. Anyway, it’s good, but if you’re looking for light airy cake, this isn’t it. This is moist, fudgy intense chocolate yumminess.
I still dig Vegan Italiano, especially for quick food. The Fusilli with Beets is practically instant beyond cooking the pasta. Obviously these aren’t fusilli, but I liked the idea of little beet cubes ending up inside these guys, so that’s what I picked up.
And it took me a while, but I finally busted into Healthy South Indian Cooking. It’s been sitting around here for a while waiting for me to get to it. I finally got to Taj Mahal Market last week and picked up prepared Rasam and Sambhar spice mixes just to make life a little easier. This is the Carrot Sambhar and it was lovely. And I even had to leave out fenugreek seeds because I didn’t have any. I used to so I’m not sure where they ran off to. Anyway, it was bright, lovely, complex, not terribly hot. Enough dal to give it some substance, but not so much that it gets heavy.
And the “Butter” Tofu made another appearance.
The Tomato Head in Knoxville, Tennessee is what vegans wish most omni restaurants were like. The menu is mostly pizza, sandwiches and salads. The twist is that the word vegan appears all over the place. Soy cheese. Baked tofu, A vegan version of their pesto. Vegan chocolate chip cookie. Of course, there’s also a bunch of meaty stuff, but the vegan options are much more than that one thing you can have.
I had the Kepner Melt sandwich, not a vegan sandwich as on the menu, but they happily subbed a couple of things and made it vegan for me. Fresh spinach, organic baked tofu, soy cheese for the jack cheese, herbed tomato, pineapple, roasted onion, walnut, vegan pesto for regular pesto and mustard. Nummy. I’m going back for dinner.
What’s there to do in Knoxville? Sit in the hotel and blog apparently. I kid. I’m heading out in a bit to walk a nature trail by the river, stomp around a victorian cemetery and eat lunch. But first, the blogging.
First, the raw. This is Fettuccine Alfreda from Vegan World Fusion Cuisine. I could drink gallons of this sauce. I want to pour it on everything.
So I did. This is just rice noodles & broccoli with the cheezy sauce from above. Half raw.
And, while I was at the gym Thursday, I watched Ina Garten mix up a batch of scones full of butter and cream. I needed to make something to bring with me to Knoxville, so when I got home I made…scones! These are the Classic Currant Scones from the Joy of Vegan Baking. Decidedly NOT RAW. And NOT HEALTHY. But, REALLY FREAKIN GOOD. I think watching Ina’s technique helped me make these perfect. Mostly I paid attention to how the Earth Balance was cut in making sure it was still in little bitty chunks rather than creamed thoroughly. It can be a little tricky since it softens faster than butter. Especially now that it’s all warm out, and in if you’re me and haven’t turned on the air conditioning yet.
Here are some more tasty raw goodies we’ve been munching on.
Moroccan Carrot Salad from Raw Food Made Easy
Walnut Paté spread in celery sticks, from Raw Food Made Easy
Just some red bell pepper strips
Carpe Diem Carrot Almond Paté Nori Rolls from Vegan World Fusion Cuisine
Aiyah’s Garden Living Corn Chowder from Vegan World Fusion Cuisine
So, is this stuff any good? The next pic tells that story.
This past week, we’ve been eating a lot of raw food. But I’ve failed to take pictures of most of it. I already had Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet. I chose it as my first little step into raw because it seemed like most of the recipes could be made without any crazy kitchen equipment. I don’t think I’ve even seen a recipe call for a dehydrator yet. And my blender, crappy as it is, has been able to handle everything put to it.So what have we tried? Below is the first dinner, cucumber soup and not tuna paté on red bell pepper planks. I’m not sure exactly why she uses tuna in the name because it is in no way fishy. It is good though. More like a chicken salad in flavor though. I’ve also used it smeared into celery sticks, on ryevita crackers and mounded on a chopped salad. I didn’t know how I’d feel about cold soups, or, more accurately, room temperature soups, but these have been really nice. The cucumber one was made creamy with avocado and was flavored with dill.
What else have we tried? The Piña Colada Smoothie, Marinara Sauce on zucchini ribbons, Walnut Paté, Cream of Zucchini Soup, Papaya Lime Soup, and Not Tuna Sandwiches. The patés keep for a while in the fridge, so they’re good make ahead items. Other than going to the store, the only other thing you really need to think about in advance is soaking the nuts in some of the recipes. Otherwise, the prep work isn’t any more labor intensive than anything else I would make. So I’d say this is a good book to use if you want to take baby steps into raw food.
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