Golden cauliflower dal soup

World Feast Vegan has been sitting around unused for too long. So I fixed that by trying this Golden Cauliflower Dal Soup. I always seem to have a glut of red lentils around here and needed a way to use some up. This seemed perfect.

The cauliflower is roasted. You can see the little char spots on it floating in the soup. It’s an extra step but gave it a nice edge over other similar soups I’ve made. I also added a sprinkle of asafoetida (hing). It was no chore to destroy every last bit of the leftovers as lunch.

Flax milk?

Recently I received an email asking if I’d like to try a new product, Good Karma’s Flax Milk. Another way to get more flax in my diet? Sure, I’m interested!

They sent a carton each of original and unsweetened. Now, when I used freshly ground flax seeds, they definitely have a taste. A little grassy I guess. Not a bad thing, just a thing. So I was sort of expecting the milk to have a little aftertaste. But it doesn’t. And you know how they get kind of slimy when you whip them up with water to replace eggs? Nope, not a hint of that either. Turns out, it makes a nice, creamy milk. The original was great on cereal and in smoothies. And I used the unsweetened in mashed potatoes and as a replacement for soy milk in a tofu fish stick recipe. Kevin usually doesn’t like unsweetened milks, but used this flax one on cereal and liked it.

When I headed over to their website to write this up, I noticed that they have creamer too. Unfortunately, it looks like the only places near that carry it right now are Wal-Marts. Hopefully that changes soon.

Raw chili

This is the chili from Everyday Raw. I can be weird about mushrooms, but the amount of portobello in here is small enough that it didn’t bother me. The texture was a nice mix of crunch and soft and the taste was spot on chili. The recipe made a huge amount. I will try halving it next time I make it. I can only eat so much of strongly acidic foods like this.

Cuban potluck

What do vegans bring to a Cuban potluck? I made some Gardein chicken and Daiya cheese empanadas. Pre-made empanada wrappers make these super easy.

I also made the bread for Cuban sandwiches. We used Gutenfleischer‘s ham, Daiya and pickles inside. They cooked up perfectly on a George Foreman grill.

And tostones, yucca fries, rice and beans, kale, and how did that slice of bahn mi get in there?

Another view.

And, one more.

How do you finish this off? Tres Leches cake! And ice cream.

Raw pizza

These pre-packaged raw items by Raw in the Garden have recently shown up in Sevananda‘s island cooler. So I picked one up to try for lunch.

With a pre-packaged item, I was worried it would taste fresh, but it was fine. I think the zucchini might have been marinated which was nice, gave them more flavor. It didn’t have a crisp crust, but the flavors of everything were definitely pizza like. With the nut-based crust and cashew cream it was also pretty filling. This could be pulled off without a dehydrator. I might try this at home.