Category: recipe

Seitan Log

I’ve been seeing posts from people who have made this Seitan O’ Greatness for months and months and finally yesterday I made my own. I’ve made seitan plenty of times, but never baked it and never one with this much flavor in the dough. The texture comes out much firmer than the boiled seitan. This one will be perfect to use as sliced lunch “meat.” It’s much tastier than store bought fake meat. I had a few slices for dinner last night and the only downside I see is that it does get kind of dry when you slice and eat it that way. I think it’ll be really tasty chopped up small in a spaghetti sauce. I have this big ol’ log. Plenty to experiment with.

seitan o' greatness

seitan o' greatness

Mmmmmmm…..doughnuts

Today I’d like to give thanks for the fact that there is such a thing as a mini doughnut pan. And that someone has worked out a vegan doughnut recipe. And that I wasn’t too hungover this morning to put the two items together.

Here they are all nekkid straight out of the oven. I had pretty good luck getting just the right amount of batter in the pan. Only a couple started to muffin top on me. I doubled the recipe and ended up with 36 doughnuts. I only have the one pan and had to bake in 3 batches. The last batch was definitely more spongy and air-filled than the first. Keep in mind if the holiness bothers you.

nekkid mini doughnuts

For these I used the glaze in the link above.

glazed mini doughnuts

And for these, I used the chocolate ganache recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.

chocolate mini doughnuts

Don’t you wish you’d saved room?

Vegan potlucks rock!

Today I hosted another awesome vegan potluck at my house. I’m so glad that a year and a half or two years ago I got over myself and finally showed up to one of the lunches. I think I’ve only missed one since. Can’t beat the people or the food.

I took pictures of my contributions and then promptly forgot to take any more pictures after people started arriving. Oh well. I made a gigantor pot of Turkish Mixed Legume and Bulgur Soup. The recipe was from Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World. Chickpeas, navy beans, red lentils and bulgur.

Turkish Mixed Legume and Bulgur Soup

And then, I made Bryanna’s Rose Scented Baklava. I’m always looking for an excuse to make anything with rose water. Filo dough is kind of a pain to work with. Mostly because I’m a freak about getting anything oily or greasy on my hands. It really bugs me. But it’s worth it every once in a while.

Bryanna's Rose Scented Baklava

Bread machine pumpernickel bread

bread machine pumpernickel bread

I have a confession to make. One of my many idiosyncrasies is that I hate sticking my hands in the food. So I’ll never be a great bread baker. But I can get by with a bread machine. I scored a Sunbeam bread machine from freecycling this past year and have been trying out the recipes in the manual that came with it originally. This is the pumpernickel bread. I adapted the recipe a bit to make it vegan. It didn’t come out as dark as I’m used to with pumpernickel and it rose up really tall! It didn’t need more molasses so I’m not sure what it wants for brownness. It was tasty anyway. It made a great side with the lentils and winter vegetable stew I’ve been eating on.

Pumpernickel Bread

4 ounces soy milk
6 – 7 oz. water
1-½ teaspoon salt
2 Tbsp. molasses
1-½ Tbsp. margarine
2-½ cups bread flour
1 cup rye flour
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 Tbsp. cocoa, optional
2-¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
(Basic or Whole Wheat Setting – Not for Timer)

All ingredients at room temperature (70°F-80°/21°C-27°C), except soy milk

Measure all ingredients into bread pan in the order listed above. Select Basic or Whole Wheat setting. Select crust setting if other than “Medium.”Press the “Start/Stop” button to begin the bread making process. The display will begin counting down the minutes until the end of the cycle. When the baking is complete, the display will read 0:00 and the unit will signal (when this occurs, you may choose to press the “Start/Stop” button to cancel the “Keep-Warm” cycle if desired). Remove the bread and enjoy!

Notes

My bread maker seems to “sweat” a lot, so when the bread is done I will pull the bread out of the pan and put on the rack in the oven at about 350 degrees for about 5 minutes to dry up and moisture on the bread.

Risotto and Blondies

I failed to take a picture of the cookies I took to a Hanukkah party last Friday. I made the Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies from Vegan With A Vengeance except I added chocolate chips. Mmmm….peanut butter and chocolate. They disappeared quickly.

If you have a pressure cooker, you need to make risotto. It’s quick, yummy, always impresses people and is super easy. This week I made Risotto with Carrots, Peas, and Mint from Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen (now called Lorna Sass’ Complete Vegetarian Kitchen). Be sure to use a quality stock, because it really makes the dish.

Risotto with Carrots, Peas and Mint

Now, back into Vegan With A Vengeance for some more treats. The Raspberry-Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars are always good, but this time I decided to try the Macadamia Blondies with Caramel-Maple Topping. I ate one last night, for testing purposes only of course. They’re good, but I think I enjoy the raspberry-chocolate combo better.