Category: recipe

Zucchini Frittata

I’m not sure why I don’t make vegan frittata or quiche more often. It’s delicious. It’s easy. It makes great leftovers. You can easily switch up the add-ins.

This week I made a Vegan Zucchini Frittata. It’s a good time of year to find ways to use up zucchini anyway. I only made minimal changes to that recipe. I added a small amount of oil to the pan to fry up the shallots and added an extra tablespoon of nutritional yeast because it is delicious. This one probably could have cooked a little longer. It was a bit soft in the middle but still held its shape. I was just impatient for dinner.

I ate it with some pretty lazy sides: tater tots and steamed broccoli.

 

 

 

Coconut Cream Pie

I’d probably be content smearing the Earth Balance coconut spread on various baked goods, but they sent a nice little pamphlet full of recipes that sound tasty, so it was time to dive in. Okay, I did cheat a little and bought the crust. If you’re looking for a cool, easy summer dessert, this one is nice. There’s only a bit of the coconut spread in the filling, but it adds an extra creaminess. Also, since it uses light coconut milk, it isn’t all that bad for you, 249 calories a serving.

Coconut Cream Pie with Graham Cracker Crust

Crust

13 graham crackers (to make 1 1/2 cups crushed)
3 Tbs raw cane sugar
1 pinch of salt
1/4 cup melted Earth Balance Coconut Spread

Topping

1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 7oz can vegan whipped topping

Filling

2 1/2 cups unsweetened light coconut milk
1/2 cup raw cane sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup finely shredded coconut
2 Tbs Earth Balance Coconut Spread
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp coconut extract

Preheat oven to 350℉ .

Place graham crackers in a plastic ziplock bag and crush using a rolling pin.

Place crushed graham crackers in a bowl and stir in sugar, salt and melted Earth Balance Coconut Spread.

Press graham cracker mixture into a 9-inch pie pan, making sure the bottom and sides are covered. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Keep oven and 350℉.

Place flaked coconut for the topping on a baking sheet and toast in oven 4 to 5 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside.

Whisk together coconut milk, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then turn down to a simmer, stirring continuously until the mixture begins to thicken, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Once the mixture is thick, stir in shredded coconut, Earth Balance Coconut Spread, vanilla extract and coconut extract.

Spoon filling into cooled pie crust, cover with foil and chill for at least one hour.

Top the pie with vegan whipped topping and toasted coconut.

Recipe from Earth Balance Cooking with Coconut pamphlet.

 

 

Summer Spaghetti with Corn and Tomatoes

The year I went vegetarian, 1996, I received Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone as a Christmas gift from one of my co-workers. And I’ve been using it regularly ever since. Again, not a vegan cookbook but there is plenty in here for vegans. I come back to this recipe just about every summer when corn and tomatoes are at their peak. I’ve used corn pasta in the past, but this time I used whole wheat spaghetti. The recipe calls for a little cheese which I just ignored although I did sprinkle some fake parmesan on top.

Oh, and there at the top, corn muffins with that coconut Earth Balance. Need more delivery systems for that spread.

West Indian Rundown

Some cookbooks are pretty straight forward and just give you the recipes with minimal commentary. And then some almost read like a memoir. Passionate Vegetarian is the latter. The whole book, 1000+ pages, is sprinkled with stories about food and the author’s life. It’s also a “joy of cooking” type of book where sections like “great grains” show you different things to do with quinoa, kamut, etc. I like these sorts of cookbooks for when you run across something a little unusual and want ideas on how to use it. While the book isn’t vegan, there are plenty of vegan or veganizable recipes. And the recipes are interesting, not the same old thing.

This past week, I pulled out this book and decided to make West Indian Rundown. Instead of using seitan, I substituted beef style TVP. I didn’t even bother to rehydrate it, just chucked it in the stew. We just ate it over brown rice. It made a ton and I ended up eating it all week for lunch. It was as good as I’ve had at a Caribbean restaurant, but it doesn’t photograph that well.

Deep dish pizza

Oh man. Click away if you’d rather not invest in fat pants. I always thought deep dish pizza might be difficult to make. The good, or bad, news is that it’s really easy to make.

King Arthur Flour puts out awesome recipes. They are rarely vegan, but veganize very well. I used this one for the pizza, substituting Daiya for the cheese, Earth Balance for the butter, vegan parmesan and Gutenfleischer’s pepperoni for the meat. And I added red pepper flakes to the tomatoes because pizza sauce should have some kick, damn it!

Now, don’t be afraid of yeast. If you’re having trouble with it, remember that it is temperature sensitive. Sadly, recipes like this one tell you to use lukewarm water, but many people don’t know exactly what that means. And it can affect your results. Here’s a handy chart of important temperatures related to yeast. Instant yeast wants to be mixed with 120°F water. It’s a good idea to check this with a thermometer since the yeast won’t act right if the water is too hot or too cold. But once you take care of that, the rest should work beautifully. Also remember that instant and active dry yeast are not interchangeable without some fiddling.

Another frustration when dealing with yeast is how much should it rise? Sometimes recipes give you an amount of time for the dough to rise and sometimes they tell you how much it should rise (double.) It’s best if they tell you both because the conditions in your kitchen are not going to be the same as the recipe writer. Maybe it’ll take 90 minutes for your dough to double. Then wait 90 minutes. If you don’t have a graduated container, mark double on the container you do have with a piece of tape and then you’ll know when it’s done rather than guessing.

The crust came out really rich with all the fat in it. And it was nice and sturdy. You could even pick up a piece to eat it once you’d chopped off some of the point and gobbled it up.

Now, for some more pizza porn. I used a coarse corn meal and you can really see it in the crust:

It’s been a while since I’ve submitted something to YeastSpotting, so here goes it!